POETRY | James Broughton : Shaman Psalm

an excerpt from Shaman Psalm

-James Broughton

Arouse a new era

Disarm the Cutthroats

Sever the loggerheads

Offset the history

of torment and curse

Man is the species

endangered by man

Quick while there's time

Abandon your rivalries

or mourn

Deflate pugnacity

Magnify friendliness

Off with your mask

Off with your face

Dump the false guides

who travel the warpaths

Uncover your loving

Discover surrender

Rise in your essence to

the tender occasion

Unwrap your radiance

and brighten your crew

Value one another

or fall

Come forth unabashed

Come out unbuttoned

Bury belligerence

Resurrect frolic

Only through the body can

you clasp the divine

Only through the body can

you dance with god

In every man's hand

the gift of compassion

In every man's hand

the beloved connection

Trust one another

or drown

Banish animosity

Summon endearment

you are kindred to

each one you greet

each one you deal with

Hold nothing back

Hold nothing in

Romp and commingle

RETREAT | The Call to Adventure : Yoga & Hiking in the Colorado Rockies

The Call to Adventure
Yoga & Hiking in The Colorado Rockies
w/ Roger McKeever & Shari Feldman

September 21 - 25, 2013

Rocky Mountain National Park is beloved for its wildlife and majestic mountain views, and is now home-base for this retreat in September! In the arms of nature, we will practice yoga and meditation, journey into the mountains on guided hikes, and dive into philosophical discussions 'round the evening fire to bring about profound and lasting transformation.

No previous experience is necessary.  Beginner yogis and hikers of all levels are welcome. Just bring an open mind and an open heart, and leave with a fully nourished spirit. Come frolic with us!

• Guided hikes in Rocky Mountain National Park

• Morning yoga and meditation

• Healthy meals (vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options available)

• Cooking demonstrations

• Hot tub

• Evening talks around the fire

• Thai Yoga massage (available)

For more info, detailed pricing and the fine print Click Here

INTERVIEW | Mary Oliver : A Thousand Mornings

I Happened To Be Standing
-Mary Oliver

I don’t know where prayers go,
or what they do.
Do cats pray, while they sleep
half-asleep in the sun?
Does the opossum pray as it
crosses the street?
The sunflowers? The old black oak
growing older every year?
I know I can walk through the world,
along the shore or under the trees,
with my mind filled with things
of little importance, in full
self-attendance.  A condition I can’t really
call being alive.
Is a prayer a gift, or a petition,
or does it matter?
The sunflowers blaze, maybe that’s their way.
Maybe the cats are sound asleep.  Maybe not.

While I was thinking this I happened to be standing
just outside my door, with my notebook open,
which is the way I begin every morning.
Then a wren in the privet began to sing.
He was positively drenched in enthusiasm,
I don’t know why.  And yet, why not.
I wouldn’t pursuade you from whatever you believe
or whatever you don’t.  That’s your business.
But I t hought, of the wren’s singing, what could this be
if it isn’t a prayer?
So I just listened, my pen in the air.

ROGER WRITES | Gay Bashing

Today is National End Homophobia Day.  This is my story of being gay bashed twice since moving to Portland.  Yes, homophobia exists everywhere even here in this liberal, gay-friendly city.

I went into a coffeeshop today, and everyone working there had on bright spring colors.  It was obviously intentional.  I said something about it to the guy ringing me up.  He didn't really respond to my comment.  Then I asked him if it was some kind of special day. He quietly and awkwardly said to me, "I guess it's National End Homophobia Day."  It struck me that he was a little hesitant to say it out loud like someone might be offended or that a customer might then know that he was gay.  I exclaimed how wonderful and necessary it is to bring homophobia to the light.

Sometimes, it's easy for me to forget that homophobia still exists because of the friends I have, the people who I have surrounded myself with, and because I live gay friendly city.  But since being in Portland I have had two very disturbing experiences with intense homophobia.

I was riding my bike home late one night on 21st St. in the NW district of Portland where I live.  About 4 blocks from my apartment there were 3 young jock-type men standing on the corner.  The second I  saw them my intuition told me that something was about to happen, and sure enough, as soon as I started to pass them, one of them jumped at me swinging his fist and just missed hitting me in the face.  The 3 of them then started screaming "Faggot.  You fucking faggot!!"  I continued on.  I was a bit rattled and distrubed.  How could this happen in Portland?

The very next week I was riding my bike to Muu Muu's, a funky neighbor restaurant and bar, to visit with Doug who waits tables there.  I was walking my bike to lock it up on the bike rack.  Again, three guys (not the same guys) straddled the sidewalk.  It became obvious that they were creating a barricade, and they weren't going to budge.  I gathered my courage, and I barreled through their barricade determined not to back down.  Again, I was immediately met with them yelling, "Faggot!"

Homophobia real.  People get verbally and physcially abused daily just for being gay. We must rally together embracing, acknowledging and loving each other for our diversity.  We must stand up with courage and with wholeheartedness.

INSPIRATION | "I am not a bum, I am a human being."

ROGER WRITES | Expressing Appreciation

The other night I went over to a friend's house to have dinner.  Simple enough, right?  Little did I know that I would have an experience that would change my life.

While we were cooking, his neighbor from across the street happened to pop in.  She's 83.  She said right away, "I haven't seen you in a while, George, and I just stopped by to tell you that I've missed you and that I love you."  It was a sweet moment to witness.

They spent some time catching up.  At 83, Jeanne is a woman who laughs easily and is full of vim and vigor!  After some light-hearted and jovial interactions, George finally inquired if everything was alright.  She said that her brother had died a few months back, and she had not been out and about as much.

She told the story of her brother who had MS, and how she had watched him slowly deteriorate.  By the end of his life he only had use of his hands and his head.  One of the last times they were together he said, "It could be worse."

It could be worse.  I repeated that in my head a few times.  Then I thought, "Oh my God, what could possibly be worse?"  I felt a quake all the way to my bones.  In that moment I experienced a tsunami of gratitude flood through me.  I felt an instantaneous appreciation for my body, for my friends, for my family, for the ability to experience the world around me so fully.  In fact, since that moment I have been walking around in a stupor of appreciation.  I've made it a point to tell people that I appreciate them.  When I notice something that catches my eye I say to myself, "I appreciate that."

The thing that has struck me the most, however, is that I feel appreciation for my challenges and for the difficult parts of my life.  I have found myself saying thank you to the uncomfortable moments.  I'm grateful that I have the ability to choose to stand back up after falling down and to make amends.

I have started a list of the things I am grateful for-- a list that will never end as long as I have my hands and my head.  

TED | Expressing Appreciation

ROGER WRITES | Including Suffering

My mother called me yesterday to find out if I was okay.  3,500 miles from Boston and she calls to make sure I'm okay.  I comforted her as much as one can comfort someone who loves and cares as deeply as only, perhaps, a mother can.  What she didn't know, and what I didn't tell her, is that the reason I didn't pick up the phone the first time she called was because I was in the middle of sobbing my heart out after reading the news about the Boston Marathon Bombing.  What I couldn't say is, "Mom, I'm not okay.  I've touched a sorrow so deep that I feel like I may never return from it.  No, mom, I'm not okay.  How can any one be okay with such reckless and unnecessary tragedies in the world?"

I hung up the phone loving my mother more than I ever thought possible.  In that moment, I felt the little shards and shrapnel of anger and hurt, that lay in the bottom of my heart, come pouring out in a flood of tears.  It was here in this spontaneous act of forgiveness and letting go that I realized the power that suffering can bring.  True happiness and contentment only arrive at our doorstop when we're willing to walk down the stairs into the basement of our raw, unfiltered, unmasked  hurt, sorrow, and loneliness.

Recently, I had a day of feeling stuck, uninspired and hopeless.  I texted with a dear friend of mine about my boredom and disdain for everything and everyone.  She wrote to me, "Before you spend too much time wallowing in self-pity and self-destruction, remember how many sources of inspiration exist... including suffering." Needless to say, it blew the doors off of my self-constructed woe-is-me story.

I don't know exactly how to process or what to make of these tragedies that happen daily all over the world.  What I do know is that I can not avoid or turn my back on the reality of this complex world.  I know that I must face it squarely, and that I must also turn to the people that I love for touch, for comfort, and for that silence that holds the depths of my human experience without the need to control it or take it away or fix it.

I send a million invisible threads of love from my heart out into the world. Peace to the world. Peace to all who suffer.  Peace. Peace. Peace. Shanti. Om.

TED | Jill Bolte Taylor : How it feels to have a stroke

TED | Thandie Newton : Embracing otherness, embracing myself

VIDEO | Green Porno : Earthworms

EVENT | Yoga Boogie : Worms Ritual

Worms! Worms! Worms! The Spring Equinox has long been celebrated as a time of rebirth, fertility, and creation. In this spirit, we dance, we breathe, we give our intentions to the w.o.r.m.s. Yup, that's right, worms! As part of the ritual for this upcoming Yoga Boogie; Resurrect Frolic, there will be an installed aquarium with worms to chow down on our intentions, transforming them into luscious, nutrient rich soil.

Come to Yoga Boogie this Friday. Be part of the movement.

Get More Info

INSPIRATION | Swami Satchidananda speech at Woodstock

Sri Swami Satchidananda opened the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival  in Bethel, New York  on August 15, addressing a crowd of approximately 500,000.

My Beloved Brothers and Sisters:

I am overwhelmed with joy to see the entire youth of America gathered here in the name of the fine art of music. In fact, through the music, we can work wonders. Music is a celestial sound and it is the sound that controls the whole universe, not atomic vibrations. Sound energy, sound power, is much, much greater than any other power in this world. And, one thing I would very much wish you all to remember is that with sound, we can make—and at the same time, break. Even in the war-field, to make the tender heart an animal, sound is used. Without that war band, that terrific sound, man will not become animal to kill his own brethren. So, that proves that you can break with sound, and if we care, we can make also.

So I am very happy to see that we are all here gathered to create some sounds—to find that peace and joy through the celestial music. And I am really very much honored for having been given this opportunity of opening this great, great music Festival. I should have come a little earlier to do that job, but as you all know, thousands of brothers and sisters are on the way and it’s not that easy to reach here.

America leads the whole world in several ways. Very recently, when I was in the East, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi met me and asked me what’s happening in America. and I said, “America is becoming a whole. America is helping everybody in the material field, but the time has come for America to help the whole world with spirituality also.” And, that’s why from the length and breadth, we see people—thousands of people, yoga-minded, spiritual-minded. The whole of last month I was in Hawaii and I was on the West Coast and witnessed it again.

So, let all our actions, and all our arts, express Yoga. Through that sacred art of music, let us find peace that will pervade all over the globe. Often we hear groups of people shouting, “Fight for Peace.” I still don’t understand how they are going to fight and then find peace. Therefore, let us not fight for peace, but let us find peace within ourselves first.

And the future of the whole world is in your hands. You can make or break. But, you are really here to make the world and not to break it. I am seeing it. There is a dynamic manpower here. The hearts are meeting. Just yesterday I was in Princeton, at Stony Brook in a monastery, where about two hundred or three hundred Catholic monks and nuns met and they asked me to talk to them under the heading of “East and West—One Heart.” Here, I really wonder whether I am in the East or West. If these pictures or the films are going to be shown in India, they would certainly never believe that this is taken in America.  For here, the East has come into the West. And with all my heart, I wish a great, great success in this music Festival to pave the way for many more festivals in many other parts of this country.

But the entire success is in your hands, not in the hands of a few organizers. Naturally, they have come forward to do some job. I have met them. I admire them. But still, in your hands, the success lies. The entire world is going to watch this. The entire world is going to know that what the American youth can do to the humanity. So, every one of you should be responsible for the success of this Festival.

And,  before I conclude my talk, I would like you all to join me and our group here in repeating a very simple chant. As I was reminding you of the sound power, there are certain mystical sounds which the Sanskrit terminology says are the bijakshara, or the “seed words.” We are going to use three seed words, or the mystic words, to formulate the chants. And if you all join wholeheartedly, after the chant we are going to have at least one whole minute of absolute silence. Not even the cameras will click at that time. And in that silent period, that one minute of silence, you are going to feel the great, great power of that sound and the wonderful peace that it can bring in you and into the whole world. Let us have a sample of that now. The words will be: “Hari” is one word. “Om” is another word. The first chant will have these two words, “Hari Om Hari Om, Hari Hari Hari Om.” The second line will be “Hari Om, Hari Om, Hari Hari Om.”

There will be another chant afterwards:  just one word, “Ram.” We’ll be repeating: “Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Ram.” It’s a sample. It’s very easy to follow with everybody and we’ll have a gentle clapping also. So, now we’ll begin in a slow rhythm and gradually build it up. Now I will request all of my friends to join me.  We will repeat the line once, then allow you to follow. (The entire festival then chanted the “Hari Om” chant together.)

Thank you all very much. And  once again let me express my sincere wish and prayers for the success and peace of this celebration. Thank you.

TED | Benjamin Zanders : The transformative power of classical music

POETRY | Mary Oliver : The Summer Day

The Summer Day

Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

POETRY | Mark Nepo : A Poem by Mark Nepo

A poem by Mark Nepo

Having loved enough and lost enough,
I'm no longer searching
just opening,

no longer trying to make sense of pain
but trying to be a soft and sturdy home
in which real things can land.

These are the irritations
that rub into a pearl.

So we can talk for a while
but then we must listen,
the way rocks listen to the sea.

And we can churn at all that goes wrong
but then we must lay all distractions
down and water every living seed.

And yes, on nights like tonight
I too feel alone. But seldom do I
face it squarely enough
to see that it's a door
into the endless breath
that has no breather,
into the surf that human
shells call God.

ROGER WRITES | Emergence vs. Homeostasis

Let me preface this article by telling you that in four days I turn 40.  It's no big deal, except that it is.

A month ago I signed up for 8 weeks of life coaching with Tommy Faricy.  I finished my first month last Monday.  He challenges me to think new thoughts, helps me to see things from a different perspective, and encourages me to go to the places that scare me.  He reminds me of what Joseph Campbell said: "The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek."  I resist, of course.  It's my job to resist.  But his patience, diligence, and passion have made a huge impact on how I am moving forward with my life.

Two weeks agao he shared with me the concepts of emergence and homeostasis.  Emergence is the process of coming into being, and homeostasis is the process of keeping everything the same.  We focused primarily on emergence because, well, my life lately has been too much about homeostatis, which is why I started the life coaching sessions in the first place.

I've thought about these two concepts every day since then.  I've explored both sides, and I've realized the necessity of both of them.  We all want to emerge, to be our best, to be successful, alive, awake, and radiant.  However, too much of that can cause us to feel manic and oftentimes leads to a crash-and-burn experience, which is why we also need the otherside: the ground, the bones, the nuts and bolts.  It's also important and necessary to have elements in our lives that are constant and steady, but when we have too much groundedness we can easily fall into inertia and depression.

Recently, I've re-awakened my passion to move toward more complex asanas and movements.  I've been exploring and using these two dynamic forces in my practice.   I find that when I strive, push and reach out for these postures too much, I fall, I tumble, I loose my ground, and that's when I'm most at risk for injury.  When I recognize that is happening, I come back to my breath.  I come back to my bones.  I connect to my feet.  I let go of outcome and return to the practice.

Then there are those days when I get to my mat and my bones are heavier than my will; days when I think, "meh."  In those moments, I can decide to do something different.  I try a new pose.  I take some energizing breaths.  I pray for a miracle.  I let go of outcome and return to the practice.

On and off the mat it's important to strike a balance between the emergent energy required for transformation and the consistency needed for that transformation to last.

P.S.  Anyone have a Corvette for sale?

INSPIRATION | Shane Koyczan : To This Day Project

TED | Sherry Turkle : Connected, but alone?

Why you should listen to her:

Since her pathbreaking The Second Self: Computers and The Human Spirit in 1984 psychologist and sociologist Sherry Turkle has been studying how technology changes not only what we do but who we are. In 1995's Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet, Turkle explored how the Internet provided new possibilities for exploring identity.

Described as "the Margaret Mead of digital cuture," Turkle has now turned her attention to the world of social media and sociable robots. As she puts it, these are technologies that propose themselves "as the architect of our intimacies." In her most recent book, Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other, Turkle argues that the social media we encounter on a daily basis are confronting us with a moment of temptation. Drawn by the illusion of companionship without the demands of intimacy, we confuse postings and online sharing with authentic communication. We are drawn to sacrifice conversation for mere connection. Turkle suggests that just because we grew up with the Internet, we tend to see it as all grown up, but it is not: Digital technology is still in its infancy and there is ample time for us to reshape how we build it and use it.

Turkle is a professor in the Program in Science, Technology and Society at MIT and the founder and director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self.

"What technology makes easy is not always what nurtures the human spirit."
Sherry Turkle

TED | Phil Hansen : The Art of the Imperfect