The Exigence of Journey and Why We So Often Fall Short

Hey everyone!

I hope you enjoyed my last post.  I know that it was a repeat from something I had shared before but I felt it was necessary to really establish the rationale for what I am doing with this blog.   I promise that this will almost exclusively be new content (I won't even be able to draw from Facebook now that it will be deactivated :)).  Given that, I make a somewhat nebulous reference to this "Ashram" that I will be heading to at the end of March (March 29th flight date, to be exact)

In many conversations I've had with people asking about what I'm doing, I've had eyes roll.  I've had people respond with the perfunctory "yea", "mhmms" , and "sounds cool."  The problem, I've come to realize, is that most don't even know what an ashram is!

What is this dude even talking about?!

Let me take this post to explain exactly what an ashram is, why I have decided to do it, and how it fits in with the greater journey towards self-optimization.  Maybe you'll want to do just the same yourself sometime soon!

On March 29th at 9 a.m., my flight will leave to Nassau, Bahamas for the Sivanada Ashram.  This will come after months of planning, setbacks and struggles.  My initial plan was to leave at the end of December 2015 but financial setbacks, lack of capacity at the ashram, and injuries prevented me from doing so.  Now, everything is in place smoothly!

Once that flight lands, I'll take a taxi to the Sivanada boat dock and will take a ferry to Paradise Island!  The name is no misnomer:  Paradise Island is a wonderfully beautiful, majestic place, one perfect for an intense spiritual journey.  A number of legendary films have used Paradise to shoot, including 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Beatles' film Help!, Flipper, The Silence of the Lambs, 2 Pirates of the Caribbean Films, and 4 Bond Films (Thunderball, The Spy Who Love Me, Never Say Never Again, and Casino Royale)!

I could hold a headstand for years in a place like this!

The waters are so pristine and blue that they can be seen from outer space! Water temperatures average around 80 degrees year round and the weather is similarly warm.   Visitors also get to see the March of the Flamingos 3 times a day.  Numerous restaurants serving traditional Bahamian cuisine (Conch, anyone?) are also to be found

Who could get jet lag or homesickness coming to a place like this?

The reality is that I will get to spend little time around Paradise.  I'm not worried about this because that is what studying at an Ashram entails.  Being at Sivanada will mean a massive investment of my time and energy but that is what I currently need.  Before we get to what the takeaways and exigence of something like an ashram is, let's talk a little bit more about Sivanada

The Sivanada Ashram Yoga Retreat Bahamas is part of the worldwide collection Sivanada Yoga Vedanta Centres, founded for their namesake, Swami Sivanada, one of the 20th century's greatest Yoga masters.  Sivanada authored more than 200 books on Yoga and in 1957 sent his great disciple Swami Vishnudevananda to the West.  There are now more than 20 Yoga Centres and 9 ashrams worldwide.  The practice of Sivanada Yoga emphasizes pranayama (proper breathing), asana (yogic movement and exercise), savanna (relaxation), a vegetarian diet, and positive thinking and meditation (vedanta and dhyana) 

Two lacto-vegetarian buffet meals are served daily at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., in line with the Yogic philosophy, along with a selection of brewed herbal tea.   For people in the 3 month Karma Yoga Immersion Program like myself, these meals are free of charge.  From the end of October until the beginning of July, residents pitch an 8x8 tent on the beach, where they make residence; during the rest of the year, dorms are provided

The daily schedule, as mentioned above, is rigorous.  It looks something like this and is followed 7 days a week:

6:00 am	Satsang: meditation, chanting, and lecture or Silent Walk
8:00 am	Yoga Class (asana,  pranayama, and relaxation)
10:00 am	Brunch (10-11) and Selfless Service (5 hours of work around the Ashram)
4:00 pm	Yoga Class (asana, pranayama, and relaxation)
6:00 pm	Dinner (6-approximately 7) and personal time (approximately 7-8)
8:00 pm	Satsang: meditation, chanting, and a talk or performance Bedtime/lights out is at approximately 10 p.m. and residents are to wake up at approximately 5:30 a.m.  Work at the ashram includes marketing/promotion, maintenance, gardening, kitchen help, reception/reservations, and many more.  Residents are placed based upon interest and needs of the Ashram. This is all free of charge, provided I stay for three months and follow the rules of the Ashram!  All I needed to buy was a plane ticket, medical travel insurance, and the usual toiletries! The reality is that much of the day is given to learning yoga and finding self.  This is not a "vacation" in the traditional sense.  It is even more worthwhile because the skills, qualities, and true yearning for self-knowledge is something that could not be accomplished on a traditional vacation Why the Ashram? You may wonder why someone would be so anxious to go to something like an ashram.  Why not just head back to graduate school/law school, as I was a successful student?  Why not just look for a better job or enroll in a couple of professional development courses to advance requisite skills in the job market?  Why not just wait?  What's wrong with where I was at? The whole initiative for this journey actually came from a good friend of mine.  For quite some time, we had been meeting up and discussing life over Hookah.  Both of us being recent college graduates still struggling to find enriching employment and meaningful living, the conversations would typically focus on both what we lacked (endogenous) and how Cleveland (exogenous) was inhibiting us I could see patterns developing that were very startling.  I am every bit the "self-starter" that employers look for, teeming with ideas and ways to synthesize them.  However, once started, many of these ideas and projects would find themselves laid empty on the table and never cooked.  I would quickly lose focus, discipline, and drive to turn these ideas into fruition At the same time, I was developing in many important ways.  My creative abilities really crystallized--- I found myself with an endless supply of creative ideas, thoughts, writings, etc.  This was very much embodied in my personal style--- often what seemed ostentatious but really the presentation of someone with a lot of moving parts People have told me they've never met someone so passionate, so full of energy.  I've met relative strangers who have said they believe in me.  I found people appreciating my poetry and often heard things like "Hey, that sounds like our next mayor."  Jokes aside, the creative process really began to liberate me as an individual.  The next step was to optimize as an individual The other, exogenous, part of the spark was Cleveland.  My friend and I both established that this was largely not a place where we could currently grow to our peaks.  We established that while Cleveland and Northeast Ohio may be great place to raise a family or settle down, they are not as conducive to young people seeking to do great things Despite what is often trumpeted as a comeback city--- a Republican National Convention, return of LeBron James, new casino and medical mart, and growth of downtown--- we could both see that much of this was empty.  The reality was that poverty was manifest, institutions of higher education left much to be desired, crime and despair prevalent, and the social/night life mostly nonexistent and dead.  I could ride down my street any given day of the week at any given time and not expect to see much.  While I love where I live, the reality is that it is a food desert with high rates of poverty, a paucity of food (call it a food dessert, if you will), the reality is that this is much more the norm for Cleveland than Downtown I traveled to New York City and Philadelphia.  I could see what cities stewing with energy and wonder would look like and how I could impact them.  They are ultimately much more up to my speed than Cleveland is.  But if I could find some contentment in Cleveland, why not continue moving on the road to happiness? My friend and I first established that we wanted to attend the Zen Mountain Monastery in the Catskill Mountains, New York.  After a bit more research, we would find Sivanada Bahamas and realize that Zen was too costly, too short, and not involving enough Yogic movement.  Sivanada was where it had to happen I expect this trip to be difficult at times.  I expect to experience ineffable joy and amazement.  I expect to come away a completely changed and more realized person; I was also encouraged by the fact that the recently deceased David Bowie and Steve Jobs, two people I admire, spent long stays at ashrams, along with a litany of others What might that change and realization look like?  Specifically, I'd like to come away with the following: Intense focus and concentration.  As described above, this is a very necessary ingredient to match with my passion and intellect A certain otherworldly expression of love and loving.  In many ways, I am a product of a lot of trauma and stress.  A significant amount of my (close) family are drug addicts or have had serious drug problems.  I am the product of a single-parent household.  Sometimes I haven't loved myself as much as I ought to.  And I've always thought that if someone would have shown more love to those folks in my family like my mother and sister to me, things just may have been different.  As I've studied movements of non-violence in the last year, I know it has the ability to transcend and take the world A calmness and tranquility.  This goes hand-in-hand with the last one but it's an ability to be deeply immersed in the moment without being tethered to it.  To not let momentary stresses and struggles drag on for hours and days.  It's a certain fluidity! Resolution.  I tend to have many passions, many different interests.  And while this gives me a certain contextual way to see things, it often prevents me from narrowing to where I can be most affective.  As I cast a line and peer into myself, I'll have a much better idea of what I ultimately will be Discipline.  You can see the schedule above.  I can be very frenetic in my goals and activities.  No more of that.  When I leave this ashram, my discipline will be much closer to concrete than the glass it is now Hopefully, that conveys a strong idea of why I am going and what I need it for. There will be more expository information in the time that follows us.  Now it is time for me to question you! Why Don't We Journey? The Hajj:  An Islamic pilgrimage and one of religion's greatest spiritual journeys Given all that we know about journeys like the one I just describe; that, while imperfect and not always leading to greatness, are often catalysts to great change, why don't more people make them?  We know the greats who have done them.  We know they reduce stress, they expand creativity, they are often great for physical health, and they form permanent memories.  We know they often leave us in earth-shattering states of joy, providing us with the tools and means to better love the world.  We know they make our work more meaningful and purposeful What I don't know is why so many say no.  Are they so invested in their overloaded lives, often dead-end and underpaid jobs, and rote environments?  Do they not desire to be more holistic people? I understand that there are many obstacles to journeys like these and I speak from a point of privilege:  I'm young and in good physical condition.  I have no children and no obligations to ill parents.  I don't have careers or employers exactly chasing me down.  I'm an educated person and hence my chances of even knowing about something like this are far greater than someone who was never able to attend college.  I'm lucky to have had family and friends that have been surprisingly supportive in this decision.  I do have a job and the capacity to make enough income to finance this, no matter how minor the costs  I'm grateful for all of that.  Just to have that is much more than a substantial amount of the world.  But when faced with these things, so many people will just stare blindly and say "no".  They don't care about the low cost or the immense benefits.  They would rather do the traditional vacation of getting drunk, laying at a beach, seeing a few landmarks (but not truly seeing or reading them), rinsing and repeating.  The would rather be in their insular worlds (and I refuse to say comfortable because where they are at right now is causing them exponentially more discomfort than something like an ashram would) and never venture out too far or with too much uncertainty.  They put it off until they get older, when their brains will already be ossified and the yearning for a growth that can touch a long life that much more diminished When confronted with uncertainty, the best way to move forward is to leave questions.  I ask all of you, How do we, as leaders, inspire people to journeys like these?  How do we show the most beaten to be the most brazen?  How do we lovingly encourage the most confused of us to understand that there are other possibilities, other dimensions, not within our daily dichotomies? And how do we, collectively, bring our journeys to others who can not go so far and infuse it within their own spirit?