April 22, 2001 This new moon finds me in Orange County, CA, a day after returning from Berkeley and the inaugural conference of CAAM, the California Association of Ayurvedic Medicine. The conference brought together interested Ayurvedic parties of all stripes, and also marked the appearance of AlchemiaNova, the firm the produces the superb alchemical products created by the redoubtable Raoul Tollman. If you haven't tried Raoul's Xenon Water yet, now is the time! The week before Berkeley I had been eating the award-winning bread, cheese and wine of Sonoma, CA, and enjoying walks in the quiet cemetery that abuts on the house of Bette Timm, who hosts me there. Thence I proceeded to Seattle, to the home of Mr. Kapilnath, the author of this very Website, where among other agreeable pursuits we massaged the site. Immediately pre-CAAM I was at the gorgeous Yoga House in Bel-Air, courtesy of Rod Stryker and Tara Guber. Rod was kind enough to cook dinner for me and others (including his lovely wife Cheryl Tiegs), and I am pleased to report that, like his yoga, his food is superb. After Berkeley, I proceeded to the Kali Temple in Laguna Beach, an cozy, inviting place of worship that conducts pujas on every new moon night. Among the many attendees was Amarendu Bhairavan, author of Kali's Odiyya, a wonderful new book on Tantra. It chronicles his experiences growing up in a matriarchal Kali-worshipping family in Kerala, India, during which he was initiated into Tantra by his own aunt. If you haven't read it yet, now's definitely the time. May Kali remove all obstacles to the clear perception of Reality!

April 7, 2001 Now that my site has become fully functional, I am going to try to contribute to it on a regular basis - at least fortnightly, taking advantage of the full and new moons to remind me to sit down and put something into electrons. I begin today, a full moon day that happens to be Hanuman Jayanti, the birthday of that excellently powerful monkey who aided Rama in his quest to retrieve Sita, and who is prepared to aid anyone who calls on him with faith in the name of Rama. Vimalananda called him Anjaneya, which is Hanuman's matronymic (his name that honors his mother, Anjani). I am in fact teaching a seminar today on ritual that focuses on a Hanuman puja, at the Ayurvedic Institute, in Albuquerque. Two weeks ago, at the time of the last new moon, I found myself on the beautiful island of Tortola ("turtle dove," in Spanish), launching a "rejuvenation retreat" that involved snorkeling in pristine Caribbean waters, enjoying sunsets behind the nearby island of Jost Van Dyke, and generally imbibing rejuvenating "juice" from all directions. That sojourn coincided with Chaitri Navaratri, the spring version of the "Nine Nights of the Goddess" that culminates on Rama Navami, Rama's birthday. A fine time was had by all. May all sentient beings ever experience such bliss!