GRATITUDE FOR THE TEACHERS
I want to express gratitude and thanks to all the teachers who have helped shape me into a functional human being. Especially Doug Duncan and Catherine Pawasarat. They have always been consistently honest, accurate and candid with me. Sometimes it's taken me years to admit my self-sabotaging blind spots. Clear radical self-honesty liberates my sticky parts. I listen to the words of wise teachers (but sometimes I resist because of my Greek stubbornness), I meditate, I dance. That is how this world-class fool releases personal blockages. I've followed this magic formula for over twenty years. If I cannot feel it, it's hard to heal it! So thanks to my Master teachers for freeing up all the energy knots. Especially the knots created from unconscious patterning around money, sex and power.
Over the years I’ve had a swinging pendulum of madness: a repulsion to money or greedily chasing it. I have swung between being obsessed with sex or just downright denying myself the pleasure of it and living like an ascetic monk. There has been a see saw in my life of trying to control everything or sloppily giving up my power and saying fuck it and being reckless about who and what I give power to.
Life would be so different now if I had not taken the chance to learn from others and admit that they might know better than me. If people have travelled down a hard road many times before and figured out a faster way out of the dead end streets, why not try on their counsel?
I have done countless retreats with my Dharma Teachers. They elevate and transform beyond measure.
There are people who die without conquering themselves and never transcend the limiting EGO. Do you want to be one of them? Life is not easier now. In fact life is crazier but what has changed is my attitude. My addiction to “I am right!” has diminished. I have also learned to slow down life, Matrix style, so there is much less reactivity. An attitude shift speaks volumes. Look how crazy and full of fear everyone is about the Coronavirus? You are going to need a good attitude to handle an increasingly unstable world. What to do? Be stable, grounded, clear and loving in a world full of fear. Get curious, keep questioning, stay present and fall in love with the unknowable. Everything you desire is on the other side of fear. And the freedom you seek is beyond the desire mind.
I will never give up on learning and studying and letting go of “my” truth in favour of a deeper more penetrating truth. It does not matter if it is someone else’s. I believe this is called wisdom. Keep fucken going! There is always more to learn. Don’t get fooled by all the Charlatans out there. How do you know if a teacher is worth their salt? Pay attention to how generous and kind they are, pay attention to how honest they are, pay attention to how much they laugh at themselves and make sure they are continuously studying. Oh! and make sure they are ferocious once and while so they don’t put you to sleep with their new age, I just want your money so I won’t take risks and never offend you with my bullshit fake teacher ways. Real teachers are Real people! You will feel resistance and doubt with any good teacher.
To my teachers I say thanks for your patience and for doing your own work. Your reach is vast! I bow down!
Increasingly in my workshops and public talks there are people who will say something like "You don't need a coach or Guru, the answers are inside of you.”
To you I say Good Luck!
I am going to keep choosing a shorter path to freedom!
Evangelos D.