New BLOG!

I'm excited to announce my new BLOG home (Truth, Beauty, Yoga, Life)!!  Be sure to subscribe in order to receive the most recent updates by email!  Stay tuned for Specials for our subscribers only, guest bloggers, more video and audio posts & more!  Also, send me your requests!

Om Love Om,
Dharma Richards, ERYT-500
www.yogagardennc.com
www.dharmarichards.com

White Sugar - Nectar or Poison

I enjoyed this article on the effects of refined sugar and wanted to share it.

The Avocado Queen

You gotta try this YUMMY salad recipe from one of the Garden's own: Melissa, The Avocado Queen.

In the words of Mr. Albert Einstein

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

Word Play

In trying to feed the right side of my brain I picked up this unique, little book entitled Caffeine for the Creative Mind. Try this fun and quick activity I found here: find an interesting photo or picture from a magazine and write down a list of 25 adjectives that describe the photo. Grab a few sharpies and had fun!

An Empty Vessel

There is a story in the Hindu tradition I would like to share about the benefits of loosening our grip on the ego:

Krishna, the Lord, was playing his flute while Radha, who represents the human soul longing for union with the Divine, watched with her eyes full of envy. "What has your flute done to enjoy the blessing of being held up to your lips hour after hour?" she asked. Krishna removed the flute from his lips and held it out so that Radha could see inside of it. "Look, it's completely empty, " he said, "so I can fill it with my Divine melody."

Yoga Warriors

It’s difficult trying to convince many hardened veterans that yoga can help heal mental wounds suffered in a faraway combat zone. The meditative discipline that focuses on a mind-body connection is not usually appealing to men and women who have been immersed in an aggressive military environment. Local yoga instructors David and Margaret Richards are working hard to change those attitudes.

Click here for Article

Satya - Truthfulness

When you break this universal concept of 'truthfulness' down, it can be done so on a few different levels. At the most 'basic' level, think about the communication that we seek in our daily lives, i.e., telling the truth about what we see, feel, need, and so forth. even though this is at a 'basic' level, doesn't necessarily mean that it's easy. Secondly, think integrity. While driving in the car one day, a little girl asked her mommy, ' what's integrity?' the mother went on to explain that if you were at the park and several others saw a man drop a dollar bill, she would return the money to the man and that was honesty. But if no one else saw that the man had dropped the money, and she still returned it, that is integrity. Integrity is internal honesty... it's telling the truth when no one would ever know; integrity is refusing to tell a lie for yourself or for others.

There's another little story I'd like to share about a lady who was asked by a friend why she didn't have a radar detector in her car. She responded by saying that if she used one, she would be sending her children a message that it is okay to break the law (lie) as long as you don't get caught. What a model of integrity!

Lying is a form of disrespecting self or others - even think 'little white lies' - the next time you're tempted to tell a lie, ask yourself to whom you are disrespecting at that moment.

okay, so what if someone wants an opinion about a brand new dress, which you think is one of the least attractive dresses that you've ever seen? If you practice satya and tell her the truth, you may end up leaving ahimsa (non-harming) behind. If you find yourself in such a predicament, before speaking, ask yourself, 'is it necessary, is it true, is it nonharming?' You will need to weigh what is the right action in the situation.

If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything. - Mark Twain

What If

What if our religion was each other

If our practice was our life

If prayer, our words

What if the temple was the earth

If forests were our church

If holy water - the rivers, lakes and oceans

What if meditation was our relationships

If the Teacher was life

If wisdom was self-knowledge

If love was the center of our being.

-Ganga White, 1998

Photo: the forest church 2 by weiweihua.com

Bringing Yoga to the West

Sri Vivekananda's World Parliament of Religions speech in 1893.

Color Meditation for Creative Concentration

United In Heart

(from the Rig Veda)

May we be united in heart.
May we be united in speech.
May we be united in mind.
May we perform our duties
As did the wise of old.

May we be united in our prayer.
May we be united in our goal.
May we be united in our resolve.
May we be unite din our understanding.
May we be united in our offering.
May we be united in our feelings.
May we be united in our hearts.
May we be united in our thoughts.
May there be perfect unity amongst us.

Saint Teresa of Avila

Let nothing upset you;
Let nothing frighten you.
Everything is changing;
God alone is changeless.
Patience attains the goal.
Who has God lacks nothing;
God alone fills every need.

Yoga Sutra 2.47

By lessening the tendency for restlessness and by meditating on the infinite, posture is mastered.

Untying Our Wings

All of us have wings, though we do not sus­pect it because they are so tightly tied. We are not meant to stay on the ground and peck at crumbs of per­sonal plea­sure and profit. We are meant to soar – to give our time and love freely to every­one around us. That is the essence of spir­i­tual growth, and the whole pur­pose of med­i­ta­tion and the other skills of spir­i­tual liv­ing is to free our wings and allow us to fly high. -- Eknath Easwaran

365 Truths

Mandala

Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for their is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves. -Black Elk

Join us and make your own mandala!

Quote of the Day

Out beyond the ideas of right doing and wrong doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there. -Rumi

Create, Pray, Love - Day 30

Tapas

In yoga, the word 'tapas' means a burning effort under all circumstances to achieve a definite goal in life. A worthy aim makes life illuminated, pure, and divine. Without such an aim, action and prayer have no value. Life without tapas is like a heart without love. -BKS Iyengar

Create Pray Love - Day 29

Hint: The cage is not locked.
-Nove Knutson