It came across my news feed like a bolt of lightening. I subscribe to several aggregate sites and newsletters, bullet-point condensed cliff-notes of news, inspiration, motivation and stock tips. I kid about the stock tips. I had precious little time this morning, having an oh-seven-thirty spin class and deciding to take an extra half hour of rack time due to the throbbing in my temples from last nights barrage of beers while watching the Husky/UCLA game. As a result I had just enough time to check e-mails and FB for any important messages needing instant, or sooner, responses. And there it was from Ken McLeod and the Daily Dharma.
What is freedom? It is nothing more, and nothing less, than life lived awake.
The lightening bolt touched down in the center of my brain, raced down my spine into my heart and had just enough juice left to knock on the door of my soul. Life lived awake.
Needless to say I considered the implications and wisdom of its message on my commute to the club, even parking my old truck with precision and aplomb - something I normally do rather mindlessly. By the time I had changed into my cycling kit and walked down the long narrow corridor and into our spinning dojo, the House of Mirth, I was feeling like I had just received a transfusion, a massage and been visited by the Buddha himself. For a nanosecond I even wondered if this might be what enlightenment feels like.
I tried my best to work it seamlessly into the cycling narrative, and probably failed. It was a good class however, as I spent an hour yesterday putting the set list together with some new tunes and mashing up a tasty and challenging protocol. Life Lived Awake.
Isn’t that what we are doing right now? You all made the courageous decision to get out of your warm beds on this gray and wet Sunday morning and come down here to enhance your health and fitness. I asked you at the outset of class to try to keep your focus and awareness present and balanced in the attempt to train our minds and bodies together. Because, I rambled on, it is only when we have fully engaged these two that we create the potential to add the third part of the sacred geometry to the equation. ‘A’ in this usage meaning your attitude, ‘B’ meaning your body and creating the ‘C’ of your soul as consciousness. A squared plus B squared equals C squared. And that my dear friends is the meaning of a life lived awake.
We are doing that right now, here together, building our community, building an energy as powerful as any known to man. This is our practice.
Life Lived Awake.
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