Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 15:31:59 -0700 (PDT) From: martin boyar Subject: Yogic Growth Class, by Josh Dugan Jake's meditation class of young guys his age, did the yogic stretching and meditation. Far from being mere dabblers in the practice, they were fully engaged in learning about it, even some of the more arcane aspects. I could understand the quiet passion they felt, especially in the special disciplines for growing the body. I wouldn't have gone in for the body-growing disciplines myself, being somewhat reserved, but that didn't stop me from envying Jake. Not all his classmates did the body-growing mediations. But Jake had no reservations whatever about them, not even a thought of not going forward. I envied his clarity of purpose and determination, which he shared with the other guys in the small class. And while there was complexity and actual hard work in the mental concentration and physical stamina of the extra degrees of perfection, as they were called, the outcome was simple: a freeing of the spirit, a growth of additional shakras of spiritual mobility. The added shakras both symbolized and manifested physically an outward growth of physical mobility, which for the physical body is an additional growth of legs. How would this be possible? The body being the manifestation of the spirit allows the body to manifest spiritual growth in the only way the body can express it, so the harmony of body with the growth of the spirit allows growth of the body. The added mobility of the spirit is expressed physically as added mobility of the body, the components of bodily mobility being, of course, the legs and feet. I could only be humbled by the willingness of Jake and his classmates to undertake the extra degrees of perfection, as one is humbled by greatness in others. But for Jake and his classmates it was a clear and pure direction, so the physical manifestation of their growth in spiritual mobility, their added feet and legs, was mute testimony to their inner spiritual growth. I accepted that not all can achieve this, and in my acceptance of my own limitation I found the peace to accept what I had envied in Jake, the advanced level he and some of his classmates had attained. The trueness of his growth expressed itself in his complete modesty and almost self-deprecation about his physical manifestation of spiritual mobility growth, his four legs. He did not boast or brag or in any way flaunt or exhibit the advancement, but continued to meditate with the less advanced members of the class such as myself, continuing to support, encourage and mentor us. Visually, aside from being seated on two pairs of crossed legs, compared to the less advanced members with their single pair of crossed legs, Jake and the more advanced members were no different than we were. Even as they in time advanced in spiritual mobility to where their bodies expressed their further advancement in six-leggedness, they remained simple in their lifestyles, modest in their behavior and fervent in their practice. I admired Jake for his singularity of focus on his meditation, in which he was oblivious to his achievement of six-footedness. His faithful practice of the yogic posture remained the same, modified of necessity only to accommodate the six crossed legs beneath him. The only visual difference between the meditative form of Jake's advanced classmates and the meditative form of the less advanced classmates was the physical number of legs and feet; beyond that we were still identical. Like us, the advanced classmates adopted barefootedness as an outward aspect of a voluntarily simple lifestyle, with modesty and simplicity of clothing. We even celebrated their advancement with service, helping to hem together the four-legged, and later six-legged, sweatpants they wore during meditation. The class benefitted from the humility and modesty of its advanced members with six feet, who attracted new members keenly intrigued by the depth of spiritual discipline and practice. While the advanced members willingly shared the ideals which drove their discipline, they did so without any type of showiness or display; it was enough that three pairs of bare feet nested in their six crossed legs during their meditation; it was enough that they walked on six bare feet without calling attention to them; the six bare feet spoke silently of their advanced spiritual mobility. In this way many young members steadily advanced their inner spirituality, and those that proved gifted with that focus and perseverence developed those same qualities of modesty and generosity of spirit; many became four footed in time under the mentorship of advanced members like Jake, and in time they received the specially hemmed sweatpants as a gift from all their classmates, as their legs became six and as they bore the six bare feet that symbolized the spiritual mobility they attained. The feet built a bond among them; the paradox was that each with his own abundance of feet would share them with the next, so that two who gave their feet to each other would in turn receive as many feet as they gave. Great friendships and loves developed from simple sharing of humble tasks, such as the washing of the feet at the start of the meditation class session, and, after the advanced meditations, the massaging of the feet as an expression of encouragement of spiritual growth. The washing and massaging of each others' feet brought the familiarity of touch as an encouragement of such loves; those tasked with the washing and massaging of the six feet of another enjoyed in turn the washing and massaging by the other of their own six feet. Another paradox was that those who gave their four or six feet to lesser members such as myself would receive in themselves the reciprocity the lesser members could not give. This was how Jake and many of the advanced members would attain eight or ten feet; that is, four or five pairs of legs. The calendar festival celebrations were marked by the classmates as foot festivals, festivals of foot massage and foot sexuality, as members brought all their pairs of bare feet to the celebrations to share and grow with each other, washing and massaging and having sex with each other's many pairs of feet, having multiplied their sexual organs in proportion to the number of pairs of legs and feet added. The spiritual stimulation of such sharing expressed itself in an increase in the size, beauty and number of feet among all members, which the festival wines made into a joyous confusion of beautiful male feet and endless orgasms onto them as they continued to grow and multiply, covering all with each others' beautiful feet.