Bear with me a moment while I get a little deep. We will talk about poker and other fun things farther down the page. Last blog we talked about life as an individual quest of growth and evolution. Using that model, everyone we meet is a teacher because the teacher lives inside of us; the teacher is guiding us on our quest. In Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert talks about this phenomenon, which she describes as the “Physics of the Quest”:
If you are brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting (which can be anything from your house to your bitter old resentments) and set out on a truth-seeking journey (either externally or internally), and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue, and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher, and if you are prepared – most of all – to face (and forgive) some very difficult realities about yourself... then truth will not be withheld from you.
Recently there have been some issues in the Orlando yoga community with the reality that many of our teachers are still learning too. Sometimes, they do things that are not very yoga-like. When they do, there can be disappointment and a feeling that we were “duped” by a false teacher or teaching. However, even false teachers can be enlightening. Remember that everyone we meet and everything that happens is part of our individual quest or journey.
In his book, Be Love Now, Ram Dass elaborates on this point:
As you meet beings along the path, you’ll come to sense who are your teachers, and who are teachings for you. Some teachers are obviously still working on themselves, and they feed you by sharing their experiences. Others serve as living examples of the detours and pitfalls along the way, which may help you reflect on how to get on with your own path. They become teachings for you, whatever the intention when you started out.
Also supporting that even false teachers can teach us, is the documentary, “Kumare.” In it, an American filmmaker with Indian ancestry impersonates an Indian guru, with the intention of undermining the idea of gurus and spiritual teachers. What he found was that his teachings nonetheless moved people. In the end, a majority of his students stayed with him even after discovering he was “fake,” because they had personally experienced an awakening. Of course, he learned the most of all, and the process of making the documentary became life-changing and eye-opening for him. This supports that perhaps it isn’t the teacher that is important. Perhaps the important thing is the teaching and the receptivity and readiness of the student to hear and integrate the teaching.
Who is it that gives the teacher the authority in the first place? Isn’t it the student? If the authority to accept a teacher comes from the student, then, on a higher level, isn’t it the student that empowers the teacher?
The teacher is inside of each of us.
So let’s talk about poker. On the most physical level, playing poker may mean trying to take other people’s money. Yet, on a soul level, everyone at the table is engaging in an exchange of energy; we are all sharing soul space and we are all on our individual soul journey or quest.
Maybe if I can sit at the table and just be a soul, recognizing the other souls at the table, each at different stages of the journey, while at the same time being indifferent to the outcome of each individual hand, then my poker play can become a way of serving and helping others on the path. It also is a way for me to grow and learn from other people because everyone we encounter can teach us if we are open to receive it. Everyone we encounter is part of our individual quest.
After having a deep conversation about some of this stuff with Peter on the way to play poker last Saturday, we had a spooky synchronistic experience with one of our tablemates, who happened to have had a very similar tragic life experience to Peter. When their shared tragedy came up, the poker player expressed almost verbatim the exact same sentiment and gratitude for the experience that Peter had expressed in the car on our way to play. It was eerie. The gentleman gave Peter a big hug and kiss on the forehead after they traded life stories at the table, and we knew that we were engaging in much more than a game of trying to take other peoples’ money. We were also furthering and sharing in our individual life quests. (After partaking in one of the most amazing, divinely-addicting, Vegas-style buffets).
So back to MY quest, since this is my blog. While being good at poker depends on skill, including knowledge of mathematics and odds, there is always an element of chance. Skilled play wins you money in the long run over time; but in the short run, you may experience lulls and long periods of boredom waiting for good cards.
Last Saturday I was getting frustrated with the waiting. I got up from the table and went for a walk to try to shift the energy. I was meticulously judging and going over each play I had made while berating myself and trying to figure out what I was doing wrong.
Then a child-like voice in my head said, “I know what I’m doing, I know how to play, you just need to wait!!”
At that precise moment, I looked up and noticed a man walking by. His shirt said in big letters, “Don’t rush me!!”
I laughed as I read his shirt and he gave me a look, like, “what’s so funny?”
I was like, “heh heh, nice shirt” and motioned a thumbs up.
I’m sure he thought I was really cool.
The next day while practicing my yoga postures, I felt a sharp pain in my left butt region. This is an onging saga between me and my ass-al region. I suffered a tear of my sacrotuberous ligament several months ago and the healing is slow-go. I came down to my mat and put one hand on my butt and one hand on my heart. I said to my butt, “what do you need, what can I do to get you better?”
I’ve been pushing myself lately to recover and have been feeling frustration that I still have pain and that I am not yet totally healed.
I heard a child-like voice in my head yell, “Don’t rush me!!”
I started to cry. Do I rush everything??
Patience maybe isn’t always my strongest virtue. I am learning. And I am taking everything that happens as part of the learning.
It is no meaningless coincidence that the man with the shirt walked by at the precise moment I was expressing impatience. It is also no meaningless coincidence that both my butt-healing and my poker playing, along with probably countless other areas of my life, all are relying on my learning the same life lesson right now: Don’t rush me. I hear Taylor Dayne’s voice singing the song of the same title every time I think about it.
Psychologist Carl Jung wrote about the phenomena of synchronicity, and how messages and symbols from our dreams seep into our waking reality. There is a story he told of a patient lying on his couch discussing a dream about a scarab beetle while Jung glanced out the window. At that moment, a scarab beetle came in through the window. It made Jung realize that there is a synchronicity behind our lives; a guiding force that teaches us through coincidences and symbols. The beetle was an important symbol in this patient’s life, so much so that it appeared both while dreaming and awake.
The story of Jung reiterates my own belief in the quest. Everything that happens - every person we encounter, every circumstance, every moment - is part of the teaching when we have eyes to see and ears to hear. The song I hear over and over on the radio is teaching me, the numbers I keep seeing every time I glance at the clock are telling me something, the birds flying in sync say something - the trees, the wind, the homeless man at the park, the man at the casino’s shirt, the other players at the table - all have something to teach me.
Choke me in the shallow water before I get too deep.
#poker #yoga #carlJung #dontrushme #kalidasheart #kalidas
