Be the Cause

Category: Southern California

Day of Mindfulness with BTC

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It was a half day of mindfulness for me on July 26th, but beautiful and inspiring nonetheless…

In the morning, I meditated outside before heading out to Garden Grove for this special event. The meditation was powerful, but I don’t know if it grounded me fully. I still had trouble leaving my place in time and even got lost on way to event. I reminded myself that this was just the journey that we go through at times…to finally settle and calm the mind down. The phrase comes to me: “mind over matter.” Even though meditation is really a practice to release yourself from the ego mind…it also helps one focus his or her mind…so all the extra junk that’s in our mind…kinda flushes out…and we work from a more simplistic state instead of acting from the chaos that our mind usually creates…all the opinions, worries, fears that the ego mind creates…can go out the window. When I meditate, I’m so surprised by the peaceful state that my mind falls into…

When I got to the event, people were sitting very quietly and watching this movie called Baraka. I only saw a smidgen (small portion) of the movie, but the cinematography was gorgeous! I have to get the movie now via netflix..I just gotta!

The movie brought me into a peaceful state because there was a lot of nature imagery and the narrator’s voice of film was soothing and it was calming. I was happy I saw the film…even though when I sat myself down to view film, it was almost toward the ending credits.

I missed lunch but I heard it was wonderful and I got a taste of the food later in the day…yummy vegetarian food. During lunch, participants ate in silence and there was some discussion after two 15 minute meditation sessions (that I was honored to be a part of) about how when the group ate in silence…there was a savoring and appreciation of the food and the present moment!

At the end of the day, there was going to be a beach walk as one of the activities. The day went really fast! There wasn’t enough time to schedule in the walk…or so we thought!

A few of us stuck around…and lo and behold: Melisa, Christine, Sonali, Sukh and I got to run, skip, laugh on Main Beach in Laguna Beach. There was something very magical that night about us all enjoying the waves and sand that eve. I think mostly because we meditated pre-walk and partook in a wondrous day of mindfulness!

Thank you to the universe and my pals for this awesome day and eve! Namaste! :)

The Journey Is The Destination

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What is the difference between exploring and being lost? The journey IS the destination. -Dan Eldon

DNBike

When I had graduated college, I sat front row at a press conference that
announced the official retirement of John Stockton…one of my two favorite
basketball players as a child. In that press conference
he said, “This has been a ride–the journey was the destination.”
Those words spoke loud and clear to me last night as I made my way
down to the Sikh Center in Santa Ana for the Evening of Awareness.

I am recently unemployed and I’m looking for ways to save money. Also,
in an ongoing effort to make myself more environmentally conscious and
physically fit, I thought that riding a bike might be a great idea.
And since I had an upcoming trip to Santa Ana from my home in North
Hollywood, what better way to kick off my newfound freedom with a
killer bike/train combo.

Early afternoon, I rode my bike to the North Hollywood Metro Station
(about 1.5 miles) and took the Red Line to Downtown LA’s Union
Station. I rode by bike around downtown and met up with a couple of
people. Afterwards, I rode back to the station and waited for the next
Metrolink train to take me to Santa Ana. I sat at Union Station and
people-watched…always a fun pastime. Then came time to board the
double-decker train…and in about 45 minutes, I made it down to Santa
Ana. As I departed the Santa Ana station, I headed off–and in about
1.5 miles, I realized I was going completely in the wrong
direction…so I mapped out the directions on my phone and got back on
track. 6.1 miles later, and only five minutes late, I made it to the
Sikh Center for the Evening of Awareness. What an AMAZING workout–and
more importantly, what a great feeling to know that I worked out my
muscles, traveled almost 50 miles, and got rid of excess sweat–all
for the mere cost of $6.50. I saved nearly 50 dollars in gas and I
feel great about it.

As soon as I pulled up, the first people I saw were Raj and
Christine–and Raj’s first question brought me back to
reality–“What’s your back home plan?”–Luckily I knew I was amongst
friends who show unconditional love. One of the volunteers, Mark from
Peace 4 Kids, gave me a ride home since he lived just one block away
from me–what a small world.

The Evening of Awareness was fantastic, filled with good friends, good
food and most importantly awareness and compassion shared by warm
people all around. My destination was not just the Sikh Center or the
activities of the day–it was a part of the journey. The bike, the
train, the night, the ride–they are the journey and that is the most
important thing that I took away from the night.

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