Archive for October, 2008

“Think of the earth as a living organism that is being attacked by billions of bacteria whose numbers double every forty years. Either the host dies, or the parasite dies, or both die.” Gore Vidal

Imagine a giant alien who looked down upon the earth in outer space…as you would look down upon a leaf on the ground. Should the alien study the earth through a microscope, he would observe miniature cells (human beings) in much the way you would observe tiny bugs on the leaf. Some of these cells would be healthy and perform positive functions that sustain life. But some of these cells would mutate, divide, and reproduce over and over “growing exponentially into a mass of cellular tissue that requires increasingly more and more nutrients. It re-routes blood vessels into it, and consumes the spaces and tissues of nearby organs in its orgy of growth. It takes over. It’s called cancer.”

That’s right. There are some human beings who healthy for the planet. And there some human beings who are cancerous to the planet. Let’s examine some cancerous activities and you can gauge if you are the problem or the solution:

1. Hoarding

Facts:
–In the United States, 11.7 million children live in households where people have to skip meals or eat less to make ends meet.

–In developing countries nearly 16 million children die every year from preventable and treatable causes. Sixty percent of these deaths are from hunger and malnutrition. –www.bread.org

The world is struggling right now. The economy is in the pits. Famine is prevalent. The distribution of wealth is way off kilter. Of all the world’s billions of people, there are 691 billionaires who have accumulated $2.2 trillion dollars.** Meanwhile, half the world lives on $2 a day or less. There’s nothing wrong with being filthy rich. God knows I want to be rich and have an amazing house and all the financial freedom in the world. I’m no Mother Theresa but I’ve got to say, something is wrong here. There is a cluster of cells clogging all the nutrients while so many other cells are lacking proper “flow.”

A few weeks ago, I went shopping at Costco. I felt repulsed at the massive amounts of vegetables, and boxes of cookies, and packs of paper products. It’s one thing if I was shopping for a business. But I was only shopping for two people. I was part of “the problem.” By doing a better job of buying what we need, rather than hoarding what we think we’ll need, we can act like a cell playing its part rather than a cell clogging nutrients.

For more on world hunger and how you can help, go to www.bread.org.

2. Infection

“When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.” –Jimi Hendrix

As Thom Hartmann so brilliantly describes in The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, in ancient societies, people lived off the land and consumed what they needed to survive. They enjoyed a much more peaceful existence. Then, when certain people began aggressively taking land as the white man took from the Native Americans, the Natives had to resort to aggression to protect themselves. In other words, a once peaceful “cell” was infected with a dangerous, diseased attitude of violence and aggression.

A human’s natural state is one of harmony. When you are most relaxed and in the moment, you’ll find that your only care to is love and be loved. So it’s a good question to ask yourself: are you finding that domination and desire for victory is the name of your game? God knows I spend most of my time watching sports and screaming at my teams to win. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But too much hunger for victory ultimately places one group of people on top of another. And again, such aggressive cells “consume space” at the expense of more submissive cells. This doesn’t mean give away your stuff and live in a commune. Rather, it’s just a suggestion to emphasize harmony as much as you emphasize victory.

3. Become a Stem Cell

“Personal transformation can and does have global effects. As we go, so goes the world, for the world is us. The revolution that will save the world is ultimately a personal one.” Marianne Williamson

When we get caught in our ways, habits, and routines, we maintain the status quo. As it stands right now, the status quo contributes to the disease of the planet. Take a moment to think of a stem cell. It has the power to transform itself to any kind of cell, and thus transform and heal other parts of the whole. If each of us would look around and honor someone who is struggling and needs help. Whether it’s your neighbor or a starving child in Africa or the bum you always see sleeping on the street corner. Each person has the capacity to restore flow of “nutrients” and cure the cancer plaguing the planet. Such is the transformational potential of every human.

• Our House Crosby, Still, Nash & Young
• Talk of the Town Jack Johnson & Kawika Kahiapo
• She’s Gone Bob Marley & The Wailers
• Whatever You Like T.I.
• Rocket Smashing Pumpkins
• The General Specific Band Of Horses
• Dance Dance Dance Neil Young
• Hand It Over Keb’ Mo’
• Us And Them Frankie Paul
• When the Levee Breaks Led Zeppelin
• Samba Pa Ti Santana
• Just Like a Woman Bob Dylan

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If you want to join me on an amazing adventure to Sedona this December 4-7, check out more on my yoga retreat.

“Prosperity is no just scale; adversity is the only balance.” Plutarch

My guru Karl Hammerschlag recently told a story of parking his car at a health club. He happened to see another man with a handicapped placard parking in the handicapped spot. However, this man seemed perfectly fine and proceeded to enter the health club and run on the treadmill. So Hammerschlag confronted the man about taking advantage of the system. It was a silly incident but very symbolic. Hammerschlag summed it up perfectly, “It has become virtually un-American not to try to get away with as much as you can and, if you get caught, to blame it on someone else. We need to stop gaming the system by lying our way out of our own responsibility, because this bullshit is disabling us economically and spiritually.”

I believe we all try to beat the system. Whether it’s not paying a parking ticket, or evading speed traps with radar detectors, or illegally attaining a handicapped placard, it has become ingrained in our psyche to trump the law. But as the system implodes before our very eyes, what can we learn? The Chinese call it yin and yang, and until recently, it was not something many Americans (myself included) cared to acknowledge. But as all of the ancient Eastern cultures will tell you, it’s the way of the universe. Frank Zappa said, “In the fight between you and the universe, back the universe.”

It’s becoming oh so clear that the dangerous highs of sub-prime mortgages and big credit card bills (YANG) inevitably lead to the cavernous lows of foreclosure and debt (YIN). Clearly we are all learning our financial lessons. What comes up must come down. But here are a few examples of how yin and yang apply to other aspects of life:

1. Pleasure and Pain

“We cannot be more sensitive to pleasure without being more sensitive to pain.” -Alan Watts

The yogis calls this emotional strength or the capacity to feel emotion and sensation with grace. Often when we feel sadness, heartbreak, loss, or pain, we want to avoid it. Such is the value of an ancient Eastern spiritual practice like Tai Chi or yoga which teaches the skills and techniques by which to face pain courageously. Should you wish a life of pleasure, be aware next time you’re feeling the blues. Sit with it. Breathe. Relax. And it will pass faster and purify your heart. But resist, fight, or avoid…and it will only strike deeper and bruise harder.

2. Fear and Courage

“If you don’t have fear, you cannot know courage.” –Cayetano Rivera Ordoñez, Spanish bullfighter

This past Sunday, I was watching 60 Minutes which featured a story on bullfighting. I thought I was dealing with some major fear given the state of the economy. But these bullfighters are inches from an angry bull seething for the chance to kill. Much despised by animal lovers, bullfighting is the ultimate metaphor for a human’s relationship to fear. For the person willing to stare fear in the eyes, she will forever taste the glory of courage. But to run from the bull, you enliven its fury. As Ann Landers said, “If I were asked to give what I consider the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity, it would be this: Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life, and when it comes, hold your head high. Look it squarely in the eye, and say, I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me.”

3. Sorrow and Joy

“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?” Kahlil Gibran

We all have sorrowful days, months, even years. But know that you are only creating space to contain the full breadth of joy. For one who feels little emotion, it might seem that she is lucky and has it easy in life. Such an emotionless person always seems to be balanced. Here’s the way I see it. “Emotionless” is much like communism, a system of “balance” for all. In a communist society, nobody can have too much, and nobody can have too little. But go to Cuba, a stunningly beautiful country, and see that the people are driving dilapidated cars and living off government rations. Clearly, the communist system ultimately strangles the culture. When you resist the natural cycles and rhythms of emotion, your soul is gasping to breathe. Open your heart and allow life to come and go, and rise and fall. As George Bernard Shaw said, “Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.”

• Little Boxes Devendra Banhart
• My Sisters And Brothers Jerry Garcia Band
• Waiting in Vain Lee Ritenour
• Deadweight Beck
• Badfish Sublime
• Walking on the Moon The Police
• Do What You Want to Do Michna
• Caminando Por la Calle Gipsy Kings
• Rainbow G. Love & Jack Johnson
• Kentucky Woman Neil Diamond
• Pictures of You The Cure
• Tuesday’s Dead Cat Stevens
• Pocohantas Neil Young
• Sing for You Tracy Chapman