Dear Yogis,

We have been holed up with Covid, and may have to go through it again before this cycle is over, until we have learned what we need to know.  If you had to choose one action which would produce an entirely perfect future, if you had to choose one thing which would leave an imprint on your mind that would make you see every single detail and person of the world as completely perfect, as pure light, as pure bliss then what would it be.  Answer –  Tong-Len Meditation. The meditation of pure compassion.

Let us consider Covid.  What would be the good of that perfect world, the perfect garden you have created,  if the loved ones who have passed on cannot see it.  What good is a garden if you are the only one who will ever see it.  If you have made it just for you?

When the suffering (of friends, relatives or the world) started,   when the virus started to effect the brain, invade the gut and shut down the lungs, was/is there anyone who can wave their arms and say a magic word and remove this sickness? I don’t think so.  Not for these people, or for any of the suffering in the world,  anyone,  as long as humanity has lived, and that is what this wonderful little being, the virus has woken up to teach us.

What has caused these people to be ill and die? A virus?  It is a living being and has as much right to life as you do.   According to our yogic training we have learned it is because  at some point those who are suffering now, however they are suffering, any suffering not just covid,  failed to respect life.

We suffer because we have caused suffering to others.  Most of us are completely ignorant that this is what brings us suffering, and because finally, in seeking to protect what we believe are our own interests we respond to evil (the negative) with new evil, and thus assure evil upon ourselves in future as well.

How do we know this?  It is the kindness of our teachers, of all teachers (including you who are reading this) who have come to us to show us that the real source of all pain is the pain we do to others.

Why do we come to you, why do you come to others? We come to make our students think.  I suppose we could have lulled you into the thought that all will be well without you changing anything, without you doing contemplation, study, practice and discussion.  It is not possible.  You cannot understand just because I understand.

Even if we could send everyone who suffered those THINGS they think they need, the new house, clothes, cards and mountains of food they consume in a lifetime, even new body parts, would it help?  No.  There is only one thing that would help, and that is an enlightened teacher. Someone who could show them the path.  They may not take the path in this lifetime, and they might hate you for showing them the path, but one day in the future, maybe in a future lifetime,  they will become an Enlightened One because of your action and they will lead another onto the path.

How do we grow an Enlightened One? By planting totally PURE seeds in the heart, the mind and the body that will make us see ourselves become an Enlightened One.  The Meditation of Compassion is the Path to compassion itself. Sending the water of compassion to all those who are suffering – sending it all out with white light on the breath.  Devote yourself to the practice of taking and giving throughout the day, saying to yourself constantly throughout the day “giving and taking”.  Sending the breath out changes the giver as well as the receiver even if we cannot see the changes.

First you must tidy your own garden, make your own garden beautiful, before you can change the garden belonging to others.

HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY.

NAMASTE.  Jahne

 

Dear Yogis,

I was so excited I couldn’t wait to share this with you….

It is a beautiful day, and I thought I may go out in the garden this afternoon, if I have done all the writing I need to do.  I am getting the garden ready for my new bee colony arriving in spring, even getting bee friendly plants growing so that they will feel at home and loved.

A friend gave me a bee book (by Bee Wilson), and although I was reluctant to have another book to read (they are piling up whilst I am stuck on Beatrix Potter), imagine my surprise and delight on flipping through and discovering a paragraph on “honeydew” (honey from heaven).  

Last summer I told you about the connection I had made between the sugar exuded from aphids on certain trees in the garden and a wasp invasion.    I had discovered this “rain of sugar”  whilst sitting meditating under the tree with the wasps. The wasps were so busy with their collection, they couldn’t be bothered with me sitting in their space, and I enjoyed observing their behaviour around this particular tree.  I couldn’t find any literature on this phenomenon, and no-one I spoke to had an inkling about it.  I knew I couldn’t be the first to observe it, but I didn’t know what they were enjoying had been discovered and was known historically “honey-dew”.

In 1634 a Mr Charles Butler wrote about it  and called it “the sweetest nectar which God doth distill miraculously out of the air”  He noticed it occurring on oak trees, I haven’t seen it on oak trees, but I certainly pay attention now.  Once I had got the right word for the miracle called honeydew, I could research and found  it was also noticed by Galen in AD129.  He said that the people of MtLibanus would spread animal skins on the ground to collect this “air honey” as it fell off the trees.

When I first discovered it last summer and followed the trail I realised it was being produced by grey black aphids being “farmed” by ants on certain trees around the pond.  The aphids produced a honey tasting substance which fell like fine rain drops on me as I sat under the tree.  It was this that attracted wasps to the garden.  But the ants and aphis are determined to collect this sugar, and I have to brush the trees down daily to keep the aphid population down, and the wasps away. Butler and Galen were  being very biblical in their musings, but it is actually a whole lot less appealing.  It is actually aphid poo.  

Apparently there are people who consider it a delicacy and it can be purchased at great expense at gourmet honey retailers.  They market it as “heavenly sweat” as I presume “heavenly poo” would be a whole lot less appealing.  Once you know what it is it really does taste like what it is.  Yes, it is sweet, it is also “woody” or you could call this taste “poo’ey” and there is some doubt about whether it is really fit for human consumption.  In my garden, the rain is not heavy enough that I could be bothered to lay out skins to collect it which is probably good  because I would, but I have honey, so aphid poo is not a sugar source I rely on..

Take advantage of COVID.  When you slow down, take time in the garden, and really pay attention to what is happening around you, it is amazing what you can discover.  Go sit in your garden (rug up, it is cold out there).  

Have a gorgeous day.

NAMASTE  JAHNE

Dear Yogis,

“I have made a vow to attain Enlightenment in the female form – no matter how many lifetimes it takes”     – Tenzin Palmo

We understand that yoga is like a cave, but during our time in COVID isolation we have had the opportunity to take this a step further – our house could have been (or could be) like “a cave”.

Have any of you read “A Cave in the Snow”?  The life story (thus far) of the Buddhist nun Tenzin Palmo who spent twelve years meditating in a tiny cave over 13,000 feet up in the Himalayas.  I am sure that if you had self isolated in this extreme way, cut off from the distractions of ordinary life, all the demons lying beneath the surface would begin to rise up and taunt you.  The anger, the paranoia, the lust (especially the lust).  They all have to be overcome if like her, we wish to take another step towards enlightenment.

Certainly there have been many Saints and women mystics in all parts of the world, but taking that extra step into enlightenment has been the domain of the male.  The female body has been seen as unfit, or unworthy.

Tenzin Palmo’s thirst for knowledge and that “extra step”,  had pushed her way beyond where you or I would ever venture.  I am sure like me, you have examined your reactions to this time locked away for COVID safety, even though it was as nothing compared to her isolation and the dangers she faced if not from thieves, or animals, then from ice and snow… and of course the climate in the Himalayas – remember she was born in England.

Imagine that EVERY DAY you sat on the same cushion in the same place for hours at a time, saying the same mantras, the same prayers, and moving into the same meditations.  Every day the same as the one before. Ultimately it is a test of endurance and courage.  I know how hard most of you work at spending more than half an hour on a cushion – now imagine 12 years….

Tenzin Palmo knew that the purpose of life is to realise our spiritual nature.  And to do that we have to go away and practise, otherwise we have nothing to give to others.

The lives we live in the West for the most part are an escape.  This has been made abundantly clear during Covid.  Even in our self imposed isolation, we can turn on the TV, phone a friend, go out for a walk for an hour, even shop.  If you were in a cave such as the one Tenzin Palmo inhabited (6ftx6ft), a cave where there was no room to lie down (sleeping happened sitting up in a box which looked like a cupboard drawer), and when problems in meditation or life arose,  like her you would have had no choice but to go through them and come out the other side.  No supermarket, no shopping.  If you didn’t eke out a living from the ground around the cave in all weathers (or hopefully be remembered by villagers), then like her you starved.   She faced her own nature, nothing hidden, no way of running away (except perhaps into madness).

The life of Tenzin Palmo shows us that the impossible is possible.  That it is possible if not in this lifetime then in the next that there could arise a female Buddha.  Tenzin Palmo believes that she was born a woman to have these experiences and inspire other women.  There is still a long way to go.

Instead of chafing at the bit to get back to “normal”, use this time wisely to move your yoga, your meditation, and your life towards a more “Godly” pace.  In this way, everyone will win.

KEEP WELL,KEEP WARM, (and enjoy the sunshine)

NAMASTE – JAHNE