Meditation Secrets Revealed

A conversation with Karma Clinic founder Dr. Aumatma Binal Shah conducted by Vlad Moskovski

Dr. Aumatma is one of a several Karma Clinic practitioners offering her knowledge as a Naturopath based on the gift economy model. At its core, gift economy is a shift from consumption to contribution, transaction to trust, scarcity to abundance and isolation to community.

Karma Clinic is a grassroots non-profit, under the umbrella organization CharityFocus, that believes in the goodness and generosity of all beings – practitioners are fully sustained by the gifts of gratitude from the community which they serve.

Vlad Moskovski: How is the gift economy model different than a free clinic?

When something is free it’s often not valued. Although in a gift economy there is no requirement that someone pay something, still the changing of the word takes it out of the free context. It does not have a cost attached to it because someone else has already paid for it. Because somebody else was generous and they are offering it to you and you can pay it forward to keep that chain going.

V: What services do you offer?

Naturopathy, is an umbrella term – we use things that are natural for therapy. Our training allows us to be at forefront at integrative medicine – so we learn conventional medicine and the alternative medicine. My foundations are homeopathy, herbal medicine, and nutrition. I also do some functional medicine, using  nutrients in high doses to cure imbalances. I do a fair amount of testing to see what’s needed.

V: How do you get people to follow through?

I still haven’t figured that one out. In the beginning people would check it out, but not come back. Now, when people call to come in I’ll say – look its really imperative that you follow up. Regardless of your financial situation, you just need to come back. What’s most important is for people to have their healing process. More and more people are following through, it’s very rare for a person not to come back – unless they have gotten better. And then I hear it from their friends whom they refer to me.

V: Has Karma Clinic grown?

I see new patients all the time, yes its constantly growing. Mostly people get better and they move on which makes space for new people to come in. And it has grown in the sense that its spreading. There is one in Portland, and one in Ashland Oregon. Another one possibly starting in Sebastopol.

V: What inspired you to start Karma Clinic?

I had a vision when I was 18 in meditation that I was going to be running a free clinic. I assumed it meant being a doctor because I had a white coat on. At the time I did not want anything to do with medicine or free. I ended up studying pre-med in college and in my last semester found out about naturopathic medicine, and it hit me that’s what I was supposed to do and the vision suddenly made sense. All the pieces fell into place and I went to naturopathy school after graduating.

As part of the training in naturopathic school, I worked in lots of free clinics, and got frustrated because people were not getting better, they were not making any of the lifestyle changes we were asking them to do, and we only had 15-20 minutes to spend with each individual.

Next, I went to work with my mentor charging enormous amounts of money. I would have these beautiful interaction but would walk out of the office and have to tell people they now owe me 500 dollars and my heart would drop every time. I realized that was not something I wanted to do either.

Then one day I got an email from a friend about a conversation about gift economy healthcare. And I thought this is perfect –  the meeting point between free and totally not free. So I moved to California, and began Karma Clinic in November 2008.

V: Does the philosophy of gift economy have anything to do with the healing that happens?

On a deep level our economic system has wounded a lot of people, it is so deep that most people are not even aware. People say, “I’ve been to so many doctors, I’ve paid so much money and I’m not gotten better.” There is great mistrust towards doctors. There is a wounding by our system in general, a feeling of being screwed over – not necessarily related to doctors. On the third level, the transaction model creates a different type relationship than the gift economy relationship.

When the practitioner does not expect anything from the client, it removes the whole aspect of transaction economy. They are not coming in with this mentality of “now I owe you something” – instead they are saying, ” thank you for this amazing gift.” Such interactions heal relationships between doctors and patients. The immediate trust that comes out of that contributes to healing process. If the patient has trust, whatever I give them it will have more power.

V: That makes so much sense. And it ties into the idea of treating the root of the problem rather than the symptoms.

I’ve had a lot of people say, “this is so healing to the way I view the world.” Because our world is so much based on money the people that have been hurt are unconsciously walk around promoting that mentality. A lot of people have been transformed to the point of wanting to contribute and give back the generosity. They may not give up their jobs necessarily, but they are bringing that generosity into everything that they are doing.

V: You mentioned trust, is it a big part of Karma Clinic?

There is trust that if you are offering that is need, then it will be sustained. The flip side is if the people that are receiving it, really pay it forward then the cycle continues.

On a personal level, that has been the biggest growth arena for me – to trust in the universe. Trust that you will receive what you need and this person will give what they need to give. All without much analysis or judgment on what is happening. If you give your gifts they will be received.

V: Inherent in that philosophy is that everyone has something to offer?

Absolutely, everyone does have something to offer, we all have gifts and passions. It does not really matter what it is. If we all freely offer gifts as gifts we would all have plenty to go around.

V: It sounds like there is an element of not just giving, but also not expecting anything in return. If you are told that you need to give – the classic example of giving gifts on Christmas and all the obligation that come with it, is that still gift economy?

No, I don’t think so. I guess on some level, it promotes the economy with gifts.

I think inherent in the gift economy the trust that this gift is being given to you and it has a really high value. Do with it what you will, but let it move through you and don’t let it sit for too long. It does not have to go back to you, it could go to someone else. It could go to holding a door for someone else, or a smile. Move from that place of generosity, and the bubbling feeling of wanting to sharing it with others.

V: Where do you see karma clinic in 5 years?

I have no idea, it might stop tomorrow, it could continue. My intention has always been to run it as if it’s an experiment. This removes the hesitation to change it around if it’s not working.

V: And my last question, how have you grown through this work?

More trust in the universe and life’s generosity. A deepening of my understanding of what it means to serve and be in leadership in each moment. Karma Clinic has deepened my ability to listen to people, spirit, and nature when appropriate – when I am working with people.

To find out more about Karma Clinic visit their website: http://www.karmaclinic.org/

An interview with Bidyut Bose, PhD –  Niroga Founder

Interview conducted by Vlad Moskovski

It brings me great pleasure to interview Bidyut Bose, or BK , as many of us know him. He is a leader in the Yoga community inspiring many with his dedication, wisdom, and caring. Bidyut Bose, PhD, is the executive director of Niroga Institute (www.niroga.org), a nonprofit organization that brings Transformative Life Skills (TLS) to students, vulnerable youth, cancer survivors, seniors and people battling addiction. The work of Niroga directly uplifts thousands of people every week in schools, juvenile halls, homeless shelters, cancer hospitals and rehab centers. Niroga also trains minority young adults to become Certified Yoga teachers, prepared to serve their own communities with cultural competence and linguistic sensitivity.

Vlad Moskovski: How did Niroga begin?

While employed in the high tech industry in Silicon Valley, I observed the ravaging effects of chronic stress on my colleagues and the entire organizational culture. Having grown up with yoga and meditation, I knew that there was a solution to this. I essentially became a student of stress and began to look at the impact of chronic stress on society. Feeling the need to give back, to serve selflessly, which was a big part of my growing up, I decided that perhaps this was the time to step back from the high tech world and start to serve my community.

When I learned that one out of every two kids in inner city schools are dropping out, I realized we have to do something about this colossal waste of human potential. When a kid pulls a gun on another kid because they feel ‘dissed’ – in that situation what if we can create a space between stimulus and response? An increase in self-control could be the difference between life and death on the streets.

Even before Niroga was born, we were asked to work with a small group of young women in an alternative high school in Marin. Right after the first session, the teachers came back saying, “The kids took to the breathing and the quiet sitting like fish to water.”  And I thought, “This is great – there is hope!”

Next came an alternative high school in Oakland. There is a video on the website, where the therapists, foster youth services, teachers, and the principal all say that everyone has given up on these kids and that the teaching of Yoga, breathing techniques, and the other tools are making them realize that each one of them has potential. Then, people from probation, healthcare, and education in Alameda County called us together saying – we need this program in Juvenile Hall.

The first thing I asked was, “How long is the average length of stay in juvenile hall?” About 3 weeks, I was told. So I said, “Then we have two conditions.” Here we are – a puny non-profit, and we are setting conditions for these heads of agencies! The first condition is that it has to be a daily program. Five days a week for both boys and girls. The second condition is, we have to have one class a week for staff. The staff need these tools just as much as the youth. My idea was simple: change each individual kid, and along the way, also the very culture of the institution to make a long term impact. We did research, used standardized scales, measuring chronic stress, and self control or emotion regulation. We showed we could get measurable results working with hundreds of youth.

Then we began to look at where are the youth are going once they get out of juvenile hall. We started to go into schools, first providing hour-long yoga classes in after-school programs, and then during school offering a distilled version of the hour-long class. We compacted it into 15 minutes, keeping the same structure and called it Transformative Life Skills (TLS).

When we went into the classroom with the 15 minute interventions, the teachers modeled and worked with the kids. Very naturally, trainings evolved for schools and school administrators. We now have training programs for school teachers and school- based behavioral health providers so they can teach this in their classrooms and not have to rely on us. We are effectively giving them tools to help themselves, as well as enhance their professional practice.

Next we began to look at the social elitism in the practice of yoga. In order to reach those individuals and communities that need these practices the most, we have to change the face and zip code of yoga. The face from white to black and everything in between. And the zip code spanning the hills to the flats. As a social justice part of our movement, we began to train people of color to become certified yoga teachers. And so the Integral Health Fellows program was born. Every year we are training 25 yoga teachers, and about half are people of color. We make it affordable by offering a scholarship, it is a pay-forward model. Upon graduation, we require them to serve their community – to give back two hours a week for the next 50 weeks. That’s 100 hours of volunteer service by each of the graduates. It’s a huge contribution in community capacity building.

Vlad: Are you surprised at how Niroga has grown, did you expect this?

We started just about 6 years ago, in March 2005, and I came into this with the spirit to try not to have any expectations. I was just seeing how it evolved. The first few years our growth was almost exponential, doubling year after year. Then it flattened out with the economic crisis. Now it’s starting to grow very quickly again, the demand is there. But, the resources are not quite there – we are still vulnerable as an organization.

Vlad: What is the biggest challenge that Niroga faces right now?

I think it’s getting the pervasive awareness of the power and potential of these transformative practices. Right now there is a confluence that is making it accessible. Neuroscience is showing that chronic stress really messes up our bodies and our minds, the brain and our behavior. And at the same time there is convincing evidence that mindfulness practices mitigate these effects. Major developments in somatic psychology on optimal treatment of trauma, which is of course the reality of many of the people we serve, speaks to the combination and integration of the kinesthetic, emotional and the cognitive. So yoga, breathing techniques, and meditation fit into this space.

The fact that being able to regulate our emotions affects everything we do, is huge. And yet in a culture that does not know how to do this, it becomes a challenge to not only realize how important it is, but also figure out ways to systematically build these capabilities. This awareness is a really powerful catalyst, this understanding is a game-changer.

When we look at violence prevention, the notion of tough on crime simply is not working. Whether it is a prison or juvenile hall, all of them seem to be running at full capacity. So we know that incarceration is not going to get us out of this mess. You can try to create safe environments, enhance walkability, better lighted streets, clean parks, but you can’t just do that and stop. You have to also change our ability to regulate ourselves and that internal environment is often missed or dismissed.

We need to influence people who are making the decisions. City council members, board of supervisors, the politicians all the way through to Washington. How much importance are they going to give to this powerful catalyst that enables us to make healthy lifestyle choices, that changes our behavior? If we can get them to think along these lines, then the resources will get lined up. This is the biggest challenge, not only for Niroga, but for all mindfulness organizations in this space.

What we are trying to do is transform ourselves so we can change the world around us. Imagine getting to this magical tipping point where most of the people in the community are practicing these skills of self-mastery most of the time. How beautiful that would be!

Vlad: Where do you see yourself and Niroga in 10 years? How will it grow and change?

The big picture dream for me is generational transformation. How do I affect children, their children and their children’s children. In that process, everything we are trying to do is to get these TLS skills to as many people as possible, in as many places as possible. So that they are able to use these skills for themselves and be a lamp unto those around them. One lamp lighting another, there is no other magic to this. We are hoping for that type of exponential, viral effect that seeds the community with peacefulness, joyfulness, and mindfulness. In this way we can counteract the negative spiraling down – the pettiness, smallness, violence, and greed. To pull ourselves back out, so that each one of us can tap into the infinite potential that is within us. That’s the dream!

For this to become a reality it can’t be just Niroga. I think the dream is a shared dream, it’s up to each one of us to play a part in that dream. I have no clue what will happen in 10 years, but I know this much – I am going to keep working at this until my last breath.

Vlad: Is there anything you would like to say, directly to yoga teachers interested in this dream? That are passionate about spreading yoga and working with diverse and disadvantaged populations?

Two things. First – deepen your own practice. Deepen it so you live a life that is aligned with the spirit and essence of yoga. Without that, you will not be able to operate from a position of strength.

And then, grounded in that strength, practice and teach yoga in the spirit of Karma Yoga. The very essence of Karma Yoga is to try to work a little bit more selflessly, so that you really feel like every student is the very embodiment of the divine. So that every act becomes an act of worship. That way we transform everything around us into the sacred, so there is no secular left. And so it becomes all encompassing, it becomes universal, all-accepting.

Like Mother Theresa used to say – I’m serving Christ. Christ in the poor, the destitute, or the one ridden with leprosy. How can I treat every single potential student as my teacher, as the divine embodied in front of me. Strive with every ounce of your strength for self-realization, and then translate that into action. You grow a little bit, and you are able to serve more effectively more selflessly, and through that you grow – elegant positive feedback, reinforcing itself, spiraling upward.

Just start where you are, you don’t have to wait to be highly evolved. A little bit each day, two minutes, five minutes. Work to the best of your ability without caring what comes out of it, without caring what others will think about it. Somebody gives you a dollar for your class or a hundred, you treat them just the same. One person comes to your class or a thousand, you teach the class just the same. That becomes Karma Yoga. We have all of these opportunities to practice. What a blessing! That is how I feel about my life, that every breath, every moment I have to teach is a blessing, an opportunity to grow and propel myself forward.

Once upon a time, in an island there lived six feelings and emotions: Happiness, Knowledge, Love, Sadness, Richness and Vanity. One day they discovered that the island began sinking! So all of them built boats and canoes and left, one by one. Except for Love. Love wanted to delay abandoning her beloved island as long as possible.

When the island had almost sunk, Love decided to ask for help.

Richness was passing by Love in a boat. Love asked, “Richness, can you take me with you?”

Richness answered, “Sorry, Love, I can’t. There is a lot of gold and silver in my boat, so there is no place here for you. With both of us in here we will sink for sure.”

Love next asked Vanity who was also sailing by, but Vanity offered the same answer.

“I can’t help you, Love. You are all wet and might damage my boat,” Vanity answered.

Sadness was close by, so Love asked, “Sadness, take me along with you.”

“Oh . . . Love, I am so sad that I need to be by myself!”, sadness said in a gloomy voice.

Happiness passed by Love, too, but she was so preoccupied with her happiness that she did not even hear when Love called her.

Suddenly, there was a voice, “Come, Love, I will take you.”

It was an elder with a tattered head scarf. An overjoyed Love jumped into the boat. When they arrived at a dry land, the elder went her own way.

Love looked around and saw the Knowledge who was the first to have landed there a while ago.

“Who Helped me?” Love asked.

“It was Time,” Knowledge answered.

“Time? Why time?” Love was surprised.

“Because only Time is capable of understanding how valuable Love is.” The Knowledge smiled.

An inspiring story and a good lesson on thinking outside the box. A passage from The Element by Ken Robinson

“One of the results of seeing our lives as leaner and unidirectional is that it leads to a culture of segregating people by age. We send the very young to nursery schools and kindergartens as a group. We educate teenagers in batches. We move the elderly into retirement homes. There are some good reasons for all of this. After all, As Gail Sheehy noted decades ago, there are predictable passages in our lives, and it makes some sense to create environments where people can experience those passages in an optimal way.

However, there are also good reasons to challenge the routines of what really amounts to age discrimination. An inspiring example is a unique education program in the Jenks school district of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The state of Oklahoma has a nationally acclaimed early-years reading program, providing reading classes for three-to five-year olds throughout the state. The Jenks district offers a unique version of the program. This came about when the owner of another institution in Jenks – one across the street from one of the elementary schools – approached the superintendent of schools. He’d heard about the reading program and wondered if his institution could offer some help.

The other institution is the Grace Living Center, a retirement home.

Over the next few months, the district established a preschool and kindergarten classroom in the very heart of Grace Living Center. Surrounded by clear glass walls(with a gap at the top to allow the sounds of children to filter out), the classroom sits in the foyer of the main building. The children and their teachers go to school there every day as thought it were any other classroom. Because it’s in the foyer, the residents walk past it at least three times a day to get to their meals.

As soon as the class opened, many of the residents stopped to look through the glass walls at what was going on. The teachers told them that the children were learning to read. One by one, several residents asked if they could help. The teachers were glad to have the assistance, and they quickly set up a program called Book Buddies. The program pairs a member of the retirement home with one of the children. The adults listen to the children read, and they read to them.

The program has had some remarkable results. One is that the majority of the children at the Grace Living Center are outperforming other children in the district on the state’s standardized reading tests. More than 70 percent are leaving the program at age five reading at third-grade level or higher. But the children are learning much more than how to read. As they sit with their book buddies, the kids have rich conversations with the adults about a wide variety of subjects, and especially about the elders’ memories of their childhoods growing up in Oklahoma. The children ask things about how big iPods were when the adults were growing up, and the adults explain that their lives really weren’t like the lives that kids have now. This leads to stories about how they lived and played seventy, eighty, or even ninety years ago. The children are getting a wonderfully textured social history of their hometowns from people who have seen the town evolve over the decades. Parents are so pleased with this extracurricular benefit that a lottery is now required because the demand for sixty available desks is so strong.

Something else has been going on at the Grace Living Center though: medication levels are plummeting. Many of the residents on the program have stopped or cut back on their drugs.

Why is this happening? Because the adult participants in the program have come back to life. Instead of whiling away their days waiting for the inevitable, they have a reason to get up in the morning and a renewed excitement about what the day might bring. Because they are reconnecting with their creative energies, they are literally living longer.

There’s something else the children learn. Every now and then, the teachers have to tell them that one of their book buddies won’t be coming any more’ that this person has passed. So the children come to appreciate at a tender age that life has its rhythms and cycles, and that even the people they become close to are part of that cycle.

In a way, the Grace Living Center has restored an ancient, traditional relationship between the generations. The Book Buddies program shows in a simple yet profound way the enrichment possible when generations come together. It shows too that elderly can revive long-lost energies if the circumstances are right and the inspiration is there.”

As I look around me at a classroom of over 20 eager and curious 6th graders sitting on pillows in a carpeted room with colorful paintings, famous quotes, and a picture of social change leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr, I can’t help but think how far we have come.

At this West Oakland School, every youth is taught mindfulness meditation, yoga, and mindful listening. This under-funded inner city school is taking a radical step towards preventing further violence in it’s community by teaching  students to seek more peaceful and harmonious ways to live.  Growing Up Mindful, is a program designed to teach students mindfulness, open and honest communication, yoga, and other consciousness raising activities. Knowing that this class is now integrated into the school curriculum with the approval and encouragement of the staff and principal is a dream come true.

This program is no singularity, similar programs are sprouting in many elementary, middle, and high schools all over the country. Yoga and Mindfulness are also being taken into jails, juvenile halls, and hospitals. With so much research to back up the claims that Mindfulness meditation and yoga improve concentration, memory, attention, reduce stress, and improve overall health, its no wonder that these ancient practices are finally making their way to public schools.

In addition to the benefits already mentioned, in a school setting students experience a radical boost to their self esteem and improved self image and confidence. By practicing yoga students are able to gain confidence in their own abilities to overcome physically and mentally challenging poses with a peaceful mind. The curriculum also focuses on establish mutual respect, kindness, and understanding- crucial to students facing inner city violence and oppression in their own communities.

Many people have spontaneous out of body experiences, they can be sudden, extremely frightening, and traumatic for someone who is not well acquainted with OBE’s. Sometimes, such experiences are so incredible that they radically change a person’s view of the world. Here is such a story described vividly by my friend Andrey. I decided to publish this because for those that have had this happen to them, it may be helpful for to read about it similar experiences. Enjoy!

I was trying some relaxation/yoga exercises before going to bed, and as usual was falling asleep. Except that there was something different about it this time. I’m guessing I wasn’t all the way asleep, and right before my physical body gave way, my mind woke up. I felt intense and warm electric vibrations come over me from legs upwards, my mind felt unbelievably clear, and thinking just didn’t occur to me.

I remember this very well – I could consciously not think. It’s kind of hard to describe, but my mind seemed to be separate from me, as well as my body. It was like looking at a bowl of soup and consciously choosing not to stir it. So as the vibrations were coming up my legs into my torso, my heart started to pulse VERY intensely. It wasn’t my physical heart, because it felt a lot more in the center rather than to the left. And by VERY intensely I mean REALLY REALLY VERY INTENSELY! I have never felt anything like that before. The whole body was engulfed by the “vibrations” and was pulsing. I was actually an energy body that expanded/exploded and kept pulsing and growing, while the physical body was shrinking and laying there like some kind of dead shell.

All of a sudden (still with intense vibrations and my heart pulsing like crazy) I realized that I could see through my eyelids, and not just that, but that I could see all around me and the same time! And not just seeing, I could FEEL everything around me with clarity and alertness beyond anything I’ve experienced in the physical world. Everything felt very fluid, alive and was radiating different kinds of energy. I was able to tell what a chair felt like, and the table, window and the fish drawn on my wall. Everything was radiant and alive.

My usual physical-sense world seemed like some gray, boring, pointless dream. I raised the right hand of my energetic/ vibration body and swiftly pressed the wall next to me, seeing how energy was flowing from that spot in ripples, much like a stone tossed into a pond (that’s standing up vertically). At this point I got very excited, and I my physical mind started to wake up with all it’s patterns. With that, an immense fear came all over me, and I was terribly afraid of my heart exploding.

I tried to move my body and put my physical arm to my heart to check if it’s actually beating this fast! (It’s hard to estimate the beat rate in a rather timeless place, but if I had to, it would be something like 10-15 beats a second). But, of course I could not move my physical body – it was paralyzed, because I wasn’t in it, and the fear got even worse. I pushed down all of the vibrations, feelings and vision rapidly vanished, and I jumped into an upright position (physically now) with my hand slamming into my heart and tears pouring down from my eyes. My physical heart was beating rather slowly.

This was the first of such experiences that completely changed my life.