redwood forest

Going Deeper

‘Going Deeper’ is a focused Meditation Retreat at the Mount Madonna Center that begins for us today. Officially it began on Friday night but we were uprooted from the full experience by full paying customers who registered last minute. I was quite disappointed, but am grateful to at least experience part of the process. What…

Shiva Nataraja
|

Maha Shivaratri

Maha Shivratri (Sanskrit: महाशिवरात्रि),is a Hindu festival celebrated every year in reverence of the Hindu deity Lord Shiva who represents the Pure Conscious Principle. Shivaratri literally means the great night of Shiva or the night of Shiva; Shiva literally means “auspicious” and as Shankara, he is the giver of happiness and the god who destroys evil. This year, Shivaratri will…

karma cleanse
|

Breaking the Cleanse

Up until today, working in the kitchen and eating meals within the community has been a valuable test of my will and austerity. For example, witnessing and smelling the decadence of a creamy chocolate cake being prepared and decorated was the ultimate in divine temptation. But I have remained true to my cleanse, only consuming…

ocean greeting
|

Leaving the Bubble

For the first time in 3 weeks, we left the Mount Madonna retreat to go in to town. What a revelation! Life all of a sudden became hectic, and the beauty of nature discovered in the Redwoods felt extremely distant. However, acclimatizing myself to life off the mountain is good thing. I thoroughly enjoyed our…

MMC

Hustle & Flow

Wow, what an incredibly long past week this have been. A 9 day silent meditation retreat with Adyashanti was held in the main conference center and throughout the grounds of Mount Madonna. In this retreat, 250 people remained silent for the duration of their stay. For those of us volunteering with the YSC program, it meant really crazy busy…

Tantra Sadhana
|

Tantra Sadhana

Today is our precious day off from our hectic volunteer schedules here at Mount Madonna. Getting up at 5:30am for our daily yoga, meditation and pranayama session has been difficult at times and really challenging, especially as we both have diligently practiced Dinacharya each morning prior to our 2 hour morning yoga class. This morning…