Puna Meditation Circle

“Finding the Natural Freedom of the Mind”

Weekly Meditation

Wednesdays 5 pm – 6 pm

Join us for meditation practice in a welcoming and informal setting. We aim to provide a place where anyone, whether completely new to meditation or a practitioner of any spiritual tradition, will feel comfortable.

Our sessions will begin with an invitation to generate an altruistic motivation for our practice. This will be followed by two 20-minute sittings with five minutes of walking meditation in between. At the end we will conclude with a moment of dedication.

Simple instructions will be provided for those new to meditation.

The meetings will take place at Ramashala, 12-7208 Kapoho-Kalapana Beach Rd. (Rt. 137) – on the mauka (mountain) side of the red road between Laau Loke Street and Kehena beach.

Donation suggested.

Chairs and cushions are available but you are welcome to bring your own.

For further information please email: punameditationcircle@gmail.com or call 769-7645.

Reiki in Kathmandu

I have been fortunate to teach Reiki One this month in Patan, a neighborhood of Kathmandu, Nepal. My dear friend Yogatara, whom I met almost ten years ago on my first trip in India, is now settled in Nepal and runs Isha Institute, a small yoga center. She pulled together a few students in her relaxed, open space and we held a wonderful class, even co-teaching the chakras! I will be teaching Reiki Two a week from Saturday and look forward to more connecting, practice and healing. I have been continuously updating my travels at: www.earthweaver.blogspot.com

Dr. Sarita Shrestha and Women’s Health Clinic

Rubybleu Foundation is currently raising funds for an Ayurvedic women’s health clinic in Nepal.  Ayurvedic medicine is a traditional healing system which uses herbs, yoga and massage for preventing disease, supporting the body and treating illness. In 2003, Dr. Sarita was the first recipient of Rubybleu Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit that supports women and children in India and Nepal.  Other projects include scholarships for girls and microloans in South India.  More information is found at:  www.rubybleu.blogspot.com

Dr. Sarita Shrestha has been practicing and teaching Ayurvedic medicine for over twenty years.  She is also a Western trained physician specializing in Ob/Gyn and combines the two methods in her diagnosis and treatment of patients.  Dr. Sarita was featured in David Crow’s book, In Search of the Medicine Buddha and continues to teach at Mount Madonna in California.

 The Ayurvedic health clinic in Nepal is accessible to six surrounding villages and supports over six hundred patients.  The clinic has a staff of three doctors, two birth assistants and a pharmacist.  Everyone is treated, even if patients are unable to pay.  The clinic provides basic care for sickness such as flu, coughs, and infection.  They primarily use natural, Ayurvedic herbs for treatment and some Western medicine.  The clinic also provides an invaluable resource for the women, who often have minimal support or understanding about women’s issues regarding birth and proper healthcare.  Counseling is one of the goals of the clinic, along with yoga and meditation.

 Through Dr. Sarita’s direction, local farmers are growing and harvesting Ayurvedic herbs used to produce natural medicines.  The clinic also hosts herbal and Yoga workshops and camps to promote awareness for natural healing, Yoga and massage.

            Donations will provide further support for the health clinic by: enabling the expansion of the herbal garden and farming for Ayurvedic medicine, support the creation of herbal, Yoga and natural birth workshops and allow the clinic to buy needed medicinal supplies.

For more information, see www.saritashresta.org You may also contact Katalin directly at katalinkoda@yahoo.com

Mindfulness

Each day is a constant reminder to practice mindfulness.  Too often we are rushing about attempting to get things done, to be on time, to do, do, do... In this rush we often miss the quietness of the day that pervades; the inner silence of the heart which responds to more being and less doing.  I am again cultivating my daily meditation (ah, how it comes and goes) and finding such pleasure in the simple act of sitting on my meditation cushion for a twenty minutes or so each morning.  In that short time, many thoughts rise and fall away; sounds come and go; smells pass by my nose and disappear; pains hover then dissolve, just as Life currents flow through us and away.  We often forget how fleeting the life is as we attach to all our doing.  By sitting quietly, we remember, truly there is nowhere to go, nothing to do, really.  Of course we have a measure of energy so we do things, but by cultivating the quiet we observe within along with the realization that all things rise and fall away, we can begin to act from a place of mindfulness, rather than a place of madness, irritation, or unnecessary stress.  Just as the waves crash the shore effortlessly, just as the cloud breaks and shows us the sun, so we too can allow our creative efforts to become effortless, simpler and more mindful.  Mindfulness is a constant reminder to pay attention to each thing that unfolds in our daily life; thus we see the magick...

Eclectic Voices of Spirit: Puna Authors Speak

I will be discussing writing and my three published books along with two other writers.  There will be puu puu's and time to meet with all the authors.  This is a free event.

I will be speaking promptly at 2 PM, Saturday March 20, so arrive on time to hear me.  The event is in the Hale Aloha at Kalani Resort on the Red Road (Kalapana-Kapoho Rd.) Please call me if you need more information or directions: 769.7645

Hope to see you all there!

~Katalin

Eclectic Voices of Spirit:  Puna Authors Speak

Katalin Koda: Reiki Master, Visionary Artist, Poet

Sacred Path of Reiki: Healing as a Spiritual Discipline

❦

Erika Ginnis: Clairvoyant, Energy Healer, Spiritual Teacher,

Essential Mysteries: A User's Guide for the 21st Century Mystic

❦

Steve Bohlert (Subal Das): Spiritual Teacher, Philosopher, Rebel

Universalist Radha-Krishnaism: A Spirituality of Liberty, Truth & Love

 

Book Signing ... Puu Puu's ... Lively Discussion

Held at Kalani in the Hale Aloha (next to EMAX)

Saturday, March 20

2--4 PM

Love and Compassion

We are living in tumultuous times; times when we are inevitably and brutally aware of the troubles that are occuring around the world.  In this sense, it is up to us to continue our growth as human beings, to perservere in the development of our hearts based in a true kind of compassion.  All of us, in the so-called developed nations, are very aware that everything we do impacts everyone else around the world; that we are not separate from each other but deeply interconnected. 

Watching Haiti undergo the horrors and devastations following the earthquake is just another powerful reminder that the level of their suffering not only affects us, but has remained in a state of underdevelopment as a result of more powerful nations gaining economic ground.  In other words, we are not a seperate, all mighty powerful place, but a wealthy nation at the very dire expense of other nations across the globe. 

When a natural disaster on this scale occurs: Katrina, the Tsunami, Haiti we are again deeply reminded of what is important: our loved ones, our health, our food and water...all the other layers of things and more things become increasingly more irrelevant.  How many reminders will it take until we get it?  Will we ever get it?  Can we indeed choose love and compassion over greed, hatred, a power-over dynamic?  In the recent wake of Haiti and the strange and irreverent comments by various people in the media, we begin to wonder, how we have managed to survive this long in a state of war and terror, endlessly increasing our own suffering at the expense of mass consumption.

Yet, we all hold both the seeds of terror and the seeds of love within.  As a wise person once said, 'We simply need to choose which ones to water.'  Yet this takes effort and discipline: to continuously water the seeds of love and compassion.  To work towards acting from a place that benefits others, rather than elevates our own self, wealth and status.  We can start by simply minding our breath in moments of anger; by practicing healing work on others, to shift us dramatically out of our small self minds and into the Larger Self of compassion.  We can work to bring up our creative life force into our hearts, spreading that power (power within, not power over) in a way that promotes very real transformation, healing and Love.

Life is, no doubt, fleeting, relentless, tiresome and often hard.  It becomes even more so when we see people suffering so greatly in times of disaster, war, financial crises and social upheaval.  If we cannot find that quiet inner center within during these times, we may fall back into the old patterns of defending ourselves to the detriment of the well being of ourselves as humans, our planet, our amazing world.  Let us remember, each and every day, that we are indeed empowered, that we do hold the capacity for a very real kind of Love and compassion.