Jogini a Symbol of Feminine Power

Jogini are the sacred feminine force made incarnate.

In Hindu and Tibetan Tantric mythology Jogini represent the triumph of the feminine over demons or over the heart and the mind.  Part of this concept is to have mastery over ones sexual desires and not to be an undisciplined emotional and hedonistic disaster.  Respect for the feminine spiritual teacher is a necessary part of every beings path to spiritual enlightenment.  Sadly, in modern times the term 'Jogini,' has become synonymous with young girls being forced into prostitution in India.  Sexual slavery is the antithesis of feminine power and of the enlightened mind.  I believe that as women become more respected and empowered, our global community will begin to heal and become more balanced.  When Buddhists pray for the enlightenment of all sentient beings, this development of moral reasoning is really what they are praying about.  As we become more aware, we naturally act on that awareness and create a better world for all of us to live in.

Long may the Jogini dance on the head of her demon foe!

Morning Prayers

Modern sleeping sacks are very constricting. It is impossible to roll over without taking the whole sack with you. When I crawled into my sleeping bag, I was fairly toasty and ready for sleep. A few hours later, I realized I was not sleeping well at all. My feet were very cold. It is also true that it can be very difficult to sleep at high altitudes if you are not acclimated and we were high enough that I could have been suffering a little altitude sickness. In any case, I was wide awake by the time Belief and Atit came politely rapping at our chamber door. It was still quite dark outside, even though I think that they let us sleep in, until at least 5 am.

I was eager to get back into the warm bath, so I jumped up and pulled on my swimming suit hastily. It was a most remarkable coincidence that I had a suit with me at all. The day before I packed for Nepal, a friend had sent me a box of books to donate to the children at the village school. She included pencils and stickers, which came in very handy, and surprisingly, she sent me a new swimming suit that she had bought in the wrong size for herself. I would normally never pack a swimming suit for Nepal. Pools are hard to come by and I am suspicious of the water quality. But the suit was there in my hand, and so I threw it into the case. I had no idea that the my adopted family would be taking me on a trip up to the hot springs at Tatopani.

Tania needed a little extra time for her morning ablutions, so the boys and I went ahead of her to the baths. As we approached, I heard the deep, sonorous harmonies of "Om mani padme hum." At the far side of the tub, beneath the spigots, were three monks each with a sacred white head covering. They chanted all the while as we disrobed, the boys stripping to their underwear. I was a little concerned that my feminine flesh would be disturbing to the monks but the boys didn't appear to have any reservations. Tania followed the chants and soon found her way to the tubs well. She peeled down to a bikini and entered the water as discreetly as possible. We stayed very quiet so as not to disturb the morning meditation. I settled in on the right side of the tub and watched enraptured as the sun, rising in concert with the melodic chants, began to lighten the sky behind the mountain peaks. As our surroundings brightened, to my amazement, I watched the monks transform completely. It was soon clear that these were not men at all but women with very deep voices. Nuns, perhaps, I thought. A few moments later I could see that the sacramental vestiments they wore on their heads were actually white plastic bags meant to keep their hair from getting wet.  Sacred and holy all the same, but still a very good reminder that events are not always as they appear, especially across cultures.

The View from the hot springs

Looking at the View

I'm sitting outside our guest house in the early morning after our bath.  We are having milk tea and waiting for breakfast.  Here you see me writing the Lyrics to 'A Froggy Went a Courtin,' for JR to teach his students.

Our gear is packed and ready for the hike back down.  Tania and JR are standing in front of the kitchen building.

This is what it looks like inside the kitchen.  Actually it was very dark inside, but my camera has illuminated the view for you.

Tatopani

Goodbye, Tatopani.  Goodbye, Spectacular View.  I hope I will come this way again someday.

School in the High Himalayas

Above is a school that is under construction in the Langtang, Nepal. This project was undertaken by a group of Italian scientists and tourists/trekkers. You can read about the school and make contributions through their web site at http://www.sundaribaini.org/chisiamoen.htm
If you click on the top photo you should be able to see the school perched on the hillside.

Some of you have read my stories about helping some boys go to school in Kathmandu, 'Dream A World of Good.' The boys were from the village above. When they were young they had no opportunity for an education so their father gave up his status in the village and moved the family to Kathmandu so that the boys would have the possibility of receiving an education.

Below is an excerpt from a recent letter I received from the boys who are now young men.

It rained yesterday. Brr!!! And this morning we are all wrapped up and warm. I am writing this email with a huge pile of blankets around me. Recently there has been much news of deaths in the southern part of Nepal and India because of a cold wave. Homeless people suffer the most and the governments try feeble ineffective ways to counter the problems. Poor people are given wood to burn and clothes to wear but that will not help at all. It is so sad to hear when we are wrapped up and warm inside our home there are people dying because of cold.

Last week I visited my village. I have taken some photographs of the school and we all hope that you will like it. Recently, the school has been developing under the eyes of an Italian volunteer who helped the school build its first toilet and even a new building for higher secondary classes. A few years back the school ran up to grade eight only, but now villagers send their students to grade nine and grade ten too.

It is progress! If possible, I would like to visit the school when I go to Nepal in March and make a contribution to their operating expenses. I would also like to arrange a letter exchange with some of our local school students. But, I will have to wait and see how the plan unfolds. Travel restrictions, strikes, and weather can make it difficult to get to rural areas of Nepal, and someone would have to offer to host me in their home. With only a two week travel plan, I may not be able to get there and back. If I do get there, I'll bring you pictures and stories.

In February, I will be giving a free lecture on 'Life and work in Nepal during difficult times.' I will discuss the effects of 911 on Nepal, the murder of the entire Nepalese Royal family, endless annual strikes, and the Maoist Revolution. The lecture will be held at the Plymouth UCC in Shaker Heights, OH. Sunday February 14th, 9:30 - 10:20 am in room 102.

Peace to you all and prayers for Haiti!

Dream A World of Good, Part 3

This picture is from the path that leads to the boy's home village in Dhunche.

In April I wrote about a dream that lead to a life time connection with a family in Nepal, 'Dream A World of Good, Part 1,' and 'Dream A World of Good, Part 2.' Many of you wanted to know what happened to the boys that I gave rings to. It has been a very rough six or seven years since I handed out those rings. The boys didn't always know if they were going to be able to get through high school because of the unstable government and the numerous strikes and violence. This morning I received a letter from one of the boys that we have been helping through school

.................

Dear Aunt, Uncle, and our brothers.
How are you all? We all are doing well over here and we wish that you are doing well over there.
Finally! Monsoon is here... Farmers have already planted rice in their fields. Some years back, maybe about 6-7 yrs, we had a different Kathmandu... Big stretches of paddy fields gave life to this once beautiful shrine. But now there are only patches of those just giving those memories some fuel. We had a very dry spell this year and farmers are worried that they will not be able to yield anything at all.

My brother has left for Dhunche today to make his passport. He is currently taking classes on IELTS and working in one of our uncle’s travel and tours offices. He plays football in the morning with his friends and spends his whole day working and learning. I am also spending my days learning and working... I wake up at 4 in the morning go for a nice morning walk and come back to spend one hour on yoga. In the day, I go to the shop and help father in his work and sometimes I manage to go to our uncle’s office as well.

Last week, I visited a youth forum. It’s called Today’s Youth Asia and I was delighted to see all these young people from high school discussing many social issues. The youth forum is making efforts to bring changes to the society... they already have two TV programs and some more programs in the pipeline. I suggested to them to use 'inter phenomenon' like 'Twitter' and 'YouTube' and TV programs like 'iReport' in CNN. I saw a different side of the younger generation of Nepal totally different from the youths affiliated with some political organizations of the past. They were there not trying to revolt but to be a part of the change.

Yesterday, I managed to watch Barack Obama giving his speech and I was delighted to hear his message for the younger generation. We all are an active part of our society and each and everyone can be a part of the story of change. Every time we watch him giving his speech he makes us realize our dreams.

Aunt, after a long thinking and working I have decided to pursue my further education in Bangalore, India. I am choosing Biochemistry as my major and I hope I will be able to pursue my Masters in the United States. My brother is now working for his application to US, he is looking for colleges and I am here to help him with his application. I have already started working on my application in India and I hope I will be there after a month or two. My brother is really good in mathematics and I hope that he will be going for Business as his major subject. When I joined my high school I already knew that I would pursue further education in biochemistry so I am really excited.

We don’t have any words to describe how thankful we are to you. Our cricket team is not active at the moment... some members are in the US and some are busy with their own life but they still have those rings you made for us and I don’t know how many have passed the rings on to other young people. We all love you a lot and there are no words to describe how much we are thankful to you. We all love you all.
Love from Nepal

...................................

I am so proud of these boys. They are full of hope and promise. As many set backs as they have had, they have always forged ahead. Both of the boys have taken an active part in their communities. If they couldn't go to school or work, they volunteered for the Red Cross and they contributed to the development of a new school in their home village.

I am planning on making the 'One Good Deed' rings again, so let me know if you would like to pass one on.

Peace!

God in a Cornfield

Very near my home there is a place where, in every direction as far as the eye can see, there is nothing but row after row of corn. No house, no tree, no fence, there is only one flat acre after the next of corn. When we first moved here from DC, my children thought it was really funny that I would yell, "Corn!" when we came to that spot. But in this place I can glimpse the infinite power of the divine, and yelling, "Corn!" is my way of sharing the joy.

The first time that I flew past the Himalayan mountain range, someone asked, "Which peak is Everest?" to which the flight attendant replied, "The tallest one." It was impossible to determine which was the tallest one up there. It seemed as if our plane was a gnat flying among sperm whales. We were not above the mountains looking down, but flying between them. The enormous size and distance between the peaks made no sense to the ordinary scale of my life.

In every country, there is a place so beautiful and divine that it requires pilgrimages. Places like the Grand Canyon, Victoria Falls and Ayers Rock. It is in places such as these, that sense of the infinite is unmistakable. There is also such a place in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. When the traffic light changes there, people pour into the intersection like ants descending on a drop of ice cream. I find it interesting that I feel that same small alone feeling beside an infinite divinity, in that immense crowd, as I do when I float on the ocean and look up at the stars. (Please click on the link, it is amazing.)

It is in these places that I put my ego into perspective and know that I am one with all that exists.

Dream A World of Good, Part 2

A few months passed before I heard from the cricket team I was sponsoring in Nepal, then I received a lovely photo of the team with all of their new equipment and everyone in a white T-shirt that said, A World of Good, Inc. The former head man's eldest son wrote to me with his thanks and kept in touch to let me know how things were going in Nepal.

Things were not going at all well in Nepal. The difficulties with the government became worse. The king was losing control and started to arrest members of the Parliament, 'for their protection,' he said. I cannot take sides on these issues--it is not my place and I have friends on opposite sides of the issues. But I can tell you that friends of mine were being squeezed from both sides. If they cooperated with the Maoists the Government could arrest them. At the same time, Moaist representatives would come to people's homes or shops and say you must give us money or we will hurt members of your family. Anyone with a little money or the perception of power was in danger. Bombs went off in the business district and strikes were constant. Tourism began to dry up and shops were failing.

The following year I returned to Nepal to visit my suppliers. It was the off season, but even so I had never seen it like that before. The tourist area of Nepal looked like a ghost town. Again, while I was there, there was a strike and I found myself throwing pebbles at a suppliers window to let him know that I was down below and wanted to come up to shop. (Go back to The One Eyed Monkey of Swayambu to read about strikes.)

The headman's two sons invited me to come to see them play cricket, and since I couldn't get much work done anyway, I followed them down dusty streets past cows and goats to a large flat area near a river. We walked straight toward a brick wall that seemed to go on for about a quarter of a mile and had no door. The brick wall ended perpendicular to the river bed. There was a sheer drop about 30 feet to the rocks below. The boys told me to hang on to the end of the wall and swing one foot around to the other side. I felt like a kid again sneaking through the neighbors garden to take a dip in a forbidden pool. On the other side of the wall was a great expanse of flat ground with a few blades of grass. I could see several areas where cricket games were taking place.

I saw our team right away because many of the boys were wearing the shirts that I had given them. Up close the shirts looked a bit shabby, and one of the boys told me that was the only shirt he had. I have a hard time understanding comments like that. Did he really mean that it was the only shirt he had or the only shirt he had to play in?

The boys suited me up in their new equipment, a face mask, pads and a bat. I was raised on baseball and had never watched a game of cricket before. Did you know that games can last 8 hours a day for up to 5 days! Anyway, they laughed at me trying to hit the ball and we had fun.

When I left Nepal this time the two brothers promised to keep writing to me. And they kept their promise. A few months later, I received another note from the headman's eldest son. Their father's shop was failing and he and his brother were going to drop out of school and go to work. At that time, the brothers were about 11 and 13 and if you read the first part of this story, you know that school is why the gentle headman left his village to come to Kathmandu in the first place. It was a very sad situation.

My husband and I struggled with this for a little while. Wealth is a matter of perspective, we don't think of ourselves as wealthy, yet we can clothe and feed our own children and send them to a public school. So, we have enough. I asked around to see if anyone I knew would be willing to sponsor these kids through school, but no one was volunteering. Really, who would? Who is any closer to these boys than we are. So I wrote them back, "You need school more than cricket. If your father can provide everything else for you, we will pay for the education." That was how we came to have "nephews" in Nepal.

*There are so many kids in this world with needs. Unicef, Feed The Children, Nepalese Youth Opportunities are doing great things. If you feel compelled to help, you can even go to your local community center or school and teach a child to read.

Dream A World of Good, Part One

My Friend in His Shop in Kathmandu

A Shaman's Mask

A very gentle headman lived in a small village, high on the Himalayan mountainside. After his children were born, he began to have ambitions, not for himself, but for his children. The headman gave up his position and status, much to the surprise of the other villagers, to travel to Kathmandu. This was because, at that time, there was not a suitable school for his boys in his village, so he moved them to the large city and opened a very small shop.

His shop carried the most unusual carved statues, butter churns, tantric drums, phurbas, shaman masks, ceremonial shell horns, old coins and other odd objects. I had visited his shop on a few different occasions looking for the more unusual items to sell to my more unusual customers. When the former headman asked me if I would like to come to his home for dinner, I was honored.

His young wife and two boys were beautiful and charming. They offered me many types of spicy vegetable dishes and they began to tell me stories of their village. They told me ghost stories, which I always enjoy. They told me a story about the time that the King of Nepal came to their village. On the wall there was a picture of their father with the King. They read me lovely Hindu prayers. And then the boys explained how they had started a cricket team with other boys in the neighborhood. They said that they didn't have all of the equipment they needed, but the boys shared what they had. And that gave me an idea: Wouldn't it be fun if I could sponsor their cricket team!

The boys' father agreed to arrange for shirts to be made for all the boys in the neighborhood and I would pay for the shirts and the equipment that they needed. They would later send me a photo of all of the boys wearing T-shirts that said, "A World of Good, Inc."

That night after the dinner, I went to bed thinking about the lovely dinner and the boys and their cricket team. At about 3:00am I sat bolt upright in bed. I had had a very powerful dream about making rings for all of the boys on the cricket team. The next morning, I went to a silversmith that I work with and I had silver rings made for each of the boys on the team. The phrase "ONE GOOD DEED" was inscribed inside each ring. Just before I left to return to the United States, I gave the rings to the boys and I asked them to do one good deed for someone else and to pass the ring on to them giving the next person the same instruction. I flew home imagining these boys as my knights spreading chivalrous deeds around the Kingdom of Nepal.

*aworldofgood.com is undergoing a web host change and may be difficult to view for a while.