OWN-Super Soul Sunday

Remember Sunday was the day you went to church? It was the day the Lord rested. It was the Baptist preacher on BET, or the old man reading scripture at 6am before football started. With the growing amount of channels available to us on cable you can get personal religion channels: Catholic, Mormon, etc. While Oprah recently admitted that she regretted starting her own network, OWN, for my dollar, it is the most progressive network on cable. There are few people in this world today that has the vision and the potential to push ideas past their tipping point like Oprah. I didn't have OWN for awhile. I am not sure if I had the potential too. Recently I purchased a package that included OWN and was happy to discover that the same trailblazing path she established on television is continuing on this network. It might be a daunting task to start your own network (and looking at most of the shows on her channel there isn't a lot to get excited over) but if anyone can pull it off she can. Last night I watched two of her specials with a related theme: meditation.

The first was "Next Chapter" where Oprah traveled to Fairfield, Iowa to visit the American home of Transcendental Meditation. I have practiced TM since 17 and it was a pleasure to discover that finally this town can have a spotlight on it. I beleived she asked the hard questions, or, for myself, the ones my mom asked. Where does your money go when you pay for someone to teach you how to meditate? Is it a cult? Luckily no one answered what I told my mom at the time. Yes it is a cult and the money goes to grow opium in India. It is hard to sell meditation unless you either experienced for yourself, or is still searching for that quiet place in yourself that you think is missing. When I started meditating it was a start of a new life. I have now meditated for more years of my life than I have not meditated. There is no bragging or boasting to this statement, but it is a source of pride for me. I believe at some point, meditation will reach its tipping point. I hope we will see it in the schools. But there is still a lot of education that needs to happen before this can occur. In this show, they showed the little children walking around school for 10 minutes repeating a mantra silently to themselves. They said you can start as early as four. I practiced it today with Mateo. He forgot the word, but I think he enjoyed the walk.

The second show was with Deepak and Oprah in India. This show tied in nicely with the show about Fairfield, Iowa. When I learned to meditate, Deepak's book "Ageless Body, Timeless Mind" was on the coffee table. I hadn't heard of him at this time. Also, Oprah, with her Harpo staff, recently was taught TM. Deepak is on a level that few are at. One of the claims I was kind of baffled by was that he couldn't remember if he did LSD once or twice. Um? Anyways, nevermind. There are not many channels out there that can change the way you think. (PBS still is like a university on TV for me.)I am not sure if OWN will make it. For me, it is not the future, but the present. This is the times we live in. I am sure it is not for everyone. Believe me, I have had my share of arguments, but I have learned to let it go. There is a pure joy in not caring what people think. Oprah and Deepak are spiritual teachers in this present age. They remind us to not forget or shy away from consciousness, soul and awareness. There is still a small pack that call it new age woo-woo. They are the threshold guardians. If you can get past them, you might just find what you are looking for. Oh yeah, and next week on Super Soul Sunday is Thich Nhat Hanh. Thich Nhat Hanh, people. You'll just have to watch.