Obaitori

Love & Healing

Yesterday afternoon Indira fell out of her bedroom window. It was a 2.5 metre fall onto concrete. She has a head injury  & lots of bruises, but is perfectly well after being observed at the local hospital for 24 hours. We ask for your prayers & Loving thoughts for her recovery. We are most grateful for all family, friends & kind staff who helped Indira. Love Katie & Dazla.

The Chapel, Gosford Hospital

Obaitori Dates 2012

 

~ To enhance learning, wisdom & develop intuition we will gather on the nearest Tuesday to the

New Moon ~

 

February 21st

March 21st

April   24th

May 22nd

June ~ winter hiberation ~ *

July ~ winter hibernation ~ *

August ~ winter hibernation ~ *

September 18th

October 16th

November  ~ dinner ~

December ~ summer holidays ~

 

* For the winter hibernation period we will gather together for Stitches for Tibet at someone's home around a warm fire. Please contact me for more information about the venues or if you would like to open your home/heart for Stitches.

 

Let your eyes look with kindness, your tongue speak with sweetness & your hand touch with gentleness.

 

 ☸ Sri Swami Sivananda   ☸

{this moment}

Inspired by Soule Mama. In her words...

 

A Friday ritual;   - a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

 

A Deity With Wings

Here is a photograph I took recently of a Hindu deity. The black & white reminds me that this deity is ancient. 

I turned this photo from colour to black & white, inspired by the beautiful Shutter Sisters. I love their blog for creativity, fresh perspectives & friendliness. They are having a week of black & white. Pop on over for some new perspectives.

"In mythos and fairy tales, deities and other great spirits test the hearts of humans by showing up in various forms that disguise their divinity. They show up in robes, rags, silver sashes, or with muddy feet. They show up with skin dark as old wood, or in scales made of rose petal, as a frail child, as a lime-yellow old woman, as a man who cannot speak, or as an animal who can. The great powers are testing to see if humans have yet learned to recognize the greatness of soul in all its varying forms." 

~ Clarissa Pinkola, Women Who Run With The Wolves.

 

A Rennaisance of Aboriginal Culture

Today it is with mixed feelings that I 'celebrate' Australia Day. These feelings come up often for me living in an 'occupied' country. About 220 years ago Aboriginal Australia was invaded. What happened over the next 200 years or so was genocide, the annihalation of a culture; it's medicine, education, art, languages, religion & happiness. Today there are very few Aboriginals remaining but what is happening is a slow rennaisance of Aboriginal culture. Today this is what I'm celebrating.

Here are some Aboriginal Dreamtime Stories that can be shared with the family.

Wherever you are make a peaceful, respectful, happy day.

A Child's Sankalpa

Havan is an ancient tantric ritual, a divine practice that purifies the environment, the heart & the soul. It awakens the consciousness & promotes abundance, happiness & and joy.

At Family Yoga this month the children prepared various aspects of the havan including collecting the flowers, learning the mantras, applying the ghee & samagree - auspicious herbs - & leading & closing the ceremony.

The havan has many aspects. One of which is the offering. This is a mental thought placed into the fire. This can be an aspect of the personality that creates a transformation, a hope, a dream. Swami Sivananda said that a child's sankalpa can be, "I am creative." This is the sankalpa that was suggested to the children at the havan. The children & parents sat quietly around the fire when the havan had finished. A beautiful sense of peace & excitement was created.

Havan falls under the umbrella of bhakti yoga. Here are a few words from Swami Niranjan describing the true meaning of bhakti yoga. For the full article go to Yoga Magazine.

"Bhakti yoga means to improve the quality of life, the behaviour and thinking patterns, to enhance the sattwic and creative abilities. Therefore, bhakti yoga is the yoga of inner transformation. It is not the yoga of chanting God’s name in a foreign language, which is how many people who do not understand bhakti yoga define it. But bhakti is definitely not the   yoga of devotion in the sense that we usually understand devotion. Ratherit is the yoga of sublimating the gross nature and attaining the harmonious sattwic nature.

Eventually, if we want to discover and enlighten our own natures, then bhakti is the way, not jnana yoga, raja yoga or karma yoga. In hatha yoga you only require your body, in jnana yoga you only require your intellect, in karma yoga you require the senses and in raja yoga you require the mind. But in bhakti yoga, the lifestyle, behaviour, thinking patterns, intellect, feelings, emotions and social performance are all involved. To perfect bhakti yoga, everything, the lifestyle and the individual, have to come together."

 

Family Yoga January 2011

The atmosphere of Family Yoga was relaxed, happy & exciting. It was such a priveledge to be around such gorgeous, amazing children. A lot of the children have been coming to Family Yoga for some time. They are experienced, enthusiastic & inspiring. The children who haven't been before are beautiful in their inocence, intrigue & curiosity. They also have a freshness that they offer the group. Equally the same can be said of their lovely parents. We had a lovely blend of families over the 5 days at the ashram. What was even more beautiful was that these children & the adults all came together to support each other, to create friendships & to discuss yogic, conscious living.

Oh, did I mention the teachers? They rocked, seriously! Sravan taught Acro Yoga in a Satyananda style. Classes taught by Sravan at Yogaways for children will start in February. We had 7 teachers for the programme.

In the tradition of Bal Yoga Mitra Mandal - Children's Yoga Fellowship - , the more experienced children were given extra responsibility. They lead some of the classes in Om chanting, assisted in asana, yoga nidra & one of the beautiful boys lead the havan - the closing ceremony. More about that tomorrow...

We created some art work that mainly focused on creativity, fun, concentration & focus. The first art session was making collage Om's. This activity was designed around focus as well as gettinto knw each other more. We sat on the bottom floor of the children's sadhana space, Gayatri. Here it was cool, relaxed & lots of fun to just sit & chat & laugh.

We also had two very special karate teachers with us, Michael & Josie. They mesmorised the children with their teaching techniques. The children learnt quickly with joy & ease. They had 3 karate lesson in all & by the fourth day the children put on an enchanting performance for all of the residents & visitors of the ashram.

The parents had some magical sessions. One - which I was gratefully able to attend - was with Steve, titled 'The Conscious Family' he spoke eloquently about parenting mindfully from schools of Buddhism, Yoga, Martial Arts & Shintoism. Later in the week I will tell you more about this session. Also Steve has a book out that I will share with you all soon.

Some beautiful parents prepared yummy, nutritious snacks for morning & afternoon tea. Banana bread, plum roll-ups - from the ashram's organic orchard - & chocolate shortbread for the havan prasad.

Our days were filled with happiness, ghee, flowers, laughter, art, yoga & a harmonius sense of unity.

{this moment}

Inspired by Soule Mama. In her words...

 

A Friday ritual;   - a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

I wanted to share a few things with you from our day today. They are little moments I want to remember. I'll be away from here whilst I'm co-ordinating Family Yoga at Satyananda Mangrove. I'll be back the following Monday with all the details of what we did & how we can incorporate spiritual life into our everyday beautiful creative journey. Have a wonderfilled week. Love Katie x

At the beach early this morning we were exploring ocean life & came across an octopus. He was medium sized & black & carefully nestled under a tiny rockface. We watched him move about for some time. & I wondered what it would be like to have eight arms & slither along on your belly. He is hidden here in his lovely home.

We also saw kombus. Pictured here, they are like a mollusc but inside they are black & red & more like an oyster. When the tide goes out the kombu retains some of it's water so it doesn't dry out. They naturally squirt out water - like a fountain - if they get too full. Some people squeeze them but I'm sure I wouldn't want the same done to me if I was a kombu.

We saw lots of little prawns & fish & masses of seaweed.

The children found little Pipi shells some with the little animal still inside. I told them that the empty ones were what fairies used as cups so they started using the tiny cups & drinking the sea water. I don't mind so much because I figure they need the minerals. Which got me thinking about seaweed & a conversation I had with a friend the other day about the high nutritional content of seaweed.

After the library, we went to the Asian grocer. My goodness, I love this place! I bought wakame & dashi kombu. I also bought some White Lotus Seed Paste Buns to steam for Bodhi's dinner & some fresh green soy beans. At the door I was talked into buying a tiny box of Hello Panda biscuits. In the car Indira sang to each & everyone of the Panda's as she popped them into her mouth, "I'm sorry Panda, I'm going to eat you now" all of the way home.

Tonight's dinner; Seaweed Salad, Lotus Seed Buns, Rice, Fresh Green Soy Beans.

Release & Relief

Today is Dazla's birthday. We had been in the kitchen making a Chocolate & Beetroot Cake & messing around with the usual flour, eggs & taking turns mixing when it all got a bit too much for me. I needed to leave the kitchen & slipped out at a 'safe' & appropriate moment. As I walked out, I thought 'Goodness me, I'd love a glass of wine right now." Now being 10:30am. Yes, clearly not coping. As I walked past the front door I saw a package sitting at the step. It was red & yellow & to me it said, 'Emergency!' & like emergency relief my flower essence package from Living Essences had turned up right on time.

I felt relief & peace & calm again. But moments later the, aaghh set in. So I made up my remedy, said a prayer & dropped that precious liquid under my tongue. I have the pictures of the cards above my bed - usually this is all I need - but this time I needed the essences themselves.

The authors of Australian Flower Essences for the 21st Century, Vasudeva & Kadambii Barnao, yogic practioners, studied the oldest living tradition of flower essence therapy under the Nyoongah people. From the elder, Nunjin, they learned that the research they had done was ratified by the ancient practices. Later they also discovered the ancient Buddhist tradition of flower essence therapy, from Malaysia and Thailand, where temples specialise in flower essence healing.

Here's cheers to a fabulous evening of Loving kindness, celebrating our beautiful man, birthday cake, presents, a glass of red wine on the beach & those divine flowers.

I Love You Ukulele

Here is our upcoming music duo. Bodhi - on the drums - & his 'girlfriend' Jai Jai - not her real name ; ) - on vocals & ukulele. The film starts straight away, so get ready. If I could edit, I would have. This song has such a catchy tune & I sung it for about three days after it was created. The melody is gorgeous - I know I'm biased - but it runs a whole octave. In terms of mantra yoga it totally fits. Each chakra from mooladhara to sahasrara has a note & equates to the English notes; do re mi fa so la ti do. But instead it reads; sa ra ga ma pa dah ne sa. & I have this theory that a good kirtan or tune represents all of the notes in an octave. From this each chakra gets activated in a subtle way & the result is, you feel pretty great.

I hope you enjoy this very raw rendition of "I Love You Ukulele."