Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Psychik Teachers. I'm your host, Samantha Fay.
Speaker 2: And I'm Deb Bowing and today we're.
Speaker 1: Going to be talking about some modern mystics. But before
Speaker 1: we do, we just wanted to pop in once again
Speaker 1: and say happy New Year. We hope it's twenty twenty
Speaker 1: six is off to a great start for you. If
Speaker 1: you go to our Facebook page, you'll see some photos
Speaker 1: I posted just this week of Deb and I having
Speaker 1: a lovely holiday meal together and we did a Toro
Speaker 1: reading and so we posted some photos about that. It
Speaker 1: was so much fun. And while we were talking, we
Speaker 1: were like, so, what do you want to talk about
Speaker 1: on the show in twenty twenty six, And we had
Speaker 1: some pretty good ideas, I think, don't you?
Speaker 2: I think so, and I hope our listeners do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, see me too. So we've got some really fun
Speaker 1: guests lined up and we've got some cool research stuff
Speaker 1: we're going to be bringing to you. And one of
Speaker 1: the things we were talking about was, you know, we
Speaker 1: like to look back at historic figures who have laid
Speaker 1: the groundwork for doing the intuitive work we can do today.
Speaker 1: But we thought it would be kind of fun to
Speaker 1: highlight some more recent people. So I did a little
Speaker 1: bit of research, deb you did a lot of research,
Speaker 1: so I think you should start us up.
Speaker 2: Well, I'd be happy to do that, you know, I
Speaker 2: think that a lot of us don't know except for
Speaker 2: the folks that I'm going to be talking about. I
Speaker 2: did not know a lot about folks from India and
Speaker 2: the work that they did up until the Beatles. So
Speaker 2: that's really kind of where I'm going to begin. And
Speaker 2: then I'm going to dive back into history a bit
Speaker 2: with two other folks. The first person I want to
Speaker 2: talk about is a man from India who shaped both
Speaker 2: Western culture and Western music. In the nineteen sixties. He
Speaker 2: sent many of us to the Incense Store, and he
Speaker 2: introduced us to musicians such as the Ravi Shankar, whose
Speaker 2: work was just brilliant. I saw something recently where his
Speaker 2: daughter is also playing the sitar these days, and she's
Speaker 2: doing some lovely work. But in any case, the person
Speaker 2: I want to talk about is the Maharishi Mahashogi, born
Speaker 2: somewhere around nineteen seventy. We in the West met him
Speaker 2: when the Beatles went to India in nineteen sixty eight
Speaker 2: to learn from him. Most notably, he brought transcendental meditation
Speaker 2: to the West. It was the Beatles relationship with him
Speaker 2: that gave us songs on their Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Arts
Speaker 2: Club Band album and most of the White Album. However,
Speaker 2: we also have John Lennon's song Sexy Sadie, which thinly
Speaker 2: Veil's accusations the Maharishi inappropriately touched some women who came
Speaker 2: to his aushrom. The accusations were never confirmed, and both
Speaker 2: George Harrison and Paul McCartney denied that they were true.
Speaker 2: But the Maharishi was really primarily an entrepreneur of enlightenment
Speaker 2: who built an enterprise of spiritual centers and schools that
Speaker 2: today are estimated to have an asset of about three
Speaker 2: hundred million dollars. He died in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 2: Whether he was a true spiritual master or Charlatan will
Speaker 2: never be determined, of course, but he did introduce the
Speaker 2: West to transcendental meditation and to some serious philosophy of
Speaker 2: his beliefs in India. According to his teaching, stress could
Speaker 2: be reduced by daily meditation. This is a quote from him.
Speaker 2: The philosophy of life is this, Life is not a struggle,
Speaker 2: not attention. Life is bliss, It is wisdom, eternal existence.
Speaker 2: Life is bliss, It is eternal wisdom, eternal existence. He
Speaker 2: studied Sanskrit under a Hindu leader known as Guru Dev,
Speaker 2: which means divine teacher. In his younger years, he studied
Speaker 2: forms of meditation with several masters, eventually adopting for himself
Speaker 2: the name Maharishi, which means great soul. He rebranded the
Speaker 2: meditation philosophies that he had studied into a container that
Speaker 2: he called Transcendental Meditation TM calms the spirit, and the
Speaker 2: Maharishi hoped that it would bring peace to the world.
Speaker 2: It is not far removed from John Lennon's song All
Speaker 2: You Need Is Love, which he wrote before he met
Speaker 2: the Maharishi. So here's what happened. In nineteen fifty nine,
Speaker 2: the Maharishi founded the International Meditation Society BASS, with bases
Speaker 2: in London and in San Francisco, and he set about
Speaker 2: recruiting members. He established his headquarters in Switzerland, then moved
Speaker 2: it to Amsterdam in nineteen ninety, and at the height
Speaker 2: of the movement had more than two million followers worldwide,
Speaker 2: including ninety thousand in the UK, which is of course
Speaker 2: how the beatles came to him. His followers either paid
Speaker 2: a subscription or tithed a part of their earnings, and
Speaker 2: as a result, the society that he formed became rich.
Speaker 2: He even had his own helicopter. Wow, I know.
Speaker 1: Well, what can I say? The Pope has his own helicopter.
Speaker 2: Well, there is that. So yes, he was certainly a
Speaker 2: very wise businessman and an entrepreneur. But at the heart
Speaker 2: of his work was this notion of meditation, which was
Speaker 2: a new concept here in the West, particularly for us,
Speaker 2: and I'll talk more about that and how still has
Speaker 2: centers here in the United States. But in February of
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty seven, George Harrison's wife Patty became intrigued about
Speaker 2: him after attending a lecture on TM in London. And
Speaker 2: at that time George was developing his own interest in
Speaker 2: Indian culture. He had played a sitar George had on
Speaker 2: Rubber Soul in nineteen sixty five, which I just love,
Speaker 2: and had gone to India in September of nineteen sixty
Speaker 2: six to study with Rabi Shankar. If you don't know
Speaker 2: his music, once again I urge you to listen. His
Speaker 2: music was just wonderful There arguably several sides to the
Speaker 2: coin about the relationships between members of the Beatles and
Speaker 2: the Maharishi. For example, the years that they were connected
Speaker 2: with him produced some of their most powerful and well
Speaker 2: loved music. It really was a shift in Western music
Speaker 2: when the Beatles were working with the Maharishi. It is
Speaker 2: believed that transcendental meditation helped John get off drugs at
Speaker 2: the time. Conversely, managers and associates of the Beatles warned
Speaker 2: them that they were being used and exploited by a
Speaker 2: con artists, and both sides of the media had a
Speaker 2: field day with that relationship. It really was such a
Speaker 2: convoluted time with young people in the United States as
Speaker 2: the Beatles developed this relationship with this man. There is
Speaker 2: considerable conjecture about how the Beatles then came to break
Speaker 2: their relationship with the Maharishi, but they did. It could
Speaker 2: be argued that the visit to India they spent some
Speaker 2: time with him created disharmony rather than harmony for the Beatles,
Speaker 2: but there were many other factors that caused tension with
Speaker 2: the band, including John's love for Yoko Ono, who could
Speaker 2: be seen as an alternative spiritual leader for him. While
Speaker 2: the Maharishi never received any earnings that he had anticipated
Speaker 2: from the Beatles. He really thought that there would be
Speaker 2: a whole a different way of him earning money and
Speaker 2: profiting off of his relationship with the Beatles. But he
Speaker 2: did become wealthy, as I've mentioned by other avenues. He
Speaker 2: certainly maintained a celebrity following in the nineteen seventies. He
Speaker 2: established transcendental meditation centers around the world, several in the
Speaker 2: UK and America, and there is a university in Fairfield, Iowa,
Speaker 2: and his work in tmwork in America continues in later years.
Speaker 2: George Harrison and Ringo Starr stated in interviews that regardless
Speaker 2: of their relationship with the Maharishi, they were grateful for
Speaker 2: some of what they learned from him and from the
Speaker 2: practice of transcendental meditation. And he died in two and eight,
Speaker 2: but transcendental meditation continues. And just for folks who because
Speaker 2: of Lord. I mean, how many times have our listeners
Speaker 2: heard us say, meditate, meditate, meditate, Well, there's lots of
Speaker 2: different kinds of meditation. And often when here in the West,
Speaker 2: for the most part, we think of meditation, we think
Speaker 2: of mindfulness, meditation. Well, you set an intent for your
Speaker 2: time in silence, and often we hear the wonderful prayer
Speaker 2: and chant, may I be happy, may the world be happy,
Speaker 2: may all beings be at peace. You know that lovely
Speaker 2: mantra is just wonderful. Transcendental meditation is just being silent.
Speaker 2: There's a place where in TM where there's a shift
Speaker 2: in your brain waves in the silence. And that's about
Speaker 2: the best I can do is explaining it to you.
Speaker 1: Okay, I thought it was different. I thought transcendental meditation
Speaker 1: you had a guru and they gave you a mantra
Speaker 1: or a nonsense word to focus.
Speaker 2: That may be true. Some of the research I did
Speaker 2: talked a lot about it just being in silence.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then I thought that too, So I'm always
Speaker 1: confused about it. There's a lot of really cool documentaries
Speaker 1: on transcendental meditation, and one of them is narrated or
Speaker 1: focused on Jerry Seinfeld. But it's all like very successful
Speaker 1: people in the world of business in Hollywood who talk
Speaker 1: about how TM saved their life and really help them
Speaker 1: become focused on their purpose.
Speaker 2: I've heard those same things, and it may be that
Speaker 2: what you and I are saying here is that with
Speaker 2: almost any other practice or belief system. There are different
Speaker 2: schools of thought, and it's not just one. I think
Speaker 2: that's true, so it may be probably one direction of
Speaker 2: TM in another in another way, you know. Right. He
Speaker 2: was a fascinating man, and I can still see pictures
Speaker 2: in my mind of the Beatles and the Maharahi's sitting
Speaker 2: with the beautiful flowers around their necks and all the
Speaker 2: Eastern clothes which to us here, at least in the South,
Speaker 2: when I was a teenager in the sixties, that was
Speaker 2: really weird stuff. You know. It was rare that you
Speaker 2: knew somebody who was of a different Christian denomination than you,
Speaker 2: much less a different belief system from across the ocean.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's so true and important to point out because
Speaker 1: now we're all open to all sorts of different faiths.
Speaker 1: But you're right back then, especially for the Beatles, Oh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean Buddhism, Hinduism, incense. I mean, that's why
Speaker 2: I mentioned the incense stores earlier, because you just couldn't
Speaker 2: go to, you know, the grocery store and buy a
Speaker 2: bag of incense. I mean it was you didn't do that.
Speaker 2: You had to go looking for it, and most of
Speaker 2: us didn't even know what incense was. I mean frankinsense
Speaker 2: and myrrh brought to the baby Jesus. We had some
Speaker 2: notion that that probably smelled pretty good. And U. Catholick's
Speaker 2: had some great stuff in your church, but we did't
Speaker 2: have anywhere else. I'm serious, and I don't mean that
Speaker 2: in a despair jingly in any way. But it really
Speaker 2: did open up this relationship with Eastern Thought, did open
Speaker 2: up a whole new world of openness and at least
Speaker 2: curiosity about beliefs and practices and cultures different from your own.
Speaker 2: I think it's a wonderful.
Speaker 1: Thing and normalize this idea of meditating, which is so
Speaker 1: important for the growth of our spirituality and our consciousness. Okay,
Speaker 1: so who are you going to tell us about next, Samantha.
Speaker 2: I'm going to talk about two more folks in just
Speaker 2: a minute. But before I do, let's take a quick break,
Speaker 2: shall we.
Speaker 1: Yes, We'll be right back.
Speaker 2: Hi, everybody. Here are a couple of events that I've
Speaker 2: got coming up, and I so hope you'll join me.
Speaker 2: On Saturday, January thirty first, I will be at Dancing Moon,
Speaker 2: Books and Gifts in Raleigh, North Carolina. I'll be there
Speaker 2: for an afternoon workshop about my new book, Crafting the
Speaker 2: Wheel of the Year. If you can get to Raleigh,
Speaker 2: I would love to see you. You can get information
Speaker 2: about the event at Dancingmoon Raleigh dot com. And then
Speaker 2: on Saturday, February seventh, I hope you'll join me and
Speaker 2: my co author of Crafting the Wheel of the Year,
Speaker 2: Claire Gelder, for a zoom workshop that focuses on the
Speaker 2: Celtic holiday of Imboke. I'll discuss the cultural and spiritual
Speaker 2: aspects of the season, and Claire will teach you great crafts.
Speaker 2: You can register on my website www dot dev Bowen
Speaker 2: dot com and there's more on my website and there's
Speaker 2: more coming soon, so check it out dev Bowen dot com.
Speaker 2: Thanks everybody, Welcome back everybody. Before we talk about the
Speaker 2: next two folks, I need to give you a word,
Speaker 2: a definition of a word, and the word is boba
Speaker 2: baba and it comes from the Persian and it's an
Speaker 2: honor term of respect meaning father, her, grandfather, sir. So
Speaker 2: when you hear the word baba attached to someone's name,
Speaker 2: it means that person has been given and designated some
Speaker 2: level of respect and honor from his followers or folks
Speaker 2: around him. So I want to begin by telling you
Speaker 2: about a man whose name was Shri Sai Baba of Shurdi.
Speaker 2: I'm just going to call him Said Baba from now on.
Speaker 2: He was born in eighteen thirty eight and he passed
Speaker 2: on in nineteen eighteen. He was revered by both Hindu
Speaker 2: and Muslim followers and was considered by many to be
Speaker 2: a saint. He condemned discrimination based on religion or caste.
Speaker 2: And think back to the time frame in which this
Speaker 2: man lived, the eighteen hundreds in India particularly, and well
Speaker 2: in America too.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, we're fighting a civil war.
Speaker 2: Absolutely exactly. You're right. That was a really radical idea.
Speaker 2: No disc emination based on religion or caste. His teachings
Speaker 2: emphasized love, forgiveness, helping others, charity, contentment, enter peace, and
Speaker 2: devotion to God. He taught what he called the importance
Speaker 2: of realization of the self and opposed that which he
Speaker 2: called love towards perishable things.
Speaker 1: Well, I like that phrase. Yeah, I love perishable things.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, you know, once I got past thinking about
Speaker 2: you know, vegetables, I thought, oh, lots of things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love chocolate, with a passion.
Speaker 2: I don't think that's what he meant, Samantha.
Speaker 1: No, I know, I'm just being silly.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, all right, okay, but I know sometimes folks
Speaker 2: take us literally when we tell true.
Speaker 1: Sorry, just being sarcastic, Ignore me, I.
Speaker 2: Okay. Just to clarify, I believe what he meant by
Speaker 2: towards perishable things is not okay, is that which fades
Speaker 2: away and is not based on kindness and all those
Speaker 2: other qualities that he revered. We don't know a lot
Speaker 2: about his early life. One theory states that he was
Speaker 2: born into the Brahmin caste, which is an upper upper
Speaker 2: class cast but later was adopted by a Sufi holy one.
Speaker 2: Here I'm not sure I'm pronouncing that word correctly, but
Speaker 2: of the Sufi tradition, when he was sixteen, it is
Speaker 2: believed that he lived for about three years near the
Speaker 2: village of Amanagar, and I'm going to talk about that town.
Speaker 2: Later he dressed as a Sufi holy man, meditating for
Speaker 2: hours under a tree. So there was also this kind
Speaker 2: of connection to the Buddhist thought, because of course that's
Speaker 2: what we know about Buddha under the tree. Sufi is
Speaker 2: a fascinating other belief system that we could be talking about,
Speaker 2: but we'll hold on to that for another episode. Say
Speaker 2: Bob had left the village for about a year in
Speaker 2: his life, during which time he really did he just disappeared,
Speaker 2: and when he came back he was dressed as a
Speaker 2: Sufi teacher. Later he incorporated some Muslim attire into his clothing,
Speaker 2: which led to hostility towards him in a predominantly Hindu village.
Speaker 2: So as he is trying to bring together various schools
Speaker 2: of thought Hinduism, Muslim thought, his Hindu village community is
Speaker 2: not real happy with him. For four to five years,
Speaker 2: he lived under a tree, meditating for long periods of time.
Speaker 2: Reports say that he was withdrawing, not talking, uncommunicative, and
Speaker 2: he often wandered for long periods in the jungle around
Speaker 2: the village. He was essentially persuaded to take up residence
Speaker 2: in an old and dilapidated mosque some years later, where
Speaker 2: he lived a solitary life, surviving by begging and receiving
Speaker 2: itinerant Hindu or Muslim visitors. In the mosque where he
Speaker 2: lived for some time, he maintained a sacred fire and
Speaker 2: gave sacred ash from the fire to guests. The ash
Speaker 2: was believed to have had healing powers. He treated the
Speaker 2: sick by applying ashes. He delivered spiritual teachings to his
Speaker 2: visitors and recommended the reading of the Baggadavida for Hindus
Speaker 2: and the Koran for Muslims. He often taught using parables,
Speaker 2: so once again he's trying to bring in sacred text
Speaker 2: and invite people to look at common ground. Baba is
Speaker 2: believed to have tended a garden named after a rivulet
Speaker 2: called Lindi which flowed nearby. The gardens still exists and
Speaker 2: it contains temples commemorating people and animals associated with Saibaba's
Speaker 2: life continues today to be visited by pilgrims. In nineteen ten,
Speaker 2: his fame began to spread into Mumbai. That city used
Speaker 2: to be called Bombay Mumbai. Being regarded as a saint
Speaker 2: with the power of performing miracles, he was visited by
Speaker 2: numerous people, and in August nineteen eighteen, Sai Baba told
Speaker 2: some of his devotees that he would soon be leaving
Speaker 2: his mortal body. He died on October fifteenth, nineteen eighteen.
Speaker 2: His remains were interned at Bhutiwada in the Surdi, which
Speaker 2: later became a place of worship that is known today
Speaker 2: as Shri Somdimander or the Shurdy Sai Baba Temple. When
Speaker 2: he spoke of himself, he said, you need not go
Speaker 2: anywhere in search of me. Barring your name and form,
Speaker 2: There exists in you, as well as in all beings,
Speaker 2: a sense of being or consciousness of existence, that is me.
Speaker 2: Knowing this, you see me inside yourself and in all beings.
Speaker 2: If you practice this, you will realize all pervasiveness can
Speaker 2: thus be as one with me. Today. Because of Saibaba Sure,
Speaker 2: it has become a famous religious tourist destination in India
Speaker 2: and is counted as one of the most popular Hindu
Speaker 2: places of pilgrimage. The Saibaba Temple is visited by an
Speaker 2: average of sixty thousand pilgrims a day. During religious festivals,
Speaker 2: this number can reach up to two hundred thousand. Both
Speaker 2: the interior of the temple and the exterior cone are
Speaker 2: covered with gold. Inside the temple, the statue of Saibaba
Speaker 2: is carved out of Italian marble and is seen draped
Speaker 2: with royal cloth, wearing a gold crown and adorned with
Speaker 2: fresh flower of garlands and the temple is managed by
Speaker 2: the Saibibi truck. He often talked about the Hindu gods
Speaker 2: and quoted from sacred text. On occasion, he would comment
Speaker 2: on passages from the Bagadavida, the Upanishads and other books.
Speaker 2: The names of Krishna and Rama were sacred to him.
Speaker 2: With Muslim followers, he talked of Allah and the Koran,
Speaker 2: often quoting Persian verses. He respected all faiths and taught
Speaker 2: that all are particular paths towards one goal. Saibaba left
Speaker 2: behind no spiritual heirs, appointed not disciples, and did not
Speaker 2: provide formal initiation, despite folks asking him for that. And
Speaker 2: there are many temples of Saibaba in India. They're all
Speaker 2: over the country. They're also located in the United States,
Speaker 2: Trinidad and Tobago, Ghana, Surinam, Fiji, South Africa, Kenya, Benyon, Cuba, Canada, Pakistan, Australia,
Speaker 2: United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Germany, Japan and New Zealand, and
Speaker 2: probably some other places too. That's good.
Speaker 1: Quite a legacy.
Speaker 2: It is, really is and really deeply loved and deeply
Speaker 2: committed to the notion of connection among us all.
Speaker 1: He was really respect among us all. Yes, it really
Speaker 1: is amazing, especially when you think about, as you were
Speaker 1: saying in the beginning, what was going on at the
Speaker 1: time that he was born. I mean, he was born
Speaker 1: shortly after the American Revolution, the French Revolution. We had
Speaker 1: the Tripoli Wars, which was said it was fought about piracy,
Speaker 1: but it was really about slavery and stopping that in
Speaker 1: some of those shores, and then the Civil War and
Speaker 1: all the other stuff. And to have this holy man
Speaker 1: talk about how we're all connected and won back then
Speaker 1: very very brave and very profound.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, it really was. He was an interesting Viallet I.
Speaker 1: Want to know how he was persuaded the way you
Speaker 1: describe it. I have this image of this man just
Speaker 1: wandering the jungle, trying to be alone, and they're like, no, no,
Speaker 1: you got to come live in this dilapidated monastery.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I guess because of what he was teaching, folks
Speaker 2: wanted to hear more, and so they found place for
Speaker 2: him to be and in some ways probably took care
Speaker 2: of him, you know.
Speaker 1: And that poor man just probably wanted to be alone.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know. I mean, he may have been
Speaker 2: committed to teaching. You know, teachers have to teach when
Speaker 2: they teach.
Speaker 1: There's a quote by Niedsche I think about a lot.
Speaker 1: He says, I hate who steals my solitude without an
Speaker 1: exchange offering me true company.
Speaker 2: H I love that. That's great. Who said that?
Speaker 1: Niedsche and I have shortened that. It's so bad like
Speaker 1: every time. So when Lake texts me, I always say,
Speaker 1: who intrudes on my solitude?
Speaker 2: That's so funny because when my text stings.
Speaker 1: I don't want to tell listeners what you say?
Speaker 2: I could say the nice part? Okay, Okay, when the
Speaker 2: text things, I say, what do you want?
Speaker 1: Well? Sometimes if I call her, she'll answer, what do
Speaker 1: you want?
Speaker 2: No, I'm kidding. I don't do that to you.
Speaker 1: You don't do that. Your tone does, but you don't say.
Speaker 2: The Well sometimes is it's strict? This is same for me.
Speaker 1: All right, you have one more amazing teacher and then.
Speaker 2: Start out this action the fell I wanted to talk
Speaker 2: about the most.
Speaker 1: Okay, so let's take our last quick break and then
Speaker 1: we can get to who you really wanted to teach
Speaker 1: us about. We'll be right back, okay. As we took
Speaker 1: into winder and hopefully have space for more introspection and reflection,
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Speaker 2: Welcome back, everybody. So when I began teaching at Academia,
Speaker 2: I was about the same age as my students' mothers
Speaker 2: and fathers. Well, as time went on, I got older
Speaker 2: and they didn't, right, I kept getting older and my
Speaker 2: students were still in their late teens and early twenties
Speaker 2: for the most part.
Speaker 1: Did you ever get that letter? Our Dean of students
Speaker 1: would always email us this letter at the beginning of
Speaker 1: every semester, and it changed obviously every year, but it
Speaker 1: would say this year, oh, these freshman students were born,
Speaker 1: you know, the year that President Bush was elected or whatever.
Speaker 1: And every year it would change. The year that Obama
Speaker 1: was elected. It was like, what is happening? How is
Speaker 1: how is you already eighteen?
Speaker 2: We got that too, We got that letter to we
Speaker 2: did well. So it's the first day of school after
Speaker 2: I gotten older, and this lovely young woman comes up
Speaker 2: to me after class and she looks me in the
Speaker 2: eye and she says, jay Baba. And I looked at
Speaker 2: her and I said, jay Baba. She said, you know
Speaker 2: my grandmother. I said, who's your grandmother? And she told
Speaker 2: me her grandmother's name. I did indeed know her grandmother,
Speaker 2: who was a devout follower of Mayha Baba. And jay
Speaker 2: Baba is the greeting that Baba lovers, as they call themselves,
Speaker 2: say to each other. It means, in the name of Baba,
Speaker 2: I greet you kind of thing. The first words out
Speaker 2: of the student's mouth were jay baba, and I responded
Speaker 2: in kind. I knew what she meant because I have
Speaker 2: been blessed over the years to know many folks who
Speaker 2: are followers of Mayor Baba. Having had a couple of
Speaker 2: opportunities to visit the Baba Center, which I'm going to
Speaker 2: talk about in a few minutes, and to listen to
Speaker 2: some great music that has been dedicated to Mayor Baba
Speaker 2: over the years. Let me tell you about him, and
Speaker 2: then I'll talk about what I know about him. He
Speaker 2: was born in eighteen ninety four and he this is
Speaker 2: a quote, This is how they described it, dropped his
Speaker 2: body in nineteen sixty nine. His followers believed that he
Speaker 2: was a true Avatar. And that word, I know probably
Speaker 2: conjures up the image of those blue folks on that movie.
Speaker 2: But the word avatar, and I don't mean that desparingly
Speaker 2: because I've never seen the movie. But avatar here means
Speaker 2: a true master, a true manifestation of God in human form.
Speaker 2: His followers believe that of him. He has hundreds still
Speaker 2: today of thousands of followers in India, with followers in
Speaker 2: North America, Europe, South America and Australia. Is a huge
Speaker 2: following of Baba in Australia. His teachings, like Cyboba's, draw
Speaker 2: from Sufi, Vedic and Yogic perspectives, and he taught that
Speaker 2: the goal of all beings was to become conscious of
Speaker 2: their own divinity and to realize their oneness of and
Speaker 2: with God. As a boy, he formed what he called
Speaker 2: the Cosmopolitan Club, which was dedicated to remaining informed on
Speaker 2: world affairs and collecting money and donating it to charity.
Speaker 2: He played several instruments, and he was a poet. He
Speaker 2: was fluent in several languages and loved poetry by William
Speaker 2: Shakespeare Percy Shelley. His transformation in his spiritual practices began
Speaker 2: when he was nineteen and lasted for seven years. At nineteen,
Speaker 2: he met Hasrat Babajan, an elderly Muslim saint. He was
Speaker 2: cycling past a tree that she had made her home,
Speaker 2: which she called out to him, and so he went
Speaker 2: over to her and she kissed him on the forehead,
Speaker 2: which caused him to enter a nine month long trance,
Speaker 2: which he described as divine blits, where he was just
Speaker 2: not conscious of his body. She predicted that he would
Speaker 2: become a spiritual leader, and for several years he explored
Speaker 2: the teachings of lots of masters that he encountered. By
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty two, when he was twenty seven, he began
Speaker 2: gathering his own disciples, and they gave him the name
Speaker 2: meher Baba, which means compassionate face. In that year, Baba
Speaker 2: and his followers established a center in Mumbai, and a
Speaker 2: year later they left Mambai and moved to a few
Speaker 2: miles outside Amanaga. Remember I said that name of that
Speaker 2: town earlier. They moved outside Amanagar into a communal area
Speaker 2: that they called Meherbad. This ashram in Meherbad became his
Speaker 2: center for his work, and it is continues today. There
Speaker 2: are still his followers who keep that ashram alive. He
Speaker 2: opened a school, a hospital, and a dispensary in Meyerbad.
Speaker 2: To think of that as kind of a suburb of Amanagar,
Speaker 2: all of which were free and open to all casts
Speaker 2: and faiths. And I know that today. I think a
Speaker 2: lot of that work is focused on eye issues, cataracts
Speaker 2: and so forth. From July tenth, nineteen twenty five, until
Speaker 2: he died in sixty eight or sixty nine, whichever it was,
Speaker 2: he maintained silence. So for all those years Baba was silent.
Speaker 2: He did not speak, and yet he taught and wrote
Speaker 2: books and did all sorts of cool stuff.
Speaker 1: He initially say why he's stopped speaking.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he does. In his book entitled God speaks. He
Speaker 2: talks about why he doesn't speak anymore. I've given my
Speaker 2: copy of those books away I had. His two most
Speaker 2: famous books are called God Speaks and Discourses, and they're gone.
Speaker 2: I don't know what happened to him, but what he
Speaker 2: did do initially was he communicated with a chalk on slate,
Speaker 2: a little lap board that he kept that he wrote
Speaker 2: with chalk on, and then he had an alphabet board,
Speaker 2: and then later he created basically his own sign language
Speaker 2: that his followers could follow. It was not like we
Speaker 2: would think of American's sign language, but it was Boba's
Speaker 2: way of gesturing. What he taught about as he wrote
Speaker 2: on the board and with his followers in front of him,
Speaker 2: and as he wrote in his books, was he was
Speaker 2: really concerned about nature and the purpose of life. He
Speaker 2: said that the world around us as we see it
Speaker 2: really is an illusion, and that the universe is our imagination,
Speaker 2: that there's more than we can comprehend in our imagination.
Speaker 2: He taught that God alone exists, that each soul is God,
Speaker 2: passing through imagination in order to receive its own divinity.
Speaker 2: As I mentioned, tell most famous books are entitled God
Speaker 2: Speaks and Discourses and Beginning in nineteen thirty one, he
Speaker 2: began to make visits to the West, and throughout the
Speaker 2: decade of the thirties he traveled around the world in
Speaker 2: lots of different places, went to Europe and came here
Speaker 2: in the United States, and it was during this period
Speaker 2: that he began to establish his first contact with Western disciples.
Speaker 2: He traveled on a Persian past word, which I thought
Speaker 2: was interesting, and as he had given up writing as
Speaker 2: well as speaking, he would not sign the forms required
Speaker 2: by the British Government of India, so he traveled on
Speaker 2: a Persian passport as opposed to an Indian passport. On
Speaker 2: his first trip to England in nineteen thirty one, he
Speaker 2: was traveling on a big ship at the same time
Speaker 2: as was Mahatma Gandhi. They met three times on board
Speaker 2: that ship, and one of these exchanges lasted for three hours.
Speaker 1: Hold on, hold on, what are Gandhi and Baba doing
Speaker 1: for three hours? If he doesn't write or.
Speaker 2: Talk at this point gesturing and as huing gesturing, an
Speaker 2: interpreter is one of his followers is explaining what he's saying.
Speaker 1: Wow, Okay, I'm sorry, I'm just still stuck on giving
Speaker 1: up writing and talking.
Speaker 2: Yeah, an aide to Gandhi said, you may say emphatically
Speaker 2: that Gandhi never asked Major Baba for help or for
Speaker 2: spiritual or other advice. Oh yes, I don't know what
Speaker 2: they talked about.
Speaker 1: Wow, And why would he see that? It's almost like
Speaker 1: Gandi didn't ask for anything from him because he had
Speaker 1: his own spiritual inner knowing. I don't know. That's kind
Speaker 1: of a strange quote, don't you.
Speaker 2: Think I did? I found that really interested. So when
Speaker 2: he came over here to the US, he was just
Speaker 2: and noundated by and loved by a lot of really
Speaker 2: famous people who just didn't quite know what to do
Speaker 2: with this really cool Indian guy who didn't talk and
Speaker 2: was just wonderful. He met Gary Cooper, Charles Lawton, Tulula Bankhead,
Speaker 2: Boris Carlof, Maurice Chevalier, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Banks Junior,
Speaker 2: Fairbanks Junior. They held a reception for him at which
Speaker 2: he delivered a message to Hollywood, and as a result,
Speaker 2: he emerged as quote one of the enthusiasms of the
Speaker 2: nineteen thirty So he was quite the I don't want
Speaker 2: to say politician, but that might be the right word.
Speaker 2: Really in that he garnered a wide variety of followers
Speaker 2: from lots of different disciplines and basically just teaching these
Speaker 2: lovely lessons about kindness and oneness. And I'm going to
Speaker 2: talk about his most famous quotes in a few minutes.
Speaker 2: In the nineteen forties and early fifties, his followers engaged
Speaker 2: in what he called a new life, a commitment to asceticism,
Speaker 2: during which he in about twenty of his followers traveled
Speaker 2: to India incognito. So he basically said, how can we
Speaker 2: be committed to our teachings and our beliefs and do
Speaker 2: so in a way that does not draw attention to ourselves?
Speaker 2: And he tried that for a few years, and then
Speaker 2: he began to establish centers for his followers outside India.
Speaker 2: As I mentioned, gathered followers from England, Australia, several other countries.
Speaker 2: And one of his followers from England was a woman
Speaker 2: named Elizabeth. Oh, I've forgotten her last name. It begins
Speaker 2: with the P Patterson. Thank you, Elizabeth Patterson. And Elizabeth
Speaker 2: had a sister named Kitty, and I met Kitty. Elizabeth
Speaker 2: was dead by the time I went to the barber center,
Speaker 2: but I met Kitty. He charged them, Kitty and Elizabeth
Speaker 2: and some friends of hers, with the task of finding
Speaker 2: a place in the United States that would be appropriate
Speaker 2: for a retreat center for him and his followers. Well,
Speaker 2: this is the sixties. So they began on the West coast,
Speaker 2: and he gave them a set of instructions as to
Speaker 2: what they had to find. And here were the rules.
Speaker 2: You must find land that is large enough that several
Speaker 2: buildings can be built on it for folks to stay
Speaker 2: in and meditate in. It must contain a fresh water lake.
Speaker 2: It must be you're moving salt water. It must be
Speaker 2: in a virgin forest, and it must be given to you.
Speaker 2: You can't ask for it. Well that's a little daunting task,
Speaker 2: even in any world of looking for real estate, right
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So Elizabeth and her buddy started in the West and
Speaker 2: nothing was happening. You know, you couldn't tell anybody you
Speaker 2: go where you were doing it. It was a hard
Speaker 2: thing that Baba asked her to do, and at some
Speaker 2: point her father, who knew and respected her. Following of Mayhor,
Speaker 2: Baba said, well, you know, Elizabeth, I've got this land.
Speaker 2: He said. It's a weird place, but if you think
Speaker 2: it'll work, and have it and here's what it's got,
Speaker 2: and he rattled off all of Baba's criteria and the
Speaker 2: mayor Senna is today on Highway seventeen in North Myrtle Beach,
Speaker 2: South Carolina. It's a top amazing. There is a tiny
Speaker 2: little sign used to be just on the mailbox, I
Speaker 2: think now there's actually a sign at the entrance now
Speaker 2: and just go in. You just can't go hang out.
Speaker 2: You're met at the gate by someone who is a
Speaker 2: host or a hostess. And when I went, I had
Speaker 2: to go meet with Kitty and tell her why I
Speaker 2: was there and who I was, and that was okay,
Speaker 2: and then I knew other BABA people.
Speaker 1: For international listeners, deb how would you explain Myrtle Beach
Speaker 1: Because it's like the opposite spiritual place. It's a beautiful place.
Speaker 1: It's a touristy place for golfers and beautiful.
Speaker 2: It is tourism on steroids. Yeah, I mean it really
Speaker 2: really is. It's not a place that I would want
Speaker 2: to live.
Speaker 1: There's beautiful beaches, beautiful places to golf, yes, lots of
Speaker 1: mini golfing as well, lots of big water slide places.
Speaker 1: There's like the Dixie Land Stampede, the Dolly parton the
Speaker 1: Medieval Nights Show. It's all sorts of lots of trip clubs.
Speaker 1: It's it's like, I don't know, like a little Las
Speaker 1: Vegas in the South.
Speaker 2: It really is.
Speaker 1: That's giving it more credit.
Speaker 2: But Nessel in the woods near this place, you would
Speaker 2: think you were on a different planet when you go
Speaker 2: into center. It is absolutely beautiful, just gorgeous.
Speaker 1: Is that where I went to see the monks do
Speaker 1: their sand mandalas?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I went to North Myrtle Beach. Oh, this is like
Speaker 1: seven years ago, and there were these visiting Buddhist monks
Speaker 1: and they spent the week making these elaborate, gorgeous mandalas,
Speaker 1: all made out of different colored sand. And at the
Speaker 1: end of the week they just took a big inhale
Speaker 1: and blew it all away, all their beautiful work. It
Speaker 1: was such a bistical, wonderful thing to see. I wonder
Speaker 1: if that's where I was, and I didn't even know.
Speaker 2: I don't know. It's a beautiful place. It's a lovely
Speaker 2: testament to Baba. There are items that belonged to Baba
Speaker 2: in what's called Baba's house. There there's a chair that
Speaker 2: had been his in India, but he also had and
Speaker 2: still has other spiritual retreat centers Brisbane, Australia and Ojai, California,
Speaker 2: and he had been to these retreat centers after they
Speaker 2: were being set up and so forth along the way.
Speaker 2: In nineteen fifty two, as he was heading from the
Speaker 2: Mayor Spiritual Center in South Carolina to Ojai, California, the
Speaker 2: one there near its town in Oklahoma called Prague, he
Speaker 2: was in a terrible car accident and he came back
Speaker 2: to Myrtle Beach to recuperate for a while. He was
Speaker 2: at Elizabeth's house at the time, so he worked on
Speaker 2: some writing and so forth while he was with Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: He began Dictating God Speaks in nineteen fifty three and
Speaker 2: dedicated the book to the universe, the Illusion that Sustains Reality.
Speaker 2: It's a beautiful book. He spent some time throughout India
Speaker 2: traveling around talking not talking, let me rephrase that, having
Speaker 2: his words spoken for him about what he believed in
Speaker 2: was practicing. He was in another car accident in nineteen
Speaker 2: fifty six, this time in India, where he had really
Speaker 2: severe injuries and the doctor said he would never walk again.
Speaker 2: He did, but he was in constant pain for the
Speaker 2: rest of his life and sometimes needed to be carried
Speaker 2: from venue to venue. Then, in nineteen sixties, as the
Speaker 2: drug culture grew in the West, Baba developed relationships with
Speaker 2: Timothy Leary and Richard Albert, who became, of course, Barba roumdants,
Speaker 2: and he urged them to oppose the use of hallucinogens
Speaker 2: for spiritual purposes. Although his body continued to deteriorate, he
Speaker 2: continued to write and work until his death. When he died,
Speaker 2: his remains were entombed in Meyerbad. He never broke his silence.
Speaker 2: He never spoke again. Folks who followed Baba and who
Speaker 2: study his teachings say that his teachings can be divided
Speaker 2: into two interrelated categories, his metaphysics on the nature of
Speaker 2: the soul and the universe, and practical advice for someone
Speaker 2: aspiring to be more spiritual in their lives. His metaphysics
Speaker 2: perspective is mostly found in God's Speaks. It contains detailed
Speaker 2: statements on cosmology, the purpose of life, the progression of
Speaker 2: the soul, and his teachings on the practical spiritual life
Speaker 2: are mostly contained in his work called Discourses the Avatar
Speaker 2: Meher Baba Charitable Trust, which I mentioned earlier as the
Speaker 2: outgrowth of his medical organizations, continues to work for folks
Speaker 2: who come to see him. But there's also a veterinary
Speaker 2: clinic there. And again this is in Amanagar in India.
Speaker 2: In the sixties, as his fame spread and as he
Speaker 2: had that relationship with Timothy Leary and Barbara Ramdats, there
Speaker 2: were many musicians who felt drawn to Baba. One of
Speaker 2: them was absolutely one of my favorite musicians. Her name
Speaker 2: is Melanie Sofka. Most folks, of course, only know her
Speaker 2: as Melanie, and she wrote a song called Candles in
Speaker 2: the Rain. Lay Down, Lay Down, lay it all down.
Speaker 2: Let your whitebirds mile up at the one who stands
Speaker 2: in Friends. Mayor Baba lives again. Lit Candles in the Rain,
Speaker 2: Mayor Baba Lives Again. Candles in the Rain. Love that
Speaker 2: song and I love Melanie's love of Baba. For those
Speaker 2: of you who are old enough to know who the
Speaker 2: who is, they're still playing. They're going on tour again
Speaker 2: this year. One of their lead singers, of course, was
Speaker 2: Pete Townsend, and Pete Townsend was a follower of Baba.
Speaker 2: He was at the Baba Center the second time I
Speaker 2: was there.
Speaker 1: Did you get to meet them?
Speaker 2: Well, hello, how are you? Is nice to see you.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, you don't much talk to Pete Townsend.
Speaker 1: But that's still really cool.
Speaker 2: It was cool. If you know anything about the Who,
Speaker 2: probably you know something about the rock opper Tommy and
Speaker 2: that album was dedicated to Baba. He also Pete Roso
Speaker 2: wrote a song called Baba O'Reilly, which was named of
Speaker 2: for Us, partly for Mayor Baba. But what's also important
Speaker 2: is that, in addition to his work with Rock and
Speaker 2: Roll and Who, Pete Townsend did several solo acoustic albums
Speaker 2: dedicated to Baba. But here's the phrase that most folks
Speaker 2: probably know that they don't know comes from Boba. Remember
Speaker 2: the big hit by Bobby McFerrin called don't Worry Be Happy?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that phrase comes from Boba's books, Don't Worry
Speaker 2: Be Happy, And of course over time that became such
Speaker 2: a trite catch phrase in American culture, and from Baba,
Speaker 2: it was a very serious admiration. He meant it, don't
Speaker 2: worry be happy, and that was a part of Boba's
Speaker 2: teachings with such joy, such a belief in the beauty
Speaker 2: and the wonder and the kindness of the universe around him.
Speaker 1: Beautiful message, and you're right, we have. I've made it
Speaker 1: trait with orry be happy, And there's even something kind
Speaker 1: of trait when you hear it. If I was worried
Speaker 1: about something and someone said, oh, don't worry, be happy,
Speaker 1: I'd be like, we'll screw you. I'm worried right now,
Speaker 1: you know, hold space with me. But when you say
Speaker 1: it as he intended it, it takes on a whole
Speaker 1: different meaning, doesn't it.
Speaker 2: It really does. And there are a couple of other
Speaker 2: thoughts that come to mind as I wrap up this
Speaker 2: thing about Mayor Baba. You remember that whole saga that
Speaker 2: happened when Jeane died and the treasure hunt she set
Speaker 2: me on, Oh yeah, to get me to hear the
Speaker 2: words be happy. Yep. Well, if she'd used baba, I
Speaker 2: might have gotten it more quicker, because I certainly associate
Speaker 2: that sentence don't worry, be happy with Mayho Baba.
Speaker 1: That's her personality.
Speaker 2: She wanted you to work for it, She absolutely did.
Speaker 2: But I want to share, as I close out talking
Speaker 2: about may Or Baba, one other thing. I have a
Speaker 2: friend who, as I mentioned earlier, I have a lot
Speaker 2: of friends who are Biba followers, and one of them
Speaker 2: died a few years ago and his ashes are interred
Speaker 2: in mayor Bad. He loved Baba a lot, and my
Speaker 2: friend came from a culture where it took a lot
Speaker 2: for his parents to accept my friend's love of Baba,
Speaker 2: but they did eventually and became not Biba followers themselves,
Speaker 2: but certainly respectful of Baba and respectful of their son's
Speaker 2: beliefs and practices as may Her Baba taught him. And
Speaker 2: so when my friend's parents died, and they died together
Speaker 2: in a terrible car accident. When they died and were
Speaker 2: buried in a cemetery, written on their headstones are the
Speaker 2: words love alone prevails. Love alone prevails. And that too
Speaker 2: is a quote from Mayer.
Speaker 1: Those are two very very famous quotes.
Speaker 2: Well Baba said them.
Speaker 1: Maybe all that.
Speaker 2: He didn't say them, you write them.
Speaker 1: Well, that's true.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I read this book years ago. It was written in
Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties, and it talks about the power of
Speaker 1: our mind. And one thing that author goes back to
Speaker 1: again and again and again is the energy we expel
Speaker 1: through talking. And I never really thought about it because
Speaker 1: everyone talks, but think about it. Like you're meeting people.
Speaker 1: You're thinking about what you should say, how you should respond,
Speaker 1: when you should pause eye contact. You're thinking about what
Speaker 1: would be helpful in this situation. Do they want help?
Speaker 1: Do they just want to talk? Do I do small
Speaker 1: talk here? Talk about the weather there? And so he said,
Speaker 1: you need to give yourself long stretches of silence in
Speaker 1: your day to reclaim your energy.
Speaker 2: Which is why I'm not always cheerful when the text.
Speaker 2: Oh golly, Samantha, I.
Speaker 1: D has been very, very fascinating.
Speaker 2: I don't know why I'm talked about Baba before, because
Speaker 2: I have so much respect for him.
Speaker 1: What's your favorite thing about him?
Speaker 2: Did he walked that talk? He was a happy man.
Speaker 2: He really every picture you ever see of Mayha Baba,
Speaker 2: he is laughing and smiling and jovial, and he saw
Speaker 2: the world as a kind and wonderful place, and his
Speaker 2: followers do too. I've been blessed to have spent some
Speaker 2: time with folks who are devout Baba followers, and they
Speaker 2: saw the world that way. I think he was a
Speaker 2: great gift to us. I think he inside Baba and
Speaker 2: certainly many other avatars that we could go off on
Speaker 2: a whole month long tangent here, I'm sure, but I
Speaker 2: think that there's a lot for me that when and
Speaker 2: that's a part of what happened when I was doing
Speaker 2: the research for this episode. I dove back into concepts
Speaker 2: that I realized laid the groundwork for a lot of
Speaker 2: what I believe, not necessarily that I'm good at practicing,
Speaker 2: but that I certainly respect and am grateful for. And
Speaker 2: I don't know that we've ever had any conversation about
Speaker 2: Hindu or Muslim culture from India before, or avatars like
Speaker 2: Mader Baba.
Speaker 1: No, and it's high time. What are some things before
Speaker 1: we close out that you were reminded of?
Speaker 2: Well, it sent me right back down my Melanie rabbit
Speaker 2: hole in an interesting way. She also wrote a song
Speaker 2: called Baby Day, and the chorus is take you and apple,
Speaker 2: and take you a song and watch a baby day
Speaker 2: be born. And back in the days when I and
Speaker 2: Joel and some other friends used to do our own
Speaker 2: version of a sunrise service on Easter morning, we would
Speaker 2: take guitars and we would sing Baby Day as the
Speaker 2: sun came up. And Wow, there's just such a connection
Speaker 2: and so much of our respect and a curiosity for
Speaker 2: exploring and finding respect for belief systems that may not
Speaker 2: be one that we knew very well. I mean, folks
Speaker 2: have heard me say forever, I've told that story about
Speaker 2: coming home and telling my daddy I wanted to be
Speaker 2: a Buddhist and because of the Beatles, because that's all
Speaker 2: I knew about India was that there were Buddhist people
Speaker 2: in India and the Beatles were going over there, so
Speaker 2: the bounderies and Bodha people over there. I mean, really,
Speaker 2: that's what I thought, age and my sweet Daddy's saying,
Speaker 2: just be the best Buddhist you could be. And what
Speaker 2: a gift that sentence was because it opened the door
Speaker 2: for exploration of looking at the world through so many
Speaker 2: different lenses. And certainly part of that has spent my
Speaker 2: respect for mey and Baba all these years, and it
Speaker 2: took me back to wonderful places of my respect for Baba.
Speaker 2: And folks, I know, who are his followers.
Speaker 1: Well, it's a testimony to your father too, given that
Speaker 1: he was such a strong Christian man. Oh yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: and to say that to his child, it just says
Speaker 1: a lot about the kind of wise person he was.
Speaker 2: He was. My daddy was a pretty cool guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, we've went out of time for my research,
Speaker 1: and that's totally fine. We will revisit mine in February.
Speaker 1: And mine wouldn't really match with this lovely, beautiful show anyway,
Speaker 1: because I researched a twentieth century French alchemist who may
Speaker 1: or may not have achieved immortality, and then I researched
Speaker 1: a mystic teacher who may have been a manipulator or
Speaker 1: may have really been a profound teacher. The jury's still out.
Speaker 1: So some interesting people that will keep talking about and
Speaker 1: bring to you next month. But next week we have
Speaker 1: some fantastic guests we're going to introduce you to, so
Speaker 1: we have lots of exciting and fun stuff coming up.
Speaker 1: I really appreciated learning more about these people, and it
Speaker 1: really has made me think about often the futility of speaking.
Speaker 1: And I don't even know if I mean that when
Speaker 1: I say that, because I think a lot of speaking
Speaker 1: is so important. You know, we need to be heard,
Speaker 1: and we need to hear others, and we need to
Speaker 1: hold space for them, and we need to be really
Speaker 1: really good stewards of listening. But I think there's a
Speaker 1: lot of power in silence too, and all of these
Speaker 1: men you've talked about today definitely lived that and taught that.
Speaker 2: There's an episcopal retreat center not far from where you
Speaker 2: and I live. That host periodically throughout the year silence
Speaker 2: times in one of their houses on the property. And
Speaker 2: I have been twice and spent three or four days
Speaker 2: in silence at that retreat center, and it was just
Speaker 2: wonderful to be in a space with that was the expectation.
Speaker 2: And one time there was another woman in the house
Speaker 2: and I had been assigned a downstairs bedroom and she
Speaker 2: had been assigned an upstairs bedroom far down the hall
Speaker 2: from me. And I spent three or four days with
Speaker 2: this woman and we never spoke, We never ever ever talked,
Speaker 2: and we had meals together. We sat at a table
Speaker 2: in silence together. And my last morning there, as I
Speaker 2: had packed up and was going to have breakfast with
Speaker 2: her one more time, I wrote a note and just
Speaker 2: put it by her plate that just said, I hope
Speaker 2: you've gotten what you've come for in this weekend to
Speaker 2: this time together. And she looked up and smiled at me,
Speaker 2: and that was as close as we came to talk.
Speaker 1: Wow, you've done that a few times. I half, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's so commendable because I would have to
Speaker 1: write that note and then add PS, I love your shoes.
Speaker 1: Where'd you get them? Here's my email. Let's talk, of course,
Speaker 1: but I can be silent. I do enjoy silence, but
Speaker 1: I also love meeting people and hearing their stories.
Speaker 2: And I don't know, so I was curious, as I
Speaker 2: was very curious as to why she was saying, what
Speaker 2: she was doing, what she was up to. But I
Speaker 2: was saying to write and to meditate. Yeah, and that's
Speaker 2: what I did.
Speaker 1: When you were saying, why you love his work, mayor
Speaker 1: Boba's work because he walks his walk. That's how I
Speaker 1: always talk about you. I do when people say, like, oh,
Speaker 1: tell me about your friend, your co host, and I
Speaker 1: always say what I love about deb is she walks
Speaker 1: her walk.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah Yeahoi.
Speaker 1: No, you actually do what you say and what you teach.
Speaker 1: And like you said, there's very very few people you know,
Speaker 1: like I actually do play with crystals every day, and
Speaker 1: we do actually meditate every day. But I don't think
Speaker 1: everyone you know, so you do that in many, many,
Speaker 1: many ways. Okay, before we end, this show is airing
Speaker 1: in your ears on Sunday, but we're recording it on
Speaker 1: January sixth and today, deb Did you know this? In
Speaker 1: Ireland this is called Women's Christmas?
Speaker 2: Yes, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: Tell a traditional day for brothers and women to rest
Speaker 1: and celebrate after the busy holiday season, and they have
Speaker 1: the men take over holiday chores and the women will
Speaker 1: gather in pubs or homes for meals and socializing and
Speaker 1: just take the entire day to rest and relax. It
Speaker 1: falls on January sixth, twelfth Night, or the Feast of
Speaker 1: the Epiphany, officially marking the end of Christmas festivities. I
Speaker 1: love that idea.
Speaker 2: I do too. I think it ought to come more
Speaker 2: than once the year.
Speaker 1: I do too. I think we should give ourselves what
Speaker 1: is it called Women's Christmas or Little Christmas? We should
Speaker 1: give ourselves a little Christmas day off every quarter at.
Speaker 2: Least, right, I thanks so, absolutely so.
Speaker 1: If you guys are listening to this on Sunday and
Speaker 1: you missed January sixth to take a day off, take
Speaker 1: this as you're cue to plan a little day of
Speaker 1: rest after the busy bustliness of the holiday season we
Speaker 1: just had. I still need those reminders, don't we?
Speaker 2: Oooh? Do we not? You know I'm already ready for
Speaker 2: a silent retreat against I'm just thinking about it makes
Speaker 2: me want to go.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, let's go be silent for now, everybody. We
Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed this episode. We'll be back with you
Speaker 1: next week. In the meantime, be the light for yourself
Speaker 1: and others.
Speaker 2: Take care everyone.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Psychic Teachers, your podcast for seekers,
Speaker 1: light workers, mystics, and magical thinkers. If you like the show,
Speaker 1: please tell a friend or leave us a review wherever
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