 "A Brand New View" ©2013 Rev. David Seacord 16" x 20" Acrylic on Canvas
Everyman's WEEKLY Journal #20
© 2013 Rev. David Seacord
Sunday, April 14, 2013
A Brand New View...
The essence of a true adventure is that there is no pre-knowing…thus meeting the unknownness gives one an opportunity to discover the True Self authentically….
(Sunday evening)…It was late last night (Saturday), after four days of immersion into the Kundalini Yoga culture at the Sat Nam Fest event (that I shared in EWJ #19 that I would be attending) that I realized I had not even remembered that I write aweekly Sunday morning blog, due to be sent in a few hours. Given the impossibility of creating a decent last minute entry due to my commitments as a festival volunteer staff member, I chose to peacefully place 'the problem' in God's hands. Take that as indication of the degree that I had entered another reality, and had ceased multitasking the different roles of my 'normal' life.
The Festival itself is now over (ending late this afternoon, then an intense flurry of dismantling as the sun lowered) but I am still on the grounds until the morning, and just now (while taking a breather) I am beginning to feel the return of personal affairs into my consciousness. And, I since have found electricity too (something that wasn't available [to me] in the camp area or the big top that the events were held in) I am online for the first time in many days, and busy getting 'something worth reading' created to send to you….
(Tuesday evening-- still creating). As I said last week, everything is 'curriculum'. This report is to confirm that this Sat Nam Fest experience was the kind of transformational curriculum I was (in one sense) 'completely unprepared for', while (in another sense) the view could be that I have been preparing for it for a very long time. My official version is that God snookered me… getting me to 'go for' the ego lure (the music was what attracted me) and then clobbered the 'me' of my ego/me right up to the edge of 'free will' ---as I was again and again invited by my heart to surrender to the surprising affinity recognitions I kept feeling….
That the Brother/Sisterhood of Spirit exists is undoubtable, and the true bonds it produces between beings honor no boundaries of concept or judgement. That is the minds domain, not the hearts. Spirit voyaging, I am discovering, is a lot like Star Trek voyaging… in the sense of 'going where no one has gone before'… in fact I suspect that is actually the only game in town. I certainly went 'someplace new' at Sat Nam Fest...
So, in essence, what I have the happy heart to report is that right now I am (like in wrestling) sorta pinned to the floor… by my love and appreciation of what this spiritual community of turban wearing kundalini adepts and yogis have just shown me…. perhaps (in some form) as a new possibility for myself. I've been a Sufi who has over time embraced the wisdom of Zen, Buddhism, Advaita Yoga, New Thought Christianity, ACIM, the teachings of many Indigenous elders, and more. But for me to discover in Yogi Bhagan's 3HO Kundalini sadhana such a strong attraction---like a 'coming home'---that has been a bit shocking.
Why, you ask? Just the mind and it's opinions, to tell the truth. I lived in Santa Fe for twenty-five years, only a half-hour from the 3HO ashram in Espanola where Yogi Bhagan lived until his death in 2004. Of course in that period I had a couple of personal encounters with him …and as a much younger man (maybe I was 23 or 24) I had even stayed at the ashram for a few days to check it out. I think the deciding factors in moving on were that I didn't want to wear a turban (that's now 'optional' I'm told) and that getting up every day at 3 am to do several hours of strenuous yogic sadhana seemed pretty radical to me then. So at the time, it wasn't a fit. And even during my commercial adult life in Santa Fe where I often interacted with ashram Sikh's in the business world, it never occurred to me to take a second look. I was fine with my Sikh friendships, but personally I had no interest in 'the Sikh path'.
What I discovered by attending Sat Nam Fest this past weekend (after 40 years of superficial association) is that I now do. At the very least I will be adding in the (to me) now very sensible Kundalini yoga practices I've just learned to my current yoga sadhana. From there, I am not sure where my heart will lead me, but my new respect for this body of wisdom is closing no door.
In any relationship three elements are necessary for success--- a shared affinity, a shared reality, and the ability to communicate (take away any of those elements and the relationship withers). While I did discern individual ego arise occasionally inside this spiritual Sat Nam Fest family, I discerned very few people committed to keeping it. I loved the devotional sincerity I witnessed, I loved the values that I witnessed being lived, I loved the world view expressed (business-environmental/political-spiritual), I loved the stories told of the linage's early gurus, I deeply loved the mantra chanting music, and surprisingly, I loved getting up early and doing strenuous sadhana. Plus, several of the people I met instantly felt like very dear long lost friends. Pinch me, this must be a dream. OK, as Papaji often said, "Wait and see". I certainly will. I'm interested in following this new & unexpected thread. It has something for me that is very good. For now, that's my 'report'. :-)
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This coming weekend I will be attending another Sufi Dance Retreat being held at an intentional community called Wind Spirit Community (near Globe, AZ). I am looking forward to it, wondering what this adventure will hold. I think (given what happened this past weekend) that I will plan on creating EWJ #21 after I return home, just like I am doing right now with EWJ #20. That cool with you? Yes? Many many thanks for all your wonderful blessings and good thoughts. Catch you in the wind soon...
Namaste, (and now…also… Sat Nam…)
David
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Rev. David Seacord
Fine Art Painter / Sufi Cherag
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