Happy New Year from Bangkok!!

(A Buddhist Temple, Wat Bin, near our hotel)

Love to all,

Parvati & Shivadam

Beloved friend,

Our pilgrims have started their travels towards our first meeting place in Bangkok. We carry your prayers and your well wishes with us. We will pray for you and your families wherever we go.

You can follow our travels on our www.taradhatu.org web site, we will do our best to keep you informed. We have listed some of our events in case you know someone traveling in India who would like to join us: Click Here.

Dear Friends,

Our journey begins at the New Year, when we will be in Thailand with Mae Chee and her community. Here is a New Year's greeting that Mae Chee just sent to our pilgrims, which we want to share with all of you!

See some beautiful pictures of Mae Chee's sanctuary, here: http://www.premadasara.net/Bhutan_Journey/Mae_Chee.html

Happy New Year!!!

Love, Shivadam & Parvati

Dear Ones,

Here is a beautiful video that was made for the "The 13th Sakyadhita International Conference on Budddhist Women" we will attend in Vaishali (Bihar), where we will present our first Tara Mandala of the Pilgrimage. The location of the conference in this city corresponds with the fact that this was the first place that the Buddha initiated female disciples. This wonderful video tells the whole story.

(Click this link to view the 25 minute video: http://www.screencast.com/t/OgZhAQi0D .) 

I feel grateful to have been invited to participate in the making of this film as Indian music consultant and contributing musician. (You can hear my first recording of the veena I was gifted and have been playing with great joy.)

For the benefit of all beings...Svaha!

Shivadam

For the benefit of all...

I want to share a message from the Director of our Pilgrimage, Prema Dasara, who writes:

"Pilgrimages like this are a great way to accumulate merit. Invite friends and family to write prayers….there will be many places where we can read them out or write them on slips of paper or prayer flags and send personal blessings out as well as our deep dedication to the well being of all."

For my own part, I have told loved ones that I will be "traveling on behalf of all of us." To me this means that I am doing this as an act of service. It being a yatra - a spiritual pilgrimage - means that it is an act of prayer in motion, prayer as travel. I do not seek blessings at the sacred places we will visit for myself alone, but for all my loved ones, and for all people, for all animals, for all beings. That is foremost in my heart.

In addition to knowing that I will be praying for all, if you have special prayers that you would like me to take on your behalf, please write to me before I go: shivadam@phoenixdances.org

Prema concludes her message to the pilgrims:

"May our dancing prayers for peace and well being spread throughout the world. May we reach out to our brothers and sisters in India, forging a link of indestructible friendship.

"May the sacred land of India receive us graciously, and as we drink the wonder of this marvelous land may we rejoice in the great diversity of our human family.

"Om Tare Tutare Ture Soha"

Our pilgrimage has begun in earnest as we prepare to embark upon our journey. There are so many things to take care of, both looking forward to where we will go and also looking to home, where our loved ones will care for our house, our dog, our plants, our yard...

We undertake this yatra for the benefit of all beings. Please know that we will carry you and all of our loved ones with us as we visit sacred places in Thailand and across India offering our prayers, music and dance, the Praises of Tara mandalas and Dances of Universal Peace.

We will miss you all, but we know that we are separate only by the illusion of space and differing time zones. Keep us in your prayers as we pray for you and all sentient beings.

May all beings be happy! May all beings be free!

Love to all,
Shivadam & Parvati