BYC Newsletter #34

Dear Yoga students and those interested in Yoga,

We all have perfect storms in our lives, and always remember them as either that great disaster or that great passage into an expansion of consciousness. I just went through such a storm that began when I accepted a print job for a huge trade show booth. It seemed a simple job for my 24-inch printer, but I had never printed vinyl sheets 8 feet long and 36 inches wide before and had no real idea of how much ink, paper or time was needed.

To make my storm story short, I ended up having to outsource half the job to a real printer for a tidy sum of $2000, which neatly took my profit and a $1000 more just to make sure I was sunk. But one person does not make a perfect storm; it takes a congruence of errors on everyone involved to make a storm devastating. You know it’s perfect when everything you do to save your ship just makes it sink faster.

Having been in perfect storms like this before, I can share with you some tips on navigation. First, one must shift one’s perspective and understand that perfect storms have only one purpose; to show you your unconscious shadows. You know what a shadow is; that is the unexpected hand that comes in and screws up your perfect job. “How did that happen!” one screams. “And I was trying to be so careful!” But that’s just the time when the perfect storms strikes—when we a focusing our attention on trying to be careful.

So a perfect storm is here to show everyone involved his or her responsibility. It’s a test on your navigation skills. Can you sail through a storm without finding fault? Can you avoid the reefs of doubt, despair, and anger, prevent the waves that attack yourself for being so stupid, and stay our of the whirlpool of guilt? Can you stay your course, tacking as the winds change, yet keeping your inner peace? Can you observe yourself in the storm without judgment? Can you have compassion for the others on you ship who are also sinking, even those whose errors contributed to the storm?

If you can sail like this, then the storm, when it abides, will spill you into a vast sea of inner peace and you will look back on the storms now fading into the past with wonder and understanding. All the pieces of the storm fit together and you see the storm as your own mind drama, an extremely well crafted lesson for self-awareness.

We are our own gurus, and we are always the disciples of an ever-expanding consciousness. Perfect Storms are the best teachers, and fortunate is the person who can learn to navigate these treacherous waters.

But first you have to practice and build up to the big one. Meditate.

(This piece is posted on my journal where you can get daily reflections on the practice of meditation in every day life.)

Thank you,
Ed
Om Peace
5/5/07
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