Transcript
Speaker: Hi, I'm Alan Finger. Welcome to the Genius of Nothing podcast. Nothing is no particular thing.
Speaker: It's all things at once. Genius.
Speaker: Welcome everyone to the Genius of Nothing podcast. I'm Katrina Repka in London and I'm here with Alan Finger in Florida. Hello, nice to be here with you all.
Speaker: And Sebastian Forsman in Stockholm. Good evening. And we have a very special guest today, Katie Swift, who is, like me, someone who studied ISTA both in New York and London. Welcome, Katie. Hello, thank you. Thanks for having me.
Speaker: Yeah, i was so excited to have you. So um you and I met originally in London. You want to talk a little bit about your experience?
Speaker: discovery of Ishta and your path? Yes, absolutely. so i believe it was back in 2012 when we met Katrina.
Speaker: So long ago. ah So long ago. I was living and working in London and um it was kind of a stressful job, which I feel like a lot of people have that before they it leads them to yoga.
Speaker: um But at the time, it was i was sort of in this role. it was like the film or the book Devil Wears Prada. And I was working in this weird world um with and with these clients that you really could never say no to. So I was just going around the clock. um you know My phone would ring in the middle of the night, and I had to kind of figure something out. And um It was just sort of full on. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: um And then I started to just practice yoga once a week in South Kensington. And at the time, i didn't really know what I was into, but I just sort of found some Ishta classes. It was wasn't yours yet, Katrina, but I found some other Ishta teachers at the studio.
Speaker: and um And it was the exact time when I needed to quit my job. so I quit my job and was finding Ishta and there was this amazing week, um,
Speaker: that Alan, you and Sarah came to London. um Katrina, you were there. And Sebastian, you were actually there too. for um I can't remember the name of the, um it was just an intensive week. It might have been Yoga Campus.
Speaker: Yes, yeah it was. It was was Chakra, Chakras. I think we were up in Camden or something or Exactly. Like near Primrose Hill.
Speaker: Yeah. Yes. Yeah. and And all of this was very new to me. As I said, I'd only been to a couple of Ishta classes, but it so resonated and I felt like I needed to learn more.
Speaker: And so I'm here as a real newbie in this environment where most people were actually teachers and I didn't really know what I was getting into, um but it's exactly what I needed.
Speaker: And um that's where I met you, Katrina. And we talked a little bit about teacher training and ISTRA teacher training. And I think at the time I had to wait almost a year to do the training with you.
Speaker: um But it was really the right place and the right time. And and it all kind of worked out to do some teacher training, the ISTRA teacher training thereafter.
Speaker: And you ended up being my in-training assistant, which was really great. Yes, that was really great. That was really great. um Yeah. And I ended up working at the studio in in South Kensington and then taking the teacher, the 200-hour teacher training with you, Katrina, which was amazing. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, and being your teacher's assistant, which was which was also great just to to get, you know, the background. so great at it. Just for people who don't know, it's like a lot of the admin of the training that you did.
Speaker: So that was amazing. I could not do that. So what was your job? You said it was kind of like Devis or Prada. Yeah. So it was um is a concierge company. So I was sort of heading up a bunch of personal assistants. So we would have a group of clients that we would take care of. And it was everything from hiring their personal staff to finding a villa in the south of France to um really anything. And some things were so great. So, so much fun. And I really enjoyed a lot of it.
Speaker: um But then when I was getting calls in the middle of the night, because someone had lost their license or something, then held accountable for it started to feel like it wasn't really my life anymore.
Speaker: Wow. Yeah, we do know that that rich and famous people are very easy to work for. Extremely easy. Not demanding at all. oh that yeah that must have been So you kind of came to a shift where you kind of like, I can't do this anymore kind of felt like anymore. Exactly. And I didn't exactly know what I was going to do, but then it almost felt like the universe brought me to Ishta at the exact time when I didn't know what I was going to do.
Speaker: And I knew I couldn't do that anymore. but But Katie, then you came to America for a long time. Yes, yes, that was amazing. So after I finished up with Katrina's teacher training, it was basically the month after we finished, um I was then, I moved back to America.
Speaker: and moved to New York, um literally down the street from the Ishta studio on East 11th. So that was um that was a really wonderful time in my life.
Speaker: Such a great location. That's where I used to live in New a great location. So great. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Katrina, I know. I i always think that i'm I'm sort of like following your neighborhoods. And then ah we we seem to have the same taste in neighborhoods. Now we live like down the street from each other in London. It's amazing.
Speaker: We do. Indeed. Yes. Yeah. ah Yeah, we do. And I used to, yeah, so I lived in that same neighborhood just down the street from Ishta, which was incredible, because I could co i could be in classes as much as I liked. And i could, and and then I started taking the 300 hour teacher training there, which was, which was wonderful with you, Alan and Sarah.
Speaker: yeah. And I was very, and I was pregnant at the time. so that was a new, and new chapter in my life, but nice and easy to just kind of run home when I needed to on a lunch break and take a nap during the teacher training. Yeah, that sounds perfect.
Speaker: Yeah, and it really was, it was perfect. And then, and you know, just to be there and to to go to classes as much as I as as as i liked, really, that was a wonderful time in my life and a really,
Speaker: a time when my practice was super strong and a time when everything sort of flowed as it should. So yeah, that was an interesting time. It was a good time. And, um, I then had my daughter or I, I went through the teacher training there and,
Speaker: um I really loved it. I feel like if if I could be a student in teacher training for a job, I would love that. I feel like it's just a such an experience.
Speaker: um Yeah. Then you moved to Long Island. Yes, Alan. I was thinking about that, actually. I was thinking about, I had a Dharma chat with you, actually, about that, because that was a real turning point for me.
Speaker: i wasn't quite ready to leave the city. um ah yeah it was it was challenging time. It was a tricky decision. and i had so It was a big moment for me too, because he used be in my front row of my class.
Speaker: Yes, i know. So what did so what what what did Alan say? i mean, I'm so curious if it's not too like much for you to share, but what what what was it what was his advice?
Speaker: Well, I mean, at the time, it was really just that the universe, it sort of was meant to be. So it was going to be how it was meant to be. And so kind of take it that way. And, and you know, we kind of discussed different options of looking in Brooklyn and looking in different different paths. But um I think the general gist of our conversation was that it was...
Speaker: you know, things are as they're meant to be. And, and it worked out for a while and I moved to Long Island and I still commuted back. I wasn't first row in the class every single Tuesday and Thursday, but I was there as much as I could be Exactly. Disrupted, disrupted my teaching.
Speaker: Yes. Yes. Sorry, Alan. I'm sorry about that. It disrupted me a bit as well. I have to say I'm much of a, I'm much more of a city girl. Uh-huh.
Speaker: Yes. So and that actually, it was it was a trying time because I had just that had my first baby. i moved to the suburbs with my husband and daughter. And I really, but was teaching a lot in Manhattan and in Brooklyn.
Speaker: And then i sort of shifted to the suburbs and life was very different. It was real mom time. And um and as I said, I came back for your class, Al, as much as I could. And and I really...
Speaker: I it wanted to be connected, but I didn't feel as connected. um and it wasn't really geography. It was mostly just a shift in my life. And yeah, and that sort of takes me, you know, well, I was in the suburbs for a little while in Long Island, and then we moved back to London a few years ago.
Speaker: And I found that that kind of that time period when I had my daughter and then I had my son in the suburbs and then we moved back to London. I'm very, very happy to be in London.
Speaker: I do find that parenting is really, really challenging. And I find that that kind of um has taken me a little bit away from my practice, a little bit more than i would have liked.
Speaker: sadly. can In what way? um Just finding that there's a lot of time spent, you know, being a mom and parenting and like, and, you know, I know that it's such an excuse, but to not wake up in the morning and and meditate first thing um because I've got, you know, to make the lunches or I've got a child calling my name or I've got a thousand things that I'm on to.
Speaker: And then it's not the you know it's challenging it's more challenging to prioritize myself and my practice when I'm a mom. So I still do it because I know how important it is, but it's definitely not um not easy at the moment or for the past eight years.
Speaker: Maybe you need to do a shorter version of your practice first thing in the morning. because that's when the brain needs it most.
Speaker: And when you when you've woken up after a night's sleep and the brain is sort of the this cells of kind of synapses have cleared themselves, that's the best time to reset your synapsal patterning by sitting still.
Speaker: That allows you to be the witness in life more. So if you if you could try and just do something like, You know, ah even on the bed, cat-cow.
Speaker: Okay, yeah. And then sit back and do nadi shodhana, alternate nostril breathing. And then moisten, hamsa kriya, a couple of breaths.
Speaker: Moisten the point between your eyebrow and just sit for five minutes. o Okay. At least you're resetting your brain, you're doing it because the you know we don't have to get into, especially for you, you don't have to get into the guilt of time.
Speaker: Yeah. like You don't have to say, oh, my God, I'm not doing that. Time only exists in our mind. It's man-made. So so it's it's about sitting and getting your mind still. Five minutes for you is enough. Yeah.
Speaker: Katrina, on the other hand, needs 18. That's so unfair. And by the way, I also need to have a cup of tea and a whole bunch of other know stuff before I meditate. So getting up and good doing cat-cow would not be my thing. No, no, no. It's called princess yoga.
Speaker: yeah Actually, two days a week, I kind of, I think it's yeah about two days a week, I kind of do that. I'm i'm just in bed and i do my practice in bed, my premeditative and a couple of asanas in the bed to my wife's delight.
Speaker: um and And then I meditate because I find that whenever I get up, my brain starts working, you know, before I kind of get out of bed, it's still kind of in the sleep mode, like I was talking about. It's I don't have so many thoughts.
Speaker: um That's, I found usually those meditations are better for me because they're just like, I'm having just less stuff in my mind as I just woke up.
Speaker: I like that. This is so great. This is really great news to me. Thank you, Al. Thank you, all of you. Because I feel it. It's not great news to me. Yeah. But,
Speaker: So, you know, that's why Ishta means you have to find the right amount, the right practice that resonates with your soul.
Speaker: Hmm. And that's why i suddenly piped in when I heard that Katie wasn't doing what she thought she needs to do because of all of those conditions.
Speaker: And you don't need to do that much. Just sit and do you what I just said to you. no Cat cow, six alternate nostril, six hamsa kriya,
Speaker: Ajna, bedana, moisten the point, relax your jaw, sit quiet for five minutes. Ground yourself. one One mantra on each center literally takes about ah minute, maximum, maybe 45 seconds.
Speaker: Yes. Okay. But do you think Katie might also be a candidate for your one minute every three hours or something? Everybody, everybody should be doing that because, you know, it's not about that yoga is this, you know, we make the practice that yoga,
Speaker: we need, but then people get attached to all sorts of concepts like, oh my God, I heard so-and-so meditates for three hours. Oh, Buddhist monks. Oh, this, that.
Speaker: You just got to learn to get into retune yourself to that quantum consciousness, that unbound infinite energy that we're born from.
Speaker: and let it fill us. And then during the day, take a minute every two hours and just come back in, feel who you are.
Speaker: yeah Rebalance yourself and then go back into life. Look at a point on the floor when you come out after the minute or two, hold your knees, look down, take in the room,
Speaker: come back and witness. What witness, what's that mean, witness? Witness means be the observer, the what what the observer is behind your thoughts, because we become our thoughts.
Speaker: And when we become our thoughts, we become emotional wrecks.
Speaker: And without all of that emotional stuff and the judgment of of the emotion, the changing world, there's you.
Speaker: And you go through all these different things in life. But still the same Katie that I knew, that I heard when you said something on the podcast. I said, oh, that's Katie.
Speaker: I know that this who that is. this is And then in your mind, there was Katie who's not practicing, who's got their children calling her name and blah, blah, blah, breakfast, and right?
Speaker: So just take that little bit of time out yourself. And then every couple of hours, okay, got the kids in school, maybe you're in car, waiting, doing this, just sit quietly as you sit down.
Speaker: I dropped Satya at school this morning. And in the garage, I sat for a minute or two.
Speaker: That's a great plan. Got out and then went, had my breakfast, took a shower, taught one student, sat again afterwards.
Speaker: And then come to the ah podcast.
Speaker: have nothing more to say on that topic.
Speaker: It's making me think about the calling your own name meditation. Yeah. Because i think I think just in terms of kind of, you know, creating this story and creating um this this identity or all of these identities, like it takes you away from what is really real.
Speaker: And um I feel like right now when I'm in this place of like mom is taking over my life, um That one in particular brings me back because it's really when you can strip away all of these extra layers that we have put upon ourselves, you know, like I've created this. It's it's not real, um but it just takes a while to just strip away all of those other things that that we've created or that our mind has created.
Speaker: But that that particular meditation does it for me. Mm-hmm. Yeah, to the ghosts that we cling to. yes yeah. yeah Because you are a mom, but are your parents alive?
Speaker: One of them, my mom is. You're also a daughter.
Speaker: yeah. yeah I mean, I'm a lot of other things, but there's one particular identity that's taking over. Beautifully said. You're a lot of other things too.
Speaker: yes Yes. So the key is to remain that observer. Yes. And it's hard because pure conscious, yoga is citta vritti nirodaha.
Speaker: When you stop the vritti, the ghosts, the hallucinations, the identities, the egos, when they all stop, there's yoga.
Speaker: there's the cheetah becomes pure and there you are pure consciousness just being that is yoga Katie, the the the calling your own name, that is also much about perspective, seeing your different, for those who don't know what what this Kriya practice is, it's a meditation practice where you kind of, to make it a long story short, you kind of call on all your different faces you have, the angry person, the sad, the the one that cheats, the one that helps people, all these kind of masks that we kind of take upon us ourselves.
Speaker: And seeing all those and kind of unifying them, bringing them in together a way. and But that for me, that's also about perspective a lot, right? isn't Because it seems like for you, there was a lot of it's been a lot about perspective and letting go of things.
Speaker: I guess that's for all of us, really. But you were living in New York, then you moved out and you were kind of a little sad. or you didn't You needed the city, kind of you were a city girl. And then you moved to London and, you know, shifting. And so for me, that makes sense that you do that practice because it gives you perspective.
Speaker: Yes, absolutely. i mean, so many meditation, meditating in general, just getting to that place of no thing and then coming back and and that shifts the perspective and, entirely but that but that particular one yeah it shifts perspective I think it's incredible and it's amazing and it it works every time it's just a matter of me perhaps not having the discipline that I once had you know that's hard what time 11 o'clock here
Speaker: what time is it when at eleven o'clock here What's time for you in London? Four. al do you know what? I've actually changed my childcare so that at four o'clock on Tuesdays, I'm available to come to your class.
Speaker: ah i let even I was even humbly going to say once a month to it. But if you come weekly, it will keep you back in tune. Yes, and yes. it's It's hard without the satsang.
Speaker: o That's very true. to To keep that pattern going. And it's very difficult. I mean, ah to me, only got into it that I could do it because I had four intensive years of this deep practice, you know, that i it just became me.
Speaker: It was easy. I really got a strong ah separation from my mind. Yes, yes. But fited for most people, just being there, the satsang and people hang afterwards and just chat a bit because that all of that is what creates you, your brain to reset that, well, I've got to do this daily.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's ah easier for Al, because if you do it when you're a kid, when you're younger, you don't have so much, so many other other there things you need to kind of change or that you have to write over or, yeah, that's completely true. Yeah, that's also true.
Speaker: so Yeah. Charlie Chaplin, actually, there's there's a quote from that I love from Charlie Chaplin that is like, he says that life is a tragedy in close up and it's it's a comedy in a wide shot.
Speaker: And um yeah just by perspective, I kind of like that. its I love that. Yeah, it's nice, right? and Can you say that again? I'm a little slow.
Speaker: Oh, sorry. ah So, Charlie Sharpton said, life life is a tragedy in a closeup close-up shot, because he was a movie star, or silent movie star. ah So, tragedy it's tragedy in a close-up.
Speaker: But it's a comedy in a wide shot. ahha So, when you have a wider... When you see the whole picture of it, it's comedy. It's interesting you say that, because, you know, I...
Speaker: Being a photographer, use the analogy. Yeah, I was thinking about that too. Yeah, yeah when you when you go into a zoom lens and you focus in, which is your, he's saying a close-up, which it is, when you zoom in, you become very busy with.
Speaker: When you zoom out, you see how it fits into everything. Yeah, yeah. And the Sanskrit for that, Mangalam Garunad Havaya.
Speaker: You become like an eagle that lifts up out above the trees and everything. And it hovers and looks down to see where its prey is and then scoops down and picks it up and gets what its prey is.
Speaker: And symbolically, we want to elevate ourself up. We want to go to the wide angle so we can see everything.
Speaker: not just be in that zoom zoomed in tragedy. Very nice. Yeah. But so Katie and and really Katrina, because for for me in life, it's been, I've also had like, you know, been thinking, oh, I'm not doing the correct practice for off and my whole life.
Speaker: And, but I kind of i've come to realization really that, that it's, life changes and you need different things in different parts of your life. And That's why sometimes it's not a bad thing.
Speaker: think that's what you said before. You said something is similar to that al before, but that's why sometimes you know right now my my my physical practice isn't nearly as strong as my meditation is.
Speaker: But that's just because I feel like I need that more and I feel little like I should do you know more of an asana practice, but I ah just don't. I just don't feel it.
Speaker: don't want it. So, i don't know. how do Katrina, and I know you have the similar, like you've also gone through different phases and ah through this, I guess, KD2 or no?
Speaker: Am I the only one? Yes, yes, absolutely. oh sorry, Katrina. Yeah, no, I go out, at me too. Yes. um I think it's very hard, I found to cut the path of doing something every day at the same time that's routine, partly because of my Vata constitution.
Speaker: I just always like to do different things. And also, i find that I can be calmer in my mind if I've been really active before. So getting up, like having tea, having breakfast, doing activity, then sitting is better for me than getting up and sitting. And I feel really resistant to getting up and sitting.
Speaker: um And I always have. So I don't, yeah. But I mean, maybe in that sense, it would be the best for me. But I feel very good at the moment in my life. So I don't know why I would need to change it.
Speaker: So let me answer some of this.
Speaker: The goal is to transcend and feel oneness. Now, different people with different natures need different practices and disciplines in their getting into yoga.
Speaker: Then once they've done it and they know how to do it, I don't even have to meditate in the morning. I do, but I'm in and out all day long.
Speaker: And i do i do a lot, but I'm always just in and out and meditate. Every moment that there's a pause, yeah, I think about what I've got to okay, blah, blah, blah, and then, okay.
Speaker: And now at my point of life, but I'm older than you guys, I just sit and float.
Speaker: But do you think if, yeah, so I was just going to say, yeah if i if if I've done 25 years of yoga, then do I, you know, is the meditation so critical that I sit and do everything as it, you know, should be a sit 18 minutes, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker: Katrina, only be a for you, well, yeah, get your tea, do your workout. That's all fine. for you at this point in your life, it's still important for you to sit and still your mind because your mind has a lot of vata in it.
Speaker: And so it is important to get a solid period of it. But you once said to me that the measure of your yoga practice isn't what you're doing on the mat. It's how you're living in your life.
Speaker: So if you feel as an individual that your life is balanced, that everything's going well, that you you know you feel good, then presumably the practice that you're doing is enough.
Speaker: Or the combination of things you're doing in your life? It's not about what you're doing in your life. That's a reflection of what's happening from inside you. and Right.
Speaker: So you don't want that to be the the the kind of measure of whether you should sit it still or not. The sitting still is about tuning into that part of you that is consistent from the day you're born to the day you die and beyond your death.
Speaker: And when you get caught up in life with the dramas of life and make them more important than yourself, a fall will come.
Speaker: Because ah students as soon as you make your life and in whatever the drama is you're going through and how happy and lovely it might be, ah fall will come if that is your reality.
Speaker: Because nothing in life is permanent. So I suggest that everyone takes a period a day and fit it in correctly to who you are, your dosha, your temperament, but definitely sit still and just feel who you are.
Speaker: so I not don't want you to feel something other. i don't want your meditation to be anything other than you pulling yourself together. But a fall will come sounds a little bit threatening.
Speaker: Yeah. It happens. It does. Like you're going to break your back. You know what, I'm... Bring your helmets. Yes. Yeah. be Be awake. be Realize you are going to die.
Speaker: yeah and What do you mean ah if you don't? And therefore, everybody listened to the podcast, we're all going to die.
Speaker: And my suggestion to you is never forget who you are because you will live with the background fear of death haunting you in everything you do when you forget who you are.
Speaker: And it's easy to forget who you are when things are nice in life. But believe you me, nice will have its opposite.
Speaker: It's not permanent. So sure wake up everyone. What does that mean? Wake up and realize who you really are and sit with it.
Speaker: And it's a pleasure. It's not, ah it's not awful. It's just feeling complete. And, to make it more understandable that it's a nice thing.
Speaker: only way I can reach you all, after orgasm in sex. The orgasm leads you to bliss.
Speaker: And what is that bliss? You feel complete. oh
Speaker: One might argue it's better than meditation. I don't think so. I think meditation is better than all the huffing and puffing. I just like the end money to that and again it without all that i just i dislike that we told our listeners that they're going to die. So if somebody asks them, like, oh, what's the podcast? Well, they told me I was going to die. so Yeah. Wake up.
Speaker: I'm saying you die. So wake up and know who you are and what you're moving through life with. And it's a pleasure. It makes life a pleasure. It doesn't make it scary.
Speaker: It's not a threat like religion.
Speaker: It's wake up and feel your joy. it. Know your orgasm. What?
Speaker: Why is it so hard to get, if it's if it's a pleasure, and it and it is, I agree. um Why is it so hard when you're caught up in life, when you're caught up in the drama and the tragedies and and all of it?
Speaker: Why is it so hard to then get into the flow of meditating and to find, you know, samadhi and to be and in that? um you know, feel that oneness.
Speaker: It's, it's like, i taste it I know it's there. i know what is on the other side, but why is it so tricky to bring myself to get to it when I, but you know, when the alternative is to sit in, in the, you know, the drama?
Speaker: Yeah, because the drama, when you slip from being who, and that's why you need that daily practice and to keep in it, because as soon as you slip into the mind, you begin to think you are the mind.
Speaker: It's what Katrina just said. Well, in life, everything's lovely and working out for me and lovely. Lovely only exists if there's something that's not lovely.
Speaker: And so life is up and down. Only your consciousness, and it's right there. It's who you are. It's not something different.
Speaker: So I suggest, Katie, don't make meditation something that you do. Rather make the period of pulling yourself together,
Speaker: and orgasm.
Speaker: Feel, zero let me just feel that bliss in myself. And it takes work because we are driven by karma.
Speaker: We're all driven by the force that put us here. And it's kind of bizarre. You know, hi I've got all my yoga and everything and all that, and yet I love photography.
Speaker: And I'm driven to do it, and I don't know why. It's karma. I don't even care. no ah Most people don't even know I'm a photographer.
Speaker: Right? I'm not even if a photographer. I just like doing pictures. I never look at photography books or anything and look at other photographers. ah I just capture moments.
Speaker: I don't know why. What's driving me to do that? Because I've got the rest of my life. It's karma. There's some seed that I just do that.
Speaker: So, We all have our karma to live. I have a wife, I have a daughter. I got to pick her up at school.
Speaker: like i do all of that. Today had to drop her, her away.
Speaker: But all I do is rather than getting, oh, my God, I've got to drop her There's that line of cars. I've got to sit in a line and for half an hour.
Speaker: do you guys like that, that sitting in line? you don't have that? o Right? what that's That's the easy part of parenting for me.
Speaker: Yeah. What is the hard part? um Gosh, so much of it is challenging. um But so much of it is challenging. It's like I'm it's like i'm dealing with myself all the time.
Speaker: It's like I'm fighting with myself all the time. um
Speaker: it's just It's just the mundane things that start to start to to start to add up. and And I'm i'm alone a lot. My husband travels a lot. So I'm alone.
Speaker: and um And, yeah, sometimes you just need a little bit of an outlet. And if you don't have one, then it feels like you're you're going crazy, um especially if your meditation practice is not as strong as it should be. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: So it's interesting, Katie, that you just said, I need a little bit of an outlet. Yeah. What does that mean? It means you need to you need an outlet from being in the show, in the movie, in the ah hallucinations.
Speaker: We need an outlet. We need something to get out. Yeah, that's so right. You're so right. Yes, exactly. And that's why I'm asking you all. to take the time and to program it in and do it.
Speaker: And it's not a bad time. Don't make your practice this hard thing. That's why i keep telling people, please have this cosmic orgasm listen every day, many times.
Speaker: I do that. brings a light, joy, life to my life.
Speaker: And you can do it, Katie. Take the moments. But it's hard when you're on your own and you're not with a teacher doing a class or having that support.
Speaker: But you can do it. You've got Zoom and you've got Al on Tuesday. this is And that would reset your whole week if you do that. Yes.
Speaker: Look, I'm not trying to, I don't even know who's my class, I forget. and But, it you know, of course, it's like I'm only saying this for everyone. You need that satsang.
Speaker: Because it's too hard otherwise. Look, just everything you've said. Your husband's away. You've got it all. You've got to do it. I'm pulling my hair. It's too hard.
Speaker: So you need the time. You need the outlet. And you can take it. And the outlet, the this samadhi, is the same as orgasm.
Speaker: If you don't like orgasm, please tell me, maybe I have to find another analogy.
Speaker: But Katie, can I just ask you before before you were asking, you were basically saying that if it's so amazing and and to be in this state, we should be in this state, our national state of being in nothingness, why isn't it easier?
Speaker: Was that kind of like your point before, right? Yes, yes. Why isn't it easier yeah to motivate myself to get there? Yeah. And i've I've been thinking, I think a lot of people have thought about that and I've definitely been thinking about that. And it's kind of like what Al said. For me, it's like, i always think back because I have memories from when I was quite young. i don't really know why, just very specific that I had a very, very clear mind and can and was very...
Speaker: It was very easy to just be very, very still. And I have those memories so for some weird reason. Maybe they're just, maybe I made them up, but I have this connection to it. And I always think of it like I've trained my mind to the more denser vibrations in life, like, know, from the sensory perceptions that we get.
Speaker: And to tune into the finer, you know, it's it's so much harder. So I always kind of think of it like going to the gym. I have an easier time going to gym actually think than going to do meditation.
Speaker: But I always think of it like meditation. And but I guess it's just that we've we've turned our backs on our mind for so many years, usually, or most people do at least. And when we get there and we kind of look in like, hey, what's going on? um And there's like no one there or it's like somebody's like, no, don't want to talk to you.
Speaker: you know, we kind of get a little freaked out. And yeah, so its it is, like I said, is it's it's a very long process. and Yeah, but I'm trying to break that down, Sebastian.
Speaker: I'm trying to help everyone to realize that all that logic that you one keeps coming to and trying to find that satisfaction and this is why you should meditate,
Speaker: it's like It's like the gym. It's like that. The only thing I can tell you is that it's blissful when you come back and feel yourself.
Speaker: And if you can feel complete, that's all you want to do. And it's hard to do it. You can try the tricks of the mind.
Speaker: Do you like the gym?
Speaker: and like Katie. Yeah, absolutely. I need movement just like Katrina, i think. yeah all right I hate the gym.
Speaker: It's the painful thing I could do. The gym. five Go there and walk on a machine. I can't do that. Right? So ah can't do that right so Hey, there's different strokes for different folks.
Speaker: yeah What resonates with a person?
Speaker: And the only thing that's pretty common to most people
Speaker: is, Sebastian,
Speaker: Autism. oh yeah That's something everybody, ah you know, alright, they don't like to talk about it, because and especially people the British people. Swedish people are quite prude to it, let me tell you. Yeah, Swedish are better.
Speaker: But a crazy African Jew. yogi wow ah Selling yourself hard here. Yeah, I'm crazy. I'll tell you, hey, that's what it's like.
Speaker: And you yeah to as I had to put Katrina clear, it's much easier. You can get there without the huffing and puffing of the sexual activity.
Speaker: And if you could think of it like that, it's a pleasure. It's not something hard. It's not something awful. Please experience,
Speaker: a hey have a moment every day where you can extend the orgasm eventually to 18 minutes a day.
Speaker: What more good you want in life, guys? I'm not asking something hard of you. I don't have good know how we're going to write up this the synopsis of this session.
Speaker: have no idea. but actually a v with you guys I could have used that many years ago when I was going to bars and you know trying to meet people. and Trying to pull. Yeah. Yeah, trying to do all these things and spending a lot of money on clothes and all these things. And yeah, better than orgasms. If only. all right i'm looking I'm looking for more students.
Speaker: right Yeah. Well, this might bring them in. Yeah. You should advertise this in nightclubs. Guys,
Speaker: it's absolutely true what I'm saying to you. That when you have that feeling of freedom from your mind, that feeling of contentment, that feeling of orgasm afterwards, that bliss, that's all I'm trying to get you to feel every day and to extend it And you can, but don't.
Speaker: How can you do it if you're fighting with yourself? How can you do it if you're hammering yourself to meditate? I want you to do it. Start for a minute if you're feeling that.
Speaker: Right? Take one minute orgasm, samadhi. of flow And learn to extend it slowly.
Speaker: And the tools only help you to get there.
Speaker: I offer you a variety of tools, and you can choose the ones you like, but usually Nadi Shodhana is so powerful.
Speaker: Right? The Hamsa Kriya opens that cord inside you and Ajna Bedana, the Ishta Kriya practice.
Speaker: I've been teaching this since I'm six, 15, 16.
Speaker: And it's the same thing. And the that blissful consciousness spills into your living.
Speaker: And whatever you're doing in living becomes blissful. Hmm. You know, my i was there was a big lightning storm, took out my monitor and my big photographic printer.
Speaker: And it's been a a lot of, um what's the word? I've had to take care of getting it and getting the insurance from the the electrical company and getting what they want from Apple.
Speaker: And as I'm doing it, it's not the nicest thing to be doing, but I'm doing it as a witness and it's like, well, got that together. That's cool. There's a moment of bliss.
Speaker: Okay, I got that thing they need filled out. I got Apple to give me what they said they can't give. ah That's blissful. And as I get each paper together, I feel the blissfulness of achieving and for fulfilling that document that I had to get.
Speaker: Do you all get that? I actually do that.
Speaker: And sometimes it's hard. I'll shout at the the machine that I get.
Speaker: You know, when you call and there's a machine. Yes, I can and help you with anything you need. i am a machine, but I can help you.
Speaker: And asks you a question and you answer it and say, please answer yes or no. And you're saying, yes, please. All right, yeah let's try this again. And they go all the way back.
Speaker: And of course, when that's happening, yeah but after I do it and I get connected through, then back to the bliss. And it's very interesting I'm going to share this one thing with you.
Speaker: When you call Apple and they're going to finally connect you through to the department you need, The last thing in the machine says to you, I'm going to connect you through to a I don't know, a representative.
Speaker: But please be kind to them because they have feelings too and they're there to serve you. And by the time you you've taken to get through to the machine, you feel like blowing up.
Speaker: So before, when it says that, said, you know what? This is a signal for me. Time to feel bliss.
Speaker: Orgasm. Bliss. You don't need to do the orgasm. You just feel the bliss that it creates. Please don't orgasm. Not when you're the phone least. Just the bliss that comes after.
Speaker: it went Without, as I told you, without the oohing and aahing and huffing and puffing, the bliss is always there.
Speaker: I have yet to reach this level of samadhi, Al, but I'm going to work toward it. Isn't it wonderful? Come back to class, Katie. We'll teach you the trick. Thank you.
Speaker: I will too. oh All right. Well, that seems like a good place to end it. yeah Have a blissful week, everyone.
Speaker: I will see you next week. Katie, lovely to talk with you. Thank you, Al. Lovely to chat with you. Thanks for having me. Thank you. See you soon. Take care.
Speaker: Namaste. nama day day nama day
Speaker: Thank you for joining us today and have a super wonderful week. Namaste.
