BEING A VEGETARIANAs a vegetarian eater, arriving at a place where I would feel 'I want to try everything on the menu' is very rare. Restaurant Momo in Nagano Prefecture, was that rare gem of a place for me. The whole place vibrated with care. Food quality was superb. The atmosphere was relaxed and creative ~ exactly my sort of place. Instantly I felt a kinship.
I filled my rucksack with home-made snacks for my journey back to Scotland. I was facing a rough journey back with the possibility of two nights of sleeping in airports. Good quality food, made with care, makes all the difference in the quality of your journey. I felt well resourced and nourished by the food and vibrations of this place. My deep gratitude to the people who have created Momo and are maintaining it from day to day.
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WHAT DOES OM CHANTING DO?It was Fatima-san's birthday. Her wish for this day was to spend a part of it with friends in the Sacred Mountain and do the OM Chanting Ceremony. And so, it came to be. I met new beaming faces, already at the little mountain cabin as we arrived. -'My name's Gayatri Devi Dasi' said the beautiful woman in fuchsia pink. -'I'm Surya Dev Das' said the tall gentleman. -'I'm Yoginam Pub Das' beamed the kind young man. I felt intrigued. The Indian names I recognised, but the combination of Indian name spoken in context of Japanese language was new for me. I felt a new adventure was waiting for me. The wood cabin room is spacious. The floor is covered with tatami mats. I find tatami-mats very comforting and supportive to sit on, although having a cushion always helps. Soon enough, we were sitting in a circle. Gayatri-san started to explain OM Chanting in great detail; its story, how its done, its benefits, etc. I felt very grateful for the length she went into to explain what OM chanting is, how it is done, why we do it, and how it benefits the individuals and the world. I was convinced that I wanted to participate. She demonstrated how the OM sound rises from the belly and traverses the whole body, rather than being just a nasal pronouncement. The OM sound, rising from her felt so much rounder and bigger than her petit body, camouflaged in beautiful colours of dark pink and navy blue. One thing that touched me in particular about the effects of OM Chanting was the purity it radiates to about 2 km radius around the place it has been chanted. Secretly I thought to myself, this would be so helpful for my friends and folks in Iran and the Fertile Crescent. We are so much in need of both physical and spiritual cleansing. Could the OM Chanting really purify you? OM, OM, OMSoon the room filled with our voices. We sat in two concentric circles facing each other. The voice came from the depth of our bellies and bones. It reverberated through the body. The M sound made me quiver. At first I could not hold a stable M sound ... it just slipped away from me, and I could not chase it. But I came back to it again, and again, and again. With each repetition of the OM chanting the sound grew deeper in me. Until, one moment, with wonder, I felt I could hold the whole OM sound steady and transcendent. As I reached this level of steadiness images started to dance inside me. I felt the forest around me, full of medicine and mystery. I felt my ancestral roots in Japan. A deep sense of gratitude bubbled up in me for this moment, for being in the forest with these friends, chanting OM and tapping into the well of mysteries of creation. I became aware of the other streams of my ancestry, of my deep roots in Iran and the Fertile Crescent. A deep wish bubbled up in me to connect, and bridge, and make known the magic of OM Chanting across my many worlds. So many worlds exist in me, but I am only one woman. So many worlds exist in our planet, and we are truly one world. A BIRTHDAY GIFT BLESSING THE WORLDThe OM Chanting was Fatima Suomi-san's birthday gift. What a rich gift to give away! I had asked Fatima-san what she wanted for her birthday. She smiled and said 'harmony and peace in the world.' Could this be possible, the cynic in me had its own opinion. After the OM Chanting Ceremony we sat in a circle again to share our experiences. I heard each person express his and her personal journey with the sound of OM. I felt something in me had grown, like I had become larger, rounder, more contained. Each one had a unique encounter, and we all had something shared and in common. A sense of roundness, like an encompassing skin surrounded our individual and common experience. We went for a walk in the forest afterwards. My senses were sharp and clear. I smelled the tantalising Sansho tree ( a sharp pepper tree). I could feel the heart of others around me. I moved with gratitude and love as my eyes met the eyes of others in the forest. I joined Fatima-san in her earnest wish for harmony and love in our world. https://bhaktimarga.jp/ https://bhaktimarga.co.uk MEETING ANCIENT AND NEW FRIENDSI met Fatima-san (Suomi Sekiya) in Findhorn about 5 years ago. She joined our 1001 Angels mosaic creations on our first day of the project, and her last day of a two-week stay in Findhorn. By some good fortune our paths just crossed. I was immediately curious about her, since she had so uniquely expressed two cultures I also felt a part of, namely a Sufi tradition in Japan. I felt we have so much to explore together, but at that time we had very little time to invest in our explorations. When the opportunity presented itself to visit her in Nagano prefecture, I approached her. I was delighted to know that she could take a day off her work, which happened to be her birthday, to be with me and her partner Yaqin Nirdosh (Yuya Sato), and the Sacred Mountain of Hijiriyama, which she is a guardian of. Both her name and her partner's name, Yaqin evoke deep feelings for me, as they are from my native tongue, Farsi. Yaqin means certainty, Fatima, purity. So together they speak of Pure Certainty to my soul. Meeting Fatima and Yaqin at the Hijiriyama, which literally means Sacred Mountain, felt like a chord of destiny's been tugged. I also found out they are both web-creators. Since I've been looking for web-masters for Trees for Hope, I asked them if they could make our website, which they delightfully said yes! My heart did a little dance at the top of the hill where we were standing to admire the view of the expansive North and South Japan Alps Mountains in Nagano. Later on her birthday she took me to a remarkable restaurant called Momo, which means peach. There she gave me her meishi, business card. On it she lists a few things she offers the world as a way of her unique expression. They include : Herbalist, Psychic Healer, Holistic Therapist. As well she lists Meditation and Prayer, Deep Ecology, Permaculture, Co-Creation with Nature. Yaqin offers on his meishi (business card) : Meditation and Co-Creation Space. His business name is Nirvana Lab. I feel like I have just connected with two dear kindred spirits, on my last day in Japan! http://nirvana-lab.com http://devafatima.com http://libernaturae.com http://nuuralanuur.com UPCYCLING TETRA-PACSI have chosen to invest a good deal of my time to up-cycle the tetra-pacs we use in our household. I learned this beautiful weave from a tutorial on YouTube, which has helped me to make all shapes and forms of boxes, bags, storage units. They are utilitarian, and in my eyes, quite pleasing too. Is this art, or is it not art?
For me the creation of these tetra-pac boxes is a transformation of a waste material to a useful product. I enjoy the process of making them. There is some creativity involved, although it is more a matter of design and calculation. I would consider these woven baskets works of craft ~ leaning towards art. The art being the spirit of transformation, and limiting my wasteful disposal. What do you think? * Why do we need to learn and communicate in the language of our bodies?
In our post covid era we are in need of ways and means to care for our health and happiness in diverse and informed ways. My intention by providing classes and workshops in massage is to strengthen the field and network of practitioners who are fluent in the language of our bodies. My own experience with Esalen massage and Scaravelli inspired yoga has helped me be in touch with moments of somatic enlightenment, moments when I felt as light as a bird in flight, as spacious as a healthy forest, as delightful as a wild coast full of mystery and mischief. These treasured embodied moments increased for me as I put my attention on my practice and learned to let go of outdated habits and behaviours. I want to share the sense of joy, wholeness, and soft-breath I have been experiencing in my body with a wider network of friends. I want to guide more people to the treasures in our bodies that speak a language of connectivity, intelligence, lightness. Our natural state of being is wholeness. Yet we learn to live with pain. Pain is a feedback mechanism pointing to where we have fallen out of wholeness. When I learned how to listen to the pain in my body, I could then help my body to return to its natural state of alignment with my spine and become fluid. *Classes and Workshops I am offering classes in the Language of Our Bodies for a limited number of people. We will start our practice in the art of touch and massage. We will engage in yoga movements and increase our awareness of our own bodies. We will learn how to approach the bodies of other people needing help to release tension and pain. *When? Starting in January until August, most Saturdays from 10.00 ~ 1.00. *What is the exchange? I offer this programme in exchange for either cash (suggested £60 per session) or work (3 hours), or a mixture of the two. *Commitments I ask the participants to consider these commitments : Regular practice in between classes Regular study of the anatomy Caring for your health and wellbeing with regular yoga or dance *For one or two people The classes could work very well for couples or two good friends as you will be learning together and practicing on each other as well as on more people afield. It also works well when you join on your own. *Responsibility for everyone’s safety When joining the classes please take responsibility to for your own wellbeing and others by ensuring that you won’t pass on any nasty virus during our sessions. *Get in touch To join the classes, contact Pupak on: [email protected] What is clean energy? Doesn't burning wood logs add to our green house gases? A few good questions were raised from my last blog. I thought to address them here.
To discern clean energy from polluting ones, we need to distinguish three types of carbon.
The carbon stored in wood, and other organic matter, belongs to the cycling and recycling of carbon that goes back to the atmosphere and the total mass of matter above ground. Burning wood logs is comparable to us eating food, and exhaling CO2 when we breathe out. Nature had struck a balance to maintain all the elements in life-supporting ways. We have destroyed this balance by our greedy extractions of earth resources. In this context burning wood is clean energy because the carbon it releases goes back to the natural recycling of the earth matter. Indeed it is one of the cleanest sources of energy as well as sunlight and wind. The problem comes into the picture when we extract more than our share, and set out to destroy forests for our greed. But if you are someone who has enabled more than two million trees being planted (Alan, through the charity he founded, Trees for Life), burning a tree or two a year, from a sustainably managed woodland, to heat your home will not deficit our planet. Coming to think of it, if we each had a part to restore a part of our eco-systems, we could all be living on clean energy, physically and metaphysically. Sources : 350.org Trees for Life We received nearly 4 cubic meters of seasoned wood from Hinterland, a managed woodland in Findhorn. This is our yearly supply of wood to heat our home for the whole year. Alan (my husband) spent all day chopping and stacking the wood. Thank God for our neighbours who came to help.
We consider burning seasoned wood clean energy, as opposed to fossil fuels. The reason for it is that wood stores the carbon that is in the atmosphere already. By burning the wood the carbon is released back to the atmosphere to be recycled by living organisms such as plants and soil. Burning fossil fuels, however releases the carbon that has been stored in the depth of the earth, or the sea, millions of years ago. Releasing the fossilised carbon is one of our major sources of global warming. We need to stop burning fossil fuels ~ and we knew this for at least 5 decades. Chopping wood and living on clean energy ~ feeling grateful to the trees today. I've been practising Esalen Massage and learning Scaravelli inspired yoga for more than four years now. During my practice I have observed that a significant healing takes place when the body of my clients are touched in ways that connects them with their spine and allows for fluidity and spaciousness of the joints (and a lot more besides). I am immensely grateful to my yoga teacher, Louise in Findhorn, who helps me see and experience the relationship of my body to my spine. In turn I observe and assist my clients to have a closer relationship to their bodies and to their spine.
I've been reflecting on the question : "how could we have a wellbeing system at a village level that supports the health and happiness of its inhabitants? My response is to have increased awareness and practice of living more intimately with our bodies. We need increased connections and commitments to ourselves and each other to maintain a 'path of health and happiness.' Since I live in Findhorn Ecovillage for most of the year, I decided to offer training in massage and Scaravelli inspired yoga to a limited number of committed trainees. Regular practice is what keeps the field of wellbeing pulsing and alive. I think if a critical number of us committed to the path of health and happiness, while we increase our education and practice, we will have a reliable network to support the wellbeing of most people living in a community. I am offering a training in massage and yoga, starting on the 22nd of January till 23rd of April to help strengthen the field of our health and happiness. |
Pupak's blogWhat I am seeking in every encounter and experience is the essence of Love. This blog-page is home to photographs and writings reflecting my Seeking Love. Archives
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