A catalyst
Teal Swan also known as the spiritual catalyst visited Prague recently (April, 10-11-12 2014)Teal had 2 conferences, and one workshop (in Slovanský dům)
The 10th Teal Swan was in a conference with Silvano Paoluci (Italy), Pascal Greub (Mexico), Jitka Třešňáková ( host), Anatolij Někrasov (Russia).
This is what Teal wrote in her blog about that event :
When I first arrived to Prague, I participated in a ‘spiritual panel’ of sorts at a building that was once a slaughterhouse. I was on stage with other spiritual teachers. During the event, I walked off stage. It is the first time I have ever walked off stage in my life. I did not resonate with many of the views that were shared by the other spiritual teachers, but beyond that, one of the teachers had a very unconventional approach to jarring people out of their realities. The unconventional approach was to yell at people. For many in the audience, this approach seemed to work. Others, it made cry. It just so happens that his approach ended up triggering my PTSD. The force and rage behind his voice made me feel like I was 6 years old again, in the war path of a monster in the shape of a man. I tried to hold myself on stage for as long as I could, until I decided that it was self-abusive to do so. During his second intentional outburst, I ducked behind the curtain and nearly fell over my own shoes down the stairs in back of the stage crying. I resigned from doing the rest of the seminar. I did not make any friends doing that. Many people were angry with me because of that decision. The next day two people confronted me. One who called me a coward directly to my face, the other who told me they decided based on my withdrawal, to attend the other man’s workshop instead of mine. And when I showed up at the auditorium to speak at the Festival Evolution, I discovered that my withdrawal the previous night had earned me a reputation as ‘a difficult, self centered, American princess with an unnecessarily large entourage’.
Workshop
For participants of the workshop (and they were around 400) nothing transpired of this "incident" - the main excitement was to see Teal in real life - to finally meet the teacher they discovered and loved on youtube. To see Teal with her team (Graciela, Blake and Sarbdeep) and to be part of what is now known as the "Teal Tribe".During the 5 hours workshop there was a lot of questions related to "How do I figure what to do with my life?" and "suffering" in general - is it because in Czech Republic we have the habits of waiting for permission to be able to do something ? or to have the affirmation by an authority figure that what we want is actually possible ? and a need to "conform"?
Or is it just because we expect a definitive black and white answer like : "being a successful writer" or "being a musician" ... What Teal Swan said and demonstrated with her assistant Blake (during the Festival Evolution the 11th) is that following our emotions is the way to reach the goal or finding our unique "gift" .. what was the paradigm shift for many in the audience was that it would be discovered gradually. Not as a sort of big revelation.
Because new desires will appear along the way, and one day will make people look back and realize that there was no right or wrong way to walk the path.
The whole point is to enjoy the ride, by following the feeling of happiness.
"Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional."
This is simple, and looks like a lot less painful, than the usual process of looking at evaluating things and trying to control events in our life (which is actually impossible).Now, where are we buying this beliefs that there is a right way and a wrong way to do things ? ... and having recognition from others is more important than following our own emotions, and also that making mistake was bad ? ... when a whole institution is teaching generations after generations to conform, and learn like robot to eventually get a diploma that will lend them a job .. unfortunately this paradigm doesn't work anymore and it has created a bunch of deluded people that need to be reminded that the importance is to be happy not in the future, not after getting a diploma or having a job, but right now.
And this is the wake up call we got from Teal (among others).
Teal at the end of the workshop said she will be back in Prague, I certainly look forward to see her again.
