Who is the dysfunctional yogi?
Me - and any person, for that matter, who may harbor a deep desire to know the truth about the whole of life.
The dysfunctional yogi is a truth-seeker.
We dysfunctional yogis are human while searching for our souls.
Therefore, we speak from our human perspectives while aspiring to perceive life from the soul’s perspective.
We can be Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist or pilgrims on any spiritual path, prescribed or self-directed. What makes us dysfunctional is our divided consciousness, part human, part soul. Our devotion to both creates friction, therefore dysfunction, robbing us of the peace we seek.
Largely unenlightened, we remain attached to our conceptual bubbles (our world views, opinions and judgments) while aspiring toward Truth. The realization of Truth, however, requires that all the bubbles we have blown be burst. Truth, being boundless, requires that we unbind ourselves if we are to experience it. Nonattachment to all things transitory will open the door to the Absolute. That is the way of the yogi.
Until we detach, worldly drama engages us more than inner peace. It’s as if we are addicted to it. That, of course, is part of human nature, perception bound by the body. Do we possess the capacity to transcend the limits of human perception? As yogis, we believe so.
Like all spiritual aspirants, we must face and conquer the enemies within ourselves if ever we are to subjugate our egos to the directives of our souls. The greater our consciences, the greater are the battles on our own personal fields of Kurukshetra*.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Luc Fontainebleau, the narrator of my novel The Bubble Rule, refers to himself as the "dysfunctional yogi."
Luc first debuts in the Book 1 of "The Grover Series", Angel Through the Storms, as the handsome young OB/GYN doctor who sees Lola Parrish through her pregnancy and facilitates the delivery of her son Grover, a spiritual avatar, to the world. Angel is her story – mostly. But it is also Luc’s. When they meet, he is a divorced playboy who was raised in high society New Orleans. He is a man of many addictions. She is a young woman who personifies innocence. He is all man, attracted to the divine in her. She is mostly divine, attracted to the man in him. Their physical, mental and spiritual storms bring them together, tear them apart and catalyze their transformations. Hurricane Katrina powers that process.
The Bubble Rule is Luc’s story and that of his antagonist, Duryodhana Talwar. In the Prologue, he signs off after his introductory musings as the “dysfunctional yogi.” Why yogi? Why dysfunctional?
His girlfriend, Lola, is not the same person that she was before her storms. She is now an angel like her son, the spiritual master Grover. Grover’s mission is ordained by a karmic web that ensnares Luc in a big way. While Lola and Grover enjoy immersion in the divine sea of God communion, Luc struggles mightily on the surface. His self-identity is all tied up with who he is in the world, a man with manly needs, a doctor to human beings, a person of superior intellect with a scientific mind who formulates and holds to his judgments about life. Only when he faces the ominous threat of someone deliberately taking control of his mind, does he escape into the depths. How will he emerge?
The dysfunctional yogi is fictionalized as Luc.
As for Luc, until he achieves full enlightenment (which is unlikely, though not entirely impossible, in his lifetime), the bubbles floating his concepts are vulnerable and may be popped by the arrows of self-reflection and outer criticism.
Like all of us who dare to speak “our” truth, he cannot possibly know “the Truth” unless he is fully one with it.
Nonetheless, he has indeed had true experiences. These inspire him to think, speak, write and act. And occasionally during an inspired moment, just maybe he can point to “the Truth” without fully being it.
Author's note: *The Kurukshetra War is a mythological war described in the Indian epic Mahābhārata as a conflict that arose from a dynastic succession struggle between two groups of cousins of an Indo-Aryan kingdom called Kuru, the Kauravas and Pandavas, for the throne of Hastinapura. (Wikipedia)
I use the term Kurukshetra allegorically to refer to the inner battlefield within each of us whereupon the divine qualities (the Pandavas) of the soul battle with the baser qualities (the Kauravas) of the ego.
Me - and any person, for that matter, who may harbor a deep desire to know the truth about the whole of life.
The dysfunctional yogi is a truth-seeker.
We dysfunctional yogis are human while searching for our souls.
Therefore, we speak from our human perspectives while aspiring to perceive life from the soul’s perspective.
We can be Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist or pilgrims on any spiritual path, prescribed or self-directed. What makes us dysfunctional is our divided consciousness, part human, part soul. Our devotion to both creates friction, therefore dysfunction, robbing us of the peace we seek.
Largely unenlightened, we remain attached to our conceptual bubbles (our world views, opinions and judgments) while aspiring toward Truth. The realization of Truth, however, requires that all the bubbles we have blown be burst. Truth, being boundless, requires that we unbind ourselves if we are to experience it. Nonattachment to all things transitory will open the door to the Absolute. That is the way of the yogi.
Until we detach, worldly drama engages us more than inner peace. It’s as if we are addicted to it. That, of course, is part of human nature, perception bound by the body. Do we possess the capacity to transcend the limits of human perception? As yogis, we believe so.
Like all spiritual aspirants, we must face and conquer the enemies within ourselves if ever we are to subjugate our egos to the directives of our souls. The greater our consciences, the greater are the battles on our own personal fields of Kurukshetra*.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Luc Fontainebleau, the narrator of my novel The Bubble Rule, refers to himself as the "dysfunctional yogi."
Luc first debuts in the Book 1 of "The Grover Series", Angel Through the Storms, as the handsome young OB/GYN doctor who sees Lola Parrish through her pregnancy and facilitates the delivery of her son Grover, a spiritual avatar, to the world. Angel is her story – mostly. But it is also Luc’s. When they meet, he is a divorced playboy who was raised in high society New Orleans. He is a man of many addictions. She is a young woman who personifies innocence. He is all man, attracted to the divine in her. She is mostly divine, attracted to the man in him. Their physical, mental and spiritual storms bring them together, tear them apart and catalyze their transformations. Hurricane Katrina powers that process.
The Bubble Rule is Luc’s story and that of his antagonist, Duryodhana Talwar. In the Prologue, he signs off after his introductory musings as the “dysfunctional yogi.” Why yogi? Why dysfunctional?
His girlfriend, Lola, is not the same person that she was before her storms. She is now an angel like her son, the spiritual master Grover. Grover’s mission is ordained by a karmic web that ensnares Luc in a big way. While Lola and Grover enjoy immersion in the divine sea of God communion, Luc struggles mightily on the surface. His self-identity is all tied up with who he is in the world, a man with manly needs, a doctor to human beings, a person of superior intellect with a scientific mind who formulates and holds to his judgments about life. Only when he faces the ominous threat of someone deliberately taking control of his mind, does he escape into the depths. How will he emerge?
The dysfunctional yogi is fictionalized as Luc.
As for Luc, until he achieves full enlightenment (which is unlikely, though not entirely impossible, in his lifetime), the bubbles floating his concepts are vulnerable and may be popped by the arrows of self-reflection and outer criticism.
Like all of us who dare to speak “our” truth, he cannot possibly know “the Truth” unless he is fully one with it.
Nonetheless, he has indeed had true experiences. These inspire him to think, speak, write and act. And occasionally during an inspired moment, just maybe he can point to “the Truth” without fully being it.
Author's note: *The Kurukshetra War is a mythological war described in the Indian epic Mahābhārata as a conflict that arose from a dynastic succession struggle between two groups of cousins of an Indo-Aryan kingdom called Kuru, the Kauravas and Pandavas, for the throne of Hastinapura. (Wikipedia)
I use the term Kurukshetra allegorically to refer to the inner battlefield within each of us whereupon the divine qualities (the Pandavas) of the soul battle with the baser qualities (the Kauravas) of the ego.
RSS Feed
