Putting Meditation To Work!

If meditation helps us to live our life more calmly, think about its opposite. Imagine that you're late for an appointment and can't find your car keys or your phone. Maybe you are burdened by a deadline at work. Your movements are jerky and your mind is going "a mile a minute!" You can't focus and you are distraught!

Then, before you know it, you knock over your cup of coffee. It spills all over your papers, perhaps your clothes. Things go downhill from there, right?

Remember this tip: "Restlessness is the precursor to failure (disappointment, mistakes, and/or negativity)."

It, therefore, holds that "Patience is the quickest road to success." This well-known axiom encourages us to "do it right the first time!" But only by calm and quiet confidence can we ever truly succeed. And what is success? It is more than accomplishing a goal. True success is the satisfaction of one's conscience and peace of mind. Nor is peace achieved by passivity or fear or refusal to engage in what must be done!

I want to share with you a "peace" of counsel given to me by my yoga teacher. It has guided my life:

The more you seek rest as the consequence of doing, rather than in the process of doing, the more restless you will become. Peace isn’t waiting for you over the next hill. Nor is it something you construct, like a building. It must be a part of the creative process itself.

This brings us, therefore, naturally to the one human activity that most effectively brings to our mind, heart, and body relaxation, calmness, and confidence: MEDITATION! The mental and physical benefits of meditation can be sought for their own sake or as a stepping stone to higher consciousness or spiritual growth. But here, for my purposes, I want to focus on meditation for true success and happiness. In India from which comes to us the science of meditation, there is a famous saying (so representative of its traditional culture): "To the peaceless person, how is happiness possible?" (And I would add: how is success possible?)

Meditation isn't complicated but neither is it easy. Like exercise and diet, it takes will power and intention. But like all other valuable habits, it won't work through guilt or tension. You have to WANT to meditate in order to get to the point where it is ENJOYABLE. Enjoyment and results are achieved after learning how to meditate and persisting in developing the art of it, not just the science of it.

Sit upright but in a relaxed but alert natural posture: chest up slightly; head level; shoulders relaxed; palms upward on the thighs. Open or close your eyes as you feel. (As you internalize it will be natural for most people to close their eyes.)

Take a few long, slow but enjoyable breaths. Let the "stomach" (actually, the diaphragm) expand out as you inhale slowly. As the inhalation progresses you will feel your rib cage expand outward to the sides. Then, finally as you complete the inhalation, the upper chest may rise just a little. Don't force it, however. Like the strokes of the brush of an artist, your controlled breathing should feel "right" not forced.

You may pause briefly at the top of the inhalation but it is not necessary. Exhale with a controlled release. The exhalation can be slightly longer (if you were timing it) than the inhalation. You can pause or not pause after the end of the exhalation but just continue this controlled breathing for at least three to five breaths.

Usually, three to five breaths will trigger a sense of increasing calmness, but if not, continue for a while and learn to anticipate a sense of peace and quiet satisfaction coming over you. Then cease your controlled breathing, and sit quietly. Relax not just your body but your mind. Since the mind is happier if we give it a focus, let that focus be on your natural (no longer controlled) breathing. Observation of the breath is a time honored and universally effective practice. Your observation can be in the chest (lungs etc.) or in the flow of inhalation and exhalation in the natural channels of the nose.

If your mind needs a bit more to chew on, create a word formula or a personal affirmation. I am peaceful; I am calm; I am confident.....etc. etc. Don't TRY to concentrate. Relax into interested attentiveness on your practice. It's the same attentiveness you might apply to watching a movie, reading a book, engaging in a sport or exercise, or cooking--anything, in short, that you WANT to do!

At the end of your time (it's not length of time; it's QUALITY of calm focus and resulting peacefulness), ask your intuitive self a question that might be on your mind. Ask in positive, not negative terms. In your calm state, be open to a variety of responses, even one that your mind otherwise might reject. Feel for what is the right action or attitude to take in that situation. Pose alternative solutions to your intuitive mind.

Or, at the end just bring to your mind the image of a loved, friend, neighbor, or co-worker who could use a little "peace of your mind" for their health or daily life. Send that "peace" to that person without any consideration of desired results. It's a peace gesture, in other words.

You see: it's THAT simple.

Ananda Visits SRF Shrines

During the week of October 7-11, twenty-six Ananda members from the Pacific Northwest visited the places in southern California where Paramhansa (Paramahansa) Yogananda lived and taught. Prior to the years of the pandemic, such pilgrimages were common every few years. In fact, the week before our group traveled, another such group from Ananda in the San Francisco Bay Area visited as well.

Mt Washington

Our stops were as follows: Self-Realization Meditation Gardens in Encinitas; SRF International Headquarters on Mt. Washington in Los Angeles; Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale; SRF Hollywood Temple; and SRF Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades. We stayed two nights at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. This is the sight where Paramhansa Yogananda left his body on March 7, 1952, in a crowded banquet hall in honor of the newly appointed ambassador from India to the United States.

In addition, we had meditations in Encinitas at the Temple of Joy owned by Casey Hughes. 

The SRF shrines are beautifully maintained and enveloped in meditative silence and peace. The outdoor gardens that surround these locations are exquisitely beautiful. The monastics (monks and nuns plus volunteers) who curate these shrines are generally very calm, kind, and inward. The buildings, though aging, appear to be immaculately maintained. In short, these shrines are a Disneyland of divine consciousness for a meditator and follower (disciple) of Yogananda.

Encinitas bluff

We were privileged to take turns in small groups going upstairs to the third-floor rooms where Yogananda lived at Mt. Washington, overlooking downtown Los Angeles. The atmosphere is deeply hushed, and the sense of timelessness and transcendence is as tangible as Yogananda’s overstuffed chair draped with his ochre-colored shawl. His adjacent bedroom also vibrates with his presence and emits an aura of simplicity and peace. The downstairs chapel—site of kriya initiations, meditations, and ceremonies where Yogananda experienced God and various saints—drew us like a giant magnet to sit and meditate.

SRF Hollywood Church

When so deeply committed to maintaining these shrines, the task is not unlike operating a museum. The atmosphere is hushed. Indeed, any loud talking or group activity is generally nipped in the bud by the nearest docent or monastic. Even sitting on the floor in one of the chapels (as is common with meditators) is not allowed. This is not surprising since thousands visit these places every year and without clear oversight (aka rules) visitors would likely create disruptions and attract attention to themselves by practicing yoga exercises out on the lawns, expressing excessive devotional postures, chanting aloud and so on in time, if not monitored and even suppressed, create a very un-museum like atmosphere. 

Lake Shrine

This kind of strict control blends harmoniously with traditional monastic attitudes such as obedience, silence, and humility. The monastics are all neatly attired: monks in simple high-collar short-sleeved shirts; and nuns in yellow saris.

We were privileged to watch a silent video of Yogananda conducting the dedication ceremonies at the Hollywood Temple (August 30, 1942). In that video, one could see the energetic, creative, and dynamic way Yogananda related to the public at large. At that location, he started a Mushroom Burger stand and held Indian cultural events, and in Encinitas, he experimented with what he called a “world brotherhood colony” as a pilot program for future intentional communities, he had a carrot juice processing plant, and a small farm, among other how-to enterprises to provide support for the work and for the residents. He created many vegetarian recipes, shared healing techniques, and spoke on topics such as material success, leadership, social justice, politics, marriage, and child-raising to mention just a few. The mission of preservation began some years after Yogananda’s passing in 1952 and after the passing of his non-monastic male successors. While SRF also conducts public teaching, retreats, and outreach, none of that comes even close to matching Yogananda’s expansive energy and consciousness. Most notably, then, SRF has embraced the Vishnu or preserving aspect of creativity and has done a wonderful job of that. 

We visited Forest Lawn Cemetary in nearby Glendale and chanted and meditated in front of where Yogananda's body is interred. We also stayed two nights at the grand hotel the Biltmore where Yogananda left his body on March 7, 1952 at a banquet he held in honor of the newly appointed ambassador from India to America.

Biltmore Hotel 
Where Yogananda
left his body

 

Yogananda's crypt

Ananda, by contrast, is more akin to the spirit of Yogananda during those dynamic years of his life of constant travel, creativity, and outreach. Ananda was founded by Swami Kriyananda who came to Yogananda in 1948 and was accepted by Yogananda into the ashram as a monk in their very first meeting at the Hollywood Church. Within a year the young “Rev. Walter” (as Yogananda addressed Swami Kriyananda) was giving kriya initiation and was given the position of head monk (even though many of the monks were twice as old as Kriyananda (22 years old in 1948), and was giving classes and Sunday Services at both Hollywood Church and the San Diego SRF Church. By the late 1950s, Kriyananda was on the SRF board of directors.

Swami Kriyananda took seriously the thundering call to action by Yogananda on that day in July 1949 at a Beverly Hills garden party for the establishment of world brotherhood colonies which he predicted would someday spread like wildfire. Swami Kriyananda was the only one out of nearly 800 people in attendance that day who later established such a community.

So, in contrast to the SRF mission of preservation (Vishnu-like), Ananda’s mission is the “Brahma-like” aspect of the outflowing creative force (Holy Spirit or Aum vibration).

The group’s visit to Casey Hughes’ “Temple of Joy” in Encinitas was primarily for the purpose of finding a place for group meditation and chanting. Casey’s is the “Shiva-like” energy of dissolving outward forms of organization to affirm the universal aspects of Yogananda’s mission in seeing in all faith-forms the central and sole reality of God. Casey’s Temple of Light seeks to honor all forms of worship and practice.

These three represent what is taught in India and by Yogananda as the three faces of the Holy Spirit, or Divine Mother as the creative vibration that makes possible and visible all creation and consciousness. One aspect brings into manifestation the forms of creation; another, preserves those forms; yet another dissolves them. None can exist without the other.

 Yogananda called his temples “churches of all religions” but unsurprisingly few people understood his intention in using that phrase. He didn’t mean that each faith tradition would be practiced there; nor yet that his was a syncretization of all faith traditions. Rather, the practice of meditation, and especially advanced forms of meditation such as the Kriya Yoga he brought to the public, works directly on our consciousness through the vehicle of breath and life force to reunite with soul force with the goal to achieve God-realization: the very purpose of our creation. Such upliftment and the goal of Self-realization is the “religion” underlying all faith traditions.

Each of these three expressions were beautifully expressed by Yogananda during his life. His years of “barnstorming” around the country, his printed lessons in meditation and yoga philosophy, and his writings represent his Brahma aspect. His cultivation of celebrities and “influencers” and his promotion of cross-cultural appreciation and racial integration were part of his socio-political activism.

At the same time, he established in southern California his headquarters and later branch churches and a monastic order of monks and nuns to be the nucleus of his organization in his Vishna-aspect.

His Shiva-aspect was his insistence on the universality of the teachings of Sanaatan Dharma and the practice of Kriya Yoga for all sincere people and as the “religion” of the dawning new age (of “Dwapara Yuga”). 

Casey's Temple of Joy

There has been and perhaps always will be some tension between these three aspects. However, even when one aspect appears more dominant than another, all three aspects must be nurtured at least to some degree for the specific expression to maintain its integrity and attunement to Yogananda’s vibration and mission. Too much Brahma becomes restless and scattered. Too much Vishnu becomes rigid. Too much Shiva loses vitality and identity. Thus, SRF has tried to energize a lay order emphasizing community. Ananda has established a religious order, and Casey’s Temple of Light strives to maintain harmonious relations with the other two and with many other spiritual paths!

In our group’s pilgrimage I could see that some members of the group resonated more with one or the other aspect. SRF’s expression is so neat and beautifully maintained as to seem perfect, even if, people being people, one imagines that behind closed doors are the usual challenges inherent in a rigidly controlled way of life. Ananda is fun-loving, inclusive, and creative but the individual discipline, inwardness, and dignity needed for attunement and the practice of meditation might seem lacking to some people. Casey’s Temple of Light mission seems free from all limitations imposed by self-definition but compared to SRF or Ananda is limited to few people. It is free and open to all (wonderful) but carried (mostly I assume) by Casey and his partner alone.

All in all, our group had a deeply blessed experience and all are grateful for those devotees who greeted and hosted us at each location as representatives of our guru, Paramhansa Yogananda. May we each keep marching on the “only path there is” (inward and upward) in our own unique way.

         

How to Outwit Bad Karma!

 How to Outwit Bad Karma! 

 

There is a way out of bad karma, but the “way” is narrow and straight and “you” get left behind. You want to hear more? 

What is karma? Karma is the self-balancing after-effects of previous actions, including thoughts and emotions, not just physical deeds. Thus, the term “karma” includes what is ordinarily considered “good” karma as well as “bad.” However, most casual uses of the term “karma” tend to assume “bad” karma.  

What, then is “bad” karma? Bad karma is the unwanted boomerang effects of your previous not-so-laudable actions. If you purposely hurt someone (physically or emotionally) you might expect the law of karma to dictate that you will be hurt in return (whether by the person you hurt or another person). Good karma would be the kindness that returns to you for having been kind to others.  

The law of karma can be seen in the law of physics that states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In nature, we would refer to the law of karma as the principle of cause and effect. Whether in science or human behavior, our expectations assume the law of causation even though we often cannot see the chain of causes that lead to a specific effect. We would go crazy if our world was not so governed. Life would not be worth living if we could not reasonably expect to exchange good habits for bad habits; if we could not improve our skills, our health, or our relationships. Science wouldn’t exist to improve our lives if experiments could not be duplicated dependably.  

This fundamentally important aspect of human life is akin to the law of gravity. Our lives would be in disarray if gravity did not hold sway on our planet. 

The justice system metes out greater punishment to evil deeds that are done intentionally as compared to accidental misdeeds. This recognizes the importance of intention. Intention reflects consciousness and the implicit participation of doership. Thus, karma is tied to the degree of conscious intention and awareness.  

Doership therefore holds the key to karma: good or bad. Accidents that I cause generate karma (effects) that cannot be changed but their boomerang impact on me sometime in the future is lessened for not having caused the accident intentionally. If I accidentally kill a pedestrian with my car on a dark and rainy night, I certainly incur karma but it is not the same as my committing “first-degree” murder.  

So how to beat my “bad” karma? There are several stages each of which relates to the degree of my ego involvement. 

Stage One: Practice Stoicism Practicing “stoicism” or non-attachment and non-reactivity reduces the tendency to ADD more karma while, at the same time, mitigates the impact of “incoming” or “ripening” karma. Stage One is therefore very efficient.  

Whether “good” or “bad” karma, the solution is the same. I’ll explain why we want to address “good” karma and not just “bad” karma. 

For my purposes, Stoicism is synonymous with non-attachment. One of the most famous aphorisms of the Yoga Sutras is stanza two which defines enlightenment as the neutralization of the mental reactive process to circumstances, thoughts, emotions, memories, and imagination.  This does not imply one becomes an automaton. Rather, to be non-reactive means to be calm and non-attached. There are countless layers of this state, but in the yoga tradition deep meditation is the key. But as the philosophers of Stoicism counsel us, it can begin with seeing life philosophically, meaning, from the God’s-eye point of view. 

Paramhansa Yogananda, author of the now-famous life story, “Autobiography of a Yogi,” gave this advice: “What comes of itself, let it come. Conditions are always neutral; they may seem happy or sad owing only to the attitudes of the mind.” 

Calmness and non-attachment are not the same as apathy, however. Apathy dulls the mind and awareness, and, to a degree, apathy steals from us the power of self-control. It thus undermines our ability to act calmly. Calmness and non-attachment require presence of mind to uphold their power when circumstances become intense, whether with success, failure, pleasure or pain. Presence of mind requires willpower and centeredness.  

Using will power and the power of habit to remain neutral is easy for the small things but close to impossible for most people when the big tests come.  

Meditation is a far more effective practice for developing consistency in achieving non-attachment. There are, however, many degrees and types of meditation. Meditation that is practiced devoid of spiritual attitudes and wisdom is far less effective than when practiced in its traditional context of devotion, selflessness, self-control, and openness to wise counsel. 

The reason I include “good” karma is that “every coin has two sides.” How can we achieve even-mindedness if we get excited over good fortune but pretend to remain even-minded in misfortune? You will find that the practice of non-attachment will impact your response to both good and bad circumstances. Non-attachment is the steady development of calmness under all circumstances. There is a deeper reason for this equality, however.  

The deeper purpose and power of Stage One is that it prepares us to detach the sense of doership from all actions: both good and bad. While intentional calmness can take us to the brink of what I will call Stage Two, it cannot by itself, cannot carry us over the finish line. 

Stage Two: Soul Consciousness. Human beings have the power to withdraw beyond the realm of causation, away from the play of opposites and boomerangs! The soul is forever free of karma for it is made in the image of God. As we accept divine guidance from within, we achieve freedom from karma. Daily meditation and inner communion with God, attuning one’s human will to the silent voice of intuition is the way out from the soul-degrading serfdom to habits and the reactive process. 

Moral reasoning; scriptural interpretations; pleading emotions; these are rooted in ego consciousness and ego consciousness is the problem. When the ego is transcended in soul-consciousness, the law of karma is transcended also. When there’s no whirling vortex of “I” and “mine” the chain of causation is cut. Our actions, guided by the divine will, accrue to the benefit of others. 

God who created the law of karma suspends the sentence of judgment for those souls who are united to Him. The way to escape the decrees of cosmic law is to live in divine consciousness.  

No matter how busy we are, we should strive in the inner silence to attune ourselves with God. By silent devotion we can deepen our awareness of divine love and wisdom. God is above the law. 

(Note the text above includes excerpts from the Wisdom of Yogananda: Karma and Reincarnation. Published by CrystalClarity.com) 

Joy to you! 

Swami Hrimananda