i mean it. while everyone else moved here to party i stayed here because there's so much shakti. i came from fairfield iowa, you know, the tm community. we had some good tibetan buddhist teachers here too for awhile until lho ontul passed rip. he is missed. not sure what sort of yogatantric teachings you can get here now. i'm all set, so to speak. but there's still lots of shakti here. nola is beloved of the goddess. this has been a haven of freedom since before the rest of the usa even existed....
I had a teacher say that someone with a mature practice could sit zazen on the busiest street corner in Kyoto at rush hour.
i don't do zen also i grew up into tm and we were taught to meditate in any and every condition and i have done program at disneyland and at monsters of rock and on busses and airplanes, etc... nonetheless i am talking about just being someplace with a peaceful vibe it was harder meditating at disneyland than anywhere else. with four of us doing an hour long meditation there was only one place and one place only to meditate, at a bench on tom sawyer's island, and everybody catcalled us the entire time.... some places, like disney, are set up to prevent relaxation. some cities also. you may not know that but some cities were designed to facilitate commerce and prevent sitting except in designated areas.... some signs of that are fences and walls and freeways dividing off places so that they are impossible to cross, etc....
Isn't it wonderful to feel like you're in tune with a time, place, and people? Most challenging "street meditation" I've done is some anti-war demonstrations and Republican national conventions; sitting amid the cacophony on concrete at eye-level to the wheels and tailpipes; car exhaust and blowing sand swirling about my face. Not protesting per se, but sitting for the enlightenment and liberation of all; no exceptions.
i just feel like all my energy doesn't drain between meditations. compared to los angeles which feel dry and empty - no shakti at all. new orleans has a lot of shakti, which to me means that the goddess is alive here.
