Learning to “see no stranger”
Dear Ones,
Throughout our current 40 days of Summer 1 online practice together we have been refining vishuddha - the energy at the throat. In the Kundalini Upanishads it is written that vishuddha (vi-very, shuddha-purificaiton / clarity) is the place of harmonization. As we activate and organize this energy it affects how and what we say and hear, internally and externally.
Adam and I were out picking blackberries to store for the winter recently and I greeted everyone in line as we stood to buy our boxes. I smiled at the families, the fidgety kids, the foreign grandparents. It felt like sharing sunshine to look at them and say good morning, and they returned my smile - not just a cursory, polite “hello” but a real connection, their eyes bright and a smile with teeth and even some dimples.
Most of you know me as a teacher and as a teacher it is my role to be welcoming and to be inclusive. But outside of my work I can be a downright hermit. I can wait along the edge of the aisle at the grocery so the coast is clear and no greeting is needed. Ever since I was little I would cringe at the enormity of interest my mom would take in the grocery cashier or the usher at church or the bus driver or my 3rd grade teacher. Interest in their studies or their family or their recent move. Oh, mama, come oooooonnnnn, leave them be, I would grown internally. I wondered if that would be how I greeted when I grew up.
Nope. I have not greeted in this way much in my adult life. I think I have been afraid of how I would be perceived. I would fall short if I was noticed, I was sure of it. Or something more would be asked of me and what if I did a poor job of it? Either way, just be invisible by way of not really initiating contact. These are rusty, ancient stories in my system.
But here, in the blackberries, I couldn’t help myself. It felt so good.
“I see no stranger, said Guru Nanak, “I see no enemy.” Guru Nanak taught that all of us could see the world in this way. There is a voice inside each of us called haumai, the I that names itself as separate from You. It resides in the bowl that holds our individual consciousness. But separateness is an illusion. When we quiet the chatter in our heads through music or mediation or citation or song, the boundaries begin to disappear. The bowl breaks. for a moment, we taste the truth, sweet as nectar - we are part of one another. Joy rushes in. Long after the moment passes we can choose to remember the truth of our interconnectedness, that we belong to one another. We can choose to “see no stranger.”
- from See No Stranger by Valerie Kaur
The Kundalini Upanishads go on to say that this space of vishuddha, the space of the throat between the heart and the head, this is the place that “transmutes poisons into nectar.”
Old stories of fear, shortage, insufficiency create discouragement / dis-couragement / separation from our hearts (French cœurs = heart). Old stories are known in the mind, but told in our words. And in my words I describe my circumstances, I reinforce my reality. Old stories are also stored in the body. To transmute them we can move the body, move the patterns of energy we hold there, elevate our energies to new frequencies so that the water in the cells is shifted and re-known / re-expressed. This is the energy of this sequence.
The result of days and days of practice is that the poison of separation held in my cells can be transformed into a nectar of bliss, the pleasure of reaching out, wholeheartedly saying hello when otherwise I might look away. I didn't decide this change. It just feels better to greet and acknowledge and connect than not to. Magic.
“Hello,” I say to you right now. Hello. I offer a smile, an embrace, an honest inquiry of “How are you?” I am so very glad for your eyes upon these words, may they be the bridge between us. Hello. Hello. Hello.
This energy of engagement has also reached through the ether to result in invitations from colleagues, other studios, other organizations - come work with us, they say, we would appreciate your time. We choose you. We are not strangers.
This deep connection is the opportunity of every moment, the purpose of each practice. The deep summer is a time for fire, a time for transformation.
Shift your frequency in whatever way you will: walk, sing, pet your cat, make quiche with the girt of the neighbors’ eggs, stand in the rain, pedal your bike. Move. And then roll your head forward and back, side to side, flush out what you find and let your smile grow.
Now is the time. Shift poisons to nectar.
See no stranger.
…
If you like, you are invited to join in for the final week of this vishuddha sequence:
LIVE I will be teaching it live at Tribe (107 E. Preston St) Monday and Wednesday noon, Tuesday and Thursday at 6:15pm.
ONLINE Or reach out to me and join live on zoom 8-9am Monday, Wednesday or Friday or ask for a link to the replay.
ALWAYS The door stands open. You are no stranger to me.
FREE ON YOUTUBE I will be teaching vinyasa + a quick kriya live on YouTube next Wednesday July 31, Thursday August 1, and Friday August 2. Join in free. Links will be posted on my homepage. Bring a friend. Share it with a friend who would be interested in a 40 day practice.
Summer 2 sequence starts Monday August 5, 8-9am on zoom. Register on my website. The first 20 days we will be doing Surya Kriya - the kriya for the sun, we are solar bodies, made of light - and Kriya for the 10 Bodies for the second 20. Align with the season. Get organized from inside out. Portable as you travel through the summer. Indispensable as you navigate the months ahead.