CAUSAL BEING

We cannot perceive those beings spiritually advanced beyond us; Causal Being? But knowing nature’s tendency to repeat herself, can we draw broad assumptions? This human ‘father face’ we assign to the Higher Powers is but spiritual shorthand. Mere children spiritually, we use comfortable symbols to express what we intuit. What we consider God, these entities advanced compared to us, are they evolving too? What higher forms constitute their gods? Given what we can see in our small universe, wouldn’t that seem to be the case? One octave flows into another and that into yet another, energy evolving in perpetuity. Creation — ever changing, ever growing, in a joyful dance to the Absolute.

Imagine a being comprised of 2,000 independent souls —weight loss through yoga, jewel in the lotus

 

Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus        page158

 

 

SEVENTH CHAKRA — CROWN CHAKRA

ESSENCE OF BEING

ESSENCE OF BEING

 

Awareness floats up to the crown chakra. A yarmulke of ultra-violet is over the skull. Here the illusion of the individual self is dissolved. One is their own real true self, at one with the cosmic principles within the body that govern the entire universe. This is the essence of being, a reflection of the cosmic absolute where it is possible to realize the divine.

With grace, awareness floats above the head into the super conscious, the domain of existence beyond our physical plane. Being is now released from familiar foregone dimensions. Being, the quintessence of infinity, shimmers, a thousand-petal lotus with a radiance of such a pure white that all the colors of the spectrum glisten within its brilliance.

ULTRA - VIOLET

ULTRA – VIOLET

WEIGHT LOSS THROUGH YOGA, JEWEL IN THE LOTUS    page 63

SIXTH CHAKRA — THIRD EYE CHAKRA

THE MINDS EYE

THE MINDS EYE

The color of the third eye chakra is a deep dark blue, like the sky on a moonless night. The sixth chakra is not associated with an element because self-realization places us beyond the material universe. The third eye is the seat of awareness. Another name for the third eye is the mind’s eye. It is utilized to form all visualizations. Its location places it with the pituitary gland. Medical science can measure increased production of beneficial brain chemicals such as endorphins, melatonin, and serotonin when attention is focused on the third eye during meditation.

In Sanskrit, the yogis lumped all the pleasurable brain chemicals together calling them ‘Amrita’. A mudra is performed, curling the tongue to the back of the roof of the mouth as if to taste the Amrita. This helps to stimulate its production and is called the Shiva Mudra.

Awareness of eternal knowledge comes when all desires move up to the sixth chakra. All the body elements are balanced and being is centered in blissful non-duality and realization of oneness. The elements are present in their pure essence, fostering self-realization.

NON-DUALITY = PURE ESSENCE

NON-DUALITY = PURE ESSENCE

EVERYONE’S KICKING MY DOGMA AROUND

“My karma just ran over my dogma.”

— as seen on a bumper sticker

Dogma is the tool used to prevent individuals from looking inside. What is that human tendency that would rather have someone figure it out for you, rather than explore your true nature for the divine that is in all of us and every bit of creation? Philosophies and Religions that would gain power by attempting to place themselves between the individual and God — these are the closest thing to evil, because they would delay the natural process of self discovery embodying personal familiarity with our Godhead.

The answers are within each of us, and a true teaching doesn’t pretend to offer answers, rather suggestions of how and where to look. Anyone offering to do for you what is your most satisfying and joyous undertaking is no friend. Especially be cautious of any teaching that promotes fear. As an example both Catholicism and Tibetan Buddhism put forth elaborate versions of ‘hell’.

Be calm, at peace, and open your inner eye — that you may know the Divine through your own direct experience.

WISDOM BLOSSOMS WITHIN

WISDOM BLOSSOMS WITHIN

 

LOOKING FOR THE GURU


Guru simply means teacher. The word has gathered baggage in our culture. We’ve all heard stories of teachers who have, to our perception, taken advantage of their followers; cults providing the leader with expensive cars and harems of devotees. Often these seemingly duped followers are made up of the college-educated middle class, with whom we may identify, making these stories more intriguing, mysterious, and perplexing.
Our culture has given us very little meaningful instruction in that most basic of understandings – what is life all about? There are a lot of very unhappy people. When someone comes along who appears to have the answers, it can be very seductive. There are many insights into the human condition in other cultures that may have been overlooked or forgotten by our contemporary society. A charismatic individual, with an admiring group expressing feelings of improvement, can fuel a dynamic.
In the final analysis, if these are capable adults, shouldn’t they be allowed to make their own choses? The question arises though, with materialism and wanton sexuality experientially such a damper on spirituality, what allure do they provide for a supposed spiritual teacher?

II
Historically acolytes would spend years learning in the presence of the guru. Teaching was passed down orally and conduct taught through example. Buddha’s immediate followers grouped around him from his enlightenment to his death over forty years later. Normally the apprentice shadowed their mentor until they were kicked out of the nest or their guru died.

III
With the rebirth in the West of interest in spiritual introspection and efforts toward self-realization, the tendency was to copy the guru/disciple model. With the emerging popularity of yoga it seemed everyone was running around looking for a teacher. Some searchers were able to hookup with a guru and become long-term followers. Most seekers would try a teacher or school, feel disillusioned or a need for more, and move on. A form of sampling developed. Taking what one school would offer, but rather than becoming a lifelong devotee, moving on to another discipline. This is a reflection of our modern world with many sources of information, ideas and concepts coalescing from a wide variety of sources, a synergism. The spiritual transformation going on now is occurring very rapidly. Many old souls need only be reminded of learning that took place in past lives. With the world population so great – how close can we be to having everyone who ever lived incarnate at the same time?
A great shift in consciousness is taking place. We’re just passing a crucial point in human history; a balance so decisive as to decide whether mankind continues or topples. Equilibrium is to be restored through the personal efforts of many individual souls.

IV
As an individual, be with the guru within. Listen to your inner understanding as part of the wisdom directing all creation. Hear the voice of that understanding expressed all around you. When attending a yoga class, don’t hold on to the ways you have performed in the past. Give yourself up to the teacher. You already know what you know. Through trust, dare to be fully alive and try other ways. Listen. Listen to the teacher and the world around you – the words of a child, lyrics of a song, the wind rustling the leaves. The Divine is in everything. Living now in each moment, pay attention to all and learn. This is part of awareness. Be aware.
“Be one with the guru, both inner and outer,” and understand one of many attempts to describe the indescribable – Samadhi.

 

LEAVE OF ABSENCE FROM BLOG

UnknownOctober 1, I am  going to trek the Annapurna Circuit, a circumlocution of one of the major Himalayan peaks. This what is called a ‘teahouse trek’ as I’ll be staying in village huts along the route and eating with the villagers. The trek will take 2 1/2 weeks and will go from semi-tropical lowlands to one pass that is slightly under 18000 ft. and  possible zero degree temperatures. Wish me well.

I WILL RESUME BLOGGING ON MY RETURN — November 1Unknown-3

 

UJAYI

Victorious Breath, Ujayi, can be incorporated into asana practice. You breathe so the breath is purposefully audible. The breath resonates in the back of the throat, nose and mouth in such a way as to resemble the sound of waves and wind at an ocean beach. As well as maintaining attention on the breath, Victorious Breath energizes and strengthens the physical body.                                     WEIGHT LOSS THROUGH YOGA, JEWEL IN THE LOTUS     page 114.532105_448470515240599_1744106258_n

FOURTH CHAKRA — HEART CHAKRA

A BEAUTIFUL CHLOROPHYLL GREEN

A BEAUTIFUL CHLOROPHYLL GREEN

The fourth, or heart chakra’s, color is a beautiful chlorophyll green and its element is air. The lower three chakras are the material universe and the fourth chakra is the transition point to our divine spiritual manifestation. The heart chakra is the point of transition and the upper three chakras are the higher, or spiritual centers. The ascending line of energy through the Sushumna parallels the evolutionary ascent of humankind from animal to spiritual being. A horizontal line, the point of transition, forms a cross. This is the symbol of the fourth chakra. The teachings of Jesus are fourth chakra teachings. “…And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” The Beatles’ ‘All You Need is Love’ is also an expression of fourth chakra teaching. Astrology, based on observations of earth in relationship to its slowly changing stellar influences, divided earthly time into two thousand year segments, or ages. We are now leaving the segment when the teachings of Jesus were to manifest as the prevailing order. This era, the Piscean Age, shares with Jesus the symbol of the fish. The new age we’re starting to enter is the Aquarian Age, the age of understanding. If we can get our tails over the fence, we will begin to share the promise of the miracles Jesus taught are our birthright.

TRANSITION FROM MATERIAL TO SPIRITUAL IS REPRESENTED BY THE SYMBOL OF THE FOURTH CHAKRA — THE CROSS

TRANSITION FROM MATERIAL TO SPIRITUAL IS REPRESENTED BY THE SYMBOL OF THE FOURTH CHAKRA — THE CROSS

 

FIRST CHAKRA

BEAUTIFUL BRIGHT RED

BEAUTIFUL BRIGHT RED

The first chakra is a beautiful bright red and is representative of the element earth. The first time the meditator may feel fear. The first chakra is associated with the birth process and entering the world for the first time. Everything is new. This experience mirrors the aspirant’s entrance into meditation. Both are natural processes and promise wonder and growth.

This is the part of the body housing the organs of digestion and elimination. The sacrum center is primordial. It has to do with our most animal nature, sexual passion, which brings forth human form to clothe another soul. As the most inherently physical of the chakras its realm is that most physical of pleasures, sexual ecstasy.

SEXUAL ECSTASY

SEXUAL