Dear Seekers of Love, Light, and Truth,
When my dad was visiting last summer he told me that he was a Buddhist, a Hindu and Christian! Needless to say I was a little surprised and pleasantly woken up. See my father is a priest for the Christian Community and has been since I was 7. The Christian Community is a nondenominational church that was founded with the help of Rudolf Steiner and has the tag line ‘a movement for religious renewal’. While the traditional story of a preachers daughter is usually about rebellion and wildness, mine was that and at the same time a story love. As the first born daughter in my family I grew up very much ‘daddy’s little girl’ and loved everything connected to my dad. One early memory is when we were living in Germany my dad was explaining how American peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were and even though I didn’t like it right away, I worked on liking it because I wanted to be more American, more like my dad. Oddly enough while I had to work at liking peanut and jelly sandwiches, I always and immediately loved being in church. There were these great smells of incense and candles, there were usually good feeling rooms in atmospheric colors because of the veil painted walls and to this day whenever I walk into a Christian Community Church I feel a little like I’m coming home. As a teenager, after my confirmation at fourteen, I started to realise that amongst my peers religion was not a cool thing, especially Christianity. Of course I still liked telling people my dad was a priest because it would confuse and shock them and I would have a chance to show off how smart I was and explain the difference between a priest and a pastor or minister and sometimes even the difference between catholicism and the christian community. But I get distracted, back to the topic at hand!
In the yoga community I often find myself around more Buddhist than Christians and, of course, all sorts of other expressions of spirituality and ritual. One of my most influential yoga teachers taught out of a Tibetan Buddhist lineage and it was during one of her classes I was asked to visualise my teacher. She didn’t necessarily mean herself and I have no idea who other people visualised, but a clear picture showed up for me. The whole image was glowing and green, it was Christ sitting in lotus position with one hand raised in ‘fear not’ mudra and the other hand open in a ‘welcome’ mudra. It was so strong and it sang to my heart, I knew this is my forever teacher. Part of why my dad’s statement was so awakening was because it suddenly allowed for all of me. Since then I have studied more and learnt about connection between Buddhism and Christianity and other religions that we so religiously try to keep separate, fleshing out a story of collaboration and destiny. In our modern times it is our task to find humanity in each other not as a source to justify division but to confirm our belongingness to each other and the earth.
If you are hungry to explore spirituality as part of your becoming don’t fear that you will alienate others through your chosen path, with sincere study your will only find more connections. In that vein I want to invite you to a retreat my partner is hosting here in Järna where I will be teaching a wee bit of yoga. I am including a flyer below and some links to explore, but very simply put this stream of Buddhism that he is engaged with is ancient and modern, celebrating the traditions of Buddhism while lifting up the long neglected feminine aspects, figures and elements.
Wether you heart leads you to uncover your spirituality through Buddhism, Christianity, or Nature, our practice on the mat strengthens our body to bare our spirit so we may fervently pursue our hearts desire. This week I am offering one zoom class because of many guests in and out of our home and its a vacation week here. Take this opportunity to explore these links below and/or visit and subscribe to my youtube channel :) May your endeavours be fruitful, and I look forward to meeting you on the mat!
with so much love, Rachel
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