The Cure List

Written by Sam Slovick (from LA Yoga Magazine July 2010)

Vaastu Shastra, the ancient Vedic science of construction and architecture is a pre-Feng Shui, traditional Indian practice derived from knowledge dating back some 5,000 years. In Sanskrit, Vaastu means dwelling, Shastra means scientific treatise. Vaastu teaches us how to live in harmony with nature and influence nature for our benefit. The principals of Vaastu inform us on the best places to live in and the best way to live where we dwell.

Raymond Prohs, the author of Mystic Living; The Principals of Vaastu for the 21st Century, practices a tradition called Kaleshwara Vaastu, which is he says, named for “The knowledge and wisdom brought to us through Sri Kaleshwara, an amazing saint who refers to knowledge from ancient palm leaf books that are two to three thousand years old written by amazing divine souls. It’s a sacred science.”

Grounded in the elements with an impeccable sense of direction, Raymond arrives at my home in a remote canyon near Los Angeles for a consultation. He is decidedly exacting in his assessment.

“There are four fundamentals in Vaastu; height, weight, direction and open space. In the context of the direction are the influences of placement; where you place your homes, where you place your rooms inside your home, where you sleep. Also influenced is where you place your entrances and exits on your property and in your home: your doorways, windows, driveways and garage. Those are all very important to maintain a positive auspicious flow of energy,” he says.

I follow Raymond, his compass in hand as he walks the property taking in my exterior Vaastu, checking the flow of energy. The directional pull of the magnetism and its relationship based on exact location in relationship to true north makes a difference.

“We start outside first to see the energy of the property and how it influences the people who live in the home. Once we check out the positive and negative points we come inside,” he says. “The energy in the southwest is commanding energy. If you’re in a room, in a house or on a property, the southwest has the strongest commanding energy. The energies that come from different directions have their own characteristics. If you’re sitting and having a meeting or conversation you should know where the southwest is and that’s where you should sit. The most receptive energy comes from the northeast.”

My home is the southwest corner of the property, which means that it is the commanding energy on in the property. “All the inhabitants of the property have a great inspiration to listen the person living here and support what he’s doing,” Raymond informs me.

Just outside my door are a hill and a slope that go from the southwest to the northeast. “That’s a perfect Vaastu slope,” he says, “You go to the northeast where the beautiful divine energy comes from; the wisdom and light and abundance. You want as much clear and open space as you possibly can there. You want to protect from the energies that come from the southwest.”

“In a world of duality the material and spiritual work in synchronicity. You can improve your spiritually at the same time as you’re improving your material life. They are not separate, rather enhance each other. Having auspicious entrances where the positive energy comes in and blocking off inauspicious energies is also important.”

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Written by Sam Slovick (from LA Yoga Magazine June 2010)

Far below the cloud forests of the Peruvian Andes, downriver from the place where the Ucayali and Marañón converge to form the headwaters of the Amazon, Orlando Chujandama Huazanga is calling the spirits to The New Rising Sun, a humble compound in a small village called Llucayanacu on banks of the Huallaga River where he was born.

Orlando left home in the high Peruvian Amazon to peruse a formal education in Terapoto after the death of his grandfather and teacher, Don Aquilino Chujandama, one of the most respected masters in the field of Vegetalismo of this region.

A curandero, or traditional indigenous healer, Orlando cures physical and spiritual illnesses by means of Vegetalismo; the Amazonian tradition of spiritual herbalism practiced in South America. Vegetalismo is the elegant and refined sacred science that uses master plants with sentient spirits. He carries the knowledge of a powerful family linage using the flora and fauna from the jungle; his practice includes psychoactive Ayahuasca and Tobacco.

As part of his training in Vegetalismo, he has engaged in long periods of isolation in the jungle under the guidance of master plant spirits and his grandfather. Though no longer in the flesh, the tutelage of his grandfather continues in dreamtime.

I sat down with Orlando in the jungle outside his maloka (ceremony space) to ask him some questions. This interview was translated in real time from Spanish by Vegetalista, Metsa Niwue.

SS: What’s your name? What do you do?

OC: My name is Orlando Chujandama and I work with Amazonic plants. What I do actually is I use medicinal plants to heal people. I have patients that come and see me and I take care of them. I do this job because it comes from my grandfather. It’s a linage that comes from my people.

SS: What is that linage?

OC: I am an indigenous person coming from the Quechua people. The knowledge I have came from my grandfather. I use leaves and roots and barks and different types of medicine that grow in the jungle and apply them for the pathology of the patients.

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Written by Sam Slovick (from LA Yoga Magazine)

Vegetalismo is the indigenous Amazonian tradition of spiritual herbalism practiced in the Peruvian Amazon.  It’s an elegant and refind sacred science.  This LA Yoga Magazine story, “Welcome to the Jungle” and accompanying video was shot at a center called Espiritu De Anaconda near Iquitos, Peru.  The compound was founded by Shipibo shaman, Guillermo Arévalo (aka Kesenbetsa), whose objective is the protection, organization and diffusion of traditional Amazonian medicine.  The center offers traditional cures at the healing center site as well as training with traditional shamanic preparation in the isolated jungle.

Arévalo’s medicine name, ‘Echo of the Universe’ is a decidedly prophetic moniker.  His global vision of the ancient practice is rooted in the jungle and developed by his people, the Shipibo-Conibo, and has woven it’s way into the Western world and beyond.

Guillermo is recognized worldwide in the field of Amazonian indigenous medicine, from both western academic and indigenous organizations, and especially by his own people. Vegetalismo is conceivably the most evolved and sophisticated tradition of Amazonian Master Plant healing.

Arévalo is the subject of a documentary film (Other Worlds) by French film director Jan Kounen.

Ayahuasca, Shamanism And The Diets Of Healing

I’ll open your thoughts. By doing so I’ll fill you with joy. By doing so I’ll straighten your thoughts. By doing so I’ll straighten your body. now I’ll heal you to the depths of your heart. By doing so I’ll fill you with immense joy. By doing so I’ll return life to your body and to your thoughts. I’ll heal your being, your body, with the powerful essence of the tree and the universe. so you are joyous, remember my words. so you remember them, I will chant them. Though I’m small, I made your thoughts shine. The universe is in harmony.The word is and ever will be.

–– Shamanic Chants of Kestenbetsa (Echo of the Universe) From Jan Kounen’s Documentary About Ayahuasca, Other Worlds.

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Written by Sam Slovick (from LA Yoga Magazine May 2010)

“Chanting is called a practice for one reason: It only works if we do it. Chanting has been my main practice for years, but it took me a long time to realize that it’s only by doing it regularly that we begin to experience ourselves changing. If we want to get wet we have to jump into the water. If we want to stay wet we have to learn to swim, or at least float!” ––KD from Chants of a Lifetime

Krishna Das (KD) is drenched. He’s standing under a cloudburst of grace with his feet in a puddle of love. If you stand anywhere near him you’re going to get wet.

His karmic trajectory is well documented. He put out the call for transcendence in the summer of love and the response materialized as the living embodiment of the Simian God, Hanuman, in the form of his guru, Neem Karoli Baba. KD crawled out of a bottomless pit of despair in New York all the way to the subcontinent and…well…you can read the rest in his new book, Chants of a Lifetime.

Four decades later, the street-certified kirtan road dog who opened the door for generations of western seekers has transcended the role of portal keeper to the East. The lotus has blossomed; a career crescendo manifested in the release of his new CD, Heart As Wide As The World has certified his bhakti adhikara.

Krishna Das brings a lot of light. Presumably, he also casts a commensurate shadow, but all I can see is the reflected glare from his gleaming king-sized tour bus in the parking lot just outside the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles. The show he is sharing with Deva Premal, Miten and Manose is, of course, sold out.

“Krishna Das is my name. My guru gave me that name in India in 1972. It means servant of God,” he says. “It’s something to grow up into, I think. When you first start doing spiritual practice, it’s very much you’re trying to pull that splinter out, that nail you stepped on. You’re trying to get it out of your foot.

My practice, of course, you would say is chanting. Obviously that’s my main practice. But that’s really just a part of the practice. The context that all the chanting is done within is trying to be in the presence of that love all the time.

The practice and the path seem to be about your own pain and removing your own pain and suffering. But the more you do this stuff, the older you get, you begin to see that your own pain is no better or less or more than anyone else’s pain. You kind of lose the ability to cut off and keep people at a distance. Then your practice begins to get…how to deal with…” He pauses, “How do you keep your heart open with the huge, humungous amount of suffering in the world?”

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Written by Sam Slovick (from LA Yoga Magazine April 2010)

The Kyoto Hotel in downtown Los Angeles is a portal today. Braced against the streets of chaos, the Little Toyko-5 star is pressed tightly against the homeless vortex of Skid Row. In a few hours, Reluctant Healer, David Elliott will incite another kind vortex here. A whirling mass of self inflicted healing in a pranayamic workshop.

Neatly dressed in a sweater and jeans, he’s breathing easy in the pristine sanctuary of the rooftop garden. Elliott listens with the detached indifference of a spiritual clinician. He speaks with the calm reserve of a Southerner.

A practiced wordsmith, he has just released his second book, Healing. His first work, The Reluctant Healer, was decidedly well received and remains a valuable resource for anyone considering the path of healer.

“I teach people how to heal themselves by getting in touch with their energy, and teaching them how energy can melt through any block or illness, and ultimately the energy I’m talking about is love…self-love.”

Pranayama is a healing modality. From the Sanskrit; prana or breath is the life-force; yama, means to suspend or restrain. The breathwork is an aspect of what David Elliott does in totality. It’s one element in a larger toolbox that makes up his practice.

“It’s a tool to help people to get out of their heads… to help people to open up. Open their heart up and stop thinking or being focused outside themselves. So with the breathing meditation we’re teaching people to focus inside. To still themselves and ultimately to open up and let the universe come through as love…as self-love,” he says.

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