Dear Friends, Great Souls
I'm sitting here on the porch of a Buddhist retreat house in Phuket, Thailand. The sun's behind the clouds, which suits me fine as it's not too hot. The rainy season's finished but you still get the occasional downpour. When it's raining it's not unusual to see the ubiquitous 100cc motorbikes ridden one-handed while an umbrella is held aloft in the other hand. It's always warm and humid here with a wonderful lush array of tropical plants and papaya trees wherever you look. Today's great debate; shall I go to the beach, the internet cafe,  or to the pancake house. Or I could stay here on the porch and continue with Mathieu Ricard's Happiness, a guide to developing life's most important skill. 

For 10 years or more I have had this feeling that I will live to be 103 and then see how I feel about "leaving". So I was quite amused to hear this true story about a 104 year old French lady. When asked what she liked about being this age she thought a moment and then replied, "Well there's very little peer pressure!"
And will I live to be 103?  You'll just have to wait and see.

 (Mostly written whilst drinking chai from  a small plastic cup in the dingy basement canteen of the Seema Dental Hospital in Rishikesh.  I am waiting for 15 year old Naveen to complete his root canal treatment.)

When I was at the Expanding Light yoga retreat  in California I met Cindy, a singer-songwriter with the voice of an angel.  When I first heard her sing I thought  -  Wow! a cross between Joni Mitchell and Sarah Brightman. I had bought a book of Yogananda's poetry called Songs of the Soul. Some of the writing is very reminiscent of Shakespeare which is pretty amazing for an Indian writing in English.  Cindy held the book in her hands and asked that the spirit of Yogananda give her a message.  She opened the book at a random page and, lo and behold, there was the poem At The Fountain of Song. 

Great Souls, Dear Friends  

I am glad to be connecting with you again and I am thinking of you, and feeling closer to you as I write this. In my email system there is no "group send" facility so I have to click on each name to send the email; which is very nice because I think of each of you as I select your name, and I remember you fondly and the times we have spent together - whether you are  friend, client, student, teacher, or yogi, or none of these. However we met, you have touched my life and I thank you.

Here in America life has been very interesting - challenges big and small; plenty of learning;  and underneath it all a deep and growing joy, the source of which is hard to define. 

(Article first printed in AYTA yoga magazine, April2008)

Life after Ananda Yoga Teacher Training (AYTT) unfolds differently for each of us. I took AYTT in January–February 2005. This is my story …

The four weeks of AYTT were genuinely some of the best weeks of my life. Apart from anything else, it was during AYTT that I knew that I was to become a disciple of Yogananda. As far as the yoga was concerned, I just loved the physical exercise, the spiritual aspects of the teachings, and the immense feeling of wellbeing that I had during the programme.

An olive is permeated throughout with the oil of the olive. There is no part of the olive pulp which is not oily. In the same way God-consciousness permeates the whole of our being -and indeed the whole of the universe.  Now olives may suffer from too much or too little sunshine, too much or too little rain; they may be damaged by fungus or pests; they may have damaged roots or come from poorer quality seed.  Neverthless each olive is thoroughly permeated with oil. Some "scientific" types may scoff at the idea of consciousness, let alone God-consciousness, permeating our beings. I take refuge in a quote from Albert Einstein.

"We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality."