between self and thought

lies the sweetest expanse

of life and nothingness.

Light and pure,

soothing and sure.

The cascading breath

carries me there,

to the space beyond time,

reason and rhyme.

No battles, no crises,

no wrong or right:

a place of seeing

without sight.

(written after my Isha yoga practice this morning)

I have been doing tons of research on how non-profits can use social media, thanks largely to Beth Kanter’s wealth of resources on the subject, with the aim of seeing what Isha Foundation can do with these tools. The workshop was an opportunity to apply what I’ve already learned, and of course see it in a new light. Gaurav put things in quite a different perspective, for example by highlighting the theoretical underpinnings of the tools (whereas I’ve been focusing more on the practical uses and tactics).

He started with the question: “What are social technologies and why are they important?” and showed how they are changing people. For example, the focus is shifting from content to people, and people themselves are shifting from consumers to creators.

However, I would like to ask: if technologies are changing people, why are we not any more joyful or loving? Surely if we could engineer ourselves the way we would want to be, we would choose bliss over blogging. If the tools enable us to be more “connected”, why can we not experience this connectedness on a deeper level? If anything, social media has tended to exaggerate our individuality (to the point where we feel the need to broadcast our every thought and action). So, how is this change beneficial?

As an inner technology, Isha Yoga creates the transformation from the inside out. Without fancy gadgets, it enables an individual to experience life in a more enhanced way–feeling more in tune with others, with one’s surroundings, with life! Having experienced this myself, it was only natural that I looked to social media as a way to express and share my joy with those in my network.

The workshop report will be available on the Foundation’s site soon. Gaurav’s post on Everything You Need To Know About Social Media Marketing In Seven Short Steps is a good summary, as is this article/interview on Why and how nonprofits should use social media. Slides are below:

Sadhguru has long had a special relationship with Lebanon. He has visited the country almost 10 times since his first visit in 2000, and more than 1,500 people here have taken the Isha Yoga programs designed by Sadhguru.

A number of Lebanese have also become yoga teachers, giving yoga programs in the US, Europe, Asia and Africa. Sadhguru’s Isha Yoga group has brought together volunteers from all of Lebanon’s religions and social classes. In addition, volunteers here have planted more than 1,000 trees in the last two years as part of Isha Yoga’s reforestation project called Project Greenhands.

From the Mystic Eye, Lebanon site–a two day program with Sadhguru is happening there May 1-2.

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At the end of the session, I feel happy and giggly. I lie on the floor in my blanket, laughing like an insane person, or a baby, or an insane baby. I think I must be very tired. I speak to a few of my fellow travellers. They all seem to be in recovery from a terrible personal crisis, although I do not know if they too shout at buses.

A few days later, meditation calls me back. I actually want to do it. Could the anger be ready to fly away, like a bad love song? This time I go to City Lit in Holborn, which has a mindfulness class, again run by Duncan. Again, I am late – the power of denial! So, when I go in, 20 women are sitting on mats with their eyes closed, doing the practice session. One opens her eye and scowls at me. I scowl back. There is also, inevitably, a solitary man. In meditation class, there is always a solitary man. It seems to be a law.

The gender dynamics of meditation deserve another post. The results?

I continue to meditate and as I do, I can feel the anger waving goodbye. I stay soothed. For example, a friend asks me to a dinner party. I fear dinner parties like I fear Nazis. But I go, and I am polite, even when someone asks me if I have cystitis. (I do not.) Meditation is effective, I fear. I am in danger of turning into a rug. I am in danger of being happy.

Hear what others have to say about their experience with Inner Engineering: “After the program, the problems that I saw didn’t look like problems anymore…I feel lighter now…Calmer, clearer…Longer tempered…More playful…”

“As we have physical science to create external well-being there is a whole inner dimension of science to create inner well being. I call it Inner Engineering.” -Sadhguru

Inner Engineering is offered as an intensive program for personal growth. The program and its environment establish the possibility to explore the higher dimensions of life and offers tools to re-engineer one’s self through the inner science of yoga. Once given the tools to rejuvenate, people can optimize all aspects of health, inner growth and success. For those seeking professional and personal excellence, this program offers keys for meaningful and fulfilling relationships at work, home, community, and most importantly, within one’s self.

“Even though I was only 31,  my health had completely crashed to the point I thought that my life and career were in jeopardy. Within a week of doing these practices I was completely renewed on every level and haven’t had a health issue since. Instead of struggling to complete the 30 races a year, I now effortlessly completed over 50 events last year. My family was so impressed they have now all gotten involved in Isha.”

Here he goes into more detail on his experience of Isha Yoga:

“Sadhguru is mystical, insightful, beautiful, funny, wise and grounded. I have taken two of his Isha programs, in Los Angeles and Tennessee, and strongly encourage you to explore this program for yourself–it’s not to be missed.”–Anjelica Huston, Inner Engineering Intensive flyer

From an interview with Huston in Vanity Fair:

She is being helped, she told me, by an Indian guru, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, whose name she spelled out for me like a conscientious schoolgirl. “He reminds me of my husband visually. He has the same lovely brown skin and liquid brown eyes. Very handsome. He’s a modern guru. He plays Frisbee on the beach with us.”

“Do you meditate together?”

“Yes, there are about 70 of us, and you sit cross-legged on the floor for about three days and feel like calcification itself. And then, somehow, you feel a little better. Maybe even get thinner and smarter. We go through a series of exercises, which were kind of familiar to me,” she added, and began to laugh. “I had an Italian grandfather on my mother’s side who became a yogi, and whenever we visited him as children we had to stand on our heads and sing, ‘Oh, what a beautiful morning. Oh, what a beautiful day!’”

Someone is rejecting me, Someone is dying for me… Some work is falling apart, Some work is coming together… Simultaneously, the dualities of life are manifesting around me… And neither is affecting me… Inside I am joyful regardless of what is happening… What I want or what I don’t want… It matters not… For my inner climate is independent of outer events, circumstances and people… Ah, everyone should do Isha… Ah, everyone should be as fortunate as me to have a Master like I do…

It matters not if people love me or hate me, It matters not if I get what I want or I don’t, It matters not if life is good or bad… I wonder with wonder, how am I becoming like this! Such tremendous Grace is being showered on me… I am watching the play of life like a spectator, playing my role as an actor on the stage of life, yet moving away from identification with the roles, faster and faster…

I live in joy. Not skipping-around-and-singing-happy-songs joy. Just joy—peace. stillness. calm.

There are moments when I’m knocked out of my bliss by external situations, but before long, even that will subside and the external world will have no effect on my interiority (except to enhance my experience of life). However my interior, if properly balanced, can have an incredible impact on the external world. I can reverse this vicious cycle.

Today, in my mid thirties I am in what feels like, near perfect health. I have moments of extreme emotions; sadness despair, anger, jealousy, fear and all of the other “normal” human emotions (there is nothing normal about any of these emotions, but it is commonly accepted by our society that it is, so I will just play along for now). I might even have hours, or maybe a day. MAYBE.

Most often, these moments are small (it doesn’t feel small when I am in the middle of feeling down about something or other) but in the grand scheme of my life, the underlying emotion I feel is joy, happiness, and compassion for the life all around me. It doesn’t mean that I hold hands with everyone and sing gospel songs. It means that I see the world with a greater sense of clarity and I feel calm and still enough to simply do what is needed.

Science has come up with so many ways to provide comfort on the exterior of our lives. Why can there not be a scientific way to create a more pleasant experience on the interior? This was always my search, to find relief from the demons in my mind that tore me apart. I realize now, that not only can the demons be exorcised but they were hiding some of the sweetest thoughts and emotions I could have ever imagined.

How to get to this place?

I wish I could give you a list of resources so you could choose which option is suitable for you. But all I know of is one. The science of inner well being taught through the programs provided by Sadhguru and the Isha Foundation. All it did for me, was allow me to experience what has been inside of me all along. It is not progression, it is a regression, back to what it means to be truly alive.