An Open Letter to Jean Charest

Mr Premier,

To start off, let me say that throughout my life, I have heard my father, a distinguished now-retired lawyer, speak of you with reverence…discussing exchanges he has had with you with nothing but admiration in his voice, which in turn, led me to carry a certain respect and admiration for you as well, because after all, what better example could I possibly follow than that shown to me by my father?

Let me continue by saying that I am not writing this to attack you. I am not in the habit of appealing to politicians, because I generally don’t believe that politicians act in the best interest of their constituents, but because I occasionally like to have myself proven wrong, I am now going out on a limb by writing this to you. Prove me wrong.

Montreal and the province of Quebec is in crisis. The last time public opinion was as polarized as it now was at the last referendum in 1995, and back then, politics was the catalyst for the divide. The same old story, French vs. English, English vs. French. Well, I’m proud to say that 17 years later, language isn’t what’s getting your cities’ inhabitants riled up. You are.

When the student protests over tuition began, I generally adopted the belief that it was par for the course. I was in London, England when the same thing happened a little over a year ago when the now infamous photo of Prince Charles and Camilla was published with them being driven in their limousine as hordes of irate students trued to smash the windows of their vehicle in. I believe that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, so if the government tries to tighten their belt financially speaking, I expect some sort of backlash from that tightening…and you know what? I’m PROUD to live somewhere where the citizens feel passionate and empowered enough to stand up and let their frustrations be known. Despite being highly annoyed at having to re-route my travels to and from wherever I try to get in the city because of riots and demonstrations, I am proud of our Montrealers. I am proud to be a Montrealer. Because of that pride, I’m writing to you to ask you to let go of your ego, to let go of your role as a potential tool that is controlled by your buddies in government around you, and to forget about what the leaders of the opposing political parties in the city and country think. I am appealing to you as a human being and as a leader to open your eyes. Forget about re-election. Pay attention to now, because if you don’t, we’re fucked.

I saw what happened to the United States of America because they elected a leader that refused to act in the interests of his country’s population. On a global scale, the USA went from being a leading global political and economic power with clout and respect to the butt of jokes, a write-off, a source of pity and referred to with rancor and disgust. I’ve seen it with my own eyes, and often been a part of it. With that said, I knew that it all came down to its leaders. Hurricane Katrina wasn’t devastating because it was a hurricane. It was devastating because George W. Bush didn’t care enough for the citizens of New Orleans to step in when it mattered and maintain order and peace with humanity and attention to the people affected. Mr. Charest, this situation you’re now (not) dealing with is your Katrina. Don’t make the same mistakes the ex-American president made. Despite making ridiculous comments while giving your speech at the Salon du Plan du Nord, comments that even your supporters felt were inappropriate and unnecessary, it’s not too late for you to act. In the interests of the people who believed in you, who elected you, who need you. If you care about your city and your province, then how can you allow this situation to keep growing and growing? When my older brother was a toddler, he would sneak off to eat candy with his hand over his eyes, solidly believing that if he couldn’t see anyone, they couldn’t see him and wouldn’t catch him with candy. Remove your hand from over your eyes, Mr. Premier. With talk of the army being called in and martial law being called to prevent the demonstrators from bringing their indignation to your doorstep, I am seeing the potential consequences of your lack of participation. You are supposed to protect your people. You’re supposed to ensure that Montreal and the province continue to stand as beacons of progressive thought and a melting pot of global cultures, but yet even CNN is reporting about what’s happening here. Stand up and look after your people. Deal with this problem like an adult. Responsibly, with compassion and empathy, as a role model should do. Have a discussion, face to face. Diffuse this before we are all paying for it. It’s your job and your responsibility, and sitting back refusing to budge simply makes you look like George W. Bush – happy to line your pockets with the blood of the people you were elected to protect and represent.

Montreal is about to move into its summer months, when we take the global stage with the Jazz Festival, the film festivals, the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival. We need people to want to come to our city, and we need to want to go down into the downtown core without fear of being pelted with tear gas and blinded by an adrenaline-charged riot police officer. This is only going to get worse, and the more resistance you display, the less support you will get. People have been badly injured already, and the climate of fear is growing. Pull your finger out and do something. Please. For the sake of your career, for the sake of your reputation, for the sake of your safety, for the sake of our city and the province it resides in. Do something. It’s not too late.

Respectfully,

Bram Levinson

Nothing Really Matters

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, I know, but trust me, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking…of searching…of examining…of reading and studying…and it’ll never be over, which is why I decided to sit down this evening and get some thoughts out to you all…

I’ve got a question to ask you: how many of you believe that you are alive, on this earth, in this minute, where you are geographically, for a reason? How many of you really feel that? That you have a higher, loftier purpose than what you find yourself doing daily?

I have always felt that my life was meant to be lived for a reason, but for many, many years I couldn’t figure out what that reason was, so I simply took opportunities that came to me and assumed that life would bring me where I was meant to go. I was, however, very conscious of my need to stop and check myself before embarking on any avenue that would require a wholehearted investment, because despite not being able to pin down what my mission was, I have always known when something would be a distraction, a waste of time. I left centers of higher education over and over when I felt my studies were wasting my time, and as I instruct people in my “Examined Life” workshop to do, through the process of elimination I repeatedly managed to identify what I didn’t want in my life. And it was through this elimination that I finally figured it out.

My awareness of consciousness (and its subtle layers) has been with me for as long as I can remember, even back when I had no name for it, no parameters within which to define it. And ironically, when meditated and reflected on, it is nameless and undefinable. Over the past week I have been reading a translation of the Bhagavad Gita by Eknath Easwaran, and in all honesty, I haven’t gotten past the introduction…not because it’s difficult or painful to read, quite the contrary, actually. I keep re-reading his words that set the tone for the layers of consciousness that permeate the Gita, and every time I read them, a different phrase or concept rises up to meet me, which I end up reflecting on for a few days. At this rate, I’ll have finished reading the book by 2013, but all kidding aside, he mentions something which succinctly sums up my beliefs and reasons for carrying out my mission of helping people realize their own selves and missions. He brings up the concept of brahmavidya, which translates to “the supreme science” – supreme because it is the science of consciousness, which underlies and informs all other studies and aspects of life.

In discussing the origins of brahmavidya, Eknath tells us that the ancient Hindu sages, through their introspective studies of consciousness, came to three conclusions that have since been backed up by more modern-day scientists: 1) there is an infinite, changeless reality beneath the world of change; 2) this same reality lies at the core of every human personality; 3) the purpose of life is to discover this reality experientially. What does this all mean? Let me give you my take on it: the lives we live spent managing our jobs, relationships, health, passions, hobbies, etc… all fall into the world of change. These things happen, then they’re done. We feel one way, the feeling passes. We work on one project, it ends. Many of us have lived our lives to date confident in the belief that this world is the sum total of our efforts and happiness lies in said efforts and their results. Others have played this game and “won”, only to discover that the satisfaction they were led to believe would be gained from all their hard work remained elusive. The world of change is very real, don’t get me wrong. But there is way more to our existence than what we can perceive using our senses. The sages identified that under the world of change lies another realm, one in which resides a changeless source of energy from which every single thing in existence stems….which leads us to their second point: we stem from that source. We carry that changeless, nameless energy within us and our personalities develop from there. Lastly, they tell us that the meaning of life, the reason we are here on earth is to experience this connection we have to that which is changeless. To understand it, to connect to it, and to remember it so that it alters our perception of the world of change, allowing us to see that everything comes from one source and that we have way more in common with each other than we understand.

Grasping these concepts can be incredibly alienating, giving many the reason they need to not explore further into their own lives and the perception they have of the world around them. It is, however, these concepts exactly which have always been with me, albeit under guises that were harder to explain and justify. It is these very concepts that I try to bring with me to every class I teach, every workshop I give, every lecture I prepare. I believe that as soon as we realize that the jobs we work at and the relationships we partake in and the roles we overload ourselves with are ever-changing and temporary, we find ourselves receiving that much-needed nudge into a place of clarity, where any illusion about why we’re here is dispelled, and we understand exactly the depths of meaning that each and every one of us embodies. We are provided with a clearer framework within which we can stop wasting time and identify the gifts we have been carrying around with us for our entire lives so that we can finally share them with the rest of the world.

So…if you answered in the affirmative to my question at the beginning of this post, has what you’ve read here informed that belief of yours to any extent? Why are you here? And how long has it taken you to figure out? It’s time to pay attention to what really matters. Your time is now…

Like Sands Through The Hourglass

It’s been a week since my first encounter with Sharon Gannon and David Life, the creators of Jivamukti Yoga. Spending last weekend in Woodstock, New York at the Jivamukti Immersion Weekend was a fantastic opportunity to spend time with some friends who work in yoga as well, so time together is usually scarce at best…and our exposure to the teachings of Sharon & David was enlightening, to say the least. We were taught countless things, while being reminded and re-directed to countless others, but among everything we heard and discussed, I found myself honing in on something that became my focus of the week for my classes over the past 5 days, and I wanted to get it down here as well.

How often do we say yes to things that we’d rather say no to? How many times do we agree to do something when we’d rather do something else, or even do nothing at all? How many people do we keep in our lives who bring us more suffering than peace, and how many times do we spend time with these people when we’d rather not? How often do we avoid confrontation or having to defend our reasoning by agreeing to something? Think about it. We spend so much time being agreeable, settling for less than we want for ourselves, making other people happy. We forage our way through life treating the time we are blessed with as if it’s a renewable resource…we agree to do something, to use up some of our time, to get something done or make someone happy, attached to the moment that we’re done so we can get back to what we originally wanted to be doing. And I’ll tell you something massively important – if we do these things, if we choose to sacrifice our time in ways that don’t fulfill us, we’re deluding ourselves that our time isn’t valuable. And it is.

The majority of us were raised by parents for whom this type of thinking was laughable and quickly dismissed. Our parents came from a generation where things had to get done, regardless of how they felt about them. The fact that I’m writing this blog post and encouraging us all to live with greater integrity and accountability to ourselves proves that we are blessed with options our parents may not have had. It’s in our nature to NOT prioritize ourselves or our time, to always be available to others, to put ourselves last. If the teachings of yoga and the majority of what I believe in provide a call to the NOW, then why not start treating time like the gift that it is? Every single one of us is here for a reason – one that is greater than ourselves, and greater than the sum total of ourselves. The more time we pay attention to that, honouring the paths we feel compelled to travel, the closer we get to figuring out what our mission is and how we can affect change in the world around us. These bodies of ours, our ability to discern universal law from government-enforced legislation, our attraction towards light and all it represents, are all gifts, but like any gift, if  put aside to be opened at a later date, they’ll probably go unnoticed and forgotten before long. Open your gifts. Use them. Let them wake you up to why you’re really here. Incorporate them into your daily routines and see what you notice in your own behaviour and understanding, as well as in the world around you. See the time that you have been allotted as non-renewable, and allow that comprehension to affect everything in your lives. What would it change for you if you knew that your days were numbered? Because they are. Without getting morbid, let me remind you all that no one is given immortality to get everything they want to do done. Get things done. Tell people you love them. Stop wasting your time, and make the most out of this moment. Now. Consider this a rarity, because being reminded that everything could change within one second seems to be unpopular. I’m willing to be unpopular.

Go.

Immersed in Niyasa

As many of you already know, the past few years have been formative ones for me, almost Richter-scale-esque on many levels. My time at Centre Luna Yoga continues to be a real gift, and because it’s the closest thing to a Jivamukti studio that can be found in Montreal, I have been majorly influenced by the teachings of Jivamukti founders Sharon Gannon and David Life. After years of reading their wisdom, of reading their focuses every month, and of operating under their influence, I have to admit that despite the sense of familiarity I developed from having them as indirect teachers, I was still somewhat intimidated at the thought of actually being in their presence. The past few years culminated in my finally taking a 3-hour class from them yesterday…and if I felt a kinship towards them and their approach to yoga before yesterday afternoon, I now find a real sense of admiration for them…and possibly a tiny bit of love

Hearing people around me constantly refer to Sharon and David almost de-sensitized me to how approachable they might actually be, but this weekend’s classes gave me a first-person perspective on how witty, down-to-earth, and refreshingly informative AND approachable they both are. Despite leading amazingly active and challenging classes, they managed to keep us all laughing in a state of unwavering presence, focused on their instructions and anecdotes, all the while speaking to us directly, in language we could understand and relate to. They never speak in obscure language or talk down to their students, and for such revered personalities in the global yoga communities, I found the combination of both their energies absolutely inspiring.

Our focus for the weekend was presented to us as the role of the student and the role of the teacher, and we’ll continue exploring the subject as we work through the weekend.

We woke up this morning with a heavy blanketing of snow muffling all sounds, something I found conducive to spending the day nestled away studying and learning from Sharon, David, and each other. As we continue to explore our selves and our practices, one thing has kept coming back through Sharon’s teachings: the concept of Niyasa, which translates to “to place consciously”. As some of you already know, there have been moments in the classes I teach where I encourage people to move/breathe/set intention “like they mean it.” The Sanskrit word Niyasa never presented itself to be included in my vernacular until today, but essentially the concepts are the same. To practice Niyasa fully is to be aware of the most seemingly innocuous and insignificant of moments, and to do whatever we’re doing with complete awareness, with complete consciousness of our actions. Like we mean it. Because we mean it. Because it’s an expression of our intention. Because everything we do and say and communicate with these bodies that we’ve been graced with has the potential to be complete, to be a direct expression of truth, of light and of consciousness. Niyasa has now nestled itself into my consciousness, and you’ll be hearing a lot more about it, I’m sure

We go back to Sharon and David’s house for lectures, meditation, chanting, and a Q&A period after the lunch break. I am fully immersed. I am full of joy, really and truly. I’ll sign off now with something I overheard Sharon whispering to someone she was giving a massage to in Savasana: Be Happy. Chant it in your head. Be Happy.

And now incorporate Niyasa. Love to you all

Immersing Myself

I’m in Woodstock, New York on a brilliantly sunny Friday morning, staring at the diffused sunlight pierce through the natural cotton drapes covering the windows in my room. The sounds of life in the house where I’m staying are starting to become more frequent as one by one, the others staying here with me wake up and go through their daily morning rituals.

We’ve all come down here together from Montreal to participate in the Jivamukti Immersion Weekend with Jivamukti creators Sharon Gannon and David Life. Some of us here have already spent time with them in past immersion programs and in their annual teacher training, but this is a first for me. After hearing about them, reading their insight and teachings, and occasionally subbing for a Jiva teacher, I am filled with a real sense of excitement and anticipation at not only being on the cusp of receiving their teachings first-hand, but I’m just happy to be experiencing their energy in person. As I wrote about in a 2011 post (Guises of the Guru), a fellow teacher and friend Dawn Bailey had told me about how simply being in the same orbit as Sharon and David’s energy elevated her own energy, and so it’s with real joy that I now roll off the bed and let my footsteps bring me towards an experience that I’m sure will influence my teachings, my interpretation of the world around me, and my overall frame of reference. I’ll be coming back here all weekend to share my experiences with you all, so stay tuned!

Landmarked

It’s 9am Monday morning, and I’ve slept in (as much as one can do with a new puppy) for the first time in four days. My head is still buzzing from my weekend at the Landmark Forum, and when I look back at my post from last week, I have to say that it ended up being everything I thought it would be, but if I thought I really had a grasp on the big picture, I was absolutely wrong. The forum needs to be experienced first-hand to actually see that regardless of what its detractors may say, this organization is helping people…guiding people…re-directing people…and ultimately, opening their eyes. It really is about empowering every single person (regardless of the usual demographic classifications we use to separate ourselves from each other) to become complete and whole, to face their fears, and to show them how those fears and obstacles that have often paralyzed them from living/growing/loving/expanding/sharing/hoping are based in the decisions that their 5-year-old selves made long ago.

Now don’t get me wrong – I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I had many moments throughout the weekend where I asked myself “what have I gotten myself into?”, where I questioned if experiencing unpleasantness was necessary in order to learn something, but in actuality, when was being challenged and held accountable for your choices and actions ever comfortable? And our forum leader was strong, matter-of-fact, and hell-bent on getting results for the people who were in attendance. Albeit robotic at times, she was adamant in her mission to have us open our eyes to the areas and aspects of our lives and behaviours that we weren’t aware of – the ones that often are visible to others who then point them out to us, much to our disdain. Her mission was to empower us to create new possibilities in our lives, to step up to the plate in order to touch, move, and inspire others so they could do the same and have it ripple off into the world. The creation of these new possibilities stems from living a life steeped in authenticity, and she was there to encourage us to do so…to open our eyes to the time and energy we waste trying to look good to the world around us when in fact, everyone else is doing the same thing and no one actually sees each other. I greatly admired her ability to not simply shower participants with empathy and affection when they collapsed into tears, opting instead to coach them using tools they could practically apply to examine the real source of their obstacles.

Much of what happens in Landmark comes from its participants, and by the end of the weekend, one feels a definite complicity with these people (spending 39 hours together over 3 days will do that). Participants (whose ages ranged from 15-84) are encouraged to share their personal stories with the group, and the courage that these people have to step up to the front of the room and divulge their personal tales of trauma, fear and loss is jaw-dropping and refreshingly inspiring. It is through this sharing of personal stories that the rest of the group sees their own lives reflected back at them, complete with the stories we have told ourselves which have dictated the choices that direct us to where we find ourselves. Those stories, when we actually stand back and examine them, are all based in the mind of who we were as a child when every new thing that occurred in our lives imprinted itself, and understanding that one concept is massively enlightening to many. Once that is understood, it then becomes clear that to move towards a place where we can create real possibilities in our lives, we have to let go of the patterns and thought processes that have led us to wherever we find ourselves. The results come into being through letting go of all the reasons which have informed our behaviours.

The truisms that Landmark is based on aren’t new to many of us, but to others, seem revelatory…that change is futile and accomplishes nothing, and that personal transformation can only occur through acceptance of what is and why it is. The destructive force that is gossip was addressed, as was the power that language has to change our lives…that the cost of avoiding responsibility is one’s own vitality…that we are in denial as a race of human beings about the fact that we are inauthentic..that our actions are what matters and that opinions and talk are worthless without some sort of doing associated to them. The concepts of success vs. fulfillment (which ironically, I wrote about a few weeks ago), and that other people’s battles are theirs to fight were huge ones for me, but the one that seemed to speak to everyone was that we should see what happens as what happens while letting go our of interpretation of it. A lot of important insight was on offer, and to many in attendance, this was the first time they had ever been encouraged to think about anything other than the usual superficialities of daily life. It was incredible to see these people wake up, and even more satisfying to see myself do the same to many things I had simply agreed to not address in my own behaviours and patterns.

Two things didn’t sit well with me throughout the weekend. One was the incessant , non-stop chatter courtesy of the two translators that flanked the forum leader on either side. One was responsible for translating into French every phrase that came out of the leader’s mouth, and it was like watching a tennis match as sentences came out incrementally in one language, followed by the other. The other translator was present to translate whatever was spoken by participants, often killing the essence of what was being shared by having to interrupt to translate to the room. My personal opinion is that there should be two forums, one for the French-speakers and one for the English, so that the flow of communication could remain unimpeded (which could perhaps turn a 13-hour day sitting in a chair into a 9 or 10 hour day). The other element that almost had me heading for the hills (and had my bullshit meter practically exploding) was the selling/business aspect of the experience. There were several moments throughout the weekend where the forum leader spoke about other seminars and programs offered by Landmark, and as a choice between two seminars was already paid for with the cost of the weekend we were experiencing, registration sheets were handed out to everyone to enroll themselves in. The pressure tactics were subtle, but at no point were we told that registration was optional. We were guided through filling out the form and when I handed mine in blank, I was then approached the following day to discuss which seminar I would register for. I politely declined, but knew that a more vulnerable and less self-assured person would have caved and would have gotten brought further into the organization’s programs. When it came to other programs offered, we were given a choice, but told that we could take a few minutes to sign up after the forum leader described the benefits of the programs, and this was done in full view of everyone else, so the ones who chose not to sign up were exposed to the ones who were full-steam ahead, which I felt put undue pressure on people to sign up for fear of standing out from the crowd. This may have just been how I personally felt about it, but looking around the room, I saw I wasn’t alone. I felt that the business side of it all could have been dealt with through transparency instead of spin. I would have felt more respect for them if we had been told that yes, Landmark is a business, and that their product is worth paying for, but that to maintain the integrity of the business, they wanted to tell us about what was on offer. With that said, giving people the option of signing up with a bit more privacy (during breaks, after the day ended) would have spoken more to me.

To sum up, I found that this past weekend refocused and enlightened me in many ways, all for the better. For many who have already connected to something greater than themselves, what Landmark teaches might sound redundant, but for others, an existence steeped in possibilities lies waiting at the end of their forum. I’m grateful to Lululemon for having given me the opportunity to experience Landmark first-hand, and am the better for it.

Landmark or landmine?

Tomorrow morning I start the Landmark Forum, an internationally recognized organization that brings together those who would like insight into how they live and how the decisions they take dictate where they end up. Landmark is as well-known for having participants in their weekend-long program experience massive breakthroughs as they are for being labelled a cult, a sect and a shameless money-making machine. I was asked by Lululemon if doing the program would interest me, as their employees who know me believed that Landmark’s philosophies correlated well with my own, and I jumped at the chance to experience first-hand what Landmark is all about…but leading up to this weekend, I’ve experienced a multitude of emotions about my participation in the program, and at the suggestion of my friend Frances Vicente, I decided to write everything down here to have as a “before” reference once the weekend is over and I’m looking back at the whole experience.

As you all well know by now, I’m a huge believer in examining how we live our lives, and why we find ourselves where we do in any given moment. Yoga has been key in my own quest, and as one of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras states, Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind. “The fluctuations of the mind” refers to how attached to and involved with we allow our minds to be with the fleeting experiences and moments throughout any given day…the process of observing the world around us to the process of discrimination that allows us to interpret, identify and categorize the goings-on that we move through minute-by-minute. Suffice it to say, I am actively seeking out a state of Yoga these days as I get closer to Landmark, and here’s why: it’s true that people have spoken to me about how incredibly illuminating this program is, how it opens one’s eyes to the role we play on an individual level within the relationships in our lives, how we prevent ourselves from living fully and completely. People speak about finally being able to move past the circumstances and events that have previously plagued them, in some case absolutely rendering them emotionally raw and stunted. I’m all for anything that speaks to people in language they can understand and practically apply to bring their lives closer to their ideal realities. However, I’ve also heard that from the get-go, the speakers at Landmark start selling you on the program, encouraging you to bring everyone you know to their doors under the guise, “If you love the people in your lives, why wouldn’t you want them to experience what would bring them to a higher understanding and degree of happiness?” I’m very fortunate that Lululemon is sending me and footing the bill, but I also know that the weekend is expensive and would probably not be financially viable for most of the people in my life.  The forum lasts Friday, Saturday & Sunday (plus Tuesday evening), and participants are in the program from 9am to 10pm all weekend. They are discouraged from bathroom breaks, have only one 60-minute meal break in the evening for dinner (we are told that we have 30-minute breaks every 2.5-3 hours, but I’ve also heard that we’re given homework to do in these breaks), and are generally kept cooped up in a room with roughly 150 other people for the entire duration. So you’ll understand if the fluctuations of my mind are off the charts right now .

With all that said, I believe that the people at Lululemon who thought of me for this program know me well enough to know that a) I will walk away from this weekend with tools that I can believe in and apply to my own teachings, and b) if my bullshit meter starts getting higher-than-ever readings, I will simply remove myself from the situation. I’m looking forward to having my doubts eradicated, to being shown why this program is as successful as it is, and to being empowered to move closer to my own goals with a clearer-than-ever vision of where I’m going and what I’m trying to do in the world.

I’ll be back here next week to share with you all how this weekend went down…I’m taking a bit of a leap with the Landmark Forum, but I know that the greatest rewards are most often found by those who take the greatest leaps of faith. I’ll let you know where I land…

Trivial Pursuits

About 12 years ago I lived in a massive apartment with my then-partner and our best friend. We three were always hanging out together, and we had decided that we might as well split rent three ways instead of rotating where we would hang out day after day…so we got this great place and each assumed our share of the (then-massive) rent. About a year after we moved, I walked into our living room (as one does) and noticed a pile of real estate listings with houses for sale, so I went to go speak to my friend to ask if he had any plans to move out in order to buy a house. He totally shrugged it off, saying he was just checking to see what was out there in the market but he wasn’t really looking. Cut to a few weeks later when he came home and proudly exclaimed that he had bought a house! So, trying to roll with the punches, I congratulated him and then asked him to give us his moving date as soon as he knew it because a) our rent was exorbitant and we needed to absorb his third of it, and b) our stove and fridge were his, and so I’d have to go buy new ones to replace his when he took them with him. Cut to a month later when I came home and saw the fridge being wheeled out the front door. Needless to say, our friendship pretty much ended there.

My partner and I dealt with the odd behaviour from our friend, and within a week or two we had re-adjusted to being just the two of us in the flat. We didn’t really have any communication with our friend, until a month had passed and I got a call from him asking why we hadn’t made any effort to come visit him and see his new place. I told him that I didn’t feel comfortable inviting myself as he had left in such an odd fashion, at which point he pretty much told me that he got caught up in the excitement of purchasing his first property, and by the time he found himself living in it, he had no one to share it with and found the thrill was less than he had anticipated it would be.

We are led to believe in today’s world that the pursuit of happiness lies in the pursuit of material gain. We are encouraged to get the job that might kill our soul, but man, will it ever bring in the cash that we need to afford the status symbols that are the house/car/watch/clothes/kids/spouse/gadgets that we tirelessly chase after. We’re conned into believing that these things will bring us happiness, and admittedly, when we achieve these goals, we do experience a thrill. Momentarily. And then it’s gone. And we sit wondering if we took a wrong step somewhere along the way, because we weren’t supposed to left with a void. We had done everything we were supposed to do. Why then wasn’t it enough?

This story is all too common these days. Believing that life is about getting what you want is allowing yourselves to miss the point entirely. It’s not about getting what you want – it’s about who you become as the experience unfolds. It’s about finding fulfillment in the process of working for what you want, and about making sure what you’re working towards is what you want, not what you’re supposed to want. Success without fulfillment is empty and meaningless. It reduces all our efforts and pursuits to the realm of the trivial. Every single one of us is looking for meaning, and we are encouraged to believe that we gain meaning through wealth, fame, etc…These things, if unable to provide fulfillment and without purpose at their very core, are not only useless, they can be destructive. My friend from 12 years ago learned first-hand that to be able to acquire things may satisfy temporarily, but to be unable to share them deprived him of any fulfillment he may have been expecting.

Look at everything you do, every endeavour you expend time and energy you assume, and ask yourselves if you can find fulfillment. Can you get there from here? You’ll find the answers you seek. You already know them.

The Heart’s Memory

I’ve recently found myself getting involved in some pretty thought-provoking discussions with friends about the state of the world. From politics to religion, from daily dramas to life and death, it seems like there is a common undercurrent of negativity that we are being fed, and given the right company and circumstances, it erupts forth and instigates a healthy dose of communication and debate.

The subjects that seem to get the conversation close to a boiling point always seem to be the same: the apparent (and seemingly inescapable) descent into the realm of complete bigotry, misogyny, homophobia and general insanity from the American Republican candidates…the utter ineptitude of the Canadian population (excluding the province of Quebec) that somehow allowed the egomaniacal lunacy of Stephen Harper to not only be elected, but to be rewarded with a majority government…the mounting tension between Iran and Israel and the countries that support each of them on their way to some sort of conflict…the state of the European economy…the state of the global economy…what separates those who are immensely wealthy from those who seemingly run after the dangling carrot of economic security. This is but a cross-section of a typical evening’s list of topics, and from the point of view of those I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with, these topics are enough to get us all sitting on the edge of our seats in anticipation of the next topic to be thrown into the arena. Throughout all the face time we’ve shared, it’s a true sense of disbelief that we end up walking away with…disbelief that we, as a race of beings, have become so polarized from logic and compassion that we now find ourselves feeling helpless as the age of stupidity drags us even further away from advancement and evolution.

In a yoga workshop last weekend with Dechen Thurman, he talked briefly about how we used to value intelligence, and how we sometimes valued it enough to elect those blessed with it to positions of leadership. He followed up on that by saying that instead of electing people based on their intelligence, we now elect people based on how they make us feel. Rarely have I been exposed to such a succinct summation of where we find ourselves as humans, and with that in mind, in keeping with connecting to how we feel, I’d like to propose the solution to dealing with a propaganda-based, media-driven world of negativity: gratitude.

In the yogic teachings, we learn yogaś-citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ , that Yoga or  state of Union, is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind. This cessation insinuates that we hone in on one thing as opposed to allowing the mind and our awareness to be ricocheted around like a pinball, and it’s through this honing that we gradually become aware of the veil of illusion we live behind. This veil keeps us ignorant of our true nature as beings of love and compassion, stemming from the source of all that exists. As long as we allow ourselves to stay behind the veil, we validate the daily dramas that we tend to obsess over and appoint them as a source of importance to be revered and fed. These dramas are simply a trick, something to keep us distracted, focused on the obvious when our nature is to seek out the fleeting nature of the essence hidden behind the obvious. From my point of view, the media outlets reporting on the topics that keep us all flabbergasted at the state of the world are simply feeding us fluctuations….of the collective mind. We are being thrown curve balls at every minute, and instead of trying to catch them all, we should instead focus on that which renders the distractions insignificant. We need to find gratitude. We need to take note of every seemingly innocuous detail of our lives to see where we can find blessings, and then emanate gratitude for them.

You want to know mine? Here goes: I’m grateful for this body that allows me to practice yoga and tap into the essence of the people and events around me. I’m grateful for my family. I’m grateful for my friends. I’m grateful for the people who support and love me and who allow me to support and love them back. I’m grateful to live in a country where I can have in-depth discussions with people without having to watch what I say for fear of being imprisoned for expressing myself. I’m grateful to be able to sleep at night. I’m grateful to the people who live their truths and inspire me daily to do the same. I’m grateful that my words reach people and occasionally make a difference in their lives. I’m grateful to be able to travel. I’m grateful to be able to meld my passions with my career. I’m grateful for the roof over my head, the clothes on my back, and the knowledge that no matter where my path takes me, I’m taken care of. It’s through gratitude that we tap into the heart’s memory, and in one fell swoop, we draw the veil of illusion aside and can see the permanence that informs every single one of us.

We have a responsibility to each other to never take anything at face value, to seek out the truth behind the distractions. The portal to that process is gratitude. Feel it in every moment possible, and see how it changes you. Tap into your heart’s memory.

 

Choosing Your Adventure

Every week I bring a new focus to the classes that I teach – one that I find helpful to me in my life and that I feel relevant and potentially beneficial to the students. These focuses are born from inspiration – the inspiration I find from a sentence I read in a book, from hearing in conversation, or simply from observing my own patterns and behaviour. The sources are many, but almost everything I’ve ever felt insightful enough to carry through to my students all boil down to the focus from two weeks ago. The focuses often present themselves to me right before I fall asleep at night, and this one was no exception.

Everything I try to convey in my classes and through the various outlets available to me, every bit of insight and advice I am approached for, all stem from one question we need to be constantly asking ourselves: am I making decisions in my life that I can be proud of? In the same way that all Hindu gods and goddesses stem from the one omnipotent energy source that is Ishvara, everything we seek and question in our lives stems from this concept of having the wherewithal and ability for staying in the present moment to question our motives for taking the decisions that we do. And boy, do we make decisions. Every minute of every hour presents us with countless options as to how we want to live this life we’ve been given. And much like those Choose Your Own Adventure books that I loved as a child, we never have only one option – if you want to do one thing, turn to page 99. If you’d rather do this other thing, turn to page 26. If neither of them is speaking to you, turn to page 155. As with those books, few of the options will ever bring you to your demise, and so we have a grand task presented to us every time we actively decide on something.

Being present and accountable for what we decide for ourselves isn’t about ensuring we’re looking for every single fork in the road to make sure that none get left by the wayside…we would go mad if we spent all our time jumping on every opportunity to make THE decision to end all other decisions…it is, however, about making sure that we check ourselves at that pivotal moment where we understand that the decision facing us has the potential to bring us closer to where we’d like to be, closest to who we see ourselves as being. We always have more than one possibility as to where our decisions will take us. As Sri Swami Satchidananda’s focus on December 1, 2011 stated, “We should be very, very careful about what desires we cultivate. There may be many other little desires, it doesn’t matter; but our predominant desire should be something elevating. Something that would take you away from this to a higher level, never something that would take you backward.” The desires we cultivate are cultivated through our choices, and with a multitude of choices available to us, we need to make sure that we find some sort of advancement or evolution through these choices. Forget about what would make others happy. Parents, siblings, friends, co-workers…it’s not about them. This journey is yours alone, and you have a responsibility to yourselves to honour who you are and how you want to live this life. Ask yourselves the most fundamental of questions when unsure of whether your decisions are proving to be fruitful or not: “Has this brought me suffering, to ANY degree, or has it brought me peace?” The answer will be clear. And it will prove helpful when choosing where your adventure will next take you. It just requires you to show up…to be awake…and to make sure that you can be proud of your choices. For no one other than yourselves. After all, it’s your adventure.