Back in Joshua Tree, CA this weekend at another lovely spiritual yoga event… Shakti Fest…the world of devotional yoga surrounds me, reopening all my memories of the era of my younger life when I was a first-time explorer of yoga's mysteries. Now listening to the rhythmic waves of Sanskrit mantras wafting across the ridges and valleys of this retreat center's desert landscape reminds me of the temples which fill the vedic landscape of southern India with similar melodies. Here, like the there of my memories, bhajans are everywhere.
I had earlier decided not to attend this festival based on the consideration that at this time of year it would be unbearably hot here…. but as the time of the gathering approached, little subtle invitations to reconsider began arriving in my life. After realizing this event was offering a stellar lineup of expert yoga teachers (as well as amazing music) I finally responded to these 'you show go' clues, and inquired about attending as a volunteer staff member,…. and was accepted. Gratefully, a weather miracle has occurred, as the temperatures have dropped 15 degrees… just for this weekend…
This being Saturday night and the event not being over I can only selectively report on my experience so far…
The most true soundbite that I think I can utter is that my yogic path is deepening. So far two teachers here have impacted me… one has introduced me to a newly created approach to freeing the lower spine and hips (which is where our shakti/kundalini energy arises from). It is called Yin Yoga. The modality views our limbs as levers which can be used to open and realign our core structure. I can't do justice to describing it, I can just let you know it exists. After the class, I asked the teacher where this approach came from. She told me it was the inspiration of a yoga teacher named Paul Grilley. I was a bit shocked, as I realized I have known the man for many years (as he is a local resident of Ashland, Oregon---where my son grew up and where I have therefore spent significant time too) but that I did not know this was who he was, in the world of yoga.
When peace is a priority and things like this happen, the mind-based identity can easily forget that there are no mistakes in the timing of things. We learn what we need to about each other in perfect timing… how can it be any other way? Yet, even though this is so, the perfection can be improved on, yes? All it takes is deeper attention to our own subtleties… our own sense of guidance. I knew he was a yoga teacher. I simply had not asked to know more….
The second yoga teacher I must mention taught another side of yoga. What got me to go to her particular workshop was that Jai Uttal was going to be there… providing music for her. She is his wife--- Nubia Teixeira, who I have just discovered is an amazingly deep yoga guide. The breath/pranayama and mudra journey that I experienced under her lead was so powerful that I have a knowing that she has just entered my life in a significant way. Her website iswww.bhaktinova.com. I won't try to say more.
On to the music report. Chanting is a thing in this world, and thus can be done with or without ego. From the rock-star like main stage, there has been both here. That 's only my view, which could be just the view of my ego. My ideal about acceptance is to have space for everyone, but I do have preferences. So far of all the performers here my favorite has been a woman call Wah! Others have been very moving (David Newman for instance), but she was inspiring for me. A lot of that was her incredibly humble persona which just sang so purely from her heart, to the Godness…. but the fact that she also played a bass guitar…and at the same time sang the lead melodies (something quite difficult to do) was equally impressive…..
A segway….
I have been thinking a lot about music since Sat Nam Fest. In fact, it's been displacing my painting discipline quiet a bit, as I have gotten that I still desire to share my personal love of creating music with the world. So something that I haven't mentioned (that happened at Sat Nam Fest) was I spontaneously pitched myself to one of that record company's owners (the producer of that event) telling him that I was a musician, and that I was interested in signing a recording and distribution contract with him. This was based on my sense that since all their musicians were kirtan-based (as is a lot of my music) that there was a potential match. He was impressed by my paintings, which created an artist to artist appreciation opening, and we agreed to explore the idea via email. Because of that, I have put in a lot of hours creating a demo recording project to demonstrate to the company (Spirit Voyage) that I was potential recording artist material. My effort so far has been to focus on my own version of the famous Alleluia Chorus. I have shared it with a good number of people and have gotten generally favorable critiques so far. One of the moments that happened today was a serious critique of that recording effort by a professional music producer who I first met as a Sat Nam Fest staff (he's also here at Shakti Fest, on staff). His generous praise was sincere, but because his critique on my overuse of reverb explained WHY and HOW too much reverb can hide musical information that it is important NOT to high, his conversation was a breakthrough for me (as I'd never seen it that way before).
So my report is I have been learning on a number of levels this weekend. Returning to beginners mind… it is always a good practice.
That has been my delightful experience so far here. I pray my report contains something useful for you. Time for me to get some sleep, as my next shift is early in the morning….
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