Inner Outer Light

Monday, 12 December 2011

Using Silence In Yoga Classes

Please see my article on Toronto Body Mind web site:
http://torontobodymind.ca/blogs/gary-empty-book-justice/using-silence-yoga-classes

Thursday, 14 July 2011

Conscious Everyday Living /Loft 404 & Muhtadi Thomas

Late Night Kirtan

In April this year I was playing with Mike Cohen, here from the US, doing some Kirtans around the city. We accompanied Jeannine Woodall leading an asana yoga class at Buddha Body and led the main Kirtan event at the TorontoYoga Show, then a funny little thing came along - Mike was asked to lead Kirtan at an after -hours raw chocolate party at a place called Loft 404 / The Ambrosia Hub.

I was not prepared for how inspiring this experience was. Besides our chanting room, the extended event covered several other areas. There were some chilled brothas in the ambient DJ room, a raw chocolate bar, drinkipoos in a groovy semi-industrial kitchen, and various smaller rooms coming off the main hallways - all furnished with eclectic, conscious, plant-filled velvety/woody vintage . Being in Kirtan / meditation mode we weren't inclined towards drinking alcohol, and it was a bit odd to be doing our sacred ritual in a sort of club atmosphere. But it wasn't all that clubby - no loud music, no smoking, calm peaceful behavior- in fact it was kind of an enlightened vibration - like a nightclub for evolved beings, or something along those lines.

The people there were pretty "awake" types, each in their own way. Here you would certainly meet yoga people and meditation people, but also artists and others from various backgrounds -the joining factor was calm, smart and open.

Our host was the very beautiful, eclectic, heart -wide Genna Bauder, who is the founder of Loft 404. http://www.loft404.com. It was rich just to meet her and some of her friends/guests.

Proprietor Genna Bauder with guest

Eddie Bullen Music Producer

DJ Adam Nathan

The Illustrious Josie Dacrest
Yoga and Tantress Ground-breaker Dee Dussault

Wearing white garb and mala, and having brought the makings of a small altar for our Kirtan - I began to notice how entrenched in "Dharma" ways I have become. That is a very specific world that not everyone relates to. I love that world and love to be around monks and practitioners, doing their practice with them - but most people have not been exposed to that, and it doesn't mean they are not exploring peace, inspiration and spiritual expansion. This event was truly evidence of that.

Muhtadi Thomas

Among the gusts who attended, I met, and re-met some wonderful people. A big moment was reacquainting with Muhtadi Thomas, a cornerstone of Toronto arts, culture & spirituality. I hadn't spoken with him for about thirty years, other than a quick bumping into here and there. A couple of years back we attended a community djembe drumming class he runs at Wellesley Community Centre. In 2005 we attended Afrofest in Toronto where he was the co-ordinator of the performances. But I was remembering back to about thirty years ago a when Muhtadi was operating a venue for African drumming teaching and performance out of a space on Ossington avenue, just starting to penetrate the Toronto music scene. I believe he had recently arrived from the West Indies.. We had wonderful talks back then. He was always wise and warm, beyond his years, even as a young man. One of those Trinidadian/Guyanese Creolese kind of personalities who has bare feet touching the earth and a mind smiling to heavenly realms at all times.

Muhtadi has made a name for himself as a major Djembe drummer, educator and cultural event producer. At his lessons and on stage in between songs, he gives what you could call genuine Dharma talks - spontaneous, resonant and deeply insightful. He moves slowly and deliberately. He has become a wise elder brother, sitting quietly in the shadows, ready with deep words when you need them, always with a playful smile - but never superficial -Muhtadi speaks frank and true. It was a special moment to be with him and let him see this kind of chanting we are into.

Here are some other pics of the event: http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=192685187452530&set=a.192684870785895.68918.153960137991702&type=1&theater

This is a short film about the Ambrosia Hub space and what Genna is trying to do with it. This was filmed about a week later during an open house where I facilitated a chanting / meditation / yoga event along with Sivanada Vedanta yoga instructor Kathryn Brunner. The open house went from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., with many offerings: various kinds of dance, healing and arts things to meditation, a lecture on social media and more. .The film touches on some highlights of the open house and the intention of the space in general.. See below.

Ambrosia Hub/Loft 404 "Welcome" film

Peace Peace Peace -may we all learn to see beauty in all genres. Joy, purpose and spirituality is everywhere in everything!

Friday, 8 July 2011

Eating and Fasting -Going Beyond the "Information"

Eating and Fasting –

Going Beyond The Information

This is a little about my experience with repeatedly undertaking the well known “Master Cleanse” (Stanley Burroughs 1976) and other fasts/cleanses. Combined these with other practices from Buddhist and Himalayan yoga traditions has led to experiencing vivid parallels between enlightenment teachings and what one intuitively experiences when going without food.

There is an important relationship between fasting and silence. Also, between the birth/death cycle and the eating process. A universal principle is echoed in any application of that same principle. Not talking, not eating, or going beyond the usual obsessive thinking patterns (as one experiences during meditative absorption), reveals a felt awareness of one same thing. Re-orienting to the formless, compared to our usual habitual identification with the world of form opens an expanded awareness of self, invoking a sense of space and vastness that spiritual masters are attempting to point us toward. This is a hint of the essence of healing and unencumbered happiness.

One may find the concepts of ‘Emptiness” in Buddhism, or even “Consciousness" as separate from ”mind” in Himalayan Yoga difficult to navigate, but during fasting there is the potential to come to these in a feeling kind of way, and experience glimpses of what it might be like to be in the body of a highly achieved yogi or enlightened being. The heaviness of the belief that your body is the main part of you begins to recede. The sense of spirit increases to a point where you begin to know that your sources of energy surely include light, air, impressions and perhaps even something called “prana” as an actual substance or force itself!

I have personally experienced various healing breakthroughs during five or ten day fasts, including physical “resets” or changes to things that were not responding to any other approach. And, once my system was reasonably uncluttered, fasting has become a period of time I look forward to as one of drastically increased physical, mental and spiritual energy –in fact, I have used fasting to overcome periods where I need extra energy to complete a task, compared to planning it when I expect “less” stress.

Chogyam Trungpa was a Tibetan Spiritual leader, perhaps most known for his innovative and insightful interpretations of ancient teachings for a modern world, based on his own highly evolved unfolding. His system of Shambhala training series is a practical and spiritual teaching which involves theory, talks and systematic meditation. Common themes are "shamatha (peaceful abiding), "basic goodness" (knowing one’s true nature) and "windhorse" (how to discover increased power of clarity and happiness when mind and body is synchronized). During one section of this course I simultaneously undertook a slightly modified version of the 12 day Master Cleanse. I was struck with a direct relationship between Chogyam Trungpa’s teachings and the experiential unfolding that occurs during the fasting process.

One may find some of the writing by long-time fasting educators to be rather religious or even fanatical in its adherence to pristine practices and the deeper meanings behind the physical changes. To me this is understandable since the experience is so vivid once a person lets go of the attachment habit. So, best to keep an open mind while reading some of the sources, especially those written In earlier times such as the 1960’s or the 1800’s, two times when fasting was popular among certain communities.

I would like set up some sessions to share this. We will start with silent group meditation, a short talk, then Q & A. At the end we will invite participants to share their own experience. I would welcome skeptics and proponents of fasting from all backgrounds. Together we can try to apply our knowledge and curiosity to the Q & A, or perhaps more importantly, we can try sit in the presence of silence and feel into what this is all about.

Bob appetit!

Gary Justice
http://www.revsound.ca

Links:

Master Cleanse Summary:

http://www.detox.net.au/articles/cayenne-maple-lemon-cleanse.htm

Orig Text by Stanley Burroughs

http://www.cookingwithsean.net/images/TheMasterCleanse.pdf

Viktoras Kalvinskas

long time faster and hygienic health diet visionary (over 80 yrs old)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktoras_Kulvinskas

Dr. Herbert M. Shelton Physician fasting proponent 1934

Records of many long-term fasting therapies for patients with chronic conditions

http://chestofbooks.com/health/natural-cure/The-Hygienic-System-Fasting-and-Sun-Bathing/index.html

Fasting in Ayuveda