Ojai, How Are You?

Yes, that's my joke. This weekend was the women's meditation retreat I've been planning for the last few months. It went splendidly- the food was delicious, the discussions interesting and inspiring, the location beautiful- but I'm feeling, at the moment, a bit drained. The feeling is akin to the days when I did a lot of theatre-- months of preparation and rehearsal, intense bonding with a small group of people with an immense challenge to tackle together, and then the few fleeting moments where it all comes together, the play itself. That final curtain call of every show always left me with a somewhat hollow feeling, the days immediately after seemed empty and a bit flat. There was always a limbo before the inevitable rush of now what?

That's where I'm at now, so you'll forgive me if it takes a few days before I'm back into the swing of writing again. This deflation is good I think after the steady build toward the weekend's events. I am satisfied with the results of my efforts and enjoying this little lull. Sewing and a bit of creating around the house have occupied the last two days so soon I should have some interesting things to share. Oh, and Little One rolled over for the first time yesterday and today has discovered that she can sit up on her own- big changes every day!

Women's Work

This mama can multitask!

I've been immersed, recently, in the planning of a meditation retreat for women that I am running in just a couple weeks. The necessary but not always that much fun logistical planning and organizing has occupied my day time (well, at least Little One's naptimes!), and study and research of material for discussion has kept me up late at night. As I've mentioned before I teach a technique of meditation that is derived from the Veda- texts of wisdom, philosophy, and science from ancient India. As one of only a few western female teachers of this practice, I've long wondered how women have fit into the tradition historically. It is easy to find stories of and works by male sages, but what of their wives, mothers, daughters- women who surely must have had wisdom and knowledge of their own to pass on?

They are there I've found, not always the loudest voices, but strong and smart examples of enlightened women from an ancient civilization- and an inspiring precedent for mindful women of the present. There is Gargi, a philosopher and writer whose fierce intellect and rigorous curiosity confounded one of the most renowned male sages of her era.; Maitreyi,  who renounced material wealth in favor of spiritual enlightenment; and Mandalasa, the queen who sang to her son to teach him the eternal nature of the soul and consciousness. There are many others as well, but perhaps most inspiring to me (and a bit daunting to consider) is this verse from the epic Mahabharata:

The teacher who teaches true knowledge is more important than ten instructors. The father is more important than ten such teachers of true knowledge and the mother is more important than ten such fathers. There is no greater guru than mother. (Mahabharata, Shantiparva, Chapter 30, sloka 9)