Video Podcast #3: Starting Point

Over the next several weeks, we will be publishing a series of short videos that discuss various aspects of the spiritual path. These videos are segments of an extended interview conducted by Jonas Elrod, co-director of “Wake Up”.

This clip discusses attention to and a relationship with our emotional state as a road map to an authentic and balanced life.

If you cannot see the video player or file download links below, you may alternatively access and play the video on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/user/AbdiAssadi

Or, you may access this video podcast episode via your iTunes application:

Launch iTunes and Subscribe to the Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (22.9MB)

Relationship as Yoga: Podcast #2

Relationship is the ultimate and most arduous yoga. If we understand yoga to mean union, then relationship is a direct path to that union. A truly intimate relationship can be a powerful vehicle for spiritual development. It can be a safe place where we learn about ourselves while we dig beneath our socially accepted masks and learn what makes us tick. And yet there is one word that best describes the response we all have toward intimate relationship: terror. In this workshop aspects and issues that keep us from entering into or fully engaging in relationships are examined.

This workshop was recorded on October 25, 2009 at the Downtown Yogaworks in NYC.
This is the second half (Episode 2, 1:03:04 running time, 29.5MB) of the two-hour workshop.

In email or via RSS, you may use the following link to access/download the podcast directly to your computer (warning: approximately 29.5MB): http://abdiassadi.com/podcasts/abdi_assadi_yogaworks_v1_episode2.mp3

Or, you may access this podcast episode via your iTunes application:

 Launch iTunes and Subscribe to the Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:03:04 — 28.9MB)

Relationship As Yoga: Podcast #1

Relationship is the ultimate and most arduous yoga. If we understand yoga to mean union, then relationship is a direct path to that union. A truly intimate relationship can be a powerful vehicle for spiritual development. It can be a safe place where we learn about ourselves while we dig beneath our socially accepted masks and learn what makes us tick. And yet there is one word that best describes the response we all have toward intimate relationship: terror. In this workshop aspects and issues that keep us from entering into or fully engaging in relationships are examined.

This workshop was recorded on October 25, 2009 at the Downtown Yogaworks in NYC.
This is the first half (Episode 1, 1:04:58 running time, 30.5MB) of the two-hour workshop.

In email or via RSS, you may use the following link to access/download the podcast directly to your computer (warning: approximately 30.5MB): http://abdiassadi.com/podcasts/abdi_assadi_yogaworks_v1_episode1.mp3

Or, you may access this podcast episode via your iTunes application:

 Launch iTunes and Subscribe to the Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:04:58 — 29.7MB)

Mindful new year

I offer you a poem by a man who knew a thing or two about transitions and living in a time of profound anxiety:

“I know that nothing has ever been real without my beholding it.
All becoming has needed me.
My looking ripens things and they come toward me,
to meet and be met”.
Rilke

How do you read this poem? As an invitation for your ego to go forth and conquer? That with out you
there is no world? Is Rilke professing the same knowledge espoused by many of the modern new age teachers about manifesting what you want? Or can you see that it can also be read as life being a process of becoming; “to meet and to be met”? That there is a mutual dance that occurs when we soften, and the line between us and the process blurs? The times that we are living through will not and can not be met by the first way of reading it. It can only be navigated by the second, by trusting the process and softening the self.

I invite you to use this demarcation of a new year to deepen your relationship to your Self. I sense that any one who has concrete plans for a specific goal or direction right now will be sorely disappointed. It is a good time to be fluid and paint with broad brush strokes, set general directions and allow the unfolding of time to fill in the fine details. Any thing that smells of the old ways of being will continue to be ripped away from us. The challenge at hand is to continue to have the courage and take the time to examine what or whom is not serving us any longer. It is a time to keep clearing away the old and allow ourselves to know that we don’t know instead of singing the same old tunes. These times of uncertainty are extremely uncomfortable for all us needing the illusion of being in control. And yet it is exactly these times, when attended to with attention and silence, that allow us to better understand what poisons us and what feeds us. Here’s to a mindful new year.

Practice dying while alive

Death is a complicated topic in our culture. Most of us are terrified by the specter of the inescapable ax hovering above our heads, and sublimate our fear in any number of disguises. It is one of the reasons why we can never sit still. Slowing down brings us face to face with our own frailty, and reminds us of our lack of preparedness for the final letting go. One sees a similar fear in our behavior around the dying. On numerous occasions I have been at the bedside of someone a step away from death when a friend or relative drops by to offer some asinine comment like “you look great” or “ I know you will pull through this”. These comments are our egos talking; on some level we believe we can bypass this final exit.

We can deepen and enrich our lives by examining our conscious and unconscious attitudes towards death. In my experience, it is possible to learn about dying while we are living, and it is a valuable knowledge. When our actual death comes, most of us leave in the middle of something—we do not get to choose our moment of passing. Very few of us leave when our egos are ready. So it is good practice to see what feelings come up when we do have to leave things unfinished.

A meditation that I do from time to time is to lie down and feel what it might be like if I was dying. In my mind, I release all that I hold dear, all the plans and dreams and love that surround me in that moment. I pay attention to the emotions that come up and my reluctance to let go. And then I practice letting go. Try this exercise with some heart—it can show you much about where you are in your life.

Another activity that I practice is to stop an experience that I am engrossed in. Let’s say I am watching a movie that I find engaging and I force myself to walk out before the end. Or I am working on my motorcycle and before I finish the job I put down my tools. You can have the same experience by putting aside a book that you are immersed in. I follow all these actions by sitting with the agitation that comes from my ego not being satiated. Practice it: the force of the agitation might surprise you. With repetition, it does become easier. Practicing dying leads to living more fully. And letting go a little now can make it easier when death does arrive.