I received the mantra that I meditate with from my teacher about 25 years ago. At that time the calmness, clarity, focus, and the experiences that most people had in meditation eluded me. It took about two years of a fairly regular meditation practice for me to start experiencing all those things. When I talked to a swami or yoga monk about what I was experiencing he told me that it was a sign that I was doing something right, to not think too much about it, and to keep meditating. That made me laugh but I did keep meditating with the mantra that I was given.

At the beginning of the year there was a word that stood out for me, a word to keep with me throughout this year: Śrī. I have been exploring the different qualities of this word each month. January was Auspiciousness, February was Beauty, and March is Sacredness. As I was contemplating Sacredness I recalled a dream that I had a long time ago. In this dream I was in a cave like environment which seemed to have a blue hue to it. Suddenly I felt a presence in the room whose energy pulled me into the heart with such a force that my legs buckled. I felt down to my knees and bowed as my forehead touched the floor. I completely surrendered to this inner pull. It was so strong that I actually don't think I had a choice but to surrender.

A long time ago when my teacher was on tour, she was giving a series of talks. During that time, one day a group of punks dressed in full regalia: leather jackets, metal spikes all over, spiked hair, tattoos, etc (you get the picture) came to a program. One of my friends who was there next to my teacher went into full alert mode when she saw them in case she had to protect my teacher from them. As they approached her my teacher was just in awe of them saying how interesting they were. She started talking to them and asking them questions and invited them to stay which they amazingly did until the end of the program. A couple of days later they came back in regular clothing carrying their old clothes in their hands and they offered them to my teacher. She thank them but told them that the change in clothing was not necessary. To which one of them answered that they wanted to, that for some reason they were not angry anymore.

One of my favorite classes when I was going to college was "Art Appreciation". I learned then all the different techniques that had to be invented to portray reality on a canvas. I started to enjoy art that I used to overlook because of its simplicity. I changed the way I saw art and was able to appreciate the beauty in it. Even in things that would not have stood out for me before.

Once my teacher mentioned that many people had been commenting on how beautiful, clean, peaceful, and sacred the Ashram (yoga school) felt to them. My teacher made the observation that to create a place for the study of yoga that looks and feels like that takes a lot of effort. She said that it is important not only to recognize the beauty but how it came into being. Sometimes we look at places like that and for some reason we think that it is just like that on its own.

"The aesthetic experience is a simple beholding

of the object....you experience a radiance.

You are held in aesthetic arrest." - Joseph Campbell.

As one drives on the 5 Freeway to Highway 140 in California you can get to one of the entrances to my favorite park in that state, Yosemite. You still have to drive for some time after you enter the park to see the heart of the Yosemite valley. At the end of that drive you go through a short tunnel and at the end almost as if by magic the whole valley seems to just appear.The first time that I saw it I literally gasped as I went into what Joseph Campbell calls aesthetic arrest.