Awareness Throughout the Day

A Course in Tranquility Lesson 13 of 14– Awareness Throughout the Day

The weather bothers many people.  You may have noticed, that sometimes it is too cold, or too hot, or too humid or too dry. No matter what state the weather is in, someone can complain about it. The weather patterns are caused by a multitude of factors, such as time of year, solar activity, the movement of tectonic plates, the flapping of a sparrow’s wings, your car ride to work, etc.

Our life experiences are like those weather patterns. Sometimes it rains when we want to play outside. Sometimes the sun shines beautifully when we are stuck at a desk finishing a report. Sometimes it’s fifty degrees and all the snow has melted, on the weekend of our ski trip.  Sometimes our weddings have the perfect breeze and bluest skies. Sometimes our fishing trips couldn’t be more crisp and temperate.

Our minds are like those weather patterns. Some days we are struck with motivation and courage. Other days, we are despondent and don’t see the point. Some days we are in love, and not a thing can go wrong. Other days, our anger comes out at the drop of a hat.

Just like the weather patterns, our life experiences and mental states are often the result of an infinite number of factors. Our past choices influence our future experiences. Our collection of negative experiences, turns our mind darker. An abundance of luck and opportunity, keeps us thinking positively. The planets, past lives, any thing we can imagine, can have an effect on our experiences and our mind.

These are all external factors. A child sees thunder and lightning and rain outside, and says, and protests, “But I don’t want to go outside!  I don’t want to get wet!”. An adult sees the same weather patterns, and reaches for her rain coat, umbrella and rain boots. She goes about her day, and still doesn’t get wet. A child sees ice and snow across the the land, and says, “But I don’t want to get cold!  Don’t make me go out there.”  The adult puts on his winter jacket, wool hat, gloves and insulated boots. He goes about his day, warm.  Note, how it didn’t matter the cause of the weather.  What mattered was the response.

As we grow in wisdom, we learn that we do not necessarily need to be overly influenced by the weather patterns of life situations or mental states, just as we do not need to be unduly influenced by the weather patterns of nature. Now, it is obvious that some “severe weather” needs to be respected, no matter what the case, but all-in-all, with wisdom we learn how to move through life and take the necessary and useful actions to prevent the weather from slowing down our lives.
Meditation

On numerous occasions, I have experienced the power of meditation to change my state of consciousness.  I may have been experiencing a passing sadness, frustration, or confusion. Not knowing what else to do, I meditated. I used the techniques I know, with intention, and really gave my self to the process. After completing the techniques I sat in the silence, with my attention in the higher brain centers (The Spiritual Eye and Crown of the Head). Almost like magic, I felt the mood lift.  I felt my confusion replaced with an inspiration to take action in some way. The very act of sitting, meditating, and waiting, cleared away what ever temporary storm cloud was blinding me at present.

Waiting in the silence is where the transformation occurs. You practice the technique to reign in your scattered awareness. Your awareness has lost its power because it is focused on too many “what if’s” or “could be’s”. From here, the moods can settle in, because the awareness is not concentrated or light enough to move through or rise above them. Once the awareness is concentrated by the practice, it has risen above the influence of the difficulties you perceive. From this “higher” vantage point, your much vaster Self, with connections to the wholeness and wisdom of life, can send a breeze of inspiration, to get your ship back on course. Your inner tranquility resumes its rightful place as the center of your awareness.

Short Term Spiritual Memory – Long Term Spiritual Memory

Have you ever been in a physical situation you did not like? Have you ever been ill or injured?  Have you ever found your self in a relationship that was draining and debilitating? Have you ever been in an unsafe environment? What did you do in these situations? Hopefully, you acknowledged your present circumstance, and then looked for a way out or a solution to your circumstance.

I’ve noticed that in situations like this, when there is difficulty in the external world, most healthy minded people seem to remember that before the difficulty arose, there was a peacefulness and happiness in their life, and they do what is necessary to return their experience to that natural state of ease. If they are sick, they go to the doctor. If they are in an unsafe environment, they leave. If relationships are harmful, they cut the relationship off, and find more pleasant people. There is a sense of memory here. By remembering that there was a time when things were comfortable and good, we do what is necessary to restore that equilibrium.

I have also noticed, that, even in seemingly healthy minded people, there can be a disconnect in this process, when it comes to their mental/emotional/spiritual states. Let us say that a mood comes upon a person. All of the sudden, the person cannot even imagine what it was like to be happy and calm. Their minds sink into quick sand, and they are paralyzed. They forget that just an hour before they were happily moving through life. Now they are in darkness, and they do nothing to move through it. They sit in the darkness.

Even from a spiritual perspective, there are times when our minds are filled with light and wisdom, and our intuition is humming as we move spontaneously in the world. Then for whatever reason, our wisdom shuts down. Once again, we are stuck in mental patterns that cannot grasp or accept the wholeness of life as our very being. We start making decisions from a fearful, unbalanced point of view.

It is common to think that we have no control over these situations, and that we just have to ride them out. This thought creates that reality. Then we are helpless, and adrift on a sea of uncertainties with no tools or instruments to guide and steer our course. The reality is, that as we are embodied, we will be subject to cosmic weather patterns. The reality also is, that there have been countless awakened souls in this world, who have realized this. They created, for us, umbrellas, rain coats, winter jackets, scarves, gloves, boots, etc, for us to move through those weather patterns. These are in the forms of meditation techniques, and awareness practices, and scriptures, and wisdom.

A deeper factor of confusion, is identification with our STATES of consciousness, rather than identification with consciousness itself. When you are in a bad relationship, or in an unsafe environment, it is easier, to know, “Hey, this isn’t who I am. In fact, this is dangerous to my embodied self, so I am going to get out of here!”  Since our thoughts, emotions, and states of consciousness, seem to be internal, as if they are who we are, it is not so easy to shake those off, because why would you want to shake our ‘self’ off anyway?

Our emotional states, common thought patterns, and regular states of consciousness are the building blocks of what we call the personality. The personality is really just the organized pattern of behavioral characteristics that your ‘soul’ is expressing through. Yet, from a little kid, we are taught this is who we are, and that we have to defend and sustain this ‘character’. What happens after that is we go through life, trying to sustain this idea of our self. We come upon a situation where we need to act out of character, because it is appropriate, and we do not. We maintain our idea, at the expense of being inappropriate.

Imagine that you have been taught that you are a good person. You are nice and kind to everybody. You make everyone feel good and give them what they want. It is totally out of character for you to do anything to hurt someone else’s feelings. You have been accepting and reaffirming this personality for 35 years. Yet, one day, you meet a person who is cruel to you, and is about to cause you a lot of problems. Your personality is strong!  You feel dissonance, but I should be nice to everyone, you think. I should give this person what he wants, because to deny it, would make him feel bad. It’s five years later and you are now in a codependent relationship with someone who always professes they love you, yet by their actions often makes you feel bad, either through verbal or physical abuse. You can’t leave, because that would make them feel bad.  They love you after all, and you are not a personality that makes waves.

That is a bit of an extreme example, but it happens on more benign levels every day to every one. Because we are more interested in sustaining a consistent personality, we create more and more problems for our selves, and the world.

This occurs, because we have forgotten that we are not our thoughts, emotions, reactions, and states of consciousness. We have forgotten, that we are the consciousness, the space, in which all of these things manifest and then fade away.

By listening to an awakened person, or noting how they move through life, we can see that no matter the circumstance, it is possible to remain, balanced, poised, calm, and even peaceful. This is our natural state. We can pay close attention (closer than even our infatuation with discord) to those times in our lives when everything feels right and in harmony.  We can note how we feel after being with an even-minded person, or in a holy environment, or on top of a mountain with the quiet sun shining on us,  or how we feel after a deep meditation. We can remember, this is our natural state. We can reclaim it as our natural state.

When the cosmic weather patterns change, and we notice a frustration, anxiety, discord, anger, or despondency creeping across our awareness, we can acknowledge it.  We do not claim it for our selves, or even define our selves by it. We can say, “Ahh, here comes some rain and hail in the form of this state.” We simply acknowledge the weather pattern rolling in. Then we can ask, “Since I am familiar with this state, what might be a good thing for me to do, so I can go about my life naturally, without be unduly influenced by it?”  You pause to contemplate for a moment. You remember that the last time you felt a depression coming on, that it worked really well to go to the gym and work out. You noticed you felt one hundred times better after that. You may remember, that the last time you were feeling overwhelmed and confused, that you went into your meditation chamber, and meditated, and then prayed, and then asked for divine grace to flow through and assist. You remember, that after that, you were able to deal with your situation more easily.

The main point of all of this, is to start giving more attention to the times when you feel calm and collected and aware, remember those times, and then when your internal environment starts to develop some unpleasant weather patterns, you begin to acknowledge that those internal difficulties do not define you. From there you remember what helped you deal with those situations in the past, and then take action. Develop your long term spiritual memory.

Every Moment

Every moment there is awareness. Every moment, you are aware of something. That doesn’t mean that you remember everything from every moment, but know you are always there.

Within this manifesting world, change is the constant. Some experiences seem very repetitious and similar from day to day, but the fact is that no moments are exactly the same. Not even your personality, no matter how hard you hold on to it, is the same from day to day.

We can take this knowledge and accept it. Now our expectations will not be shattered. We know the truth. We know that trying to recreate anything from the past, is futile. We stop wasting our time in that way. We stop imagining, that if only we had the right combination of ingredients we could return to that state that was so wonderful before.

Now that our awareness is free of expectations and the wrong use of our imagination, it becomes empowered. It’s energy can be directed to what is actually happening around us. We can see with clear vision. We can respond to the changing world with confidence and precision.

Imagine someone on the ocean waiting to surf. They are out on the ocean waiting for a wave. Yet, their mind is absorbed in that one perfect wave they road three years ago. All of their thought is bent on feeling that slight warm breeze from the south that preceded that perfect wave. They are watching the horizon, waiting for the sun to hit that magic degree that brought about that beautiful experience. And as they wait for the recreation of this long past, now unreal experience, wave after lovely rolling wave passes them by. The surfer misses the thrill of thousands of waves that are actually there, all because of absorption in the past, a now unreal reality.

When we are identified with simple awareness of our consciousness we respond appropriately to every circumstance, and see clearly the current state of reality around us. Whatever you experience through out the day, let it flow through you. Do not latch on to it, or try to identify with it. If you are going to identify with anything, let it be the space in which all your experiences occur. This also applies to your internal experiences. Your thoughts, emotions, memories, and states of consciousness arise within you, yet you are the space in which they arise.

At first this can feel wrong or unnatural. That is only because you are used to identifying with circumstances and personality traits. I’m not saying its easy either. It takes practice. If it helps, remember those times when you were in deep sleep. There was no personality or thought there, yet YOU persisted. So you can survive this. You will not cease to exist. That is often the common fear. Your personality may change its state, into something more wholesome, and in tune with the infinite, and by that standard, the you you know will cease to exist. But the real you always remains.

(Note: You can say that you did not exist in deep sleep, but it’s not true. If you didn’t exist then, how you are still existing now? It’s more appropriate to say, that you don’t remember existing in deep sleep. If you think about three days ago, do you remember every second and every action that you took? Just because you don’t remember existing then, doesn’t mean you didn’t.)

Practicing a Single Truth

A useful tool we can use throughout our lives to move us into this state of awareness and tranquility is practicing a single truth.
According to Vasistha’s Yoga we can experience tranquility and an enlightened state by adopting one of two mental positions. The first mental position is, “I am nothing. Nothing I see, experience or do, is me.” The second mental position is, “I am everything. Every thought, action, person, God, Goddess, experience, creature, and thing is me.”

#1 “I Am Nothing”

According to Nisargadatta Maharaj, to hold to the mental position that I am nothing, is wisdom. You become the space in which all things occur, and then not even that. You are awareness itself. You are aware of everything that passes through your field, yet you know it is not you. No longer identifying with anything, when things change, you are not disturbed. You are free.

#2 “I AM Everything”

According to Nisargadatta Maharaj, to hold the mental position that I am everything, is love. Now there is nothing which you are not. No matter what anyone does to you, you are doing it to your self. No matter the weather patterns, it’s ok. It’s just you anyway. Every concept of the divine is your very self. The smallest atom, to the vastness of the universe is you. You are doing everything, because you are everything. Here your mind can expand beyond its small confines, and thought itself becomes unnecessary, because as you can see, everything is happening without thought anyway!

What does this do to the mind?

Our problems arise when the mind becomes engaged. We believe, we have to think about things, figure things out. We try, and sometimes our conclusions line up with experience, and sometimes they fall far from the mark, and often we notice that correlation between the two is random.
The mind is for storing information. It is for balancing your check book, writing a coherent letter, or planning a house, or calculating a physics equation. The mind is not meant for figuring things out beyond remembering and calculating.

If you hold the state that “I am nothing”, then you have nothing to think about. Your thinking doesn’t matter. You are in neutral, being nothing. You find that the world continues, even without your thoughts to validate it. Thoughts still arise. You still get up in the morning and make bacon and eggs for breakfast. Yet, none of this is you. You don’t have to think about it anymore. It happens.

If you hold the state that “I am everything”, then you don’t have to think about interacting with the world in particular ways. It’s all you. You continue to learn and grow and change, and yet your thoughts don’t matter, because it happens anyway. You still exist as everything. If someone gives you a million dollars, you don’t have to think about why you deserved it. You gave it to your self. If someone runs into your car, you don’t have to contemplate what karma led to this, it was just something you felt like doing at that time.

Now the mind will resist and rail against this. You may even think this is total crap, and a good way to get out of responsibility for your actions. Well, according to the Gita, you are not the doer of anything anyway. God is the doer. When you claim responsibility, you claim karma. Then you have to suffer the good and bad of your fate. If you are everything or nothing, then it doesn’t matter, you experience your self, as it is. No need for judgment, or reasons.

This does not indicate that you will become a base and vile person either. The natural impulse of consciousness is towards harmony and peace. When you give up identification with mind, through consistent practice of one of these truths, you will find that your actions are actually in accord with a higher process.

Think of nature. The flowers grow. The cows eat the grass. The lions eat the cows. The sun shines. The clouds rain. Sometimes those flowers are weeds, and sometimes they are roses. Sometimes the cows are clearing a field, and sometimes they are destroying it. Sometimes the lion is providing food for his young, and sometimes he is removing a sick or lame cow from the heard. Sometimes the sun shines and brings life to the marigolds, and sometimes the sun scorches the earth and kills people of heat stroke. Sometimes the rains water the gardens, and sometimes they swell the rivers and destroy villages. That is what happens.

If you want to burden your self with responsibility and karma, you are welcome to it. It is your mind that tricks you into thinking this little person is so important, that your responsibility will truly make a difference. By practicing a single truth, until you know it fully as reality, the mind cannot keep a hold on you. Then you move beyond the mind, and act with the same grace and naturalness as the natural world. You realize the “little you” is an expression of the wholeness of life and its cycles, and from this knowledge, your awareness expands until it is fully absorbed by the you that is the wholeness of life itself.

This may seem overwhelming, or far beyond your current scope of understanding. That’s fine. You have to start somewhere, and this is the starting point. Contemplate which one of those truths with which you feel you resonate most easily. Then write it down somewhere you will see it often. Put it in your meditation space too. Put it beside your bed. Put it anywhere you spend a lot of time.

Then, moment by moment, day by day, year by year, imagine your truth as a reality for you. Explore what you might feel like if it was true, right now. Dedicate your self to its practice. You will find as you ripen, the implication of the truth will dawn within your understanding. You will know its reality, just as assuredly as you know your self as a man or a woman. It won’t be a thought or a concept, but a direct experience.

In this way, every moment of your day becomes imbued with tranquility, and divine remembrance.

Sincerely, Ryan Kurczak 2010

Knowing the Truth of Unity Consciousness

A Course in Tranquility Lesson 10 of 14 — Knowing the Truth of Unity Consciousness

“Because you are in variety, you say you understand unity — that you have flashes, etc., remember things, etc.; you consider this variety to be real. On the other hand Unity is the reality, and the variety is false. The variety must go before unity reveals itself — its reality. It is always real. It does not send flashes of its being in this false variety. On the contrary, this variety obstructs the truth.” -Ramana Maharshi

Up to this point in our study of enlightenment and tranquility we have covered:

Lesson 1: Being happy for no reason; Living a natural and spontaneous life; Meditation

Lesson 2: Love and Relationships

Lesson 3: Health

Lesson 4: Vision and Purpose

Lesson 5: Grace and Spiritual Practice

Lesson 6: Absolving your past

Lesson 7: Reality Vs. Your Story

Lesson 8: Practicing your faith

Lesson 9: Forgiveness

The past lessons are meant to serve as a proper foundation to launch this process of moving into tranquility. As it is stated in the Gita, “First, we are to work to discover what we are, and become self-realized. Once we know what we are, then our work is to remain in tranquility.” Once we set in motion the principles outlined in the previous lessons, we are to continue tending our garden and let the seeds of our positive intention to learn and grow come to fruition. As this continues, we then have our capacities directed to understanding what we are, and to experience the truth of life and its meaning.

Since this work, is not intended to birth a religion or a new dogma, you may find that you still need a religious observance, or a specific teaching to guide your quest for self-knowledge and tranquility. By all means, explore your bible, Gita, Yoga Sutras, Buddhists texts, Koran, Zen works, etc. The morality and lifestyle regiments will do well to keep your days organized and focused, which is useful for everyone. Let the words of the following lessons guide your mind into contemplation and direct experience of reality “as it is” and acceptance of full knowledge of what you are beyond your false sense of self.

Now we move into the deeper side of practice. In the second half of these lessons, we will challenge the most instinctual and ingrained tendencies a human being can cling to. It is these final threads we endeavor to clip, that we may float free into our pure conscious nature, while living out a natural life in this realm, or in any realm we may find to inhabit.

The quote from Ramana Maharshi, at the top of this lesson, summarizes one of the prime difficulties a spiritual aspirant faces as they move more fully into their pure conscious, tranquil nature — the false idea that we exist as separate and varied beings, and are trying to re-experience our unity with the wholeness of life.
The devotee says, “I am experiencing separateness from God and the divine consciousness. I want to know Unity consciousness. I want to know my pure blissful nature. When I meditate I have flashes of insight into oneness and peace, but then I re-experience this sense of separateness.”

The Great Sage responds, “Unity consciousness does not send flashes of its being into this false variety. The Unity is always there, the reality. Yet the waves of our concept of variety washes over it, and so we only see the Unity, when the waves recede.

It is the concept of variety and separateness that obstructs the truth of unity. When we can see through the concept of variety, unity will reveal itself clearly.”

Keep in mind, this is only my conjecture of how this conversation could be stretched out. But the point of all this, is that, typically we say we are separate from the divine infinite consciousness, and on those days when we have a really great meditation or an extremely satisfying stress free day, that we catch a glimpse of unity consciousness and peace. When we say we are longing for unity, we are affirming a duality and separateness.

Unity, duality, separateness, these are all just words. They have no corresponding reality. Imagine what would happen if you dropped these concepts. If there is no Unity, then there is no duality. If there is no longing to be reunited in God, then there is no separateness from God. It is the words and concepts we used that keep us from experiencing reality, as it is, right now.

Exercise – Accept The Reality of Unity Right Now

1) When you next meditate, avoid any thoughts or the entertainment of any notions that you are doing this to become closer to God.  Of course the thoughts and notions will arise. Just ignore them. A good friend once told me, “Just because someone tells you something, doesn’t mean you have to believe it.” The same goes for your thoughts. Just because they show you possibilities and ideas, doesn’t mean you have to listen to them or even buy their product.

2) Use your meditation technique, because you know it is going to calm your mind and emotions and settle down the waves that make you think and feel you are separate from the wholeness of life. Do this until you are settled and peaceful. Then simply sit. Acknowledging that the room you are inhabiting, the couch you are sitting on, the candle you are looking at, is a direct, unified, manifestation of the divine essence that is all things.

3) Just sit.

Thoughts may still rise and fall, but ignore them.  Let go of the sense that for you to experience the divine presence directly, you need to have fabulous visions, or see the future, or feel ecstasy. Remember, real love is unconditional. Love the divine as it is revealing itself to you right now in this moment. That may be an empty room, or the darkness of your closed eyes, or the steadiness of your breath, or the sunshine reflecting of the house next door. Do not shun the divine presence, just because it is appearing as it always has, normally, and openly.  Look beyond appearances to the simplicity of the beingness in the moment.

This is why so many people fail to wake up or accept grace within their lives. They have a fairy tale of what it “should” look like. Love the divine for what it is, not for what you would like it to be. Wouldn’t you ask the same of anyone else? Don’t you want to be loved for what you are without any reservations, without having to put on a show, or having to act unnaturally? Why not show that same respect to the divine within and around you? Just as your heart would burst if you knew that kind of love, and you would smile from ear to ear, and your presence would radiate peace and warmth all around you, see how the divine presence responds in that same situation of unconditional love and acceptance.

We talk of Self-realization. What does that mean? It means we know the fullness of our being. We know we are beyond the mind, body, senses, time, space, etc. It means we know we exist, perpetually. We know we are eternally and immutably free, and that our only chains and bondage come from the concepts we adopt as true, and the defining characteristics we accept that we may experience a limited existence as a particular kind of being. But these are all just words with no corresponding meaning until you have direct experience of what this feels like. That is why we meditate and endeavor to practice a life that will harmonize our nervous systems and free our consciousness to have this direct experience. It is the spiritual practices that we choose that creates the grooves that directs us back to the acceptance of our true nature.

We can say that meditation or spiritual practice doesn’t work for us, but what we are really saying is that, it is not working on the time-scale we would like it to. Any authentic spiritual practice undertaken with the proper motive and surrender into the process will lift us up and out of our limited “character” that we have chosen to play in this life time. However, since we’ve chosen to play the game, we will of course come back to that character until the game is over.

The free soul, has learned the rules, knows that he/she is identified with particular chess piece on the board game of life, and is willing to be a good sport and play the game until the end. Once done, the free soul is awake, and can willingly choose if he/she would like to play again, or just exist in pure consciousness.

Self-realization directly experienced is what reveals to us the rules of the game we are playing, and shows us the proper perspective from which we are playing it. We know we are not the chess piece; we are the hand that moves it. When the chess piece falls, we move on to another game, if we choose.

Spiritual Practice and Experiencing Unity

When asked about the aim of spiritual practice, Ramana Maharshi said, “Removal of ignorance is the aim of practice, and not the acquisition of Realization.  Realization is ever present, here and now. Were it to be acquired anew, Realization must be understood to be absent at one time, and present at another time. In that case, it is not permanent, and therefore not worth the attempt. But Realization is permanent and eternal and is here and now.

Again he was asked, “Grace is necessary for the removal of ignorance?”

Maharshi replied, “Certainly. But Grace is all along there. Grace is the Self. It is not something to be acquired. All that is necessary is to know its existence. For example, the sun is brightness only. He does not see darkness. Whereas others speak of darkness fleeing away on the sun approaching. Similarly, ignorance is also a phantom and not real. Because of its unreality, its unreal nature found, it is said to be removed.

Again, the sun is there and also bright. You are surrounded by sunlight. Still, if you would know the sun you must turn your eyes in his direction and look at him. So also, Grace is found by practice alone although it is here and now.”

If you want to know unity you must look at unity. You must not focus on separateness and variety. You see your next door neighbor, the tree outside, the computer in front of you, or your cat on the couch, and you say, “they are separate from me.” You create separateness in this way. The first step to experiencing unity is to start accepting the notion that all that you experience is not separate, but is a continuous extension of your being.

In the autumn, when the leaves turn gold and orange and purple, you sit on a mountain top and a deep yearning arises to be one with nature and its beauty. This is separateness. Instead, see the colors, and the trees blowing in the wind, and smile. Accept that beauty as your very self. You have dressed your self in Autumn’s splendor.

In meditation, you look on the face of your spiritual teacher or your depiction of the divine on the altar before you, and you long to know what that teacher knows or be one with that manifestation of God. You divide the wholeness. Instead, accept that what they know, you know, and you are expressing it through your particular life situation. Accept that you are as much a part of them as your hand is to your elbow. They may be separated by a short physical distance, but they are a part of the same body. The hand and the elbow are equally important to have a working appendage. Do not judge what part of the body of God you may be.  It is still the body of God.

In time, as your practice becomes stronger there is another practice to undertake. Now instead of working to change your ideas ‘that you are separate from all of life’ to ‘accepting that you are one with all of life’, you let go of even that. You no longer decide to say, “I am one with everything.” You no longer label your oneness. You simply experience life as it comes. No labeling, just experiencing. You surrender to the truth of your self as all.

You no longer need words or concepts to prove it, or to remind your self about it. You are IT! Another discourse with Ramana Maharshi will help to clarify this point.

A devotee asked, “By the desire to surrender constantly, increasing grace is experienced, I hope?”

Maharshi replied, “Surrender once for all and be done with the desire [to surrender]. So long as the sense of doership is retained there is the desire; that is also personality. If this goes the Self is found to shine forth pure.

The sense of doership is the bondage and not the actions themselves.

‘Be still and know that I am God.’ Here stillness is total surrender without a vestige of individuality. Stillness will prevail and there will be no agitation of mind. Agitation of mind is the cause of desire, the sense of doership and personality. If that is stopped there is quiet. There ‘Knowing’ means ‘Being’. It is not the relative knowledge involving triads, knowledge, subject and object.”

The devotee inquired at this, “Is the thought ‘I am God’ or ‘I am the Supreme Being’ helpful?”

Maharshi said, “‘I am that I am.’

‘I am’  is God — not thinking, ‘I am God’.

Realize ‘I am’ and do not think I am.

‘Know I am God’ — it is said, and not ‘Think I am God.’”

So we see, from here, we must move from thinking to knowing. By meditation we clear the way to know directly. Knowing does not come from thinking or reasoning, it comes from having the capacity to experience what is, rather than our labels and ideas about what we’d like ‘what is’ to be.

In the next lesson we will explore specific advanced techniques useful to moving into this wisdom and Self-knowing. They may not be easy, but they are effective, and take practice, as with all things. Of course, your current meditation practice is helpful too, so long as you are intent and attentive to the procedure.

Sincerely, Ryan Kurczak 2010

Grace and Spiritual Practice

A Course in Tranquility – Lesson 5 of 14 – Grace and Spiritual Practice

“First meditate and feel the divine Presence; then do your work saturated with the
consciousness of God. If you do this you will never become tired. If you work for your
Divine Beloved, your life will be filled with love and strength.”
-Paramahansa Yogananda

Your body and your life are filled with grace. I would even go so far as to say
they are pure grace. Many people are not aware of this truth. They struggle and search
and pray and beg to feel and to know grace. All the while, the same grace they are
searching for, is the very thing that holds their form together and is the very essence of
their being.

We meditate to become more fully aware of this presence of Grace within our life.
It is always there, but we have forgotten how to feel and experience it. We listen to our
minds and the thoughts of others, and we become enamored with the chase and pursuit of
happiness, then we miss what is primary. We forget that we are just playing a game of cat
and mouse with happiness, and that when we don’t feel like playing the game anymore
we can stop chasing it, and just accept it.

Through meditation what we are doing is learning to restrain our restless striving
for something better. We are training our attention to stay still. For we can only
experience that which we are. Once we have learned to be still, then we know stillness.
Once we can learn to be an instrument of grace in the world, then we learn to experience
grace directly. Grace is always active remember, but only in stillness can we perceive it,
for it is subtle, and the noise of the world can easily drown out the sensation of its
presence.

One very powerful way to experience the divine presence and grace in your life is
to quit thinking of your self and give your full attention to serving others without thought
of reward. Now some of you may say that you have done this, and that it has worn you
down, and made you bitter because you were not appreciated for your efforts. The
problem is that you were hoping for appreciation. This is not how the divine works. It
gives love unconditionally to the sinner, the saint, the beggar, the rich person, the clerk,
the president, the drug addict, the murderer, the meditator, or the pencil maker. They are
all the same.

To know grace, which is to know the divine, requires that we completely forget
our selves. This self of which I am referring is the little you that has its story, its likes and
dislikes, its preferences, etc. That self is fiction any way. When we give our attention to
the fiction, we experience limitation. If we can learn to turn our attention to the unlimited
divine, then that is what we experience. Working as the divine, we can never know
bitterness or resentment or tiredness, because we have all the energy we need, because we
are all the energy we need.

We are not here to save up all our love and grace for a rainy day, but to learn to
spend it freely, and give it away. Then we realize we are the very river of grace that we
have always been, and grace no longer becomes a question, it becomes its own reality. In
this way, we learn to exist as a transcendent being. We can be in the world when we
chose, playing our role, whatever that may entail. We can also pull pack from our
personality and function as our immortal spiritual nature, free of limitation, clouded
judgments, or lack of resources.

Exercise #1 – Give Up The Fruits of Your Actions
Over the next several days, make a commitment every night before you go to bed
and every morning when you wake up, that no matter what activity you have to perform
throughout the day, you are doing it as an offering to your concept of the Divine. You are
not doing it for money, or for thanks, or for appreciation, you are creating a gift for the
Divine by means of your actions.

Imagine that you are truly creating something, a gift, for the Divine Presence. I
know if I were preparing a gift for God, I would give it my fullest attention. I would
imbue it with love, I would smile as I worked, because God can feel the intentions sent
into any object by way of our thinking. So no matter what you are doing, give it your
fullest attention and do your best to imbue it with presence, love, care, and peace. Even if
you can only do that poorly at first, in this regard, it truly is the thought that counts
If you have to perform an activity for a coworker, spouse, child, friend, motherin-
law, keep the thought in the back of your mind, that the divine is animator of the
personality of this person. Do not perform the actions for the personality, do it for the
divine presence behind the personality. See only the divine in everyone you work for. No
discrimination allowed. Their actions, whether you judge them to be excellent, poor,
good or bad, is just the role God is playing through them. Ignore that. See only the light
behind their eyes, even if you have to try exceptionally hard to imagine that.

Step 1- Every night before you go to sleep, have a talk with your self. Talk about all the
ways you will to serve the divine tomorrow, by writing that report, meeting with that
patient, paying that bill, scrubbing that floor, etc. If you have to work with unpleasant
people, give your self a pep talk about how you are going to change your perceptions, and
no matter how hard it might be, you are going to see the light of God behind the
personality and work only for that, not for the personality.
Step 2- When you wake up in the morning, before you even get out of bed, reaffirm your
commitment to this process. If you have to, tell your self, that you are not a child, and
that you know this is good for you (at least if you want to experience tranquility and
grace in your life), and that “you are going to do it and you are going to like it!”
Step 3- Get out of bed, and keep your attention, as best you can, on every action. Begin
your work creating Gifts for the Divine as often as you can. As you shower, you are
bathing the body of the divine. As you eat, you are recharging the body to do the work
ahead. As you drive, you are driving through the divine presence.

Remember, we become what we think about. If we turn every thought of every
action to the Divine, what will you become? Let me know when you find out.
I know it would be great if all of this was easy, and maybe it is for you, but I’ll
admit it wasn’t for me, and its not for a lot of people. Why? Because unless you are born
with an unyielding sense of optimism and joy, it can be hard to maintain these kinds of
exercises, when we see what goes in the world. So it takes work. But you see, when we
have recreated our ‘incarnated’ self to experience this kind of living, then we have the
power to continue creating in this way, and we have the power to remain in Grace,
because it was by our own efforts that we turned towards grace. We were not wantonly
blown into an experience of the divine by fate, we built up our divine muscles and said,
“I’m going to climb that mountain!” And now you know how to climb it, so if you ever
fall off, or go down to the village for a while, you still know how to climb it!

Going to Heaven, Hell or Beyond? You Decide.
Many yogic spiritual texts affirm the assertion that heaven and hell is not a
permanent state we go to for our failures or successes. They say that heaven is just the
accumulation of our past intentions to experience a heaven like state, and hell is an
accumulation of our misdeeds that will allow us, at some point, to experience that state.

After the energy behind our intentions to experience heaven and hell loses momentum,
we come back to where we started! This is why, yogic texts express the release of
cravings and hopes and fears, so that we may no longer give attention to the temptations
of heaven, and the sufferings of hell. We go beyond them. Neither do we yearn for what
we consider fantastic, nor do we run away from that which bothers us. We do what is
appropriate in the moment, and then we are free to act consciously, in Divine Grace, to
do what needs to be done.

Here are a few formulas you may find useful in this regard:
• If you want to go to heaven after death or have a heaven like experience on earth,
be happy right now. Work unflinchingly for the benefit of others. Do not think
about your self beyond providing for your basic and moderate needs. Live every
day for God.
• If you want to experience (or continue experiencing) hell after death or on earth,
remain in an attitude of resentment towards your past. Nurture the past wrongs
and hurts you have endured and inflicted on others. Steal. Hurt people. Think
only of what you can get out of every experience.
• If you want to go beyond heaven and hell and know your true unconditioned
eternal nature, and the need to maintain a certain state to experience peace and
tranquility, give up your fears and your desires. Let go of the concepts of heaven
and hell. Practice a spiritual technique that quiets your being. Learn to exist in
that stillness in meditation and as you go about your duties in the world. Learn to
do what is appropriate in the moment, beyond your judgment of good and bad. In
this way your karma will exhaust itself, and no matter where you find your self in
eternity, you can smile, free of the fears of losing your reason to smile, and you
can smile, free of the attachment to smiling!

Now, in most cases, you would first focus on experiencing the heaven like state as
mentioned above and let go of the hell-like state and the actions that take you there. Then
once you are stable in that state of consciousness, you move beyond it to transcending
attachments to both heaven and hell. However, as mentioned before, I don’t like to waste
time, and this isn’t a course on getting into heaven, and I’d like to advise pursuing the last
bullet point above. Why? Because once again, once you are in a state of grace, it doesn’t
matter what happens on the “outside” because you know you are just playing your role in
the divine drama. Once established in that grace beyond fear and desire, you can take off
and put on the mask of your personality as often as you like. You are then free. Once you
are free, you can relax, and be tranquil, because you know what you are beyond all
conditioning. You are then a transcendent being!

Exercise #2 – Help Me Help You Understand
Answer the following questions. (Submit any serious inquiries as a comment on this blog post.)
1) What do you think about all of this? How does it sit with you?
2) What makes sense about it? What doesn’t make sense?
3) Can you imagine being completely free? Why might you want to remain attached to
your current role? How useful is from the perspective of Infinity?
4) What fears and desires can you admit that you are tenaciously attached to? Why? Can
you entertain the thought of letting them go? If so, how would things be different for you?

Transcendence in Your Daily Life
People who report having transcendent experiences almost always affirm having a
sense of peace and familiarity about the episode. The deep stillness they sense is
described as being something they have known all along, not as something new or
strange or foreign. It feels like coming home.

At first, on the spiritual path, we may be enamored with strange perceptions
during meditation, such as radiant lights or perceptions of astral landscapes, or feelings of
bliss and ecstasy. We may long for visions of Gods, Goddesses, Angels, or Ascended
masters. Our imagination will provide them of course, but in reality, this is entertainment
no different than what you get at the movies or on your computer. Anything that you can
perceive, is “out there”, and we want you to be “in here” existing freely as your Self. We
want you know what you are, rather than searching for interesting phenomena.

As a person goes through the stages of spiritual awakening, it becomes more and
more ordinary. Gone are the desires to seek a sense of completion or fulfillment through
something external. If it is appropriate, a tranquil spiritually aware person can sit for long
periods of time, simply being. To someone hypnotized by the mind and addicted to sense
stimulation, this seems outrageously ludicrous. Isn’t the act of spiritual awakening meant
to lift you out of the human condition and into a divine condition? Yes it is, but the divine
condition is not a glorified human condition, as our minds would like to believe.

Spend some time in nature. Watch the wind blowing through the trees as they
sway back and forth, or how the wind rolls over the long grass of late summer. See how
the sun and moon cross the sky, and the stars shine as if eternally fixated in the heavens.

Nature can show the consistent tranquility of simply being. See how there is no clinging to the past or expectation of the future in nature.
When the rose blooms, it is beautiful. Its scent fills the air. As the season passes, it fades,
and dies. There is no argument. The Spring will come again. Even if it doesn’t for this
particular rose bush, it will for some other plant. There is no need to worry about which
plant. It does not matter what names or forms are given to the rising and falling waves on
the ocean of consciousness, because it is all the same ocean.

The clearer we realize what reality is, the less words we need to direct us there.
The sage Vasistha said that “words are only used to instruct the ignorant [the one who is
spiritually asleep]. Once there is knowledge, words are no longer needed.” This is why
we begin on our spiritual path embracing a specific teaching, teacher or tradition. We
start with a concept of what it is supposed to be like, and then we practice what we are
taught. As we grow, our concepts change, until eventually we outgrow all concepts. Once
we are beyond concepts we are ‘in reality’. The specific practices we adopt are like the
crucible that is used to forge steel. Once the blade made, than it has only to do its job.

I’d like to share a few experiences of how obsession with spiritual practice can
negate the very thing we are trying to accomplish, and block transcendence.

A few years into my discipleship as a Kriya Yogi, I had maintained my zeal for
meditating at least one hour every morning and when possible another hour later in the
day. One Saturday, we were hosting a party on our 13 acre farm. The plan was to have
lots of homemade food, and a large bon fire. I loved to cook and to build big fires. The
party was a good excuse.

That morning I rose and meditated and did a short hatha yoga routine. I then
decided to go out into the cool morning and begin gathering firewood and kindling for
the party. As I tromped through the tall grass, and scoured the forest, I began thinking, “If
I hurry, I can go back inside and meditate for another hour, because that would do me
good.” This thought began to grow, and I became more anxious to go back inside and
meditate.

After I had gathered most of the wood we needed, I stopped breaking the twigs
off of the piece of wood I was working on, and looked up. A cool breeze came across my
face. I saw the sun creating rainbows in the radiant dew drops on the grass. I could smell
the sweet earth. A peace descended on me and I realized that the entire time I had been
worrying about going back in to meditate longer, I could’ve been ‘being’ completely
present in the Divine grace that was all around me. For the rest of the day I remained in
that state, tranquil, internally still, while actively preparing for the nights festivities.

On another occasion, I had been going about my day doing normal self-employed
business office duties. With each action, whether I was writing an email, driving to the
post office, researching a chart, I noticed that I was always waiting and hoping for
something. For what!?! I was waiting for the action I was doing to be over, because I
could be better using my time reading spiritual literature or meditating. I was hoping I
could get everything done so I’d have more time to reflect on life and my relationship to
God. So I could spend more time in the peace of nature. Ridiculous!

What was the result of this waiting and hoping? I was not aware that in every step,
in every breath, in every moment I was experiencing life, I was experiencing Divine
Grace. I was labeling certain actions as spiritual and certain actions as mundane, and
thereby creating a separation in my Self. I had to strive to make more time to do those
spiritual things, while enduring all the useless mundane things I needed to accomplish to
provide for my self. I was creating a strain that didn’t need to be there, and wasting my
energy in useless judgmental thought patterns about what the present “should” be like!

From that point forward I committed my self to allowing each moment to be as it
is, no matter the quality. I would no longer allow myself to waste the precious
experiences of this life wishing them away because they didn’t fit my expectations
exactly as I had planned. I would, of course, keep my intention set on living the life that
was ideal for me. If I found my self in an unpleasant situation, I would remove my self
from it. If action needed to be taken to change an outcome, I would do it. But when
things didn’t work out, no matter the efforts I made, I would relax, pay attention, and let it
pass, as all things will. It was in this way, that Grace became apparent behind all things.

The two experiences mentioned above had the effect of changing my life. I
learned to notice when I was waiting for ‘this moment’, the one I judged as unspiritual, to
be over, that I was really wasting my life. I learned that no matter what I was doing, it
didn’t really matter how I felt about it, it still had to be done. Labeling it as a waste of
time, was just labeling life itself as a waste of time. To think I should be meditating,
when really I should be working or interacting with the world of form, was affirming that
I clearly did not accept the truth that “God is all things, manifest and unmanifest”. I
wanted God, but only in a certain way, and so the grace I experienced in life was just as
limited.

I learned that we make up stories in our heads about what life should be like, and
then when life doesn’t live up to those expectations we are disappointed. I learned to stop
telling my self stories, at least 90 percent of the time, about what I was experiencing, and
to just experience it.

When this happened, life blossomed. Gone were the crushing thoughts of
expectations, false ideas of how things should be. What was left, was every moment, new.
What had the chance to come forth in my awareness was that we live in an eternity and it
doesn’t matter so much if the waves of eternity are constantly perfect. What matters is
that we know how to ride those waves, that we know how to really jump into the amazing
waves, and that we know when and how to lay back and let the so-so ones pass.

Mahavatar Babaji was known to have said, “Few know that the kingdom of
heaven extends fully to this physical world.” Yogananda has said, “Banish the idea that
spiritual and material realities are separate.” I would like to encourage you to do the same.
When it is time to meditate, pray, be with your spiritual teacher, or read inspirational
literature do so. When it is time to work in the world, meet people, wash your car, tell the
bum to get out of your way and that you don’t need your windows washed, or buy
someone pizza, do so. Know that no matter what you are doing, you are in your right
place in the divine drama, and don’t be too attached to the out come. Hold your vision and
your intention and move forward, then let the seeds of grace sprout and grow on their
own time.

Sincerely, Ryan Kurczak 2010

Vision and Purpose

A Course in Tranquility – Lesson 4 of 14 – Vision and Purpose

We are each individualized expressions of consciousness. What does that mean?
It means that we are a condensation of Infinity. Imagine that there is a field of being that
has no boundary and no limitation. You can imagine it like an immense ocean, if you are
inclined. Now, from time to time, that ocean becomes more dense. Imagine a flat cloth
sheet spread across a table. Now imagine pressing your finger on the sheet and twisting it,
so that the sheet bunches up around your finger. The field bunches up into an
“individual”. The field becomes contracted and it experiences itself with attributes. It
gains a sense of self, it feels that it is an individual. It gains a personality, an idea of
history. It is then able to feel itself and begins to “think” that it is different than the space
around it.

Imagine, as the sage Vasistha would have you do, that this field takes shape,
much like a block of gold can be shaped into a bracelet. The biggest problem we all have
to face is the forgetfulness that although we are no longer identified with the formless
field, we are still that field, just as the bracelet is really still gold. To feel separate from
God or the Divine is just as absurd as the bracelet bemoaning that it has become a
bracelet and lost its “goldness”.

Yogananda has said that, “the purpose of life is much different than what most
people believe.” He is correct. The purpose of life is to wake up to your immortal nature.
It’s to realize that, yes, you currently identify with a form, but that really you are the
wholeness of life. I’ve heard my meditation teacher say before, that when you meditate,
“feel as though you are in God.” I followed this advice for a long time. Then one day, it
occurred to me. ‘Since we are not separate from God or the infinite, why not meditate as
though we are the infinite!?’ You then realize that you are what God is doing right now.

From a human perspective, raised on stories of heroes saving the day, and taught
that we need to overcome odds and achieve glory, fame, money, a big house, the perfect
family, etc. the need for a purpose is extremely strong. However, the question I’d like to
encourage you to ask your self is, “What needs a purpose?” Obviously you will say that
“You do!” But that is not true. Remember, the real you is immortal, changeless, timeless,
infinite. Yet something within encourages you that there must be a purpose to your life to
be happy and successful. You can meditate on this, and I highly advise that, so that you
get the direct experience of this knowledge.

I’m going to go ahead and give the actual answer to this question, “who needs a
purpose”. The mind needs a purpose. You are not the mind. Yet you have a mind, and it’s
not happy unless it’s got something to think about. Hence, one thing that will keep it
thinking for centuries is “what’s my purpose?” Why is this case? If you had a purpose,
you would be acting on it and not wondering what it is. We’ll discuss how to remedy the
“I need a purpose” problem later in the lesson.

I’d like to encourage you to think about something to help bring this home. When
you look to nature, do you wonder, “what’s the purpose?” If so, why? Does nature
wonder, “what’s the purpose of my existence?” No. So why should you? Think about
dancing. Is the purpose of dancing to get from point A to point B? Think about music. Is
the purpose to get to the end of a song? You may have heard theories that all of this
experience is God’s play, or that life is a cosmic dance. So what’s the purpose of playing
and dancing? Simply, to do it.

Now, it is obvious that we, being individualized units of infinity, do have specific
role to play in this divine drama. If you want to think about it, think of it as though you
are each individual cells of a larger organism, you are not different from the organism,
because you came out of its substance, but you take shape to express certain aspects so
that organism may experience life.

Before we go into more detail about what you, as an individual “should” be doing
with your life, please take some time to answer the following questionnaire. Write as
much as you want, but be sure to write at least three good sentences for each question.
This will start the process of being able to really question your ideas about purpose, and
bring some more clarity along the way.

So You Need a Purpose Questionnaire
1) In an ideal world, what would your purpose be?
2) Are you living in the world, acting in a way, or doing work that you do not
enjoy or that you find meaningless?
3) Where do you think meaning comes from?
4) Why are you living like you are living now?
5) Who told you to live this way? Why did you listen?
6) Do you think fulfillment is going to come when you accomplish that one
specific thing, meet that one specific person, or acquire a certain predetermined status?
7) What is wrong with right now?
8) When you are in your day, and you are doing your job, or interacting with
certain people, are there particular moments that just are not right? Are you sure? How
can you tell?
9) What makes you think that one moment is better than another?
10) What would it mean to you if you know, in your heart of hearts, your sense of
meaning is really only dependant on your attitude and choice to imbue something with
meaning and purpose?

How to Avoid Wasting Your Life Wondering
As we go along, we need to realize that one of the biggest blocks to experiencing
real tranquility is thinking too much. As mentioned before, yes, we do need to be able to
think. We need to be able to reason, to balance our check book, to make a plan of action,
to assess the merit or demerit of a situation, but once these actions are completed,
thinking does not need to continue.

As mentioned above, wondering what your purpose is, is one sure fire way to
waste endless moments of time thinking and not being in a tranquil space. The real reason
we think too much is to avoid making decisions. Why? Usually it’s because we don’t
want to fail. We want to make sure we are making the right decision. As if, if we only
made that one perfect decision, everything would work out in a fairy tale ending, AND
THEN we can relax and be tranquil.

This leads us back to the ideal of spiritual practice as daily living: To act in the
world, while letting go of the fruits of our actions. Take some time to think about this.
Can anyone, even the most talented expert in a field, completely control the outcomes of
their actions? We can live perfectly skillfully, and yes this has merit. It keeps us out of a
lot of trouble and gives us a higher probability that life will go our way, but has anyone
been able assure that life WILL go the way they want all time? Jesus was nailed to a
cross. Do you think that was on his personal agenda? The point I am making is that, we
are here to act, to surrender, to let the divine work through us. We are here to do our best
and give up the fruits of our actions to the divine, and then let the cards fall where they
may.

Many people mistake this idea of renouncing our actions to mean that they should
just not do anything. If nothing happens, then that is God’s will. There is the thought they
should renounce their work, family, obligations etc, to know God. In our current age, that
is not a useful thought. If work is troubling, if family gets in the way of your decisions,
or your obligations waste your time and your resources, then yes, cut them loose.
Otherwise, this is a projection of your own inability to accept the moment, and to blame it
on an external situation.

Real renunciation is being appropriate to the moment while letting go of
attachment to the action. If your kid needs a new pair of shoes, it’s appropriate to get him
a pair. No need to think about it. That is what needs to occur. If your coworker is going
out to lunch, your hungry, you didn’t bring food to work, and she asks you to tag along,
that is appropriate. Who needs to think about it? If you have a terrible disease and need
treatment, do some research, find out what would help out, and if you want to live, take
action. If you don’t like your spouse anymore and you don’t have much in common or
are not supportive of each others lifestyle, it may be time for counseling or moving on.
Make a decision and let it go. You can never look back and say, “Well, if I had only done
that…” If you had only done ‘that’, still no one can say what the outcome would’ve been.

To avoid useless thinking and endless worrying and begin more fully moving into
a state of tranquility, follow these steps:

1) Look at the situation you are in.
2) Ask, “what is appropriate for me to do here?”
3) Based on the information you have, and the inner guidance that is available to
you, make a decision.
4) Act on the decision.
5) Let the result be what it is. You can’t control that. That’s the way it is, so make
some peace with it.
6) Move on to the next moment.
7) Repeat.

Now, you might be focused on step #3, specifically the part that talks about
accessing your inner guidance. This is a very important part of the whole process, and
there are some good points to remember about how this works:

• The same intelligence that organizes the trillions of cells in your body, and the
spinning and whirling of the countless galaxies guides your actions.
• Inspiration and inner guidance is nothing special, mystical or flashy. There are no
bells and whistles. If you think there are, that is the mind needing something
interesting to pay attention to.
• The more you pay attention to your inner guidance, the more active it becomes.
• The less you pay attention to and the more willful you are about needing to think
things through, the less active is the inner guidance.

Learning to Access Your Inner Guidance

First, you can meditate every day. That will allow you to detach from your mind and
your thinking process so you can become aware of the vast stillness, from which the inner
guidance comes. Then as you go about your day, if you need to make a decision, you can
remember what it was like to be in the silence, and then ask, “What is appropriate here?”
Now, the response will not be a thought. If you ask the question, and you are greeted
with a flurry of thoughts resembling a list of multiple choice answers, ignore them.

Remember the silence, and ask again. Then wait. You will find that the inner guidance
comes out of nowhere. It does not come in the form of a thought. It comes as an impulse.
The impulse feels natural. Someone calls your phone. You don’t think about it, you just
immediately decide to ignore it or answer it. Someone asks what your name is, again you
don’t think about it, you just decide to say your name. That’s the kind of feeling that the
inner guidance resembles. It is immediate and natural.

The more you trust yourself to live in this way, the better decisions you will be
making, because you will not be relying on the limited information in your mind to make
decisions, you will be merged with your infinite nature and allowing the natural
expression of that nature to come through. Note, I did not say, everything will work out
exactly as you expect it to. To think that is a waste of time and a way of maintaining
unreasonable expectations. A well informed man once said, “Not even the very wise can
see all ends.” And he said it for a reason!

Your Purpose Is Found in Your Vision
We have a vision of life. Each of us have ideas about how life works, why people are
the way they are, what an ideal life looks like. In our consciousness we have moods, and
thoughts and memories we constantly entertain. These are the threads of the fabric of our
vision.

Do you want to know what your vision of life is?

• Look at the people around you.
• Look at the moods and feelings you habitually have.
• Look at what you do with your time.
• Look at the thoughts you allow your self to think.

This is your vision. You see it outside, but you only see it there, because that is
the way you believe life is, that is your internal faith in the world. This is usually the
hardest thing to swallow, because it can be EXTREMELY hard to change. This depends
on how invested we are in this vision. Again, meditation is so important, because over
time, if we do it right, we eventually get to see that we are NOT our thoughts, moods,
actions, friends, etc. If we are not these things, it is easier to change them, because they
do not define us. If you want to know your purpose, it is sustaining your vision. We do it
every day, whether we know it or not.

Remember, we are infinite. The real us is not bound by time, or space, or
circumstance.

We have free will. To think that there is a divine being in the sky proclaiming that
“such and such” should happen, is another way of skirting our responsibility, and once
more projecting the source of our experiences, somewhere outside of us. Our fate, our
purpose, is just the accumulation of our past thoughts, actions, and states of
consciousness. God is infinite. That means there are infinite possibilities. ANYTHING
CAN HAPPEN. God is infinite. While embodied, we have a choice in regards to what
part of our infinity we want to experience.

We’ve talked a lot about giving up the fruits of our actions and letting results be
what they may. Yet I also encourage you to live a dynamic life, making choices and
moving in the direction you want to go. This can create a bit of dissonance. It can inspire
someone to ask, “Well, if I can’t control the results, why should I try to do anything at
all?”

You will always be somewhere in Infinity. So let your purpose be to build your
ideal vision. As you persist, and give it attention and are skillful and mindful as you go,
your vision will become a reality. Worrying about your mistakes, and thinking about the
results doesn’t help you get there. It is your intention, fortified by your actions, thoughts,
feelings and faith, that creates it.

Yogananda once said, that within failure is the best time to sow the seeds of
success. This is because if you fail at an endeavor, you have just burnt off some of the
force of your past actions that were supportive of failure. When you fail, and you get up
and keep moving toward your goal, you are taking actions and setting intentions for
success. To continue in this way, eventually, the power of your actions dedicated to being
successful in an endeavor will become stronger than your past actions towards failure.
Then success in the given endeavor becomes the norm. It’s all about the interplay
between your past and present actions.

Fate is the accumulation of your past actions and modes of being. You create your
future fate by the persistence of your present actions and modes of being.

Creating Your Vision and Purpose

Now that you have had a chance to do some reflecting on your mental concepts of
purpose and life, let’s get right down determining your role in life and how that role is
determined.

Step 1: Make peace with the role you have been playing up until now. This may
take some reflection, some therapy, or just a moments notice. What ever you need to do,
do it.
Step 2: Acknowledge that your head might be filled with thoughts, ideas,
intentions, successes and failures of others you have encountered. Decide if you want to
keep listening to the stuff in your head. Remember, the people that you have allowed to
influence your sense of self are just like you. So there is nothing special about their input
that you need to pay attention to unless you want to. Even if they are extremely
persuasive people, that doesn’t make their insights more pertinent, it just means they are
better at making an impression and being persuasive.
Step 3: Begin to use your imagination. Brainstorm. Get out a sheet of paper and
write at the top MY VISION OF LIFE. Then make a list of 100 specific things you would
be doing, ways you would be feeling, the types of people you would be interacting with if
you were living your vision in this moment. 100 is a lot, but don’t stop until you reach
100.
Step 4: Face your fears. Look at your vision of life. Take another sheet of paper.
Look at each of the 100 items individually. Write down what would need to change in
your life to make this so. Then write down why this scares you.
Step 5: Looking at your fears, take another sheet of paper. Now beside each fear,
list what the pros and cons are of remaining immobilized by this fear.
Step 6: Decide if your vision is worth it to you. If it is proceed to step 7. If it’s not,
start over or revise your vision. But remember, you will get exactly what you settle for.
Step 7: Look at the list of actions you need to take to experience your vision.
Make a discipline of doing at least one thing every day, that will make your vision a
reality. Find pictures of people who have accomplished the same thing. Keep those
pictures somewhere you can see them often. Read biographies of people who have
accomplished this similar vision. In this way, you will be attuning to their state of
consciousness and accessing the support of that state. Avoid people who are unsupportive
in their thoughts and actions. Don’t talk about your vision to anyone, unless you have a
mentor that can guide you. Keep your energy for actually doing what it takes to birth
your vision.
Step 8: Let go of the results of your actions, and persist until your vision is as
natural as the current vision of your life is. Let your purpose be manifesting this vision.

Sincerely, Ryan Kurczak 2010

No Reasons

A Course in Tranquility Lesson 1 of 14 – No Reasons

“Learn to live a natural and spontaneous life, contentedly.” According to the sage
Vasistha, that is the point. It is to this end, that we will direct our efforts, so that you may
know the power of real tranquility. By clearing away our false notions of reality and who
and what we really are, we will learn to exist in truth. By challenging our preconceptions
of what it means to be fully human and Self-realized we will learn that it is as easy or as
hard as we make it. There is no end to this thing called life, and we, our individual
personalities, are unique and necessary expressions of it. It is by learning to function
between two worlds, the limited world of the personality, and the infinite world which is
the source of our very existence that we learn to joyfully ride the rising and falling waves
of divine creation. Living from the full knowledge of our essence of being we know what
we are and what are not, and are then free to move gracefully and dispassionately in,
through and as the infinite consciousness.

Identification with the mind, our collection of thoughts, beliefs, and conditioning,
is the root of the weed that prevents our natural spontaneity. It is also the vessel that
maintains our false sense of self, so that we are confined to act only within a certain set of
parameters. We become so invested in this false sense of self that we defend it to the
detriment of our quality of life. Stray too far outside the boundaries of who you think you
are or what you think your life should be like, and prepare for the waves of anxiety,
confusion and fear that will wash over you. All the terror is a mind produced phenomena
generated by our inability to accept our capacity to act as a limitless manifestation of a
field of unbounded possibilities.

Once we let go of the mind and let it function in its natural role, as a servant to
our consciousness–calculator and recorder of data, we are free to turn our attention to
more important matters, such as living.

Consider the quote from Alan Watts, “No work of love will flourish out of guilt,
fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those
who have no capacity for living now.” Living now is an inside job. No matter how hard
you try, there will never be any fulfillment from the external world. No situation, person,
experience, place, or thing will ever fully satisfy you. There is no satisfaction in the
future, and despite what you may falsely remember, there was never any satisfaction in
the past. If you were ever truly satisfied, it is because you chose to be. You may have
attached a reason to it, but that reason was just an after-thought, albeit a very subtle one.

The past and future are external creations, projections and recordings of past
perceptions in the mind. A very efficient and quick way restore the mind to its natural
function is to stop waiting for the next moment. No doubt you have already experienced
the fact that it is easier said than done. When you work, live, love and play without
waiting for the next moment everything you are and encounter flourishes.

The way to success in this endeavor returns us to our very Self, not the mind
imagined self, but our true eternal nature, the witnessing presence. When you find your
self waiting for the next moment, admit it. Then ask your self, “What is waiting for this
next moment?” Of course the answer is “I am.” We then take it a step further, “What am
I?” Ask that question enough and sit quietly receptive and open to the answer, and you
will move into a state of tranquility like you could never have imagined possible. To
develop the skill of receptivity to the answer, meditation is invaluable, and we will
review that practice at the end of this lesson. It is impossible to really ‘hear’ the answer
or experience the truth of what you are if we have not learned to turn down the static in
our consciousness, and that is the point of meditation. For now, let us continue on
focusing on the living present.

In our efforts to stop waiting for the next moment, we can learn to experience our
consciousness directly. We wait for the next moment because we are not comfortable
where we are for one reason or another. We are uncomfortable because we do not
remember what we truly are, and are avoiding reality. Finding reasons for our discomfort
will only strengthen the identification with the mind, that very thing we are trying to up
root.

The best way to stop waiting for the next moment is to simply accept what
consciousness is experiencing through your personality at this moment. If it is an
uncomfortable feeling of dis-ease, just feel it. Do not continue to fool your self that
something external in the future will change this feeling of dis-ease. Also, do not look to
the past for the reason that you feel the way you do. You can always find a reason to feel
bad, just as you can always imagine a reason to feel good. It just depends on which habit
you have strengthened most, feeling bad, or feeling great! The power in this practice is
not finding or imagining reasons for your current state of consciousness, it is DECIDING
to be different now FOR NO REASON. When you decide to be a certain way for no
reason, then no reason can influence you to be a way you do not want to be. The mind
feeds on reasons. You grow into tranquility through being free of reasons.

To avoid frustration, it is good to accurately judge your potential in this practice.
If this is a new concept for you, your abilities to make these changes will, of course, be
weak. Just as with all exercises, you start where you can and hold the intention of where
you want to be until you get there. Then you become strong. Your mind may be strong
and your tendency towards tranquility may be weak. Just admit it, if it is true. This state
of affairs has occurred because you, like many people, have given more attention to the
mind, rather than to a state of tranquility. We are now undertaking the task to reverse that
tendency. You will succeed so long as you never quit. This is exactly how all the other
saints and sages of the world have become what they have become. They persevered.

Well intentioned people may say that saints and sages are created through grace.
Grace is involved, but not in the way you might imagine. As written in the bible, “God
helps those who help themselves.” Grace, like fate, is the accumulation of present self
efforts to a desired end. So yes, God does help those who help themselves. No unit of
consciousness has ever experienced sainthood without intention or practice.

What is a saint or a sage? A saint is a person who is completely and totally
knowledgeable and identified with the Self. To say that a sage is the eternal Self is not
entirely correct. Otherwise we would all be saints. A realized holy person can be
appropriate in any circumstance. When it is time to meditate, she can withdraw her
attention into complete and total pure consciousness. When it is time to interact with a
neighbor, or a family member, or to take any normal action in the world, she can do her
best without attachment to the results of her actions. Remember, the label saint or sage is
just role some people play. One can be Self and God-realized playing any role.

Saints do not have to act pious, or have any outward display of divinity. Saints
that display fantastic powers do so for a reason. Their mission in the world may involve
being spectacular in some way, but this is not a requirement. There are many people who

can display fantastic feats and have interesting psychic abilities, but they have no idea
about who or what they are and so still function out of an illusional sense of self, rather
than a surrendered and appropriate expression of the infinite consciousness. Fantastic
“spiritual powers” manifest spontaneously without premeditation through a saint. I
mention this point, because it is not helpful to define your progress through any special
abilities or perceptions. Our only point of measure should be the amount of tranquility
and wisdom that comes as we mature into our intention to wake up fully.

Involved in the world of form, emotions are common to everyone. Realized
people feel emotions as well as everyone else. They can also choose to express or not
express certain emotions, good or bad. They are free, so they are free to do what is
appropriate. The difference between a realized person and others, is that the realized
person is not attached to emotional states or expressions. They are free to be fully human
and fully divine simultaneously, and all that implies. When you directly experience that
you are a realized sage, you too will have that same latitude.

According to sage Patanjali, “Yoga is the cessation of fluctuations in the field of
consciousness. When the fluctuations cease, the seer abides in its own nature. At other
times there is conformity to definitions.” Yoga in this context refers to a complete
realization of the unity of consciousness. The result is perfect peace and tranquility. With
the ending of fluctuations (or the need to think and label), Self-realization shines forth of
its own accord. We are completely fulfilled. When focused on the “changes” or
“differences” in consciousness, we are bound again to live in delusion and thereby forget
our tranquility.

The idea of changes or fluctuations in consciousness is just that, an idea. To
clarify, note the words of Vasistha, “Even as the mirage appears to be a very real river of
water, this creation appears to be entirely real. And as long as one clings to the notion of
the reality of “you” and “I”, there is no liberation.” The notions of “you” and “I” is label
created by the mind. We are inseparable. When we dream, who are the characters in the
dream? Are they not a manifestation of the same one thing? The same is true for our
waking dream. To continue to enforce labels, rather than simply acting appropriately and
knowing this whole experience is just one thing, we continue our existence in bondage.

Begin to accept, that this, your experiences, is all you. You may not have the power to
fully realize that, or to even understand what this will mean once you fully grasp it. But if
you are going to entertain a notion, “This is all me” is a good one to switch to.
Vasistha continues, “Not by merely and verbally denying such a notion of
existence is it obliterated: on the contrary, such denial itself becomes a further
distraction.” To deny the existence of a problem simply enforces it. To say, “I’m working
hard to gain liberation and perfect peace,” generates the notion, that you do not have
liberation or peace. You are affirming that which you do not want to experience without
your knowing. You are liberation and peace. To say, “I am making my self well through
this practice, because there was something fundamentally wrong with me before,” has the
same effect. There is nothing wrong with you. You have just been affirming your current
state through your actions, thoughts and words. Now it is time to affirm that which you
do want to experience.

This brings us to the secret key a lot of spiritual teachers leave out. Practice is
done for the joy of doing the practice, not for a result. If you like to meditate, excellent,
meditate because you like it. If you like to pray for peace, that’s good, do it for its own
sake. If you enjoy reading spiritual or philosophical literature, knock your self out, not
because it will make you better or because it is good for you, but because that is what
consciousness enjoys doing through you. Play music, dance, and cook, serve the
homeless or work hard at your job. If you need a reason, do it because that is what you
the Self enjoys doing through you as an individualized unit of its own wholeness. The
real eternal you, is not going to get any better. Not even with age.

Now there may be experiences you would like to have which involve doing things
you do not particularly enjoy. In our current cultural atmosphere, sitting to meditate for
an hour a day, being truthful in all circumstances, eating a non-fad nutrition rich diet,
being content for no reason, working to have adequate resources to accomplish goals and
even regular exercise, all actions conducive to the practice of experiencing liberation of
consciousness, a lot of people do not like to do. This again comes down to choice and
how badly you would like to experience the life you want. If you do not want to harness
your will to overcome attachments to your current experience, and are not willing to
master your state of consciousness to move beyond debilitating aversions, at least be
honest with your self about it. There is no need to feel guilt about your choice. Either you
do or you don’t. It’s up to you. Being peacefully self honest about it, is a good first step.
Keep it up for long enough, and you may find that you eventually start moving in the
direction you want effortlessly.

Remember, you are the Self. Nothing can make you the Self, or take you away
from the Self. It is you. Now that we have that cleared up, the important question arises,
as stated so well by Roy Eugene Davis, “How do you want to be living your immortal
life?” This is what I would like you to think about as we move through this course. If you
already have a clear idea, write it down. Hold that intention as we proceed. If you do not
yet know, hold the intention that you do know how you want to live your immortal life.
Affirm it with conviction daily. When you feel lost or confused do not affirm the feeling
of doubt. Chase it away however you can, and bring back up the feeling of what it would
be like to be completely and totally knowledgeable. You do not have to have the
information in your mind immediately. Remember, there is more to you than the mind.
Through the affirmation and adopting the feeling state, you are accessing the information.
Be patient as the rest of your being, the infinite consciousness, gathers the opportunities
to reveal it to you.

With every breath and movement, feel as though you are, at this very moment,
living a natural and spontaneous life, contentedly. In all circumstances, whether you
judge the circumstance to be perfect or imperfect, good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant,
accept that this is your natural and spontaneous life, the accumulation of all your present
choices, thoughts and words up to this point. Be content to let the accumulated force
exhaust itself. It has to one way or the other. To deny this is to deny reality, and that will
not help. As the accumulated force loses its momentum, make the choices that are
conducive to your ideal experience as an expression of the infinite consciousness.
Review this writing before sleep at night or during leisure time. Contemplate that
which you do not understand, and put into action what you do understand. It will become
clearer with repeated contact.

Week 1 Exercise #1
Begin or Deepen a Regular Meditation Practice
First sit in a comfortable position with the back straight. Close your eyes and look
slightly upward gazing into the darkness of your eyelids. Upward gazing will keep you
alert and awake. Take a few deep breaths, and feel the air come in and leave your body.
With each exhalation let your worries or concerns fall away. As you settle into a relaxed
attentive state set your intention to experience the essence of divinity within and without
you. This can be done with a prayer if you are inclined. Now, return your attention to
your breath.

For the next fifteen minutes just breath, and be aware of breathing. Should
thoughts arise, let them pass. Remember to give yourself fully to the practice. Become
absorbed in the breath, prayer or stillness. This is the time for inner rejuvenation. You
have all day to attend to other matters. After any form of distraction, gently return your
attention to your breathing. When you are ready, drop the breath from you attention. Rest
within the stillness that has been allowed to emerge from this simple practice.

After a few weeks gaining proficiency in the above routine, utilizing the
following schedule can deepen the practice. Twice a day sit for thirty to forty-five
minutes. Set aside the same time every day. Sit where you will not be disturbed. Take a
few deep breaths and get comfortable with your back straight. Close your eyes and direct
your attention within. Again, looking slightly upward to stay alert and affirm your
innate divine nature.

Recite a memorized prayer, or speak one spontaneously silently to allow the
connection with the divine to become more real. Now, use a two word phrase to direct
your attention toward. This can be as simple as “Peace, love” or any other word that
positively attracts your attention. With your breathing recite your word phrase. On the
inhale, listen to the first word inside your head. On the exhale, listen to the second word.
Let it fill your entire awareness. Give all of your attention to it.

Should thoughts or distractions arise, gently bring your attention back to your
word phrase and breathing. Practice feeling the word phrase resonating in your awareness
for the next ten to fifteen minutes. This will calm the mind and allow the body to relax
deeply. Now rest in this relaxed, yet alert peaceful state. Remain calm and poised for as
long as possible.

Once internal or external distractions begin to make themselves known, start over
again. Continue practicing in this way until you have reached your proscribed time.
Finish with a silent prayer, and acknowledge the divine peace you experienced, and let it
fill your day.

After resting for a while in the pure state of awareness you may conclude and go
about your day, or remain a little longer engaging in constructive problem solving. It is
after the practice that we can most appropriately address any issues in our lives that need
it. When our awareness is not clouded by overactive thoughts or emotions we are more
easily able to understand why things are the way they are. With this understanding

proper action can be taken to change. This practice creates the structure in life for the
unfoldment of self-realization and spiritual knowledge. Without this understanding we
wander pointlessly into suffering.

Each day we meditate or pray to realize our spiritual purposes and how they
transpose into our physical life, we lay a few more bricks into the structure. With
patience and consistency we will eventually wake up to find that the last brick was set
yesterday morning, and from there all we need do is let life happen spontaneously and
constructively.
Week 1 Exercise #2
Stop Waiting for the Next Moment
What ever you are doing in your day, do it fully. Focus on the action. Just do the
action. There is no need to think about it, unless thinking is the action. Once you are done
with one action, move on to the next.
It is helpful to make a list the night before of what you intend to accomplish the
next day. Here is an example list:
1. Meditate.
2. Shower.
3. Go to work. (You could also make a list of what you will do while at work.)
4. Exercise for 45 minutes.
5. Pay due bills
6. Practice my instrument.
7. Clean the kitchen after dinner
8. Watch favorite show.
9. Check the mail.
10. Read “Yoga Sutras.”
11. Meditate.
12. Make ‘to do’ list for tomorrow.

Now you do not have to think about your day. You know what you are going to
do. You can now focus on one thing at a time. Mark out each action as they are
completed. This will also help you feel a sense of accomplishment as your day progresses.
There may be points through out the day when you are unhappy or uncomfortable
with the present circumstance. That’s natural until you learn to be content all the time.
What is the best way to deal with moments like that?

First, admit that you feel the way you do. Then if you find your self thinking that
something in the future would change it, stop. More than likely, you would just feel better
temporarily, and then once that is cleared up, something else would come up and you
would think that there must be something else. It’s an endless cycle. So just stop it now.
Next, you will probably look for something or someone in the past to blame your
unpleasant state on. Stop that too. Don’t blame, just feel what you feel. It will quit
eventually. Stay in reality, and the relative reality may be that you feel uncomfortable.
Leave the past and future alone.

Does this make sense? No, of course not. Your mind would like it to though,
wouldn’t it? Stay vigilant and continue the practice. You will eventually have the direct
experience, that how you feel is not dependant on the past or the future, and that you can
always find a reason to feel how you do. Forget about reasons. Focus on choice.
Choose what you want to feel and feel it. Don’t wait for the next moment. Be with
what is, and once you are comfortable with that, then choose what is. You are learning to
develop control over your states of consciousness, a key skill for any Self-realized person.

Sincerely, Ryan Kurczak 2010

No More Reasons

According to the Yoga Sutras, Chapter 4, Verse 10, “There is no moment of time that can be determined regarding the flow of causes and their effects.”

Do you need a reason for this?

Sometimes we need to understand why something happens, in order to make improvements or to stop an event

from recurring. Sometimes we spend a lot of time trying to figure out the “why” when really, the reason doesn’t matter, we only need to make a firm choice a stance to decide, things will be different.

Our life experiences is responsive to our states of consciousness and mind. If the mind is caught up in looking for reasons for an events occurrence, our life experience will continually create experiences to support that search and analysis. If we, however, decide that it doesn’t matter what has led to such an experience, and that we are going to not entertain that experience any more, our consciousness responds, and we have a window of opportunity to live differently, without any need for a reason.

I was just sent the quote, “Pain pushes you until your vision pulls you.”  Your pain comes from being stuck in past behaviors or karmas, and being pushed around by those past conditionings which no longer serve you. When you are led by vision, this is coming from inspiration and the natural expression of God in the world, which is beyond conditioning.

Let go of the reasons, for why you think you are the way you are, or why your life has turned out the way it has. Learn to sit still and listen to the silence within, asking only for direct experience of your nature as wholeness and divine consciousness, and then ask for the vision you are meant to express in the world.  Be OK, if the vision goes counter to what you have been holding on to, so strongly in the past, or what you have always hoped for.  I once read “hope is the denial of reality”.  So let’s not deny reality, but make friends with it, and learn to love what is real, without reason.

 

Revealing Your Spiritual Depth

The following video was recorded at Center for Spiritual Awareness of Asheville on June 12th, 2011, at the 9 AM “Inspiration and Meditation” Session.

It has been edited down to fit on youtube.

Topics include, “Using your will, while loving God”, “How to feed your consciousness”, “Ways to go deeper into meditation”, & “Paying attention to what is eternal, versus the non eternal.”

Your comments are welcome.

Alone

Sometimes I feel alone when I am in a new place, or in a far away place, or even when I’m with the people I love. I’ve had this habit since childhood,
and even now it can strike me.

We can feel alone when no one is around, or when we are with our best friend, or even in a large group.

We can feel full of life and presence in a forest, or by our selves in silent meditation.

Ultimately, when we can turn off the stories in our minds about how things should be, in regards to our relationship to the world and others, and sit quietly, feeling the movement of our inner heart, we may find we’ve never been alone, because there is nothing other than the very expression of consciousness through our own individualized lens of perception.

We don’t always feel this, because the mind/ego needs a reason to feel unsettled, or needs an obstacle to overcome to feel important. Give attention to the inner heart, and the ego/mind dissolves. Then we are left only with the heartbeat, the throbbing of eternity, beyond all craving or desire. See if there is a question or experience of aloneness in that state.

I remembered this, this morning after I awoke and meditated deeply on my heart. I gave my self fully to my breathe and feeling my consciousness beyond my small human mind and personality. It felt as though a flower had opened to the sun, and I was the first to see it.

(Notes from travels in WV).

Back to meditation now, before the days yoga sutras class begins.

Distractions?

Over and over we have been told, or we have read, that when we seek God first, to the point of direct realization, all that is needed will be provided.

It’s an easy message to forget, because we are often raised to believe all our outer circumstances must be perfect, before we can turn our attention within. Even if we don’t believe this consciously, we can see how this way of being is evident unconsciously.

When sitting to meditate, how often do we think about our day’s problems and our life responsibilities? How often do we come to the spiritual path, not to know the fullness of God or the direct experience of the wholeness within our own Self, but to escape from or to fix problems, our less than perfect lives.

All great teachers, Masters, Self-realized persons had trials. They all (at least the ones I’m familiar with) did not look to their trials as a reality, but as an inspiration to go deeper into God, acknowledging God as the only reality.

Pray, meditate, live, and breathe to know the full reality of God, to know its truth of being inside you, closer than even your very breathe.

When you are meditating cast aside your worldly concerns. Give them up to the divine presence within and around. This presence manages the seasons, the stars in the sky, and the heartbeat of over 7 billion humans. It can handle your concerns too. You just have to release them, and focus on the Source.

When you are with spiritually supportive friends, teachers or acquaintances, let go of your attachment to their personality, which may have their quirks, and focus on the depth of that divine being manifesting through their individualized awareness. Let go of talking about anything other than than divine inspiration, and if you can, let go of talking all together and just sit. Then you may find the real beauty expressing through humanity.

(Thoughts while on the road to WV, to teach a yoga philosophy workshop.)

Demonstrate God

The following passage comes from Joel S. Goldsmith’s book called Practicing the Presence.

Practising the Presence Joel Goldsmith

“Meeting God face to face is the end of the road.  There is nothing more to be desired. When we come to this point, we know exactly what Paul meant when he said, ‘I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.’ It is almost as if we were looking over our shoulder and watching the Christ work in us and through us and for us. It goes before us. If supply is needed, It provides it.  If a home is needed, It provides it. If transportation is needed, It provides it. We never have to take thought of these things; all we have to do is continue our life of contemplation, and then we shall find that in our business, profession, or artistic pursuits, we shall have greater discernment, ability, health, inspiration, joy and remuneration.  However, we shall not be praying to achieve these results:  They will flow of their own accord just as the sun rises in the morning and goes down at night.  We shall have had nothing to do with it except to contemplate it, behold it, watch it.  We did not have to pray to God about it, and we did not have to know the truth about it.

So with us. We learn not to try mentally to manipulate our lives, hoping that by affirming some truth something good will be brought into our experience. Life becomes a complete joy, because just as we need have no concern for the movement of the sun, moon, or stars, so we need feel no burden of responsibility for our supply or our health.  All these are a matter of God’s grace.  Our only responsibility is that the Spirit of God dwell in us.  At one time or another, we must begin to make the transition from being man whose breath is in his nostrils, who cannot please God and who is not under the law of God, to being the child of God. From that point on we cannot fail: It is only a matter of devotion.

We cannot use God, but we can yield ourselves to God and let God use us.  We can contemplate the things of God and meditate upon the spiritual, invisible, and unseen, until we actually feel that spirit and presence of God within us. Then let our prayer be:

Give me more wisdom; give me more light; teach me how to abide in Thy Word. Let me want Thee for Thy sake only.  Let me never ask for a single thing for any person.  Let me tabernacle and commune with Thee.  Let my only purpose be to unit with Thee.“