I forever find it interesting how younger people seek the position of age. Whereas, the older a person gets, they tend to look back at their youth as somewhat of a glorious time. This being said, this never changes the fact, that a young person seemingly wants to dance in the world of adults.
 
Recently, it’s been brought to my attention, that a young person in my extended family is dancing in a world inhabited by adults, the realm of Mansion Parties.
 
I don’t follow him, but apparently on his Insta, he’s always showing himself at these big mansion parties, up in the Hollywood Hills, and around the greater L.A. area. The thing is, this guy’s only sixteen years old. So, that means, that there’s no way that he has the financial ability to actually set these parties up. He claims, he’s just making some bank on the side from promoting them. And, good for him. Obviously, he’s an entrepreneur.
 
Within all of this, however, there’s a very big issue, these parties are sketchy scenes. I mean, I’m not alien to that world, and I know what goes on at these events. …Especially here in L.A., depending on who’s attending, there can be a lot of dastardly deeds taking place, as well as things like gang activity, tons of drugs, tons of sex, tons of suckering young people into a lifestyle that they do not possess the mental capacity to even comprehend. Thus, I’m worried!
 
There’s nothing I can do. I’m not his father. But, even me being who I am, the free minded person, I would not let my child be doing that and/or living that lifestyle. Yet, his parents seemed to be fine with it. So, god bless him. Mostly, I hope the kids going to be okay.
 
It’s kind of like I look back to my life. When I was that young man’s age, sixteen, I too was hanging out with a much older crowd. I mean, I had been drawn to Eastern Mysticism since my earliest memory. I’ve spoken about this in the past, but I was a latchkey kid, and one of the things I would do pretty much on a daily basis, is I would watch the show, Yoga for Health, presented by a man named Richard Hittleman, on the PBS networks. There, he would teach the various aspects of yoga, in association with teaching the postures, the breathing techniques, meditation, and things like that. Meaning, I was into that stuff really young. Add to that my involvement in the martial arts, beginning at the age of six, and Eastern Mysticism has always been a essential part of my life. And, has (obviously) remained that way to this day.
 
Then, when I turned sixteen, and got a car, I was able to truly immerse myself into that spiritual world. It was then that I had a close friend, who was also very drawn to Eastern Spirituality, and he and I would go out to all of the spiritual centers and spiritual events around L.A. and beyond. …Seeking deeper knowledge and all of that kind of mystical sort of stuff. We really wanted to live that lifestyle.
 
I was still Going to Hollywood High School at that point in time, so I had to take care of my studies, as well. But, come the evenings, and certainly on the weekends, he and I would delve out into that world.
 
During that time period, I found things like the Sufi Order, and Swami Satchidananda’s Integral Yoga Institute. My friend, went off to university. And, though we stayed friends for a number of years after that, we eventually went our separate ways. Me, I never left that whole lifestyle, however.
 
While I was at high school, with any of my free time, you could find me associating with those people. The thing is, though my friend group was mostly in their early thirties, they weren’t involved in things like doing drugs, partying, wild sex, and all of the kind of nonsense that goes on at those big mansion parties. They were all celibate. They were completely anti-drug. They were vegetarians. They were practitioners of the various spiritual disciplines. Thus, I was in a safe environment. Though I was a decade or more younger than all of these people, I was very protected.
 
I always remember the time when it was on my seventeenth birthday and I was helping with a yoga retreat that was going on up in the Santa Monica Mountains. One of the Swamis realized that it was my birthday.
 
…Birthdays have never been that big of a deal to me. But, as I have come to understand, they are a really big deal for some people. Thus, the swami packed all of the staff up into our cars, and they took me out for carrot cake at a local cafe. The crew was all a little shocked when they found out that I was only seventeen years old. I found all of their amazement kind of funny. But, in looking back, I see that I was really living a very unique lifestyle for somebody of that age. Anyway… Enough about me.
 
What I’m saying here is, a lot of young people, for whatever reason, find themselves living in the world of adults. Personally, I never felt any different from those people when I was coming up. I felt like I had become an adult many years before that point. But, unlike my family member, I grew up in a really, (for lack of a better term), violent urban environment. Thus, I feel like I was more readily prepared to enter the world of adulthood, then say my family member who has lived a very sheltered life up until this point.
 
The fact is, I worry about him. I don’t know that he has the chops to deal with the kind of stuff that can go on when the shit hits the fan in that environment. And, doing what he’s doing, it will.
 
So, what am I saying here? What I’m saying is we each find ourselves living the life that is presented to us. Yes, we each have our foundational understandings about reality. Yes, we each have our own personal understanding of the world in which we hope to inhabit. Yes, we each can seek out those levels of existence where we can hopefully find what we are looking for. The existence where we wish to exist. This being said, a lot of life is based on availability. It’s based on the people that are around us. It’s based on those who influence us, whether we want their influence in our lives or not.
 
Ultimately what I’m saying is, children become adults. There’s nothing we can do to stop that. We can hope that they will live a good, happy, and prosperous life. And, reach the level of existence that they desire. But, there’s a lot of obstacles in the way. And, if you let the people around you—if you let your family members walk down that dark road, once they reach that dark side, there’s no one to blame but yourself if things turn bad. Hopefully, and I can only wish, that that will not happen to my family member. He’s young. And, youth is a blessing. The sad truth is, however, most young people never realize this fact until it’s too late. Then, all you are left with is what you are left with. From this, the rest of your life may be defined by nothing more than the necessity of Clean Up and regret.