Swami Sankarananda Next Friday

The Akron Peace Project, Spiritual Life Society, Free Akron Yoga, and Blue Hen Yoga bring an inspiring evening with a peaceful presence - Swami Sankarananda. Swami Sankarananda is a Peace Pilgrim on a journey walking across the US for Peace. Join us at the beautiful Hazel Tree Interiors on Market St FRIDAY JULY 17th at 7pm for a conversation with Swami. Seating is limited, and floor sitting is recommended, if this is an issue, please feel free to bring cushions or folding chairs.

About Swami in his own words:

I am walking a 10,000 mile Pilgrimage for Peace as a simple service on behalf of the cause that all may know Peace.

By way of introduction I am both a peace pilgrim and a monk from one of the Hindu ord...ers (thus "Swami"). I love, respect and honor all including all people, all creatures and all faiths. I'm midway in this pilgrimage having walked coast to coast through 2014 and am now (summer 2015) journeying from Portland, Maine through New Hampshire then northern New York, Ohio, southern Michigan and Chicago. I walk with no visible means of support; in full faith in the goodness of mankind and in the Supreme. My pilgrimage is inspired by Peace Pilgrim and through the example of many of the great teachers of all traditions.

I share a positive message and do not see need for conflict in any way. I see the path to peace as an inner journey coupled with outward experience and expression; as the source of real peace is inside each of us and may be touched by any of us through kind thought, words and deeds.

I walk openly in continuous prayer for Peace for all and serving through a smile and a wave for all. I neither expect not ask for anything, I simply do my best to be of benefit. When anyone wishes to stop to talk I listen completely and do my best to help the ones I meet to touch peace inside through sharing of stories, experiences and observations. Often I am asked to talk with small groups and am happy to meet and share with one or many. I've written a free downloadable book based upon this pilgrimage as a way to share the same. The book is available at www.steps4peace.org. There are articles available online regarding this pilgrimage if you would like more information, also I share regularly on Facebook and you can link too that through my website if you would like.

Thank you for taking your time to read this. Please let me know if you are interested in a visit, and also if you might be interested in my sharing any of these stories and experiences or talking about the book. I am quite flexible and will do my best to support what you see as beneficial for yourself and your friends. There is no fee nor expectation for any of this, peace itself is free and I believe that whatever I can offer should be as well.

If you are interested please respond and we will try to coordinate a date and time.
Thank you so much again! Namaste.

Deep Shanti THIS Saturday

Over the last few months I have been working with my friend and sweet yogi, Kelly McHood, to create a series of Furthering Yoga classes which integrate sound and mantra into the asanas, as well as add myth and storytelling, all of which are designed to help us delve deeper into our sadhana, or spiritual practice.

"Musician / Peace Maker, Zach Freidhof, and Yoga Instructor, Kelly McHood, invite you to explore the Yogic Path through sound and movement in the Deep Shanti workshop series. Each class will blend an aspect of yoga philosophy with mantra chanting (outward repetition of Divine names and sounds) accompanied by instruments and asanas (postures). Surrender yourself in a practice that goes beyond the physical body, tapping into a deep sense of peace and oneness.

"Divine Deities" will explore the Gods and Goddesses of Hindu mythology through asanas, chanting, and story-telling.

The class will be donation based (suggested donation is $5).

Future classes in this series will include "Yamas & Niyamas" and "The Bhagavad Gita" and "Gandhi".

***OM shanti OM***"

Join us this Saturday July 11th, 2015 at the Miller Ave Church, 1095 Edison, Akron, in Akron's Summit Lake neighborhood. Class starts promptly at noon and will wrap up by 2pm.

Facebook event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/1122683094415646/ 

Serving and Leading

To Serve is to Lead

As I find myself in various conversations in my community revolving around the arts, the role of the artist, the yogic lifestyle, and how to inspire all to take some sort of step deeper into service, I see the great need for more conversations about leadership. Real leadership. Leadership that stems from a genuine desire to be a servant of the community, the whole community. How do we inspire, cultivate and encourage this type of servant perspective in our artistic and spiritual communities? What does an Artist or Yogic leader even look like? We see examples around us. Some more aware of their efforts and roles, and some unconsciously or unfocusedly doing the work needing done.

There is effort to build leaders from the business sector, which is important, but If we want to be a society that truly thrives and is adaptable, then this sort of artistic and spiritual leadership is imperative!

Studying several spiritual leaders such as Gandhi and Swami Krishnapada, and through discussions with local artistic several points have been coming up again and again. Perhaps it would be helpful to list a few of these traits common to the sort of servant leader a community needs to thrive. (in no particular order)

1.       Servant Leadership

2.       Often and continuous self-reflection

3.       Gratitude

4.       Encouraging the best in others

5.       Listening

Servant Leadership.

What is meant by a servant leader? A person who truly views their role as a servant to the community, and sees their strengths as service for the community, with the community is a servant leader. These persons realize that you don’t need to be the one out front to be leading, that you can be leading within, or even from behind the group. To keep the needs and dreams of the community always in sight when undertaking action, events, collaborations is absolutely necessary. Servant leaders always seek to inspire and cultivate more leaders, knowing that we can move beyond competition into abundance when others are empowered.

Often and Continuous Self-Reflection.

True leadership comes from living your life. Actions, words and lifestyle can all be in harmony through rigorous self-reflection. We must not be afraid to question our motives, our ideals, even our deepest held beliefs. Little is more powerful for a leader than to know when we are getting in our own way, or when our ego is shutting down opportunities, communication or honest growth. Self-realization should be a large goal for any leader. As it is said, to know oneself is true wisdom. When we look at our actions, reactions, and thoughts, fears, and hesitancies we learn invaluable information about ourselves which we can understand and work with. This effort helps our words to become clearer, our passions and actions to be pure and in step with our ideals and philosophy. The best leaders really live their message, as Gandhi repeated, “My life is my message.”  With this process comes the ability also to actively be the changes one wishes to see. This sort of leader should never ask someone to do anything they would not themselves do, or that they are not already doing.

Gratitude.

Giving thanks for the many blessings in our daily lives helps us to find the positive in any situation, i.e. a wider perspective. This allows us to put less stress on succeeding, per se, allowing a space to fail – a space to try, to learn, to get up again. As we realize the amazing progress being made in and by our community, we can appreciate all those who are playing their supportive and other leadership roles. Giving thanks and opportunity to those around us doing good works is more than just good teambuilding, but how a community is supposed to support and encourage itself! A daily gratitude practice gives us the strength to continue and get up again when challenges arise. It also helps the broader community to be inspired to keep working for the goal you have all outlined. 

Encouraging the Best in Others

Everyone has a super special skill. Some people know their skills and have offered how they can be helpful. Others need some help finding it or being encouraged to bring that skill to the table. Servant leaders see the potential in others, and know that we are all made of the same Divine star-stuff. Clearly, we must do what we can to bring out the best of those around us. Sometimes this can be done simply through example, or by conversations. Sometimes it’s much more difficult. Regardless, a leader acts from a place of compassion and desire to understand and meet others where they are. When the community awakens to the idea that each member holds a piece of the puzzle, and that with all those pieces put together their goals will be clarified and made manifest. This helps people to feel genuinely appreciated and involved in the work that is being done. People will be invested in that which they have a hand in creatively building.

Listening.

I cannot stress this attribute enough. Listening is loving. To listen to the community is imperative in finding out how you can serve them. Deep listening involves hearing the needs not being met. Without this effort, any leadership efforts are self-driven and ego-based, which can lead to power over people, instead of with people. It also leads to separation from the rest of the community. The servant leader knows the immense worth of each member, and that he must respect and honor the best in each of us. Listening is one of the most important skills for figuring out what is working and what is not, and how the genuine progress of a mission is going. It can allow for further self-reflection, and give a deeper understanding of how you be helpful to others.

These are just a few jumping off points to meditate upon and begin implementing in yourself, organization, community, or in any role you play. These attributes connected with a deep Love and carried out in the spirit of compassion can greatly transform all of us.   

3 Steps to Peace

Peace is a big word.

It is big because it is the manifestation of Love in our lives and existence.

And Love is a very big word.

Such big ideas can stop a person in their tracks. It's easy to get discouraged by ideas that encompass all things. It's easy to get distracted.

All of this is ok. It helps us to see the entrance to the land of Peace. It's a small door of small deeds. Better yet, you don't need to start anywhere but with yourself. Your own thoughts and actions. You see, peace emanates from within us. It grows from the growth of our compassion, our hearts.

How do we cultivate compassion within?

There are three wonderful steps, I recommend. These are by far not the only steps, however, all major people of peace have suggested these be a part of our daily practice, and I tend to agree with them.

1). Meditation.
This is a broadly misunderstood word. Meditation is not tied to any specific religious tradition. It seeks only to bring you more into your true self, your spiritual self. By regular meditation, you can expand your awareness to the greater truths that all life is connected. At this level, you will see that compassion for others is compassion for ourselves, and vice versa. We can also come to recognize our habits and pre-programmed perspectives and begin to re-write negative programs with positive ones. There are many varieties of meditation, some more potent than others, though I feel all are good. All can take you into the silence, and all can take you to a path to find the true Self. If you've never meditated before, there are a number of groups in every town that practice some sort of group meditation. These are good places to start, as are some internet guided meditations.
Here is a nice short one by Will Tuttle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChLb23f23bo
This is a good one by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z95hlevUWm0
Here is an article on meditation: https://www.bigquestionsonline.com/content/can-you-learn-control-your-mind.
Here is another good sight on all the scientific studies behind why meditation works: http://www.tm.org/ (this is a great form of meditation, though it takes instruction to fully engage in).

2) Veganism.
Total Nonviolence is our goal, as peaceful people. Perhaps we will never be able to fully extricate all violence from our lives, but it is our duty as spiritual beings to do as much as we can to reduce the suffering of all beings. This can be a tough step for a lot of people. The good news: a vegan diet can give you optimal health and make you feel more energetic. Veganism is not just about food though. It is not just a diet. It really is the lifestyle of bringing ahimsa (nonviolence toward all life) into our daily lives. Much of the suffering in the world stems from violence directly tied to animal agriculture. Whether it be environmental suffering due to pollution from factory farms, or clear cutting rainforests and other habitats for animal or grain farming (usually for animals), or the direct suffering of the animals involved, the suffering of the workers involved in such horrific work, or the suffering we bring upon ourselves from eating these animals and their by-products (including most diseases). When we close off our compassion to any being, we limit our capacity for compassion. The more exemptions there are in our compassion, the less we can actually be compassionate. Whereas, once we open our compassion to even one more life, our compassion grows and seeks to blossom as our true Loving nature.

Good resources for Veganism are:
http://worldpeacediet.org/
http://www.vegan.org/
www.fatfreevegan.com
http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/free-vegetarian-starter-kit.aspx

3) Daily Acts of Kindness
We have to reprogram our minds, and creating positive and kind habits are a good way to start. Small daily acts of kindness will give you the courage and the joy to begin choosing compassion at every decision. It's important to realize that we cannot change the world day one. We cannot ever change ourselves day one. It is a process, and with every step we make greater ripples that end up circling the world. This is a process of fully becoming the change we want to see in the world. Gandhi's adage is still deeply true. Bringing peace to ourselves and others is a lifelong journey. The more we work on ourselves, and open ourselves up, the more we see the many blessings and miracles we are creating and that the Universe/God are creating with/for us.
These acts can be easy and small: giving someone a ride, helping a friend with something, giving hugs to strangers, paying for the next customer's food/groceries, smiling. Forgiveness is a huge act. If you can make steps to that early, you are making huge strides.
Lots of good suggestions here: http://www.randomactsofkindness.org/
There are no limits to kindness. Use your creativity.

Peace is a lifelong journey. Each of us is at different stages of this journey. We cannot compare our progress with that of others. We cannot control others. We can only bring peace to and through ourselves. The more we become this peace, the more it becomes reflected in others we meet and know.

"Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world.
Today I am wise, so I am changing myself."
Rumi

Take that first step. The whole Universe is with you.

Ahimsa

My journey to nonviolence really began in college, where I found Tolstoy. Prior to this, I wouldn't say I was a violent person, but I didn't give it a lot of thought. I was, a typical American. Having no exposure to the nonviolent thinkers of the last century, nor any of the centuries prior, small acts of violence could be heroic, and of course growing up with Superman and Spiderman, evil could only be defeated by physical might!

Sometime toward the end of high school, I grew an interest in philosophy and spirituality. I began picking up books by Neitchze, Kant, Huxley, and Plato. At the same time I started reading books on religion and spirituality. Religion didn't really play any part in my life then. Church was someplace we went on Christmas Eve and sometimes on Easter. That was it.

But this stuff was intriguing! This stuff was stuff that the pastor never spoke of in Church.

And this all led me to Tolstoy.

Russian authors are my favorite! Their overly verbose, thick books describing characters so real to me, though I was so removed from their time and life. These 900 page books would enrapture and engross me until I had finished them. Dostoevsky was and still is my favorite of these authors. His work was my first foray into the Russian writer. Notes From the Underground and Other Writings struck me deeper than anything else I had read up to that point. Specifically the story, White Nights. The brilliance of this story, the longing ... it all jumped off the page. And I was hooked. Next came the Brothers Karamozov, my all time favorite novel.

At some point I read a short story collection from Tolstoy, and found his style equally inviting. It came quite naturally then that I would pick up his book The Kingdom of God is Within You. This book outlined his intense belief in nonviolence (or nonresistence to conflict), and was expressly built upon the life and teachings of Christ. These ideas were powerful, but what was powerful still was that he changed his life to live my those ideals. This is the power we all hold - the power of example.

From there, his book, The Gospel in Brief, culled the teachings and life of Christ out of the rest of Christianity, and spoke quite deeply to me. This wasnt the mumbo jumbo that I felt religion was. No, this was practical, and peaceful.

And possible!

These two books heavily influenced Gandhi and were what ultimately led me to the writings of Gandhi. Gandhi's life-long quest for Ahimsa and Truth have inspired many amazing things in the world. The idea of changing the world by changing yourself was a very new idea to me. And such a powerful; one! You don't have to be Superman. You don't have to be Bruce Willis. You don't even have to physically fight evil.

It is in this spirit of deep inspiration that I'd like to pass on what Ahimsa means. After you read the following, really take a minute to think about the implications, and how joyful our lives can be if we sign our lives over to this principle. Meditate upon these ideals for a minute.

The 6 Pillars of Ahimsa

A- Abstinence from Animal Products
H- Harmlessness with reverence for life
I- Integrity of thought, word, and deed
M- Mastery over oneself
S- Service to humanity, nature, and creation
A- Advancement of understanding and truth