Ma Festival welcome

The following is a draft welcome message written for the Ma Festival program booklet. I've posted it here to help keep alive my vision of bringing a yoga festival to Australia and potentially New Zealand.

“Ma” is Hindi for “mother”

It all begins with your teacher.

It didn’t take me long to work out my best performances in life have been orchestrated in partnership with the right teacher. I’m sure if one casts their mind back to their school days, even as early as kindergarten, there will be a teacher you were drawn to and resonated with.

I remember my mother and me giving my early grade teacher in Darwin pot plants as a thank-you at the end of school term. Of course at four or so years old, I can’t really remember what the teacher looked like, but I remember the way she made me feel.

And my grade 3 teacher - I don’t recall his name but I remember him because he was a great teacher. 

In year 7, there was a teacher from America at my primary school in Alice Springs who helped to cultivate leadership qualities in me - president of the student representative council as well one of the leads in the school play.

Then I remember the yoga teacher who, inadvertent to him, was responsible for the start of my yoga journey.

His name is Johannes and his commitment, respect and dedication to yoga inspired me. Johannes taught Iyengar and Bikram yoga classes.  

As yogis we gravitate to a particular style and the more we practice, the more inclined we are to align ourselves with certain instructors.  

Once you’ve found your teacher – it’s a magnificent course that follows.

That’s why when I discovered Shiva Rae and Saul Raye David in Los Angeles I knew I had hit on something special.  

In my first class with Saul David Raye, I knew I must do whatever I can to bring both he and Shiva to Australia as part of a Yoga Festival.

The yoga community is burgeoning in the States and we have a healthy representative of yogis in Australia too.  But in the 10 or so years I've been regularly practicing yoga, I've never quite experienced anything like Shiva and Saul make you feel.

Thank-you for joining me at the inaugural Ma Festival and in helping to make this part of the new evolution of Festival in Australia.

I trust Australian yogis will be as inspired and motivated by these phenomenal teachers as I am.

As well, enjoy the Kirtan, motivational talks and meditation that helps Ma Festival become your home for three days of spiritual and transcendental experience.

Welcome and Namaste

CAZI James

Be like the bee that gathers pollen from many flowers and then makes its own honey. Learn from the greatest masters you can find and then practice and assimilate what you have learned.

Abhinavagupta Kularnava Tantra

The above quote was sourced from Saul David Raye’s website:  www.sauldavidraye.com

Photos:

1&2.  Yoga instructor and Kirtan singer Saul David Raye

Los Angeles - the City of Angels

I first came to Los Angeles when I was 23 years old and the night before I was due to fly back to Australia, the woman at my hostel’s front desk asked if I could stay on and work.

In hindsight I remember thinking of this as a bit of a sliding doors moment, I could have stayed in LA but instead returned home. 

The pull of LA must have continued its draw as 15 years later I find myself here again trying to carve out a life for myself. 

My American friend, Rane, says LA is special (something about an energy vortex and magnetic field) and it’s no coincidence, she says, that people follow their dreams here.

Rane has spent a lot of time in India and she told me her swami (a Hindu male religious teacher) observed LA's high spiritual activity when he visited.  

Long before I met Rane, I read Anthony Kiedis (Red Hot Chilli Peppers' lead singer) auto-biography during a travel safari in Africa.  I recall Anthony’s experience with LA's divine intervention.   

The story goes something like this: 

Anthony was fumbling for his house keys after a heavy night on the drugs (not unusual for him at this time) when he was distracted by a black crow staring down at him. When he looked up, their eyes met and the crow proceeded to screech at him.  Anthony freaked out; viewing this as a sign. The crow, a symbol of the mystic messenger, brought with it a warning: evil is among you. He needed to clean up his act.

After a few weeks in LA, I decided to get with the spirit (if you can’t beat 'em, join 'em) and attended “An Evening with the Archangels” at the Mystic Journey bookstore on Abbot Kinney (a hip street in Venice). 

Two others showed up to the workshop run by ‘angelic healer, spiritual coach and psychic’, Marybeth Murphy. 

It says on Marybeth’s website (www.marybethmurphy.com):

What are Guardian Angels?

They are God’s messengers and helpers and are sent to assist us in any aspect of our lives. They bring thoughts of love, peace and joy and can help us heal our relationships, career concerns and finances. Your Guardian Angels are only assigned to you; their job is to just assist you, no one else. 

At the workshop Marybeth counted three guardian angels around me and the other attendees had two. Even though I doubted her ability to see angels (apparently they show up as white lights, columns per se behind and beside you), I felt rather special about having three guides to the others’ two.  But Marybeth said it’s not like this – there’s no competition in angel land – two is as good as three. 

A few weeks later I’m dining solo at the Japanese restaurant, Wabi-Sabi, on Abbot Kinney. I’ll often take advantage of Happy Hour, a mainstay in many restaurants where for an hour or two food and beverage is at reduced prices. 

I spotted a woman at the counter who looked around my mother’s age when mum died. 

The woman had brown hair (like mum) and a similar haircut. Her mannerisms (smiling, curious and a gentle way) were the same. I watched her as she ordered from the sushi chef and later as she ate her meal. 

Even though it’s been nearly 17 years since my mother died – she came sweeping back into the restaurant.  This woman reminded me of her.  

Incidentally, this has happened before, not often, by no stretch often, but once in a rare while I’ll spot a stranger who bears resemblance to my mum. 

Tears began to well and fell down my face, I didn’t wipe their flow.  I hadn’t been drinking so it wasn’t a drunken melancholy prompting me to cry. I think the waitress noticed and perhaps other waiters too as they walked by.  The sushi chef smiled at me from behind the counter and bowed his head in greeting. 

I watched the woman for a good 15 minutes. When I’d managed to stop crying, she would do something like my mother which triggered the tears again. 

I looked out across the street and saw the word 'MOM' in a shop window display.  It was a paper gift shop and each letter was filled with paper flowers. Mother’s Day was soon. 

I smiled.   

Whether or not I’m fantasising the coincidence, it felt like something mum would do. Send a message through the woman and confirm it was her with the MOM sign.

I’m here even when you feel alone.   

Mum and my three spirit guides looking out for me in the City of Angels.