In Yoke

Where are you searching for me, friend? Look! Here am I right within you. Not in temple, nor in mosque, Not in Kaaba, nor Kailas, But here right within you am I. – Kabir Many have begun the spiritual search while still suffering from severe personal problems. Saint Augustine was deeply enmeshed in the life of the world, and pulled himself free only after great anguish of mind. Others suffered physically. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux endured the constant pain of tuberculosis. So there is no need for any of us to feel downcast about our situation or the particular difficulties we face, provided we do everything we can to purify our mind. Meditation is essentially a discipline for slowing down the furious pace of thinking; if you can gradually bring your mind to a state so still that no movement, no thought, can arise except those you yourself approve, your mind will have become pure. We have no need to teach pure motives to the mind. All that is necessary to make the mind...

I have heard stories of men and women who were imprisoned in solitary confinement, without anything but their own hearts and their own memories to examine. These same folks tell of how whole passages of scripture, complete stories of Jesus and of the Apostles, of prophets, of Psalms, have come clear to them, untrammeled, descriptive, like medicine to their lonely, tortured soul. These “balms of Gilead” are also available to us-like myself, who have been instructed in the ways of the Lord throughout our lives…even when being spared imprisonment. I know His word has come to me many times in my lowest moments, and in my humdrum day to day existence, to enlighten, to encourage, to clarify, to inspire, to energize. Paul the apostle states- Christ dwells in our hearts through faith(Ephesians 3:17), and all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden and can be found in Christ. It stands to reason then, that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge of God can be found—in the hear...

The more I sit with the wisdom of the ages, and study the mystics, the more congruence I begin to sense. One philosophical congruence is the concept of the power of NOW—as Eckhart Tolle has popularized. Approximately 500 years before Christ’s advent in the Middle East, the life of Siddhartha Gautama emanated in Nepal and Northern India. His noble eightfold path and his words and teachings still ring true. Many of the concepts of his teachings are not at all incompatible with the capacity we are given through life in Christ. The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly. -The Compassionate Buddha Eknath Easwaran comments: “When the mind is at rest, we are lifted out of time into the eternal present. The body, of course, is still subject to the passage of time. But in a sense, the flickering of the mind is our internal clock. When the mind...

On the one hand I felt the call of God; on the other, I continued to follow the world. All the things of God gave me great pleasure, but I was held captive by those of the world. I might have been said to be trying to reconcile these two extremes, to bring contraries together: the spiritual life on the one hand and worldly satisfactions,pleasures, and pastimes on the other. ----Saint Teresa of Avila Saint Teresa of Avila was a remarkably spiritual woman. Even as a girl she could say passionately, "I want something that will last forever!" Yet this woman who was to become one of the world's greatest mystics went through twenty years of doubt and struggle before becoming "established" in God. If Teresa took twenty years, can people like you and me think of doing it in less? Her words can inspire all of us, for everyone begins with d...

Most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being. They make use of a very small portion of their possible consciousness, and of their soul's resources in general, much like a man who, out of his whole bodily organism, should get into a habit of using and moving only his little finger.-William James Eswaran proposes: "We think we are very limited creatures, very small, good for maybe only fifteen minutes of love or patience before we   have to crack. Instead of identifying with our deepest Self, we are identifying with some biochemical-mental organism. But when you calm the mind in meditation every morning, you will see how far you can stretch your patience and your love   during the day. You will see for yourself how comfortable you feel with everybody, how secure you feel wherever you   go. You will find that you have a quiet sense of being equal to difficult situations.   These discoveries give a hin...