Sauna Aesthetic Revisited

For those of you who have filled out Dan's Workshop Survey, you might have had a chuckle, been perplexed or even felt a little queasy parsing out what his survey was all about. Is Dan really thinking about conducting workshops to share his discoveries? Who is Dan Kelly that anyone should listen to him? Dan's answer is that I am just like you, only (maybe) more so. In other words, you have as much to share as anyone else, but most folks in 'Merica vigorously discount their own power, basically because we are surrounded by forces and conventions that insist we do. Workshops are about Dan deciding to recognize his power and maybe share with worthy friends.

You might have noticed that sauna was not listed as a workshop. That's because you are already engaged in your own sauna exploration, we might think of sauna as our first workshop. New workshops, (if they ever happen), would be spinoffs from sauna.

What have you learned about yourself at sauna, about your power and potential? What have you learned about your fellow sauna philes? Who has dropped away and who keeps coming? Is this a community and what the heck does that even mean? Are we better together or is this just a random gathering of weirdos?

One interpretation of sauna is this - a shared choice not to die. We get together to explore extremes which, under very specific circumstances, could be lethal. We tinker with fear and the our concept of limitation. Occasionally folks do this without being fully aware of the tightrope they have stepped onto.

Some might remember Nic who almost drowned when he failed to respect the sacred power of Crystal Lake, panicked and had to be rescued by Josh. Way back before that, Taylor entered a profound transcendence of physicality while meditating in the ice hole, and if Joe had not invited him back to the planet Earth, Taylor would have blissfully passed beyond the veil, under the blazing stars.

I relate these incidents to remind us that what we do Fridays after 5:30 pm EST is consequential. We explore self responsibility and who we want to be, even if some of us just think of sauna as a sweaty, hilarious meetup followed by a potluck.

After sharing this with everyone, the next time we sauned, Kari brought up the time Karla came in from the sauna and started howling and sobbing on the floor, requiring triage from our various healers. Kari classified that as another example of someone almost dying, and perhaps we as a group somehow didn't take responsibility for Karla's safety.  My take was that it was a lack of personal responsibility on Karla's behalf, she was not paying attention to her own needs and required others to do that for her.

My point is that this is a very intense thing we do here, and in my mind our responsibility to the safety of the group requires a robust commitment to self awareness.

This is why I have requested and insist on no conspiracy talk in the sauna. This might be more appropriately stated as the "choose uplift" rule. Listen to yourself for heavens sake. If you feel the need to remind everyone of your world view, contextualizing every topic in terms of what YOU believe is real and true, remember that others get more out of their attempt not to die if they are hearing some encouragement, an invitation to not only hang around, but to thrive. I made this rule so folks could go deep, and not have to endure constant grinding verbal turbulence. Or to be more honest, so *I* wouldn't have to 🙂 Whether or not I am in the sauna, think about how your words are effecting the experience of everyone else. You can make fun of my rules, you can playfully cross the line a bit, fine. Just remember to consider what you want the sauna to be for yourself and others, how you can contribute to this unique gathering of pretty bad ass people. Are you supporting the adventure or undermining it? Why are you here?

There are lots of other reasons / beliefs about sauna. Some of us sauna just for fun, for the rush of altered physicality, for the comradery of shared struggle, because it's supposedly "healthy", or because it's better than being in the bar on Friday night, etc. All great.

As your fearless Friday sauna host, I don't care if anyone believes what I do! I do enjoy calling your attention to your own rationale. Is there anything you might want to notice about why you show up here?

Finally let me rant about potluck. My friend Swami Bua opined that food is the greatest gift. To me, a gift brings joy to the giver. That's why I make Swami Soup every Friday, I get a lot of pleasure making his energetic essence (magic soup) available to my friends, or whoever dares to show up on Friday. IMHO, gifts don't come from a feeling of obligation or shame from coming empty handed. So here's my suggestion. Contribute to potluck ONLY if it brings you joy. If you're stopping off at the store on the way here because of some other motivation, just skip it. If you love the process of making something yummy to share, using the most amazing ingredients you can lay your hands on, imagining the peeps coming back for seconds and thirds, then by all means bring that mojo on over!

Thank you for your attention.