Things are happening on their own -get out of the way (ego)-

(This is an article I wrote for the promotion of the training that I fascilitate in Indian Head Massage. This is irrelevant here, unless you’re living in my hometown, nevertheless I’m very happy to share it in my blog. Enjoy!

When I started Kung-fu in my youth, at one point the teacher told me that what we do here in the training is not really trying to build something. And then he started conveying a metaphorical image of an archaeologist who brings out a statue from the depths of the earth. You can barely recognize its image and characteristics as it is covered with all this dirt. And then he starts to clean it slowly and with delicate movements, uncovering its true form, helping it manifest its beauty to the world.

Years later, when I was transposing myself –with a sense of wonder and awe- to Florence in the times of Medici, while reading the biographies of the Great Masters, I heard Michael Angelo say that when he sets his eyes on a block of marble, he can visualize the statue lying in there. For him it is already in there, only imprisoned within the marble boulder, and all he has to do is to release and reveal it to the world. (I believe words like these outline a very effective tool to achieveing goals that we have in front of us. It is actually in guidelines like those, given by masters on their own craft, that a big part of NLP is based upon, but this is for another article).

I’m sharing the above here because they have influenced the way in which I approach either the fine arts, those of the body and soul, or life itself. I find that words like the above to convey a natural sense, a letting go into a of natural flow, sidestepping the ego, while at the same time committing to the response-ability of being present. And in what has to do with offering sessions or trainings, it brings me to the level of simply being a human that has something to share. In this way by helping me strip off the cloak of the teacher, escape the trap of an inflated image of the healer and in this way experience the freedom, freshness and respone-ability to not search for these things for myself.

Yes, we can get taught by what life brings on our path, and the way that we come in contact can heal us, but we really can’t heal, teach or save anyone. This is in the hands of each of us, in our own responsibility.

Another thing I like about this concept, is that it challenges the narrative that can often be found in the world of “alternative”, “new age” therapy, which goes like: “there’s something wrong with me and I need to change it”, “I’m not well/good”, “I need saving/a master to save me” (funny how these beliefs look resemble the narratives in traditional religions). Well, the words of those who’ve mastered the Kung-fu or the chisel (or life in general, like Osho) are actually saying to me “you are perfect already”, “you have a unique place in the universe” “there’s nothing wrong with you, nothing needed to do except dropping the bullshit”, “the only thing to do is allow yourself to flow in the process of manifesting the truth and richness of your soul”.

You see, one can attend therapies and seminars for a lifetime without even giving permission to this simple truth to touch hers/his essence. Just running from one therapy to another, missing what’s in front of the nose, the joy of living and sharing.

So, this is the way with which I approach and share this seminar. More like a celebration of our wholeness and sacredness as human beings, than as therapy. And my wish is for this approach to also spread out of the group room into the world.

Singing In The Storm

 Even in the darkest hour,
I can see the light,
even in the hardest storm,
I can see the rainbow

It always struck me (as, how can this be?) when I was in school, to learn that a great lot of the people we call saints, could actually be described as villains (the narrative contains the part of the story where the person who later attained sainthood was a thief or a prostitute or a taxman or a sinner), before attaining sainthood. Although it makes sense that one turns to the light only after experiencing the dark side, the structures of our society, mainly the religions as for that matter, hold the narrative of divine versus evil, right versus wrong, good guys versus bad guys. Choose your battle field, either with us or against us. So, we are conditioned from early age to try to be good and righteous. Thus trying to exorcise the “bad”, the dark side. We try to bury it, to pretend it’s not there. But what gets buried can also be a seed. In this way, what we are educated to feel guilty and shame about, what we’re trying to fight to elimination, keeps on coming back, knocking on the door, shaking the foundations of our structure.  

 So the idea of sainthood in itself is well intentioned, after all it talks about how some people have come to realizing themselves, and become enlightened. The problem comes with the idea that the saints are in a different boat from the sinners. In this way the patrons of our society are trying to reduce us into flawed beings that need to get back in the safety and conformity of the herd.

They’re desperately trying to control people, but this tool for control turns against them and against humanity itself, as we clearly witnessed through the church’s sex scandals.

In this way we are “educated” to exorcise the shadow part of the self, as well as the dark parts of life. And then people try to walk in life with a smile on their face, with a façade of happiness. No wonder people feel numb, with no contact to their feelings, trying to compensate the luck of it with consumerism, use of tobacco, alcohol, substances. Even in the so called spiritual world, people are talking about the light from within, and shining your light to world and that sort of things. How about shining some light to our shadows? Eh? I know from experience that it is uncomfortable and scary. It’s a space from which I was conditioned to turn my head away, to try to ignore, to not talk about. But spirituality, walking in the path of light isn’t about wearing the mask of the Buddha. It’s not about celebrating our bright sides, only, but bringing awareness to our whole being. And again, I know it’s scary and uncomfortable but –apart from the fact that “ce la vie”- we are intelligent creatures and there are ways to get out of the drama narrative and deal with these things in an intelligent and helpful way, as I learnt from the amazing legacy of Osho and from philosophies like NLP.

The original reason for writing this was an article about the Buddhist saint Milarepa in Lion’s Roar magazine. The way it resonated with my life at this period is another reason for sharing these thoughts. Milarepa “committed grave crimes at an early age, then later had a radical change of heart”. Going through some very hard times he became one of the: “masters (who) sing spontaneously from their own immediate experience about what they have realized directly”.

 

Have you been chasing your thoughts—the objects of adverse conditions? Are the demons of hope and fear getting to you?

"All phenomena are one’s own mind, and that mind itself is luminosity-emptiness; Therefore, to take these demons and obstacles as external and delight over making them leave is useless.” 

Then, manifesting fearless confidence, Milarepa sang this song of realization, “Having Confidence in the View”:

Father, victorious over the armies of the four maras,
I bow at the feet of Marpa the Translator.

People call me a human, but
I am the son of the great snow lioness.
In my mother’s womb, I perfected three powers.
When I was a baby, I slept in my den.
When I was a youth, I guarded its gates.
As a full-grown lion I wander in snowy heights.
I have no fear of stormy blizzards.
I’m not afraid of steep rocky cliffs.

People call me a human, but
I am the son of the garuda, king of birds.
While inside the egg, I developed my wings.
When I was a baby, I slept in the nest.
When I was a youth, I guarded its gates.
A full-grown garuda, I fly in the sky.
I have no fear of the sky’s expanse.
I’m not afraid of narrow ravines.

People call me a human, but
I am the son of the colossal whale.
In my mother’s womb, my golden spots grew.
When I was a baby, I slept in the nest.
When I was a youth, I led the school.
A full-grown great fish, I roam the vast sea.
I have no fear of the sea’s mighty waves.
I’m not afraid of hooks or nets.

People call me a human, but
I am a son of the Kagyu gurus.
In my mother’s womb, I gave rise to faith.
When I was a baby, I entered the gateway of dharma.
When I was a youth, I put effort in study.
An adult, I wander in mountain retreats.
Though ghosts may be savage, I am not afraid.
Though demons play many tricks, I am not afraid.

When the lioness stands in the snow, her paws do not freeze.
If the lioness’s paws froze in the snow,
Her perfected three powers would be of little use.
The flying garuda cannot fall from the sky.
If the great garuda could fall from the sky,
Its broad wingspan would be of little use.

When the whale swims in water, it cannot drown.
If the great whale succumbed to the water and drowned,
Being born in the water would be of little use.

Iron boulders cannot be destroyed by stones.
If iron boulders could be destroyed by stones,
For smelting and refining, they would be of little use.

I, Milarepa, have no fear of ghosts.
If Milarepa had fear of ghosts,
Realizing the abiding nature would be of little use.

You band of ghosts, demons, and obstructing spirits here,
How sublime it is that you’ve come at this time.
Don’t hurry; relax and stay for a while.
Let’s chat about everything under the sun.

You’re hurried? Aw! You can stay just one night!
We’ll vie in a contest of all our three gates
And we’ll see the difference between virtue and nonvirtue.
I won’t let you leave until you’ve made some obstacles.
If you should go back without making obstacles,
How ashamed and embarrassed to have come here you’ll be.

After he sang this, Milarepa got up with confidence in his practice and charged in amongst the demons. 

(From Lion's Roar "The Hundred Thousand Songs Of Milarepa: A New translation")

https://www.lionsroar.com/the-hundred-thousand-songs-of-milarepa-a-new-translation/?mc_cid=cdd06470af&mc_eid=59d9457ca2

Septembrian Rhapsody (Coming up soon)

Sahara Beach Dome

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's not Utopia...

 

July 2018 post coming soon..

(new post coming very soon...)

Giten breath group in Osho Afroz mc, August '16