Himalayan Yoga at the Ranch

You Have To Leave...So You Can Come Back

2009-08-07T07:16:00.001-07:00

Today I’ll pack my bags with the usual mixture of gratitude for time spent here and regret about departing…but as our beloved concierge Manuelita always says, “You have to leave so you can come back.”

For all of you who are on your way here next week, I know you’ll enjoy this special time. Do drop in to the Oaktree and sample some of the Himalayan yoga and meditation sessions, even if you think meditation is “not for you.” Because, as you know, anything can happen at the Ranch. And often does…

And now for the question you’re really wondering: How’s the weather? It’s perfect! Warm and clear in he day and beautifully cool in the evening and early morning. Don’t forget your hiking shoes.

RANCH FUN FACT OF THE DAY: Most popular new class: Susana’s “Crystal Bowls.” These quartz bowls make sounds that are soothing and healing. And no one can play them like Susana. If you want a bowl of your own, you can order one at the Mercado. I ordered one after my last visit, and ringing it each day has become a calming ritual, reminding me of you-know-where...

Special Himalyan Beauty Secrets

2009-08-06T10:24:00.000-07:00

Yes, I did get up for the 5 A.M. meditation, in case you were wondering, and afterwards hiked to the garden. To prove the latter, I’ve got a bulb of Salvador’s extra spicy clear-your-sinus-and-high-five-your-brain garlic in my fanny pack.

Tonight the renowned musician, Ragani, will lead kirtan after dinner. Kirtan, if you’re not familiar with the term, is a very lively call-and response sing-along of Eastern spiritual music, kind of a Sanskrit hootenanny. Ragani, whose picture is above, has also been teaching yoga here all week, and telling colorful stories of her many years spent in the company of Swami Rama of the Himalayas (Swami Veda’s own teacher). But, in addition to her many talents, one of the things many of the guests here find interesting about Ragani is her beauty, or to be more specific what everyone calls her “inner glow.”

“What’s her beauty secret?” everyone wants to know. Swami Veda would tell you that it’s attributable to her meditation skills. It’s not some cliché reference to “inner peace” he’s referring to. It is a series of practical matters. For one thing, when you relax your forehead, you don’t get wrinkles and you’ll never need Botox. For another, when you slow your breath, you maintain your youth. No kidding: The other day Swami Veda gave us a breath-counting exercise. When we were done he asked how many breaths we’d taken. I had taken 15; he had taken one. Yup, one. According to yogic philosophy, the length of your life is determined not by your years but by how many breaths you take, The slower the breath, the longer the life. So much for resveratol, human growth hormone and the rest of the so-called anti-aging miracle cures coming down the pike. I’m going to keep relaxing my forehead and slowing my breath. I’ll see what happens. Maybe I’ll end up glowing like Ragani.

RANCH FUN FACT OF THE DAY: What’s the smallest bedroom on the grounds? Check out the museum behind the man lounge. Walk through the tiny house where Deborah and Edmund Szekely ived from 1940-50. Now go out the back and check out the guest room…teeny teeny tiny.

Full Moon over Baja

2009-08-05T13:19:00.000-07:00

I love a full moon: God’s flashlight. And when I’m lucky enough to be here during the full moon period I am especially happy, because (1) I can find my room at night without first wandering in a circle, and (2) I really NOTICE the moon in all its cheerful, rotund splendor. It always reminds me of a hotei, one of those Japanese big-bellied Buddha statues.

During the 24 hours that surround the waxed moon, Swami Veda conducts full moon meditations, joining his thousands of students around the globe as they sit in silence. He does this four times, for an hour each, to coordinate with meditators in different time zones. Tomorrow (Thursday) we’ll be sitting in the Oaktree Pavilion starting at 5 A.M. Pacific time (which happens to coordinate with those sitting in China, Japan and Southeast Asia). If you’re here, please join us. If you’re not here, please join us. For those of you we left behind at home it is a unique way to sat in touch – better than texting!

Afterward, since I’ll be up and raring to go at 6 a.m. I signed up for a hike to the organic garden for breakfast. There I’ll meet another great yogi: Salvador the gardener, our yogi of food. If there’s a man or woman on the planet who enjoys their work more than he, I’d like to meet them. By 7:30 I’ll be sitting in Paradise with a plate on manna – in the form of a frittata, roasted potatoes, a cornucopia of vegetables, and chocolate bread. Then, if all goes as usual, Salvador will chase us around with fresh produce, pulled straight from the garden soil, beseeching us to taste his pampered baby lettuces and his famous spicy garlics. Then it will only be 8 o’clock and I’ll already have practically fulfilled my daily quota of bliss. I guess I’ll have to work on expanding my capacity.

RANCH FUN FACT OF THE DAY: Tonight (Wednesday) is Bingo night. If you thought Barry brought Bingo here, think again. Ranch Bingo predates Barry, Joe, and even Phyllis (who has been here 28 years). When Phyllis came she was unfamiliar with Bingo, deemed it not very sophisticated, and took it off the schedule one fateful week, After a petition with 100 guest signatures on it was submitted, the game was reinstated. Hey, don’t mess with our Bingo.

The Power of Place

2009-08-04T10:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I sat for a few minutes of private contemplation in the Milagro meditation room. I invited some sound from the array of crystal bowls there and then seated myself facing he mountain. I was attempting to quiet my mind when I heard a tap, tap, tap. I tried to ignore it. “Relax your forehead,” I told myself. Tap, tap, tap, TAP, TAP! I turned my head to see a bird knocking at the window. I went over to say hello to him, and we stared at each other for a while. Then the bird flew off and I went back to meditating. TAP, TAP, TAP. He was at the other window now. I went over again and paid my respects.

Last night I dreamed the bird came home with me (all the way to New Jersey!) and followed me around, flying above my shoulder, as if I were Snow White in one of those Disney cartoon features. I put a collar on him, as if he were a puppy, so I could find him if it got lost. But I knew that whatever happened he would always be with me in a way, as are so may of the gifts I’ve been given here.

Last evening, writer Dan Wakefield who will be giving workshops here for the rest of the week, spoke about the power of place: how each of us has certain places that inspire awe, creativity, a feeling of connection with the infinite. The Ranch is such a place for so many of us. How many come here first as vacationers and return as pilgrims. Here we find friends we bond with for life, here we spend 20 minutes staring at a flower without feeling like we're wasting time, here we unearth talents and inclinations we never knew we had.

Speaking of the latter, if you are here this week, or can ever come when Dan Wakefield is here, try attending his workshop, especially if you think you “can't write.” Because Dan is a muse. It is literally impossible to write anything that is not brilliant when he’s in the room with you. I don't know why, but let’s just add that to the long, long list of things I don’t understand but know for a fact.

RANCH FUN FACT OF THE DAY: Visit the Ranch Library to peruse an amazing book: Cuchuma and Sacred Mountains, by W.Y. Evans-Wentz.

Turn Your Peace On

2009-08-03T11:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, quantum physicists, I have a question for you: If an electron can be in two places at once, why can’t I? There are so many amazing things to do here this week, it is truly hard to pick. To set off on one of those breathtaking hikes or take a 7 A.M. yoga-of-joints-and-glands class? To take a writing workshop, or a fitness class, or a workshop in holistic health? Even the presenters this week have been heard to lament the fact that they can’t attend the classes opposite their own. Okay, don’t cry for us, but I’m just saying…our cups, or rather, our water bottles, runneth over.

As last year, everyone here has been collectively enchanted by Swami Veda, who has a way of telling ancient truths that even the most jumping-bean-brained among us (me) can take in. Actually, it’s not like being “told” anything, only reminded of what’s been buried for so long under years of stuff and nonsense. Listening to him is like digging through your wastebasket – the one stuffed with bills and catalogues – to discover you inadvertently threw away your most precious family photos. Thank goodness you found them! What could you have been thinking when you tossed your treasures?

My favorite “reminder” from Sunday’s lecture was on how to deal with difficult people and situations. Entire books have been written on the subject, of course (trust me, I’ve even written and edited a few of them.) But Swamiji summed it up. “Turn your peace on,” he said. “Why should their disturbance disturb you? Let our peace purify them.” If we all leave here ambassadors of this philosophy, who knows…sooner or later the entire world could break out in peace.

RANCH FUN FACT OF THE DAY: Don’t all try this at once, but if you take a piece of bread over to the fish pond just to the west of the dining hall, the turtles will come right to the surface to eat it. They’re cute as can be.

The Smile of the Mind

2009-08-02T13:09:00.000-07:00

“I’m a jack of one trade,” says Swami Veda. “And I’m going to tell you the same things this year that I told you last year. Sorry to be so boring.”

But no one was bored last night when Swamiji spoke to a full house at the Oaktree Pavillion, whether we’d heard him before or not. We were all so delighted to be here, here at the foot of sacred Mt. Kuchumaa, with this learned and delightful sage, or as he cheerfully referred to himself, “that strange man in the orange sheet.”

Besides, you know what they say: You can never step into the same river twice.

Although I had the pleasure of being here last year, last night I heard – or maybe just understood – some things in a new light.

Last year Swamiji said, “Relax your forehead” and I struggled to un-scrunch mine. This year I heard, “Relax the mind that’s in the forehead,” and I suddenly felt like I knew how to do it

Last year I heard, “Meditation is the smile of the mind,” and I thought, “Oh, I see, it’s a happy state.” Now, as Swamiji said more, I understood that we don’t need to learn how to meditate so much as we need to recall how to do it. Babies, after all, begin to smile without coaching.

But it was after the talk that I got yet another lesson. In the early morning hours, I had the most intense dream – the way one often does here at the Ranch. I’ll give you the short version: Swami Veda and some friends of mine who are also here this week were going somewhere in a car, and when the got to their destination they were going to meditate. I was invited along but arrived late enough to watch them drive away. I was frantic, yelling at the car – even calling one of the passengers on her cell phone and shouting, “Tell me where you are going! What is the name of the place. Tell me the name!”

I woke up, actually shouting aloud in my bed (sorry neighbors in Flores 9 and 11). I looked at the clock: 4:30 a.m. I burst out laughing, knowing – of course – that in both the real and metaphorical sense, I didn’t need to go anywhere. I’m already here.

And, so, the week begins...

P.S. RANCH FUN FACT OF THE DAY (a new blog feature!)

Phyllis Pilgrim was 73 yesterday. Happy b'day Phyllis. (Ask her about her forthcoming book, The Hidden Passport, due in December.)

Cats in My Suitcase

2009-07-31T07:40:00.000-07:00

It must be Friday because my cats are sitting in my suitcase, hoping -- as always -- to stow away to Rancho la Puerta. Once again, I'll have to break it to them that they won't clear customs. I don't blame them for trying, though. I'm anticipating an amazing week, with all the usual joys of the Ranch, and more.

I'm signing off for now until I re-emerge in Baja. I'm planning to practice meditation on the plane, which should prove more rewarding than watching the movie. I'm pleased to say that since meeting Swami last year I've actually kept up the practice more than in the past. But it will be wonderful to have a reboot.

Now it's time to move the cats to make way for my hiking shoes, yoga togs, swimsuit, and something cool and colorful for the Friday night fiesta.

Hasta luego mis gatos...

What is Himalayan Yoga?

2009-07-29T08:59:00.000-07:00

If you're coming to one of the upcoming Himalyan Yoga weeks at the Ranch, or just curious about the title of this program, I'll share with you something I read in one of Swami Veda's books, Superconscious Meditation:

"There are three types of yoga of Yoga known to the West," he writes. "I call these Hollywood yoga, Harvard yoga, and Himalyan yoga.

Hollywood yoga appeals to the people who aspire for a fit body, eternal youth and physical beauty...

Harvard yoga...[appeals] to a scientist who is interested in analyzing the power of the brain [and] control over the nervous system...

The highest aim of Himalayan yoga [is] called samadhi, the knowledge of the self that is pure Self."

The photo here is of yoga teacher Michele Hebert. one of the instructors who will be teaching 11 a.m. yoga call during these special weeks. Want to find out more? See you at 11!

A welcome from Swami Veda

2009-07-27T07:13:00.000-07:00

It has been a quick year since Swami Veda Bharati of India last conducted teachings at Rancho la Puerta. I'm so happy to be going back to participate and, once again, to be able to offer a daily chronicle. In anticipation of the upcoming Himalayan Yoga weeks, I asked Swami Veda if he had a message for all of you who will be there in person or in spirit. His response:

God-Ocean:

Beauteous bounties of nature, wondersome constituents of the personalities of living beings...and our very luminous soul are all part of a unitary continuum. The life in rocks, plants, sub-human and human beings is all waves, tiny or awesome, in the Ocean.

"Rancho la Puerta is an ideal place to contemplate this reality and to realize it in our very consciousness."

2008-08-08T11:32:00.000-07:00

Many of you who have loved ones here this week have been following this blog. If you felt a wave of warmth and happiness come over you last night, know that we were sending out love as we joined in with singer Ragani for kirtan – a joyful call-and-response “singalong” of sacred Eastern music. Although it’s difficult to describe in words, kirtan is something I hope you all get to experience. The word “cosmic” doesn’t do it justice.

This morning, Swami Veda gave his final lecture of the week. He reminded us all to keep practicing, and said we will know if our meditation is “working” by the quality of our relationships. “Don’t ask me if it’s working,” he said, “Ask your husband or wife. Ask your mother-in-law.” This is because meditation and positive emotions go hand in hand.

Speaking of the positive, many (lucky, lucky) people are staying here for a second week; some are staying a whole month. If you are one of them, or if you are coming, I want to share with you a list I made for someone who asked me what they should be sure not to miss during their stay. It was supposed to be a Top Ten list but, as you will notice, it inflated.

1. Hike on the mountain.
2. Have breakfast in the vegetable garden.
3. Play Bingo with Barry.
4. Take a hula hoop class.
5. Go birdwatching with Joe.
6. Go hear the Rancho La Puerta band.
7. Get a 3 p.m. smoothie at the gazebo.
8. Visit the art studio (there is chocolate there, BTW!)
9. Try a cooking class.
10. Swim in the new pool.
11. Get a massage (you deserve it).
12. Dance with Yuichi.

If you will be here while the ashram is till in progress (there are three more weeks) spend time with Swam Veda. It will be, I promise you, a life-changing experience.

Lastly, take advantage of the many “coincidences” that will undoubtedly unfold while you are here. At the Ranch, you meet people you are supposed to meet, learn things you were meant to know. I can’t explain why, though I’ll bend your ear with my theories, should we meet in person. I guess I should say when we meet in person. Until then, in the words of Crosby, Stills, and Nash: “Rejoice, rejoice. We have no choice.”

And in the words of Swami Veda, “Relax your forehead.”

2008-08-07T13:22:00.000-07:00

Last night, Ragani, a singer of sacred music who is performing at the Ranch ashram this week, shared a story of a renowned swami who would refuse to eat any food if he sensed it was prepared while the cook was angry or in any sort of upset emotional state. The idea that food contains the energy of the cook who prepares it and the soil in which it grows is a part of yogic philosophy. It explains to me why the food here at the Ranch is so delicious and energizing. It is prepared with love and joy – something I especially remember when I hike to the organic vegetable garden for breakfast, as I did this morning.

If there is anyone on the planet who loves his work more than Salvador, the Ranch’s head gardener, I’ve yet to meet them. One of the best parts of going to the garden is listening to him. He rhapsodizes about the acres of fruits and vegetables like a proud parent enumerating the charms of his children. If there is any living entity in the garden happier than Salvador, that might be the plants themselves. Is it possible for garlic bulbs and spinach leaves to be in a raucously good mood? It seems so.

One thing about Salvador: his enthusiasm is infectious. At one point he handed my husband a yellow tomato and a jalapeno pepper straight from the vine. “Make your own salsa,” he suggested, and my husband did – alternating bites of each with delight. For me, Salvador cut a slice of fresh Crenshaw melon in the shape of a smile.

Just as we were leaving, Salvador rushed up to us and presented a final gift: two entwined carrots that had grown together in the shape of, what else? – a heart. That about sums it up.

Namaste, Salvador, our yogi of food.

2008-08-06T14:31:00.000-07:00

As the organizers of this amazing event had hoped, there is a great deal of cross-pollination occurring between those who have come here specifically to study with Swmai Veda and Ranch guests who have come for all the usual reasons – relaxation, inspiration, and rejuvenation. At every meal, you can hear people comparing notes on the morning meditation or having spirited debates about topics that have been raised in lectures: What is the nature of karma and can we change our own? Can English translations really do justice to Sanskrit concepts? It is rich mind-food that accompanies our chili rellenos and dark chocolate flan.

A number of guests have expressed delight at the serendipity that brought them here at exactly the same time as Swami Veda. Maybe, they say, it was meant to be…

Meanwhile, ashram students are reveling in the Ranch environment – at least as much as their busy schedule allows. Take, for example, Seval Ashtoy, who came from Istanbul to participate. “Words can’t express what it’s like here,” she says. “If heaven exists it must be like this. The mountain has an energy that is powerful, but also light – not a shaking energy, a subtle one.”

Seval, who has never been to North America before, is rooming with and getting to know, roommates from London, the Netherlands, and the U.S. She is quite at home with the Ranch cuisine, which draws so much from her familiar Mediterranean diet. As for her yoga training itself, “It is a joy how it has all been put together. The program is so scientific and systematic, but with an equal emphasis on feeling and experiencing,”

Seval’s goal is to take what she is learning here and help people all over the world. I suspect she will be a success.

2008-08-05T14:24:00.000-07:00

This morning I took Swami Veda on a five-mile hike with me: Not in body, but in spirit. I was about halfway through a breathtaking pass on Mount Kuchumaa when I began to worry that the length of this trek would make me late for morning meditation. “You’ve got to hurry up and meditate,” I told myself. But then I heard Swami Veda’s voice – clear as the Baja morning sky – saying, “Relax your forehead.” (I’m a big forehead scruncher from way back. Give me a worry and I paste it over my eyes.)

“Okay” I agreed. I instantly felt better. I took a few diaphragmatic breaths, and began to walk consciously, appreciating what was around me. This sacred mountain is where native Indian shamans “kissed the earth with their feet,” as Phyllis Pilgrim says. I decide not to enter a race with myself. I make it down the mountain and decide not to gobble breakfast either. Swami’s voice says, “One sip of orange juice can send you into ecstasy if you know how to taste it.”

Amazingly, without scrunching or gobbling I enter the meditation gathering before Swami Veda begins his morning instructions. I’m not the first one there, it’s true. Okay, I’m one of the last. But I am where I’m supposed to be, and my mind is there with me. And, not incidentally, I am smiling. “Your mind shows on your face,” says Swami Veda. That’s the best beauty tip I’ve ever gotten.

Dr. Mehrad Nazari, a key organizer of this ashram at the Ranch, said during our orientation, “Every time I see Swami Veda there is a shift in my system. I go in running DOS and I come out running Mac.” Now I know just what he meant.

Before I sign off for today, a word of thanks, by the way, to Mehrad. He has played a major role in putting this many-faceted event together with infinite sprezzetura. That’s not a Sanskrit word, but an Italian one, meaning “the ability to take a difficult thing and make it look easy.”

Ciao and Namaste

2008-08-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

Our Summer Spiritual Olympics ’08 continues – and we have superb air quality. At our Olympics, the main event is not track and field, but meditation.

Today, as yesterday, the morning began for many of us with an hour-long meditation session, followed by Swami Veda’s lecture about meditation. To those more inclined to attend the lectures, Swami Veda pointed out this is like attending many lectures on tea without drinking a cup. “What kind of tea party would that be?”

An hour-long meditation is a challenge for many of us who have not sat for so long before. We have never trained our minds to follow a single track. At first we sit and flit from thought to thought. We think of stuff we’ve got to do, stuff we forgot to do, food we’re going to eat, food we’re sorry we ate, things we need to tell people, and things we wish we hadn’t ever said. Sometimes we think, “Look at me, I’m meditating!” Though of course we’re not. But after a while – and perhaps because we are in the presence of a master – our minds calm. We feel a lightness of being. We are, for at least a little while, at peace.

“What is meditation for?” Swami Veda asks us afterward.“ It gives you a pleasant life,” he says, “because it makes your mind a pleasant place.” He asks us to picture our minds. How do we want them to be, clear or foggy? If our minds had an aroma, would it fragrant, or not? Meditation is like a shower for the mind, he says, like the mind’s deodorant. The mind takes on the form of what it encounters; let it encounter the gentle rhythm of breath and it will be gentle and stable.

Not all of us will fit lengthy meditations into our lives each day, but whether we do or don’t, Swami Veda recommends two-minute meditations every few hours. He advises us to relax the forehead, feel the touch of the breath in the nostrils, eliminate the pause between breaths and recite a mantra or favorite name for the Divine, or simply the words “one, two” with each inhalation and exhalation. This, he says, breaks he mind’s habits of tension. I like to think of it as a reboot.

So, wherever you are (and we wish you were here!) won’t you try this with us? Click on “comments” and let us know how it’s going. Hold us in our good thoughts as we hold you in ours. See you tomorrow.

2008-08-03T14:13:00.000-07:00

It is magical to experience something familiar and beloved in a new way. For Ranch-goers who had never encountered Swami Veda until last night, and for Swami Veda devotees who had never experienced the Ranch until yesterday, enchantment abounds.

Last night and again this morning, Swami Veda led powerful guided meditations to a large and eager crowd. In lectures that followed, he imparted ancient wisdom while radiating humor and charm and, most of all, love.

There were so many revelations for so many of us in what he said. How to pick only a few to share? It’s difficult, but okay, anything worth doing is difficult so here goes…

Last evening Swami Veda told the story of a man who traveled – at great expense, so he said – to the Swami’s ashram in Rishikesh to “finally learn the secret of meditation” after trying for years. Swami Veda told him, “Relax your forehead.”

“What,” said the man. “It cost me a fortune to get here. Is that why I came all this way? Relax my forehead? I already know that.”

“But you are not doing it,” observed Swami Veda.

A few days Later Swami Veda encountered this man at the ashram. “How is your forehead?” he asked, noticing scant improvement.

“Well,” said the man. “The thing is, relaxing your forehead is really HARD!”

As Swami Veda pointed out to all of us, it is in our power to calm the mind and access reservoirs of inner joy. But how can we do this if we can’t even relax one small set of muscles. Swami Veda, at 76, has not a single wrinkle on his brow. As he noted, he does not teach anything he himself has not experimented with.

While we’re somewhat on the subject of health and longevity, I’ll share something Swami Veda told us this morning. (Of special interest to math-lovers if you know any.) Every 24 hours the average person (i.e. not the self-aware meditator) completes 21,600 breaths. But each of us is allotted a certain number of breaths per lifetime. Slow the breath in meditation, and extend your years (as well as the quality of your life).

Finally, what would a blog be without some “buzz.” Here at the Ranch guests are completely intrigued with the first of these four ashram weeks. Each of the many events is well and happily attended. Overheard in the lounge: “Leave it to Deborah Szekely to be on the cutting edge.”

Arrival

2008-08-02T17:21:00.000-07:00

I’m so very happy to be back at Rancho la Puerta. My husband, Gray, and I arrived mid-afternoon in time to feast on a cornucopia of fresh and grilled organic vegetables. As usual, it took only about five minutes to transition to “Ranch mode.” All airport edginess behind us, we greeted some old friends, enjoyed the breeze, and picked up – along with our room keys and water bottles – a special gift to all guests this ashram week: sets of meditation robes, consisting of white linen tunics and flowing white pants. (When I tried mine on, my husband said they made me look instantly “spiritual and wise.” Ah! If only it were that easy.)

But everyone here was thrilled by the idea of trying their robes on for size, as it were. I overheard several fellow passengers on the bus from San Diego expressing their wish to drop in on the ashram programs, even if they had not come here specifically to participate.

One thing is for sure. This is the most international week I have ever seen here. Looking through the list of guests, I see some have come from as far as Germany, China, Korea, Turkey, and Trinidad and Tobago. We are the spiritual Olympics of the summer of ’08.

Swami Veda will be tonight’s featured speaker – and I’ll keep you posted on our “opening ceremonies.”

Anticipation...

2008-07-31T14:25:00.000-07:00

OK, I lied. I am not going to wait until August 3rd to start this blog. I am just too excited. I have been going to Rancho La Puerta for almost 20 years. I was there only a month ago, and did not plan on returning quite this soon (all the way from New Jersey, no less). But dear friends of mine who visited Swami Veda's ashram in India last January insisted I must not miss this event.

I was eager to spend time with this renowned scholar and spiritual leader. And I have to confess, when it comes to the Ranch I am easily swayed. Just say "organic vegetable garden breakfast" to me and I am putty in your hands. And so I am packing...again (will I actually remember sunscreen for once?).

I can honestly say that every single time I have gone to the Ranch something life-changing has happened. I have met the most amazing people, some of whom have become an extended family for life. I have kicked off my East Coast high heels and become a pretty confident mountain hiker. I've even overcome my fear of arts and crafts (yes, pre-school was traumatic -- don't ask) and constructed a prayer arrow or two. Who knows what awaits this time. I can't wait to find out. Stay tuned.

Swami Veda at Rancho La Puerta

2008-07-28T16:02:00.000-07:00

Watch this space for daily updates 0n Swami Veda's ashram at Rancho la Puerta, beginning August 3rd, 2008.