Sunday, February 6, 2011

On the Value of Silence

Today about forty friends returned from a weekend retreat in the country (north of Seattle). This is an annual meditation and yoga retreat held in silence. Padma and I have led this retreat for some fifteen years. Each year some who come have never experienced a retreat, what to mention a silent one, but all, despite any prior concerns, report what a welcome experience and cleansing it is to be in silence. Silence here means not merely not talking to one another, but being mentally quiet, mindful and, according to one's temperament, devotionally focused within while walking in the woods, during meals, and, of course, during the meditation and yoga sessions.

Why is silence so reinvigorating to the spirit? Yogis such as Paramhansa Yogananda, have long compared meditation to the nightly state of sleep. Sleep refreshes us but doesn't have a lasting transforming affect because in sleep we rest in the subconscious mind. But everyone, upon waking, knows how he slept. The peace and enjoyment of sleep is due in part to the freedom we feel from the burden of the body, its compelling needs, ego identity, gender affirmation and so much else. In sleep, we return to a state where we are free.

In meditation we strive for the state of super-consciousness in which we not only retain but expand our consciousness even as we transcend the narrow confines of the body, senses, and ego identifications. Hence its affect is transforming because we can clearly remember this state and can consciously live in and draw from it intuitions, inspirations, and peace during our conscious activities.

Thus silence of mind, though not itself a superconscious state, nonetheless, brings great calmness to the emotions and nervous system, clarity to the mind, and opens the door to inspirations from superconsciousness and a blissful awareness of our divine, higher Self.

I selected for this year's retreat theme the suggestion to the retreatants that we practice the Presence by reflecting on the idea that God is watching us at every moment. Not, of course, in an invasive or nosey way but in a loving and wisdom guiding way. The image that prompted this inspiration comes from India where one sees idols covered in "eyes" or pictures of just a pair of eyes. Yogananda's beautiful poem, The Two Dark Eyes, is a tribute to Divine Mother through the eyes and form of his earthly mother.

Haven't you suddenly turned around on some unknown instinct to find yourself face to face with someone who is looking at you? Now, in human terms this isn't necessarily a pleasant thing, but that initial feeling wakes us up, as it were, to the presence of "Another." It is this feeling that I invited retreatants to hold, but in a divine way. That God, or guru, is ever with you, watching over you, ready to offer guidance, comfort, or companionship.

There is a recording of Yogananda's voice in which he tells the story of St. Anthony. The charm and the power of Yogananda's voice are impossible to convey on a blog, but it remains with me even as I write this. After Satan threatens to destroy St. Anthony and tries to convince Anthony that there is no God and that Anthony's forty years of prayer and fasting were for naught (if only Anthony would worship Satan.....), Jesus appears in the nick of time to banish Satan. St. Anthony asks Jesus where he had been all those (forty) years of Anthony's desert solitude, and Jesus says, "Anthony, I was always with you. I am the same with you always.”

God is always with us. It we whose thoughts and desires wander far from Him. A noted chemist once came to Swami Sri Yukteswar (Yogananda's guru) and insisted that there was no God. Sri Yukteswar commented, "So, you haven't isolated God in your test tubes?" Sri Yukteswar suggested the chemist try an unheard of experiment: watch his own thoughts for a full day and then he would wonder no longer at God's absence.

Thus it is on retreat or in personal seclusion that we have the opportunity to be mindful of our thoughts and to continually re-direct them in silent searching for the two lost dark eyes of Divine Mother. Try this for a week: imagine looking over your shoulder, or looking up, periodically, to catch a glimpse of One who is watching out for you, who is awaiting your interest, love and attention. Yogananda once charmingly put it this way: God has an inferiority complex because He thinks no one loves Him!

Throughout Yogananda's popular book of poems and "prayer-demands," "Whispers from Eternity," he uses poetic phrases to the effect that God hides behind nature, behind the smiles of friends, behind the energy of our activities, the intelligence of our thoughts, and the power of our emotions. God is the nearest of the near and the dearest of the dear.

As mental illness might be said to a fragmentation and discontinuation of our self-identity causing us to fail to act consistently and appropriately, so superconsciousness might be said to be the state wherein our consciousness remains unbrokenly self-aware. So, look again! God is right there with you. God is seated in your heart! Be a seer and see the truth that shall make you free!

Try it for one week: money back guarantee!

No longer (officially) in silence, Nayaswami Hriman



Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Yogis: fundamentalists or liberals?

Who are Yogis?


Is the practice of meditation and yoga fundamentalist? Progressive? Liberal? Is it lacking in a moral creed? Is it neutral to social and political trends, democracy, technology or ecology?

There are as many positions on such matters as there are yogis. Yoga is not indifferent to the suffering of others, or to the activities of daily life. Rather yoga posits that one can only find one’s right relationship to this world by ever deepening contact with the transcendent consciousness which gives birth and intention to this world.

A yogi can therefore be a Republican, a Democrat, a monarchist, or just about any kind of “ist” on the basis of core values of calmness, wisdom, compassion, and a sense of Oneness and connection with all. A yogi is just as likely to discipline his children as not; to rail against governmental interference in the lives of citizens as to vote to have government correct abuses, extend charity or education to the disenfranchised and so on.

Paramhansa Yogananda considered himself a Republican: the party of Abraham Lincoln is how he put it. He questioned the wisdom of the New Deal for undermining personal responsibility and initiative and creating institutional dependency and a sense of entitlement all in the name of charity and compassion. But he was certainly not against charity and compassion, however. He demonstrated plenty of both during his life. Yogananda was strongly in favor of abolishing institutional forms of racial discrimination (what to mention individual prejudices).

Yogananda taught that the soul entered the womb at conception not just at birth and that abortion, therefore, was not something to be encouraged. A true yogi would naturally promote self-control, moderation, and responsible forms of sexuality. But a yogi also affirms freedom of choice and its corollary of personal responsibility. This stems in part from an understanding of the law of karma and its companion, reincarnation. But who can say what his position would be in respect to the passing of laws for, or against, abortion. He would certainly make his views known but I, at least, tend to doubt he would campaign in a political way in respect to laws. His interest was in changing consciousness through individuals and their own personal desire to awaken and change.

Yoga is fundamentalism in the sense of the fundamentals of proper behavior that are universal and timeless, and not dependent on fads, trends, or social custom. Yoga is fundamental in the sense of affirming the Oneness of God and the ultimate purpose of human life is (to quote the Baltimore Catholic catechism) to “know, love, and serve God.” (For the yogi, “knowing” includes striving for inner, divine communion and ultimately mystical union in Oneness.)

At the same time, yogis, taking the perspective of countless human incarnations, incline towards acceptance of others and tolerance, for the fact of feeling that each soul has the right to choose and to learn his or her own lessons in the vast expanse of time. Some yogis would espouse complete nonviolence or pacifism in the face of evil, whereas others, including Paramhansa Yogananda, in affirming the value of human life, would caution that in this relative world there are times when self-defense is the right course of action. This can mean that there are times when a just war may be required. It includes the efforts of police to prevent or apprehend perpetrators of violence or criminality. The karma for violence can include the punishment by man for acts of violence.

A yogi, above all, tries to be practical: both in his yoga practice (balanced and sustainable, health-inducing and peace-filled) and in his view of action in daily life. There is no career or job barred to the practicing yogi (assuming it isn’t unethical, immoral, or criminal.

Yoga practice bestows patience and self-acceptance even as it inspires the yogi to strive for the highest in himself.

Thus yogis are not necessarily distinguishable from others in the marketplace of daily life unless it be by an aura of calmness or peace, openness to truth (rather than mere opinion), and respect for others. Yes, many are vegetarians. But there are many vegetarians who are not yogis, are there not? Will yogis ever be a political force? That’s difficult to say, for yogis are not constrained to ignore politics. But yogis’ understanding of the relativity of good and evil in the creation will generally give a longer-view perspective, on the one hand, yet no yogi is excused from turning a blind eye to injustice or evil, especially when personally involved or a sense of personal dharma is awakened in his conscience.

Nonetheless, at this stage of history, yogis are (generally) committed to spreading the message and practice of yoga as their duty and contribution to the health, well-being, and peace of Planet Earth. While some social activists may dismiss this as a cop-out or irrelevant, yogis feel that changing consciousness is the real need for humanity and that legislation, education, and scientific advances are important and at best equal, but in many ways secondary for all three have shown themselves poor substitutes for individual goodwill and integrity.

If even only half of earth’s citizens were in touch with their higher self, in harmony with themselves, felt a kinship with the planet and a respect and acceptance of others, how much less exploitation, greed, obesity, anger, hatred, war, and pollution would there automatically be?

Yes, yoga, therefore IS for everyone. It requires no religious, political, racial, or social affiliation. Yoga practice invites us “inward” to discover our calm, wise, compassionate and ultimately transcendent higher Self. This Self is the Self of all. By living in harmony with this higher Self we perform the dutiful actions of daily life in an increasing spirit and attitude of calmness, nonattachment, and effectiveness. What greater or more universally accessible lifestyle for a new age can there possibly be?

Religion is on the rocks of divisiveness. Individual spirituality is in the ascendant. Yet somewhere the twain must meet so that a new expression of universal spirituality can in fact be a force for change on this planet. Yogis must "unite" (after all "yoga" means "union!") to help give birth to a more peace filled and harmonious planet. But, as Mahatma Gandhi is now so popularly known to have counseled, "Be the change you seek." Or as Jesus Christ put it: "The kingdom of heaven is within you." Or, as Ananda's motto puts it: "Joy is within you."

Blessings, Nayaswami Hriman

Monday, January 31, 2011

Change is Destructive

"Pante Re" : All is flux. Change is a constant. Change is destructive to that which is changed, destroyed or lost. Death itself is but a change. It's not change per se that is problematical for us, but our reaction to change. Some die peacefully, content, and uplifted. Others die tragically, bitter, painful or and hate-filled.

Great change is taking place on planet Earth today. It is not always clear whether it is for good or ill, and change is usually that way: messy and argumentative; violent and yet idealistic. Those who are "seers" and see the change and understand its meaning or at least its application to them, and who then act boldly and decisively, are the ones who can "profit" by change in as many ways that "profit" can suggest: material, emotional, or spiritual.

Ananda's worldwide network of communities has been blessed by the wisdom of Swami Kriyananda, direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda, the world renown yoga master and author of "Autobiography of a Yogi." Kriyananda has consistently kept alive Yogananda's prophesy (Yogananda died in 1952) that great changes were coming. He didn't mean in 1,000 years: he meant in the coming decades.

Hence the work of Ananda has been long been attuned and accepting (and preparing) for such great changes. We are not speaking here of "the end times." Rather, a period of turbulence that would make way for a new level of expanded consciousness that has a worldview such as we have never new existed in our current understanding of history.

Millions already posses this new awareness. It is characterized by many attributes, both positive and negative. But it has hardly become the lifestyle and attitude of even half the world's population and even less of the leaders of countries and institutions, including (and perhaps especially) religious institutions. Some of these attributes include the simple calm acceptance of a world that is interconnected and interdependent. This can be seen as an ecological creed, a pyschological creed, an economic creed, or a spiritual creed.

Some, according to their own level of consciousness, seek to exploit this view while others seek to serve a greater good through this point of view. But it is far from a global point of view.

In the meantime the old way, the way of conquest and competition, is enlivened by the technologies of war, of the production of fiat money, agricultural and industrial oil-based production, dictatorship, and religious hierarchy. But we are fast running out of options as we deplete natural resources whose ripe and fertile abundance made us drunk with our own power. The music may stop and many will, and already are, left standing holding only mountains of debt and worthless pieces of script.

We, today, the generations of baby-boomers can scarcely imagine either the destructive forces of change that are descending upon us, or the way of life that will emerge in the future. But some around the world are envisioning a world that reflects the popular bumper sticker: "think globally; act locally." In order to regain our "center" (having expanded perhaps too rapidly around the globe in every directiion), we will have to learn to live more simply and more harmoniously. It's really as basic as that.

How ironic that the power of the twin forces of democracy and capitalism are now challenged by a nation with a top-down government and economy! Neither, in their extreme, can survive very long. The watchword of success and happiness into the future lies with individual initiative. But large institutions of all types will fight to the death to preserve the privilage and wealth of the few over the many. Nor is success in terms of any mythical egalitarianism any where near in sight, now or in the forseeable future. As always, it will be an ebb and a flow. Still the trend and direction of consciousness is clear.

A dynamic tension is always what produces both the best and worst in people: whether in war, in business, or in spirituality (wherein the "devil" assaults the "saint"). This world functions on the basis of the mainspring of opposites who are locked in competition and combat.

Nonetheless like the great ocean that contains both violent storms and large areas of stillness, the unceasing ebb and flow goes on. At the same time a cycle brings new forms and directions to the ebb and flow, for this is never static or esle we'd discover too easily it's secret.

Build for yourself a castle of protection in the fortress of God's unconquerable Bliss. Through daily meditation reestablish your divinity and your true, eternal security. Armed and protected therein, stride into daily life in harmony with others of like mind to form communities, actual or virtual, peaceful warriors creating a new way of life: close to the earth while reaching for the heavens. Grow food, buy land outside the cities, get out of debt, develop new and practical skills and help others as you continuously seek the Divine presence in the temple of silence and in the temple of activity.

God alone, all is flux. 

Blessings, Nayaswami Hriman