From Microbes to Mammals

 

My life is strangely compartmentalized. There’s the family compartment, the professional compartment, the Joshua-Only compartment, the love compartment, the lust compartment, the Godness compartment, the morals-and-morality compartment, the Godlessness compartment, the materialist compartment, etc… I have so many compartments.

Naturally, some appear to overlap – like the love / lust compartments or the love / family compartments. In reality, as far as I can tell, they don’t overlap but only seem to. I know pretty well when I’m loving and I know pretty well when I’m lusting and, believe it or not, I know pretty well when I’m accessing love to facilitate lust or lust to facilitate love. This is, in my experience, one thing people too often mess up. For the average bear, it’s too easy to become confused. Blurring these lines is like setting your ego loose in a wide, open field to fun amok. It’s generally a bad idea but all of that is something I’ve written about before and will maybe write about again – but not now.

So… there are these instances in life when it seems like any two compartments might be one-and-the-same or at least blurring a bit, but they aren’t. One instance, however, wherein I think there might actually be a blurring is, of all compartments, one of the borders between the Godness compartment and the Godlessness compartment. Neither can actually, really, or truly answer the question of how we all got here. I mean, to a degree, they both can: I’m here because my parents were here. They were here because their own sets of parents were here before them, and those parents’ parents’ parents … on and on … but only so far back. In the Godness compartment, usually, we reach a brick wall when we trace back far enough to figures like Adam & Eve or some other set of figures who supposedly got the whole human thing going here on Earth. In the Godlessness compartment, we can mostly trace ourselves to an even earlier point in history – perhaps successfully back as far as the dawn of life on the planet but that’s pretty much where the evolution story stops. And, I suppose, rightly so.

Religion tells us, “We know we go back as far as such-n-such point and just before that point – POOF! – like magic, it all just happened because of The Divine’s Word.” Science tells us, “We know we go back as far as such-n-such point and just before that – POOF! – like magicless magic, it all just happened because of the Big Bang.” However they arrive at it, they both reach the same point – eventually, each story gets to a place where something has to come from nothing. From the Godness standpoint, that’s all the sense that’s needed. God is magic, right? No other explanation is required. But from the Godlessness standpoint, a lot more work is needed to come to a conclusion which is our sure commencement.

Occasionally, though, as I’ve been trying to say, the two come together – or at least they appear to from where I stand. As a person of the Hindu persuasion, there’s no real conflict between the Godness and the Godlessness. Any Hindu who claims there is conflict there is terribly deluded and under the spell of Abrahamic oppression. Surely, superficially there are real conflicts. But nothing superficial is really real and nothing superficial should be taken very seriously. Time and time again Hindus have seen science catch up to what we call religion or spirituality. I say science is “catching up,” but that’s not really what I mean. What I mean to say is that the two are increasingly complementary. On an ever greater scale, the two help each other to explain each other.

I think an article I happened across back in January of this year helps to illustrate this. You can read it by clicking here. It’s a long-ish essay which was written (I think) in January of this year, too. A geologist started down a path of thought after his kid’s toy broke. The toy, as it is described, reminds me of those Magic Rocks or whatever we call them here. You have a container, some water and a solution, and then you drop colored “rocks” into it all and they start growing and whatnot. Do you know what I mean? His kid had one of these and one of the rocks broke and he took a look and now we have this essay to read.

The author, Tim Requarth, thinks he might be onto something where the origin of life is concerned. From the Godlessness perspective we know well how matter came / comes into existence. And we also know energy is never lost – never really ever created or destroyed. But the marriage of the two is where things always get messy. Nature itself provides tons of chances for the two to mingle. But that’s only the first, super small, step. If you can energize matter, that’s great. But you need to not only energize it, but also need to have just the right form of matter energized and then to keep it energized in just the right way so as to possibly cause just the right chemical reactions which would enable that energized matter to sustain itself long enough to keep sustaining itself – aka survive, thrive, and reproduce.

YOWZER! What a challenge! No wonder religion uses magic and science has these kind of gaps in its theories.

“But in Russell’s mind, the origin of life and the source of the energy it needed were a single issue, the two parts inextricably intertwined.” – This is where I started to smile while reading. Hindus have always known that the two parts are inextricably intertwined. Maybe if you read the essay, too, it will make you smile as I did.

Aum Shri Mahaganeshaya Namaha | Aum Shanti

Let Us Not Grow Weary

This has really been a year for me… not the same kind of year as 2014 was. Thank gods, or else I’d not be here now writing to annoy you. But still certainly a year I’ll never forget. I “lost” a dear friend back to our Source (there’s a post about this in the works and will be published here when the time feels right and the post complete) and I more recently feel like I’ve lost my country.

The election for United States President was recent and our new President-elect is Donald J. Trump. That night my husband and I stayed home and ate cheap pizza while we shared a bottle of wine. In weeks leading up to the election things were quite a roller coaster. One day things were up and another day things were down. Regardless of that kind of ebb and flow, which is natural to an election race, moments of being utterly baffled were a consistent thing for me.

Everyone everywhere knows politicians are liars who usually over-promise and under-deliver. Half of them are also cheaters and thieves and can be bought. That much should be a given, I feel. There’s never been a saint-politician and we shouldn’t expect there to be one anytime soon. With that accepted, I do think it’s a useful practice to pay close attention to a politician’s personal character – specifically how they see others and how they treat others. And that’s been the most baffling part of this election race for me. When contrasting Clinton and Trump the differences in character are like differences between salt and pepper, apples and oranges, night and day. Trump unapologetically alienates anyone who isn’t upper class, white, and male – and does so through the use of “locker room talk” and other more blatant behaviors exhibited through the likes of racism and misogyny and chauvinism (just to name a few). He has proven himself to be impulsive, petulant, immature, and disconnected from the reality of America today – both the why and what of our national reality. Never mind that he also has no idea how to successfully navigate the dance that makes up a political career in the USA because he has absolutely no experience doing that.

Early in, supporters were saying that he’s at least a good businessman and that this is what our country needs. Our country DOES need that, but Trump isn’t actually even a good businessman. He fails and files bankruptcy left and right and has been brought to court for refusing to pay people for their work. He’ll also be going to court again soon enough for charges brought against him regarding sexual assault – which he’s actually said he can get away with simply because he’s a man and a celebrity. There are plenty of reasons why someone on the Left or who isn’t a Republican might not vote for him – just from a political perspective. But all of that generally can be lumped up as just a difference of opinion. After all, everyone is trying to solve the same issues, just differently. Again, that much is expected. But where Trump really puts icing on the cake is everything he touches outside of politics – that’s the stuff I mentioned earlier – and since he has ZERO political background these things matter a bit more than they would with a career politician. But, at this point, I suppose it might well be argued pointing these things out is useless because the election has come and gone.

In Clinton’s concession speech, she said a lot of really heart-warming thing to say – all of which really just reiterated her whole campaign which is that we are stronger together. She said we owe Trump an open mind and a chance to leave – and that’s something I agree with strongly. However, as time distances us from that election night it’s become very apparent that there are those who don’t feel that way and now we’re having protests and practically having riots. I want to be very clear that burning effigies and flags and being violent are NOT ways to get what you want and neither are they ways to productively or effectively express how you feel. The initial perception this terrible behavior is that those engaging in this way are sore losers and angry.

And certainly to a small degree, that’s the case with some of the people. However, a statement which is truer and more reflective of reality is that those people are scared. The truth is that Trump is our president-elect and his party currently rules all the rest of our system of check-and-balances – which means nothing is going to be very checked or balanced. Given that, and the fact that he has vowed to do things that are bad news for everyone who isn’t a wealthy, white, hetero male, it’s no wonder people are freaking out and unsure of what to do with themselves.

After the election and prior to the major protests, I had about half a day of scrolling through Facebook to observe responses of those I associate with in social media. I wanted to wait as long as I felt necessary to get a sampling of responses before posting my own. Below, to finish this post, I’ll be attaching a number of images – screen shots from my Facebook feed. To the best of my ability I’ve blacked out images and names so as to minimize identification of those individuals shown. I think there’s one post that is my own which I didn’t black out and there’s one or two from Facebook pages which I understand not to be human individuals which I also didn’t black out. All of these were captured prior to the violent protests and you’ll notice the majority of initial reactions amount to various expressions and levels of shock and fear. It wasn’t until these feelings had built up a bit and needed more of an outlet that the protests started and this certainly isn’t what sore loser-ship looks like. This is the first face of what it looks like when people are afraid that their social welfare benefits will be slashed, that half their family might be deported and then blocked from returning by America’s version of the Great Wall of China, that their marriages will no longer receive crucial government recognition. That’s not being a sore loser. That’s being scared for your life.

Hopefully some greater good will come from this election and resultant presidency. Right now it’s awfully challenging to foresee any greater good whatsoever but perhaps, if nothing else, a tough lesson will be learned.

Aum Shri Mahaganeshaya Namaha | Aum Shanti

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pipe Distribution

Image taken from Google Image search

 

I receive a number of emails daily from the Sahaj Marg. There are newsletters, and daily inspiration emails, as well as a number of other kind of emails that are issued daily.

In one email from last week, something caught my attention. It is a Daily Reflection email and while the quotes recently have been a lot of things from Kamlesh-bhai, this one was something our last master, Shri Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari ( Chariji ), had said. I’ll share his words below. (The source is Heartspeak 2004, Volume 2, Chapter “Giving Without Restraint”)

“So it starts with your heart being a tiny pipe. The more you distribute, that pipe becomes bigger and bigger. It becomes a six inch pipe, a twelve inch pipe, until the whole universe is a pipe.”

The thing that caught me about this is the use of the word distribute. I chewed on it for a minute by myself and then reached out to one of my favorite preceptors locally. She started to email me a response and then we agreed to chat about it after that evening’s meditation (it was Wednesday). That night, after meditation and after most of the others had gone, she and I chatted about this. I now can’t do our discussion justice – we discussed, among many things, what I have come to call a “vishwaroopa moment.” The immensely successful Oprah has what I think she calls “Aha moments,” and I think this is my mind’s equivalent of it.

For anyone unfamiliar with the Bhagavad Gita, it’s a conversation between Arjuna (a warrior and taxi driver) and Krishna (god, in a human body). Arjuna is pretty messed up and right there in the middle of the battlefield Krishna tries to enlighten the despondent Arjuna. He offers one approach and then another, example after example, and Arjuna just ain’t gettin’ it. Finally, Krishna’s like, “Look here, you fool….” and reveals his “true” form. Arjuna is given a vision of Truth and how very all-encompassing It is. He sees, literally, everything. All life forms, cosmic structure and activity, stars, teeth, eyes …. all before him – EVERYTHING. And, as expected, he freaks out and want Krishna to turn off the fireworks because they’re more than overwhelming. These moments (Oprah’s “Aha” and my “Vishwaroopa”) aren’t exactly synonymous. But for the purposes of this blog and this post, they are. They both represent a widening of knowledge and wisdom and understanding and experience. My conversation with the preceptor touched on a vishwaroopa moment, kinda.

She explained many things to me and collectively they added up to a very complete answer to my question – an answer so complete, in fact, that sooooo much was encompassed in it that when I tried to comprehend it as a single unit my mind’s eye kinda just stepped back all wide and whatnot and was like, “WHOA.” I’ll try to share, in a rather abbreviated way, what I took from our conversation that night.

1. A part of the Sahaj Marg / Heartfulness practice is the rearranging of one’s consciousness.
2. The movement involved in rearranging consciousness creates a kind of “vacuum.”
3. In the aforementioned vacuum, there lies potential for greater and greater transmission, increasing in proportion to the growth of the aforementioned vacuum.
4. The more we clean and practice this path of Heartfulness, the bigger (progressively) our “heart pipe” becomes.

This might not sound too fantastic from where you sit, but from where I currently sit on this path it’s incredible. It’s a Vishwaroopa Moment. Our lineage masters place so much hope in the abhyasis. Enormous faith is placed in us that we can be as effectual as they are – and so much of the picture has been revealed. You practice, rearrange your own consciousness (and in that process manage various impressions / samskaras and their related karmas), create the vacuum which is refilled with divinity of pureness, and as all this happens it continues and self-perpetuates – the pipe widens and eventually engulfs all and All. And so we come to know, experience, and be what Hindus call Brahman.

It’s amazing how much can be communicated by a master / guru in so few words.

Aum Shri Mahaganeshaya Namaha | Aum Shanti

Gnosis-ery

I subscribe to a blog here at WordPress called Isma’ili Gnosis. I don’t read all of the posts that are published because I prefer to spend my already terribly limited time doing other things that are a little more applicable to my personal path.

Isma’ilism seems to be Sufism. And in many ways, on a number of levels, Sufism is closely related to my path with the Sahaj Marg / Heartfulness…. “path of the Heart” and all that. Honestly, I think it’s because of having spent a couple of years studying Islam intensely and now walking a path that carries its own “flavor” of Sufism that I can stomach Islam really almost more than I can Christianity.

There’s a post on the Isma’ili Gnosis site that I want to draw your attention to. It’s a post meant to explain the “strongest argument for the existence of God” and as you would expect it’s a long and kinda meaty post. You can find it here. I’m not sure I stand by every word of the post itself, but a lot of it is legit from where I sit. The second full paragraph was something that struck me. It reads,

“Two major reasons for the growing popularity of atheism and agnosticism among people today are that a) most people are not exposed to the classical concept of God within their own religious tradition and instead are made to believe in an anthropomorphic image of God and  b) the positive arguments for God’s existence are poorly understood and misrepresented by both atheists and people of faith.”

To be clear, I really don’t take issue with “the growing popularity of atheism and agnosticism.” It’s my firm belief that those paths are no less valid than any other and I also firmly believe that anyone walking either or both of those paths will absolutely and undoubtedly arrive at whatever my own final destination is. There can be no other option.

Beyond that, I agree with the two other points in the paragraph. As far as “a” is concerned, a huge problem of today – in all kinds of contexts – is that no one really knows what they’re talking about. We settle for snips-n-clips from lots of different places, half of which oughtn’t be trusted – and we assume those tidbits of info are the sole and whole truth. This, dear readers, is wholly dangerous. It’s because of this that, for example, Christians, are almost universally ignorant of the real depth of their own holy texts. (I’ll generalize here because in this case it’s pretty well safe to.) The texts that now make up what is known as the Christian Bible are quite varied in regard to original intent, original content, original language, etc… And much more than just those things, never mind additional factors like cultural norms of the time and other such things that really should be taken into consideration. Christians today – generally – have very little recognition that their own cherished path originally amounted to what we now would absolutely label as a Middle Eastern cult… which even today are problematic. And Christians aren’t alone in this systemic ignorance. All that to say … Point “a” is correct. Too many of us known too little about the things we cling to.

A side effect of this terrible ignorance is the mention of an anthropomorphic image of God. I’ve written here probably more than once about what a terrible idea it is to humanize God and how faulty any conception of God is that exhibits traits that too closely resemble human behavior. It. Is Dangerous. And it is dangerous whether you revere Christ or Krishna.

Point “b” from the paragraph quoted here is also important. On Facebook, I follow a variety of groups from all walks of life. There’s a “godless and irreligious” group whose posts I see. And really, even outside of Facebook posts this remains true – I’ve visited atheist websites and I own a number of atheistic books. Something I have noticed is that Atheists mostly only have stones to throw at the Abrahamic religions. Seriously, I’ve viewed A LOT of atheist material and I don’t think it’s too inaccurate to say that not more than 3% of all I’ve ever seen has been directed toward Dharmic religions. Almost always their “targets” are Jews, Christians, and Muslims. I think this is indicative in its own way but this also seems to be the other side of the coin of what’s mentioned in regard to positive arguments simply not being known by either side.

Anyway, read the post. Because I said. It’s for your own good.

Aum Shri Mahaganeshaya Namaha | Aum Shanti

Rasi Rasi

Quite a while back – months and months – I went to the website of the Himalayan Academy and purchased my Rasi chart. The good monks running the Hinduism Today magazine and the HA site sell rasi charts at a really reasonable price… I think it was around $5. I would recommend everyone look into their personal astrology the “Hindu way.” It’s acually quite unique and complex – only trained and trusted astrologers (jyotish) really understand the intricacies.

Sadly, the good monks (to my knowledge) don’t offer an interpretation. See my chart (from them) below.

 

 

Rasi from Himalayan Academy

 

Without assistance I have no idea what anything above means. I’m certainly no jyotish practitioner. So like any modern young-ish human, I posted to Facebook asking for anyone who could point me in the right direction. One of my favorite Facebook friends, who I know only from Facebook and who my husband and I visited once a few years ago, has an uncle who knows the art. Her mother, another fine example of how humans ought to be, message me privately giving me the email contact for her brother. So I did it.

It took me an embarrassingly long time to reach out to him but I did and I’m glad for it. Unfortunately, he wasn’t familiar with the kind of chart I sent him. He returned my email with a request that I provide him with certain necessary information – usually things like date of birth, time of birth, and location of birth. I provided the information as requested and his next email came very shortly asking what kind of things I would like to know from my chart. I emailed him my answer. Within a few brief days I received a response and a photo of the chart he worked up for me – which is below and looks a bit different than the one from the Himalayan Academy. You’ll notice similarities.

 

Rasi given by Uncle-ji

 

So that’s my birth chart. One of the best things this time around is that uncle-ji provided the kind of interpretation I sought initially. Below are some of the tidbits he revealed

1. At present your luck is hundred percent favoring you . Transit of Saturn in your physical efforts house and looking at your luck house is good.
2. Incidentally birth chart is also indicating Period of Saturn  period from july 2005 to july 2024. In this period please try to help poor specially [the groups of people he mentioned]. This will help you in moving ahead to achieve desire goals with blessings of unknown human beings.
3. You may not be able to find favor and like by your own people but you are recognized by others.
4. You will have all kind of luxuries in your life  but you have to maintain your character so as to reach the ultimate heights which you rightly deserve.
5. Life is not smooth as you think it is full of miseries unwanted obstacles cheating frauds, especially if you share your feeling and ideas and future plans with juniors or younger and below of your status. Anyway dont worry,  maintain secrecy unless your mission is fully completed do not  disclose to any body.
6. Next , avoid wearing black grey brown and smoke colors tops. Most important bring one silver elephant with rising trunk and keep it in the holy water and the whole body incl trunk is fully dip in the holy water.

So there you have it – well, some of it. This much is dark-n-wondrous, but I’ll spare you the darker-n-wondrous-er. After all, I’ve been advised not to share everything with all. Sounds like I need to research Saturn’s influence some more, up my generosity, lessen my naivety, don’t count entirely on my own people and be open to “blessings of unknown human beings.” (That last bit is something I’ll mentally chew on for a minute.)

The part that really stands out to me is what I have sectioned off as #4… the importance of maintaining character so as to reach the ultimate heights which are rightly deserved. This feels very at home with my path in Heartfulness and everything I’ve learned in Sahaj Marg – although, collectively we (the Sahaj Marg) aren’t huge proponents of things like astrology.

Any thoughts, dear readers? They are always welcome.

Aum Shri Mahaganeshaya Namaha | Aum Shanti

Entitlement

This post is the finalization of draft I put together MONTHS and MONTHS ago. I really dislike taking so long to complete a post – I rarely have the the same thoughts as when I began the post and dragging these things out so long can make it tough to look back and see where I was with something once upon a time or to decide where I want to go with it now.

The picture in this post was something I saw on the Progressive America page on Facebook ages ago, and it struck me as kinda profound and somewhat “high level” or a little vague. I’m not very familiar with any of the Justices, but I’m willing to allow that they are all intelligent people with varying versions of what they think is best for the American population. Sotomayor, if this quote is legit, seems to have a really good head on her shoulders. I’m sure that, as an American woman, she also has a different perspective that allows her to present different ways of viewing life.

Still, these words seem awfully strong. No? You’re not entitled to disagree until you understand. I asked a number of people across my friend spectrum what they thought this actually means and I received different answers – as I would expect.

Most Americans, I’ll say, feel awfully entitled to a lot. We have rights, damn it! What’s more, we often ignorantly assume that my “rights” are allowed to overstep into yours. Example: You’re not allowed to get married because I have the right to religious expression. Additionally, we have lots of really important documents from the formation of our country to document the fact that we have rights – things we’re absolutely and undeniably entitled to. It can’t be argued or debated. Right? And surely, as the general population would agree, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But are they really?

I think yes. After all, we’re all allowed to hold any view we prefer. And what’s more, we can hold these views for any reason we want. No one should be able to dictate what another person thinks about something. And I think the truth is also that a person can’t really determine that for another. Sure, we can influence each other. But I could dance and sing all day in an attempt to get you to think something – or to think something in a certain manner – and there’s still no guarantee that my efforts will be fruitful. And that’s how it should be.

I think all of that, though, isn’t what Sotomayor might have meant. I’m certain someone of her life condition and personal evolution understands that mind control is poop – not good and often bogus. So, that can’t be what she was getting at. If I can be so brave as to wager a guess on what she meant, my guess would be that her words might should be interpreted as something along the lines of, “Unless you possess an understanding founded on a precisely parallel experience, then your opinion only carries the value of an opinion.” Yeah we afford more weight to some opinions, but be reminded that opinions are more common than cell phones.

 

 

It’s probably really tough and maybe not the truest thing for one person to tell another that he / she “understands” what their friend is going through unless he / she has actually been through that specific experience or else one very VERY much like it. Otherwise, this is probably some form of lie. (An obvious gray area with this is that we’ve all felt much of the same emotions / thoughts in our individual existences, and to some small degree can honestly tell another “I know how you feel” because your anger or sadness is felt probably somewhat similarly to my own anger or sadness, etc…)

But really what is involved to understand – to truly understand? Almost certainly more than most of us ever think to consider and Sotomayor’s words probably initially strike people as pretty biased or not true because of that. I mean, if I’m entitled to my own opinion, and our respective experiences have produced thoughts or emotions that are similar, then how could my opinion (wherein I disagree) not be valid?

Because understanding takes more than just an opinion added to “similar” experiences. What’s that old saying… something about walking a mile in someone else’s shoes, right? There’s no slack given for having watched someone walk a mile, or for having walked a mile in your own shoes – that’s still in YOUR shoes with YOUR feet. If you haven’t walked the same mile in the same shoes, it’s simply not the same – regardless of how close your experience might otherwise come. It’s probably a pretty smart thing to keep in mind that if you haven’t lived what another person has lived, then your opinion of disagreement is possibly not super valid. Sure you might be able to commiserate on some levels, but her words are talking about disagreement.

This is really challenging for Americans, I’d say. We’re often know-it-alls, and everyone seems to know exactly what their neighbor should and shouldn’t be allowed to do (have the right to do) never mind the fact that we may not even actually know our neighbor. Most of us have never actually read documents like the Constitution, and half of us who have aren’t educated sufficiently to properly interpret them – and yet we’re all pros on these matters. And those of us who carry the realization that we’re not pros seem to trust any and every damned fool who claims to be, which is likely worse than just staying completely blind. And as icing on this crappy tasting cake, we’re really hit-n-miss when it comes to humility, which is often the very first roadblock to overcome when trying to rectify any of this.

So here we are. Be careful what you think you’re entitled to and be mindful of why. If you’ve never conceived a child from having been raped, maybe your not entitled to tell women abortions are wrong and should be illegal. If you’ve never been a victim of someone else’s religious dictates and thrown to your death from a building top as a result, then maybe you’re in no place to cry about religious persecution.

Aum Shri Mahaganeshaya Namaha | Aum Shanti

Maxim X

Image taken from Google Image search

 

The final of the Ten Maxims in Sahaj Marg helps us conclude our day. Fitting, considering the initial maxims helped us start the day.  “At bedtime, feeling the presence of God, repent for the wrongs committed. Beg forgiveness in a supplicant mood, resolving not to allow repetition of the same.” This is another maxim that I’d like to offer a twist of my own on as I break it into its parts.

“At bedtime, feeling the presence of God…” Many religious people, traditionally speaking, pray at bedtime. But that’s not exactly what’s being talked about here. Prayer is talking to God. Not listening. Not feeling. Prayer is a making of noise – and I plan to write about the Sahaj Marg daily prayer in a future post. Imagine, though, getting into bed at the very end of your day and FEELING the presence of God. What would That feel like? I hope it would feel like the you-est of you. You climb into bed and under the covers, on your back and facing the ceiling with your head on the pillow. And then you feel the presence of God. Really, what would it feel like? At that point in the day, and certainly depending on the day you experienced, you could potentially feel (or think) many different things. But the presence of God? I’ll suggest that you strip away the happenings of the day that ultimately led you back to your bed where you started many hours prior. (This could, in a round-about way, be related to our practice of cleaning.)

The traffic you fought. The conversations with coworkers. The lunch you had. The win / lose experienced by your child at their volley ball game. Whatever comes to mind about the day – let it out the window. Keep letting the thoughts and emotions of the day pass out of your mind as quickly as they enter. Even if the stream of thoughts is steady and seems not to end, you should soon notice the part of your awareness or consciousness that is present before, during, and after each mental object. The part of you that is watching all that movement within your mind. That is you, the Real You. And that is non-different, qualitatively, from God. It’s tough to see and feel and know – and most people hardly do more than get a small taste at any one time, but it’s there. Always. That presence has been with you the whole day and is now with you as you bring the day to a close. Feel that Presence.

“…, repent for the wrongs committed.” Be careful with this one. I’ll suggest to you that the habit of listing so-called sins is a dangerous one and one that too predictably does more damage than benefit. In order to repent for your wrongs, you have to be able to cite or list them. That’s generally an unproductive thing to do. However, there’s no harm in being a bit aware of shortcomings and specifically those of the day that is ending. I just think this activity warrants a personal assessment of what defines a wrong.

“Beg forgiveness in a supplicant mood, resolving not to allow repetition of the same.” Begging for forgiveness strikes me as odd. The Goal or our Center …. “God” doesn’t keep a list of our sins. The same Being doesn’t – at all – punish us for shortcomings. As such, who are we begging for forgiveness? Ponder that, if you will. The real meat of this part of the maxim, from where I sit, starts with the word supplicant. If you can manage an aware feeling of the Presence and also become aware of your shortcomings for that day, then I think you’ll find a natural response is humility and supplication. And gratitude. And once all of that is on the plate, the natural response – which really should come naturally – is to resolve that tomorrow would be better (aka: resolving not to allow repetition of the same.)

There’s no need (or benefit) to beating yourself up at this point. The day itself has probably done a fair enough job at that. As you wrap up your day, feel that Presence which has always been with you, accept your truth with humility and supplication, and go to sleep intending that tomorrow will be better than today was. I hope this series on the Sahaj Marg Maxims has been helpful in some way. And if not, that’s okay, too.  🙂

Aum Shri Mahaganeshaya Namaha | Aum Shanti

Maxim II

Image taken from Google Image search

 

Maxim II in Sahaj Marg advises, “Begin your puja with a prayer for spiritual elevation with a heart full of love and devotion.”

This feels like a natural progression from Maxim I. The last maxim pretty much gets us up and going and helps lessen the chances that we’ll rush into the day without our head on straight. This maxim goes a baby step more and begins our focus and the direction of our day. Prayer isn’t a big deal within Sahaj Marg. We have one “official” prayer – which will likely be covered in later posts.

In my mind and heart, the prayer here is not the same kind of prayer that we usually think of here in the West. In the West, virtually all prayer is a form of blabbering to the Divine. It’s really a shame – like seeing Ganesha as a wish giver. The real justice of the matter is discounted and overlooked. Here in the West, when we pray, it’s so noisy. There may be times of verbally offering thanks and whatnot, but very few people (probably) actually pray for the sole purpose of expressing gratitude. We say things like, “God protect us while we travel” and “God help me get that job” and “God give Kim Davis chlamydia.” Our mode of prayer here in the West is almost entirely ME-ME-ME. Prayer here is usually such a selfish act. And certainly there is plenty of that egoic prayer in the East, as well. People are people. We want things. Or, we want to avoid things. And we want the Divine to provide or prevent them.

The prayer in this maxim, though, feels different. If one can manage a “heart full of love and devotion” then it’s a bit less likely that the “prayer for spiritual elevation” will express itself in the shape of, “Give me spiritual elevation.” When one’s heart is filled with loved and devotion, words aren’t needed. Not really. And sometimes thoughts aren’t needed, either.

By this point, we’ve showered and dressed and gone to our meditation / puja spot and are in our preferred asana (position). And now Maxim II kicks in – with a heart full of love and devotion. Our puja / meditation is about lots of dark-n-wondrous things that will be covered by later posts, too, and this prayerful moment shaped by love and devotion builds on Maxim I and additionally sets the stage for a productive and heartful day ahead. And ultimately, that love and devotion are part of our core essence – which we’re uncovering in our practice through the elevation achieved (as mentioned in the prayer).

We’re beginning our personal puja with the intent (sankalpa) to achieve an elevated state, one less bogged down than the one we’re currently experiencing, and that sankalpa (intent) is full-flavored according to the intensity of our love and devotion.

Ready for Maxim III?

Aum Shri Mahaganeshaya Namaha | Aum Shanti

Maxim I

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Just about every religious path or sect or denomination has its own set of rules. One of the first things I read when initially learning about Hinduism is that there are more religions WITHIN this religion than there are outside of it. Doesn’t that sound strange? How can a religion contain multiple others? Well, it’s true. In Islam you simply have the Quran. In Christianity, you have one very small religious text (the Bible). Even Mormons, who recognize the Old Testament, New Testament, and what I’ll call the Next Testament and have probably the most reading to do of all Christians, have only a tiny amount of scriptures to pull from compared to Hindus.

Hinduism has been around since… forever. It predates every other living religion today and at it’s essential core it remains incredibly and fantastically applicable to modern life and in harmony with science. Most other religions alive today have to backtrack a bit to realign what they say they believe so that they can harmonize with modern life and science, but the truth of Hinduism is that many recent scientific advancements support what Hindu texts have said for many thousands of years. (To be clear, going back 2,000 years or 4,000 years is cake to the Hindu. When most religions were just opening their eyes to the light of day, Hinduism long surpassed the crawling and walking phases and was running marathons.)

Regardless of the development of any specific religion, you’re bound to find a set of “rules.” Those within the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, among others) are very familiar with this, and it could even be said that they specialize in rule making. The problem with that approach is that rules suck. They aren’t usually as universally applicable or universally enforceable as we think. People, historically, break rules. Too often our rules are just not realistic.

But they still have value, right? If nothing else, they provide a basic foundation which can in turn either be built on or be jumped from. Whether those rules are built upon or jumped from depends entirely on the individual and it shouldn’t be forgotten that your personal choice to build or jump from a set of rules in no way naturally applies to whether someone else does the same action with the same set of rules.

In Sahaj Marg, we have what are termed The Ten Maxims. When you google the definition of what “maxim” means you get, “a short, pithy statement expressing a general truth or rule of conduct.” For anyone not familiar with what “pithy” means, it means concise. That definition helps illustrate exactly what our Maxims mean to us (or to anyone). Our practice traces back on some level to Sage Patanjali who is known for his sutras – these Maxims are, in their own way, sutras. They are short, concise, general truths / rules of conduct, and tie together nicely like sutras would. Another layer of this was found by scrolling through additional google results – one of which mentions that a maxim is subjective. For anyone not familiar, subjective means, “based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions.” So when you smoosh all that together you end up with a meaning that encompasses the idea of a general (universally applicable?) truth or rule of conduct that is concise (not bogged down) and able to pass through any individual’s subjective filter. This understanding is immensely valuable because structure is provided and so is freedom.

I start from where I am, I go to where I am able, and I grow the whole way. Equally important, and not to be forgotten, is the knowledge that none of that applies to you. Even if you follow the same Maxim (or surat, or sutra, or commandment, or whatever…), my experience and application is good only for myself and yours for you. It’s that simple and with that I’ll mention Sahaj Marg’s Maxim 1.

The first maxim reads, “Rise before dawn. Offer your prayer and puja at a fixed hour, preferably before sunrise, sitting in one and the same pose. Have a separate place and seat for worship. Purity of mind and body should be specially adhered to.” (Depending on where you are reading, the wording of the maxims might vary. For instance, I am going by a wallet card I ordered from our bookstore, but if you go to our site the words differe a bit. The essence is not changed, though.)

The first thing I noticed is that this maxim has no less than five parts to it: 1) Rise before dawn. 2) Offer prayer / puja at a fixed hour, preferably before sunrise. 3) Sit in one and the same pose. 4) Have a separate place and seat for worship. 5)Purity of mind and body should be adhered to.

This instantly seems to support the ability for anyone to adopt this maxim, from whatever point in their own evolution they might be. Maybe you can’t rise before dawn, but you can offer morning puja at the same time each morning. Maybe you live in a place that doesn’t allow for you to have a totally separate temple room or something but you can at least go to the same place in your home and use the same seating / posture. Purity of mind and body? Get up, shower, put on clean clothing – knowing that you’re headed into morning puja and meditation.

Personally, I rarely rise before dawn – except maybe in winter months. Regardless of whether I’m up before dawn, I do puja / meditation each morning after my shower and before leaving the house for the day. I sit in the same asana, not in a reclined posture, and I wrap myself in a comfortable but sturdy green blanket which is used for nothing else. That’s where I am currently with Maxim I. Others, more evolved than myself, perhaps are able to adhere to every part of this maxim. And there are many others, most people probably, who do well to complete one-fifth of this Maxim daily. Doesn’t matter – do what you can do now, and try to do more as you can as you grow.

This maxim, I’m guessing, is the easiest to gloss over. We want to know what other rules we have to follow. We want to see what else is written. We read it and then we’re like, “Okay – what else?” But this maxim is actually really important. If anyone is guilty of running a hundred miles an hour the minute their feet step out of bed, then it’s me. But I still recognize, and hope you do too, how important it is to set the tone for your day with stillness and peace and calm. Who knows what your day will bring? It’s smart to start your day with actions that are predictable and quietly productive.

A maxim that is so helpful as to set the stage for one’s day may well be as beneficial in setting the stage for the additional maxims.

Aum Shri Mahaganeshaya Namaha | Aum Shanti

Unclean Lines

 

I went to church recently. Not temple, (Christian) church. This is not the norm for me. The congregation I worshiped with is one I have thought about visiting for a while. In truth, it’s a flock I used to belong to and worship with regularly. This community gathers at what is now known as Life Journey Church, click here to visit their site, but used to be called Jesus Metropolitan Community Church (JMCC). For anyone who isn’t already aware, the Metropolitan Community Church is a non-denominational sect of protestant Christianity that is not only welcoming of the LGBT population, but also is affirming. As such, the membership is usually primarily humans from the greater gay community – although there are also plenty of non-gay folks who attend, as well.

I first learned of the MCC while as a teen I began coming to terms with my sexuality and was also a very active Christian person. This was a tumultuous time in my life because my family isn’t Christian and Christians generally don’t like gays. So, quite honestly, I wasn’t sure what my future would hold and I anticipated being thrown out by one or both of these important parts of my life. As it turned out, only the Christians threw me out. (Not before putting me through the bogus-est of therapies. Calvary Baptist Church, click here for their site link, I think, had never had to deal with a problem like me.) During those difficult years, my backup plan was to run to the MCC for a kind of sanctuary, hoping that in my worst-case scenario, someone would help me. Had it come to that, I’m sure someone would have – luckily that wasn’t needed. This is in no small part because my family mostly kicks ass. I’m not sure exactly when JMCC changed its name to Life Journey or if the dropping of the “MCC” from the actual name indicates a separation from the larger MCC denomination, but I know I parted ways with the church after a chat with the then-and-now pastor, Jeff Miner.

The chat happened after a morning service. Something about the sermon hit me as being uncomfortable. This is probably due to my own personal development and spiritual growth and a growing feeling that Christianity simply wasn’t big enough. That morning, after the service, I filed in line with many others who hugged our pastor as we left the sanctuary, and while there I asked him about god greeting people at the so-called Pearly Gates. I don’t recall exactly, but his must have been mentioned in the sermon that day. I asked him if he thought it would be disturbing for a dead person to arrive at the gates to Heaven, expecting to see Ganesha or Vishnu or the Universal Mother or Nothing At All, but instead to be greeted by Jesus. He agreed that it probably would be disturbing. Our chat lasted only another minute or two and during that time he pretty well said that he believes god shows up in the manner expected by the soul.

That was the last time I attended that (or any other) church. I can play along in most scenarios when it serves a purpose. However, I couldn’t any longer rationalize buying into a religious practice that not only seemed too small for me, but the potential spirituality of which contradicted some of the actual religious structure. Pastor Jeff Miner is a fine person and a brilliant human being – everyone should get to know him. I mean it. But I couldn’t allow myself to continue to participate in a Jesus-centric mode of worship and living when the real and true Reality is that not only is Jesus not the “only way” for us to return home (and you bet your butt he isn’t), but also that whatever God is to whomever recognizes God, God will appear in that form. (Does that sentence read clearly?) I think I could be okay attending a church if it were a church that celebrated Mohammad and Ganesha and Zarathustra (Zoroaster) – equally. But that isn’t the case and it was the final nail in my Christian coffin that a “Jesus only” spiritual methodology had that element of hypocrisy. (Maybe hypocrisy isn’t the right word, but it sure feels like it.) “Jesus is the only way – unless you don’t recognize him – then god will manifest in another way.” Umm…. What? Really?

So I stopped attending and began developing myself as a Hindu. I’ve now spent more time as a Hindu than I did in my two stints as a Christian (couple years as a teen at Calvary Baptist and then a few more years as a young adult at JMCC), and I’ve yet to feel like I’m even remotely close (nor have even inched closer, at all) to outgrowing this path. Still, one thing I missed was my connection to the local gay community – which was primarily facilitated through JMCC. I don’t go to bars. At all, really. And aside from meeting people through other people or going to the bars or joining up some social group or something, the church was the next most logical way of connecting to my tribe. I missed that and still do. And so, I decided to be nosy and see what it’s like now. And I did that last Sunday. The building and many of the faces are mostly the same. The worship service is essentially no different.

Last week’s sermon dealt a lot with the book of Leviticus. More specifically, what made someone or something unclean. It was also noted that throughout the Bible, and especially in the Old Testament, the Jews are referred to as the “children” of god – never as any other kind of people. Always children. With that idea in mind, spiritual evolution was discussed throughout the sermon: We, as a collective, should be evolving beyond the child stage of development. Obviously, most of the references to these children of God are in the Old Testament, where much of the do’s and don’ts of Christianity fall as well. So there’s an association made here between being a child and needing rules. So-called rules are for those who aren’t as developed and still require (benefit from) a structure being imposed upon them. It sounds sweet to think of yourself as a child of god, but it’s not exactly a compliment. We’re told Jesus came to do away with those laws – to fulfill them – as a means of saying, “Guys, grow up! Stop being children.”

 

 

One example discussed in the sermon to illustrate this is the notion of something or someone being unclean. In those ancient days, observations were made: A bird flies. A mammal walks on the ground, and a fish swims. This is natural order. Natural order is, naturally, ordained by god at the time of creation – when He supposedly made birds to fly, mammals to walk, etc … And so, the math follows, if something deviates from this so-called natural order, there’s something terribly wrong. Thus storks and bats (the examples in the sermon) are unclean. Storks are birds that do fish things. And bats are mammals that do bird things. They violate god’s laws of nature and are therefore unclean. The photo in this post is of a Cheez-It product, CRUNCH’D, a cheese cracker – cheesy poof mixture that surely violates the natural order of all creation.

In just about as many ways as animals can be unclean (violate nature), so can humans also. The main example in the sermon, as it tied into the scriptural reading, was leprosy. The verses read by the congregation explained the process of suspecting and diagnosing leprosy. The process could last as few as seven days or as many as 21. The possibly-afflicted could end up being cleared. But if that soul were unlucky and actually had leprosy, then the rules required that person to wear torn clothing, keep visibly messy hair, sleep outside the limits of the city (a very dangerous thing), and wherever they walked they were required to cover their upper lip (with their hand) and shout ahead, “UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!” to broadcast that an untouchable person was near. It was understood that even their breath could spiritually contaminate someone else. To anyone, modern or ancient, scared of catching leprosy it probably doesn’t sound like too bad of an idea to have all those rules in place. You could easily know whether you were in danger of being dirtied by someone else. In those ancient days, though, leprosy wasn’t the only thing that could designate someone as being unclean. If you had any physical blemish what-so-ever then you were unclean. This included people who were disabled – whether from birth or due to age or an accident.

The catch here isn’t that unclean people were forced to do all the aforementioned things. Those are all pretty degrading, but the real rub is that they weren’t allowed in the presence of god – weren’t allowed into the temple, as such. So, someone with scoliosis or spina bifida or whose growth plates were injured as a child and had one limb shorter than the other – all unclean. If you’re autistic or have a hump in your back or are in a wheelchair – you’re simply not good enough for god, for life.

How screwed up is that? And it doesn’t stop there. Like birds that dive and swim as a fish would, men who love men (as women were designed to do) were likewise stepping out of the line and file intended at creation’s start – unclean. Same goes for women who love women as men were designed to do. And god help you if you were transgender – except you would be too unclean for god to help. Then, as we all know, Jesus came to be among humans and not only touched lepers but also made great efforts at setting the record straight on what supposedly defiles a person and what doesn’t. Thank god for Jesus. Right? Not me. I mean, not really. I don’t doubt that Jesus was one of humanity’s many guiding lights, but I don’t go any further than that with him – not anymore. If Ganesha can’t score me front row seats in Heaven, then I don’t know how somebody with half as many hands is going to do it.

So, it was a good lesson delivered in the sermon. For sure. And it was nice to be with those like myself. For sure. But my visit to the church served mostly to remind me of why I no longer follow the Christian Dharma. As heart-felt and genuine as I think a lot of it actually is for those congregants, it still felt almost wholly juvenile and somewhat ridiculous. It felt emotionally imbalanced and smelled of enslavement – tragic for a path preaching freedom through Christ. If Christians are people who have been washed clean and set free through Christ’s blood, then why in the world do so many of them feel threatened or “against” so much of life?

And now my conundrum: I obviously can’t worship there. So much of everything said or practiced under that roof makes me roll my eyes so hard I get a migraine. And besides that, I’ve been clear that it stopped being a good fit over a decade ago. But it was nice to be around other gays – something that happens very rarely for me. Although, these gays aren’t the ones I have the most in common with, whatever that means. I’m just not sure I want a ton of friends who attribute every life challenge or misfortune to Satan or who think they need someone else to pay for their own actions. Plus it’ll be something my husband will never join me in because he has zero tolerance for that kind of bullcrap. So… Do I return? I’m thinking I might – for entertainment, if nothing else. But surely there will be something else.

Aum Shri Mahaganeshaya Namaha | Aum Shanti