Please Be. Seated. Healed. Happy. FREE! NOW!

With great delight, we announce the online birth of Please Be. Seated. Healed. Happy., here, my book that explores the new world of Armchair Yoga. It was written in India, during the past two winters.

Learn helpful postures, breathing techniques and meditations for what ails you. Offered as a three volume set, the format allows readers to select and print just those parts and pieces most helpful for personal healing and well being:

1-Book One focuses on "Why Yoga?" for eliminating all the problems we Earthlings face. Background on yoga and the science behind proper breathing and meditation is provided. An entire chapter shines special attention on Constipation, considered one of the major causes, if not the main cause, of all illness.

2-Book Two offers a general routine for seated Yoga (hence the idea of Armchair Yoga) with demonstration photographs taken on my friend Suja's front porch. Share with your achy and rusty friends and family, to wake up their joints and shoo away pain and the blues. Yoga transforms.

3-Book Three is a handy alphabetized guide to handling today's most common ailments. Learn what you can do for your Asthma, Weight Problems and Headaches. Dozens of challenges we all face daily are listed, with some tips provided for what postures (called ASANAS), breathing (called PRANAYAMA), meditations and dietary changes can help.

The books are not prescriptive, not about medical procedures. Rather, the books are illustrative, about a Yoga practice that can restore your sense of well being and self control. Now is the time to stop looking outside of yourself for answers to your troubles. The answers lie within, and the power to make the change is yours. You are the warden of your prison, Yoga is the key. Remember, Yoga is a Practice. We call it our Yoga Practice, not our Yoga Perfect.

Please accept this invitation to browse our online bookshelf, and freely spread the word. What a thrill to have this medium for tossing words into the Universe! The word BROADCAST originates in the practice used when planting a field...one would BROADLY CAST the seeds, throwing them far and wide.

So, here we are today, BROADCASTING far and wide that the ancient, beautiful healing art of Yoga is available to all modern men and women, particularly those who cannot get down on the floor or back up again. Yes, you, too, can enjoy all the benefits of Yoga, without the floor.

A three volume set offered free, online:

Volume One

Volume Two

Volume Three

by Bethany Knight
March 2008

I wish to publicly thank my dear friend and computer mentor, Morgan Brown, whose patience and talents are the reason Please Be. Seated. Healed. Happy. could be introduced today. Morgan, I appreciate you so much. He tells me that google introduced Gmail (Google Mail) on April 1, 2004 -- four years ago. Thank you, google. And just as google assures its users, what we are offering is FREE and NOW (and this isn't an April Fool's joke!)

Throw a Stone in a Pond, the Universe Isn't Quite the Same as Before

India's divine scriptures, the Upanishads, include this verse: "The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to Salvation is hard."

Salvation, in my experience, means finding a way to save oneself from the superficial, empty, mindless chasing of that illusion called happiness. Yes, happiness found outside ourselves is an illusive illusion. Only inner joy feeds us and keeps us sane, saves us.

The late British author W. Somerset Maugham wrote The Razor's Edge. Larry, one of the main characters, is a seeker of truth, who travels to India in the 1930s. Enlightened through his Indian adventure, Larry decides to return to the USA and live a life, "with calmness, forbearance, compassion, selflessness and continence."

Another character questions Larry, "But can you for a moment imagine that you, one man, can have any effect on such a restless, busy, lawless, intensely individualistic people as the people of America? You might as well try to hold back the waters of the Mississippi with your bare hands."

Larry answers, "I can try. It was one man who invented the wheel. It was one man who discovered the law of gravitation. Nothing happens without effect. If you throw a stone in a pond the universe isn't quite the same as it was before. It's a mistake to think that those holy men of India lead useless lives. They are a shining light in the darkness. The represent an ideal that is a refreshment to their fellows; the common run may never attain it, but they respect it and it affects their lives for good. When a man becomes pure and perfect the influence of his character spreads so that they who seek truth are naturally drawn to him. It may be that if I lead the life I've planned for myself it may affect others; the effect may be no greater than the ripple caused by the stone thrown in the pond, but one ripple causes another, and that one a third; it's just possible that a few people will see that my way of life offers happiness and peace, and that they in their turn will teach what they have learnt to others."

(Snapped this photo yesterday in the Lalbagh Botanical Gardens in southern Bangalore. The gardens were created in 1760 by Hyder Ali.)

I'm Singing to the Universe, that Old Tom Jones Song: Love Is In the Air

Love is in the air everywhere I look around, love is in the air every sight and every sound and I don’t know if I’m being foolish, I don’t know if I’m being wise, but it’s something that I must believe in and it’s there when I look in your eyes. Love is in the air, in the whisper of the trees, love is in the air in the thunder of the sea, and I don’t know if I’m just dreaming, I don’t know if I feel safe, but it’s something that I must believe in and it’s there when I call out your name. Love is in the air, love is in the air, oh, oh, oh, oh, uh, uh, uh, uh. Love is in the air, in the rising of the sun, love is in the air, when the day is nearly done,and I don’t know if you are illusion, don’t know if I see truth, but you are something that I must believe in,and you are there when I reach out for you. Love is in the air everywhere I look around love is in the air every sight and every sound and I don’t know if I’m being foolish, I don’t know if I’m being wise but it’s something that I must believe in and it’s there when I look in your eyes. Love is in the air, love is in the air, oh, oh, oh, oh, uh, uh, uh, uh.
(photo from the Indian Institute of Science, where I am staying)

Easter Weekend, Speaking the Language of the Heart

With friends this weekend in the city of Bangalore, I attended St. Patrick's, Christ and King and All People's Church. On Sunday night, I spoke before the Interreligious Harmony group. Sitting during the candlelit Easter Vigil mass, conducted in the Tamil language, while the order of service was familiar, I was unable to follow the priest word by word.

But speaking the language of the heart, it was no trouble knowing exactly what was going on in the lives of all those in the church. Families, mothers, fathers, grannies and children came together to celebrate the Good News of Easter. The news that even a brutal execution couldn't silence the beautiful teachings of Jesus. We sat together, we broke bread together, remembering we are here to love one another, as we love ourselves.

A young worshipper at Christ the King enjoys the crowd and fancies the brightly decorated ceiling.

Wise Words from an Indian Saint on Saint Patrick's Day

I’ve a new song in my head, and I don’t want it to leave.
Called the Astavarka Gita (Gita means "song" in Sanskrit) it is a beautiful, powerful, inspired ancient poem that not only explains the meaning of life, but the way to live a life of meaning.
Regarded as unparalleled, majestic and beyond compare by Vedic scholars, this set of about 300 verses (20 short chapters) is a conversation between a master and his student. The master is unlikely. His name is Astavarka (spelled Ashtavarka in some translations), which means “eight crooked knots or joints.” These deformities are attributed to his father’s curses while Astavarka was in his mother’s womb, and how he got his name.
The student is King Janaka, who wants to understand the meaning of life. Told in a question-answer format, this dialogue is unlike the more famous Gita, the Bhagavad Gita, primarily because the student in the Astavakra Gita doesn’t resist or fight what his teacher tells him. Without the conflict and disagreement, the author of the Astavarka doesn’t have to include metaphorical battle scenes, as found in the Bhagavad Gita.
Here in Bangalore, I had the good fortune to go the Central Chinmaya Mission Trust, and get a copy of the late Swami’ Chinmayananda’s translation and commentary of the Astavarka Gita. Of this Gita, he wrote, “To those who have purified their minds and are really engaged in meditation, to such committed students alone, this textbook can show light and can serve as a true guide.” Oh, I so agree!
Let me share just one mighty verse from Chapter XI, entitled Self is Pure Intelligence, verse 5: “He who has understood with certitude that it is anxiety and nothing else that brings sorrow in the world, becomes free from it and is happy and peaceful everywhere---with his desires melted away.”
Is that not a 33 word prescription for what ails the modern world? But written more than 5,000 years ago.
To my delight, I found a lovely website, which actually has a free copy of the Astavarka Gita available for download, translated by a gentleman named John Richards. Let us bless and thank the Realization.org web folks and Mr. Richards!
Take your time and approach this Book of Wisdom with time and reverence. Enjoy the teachings and the freedom you will derive.

What Do You See?

Saturday morning in Calcutta, the colorful laundry was hanging out to dry. Driving in from the airport, we were headed for A Big Fat Indian Wedding.

Against the aging, stained backdrop of the city scape, the brilliant fabrics waved "Welcome!" Somehow, this moment captured for me the very essence of life: grime and glory, dirt and delight, wrong and right. Our days, in fact... life itself, are made up of these contrasts, these pairs of opposites.

What if we allowed ourselves the freedom to see these extremes as both OK, as simply part of the range of the Earth experience, not separate poles but pieces of the Whole? What if we stopped assigning emotional reactions to each passing moment, labeling this person bad, that one good? Could we just see it all for what it is?

Seeing what is without applying praise or blame is our passport to freedom. Accepting what is, we keep our balance and outlook, remembering we are here not to judge or fix others, but simply to love. Spending energy on love is such a satisfying way to spend the day.

Buddha and Jesus Teach Us

Many Buddhas in Sri Lanka. Jesus prays.

Sri Lankan Buddhist Ahangamage Tudor Ariyaratne founded the Sarvodaya Shramandana movement 50 years ago, to empower ordinary people.
In an online Newsweek interview, this beautiful leader talks about how the movement is “based on the teachings of the Buddha. In the first place, Buddha advocated that we should obey the five precepts: nonkilling, nonstealing, non-sexual indulgence, nonviolence and nonintoxication. These five precepts are the fundamentals on which we work. We believe that human beings should develop four characteristics Buddha has taught us: to practice loving kindness toward all living beings, to engage yourself in compassionate action, to gain joy out of serving other people and to work in a spirit of equality. These four principles help a person to develop one's personality. From them we can derive another set of principles for the community that we wish to practice. One is sharing, to share your efforts or whatever you have. The second is pleasant language, a language of compassion and respect. The third is constructive activity, the effort to direct your actions toward real and positive achievement. And the fourth is equality in association.”
What wonderful precepts and principles we can apply to all human endeavor, huh?
Having spent some time in the Buddhist temples of Sri Lanka in January, I feel even more ready to embrace these ways of life. Yes, I am a practicing Christian who loves Jesus. And I love Buddha, too. Both have taught me so much about ethical living, a compassionate way of seeing, of letting go of what no longer serves me.
Just this week I received a lovely book, Jesus and Buddha: the Parallel Sayings, edited by Marcus Borg (Ulysses Press,California, 2002). Borg makes a great distinction when comparing the lives of these two phenomenal beings, born 500 years apart. Though their teachings are so similar, Buddha lived into his 80s and died a natural death. Jesus was given a death sentence as a young man.
Borg takes on the question, “Why?” Why if they stood for such similar principles of living was one crucified?
"There is a social and political passion in Jesus which we do not find in the Buddha,” Borg writes. “In addition to being a wisdom teacher and healer, Jesus was a social prophet. He challenged the domination system of his day and its ruling elites, and affirmed an alternative social vision….Jesus’ early death was probably because of his social-political passion; if he had been simply a wisdom teacher and healer, I doubt that he would have been executed.”
Reflecting on how Jesus’s more active, confrontational ministry could have lead to his early death makes me think about how I conduct myself. What path am I on? How am I contributing to others' lives and my own death?
Yes, there is a line between teaching and preaching, between quietly working for change and vocally protesting. Finding the right blend is a valuable exercise for us all.

March Arrives; I Meet My Fig Tree

When I am liberated by silence,
when I am no longer involved
in the measurement of life, but in the living of it, I can discover a form of prayer in which there is effectively no distraction.

My whole life becomes a prayer.

My whole silence is full of prayer. The world of silence in which I am immersed contributes to my prayer.

Thomas Merton

Dearest Readers:

Welcome to March in Bangalore! Today, my friend Lalita, one of the women who keeps this bustling household going, climbed the fig tree outside my door.

I have long loved this tree; a total of 9 months I have looked at it, and only today, did I discover the hidden delights. Many afternoons we have been sitting together, the leaves growing before my eyes. Content with her leaves alone, I am overwhelmed by the sweet, luscious goodness of her fruit.

Thomas Merton said it, I am experiencing it...life as prayer.