About 18 years ago I experienced the first time how yoga positions (asanas) relaxed my body, how it calmed my ever so chit-chatty mind and centred my attention, even if it was just for a few seconds at the time. I new world open up to me on that day in Brighton, UK. Since, I have tried numerous classes and styles of yoga all around the world, and have now settled for my own sequence that I practise every morning while my family still sleeps.
This was my first Sadhana - my "endeavouring to obtain a particular result". Now I have added - each morning a glass of water with salt, Yerba Mate, reading and contemplating tantric scripture and meditation.
This has become a such a pleasure in the early hours - a precious time for my SELF and the benefits and result have become so evident, that I hardly ever miss "my morning". It's something that I want to do, not should, since I have found out over the years how it affects every aspect of my daily life : tolerance, joy and more than anything acceptance of the happenings that I cant influence have become normality - in one word "equanimity".
When I "bake" my sprouted wheat bread every friday, and that is 100 loafs, I sing mantras - as it is 5 in the morning and I have the bakery all to myself - I sing out loud. I am sure that singing mantras while making the loafs is the reasons why it is so delicious and successful.
One immediate and most desired result of sadhana is the remembrance of "who I am" rather than "what I am" during the brief moments the sadhana takes. Repetitively remembering my inner essence nature is at the heart of all spiritual growth. One day, I hope to remember my spiritual essence in every moment - Liberation while still being alive. Over many years I have studied scriptures of different religions, open mindedly I delved into the bible in Colombia - what a divine way to learn Spanish at the same time. Later, I was captivated by Buddhist writings and practises, the Upanishads, Islamic texts and scientific papers. At the same time, I had made it my personal quest to combine religion and science, only to find out that it is one and the same thing, seen from different stand points - one looks from outside and one from within : at us and our world around us.
All my personal researches have finally merged into exquisite studies of Tantric literature. Tantric have known that for millennia : you and me are the same, object and subject are the same. All is interconnected and interdependent and science and religion are just two different names for the same. Shakti has a thousand names.
My latest experiment : This spring I have given all my bee hives names. That helps me remember the individual hives, their behaviours (they are not all equal). These names are simple Sanskrit mantras, which I chant in my mind when I work with the bees. I bet one glass of honey that it has a most calming, healthy and prosperous influence on the bees.
