April 28, 2012
Raw Tomato Soup
If you have fond childhood memories of that canned, condensed tomato soup, I have a fresh, tasty alternative for you. Since this is a raw version of the classic, you will want to be careful if you heat it on the stove. To keep it raw, that is to keep all the enzymes in your food alive, the temperature should not exceed 118 degrees F (some say even lower).
I use the ‘soup’ button on my Blendtec blender to blend this recipe, which warms it bit, so I don’t bother heating it on the stove. Enjoy it with a salad or a raw wrap and you have a delicious lunch.
For one hearty serving – this recipe makes much more than the picture, but I ate most of it before I took the photo:
Ingredients
¼ cup almond milk (homemade to keep it raw)
3 plum tomatoes (or any type of tomato you wish – just use about the same volume)
1 stalk of celery (I don’t use the leafy green parts for this – save those for the juicer)
about ¼ of red bell pepper (I had 2 of those mini bell peppers (red and yellow) so I used those)
1/8 cup of nutritional yeast
½ tsp good quality salt (I use Himalayan pink salt)
Blend thoroughly until you have a smooth consistency. Top with sprouts or sunflower/pumpkin seeds (optional).
Notes: The almond milk makes it creamy, but you can use plain water
The celery adds to the liquid of the soup.
The red pepper adds a nice zesty flavor – don’t leave it out.
The nutritional yeast adds a salty, mildly cheesy flavor.
This soup is really delicious, complete with fully intact nutrients and enzymes. If you’re wondering about the information out there that says tomatoes need to be cooked to get the benefits of the lycopene, my understanding is that if the cell walls of the plant are broken down, through cooking or blending, your body will be able to assimilate all the benefits the plant has to offer.
March 28, 2012
Raw Chocolate Truffles
Here’s a great little chocolatey treat with no processed sugars or dairy fat added. These delectable tidbits contain antioxidants from the raw cacao, omega-3 fats from the walnuts, natural sugars and fiber from the dates. Try to use all organic ingredients for a truly decadent raw dessert. This recipe will probably yield a couple dozen truffles – more or less depending on the size.
Ingredients
1 cup of walnuts, soaked
1 cup of dates
2 TBL raw cacao (more or less to taste)
½-1 tsp vanilla (you may taste the alcohol, so you might want to use non-alcoholic vanilla)
Directions:
Soak the walnuts for 4-6 hours or overnight, rinse and drain. In a food processor, add all the ingredients and process until a sticky “dough” forms. This may require stopping the machine a couple of times to scrape down the sides.
Roll into balls and dip into raw cacao, chopped nuts, or shredded coconut.
Chill. Serve with sweet, raw cashew cream (optional, but ohhh so good!).
These seem to get better after a day or two as they sit the fridge – if they last that long.
Some options and tips:
For the nuts – I would recommend walnuts, pecans or pine nuts
I like to process until the consistency is very smooth for truffles, but you could leave it a bit chunkier and press it into a pan to form it into raw brownies if you like.
You can use other flavored extracts instead of vanilla if you like to change it up.
You can add some other superfood powders like maca or goji to pump up the nutritional value. Start with small amounts until you can determine how they change the flavor.
Get creative and have fun. Raw desserts are a great and easy way to edge into eating more raw foods. Enjoy!
January 22, 2012
What’s Love Got to Do with It?
Devotion is a tricky thing, especially for a Westerner. Displays of spiritual/religious fervor are supposed to be confined to church on Sunday or inside the privacy of our homes. In other words, kept behind closed doors. Those of you who are of Italian heritage, like myself, will remember the crucifixes that hung in every room of the house, including the basement. I could never figure out if they were there as displays of reverence or to ward off evil spirits.
Unfortunately, where there is still that element in society where might makes right, devotion is neither admired nor taken seriously at any level of consideration. I remember back in the 60’s, when the peace sign first became popular. It was considered, by some, to be the sign of the chicken since the symbol resembled a chicken’s foot. People who wanted peace instead of war were branded as cowards. Devotion has gotten an equally bad rap.
The West’s discomfort with displays of devotion could just be a cultural thing, as it doesn’t seem to be an issue in other parts of the world. Or, it could go deeper than that. Devotion is love. That could be where the problem is. Maybe we don’t know how to love. Be it loving others or ourselves, maybe we just don’t know how. As it is generally understood, love revolves around the ego, so that love is completely conditional. The real thing is unconditional. Love with no strings, no expectations – love that is totally free of the demands of the ego – is not a familiar concept to most people.
As a result, spirituality/religion tend to be more a mental exercise rather than an emotional one, like having to memorize the catechism in school, the emphasis being on dogma rather than devotion. Early in my sadhana, as now, my teacher would read us works by and about Indian masters such as Ramakrishna (probably the greatest saint India has ever produced), Swami Ramdas, Shivom Tirth, among others. Their words were filled with love for the Sacred. They stressed the importance of keeping our awareness on the Divine so that we may experience that love. Remember, what we think we become, so by keeping our thoughts on the Absolute we become the embodiment of love, which projects outward into world, which, let’s face it, could use a lot more of it.
Devotion is love. When you open yourself to the possibility of letting love into your life everything changes. You become filled with the love that you are expressing. Japa, kirtan, and contemplation are all tools to help the sadhan along the bhakti (devotional) path. The bliss that is felt during and after kirtan or contemplation is unsurpassed by anything the material world has to offer. It is not to be found in any book. You do not have to be in a church or temple – love is within. It needs to be felt, but, just like direct spiritual experience, you can’t make it happen. It has to evolve. And as you progress in your sadhana, it will.
December 31, 2011
Don’t Worry….Be Happy
Being stuck in the ego is not easy or fun. It’s only struggle. Too many thoughts. Too much thinking I should be doing anything instead of what I’m actually doing. Too much thinking I should be different than how I am.
Last night, as I went to bed consumed with too many thoughts, I used some of the tricks of the “trade” (aka sadhana), to help still my mind. I realized that whatever the current obsession of my ego was, it wasn’t worth my attention or the energy I was pouring into sustaining it. I reminded myself that we are all doing exactly what we are supposed to be doing and the only thing I can change is my thoughts.
As 2011 comes to a close and we hover on the brink of the much anticipated 2012, I am reminded of the Dan Millman quote from his book, “Way of the Peaceful Warrior.” I used to have this quote on my refrigerator. Can’t remember why I took it down. I think I need to put it back up there again…
“There is no need to search; achievement leads to nowhere. It makes no difference at all, so just be happy now!
Love is the only reality of the world, because it is all One, you see. And the only laws are paradox, humor and change.
There is no problem, never was, and never will be. Release your struggle, let go of your mind, throw away your concerns, and relax into the world.
No need to resist life, just do your best.
Open your eyes and see that you are far more than you imagine. You are the world, you are the universe; you are yourself and everyone else, too!
It’s all the marvelous Play of God.
Wake up, regain your humor. Don’t worry, just be happy. You are already free!”
Happy New Year everyone!
Peace.
December 30, 2011
Orange Creamsicle Smoothie
I used to love orange creamsicles when I was a kid. Today, I was craving something creamy, sweet, light and yes orangey. This recipe is fabulous and so easy. Be sure to blend well if you don’t have a high power blender like a Vita-mix or Blendtec.
Recipe is adapted from The Rawtarian. I added vanilla and used almond milk instead of orange juice. Here is the link if you want to view the original recipe for Raw Orange Smoothie, which makes 2 servings (by the way this is a great site for simple raw recipes)
For one serving:
1 orange peeled – try to get off as much white pith as you can.
1 banana – fresh or frozen (I used frozen)
¼ cup plus 1 TBL almond milk (use homemade to keep it raw)
½ tsp vanilla
½ TBL coconut oil or butter (I used coconut butter)
zest of the orange you are using.
Make sure to zest the orange before you peel it. Put all the ingredients into the blender and blend well. Enjoy!
December 9, 2011
Space and Holograms and Black Holes …Oh My!
I’ve always held firmly to the idea that just because something you believe cannot be proven by science doesn’t mean you should change your mind about it. But, I have to say that, occasionally, it’s nice to get some confirmation from the scientists. This is one of those times.
I recently showed my chemistry class a Nova program, “Fabric of the Cosmos,” featuring Brian Greene (the physicist who gave us string theory). It was entitled “Space” and the upshot was that space was not the vacuum we thought it was. (By the way, this and what follows is not news to any student of non-duality – but I digress.) Turns out that space is teaming with energy or ‘activity’ as is the so-called “empty space” that comprises the atom. My students were fine with all that, except when it came to the end of the show where it was suggested that physicists are now thinking that the universe is a hologram. Seems it has something to do with newly discovered properties of black holes. There was an audible silence after the show as they digested what they had just heard. The idea is difficult to wrap your brain around. The implications are even more difficult to verbalize.
For me – I was thrilled. I’ve written about this idea, on this blog, based on Michael Talbot’s work, The Holographic Universe, which was published back in 1991. This blog entry was taken from a larger piece I wrote, published in November 2007 in the Aquarius (a newspaper published in Atlanta). You can check that out in their archives here.
These times we are living in reminds me of the early years of the 20th century when science was exploding with all the new ideas put forth by Einstein, Max Planck, Niels Bohr etc. Quantum mechanics was born during that exciting time and changed how we view the world. I feel that we are on the precipice of a similar radical revision of our view of reality. I felt it back in the early ‘90’s when I read about the work of physicist David Bohm, who is mentioned in Talbot’s work. That was also around the time I read Fritjof Capra’s “Tao of Physics.”
Ideas that have been discussed and bandied about outside of the mainstream over the past few decades are now suddenly being hailed as “new” discoveries. I applaud those men and women who risked and endured being ridiculed and laughed at in order to present the world with other possibilities. In the words of Epictetus, “If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.”
October 23, 2011
Random Fragments To Help Along The Way
Lately, I’ve been unable to hold a cohesive thought and bring it to any kind of conclusion, logical or otherwise. Instead, I’ve had a string of thoughts – prompted by a number of isolated quotes – come to my attention. These quotes are fragments I had saved with the thought that I would use them one day to punctuate a longer piece of writing. I hope you find them inspiring or thought-provoking in some small way. Perhaps you will feel urged to seek out more writings by their authors, who have been fortunate enough to reach the end of their searching and attain true wisdom through Enlightenment.
These first are by the Sufi poet Hafiz (given name Shams-ud-din Muhammad, c.1320-1389) – (taken from “the Gift” Poems by Hafiz The Great Sufi Master – translations by Daniel Ladinsky- published by Penguin, 1999) I love the dedication page. It reads, “ To God’s magnificent masquerade ~~as us!”
The Sun Never Says
Even
After
All this time
The sun never says to the earth,
“You owe
Me.”
Look
What happens
With a love like that,
It lights the
Whole
Sky.
And there is this fragment from another of his poems:
“…..I saw two birds this morning
Laughing with the sun.
They reminded me of how
We will one day exist….”
And now a couple of quotes by another great Sufi poet, Rumi (Jalaluddin Rumi – 1207-1273):
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
~
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”
And finally, a quote I came across when I was in the 5th grade while reading a book, Step to the Music, by Phyllis A. Whitney. It is a quote by Henry David Thoreau – (Transcendentalist, 1817-1862 from his book, “Walden”) - Even then I knew it would sum up my life:
“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”
Namaste.
September 25, 2011
Ego – The Love/Hate Relationship
By Perfilbtl (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons
During any sadhana, the seeker will be faced with unflattering aspects of oneself. In my personal sadhana, which is shaktipat sadhana, these aspects are merely karmas that the Shakti is removing. My teacher tells us that all we can do is watch, but that doesn’t always help the character (ego) when it is experiencing the emotionality of anger, jealousy, judgment, and the like. Even with the tools and techniques my teacher has given us to detach from the “emotional roller coaster,” as he likes to put it, getting caught up in negative emotions seems to be a normal part of the process.
The good news is that as karmas are removed, we find fewer buttons get pushed and life goes along in a smoother fashion. That is not to say that the external parts of life get easier; that is to say that we remain calm in the face of whatever happens, because the karmic trigger is gone. Acceptance of ‘what is’ is easier allowing one to go with the flow of life.
It wasn’t until shaktipat that I came to realize the ego is nothing more than a bundle of karmas. These karmas prevent us from knowing who we really are, which is pure Divine Consciousness, and perpetuates the duality, the notion that we are separate from everyone and everything, with which we experience our reality.
So therein lies the problem. With nearly 7 billion people on the planet, every single one of them, by nature of their individual karmas, have their own perception of how the world should be and many attempt to force this perception on the rest of us. Until we understand the non-dual nature of reality – that all is One – conflict and suffering will continue to plague us. You don’t need to have shaktipat in order to understand non-duality. Any spiritual path will lead you to this conclusion; shaktipat just happened to be the path I landed on.
My teacher likes to use the example of scarves covering the light of a lamp as a metaphor for the layers of ego or karmas that hide the light of our true selves. But in this analogy, the removal of the layers appears to be a gentle process. For me, as well as some of my fellow students on this path, the removal of karmas can sometimes feel more like ripping off a band-aid covering a still open wound. You feel exposed and vulnerable. Sometimes an ‘ego-loathing’ (in lieu of self-loathing) sets in. We are urged not to indulge in ‘mea culpas,’ but instead to be gentle with ourselves through this process. This will help us recognize the divinity within not only ourselves, but in everyone else out there struggling with the illusion of duality.
September 18, 2011
Alchemy
William Fettes Douglas - The Alchemist
When we hear the word ‘alchemy’ we probably think of chemists trying to turn simple metals into gold during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. But, in truth, alchemy has a fascinating history. Dating back to centuries BC, many famous people, including Einstein, have studied this subject. Alchemy or transmutation (a modern word for alchemy) is more common than we think. It occurs in the physical world and in the metaphysical realm of the transcendental.
We are all aware of nuclear alchemy (transmutation) when radioactive elements, because of their unstable nuclei, literally change into different elements. One way is through alpha decay – or the loss of 2 protons and 2 neutrons. You see, it the number of protons in the nucleus of any atom that identifies what that element is. The number of protons is the ‘DNA,’ so to speak, of that element. So, for example, Radium will become Radon. Lately, however, I’ve been drawn to the deeper meanings of alchemy.
Alchemy for people can happen in an interesting variety of ways. Sometimes the change is sudden. Something unexpected, usually unpleasant, happens and we are changed forever. Some who have experienced NDEs find that their approach to life changes. They can never look at anything in the same way ever again. They disregard the scientific need for proof, because as far as they are concerned they have all the proof they need – their own direct experience. And that direct experience has brought them closer to understanding their own true nature.
photo by cincooldesigns
A more gradual experience of alchemy includes those with a spiritual practice. They understand this process of change as they undergo their own metamorphosis leaving the chrysalis of their ego behind to embrace a freer, truer experience of Self.
I feel humanity is on the brink of alchemical change. There is no doubt that life on this planet today is changing – at its very core. The old paradigms do not work anymore and even though massive efforts are being made to keep the world as it has been, it is becoming more and more clear that these efforts are futile. We are jumping down the rabbit hole. We have taken the red pill. And nothing will ever be the same again.
So, it’s time we release any notion or attachment we have about how things ‘should’ be. It’s time to release outdated notions or attachments about who we think we are. There is an old saying in the metaphysical genre, “We are not human beings having spiritual experiences, we are spiritual beings having human experiences.” As we break free of the limiting structures of ignorance that encase and enslave our egos, alchemy begins.
So release the old patterns, habits, and thoughts. Free your mind.
August 19, 2011
Free Will….Part Two: Go With The Flow
Laguz - Rune meaning "Flow"
In my first posting of the question of free will, I talk about how, as students of non-duality, we are taught that we cannot be the doer of anything. Some points previously made:
- Spiritual and religious traditions stress the notion that everything that happens is a result of the will of God.
- It seems that it is only when we think we can’t ‘do’ anything about a situation do we relinquish our imagined control.
- We do have the free will to choose where to put our awareness (attention).
This suggests that events in our lives (or the world) happen exactly the way they’re supposed to happen. Which, taken a step further, suggests that the future is set. That said, let’s indulge our ego’s need to analyze and dig a little deeper into the idea that everything happens just as it’s supposed to. If people on some level didn’t already believe this, nobody would be interested in consulting psychics. People go to them in order to know what is going to happen – doesn’t that suggest that they think the future just might be set? So what does free will have to do with anything? How can we separate free will and predetermination? That’s like saying, “I choose what I’m having for dinner, but the trip to Europe that the psychic saw is predestined.”
When we pay attention to the present moment and accept that moment and not let our awareness dwell on the past or worry about the future, we go with the flow. I know, I know – easier said than done. I have found that everyone has his or her own threshold of pain. Eventually we get tired of beating our heads against a wall by trying to control everything in our lives, and once we sit back exhausted, we throw up our hands and say, “Whatever….” That’s when we surrender to ‘what is’ and go with the flow. But honestly – it doesn’t have to be so painful.
Years ago, during a particularly difficult time in my life, I was obsessed with the need to make things happen a certain way. And of course, nothing (and I mean nothing) was happening the way I wanted it to during that period. I was tense, nervous and miserable most of the time. Finally, a friend told me, “You’re not flowing. You need to learn how to flow.” I resisted, not having a clue on how to do that. It happened that I recently had purchased a set of Runes. For those unfamiliar with the Runes, they are a set of stones carved with letters of Scandinavian origin and intended to be used, not so much for divination, but as guidance for the Spiritual Warrior. I can’t remember why, but I checked all of the Runes in the set and noticed that one was missing. The missing Rune was the one meaning “Flow.”
Not quite a watershed moment but a useful and interesting one for me, since my awareness in that moment did expand beyond the horizon of my mundane life, serving to remind me of the bigger picture. Perhaps if we can do that, not just in challenging situations but everyday ones, remember that we are a part of an interconnected Whole and not apart from that Whole, going with the flow will become an easier and even natural way to live.
