December's Beginning Winter

Rajanaka Newsletter for Sunday, December 10th 2023

Dec 10, 2023

Sunday, December 10, 2023

Aho’ Rajanaka,

I hope this finds you well.
I’ve never been very good at writing to myself and as vain as it is to say, I think anyone who writes, write for himself if not to himself. (Or herself, or is that they? I think you take my meaning.) Rilke wrote dozens of letters every day, never the same one twice, most of them to people he’d never met. I think he found a way to say what he needed both for himself and for others. Now that’s something. We’re all playing for time.

I’m grateful to be writing to you, to friends, most of whom I think I’ve been lucky enough to meet in person at some time or another, all of whom I would like to meet, see again, time will tell. Rilke was right: writing reveals what’s turning about inside. I’m not sure just what I feel or think until I take those turns.

Patanjali and plenty of the inward turners want us to turn less towards pesky thoughts and feelings to find out what more there lies beneath the din. No doubt there’s value in such stillness but I think there’s as much in what withstands the whirlwind that gathers up time. Every moment we bring to life is worth the offering made.

Theodore Roethke wrote a beautiful poem called ‘It Was Beginning Winter.’

It was beginning winter

An in-between time,

The landscape still partly brown;

The bones of weeds kept swinging in the wind,

Above the blue snow.

It was beginning winter,

The light moved slowly over the frozen field,

Over the dry seed-crowns,

The beautiful surviving bones

Swinging in the wind.

We’re sorters of time, and whatever we remember or forget leaves an imprint without permission and as often without recognition. If we’re archeologists of the soul, surely, we’re digging in the right spot. As we brush off memories, we find they aren’t made of the recaptured past so much as the remade present. We uncover and store away again, harvesting, garnering, wondering what has been sown from our reaping. The end of 2023 is near, these last weeks are both fast and determined to be endless, but right about now it’s time to ask where we've been, where we want to go.

Light traveled over the wide field;

Stayed.

The weeds stopped swinging.

The mind moved, not alone,

Through the clear air, in the silence.

Was it light?

Was it light within?

Was it light within light?

Stillness becoming alive,

Yet still?

As for now, today is Sunday, my favorite day of the week. At 5pm Eastern we’ll spend an hour, okay more likely closer to two, telling the greatest story that never ends, the Mahabharata. Join us, the Zoom and Archive Recordings links are below the line.

In a bit more than two weeks, we’ll be leaving for India to see the gods. I’m going to try to keep a Podcast Diary of the pilgrimage with daily updates, and we’ll see how that goes.

For 2024, around the corner and through the snowy wood, there are going to be courses, podcasts, and more newsletters. I hope, I really hope you’ll be here for all or some and whatever you can. The future will shine a sunny day, I say, and we’re going to make ourselves good company for troubled times. We’ll be patient to savor the stillness and insistent to stand fast when the wind gusts.

A lively understandable spirit

Once entertained you.

It will come again.

Be still.

Wait.

There’s more for us ahead. And I hope you to see you along the way. More soon.

Saprema, with affection, Douglas

&&This is the Below the Line

Sunday Mahabharata

5pm Eastern. Always a good story, always welcome.

Zoom link: https://rochester.zoom.us/j/314987250

Dropbox Archive here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bfqt15y3n0uglir/AAAB_89LiCOob0hJI1w8BK7_a?dl=0

Thursday Poets for Early Winter

It’s a rap, we have it all on the Archive. It was a wonderful time. Listen in. The Archive Sessions are $70, PayPal or Venmo (svcourses@gmail.com), and if you can’t afford it, just come because everyone is always welcome.

Here is the Dropbox Archive for the entire Course:

Session 1/ Czeslaw Milosz
2/ Wislawa Szymborska, 3/Samuel Coleridge, 4/Louise Glück, 5/Tu Fu & Li Po

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/he1kuvs22ior4n2k8ly5f/h?rlkey=r32skq8duqhe9auej0gwjdf4o&dl=0

Saturday Philosophers Early Winter 2023

It’s a rap. The Archive Sessions are $70, PayPal or Venmo (svcourses@gmail.com), and if you can’t afford it, just come because everyone is always welcome.

Session 1/ Kenko Chomei, 2/ Meister Eckart, Christian, 3/W.V.O. Quine, 4/Ludwig Wittgenstein

Dropbox Recordings:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/1nhcs4nji7yxfae35eyis/h?rlkey=7jiuzn3ec1ydhw5alajxi7m1s&dl=0

The Rajanaka Substack has a new(ish) podcast. Check it out. Content is always free but a paid subscription supports our good causes. PLEASE subscribe. Our intention is to make the most of this multimedia platform. All the Blogspots and the rajanaka.com website will continue.

Come Saturday, January 27^th we will begin our 2024 Sessions.

For 10 weeks of Saturdays, we’ll treat ourselves to a thorough study of the history of Buddhism.

This course will begin at the beginning, take us through the development of Buddhist traditions in India and take us on the journey into southeast Asian Theravada, then East Asia (China and Japan) and make some good reference to Tibet. (We will take up Tibetan Buddhism as a separate course later in the winter/spring 2024 but this introduction will be really really helpful.) I think many folks have not had a serious, worthwhile study of Buddhism and we should do this. Rajanaka has deep interests in Buddhist thought, swe’ll talk about similarities and differences too. This is going to be a good time.

We’ll have a Thursday Session and Mahabharata Sundays too. So more to come. I plan on doing this until death do us part dammit. I won’t quit until you do. Honestly, not about the money ‘cause we give that away. It’s about the conversation and our community. We’re really really really going to need each other to get through 2024 and come November next year…well, we’ll deal with that when it happens too. The world is not getting safer, you’ve undoubtedly noticed. So stay close, come see us when you can. Zoom isn’t as good as a hug but we’re working on that too. Be well, talk soon, more below the line. Grab some Archive, there’s sooooo much good stuff there.

THE DROPBOX ARCHIVE

This is truly a vast repository of recorded Sessions, Seminars, Camps. If you want any past course or session (and find Dropbox less than optimal), just write to me, I will hook you up.
You can access this anytime by downloading from provided links. And a very select bit is still on the Rajanaka website. You’ll find the hundreds free Saturday Storytellings, Sunday Mahabharata, our Gita Sessions, and so much more. I’m trying to figure out how to make this more organized and accessible (currently with Substack, ‘cause it’s got tools). Look below the line for some selections. I hope to move most of this to Substack where you can more easy subscribe and purchase. Proceeds to our good causes.

All FREE Special Saturdays for 2022 and 2023 are in these Archives for download. For 2022 go here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/a34ja95pg4t8bamatfq3q/h?rlkey=0dcorxwfqhocsiime5rhcju1t&dl=0

For 2023 Specials go here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/rm505c2fcy04y3upn5abv/h?rlkey=6gk1d5rzyypn0r37100wzv5hk&dl=0

Rajanaka Summer Camp 2023, “The Sorcery of Śiva: Teachings on Abhicara and the Luminous Shadow”.
Dropbox Archive link is here:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/836d746qa8917cdcgnjll/h?rlkey=bqb06vxanp69s4o17gar035nx&dl=0

Tuition for the Archive is $200, please use the usual PayPal (svcourses@gmail.com) or Venmo (same email or douglas-brooks-8).

THE HEART OF RECOGNITION SESSIONS

Please use the usual PayPal (svcourses@gmail.com) or Venmo (douglas-brooks-8).

*Dropbox Recordings Available IN FULL, NOW, Anytime!: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/3lvz5j1ajcidwjasy7fsl/h?dl=0&rlkey=qibpejcv3blkq0ngmjx6atsc8

*All Courses are recorded and available on our Archive for download.

*Tuition for the Archive is $150, please use the usual PayPal (svcourses@gmail.com) or Venmo (same email or douglas-brooks-8).

INDIA is a go. If you are interested in joining us on the India Pilgrimage that can still happen for you. There’s room. There are more details below the line but you can write to me directly with any questions or interests, douglas@rajanaka.com. Join the Facebook Group Rajanaka 2023 India Pilgrimage even if you don’t think you can come this time. You’ll meet lovely people and you won’t be able to resist. This is the real deal.

NEW ARCHIVE COURSES ARE NOW AVAILABLE FROM THIS PAST SPRING 2023.

· The Tamil Goddess in Six Sessions, tuition for all Sessions is $95. You can download from here directly. Tuition is on the honor system, use Paypal or Venmo (svcourses@gmail.com)
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/owz6urldp6rnl4nv6bpdh/h?dl=0&rlkey=7rty7mxnjwk301bjk6vt7qtpi

· Muruga of the Six Temples, tuition for all Sessions is $95 payable as PayPal or Venmo (svcourses@gmail.com), here is the Dropbox link for downloading directly: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/1fwu9qhlghlmz9t1a1sd2/h?dl=0&rlkey=2lz0ox3znbhl0iqc48qu59gpx

And so much to read on the Rajanaka Sammelana, Rajanaka Adesa, and the Contraiety [SIC] Blogspots, links here:

https://rajanaka.blogspot.com/2023/01/a-story-in-news-rajanaka-past-and.html

https://rajanakadesa.blogspot.com/2023/01/vrata-resolutions-and-new-year.html

https://contraiety.blogspot.com/2022/08/what-you-havent-earned-is-more-important.html

Pancamukha Anjaneya, The Five-Face Hanuman of the Tantra.

Here is the link: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/d62llefrjvyidefn3uequ/h?dl=0&rlkey=p774e7zbme37d8cc49ocysog2

What will you find?

Six Sessions and PDF to aid in study. Write to me if you need helpDescription: No form of Hanuman is more important or less understood and studied than the great Pancamukha. Here Hanuman bears the visage of Varaha the Boar, Garuda the Raptor, Hanuman the Monkey, Narasimha the Lion Man, and Hayagriva the Horse. We will bring this character to life in mythos, mantra, and mudra, in theory and practice, and there will be new stories and work that extends far beyond what we have done before with the Tantric Hanuman. Everyone is welcome. We start at the beginning and we go deep.

Tuition for Six Sessions is $150, payable over time if you need, use PayPal (svcourses@gmail.com or nallapaampu@gmail.com) or Venmo (douglas-brooks-8 or svcourses@gmail.com) If you can’t afford full tuition, talk to me. Your access is guaranteed. Tuition further promises unlimited access to the Recorded Dropbox Archive that will allow you to listen whenever.

Rasa in Theory and Practice.

Six Sessions on Saturday Evenings

ARCHIVE is HERE: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/d4uwwjw17seca2livd6r2/h?dl=0&rlkey=nh4g7xj6x7skeghw4x6tcsk2c

Description: Rasa means essence, taste, liquidity, flavor, sentiment, elemental feeling and emotion. At the heart of the study of poetry, Rasa Theory is a remarkable, rich, and complex method of analysis and appreciation of artistry and aesthetics. But rasa is also a roadmap, a process and practice, a method for understanding and exploring our most elemental feelings. Rajanaka has among the most developed and useful rasa traditions of yoga. At the center of every yoga is engagement with feeling and the development of “taste”: rasa is the core of our being and here we learn the way through that labyrinth of essence.

TUITION FOR ANY OF THESE ARCHIVES IS $150 FOR COMPLETE ACCESS. YOU ARE ON YOUR HONOR TO ACCESS THEM AS YOU PLEASE AND OFFER TUITION VIA PAYPAL (SVCOURSES@GMAIL.COM OR NALLAPAAMPU@GMAIL.COM) OR BY VENMO (SVCOURSES@GMAIL.COM OR DOUGLAS-BROOKS-8).

Gayatri Mantra

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/r58rwnp3ryxgi6a6y8yme/h?dl=0&rlkey=59kbd7hjdrl8n809zv8becmdi

Lalita 1000 Names

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/18o5rtle7p91hz2/AADQnph8ofpPAX5mtW7mX-L4a?dl=0

OM Autobiography

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/11jd30d14ibjjtv3wauaj/h?dl=0&rlkey=1wugbag9m7myo1c50gt6qoa6d

Shakuntala for India

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/osx5n6i9vrz5vi5ek9vch/h?dl=0&rlkey=pa7akqysgrauu07mw9te61yb1

Pancamukha Hanuman

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/d62llefrjvyidefn3uequ/h?dl=0&rlkey=p774e7zbme37d8cc49ocysog2

Rasa Theory

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/d4uwwjw17seca2livd6r2/h?dl=0&rlkey=nh4g7xj6x7skeghw4x6tcsk2c