Monday, October 01, 2007
Into the Wild
Happy October! I always love this time of year, perhaps, because I associate a positive feeling with it since my birthday is on the 9th of October. The Fall is my favorite season. There is nothing like the beautiful changing of the leaves during this time of year as the cooler air begins to flow through. Of course in some places it is more spectacular than others. One of the things I loved about growing up in Ohio is the very distinct changing of the Seasons, especially the changing of Summer into Fall. As the climate changed, everything seemed to become more vibrant...the lush and rolling green hills, the incredible explosions of colorful leaves in red, orange, and yellow and the crisp, cool, Fall air which creates the most beautiful and clear blue skies you could ever imagine. It is the kind of beauty which makes your heart sing and feel alive with the magnificent energy of Life...It's been a while and it feels good to sit down and write. The past two months, since returning from my training with Shiva Rea, have been effulgent. (This is the word she uses instead of 'busy'. She says when we say we are 'busy', it implies we do not have enough time.) The Global Mala last weekend was amazing. The class at exhale spa on Saturday created a sense of connection and community unlike anything I had ever experienced in the Dallas Yoga community before. And, the special class on Sunday at the Texas Rangers Stadium in Arlington was beautiful, as well. Almost all of the people who participated in the community Yoga class following the game had never experienced a Yoga class before. I was amazed at how open and receptive they were and their intrigue into the sacred practice of Yoga. I suppose I anticipated I would feel a sense of resistance from someone, given the diversity of the people who attended the class. It was actually one of the most open and connected experiences I've ever had with a class and, as a teacher, I truly felt their sincere eagerness and willingness to learn and receive what I had to share.
As I look ahead, I'm hoping to return to writing more regularly, now that I'm settling back into the post Global-Mala-flow. I'm inspired to share an awesome movie I saw this weekend with you called Into the Wild. You may have heard of it...it is a book that was inspired by a true story and now Sean Penn has done an amazing job of making this incredible story into a movie. I highly recommend seeing it. I knew as soon as I saw it previewed on Sunday Morning and Oprah it was a movie I needed to see. You can read more about it on Oprah.com from when she had Sean Penn on her show.
"Into the Wild tells the tragic real-life story of Chris McCandless, a college grad from a wealthy family who set out to experience true adventure. In 1990, Chris donated his life savings to charity, abandoned his belongings and dropped out of sight. He changed his name to Alexander Supertramp, and for the next two years he backpacked through the United States, Mexico and Canada.Along the way, he encountered people who were moved by his idealism…but Chris took his final journey alone. He ventured into the Alaskan wilderness, carrying very few supplies. For nearly four months, Chris called an abandoned bus his home and lived off of the land. Sadly, a series of catastrophic mistakes altered the course of his life-113 days after his Alaskan adventure began, Chris starved to death."
Here is an excerpt from the Oprah show which spoke to me and inspired me to see the film:
Jon says the most inspiring element of Chris's personality was the "impossibly high standards" he set for himself."It was this wonderful thing about him and his downfall because he believed that it's wrong to get too comfortable in life. It's wrong to take the easy path. You're here to live, not to sit on the couch," he says. "Everyone can take something from that, and it's just, get outside your comfort zone. I mean, all of us want to stay with what we know and what's comfortable. And he believed you grow and have the best adventures and learn the most if you just step outside that comfort zone."
Even though he died when he was just 24 years old, Jon says Chris's story should still inspire people to reevaluate their lives. "He almost pulled it off. I mean, he came so close to surviving this, and we'd never know about him. He'd have had a great adventure and gone about his life."
Jon doesn't mean that everyone should go off and live in the wilderness. "We can't live like him," he says. "But this message [is] about just doing something different. Get outside that comfort zone. Test yourself. Just don't be tempted to take the easiest path. Life is better when you step off that path, however far you step. Happiness is only real when shared."
Sean says he wanted to make this movie because of the things Chris believed. "I wouldn't have made this movie, I wouldn't have felt what I felt about this story if I didn't feel that we had become increasingly comfort addicted," he says. "[Chris] created an entire life in that short time, and I think the big challenge is to feel our lives while we have them." - oprah.comRead more
posted by Leanne @ 12:28 PM 
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This guy was a great example of someone who challenged himself to go beyond the comfort zone of habititual unconscious behavior to call forth something greater within.
"Happiness is only real when shared."
Complete nonsense. As Sam Harris points out, there are forms of happiness beyond relationships that most people can't even dream about:
"What words should we use to acknowledge the fact that the happiest person on this earth at this moment might have spent the last twenty years living alone in a cave? Any experienced meditator knows that this is a serious possibility. (Indeed, I consider it not only possible, but likely.) What can we say about the fact that the conventional sources of human happiness—association with family and friends, positive engagement with society, diverse experiences of physical pleasure, etc.—might be neither necessary nor sufficient to produce happiness in its most profound forms? This is not New Age mumbo jumbo. What secularists like Flynn tend not to realize is that there are genuine, introspective insights that can be terribly difficult to acquire. The lack of general accessibility does not render such insights at all suspect."
http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=harris_25_6
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Complete nonsense. As Sam Harris points out, there are forms of happiness beyond relationships that most people can't even dream about:
"What words should we use to acknowledge the fact that the happiest person on this earth at this moment might have spent the last twenty years living alone in a cave? Any experienced meditator knows that this is a serious possibility. (Indeed, I consider it not only possible, but likely.) What can we say about the fact that the conventional sources of human happiness—association with family and friends, positive engagement with society, diverse experiences of physical pleasure, etc.—might be neither necessary nor sufficient to produce happiness in its most profound forms? This is not New Age mumbo jumbo. What secularists like Flynn tend not to realize is that there are genuine, introspective insights that can be terribly difficult to acquire. The lack of general accessibility does not render such insights at all suspect."
http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=harris_25_6
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