I really don't have time for this....

So, the UPS truck made its daily stop today at my front door.  That guy in brown knows I have an affinity for amazon.com.  It seems the older the get, the more I believe there isn't anything worth spending my money on other than books.  Go ahead, recommend one and it will be on a truck the next day headed to my house.  I can't help myself.  I want to learn everything.  I blame it on my Vata nature.  Vata is the energy in your mind that is responsible for your creativity, your enthusiasm, your willingness to try new things and impulse shopping.  It is also the reason that you do not follow through, that you cannot remember and that you become distracted.  It is the reason that I walk around with 5 books in my briefcase, 1 in my purse, 3 in my car and hundreds more stacked around my house.

Today's book is "Mantra Yoga and Primal Sound" by Dr. David Frawley.  You see, I'm in charge on a yoga teacher training that begins on Sunday and it is expected that the teachers in training will learn some Sanskrit.  I think it would be nice if I actually knew some to teach them.  Now I know the usual stuff you hear in the yoga studio like "yoga", "karma," and "dharma," but that's about it.  I have always stayed away from Sanskrit because (1) it's hard to learn a foreign language, (2) none of my students know what pose to do when I say it in Sanskrit, and (3) Sanskrit is the language of the Universe and very powerful.  In fact, Sanskrit is so powerful that if you use just the right mantra, you can destroy and recreate the entire Universe.

I'm not kidding.

So, it's important to understand tone, inflection and meaning.  You could spend your entire life reciting a mantra intended to bring you enlightenment and if spoken incorrectly be asking for a new dishwasher instead.  (btw...I love mine.)  

So...back to Dr. Frawley.  His book is amazing.  It's also impossible.  I don't have time for this.  I mean I really don't have time to learn an entirely new language.  I skip ahead, of course, and get to the first letter....The Short Vowel A.  I pause....

Did you know that you could simply learn this one little letter "A" pronounced as in the word "another" so aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanother (go ahead and do it) and receive all of the following benefits:

• Energetically, it connects you to pure existence.  
• Spiritually it is the absolute, pure consciousness, Godhead...the Supreme Shiva
• Physically it activates the top and back of your head.
• Psychologically it is the source of the mind and prana.  
• From a yogic perspective it promotes meditation, bliss, detachment, energizes the crown chakra and pratyahara (withdrawals the senses).

All that in one little letter.

I can do that.  Geez.  I could simply aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa the rest of my life and that would probably do it for me.  Breathe in, breathe out aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, Breathe in, breathe out aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.  I'm going to do one letter a week.  Just a little meditation every day with one little letter.  In 16 weeks I'll be through the Vowels.  I already know the semivowels and didn't even know I knew them!  

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I do have time for this.  Om Shanti,  Pamela