Last week my friend Gabrielle urged me to go to a meditation class on Colorado Ave. I wasn't feeling well and towards that evening I really didn't want to go. But I dragged myself there, knowing I would miss out if I just stayed at home like a lump. It was my first meditation class since college. It had been two years. I felt much more deeply in it this time on Colorado Avenue than I had on my little cushion in a dimly lit room in the Boston University gym. I have a read a lot on meditation and the higher self since I graduated. And even without practice I felt more at ease trying to clear my mind and just breathe. I enjoyed it.
After our 30 minutes of silent meditation, Noah began his lecture and then opened up the talk to questions from the room brimming with people.
Noah is a large man, covered in tattoos; and yet his voice is somewhat high-pitched. And he talks like a lot of meditation leaders, with a slow rhythm and a lot of pauses after his sentences. He has been at Against the Stream meditation for a few years. And in that time he has filled the giant room with people of all ages, all backgrounds. After the room filled up, the hallways did too, even the pathways to the bathrooms were full. People were resting their backs against the wall outside the room as if to suck in the lecture through their spines.
Once the discussion was opened up to the group, a young woman asked a question, which followed suit with part of Noah's lecture: abstinence and devotion to God through sex and tantra.
The woman asked: "How can I keep the balance of my practice while I am in a relationship? I want to keep my spirituality alive and in the forefront like it was when I was practicing celibacy."
Noah's answer was very interesting. He said his parents wrote a book on spirituality and their practice; and in it they describe their extreme monogamous relationship. They would save all their lust, desire, passion, compassion, & love for each other and no one else. If a beautiful and pelvic-lurching person entered the television screen, they would have to change the channel, and save that attraction for the stranger and store it for when he & she would be together later that day. They would wrangle and transform and sexual urges they had. Each day they would store up all this love and affection and adoration and admiration and save it solely for the other. It was their way of practicing devotion and by loving each other so much they became closer to God.
I found his story so beautiful. I was so moved and I couldn't keep my eyes from filling up.
After our 30 minutes of silent meditation, Noah began his lecture and then opened up the talk to questions from the room brimming with people.
Noah is a large man, covered in tattoos; and yet his voice is somewhat high-pitched. And he talks like a lot of meditation leaders, with a slow rhythm and a lot of pauses after his sentences. He has been at Against the Stream meditation for a few years. And in that time he has filled the giant room with people of all ages, all backgrounds. After the room filled up, the hallways did too, even the pathways to the bathrooms were full. People were resting their backs against the wall outside the room as if to suck in the lecture through their spines.
Once the discussion was opened up to the group, a young woman asked a question, which followed suit with part of Noah's lecture: abstinence and devotion to God through sex and tantra.
The woman asked: "How can I keep the balance of my practice while I am in a relationship? I want to keep my spirituality alive and in the forefront like it was when I was practicing celibacy."
Noah's answer was very interesting. He said his parents wrote a book on spirituality and their practice; and in it they describe their extreme monogamous relationship. They would save all their lust, desire, passion, compassion, & love for each other and no one else. If a beautiful and pelvic-lurching person entered the television screen, they would have to change the channel, and save that attraction for the stranger and store it for when he & she would be together later that day. They would wrangle and transform and sexual urges they had. Each day they would store up all this love and affection and adoration and admiration and save it solely for the other. It was their way of practicing devotion and by loving each other so much they became closer to God.
I found his story so beautiful. I was so moved and I couldn't keep my eyes from filling up.
