http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/ en-us Copyright 2008 Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:41:56 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss If your buttons can be pushed, what is the button? A button is a raw place the psyche is defending. http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/06/what_is_a_button.html http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/06/what_is_a_button.html Ayurveda Journal Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:41:56 +0000 - Claudia Welch, Acupuncturist and Ayurvedic Physician http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/06/gunas_travel_in_packs_called_d_1.html http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/06/gunas_travel_in_packs_called_d_1.html Ayurveda Journal Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:01:41 +0000 Eureka comes when mind chatter stops, we begin to listen and wisdom comes. When we are thinking, we aren't listening, we are unconscious. In the shower, let the stream of water touch the forehead, that is daily shirodhara and the mind is free. http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/06/wisdom_comes_when_thinking_sto.html http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/06/wisdom_comes_when_thinking_sto.html Ayurveda Journal Sat, 07 Jun 2008 14:45:57 +0000 I am drumming but without hands. I am in asana but without a body. I am singing but without a voice. I am just dancing with my being, -Joseph http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/05/i_am_in_asana_but_without_a_bo.html http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/05/i_am_in_asana_but_without_a_bo.html Ayurveda Journal Sat, 24 May 2008 15:25:18 +0000 p456, Ayurvedic Pharmacology & Therapeutic Uses of Medicinal Plants, Vaidya V.M. Gogte http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/05/ayurveda_is_a_vast_expanse_of.html http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/05/ayurveda_is_a_vast_expanse_of.html Sat, 24 May 2008 15:23:23 +0000 Being in the moment comes without effort, without thought. Being with our feelings is different from thinking about our feelings. When the mind is without thought, we are totally open to receive whatever sensations are coming, right now. There is no thought of self in self realization. http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/05/being_with_your_true_self_isnt.html http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/05/being_with_your_true_self_isnt.html Wed, 14 May 2008 14:08:23 +0000 said by Ram Dass in "Be Here Now" http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/05/the_universe_consecrates_all_o.html http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/05/the_universe_consecrates_all_o.html Ayurveda Journal Fri, 09 May 2008 19:12:34 +0000 http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/05/life_is_suffering_but_you_are.html http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/05/life_is_suffering_but_you_are.html Ayurveda Journal Fri, 09 May 2008 19:11:45 +0000 Dr. Vasant Lad, Albuqerque, NM. http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/04/try_not_to_think_about_it.html http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/04/try_not_to_think_about_it.html Ayurveda Journal Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:48:48 +0000 click here for how to avoid jet lag). I arrived at 1am, missed my connection to Bangladesh, and spent a restful nights sleep in a beautiful hotel right at the Hong Kong airport. The airline gave us a nice breakfast and I sat on balcony/garden outside my room enjoying the humid air. The moisture is refreshing after a few months of the high desert in Albuquerque. Hong Kong airport is high tech, clean, and the architecture is beautiful, light and airy. Even though it’s cloudy I feel refreshed. There are fun shops without feeling like a mall. It’s cosmopolitan; I’ve seen people from all continents (except that only penguins live in Antartica). Best of all, I have two meal vouchers and there are lots of nice restaurants. Here are the highlights of Hong Kong and four delicious days in Bangladesh. Honey Dew Smoothie with Aloe Vera Jelly (HK Airport) Other recipes coming soon: Century Old Egg (HK Airport) Ginger Chips (Westin Hotel, Dhaka) Ginger Orange Juice (Westin Hotel Dhaka) Bottle Gourd and Asparagus (Personal Creation!) ]]> http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/03/favorite_foods_from_hong_kong.html http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/03/favorite_foods_from_hong_kong.html Published Letters Sat, 22 Mar 2008 22:06:32 +0000 contact Joseph!]]> http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/03/jet_lag_and_ayurveda.html http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/03/jet_lag_and_ayurveda.html Ayurveda Journal Fri, 21 Mar 2008 02:18:37 +0000 We climbed the Deccan Plateau, our driver blasting Hindi and Hip Hop, while overhead, tropical, moist trees encroached the new super-highway connecting Bombay to Pune. I felt comfortable, easy, and at home. Somehow, I've become as easy in India as the USA, they both seem beautiful, exotic, familiar and full of surprises. We arrived a month early and eager to spend time with Ayurvedic doctors, in herb gardens, and bookstores. We toured a wonderful charitable hospital in the center of Pune offering services to the poor. Everywhere we went, our hosts were gracious and offered us perspective on Ayurveda in the land of its birth. All in all, Pune was a profound experience. With a more complete picture of the breadth and many different styles of practicing Ayurveda, I felt I emerged from Pune with a more clear perspective of my own unique gifts and personality as an practitioner. What follows are some of the specific moments and stories that left their impression on me. http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/01/trip_to_india.html http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/01/trip_to_india.html Published Letters Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:20:43 +0000 Happiness, beauty and abundance are the fruits of alignment. We feel the impulse to make decisions to improve our lives. But, behind the impulse to decide is resistance to what is being offered to us, dissatisfaction and ego. We struggle with making decisions instead of acceptance. We can let it happen instead of making it happen. We can let go of the impulse to decide and start noticing and being with the truth. http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/01/letting_it_happen.html http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2008/01/letting_it_happen.html Ayurveda Journal Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:57:12 +0000 Today, Father Roy picked dogwood fruits and ate them. They were sweet and we were surprised. Figs ripen next to the church. Tasty acorns fall and we bake them into cornbread. Overhead, monarch butterflies are heading south. And grapes hang from a vine, reaching for the sky. Oren and I walk to a hilltop near New Paltz. This feels like a holy ground to us. In the setting sun mountains darken and become silhouettes. He leaves for Yeshiva next week. In Boston, Guy Mendilow rehearses classical and folk music traditions from around the world. Shari and I are experimenting with pesto lasagna topped with almonds. Their cat Basil overhears us talking about the her childhood home, New Orleans. It’s early September, the world’s fair in Jamaica Plain ushers in the autumn season to the sounds of Latino, Brazilian, and world fusion music. A baker is selling home made donuts and leaves are already changing colors. Apple orchards can hardly bear the weight of their fruits. The Fung Wah bus pulls into Boston and the city is crisp, clean. We pass my college dorm and a bank downtown where I once worked. I buy a new 'Charlie Card' for the red line subway to Central Square, a samosa from Shalimar’s and walk up Norfolk to JB’s house. It’s great to see Mindy again and their sweet little one growing up starting to speak. Kevin Sheehan introduces his new book to me, "A Leader Becomes a Leader". We sit in Cafe Algiers enjoying toasted pita bread with apricot jam and mint tea. He quotes Thoreau, “In an imperfect work, time is an ingredient. In a perfect work, time is not an ingredient.” Cooking, ayurveda. I think, "devotion to the sacred lessons of those two arts really can become 'perfect'". I’m struggling in the Northeast with the illusion of wanting to be successful. And remembering a radical, powerful act of healing - looking out the window for a half hour during sunset. Then remembering Dr. Lad: Life begins in the belly, the placenta. Not a heart button, not a head button, a belly button. Belly, the place of our being. And when we come home to ourselves, we come home to our belly. That is how we relax in the city. Some new links http://www.joyfulbelly.com * My favorite addition to Joyful Belly this month is the "Threads of Cooking" * Or, try a search on "vata-" for recipes that pacify vata. http://www.guymendilow.com/ * Guy Mendilow's Band http://www.yogaspiritstudios.com/KimValeri.htm * Valeri Kim’s Yoga Teacher Training http://www.flashearth.com * Search for Pune, India and zoom in. We'll be living there until mid-December, studying ayurveda with our teacher Dr. Lad. With a great faith we are peaceful and confident in our journey to India. Keep in Touch, Love and Light, Blessings on our Journeys, -Joseph http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2007/09/joseph_joyfulbelly.html http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2007/09/joseph_joyfulbelly.html Published Letters Tue, 18 Sep 2007 21:08:50 +0000 Every day I'm learning. I still feel like a new student of vedic psychology. Here are some hints that are helping me on me way, given to us by our beautiful, saintly teacher Dr. Vasant Lad. Watch the watcher. The watcher is the mind and the body but spirit is beyond both. Watch thoughts as if they are a movie. You will see what is inside you. Organs create emotions and the brain searches for a thought. So mind is in the organ. We make a decision then create the rationale. Mind is body and brain. Mind is also the universe around us that we created. Yoga psychology cleans the mind by cleaning organs. Yoga squeezes the blood out of organs and then opens them up again. It clears the channels. When the body wants change it creates a thought. A thought indicates discomfort or toxins in the body. When the body is content there is no thought. Bliss is the state without thought. If we are quiet we can sense thoughts coming before they happen. It feels like a vibration. We bless the thought and bring attention back to the breath. We can't know the truth but we can be with the truth. We merge with the unfolding dynamic. Joy of the sunset happens before we realize it. The moment we become conscious joy is a memory and becomes desire. Desire is the memory of past pleasure. I see the tree and the tree is me. The internal is the macrocosm. The universe my creation. God is the creator but I am the hand. This chair, I brought my body to this place and the chair became manifest. This bird that chirps in the wilderness, my echo chirping in the wilderness. Where is the tree? My eyes catch light and the tree appears, from photo cells I recreate the tree in my mind. The tree that I see is the one in my mind. Do you see the same tree? All of creation is a manifestation of God. Evil thinks that it exists but in yoga there is no separation from the divine. When you become the tree and the tree becomes you there will be no violence. If I give my attention to the darkness, it creates the darkness. If I give my attention to the light it creates the light. Experience nourishes the ego. Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge and were cast from the garden. Knowledge is knowledge of difference, comparison, measuring, separation. The mind wants to have experiences because it wants to know. God is beyond knowledge. God is being without a thought; God is the act of listening. All effort denies the existence of God. Creation happens. Love accepts all things. Love is listening. When we try to change creation, that is effort. Thoughts are effort and effort comes from ego. The mind creates the abyss and the heart crosses it. The mind is comparison which is separation and measurement. Comparison is judgment and judgment is violence. Comparison is desire. The mind is the cause. With meditation all thoughts can be digested into pure love. It is the heart. An emotion comes to us. We healed it through the body with yoga. We healed it in the mind through the breath. We healed it in the spirit through prayer and meditation. Body, mind, then spirit. Speech is surgery. We release our frustrations upon the world but the world is us. We cut open the external with a word. Speech comes last, last resort. Emotion the root cause of disease. World change is not the objective of yoga; it is the by product of self-awakening. Traditionally, yoga is preparation for prayer and meditation. Meditation has no purpose or goal. It cultivates 'is-ness'. This journal entry is a work in progress. Please send your ideas to joseph@greenbookcafe.com. http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2007/09/yoga_psychology.html http://www.joyfulbelly.com/journal/2007/09/yoga_psychology.html Ayurveda Journal Sun, 02 Sep 2007 12:36:22 +0000