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My teacher Harijiwan often says, “At this level of incarnation, nothing is wasted.” What he means is that all your experiences up to this moment right now were given to you to serve you in a positive way, even if they didn’t feel that way on the way up.

This is yet another great philosophy from a great mind. What happens when you accept every moment of your life, good and bad, is that you can get on with things that matter.  Joseph Campbell says that “Regrets are illuminations come too late.” We all have moments when we see things clearly in hindsight that we couldn’t see when we were deep in the fray. To regret things just slows you down. Getting in the habit of acceptance frees you. Accepting that nothing in your life was wasted allows you to use all of your talents from all of your experiences to your advantage.

I used to look back on my life and wonder if I hadn’t made some big mistakes. I realize now that each experience served me… from being a West Point Cadet, to an Army Officer, to a Comedian and Actor, filmmaker, Post Production Coordinator, DVD mastering supervisor, Marketing Director to Kundalini Yoga Teacher. Every moment served me and nothing was wasted. My life experiences, by virtue of being quite varied, allow me to illustrate things to my students in ways that wouldn’t be possible had I not done the things I’ve done. The varied experiences allow me to put a real face on the teachings.

Moreover, my experiences afford me great success in the businesses I now engage in. As a marketing consultant for a real estate firm I have no fear of engaging clients or speaking to big groups-having been on stage and in front of a camera makes my business easier and more profitable. You get the point. Don’t bemoan your life experiences. Use them to profit and enrich your life so that you can be happy and healthy and then give some of it away.

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We just got back from Summer Solstice in New Mexico and as always it was spectacular. It was a quick trip this year as my girlfriend Jamila and I both had pretty tight schedules. We moved into the new loft on Spring Street in Downtown Los Angeles the day after driving about 14 hours coming straight home.

Besides the three days of White Tantric Yoga– which is always amazing, we each did a couple of workshops. Over dinner at Nyala the other night we took out our little notebooks (that Jamila makes with her company 11:11) and compared notes.

Here’s a summary of some things… they’re quite like Koans, some of them. Spiritual riddles to ponder.

From Guru Dev Singh’s Sat Nam Rasayan workshop:

Everything has the right to exist.
This is interesting because in a dual world we want to discern and classify with the ego– good vs. bad. If you can wrap your mind around the idea that everything in existence has a right to exist, then this might just lead you to the insight that all are one– coming and going from one source. In this way if you can say yes to both the good and the bad in your life, breathe a little deeper and keep focused on your life’s intention, you’ll get a little closer each day. Another aspect of this concept is acceptance which as we’ve mentioned before is the key to just about everything. Pain comes from wanting things to be other than they are in the moment. However when you accept everything exactly as it is in the moment, you’re free to go and do whatever you desire. You’re not caught up on the impossible mind block of wanting things to change that you can’t change. In this way, when you’ve come across something dark or negative in your life, just accept that it too has it’s right to exist, then it becomes a part of the oneness of your entire projection. This isn’t surrender, it’s acceptance and it frees you up to focus on your life’s intention.

Sat Nam Rasayan is healing with the Shuniya or Zero state:

This is a mouthful and it’s always going to be a stretch for those who don’t meditate. You have to have an experience of this state to know it. Other than that, it’s a perfect example of the unspeakable nature of these things. As Nanak has said, “talking about it is like eating nails.” That said, I learned that the healing technique of sat nam rasayan is a way of creating a state of shuniya or the meditative zero state where you intend to stop as much of the mind stuff as you can so that the ultimate source of you can come through. We know that every time we meditate, particularly on the breath, that our auric field expands. In this way, if you practice this meditative healing technique of Sat Nam Rasayan and build your ability to become neutral, you can create a very healing field for the person you’re working on. Now, going back to this business of everything has a right to exist– when you’re performing SNR, your mind and body will give you sensations and thoughts and the idea is that this is all a part of the technique. If you don’t resist it, but rather use it, then it becomes an asset and can give insight as to what the person needs. Essentially it is healing as an extension of yourself.

Now more than ever individually we need to improve ourselves and become our best. Each person who elevates themselves, elevates the collective consciousness. In these tumultuous and dark times, there’s no question that each individual must be their all.

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I have this little book called The Law of Success by Parmahansa Yogananda and it’s the greatest bit of wisdom. Very to the point, it’s multi-layered in its depth. The following is a great excerpt about Destiny. Enjoy

YOU CAN CONTROL DESTINY

Mind is the creator of everything. You should therefore guide it to create only good. If you cling to a certian thought with dynamic will power, it finally assumes a tangible outward form. Whe you are able to emply your will always for constructive purposes, you become the controller of your destiny.

I have just mentioned three important ways to make your will dynamic:

1. Choose a simple task or accomplishment that you have never mastered and determine to succeed with it;
2. Be sure you have chosen something constructive and feasible, then refuse to consider failure;
3. Concentrate on a single purpose, using all your abilities and opportunities to forward it.

But you should always be sure, within the calm region of your inner Self, that what you want is right for you to have, and in accord with God’s purposes. You can then use all the force of your will to accomplish your object; keeping your mind, however, centered on the thought of God– the Source of all power and all accomplishment.

And that, friends, is one way to do it. Good Luck.

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Well, it’s been a while since I’ve written. There have been days when I had wanted to put something out but sadly I found myself with absolutely no time. It’s actually quite a good thing as what actually happened was an avalanche of abundance for me as I got about a week into the course. In a past life (about four years ago) I had worked as a marketing consultant for a big commercial real estate company in Hollywood. When I left that job, I went completely into Kundalini yoga, finally taking the teacher’s training and ultimately teaching this boot camp as well as other classes. These past few years of teaching have been amazing but it was an interesting study in living. Unless you own your own studio it’s tough to make a living at just teaching yoga. Anyway, the short story is that my old boss recommended me to a property owner downtown who needed my help marketing his buildings. Ultimately he offered me a lot of money to come work for him and I accepted.

So first of all, we now know that the prosperity and abundance and all the gifts that come with dedicated practice also work for the teacher! The elevation and detachment and neutrality that comes with kundalini yoga has allowed me a great ability to do this job without losing my mind. I watch as the people who work around me get very stressed and pulled in by the hectic work. I feel strangely detached, yet each day it seems I am more effective than the next. It’s simply because of this practice. I know when to relax and conserve my energy in between tasks by simply breathing. It’s amazing to go back deeply into the working world and bring back the fruits of over four years of intense practice and teaching.

This is really important to realize because kundalini yoga is a householder’s yoga– meaning it is an intense practice of realization that can be done by everyday people who have lives to look after, jobs, families and big screen tv’s. In a very subtle way Kundalini Yoga by it’s mere existence is proof that spiritual practice isn’t relegated to monks and renunciates.

So this last boot camp was quite interesting. I began the new job on March 17th, the day of my namesake… St. Patrick’s day. So two weeks into the program I shifted into work mode and after teaching each morning I’d rush off to this job which often kept me at work until after 7 pm or later. This gave me an average of 4.5 hours of sleep a night and it was magnificent. There’s a saying… “the more you do, the more you CAN do.” It’s true. Anyway, this boot camp was the biggest ever and perhaps even the best. The miracles of kundalini yoga seemed more clear than I’ve ever experienced before.

One woman told me how she’d been trying to get pregnant despite major problems she’d had with her reproductive system. The problem had put undue pressure on her marriage and she’d come to the boot camp with the intention of removing all the blocks in her life with regards to her marriage and having a family. About ten days into the program, she came up to me after class with tears in her eyes as she related this whole story to me and told me that miraculously, she was pregnant and that her marriage was now better than ever.

Another woman who’d done the bootcamp once before just wrote me after the end of the course and told me how regrettably she’d had to miss the last few classes because of work. She explained that an avalanche of high profile crap at work had her tied up. Despite her inability to make it to class because of time, she made sure to do the meditation at home each day to complete the forty days. She related how ordinarily she would have been completely unraveled by this work situation, but because of the regular practice, especially the early morning practice of the boot camp, she was able to navigate the insanity of this work obstacle course, without getting very dirtied by any of it. In other words, she experienced what we always talk about as one of the benefits of Kundalini Yoga: The elevation and clarity of an expanded radiance literally keeps out the negative situations and somehow, in the clarity of mind that the yoga gives you, the right things just seem to happen at the right time.

For lack of a better way to say it, “my cup runneth over.” I am in awe at how this yoga works for those who practice it with a determination that becomes devotion and reverence. I am humbled by whatever grace led me to teach it and I am extremely grateful to the students who jumped on for this last ride.

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I’ve been absent a while and for that I apologize. A new boot camp always becomes all consuming. This newest program as been a great success thus far. As we’ve finished this first week, the seventeen or so strong souls who’ve come out have been there nearly every day with great dedication and commitment.

I’ve also been involved as an apprentice teacher trainer with Harijiwan and Tej Kaur in their Kundalini Yoga Teacher’s Training in Santa Monica. As an apprentice I am helping out with the program and teaching a class or two on my way to becoming a trainer of teachers myself.

So as a catch-up, this will be a blast of wisdom bits from both the boot camp as well as the teacher’s training.

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This morning as I ended the meditation I was graced with some thoughts which I shared at the end of class…

As you move through your life, don’t pray so much that all of your troubles be taken away, but rather pray that you have the strength to burn them in the fire of your spirit, so that they may give you the strength of experience and ultimately, wisdom. A mere piece of coal under great pressure eventually becomes a diamond. Keep making yourself bright and strong and the darkness of your troubles will slowly disappear.

• This weekend Tej Kaur was teaching about the breath and she said that when you breathe consciously and mentally pull the breath (prana) through the crown of the head (7th chakra ) you actually charge or light up the nadis which are channels of energy through the body that the life force travels on. Breathing conciously in this way and charging the nadis from the top down balances the entire energy system as the breath comes in! This is good to know, especially because of how we traditionally think about breath and the lungs as well as everything going from bottom to top.

I like to read some inspiration if there’s time at the end of class. The following is a prayer that came from Yogi Bhajan and I found it at the end of a lecture called Learn To Love in the book Meditations for the New Millenium.

May your words have projective power, may your face shine like the moon, may your body radiate like the sun, may your brightness be acknowledged by those whom you touch, feel, speak to and befriend. May you learn all the faculties of God– totality, reality, infinity, kindness and compassion. May your prosperity shine through you to serve those who are in need and may you extend your hand of friendship to those who are lonely. May your essence flow, may you be recognized by your best qualities, wonderful manners and your livelihood. May this day bring you all these blessings plus more, so that you can live healthy, happy and holy. May your nine holes be under your control. And may you give your heart to that one who is like God to you, so you can find your infinity forever. Sat Nam.

• We go from individual consciousness through group consciousness to get to universal consciousness. When you relate in group consciousness you see the reflection of the many facets of your mind. (This is why you have to go to class as well as meditate at on your own.)

• Knowledge leads to experience which becomes wisdom.

• There’s a biorhythm of the earth and there’s an individual biorhythm that each person has. When you open your eyes in the morning, if you don’t catch the rhythm of the earth, you are playing catch-up all day. This is why you should play sacred mantras at night while you sleep, so that when you wake up you are surrounded by a vibration of sacred sound and are more likely to be in sync.

• Breath gives you control over your mind and body.

The three most powerful ways to create change in yoga, respectively are:

1. Mantra and sacred sound current (Gong)
2. Conscious Breath
3. Posture or Asana

This is why Kundalini Yoga is quicker than the more solely physical practices.

• Each time you consciously focus on or think about your breath, your aura radiates and expands.

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

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A friend of mine suggested this idea a few days ago and so I ran with it. After all, everybody loves lists! Thanks Ali.

1. Think About Your Destiny Once A Day
2. Follow Your Heart
3. Follow Your Bliss
4. Pray for Others
5. Pray for Yourself
6. Meditate
7. Give to Charity
8. Follow Your Intuition
9. Breathe Deeply
10. Forgive Someone
11. Love Everyone You See
12. Treat Others as You Would Like To Be Treated
13. Do Something Self-Less
14. Be At Peace Within
15. Live In The Present Moment
16. Accept Things As They Are Now
17. Get Rid of Anger
18. Call Your Mother
19. Call Your Father
20. Be Kind to Yourself
21. Do What’s Right for You
22. Make The Higher Choice
23. Clean Your House
24. Try Something New
25. Don’t Worry

(more…)

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When I worked in commercial real estate, I had a boss who once said something very wise to me. He told me that anything you do in this life is like “getting yourself into orbit.” Think of yourself as a rocket-ship or better yet, a satellite trying to get into outer space so that you can orbit around the earth. In order to get out of the atmosphere you have to defy gravity, which takes a lot of energy. A rocket expends a lot of fuel propelling itself upward towards space. However, once you make it out of the earth’s atmosphere, the gravitational pull of the earth starts to work for you. A satellite hovers around the earth, traveling at great speeds with very little to no effort. An occasional thrust to the left or right for correction keeps the ship on course, with earth’s gravity doing all the work. It’s the same thing for anything you want to do in your life. When you begin a journey of destiny, you will meet with great resistance– this is the cost of getting into orbit.

In Think And Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill says once you determine what your definite chief aim in life is, you must demand of yourself “Persistent, continuous action toward it’s attainment.” It’s this persistent, continuous action which is the energy you use to get into orbit. (more…)

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Praying for the healing of others heals you by default. By sending out light and loving thoughts to people in your life, you actually heal yourself. It came to me in a meditation recently that since all things are of this one universal energy (some people calls it God, some people calls it a kaiser blade…) and we are this energy in human form, then you heal yourself by healing with prayer, those that have appeared in your life. It’s the director metaphor again. Each of our individual realities is the projection of our own souls. (more…)

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I was on a workshop recently with my teacher, Harijiwan and in the midst of all of the discussions I was compelled to write down certain things because they resonated with such brilliance. The italics represent my commentary.

“Expectations are resentments waiting to happen.” (actually said by a woman named Carol rephrasing what Harijiwan said.) This is purely brilliant. When you expect a certain outcome and don’t get it, you’re disappointed. 99% of all our problems in relationship with others comes because we expect them to do something we want them to do and they’re not doing it. The only way out of this, other than controlling the other person or conflict, which are not desireable, is to drop your expectations and attachment to how someone or something should be. The flip side of this, and a very powerful tool for countering expectation and attachment is Acceptance.

“The energy wants you more than you want the energy. The energy (of the universe) wants you to succeed and do what you came here to do.” This is the same as the idea that “if you take one step toward God, God will take more steps toward you than there are in the sands in the hourglass of time. ” There are many versions of this that come from various religions but the basic idea is that the energy of the universe is a perfect benevolent mass that wants to come through the human to have experience and hopefully gain knowledge so that it can make a contribution. The mind is the limiting factor. We’re given a mind to master so that we can pull in the energy of the soul and project it to our highest ability. Good luck with that. (more…)

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I was going through a file drawer the other day and came across all these scraps of paper I’d written spiritual thoughts on… Here they are.

At a cafe called Fruition in NW Portland, OR —

The best thing that can happen to you is that you experience God in you as a projection of your soul manifest in all that you see in your life. When this happens, it’s the first step to mastering the projection that is your life.

A paradox of the digital age– technology and storage of information gets smaller and smaller which allows for more and more information. Our world grows closer together because of it and the result is that our world horizon becomes infinite. As the world grows smaller as a result of technology & information our possibilities as humans become infinite.

Praying for the healing of others heals you by default. By sending out light and love to people in your life, you actually heal yourself because the other person is really you.

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