September 26, 2011

We will return to Patanjali, I promise. For the time being though, we’re luxuriating in mantra practice inspired by the fall season. This cycle of practice/teachings constellates around a family of mantras beloved to long-time Monday Nighters: Gayatri, Navarna, and Tarika Bija. I’ll likely add a handful of others to the mix, but want to underline the potency and power of these three as catalysts for illuminating and strengthening the inner being (Gayatri and Navarna) and infusing that interior essence with majesty, generosity, and grace (Tarika Bija).

Here’s a sound clip from the Navarna class on 9/26. I tried using a microphone I thought would give a better recording. Unfortunately, the opposite happened. You’ll have to listen carefully to hear DanJ’s tabla. And while I was able to salvage the dharana I gave at the end of class, the volumeof my commentary is too low. So, that bit of dharma talk  remains only in the memories of those who were there. If you want to chant or listen to the Navarna mantra however, this clip will be just fine…

In closing, here are the excerpts from the Ramprasad poem I read at the end of class. This is from Lex Hixon’s book, Mother of the Universe, his ecstatic collection of Ramprasad’s poetry. This one’s on page 180:

Kali is naked reality.
She is the feminine principle, unifying wisdom.
This simpleminded lover of truth
calls her my mother, my mother,
because she is the inexhaustible affection
who never neglects her children….

This poet urges every human heart:
“If you wish to be liberated from oppression,
abandon whatever limits you cling to
and meditate on the limitless one
who wears limitation as a garland of heads
severed by her sword of nondual wisdom.”

For readers who’ve found this blog online and may not be familiar with the Navarna mantra or Goddess Kali, let me simply suggest you can think of Kali an an archetype of Truth–and think of the Navarna mantra as the lifeblood of that truth. So chanting this mantra nourishes, strengthens, and vitalizes your connection to, you guessed it, your innate sense of truth.

September 19, 2011, Part II

For those who want a Gayatri track to chant along with, here’s class recitation from 9/19. This is ***not*** the 108 reps we did later that evening. This is the Walk-In Open Chant from 7:30-8 pm. Sound quality is not great which is why I didn’t include it in the earlier post. It just occurred to me however that not-so-great audio not withstanding, some people might like the “good company” — and there’s definitely  shakti in the track!

Monday Night Class Chanting the Gayatri Mantra

September 19, 2011, Part I

Although I have every intention of returning to our journey through Patanjali, I’m not quite ready to go there. It’s something about this season.  The sense of fall’s new beginning combined with its dwindling of the light. Autumn Equinox, Navaratri, Rosh Hashanah.  It makes me want to sing the Name, to fill up with the luminosity of Being, to allow the teachings to come entirely from within.

This week’s class was inspired by CG Jung’s famous quote:

One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light,
but by making the darkness conscious.

We also chanted 108 repetitions of the Gayatri Mantra. If you’re unfamiliar with this Vedic mantra, I will tell you it’s considered the sonic form of light. Difficult though this concept is to grasp, one need only chant it for awhile to have the inner experience break open. It’s also considered the “Mother of the Vedas,” meaning the insight embedded in the syllables gives birth to all knowledge. I highly recommend chanting it every day through the end of the fall season. Here are words and a simple translation/commentary.

Om Bhur Bhuvah Svaha
Tat Savitur Varenyam
Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi
Dhiyo Yonah Prachodayat

Earth. Atmosphere. Heavens.
We meditate on the sacred light of the effulgent source.
Let that light inspire our thoughts.

I’m also uploading my dharma talk from this class. It runs around fifteen minutes and ends with a few repetitions of the Gayatri.

If you want a preview for class on 9/26, we’ll be chanting the amazing Navarna Mantra!

Monday, 9/12: All Kirtan Class

Monday Night’s Fall Season begins with an All-Kirtan Class on Monday, 9/12.
Love to all.
SG

Monday, August 15: Rockout! Kirtan Final Class of Summer Season

Summer Season draws to a close. We’ll end this cycle of Monday Night Class with a Rockout! Kirtan on Monday, August 15th. This will be an all-chanting class. No dharma talk, silent meditation, or Q&A/Sharing tonight. Do join us. Bring your friends. We’d love to see you there.

Need more info: please scroll down right sidebar to Monday Night Details.

August 7, 2011

Many thanks for your patience with my infrequent blogging and non-linear posting of dharma talks. I continue recording each week and hope to be caught up by the end of this year. For now though, when I actually have time to edit a talk, it makes more sense to post the most recent. So, here is Monday August 1′s talk on Patanajali II 40 & 41.  Here are the sutras:

[Mukunda Stiles' version]

II, 40
From purity arises a desire to protect one’s body and a cessation of adverse contact with others.
II, 41
From the purification of one’s essence cheerfulness arises, and with it, one-pointed concentration,
mastery of the senses, and the capacity for sustaining the vision of the True Self.

[Chip Hartranft's version]
II, 40
With body purification, one’s body ceases to be compelling, likewise contact with others.
II, 41
Purification also brings about clarity, happiness, concentration, mastery of the senses, and capacity for self-awareness.

Here’s the actual talk:

I’m also including this Kabir poem which manages to make the same point in a handful of lines!

The Hearse
Kabir, version by Robert Bly

The spiritual athlete often changes the color of his clothes,
and his mind remains gray and loveless.

He sits inside a shrine room all day,
so that the Guest has to go outdoors and praise the rocks.

Or he drills holes in his ears, his beard grows enormous and matted,
people mistake him for a goat…
He goes out into wilderness areas, strangles his impulses,
and makes himself neither male nor female…

He shaves his skull, puts his robe in an orange vat,
reads the Bhagavad-Gita and becomes a terrific talker.

Kabir says: Actually you are going in a hearse to the country of death,
bound hand and foot!

June 21, 2011

I recently found this draft of a post for class on May 9th.  Although adding it now takes us out of chronological order, I think it’s worth including. We had just entered into Book II of the Yoga-Sutra and were beginning to look at Patanjali’s concept of the kleshas, the “primal causes of suffering.” That week’s sutra focused on the first klesha, avidya. If you want a reminder of the five kleshas, scroll down to May 15th.

II, 4
Ignorance (i.e. avidya) is the fertile soil, and as a consequence, all other obstacles persist.
They may exist in any state—dormant, feeble, intermittent, or fully operative.

Click here to listen to my May 9 Dharma Talk.  I’m talking about the kleshas as a way to understand addictive behavior patterns.  That was the night I told the story about the Canadian geese on the towpath and driving to class with my dirty windshield.

Here’s a lovely Zen story that illustrates how life looks when we’re stuck behind the second klesha, asmita (attachment to story) planted in the fertile soil of avidya (ignorance).

A potential student went to see a Zen master and asked: “If I work really hard, how long will it take to become enlightened.”  The Zen master looked at the man and said “Ten years.”

“No, no,” the man said, “I mean to really work at it –”

The Zen master cut him off. “I’m sorry, I misjudged you–twenty years.”

“Wait,” the man blurted out, “I’m very serious, you don’t understand–”

“Thirty years,” said the Zen master.