Some years back, I was gifted a little book for my birthday. That book was titled "Wake Up Laughing" by Steve Bhaerman, aka Swami Beyondananda.
I couldn't believe the price of that book - at that time, just $10 (now it is $15), with a link freely given away, without any thought to piracy. I've thoroughly enjoyed the gifts that Swami B has poured into it. Some of you may already have been touched by that book - two passages have made it into Awakin: Fool Realization and Humor is a Magical Interface.
A comedian whose real purpose is nothing short of spiritual awakening is a rare find. But nothing prepared me for the mail I received today on his wakeuplaughing mailing list. Due to the tough economy, Swami B had to give up his home. Instead of plunging into scarcity, he decided to step it up and discovered abundance along the way. A chance exposure to a talk by Charles Eisenstein and his work on Sacred Economics, and Swami B's ready for the plunge into the gift economy! Instead of nickeling and diming for his gifts, he wants to open up and offer everything he has so it may be of service.
I am reproducing a part of the mail he sent out below - enjoyed reading every bit of it.
Involuntary Simplicity
An Invitation to Co-Hearts
"An enrolling stone gathers no remorse."
-- Swami Beyondananda
Dear Friends:
If you're on this list, you probably know that 15 months ago, Trudy and I left our home in Santa Rosa, California to be on the road full-time. In the course of sharing our experience with others, we have found that many, many people have had to release structures and beliefs in their lives that once worked, but no longer do. Some experience these difficult changes as crisis, or even pain. We have reframed them as "evolution."
This is not some rationalization to make us feel better about no longer having our beautiful home. Instead, it is a simple and hugely helpful context for embracing the emerging changes that are upheaving our individual lives and our collective reality. In the several presentations that Trudy and I have given that we've called Involuntary Simplicity: Spontaneous Evolution From the Inside Out, we've found these ideas to have great resonance. People are inspired by the evolutionary ideals Bruce Lipton and I write about in Spontaneous Evolution, AND they have an immediate need and desire for practical wisdom and simple practices to turn the "ideal into the real deal."
We have redirected and redesigned our mission accordingly, and that's what this message is about. We are ready to take the next step, and we invite you to come along!
First, a little backstory ...
Triumphant Surrender
Our journey we call "involuntary simplicity" began 18 months ago when I officially "gave up the fight" - that is, I released the battle to keep up with overhead and gave up the "money chase." The response at that time was overwhelmingly positive. Many people - including folks I'd never met -- sent money, and we got enough cash to cover our expenses for a time and repay some debts. The next level of release came three months later when Trudy and I gave up our home of 12 years, and the attending overhead. Not only did we have $4,000 less to concern ourselves with every month, we had additional funds come in from surprising sources.
The serendipity and synchronicities during this period were amazingly graceful and sometimes bordered on hilarious. When we required a landing spot for me to focus on a writing project, we got to choose from the "greater of three goods" - three "Santa's" were offering their gifts to us: Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa. When we settled on Santa Rosa because of familiarity and access to our storage, another funny thing happened. When we looked in the bedroom at our new and furnished place, there was the same beautiful Scandinavian-design, Italian-made bedroom furniture that we had in storage. In the 12 years we had owned it, we'd never seen it anywhere else, and now here it was available for our use while our own bedroom set was in storage!
We called this amazing grace "triumphant surrender," as clearly releasing our perceived "control" over our lives allowed a Higher Power to take command.
Four months ago, we once again took to the road ... and we discovered another level of release is now required. While we had terrific performances in front of grateful audiences, we found that the old model of traveling and doing shows at the level we've been doing them is no longer sustainable.
And so ... we have officially released that model of traveling-and-doing-shows, and have set aside the next six months as a redesigning and regeneration period. We've gotten enough positive feedback on our Involuntary Simplicity idea to begin writing a book, and gather "simple wisdom" and practices from sources everywhere.
Which brings us to the "front story" ...
From Emergency to Emergent Seeing
There's a saying from improvisational theater - "serve the scene."
Or, as Bucky Fuller put it, "The Things to do are: the things that need doing, that you see need to be done, and that no one else seems to see need to be done." And, we would add, things that resonate with your natural gifts, talents and heart's desire.
What Trudy and I have discovered in our 15-month sojourn is that in these challenging times, people are hungry for inspiration, encouragement, laughter AND simple and practical tools for navigating this passage. In the course of living "involuntary simplicity," we have come to have great respect for simplicity as a tool for dealing with the complexity of modern so-called civilization. By simplicity, we don't mean austerity - we mean simply having what is required to thrive. In fact, we have discovered how little is required to feel a sense of joy and purpose, and how rich our lives have been carrying just what can fit in our little Chevy HHR.
Now we seek to use not just my serious and humorous presentation skills, but Trudy's deep background in ancient wisdom traditions, and our combined playfulness and enthusiasm to move the "evolutionary upwising" forward.
In doing so, we have taken another leap of faith into the Flow (which has now, according to the Hopi Prophecy, been upgraded to "fast-moving river").
At the moment, we have no "day job" other than completing our book proposal and presentation on Involuntary Simplicity, launching our blog and website, and continuing to develop simple, inspiring, informative and practical tele-series like the one we're doing with Great Mystery.org, featuring leading luminaries offering simple wisdom on evolution, spirituality, politics, economics, and personal integrity and right relationships.
Inspired by Charles Eisenstein's presentation on Sacred Economics last week (and sobered by emails from close associates who haven't been able to afford the class), we are making each of the six sessions (including the one today and the one next week that you can tune into live) available on a donation basis. While the "suggested donation" is still $20 per session, you can literally write your own ticket and attend - for less, or more, honoring both the value of the work and your current resources. Please click here.
We have a future series in the works on Simple Economics, to help us weave a web of mass-construction to inspire, design and implement a transition from the "casino economy" to the "gift economy."
And ... all this will require resource. Or to paraphrase another economist, Milton Friedman, there's no such thing as a free launch. Yes, we know about Kickstarter. However, before a kick start (which requires all funding to be in place before any is distributed), I'm calling on my co-heart community to help provide a jump start, so we can begin paying our designer and handle some basic expenses as we focus on formulating our domain, writing our book, and developing our network.
A year-and-a-half ago, I was blown away by the inflow of support from friends, family and strangers in the face of our financial emergency. Now the situation is different. This time, we are asking for support of an "emergent seeing" so that we can serve the scene of emerging evolution, and do it grace and ease.
This is a longer conversation than we can have in this short note, but consider what a transitional "gift" economy might look like. Instead of "monetizing" every product, what if information providers were financially supported through donations, and valuable information could be circulated for free, or for donation? The internet was made for free flow of information, and clear, simple and helpful information is what we all need.
We intend for Involuntary Simplicity to become a pioneer in discovering, developing and implementing new systems of information distribution and compensation.
So ... if you value the work we are doing and want to support it - I humbly and enthusiastically invite your support.
...
...