1. What is your model of reality? What are your answers to the Big Questions: Who am I? Whence do I come? Whither do I go? What must I do? How well developed is your philosophy(we all have one!)? What are the main sources for your philosophical understanding of the world? What place does Yoga have in your model?

It's so funny for me to approach these questions as I keep thinking there is this right or wrong answer and I should know by now there isn't, and yet here I sit, wondering who will read this and whether or not they'll approve. Mind is such a silly little thing.

My model of reality is presence. I believe that if one stays in the present moment and operates from this perspective, one can attain Nirvana and find God. My spiritual peace and my nirvana hasn't even come from meditation. It's come through singing, through playing the french horn, and through playing the piano.

In answering who am I, I can chose to socially locate myself or I can chose to be esoteric. Not only am I a young girl who wears many hats and holds lots of different interests and has a great family and some pretty kick ass friends, I'm also a spiritual being who has some extremely human experiences. I am part of All That Is, and everything I say and do has an effect on the Universe and everything around me, whether or not I know it. This is why I try to be a good person and live with love and speak from my heart and engage in right speech and right action. I don't do this all the time. That's why I say I'm a spiritual being having a human experience.

Quite literally, I came from my mama's loins :P, but I believe soooo many things had to come before me in order to set the stage for me to even exist. If you wanted to get really technical, we could start with the Big Bang.

I don't know where I am going, to be honest. Some days I feel like I'm going to hell in a handbasket. Other days I feel like I've bought myself a one day ticket to Samadhiland. Either way, I make it my life's goal to be as present as possible and to try to find love and beauty in every person I encounter, every situation I find myself in, and every moment I experience breath. I feel that in this life I must love, love, love and love, and teach others to love as well. I feel that the main purpose in anyone's life, the entire reason we exist on this Earth, is because of love, and I want to show the world that it's what we need from each other and to give to each other.

I feel like my life philosophy is pretty well developed, but obviously, I'm open and willing to learn more about other systems of right living, obviously, as I wouldn't be taking this course. Most of my philosophy I've developed from studying yoga and Buddhism and Dharma and meditating. I haven't really studied any of the "classic" Greek and Roman philosophers; I think I failed intro philosophy when I was in university because my brain wasn't in a headspace where it was willing to absorb that sort of information when I took that course. Yoga was my introduction to all of this, and it's helped me build a firm, significant foundation and opened up the door to so many other modes and theories of life. I love it.

2. What, in your view, is truth or reality? How does it differ from a model?

Any teachings are never 100% truth, but are based on what we feel to be true (which is there biases come in as well). Reality is a concept so vast that no one will ever be able to grasp what it actually is and means. We created models based on articulations of truth to help us become deeper, more spiritual beings, as they allow us to face ourselves in the right direction so that we can come to deeper meaning of life and all that exists.