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There is no “there” there

Of course, like most people with even a rudimentary exposure to spiritual teachings, I have heard that the only moment is the present moment. I thought I understood this. But I have to tell myself the truth: I might understand this theoretically and even deeply in certain moments of heightened aliveness, but all of me doesn’t live this way. I know this because I have just uprooted a portion of my being that has been orienting toward a future “Promised Land”, a promised land that turns out is totally fictitious (I even have a new motto, “There is no promised land”).

Here’s how I discovered this: We have a new leadership team at ST and some part of me has believed that this new team was like “heavenly super stars” or a basketball team destined to win the championship and set all types of new world records in the process. And the fact is we do have a powerful new team that will bring the company forward in all kinds of new ways. But this new team is made up of HUMANS not heaven-dwellers. And there is no end to difficult business challenges and the complexities of human dynamics.

There are people in my mediation community who often take an attitude “don’t you know nothing ever really works out?”  And I have had a response inside that goes something like, “that is such a negative attitude….maybe it doesn’t work out for you because you are so negative in the first place.” But I think I understand now what is being pointed to in a statement like “nothing ever really works out” — not that wonderful things don’t happen but that our fantasies of some perfect future are just that – fantasies.

I was sharing all of this with my partner Julie before we were going to sleep the other night, sitting up in bed together on our new bright turquoise silk sheets. And I said “There is no promised land”. And she said to me “The promised land is right here.” And at that moment, our eyes met and the space of the room opened up, and it felt like we were melting into eternity. The edges of Julie’s body started dissolving into the space of the room and she looked like a deity to me, sitting on a bed of turquoise silk with pink and gold curtains behind her. And I knew she was right about the promised land, that if it exists at all, it is only because it is right here, relaxing into the beauty, brightness and space of the moment.

So now I am asking myself these types of questions: When I build up some vision of a promised land, why am I doing this? What ego need am I trying to have met by this or that fantasy? What is it about the present moment that I just can’t bear such that I need to create a vision of some idealized future? Why do I continue to invest in “there” when there is no “there” there?

I remember listening to Thich Nhat Hanh teach walking meditation. He offered the teaching that with each footstep touching the ground we could say silently to ourselves “I have arrived.” He pointed out how most people are always rushing ahead to some future moment, and he said, let’s look at this logically, the future moment you are rushing to will eventually be your grave. What’s the big hurry?

And what amazes me about the dharma is how endlessly deep it is (I heard Thich Nhat Hanh teach on this almost two decades ago and I thought “arriving in the present moment” was something I understood). I feel humbled (from the root word “humus” or earth) to have a fantasy bubble popped in such an obvious way, and to be returned to the earth, arriving right here in the groundless space of this moment, in the only promised land there is.

footsteps

Hard Questions for a Vajra Master

Tami Simon speaks with Reggie Ray, a teacher carrying on the lineage of the great Tibetan Buddhist meditation teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a faculty member of Naropa University since its inception, and president and spiritual director of the Dharma Ocean Foundation based in Crestone, Colorado. He is the author of several books including Touching Enlightenment, as well as the Sounds True audio learning programs Meditating with the Body and Buddhist Tantra. Reggie answers a series of challenging and difficult questions from his student Tami. (52 minutes)

Riding the Waves

Tami Simon speaks with Shiva Rea, an internationally renowned vinyasa-flow yoga teacher, and one of the most innovative and pioneering yoga teachers today. With Sounds True, Shiva has created more than a dozen teaching programs, including the award-winning DVD Yoga Shakti, and several audio teaching programs, including Yoga Trance Dance and Yoga Chant, as well as several music compilations that are designed for yoga practice. Shiva discusses fluidity, our bodies, and how to be fluid in our life, even during difficult times. (58 minutes)

Mindfulness as an Act of Love

Tami Simon speaks with Saki Santorelli, the director of the internationally acclaimed Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts and the executive director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society. Saki is one of the premier teachers of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), and has worked with Sounds True and Florence Meleo-Meyer on the upcoming MBSR Online Training Course. In this episode, Tami speaks with Saki about the medical evidence for the benefits of MBSR, how mindfulness helps us interrupt and change our habitual reaction to stress, and if there is a correct “dosage” of mindfulness practice and training. (68 minutes)

What Can We Learn from Viniyoga?

Tami Simon speaks with Gary Kraftsow, a pioneer in the transmission of yoga for health, healing, and personal transformation for more than 30 years. Gary is a teacher of the viniyoga methodology and founder of the Maui School of Yoga Therapy. He is the author of the book Yoga for Wellness, and with Sounds True has released four training DVDs, including Viniyoga Therapy for Anxiety and Viniyoga Therapy for the Upper Back, Neck and Shoulders. In this interview, Tami speaks with Gary about his work in research on yoga’s health benefits, his understanding of the true purpose of yoga, and how that purpose might become a focus for the practice of yoga in the modern world. (53 minutes)

The Wake Up badger

Not long ago I engaged in a shamanic journey with the intention of meeting my power animal. I was and still consider myself completely new to the practice of journeying. Although I may have a theoretical understanding through my exposure to the teachings of many Sounds True authors, my direct experience in this area is pretty limited. Since direct experience is what it’s purportedly all about in shamanic journeying, I decided to see for myself what it was like.

I was not disappointed. In the journey I voyaged back in time to a tree house my childhood friends and I had built—an impressive if not altogether hazardous tri-level construction of scrap plywood, crates, and anything we could find to nail together. I traveled to a tunnel beneath the tree house and met a squirrel, who beckoned me to follow him down a long path. At the end of the path a large badger awaited me, nodded, and then I simply followed the squirrel back above ground. End of journey.

Fast forward to Sounds True’s first Wake Up Festival, where I took great advantage of the challenging yet beautiful 18-hole disc golf course. During one round, a particularly good drive fell near a dark hole in the middle of the fairway. As we approached to take the next shot, what should block our way but a large and agitated badger—the first I’d seen in the wild despite years of camping throughout the country. The badger was not going to let us retrieve my disc, which sat just six feet away from it (and only 25 feet from the basket—it was a birdie opportunity!). After some coaxing, the badger finally returned to its lair, allowing us to finish play.

I didn’t see the Wake Up Badger as I called him during later frolf rounds throughout the Festival, but I think someone’s trying to tell me something…

Badger

 

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