In Yoke

The wine of life is oozing drop by drop, the leaves of life are falling one by one. -Omar Khayyam "Like leaves, we come into this life, are here for a few days, and then are gone. Nobody remembers us, and nobody misses us. As long as we believe that we are separate, we inevitably have to die. Our immortality is in the whole, which never dies. In living just for personal profit and pleasure, no matter under what philosophical name we may call it, our real personality withers away. It cannot be otherwise. When you become aware that you are not a leaf but the tree, something amazing happens in your life: you are able to act spontaneously, almost effortlessly, for the good of all. This is the proof of your awareness that you are the tree: everywhere it will motivate you, everywhere you will see what contribution you can make. You won't have to deliberate the pros and cons. You won't need a computer to provide you with a plan of action. You will know instinctively, intuitively,...

I went to the root of things, and found nothing but Him alone. -Mira Bai "The Lord is not someone outside us who lived in a given place at a given time. He is right within. " [Luke 17:20-22] from Eswaran : "Throughout creation, God is the principle of creativity itself. Even some of the greatest scientists and philosophers have yet to grasp this simple truth. One well-respected astronomer calls it cowardly to conclude that God created the universe just because we cannot comprehend the conditions of its creation. This great scientist is still thinking of God as someone outside, holding court beyond the Andromeda galaxy; he hasn't glimpsed that all this is God, and wherever there is light, or beauty, or excellence in anything, we are seeing a little more of His glory. But, as Mira says, to see this vision we cannot just stay on the surface of life picking up a few baubles of pleasure and prestige. We have to get deep, deep below, and go to the root of all things."...

From Eswaran: "If we could interview a negative tendency, say, Resentment , it might say, "I don't worry! I've been living safely in this fellow's mind for years. He takes good care of me - feeds me, dwells on me, brings me out and parades me around! All I have to do is roar and stir things up from time to time. Yes, I'm getting fat and feeling grand. And I'm proud to tell you there are even a few little rancors and vituperations running around now, spawned by yours truly!" So he may think. But when you repeat the mantram, (and practice presence and detachment with self remembering and mindfulness) you are prying him loose. You are saying, in a way that goes beyond vows and good intentions, that resentment is not part of the real you. You no longer acknowledge its right to exist. We use something genuine to drive out impostors that have roamed about largely through our neglect and helplessness.We move closer and closer to our divine Self, because thes...

"One who would be serene and pure needs but one thing, detachment." -Meister Eckhart(13th century Christian mystic) Eswaran notes a most applicable issue in my life, that of non-identification with my own opinions(or preferences), a term known as detachment . My wife Leslie and I have been involved in an ongoing conversation about this discipline and how the practice of detachment brings much more peace and contentment in our daily lives. I can save myself lots of trouble and pain by not expending energy defending my opinions or preferences. To quote the teacher: "Most of us identify ourselves with our pet opinions. Then, when we are contradicted, we take it personally and get upset. If we could look at ourselves with some detachment, we would see how absurd this is. There is scarcely any more connection between me and my opinions than there is between me and my car. I have a close friend who is devoted to her Volkswagen Bug. If I compliment her on it, she is pleased; if...

“You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” ---Jesus The Christ The greatest teacher of wisdom in history is Jesus, who became the Christ. In this passage, at the culmination of the teaching regarding the prayer we call the Lord's Prayer, he makes an irrevocable promise that brings hope and daily strength to those who take His promise "to heart" and claim it in prayer. He is saying that if but ask the Father for His Holy Spirit, He will give it to us, much like when your children ask you for what can sustain them...albeit--we are sinful--we will still do what we can to help our own children. That is the way the Father views us, as His own children. So, because what we truly and undeniably need in this life is H...

"Like a ball batted back and forth, a human being is batted by two forces within." -Yogabindu Upanishad "As human beings we have a divided nature - partly physical, but essentially spiritual. We are constantly batted by two conflicting forces. One force is the fierce downward thrust of our past conditioning as separate, self-oriented, physical creatures. Yet built into our very nature is an inner drive that will not let us be satisfied with a life governed only by biological laws. Some inner evolutionary imperative is constantly exhorting us to grow, to reach for the highest that we can conceive." Eswaran I liken this ancient Indian spiritual teaching in the Upanishad to the concepts of the False Self and the Essential Self. "The Work" of Transformation would cast the dilemma in the terms of being open to an objective observation of the driving force within my life. Which of the polar opposite influences in my life do I follow? 1. The Holy Ghost , expansi...

I have been studying the works of Kabir Helminski , a contemporary Sufi mystic. His book, "Living Presence, has had a profound effect on me, and has profoundly impacted my own personal journey of transformation. The Sufi descriptions of the fundamental aspects of the Self as defined and utilized through Shaikh Helminski's teachings have been quite instructive. It applies to me, quite pointedly, and I believe in varied ways and from varied points of view, to all of us. What I believe I pursued for the first 45 years of my life, was a constructed, fearful and compulsive self, driven by ego and my own sense of "I, me and mine". I have become accepting of this the more I have grown in "The Work" of transformation. What the process has involved in my own sense of awareness and awakening is to become fully cognizant to what is contained within my Essential Self, where my own true, un-constructed soul emanates. This is where "Spirit" is manifest. Thi...