Stocks have arrived! Students have been asking time and again where to get the gel being used in surya namaskar and lotion in savasana during Jivamukti classes.
Get your Jivamukti China Gel 4oz at Php990 Jivamukti China Gel 6oz at Php1350, and Jivamukti Lavender Lotion at Php990. Email me at [email protected] or send me a message at 0939-9226518 for orders.
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My nieces gave me this vegan moisturizer in a cute tin can. I can reuse the tin can for China Gel, or B12 tablets, or loose leaf tea. They know me well!
A trip to S&R and here are my vegan discoveries.
Pack of 16 Boca vegan burger patties. Great for vegan potlucks. I didn't get them because I can't imagine having to eat burger meal after meal after meal after meal.
This is what I ended up getting: black olives, pickles, sun-dried tomatoes, legume dumplings, vegan butter, vegan butter, vegan butter. I think I may have bought too much vegan butter in a moment of excitement. I cooked pasta in alfredo sauce with it already and it was too buttery. I suppose it was because of my effort to use it up already. Next on my list of things to cook with vegan butter: vegan "chicken" a la kiev. I have more vegan butter than I know what to do. Such is the problem of an impulse buyer. (Not complaining).
Cafeteria Verde is a lacto-ovo vegetarian fast food place with a few vegan options. I always get the layered beancurd rice. It's layers of beancurd with vegan ham in between and wrapped together with what must be shitake mushroom. The sauce is rich, full of flavor, and goes well with rice.
Over at Xocolat, they have two hot chocolate options for vegans. I opted for the organic hot chocolate which is pure cocoa with soy milk and muscovado sugar. It was disappointing. It kind of felt like what non-vegans think vegans like. Here is the picture anyway.
There's always crappy vegan options, just as there are crappy non-vegan options. I remember eating something from my pre-vegan days that smelled like dog's feet. Maybe they were dog's feet. Who knows. Just glad I'm vegan!
No reason to stick to carrots and celery for the holiday season. I am an ethical vegan, not a dieter, which means as long as no animals are harmed, I'm fine with eating food that resembles the taste I grew up with. This vegan ham is bought from SM Supermarket frozen goods section.
Why vegan? It's this:
Keep animals off your plates and make the holidays truly an expression of joy.
Being the only vegan in my family, we usually go to a restaurant where they order as a group and I get to order a few dishes of my own. For lunch today, we went to Xin Tian Di at Crowne Plaza Galleria and these are what I had.
First dish, vegan spareribs in BBQ sauce. It was pretty good, and I had to stop for a moment because the veggie meat tasted very close to animal meat. Good choice. Then, crispy vegetable roll with fried golden mushrooms. I apologize that I was not able to take a decent picture. I was halfway through the dish before I realized I blog about what I eat now. I think I like this dish even more because it stayed true to what it is: a vegetable. I liked the mix of veggies wrapped in crispy fried roll. The mushroom strips were a nice touch to the dish. I did have to put aside some of the red pepper bits since it added too much spice for my taste.
The restaurant menu had its own vegetarian section, and it seems most are already vegan.
We all had mango sago (mango with tapioca) for dessert. And again, I forgot to take a picture. Think of it as mango shake. With sago. In a small bowl instead of a cup. Yep, that's it.
So yes, it is possible to eat vegan in a non-vegan restaurant with a non-vegan family. I just did- as I have been doing in the last three years. Peace. What happens when 4 vegans get together for a pizza party? That lunch starts at 2pm and ends at 10pm. It was a long drive from North to South, but when the land of soymilk and agave awaits, vegans cannot say no. Here are the reasons why:
All of the pizzas were amazing- they're from Marie/Kitchen Revolution! Potato slices with onions and nut cheese, veggie pepperoni and pepper strips in barbeque sauce, mushrooms with nut cheese and truffle oil, veggies loaded in barbeque sauce, mixed veggies and veggie pepperoni in cream sauce. It makes one wonder how four people can consume five pizzas! And I must have said "ice cream AND pie?" about eight times when I found out what the dessert was. It was a huge ice cream pie, and I ate half of it. Those of you who know me know I am not exaggerating. Come on, it's ice cream and pie in one. Two amazing things on their own, and a small miracle when combined! Pasta with cream sauce and nut parmesan for dinner. I didn't think I could have room, but I made room for it.
Great food, great company, great conversation. Veganism, documentaries, Story of Stuff, Venus Project, living off grid, animal liberation stories, feeding stray animals, awakening consciousness, unity, travels, foreign languages, fighting the mainstream, GMOs, Mali, 80/10/10, VegFund, feeding programs, Zeitgest etc etc etc. It was such a fun day! Thanks Marie, Carmela, and Ralph for a vegan-filled day! For half a day, it felt like the world was vegan.
Want to have your own pizza party? Attend Kitchen Revolution's cooking classes to learn how to make your own 100% plant-based cruelty-free pizza! I never considered myself much of a music person, and prior to taking teacher training, I thought the singing and chanting part of Jivamukti classes were optional. I even joked about how I would probably learn how to balance on a one-arm handstand first before I would be caught singing in class. Boy, that seemed like ages ago. And do I have to swallow my words.
I first saw this instrument in a Jivamukti Yoga class, and as it is widely used in Jivamukti classes, many of us who took teacher training thought harmonium lessons would be part of the curriculum. Though the harmonium itself is not a necessary component of a Jivamukti class, nada (music) is. Walk into a random class at a Jivamukti Center and you'd find that the music selection could be as eclectic as the personal tastes of the teacher. Guided more by the message of the music than its "background quality", the playlist can get wild or mild or anywhere in between, but it is always intentional. Not only that, Friday nights at Jivamukti School in New York, Advance Cerified Jivamukti Yoga Teacher Jessica Stickler teaches a class with live music. Yes, that means a live musician is there to serenade you while you sweat out your karma! The harmonium as a tool for nada is quite effective in setting the tone. It is usually played in the beginning of the class, accompanying the chants or sutras related to the dharma talk. Perhaps the most memorable use of the harmonium that I witnessed was during an open class taught by Hong Kong-based Advance Certified Jivamukti Yoga Teacher Will Lau. He played the harmonium and talked over it, and the effect was at once captivating, moving, artistic, and emotional. It was like a performance, the music heightening rather than hiding the essence of the teachings. He talked about yoga, oneness, union, and the weaving of the words and sounds was in itself an expression of remarkable union. It was one of the best classes I have ever attended. And I hope to one day teach like he does: creative and bold, challenging and elevated all in the same breadth. Inspired by many teachers, I am now practicing playing the harmonium. My appreciation of this instrument grew out of the effect it had on me as a student. I am still fumbling getting it to sound graceful and seamless under my touch, and so far these are the chants I have been practicing to: Om Shantih Hari Om lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu sarve bhavantu sukhinah sarve santu niramayah sarve bhadrani pashyantu ma kashchid dukha bhag bhavet Om tryambakam yajamahe sugandhim pushti vardhanam urvarukam iva bandhanan mrityor mukshiya mamritat svah (The sutras as played by Manorama) The harmonium in the picture is from Bliss Yoga Manila. I play it in my scheduled Jivamukti Yoga classes in Makati branch, as do Roland dela Cruz in many of the Bhakti Urban Flow classes that he teaches. Sri Swami Satchidananda's To Know Your Self has such beautiful insights I was able to expound on some of his ideas and use them in yoga class. So when I was looking for my second Yoga Sutras book (my first being Jivamukti Teacher Training-required The Textbook of Yoga Psychology by Ramamurti S. Mishra, M.D.), it only felt natural that I turn to his commentary.
I flipped over to YS 1.33 and looked up the different commentaries. Maitri karuna mudito peksanam sukha dukha punya apunya visayanam bhavanatas citta prasadanam From the Jivamukti Yoga Chant Book: To preserve the innate serenity of the mind, a yogin should be happy for those who are happy, be compassionate towards those who are unhappy, be delighted for those who are virtuous, and be indifferent towards the wicked. From The Textbook of Yoga Psychology by Ramamurti S. Mishra, M.D.: The mind becomes calm and tranquil by cultivating an attitude of friendliness and fellowship toward happy-going persons, compassion and kindness toward the miserable, entertainment and joy toward the virtuous, and indifference toward those who appear to be doing evil. From The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Commentary by Sri Swami Satchidananda: By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous and disregard toward the wicked, the mind-stuff retains its undisturbed calmness. This is a meaningful sutra to me in many ways. On one hand, it was one of the sutras that called out to me because of its simplicity and practicality. On the other hand, this was the sutra that I chose for my very first dharma talk. It will forever be associated with that time that I understood and experienced what satsang (attachment to truth; good company) is about. As nervous as I was starting that talk, looking at my fellow Jivamukti TTs made me realize they all wanted me to do well, and I was able to push past my fear and the talk went better than I could have hoped for. In Sri Swami Satchidananda's commentary, he likened these 4 guidelines to 4 keys to locks that govern all relationships in the world- how to deal with those who are happy, those who are unhappy, those who are virtuous, and those who are wicked. What I love about the way he teaches is that he uses analogies to explain philosophies that may otherwise feel too rigid or conceptual. He breaks down the ideas into simple terms without losing the depth of the teachings, and is thus, a perfect companion reading to the more scholarly commentaries of the sutras. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: Commentary by Sri Swami Satchidananda is available in paperback at Fully Booked (about PHP1150) or in e-Book format at Amazon.com ($11.99). I am surrounded by new vegan options these days, and I am beyond ecstatic that more and more people are becoming conscious of the choices they make.
After yoga class today, I got to taste a sample of these cookies. And of course, I had to bring some home. I still have vegan sweets stocked, but a yogi can never have too many vegan cookies. Right? Right? Save the world one cookie at a time! Om Nom Nom sells vegan cookies, brownies and other desserts. You can order by texting/calling +63 906 462 5181. Pick up at White Space Mind and Body Wellness Studio in Katipunan or other convenient locations. Yoga Om. Vegan Cookies Nom Nom. |
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