Erik

In this episode we meet Erik who talks about his work and life and his travels to India, Pakistan, Burma and Afghanistan. He tells us how he came across the practice of Yoga many years ago during his travels and helps us sort out what yoga means. Erik has such a comfortable voice when talking and he radiates kindness and thoughtfulness. Every word matters in this episode which is an interesting journey that leads to Erik telling us what matters most to him and why.
In the episode description we have included links to places Erik talks about in the episode.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/439997486149672

Anna Cei: 0:05

Hi, welcome to what matters most to you. In each Hi, good evening, Erik

Erik B: 0:36

Good evening,

Anna Cei: 0:37

before we dive in and talk about what matters most to

Erik B: 0:47

So right now I'm in the northern part of Sweden, on the

Anna Cei: 0:59

right.

Erik B: 1:00

I came here from Stockholm the other day. And so

Anna Cei: 1:05

So that you have like a summer habitat up there.

Erik B: 1:08

Yeah, I have a summer house that my my grandfather

Anna Cei: 1:13

How long does it take you to go from Stockholm to the

Erik B: 1:18

Usually it takes between nine and 11 hours

Anna Cei: 1:21

driving straight

Erik B: 1:23

nine and a half this time. There was almost no

Anna Cei: 1:28

And how far is it to the polar circle?

Erik B: 1:31

Actually, I think it's about around 200 kilometers, or

Anna Cei: 1:38

So how long would that take you to drive? three hours? Usually, when I go past the Arctic Circle, I go to this town the Arctic Circle. So yeah a lot of people don't realize that Circle. Yeah, this part of Sweden is called Norrbotten. It's about a Wow,

Erik B: 2:19

not very densely populated.

Anna Cei: 2:21

So what kind of job do you do that you can live up

Erik B: 2:26

Yeah, I'm a yoga teacher, and a member of also started up this video portal.

Anna Cei: 2:53

Oh!

Erik B: 2:53

for online yoga. So I'm doing that.

Anna Cei: 2:56

So for people to be able to do yoga without being in

Erik B: 3:10

well, actually, Lule has about 80,000 inhabitants. So

Anna Cei: 3:26

Wow,

Erik B: 3:27

I do teacher trainings and I have students from from

Anna Cei: 3:31

Wow. And maybe you can get some American or Mexican or

Erik B: 3:39

All my classes are in Swedish. So that kind of limits

Anna Cei: 3:43

but can't just copy you what you're doing. I'm

Erik B: 3:49

Yeah,

Anna Cei: 3:50

or is there a lot of talk during your yoga classes?

Erik B: 3:53

I've been thinking about doing some some English classes

Anna Cei: 4:00

Have you been doing yoga classes and yoga teaching

Erik B: 4:05

I've been a yoga teacher for 12 years, but I didn't have

Anna Cei: 4:28

and what caused the transition, what made you want

Erik B: 4:33

Well, I want to go into yoga for a long time, because

Anna Cei: 4:47

Did you do yoga? When did you start doing yoga? I

Erik B: 4:54

I started doing meditation actually in India in I've been doing yoga for I don't know, I guess. 25 years, maybe?

Anna Cei: 5:23

Ah ha. So when did you go to India?

Erik B: 5:26

I went to India in 1989. I had another career for a few

Anna Cei: 5:47

was it the photography that brought you there? Or was was a bit of both I think. I'm half Danish, I managed to get So it was four news articles or what kind of photography?

Erik B: 6:17

news

Anna Cei: 6:18

news photography A paper called Jyllands posten, which is one of the major papers So when you were out there photographing, was it like,

Erik B: 6:36

No, no, I was I was in. I was in Pakistan for a few

Anna Cei: 6:48

listening to some music, and so on. Yes,

Erik B: 6:52

yeah...and so on.

Anna Cei: 6:54

Yeah. And so in India was your first time you came in Yeah. I met some Tibetan monks in, in Goa, at the hippie market Mmm. So there was still no yoga on the table? It was meditation

Erik B: 7:14

Yeah. I didn't do any yoga, back then in India.

Anna Cei: 7:18

But then when you came back to Sweden,

Erik B: 7:20

yeah a few years later, I sort of stumbled on yoga, a

Anna Cei: 7:32

you mentioned like back then there was just yoga.

Erik B: 7:42

The yoga that I started out doing is actually called was something called Ashtanga and something called called

Anna Cei: 8:22

And for people who don't know yoga at all, what is

Erik B: 8:30

Oh, well, some some yoga types are really dynamic and positions for longer times. And in, in mindfulness. There's what

Anna Cei: 9:11

And so have you like, obviously, over these, these

Erik B: 9:23

Oh, yeah, there's a lot of negative Like I said, I do I There's a lot of really weird you know, all this driving to

Anna Cei: 10:09

So yoga stem yoga stems from India, right? Yeah. Do you think one can really transfer like an Asian old

Erik B: 10:23

Yes, I'm sure you can. But you can't, in my opinion, yoga that I'm doing is actually doesn't have anything to do with

Anna Cei: 10:54

Like, almost like stretching movement, right? Like

Erik B: 11:02

But for me, yoga is not about what positions you doing. century by just a handful of Indian gurus.

Anna Cei: 11:29

Wow, I didn't know that.

Erik B: 11:30

Yeah. And a lot of them come from the west. Actually,

Anna Cei: 11:39

Oh, you're killing the idea of like this fairy tale you know that there's the first scripture that mentions Yoga is And that means that yoga was all about meditation. And it's something completely different than being a yogi.

Erik B: 12:37

That's not yoga.

Anna Cei: 12:38

Mmm.

Erik B: 12:39

So for me, yoga is just doing whatever you're doing with

Anna Cei: 12:53

right

Erik B: 12:54

You can do whatever you think is good for your body.

Anna Cei: 12:56

Right

Erik B: 12:57

If you do it with mindfulness, and, and maybe with

Anna Cei: 13:02

Aha . So because I come as you know, I am a Ch'an our Shifu. Our Master says, you know, you have driving kind of reverberate? Because that's also Chinese, Ch'an is

Erik B: 13:45

Yeah, I know. And the whole yoga tradition that I'm in that you can do you can do mindful Facebooking, you know,

Anna Cei: 14:13

yes, yes yes. Yeah,

Erik B: 14:14

you can do everything with mindfulness. He is right.

Anna Cei: 14:18

Yeah, yeah. And it becomes that kind of awareness. children are hurt or what's going on in the world at the

Erik B: 14:38

Exactly. But don't focus too much. Don't try too hard.

Anna Cei: 14:46

Right right, and those things like emptiness of

Erik B: 14:58

Yeah, I'm not doing so much of art eh.. I do the odd

Anna Cei: 15:22

Do you take photos still? a bit, not so much. But you know a little bit about some of the other interests, I recall, because we

Erik B: 15:39

Yeah.Yeah. I've always been really interested in music

Anna Cei: 15:48

Do you still play any instruments?

Erik B: 15:50

No, no, not really. I listened to a lot of music,

Anna Cei: 16:00

What do you listen to when you want to listen to

Erik B: 16:03

Oh it's a...I have a very narrow taste, but in a very

Anna Cei: 16:18

Oh, we are so similar there. I listen to a lot of

Erik B: 16:31

Yeah. And I think that's important. But you know, it's, it's about quality, or it's about

Anna Cei: 16:39

So now we know a little bit about you. And we are Well, that's, I think it's a bit hard to pick something like that important to me. If I have to prioritize, I, I never choose to even though they are closely connected for you, you said,

Erik B: 17:31

they are closely connected. But you know, the totally changed my life many, many years ago. And it's

Anna Cei: 17:56

So what matters most to you doesn't say one singular

Erik B: 18:06

It's food, beer and music.

Anna Cei: 18:10

Right, right. Right. But I mean, you mentioned three what he said?

Erik B: 18:30

Yeah, I mean, it's become a hugely popular and the least mumbo jumbo you can ever get. Because it's all about way to be able to juggle all those things by trying to sort

Anna Cei: 19:33

I want to try to convey to our listeners. So is

Erik B: 19:42

Yes, it is a skill. That's another thing that people swim. The first time they try you know,

Anna Cei: 20:01

mindfulness, there's certain practices and that

Erik B: 20:15

The meditation is a way to practice mindfulness. The

Anna Cei: 20:33

and to constant life.

Erik B: 20:34

Yeah,

Anna Cei: 20:35

right? yeah.

Erik B: 20:36

So meditation itself doesn't really have any, any meditating he says, you know, this is not to meditation,

Anna Cei: 21:03

Right? Right. But also with meditation, there's a learning will be the right one? And like, How do I know if it's, Exactly, you'll have to do what Buddha said, you're gonna have your own gate,

Erik B: 21:40

you know, to see what path will lead to your

Anna Cei: 21:46

or mindfulness at least, right?

Erik B: 21:49

Well, you know, for me, who have been in the yoga world want to learn something from from the meditation, and the to be back in this world, and the stillness will be gone. If

Anna Cei: 22:49

So if I'm a complete beginner here in meditation, and

Erik B: 23:02

you should just start, start out, just sitting down,

Anna Cei: 23:24

Are there any books I should read? Or any YouTube

Erik B: 23:35

There's a plethora of, you know, apps and videos. There Amazon, which you could check out.

Anna Cei: 23:59

So meditation is a way to reach mindfulness in your

Erik B: 24:16

It depends on what kind of yoga you're talking about. foundations of mindfulness kaya na passana, you know, the world we live with all the with all the sensations that you ,

Anna Cei: 25:09

So mindfulness meditation and yoga, why are

Erik B: 25:14

Well, they're tools.

Anna Cei: 25:16

What do you want to accomplish? Like what is better

Erik B: 25:19

I think they help me, especially the mindfulness, the

Anna Cei: 25:31

Yeah,

Erik B: 25:31

sort of, I'd say, Have you heard of secular Buddhism? A

Anna Cei: 25:38

Yeah, yeah,

Erik B: 25:39

he was a monk in Korea. So he talks about Nirvana being cessation of reactiveness. Learn

Anna Cei: 25:54

Yes.

Erik B: 25:55

So that's, that's a really good tool, if you can be

Anna Cei: 26:10

I very often talk about the difference between

Erik B: 26:17

Yeah, right.

Anna Cei: 26:18

Yeah Stephen Batchelor is a great author. And I really

Erik B: 26:33

I would recommend for anyone who's interested in in

Anna Cei: 26:47

And it's a it's a pretty recent one of his two,

Erik B: 26:49

I think it's the latest, actually,

Anna Cei: 26:51

another one that I read early on was "Buddhism the truth about other religions, and kind of layers that of what

Erik B: 27:24

Mmm, yeah, of course.

Anna Cei: 27:25

So how do you think yoga meditation and mindfulness this, or any thoughts about the future,

Erik B: 27:45

I think we're seeing it, we have seen it happening. And more Western tradition coming up, that's a lot more about, you of a new realization within yoga, in the latest 20 years.

Anna Cei: 28:47

Discover on your own.

Erik B: 28:48

Yeah, you don't have to listen to to these old men,

Anna Cei: 28:51

right.

Erik B: 28:52

A lot of these gurus is that they have they have used Right. Actual sexual predators, right. And for me, the whole It's not, it's not a good thing. You know, it's what invites to

Anna Cei: 29:48

Right. But isn't that a little bit similar to but they are actually humans. And they were, you know, like because it was like, the church and institution was so founded and Shifus in the East.

Erik B: 30:49

I've always had a very big problem with with the whole

Anna Cei: 30:53

Yes. yes

Erik B: 30:55

By the, you know, the device, you know, you should

Anna Cei: 31:06

exactly. As a very good one. I think that's a very

Erik B: 31:11

Yeah. That's why actually, Buddhism it sort of ever heard.

Anna Cei: 31:30

Right.

Erik B: 31:30

It's always the opposite is said, you know, you should

Anna Cei: 31:35

right, right

Erik B: 31:36

If you don't you, you'll burn in hell.

Anna Cei: 31:39

Yeah. But don't listen to the proselytes. Right. So, so

Erik B: 31:44

You should seek the company of those who seek the

Anna Cei: 31:52

I think that's a gorgeous ending of your

Erik B: 32:00

Of course, I didn't come up with it. Samuel Jackson,

Anna Cei: 32:05

But if you want to read more up on what Eric does, while it's getting late where you are

Erik B: 32:30

fantastic.

Anna Cei: 32:32

Thank you and have a very good night and sleep well.

Erik B: 32:35

And you

Anna Cei: 32:36

I hope to hear from you again. Thank you. Thank you. Bye

What Matters Most To You?

Erik

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