You are in on it

What is really going on?
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This is the first existential question I remember having. I was thirteen. Pressing my forehead on a window and looking at my breath fog the glass, I whispered to myself, "So, this is it?"

The way I saw it then, the adult life was one big caravan of mediocrity. Work, television, alcohol. Sleep, eat, poop. Sports, sex, politics. According to the adults, this, or a version of this, is all there is.

Almost 50 years later, I still regularly have to restore my perspective about what is really going on. Last week, for example, I began watching Netflix's Nobody Wants That, featuring a love story between a charming rabbi and a sexy atheist podcaster.
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At the end of the pilot episode, we hear a hot rabbi's sermon. He starts by reviewing a well-known parable about a man stranded on a roof during a flood. As various kinds of help come, the man tells them, "Nope. God will save me." After he dies, he asks God, "I lived by your word. Why didn't you save me?" To which God responds, "I've sent you a life jacket, the boat, and the helicopter. That was me, buddy."

I remember using that story in what now seems like another life when preaching to a young adult congregation in California about twenty years ago.

But the hot rabbi takes it further.

"We have these chances to wake up and change the course of our lives. Everything can have a purpose if you allow it. Thinking about switching careers? Maybe that's God pushing you. Hesitating about big decisions? That could be God telling you to think twice."

Then he articulates something many of us have been realizing these days, "If you think God's plan is supposed to feel like something specific, and you haven't felt it, and you wonder if we're all in on some big secret that you aren't in on, let me tell you: You're in on it."

In other words, ordinary life is divine. God or no god, that's not the question. Rather, the question is: Are you engaged with what's going on?

This is the first issue of The New Mystic newsletter, and I am inviting you to be in the community with us.

Do you believe the other world is in this world? Do you trust your ordinary life as a place where you can be fully alive? Can you re-imagine what is?
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It doesn't interest me whether you are a theist, atheist, or another category entirely. I want to know how you see and experience everything. With what intention? With what attention?
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I use the word mystic playfully here, but I’m serious about it. Call it a serious play. Mystic tradition is now backed by neuroscience (more about that in future issues), discovered as critically important in love and leadership (more later), and confirmed by the unbearable glory of ordinary life (you guessed it - more to come!).
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A warning: When you see the world this way, you (and others!) might see you as a tad insane. If you are OK with it, I'm OK with it, too. I've decided I don't need more information, more time, or more savings. What I DO need is a community of people who dare to see, experiment, practice, and transform.
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The New Mystic? I'm not talking about the exotic incense, priestly robes, and alchemic words. I'm talking about loving life and leading positive change in our workplaces, communities, and society.
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I’m interested in your success, in ecstasy, and in friendship.
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This is an invitation to pay attention to the journey you and I have been on for a while and commune with like-minded people.
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May you, because of reading this newsletter, be more dangerous. Both to yourself and to the world.
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TL;DR: The New Mystic is a 5-minute twice-a-month newsletter (plus other occasional community updates) to help you love and lead with freedom, focus, and joy in the age of change.

Can you see yourself as The New Mystic? I'd love to know. Just reply to this email.

More soon!
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Samir

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To respond to this newsletter, just hit reply. I love getting replies, read them all, and reply to most. To share or subscribe to this newsletter, please go to https://thenewmystic.co​

Leonard Cohen