The Kausala Conservatory
Gateway To Inspiration
Kausala is the name of the Virtues First training conservatory in Ubud, 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.
Scroll down to see Conservatory course offerings.
(See Trip Advisor article: Travelers Choice - Best of the Best" / "Why Bali is most Popular destination in the world.")
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. However, the most powerful thread that links all its definitions together is Virtue; and usually within the context of Dharma. (Learn More Here)
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 at Bisma Ubud
~~~~~
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.
The Kausala Conservatory
~~~~~
As someone who went to a prestigious liberal arts college only to find that the value added to his life was infinitely small when compared to the ginormous student loan debt he was under upon graduation - and with nothing to show for it - the founder of Kausala knew that another college or university was not the answer to the ails plaguing 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 lacking in an uninspired education, their sense of job satisfaction often plummets; even if they are making a lot of money.
A conservatory is not a college, nor is it confined to specializing in 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.
Conservatory 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.
Asta Kosala Kosali: (aka Balinese Feng Shui)
A design art that beautifies and optimizes the relationship between man and environment for health and harmony
Five Element Farm School
Utilizes farm life as a means of education in sustainability and community building.
Bamboo U
A course in artful building design in environmentally sustainable ways that uplift and edify.
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
The Art of Spiritual Companioning
Inspired from the teachings of psychologist / guru Carl Rogers
The Art of Seeing: In this epidemic of excessive phone usage myopia and other eyes diseases have risen 70%
Mayans, Masons, mound builders, crop circles and other interconnected phenomena
The Power of Silence
Silent yoga retreat
Sacred Circle
Evolving from the Mankind Project...
Vipassana & Progressive Meditation
Bhuta Thai: Elemental Yoga Massage Therapy
Sound Healing, Reiki, Qi-gong
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.
(Continued from the 2nd paragraph 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.
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.
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. **
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.