Training the Monkey Mind!

Can anyone count how many random thoughts go through our minds each day? Must be a few thousand, don't you think?

How many of them can you recall? How many of them are so important you need to capture them? How many are simply responses to sense impressions? Or, are so trivial as to be almost embarrassing? Oh, and how many would BE embarrassing if you posted them? 

OK, nature more or less made our brains and nervous systems reactive, restless, and endlessly imaginative. But 99.98% of them are "Much Ado About Nothing!" Aren't they?

By contrast, when we really focus our minds, whether by necessity or by keen interest, we feel refreshed and, depending on the circumstances, even relaxed. Let me give you some examples: you get wholly absorbed in a movie; in a book, in meditation, in enjoying nature, in a stimulating conversation or lecture............the mind finds such experiences to be on the razor's edge of both stimulating and relaxing. "Calm absorption," if you will, brings satisfaction to the mind. 

But, yes, there are some people who mistake mutli-tasking, daily dramas ("he said, she said"), periodic life crises, "being busy," or riding a roller coaster of emotional intensity for being either productive or for living life to the fullest. Some even get anxious if their life is too calm and there's nothing to do! However, I think close examination of such people and such habits readily proves that restlessness is an addiction. Its long-term consequences are nervousness, fatigue, moodiness, and depression.

For those who meditate, we have to admit that easing out of the monkey mind into the watchful state is not easy! We quickly discover that watching our thoughts reveals, often to our dismay, "where our head's at." In the famous "Autobiography of a Yogi," the author, Paramhansa Yogananda, relates how his guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar, once challenged a skeptical scientist by suggesting that the scientist consider this experiment: "Watch your thoughts for a full day and wonder no more at God's absence!"

Swami Kriyananda, my teacher and the founder of Ananda's worldwide network of intentional, spiritual communities, shared this technique that he learned during the early years of Ananda's first community when the demands upon his time and his mind were especially intense with planning and managing the fledgling community. He placed a notebook at his side in his meditation room with the promise to his subconscious mind that if any important idea or thought arose, he would be sure to write it down if only the subconscious would then agree to let him meditate in peace! The trick worked. I have used this mind-trick myself with very good results. You might try it, too.

When through meditation and introspection we discover that our mental chatter and self-talk are mostly useless white noise, if not worse, then we find ourselves open to real solutions. Mindfulness techniques, whether mental, devotional or energetic, really work! And, not just while meditating!

It's like the axiom from the east: "Use a thorn to remove a thorn." Focusing the mind during daily activity on a prayer, mantra, affirmation or chant steadies the mind and allows it to be more self-aware. 

It might seem counter to logic but then logic is part of the issue, isn't it? Logic assumes that will power and intention alone should shut the chatter up. But it doesn't. 

Here are some of the things I find uplifting, calming, inspiring, and useful in my daily life:

• As soon as I awaken, I begin mental chanting. It varies but if I sense any resistance to getting out of bed, it might be the series of 6 affirmations that go with the "superconscious living exercises" Most readers know what these are but here's one of them: "I am awake and ready!" (Said with vigor and said repeatedly!) If you want to learn these, write to me.
• As I go about my morning ablutions I chant the Gayatri mantra. (I can send the words to you or just Google it.)
• When I shower I recite Yogananda's poem, "Samadhi." (Ditto)
• As I walk to the meditation room (in the Ananda Community, Lynnwood) I chant or pray.
• Ditto for when I am driving to work to the Ananda Temple in Bothell.
• Otherwise I follow Swami Kriyananda's counsel of mentally chanting such things as "Om guru"; "Om Babaji" or "I love you!"
• My car has an IPOD which is almost always playing chants or talks by Swami Kriyananda or Paramhansa Yogananda.

So, am I, as a result of all of this chanting, mantra, and japa, forgetful and uncreative? Well, maybe a little forgetful, but heck, no one has ever accused me of not having new ideas on a consistent basis. (As my friend, Prem Shanti, would say to her husband, "Dear, some of your ideas are better than others!' Fair enough!) But, I am WAY happier!

The truth is--a truth that anyone can verify for himself--such a mental focus being in no small measure a devotional or uplifting one, produces far greater calmness, satisfaction, mindfulness, and creativity than all the mental worries and fussing that pass for normality (aka "monkey mind") in these times of "smart" phones, Facebook, Instagram, email, tests, and YouTube.

I suggest a trial period of one week. Plot out your attack with a variety of affirmations, chants and/or mantras. Write them down or print them out and have them always with or around you. 

As you chant (etc.) focus your awareness in the forehead (not so much with your eyes for if driving a car, you might crash, but with "feeling" that area between the eyebrows) and you'll find it easier to remember, and enjoy, your mantra (etc). Should I repeat that? (ha, ha!)

Yogananda stated this profound truth: a truth you could spend a lifetime exploring intuitively: "Thoughts are universally, not individually, rooted." As you attune your mind to what he called the superconscious sphere, you become super-conscious. Yes, it's as simple as that.

The only caveat I would add is not to forget the purpose of all this: to go beyond mental activity and into the stillness; into the divine presence. So my last suggestion is to follow the bio-rhythm of nature and of our own metabolism: apply your will, then relax and feel. See if your mantra (etc) can guide you into total and complete presence of mind. Whether minutes, hours or seconds, the technique you employ to focus your mind (and heart) will vanish into the "land beyond my dreams" (the inner silence).

Joy to you (I think),

Swami Hrimananda

Freedom / Bondage / Original Sin / Reincarnation!

Today is America's July 4th holiday, celebrating the birth of a nation dedicated to freedom: government by the people, for the people and of the people!

Despite America's present political crises, confusion, and seeming apostasy, this nation has been a beacon of hope for generations of people throughout the world who have been enslaved by a rigid status quo of one sort or another. Despite America's many failures to live up to its ideals (too countless to list), those who can vote with their feet "vote" for living here. Nonetheless, I, like so many, are not at all "proud" this July 4th, nor many other July 4ths.

But we do uphold and honor those truths that are "self-evident!" Freedom is one of the soul's deepest yearnings.

Spiritually, freedom means to break the bondage, the delusion, and the hypnosis that I am even this human body and personality! As it has been well said, Self-realization is to know that I am a child of God having a human body and experience. Admittedly, few people on earth seek this realization, eager as most are to deepen their attachment to their bodies, personalities, success, pleasure, health and human love.

Krishna states bluntly in the Bhagavad Gita that "out of a thousand, one seeks me." For those of us who do sincerely seek to "know the truth that shall make me free" we know how difficult that seems most days but we mustn't be discouraged for as Paramhansa Yogananda stated to a disciple who was discouraged, "You don't know how much good karma you have to even want to know God." He meant we cannot know at too early a stage how many countless incarnations we have experienced even just in human form to get to the place of wanting to know the transcendent truth behind "all seeming."

The soul's bondage therefore is not social or political prejudice. There is an Ananda member who is in prison for life for a murder he did not commit. He has no freedoms, relative to political life, yet he is advancing rapidly toward soul freedom, using his freedom from the daily preoccupations of life to meditate and serve.

The concept of "original sin" is a contrived one to be sure but that doesn't mean it isn't true. It is obviously true in a karmic and reincarnational sense. We are born with a full agenda of traits and inclinations. We have returned to continue learning lessons but we have returned owing principally because of our past actions that kept us bound to the wheel of "samsara" (rebirth with its attendant and inevitable suffering). The teaching of karma and reincarnation state clearly that once all physical, earth-bound desires are gone we need not return to this world to continue our path to soul freedom.

America was born in a powerful affirmation of high ideals. That we haven't lived up to them should be no surprise as with each generation and each reincarnation, souls continue toward perfection of these ideals. But fair warning:

Perfection will never be achieved in a social or political way because the warp and woof of what makes incarnation in human form so attractive is that perfection constantly slips from our grip. Good and evil, success and failure vie constantly for our attention. There is no absolute perfection in a world of unending fluctuation between the opposites. Our impulse, a deeper-than-conscious knowing, towards perfection can only be realized in the perfect bliss of the soul. But, we have forgotten and we continue mistakenly to seek it outside of ourselves. 

Bit by bit, slowly, slowly, we learn. This process is not a rejection of this world, nor a rejection of the impulse to improve it, whether politically, personally, or socially. It is right and just to work towards expressing high ideals in this world but only as we work toward inner perfection: the one reflects the other. We have to work out our personal and often our family, race, gender or national karma as well. For the reality of our separateness is our most profound delusion.

We achieve neither success nor Self-realization ALONE for the simple fact that "we are One." This doesn't mean we have to wait for every soul to achieve freedom for we have been given the choice to seek it or not. But we, at least, cannot achieve that freedom under the delusion that we are separate! We must help others.

So, let us celebrate the high ideal of freedom: on all levels of consciousness and let us pray that Americans affirm on this day our personal commitment to truth, honor, justice, equality, and compassion. In this way we "be the change we seek" and in the process contribute to a society based on mutual respect, recognition, and freedom.

Blessings and joy to you this July 4th!

Swami Hrimananda

We Hold These Truths!

This coming Tuesday, July 4th, Americans celebrate Independence Day. At the annual picnic at the Ananda Community in Lynnwood, we will have a 45 minute tribute to the principles upon which America was founded. It occurs to us that a re-affirmation of these principles is timely given today's fractious political climate. 

We have quotations from the lives of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Abraham Lincoln. In our program this Tuesday, we've combined the readings with music. To anyone who would like our script, please contact me.

Here then are some excerpts:

George Washington: (first inaugural address)

"it would be improper to omit in this first official Act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the Universe...that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States.....No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which we have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency."

In a letter to the Jewish community of Rhode Island assuring them of their freedom to practice their faith, President George Washington wrote....."For happily the Government of the United States, which gives bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support."

In a letter (he was a prodigious letter writer, though not an author of books): "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness......And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion....Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education......reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

Thomas Jefferson: in describing his intent upon writing the Declaration of Independence, he wrote that the object was "not to find out new principles or new arguments, ... , but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent....neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from copied from any previous writing..."

From the Declaration of Independence:

"....We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.......governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed...."

Never in history before this declaration had there been a government instituted on the consent of the governed.

John Adams: 

"Religion and virtue are the only foundations, not of republicanism and of all free government, but of social felicity under all government and in all the combinations of human society. They may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty.

The government of the United States is not in any sense founded upon the Christian religion. But to be a Christian is to be joyful, and we are a government founded on Christian principles.

This is my religion … joy and exaltation in my own existence.

It is more important that innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished, for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that they cannot all be punished."

Abraham Lincoln: taken from speeches given as he entrained from Springfield to Washington D.C. to take the oath of office (1861):

"To-day I leave you. I go to assume a task more difficult than that which devolved upon [George] Washington. Unless the great God who assisted him shall be with and aid me I must fail; but if the same omniscient mind and mighty arm that directed and protected him shall guide and support me I shall not fail -- I shall succeed. Let us all pray that the God of our fathers may not forsake us now. To Him I commend you all. Permit me to ask that with equal sincerity and faith you will invoke His wisdom and guidance for me."

I can say that all the political sentiments I entertain have been drawn, so far as I have been able to draw them, from the sentiments which originated and were ….. embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I have often pondered over the dangers which were incurred by the men who assembled, framed and adopted that Declaration of Independence. I have pondered over the toils that were endured by the officers and soldiers of the army who achieved that Independence. I have often inquired of myself, what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together? 

It was not the mere matter of the separation of the Colonies from the motherland; [it was] but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but, I hope, to the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all men. 

This is a sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Now, my friends, can this country be saved upon that basis? If it can, I will consider myself one of the happiest men in the world, if I can help to save it. If it cannot be saved upon that principle, it will be truly awful. But if this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it."

May we celebrate the search for freedom in all its forms, leading at last to freedom in God!

Swami Hrimananda