The greatest warriors know that fighting is the last resort. Resistance is a form of fighting; it may look benign but can be insidious. When we are committed to our individuality, we will quietly resist anyone or anything that threatens our sense of self. This form of fighting is a disease that can destroy a person’s spiritual journey. “I can’t …
Respecting Lineage….
If we want to learn, we have to surrender to instruction. This holds true in any area, but never more so than in spiritual practice. When we submit to instruction, we have to willingly diminish our autonomy. By giving up our say, we climb out of the kiddie pool of shrunken ideas and plunge into the ocean of true knowledge. …
The Guru Models….
All my years with Baba taught me how to live. Baba was a great model for life. When I say this I do not mean that he showed me I should wear orange robes if it is not my dharma. I do not mean that he showed me that I should live in an ashram if it is not my …
The Guru’s Grace….
The five-fold action of God is as follows: Create, Sustain, Destroy, Conceal, Reveal. As human beings and therefore shrunken manifestations of God, we perform these five activities in a diminished form, believing we are powerful. We obviously create, sustain, destroy, and delude/conceal. Revelation or grace is harder for us, as individuals, to see or perform. Our “grace” is the grace …
Surrendering to Baba….
Why do we seek great spiritual beings? Why are great spiritual beings here? What do great spiritual beings offer? The answers to these questions come from my experience with a great spiritual being, Swami Muktananda. Within each of us is the longing to be whole again. We all move unconsciously towards whatever will bring us to ourselves. We must, though, …
Raised By Baba….
When people say there is nothing like a mother’s love, I ask them what they mean. The usual responses to my question are unconditional love, warmth and compassion, softness, caring, and giving. For me those qualities are not limited to a mother’s love. They are not gender based. I have met men with these qualities. My Guru, Swami Muktananda, lived …
Believing in Baba….
Let’s get this out on the table. There are people who received tremendous gifts from Baba, but once the “sex scandal” came out they left. These people say they cannot come to grips with what he did. What did he do? That is the question. Did he have sex? Apparently not: no one I know of has said he did …
Grace Personified….
When I went to Baba I knew he had what I wanted. I did not want to be the person in the back of the Hall soaking in the shakti and learning nothing in the bliss of it all. I wanted all that Baba had to offer. I knew what I was looking for and knew he had it; I …
What Does the Guru Do?….
The Śiva Sūtras say the Guru is the means (Sūtra II.6). For me, my Guru, Swami Muktananda, Baba, has been and is the means. In all the years I knew, studied and worked closely with Baba, he never let me down. He was and is always guiding me to the state of union with God. If the Guru is the …
Walking out of the Darkness….
Who or what is the Guru? The Guru is the Teacher, the Grace and Guide that God provides for each of us to go Home. The Guru is not the person that It inhabits, but the purer the person the more there is the Guru and less the person. Then all the actions of the person will express the Guru, …