The Shakti Shaman

There has to be a little spark of wildness in the eyes or rest assured you've lost your way.

Alison Bristow
#theshaktishaman

Luscious Lightwave

Luscious Lightwave 💖

Any spiritual practice, yogic or otherwise, can bring us to the portal of the Great Mystery. At that juncture, only courageous hearts continue. Others become addicted to the practice or abandon it altogether.

Alison Bristow
Lightwave Healing & Yoga
#lusciouslightwave #dailylightwave

Luscious Lightwave

Luscious Lightwave 💖

As women we must guard against the inherited tendency that would cause us to allow being insecure to feel more safe than being in our power.

Alison Bristow
Lightwave Healing & Yoga #lusciouslightwave

Shakti, Service, and Transformation: A conversation with Sridhar Silberfein

An Idea Whose Time Has Come...

I knew this was the yoga festival for me when a one-hour conversation with its founder left me wanting to be a better person. Sridhar (Steven by birth) Silberfein is a man who has walked his talk for so long that now he’s simply talking his walk.

Steeped in the rich traditions of yoga since 1968, Sridhar considers the moment he introduced Swami Satchidananda to the stage at Woodstock, to be the seed that started it all. Now with two major yoga festivals in full swing – Bhakti Fest as of 2009 and its sister Shakti Fest as of 2011 – it’s clear he was right.

Our conversation centered around Shakti Fest which is right around the corner in May. It includes all of the devotional elements of Bhatki such as yoga, sacred music, and personal growth, but with an added emphasis on the divine feminine. While, to Sridhar, both festivals are acts of service, or seva (the Sanskrit word for selfless acts performed without any regard for reward or repayment) as he calls it, he feels Shakti Fest meets an ever-growing need in modern times.

And the fact that he started the very first natural food store in southern California in 1970 is a good indicator that his finger is on the pulse of what the world needs. In his words, “If we don’t’ utilize the love of the divine feminine which is within all of us we won’t survive. We need this essence to return balance to the world, to our inner lives, and to our bodies.”

When asked to bring this idea down to the micro level and to speak about how it effects male/female relationships, he spoke of the disrespect between men and women he witnesses in his travels around the world. While the disrespect goes both ways, he says the majority is from men towards women. This he feels is due to the fact that men are alienated from the divine feminine within themselves. Sridhar sees Shakti as the remedy for this.

What is Shakti?

And just what is Shakti you may ask? Sridhar refers to it as, “The Hindu Mother Goddess. The Source of all.” He experienced this power firsthand during his time with Swami Muktunanda, his guru from 1970-1982. It is known among yogis that certain individuals can transmit the energy of Shakti or Shaktipat and Muktananda was one of them. For my skeptic readers, before you “woowoo” this away, let me say I’ve known several incredible people who attribute their reception of Shaktipat to Muktunanda and they are some of the most balanced, loving, and successful people I know. This tells me there is something very real about this phenomenon.

Why Shakti Fest?

According to Sridhar, “Once the Shakti starts moving in your body, there’s nothing you can’t do or accomplish in life.” That’s what he hopes everyone who attends Shakti Fest gets a taste of. Nurturing, love, understanding, and compassion are just a few of the words he uses to describe what attendees at Shakti Fest can expect to experience. With non-stop workshops, yoga practices, meditation, kirtan, and super healthy food transformation is at your fingertips.

What makes it even better is this is a totally green event. It’s also a drug, alcohol, and meat free event. Sridhar who has been a vegetarian for 48 years is committed to keeping the festival true to the traditional values of yoga. Sponsors, vendors, and presenters are carefully chosen with this in mind. The integrity of the event won’t be sacrificed for any amount of money. How refreshing!

Sridhar is also very candid about the fact that this is not the place to drink, drug, and hook up. He has no qualms in saying if you want that, don’t come to Shakti Fest. “Yoga is not about escaping from yourself. It’s about connecting with and going deeper into yourself,” he says.  I wish I could transmit the compassion and tremor of hope in his voice when he speaks of this possibility. He’s delighted also that more people have been bringing the whole family, so all can grow together.

The Red Tent Tradition...

A very special feature of Shakti Fest is the Red Tent, named after the tradition rooted in ancient Native American, Chinese, and African cultures. This is a secluded, domed space where strong female elders lead workshops for women only. The Red Tent is designed to target contemporary issues facing women, to empower and strengthen them, and help them find their own voice.

The Importance of Seva...

You cannot talk to him for more than a few minutes without realizing that service (seva) is woven into the fabric of his being. Whether it’s helping his friend and spiritual luminary Ram Dass or taking flowers to someone in an old age home, to Sridhar service and transformation go hand in hand. (Take a look at a series of insightful interviews with Ram Dass HERE.)

He’s very no nonsense when he says: “You can’t do anything for the planet unless you change yourself. How much seva are you doing? It’s easy to quote phrases and give lines, but what are you really doing? How deep are you really going? Going deep inside the process, really surrendering and getting to the next round, that’s the work. And that requires discipline. It takes everyday focus…you have to get up every morning and do the work…and not talk about it…there’s no more time to talk. Discipline is really the key. You break through much quicker if you have a discipline.” He credits his understanding of discipline to what he learned from Muktananda.

The Influence of Amma and Muktananda...

I think we can take these words to heart, from a man with a proven track record of service, who still stands on his head daily, engages in meditation, spiritual study, and who I might add, is still humble enough to know he needs a guru. After Muktananda’s passing, Sridhar found Amma, the hugging saint. He’s been with her now for 28 years and considers her “the highest female presence on the planet.”(You can learn more about her in the 1999 film, River of Love.)

Sridhar describes Shakti Fest as being about “getting out of your comfort zone…it’s a gathering to celebrate, to go deeper into this divine feminine, which is a spark that will help us ignite into a deeper spiritual and biological transformation.”

Standing on such solid spiritual lineage as the discipline of Muktananda and the compassion of Amma as embodied by Sridhar in a life of devotion and service, Shakti Fest is bound to spark something in the open heart of anyone who attends.

And there’s more expansion on the horizon, including Bhakti and Shakti Fest in China and Europe in 2017.

Making the Pilgrimage to Joshua Tree...

But for now, May 13th is fast approaching, tickets are selling fast. Buy yours today and get thee to Joshua Tree! At the very least you’ll have fun, eat delicious vegetarian food, dance, and sing your heart out all in the company of like-minded people. And beyond that you may catch a spark of Shakti that changes you forever, leaving you transformed and ready to serve the planet like you’ve never done before.

And if you miss Shakti Fest for some reason there’s always Bhakti Fest Midwest in June or Bhakti West in September

Buy Tickets Here

Luscious Lightwave 💖

Luscious Lightwave 💖

Fyi...This is not about isolation but about rich, succulent, authentic, satisfying, respectful, and ethical relating from a place of wholeness.

The new sexual revolution
is not about gender.
It's about the marriage
of the male and female
right within our own being
thereby recognizing our innate,
self-contained wholeness
regardless of gender.

Alison Bristow
Lightwave Healing & Yoga
#lusciouslightwave #dailylightwave #thenewsexualrevolution

Luscious Lightwave

Luscious Lightwave 💖

Send your heart out through your mouth so it can be heard by other hearts.

My hands are in Shakh (or Shankha) Mudra. Shankh is the Sanskrit word for "shell," specifically a conch shell. You know the ones you pick up on the beach and hold up to your ear to hear the sounds of the ocean. The conch shell is played ceremoniously every morning at the opening of Hindu temple doors. This mudra symbolizes opening your inner sanctuary to hear the wisdom of your own heart. Because the thumb (fire) is connecting to the middle finger (ether or space), it is also activating and clearing for the throat chakra - especially when practiced in conjunction with chanting OM.  As I taught and practiced this mudra last week, I found its real significance for me was making a pathway for my heart to make its way out through my mouth. This mudra tends to clear away the coverings - anger, fear, blame, shame, guilt, self-justification - that often obscure pure heart-communication. Interesting too that the Sanskrit word for the throat chakra - Visshuddha means "purity." Imagine a world where everyone was speaking their heart and it was being heard and felt by the hearts of others. Wow. Now that's something to imagine. Shankh Mudra is practiced by holding the left thumb with the right hand and touching the tip of the right thumb and left middle finger.

Alison Bristow
Lightwave Healing & Yoga
#lusciouslightwave #dailylightwave
#shankhmudra #heartwords #heartsounds #heartcommunication #visshudha

Luscious Lightwave

Luscious Lightwave 💖

My life is fueled by the same force that moves planets; therefore it is a magnificently, holy experience. Whether I'm cleaning the refrigerator or sitting in a church pew, my life is a living prayer.

I said something of this nature to a client yesterday and it helped me too. This is the essence of the Bhakti yoga tradition and rings of the zen proverb: "Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water." Saint Paul's instruction to "pray without ceasing" also describes this way of being. I call it visceral spirituality. It's real, tangible, nitty gritty, and alchemical. To me, any other way of being leaves us to move through the human experience trying to gratify the senses until our being ends or suffer through until we die off to eternal bliss in a place called heaven. Both, being turning into non-being, and death serving as an instant gateway into bliss, are impossible as far as I can see. To merge the human and divine here and now is heaven on earth. When the ego-mind is transcended there's nothing to desire and the grass is never greener over there.

Alison Bristow
Lightwave Healing & Yoga
#lusciouslightwave #dailylightwave #bhakti #visceralspirituality #heavenonearth #zenproverb