Anyway- Immersions are really full experiences- they really are. There is the whole pressure cooker environment for people of just being in a room with 50 other people for 6 hours a day for 6 days straight. there is the immense download of information about the method, there is a fair amount of very focused asana and there are the probing questions out on's personal life and a commentary about that. It is amazing watching all that arises for people, myself included, when you invoke a space for transformation, try to teach a very full curriculum of material and so on. It is very intense, but it is one of my favorite things to be part of, for sure.
One of the themes we are working with for the week is "What is your deepest longing?" Again, I think this questions is right in line with my "try really hard" theme in a sense. Those things we would try really hard for, would certainly be, as Dale suggested, those things that matter most. And while we are going to have to try really hard to attain and experience that which we long for most, also, it is an act of tremendous vulnerability to step into our longing and to really know it, experience it and let it become a guide.
In a lot of ways I think we have a culture of "not giving a shit" and playing life "cool" and I do not mean that as a criticism. Anything like that- if we do it- we came by honestly. I know for myself that in a lot of arenas I had big longings and when I didn't get what I wanted, it was painful and even embarrassing. So unconsciously, I found it was actually easier to just not want anything and then to stop knowing what I wanted and so on. We also have a culture of immediate gratification where living in our longing isn't a skill that we come by easily or naturally.
But the spiritual path actually involves recognizing our Deepest Longings and allowing them to be full inside of us. And when we acknowledge them and let them grow full inside of us and cultivate this state, they become a light by which we can see and by which we can guide our efforts. There is this story about Lance Armstrong that when he was training for The Tour, he evaluated every choice in his life by "Will this help me win The Tour?" And he said it made life remarkably clear.
So the process of digging deep, of uncovering the longing within us, bringing it to light t=so that we might truly know what it is a profoundly Big Deal. We may not be world class athletes training for a race but in some way each one of us does have a race to ride, a purpose to fulfill and longing to realize. Pull on the thread of these questions long enough and it can take you to some interesting places, that is for sure.
Onward. The day beckons.
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