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Dear Yogis,

A practical, money saving newsletter this morning, whilst you are trying out the revelations in yesterday’s about meditation.

OK.  I got it.  So you are not going into the bush to forage no matter how great the results – and few of you have the room or the inclination to prepare, plant and wait for vegetables to grow, even in pots…. this may be tempered if Coles runs out of veggies, but may not apply to you today. mind you, Coles was running out of greens when I was in there over the weekend, and the “SPECIAL” price tag on an organic cabbage was (wait for it) $10!  I understand organic anything are more expensive because they are more labour intensive, but not $10 for a cabbage harder.  What will happen as this covid isolation and non-travel bites deeper?

There is an answer….Have you thought about SPROUTS and MICROGREENS?  These can be grown in glass jars in your kitchen, or in trays somewhere protected.  They give results quickly, are packed with nutrients, and you don’t have to go out in the cold!

Because they are an easy way to get vitamins, minerals and fibre easily and right away – clip and eat – I always have something growing in jars in the kitchen for clipping and sprinkling on soups, veggies and open sandwiches.    Recently I have been processing acorns for muesli and ointment, now have radishes and flax seed,  and over the coming weekend I have everything I need to start a few trays of seeds I have been storing,  Daikon being a favourite and top of the list.   I am trying my beautiful organic flax two ways 1. in a sprouting jar, and 2. as a micro green in a tray.  Chia, Alfalfa, Sunflower will all get a tray for themselves… it is easy.

When you start, some seeds will not go along with what you have planned for them at all.

Start (if you are a newbie) with Mung beans.. in about four days you will have a bundle of great greens to toss into your evening stir fry.  Lentils, peas, beans even buckwheat will try to please with lovely elegant little sprouts just waiting for a salad (or a pancake), to enhance.

If you are impatient, these are perfect.  They are quick, they are prolific, they are power packed…  the absolute easiest superfood, and great to start children in gardening.  When you buy seeds to use in this way, you can buy them on line, at grocery stores and nurseries.  You have to make sure they are within their sell-by date and all things being equal,  you should get about a 90%  germination result.   Choose young seeds over older ones because  germination rate diminishes with time.  Store in a cool dark drawer.  There is no difference between an organic seed and an ordinary one as far as reproduction and germination go.

They can be grown year round.  Doesn’t matter what is happening in the garden, they don’t care as long as the room temperature agrees with them.  Sprouts don’t care about light, although shoots need some.  A porch or a window sill will do just fine.

They are budget friendly, use almost no resources, and are champion producers turning 3oz of seed into 3 cups of food (Alfalfa even more).  You can plant them in your empty milk cartons halved lengthways and with a layer of soil, sand or cotton wool… just like in primary school experiments.  you can also use your throw-away plastic food containers.  You can use these plastic containers quite a few times before consigning them to the rubbish bin.

Soaking and sprouting is a smart way to go making valuable nutrients available – and in covid, nutrition is the number one consideration….. I will let you know how I go, and when I can I will share my seeds with you.  Flax I can share right away.

By the way Cumquats and other citrus are available right now.  You either have none, or you have so many you are letting them rot.  Don’t.  Use them or give them to someone who will use them.  I am making spiced oil with dried cumquat peel, preserved cumquats, cumquats in port, and I am thinking of chocolate dipped cumquat peel (when it is dried the peel is sweet).  What are you making….?

GROW, GROW, GROW..

NAMASTE.  JAHNE

 

 

Dear Yogis,

What happens for me in meditation you ask? It is not easy to write about… or even to analyse.

In the first  minutes a curious thing happens. First concentrating on the breath, back and forth sharpening the focus.  In the beginning it is a “grind” but it is a grind I know,  a strange place that depending where I am and the intention,  can last quite a long time.  I am the person sitting in meditation standing back from myself looking at the person sitting in meditation.  After a while all that remains is the energy of the person sitting in meditation, being inside the flow of meditation.  The breath breathes itself. A special place of unhindered oxygenation is what you are seeking.  Imperfect breath patterns cause stress even if you are oblivious to this.

Let everything drift into soft awareness.

Then comes clarity, you get deeper and deeper into the soul of meditation.  The concept of “I” is gone and all that exists is blissful engagement with the process, absolute flow.  You know what is happening but you experience it from inside what is happening.

As I have said many times, by systematically training yourself you can drop into this meditative state at will and avoid distractions.  Even from children.  If you are tense, trying not to listen, straining to be calm… this is a contradiction, and you will snap.  The harder you try to blanket it out, the louder if becomes.

Most of us are TRAPPED in a “mind bubble”.  The alternative is to be quietly focussed, relaxed, your face in the Buddhist half smile, integrating what comes into the experience, and detaching. Be at peace with the distraction.  If music is in the background integrate it, not denying the sound, or your emotion. If your knees ache, if your back is sore… Integrate it, channel it into higher focus, sorting your way through the chaos.  The mind is just like any other muscle, it needs to be trained and Vipassana meditation is the best training.  Concentrating on the breath, always coming back to the breath expecting NOTHING.

Read and understand the TaoTeChing.  Laotses’s focus is inward,  understanding the essence of things rather than the physical outward manifestations.  Some of his verses comprise the last modules in our course, but few understand beyond the physical.  The Tao’s wisdom centres on overcoming obstructions to our natural insight, seeing false obstructions for what they are and releasing them.

As in TaiChi and YOGA, the aim is not winning – the aim is BEING.

Like Chancy the Gardener, Have a great “*BEING THERE” day… (*A Peter Sellers movie from a book written by Jerzy Kosinski).

NAMASTE – JAHNE

(Watch this space for new take on small, small space,  high nutrition gardening, coming soon…)

Dear Yogis,

We are going to once again examine our yoga classes (taught or learned from). 

There is way of teaching yogis and students that begins from learning the asanas right away with no balancing theory.  No anatomy and physiology, no philosophy..  The theory being that a student will only keep attending class if  they feel like they grasp the physical of  yoga quickly and easily.  That they need no understanding of the foundations. Teachers of this style will say that theory is not necessary.  That their students “don’t like it”.

At first it may seem logical to teach a newbie ONLY the asanas they will need to swing easily through a class.  Why not do this, especially if it seems you can achieve success from this method? Once you rely entirely on the asanas there is no way out.  You can spend your life studying the physical, and you will have learned nothing, and more importantly you will have no appreciation for the value and beauty of the philosophy and theory that lies at the heart of yoga.  For those who only learn asana YOGA BECOMES ABOUT RESULTS – AND PERFECTION.

These students talk about the asana as if this is yoga.  They think they are yogis because they can do the perfect down-dog or whatever.  They focus on what comes easily to them, and ignore the subjects that are harder.

The end result is that you have a student or teacher who refuses to move from asanas.  They look fantastic, they become more and more intense.  Their bodies become leaner, tighter, their lycra more eye-catching, their diets weirder.  They avoid challenges, but eventually life catches up with them.  Their confidence is fragile and rests on the physical.  On this path, faltering is always a crisis and not an opportunity for growth.

Success in this style of teaching is an illusion.  There seems to be a never ending supply of  people wanting to learn asana, and only asana.  For this teacher, there are always more beginners waiting, as those yogis disillusioned with asana which they understand as a fitness regime,  go elsewhere.

The problem here is that if a yoga student (or a ballet dancer or football player) is taught that their self-worth is entirely wrapped up in a perfectly skinny body that is always ready to perform, how can she/he handle injuries or life after they have experienced what will be an inevitably short career?

Those times that are the most difficult, that are most challenging in every respect, are also the opportunities packed with potential.  What will keep you on the path is a love of learning that has its roots in the guidance of a good  (fearless) teacher.

In my career I have seen many people in many fields take the “process first” (asana first) approach.  They turn this into an excuse for never putting skin into the game.  They also may pretend not to care about results.  These people claim to be egoless, to care only about yoga, but really the superficial yoga they do and teach is an excuse to avoid confronting themselves.  The road to understanding is not easy.  The only way to swim is to get into the water.  Growth comes at the point of resistance.  We learn by pushing ourselves and finding what lies at the outer reaches of our abilities.  Let’s dive in.

When you do reach a new level of understanding it will be for you.  There is no euphoria, God will not speak from the heavens, there will be no applause. The world will be the same as it was the day before.  You will still like cooking, playing with your children, and flying a kite.

In this special and faraway land, yoga will happen from the place of pure energy. You will be more YOU.  The concept of “I” will change and you will do yoga (no matter the style) from the point of absolute flow…

Welcome.

NAMASTE. JAHNE