New Kundalini Yoga Classes and The Courage To Live Dangerously
How To Live Courageously
This past weekend was blessed and charged with 3 yoga and meditation classes at the Silent Mind Meditation Center. The new Saturday Kundalini Yoga class, the Sunday Gentle Yoga and Meditation Class and the original Sunday Kundalini Yoga Class. The new class was well received and served its purpose perfectly. It has been launched as the Sunday Kundalini Yoga is full and can no longer accommodate any new students. So new students wanting to learn the powerful science of Kundalini Yoga, now have the opportunity via the Saturday Class. In addition, the new class gives current students another option if any given Sunday is busy for them and it also gives those students who wish to expand their practice a second class to attend if they so desire. This was exactly the composition of the new class. There were new students, students who could not make it on Sunday and students who wished for more yoga. I would like to thank all those who attended and made this class a success.
None of this would be taking shape, though, if I was afraid of failure. As some of you know, I used to teach a popular Kundalini Yoga class in Jersey City and run the Zenmind Yoga & Meditation studio in Hoboken, before my wife became pregnant and we moved to Old Bridge to be as close as possible to my dear parents who live here. This move has been a huge blessing for my family, all three generations are benefiting from the proximity, but, it also meant taking a break from my teaching days. The last three years have brought us the joy of 2 magnificent sons and although I have continued my personal practice, it wasn’t till this spring that I felt I had the time to commit to teaching Kundalini Yoga classes publicly again.
Setting up a Yoga Studio and teaching Yoga & Meditation is, in my opinion, one of the most honorable professions one can embrace. That being said, it is not necessarily easy to do. Specially if you want to do it well and really make an impact in people’s lives. In this article I don’t want to go into all the details on what goes on behind the scene to run a successful Yoga Center, but, what I do want to discuss is the risk factor involved in actually offering the classes.
So many doubts and fears can paralyze this process. “Will anyone sign-up?”, “Do I have enough time and energy?”, “Will students like Kundalini Yoga?”, “Should I do the class on a weekday instead?”, “Will Yoga generate interest in Central New Jersey?”, “Will it be perfect?” etc, etc. Who knows! We will find out and the only way to find out is by trying it. You must act on your passions despite any doubts or insecurities that you have and that is what courage is. To not try because of the fear of failing or the fear of making a mistake is the biggest mistake. The future is unknown, there are no guarantees and the key to dealing with this truth is to embrace uncertainty. Once you can do that you can take the plunge. Otherwise you will never let go of the edge and never experience the current of life. So open your heart, don’t worry about being perfect, don’t try to always play it safe, be adventurous and as Osho puts it in the title of his book, discover the “Joy of Living Dangerously”.
Jeff,
Glad to have been able to offer some helpful thoughts.
Children complicate all the teachings :-). I have 2 little ones as well, 3 1/2 year and 10 months. I know I am terribly over simplifying here, but what has worked for me so far is the piece of wisdom that says, all children require from you is your close observation and endless gentleness. They, like all relationships, provide a mirror in which to study one’s ego in action.
I have been requested to comment on this topic of children as it is of great interest to many, so it might be time to write on it. Thank you for your thoughtful comments and participation.
Best to you,
Anmol
Anmol,
Your answer was a profound revelation for me, and I am still working on the ramifications in my life. This is why it’s taken me so long to respond! :-)
You see, I already knew everything you said. In fact, just a week previously, I had created a downloadable guided meditation for my own site which essentially went through many of the same points. So I had to ask myself: if I knew this answer all the time, why hadn’t I applied it to myself?
The answer (when I finally figured it out) is that I DO apply it to myself (letting go of goals and attachments, not identifying myself with my “wants”, focusing on what I love to do, etc.), but I have a lot of trouble applying it to other people. That is, I DO have goals for my children’s lives, and I AM attached to them, simply because I love them and I want their happiness.
Perhaps I should try to let that go as well, and trust the universe to take care of what they need. It is very difficult to do that when they come and look up at me and depend on me for so many things…
Perhaps this is why the Lord Buddha named his son Rahula, “fetter”.
And yet I know, at another level, that “I” haven’t ever given them anything, any more than “I” have ever provided for myself. “I” am so bound up with the “not-I” universe in so many chains of karma and causality that “I” don’t even really exist.
The central paradox I wrestle with is this: how to cultivate compassion and love, without also fostering attachment to the well-being of others.
Thank you, Anmol, for helping me break through this blindness and see the source of my difficulty. All blessings on you!
Dear Jeff,
Glad to have your presence on Mastery of Meditation and thank you for sharing with us. I am sorry to hear of the difficult times you are facing and here my thoughts concerning your current situation. I am speaking frankly below, so please forgive me if it appears harsh in any way…
1. If I may point out, your suffering is tied to your attachment to how things ought to be. If your children had been ill and bed-ridden since birth and you saw them playing on the porch now, there would be tears of joy streaming down your cheeks. If you were in a poor village in India and they just put up the school your children currently go to, you would be dancing in the streets. The problem is of measurement – either to how it was, or how it ought to be – this is the collective curse of man. There is no problem with how it is. The spiritual challenge of life is to be able to say, its Ok, No problem, no matter what storms come our way.
2. I am not saying that one does not look to bring about change either, such as a house with a yard, or moving to a better neighborhood. The art of living, though, is to be able to move forward without excessive emotional attachment to the goals. So if they materialize, well and good, if they don’t well and good. We just put our best foot forward. This does not lead to robotic apathetic existence either (although early in one’s meditative practice there could be such a phase as well). It eventually leads one to joy, wisdom and love.
3. Along similar line, I would also suggest to you, that you don’t worry about how long it will take to pay off the debt etc. No one knows what the future holds so there is little point in worrying about it. A financial windfall may be just around the corner and if that was the case, all the stress would have been for naught.
4. Finally, I want to clarify one point. When I say one should follow one’s heart, follow one’s passion, I mean to do that which one loves to do, not simply chase the goals which one hopes to achieve. So if one loves to write, one writes that is all. One does not obsess on making the Times Best Seller List. All the trouble begin when the goals become the center of our world.
The meditation that helped me most with living with life just as is was Zazen. Below is the link to that meditation if you wish to incorporate it in your life. A book that is worth having and embracing which also expands on the 4 points above and more is Charlotte Joko Beck’s Everyday Zen Love & Work. In case you wish to explore further these insights.
https://anmolmehta.com/2007/04/18/free-online-guided-meditation-book-zen-meditation-technique-ch-1/
Let me know if I can help further.
My love and best wishes are with you,
Anmol
Hello Anmol,
I was introduced to your site by Kara-Leah above, who is leading me through a physical manifestation overhaul; she recommended to me many of your meditations and exercises, and they have been wonderful. As a result, I’ve been poking around your site, and I’ve been amazed at the wonderful things you have here!
I have a question about living dangerously. Two years ago, I was working at a job that was sapping my emotional and moral energy, and I knew I had to get out of it, even though it was all that was supporting me and my family (I have four small children; my eldest at that time was 6). And we wanted to find a place to live away from suburbia, a place in the country where out children could have all of Nature to play in, and we could live lightly and sustainably.
I gathered my courage and left the job, and moved to another state where we’d be closer to family and people who shared our values. When we moved, I had no new job waiting for me — it was a real jump in the dark.
But I had confidence I could find something; and I did, within four months — a new job that was much more satisfying and actually paid more than my old one, AND allowed me to spend more time with my family!
So that was great. The problem is that we had a terrible time trying to sell our old house, and it broke us financially. We had to go deep into our financial reserves, and now we are in a lot of debt and cannot get a new house. We are secure and have a rented roof over our heads, but we are only able to pay off the debt very slowly, and in the meantime we are not living in a great neighborhood and the children don’t have a good yard to play in. We are looking for a better place to rent. But we had such wonderful dreams…
So it’s as if we made a dangerous leap, and reached the other side, but broke our legs in the process! Now our progress is reduced to a crawl. Eventually we will heal; but it will take a decade to get out of debt and save up for a house again. In the meantime our children are not having the wonderful, free childhood in the country that we envisioned for them, and we are not living as lightly, sustainably, and morally as we would like. It breaks my heart to see my children trying to play on the tiny concrete porch that serves as their backyard.
I guess this is very long and perhaps self-indulgent; but it is my deepest sorrow, and your article struck such a chord with me. I was courageous, I did not play it safe, I followed my passion and what my heart told me to do; and I succeeded! But I also failed in significant ways, and some of the most important parts of our dreams are further away than ever.
Please, if you have any advice for me, I would be so grateful. I’m not looking for practical advice about making more money or anything — I know whatever my problem is, it is at root spiritual and not physical.
Thank you and bless you!
Dear Miguelina,
Its great to have your presence here on Mastery of Meditation and in the Silent Mind Meditation Center. Your positive energy inspires and uplifts us all.
Thank you,
Anmol
Anmol, thank you for sharing this. We are truly blessed to have you here in Central Jersey– personally, I still can’t believe my good fortune in having coming across the Silent Mind Meditation Center one fateful day :) Your message here about fearlessness is much needed and appreciated.
Hi Kris, Thanks for posting this article to your blog. Cheers, Anmol
Hi Anmol, I just wanted to let you know I posted about this on my blog: http://www.beyondzen.org/?p=29
Hi KL, Kris, Shobha,
Thank you all for your comments. In fact your comments reflect and add to the ideas I was looking to put accross in this post… I am glad you have all enjoyed this article and have enhanced its message with your feedback.
Peace & Joy,
Anmol
Great encouragement for those sitting on the fence, afraid of jumping in. Thanks. It will move many a weak hearts, ready to plunge. Fear will be gone in the air.
Great post Anmol, you nailed it, for if those who have achieved great things in this life had not followed their passions in the face of fears of failure, time, energy, etc; we would never have had such great achievements.
Namaste
Kris
I’m glad you started teaching kundalini yoga again, and I look forward to one day taking one of your classes in person.
I have loved online courses #101, #102 & #103.
Great message too – life is about living, and living means learning, which means failure is not really failure at all… but another way to learn