Tag Archives: God

Who Am I?

Spiritual Aids,

This one paragraph from Sri Ramana Maharishi really turned my head around.

What is the means for constantly holding on to the thought ‘Who am I?’

When other thoughts arise, one should not pursue them, but should inquire: ‘To whom do they arise?’ It does not matter how many thoughts arise. As each thought arises, one should inquire with diligence, “To whom has this thought arisen?”. The answer that would emerge would be “To me”. Thereupon if one inquires “Who am I?”, the mind will go back to its source; and the thought that arose will become quiescent. With repeated practice in this manner, the mind will develop the skill to stay in its source. When the mind that is subtle goes out through the brain and the sense-organs, the gross names and forms appear; when it stays in the heart, the names and forms disappear. Not letting the mind go out, but retaining it in the Heart is what is called “inwardness” (antar-mukha). Letting the mind go out of the Heart is known as “externalisation” (bahir-mukha). Thus, when the mind stays in the Heart, the ‘I’ which is the source of all thoughts will go, and the Self which ever exists will shine. Whatever one does, one should do without the egoity “I”. If one acts in that way, all will appear as of the nature of Siva (God).

Share and share alike

Books, Experiences, , , , , , ,

 I’d like this site to be an experience most people can relate to. For that reason I am encouraging anyone to describe their own experiences in the forum.

We all have peak experiences in life, the kind that are indelibly impressed on our consciousness and can never be forgotten. I had one such experience while I was in college. I took a quarter off from school and traveled around Europe. I went with a friend, visited 9 countries, spent some time in youth hostels, did some mind altering drugs and generally had a good time. We were hippies back then.

One day I decided I wanted to climb a mountain. Now I had never seen a mountain as high as the Alps before this trip. So off I went. When you began to climb you can just walk right up, you can’t even see the top. It was winter so I went through a forested area and came into a snow field. As I continued to climb I came out above the tree line and just kept going. Now I had to climb around boulders and it became icy, yet still I climbed. It finally reached a point where I thought it was too dangerous to go on but when I looked behind me it seemed even more dangerous to try and go back. I knew there was a mountain gondola somewhere at the top so that became my goal. 

At one point I was aware that I was in a very dangerous position no matter which way I went. Here is where I prayed. You have seen it before. The guy gets into a dangerous situation, prays to God for help and promises to dedicate his life to him when rescued. That was me. Usually when that happens in movies the promises are forgotten and the person returns to their normal way of being. Not me. I finally made it to the top, found the cable car and begged for money to get down but I had been changed.

You see, on my trip up I looked at all that was happening in my life at that time and none of it mattered. A favorite quote came ringing in my ears which said that, “the greatest use of life is to live it doing something that will outlast it”. I wondered what that would be and on arriving back at college I took my first course on world religions. The first book assigned to us was Autobiography of a Yogi. To say that blew my mind was an understatement but that is another story…

It’s all happening at the zoo

Change is coming, , , , , , , , , ,

Being a seeker means believing in change and that change is good. First and foremost it means believing that change in yourself is healthy and second, believing that change in society helps you change yourself. I believe society is about to change radically. How exactly that transformation will present itself is unknown but change should be showing in long hold institutions before very long.

The New Agers, born again Christians, Native Americans and various other groups have been saying for a long time that the world will go through a radical change. I have been waiting and waiting for something to happen and in the past few years have begun seeing many changes, including the fall of communism, the rise of China, the fall of the Catholic Church. severe weather changes and more. It’s now time to change the institutions that we count on for daily living to get us out of this downward spiral. 

We are spiritual beings living a human existence, yet we don’t act very spiritual. The United States was attacked by a radical fundamentalist group who do not believe in a loving God. What did we do? We took over two countries. The people earning most of the top dollars today are in the sports and entertainment industries yet most of the examples we hear of their lives are something we would not want our children to hear. And yes, the teachers who are responsible for raising our future leaders are some of the lowest paid professionals around. It’s almost like watching the fall of Rome.

What can we do? We can always begin with ourselves. Look for love in your heart even when it would be hard to find. You didn’t choose your mate just to find all their flaws so start expressing some of the qualities they have that you love best. I’m sure you didn’t want to raise your children exactly as your parents did, instead choosing to be the best parent you could possibly imagine. Start becoming that person. Read self help books, see a therapist, share your feeling about your life with someone close. Pay it forward by being kind to a stranger. Maybe it’s the cashier who is having a bad day and is grumpy. Just repeat the words “love, love, love” silently to them and see if there is a change. It’s actually fun. Remember, do unto others as you would have them do to you.

The world is about to get rocked. Make sure your foundation is a good one.

My first remembered spiritual experience

Experiences, , , , , ,

Other than the flying dreams I had all throughout childhood, the first time I can remember anything happening to me which was unusual was in 5th or 6th grade. Our family had gone to visit my grandmother who lived next to a lake. I got up around 6 am one hot sumer morning and went down to the lake by myself. I swam out to a raft and just laid there. It was a time before all the boats and water skiers had arrived, just me and a couple of fishermen on an 11 mile long lake. The water was smooth as glass. You could hear all the insects just out looking for breakfast. There were a couple of beautiful dragonflys that were buzzing the raft but left after their curiosity was satisfied. The small waves generated by my swimming to the raft and a passing fishing boat were enough to lull me into a reverie such that life just became perfect. Even now, I still remember that feeling. In that space I could have laid there forever. It was just such a perfect peaceful feeling that I had no desires, no wants for anything at all. I felt like I was being gently rocked by God and there was a feeling that it would never end. I was cared for unconditionally and could do no wrong. I was puzzled about what was happening since I had not started my spiritual seeking yet but I couldn’t label it at that time. It was perfection, and four decades later that experience is still indelibly imprinted on my consciousness. Namaste

Installing Love

Books, Poems and Stories, , , , , ,

 

I liked this little story a lot and being the geek that I am,

I thought I would share it.

We are not called to go where it is easy and love already exists. 

We are called to go where we are sent and bring love with us. [Anon.]

Subject: Installing Love

 

Tech Support:  Yes, how can I help you?   

Customer:   Well , after much consideration, I’ve decided to install Love.   

Can you guide me through the process?   

Tech Support:  Yes. I can help you. Are you ready to proceed?   

Customer:  Well, I’m not very technical, but I think I’m ready. What do   I do first?   

Tech Support:  The first step is to open your Heart. Have you located   your Heart?   

Customer: Yes, but there are several other programs running now. Is it   okay to   install Love while they are Running?   

Tech Support:  What programs are running?   

Customer:  Let’s see, I have Past Hurt, Low Self-Esteem, Grudge and Resentment running right now.   

Tech Support:   No problem, Love will gradually erase Past Hurt from your current operating system. It may remain in your permanent memory but it will no longer   Disrupt other programs. Love will eventually override Low Self-Esteem with a module of its own called High Self-Esteem. However, you have to completely turn off Grudge and Resentment. Those programs prevent Love from Being properly installed. Can you turn those off?   

Customer:  I don’t Know how to turn them off. Can you tell me how?   

Tech Support:  With pleasure. Go to your start menu and invoke   Forgiveness. Do this as many times as necessary until Grudge and Resentment have been completely erased.   

I loved this!   

Customer:  Okay, done! Love has started installing itself. Is that   normal?   

Tech Support:  Yes, but remember that you have only the base program. You need to begin connecting to other Hearts in order to get the upgrades.   

Customer:  Oops! I have an error message already. It says, “Error – Program not run on external components.” What should I do?   

Tech Support:  Don’t worry. It means that the Love program is set up to   run on Internal Hearts, but has not yet been run on your Heart. In non-technical terms, it simply means you have to Love yourself before you can Love others.   

Customer:  So, what should I do?   

Tech Support:  Pull down Self-Acceptance; then click on the following files:   Forgive-Self; Realize Your Worth; and Acknowledge your Limitations.   

Customer:  Okay, done.   

Tech Support:  Now, copy them to the “My Heart” directory. The system will overwrite any conflicting files and begin patching faulty programming   Also, you need to delete Verbose Self-Criticism from all directories and empty your Recycle Bin to make sure it is completely gone and never comes back.   

Customer:  Got it. Hey! My heart is filling up with new files. Smile is playing on my monitor and Peace and Contentment are copying themselves  all over My Heart.  Is this normal?   

Tech Support:  Sometimes. For others it takes awhile, but eventually   everything   gets it at the proper time. So Love is installed and running. One more thing before We hang up. Love is Freeware. Be sure to give it  and its various modules to everyone you meet. They will in turn share it with others and return some cool  modules back to you.   

Customer:  Thank you, God.