Adventures of a spiritual seeker continues.......

So I show up to hear a talk being given by an enlightened being. Sure I'm skeptical but I'm eager to hear what he has to say.  My journal is open and my pen is ready. Bring on the secrets to enlightenment!! It didn't take long before I closed the journal. I wouldn't be learning any ancient yogic secrets from this guy but don't log off just yet.

I did learn some important things this week-end. The first of which is that since I'm always looking for a guru who will impart some secret wisdom I sometimes miss the real teachers who are offering me not so secret wisdom every day.   This is the most important one - I think. 

I learn just as much from the students who come to my class as I do from my teachers.   From them I learn humility.  I used to show up to teach a class thinking that I was going to "teach" them something but I quickly learned they are the real teachers.   I learn about joy and wonder from seeing the world through my son's eyes.  I learn patience and tolerance and compassion from those people in my life who challenge me.  I learn the real meaning of the word yogi when I witness the kindness and generosity of my teacher.  I may not have a guru sitting in lotus posture spoon feeding me ancient wisdom but I certainly have lots of teachers and lots of opportunity to practice the yogic wisdom I study.  For this I am eternally grateful!

Here's a little snap shot of some other not so secret wisdom I'd like to share with you:

* Do good; Be good -- everything else will take care of itself
* Meditate - it's that simply. Whatever the question,
  the answer is meditate and all will be known.
* The gate to get into heaven is small - you won't get in if your head is too big
   - in other words, transcend the ego!!
* If you are going to talk - say something to inspire people not make them feel hopeless.
* Ultimately, what we need more than a guru is TRUST. Trust in a higher power.
* What you do does matter - so again: Do good, Be Good.
* If someone proclaims to be enlightened - he/she probably isn't.
* Nothing resonates with me more than the teachings of the Upanishads.  I much prefer the Isha Upanishad:  "All this is full, All that is full,  From fullness, fullness comes. When fullness is taken from fullness, fullness still remains"  instead of the statement given by this so called enlightened being that creation comes from a void.  Fullness vs void?   I vote for fullness.  When I think of the Divine I think of infinite love, not a void.  I might be wrong but my heart is too full of love to believe God is a void. 

In the end, I come back to what I already know. Everything I seek is not outside of myself.  All my questions will be answered - when I still the fluctuations in the thought waves of my mind through sadhana, spiritual practice. In the stillness, I will look in the lotus of my heart and all will be revealed to me.

Now does anyone know the secret to more patience??