When I was completing my yoga teacher training several years ago, I desired to seek out a guru.
What I learned was not quite what I expected. I hoped that I would find one person who would be able to see in me where I am lacking in discipline or blocked from divine insight. Someone who could hold up the mirror of accountability with love and divine light and change my life. . . Some kind of spiritual parent. . . Taking me under their wing and showing me the long routes and short cuts to enlightenment.
When an outside teacher did not appear to reflect this to me in a flood of light and love, I was frustrated. I felt out of sorts and like my prayers and intentions may have been for naught.
Somewhere, some time after the frustration and irritation had passed and I had given up on it, I finally discovered that I had an inner guru who could share all this info if I was quiet enough to observe.
There is a saying that goes something like this;"when the student is ready, the teacher appears." This seems to be the way of the universe. We must clear the space in our lives and seek within, practice with the disciplines we have been taught in meditation, yoga and dancing and read the reflections of the mystics and continue to show up and observe with detachment.
We have to make room for reflection in order to have clarity and we must have clarity to grow toward our divine purpose. Only then do we discover gurus in all experiences and people we encounter.
There are people who roam the earth and channel divine light more visibly than others, but in truth, we all have this capacity and we are all teachers and students alike. . .
We want answers from an expert in ANYTHING. Financial, Religious. Emotional. Career-related. Pray this way, pay that way. . . We feel we need outside affirmation, outside security.
We get diseases, hit by cars, our banks close - even when we've been closely following the advice of "experts" we die anyway. We lose loved ones. We trust. We get screwed. We trust again.
Yesterday after a long hot day of mind blowing meetings and a session, I went to the springs. Listened to music, water, people, a guy named David with a stringy beard and big beautiful open eyes walked up sat down and learned to play the mandolin and he chanted beautifully in sanskrit. A beautiful deaf 22 year old named Jamal taught me and my girlfriend some hula hooping tricks. I relished with the other hot swimmers in the magic of the cold springs. I saw some pretty fish. I swam with my whole body.
In the midst of a completely upside-down time of my life, I blissed out anyway.
It was awesome.
Tools I have learned from my all my gurus. Thank you ALL.
Practice Gratitude when you feel good and when you feel unfulfilled
Clear the Path, let go of relationships, things and habits that aren't serving growth
Observe without attachment or taking things personally
Let go of the "story" and the expected 'outcome' of everything (being selective here doesn't work)
Tell the truth
Notice the dance between your faith and your action
Recognize the information within and around you
Align with Integrity
Channel Creativity
Love Completely from whatever distance is appropriate
Bliss out ANYWAY!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Please Consider Signing this Petition to Austin City Council to Support the Legacy of Our Live Music
If you are interested in preserving the legacy of live music in Austin, please consider signing this petition and sharing it with other live music lovers.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/austinmusic/
WHY?
After a weekend on the road, I came home to learn that one of Austin's cherished venues, Shady Grove's live musical entertainment was shut down last night due to a violation of the sound ordinance.
Last night Sahara Smith was on stage and Jimmy LaFave was preparing to perform. We're not talking thrash metal (quality thrash rarely works at 75db). We're talking sweet melodies and tender voices.
This ordinance was created many years ago and is recently being enforced across Austin. We are hoping to work with the City of Austin to create a reasonable solution that keeps music alive and residents happy.
The DB level that is currently being enforced is 75 db. To get an idea of what 75 db sounds like, go out and stand next to a moderately busy street. That's about it. Five people in an excited conversation can exceed this DB easily. ONE motorcycle/chopper revving can be louder than 100 db.
Music venues on S. Congress & S. 1st have discontinued their live music due to this DB enforcement. The Red River area is under scrutiny and now Barton Springs Road. What I'm suspecting is a big factor in this enforcement is that these areas that were once primarily commercial are now being swarmed with condos and other residential development. People who are moving into these long-standing "live music" areas like downtown and SoCo are complaining. It then becomes a battle between taxpaying residents and musicians and venues. No Fun.
Currently, there is also a moratorium on issuing live music permits. We are not sure when this is to be lifted, but potential venues in non-residential areas are unable to have live music outdoors at their establishments as of yet.
The music community in the "Live Music Capitol of the World" who have invested their lives in this amazing legacy, are concerned, uneasy and unsure of what to do. Some musicians who were at Shady Grove last night have assembled a petition to present to City Council.
Thank you for supporting music, the medicine of the soul.
The poets did well to conjoin music and medicine, because the office of medicine is but to tune the curious harp of man's body. - Francis Bacon
You are the music while the music lasts. ~T.S. Eliot
All deep things are song. It seems somehow the very central essence of us, song; as if all the rest were but wrappages and hulls! ~Thomas Carlyle
Music is the universal language of mankind. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Outre-Mer
Music's the medicine of the mind. ~John A. Logan
If the King loves music, it is well with the land. ~Mencius
Without music life would be a mistake. ~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons. You will find it is to the soul what a water bath is to the body. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes
He who sings scares away his woes. ~Cervantes
Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness. ~Maya Angelou, Gather Together in My Name
Were it not for music, we might in these days say, the Beautiful is dead. ~Benjamin Disraeli
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/austinmusic/
WHY?
After a weekend on the road, I came home to learn that one of Austin's cherished venues, Shady Grove's live musical entertainment was shut down last night due to a violation of the sound ordinance.
Last night Sahara Smith was on stage and Jimmy LaFave was preparing to perform. We're not talking thrash metal (quality thrash rarely works at 75db). We're talking sweet melodies and tender voices.
This ordinance was created many years ago and is recently being enforced across Austin. We are hoping to work with the City of Austin to create a reasonable solution that keeps music alive and residents happy.
The DB level that is currently being enforced is 75 db. To get an idea of what 75 db sounds like, go out and stand next to a moderately busy street. That's about it. Five people in an excited conversation can exceed this DB easily. ONE motorcycle/chopper revving can be louder than 100 db.
Music venues on S. Congress & S. 1st have discontinued their live music due to this DB enforcement. The Red River area is under scrutiny and now Barton Springs Road. What I'm suspecting is a big factor in this enforcement is that these areas that were once primarily commercial are now being swarmed with condos and other residential development. People who are moving into these long-standing "live music" areas like downtown and SoCo are complaining. It then becomes a battle between taxpaying residents and musicians and venues. No Fun.
Currently, there is also a moratorium on issuing live music permits. We are not sure when this is to be lifted, but potential venues in non-residential areas are unable to have live music outdoors at their establishments as of yet.
The music community in the "Live Music Capitol of the World" who have invested their lives in this amazing legacy, are concerned, uneasy and unsure of what to do. Some musicians who were at Shady Grove last night have assembled a petition to present to City Council.
Thank you for supporting music, the medicine of the soul.
The poets did well to conjoin music and medicine, because the office of medicine is but to tune the curious harp of man's body. - Francis Bacon
You are the music while the music lasts. ~T.S. Eliot
All deep things are song. It seems somehow the very central essence of us, song; as if all the rest were but wrappages and hulls! ~Thomas Carlyle
Music is the universal language of mankind. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Outre-Mer
Music's the medicine of the mind. ~John A. Logan
If the King loves music, it is well with the land. ~Mencius
Without music life would be a mistake. ~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons. You will find it is to the soul what a water bath is to the body. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes
He who sings scares away his woes. ~Cervantes
Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness. ~Maya Angelou, Gather Together in My Name
Were it not for music, we might in these days say, the Beautiful is dead. ~Benjamin Disraeli
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