16 February 2009 – Virginia.

I’m still in Virginia. It feels like I’ve been here for months, not just over a week. I’m having an amazing time realizing there are communities here I feel just as home in as Seattle and India. That’s new. I’ve been mostly staying with people who don’t have Internet in their homes, so when I do hit the Internet every two or three days, I’m using that time for homework. That’s one reason why I’m behind on my blogging and I’m waaay behind on email.

I had an amazing day at the Satchitananda Ashram – Yogaville in the mountains on Saturday. They were having a free Introduction to Yoga workshop that included meditation at their LOTUS shrine, Hatha yoga postures, pranayama, kirtan and satsang. I kept breaking out in huge smiles in mid chant when I’d realize I was in Virginia chanting in Sanskrit.

Swami Satchitananda and his devotees are the creators of Integral Yoga and I wanted to go for two reasons. One, I wanted to immerse myself in the ashram/yoga space and kirtan. I was exhausted from driving one to three hours every day and reconnecting with friends and family, including a 79 year old aunt I’ve not had a particularly strong connection with before. Virginia is not a walkable place and I was quite depleted while getting virtually no physical activity. I knew immersing myself in the ashram would be rejuvenating and it was.

Two, I wanted to see what distinguished Integral Yoga from the forms of yoga I’ve been introduced to. I don’t see a lot of difference. They do slightly different mudras for the pranayama and place the pranayama at a precise place in the practice, but overall it seems to me to be Sivananda yoga. They also have a very specific way of doing yoga nidra, but again, fundamentally it’s not much different.

The ashram is mellow and very isolated, in the Blue Ridge Mountains along the James River. The energy there is very gentle and sweet. LOTUS stands for Light Of Truth Universal Shrine and was built in the mid 80’s to honour all faiths, including atheism, music and science and faiths not yet discovered. There are many icons for each faith represented and the building is shaped like a giant lotus flower. In the upper level meditation chamber, there are individual shrines around the outside wall with neon light beams going to the ceiling and a central light beam going to the ceiling where they all meet. It’s quite lovely. There is a miniature Mt. Kailash with an enormous Nataraja where they do daily pujas. Finally, there is Chidambaram, the mahasamadi shrine of Sri Satchitananda. I’m considering spending 2 – 3 days there this week, if something else doesn’t present itself. It’s nice to be immersed in a yogic routine and they have a nice library and satellite Internet.

After the workshop at the ashram, I spent the night with a Landmark friend and went to Charlottesville Unity church on Sunday, where they sang a couple of songs we sing at CSL. My heart burst open while I was singing and the tears started tracing lines down my cheeks. I was beaming and swaying and singing. After the service, while I was being introduced to one of the ministers, one of the backup singers on the stage came over to me and told me he could feel my energy up there and it totally grabbed his attention and he looked over to see me smiling and singing with raised hands. I LOVE hearing that it’s tangible.

After the Tuesday night Landmark seminar in Charlottesville, I sat up chatting with my hosts, dear friends I met doing Landmark work, and their 15 year old son. Their son is an amazingly aware and conscious 15 year old. He wasn’t at the Charlottesville seminar, but would be going to the Richmond seminar Thursday night. I was sharing stories about India and my cosmology and about what being a Tantrika means to me. I shared about loving having a body and not wanting to transcend or turn my back on this realm of existence, but to bring full consciousness and awareness back and live fully while here. He asked for clarification on renunciation, I don’t think there are many renunciants in the Charlottesville skater community, and we talked about what that was. He seemed mildly agitated, told me it was nice meeting me and went to bed.

At Landmark seminars, people get up and share what’s coming up for them in their lives. At the beginning of the seminar on Thursday night, my friends’ son got up and shared that he was incredibly inspired by my sharing about being fully engaged in life in this body, in this realm and it had fueled a brightness and energy in his next two days. I was extremely touched. My stories of being invisible and not making a difference are truly dead. It’s so gratifying to me to hear that I’ve touched someone by simply being me. That he shared that with the entire seminar, whoa.

I’m ready to move on and I can’t for another 5 days. I’m a bit agitated by this. I plan to use the time to rest and recharge, but I don’t know where I’m going to stay each night and that’s getting old. Next up is four days in Florida at my sister’s, then home to Seattle. I’m getting excited about being home again. Five months is a long time.