Rajanaka Newsletter: September 16, Time? Let's Make Some (Again)

Saturday, September 16, 2023

Aho’Rajanaka,

I hope this finds you well. It’s happening, the autumn is here in Bristol. It would seem trivial to talk about the weather but that’s no longer the case. ‘Round here it’s been a lush, wet warm season. We’ve never seen the forest so thick or the ponds still so full. But who knows what’s next. I think these feelings don’t just apply to the weather and that’s why it would be a good idea to angle for perspective before we’ve got too many edges and inclines.

One of the most helpful ways to make the ordinary ultimate---and vice-versa---is to invest in your vision, make a proposal, dare we say conjure a plan, or as Appa would say with veracious inflection, “Shall we make a program?” In Old School language, this would mean both that we need a plan and we’d better be ready to adapt, modify, rearrange, or entirely abandon in favor of the next “program” unhesitatingly, forthwith, right now. We’re being invited to look ahead, be in the moment, and understand that it’s all just the past. If that's true, then what? Repeat.

You’ll find this familiar if you’ve ever heard me (for the millionth time) ramble through the “four kinds of time,” which is sometimes made more fancy: quadratic time. Before that sounds too much like math class:

1. We live in past, present and future time. Time’s arrow.

2. We live wholly in moment. Punctiliar time.

3. Time cycles and repeats, like the seasons.

4. Time replaces itself with itself (not quite perfectly), recursively.

It’s this last one that often makes us look up and to the left, that what did he say juncture between “”I have no idea what that really means” and “Obviously.”  But here Appa’s “Shall we make a program?”---always posed as a question, not as conclusion---really helps us get the idea.  We’re gonna need plan to replace the plan that just needed replacing.  Time replacing time.  If we’re lucky some part of the previous plan remains in place but it’s not really the same because it too has been replaced even if that’s with itself.  Hopefully the newer version works out better but best to stay in the question, “Shall we make a program?”  And that way we can be both steady and ready.  In recursive time we’re always in every kind of time, steady as ourselves and ready to be what comes next.  Was this fun?  Useful?  Umm, not so much?  Let me know what you think.

That said, Shall we make a program?  We’ve definitely got one, it’s underway, and you are always invited.

TODAY, Saturday, September 16^th, 5pm Eastern.  We have Session 2 of KRSNA TALES.  The spin on these stories, whether or not you are familiar with any of them, is well worth the time and the company is good.  Last week went very well (can I say that?) and we have recordings, if you can’t make it to the live Zoom.  Here are the links.
ZOOM: https://rochester.zoom.us/j/95057662268

DROPBOX RECORDINGS: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yns6f7e5ftv0oftngesb1/h?rlkey=v2445440ppmm7llgfj3jn9rm0&dl=0

TOMORROW, Sunday, 5pm Eastern SUNDAY MAHABHARATA, last week’s story was particularly good and we’ve got really really good one for tomorrow. If you wonder why we stick with Mahabharata (and have for more than a year), it’s cause there really is nothing better, not ev’a.

ZOOM: https://rochester.zoom.us/j/314987250

DROPBOX RECORDINGS: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wn3icbb418qcsrjqhk6ke/h?rlkey=nzdh43ld5xitb96duffoflhlg&dl=0

THURSDAY EVENINGS, KĀLĪ’S SONG, 7PM EASTERN. This has been so interesting and fun. We have two recordings for you ready and three more Sessions. Join us.
ZOOM: https://rochester.zoom.us/j/98183733328

DROPBOX RECORDINGS: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/4iugvd3a6s6x1kkqr7nyn/h?rlkey=yqalpm73mvxpk5c66636bmw7l&dl=0

PLEASE, please subscribe to the new Rajanaka SUBSTACK
I’m going to keep everything “free” AND offer subscription. This means that you can have it for any price, including free---that will be up to you. There is content. You subscribe to the person, that’d be me, and from there you will find access to the Rajanaka materials, including the Notes, Podcasts, and the rest:https://substack.com/@professordouglasbrooks?utm_source=profile-page

All the rest including, free recordings and Session archives and years of learning are below the line. I hope to see you this weekend. “Shall we make a program?” Do take care. See you soon, whenever you can make it, I’ll do my steady ready best to be there for you.

With affection, Douglas

&&&&&

If you want something personal, just for you or for you and a handful of friends, then I’ve got this for you:

RAJANAKA TUTORIAL: PERSONALIZED LEARNING, STUDY, CONTEMPLATION IN EVENING WEEKDAY SESSIONS

Our community has evolved and matured to the point where many of you are eager for more personal and directed work. There’s nothing quite like a personal conversation. Do you want to talk about your life in yoga? Discuss a particular subject, topic, or vocabulary? Read a text together? I’m will make available time on Monday, Wednesday, and some Fridays after 7pm Eastern time. We can schedule one session, weekly, bi-weekly, whatever suits you. The model is the so-called Oxford Tutorial or more like what Appa did for me: it was just us. You can invite friends, you can organize this for your own yoga students for Q&A or teacher training. You will have your own ZOOM link and all material will be wholly private and confidential. Learning in good company is what we do. Tuition can be paid over time. $165 for Four Sessions, 90 minutes each, or as you please. Write to me and we will schedule: douglas@rajanaka.com

ALSO,

LIVE COLLEGE ON ZOOM, FALL SEMESTER 2023

REL 252 HEROINES AND HERO’S IN INDIA’S MYTHOLOGIES

This is entirely free and you are welcome as my auditing guests to attend the classes and lectures held during this fall semester at the University of Rochester. You will have your own chat box. The condition is that you must put up with the conditions of a college classroom and the Zoom is not as personal as our sessions. Class meets every Tuesday and Thursday. I will provide you the syllabi on request so you can read along. Come whenever you like, take the whole course or drop in whenever you can. Here is the ZOOM link. (I will open it sometime after 11:05, not usually right on time.) https://rochester.zoom.us/j/98183733328

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 PAST NEWSLETTERS on the Kalliyam Blogspot here:

https://kalliyam.blogspot.com/2023/01/rajanaka-newsletter-january-10-2023.html
I’m hoping to put all future Newsletters also on Substack. Our mailing list server is fine but it’d be better to have things all in one place.

I hope you read this far. I hope to see you soon. And there is more below the line.

Saprema, affectionately,

Douglas

&&this is the below the line part…

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