Important disclaimers to this week's letter.
Some additional ideas and an important disclaimer.
After I pressed send on this weekend’s letter, I got in the shower.
As the shower tends to do, it brought out some more ideas related to this topic, which I felt were important to share as a followup.
I’m writing this from a plane that’s just left Houston.
While I wish I had an epic story to share about discovering the ultimate reason for my inexplicable detour there, the truth is I still don’t know why I was there—but that is just as important as any material reasons.
Case-in-point #10: You must let go of the need to know.
Ah ha! Only now that you, the reader, have let go of your attachment to receiving point #10 in the last letter—here it is.
For me, maybe sending this letter was one of the reasons. Maybe somebody really needed to hear these ideas.
Or maybe somebody in Houston who I came into contact with benefited from that contact in some way.
Or maybe both.
This leads me to another important point…that’s right, a bonus 11th point. Because when you let go of rigid attachment to what you thought you wanted, you always get more ;)
Case-in-point #11: Following charm is not about getting our own needs met.
As Vedic Meditators, we cultivate a backdrop of baseline happiness inside, simply through the systematic removal of stress—so we don’t need to get stuff, meet people, experience sensations, or see things in order to ‘get’ happy. We’re already happy, and our approach to life is more about bringing that happiness out into the world around us. We’re in the exporting business now at Vandelay Industries instead of importing. We can of course still have fun and buy clothes and eat ice cream and rent convertibles for fun, but we don’t need those things. Neediness is not a good look.
And this brings me, lastly, to an important disclaimer about following charm:
Following charm should always be practiced in conjunction with Vedic Meditation. It’s not a practice encouraged for non-meditators. Following charm, as defined by my teachers Maharishi Vyasanand Sarasvati and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, would not be fit for someone who lives life in a stressed physiology, since their first impulse of intuition could lead them to non-life-supporting activities.
Why is that?
Because the practice of Vedic Meditation removes the accumulated stress that otherwise obfuscates our connection to our most authentic desires and clouds it with stress-fueled preferences inspired not by our greatest good, but by the stress memories we’re carrying around.
I welcome any questions about this topic, as always.
For more reading about charm, check out earlier letters on struggling against the universe, and knowing what to do in any situation. For more reading about baseline happiness, check out baseline happiness 101.
Aside from educating myself more about Houston rap pioneers like Lil’ Troy, DJ Screw, and the Geto Boys, whose debut album I learned was produced by my hero Rick Rubin in 1989, I also learned that one of my favorite groups of today, Khruangbin, is from Houston.