The Empty Mirror
Today we have a delightful conversation for you with one of the few Certified teachers of Ashtanga yoga, Luke Jordan. We learn about his on-going journey, which has taken him all around the world seeking out experts, gurus and teachers in the field of Yoga and spirituality.
We speak about things like the value of learning to surrender, freewill verses determinism, and the relationship between Sankhya and Yoga. Discover whether the nature of the Self is a Full-Emptiness or an Empty-Fullness.
Luke Jordan began a formal study of Eastern mysticism while at University during the 1990s, feeling a sense that there must be something more to life, Luke began experimenting with Psychedelics. During this period, after a relationship break up, Luke had a life-altering experience where the identity he had so carefully crafted as a means of coping with life completely fell apart.
He was plunged into a frightening world of hidden meanings and dark forces. As he lay in bed, tormented by his extreme mental chaos; Suddenly, out of nowhere, a silence descended and stopped it all.
He felt truly alive for the first time. Free from his conditioning, free from his thoughts, beyond name and form. The doctors were not as impressed by his new-found insight and his adamant refusal to conform to a limited personal identity. And decided he had experienced an “acute psychotic episode”. Luke was immediately hospitalized and medicated.
This deeply existential experience (that many might call a psychotic break, while others might call spiritual awakening) brought Luke to the practice of Ashtanga Yoga in the year 2000.
Today, Luke seeks to ground his practice and teachings in the wider Yoga philosophical tradition. He holds a Master’s degree in Indian Religion and remains an avid student of several mystical spiritual traditions, peppering his teaching with insights drawn collectively from many different mythologies.
But in the end, we ask, "What’s all this yoga really for?"
And his answer is going to surprise you!
Luke explains how in each and every moment, the practice of yoga is doing something different. He would even go so far as to say that when you try to define yoga in one particular way, you are doing violence to it. Every day the practice is different, you are different, and the purpose for your practice changes and adapts to whatever it needs to be in that moment.
“The fundamental concept of liberation in yoga is the dissolving of the ‘I.’ So ‘I’ don’t get enlightened. Nobody gets enlightened.
Life comes to rest in Life.
And then, who’s life is it anyway? Who’s running the show then? If I’m not there anymore, who’s running the show?”
The empty mirror is Consciousness and the reflection within the mirror is Prakriti. You can never actually see the empty mirror. Whenever you look you only see yourself. We only know the mirror exists because of what is existing within it. What we see points us back to the space where existence is happening.
The very fact that you’re having an experience, means that there is an empty space within which an experience is happening.
How can you have any experience, if there wasn’t a space within which experience was happening?
This is an illuminating, beautiful conversation, filled with deep philosophical teachings disguised as lighthearted banter. Our hearts and minds were lifted to new heights spending time with Luke Jordan and we’re sure that you will discover new openings within yourself too!
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT LUKE JORDAN
Istagram I Website I Ashtanga Yoga Summer School I Colares Yoga Club
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The Finding Harmony Podcast is hosted, edited and produced by Harmony Slater and co-hosted by Russell Case.
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Opening and closing music compliments of my dear friend teaching Ashtanga yoga in Eindhoven, Nick Evans, with his band “dawnSong” from the album “for Morgan.” Listen to the entire album on Spotify - Simply Click Here.
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