If you had only one hour to live, what would you do? Would you not arrange what is necessary outwardly, your affairs, your will, and so on?

Would you not call your family and friends together and ask their forgiveness for the harm that you might have done to them, and forgive them for whatever harm they might have done to you?

Would you not die completely to the things of the mind, to desires and to the world?

And if it can be done for an hour, then it can also be done for the days and years that may remain. Try it and you will find out.

- J. Krishnamurti, The Book of Life

Let’s face it.

The holidays either bring us joy and excitement or total anxiety and stress.

Either way, our practice of mindfulness around taking care of  ourselves often moves to the wayside, succumbing to societal influences: What society tells us we should feel ok about buying, what we should feel ok about eating, and who we should should feel happy to be spending our holidays with.

Whether its a love of, or a spite of, the holiday season is one in which many still struggle with choices around finances, food, and sadly, family.  The season that is supposed to be about bringing us together ends up being the season that can bring up our deepest issues of grief around separation and conflict.
Can this be resolved?  Could this year and all those following really be different?

Perhaps this is the dual teaching of the holiday season.  A time when all people in the world, regardless of their community and culture, in some ways, beneath the joy, are asked to face deeper unresolved issues.

J. Krishnamurti’s quote above, challenges us to consider what action we would take and how our perspective would shift if we had just one hour left to live.  And he proposes, if we could do it in one hour, why not do it now, and keep it that way for the rest of our years?  Such a simple concept, yet for most of us it is still a concept.  In reality, we make choices to hold on to anger, sadness…. the past… until the day we die.  This only creates suffering during the days in which we live.

Whether or not you have a yoga or meditation practice, this holiday season, make this your practice of mindfulness: Notice what the season brings to the forefront in your life, whether its around family, finances, food,  or anything that you would like to make different this time around.  Embrace any discomfort that is brought up; discomfort is a good sign that there’s something ‘there’.  Instead of pushing up against it or trying to avoid it, see it as an opportunity to grow and to make a positive shift.

“Conflict of any kind -physically, psychologically, intellectually-is a waste of energy… it is extraordinarily difficult to understand and to be free of this because most of us are brought up to struggle, to make effort. When we are at school, that is the first thing that we are taught, to make an effort. And that struggle, that effort is carried throughout life…”

- J. Krishnamurti, The Book of Life

Ever wonder why life feels difficult?  Full of anxiety, stress, obstacles?  The teaching of ‘letting go’ and ‘surrender’ to what will be has been a big theme around the past week with clients and friends.  Is it possible that we’re all waking up to the idea that what we’re taught about success as children, the merits of struggle, competition, and aggression, only lead to heart attacks and cancer?  What if the path to success could be without conflict?

How do we define success? When I worked in the business world,  success meant a promotion, a pay raise, or a nicer title on the nameplate.  Now, success for me means living life according to that which is authentic and in alignment with my soul’s truth.  When I’m in that place, everything is in flow.  And when we banish conflict and replace it with ease, health flourishes.

When I reflect on how I got from there to here, from the business world to the wellness world, I realize that the most important things I do today were never what I envisioned or even knew was possible at the time.  The ‘hard work’ that I did (and still do) was clearing and navigating the inner landscape of my mind and my being.  But I never struggled, pushed or forced my way into becoming who I am today, doing what I do.

Instead, I simply learned to start saying ‘no’ to all the things that didn’t serve me in my life.  And as those things fell away, something new would magically present itself.  All of the right teachers, situations and opportunities just fell into my lap.  Why?  Because I finally became open and clear about what ‘felt right’ and what didn’t.

It is only when we are in that place of innocence and openness, that magic can enter, allowing our inner guidance to take us on a unbelievable journey in the direction of our soul’s unique destination.

This is a very important question to go into because, as you grow older, you will find that your desires are never really fulfilled. In fulfillment there is always the shadow of frustration, and in your heart there is not a song but a cry. The desire to become -to become a great man, a great saint, a great this or that- has no end and therefore no fulfilment; its demand is ever for the “more”, and such desire always breeds agony, misery, wars. But when one is free of all desire to become, there is a state of being whose action is totally different. It is. That which is has no time. It does not think in terms of fulfilment. Its very being is its fulfilment. – Think on These Things

A violet can never become a rose, but the violet in itself can be a perfect flower. Being uncertain, one seeks certainty in the imitation of another. This produces fear, from which arise the delusion of shelter and comfort in another, and the many false ideas of discipline, meditation and the subjugation of oneself to an ideal. All this merely indicates the lack of comprehension of oneself, the perpetuating of ignorance. It is the root of sorrow, and instead of discerning the cause, you think that you can comprehend yourself through another. This looking to the example of another only leads to illusion and suffering.    -Krishnamurti

WHO ARE YOU STEALING FROM?

A couple of years ago, I mentored a young yoga teacher who wanted to take a therapeutic approach in her work; she was eager to learn and I offered heartfelt enthusiasm for her new direction.  When she completed her studies and launched her website, I was surprised to see that she had modeled significant parts of her website very closely after mine, imitating my style in her format and offerings.

My first response was disappointment and irritation, as I remembered all of the effort I had put into creating my original and copyrighted work.  As I sat with my feelings, they were gradually transformed into understanding and compassion, and I remembered the mentors that selflessly assisted me on my journey; I remembered how in the beginning, I relied on others’ expertise to guide me.  Eventually, I found my own way and didn’t have to try to emulate or imitate those that I admired, but it was a journey that took time.

Most importantly, I remembered what it felt like to be in that place of new beginnings, not knowing how to set myself apart, not having grown into or discovered my own gifts, my own style.  Amidst my beginners’ enthusiasm, I was actually feeling a little unclear.  I recognize the experience of beginning a new project; it is often a process of feeling clear, then unclear, and clear again, over and over as we find the way.

Like washing a window, you spray the window, it gets filmy, you wipe and it gets clearer, then there are streaks, and you clean more until finally it sparkles.  The ultimate reward is that clarity that results from the process of introspection; the understanding that only comes from experience; the cleaning and clearing that frees us from ideas and conditioning that were learned, instead of discovered.
In these times that we live in, there is an increasing need in the evolution of humanity to discover and source our own creative gifts of service.  Imagine if every single person in the world, embraced their unique gift and just did that?  How effortlessly and harmoniously our lives would operate.  Finding our own truth is our own greatest reward on our path. In the end, what is authentic for us provides incredible clarity.

Yoga exercises are excellent; the speaker does them every day, for an hour or more; but that is merely physical exercise, to keep the body healthy, and so on. But through them you can never come upon the other – never! Because if you give them all importance, you are not giving importance to the understanding of yourself which is to be watchful, to be aware, to give attention to what you are doing, every day of your life; which is to give attention to how you speak and what you say, to what you think, how you behave, whether you are attached, whether you are frightened, whether you are pursuing pleasure and so on. To be aware of the whole movement of thought; for if you are and you are really serious about it, then you will have established right relationship, obviously.

Relationship becomes extraordinarily important when all things about are chaotic – when the world is going to pieces, as it is. But when there is this establishment of total relationship, whole relationship, not between you and me, but human relationship with the whole of the world, then you have the basis. From there you can go on to behaviour – how you behave. If your behaviour is based on pleasure or on reward, it is not behaviour. It is merely the pursuit of pleasure from which fear arises.

Relationship, behaviour and order, these are absolutely essential if you want to go into the question of meditation. If you have not laid this foundation, then do what you like – stand on your head, breathe in for the next ten thousand years and repeat words, words – there will be no meditation.

- J Krishnamurti, Total Freedom

I like this quote from J. Krishnamurti as it represens a core theme of his teachings -  go inside for the truth!  We often spend our days looking for leaders, gurus, teachers, books…outside help and the truth is only within ourselves.