Friday, December 30, 2011

Einstein meets Patanjali


Einstein meets Patanjali
And asks, “Who Am I?”

The new year of 2012 is upon us and in combination with the holy season of Christmas or, if you prefer, Winter Solstice it is a time for reflection over the past year (or life), and a re-setting of priorities.

History, science and metaphysics offer such a vast and grand view of the creation and evolution that we, as individuals, can only appear as insignificant. Imagine every 100 years hardly a trace remains of the human race which once reveled, cried, fought, rejoiced, aged, and finally past from sight. Within hours of one’s death in a retirement facility your belongings can be boxed up, emptied, delivered to the dumpster or thrift store, and nothing left of your life remains.

You can take a collection of newspapers from any decade in the last century and re-arrange the headlines and article titles and re-create tomorrow’s news. It’s all basically the same stuff.

That’s a pretty depressing assessment of our lives. Yet for all the “facts” assembled here, we aren’t depressed for we don’t live our lives from that perspective. We are in the middle of our own universe.
But are we being real or are we hiding our hands in the endless sands of delusion? Perhaps we, too, need some way to expand our self-identity to embrace the vastness which is the greater reality in which we live?

But how? Traditional beliefs that say God is in the heaven above, looking down upon us, sometimes answering our pleadings, but always judging our actions, and then when the play is over we get our just desserts. End of story. This “guy” must be like some cosmic but petty traffic cop or like a child playing with toy soldiers arranging them in various battle formations, blowing them up, moving them around. This is hardly a satisfying view nor does it bear any resemblance the view of the cosmos our science provides.

My teacher, Swami Kriyananda, in his book, “Out of the Labyrinth,” (also in his guide to meditation, "Awaken to Superconsciousness") asks this question: “Either nothing is conscious, or everything is conscious.” I have puzzled over this because it omits all the possibilities in between. But his statement is in context of the modern view of evolution and biology, namely, that consciousness is produced by the electrical and chemical responses in the brain to sense stimuli. The argument of materialism is that consciousness is the product of matter’s evolution and response to its environment.

Metaphysics says the opposite: that matter is the product of consciousness, or put another way, matter is the product of a conscious intention, and that, therefore, all created things possess some level of consciousness. Hard to prove this in the case of rocks and minerals, gases and lower life forms.

Kriyananda’s response to his own question includes the statement that, to the effect, it is an interesting question given our interest in it. I think what he is saying that insofar as it we who are asking the question of “What is consciousness,” the very question answers itself in that to even ask such an abstract question is to prove the independence of consciousness from matter. A clever response to be sure and not an easy one to grasp, a bit like a funny joke where you know it’s funny but you can’t quite explain it.

To be fair to the poor old struggling evolutionary biologists, we can’t deny the contribution of the human brain and nervous system to the human ability to ask impossibly abstract questions! (I’ve heard that someone was found who was very much alive but didn’t have a brain, or at least important parts of it.) So far as we can tell, even our closest animal relatives don’t ask these questions. We seem to be alone in that department of living things. There’s no point in denying the incredible “mechanism” of the human body, brain, and nervous system.

And rocks really don’t seem very conscious even if arguably they “behave” like rocks and thus conform to their own kind of intelligence and action-plan. Some are extraordinarily beautiful and suggestive of art and meaning. Others, like crystal, have attributes that go way beyond ordinary garden rocks (like the difference between gifted humans and the larger quantity of “clods” that hang around this planet).

Metals and plants have been shown to have responses analogous to emotions and fatigue. I think of the initial work by the great Indian scientist, J.C. Bose, followed by others around the world showing the same cross-over towards consciousness.

There’s a bumper sticker cliché running around (yes — bumpers) that says “The only way out is in!” The bridge between our human experience in the body and the outer and vast world of this universe is, in fact, our consciousness. It is our awareness that makes it possible for us to survey the universe and notice that our bodies (size, shape, power, length of life) are hopelessly insignificant.

The measure of value is not in conquest, space, time, brute force, longevity, or knowledge of the natural world. If we behave insignificantly, then to that degree we are. This is to say that if we take for our reality that all we are is this short-lived, disease-prone, and death-bound higher animal that lives for palate, pleasure, and position only to see all three evaporate, well then we have condemned only ourselves.

Through imagination we can travel back or forward in time or to worlds hitherto unseen. This mind that we possess is what links us to all life. To view the cosmos and see the hand of a vast and benign intelligence and to seek to contact this Mind is what elevates us above being mere objects limited by time, space, weight, and shape.

We can approach this Mind in many ways: we can expand our Mind to include the welfare of others and of life around us; we can go “within” to contact this cosmic Mind directly; we can seek the company and wisdom of others who have gone before us and can show us the way; or, we can strip from our own mind the self-limiting, instinct bound self-affirmations of the body-bound ego.

The mind as we experience it carries on the ages old tendency of constant movement as if in unceasing warfare of self-defense or self-gratification. Only as we awaken to our higher potential do we begin slowly to begin to gain control of this instinctual functioning which is tied to the body, tissues, organs and its preservation.

Those who pursue with deep dedication the arts, the sciences, service to humanity, self-forgetfulness, or God alone begin to re-direct the mind’s lower tendencies to increasingly abstract or self-forgetful realms of awareness. Only when all outward objects or goals fall away and we direct our consciousness in upon itself does the fusion of knower, knowing, and known smash the atom of ego and release an incredible and life transforming expansion of consciousness towards the limitless horizon of infinity.

Einstein’s famous formula suggests that as an object approaches the speed of light its mass grows towards infinity. Well, he said it well. Of course we are not speaking of the mass of our human body, but of our consciousness. Einstein’s formula couldn’t be applied literally to matter, anyway. But that doesn’t make it invalid, only suggestive of truth that perhaps he, himself, did not cognize.

When he posited light as the only constant in the universe here, too, he touched the hem of consciousness and stated a principle that he may not have grasped at least in its metaphysical aspects.

All great saints speak of God manifesting as light and the voice of God as a sound of many waters, or as thunder. In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the author describes as clinically as any Einstein the elements of consciousness as it pursues itself down the corridors of creation’s elemental stages.

At the dawn of a new year, therefore, don’t spend another year merely pursuing comforts, running from troubles, and looking forward to nothing more significant than a cup of tea, a Friday night movie, or getting to bed early. You have been born to “know Thy Self.” Meditation science has come that we might know the “truth that shall make you free!”

Blessings,
Nayaswami Hriman

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

2012: a Year to be Remembered

In some quarters the new year, 2012 is awaited with great expectations. Some are hopeful; others, well, not! Perhaps the weight of expectations alone will precipitate something dramatic.

I think we can expect that 2012 will not be boring, whatever twists and turns lay ahead of us. The pace and intensity of change and the volume level of uncertainty continues to rise, and not just steadily but exponentially.

What better time to get one's life together. What better time to grow up; get real; get a life; and share a life. What better time to think more deeply about the gift and the meaning of our lives.

Time to "occupy" your own life with substance, rather than fluff. I have lived nearly 35 years (most of my adult life) in an Ananda Community (first Ananda Village, near Nevada City, CA), and, since 1993, here at Ananda Community, north of Seattle, WA. I've been privileged to live among and to serve together with literally hundreds of high-minded, idealistic, sincere, unique, creative, and energetic pioneers in the practice of meditation and intentional community. So, I have some suggestions drawn from my (somewhat) unique life to offer:

1.)  Break the mold of daily habit and drudgery. Find some way to view and motivate your daily duties with inspiration and purpose. To make every act of the day an act of devotion to God is perhaps a bit too high for some, although it, too, is only a steppingstone to feeling divine consciousness flowing through you. But short of such lofty heights, remind yourself that your work is service, whether humble or "great," to others. Feel gratitude for the health and vitality that permit you to perform your duties; the intelligence to be focused, productive and creative; and for the harmony and beauty that results when we perform even simple tasks with conscious attention to detail and to excellence.

2.)  Pay attention to the world around you. Pay attention to your every act, words, thoughts, and movements. Just .... pay attention! Start with your own family or whomever you live with. Notice, appreciate and help in simple ways: many unnoticed by others and others by open expression. Add to that close circle your neighbors, your neighborhood, your town. Go from there to your country and around the world. Show sincere interest in life: science, nature, art, community, yes, even politics and religion. Notice and then get involved. Interest and mobility reinforce the flow of vitality, energy, and creativity into your life. I remember discovering in college that if I affirmed that I was interested in a subject I was having to take in class, that the interest would follow and would actually be stimulated. By interest, questions would arise; I would listen in class; ask questions and when time came for exams, it was just all "right there" as if it were the easiest thing in the world.

3.) Look ahead, don't hide in the sand. Are you spending more than you earn? Are going further in debt? Using up your savings? Rein in your spending if necessary. At the same time, expand your spending to include the well being of other people and worthy causes. No one, not even the "poor widow" (in the Bible), can afford NOT give something to help someone else. If you are not doing anything for others, something is terribly wrong in your life and resolve to open your heart and help. How secure is your job or other source of income? Don't wait for life to happen to you. Each household should have ample supplies for emergencies and something more for periods of unemployment, or even just to help others in such conditions. Do you have a place or know someone who does (friend, family, etc.) in the country (if you live in a city) where you could go if necessary? What if there's no food in the stores? Rioting? Looting? Can you grow some food in your yard or deck? Do you have food storage? Seeds? Develop your handy skills and make sure you have basic tools around your home. Learn how to turn off water, gas, and electricity.

4.) I have written about it before on this blog, but there is an economic tsunami coming to the shore of your life and your town very soon. Yes, like the Depression of the 1930's, some won't even be touched; some will prosper; many, however, will be devastated. What if our dollar currency became worthless? What if your bank fails? Why not obtain some hard currency or items you can barter. (There's lots of info on this sort of thing on the internet.)

5.) Do you have a faith practice? If you don't, you can meditate or approach God (or ?) on your own. But it is more powerful to share your faith with others, even just a few others. Faith brings courage, inspiration, and opens the heart. You can demonstrate to yourself a higher power if you have the courage and will to experiment. Put aside skepticism (or fear or resentment), and try it. Share your inner thoughts, aspirations; ask for inner guidance; ask yourself why things happen (good or "bad") and what the higher purpose might be? Be self-honest; willing to change; willing to know the truth and be guided by the truth. Consider that truth may be something you can mentally ask to know, but then, having asked, "be still and know." You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

6.) If everything we have become accustomed to disappears, can you handle that? Your health; family; financial security. Someday these will all be taken from you, but it could happen much sooner and not merely by death, which would be a relief comparatively speaking. Prepare yourself in body, mind, and soul to live courageously and "amidst the crash of breaking worlds." (a quote from Paramhansa Yogananda, author of the world renowned spiritual classic, "Autobiography of a Yogi")

In short, pledge to grow taller and stronger this year and to include in your life and needs the life and needs of others.

May 2012 shower upon you blessings of wisdom, courage, and true soul joy!

Nayaswami Hriman

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Thoughts for a Christmas Eve!


The Holy Family – Thoughts for a Christmas Eve

The image of Joseph, Mary and the child Jesus in that stable long ago, in the company of lowly shepherds and hushed barnyard animals on a cold, frosty December night evokes such tenderness in hearts, young and old, around the world. It is a scene mixed with poignancy, sacredness, and a timelessness that comforts and uplifts.

The images of Jesus’ birth bring together the mundane with the sublime, the natural with the supernatural, the individual with the archetypal, and the personal with the historic. I wonder too if the image and underlying meaning of the “holy family” speaks to us of our essential and elemental human nature: the father (masculine), the mother (the feminine), the spiritual (and therefore pure, i.e., the child), the past (the parents), the present (the scene), and the future (the child), all meet in a singularly cosmic, and yet personally immediate, tableau, frozen in both time and timelessness.

It is difficult to imagine Joseph and Mary as individuals, for their lives have long since vanished into legend, myth, and into the dim past. The so-called facts of the story as given to us in the Bible go far beyond our human experience: the husband engaged but not the father, the wife pregnant by alleged divine intervention, her travelling on a donkey in her “ninth month,” and all because of a taxation census decree called by some “dude” in Rome, far away, “no room at the inn,”  and giving birth in a barn ….. whoa! Sounds like a Disney movie, and throw in that moving star and three very wise fellows on camels in cool costumes from “the east!”

We yogis who believe in so-called miraculous powers, demonstrated even in modern times by masters of yoga (Paramhansa Yogananda is said to have raised a person from death at least twice according to eye witnesses), might take all of this “lying down,” and so, too, believing Christians who simply check the box that says, “Miracle” (no explanation needed).

But even we must, or at least should consider the effort to, distill some personal significance from such an inspired and powerful story. How can we understand this scene in the present tense, in the reality of our own lives? Can we discern some timeless, universal, and metaphysical meaning, as well?

The metaphysical significance of this scene is not difficult to unveil, for the stable setting says to us that the infant child of spiritual consciousness is given birth in humility. The child is a “king” because the soul, being a child of the Infinite, is the royal child of God. The birth taking place at night and at the winter solstice signifies the death of the ego as a pre-condition for the soul’s re-birth into human consciousness. The darkness also symbolizes inner silence, or meditation, as the cradle from which God’s grace is given birth.

The soul is considered a child because our spiritual awakening is, at first, helpless or dependent on parents and surrounded by animals. Parents refer to teachers (perhaps a priest, or minister or other giver of truth teachings) and teachings (such as given in scriptures that are studied). The presence of animals refers to the fact that at the birth of our soul’s awakening we are still very much enmeshed in body and sense consciousness (our lower nature, in other words).

The wicked King Herod, who plots the death of the infant, is our enemy ego supported by his soldiers from our sub-conscious. He kills all of the infants in the surrounding villages because any form that soul consciousness takes (peace, kindness, wisdom, pure love, etc.) must be killed. All higher qualities represent a threat to the ego’s hegemony.

As an aside, in just this same way, and in the great Indian epic story called the Mahabharata, the evil forces would not give on inch of territory to the rightful heirs and thus the famous and historic war of Kurukshetra ensued and became the allegorical basis for the great scripture of India, the Bhagavad Gita. In addition, at the birth of Lord Krishna (centuries before Jesus), another wicked king sought to kill the child for the exact same reasons: a prophecy that this child would usurp his kingdom!

The star, described as “his” star, symbolizes the child’s high spiritual stature, as does the visit from “three wise men from the East” (think India!). In ancient times the heavens gave signs and wonders of such historic and miraculous events. Metaphysically the star represents intuition, or the “third eye” (“spiritual eye”) seen in meditation in the forehead. This inner light becomes the devotee's guide and it was this intuitive guide, not some astronomical anomaly that the visitors from the east followed. As another point of interest, Paramhansa Yogananda told audiences in America that the three wise men were his own preceptors from India (in former lifetimes): viz., Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, and Swami Sri Yukteswar. (It must have taken some courage to say such a thing publicly in America during the Thirties!)

The angels singing “on high” in the hills is another symbol for the high spiritual stature of the child Jesus, for he indeed is considered an avatar: a soul who has achieved Self-realization (oneness with God) and has returned to physical birth as a savior for many souls.

Now let’s take a more personal turn, away from the archetypal, and inward to our own lives. The sanctity of Joseph and Mary as “the parents” reminds us that our spiritual awakening is preceded (seeded) by our efforts to live a moral and balanced life. Balancing male and female qualities in ourselves is one way of describing this process. From Joseph we learn self-control, justice, surrender to God’s will, servicefulness, and nobility; from Mary, purity, (also) surrender, modesty, endurance and faith in the goodness of God.

Joseph’s somewhat odd position as a kind of step father represents for us the realization that even the power to change on a human level has its source in God, in the higher power of our soul’s eternal wisdom and power. Specifically, this power comes to us through the agency of the Holy Ghost, or Holy Vibration: the primordial and underlying sustaining energy of the universe which is God immanent in creation. That the Holy Ghost inseminated Mary reminds us that the conception of the infant child of our soul’s reawakening has an essentially a divine source, for the child represents our higher self, or soul, and it is a reflection of God, a spark of the Infinite Spirit. It cannot therefore be conceived by merely ego tendencies, even the ego’s high aspirations.

Other aspects of our own spiritual journey include the message that we are “reborn” in the dark night of inner silence of prayer, meditation, and self-forgetfulness (desirelessness). The barnyard animals, hushed and attentive, represent our own animal nature, our lower nature, which must be stilled and quieted for this “inner soul child” to be born.

As the shepherds guide and protect their flocks, so, for us, does reason and intellect acts as shepherds, or guides, to our daily actions. But they, too, take their inspiration on the surrounding hilltops of self-reflection guided by the starlight of intuition. They receive intuitive counsel from the angels of our higher nature. We are instructed to come down from the hills of ego-consciousness and enter the cave (stable) of silence, of prayer and meditation. There we “worship” the soul’s inner light.

King Herod represents our subconscious habits, tendencies, and desires, vitalized through ego-affirmation and protectiveness. King Ego will stop at nothing to kill this young child for it instinctively knows that, though a child and seemingly helpless, it has the potential to de-throne the ego.

The holy family was told by an angel to flee into Egypt and to return only when called and it was safe. Thus it is that we are warned, as new devotees, to stay in close company with other, more seasoned devotees and to stay focused upon his newly adopted spiritual teachings, practices, and fellowship, before daring to venture out into the world of former friends and activities.

So, you see, the Holy Family and the night of Christ’s birth have lessons universal and timeless for each and every one of us.