“If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). Jesus meant what he said here—not in the literal sense of hating, but in the sense of being completely nonattached. If we are not nonattached to …
Unidualism….
Baba used to tell the story of a man who was walking into town after meeting a Guru. The Guru had told him the Truth that God is everywhere. So when the man left, he continued to repeat those words. As he walked down the road, a group of villagers came running toward him, screaming, “Run for your life! Run …
Avoiding Safety….
Our culture buys into, and sells, the delusion that the way to remain safe is either to be more dangerous than the people around you or to cut yourself off completely. Being the most dangerous person in the room can mean having the bigger gun, being more willing to say terrible things, being more erratic and unpredictable, or being more …
Safety Comes from Within….
Indian translator and commentator I. K. Taimni speaks of two paths: one outward, which involutes deeper and deeper into the chaos of the world and away from Love; and one inward, which evolves back to God. We do have choice, but most of us are unaware of that choice. Because there is a force that continually is moving outward into …
The Wrong Surrender….
Today, the message being conveyed in all kinds of relationships is this: “You are perfect just the way you are. You do not have to do anything differently. If you follow my ideas, all will be okay. If you bring your view of the world in line with mine, all will be okay.” The paradox is that there actually is …
Love or Its Counterfeit….
Love is so much better than power. When we Love, we are at the Source, expressing the Source. Nothing is watered down, nothing is minimized, everything is. Real Love is the essential nature of everything; it is the untainted manifestation of God. Power is shrunken and twisted Love. When we pursue power, we believe we have strength with authority. We …
Monkey See, Monkey Don’t….
I feel like such an idiot. I thought that if I did my best to live an exemplary life, others would see it and want to follow that life. For many years I have openly modeled a life that is informed by the yamas and the niyamas, the restraints and observances in all religious traditions that lead a person down …
Discerning Evil….
We all must mourn the loss of innocence—of the delusion that everyone cares about others’ best interests—and accept the existence of evil in the world. In an Absolute sense, everything arises from Love. Dante understood this; in his Commedia, evil is simply twisted Love. But though evil, like everything else, arises from Love, it rejects its origin and deludes itself …
Shrinking the Monster….
When we encounter someone who is evil, we usually react with fear. We do not understand them and want to run away. They are monsters to us, and we feel powerless. If we want to shrink these monsters, we must begin the process of uncovering how they came to be as they are. These monsters are human beings who committed …
The Wounded Foursquare ….
Wounded Cared for Educated Indulged Stella, a young woman who identifies herself as good, was stopped on the street by another young woman. Stella was asked for $380 to pay rent, as the young woman would be deported if she did not come up with that sum. Rather than delving deeper to verify her story, rather than going with the …