Time and space are relative things. Einstein was famous for many things, the Theory of Relativity being one of them. To summarize this idea, our idea of time is related to the speed at which we are traveling. From the standpoint of a photon in a beam of light, everything else appears to be standing still. Theoretically, this photon could travel anywhere in the Universe and all things would be at a standstill and 'revolving' around the photon. So, time for it would pass in a linear fashion according to how it perceives the experiences it is having, which would be based on the amount of information it is processing. Again, theoretically, this is unlimited, or infinite. How much information can a photon process? I'm not sure. But my reason for beginning here with this thought experiment is to outline a very important point. How much information can WE process? And what is our perspective of time? Is it possible for us to extend or telescope time accordingly...?
My recent trip abroad was only five weeks long. This is part of my dedicated, annual re-search that has been taking place every year since 2015. I think I've finally realized just how valuable it is for me to go away and separate myself completely from my role as a teacher and return to being solely a student. As much as I attempt to maintain this balance in daily life, ever-present are the logistics of my job as a yoga teacher. Having pursued this (yoga) as my full-time occupation and career path since September 2015, I am continually reminded of the vast importance to retreat to the caves in the mountains, so to speak. I feel that to provide anything of worth as a teacher, my devotion to the practice itself is paramount, and to constantly be striving towards unlocking the secrets and mysteries of such a sacred art through my own direct experiences and realizations.
You simply cannot lead someone a place you've never been, and this is true for any craft. A teacher is just someone who has spent more time than someone else, doing whatever it is they happen to be teaching. What separates a student from a teacher? Time. And space.
By giving myself TIME and SPACE to be a student, I am given a greater opportunity for the TEACHING to awaken further. Not that this is guaranteed - no, far from it - but there certainly is a bigger chance to access the space for realizations to occur. This is what drives me to get up every morning and work the practice, no matter what. I spend many more hours in my day researching and practicing yoga than I do 'teaching' it, and I treat teaching itself as part of the practice. It simply informs me where I have work to do, that's all. Just like the practice, showing me where energy is stuck, where my thought patterns are looping, and where my habits are keeping me from realizing a higher potential in life.
With all this in mind, it is no surprise that I've been continuously pulled from the security of my home, where I have a beautiful practice space set up and all the other material comforts, to re-search yoga in the world. It seems like a big place, this vast Universe, but I am discovering more and more that it really is not so big. On the contrary, it is almost like I am that photon traveling at the speed of light, and visiting all these wonderful places in all corners of the Universe. Time seems to be extending on forever in all directions and 'my' place is smack dab in the middle of the entire thing, wherever I happen to be. Which is why I am making this post, to hopefully capture some of the depth behind a five week trip that felt like it was jammed with years of experiences.
Even though the details are not boring at all, I will refrain from writing all of them in this post and perhaps save it for a book. I am more interested in conveying the essence of the experiences, invoking some feelings in you as the reader, and stirring up curiosity so that the deeper questions start to arise. The questions that allow us to look inward at our own story, and that connect us to some deeper truth that seems embedded into the most fundamental level of our existence.
I'll start by saying these two things - there are never any coincidences, and we get exactly what we ask for. Pay attention to each encounter you have and listen carefully for the messages hidden within every conversation and every page you read, and I promise you will start to feel like the Universe is speaking to you directly. Because, it is. I don't know how else to say this other than using an analogy that I'm sure we can all relate to. Have you ever loved a song or movie and played it many times, and then you re-play it years later only to notice a part that you never noticed before? Some specific line or scene that just stands out to you all of a sudden and you are like .... woah. That was there the whole time, but for whatever reason I just didn't notice it.
Yeah, the Universe is like that. We know there is far, far more to reality than what we perceive with our, inherently limited, senses. We are only picking out the data we can actually receive with our organs of sensation (eyes, ears, etc.), and just like a radio station tuned to a particular frequency, that is the tune we 'hear'. There is a lot more there, we just do not and can not perceive it. Or can we...?
Yoga as a science is the practical means in which we have direct experiences that put us at the edge of our sensory horizon. We practice extending ourselves into our finite borders, and we peer over the edge into infinity, and in doing so we develop a relationship to this void. Not only is the void of infinity both unknown and uncertain, it is unknowable. We cannot know infinity, because it is impossible to hold inside of our mind. Our mind is built to 'know' things. Yet the Infinite is All-Encompassing and what we consider 'our mind' exists within it, just as we seem to exist in an infinite Universe. That is why yoga aids us in establishing something we might call 'knowledge', but maybe it is just the direct experience of encountering something that is far bigger than us. What is knowledge if not an understanding of how the world works?
I know, it is a crazy paradox. Like Dr. Svoboda said on the first day of my trip in Berkeley, California: "Can we hold two seemingly opposite and conflicting views in our mind simultaneously and allow them to co-exist harmoniously?... Then we are getting somewhere."
The trip was not short of divine and paradoxical experiences, rife with coincidence and serendipity, encountering beautiful individual and the ever-present teacher in all places, people, and things.
After two weeks in the Bay Area, I was struck by intense contrast of the jungles of Costa Rica. It is always incredible to return to The Sanctuary, a solar powered yoga and meditation retreat center, eating farm-to-table organic vegetarian meals. I am glad to was that, instead of the donuts and ice cream I had whilst walking the streets of San Francisco. It was necessary to fuel appropriately considering the amount of yoga and meditation that was taking place during my third week abroad, here at the Sanctuary. I also think chanting ancient mantras whilst naked in the jungle might change your taste buds.
After many very profound and mystical experiences during the advanced yoga and meditation retreat known as the Nath Mela, I had 10 more days to fully integrate the whirlwind of activity before returning home. What was I to do? Find a beach somewhere, hole up, eat only fruit, and meditate until there was nothing left preventing me from moving forward in the exact direction that life is intending for me.
My last days of my trip were perfect. I had found exactly what I was looking for, and much more that I wasn't. I was healed of many of the troublesome memories in my consciousness that had plagued me from seeing the world in the pure light of awareness and not my own conditioned lens. All of the people I had met were truly divine angels sent by God to show me something I wasn't able to see, to offer me love I wasn't able to give myself, to tell me something that I was avoiding hearing from my own mouth.
I returned home carrying all the pieces of Heaven that have been distributed around the world by those photons traveling at the speed of light. Heaven is just this realm of light that exists whenever we stop slowing ourselves down by pretending that we are not divine beings. I've realized precisely how I've been trying to trap or hold onto the light that is flooding out of my soul, because I've seen repeatedly how this same light is flooding out of all souls. It just takes the courage to allow it, and not put a hamper on its flow. When it flows from us, it is illuminating the world and all of its inhabitants. As long as we continue to remind ourselves that this light is from a Source that extends beyond us, but that we are indeed its medium for it to be brought into the world, then we can live in that paradoxical space between Heaven and Earth. We can live as the bridge between these two seemingly opposite and conflicting realms. We actualize our potential by fully embodying our divinity whilst accepting our role in service to humanity.
This was my biggest lesson - that all of our desires are made manifest. I have big dreams and intend to realize them, because I have come to directly know that we receive all that we ask for. This is not New-Age manifestation nonsense. This is how the Universe works, and provided we always adhere to a Greater Truth, one that promises to benefit all beings, then we can move forward with our creations with the power of the Universe backing them.
I promise to uphold the truth as I see it: that we are all connected to a Source energy, a divine and abundant life providing energy, and that we are It's conduits for Creation. What does your Creation look like? I would love to help it along. I intend to help and to serve all of the beings who are participating in this miracle of life, by being fully involved in my own Creation. We can do both because we are both. To awaken to our full potential whilst on the planet is what we are all here for. Fully human and fully divine - a bridge between Heaven and Earth. Yoga is this Union.