Baba used to call me Ganesh. At the time, the name did not bring joy into my heart. What am I supposed to learn from this? Why is he calling me Ganesh? These were my questions. Yes, I was in charge of security for the ashram. Yes, Ganesh was the guard at the door for his mother, Parvati. Yes, I …
Clues in the Treasure Hunt….
Walking the path of spiritual practice is like a treasure hunt. Each clue will lead us down the path closer to the goal. The problem is, will we see the clues? Will we discern the clues properly? And finally will we follow the clues? Clues on this treasure hunt are always showing up. God does not want us to lose. …
Constancy in Practice….
Spiritual practice is not a crisis intervention to use only when we are in trouble. It is to bring us to peace not only for a moment but for all time. So we practice and get to a state of peace and then we go about the business of life. When we walk into the world somehow we lose this …
How Spiritual Practice Unfolds….
All is misery. This is because of the kleshas, the afflictions spoken of in the Yoga Sutras. Our ignorance of who we are is what causes our misery. There is always a sense of missing something, of not being true, of not feeling fulfilled or experiencing Love. We can have moments and then say we are fulfilled in our work …
We are our own worst victim…..
It is not my fault. It is your fault. This view works for me. The only time this does not “work” is when both of us claim the role of victim. Then we have a competition. When this happens we can have a standoff for hours or even days. We are committed to our small self as a victim, and …
We Are Not as Good as We Think….
We cannot go forward without first bringing down our small self. What is the small self? Simply, it is who we think we are. It is not who we are. The small self is just a set of ideas, but we then believe those ideas are who we are. Our true Self actually enlivens these ideas, but our small selves …
Dismantling the Victim and the Bully….
We have become a nation of victims and bullies. Everyone is encouraged to adopt one role or the other. We seem to have lost our sense of character and of the honor of taking responsibility for our actions. Our media and public officials have taken to name-calling rather than discerning what actually may be going on. We are all so …
Appropriate Rest….
Sometimes, when pursuing the Truth, the best thing we can do is: rest. This may sound strange when we are intensely determined to stay on track. Are we on track or are we driven? Though we say we know the goal, we may be just driven to be driven. We may have “forgotten” the goal of Home, Truth, God, the …
Foursquare Politics….
Government leaders should be working for the betterment of their constituents, and of the entire country. However, if leaders really just want to be the center of attention, even though we elected them they will not be working for our good; we are paying them, but they will be working for themselves. All that interests leaders like this is their …
Real Leadership….
A leader can be defined as someone who one or more people authorize to guide toward a particular goal. In this situation we may intellectually believe we share a common goal, and we even speak of this common goal; however, not until we start the process of leading and following do we actually see if we do have a common …