The O-town Scene

June 06, 2013

The O-town Scene - Oneonta, NY

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Yoga Life The Diversity Scene By Ashok Kumar Malhotra By Kevin Eggleston Baba Muktananda's Touch: A Gateway to the Self Liberty, Equality, Fraternity Two Hindu gurus of the second wave, Baba Muktananda and Bhagwan Rajneesh, made their spiritual services available to the people of the West during the 1970s and 1980s. Though both started in India, the first to arrive in America was Muktananda. He made a spiritual tour of the United States in 1970, which led to the opening of the Siddha Meditation Center near Liberty, in Sullivan County. Initially his devotees were middle- and upper-class successes. They came to Muktananda for spiritual enhancement on weekends and his "blessings" so they might return to their careers with renewed zeal and creative energy. There was nothing esoteric about his teaching. It required neither preparation nor rigorous training. What intrigued many disciples was that Muktananda had the ability to provide to the devotee the direct experience of Shakti, or the inner self. Muktananda's philosophy was a simplified version of Hinduism. He taught that the inner nature of a person is divine bliss. When one led one's life without being aware of one's true nature, one was unhappy. The goal of Muktananda's Siddha Yoga was to help each person experience this blissful nature in one's daily life. Muktananda taught Siddha Yoga during "intensive" weekend sessions, called the "Gateway to the Self." These intensives were supposed to quicken the process of self-realization. A two-day workshop, designed by Muktananda, helped awaken the energy in the initiate to experience the inner self. This intensive consisting of lectures on spiritual philosophy and contemplative practice had five parts: meditation, mantra, posture, breathing exercises and most important, shaktipat. Here Muktananda awakened the inner energy (Shakti) in the disciples through his touch. The highlight of each intensive was the shaktipat, during which each disciple waited for Muktananda to perform this miracle of enlightenment. Caution: The meditation exercise listed below is presented as a suggestion only. When done correctly, it might be helpful in reducing stress. For those who could not make it to his ashram, a daily dosage of the following meditation is a positive step. One might try a simple and direct method of meditation, which consists of first finding a comfortable and easy position, or asana. For the beginner, sitting in a cross-legged posture with back, neck and head straight up is a good start. While in this pose, become aware of breathing in and out. As you breathe in, think about "so"; as you breathe out, think about "hum." Let this be your mantra that takes over the inhalation and exhalation process. With daily practice for 15-20 minutes in the morning and evening, this mantra might help to lessen the hold of the intellectual mind leading one closer to the delight of the inner self. Dr. Ashok Kumar Malhotra's work through the Ninash Foundation to build schools for the female and minority children of India earned him a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. His program on "Yoga for Relaxation" is shown at 9 a.m. Saturdays on the Public Access Channel 23. His articles are condensed from his books, available at amazon.com and www.info@ideaIndia.com. 6 O-Town Scene June 6, 2013 It is an odd experience to watch as secular, sophisticated France erupts in a national temper tantrum over the recent legalization of gay marriage and adoption. This is a country on the cutting edge of modern philosophy, a land that stared into the abyss and stood for humanism. A recent study showed that while 60 percent of Americans are certain of God's existence, barely 16 percent of France can be so presumptuous. This would seem to me an indication of a societal openmindedness. Perhaps it is merely a sign of the devil inside. America is touchy in other ways. The critically adored film "Behind the Candelabra," the story of Liberace, his lover, and his plastic surgeon, was screened in competition at the French Cannes Film Festival — but it will not be released in American theaters. No, the studios balked: the material was "too gay." Instead the film will be shown on HBO. America and France famously experienced two recent outbursts of homophobic violence. In New York's Greenwich Village , a gunman shouted gay slurs at a 25-year-old man and shot him dead in an exceedingly American act of bigoted gun violence. At Paris's Notre Dame Cathedral, the antiquated, right-wing French historian Dominque Venner shot himself in the head to protest gay marriage in an exceedingly French act of misplaced martyrdom. In June of 1944, the French resistance organized into a 100,000 strong army to fight the Nazi occupation. A 2003 protest against the American-led push for an invasion of Iraq numbered between 100,000 and 200,000 marchers in Paris. These are extraordinary numbers. A May 26 protest against gay marriage in Paris numbered around 400,000 marchers. The organizers claimed 1 million. This isn't a fringe eruption. There is extensive, deeply-felt antipathy to the idea of gay marriage and adop- tion in the two foundational nations of modern political freedom: France and the United States. My sister is finishing a semester in Paris. She and several friends were recently at a sports bar at the invitation of friends of the owners. They were feeling welcomed and special and tipsy. Then one friend was asked his opinion on the gay marriage law. "I support it," he said. "Why?" "Well, I'm gay," he replied. The young woman he was talking to turned her head in Gallic disdain. Two young Frenchmen joined the conversation. "You are disgusting" they told him. "You are a disgrace to society." They then kicked the entire group out of the club. These were not the actions of an old, religiously crazed Frenchman. This was the prejudiced, hateful rhetoric of my sister's college-aged French peers. Back home, many reacted to NBA player Jason Collins's coming out with a yawn. For a moment, after legislative victories and changes in opinion from major opinion leaders such as President Obama and Hillary Clinton, it had seemed that things were getting much easier. No, not so much. Evidently, we're just getting started. It can be too easy to forget the past. It wasn't 30 years ago that government leaders wouldn't even speak of the disease that killed gay men by the thousands. Through the suffering of watching loved ones slowly and painfully die in a vacuum of silence, the gay rights movement matured, communed and acted. Major changes — in opinion, in legislation, in culture — have come quickly, as these things go, leaving the unenlightened uncomfortable. We see this in the continued hateful violence despite political victories; in the blatant discrimination that exists even among the supposedly tolerant millennial generation. I think the French reaction teaches us something else, something that hate crimes hint at. While misplaced religious fervor plays a role in prejudice, I believe the greater, more dangerous role is the fear from the collective masculine id, which manifests frighteningly in an angry man demeaning a gay man, and then shooting him in the face. This fear is pervasive. It even exists in the gay community itself, with the discrimination against "feminine" gays, in the "pride" of many in their ability to act "straight." The world is still full of arrogance, of brawn, of callousness, of fear. This is expressed most violently and dangerously in those who are insecure and unhappy, in those who are having difficulty discovering themselves. It is in the face of this that we must contextualize the small steps forward in gay civil rights, and it is in appreciation of the still-massive task ahead that we must carry on with purpose. Coming out is not yet blasé; far from it. Coming out is still the most powerful tool we have to push back the tide of hate. It is a major step in the process of becoming whoever one truly is — an act of self-actualization, a statement of being. It is not pushy or obnoxious to make your compassion heard. It is necessary, courageous and profound to stand up and say: I love. I love my brother, who is gay. I love my sister, who is trans. I love my boyfriend. I love my girlfriend. I love my daughter. I love my grandson. Over time, as our declarations accumulate, and spread, and connect: we will have everything — and they will march alone. Kevin Eggleston is a playwright and teacher. He also works at Springbook. Reach him at keggles88@ gmail.com.

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