Indulgent seafood pasta in the spirit of some non vegan dishes I enjoyed when I ate fish, but this is minus any animal products. It can be made with your choice of pasta and is surprisingly quick and easy for something that tastes so rich (serves 4)
2 – 3 cloves garlic chopped finely
1 small onion chopped finely
1 packet of Tofuna mashed with a fork
4 handfuls of pine nuts (or any chopped nuts)
2 generous handfuls of dried seaweed salad leaves
2 teaspoons of tarragon, salt and pepper
Half a bag of spinach
1 pot of oat creme fraiche
4 portions of green beans, cut into short halves
4 portions of pasta, why not try linguini or spaghetti
2 drizzles of oil
Fry the garlic, onion, Tofuna, pine nuts, seaweed, tarragon and spinach in some oil in a frying pan. At the same time put the pasta and green beans on to boil. When the pasta is nearly ready add the creme fraiche to the frying pan to make a sauce and heat through. Drain the beans and pasta and when the sauce is ready stir together over a medium heat. Serve and drizzle with oil to finish
When I first leaned to meditate, it wa s a profound experience. I learned to develop a new relationship with myself on a breath by breath basis. I would observe the inhale, and I learned that if I welcomed it with openess and kindness, I was able to create a positive, gentle attitude towards myself that nourished me. Even as I write in this very moment, I am still cultivting that sense of observing with kindness. That first lesson in meditation was, it seems, still with me.
I learned that the exhale, the active part of the breath, requires more patience. And it was here that I found my fear of death manifesting. Not like sheer terror, but as I watched myself breathing and I noticed my chest tightening, particularly as I neared the end of the exhale, it was as though I was fearful that I wouldn’t take another breath. Or if I did that it would be full of complicated emotions. This is where I learned to trust. Trust in nature, trust in myself, trust in my life force. From this moment of realisation, I instntly felt freer and more at ease. I had been carrying around this fear of death with me for a lifetime. As I slowed the breath, I could sense myself slipping into its trap on every exhale. Abhinivesha is not one of the five kleshas for no reason. It is an obstacle to samadhi because we unconsciously slip into its clutches quite easily, and it is full of fear.
The exhale is also a good place to get curious. Ask yourself, what am I feeling? We all want to breathe easily and be kind to what we encounter, which means being honest about what we find when we look inside. I’m not sure I would have believed my inner landscape was so detailed and changeable when I first started meditating. In many ways, I long for those early days when I was learning to watch my self, before I knew how complicated I was, and how much I had to learn. I know now that I was looking at the first layer of self awareness, before I peeled away all the other layers that were waiting for me inside.
But it wouldn’t be very honest if I ignored everything that I have found since those days. And on reflection I think I am lighter for digesting all the ‘goo’ that I have discovered during my many of hours of meditation since. The instances of abhinivesha have become more varied, and my appreication of its sensitive nature, especially when sensing it in other people. Fear of death can be allied with all kinds of feelings, and it is often masked with anger, rage even. Finding it in someone else is equally tough. The sensation can be very uncomfortable, but the longer I am able to ‘be’ with it, the sooner I can realise what I am looking at and compassion can become the greater emotion.
This moon I am working purely on the second chakra, and find it quite fitting that the peak pose is Turtle. Meek, mild turtle that likes to introvert when things get difficult. Ironic that this is a pose associated with the second chakra as we work on our ability to connect with others. Perhaps for a yogi, perfecting the art of introversion, like a turtle, is not such an illfitting metaphor around this chakra. Often what is true about ourselvs is true for others, and in many ways learning about the self is also learning about others.
I am struck by how much I am drawn to hip opening in general. It could be that my star sign Pisces is aligned with the second chakra, ruled by Jupiter, associated with the colour orange, as well as being connected to the water element? So I feel a particular affinity for the second chakra. Lotsof us store tension in the hips, so working on the hips is a popular focus in many yoga classes. Releasing tension in the body helps us move more freely and communicate with others more openly; the more we are at ease with ourselves, the more we are ease with others.
I am inspired by a description of pecans in Braiding Sweetgrass, and how the pollen from the male plant trusts the wind to carry its fertile seed to a female plant waiting down wind, in order for the tree to fruit. It is abeautiful miracle that in this way the plant has learned to survive. Through all the processess of evolution, plants and trees have come to trust the wind to fertilise them. I think this is the ultimate example of trust because without the wind, the plants would die out, yet the trees have little control over the wind. In fact many plants rely on a male and a female plant that grow separately, united only by the wind, they are called dioecious. Kimmerer writes that ‘[i]f the wind can be trusted with that fecund responsibility, why not with messages?’ as she introduces the idea that plants might talk to one another.
As I imagine the plants swaying in the wind, I imagine myself walking along the street absorbing and releasing prana from and to the people that I encounter. I’m not seeking to pollinate the people, haha, but there is something in the fluidity of a swaying branch that inspires me to move with confidence. Fixed, yet mutable, my flwoing self gets curious about the people that I meet. What are their stories, how are they today, what’s their style?
I think it’s no accident that water is associated with the chakra of reaching out to others. Water is fluid, curious and receptive, and in order to meet others with sensitivity we need to embody these characteristics. We need to open our eyes, expect the unexpected, and trust that the wind will bring us the people we need to take the next step. But in order to get along wth others we have to change ourselves a little, we have to pause to receive th e other.
By nature, others are different. As my yoga teaher says, ‘every wave is unique’ and so we are all unique. However similar we may seem on the outside, our imprint on the world, our persepctive and our character are different. It is these differences that make the world an interesting place, but it can make it challenging too. Things that make one person laugh can make another shout, and yet another cry. Pausing to look inside, to align with the moment, to know where the person is coming from because you have seen these feelings in yourself, to create a feeling of neutrality and quiet, in spite our differences, that is wherer connection can be found.
Our meditation on the mat, in the form of asana, teach us to watch the m ind move in challenging situations. We also learn to still the mind, and to be present in the moment through embodiment. We learn to wacth the breath and to apply the bandhas all helping to prepare us for those moments when we come into contact with others. Our yoga practice helps us to see the self in others as well as to embrace the differences.
For those days when you just want a simple thick nourishing soup, this one is easy to eat with melt in the mouth potato, and lentils smooth, thick curry laced with spices and herbs, beans for extra protein, and greens for iron. Serve in a bowl, suitable for all ages, serves 4-6
dice red skin potatoes
+ oil, spices (5-6 curry leaves, 1 tsp fenugreek, 2 tsp cumin, 2 tsp thyme), salt and pepper
+ enough lentils to cover potatoes and stir fry together
+ water to cover, and 2 tsp of corn flour
+ chopped kale or other greens
+choice of beans
simmer until cooked, stirring occasionally (45min-ish, if boiled dry add more water)
serve with chapati, or on its own – with two sources of protein, plenty of carbs and greens this is one wholesome dish all by itself!!!
Bursting with flavour this makes a light, nutrient dense dinner, serves 2-3
Potatoes (3 medium, cubed, skins on)
Black beans (one can, cooked and drained)
Asparagus (one bunch cut into 2 inch batons)
Paprika 1-2 tsp
Bay leaves
Salt and pepper
Lemon and mustard dressing (use a fork to whisk lemon juice with wholegrain mustard and sesame oil, in equal parts)
Fry potatoes in sesame oil and paprika. When potatoes almost cooked, add asparagus and black beans to frying pan for a few minutes, until heated through. Serve and drizzle with lemon dressing.
For salad:
Watercress – chopped
Black and green olives – pitted and chopped
Blueberries
Blueberry juice – drizzle
Add ingredients to a bowl and drizzle with blueberry juice and oil. Serve with bread
The kleśas are said to be the key obstacles to samadhi, bliss. If you can surmount these then you are good to go as an enlightened being. Ha! Easier said than done. There are quite a few lists, tips and tricks in the yoga sutras of Patanjali, and the list of five kleśas is one of them. It is believed that the kleśas can be destroyed through observation:
the kleśas become like burnt seeds, scorched by the fire of discrimination, and thus they become unproductive, and one is no longer subject to these afflictions and the kliṣṭa (detrimental) vṛttis they produce ( 1 )
It is only by watching the mind move through these obstacles, or afflictions, that we can become aware of them, exposing them to the fire of discrimination. When we meditate we create a space to watch the mind move, free from the distractionfs of daily life, even just five minutes a day can make a difference. Here is a brief run down of these five points to work with in the jouney to self awareness.
Avidyā technically means ‘not knowing’, the verb vid to know, and a as in the Greek, not, or without. Avidyā is most commonly translated as ignorance, but this can sound a bit harsh when you’re rooting around your psyche, and of course the most important thing in this case is to be kind to yourself. It is sometimes said that Patanjali and his students ordered the sutras so that the most important things come first, like Ahimsa before Satya in the niyamas, and in this verse it is avidyā that takes first place. To be in a position of ‘not knowing’ is one of the toughest places to be. ‘Give me a clue’ we find ourselves saying, trying to find our way out of the clouds that blind us. ‘I’ve got thi nagging feeling’ we might say to a friend, ‘I can’t put my finger on it’ we say to ourselves as we grapple with some unseen, unresolved feeling that is trying to tell us something. This is the primary obstacle to samadhi. Figuring out tricks to decipher the feelings inside of me is one thing that yoga has taught me. Ways of moving, ways of breathing, patience, flexibility of mind, all these things help to dispel the darkness that obstructs the mind from seeing clearly.
Asmitā, or ego, is possibly the funniest of the kleśas. Having learned to watch my mind, the things I watch my mind getting hung about is almost shameful. But it’s important to approach this task of getting to know the self with forgiveness. Its hard to be a yogi and not laugh at yourself. Shadow sides of the ego include anger, controlling others, manipulating situations, or believing that ‘I am the doer’ rathe than something greater than us. It’s hard to say more without spoiling the next point, but yep you guessed it, raga attachment, and dvesha, its opposite, hatred or aversion shape much of what we see in ourselves when the ego is in operation. I guess you could say that ego or asmitā is rāga and dveṣa in their nascent states. If you can catch yourself moving into ego thenyou can stay in a place of buddhi awareness, where the veil of ego fails to move you.
Rāga means attachment, and since learning to watch my mind, I have found myself atached to all kinds of things. If you’re one of these people who likes things to be ‘just so’, identifying attachment in your persoanlity can be liberating. Perhapas you see it in someone else, and instead of feeling stifled you can let it go, laugh even. Knowing where I cling to things has been one of my most valuable lessons. The hope of positive transformaiton that yoga brings through this kind of learning is why I love yoga. Greater self awareness fosters greater, connection.
Dveṣa means aversion or hatred. Rather than clinging to something, you are desperate to change it, or make it disappear. Dveṣa can be very uncomfortable, particularly when you are unaware that you have slipped into this ‘exterminate’ mode, it can be too easy to feed the pain and slip into a downward spiral. We are taught to be good children in assembly at school and negative emotions are much less explored, so our tool kit to deal with these kinds of emotion are more limited. Maybe things have changed, I don’t know, but certainly in my day, we weren’t welcoming hatred with openness and curiosity. Perhaps it take a certain level of maturity. I feel like saying at this point that some aversion and hatred can be a good thing, it protects us from what we don’t, or cannot understand. As with all the kleśas, they are there for a reason, and our jounrney to samadhi an ever evolving process. We can only see little bits of our self at a time, and it’s useful to accept them before moving to change them. Somewhere in the space between rāga and dveṣa is equanimity, or non-attachment, a massive Buddhist topic, and one of the keys to enlightenment. By observing rāga and dveṣa we can more easily cultivate a space of equanimity.
One of the first Sanskrit words I learned was abhinivesha. It means fear of death. I remember being impressed that yoga had a word for this concept. We hear so little about this kind of fear and yet it is with us consciously, or unconsciously with every breath we take. When you let go of this fear, or overcome it, you can experience samdhi. Abhiniveśā, however difficult an emotion to conten with that it is, I find it more tangible than avidyā. Avidyā is your blind spot, abhiniveśā smacks you in the face with anxiety, it narrows your vision, it tenses your body. I think the solution to this feeling is positive community. Yoga encourages us to look inside, but also to seek sangha. It is very difficult to survive without people around you, not impossible, but difficult. Sangha is a community of likeminded individuals that can help overcome feelings of fear. Of course you can also work to overcome feelings of loneliness. Being alone won;t kill you, although you can feel that it might. The beauty of being entirely self sufficient needs to be balanced with your own karmic need for companionship.
We have looked at ignorance, ego, attachment, aversion and fear of death as the five key obstacles to enlightenment. Whichever klesas you most easily identify in yourself, learn to watch the feelings inside you, then you can bgin to know yourself, then you are on the journey to self realisation.
(1)Bryant B. F. (2009) Te Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. New York: North Point Press. p.175
Last moon, we focussed purely o n the root chakra at the base of the spine with peak pose Bird of Paradise. As we move up the sushumna, away from the the root chakra, towards the sacral chakara, we arrive at the intersection between the two chakras: Root and sacral, earth and water, self and other. From focussing on getting to know the self during the last moon cycle, when we were working on the root chakra, as we move up towards the sacral chakra we begin to look to the idea of the Other.
The second chakra, said to be connected with the water element is associated with creativity and partnerships, physically located next to our sexual organs it is symbolically in line with this meaning. From the stable, solid, unmoving earth of the changeless Self, we now contemplate fluid, changing, curious water that seeks to come into relationship with the Other.
I have come to see the earth element mnaifesting in two ways. There is earth as in the solid, gross matter that you can touch and see, and then there is ethereal earth, where the ether body becomes heavy. Yoga is all about leanring to watch the ether body, the unseen element, but I am curious to know more about earth in its gross form too. It is so unlike us in our mind form, even though we are made of it.
The two most gross elements in combination make for a muddy, soup like substance; volcanic lava, a silty riverbed, leavs, bark, flesh, blood and muscle all remind me of this combination. The human body is solid, but filled with liquid. Overall the body is 60% water, even the bones contain water (31%). Without earth there would be no structure, and without water there would be no movement. In order to know the other, we must first know ourselves and this lesson ‘Kiss the earth’ invites the student to study that moment of moving out of the self to come into relationship with another. It doesnt have to be another human, it could be an animal or plant friend, it could even be as simple as a step on the earth. What can be seen in that moment? Is it that what is internal becomes external, our heart and lungs move to say ‘Hello’; and what is external becomes internal, ‘I see you, I smell you, I touch you’? The Self, present in all beings, even the earth, is expressed in that moment of connection.
We can imagine the big Self and the small self (note the big ‘S’ and the little ‘s’) coming together just like earth and water coming together. When small self, identified as the ego, separates from the big Self, the place of universal consciousness, the atman emerges from the paramatman, and signifies the original moment of creation. As the soul, the atman, becomes human, it separates from the paramatman, becoming encased in the ego. Imagining them like earth and water you can identify the experience in meditation. Sometimes thoughts lap at the shore of peace and tranquility, reaching out to greet us, sometimes they crash like a wave, clamouring for attention, the earth holds them all, unmoving, steady and stable .
To Kiss the Earth is not a new idea in yoga. The Buddhists teach it as a way of imbuing mindfulness in their students. ‘Move gently, with love, if you can’, it is saying. Love the earth, your home. In the song of the same name, Ajeet sings ‘Let’s kiss this earth we walk upon with our steps’ epitomising the idea of moving gently in self awareness. It is about cultivating an attitude of care and attention in every step. If we want to be enlightened, we want to create a loving connection to earth, which means walking lightly and kindly on it .
What we find in yoga is that a lot of students find it hard to ground and connect with their root chakra. Indeed the sun saluation and standing poses are designed to ground the students and to increase their awareness of their legs. But the reason students find it hard to ground is manyfold. Some might have issues relating to family, work or their home, others might be more in touch with their ether body, others more intouch with their minds, others mihgt have no connection to the earth as in nature. Persoanlly, I have come up against all these reasons over the years for feeling ungrounded. And the more I know myself, the more I know that each day is diferent. But there are overarching themes that typify periods of my life. The way I spend my time, the people that I meet, all of these things influence how I am feeling in my body.
One of the things I am missing most at the moment is a close connection to the earth. I don’t have my own garden and getting my hands dorty is one thing that I really crave. Soil is said to be a natural anti depressant thanks to a certain friendly bacteria that promotes serotonin production. Showthe earth some love and it knows just how to show some back! One of my happier memeories is going to practice yoga after volunteering in a garden. My mind was full of bean plants, and as I sat up tall, I saw the green ends of the bean plant curling up and around me. My mind’s eye was full of the curling tendrils and the lotus shaped leaves that somehow seemed self similar to my uneven body. Plants are beautiful, delicate beings that mimic humans in their simplicity. Earth (root chakra) meets water (sacral chakra), the plant grows out of the ground, just like humans, reaching for the light of the sun (solar chakra) as it rises in the morning.
Working to connect with the earth as your home is something you can do in your body on the yoga mat, but for your spirit to feel the healing power of the earth, you must go out and meet it. Leanring to walk lightly on the earth is up to each of us, it is our karma yoga,or our yoga of service. Jupiter is now in Taurus, an earth sign and also symbolic of tilling the land, it is the sign of farming. There has never been a better time to connect with the earth. Now is the time to volunteer at your local gardening group, get on the waiting lit for that elusive allotment, tend to the outdoor spaces around your home, aquire some houseplants or even buy a piece of land. If we don’t love the earth, it cannot love us back. And in reaching out to the earth around us we might just learn about ourselves too.
In a state of enlightenment, acceptance is one of the dominant emotions, and it is no surprise that it is the emotion associated with the root chakra. Acceptance of what is, as it is, with nothing wrong at all, we see the world as perfect. I remember coming back from India one time, where I had stayed in a forest, and by the sea. I had been surrounded by nature and felt nourished by it. When I returned to my home town, the buildings dominated the landscape and I felt troubled inside. The buildings looked ugly, megaliths of stone and concrete, some with small windows, others greying with age. I had recently learned in meditation that if I wanted to stay in state of enlightenment, I needed to wacth the emotions moving through me, and avoid getting attached to negative thoughts. So when I looked at the buildings, I changed what I thought. I told myself that everything was just as it is, that nothing was wrong. I saw the cut stone, I imagined it being cut out of the ground, and I felt gratitude for the gift it was, and impressed that we humans had come so far in our journey that we could create such buildings.
Shvetashvatara upanishad, verse 4 – 5 (1)
The world is the wheel of God, turning round
And round with all living creatures upon its rim.
The world is the river of God,
Flowing from [ it ] and flowing back to [ it ].
This verse reminded me of the moment looking at the buildings. It is saying that the whole world is god, that it is an expression of god, no matter what it is. And so I accepted that the buildings were part of god. It is a moment that I have come back to several times since then. I believe that the natural world is our teacher, that wihtout it, we cannot be enlightenened, or truly happy. The buildings seemed to me like an aberration of nature, that in building them we had moved far away from the lush forest and the refreshing sea. But I realised that we humans are so clever that we can change our own minds, we can choose what to think. In other words, we can consciously evolve. We can do this so much so that what was once abhorrent to us, can become a source of peace.
It means that instead of seeing stone buildings as the product of earth, literally carved out of it, or a finite resource that releases carbon into the atmosphere, we see an achievement. Now many people already do this, they do it wihtout thinking. And I think this is where campaigners can become unstuck, because they are, in some ways, unelightening the people they are talking to. They are asking them to see ugliness where they see beauty. I guess it applies to many of the things around us that we consume: cars, cosmetics, phones etc. Since at least 600BC, when the Upanishads were written, we have seen acceptance of everything that is, as the road to enlightement, as the wheel of god.
The Upanishads are full of words that aim to cultivate acceptance of things as they are, and to see the totality of reality as a manifestation of god. It is a guiding principle that to be enlightened you must first see everyone and everything around you as enlightened. I understand this as a beautiful concept, and a challenge that makes life more interesting, it’s not exactly and easy task. But I think religion is largely rejected today because it is easy to see this kind of attitude as something people in power, or an established order, would seek to tell their people. Accept things as they are, we have everything under control. Personally, I feel that the words written down are true, but they were written at a time when we didn’t see thw whole picture.
When we deal with cultural texts from the past we accept that there is a certain amount of simplicity. That is not to belittle our ancestors, nor commit to a 100% linear evolution of mankind, but to appreciate that in terms of written texts and the knowledge that they purvey, they are less than perfect. We started to write things down so that we could build on what we knew, so that we could amass more knowledge than what we could remember. It also meant that the same knowledge was shared more widely, and the things that were shared became massively influential. The Hindu texts are no exeeption. But what I love about yoga is that it is scientific. It is not just a philosophy, or a way of life, but it tries to understand the light that moves within us.
Verse 15/16
‘Like oil in sesame seeds […]
so dwells the [Lady/]Lord of Love,
The Self in the very depths of consciousness.
Realize [it] through truth and meditation.
The self is hidden in the hearts of all’
So to meditate is to seek love and consciousness within. It is not about seeking fulfillment outside the self, in material goods or acknowledgment from other people, but about exploring the energy system within the body, using the breath, heart and bhandas to unlock our limitless potential.
Sometimes, if you’re lucky, when you meditate, certain truths are revealed, that help the meditator to navigate their daily life. These truths may be universal, such as we are all one, we are all energy, we are all light, or it might be more mundane, you;re being a control freak about this, or that person is taking advantage of you. All of these things are true, and they enlighten the pratictioner. This is the benefit of harnessing the inner light and illumnating onces own consciousness.
It is incredible to think that two and a half thousand years ago, we were advanced enouh to write down what we knew of this science. Today, talk about an inner light is often met with skepticism. It is not always easy to access, or it is used to create mischief. The rise of aestheism points to a world that doesn’t want to ascribe to the institution of religion, and I think that is because many people don’t want their inner light to be dictated by someone else. In other words, we learn right and wrong from our parents or guardians or friends or TV. So it is up to us to understand the light, the effect that it has and ultimately, what it means to be enlightened today.
If we are going to make inroads into earth-consciousness, to wake people up, we need to be aware that we are asking people to change what it measn to be enlightened, and to acknowledge that we are rejecting someone else’s enlightenment. When we say that we don’t want to develop along the same lines that we have been developing for the last five thousand years (at least) then we need to be aware that for many people this is scary.
In 600BC, we didn’t have science to tell us that many animals will go extinct if we behave in certain way, that high levels of consumption destroy habitats, that the atmosphere could be ruined, that as such, our mindset of progress is dangerous to our own livelihoods. When we established cities five thousand years ago, we changed what we thought of as enlightening. Instead if nature, we committed to the idea of civilisation as enlightening, and now we are destroying the planet. This is scary, what if people don’t wake up in time to stop climate change?
The root chakra, is all about acceptance as the antidote to fear. The root is our home, and everything that entails: our family, our job, and our sense of self. NO BIGGIE. If our root chakra is out of balance we cannot look after ourselves or our home. Looking at the state of our home, the earth, with all its utter destruction and pollution, the air, the water, the soil all wrecked, it looks like we have a serious problem with out root chakra.
If we’re looking at too much acceptance, rather than too much fear, which is what we’re always taught, ‘cultivate acceptance’ us yoga teachers say, does the world look any different? What we need to protect the earth, rather than more acceptance, is actually more fear. More fear to act by eating a vegan diet at least some of, if not all the time. More fear to take the bus, or the train, or to cycle. To reject the way things are, is in some ways is to reject enlightenment. Which means that to recognise that something needs to change means moving towards a place of fear. Waking people up means scaring people. (not too much, beasue if an aim is not acheivable people won’t be motivated to act) it means learning to navigate difficult issues with sensitivity and bravery so that constructive seeds of fear can be sown.
For me God is the unknowable,it is what is common to all of us, although not everyone agrees on what it is. The ancient scriptures show that people have been asking the same questions for eternity. If you’re into yoga you probably feel drawn to texts that deal in light, but the point is that while god is the unknowable that underlies all things, how we come to be enlightened, how we cultivate acceptance, and gratitude, how we negotiate our way between the light and our perception of what is good for us, is not even as simple as being enlightened, or happy. Sometimes we need to cultivate fear, so that we can act.
(1) Easwaran, E. (1987) The Upanishads reprinted 2007. US: Nilgiri Press
Sarasvati Flow 