Urban Guru your inspired guide to urban living

Sometimes life doesn’t give you time to think, to theorise, to philosophise, to ponder and wonder, what the deeper meanings are.

As a self-proclaimed “Urban Guru” i find this non-thinking type of service, slightly challenging, but that’s because i think too much, and God/ the Universe and everything is telling me to just stop!

Not that there is anything wrong with thinking, but there is a time and place and right now is neither of them.

But some people spend their entire lives just doing, running around and not thinking at all! - This isn’t where it’s at either -

The point is to be fluid and flexible, to relax and trust, to think and to feel to live and to act.

Avoidance is the sin of a lifetime, if you are avoiding what you are meant to be doing with your life at any given time, you’ll struggle, struggle with your self and the universe will struggle with you.

If you struggle then by definition you’re not - being fluid, flexible, relaxed or trusting.

So as a not so famous biblical story goes when, God told Abraham to leave his homeland and everything he knew, God said: “Lech Lecha!” - Leave yourself (behind).

Let go of your preconceived notions of who you think or believe you are, relax, trust your instincts and just let go!

The story goes something like this, a guy is drowning in the ocean and he prays to God to save him, a big piece of drift wood floats by, but he ignores it, knowing that God will answer his prayers, a guy in a small dingy offers him a lift, and eventually a helicopter comes to rescue him, but he refuses saying that he’s waiting for God to save him. He drowns. And when he comes before his maker, he asks God why he didn’t save him? God says, “What do you think all those opportunities I sent you were?”

I’ve always been the ‘lucky guy’, maybe not actually being the winning holder of that many lottery tickets, but in life, the good stuff seems to come my way.

The truth is that people and impressive opportunities are always knocking at my door, phoning me up or emailing me. The thing is, I kinda expect them, and when they come, I’m pretty chilled about them.

For example, over a year ago a TV producer was planning to pitch a cool new Urban Guru lifestyle makeover programme to the BBC, and we spoke for about an hour, and then he never got back to me. I was fast asleep when he called and asked to speak to the Urban Guru, so when we were chatting I completely forgot to ask for his contact details, and because I had previously fantasised about having my own prime-time TV programme, I just believed that it would happen to me.

A production company working for MTV called me the other day, but it’s just not worked out.

So good opportunities happen but for some reason they often don’t seem to follow through. And this has been something that has been bothering me but I just didn’t know who to ask about it.

Then about two months ago, I was in the Northern Quarter of Manchester doing some flyering for the Mind Body Spirit festival, when I randomly bumped into a young lady doing flyering for her own Holistic Massage business.

We got chatting, she shared some Blue-Tack, and then while we were giving some leaflets to the Buddhist Centre, the CEO of the Mind Body Spirit festival called to find out if I knew anyone that could do Holistic Massage at the festival, because someone had dropped out, and he wanted someone to fill in, on a percentage of their profits basis.

This was some cool divine providence going on, and how cool was that, I was being used as a messenger and channel for giving this girl a fantastic opportunity for her business.

But two weeks went by and she didn’t phone or get in touch with the festivals CEO, and guess what? He’d filled it with someone else.

The moral of this story, which I experienced first hand, was telling me something completely relevant and profound about my own problem.

Opportunities come knocking all the time, don’t let them pass you by, grab them by the horns and really go for them!

God is giving you fantastic opportunities all the time, your job is to take hold of those opportunities run with them.

If you’re alive and if you’ve ever taken a moment to think about the big questions, then you’ll probably admit that life is a little bit crazy.
After years of pondering this and other important questions, i’ve had one or two fairly cheesy but profound realisations:

Each and everyone of us has to activate a feeling of love within us and in every moment in life we are given new and different opportunities to love.

To love the people in our lives, including ourselves, to love the beings in our lives, to love the stuff in our lives and to love our lives.

The kind of love that I’m talking about isn’t theoretical or a general ‘isn’t everybody lovely’ fluffy feeling. What I’m referring to is a real, deep love, that is the kind of love we have for a child, or a sibling or a parent or a spouse.

Obviously all of those types of love are slightly different, but the feeling, the feeling of love is the same. I’m suggesting that we foster and nurture that feeling of love within ourselves and that we actively allow that energy to flow to the world and people around us.

Thus we transform ourselves and we transform the world.

In a place were there is love all are happy and at peace.

Q. Over the last few months I’ve seen great results from going for a jog during evenings and weekends. But as the weather gets colder, I’m finding it more and more difficult to muster up the motivation to go. How can I make sure I keep up my good work throughout the winter?

A.  Firstly, well done, for actively doing something to improve your health and general wellbeing.

Getting up while it’s still dark and venturing out in the freezing cold to go jogging, is going to make it difficult even for the most dedicated fitness fanatic to keep up their motivation, let alone someone that just wants to get fit and loose some weight.

You might mistakenly believe that jogging is the only thing that works for you, but it’s not true.

So rather than focusing on difficulties of continuing to jog in the freezing cold, I’d suggest that you find something else entirely that could help keep you fit and become slimmer that you can equally enjoy doing, while still keeping you warm.

Like indoor rock climbing, five-aside football, squash or using that rowing machine you’ve got in the garage.

Making your fitness routine something that you enjoy doing and you’ll the motivation for to continue on a regular basis.

Top five ways to tell your partner is angry:

1, Not talking.
2, Avoiding eye contact.
3, Avoiding touching you.
4, Slamming doors.
5, Doing things to upset you or provoke an emotional response from you.

But once you have noticed an icy stare, what can you do to smooth things over? Max says that solutions to the problem are pretty simple, but require you to swallow your pride.

Here as his top five tips:

1, Apologise.
2, Let go of your own ego and back down.
3, Remember that the relationship is bigger than the thing you are arguing about.
4, Offer to talk about what you have done wrong.
5, Don’t buy gifts… your partner may think you don’t understand their anger.

________________________

Originally on Smooth Radio Online 

One of the most important theologically charged statements in the Bible, which is recited perhaps 4-5 times a day by the Observant Jews is the ‘Shema’.

the first word of the Shema - is the word Shema - and it simply means LISTEN!!!

It itself is a profoundly important and potentially life altering message from the author of the Bible - Moses - God etc..

The primary theological step we are compelled by the Shema is to learn how to listen.

(Loosely paraphrasing the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe:) ‘Listening means having room in oneself for another, for Other, internal; mental, emotional and spiritual space for the existence of another being and another opinion, even one that is completely different to your own.’

The ‘Ethics of our Fathers’ teaches us ‘who is wise those that learn from everyone’.

Then they go on to say that anyone you learn from you must treat them with the same respect that you would the Divine Presence!

The point is, each and every human being has something to say about theology, and Jews, by virtue of their ontologically divine nature (according to the Alter Rebbe - every Jew is a part of God [although God doesn’t have parts]) have something to say about Jewish theology no matter their religious affiliation, level of intellectual honesty or otherwise.

Kabbalah is the mystical tradition found within Judaism, it is said to be as old as civilization itself, it is the myth of a science as old as time, an understanding of life that pre-dates the Bible by some 3000 years.

It is a mystical understanding of the nature of the world and the nature of Self, that helps you to successfully navigate your way through life and the world.

In truth Kabbalah is a whole bunch of ideas that a wide group of people over thousands of years have thought about and contributed to, some were a little wacky and others were pure dam genius!

And although some things may sound strange at first, the more you hear them, and begin to understand them, the easier they are to comprehend and the more they appear ‘pure genius’.

It is said that Kabbalah contains the existential secrets of the universe!

The first Kabbalistic ‘book’ is said to have been taught to Adam in the Garden of Eden by God, sworn to secrecy and quietly passed from Master to pupil from one generation to the next, where the ancient academies learnt these Kabbalistic teachings.

These teaching were eventually passed on to Abraham and then Moses, from Moses to the Men of the Great assembly and from teacher to student in the Talmudic era, up to and including Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, who, tradition has it, taught and wrote the ‘Zohar’, as you’ll learn, one of the most important of Kabbalistic works.

Then to Abraham Abulafia, the influential 13th century mystic (who believed that the study of Kabbalah could induce states of personal redemption) and later to Rabbi Yitzchak Luria expounded the Zohar’s deepest meanings.

Then it passed to Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov the founder of Hassidism and to many his disciples. It has remained the secret knowledge of the initiated, that is, until now.

Kabbalah is Judaism’s secret science, and it is the most important, relevant and interesting Jewish stuff you’ll have come across in ages.

The nature of these ideas means that, you might need to go away and think about them for a while, before they really sink into your head.

Why is Kabbalah Dangerous?

Kabbalah is a philosophy of the nature of Humanity, God and the Cosmos. It is a science of the art of living. It is a path though life, a knowing and enchanting dance between the spiritual and physical. It shows you how to live in complete balance, to live successfully and fully. It can empower you to be at peace with yourself, and to magically transform the world around you. It is a way of seeing and understanding the world that, compels you to find meaning in every moment of everyday.

All the great Jewish thinkers have studied Kabbalah and its teachings have influenced every part of Judaism, yet it has for the most part remained the secret knowledge of the initiated, that is, until now.

The reason why it the Kabbalah has been passed from master to pupil from generation to generation and why there are so few genuine books on Kabbalah is quite simple but extremely profound, and it’s all about effective communication.

When you talk to someone face to face, there is an opportunity for real communication, to can see if the other person is really understanding what you are getting at, and you can adjust your language, tone and hand movements accordingly to help them understand. However, a book is not a dialogue, it is a monologue, it’s me talking at you and not with you, and there is no opportunity for hand movements and gestures, how are you supposed to ‘get’ what it is I’m talking about if you can’t see my hand movements and I can see your bemused face?

The real danger with a book is that, not only will the reader misunderstand and misinterpret what the author meant, but also worse still the book gains some ‘holy’ or ‘sacred’ status and everything in it becomes the open to a more literal interpretation. Or ever worse becomes the rhetoric and dogma of a new ‘religion’, which actually goes against the original intent of the author, which is to help them become more free and happy and discover their own inner teacher, and not enslave them to someone else’s ideas, words and mystical poetry.

There is however, good reason why its teachings have been so closely guarded, over the passed 6000 years. The Sages warn that if the Kabbalah falls into the wrong hands, it could cause madness, destruction and evil.

If the truth be known, even to this day the true secrets of Kabbalah have been shielded from the less initiated, the deeper and more dangerous Kabbalah, remains a mystery to most, and an unspoken subject of the secret Masters of Kabbalah.

Kabbalah in a sense like Rocket Science or Nuclear Physics it is very powerful – but only if put into practice. Likewise without the right type of safety precautions or ideological or ethical maturity it can be very dangerous, not just for the person involved but (believe it or not) for the entire cosmos.

With the ideas contained in this website you have the ability to open a door not only in your mind but they have the power to rip open an alternate gateway within the very fabric of reality itself.

However, this is only if you actually put the knowledge you learn here into practice, otherwise it might just end up being another bookmarked website or rss feed, but unless you take these ideas seriously - you’ll still be living the same relatively superficial and spiritually unrealised life you were before you read this infomation, which would be a big shame, since this might be your last incarnation!?

But it is also ‘dangerous’ on an other level – if you’re scared of being truly happy, of living a profoundly meaningful life, of living your dreams, of taking responsibility for your actions, if you are scared of the divine potential you innately possess – to be yourself and to radically and permanently positively effect the whole world – then this book is dangerous – dangerous because it works – dangerous because it puts the entire responsibility of your life and the future of the world squarely in your own hands - right now!

Stop running Way From Yourself !

I’ve always been puzzled by young, intelligent, movers and shakers in the Jewish community upping and moving to Israel, it seems so dualistic, and short sighted.

The primary motive they cite is that they don’t feel comfortable in the Diaspora and that they feel really Jewish in the Land of Israel even if they don’t keep any of the religious laws etc… What’s up with that?

Surely if you were more comfortable with your own identity why would you need to move to a country with millions of other people just like you? If your cultural identity is so important, why don’t you do something about it here and now? Why do you think that nationalism or in deed a ‘Holy land’ – where you can be yourself is really going to solve your deep problems?

The question isn’t just about Jews and Israel, its about all of us, why do we think that over there, in some distant future things are going to be ok, if I only had this or that, that then

I’d be happy? If I lived in a big house, or a small house, drove this car, or had that job, money, if I only had a boyfriend of girlfriend, a cat or a baby then all my troubles would be over?

In the messianic era the kabbalists teach us that the Holiness of the Holy of Holies will spread to the whole of the temple mount, that the Holiness of the Temple will encompass the Whole of Jerusalem, the Holiness of Jerusalem will spread to the entire biblical land of Israel and the Holiness of the Holy Land will spread throughout the entire world.

The Whole world will become as Holy as the Holy land.

Some great Kabbalists go further – they claim that the holiness of the Holy of Holies will in fact be accessible to each and every individual that the land we are standing on might be ‘Israel’ but we are in deed the Holy of Holies.

What i’m saying is that, happiness is not found outside of yourself. If you push off, happiness and bliss to some future time, you are destined always to be unhappy and miserable.

Also that the Messianic Era is here and now, it is a state of mind a state of enlightened being, one that is accessible now.

That running towards a better future, doesn’t always work, ‘progress’ is sometimes fuelled by stupidity, greed and emptiness.

Real spiritual, and personal progress comes from a place of contentment, happiness and a desire to spread that around.

Can you see the difference?

Separating the World from God is Suicide !

The Ethics of the Fathers teaches that ‘If you are learning and meditating on God and you stop to look at a beautiful tree or a beautiful field you forfeit your life.’ That to me has always seemed a little harsh coming from the bastions of morality. Thankfully however, the great Kabbalist Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Polnoye explains this teaching slightly differently, he says:

‘If one is learning and meditating on God and one stops – that is, one makes a distinction and does not continue to learn – when one looks at a beautiful tree, or field then you forfeit your life. If you do not see the divine within the world you subsequently make a separation between the holy and mundain then the separation you have made, separates you from the source of all life.’ “

I am a pissed off peaceful person, I don’t think that I can have a more honest reaction or approach to the nature of being human and particularly being Jewish in this day. I have a pure soul, I was a baby, and am still in many way, naive and confused about what exactly this experience, that everyone seemed to have so comfortable eased them selves into, called life, I found so utterly alien.

I still look at my hand, move my fingers and really wonder, what the hell, how can I do that? And what a weird trip to be in the world, to be alive, my underlying voice, is one of wonder, acceptance and confusion. I am always willing to say I’m wrong, to listen, to hear. I realise that I alone can never have all the answers, that truth, whatever that is, is something that is a collective reality. ‘An accurate description of what is.’ I feel in someway passive to this experience, it’s almost as if I’m just along for the ride, looking as a child, in a perpetual state of not knowing. Whatever it is I do know is just a small piece of the whole, and probably corrupted and misinterpreted by my own personal perception and crippling life experiences, that must undeniably filter and colour my view of what is.

Where have I been? in my search for my self, in search of some sense, trying to make sense, of this world, make sense of my life and experience of what is.

From early on I was attracted to ideas that tried to make sense of the whole thing, being Jewish, I liked to explore Judaism’s more mystical teachings, and my pure an holy soul, with honest and truthful yearning, lusted after a life that made sense, a life full of meaning, a life that had answers.

And for a moment or two I did find peace, or something similar to peace, being so preoccupied with doing what God wants, that I didn’t have a moment to think about anything, that I momentarily lost, that special twinkle in my eye, that wonder why. I lost myself in the undercover of God’s world, killing myself to be, this pure and pious Jew, to rebecome, a myth of a soul transcendent, embodied.

I dissolved myself in the rich velvet, of smothering, intoxicating Jewish mysticism. Unable to breathe, for dusty books, of messianic longing, entangled in my souls desire for a global utopia, to become the servant of Moshiach Consciousness. To mend this broken world, shattered shards of God’s divine light, redeemed and whole.

But as I learnt and internalised as best I could, the teaching of the Messiah Himself, The New Torah, my body and mind lifted themselves up from where they thought they had been. From this new place I could see much further, had begun to taste the future. He had glimpsed me a taste of truly forbidden fruits, of ideas so tempting, so utterly dangerous that the very fabric of everything I even thought I may have known, seemed to unravel itself at the seams.

He taught me things that I dared not utter, things and signs that blinded me, with its dark light. A whirlpool of maddening darkness, so utterly dark that it shimmered and shone.

Madness, everyone thinks I must be mad, to call the Rebbe a heretic, because the Rebbe is a righteous man, a Ztadik, and I just a mad, sad and stupid idiot – who, by my own admission, doesn’t know anything.

So my Rebbe is a smiling, Cheshire cat, Buddha-like Jewish heretic, he is my Rebbe, not anyone else’s, but mine. They say the Rebbe is a mirror and you see who you really are, call the Rebbe whatever you want, he is you.
But nonetheless, he showed me things that I, on my own could have never seen or even imagined.

It has been a long journey, so far close to fifteen years of trying to make sense of what the Rebbe said, what he meant, and how and who I am supposed to be and do with it.

I’m not intolerant, just slightly impatient, some things are so clear to me that I get frustrated when otherwise intelligent people show an absolute stupidity towards things.

Obviously every lunatic fanatic thinks that they are right, they are correct, that what they believe is so simple and so utterly obvious, and I’m probably no different.

They say that the Torah of Moses is Hevel (Breath/Nothing/Vanity) compared to the Torah of Moshiach. This I know from personal experience is true.

So much more to say, some other time…

We are sleeping giants,

Formed from dust by the great sky,

Our souls are more powerful than angels,

Our bodies shine brighter than the sun,

Our dreams now our destiny!

Every moment we’re born new!

Children with innocent eyes, hearts, minds wide open, lives of unlimited possibilities.

It’s our choice to be the same as before or to change.

“We have seen it proved in practice that the greater a person’s trust and the more he looks towards his future with joy, the faster do these things materialise.”

- Rabbi Menachem M. Scheerson

Whatever we focus on becomes our reality - so i’d like to move your focus and attention on ‘living forever’.

Forever might mean a 1000 years or it might mean just a lot longer than we can imagine ourselves living.

The point is that our bodies are far more intelligent than our conscious minds, but our bodies listen to our conscious mind for instructions on how to live in our immediate environment.

If you tell yourself that ‘life is short’ or ‘i’m in a rush’ or have a adrenalin driven fast-pace life in the fast-lane attitude then I reckon that we actually speed up our internal ageing.

If however, in contrast we say to ourselves, ‘live slow’, ‘take it easy’, ‘i’m going to live for a very long time’ or ‘ i’m going to live till i’m 1000 years’ or ‘peace and tranquillity flow through my veins’ or ‘i love every of the 70 trillion cells in my body’ or

generally live with an attitude which really honest believes that you will live for a very, very long time, and that’s it’s perfectly natural etc… then i believe that you body listens to what you believe in your heart and reacts accordingly.

So our focus is living forever - not fighting ageing.

ageing - tell our bodies to focus on ageing - exactly the opposite of living forever

if we focus on living long, living healthy, living fit, living life, loving life and ideas that generate feelings and beliefs of longevity then we will definitely increase our natural life expectancy - guaranteed!

It’s grey and rainy most of the year round in the UK, so make a point of capturing a little bit of holiday sun and inspiration to carry with you throughout the year. If you do get a chance to go on holiday, make a point of creating a few moments of blissful calm, tranquillity and inspiration, so whether it’s by the pool or walking down a country lane, on standing on top of a mountain, take breathe deeply and turn on your minds video recorder.

Crystallise the experience in your mind and body, be aware of all of your senses, the feeling of the sun warming your face, the cool breeze, the view, the smell, remember this moment and save it to your inner hard-drive, by holding your thumb and forefinger together, so that when you’re waiting for a busy in the cold and bitter rain, you can automatically bring back that stunning summer experience and feel the sunshine on the inside. It may not stop the rain from falling but it might just take the edge off.

Stress at work has a real negative effect on your long-term health and wellbeing, pumping adrenalin around your body, causing increased blood pressure, shutting down your digestive system and stopping you’re higher brain function from functioning.

Stress was our ancestors’ way of staying alive, they needed it to fight or run from dangerous situations, nowadays we mistakenly see our boss or upcoming deadline, as the sabre-toothed tiger.

The answer is to recognise that is your perception of what is, or is not stressful, which triggers your response. Simply make a conscious choice to see your job not as a matter of life or death, but for what it is, just a job.

Work related stress is wearing you down and killing you slowly and it seems that no amount of deep breathing and positive visualisations seem to make it better?

The Urban Guru is here to help:

It’s the simple problem of your own mental perception and your bodies natural fight or flight response. You mistakenly see your boss or upcoming deadline, presentation or deal as the prehistoric monster with VERY BIG TEETH that’s going to eat you! And because you’re telling yourself it’s a real problem your body reacts with it’s fight or flight response.

It’s your own fear, which creates the stress; that pumps adrenalin around your body and causes increased blood pressure and shuts down your digestive system and stops you’re higher brain function from functioning.

So just STOP! Stop prostituting yourself to the corporate monster, let go of your imaginary fear and learn to say “No!” Because you’re worth more than whatever it is they’re paying you in ‘overtime’.

Blessings are metered by OUR ability to receive, not the Universes ability to give. It’s almost like, the Universe would like to give us everything but it is us that says no.

In some sense, as a friend suggested, sometimes it’s our ‘personality’ which gets in the way of blessings. And that sometimes we need to let go of our selves, put our sense of ‘Self’ to one side to simply allow God’s blessings into our lives.

Some say that we have to make a “vessel” a way and a path, for the Universe to bless us. But I believe, more important than the creation of a mere ‘vessel’ or conduit of divine blessing, we ourselves, must become spiritually able and willing to receive blessing into our hearts and into our lives.

The questions we are forced to ask are; are we open enough, receptive enough, willing enough to allow the divine to give us everything and more? Are we ready to accept bliss into our every moment of our lives?!!!?

Say to yourself; “I’m sorry for having previously been a barrier to receiving blessings, I forgive you for the past, I now allow you to accept all blessings into your heart with joy and love. I allow the source of all blessings to flow through me, so that peace is my very being and the abundance of blessing my inheritance!”

Most of us might plan a few weeks in advance, we might even book our summer holidays in at the beginning of the year, but very few people actually make a plan for their life.

Where would I like to be in five or ten years time? How do I want to be? What kind of life do I want to live? Where? With whom? What kind of job or pastime do I want to be doing and enjoying?

And this is one of the many Life Coaching tools – the five year plan.

But before you go off, drawing up your plan and running off making big changes in your life, stop for a moment.

Lets take a step back and think about the destination again.

Where are you going? Let’s take a few moments to really think about where you want your life to go.

A few very useful question I ask people are;

1. How would you feel if you won the lottery?
2. What would you do with the money?
3. How does it change your life?
4. After some years of spending and living the hi life – what do you do?
5. Can you imagine your future life in detail?
6. How does it feel?
7. How can you do that now?
8. How can you move forward towards your current life goals?

You see you really need to figure out where you want to be heading BEFORE you start running away in that general direction.

But now that you’ve got a slightly better idea, we can start planning!

It doesn’t have to be a very detail plan, just a sketch, an outline, I find it works best if you plan backwards.

Year 5 -

Year 4 -

Year 3 -

Year 2 -

Year 1 -

Now you can begin to run towards your future - even though this plan may change, at least you’ve now got a much clearer idea and vision of where you are going.

Good luck!

Escape from the city, and from the humdrum and stresses of everyday life…

Sometimes we all need to escape from the din of city living, step outside of our everyday selves and reassess the way we live, to help us gain new and different perspective on our lives.

Our Weekend ‘Shabbaton’ Urban Guru Retreat is the perfect time and place to do this as it’s entirely dedicated to your personal spiritual growth and development. It is an ideal chance to breathe and focus on becoming more relaxed, spiritualy centred and balanced. It is an opportunity to reassess your life, discover your souls path, and a chance to focus on cultivating your own happiness, inner joy and peace of mind. So when you do return to your life you can begin to live it on a higher plane, were you can be more focussed, calm, and alive.

Urban Guru Retreats, usually take place over a weekend (or Shabbaton) Friday - Sunday, in a converted farm near Buxton in the Peak Park UK. They are very laid back and relaxing, the weekend is a mixture of lectures and workshops, focusing on wide variety of themes.

This included workshops in various forms of Kabbalistic meditation, from the early Merkvah school - to modern day forms of Hassidic consciousness expanding techniques.

The themes of the lectures vary - and they can focus on that weeks Torah reading - although not always so. We try to keep some semblance of a traditional Shabath from Friday to Saturday night although we are not dogmatic about it.

As participants are asked to refrain from using there mobile phones throughout their time at the retreat etc…There are group activities and ‘prayer’ workshops, as well as one on one learning and mentoring.

All the activities are completely voluntary… if someone doesn’t wish to participate and even just spend the entire weekend in their room that’s fine - if that is what they need to do.

The food is Kosher* and Vegetarian and were possible locally produced and/or organic. It is generally for small groups with a maximum of 12 people.