“I just left. I quit. The realization hit me that no matter how much I make, it’s not going to make me happy,” he said with a still, zen-like disposition. Bader Al-Bahiti comfortably adopted the lotus pose like it came second nature, while I winced, twisted and fidgeted in an effort to look like I could make it work. I managed only just.
Al-Bahiti used to be quite a regular guy. He had a graduate degree in bio-medical engineering and a master’s in engineering management. He worked zealously to realize his ambition to lead a corporate life, divided between the United States, Scotland and Saudi Arabia. He enjoyed the fleeting bliss of a successful career, while paying off all lingering student credit debts and loans. Al-Bahiti had every reason to be very happy man, “fulfilling the expectations of my government, country, family, friends and environment, while living a life concerned with the physical existence.” Until it all changed one day.
Serving as product development official at a prominent multinational company, he one day faced the reality of blatant lies sold to the world outside his factory. Shampoos, soaps and other personal grooming products that his corporation was wildly claiming to contain the benefits of lemons, olives and almonds never saw the face of day at the premises.
Disillusioned and angry, he sent a three-page resignation letter that quite amusingly backfired with the offer of a promotion and a three-score hike in salary pay.
Completely spent emotionally, broke and hungry for an unknown taste, he traveled to India, volunteering with a network of organic farmers for four years, living and farming at an Aloe Vera plantation. From there on he went to Malaysia and Thailand, where he met forest monks who taught him the art of yoga.
“When I went to live at the coffee farm in Thailand, I had to shed off many conditionings that I had learned in the rat-race, asking people to tell you what to do. There was a point I was so broke that I had to eat bananas for a very long time. It took effort and time to get rid of a lot of demons and illusions we have in our heads, some as basic as waiting for a salary at the end of month, the perception of being an engineer, an Arab or a father,” he mutters softly to himself as I strain to hear.
Instilled with the values of deep discipline from India and the innate sense of personal freedom by Thai monks allowed him to enter the bedrock of marriage somewhere along the way of his wayward travels also bearing him a son.
A wild wave of energy in the form of a curly-headed three-year-old comes tumbling through the door, flips upside-down to do a head-stand, and unwaveringly offers me his father’s electronic gadget to take home. It was apparent that he was taught the art of dispossession.
As a means of living, Al-Bahiti today has dedicated himself to teaching people the Arabized version of the eastern meditative practice he fondly calls “Camel meditation.”
“My son and I used to go on walks in the north of Jeddah near Asfan at Fajr time, about half a kilometer away from our house, and we would see all these Bedouins with their camels. Then I started to notice the divinity of these creatures. The desert is a harsh environment. The plants in it are full of thorns and no water. You get sandstorms instead of cool breeze. Other countries have waterfalls but we have sand dunes. But the camel, he has his own internal waterfall. Wherever he goes, it’s a rainforest for him. These thorny plants he eats like watermelon. For the camel, the desert is a wonderful existence,” he expounds with the enthusiasm of a philosophy professor.
The entire purpose of Camel meditation, he says, is to learn how to mentally digress from a physical reality and focus the energy internally and learn to access a different universe. Each session is broken up into four parts that are meant to take the participant on a guided camel’s journey. He also teaches aerial yoga, a lighter and physically dynamic offshoot of the classical yoga practice. The class is broken into three parts: Vinyasa (free flow), death meditation and relaxation.
“The natural state of everything is happiness, but unhappiness happens when we put our awareness into the physical existence. We notice that when we make money we lose it. And we get disappointed because we make the assumptions that we will make money and keep it forever, that we will live here forever. We reproduce with the assumption that our children will never die. We are healthy and think we will never lose it. But if we become aware of the contract we are signing when we play with this physical reality, it is not as painful. It is about managing our expectations,” he says in a singsong voice and I wonder if I’m already initiated into the meditation. I couldn’t be sure. The moment of present reality was lost on me.
For more information visit, www.baderalbahiti.com.
