After countless hours spent by the volunteers and staff of Crystal Hermitage, the gardens opened their doors to the public about a month ago. Nevada County’s local newspaper, The Union, featured a wonderful front-page article, titled “Spring glory over the Yuba”, talking about the beauty of the gardens and inviting the public to visit them. After all, I don’t think there are many gardens in the area with 6000 cheerful tulips.

Rather than talking about the beauty of these gardens, I will let you browse through the pictures that were taken recently. If you are in the area, it’s still not too late to visit the gardens and see especially, the tulips.

tulips with the Middle Yuba gorge in the background

more tulips

more joyful tulips

a feast for the eyes and the soul

tulips and pansies by the front door

vibrant colors

beautiful cherry blossoms

You can find out more about Crystal Hermitage here.

Photos courtesy of Suzanne Ilgun.

“Be restful in your heart” is one of the daily sayings from Swami Kriyananda writing in his small book called “Do It Now”

Sunset During Seclusion

Upon reflection, during this past week’s seclusion, it seemed that as I have been less caught up in daily “to do’s” and requests, I noticed that as the week has progressed, the mind has relaxed since it had little to do externally all week (walks, and chores notwithstanding) and also my heart seemed to relax.

Seven years ago, while shoveling snow on February morning outside our home here at Ananda Village, I experienced a mild heart attack. I had only lived at Ananda Village for 18 months or so, having left a career which involved a tremendous amount of stress. This lead to the inevitable trip to ICU, etc., yet I was home shortly thereafter, more deeply committed to recuperation and changing some lifestyle habits. Thirty pounds later and as I learned more about these teachings, I discovered that the heart chakra resides behind the physical heart but there is also a tie in. As I relaxed and rested my heart chakra, my physical heart seemed more rested. This is not to suggest substituting meditation for exercise because moderate exercise each day can help keep most of us, not only in better physical shape but it helps our meditations because the body wants to then relax and we usually find ourselves more calm during meditation.

Yogananda urges us to practice energization exercises daily prior to meditation. This subtle tension and relaxation techniques often helps calm the body, energize the nervous system in a calming way and thereby I find my body and heart more relaxed yet awake. Ananda Yoga is also about preparing the body for meditation but that is another story told by authors much more understanding so I will not dwell on this.

When we relax or rest our heart, we also open up to new energies within. I often almost naturally feel more loving towards others for instance. More willing to listen within to the sounds of the Divine.

Yogananda, in one of his prayers says: “Father, teach me to be calmly active and actively calm…”

All this is fairly easy to accomplish as we progress in seclusion with concentrated effort to relax our hearts. It almost sounds almost contradictory to make an effort to relax but it is also good practice for daily lives. Recently at work, I was running late to an appointment and didn’t feel very relaxed. As I was rushing out the door, a co-worker wanted to ask me to do something for him and it couldn’t wait until later to discuss it. I was not very relaxed at this point feeling a lot of tension in my body as I didn’t want to deal with this issue right then. Upon reflection later, I saw that, while the issue was important then tension was not.

So for this next year, as we progress into celebrating Ananda Village’s 40th anniversary, my goal is to remember this prayer: “Father, teach me to be calmly active and actively calm” and be more restful in my heart.

St Francis pond below our home.

As part of our spiritual practice here at Ananda Village, we are urged to take seclusions regularly, perhaps just a day here and there) and at least annually, take a week seclusion, as a balance to all of our busy outward service activities. In fact, employees like me, who work for Ananda Businesses here at Ananda Village, are offered a week long seclusion time in addition to our standard vacation time. Since it is not cumulative, I didn’t schedule the time and consequently didn’t “take seclusion” and really missed it.

In the Bhagavad Gita it says: “Free from the hopes (engendered by) desire, and untouched by any craving for possession, the (waves of feeling in his) heart controlled (by yoga concentration), the yogi, retiring alone to a quiet place, should try to unite his little self with the Supreme Self.” (Chapter 6 verse 10). (Commentary in “The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita” Page 255 in chapter 18)

This week I am taking seclusion for seven days. Well it is really only six because I had company over weekend and then had to prepare on Monday, etc. What I plan to do is not speak with anyone, no work related activities at IT, or clinic, or solar, stay quiet, walk, meditate, chant, read books, listen to inspiring music, in essence, focus inward, attempting to go deeper into the quiet spaces of the soul and each little bit helps. Will chop wood and carry water, but with the Divine on my mind, not just the mundane.

This is an opportunity for longer meditation and to release, at least for a few days each year, my mind from the outward push and pull of daily life. Some people’s seclusions are very deep, others aren’t. I’ve had mixed results upon first impression, but always feel renewed. I don’t claim to be even conversant with how to seclude. Sort of “just do it”. One recommendation I have heard is to maintain silence. For this seclusion, I interpret that to be not speaking or hopefully interacting with anyone. But, as mentioned, I am listening to certain music with deep spirit vibration and with deep (a relative term) concentration on some talks by those souls whom I feel have a deeper understanding of the infinite than I in hopes of gleaning some inspiration towards my own goal of self realization.

Seclusion location is up the individual. I am taking seclusion at home because my spouse is visiting and volunteering some time in Ananda LA during this week. The challenge, for me here, is to not get too wrapped up in all the little home projects. The advantage is low cost and I get to sleep in my own bed. Plus our home is in a quiet, isolated part of village (whole village is pretty quiet really) so I don’t see neighbors and can walk into the woods pretty far without seeing anyone. Other’s go to meditation retreat. Lots of options. More later.

One of the beauties of Ananda Village is its super-abundance of deer.

The baby deer are the cutest. They have spots in summer; by mid-fall, the spots have gone, and the boys are developing antlers.

Deer are kind, innocent, and uplifting to see. For many people who visit the Village and have some kind of encounter with them, they are a highlight.

Deer are a year-round phenomenon – now, in late fall, you can still see them more days than not. In warmer seasons, they are even more common: last summer, counts went as high as 58. Popular hangouts include “downtown” Ananda Village as well as the apple orchard.

Click on any of the photos to see a larger version.

These deer are at Rajarsi Park, the group of office buildings which are the home to Crystal Clarity Publishers, Ananda’s outreach ministry, and several Ananda-member-owned businesses. (I work in the building on the left and help develop websites like this one.)

This photo is called “Deer in the Infinite.”

These two young ones are at the apple orchard that I mentioned. The recently-improved orchard provides an easy source of food. (I can imagine the adults saying to the children, “Back in our day, we didn’t have these newfangled orchards. We had to eat grass all summer! etc.”)

Another day, while driving past the market and the orchard, I saw 36 deer within the space of about 30 seconds. You can check my calculations, but if they are correct, I was driving at nearly 4500 deer per hour (dph). 

This buck is at Ananda’s Meditation Retreat, 7 miles from Ananda Village. (The retreat is where I live – it’s also a place where people often come for quiet retreat and seclusion, and the home of Ananda’s university, the Ananda Institute of Alternative Living.)

Deer are not an unmitigated blessing; they carry ticks, eat plants out of gardens, and can even attract mountain lions, a natural predator. (Though I haven’t seen a mountain lion in my 3 years here, there are occasional sightings.)

A mother deer cleaning one of her children.

I came to work early one day and found this final group of deer nearby. I walked with them for over an hour, while they became more comfortable with me. When I left, I felt that we had developed a living relationship.

In no other place have I seen deer so accepting and unafraid of people, as if they sensed that, around people dedicated to inner peace and high ideals, they were safe.

My wife Anandi and I recently returned from a trip to Japan where we celebrated 20th Anniversary of the Sharing Nature Foundation there. We were thrilled to see its principles wholeheartedly embraced by Japanese society.

The Japanese Ministry of Education is launching a new program to use Sharing Nature methods and activities in every elementary school in Japan. Their newly revised science curriculum will have 2 components: getting close to nature & loving nature.

Mr. Mitsuhisa Hioki, Senior Curriculum Specialist, who is initiating this effort, said to me when we met in Tokyo, “Sharing Nature is the backbone of our new science program.” This March, Mr. Hioki will be talking to every elementary science teacher in Japan about their new program.

The Japan Sharing Nature organization has over 11,000 active leaders. During a 2-hour lecture, attended by 200 members, we introduced the Six Central Principles of Sharing Nature, which are:

1. Be Receptive;
2. Teach Less, Share and Experience More;
   
3. A Sense of Joy Should Permeate the Experience;
4. Make Your Idealism Practical;
5. Uplift People’s Consciousness; and,
6. Do Things Not Only for Nature But with Nature.

When Mr. Hioki read these principles he quietly said, “I want to use these guidelines for our teachers so that they may grow as human beings.”

Reducing the impact of global warming is extremely popular in Japan. The Japanese Ministry of Environment is encouraging new educational programs that use the 5 senses and “experiencing nature,” to help people better understand global warming.

The “experiencing nature” aspect of this initiative is a direct result of the work Sharing Nature Foundation is doing in Japan. Shin-ichi Furihata, the Japan Sharing Nature Chairperson, is creating a program to help solve global warming.

In July of 2008 the G-8 summit, attended by the world’s most industrialized nations, will take place in Japan. This year its theme is global warming, so Shin-ichi feels confident their new program will receive a lot of support from government and business leaders. Shin-ichi and I announced the program at the Foreign Press Club in Tokyo during a press conference.

Another highlight of the trip was seeing Anandi put on an act as Mrs. John Muir. To launch the Japanese edition of my book, John Muir: My Life with Nature, Anandi and I performed an hour-long presentation of John Muir’s life, which included many of his animal friends.

This performance was addressed to 200 Sharing Nature leaders at our 3-day conference near Mount Fuji. The Japanese people love John Muir and see him as a beautiful embodiment of the Six Central Principles of Sharing Nature, which are based on Swami Kriyananda’s teachings on Superconscious Living.

Other key events included interviews with Japan’s biggest outdoor magazine and Natural Style, a popular alternative lifestyle magazine whose chief editor was very interested in our way of life at the Ananda Communities. I also gave a well-attended speech in Tokyo on the topic of spiritual sustainability, which stressed the importance of inner contentment and realization of our oneness with Life.

Most of all, Anandi and I were thrilled to see the how much our Japanese Sharing Nature friends have grown in their dedication, creativity, and selflessness as they shared the joy, serenity, and expansiveness of Nature. At times, we found ourselves standing in awe at what they are creating in their country.

Joseph Bharat Cornell is the founder of the Sharing Nature Foundation and is the honorary president of the Japan Nature Game Association.