On my recent pilgrimage to see Ammachi in Castro Valley, California, I went to see the chiropractor at Amma’s ashram. During the first session, while I was lying on the table and he was working on my body, Dr. Paul kept telling me to breathe and let the emotions go. I didn’t feel any emotions when he said that, but then he asked me to sit up, and as soon as I sat up I started crying. I didn’t have any ‘stories’ going in my head while I was crying, but it was a really deep cry. It was a huge release. He told me that I had just moved out a big layer, and he advised me to spend a lot of time in the sunshine and to go for a walk that day.

That afternoon I lay in the sunshine, breathing and relaxing. I thought of how Dr. Paul had said to let the sun’s energy into every cell of my body. I allowed my cells to drink in the sunshine while I ate a spicy Indian lunch, wrote in my journal, and drank a cup of hot black tea. Then I remembered to take a walk… So I climbed a little hill under the setting sun, and gazed out at Amma’s sun-drenched land. Suddenly, something – it felt like Something Beyond – pulled my gaze to the ground, and I was looking right at a snake skin!

As I bent over to pick up the skin, I was shaking a little. Even though intellectually I knew that the living snake was no longer inside the skin in my hands, I still felt afraid because it looked so real.

I had never seen a snake skin before, and I was so amazed that I had found it, after having that big layer move out during the session with Dr. Paul. It seemed so symbolic of my process. Snakes shed their skin layers, like I was shedding emotional and energetic layers! I tucked the skin into my bag and gave thanks for that medicine.

Life is ever new and awesome, when we see it that way. I am so grateful for this healing journey of release that is leading me deeper into self-love and ecstatic Bliss.

May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Photos of snake skin by Teja Shankara.

Comment (2)

Each week I pick an angel card, and it is amazing how often the quality fits exactly with what I’m going through that week. Take this week, for example. I am working to release a very big pattern from my life, consciously focusing on breathing and releasing… and I picked “Release”!  (Angel cards, by Kathy Tyler and Joy Drake, Narada Productions, Inc., Milwaukee, WI, 1981.)

After twenty years of trying unsuccessfully to get what I want from the Universe (in the way of a perfect Sita-Ram union with an earthly man), I’ve decided to lay down the “dream” and be free of the disappointments I inevitably experience at every turn. I am intending to finally release the last bits of the addictive love pattern that I wrote about in my memoir, The Rita Lila: A Western Yogini’s Journey to Bliss, by my pen name, Rita Ann Shankara. Rather than continuing this madness of seeking the union with someone outside of myself, I have decided to renounce the search altogether and relax into the inner Union with my beloved husband, Lord Shiva.

My dear friend Thomas does not believe me, and he is encouraging me to take a neutral stance on this matter. While I appreciate his feedback, I have recently become aware that if I continue to allow myself to indulge in these lilas with the masculine, I will most likely not be celebrating too many more birthdays! The strain of the intensity of grief from this past year alone has taken its toll, and my body is telling me clearly – through shouting methods – that it’s time to stop this pattern.

I do understand the value in finding a nonattached, neutral attitude on the matter, so I will intend to reach that state soon. For now though, I release all expectations and griefs that I’ve put onto any forms of the masculine, and I endeavor to walk alone… with deep breathing… and lots of laughing.

I am feeling incredible freedom already. From this healing process of release, I am experiencing a warm, radiant self-love that is tingling throughout my cells. 

Release, release, release!

May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Photo of yellow rose and release card by Teja Shankara.

Comment (0)

The ONLY true Bliss channel is inside.

The key word in that statement is only. When we seek comfort, pleasure, and bliss outside of ourselves, we inevitably feel disappointed, again and again and again. The reason for this cycle of seeking external happiness and then feeling disappointed is our collective spiritual amnesia. We have forgotten who we truly are. When we take the time to go inside our own beings, we remember that we truly are pure Bliss.

Pure Bliss is our true essential nature… and this is true for each and every one of us. So we have to turn away from the external dials, and tune in to the frequency of the Bliss channel inside our beings.

Daily spiritual practices, such as sitting meditation and cultivating the witness, help us to regularly remember our true nature. Throughout the day, if we practice witnessing our thoughts, our emotions, our speech, and our actions, then gradually the witness part of ourselves expands. As the witness consciousness expands, we identify less with all the stories passing through us, and we begin to self-coach ourselves. For me, this self-coaching process is such a gift. Now, anytime my little mind starts reacting negatively, my higher witness mind automatically starts “talking” to the little mind.

For example, anytime I feel the slightest disappointment arising about anything external to my own inner being, the self-coaching witness mind says, “The only true Bliss channel is inside.” Then, if I continue feeling sad, the witness voice gets louder, saying, “Didn’t you hear what I just said? The ONLY true Bliss channel is inside.”

Because most of us are under this collective spiritual amnesia spell, we have to continually remind ourselves that we are, in essence, pure Bliss. Daily spiritual practices are so important. If you need inspiration for your practices – or help beginning some new practices – please read my easy-to-read pocket book, Radiance Rising: Spiritual Practices for Daily Living, available on this website store in print and by e-book.

May we all remember to tune in to the inner Bliss channel. It is a frequency that is always there, waiting for us to tune in to it.

May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Photo of Flowers by Altair – CC license

Comment (0)

A few days ago, while walking along the sidewalk in the spring sunshine, I came upon a garden of purple irises. My first thought was, ‘i am the Iris!’  I giggled to myself all the way back to my cottage, as that thought continuously replayed in my mind: ‘i am the Iris! i am the Iris! i am the Iris!’

Yesterday I looked up the lyrics for the Beatles’ song “I am the Walrus.” The very first stanza struck a strong chord in my being:

I am here as you are here
as you are me
and we are all together

Even though the rest of the words in that song are quite strange, that first bit really says it all. We are each other. We are all together, here on this beautiful planet earth. We are all connected in one continuous web of energy and vibration. We think that we are separate because we are in separate bodies, but the energy that runs through each of us is the same energy! There is not even one tiny break in the one energy that pulses through everything and everyone.

Indeed, i am the Iris! And so are you, and you, and you! We are the rocks, we are the trees, we are the sunsets, we are everything. We are the one energy that is Pure Love. When we remember that we are part of that one energy, we experience incredible Self-Love.

Regular, daily spiritual practices help us to keep remembering who we truly are. Sitting in silent meditation and cultivating the witness part of ourselves is the most important thing we can do each day. To learn more about spiritual practices, check out my easy-to-read 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

Photo of purple iris by Teja Shankara.

Comment (0)

What fills the heart with love? When I ask myself that question, so many images come rushing to my mind. Yesterday afternoon my heart was filled with love as my son showed me card trick after card trick… then in the evening, my heart was filled with love as the setting sun broke through the storm clouds and shone on the pine tree in my front yard. This morning, my heart was filled with love as I thought about my upcoming journey to see Ammachi. (www.amma.org.)

As my heart melted into the Love that is Amma’s embrace, I remembered this teaching: at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Barcelona, Spain (2004), Amma gave a speech entitled “May Peace and Happiness Prevail.” She said, “If in future, there is a Third World War, let it not be a war between countries, but rather a war against our common enemy, poverty. In today’s world, people experience two types of poverty: the poverty caused by lack of food, clothing, and shelter, and the poverty caused by lack of love and compassion. Of these two, the second type needs to be considered first — because if we have love and compassion in our hearts, then we will wholeheartedly serve those who suffer from lack of food, clothing, and shelter.”

So what can we do to increase the love in our hearts? Regular daily spiritual practices increase our love and compassion. One spiritual practice is studying spiritual teachings and applying them in our daily lives. Increasing the love in our own hearts does ripple out and brings more Peace and Happiness to others. Cultivating the Witness helps us to see all the things that block us from feeling the love and compassion in our hearts. Once we see and accept the blocks, they begin to dissolve right in front of our eyes.

May we each increase the love in our hearts today.

May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Photo of evening sunlight on pine tree by Teja Shankara.

Comment (0)

My friend Pete is visiting for a few weeks, and last week I was feeling sad at the thought of our visit ending, so I asked him if he would give me a buzzcut, to help me release my attachments. At first he didn’t think it was a good idea, as he thought I should just be able to let go of my attachments by strengthening my mind. With a stronger mind, I would not let myself think the thoughts that cause me grief. While that sounds great in theory, I still felt like I needed some outside help. A buzzcut would be a great visual reminder that I am capable of letting go of the things that I am attached to… And I was definitely attached to my hair…

So I placed the hair cutting scissors on the bathroom counter, to let Pete know I was serious about my idea… but the next time I went to the bathroom, the scissors were gone! For a few days we played hide-and-seek with the scissors, with me finding them and setting them back on the counter, and him hiding them again.

While I was mostly laughing at our rascally antics, I also felt a bit frustrated by the situation… So, I took out my journal and wrote the following:

O Tejaswini, what can you say about your long hair? ~

~ It feels heavy, like it’s weighing down my head.

~ It makes me attractive to men.

~ It symbolizes femininity.

~ It is so cute and curly.

~ It takes too much time to manage now.

~ I’m attached to it because it is so cute.

~ It makes me feel protected. I can hide in it.

O Tejaswini, what does cutting your hair represent? ~

~ Burning karma: Letting go of the old and creating fresh new space for what wants to emerge next.

~ Re-committing to the goal: Shiva Union is Primary, and connections with earthly men come after Union with Lord Shiva, who is Pure Consciousness and Bliss

~ Releasing attachments: attachments to looks, to men, to projections of how I want things to unfold, to fantasies and to disappointments.

~ Shifting focus from spending time on external looks TO spending more time on internal practices and on serving others.

I then wrote a small poem:

letting the curly locks
fall away,
i rest within Shiva,
the very Bliss
at my core.

Tejaswini says this buzzcut
brings the bliss
of Remembrance.

After I read the above journal entry to Pete, he agreed to cut my hair. I thought that the next day we would buy a clipper set for the buzzcut, but that night we couldn’t sleep, and at 3:30am he cut my hair with those hide-and-seek scissors! We took a video of the process, and the video turned out to be quite hilarious, so I posted it on my YouTube channel under the comedy category! (http://www.youtube.com/user/16Tejaswini) Here is the video. Please share it far and wide!

While editing the Buzz for Bliss video, we got the idea to challenge others to also buzz their hair to release attachments and experience the bliss of inner peace. Also, Pete (a.k.a. Yogi Sinzapatos) will donate $1 for every haircut done in the name of Peace to Common Passion, a non-profit organization that is working to raise awareness of Unity Consciousness. http://www.commonpassion.org. If you decide to cut YOUR hair for the Bliss of Peace, after you cut your hair, you can post a photo of your buzzcut, along with a story about the haircut, at http://www.buzz-for-bliss.com.

We all have the ability to let go of our attachments. Sometimes giving something up – like our hair, for example – can help us to give other things up. The more we let go of our external attachments, the more we experience the bliss of internal peace… And the more we each experience inner peace, the more we radiate that out and help to create Peace in the whole world.

May we each release whatever attachments are blocking our peace and joy. Cheers to buzzcuts for bliss, and any other releases that radiate more Light!

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

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Comment (0)

A few days ago I felt inspired to write an article about celebration, but I didn’t write down the ideas. Today when I sat down to write, at first I felt blocked due to a challenging PMS state that was passing through my body-mind. My gut felt gripped from all sides, and I thought that I surely could not write anything inspiring in the throes of that state, but then I thought of what my teacher Basil would say: ‘We have to keep doing our disciplines, no matter how bad we feel.’ So, I began writing, and as I wrote, I healed myself along the way… Writing is healing for me, especially when it helps me to remember spiritual Truths that purify my mind of negative thoughts.

One such spiritual Truth is this: The mind becomes that which it dwells upon. This ancient Indian sutra counsels us to be careful where we put our attention, because our energies follow where we place our mind’s focus. So, rather than focusing on the gripping sensation in my belly, I advised myself to follow the thread of celebration; to jump on my cheerful horse calling out, “pdheop! pdheop!” PDHEOP is an acronym I made up recently to remind myself to be patient, detached, humble, enthusiastic, optimistic, and positive.

Invoking the lyrics of that old Kool & the Gang pop tune, “Celebration,” I set about opening my mind to dwell upon the original purpose of this human life: celebration… “Celebrate good times, come on… there’s a party going on right here, a celebration to last throughout the years… so bring your good times, and your laughter too, we gonna celebrate and party with you… let’s all celebrate and have a good time… it’s time to come together… it’s up to you ~ what’s your pleasure? Everyone around the world, come on!”

Merging all of our good times and all of our bad times together in one wild breath, let us delight in listening to our Mother Earth speaking to us. Spring wildness is the precious earth shouting in joy: “Celebrate good times! Smell my fragrances, see my colors, let your hearts sing in celebration of this blossoming season!”

O earth beings, open out to experience your oneness – not just with the creatures with whom you share the land, sea, and air, but also feel your oneness with the stars of the vast galaxies… and with the Love energies that pulse through races of space beings, whose very souls breathe our fabric of existence in and out of beingness. There is not even a tiny molecule separating us from the Whole of Creation. We are all connected in one continuous web of energy and vibration. From a little spider to a tall skyscraper, and from a miraculous human fetus to a shimmering space creature, everything, everything, everything is part of One connected energy. Every thought, every word, every action affects the Whole.

We are here on the earth to love and to celebrate. So many things pull us away from that celebration, but it is now time for us all to focus our intentions on uniting together in One Heart, One Love, One Singing and Dancing Celebration. Discarding the past garments that served as armor, let us adorn our bodies with flowers and feathers and glitter… Let us join hearts and hands, and dance together in celebration of our time here on this living earth.

Let us dwell upon this image: billions of human beings joining together to honor and heal the earth, and all the creatures of the land, sea, air, and space. Let us remember our intrinsic Oneness with everything.

May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happiness

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Photo of lilacs by orange glass candlight by Teja Shankara.

Comment (0)

Yesterday, while waiting for the mechanic to replace my car's battery, I sat in the lobby re-charging my own batteries through writing in my journal and eating a bit of dark chocolate with almonds. After a while, I decided to write out a page of phrases that described me in that moment. Here's what I wrote... in no particular order...

Teja Shankara: open, fresh, new, bright, healer, star, mystic-to-be, kirtan artist (to be), circle facilitator, magnolia, Govinda Dasi, horse, lion, Raven, green, black, cosmos, space beings, Lalla, chocolate, Amma, Durga, Rama, LOVE, Surya (Sun god), Neem Karoli Baba, Reiki Guides, Shiva-Shakti Namo Namah, Sita Ram, Sita Ram, Sita Ram, Sita Ram.

Writing those images of myself in that moment brought me into a state of Self-Love, Happiness, and Bliss. I often talk and write about Cultivating the Witness, that spiritual practice of simply watching ourselves objectively in each moment. Sometimes the witness part of my mind gets a bit too serious, and so writing down those words helped me to witness myself in a more creative, playful way.

Today the sun is shining bright and I enjoyed a nice lunch out with a friend. We then walked in Lithia Park where the cool water rushed over the stones in the creek, and I reflected on the importance of flowing with life. On our way home we stopped in the Enchanted Florist Cafe for a cup of thick liquid chocolate, like the kind they drank in the movie Chocolat. While enhaling the heady aroma of gorgeous tropical flowers, I sipped that chocolate, and again my thoughts turned to flowing with life.

Although I didn't "get much done" on my grand lists today, I did get something very important done: I stepped out of the way of my usual routine, and allowed myself to flow in a fun and spontaneous way. May we all enjoy the flow of life.

May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Enchanted Florist Cafe and Lithia Creek photos by Teja Shankara.

Comment (0)

“Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.” Richard Hooper shares this quote from modern Buddhist wisdom in his beautiful book, Jesus, Buddha, Krishna and Lao Tzu: The Parallel Sayings. (Sanctuary Publications, Inc., Sedona, AZ, 2007.) Hooper continues with this insight into suffering:

“For most of us, most of the time, it’s hard to remember that pleasure and pain always go hand in hand. We forget that we cannot have one without the other. So we seek to maximize pleasure and do our best to avoid pain. But the great masters knew that life doesn’t work that way. Everything in our universe comes to us in pairs of opposites, and the opposites are always changing from one to the other. Pain replaces pleasure, pleasure replaces pain, over and over again, endlessly. Nothing in the material universe ever remains the same for long. But when we finally understand this truth at the most profound level, we have a chance to change the rules of the game. Buddha taught that there is a way out of suffering, and that way is to eliminate desire. If we can retrain the mind so that it no longer craves, so that it no longer prefers one thing over another – so that good and bad, pleasure and pain, hot and cold, love and hate are all the same to us, then suffering ceases of its own accord.”

So how do we retrain our minds? How do we unlearn our tendency to prefer one thing over another? Take a moment to reflect on your preferences. Then reflect on how you respond when you feel pain on any level – physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual. Do you run from the pain? Do you reach for ice cream or turn on the television?

When we avoid our pains, we actually prolong them. When we face and embrace our pains, with willingness to go through them, we heal ourselves on all levels. But since most of us have learned to avoid pain, we have to retrain our minds. We retrain our minds through regular, daily spiritual practices. In my new book, Radiance Rising: Spiritual Practices for Daily Living, I describe the daily practices that have helped me to retrain my mind. Written from my perspective as a raja yogini, this pocket book describes basic practices that anyone – of any faith – could apply to their own life. The most important practice that I explain in the book is cultivating the witness.

We can practice cultivating the witness during our sitting meditation sessions and also throughout our busy daily lives. When we cultivate the witness, that objective part of ourselves that simply watches everything we think, say, and do, we learn to accept ourselves exactly as we are in each moment. We learn to accept the full spectrum of all of our emotions. This acceptance teaches us to fully love ourselves when we are experiencing joy and when we are experiencing sorrow. As our witnessing capacity expands, our self-love grows, and as our self-love grows, we identify less with our pains, so we suffer less.

The more we practice witnessing everything that is arising in our beings, the more we begin to remember who we truly are, underneath all the layers of who we aren’t! This is a choice. We choose to keep remembering who we truly are. And we can choose to be happy no matter what temporary state is passing through us.

Happiness is not just something that “happens” to us if we are lucky. We can decide to be happy, and if we put for the effort to be happy, then we will gradually become more and more happy.

What effort are you willing to put forth to achieve happiness? Are you willing to sit in meditation at least once each day for twenty minutes or longer? Are you willing to watch your thoughts as an ongoing practice? Are you willing to love yourself no matter what pains you are going through?

These are important questions for us all to ask ourselves. In this time of rapid change on our sweet planet earth, we can each do our small part to help raise the consciousness of our human species. Since we are all connected in one continuous web of energy and vibration, the choices we make for ourselves really do affect everyone else. Let us each choose to be happy through all the joys and sorrows of life. Let us each spread that happiness to all the beings in all the worlds.

May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace), 

Yogini Tejaswini

Buddha statue photo by beggs – CC license

Comment (0)

“Teja, tranquility,” I said when it was my turn during the introductions part of last night’s Radiance Rising Circle. Each week, after we chant the sacred syllable OM three times to set sacred space for the circle, we each say our name and a quality that we would like to call into our lives. After we say our name and quality, the group then repeats our name and quality out loud three times. Hearing our names and qualities voiced by others helps to bring those vibrations into our beings. As the Universe hears our intentions, we witness the power of the spoken word.

Before going to last night’s circle, I was contemplating what quality I wished to call in. I thought of surrender, acceptance, and patience, but those didn’t quite capture what it was that I was needing to bring into my being. Over the weekend, my energy was zapped by some sinus stuff passing through my physical body, and my system was challenged by some relationship issues affecting my emotional body. Even as I felt exhausted on several levels, I also witnessed a certain jittery feeling, similar to anxiety. I called a dear friend and we had a good conversation about spiritual purification.

What does it mean to purify ourselves spiritually? I think it means that we firmly decide to be willing to BE with whatever is arising in our beings, in each moment. When the storms come, instead of running for shelter, we stand firmly, right in the middle of the storm, and allow it to purify us. Most importantly, we cultivate the witness in each moment. The more we practice watching ourselves, the more we come into intimate relationship with our inner beings. Through that intimacy, we begin to experience true Self-Love.

We have to go within to really experience the Love that we already are. This means going within no matter how we are feeling physically and emotionally. This means being willing to accept ourselves unconditionally. Cultivating the witness is a spiritual practice that gradually trains us to love ourselves no matter what is arising in our beings. (I describe this practice more fully in my new book, Radiance Rising: Spiritual Practices for Daily Living. This pocket book will be discounted on this website store through April 10^th, 2010.)

After my crazily challenging weekend, before going to the Monday evening circle, I experienced the calm after the storm. So when I was considering what quality I needed to call in, suddenly the word “tranquility” popped into my brain, and I laughed out loud, alone in my cottage. Hearing the word “tranquility” amused me somewhere deep inside. It was like remembering a good, old friend from the distant past. As I shared with the circle last night, “Tranquility is a word that I hardly ever think of, but I really should think of it!"

What quality do you need to call into your life right now? Say it out loud three times, and witness how you feel when you hear that word. Then watch yourself throughout the day, and notice the vibration of that quality coming into your being. Sometimes when we affirm an intention, such as feeling tranquil, the opposite quality will come up in us, so that we can clear that quality out. If you notice the opposite quality arising in your being, then simply witness it and accept yourself exactly as you are in each moment. Once the opposite quality is witnessed and cleared, then your original quality can manifest in your being.

I am most grateful to the beautiful beings who sat in the circle with me last night and said these words: “Teja, tranquility. Teja, tranquility. Teja, tranquility.”

May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

After the Rain photo by Stop.Imagine – CC license

Comment (2)