Saturday, March 10, 2012

How to be an Intuitive person?


Our western culture cannot agree on the use of the term "intuition." Many use it disparagingly, thinking it to be an overactive imagination. Others dismiss it on the basis of random and therefore unreliable hunches. Certainly it is unscientific and should be excluded from the use of our highest gift: reason. St. Thomas Aquinas defined man as a "rational animal." As definitions go, it has its uses, for sure. But it is limited.

Evidence -- both anecdotal and also scientific -- abounds for the existence of telepathy and other psychic powers. But culturally as well as scientifically we've yet to seriously explore the realm of knowledge and the process of knowing to which the term "intuition" refers.

Science shows us that the bandwidth of frequencies which each of the five human senses detects is very limited. Many animals have more sensitivity to wider frequencies than humans. Humans have obviously not topped the proverbial food chain on brute strength or instinct alone.

Intuition is the sixth sense. It differs from the other five not by its nature but by degrees. The five senses work in the limited time and space of the physical body. The sixth sense scans bandwidths of psychic frequencies that are not limited by time or space. But it does act as a scanner. As olfactory nerves scan frequencies related to smell, the sixth sense scans frequencies related to thought and levels of consciousness.

As a criminal upon entering a city quickly finds criminals, and a banker, bankers, and so the sixth sense tunes into those frequencies of thought and consciousness that emanate from our mind and consciousness. As I am not a sculptor, I do not receive ideas and inspirations about a new piece to sculpt. Poets "receive" poetry; inventors, inventions, mothers, knowledge about their children, and so on.

Our society may not have the language that acknowledges the vital and useful role of intuition in our lives but that doesn't stop us from using it all the time. Let me make a minor distinction for the sake of clarity: the facility of memory (as in, "Oh, golly, where did I put my car keys down THIS time?") differs from intuition in that intuition gives us access to something we would have no "reason" to know beforehand. I may have put my car keys down in a new spot but I have every "reason" to have remembered and to have noticed, even if but subconsciously.

But a new idea for a book comes from a different realm, at least in theory. The idea for a new book that just popped into my head may, in fact, be partly traceable to a story someone told me, or some experience from my past. Either facts may have been re-arranged into something new and different but based, nonetheless, on the initial facts. Here, then, we could say that my intuition reached down into my subconscious and re-worked the material (when I wasn't looking), and handed me this new idea. Einstein didn't hear a symphony either. He received a solution to something he had opened his cosmos-searching mind to. The fact that parts of our past and our memory re-surface does not lessen the value or power of the intuition. It simply makes it personally relevant and eminently practical: just what I needed!

Many people can beat the morning alarm clock's harsh buzzer by hair's breadth of a nanosecond: smashing the snooze button right in time. Now, tell me, if you were sleeping, who was watching the clock?

Paramhansa Yogananda defined intuition as the "soul's power of knowing God." In this he pointed to intuition's highest potential and most noble purpose. But this doesn't limit its scope. God, after all, is everything and contains all things and beyond. So why can't intuition be the means by which Einstein felt the solution to relativity, or Beethoven heard his ninth symphony in his head in an instant.

Our age is only beginning to explore the mind's potential and its processes of knowing. Sages have long said that the greatest question of all times is "Who am I?" The Temple of Apollo in ancient Greece counseled all who came to "Know Thyself," even as Shakespeare warned us "To Thyself be true." When Jesus Christ asked his disciples, "Who do men say I am?" they replied that some were of the opinion that Jesus was one of the prophets, or even John the Baptist. Only Simon Peter articulated aloud what the others must have intuited already: Jesus was more than an ordinary mortal, he was attuned with the Cosmic Father, a true incarnate son of the living God.

Nothing develops the muscle of our sixth sense more effectively and scientifically than the daily practice of meditation. While this is yet to be validated by scientific testing, I have no doubt that in time it will be. I, for one, started my adult life with the thought that I was not a creative person. I'm no Leonardo di Vinci but every day brings fresh insights into the small world of my daily tasks. Many a time have I sat before this computer wondering what I was to write. After a moment's quiet reflection coupled with a silent prayer offered with faith and affirmation, drawing down, as it were, the grace from above, I have been rewarded with what seemed right to me to say and which has very often been corroborated by independent testimony of readers.

That part of meditation during which, after various practices such as breath control, devotion, energy work, or creative visualization, we are completely still and silent, communing inwardly with the peaceful Presence of Mind -- this is the muscle building segment of building intuitive strength. 

We mimic this instinctively when, during the day, confronted with the need for a solution, we pause, perhaps look up, or slightly up and to the side, and, "Lo," the answer comes. Scientific studies of creativity valid the common experience that it might help to "sleep on it," take a shower, go for a run......another words, step back from the intensity of focusing on the problem and the need for a solution, and let the solution flow into your mind like the soundless flow of oil into a drum.

Yes, we can say "I had an idea." But I didn't "create" the idea. I received it. It would be truer, therefore, to say, "I received an idea!" Once, Paramhansa Yogananda, was asked whether creativity could be under the control of the will. He responded, while preparing to leave for a lecture commitment, "Yes, take this down." He immediately dictated a poem which, when later published in a book of poems, was singled out by a reviewer as an example of one of the best poems in the book!

Intuition comes from listening: not just with our auditory faculties, but with our heart, our mind, and our whole being. It's like using the body and mind as a crystal radio set receiving unseen signals and transmissions. To do this requires a quietness of mind that only comes from not being so reactive to our ceaseless conscious and subconscious thoughts and the unending chatter of the five senses, jangling like telephones competing for our attention. 

We must test our intuition by being cautious and practical, rather than boastful and insensitively plowing ahead where "angels fear to tread." Thus an intuitive person is calm, sensitive, and humble (in the sense of not being preoccupied by his ego's needs for attention and self-assertiveness). The word faith can be substituted for intuition even if we apply that word more to the realm of our spiritual life than to creativity and problem solving. "God's adequate response to our every need" is proof of His existence, together with the joy found in meditation. This counsel was given to Paramhansa Yogananda by his guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar, and reported in Yogananda's now famous life story, "Autobiography of a Yogi."

"Stop, look, and listen" say the old-fashion railroad crossing signs. This is the mantra of the intuitive person. A once popular modern expression was "Think outside the box." Well, don't so much think, as look outside the box and see. A person of intuition is a "seer" in the classic sense of that term. Through intuition we see things that others, more attached and bound to the five senses, cannot see.

Some feel intuitions in the heart; others in the prefrontal lobes (forehead); others in the body or in the mind itself. Some "hear" words; others "see" images; others, still, move their body (like a painter) or speak (like a lecturer), or counsel and so on. Intuition is ever-new and ever-fresh and ever-creatively self-expressive.

A key to becoming intuitive is to gradually lessen your reactions: you might react to someone well dressed or attractive in a certain way but this superficial response may blind you to their, perhaps, less than noble intentions. Or you may respond to someone young, or poor or of a different race or religion in some formulaic way based on your own prejudices. This will blind you to who they really are or what they have to offer you. "Who do men say I am?"

I am more than a body; a personality; a man or woman; smart or dumb. I am not who you think I am, nor yet who I think I am.

My teacher, Swami Kriyananda is founder of the worldwide network of Ananda communities, and is direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda. His life of public service has been one of intense service and meditation. He has written well over one hundred books and composed hundreds of pieces of music which vary widely in style and composition. His blending of art, devotion, will power, concentration, administrative and executive abilities is unmatched by any in my experience of life. Creativity with divine attunement has been the doorway to soul freedom and an example and inspiration to all who have been privileged to know him.

A life of self-sacrifice with devotion brings faith and intuition and a comfort and joy no riches, no fame could ever bestow.

Joy to you,

Nayaswami Hriman


Monday, February 27, 2012

How to Love Another without Attachment

Last week at each (separate) session of the Raja Yoga Intensive that I teach, I was asked “What does it mean to love another person ‘without attachment’?”

A very good question, indeed. For the record, we’ve been studying the first two stages on the 8-Fold Path toward enlightenment (as described in the famous Yoga Sutras by the sage Patanjali). The first two stages outline something often described in short-hand form with the phrase, the “do’s and the don’t’s.”

The question cited above was not specific to any of the yamas or niyamas (the names of the first two stages: each has five aspects of what to avoid and what to do). But the combination of discussing the need for self-control and moderation in sexual matters with the goal of seeing all as the divine, and striving for transcendence through devotion and non-attachment: all of these aspects conjoined in a kind of “OMG!” (“O my God!”)

Paramhansa Yogananda, author of the classic Autobiography of a Yogi and the guru whose teachings I am privileged to share, stated in his own life story that he was, as a young boy, disconsolate at the unexpected and premature death of his (very holy) mother. Later in life, it was known that he had to absent himself from the presence of those close to him who were dying (in order that they might be “allowed to go”).

Was he, therefore, “attached” even though his disciples, such as myself, consider him to be the avatar (God-realized master) of this “new” age? Was he just faking it so we could relate to him as a human being, like ourselves?

To plumb of the depths of understanding of the human and divine nature of an avatar has puzzled devotees down through the ages. Did not Jesus Christ cry out from the cross, “Why hast Thou forsaken me?” And, knowing of his fate that night in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, “Let this cup pass from me?”

We will return to the avatars in a minute. Let us, however, return to the ground zero of our own, everyday lives.

I’ve frequently thought to myself that the only perfect marriage on earth is one between two people who don’t need to be married at all! (Ok, so that’s partly a joke!) But my point, I think, you see clearly: marriage plays upon and preys upon the strengths and weaknesses, and the attraction and repulsion inherent between, two different individuals.  An unhealthy relationship is a co-dependent one. I’m no therapist and I wouldn’t want to pretend to define co-dependency, but from where I sit (on the sidelines), an unhealthy relationship is one where the boundaries are more than fuzzy between two people and where two people are consistently projecting their issues, their insecurities, and their needs onto one another. Put another way, we are speaking of two people who are not yet quite mature and not yet centered in their own self (Self).

Returning then to the question of non-attachment vs. love I think of what my own spiritual teacher, Swami Kriyananda, has said from time to time: (I paraphrase) “Impersonal love is impersonal with respect to my own desires; it is not cold or insensitive to the needs and well-being of others.”

So what this means is that I “love” another person not for what I get from him/her but for what I find in that person to be admirable, inspiring, worth emulating and worthy of consideration and practical service (without thought or expectation of personal return, acknowledgement or another other “quid pro quo”).

Is this TOO perfect? To, to…..as it were? Well, sure it is. Most love and family relationships are contractual: you do this; I do that. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. We are merchants, in other words. And, society calls this “love?” Well society calls unabashed and uninhibited lust love too. So there!

Helicopter parents are generally considered to be loving and doting parents. But are they not perhaps simply projecting their own desires and insecurities onto their hapless children?

Would a parent not be a better parent by trying to objectively “tune-into” the child’s own nature, tendencies, and life directions without regard to his/her own? A highly educated and articulate parent might end up with an autistic child. Is this not all too common these days? Is not the spiritual purpose of this, at least in some small measure, perhaps, to help the parent to open his/her heart and serve this needful child unselfishly devoid of the usual hope and expectation that the child will “be a chip off the old block?”

Does not the typical teacher prefer the child who is attentive and obedient? Are not the rebellious or restless ones a tad bit too creative and troublesome? The files of school history are crammed with the stories of geniuses who were only recognized as such later in life (perhaps after overcoming whatever setbacks their education imposed upon them).

Are not the weekly tabloids which feature the marriages of the rich and famous strewn with the beautiful bodies of those who had great sex but a lousy marriage? Drug addiction, alcoholism, infidelity: are these not the fruits of such glamorous unions?

Well, for all of that, who can stem the tide of attraction between, say, men and women? Why bother to fight City Hall? We each have the right to learn our lessons our way: that is, the hard way! None of that, and indeed, all of that suggests that true love exists on a higher plane, even if it need not deny the magnetism of the lower.

Rather as marriage is a union of people, and as Self-realization is the union of body, mind and soul, so too a spiritual marriage can unite as parts of body, mind and soul. We just have to know what we are looking for and what actually works (brings greater fulfillment).

But, no matter how successful our marriage is or our relationship with our children, no relationship can fulfill the nature of the soul’s longing for omnipresence and onenesss. So long as our love is based upon differences we will be forced to play the part of the yo-yo, which is to say, the fool. As we love, so we suffer.

Interestingly, however, there is no way out EXCEPT to love. Jesus forgave a woman her sins and said, “For her sins, which are many, she is forgiven for she has loved much.”

We cannot find God by rejecting our brothers and sisters. Rather we must strive to perfect our love until it “becomes the perfect love of God.”[1]

That perfection includes seeing in all, seeing in the “other,” the Divine presence. It means loving that unique expression of God without condition, without contractual expectation. A tall order, of course. Jesus said, hanging from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

We, who are far less than perfect as Jesus was, have plenty of reasons to “hang” without anyone crucifying us without cause! Yet, therefore, can we not forgive? Accept? Love without condition? Infidelity? Rebelliousness? Lack of charity? Rejection?

Do you see, now, perhaps, even a little more clearly, what we speak of? Yogananda grieved at the loss of his mother, for he was, at that point, a child. He didn’t pretend or need to pretend he was anything less. But in his overarching nature, to the degree he contacted it, he was free, in Bliss. The same holds true, at least potentially, for you and me.

Jesus suffered not for himself or his body but for those who lashed out at him and would suffer themselves on account of it.

We only need to try. Just like meditation. Just like the spiritual path at large. Non-attachment doesn’t mean to be impervious to pain, it means to strive to realize the Self which is beyond pain. It means to unite in one seamless experience both pain and transcendence, denying neither. The one is now, the other, eternally NOW. They co-exist only to the degree that they Co-Exist in our consciousness.

As Krishna says to Arjuna, his disciple, in the Bhagavad Gita, “Even a little bit of this practice, will save you from dire fires and colossal sufferings.”

Give your Self to God, to your Cosmic Beloved. See in all whom you love, the shining Face and perfection of your own true Self.

Blessings and joy to you,
Nayaswami Hriman


[1] This phrase is taken from the marriage ceremony written by Swami Kriyananda.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Yoga Sutras: a guide to meditation: Book 2 – Kriya Yoga


In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras the first book, Samadhi Pada, focuses upon the state of Oneness born of meditative concentration. We turn now to Book Two, Sadhana Pada. It focuses on those actions and attitudes necessary to achieve samadhi.

In this blog series which attempts to explore practical aspects for meditation inspired by the Yoga Sutras, we find in the first stanza of book two the term “kriya yoga.” This term has been made famous through Paramhansa Yogananda’s life story, “Autobiography of a Yogi.” In it, he uses the term kriya yoga in reference to a specific meditation technique that characterizes his teachings and lineage. I have practiced kriya yoga for several decades and can attest to its transformative spiritual power.

However, the yoga sutras are not, per se, a book on how to meditate. Therefore a technique such as Kriya Yoga (as taught by Yogananda) is not going to be described and taught in such a “scripture.” In India we find the term “kriya” applying to a great many practices and techniques. Even in the kriya yoga lineage of Yogananda and the masters of Self-realization (Babaji, Lahiri Mahasay, and Swami Sri Yukteswar) we have navi kriya and talabia kriya, offshoot techniques supportive of the main technique of kriya.

The term “kriya” moreover is so generic that it could be translated to mean any “technique.” This is in contradistinction to the so-called paths of yoga such as Bhakti yoga (devotion), karma yoga (selfless service) and gyana yoga (study of self, of scripture, and concentration of the mind). Some might even say that the practice of any set of breath control techniques are the practice of “kriya yoga.” Hence the term, once removed from Yogananda’s lineage, can be a bit confusing.

Returning now to Stanza 1 of Book Two, we find that Patanjali describes the path of yoga (generally) as based upon purification, study, and giving the fruits of all action in devotion to God. This is strikingly similar to much of the message of Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita.

From our point of view in this series, what I find in this is the admonition to understand the value of a definite “sadhana.” By this is meant a method of meditation and consistency of meditation undertaken in a spirit of self-offering and purification of desires and attachments. Patanjali identifies that egoity, attachment, aversion and “clinging to life” are impediments to the release of our identity from objects of the senses and mental imagery that is necessary to achieve samadhi.

Many spiritually minded people rest content with good fellow feelings, and high ideals. This might include enjoying spiritual music (chanting, bhajans, mantras) or spiritual ritual or dance, or service in humanitarian causes, or intensive study and debate of fine scriptural or metaphysical points. Good works produce good karma. Good karma can balance out “bad” karma but even if it does it brings us to zero. Unless we use the zero point to transcend the dualities of the opposites and the dual qualities of nature, we will be drawn back into the maelstrom.

Unless we perceive that our ego cannot by itself release us from the ceaseless flux of the opposites and thereby we offer ourselves into a greater Power and Presence, we will not find release. Our peace meditative experiences will only relieve us of tedium or stress but will not free us.

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions” it has been well said. I have met or learned of many good, fine, virtuous and noble people. I have met many devotees who could be real “schmucks.” But virtue alone will not free us from the wheel of suffering and rebirth. To paraphrase Jesus, “She has loved much and her sins, though many, are forgiven.”

There must come a point when we actively, intensively, and “scientifically,” seek freedom from delusion. To do that we naturally seek the grace and power of God. This comes not in some vague way, as if calling the White House will connect us to the President, but through the agency of those incarnate souls who come to earth to help others and who are, themselves, already free. They thus know “the way” and have the power.

Such souls are few, relatively to the plethora of spiritual leaders and teachers. We ascend step by step by our own sincerity and self-purification to attract to ourselves, progressively, more advanced souls who can empower our journey.

Therefore, meditate with the desire for freedom; meditate seeking divine grace, power, and presence; meditate with surrender to the Infinite Power which, by whatever name or form, no name or form, we are inspired to address.

We need a specific, proven technique of meditation; we need an understanding of the meaning and goal of life that inspires us and is true; we need a teacher who is above the obstructing qualities of nature.

As Jesus Christ said it so well: “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and its righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” Never miss your daily appointment with the Divine within you and never fail to see that presence in all forms and circumstances, both agreeable and challenging.

Blessings to you,
Nayaswami Hriman