For many this is the time of year when we look forward and look back, wish a “Happy New Year” upon others and ourselves, and reflect upon changes, what we’d like to change in ourselves, or “resolve to improve,” all dipping into the sense of renewal, of fresh start-ness, of a cycle beginning anew. Which is interesting as a cycle has no beginning…

This time of year is rich in intentions to leave behind what no longer serves us and to grow towards what nurtures and sustains us. Sometimes looking forward with hopeful anticipation, or looking back thinking next year can only be better… All over the globe, the drive and intentions are similar though the time of year  may vary, indicating there is no intrinsic “right” time for this renewal, simply that it occurs.

Happy New.

All the diverse views, intentions, and sentiments around this annual renewal share two things:

- The seemingly innate drive towards contentment, towards feeling whole.
- The perception of time passing, of time being a factor towards that wholeness.

Embedded in the greetings of the period is the conclusion that everyone wants to be happy. There is no hesitation in offering this salutation, nor any resistance in its reception, across cultures. The resolve to better one’s self is also linked to the desire to be happy, content, whole… accepting of one’s self.

Happy New.

Implied in the desire to better one’s self, to improve upon oneself, is the sense that some action, some external source, internal thought, or behavior, can improve upon my self, and my happiness. Implied in a desire to change is the belief that “I” can be changed, and that the current state is somehow not acceptable to me. Likewise implied in the seeking is the fact that finding myself to be whole and acceptable to me is a reasonable, natural end. We do not seek to be sorrowful, or incomplete, so there is something in happiness and fullness that must be intrinsic to my nature.

The new year, new resolve will bring me closer, over time, to that desirable, happy self I long to be. Associating with desired ends, and disassociating with undesirable ends, dropping past patterns, stories, and habits all reveal my relationship to time. The change will occur over the new year, in a series of tomorrows unfolding one after the other. Such efforts are certainly healthy for sustaining the psyche and body, which undergo constant change, but happiness, knowing myself to be acceptable to me, is something altogether different.

What is changing? What simply “is”?
If we are to exercise choice and will to bring change, it is important to know what changes and what does not. While the the mind, body, senses, emotions and so forth are subject to constant change, to infer that such change can improve upon the “I” that experiences the mind/body/senses is worth exploring. Through chosen actions and thoughts we can bring change to the mind and body, affecting various levels of balance and healing in our physiology, psychology and so forth. I, the subject, am effecting change on the body and heart/mind, both objects of my perception.

Being conscious of my body, my thoughts, feelings, body and thoughts become evident to me through senses and perception, thus “I” am the subject, and all that becomes evident to me are objects of perception. There is only one subject, I. What I perceive cannot be “I”, what I perceive is by definition not the subject. The eyeball does not see itself. To attribute the change undergone by the object, the body/mind, to the subject perceiving the change, “I,” is a flawed inference. If I see a house being painted, I am clear that I am not being painted, and yet with the body/mind/senses we are not so clear. Human tend to attach change of the body (object) to our very sense of self (Subject): The body ages, we say “I am old, I am aging,” the body is female, we say “I am female,” and so on.

Once I know that no external object can alter my essential nature, the challenges, wants and needs of the body/heart/mind are handled in a practical way from a more stable, consistent, steadfast center.

So as we renew commitments to practices that are healthy and sustaining, we do it not from a place of feeling less than, or inadequate, or vain but rather because we seek practices that uncover our essence, our whole, adequate self, practices that disassociate us from identifying with the the body and heart/mind and all their changes.

Now New Happy You.
So we set out in the new year to effect change, to drop certain things, leave behind certain things, and move towards certain things, to improve “ourselves.” And yet memory, habit, nostalgia, sentiment, and comfort in the familiar seem to keep the past affecting us, and the resolve seems to thin, spread out across so many tomorrows. In fact tomorrow never comes, the choice for change can only be today, now, moment to moment. There is only now, perpetually new.

I used language like “leave behind,” “move towards,” intentionally to show that in our perception time is a factor in this newness, and in this happiness, or “becoming” the acceptable self. Change, desire for change, happens in memory of past, or in imagination of future. Yet neither the past nor future exist in any real sense, and are rather constructs in our awareness. An event, person or object of the past is not currently affecting me, rather the thought of the event, person or object affects me, and can color my emotions in the present. The same can be said about events, people and objects of the future. These attractions and aversions in memory and imagination are what fills our heart/mind, our thought-life. Now is seldom in our attention.

Tomorrow never comes, there is only today, new each time. Within today, there is only each moment, now, and in that moment choices are made, not tomorrow. This perpetually new now is here all year round, every day, always new. And if I say I am present in this moment, how long is the moment? Each second can be broken down to a millisecond and so on… So even “now” happens as moments in time, until reduced to simply motion in our thought/perception of time, thus in our awareness. Time becomes evident to me… Century consciousness, year consciousness, minute consciousness… all segments of time are objects of perception, occur in consciousness, in fact are consciousness. “Century” consciousness does not take a century, nor does “second” take a second. “Century” consciousness IS, second consciousness IS and so on…

And if we think of “Now” consciousness, where is the object?
Now is simply consciousness. Consciousness is always now.

So if we reduce “now” to its smallest part, past the milliseconds, we end up simply in awareness, that which makes me, the subject, aware of “now” as an object of my perception. And further still, truly awareness itself is the only and ultimate subject, the only “I,” not the mind aware of time, not the “aware-er,” not the one who is aware. And Awareness is always now, neither young nor old… a “new” with no opposite, no polarity. Now is consciousness.

Happy New.

The non-wanting now self.
Wants and needs, desires and distastes, attractions and aversions all happen in memory or imagination, not in “now.” Free of memory and imagination, all wants, likes and dislikes fall away, our non-wanting self is revealed in “now:” Free of want, free of lack, intrinsically whole, full, not subject to improvement nor to demise. There is no change, no becoming. Always new, in fact outside of new and old, intrinsically happy. Or rather, since “happy” is an adverb qualifying the one who is happy, more accurate to say “intrinsic happiness” that which lights up the one experiencing happiness. Now awareness is happiness itself.

So really all we are dropping is the false inference that anything sticks to “I.”
No amount of changing behaviors, people, situations will bring wholeness to “I.”
There is no “moving towards” where I am.
Happy. New.

The sun needs no light to illuminate its presence, to verify its presence. It is self-illuminating.
All attractions and aversions, likes and dislikes, become evident to  me, are objects of my perception or inference.

That “I am” is the only thing self-evident to “I,” the subject who is awareness itself.
Mind, thoughts, emotions, pain, all bodily, sensory, psychological, physiological experience become evident to “I,” and thus cannot be I.
We mistake the field of the known, for the knower; we confuse objects of perception for the subject who perceives, in whose presence all becomes evident, who is self-evident.

Awareness, Beingness itself is free of want.
Now occurs within “I”.
Consciousness is only Now.
Now is Consciousness.
Now is happiness.
I am happiness, the intrinsic non-wanting-ness.

And since there is only now in awareness, awareness is outside of time, not continuous, but timeless, no beginning, no end, like a cycle, always new.

So, Happy New to you.
Happy New is you.
“I am happiness.”
New. Now.

Again and again.
Now.
That’s all there is.

Sat – existence, never negated.
Cit – awareness, basis of all that is known.
Ananda – fullness, outside of time, without limit.

Your thoughts?

* Much of the inspiration here comes from meditation, climbing trees, bird watching, from study of the Bhagavad Gita and the knowledge that colors my experiences from that study. I am grateful to Swami Dayananda Saraswati and others at Arsha Vidya Gurukulam for being the inspiration and illumination behind my understanding. Much of the language is inspired by their talks, writings, meditations, my notes from studying, my experiences in guided meditations and so on.

• share:
• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• Buzz it up
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend
• Print for later

   Send article as PDF to

Re: Day of Action targeting Banks October 15th, Occupy Wall Street
[feel free to share freely, post it, past it on... please discuss, comment, critique.]

Before I am capitalist or anti-capitalist I am human, before I am Tea Party or Democrat I am human, before I am the 53% or the 99% I am human. Before I am human, and I am Being. Seeing beyond other is yoga. Starting with myself is yoga.

“A great industrial nation is controlled by it’s system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the world–no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men.”
-President Woodrow Wilson

In regards to a Day of Action targeting Banks on October 15th, that quote is important as it highlights in part where the flaws are in how the US economy is managed, and the implications for the political process. As students of yoga, many are asking “How do I participate in social change, if at all, from a position of compassion and dissolution of ego, not fueling perceived separations?” A yogi is always first concerned with how is one’s own thoughts and behaviors either reinforcing egoistic identify, or moving away from egoistic identity. Are my actions driven by ego or by duty (dharma)?

See also the comments by economist Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz at Zuccoti Sq. in NYC: “Financial Markets are supposed to allocate capital and manage risk… they misallocated capital, created risk” and “socialized losses and privatized gain… that’s not capitalism… that’s not a free market, its a distorted economy.”

Partisans and those whose thinking is constrained by ideology (right or left) are trying to skew perception of the Occupy movement: anti-capitalist, unAmerican, unorganized and so on. Beyond these divisions we all share certain truths.

For inclusivity, for sustainability of the movement, for clarity of purpose through clear thinking it is important that we articulate what is wrong with the markets (good stuff from Elizabeth Warren to Warren Buffet, from Bill Mckibben to Bill Clinton) thus diffusing anti-capitalist rhetoric. Occupy Wall street is not unanimously anti-capitalist or pro-capitalist.

Occupy Wall street does seem to be unanimously calling for dialogue and critique of recent and historical banking trends, for an exploration of universal values transcending partisanship or ideology – compassion, non-violence, mutual respect, respectful debate, fairness economic and political, love…

The Tea Party, Republicans, Libertarians, Democrats – whoever, cannot own the language, rhetoric and values of patriotism, American, freedom and so on. Nor can we allow any group to erroneously define capitalism, socialism, free markets to create the appearance of the only correct claim to a particular model, nor to vilify a strategy by erroneously labeling it without discussing its objective impact. Meaning much of the so-called right wing is calling the Occupy Wall Street movement anti-capitalist even while a Nobel Laureate economist clearly identifies how the status quo is not capitalism, nor a free market.

So in preparing for a Day of Direct Action can we go in with clear thinking, mutual respect, a willingness to listen, be clear about our intention and clear about what values drive the action (for instance, cooperation, non-violence, the right the peacefully assemble respect for property) without sweeping positions like “Banks Suck”. A yogi asks first about his or her own thoughts and actions. Am I acting from ego or duty? Is my position cultivating dialog or fostering separation, anger and unfocused argument? Is what I am going to say next shedding light or causing friction, heat? Is what I am about to say in line with agreed upon values like mutual respect and willingness to listen?

Can I:
Lose interest in “we are fighting against…”
Gain passion for “We are striving for…”
Lose interest in “You are wrong.”
Gain passion for “Where do we agree?”
Lose interest in “Shut Up!”
Gain passion for “How can I listen?”
Lose interest in “I believe…”
Gain passion for “I understand…”
Lose interest in My needs, My demands,
and gain passion for Our needs, needs of Life and Earth.

• share:
• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• Buzz it up
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend
• Print for later

   Send article as PDF to

Are we innately inclined to certain temperaments? Am I “Just the way I am” or is there choice in change, discernment in action and impulse? Both Yoga and Science explore these questions and arrive at similar conclusions. The persistent nature and nurture interplay continues to evolve in our understanding. A recent article in Psychotherapy Networker discusses personality, temperament and a 20 year study begun in 1988 by Jerome Kagan into the biological drives for key personality traits like extroversion, introversion and other forms of sociability.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you
something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Emerson

“It is better to strive in ones own dharma (duty, work, calling) than to succeed in the dharma of another”
~ Bhagavad Gita III:35

Yoga is a field delving into attentiveness, discernment or viveka in relation to our mind’s tendencies and behaviors, our body’s cravings and impulses. In particular the Yoga Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita go into some depth around our intrinsic nature, and our moving through our environments adapting and responding to nurture.

The Yogic Model
Prakruti:
The Yogic and Ayurvedic model refer to one’s individual nature as prakruti, one’s own constitution and proclivities. The dance in yoga is to bring balance to that nature through work with a teacher or practitioner to help us understand that nature, its qualities and thus practices to bring balance to that nature.

Samskara:
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali also teach about samskara or tendencies, imprints left by experience. Samskara are also then personality traits, things we tend to do again and again. Again, bringing balance is the richness of practice, learning through discernment which samskara are to be reinforced, and which to be curtailed, held in our control. Not being controlled or controlling, or repressing, but having tendencies and temperament well in hand. Heart and Mind are not separate in the yogic model, each in constant interplay.

Karma:
There is a rich model and vocabulary in Yoga providing tools for change and self-care and balance through attentiveness of heart/mind. One more term for the purposes this article is karma, an oft misunderstood term in western circles, and a concept I seek to understand with ongoing study and inquiry. One’s Karma is all wrapped up in one’s prakruti. Karma is a collection of laws of action and reaction, action and results of action. The key point being we only have authority over our actions, we do not have a say in the results of our actions (Bhagavad Gita II.47), and some results are coming from actions long ago, even past lifetimes, inherited in our makeup to unfold in our life based on our discernment and choices.

Taking prakruti, samskara and karma together we see a rich complex interplay of predisposition, or ‘one’s make-up’ alongside strong practices for discernment, attention and value based living. We also see the malleability of the human animal, the adaptability, the resilience and ability to change and choose.

Yoga is Whole Person Coaching
Yoga is a practice of change over time. As students of yoga, as teachers coaching students through the mirror of themselves, understanding the interplay between what is nature, what is choice and discernment and the practices that bringing balance mentally, physiologically, emotionally and physically is key. As a practitioner, I seek to collaborate with nutritionists, expressive arts therapists, life coaches and others to offer long term Whole Person Wellness programs bring various aspects of our makeup into the mix to find our calling, or as the Gita says “To do our OWN work, not seeking to do the work of others.” Or finding a home for our temperament, walking in balance.

Personality and Temperament
In Marian Sandmaier’s article in the Psychotherapy Networker, “Do our personalities Pilot the Way We Live Our Lives?” she explores the rising role temperament is having in psychotherapy and the interplay for the project of human change.

The field of temperament is dramatically enlarging in scope. The new science of behavioral molecular genetics, which seeks to identify genes associated with particular human traits has lately exploded with reports suggesting that our very cells may be imbued with tendencies toward extroversion or shyness or novelty seeking or distractibility.

She asks what I ask in relation to yoga: “What does it mean for the human project of change?”

Studies in the 70′s unhooked the biological proclivities from any notions or pathology or inferiority, as yoga also does not imply judgement or better than when discussion constitution or one’s nature. The key is knowing enough about one’s own temperament to find the best niche to be, what Emerson celebrated as does the Gita as ones “true calling.”

So come 1988 and Jerome Kagan seeking to map brain markers, variations in amygdala excitability in response to various stimuli for different temperaments seeking to come closer to solvign the predisposition puzzle. He followed 100 healthy 4 month olds in to adolescence monitoring how some strayed or did not from their temperaments seen as infants. By age 7 roughly half were responding the same way, thus roughly half had in some way morphed their temperament. By teen years many who were excitable remained so, prone to anxiety, while some had adapted socialization skills; nonetheless when interviewed the underlying temperament remained.

Part of temperament is physiological response. Some had “more reactive sympathetic nervous system, higher levels of muscle tension and greater cortical arousal.” Thus managing one’s physiology is part of understanding one’s own temperament. Hmm… what does that make you think of? Yoga Asana, meditation, pranayama all are tools requiring consistent training and practice to manage and keep at equilibrium.

“An individual develops a persona over time,”
says Kagan. “But time doesn’t change the anima.”
Sandmaier’s article goes on to state in her article that

“… we do, in fact inherit distinctive neurobiological profiles that contribute to particular, relatively enduring emotional and behavioral predispositions.”

Sandmaier interviewed Kagan recently and found how the long term research has settled into his worldview. Says Kagan today:

“Temperament is never the whole story, [Kagan] says now. “But if you don’t take it into account, you won’t understand what it is to be human.”

Thus the biochemical roots of temperament are more and more seen and accepted as part of the story of being human. This is not as deterministic as it may sound, and in fact many genetic researchers havae aken pains to explain that no gene causes a behavior or emotional state. Temperament, Kagan believes is a bit like birdsong, in a quote I find quite beautiful and true as a passionate lover of birds, their nature and their wondrous diversity.

Kagan says “Knowing that a bird is a finch rather than a meadowlark allows one to predict with great confidence the songs it will not sing,” he wrote in his 2004 book, the Long Shadow of Temperament “but permits a far less certain prediction of the particular song it will sing.”

Finally, Marian Sandmaier, a shy, awkward person in teens and twenties asked Kagan what he would have told the despairing 21 year old college student to offer a bit of hope he replied “I would have told you the world needs all kinds of people, I would have encouraged you to find a life niche in which your temperament would be a good thing.” He paused for a moment thinking it over, “Then I would have urged you to find a good therapist.” We all need a guide in this unpredictable road where even our own steps are not predictable or understandable, and often others see our path more clearly than we can ourselves.

Sandmaier says:

“As individuals thrash about in their own temperamental thickets, therapists can serve as wilderness guides, following rough cleared paths and pointing out elements of nature that are usually hidden from view.”

She adds a more personal note : “To understand that there things about me that can’t be undone or transformed by any amount of psychic digging or repair work — that a part of me is simply pre-psychological — has come as a profound relief.”

The Yoga Guide through our private wilderness
The Yoga Teacher, when yoga is taught in the whole person practice, beyond just asana, is such a wilderness guide. Texts alone cannot be such a guide as we filter them through our nature. To see Samskaras, Prakruti and Karma parts of the landscape to learn to navigate, not as limitations, or immutable forces is key to delving into the practices of yoga. We do need guides

From Emerson’s imperative to “find one’s true calling” to the Bhagavad Gita’s verse on “Do your own work, not seeking to do that of others” we find ongoing validation to find a niche for our temperament, and not be in situations that raise to much friction, allowing each to manage the prakruti towards balance and equanimity, let this be a relief.

• share:
• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• Buzz it up
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend
• Print for later

   Send article as PDF to

“Somewhere beyond right and wrong there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”
~ Rumi

There are no others.
~ Ramana Maharshi

For some years now I have been pondering ‘identity’ as I study and seek to practice Yoga and Vedanta. Identity meaning sense of self – in community, in society, in relation to spirit and divinity, in relation to our apparent tribal nature.

Yoga and Vedanta teach the nature of Wholeness, brahma vidya, knowledge of Brahman, and the practice of karma yoga. Brahman, or the limitless sustainer, and karma yoga (see blog post on Karma Yoga), or action as offering and graceful acceptance of results or our actions are unfolded through dialog, question and answer, and practice. Brahman is that which sustains all and is self-sustaining, that which is our source from whence we come and to which we return; that understanding which helps reveal the nature of Wholeness, of shared source. Seeing and practicing this essential teaching of Yoga and Vedanta can help us cultivate a view beyond I, me, mine, beyond ‘us’ and ‘them’, beyond tribal, beyond modern yoga brands created for business and narcissistic indulgence.

Yoga is for all tribes. Whether you practice Bikram, Iyengar, Anusara, Cowabunga Yoga, Yada Yada yoga, My Special Sauce Yoga… can we not see the shared source, the unifying teachings? Cliques build walls and instill perception of ‘others’, rather than diluting perception of ‘other.’

Recent studies in neuroscience, psychology and behavior point to empathy and compassion being strong biological drivers; the ability to feel what another is feeling, to see ourselves in the reactions of others is a biological experience says Jeremy Rifkin in his new book “Empathetic Civilizations” (video animation and lecture with J. Rifkin and book links below).

I have been a deep student of world mythologies all my life, as a child, in high school, in college and since. I have taught greek mythology and literature to high school, studied Welsh and Celtic mythologies, as well as native and middle eastern texts. So when I came to deep study of Vedanta (knowledge of the Vedas in the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita) in 1996 with Swami Dayananda Saraswati, I was steeped in language of archetypes, cosmologies, and mythos, both classical and indigenous. I was a big fan of Jung, Joseph Campbell, William Blake, Jacob Needleman, Parabola Magazine, Emerson, Thoreau, Robert Graves, Norman O. Brown (my teacher at UCSC), Evangeline Walton, Robert Bly, Ovid, Starhawk, Mary Renault, native ceremony and politics and more. Meaning to say I was steeped in our human tribal stories.

The message in Vedanta, the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads, is ‘you are the whole, and this is to be understood, not believed.’ Meaning we are manifestations of, made of, our source – whatever language in which one describes our source. The Maker and the material are the same. Wholeness is Wholeness, there is no American Wholeness and European Wholeness. We don’t speak of ‘American gravity’ or ‘Spanish thermodynamics.’ Infinity is infinity. Language can help us as we seek to understand what we cannot experience, but language does not change the nature of the force being studied. Vedanta shows us an understanding beyond me and you, beyond us and them, beyond tribal. Just as with gravity, thermodynamics and other truths, the truths in Vedanta are not culturally specific or time dependent. We explore which verses bring this understanding to the surface in our Gita study groups .

A common misunderstanding is that such a conclusion must mean that at the same time Vedanta, or statements emphasizing shared values, diminish diversity or individualism. Rather there is a recognition of a partial truth, a dependent truth in our tribalism, or in our individualism. The part is dependent or more accurately defined by the Whole, or Source. A pot is both a form or shape and clay. If I say “Here take the pot, I will keep the clay” what do you have? The truth of the pot is dependent on the deeper truth of the clay. The pot is mithya in sanskrit, or a ‘dependent reality.’ The clay is akin to sarvam or ‘truth’ in this metaphor. Meaning I can see me and you, and I can see ‘Us’ without creating a ‘Them.’ Most times when we create ‘us’ we create ‘them.’ A community creates outsiders, those who don’t belong. The story of religious and then national wars through the ages, true? There was no ‘white’ race until there was a desire to distinguish from a ‘red’ or ‘black’ race; before that there was a multitude of nationalities, English, Saxon, German, Celt, French and so on…There was no ‘black’ race until the meeting of a ‘white’ race, and so on. Identity can be made up of multiple inclusive tribes and identity shifts or is redefined when encountering one perceived as ‘other’.

If, when we see others, we see ourselves, what happens? If ‘I’, the pot, see clay rather than another pot when I see others, what happens?

10 Minute Animation of Jeremy Rikfin’s lecture

In fact, as Jeremy Rifkin goes into quite some depth in his new book “Empathetic Civilizations”, we are biologically wired to see our feelings in feelings of others, to empathize with their response. When we do not respond empathetically, meaning from competition or aggression, it is because sense of self is threatened in some form and thus sees ‘other.’ Books like “How Yoga Works” (HYW) (see blog entry on HYW) show how empathy is intrinsic and central to yogic teachings, and that personal practice means by definition consciously cultivating compassion, accomodation, acceptance and selflessness in relation to likes and dislikes. Rifkin claim it is recent research that shows humans are biologically wired for empathy, and does an amazing sweeping view of psycho-analytic, behavioral and socio-biological research over the last 75 years or more to refute claims of innate aggression, competition and sexualization of everything.

I see Jeremy Rifkin’s book, the recent neurological and behavioral research, and the rising popularity of communities of yoga as signs that he has his pulse on current trends in human development. Rifkin’s conclusions raise the importance of making conscious and willful the movements towards shared values, caring for each other, sustainable interdependence (urban gardens, local economies), and collaboration in business rather than competition and domination.

Tribalism has served humanity for millenia. I believe in our times of global crisis and global communication that is no longer the case; and in fact, our tribal nature leads to as much conflict and separatism as it does inclusion and community. This is not to say we need or will lose our local, cultural and spiritual affinities and identities – rather that if you belong to another we don’t have to start a war, or I don’t have to take what you have. Think ‘Beyond Tribal,’ what do you see?

Somewhere beyond ‘us’ and ‘them’ there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

Empathy ~ Interdependence ~ Collaboration. It’s time.

Jeremy Rifkin on KQED’s Forum

Jeremy Rifkin speaking at Google. Good context on social technologies. 50 minutes or so.

• share:
• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• Buzz it up
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend
• Print for later

   Send article as PDF to

Several scientist are removing their blogs from Seed Media’s Science Blog in response to a sponsored ‘nutrition’ blog by Pepsico wrote Columbia Journalism Review today. As publishing morphs with the times, as traditional credible print sources fall or adapt, as authorship and intellectual property shift with open sharing and free publishing, as we are glutted by lowest common denominator content on the web, losing knowledge in a cascade of facts, losing experts in an avalanche of laypeople – this instance with Pepsico is a significant event in online wellness publishing.

See article by Curtis Brainard: Uproar at ScienceBlogs.com

For wellness practitioners, for health writers, for wellness bloggers, for consumers wanting to find a path to whole person wellness, developments like these are important to watch and know where to land, where to write, and how to build networks of credibility distinct from the tide of amateurs, laypeople and advertising. Yes advertising supports content in most cases. There is a symbiosis here in a way and done well like will support like. However Pepsi’s products clearly do not support nutrition, and are of a different source than Science Blog authors.

Sites like Science Blog have worked hard to develop web cred as a legitimate varied source of expertise. Topics like food and nutrition especially need neutral voices as consumers are bombarded by advertising and trends so finding helpful sources is challenging. We are at a time when printed publishing is waning and digital content looms and grows, with all its chaotic lowest common denominator haystack hiding the needles of experienced wisdom.

From Howard Rheinghold’s Smart Mobs of 2003 to Andrew Keen’s Cult of the Amateur of 2007, to the recent The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to Our Brains , 2010, by Nicholas Carr we have seen a progression towards broadening of web content, blurring the line between traditional journalism and layperson opinion and now corporate messaging. A publishing environment where as Nicholas Carr states we are smothered in information and facts, with little wisdom to be found. See a NYT Book Review of The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to Our Brains . Other recent research and books talk about the impact short snippets rather than deep books is having on our learning neurology.

When corporate messaging, advertising, enters what is perceived as a publishing environment all credibility, distinction, or discernment are gone. In a leaked letter to Science Blog contributors, Adam Bly editor from Seed Media sets to explain the decision. The letter warrants being read in its entirety as it seeks to present rationale for including as he puts it “both scientists from academia and industry.”

See Letter from Seed Editor Adam Bly:(excerpt)
As you know, we recently expanded the SB platform to include blogs from the world’s foremost research organizations like CERN and Howard Hughes Medical Institute and hope that this new area of our site will grow meaningfully over the coming years. We’ve started to partner with top science festivals like the USA Science & Engineering Festival and the World Science Festival to host their official blogs. We have also hosted blogs on SB from research-based companies like Shell, Dow, Schering-Plough, GE, Invitrogen, L’Oreal (in Germany), and now PepsiCo. I want to address the logic and strategy behind this.

While he is eloquent, ultimately what is significant will be presentation and follow up on ideas like a different brand than Science Blog, so the reader can distinguish ‘sponsorship’ (advertising) from science.

• share:
• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• Buzz it up
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend
• Print for later

   Send article as PDF to

GUEST Wellness Provider: Mahendra aka Briksha
Ayurveda, Yoga Instructor and Coach
www.Rays-mandala.org
An invitation to learn proper breathing:
Sunday, July 11th, Friday, 16th and Saturday, 24th, 6.00pm-.9.00pm
Indian Live Food Prep class-1 of Series I – Cafe Gratitude
Saturday, July 10 2010, 3:00pm – 6:00pm

I am happy to have a piece from a colleague guest author on Tulsi, an herb used for its various healing and nourishing properties. Briksha beautifully captures a reverential and practical appeal of the herb. Also I am offering Organic India teas and herbs, a company that been active in in local and national ayurveda communities and has been building bridges in agriculture and sustainability with Tulsi for many years by importing organic Tulsi teas in bags, and in bulk for ayurvedic practitioners.

This blog’s Sustainability Watch seeks to keep an eye out on companies with useful or wholesome products produced sustainably. Sustainable Self Sustainable Word. See Video on farming Tulsi ~ Karl

Tulsi by Mahendra aka Briksha
Tulsi, also knowns as Holy basil or Indian basil, is one of nature’s wonderful healing herbs.

For me, Tulsi is associated with the Nurturing Energy of my mother and grandmother. It starts with a memory of my grandmother. As children she would give my siblings and I some leaves of Tulsi to chew for protection from bad spirits before we left the house. To encourage us to drink milk, she would say ‘when you drink a few leaves of Tulsi with milk you will be more happy and strong and your memory will be strong.’ We always had a few Tulsi plants growing in pots both indoors and outdoors.

Every typical Hindu family house has at least one Tulsi plant growing this way, especially in front of their door. It has special religious meaning for Hindus. The name Tulsi means ‘incomparable one,’ and Hindus worship the plants morning and evening as a symbol of divinity. They use Tulsi leaves for tea and also they give them to dying people to chew and to someone with food poisoning, fever etc. Hindus believe that the God Vishnu (sustainer and nurturer of the World) resides in the Tulsi plant.

Several weeks ago I went to see Ammachi (Mata Amritanandamayi) and receive her darshan. From the shop that supports her work, I got a book titled ‘Tulsi-The Mother Medicine of Nature.’ This book totally reminds me my grandmother. As I started to read, knowing so much modern research about Tulsi from the East as well as the West, I felt awake in the presence of a nurturing mother. Once again, Tulsi and Amma became one source of nourishment.

New research
In brief, the new research on Tulsi according to this book is that it has a very potent anti- stress and adaptogenic action. Tulsi is a powerful and very effective adaptogen, meaning it increases the body’s ability to adapt to environmental and internal stress by strengthening the immune, nervous and glandular system. It enhances an organism’s resistance to stress, diseases and environment and normalizes metabolic functions while increasing metabolic efficiency. Dr. Narendra Singh and Dr, Yamuna Hoette’s research show that Tulsi’s adaptogenic action is more potent even than Ginseng. Tulsi has a wide range of medicinal properties as well largely due to these adaptogenic properties.

Mother Nature’s Gift:
In summary, the major benefits of Tulsi are:

Tulsi is effective to heal the common cold, fever, sore throat, cough, and respiratory disorders. Research shows that Tulsi heals the swine flue.

Tulsi calms the mind, and it is free radical scavenger. It reduces fatigue, improves heart rate, and is useful in the treatment of mouth and teeth disorders. Tulsi also protects against radiation, free radical damage, pollution, and bacterial, viral and fungal infections. Tulsi is an antipollutant and therefore it increases our survival in low oxygen environments. It is wise to grow Tulsi plants indoors for this reason too. Tulsi also improves oxygen utilization. Tulsi also offers general health improving nutritional qualities. It has vitamin C, vitamin A, calcium, selenium, many trace minerals. It also improves digestion and assimilation of food.

If you’re curious or a lover of herbs, for a resource see ‘Herbs and Spice and Everything Nice’ blog, she has a Herb of the week. This week is Lavender, which like Basil is a mint and shares many wonderful attributes See more on Lavender at this week’s Herb of the Week.

Dr. Narendra Singh and Dr. Yamuna Hoettte in their book recommend as follows:
For general health promotion and prevention of diseases 1 capsule (300mg) of dried Tulsi leaves twice daily for at least 6 months and for treatment of specific health problem 2-6 capsule (600-1800mg) for a period of 2 months to one year.

These benefits can be obtained by drinking of Tulsi tea (1-5 cups per day)- taken separately or in combination with capsules.

Krishna Tulsi Tea – 1 Lb From: Organic India USA

Tulsi Chai Masala Tea – 1 Lb

Pomegranate Green Tulsi Tea

Video on Organic India’s Tulsi farms, practices and other herbs:

Tulsi is no doubt one of Mother Nature’s best gifts to human kind.

–

Briksha aka Mahendra:
combines Integral Insights, Hindu Yogic practices, and Buddhist wisdom in his teaching. Currently He is learning Ayurveda under the guidance of Michael Reid Kreuzer, D. Ayur, Ph.D. ( Medicine Buddha Healing Center). Briksha’s main focus is on Yoga of Conscious Breathing and Eating (Spiritual Nutrition). By using various tools and techniques of Integral Yoga and coaching, he creates a powerful environment to explore the journey of this mysterious Human Body, finding everything there, as it is said in an Asian proverb: ‘What you can’t find in your Body, you will not find anywhere.’ Briksha’s main mission in sharing his skills, experience, and training , is to aid in reconnecting with our Bodies and the Body of Universe so that in turn our Bodies and the Body of Universe will bless us with peace, and wisdom. Briksha invites us to pray and practice together to awake in our true nature, bringing more love, light, and wisdom to the World. To contact go to his website www.Rays-mandala.org

• share:
• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• Buzz it up
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend
• Print for later

   Send article as PDF to