Saturday Chanting

"As soon as the mind pulls out an agenda and decides what needs to change, that's unreality. Life doesn't need to decide who's right and who's wrong. Life doesn't need to know the "right" way to go because it's going there anyway."

(Adyashanti)

Taught class this morning. Then chanting. Yes chanting. Every Saturday since I've been back, a good friend of mine has dedicated Saturday mornings to chanting the Hanuman Chalisa to all who feel inspired to participate. This particular chant, over 40 verses long, is extremely powerful, opens the heart, and cleanses the soul. We chant the prayer 5 times, and it takes a little over an hour to complete. Make no doubt about it, it's good stuff all the way. People come in the door half dead, and leave alive, and full of energy - it's pretty cool to observe. Who would of thought chanting has such a powerful effect, but well, it is one of the oldest forms of yoga practice there is.

Before chanting, my friend and I also manage to run up to the local farmer's market to pick up fresh produce. I never would a thought I could get so excited over a bunch of fresh greens, tomatoes, and ripe zucchini as I have the past month. But, alas, I'm hooked regarding anything sustainable, local, and organic - look, it's the wave of the future versus what else you may have heard. :-) Believe me.

Getting back to the chanting, today it struck me to contemplate the nature of true happiness, which I like to call joy. Happiness, to me, seems fleeting and temporary, but joy, now that is something that seems to emanate from a deeper place, a place of pure being. What I mean is, it isn't determined by an external factor - it comes from a place of being connected. To what, you ask? Well I'm not really sure, but it seems to come from a place centered around the heart. It's a mystery, but somehow in the unknown the known reveals Itself in the most unlikely of places. Through chanting, or yoga, through the process of devotion to something bigger than yourself, nothing else seems to matter, and why should it? Everything stems from this place of abundance. When we honor IT we heal, we feel, everything we need appears right before our eyes.