The Fascinating Occasion on Which 38 People Suddenly Came into the Café Immediately after I Expressed My Desire For It.
January 22, 2016
An incredibly important part of my life was spent practicing Ascension while working in a lovely little Ishaya Monk-owned café situated on the equally lovely mid-Oregon coast, in a town seemingly named to attract my younger self- Lincoln City (as a young child I was deeply fascinated with Abraham Lincoln). The café, called the Sun Garden, served as a kind of training academy for all of us who worked there- it would be a place in which we merged the Awareness we cultivated in our closed eyed meditations with dynamic activity. A lot of what people might call strange and wonderful things happened in that little space. The café itself, and my time there, could probably bequeath a couple chapters of writing, but today, I am focusing on one story in particular.
One of the more popular strands in American spirituality for some time has been the idea of “creating one’s life at the level of thought”. This idea, recently popularized by “The Secret” has many proponents who form quite a large spectrum from fairly baseless speculation to those whose experiences and research strongly point to the universe being something very different from the materialist-reductionist model. Throughout my life, I’ve had a lot of experiences with my day dreams coming true- envisioning long conversations with folks I hadn’t yet met, knowing the precise number of jelly beans in a jar because I viewed myself writing down the number (not through estimation), immediately knowing my raffle ticket for a trip to D.C. was the winning ticket, receiving my Passport less than 24 hours after filing it (even with paying for the expediting, I was firmly told that the soonest it could arrive would be 3 days later), even as it would have to be sent from Newport to Seattle, and then all the way back to Lincoln City, and countless others. However, all of these examples, though fascinating to experience, could be explained through more conventional means. This leads me finally to one of the most interesting experiences I’ve had.
One day, in 2004, we were finishing off what had been a fairly busy day at our monk run café. My co-chef and dear friend, were standing in our tiny kitchen next to the salad bar, taking a well-deserved break, when I felt myself sink (or rise) into a deep, deep sense of peace, clarity, and stillness. In that moment, a desire bubbled up in my heart and found its way quickly to my mouth. I said, “Wouldn’t it be cool if a 20-top (restaurant-ese for a group of 20 people) just came in and we were so in the zone that we got the order out in a crazy short time?” In what must have been a minute or so later, the phone rang, and the waitress picked up and then called into the kitchen, “we’ve got 20 people coming in, YOU BETTER GET READY!” Knowing that everything we said in there could be heard out in the restaurant, I laughed it off, and said something like, “sure, nice try!” at which point she came to the window and said, “No, it’s actually happening, you better get ready!” About a minute later, 20 people (it was a small, 42 seat café, with half of the seating in a beautiful covered back garden area) streamed through the door. The sight of them coming in had the effect of pushing me ever more deeply into “the zone” from which the desire arose. I can’t think of too many other times in my life (there was this basketball game in which, Steph Curry style, I made essentially every shot I put up) when my movements were so efficient, felt so effortless, filled me with so much joy, and resulted in such beautiful products. It was the case for both me and my co-chef, who named Nataraja, proved again to be an incarnation of the Universal Dancer. Having looked at the clock at the start of the order, I noted that in 5 minutes we had produced 20 entrees and several appetizers, atypically finishing our orders ahead of the drinks. As we walked the dishes out of the kitchen, it felt as if we were riding a wave of joy which also seemed palpable to the 20 guests sitting in our back covered garden. The speed of the execution took them completely by surprise- one of them asking if we had prepared the orders before their arrival.
Still walking on a cloud of joyful, paradigm splitting wildness, we returned to the kitchen to take stock of the needed prep for the next day. Another desire bubbled up from the wide open clear spring that was my heart, which again moved quickly up my throat and out my mouth. “Wouldn’t it be cool if we had 18 people come in and this time it would be a little more difficult as we’d have to prep a bunch of stuff on the fly?” Again, our waitress announced to us that the arrival of 18 people was imminent, if we could handle it. This time, she must actually be joking, but she wasn’t! Nataraja was all in for it, and a minute or two later, 18 more people streamed through the front door. Still deeply in the zone, we began preparing their orders, which did indeed involve so much “prep on the fly” that the waitress, who was and still is a wonderful cook among her nearly infinite talents, had to come in and help us chop potatoes, onions, red bell peppers, and a great deal more. After that effort, from a truly impish place, I again started to muse about a new party coming in, when all gathered decided that, having no remaining prepped food, it was a good time to call it a day.
Was it me simply tapping into what was about to happen? Was the world responding to my desires? Perhaps from a certain level, there is no difference between the two. From my perspective, option number 3 is the best fitting explanation. It is the interpretation of some of the folks within the world of the Ishayas’ Ascension, that Pada I, Sutra 48 of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (at least MSI’s translation and commentary) partially serves as an explanation for the mechanics of “manifestation”. One of the things I have enjoyed about my fellow Teachers of Ascension has been the high degree of modesty they have usually displayed surrounding the various experiences and phenomena that have frequently accompanied their awakening to higher Consciousness. One of the primary reasons for this modesty is that the experience of Pure Awareness is rightfully valued above other phenomena, as one can possess siddhis (yogic powers) and still be bound to the wheel of suffering, unconscious of one’s Self. However, it can be very helpful to know some of the possibilities for growth and experience that accompany a spiritual practice, and these posts are an attempt to provide that kind of information and much more. If any of these posts spark conversation, and bring up questions, feel free to send us a message!
