A lonesome star state of mind
I've developed a bit of a Southern twang (pr. suthern ack-cen) these last 6 days. I love sayin' all ya'll over and over, though I do ask for permission when I first get to a new place, cuz, you know, it's the South and we do take things here seriously. I think it's been about ... a week actually since I last wrote. A week ago today I left the little known emerging light center of Wichita to head straight South to the big beast itself. Yes, I was going to teach meditation, in Texas (can I get a yee-haw ya'll?). Pauline, my most gracious host in Wichita gifted me with a most needed acupuncture session the morning of. She hit two points on the sole of my feet, which I believe she called "bubbling wells" - my goodness did those hurt, but what an effect on grounding and bringing me back to alignment. I've never explored acupuncture to a serious degree, but with a well trained healer who knows how to put themselves out of the way, it can be a powerful experience. I will recommend Pauline again in the future once her website is up :-) Right on the border of Texas & Oklahoma, at the tobacco shop of a gas station I met Dominique. Dominique works at the shop, just turned 18, and is about to graduate high school. This job is a life saver for him, because it means he can afford his own place and a car, along with earning the support of his father. He's been smoking for two years, knows he needs to quit, but doesn't know how. I told him how I smoked for a year, and then took another year to quit. How'd I quit? I made a deal with a friend that if she does something beneficial for herself, I'll do the same. The deal worked, and really, once the intention is set, all it takes is a consistent application of will power to make it happen. This principle works on nearly anything we set out mind to, though we need a little bit'o'wisdom sprinkled in order to ensure our mind is set on the right thing. Dominique has never been out of Oklahoma, save a short trip to Texas here & there. He's afraid of what would happen if he goes out into the world and comes back a failure. We talked about how the only real failure in life is a failure of attitude, and that by leaving what we know we don't lose anything, we still are who we are at the core, and can only gain from the expansion. Dominique was real happy to meet with a positive attitude, and I too was happy to share openly ideas that may be taken for granted in a progressive place such as Berkeley, but mean so much here in the heartland. I didn't really know I was in Texas until the morning after I arrived. Why's that? On my first night I enjoyed a lovely dinner with Manuel and his friends. Manuel is the brother of an old friend and it was a joy to meet him, and I thoroughly enjoyed the company of his friends, all of whom had a creative bent and who were sincerely interested in hearing more about Kriya Yoga & meditation in general. I kept wondering to myself as well if all women from Denton as stunning as those I'd known and met that night .. turns out the answer is no, but heck, they sure got off to a good start. So why did Texas start on day two then? Two reasons. First reason - I was told I could park my car in the building lot of where I was staying. There are twenty unassigned spaces here, about 9 of which are taken, and the rest permanently open. When I walked out the door to my car in the morning, it was gone and another parked in its place. So check this - someone called the tow company at 7am on a Saturday morning so that they could park in their favorite but unassigned spot, even though there were 9 other open spots. Second reason - after recovering my car, as the story spread through town, varied and contiuous derogotory mention of the sexual orientation of that tow call person were made. Well, I'm from NY & the Bay Area, and that's not how we do. Sexual orientation has nothing to do whatsoever with whether a person is an asshole or not (though being from Texas just might). For all other purposes though, I love the South, I really do. People here truly are gracious, and what they might lack in terms of an open mind they sure do make up for with an open heart and open door. I ended up staying with Mark, whom I met in India last year and saw again there this year. Mark's quite a character - completely devoted to Gurunath and to the teachings of Kriya Yoga and yet part and parcel of a local death metal band. Oh, what to say of death metal, mm, well, it's not the most subtle of art forms. That can be said about it. I'm not sure if I will ever be able to enjoy death metal in the morning with my cup of coffee, or be able to relax with some friends with shrieking voices from hell in the background, but hey, I sure did enjoy those things in Texas. It sure felt like a big local F-you to the man in the cowboy hat who tells us how to run our lives (and tried to tell our country). On my last day in Denton, I enjoyed lunch with Manuel's parents, which morphed into tea at their place and a fascinating discussion on the distinction between mystical Christianity & churchianity. Unfortunately we barely scratched the surface when I had to excuse myself. I had an appointment with Mark John, who contacted me a few days back, was a Kriya Yoga practicioner for 35 years, and wanted to meet for tea or coffee. Mark John has been studying the link between the teachings of Moses & the teachings of Jesus and was currently writing a book on the topic. In his car I noticed what could be no other than "The Keys of Enoch" a most esoteric, hardly decipherable, but deep book of wisdom, usually found buried amongst the neauseating artifical potpouri of new age literature. I knew we were in for an interesting discussion and luckily I brought my video camera with me. Mark John's consistent efforts at going deep in Kriya has afforded him the inner sight to understand the tying threads between all the prophets. He pointed out some passages in both the new and old testament that spoke of fairly esoteric Yogic practices, and had some powerful stories to share of his experiences in India and with the Masters. "Hmm," I thought, "he's into El Morya, Moses, Jesus and Kriya Yoga, gosh, he really needs to meet Gurunath." Luckily he agrees wholeheartedly. Again though, in two hours we also barely were able to scratch the surface. Someday I will have to return here to Denton to finish both conversations of this wonderful day. The locals say that Denton is what Austin used to be like before it became known. I saw it too, colorful creative smiling beautiful people riding bicycles makee up the undercurrent of this little known town on the lonesome prairies of Texas. Manuel, who enticed me to come down here, found a place to teach, and was the only one that showed up is a young prophet, a piper of this new yet unknown Texas spirit. Keep riding strong Manuel and keep playing that flute from door to door, you never know when the unexpected one might open.