A rich man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything from Picasso to Van Gogh. They would often sit together and admire their immense collection.

They had planned a buying trip to Europe, but the Iraq war interrupted their plans. The son’s reserve unit was sent to Baghdad.

During his second tour of duty the son was killed by a roadside bomb. The father had lost his wife to cancer and now he had lost his only son.

A short time later, just before Thanksgiving, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door holding a large box.

He said, “Sir, I am a stranger to you, but I served with your son in Iraq. He saved my life. He was the most courageous man I’ve ever known. He often spoke of you, and your mutual love for art.”

The surprise visitor held out the package. “I know this isn’t much. I’m not really a great artist, but I think your son would want you to have this.”

The father opened the package. It was a painting of his son in military uniform. He stared in awe at the way the young man had captured his son’s personality.

He thanked the young man and offered to pay for the painting.

“Oh, no sir.” Insisted the young man, “I could never repay what your son did for me. It’s a gift for you.” They spent the afternoon talking about the man’s son and the arts.

The father placed the portrait over the mantle. Whenever friends visited he showed them the portrait of his son before he showed them any of his other artwork.

On New Year’s day the man made his own transition. Some of his closest friends believed it was from a broken heart. As his last request, he wanted his paintings auctioned. Many rich people and art collectors came to add his rare paintings to their own collections.

The portrait of his son sat on the auction easel. The auctioneer pounded the gavel. “We will begin the bidding with this portrait. Who will bid for this painting of the son?”

You could hear a pin drop, then nervous whispers. Finally a voice from the back of the room shouted, “We’re not interested in that one. We’re here for the Picassos, and Rembrandts, and Raphaels.”

But the auctioneer persisted. “Will someone bid for this painting? Who will start the bidding? $100? $200?

Another voice shouted defiantly, “We didn’t come to bid on this painting. We’re here for the Van Goghs and the DiVincis.”

Undaunted, the auctioneer continued, “The son. Who will take the son?”

Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. “I’ll give $100 for the painting.” Being a a man of modest means, it was all he could afford. He thought highlyof the man and his son and felt the son was his son too.

“We have $100. Who will give $200?”

“Give it to him for $100. We want the master’s works, the real paintings.” Someone chorused.

$100 is the bid. Won’t someone bid $200?

The crowd became angry. They weren’t bidding on the inferior painting. They wanted the priceless investments for their collections.

The auctioneer pounded the gavel. “Going once, going twice, SOLD for $100.

The room broke out in applause. One man offered $10 to the gardener as a token thank you for speeding up the auction, but the gardener refused. “They always made me feel like I was part of the family,” he confessed. “I have always enjoyed my employment with them.”

His purchase of the painting came from answered prayer. He had hoped for a memento, and now he had one. He had received a small inheritance from the man’s will, but the portrait of his son was truly wonderful.

Suddenly, the auctioneer laid down his gavel. “I’m sorry, but that concludes the auction. The auction is over.”

“What?” shouted the audience. “What do you mean the ‘auction is over?’”

“I’m sorry for such an abrupt end to these proceedings. When I was called to conduct this auction I was told of a stipulation in the will. I can now reveal that stipulation. Only the portrait of the son was to be auctioned. Whichever bidder bought the painting would inherit the entire estate! The gentleman who bid $100 for the son gets everything!”

It is through the acupuncture of prayer that we find peace, and rest, and answers, and wealth. Like the gardener, we have immediate access to the Omnipresence of Supply. Our good is waiting for us. Our prosperity is just a prayer away. All we have to do is turn to the Son, the Christ Spirit within.

Although the way we pray differs, most people have learned from the faith traditions in which they grew up to ask, to petition, to beg an external anthropomorphic deity for something they believe they don’t have. They believe in ‘dial-up’ prayer instead of instant, high speed access prayer.

In this 6th in a series of “Get Over It” talks we have selected the well-known New Thought phrase ‘Be careful what you pray for’ as a phrase which should be laid to rest with the embedded theology which gave birth to it.

It is a phrase which perpetuates the anthropomorphic deity myth which has kept our eyes focused on a super-being ‘out there’ who will save us if we’re obedient, patient, and gullible.

The help ‘out there’ theology is perpetuated by the mythological Superman, Batman, and Super Hero characters which Hollywood has so skillfully produced for us.

We have all grown up with the belief that our Savior will come from ‘out there.’ That our Savior must be some kind of super hero with super powers. Essentially the message is we are too unworthy, weak, and whinny to save ourselves.

In his book, Dynamics For Living, Charles Fillmore asserted, “The way to attain health and wealth is to put your prayerful words and creative actions to work and bring into swift action the Superman Christ within.”

The super hero is within us. It is the Superman Christ within us. When we get to the point that we identify with our Superman Christ within, and not with fictitious superheroes ‘out there’ we master our earth experience.

Prayer works the same way. We believe there is a collective wisdom at our core, and shared by all of us, that senses an unseen spiritual Presence. A Presence that is Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Omnipresent.

In Matthew 21:22 the Christ said: “Whatever we ask in prayer, believing with faith, we shall receive.” The word ‘ask’ actually means ‘affirm or declare.’ And ‘prayer’ means ‘direct, unobstructed communion with Spirit.’

So, what Matthew 21:22 really means is when we declare our oneness with Spirit by communing with Spirit to make that connection, and believe that we have instant access to Universal Supply, we will receive all we need to manifest our abundance. This verse is the key to manifesting our good.

It is communing FROM this unobstructed oneness, that we move toward our good. It is FROM this interior place of alignment with the Omnipresence of God that we position ourselves to receive.

This means we do not have to pray TO a God ‘out there.’ We don’t have to dial-a-prayer! We don’t have to worry for what we pray believing that if we don’t pray right we might get something other than what we prayed for. That’s not how prayer works!

There’s no dispensing God ‘up there’ waiting for us to mess up in our prayer languaging so It can surprise us with something we didn’t expect. There are no prayer police watching our prayers to see if we’re asking for the right things.

‘Be careful for what you pray for’ is fear-based theology. It is not wise to build guilt, and fear, and anxiety into a prayer experience.

What is useful is to live a prayer-conditioned life, one which features absolute trust in your connection with Spirit.

Possibly the most frequently ignored aspect of speaking in public is the correct care of your voice.

Many speakers think that all you need to do is open your mouth, take a deep breath and speak in order to deliver their speech. Unfortunately, they are a very long way from becoming successful public speakers. But they are definitely not alone in ignoring the most vital tool their speech-making tool-kit. Few speakers consciously spend time working on the correct speaking techniques - and even less time taking care of the single most important asset they possess.

After all, no voice, no speech!

So what are the golden rules that will ensure that your voice is kept in excellent condition for speech-making? Here are the three greatest tips for delivering crystal-clear presentations:

1. Make sure that you don’t strain your voice in any way and that means no shouting at your favourite sporting event! If you simply have to make a loud noise to help your team score the winning point, invest in a whistle or air horn. Your voice is important - let others do the yelling and shouting.

2. Drink plenty of water. Get into the habit of sipping plain water throughout the day and your whole body will feel the benefit - not just your voice. At your speaking event, make sure that you have a glass of water to hand during your speech so that you never feel that your throat is becoming dry.

Avoid alcoholic over-indulgence in the days prior to a speaking engagement and stick to soft drinks only in the couple of days immediately leading up to making your speech.

And no matter how nervous you might be feeling on the day - strictly no alcohol, for all sorts of good reasons, not just your voice!

3. Do some gentle warm-up exercises for your vocal chords shortly before making your speech. If you are only an occasional speaker, you may feel a little silly humming and singing to yourself but just remind yourself that professional actors, speakers and singers run through warm-up exercises in exactly the same way as professional sportsmen do. If you really are serious about delivering the best speech that you can, these preparations will make a real difference to how you perform.

And the better you perform, the better you will feel. And the better you feel, the more relaxed you will become. In turn, your audience will pick up on your confident manner and come away having enjoyed every word that you have spoken.

Your voice will have been your greatest asset - and you won’t have suffered the embarrassment of delivering your speech sounding like a frog with a sore throat!

Do you ever wonder if there is validity to the claim that hypnosis aids in weight loss? Luckily for you, there is. Weight is nothing more than mass, and as Einstein postulated, mass is related to energy. Energy is just waves of moving particles. Hypnosis alters those waves and changes their frequencies.

So what we are saying is, hypnosis and weight loss are clearly related and there is even scientific theory to support the fact. Not that science knows everything there is to know about either subject, but surely you see the connection made earlier.

Let’s say you want to know more about how weight loss hypnosis is done. Is an overweight person put in a hypnotic trance and left that way for a week, or however long it takes until they lose weight? Not really. It doesn’t quite work that way. An overweight person will attend several 30-minute or hour-long hypnotism sessions to successfully lose weight.

Hypnosis and weight loss represent the body as mental and physical conditions respectively. The mind drives the body. When you are busy at work, you sometimes forget lunch. When you have nothing to think of (like watching TV), you munch away like there as no tomorrow.

Can hypnosis help you not to feel hungry? Sure, it can. A lot of business executives and professional people use a form of self hypnosis every day. They train their brains to function without eating lunch because that is the busiest time of their day. This is just how hypnosis works, but on a smaller scale. Hypnosis is giving a suggestion to your mind to think and feel a different way. It all works very logically.

Under the guidance of a master hypnotist, those who are serious about weight loss can explore their childhood experiences. Often, metaphysics reports, childhood pain and anger is stored up as fat in the body. You release the hurt and voila, you lose the fat. Takes a lot of patience and introspection, but the double benefit is worth it.

We also store extra fat in our bodies because our brain is sending the wrong signals to our bodies. A friend of mine skips breakfast every morning because she’s overweight. Little does she know that it’s actually making her gain even more weight! She’s going 16 hours at a stretch without anything to eat, so she’s causing her brain to send signals to her body that say she’s starving, so it had better store up fat to protect itself. Changing those mental signals is going to help her lose weight, not skipping breakfast.

In summary, there is a clear relationship between hypnosis and weight loss. Try it out, find what works for you, and have a big picture point of view. If you are serious about your weight loss, then you’ll find that hypnosis could be just the leg up you are looking for.

DYNAMIC SPEED READING becomes a part of long-term memory. We believe this is caused by intense concentration. Intense concentration causes the altering of states of consciousness which, in turn, accesses long-term memory.

Another factor is eidetic or auditory memories. Really you can remember everything you have ever seen or heard, even if you weren’t focused on it. Your brain/mind, works like a camera, an audio recording device, and a computer, storing all memories.

As you start to learn the various methods used in the BE DYNAMIC THROUGH SPEED READING, you’ll notice some intentional redundancy, repetition! It is techniques repeated over and over, with visualization and various other added methods that will help you achieve the results you desire and be the best you can possibly be.

Double or Triple Your reading speed, with a little practice, will make you a better student, employee, communicator, and a much better decision maker in your life. This is but one of your benefits - plus, you will reduce your reading time on reports, inter office correspondence, newspapers, novels, non-fiction, magazines, textbooks etc. in half, or you can do even better. You’ll save time –”time is money”.

Writers get paid by the word in magazine and newspaper articles and by % of gross sales (royalties) in book publishing. Usually the thicker the book, the longer the article, the higher the price and the higher the royalty or more pay for being wordy. Have you noticed yet that writers are often verbose. That means many words exist within sentences that are just fillers. What you learn in Be Dynamic Through Speed Reading, is only read the words that are essential and then learn speed reading techniques. You will learn how to do this through this example, read this paragraph:

You are a slower reader because you read word-by-word and you say every word to yourself. Instead you should use your hand as a pacer.

OK, now search for the important words … like those in capital letters:

If YOU are a SLOW READER it is BECAUSE YOU READ word BY WORD and you SAY EVERY WORD TO yourSELF. Instead what you need to do is USE YOUR HAND AS a PACER. T

When you look at those words,, you’ll notice the words in ALL CAPS; these are the ONLY WORDS YOU MUST READ to get the meaning of the paragraph.The ones I typed in regular type are just fillers. What you need to be reading is this:

YOU SLOW READER BECAUSE YOU READ BY WORD SAY EVERY WORD TO SELF. USE YOUR HAND AS PACER.

Wow, it reminds me of the old Tonto of the Lone Ranger Saturday AM TV show. But, you can get what it means and you can easily get rid of those filler words.

Dr. Jay Polmar, founder of www.speedread.org, was the instructor classes in colleges and universities for 16 years. Be Dynamic Through Speed Reading program is the his 7.5 hour course recreated so you can learn these valuable tools yourself at home or in the dorm through reading faster, listening to the audio mp3 files, and using the software, you’ll be a top student who gets the most out of your reading experience.

Would you like to discover the secret of how you can get any audience to love you, without them even knowing it? Of course you would and it’s probably right up there at the top of your public speaking tips wish list!

But by simply incorporating just a few easy to learn techniques, you will be able to guarantee that even the toughest audience will come away thinking that you are one of the very best public speakers they have ever heard. By really understanding what an audience is looking for before you even begin to make your speech, you will be able to guarantee that they will make a positive connection with you as soon as walk out on stage.

So what should you do to make any audience love you?

Step 1.

Many public speakers will consider this technique to be cheating! The most effective way of persuading any audience to love you is to give them precisely what they want to hear. And the best way of discovering exactly what this might be is to ask them - or at least, ask a few people with an interest in the subject just what questions they would like answers to, or what area they would like to be explained in greater detail. Then it is simply a matter of using books from your local library or browsing the search engines to find your material.

Step 2.

Now you must concentrate on building an easy rapport with your audience. The best - and easiest - way is simply to remember to smile and make eye contact throughout your delivery. You are a warm and friendly person, so make an effort to let your audience know that too! One very important tip that is overlooked by so many public speakers is to be in the room or auditorium whilst their audience is arriving. This gives you the chance to greet a few people personally and will ensure that you are far more memorable than other speakers. Your audience will also feel that they already know and like you before you are formally introduced on stage.

Step 3.

Do make sure that the language you use in your speech is appropriate to your audience. Use words that relate to the topic in hand but don’t overdo the jargon - it may be beyond your audience’s expertise and mark you out as being too-clever-by-half!

Step 4.

Always deliver benefits to the audience. Build your speech for their satisfaction, not yours. Make sure that you address their wants - whether that may be to be informed, entertained, educated, emotionally or spiritually fulfilled or to be shown how to gain some financial or health advantage. Provide a solution to a problem they may have and they will love you for it.

And the most important of all public speaking tips?

Step 5.

Appear confident and relaxed on stage.

It is a surprising truth that your audience will mirror what you project on stage, so if you are embarrassed, uneasy or hesitant in your manner, they will sub-consciously be feeling the same. If you appear at ease and relaxed during your presentaion, then they will relax too. So, if you are giving out signals that you are comfortable in their presence, have respect and affection for them and appreciate their attention, then they will do the same for you - without realising exactly why they are feeling warm and appreciative towards you. Guaranteed!

If you can incorporate these public speaking tips into every one of your presentations, you will quickly discover that making your audience love you is an easy and natural process and one that you will wonder how other, less successful public speakers manage to do without.

“The most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity.” –Zig Ziglar

I’m no cop, not a persuasion cop or any other. However, there are times when I feel I have to pause for a moment and remind my students of what is of the utmost importance in persuasion and in life. I am a person who really learns from their mistakes. And I’m hoping that you can too learn from my mistakes. My goal here is to guide. My goal is to help you to avoid the mistakes I made. One of these tough lessons I learned the hard way came about because when I was young, overly eager, and foolish, I acted in a way that wasn’t guided by integrity.

As we apply these social influence skills it is my sincere hope that we will go forward with an application towards ethics and integrity.

The practice of integrity and ethics go hand and hand with congruity. Congruency is a key component of persuasion. When someone really screws up and apologizes, you can tell when they’re really sorry and when they’re not.

When we come from a place of integrity and ethics, it allows us to use these powerful skills for good. We have a clean, clear conscience and people feel easy and comfortable trusting us. Integrity is something I discuss often in my coaching and teaching. It’s integral to the process of persuasion. I encourage and promote these without being preachy, but I do so earnestly because I know how important they’ve been for me in my progress as a persuader.

My belief is, that without ethics, integrity and congruity, a sales person will never rise above mediocrity.

One of the most valuable perceptions a prospect can have of us as salespeople is trustworthiness. When we’re in line with integrity, there’s no need to fake it.

When I really started living my persuasion life with total integrity, I noticed amazing things start to happen for me and for my business. I began to draw more of what I wanted to me, I began to draw higher end clients and students who were also trustworthy whereas previously many of my clients were not people who I really wanted to do business with.

Having built up that aspect of my personality, having an abundance of integrity in the bank is like having built up my ‘f-you’ money. I could walk away from any situation that was not comfortable because I no longer “needed” to take on just anyone but could be very selective in my processes. Consider never compromising yourself again as the first step. It’s an amazing feeling.

So you’ve identified that you or someone you love needs help. So what then are the options are far as alcoholism addiction treatment and treatment for drug addiction?

I believe that rehab or a professional inpatient treatment program should always be your first choice - where you will spend typically 3-6 weeks in treatment getting clean and sober (length of stay can vary depending where you go)

Why would rehab or an inpatient program be my first choice? Because it not only helps you detox - but with its intensive therapy and counselling will help you deal with a lot of the emotional baggage that causes you to drink and take drugs.

And you’re just not going to get that same level of intensive treatment and care unless you go to an inpatient treatment program like Rehab. Plus a good rehab will begin preparing you in terms of what you need to do when you hopefully make a fresh start after having left treatment.

Many people automatically think treatment or rehab is going to be unaffordable. Many rehabs are government subsidised so whatever your financial position - do your research - because it doesn’t mean it will be impossible for you to go.

I honestly believe rehab should always be your first choice, but what are your other options? You could try addiction and alcoholism self-help approaches, which would involve you working on the spiritual, emotional and mental aspects of yourself - and therefore provide enormous potential for growth and transformation. I don’t have space to go into detail here (check out my website for that). I still think however that rehab is your best bet (at least initially) - because trying to do it yourself is so much harder.

Alternative Alcoholism Treatment and Addiction Treatment options are becoming increasingly popular. I definitely think there is a place for alternative alcoholism and addiction treatment - but I would recommend using these in conjunction with a more mainstream or traditional way, especially to begin with at least - because again it is that much harder doing it without the help of addiction treatment professionals.

When it comes to ultimately choosing the best alcoholism addiction treatment or treatment for drug addiction - I do believe going to rehab should be priority number one. Your alcoholism self help/addiction and alcoholism alternative methods certainly do have a part to play - but the specialist treatment a rehab can provide will just give you the best possible chance.

‘Ayur’ means life and ‘Veda’ means knowledge. Ayurveda is the science of life. If there was a life handbook given at birth guiding us to a healthy and happy life, included would be several chapters on the science of Ayurveda. This ancient healing system has its historical base in the pre-Aryan civilization of India dating back over 5000 years.

Ayurveda is the science of living in harmony with the forces of nature. Its holistic approach to healthcare is unique in that it enables us to treat the individual as a part of the whole. Understanding one’s personal nature (prakrti) and the impact the environment has on one’s life offers us clarity of the most appropriate lifestyle applications that would serve us best. These may include nutrition and dietary changes, simple exercises such as yoga, meditation, deep breathing (called pranayama) and addition of simple herbal medicines. These simple changes will create a greater harmonic balance for the mind, body and spirit.

In Ayurveda, food may be used to support healing. These principles coincide with the basic Hippocratic principle that food serves as the most valuable medicine for supporting and maintaining health. Likewise, poor nutrition and unhealthy lifestyles create a foundation for disease to begin.

One of the major causes of illness according to the Ayurveda is called jnana-aparadha or offense against knowledge. If you get heartburn every time you eat foods prepared with tomatoes and continue to eat them, you will suffer the consequences. This is called jnana-aparadha. If your body is telling you that a particular food is not good for you; listen. The Surgeon General of the United States said that 60% of diseases are diet related. Ayurveda says that almost all disease can be related to improper digestion of foods and the wrong combinations of them.

Here is some simple advice from the Ayurveda in relation to diet:

* Eat only when you are hungry.

* Do not have cold drinks or drink a lot of fluids with your meals. This puts out the fire of digestion.

* Have your largest meal of the day at midday and your last meal at least 2-3 hours before bedtime.

* Make each meal a preparation of love and be grateful for all of your food. Know that it is a gift from nature and God for you. (We may take this for granted, not realizing that every year on this planet 20 million die of malnutrition).

By following some very simple principles from the Ayurveda, your health can improve and you can live a long and prosperous life. Living a full and healthy life does not need to be a puzzle, we may just need a little guidance from an ancient medical science that has been tested through time.

As you started college, gone are the days when you had a structured school day. You have classes intermittently throughout the day, assignments to be completed, presentations to be made and examinations to be prepared. Not only that, living out allows more time for you and your new friends to go out at night. With all these new and exciting arrangement in your life, you will definitely benefit from some college effective time management tips.

College Effective Time Management: Putting Classes First

For some, college life is just about the social scene. But, it is definitely not just that. College is about learning new things and getting a degree, so that you can acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to excel in life later. It is a training ground for the real thing to come. Unfortunately, many students are too hyped up about the social calendar that they have. And not to blame them, college after all is supposed to be the best years of your life where you get to meet and hang out with many different people.Thus, those who cannot cope with the overwhelming schedule of studies and fun will eventually drop out of college. This is partly due to their ineffective time management skills.

With a little help from College Effective Time Management, you will be able to acquire the skills that allow you to excel in your studies as well as your social life. College effective time management starts with evaluating your priorities. It is crucial to realize that there must be a balance between your social calendar and your academic calendar. And emphasis should be on your academic calendar at all times.

College effective time management comes with being organized. Many college courses rely on handouts, so you should get a large folder, with pockets for each class. Get a planner, and take note of any and all homework assignments. It goes without saying that you should make a note of whenever you have an exam.

College time management is about balancing what needs to be done, and what you would like to do is very important to implementing college effective time management skills. One of the good ways to ensure that is to plan ahead. Dedicate an hour of your Sunday morning to lay out plan for the whole week. Make sure you dedicate enough time for your academic calendar. The extra time that you are left with can be used for social events. And of course, do not forget to put in some “me” time for relaxation. You do not want to burn out before you graduate, do you?

Another particularly effective time management is to plan everything that needed to be accomplished in the coming week, earlier. For instance, dedicate an hour of your time on Sunday morning to plan out your weekly schedule. Put in exams dates or assignment dates and allocate enough time for yourself to study and prepare for it. Then, make sure you have time for social events, and of course time to just generally relax. You will eventually get into a schedule, and this is very good for college effective time management.

It should be noted that sometimes you will have to forgo some fun events in favor of your studies. However, the sense of accomplishment you will feel when you get that degree after four years of hard work will certainly make it all worth it with the help of your college effective time management.

In America, downing a hearty grain dish would not be called fasting. But in India kitchari - a soupy porridge made from rice and mung beans, lightly spiced with ginger, cilantro, and other spices - is considered a fasting food and is used to purify digestion and cleanse systemic toxins.

Ayurvedic physicians often prescribe a kitchari diet before, during, and after Pancha karma, a rejuvenative treatment that cleanses toxins stored in bodily tissues as it restores systemic balance. Kitchari provides solid nourishment while allowing the body to devote energy to healing. You can safely subsist on kitchari anytime in order to build vitality and strength as it helps balance all three doshas. For restless vata, the warm soup is grounding; for fiery pitta, its spices are calming; and for chilly kapha, it provides healing warmth.

Ayurveda believes that all healing begins with the digestive tract, and kitchari can give it a much-needed rest from constantly processing different foods while providing essential nutrients. The blend of rice and split mung beans or red lentils offers an array of amino acids, the building blocks of protein. Its mixture of spices is believed to kindle the digestive fire, the Ayurvedic description for your innate digestive power, which can be weakened by poor food combinations.

Kitchari tastes like a cross between a creamy rice cereal and a light dal, or lentil soup. If it is a cold, blustery day or you are feeling under the weather, a steaming bowl of this classic Indian comfort food can both warm up your bones and restore sagging energy.

This recipe serves 4 comfortably.

Ingredients:

1 cup split yellow mung beans or red lentils

2 cups basmati rice

2-3 cups chopped vegetables (your preference)

tsp. turmeric

1 Tbsp. ground coriander

1 tsp. ground cumin or whole cumin seeds

tsp. fennel seeds

tsp. ground black pepper

1 tsp. ground basil leaf (optional)

1/3 tsp. asafetida (Hing)

pinch of cayenne

1 tsp. salt (to taste)

2 Tbsp. of Ghee (clarified butter) for lightly frying

Water

Cooking Instructions:

First, rinse the split yellow mung beans or red lentils thoroughly (3-4 times). Add 8 cups of water and bring to a boil. Then turn down to medium-low and cook for 10 minutes (or until the beans break up). Add more water if you would like a soupier consistency.

Rinse thoroughly 2 cups of basmati rice and add to the beans. You may now add 2-3 cups of assorted cut vegetables. Choose vegetables according to what is seasonal in your area and to support your dosha - vata, pitta or kapha. Cook for another 15 minutes, stirring regularly, while you work on the next step.

In a fry pan melt ghee (clarified butter) over medium flame and add only the seasoning seeds first (cumin and fennel). Let cook until light brown before adding the rest of the spices, then let cook for 1 minute or until brown. Add this to the beans and rice. Add salt at the end (salt to taste - you may want more than the recipe calls for). The consistency should be like a thick soup. (Add water if you need to.)

Cook for another 5-15 minutes, stirring regularly. Garnish with fresh grated ginger and/or cilantro if you like.

Hari Om Shanti Shanti Shanti