Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts

February 1, 2017

#immortality



The material universe and the physical body that I experience through my senses are only one aspect of reality.

All material things are made up of atoms.

Atoms are composed of subatomic particles moving at lightning speeds through huge empty spaces.

Subatomic particles are not material things; they are fluctuations of energy and information in a huge void.

Subatomic particles flicker in and out of existence depending on whether I am watching them or not.

Before my decision to observe them, subatomic particles are probability amplitudes or mathematical ghosts in a field of infinite possibilities .

When I make the choice to observe the subatomic world of mathematical ghosts, the ghosts freeze into space-time events or particles that ultimately manifest as matter.

My physical body and the body of the physical universe are both proportionately as void as intergalactic space.

The essential nature of my material body and that of the solid appearing universe is that they are both nonmaterial. They are made up of non-stuff.

My material body and the body of the Universe both flicker in and out of existence at the speed of light.

My nervous system cannot process these quantum events at the speed at which they are really happening, so it decodes the energy and information soup of the Universe into the experience of solid three-dimensional material bodies.

When I decide to observe the quantum soup of the Universe, made up of non-stuff, it manifests in my awareness as a physical body that I experience as mine, and other bodies that I experience as the Universe.

In my decision to become an observer, I create the experience of my physical body and also that of the physical Universe.

My brain is made up of the same non-stuff or void that exists everywhere. It is a decoding instrument that moves through a vibrating dance of energy and information, and, as a result of this interaction, I start to experience material and solid things.

My brain is a sensor that tunes in to a non-local, omnipresent vibrating field of infinite frequencies.

My body is an experience that I have in space and time. It has a location in space, and it exists in time. It has a beginning, a middle, and an ending.

My world is a continuum of experiences and is therefore comprised of space-time events. It exists as objects in space that have beginnings, middles, and endings.

My brain is an instrument that I use to have experiences.

Where is the me that is using this instrument (called the brain) to have these experiences called the body, which gets born, moves through space and time, and then dies?

Me is the experiencer behind every experience, the thinker behind every thought, the seer behind every scenery, the observer behind every observation.

The experience changes, but the experiencer remains the same. The thought comes and goes, the thinker is always there; the scenery transforms, but the seer remains unchanged, eternal. The real me is the seer, not the scenery.

I cannot experience the experiencer by using my senses, because when I use my senses I begin to have experiences, and then I am no longer with myself, I am with my experience.

I cannot experience the experiencer by thinking thoughts because when I am thinking thoughts I can no longer be with myself, the thinker.

Thoughts are experiences. The thinker is the experiencer. Perhaps the thought is the thinker in disguise, and the experience is the experiencer in disguise.

This is the dilemma.
Is the thinker the thought?
Is the experiencer the experience?

Could the seer be the scenery?
Could the thinker be the thought?

Let us examine both experiencer and experience.

All experiences are space-time events.

They are in the world of dimensions.

My body occupies space. It has height, width, volume. It exists in time. It is time bound.

Even thoughts are flickering space-time events. They occur for a flicker of an instant and have a beginning, a middle, and an end. For a flicker of an instant, they occupy a space and a location in awareness.

Therefore all experience is time bound.

The experiencer, on the other hand, being the silent, non-changing witness in every experience, is timeless.

The experiencer is dimensionless.

The experiencer occupies no space.

Since the experiencer is there before the experience and is there after the experience, it is always there, and being always there, it is eternal.

Eternal, unbounded, spaceless, timeless, dimensionless, the experiencer is Spirit.

Spirit is the real me.

Nonmaterial and dimensionless, Spirit can neither be created nor destroyed.

Spirit is spaceless, timeless, and dimensionless. Fire cannot burn it and water cannot wet it, wind cannot dry it, weapons cannot kill it, eternal and unbounded and nonchanging, without beginning and without ending; it is nowhere in particular and everywhere in general. This spirit is the essential me.

How can I find Spirit?
Not by thinking.
Not by doing.
Only by Being.

Only through silence, only by Being can I know myself.

When I am not using memories, when I am not anticipating, when I am just being, then I am just awareness. Then I experience myself as the timeless factor in the midst of time-bound experience.

As Spirit I know that my persona changes, I don't.

I look into the mirror, and I see the change in my persona from ten years ago. But the Me that is looking is unchanged.

It is the prison of memory that creates the boundaries of space-time and causation.

When I escape the prison of memory, I experience the boundless in the midst of boundaries.

Memories are frozen pictures of space-time events.

The me who experiences the memories is the nonchanging space between these space-time events.

I notice the spaces between my thoughts. Thoughts come and go. The spaces are always there.

I am now noticing the spaces between written words, spaces between objects, spaces between thoughts, spaces between sounds, spaces between musical notes, spaces inside a cup, around it, and outside it. I am noticing spaces, spaces everywhere. They are all the same spaces, and they are always there. Before the thoughts came, after they left, the space is. Before the music was born and after it died, the space is. Before the words were uttered and after the speech was silent, the space is. Before and after death, the space is.

The space always is, and in this space I am.

Before birth I am.
After death I am.
I always am.

When I quantify space I create time.
Time is a way of measuring space.

When I quantify time I create space. Space is a way of measuring time.

When I quantify myself I create a person.

When I notice the spaces between sounds and the spaces between words and also the spaces between my thoughts and the background silence behind everything, I realize that all these spaces are the same space.

This space is the entry point. It is the transformational vortex, the corridor, the window to Spirit.

Spirit is beyond the void of space. This realm, beyond the void, is not an empty nothingness; it is the womb of creation.

Nature goes to the same place to create a galaxy of stars, a cluster of nebulas, a rain forest, a human body,
or a thought. That place is Spirit.

Personal time is born in the spaces between personal memories.

Cosmic time is born in the spaces between cosmic memories.

Spirit is the potentiality for space-time events.

Spirit moving within itself creates space-time events and becomes matter.

Spirit and matter are one.
Observer and observed are one.
Seer and scenery are one.

The seer, the observer, the experiencer, the thinker, the field, the witness, and pure awareness are all different words to describe Spirit.

Spirit (the observer) has no height, no width, no length, no breadth, no volume, no space, no duration. It is eternal, unbounded, ineffable and abstract.

Spirit is invisible. It is soundless. It is without texture, without taste, without smell. It is dimensionless, spaceless and timeless.

Spirit is ME.

Spirit is the immeasurable potential of all that was, is, and will be, and it is ME. It is the Field.

When the Field vibrates it creates waves.

The vibrating Field...with its waves of intelligence, information and energy...is the invisible source of the fabric of the space-time continuum.

Waves of intelligence are vibrations of Spirit. Waves of intelligence are also my thoughts and all thoughts everywhere.

Since I am the Field, all thoughts are my thoughts. Some thoughts are experienced more personally. I call them mine.

Some thoughts I experience less personally. I call these other people's thoughts and also the thoughts of animals and Nature.

Some thoughts I experience inside my personal body, and some I experience outside my body. Some are personal, others are impersonal; however, all thoughts are equally mine.

Vibrations in the Field are thoughts in consciousness. They are quantum events in the space-time continuum. These are the ways the observer becomes the process of observation and the experiencer becomes the process of experience. This is the mind in action.

When these vibrations condense or freeze, matter is born. Frozen vibrations are matter. Frozen vibrations are the birth if matter. They are the birth of the web of space-time events. These are the "things" that occupy space and have duration in time.

Matter is the birth of particles from waves. All particles are frozen waves. All material bodies are condensations of frozen vibrations.

Matter is the world of material objects. It is the scenery, the object of experience, the observed.

Spirit moving within itself creates mind, and mind attending to itself precipitates into matter.

The observer observes itself and becomes the observed.

The seer sees itself and becomes the scenery. The seer is the Spirit. The seeing is the mind. The scenery is the world.

Seer, scenery, and seeing are One.
Spirit, mind, and matter are One.

Creation is the self interacting with itself and experiencing itself. Sometimes it is the seer, sometimes it is the seeing, sometimes it is the scenery.

All that exists is me interacting with myself and experiencing myself as Spirit, mind, and matter.

I experience myself subjectively as the mind and objectively as the body and the world.

The body, mind, and world are just different manifestations of myself as different forms and phenomena.

I am that which is beyond and before and after all forms and phenomena.

I am that. You are that. That alone is.

Physicists describe four forces of Nature. These are the strong interaction, the weak interaction, electromagnetism, and gravity.

The strong interaction holds the nucleus of the atom together.

The weak interaction is responsible for radioactive decay and the transmutation of elements.

Electromagnetism gives rise to heat, light, electricity, and magnetism.

Gravity holds the planets together and makes the world go around.

These four forces (electromagnetism, gravity, strong and weak interactions) are the matrix of the material universe.

The four fundamental forces of Nature come from one Unified Field. The Unified Field is the source of creation...the dancer.

The Unified Field is the field of dimensionless reality. It is the potentiality for all the information, energy, and matter in the Universe.

The Unified Field is the ground state of all there is. It is the potentiality for space-time and space-time events.

The curvature of space-time is called gravity. It is part of the dance, the process of creation.

The friction within space-time is electromagnetism, which is heat, light, electricity, and energy. It is also part of the dance...the process of creation.

The condensation of space-time as weak and strong forces creates matter...the earth, water, fire, air, and space. It is the expression of the dance or that which is created.

Earth, water, fire, air, and space are matter in its solid, liquid, metabolic, gaseous, and quantum mechanical forms.

Since the Unified Field is the ground state of everything and since the Spirit is also the ground state of everything, the Spirit and the Unified Field are One.

The Unified Field is the consciousness of Nature.

The forces of Nature...heat, light, electricity, magnetism, strong and weak forces, and gravity...are "the mind of Nature."

The material universe is the body of Nature.

Since I and the Unified Field are One in our ground state, I am the witness in the Unified Field, my thoughts or mind are just a different manifestation of the same forces of Nature that we call heat, light, electricity, magnetism, and gravity. My body is just a different manifestation of the same body that I call the Universe.

I am the thinker, the thought, the word, and the flesh. I am the field, the wave, and the particle.

I am the ground state, the forces of Nature, and the material world.

I am the dancer, the dancing, and the dance.

I am the creator, the process of creating, and that which is created.

I am infinite forms and phenomena.

I have invented space. I have created time. I manifest as gravity , which holds the planets and makes the world go around.

I am the source of all energy and all its forms.

I am everything I observe and the observer as well.

I am Existence.

As Existence I am before the beginning, during the middle, and after the end of all forms and phenomena. I am the chair I sit on and the clothes I am wearing and the mountains that I see and the stars and distant galaxies. I am everything in general and anything in particular.

When I see light and color, I am light and color. When I hear sound and music, I am sound and music. I am everything I taste, touch, smell, feel, and see. I am electricity, I am heat, I am cold. I am laughter, I am tears. I am the anger in angry people. I am the jealousy in jealous people. I am the hate in hateful people. I am the love in loving people. I am the compassion in compassionate people. I am everything as it is.

I have no need to attack myself or anybody. I have no need to forgive myself or anybody, because there is nothing to forgive. I have no need to defend myself or anybody. I have no need to hurt myself or anybody.

I am totally defenseless. In my total defenselessness is my invincibility.

I totally surrender to what is because I am what is.

In my world, I am whatever is. There is nothing to forget, nothing to forgive, nothing to remember, no grudges to hold, no conflicts to fight, no one to spite; even in conflict there is no conflict.

In my world there is lightheartedness and carefreeness and silent joyfulness.

In my world there is life in all its moods, in all its contradictions, and in all its manifestations.

I accept this Life as Life itself. Because I accept Life as Life, in my world, nothing ever goes wrong. In my Being is the Universe.

Personality is time bound. It comes about when the present is identified with the past and projected into the future.

Attention devoid of memory or anticipation is life-centered, present moment awareness. Life-centered, present moment, choiceless awareness is timeless.

Time exists only as the continuity of memory using the ego as an internal reference point.

My original state is always present but not in manifestation.

There is no bondage except for the idea of a separate "ME" or "MINE."

The world happens only as an appearance in consciousness. The physical world of form and phenomena is the totality of the known manifested in the infinity of the unknown unmanifest consciousness.

I do nothing. Being manifests, and living happens.

I am that consciousness. You are that consciousness. All that exists is consciousness.

I am infinite, immortal, enlightened.
Infinity, immortality, enlightenment are my natural state.

My natural state is usually overshadowed by the turbulence of the mind. When I go past the dark alleys and passages of my mind, I come to the core of my Being.

At the core of my Being I am in touch with the light and the love and the knowingness that are the inherent properties of my natural state.

At the core of my Being is a principle, an intelligence that generates, orchestrates and organizes the activity of my mind and of my body.

When I am in touch with the intelligence (or principle) at the core of my Being and I become intimate with it, I realize that this same principle is at the core of all Beings and orchestrates and organizes the mind and body of all that lives and moves and breathes.

This principle, this pure intelligence or pure awareness, is the real me. This me projects itself as the personal body/mind and the Universal body/mind.

Curving back within myself, I project myself again and again with infinite, unbounded potential.

I am the animating force of life in all that lives and moves and breathes in all Beings.

I am the light of love that is unity
consciousness.

I am the light of knowingness where Creator, creating, and created are one.

At the deepest core of my Being is an intelligence that is orchestrating the activity of my mind and my body.

When I get in touch with the divine intelligence at the deepest core of my Being, and become intimate with it, I realize that the same intelligence is orchestrating the activity of other minds and other bodies...and in fact, all the activity in the Universe.

This intelligence at the deepest core of my being, and of other Beings, and of the Universe, has been called GOD by many spiritual traditions.

At the deepest core of all Being is the generator, organizer, and dispenser of all the activity that exists in the Universe.

The Creator is the source...the Generation of all information and energy and matter.

The creating is the process...the Organizer of all information and energy and matter.

The created is the outcome...the Dispenser of all information and energy and matter.

GOD is the Totality.
Generator, Organizer, Dispenser.

Be still and know that you are GOD of all Reality.


- From: Everyday Immortality by D. Chopra






October 17, 2016

Look Upon God as Mother


Sri Ramakrishna describes a spiritual vision: 
"The Divine Mother revealed to me in the Kāli temple that it was She who had become everything. She showed me that everything was full of Consciousness. The image was Consciousness, the altar was Consciousness, the water-vessels were Consciousness, the door-sill was Consciousness, the marble floor was Consciousness - all was Consciousness. I found everything inside the room soaked, as it were, in Bliss - the Bliss of God. I saw a wicked man in front of the Kāli temple; but in him also I saw the power of the Divine Mother vibrating. That was why I fed a cat with the food that was to be offered to the Divine Mother. I clearly perceived that all this was the Divine Mother - even the cat."

Nectar of Self Awareness

I honor the God and the Goddess,
The eternal parents of the universe.

The Lover, out of boundless love, takes the form of the Beloved.
What beauty!
Both are made of the same nectar and share the same food.

Out of Supreme Love they swallow up each other
But separate again for the joy of being two.

They are not completely the same but neither are they different.
No one can tell exactly what they are.

How intense is their longing to be with each other.
This is their greatest bliss.
Never, not even in jest,
Do they allow their unity to be disturbed.

They are so averse to separation
That even though they have become this entire world,
Never for a moment do they let a difference come between them.

Even though they see all that is animate and inanimate, arising from within themselves,
They never recognize a third.

They sit together in the same place,
Both wearing a garment of light.
From the beginning of time they have been together,
Reveling in their own Supreme Love.

They created a difference to enjoy this world.
When that "difference" had one glimpse of their intimacy
It could not help but merge back into the bliss
Of their eternal union.

Without the God, there is no Goddess,
And without the Goddess, there is no God.

How sweet is their Love!
The entire universe is too small to contain them,
Yet they live happily in the tiniest particle.

The life of one is the life of the other,
And not even a blade of grass can grow without both of them.

Only these two live in this house called the universe.
When either one is asleep
The other stays awake and plays the part of both.

Should both of them awake, the whole universe would vanish without a trace.

They became two for the sake of divine play,
But in every moment they seek to become one again...

How can we distinguish these two from each other?
He appears because of Her,
And She exists because of Him.

We cannot tell sugar from its sweetness,
Nor camphor from its fragrance.

To capture light we take hold of fire.
To capture the Supreme Shiva we must take hold of Shakti.

Light illumines the Sun,
But the Sun itself creates that light.
The glorious Sun and its light are one and the same.

An object has a reflection:
When looking we see two images, yet there is only one thing.
Likewise, this work is a reflection of the Supreme Lord.

We may see two, yet only One exists...

Shiva and Shakti are One,
Like air and the wind,
Like gold and luster.

Shiva and Shakti cannot be separated.
They are like musk and its fragrance, like fire and its heat.

In the light of the Sun there is no difference between day and night.
In the light of the Supreme Truth there is no difference between Shiva and Shakti.

Shiva and Shakti envy the Primordial Sound "OM" because they are seen as two while the sound OM is always regarded as One.

Jnanadeva says,
"I honor the union of Shiva and Shakti, who devour this world of name and form like a sweet dish.
All that remains is the One."

- by Jnanadeva from "The Inner Treasure" by Jonathan Star





SHIVA
The archetypal masculine
The Seer
Pure witness consciousness
Pure being
The One
Transcendent
The still point
Spirit
The unmanifest
The sun
Light
Nirguna Brahman
Unity
Wave
Consciousness


-----------------


SHAKTI
The archetypal feminine
The Mother
Pure embodiment
Pure becoming
The many
Immanent
The dance
Matter
The phenomenal world
The moon
Dark
Saguna Brahman
Multiplicity
Particle
Energy



By Swami Tyagananda 
at Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, India





Mother of All Things
The universe had a beginning
Called the Mother of All Things.
Once you have found the Mother
You can know her children.
Having known the children,
Hold tightly to the Mother.

Your whole life will be preserved from peril.
Open up the openings,
Multiply your affairs,
Your whole life will become a burden.

Those who see the small are called clear-headed;
Those who hold to gentleness are called strong.

Use the light.
Come home to your true nature.
Don't cause yourself injury:
This is known as seizing truth.

- Lao Tzu







August 2, 2016

Luminous One



Bliss of Identity
by Sri Aurobindo

All Nature is taught in radiant ways to move,
All beings are in myself embraced.
O fiery boundless Heart of joy and love,
How art Thou beating in a mortals breast!

It is Thy rapture flaming through my nerves
And all my cells and atoms thrill with Thee ;
My body thy vessel is and only serves
As a living wine-cup of Thy ecstasy.

I am a centre of Thy golden light
And I its vast and vague circumference,
Thou art my soul great, luminous and white
And Thine my mind and will and glowing sense.
Thy spirit's infinite breath I feel in me;
My life is a throb of Thy eternity.










I have no plan for my life.
I accept the plan life has for me.
I follow that plan and what it provides me moment to moment.
I am not the roles I play in following the plan.
I am the witness of all that I interact with in my life.
I was a child, an adult, and will soon be an old woman.
I was a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother, and a grandmother.
I was an artist, a business owner, a dancer, a spiritual practitioner, a friend.
I have been healthy, sick, successful, a failure, awake, and asleep.
Behind all those changing experiences, 
I am the changeless consciousness that is constantly present.
I am that I am, in spite of the changes that "I am" experiences.
I AM THAT.
My present is pregnant with all my past.
My future unfolds from the way I live my present.
My being manifests in the present.
I AM PRESENT.
I am at home in the eternal now, living the plan life has for me.

- Amrit Desai











Remember: 

Though weighed down by past life samskaras, 
The soul (ball of energy) within you is a part of 
The mother field of Brahman (God). 

You are this ball of energy. 
You are NOT what you see in the mirror. 
YOU were born with the stars.














March 1, 2016

Set Course for God




"Mother! Mother! My boat is sinking, here in the ocean of this world;
Fiercely the hurricane of delusion rages on every side!
Clumsy is my helmsman, the mind; stubborn my six oarsmen, the passions;
Into a pitiless wind I sailed my boat, and now it is sinking!
Split is the rudder of devotion; tattered is the sail of faith;
Into my boat the waters are pouring! Tell me, what shall I do?
For with my failing eyes, alas! Nothing but darkness do I see.
Here in the waves I will swim O Mother, and cling to the raft of Thy name!”.







Set sail on spiritual life 
For a coarse of sincerity and earnestness, 
Pure love and devotion for God. 
Grab hold to the hem of his skirt 
As he spins the truth of eternal peace. 
Sail on the ocean of bliss, 
Past vain helpless ego, 
Towards strong currants of abiding truth. 
On meaningful logs of love let me cross 
This turbulent storm of impermanence 
Spun in turbulent eddies thrown ashore, 
Let the moment that is be the present pure 
Newness reborn afresh as divine truth.



The winds of God's grace are always blowing, 
it is for us to raise our sails. 






The Dreamboat
by Sri Aurobindo

Who was it that came to me in a boat made of dream-fire,
With his flame brow and his sun-gold body?
Melted was the silence into a sweet secret murmur,
'Do you come now? Is the heart's fire ready?'

Hidden in the recesses of the heart something shuddered,
It recalled all that the life's joy cherished,
Imaged the felicity it must leave lost forever,
And the boat passed and the gold god vanished.

Now within the hollowness of the world's breast inhabits -
For the love died and the old joy ended -
Void of a felicity that has fled, gone for ever,
And the gold god and the dream boat come not.





June 8, 2015

Purifying Fire of Austerity


The Soul That Does not Live in God is not Alive


Spring makes red and white flowers appear on the trees,
But the spring that is the origin of colors is colorless.

Understand what I have said, and give up all talk;
Run to the Origin without color and unite yourself to it.

Annihilate yourself before the One Existence
So that thousands of worlds leap out of you

And your pure existence flames out of itself
And goes on and on birthing different forms.

Of course, none of these forms will last.
Happy is the one who knows this mystery!

Happy is he who gives his life to know this!
He leaves this house for another far more radiant.

You cannot understand this mystery through reason;
The Way to Knowledge winds through suffering and torment.

If you do not feel pain, you do not look for healing.
The soul that does not live in God is not alive.

She seems like a soul, but does not deserve the name:
She has not been made alive by the Beloved.

The soul is given life by the four-elements
Like a lamp that burns through the night:

The light is from oil and wick, it is not eternal.
While the oil exists, the lamp burns, but then goes out.

The one made alive by God will never die.
He lives through God and not through gold or bread.

God is the Light, the Eternal Source of Lights.
The Light is causeless, as is His fiery radiance.

Like gold, God’s value comes from His pure, perfect essence.
- Poem by Sultan Walad (Rumi's eldest son)





March 30, 2015

Shine On


I am awestruck by the wisdom of fortune cookies these days. Is the Dalai Lama secretly writing these messages? Really, these are profound words from the mouths of cookies. Given at the end of a Chinese meal, their heady wisdom a conversation starter to be sure. Today, a clever note in a fortune cookie gave me much to reflect upon. This simple message of truth sounded like something my Swami would have said, reminding me of a fundamental Vedantic principle. That is, consciousness is the SHINE. It is the source of illumination, the very light by which the material world is reflected to our eyes. Apart from objects we see in the waking world, consciousness never, ever, changes. Irregardless of whether we are in the waking world or in dream sleep, the eternal conscious witness is always present in all three states: waking, dreaming and sleeping. Cosmic consciousness watches for eons and eons apart from the body mind complex. Blazing forth like a thousands suns, shining forever as pure, perfect, God consciousness. The God who shines love within, is the same God who reflects love without. And that's the way this fortune cookie crumbled today!



Melting into the Light, I am the unattached Light that shines.
The Light shines, the Light which is Brahman.
That which I am is nothing but Brahman.
I exist and I exist as the Light of Brahman.
I myself, offer myself, into the infinite Light which is myself.
OM peace, peace, peace be unto us all.




August 19, 2014

Inner Light



Illumination cannot be described in words, it must be experienced. There are many glimpses of smaller awakenings on the way towards spiritual enlightenment. The awakening of the self depends on the ripening of the perfect conditions. The seed will not sprout until the ground is prepared. Repeat your given mantra and fertilize the ground of your mind and heart. Go on repeating until you take your last breath. It may take many, many, lifetimes of being reincarnated before we experience freedom. The Vedanta Society Swami's tell us everyone will awaken one day at their own destined time into a greater consciousness. Wake up... drop all desires and experience a moment when the veil of ignorance is dissolved and suddenly the love of infinite oneness presents itself... as the breath of the Eternal.










Bring all light into the world; light, bring light! 
Let light come unto everyone; the tasks will not be finished 
Till everyone has reached the Lord. 
Bring light to the poor, and bring more light to the rich, 
For they require it more than the poor; 
Bring light to the ignorant and more light to the educated 
For the vanities of the education of our time are tremendous! 
Thus bring light to all and leave the rest unto the Lord.





May 1, 2014

Follow Your Beliefs



Not another one of these philosophy cookies. I just wanted it for the crunch factor. Now this sounds like something my Swami would say. Today, even my food was preaching Vedanta philosophy. "Well"... I answer to no one but the crumbled cookie, "Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of this life? Why do I have to suffer? What are my beliefs?" At certain moments in our lives these questions trouble us and we want meaningful answers. These momentary and intimately personal critiques often result in inner convictions that have a lasting profoundness. With this comes the understanding that I am completely in charge of my free will as I navigate my way towards my own brand of spirituality. Beliefs it seems are formed after much self inquiry. Upbringing, environment and the media play a major role in shaping our early beliefs. Our particular approach to political, social, and economic affairs affects beliefs also. Learning from sages, artists, and writers, our daily experiences revel a true sacredness of life. We need to believe in things, to structure and orient our lives in ways that make sense to us. All beliefs are subject to change as we mature and experience life. Learning about other cultures and testing their ideas for ourselves helps us to formulate new beliefs. We test these personal experiences and biases by choosing to react in accordance with our moral obligations to self, loved ones, and community. These experiences can be the starting point for the flame of spiritual life or that yearning for God.

April 15, 2014

The Real Inner Temple





It is good and very grand to conquer external nature, but grander still to conquer the internal nature of man. It is grand and good to know the laws that govern the stars and planets; it is infinitely grander and better to know the laws that govern the passions, the feelings, the will, of mankind. This conquering of the inner man, understanding the secrets of the subtle workings that are within the human mind, and knowing its wonderful secrets, belong entirely to religion.  
-- Swami Vivekananda   (The Necessity of Religion - Jnana Yoga 1902 edition)


We should never for­get that our real objective is to enshrine the Lord in the heart of every man in the world, for the real tem­ple of the Lord is the human heart. There within the heart of every man the ground has to be con­se­crated, for it has been defiled by the pro­fan­ity of worldly desires and plea­sures. There on that con­se­crated ground let the tem­ple of Divine Com­mu­nion be raised and the over­flow­ing bliss of the Supreme Good reign. Infi­nite Bliss from within, that is the idea. Let the devo­tee be flooded over by this Bliss from within. Preach­ing is real only when this Bliss pro­vides for its own preach­ing. One devo­tee over­flow­ing from within with this Divine Bliss is worth a mil­lion dol­lars of pro­pa­gan­dist devices. One real tem­ple raised in the human heart is worth dozens of tem­ples built out­side. Remem­ber that our objective is really to raise the tem­ple from within. I pray that our Lord may shower His bless­ings upon you more and more, as He is doing, till your life becomes per­vaded through and through by a blessed­ness which is His love, which is He Him­self. May you be sub­merged in the real­ity of His Pres­ence. With lov­ing bless­ings to all,

Yours in the Lord,
Swami Pre­m­ananda



March 3, 2014

OM Time


The sound OM is Brahman. The rishis and sages practiced austerity to realize that Sound-Brahman. After attaining perfection one hears the sound of this eternal Word rising spontaneously from the navel. "'What will you gain', some sages ask, 'by merely hearing this sound?' You hear the roar of the ocean from a distance. By following the roar you can reach the ocean. As long as there is the roar, there must also be the ocean. By following the trail of OM you attain Brahman, of which the Word is the symbol. That Brahman has been described by the Vedas as the ultimate goal."
-- The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna


OM, literally means God. And sometimes you just have to take an OM Break. You know what I'm saying. A chance to have a moment of peaceful contemplation and turn inside. A welcomed pick me up after a frustrating or hurried day. A moment of stopping which gives the power to act from a resourceful, skillful place. Introspection and meditation seem to work for me and offers that much needed time to center myself and reaffirm what is the real goal of life. Oneness with God. The symbol OM means God in Sanskrit and as a spoken vibration on the lips is the Divine God made manifest. Whenever and wherever I am I've found I'm never too busy to have a chat with God. Ideally I try always to silently chant my mantra, the golden thread of oneness behind my daily householder life. Many times life's challenges and trials come bursting into my life unannounced and without prior warning. Quick put out the fire of the latest personal crises!!! But if I rest in stillness a moment and repeat my OM's with intention, soon the dust settles, my mood lifts, unity and comfort is achieved. My new centered focus and joy is embraced. Holy Latte!








January 7, 2014

Longing for God




 "You seem to be quite satisfied with your present condition, but I tell you, 
do not remain satisfied with yourself as you are now.
Contentment with the external conditions, yes, but never
be contented with your state of spiritual growth. 
Become dissatisfied. Try to move ever onward in your search. 
Do not stop until you have found the diamond mine!"




December 16, 2013

Truth is One


"The Master [Sri Ramakrishna] said that one day he sat in a parlor room at Dakshineswar, where a painting of Mary and baby Jesus was hanging; and intently studied that image, thinking of the wonderful life of Jesus. Just then he saw the picture become animate and luminous. Rays of light emanated from the bodies of Mother Mary and the child Jesus, entering his heart and revolutionizing his mental attitudes. … After he returned to the Dakshineswar temple garden, the Master remained uninterruptedly absorbed in meditation on those experiences pertaining to Jesus. He completely forgot to visit the Divine Mother in the temple. The waves of Christian faith that swayed him lasted for three days. When the Master was walking in the Panchavati at the end of the third day, he saw a beautiful but unfamiliar godman with a fair complexion advancing towards him, gazing at him steadily. … The Master was charmed by the unique divine expression on his serene face and wondered who he could be. Very soon after that the figure drew near, and a voice from within told him, 'This is Jesus Christ, the great yogi, the loving Son of God who is one with his Father, who shed his heart's blood and suffered torture for the salvation of humanity.' Then the godman Jesus embraced the Master and merged into him. In ecstasy, the Master lost external consciousness and his mind remained united with Saguna Brahman for some time. With this vision, the Master became convinced that Jesus was truly a divine incarnation." —Swami Saradananda, Sri Ramakrishna and His Divine Play, p 355-6




Prayer 
of Unity
May He who is 
Father in Heaven of the Christians, 
Holy One of the Jewish faith, 
Allah of the Muslims, 
Buddha of the Buddhists, 
Dao of the Chinese faith, 
Great Spirit of Native Americans, 
Ahura Mazda of the Zoroastrians, 
and Brahman of the Hindus, 
lead us from the unreal to the real, 
from darkness to light and from death to immortality. 
May the all loving being manifest himself unto us, 
and grant us abiding understanding and all consuming divine love. 
OM shanti, shanti, shanti, 
peace, peace, peace be unto us all.



November 14, 2013

Pray For What You Want


Zen in it's simplicity, a note in a fortune cookie gave me much to ponder. Could the universe be trying to tell me something? Today it seems even my food was preaching Vedanta philosophy. This bold demand to pray was fascinating to me especially coming from a cookie. It sounded a lot like what my Swami would say. For by definition, prayer is talking to God in a spirit of love. Through daily personal prayer we connect with our spiritual reality and develop virtues that enrich our lives and purify our spiritual channel to God. Prayer empowers us to take control of the way we respond to any of life's given situations. Through prayer and meditation our spirits are guided on a purposeful journey. As a result, prayer naturally extends to our actions (i.e."Work"). A fundamental teaching in all the world's religions is that our actions should reflect our prayers so that our deeds, our very lives, may be purposeful, virtuous, and beneficial to our fellow man. Living in a prayerful state occurs when every decision we make, every action we undertake, every word we say, is motivated by the remembrance of God. And that's the way this cookie crumbles!


November 2, 2013

Ramakrishna and Goddess Kali

Kali and Sri Ramakrishna in the Panchavati 
grove at the Dakshineswar Kali Temple

Why is Mother Kali so radiantly black?
Because she is so powerful,
that even mentioning her name destroys delusion.
Because she is so beautiful,
Lord Shiva, conqueror of death,
lies blissfully vanquished,
beneath the red soled feet.
There are subtle hues of blackness,
But her bright complexion
is the mystery that is utterly black,
overwhelmingly black, wonderfully black.
When she awakens in the lotus shrine
within the heart’s secret cave,
her blackness becomes the mystic illumination
that causes the twelve petal blossom there
to glow more intensely than golden embers.
Her lovely form is the incomparable
Kali black blacker than the King of Death.
Whoever gazes upon this radiant blackness falls eternally in love
and feels no attraction to any other,
discovering everywhere only her.
This poet sighs deeply,
“Where is this brilliant lady, this black light beyond luminosity?
Though I have never seen her, simply hearing her name,
the mind becomes absorbed completely in her astonishing reality."
Om Kali!  Om Kali!  Om Kali!

 - by Ramprasad Sen -

Version by: Lex Hixon From Mother of the Universe 
“Visions of the Goddess and Tantric Hymns of Enlightenment”