About Matt Gluck
Hare Aum!
It’s not what you know,
It’s how you love that counts
Love shared
is the remedy for this,
our Global Soul.
As life is the message
Love is its messenger
Live in Joy
and find Love
the infinite space
within any Moment
Hi. I am a 44 year old yoga teacher living in Hertfordshire. This is my current label, which when I associate too closely with, restricts me.
Life teaches me in the now. I am not this body, this flesh which dissolves and renews itself without my asking. I am not the 'Yoga teacher' dude that I would like to think that I am. Neither am I that which you think that I am. I know that you aren't what I think that you are. You have proven this to me on so many occasions.
All of these thoughts are projections.They are the masterpiece being set down on the canvas, yet they are not the whole picture; they don't include the borders or beyond, the painter and the labrynth of his mind. These thoughts can only be of his past and future which he continually refers to in order to project his ill-usive self. There can be no thought in the now, as by the end of each word, we are in the past
Life brought me to a place of knowing that truth and the way emanate from the presence within, which truly is my real self. The less I try the more I achieve. The less attached I am to my names and labels, the less I associate myself to be my sensitve, proud and arrogant ego. I don’t take my personality so seriously anymore and enjoy laughing at myself. This all brings me to the stillness. I can hear all the noise or silence around and within me and I can see the madness in the world that abounds, yet my cellular breath has taught me that she controls things and that to listen to her is to be in tune with my Self. She fades away and the nothingness remains. I often find myself catapulted back out by a surge of joy or laughter.
In order to walk my path steadily, I have needed to wonder wayward many times. Lose the self to find the self, forget the self to reveal the self. I have always believed ‘the cure is in the pain’ and have realised that it was my asthma that revealed to me the subtleties of stillness and meditation and not all the books and teachers’ add-vice along the way.
My mother introduced me to yoga when I was five, in the hope that it would cure my asthma. She taught me basic breathing exercises and showed me how she meditated, focusing her energy inwards towards her spirit. I practiced postures sporadically as I found them painful and difficult. I enjoyed sitting to meditate and realised this to be a natural process which I discovered through years of sleepless nights and breathing problems.
Whenever I was sick, I was aware of the divine presence, which presented itself to me in the form of visions and dreams or the love of my family and close friends. This love always dissolved my troubles.
When I was fifteen my father contracted terminal cancer. My life adopted a new meaning and only that which encompassed and transcended the physical seemed to be real to me. Looking back, I see that I wanted my father to be proud of me and all of my actions today are in celebration and thanks to my parents for splitting their atoms together.
I experimented with Judo and Karate as a youngster and in 1985, thanks to my brother Maurice’s quest to better himself, I discovered Shaolin Kung Fu; ‘The Monk’s Art’. We had both been captivated by the TV series “Kung Fu” a decade earlier and when I saw my first teacher, Sifu Jeffrey Guishard, demonstrating his art, I was then and to this day still am, bewildered by his grace and power.
My mind felt it had remembered something significant about why my soul had returned to the earth. I trained under Sifu (Master) Guishard’s instruction for three years, receiving his open hearted care and counsel. He was my root, my foundation, out of which I began to grow.
In 1988 I then began to train with Master (Lai Khee Choong) Christopher Lai, My Sifu’s Master and founder of the Shaolin System Nam Pai Chuan. I attended larger classes at his centre and was exposed to a broader view of the System. I saw ways that I could involve myself within it and so expand through it. Sifu Lai demonstrated true understanding of Chinese Martial Arts and the philosophy that underpins them. His wisdom and will power shone like the sunlight blessing a tender plant. I love him like a father.
I also realised how lucky I was to have received personal wisdom and expertise from Sifu Guishard and his ‘kung-fu brothers and sisters ’ (my Seniors), Sifus; Keith Edwards, Arthur and Donna Nichols, Eddie Baron and Norman Morrison, Adrian and Karen Brown. Their Chi drives me on to this day. I love you all like my family and thank you for your kindness, compassion and truth.
I took part in many events within the System, learning the need for equanimity in loss or gain, and found myself close to most of my peers and seniors, who always guided and supported me in anything that I did.
In 1988 my father died. Following his five year battle, he finally found peace in the light. Everything changed. Six months after he died, I contracted a temporary paralysis known as Guillain Barre Syndrome, which put me out of action for six months. I continued my own research into Healing, Hypnotherapy and the workings of the mind and became interested in the healing powers of Taiji through Peter, a Blood Plasma Specialist at the Hospital for Nervous Diseases near Russell Square in London. I lay completely paralysed for a month, shocked by the loss of my dad.
I experienced much pain and discomfort and through this experienced the opportunity to sit and be. I saw that my mind was not my thoughts and my body was transient. I realised that my time here in this Nama (name) and Rupa (form) is limited and that I am here to make the most of it. My life's purpose is that you read my words and that I live in harmony with my essence, the light of emptiness.
With grace, I recovered fully from Guillain Barre. I trained for the next few years with Master Lai, while making my living as a financial director within the travel, electrical and printing industries. Life kept ticking away until 1995 when my mother told me that she had also contracted cancer. Within two weeks of hearing this news, we spent our last evening together in hospital. Before sunset, the room brightened, charged with light, as the sky’s eye welcomed her through. My mum left her body in peace. This is one of the most beautiful moments of my life and confirmed for me that death is only a portal from dense physical matter to a higher light vibration.
Her death left me feeling isolated, detached and angry. Life seemed to be evading me and I was losing my grip of 'Self' and worldly reality. My partner left me, mirroring my not being 'present' with her. I loved my brother and friends very much, but chose to be alone most of the time. I looked to the bridges that had led me astray and turned back to burn them. I turned to the one thing which brought me true peace, the internal arts of Taoist and Buddhist Yoga.
I established a work schedule that met with the needs of a broad section of the private and public sectors. I have been teaching for nineteen years and started trading as a self employed Buddhist and Taoist Yoga Instructor in 1996. I have run courses and workshops in Shaolin Kung Fu, Taiji, Qi-Gong (Energy/Breath Work), Movement Therapy, and various forms of Hatha Yoga.
I have always believed in God because he kept talking to me. I knew that he was the design on the cup and the colours on the carpet and not the vengeful ogre of my inherited religion. When I abandoned myself, he always stood silently reminding me of his patience and love. This divine grace drives me to serve all through my love for the Self in all. This is not really a choice, but rather Divine Mother's Nature.
Following fifteen years with the Shaolin School, I went my own way in 2000. I went on Sabbatical to India, Thailand and Nepal. I met many interesting folk along the way and arrived at my Guru’s home in South India in October 2000. I had heard of Sathya Sai Baba from a Hare Krishna devotee and friend, Oswald who lived at the Temple in Letchmore Heath. He told me of Baba’s miracles and so I decided to go and see this phenomenon for my Self.
I went to his ashram in Puttaparthi. A 'small man in orange robes' appeared in front of me - Sri Sai Baba. I left his town after three mentally disturbing days. ‘White girls in Sarees!’ ringing in my ears. Many sadhus, scriptures, astrologers and a handshake with the Dalai Lama later, I made my way to Rishikesh, Varanasi and then into Nepal towards Mount Everest. Wherever I went, this man appeared in front of my eyes, Sathya Sai Baba. As a teenager I had worshipped David Bowie and had seen God again in the guise of my Kung Fu Masters.
I arrived in Kathmandu one chilled morning, having always known that one day I would be there. To my surprise I walked past a shop with a picture of Baba in the window. My heart melted and I began to cry. Unlike anything I had ever known before, I realised that Baba is pure love. I realised he had been the organiser of my trip as well as the colours in the clay lamp at which I used to stare in my mother’s room all those years ago, as I lay on her floor in Savasana.
Sathya Sai Baba (meaning Truth or True, Mother Sai - Father Baba) gave me everything. I cannot describe my experiences with him as they transcend not only words but own my mind as well. My life before Sai Baba was interesting; there was much joy and unlimited suffering.
Baba is completely divine. I have met him as Krisna and Jesus Christ amongst other forms. He is my life and my heart and it is to him that I return today, tomorrow and always. He is the light of my soul. Jai Sai Ram!
Before I left for this trip I met with Taoist Kris Deva North from the Healing Tao School in London and following a week’s retreat under his tutelage, decided to seek his master in Thailand; Mantak Chia. I spent eight months working as an editor and writer at the beautiful Tao Garden near Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand, which enabled me to further understand my own nature and align myself with being true to this.
I returned to the UK a changed man, drawing energy from the universe, rather than giving it away in worry and fear. I was ready to live the message of the sages and continue my path in becoming one with them, whether in this life or another. I have returned to India twice more, spending more time in retreat, mostly solitary and always look forward to having the luxury to return again.
Knowing and being true to myself are the primary concepts for my monkey mind.
We are not this body
this mind or sea of emotions,
Yet these are the shadows which we have cast around ourselves.
In that moment of stillness and silence,
When we are free of care,
Yet free to care,
We are that,
Bliss,
Eternally free.
Matt
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