This spring I discovered Sadhguru, an Indian man I stumbled across whilst looking for an answer to something that had been bothering me. I had just finished my meditation teacher training and couldn’t make peace with their version of peace. I am a person full of emotions and fire, and I believe in experiencing all of human life where possible. Their version was to always stay in the heart, and let everything melt away. Whilst beautiful, it just isn’t me. I turned to GuruGoogle to find me something that helped explain why I felt this way. I discovered this man, and this quote;
“If you enter an active spiritual process, suddenly you may find everything is moving at a bewildering pace. You will see, you are in more trouble than ever before. Earlier, troubles used to come to you once in six months. Now, every six hours you are in deep trouble because your karmic process is on fast-forward. Only fools who have sanitised themselves from life believe that spirituality means being peaceful. No. To be spiritual means to be on fire — inside, outside, everywhere. Peace will happen when you rest in peace. This is the time for exuberant life! If you were ecstatic or very blissful and joyful, would you even think of being peaceful? Such a thought wouldn’t even occur to you.” — Sadhguru
I shared it with my friends, of which about half of them rejected this instantly. This alone intrigued me more. I found Sadhguru on You Tube, and from there discovered his Inner Engineering program, in which I enrolled. All the while waiting for the moment where I would also reject his teachings. Instead what I discovered were some hard truths about life that I was begging to hear.
Boundless Initially he awakened the boundless nature of humans. That our goal, whether we realise it or not, is to break free of our limitations. I’ve dabbled in business a fair bit over the years. The biggest word that I hear in those circles is ‘Freedom’. So many people become self-employed to find their freedom. It doesn’t stop there. There are huge threads online about people lamenting their freedom from anything that holds them back. It’s not a new idea that people want freedom, but to be boundless? This conjures for me the image of us wanting to expand into the Universe itself. To be at one with the Universe. Because ultimately we are already this and something inside us knows that this is our natural state of being. We just don’t see it clearly in our human condition.
Living beyond our limitations is the greatest thing we can do. Sharing that is the biggest gift we can give. Showing others how it is done. This is so inspiring. We could keep making commitments to live beyond a limitation we believe is there. Celebrating when we surpass it. What do we think stops us from being boundless that we can move past today?
Respond A living person responds to stimuli. If life is about being boundless, then it is also about responding to life. Meshing those two together, Sadhguru teaches that to be fully alive, we must remove every barrier between our ability to respond. How can we put this into practice? I recall during one retreat at my beloved Global Retreat Centre, it was the evenings entertainment and all were being called to offer something on stage, if they wanted to. I have a deep desire to perform through acting, singing and music. I can’t really do any of these things. This is a barrier. However that day I had written a poem and decided to face my fears and share it on stage. It’s a small step, and at least I’m on that stage even if not doing the things I want to. Terrified, I went up and responded to my desire to show the room my heart.
‘Conversations with Me & the Om Statue’⠀ It awaits me in the distance⠀ The ‘I’ that I Am⠀ It calls to me, my future⠀ What should I do today?⠀ How shall I serve and who shall I be?⠀ “Be all that you are” — it beckons to me⠀ ⠀ I am a spark to explode⠀ A fairy through the trees⠀ I’ve been everything and anything⠀ And all I dreamed I’d be⠀ ⠀ And all that matters now⠀ Is that I am what I want to be⠀ Love, light, beauty & peace⠀ I am Me 🙂⠀
Om Shanti
A year later, on another retreat with the Brahma Kumaris we were beckoned again to entertain each other. A singing student invited me to become a duo. My barrier to respond was there, but I agreed a compromise. I would adapt a song for him to sing, choreograph a dance to go with it and while he sang I would teach the group the dance so that the whole room became the entertainment. We chose ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon and introduced a seaside theme, where the dance routine was half impressions of sea animals.
My nerves swapped for hysterical laughter, as we all tried to become sea urchins and donkeys whilst dancing. Whilst also being enveloped by my partner’s gorgeous voice. I was responding to my desire to perform and this time it was so much more fun.
“You just gotta keep livin’ man. L-I-V-I-N” — Wooderson
Responsibility With this desire to be boundless, and our gift of being able to respond, we now find we have a choice of whether to respond when it comes to situations that we are aware of. This can be applied to ourselves and others. This then makes us responsible. Sadhguru teaches that if we are not responsible, then the option to respond is automatically removed.
If you are aware of someone in pain, regardless of whether we caused it, we hold responsibility of choosing to respond. If we do not hold responsibility, we do not respond. If I applied the same to my described performance desires, then we would say that I was aware of my wishes and was responsible for my ability to find a way to respond. If I had no responsibility, I would have remained seated and watched life happen around me. Passively watching other live their desires and gone home feeling like a failure and unfulfilled.
Can we make the world a better place, one act of kindness at a time by simply assuming responsibility for what we are aware of? Can we make a difference by living each moment as it fits with our values and the wellbeing of everything around us? I believe we can.
Thank you, and good night *bows*.