I want to tell you a story that annihilated me into itself when I heard it. Maybe it will annihilate you too, and point you back to essence…
A story that almost could be from the Mahabharata, that almost could have happened. But it didn’t. And not the way I am going to tell it. And none of this will matter if you feel where it points…
When Arjuna the great Indian warrior found himself on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, across from an army led by the very teachers who had trained him to become the finest archer in the land, full with brothers and uncles- the family he grew up with, he couldn’t lift his bow to fire the first arrow across the enemy lines.
He looked at their faces and his heart broke. He knew his Dharma, he knew it had to be such- that he must engage this battle, for it was Divine will, and yet, as he gazed across the battlefield, he couldn’t fire at the enemy.
He just stood there, seeing them with this heart.
And when the very people he couldn’t shoot at, began firing arrows at him, something unusual happened: as the arrows they shot touched Arjuna, they began to transform into petals of Rose and fell at his feet.
You see, he had become love. Big love.
The enormity of his love was such that it dissolved everything that touched him into itself- back into the essence of the Everything- the core vibration of love.
And the harshness of the arrows, the hate, the anger, the violence that came at him, transmuted into Roses- the fragrant softness of love.
I feel at the core, this is life’s invitation to us all- to not just know love as a verb, but to become it…and in that becoming, make everything we meet part of the Love we are…
This is no small order. And yet, there are beings who join us here on Earth and embody this capacity.
This morning at 00:00, 1.22.22, in the temple he was initiated in as a young boy, Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh left his body. And as I sat feeling his essence in meditation, this story came up and again made me cry. Because Arjuna’s story also describes him.
Maybe you’ve met his teachings? Maybe this note will inspire you to…I hope it does.
I’ve always experienced Thich Nhat Hanh as the Boddhisattva of peace. I haven’t read any of his books, nor attended any of his retreats. Nor really followed his teachings closely.
But I have heard his voice name the Truth in us all. I have seen his brush, make spirit into form. I have felt the power and the radiance of his presence, melt me with love, into itself.
It’s a gift to be annihilated, over and over again in meeting a presence like his. The best way to honor him, of course, is to live aligned with the Truth in you.
You can read his parting words below, gently melting all the pointy arrows in me, into the tenderness of petals…
in celebration, in honor of a Life lived fully, his, yours and mine-
Baby, just let it fly! Photo by Ishita Sharma. Louvre, Paris. Circa 2007.
Dear one,
In my morning session today a beautiful client and I laughed for a good 10 minutes as she saw how she was playing the game of life, trying so hard to hide the Big Big Love she actually is!
Who did she think she’s fooling? I asked. And she pointed to herself. We laughed some more.
As she saw herself as this Ocean of Love, there was nothing left outside of it.
She, me, we, her stories, ideas, beliefs, emotions – all melted into boundless, all encompassing Big Love. And there was nothing left but tears of joy, the sweet mourning of that forgetting, that hiding…
We convince ourselves no one sees the love that we are, but it can’t be hidden. Mostly, we’re hiding it from ourselves.
What if for this one moment, as you read my words, you let this ocean of love that has been wanting to pour through you out into the Everything actually pour out?
You showed up in the world one ball of innocence- loving everything you met. As a child you knew this- you were here to love and be loved. It was simple. It was easy to offer your heart and receive love into it.
So now again, come back to the simplicity of that knowing.
Let yourself BE love.
Maybe for just this moment. Maybe for another minute…maybe for this whole day, maybe just this weekend or this year…this lifetime!
Especially when it feels vulnerable – when you are afraid you’ll lose connection for showing up as it- like writing this email for me, it will feel so essential and so vulnerable…
Come! Let it melt you. Over and over.
Big Love meets Big Love.
You, Big Love, go to the grocery store and feel the Big Love bagging your groceries for you. You walk to the post office and meet Big Love in the line and there it is again, mailing your letters. You come home and there it is again- Big Love pouring out, disguised as your children, your partner, your parents, your friend…what else was ever there?
All around you. It’s hard not to feel it!
It can be that simple.
To let it be that simple is the most courageous choice we can make- turning towards what you already are- so much love it’ll break your heart and fill it. Over and over again.
That’s the invitation of Murmurations– being, having and doing as and from Big Big Love. If it calls, let’s talk.
What else could be more essential, more important, more joyful?
Saying a hearty YES to diving into the uncertain, unknowable, unstable life has always led to openings beyond what I could imagine.
My partner and I came to France for a friend’s celebration on a whim. Our bodies like the field of Europe. When it was time to leave, we just didn’t feel right getting on our plane, so we sat there letting it go without us on it.
It was the first time I consciously and willingly let a plane ticket go waste- big for me!
We put all the possibilities on the table- staying another month or two years- we would do what felt right. Something wanted to be seen, and we were ready to meet it.
It’s so easy to trick ourselves into believing self-imposed limitation. It is so easy to forget and deny ourselves how free we actually really are. And we are here to re-member this, continually- to keep coming back to center.
There were a hundred reasons not to follow the call, and we could easily have indulged any of them, but that would have been betraying the emergent. And I am a willing slave to it.
And then our adventure began- as did synchronicities. And the thing about planning an adventure is, you can’t.
The journey through this newness has been full of elation, wonder, awe, love, beauty and grief, mourning, anger, longing, renewal and release. There is an expanded possibility.
As it happens, we are growing through Life.
I’m taking notes- yes the conscious journey isn’t easy, but it is full of resource to bring you safely through the storm- not unscathed but truly changed.
It will make you aware of, open and expand the crevices where you hide from yourself, from each other. And it has us.
“Thou shalt be a nomad!” Erik said when I asked in March, what the universe was trying to teach me with no home to be found after 6 months of looking, none of my visions coming manifest!
The message was pretty clear, and it has been showing us slowly, the shape it wanted to take.
I had planned to be settled in a house, establish a Come to Center space and be running a full workshop schedule by now. Oh and have a “regular routine” – something I keep tricking myself into believing I want, when in reality, I don’t!
And I am SO glad I am not!
Exploring the insides of a new culture and country, learning about it and me, swimming through my own darkness into the Sun and back everyday, is teaching me to listen anew. The ocean and my marriage are my biggest teachers right now.
When I am here-now, I belong everywhere and nowhere.
I forgot for a second how much of a nomad I am at heart, how much travel enriches us and the physical immersion into new landscapes changes our inner landscapes…aah yes.
My work is an expression of my Life, the thing about working with energy and consciousness is that they transcend construct, time and space. Come to Center is still funneling the transformation it needs to because I am transforming and growing.
Life is in sync. I’m learning so much, and enjoying it.
I feel truly homeless and fully at home in it. I’ve never been a creature of habit. I’m holding life preciously.
I’ve learned time and again it’s a good thing when my dreams don’t come true, because what does instead opens me up to higher possibilities in ways I could never conjure.
Thankful for the beauty of our world, the love in our hearts, and those around us, the marvel of modern technology, and the courage to choose freedom over comfort.
Every time.
May it be so for each of us. Thank you Life. More please.
I had the privilege of dancing Oak Dance last weekend, my first step into Native American ceremonial space. It was time. I am American now.
Dancing to the Tree of Life to bring Light down into the earth for collective liberation. Dancing to celebrate Life, release and renew Self…While the core group danced in person, many of us were remote- satellites from our own lands.
Like every initiation, it was intense. And in the intensity, emerged revelation. It was a lovely experience and a chance to see my protection patterns in full swing!
I started out trying to do it right, by all the rules, dance in perfect sync with the group etc. rather than listening to and trusting what felt good and right to me was enough!
Much Tightness to start!
And then as I relaxed and surrendered.
To the ancient voices singing to the drum, to myself, my inner rhythm, to what is, to the intention rather than the form- there were deep openings.
I felt the field come alive.
As I danced my intention into being, I saw the late Lakota Chief, Ascended Master, holder of the light- Frank Fools crow’s face pop up in my mind.
Everything went silent. I just cried and danced with abandon in that meeting for a while.
There are some beings who do that to me…Thich Naht Hanh, Paramhansa Yogananda…just the slightest brush with their field silences everything superfluous.
I return home.
And crying, dancing in the sound and the silence, I realized why they say not to take the lord’s name in vain…the power and grace of simple invocation is real. When we call a thing, a being, it comes.
It was beautiful.
I felt, in my bones, the force of everyone dancing our collective intentions into being around this country.
Know that a group of souls danced for YOU. Prayers for your highest good have been imbued in the air you breath…the breath of Life.
Literally.
It was palpable and profound.
You see, no prayer is ever wasted- every prayer changes us and when we change, so does our world.
Maybe you have felt it too- the power of shared intention. Of community with healing purpose!
This is what MURMURATIONS is about, I remembered. I smiled.
How lovely to be weaving sacred space into my every day. I feel blessed to give and receive the work that flows through me.
As we closed, I saw myself descend down into physical reality after three days in dreamtime!
I felt much gratitude for who I am, who I’m with, what we have done, and how we do it.
I am unmistakably different. That’s transformation.
What a gift! What a blessing!
And there is so much to grow into. The power of my intention is weaving the dream for me to step into. The Everything is listening.
Big breath in. Big breath out.
Thank you. More please!
PS: IF you are interested in self-transformation in a powerful loving community, join us in the next Murmurations cohort starting July! More info below:
Metamorphosis is all around you.
This is not a time to hold back, it’s the time you’ve been readying for. Your life situation is the catalyst, your desire the compass, and Truth your guide.
Join this transformational community to dive beneath the surface and heal disconnects that keep you stuck, separate and suffering.
Heal inner division to embody vibrant wholeness. Release your past to answer the call of a creative future. Connect with heart, purpose and a community of care. Learn how life actually works, and use it to fuel your evolution. Take your rightful place in the expansion of collective consciousness.
Learn the foundational principles of healing and mysticism from your direct experience!
Benefit from being held in an energy matrix through the course specifically designed to support your growth.
Access personal, group and universal intelligence.
Share your gifts and receive what others have to offer, deeply seeing and being seen.
Create personal rituals to re-attune to inner wisdom and nature’s rhythms.
Learn and practice tools to embody presence, deepen connection to yourself, others and purpose.
Explore and set relational and personal boundaries that nourish your well-being.
Feel the freedom and healing power of vulnerability and authenticity.
Receive surprises and real transformation.
Create meaningful relationships based in mutuality.
Most importantly, all while having FUN!
course components
An intimate group of 8 peers for depth and personalized attention.
12 Live, facilitated bi-weekly 2 hour calls with your group via Zoom.
Access to call recordings shared only with participants.
2 individual 1 hr sessions with Ishita Sharma to align and deepen your growth online or via phone. Option to add more at a discounted rate.
1 fine-tuned astrological reading for insight into inherited patterns and your particular life path.
1 herbal consult to cultivate a conscious, nourishing relationship with the Earth in support of your intentions.
1 virtual cacao ceremony with Giovanna Garcia to augment group coherence and connect to your own intuition. You will receive ceremonial cacao and preparation instructions.
Private online group for connection, sharing and growth with others between modules.
Each call will combine teaching with experiential individual, paired and group exercises, sharing and Q&A.
Let’s take a moment to celebrate we made it through a whole year in a pandemic amidst heightened tumult, before we begin life’s next movement.
The Equinox is recognized by Yogis as a day conducive to inner harmony. When we attune and balance this dimension in ourselves, with necessary preparation, it gives us an assist on our path to liberation.
To help access this gift I recorded a meditation for everyone in MURMURATIONS. If you wish to receive this short 10 minute meditation practice just send me an email and let me know.
This exercise is for any one who wants to live a conscious life. It’s a space to tune into our inner masculine and feminine polarities and discern how they are relating within because awareness of our inner mechanics is the first step to self-mastery.
No matter what kind of body we are in, or how we identify, what we call Masculine and Feminine are fundamental principles that shape all our existence.
Those words point to the most elemental aspects of creation- beyond sex, gender, identity or sexual orientation.
These polarities in form the manifest– we know them as Yin and Yang, Shiva and Shakti, Anima and Animus, being and doing, active and receptive…heart and mind, intuitive and intellectual…and so on…in their union lies wholeness and in wholeness lies liberation.
We get so much information when we create space and tune in.
I visit this exercise every Equinox- it’s different every time. It clarifies my inner directives to tend to as I step into this next season. If you want some inspiration, you can see my meditative impressions here.
I’ve been watching what folks in MURMURATIONS are discovering through the meditation as they share their words and drawings with us all- the wisdom surfacing in the depths of their silence is still blowing me away…
What are the movements wanting to happen in and through YOU?
Maybe you want to take a moment and tune in to…find out who’s here now, how your inner man and woman are, and through them, what you need to balance these dimensions for a wholesome life. If you want my guided meditation to support your self-inquiry, just ask!
The next cohort of MURMURATIONS begins in June- maybe this conscious community can help you shape what’s springing forth from you! It is so joyful and fulfilling to guide and grow with this cohort, I am delighted to usher in the next.
This 6 month immersion is a space where growing, healing and awakening together to something bigger than ourselves is our priority.
If it calls to you, explore the website, watch my invitation and reach out to see if it’s in right rhythm for you. And if you know someone who’d enjoy joining us, please share it with them.
Intimate group limited to 8 participants, 6 months,12 live group calls, 2 individual sessions, 2 personalized consults, small group practices, partnered session exchanges, tailored home practices, readings, meditations, movies, an online community to journey with, surprises! FUN! and so much more!
This journey in transformational community is for you if you are wanting:
– to cultivate presence and live anchored in your center regardless of circumstances. – to come out of your closet and own your truth and purpose. – more real, balanced and connected relationships. – to deeply love and understand yourself and the nature of experience. – to connect with natural intelligence and make sense of your role on Earth. – playful and grounded spiritual development in a sandbox of value-aligned peers!
2020 has made it clearer than ever that community is a deep human need! Connection is what we all want underneath all our wants- connection to ourselves, to each other, to something bigger than us. Here’s a story about how I created my own community when I wanted it the most!
Not long after I moved into Joe’s triple decker in Somerville- what I called Casa 69 because I wanted so badly to speak Spanish, I got to know my neighbors in the other 5 apartments, only to find out they didn’t know each other. Even though I was the newest to the building, and others had lived there for years on end, no one had gotten to know the people living 6 feet away from them. Literally! And I couldn’t believe it!
Our sense of community is intrinsically different in America than it is in India- our space bubbles are smaller in India, somehow everyone shares a sense of belonging that is easily extended…Riding a train for 3 hours can have you end up exchanging food over discussions on politics and religion, holding people’s children…there’s an easy familiarity in ways that most Americans I know may be terrified by!
Not knowing your next door neighbors is like a warped version of an impossible reality for most Indians!
I got to confront this difference in many forms as an international student and again and again as a young professional moving around the country alone. So back to Casa 69- I saw so many fun people stacked above each other and suspected they’d enjoy meeting each other!
In fact, I was craving community- like many of us are now! I wanted the kind where you just knock on each other’s door to have a chat, to borrow some milk, to share the craziness of the snowstorm (or the pandemic) outside…So I decided to create it.
Next day, I made these (to me hilarious and awesome) fliers from a deck of post-its my friend Loren had gifted me. For a second I worried they might seem preposterous to a serious Church-goer, but if they were offended, we weren’t going to get along any way! So I posed it as a divine duty- I mean, Jesus says know thy neighbor, right?! I slipped a flyer under each person’s door.
There was a buzz in the building, planning as we crossed paths in the hallways for days, I bought some cupcakes, some wine, and when the day came, so did every person in the building.
Crammed into my tiny living room over a circle of food and wine, we exchanged stories, happy to discover unexpected camaraderie over the hilarity of our rental configurations and the eccentricities of our landlord. We roared in laughter as we shared our reactions to him blocking out our bathroom windows, all at once, for no reason…We laughed as we realized the Americans were outnumbered by international folks- we had an Irishman, a German, two Mexicans, and of course, me, the resident Indian!
As time went by, the distance shortened.
We knocked on each other’s doors, we played tennis, made art, went on adventures..we even combined apartments and hosted Casa 69 parties (you may have been to one), we had late night existential discussions over music on our porches…We cried and laughed together through life’s growing pains. Some beastly nor’easter nights when Boston was covered with 6′ of snow, I put a giant lasagna bake in the oven n we’d all snuggle into my living room to play games n voluntarily be locked in together!
We became friends. So much love, so much community, just waiting to be put together…oh and most of us aren’t connected on facebook :) 2020 has made it clearer than ever that community is a deep human need! Connection is what we all want underneath all our wants- connection to ourselves, to each other, to something bigger than us.
We all want to belong to something, know that those around us stand with us, that we are part of a grand adventure together- it’s more fun to share the ride!
New partners, new jobs, new horizons came and we all left that building eventually but I still talk to each of them, though less often. It was the sweetest period of my Boston life and I’ve drawn on this experience often to bring people together, and more importantly, bring cool people to me!
They say strangers are just friends waiting to be discovered. I couldn’t agree more!
How are you building community through the pandemic? It’s the balm we all need and in these times we need to actively create and nurture it. I’d love to hear your adventures in turning friends into strangers.
If you’re interested in sharing this kind of fun community, with a purpose to support your deepest intentions- join us in Murmurations! A transformational community starting Jan 28, shepherded by yours truly.
A group of some really cool folks is coming and I’d love to have you too! Your new friends might just be waiting to be discovered.
This 6 month journey is a space to realize your intentions in an intimate, conscious community. We’ll be the wind beneath each other’s wings, as we examine who we are and our deepest purpose.
We’ll dive in to clarify your wants in alignment with your deepest purpose, examine and release the blocks in the way, while synchronizing with your natural rhythm and greater order. You’ll cultivate a conscious relationship with yourself, others, your purpose and the earth itself as we journey together. I’m pulling the best parts of my rich healing journey here to usher you into the newness life’s calling you into!
The course starts Jan 28th and an impressive group is forming. If it resonates, I encourage you to apply soon- I’d love to talk with you too!
We know listening is key to healing conflict, yet we seldom know where or how to begin.
In this experiential live online session I led for the global Truth and Reconciliation Weekend, we explored listening through questions like:
How can listening catalyze healing between and within us? How can we listen to those we disagree with? How can we connect beyond our ideas of eachother, beyond right and wrong, good and bad, us Vs. them thinking?
This is a recording of a session facilitated by Ishita where we will experiment with a way of being in relation to each other and ourselves that deepens presence, authentic connection and heals division.
Bring your curiosity and the willingness to see and be seen to each exercise.
As you follow the recording, turn the questions being explored onto yourself and notice what you discover.
If you are moved by the session and wish to continue diving deeper, I hope you’ll join me and a group of peers committed to bettering the world.
The world is begging us to show up fully for ourselves and each other from a place of love.
This Winter Solstice closes out a big year, beginning an especially potent one, dissolving old forms and creating newness fueled by the fire 2020 lit in our hearts. It’s extra special to me because, this year, my intention includes helping you birth yours!
Just as the Solstice Sun sets tonight, Saturn and Jupiter will form the mythical Star of Bethlehem, last seen in 1623, as they cross paths in the early sunset sky, followed by a meteor shower at night. Worth getting out in the cold to witness!
On each Solstice I make space to be with myself in nature and set intentions for the next half of my revolution around the Sun. It matters, read on to hear why.
This Winter Solstice closes out a big year, beginning an especially potent one, dissolving old forms and creating newness fueled by the fire 2020 lit in our hearts. It’s extra special to me because, this year, my intention includes helping you birth yours!
The keyword for this time is daring, and I am opening my most daring offering yet- a transformative community to heal and awaken together.
In this 6 month journey, we will fly together to pave the path to your deepest intentions in a loving, conscious community.
In the last cohort I led, two people stopped smoking without actively pushing to do so! Such is the power of an intentional and loving group to heal.
And this course is all about that- coming together with intention and love, as one, tapping into intelligence bigger than each of us, amplifying the gifts we each bring, while healing our shadows.
In the last intensive, each of us asked ourselves: What is my deepest longing? What stands in my way? What stops me from unconditionally loving myself? What stops me from unconditionally loving others?
As we dropped our masks, allowing ourselves to see and be seen, as we invited our longings and resistances to be known, embraced and loved, magic happened. As we dared to name our deepest calling, and commit to our heart’s call, we embodied the intentions we had set in just 6 short weeks.
The next round goes for 6 months to anchor us through the passing trials of the pandemic and exploit the potency of this transformational time between the Winter and Summer Solstices.
If you’re longing to create change in your life, this may be just the time and place to heed that call.
The Solstice may seem like just another day for you, and beyond the cool physics of it, I too didn’t pay much attention to it for most of my life, until something in me shifted.
Let me tell you what makes the Solstice is so important to me now.
In my late 20’s, I noticed I craved time with the Sun and the Moon like people crave chocolate! As I began to honor my need for more time in nature, I noticed that my whole nervous system responded to the rhythms of the Sun and Moon.
If you pay attention, you’ll notice too.
I couldn’t deny what was happening outside me was reflected in my own neurophysiology!
A true skeptic, I started paying attention. I found clear patterns in my way of being- how I slept, how much, how much I ate, how talkative I felt, what I wanted to do with my day, actually were clearly reflected in the phases of the Moon. Then, I started seeing the bigger patterns through the year…how the Equinoxes and Solstices and the phases they ushered shifted my leanings.
At one point, I could tell the phase of the moon by sensing into my body and my energy when I woke up in the morning. In it I saw again a reflection of the Sanskrit mahavakya “Aham Bhramasmi.” I am the Universe, or, my identity is cosmic.
It is. And so is yours.
It was in those days that I realized the Solstice was significant. I could feel my energy build up as it approached, shift as it left. Every cell in my body knew something was about to change, and I could use it to my advantage to release, re-set and re-align.
Later I learned that the Solstice is a day that Yogis – those who aspire towards and embody the ultimate union, between the individual and the universal – recognize as a time of transition into enhanced receptivity of Grace for every body. All of creation comes together to enhance the light within us- and enlightenment becomes a heightened possibility.
All thresholds embody possibility, and the Winter Solstice marks the expansion of light on Earth. Where the Summer Solstice is the beginning of Dakshinayana, a time of purification and cultivation, the Winter Solstice is the beginning of Uttarayana, a time of heightened receptivity.
And because, as Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj said, “both astronomy and anatomy describe you,” if your inner landscape is releasing, re-setting and wanting new direction, know it’s because you are part of life’s great rhythm.
Because you and I are the Earth, the changes out there are reflected within us- so the light expands inside us, just like it does outside.
That’s why it’s a good day to set intentions, and the keyword here is daring. And that’s why Murmurations is intentionally aligned between the Solstices- to mine the potential of this time.
Dare!
To declare how you want to be. To channel your innermost fire. To articulate your deepest desires. To include all of creation in its fruition!
The time is now. The time is ripe.
If you forgot you can negotiate with the universe, let me remind you you can! And now is a good time to do begin.
Our intentions do exactly that.
So now my Solstice celebration includes going out at sunset to greet the Sun and the Moon, making a fire and reflecting on the year past. I thank the experiences I lived through for their teachings and release parts I don’t need on the journey ahead. Then, I open inner daring and set intentions for what I want to nurture in the year ahead, clearly, so all the forces that be, conscious and unconscious, know and align to my intent.
Knowing that the whole universe is listening, I invite it to participate in realizing my heart’s intention.
I hope you’ll pause and find your way of marking the moment and daring to dream big, because you know in your bones that holding back your heart isn’t why you’re here now or how you want to live.
Maybe you too can ask what are your deepest intentions? Even if you don’t know how you’ll get there, what do you long to create in your life?
If you are committed to your intentions and clearing the blocks that hinder your way, life will find a way to orchestrate their fruition. Having a mirror to reflect your truth, your beauty, your power, your shadow facilitates the journey, and getting there is more fun when we go together!
If you’re still reading, I hope you’ll join me and eleven courageous inner explorers in the six month sojourn through this sacred time, in Murmurations.
come to center 