Namaste to You, and the guru in Tennessee

Dear Friends -

I hope this blog finds you happy, healthy and surrounded by love.

I'm still in Chattanooga. I hear the call of the highway again. Reading Steinbeck's Travels with Charlie doesn't support my wishy-washy sedentary thoughts. I imagine once I'm back touring I'll blog more - with pictures and stories of new adventures on the road. I'm taking these months to polish my 540 page novel Shambala. It's a wonderful story - and I hope millions of readers will agree. I just need to be a bit fussy right now, and make it worthy of being a best seller. An Inspirational best seller!

I'm not sure how I will go about marketing Shambala. The new direction for unknown novelists is an online ebook for your Kindle or iPad, followed by Print on Demand - directing the buyer to go to Amazon. The old way is printing books to sell out of the trunk of my car. One way or the other I know this to be true: I just want to have fun, and I'm too old to get lost in the struggle. I've written a book about journeying to paradise and finding love along the way. That's what I want - and why not?

My good friend Karen came down from Detroit and we spent the last few days at a spiritual center called Isha, located on 11,000 forest acres some miles outside of McMinnville, Tennessee. Last night we were honored to sit close to and enjoy two hours of wisdom pouring effortlessly from Sadhguru, the enlightened master looking at you. What a beautiful being! I'm not a seeker or guru chaser; I have no desire to be anyone's devotee - and it was a joy to be in this man's presence. He flew to the center earlier that afternoon in a helicopter, which he is learning to fly. He fully engages in life.

Sadhguru wove funny stories into his wise discourse - and laughed at his many jokes. I think his overall message can be summed up in these two lines - which he repeated over and over about 200 times in a row - literally: He asked us to inhale saying, "I am not this body," and then exhale, "I am not even this mind." Later when he took questions most everyone's had to do with their "I." This (their) body problem or this (their) mind problem. He was very patient and kind with the answers - all variations of the theme that you are not your body or your mind - which came in the form of stories (parables) and jokes. When someone would go on about a problem, he would say "Great! It is only change and that is much better than being stagnant. Enjoy the change." He talked about the insanity of the world and encouraged us to live our lives in grace. It reminded me of the saying, "A Master is never perturbed." I couldn't image Sadhguru ever being perturbed. He says there is only One. "One is not a problem. All the problems start when there's two." (when we see or we believe there is more than ONE)

In Shambala I quote from another (my fiction) book titled Many Gods, One Heart. "Many Gods" refers to all humans - re. the idea (or fact) that each and every one of us is innately and uniquely a god or goddess. "One Heart" means that our hearts are all connected. I've always liked the saying "there is only one of us." If there is only one of us - one heart - then there is no separation. There is no "me," no "I (or you), so then it follows: "I am not this body," and "I am not even this mind." Each god - with a name (your name) - is here on earth to love and serve the oneness of all thing . . . to love the earth, love the animals, love the beauty of all creation - and of course, love all the people. We've made separation and surviving on earth into a struggle - when oneness and living a good life is really quite simple. We just need to be the gift, and give the gift of our godliness, our talent, our unique holiness, to everyone we meet - What the heck - be the love that you are. The guru said that when you're not giving and loving you are - insane. Maybe its time to stop being insane.

Talking about insanity. I know that not everyone embraced my last blog regarding weather

control. This is still a love and oneness thing. You may not notice the rats living under your house, but when they come up and feast out of your kitchen fruit bowl every night and poop on the counter, you will notice them. And if you don't like it - then it's a problem. You didn't notice something until you noticed it. It's called awareness. And if you're aware of a bigger than house rats problem - like lots of people dying tragic deaths - it's hard not to say "Look." (this here may be what's causing it) There wasn't a cloud in the sky Thursday morning. Then the sky was filled with jets checkering long white trails in the sky. (Karen was my witness, as is my photograph) By late afternoon this is how the sky looked. The next day was totally overcast. Tennessee tornados and floods. What do you think? Am I making shit up?

Karen and I met some new friends, devotees of the guru, in Nashville. We had lunch at a great vegetarian restaurant and listened to the founder of Farm Sanctuary speak. If you're interested in knowing more about the ethical treatment of farm animals, go to their web site: www.farmsanctuary.org. That evening we went downtown to The Stage, and listened to some live country music. Yahoo! It was fun. Life is good.

I always love hearing from you, so drop me a note . . .

Much love and blessings, David Dakan Allison