Last weekend, May 16-17 (2015), the worldwide Ananda family gathered on the grounds of the Crystal Hermitage at Ananda Village (near Nevada City, CA) to dedicate the small meditation chapel ("mandir") under which is buried the body of Ananda's founder, Swami Kriyananda. It's been two years since his passing in 2013.
I recall many years ago Swami Kriyananda describing his experience after the death of his own father. It was, he said, as if his father's spirit, at last released from his aging and broken body, was re-born fresh and youthful, vigorous and vibrant. Swamiji said he felt his father's spirit as a young man embarking eagerly upon his life's journey.
Ever since then, and with the passing of my own parents, and others, I have tested this for myself and have found it true. Of course the stronger the spirit of a person in life, the stronger the spirit after death. Thus it was that at the dedication weekend many members from around the world remarked upon this phenomenon, saying that since Swamiji's passing two years ago we have felt his spirit even more strongly than when he was alive.
Several times during his life of lecturing I heard him say that when the soul is released from the body into the astral world, feelings and emotions are, as if, uncorked and thus far more intense. In our physical bodies our emotions are distracted or suppressed by other competing feelings and sense-impressions like hunger, heat, cold, missed appointments, unpaid bills, a mosquito buzzing near our ear, or the loquacious uncle attending the funeral whom you find annoying but must politely tolerate.
Consider that the last many years of Swami's life he had to contend with an aging and often seriously ill body. Reflect what your "aura" or energy or magnetism is like when you have a cold, flu, a stomach ache or a toothache! You withdraw within yourself and contract from interactions and activities. Your energy or aura contracts.
Despite his aging and ill health and throughout his entire life, Swami Kriyananda's spirit in life was larger than life, so it is not surprising that after his death, his great spirit has been strongly felt.
Yet it is not as if his spirit contracted or declined in the more ordinary way that aging or ill people find their world shrinks to a small room, to taking medicines, going to doctors, and more or less disappearing from sight having lost interest in the world around them. Swamiji continued his lifelong travel habits serving his guru's work, lecturing and writing. But his focus narrowed nonetheless to fewer outward activities and reduced daily communications with as large a family of individuals.
Yet in his case, his spirit, rather than shrinking, shifted into another form: bliss! Instead of vigorous activities and intense daily people connections, he shone with an inner bliss that he often could not contain and which readily expressed itself in tears of joy or laughter, or deep inner calmness.
Nonetheless, the testimony of many people from around the world is that his spirit is more with us now than ever. It seems to many of us that his wisdom is even more accessible now. We find that he seems to be subtly guiding our thoughts in uncanny but tangible ways.
My way of putting it, for myself, is that I feel as if I think more like him than I did before! There have been times when I could hear his thoughts as my thoughts. So, perhaps he has bequeathed to each us some portion of his spirit--as his legacy and gift!
Thus I conclude that for those souls who, on earth, had an expansive and expanding consciousness, we will find our spirit expanding joyfully and greatly when released from the confines of the body!
Joy to You,
Swami Hrimananda!
Friday, May 22, 2015
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Are You Too Sensitive? Do Yogis have Moods? BOTH-AND is the Path of Yoga!
Today at the Mother's Day Service at Ananda Meditation Temple in Bothell, Padma, my wife, spoke on the subject (from the reading for the week) of Martha and Mary (from the New Testament).
Martha and her sister Mary are the hosts for Jesus who is visiting their home. I believe they might have been cousins, actually. Their brother is the famous Lazarus who, later and towards the end of Jesus' life, was raised from the dead in a rather dramatic scene. So Lazarus was probably also in the room. It seems the occasion was what we might call a "satsang:" an informal gathering of people at someone's home around their spiritual teacher. Most likely Jesus was giving an informal discourse; perhaps he was answering questions. I imagine that the house was somewhat small and the number of people there was limited to the family and Jesus' entourage of twelve plus disciples (including perhaps Mary Magdalene and/or Jesus' mother, Mary).
Martha, however, is busy in the kitchen, making supper. She's fussing, banging pots around (I would guess) and all hot and bothered. Her sister, Mary, on the other hand, is in the living room sitting peacefully on the floor (we imagine) at the feet of her teacher, Jesus.
No doubt in a bit of snit and in a mood, Martha, comes into the room and, perhaps even interrupting, asks Jesus to send her sister, Mary, to help her in the kitchen. Jesus responds, in front of everyone (demonstrating the intimacy of the gathering), by gently upbraiding Martha for losing her inner peace even while engaged in worthy service, saying that Mary had taken the "better part" by tuning into his spiritual vibrations and teachings. (In the Sunday reading, written by our teacher, Swami Kriyananda--a direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda--it is explained that the issue is not what it appears to be: whether serving is better than meditating. Rather, it is not WHAT you do but HOW--with what attitude and consciousness--you do it!)
Padma used the story to illustrate the challenge devotees have in allowing moods to overtake us.
Padma also recalled Swami Kriyananda's story (which he writes in his own life story, "The New Path") where he had gotten into a mood and how, upon encountering his guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, Yogananda snapped the young "Walter" (Swami Kriyananda) out of it and added, "No more moods now, Walter. How are you to serve others?"
Thoughts being "universally, not individually, rooted," it just so happened that last night, while Padma was preparing her talk, I was drafting this article on moods and over sensitivity among yogi-meditators. I hadn't even considered the reading about Martha and Mary that Padma was to speak on.
So a felicitous coincidence, I suppose.........Yogananda taught that moodiness, whether habitual, or simply a periodic episode, has its roots in past sense over-indulgence. But I have another kind of moodiness in mind tonight.
What about those well meaning people who find that their sensitivity to the sufferings of others upsets their own peace of mind? I mean, think about it: meditation is supposed to make you peaceful, right? As your inner peace gives rise to an expanding love and compassion for others you might find that your sympathy for their troubles causes you to lose your peace of mind! Selfish people, at least, are not bothered by other people's trouble! You'd think THEY were more peaceful! Well, then, hmmmmm....we have a dilemma, don't we?
I see two things taking place: the initial stage of the spiritual path, and a longer-term tendency among spiritual seekers.
When, in the beginning of one's spiritual efforts, the hard shell of ego begins to break and fall away, the heart opens and expands. During this initial stage of awakening a person can be somewhat vulnerable.
It's not uncommon to find "young" yogis suddenly falling in love with someone, engaging in excessive yoga practice, trumpeting dogmatic diets or long fasts, and any number of tangents caused by the awakening of uncontrolled creative energy not yet accustomed to remaining upwardly focused on divine love, selfless service, ego transcendence or the wisdom of superconsciousness!
Newly minted devotees, previously inured by the protective shell of ego indifference or self-absorption, find that their increased awareness and empathy can make them emotionally or psychically vulnerable to the vast amount of suffering of others.
But more than a temporary phase is the issue. For at each stage of spiritual growth we must walk the tightrope line between wisdom and love. Yet there is, however, a "left-leaning" inclination in spirituality that naturally feels the pangs of suffering of others. Under this influence, wisdom is challenged to know the boundaries of what is ours and what is not ours.
Even in the stories of saints working miracles of healing, you don't find that they heal thousands. Only a few in number are blessed in this way. Saints have the innate wisdom and divine guidance (and the spiritual power) to know how and who to heal.
Swami Kriyananda quoted his guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, who, when in a state of impersonal wisdom and uplifted vision, described seeing God "eating people." Images of god and goddesses dealing death and destruction are more or less commonplace in the East.
In the ancient teaching of duality, we are taught that death and destruction, evil and suffering, are the necessary counterpoint to goodness and virtue. Both are needed to keep the play of creation interesting and varied. Otherwise, it is said, we might discover too soon the secret behind it all: that it is all God, and God alone; God, the Creator, dreaming the drama of creation. When we unmask the divinity behind the creative play of light and dark, we begin the journey (like the Prodigal Son) to our home in God.
Some might recoil from this truth teaching as too severe and heartless. And, indeed, for the human heart, in many ways, it is difficult to accept. Thus most spiritually minded people incline to virtue and goodness, expressing sympathy and compassion, but stopping far short of transcendence of the sway of good and evil, of maya, the satanic force.
But in a world that has never known anything but a mix of good and evil, we would do well to attune ourselves to God's ways which are not "our ways." The law of karma rules the created universe and though there are subtler aspects to it, such as the redemptive power of divine love, the law of karma is exacting.
One sees in the lives of the saints (think Jesus on the cross, for starters) a courageous, positive, and bold acceptance of life's dualities, especially the less pleasant ones. Indeed, the middle path of even-mindedness is the very definition of the path to soul freedom given to us by Patanjali in the second stanza of his famous "Yoga Sutras."
It is the same truth discovered by Buddha under the Bodhi Tree. It is the unmasking of this Truth that sows the initial seed of faith that, as it grows, achieves ever-greater gnosis, faith, that behind the play of good and evil is the absolute good of God. The hand of goodness guides the great drama of creation towards the release of individual souls from the bondage of desire, ignorance, and suffering born of mistaken identity. Through the God-given law of karma and the gift of reason and intuition, stirred by the teaching and spiritual vibrations of God-realized preceptors, souls begin to awaken to the "truth that can make you free."
Thus, my real point here today is that a yogi (a meditator) should learn to balance sympathy and love with wisdom and faith. A proverbial BOTH-AND assignment! To achieve infinite consciousness is to absorb good and evil, dark and light into One unchanging and eternal state of Bliss.
Sometimes bad things happen to good people but these bad things can be the means through which their own past karma is erased or balanced. Or, it becomes an opportunity for them to practice non-attachment, acceptance, courage, or faith. Or, in the case of more spiritually advanced souls, their troubles become a vehicle by which they can even take on the karma of others. It is difficult to know the inexplicable workings of karma.
We don't start, however, by practicing non-attachment or pretending wisdom in respect to the troubles of others, especially those for whom we are able to assist in some way. We do this, instead, by developing non-attachment to our own desires, our moods, and our likes and dislikes. This can include our moods or sadness as a reaction to the troubles of others (especially when in lieu of helping, comforting, encouraging, or praying for them!)
For ourselves, then, when cold, don't complain; remain calm and endure it, at least for a little while, before calmly putting on a coat or turning up the heat. Accept, when you have no other choice, barbs of critique or less-than-tasty food with equanimity. See all day-to-day tests as coming from God as a way to purify your attachments. Start with the small things and work your way "up."
To the sensitive heart, the world's woes can crush all hope, all sense of divine mercy and justice, and the very incentive to seek God through wisdom and love. No doubt the ego or maya feels victorious when the devotee despairs or falls into moods, doubt or confusion.
Ironically, as the soul advances spiritually, the power to change outer circumstances and to help others (materially as well as spiritually) grows! This comes from letting divine power and energy flow through us rather than be pummeled by the ego's reaction to outward circumstances.
The young plant of spiritual awakening needs the protection of the company of like-minded and more seasoned devotees.
If you find, therefore, that you are "touchy" around what you hear (or believe) people say about you; or that the suffering of others crushes your equanimity and triggers moods and doubts, then it is time to emphasize wisdom and faith in God. Critique becomes an opportunity for self-reflection, perhaps for changing your ways, for forgiveness, and / or for even-mindedness. Sadness becomes an opportunity to be centered, even-minded, cheerful, and offering aid and help to others without regard to your own moods or sadness. Fear becomes an opportunity to affirm faith in God and courage of heart. You won't help anyone by being sad but by being calm, comforting, hopeful and even courageous. Work on yourself if you find you are too sensitive. Be like a doctor or nurse attending the needs of their patients with skill and equanimity.
Is it possible to feel both the suffering of another AND inner peace or joy? Yes, it is! And, without guilt! By meditation, especially, we know true joy as a living, divine presence. This inner joy can co-exist even when the outer surface of our mind and life is touched by sadness. We find that we can retain, in ourselves, a calm acceptance and joy. Yes: BOTH-AND is the way of the yogi.
Let our love and sympathy be practical and our response to it calm with inner eye of wisdom always scanning the horizon of intuition for guidance, acceptance, and practical compassion.
"I am strong in my Self; I am complete in my Self." The Self of self is the Self of all!
Blessings to all in these "interesting" times. Be a peaceful warrior, not a peaceless worrier!
Nayaswami Hriman
Martha and her sister Mary are the hosts for Jesus who is visiting their home. I believe they might have been cousins, actually. Their brother is the famous Lazarus who, later and towards the end of Jesus' life, was raised from the dead in a rather dramatic scene. So Lazarus was probably also in the room. It seems the occasion was what we might call a "satsang:" an informal gathering of people at someone's home around their spiritual teacher. Most likely Jesus was giving an informal discourse; perhaps he was answering questions. I imagine that the house was somewhat small and the number of people there was limited to the family and Jesus' entourage of twelve plus disciples (including perhaps Mary Magdalene and/or Jesus' mother, Mary).
Martha, however, is busy in the kitchen, making supper. She's fussing, banging pots around (I would guess) and all hot and bothered. Her sister, Mary, on the other hand, is in the living room sitting peacefully on the floor (we imagine) at the feet of her teacher, Jesus.
No doubt in a bit of snit and in a mood, Martha, comes into the room and, perhaps even interrupting, asks Jesus to send her sister, Mary, to help her in the kitchen. Jesus responds, in front of everyone (demonstrating the intimacy of the gathering), by gently upbraiding Martha for losing her inner peace even while engaged in worthy service, saying that Mary had taken the "better part" by tuning into his spiritual vibrations and teachings. (In the Sunday reading, written by our teacher, Swami Kriyananda--a direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda--it is explained that the issue is not what it appears to be: whether serving is better than meditating. Rather, it is not WHAT you do but HOW--with what attitude and consciousness--you do it!)
Padma used the story to illustrate the challenge devotees have in allowing moods to overtake us.
Padma also recalled Swami Kriyananda's story (which he writes in his own life story, "The New Path") where he had gotten into a mood and how, upon encountering his guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, Yogananda snapped the young "Walter" (Swami Kriyananda) out of it and added, "No more moods now, Walter. How are you to serve others?"
Thoughts being "universally, not individually, rooted," it just so happened that last night, while Padma was preparing her talk, I was drafting this article on moods and over sensitivity among yogi-meditators. I hadn't even considered the reading about Martha and Mary that Padma was to speak on.
So a felicitous coincidence, I suppose.........Yogananda taught that moodiness, whether habitual, or simply a periodic episode, has its roots in past sense over-indulgence. But I have another kind of moodiness in mind tonight.
What about those well meaning people who find that their sensitivity to the sufferings of others upsets their own peace of mind? I mean, think about it: meditation is supposed to make you peaceful, right? As your inner peace gives rise to an expanding love and compassion for others you might find that your sympathy for their troubles causes you to lose your peace of mind! Selfish people, at least, are not bothered by other people's trouble! You'd think THEY were more peaceful! Well, then, hmmmmm....we have a dilemma, don't we?
I see two things taking place: the initial stage of the spiritual path, and a longer-term tendency among spiritual seekers.
When, in the beginning of one's spiritual efforts, the hard shell of ego begins to break and fall away, the heart opens and expands. During this initial stage of awakening a person can be somewhat vulnerable.
It's not uncommon to find "young" yogis suddenly falling in love with someone, engaging in excessive yoga practice, trumpeting dogmatic diets or long fasts, and any number of tangents caused by the awakening of uncontrolled creative energy not yet accustomed to remaining upwardly focused on divine love, selfless service, ego transcendence or the wisdom of superconsciousness!
Newly minted devotees, previously inured by the protective shell of ego indifference or self-absorption, find that their increased awareness and empathy can make them emotionally or psychically vulnerable to the vast amount of suffering of others.
But more than a temporary phase is the issue. For at each stage of spiritual growth we must walk the tightrope line between wisdom and love. Yet there is, however, a "left-leaning" inclination in spirituality that naturally feels the pangs of suffering of others. Under this influence, wisdom is challenged to know the boundaries of what is ours and what is not ours.
Even in the stories of saints working miracles of healing, you don't find that they heal thousands. Only a few in number are blessed in this way. Saints have the innate wisdom and divine guidance (and the spiritual power) to know how and who to heal.
Swami Kriyananda quoted his guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, who, when in a state of impersonal wisdom and uplifted vision, described seeing God "eating people." Images of god and goddesses dealing death and destruction are more or less commonplace in the East.
In the ancient teaching of duality, we are taught that death and destruction, evil and suffering, are the necessary counterpoint to goodness and virtue. Both are needed to keep the play of creation interesting and varied. Otherwise, it is said, we might discover too soon the secret behind it all: that it is all God, and God alone; God, the Creator, dreaming the drama of creation. When we unmask the divinity behind the creative play of light and dark, we begin the journey (like the Prodigal Son) to our home in God.
Some might recoil from this truth teaching as too severe and heartless. And, indeed, for the human heart, in many ways, it is difficult to accept. Thus most spiritually minded people incline to virtue and goodness, expressing sympathy and compassion, but stopping far short of transcendence of the sway of good and evil, of maya, the satanic force.
But in a world that has never known anything but a mix of good and evil, we would do well to attune ourselves to God's ways which are not "our ways." The law of karma rules the created universe and though there are subtler aspects to it, such as the redemptive power of divine love, the law of karma is exacting.
One sees in the lives of the saints (think Jesus on the cross, for starters) a courageous, positive, and bold acceptance of life's dualities, especially the less pleasant ones. Indeed, the middle path of even-mindedness is the very definition of the path to soul freedom given to us by Patanjali in the second stanza of his famous "Yoga Sutras."
It is the same truth discovered by Buddha under the Bodhi Tree. It is the unmasking of this Truth that sows the initial seed of faith that, as it grows, achieves ever-greater gnosis, faith, that behind the play of good and evil is the absolute good of God. The hand of goodness guides the great drama of creation towards the release of individual souls from the bondage of desire, ignorance, and suffering born of mistaken identity. Through the God-given law of karma and the gift of reason and intuition, stirred by the teaching and spiritual vibrations of God-realized preceptors, souls begin to awaken to the "truth that can make you free."
Thus, my real point here today is that a yogi (a meditator) should learn to balance sympathy and love with wisdom and faith. A proverbial BOTH-AND assignment! To achieve infinite consciousness is to absorb good and evil, dark and light into One unchanging and eternal state of Bliss.
Sometimes bad things happen to good people but these bad things can be the means through which their own past karma is erased or balanced. Or, it becomes an opportunity for them to practice non-attachment, acceptance, courage, or faith. Or, in the case of more spiritually advanced souls, their troubles become a vehicle by which they can even take on the karma of others. It is difficult to know the inexplicable workings of karma.
We don't start, however, by practicing non-attachment or pretending wisdom in respect to the troubles of others, especially those for whom we are able to assist in some way. We do this, instead, by developing non-attachment to our own desires, our moods, and our likes and dislikes. This can include our moods or sadness as a reaction to the troubles of others (especially when in lieu of helping, comforting, encouraging, or praying for them!)
For ourselves, then, when cold, don't complain; remain calm and endure it, at least for a little while, before calmly putting on a coat or turning up the heat. Accept, when you have no other choice, barbs of critique or less-than-tasty food with equanimity. See all day-to-day tests as coming from God as a way to purify your attachments. Start with the small things and work your way "up."
To the sensitive heart, the world's woes can crush all hope, all sense of divine mercy and justice, and the very incentive to seek God through wisdom and love. No doubt the ego or maya feels victorious when the devotee despairs or falls into moods, doubt or confusion.
Ironically, as the soul advances spiritually, the power to change outer circumstances and to help others (materially as well as spiritually) grows! This comes from letting divine power and energy flow through us rather than be pummeled by the ego's reaction to outward circumstances.
The young plant of spiritual awakening needs the protection of the company of like-minded and more seasoned devotees.
If you find, therefore, that you are "touchy" around what you hear (or believe) people say about you; or that the suffering of others crushes your equanimity and triggers moods and doubts, then it is time to emphasize wisdom and faith in God. Critique becomes an opportunity for self-reflection, perhaps for changing your ways, for forgiveness, and / or for even-mindedness. Sadness becomes an opportunity to be centered, even-minded, cheerful, and offering aid and help to others without regard to your own moods or sadness. Fear becomes an opportunity to affirm faith in God and courage of heart. You won't help anyone by being sad but by being calm, comforting, hopeful and even courageous. Work on yourself if you find you are too sensitive. Be like a doctor or nurse attending the needs of their patients with skill and equanimity.
Is it possible to feel both the suffering of another AND inner peace or joy? Yes, it is! And, without guilt! By meditation, especially, we know true joy as a living, divine presence. This inner joy can co-exist even when the outer surface of our mind and life is touched by sadness. We find that we can retain, in ourselves, a calm acceptance and joy. Yes: BOTH-AND is the way of the yogi.
Let our love and sympathy be practical and our response to it calm with inner eye of wisdom always scanning the horizon of intuition for guidance, acceptance, and practical compassion.
"I am strong in my Self; I am complete in my Self." The Self of self is the Self of all!
Blessings to all in these "interesting" times. Be a peaceful warrior, not a peaceless worrier!
Nayaswami Hriman
Friday, May 1, 2015
To Live or Leave : A Friend Struck Down!
Last Monday, April 27, 2015, a dear friend (not just to me but to dozens) was struck down in what can only be called a freakish accident. He's alive though he might just easily have not survived. At present he remains in a coma.
It was a glorious day, that day......warm Spring sunshine and blue skies. Having come from work and back back to his home in the Ananda Community in Lynnwood, he evidently decided to go for a stroll up to a nearby grocery store. He walked with his roommate and Godson. The street along which they walked is a busy arterial. Cars speed past between 35 and 40 miles per hour (my guess).
A woman driving by, perhaps with her car windows down to enjoy the beautiful day, was suddenly distracted by some paper flying around in the back seat where her child sat. Turning to deal with it, she lost control of the car. It went over the curb and glanced my friend a blow sending him crashing to the cement sidewalk. As the car speed towards them, his Godson was alerted by a strange sound and had the reflexes to jump to the side and was unharmed. But our friend was smashed to the ground, hurt, bleeding and unconscious. He remains so four days later, though we are hopeful his brain will gradually but steadily regain functionality. To what extent, however, no one can say.
This is at least the basic story as we understand it. I think many people, including myself, have been present at sudden death or injury. It's a psychic shock to one's nervous system, just as much as a physical injury causes the body to go into a state of shock.
Seeing someone in the hospital, more or less unconscious, badly bruised and his body struggling to live is a strange experience. He might be able to hear familiar sounds or voices and there are some movements of hands and feet, though difficult to say whether wholly automatic or responsive. The many who are visiting with him and staying overnight sing, talk, joke, read, meditate and hold his hand and offer loving touch: these things are both natural and are, we are told, helpful to his recovery by stimulating sensory nerve channels to the brain (an explanation of mine clearly lacking proper medical jargon).
Being as he and we, and all his friends, are "yogis," actively on the spiritual path and practicing meditation, there's no lack of reports from every side of various individuals' respective opinions, feelings, and intuitive insights into where "he's at" and what's going on for him and his soul.
One reports that she thinks he's really enjoying all the cool medical equipment he's hooked up to. (Really?) Another says he's come to her in meditation to say good-bye. Another says the Masters are holding him and giving him a choice to leave or stay. Yet others say his life force is strong and he's going to recover.
I don't discount any of these things. But, let's face it, no one can prove any of it at this time. My personal orientation and commitment is to a blend of hope supported by objectivity.
I happen to be, on paper, the one with the power of attorney to make medical decisions for our friend. In fact, I seem to have the least to say and the fewest opinions on the matter. I am looking for signs, from any source, including my friends' intuitions, but certainly from concrete medical evidence of his condition and his responses.
His medical directive states his reluctance to be on extended life support or terminally unconscious. I doubt that is going to be the case and I am cautiously optimistic I will not have to make any such decision. And, if I did, I would consult his brother and our many friends such that we would be in this together. I just happen to be a name on a piece of paper. So far as "I" am concerned, Divine Mother will have to show her will. I certainly will not shirk any responsibility but I am all too confident after a lifetime of attempting to live by faith, that the Divine Will will show itself (with sufficient clarity that I can read the "words").
Nonetheless, how can I not at contemplate the worst case of having to make a "fatal" decision: either to remove support and see him leave his body (maybe); or, continue support and see him recover so incompletely as to be unrecognizable and have no life at all. Or, recover sufficiently to have a life well worth living! For now, I am willing to wait and see, and, to imagine this decision point will not occur.
It's curious to me because both my friend in his directive and most people I know, including myself, would, when merely contemplating the decision abstractly, vote NOT to stay in our body if we are useless or unconscious. But my strong suspicion is that if any one of us were actually in such a condition, we'd most likely take the risk to live in the hope that we can recover sufficient functionality and consciousness to have a life of meaning and purpose.
Life, you see, HAS to be the choice unless the circumstances are starkly clear and the chances of meaningful life extremely poor. Life IS the choice God through the cosmos has declared. Despite death and destruction vying constantly for supremacy, life goes on. Life reappears. Life survives even in the midst of death. The flowers and buds of Spring always appear after the winter of death.
I see no other choice than hope. Life is always a risk: for each and every one of us. From day to day. That very Monday, the most heart-touching photo of our friend and "son" was taken. Perhaps even within the hour of his "accident." We can never know the hour of our karmic summons. We live as though we are immortal because we ARE immortal in spirit.
But living is the right choice. I don't say that this is ALWAYS the choice. I say, simply, that life and living are the natural and the super-natural "law" of creation.
What, then, is the karma here? Consider the incredible odds that it would take to be out walking on that street passing that exact spot where a car suddenly jumps the curb to strike one down in a nearly fatal blow? One thing we yogis can know for sure is that this was no "accident." Whatever the karmic cause, this was no coincidence. It is too strange.
What this signals for devotees is a sign of grace: an opportunity for spiritual growth. For our friend, well, yes, though time will tell. It is incorrect to think that this tragic incident is BAD karma. No, it can only be an opportunity to work off karma or even to rise above karma. For the rest of us, his friends, this is an opportunity to come together, to give, to pray, and to share.
I cannot now, nor will at this time, say "I am grateful for this happening to our friend." But I believe that the time may come when I, and others, will be able to say this. Better yet, I do hope and pray that the time will come when he, our friend, can say this. But for now, we must do our part and not concern ourselves unnecessarily about the outcome, whether for him or for us. We must unite in Spirit, for in Spirit we are One and, for the time being, Spirit is the only connection it seems we still have with our friend.
May the Light of Truth, Wisdom, and Love shine through the darkness of uncertainty and the seeming appearance of unconsciousness.
Hriman
It was a glorious day, that day......warm Spring sunshine and blue skies. Having come from work and back back to his home in the Ananda Community in Lynnwood, he evidently decided to go for a stroll up to a nearby grocery store. He walked with his roommate and Godson. The street along which they walked is a busy arterial. Cars speed past between 35 and 40 miles per hour (my guess).
A woman driving by, perhaps with her car windows down to enjoy the beautiful day, was suddenly distracted by some paper flying around in the back seat where her child sat. Turning to deal with it, she lost control of the car. It went over the curb and glanced my friend a blow sending him crashing to the cement sidewalk. As the car speed towards them, his Godson was alerted by a strange sound and had the reflexes to jump to the side and was unharmed. But our friend was smashed to the ground, hurt, bleeding and unconscious. He remains so four days later, though we are hopeful his brain will gradually but steadily regain functionality. To what extent, however, no one can say.
This is at least the basic story as we understand it. I think many people, including myself, have been present at sudden death or injury. It's a psychic shock to one's nervous system, just as much as a physical injury causes the body to go into a state of shock.
Seeing someone in the hospital, more or less unconscious, badly bruised and his body struggling to live is a strange experience. He might be able to hear familiar sounds or voices and there are some movements of hands and feet, though difficult to say whether wholly automatic or responsive. The many who are visiting with him and staying overnight sing, talk, joke, read, meditate and hold his hand and offer loving touch: these things are both natural and are, we are told, helpful to his recovery by stimulating sensory nerve channels to the brain (an explanation of mine clearly lacking proper medical jargon).
Being as he and we, and all his friends, are "yogis," actively on the spiritual path and practicing meditation, there's no lack of reports from every side of various individuals' respective opinions, feelings, and intuitive insights into where "he's at" and what's going on for him and his soul.
One reports that she thinks he's really enjoying all the cool medical equipment he's hooked up to. (Really?) Another says he's come to her in meditation to say good-bye. Another says the Masters are holding him and giving him a choice to leave or stay. Yet others say his life force is strong and he's going to recover.
I don't discount any of these things. But, let's face it, no one can prove any of it at this time. My personal orientation and commitment is to a blend of hope supported by objectivity.
I happen to be, on paper, the one with the power of attorney to make medical decisions for our friend. In fact, I seem to have the least to say and the fewest opinions on the matter. I am looking for signs, from any source, including my friends' intuitions, but certainly from concrete medical evidence of his condition and his responses.
His medical directive states his reluctance to be on extended life support or terminally unconscious. I doubt that is going to be the case and I am cautiously optimistic I will not have to make any such decision. And, if I did, I would consult his brother and our many friends such that we would be in this together. I just happen to be a name on a piece of paper. So far as "I" am concerned, Divine Mother will have to show her will. I certainly will not shirk any responsibility but I am all too confident after a lifetime of attempting to live by faith, that the Divine Will will show itself (with sufficient clarity that I can read the "words").
Nonetheless, how can I not at contemplate the worst case of having to make a "fatal" decision: either to remove support and see him leave his body (maybe); or, continue support and see him recover so incompletely as to be unrecognizable and have no life at all. Or, recover sufficiently to have a life well worth living! For now, I am willing to wait and see, and, to imagine this decision point will not occur.
It's curious to me because both my friend in his directive and most people I know, including myself, would, when merely contemplating the decision abstractly, vote NOT to stay in our body if we are useless or unconscious. But my strong suspicion is that if any one of us were actually in such a condition, we'd most likely take the risk to live in the hope that we can recover sufficient functionality and consciousness to have a life of meaning and purpose.
Life, you see, HAS to be the choice unless the circumstances are starkly clear and the chances of meaningful life extremely poor. Life IS the choice God through the cosmos has declared. Despite death and destruction vying constantly for supremacy, life goes on. Life reappears. Life survives even in the midst of death. The flowers and buds of Spring always appear after the winter of death.
I see no other choice than hope. Life is always a risk: for each and every one of us. From day to day. That very Monday, the most heart-touching photo of our friend and "son" was taken. Perhaps even within the hour of his "accident." We can never know the hour of our karmic summons. We live as though we are immortal because we ARE immortal in spirit.
But living is the right choice. I don't say that this is ALWAYS the choice. I say, simply, that life and living are the natural and the super-natural "law" of creation.
What, then, is the karma here? Consider the incredible odds that it would take to be out walking on that street passing that exact spot where a car suddenly jumps the curb to strike one down in a nearly fatal blow? One thing we yogis can know for sure is that this was no "accident." Whatever the karmic cause, this was no coincidence. It is too strange.
What this signals for devotees is a sign of grace: an opportunity for spiritual growth. For our friend, well, yes, though time will tell. It is incorrect to think that this tragic incident is BAD karma. No, it can only be an opportunity to work off karma or even to rise above karma. For the rest of us, his friends, this is an opportunity to come together, to give, to pray, and to share.
I cannot now, nor will at this time, say "I am grateful for this happening to our friend." But I believe that the time may come when I, and others, will be able to say this. Better yet, I do hope and pray that the time will come when he, our friend, can say this. But for now, we must do our part and not concern ourselves unnecessarily about the outcome, whether for him or for us. We must unite in Spirit, for in Spirit we are One and, for the time being, Spirit is the only connection it seems we still have with our friend.
May the Light of Truth, Wisdom, and Love shine through the darkness of uncertainty and the seeming appearance of unconsciousness.
Hriman
Saturday, April 18, 2015
Meditation: A Point of Singularity
There are innumerable ways of describing or defining the state of consciousness offered to us as the goal of meditation. From stress relief to enlightenment to cosmic consciousness, the terminology alone is rich with implication and promise. Modern medicine and Buddhist-inspired mindfulness suggest a state of mind set free from the negative effects of stress and resting calmly in the peace within.
Just as the process of maturity is an ever-expanding continuum of awareness, inner strength and acceptance, so meditation opens up a mind whose vista is potentially ever-new, ever-expanding, and ever-increasing in self-awareness, knowledge, empathy and wisdom.
There are also numerous meditation techniques: too numerous to attempt a list here. As a life-long meditator and teacher of meditation I feel safe and confident in affirming and corroborating the tenet that real meditation begins when our thoughts are still (and the body is relaxed, if alert). Techniques can medically, emotionally, and psychically greatly aid in bringing our mind and body to POINT OF SINGULARITY. It is the true beginning point of the adventure of meditation.
Let me state, first, however, that it would be a false expectation to imagine that the beginning point presupposes the onset of satori, samadhi, or any other "mind-blowing" experience. Rather, it resembles achieving calmness in the midst of an intense emotional crises. Calmness, in such cases, is simply the necessary beginning point for figuring out what to do next.
It's like being on a quest and being instructed to go to quiet place in the forest and sit until you receive the next instruction. The instruction may, or may not, come while sitting there. It may come after you've gone home. It may arrive in an email or phone call. Meditation, like work, starts with showing up. Showing up starts not with exercises, chanting, or other meditation techniques, but with being clear as a crystal, ready to receive the next instruction, when, and if, it comes. (This can happen in the midst of meditation exercises, too, at which point it is generally advised to discontinue the technique in favor of the experience!)
As sleep rests the body and nervous system, meditation clears the psyche of emotional and mental static (after first relaxing the body). This is my point: a point of singularity. The second aphorism in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali defines the state of yoga as a state where all reactive mental and emotional processes have ceased.
In fairness to Patanjali and the depth of meaning contained in this most important of all (the nearly) two hundred aphorisms, he is referring to BOTH the beginning AND the end point (goal) meditation. By contrast, I am referring in this article only to the beginning point. But, they are, of course, related and inextricably linked: the first being the prerequisite for the second.
When I hear the phrase "chop wood and carry water" I image a person doing something "perfectly" mundane with a "perfectly" clear and settled mind and a body so relaxed that only those movements and muscles needed for the task are engaged (not unlike true yoga posture-asana).
This is a good intuitive image for a "point of singularity." The only difference is that I am referring to it occurring in meditation, not in daily action. (This can flow naturally from it being practiced and experienced in meditation.)
Philosophers and sages down the ages have referred to the duality of creation: male & female; reason & feeling; objective & subjective; heat & cold; and so on. It is axiomatic that the uniting of the two is at least the symbol of enlightenment or some other desirable state of mind or being.
Think of a point of singularity as a point where the mind, subjective and self-aware, replete with feeling merges with the object of contemplation. You cannot literally merge with a candle flame by staring at it. But by focusing your inward awareness (usually with eyes closed) on the awareness of the self being aware, you most certainly can
Few meditators are subtle enough and settled enough in their minds to do this, however. Hence the plethora of techniques such as watching the breath, feeling the movements of subtle energy in the body, or visualizing the guru, a deity, or an abstract image or concept (light, joy, spiritual color, sacred sound, etc.) A well known technique is observe oneself observing and mentally ask "Who am I?" "Who is observing whom?"
Moses asked the burning bush, "Who are you?" Is not the burning bush the flame of our self-awareness, burning bright within us, especially in meditation? The flame answered saying, "I AM THAT I AM!" Does not the Self within answer us, wordlessly, at times?
Sometimes in my use of various "kriya" techniques based on energy currents (prana), I imagine that the energy is erasing all memory of name, form, past, personality, desires and tendencies. In this way, with each movement of prana, I am clearing and cleaning the pathways of energy so that no one remains but pure energy and self-awareness.
As I begin my meditation, I invoke the living presence of my guru-preceptor, Paramhansa Yogananda, or one (or all) of those in his line of gurus, to assist me on the subtle level or energy or consciousness in the task of ego-clearing transcendence. When I feel I am ready to settle in and past my technique(s), I might then gaze clearly and steadily into the "Spiritual I" at the point between the eyebrows to see who and what might be there: I AM THAT I AM. Go beyond words and images and BE.
Is this not the "only begotten son of God" sent to redeem us from the captivity of ego? Is this not the living Christ, or Krishna consciousness: the watcher, the observer, the witness?
This is where the me confronts the I of God. When this is successful, I can stand and "chop wood and carry water."
Blessings to I THAT AM YOU,
Nayaswami Hriman
Just as the process of maturity is an ever-expanding continuum of awareness, inner strength and acceptance, so meditation opens up a mind whose vista is potentially ever-new, ever-expanding, and ever-increasing in self-awareness, knowledge, empathy and wisdom.
There are also numerous meditation techniques: too numerous to attempt a list here. As a life-long meditator and teacher of meditation I feel safe and confident in affirming and corroborating the tenet that real meditation begins when our thoughts are still (and the body is relaxed, if alert). Techniques can medically, emotionally, and psychically greatly aid in bringing our mind and body to POINT OF SINGULARITY. It is the true beginning point of the adventure of meditation.
Let me state, first, however, that it would be a false expectation to imagine that the beginning point presupposes the onset of satori, samadhi, or any other "mind-blowing" experience. Rather, it resembles achieving calmness in the midst of an intense emotional crises. Calmness, in such cases, is simply the necessary beginning point for figuring out what to do next.
It's like being on a quest and being instructed to go to quiet place in the forest and sit until you receive the next instruction. The instruction may, or may not, come while sitting there. It may come after you've gone home. It may arrive in an email or phone call. Meditation, like work, starts with showing up. Showing up starts not with exercises, chanting, or other meditation techniques, but with being clear as a crystal, ready to receive the next instruction, when, and if, it comes. (This can happen in the midst of meditation exercises, too, at which point it is generally advised to discontinue the technique in favor of the experience!)
As sleep rests the body and nervous system, meditation clears the psyche of emotional and mental static (after first relaxing the body). This is my point: a point of singularity. The second aphorism in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali defines the state of yoga as a state where all reactive mental and emotional processes have ceased.
In fairness to Patanjali and the depth of meaning contained in this most important of all (the nearly) two hundred aphorisms, he is referring to BOTH the beginning AND the end point (goal) meditation. By contrast, I am referring in this article only to the beginning point. But, they are, of course, related and inextricably linked: the first being the prerequisite for the second.
When I hear the phrase "chop wood and carry water" I image a person doing something "perfectly" mundane with a "perfectly" clear and settled mind and a body so relaxed that only those movements and muscles needed for the task are engaged (not unlike true yoga posture-asana).
This is a good intuitive image for a "point of singularity." The only difference is that I am referring to it occurring in meditation, not in daily action. (This can flow naturally from it being practiced and experienced in meditation.)
Philosophers and sages down the ages have referred to the duality of creation: male & female; reason & feeling; objective & subjective; heat & cold; and so on. It is axiomatic that the uniting of the two is at least the symbol of enlightenment or some other desirable state of mind or being.
Think of a point of singularity as a point where the mind, subjective and self-aware, replete with feeling merges with the object of contemplation. You cannot literally merge with a candle flame by staring at it. But by focusing your inward awareness (usually with eyes closed) on the awareness of the self being aware, you most certainly can
Few meditators are subtle enough and settled enough in their minds to do this, however. Hence the plethora of techniques such as watching the breath, feeling the movements of subtle energy in the body, or visualizing the guru, a deity, or an abstract image or concept (light, joy, spiritual color, sacred sound, etc.) A well known technique is observe oneself observing and mentally ask "Who am I?" "Who is observing whom?"
Moses asked the burning bush, "Who are you?" Is not the burning bush the flame of our self-awareness, burning bright within us, especially in meditation? The flame answered saying, "I AM THAT I AM!" Does not the Self within answer us, wordlessly, at times?
Sometimes in my use of various "kriya" techniques based on energy currents (prana), I imagine that the energy is erasing all memory of name, form, past, personality, desires and tendencies. In this way, with each movement of prana, I am clearing and cleaning the pathways of energy so that no one remains but pure energy and self-awareness.
As I begin my meditation, I invoke the living presence of my guru-preceptor, Paramhansa Yogananda, or one (or all) of those in his line of gurus, to assist me on the subtle level or energy or consciousness in the task of ego-clearing transcendence. When I feel I am ready to settle in and past my technique(s), I might then gaze clearly and steadily into the "Spiritual I" at the point between the eyebrows to see who and what might be there: I AM THAT I AM. Go beyond words and images and BE.
Is this not the "only begotten son of God" sent to redeem us from the captivity of ego? Is this not the living Christ, or Krishna consciousness: the watcher, the observer, the witness?
This is where the me confronts the I of God. When this is successful, I can stand and "chop wood and carry water."
Blessings to I THAT AM YOU,
Nayaswami Hriman
Monday, April 13, 2015
Where do Ideas Come From? What caused the BIG BANG?
"I have an idea," you announce to your co-workers. Yes, it's true, literally, that you "have" an idea (in your mind). But do you ever wonder where ideas come from? Most of us take it for granted that we, being in original possession of the idea must be its owner.
Indeed, the law says it is so, and it is so. But this convenient and pragmatic logic fails to examine the source of the idea. Don't you and I, as intelligent, creative, thinking persons, rely upon what might be called a process, even a "mechanism," of searching for answers out in an unknown space of the ether for answers? We do this so instinctively that we rarely question or probe the process itself.
Take something totally mundane, like "What should I give my friend for her birthday?" Your eyebrows frown or narrow slightly; one or both of your eyes squint as if peering into some unseen dark box; the mind quiets momentarily. It's as if you've sent a search command into your hard drive for a file as you wait, sometimes a nano second, for a reply. You examine it, perhaps discard it, and ask for another. If none comes, you may abandon your conscious search and go onto the next task fully expectant, based on experience, that an answer will suddenly pop up later. (That resembles the speed of my computer at home, unfortunately.)
But the analogy to a computer, while interesting and somewhat relevant, doesn't give the full answer because my computer doesn't create new files, it only searches existing ones. My brain simply CANNOT be the source of a symphony or a poem even if rigidly evidence-based inquiries insist that it must be for lack of any other measurable source. Why doesn't MY brain produce symphonies or poems, but yours does?
To produce something intelligible to the human intellect and that is communicable to other humans, the brain serves as a necessary tool. It gives language, sound, description and feeling to my idea for a present for my friend. Indeed, the very question originates in the material world of friends and birthdays, so the response must take a relevant form. The brain thus acts as a translator back and forth between consciousness and matter via the transmission of measurable brain energy.
Do you think that the brain originates ideas? If you do, you have strong support from the scientific community but they'll NEVER tell you how! They can measure things like brain waves and can tell you that certain parts of the brain are working and they can stimulate memory or even hallucinations by poking at your brain but they cannot tell you how thoughts pass through the magical boundary between their source (which is immaterial) and their outer expression into words, emotions or movements. Where and how do new ideas (the kind never before thought of by you and not mere re-hashes of past thoughts or experiences) get created?
A computer can store images (including words which are symbols of thought) in binary form but it cannot produce anything new except by building on its existing database. Until computers become super-duper, they are clumsy in creating anything more than a mathematical or merely logical construct. (This is the "missing-link" of conscious, self-awareness that I describe in a recent, and extremely popular, blog article, "Chappie: Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness".)
If a brain operates more like a computer (as we tend to believe it does), then how could it compose a poem? Or a symphony? Yes, by practicing poetry or music one can develop one's skills but many people are taught specific skills but never become great artists? Nor can an examination of the genes or DNA ever reveal the hidden seed of an idea.
Notwithstanding the volume of brain and meditation research happening these days, I aver that scientists will never discover "the missing link:" that mysterious, invisible non-substance called consciousness: the stuff of "good ideas." The brain may be a wonderful mechanism to allow for the logical expression of ideas or the dramatic expression of feelings, but it will never be found to be the originator.
I suppose there must be studies on people who have lots of good ideas and others who have few. If so, I've never stumbled upon them. But, ok, fine some people have good ideas. Maybe they eat a lot of fish, according to P.G. Wodehouse, like his butler, Jeeves. That's great but it doesn't answer my question: where do ideas actually come from? Surely not from fish!
Is not my question perhaps the same question as "What produced the BIG BANG" or the question "Why does anything exist at all? (See the book by Jim Holt, "Why Does the World Exist.")
Just as ideas seem to come out of nowhere, though not necessarily randomly, so too the universe seems to have come out of nowhere. With fresh ideas we might need to "sleep on it," go on vacation, go for a run or take a shower. In the creative process, there's a very definite pattern of emptiness alternating with fullness; or silence and then sound; dark and light. In energizing this pattern, there is no singular human activity better than meditation to stimulate a person's consistent creativity.
As to whether there really is, anywhere, "nothing," well, science itself, and meditators themselves, know that the silence is pregnant with pause; filled with latent potentiality. The silence of the deeper states of meditation are innately creative, powerful, rich and very full states of mind. The only difference is that in silence there is no outer expression: thoughts have not yet taken shape or form.
In the Ananda Festival of Light Sunday Service (written by Ananda's founder, Swami Kriyananda), there's song called "Thunder of AUM." It's opening line, echoing Genesis, is "Out of the silence came the song of creation, out of the darkness came the light."
While this sphere of nothing can produce random ideas of no personal relevance to the person receiving them, like my 3-part blog series on "If I were president," humanity's great ideas (in science, religion, art, or politics) are tailored made for the people destined to manifest them. A person who indulges daily in daydreams or fantasies can create his own world but it is entirely subjective because no attempt is made, or possible, to bring that world into manifestation. The ideas are still-born and I would wager that the person is not better off, meaning better balanced and mature, for the indulgence.
Setting aside random or irrelevant ideas and those that preoccupy minds with nothing better to do, important ideas are very personal and very relevant to our needs or our life's destiny.
Since personally meaningful ideas appear in response to our personal needs, then the BIG idea of creating a universe must also be a response to a universal or BIG need. Since ideas cannot exist apart from consciousness, so of course consciousness had the BIG IDEA and perhaps, then, the BIG NEED. (I would propose that the term "need" can include a creative impulse; a desire; an interest.) A further statement is that ideas (thought) cannot exist apart from self-awareness. Self-awareness may be intense or dim, but in the realm of ideas it is always present. This can only be proved to oneself, it cannot be proven by logic or by observation from outside. Consciousness and self-awareness are one and the same and cannot be proved: only its material manifestations, like words, emotions, actions, brain waves, etc. can be observed.
Since neither science nor philosophy can answer the question "Why does anything exist at all," I will offer to them a solution to their dilemma (at no additional cost): the universe exists because it was intended to. "Someone" put out the intention and BANG, IT WAS SO! I challenge them to do me one better. We cannot responsibly say the universe doesn't exist, so we must accept that it does. We might speculate that it came into being through some random force but our experience of life, including the creative process in ourselves, suggests otherwise. Why not take the evidence where it leads and accept it as the best evidence we have at this time? Maybe that's as far as our logic and reason can take us.
In my popular blog article "Chappie: Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness" I posited the self-evident but intellectually unprovable statement that self-awareness is what distinguishes consciousness from artificial intelligence. This "missing link" as I called it in that article, is what I am discussing here in this article. And here I am positing an ages old precept that consciousness preexists and is the intention that gives rise to ideas, self-awareness, energy and matter.
This is where my favorite topic and hidden agenda surfaces: meditation! Yup, SURPRISE! (You didn't see that coming, did you?) I further posit that there is a link between "why creation exists at all," creativity, self-awareness and why meditation enhances creativity.
Imagine now building something really big: yeah, ok, say, a universe. Its gonna take some time. "Rome wasn't built in a day," we've been told. If this universe is going to be built piece by piece, as material things are, you won't see it in all its splendor until it's finished. As it is being built it looks pretty lumpy, the job site is messy, and its ultimate beauty and functionality is postponed until the end. Not only does "someone" need to intend it; and then guide its construction, but, in the end, "someone" needs to see and acknowledge it. Otherwise..........we cannot know if it actually exists!
So it wouldn't be surprising that the Consciousness that lit the fuse of the BIG BANG had to wait awhile until the construction project (i.e., evolution) produced an "independent" witness. On this planet, the only one we know, I understand it's taken over 4 billion years and that human existence is fairly recent. So if it is true that Consciousness produced the universe and our planet, it had to take some time before anyone (i.e. we humans) came into existence, began getting curious, even suspicious, and then began asking these questions! Objective and subjective, though separable in logical, linear time and processing, are inextricably linked. Science has said as much when, much to its shock and horror, it concluded that the observer is part of the observation and the observed.
Given the nature of the enormous length and complexity of the evolutionary process we would be forgiven in imaging that the process produced us randomly. I mean, gee, at first glance, popping out of the egg shell, so to speak, who can blame us from looking around and imaging the egg produced us? We wake up and the first thing we see.........are monkeys, or fishes, or whatever. While logical, it isn't necessary so! Our vision is, as yet, myopic! Limited to mere logic, we mistake the means for the cause. (Take THAT, Richard Dawkins!)
Notwithstanding the limitations of the "religion" of science, there is overwhelming historical evidence that humans, from the beginning of our existence, have intuited that our self-awareness holds the key to a sacred mystery of sorts: that it hints to us in a wordless communication that our real "parent" is not the material world that only appears to have produced us. Rocks and trees don't seem to possess this gift; animals seem to have some self-awareness, but most only fleetingly. There's something about the human experience, a gift of intuitive sight, that has continually insisted to our minds that we possess something decidedly "different" from planets, rocks and trees and that this awareness is special. It is sacred. And, yes, it is a mystery, even to us. We give it many names and no name but we cannot rid ourselves of its haunting shadow which follows us wherever we go. To paraphrase Mark Twain, "Travel is a fool's paradise because wherever I go, there I am.
Creativity is the outward moving expression of self-awareness. Creativity is the natural impulse of self-awareness. It bestows upon humanity great gifts and powers: and the obligation to use them wisely. But ideas are difficult, in fact, impossible, to bully into being subservient to our demands. Some call creativity the "Muses," godlike, in other words. Thus holy men, shamans, healers, and in more modern times artists, geniuses, inventors, great scientists, super heroes in sports and stage, and even tech wizards are all said to possess some of this "magic," this special gift, this mojo.
The impulse of modern consciousness is to demystify that which formerly was held in awe and surrounded by superstition and mystery and otherwise considered occult. Meditation, too, and yoga are being secularized as the left-brain of human consciousness continues to achieve ascendancy to the point of being our modern "religion" and language. We, like the disciples of Jesus, are impatient with parables, stories, myths and rituals.
It is no coincidence that the spiritual genius of Paramhansa Yogananda, whose life story, "Autobiography of a Yogi," has become a classic in our times, titled his first book, "The Science of Religion." [Being a wayshower from the past to the future, he, yet, retained a deep and abiding devotion and religious expression in his poetry, prayers, and personal expression. As Jesus said of himself, he came not to destroy but to "fulfill" the prophets of the past, so too Yogananda had no intentions of throwing the "baby out with the bath water." Nonetheless, he gave expression, and therefore spiritual authority and credibility to the emerging efforts to use our intellects to understand spirituality and to see the underlying connection between the material world, through the eyes of science, and the subtler and higher world of consciousness out of which all things emerge. Throughout his miracle-saturated life story, are testimonies from science pointing to subtler laws and forces.]
The down side of the new ascendency of the intellect (see past ages such as the classical age of Greece) is its hubris that substitutes a well-honed definition for the reality it merely describes. The intellect believes that what it observes and defines, it can control. The history of 20th century world wars and many lesser wars, and the pernicious rise of violence and innumerable addictions, disproves and mocks the power of the intellect. What Yogananda predicted (or, at least, advised) was a cooperative harmonious blending of East and West, of intellect and heart, science and spirituality: in short, a model of cooperation based on the acceptance of the inextricable interrelationship of all things material and spiritual. We are One: whether averred through the science of ecology, astrophysics, quantum physics, chemistry and biology or through the science of the intuitive, meditative mind.
Meditation is the "science of mind." It hones the tool by which, using our brain, body and nervous system, we can peer into a realm which only consciousness can perceive by direct, intuitive contemplation. While the highly evolved brain and nervous system of humans gives to us this gift, the lower cannot possess or control the higher for consciousness transcends the material realm.
Thus the brain and body fulfill a dual function: both a vehicle to the outer space of Mind but also a container and engine which must be ejected and left behind, at least while we are traveling through the space-mind of consciousness. This is where the science of yoga (meditation) enters human history and the evolution of human consciousness.
[But save this for another blog.The specific psycho-physiological methodology of yoga science is based on controlling, slowing the heart and breath rate. Research into meditation only uses subjects who are but amateurs in the science of breath. A yogi who can enter the breathless state at will for prolonged periods would be needed to take the research into higher realms.]
For individual creative acts, it's not so difficult to trace the appearance of an idea into its manifestation. For example, if I have the idea to build a dog house (for when I get into trouble next), I can go out and buy materials and make it. But on a cosmic level and relating to the BIG BANG, we are faced with the difficult challenge of tracing the appearance of energy (then matter) from its proposed source in intention (consciousness). Can consciousness create matter by force of thought alone? Science can prove to us the interchangeability of matter and energy but has yet to reveal the "missing link" of consciousness.
I aver that consciousness itself cannot be directly observed. It can only be inferred by its effects: brain waves, words, emotions or actions.
But, the human experience of creativity provides a clue, for it is an echo of the cosmic creation. We see that a person who is filled with vitality and confidence regarding his destiny, can change the world; can pass through a hail of bullets, unharmed. The achievements of humans down through the ages testify to a power (a conscious, intelligent, guiding force) that defies and transcends all limitations. Human creativity, including self-sacrifice for a greater good, is, itself, the most enduring witness of a greater Consciousness which some people tap more readily and more powerfully and more visibly than most.
Nonetheless, our left-brain culture seeks, nay, demands, to know HOW thought produces matter through the medium of energy. The ancients counsel us to turn to the human experience of dreaming. I had a powerful dream last night in answer to this question. I went to be bed far later than usual as I composed this article. I struggled mentally to put into words something useful in regard to this elemental and all-important mystery of life. "Who am I to even attempt this," I thought as I fell instantly to sleep.
Immediately I began to dream. My dream took me through the experience that I purchased a small airplane. In it were my children, then very small. As I attempted to land on the patch of ground in front of my boyhood home (250 Lighthouse Avenue, Pacific Grove, CA), a wing broke off. Fortunately we came to a stop more or less instantly and no one was hurt. But I was bummed out for having broken my new plane. Then I awoke and laughed at my disappointment, for it was only a dream.....it was only a dream.
This is the key, we are told. As in a dream, the events are as real as events during the conscious, waking state, so, too, is the universe but a dream in the mind of the Creator. Just as the dream persons act, talk, make war or peace and do fantastical things, so too in this great dream the players appear to act independently. Those dream persons certainly seem to have free will and the power of independent and unpredictable action. In the dream experience there is no hint otherwise but yet when we awake we realize that it "but" a dream.
What we deem to be real, whether our thoughts and emotions, or the world around us, can only be so to the extent that we deem it so. Is our cup of life half full or half empty? But we, as individuals in this great dream, are not the originators of the great dream. We are players in the theatre of the cosmic mind. If we play our part poorly, we will, being though a dream, suffer. We must strive to play our part well. We have no choice in the matter. There is no option to leave the stage until we have accomplished our part, for the drama of creation, though only a drama, must go on. Our only choice is to play wisely or foolishly. Humans know this instinctively and we express it in our statements about the law of survival and procreation. We recognize that we must strive, struggle, create and move forward. We view suicide as a defeat for the human spirit.
If we play our part well, we can, in time, leave the drama for good. Or, so we are promised by those who demonstrate their power over the dream sequence. Those who can stop the storm of breath at will; who can raise the living from dead; who can heal the sick; etc.; These are the super-heroes the Masters of their own destiny, co-creators of the cosmic dream. The philosophers and theologians engage in mere speculation, not gnosis, as the great ones do.
The rest of us are working on wresting the power of changing our destiny from Destiny. The trick is that we cannot have it for ourselves because the power that we seek is greater than our littleness. It cannot be made to obey us; we, instead, must learn to obey (or cooperate and attune ourselves) to it. It is our friend, lover, mother and father and means us no harm and offers us all good. But it is an exacting task manager. This deep lesson takes time and effort to learn. Those who have conquered fate (i.e., the law of karma) (O Death, where is thy sting?) come again and again to show us the way.
How is a dream created? We don't really know, beyond observing brain activity and knowing from personal experience that we do, in fact, dream! At night our dreams subside into the dreamless state that gives us true rest and true peace. As I write this blog or write a poem, the thoughts pour out of me like oil from a barrel. I have to intend and want to write this for the ideas to begin to flow. I do not need to know where the writing will take me or how it will unfold. I imitate, then, the Creator by participating in the creative process. All creativity brings the added benefit of joy.
It is intention that begins the movement of thoughts and ideas in the mind and in the Cosmic Mind. This stimulates the flow of creativity. To write, don't stare at a blank screen. Have a seed idea and begin composing. Action, movement, energy, you see, brings the dream world into manifestation. As with you and I, so with the creation and Creator. We are reflections one of the Other.
This will never be proved by the haughty intellect in people like Richard Dawkins. Thoughts have no limits in time or space; they cannot be commanded, though they can be teased and invited to flow. I can no more be the next Einstein by sheer will power, than I can command the forces of nature. Not yet, anyway, if and until I can align my destiny with the Creative Mind.
I can't prove to you that I am not a robot or that I even exist. I can't prove that I am not being manipulated by the great Matrix manager somewhere. But I am convinced "I" exist by my own self-evident, self-awareness. When I gaze at a great painting or up into the starry skies and I feel the presence of God (use any name or no name as you feel), you can say I am imagining that and I can't disprove you but neither can you disprove my conviction that I feel alive and connected, aware of a greater reality than my own.
To have more and fresher ideas; to be more creative; to have more connection, more joy in your life, rise above petty preoccupations and "give yourself" without reservation to the conviction that Life itself exists, sustains, endures, is good, and is loving and you will not be disappointed. It is a paradox that this God-ness, this good-ness exists in spite of and in the face of suffering. Grief and this existential joy can, in fact, co-exist, though the former is temporary and cannot endure long in the presence of the latter which is always there beneath the surface of our mind.
Joy in giving; joy in living; joy in being; joy in transcending littleness: joy is the proof of God, of goodness, of love and life. Consciousness, when pure, IS joy; it is its own reward. Between thoughts, pause and BE. With practice, you will be free. Meditation is the fastest way to BE-ing, without condition. Be your own BIG BANG.
Reflections of this innate joy of Life are found in the Golden Rule; in just laws and wise social mores; in the happiness of giving and sharing. We find it in the peace and pleasure of nature and in the silent messages written in the heavens above. For we are a part of all that is.
The creative life is a one BIG BANG! Where does it end? Yogananda, when asked this question, said simply: it ends in ENDLESSNESS, in Infinite Consciousness: ever existing, ever conscious, ever-new JOY: Satchidanandam.
Om Shanti, Amen!
Nayaswami Hriman
Indeed, the law says it is so, and it is so. But this convenient and pragmatic logic fails to examine the source of the idea. Don't you and I, as intelligent, creative, thinking persons, rely upon what might be called a process, even a "mechanism," of searching for answers out in an unknown space of the ether for answers? We do this so instinctively that we rarely question or probe the process itself.
Take something totally mundane, like "What should I give my friend for her birthday?" Your eyebrows frown or narrow slightly; one or both of your eyes squint as if peering into some unseen dark box; the mind quiets momentarily. It's as if you've sent a search command into your hard drive for a file as you wait, sometimes a nano second, for a reply. You examine it, perhaps discard it, and ask for another. If none comes, you may abandon your conscious search and go onto the next task fully expectant, based on experience, that an answer will suddenly pop up later. (That resembles the speed of my computer at home, unfortunately.)
But the analogy to a computer, while interesting and somewhat relevant, doesn't give the full answer because my computer doesn't create new files, it only searches existing ones. My brain simply CANNOT be the source of a symphony or a poem even if rigidly evidence-based inquiries insist that it must be for lack of any other measurable source. Why doesn't MY brain produce symphonies or poems, but yours does?
To produce something intelligible to the human intellect and that is communicable to other humans, the brain serves as a necessary tool. It gives language, sound, description and feeling to my idea for a present for my friend. Indeed, the very question originates in the material world of friends and birthdays, so the response must take a relevant form. The brain thus acts as a translator back and forth between consciousness and matter via the transmission of measurable brain energy.
Do you think that the brain originates ideas? If you do, you have strong support from the scientific community but they'll NEVER tell you how! They can measure things like brain waves and can tell you that certain parts of the brain are working and they can stimulate memory or even hallucinations by poking at your brain but they cannot tell you how thoughts pass through the magical boundary between their source (which is immaterial) and their outer expression into words, emotions or movements. Where and how do new ideas (the kind never before thought of by you and not mere re-hashes of past thoughts or experiences) get created?
A computer can store images (including words which are symbols of thought) in binary form but it cannot produce anything new except by building on its existing database. Until computers become super-duper, they are clumsy in creating anything more than a mathematical or merely logical construct. (This is the "missing-link" of conscious, self-awareness that I describe in a recent, and extremely popular, blog article, "Chappie: Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness".)
If a brain operates more like a computer (as we tend to believe it does), then how could it compose a poem? Or a symphony? Yes, by practicing poetry or music one can develop one's skills but many people are taught specific skills but never become great artists? Nor can an examination of the genes or DNA ever reveal the hidden seed of an idea.
Notwithstanding the volume of brain and meditation research happening these days, I aver that scientists will never discover "the missing link:" that mysterious, invisible non-substance called consciousness: the stuff of "good ideas." The brain may be a wonderful mechanism to allow for the logical expression of ideas or the dramatic expression of feelings, but it will never be found to be the originator.
I suppose there must be studies on people who have lots of good ideas and others who have few. If so, I've never stumbled upon them. But, ok, fine some people have good ideas. Maybe they eat a lot of fish, according to P.G. Wodehouse, like his butler, Jeeves. That's great but it doesn't answer my question: where do ideas actually come from? Surely not from fish!
Is not my question perhaps the same question as "What produced the BIG BANG" or the question "Why does anything exist at all? (See the book by Jim Holt, "Why Does the World Exist.")
Just as ideas seem to come out of nowhere, though not necessarily randomly, so too the universe seems to have come out of nowhere. With fresh ideas we might need to "sleep on it," go on vacation, go for a run or take a shower. In the creative process, there's a very definite pattern of emptiness alternating with fullness; or silence and then sound; dark and light. In energizing this pattern, there is no singular human activity better than meditation to stimulate a person's consistent creativity.
As to whether there really is, anywhere, "nothing," well, science itself, and meditators themselves, know that the silence is pregnant with pause; filled with latent potentiality. The silence of the deeper states of meditation are innately creative, powerful, rich and very full states of mind. The only difference is that in silence there is no outer expression: thoughts have not yet taken shape or form.
In the Ananda Festival of Light Sunday Service (written by Ananda's founder, Swami Kriyananda), there's song called "Thunder of AUM." It's opening line, echoing Genesis, is "Out of the silence came the song of creation, out of the darkness came the light."
While this sphere of nothing can produce random ideas of no personal relevance to the person receiving them, like my 3-part blog series on "If I were president," humanity's great ideas (in science, religion, art, or politics) are tailored made for the people destined to manifest them. A person who indulges daily in daydreams or fantasies can create his own world but it is entirely subjective because no attempt is made, or possible, to bring that world into manifestation. The ideas are still-born and I would wager that the person is not better off, meaning better balanced and mature, for the indulgence.
Setting aside random or irrelevant ideas and those that preoccupy minds with nothing better to do, important ideas are very personal and very relevant to our needs or our life's destiny.
Since personally meaningful ideas appear in response to our personal needs, then the BIG idea of creating a universe must also be a response to a universal or BIG need. Since ideas cannot exist apart from consciousness, so of course consciousness had the BIG IDEA and perhaps, then, the BIG NEED. (I would propose that the term "need" can include a creative impulse; a desire; an interest.) A further statement is that ideas (thought) cannot exist apart from self-awareness. Self-awareness may be intense or dim, but in the realm of ideas it is always present. This can only be proved to oneself, it cannot be proven by logic or by observation from outside. Consciousness and self-awareness are one and the same and cannot be proved: only its material manifestations, like words, emotions, actions, brain waves, etc. can be observed.
Since neither science nor philosophy can answer the question "Why does anything exist at all," I will offer to them a solution to their dilemma (at no additional cost): the universe exists because it was intended to. "Someone" put out the intention and BANG, IT WAS SO! I challenge them to do me one better. We cannot responsibly say the universe doesn't exist, so we must accept that it does. We might speculate that it came into being through some random force but our experience of life, including the creative process in ourselves, suggests otherwise. Why not take the evidence where it leads and accept it as the best evidence we have at this time? Maybe that's as far as our logic and reason can take us.
In my popular blog article "Chappie: Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness" I posited the self-evident but intellectually unprovable statement that self-awareness is what distinguishes consciousness from artificial intelligence. This "missing link" as I called it in that article, is what I am discussing here in this article. And here I am positing an ages old precept that consciousness preexists and is the intention that gives rise to ideas, self-awareness, energy and matter.
This is where my favorite topic and hidden agenda surfaces: meditation! Yup, SURPRISE! (You didn't see that coming, did you?) I further posit that there is a link between "why creation exists at all," creativity, self-awareness and why meditation enhances creativity.
Imagine now building something really big: yeah, ok, say, a universe. Its gonna take some time. "Rome wasn't built in a day," we've been told. If this universe is going to be built piece by piece, as material things are, you won't see it in all its splendor until it's finished. As it is being built it looks pretty lumpy, the job site is messy, and its ultimate beauty and functionality is postponed until the end. Not only does "someone" need to intend it; and then guide its construction, but, in the end, "someone" needs to see and acknowledge it. Otherwise..........we cannot know if it actually exists!
So it wouldn't be surprising that the Consciousness that lit the fuse of the BIG BANG had to wait awhile until the construction project (i.e., evolution) produced an "independent" witness. On this planet, the only one we know, I understand it's taken over 4 billion years and that human existence is fairly recent. So if it is true that Consciousness produced the universe and our planet, it had to take some time before anyone (i.e. we humans) came into existence, began getting curious, even suspicious, and then began asking these questions! Objective and subjective, though separable in logical, linear time and processing, are inextricably linked. Science has said as much when, much to its shock and horror, it concluded that the observer is part of the observation and the observed.
Given the nature of the enormous length and complexity of the evolutionary process we would be forgiven in imaging that the process produced us randomly. I mean, gee, at first glance, popping out of the egg shell, so to speak, who can blame us from looking around and imaging the egg produced us? We wake up and the first thing we see.........are monkeys, or fishes, or whatever. While logical, it isn't necessary so! Our vision is, as yet, myopic! Limited to mere logic, we mistake the means for the cause. (Take THAT, Richard Dawkins!)
Notwithstanding the limitations of the "religion" of science, there is overwhelming historical evidence that humans, from the beginning of our existence, have intuited that our self-awareness holds the key to a sacred mystery of sorts: that it hints to us in a wordless communication that our real "parent" is not the material world that only appears to have produced us. Rocks and trees don't seem to possess this gift; animals seem to have some self-awareness, but most only fleetingly. There's something about the human experience, a gift of intuitive sight, that has continually insisted to our minds that we possess something decidedly "different" from planets, rocks and trees and that this awareness is special. It is sacred. And, yes, it is a mystery, even to us. We give it many names and no name but we cannot rid ourselves of its haunting shadow which follows us wherever we go. To paraphrase Mark Twain, "Travel is a fool's paradise because wherever I go, there I am.
Creativity is the outward moving expression of self-awareness. Creativity is the natural impulse of self-awareness. It bestows upon humanity great gifts and powers: and the obligation to use them wisely. But ideas are difficult, in fact, impossible, to bully into being subservient to our demands. Some call creativity the "Muses," godlike, in other words. Thus holy men, shamans, healers, and in more modern times artists, geniuses, inventors, great scientists, super heroes in sports and stage, and even tech wizards are all said to possess some of this "magic," this special gift, this mojo.
The impulse of modern consciousness is to demystify that which formerly was held in awe and surrounded by superstition and mystery and otherwise considered occult. Meditation, too, and yoga are being secularized as the left-brain of human consciousness continues to achieve ascendancy to the point of being our modern "religion" and language. We, like the disciples of Jesus, are impatient with parables, stories, myths and rituals.
It is no coincidence that the spiritual genius of Paramhansa Yogananda, whose life story, "Autobiography of a Yogi," has become a classic in our times, titled his first book, "The Science of Religion." [Being a wayshower from the past to the future, he, yet, retained a deep and abiding devotion and religious expression in his poetry, prayers, and personal expression. As Jesus said of himself, he came not to destroy but to "fulfill" the prophets of the past, so too Yogananda had no intentions of throwing the "baby out with the bath water." Nonetheless, he gave expression, and therefore spiritual authority and credibility to the emerging efforts to use our intellects to understand spirituality and to see the underlying connection between the material world, through the eyes of science, and the subtler and higher world of consciousness out of which all things emerge. Throughout his miracle-saturated life story, are testimonies from science pointing to subtler laws and forces.]
The down side of the new ascendency of the intellect (see past ages such as the classical age of Greece) is its hubris that substitutes a well-honed definition for the reality it merely describes. The intellect believes that what it observes and defines, it can control. The history of 20th century world wars and many lesser wars, and the pernicious rise of violence and innumerable addictions, disproves and mocks the power of the intellect. What Yogananda predicted (or, at least, advised) was a cooperative harmonious blending of East and West, of intellect and heart, science and spirituality: in short, a model of cooperation based on the acceptance of the inextricable interrelationship of all things material and spiritual. We are One: whether averred through the science of ecology, astrophysics, quantum physics, chemistry and biology or through the science of the intuitive, meditative mind.
Meditation is the "science of mind." It hones the tool by which, using our brain, body and nervous system, we can peer into a realm which only consciousness can perceive by direct, intuitive contemplation. While the highly evolved brain and nervous system of humans gives to us this gift, the lower cannot possess or control the higher for consciousness transcends the material realm.
Thus the brain and body fulfill a dual function: both a vehicle to the outer space of Mind but also a container and engine which must be ejected and left behind, at least while we are traveling through the space-mind of consciousness. This is where the science of yoga (meditation) enters human history and the evolution of human consciousness.
[But save this for another blog.The specific psycho-physiological methodology of yoga science is based on controlling, slowing the heart and breath rate. Research into meditation only uses subjects who are but amateurs in the science of breath. A yogi who can enter the breathless state at will for prolonged periods would be needed to take the research into higher realms.]
For individual creative acts, it's not so difficult to trace the appearance of an idea into its manifestation. For example, if I have the idea to build a dog house (for when I get into trouble next), I can go out and buy materials and make it. But on a cosmic level and relating to the BIG BANG, we are faced with the difficult challenge of tracing the appearance of energy (then matter) from its proposed source in intention (consciousness). Can consciousness create matter by force of thought alone? Science can prove to us the interchangeability of matter and energy but has yet to reveal the "missing link" of consciousness.
I aver that consciousness itself cannot be directly observed. It can only be inferred by its effects: brain waves, words, emotions or actions.
But, the human experience of creativity provides a clue, for it is an echo of the cosmic creation. We see that a person who is filled with vitality and confidence regarding his destiny, can change the world; can pass through a hail of bullets, unharmed. The achievements of humans down through the ages testify to a power (a conscious, intelligent, guiding force) that defies and transcends all limitations. Human creativity, including self-sacrifice for a greater good, is, itself, the most enduring witness of a greater Consciousness which some people tap more readily and more powerfully and more visibly than most.
Nonetheless, our left-brain culture seeks, nay, demands, to know HOW thought produces matter through the medium of energy. The ancients counsel us to turn to the human experience of dreaming. I had a powerful dream last night in answer to this question. I went to be bed far later than usual as I composed this article. I struggled mentally to put into words something useful in regard to this elemental and all-important mystery of life. "Who am I to even attempt this," I thought as I fell instantly to sleep.
Immediately I began to dream. My dream took me through the experience that I purchased a small airplane. In it were my children, then very small. As I attempted to land on the patch of ground in front of my boyhood home (250 Lighthouse Avenue, Pacific Grove, CA), a wing broke off. Fortunately we came to a stop more or less instantly and no one was hurt. But I was bummed out for having broken my new plane. Then I awoke and laughed at my disappointment, for it was only a dream.....it was only a dream.
This is the key, we are told. As in a dream, the events are as real as events during the conscious, waking state, so, too, is the universe but a dream in the mind of the Creator. Just as the dream persons act, talk, make war or peace and do fantastical things, so too in this great dream the players appear to act independently. Those dream persons certainly seem to have free will and the power of independent and unpredictable action. In the dream experience there is no hint otherwise but yet when we awake we realize that it "but" a dream.
What we deem to be real, whether our thoughts and emotions, or the world around us, can only be so to the extent that we deem it so. Is our cup of life half full or half empty? But we, as individuals in this great dream, are not the originators of the great dream. We are players in the theatre of the cosmic mind. If we play our part poorly, we will, being though a dream, suffer. We must strive to play our part well. We have no choice in the matter. There is no option to leave the stage until we have accomplished our part, for the drama of creation, though only a drama, must go on. Our only choice is to play wisely or foolishly. Humans know this instinctively and we express it in our statements about the law of survival and procreation. We recognize that we must strive, struggle, create and move forward. We view suicide as a defeat for the human spirit.
If we play our part well, we can, in time, leave the drama for good. Or, so we are promised by those who demonstrate their power over the dream sequence. Those who can stop the storm of breath at will; who can raise the living from dead; who can heal the sick; etc.; These are the super-heroes the Masters of their own destiny, co-creators of the cosmic dream. The philosophers and theologians engage in mere speculation, not gnosis, as the great ones do.
The rest of us are working on wresting the power of changing our destiny from Destiny. The trick is that we cannot have it for ourselves because the power that we seek is greater than our littleness. It cannot be made to obey us; we, instead, must learn to obey (or cooperate and attune ourselves) to it. It is our friend, lover, mother and father and means us no harm and offers us all good. But it is an exacting task manager. This deep lesson takes time and effort to learn. Those who have conquered fate (i.e., the law of karma) (O Death, where is thy sting?) come again and again to show us the way.
How is a dream created? We don't really know, beyond observing brain activity and knowing from personal experience that we do, in fact, dream! At night our dreams subside into the dreamless state that gives us true rest and true peace. As I write this blog or write a poem, the thoughts pour out of me like oil from a barrel. I have to intend and want to write this for the ideas to begin to flow. I do not need to know where the writing will take me or how it will unfold. I imitate, then, the Creator by participating in the creative process. All creativity brings the added benefit of joy.
It is intention that begins the movement of thoughts and ideas in the mind and in the Cosmic Mind. This stimulates the flow of creativity. To write, don't stare at a blank screen. Have a seed idea and begin composing. Action, movement, energy, you see, brings the dream world into manifestation. As with you and I, so with the creation and Creator. We are reflections one of the Other.
This will never be proved by the haughty intellect in people like Richard Dawkins. Thoughts have no limits in time or space; they cannot be commanded, though they can be teased and invited to flow. I can no more be the next Einstein by sheer will power, than I can command the forces of nature. Not yet, anyway, if and until I can align my destiny with the Creative Mind.
I can't prove to you that I am not a robot or that I even exist. I can't prove that I am not being manipulated by the great Matrix manager somewhere. But I am convinced "I" exist by my own self-evident, self-awareness. When I gaze at a great painting or up into the starry skies and I feel the presence of God (use any name or no name as you feel), you can say I am imagining that and I can't disprove you but neither can you disprove my conviction that I feel alive and connected, aware of a greater reality than my own.
To have more and fresher ideas; to be more creative; to have more connection, more joy in your life, rise above petty preoccupations and "give yourself" without reservation to the conviction that Life itself exists, sustains, endures, is good, and is loving and you will not be disappointed. It is a paradox that this God-ness, this good-ness exists in spite of and in the face of suffering. Grief and this existential joy can, in fact, co-exist, though the former is temporary and cannot endure long in the presence of the latter which is always there beneath the surface of our mind.
Joy in giving; joy in living; joy in being; joy in transcending littleness: joy is the proof of God, of goodness, of love and life. Consciousness, when pure, IS joy; it is its own reward. Between thoughts, pause and BE. With practice, you will be free. Meditation is the fastest way to BE-ing, without condition. Be your own BIG BANG.
Reflections of this innate joy of Life are found in the Golden Rule; in just laws and wise social mores; in the happiness of giving and sharing. We find it in the peace and pleasure of nature and in the silent messages written in the heavens above. For we are a part of all that is.
The creative life is a one BIG BANG! Where does it end? Yogananda, when asked this question, said simply: it ends in ENDLESSNESS, in Infinite Consciousness: ever existing, ever conscious, ever-new JOY: Satchidanandam.
Om Shanti, Amen!
Nayaswami Hriman
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