A couple of nights ago, while chanting along with Mukti’s sweet CD “Light of the Sun,” I made this really yummy vegan green salad. To enjoy a similar salad yourself, top fresh green lettuce leaves with the following:

raw cacao nibs
dried cranberries
raw sunflower seeds
black pepper
cumin powder
Himalayan krystal salt
flax oil
maple syrup
fresh lemon juice
curly parsley sprigs

Please buy organic whenever possible. It is better for our bodies and it is better for the environment of our beautiful Mother Earth!

Also, whenever we eat, let’s say a prayer for the 1 billion people who are starving on the planet right now. Let’s each help raise the vibration of the human species so that things shift here on earth… I envision a shift in which each person has food to eat each day.

May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Photo of light on Teja’s salad by Teja Shankara.

Comment (0)

Life is filled with so many splendid synchronicities. Recently I began focusing on cleansing myself with Frog Medicine. I created a collage with a frog photo for my new journal, and inside I wrote the following notes from Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power through the Ways of Animals (by Jamie Sams & David Carson, Bear & Company, Santa Fe, NM, 1988):

“Frog teaches us to honor our tears, for they cleanse the soul…. know when it is time to refresh and purify….replace mud with clear energy….replenish your parched spirit, body, and mind….An ability of frog medicine people is to give support and energy where it is needed…. A frog medicine person can clean negativity from any environment…. Frog speaks of new life and harmony through its rain song…. Call to Frog and find peace in the joy of taking time to give to yourself. A part of this giving is cleansing yourself of any person, place, or thing that does not contribute to your new state of serenity and replenishment.”

The night after I copied down those notes, my friend Thomas and I went to eat some vegan treats at a nearby park. When I returned home, as I climbed the front steps to my cottage, I noticed a little tiny frog hanging onto the screen door! I knelt down and talked to him and then took a photo of him. The photo is a bit blurry, but you can still tell that it is a frog. I was in such awe of that beautiful synchronicity. It let me know that I am definitely on the right path… cleansing, cleansing, cleansing!

Through daily spiritual practices, especially chanting (singing) devotional songs to God, I am in a deep process of purifying my being. Through focused intention and Reiki healing energies, I am cleaning out some old mud energies and inviting new clear energies to fill my soul.

May all beings everywhere know the Purity of Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Photo of frog in screen door by Teja Shankara.

Comment (0)

On June 26^th, I posted a blog article (“Release!”) about my process of releasing all expectations and griefs that I have placed on any forms of the masculine. Very soon after writing that article, I became aware that I needed to not only release expectations and griefs that I had placed on external forms of the masculine, but I also needed to release all the expectations that I had put on my internal masculine. I reflected on how much I expected of my own masculine, and I saw that while my masculine side completely bowed to my feminine side, it was not a reciprocal bowing! My feminine side was completely frustrated with my masculine side and refused to bow to it.

In one of her teachings, Amma says the following about the unity of the masculine and feminine:

“By the merging of man and woman, Mother doesn’t mean on the physical level….Women and men contain both elements…. The woman is unaware of the masculinity within her and searches for it on the outside, in a man. Likewise, the man doesn’t try to nourish the qualities of forgiveness, compassion, and affection that lie hidden within him. He imagines they are to be found only in a woman. Both men and women should awaken the complementary powers and capacities within themselves. Completeness is the union of the masculine and feminine elements within ourselves…. Only through this inner union can we experience limitless bliss. The aim of brahmacharya is to realize that both the male and female aspects are contained within us, and that the nature of our true Self transcends any such duality.”

(Lead Us to the Light: A Collection of the Teachings of Mata Amritanandamayi, Compiled by Swami Jnanamritananda, M.A. Center, San Ramon, CA, 2002.)

After realizing that I was seeking union with the masculine outside of myself largely because I was unhappy with the masculine element within myself, I set the intention to seek harmony and balance with my inner masculine and feminine elements. Taking the brahmacharya celibacy vow for at least six months, I endeavor to focus within and find the true Bliss that comes from uniting Shiva and Shakti internally. Lalla, naked mystic of medieval Kashmir, sang of that internal Union:

I, Lalla, entered the jasmine garden,
where Shiva and Shakti were making love.

I dissolved into them,
and what is this
to me, now?

I seem to be here,
but really I’m walking
in the jasmine garden.

(Lalla: Naked Song, translations by Coleman Barks, Maypop Publishing.)

May all beings know the Bliss of Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

The Lovers image by Mara~ earth light, CC license

Comment (2)

Saturday night I attended a potent fire circle. As the drummers began drumming, I danced slowly around the fire, silently inviting Agni Deva, the Hindu God of Fire, to be present and conscious in the fire. I reflected on my personal intention for that night by the sacred fire: to ask for purification so that I can experience the Oneness with Lord Shiva, who is Pure Consciousness and Bliss. With hand gestures, I also asked that the fire energies of purification go out to all the beings in all the worlds for healing in the Whole.

While dancing barefoot on soft clover around a sacred fire under the stars and moon, surrounded by trees, I delighted in the bells that adorned my ankles that evening. Then, during a break in the drumming, Lalla suddenly came through me. I called out, “Through the illusion of time and space, I invite Lalla here… we are in medieval Kashmir by the One Fire…” And then Lalla used my voice to call out eight of her Love poems. I will share two of them here:

Lalla, you’ve wandered so many places
trying to find your husband!

Now at last, inside the walls
of this body-house, in the heart-shrine,
you discover where he lives.

                    ********

Don’t be so quick to condemn my nakedness.

A man is one who trembles in the presence.
There are very few of those.
Why not go naked?

The ram of experience must be fed
and ripened for the sacrifice.

Then all these customs will disappear
like clothing. There’s only the soul.

Lalla lived in 14^th century Kashmir. At age 24 she left her husband and family, and wandered around North India, naked, singing love songs to God. (Lalla: Naked Song, translations by Coleman Barks, Maypop Publishing.)

When I returned to my cottage that night, the sound of the bells jingling on my ankles filled me with such bliss that I did not want to take them off. I felt like a child who just wants to swim for a few more minutes after the parent says it’s time to get out of the lake. I just wanted to hear those jingles a few more times…

… I did finally take the bells off my ankles, but the next morning I put them back on! As I reflected on that evening by the fire, I remembered what my spiritual brother Howie said to me when he first saw me that night: “You are really freeing your voice!” Amazed that he saw that at first glance, I said, “Yes, I’ve really been enjoying leading the chants at the Monday evening Radiance Rising Circles.”

Through the illusion of time and space, I’m sure Lalla also knows that I’m freeing my voice, which is why she came through me so strongly that night. I am bowing to the Universe in intense Gratitude for that experience of channeling Beloved Lalla.

May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Photo of bells on Teja’s ankles by Teja Shankara.

Comment (0)

Spiritual practices are the highest joy of my life. As a child, I loved going to Catholic mass on Sundays, because I totally enjoyed all the praying and singing. Now, as a western yogini, I don’t have to wait for Sunday morning to go to church. Instead, I do spiritual practices throughout each and every day! I’ve converted my cottage into a temple, with altars in every room, and holy images adorning every wall.

Each morning and each evening, I sit in silent meditation. I chant (sing) devotional songs throughout the day, while cooking and doing other household chores, and I pray the mantra that Amma gave me at least 108 times each day.

I used to feel lonely doing all of these practices alone, but now, when I’m doing the practices, I feel so full of God that there is no room for loneliness. I used to say, “I want to live inside the chant.” Well, now I do live inside the chant, and it feels so correct. I am so grateful for this path of sadhana (spiritual practices).

And, I am ever-grateful that on Monday evenings I do get to share spiritual practices with others, through the Radiance Rising Circles that I lead. Doing spiritual practices with others, even once each week, helps to inspire our own daily practices.

May all beings realize the importance of raising their consciousness through regular spiritual practices. May all beings commit to doing spiritual practices every day! May all beings experience the Self-Love that emerges from doing regular spiritual practices. (For guidance on practices, read my pocket book, Radiance Rising: Spiritual Practices for Daily Living, available on this website store in print or by e-book.)

May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

http://www.facebook.com/tejashankara

Photo of roses with Gurus on kitchen table by Teja Shankara.

Comment (0)

Last Saturday night, during the two-day Conscious Convergence (for more information on that, go to www.commonpassion.org), I attended a planetary fire puja, a ritual led by Debi Sheetz. We chanted Vedic mantras to the planets to help increase the positive aspects of what is happening right now astrologically.

After the rituals, we shared in a beautiful summer potluck, with delicious salads of strawberries, blueberries, mangos, and avocados. I brought a yummy vegan coconut rice pudding. Here is the recipe for that soothing, harmonizing delight:

Please buy organic food whenever possible.
It is better for our bodies
and it is better for the environment!

Vegan Coconut Rice Pudding

Cook 3 ½ cups white basmati rice, with a sprinkle of Himalayan krystal salt and a teaspoon of extra virgin coconut oil.

In a large bowl, combine the following ingredients:

27 oz. coconut milk
½ cup walnuts, chopped
½ cup raisins
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1 Tablespoon maple syrup
2-3 teaspoons ground cardamom powder

Stir that well, then add the rice. Stir well again, then refrigerate until cool. Enjoy!

May all beings know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace), 

Yogini Tejaswini

http://www.facebook.com/tejashankara

Photos of Ashland fireworks by Teja Shankara.

Comment (0)

Today is the one-year mark of when my teacher left his body. I honor him deeply and thank him for all that he taught me. (My spiritual memoir, The Rita Lila: A Western Yogini’s Journey to Bliss, chronicles my six years of learning with my teacher, who I now honor with the name Yogi Shambho.)

I am humbled by the passage of time. The incredible grief and very tough lessons of this past year have strengthened me considerably. After my teacher passed away, I felt like a daughter whose father had abandoned her, and for most of the year I made poor choices due to being in an out-of-control state. I regret some of those choices, so I am now working to make peace with myself. 

With his amazingly open and compassionate heart, my teacher would have very gently assured me that I am on the right path, despite the crazy things I did this past year. He would say to take a deep breath and go forward with confidence in myself. Once, he told me that he couldn’t cut me much slack because he could see that I had great potential. Although he was stern with me at times, I always felt how much he loved me. He told me that I was an adamantine jewel of clarity, that I was a rare gem…

I know that he would be proud of my writings on this Teja Blog… and he would be proud of my regular, daily spiritual practices… and he would be proud of me leading the weekly Radiance Rising circles…though I am sure from some distant star he is getting a kick out of how differently I lead the Om Namah Shivaya chant! He led it very slowly while strumming his guitar, while I lead it kirtan-style with my harmonium, accompanied by drumming.

I am proud of the good work I’m doing, too, but I still need to make peace with myself for the choices I made this past year. Lately I have been feeling impure and feeling the need to purify myself on all levels. To that end, I have taken the brahmacharya vow for the next six months. I intend to gain self-control in thought, speech, and action. I am proud of myself for taking that vow, and already I am feeling more pure in my being.

May all beings who are grieving find the comfort and solace they need. May they allow themselves to grieve, and may they find acceptance and peace.

In one of Rumi’s poems, he writes about “the sweetness that comes after grief.” It is with much gratitude and reverence for Time, that I now understand that phrase quite intimately.

May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Photo of Teja in the sweetness after grief by Teja Shankara.

Comment (0)

In my very first blog post, on January 6, 2010 (Practically Applying the Path of Renunciation to the Worldly Life), I wrote about the negative effects of anger. Before writing today’s thoughts on anger, I will copy a few paragraphs from that article here:

It used to be popular to encourage people to really get their anger out, but now current research shows that anger releases the dreaded hormone cortisol into our bodies. Cortisol is the stress hormone that causes a lot of harm to the body. Once released, it remains active for up to 6-8 hours. Even talking about an incident that made us angry can release cortisol.

This current research validates what the spiritual masters of India have long since been teaching: that getting angry is not good for us.

Anandamayi Ma, a blissful mystic who lived in India 1896-1982, said the following on anger, “When anger arises in your heart try to cast it away… At the slightest indication of anger drink a sufficient quantity of cold water. Anger harms a human being in every respect. It produces the action of poison in the body. Pray to God to preserve you from this mood.” (Women of Power and Grace: Nine Astonishing, Inspiring Luminaries of Our Time, by Timothy Conway, Ph.D., the Wake Up Press, Santa Barbara, CA, 1995.)

Neem Karoli Baba, the Guru of Ram Dass, Bhagavan Das, Krishna Das, Jai Uttal, and myself, also encouraged people to let go of anger. One devotee said the following, “Whenever I would get very angry, Maharajji would have someone bring me warm milk, or sweets, or some cardamom pods to chew. He said these things soften anger.” (Miracle of Love: Stories about Neem Karoli Baba, by Ram Dass, A Dutton Paperback, E.P. Dutton, NY, 1979.)

While I agree that anger is not good for us, there are times when anger can help us to break through something, and there are times when someone has wronged us and our anger is justified. At those times, I think the key is learning how to work skillfully with the anger.

Cultivating the Witness, that part of ourselves that objectively witnesses everything, is a helpful practice for working skillfully with anger. When we engage the Witness, then we can keep focused on watching the anger, rather than becoming the anger. (I write in more detail about Cultivating the Witness in my pocket book, Radiance Rising: Spiritual Practices for Daily Living, available on this website store in print or by e-book.)

Spiritual practices help me so much when anger is passing through my system. Sitting in silent meditation, I witness the anger in my system. I allow the anger, I accept the anger, and I intend for the anger to dissolve at the right time. I visualize the anger transforming into love, creativity, and service.

Sometimes I practice Tonglen, a Buddhist technique in which you breathe in the anger (or other negative emotion), for yourself and for everyone who is feeling anger in that moment, and then you breathe out love for yourself and for everyone else too. This practice has a very calming effect on an angry system. There is so much joy in witnessing the power that our hearts have to transmute negative energies into healing energies.

Chanting (singing) devotional songs while playing harmonium also helps me to shift into a more loving state. Instead of trying to make the anger go away, or to pretend that I’m not angry (when I really am angry), I just bring the anger right on into the singing, and allow the sound vibration to transform it. Even the most stubborn anger state will eventually dissolve in the practice of singing to God. The heart just can’t resist melting in the melodies.

Another way that I work skillfully with anger is by just letting it be there, but also consciously putting my attention on other things. The ancient Indian sutra states: The mind becomes that which it dwells upon. So, in the practice of Cultivating the Witness, it is a good idea – especially when witnessing anger – to just witness it, and then put the mind on more positive things.

May all beings learn to work skillfully with anger when it arises in them. May all anger states dissolve into the pure love energy that connects us all.

May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Photo of Teja’s harmonium by Teja Shankara.

Comment (0)

This Sunday, July 25th, 1-4pm, I will be selling my books and leading chants with harmonium at the Sunday market at Jackson Wellsprings in Ashland.

This casual artisan market has a really great community feeling to it. Wonderful items for sale, including: hula hoops, jewelry, hand-crafted wooden meditation benches and more!!!!

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

http://www.facebook.com/tejashankara

Comment (0)

Photo by Ashley Marie - CC license

We create our realities with our thoughts. Cultivating the witness, that part of our minds that objectively watches everything we are, allows us to clearly see all of our thoughts. Through the power of watching our thoughts, we gradually change the way we perceive the world. We shift from viewing the world as a serious court of justice to seeing this universe as a joyous playground. Like gleeful children, we get to play and celebrate during this lifetime we've been given. On the playground we enjoy ourselves fully, even if sometimes we scrape our knees or get our hearts broken! No matter what pains we go through, we can't let the heartbreaks keep us from opening up and having a good time on the playground.

Here is a bit of news from the fun I'm having lately on the Tejaswini Playground ~

~ The first 11 days of July were filled with summer fun, as my entire family gathered for a visit in Ashland. We shared many joyful moments eating meals, sipping tea in the yard, and
traveling to the Oregon coast for my older son’s 13^th birthday. I am now the mama of a teenager… and his younger brother, who is 10 going on 18. They are so much fun now ~ I am really enjoying these ages. We all love hip hop music, so we had a great time seeing my brother perform live hip hop in Ashland. (My bro’s website: www.mctill.com) With all the excitement of the visit, it was challenging for me to maintain my daily spiritual practices, but I did manage to do shorter versions of them each day. (To begin spiritual practices yourself or to refresh the practices you already do, check out my pocket book, Radiance Rising: Spiritual Practices for Daily Living.)

~ One of the highlights of this family visit was spending time with my sister-in-law, who I dedicated Radiance Rising to… She is currently enrolled in a Yoga teacher training, and we enjoyed talking about spiritual practices, yoga, Reiki, and so on. I am totally in love with her because she is so open, so inquisitive, and so enthusiastic. She is a bright light and I really enjoyed soaking in her radiance.

~ The weekly Radiance Rising circles continue to be sweet as ever. I was looking forward to offering them at Mystic Garden Party, but then I learned that entheogenics is going to be a focus at that festival, so I cancelled my workshops there. (For the story on that, go to: http://yogini-bliss.com/106-teja-news-in-brief-july-2010.html)

~ I’m still reading The Ramayana: A Modern Retelling of the Great Indian Epic, by Ramesh Menon. I’m on page 557 of 686 pages, so I’m getting there! There are so many potent lessons in it. For example, when Lord Brahma offered Vibheeshana a boon, that gentle rakshasa asked for the following: “Grant me that my mind remains steadfast and virtuous in the midst of life’s greatest trials…. May every thought that enters my mind, during every stage of my life, be of dharma. Let me fulfill my dharma, however hard it is. For if a man has dharma, he has everything.”

~ Saturday night, during the two-day Conscious Convergence (go to www.commonpassion.org for more info. on that), I attended a planetary fire puja, a ritual led by Debi Sheetz, in which we chanted many vedic mantras to the planets, to help increase the positive aspects of what is happening right now astrologically. After the puja, we shared in a delightful potluck, with sweet salads of strawberries, blueberries, mangos, and avocados. I brought a really yummy coconut rice pudding. Watch for that vegan recipe on this Teja Blog soon. 

~ This past week I’ve been making an effort to go out in the yard and sit under the stars at night. My teacher, who left his body last July 21^st, often said that we should all do more stargazing, as it helps us to have a bigger perspective on time and space, and it helps us to understand our place in the scheme of things. Although my grief has shifted recently, and I’m not crying anymore, I do still miss my teacher a lot, and I honor him greatly this week, as Wednesday marks the year since his passing. Thank you Yogi Shambho, for all that you gifted me with.

~ I close this newsletter with a wonderful poem by Lalla, a naked mystic from medieval Kashmir:

The soul, like the moon,
is new, and always new again.

And I have seen the ocean
continuously creating.

Since I scoured my mind
and my body, I too, Lalla,
am new, each moment new.

My teacher told me one thing,
Live in the soul.

When that was so,
I began to go naked,
and dance.

(From Lalla: Naked Song, translations by Coleman Barks, Maypop Publishing.)

May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

http://www.facebook.com/tejashankara

Photo of sunflower in brother’s garden by Teja Shankara.

Comment (0)