Hope everyone is having a lovely week. It's National Sleep Week, if you didn't know. I've been particularly well rested, but I'm not sure if it's because it's Sleep Week or if it's some sort of quirky self fulfilling prophecy.
There was an independent learning unit in my Humanities class, and if we dove into the world of culture and personal enrichment (and wrote a well worded 4 page paper about the experience), we would be rewarded with monetary compensation.
Well, I'm all about the $$$ and being exposed to new perspectives (not in that order), so I signed on.
One of the options was to go to a service at the Temple of the Universe, a sort of new world church ran by Michael Singer. He's kind of the Albert Einstein of spiritual enlightenment, and he's written several books and CDs.
This guy has even met with Oprah. THE Oprah. So he must know his stuff, right?
Anyways, below is my report on the session, and I earned a cool $50 for doing something that I love. How often can the average American seriously say that?
Hope you enjoy and sweet dreams.
Love,
KL
Temple of the Universe
Early Sunday morning is the day we decided to do it. It wasn’t going to happen any other time, and if we waited any longer we would lose our courage. My mom and I drive up this dirt path twenty minutes out in rural Alachua, unsure of our destination but foraging ahead anyways.
There are tall, branchy trees no matter where you look, and not another soul can be seen on the road in any direction. Then, sitting in the green foliage, we see a wooden sign, Temple of the Universe, and know we have arrived.
The two of us creep up a path to the strange, dark building and see piles of shoes, from sandals to Converse to flipflops, on the steps. We quickly shed our tennis shoes as well and quietly enter the temple, seeing at least twenty people with their backs ramrod straight, legs crossed, eyes closed, faces blank in deep meditation.
We try our best not to make any noise as we take our seats on the floor, fish out of water in the silent, spiritually decorated worship room. There are tall candles lit at the front, with pictures of Jesus, Vishnu, and other religious figures strewn around the walls. The windows let in a steady amount of natural light, but its still dim enough to be oddly intimate.
Then in comes Michael Singer, an elder, bespectacled man with a white ponytail and an extremely emotive face. He bows, forehead touching the thick indigo carpet, and welcomes us. Then he starts playing on the keyboard in front of him and begins to sing. And they sing and sing and sing for almost fifteen minutes, the drums laying out a driving beat, the voices inside lifting up to the ceiling and the birds outside tweeting as if nature wanted to add in her own accompaniment.
Once the songs are finished, Mr. Singer pushes his keyboard forward and begins his lesson. He says that nothing in the outside world has anything to do with us. The universe has been around for 13.8 billion years, leading up to this very moment in our lives, and that we compose such a tiny fraction of life on Earth that our assumption that we matter is laughable. In fact, the amount of time we’ve spent in the universe can easily round to zero. As in, nothing.
The universe will continue to function with or without us, and to act as if we have control on outside forces like gravity or the weather is not only a testament to the largeness of our egos, but an exercise in futility. We spend our lives trying to change things that we have no control over, and we write off aspects of life that have been brewing for literally 13.8 billion years in a span of two seconds. How easy is it for us to pass judgement on people or facts of life that don’t align with our personal doctrine? Extremely easy, since we do it all the time.
But this mentality isn’t spiritually correct, nor is it conducive to healthy living. Mr. Singer makes the point that we often try to argue with the truth which is, essentially, universally unarguable. One of the questions that Singer posed to the congregation was: Are Saturn’s Rings Good or Bad? There isn’t a valid answer to this question and whether we like it or not Saturn’s Rings will continue to exist no matter how strongly we feel about the issue either way. The same goes with the rotation of the moon, the tide, rush-hour traffic, and other people. We are often so caught up in our own perspectives that we forget to respect the lives and troubles of others.
Not only does the outside world exist and function without our personal control, the forces within us carry on in the same manner. We physically cannot will our hearts to continue pumping, or our lungs to keep inhaling or exhaling, or our pancreas to keep secreting hormones. Mr. Singer told us all human beings are beings of great faith, whether devout spiritualist or practicing atheists. We have constant, undying faith in the consistency of our essential bodily functions, almost without even realizing it. None of us have to pump our hearts ourselves because we are the products of 13.8 billion years of self sufficiency and meticulous formation.
To add, Singer makes the claim that we are all connected. One event in the universe tips off another, which tips off another and another. When we move from metaphorical point A to point B, we must understand that all of our actions have an effect, even if it seems minor or not readily apparent.
All in all, Singer’s main points were to always be aware of the outer environment as well as the inner, to have a strong appreciation for how beautifully made everything in the universe is, and to understand that our egos often destroy any chance that we have for enlightenment.
Thus, he concludes his lesson, and he wishes us all a good day. Then mom and I quietly exit the temple and slip our shoes on in silence as the congregation sings yet another song on the inside.
And as we drive away from the Temple of the Universe, escaping through the cluster of trees and forest, I can’t help but remember how the two candles at the front of the room, centered in front of a romanticized portrait of Jesus, would flicker, one at a time, slowly alternating, back and forth, during the entirety of Singer’s talk.
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