Learning Chettinad Cooking
Our spiritual and culinary adventure is coming to a conclusion and today we had our last cooking class. It was on two Chettinad style dishes. The first was "Mint Chutney" and the second "Kola Urundai…
The Blog — 1067 posts since 2008
Timeless wisdom for a focused life.
Teachings on awareness, energy, and purpose — alongside the retreats, talks, and travels that fill the rest of the journey. Drawn from ten years as a Hindu monk and decades of teaching, written to be applied to your life today.
Bathing the Elephant
Driving down the road to Thanjavur, we crossed a river where a temple elephant was about to get one of her two daily baths.
I can't concentrate!
A question came in to me on email asking for some insights on concentration. "I can't concentrate. Please help."
Thanjavur's great temple
This morning on the way to the heart of the Chetinad region we stopped in Thanjavur to visit the temple built by the great south Indian king Raja Raja Chola. The temple's name is Brihadeeswarar and…
Visiting the home of a Sari Weaver
After our ceremony at the Airateswar Temple in the village of Darasuram we visited one of the local sari weavers. The town is famous for sari weaving and most of these weavers supply the larger…
Yoga and Meditation
A Deer Friend in Swamimalai
No, it's not a spelling mistake. I do mean a deer friend. Two years ago we stayed at the Anandham Eco hotel in the village of Swamimalai during one of our spiritual adventures. A day before we had…
Inside the sanctum of Chidambaram
Through our close connections with the priests of Chidambaram, we were able to go into parts of the vast temple that are rarely seen by outsiders.
Lunch with a priest's family
The only way to taste true Tamil cuisine is to be fortunate enough to be invited for lunch with a family. We had that pleasure yesterday when we dined at the home of Kailas Deeksitar, a priest at the…
Labor of Love at Chidambaram's Orphanage
Just a few minutes outside of Chidambaram town is an orphanage built to house, care and educate special needs persons. All of the residents of this orphanage have challenges with mental development.…
Visit to Chidambaram
At Chidambaram temple, the group pauses for a portrait with the priest who performed the ceremony in which the ancient statue of the elephant-headed Ganesha is bathed with oil, milk, yogurt, honey,…
Chidambaram's Temple of Love
This afternoon we made our way further south leaving behind the French colonial town of Pondicherry and arriving a couple of hours later in the temple town of Chidambaram. Chidambaram is most well…
Weekly Wisdom
Learn to live a focused,
purposeful life.
One short teaching in your inbox each week. No noise, no offers — a single lesson you can put to work the same day.
Free, weekly, unsubscribe anytime.
Thank you. Look for the next teaching in your inbox.