“It’s the daily practice of meditation without expectation. It’s not a wish-fulfilling cow that if you meditate you’ll have a great day. It’s the practice of placing the identification on that meditation state as who you are.”

– Anandi Brownstein

A loaded, joyful episode of a Curious Yogi Podcast filled with satsang and conversation with my dear friend and fellow yogi Anandi Brownstein – a cinematographer and documentary director who shares her lived wisdom with us from a lifetime of meditating and growing up in the Himalayas of India.

We surf on some profound concepts and share each of our unique perspectives. Nandi shares her thoughts on life and practice that we can all begin to think about for ourselves;

➖cultivating inner expansiveness as a brilliant tool to move effortlessly in the world;

➖the yogic work of purification and expansion;

➖ maintaining peace as an individual;

➖why confusion happens and how to get out of it and;

➖not identifying with any limiting idea that confines you.

Nandi reads a verse from Sri Nisaragadatta Maharaj’s book of discourse called “I am That”. And we also discuss a recent episode of Josh Scheri’s podcast “The Emerald” titled “Oh Justice”.

Anandi, also known as Eva, divides her time between British Columbia, Canada, and the Himalayas of India – a divide which reflects in her two names. Wherever she is in the world, Eva is always on the search for stories and creative collaborations. (Check out her work at avacreative.ca )

“It clicked to me that the confusion aspect happens because any concept that we create can never fit the vastness of the sky.

Any idea we have there are then boundaries and limitations around that idea that can never encompass the vastness of the reality of life.”

Nandi here here with her teacher Swamiji in Kullu, India in 1989.

Filmmaking has taken her around the world where she has documented school children planting mangroves to combat flooding in India, street photography as a form of self-representation in Haiti, youth leadership in Rwanda, First Nations language revitalization in Canada’s North West Territories and Nunavut, and public art installations in Zurich, Switzerland and Austin, Texas. She has lensed feature and short documentaries which have premiered at top tier festivals and her directing work has been picked up by CBC Gem and premiered at Vancouver’s International Women in Film Festival and DOXA. She currently lives on Coast Salish Territory in Vancouver, BC, where she works as a freelance cinematographer and documentary director.

Anandi is interested in the strings that tie us together, and the power of story to effect positive change. Social justice, nature, and creative expression are themes that run through her work.

Enjoy this delightful conversation filled with nuggets of wisdom, laughter and a light-hearted approach to meditation and applying the practices to our daily life.

LISTEN TO MORE OF A CURIOUS YOGI 🎧

• Dr. Shyam Ranganathan | Yoga – Anticolonial Philosophy
• R. Alexander Medin | Expanded Gratitude & The Real Yoga
• Shaarda | Never Make Yourself Unhappy
• Satsang with Simon Jalonen | Healthcare, Seva, Charity & The Worth of Every Living Being
• Alka Srivastava | On Guru, Knowledge, Meditation & Pure Space