Freedom and Authority

The founder of Dan-o-ism, a good friend of mine, speaks incessantly of the relationship between Freedom and Authority. Though not his words, he regards it as the ultimate divine balance - when we effectively blend rules with exploration and interweave our desire for stability with the enthrallment of confusion and wonder, we can walk even further out on the tight rope of our consciousness.

Each gossamer string of inner experience may or may not extend towards infinity, but we can say for certain it reaches further than our confidence; for to be our true selves we must walk an often invisible tightrope, and it is our willingness to step into darkness that in turn determines whether we continue forward; life is always there regenerating, whether we acknowledge it or not.

To explain my position, I would like to invoke a visual from the movie Donnie Darko, specifically, the image of the energy that proceeds Donnie Darko as he performs his daily actions. Over the course of this arresting movie, Donnie develops awareness of a gray blob that extends in front of him like an over inflated worm. The movie - happily, for the inquiring viewer - does not explain whether the gray blob predicts his movement, or if he sees the blob and follows it, but one does not need to know how to explain something to understand it intuitively.

So now, if you may, picture a much thinner, nearly invisible gray blob; these are the gossamer strings I speak of. Also, consider how visually enigmatic gossamer strings can be; depending on how light plays on them, spider webs can seem opaque, or they may glisten like an oasis, or even still those thin yet supremely strong gossamer strings can disappear.

My conception of fate is that our futures are similarly difficult to predict: depending on how and where from our etherial light shines, I regard it as perfectly human to forge ahead into a beckoning, visible future, then, with little forewarning end up in a stand still, wobbling as we try to catch our balance, squinting into tomorrow, figuring where to step next.

It is while we wobble about on our life line tight rope that Freedom and Authority become pertinent. Through freedom and intuition we learn to see more of the unseen; while simultaneous to our freedom, if aided by authority and discipline, the simple unalterable laws of the universe coalesce into a well spring of life and immediacy.

Balance

To Sustain Ones Self

Both the writer and the Yogi strive for clarity. As Hemingway stated - there is no point writing it unless you can say it better - the aim of prose should be to eliminate the clutter, not compound it. This perhaps is never more true than today, in the age of pervasive information.  Not only are we inundated with ideas, half truths, opinions, propositions, and theories, the misinformation is a self sustaining organism; google searches unearth rumours and polish them as jewels; the modern day gold rush is for fame, notoriety, and the opportunity to escape oneself in the attention of another. Thus, we have variations claiming to be originals, in the name of sales, ambition, and escape. 

Hardly differentiated products are lauded for their supposed uniqueness, musicians parade gimmicks and master the art of catchiness, and words and ideas are reused, redoubled, and spread indiscriminately.  To write, then, is to not write, turning words transparent, so the reader sees life, not language.

Spiritual wisdom nourishes and inspires and in doing so cures, in part through prevention, sustaining our mental health and thus avoiding illness; however, we see now a tendency to treat this wisdom as a pain reliever, rather than a life concept. If an idea is a seed, too often we nibble and taste, forgetting to plant it. This is problematic for spiritual concepts are reservoirs for our consciousness; they provide a place for the mind to flow into, a reservoir we can tap and replenish, with each directed act of will. The goal of a spiritual practice is the practice, to be aware, engaged, and liberated. 

 

Enlighten the Load vs. Enlightenment

Welcome fellow seeker. I write and I practice yoga. Some people call me a writer, others a yogi; you can call me emptyfull. Thought full, contemplative, play full, disciplined, unsure what to write next. 

The options are very varied, but potential remains fixed - we can only be what we are: I am someone who practices yoga 5-6 days a week, without ever entering a lulu lemon store. I sneak into Yoga clubs and teach others for free. I am not a Robin Hood, I am merely suffering a conceptual hangover from high school. I don't seek to lighten my load, meditation is not a substitute for Ritalin (though I was diagnosed, prescribed, and medicated). My goal is not peace and calm - my goal is awareness, understanding, subversion, and peace in the eye of the storm. 

Calling all former pot heads, skaters, graph artists, aggro road rage, pyros. Come on you shit causing, day dreaming, RATM and Chomsky educated radicals. I know I'm not alone. I know you are out there. 

I don't read the Da Vinci code, nor do I shop at chapters. I shop at Pages, downtown Toronto. I look for words that rustle, disrupt, and agitate. I respect Che; I  am a merger of the EZLN and Thich Nhat Hanh. We cannot find peace in an unjust world, we must create it!. Peacekeepers do not just draft treatise, they strive to understand people and their concerns. To create peace, sometimes you must disrupt silence. For thought free, enlightened meditation, you must know how to think. There is no sanctuary for the ignorant, there are only muted cries. 

On this Blog you will find spiritual techniques: asana, pranayama, kundalini, meditation, reiki. There will also be ideas: urbanastics, urban poetics, poetry, photography, philosophy. There will be answers, and there will be questions. There will be questions and there will be answers: Inhale, pause, Exhale, pause, Resume. 

Peace