Ken Wilber
I drive about two hours almost every day in Los Angeles. Crazy. But instead of complaining about it, I decided a while ago to make the best of it. For several years now, I have been listening to Audio CD's on my drives and that has changed everything. I have listened to many CD's of John Friend, Douglas Brooks, and Richard Freeman, to name a few. I finished Dr. Marshall Rosenberg's 11 CD's on Non Violence Communication, a few months ago, which were sublime and helpful.
Now I am listening to Ken Wilber being interviewed about his work. Ken has been described as the most comprehensive philosophical thinker of our times. He has written over a dozen books on integral philosophy, mysticism, meditation, and integrating matter, body, mind, soul and spirit. Since the material is so thick and textured, I re-listen to each CD several times. I am getting a taste of his work and have been quite blown away by him. Here is a quote from his book One Taste, that has deeply moved me and helped me:
"One of the many reasons we have trouble with the notion of 'egoless' is that people want their 'egoless sages' to fulfill all their fantasies of 'saintly' or 'spiritual,' which usually means dead from the neck down, without fleshy wants or desires, gently smiling all the time. All of the things that people typically have trouble with- money, food, sex, relationships, desire- they want their saints to be without. 'Egoless sages' are 'above all that,' is what people want. Talking heads is what they want. Religion, they believe, will simply get rid of all baser instincts, drives, and relationships, and hence they look to religion, not for advice on how to live life with enthusiasm, but on how to avoid it, repress it, deny it, escape it.
In other words, they typical person wants the spiritual sage to be 'less than a person, somehow devoid of all the messy, juicy, complex, pulsating, desiring, urging forces that drive most human beings. We expect our sages to be an absence of all that drives us! All the things that frighten us, confuse us, torment us, confound us: we want our sages to be untouched by them altogether." (Wilber, One Taste)
The reason this has moved me, is that often when I am sad, contemplative, mellow, or even angry, people around me often are uncomfortable and thus want to fix me. And it's not just them. I too, often feel like I am failing as a yoga teacher and therefore must move through this dark cloud and be in the light.
However the gift of yoga is that it truly welcomes you as you are, reminding you all the while that there is more. So instead of seeking to escape our lower chakras, our so-called darker emotions, maybe we can invite them in like guests to our home? Maybe we can learn to live with them? And continue to recognize that there is a part of us that is beyond all that arises and all that recedes.
I don't want to be smiling all the time.
I don't want to be dead from the neck down.
I don't want avoid this world.
I want to be in this world; in this messy, chaotic, juicy, crazy world.
awesome MC. I too listen to many books & cd's while driving. It is a way for me to control the sensory input of commuting, and somehow gather more form this commuting time than driving and tuning into the radio.
I love Ken Wilbur. He is such an innovative thinker, synthesizer. (sometime I have to read and contemplate a paragraph 10 times!)
I love that you brought up this notion of the juicy, messy human life. This is how we learn, this is the gift of embodiment. This is the gift and responsibility of free choice as well. We can choose how and what to do. Being the rainbow and mud of feelings in existence allows us discrimination, discernment. Without these, it would be like sickness without symptoms- how would we know what to heal? How beautiful, engaging, energetic and challenging life is. Have a juicy life and get messy. Let us savor the experience and learn and grow <3 luvs
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I really like the qoute and the thoughts you share on it. I had a really hard time as I faced some challenges I had with disordered eating. I really beat myself up for not being a "better yoga teacher". Its been a process but it has helped me appreciate the juicy life. Not only do I feel like I am connecting more fully with the universal during this pulsation of life but I also feel like being more vulnerable helps you connect so much more in relationships with others and especially with students.
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What a blessing to have landed here while searching up the correct spelling of Uttitha Hasta Padangustasana! Your entries are generous and informative and I look forward to reading on down...
Have a juicy day!
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Sadly, even wonderful spiritual tapes do not remove the carbon from the atmosphere that is generated by 2 hours on the road, even in a Prius... I did the same for many years, and feel very badly that I contributed to global climate disruption that is now causing such destruction.
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