I just finished reading Sacred Commerce: Business as a Path of Awakening.
The book is written by Mathew and Terces Engelhart, the founders of the Cafe Gratitude raw/vegan restaurants in the San Francisco area. They do a beautiful job describing the ethos of their very cool and successful company.
I’ve read many business books and this is unlike most of them. [click to continue…]
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About a month ago, a friend suggested I make an iPhone app. I ran a Google search for making iPhone apps and learned about AppMakr which was running a promotion to get people to use its service. For a cool $50, I turned the RSS feed from my blog and twitter posts into the “Neelu Jain” iPhone app. Get it now! Available in the App Store 
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The convergence of three events catalyzed my entry into the world of RAW food.
About a month ago on a fateful Wednesday afternoon, I walked into Costco to buy Kleenex and soap. As I was pushing my cart through the aisles, there it was – the Vita-Mix 5200 demonstration and display. I knew a high quality, high speed blender was crucial for making raw food meals.
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I decided to go on a road bike ride this afternoon through the Red Rock Canyon loop. It was a gorgeous, cold winter day, sunny on one side of the canyon and cloudy on the other. The 15 mile ride is stunning, hilly and my favorite in the United States. Two feet of snow from the recent storms remained in some places.
This ride ALWAYS centers me –something about the land out there, the canyon, its age, and the tectonic shifts that produced such a variety of colored rock. [click to continue…]
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There’s an old saying (or maybe it’s my saying, I can’t remember—it becomes irrelevant):
Question: What do you do on the way to enlightenment?
Answer: Carry a pail of water to and from the well.
Question: What do you do after enlightenment?
Answer: Carry a pail of water to and from the well.
While engaging in a deep spiritual journey over the last few years, I disengaged from the interests and patterning of mainstream society. I unlearned structures, found freedom from the constraint of my mind and an overall lighter way of being. [click to continue…]
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My experience over the last three years was expansive, un-grounding, lonely and freeing. I sought and I found.
By early 2006, I knew that I wanted to work with business and spirituality. The question was, “How?” How were people doing this? What did this mean for me? Did I want to run a non-profit or for-profit business? Did I want to be a new age, self-help type or motivational speaker? I looked for trends and noticed a number of entrepreneurs had been on significant spiritual journeys, including living at ashrams in India. A few immediate examples come to mind: Larry Brilliant (Neem Karoli Baba ashram), Steve Jobs and Mitch Kapor (founder of Lotus, taught transcendental meditation).
by Nina Paley
But, where were the stories about women? I couldn’t find one of a highly successful female entrepreneur that pointed to a significant spiritual journey. Who could I identify with? Kali? But, she wasn’t an entrepreneur. Oprah? Was a masculine-centric business environment keeping the feminine approach at bay? Mother nature likely agrees.
I felt like I needed some help, a teacher or mentor to guide my way here. Two weeks later, I found one. [click to continue…]
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It was early December 2005 and I was on a plane to India. A few months earlier I had come back from running and going through a yoga teacher’s training in Tulum, Mexico. I had started teaching yoga in Santa Monica and loved it. I sensed that I would be leaving my position as General Manager of Power Yoga soon, mentally noting end of March 2006 as a target.
The trip to India was inspired by my cousin’s wedding; we arrived about two weeks before the event to do some sight-seeing, a pilgrimage to Vaishno Devi (Jai Mata Di!), visit family and go shopping. India is always an adventure; and this trip continued the trend.
Growing up in the US, I saw most of my extended family on trips to India every five years or so. So, it was always a rare treat to meet family members even if we didn’t have much in common.
The time for my cousin’s wedding arrived. Indian weddings are a blast, replete with multiple ceremonies, singing, dancing, food, and rituals. As I was watching one of the ceremonies a day or two before the wedding, a woman came up from me from behind asked if she could hug me. I said, “sure,” a little confused and also why not.
Later, at the wedding, she came up to me again and asked her family to take a picture of her with me, a saint. I said without hesitation or thought, “of course.”
About this time, I ate a pakora, an Indian appetizer; it was so spiced up, I couldn’t taste what was inside; and, a few minutes later I realized it had peanuts in it.
Since I was a toddler, I’ve had a very severe allergy to peanuts, so this was not good news. I did not know how bad the reaction would be and it resulted in anaphylactic shock. I go into detail about this experience here.
I came back to the US from this trip to India in a high vibratory, enlightened state. [click to continue…]
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I like lists. Given the adage, “what gets written down, gets done,” they’re useful tools. I make a list for errands. Often, I take a list to the grocery store. I decided to make a list for my life and share it here. As the adage holds true, I’d like each one of these to happen. I’d call it a bucket list, like in the 2007 movie The Bucket List, but I don’t like the word bucket. It’s a living list; to be checked upon and updated based on life events, lessons and experiences. If you haven’t made one, hopefully my sharing will provide some inspiration.
This video to me visually represents why a life list is worth writing. The view is always changing but we know for certain the sun will rise every morning — there is always the chance for a new beginning as there is always an end — and we can influence what happens in between.
Sunrise
Life List
| Complete | |
| Health | |
| Live in bliss | |
| Eat super duper healthy | |
| Exercise regularly my entire life | |
| Become a master yoga teacher | |
| Meditate daily | x |
| Run a marathon | x |
| Love and Family [click to continue…] |
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My twin sister just wrote this post on her blog about the advice our Dad gave us while growing up and I’ve chosen to re-post it here. I’ve had the chance to re-hear much of this advice while I’ve lived in Las Vegas with my parents the last couple of months. I was even around during Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, in October and was able to re-connect with some of the beautiful traditions of my Indian heritage. I’ve included photos from that evening in this post.
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Written by Neeta Jain, Photos by Neelu Jain
My Dad is a wise-guy. He likes jokes of any kind. The corny ones go over well. He’s also a very wise guy. He would get a kick out of the double meaning.
He’s taught me a lot over the years like how to make really good Indian style scrambled eggs for Sunday brunch with key ingredients of cumin, coriander, tomatoes, onions, and serrano peppers- the same stuff you can get on the street corner in Delhi without the E. coli. He also has a lot of ideas on how to lead a happy, fulfilling life. [click to continue…]
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