Monday, November 5, 2007

SPANDA


























So here are pics from the weekend. I will write some of my impressions soon. But in the meantime, I invite comments and reflections from those of you who were there. Please share!




4 comments:

jeri said...

I am still digesting much about the teachings. It’s pretty hard to say anything without sounding trite, and yet I must persist with this “share” because it matters to me.
Here’s what moved me: 1. that the Kashmir Shaiva (sp) commentary was developed by a householder who, I’m assuming, found the divine in the mundane; 2. that there are no bad gunas suggesting a system of balance rather than exclusion; 3. that Spanda is only limited by the perceiver in his/her individual experience. It exists all the time in everything and only goes away when we disavow our own limitless divinity. Big news, like that last one a lot. I always loved the poetry of "awake/arise, oh sleeper" but hated it that we woke up to a pissed off patriarchal god. Waking up this way seems a lot better. BTW, I found Carlos to be an engaging, scholarly speaker. Wonderful. And the Chai and the company were fabulous.
So many thanks and so much love to Christina and Kelly - Jeri

whatnot said...

After this weekend, I am wishing:

--for a way to go over *every* verse of the Spanda Karikas with the same level of rich context and exquisite detail we got from Carlos,

--to find more opportunities for group meditation, because that was exquisite too,

--for the opportunity to take more classes with Charly, and

--that I could do half as good a job as Christina when explaining the how and why of proper blanket folding techniques to my kids.

What a wonderful space everyone created! Like Jeri, it's gonna take a while for all of it to sink in.

Anasazi said...

I deeply enjoyed the weekend. Kudos to Christina and Kelly for pulling everything together and for being the consumate hosts, and to Christina, Charly, and Carlos for sharing their wisdom and gifts so freely and effectively. I desperately needed all the asana work after being laid up with this nasty cold that's been going around!

I especially enjoyed the humor, wealth of knowledge, and sociability of Carlos' presentation style. It's nice to have a philosopher in our midst who is also a practioner of the arts he studies.

I haven't translated all of my notes from Carlos' lectures into human language yet, but I highlighted a few gems that might be worth sharing (these are mostly paraphrases of what he actually said):

"The act of perception is one in which you make reality yours."

"Tantra is an alchemy whereby things that would be separate in another system are dealt with as problems of perception."

"Consciousness never ceases to be what it is even while it is becoming something else."

"Life is full of impulses. What happens when you develop an impulse or a desire? Paradoxically, by embracing desire, you open up an experience of freedom."

"The boundaries of the 'I' are defined by what we attach to it."

Of course, all of these need to be understood within the context of Tantric philosophy and could easily be misrepresented out of context. The Spanda Karikas are obviously densely packed with meaning, but Carlos provided a useful box of tools for unpacking them in meditation and contemplation.

Thanks to everybody for making this such a memorable weekend. -Jesse

whatnot said...

... and here are my spanda photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whatnot/sets/72157603048572589/