James Connor: The Superyogi Scenario
On Sunday afternoons I would take a break from meditating all week to write. For me, it was a time to play with deeper aspects of Buddhist and Yogic philosophy I had been studying for what was at that point twelve years while keeping things I had been working on in my mind fresh. The metaphor of superheroes battling evil kept coming up and so The Superyogi Scenario seemed like the perfect thing to write.
OMTIMES: What was it like to do a three-year meditation retreat?
James Connor: More amazing than I could have ever imagined.
We didn’t have email, phone, or any contact with the outside world. We were off-the-grid using solar power and drew our water from an underground aquifer. We just had ancient meditation texts and time to go deep.
The very best thing I’ve ever done is learn how to meditate from authentic sources so I could understand the truth about reality for myself. When you have peace and love in your heart, that’s a treasure you can tap into wherever you go in the world.
OMTIMES: You were a high-powered CEO, how did you decide to give it all up?
James Connor: I was making what to me was a lot of money, employing people, and was happy. So it seemed like a strange decision. I had only missed a few days of meditation in like 10 years and the transformations of mind were getting pretty amazing. So I started wondering how far could a person go if they fully committed themselves to the path of meditation? I wanted to find out, how far could an ordinary westerner go? So I sold my business and gave the money away to charities and then went into meditation retreat for three years.
The most surprising thing for me was I didn’t have any thoughts over a thousand days of “that was a great conference call I did. That was a great email I wrote. I’m so glad I worked on that project.” None of it mattered.
