Rohini draws on one of her poems and Swami Vishnu Tirtha’s Devatma Shakti to discuss the nature of the mind, clarifying how it is not who we truly are but merely a vehicle for the Self. She then answers questions about the right attitude toward shakti and how to approach meditation as a way of deepening one’s spiritual practice.
Right Effort All the Time
Rohini clarifies how spiritual practice does not unfold in a sequence of steps, but that all three of its aspects–being with your experience, whatever it is; letting whatever comes up from that experience come up; and functioning appropriately on the physical plane–are in fact simultaneous, and independent of the intellect and its processing activity.
Gurupurnima 2020
For Gurupurnima, Rohini reads three of her poems before reflecting on her Guru, Swami Muktananda, and on the importance of the Guru as person and as principle.
Against the Grain
Drawing on Jnaneshwar’s commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita as well as two of her poems, Rohini explains how important it is to Love the world as it is and avoid the two temptations of trying to make everything positive as we understand “positive” or, at the other extreme, devaluing everything in the manifested world as temporary and not worth caring about. Both those illusions are attempts to avoid honest discomfort, and are devoid of Love.
Solving the Problem
Rohini clarifies the real problem at the root of our individual, social, and global predicament, and explains how to solve it, beginning with our own practice.
Autumn Spanda: Painting Time-lapse
Timelapse of one of my recent paintings, ‘Autumn Spanda.’ Oil on canvas.
Who’s in Charge of Your Meditation?
Rohini explains how what we do in the world, we do when we turn inward in meditation. If we try to control or “run” our meditation, we are not meditating. In meditation, we have to surrender as we go inward, and not attach ourselves to anything we experience along the way.
Approaching Life
Rohini explains how what we bring to the table is how we approach our lives. We approach spiritual practice the way we approach the rest of what we do. People often try to make spiritual practice into drudgery, and then use euphemisms to let themselves off the hook for being unconscious. If we practice as we should, it will bring …
Narratives Never End Well
Starting from her poem “Ode to the Washbear,” Rohini explains how the shrunken self is nothing more than a narrative, and its efforts to fit experience, and other people, into that narrative are always limiting and destructive. Spiritual practice requires us to identify, disentangle from, and dismantle our narratives.
Delegating Upward, Part Two
Rohini continues her discussion of “delegating upward” by explaining how willful this behavior can be, especially when the “delegators” thrive on conflict and seek to feel powerful by frustrating others. When we are truly serving, “we” disappear and the focus is the work itself.