In Yoke

The goal ever recedes from us. The greater the progress, the greater the recognition of our unworthiness. Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory. -Mahatma Gandhi If we have a particular weakness, life has an uncanny way of trying us at just that vulnerable spot. The man who is anger-prone finds himself forced to work with aggravating people. The woman who can’t resist sweets can find no job but one as a pastry cook. This can seem like sheer perversity on a cosmic scale, until we catch sight of the tremendous opportunity it provides. Between our inner need for growth and our external circumstances, a kind of dovetailing can often be detected. There almost seems to be a master hand behind it all, thrusting us time and time again into the same frustrating situation until finally we relent: “All right, you win – I’ll grow if you insist!” This is all that is really expected of us. Once we have made the firm resolve t...

As an irrigator guides water to the fields, as an archer aims an arrow,as a carpenter carves wood, the wise shape their lives. -The Buddha The glory of the human being is our ability to remake ourselves. The Buddha is very rightly called the Compassionate One because he holds out hope for everybody. He doesn’t say our past has been dark, therefore our chances are dim. He says whatever our past, whatever our present,the sky is bright for us because we can remake ourselves. The Buddha says, be a good woodworker. Consciousness is the wood, and you can make it take any shape you like. Just as a carpenter works the wood to build a house or a fine piece of furniture, similarly we can fashion the responses and attitudes we desire: love, wisdom, security, patience,loyalty, enthusiasm, cheerfulness. _my teacher, Eknath Eswaran _____________________________________________________________ I confess--- this is not an easy thing to consider. It seems that the more I seek --in my own power--and acc...

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...

We are celebrating the feast of the Eternal Birth which God the Father has borne and never ceases to bear in all Eternity. . . . But if it takes not place in me, what avails it? Everything lies in this, that it should take place in me. -Meister Eckhart from Eswaran: The Lord of Love, immortal and infinite, comes as a divine incarnation in times of great crisis to rescue mankind from disaster. In age after age, whenever violence and hatred threaten the world, the Lord comes down to inspire and protect those who turn to him, who live in harmony with the law of unity. He comes to protect such people from the heavy odds ranged against them, and to re-establish peace on earth and good will among all. Yet there is another level on which this divine birth can take place. Every one of us has this choice: shall I prepare for the divine birth to take place in my consciousness by abolishing my own selfishness? It is up to you and me to keep our doors open, to put up a little sign, "Ready for...

Ah! would the heart but be a manger for the birth, God would become once more a little child of earth. Immeasurable is the Highest! Who but knows it? And yet a human heart can perfectly enclose it. -Angelus Silesius ____________________________________ May your heart be filled with The Spirit of Christ, so that you can truly worship The Son of God who became the son of man. Merry Christmas.

From “Psychological Commentaries on the teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky”, by Maurice Nicoll, M.D. (1884-1953) "In the Gospels it is said: “The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! Or, lo, there! For behold, the Kingdom of God is within you.” It is not something outside that if you would only join you would be liberated. When it is said in the Gospels that “the Kingdom of God is within you”, by this is meant a state in which the hypnotism of life no longer acts on us and in which we are invested with the influence of ideas coming from quite a different source. (Christ Consciousness) Now let us take one of the ideas of The Work from which we are taught to observe ourselves and from which we must think and build up within ourselves a new point of view. There is the idea that “Man Cannot Do”. (This idea is inherent in the concept of “The Kingdom of God”.) Have you ever thought about this idea? Remember that an idea is comparable with a very ...

If we had to seek for virtue outside of ourselves, that would assuredly be difficult; but as it is within us, it suffices to avoid bad thoughts and to keep our souls turned towards the Lord. -Philokalia From my teacher: To remake ourselves, we don't have to bring goodness,love, fearlessness, and the like from without and force them into our hearts somehow. They are already present in us, deep in our consciousness. If we work to remove the impediments that have built up over many years of conditioning, to dislodge the old resentments and fears and selfish desires, our life will become like a fountain of living waters, as it was meant to be. An old fountain may be clogged so that not much water can get through. But with a lot of cleaning, you can get the water to start playing again. Then grass and flowers will grow around it, and birds will come there to have their bath. Just so, love can flow from us as from a living fountain, and those we live and work with will come to us to be r...