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Spiritual Food for the New Millennium

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CSA: Another Way to Higher Consciousness
                                                                                                by Victor “Vyasa” Landa

Food is a must, without food we die. This is a fact of life………….or death for millions around the world.  Hunger is not a personal issue for members of a CSA, but it may become………..

“The day that hunger is eradicated from the earth, there will be the greatest spiritual explosion the world has ever known.  Humanity cannot imagine the joy that will burst into the world on the day of that great revolution."
                                                                     Federico Garcia Lorca, Spanish poet 1899-1936

Since without food we die it means it is a matter of survival and that is a property of the Mulhadar Chakra, or the first center of energy, located at the base of the spine. From it we experience the primal fear, the fear of death, and from that comes insecurity, lack of self-esteem etc.

 This chakra rules the child for the first seven years of life, making it self-centered, only concerned with its own needs, which is necessary for its survival. Immaturity or selfishness is when the influence of this chakra continues beyond childhood and its manifestation—intensified-- grows in parallel; it becomes an urge for instant gratification (thinking it is a source of happiness) with its resulting frustration and compounded insecurity, that manifests as selfishness, greed, avarice, delusion and violence.

The positive aspects of this chakra leads to sharing and awakens us to the notion of abundance, as a consequence, security, awareness of our conditioned state of interdependence with the rest of creation and the responsibility of making our planet a better place. Satisfaction of the basic need for sustenance when it is done right is then a means to awaken the positive aspect of this chakra,

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) can offer those means, if it is based on the two important principles – nurturing food and attitude— “ Let’s work together and support each other that in doing so we will support the planet.” In other words lets build trust, we can take care of the world.

As we become educated on the insidious way in which our lives and the planet are being poisoned by synthetic chemicals being used in our food and almost all manufactured products and decide to take responsibility for our lives, the lives of our loved ones, humanity, and the planet, the conditions are set for a CSA.. Who grows the food? A farmer. The CSA then is a basic unit, farmer and consumers, coming together in an agreement to support each other and work together reversing the process of destruction, moving towards creating a better world.

How does it work? The farmer commits his/her self to grow food for the group of consumers to the best of his or her ability, to produce the safest and best quality of food.  We recommend Biodynamics.

The consumers agree to provide the financial support, and a guaranteed market for the farmer and participate in the process of taking the food to all the members’ tables, maintaining the purity with which it is being grown.

The group of consumers pays in advance for a whole season of produce that the farmer will grow. This is paid in advance so the farmer can buy the seeds, prepare the land, etc. without having to borrow money from a bank and pay interest. There is a double benefit here, that is if there is a disaster, bad crop, etc., everybody loses-- that means the farmer is not obliged to repay. Everybody shares the loss, which distributed amongst many people reduces its significance. This means there must be a great sense of “TRUST”, a value that is necessary for a truly human society. It is developing a sense of solidarity and community building; it is the opportunity that tragedy gives of bringing people together, only in this case we take the benefit without necessarily having to go through the pain. We see how our consciousness is being inspired to move up.

The farmer, in turn, commits to provide a weekly fare of produce of the best quality grown in terms of: the energy, consciousness, methods of growing, purity of intention, material input, and physical action, as explained in Biodynamic Farmer: Backbone of a Spiritual (R)Evolution  That means no underpaid workers, suffering because they can not provide enough for their families (our responsibility), and no anxiety as to the result of their effort, trusting that a purity of intention will be met in kind by the universe.  An atmosphere of confidence and gratitude permeates the fields and enriches the plants being grown, increasing their nurturing capacity.

The members benefit from: Healthy, fresh, nutritious real food feeding body, mind, and spirit; Learning to eat with the season of the produce that the local soil is able to provide. Not everything grows everywhere; nature’s wisdom is such that our bodies are dependent on the same microclimate that the vegetables depend on, therefore there is a correspondence between what our bodies need and what the local land provides.

Prices are not subject to the whim of the market, or greedy middlemen; it is established in an atmosphere of giving and respect by mutual agreement.

Reconnecting with nature—a necessary step in recovering our sense of humanity which has been mostly deranged because of the materialistic trend which society is following;

A growing sense of community, developing a safety network of well-intentioned and like-minded individuals working for a common good, creating an atmosphere of trust leading to the experience of unconditional love.

The planet, and with it, the rest of humanity, benefits by:

Curtailing waste in terms of packaging, which means in the best case, paper, or plastic waste which takes hundreds of years to break down and is a burden for nature’s recovering process especially in combination with inks and dyes that poison the soil and water courses. Thus water is saved in quantity and quality, as so much is used in the manufacture of packaging.

Environmental conservation, that means soil, air and water are protected by not using synthetic chemicals in the agricultural process, on the contrary the health of the soil is recovered by the use of the Biodynamic form of agriculture. Therefore we are not contributing to pollution, but working to abate it.

Reduced transportation costs, and efficient use of resources, space, etc.; less costly buildings using incredible amounts of energy on a daily basis; recycling of unused produce contributing through composting to increase the fertility of the soil.

When the overall sense of the system is grasped, paired with the sense of resolve, collectively taken, the nature of such a beneficial endeavor is experienced creating a special atmosphere, the sum of the atmospheres from the fields, handling the food, the family enjoyment by the daily partaking of such special food. Those participating will have the spiritual satisfaction of inner joy not possible to quantify in materialistic terms but will sense the reality of other dimensions. The spiritual world  recognized as another partner of the endeavor brings us closer to accessing the cosmic level. Raising of this collective consciousness will have significant impact on planetary consciousness.

Those who have no food, will come closer to our hearts when we experience the abundance, fertility and life-giving forces of mother nature, as our level of consciousness rises the interconnectedness with our fellow human beings, and their pain will move us to more actively participate in endeavors geared to helping solve that terrible problem.                                              

"The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings."

                                                                             -Masanobu Fukuoka

Women Cooking Together 
                                                 by Rose “Mirabai” Lord

We recently celebrated the three year anniversary of El Group Femenino in El Remate, Guatemala where Global Coalition for Peace has been implementing the Women’s Self Reliance Program since January of 2005.  The women who make up El Grupo Femenino have been severely challenged by the task of overcoming the suspicions and fears that a thirty-six year civil war will generate.  They are strong, intelligent and industrious women and readily took to the tools we offered for developing self reliance - intensive gardening, nutrition education and micro-enterprise development.  But they’ve struggled mightily to embrace the concept of “community” EXCEPT WHEN THEY ARE COOKING TOGETHER. 

To watch “El Grupo” cooking together is like watching a fine ballet.  Everyone knows exactly what they should be doing; it’s smooth and relaxed and the result is masterful.  If you have any doubts, one bite of their tamales is all the validation you would need. 

Another example of the peace-inducing phenomenon of women cooking together is the vast community food project in Lima, Peru.  In a recent article about these community kitchens entitled Lima’s Community Kitchens: Combating Hunger and Loneliness, it becomes obvious that cooking together, even when it’s initiated as a means of survival, can enhance women’s lives in many other ways. 

The approximately 100,000 women who work in Lima’s community kitchens feed about half a million people daily.

 According to the article, Lima’s community kitchens are unparalleled in Latin America or any place in the world.  The movement started in the late 1970’s when women started cooking communal meals for striking teachers who had taken over the schools.  When the strike was over some of the women continued to meet and cook together as a means of feeding their families.  María Van del Linde, a nurse and religious worker, began to work with a group of women who were getting food from a local church.  She promised to help them with the condition that the food they received would not be given out uncooked but  prepared together and distributed according to the number of people in each woman’s family.  Within a few years, the success of this experiment fostered 200 community kitchens throughout Lima. 

The number of community kitchens peaked at about 5000 in 1991 at a time of economic crisis in Peru, and has stayed at that number ever since. For many of the families of the women who work there, the kitchens are their only access to food.  But there are other benefits aside from the strictly material ones.  Two sociologists studying Lima’s Community Kitchens concluded, “Free labor offered in solidarity, like at the kitchens, gives participants the opportunity to get out of the house and overcome the situation of isolation that characterizes their lives. This activity increases their self-esteem and their identification with popular sectors in the neighborhood, in addition to the training that projects offer them.”  The kitchens have become like schools where the women gain an education in “organizational activities, democratic practice, conflict resolution, and ways to deal with institutions and government officials

Nilda, president of the Virgen del Carmen kitchen, eloquently expresses the essence of what the community kitchen means to her. "It gives me food for my children and allows me to help others. It makes me happy to be here, not just to receive, but also to be able to give. What I like most is to be here.”

And that may be the secret of the peace and contentment that’s generated by women cooking together – they are doing something that they love for the people they love.  As stated by ascended master Maha Chohan,

"If a woman could see the sparks of light going forth from her fingertips when she is cooking, and the substance of light that goes into the food she handles, she would be amazed to see how much of herself she charges into the meals that she prepares for her family and friends. It is one of the most important and least understood activities of life that the radiation and feeling that go into the preparation of food affect everyone who partakes of it, and this activity should be unhurried, peaceful and happy.”

After the festival in El Remate we held a meeting to talk about what went well and what could be improved for the next time.  Every one of the women of El Grupo Femenino expressed how much she enjoyed cooking with the other women.  In fact they decided that they will cook together every Sunday.  It is our suspicion that the weekly cooking sessions will go a long way towards helping El Grupo Femenino de Ixcanaan to become El Grupo Femenino de Solidaridad. 

Shanti Yoga News  
                                              by Durga

Winter Retreat

Once again the Ashram took its annual winter retreat to Florida during the holy days from before Christmas through Three Kings’ Day. This year the Christmas commemoration was especially beautiful, as the day was spent in silence, meditation, and a twenty-four hour fast. The journey had been such that we set camp in the afternoon of Christmas Eve, thus making Christmas itself the first day of camp. The schedule consisted of morning prayers, with meditation, readings, discussion, chanting and agni hotra-- a Vedic yajna (fire ceremony) to harness the energies of sunrise and sunset-- meditation, and spiritual readings for three hours; followed by hatha yoga asanas; to meet again for meditation at noon; which was followed by breakfast. Then free time allowed for refreshment in nature—the situation of the camp on the Gulf, and inside a tropical hardwood hammock/mangrove, made an ideal situation for solitary communion or peaceful time together with the spiritual family. The evening rounded up with a similar program of reading, meditation, agni hotra, dinner, and a spiritual film screened in our own private “movie theater”—improvised inside our new 15-passenger van.

A very nice addition this time was the presence of two open-class students—first time yoga campers!—Mariana Petrei and Warren Mosely-- as well as a visit from two of our Biodynamic farmer friends from PA: Eric and Birgid Landowne, who happened to be vacationing that week nearby! The no-seeums gave them a farewell party which they will never forget--we weren’t so much waving wildly fond goodbyes as protecting our eyes, ears, and noses from invaders! A visit to Yogi Hari’s Ashram yielded 350 pounds of delicious “apple” bananas (tiny, sweet fruits) which were distributed to our CSA 16 hours later—a spontaneous decision being made to drive home in one stretch to keep the food as fresh as possible. In addition for the CSA we brought 23 cases of fresh-picked oranges, from John Krohn’s orchard, and two more tropical treats— star-fruit (carambola) from Cliff’s Three Sisters garden, and avocadoes from Gabrielle of Paradise Farms. So, six tired yogis arrived home in time to help with morning set-up!

New Arrivals

The Ashram welcomes two new members—a mother and daughter, Brigid and Gabriella Rauch. Brigid is an enthusiastic cook and yoga teacher (pre-natal and children’s classes), and brings with her an interest in spiritual community, a beautiful smile, and many talents with which she contributes to the ashram’s administration. She is also the newest member of the School of Life! Gabby is not quite so outwardly active as her mother, as she is only three months old, but she immediately became the undisputed heart of the home.

Knitting and Meditation Circle

Saraswati (Jennifer) has started a new activity at the Ashram—a Knitting and Meditation Circle. As one happy member, Marika Torok,  describes it, “there is no need to know how to knit or meditate, just interest and enthusiasm to do so…” This is yet another positive venue to attract a variety of people to experience the peace of meditation and community.
 
Shanti Marga Class Starting Soon

Shanti Marga is arguably the core of the Ashram’s activities. The course title means “the road to peace”. The Shanti Marga course is designed for those interested in learning and practicing yoga as a “way of life.” It will show how to develop our potential for attaining a state of inner peace that brings about the joy of living. As Vyasa Deva says, “Peace exists deep within us, deep in the core of our being.  To experience peace, we need to cross through peaks and valleys of the internal road.  In the same way that we use a map or directions to reach a destination, the methods and techniques of yoga are used as guides on the path of self-discovery.  To walk this road to the end for attainment of a permanent state of inner peace requires bold determination, courage, will power, humility, patience, and forbearance to overcome our fear and ignorance of our spiritual nature.”  The Shanti Marga course offers the gentle but firm preparation required for this deep personal work. Thus. the Shanti Marga course is valuable for those interested in personal development.  The process involved provides an opportunity to develop—not through the intellect but through experience—helping to attain fearlessness via self-knowledge and self-discipline and to discover inner strength and the core of our being—who we really are. Please call to register: 301 654 6759, or e-mail: shantiyoga2@earthlink.net.

Editor’s Notebook: Friendship                                         

“A person begins his spiritual accomplishment by learning how to be a friend.  For one who is really treading the path of friendship need not go anywhere to learn morals.  Friendship itself teaches him sincerity, gratitude, sympathy, tenderness, appreciation; all these things that we must learn in this world, friendship teaches us.”
                                                                                         Hazrat Inayat Khan

Spiritual Food for the New Millennium

4217 East-West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814
301-654-6759; fax: 301-654-2702
toll free: 888-384-9642
email: spiritualfood@schooloflife.org