The Art of Living

After Mahabalipuram, we drove to the Dakshinachitra village where we would be participating in the Art of Living retreat.  The Art of Living Foundation was created in 1981 by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and there are now programs in over 140 countries.  When we arrived, I was so happy to find a peaceful little village with lots of trees and quaint little cabins.  It was so nice to be out of a city and finally experience some quiet.  The people were so welcoming and everything was so pretty.  Since the village is closed off, there were no tourists or beggars.  Everything we did was within walking distance so we never had to worry about getting on buses or feeling like we had to be somewhere.  It was nice not having so much structure.  It also helped that there were only 25 of us on the retreat so the small group made it easier.  Each day we gathered in a big pavilion for meditation and yoga where we sat on straw mats and pillows.  We ate our meals in a small dining room and most of the time we ate off of banana leaves.  It felt good to live simply, even if it was just for a few days. 

The first night we gathered in the big pavilion and listened to a storyteller share some traditional Hindu stories.   After that, we had samosas, a popular Indian snack.  Each day we had a small snack around 6pm since dinner wasn’t usually served until 9pm.  In India, dinner is typically eaten on the later side.  Of course I was always starving by the time dinner came and I admit that thoughts of food sometimes interrupted my meditation.   I understand that you are supposed to do yoga on an empty stomach, but how can you meditate when your stomach is growling?  I’m convinced those Indian gurus were sneaking bites of food when no one was looking.  How would anyone even know since everyone’s eyes are supposed to be closed?

While I’m on the topic of food, I should mention that everything we ate was delicious.  Unfortunately I can’t remember all of the specific things we ate since most of the time I had no idea what they were.  But it was comforting knowing it was all vegetarian.  A typical meal consisted of a piece of naan or some sort of bread, lots of different sauces, rice, beans, and then some sort of mystery dessert.  Desserts in other countries do not compare to those in the United States.  (I mean have they heard about brownies and ice cream?  Someone needs to give them a Dairy Queen Blizzard… a ball of dough dipped in syrup is not cutting it.)  But aside from the desserts, the meals were incredible.  You just had to like spicy food… I mean really spicy.  This food would have made my Uncle Jerry sweat and he’s usually a champ when it comes to eating hot and spicy things.

Anyway, back to the mediation…. I’ll begin by talking about my meditation teacher, Hamsapriya.  At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about her because she said whatever she was thinking and was almost abrupt at times.  “Sit up!” she would say to us during meditation.  I was expecting someone more soft spoken and friendly.  However, I began to respect her so much more when I realized how honest and genuine she was in everything she said.  She seemed so connected to the truth and to her faith.  She reminded me of my Grandma Flo who passed away a few years ago.  For example, my grandma was the type of person who didn’t want you “crying over spilled milk” or walking around feeling sorry for yourself.   Like my Grandma Flo, Hamsapriya seemed comfortable with who she was and didn’t seem to get caught up in things that weren’t important.  I realize how rare it is to find people who are so grounded.  Throughout the entire weekend I felt so connected to my Grandma Flo.

After the first night, we spent two full days meditating and doing yoga.  Even though we took breaks for meals and free time, it was still the most meditation I’d ever done in one period of time.  It is hard to group all of it together though because each time it felt different.  Sometimes I was so tired that I would fall asleep and other times my mind was racing so much that I could hardly sit still.  But the more I was connected to my breath, the easier it got.  There was also something so powerful about being in India that made everything so much more meaningful.  I have been practicing yoga for years but it felt different practicing in the place where it all began.  I felt supported by the earth and by all the history that was rooted in the ground beneath me.

One particular meditation exercise that moved me was the Immortality Exercise.  It was a guided mediation where Hamsapriya took us through each phase of our lives.  It starts out by picturing ourselves when we are just 6 months old.  We imagine where we are and what we see.  Then we picture ourselves at the age of 2.  We imagine ourselves beginning to walk.  We imagine us with our parents and other people from our childhood.  We continue to picture ourselves at 5, 10, 16, 24, etc.  Once we get to our present age we continue to move forward, picturing ourselves at ages we have not yet reached.  We picture ourselves at age 40.  We picture us in our careers.  We picture ourselves being doctors and then being engineers.  We picture ourselves being Indian and then Chinese.  We actually imagine ourselves speaking Chinese.  We picture ourselves with children.  We live somewhere else, we have our own family.  We continue to do this until we get to age 80.  We are at the end of our lives, sitting on a porch, looking out at the world.   We see that we are still the same person.  It is still us.  We ask ourselves if we are fulfilled.   We ask ourselves if we are happy with our lives.

After we did exercises like this, we would discuss them in small groups and then Hamsapriya would give us her insight.  Although this meditation involved words, most of the meditating was just breathing and no words.  We would then meet in groups and answer a series of questions that Hamsapriya had given us at the beginning of the weekend.  Some of these questions included:  What do you take responsibility for?  What do you not take responsibility for?  When will you be happy?  What do you need to be happy?  When did you come to this planet?  How long do you propose to stay here?  What would you like to do in your future?  What have you done to bring out divine qualities in other people?  What have you done that brought you fulfillment?  In additions to questions, she also had a series of statements that we discussed.  A few of them included: Expectations reduce joy, Live in the present moment, Opposite values are complimentary, Accept people as they are, The present moment is inevitable, and many others. 

In addition to the meditation, we also did some yoga.   However, the yoga was not focused on the physical but instead was all about the spiritual aspects.  It was so different than anything I’ve done before and I enjoyed every minute of it.  Aside from the yoga, meditation, and meals, we also had a lot of free time to walk around the village.  Inside the village were local artists selling their crafts but unlike the street vendors, they did not hassle us and they had set prices so we did not need to bargain.  There was also a person doing Henna tattoos (a popular trend among Indian women).  There was also a palm reader and a tarot card reader.  (I’d rather not share my readings because they weren’t too optimistic.)  Lastly, they had a bookstore and a small museum with lots of art and old artifacts on display.  Since we were some of the only people there, we were able to walk around at our leisure and enjoy the peacefulness of the village.

Well that about sums up my trip... Namaste!