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How many times have I said and continue to say, “Yoga teachers, as a rule, are insane?”

There are a multitude of reasons why, but none more important than these three. Note that all three are essentially the same: each is simply taking something that “is” and promising it to be something else. That, my friends, creates chaos and suffering:

1. Yoga is not a physical exercise. To be clear, sure there are postures and yes, they are great for the body. However, too many ignorant fucks add “spiritual promises” to them and that has created tons of suffering.

2. Meditation: you can’t teach it. Teaching it implies that it’s a mechanical, physical thing. Through deep devotion, unyielding studies and endless service, one becomes meditative. Meditation is a way of being, you assholes, NOT a fucking relaxation technique. That said, relaxation techniques are great tools!

3. Yoga is not a business. It’s fine to run a business that involves yoga. But there’s no such thing as a yoga business. When you try to run a business as a spiritual institution, you will be fucking yourself and those in it. Running a business that involves yoga, however, is not a problem.

Peace,
EP

Response to Yoga to the People’s Dark Secrets — The Cut

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This could have been written 100 or more years ago and it would have been just as relevant. The fact is we’ve earned what is going on within us and around us.

You’ve allowed yourself to get caught up in politics, money, name, fame, power or whatever is your addiction. You have the lethal ignorance and ego that prohibits you to see reality and has you believing that the “side” you’re on will change the world and the other side will harm it. All the while blissfully unaware that having a “side” is what’s hurting the world, and yet no side can save it.

You’ve given your power to political parties, blind faith or checked out completely. Your fear has you hiding behind a belief system which was founded by the same fear, fed by it and then that system which you keep feeding has made rules and regulations that take over whatever control you feel you have left.

You can’t see they want to divide us, to weaken us more, and they have done that. “If you vote for Trump, you can’t be my friend anymore.” “If you’re a liberal, don’t speak to me.” “If you are anything my fear and ignorance don’t like or don’t understand, fuck off!”

How did it get this way? The fall of the human intellect…

The mass of people think independently less and less, question less and less, while the few take advantage of thoughtless folks. Our therapists are asleep. Our yoga teachers are good business people, marketers at best, and haven’t a clue. In fact all personal help basically falls under the category of “selling quick fixes, feeling good and/or making money”. You pine for it, because you don’t want to do the work. Your attachments/addictions keep you from breaking free and wishing, hoping and/or praying that someone or something aside from you will make your life the way you want it. Those that know this prey on you, feed on you and you are actually encouraging them to do so. Quick fixes don’t exist! Feeling good is overrated and doesn’t have a thing to do with transforming oneself. In fact feeling good is the number one impediment when it comes to personal growth! And per making money? Find me one person who claims money bought them friendship, a partner, a loving family, self love, joy…

Sounds bleak and it is! Even when you finally acknowledge that your head is so far up your ass that you can’t see, hear or function properly, you’d be hard pressed to find someone whose head isn’t in the same place.

The solution is simple. But the hardest thing you’ll ever have to do, and you won’t do it. You must tune out the world; that means your job, family, friends, all of it for as long as it takes. You must find a teacher and teachings, a program, a system, a blueprint, if you will, to live by. Next, you have to wrap your whole life around it. Every person, place, and thing must be consistent with this “way” of living. There is no room for the slightest deviance. If there is, you will suffer immensely and so will the people around you.

You must have daily practices, processes and systems in place! Safety nets are needed all around, for when you fuck this up and you will; that is, if (which is highly unlikely) you ever do this for yourself.

After a while, and I mean years, and you are living a different life than the helpless ignoramuses around you. Folks will want to be close to you. They will ask you questions. They will want your council. They will want to emulate your lifestyle and soak it up under your sun.

You will be like the lake. All that come to it can use it for whatever they want and it will remain the same. You will simply be. They can shit on you, piss in you, swim, float, or feed from you and you will simply be “the source” of it all.

If you do one tenth of this, in your world, you will no longer be in “this” world of chaos, violence, oppression, and neither will those who stand with you.

That’s the change! That’s the life! That’s the world you can create! Instead you will post away spewing your fear, stupidity, and selfishness mistaking it for brilliance (humiliating, if you ever wake up) and all the while doing everything possible to hide your misery.

There’s another way folks. Trump The Stump nor Biden Whose Hiden, can’t give it to you, nor take it away.

Stand up for yourself, stand up for human greatness, or at the least sit down and shut the fuck up!

Peace,
EP

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Dry ingredients

4 earl grey teabags (or 4 teaspoons loose earl grey tea)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet ingredients

2/3 cup non-dairy milk (such as soy or almond)
1/3 cup light oil (such as canola or vegetable)
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting

1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1/4 cup vegan butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 earl grey teabag (or 1 teaspoons loose earl grey tea)
Boiling water

Preheat oven to 350F.
Line a cupcake pan with 12 cupcake liners, or lightly grease the pan and set aside.

For the cupcakes
Cut 4 teabags open and empty the contents into a small bowl.
If the tea is a fine grind, you are good to go
If the tea you are using has big leaves or is coarser, pulse it in a food processor, blender, or grind in mortar and pestle until it’s a finer grind, but not powder

Add the tea to a large mixing bowl along with all of the dry ingredients: the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt and mix together
In a medium bowl, mix together all the wet ingredients: the non-dairy milk, canola oil, apple cider vinegar and vanilla
Pour the wet into dry, and using a spoon mix until the ingredients are just combined
Don’t overmix

Divide the batter evenly among the 12 cupcake liners and bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes until the cakes have risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

For the frosting
Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
Put the teabag into a small mug and pour in the boiling water
You will only need about 2 tablespoons of the brewed tea, but make a bit extra just in case
Let steep until cool, do not remove the teabag! You want the tea to be very strong
In a mixer, blend the vegetable shortening, vegan butter, powdered sugar and vanilla extract along with 1 tablespoon of the cold extra strong brewed tea
Add 1 more tablespoon of the brewed tea, if needed to reach desired consistency
Frost cupcakes as desired.

Serves 12

Recipe from It Doesn’t Taste Like Chicken website

 

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1 1/2 cups steel-cut oats
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 cups water; or 3 cups non-dairy milk and 3 cups water

Stir oats, water, or a combination of milk and water, and salt in a 5 to 6 quart slow cooker.
Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.
Mixture can stay covered and kept on “warm setting” for up to 2 hours.

Serves 4 or more

Inspired by a recipe from Blue Zones Kitchen: 100 Recipes to Live to 100, by Dan Buettner

Note: It is the easiest and best oatmeal recipe I have found. I freeze the left-over oatmeal in single servings. For each serving, I mix in some almond butter, cut up fresh fruit, and dried fruits. The toppings are endless.

Bon Appetit

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Hey Everybody,

I hope you are having a wonderful day.

Let’s talk today about getting better and the philosophy of things getting worse before they get better.

This might be news to you. It’s certainly not to me. Right now we are at a time, collectively, where we are sharing, in one way or another, new information.

You have to understand that most people, whether they are politicians or media people, are not skilled at weighing their words. They don’t understand how words impact people. Or they do understand all of this and have particular motives which create particular effects.

Why I am saying this? It is because with push-backs of quarantines, and different language used, there is a feeling that “this is never going to end”. That is where this philosophy comes into play.

Getting worse is the birth of getting better. Getting worse, so often in life, whether it’s physical, emotional, intellectual or financial, is often the birth of getting better.

Look at your life and start to look at how many points in your life where you felt like everything was the worst it has ever been. On one small perceptual viewpoint, you are correct. Yet, that really was just the gestation period of when things were getting better.

Don’t be scared by all of this stuff. It’s going to get worse! We are going to see bigger numbers. We are all going broke! We are all getting fired! All of this is not necessarily untrue. But if you are looking at it through a “gloom and doom” scenario, which is a very limited, immature, and ignorant perspective, then you will NOT understand that all of this getting worse is the price we pay to give birth to something so much better.

So think about that. Stop using those words; getting worse, horrible, awful, never, and start understanding and getting excited about the next “shitty” thing that comes down the pipeline. You will open up your arms and say, “thank you”. It just means things are already getting better. Things are starting to shift and turn.

Take it from the very basic level. I see this in yoga classes all the time. Someone, including me, has some bizarre way of doing something that really isn’t correct. Ultimately, they are going to hurt themselves by doing it. But you give them new instructions and then they say, “now I can’t do it at all. I can’t do anything. It’s making it worse.”

No! It’s not making it worse. You are giving birth and paying the dues to ultimately correct something that was broken in the first place. That wasn’t right in the first place. You are growing. These are called “growing pains”.

So, please no more of this nonsense, at least for today. Don’t be saying things are getting worse where we are. The moment you think that, just reframe it…Ah, things are getting better.

In fact there is a crescendo of crappiness. The next time I get a phone call wanting to bail out of the yoga studio. Or the landlord wanting his money. Or this is infecting more people. Or there is an earthquake. Or there is a fire. Or someone is sick with something else. I just smile and can’t wait.

Because I know all of these “horrible things” are coming to an end. It’s just the build-up to that end. That end then turns into something else, a clearer vision. A vision, where the whole time that you thought things were getting bad, actually they were just righting themselves and getting better. Just because they did not feel better. Just because they hurt and are uncomfortable does not mean that they are not turning into an awesomeness.

Take that! Think about it! And let things get better. But allow them to feel like they are getting worse, because that is the process, my friends. I did not make it. And I certainly can’t break it. So I am embracing it and sharing it. Hopefully you will share it with someone today, too.

It was great checking in with you. Miss you all!

Peace,
EP

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1 banana, peeled and very ripe, cut into chunks
1 cup fresh berries; strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, or your favorite
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
2 Tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup chia seeds

Place banana, berry blend and frozen blueberries, maple syrup and vanilla in a high-powered blender.
Blend on high until smooth; approximately 45 seconds.
Transfer mixture to a wide-mouth Mason jar and stir in chia seeds, making sure seeds are mixed throughly into the mixture.
Cover jar and refrigerate for 1 -2 hours, or overnight, until mixture has solidified into a pudding-like consistency.
Serve chilled.

Serves 2

Inspired by a recipe found in the Costco Connection

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1 banana, medium ripe, mashed
2 cups non-dairy milk, like almond
3 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups blueberries
1/4 brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk mashed banana and milk until smooth.
Mix in remaining ingredients until well combined.
Divide oatmeal mixture into 12 muffin cups (for larger muffins, use 6 cup muffin tin)
Bake 25 minutes, until firm.
Cool muffins in tin before removing them.

6 or 12 Muffins

Options: may mix in chocolate chips and/or nuts before baking.

Inspired by a recipe from Costco

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Excerpt from Eric Paskel’s Facebook Live chat, November 11, 2019,
originating from the Taj Bekal Resort and Spa in Kerala, India…

I took a group of 28 students to India. The first eight days were spent at the Vedanta Academy. What a ride it was! It was the introduction of 28 folks to what it’s like to really look in the mirror and to find out what a real yoga day and a yoga practice is all about. From 4 a.m. to 9 p.m., it’s non-stop and only 30 minutes of that time period is devoted to asana; physical yoga. I watched 28 people go out of their minds because their warped ideas of what a yoga practice is; what yoga is all about, is so f**king off. Then I watched those same 28 people bring it together. They fought like true warriors and walked out learning a ton and being deeply touched.

Today, I want to talk to you about the New York Times article, “How Did I Get That Yoga Story? You Really Had to Be There”. I have been in conversations with people for the past year regarding a really big article coming out about the sexuality, the state of being victimized or being a predator, in the yoga world. It was going to be a kick-ass article that really unveiled the whole lot. Something happened and all we got was this bullshit little article involving two yoga people.

I won’t mention their names because, if I talk dirty, or what you think is dirty about other people, you’ll say “that isn’t yoga”. So I’m stifled. If I don’t say anything about it, then I’m just another person that is being silenced when I know of the atrocities, not only of what these two people have done, but of many others as well. But if I talk about them, then I’m either gossiping or bad-mouthing other yoga people. That doesn’t make me a yogi. If I don’t talk about it, then my silence doesn’t make me a yogi. If I talk about it in a certain way, it will seem like I’m better, when I’m really not. So all I can say for those of you judging me is, “go f**k yourself”.

Let’s start with some very basics. The assumption in our profession, and even if you are not in the yoga profession, can probably still be applied. In yoga, there is an adult teacher and an adult student. That assumption is terribly wrong. I have never met a teacher that is an adult. Well maybe a few here and there. But they are in the minority.

Everyone is a child. So you have to understand that your teacher is a child and you have to understand that you, too, are a child. So when two children meet, shit can go down, as long as there is no adult supervision. So it should not come as a surprise, that one of the guys in the article happens to be one of the oldest yoga teachers and has made yoga very popular. By the way, if you love him, if you have trained under him, I’m sorry if I am offending you. But his beauty to you and what he has done for you, does not mean that he hasn’t done what he did to other people. You have to come to grips with that folks. He might have provided a lot of good for a lot of people. But he also stepped over major lines for many people.

I’ve been sexually abused, physically abused, verbally abused. It doesn’t mean that those people did not have good qualities. It does not mean that they did that to other people. The same with that other dude that they are talking about in the article. Not that he was so bad. There’s many things he’s done for numerous people in lots of ways. In fact, I love them both dearly. But it does not mean they aren’t doing f**ked up shit. We have to take that into account.

Let’s go back to the child assertion. You have two children. It does not matter if you are a new yoga student or a continuing yoga student. You have to assume that the person you are learning from isn’t necessarily a bad person. They just don’t know any better.

You have a responsibility, first and foremost, as individuals. The onus for everything is on the individual. It’s not on the teacher. I’m not getting on a pulpit saying, “how dare these teachers”… The first thing that we have to learn in life is that you are responsible for yourself. You have to figure it out. Do we want to get into a group and cry about what a shame it is that so many teachers in high levels do inappropriate things? Sure we can do that. But after that, we still have to take care of our crap and move on.

Please understand wherever you are in your life, you are responsible. You make yourself. You mar yourself. It’s your job to become an adult. You were born with the ability and capacity to do so. As much as we need teachers and their teachings, you still have to think and protect against some of the eventualities that will happen when you open yourself up to other people and make yourself vulnerable. Now that being said…f**k you to the two people in that article. F**k you to all the people that did not speak up. F**k you to the writer that made it about “should you ask for permission”. “Should I ask, hey Gideon, hey Jamie, hey Angela, is it okay if I adjust you?” What the f**k! Yoga is about adjusting yourself!

The problem is that nobody knows what yoga is. Yoga is not about standing on your head. It’s about getting your head out of your ass.

It’s okay to do physical yoga. It’s a good workout. It keeps you supple and toned. It wakes you up. You are doing karma yoga to your body. If you understand that you have the gift of sight, and feeling, of movement and breath, you can tie in some bhakti yoga and become devotional. If you are doing hatha yoga, you’re moving and the tone is set correctly. You can even be doing jnana yoga because you are thinking at a higher level. Your thoughts go beyond your physical body.

But let’s face it. That’s not what these yoga classes are about. They are about sensual indulgence. Everybody just wants to “get off”. The teacher there wants to give you an orgasm, because it feels good to make people “come”. But that’s not our job.

So a giant F**K YOU to those guys! I have witnessed things. But it’s up to you folks to report and make yourselves heard. It ain’t up to me. I wish I could. But it would send me into a whole other realm with you that I do not want to get into.

All I can tell you is that you need to take responsibility for yourself. Teachers, you need to fess up, own up and get your own help. The dynamic is fascinating. If you take someone who’s familiar with abuse and bring them to a yoga class with a teacher, or anyone in their life, that is abusive, if they are used to abuse, they will take it.

Some people love it! Love to be adjusted and have their body parts touched; their breasts, their vaginas, their penises, their balls, you name it. Guys and gals get excited about that. As a teacher, if your students like you getting close, and are responsive in a certain way, you have to question that. Those of you who are teachers, and are going farther and  touching those parts that I have talked about and pressing up against people and saying, “people like it”. There is something wrong with them, if they like it. There is something wrong with you, if you are doing it.

What is the goal in yoga? It’s for people to adjust themselves.

Just the other day I broke one of my very own rules. I had a student in class. I gave tons of verbal instructions. I went by and literally took my index finger, and just touched her, saying “tuck your tailbone under” and walked by her. After class she wrote on Facebook, “…this was a great yoga class. But if you have ever been sexually abused, don’t go.” Thank God, the yoga studio I was teaching at videotaped the class. They videotape everything. The owner called her in and showed her the video and asked, “what do you see?” And the student said, “I saw Eric take his index finger and poke my spine.” The owner showed her the letter and asked why did you say “he grabbed my ass”?

That’s the whole point. I broke my own rules. That’s what somebody felt. That’s how dangerous it is. That’s how f**ked up people are when they come to your class. You have a responsibility and as stalwarts of this profession, you have to admit, if you are grabbing a person from the opposite sex, same sex, whatever sex you like, and are pulling on them, it creates all kinds of fantasies in their heads, including the teacher’s.

I’m here to tell you to be careful. Watch out for yourself. You can’t control what anyone else is doing. But you can make damn sure that you speak up for yourself.

In terms of adjustments on the whole, we should never be having this conversation, because they are not necessary. Ultimately, if certain adjustments are needed for some particular reason and somebody really wants them, you have to be so discerning and understand where this person is coming from. You have to know them well. They have to know you. Then and only then should you make some adjustments.

But you also have to think about other options. Why can’t you model? Why can’t they use the wall? Why do they have to learn this anyway? What’s the point? It’s not like touching your toes creates enlightenment. It’s not like doing handstands creates enlightenment. It’s not like a good adjustment saves you from injury. It’s not like it will make you a better person.

It’s the worst time in the world to ever do something serious as a teacher. The worst time in the world to convey truth and real transparency. And to introduce to human beings what it’s like to be really human. It’s the worst time. You will just offend and offend and offend.

I was in my hometown of Detroit a month or so ago. I was teaching a class, making jokes, being real jovial. Then I mentioned something like, “I shouldn’t have said that or I will get shot. Half of the people who live in this area have guns.” Two people were so offended that I said, people had guns. It’s just f**king insane.

I’m not telling you what to say. I’m suggesting that you need to be grounded and be an adult. Then you can rise above this crap that is going around you, whether you are in the yoga world or not. Secondly, you have to understand the psychology of people coming into your class. If you are a teacher and you want to be popular, go screw yourself. That’s not what teaching yoga is about. Teaching yoga isn’t about having students like you. If you are a teacher, you are here to hold the space.

Never, ever, put yourself on a pulpit. There is not one teacher I have ever met, including myself, that is any better off than any single student. It’s like splitting hairs. So I’m a little less stressed than you. Half the things that bother you no longer bother me. Big deal! I still have stress levels. I still have anger on levels. I still have judgment, greed and selfishness on levels. I still have fear and anxiety levels. But I am not better than you.
It’s like running around in a village where everybody is blind and you have one eye open. Big deal!

I was so fired up about the New York Times article. The article was generally about adjustments and inappropriate adjustments. What it really boiled down to was that the teacher should ask for the student’s permission before they do any adjustments. If the student says “yes”, that still doesn’t mean you should adjust them. There are some sick puppies in class who are dying and craving to be touched. That is not your job. Your job is to help them love themselves. Your job is to help them become self-sufficient and independent, not codependent. And you sick people do the opposite.

So go ahead. Turn the music on. Give the people a good sweat. Tell some jokes. Read a few fortune cookies. Or read out of whatever poetry books you read from. Say a few uplifting and inspiring things and then shut up and get out. That’s a good yoga class!

You have no business doing anything else. Then lines are clear. Boundaries are clear.

I just took a group of yoga teachers and people to a place that’s truly sattvik, where they are deep in study and reflection and nobody can handle it.

Another topic of contention is people calling relaxation techniques; meditation. There is nothing wrong with sitting and chanting. Nothing wrong in counting through your mala beads. There is nothing wrong in imagining that you are walking up a ladder and there is the sun and your favorite person is up there. You open your eyes and see your favorite person and that makes you relax. There is nothing wrong with those things. But that is not meditation. That is short term relaxation that does not convert into long term transformation.

What you call meditation is nothing more than a short term technique. Which is great, as long as you know it is short term and it cannot turn into long term transformation. That is impossible. It is impossible scientifically.

Anybody who thinks, has any brain at all, could dispel this notion in one second. How this is dispelled is by using science. The subtle controls the gross. Does the puppeteer control the puppet? Or does the puppet control the puppeteer? Think about this for your own self. Your body is the puppet. Your mind and intellect are the puppeteers. Your mind and your intellect are controlling your body. That is more subtle than your physical body. More subtle than your breath, is your mind and your intellect. Your breath is part of your gross body. Your gross body consists of your organs of action, perception, elimination, reproduction and your five senses. Your subtle body is what drives your gross body, which is your mind and your intellect. When you call yourself a meditator, all you are doing is using mental, emotional techniques. Using your breath or visualizations can, for a moment, calm you down. That is fine. But it’s not meditation.

For example, do the clouds really block the sun? Where do clouds come from? They come from the sun! The clouds are gross. You can see them in front of the sun. It looks like they are blocking the sun. But the clouds cannot block the sun. The sun is subtle.

When you drink a glass of wine, you relax. You calm down. But did you change? No! You changed your state temporarily. But if you drink wine every single day, do you create long term transformation? No. What do you create? You create alcoholism.

It is unbelievable how little thinking we do. Now that we have defined what meditation isn’t, and by the way this is trouble with the two teachers mentioned in the New York Times article. They are both highly focused on the physicality of human beings. One of these teachers is into vipassana meditation. You sit there and torture yourself in silence and nothing changes. All you hear is the roaring of your mind. Eventually when you sit there long enough, the mind calms down, temporarily.

You can only grow through knowledge. You can’t grow by just sitting there and observing your mad mind. Who needs to sit for ten days at a time observing how crazy their mind is? You should know that in one second. Can you tie a monkey down in a chair and expect that it will no longer be a monkey when you let it go? No!

Meditation is a state that you transform into by practicing the three yogas. Eventually, by practicing jnana yoga, your thoughts throughout the day rest in your highest values and they rest outside the material world. So all that you are thinking about is what is permanent rather than what is impermanent. What’s immoveable, rather than moveable. Some of you already can’t even handle this.

Your heart is your seat of emotions. By practicing bhakti yoga, two things happen. One, you understand the futility of your actions. No matter what you undo, you’re screwed. Two, you have a reverence, a devotion for your hearing, your sight, your smell. Everything that you contact, you see the divinity in it.

On a physical level, you serve. You have an attitude of being of service. You are thinking about others. Any ounce of agitation at all is caused by selfishness. If you have any agitation at all, its married to selfishness and unfilled desires. No ego. No problem. You completely obliterate the ego.

On an emotional level, you are full of love and gratitude.

On an intellectual level, your thoughts rest beyond the material world into a whole other realm. Then you become meditative. You are in the world, but you are out of it. You’re gone. You are acting amongst people. You are laughing. You are crying. But nothing is there. You are completely detached and evolved. From that space, you have no desire other than to meet your true self. That is the only desire you have.

You don’t desire people to like you. You don’t get bothered if people don’t like you. You don’t desire a new house, a new kitchen, etc.. You don’t desire a new yoga retreat. You don’t desire anything other than to know your true self. Once you know that true self. Once you are there with no other thoughts. Then you sit there in the seat of meditation, focusing on that one thought, tuning into the vibration and the sound of aum until that disappears. Then you cross the line from this transient world to the transcendental.

Who do you know that is even close to being there? Not me. Not even close. Not even in the ballpark. Not even in the state. Not even in the country.

Read over what I have written multiple times. Once you have thought about things that have been said. Once you have tried to answer your own questions and are stuck by what I have said, or you really want to know what I am saying; there is a blueprint for the next 25, 30, 45 years of your life, before you die, to follow. That is, if you really want to know the answers.

The onus of every practitioner is on them. It is not on the teacher. If you have a question, if something doesn’t sit right with you, the teacher’s job is not to answer your questions; or to help you make sense out of things.

It’s the teacher’s job to hold a space for you. It’s the student’s job to figure it out. When you can’t, then you throw yourself at the teacher. Even then, it is not up to the teacher. It’s not about telling you things that you like to hear.

If you are interested in growing, you are going to have to hear things that you don’t like to hear or don’t understand. You have to be able to wrestle with that. That is what builds your intellect. You can study all of the books you want. You can learn all the knowledge you want. You will never grow. It’s just more intelligence. What we need is an intellect. The responsibility is on you to dig into yourself; to grapple and struggle for answers. Then and only then, can you ask the questions.

I am happy to help clarify and answer questions. I am happy to talk. But I won’t engage in senseless talk because you have been emotionally, physically or sexually abused. You will twist things up in your head because of that trauma and want to label what I say and do.

It’s your responsibility to grow. Not your teacher’s. Not anybody’s. Having said that, once again, you are not off the hook.

Those people suffered in that New York Times article. They suffered greatly. One is dead. One is alive. But he might as well be dead, because he is dying inside.

Hope this helps!

Peace,
EP

By |

1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
2 pinches sea salt
2 pinches black pepper
24 ounces fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into bite-size pieces (8 cups)
1 tablespoon sliced almonds

CHUNKY MUSHROOM GRAVY
1 yellow onion, cut into ½-inch dice (2 cups)
16 ounces mushrooms, sliced (8 cups)
6 cloves garlic, minced
⅓ cup oat flour
2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a mixing bowl, combine thinly sliced onion, flaxseed, salt, and pepper.
Mix well to coat onions; let sit for 5 minutes.
Spread onions on prepared sheet and bake 15 minutes until lightly brown around the edges.
Set aside.
Meanwhile, place green beans in a steamer basket in a large saucepan.
Add water to just below basket.
Bring to boiling.
Steam, covered, about 10 minutes or until tender.
Remove from heat and transfer beans to a 2½-qt. baking dish.

To make gravy, combine diced onion, mushrooms, and garlic in a saucepan over medium heat.
Cover pan and cook, stirring occasionally, for 7 to 10 minutes or until onions start to turn translucent.
The mushrooms will release enough liquid to keep the vegetables from sticking to the pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk together oat flour, broth, vinegar, and Italian seasoning; season with salt and pepper.
Add broth mixture to mushroom mixture; cook for 3 to 5 minutes more, or until gravy thickens.
Transfer half of gravy to a blender.
Purée until smooth.
Return puréed mixture to saucepan and stir well.
Pour the gravy over the green beans in the casserole dish.
Scatter browned onions and almonds over the top.
Bake about 20 minutes or until heated through.

Makes 8 cups
Note: For less crunchy green beans, steam approximately 15 minutes. I substituted unbleached flour for the oat flour.
A recipe inspired from forksoverknives.com

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1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups almond milk, or other non-dairy milk
3/4 cup vegan or semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon sugar, more to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, additional nutmeg for garnish, if desired
Marshmallows, optional

In a medium saucepan, bring the water to a simmer.
Add the cocoa and whisk until mostly smooth.
Add milk and bring to a simmer.
Whisk until all the cocoa lumps are dissolved. 
Add chocolate chips and sugar and whisk well, until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.
Whisk in nutmeg.
Top with marshmallows and grate some nutmeg on top.

Serves 4

Note: Inspired by a recipe on today show.com