James Connor: The Superyogi Scenario
But what did matter? All the time I had spent learning how to meditate from authentic sources. All the time I had spent purifying my own heart and helping people to learn how to do the same.
So what I can honestly say now to people is spend some time each day, even if it’s only 15-20 minutes, pursuing spiritual things. Those are the things that will matter most in the end.
OMTIMES: You write so clearly about superpowers, do you have superpowers?
James Connor: I’m only interested in developing three powers. Do I have love in my heart for everyone—no matter how they treat me? Do I have a discerning wisdom that understands how my thoughts and actions create my experience of the world? And a third power… to be able to teach this wisdom clearly and simply to people so they can overcome whatever challenges they are facing in their own world.
That’s what I concentrate on. You get peeks at the other stuff in retreat and see what you would have to do to develop it. But then you realize, what’s the use of learning to become invisible if you still have sadness and mental affliction in your heart. That’s only going to lead to trouble, like it does for one of my characters named Blindside.
OMTIMES: What have you been doing since you got out of retreat in the summer of 2014?
James Connor: At first we were just getting re-acclimated. It was a real Rip Van Winkle moment. All this stuff had happened in three years and everyone was walking around like zombies staring at their smart phones. We could just look at people and see that not many people were very happy. So we thought of ways to help.
My partner and I started a non-profit GoBeyond.org to teach people how to meditate from authentic sources. It’s the hardcore stuff you would have been taught if you entered Tibetan monastery a thousand years ago and it’s amazing. There’s a whole world of meditation beyond just using the breath that the western world needs to discover. If you use ordinary objects of meditation you get ordinary results, but if you use extraordinary objects, you get extraordinary results.
