108 Prayer Beads

03/09/2012

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Picture
1 - one thing. 0 - emptiness. 8 - infinity.


The bliss and healing meditation workshop is coming up and it makes me realize I have a lot to learn. Stillness, for one. One thing that has always helped me is using the beads. I also use rosaries, but what I just learned today which is kinda sweet is that 'mala' means rose - or rosary, rose garland from above and on. 

I s'pose one can find coincidences in everything - and most folks don't find math to be much fun - but when I started looking into the magic number 108 I have to admit being enlightened and amused. Words like, "108 is considered an abundant and semiperfect number. A semiperfect number is either perfect or abundant. An abundant number that is not a semiperfect number is a weird number." 

The fact is there is a lot of mystery around the number 108, the abundant and semiperfect number. In  Japan on New Years, the bell is chimed 108 times representing the 108 earthy temptations we must surpass to find a way to nirvana. In Hindu, the deities have 108 names. Actually, there are a few folks that document an exhaustive list of reasons 108 is an auspicious number... It's kinda interesting. Check it out!
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My Journey, Your Journey - it's all good

01/23/2012

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So at this time yesterday I had already downed probably eight 12 oz bottles of water. Today, I am on my third cup of coffee. Of course, yesterday I was in yoga training at Power of Your Om - a Baptiste Power Vinyasa Flow based studio - sweating my eyebrows off in an eighty something degree room with between ten and forty five people. It doesn't really make me feel any better about my habits, however, and the "shoulds" (and "shouldn't"s) start creeping in. I "should" be drinking more water even if I'm a seventy four degree room, I "shouldn't" drink so much coffee, I "should" try to fit a workout in instead of blogging, I "shouldn't" eat so much peanut butter. These habits become who we are 
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Presenting India, a soiree to deepen knowledge about Indian Culture in Naperville

01/19/2012

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‘PRESENTING INDIA!’ SIOREE TO DEEPEN KNOWLEDGE ABOUT INDIAN CULTURE
Learn how to cook Indian cuisine, about vibration and sound and history of yoga

Naperville, IL (January 19, 2012) ‘Presenting India!’, an event hosted by Abhyaasa Yoga Studio in downtown Naperville, is about a variety of Indian cultures, not just a single culture within India. When you google the question, how many languages are spoken in India, the answer varies from there are 417 languages to there are 18 major languages and 1600 dialects. Indian foods and customs are equally as diverse. For the typical outsider, maybe one who is a beginning yogi or a visiting an Indian restaurant for the first time, it can be a long journey to become a authority of the philosophies and connoisseur of the flavors. 

At ‘Presenting India!’ Sarita Sharma will demonstrate how to prepare a north Indian vegetarian dish as well as provide dinner following discussion and the musical performance. The discussion will be provoked by two film clips. One called ‘Yoga Unveiled’ and the other ‘Ragas Unveiled’. If there is interest, the writer and director of these films may visit Naperville during a full screening at a later date. Often, even after decades of yoga or Indian music study, the student will still consider him or herself to be just a novice. Yoga has been a practice in India for more than five millennia. It is a physical exercise, but ultimately it is about the health of the mind, body and spirit. For some, it is strictly a spiritual journey. Ragas, like hymns, can vary as such. For some, it is performance or duty, but for others they are conduits of sound from heaven.

‘Presenting India!’ is an education based event, but also a social gathering with a festive theme. 
Note: A special treat from one of our patrons is the gift of Kashmiri Tea and she will bring traditional heaters from the Himalayan region! 

WHERE: Abhyaasa Yoga Studio, 124 S. Webster, Suite 201, Downtown Naperville
DATE: January 27th, 2012
TIME: 7pm - 9pm
MORE: Call 630-358-9642 or 630-404-7774, Email mel@naperculture.org , or visit www.naperculture.org 
FEE: $30

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About The Naperville Cultural Center: The Naperville Cultural Center is a 501c3 Illinois Non Profit Corporation whose mission is to end discrimination, preserve cultural heritage, conduct open dialogue about contemporary cultures in society and it’s evolution and promote peace through understanding through the arts and education. For more information visit us at www.naperculture.org or contact Michelle LeBlanc at 630-404-7774 or by email at mel@naperculture.org.

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