What makes us human is a level of consciousness that goes beyond the five senses and a basic striving, a basic will to live. What makes us human is a degree of consciousness that allows us to perceive, to desire, to will, and to be transformed into Love on a universal level. What makes us human is Love. Love in …
The Self Is Not the Point, Part Two….
In my previous blog, I spoke of how the shrunken self we believe ourselves to be is really just a bundle of thought constructs, or vikalpas. In order to free ourselves from that bundle, we have to turn inward, reflect, and be able to know and name our vibrations accurately. If we want to move forward in our sādhana, we …
Hummingbird Community….
We couldn’t just have one hummingbird. Elvis in his quiet imperial stance was not enough. We wanted more Elvises. The Guru grants what the Heart desires. We now have seven hummingbirds dancing off and on the deck, causing mischief and chaos. Going out on the deck in the summer morning light and coolness to have a quiet breakfast has been …
The General on the Hill….
Some commentators on the Yoga Sutras speak of the Witness as a General on a hill overlooking the troops. From this metaphor many people come to understand the Witness as distant and unengaged; a being who watches but is completely uninvolved. The troops are left to their own devices and therefore to fate, wandering the field without the guidance of …
Who We Think We Are….
The life of self-esteem is the death of the soul. Self-esteem is one’s overall assessment of oneself as an individual. The assessment can be backed by actual internal experience or it can be decided by phrases we repeat to ourselves. When the self-esteem becomes more important than the soul, we are lost. Our job is to reassess the assessment. The …
Avian Samadhi….
The winter was brutally cold. Weeks on end below zero degrees Fahrenheit, with wind chill minus 20 to 30. Even when the sun came out, it was bitter cold and dangerous to go outside. Our acre garden spent the winter covered in snow. No hellebores blooming through February for us. A couple of years ago we began feeding the birds …
Becoming Human….
Are you a sinner? No. Is your proxy a sinner? Yes. Being truly normal is being truly human. We are made in God’s image, and we should act it. Stop thinking of God as a selfish being. We believe that, since we are made in God’s image and we are selfish, then God is, too. But to act as God …
True Normal….
There is a difference between conventional and normal. Most people, when they hear the word “conventional”, tend to think in terms of other people and see particular situations, groups, cultures, or religions. The word “normal” tends to encompass a larger, vaguer area, and people tend to think of it as applying universally. Many times we conflate the two words, and …
Shakti and Wisdom….
Everybody loves energy. It is everywhere, and manifests in countless ways. Without energy, there is no life. In my tradition, the term for energy is shakti; the shakti is God’s power of manifestation. Spiritual energy is latent, asleep, in each of us. And the term for that spiritual energy is kundalinī-shakti. In order to return home to who we really …
Imagination Isn’t Practice….
Sit in the room and be realized. Do not offend anyone or make anyone uncomfortable. Then leave and resume your ordinary habits. Is this what you think sādhana is? Around Baba, there were people who did just sit around and then go home. Their discomfort came from their fellow ashramites, so their interactions and relationships looked very much like the …