The Holiday Season brings up thoughts on the teachings and practices that have most profoundly affected my life, and me during the past year.

 Anyone wishing to gain any real results from Yoga must be committed to serious and constant study of how it works.

The regular practice of asana, pranayama and meditation is impactful still after all these years,  but more important is self-study and making a true and personal connection to the past Masters of Yoga, through their teachings, their writings.

I have over the past thirty years experienced reaching into my potential power and consciousness,  but  am still beset with inner and outer difficulties and problems. 

To make the greatest breakthroughs, I must be vigilant and consistently examine my thoughts, words and actions.  That is the only way to understand why conflicts and obstacles occur and learn how to avoid them in the future.  Deep meditative states and samadhi have made shifts in consciousness, but has not eliminated all pride and hurt.

One of the most effective ways ways of avoiding mistakes in thinking and behavior is to take time to rethink the teachings and ideals of the Yoga Masters, for instance, the self-purifying yamas, the moral self-restraints, and to consciously apply them in my daily life.

To take on the yamas and to win the higher goals of Yoga we must effort in what we enjoy.  To make progress, we must delight in what we are working toward, even if the work is very difficult.  In order for Yoga to work for us, we must target the root of our problem, the blockages in the subtle channels.  To do that takes preparing the inner being by being cheerfully contented and by acting compassionately with kindness.

In addition to the regular practice of asana, pranayama, meditation and mantra, contentment and kindness properly prepares our ground-substance and plant good seeds in our mind so that the yamas, the practices of ahimsa (non-harming), satya (truthfulness), asteya (non-stealing), aparigraha (non-attachment, greedlessness) and brahmacharya (non- sensuality) will be possible.   Working diligently on self-control, refraining from hurting anyone and promoting in some way the health and well-being of others ensures success in our practice of the yamas.

 With the proper foundation, what is happening in our life will be imbued with awareness.   Without it, when we turn inward, all we hear is the voice of the ego.  Egoism will always allow us to slip up.  Awareness, on the other hand, lets us know when we even consider planting or replanting a  “bad-seed.”

Awareness brings realization of what agitates our mind and veils the truth.  But we must focus and fix our mind on being aware, not just in meditation but also in every moment.  Powerful seeds, which shape our body, mind and world, are planted in the present moment.  It is only in the present that we get a chance to transform our self and achieve equanimity.

 
Once we realize the nature of the mind (awareness), the mind and senses become purified.   When the senses are purified, our actions will naturally become good, kind and compassionate.  Reduce the sense of “me” and “mine” and “why me?” or “why not me?” and the senses become life supporting. 

 Contentment and the neutral quality of the senses protect us from mistakes and reduce the attraction of self-centered absorption and the need to feed our self on pain and misery.

Whenever I feel hurt or judgment, I consider that, everything I am experiencing in this moment is coming from seeds I have previously planted.  It is not due to someone else.  It is due to an affliction within my self.  The whole of any situation is nothing in and of itself; it is not until the seeds within my own mind make me see something in a certain way, that I feel happiness or pain. 

 By doing something positive and supportive in the moment that I feel some pain arise, I consciously and purposefully plant good seeds for a more perfect future.  Simply by understanding what I am doing as I replace a negative feeling with a thought of doing something useful for another, I transforms the very way a seed is planted.   I transform any ill will within myself into good will, sadness or pain into detachment and ease.  

 Witnessing consciousness always plants a higher vibrational seed.  What happens when focusing and fixing the mind on a line of thinking is an art in itself, as the spiritual self is allowed to participate in our day-to-day.

 We live to fulfill our wishes both great and small, but egoism and our senses have a tendency to draw us astray, taking us selfishly to whatever they, at the moment are attracted by or dredge up past hurt and pain.  We can only go about fulfilling our wishes in the right way, if we develop self-control and begin to see life as a way of also helping others fulfill their wishes.  We can choose what we want to happen.  We can very purposely plant the seeds that will make it happen, at some time later on.  But we have to plant the right seeds all the time.   And all those seeds must be kind and thoughtful and in some way involve take care of others too.  We are all interconnected and interdependent.

 Plant the right seeds and sit back and watch the fireworks.

 To plant good higher vibrational seeds always look upon the good things that you are doing with detached Awareness, even as you do it.  Karma is performed by the senses.   Karma will be bad if the mind is not established in Awareness and the senses are allowed to have their way.  Karma will be good if the mind is established in the detached Awareness of Witnessing Consciousness. 

 Good seeds means, to be aware when you act and to be ready and willing to benefit others at any moment.  Know that you are doing something good as you act, and also recall and reflect back on the times when you acted to benefit others.   Contemplate what you have done in the past that was perfectly selfless?

 To create a firm foundation, honor all life as sacred.  Aspire to be of help to someone else so that they may reach a even higher goal, than you have yourself.  Encourage others so that they in turn may encourage and support another, and so on and so on.  Wish that an infinite number of others might reach a state of perfect knowledge and kindness, even if you do not.

 Your aim is to be rid of all negative emotions forever.  Negative emotions can be eliminated through acts of kindness that include the thought of all living creatures and by always speaking the truth, and never speaking negatively about others.  Never say something in a way that would split up people, by making them angry or make judgments about one another.  Never knowingly try to alienate friends or couples.  Instead, emphasize what brings people together, what they can share with each other. Never say anything that would hurt someone’s feelings, and avoid useless talk.  It is wasteful and we so often say things we regret when we talk for talking sake.

 Never steal.  Personal contentment is a means of protection against stealing.  Explore how you can give things to others. Always respect other’s things and always give others whatever you can.   I always find all the money you really need comes to you.

Always demonstrate integrity.  Remember, a good action cannot bring a bad result.

 What plants a bad seed deeply and causes you the most future suffering, is any action in which you take some joy or satisfaction, that causes hurt or pain for another.

If, however, you feel regret when causing pain to someone, if you feel very sorry, the seeds do not take root.  Regret has redeemable energy that can uproot a bad action.  This is not guilt. Guilt is useless negative.  Regret can help you take action, which may rectify things and change the future result.

 Can we uproot the seeds of past mistakes?   It seems possible.  The rules I live by to make shifts and eliminate negative thoughts and actions are the following. 

 1) Become aware of the source of the original bad action

2) Feel remorse, regret.

3) Promise never to do it again

4) Never do it again. The most important step is not repeating the mistake!

4) Make up for your past mistake by doing its opposite… show love and respect and do not take exception to what life brings you to experience.

5) Apologize; tell someone affected by what you do that you are sorry.  An apology need not be done with the person to whom you acted badly, but it must be made to someone.

6) Make up for any action by setting aside time to quietly go over in your mind how seeds draw pictures in your mind and turn neutral objects into the very world around you.

7) Do good for others.

To assure purification and good karma, realize the divine self of your own being.  Fix concentration on your own divine self.

9) Have a Happy New Year!

The School of Ancient Wisdom just outside Bangalore is a very special place, with a strong Theosophical vibration.   We have been giving seminars there for the last ten years.   It was built aobut 20 years ago, designed and funded by a lovely architect from Singapore.  Madame is an creative spiritual dynamo and mystical visionary who literally dreamed the place into existence.  She also dreamed up Ram, the man who has managed the School and retreat center.  

 This sanctuary of flower gardens, pavillions, fish ponds, statues and gazebos was originally built on about 80 acres of dry barren desert land.   That, there is water and a lush tropical paradise in this location is in itself is a miracle of the Masters and devas, that surely abide here.  It is  a place of learning, healing and transformation. 

The Advanced Training began and ended splendidly.  As we ended the training Beauty was radiating from every face…I say this with all sincerity.   Awareness is often compared to a cloudless sky, naked,  luminous and bright.   That was the expression I saw on their faces … faces without any hint of a mask or mood, just purely innocent and joyful. 

We participated in a week of long days, disciplined by practices of asana, meditation, pranayama, mantra and open-eyed minfulness.   The Indian students took it all in with great enthusiasm and incredible devotion.   But as the long days pass,  discipline can waver a bit,  as the body objects and burns, and attention wanders and the mind rebels     That is when the mantra yagnas are especially powerful.

There is something quite moving that happens when you  participate in fire ceremonies, especially when they are outside in powerful places in Nature.  You can feel quite  connected to Nature Herself.   During the yagna we had in Badrinath on our  ashram grounds,  the sky changed quite literally in the blink of an eye.  The cloudless sky was all at once, covered in clouds in the most amazing patterns… as if God himself were skipping stones across the sky… a tapestry perfectly repeated like an intricate kniting pattern covering the whole expanse of the valley.   And then again in a blink of an eye.. clouds that formed a trident, clear and defined.  The trident (spear) is a powerful symbol for both Shiva and Shakti.  It delighted us all into tears.

During the advanced training at the School of Ancient Wisdom, we had a different experience.  But again it began with a cloudless sky.   This time the clouds formed dark just over a group of the students seated chanting at the fire.   And it rained.   In fact it poured for about 45 minutes.   A delight of rain and floral frangrances waffed through the open windows in the room, where we were sitting during mantra diksha.   And then it stopped.  And when the chanters came into the room for mantras, they did not look drenched.   Without umbrellas, their hair and clothes had somehow managed to stay quite dry.   Blessings had rained on them.  They were high with joy and gratitude. 

The fire ceremoney with the rain had been particularly purifying they told me.  Some reported that their physical pain or confusion had been cleansed as they tossed grain into the fire and been washed by the rain.  All they experienced was emptiness and presence. 

I touched the shoulder of the woman seated next to me, her scarf was dry.

The ashram in Badrinath will be completed in the next few years.  All kinds of obstacles have hindered progress, but on this day I feel nothing but enthusiasm and can envision the first six apartments completed and ready for use by summer of 2012 and the Meditation Hall construction well on its way towards finishing up about the same time.

It is really a miracle to me to watch construction here on the hillside on the opposite side of the Alakananda River, directly below Neelakantha Peak (21,600 ft.)   A four hour trek up the Narayan mountain takes one to the base of Neelakantha. The hike is like a taking a straight path up to heaven.

The location of the ashram is difficult for the construction workers.   Workers have to carry all the building supplies, rocks, cement mix, rebar, doors, glass, the furniture, etc. on their backs for the kilometer or so, over a suspension bridge and up the steep steps.    Many of the workers seem very young, most of them this year have come from Bihar.   They seem rather disinterested and reluctant to work very hard.   There are only a few workers in town now, due to the ban on construction in all of Badrinath and the lateness in the season.  Badrinath, Gangotri, Kedarnath have all had building bans in effect for several years now.   We do everything, under the radar,  so to speak.

Up until  this moment the ban and the need for an extra strong foundations in this cold, snowy, avalance prone,  rather unforgiving region has made me less than confident that the ashram would be more than a strong foundation, a few pillars and alot of dashed dreams.    But today, I feel nothing but assurance that there will be a Babaji’s Kriya Yoga Ashram in Badrinath one day, which will support sadhana for thousands of people for a hundred years!

All the participants in this years pilgrimage to the Himalayas are high with enthusiasm and anticipation of the Ashram.   Many put on work gloves and get right to work, leveling land, carrying water, mixing cement, laying cement.    Everyone in sight of the  funny assembly line of Spanish, Brazilian and Swiss and Indians preparing and laying cement smile and stare with curiosity.

The altitude in Badrinath is over 10,000 ft., higher at the ashram site.  There is stress on heart and lungs, but at the same time the site feeds the soul and energizes us.  All kriyabans are so focused, so involved in what they are doing, that the Bihari workers get caught up in the same energy and begin to work at the same pace.  At the end of the afternoon work, everyone claps applause in appreciation.

Apparently there is at least one person, not so happy with what he sees.  A mouni baba, who recently built a nice blue house just above the ashram ( built during the building ban),  watches us as he rushes by… Govindan calls him over to introduce himself.  The Baba acts friendly and asks alot of questions.  Govindan explains what is planned.    The Baba is nothing but encouraging and says as he leaves, “All one has to do is to brush the dust away, and all you see is God.”    With that he walked down the mountain and apparently directly to the local magistrate and complained about the activity of building at our site!   We were notified later in the day of his complaint.

The next day construction activity continued.

There is another Mouni Baba who has an ashram just below us.  It is a high, bright red building that grabs attention the moment you arrive in Badrinath.  Twenty or more flags wave from the rooftop.  Mouni Baba dresses in bright red and now he is wearing his hair long, in dread locks that reach past his knee.  New is a sign in English claiming to be a Kriya Yoga Teaching Center, his photo on a huge posture with Babaji above his head, pasted to the entrance of his ashram.    He is a colorful sadhu in all ways.   We sat with him for about 45 minutes discussing the importance of opening chakras.   He is all about the power he confesses, ” Shakti power is all important.   It keeps others from attaching him.”   His plans is to build a huge ashram in the space between our two present sites.  We look at the material he hands us requesting a $20,000 donation towards building.

There is no clean, quiet, place for more than a few people to gather together in Badrinath, so I have long longed for a Yoga and meditaition Hall for us to use.   Most halls here are small or smoky, cold and dark.

All the pilgrims with us have found their favorite mediatation spots and many a small flat area to do some asana.  The energy of the mountains and that generated by all the sadhus who have practiced Yoga and meditation over the ages have created a magnificient vortex, which carries us all away into deep and profound meditative perception.   No one is frustrated either by a busy mind or an unsteady body.    Something magical happens in this place, the mind empties, becoms vibrant and clear.

Sitting at the ashram construction, my back against a stone wall of a small hut, storing grain for the cows.  Rising in front of me is a massive mountain range.   Then enormity of the Nara and Narayana Mountains surrounding me takes my mind and breath away.   There is snow on the mountain tops and a quietness that engulfs the entire area.  It invites, or rather instills stability and devotion in one.

For meditation to be strong one needs stability and devotion… devotion and conviction to the teachings, to the techniques, to the lineage.   Then  the practices will be powerful and profoundly transformative.  Without these, meditation can be tranquilizing.   But it is conviction and persistence which will result in samadhi and some form of liberation.  Devotion brings the final results.

Babaji Kriyayogis are an amazing group of individuals because they have taken Mahasiddha Babaji as their personal Guru and  have full faith in the teachings and techniques of the tradition.   It is that full faith in the teachings that leads one to the Impersonal Absolute and liberation.   The Kriya Sangam is a network of interdependent caring individuals willing to do the work required to attain spiritually and to keep the sangam strong.

A loud mowing breaks my contemplation.   Looking up I feel an affection for the cow that is making my acquaintance over the stone way in the neighboring field.   The cows here are charming creatures,  well-cared for and respected.   Four women are walking up the hillside, bent way over, carrying about forty pounds of hay on their backs.   Two women talk so loudly to each other, that their voices are carried in the wind through the vast spaces to me, as if they are just a few steps away.   The ladies here all have  lined faces, laughing eyes, filled with curiosity even though they rarely smile.   It would be interesting to learn Hindi so that I can have some converstation with them.

The smallest cow I see is mooing louder and louder, like a child who is not being listened to by its mother and irritated by it.    The huge cow chowing down near me has enormous curved horns that looks vaguely  like some exotic musical instrument made from a rich mahogany.   His black fur looks like velvet.  T his is one healthy cow.   The milk they produce tastes quite sweet due to the sweet spicy herbs which is an important part of their diet.   When we begin to stay here at the ashram, Rohit says the villages will deliver milk and vegetables daily.   It will be like living in another world, an earler, simpler era.   What benefits we will all gain just from that experience – free from the pull of politics and complexity of modern life for a while.   Only thing demanded is patience, patience with the uncertain and changeable weather, the black outs of electricity, the cows that hog the walkways, with each other.

No one can remain unchanged.  Badrinath transfixes me.

“Heaven in its rapture dreams of perfect earth.  

Earth in its sorrow dreams of perfect heaven.   

They are kept from their oneness by enchanted fears.”

Sri Aurobindo

Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) was one of the greatest spiritual scientists of all times.  Although beginning in India, as a political revolutionary, he ended up one the world’s greatest spiritual revolutionaries. Aurobindo Ghose was no mere intellectual, philosopher or theoretician.  He wrote from pure experience of Truth, in the highest states of consciouness.  Aurobindo’search was for the key to a true life on earth.  “You can go on changing human institutions infinitely, he wrote, and yet the imperfections will break through all your institutions…” 

Aurobindo saw humanity as, at a crossroads in its evolution: “If a spiritual unfolding on earth is the hidden truth of our birth into matter, if it is fundamentally an evolution of consciousness that has been taking place in Nature, then man as he is cannot be the last term of that evolution; he is too imperfect an expression of the spirit, mind itself is too limited a form and instrumentation; mind is only a middle term of consciousness, the mental being can only be a transitional being. If, then, man is incapable of exceeding mentality, he must be surpassed and supermind and supermen must manifest and take the lead of the creation. But if his mind is capable of opening to what exceeds it, then there is no reason why man himself should not arrive at supermind or at least lend his mentality, life and body to an evolution of that greater term of the Spirit manifesting in Nature.”  – from, The Divine Life.

Sri Aurobindo realized that the limitations of the human mind along with its emotional and physical nature, were too great for man’s raw nature to naturally evolve and crystallize into pure, intelligence and compassion.  He knew that even though pure intelligence (overmind) was by its very structure the original source of man’s ordinary mind and nature,  it was so fragmented in its descent into the lower mental planes, that normally, it would not reveal itself. 

 Aurobindo wrote that the “true “Secret” of  transformation is that the consciousness above is the consciousness below, but this consciousness must enter into the last finite if it is to reach the infinite.”  To reveal heaven on earth is the truth of the spirit and heavens, a Power of Truth, which resists the downward, divisive power to which human nature is subject.  If man could live without all falsehood, he would live in Truth and wisdom.

Evolution of the human being would be possible, Aurobindo said, with the dissolution or transformation of individual egoism and the deep understanding and experience of the connectedness and interdependence between all beings. For physical and cellular consciousness to enlarge and universalize itself, mental silence, vital peace and cosmic consciousness are absolutes. One must come to the awareness that “the body is everywhere” and that complete transformation is not possible for the individual unless there is a minimum transformation by all.

The work required of mankind for the sake of evolution would proceed through three distinct phases. First stage is a bright phase of conscious collaboration in personal growth and evolution of spirit, through self-study, self-discovery, awareness and purification of one’s conditioning and a widening of the cooperative spirit.  A minimum transformation by the many.   The second phase would demand that Awareness,  Silence, an absolute living silence, overflowing with divinity descend into the physical being of those many individuals.  The third phase would encompass the whole of inner work for humanity and the world.

 The first and second phases are to this day being practiced by a limited number of individuals who have recognized their true essence, who understand the nature of the mind and in whom the nature of all things is not obscured.  There are many, but not enough to create critical mass.

 THE CRISIS OF TRANSFORMATION

If a call for transformation were made how would you as an individual respond?  If mass transformation was not possible, but you had the potential… what would you do?

At least you can ask the question.  Can human beings be conscious collaborators in their own evolution?  Can one move beyond the limitations of the human mind and self-centered vital and physical nature? 

Surely, as we observe the world it is rational to say that we are too imperfect an expression of a spirit; so attached are we to the physical body, the conditioning of the mind, to our beliefs and emotional makeup.

So ask yourself… Could you drop the heavy weight you are carrying to achieve true transformation in your mental emotional makeup and be free to be yourself?

And, if you say yes, then, contemplate the idea that if you could correct your mental/emotional makeup and be free to be yourself, are you holding onto any fear about what you would have to give up?      If your mind were capable of opening to what exceeds it, a higher intelligence, and you were able to live a life greater then what is available to you now, would you want it?   What do you have to lose? … stress, addictions, neurosis, anxiety, fear, hatred, greed, self-centered perspectives, judgments, opinions, aversions, preferences. 

The Minerva Institute www.minervainstitute.org is a new non-profit in Orlando Florida with the mission to cultivate inner peace and wisdom in the community, person to person.   Minerva (the Roman goddess of Wisdom) was founded to sustain a heart-centered, learning community that values self-discovery.   It will maintain an on-line and events centered learning community. 

Minerva will sponsor events to the community that truly offer accessible and deep, proven practices to strengthen and heal body and mind, open the heart, and gently push one into the realm of the Possible and Potential.

The message of  Minerva is  join with others in your community in a spirit of cooperation to establish your town as a Blue Zone, http://www.bluezones.com  , a place of peace and a place of learning for living long, happy lives.   

The success of such an endeavour will require the participation of a  large number of like-minded people who will be willing to step forward to support it in a variety of ways.  I am pleased to be a working board member of Minerva in Orlando and am dedicated to her vision.