On the spiritual path, there is an interesting balance to be struck. For if one renounces the world in his search for God, it is easy to get into a mindset that emphasizes noninvolvement in outward activity. And if one is too involved in outward activity, how can one make inward spiritual progress? When am…

A few months ago my wife and I watched an inspiring documentary called “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead” which prompted us to take on the challenge of an extended juice fast. I had no idea what to expect, except from what I had experienced doing Yogananda’s Nine Day Cleanse (also highly recommended!) many years ago.…

Dear all – I wanted to share with you some of the new recordings we’ve been working on these past few months, combined with others to make up a full Ananda Christmas music experience! We’ll be releasing the CD later in 2012, so please forgive imperfections in these, like the volume being too loud or…

Hi all — wanted to share with you all the songs that we’ve recorded so far that will be a part of Swami Kriyananda’s Bhagavad Gita TV shows in production. We’ll start you off with “Brave Were the People”, one of the first we recorded. “Come Gather Round”: “Brothers”: “There’s Joy in the Heavens”: “What…

“…love can befriend you today.” This lovely excerpt from Swami Kriyananda’s song, Life Is a Dream, comes to mind often in these times of difficulty. My wife lost her job this past summer, and making ends meet has become more of a struggle. We are both faced with the daily challenge of keeping our energy…

We had a very uplifting concert last night featuring Swami Kriyananda’s music, and even though there are some imperfections in the recordings such as wind on the mic, I thought I’d post them for you all: Dark Eyes with solo by Ramu Atwell Keep Calling Him with solo by Maitri Jones, Krishna Dewey, and Latika…

If you’ve ever been to Ananda Village, you’ve witnessed the abundance of deer that we have here. They are a mixed blessing for many of us, for although serene and peaceful, they do eat up a good deal of our flora (ah, the duality of life!). They must know that they are safe here, and…

It’s been a very busy Spring here at Ananda, filled with events that usually happen during the summer: a weekend with Swami Kriyananda, a Crystal Clarity donor dinner, concerts, recordings, and filming. On top of my school teaching schedule, it has made life quite a bit more challenging. As I write this I am in…

Good Friday can be a very challenging day to get through, as it gives us the opportunity to identify ourselves with the thought that we are sinners, which Yogananda strongly urged us to avoid. Nayaswami Ananta addressed this issue so beautifully and thoroughly in his talk on Palm Sunday that I highly urge you to…

“…and I will enter, and take charge of your life.” These words, taken from the Purification Ceremony, can be liberating to our souls, but extremely threatening to our egos. Let’s face it – opening our heart to anyone, let alone ourselves, can be a very risky business. In my Junior year at college, I was…

This month I wanted to give my best possible testimony to our awesome market here, which serves as an integral hub of our “downtown” activity. In this time of economic hardship, the market is struggling to make ends meet. Hearing this, we decided to try an experiment: make Master’s Market our first place to shop.…

As you walk into Hansa Mandir, one of the first things you notice is a quote from Yogananda stencilled beautifully over the entrance that reads “The time for knowing God has come!” I must confess, for the past few years, I’ve thought “yes, yes, someday…” However, there have been positive changes in my life over…

This past weekend we had a wonderful performance of Swami Kriyananda’s Oratorio Christ Lives at the Church of the Recessional in the Forset Lawn Mortuary, just up the hill from where Yogananda’s body is kept. We had over 50 singers from many different colonies who all came together just that day to sing, and it…

I just finished leading an Education for Life Music Workshop in which I worked with four music teachers from the Living Wisdom Schools in Portland, Seattle, and Palo Alto. For two and a half days we immersed ourselves in the vibration of music and children: a very powerful and uplifting mix! Working with groups of…

It was one of those days (a few months ago)…I was trying to deal with a disappointment about the way I felt I was being treated (whine whine whine), feeling a distinct lack of respect from someone that generally has the ability to push my buttons. Also that day I was fighting off the summer…

Choir and Swami Kriyananda singing “Peace” As many of you may know, Swami Kriyananda, now 84, has had some recent physical setbacks, including a visit to the emergency room last Tuesday after a fall that injured his hip. He was scheduled to be at a tea in Los Angeles on Saturday, and was heartbroken to…

What an incredible week we had! Here are some recordings from our concert last Monday night: Salute The Great Paper Flag (Swami’s one political song!)salute-the-great-paper-flag.mp3 Here is a beautiful instrumental, Love Is the Aspiration Toward Perfection played by Craig Roberts, Bhagavati, myself, Todd Billingsley, and Mukti Deranja. 01-aspiration.mp3 And another, Friendship Is Acting In Freedom,…

I’ll be giving a live webinar on Thursday night on just this subject (which will include a first ever interactive kirtan with tabla, guitar, and harmonium) and wanted to give a little background of what chanting has meant to me. When I came to Ananda and experienced chanting for the first time, my heart was…

“…listen to my music.” We had a very deep evening of honoring Swami Kriyananda on his 84th birthday – I wish you all could have been there, for the vibration of the entire evening was very much in keeping with where Swami’s consciousness is right now – deep bliss. I hope you can take a…

When you think about the wave of yoga that has swept the nation, you may not immediately make any connections to Christianity. In fact, many people may indeed be drawn to the yoga movement simply because it has no outward ties to any formal religious dogmas. Yet for me, my spiritual journey has always been…

It truly was a beautifully inspiring week of Inner Renewal, and I wanted to just quickly share some highlights from the concert on Saturday night. It was titled “A Musical Pilgrimage into God Communion”, and was filled with many very deep performances of some of Swami’s most sacred pieces. Cloisters: Cloisters In the Temple of…

It has been a blessed month indeed! Here are a few excerpts worth a listen: First, from our Living Wisdom High School Concert on Friday, Dec 11th, a piece by John Rutter titled Mary’s Lullaby.marys-lullaby.mp3 On Saturday, Dec 12th, I led an astounding performance of Swami Kriyananda’s Oratorio, Christ Lives! at Mills College in Oakland,…

Many of you know that I am blessed with a wonderful family. My wife and I have been married seventeen years, and our very dynamic, energetic daughter is 4 years old. They are a great source of joy and inspiration to me. My wife and I have chosen a life of dedication and service to…

What is the sound of 16 yogis stuck in an elevator? (still listening?) (hear anything?) Last month I had the great joy of being in Los Angeles for the launch of Swami Kriyananda’s new book, The New Path, which Barbara has portrayed so beautifully in words and photos in her posts. On Sunday, after we…

Dear friends, Here are a few songs from the evening concert at Swami Kriyananda’s Spiritual Anniversary celebration on September 12 at Ananda Village. The concert included readings from The New Path, Swamiji’s autobiography, and songs written by him over the years. Performance by Swami Kriyananda and Ananda Choir. Enjoy! God, God, God “God, God, God,”…

Here is the recording of O, Master from this morning’s service. Enjoy!o-master.mp3

Dear all – here is the recording of Life Mantra from last night – enjoy!life-mantra-srw-09.mp3

Being a classically trained musician, I’ve had a life filled with discipline, “shoulds”, guilt and consequences, which certainly has its plusses and minuses. It’s easy to make myself do things when I know it will be good for me, but sometimes I find myself approaching things without much inspiration, doing them simply because I’m supposed…

What is it that truly happens when we sing? Are we merely creating waves of sound, or is there a deeper, metaphysical aspect that we can explore? For myself, I’m beginning to realize that every time my bow touches the cello, or a note comes out of my throat, I have the opportunity to witness…

As you can tell from Ananda’s homepage, we had a wonderful Winter Renewal Week, with Divine Mother’s added gift of snow. It began snowing Monday morning, and I was amazed to see how many people braved the weather to come to the classes. On Wednesday evening, it snowed about 4 or 5 inches within an…

About ten years ago, when I still lived in Portland, I wistfully imagined life at Ananda Village as one of simplicity and ease, where the stresses of ordinary life ceased to be. A year later I got to know people here a little better, and once met a teacher walking from Hansa Temple to the…

The past month has held many many wonderful musical events: The two school concerts (including the High School’s breathtaking presentation of Handel’s Messiah), World Brotherhood Day, our Ananda Christmas Concert (when my baton flew in a 30 foot graceful arc while conducting the Halleluiah Chorus), our Christmas Sunday Service, our Christmas Eve crèche program, and…

Last month I took my 3 year old daughter Caitlin on a 5 day backpacking trip in Yosemite with our friend’s 3rd and 4th grade class. While we were there, I had enough challenges to qualify, in my mind, as a karmic bomb. For those of you saying already “What were you thinking?!”, part of…

I’m in the midst of preparations for our final Ananda Concert Series program, entitled Ananda Classics. We’ll be performing on Saturday night, May 17th, at 7:30 PM at the Crystal Hermitage, surrounded by the beauty of the gardens. This will be the first time in nearly twenty years that Swami’s String Quartet will be performed…

As I went back into the community center to pick up the last of my things after the concert, I could tangibly feel the beauty that the students created with their music. I stood for a moment in the now empty hall, and tried to imprint the feeling and vibration of this beautiful evening into…

On Saturday, November 10th we had our third evening in the Ananda Concert Series, entitled Inner Awakenings. Held once again at the Crystal Hermitage Dome, we played and sang to a full house of long time devotees and newcomers alike, with music and interspersed guided meditations from Swami Kriyananda’s book, Awaken to Superconsciousness. Melody, it…

This past weekend we presented our second concert in our Ananda Concert Series, entitled An Evening with St. Francis, presenting the life of the great saint with narration and music written by Swami Kriyananda. The dome of the Crystal Hermitage was filled to capacity with close to 70 in the audience as we began our…

The Ananda Living Wisdom School began last Wednesday, with more than 70 students from preschool through college enrolled! As the music director for the school, they asked me to lead everyone in singing the school theme song, written by Swami Kriyananda, entitled “Sing in the Meadows.” The words and music speak beautifully to what we…

I have the deep blessing to work with the music at Ananda Village. Most of my work is presenting music written by Swami Kriyananda, which comprises over 400 vocal and instrumental pieces. This summer we’ve had many performances: one at Ananda village, another at the Seattle Temple Dedication, and still more at the Revelations of…

Last month I had the honor to be the audio engineer during Swami Kriyananda’s recording of the Revelations of Christ audio book. To hear him read the book, which he calls his best-written, was an experience in eloquence. The book covers subjects of science and Christianity that so badly need to be addressed in our…

This evening I went to the Crystal Hermitage to gather some recording equiptment for a kirtan, and was dynamically engulfed in the aura of Swami Kriyananda. He lives downstairs, and I didn’t get a chance to greet him, but his aura permeated my whole being, making me smile with such sweet joy. I go to…