I am sharing with you an inspirational letter that I sent to Electric Soul Yoga teachers recently.

As I sit here looking for words to describe the journey I have been on, all I can think of is how I wish for unity within myself, for our Electric Soul Yoga and for all creatures.

I have literally lived in palaces, tents and today, I sat in a prison in Stone Town (Zanzibar) where over 6 million slaves were either sold or died because of starvation, dehydration, exhaustion or infection. I have seen what is left of our beautiful gorillas and the care that each family provides one another. I have absorbed the perfection of the Serengeti. Each animal perfectly designed to live and die for each other. I became part of a mountain that helped me reach bottom and then lifted me up to her top. I have cried and cried and cried. I have laughed. I have reflected. I have learned. I have witnessed the “quit” in me, the desperation to avoid discomfort in so many ways. I have witnessed the strength in me to keep going; the power to carry on; to journey forth and to keep moving forward.

So much of the world has so very little and does so much with it.  Yet so many of us have so very much and do very little with it.  Most people, here in Africa, work and live in dust, dirt and decay.

This past May I was locked out of my house and to this day I have not retrieved many of my belongings.  But never once was I homeless.  Never once was my bed a slab of stone, nor was the roof over my head half torn open leaving me exposed to the sun and rain.   Yet at times, I “felt” like it was the end of the world.  We, and that includes me as well, all are so spoiled that we make problems for ourselves out of sheer boredom.

Our Shelter is perfect, or its not, depending on how we look at it. Our students are amazing or annoying.  Its only a matter of what glasses we are looking through. Our business is hurting or its reigniting?  We are sitting in paradise or smelling shit! Check your pants, clean them out if you must.  But even “shit” in paradise is better than trying to find paradise in conditions that are not fit for animals.

Vedanta points out “all sorrow and misery you experience in life belongs to your egoistic self”.  Let us drop that little “I”, the “me”, and the “my”.  Electric Soul Yoga was founded and is run with a “we” attitude.

The beauty about the poorest village here is that everyone works together.  Lets not forget that our greatest resource is one another. When we stick together we are a force; objects and beings are at our beck and call.  When we work separately, we fall.

For me, Paradise has always been about one thing, sticking together.  Therefore, if we are to get “stuck”, lets get “stuck” together.

The stories we tell with our problems can always be outdone by another one’s woes. There is always someone better off or worse off than us.  But our duty lies not in comparing or contrasting our stories, our riches,  or our debts, but in keeping ourselves mentally self sufficient, self poised, and self pleased.  Our primary service to the world is to keep ourselves cheerful and happy.  All other services we perform are secondary!

As Swamiji says ” to be sorrowful is a social, moral and religious crime. You do not spread the disease of melancholy to your fellow men. Your highest duty, your religious duty in the world, therefore is to keep yourself peaceful and joyful. This is the duty demanded of you by your nation, society, family and yourself”.  If we adopt this philosophy in our classes everyday, only then can we be of service to the world and be successful as teachers and as people.

All of us want the same thing.  Our differences lie in how to get it and/or how it is delivered. If you are under a Electric Soul Yoga roof, set aside whatever “differences” you may have.  Remind yourself that we are all on the same mission.  Our peace lies in working together, in setting aside  gossip, jealousy, and objections.  Look for the similarities, not the differences, and then there will be the productivity and the peace that we all crave.

I leave you with this poem, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, as a reminder of who we strive to be for ourselves, and who we need to be for our students and for one another.

Solitude

Laugh and the world will laugh with you,

Weep and you weep alone:

For this brave old earth must borrow its mirth,

It has sorrow enough on its own.

Sing and the hills will answer,

Sigh, it is lost on the air.

The echoes do bound a joyful sound,

But shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice and men will seek you,

Grieve and they will turn and go:

They want full measure of all your pleasure

But they do not want your woe.

Be glad and your friends are many,

Be sad and you lose them all.

There is none to decline your nectared wine,

But alone you must drink life’s gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded;

Fast, and the world goes by;

Succeed and give, and it helps you live,

But no one can help you die.

There is room in the halls of pleasure

For a long and lordly train,

But one by one we must all file on

Through the narrow aisles of pain.

Peace,

EP