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

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

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

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

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

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

“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

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?

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

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."