Urban Guru your inspired guide to urban living

Had a real [experiential] (almost life altering) epiphany the other day.

All i did was add a prefix to every thing i thought about touched, felt experienced

the prefix was ‘divine’

and my divine-hand divinely-touched the divine-touch brush … etc… this almost joking play continued for a few minutes, and then it dawned on me, and i was stuck naked, in divine awe of; the divine i was in - the divine i am - the divine created illusion that we are journeying in and i both cried and laughed at the same time – the light was blinding.

Like a rabbit in front of oncoming headlights, I froze, grateful, humbled, unable to move, aware of being in the presence of the divine, that every moment a huge amount of energy was being provided to recreate every moment, a huge amount of love and patience. But that the divine, was not out there somewhere in some alternate (higher) consciousness, but right here, right now.

This was not like my previous ‘mystical’ experiences of loosing myself in the ONE, or the dissolving of self in the oneness of the universe. Here I was stuck in self but realising that everything, including my ‘self’ was actually divine.

The story goes something like this, a guy is drowning in the ocean and he prays to God to save him, a big piece of drift wood floats by, but he ignores it, knowing that God will answer his prayers, a guy in a small dingy offers him a lift, and eventually a helicopter comes to rescue him, but he refuses saying that he’s waiting for God to save him. He drowns. And when he comes before his maker, he asks God why he didn’t save him? God says, “What do you think all those opportunities I sent you were?”

I’ve always been the ‘lucky guy’, maybe not actually being the winning holder of that many lottery tickets, but in life, the good stuff seems to come my way.

The truth is that people and impressive opportunities are always knocking at my door, phoning me up or emailing me. The thing is, I kinda expect them, and when they come, I’m pretty chilled about them.

For example, over a year ago a TV producer was planning to pitch a cool new Urban Guru lifestyle makeover programme to the BBC, and we spoke for about an hour, and then he never got back to me. I was fast asleep when he called and asked to speak to the Urban Guru, so when we were chatting I completely forgot to ask for his contact details, and because I had previously fantasised about having my own prime-time TV programme, I just believed that it would happen to me.

A production company working for MTV called me the other day, but it’s just not worked out.

So good opportunities happen but for some reason they often don’t seem to follow through. And this has been something that has been bothering me but I just didn’t know who to ask about it.

Then about two months ago, I was in the Northern Quarter of Manchester doing some flyering for the Mind Body Spirit festival, when I randomly bumped into a young lady doing flyering for her own Holistic Massage business.

We got chatting, she shared some Blue-Tack, and then while we were giving some leaflets to the Buddhist Centre, the CEO of the Mind Body Spirit festival called to find out if I knew anyone that could do Holistic Massage at the festival, because someone had dropped out, and he wanted someone to fill in, on a percentage of their profits basis.

This was some cool divine providence going on, and how cool was that, I was being used as a messenger and channel for giving this girl a fantastic opportunity for her business.

But two weeks went by and she didn’t phone or get in touch with the festivals CEO, and guess what? He’d filled it with someone else.

The moral of this story, which I experienced first hand, was telling me something completely relevant and profound about my own problem.

Opportunities come knocking all the time, don’t let them pass you by, grab them by the horns and really go for them!

God is giving you fantastic opportunities all the time, your job is to take hold of those opportunities run with them.

Stop running Way From Yourself !

I’ve always been puzzled by young, intelligent, movers and shakers in the Jewish community upping and moving to Israel, it seems so dualistic, and short sighted.

The primary motive they cite is that they don’t feel comfortable in the Diaspora and that they feel really Jewish in the Land of Israel even if they don’t keep any of the religious laws etc… What’s up with that?

Surely if you were more comfortable with your own identity why would you need to move to a country with millions of other people just like you? If your cultural identity is so important, why don’t you do something about it here and now? Why do you think that nationalism or in deed a ‘Holy land’ – where you can be yourself is really going to solve your deep problems?

The question isn’t just about Jews and Israel, its about all of us, why do we think that over there, in some distant future things are going to be ok, if I only had this or that, that then

I’d be happy? If I lived in a big house, or a small house, drove this car, or had that job, money, if I only had a boyfriend of girlfriend, a cat or a baby then all my troubles would be over?

In the messianic era the kabbalists teach us that the Holiness of the Holy of Holies will spread to the whole of the temple mount, that the Holiness of the Temple will encompass the Whole of Jerusalem, the Holiness of Jerusalem will spread to the entire biblical land of Israel and the Holiness of the Holy Land will spread throughout the entire world.

The Whole world will become as Holy as the Holy land.

Some great Kabbalists go further – they claim that the holiness of the Holy of Holies will in fact be accessible to each and every individual that the land we are standing on might be ‘Israel’ but we are in deed the Holy of Holies.

What i’m saying is that, happiness is not found outside of yourself. If you push off, happiness and bliss to some future time, you are destined always to be unhappy and miserable.

Also that the Messianic Era is here and now, it is a state of mind a state of enlightened being, one that is accessible now.

That running towards a better future, doesn’t always work, ‘progress’ is sometimes fuelled by stupidity, greed and emptiness.

Real spiritual, and personal progress comes from a place of contentment, happiness and a desire to spread that around.

Can you see the difference?

Classic Cartesian views of reality have fallen away from my sight, effervescent, oscillating glittering fireworks of divine energy pulsating so fast that, it appears to be joined up,

each gap in the in-between of coming into existence from the source of nothingness, seems to be longer than the next, where the possibility of falling through the silence between frames seems all the more possible.

who brings every minuscule of existence into being in complex shapes and constructs? into existence every moment. we do. the very essence of being co-directing my own ‘reality’ every moment from the absolute blank nothingness of pre-existent reality (gOD),

I choose to remember, to perceive, to be the person’ality that i seem to be, moments are disjointed, the force which brings into being, literally ‘creates’ existence, my existence, is my true self, not me, but me, us, you, I, my me, your you.

Our culturally conditioned worldview is merely a shell, a shallow wrapping, which simplifies, sterilises, contaminates the eyes that see. I have chosen to come into existence, to flesh myself, to become body, to embody, to flesh out my dreams, our dream, to explore, and discover who I am.

I am the great unknown. the thick darkness that separates you from me, me from me. The great unknown that will always remain so utterly hidden that we never become aware of it’s existence, it is the unknown that fills the in-betweens, each dot of energy, from between this point and that, the silence between notes.

It is the thickness of unknowing that keeps us apart, that keeps us happy in our bliss, our everydayness, in the lightness of being.

spiritual - means beyond time and space - and what we normally see as physical, isn’t actually physical it is in fact beyond time and space, by virtue of its (multiple) quantum oscillating core. It comes in and out of existence 10×26 per second.

Blessings are metered by OUR ability to receive, not the Universes ability to give. It’s almost like, the Universe would like to give us everything but it is us that says no.

In some sense, as a friend suggested, sometimes it’s our ‘personality’ which gets in the way of blessings. And that sometimes we need to let go of our selves, put our sense of ‘Self’ to one side to simply allow God’s blessings into our lives.

Some say that we have to make a “vessel” a way and a path, for the Universe to bless us. But I believe, more important than the creation of a mere ‘vessel’ or conduit of divine blessing, we ourselves, must become spiritually able and willing to receive blessing into our hearts and into our lives.

The questions we are forced to ask are; are we open enough, receptive enough, willing enough to allow the divine to give us everything and more? Are we ready to accept bliss into our every moment of our lives?!!!?

Say to yourself; “I’m sorry for having previously been a barrier to receiving blessings, I forgive you for the past, I now allow you to accept all blessings into your heart with joy and love. I allow the source of all blessings to flow through me, so that peace is my very being and the abundance of blessing my inheritance!”

Escape from the city, and from the humdrum and stresses of everyday life…

Sometimes we all need to escape from the din of city living, step outside of our everyday selves and reassess the way we live, to help us gain new and different perspective on our lives.

Our Weekend ‘Shabbaton’ Urban Guru Retreat is the perfect time and place to do this as it’s entirely dedicated to your personal spiritual growth and development. It is an ideal chance to breathe and focus on becoming more relaxed, spiritualy centred and balanced. It is an opportunity to reassess your life, discover your souls path, and a chance to focus on cultivating your own happiness, inner joy and peace of mind. So when you do return to your life you can begin to live it on a higher plane, were you can be more focussed, calm, and alive.

Urban Guru Retreats, usually take place over a weekend (or Shabbaton) Friday - Sunday, in a converted farm near Buxton in the Peak Park UK. They are very laid back and relaxing, the weekend is a mixture of lectures and workshops, focusing on wide variety of themes.

This included workshops in various forms of Kabbalistic meditation, from the early Merkvah school - to modern day forms of Hassidic consciousness expanding techniques.

The themes of the lectures vary - and they can focus on that weeks Torah reading - although not always so. We try to keep some semblance of a traditional Shabath from Friday to Saturday night although we are not dogmatic about it.

As participants are asked to refrain from using there mobile phones throughout their time at the retreat etc…There are group activities and ‘prayer’ workshops, as well as one on one learning and mentoring.

All the activities are completely voluntary… if someone doesn’t wish to participate and even just spend the entire weekend in their room that’s fine - if that is what they need to do.

The food is Kosher* and Vegetarian and were possible locally produced and/or organic. It is generally for small groups with a maximum of 12 people.