Tenting Under An Old Oak

Sitting in my tent after 3 days at Winter Solstice already, I have finally sat down to write. The oak tree is dropping acorns on my tent at night, which reminds me of the almonds falling on the roof of a cabin I stayed in in Jamaica in 2003. The birds are singing after the rain, the Spanish moss hanging in the trees is swaying in the cool, moist breeze, and I am about to take a nap before working the swing shift in the Luggage Seva tent. There aren't anymore spiders hanging around from last night, which is awesome too! I really don't groove on spiders in my tent.

I did Bound Lotus today in the Fire Tent at Sadhana, which was my first time doing Sadhana with more than 6 people. Though I went to Winter Solstice 2009 and Summer Solstice 2010, Sadhana was more than I could handle. Just doing Bound, Seva and sleeping were top priorities. White Tantric was very iffy then too. I hope to have more energy this year...and it seems to be working out that way.

Though it is wet, rainy, and cold at night, I am happy sleeping outdoors, in my own space, nestled like a bird or a squirrel amongst all my stuff. I like doing Bound Lotus and the Laya Yoga meditation in my tent, so this morning I was apprehensive about doing Bound Lotus in public. I do it alone, so this was a first. But I got to hear Gurunam Singh's rich voice leading Sadhana this morning, and Rakhe Rakhanahar was so beautiful! Wahe Guru was healing, and then I went to Gurdwara. I accidentally sat on the men's side and felt right at home, which makes me wonder again if I was a guy in a past life. I switched over to the women's side just in time for prasad.

I slept after Sadhana, and had the strangest dream of going down a spiral staircase into 10 levels of a basement in what was my house. Every floor was empty, gray and cold. There was really no junk visible...just grayness. Sadness. Loneliness. As it got colder, I ran up the stairs to come out of my dream, and realized that I was late for the Seva meeting. Umm.

Holed back in my tent after a breakfast of spicy onion and potato soup with bananas, I am ready to sit again for the Laya Yoga Ashtang Mantra meditation, before taking another nap. My back hurts a little and it makes me tired. This meditation, though, is really working! Among other things it is definitely deepening my intuition: I knew where Krishan Prakash' purse was and where Khalsa's boots were...driving down here a few days ago, I knew the weather was going to get really bad, and followed my intuition to drive like crazy to get past Monteagle Mountain in Tennessee, and into Valdosta, Georgia before safely stopping to rest.

This practice, as well as Kundalini Yoga overall, are like accelerated yoga for healing and cleansing. It's not a short-cut. Short-cuts are easy. This stuff is hard. It is accelerated. That is the best way I can think of to describe it. What took me five years to do before, can be done in a few weeks or months. I've been cleaning out the basements of my mind...now comes the refurnishing of the home in my heart!