In the Yoga Sūtras, ignorance means taking the non-Self to be the Self. Once we have done that, we lose our Subject in object. From there, we are attracted to certain things and repulsed by others based on the object we are now identified with. And finally, we cling to the life of that object, believing it to be who …
Baba’s Lessons Keep Teaching, Part Two….
Baba always spoke of not hurting a human heart. This was and is the crucial guide by which to assess our motivations and actions. True sādhana bruises the ego, but it never injures the heart. If you are hurting someone’s heart, you should question your actions and motives. In the last few weeks I have come to see why Baba …
Baba’s Lessons Keep Teaching, Part One….
Baba loved me in ways I do not yet know. I say this because as I unmask me and continue down the path that Baba has shown me, what emerges is how much he has revealed to me the Truth, and how much I needed to give up my wrong understanding. As a child and before I went to Baba, …
Happy Mother’s Day….
A person tells me that they love me the way they loved their mother. Their mother didn’t like it, but put up with it. I don’t have to put up with it. This person is just superimposing on me what they brought to the table with their mother. How often are you projecting, or being projected onto? I am not …
Torture for the Shrunken Self….
I recently heard that someone said spiritual practice was self-torture, and that I am a composite of negativity. It is and I am. For a lot of people that is the truth. So much of sadhana is uncovering the truth; the truth that lies under a giant fortress of lies. The delusion that who we are is the one that …
Maya and the Five Kanchukas….
Nondualism can be a dangerous practice because it can encourage people not to take responsibility for their actions. But then when we turn to a dualistic sense purusha (individual self) and prakriti (matter), we separate ourselves from prakriti and see matter either as an enemy or as some horrible lesson to be learned. Prakriti then has nothing to do with …
Tending Our Garden….
When I was a child, my parents worked in our yard. We lived in Waban, Massachusetts. Lots of rock. We had rock walls and rock gardens, with a very hilly, up-and-down-and-up terrain. Behind us was an aqueduct, and on the other side of that a swamp. Woods were everywhere. So there was cultivated and wild land. I wasn’t involved …
Misreading Power As Love….
Baba used to say that Christ was the incarnation of Love. Christ showed us what Love is. He Loved without qualification; there was no arbitrariness in His Love for all. Even on Calvary, He Loved. For me, Baba modeled that same Love, always. In every moment, he taught me what Love is. We all tend to think we know what …
The Guru Is Not Your Enemy….
The Guru is not out to get you. The shakti is not out to crush you. There may be times when you are convinced that they are out to ruin you, but it is never true. The Guru, shakti and God want what is best for us, in every sense of the word. And when we obey the Guru and …
Playing the Field….
When we start on the path of sadhana, though we may understand that there is something greater than who we think we are, we tend to operate as if sadhana is just stretching and making bigger who we think we are. In that light, we believe that there is only one playing field, and that to be spiritually enlightened is …