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JULY 9, 2010:  Dharamsala, India

Well ... we all know that I am not the queen of PR or of keeping in touch ... it's been countless years without any sign of a newsletter or update, and only now am I even beginning to populate this website with more than my teaching calendar :-).  SO, the time has come, it seems, for a bit more cyber connecting on my part.  It is still overwhelming, I barely have time to brush my hair on some days let alone update facebook or anything else.  (What is Twitter???)  Every day is so packed full with precious moments I would need an additional 24 hours every 24 hours to do life "recording justice" -- especially given all of the radiant souls I encounter in this nomadic gypsy existence!

On Saturday. Manu and I wrapped up our fourth year and best ever yoga - tantra - dance season here in the stunning Himalayas of India.  We were blessed with packed-full courses, enthusiastic students overflowing with aspiration, and lots of grace in so many forms from the Goddess. Pranam to all who joined us...may we continue to be divinely connected in this web of life.

This season we ran two Level 1 Agama one month intensive cycles, plus the Level 2 and 3 intensives, and both the Tantra 1 and Tantra 2 workshops.  Phew!  The hall was buzzing!  This was the first time that the Agama Tantra 2 teachings were ever shared in the mother land of tantra -- India -- so it was a big moment for us all!  The courses were also at our space capacity, an encouraging sign that this work will continue to ripple strongly through many people's lives.  The feedback from the groups was phenomenal...deep transformation and profound heart-opening was the common thread. Beautiful.

As far as dance, well, it was also a fantastic season!  I began my time in India in April participating in a two-week Gurdjieff Sacred Dance Movements intensive taught by the wonderful dynamic duo Amiyo and Chetan.  Consciousness and presence dancing.  I love this work and am grateful to have the opportunity to continue to deepen my experiences in the Gurdjieff way, communing with the Self through conscious movement.  Nartak/Marco then led a Sacred Dance workshop for us at the Agama center.  It was so inspiring to see the hippy-backpacker community light up with the Gurdjieff dances! 

But that's not all on the dance end.  Of course the Mystical Belly Dance classes continued 3-days per week and each session seemed like every beautiful Goddess from Bhagsu found her way into the circle.  We dove deep into the shamanic trance and blessing dances this season and even held the first ever Sufi Whirling night.  We spun in ecstasy to my favorite Sufi music by beloved Sufi Master Oruc.  I am counting the days to whirl again to his live music in Turkey in August.  Yea!!!  Shiva-Shakti Belly Dance again graced our halls four times.  It was full-power fire, man, can those Shivas can shimmy!

I also continued my Odissi Temple Dance training with Saroj-ji.  Last summer I may have set a new record for the oldest person to learn both Mangalacharan and Sthai in just 3 weeks.   Then this season I surrendered in totality to learn Shiva Tandava and Mokshya in a month admist everything else going on (that's all the time there was, so no choice but to be on the fast path :-) ... my knees were not happy but my soul couldn't stop shining in delight for this initiation into such a strong devotional dance form.  We even managed to perform two times within a month -- double-whammy Temple Offerings in the Agama Temple!  It was a sacred experience to be among a group of special women manifesting the energy of the Deva Dasis.  Jai Ma!  Shiva Shambo!

Now that our high season in Dharamsala has concluded, it hasn't really slowed down.  Just saw Dalai Lama (and the Karmapa!) on Dalai Lama's birthday (how surreal and auspicious that these two giants of Tibetan Buddhism "live in the neighborhood".) Manu and I attended a two-day Crystal Healing course with lovely Usha (am addicted to amethyst now) and I am currently researching Tibetan Sacred Buddhist Dance.  Life is beautiful.  And full!

Love to you ALL!

 

 
Dancing is not rising to your feet painlessly like a whirl of dust blown about by the wind.

Dancing is when you rise above both worlds, tearing your heart to pieces and giving up your soul.

-Rumi

  Monika with Guru Padma