Crossing the Rubicon

"Alea iacta est."

"The die has been cast." So Julius Caesar supposedly said* after crossing the Rubicon, a small stream that marked the northern border of Italy at the time. By crossing the river with armed troops, he was basically declaring war on Rome. Once crossed, his path was firmly set in one direction and there was no going back.

Lately I see my life as a series of metaphorical Rubicons and crossroads laid before me. At each juncture I can choose the easy path, or the more challenging one. All of life is like that, I suppose, but now it feels like the ground beneath me is shifting to a greater extent.

Some time ago (October 2012) I chose a fork in the road that has led and is leading me to a place of fulfillment and happiness I haven't experienced in a long time. I learned a practice called Orgasmic Meditation (OM). If your mind just traveled to a "naughty" place, you're actually on the right track. The details of the practice are not important for the purposes of this blog post but suffice it to say it is controversial and many would consider it scandalous. To find out more about OM, click here. The important part is that OM is helping me become a better human being. I want to live it. I want to teach it. I want to coach others in the philosophy that is built around it.

Yes, it sounds crazy. How can a simple practice change my life? I'm still working on that and exploring all the reasons. Yes it sounds cultish. Am I going to go to some remote compound where I'll eventually drink cyanide-laced Kool-Aid? I highly doubt it. Or am I going to become like those annoying evangelicals who are trying to save the world? Again, I doubt it. OM's not right for everyone, but I think it's right for me.

In the larger picture OM fits into a process of self-discovery and learning that I've been doing for a little over ten years. I've been with other traditions and I'm sure there'll be other paths in the future that'll lead me in surprising directions. But right here, right now OM is the path that I'm on.

Is OM the completely wrong path? Perhaps. Is it really a cult? Maybe. Will I look back ten years from now and say, "Well, that was really a stupid move."? I could see that. But I can also see OM as being a very positive influence. It's certainly outside conventional boundaries. But so many other things have been outside conventional boundaries at one time that haven't led to the destruction of civilization. Homosexuality. Interracial marriage. Women's rights. Equal rights for all. Marriage based upon love and not politics/economics. To name but a few. Yes, it may be a dangerous cult. Life is full of risks. I'm willing to take this risk to find out.

Till the next Rubicon...

*Caesar probably didn't speak the phrase in Latin because Latin was his native language and saying something important in a foreign tongue psychologically gives it more weight. The historian of Roman emperors Suetonius reports that he instead said the Greek equivalent, "Ἀνερρίφθω κύβος".