I haven’t been writing about what’s going on here the last few days as it’s been very intense and insightful as well. I think it probably will not get to this blog as much of it is personal and intimate, on many levels, as well as difficult to put into words. So I will simply say that I’ve been through a deep insightful growth experience involving the following, and more:
Disturbed sleep for 3 nights for no apparent reason
A deep sense of painful sadness suddenly overcoming me to the point of tears flowing, while sitting with friends…again, for no apparent reason
Doing an energy cleansing of my room to remove negative energies which seemed to have had accumulated without my realizing it.
Using my Dancing as a healing modality
Further treatments with Dudi
Newfound openness and joy and energy
I am now coming down to the “finish line”. It’s been a very short “race” against time for me this trip. My shopping chores are pretty much finished, I have a facial again on Wednesday, together with Yael this time, . I’d like another dip in the Ganga and perhaps sushi at Moksha (they began serving it last week…remember, the owners are Korean – but I haven’t gotten around to tasting it yet),. An attnement fromDudi still awaits me this evening so that I can begin passing on symbols from Kabbalah which can be used in Reiki II for those who feel uncomfortable with the Japanese symbols. I already had a further Master’s attunement from him. And to finish everything off, one last treatment with Dudi
AND THEN HOME!
Monday, March 24, 2008
Down to the Home Stretch - March 24th 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
#20- March 21st- The Blessing of Friendship
Lovely lovely evening yesterday- friends up on the roof for tea, music, conversation and lots of laughter. It was Yaels 27th birthday and Tasha was leaving. Had a lovely day with Tasha as you can see from some of the pics in the previous post and then came back to finish up amir's movie to take home with him (received a call from home and was told to come home immediately...no details...he was really upset as you can imagine...it was very difficult saying goodbye to him as he doesn't think he will be back next year), did a Reiki treatment for Yael and then people just started to drift up to the rooftop and we spent several really pleasant hours together. 
I have a short video which I will also attempt to upload...(you may have to wait awhile for it to buffer fully-but be patient)
later in the evening we lined up facing the mountain and just laid back and stared at the almost full moon for about 45 minutes...it was beautiful. The air was so fresh and beautiful, we all commented that with the weather so hot these days, it would pay to sleep all day and stay up all night! I'm feeling a little upset about leaving next week but also at peace knowing I've received many wonderful gifts...and know more are still waiting for me both here and at home. I also know I will be back in October...hopefully for 6 months. I am very different here. I never was a social creature and yet when I am here I seem to attract people to me. All very different but together they make up a lovely social group which is closely knit and in complete harmony. I've never really had this at home and yet each time I come to India this seems to be one of the gifts I find waiting for me. You can see from the pictures the diversity of the people...but we all just seem to fit perfectly together. 
Friday, March 14, 2008
# 17 March 13-14 – Lazy, Lazy, Lazy….and Rain
Started last nite…was very hot yesterday and was really tired after my walking so just hung around the rest of the afternoon and evening. Had some grilled cheese up in my room for a snack at nite. I was up the roof playing “bubbles” and listening to my lovely flute music when Ben came up and asked what I was doing. I said “Some real deep spiritual work”. He came to see what it was and burst out laughing when he saw what I was playing. I explained it really was a form of inner work for me as it was one of the few ways I could find myself completely “mindless”!. And then like a little boy he asked if he could please please please try to play too, but I warned him that it could be dangerous to begin this game.
“You can’t just ‘try’ this game and he replied: “I’m fine…I don’t get addicted to this kind of stuff”.
Well, I could not get him to relinquish the mouse for 1 ½ hours until I finally asked to be allowed to go to sleep. He said OK but please please please could he come up again to play in the morning.
I thought he was joking, but bright and early he was up here and spent another 1 ½ hours in this completely mindless but actually relaxing pursuit. I, in the meantime, realized I didn’t feel like doing anything today. Perhaps the weather-it is actually overcast, windy and chilly…so I sat in my room while he played and cursed, and I did some work I needed to for myself. Finally kicked him out and now am alone and still with no desire to do anything. I am listening to music, will play some games as well, hang around with people at lunch…all here “at home”.
This evening I am hopefully going to do a past-life regression with a guy named Dudi to see if we can find the source of my irrational fears and finish the cleansing process once and for all.
So it will be a quiet, reflective, lovely day doing “nothing” and feeling wonderful about it.
8 PM
It is now almost 8 in the evening. Had the need to sleep this afternoon, (only in retrospect did I realize the entire lack of energy the whole day was due to my anxiety of what I might find out during the healing session….) and when I woke up I did the healing and past-life regression with Dudi and it was wonderful Received more answers and insights into the fear thing and am completely energized as well. And when I came out, it was raining and no electricity! (That would explain the slight twinge in my hip yesterday and this morning). So, got a couple of candles from downstairs and am now up in room, by candlelight, incense burning, eating crackers and cheese and listening to folkdancing and for the first time this trip even have the urge to dance!. Am feeling really good and if the electricity comes back on, I have a “date” to watch the movie Himalaya with Ben this evening and if not, will dance in the dark alone!!. (Or so I imagined!!). And then the strangest thing happened. I have about 600 songs in my folkdancing playlist, and I put them on to play at random, and the first song that came up was a further answer to what went on during the healing session with Dudi. A song with words which said exactly what I still needed to hear was playing, as if the angels , or my guides were singing the answer to me disguised as the voice of Daklon (Israeli singer) singing “Al Nevakesh”. All the verses are insightful, but just as an example, here is a translation of theverse:
“There are unknown secret things which we cannot understand or know
Things may happen which seem without reason
Not all things need to be investigated and questioned
Sometimes it is alright not to know everything”
I imagine the air will also be less heavy tomorrow and I will feel like walking again (And that was exactly what happened, as I woke up the next morning to the clearest bluest sky I have seen since arriving and a lovely feeling of clean and fresh in the air).
And then Ben arrived….no lites…caught me dancing…but just asked to sit down and play again, which he did until the battery ran out on the computer. Then we just sat and talked until my sweet neighbors came up. Finding their room dark and uninviting, I asked them to come in and join us. By then it was raining hard and quite dreary…they came into my candle-lit room, and said “Why does it feel so warm and comfortable in here? Our room is the same but it is nothing like your room” It’s like when people come into my living room at home and say the same thing…good energies…My room is very inviting. We sat and enjoyed each others company, all the time with my folkdancing music still playing and everyone commenting that it was quite pleasant to listen to. Close to 10 the lites finally came on so the girls left and Ben and I still had our movie date! We even sat and held hands like in the real movies. Only thing missing was popcorn. In all, it was a lovely day!
And now it is morning. Brilliant blue sky…lovely sunshine, nice breeze and clean fresh air…like after a chamsin at home when the rains finally come. Beautiful, beautiful day.
I went down to the market with a few friends and actually found fabric I liked and which is now at the tailor to make a couple of more things for me from things I already have and like from home.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
THE PEOPLE #1
The People
I just had the idea of keeping track of the different interesting people I meet. I should have been doing this from the start because I seem to be meeting an enormous vfariety of people from many places in the world, each with an interesting story to tell….So I will try to go back to remember all those I’ve met so far, and if some get left out, well, I guess they were not all that interesting in the first place.
The first person I met was a sweet girl from Australia, with that special Australian glow of health about her, and she was my neighbor the first few days when I was so ill, went down and ordered my food for me when I needed it, and even went out and bought some Tulsi for me when I realized I hadn’t brought any with me. She understood my need to be alone but never failed to ask if I needed anything. She was supposed to have come with a friend but in the end the friend couldn’t come, so she braved India by herself, had a great time, and here in Rishikesh met up with a friend of her friend’s, a young Indian guy, with motorbike, and had a lovely time traveling the mountains with him. And she celebrated her 35th birthday here. The young Indian asked her if she likes children, and she said yes…so he made her a surprise birthday party at a local orphanage where all the kids sang Happy Birthday to her and then were all treated to birthday cake. She said it was the best party she’s ever had!
Now, let’s see…Well, I “re-met” a lady I wrote about last year, a really funny
French lady who was doing panchakarma the same time as me and we used to compare notes, but she was SO graphic and it was really funny, with her French accent and limited English. One of her favorite expressions was “ooh-la-la”…Well, one of the first days I was out, I bumped into her and we had a nice chat…she is also here just to relax this year and I actually bumped into her two more times over the next couple of days., when she tried to convince me to come to Varanassi with her. In the end I declined. I didn’t feel like moving anywhere quite yet.
Then there was the sweet girl named Bea (short for Beatrice) from Hungary, who is here just being alone, taking courses, and relaxing after several months of running around India. She invited me to lectures with her at the Sivananda ashram, but they begin at 7 in the evenong and I’m not big on going out at night…so again declined. She is staying up on the Hill Top and very rarely seen.
Then my first group of Israelis one evening, who are staying over in Laxman Jhula and came up here looking for “all the Israelis” and were surprised and disappointed to find that there are none staying here. They had a big dinner, we spoke for awhile, and then they headed back to Laxman Jhula and were hard put to decide where to head to next. When I suggested that they relax here for a few days and just enjoy Rishikesh, they said th”there is noting to enjoy here…nothing to do…very boring town”.
And then the day I was up having a lovely kicheri at the jaipur Inn Restaurant, the day I mentioned there was a political convention, I met this really lovely coupoel from carmel California. They were so California! Named Lynn and Marc, blong, blue eyed, brown skinned and looking so well put together. Turns out they were staying at the Swiss as well and had just arrived that morning after a whirlwind trip around “all of India’. They were exhausted but enjoying themselves. He did most of the talking and we had many lovely discussions ranging from the upcoming elections in America, their views on Obama vs.Clinton (and nothing good to say about mcKane), to talking about the pros and cons of all different kinds of yoga (this one day when Marc came in panting to breakfast after having a session of “Nazi Yoga” as he called it!! They were here for about a week and we spoke a little each day…they had rented a bike so were out and about a real lot, and planning to end their trip in Udaipur….although Lynn actually was ready to either just stay here another week or head home…haven’t seen them since yesterday so I assume they’ve left.
A lovely young girl, probably late 20’s early 30’s with her husband, who basically kept to himself and her really cute 3 year old son. They had been in India for months and this was the very end of their sojourn. The little boy was so outgoing and relaxed (not surprising…his Mom was the same way…soft-spoken but friendly and open and completely at peace with mothering). He spoke English and French and when I asked how that was, she said they had spent 2 months in Goa and their was an American family there with a little girl his same age and he had learnt English from her! Kids are amazing. They left today to go back to Delhi and from there to Brussels to plan their move. Her husband teaches Tai Chi and after being in India, they realized, for the first time in their lives how dark and dreary Brussels is, and have decided to plan to move to New Mexico to get away from the weather and into a healthier life style. They have friends who live there and have been trying to convince them to move for the past 3 years…now they are doing it.
Family from America…Her name is Jean, her husband is Abe and her son named Noah. They are from the States…she says she was lucky enough to marry a “nice Jewish boy”…she is not Jewish. She was 38 when Noah was born and he is now 7…a child/adult who was as much apart of our discussions as his parents were…fascinating child. The father is a professor of Middle Eastern studies and they went to live in Peru where he was offered a professorship at the University there, so that Noah could have a diverse environment, learn a new language etc. They do home schooling and take it very seriously. They rented an apartment just down past Welcome Center which I will check out one day. It is a full complex, and they found a flat available, without kitchen which was OK for them as they enjoyed going from place to place to eat. They had 2 bedrooms, two full baths, and living room and terrace overlooking the Ganga, for only 10,000 rupees a month! I will definitely go down there to check it out as if I ever decide to come back here for any length of time, or even come with a friend, it would be wonderful living arrangement, but I would then want a kitchen as well.
Benjamin (met him the first nite I went down to eat at mamaji’s)…I have a brother named Benjamin so I told him I wouldn’t forget his name easily and he said he has a sister named Jane! He comes from all over the world-left family of 5 sisters and “bitch” of a mother…England (Harlow),malaysia, Australia, mexico, partner killed…he was married and divorced and then had his son taken from him at 25…worked in many jobs…also studied Shamanic healing while living in Mexico and we have been exchanging healing sessions…lovely person….dreams of setting up a healing center and growing trees from seed and reforesting some place somewhere in the world where he could get funding or backing or have some government agency or private person give him the piece of land to do this on…build his own house, grow his own vegetables etc…will be in India until July where he is slowly recuperating from the loss of Marie –Cruz, his partner in Mexico for 3 years, who was killed by a driver while she was riding on her bicycle just 4 months ago. Turns out he will be studying with Swami Dyananda at the same ashram where Akhilesh, my Reiki Master, lives…very small world.
MORE TO FOLLOW
