|
|
 It's Sunday late afternoon as I write this, still only semi-recovered from a nasty cold that started on Thursday. Saturday was such a beautiful day to be outside, but sadly all I could do was rest. Today I'm showing signs of recovering and am giving thanks for all the days that I enjoy good health. I hope you can join us on Saturday April 4 for an evening of chanting and short meditation at Yoga Center Amherst.
When I'm feeling down like this, either physically or emotionally, it helps to remember that "this too will pass" and so I want to share with you something I found inspiring during my time of rest.
The Ashtavakra Samhita is a short treatise on Advaita Vedanta, ascribed to a great sage, Ashtavakra. It consists of a dialogue between Ashtavakra and his disciple Janaka. Who these two were, however, is not known. Part one of the Inspirational Corner this month is from a chapter on Wisdom from this text. If you're interested in reading the full text you can pick up the book from the Vedanta Press under the title Astavakra Samhita translated by Swami Nityaswarupananda.
Part two of the Inspirational Corner is a short story from a delightfully humorous and spiritually edifying book written by a modern meditation teacher Ajahn Brahm who was a student of Thailand's great Buddhist meditation teacher Ajahn Chah. I hope you can sense and appreciate the thread that links the story "This too will pass" with Ashtavakra's opening verse to the chapter on Wisdom.
let it be love,
Rick
| |
|
|
|
|
...and musicians
This month I'll be joined by most of the regulars:
Gurucharan........................tabla
Kevin Germain....................yayli tanbur
Dona O'Dou........................tamboura
Divya Shinn........................vocals
Rick Roberts......................harmonium
did you know...
That Rick Roberts is the oldest of four boys and was born Fredrick William Roberts in Belleville, Michigan, 1952. At the age of six he moved with his family to Scottsdale, Arizona where he lived until returning to his home state of Michigan shortly after high school. In 1979 he was introduced to chanting and meditation at the Ann Arbor Siddha Yoga Dham, one of Swami Muktananda's first American ashrams, where he lived for 4 years. In 1983 he relocated further east, this time with a wife and an engineering degree, to Woodstock, New York where he and his wife established Mirabai Books, Woodstock's first spiritual bookstore.
In 1992 he relocated (single again) to the Boston area, discovering the rich improvisational dance community that became, for many years, his extended family. In 1994 at an annual 2-week dance camp in Maine, he was introduced to the Ashtanga Yoga system of Pattabhi Jois and in the ensuing years began practicing and then teaching this system of Yoga. He also began introducing in the Boston area evenings of chanting, first to small intimate groups of friends in a living room setting, then later to larger groups in public Yoga studios.
It wasn't until after relocating to Montague, MA in 2004 that he began offering regular monthly Kirtan, first at Green River Yoga in Greenfield and then at Yoga Center Amherst.
Rick still lives in Montague, MA and after teaching Yoga for a few years and working for a year at the Montague Farm Zendo now works a 40 hour job in Athol as an Oracle Analyst/Programmer.
|
Inspirational Corner from Ashtavakra Samhita
He who has realized that change in the form of existence and destruction is in the nature of things, easily finds repose, being unperturbed and free from pain.
from Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung?
by Ajahn Brahm
The new prisoner was afraid and very depressed. The stone walls of his cell soaked up any warmth; the hard iron bars sneered at all compassion; the jarring collision of steel, as his cell door closed, locked hope beyond reach. His heart sank as low as his sentence stretched long. On the wall, by the head of his cot, he saw scratched in the stone the following words: This too will pass.
These words pulled him through, as they must have supported the prisoner before him. No matter how hard it got, he could look at the inscription and remember, "This to will pass". On the day he was released, he knew the truth of those words. His time was completed; jail too had passed.
As he regained his life, he often thought about that message, writing it on bits of paper to leave by his bedside, in his car, and at work. Even when times were bad, he never got depressed. He simply remembered, "This too will pass" and struggled on through. The bad times never seemed to last all that long. Then when good times came he enjoyed them, but never too carelessly. Again he remembered, "This too will pass" and so carried on working at his life, taking nothing for granted. The good times always seemed to last uncommonly long.
Even when he got cancer, "This too will pass" gave him hope. Hope gave him strength and the positive attitude that beat the disease. One day the specialist confirmed that "the cancer too had passed".
At the end of his days, on his death bed, he whispered to his loved ones, "This too will pass", and settled easily into death. His words were his last gift of love to his family and friends. They learned from him that "grief too will pass".
Depression is a prison that many of us pass through. "This too will pass" helps us pull through. It also avoids one of the great causes of depression, which is taking the happy times too much for granted.
| |
|
Kirtan
with Rick Roberts and friends
Every 1st and 3rd Saturday
...is a time
for people to come together, open their hearts and sing. For years
chanting has helped people to effortlessly reach a state of quiet and
stillness that easliy leads to meditation. While it's true that we can
chant in our car or in the solitude of our home, there's nothing like
chanting with others and with live musicians. Every kirtan is different
depending on the energy of the group, but as the evening progresses one
becomes saturated with the Name, the mind becomes one-pointed and
dropping into a deep state of meditation becomes effortless.
Suggested donation is $10 but please remember that a donation is not necessary. Anything is
appreciated, and all are welcome regardless of their ability to pay.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Kirtan