• Table of Contents
  • Live Positively and Joyfully by Swami Rama
  • Love in Stillness by Swami Veda Bharati
  • Dear Yoga Mentor, My Question Is… by Swami Veda Bharati
  • Thai TTP Group At SRSG
  • Kumbha Mela by Pierre Lefebvre
  • An Interview with Pandit Dabral
  • Non-violence in a Violent World by Randall Krause
  • We Are Not the Body by Daniel Hertz
  • Two Wings to Fly by Ilyaz Nasrullah
  • Meditation in Embroidery by Swami Veda Bharati
  • Gratitude for Spoken Words
  • Introduction to Bali by Swami Veda Bharati
  • The Hour of The Goddess by Karin Fiedler
  • Notes on 2013 Sangha by Rajini Prakash
  • Gendercide: Daughters of the Goddess by Swami Nitya
  • 2013 Events and Beyond
  • Full Moon Meditation Dates
  • Location of the SRSG ashram
• AHYMSIN Newsletter Archive

Meditation in Embroidery

by Swami Veda Bharati

10th February was our international day of silence.

For that day Gorapin Pangnakorn of Thailand had her embroidery class scheduled so she asked my opinion as to what she can do as she could not cancel the class.

So I suggested to her a day titled Meditation in Embroidery and asked her to give me Thai words for it.

Below is what she has written me.  You all can work on it and expand it; popularize these kind of courses.

Such as meditation in apple eating!  I leave it to you all.

— svb

Samadhi nai Ngan Pak

by Gorapin Pangnakorn

 sa-ma-dhi = meditation 
 nai =  in
ngan pak = embroidery 

“Meditation in Embroidery", if we say it in Thai – it will be “Samadhi nai Ngan Pak ".

So let me guide my student-friends through:
-embroidery as samadhi practicing
-awareness of the whole body
-mindfulness when doing stitch by stitch
-sitting pose and breathing
-silence as the ground of embroidery work
-bliss of silence
-joy of calm and peaceful mind.

Inspired by your long-time work on Silence and Meditation, I will talk to my student-friends and let them practice “stitch with silence” for a period of 40 - 60 minutes.

After coming home I will let you know what happened in the session.

Course: "Embroidery for Joy”

Let me tell you roughly about the second session of the course on Sunday, 10th February.

There are nine student-friends. I started by talking about the perfect day of Chinese New Year, No-Moon Sabbath in many countries and Mauni Amavasya in the Indian tradition. I shared my idea that embroidery can be appreciated in many ways, as records of past events, people and religious prayers, and as contemporary fashion styles, social campaigns, hobbies, surface designs and fabric arts, etc.

After that, we shared how to gain maximized benefits while doing embroidery. We focused on samadhi - oneness of mind and self. I was pleased to tell them about you and your international spiritual work on meditation. I let them know your response via e-mails which lead us to Meditation in Embroidery and Samadhi nai Ngan Pak.

I put 60 minutes of "Meditation in Embroidery" into the course. I guided them through a sitting pose, checking breath flow, relaxing the whole body - reducing stress on the face - shoulders, wrists -palms-fingers, etc.  while stitching, and gaining awareness by knowing every movement of the stitch by stitch - feeling calmness and silence in the mind - enjoying the beautiful silence during work.

I let them learn by themselves to maintain those feelings until the session ended.

We finished the day by practicing twenty-minute meditation together without embroidery, then five minutes of compassion giving.

My dear Grand Pa ... The session ended with wonderful results. All of them liked it. They felt happy to learn.  "No unnecessary chat" via mobile phone after the session. They helped me gather teaching materials with calm manner. When I arrived home, I saw the happy posts on my FB wall.

Editor's Note

For more about Gorapin Pangnakorn, we invite you to visit her blog:

• http://alongstitchlines.blogspot.in/  (in English)
• http://embroideryforjoy.blogspot.in/ (in Thai)