The below is an email Ian wrote to close friends and family on April 3rd 2016 while he was traveling in India shortly after experiencing the insight to create Anahata Ma.

 

 

 

Namaste beautiful Family and Friends, 

 

I hope this email is finding you all well and peaceful in this moment <3 How much I would love to write everyone here individually however there is so much to say and so much beautiful family here. Writing to you all at once makes it easier for me on this journey as I'm not spending much time online at the moment however please know that this message is indeed to you personally and with all of my love. To have such a wonderful group of beings in my life, with so much support, love and understanding coming from all of you throughout my journey is to me the highest blessing out of anything I've experienced in this life and will continue to be. Thank you and I love you so much. 

 

So this email seems to come once a year, with whatever insights I've been experiencing through the most recent spiritual practice and soul wandering that's been happening. This is the chapter on India, full of insight, magic and beautiful encounters. I've been here for only 3 months now but it seems like a lifetime already. The magic, and instant manifestation of interests and meeting of the perfect people in the perfect place at the perfect moment is so in your face and profound here, unlike anything I've ever experienced. For a person who believes that anything is possible, being in India has given me the new definition of what that really means to me, it's been like walking on water here. Every year the insights from the teacher of life beautifully unfold before my eyes and I always think, how could it get anymore beautiful/intense/profound than this?! Then the next experience rolls around and always tops it with ease. From being reborn in the jungle with plant medicine to hearing for the first time the true hum of inner silence and peace with the Burmese monks to experiencing the depths of true love and partnership with another, again the experience here has opened my heart and expanded my consciousness in a way I never thought possible. Below, is the tale of my journey thus far. India, the search for the 'real' yoga. 

 

So I arrived in Chennai back on the 6th of of January. Stepping out of the airport a 24 hour airplane journey from nyc was faced with unbelievable humidity, heat and maybe 10 to 15 Indian men taxi drivers asking me where I was going, where I was from, how long I would be staying in India and if I had a wife or not while trying to shake my hand all at the same time, I laughed to myself and just thought 'I love this place.' So the journey began. The main focus for me here was/is to find the real yoga and dive as deep into the spiritual practice as I felt comfortable. To not only continue my healing process and the exploration and realization of this question, who am I but to one day share it from a place of true experience and love with others. I had no real grounds for starting just the names of a few yoga schools and ashrams in the south and would just start visiting them and see where the wind blew me. I had this vision in my head of a Sadhu living in the mountains somewhere with a long beard waiting for me, but something else has found me or I found it, I guess both and that is Karma Yoga, or Seva in Sanskrit or Dana in Pali, the blessing of generosity, selfless service to others without expectation of return, or attachment to the fruit of my labor, true charity. 

 

This understanding of selfless service hit me for the first time really last year after the two months of the of silent vipassana practice. I was so inspired by the Buddhist teachings on unconditional love and generosity. So I had started teaching meditation/music therapy classes on a donation basis in Thailand after and really started to feel the energy of giving freely. I started to think, what is the next step in this process and trying to understand how I can best be of service to brothers and sisters of the world. As we all know there is plenty of suffering in this existence but equally there is plenty of energy, potential energy and wisdom to eleviate it on a collective basis. I sometimes have to laugh when I think of this funny picture of a god sitting there watching us saying, 'will they ever learn to take care of one another and the home they have been given? So far It just looks like war, ignorance and destruction but Let's see what happens." I thought ok well the best things I can do is share my music, teach meditation, yoga or just be there as a brother to whoever/whatever is suffering in front of me in the present moment whenever I have the opportunity, but this was always feeling like a future assignment and those opportunities where spread apart besides when I was working at the healing center in Thailand last winter. What about more of the right now aspect of giving/helping everyday and how?  It started in Chennai. Aside from the absolute caos of Indian cities, the thing that grabbed my attention the most was the amount of poverty and hungry, injured people everywhere. Their empty bellies were my empty belly, I could really feel it. It hurt me to see but I know this feeling of sadness and it doesn't help, so I flipped it to wise compassion. This felt better, it feels great actually, as I was aware of how much I cared, and this feels good, but more needed to be done. So many struggling so so hard. I felt so strongly that I wanted to help but couldn't figure out what to do. Walking by them was just not an option anymore as I went to visit temples and other sites, so I decided to start at least blessing them. Each one I passed I would fill my eyes with love, look into theirs, put my hands in prayer, bow a bit and say Namaste which in Sanskrit means something like my soul recognizes your soul or I bow to you in respect and love. This was better in fact it was it. Any love given in any form no matter how much or how little is already the highest gift, but I knew I could do so much more. 

 

I traveled on and found myself in the holy city Tiruvanamali where there is the holy mountain of lord Siva, called Mount  Aranchala. Every full moon some 15000 Hindus gather there and run around the 14km road around the mountain chanting 'om namah shivaya' which means 'salutations to lord Siva' and Siva is a god in Hindu/yogic culture that represents our consciousness, so basically it means salutations to being aware of life! The spirit of hinduism is so powerful in tiruvanamali it's one of the 12 most holy places in all of India and this spirit of giving freely really hit me then as I was running around this mountain chanting lost in this sea of devotion. There where again so many hungry/homeless people living around the mountain and I just thought, well it's awesome that I can give love freely and infinitely but people are still hungry. So each day I would wake up meditate in the caves on the side of the mountain, and one day I just thought, alright that's enough, I can feed at least some of these people and it starts now. So I went to a restaurant bought loads of bananas and a pot of rice with vegetables and just walked around chanting om namah Siva! And feeding anyone and everyone hungry on the street. 10 bucks in India can feed about 15 people, what a gift. I continued doing this for about a week I was in the zone feeling the spirit, meditating in the Maharishi ashram caves at the base of the mountain in the mornings and after feeding people in the afternoon, perfectly aligned with my own inner peace in my meditation and then sharing that truth and love with those who were hungry. I realized I'm not to be some monk living in seclusion for the rest of my life but that I was a man of the people, a feeder of the hungry, a blesser of the sick. I realized this gift I have of a healthy body, strong intelligent mind and massively loving spirit. Of course I have been aware of this for sometime with immense gratitude but a new channel of where to place that energy and understanding opened in this moment. What am I doing here? I realized that i was designed to serve, anyone and everyone, not only those with 'first world problems' but more importantly to those who are without the essentials to stay alive in the first place. Someone's hungry, and I have the resources to feed or help them in whatever capacity that may be, how I could I not do that? And right now? Woah! So much gratitude and joy arose from this insight and experience. I was realizing again my personal potential to help others and overcoming that blockage or whatever conditioning it was that said, oh I'll do something nice later, or oh I have another temple to see or something better to do. No, what else better can I be doing than helping those that are hungry right in front of me in the present moment? Yes! I understood and I understood completely the essence of what I was born and and designed to do. The next step became clear and the time came to move on. 

 

I moved onto another ashram in the Forrest a few hours south of there after that, very beautiful secluded place built by a guru who died in the 60's named sivananda. There they do yoga 4 hours a day, and meditation/Satsang in between and lectures on Vedanta(ancient Vedic wisdom) and this is where I heard for the first time the words Karma Yoga and Seva as one of the 4 main paths of yoga. There is Hatha/Raja Yoga (physical excise, the asanas), Bhakti Yoga (devotion to God, praying, chanting etc), Jnana Yoga (knowledge wisdom) and Karma Yoga (selfless service to others) The teachers explained as you continue on the yogic path or any path of life you will eventually find yourself being drawn toward one two or all of these paths but that they all lead to the same place.  They are all slightly different but all one and connected. I realized then that what I was experiencing, this strong desire to serve was of course natural as we all experience this at some point but was different than the yoga I thought I was coming to India to learn. I came with the intention to stretch and be immersed in Hatha but found myself diving deep into the practice of Karma, the 'real' yoga of life, which in turn brought tremendous energy to my Hatha yoga practice. I stayed there for a week practicing 4 hours a day with awesome teachers but I had the itch to be back in the streets, it was too peaceful and easy in a way and I could hear the streets calling me. I was also on the quest to find the perfect teacher training to use as a tool to give classes freely and to add to the meditation and music therapy I've been working on. So back into the 'real world' out of quiet ashram life I went and headed into the western ghats on my way to the state of Kerala. 

 

The western ghats where SO beautiful and i took the time do some nice trekking in the mountains there, some pictures are attached. I connected deeply with the earth and the silence of the Forrest there, it was so nice to have some reflection time and meditation next to waterfalls and trees. I continued through the ghats and landed at a place called Amma's ashram on the west coast of Kerala. Amma is an Indian woman about 65 years old and is said to be a fully enlightened Guru and I felt the call to go and meet her. Since she was 9 years old she started hugging and blessing everyone on the streets of her hometown in Kerala. She felt from a young age that every person on earth was her child and she had to take care of them. Her parents thought she was crazy but soon people started coming to her from miles around just as a young girl to get a hug and blessing from her. Soon she started practicing meditation and yoga, and became a self realized being at a very young age. Many people donated money to her and she opened a huge Ashram on the west coast in Kerala. They say she has hugged and blessed over 30 million people by now and has ayuvedic hospitals, ashrams, orphanages and dozens of other beautiful humanitarian projects world wide. She is one of the most powerful Karma yogis in the world, she is something like mother Teresa, a true being of pure love and light. They call her the physical manifestation of the mother of the universe. So of course I had to go to see her and get a hug. I got to her ashram where about 1000 people are staying at a time when she is there all of whom she gives a bed feeds 3 times a day breakfast lunch and dinner and hugs 4 or 5 times a week everyone staying at the ashram. There are no homeless, hungry or unhappy people anywhere near Amma's ashram, she takes care of everyone and anyone remotely near her, a true Saint. All are welcome to stay in her ashram, receive food and medical care for as long as you'd like to stay. Within an hour of being there she lead a meditation on the beach and at the end I found myself in her arms. I was immediately transported to the jungle when she hugged me. She smelled like the Amazon, like a million flowers, like the way you would think the essence of Mother Earth smells and feels like and I was reminded of my rebirthing experience there (in the Amazon) in intensive mental pictures and flashes while she hugged me. She held me close and whispered in the most mysterious voice yet so beautiful sounding 'my darling, my darling, my darling, my darling, my darling' as she rocked me back and forth then she pulled me up, I had tears in my eyes she looked into them and was looking at my soul, she knew everything about me somehow. Right after this moment one of her devotees rushed me off to the side so the next person could get a hug, she had about 300 more to give that evening. My experience there after was so inspiring and uplifting. Having been raised by a single mother as a child was definitely also one of the reasons why this experience and my experience in the Amazon was so profound for me. This spirit of the Divine mother is engrained within me, it guides me and speaks to me so strongly. Amma's love, the love of a mother, what she represents as the mother of the universe is in all of us, she is a reflection of our true nature our most beautiful gift that connects and makes us all push on to see another day, infinite love. Meeting her and this experience was so deeply moving and inspiring for me beyond words having realized what this path of service means. Feeding, hugging, and healing thousands of people everyday, a spirit living in no fear whatsoever completely surrendered to the call of her heart, it was an unbelievable experience to witness that level of love power. I was very lucky to see her let alone get hug from her, she is only at her main ashram about 2 months of the year the rest of the time she travels the world feeding and hugging people. So then she left on a hugging tour of north India with her crew of 600 devotees in this huge caravan. I was massively inspired all over again.  I moved on and gently told the universe, ok I surrender, I'm ready, how can I best serve in this moment, and the answer came almost immediately. 

 

I was on my way to another ashram, another of the same guru as the first I went to, sivananda, to do some more yoga in a very small village in the jungle in Kerala in a small town called Neyyar Dam. I had also met my close friend Julia from Berlin 'by chance' while I was at Ammas and she decided to come too. As I was running around the bus station trying to figure out which bus goes there, a very kind Indian man stopped me and said where are you going I will help you. I said Neyyar dam, he said oh perfect that's where I'm going I live there, come with me and I'll take you to the bus and we can ride together. So we got on and sat down we introduced, he said his name was Abraham. I asked so what are you doing there are you from Neyyar dam? he said yes, I have a small house which my father built and we turned it into an orphanage. My wife and I take care of our two sons and 10 orphan children from the area. I had to laugh inside, and I looked up and thought well, guidance of whatever is listening to my each an every thought and wish and granting it immediately on this journey, thank you. So I said, yes Abraham, I love that and I'm your guy, i would love to help you in anyway, maybe I can come help you clean, cook, play with the kids, potentially buy a few essential things you may need and he said of course. Come over anytime you want and you can meet the children, and my family, we of course always need help and barely get by each month as my son is the only one that can work as my wife and I take care of the kids. We don't get funding from the government or somewhere else so any help we would be so thankful for. So this meeting was a massive blessing both for Abraham and for me, a perfect connection. Abraham is Indian but Christian, he and his wife are so gentle and so kind. He operates from the heart and he and his wife have dedicated their lives to caring for the lives of as many children as they can. So we went to the ashram after we arrived to get checked in and the next day Julia and I met Abraham in town and he showed us his house and orphanage, pictures are attached. The house is very small with a kitchen and one big room with about 6 beds in it where everyone sleeps together, 2/3 children per bed and Abraham and his wife. The children are so amazing, so happy, his wife and sons also such kind people. Seeing how they live was a beautiful reminder, to be so happy with so little. They live in one room altogether with one bathroom and are happy as can be with what they have. However in the recent months having enough money for food was becoming an issue and was stressful for Abraham and his wife. And so we had a nice routine going. Everyday we would do our yoga classes at the ashram then walk into town to spend the rest of the day with Abraham and the children. Our relationship with Abraham grew and grew and we became close friends as well as with the children. One day we took a trip into the bigger town close by and Julia and I bought the children and the family a months supply of food, new blankets, pillows and sheets for all of the beds. This was great but The realization that they still don't have constant support was there, only a few small donations from people in the community and the efforts of his son. So I thought about how to help them know that food will always be on the table and how to raise money to make an extension on his house as more space was clearly needed. In Neyyar dam and surrounding tribal area there are nearly 800 children living homeless and hungry in the tribal villages without parents or anyone to take care of them. Many of them come to Abrahams home during the week looking for a place to stay but Abrahams is completely full and doesn't have space or money to supply anymore food.  

 

 

So he told us of a small 1 acre peace of land across the river from his place that is currently a coconut grove and banana farm that was for sale and we could potentially buy and build a new orphanage and turn Abrahams current home into a home for the elderly. So Julia and I looked at the land with Abraham, it was perfect but not huge, we ran the numbers on what it cost as we also met with the owners and it turns out it was just way more expensive than we had originally thought. Turns out Kerala is one of the highest property value places in India. So even though we were ready to try and raise the money through online efforts it was beyond what made sense for the size of the land. We told Abraham to keep looking for parcels that were reasonably priced for the future. So although this project didn't fully manifest, two beautiful things happened. One it gave me new purpose for teaching meditation and yoga. When I head to Europe and the states this summer and fall I will continue to teach on a donation basis and use what I can raise  to help keep the children at Abrahams fed every month, it's only about 100 a month keeps them sustained and comfortable food wise. It will help people practice both Hatha yoga/meditation to cleanse the body and mind in addition to Karma Yoga, full power. It will help incorporate and raise awareness for Karma yoga in general when explaining this at the beginning of classes. Abraham and a friend of his are also trying to build water wells in the tribal areas which cost about 400 euro for each well, which would bring clean water to over 200 people for a lifetime. So with that I am going to try and pull some workshops together in Berlin this summer as fund raisers to bring clean drinking water to these poor areas. The second, was this massive wave of inspiration that came over me about building orphanages, a vision and name manifested and Anahata Ma Eco Orphanage was born. A vision for sustainable orphanages that empowers the children to follow the call of their hearts from a young age and educates them on how to live sustainably with the earth. I don't know how or when the first one will manifest, I will wait for the perfect moment and staying in touch with Abraham about land but I could feel that this was it, surrendering to helping abandoned children and just feeding hungry people, it's so simple. I have so much beautiful and clean love energy pulsating through me in this phase of my life and this is what I will use it for.  Below is some of what I wrote about Anahata Ma the night after seeing the land for the first time. 

 

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The Vision 

The word Anahata, comes from the ancient language of Sanskrit meaning heart chakra or the embodiment of love energy and Ma means mother, so the name of the orphanage literally means love and heart energy mother. Anahata Ma Eco Orphanage will be a completely self sustainable children's home, permaculture farm, Ayurvedic wellness center and open education space protecting and empowering children and the local community to live in harmony and peace within themselves and with our home Mother Earth. Anahata Ma will will not only provide shelter, water, food and medical care for some 30 to 40 homeless children but will also educate and empower the orphans, parents and local community to sustain themselves and the land through permaculture farming, sustainable building using raw materials, waste management/compositing, and the ancient healing practices native to India of yoga, meditation and Ayurveda to purify and maintain the mind body and soul. The structures of the orphanage will be built mostly out of Cobb (a combination of clay, mud, water and hay/grass), some recycled materials like old tires, glass and plastic bottles with some of the orphans who will live there, volunteers and other locals, educating them on how to build structures out of basic raw materials. In the US especially and other parts of the world structures like this are being built and are called Earth Ships, sustainable shelters made of 100 percent recycled and natural materials. Of course we will make sure structures are properly supported to ensure they are long lasting and employ concrete foundations where and if needed but we will try to use as much recycled and natural earth material as possible. This will create very positive and healthy vibrations for the children to live within, clean and natural earth made structures. We will build a compost toilet system, teaching the locals and orphans how to build them and also how to manage human waste properly and naturally.  We will use solar and wind energy for power. We will cultivate permaculture/organic gardens all around the property for food, income from local markets and education.  The children will be educated on how to grow their own food sustainably. We will use a system of free schooling or unschooling for the Children, which means they will decide what, when and how they will learn, total freedom. Why a vision like this? It is clear that our global education system must change if we are to remain on this planet. We live and practice life in an unsustainable way and our schools do not teach from the heart. We are covering the planet and filling the oceans with trash, polluting the air causing increased Asthma amongst children and growing our food with poison and unnatural hormones to name just a few detrimental issues to our longevity and we must do something and do something fast. This is a project designed to reconnect ours and the children's hearts back to the earth, back to the truth of love from which we came. The orphanage is inspired by and will uphold the ideals of sacred mother energy, compassion,  truth, wisdom, loving kindness, living in complete harmony with nature, and true unconditional love.

 

The Land

The land is a small 1 acre parcel located on the banks of the Neyyar River in the small village of Neyyar Dam in the state of Kerala, south India. The town is built around the Neyyar dam which is a gravity dam on the Neyyar River tucked just below the beginning of the western ghat mountain range surrounding a most beautiful, clean lake created by the Dam. The nature is beautiful, tropical, mountainous and has a jungle rainforest climate.  The land has a 50 foot water well and pump house so clean water is flowing.  The land is currently used as a coconut and banana farm so there are some 30 full size coconut trees and about 20 full size banana trees already growing and healthy on the property. This will provide the basis for the permaculture project providing both food and income for the orphanage as we will be able to sell the organic produce at the local markets, this aspect is HUGE for us. With abundant coconuts and bananas are already growing onsite providing both shade, food and a small source of income. 

 

Activities and Education 

At Anahata Ma we will take an alternative approach to education with the children and use free schooling or unschooling as our basis for their development and learning process. This means the children will be completely free to choose what,when and how they want to learn. There is a traditional K through 12 school located right in town 1km walk from the property but this school will be optional for them. Some children may like to stay and work in the gardens, or learn a musical instrument, or do yoga, learn any other skill a current volunteer there may have to offer or just play all day long and they will always be supported in those decisions. Of course we will all act as mentors to the children with the ideals of healthy, peaceful, loving, conscious and sustainable living with our planet as the basis of our way of being. We will teach that we omit love, peace and healing in every word that comes from our mouth and every action we take while in their presence and hopefully every moment of our lives no matter where we are :) This may seem strange to some, letting the children choose, but we must change the way we educate. We must learn to live and teach sustainability if we are to continue as a species on this planet. We must re learn how to work with the natural forces of nature to live healthy and happy lives. Most children by the age of 8 recognize and know the name of corporation logos but couldn't tell you the name of one plant or animal native to where they live. We must unplug, realize and and come home the the love and planet from which we were created. 

 

The foundation of our spiritual practice at Anahata Ma will be yoga, meditation and music with an open mindedness and acceptance of all religions and forms of God and ideas of self or no self. We will maintain a daily morning meditation and yoga session before breakfast everyday for sunrise and again for sunset before dinner every night. Through these practices children will learn how to maintain a healthy and strong balanced body, mind and spirit. We will also keep and maintain as many instruments as possible so that children can use music as a way of expressing their creativity and emotions. Of course there will be many forms of art and expression available to them through the volunteers that visit and any other ideas they or we may have but this will be our starting point and foundation for practice. These morning and evening practice sessions will be made mandatory to maintain the sense of community and oneness and also to help the children with some form of discipline. Although we will use free schooling, living in harmony with oneself in a healthy and sustainable manner still requires a strong disciplined mind. All children and volunteers will also be required to perform at least 2 to 3 hour of Karma Yoga per day depending on what projects are happening to maintain cleanliness and maintenance of the property. There will be no need to pay anyone to work there, it will be a community of those serving from the heart. 

 

As we expect volunteers from all walks of life and many countries to visit we will maintain an open format for people to teach the children whatever they bring with them if they are interested. Anything and everything will be possible and in the end will give the children a beautiful variety of experience, education and network to peruse their dreams. 

 

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So maybe some of you are thinking, woah how can I help?! I can donate! The thing is this property is very expensive and it didn't make sense to try and raise the money for now, so Abraham is trying to find other places that are more reasonable and when that happens I will keep everyone informed and help in all forms will be needed if anyone feels inspired. For now though, the children and family won't have worry about where the next food is coming from and I'll be teaching to help raise money for the clean water projects and keeping in touch with Abraham via email. When these water projects start to happen I'll be getting some online things going for the classes and there will be opportunity to contribute. I will return to India next year to check in with Abraham and the children, continue looking for land and start helping with the wells. 

 

So after some time with Abraham and the kids it was time to move on again. We had a nice big lunch and group hug with the children and I set sail to go to a yoga teacher training further north. 

 

So a few ashrams back I met a lovely Portuguese yoga teacher and she told me about an amazing ashram where they do yoga therapy teacher trainings in the mountains just outside of a place called Nashik which is towards the middle/south western part of India. So I signed up for their teacher training for the month of March and went, and yes! It was so perfect. The most beautiful little ashram with amazing Indian teachers teaching the full authentic Yoga. They teach from the heart and have many karma yoga projects going on in the surrounding community, perfect place and teachers at the perfect moment was gifted once again. The training was so complete, exactly what I was looking for. There were 25 of us in the training so very small and  from all over the world so I made some great new friends. One of the teachers is a medical doctor and yoga teacher of 20 years, one a naturopath and yoga teacher of 15 years, one an Ayurvedic doctor and yoga teacher and another a psychologist and yoga teacher of 25 years. Then there is Guruji the founder of the ashram who started it back in the 70's, a full power Swami, a holy man from the mountains, a massive presence to have around. So they teach the perspective of yoga therapy both from the ancient traditional spiritual side in perfect combination with scientific research they have done themselves on yoga postures and their effects on different diseases (they have their own yoga therapy hospital where they conduct research and treat people freely using both western and Ayurvedic holistic healing) and the holistic/spiritual approach to the practice. So I learned not only the ancient Sanskrit texts and meaning of the asanas and theory, how to chant mantra properly, Vedic philosophy texts, but also learned the detailed western approach to healing conditions like diabetes, hypertension, asthma, obesity, depression, bronchitis, colitis and constipation just to name a few with various yoga sequences they have researched and designed themselves over the past 45 years in addition to pre and post natal yoga for pregnant women. The course was very intense, with wake up bell at 5am, including 4 hours of yoga practice and mantra chanting with another 4 hours of lecture and 2 hours of karma yoga either in the ashram itself or helping in the community everyday. Really the perfect balance of personal practice, learning all angles of the yogic practice and Karma yoga, I was in heaven (and still am). In the evenings sometimes we would have free time and so I offered to teach my meditation sessions with music therapy especially around our final exam times as the students where getting a little stressed. So during one of the sessions our teachers sat in and loved the meditation teachings and sessions I gave and so did the students. I was already planning on staying to volunteer as a karma yogi for the next teacher training coming for the month of April but then the most awesome thing happened. They asked if they could add my music therapy and meditation sessions into the course syllabus for the next group in April! So I said yes of course! Another opportunity to give more, THANK YOU :) So here I am still at the ashram and I will stay for one more month teaching meditation and music therapy to the next training that comes in which starts on the 6th of April. I will teach, help in the kitchen, clean the halls, and do whatever is needed for the group as well as help some in the local schools and also spend more time with these teachers here deepening my own practice and knowledge of yoga therapy. I may stay longer than the month but there will be no more new English speaking trainings after this one so we'll see. But for now, wow I'm feeling so unbelievably blessed with all of these opportunities to serve.  It will be so nice to contribute to the experience of the new crew that comes and help give back everything I just received. India has given me so so much, so much truth and even more love has been realized, thank you. 

 

As for the future, as I said before in this moment I feel that I will go back to Berlin for the summer months and start teaching there. I have a beautiful group of friends and strong network of people there and would be able to get the ball rolling on classes and workshops for donation to keep the orphanage and myself sustained. There is a part of me that wants to stay in India for the summer and head to the Himalayas but I think I will save that for the next trip. Either way after whatever I decide I'll make my usual annual round to the states to visit all of your beautiful shining faces again :) 

 

Furthermore I would love to hear about all of your journeys as well. So please share if you have some time and can just email directly if you reply as to keep everyone's inboxes mellow. We don't have internet at the ashram so I'm just going into the nearest city once every 2 weeks maximum, so if I don't reply immediately again this is why. Also if I forgot anyone on this send or you would like to share this email please feel free forward along to anyone you like who would benefit from reading it. 

 

I feel immense gratitude  in this moment for everyone here. Thank you all so much for supporting and being there for me. Everyone connected to each of you is truly blessed to have such a wonderful shining being in their lives. I surround all of you in every moment with the warmth and love of my heart and I will see you at the perfect moment. 

 

May Love, Peace and Healing be always with you <3 

 

- Ian