Global Mala in Singapore

Come come come come come to Pure Raffles City on September 22nd at 9AM for a round of 108 sun salutations to celebrate Peace Day and the World!

I will be leading the Practice, don't be late.

Where is the Rasa?????????

I am juiceless today. No Rasa. No Bhava. No mood. No practice.

Meditation. 108 neeralamba mantras. Breathing. Cleaning the toilet floor. Flossing. Tongue scraping. Salad. One muffin (bloody hell, it was from Imperfect Mama in law - sinful but gewd :D).

Missing winter in Hong Kong, the snow in Japan. Tired again. Of Maya. But no Rasa to work on opening up.

Damn!

IY

Thought of the day

What makes the practitioner suffer is that there is always a beginning of a process followed by a moment where this process reaches an end, only to be replaced by another process. According to the tantrikas, the duality that we perceive is merely a state of contraction. At the moment when the Shakti, or energy, is no longer contracted, we are able to relax, and at the same time we experience non duality because our body/thought is no longer limited.

Daniel Odier
Yoga Spandakarika

One day...

Om Namah Shivaya
In the highest o hare om
O hare om
One day I was walking down the road and I caught myself in a big bright light, so bright

One I was walking down the road and I caught myself with a big phat smile, smiling

(Wade Morissette)

How do some days end up so much better than you expected them to be? I went to bed late last night after a long long dinner with ex colleagues in an overly refrigerated room, and a few beers. I was teaching at 1030 this morning, and felt i woke up too early. Not hangover at all, just tired... The last few days have been quite long with much teaching, workshops for the new teachers, the mala project... Anyway, I went to teach my class, and it ended up being absolutely great! The energy was awesome, to my surprise the class was totally packed, and people were so open and genuine. My dear recurring teachers were there, and it was amazing to teach them. They are such great yogis and yoginis, so open minded, working so hard, but so soft in their thoughts. All great. Then i hang out, prepared my workshop, read a bit, and then led a hatha workshop for plenty of people. And it was amazing!!! Again, the energy was great, cool buzz, it was just awesome. My dear imperfect husband took pix, so i will be able to display them soon.

Anyway, it worked out to be a fabulous.

I have to go to get ready and prepare myself for the night of the night. A student is having a party in a club and I am on the list. I have not gone clubbing in ages, so this will definitely be interesting.

Tata.

IY

Why 108?

The glomal mala initiative will soon hit the world to celebrate the Summer Solstice and celebrate yoga in action in the world.

A lot of the Mala activities, be it the global mala project or malas that we perform in our individual practices, revolve around the number 108. 108 sun salutations, 108 beads, 108 mantras... And I have always been curious about why this number is so critical.

Here is what I found.

Meaning of 108 beads on a mala
by Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati

On a mala, or set of mantra counting beads, there are generally 108 beads, or some fraction of that number. The question often arises: Why are there 108 beads on a mala?

Below are some of the many reasons that have been given for having 108 beads on a mala, as well as a few other points of interest. None of these reasons are being promoted here as more or less true than the others. However, you may notice that 108 appears to be somewhat like a road map of reality in general, and the human in particular.

Regardless of the meaning of 108, it is important that if a mala is used to count mantras, the mantra be remembered with sincerity, devotion, feeling, and full attention.

9 times 12: Both of these numbers have been said to have spiritual significance in many traditions. 9 times 12 is 108. Also, 1 plus 8 equals 9. That 9 times 12 equals 108.

Powers of 1, 2, and 3 in math: 1 to 1st power=1; 2 to 2nd power=4 (2x2); 3 to 3rd power=27 (3x3x3). 1x4x27=108

Harshad number: 108 is a Harshad number, which is an integer divisible by the sum of its digits (Harshad is from Sanskrit, and means "great joy")

Desires: There are said to be 108 earthly desires in mortals.

Lies: There are said to be 108 lies that humans tell.

Delusions: There are said to be 108 human delusions or forms of ignorance.

Heart Chakra: The chakras are the intersections of energy lines, and there are said to be a total of 108 energy lines converging to form the heart chakra. One of them, sushumna leads to the crown chakra, and is said to be the path to Self-realization.

Sanskrit alphabet: There are 54 letters in the Sanskrit alphabet. Each has masculine and feminine, shiva and shakti. 54 times 2 is 108.

Pranayama: If one is able to be so calm in meditation as to have only 108 breaths in a day, enlightenment will come.

Upanishads: Some say there are 108 Upanishads, texts of the wisdom of the ancient sages.

Sri Yantra: On the Sri Yantra there are marmas where three lines intersect, and there are 54 such intersections. Each intersections has masculine and feminine, shiva and shakti qualities. 54 times 2 equals 108. Thus, there are 108 points that define the Sri Yantra as well as the human body.

Pentagon: The angle formed by two adjacent lines in a pentagon equals 108 degrees.

Marmas: Marmas or marmasthanas are like energy intersections called chakras, except have fewer energy lines converging to form them. There are said to be 108 marmas in the subtle body.

Time: Some say there are 108 feelings, with 36 related to the past, 36 related to the present, and 36 related to the future.

8 extra beads: In doing a practice of counting the number of repetitions of the mala, 100 are counted as completed. The remaining are said to cover errors or omissions. The 8 are also said to be an offering to God and Guru.

Chemistry: Interestingly, there are about 115 elements known on the periodic table of the elements. Most of those, around or higher than the number 100 only exist in the laboratory, and some for only thousandths of a second. The number that naturally exist on Earth is around 100.

Astrology: There are 12 constellations, and 9 arc segments called namshas or chandrakalas. 9 times 12 equals 108. Chandra is moon, and kalas are the divisions within a whole.

River Ganga: The sacred River Ganga spans a longitude of 12 degrees (79 to 91), and a latitude of 9 degrees (22 to 31). 12 times 9 equals 108.

Planets and Houses: In astrology, there are 12 houses and 9 planets. 12 times 9 equals 108.

Goddess names: There are said to be 108 Indian goddess names.

Gopis of Krishna: In the Krishna tradition, there were said to be 108 gopis or maid servants of Krishna.

1, 0, and 8: Some say that 1 stands for God or higher Truth, 0 stands for emptiness or completeness in spiritual practice, and 8 stands for infinity or eternity.

Sun and Earth: The diameter of the Sun is 108 times the diameter of the Earth. The distance from the Sun to the Earth is 108 times the diameter of the Sun.

Moon and Earth: The average distance of the Moon from the Earth is 108 times the diameter of the Moon.

Silver and the moon: In astrology, the metal silver is said to represent the moon. The atomic weight of silver is 108.

Numerical scale: The 1 of 108, and the 8 of 108, when added together equals 9, which is the number of the numerical scale, i.e. 1, 2, 3 ... 10, etc., where 0 is not a number.

Meditations: Some say there are 108 styles of meditation.

Breath: Tantra estimates the average number of breaths per day at 21,600, of which 10,800 are solar energy, and 10,800 are lunar energy. Multiplying 108 by 100 is 10,800. Multiplying 2 x 10,800 equals 21,600.

Paths to God: Some suggest that there are 108 paths to God.

Smaller divisions: The number 108 is divided, such as in half, third, quarter, or twelfth, so that some malas have 54, 36, 27, or 9 beads.

Hinduism: 108 is said to refer to the number of Hindu deities. Some say that each of the deities has 108 names.

Islam: The number 108 is used in Islam to refer to God.

Jain: In the Jain religion, 108 are the combined virtues of five categories of holy ones, including 12, 8, 36, 25, and 27 virtues respectively.

Sikh: The Sikh tradition has a mala of 108 knots tied in a string of wool, rather than beads.

Buddhism: Some Buddhists carve 108 small Buddhas on a walnut for good luck. Some ring a bell 108 times to celebrate a new year. There are said to be 108 virtues to cultivate and 108 defilements to avoid.

Chinese: The Chinese Buddhists and Taoists use a 108 bead mala, which is called su-chu, and has three dividing beads, so the mala is divided into three parts of 36 each. Chinese astrology says that there are 108 sacred stars.

Stages of the soul: Said that Atman, the human soul or center goes through 108 stages on the journey.

Meru: This is a larger bead, not part of the 108. It is not tied in the sequence of the other beads. It is the quiding bead, the one that marks the beginning and end of the mala.

Dance: There are 108 forms of dance in the Indian traditions.

Praiseworthy souls: There are 108 qualities of praiseworthy souls.

First man in space: The first manned space flight lasted 108 minutes, and was on April 12, 1961 by Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut.

Further contractions of the public and free space in this Imperfect Island

My imperfect island has again censored events in relation with same-sex groups, to show that conservatism, old patterns and authoritarian behaviors are not out of fashion just yet.

www.yawningbread.org

So tired still...

I have been back for a week for LA, and my cold is finally getting under control. I refused to take any sort of medication, and let my body deal with it the natural way: rest (somewhat) and good food. It was quite uncomfortable, especially the alternating blocked ears. It's a challenge in general, but when you teach a class can't ever hear what you are saying, that's a toughie. Anyhow, things are better now, although I am still tired, and recovering from the lack of sleep of the LAX-SIN flight. I slept another 9 hours last night, which is way too much for my own good, but I guess i needed it.

Life is good otherwise, although I still feel like not much happening here. I mean, I am glad to be teaching, to be home, and so on, but it's such a low down compared to the excitement of the last 2 weeks. I did not quite figure it out until i recovered from my cold, but I am feeling a little bit depressed. Also, my cold has prevented me from having the kick-ass practice I had back in LA, and I feel down about it. I will do my best to rekindle the source, but I miss Shiva so much. I feel like my practice has dried out to bits since coming back. My teaching is definitely better, my students love it, but I feel that I may not be doing all I can. Horrible recurring sense of not being enough...

I think I need to go and get more of Shiva this year. It will have to be Kerala or Venice. I am waiting for Daphne, Shiva's manager, to send me the latest info on her schedule, and I will make my decision.

Well, that's it for today, not much I figure.

IY

Dry spell, dry thoat

Since I came back from LA, I have been sick with a nasty cold and total ear blocks. I suspect it is the champagne i had on board, which felt too good to be that good. Not really motivated to write since i touched down, as I feel a bit disconnected. I am so happy to be back home with my three crazy imperfect loved ones, but i have a hard time reconnecting to my practice (being unable to breathe obviously does not help) and with my energy. Let's hope it changes today.

IY