I wanted to touch on a couple of outstanding speakers
I had the privilege of seeing recently.
First off was Gurucharan Singh Khalsa. Chapman offered 3 different Sound and Healing
Mediation classes over 3 months. One in
Feb, one in March and one in April. I unfortunately
missed the April one but I was able to catch the Feb and March one.
The February one was done by a couple of teachers from Sun Spark Yoga and they cleared away the chairs in the Interfaith Chapel and everyone spread around on blankets and yoga mats and we had a lovely meditation for almost an hour using the gongs and music along with it. It was beautiful.
The March one was the one that really stuck with
me. This one was led by the Kundalini Yoga teacher Gurucharan Singh Khalsa. He’s all over the interwebs, but here is a
nice summary about him. Gurucharan Singh Khalsa.
The chairs were left, but a coworker and I had
brought mats and we plopped down right in front. More people joined us in front after that! She was familiar with him and was excitedly
telling me about all the times he has taught her, and how wonderful he is, etc.
etc. Out comes this jolly man who
reminded me of a grayed up Santa Claus.
He had a twinkle in his eye and a permanent smirk on his face. The best word I can use to describe him is
delightful. He chatted about the
practice of Kundalini, meditation, chanting and the breath of
fire. He was so cheery and sweet. He’d look you in the eye and you could feel a
warmth. I felt so happy just sitting
there watching him talk.
He taught us the breath of fire
techniques which I was actually somewhat familiar with from my days doing Hot
Bikram Yoga. He also had us humming and
chanting different mantras. I have to
say it was a trip. One of the ones we
did was “I am” but it sounded more like “I um”.
We did that over and over again focusing on our heart center and at 1st
I was wondering how long this was going to continue and then you sort of find
yourself falling into a weird sort of trance.
The sound of everyone around me doing the same thing, our voices all
falling into a trippy rhythmic flow was really interesting. Then we all stop at the same time and it was
the most deafening silence you have ever heard.
It was truly beautiful. Another exercise
was this sort of waving in front of your forehead or third eye that’s supposed
to help awaken you. We would do that,
the breath of fire and maybe chant and it was just a really cool interesting
experience. Afterwards we all did a
silent meditation together and off into the night we went. His inner joy and obvious pure happiness
really tickled my soul.
The other person I’d like to write
a bit about is Venerable Thubten Chondron.
She is a Western Buddhist Nun.
This wasn’t a meditation class like the others, but just coming to hear
her speak. She was just lovely.
She spoke extremely softly and wasn’t
miked so everyone had to be super quiet to hear her which was awesome and
everyone was. A couple of co-workers I’m
just getting to know better joined me. We
were in one of our conference rooms and maybe a group of about 50 or so people
there to listen to her. She works out of Sravasti Abbey and has written quite a few books.
She was so expression able, quirky,
funny and peaceful. She also seemed so fragile. I loved listening to
her. Some of the things she talked about
that really stuck with me was:
- · In speaking about evil people. This is pretty much where I don’t know if I could ever get. I have learned this in Buddhist teachings and it’s the one that always gets me. She spoke of a man she worked for who was an asshole basically. Always putting her down, mean spirited, just plain awful. He frustrated her to no end. When she comes back to her teachers they ask her – who was kinder to you – the Dalai Lama or this Sam person. Well you know where this is going. The Sam person taught her fortitude. Man, that is a tough one. She then used Osama Bin Laden as an example. Of course everyone in the room was like “Um, no!” but then she said think of him as a baby. No one is born into this world evil. Babies are innocent. Can you hate the baby Osama if you didn’t know what he was going to become? Well of course not right? Then she said “That’s what got me through the Bush Administration!” I about died right there. The crowd roared with laughter and she then made a little face “Oops! I probably shouldn’t say that here at Chapman!” So rad.
- · She spoke a lot about us getting away from the I, me mine mentality and how much it hurts you when you are at all self-centered. How much more fulfilling it is to help others. She tells us to think about it – you are one person. Do you think it’s going to make you happy if you only help you? There are over 7 billion people in the world – isn’t it better to help that many? Ha! I have to admit, since I have started trying to do more random acts of kindness it makes me so much happier!
- · She also said something that really stuck and I loved this. She said “Buddhism isn’t a religion it’s common sense”. I loved that. Because it is! Be kind and compassionate. I mean that’s pretty much the jist right? Religions are always warring and righteous and judgmental! Of course not all of them and not all of everybody but I find myself being more and more drawn to Buddhism and the Baha’i faith because it’s about love and compassion. Not who’s right or wrong.
- · The last thing that stuck out to me was when she said “Depression is a luxury” Now she made it clear she was talking about folks that do not have a chemical imbalance in their brain. Of course there are folks out there who battle depression and it’s a medical issue. But let’s be realistic – a lot of people use that as an excuse. It drives me nuts, and to hear her say that I wanted to shout “YES!” She asked us to think about how the lives were for our grandparent’s generation and before that. How they lived. What people did. What people in poor countries do. And we here in America float around whining about how we’re so “depressed” with everything? The more she spoke the more I felt my little “you can be down and depressed sometimes just don’t live there” rant popped in my head.
I feel truly lucky and am so grateful to have had these
opportunities to see these speakers and mediate with them and learn from
them. I have never had these sorts of
things in my life and it’s so friggin cool that things like this pop across
Chapman for free! I wanted to blog about
this so I remember down the line of course, which I why I mostly blog these days
since my memory is starting to dance a bit and things are falling out. I truly cherish these moments! If you have a chance to read up on either or
both of these amazing individuals, do so.
They are fantastic folks and have touched my heart and soul for sure!
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