We CAN Create Weather

Written on September 10th, 2012

Have you ever heard these words from a loved one that you have visited, "You brought such amazing weather with you."  Well, maybe that is exactly what you have done. 

The more and more I dive into a "more connected" life, the more I see the connection to the whole of existence and the more I see our power as human beings to actually work in harmony with nature to create various weather patterns.  It may seem a bit far-fetched huh.  But let me give you a few interesting examples that have happened in my own life.

I tend to be a bit of a tree hugger, not the over the top kind that regulates life down to the sole of the shoe for sustainability ( I may be there soon though), but, more so I like to commune with Nature, respect her and sing to her for healing and to create dynamic change in my world.  So I am constantly speaking to plants, thanking the sun for shining, playing with creatures from the smallest ants to the huge moo moo cows that cross my path daily and practicing sustainable living by using biodegradable products and services.  Each tiny little act I believe makes a difference and makes me feel holistically better.

My first witnessing of the power of the human soul to move nature was at the Art of Living Ashram in Bangalore, India during Navaratri.  During this 9 day festival, ceremony, or puja, is done daily as an offering to Mother Earth and the Gods.  By the 6th day of the events something strange began to unfold.  Every night that the ceremonies took place a trend came along with it, RAIN, and lots and lots of it!  As soon as the ceremony was finished, the rain would stop.  Interestingly enough, when you would ask someone in the city, only 15 to 20 KM from the Ashram, if they enjoyed the rain last night, they would retort with a befuddled reply of "what rain?" 

When I began to ponder the amount of heart - based, well intended thought energy that was going into the ceremonies, it was easy to come to the conclusion that we were collectively creating this abundant weather pattern.

The next instance I was not a part of, but was deeply moved by and inspired to write the song "Blue Water Rise" off of my latest album "Brave New World - The Time is NOW!"  In this instance, I was told that a giant drum inlayed with thousands of crystals was brought to Israel to perform ceremony for various reasons, one being to aid in bringing more water to the surface of the drying country.  In one of the various ceremonies, more then 200 people came together to bang the drum with the intention of springing water northern part of Israel.  The next day, it was told that a fissure sprang up from underneath the ground, bringing more life to the country!

Now for my own direct experience that happened just over the last few weeks.  We had the pleasure of working with a group of Young Leaders in Mumbai and we conducted a workshop on the multitude of powers in music.  Now, for the 3 month Monsoon season here in Mumbai this year it has been more like a Mo then a Monsoon, only bringing occasional drips and drizzles but no consistent rain.  These rains are the life blood of the country and necessary for the sustainability throughout the year.  A light monsoon season could be seriously detrimental to the livelihood of millions and millions of people.  So we decided to use the healing powers of the song "Blue Water Rise."  A song which was composed with the intention using our human powers to WORK WITH NATURE and transform our environments into favorable ones. 

We had the young leaders close their eyes and call into their hearts the importance of continued rain for the people of Mumbai and beyond.   We invited them to hold that intention throughout the song and to call more rain into Mumbai and its surrounding areas. 

We finished with a smile and a sing along and then we all parted and went our own ways.  By nightfall, the rains began, and, here I sit more then 10 days later, and we continue to get more then 6 hours of steady rain EVERYDAY.  Now we could probably call this coincidence or just the way that it is this year, which is probably true in some respect, but I also believe that we have enormous constructive and destructive powers as a human species and I was working with the youth, which has tons of power and youth leaders ….. well …. I think there is something to it!. 

I believe we have the powers to turn livable land into arid ones as well as dry desert into tropical paradise.  But we must travel into the depths of our hearts and collaborate with our deepest self, the one in which we feel connected to everything, most importantly to the Earth that we inhabit on.  Most of us are running around actually believing that we are ABOVE nature, killing species after species, chopping down the trees that assist us in breathing, and over consuming only to feed our own desires and needs and then we cry and shout and scream when our loved ones are displaced or even killed by natural disasters.  How else to we expect her to clean up the mess.  It is just like our human bodies, when it gets polluted by over consumption and waste, we have to clean it out using various means and this causes storms of output which include violent movements and foul smells.  Do we really think the Earth is any different?   Maybe, just maybe, if we start seeing our great big ball as one that we MUST respect and collaborate with, we will create a more harmonious existence with her, much like the ones that are going on with indigenous cultures all around the world.  Study up and read the power the leads us to create a reality in which we are in harmony with everything we see.  For me, I am devoted to this journey and am now seeing results clearly through my own experience.  For that I am extremely grateful!

OH, and One last note on this before I go with this one.  During this entire 3+ month stretch that has been the monsoon season, We have traveled outside almost every day.  We ride a motorcycle!  I have to tell you honestly that I can only count a handful of times in which we were poured down upon and usually when we were, we were free from my valuables and were happy to get wet.  It is as if the clouds temporarily part when we go shopping or have to travel with our computers and guitar.  Sometimes I get freaked out by the notion, but most of the time I just well up in gratitude and pray for the all important rain to come right back as soon as the journey culminates, and, lately, it has done just that.  Again, GRATEFUL!

NGO SUMMIT WRAP-UP and PERFORMANCE

My Great Friend was given the job of escorting the VIP’s to their destinations in the Ashram. It was a perfect job due to the fact that she had never seen the Ashram before and had no clue where anything was. She took the job willingly and spent most of the days working harder to find work then actually working. The Ego driven people that she was working for would her her in various places for no reason and tell her to do things and take care of things that they could have easily taken care of on their own. I watched as she surrendered to the whole process. Honestly, she handled the nonsense of the Ashram hierarchy with such grace and ease that I was completely shocked. Maggie has been known to be highly reactive and instead she silently took the blows until the very last day, when she had had enough. She walked straight up to the woman running her part of the Seva, handed her the badge and said, I am finished with this work, you can do it yourself. With joy in my heart, I reveled in her growth and honored her for taking a stance. There was no reason for her to take any abuse from these people as she willingly gave her time to HELP. Some people just do not know how to deal with people, that is probably why they are still in the Ashram. I believe people are put in these alternate realities to learn how to deal with the realities of life. By no means do I see the life in the Ashram as real life. It is more like a fabricated version of reality in which certain hardships and real life situations are skewed so that the person in the situation can have a trial run on how to deal with a real-life situation. Then, when the actual situation comes to them in life, they will be prepared for the real world. It is like a mock world training ground for those in serious need. It serves it’s purpose completely for most, for others, they end up stuck in a factitous reality in which they try to convince everyone from the outside world that the only reality in life is in the Ashram. I actually remember a time when I was almost convinced of that, not having seen any part of India yet. If I would have been talked into this facticous reality, I would have never had the opportunity to explore the depth and sanctity of this great land and more importantly, I would have not been able to think for myself!!!

So, most of the duties that were assigned to me were taken away completely when I arrived back to the Ashram. I took them as they came and did my best to be available for whatever was needed. Mainly, I just became a calm and serene voice for people to bounce their anger off of. I had 2 performances on the 31st. One was during the day in the lunch room and the other, the big performance that we had been planning for, would take place that evening.

The first night’s performances were completely blessed. There was a man that did live painting to the sounds of classical Indian Music. The woman’s voice echoed into our souls and cried out for our hearts. She was as beautiful in form as in her ethereal voice. Entranced, I took a seat as close as possible lunged myself into her spirit. MMMMM.

That evening, I would rest up for the big day tomorrow. Sushma and the crazy crew had a quick rehearsal but were stopped short as our privacy was destroyed by the exiting of the Guru. Each night you can witness hundreds of people waiting outside the gate for Guruji to exit his temporary quarters. It is quite a site to see. It is devotion like you can never imagine. A few times I have gone over for my own touch of his pure essence and a few other times I have played my guitar close enough for him to hear it. Every time was a wonderfully emotion filled experience. It is like the experience you get when you come into close contact with a rock star. Your heart builds with vigor and anticipation only because of our mental concept that this person is greater then we are. When Ego drops, touching a rock-star or Guru is the same as touching the perfect buds of a blossoming flower. When the ego drops, everything becomes Divine and there is no seperation. Much much harder to experience then to talk about.

The next morning I woke up and was immediately in preparation for the day. Knowing that a friend of mine was in the space of illness I knew that I was going to have to be the soul provider of energy flow for my first performance which was taking place at 12:30PM. I dressed im my best as I was going to be the entertainment for the lunch hour for the conference. Being that 99.9 percent of the attendees were Indian, I dressed in a Kurta and cleaned up for the affair. The lunch performance one particular experience that has been a reflection of my time here in India. Again, I was faced with the opportunity to remain in the backdrop of things and create a space for the audience. For 2 hours, this is exactly what we did. Groups of people filed in through the doors to the right and were astonished by the two Foreign Fellows guiding their lunch hour with pure, honest English tunes that they could not understand. In my natural way, I made up vast amounts of lyrics on the spot pertaining to the conference itself and I made sure that I spoke on how grateful I was to see India making a change in their ways. The crowd was one that mirrored the crowd at my last Corporate Job. They listened respectfully with no reaction or inkling of joy. They sat 4 or 5 tables away from the sound system, leaving an uncomfortable space in front of the stage that ended up being filled by a few of my close friends fromt the Ashram. Finally, toward the end of the blessed offering, Ale and I opened up the floodgates and I began to beatbox and Ale began to play his mouth like a drum. Within a few moments, we were surrounded by curious Indians whom wondered simply, what the hell was that. We finished in challenging them in a sing along, but were only mildly honored in this matter. Afterward, we were rewarded with one of the most succulant offerings of Indian Food I have had in all my stay in India. There were close to 10 dishes strewn about in which we had unlimited amounts of. My belly became full to the point of bursting before I would put down the plate. It was a emotion stabalizer as the evenings event was lurking in the shadows, lightly prepared and socially unacceptable, in this culture. Sushma, Tarik and I did have a chance to run through the sequence one last time before the performance.

Not only was our performance of modern dance and music going to shake up the audience beyond their confort zones of movement, we chose to perform at the back edge of the Ampitheater under the large, enchanting tree. Another great reason was to take the focus off of the master for a short period of time so that the performance could be enjoyed without the constant distraction of his captivating presence. Our mission to accomplish this woud be quite tricky. When Guruji was done speaking, we had to completely lure the crowds attention to the back of the ampitheater, away from the master. Now, if you have ever been to an Ashram before in you life, you know that pulling any attention away from the master requires a great a mount of force and charisma. On this night, Sushma’s pure Feminine Power took my breath away. When the time came for the offering of grace, the crowd maintained their focus directly on the Guru and only about 10 percent of them had turned to face the back of the Theater. Almost instantly, I heard a voice come on the microphone that had such deep power and gusto, that is completely resonated into the bones of my body. The voice was confident, the voice was luscious, the voice was subtley demanding, the voice was Sushma’s. She took it upon herself to caress the crowd into a space in which she honored Guruji in the same breath as luring the attention away from him. From his seat, it was almost impossible to see the back of the Theater, so we actually requested that he come from the bottom of the theater to the top, this action fell short as he ended up exiting well before the middle portion of the performance and just before our offering. In my mind, all day and night I had anticipated singing this spacious song of pure consciousness directly to the ears of this Divine master. When he left, I found myself dumbfounded in rejection and I immediately became a slave to my EGO. How could he leave when someone is offering something to him like this? How could he have the nerve to let us down like this?? No Master would ever leave in the middle of a performance. Well, this master would, and, I am sure that he did for all the right reasons. For the next 10 minutes leading into my solo performance, I played the role of the backdrop completely consumed by my own thwarting desires. Half of the crowd had left and my self confidence had fallen by the waistside. I had let a circumstance destroy my centeredness and there was no stopping at that point. Finally, when my cue came to enter the stage and perform the song, I gracefully walked out into the crowd. Instantly, I heard the feeble sounds of gentle murmuring and snickering that sunk deep into my state of consciousness. As I sounded my first chords and began to open my voice to the sky, the light snickering became full bellied laughing. I felt like a child in the 5th grade performing Amazing Grace to the student Body and this performance was my first ever. I began the song and maintained a sence of presence due to my long career in public performances, but internally, I was weakened and those who knew me best, could read my fear like a billboard ad. When I moved from the D chord to the G, the world fell out from underneath my seat. 2000 plus witness a guitar that was completely out of tune!! So now the mind is really going. I had to completely rearrange the song so that it would not include any notes from the low E string. Not only was I in a state now, but I was also linked together with Sushma and Tarik as they performed a dance piece over the music. I stared at them, finding any way to connect in my state of pure disconnect. They saved my life. They moved with complete purity to the fumbled version of the song that I displayed. Somehow, I survived this prolific EGO meltdown.

I held onto the emotions of the mixup for about an hour after the show, trying to prove myself to everyone and let them know that my guitar had gone out of tune. To think back at this point, it was one of the magical moments in which we all must go through as performers in this life. We take ourselves so GOD DAMN SERIOUSLY and we must not. I know that in my own performance, I would have sang about my misfortune, but in this ride, I had to live through this and perform the song in as much purity as I could maintain, because, this was not my performance, this was a collective art piece. If I would have gone on with my banter, they would have been thrown into oblivion and dismay, this time, I could not think about myself, I had to go with the group. The funniest part is, nobody really knew of my struggle, nobody knew of my pain and most people thought it was amazing!! I guess that is the power of seasoned performers. Even when the cards are drawn and we have seen our defeat from the beginning of the hand, we can still maintain that face that drives the others to surrender to our hand. The whole experience shaped my days, for days!!

Afterward, I buried the emotion in more fried food then was tolorable and went to bed ill. What an evening!!!

The AOL Family of Cooking

What a blessing it is to have a family/path whom challenges your every conditioned pattern. From judgement to childhood fear, wanting control and laziness, Art of Living will show you yourself, and, honestly, it is not for the weak. I find myself practically running away at times, only to open up to that heart filled Surrender that comes when we let go of the patterns of the mind and come into the space of Love and Service. I have experienced quite a few Teachings in the time that I have been out here and even in the time back home and have found the path of awakening to the Self and moving into Selfless Service a path that challenges me and aids in my growth in this lifetime. There are many parts of each and every path that are designed for a specific person and the truth (Never Absolute) is that all Paths, Teachers and Saints can relate to a different spectrum of people. For the spoiled brat that lives inside of me, I find it necessary to move into spaces where things don't always work out the way that I specifically want them to in order to find out that things are working out for the greatest benefit of the Divine Order at all times. I am grateful for all the numerous times that I have been shown myself just by being in the mere presence of the AOL family.

This last particular weekend I was able to watch myself go through Childhood Emotions as I wanted nothing more then to share my new song "Brave new World" with the opened eyes youth. As my great Teacher, Bawa, completely intended for me to share this offering, time ran short and more important things took precedence. So, in an internal fit that was met with smiles of love from the inside out, I went through thoughts of leaving, running away, playing hard to get, anger and fear which was coupled by extremely uncomfortable sensations. Going deep into a space of Wisdom, I watched all the processes take their toll, sat silently, began to gain the confidence by sharing with a few people in the group and finally gained the strength to take the guitar, walk up to him in the crowd of people showering him with love, and insisted on sharing the song of pure empowerment. My mind had spent the whole afternoon in organization of ways to penetrate this offering into the minds of the youth and when that opportunity vanished and every part of my being welled up in the knowing of the power of this offering, I could not leave, I had to share it. Finally, the music is beyond me!!!!! What an amazing place to be.

With Love and Gratitude!!!