From Yoga to Love
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S: So what do you do? You have some disciples, right, or something like that?
David: No, no, no, please, don't put me in that.
S: Some students, or some people that you help? Friends?
David: Yeah, I'll say friends. Sure. I'm a little bit of a teacher, but not... I wouldn't certainly classify myself as a guru. To me that signals "should." And I don't know if it always does, but a guru should be a pretty profound type of person. I don't consider myself to be that.
But I'm a committed person. That's my only claim to fame -- is that I'm into it. I was a spiritual seeker for a whole lot of years. And it got to a point, after fifteen years or so, of spiritual seeking, that I realized that I was avoiding life. The way I was doing it. It was a "beam me up Scottie" approach.
S: Yeah.
David: The ascending yogic tradition. "Get me out of here. Get me there." You know? And I saw in that, there was quite a strong component of running away, for me. So, I decided to change that. And instead of all that, I said, "Well, what I'll do is, whatever happens, I'll be here. And with people, I'll be there. And that'll be the path."
S: Uh huh.
David: So that took the form of me giving up on all these disciplines that I'd done for a long time -- the yogic sort of disciplines, of meditation, and this and that -- and taking on this other, you could call it discipline, of just simply being there for whatever was going to happen on the earth plane. You know, like, "So and so wants to talk to you." "Alright, well, I'll talk to them." And so forth.
And that sounds simple, but it evolved into pretty what much you see. It became spiritual, because you can't really do that without transcending a lot of stuff. I didn't really know that would happen, that I would find myself back in that dimension that I had left behind, or thought I had left behind. But it all came back around, and everything that I had learned in yoga and spirituality became a sort of constant process of attention in my relationships, and in my life.
And so it was like a circle. But here I can be responsible for it, in the sense that it's not over my head. I am this. You know what I mean? Whereas there, I had gotten so precocious in my spiritual attainment and stuff, that there was no foundation. I had gotten... I don't know. It's hard to describe what that was.
S: Just projecting it.
David: Yeah. Spacey really. It wasn't grounded. My spirituality wasn't grounded. So, I said, "Okay, well, whatever it is, right now, right now, right now, right now. And that's it." And that's what I'm doing, is I've sort of carried relating to the point of being a spiritual thing, to me. And what people see in me, or the reason they listen to me, has something to do with the fact that I'm here, and I'm willing to talk. You know? And I've seen a lot, because I've been willing to go through it. So it's like: every piece, pick it up. Everything that happens, deal with it. Don't avoid it. Feel your way through it, and love your way through it, ultimately.
S: Mm hmm.
David: But don't betray people, in the sense of the ordinary hodgepodge world where it's, "Oh, hi," and "Bye." You know? I have it more like, "If anybody's into it, I'm into it." And that sounds completely impossible, if it were not for the fact that it turned out that that itself screens most people out pretty well.
S: Yeah.
David: Works fine. You know, you don't have to create any artificial this-es (puts up a cross with his fingers). It's just enough to say I'm into it, for most people.
S: Uh huh.
David: So, it works out perfect. And I don't have to protect myself really. So that's what I've been doing. That sort of brings you up to date.