Hope you’re all safe and breathing better after the ashfall last Sunday!
I was driving home from the Lunar Eclipse Retreat in Antipolo when I received an alert from one of my Whatsapp groups that the Taal volcano was spewing ash. I remembered that one of my students planned to climb Taal with her parents that day and decided to check in on her. She told me that she had postponed their climb that day. She could see the volcano erupting from where they were billeted in Tagaytay.
I posted her husband’s video of Taal volcano erupting which generated a plume of ash kilometers high and also, photos from others who were there on instagram.
From Sunday onwards, ash from the volcano fell over Tagaytay and Taal’s immediate areas, and some of it reached parts of Metro Manila. Monday was declared a national emergency. Offices, including government offices, banks were closed. Rebel Yoga studio even canceled classes last Monday as a precaution, as the ashfall posed a danger to traveling by cars, and would have negative effects on overall respiratory health.
PHILVOCS hazard map of the area
The DWSD reported that 15,525 families or 68,638 persons are being evacuated. The Rotary Club and Red Cross, as well as private citizens, are mobilizing donations – cash and in-kind – to help the evacuees. Last Wednesday, I did a shout out to help the 8,000+ evacuees in Balayan, Batangas, and I’d like to thank all those who responded to my call.
I found out recently that one of the students has opened their home in Calatagan to help the 3,212 evacuees. She needs toiletries, medicines for hypertension, fever and cough, underwear, food, canned goods, and slippers. You can send your donations on Monday at 6 pm before class. My sister and her friend Janine are also working together to help animals, particularly, horses that were abandoned during the emergency evacuation.
An update as of January 16 – they have saved 51 horses so far.
If you’d like to help, here’s a list that you can access to different organizations who are helping with Taal.
It’s been a harrowing week, and we’re all working together to heal.
Try doing this most healing mantra in the practice of Kundalini Yoga, the Ra Ma Da Sa. It calls upon the energy of the sun, moon, earth, and the Infinite Spirit to bring deep healing. The sounds are pretty basic – Ra (Sun), Ma (Moon), Da (Earth), Sa (Impersonal Infinity), Sa Say (Totality of Infinity), So (Personal sense of merger and identity), Hung (the infinite, vibrating and real). The healing mantra literally means, “I am Thou. It is also used to mean, The service of God is within me”.
Ra Ma Da Sa healing mantra
To do:
Sit in comfortably in Easy Pose or on a chair. Bend the arms and bring the elbows against the side of the rib cage. The palms of the hands are parallel and face up. The elbows are snug at your sides with the forearms in close to your upper arms. The hands are at a 60-degree angle, halfway between pointing forward and pointing to the sides. Close your eyes and focus at the point between the brows. Chant the healing mantra Ra Ma Da Sa, Sa Say So Hung in one complete exhalation. As you chant the first Sa, your navel point is pulled in so that this syllable is abbreviated. You should also pull your navel point in as you chant Hung, vibrating at the root of the nose. The rest of the syllables are drawn out in a strong, powerful chant. Strive to keep your chant at full volume, loud but not harsh, throughout the meditation. As you chant the mantra you can visualize it moving up through your seven chakras and the auric field. Starting from the root with Ra all the way up to the crown with So, and then, move the energy out of the crown and down through the auric field to the root once again with Hung. Continue for 11 minutes.
To end, inhale deeply, hold your breath and visualize the person you want to send healing to, the families affected by Taal’s eruption and all the organizations helping. Make that image in your mind very clear and see a glowing green light around the persons. Exhale and inhale deeply again, hold your breath and continue to send healing green light. Still keeping that vision in your mind, exhale. For the last time, inhale deeply, hold your breath and see the image very clearly, see the green healing light bathing the person, bathing every cell in the body. Exhale and relax.
May we all rise above this disaster.
Keep watching the news for updates, and take care, always.
In loving service,
Rosan
