I spent yesterday (Nov 4/08) in silent retreat at my home in Toronto. 

A Meditation Tool:  A simple, yet profound thing i learned from Papaji (HWL Poonja) is that it is impossible to THINK while holding the breath.  To explain further, it IS possible to deliberately think one word at a time while holding the breath, but when the mind is on a thinking, thinking, thinking rant, holding breath will cease the thinking.  

I have just come back from a most remarkable weekend at the Ojai foundation -- that famous, revered institution -- sister, or least, distant cousin to my own alma mater, Esalen. What a welcome break in my routine. In the months prior to going to the Ojai foundation, I had been working very hard -- almost at a feverish pitch. In between teaching at Santa Monica College, auditioning, auditioning, and shooting film, tutoring my two Harvard Westlake students, commuting down to Carson High School, working on my web project, helping out my friend Ronald Alexander with his web site, -- oh , the list goes on -- and there had, honestly, hardly been time to eat, sleep, and maintain some degree of sanity. So, the trip could not have come at a better time. Interestingly enough, I used to live in a place very deeply similar to the Ojai foundation. For five years. I lived in a yurt. I carried my own propane home. My window was a gateway into nature.