In my last blog post, I wrote about how we can know we are off track in our practice. Once we realize we have wandered from the path, though, we then have to know how to return. Knowing how to return begins with knowing where we are. If we want to get to Boston but believe we are in Philadelphia …
How To Know You’re Off Track….
Baba always said to be vigilant, because we can go off track spiritually in a heartbeat. And we do. We so easily slip into habitual consciousness, which is really unconscious consciousness. There is no way to pursue spiritual practice without sometimes going off track; the challenge is being able to get back on track once we have wandered off. To …
Guest Blog By Jim Condron: Graced….
In 2004, Rohini told me to accept an invitation to Amsterdam for an artist residency. I didn’t go, and it was the worst decision of my life. I would have had a studio and time and solitude to develop my own identity as an artist and person. But I didn’t want that. Instead I chose to move the personal items …
Emoting the Practice….
In the world around us, we see people believing that whatever comes up within them is an expression of their true, authentic self, and that they need to act out on it. And they do act out on it, thinking their actions are appropriate. There is little or no restraint, discernment, or care. These people are run by their emotions. …
Thinking the Practice….
There is a difference between thinking and listening to the letters that arise from a vibration. This is true whether the vibration is yours or you are empathizing with someone else’s. Letting whatever comes up come up from your vibration does not mean imposing letters or images on that vibration. This is a literal practice. The letters arise from the …
Sādhana Is Not Magic….
Sādhana is magical; it is not magic. This cannot be emphasized enough. In the course of spiritual practice, extraordinary experiences can be everyday events. I have seen this in my own life as well as others’. In my time with Baba, his śakti imbued everything, making everything miraculous. But there was and is no magic in this. What people want …
Tending Our Garden….
When I was a child, my parents worked in our yard. We lived in Waban, Massachusetts. Lots of rock. We had rock walls and rock gardens, with a very hilly, up-and-down-and-up terrain. Behind us was an aqueduct, and on the other side of that a swamp. Woods were everywhere. So there was cultivated and wild land. I wasn’t involved …
What Is a Fourchotomy….
The world appears to us as we choose to see it. Most of us see the world in binary terms, framing our experience in pairs of opposites. These pairs of opposites define and limit our perception by shrinking the world into a kind of template; that template in turn limits our choices and actions. Recognizing and dismantling this template is …
Notion-Building….
If you are identified with your idea of the “way to be”, then you are not practicing. You are not being with your experience, letting whatever comes up from that experience come up, and functioning appropriately on the physical plane. Instead, you are keeping a lid on vibrations, or calling them something other than what they are, to keep your …
Guest Blog by Aaron Ralby: The Hoop of No Hoops….
Taller than a mountain and wider than the sea, As heavy as iron and lighter than a breeze, The ultimate challenge, the final task, Distilled difficulty filled in a flask; Many hoops you’ve jumped of fire and ice, Of danger, dust, despair, and vice, Hoops of toil, hoops of trouble, Hoops of battle surrounded by rubble. You’ve jumped through the …