Hard Times Are Jamming the Ashrams

Shortly after Steven Odnoha lost his job at Intel, he drove three days from Rio Rancho, N.M., to the Himalayan Institute in Honesdale, Pa. For months, Mr. Odnoha had been wondering how he could get the time off to join a yearlong meditation program at the nonprofit yoga retreat. His pink slip, in September 2007, provided the answer.

“I figured if I stayed for a year, the economy would be warming up by then, and I could head back and see what’s available for a semiconductor manufacturing technician,” said Mr. Odnoha, 40, as he picked wild thyme from a small garden outside the institute’s kitchen.

Obviously, the economy didn’t cooperate, but Mr. Odnoha doesn’t mind. Now he spends his days on the Himalayan Institute’s 400-acre wooded campus, practicing hatha yoga and meditation, studying spiritual texts, biking, walking and preparing meals in the institute’s kitchen. In exchange for his cooking duties and an annual fee of $3,000, he gets a private room, three vegetarian meals a day and unlimited access to the institute’s classes, seminars and other events.

The Himalayan Institute is one of many retreats where cash-strapped spiritual seekers can participate in work-study programs in which they pay typically $300 to $900 a month in exchange for a few hours a day of service, like washing dishes, cleaning rooms or weeding gardens.

As the unemployment rate has risen and people have sought refuge from the harsh economy, these work-exchanges have become a hot commodity. The Himalayan Institute received twice as many applications for its summer work-study programs this year as last — its August session is full, with 22 people, compared with 11 last year — and so did two similar retreats, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in Carmel Valley, Calif., and Satchidananda Ashram in Buckingham, Va. (which is better known as Yogaville).

The people who run these programs say there seems to be a link between the troubled job market and the rising popularity of yoga retreats. Todd Wolfenberg, director of marketing at the Himalayan Institute, said he has seen an increase in applications from recent college graduates and people with professional careers. “I suspect that is due to the fact that they haven’t been able to find a job after college or are leaving a job,” he said. The center has traditionally attracted people whose lives permit extended time off, like writers and entrepreneurs.

Yoga retreat programs can be as short as an overnight visit to Ananda Ashram in Monroe, N.Y., or can last for months or even years.

The long-term residencies usually begin with a monthlong foundational program in which participants commit to a full schedule of classes and meditation. At the Himalayan Institute’s 28-day self-transformation program, the day begins with a 6 a.m. meditation and continues with a full roster of hatha yoga classes, breathing and relaxation practicums and about four hours of light chores, like making beds and chopping vegetables. The program costs $825, and participants receive a private room and three vegetarian meals a day.

“It’s designed for individuals who are between jobs, on leave or sabbatical, or just burned out and have the ability to take time out,” Mr. Wolfenberg said.

On a recent Monday afternoon, 11 participants sat in the institute’s cafeteria chopping cucumbers, red peppers and Swiss chard for the next day’s lunch. Among those sitting side-by-side with bandanas worn headband- or kerchief-style, were a recent college graduate, a chef, the owner of a telecommunications company and the founder of a nongovernmental organization. While some were return visitors, several had never even taken a yoga class before.

“This is not my normal scene,” said Jeffrey Webb, 52, from Augusta, Ga., as he julienned a cucumber. Mr. Webb, who owns a wheel repair business, said he wanted to learn how to slow down. “I’m going all the time,” he said. “So this is an experiment in the alternative-lifestyle adventure.”

Across the table, Laurie Smith, a bartender and waitress from Naples, Fla., explained that she didn’t want to spend her vacation sitting in a beach chair. “I thought I might as well do something that isn’t just lying around and spending money,” said Ms. Smith, 36, who was taking a 10-day course.

“I might as well get something out of it.” Like her cohorts, Ms. Smith said she didn’t mind spending a substantial portion of her vacation chopping vegetables, washing dishes and making beds, pointing out that in a place dedicated to quiet contemplation, these simple tasks provide an easy outlet for conversation. “You’re not interrupting someone’s quiet time,” she said. “You don’t always want to be alone, so you can do the work and hang out at the same time.”

Yehnemsah Oneha, work-study coordinator at Ananda Ashram, says that while cost-cutting and ice-breaking are nice benefits, the true purpose of these work exchanges, sometimes known as karma yoga, is to foster selflessness and good will. “It helps circulate the energy,” she said. “You’re doing it for someone else’s comfort and welfare.”

Ananda plays host to everyone. Weekenders from New York City, who pay full price and come to the ashram for its rolling hills, small pond, deer and geese so unafraid of people they will brush right by guests, circulate among long-term residents, who take unpaid staff positions in exchange for room, board, and unlimited classes in hatha yoga, chanting and Sanskrit. There’s also a pool.

“This is my New York getaway,” said Erin Laubenheimer, a Brooklyn resident, while washing dishes in Ananda’s kitchen. Ms. Laubenheimer, 27, who was laid off from her job in the fashion industry, says the reduced rate she receives in exchange for three hours a day of service makes her short visits affordable. “It’s a great place to get a new start or to heal,” she said.

But Ananda is not a spa. Like the rooms at the Himalayan Institute, the rooms at Ananda are clean but spare — it’s a dormitory, not Canyon Ranch — and work-study guests usually share a room with several other people for a fee in a range of $40 for a weekend day to $425 for a month.
Ms. Oneha says that the ashram’s monthlong immersion program is intended for deep spiritual study and contemplation, not hiding out from the world. “If you’re applying because you can’t deal with life, that’s not a good motivation,” she said.

For this reason, Ms. Oneha doesn’t recommend it for those seeking a cheap refuge. She points out that even those who take full-time jobs at the ashram — and thus can stay there free — quickly realize that karma yoga won’t pay their car insurance or credit-card debt. Savings are essential.
Committing to an unpaid life baking bread and planting trees, however idyllic it might sound in the abstract, can also raise identity issues.

Alisa Phillips, 41, has worked as a yoga therapist, documentary filmmaker and belly dancer, among other things. She is now Ananda’s dining room coordinator. “When I came for the weekend and was doing a lot of dishes, I felt like I was making a righteous contribution,” she said. “When I’m living here and it’s my job, it’s like, ‘Who am I now that I’ve become a dishwasher?’ ”

This is a sentiment Mr. Odnoha understands, but for now he feels content. As he prepares a mixture of dates and buckwheat for the next morning’s breakfast, he says he feels satisfied that his work, however indirectly, is helping the Himalayan Institute’s mission of providing humanitarian aid to poor communities in Africa and India.

“At Intel, I was helping the owner get a new yacht,” he said. “Here. I’m part of something that actually makes a difference.”

FDA appoints Monsanto

FDA NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: July 7, 2009

Noted Food Safety Expert Michael R. Taylor Named Advisor to FDA Commissioner

Michael R. Taylor, J.D., a nationally recognized food safety expert and research professor at George Washington University’s School of Public Health and Health Services, will return to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to serve as senior advisor to the commissioner.

“I am pleased to welcome Mike Taylor back to the FDA,” Commissioner of Food and Drugs Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., said in announcing Taylor’s appointment. “His expertise and leadership on food safety issues will help the agency to develop and implement the prevention based strategy we need to ensure the safety of the food we eat.”

Commissioner Hamburg said that Taylor would work closely and collaboratively with her office and with the management of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Center for Veterinary Medicine, the Office of Regulatory Affairs, Congress, and with members of the Obama Administration.

Specifically, Taylor will work to:
Assess current food program challenges and opportunities
Identify capacity needs and regulatory priorities
Develop plans for allocating fiscal year 2010 resources
Develop the FDA’s budget request for fiscal year 2011
Plan implementation of new food safety legislation.

“I am honored and grateful that Commissioner Hamburg has asked me to return to the FDA in the position of Senior Advisor to the Commissioner,” Taylor said. “I am looking forward to working with her, Principal Deputy Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein, and all of the FDA’s dedicated and talented people.”

Taylor has had a long and distinguished career in public service. He began at the FDA in 1976 as a litigating attorney. He served as the FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Policy from 1991 to 1994, overseeing FDA's policy development and rulemaking, including the implementation of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act and issuance of new seafood safety rules.

From 1994 to 1996, he served at the U.S. Department of Agriculture as Administrator of the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and Acting Under Secretary for Food Safety. During that time, he spearheaded public health-oriented reform of the FSIS. Since 2000, Taylor has worked in academic and research settings on the challenges facing the nation’s food safety system and ways to address them.

Taylor’s recent research agenda has focused on policy, resource, and institutional issues that affect the success of public health agencies in carrying out their prevention-related missions. He served as chair of the steering committee of the Food Safety Research Consortium, collaboration among six universities and a nonprofit think tank to improve food safety decision making and priority setting.

More on Michael R. Taylor:
http://www.gwumc.edu/sphhs/faculty/taylor_michael.cfm

Yoga and Christianity

Recently, a friend and fellow Yoga teacher related that she was working on finding the middle ground between her Christianity and Yoga. She further related that she knows that Yoga is not religious, but being a Catholic, she felt there was some conflict. Below is the post I sent her. I share it here in the hopes that it helps others discover that Yoga is Integral Spirituality, not religion.
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First, here are a few wonderful exampls of a Yogi Jesus:

Pic - Jesus with many arms:
http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/Jesus%20In%20India.jpg

Pic - A lovely murti (stature) of Jesus:
http://sahajayogafotos.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/jesus-in-india1.jpg

Pic - This is the one on my Facebook page:
http://www.geocities.com/jundalisay/JesusMeditating.jpg

Then .. here is a documentary on the idea of Jesus in India.
http://www.jesus-in-india-the-movie.com/

And another by the BBC (part 1):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DXCZFRsyl8

Here is the 'Tomb of Jesus' in Kashmir, India:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aauXxuLHnQ

St. Issa, or Jesus, and a book by Notovitch entitled The Unknown Life of Christ:
http://reluctant-messenger.com/issa.htm

Someone who successfully merged Hinduism with Catholicism is the Venerable Monk Griffiths (Dom Bede Griffiths), also known as Swami Dayananda:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bede_Griffiths

Last year, I attended a "Yoga for Christians" retreat with a Yoga student, at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia:
http://www.trappist.net/index2.htm
There, I was meant to meet Father Thomas Francis, who spoke at length regarding how the Church has resculpted the Contemplative Prayer tradition by learning Yoga techniques.

During the retreat, he spoke on a number of interesting subjects, such as:
-How the 16th century Spanish Carmelites had a rich tradition of mystical prayer;
-How Meister Eckhart’s theology of the Godhead relates to Gregory Palamas’ teaching regarding the energies and essence of God;
-How the Rule of St. Benedict could be seen as actually undermining the wisdom of the Desert Fathers;
-How postmodern theologies of the Holy Trinity might be the best hope for a widespread revival of mysticism in our day. (This was one of his favorite topic, where he spoke regarding his personal theory of God Triune, and the work of Father Thomas Merton.);
-How the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi influenced the Benedictine contemplative Henry Le Saux (or Swami Abhishiktananda), and why these ideas are important for students of Christian mysticism today. (This was his other favorite subject, and notably, he was one of the first Benedictine monks sent to train with the Maharishi.);
-About the importance of the book, The Cloud of Unknowing, and how it may represent Christian mysticism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cloud_of_Unknowing
(I highly recommend this book.)

In brief, Father Thomas spoke about the need for the Church to return to Comtemplative Prayer, because the Western Church has become enamored of the intellict and ego, and that only a return to Mystical Christianity would save the dwindling numbers within the Church today.

I bought his book, and one by Cynthia Bourgeault. This latter, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, reads like a Yoga text, except, its meant for Christians.
http://www.amazon.com/Centering-Prayer-Awakening-Cynthia-Bourgeault/dp/1561012629

While reading the book, I kept penning in the Yogic translation of terms used. For example:
-The "diamond radiance of God", and the "pure diamond blazing light of heaven" is Vajra;
-Being "grounded in our spiritual awareness" is Prarabdha Karma;
-The "energetic prayer well known to mystics" is Dhyana;
-The "prayerful repetition of God's name to keep the mind from wandering" is Japa;
-"A surrendering method .. to relase emerging thought during prayer" is Neti;
-The use of a "sacred word..to make Centering Prayer easier" is Mantra;
-To focus on the "gaps in the stream of consciousness" is Vyana;
-The "Mechanics of Sitting..to keep the body relaxed but alert" is Asana;
-She uses the Greek words "Cataphatic" and "Apophatic" to mean Saguna and Nirguna;
-"Listening to God" by "keeping silent" and "become an empty vessel into which God pours" is Kevala Kumbhak;
-"The Art of Letting Go" is Vairagya;
-Jesus in the desert and the Christian monastics who "performed ascetic feats" are Sadhus;
-The importance and need of "daily prayers" is Puja and Prarthana;
-The lectio divinia as a "gradual and steady movement from mind to heart" is Yoga;
And I could go on, but I will stop there.

In all, the practice of Yoga is the embrace of all religions, shifting through the dogma to reveal the spirituality of the practice. Therefore, Yoga is Integral Spirituality .. pulling pure water from many wells.

Om Peace!
Yogini Valarie Devi