Meditation

there you go!!! slide showmode!

Today after hanging around in the city, we decide to join Hihi and go to an “ashram” in an apartment and meditate a little :) A man picks us up and brings us to the flat where the meditation will take place.
We enter a room that has been specially arranged for our little journey into our minds. 6 little cushions where placed in a circle in the middle of an almost empty room. The wall are painted white, the only things on the floor are the cushions, nicely arranged on the soft carpet. The room is very minimalistic and provides a very calm but comfortable and warm feeling. Past this first impression me and Aurelie start to notice the details. On the wall there is a poster showing a mix of any religious and spiritual symbols... a bit of a Davids cross mixed with a heart, the trinity symbol in Arabic and something Catholic. This mix, painted in blue red and gold on a pure white background, seems a little to universal to me. Everyone may find content in this mix of symbols and that is precisely the aim of it i guess. A small table holds a couple candles and a glass sculpture i don't remember the exact shape of, underneath it, books about or by the guru are found in a couple languages. All sorts of titles can be found here: peace of mind, escape your life, everything you never dared asking or talking about, how to live your life, follow my path, i will bring the universal answer, the quest for tantrum, etc... Like you i couldn't hold back a small smile :) In the corner, a small tv on a miniature book shelve is hidden behind an orange light tissue. The shelve holds a couple videos about the guru and some more books bringing all possible answers. From the top of the tv, a portrait of the smiling guru is watching us. so far so good, i knew what to expect and i am nor surprised nor feeling uncomfortable. Rather i feel quite good, this is a good opportunity to calm down a little after long days and nights of party and never stopping discussions and joking around with Aurelie. As we are listening to the introduction from tonights spiritual leader (he is not confirmed yet but will lead our meditation tonight) about the guru we are told how young he looks on the portrait despite his 50 years. This community is based on friendliness between each other, relaxation, a meat and drug free life (no cigarettes, coffee or alcohol) and uses a lot of yoga bases and i do feel warmly welcome as we exchange basic polite questions and answers about our lives.
As we talk and introduce ourselves, i notice a second poster, it is in my back and i didn't see it before. The guru is painted in an old fashion way next to a portrait of Leonardo da Vinci! The painting is drawn a little like those sketches of Da Vinci we all have in memory and the juxtaposition of the two faces suggest a linkage, parallel between the two men. I almost laugh out aloud and make a joke about it. That man really thinks he is a new Jesus and apparently there are people ready to believe it and who pay to attend his summer school programs.
Tonights believers are a bit of a mix but mainly occupied in computer science. Tonights leader is one, so is a man who should come soon but is too busy with work (does not seem to free them completely from their job and preoccupation these meditations), so is the girl with coca cola red lipstick and so am i... A couple more words about the girl with the red lipstick, she also wears glasses and has her dark hair attached in two ponytails, one on each side of her head... reminds me very much about the girl in one of those old French tv series. One of those with adolescents who have lots of complicated and naive love sorries. I can not remember the name of the series (there were s many of them) but anyone who grew up in France knows this girl, she had the stupidest voice, childish lipstick, big glasses and dark hair attached just like the girl tonight. Every time she says one of those naive things she thinks, i automatically translate them into French and add that stupid high tone. This gives me one more good reason to be happy and enjoy my night. So here i am sitting in circle with Aurelie, The lipstick girl, Hihi, the guru and his girlfriend talking about our issues and lives. Hihi once again speaks about her none existing nose problem and how she needs to get it fixed. We also talk about the beauties of life as we get into a relaxed sitting position for meditating.
We close our eyes and listen to the spiritual leader (hehe) telling us to relax. Your face is relaxed, your feet are relaxed, your back is relaxed, your anus is relaxed (yesyes...). Very slow and soft voice but i cannot help myself thinking that it would be easier to relax and think about nothing without him giving me good reasons to laugh all the time!
After a while of silence, his voice always calls us back on track. I don't now if this is the right way to put it, but everything he says meant something to us. For example He told us about the child in us and as we talked about it later with Aurelie, we were both thinking about this right before he said them!
As we open our eyes, we have an other chat about this experience and childhood, the things we enjoyed dong and did with passion. I remember playing with the river in the back our garden at the times where the water was brown and its level rising. Wintertimes were the cold weather did not hold me back from building dams in the mud with my feet in the water. We speak about lost innocence and natural behavior. Things we did without thinking, before we became aware of what those things might mean to others. Times where the others look upon us had no importance at all...
This nice little chat is followed by a cup of tea and as we sit in the kitchen and I watch our leader being very touchy with Hihi and his girlfriend, the lipstick girl with her boyfriend (our host), i realize and think about the affective and sexual dimension of this sect. It is tme for us to leave :) we walk out and go straight for a beer to counter all the good we have done to our shakras :) The Aya bar is a real nice one, one of the nicest i have seen in Skopje. Nice oriental decoration, delicious juices and small tweeting birds.