The Baha'i's of Cincinnati
The Kausala Conservatory
Gateway To Inspiration
How a Gap Year Can Be A Gateway
Why Ubud?
Kausala at Bisma, Ubud
The meaning of Kausala
Classes & Courses
The Kausala Conservatory focuses on 2 major education & service options: Humanitarian and Planetarian; but with both having a strong artistic and spiritual threads that are guided (not by money, not power, not influence, not "success", not even career) by the great virtues. It is, essentially, a virtues based education; containing all of the truly essential knowledge you will ever need to forge a wonderfully-fulfilling life-path.
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Kausala Humanitarian Courses:
Vishwa Ayurveda: Elemental Yoga Therapy
A healing art that bridges Ayurveda, TCM and other Medicine Wheel methodologies from around the world that not only helps one to heal, but to optimize health and even work thru the emotional and psychological issues that help one to achieve their dreams as they embrace obstacles as developmental opportunities.
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Five Element Drumming
The Dagara medicine wheel from west africa has a rhythm associated to each element, which leads to a unique form of natural mood modulation that can attune one to the energies they need to tackle a challenge. From depression to problem solving, as the Dagara say, "The sound of the drum is the tuning of the soul." And, "Change your rhythm, change your life."
The Delsarte System of Expression
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The Art of Spiritual Companioning
Inspired from the teachings of psychologist / guru Carl Rogers
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The Art of Seeing: In this epidemic of excessive phone usage myopia and other eyes diseases have risen 70%
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The Power of Silence
Silent yoga retreat
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Sacred Circle
Evolving from the Mankind Project...
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Vipassana & Progressive Meditation
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Bhuta Thai: Elemental Yoga Massage Therapy
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Sound Healing, Reiki, Qi-gong
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Kausala Planetarian Courses:
Asta Kosala Kosali: (aka Balinese Feng Shui)
A design art that beautifies and optimizes the relationship between man and environment for health and harmony
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Five Element Farm School
Utilizes farm life as a means of education in sustainability and community building.
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Bamboo U
A course in artful building design in environmentally sustainable ways that uplift and edify.
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Sacred Geometry, Mayans, Masons, Mound Builders, Crop Circles and other interconnected geophenomena.
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Internships
As I write this next section, it has dawned upon me that Will, the founder of Kausala, has always ended his yoga classes by saying "Don't forget the most important part of yoga is to take it with you." I am not sure if Will was thinking of this when he formed kausala, but how true to form it still is, perhaps even more so. Because, as it is stated at the top of this page, one of the main purposes for choosing Ubud, Bali for our trainings is that folks would be naturally inspired to take Some of Bali with them; but this is even more true for the purpose of these courses. And to help our students in "taking it with them" we have made connections with some key places where what you learn here can be put to great use, such as Auroville, India and Zambia, Africa, as well as places that correspond to the Virtues First Vision.
Why Bali?
We chose Bali for many reasons, but mainly because its natural beauty attracts people from around the globe. And when they come, they take as much as they can into their heart and, in some way, back home with them. And perhaps this is why Bali is one of the most popular destinations people return to again and again; especially yogis. Bali relieves the mind, revives the body and uplifts the spirit! Simply put, Bali gives a beautiful, magical, healthy, sustainable, glimpse of what our best selves and our best world could be. If humanity could just find the restraint to get out of nature's way and the virtue to foster her growth (rather than destroy it), this place we call home could become a paradise, both outwardly and inwardly, materially and spiritually.
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(See Trip Advisor article: Travelers Choice - Best of the Best" / "Why Bali is most Popular destination in the world.")
The Saraswati Temple is the center of Ubud and just a 10 minute walk from Kausala
UBUD
Ubud is the art and cultural heart of Bali and also to become the hub for our international training center. Often it feels like a work place that is too good to be true, given the location and the incredibly fulfilling work we do; and yet it is actually an ultra-practical location and facility as the experiences we host there indelibly stick with our students, teachers, volunteers and visitors. Hence, it is a place where one takes with them a meaningfully beautiful experience when they leave; as well as being ever enticing to return for more, to spread more, to return, to spread...
The name Ubud is also aligned with many of our endeavors. It is derived from ubad which means both medicine and place of healing in Balinese. But this is not just because of the abundant medicinal vegetation naturally found throughout the area, but also because of the healing environments that the inhabitants take great and reverent care to create and maintain.
Kausala
Kausala is the name of the Virtues First (501c3 not-for-profit) headquarters in Ubud, Bali, wherein, we hold many courses. However, this headquarters is also our administrative center thru which we work with many of our beautiful neighboring facilities that often can provide a more conducive atmosphere depending on the course / classes one is taking.
Kausala at Bisma Ubud
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Bisma is not just the street that leads you to Bali's "Ancient Monkey Forest" but also the area where Kausala is located (though not too close to the monkeys). Bisma also means freshness and, with its many healthy restaurants, spas and soul restoring villas, one is surrounded with opportunities to refresh their mind, body and spirit. In fact, it is inescapable. Furthermore, these conditions create a great learning environment; at least in relation to what our organization teaches and want to impress upon our students as they go back out into the world. For example, many of our courses hold the theme the natural world should not be kept entirely apart from where we live our lives, as it is in most cities. But, like so many other places along Bisma Rd, Kausala sits away from the road where the many restaurants and shops operate, and to the opposite side of Kausala is a big, green, rice field with mountains in the distant background. Thus, you would never know that a busy street was just a minute walk up the green alley way unless you needed an amenity from the city. And if you walk just a minute the other way, you find yourself in a quiet, green rice field. There is no need to get in a car and drive for 20 minutes to escape a city so you can find some greenery. In Ubud, you do not have to swap one for the other. You can have both at any time, and very often simultaneously. Because on this magical island humans and nature not only co-exist, but do so beautifully! This is a lesson the world needs to learn, urgently, but not just to save the planet, but to make the most of this planet and, thereby, make the most of our humanity.
We give only a glimpse of Kausala (above) as it is under renovations. We are preparing to build a bamboo yoga shala and gathering space; and given that this webpage is to convey our vision and, therefore, doubles as a vision board, below is an example of what we have in mind.
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Kausala is a meaningful word in many different regions and religions of the eastern hemisphere, with its variations of meaning congruently overlapping to create waves of depth. In Bali it is also an abbreviation of the Balinese form of Feng Shui, called Asta Kosala Kosali. Wherein, there are few common structures, for nearly the whole culture of Bali practices Kausala in some way. For example, most every structure has representations of the Five Great Elements (earth, water, fire, air, space) and each is infused in some artful and spiritual manner. In fact, the manner of building is meant to embody a sum of integrity, and integrity is the sum of virtue; which is actually the its ultimate definition. In other words, Kausala implies both Virtue & integrity. Furthermore, in terms of building layout, it considers a framework for parents, children and grandparents. it is too much to go into here, but perhaps you have heard of a new community building trend in Europe called Intergenerational Living. However it is not new at all. To this day Balinese families still create homes taht are made of several buildings, (rather than several rooms), and always with an auspicious are for both grandparents and a family temple. Hence, if you have studied the Virtues First Vision page, you will see that there is a connection. In brief, sustainablitiy goes beyond the farm. When we learn that everyones life should be as interconnected as the elements in the environment itself, a social structure of many interconnected pillars that are able to maintain the integrity of the social ecology. (Learn More Here)
Q & A
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Why a Gap Year Conservatory?
As someone who went to a prestigious liberal arts college only to find that the value added to my life was infinitely small when compared to the ginormous student loan debt I found myself under ~ even before ~ graduating - and with little to show for it, I founded Kausala knowing that another typical college or university was not the answer to the ails plaguing most students around the world. In America, it is mainly the huge cost. But there are so many other huge obstacles to furthering ones education in a meaningful way in countries throughout the world. And often even when a student can get thru the obstacles and pressures of a college, and actually find a job within the options given to them, the work is discovered to be perpetuating more devastation upon the planet, which in turn and among many other things, is also lacking in any inspired aspired aspects for acquiring an education other than a job; and yet to even that end, the typical sense of job satisfaction among graduates today often quickly plummets; even when making a lot of money.
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What is a Conservatory?
A conservatory is not a multi-tiered university, nor is it confined to specializing in only arts such as music or drama. And, interestingly, it is also defined as a garden space. Thus, we find yet another word that encompasses the heart of Kausala. For this is a conservatory that sees sustainable living technologies and the beautification of the natural environment to foster and enhance the health and healing for both humans and the planet, as the high art that it is and ever will be.
Who is it for?
Unfortunately, it has become common place to think that ones education should only be emphasized while young, and yet it isn't till most people are much older that they only begin to know what they truly want out of life, and out of an education, but, for some odd reason, they feel it is too late. But we believe this is backwards. Although we are excited to work with youth in helping them find their hearts desire and dig into it most discerningly (more on that later), we also find it very rewarding to help adults between jobs or out of a job or wanting to get out of a job find what is most meaningful to them. And in both cases, we also create learning and serving experiences to get a real taste for further work in a variety of very meaningful humanitarian and planetarian fields (especially where it relates to the Virtues First Vision).
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(More on the meaning of Kausala, continued from above)
In fact, in Sanskrit we find both Kausala and Kusala, the former being the more layered term, but the latter is Virtue. Dharma is often described in a vague manner making one's understanding and application of it vague, as well. However, it is not at an over-simplification in the least to say that, essentially, dharma is the application of the virtues that attain and sustain health and harmony in the universe; and, in turn, foster Moksha—liberation from the tendencies and attachments that keep us from cultivating the virtues that help us attain our full potential.
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Yogic science, Quantum Physics, Sacred Geometry, Hermetic wisdom, and the like, also demonstrate how these laws of harmony channel for us ever greater degrees of GOD (Good Orderly Direction) within us and all around us, and that one acts upon the other. In other words, good alignment fosters dharma/virtue and virtue/dharma fosters good alignment.
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Those who protect Dharma
The Dharma protects.
~Hindu saying
Thus, it is written that every object and ideal in the universe is conceived as having an ideal location, and if we can align ourselves properly -inwardly and outwardly, materially and spiritually, we can channel its corresponding virtuous energies (much like adjusting the dial to tune-in to a radio frequency). Hence, Moksha can be facilitated by the geometry of one's geography, both immediate and galactic. **
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The placement of objects in Balinese architecture -known as Asta Kosala Kosali- is not only keen to these theories, but have also become the greatest place on earth to see these theories actualized. Furthermore, though I doubt many of the world leaders who attended the G-20 in Bali the fall of 2022 were aware of it, AKK was concerned with "sustainability" ages before it became an existential threat.
** If you would like to go deeper into the concepts mentioned above, this video is a very good start as it echoes yogic wisdom found throughout the world.