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Ojas, Our Personal Storehouse of Vitality
Ojas literally means “vigor”. It is the subtle essence of the reproductive and all vital secretions. It underlies all our psychophysical capacities and is unique to Ayurveda. Ojas is the quintessential substance of our life energy and exists on a subtle level in the Heart Chakra, the Anahata. Disease strikes at the locations where Ojas is weak. In modern terms it is related to the essential energy of the immune system and is described as the subtle heat of all the tissues.
Ojas looks like sparkle in the eyes, luster to the skin, glow to the face, enthusiasm in voice, manner and heart, lightness in body and mind. Vigor, strength, stamina and heartiness.
Increase your Ojas with foods like milk, honey, ghee, dates, and special tonic herbs your Ayurvedic practitioner may recommend.
Chanting Om or Ram as your mantra practice with heartfelt devotion and positive attitudes of faith, peace, love and compassion founded in contentment will strengthen your Ojas.
Adequate rest, contact with nature, and opening to the cosmic life force all enhance your Ojas.
by Dr. Ranade, “A Textbook of Kayachikitsa”
Are Retreats Worth It?
You can see on the web right now hundreds, if not thousands of “retreats” from yoga and ayurveda (like mine:) to writing, sufi dancing, cooking, raw food, weight loss, meditation, surfing, tribal ceremonies, indigenous immersions, to sacred temples, archeological sites and scuba diving. There is nearly no end to what you can explore nowadays. The question is, why go on retreat? Is it worth it and what is our cost benefit? We take time off from work, family and friends and spend a small fortune to go away, immerse ourselves...
read moreWhat is Blocking your Light?
Here in Santa Cruz, we embarked on our first Divine Light Yoga 200 HR Teacher training course with Divinitree Yoga Studio last weekend. Ann Averbach, the studio co-owner and Hannah Muse, fellow teacher are sharing the stage as we journey forth for the next 7 months with our 33 very aware and devoted yogis. Each group of enthusiastic teacher trainees brings a life of its own, and this group, the largest one I have been privileged to teach, has shown me already something very powerful and new. As we began with the Yamas and Niyamas, I was...
read moreEncouraging Grace, Employing the Pause
We are just back from a beautiful retreat to Costa Rica, where the sun, ocean, breezes and fresh food nourished our bodies and the opportunity to practice yoga and meditation twice a day fed our Souls! Thank you to those beautiful beings who came from as far away as Germany and Canada and as close as Panama, as well as Wisconsin, Minnesota, and California! Thank you for taking time to pause from your busy lives to explore stillness within. Back home, in my beloved Cali, thrust back into the business of Life, I observed something. I observed...
read moreUnderestimating Attachment
Namaste fellow beings of light! Utterly incredible that it has been a little over nine months since we shared. I had just moved to Cambridge, MA from Annapolis, MD, my home since 1982! Geez! It seemed so fitting to move north in the worst of the Blizzard of “11, 84 inches of snow total last winter. Yet I did not feel immersed in my new home, as I continued to travel back and forth to Maryland to complete the yoga teacher training that Paulette and I were teaching in St. Michael’s and each month from February to June, I was back...
read moreSithera Sukkha a la Blizzard and Moving
Patanjali, the phenomenal yogic sage who codified the teachings of yoga for us, reminds me of “sithera sukkha”, basically, “ease in the effort”. Â Yep, working on that with the blizzard of the decade bearing down on us as I move to Cambridge, MA tomorrow. Â My new mantra, “It’s only weather” is really getting some good use! Thank you again to each of you who have been a light in my life and always will be, and keep up your sadhanas, it is truly the magical key to awakening and pure...
read moreListening deeply
Sat Nam and Namaste, I have been in Florida since September 30th, first to celebrate my birthday with my sanget here, and then to continue on exploring what it is like to live here, looking, listening and feeling. Â What has come so clearly to me over these last couple of weeks, is how busy we all are and how that busy-ness can stop our deepest process of listening. Â This weekend we began the Kundalini Yoga Level II module:: LIfestyles and Lifecycles. Of course this would be the course that focuses JUST ON THAT! Â On our lives,...
read moreWhen I am touched….back into the heart!
Sat Nam, Namaste and Buenos Dias! Heartfelt greetings from La Cruz, Mexico, about an hour north of Puerto Vallerta, sitting on the beautiful Bay, at Villa Ananda, where I feel myself, again. Â If you have followed me along, you might remember we last left off when I returned from a month in India, coming home I felt overwhelmed by the western ways. Not like just a month can make you forget, but it did. And I came home and tried to hold on to that beautiful feeling of being held in the mother’s arms, but the feeling left me and I left...
read moreWhen are we not being Spiritual, if we are a Spiritual Being?
Sat Nam and Namaste friends! Some juice now for you from what all of this experience has squeezed out of me, after being home for three weeks! Â Embarking to India, I thought I was open, ready for anything that the journey could deliver. After 10 years of solid yoga practice and 8 years of Kundalini yoga, I thought I was ready. Guess what, it did not matter, I don’t think I could ever be eady. It is more like,ready or not, here it comes. From my first night in Delhi, feeling a little spooked, trolling our way through what...
read moreRishikesh, top of the world
Sat Nam and Namaste divine ones! Tomorrow is my last full day, and with all of the sights, sounds, smells, and full on feeling of Rishikesh I wanted to post before I depart. Â A friend and I found probably the one internet “joint” with wireless and a fan, thank God for that! Â Did I mention it gets a wee bit warm in the afternoons now? I have taken to napping and meditating for about 3 hours in those hours! Where to begin??? I feel like we are in a little city, perched on a pinhead sitting on top of the world overlooking...
read moreTrivandrum, southern tip of India
Sat Nam divine ones! What a journey! We left Anandapur at midnight on Wednesday night, drove all night to arrive in Delhi at 6 am, on the bumpiest road ever, my organs have finally relocated back into my body! However, we made it safely and soundly! Ipods are amazing, just plug it in, put on the mantras, and whoosh, it seemed 6 hours was over in a flash! Delhi airport is very modern and convenient, we relaxed with breakfast and people watching! Our little group together! Â We then flew most of the day south, almost as far as from the east...
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