I didn’t know what to expect at the Veggie Fest 2009. Advertised as “Good Food, Healthy Living,” the fourth annual Chicagoland event was sponsored by Science of Spirituality, a non-profit organization located in Naperville, Illinois whose members are deeply committed to a spiritual way of life based on meditation, service to others, and personal transformation.

2009 Veggie Fest, sponsored by Science of Spirituality Mission in Naperville, Illinois

With temperatures in the low 90′s and humidity hovering near 100%, it was not an auspicious beginning.  In the sweltering heat I wandered through rows of booths, sampling eco-friedly products and picking up literature from massage therapists and other alternative health practitioners. Within minutes I was hot, damp, and uncomfortable. Then I spotted the meditation tent. The man at the door smiled and invited me in, adding, “Surprise! It’s air conditioned.” Beautiful, blissful air conditioning. Read the rest of this entry »

In my daily meditations, I use a book titled “Awakenings: Asian Wisdom for Everyday.” The book contains a beautiful photo and an accompanying bit of wisdom for each day of the year. Prior to meditating each morning, I read the saying for the day and contemplate the message during my meditation.

Yesterday it was:

The actions of our daily life

like waking, washing, lighting incense

do not seem very important,

but they comprise the whole cosmos.

by Master Taisen Deshimaru

“Good message,” I thought. I meditated on it. “OK, now back to work. God, I have so much to do today. Better get some of this little stuff done. Gotta make the bed and take a shower. Need to do some grocery shopping. Should try to get to a Yoga class. If I can just get some of this stuff out of the way my day will be better.”

Today was pretty much the same. Make the bed, raise the shades, open the blinds, clean the bathroom, do the laundry, Read the rest of this entry »

For the third straight morning, I roll out my Yoga mat on my living room floor and sit in half lotus pose. I straighten my back and rest my hands on my knees palms up, bringing the tips of my forefingers and thumbs together to create circles. Closing my eyes, I begin Ujjayi breathing, generating a sound reminiscent of the noise Darth Vader makes when he breathes. Ujjayi breathing allows me to feel my breath and I concentrate on following it in and out of my body. I draw air in through my nostrils and across the back of my throat, filling my stomach before I fill my lungs. I hesitate for just a second at the top of the breath, then exhale through my nose, emptying my lungs first and then my stomach. Pulling my belly button into my spine, I squeeze the last bit of air out of my stomach and then hesitate once more before drawing in another breath.

I envision heavy, negative energy leaving with each exhalation and bright, light energy entering my body with each inhalation. At some point I realize that my tongue is glued to the roof of my mouth. Gently I peel it away, allowing it to Read the rest of this entry »

A few years ago, Alex Cequea Fuentes wondered what would it be like to meditate in a public place where there is a lot of traffic, like a busy intersection or a shopping mall. His question ultimately led him to create the Public Meditation Project, a social and spiritual movement dedicated to bridging the gap between inner peace and world peace. The group now holds events in public places all over the country, including San Francisco, Chicago, Iowa City, and Houston. Alex’s says his goal is to create change from the feeling level. “The best case scenario is that people walk past and feel the peace. Then they momentarily become peaceful, and the people they are with become peaceful. This is world change from the core of our beings.” Reactions to these events vary, as you can imagine, but some of the funniest come from mall security guards. Check out this absolutely hysterical entry in Alex’s blog that describes one such experience at the Katy Mills Mall in Katy, Texas, then take a look at this video of Alex meditating in public places:

In a similar vein, in 1977 two American Buddhist Monks from San Francisco’s Gold Mountain Monastery began a bowing pilgrimage from downtown L.A. to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Talamage, California near Ukiah. Heng Sure has made the vow to bow to the ground in a full prostration every three steps along the road. Read the rest of this entry »

You know how so many people have trouble sleeping? Well, that’s not my problem. For me, the problem is GETTING to sleep. I can be sitting in the recliner, watching TV, my eyes so heavy I can barely keep them open, but the moment my head its the pillow – Boinggg! – my eyes are wide open. Some nights, I lie there just looking up a the gray ceiling, endless thoughts swirling around in my head. I’ve tried playing calm music, taking a shower, reading a book, turning over on my belly and sticking my head under the pillow, doing yoga in bed, drinking Chamomile tea, and meditating (sometimes the meditating helps).

Strangely, once I fall asleep, I sleep soundly. Even if I have to get up three times during the night to go to the bathroom, I fall asleep the moment I lie back down. This difficulty falling asleep doesn’t happen all the time, perhaps two or three times a month. I’ve been looking for the common denominator. Does it happen Read the rest of this entry »

If you have been reading my blog lately, you know that I have just emerged from a bout of depression, the likes of which I haven’t experienced for many years. My life has changed so much in the past two years and I sometimes question whether I have made the right decisions. I walked away from the world of real estate, where the money was enormous and the egos gargantuan. I left a beautiful home on 12+ secluded waterfront acres on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and moved into a small two bedroom, one bath apartment in Sarasota, Florida that my dear friend, Joan, offered to share with me.

I am pursuing, with some success, a career as a freelance writer, but I am learning that even though writing is my passion, there are elements of this business that I don’t much like. Between freelance assignments I have continued researching and writing my book, but by the time I spiraled down into the depths of my depression earlier this week, I seriously questioned whether my book was a ridiculous folly.

I did a lot of things to get out of that depression. Yoga. Meditation. Energetic rebalancing. Acupuncture. Walking miles. Talking to friends. Praying. Aromatherapy. Letting myself sit with the pain. Too much sleep. Too little sleep. Believe it or not, I even took two Read the rest of this entry »

If you wish to accomplish something, focus on the WHAT, rather than the why and how. Focus on the WHAT and visualize the outcome, using the five senses through which we connect with the world.

What does it sound like? What does it feel like? What does it smell like? What does it look like? What does it taste like?

Focus on the WHAT and visualize. The Why and the How will take care of themselves.

Over the years, my Yoga and meditation practice has resulted in some pretty wild experiences, not the least of which was one instance when I felt the physical boundaries of my body dissolve and every molecule expand into space until I was one with all that is. For years I have also believed that humans will eventually evolve to a point where we vibrate at a higher frequency, allowing us to connect on an energetic level, and that by the sheer force of our collective consciousness, we will be able to ‘think’ peace into being. I have long been reticent to share these views because Read the rest of this entry »