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01 Jul

ESTABLISHING A HOME YOGA PRACTICE

An Excerpt from THE ART AND BUSINESS OF TEACHING YOGA by Amy Ippoliti and Taro Smith, PhD

 

Yoga in America is booming. A 2016 report by Yoga Journal and Yoga Alliance reported that 36.7 million people practice yoga, up from 20.4 million in 2012, and 28 percent of all Americans having taken a yoga class at some point in their lives. As a result, the demand for yoga instructors has never been higher and increasing numbers of practitioners are becoming inspired to teach  — a career that can be as challenging as it is fulfilling.

 

In their new book The Art and Business of Teaching Yoga: The Yoga Professional’s Guide to a Fulfilling Career yoga “teacher of teachers” Amy Ippoliti and wellness entrepreneur Taro Smith, PhD, build on their popular “90 Minutes to Change the World” online course for yoga professionals to offer instructors a road map for creating a career that sustains and inspires not only themselves, but their students as well.

 

We hope you’ll enjoy this short excerpt from the book, which offers powerful tips for fitting a home yoga practice into your busy schedule, which should prove helpful to both yoga teachers and practitioners alike.

 

# # #

 

Have you ever taken a yoga class when you could just tell that the teacher was not into it? Or have you been that teacher? A passionless teacher can’t inspire students. Fortunately, there is a remedy, and that is to get on your own yoga mat and meditation cushion. As the yogini Dana Trixie Flynn puts it, “Just as a concert musician must practice their instrument, a yoga teacher must practice on their mat.”

 

This doesn’t mean going to a workshop or retreat only once in a while — though that can be nice — and coming back inspired and enthusiastic. This is about continual refueling. It means getting on your yoga mat consistently, at home, in a class, or at a practice for teachers and advanced students.

 

This may seem obvious, but the majority of teachers we’ve polled complain that their single biggest challenge as a teacher is keeping up their own practice. If this is a problem for you, here are some ideas to get you rolling. If you’re practicing consistently already, you can skim this section, but you might consider helping to uplift the whole teaching community by organizing group practices that help others stay motivated too.

 

Establish — and Maintain — Your Home Practice

Having a practice of your own can be not only empowering but often incredibly creative and innovative. If you don’t continue to practice regularly in addition to teaching, your only source of inspiration for your teaching is the stale memory of a regular practice. Do whatever it takes to get yourself on your mat five to seven days a week, even if only for a short time. Put on your favorite music first thing in the morning, and get on your mat and just experiment with movement.

 

Vow to practice at least ten minutes a day, five to seven days a week. By committing to only ten minutes, you avoid putting pressure on yourself, and you’re more likely to stick to the resolution. If you start small, you will find yourself craving more time on the mat.

 

Create a dedicated space in your home for your practice. This will encourage you to practice at home more often. It doesn’t have to be anything special — and you certainly don’t want to put so much thought into it that the planning process prevents you from rolling out your mat! But when you put just enough energy into a space, it can become magnetic, drawing you onto the mat.

 

Other tips for practicing consistently and keeping your practice interesting include the following:

  • Go straight from your bed to the mat in the morning
  • Queue up new music to listen to while practicing
  • Attempt a new pose and do a warm-up that gets you there
  • Practice someplace new — in a different room, outside, or even in a hot tub
  • Lay out your mat in an unavoidable space
  • Set a goal for the week, such as a certain number of days on the mat, a certain pose, or more time in a pose
  • Keep an asana and meditation journal to stay accountable to yourself
  • Write down any inspiring sequences you’ve done in other teachers’ classes or practices, and work on them again

 

# # #

 

Amy Ippoliti and Taro Smith, PhD are the authors of The Art and Business of Teaching Yoga and founders of the online school 90 Monkeys, which has enhanced the skills of yoga teachers and studios in over 40 countries. Amy is known for bringing yoga to modern-day life in a genuine way and has been featured on the covers of Yoga Journal and Fit Yoga Magazine. Taro is the Chief Content Officer at Yoga Glo and has over two decades of experience developing yoga, medical, and wellness enterprises. They both live in Boulder, Colorado. Visit them online at www.90monkeys.com and www.AmyIppoliti.com.

 

Excerpted from the book The Art and Business of Teaching Yoga. Copyright © 2016 by Amy Ippoliti and Taro Smith, PhD. Reprinted with permission from New World Library. www.newworldlibrary.com

 

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27 Jun

Desire as a Personal Power

We generally do not think of desire as a form of empowerment.  But it is actually a personal power of immeasurable influence.  The problem is that most of us don’t live out of desire.  We live, rather, out of should, ought to, have to, obligation, loyalty and lots of other synthetic demands.  These synthetics were manufactured in a society that demands that we conform to its obligations to image as a way of maintaining the social order.

Most of us have a long list of obligations, duties, shoulds, ought tos, have tos.  We have to go to work, we should spend quality time with the kids and the spouse, we ought to be there for Mom or Dad, we have a duty to be there for our friends, the church, temple or mosque in which we participate, and we are loyal to the government, city, state and federal.  All of these obligations and duties, tie us to the mule, so that the mule and its labor are our only focus.  Desires come around only when we are exhausted, and with a deep sigh of regret, we implode “I wiiiish I could have….”  These longings have been dismissed, repressed, put on the back burner while we live lives full of the synthetic—that is, false, fake, unreal, contrived—obligations placed on us by the external world.

But we are so often afraid to allow ourselves to live out of our desires for fear that they will make us selfish.  We will become self-involved, self-absorbed, selfish, self-invested, all-about-me kind of people.  Because there is nothing inside of us that desires anything for anyone besides us, right?  We want only for ourselves.  We never want for anyone else.  But think about it.  Is that really true?  Don’t we also have deep desires for the happiness of our loved ones?  Don’t we long for that?  Even when they are making all the wrong decisions, going down all the wrong paths, aren’t we praying, pleading, cajoling for them to choose a life with more promise of happiness?

What we don’t know, have not been taught, is that compassion is also a desire.  We have not been taught this, however, because we have all made an under-the-table of consciousness agreement to deny that the inner world has anything of importance to give us.  Rather the should, have to, ought to, of the external world’s bidding is what we are obligated to do.  We have all agreed with the powers that be that the inner world is of no value, while the mores of society are the truth.  Therefore, body image, ego, ego aggrandizement and obligation are the orders of the day.

But if we look within, we find all manner of interesting messaging systems and personal powers.  Desire is a personal power.  It asserts the authentic Self in the real world, that is, IF we allow it to have a say in our decision-making processes.  Desire is a sacred connection to the authentic Self.  In expression, it is an I AM.  In fact, the ancient root word for the Jewish God is desire.   It is hava’ ‘aher hava’, which has been translated as I AM that I AM.  The word hava’ means to fall, to exist, to become, to happen.  It is rooted in ‘avah, which means desire, incline, covet, wait longingly, wish, sigh, want, be greedy, prefer, crave, long for, lust after; and in hayah, which means to be, come to pass, exist, happen, fall out. The word ‘aher means which, who, that which, that, when, since, as or a conditional if.  The name became Jehovah Hwhy, the existing one, the primitive root words of which are hyh (hyh), to be and hwa (hwa), to desire.

Of course the Jewish God is not everyone’s God, nor does everyone have or need a God.  But the point can be made here that desire is sacred.  Yet, we have put it on the back burners of our lives because we fear its power to make us selfish.  Indeed, as a general rule, we fear the inner sanctum of the individual and collective humanity.

When we get past the identifications with the external world, however, the desires of the authentic Self are sacred. The do not make us selfish.  They make us Self.

~Andrea Mathews

Learn more about Andrea at www.andreamathews.com

 

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26 Jun

How Do You Play the Prosperity Game?

Have you ever played the Prosperity Game?   I play it periodically when I am feeling out of sorts financially or feeling the urge to grow.  And this morning I was inspired to look at it from a new direction.

Basically, the game is played by picking an amount of virtual money to spend each day.  You can spend it on yourself, on your business or anything else you choose.  I started with a penny which was challenging because very little costs a penny these days.

Once you pick a starting amount, it doubles every day – and you have to spend all the money each day.  What I quickly found the first time I played is that the virtual amount you can spend on “things” you need and want personally is quickly satisfied.

So perhaps you create a business and grow it with the virtual resources you have at your fingertips.  At another point, you may find that you want to contribute to the well-being of others.   Once you have received everything you desire, where can you spend it?  More businesses, more contributing and you may find you experience joy in helping others.

This morning, the question I am pondering is:  How much do you have to have before you are comfortable giving to others?

The question emerges from a T. Harv Eker class I listened to yesterday.  He was addressing the internal conflict many of us feel between making lots of money and our concept of being spiritual.  We want to pursue our dreams, serve the world, and make a difference, yet we cannot justify charging for our services.  If you cannot charge, you cannot afford to continue the work.  If you cannot continue the work, then your dreams flounder, you do not serve the world or make a difference.  And, in fact, if your thoughts about money are seriously negative, you become part of the problem.  “You become a taker rather than a giver.”

If you knew that you receive money (income) in direct proportion to the value or service you give others, but felt that you could not continue to provide that service if you did not have the financial wherewithal to do so, what would happen?  What would you do?  Eker suggests that you get comfortable with charging for your services and satisfy your spiritual side by contributing to others in some way.  Find a way to balance your income.  He tells a wonderful story of someone who charged for services 4 days per week, and donated those same services 2 days per week to those who could not afford to pay for what they desperately needed.

And so the question:  At what point are you comfortable giving to others?  Or vice versa, at what point are you uncomfortable giving to others?

Would you be willing to play a version of the prosperity game designed to expand your comfort zone when considering when you can give?  This time we will start with a penny, a real penny.  I’d like you to donate a penny to someone or something today.  Toss a penny into the tip cup on someone’s counter.  Feel okay?  If not, do it again tomorrow.  Is it harming you in any way?  Get comfortable with giving a penny.

As soon as you are comfortable, double it.  Put in 2 pennies and keep doubling the amount you give as long as you feel comfortable spending real money in this way.  You can change the beneficiary at any time you wish.  And when the amount starts to have a real impact on your finances, you can switch to donating time, services or stuff.  And when even that amount no longer feels possible, organize a way to raise the next level of resources for someone, perhaps a crowdfunder platform. As soon as you reach it, double the giving goal once again.   Keep donating to the causes that call to you, the ones that give you joy in the giving and the ones that make you feel the way you want to feel when you have enough to pursue your dreams and live the lifestyle you desire.

It is said that when you appreciate your life now, more of what you appreciate comes to you.  Your dreams take off.  Your goal to be of service and make a real difference in the world can be fulfilled.   May your giving be your way of showing appreciation for all that blesses you and may even more blessings follow.  Try it and let me know what you experience.

To a more abundant life,

Susan

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11 Jun

Science and Spirituality

There are some profoundly fundamental questions that humans have been pondering upon through the ages. These questions include: Where did all this – the whole world/universe – come from? Was there anything before all this came into existence or did all of it simply sprout out of nothing? Or is it all eternal without a beginning or an end? How did life begin amidst dead matter? What exactly is life? Why does it all even exist? and so on so forth.

Basically, all these questions revolve around the inherent curiosity within humans to know the absolute Truth or Reality underlying everything.

Both Science and Spirituality are geared towards getting to the bottom of it all i.e. to discover the absolute Reality. The key difference being that Science focuses on the external physical world i.e. the world external to our mind (physical body, physical objects, physical particles, physical universe, etc.), whereas Spirituality focuses on the internal world i.e. the world internal to our mind and, deeper within, our spirit.

Both are marvelous means in their own right. One big challenge Science faces though is being limited to physical matter/energy, as that’s the only thing its able to detect, monitor and experiment-with through the help of physical instruments and devices. But there is a whole different world within us – our thoughts, feelings, experiences, memories, intelligence, ego, desires, aversions, tendencies, etc. – that Science has absolutely no way of monitoring directly and objectively. There’s probably lot more going on inside our minds combined than in the whole physical universe! Mainstream Science tries to circumvent this limitation by assuming that everything can be reduced to physical matter/energy and can be explained in terms of particles, forces, etc. It also assumes that the mind and the consciousness we feel inside our head are nothing but an emergent phenomena of certain bio-electrical signals flowing through the neurons and certain chemical reactions occurring inside our brain cells, with absolutely no clue how physical matter that is mostly made-up of fat, protein, carbohydrate and water can pull off such a feat!

What if the absolute Reality is actually beyond physical matter/energy? There is already some scientific evidence of it. For instance, we have discovered that less than 10% of the total mass-energy constituting the whole universe is in the form of physical matter/energy. The rest 90%+ is something called dark matter/energy which is very different from the physical matter/energy we know of. Moreover, there have been numerous incidents of individuals experiencing non-local consciousness stretching beyond the limitations of their physical bodies. There have been thousands of scientific experiments establishing the validity of many such type of experiences and as a result Science is starting to open-up to the possibility that mind and consciousness are separate from physical matter/energy. The problem of figuring out the true nature of consciousness has been termed as the Hard Problem of Consciousness. You may check out some videos on these sites to get a better idea of where Science is with this investigation: http://www.opensciences.org/videos/consciousness-studies and http://www.scienceandnonduality.com/videos.

These are strong indicators that there is way more to Reality than just physical matter/energy and the limitations imposed by them. But do we have to just twiddle our thumbs and wait for Science to discover the Reality with no sense of whether it would ever be able to do so? Since Science has just started to scratch the surface of the non-physical domain, it could take many generations before its able to make any breakthrough. And there are high chances Science might not be able to get anywhere with this investigation as its quite implausible for it to go beyond the physical limitations imposed by nature.

So is there no way we can know the Reality during this life of ours? Thankfully, there is. Countless people throughout the history of humankind have already discovered the absolute Reality. Some great persons have even highlighted clear ways for others to get there too, and its possible to do so in this very life if one is sincere. Basically, this is already a solved problem! How did this miracle happen? Well, some very smart and able people had the ingenuity of looking for the Reality within their internal worlds instead of the external world, thinking that whatever the Reality is it must also be inside of them. Its also possible that they were not really seeking Reality but just looking for peace of mind and simply happened to stumble upon the Reality as they uncovered layers after layers of their mind through deep meditation and eventually transcended even the mind to discover and experience the underlying absolute Reality. And what they experienced was absolutely out of this world – completely beyond intellect and imagination – and it brought them supreme peace and bliss! So some of them, out of their unconditional love and compassion for other beings, shared with the world what they had discovered so that others could also experience it. This is the core of Spirituality.

So, Spirituality is like a fast-track that will get you to Reality much quicker than any other means. In fact it is the only known track as of now!

But why should one even care for Reality? Primarily because all the people who have ever experienced it, irrespective of what spiritual path they took to get there, say one thing in unison – it liberates you from all miseries and sufferings of life forever, and delivers you to a state of infinite eternal peace and bliss! And no matter who you are or what you are, you are surely looking for one and only one thing in life – happiness. If you think about it, everything that you ever do is so that you can feel happy. But how flickery this happiness usually is. After so much pain-staking effort does it come and then vanishes away so quickly. Spirituality is the solution to this problem. Its the holy grail that brings enduring happiness while you are on the journey and limitless ever-lasting happiness once you get to the destination!

Like Science, some of the spiritual paths are based on reason and involve lot of observation and experimentation, but just focused on the internal world instead of the external world. One such path is Advaita (Non-Dual) Vedanta that provides a very crisp understanding of the Reality. As Science is diving deeper, its getting more and more aligned with what Vedanta has already been saying for thousands of years! (I ll be writing a separate article on this topic)

Lot of people consider Spirituality to be superstition. But after understanding it better, it almost feels like many things Science tells us are superstitious as they are just based on plain theories and assumptions pulled out of some human’s intellect! The essence of Science is its openness. But rejecting something that countless people have experienced just because the limited human intellect is not able to grasp it is utter close-mindedness. I hope you don’t fall into that trap and give-up your freedom to explore the Reality for yourself. May the force be with you!

(This article was cross-posted from happinessjourney.net/post/143641274465/science-and-spirituality)

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09 Jun

Gentle Energy Touch

Imagine being able to utilize the power of your mind for the purpose of healing with Universal Energy—just by asking. Gentle Energy Touch (G.E.T.), a form of energy medicine pioneered by Barbara Savin, does just that by using intention to begin the healing process of an individual.

In Gentle Energy Touch readers will learn some of Savin’s basic, hands-on techniques for assisting the body’s natural ability to heal itself. The beauty of G.E.T. is that it can produce results on its own but it also complements all medical treatments and modalities, often shortening treatment and speeding healing. It is particularly effective for pain management and has also been used successfully to treat many other ailments.

Gentle Energy Touch includes simple explanations of the chakras and auras and how energy moves—and gets stuck—in the body, and then guides readers through an energy healing session, the various ideal hands-on positions for different ailments, and then closing and grounding at the end. Numerous exercises demonstrate the effects of G.E.T. with over 50 photographs showing readers the proper positioning for hands-on healing. Order your copy today at www.Amazon.com and go to Gentle Energy Touch.  Visit Barbara’s website at www.BarbaraSavin.com or email Barbara at:  BarbaraESavin@aol.com

I will be writing many articles on energy protection, chakras, energy healing and other topics. so please add this to your favorite page…See you real soon with exciting things!  Have a beautiful day filled with love and light, Barbara

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06 Jun

Thomas Merton on Silence

An excerpt from A Way to God by Matthew Fox

Even though he passed away in 1968 at the young age of 53, the pioneering ideas that Trappist monk and social justice activist Thomas Merton shared throughout his lifetime are still very much alive. So much so that Pope Francis recently declared him one of four exemplary Americans who provide wisdom for us today — along with Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr, and Dorothy Day.

Pope Francis is not alone in his deep regard for the contributions Merton made to the history of spirituality. In his new book A Way to God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey (New World Library, May 12, 2016), bestselling author and theologian Matthew Fox celebrates Merton’s work and explains how thirteenth century mystic Meister Eckhart profoundly influenced both Merton and Creation Spirituality, which Fox has long espoused and written about.

We hope you’ll enjoy this excerpt from the book about Merton’s perspective on silence.

# # #

What does Thomas Merton have to say about silence? A lot. Consider the following poem:

 

Be still

Listen to the stones of the wall

Be silent, they try

To speak your

Name.

Listen

To the living walls.

Who

Are you? Whose

Silence are you?

 

Such an invitation! To listen to the stones of the living walls and learn who one is, to whom one belongs. I cannot read this poem without thinking of a sweat lodge where, thanks to the ancient wisdom of the indigenous peoples, a ceremony is created wherein the rocks themselves, the oldest beings on earth and our elders, speak to us when they are heated up and glowing. I do not know if Merton ever experienced a sweat lodge, but I remain profoundly grateful for the numerous ones I have been blessed to attend. And in them all, silence is honored.

Another poem by Merton speaks to silence as well.

The whole

World is secretly on fire. The stones

Burn, even the stones

They burn me. How can a man be still or

Listen to all things burning? How can he dare

To sit with them when

All their silence

Is on fire?

Here, too, Merton evokes a sweat lodge. But he is also speaking to a profound truth revealed in postmodern science, which is that every atom in the universe contains photons or light waves. Thus, all atoms and all beings are on fire. All beings are a burning bush. One does not have to travel to Mount Sinai to encounter the Divine in a burning bush — every bush is a burning bush, every leaf, every stone, every fish, every bird, and every person. We are all on fire. But we have to “sit with them” and be receptive to them. We have to dare to sit and to listen. We have to dare silence. That is the contemplative way. Merton says: “Contemplation is essentially a listening in silence, an expectancy.” All beings are, in Eckhart’s words, “words of God and revelations of God.” Merton knew this as well. But it takes silence to grasp it.

For Eckhart, emptying the mind is:

the most powerful prayer, one almost omnipotent to gain all things, and the noblest work of all is that which proceeds from a bare mind….A bare mind can do all things. What is a bare mind? A bare mind is one which is worried by nothing and is tied to nothing, which has not bound its best part to any modes, does not seek its own in anything, that is fully immersed in God’s dearest will and goes out of its own.

A bare mind dwells in the now. Merton advises us to “love winter when the plant says nothing.” Even nature enjoys darkness and solitude. Winter is that Via Negativa time of the year.

# # #

Matthew Fox is the author of over 30 books including Meister Eckhart, The Hidden Spirituality of Men, Christian Mystics, and most recently A Way to God. A preeminent scholar and popularizer of Western mysticism, he became an Episcopal priest after being expelled from the Dominican Order by Cardinal Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI. You can visit him online at www.matthewfox.org.

Excerpted from the book A Way to God: Thomas Merton’s Creative Spirituality Journey. Copyright © 2016 by Matthew Fox. Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. www.newworldlibrary.com

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04 Jun

Debugging the Mind

Its hard to find an unhappy baby, whereas its very easy to find unhappy adults. Something specific has to be done to make a baby unhappy. On the other hand, something specific has to be done to make an adult happy. Same thing happens to all of us as we grow from innocence to experience. Something affects the functioning of our mind over time causing all sorts of misery and suffering. Its important to debug these problems in order to lead a life of enduring peace, harmony and bliss.

These fundamental human problems are not new to the modern world. Mankind has been facing them for a very long time and a large number of intellectual and enlightened people have thoroughly analyzed, root-caused and solved these problems over thousands of years. All we need is to pay heed!

As per them, every source of unhappiness, every reason for misery and suffering, every cause of a negative emotion like anger, greed, lust, delusion, arrogance, jealousy, etc. – basically each and every problem in life boils down to five impurities (Kleshas) of the mind. These five impurities exist in every human mind in varying degrees and every affliction originates from one or more of them. They are present since birth and keep increasing as we grow older. That’s why even children are not the epitome of happiness. That entitlement is reserved only for those who are able to get rid of these impurities completely.

These five impurities are:

  • Avidya: Avidya is the ignorance of our true nature – the pure inner Self that is an infinite ocean of peace, harmony, bliss, freedom and knowledge. Its not an intellectual ignorance but an experiential ignorance, which means that only having an intellectual knowledge of our true nature does not remove the ignorance, we have to actually experience it. This ignorance is the root-cause of the other four impurities. Just imagine, if you are able to experience this eternal, pure, blissful Self, all problems of life will evaporate instantly!
  • Asmita: Asmita is egoism that gets developed by identifying our selves as the body and mind since we are ignorant of our true Self. The pure Self can never be bruised but the ego can be easily bruised causing misery. This false “I” soon expands to “my” and “mine” and forms various internal and external attachments like “my prestige”, “my title”, “my money”, “my family”, “my people”, “my house”, “my car”, “my property”, “my religion”, “my country”, etc. These attachments increase the chances of misery even more because when any of them is hurt, the false “I” hurts.
  • Raga: Raga is attraction or liking towards an external entity (person/object/situation) that is a source of pleasure for us. These likings evolve into desires and cravings as we constantly seek happiness from the outside world. And whenever its not fulfilled, we suffer.
  • Dvesa: Dvesa is repulsion or dislike towards an external entity (person/object/situation) that is a source of pain for us. These dislikes evolve into aversions and hatred as we constantly try to avoid things that bring us unhappiness. And whenever we encounter such a thing, we suffer.
  • Abhinivesa: Abhinivesa is clinging to life. Every human being, in fact every living creature, wants to continue to live forever. Even though we are very well aware that the body and mind have to perish one day, we still have a strong inclination to keep living. This results in a fear of death and hence misery from anything that could indicate death.

 

Take any problem in life and try to get to the bottom of it and you will arrive at one or more of these five impurities. E.g. Whenever you are angry, its either because something you want is not happening or something you don’t want is happening. Its all a play of likings, dislikes and egoism. Whenever you are anxious and worried, its because you are thinking too much whether something you want will happen or not or whether something you don’t want will happen. Again, a play of likings, dislikes and attachments. Whenever you feel jealous, its because someone else has something you want. Again, egoism and likings. Whenever you are afraid, its usually because of the fear of losing something you like or losing life itself. Whenever you are in physical pain, its because you are identifying yourself too much with the body. And so every affliction invariably originates from these impurities.

This is known as the philosophy of Kleshas. Most major Indian spiritual texts like Bhagavad Gita, Ashtavakra Gita, etc. as well as teachings of Gautama Buddha talk about it in one form or the other, but its best elaborated in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.

These impurities can be removed by a meticulous process of purification involving austerity, self-discipline, self-study, contemplation and meditation. It can also be done through complete self-surrender to the Divinity. Patanjali calls this process Kriya Yoga (not to be mistaken by the Kriya Yoga popularized by Paramahansa Yogananda). This Kriya Yoga is a part of the overarching Raja Yoga.

We can notice results as soon as we start removing these impurities and life becomes increasingly more wonderful as we keep making progress. Along with working on these impurities, if we also keep filling our minds with a purity – love for all – we naturally start developing all the attributes of goodness (Sattvik attributes) listed in an earlier blog post. This process also helps with Self-realization or the experience of the pure inner Self which is the only way to completely annihilate Avidya – the ultimate root-cause of all impurities. And its all under our control as all the changes have to be brought within ourselves. We are not dependent on anyone or anything for it. But remember, its a marathon not a sprint! Happy Debugging!

(This article was cross-posted from happinessjourney.net/post/123120544220/debugging-the-mind)

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02 Jun

Purpose of Life

Everything we do in life – how we spend each and every moment of our life – has been neatly divided into four categories in the Indian scriptures. These are known as the four Purusarthas (or objects of human pursuit) and include:

  • Kama: Kama encapsulates all forms of pleasures and enjoyments we try to obtain through our six senses i.e. eyes, ears, tongue, nose, skin and mind. This includes nice things to see (like good views, images, etc.), hear (like good music, talks, etc.), taste (like good food, beverages, etc.), smell (like good scents, perfumes, etc.), touch (like good materials, etc.) and think (like good food for thought, memories, fantasies, etc.). All of these fall under the category of Kama.
  • Artha: Artha is all forms of means that we try to acquire to fulfill other aspects of our life. This includes money, status, property, health, security, family, etc.
  • Dharma: Dharma is righteousness – both towards ourselves as well as anything apart from ourselves, like other humans and living beings, society, environment, etc. Anything we believe is “right” based on our value system (morals, ethics, disciplines, etc.) falls under the category of Dharma.
  • Moksha: Moksha is liberation. It is brought about by discovering our true self through self-realization or enlightenment. It answers many deeper questions of life like who am I?, why am I here?, what is this universe?, where did it all come from?, etc. in a process of inquiry into the absolute truth and reality of the whole existence, and leads to ultimate bliss, peace, harmony, freedom and knowledge.

 

A vast majority of people spend a very significant part of their time towards Kama and Artha, a little time towards Dharma and hardly any time towards Moksha. There are exceptions but this is usually the norm. However, the scriptures always lay down the Purusarthas in the following order:

dharma artha kama moksha

First and foremost is Dharma which means everything we do in life should first be righteous before we even proceed further. Out of all activities that pass through the filter of Dharma, some must be performed to acquire Artha or means to sustain life but only to the extent necessary, and the remaining activities should be focused towards Moksha while not getting trapped in Kama.

Its important to note that Kama is a trap that a vast majority of people fall into, which makes them spend most of their free time and resources running after sensory pleasures that prevents them from focusing on Moksha. Some people eventually realize that Kama does not provide the level of satisfaction they inherently seek and they come to learn about Moksha, but most never get to that stage. Even among those who know about Moksha, very few actually focus on it.

There are so many under-privileged who can’t even start thinking any of this due to severe lack of resources and support, making their very existence extremely difficult. And then there are countless other non-human living beings who can’t even think. So one should consider oneself supremely blessed if one can even come close to thinking of Moksha!

Why is Moksha important? For the simple reason that by not being one’s real self one can never be fully satisfied and will always find something missing deep within. Hence its very important to identify one’s absolutely true self and be firmly established in it. History is laden with accounts of people who have successfully attained self-realization in the past and they all have stressed the supreme importance of Moksha. Not focusing on Moksha only results in a discontented life. Only through Moksha can one attain the ultimate level of satisfaction, peace and bliss while leading a life of enduring happiness, and be free from this extremely arduous cycle of life and death that is essentially made of miseries and sufferings.

So please don’t let this opportunity called life pass in vain without even working towards its actual purpose!

(This article was cross-posted from happinessjourney.net/post/127875498570/purpose-of-life)

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01 Jun

Imperience

This is an excerpt from the book “Imperience: Understanding the Heart of Consciousness,” by Erik Knud-Hansen.

Living spiritually is the only way to know true peace, love, and compassion—whether or not doing so includes practicing a religion. Spiritual living embraces a vision more profound than mundane concerns and includes the intention to awaken conscious awareness and intuitive wisdom. This is not about our beliefs. It is about the quality of our hearts. Although our daily lives exist in the relative world, they are never separate from the absolute. For our way to be spiritual, we must make the effort to live in harmony with divine consciousness.

Nurturing a spiritual life in a busy world entails a specific kind of effort that has to do with the attitude of heart with which we engage the world. It is not so much about an agenda of rules and procedures but the willingness to see for ourselves what clouds the mind and what clarifies it. Rules and precepts can be useful as guidelines, but there is a huge difference between following outside authorities, and being conscientious and compassionate in our daily lives.

Personal consciousness is the aspect of who we are that communicates directly with divine consciousness. Our destinies as living human beings go beyond the material world of appearances that constantly arise and pass away. Our lives are our journeys. The relative self is a necessary vehicle for us in the mundane world, but it doesn’t know where it’s going or how to find its spiritual home without the moral compass of divine consciousness.

This vehicle was born to be impermanent and it would not be wise for us to spend our whole lives tinkering with its physical appearance and chasing the aimless desires of a distracted driver. We can aspire to a spiritual life beyond just adopting convenient dogmas from secondhand sources. Spiritual maturation requires more from us than just agreeing with someone else’s beliefs and doing their rituals. We hold onto religious views like these for psychological security on journeys we don’t understand. If they actually worked, all would already be well.

Our conditioned minds are inherently confused about what our vehicles are and where they are going. We delight in the fun parts of the journey and contract when we suffer. Either way, events in this plane of existence do not include our spiritual destiny unless we consciously make them so. Whether we realize it or not, personal consciousness has only one true desire: to dissolve in the absolute peace and brilliance of divine love, which is our spiritual home. To understand this intuitively in our heart—beyond the mind’s capacity to hold views and opinions about it—is the task of the spiritual journey.

Our personal consciousness is always as close to divine consciousness as a wave is to the ocean. Imperience—conscious awareness—is our umbilical link to the absolute. Whether we are lost and tangled up in the world of experience or wholeheartedly in the imperience of the present moment is up to us. Following are some aspects of living wholesomely that strengthen the human capacity to awaken divine consciousness—here and now.

Morality and Ethics

When we listen to our conscience, we imperience the intuitive wisdom to embrace our authenticity and awaken our consciousness.

No principle governs spiritual development more than morality and ethics. Our thoughts, speech, and actions are guided by our intentions and determine the quality of our minds. When our minds are clouded, we cannot see clearly. Purification of the mind enables us to see the truth of life for ourselves. As we are interconnected with all beings, wholesome personal behavior benefits those around us as well and is compassionate by nature. Personal morality is how we take responsibility for our share of life and is in no way selfish or narcissistic.

Morality relates to natural laws of being, and how our behaviors affect the quality of our minds now and in the future. It is much more than just following rules issued by outside authorities, and it does not pertain to judgments about our behaviors by any being (seen or unseen). Precepts and moral guidelines can serve as wholesome intentions when they adhere to spiritual principles and don’t just prescribe behaviors.

Good and bad are relative terms that have all but lost their deeper meanings. In relation to moral behavior, actions can be considered good if they have a wholesome effect and bad if they are unwholesome and harmful (relative to the time and circumstance). Good and bad are not judgments meted out by an absolute authority outside ourselves. What might yield good consequences to one person could be detrimental to another. It is easy to see how extreme actions like killing, harming, stealing, and lying create mental conflict and entanglement, but we spend most of our lives amidst much subtler questions that still have effects.

In the relative world, we are incessantly engaged in thinking and feeling to help us fulfill our needs and desires. Problems arise when we become so focused in doing that we lose touch with being. When we are distracted and lost in busyness, we can be less conscious of the quality of our heart as we do things. We are more likely to act in self-interest and this can even corrupt good intentions. For instance, we might not notice the difference between giving “from the heart” with kindness, compassion, and no strings attached, and giving because we think we must or to get something in return.

In a spiritual life, our own needs and those of others are very much the same; we can’t separate one from the other. When we hold our personal needs and desires to be the only important things, our behaviors become selfish rather than selfless. Likewise, if we hold the needs of others to be the only important thing because of low self-esteem or a desired self-image, that separation also prevents us from being authentic and true. We benefit from deepening our understanding of morality and natural laws pertaining to wholesomeness.

Practicing morality focuses our intentions and allows our connection to the divine to be the ultimate aim and arbiter. Maintaining wholesome intentions weakens delusion no matter what we do. When we weaken delusion, we also weaken the force of desires and aversions conditioned by feelings that do not represent true moral authority. To be conscientious is to follow our heart.

For more information, visit http://www.erikknudhansen.com.

Imperience: Understanding the Heart of Consciousness
By Erik Knud-Hansen
ISBN: 978-1-5043-4447-0
Available in hardcover, softcover and e-book
Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Balboa Press

About the author
Erik Knud-Hansen became devoted to spiritual practice in 1972, beginning years of intensive meditation, monastic training and helping to establish several retreat centers in the U.S. He has met and studied with many eminent masters representing each of the major schools of Buddhism and other traditions of spiritual wisdom. Erik’s primary interest lies in sharing ways of awakening reflecting the primary traditions in which he trained—namely Buddhism, Taoism and Advaita Vedanta. He is currently writing a memoir relating to the more personal side of spiritual practice, ”The Dharma, the Tao, the Here and Now.”

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26 May

Loving On Me

This is an excerpt from the book “Loving on Me!: Lessons Learned on the Journey from Mess to Message,” by Katrina McGhee.

One of the great benefits of dealing with the unaddressed issues of our past is that it clears up mental space in the present. It allows the whole of ourselves to focus on what’s before us, viewing life through a broader lens of possibility rather than pessimism, confusion, and defeat. It’s from this vantage point that we are best poised to explore life beyond our comfort zone.

After a few months of rest and reflection, I felt that shift happen for me. It was as if the fog surrounding my brain slowly began to recede, allowing my mind to fill with random thoughts and ideas. I couldn’t put it all together yet, but it felt like glimpses of the future.

Looking back, I see how God was taking me through a process of reshaping my thinking before he’d allow me to take those first steps. Bit by bit, spending time with Him evolved my beliefs about who I am and who He is. Knowing my true self, defining my worth based on who He created me to be, and accepting this one truth greatly expanded the prospects for my life:

I am because He is, and because He is, anything is possible.

Believing this meant I didn’t have to be confined by what I had been or knew how to do. I could be whoever He wanted me to be, and I could know that whatever He asked me to do, it would be enough. But what was it?

Journaling was the best way for me to get quiet enough to hear God’s answers. Through daily writing, I was able to slow down my constantly racing thoughts and drop into a space where it was He and me alone. It was there where my imagination took flight in a more cohesive manner.

Soon a cornucopia of ideas—both new and dusted-off old ones—emerged. My transition coach called it a creative tornado, but for me it felt like I was finally alive again, awake and ready to reengage with the world. What got me especially excited was a concept for a new women’s community. I referred to it as Do Good Girlz, a place where young women could connect their passion with their true purpose.

My idea was to get someone to write a program that would serve as the “brain” for our website, the goal being to use technology to match a woman’s unique gifts, talents, values, and resources with a variety of causes and organizations that, based on her responses, would be of interest. After completing our survey, each “Do Good Girl” would receive a unique plan to put her passions into action, and together we would change the world.

It sounded so wonderful, marrying all my loves—mentoring young women, creating communities, and supporting great causes. It also met a need. For years, young women had been asking me, “How do I know what I’m supposed to be doing? How do I take what I’m good at and help other people?” Well, here was the solution! Do Good Girlz would revolutionize the way women engaged in supporting local and global communities.

The best part was this was a natural next step for what I had been doing all my life, what I was good at. So I started getting all my ducks in a row. I secured the website, graphic designer, and a project manager. I even put together a small focus group and started meeting with them regularly to test out my ideas.

There was just one problem—they didn’t get it. What seemed so obvious on paper fell flat in the telling. They kept asking me hard questions like, “What’s the goal? What are you trying to achieve? Why would women engage, and why would they come back after the first time?” My answer was always, “Let me think about that.” What I really wanted to say was, “Look, this is an inspiration from God. Just go with it!”

But my gut was telling me they were right. There was something missing. It felt incomplete, like I had snatched up a piece and tried to make it the whole picture. You know how we do, so eager to get started we hear a smidgen of something and then take off running like we know the whole story, only to have to stop a few steps later to get the rest of what we need.

That’s what I ended up doing, going back to the journal to ask God what I was missing. And that’s when He started showering me with additional pieces to the puzzle.

It’s a movement, about women for women. It’s built on the spirit of abundance.
It’s a partnership and a platform.

It’s where inspiration meets opportunity. It’s about choices that change our world. It’s a blog. It’s a business. It’s a community. It’s a place of healing and restoration.

Honestly, I felt a little all over the place and yet still on the right path. Although “it” didn’t completely sync up with my original idea for Do Good Girlz, it totally lined up with this leg of my journey. Even the affirmations I scribbled in the margins of my journal were reflections of what God was teaching me about me.

I can change the world.
I was created for a unique purpose, something only I can do. I care about myself, my village, and my world.
I am mighty. I am strong. I am enough.
I choose to do good!

It seemed this message of being enough, which was so central to my own healing, was at the core of what God was asking me to share with the world. Whereas I had latched on to the “do” part, God backed me up once again to “be.”

 

About the author
Katrina McGhee is the founder and CEO of Loving On Me, a global movement to encourage women to love themselves more. She is a women’s advocate, non-profit leader, mentor and social responsibility pioneer whose desire to make a difference led to 20 years in leadership roles at two of the largest non-profit organizations in the world, including serving as executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. For more information about Katrina, visit http://katrinamcghee.com.

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