News from the Centre – November 2015

Hello everyone,

This month we in BC shift back to standard time, meaning there’s light earlier in the morning and darkness coming earlier at the end of the day. November marks the beginning of celebrations of light, to keep the light inside us burning in the midst of the darkening time of year.

Our residential community is small but mighty, and regular activities continue, with the addition of a 12-week wildcrafting class.

Ongoing events include Wednesday kirtan, Sunday satsang and monthly full-moon yajnas. There’s one more Yoga Getaway this month – last chance in 2015.

We recently bid farewell to Hamsa, our amazing karma yoga coordinator. We will miss her, and trust that we will see her again. We also said goodbye to Christine, the Centre’s housekeeping coordinator, in mid-October. She’s just a couple of ferry rides away, and we hope she’ll come by to visit. Blair, a new community member, is creating a downloadable album of kirtan from the summer’s Annual Community Yoga Retreat. Watch for it in your inbox soon! If you are interested in stepping into one of the available positions, please read the information on our website.

I received a wonderful surprise gift a little while ago – a package of archival material, including many copies of Offerings from earlier years, from the time it was printed and mailed to members. Anna, thank you! I’ve been reading these from cover to cover and sharing them with the community. Included in this newsletter is an excerpt from one of them: questions and answers with Babaji. This particular set of questions and answers comes from the summer newsletter of 1998. In all the years Babaji has responded to students’ questions, neither the questions nor the answers have changed.

I hope you will enjoy reading The Perfect Path, this month’s Satsang Community story by Peter Ashok Baragon. Peter is a graduate of the Centre’s very first YTT in 2002, and continues to teach here at Yoga Getaways and YTT, in addition to teaching classes in Vancouver.

I also invite you to read Kindness and Forgiveness, qualities and practices that can support us at all times. It’s all too easy to forget the natural loving kindness that is the core of our being. Here’s a reminder.

The Salt Spring Centre School will be holding its annual Celebration of Light on Tuesday, November 24 (formerly referred to as Advent, for those of you who remember it from years back), still led, as always, by Usha, who began this celebration with school students and their families in the earliest days of the school. Every child carries an apple with a candle placed in it, around spiral of cedar boughs and stars while the entire community of parents and friends sings songs of light – an uplifting community gathering, reminding us to keep the light shining in our hearts.

May the longtime sun shine upon you,
All love surround you
And the pure light within you
Guide your way on.

Love,
Sharada