The drum has been the guiding force in my life for many years. My journey into rhythm began under the tutelage of Mongolian shaman Jade Wah'oo. Jade's ancient knowledge of drumming and healing rhythms was most influential in putting together my first book, The Shamanic Drum: A Guide to Sacred Drumming. I had a deep respect for the power of the ceremonial rhythms and drum ways of Jade's tradition, but I had to follow my own path of rhythm.

"Over the last 50 years, the people of the developed world have begun to cross into a landscape unlike any that humanity has experienced before. It is a region without physical shape or form. It exists, like a standing wave, in the vast web of our electronic communication systems. It consists of electron states, microwaves, magnetic fields, light pulses and thought itself." Mitch Kapor (in "Across the Electronic Frontier," a paper co-authored with John Perry Barlow).

The Maya Calendar – the cosmogram of evolutionary programs

The calendaric system used by the Maya intrigued the scholars of pre-Columbian culture for over 100 years. The new evidence of the amazingly profound knowledge of the Maya being discovered, specifically relating to their understanding of the phenomena and the intricate relationships of the cosmos, still fails to explain the reason for the Maya using two different calendars: the 365 day long HAAB and the 260 day TZOLKIN. While the links between the astrophysical phenomena with the 365 day system are easily interpreted, the findings in no way explain the complexities of the Tzolkin, and specifically the calendar’s references to ancient human history as well as to humanity’s FUTURE.

Stretching, Breathing, and Meditating can Transform your Day

Many yoga students complain that they don’t have time to commit to their practice. In the western mindset, yoga is a workout; we envision ourselves visiting gyms and studios on a regular basis for 90-minute sessions full of asanas and sun salutations and 15-minute savasanas. There is another way to approach yoga that can have a much more significant impact on your life. Yoga is about changing your habits and attitudes, both in your body and mind. To that end, yoga can be a small part of your daily life, rather than something you do a few times a week.

The begging bowl, or alms bowl, is one of the simplest but most important objects in the daily lives of Buddhist monks. It is primarily a practical object, used as a bowl in which to collect alms (either money or food) from lay supporters. But it also has symbolic significance associated with the historical Buddha. According to one legend, when he began meditating beneath the Bodhi Tree, a young woman offered him a golden bowl filled with rice, thinking he was the divinity of the tree. He divided the rice into 49 portions, one for each day until he would be enlightened, and threw the precious bowl into the river.