3HO (Happy Healthy Holy Organization) puts on a week long event twice a year at the sun’s northern and southern most trajectory, it is called Summer and Winter Solstice, of course depending on the time of year! It is the easiest time with the effect of the sun on the earth’s magnetic field to make change. To say the least it is always a challenge to try and explain the “solstice” experience to anyone other than someone who has been to the event, so I simply anymore call it a camp. What you might imagine as camp is only one aspect. I know the experience varies with the individual attending.
I sat down one time with a woman while at Summer Solstice in Ram Das Puri, the Jemez mountains just outside of Espanola where the summer event is held, the altitude, heat and dryness all put pressure on the body. She was from another practice, and told me to her it was like the Olympics of Yoga. That might be one way to look at it. After three hours with your arms up in the air trying to think of anyway possible to keep them up, yah…. Focus and the correct mental image… Why why why would anyone put themselves through all that? The desire for change- and it takes that much force usually because the mind habits are hard to break, just ask any psychologist. Well I don’t know but, it gives you inner and outer strength to endure, mental toughness, to maybe have endurance beyond what others have, giving you advantage in life. You release inner anger, emotional garbage floating around and in the end you circumvent the ego and all the selfish ‘the world revolves my a--’ and one becomes very blissful and connected with everything around you. I may have even reached states of Nirvana, or Samadhi. Of course you can reach these states on your own but maybe not quite so sustained. And there is nothing like a little support of those around you, other teachers, fellow Yogi's, your Tantric partner.
Through all the trials that make up the Solstice experience- whether you loose your luggage, forget your ID, loose your partner... you have managed to removed some of the blinders and blocks; the vision is a little clearer. It can be a challenge coming back into the world, not at first you are way to blissed out to care that the world is as it is, but after about 40 days- the effect of the White Tantric Yoga does indeed begin to wear off. It's all the same though, challenge is challenge, no matter where you are in the path of life. So this year after Winter Solstice, in an attempt to counter balance the effect of conflict between the ego and the higher self at least by a little bit I am doing a 1000 day meditation. Never estimate the ability of the ego to create conflict!
So that is every day without missing a day- I am doing the same meditation. And as the days go by- sometimes with boring repetition, there are points of inflection - revelation that can occur, you move beyond time and space, and thank GOD- why would you ever keep on doing this- and it comes- perhaps you chose to pulse the navel differently, or change the breath or it's the way you hold the locks, and suddenly you know what it is to be a yogi, for a moment in time the ancient one, the wisdom, you are not you, everything is very still, no concern of today - tomorrow, and every moment is a moment of timelessness- no beginning no end. I suppose maybe yesterday was one of those moments for me, day 183, and why not it was Solstice.
Happy Solstice
Sat Nam
-m
