A relationship with Io

Professor bell hooks & Professor Cornel West, from ‘Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life ‘

I have been doing Vibrant Celestial Meditation (VCM) since August 1998. Every week, we have 3 group meditations, Mon, Wed, Thur, that last between 30-40mins. I will get to at least 1 or 2 and sometimes 3. We aim to each day, have our own dedicated time, to read a scripture of choice & do meditation, even if it is for 5 minutes. Whilst I don’t go to 1 specific church, temple or mosque, I have been on many occasions. I have also attended the Bahai Centre in Aotearoa and Rarotonga and the Inter-Faith Council community events, & conferences. In Rarotonga, I lived next door, one section away from Vaerota Marae in Avana, for 3 years and visited marae in the islands and in Aotearoa. Kanwal (may he rest in peace) said he visited a marae in Aotearoa and could feel the mauri. I have attended many vānanga and have written about this meditation, many of these experiences and other insights on my other website, that has been in existence since 2020.

I write this particular piece because, there is some strange perception, that people who have a happy disposition, have never experienced trials or tribulations before and qualities like patience, fortitude, courage and an innate ability to love deeply, fall from the sky. I suspect new age spirituality, religion and indigenous practice that have been co-opted, marketed and are often shared as memes, has a lot to do with this. A detached superficial presentation to the world, with no reality of what the path and journey is all about. There is a quote in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib that says, “Suffering is the medicine, and pleasure the disease, because where there is pleasure, there is no desire for God” - page 469. This is not a line to be taken out of context or misread and misused. It is simply saying, from our trials and tribulations, we crave him/her and find Io.

The friends I met from day one, are still my friends today. We don’t have large groups, but we have committed and devoted members. After each meditation, we spend 20 -30minutes, discussing matters of the world, life and spirituality. This is my Sadh Sangat, fellowship, congregation, whatever word people are using these days, where we learn off each other, support one another, be there for one another, guide one another, teach each other, discuss anything that needs discussing. Bit like men’s groups, women’s groups, vānanga people attend, bible class.

With each meditation, we dedicate at the end prayers for whatever part of the world requires the presence of God’s love and to family. Once a month we have an Akhand Jaap, which is like a prayer group. Ours is for 3 hours, each person taking alternate 20 mins, behind scriptures, to sing hymns, prayers or chant the name of the Creator. These Jaaps are dedicated to whatever is needed at the time for the group or someone we may know that has requested help. In the islands someone asked for a land cleansing and I organised a sitting for this.

I was living on Gertude Street in Fitzroy, Melbourne when I discovered this meditation and went for a walk down Smith St to get some bread from the bakery, the small centre was located on Webb St. I still remember the day like yesterday. And I remember prior to starting, I used to have this recuring dream, of being in an airplane and this large fireball was coming down the aisle towards me and before it hit, I would wake up, scared, shaking and sweating. When I started meditation it stopped and I no longer have it. I have different dreams now.

I was fortunate to meet Bhai Sahib, the founder of VCM a number of times. and one of the last things he said to me in person was, “Don’t conform to what the world tells you to do. If people tell you to jump off a cliff, do you do it? Have your own mind, think for yourself, be free.”

Although he was Sikh, he would say to all of us, “ if you are Buddhist, be a good Buddhist, if you are Christian be a good Christian and so forth. I have watched him be challenged in regard to being Sikh yet supporting other faiths and religions. Never phased him at all. One does not need to have a specific religion, faith to do this meditation, but if one does, all are welcome.

The page from Professor bell hooks and Professor Cornel West, highlights, in order to move through life, through trial and tribulation, a disciplined spiritual life, helps. It has helped me on more than one occasion in 28 years. And on some occasions, life threatening situations. This meditation has been the one constant in my life. Weekly gatherings and korero. There has only been one occasion in Melbourne where I missed weekly meditation for 1 month due to a conflict with another member, which was resolved and I returned. Spiritual discipline and community is important. These are the people who are going to mentor, guide and support you, and vice versa, whom have had experience with how to deal with life’s trials and tribulations, without intentionally harming others.

One of the interesting aspects of these years, is many of the people I have introduced to meditation or have been around in different aspects of my life, friendships, work, sporting ventures, and the like, of whom I had done all that was asked of the Creator, offered support, be present, this that and the other - all had the chance, for us to walk alongside each other, together. Yet opted with their free will at some point - a different path.

Omar Suleiman describes free will well. It is about the ability to make choices at any moment any given time, that shall take us down one of many different roads. This obviously is not to be taken out of context and placed within the various systems of oppression that influence decision making processes. However, it is clear about a this:

1) There is nothing ambiguous about the Creator.

2) We are rewarded for virtue and held accountable for vice.

No matter how many lies are said, how much information is left out, I am not responsible for the decisions people make with their free will. Decisions that vary with purpose. Whether or not we support a friend, attend an event, how we treat each other or stopping by to read this blog. Does one do so with good intent? Does one want to learn?

We all have free will.

As Bhai Sahib would say, “So be it and so it is. “

The un-poisonable ones