I’m sitting here feeling very New Agey eating a cereal called “Indigo Morning”. When I was growing up, cereals were called Sugar Smacks, Fruit Loops, or Wheaties; there were no cereal names that referred to either enlightened children or the ambrosial hours. But here I am some 50+ years later nourishing my body with what we used to call “cold cereal” and thinking about where i’ve been, where I am, and where I’m going.
There are many different reasons that I am feeling so reflective this morning. One, today is my sister’s birthday and I remember when she was born 50 years ago, I was away at summer camp. Summer camp is something that seems so far away but is so much a part of my being. Our dad was an educator... and that meant he had the summers off. He always landed a job at a sleepaway camp as either a Director of the Girl’s Camp or a Swimming Instructor. I remember those summers fondly because I generally went away with him for the summer and even though I had to call him “Uncle Irv” instead of Daddy, those summers away were a very special time. They were the first opportunities to be Independent.
Oh, Happy Independence Day! (that was too good a segue to pass up)
Summers back then were ENDLESS. Eight weeks of summer camp seemed like an eternity that you never wanted to come to an end. Now summers fly by and no sooner than you say “have a nice summer” you’re back buying candy for Halloween. I work in the Los Angeles School district one day a week and so I suppose you can call me an educator as well... but I don’t have a summer gig somewhere in the Catskills or the Berkshires or the Allegheny mountains of Pennsylvania. My summer camp is eleven days of “Summer Solstice” at Ram Das Puri near Espanola in New Mexico. It’s the closest thing to sleepaway camp I have found in all these years. There is tremendous joy hanging with your friends; showering together, working together, playing together, eating together. It lasts a short amount of time but it’s effects last a LONG time.
At summer camp, the highlight was something called Color War. The camp would divide into two teams and for about a week you would be engaged in healthy competition with your closest friends. This brought everybody’s BEST up several notches and you always came away from Color War feeling stronger, more elevated, more confident, and more unified with your peers. White Tantric Yoga is like that...although it’s not technically a competition with others, it is a competition with yourself. And you always come away feeling like a better YOU; stronger, elevated, confident and unified. There’s a tremendous knowing in both endeavors that you have succeeded and you are part of a bigger whole!
The summer camp or summer solstice experience infuses you with the energy to move forward into the future. Even though as grownups most of us work during the summer months, we still adopt a l’aisse faire attitude; being less demanding of ourselves and others and letting more things “slide” during this time.
My teacher, Harijiwan’s favorite mantra for navigating through challenging waters is “Whatever” and it’s a good mantra to remember during the Autumn, Winter and Spring months, too. I know I could definitely whip myself up into a frenzy when things aren’t going my way, but I just take a few breaths and chant “Whatever” and the pressure dissipates...like letting steam out of a kettle. Worrying gets you NOWHERE and trying to control the uncontrollable is a useless endeavor. The Summer months give you permission to let things go a little...but it’s THE ESSENTIAL attitude to have all year long.
In Guru Nanak’s poem, Japji, there is a stanza or pauree that brings on the deep knowing that everything is in God’s hands. It destroys your ego and brings home your divinity. It also removes negativity and neturalizes your destructive nature and prevents harm to others by your hand.
Guru Nanak has given us a very effective antidote for fear. Everyone knows that fear is the biggest buzz kill around and the 33rd pauree can get rid of that fear for you. Everything we worry about, all that we strive for and try to control, all the images of “security” that we invent for ourselves are given over to the Creator. He says in this 33rd pauree, “I have no power to speak or keep silent, no power to beg or to give, no power to live or to die, not power to rule with wealth and occult mental powers, no power to gain intuitive understanding and spiritual wisdom, no power to find the way to escape from the world, only he alone has the power in his hands, he watches over all, no one is high or low.”
AAKHAN JOR CHUPAI NEH JOR
JOR NA MANGAN DAYN NA JOR
JOR NA JEEVAN MARAN NEH JOR
JOR NA RAAJ MAAL MAN SOR
JOR NA SURTEE GI-ANN VEECHAAR
JOR NA JUGATEE CHHUTAI SANSAAR
JIS HAT’H JOR KAR VAYKHAI SO-I
NAANAK UTAM NEECH NA KO-I
Chanting the 33rd pauree 25 times a day will bring us to that state of surrender where we realize that we can’t do it alone and that we do not have that power even if we wanted to. It removes the illusion that we are in charge and brings us into a loving place of trust where we have all the security we need. Que Sera Sera, whatever will be will be, the future’s not ours to see...que sera sera.
Have a great summer....
Mudra: Sit with a straight spine, chin in, chest out. Bend the elbows into the sides of the body, and place the palms in front of the diaphragm area, flat and face up. Criss cross the finger area only, left on bottom, right on top. The thumbs will be extended away from the rest of the hand, and point straight ahead. Make sure they are not stretched back so far that they point to the right & left, but are pointing exactly straight ahead.