Dear Yogis,

What do you WANT?  We are living in a world governed by DESIRE.  From the moment we wake up we are thinking of the next thing – food, clothing, house, sounds.  Our ears want to hear lovely sounds, our eyes want to see beautiful colours, even our nose want to smell expensive beautiful perfumes and aromas.  This sense desire is so strong that if we are deprived for any length of time we begin to imagine them.

Our desire is not limited to the physical.  We can desire knowledge, security, contentment and we do.  We run after them as if we can catch them.  It is desire that drives us to achieve success.  Most people would consider life without desire to be a living death.

Behind each of our desires is our wish to be happy and if only in this regard we are all equal.  We all want to be happy, but in spite of this our life is full of unhappiness, pain and dissatisfaction.  Buddha called this cycle SAMSARA.

We have been taught that liberation or NIRVANA is achieved by completely uprooting cravings from the heart. However, if the only way we know how to deal with the objects of desire is to avoid them, there will be a severe limit as to how far our spiritual practice will take us.

TANTRA moves in a different way.  In Tantra, instead of viewing desires as things to be avoided at all costs, Tantra recognises that the energy stirred by desire can be transformed into a resource for the spiritual path, and seeks to change every experience in this way , even if the doing seems to others to be “unreligious”.

It is because our present life is so rooted in desire that we must learn to use desire’s amazing energy in order to transform our life into the transcendental.  Tantra recognises that we can’t reach our heart’s desire by becoming more and more miserable as we squash one desire after the other.

TANTRA teaches that is only by cultivating SMALL experiences of calm and satisfaction where we are now, that we will have any hope at all of achieving pace and contentment in the future.

SPEAKING OF DESIRE… Ever since I started teaching I have lived for my students remembering some famous words “…I am a river to my people”.  When the candle is burning at both ends, I remember those words and keep going.  During covid my students have been a river to me.  Vegetables, and small gifts left on the porch, cards, letters  and yesterday KNITTED HOUSE SOCKS (in the photo).  Thank you all.  Mostly I don’t know where the gifts originate, who has left them, but I do know who posted the sox, and I have to say they are beautiful – thank you.

Have a beautiful, colourful, SOX’Y DAY

NAMASTE –  JAHNE

 

 

Dear Yogis.

Here we are at the beginning of another unusual week.  I have been super busy finishing the TeaLeaf Reading cards and bringing them to you, and organising the next tarot training class and our Tea&Tarot afternoon on the 28th of this month.

This Saturday we had a wonderful Tarot Training and I have opened the door to those of you who want readings, but only for students and people I know at the present.  I will be going onto zoom for Tarot and for the Tarot Training.  I will let you know when I have this organised.  At present, if you are interested in knowing more (The Get-Together, Readings, Trainings….)  – please email me and I will keep you in the loop> Email:yogafirst2@bigpond.com

The Revelation Tarot available on Etsy, or as part of your Tarot Training.

Years ago I did meditation training in London with Osho.  Because we think our teachers will be around for ever, I didn’t take as many classes with him as I was able to. I believed I was too busy – it was my loss and now it will have to wait until next time.

Osho of course was a Zen master (although he may not have considered himself that), and his books which can be read at the Theosophical Library or purchased at the bookshop are still sharp and relevant.   Unlike  other religions which rely on dogma and superstition, a pillar of Zen is the belief that we each have a unique ability to reach enlightenment without intervention.  Osho, like Jesus came to tell us we didn’t need to have an intermediary to find God or Enlightenment.  This capacity can be realised ONLY THROUGH MEDITATION . One of the Biblical sayings  “As a man thinks so is he”, and the idea of going inside to find God, not going to the Temple and paying for guidance… were both radical ideas in their day, and led to death….

Although I did have a valued student who moved away from our school because she said “her colleagues” didn’t like the idea that she was being taught by someone who practiced reading the tarot.  I hope she notices that I haven’t stopped, in fact I am doing more.

The history of the tarot is most interesting.  We believe it was being used prior to the Egyptians, and later during the Middle Ages was used as a code to transmit the teachings of the medieval mystery codes. Some people say that the number of cards is based on the steps taken by Siddhartha – the infant who was later to become Gautama the Buddha.  He walked seven steps forward and seven steps backwards in each of the four cardinal directions, and as legend has it this became the model for the number of cards in the minor deck.

The major arcana which is  the suite that I tend to focus on in my readings,  tells the story of the human spiritual journey, from the Fool to Completion.  It is a journey of self-discovery, and like the sound of the gong is a spiral with each Completion leading to a new level on our path.  This journey for most of us does not lead to 12 years in a cave, or sitting on a mountain top, but through a rich blend of daily doings which can become our meditations.  I have been as deeply moved watching a monk sweep a floor, as I have in any high meditation, and find the power struggles in the yoga room or a kitchen as significant as understanding any sutra.  Even our relationship struggles can teach us where we are on the path.

It is in a commitment to making the whole of life a meditation that this deck was channelled to me.  I daily dedicate it to the Buddha in us all.

The Buddha is no-body’s monopoly, it is nobody’s copyright.  It is everybody’s innermost being.  You don’t have to be a Buddha to be a buddha.  To be a buddha transcends all concepts of religions; it is everybody’s birthright.  Persuade it to come along with you, to your daily activities, so everything in your life becomes a meditation, a grace, a beauty, a benediction.

OSHO: No Mind:The Flowers of Eternity

 

Dear Yogis,

Sunday again.  We had a fantastic Tarot Training Yesterday.  It is not just about the cards.  It is about where we find ourselves, how the cards help us to understand ourselves as well as others.  How the cards can help us find the heaven that is with us in the now.  When used properly, they can be a high TANTRIC TOOL. They are deeply spiritual and can bring the student back to the spiritual path…

According to Buddhist teachings, no matter how confused and tormented you and I may be at the moment, our underlying nature of  being is clear and pure.  In the same way that clouds come between us and the sunlight, so too our anxieties, depression and the suffering that they cause can temporarily obscure but cannot destroy or even touch the fundamentally clear nature of our consciousness..

Dwelling deep within us our heart and the hearts of every living person without exception is an inexhaustible source of love and wisdom.  According to buddhist writings, the ultimate goal of every person is enlightenment which occurs when all the delusions, greed, hatred, ignorance, presently obscuring our mind have been completely removed, and when all of our positive qualities have been fully developed.   This fully awakened state is characterised by unlimited compassion, and unlimited skill (or power).

We are taught that the  path to fulfilment is a gradual process of cleansing our mind of all its faults and limitations, and replacing these thoughts, with thoughts (and actions) of complete love and wisdom.  Because of this gradual approach of sutra, this is called the causal vehicle to enlightenment because of the emphasis on creating causes for a future result.

Compared to this sutra approach, tantrayana is a much speedier path to the goal of enlightenment.  The tantric yogi or yogini, learns to think, speak and act NOW as if he or she were already a fully enlightened buddha.  Because the powerful approach often bring the the future full awakening into the present experience, it is sometimes called the resultant vehicle to enlightenment.

According to Tantra, perfection is not something that is waiting for us in the future, HEAVEN IS NOW.  Everything that we need is with us in this moment, it is simply a matter of being able to recognise it.

This is the Tantric approach that we will be exploring… in the cards if you com to training, or here in the daily newsletters.

The present Tarot Training is closed, but I am enrolling for the next class which will start in July.  We will also be holding a on Sunday the 28th June at 2pm at the Studio.  At this time we will be coming together to learn more about the tarot, to swap skills, and generally link in with others who are looking for a deeper way.  TANTRIC TAROT.  Please let me know if you are interested… it is not an open house.  This will be a learning experience.

Have a wonderful Weekend.

NAMASTE JAHNE