Celebrating the Inner Light: Happy Holidays

Be content with what you have.

Rejoice in the way things are.

When you realize there is nothing lacking

The whole world belongs to you.

~ Lao Tzu

Blessings of the season to you!
 
 THIS SEASON, AND ALWAYS,

REMEMBER

EVERYTHING IS PERFECT

EXACTLY AS IT IS

DROP INTO THE MOMENT

 BE AND ENJOY

ENDURE AND ENJOY

SAVOR AND ENJOY

HAPPY BEING.

LOVE AND PEACE,
Erin Reese

 

NEWS from your spiritual traveler:

- Know someone who's traveling in January, who needs a housesitter? Let me know! I'm available until January 20.

- Holiday gift certificates available for Tarot and Astrology sessions via Skype, phone, or email. Great for that person who needs intuitive insight for the coming year! Contact me via email for more information.

- I just received the following editorial review for my new short story, Ramesh's Grace: A Simple Story of Waking Up (available on Amazon Kindle here).

"Erin Reese's crisp story is a tantalizing synopsis of one person's passage - both unique and archetypal at the same time - on the classic Vedantic path from ignorance to knowing and darkness to light.  One hopes that more details are on the way." 
~ Philip Goldberg, author of American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation, How Indian Spirituality Changed the West

 
In the words of George Harrison, "The farther one travels, the less one knows."

See you on the cosmic road!
Erin

Watch this beautiful YouTube montage of The Beatles' "Inner Light."
This captures the essence of my India experience, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHh6iKy2OAg

 Without going out of my door
I can know all things on earth
With out looking out of my window
I can know the ways of heaven

The farther one travels
The less one knows
The less one really knows

Without going out of your door
You can know all things on earth
With out looking out of your window
You can know the ways of heaven

The farther one travels
The less one knows
The less one really knows

Arrive without traveling
See all without looking
Do all without doing

OM SHANTI OM: Special Gift for You!

MAY PEACE PREVAIL ON EARTH

OM SHANTI OM

This Wednesday is 12-12-12... a super-powered day of cosmic transformation.

We are gearing up for the Winter Solstice on 12-21-12. Many of us are already feeling a deepening or a quickening as we dwell in the darkest time of the year. Seed visions are being prepared underneath the soil.

In honor of this intense, exciting and somewhat disorienting time on the planet, AND to bestow us all with wisdom, prosperity, and good fortune for the coming year, I’m offering a very special gift to you for one day only, December 12, 2012:

Tarot readings via email by DONATION, just for 12-12-12.

Erin reads cards in Thailand, June 2012

(My normal rate is $100 per hour.)

HOW: Email your single question (one question per donation, please) directly to me, along with any specifics about your situation that I might need to know. I will respond within 24-48 hours with a personalized write-up of your intuitive reading, plus full-color photograph of the Tarot cards drawn for your question.

WHEN: Send your question to me by end of day, December 12, 2012 PST.

I’m looking forward to reading for you.

Om shanti shanti shanti!

With love,

Erin Reese

Please feel free to repost this link and share with interested friends and family. 

Here is a YouTube video with one of my favorite shanti mantras. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh5XjWHJivk

 

ॐ असतो मा सद्गमय ।

Aum asato mā sadgamaya

Lead us from the unreal to the real

तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय ।

Tamaso mā jyotir gamaya

Lead us from darkness to light

मृत्योर्माऽमृतं गमय ।

Mṛtyormā amṛtam gamaya

Lead us from death to immortality

- Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28

The Shanti Mantras or "Peace Mantras" are Hindu prayers for Peace (Shanti) from the Vedas, found in Upanishads. They are supposed to calm the mind of reciter and environment around him/her. Reciting them is also believed to be removing any obstacles for the task being started.

ॐ

Is there space within this relationship? ~ Eckhart Tolle

Is there space within this relationship?

Eckhart Tolle on the transcendental dimension of true love.

Summary and notes from Eckhart TV (YouTube) by Erin Reese

Image: Alex Grey

True love is transcendental (transparent). If the formless is not recognized, there can be no transcendental dimension (shining beyond) and there can be no true love.

Moving out of personal love.

Falling in love with the form [of a person] can only be a personal (subject/object) relationship, which can only change due to the nature of Reality (= impermanence).

There IS only change. If the transcendental dimension is not recognized there can be no impersonal love. If you only have egos interacting, a lot of unhappiness is there without the transcendental shining through. No matter how close the bonds are, it can only be a form of suffering. Sometimes the other dimension of transcendence comes through - a glimpse, e.g. perhaps you are about to break up and there, it becomes apparent.

SPACE is the keyword.

SPACE is the keyword. If all you have is thoughts and emotions, occasionally you are okay but then you just get tired; there is a continuum of stuff, stuff – so much stuff, it never ends!

Personal affinities between two individuals are there, yes, but these are never ultimately fulfilling and more often a source of suffering. The key is space and from there you move into the transcendence [recognition of the formlessness; transparency].

How does the transcendental dimension come into relationships? By being spacious with the other. Access the stillness while you look and experience the other. Any thought or emotion becomes unimportant.

A mantra could be: Is there space within this relationship?

Awareness. Stillness. Aliveness. A space. 

Image: Alex Grey

Bindi Girl reads Bindi Girl: new "live" video

Author Erin Reese reads the "Arrival" chapter from her #1-rated travel book, The Adventures of Bindi Girl. November 24, 2012, San Francisco. Special thanks to PL Interactive, Inc. for footage.

Ramesh’s Grace: A Simple Story of Waking Up

“You are not the doer!”

~ Ramesh Balsekar

www.amazon.com/dp/B00AGJ24TU

NEWS FLASH: December 1, 2012

Erin Reese releases “Ramesh’s Grace: A Simple Story of Waking Up” today on Amazon Kindle.

Dear friends:

I am releasing my first spiritual ‘single,’ a short story on Amazon Kindle, just in time for the holidays, the Solstice, and the big 2012 To-Do. The single, “Ramesh’s Grace: A Simple Story of Waking Up,” was written in honor of my beloved Teacher Ramesh Balsekar.

Erin Reese is a spiritual travel writer and the author of the #1-rated book, The Adventures of Bindi Girl: Diving Deep Into the Heart of India. In this short six-page piece, Reese shares a tale of awakening based on the grace of her guru, the late advaita sage Ramesh Balsekar (1917-2009). She sat with Ramesh in Mumbai, India during the last two years of his life, receiving transmission and non-dual teachings on the nature of reality.

Awakening Is Timeless

Awakening is an appearance in time and space. It happens, or rather, it appears only in the Now. Perhaps this is one reason why I could not even name the date in which I realized that there was no separate self. It was sometime in mid-February 2011. I woke up and simultaneously ceased to exist, knowing there was no separate ‘me’ operating, no central Erin as a locus in time and space. This realization made me giggle with glee to the tips of my toes – and still does!

With gratitude

To all the teachers

Who helped me see

There is no me. 

You can read more about this in the short story, Ramesh’s Grace, available now on Amazon Kindle.

I hope you enjoy it.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AGJ24TU

In honor of the magical city of Mumbai where I met my guru on Thanksgiving Day, 11-22-2007, I’ve reposted my “Love Letter to Bombay” as a fun trailer, which you can watch here:

With love and grace,
Erin

P.S. For those readers wanting to deepen their understanding of awakening and being in the Now, I recommend listening to Eckhart Tolle's "Uncourse" free video series. In my opinion, Tolle is one of the best modern spiritual teachers - clear, funny, and precise. Here is the link:

 http://www.soundstrue.com/tolleuncourse/

It takes no time at all to wake up.

~ Eckhart Tolle

Bindi Girl opens for Convergence: Tonight in SF!

Namaste, lovely friends!
Digested your Thanksgiving Dinner? Ready to shake a turkey tail feather?
For those of you anywhere near San Francisco, give thanks, come on down and get down at Convergence, a Dance*Music*Art Celebration hosted by LoveTech and Worldly. The Center is a unique community/art/healing venue located in an old church rectory in the Lower Haight.

Bindi Girl (c'est moi!) opens the night up at 8pm SHARP in the PlaySpace room with a reading from The Adventures of Bindi Girl followed by a Q&A on India quests 'n travels!

Be sure to stick around to hear amazing world-tech music from some of my favorite local artists, including Moldover and the legendary Cheb I Sabbah.

NOTE: I'll be performing at 8pm sharp! Early birds, come on down!
Space is limited: Buy tickets here in advance - only $15

Saturday 11/24 8pm-1am

at The Center, 548 Fillmore St

San Francisco

Hope to see you there, or somewhere on Planet Earth, soon!
Love,
Bindi Girl

THE GUNAS: The energies of the physical and psychic universe

Namaste, friends:

You may practice yoga and meditation to awaken body, mind, and soul, but do you know about the gunas? No, the gunas are not beings from another planet. The gunas are the energies of the physical and psychic universe. They are very helpful to understand, for they describe the ever-flowing, ever-changing nature of Reality.

On a recent retreat at the Vedanta Society of Northern California, I copied down the following notes on the gunas from the celebrated text, The Spiritual Heritage of India, by Swami Prabhavananda, a beloved philosopher and monk in the Sri Ramakrishna lineage. I found the description illuminating and precise, and so thought to share them with you, too.

THE GUNAS: The energies of the physical and psychic universe* 

The word guna literally means quality. Guna can also mean “the rope that bends.” Gunas are bundles of energies or forces which are never at rest. They are the material cause of the psychic and physical universe. One of them at any moment predominates. The three gunas are: sattva, rajas, and tamas.

• ·         Sattva informs all that is pure and fine.
• ·         Rajas informs the active principle
• ·         Tamas informs the principle of solidity and resistance.

All three gunas are present in everything, but one guna always predominates. For example sattva (also written sattwa) is predominant in sunlight, rajas in an erupting volcano, and tamas in a block of granite.

The gunas also represent the different stages in the process of evolution of any particular entity. Sattva is the essence or the form to be realized; tamas is the inherent obstacle to its realization; and rajas is the power by which the obstacle is removed and it becomes manifest. Sattva finally is the power by which a product manifests itself to consciousness.

How does this translate to qualities of MIND?

• ·         Sattva: tranquility, purity, and calmness
• ·         Rajas: passion, restlessness, aggressive activity
• ·         Tamas: stupidity, laziness, inertia

Rajas is the key to overcoming Tamas and moving into Sattva, i.e.

T+R =S

R+S =S

The ultimate is to transcend Sattva also and reach the Purusha, the unchanging principle of intelligence. Purusha is the real Self, which is above and beyond the gunas.

*From The Spiritual Heritage of India, by Swami Prabhavananda (Vedanta Society, 1962)

Bindi Book Bash Update - let's do it again!

Thank you to all the friends and fans

who came to the October Bindi Book Parties!

Namaste,
 
Both the "Chai and Bindi Party" and the "Bindi Book Bash and Kirtan" were fabulous events. I got a real kick out of speaking bad Hindi with the Indian waitstaff at the San Francisco event, with Bollywood on the big screen behind me. It was great to share authentic and delicious chai tea and samosas with some of my closest friends in celebration of my book success.

In Marin the next day, we had a nice turnout at the YogaWorks book bash and kirtan with Mirabai and friends. I surprised myself as I read the first two mini-chapters of my book: "Night Flight" and "Arrival," as my own words brought tears to my eyes! I wasn't sure if it was the emotion of being on stage and reading, or the poignancy of the words I wrote, come to life 10 years later. But when I looked out in the audience, I caught sight of a few other Indophiles who were also choked up. This line had a particularly strong effect on me:

India will show you

the places in your heart

that must be purified.

Photo: Alix Rauh

The India Q+A session was also moving. The attendees had powerful questions that made me stop and think. I loved sharing my experiences about surrendering to the art of long-term travel and pilgrimages, and my personal spiritual journey - diving deep into the heart of India. I can't wait for the next chance to speak about these topics in public, and I welcome the opportunity.

Thanks to your reviews and support,

Bindi is the #1-rated India travel book on Amazon. 

Have you given Bindi a review on Amazon?
If yes, THANK YOU! If 'not yet,' please do so here. Every review helps an indie author to get the word out.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Adventures-Bindi-Girl-Diving/dp/0615547664

Thank you friends, fans and family.
Keep living your dreams.
With love,

Bindi