Being Healing: In Celebration of Paryushana*

At this very auspicious Eight Days of Forgiveness Celebration* with Jains worldwide focused energetically on purifying, letting go of past mistakes and hurts and appreciating the path of Ahimsa (Reverance for All Life, I'm eager to share with you some of the compassion-inspired writings of a new friend. Paryushana can be translated as - coming close to ones self. Here is the first of a three-part series.


I am happy to introduce guest blogger Warren Grossman whose series of essays about his continual concerns resonated deeply with me (as did his powerful book)-- the title of the complilation Being Healing - magnetically attracted me - and with his permission, I share the title essay here with you.

I met this kindred spirit through my work with Earthing-- a delightful connection made through my enthusiastic sharing the Earthing products with members of my extended family of choice.

I was recently talking by phone with 'sister' Grace Ann (HorseSense at Work) from Los Cruces New Mexico. We were making plans to have a reunion at her folks' in S.Hills. During the conversation, she recognized that a book she bought - and not yet read -- resonated with the experience of grounding that I and her parents had been sharing with her -- Because Grace Ann - was truly listening - and IS my sister - she offered to bring the book to the 'burgh for me -- and so, my friends, keep following us here, for the documenting of the rest of the history-making. I am excitedly anticipating: many many blessings - and more gifts to come from all these connections - celebrating the inner healer more deeply and widely than ever -- so far!!

So enjoy the messages from Warren below -- and do share your comments with us on your experience of healing - being healing. He introduces his essays and philosophy like this:

I am concerned because I live in an irrelevant culture,
a culture lost in fantasies of commerce, fashion, and technology.

Irrelevant means out of touch with life, here and now.
Here on earth.
Now, while we are destroying the earth.

The compilation of essays titled Being Healing is about the embodiment of healing.

Healers might be parents, teachers, managers, neighbors, physicians,
nurses, ancillary medical professionals, or alternative healers
anyone who contributes love to those in need.

A healer's task is to become simpler and more loving.
This will facilitate others in becoming more whole.
That is what healing is,
whether in the form of conventional medicine
or the transfer of energy from one person to another.

He says that these essays are organized around the profound or maybe simple experience of realizing that

I am part of nature
I can love
I can help to improve the lives of others

'Resonate with you? I'm eager to hear your comments.
Being Healing

I was mistaken,

For more than a decade, I had committed myself to being a healer.

I learned how to access natures energy,

to divert it through my heart,

and to choose to love my patients

in the manner that would heal their symptoms.


I was mistaken.

My calling was never to do healing.

My calling was to cultivate the use of my heart,

and then I could be healing.


The phrase be healing is grammatically incorrect.

Our language expresses our culture.

Our culture cannot have words for an idea it lacks.


Improving ourselves, becoming healing, results from

loving more,

being sensitive to nature,

and forgiving when angered or frightened.


Without applying ourselves to these three challenges,

no technique, theory, or good intentions will evoke healing.

When we actively commit

to loving, forgiving, and honoring nature

we improve.

Then, the object of our attention will experience healing,

for we have become a healthier social environment for that person,

at least for the moment.


Illness, pain, fear, and sadness are signs of

not orienting oneself to nature and love.


Anger and fear can easily occur,

but can be quickly soothed

by loving.

Be healing.

Others will be restored in your presence.


Many Species - One Planet - One Future
I See You ~ Namaste ~
Yours in Wellness, Gratitude, Vitality and the Rhythm of Nature,
Suzen Sharda Segall
This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:© Suzen Sharda Segall 2010, CelebratingtheInnerHealer.com http://www.wellnesstraining.com/ http://www.celebratingtheinnerhealer.blogspot.com/ Suzen Sharda Segall, Wellness Personal Trainer/Consultant, designer and facilitator of BodyArts Therapeutics, has provided an integrated approach to health and wellness for a wide variety of populations, internationally,for over thirty-five years

Ahinsa is Life: Celebrating the Eight Days of Foregiveness

Introducing guest blogger,with a transcription of a talk by Pujya Gurudev Chitrabhanuji, my mentor for over forty years. He is the spiritual leader of seekers of peace world wide, who embrace Ahimsa, a main tenant of the ancient Jain tradition; a message most relevant for our times. Some Jains conclude the celebration Thursday evening. I'll participate at the Hindu-Jain Temple in Murraysville PA.

“As we meditate we come to know ourselves. We discover the sacred beauty of life.”

Ahinsa is not a philosophy. Ahinsa is not a religion. Ahinsa is a feeling of life. Many people say, “Ahinsa means don’t hurt anybody. Don’t kill.” That is one meaning, but it is secondary. The first meaning is: “Don’t hurt yourself.” When you hurt some body, you are already violent inside; you lose the feeling of amity. Ahinsa is the road from enmity to amity. From hostility to love! Ahinsa is a subtle thing. It cannot be grasped unless we go deep into ourselves. As we meditate we come to know ourselves. We discover the sacred beauty of life. Unless we have that experience, we may use the word Ahinsa, but it will only be lip service. It will just come from language; it will not emanate from experience. To practice Ahinsa, one has to remove the veil of ignorance about oneself. One has to experience life.

Once we have the experience, we make an inner commitment to practice Ahinsa in three areas: with our actions; with our words; and with our thoughts.


Every night we review our day and ask, “Did I harm myself? Did I have any negative thoughts and feelings toward anybody? Did I criticize anybody? Did I judge anybody?” As we develop the tenderness in ourselves, we see the tenderness in others and become more compassionate toward others. Oncewe see the sacred beauty of life in ourselves, we see that sacred beauty in others. We do not see that person as a man or a woman or a person from a certain sect orreligion. All these obstacles evaporate. Unless we see beyond the barriers, there won’t be peace in the world.


We may talk about peace; but inside we go on creating separation. Some say, “My religion is best; itis the only true religion. And, if you don’t start to practice my religion, you will go to hell.” Such dogmatism and bigotry is also a form of violence. When we practice Ahinsa,we try to understand what others are saying, what they are conveying, what they arefeeling. We listen beyond the words. Once you start practicing, your life becomes an inspiration. Wherever you go your eyes will speak; your feelings will speak; your words will speak; your actions will speak. And people will be changed. Not by your words, but by what they see. When we experience the sacred beauty of life, we experience peace. We inspire peace. Then, there will be peace. There will be peace.

Ahinsa and a meditative mind go hand in hand. Meditation is seeing things as they are. And when you see, you feel and you experience. A child is not thinking; it is experiencing. That is why it does not think that you are old or young, beautiful or ugly. It does not discriminate. It sees life. It connects with life. In meditation we get in touch with life; its depth, its joy, its beauty, its ecstasy. This is our source. But when we think, the mind either worries about the future or has regrets about the past. So, the present slips through our fingers. In meditation, we just feel and live. We are in tune with the experience of life. Life is the experience. Life is not permanent. Life is change. Whatever action comes, it comes from our source. That source we experience and expand in meditation. We tune in. We connect to ourselves, our body, our cells, our vibrations. And we progressively evolve in this change.

If we look at a ray of the sun, one ray, it is white and bright. But if it enters a prism, it becomes like a rainbow. The ray shows only one color, but now in the prism it appears in seven colors. What happened? It isa connection. The drop of water is hanging on the leaf. The sun ray touches it and you see the rainbow in thesmall drop of water You don’t see color in the rain, but there in that small drop it sparkles like a rainbow. The connection makes the change. When we meditate and have pure awareness, we see our own light. We see our own rainbow.

As meditators, we let the addiction to control melt away. We do not live in the future or in the regretful past, but in the pleasant present. Every moment life isvpulsating and moving. We connect each day with oursource and feel the dawn of life. If Ahinsa and a meditative state go hand in hand, then Ahinsa also opens us to the humanity within us and in others. One evening Tagore was writing at a table near the window in the light of his table lamp. He wrote for an hour and a half and it was getting late; he became tired and turned off the lamp to go to sleep. To his
surprise, Tagore saw that the room was flooded with moonlight. The moonlight had been in his room for hours, but he had not noticed. Only when he switched off the table lamp, did he see. And he writes, “My table lamp ego did not allow the God-like moon to flood into my life.” As long as we have the small ego lamp, we don’t see the flood of cool, natural light; our ego looks only for that which confirms our beliefs and ideas. “Oh, he speaks of something different from my
religion, my belief, my ideas, and my dreams...I don’t want to hear that.” But if you turn off the ego, you realize the very presence of God within you. Once this door opens, you become open. You can listen to others and learn. Everywhere you can see many viewpoints.

In the partnership of love and marriage, you don’t treat your partner as an object of pleasure. Your partner is a partner sharing love; is a partner sharing feeling; is a partner sharing your divinity. And when you look into his or her eyes, you realize that you don’t want to hurt your partner with criticism, finding fault, or blaming the family, You want to understand.
When people are not aware of who they are, they go on criticizing, pinching, nagging each other. They do it in the name of perfection, in the name of improvement, in the name of caring, in the name of helping. But violence is present because there is no understanding. No reverence. No love. When we have negativity and hate, do we feel joy? Do we feel love? Do we feel pleasantness? Do our eyes smile? Do our limbs dance? No! Negativity stifles, constricts and
confines.

In one Indian town, a woman came to see me. She told me that her mother was sick and wanted me to come and bless her. But I saw that this woman was very old so I asked, “You have a mother?” Yes,” she said. I was curious and asked, “How old are you?” She answered, “I am ninety.” Ninety? I was surprised. A ninety-year old daughter comes to take me to her mother? I asked, “How old is your mother?” “She’s one hundred and ten,” the woman told me. So, I went there. I saw. The mother’s skin was so soft and tender. I touched her and it was like touching the holiest, highest, purest soul. So peaceful! I asked, “What is the secret of your longevity?” And she said, “I love everyone. I don’t hate anybody. When anything happens I tell myself it
is my karma. Nobody is responsible for my pain. I am responsible for my pain.”

When we feel the divinity, we can feel the cool, refreshing light of love and joy. We understand our humanity; we understand neighbors, family, people, and the world in which we are living.

Love and Blessings,

Chitrabhanu

Many Species - One Planet - One Future
I See You ~ Namaste ~
Yours in Wellness, Gratitude, Vitality and the Rhythm of Nature,
Suzen Sharda Segall
This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:© Suzen Sharda Segall 2010, CelebratingtheInnerHealer.com http://www.wellnesstraining.com/ http://www.celebratingtheinnerhealer.blogspot.com/ Suzen Sharda Segall, Wellness Personal Trainer/Consultant, designer and facilitator of BodyArts Therapeutics, has provided an integrated approach to health and wellness for a wide variety of populations, internationally,for over thirty-five years

More Return Mountain: Return to the Garden

Great news! Due to iffy weather Thursday the 25th - we postponed this introduction to Qigong - Chinese Yoga standing exercises - and I have another opportunity to share it with you in the most uplifting environment - The weather promises to be beautiful Saturday the 27th. Hara breathing......mindful walking.......centering and grounding with gentle standing stretches and balances practiced for thousands of years in China and Korea to promote radiant health and spiritual development.

Even if you are not in the 'burgh, you can see a glimpse of the garden as well as my demo of The Tai Ji Dance of the Five Elements (the moving meditative form we practiced last Saturday)


How cool is this - 24-7 cyber-chi with me in the comfort of your own home/garden -- even in your pj's!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF4C_IznfXQ

Also: Those bringing a container will receive a clipping of a luscious water plant from Victor's Koi Pond -- you will have a wonderful vital momento to keep the garden experience alive with you at home!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2xPejuPvKg


(sorry I've been technically challenged to actually place the videos on this blog entry. When you can take fifteen minutes or less - do watch -- I designed it so that with even two minutes of your time - you can benefit with some centering and grounding for yourself - on call!!

Many Species - One Planet - One Future
I See You ~ Namaste ~
Yours in Wellness, Gratitude, Vitality and the Rhythm of Nature,
Suzen Sharda Segall
This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:© Suzen Sharda Segall 2010, CelebratingtheInnerHealer.com http://www.wellnesstraining.com/ http://www.celebratingtheinnerhealer.blogspot.com/ Suzen Sharda Segall, Wellness Personal Trainer/Consultant, designer and facilitator of BodyArts Therapeutics, has provided an integrated approach to health and wellness for a wide variety of populations, internationally,for over thirty-five years

End of Summer Self-Care Saturdays

From the Wellness Calender for the 'burgh: Self-Care Summer Saturdays
with BodyArts Therapeutics:


The first one is a collaboration with Patty Lemar at The Waldorf School on S. Winebiddle Street Saturday August 6th from 9 am - 5 pm

We've planned a fun day filled with fresh discovery of: local, organic foods, simple cooking, restorative yoga, connecting with one another, reconnecting with ourselves and our earth. Lunch and healthy high tea plus a resource packet are included in the package.

The second one, is scheduled for September 10th 9:15am - 4:00 pm

in Monroeville's Green Wholistic Awareness Center on Cedar's Campus.

I'll introduce my YeSSS Method of Restorative Yoga in a two hour morning session. Each participant will have prescriptive suggestions on how to feel better using this system - taking home some simple, easy to use techniques for first-aid bothered by pain, stiffness or fatigue.

Mid-day we'll enjoy a plant-based locally produced organic lunch with introduction to mindful eating practices.

After enjoying a mindful walk on the property - complete with permaculture project, I'll guide a standing and seated series of Chinese Yoga (qigong) and Hara breathing. My new signature serenading will accompany both the morning and afternoon sessions and if we're lucky the Gong may even be sounded by my colleague, Kundalini Yogi, Satyajeet Singh.


Please note: At each of these events, I will introduce participants to the two extraodinary technologies I've been sharing in BodyArts Therapeutics that are having a profound impact on almost everyone who's experienced them. I will have some on-hand for purchase.

To register for the Saturday Self-Care Samplers go to meet-up open yoga

September 10th at The Holistic Awareness Center Monroeville

Reserve by September 2nd for special discount

Please Keep hydrating! I love fresh lemon or lime halves squeezed in my water - and coconut water for instant refreshment - how about you?