inside the vortex
Tomorrow is the first Kriya Yoga teaching.
I've been on the road exactly a week now. It wasn't all obvious and clear by last Sunday that I could make it out of town by Monday evening, as was the plan. As it happened, staying up until 4:30am, then working all day long to prepare was all it took.
I first stopped in Santa Cruz to spend time with KornBaba. He's blazing these days, up at near 300 kriyas a day. I've never seen him so happy and relaxed as I have since India. He's still KornBaba though. We spent 30 minutes going over a simple heartfelt chant we learned in India, but KorniBab kept having to have the precise rhythm and notes written down. Basically, he'd flow with the feeling and then immediately try to capture it in his mind and approximate digitally. Life of a mathematician. He also played me a heart wrenching rendition of Sonata Quasi Una Fantasia, better known to us as the Moonlight Sonata by Mozart. We ended the night whispering forth a philosophical thread of thought about the nature of consciousness, evolution and DNA as a multidimensional structure.
Originally I thought I'd drive down the coast the next day, but as it was I got out of Santa Cruz late, plus, I felt fairly disheveled from the hectic pace of preparation for this journey, so I took good old 101. Part of me felt too that the coast would be just that much better driving with someone, so next time perhaps. I was actually feeling quite unsettled most of the ride to Ojai, like the trip hadn't really begun, or more precisely, like I didn't have the opportunity to create a clear beggining point. Everything was just a blur. I spent hours on the phone with friends, describing what it is I'm actually doing and where I'll be going. By the end of that drive I just felt so drained I could barely continue. That night I had plans to stay with a friend I met in Israel 6 years ago. Both of us shared a week of miracles together, along with 50 other people from around the world. Ironically, she was living in Santa Cruz for most of the last 6 years, but we never hung out. This was to be our reunion.
Driving into Ojai was like magic. Sunshine peeking through the mountains as I entered a world within a world tucked outside the more flashy Santa Barbara and Ventura. The orange blossoms were blooming, scenting the air with an intoxicating fragrance. As soon as I saw Danielle it was like I could relax, as I was with someone who really understood me. She was telling me she felt the same, and having spent a lot of time alone in recent years, she was glad to have someone she could really talk to. See, Danielle is an energy worker, and by that, I don't mean the kind that advertise in Sedona Journal and hold supposed channelings of ascended masters. No. Danielle is the real deal. She follows her intuition & heart around the country and does the inner work only she knows how. She has some amazing stories. In particular I was struck at how after 3 years she was now thinking of settling down somewhere, while I was just beggining a trek with an unknown timescape. We were mirroring each other. She told me of finding herself several times in situations that most of us would think of as scary, but for her, she just didn't really feel like being afraid, and each situation worked out beautifully. One time, she really needed money, sent out a strong prayer, went to the bookshelf and opened up a copy of "I Am That" by Nisargadatta Maharaj. and a $100 bill was sitting there waiting for her. Staying with Danielle helped me to calm the franticness and reconnect with a deep part of myself that has lived miracles and need not rely on the false security of paychecks and time slavery. I also took note that a photo of Parmahansa Yogananda was on the wall of the little house she was subletting.
The next day I drove to interview a professor at UCSB, took a nice walk on the beach with Danielle, and headed straight to LA. I was staying with the Persian queen Layla, perhaps the best host on the west coast. Actually, I felt quite nostalgic as I pulled up to her place, as she lived literally across the street from where I used to stay with Gurunath in LA for many years. DK was also staying with her (indefinitely) and we used the two days together as an opportunity to rebond after not being in touch for much of the last year. There's not much more I'd like to say, except that we had a most intense and positive heart to heart on my second night there. We have some deep karmic ties the two of us, and often we mirror to each other areas of weakness in need of development, which can be difficult to stay equanimous about.
From LA I went to Lake Elsinore and spent time with the Mackies, then took off to Arizona. I was hoping to make it to Sedona in a straight shot, but ended up in Phoenix around 9:30 and didn't feel like making the extra drive. I called an RV park to see if I could camp overnight, and the owner told me it's not worth the price, and directed me to a local Walmart. Apparently, it's cool to sleep in your car all night in a Walmart parking lot. Was perfect for me, as I went in and did some food shopping (it's open 24 hours) and also was looking forward to seeing just how comfortable a sleep I can have in my car. I put down the seats and laid my trusty thermarest down. As I closed the trunk door, I heard a crunch and a hiiisss. Oh no! I cracked the air valve on the thermarest with the door. Crap crap crap crap crap (or at least, that's how I felt). Now I have nowhere to sleep on and thermarests are $100 a pop. I went back into Walmart to find krazy glue, which in this case, was a while as there's about a mile of store to walk through to get to the hardware section. Coming back out, it had started to rain, so I had to run and squeeze onto my car bed and perform delicate surgery to put the valve back together. You know what? It almost worked, but not quite. I ended up watching Lost on my laptop and calling it a night. Slept great too.
Next day I was hoping to make it to Sedona early and hike all day. Well, plans are just not working out for me. After washing up at Walmart, I visited the nearest starbucks, did some work on the laptop, and drove to the Pheonix REI. Did you know REI will take any returns for almost any reason? They actually would have taken my 4 year old thermarest and replaced it with a brand new one. I almost did that too, but the supervisor there mentioned to me how thermarest has a lifetime warranty, so I can just send it in for repair. I chose to do that. So now, I have two thermarests in case you want to join me sometime, somewhere.
Didn't make it into Sedona until about 4 pm, too late for a hike. The drive into town was just breathtaking. Nearly ten years ago when I was driving out to California we had an extra day in Arizona. Looking at the map, Sedona just popped out and we went in to explore. That one day has left such a powerful imprint on me that I've just hankered to come back. It was like magic all over again. Sedona is to me the most beautiful place on Earth that I've seen, and with the close exception of the Himalayas, the most powerful. Here, there are vast tracts of federal forest lands. You can basically just take a road into the forest, pull over the car and camp anywhere, which is exactly what I did after a brief tour of town (Native American art, cowboys, Reiki healings and crystals, lots of crystals). The forest is not what we typically know, rather, it's more like the desert bush, which is upped a notch in psychadelic terms by the rich red soil all over. I had a most beautiful touching meditation by the fire, feeling the presence of the Masters super clear. This is indeed a power spot.
Today, after another nice meditation, I finally made it out to hike at Boynton canyon trail. I was reading about the energy vortices in Sedona. Some are supposed to have more masculine energy, some more feminine. Boynton canyon was apparently a balance of the two. The hike itself reflected that, as you are walking inbetween the canyons, one on each side, one light, one dark. The hike was strenuous, but at the end of the trail a vista opens up above the tree line, a view well worth it. I met a couple there who is on an oddly similar journey to me. They both left San Francisco a few days before me, driving around the country for 6 months. The first 3 months they are doing a loop around the country, visiting nearly every spot I'm visiting at nearly the same time. The last 3 months they plan on driving up and down the West coast, which is exactly my plan this fall. They are even going to visit Ithaca right around when I'm there. We decided to have a cup of coffee in NY and Seattle and see how each others journeys are going. The kicker was that Michelle had just been talking to someone in SF about learning Kriya Yoga and had just been reading Autobiography of a Yogi.
I booked it from Sedona to over here in Flagstaff, where I'm staying with the super-duper Melinda & Rich. Melinda is a Hamsacharya and helped me tremendously in setting up the teachings here. Rich is quite a character too and quite a nature lover. I found out from him that on 9/11, him & Melinda were with Gurunath in the Grand Canyon praying & meditating for Earth Peace. Rich also showed me his animal friends, which include several birds, some tarantulas, a sidewinder snake and about 200 different kinds of scorpions, all alive.
Every day is a new adventure and I'm meeting the most fascinating of people all the time. How could I just go through the boring day to day routine all this time? I feel truly alive right now. Exhausted, but alive, dynamic and most important of all, connected to the inner source.
Tomorrow is the first teaching. Wish me luck.
I've been on the road exactly a week now. It wasn't all obvious and clear by last Sunday that I could make it out of town by Monday evening, as was the plan. As it happened, staying up until 4:30am, then working all day long to prepare was all it took.
I first stopped in Santa Cruz to spend time with KornBaba. He's blazing these days, up at near 300 kriyas a day. I've never seen him so happy and relaxed as I have since India. He's still KornBaba though. We spent 30 minutes going over a simple heartfelt chant we learned in India, but KorniBab kept having to have the precise rhythm and notes written down. Basically, he'd flow with the feeling and then immediately try to capture it in his mind and approximate digitally. Life of a mathematician. He also played me a heart wrenching rendition of Sonata Quasi Una Fantasia, better known to us as the Moonlight Sonata by Mozart. We ended the night whispering forth a philosophical thread of thought about the nature of consciousness, evolution and DNA as a multidimensional structure.
Originally I thought I'd drive down the coast the next day, but as it was I got out of Santa Cruz late, plus, I felt fairly disheveled from the hectic pace of preparation for this journey, so I took good old 101. Part of me felt too that the coast would be just that much better driving with someone, so next time perhaps. I was actually feeling quite unsettled most of the ride to Ojai, like the trip hadn't really begun, or more precisely, like I didn't have the opportunity to create a clear beggining point. Everything was just a blur. I spent hours on the phone with friends, describing what it is I'm actually doing and where I'll be going. By the end of that drive I just felt so drained I could barely continue. That night I had plans to stay with a friend I met in Israel 6 years ago. Both of us shared a week of miracles together, along with 50 other people from around the world. Ironically, she was living in Santa Cruz for most of the last 6 years, but we never hung out. This was to be our reunion.
Driving into Ojai was like magic. Sunshine peeking through the mountains as I entered a world within a world tucked outside the more flashy Santa Barbara and Ventura. The orange blossoms were blooming, scenting the air with an intoxicating fragrance. As soon as I saw Danielle it was like I could relax, as I was with someone who really understood me. She was telling me she felt the same, and having spent a lot of time alone in recent years, she was glad to have someone she could really talk to. See, Danielle is an energy worker, and by that, I don't mean the kind that advertise in Sedona Journal and hold supposed channelings of ascended masters. No. Danielle is the real deal. She follows her intuition & heart around the country and does the inner work only she knows how. She has some amazing stories. In particular I was struck at how after 3 years she was now thinking of settling down somewhere, while I was just beggining a trek with an unknown timescape. We were mirroring each other. She told me of finding herself several times in situations that most of us would think of as scary, but for her, she just didn't really feel like being afraid, and each situation worked out beautifully. One time, she really needed money, sent out a strong prayer, went to the bookshelf and opened up a copy of "I Am That" by Nisargadatta Maharaj. and a $100 bill was sitting there waiting for her. Staying with Danielle helped me to calm the franticness and reconnect with a deep part of myself that has lived miracles and need not rely on the false security of paychecks and time slavery. I also took note that a photo of Parmahansa Yogananda was on the wall of the little house she was subletting.
The next day I drove to interview a professor at UCSB, took a nice walk on the beach with Danielle, and headed straight to LA. I was staying with the Persian queen Layla, perhaps the best host on the west coast. Actually, I felt quite nostalgic as I pulled up to her place, as she lived literally across the street from where I used to stay with Gurunath in LA for many years. DK was also staying with her (indefinitely) and we used the two days together as an opportunity to rebond after not being in touch for much of the last year. There's not much more I'd like to say, except that we had a most intense and positive heart to heart on my second night there. We have some deep karmic ties the two of us, and often we mirror to each other areas of weakness in need of development, which can be difficult to stay equanimous about.
From LA I went to Lake Elsinore and spent time with the Mackies, then took off to Arizona. I was hoping to make it to Sedona in a straight shot, but ended up in Phoenix around 9:30 and didn't feel like making the extra drive. I called an RV park to see if I could camp overnight, and the owner told me it's not worth the price, and directed me to a local Walmart. Apparently, it's cool to sleep in your car all night in a Walmart parking lot. Was perfect for me, as I went in and did some food shopping (it's open 24 hours) and also was looking forward to seeing just how comfortable a sleep I can have in my car. I put down the seats and laid my trusty thermarest down. As I closed the trunk door, I heard a crunch and a hiiisss. Oh no! I cracked the air valve on the thermarest with the door. Crap crap crap crap crap (or at least, that's how I felt). Now I have nowhere to sleep on and thermarests are $100 a pop. I went back into Walmart to find krazy glue, which in this case, was a while as there's about a mile of store to walk through to get to the hardware section. Coming back out, it had started to rain, so I had to run and squeeze onto my car bed and perform delicate surgery to put the valve back together. You know what? It almost worked, but not quite. I ended up watching Lost on my laptop and calling it a night. Slept great too.
Next day I was hoping to make it to Sedona early and hike all day. Well, plans are just not working out for me. After washing up at Walmart, I visited the nearest starbucks, did some work on the laptop, and drove to the Pheonix REI. Did you know REI will take any returns for almost any reason? They actually would have taken my 4 year old thermarest and replaced it with a brand new one. I almost did that too, but the supervisor there mentioned to me how thermarest has a lifetime warranty, so I can just send it in for repair. I chose to do that. So now, I have two thermarests in case you want to join me sometime, somewhere.
Didn't make it into Sedona until about 4 pm, too late for a hike. The drive into town was just breathtaking. Nearly ten years ago when I was driving out to California we had an extra day in Arizona. Looking at the map, Sedona just popped out and we went in to explore. That one day has left such a powerful imprint on me that I've just hankered to come back. It was like magic all over again. Sedona is to me the most beautiful place on Earth that I've seen, and with the close exception of the Himalayas, the most powerful. Here, there are vast tracts of federal forest lands. You can basically just take a road into the forest, pull over the car and camp anywhere, which is exactly what I did after a brief tour of town (Native American art, cowboys, Reiki healings and crystals, lots of crystals). The forest is not what we typically know, rather, it's more like the desert bush, which is upped a notch in psychadelic terms by the rich red soil all over. I had a most beautiful touching meditation by the fire, feeling the presence of the Masters super clear. This is indeed a power spot.
Today, after another nice meditation, I finally made it out to hike at Boynton canyon trail. I was reading about the energy vortices in Sedona. Some are supposed to have more masculine energy, some more feminine. Boynton canyon was apparently a balance of the two. The hike itself reflected that, as you are walking inbetween the canyons, one on each side, one light, one dark. The hike was strenuous, but at the end of the trail a vista opens up above the tree line, a view well worth it. I met a couple there who is on an oddly similar journey to me. They both left San Francisco a few days before me, driving around the country for 6 months. The first 3 months they are doing a loop around the country, visiting nearly every spot I'm visiting at nearly the same time. The last 3 months they plan on driving up and down the West coast, which is exactly my plan this fall. They are even going to visit Ithaca right around when I'm there. We decided to have a cup of coffee in NY and Seattle and see how each others journeys are going. The kicker was that Michelle had just been talking to someone in SF about learning Kriya Yoga and had just been reading Autobiography of a Yogi.
I booked it from Sedona to over here in Flagstaff, where I'm staying with the super-duper Melinda & Rich. Melinda is a Hamsacharya and helped me tremendously in setting up the teachings here. Rich is quite a character too and quite a nature lover. I found out from him that on 9/11, him & Melinda were with Gurunath in the Grand Canyon praying & meditating for Earth Peace. Rich also showed me his animal friends, which include several birds, some tarantulas, a sidewinder snake and about 200 different kinds of scorpions, all alive.
Every day is a new adventure and I'm meeting the most fascinating of people all the time. How could I just go through the boring day to day routine all this time? I feel truly alive right now. Exhausted, but alive, dynamic and most important of all, connected to the inner source.
Tomorrow is the first teaching. Wish me luck.