“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” – R. Tagore

“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

“When you finally allow yourself to trust joy and embrace it, you will find you dance with everything.” - Emmanuel

“The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live.” – Ayn Rand

‎”When it comes down to the end of life, people very often get their priorities in line and start focusing on what they truly desire:
- Peace with God
- Loving family relationships and good health (marked by good energy and enduring strength)
- Peace of mind
- Joyful, simple pleasures
- Time with friends
- Having purpose in living, usually indicated by purposeful giving to others” – Don Colbert, M.D.

“True success is the progressive expansion of happiness. It is the ability to express spontaneous joy and share it with others.” -Deepak Chopra

‎”It’s what you do when you have nothing to do that reveals who you are.”

“Handling criticism: if it’s untrue, disregard it. If it’s unfair, keep from irritation. If it’s ignorant, smile. If it’s justified, learn from it.” – Unknown

‎”Love doesn’t need a reason. It speaks from the irrational wisdom of the heart.” – Deepak Chopra

‎”The true perfection of man lies not in what man has, but in what man is.” – Oscar Wilde

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen…” – Elizabeth Kubler Ross

“Seek out what you believe will really yield long-lasting, abiding joy.” – Don Colbert, M.D.

‎”I can use my experience to give lectures about men and women who knew the truth about this existence of ours and whose writings can be summed up in one word: Live. If you live, God will live with you. If you refuse to run his risks, He’ll retreat to that distant Heaven and be merely a subject for philosophical speculation.” – Paulo Coelho in “Veronika Decides to Die”

“Nature is always orchestrating situations around us to bring about self-realization.” – Deepak Chopra

‎”There may be trouble ahead, But while there’s moonlight and music and love and romance, Let’s face the music and dance.” – Irving Berlin, 1888-1989, American songwriter, Follow the Fleet

“Love is a condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” – Robert Heinlein

“If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing.” – Benjamin Franklin

“People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people may accuse you of selfish motives. Do good anyway. If you are successful, you may win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway. People who really want help may attack you if you help them. Help them anyway. Give the world the best you have and you may get hurt. Give the world your best anyway.” – Mother Teresa

Love is a skill like any other; you can become better at it with practise. There are many different aspects of love as well arts of loving. Whether you want to become more skilled in loving passionately or unconditionally, we at Virtuous Arts offer you courses and interesting information on the most important thing in life. Learn to live a life full of love and, we assure you, you will not regret it. Contact us via e-mail info@virtuousarts.com.

So far I have travelled to about thirty different countries (and to some of them many times). Here are some photos and stories about the places I have experienced. I still want to travel at least to India and maybe also to South Africa, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii. As you can notice, the typical North European I am, every year I feel the lack of the sun during the winter months and that influences greatly my travel destinations.

FINLAND

I was born in Helsinki, Finland and I am very grateful for it. It is a land  of clean water and pure air, education is free and the social security system works well. In general, people are very honest and civilized (except when they are drunk). However, sometimes it feels very cold and dark – then it is time to light the candles or a fireplace and enjoy the mysticism and romance of the peaceful era. Finland is always a great country to visit. Helsinki at any time of the year because of its seasons. In the spring time people come alive, summer isn’t too hot, nothing beats the autumn colours and a beautifully sunny winter day walking on pure white ice. If you would like to receive further information, do not hesitate to ask, since I have also worked for the Helsinki City Tourist and Convention Bureau.

SPAIN

My library is in Spain. I love the warmth and the brightness of the sun in Andalucía that allows me to practise yoga outdoors very often and eat fresh vegetables, fruit and herbs all year round.

AUSTRALIA

CUBA

ISRAEL

MALDIVES

EGYPT

NORWAY                

DENMARK

SWEDEN

TURKEY

CHINA (HONG KONG)

ITALY

I simply love Italy, Italian language and Italians! Ci vediamo!

THE UNITED KINGDOM

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

THE BAHAMAS

Vatican

France

Greece

Canada

Thailand

Germany

Switzerland

Belgium

The Netherlands

Estonia

Latvia

Lithuania

Russia

It is hard to find me without a book in my hands. I simply love to read. From early on, I have spent a considerable amount of my time engrossed in books. I have read all kinds of books, and consequently I have many favorites and favorite genres, but the novels that intrigue me the most are spiritual, philosophical, societal and psychological stories that are tied up in a mystery.

I would like to read more historical books but often I get bored reading them… A historical novel I enjoyed very much is called Quo vadis? by a Polish author Henryk Sienkiewicz (1905 Nobel Laureate in Literature). It’s about the persecution of Christians in Rome. My other favourite novels are George Orwell’s Keep The Aspidistra Flying, Stendhal’s The Red and the Black, Herman Hesse’s (Nobel Laureate in Literature in 1946) Siddhartha, Narcissos and Golden Mouth, as well as Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time (À la recherche du temps perdu) to mention a few.

My favourite book genre is, however, spiritual novels like James Redfield’s The Celestine Prophecy and The Tenth Insight, David Gregory’s books Dinner with a Perfect Stranger and A Day with a Perfect Stranger, Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagul and Ayn Rand’s The Atlas Shrugged, and Paolo Coelho’s The Eleven Minutes, Veronika Decides to Die, and By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept. Paulo Coelho’s novels seem to touch my soul and, therefore, make me feel lighter.

Other spiritual books I like are C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce, The Four Loves and Narnia books. I also keep re-reading popular psychology books like Deepak Chopra’s Path to Love and Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. Additionally, books on peace are close to my heart like Deepak Chopra’s Peace Is the Way, Scott A. Hunt’s The Future of Peace, Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication, Dalai Lama’s Widening the Circle of Love and Desmond Tutu’sGod Has a Dream.

I try not to read anything because I feel I ought to or ought not to. I received validation to this philosophy when I read Doris Lessing’s (2007 Nobel Laureate in Literature) The Golden Notebook. In the preface Lessing says: “Don’t read a book out of its right time for you.” 

Read more on my thoughts on literature in Finnish from the page Postia suomeksi.

I have danced since I was five. After classical ballet I fell in love with Latin American dances and won the championship of salsa in Finland in 2005. However, I never felt quite right with dance before I encountered Holy Dancing: dance dedicated to worship. Now I believe that any dance can be exactly that. It doesn’t matter where you perform it or with whom or with what music you perform it with. What matters, is the frame of mind in which you do it.

“Whosoever knoweth the power of the dance, dwelleth in God.” – Rumi

“Thoughts become things.”

Paulo Coelho has said that we do not need to know “how” or “where”, but there is one question that we should all ask whenever we start something: “What am I doing this for?”

Why am I writing this post for example? I’m doing it because I wanted people stop and do a check-up. I personally get very easily into the mode of accomplishing things and then the actual accomplishment becomes more important than the way I accomplish it or what I accomplish it for. So, with this post I wanted to ask you whether you are doing something with selfish intentions or out of love? What is love, is another debate, but let’s assume now that we know it intuitively.

Am I living for the glory of God? I hope this post makes you think about God and the goodness in the world and that the next thing you do is as the ambassador for those two things. May God Bless You!

Question: During several years my life has been deeply spiritual. Meditation, reading spiritual literature and a constant inner work and process of spiritual and personal development has radically changed both my inner and outer life. I really felt connected to God and my prayers were literally answered in many ways.

Of some reason which I don’t really understand, now I suddenly feel lost and disconnected. It’s as if a very critical and questioning part of me has entered the stage. For example, reading spiritual books was a thing that really engaged me before, now I’m only thinking “from where do they get this, how can they be so sure of what they are saying?” When I pray, I feel like “to what am I praying, what am I doing, why am I doing it?” I feel like I have swallowed a lot of concepts that others have made for me.

I want to discover my own truth, but I don’t even know where to start, and also the critical me says there is no truth. I don’t understand at all why I am here on this earth or how anything works, and the more I’m thinking of these things, the more uncertain I get of everything. Where to start and what to do when you feel totally spiritual lost? Since I’m writing this to you, there must be a part of me that believes there is a way back. Now I wonder if you have any advice on how to find that path again?

Answer: This is a most valuable stage of your spiritual journey — where you shift from an external orientation to authority to your own internal authority and truth. The easiest way to escape this feeling of being lost is to find yourself, and for that you need only be yourself. Before you begin your meditation, remind yourself that this is your opportunity to leave behind all your beliefs, conditionings, concepts and confusing thought processes.

Meditation is a time for you to be that authentic being that you are underneath all the changing roles that you play throughout the day. After meditation, instead of reengaging the mind with spiritual books and wondering why you’re here and who you’re praying to, put your attention on simply being awake and present in the moment without needing to have a definitive judgment on things one way or another. As you consolidate your sense of conscious selfhood, you will find that this quiet Self can be relied upon as an intelligent reference point in all that you do. If you read some book or listen to someone who is supposed to be an authority, you will find that if it has truth and value for you, it will resonate with your deepest Being. If it is not for you, you won’t feel that resonance inside. This is how your inner Self becomes your constant guide on the path.

Love,

Deepak

–

Therefore let’s meditate, let’s not neglect it – it’s essential!

–

I guess a part of the reason I felt confused was the fact that I needed to ‘interpret’ many Vedic teachings through my knowledge of Jesus. I think that yoga definitely helps one to develop virtues and mastery over oneself in a way that has been largely neglected at least in the Lutheran Church, which forms my spiritual background.

“Nature is always orchestrating situations around us to bring about self-realization.” – Deepak Chopra

My diary during my Yoga Teacher Training in Aluenda, Spain:

I’m at the moment participating in this intensive yoga teacher training near Madrid. The scenery is beautiful, people are friendly, activities are interesting and the food is good. 

Our Daily Schedule is following:

• 5.30am Wake-up
• 6am Satsang (Meditation, chanting, lecture)
• 8am Asanas, pranayama
• 10am Brunch
• 11am Karma yoga
• 12noon Bhagavad Gita or Chanting class
• 2pm Main lecture
• 4pm Asanas, pranayama
• 6pm Dinner
• 8pm Satsang (Meditation, chanting, lecture)

Another thing is that I have to wake up at 5 with one other girl when all the others can sleep until 5.30… It’s my karma yoga duty to prepare the altar for the morning meditation… And I actually love it. I love to wake up when it’s completely quiet. One important part of the yogic life is positive thinking. Yoga says that we can see something good in even the worst things in the world. More to follow…

I feel very tired today. All these short nights are starting to have an effect. But the tiredness doesn’t feel bad and it doesn’t feel destructive at all. What I mean by that is that I don’t have any bad habits/thoughts due to it. I don’t have too strong food cravings even if I did buy myself some cheese and dates yesterday when we had a chance to go to a supermarket. I feel serenely tired.
 

Actually today’s meditation was the best so far. My legs didn’t get at all tired, therefore, my attention wasn’t in the pain and I was able to transcend a bit. I started hearing these two mantras in my head: “Om namo narayana” which means asking for peace for everyone in the world, and then “Yo soy dicha, yo soy dicha, dicha absoluta, dicha soy yo” which means that I am bliss/joy, I’m the absolute bliss/joy. Then I started to feel my soul turning around like in a carousel inside me. That was cool. I have to go now to get ready for my Bhagavad Gita lesson.

More to follow…

***

Really busy and tired, busy and tired, busy and tired…

***

The last week of the training has started. I feel great today because I was able to sleep half an hour longer. I feel balanced and joyful. What more can you ask for? La vida es maravillosa!

***

The course has ended and I’m now officially a yoga teacher – yoga siromani! I was able to stretch my limbs and limits much more than I thought I could before the course.

A Messenger of Peace: St. Catherine of Siena