I am disheartened these days watching the world steam ahead toward hate. And though we may acknowledge the character traits of reflection, honesty, care, and discernment, which come from purity and clarity, there seems to be ever-increasing inertia—heedless indifference—along with the painful traits of agitation, violence, fear, and turning further away from the Heart. In the face of this upheaval, …
Gratitude and Care….
Keith, Ian, David and I had just walked out of the house and were examining Keith’s amazing sculpture of a head. “This should be in parks and gardens all over the country”, I said. “People of all ages will love this.” Suddenly there was a loud crash. We turned our heads to see a tree falling in the road and …
Love and Democracy….
The only thing I really teach and talk about is Love. I may go to Love from this angle or that angle, but the truth is I only am talking about Love. One could say my profession is that of an internal sanitation engineer: I remove garbage, facilitate the removal of garbage, and encourage everyone to take out their garbage …
Guru Purnima 2016….
Baba gave me everything—by taking everything away. For that I am so grateful. He shone the truth so brightly that it forced ignorance to run away and die. Wrong knowledge was the food he devoured daily. Our job was not to resist his taking away every delusion we held so dear. And sometimes he grabbed something away from us that …
Stand Firm by Surrendering….
Practice requires us to actually practice. And because this practice is internal, there is no place where practice is not appropriate. And yet, we decide when and where and how to practice. More insidious than this willfulness is our tendency to misunderstand what practice is. From the standpoint of the three gunas, our understanding of sādhana is determined by which …
Miserly Hoards the L to Get Misery….
When life is all about “me”, I am a “taker”. I am stingy. There is no one else in the room with me—I am the only one. Everyone else is just an object that impacts me in some way. Identifying as the one true shrunken self only makes us miserable. Misery, then, is the bottom line of all vibrations; it …
The Guru Manifests Personally for Us….
Not everyone wants a personal relationship with the Guru. I did. I loved Baba personally and as the Guru, and I still do. Most people want the Guru without any personal relationship. When people see a Guru in human form, instead of being excited by the wonder of this manifestation and his accessibility, they diminish the Guru. This is like …
Happy-go-lucky….
I am writing this out of a deep sense of sadness as we keep heading down a road that hurts us all. Many years ago, I worked with an eleven-year-old who was extremely troubled. His parents were a big part of the problem, though there was no recognition of that fact. What I heard over and over again was the …
The Evil and Good of Destruction….
We have talked about hate before, as a vibration to be stilled. Here destruction comes into the mix. When we do not know that we hate because we either numb, deny, or call the vibration something other than what it is, we can use the outcome of our actions as a way to unveil our motivations. If we say we …
Om Bhagavan, Muktananda Bhagavan….
As I grow older, my appreciation for Baba only deepens. The more I learn and let go, the more my understanding of what Baba taught, and the way he taught, continues to expand. When I first followed him, I knew enough to be able to treasure Baba; now that I understand so much more, I can’t thank him enough. …