Monday was Amazeballs USA.
I hosted an extremely powerful evening with two friends who are internationally invited to travel and speak because they’ve realized their enlightened state.
You know, no biggie.
Just having come from Canada, it was their third time with our peeps in New York, another national sweep from Florida to Vancouver was next, with a gathering of 10,000 in South Africa coming up. (My friend asked: Do you want to go to South Africa? Ha. Silly question.)
A private group of 25 people gathered on the floor of a candlelit Manhattan flatiron loft for satsang. Natch, I gave them the couch.
It was Amazeballs USA for three reasons:
1- I know the experience + energy will significantly impact + fast-forward the growth of my peeps. This is my #1 concern in zee world.
2- Being in their presence reflected my own evolution in recent months, showing me just how close I am (holy sh**!) to this permanent awakening, in this little body, now.
3- Hanging out with these peeps (the uber-sparkly + my crew) reflects such an outrageously gorgeous perfection of Presence and a knowing that this is what we are all collectively moving toward that it is (literally) mind-blowing-ly awesome.
I like to kick it New York style, so a lot of the seriously advanced, deep spiritual stuff happening that I organize is kept underground. I speak about the effects here, but I believe our individual paths toward evolution are as deeply personal, intimate and passionate as the best sex of our life: it must be kept sacrosanct.
So, I have a small list and I don’t put up outside flyers or promote through social media. I knew the enlightened friends would be coming just 72 hours earlier, and so 25 showed huddled in the loft to soak in the juju.
Also, I know that the level we’re operating on is advanced. If one’s nervous system is not yet calibrated to a higher space of consciousness, a person’d show up and not think anything happened. There’s a subtlety that needs to be reached before we can know this stuff is working. If you find us through word of mouth, (even if that word/mouth is this blog) you’re supposed to be there.
Or… and this is how it starts… we’re there, and we don’t know why. Something indefinable, something we can’t pinpoint inside of us (our soul? the pull of evolution?) called us there, a friend dragged us, or somehow that experience was sought out.
Whenever I do one of these private, but open events, there are always arrivals (who are most welcome) that I have never seen before, and there are people on my list who ONLY ever show up for the “special” events and never make it to the weekly practices, the more ongoing even keel of juju-ness.
The mind craves something “special.” This is what marketing is all about, right?
“Act now, limited time, you don’t want to miss out!”
For the committed, I’ve seen the narrative arc pass through curiosity and restlessness. I’ve watched dark nights of the soul that lasted years, now poking through to unearthing a REAL, natural state of Awakening.
There is a simple and most obvious difference in those who are sparkliest next to those who are lost.
Showing up.
This has nothing to do with how smart you are.
Who your God is, or even if you believe in some such a construction.
It has nothing do with how much money you have,
what you think you know
or how much education or knowledge you might possess.
How hot you are does not factor in one damn bit.
Being a spiritual warrior is all about practice.
The most, perhaps the only, quotable line of my late Guruji, Sri K Pattabhi Jois is:
“Practice, Practice and all is coming.”
Although I spent five months in India under his gaze, with weekly satsang and daily yoga, that’s pretty much all the teaching he’d give in a lecture. That and: “eat ghee.”
I had absolutely no business being in India practicing there at the time—SO out of my league, next to some of the most beautifully advanced yogis in the world. But I continued to show up.
That was all that was asked. That was all I needed to do. With dedication, alarm off at 3:30am, just show up, down the street: 5am, on the mat. Awkward, tight and sleepy.
“Practice, practice and all is coming.”
Show up. Get on your mat. It will unfold. All will unfold. This is life’s JOB. This is life’s promise to us.
But we have to show up.
Of course there are phases when we go in and out of spiritual practice. That’s all part of it too. There are stretches where we are fed up, over-saturated. There have been plenty of times over the years when it’s been, omigod, enough of this—and before I know it, I’m texting someone and off on a barstool across town. We need breaks, respites from our own intensity.
But Monday was such a clear mirror for me because side-by-side were the peeps who had been showing up, alongside the window shoppers that I saw occasionally, and you know what? The people who showed up were illumined, awake, ALIVE, and the others were trapped in fear and desperation.
Until all comes, and it is all coming, it’s just about the practice. And practice doesn’t need to be pretty, comfy or perfect. In fact, it’s probably going to be more messy, sleepy, painful and awkward. That’s why it’s practice and we don’t sell tickets.
So just your friendly reminder to show up.
In meditation, yoga, relationship, with yourself, whatever your juju may be.
Show up.
Because all is coming… but how can it come, if you’re not there to receive it?
**After I posted this today, I received an email from my yoga teacher in New York that today was the 2nd Anniversary of Guruji’s death, with a gorgeous, profound blog attached. (had I known, I certainly would not have been so glib about his teaching) Thank you, sweet Guruji, for your widsom, your care… for bringing me to India and in your death, showing me my first taste of divine love. Thank you for bringing me to: all.**
