enlightened lessons

I was anxious all day yesterday - wondering who was going to try to pull an April Fool's Day joke or prank on me. It turned out that I was taught an interesting lesson that I hope will shape the rest of my life and journey therein.

In my Theory & Practice of Nonprofit Management course we are discussing how Boards should be formed for an organization. In this discussion we ask several questions of ourselves in which we are creating a criteria for those who should fill seats on the Board we would be hypothetically forming.

In this discussion my professor said something to me that was profound, as he often does with his quick wit and intellectual humor. In speaking about forming a Board, or rather an organization he states that organizations should ask themselves two questions:

"Am I what I say I am?"
"Am I doing what I say I do?

In Abraham 3:22, found in the Pearl of Great Price, it reads that the Lord showed Abraham "the intelligences that were organized before the world was..." Of course, we are those intelligences; I am an organization of intelligence of God.

With this in mind, I felt the need to ask myself these questions again:

As an organization of intelligence of God, am I what I say I am?
As an organization of intelligence of God, am I doing what I say I do?

I am not sure what I said to my friends, family or God Himself before this life - but I did desire to come here and made the choice to follow Christ's plan before this life. As a follower of Christ before and in this life, am I what I say I am? As one who has, before and in this life, made covenants with God to do certain things and live a certain way - am I doing what I say I do?

After class, these feelings escaped my mind as soon as I left the classroom. Holding onto a singular thought in New York City can be a difficult task when approached with solicitors, advertising and the rich aromatic mix of cigarette smoke, urine, homeless people and felafel carts...I digress - see it happens like that.

Unknown to me this lesson from class would be repeated while watching a documentary last night about yoga in America called "Enlighten Up!" A wonderful documentary directed by Kate Churchill explores the yoga movement in the west, its roots from the east, all while challenging a novice skeptic to find enlightenment through yoga.

At one point in the movie the novice skeptic asks a yoga master/guru in India how one achieves enlightenment. His response was one that really hit home in my heart. The guru replied that one must get rid of all that one is not and as one does this one will be who one is and when one is truly who they are, that is enlightenment. In other circles, it is called authenticity.

Over the last few hours I have had these thoughts and feelings rolling around within me. I have felt impressed to ask myself - is there any part of my life that I am living that is not me? Am I authentically myself or am I a collection of deceptive lies, half-truths and conflict?

I really don't know where to go with these thoughts right now. I am glad I am having these thoughts that stimulate my mind and enhance the journey that I am on. At this point all I can say is I am glad no one April Fooled me.

You have been caught Jey Walking!