Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds Archives - Madhu Bazaz Wangu
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Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds

Thursday, November 5, 2026

Posted on November 4, 2026
in Flourishing, Imagination, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Mindfulness and Travealing, Travel
4 Comments

Manoj and I on the rooftop deck of our cruise ship in France. It has nothing to do with today's text. Just for fun. Hope you enjoyed the Halloween Eve with your family and friends. The website is finally fixed and I can continue to post short pieces about mindfulness, meditation, reading, walking, and journaling. We begin a new month today: Mindfulness, and Awe, Wonder, Delight. For this eleventh month I'll write about my experiences in nature mostly National Parks, experiencing art, and looking at sacred images. Awe, Wonder and Delight are sacred emotions that kindle spiritual delight, tenderness, and kindness. Ancient Hindu texts teach that within us there is an innate force of joyful wonder, but we must create outer circumstances for it to sprout and surface. This may happen...

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Sunday, September 27, 2026

Posted on September 27, 2026
in #Authentic Self, Flourishing, Meditation, Mindfulness and Travealing, Spirituality, Travel, Well Being
2 Comments

Our Itinarary (September 27-October 10 2026) Dear Readers, My husband, Manoj and I are going away for about two weeks on a river cruise on Seine River, France. We are leaving on Sunday and will return on October 10. For the next two weeks please enjoy reading the "Reflections" below about the meaning of God, Allah, Yahweh, Dao, Buddhachitta, Atman or any other name we give to the Cosmic Intelligence or Divine Within.Do you sometimes feel that something within you is wiser, kinder and more peaceful than you? Have there been moments when you’ve experienced this Self?For the next two weeks, I’d like you to read and reread what different philosophical, spiritual and religious traditions say about this wiser and kinder jewel deep within each one of us that I call...

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Thursday, September 24, 2026

Posted on September 23, 2026
in #Authentic Self, #Awareness, #Stillness, Silence, Solitude, Attention and Awareness, Flourishing, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds
1 Comment

Do not confuse the whispers of the Authentic Self with the voice in your head. Perhaps you’ve not yet separated yourself from the chain of thoughts and still unconsciously identify with that voice that is loud, pessimistic and never stops talking. Begin to be more attentive. Learn to differentiate between that critic’s voice (harsh and unproductive) and gentle nudges of your Self that are unexpected, productive and wise.  When you make “focus on the breath” a daily routine, you’ll experience the presence of Awareness, presence of your higher Self. The whispers of your Authentic Self are from the one who is within you, who knows you, knows you more than you know yourself. This Self provides you freedom from your separate ego self. You may believe that your small ego self...

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Tuesday, September 8, 2026

Posted on September 7, 2026
in #Authentic Self, #Nature Lover, #Stillness, Silence, Solitude, Awareness, Being in Nature, Flourishing, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Spirituality
3 Comments

The practitioners of mindfulness meditation who sits in silence and solitude elevate themselves as they realize what it means to live in the awareness of the present moment. When we are aware we are lifted beyond our fleeting emotions and thoughts—painful or cheerful. We feel serenity and true peace. We sense, I’m not my ego self. I’m awareness that is one with the awareness of all—always peaceful and joyful. We are one with our Authentic Self which is always here, now and awake.  What is a life of contemplation? It is to realize that we come to the world alone and we leave alone. Our solitude may be absolute but our life is as meaningful as we make it. Our feelings, thoughts, sensations, activities and relationships are fleeting; but our Authentic Self abides. Those...

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Thursday, September 3, 2026

Posted on September 2, 2026
in #Nature Lover, Being in Nature, Mindfulness and Travealing, Travel
4 Comments

Lewis and Clark Speaker who made our adventure real! This is my last email about Lewis and Clarke’s expedition toward the western coast. Following the captains to some of the towns and sites that they had discovered made me feel grounded in the country, made the land real for me. To continue, on September 23, 1806, the Corps of Discovery returned to St. Louis. An excerpt from Lewis’s letter to President Jefferson reads: “Sir, it is with pleasure that I announce to you the safe arrival of myself and party with our papers and baggage. No accident has deprived us of a single member of our party since I last wrote you from the Mandan in April 1804.” In his reply the President wrote: “I received, my dear Sir, with unspeakable joy your...

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Thursday, August 27, 2026

Posted on August 26, 2026
in Mindfulness and Travealing, Travel
1 Comment

Lewis and Clark Exploration (The Corps of Discovery) shifted into settlements when fur traders and explorersmoved westward within a few years after the captions and their crew returned home. Within 30 years (1830s-1850’s) began large scale settlements by ordinary families. That’s from where small American towns west of Mississippi trace their origin. Such historic towns, nestled in beautiful landscapes, reflect the persona of the American people – down to earth and friendly, proud of who they are and where they live.  Before taking the Corps of Discovery voyage, we had visited cosmopolitan cities in the United States – New York, Washington, Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles – and capital cities of the world – Cape Town, Beijing, Tokyo, New Delhi, London, Paris, Rome and Lhasa. We had gazed at great monuments and sailed long rivers....

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Saturday, August 21, 2026

Posted on August 22, 2026
in Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Originality, Reading Books, Travel
4 Comments

Winter at Catslop Camp Having left the east coast on May 14, 1804, Lewis and Clark glided into the northern side of the mouth of the Columbia River in dugout canoes in early November 1805. With starved looks, tattered clothes rotting on their bodies, and disheveled hair, they neither had the energy nor wherewithal to moor. Clark named the spot Dismal Nitch. A group of local Indians arrived in elegantly carved and painted canoes, communicating with a few words of English they had learned from fur traders. The captains had intended to meet the last trading ship of the season on the Pacific to obtain badly needed supplies and send back journals and specimens of plants and animals to President Jefferson. But a severe winter storm prevented this. This is “the most...

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Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Posted on August 17, 2026
in #Nature Lover, #Stillness, Silence, Solitude, Being in Nature, Imagination, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Mindfulness and Travealing, Travel, Walking
2 Comments

While traveling through the Canadian Rockies one of our stops was the Jasper Park Lodge in Fairmont. Our cabin was situated facing Lac Beauvert (pronounced: Lack Buh-vair), “beautiful green lake.” By this time we had seen, smelled, touched, and listened to so much natural beauty that we were emotionally overwhelmed, and the stamina squeezed out. But through the cabin window the mesmerizing view of the lake magnetized us. After enjoying a cup of hot tea, we decided to walk the trail that circled the lake. We must have walked for fifteen minutes or so when the view stopped me in my tracks. My heartbeats fastened. The surface of the crystal-clear turquoise water was shimmering silver; tiny shiny waves waltzing over large spherical stones. The reflections of distant mountain ranges—green at some places, blue...

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Tuesday, 11 August 2026

Posted on August 10, 2026
in #Nature Lover, #Stillness and Quietude, Being in Nature, Mindfulness and Travealing, Travel
2 Comments

Nature is imbued with numen (spirit). Rudolf Otto, the German phenomenologist of religions, qualified the numinous (spiritual) as being mysterium, fascinans et tremendum. In other words: mysterious, awe-inspiring, and filled with terror. He used the Latin phrase, Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinans to describe the dual nature of the experience of the Holy or the Sacred. It encompasses both a terrifying and awe-inspiring aspect (tremendum) and a fascinating/alluring aspect (fascinans). He argued that this profound emotional experience was at the heart of the world religions. I have experienced this in nature which I regard as Sacred. I would like to share with you two such experiences, the first being fascinating and the second terror inspiring. #1 Awe Inspiring and AlluringOur stay at Denali National Park in Alaska remained covered with mist and clouds. The guide had promised an unforgettable view of...

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Thursday, August 6, 2026

Posted on August 5, 2026
in Last Quarter of Our Lives, Mindfulness and Travealing, Travel, Well Being
2 Comments

The month of August is dedicated to “Mindfulness and Travel.” I’d like to begin with one of my experiences about how this country to which I arrived as an immigrant in 1974 became my home. So here it goes, A trip with my husband tracing the last leg of Lewis and Clark’s Expedition from the east to the west coast was an adventure of a lifetime for both of us, especially for me.  After reading two hefty volumes, Undaunted Courage and Journals of Lewis and Clark I was “called” to go on the similar journey like the one they experienced. We took a flight from Pittsburgh, PA to Portland, Oregon. From there we embarked on a boat that carried us upon the waters of the Columbia and Snake Rivers. The third American President, Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) had envisioned an...

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