Should be studying...

but instead I'm tip-tapping on my mactop ... I've just returned to Sudha's, she's my Anatomy & Physiology teacher. I spent the night at her house and she's off teaching at College. I've been taking advantage of some much needed alone time and had the opportunity to see a bit of Trivandrum. However... I REALLY DO NEED TO revise and study. My finals for Level I TTC are in a fortnight and I feel like I don't know anything... I'll catch you up on the progress of my teaching skills soon, I promise!
What I will share is that I LOVE the Surya Namaskara (sun salutation) and have taught it many times. I still need to perfect when to inhale and exhale but it will come, as Swami Santhi says... "slowly slowly.."
So I will leave with a photo of Sudha, her best friend Suresh and my fellow classmate (they are both part of Swami Santhi's inner circle) along with some of my class mates... 
Once I've revised my plan is to post some photos of my new neighbourhood, which is colorful fairly run-down and full of colour.
My life here is simple. I spend little to no money... the most money I spend is 444 rupees to top up my Indian mobile!

It's 3:16pm and post lunch I have a bit of the daysleeps hanging heavy on my eye-lids. So wherever you are and whatever you're doing, I hope you're happy and able to find the sunshine.

Photos top to bottom: 
-Edelweiss studying.

-Unikrishna teaching us Sanskrit
-My room mate Mel really pleased it's dinner time!
-In the yoga studio with  Mami (Japan)the most flexible student!)  and Nikka (Slovenia)
-Swami Santhi teaching us about the Muladharta (base) chakra
-Sudha and Suresh, after class.

How many Indians does it take to...

hang a mosquito net?
well... what's your answer? One? Maybe two? Nope.


Here is a little story from my first two days at the Peacock Hotel. I was the first one of my class to arrive. I'ts low season currently and there are ten rooms at the Peacock, all of which are occupied by students from The School of Santhi. The owner, Rathnam runs the hotel with the help of his son Bijoy. Both men are dark skinned and Bijoy has the face of a baby. He always bursts into a beaming smile whenever someone is presented in front of him. He was the first person I met when I got off the plane and out into the throngs of people waiting for loved ones at the airport in Trivandrum.


Anyway... before the arrival of Mel and the rest of the students, I had the entire hotel to myself for two days. The caretaker and cleaner is a man called Shivan. I knew eventually I'd be sharing a room and the original set up of two twin beds side by side sharing a mosquito wasn't going to uhm... "fly" with me. So before everyone came I requested for the beds to be separated and for my own new mosquito net (aka: the key feature that makes my bed a "Princess Bed") up. Besides, I had never dished out $41cdn. for anything so functional and I was determined to get my $41worth used well! 


So at my request... Bijoy, his father Rathnam and Shivan landed in room #302 much like the soldiers landed on the beaches of Normandie with a mission to accomplish. Let's call it "Mission Mosquito Net". After a successful dismantle of the hotels netting there began the assembly and placement of my netting. After a few false starts it all ended successfully! My net was up and my bed was separated. It's enough of a stretch for me to share my space with someone I don't know but to share a mosquito net with a complete stranger to me is like sex on a first date... a complete no! no! thank you!


Here are some photos of the process... and if you answered: THREE! to my question "How many Indians does it take..."

 

The correct answer is FOUR! I was sitting in a chair taking photos and supervising the entire time! With a lot of giggling throughout!

GDV 101

September 11, 2009
6:41pm


It’s early and I have some alone time… this is because “The Machine” is here today! Swami Santhi told us about “The Machine” on the very first day and then later on by Susan, who is working as his Teaching Assistant in doing our Yoga Asanas each morning and some other duties in and around supporting our studies. Susan was here in Kerala doing the Level I TTC in February of this year and passed with the highest marks in her class.

The arrival of “The Machine” has been highly anticipated by all of us. Some with anxiety and nervous excitement and in the case of Edelweiss (who is from Mexico) and myself, much in the way that a child gets excited about Christmas and the arrival or Christmas gifts placed under a tree especially for us by the Father of all Fathers… (speaking non-spiritually, of course…) Father Christmas!


So… what is “The Machine”???
Let me share.


The Machine is called the GDV. The letters GDV stand for Gas Discharge Visualisation Technique. It is based in pure science and has nothing to do with Astronomy or Astrology, but rather based on the Kirlin Effect. By placing your thumb and each of your fingers from both hands on a scanner it records the energy movement in our body based on our meridians, nerves & cell to cell communication which provide both a physical & emotional composition of our body. This is because the GDV picks up emissions of electrons & photons from fingerprints, which emit the gas, which is then photographed and later processed by a computer programme covering over 30 parameters of an individual.

With the sciences of Physics and Biology now joining forces you may find the official name to be Biological Emissions & Optical Radiation of Gas Discharge Visualisatio by Computer Programming…. Yeah. A bit of a mouthful. In North America and some European countries it is referred to as EPC, which stands for Evoked Photo Capture. All of this work is in the area of quantum informational biophysics. As I stated, combining the biological science with the physical science to better understand the body and getting to know the unknown.


So now that you’re well curious about “The Machine”, here are some of the uses:
-Analysis of physical and psychological conditions
- Early detections of a pathological condition
- Monitoring the effectiveness of Holistic Therapies such as: Reiki, therapeutic massage, acupuncture, naturopathy, homeopathy, meditation, yoga etc…
-Used to monitor stress in an individual
-Analysis of entropy – which is the degree of disorder in our body. This disorder is happening all the time, moment to moment, and in one aspect can be referred to as “growth”. In the way of breathing, eating food, listening to music, drinking, and our personal thoughts. All these factors de-stabilize our body from its natural STABLE CONDITION. It is almost always based on an external source. The downside is that when our bodies re-adjust they do so at a higher level. If entropy is happening at a high rate in your body and your body is under stress to constantly re-adjust at higher and higher levels, severe health problems can result.

The example we were given in class today by Suman was The Boiled Frog Story. A frog is placed in a pot of water and a single low-level flame is placed underneath the pot. The frog, never feels the rise of the temperature, which is barely 1degree every hour, therefore never really feels the stress of the rising temperature of the water in the pot. After 7 hours the water finally reaches boiling point, at which time the frog himself has become boiled. The frog never even attempted to jump out of the pot because his entropy kept re-adjusting to the slow but constant rising level of stress in the pot and he didn’t notice and it was too late. However, when a frog is placed in a pot of boiling hot water, it will immediately jump out of the pot. This is in many ways how human beings work. We expose ourselves to a gradual rising level of stress, which our bodies constantly re-adjust to, albeit at a higher threshold and we are not aware of illnesses that are festering in our bodies until it is too late.


The Machine is also used to monitor the effect of external noises and their effects on us both physically and psychologically. This can be in the form of computers, mobile phones and even another person. A couple of other uses are that of Human Resources studies to analysis which individual is better suited to jobs with higher stress levels. Therefore, the GDV machine is extremely useful in the high-powered world of Executives in Business as well as the Military. It can also conduct liquid and gel analysis.


At the School of Santhi, the readings will focus on a more physical and spiritual nature as one of the aspects is to detect our Chakra centers and which ones are working well and which ones are stressed. I haven’t explained it here but our chakras are directly related to our organs so it’s not as hooky spooky as it sounds. I’ll write up the aspects of the different chakras in upcoming entries for all of you to explore and enjoy.


So the GDV machine will show us where we need to do personal work. The theory being if we are rigid and not willing to adjust ourselves we get to either a very low level of entropy which leads to depression and in worst case scenarios, suicidal tendencies or at the highest level of entropy, insanity. Therefore it is best to stay somewhere safely in the middle. Everything in moderation. Even moderation.


So there you have it! “The Machine”. We receive our analysis over the next two days and I’ll be sure to share the findings with you. Suman was saying that we have a great advantage with receiving our reading while studying the Science of Spirituality at The School of Santhi. That being, that we will receive the data from a scientist in the presence of a Master, being Swami Santhi. A Master (or Swami) is someone who is enlightened because they have mastered themselves therefore has great awareness, alertness, and insight into the world and all those who inhabit it, from little ant colonies to the swaying palm trees to human beings. Swami Santhi will offer us guidance as to how to correct any dangerous areas immediately, and then after that, it is up to us to follow his guidance or to abnegate from it.


Needless to say, some are very worried they will be told their relationships are destructive or they will get cancer or some other horrific disease in 2 years time… I say… “It’s better to know than not to know!” So personally, I’M EXCITED!!! I told Swami Santhi today I want full disclosure on it all, the good the bad and the ugly! So stand by for the results!




7: 53pm

http://kirlianresearch.com/ 


http://gdvcamera.com/

The Daily Bend

September 10, 2009
10:34pm


I’m sitting here under the protective netting of my mosquito tip tapping from my single bed listening to the Police sing “I can’t I can’t I can’t stand losing…” over and over again.

The lyrics remind me of how “out of cause” so many songs are… where our entire sense of self and happiness is derived nearly wholly from another person.
Last year, during my 16 day intensive I learned the critical error we function under when living by this widespread belief on a very scientific level. Now, this year, in Kovalam, I’m learning it still… on the level of spiritual science. There is a sense of satisfaction (yes, with ego… after all, I’m seeking enlightenment, but I acknowledge I’m not “there” yet!) and another sense, that of gratitude to know from one year to the next, that I am on my path. Regardless of my mistakes and failures, and taking in my mistakes and failures, it is with the Grace of all the positive & negative, all the joy & sorrow, all the playfulness & suffering, that has lead me here. So how can any of it be … negative when looking at my life on a holistic level?


It’s not. I’ve been mostly really happy. I haven’t made as many posts as I’d initially intended only because my curriculum is mind boggling when it comes to the intensity factor.
So let me share with you the routine of my day, so you have a better understanding of what my life in Kovalam looks like while I attend the School of Santhi.


I live in Room 302 at the Peacock Hotel. I have an English roommate named Melanie but she calls herself “Mel”. I always picture a boring tall lanky man wearing beige that is a dysfunctional ally to Woody Allen in his New York City based movies when I hear the name “Mel”. It evokes a 1970’s boring-ness in me. But Mel is not boring. I don’t know her well but I’m glad I’m rooming with her. There is a cultural understanding and a shared love of tea, which seems to perplex the other students.

Our room is a shade of light pink. This perplexes me… It’s kind of like living inside a whirlwind of cotton candy that’s been allocated the sad role of “DISPLAY COTTON CANDY”. You know, the stuff you find at the PNE or in Scarborough that attracts all the flotsam and jetsam that life has to offer. What does this mean? This means our room looks clean on the surface but at closer inspection there is griminess to it. I did take a towel the first day and clean every single surface with soapy water (notice how I left out the “hot” in the “soapy water” doublet? It’s because we have no hot water). We don’t complain though. We’ve got the best room out of the 10 rooms available by EVERYONE’S estimation and we know it ourselves to be true too… We have a balcony, which means we have outdoor space and somewhere to hang our laundry, which I do by hand every day while I shower. YEP. Me and laundry everyday. The very thing that is an epic event in the western world, much in the way Gone With The Wind is an epic, is now an everyday occurrence for me. I don’t do Mel’s laundry, just my own. Mel doesn’t launder much, but she does shower everyday. Thank God.


Okay so here is my schedule:

I wake at 5:30am
I quietly go about changing into my Yoga Asana uniform of white t-shirt with “School of Santhi” written in light blue and my white cotton Sinbad drawstring yoga pants. All of us wear the same uniform. Yoga. Uniform. Union. I brush my teeth and wash my face and tie my hair back. Mel and I don’t speak much in the mornings. I’m happy she’s not much of a chatter. Besides, it’s dark out when we rise.
We have water only and no food.
6am. We’re upstairs and doing our Sun Salutation Asana. Yoga Asana are 3 hours long. I am sweating by the 2nd or 3rd Sun Salutation. A series of postures and mantras in between paying respect to the Sun. The source of all life. The routine of Sun Salutation is that of Respect and Surrender, so it’s looking upward then downward in a series of different postures. We learn with each Asana (posture) what we are doing and why, along with the Sanskrit name. This makes the Asana (posture) so much more meaningful. To do something without knowing why is like living life with your eyes open and your heart closed. In one week, my eyes have been further opened and my heart each day is raised towards the heavens and planted firmly in the reality of my Earthly life with Yoga Asanas designed to reculture (move back into correct posture & alignment) my body.
At 9am after a grueling work out which now includes every student taking a turn at teaching alongside Santhi and our Teachers Assistant, a woman called Susan from California who has already successfully completed Level I, we break for breakfast.
All our meals are provided for us. I always go for a shower first and then go down for my meal. I’m alone in doing this. At first there was curiosity if I was “okay”. It’s kind of like high school; if you don’t follow the crowd something must be wrong… But slowly people are starting to realize there is nothing “wrong” that I simply like to eat with a clean body, not one that is stewing in sweat from a 3 hour work out. I attribute my "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" like ways to Mrs. K.

At 10:15am we start our theory lectures.
With Swami Santhi this includes studying Kundalini Yoga, the Sanghya Philosophy of Master Patanjali, The entire Chakra system and all the Deities invoked in each Chakra along with their elements and characteristics. On Tuesdays & Wednesdays we take Anatomy & Physiology on a university level with Sudha Rajkumar, who is such a wonderful woman. By her own admission she says she is a little crazy. She teaches at a college in Kovalam and is a Scientist. After an extremely traumatic personal experience of losing her husband in a plane crash, he was a pilot of a Cessna flying for an air show, she became a Spiritual Seeker. She told me over lunch one day how her husbands death confused her and sent her into despair. The most beautiful description of their relationship passed ever so eloquently from Sudha’s lips… she said in her thick Indian accent fully loaded with rolling “R’s” … “we were not just husband and wife, actually, we were the most intimate of friends…”
I found this beautiful. She went on further to tell me how she discovered Life through Death. That it is Death that makes life so Beautiful. That if there were no Death, we would become bored…
Sudha later gifted me with her book about her experience, “In The Light of Fireflies”. I’m looking forward to reading it on my next day off, which is every Monday.
When the subject matter gets really heavy (like studying 4 of the bodies systems in one day – digestive, respiratory, circulatory and endocrine systems in great detail – she stops and gives us a break to DANCE! Yep! She puts on Indian music and says just close your eyes and become one with the music… some of the students are shy, but it turns out I’m not one of them. Nikka (from Slovenia) Mel and I are now dubbed “The Supremes”.
I have a good time twirling it really does wake me up. I even took Susan and showed her how to Waltz. She was the male partner… lol! A girl through and through!

We break for lunch from 1:30pm to 3pm. I’ve begun eating in 30 min. and retreating to my room for an hour nap before class resumes. This is because my toughest time to stay awake is after breakfast. I’m so sleepy after breakfast and keeping my eyes open during lecture is sometimes tougher than surviving a tornado.
Two evenings a week, after 6:30pm when Swami Santhi & Sudha are done, we have a man named Sunil Kumar (yes, another Kumar!!!) come and teach us Mantra Chanting. I can’t tell you how much I’m enjoying this! To my surprise! I think for so many years I’ve been surrounded by musicians who were the “official” artists that I’ve always just accepted that I can’t sing or never really been bold enough to put forth my voice. But something beautiful happened today. In a very simple mantra “Om Namah Sivayah” (pronounced Ohm Namah Shee-vai-yah) I heard my voice in a way I have never heard it before. It went from shaky and quivering to smooth upon multiple repetitions. This Mantra simply means, “Oh Lord Shiva, I Call Upon You” Shiva is the God of Destruction. Most people take this in a negative aspect but it is meant in a positive manner. He destroys all that impedes us and clears our path to Enlightenment. Sitting in the Lotus posture with my eyes closed saying this over and over again stimulates a vibration within that is so peaceful and uplifting. It was a beautiful experience.
We do group study of the Asanas (the yoga postures) in great detail, learning contra-indications, benefits, possible diseases that the posture will aid in healing, the internal and external organs effected by the asana etc… from 7:30pm all other nights and break at 8:30pm for dinner. After dinner it’s usually about 9:30pm and Belington calls most of us.
I shower at night so that I get my half hour extra sleep in the morning and wash off all the toxic bug spray and dewiness of the day and crawl into bed fresh and clean.
Which brings me to now… 11:28pm. I had allocated an hour to share with you and now my hour is up. If I stay up and share more I will suffer for it in the morning…


So with Love, I bid you a good night as I listen to the creatures of the night that I can hear but cannot see…
Until I close my eyes… then I see everything… including all of you.
All my Love…


11:29pm