Opening to the Infinite

What I find most difficult to let go of is linearity. The theory of reality that says the universe is a logical, rational system of cause and effect. It's a nice theory. But it just doesn't work. We can walk a spiritual path taking one step after another in what we think is a reasonable method, our sadana, our path.

But then something happens and we find we are not on the path we thought we were on, we are not in the place we thought we were, we are further along or further behind, and we are heartened or disheartened...then it happens, we have a moment when we see it isn't about linear progress, it's about letting go...it's not understandable, it's not logical, our awakening just Is, that Isness may not follow the prescribed path, one foot after another...because at some point we stop walking and stat to fly, and when we fly all bets are off, we are flying! And the nice mechanical, linear, rational path we thought we were on gets blown apart. We find we are somewhere else than we thought we were, or thought we ever could be. I've realized it's not about reason, it's about grace.

Thank you my teachers for showing the way, for helping me see past the fear to letting go of my strength, the intellect...Now, have flown with my own wings...we are the seekers, we are the walkers and we are the path...it was there all the time...now I am at the right altitude to see it...and to see that the path never ends, just as we, ourselves never end.

An Afternoon's Meditation

"We send vibration out into the Universe ….and the Universe answers us back.” - Manorama

Yesterday was spent in meditation sitting by a stream in the Pennsylvania countryside. I took part in a silent retreat.  I did little in the way of participation with the larger group I went primarily for the opportunity to sit alone for a few hours with a clear intention. 

When I got there I found a spot by the stream then moved to a small rock island in the middle of the water. I had to wade through a little ways to get to the middle but I was all alone on the water. I heard nothing but the flow of the water over the rocks, the wind in the trees and the sound of my own heartbeat.

My goal for the day was to become more familiar with the three female deity mantras. I had already created a short kriya for myself last week, to recite the three goddess mantras, one mala a day for a week, the first week would be Lakshmi, then Durga, then Saraswati. I’ve been working with the Lakshmi mantra everyday over the 6 days. I'd start with that, then I'd move to Durga and last, Saraswati. 

I felt the Saraswati mantra would be particularly powerful in that place next to a flowing stream. Saraswati is first a river goddess. Her other many attributes flow (pun intended) from her first being a river goddess. Learning, music, study these attributes came later in her evolution. I saved her mantra for last, wanting to have time to sink into myself, by then I would have better focus and I wanted to be focused to chant the river goddess' mantra while sitting in the middle of a fast running stream. 

Sitting by the water, watching the flow of the stream as it passed,  I began chanting inwardly the deity mantras as I had learned them listening to Thomas Ashley-Farrand’s “Mantra: Sacred Words of Power” on CD.  I began with a single round of the Lakshmi mantra. I put Lakshmi first.  I’m the most familiar with the mantra, so she came first, one mala, 108 recitations. 

 “Aum Shreem Lakshmyay Swaha,

Aum Shreem Lakshmyay Swaha,

Aum Shreem Lakshmyay Swaha” 

Lakshmi, abundance, friends, food, money…I played the images through my mind as I chanted inwardly, silently, moving the vibration through my mind at the point of arising, behind the third eye. 

Next came Durga: 

“Aum dum Dugayay Namaha, 

Aum dum Dugayay Namaha,

Aum dum Dugayay Namaha,” 

Durga, her name in sanskrit means 'invincible', she is the mother protector of all beings, even the Gods go to her for protection. She is the slayer of demons, with her beautiful shining face and her many arms full of weapons to protect the innocent from harm, we certainly need more Durga energy in our world right now! 

Around the bead string 3 times. I was feeling amazing, light, clear, hollow but not empty. By now the sun was shining, the flowers above me  were illuminated by the bright sunlight and the air was sweet with the smell of flowers and the sound of the moving water. 

Third in the feminine trinity, Saraswati, I had saved her for last on purpose. I began the first round of her mantra: 

“Om aiym Saraswatyay Swaha,

Om aiym Saraswatyay Swaha,

Om aiym Saraswatyay Swaha”

Saraswati, goddess of rivers, streams, flowing waters, she is the imaginative force of Brahma’s creation and keeper of the deep secrets of the natural world, . Her attributes are: wisdom; the life force of water; healing; grace; scholarly study; music; language; writing; the power of words; even the vibration of words. Words which are the source of creation itself. She is also the goddess of mantra itself which gives her mantra great vibrational power. 

She floats on a white lotus blossom, symbolic of pure wisdom. 

Thinking of these attributes of Saraswati, I suddenly felt the urge to open my eyes. I looked across the stream, about 60 feet from where I sat, to the other bank, I saw a large weasel, with black fur, emerge from an overhanging tree root. At first I thought it was a feret, but then realized it was way too big. It was at least 18 inches long, and black from it’s pointy head to the tip of its tail. It quickly ran along the bank and disappeared out of sight.  I looked back at the tree root from which the animal emerged but saw only blackness, darkness, “deep secrets of the natural world” I thought to myself. 

Interesting that the weasel appeared just as I started the Saraswati mantra….Manorama has a saying that resonates true for me, (and this was a perfect example): "We send vibration out into the Universe ….and the Universe answers us back.”

 On this day the reply came pretty quick! ...the deep secrets of the natural world... A thought crossed my mind. The things that are in front of us that we don't or can't see.

I closed my eyes and returned to my meditation. As I finished my first round  I heard a loud, “KAW-KAW-KAW” and a shadow passed over my closed eyes. I looked up to see a blue heron, with wings splayed wide flying over the middle of the creek, he was flying low, about 20 feet above me, I measured his wing span at about 7 feet wide (and I’m a pretty good estimator of size, having been a carpenter for 25 years). 

I stopped the repetition of the mantra and grabbed my phone to take his picture. He perched high up in a tree about 30 yards from where I sat. The minute I pointed the phone at him he turned sideways and his natural camouflage made him almost invisible! He didn’t want his picture taken! 

With all of this going on I continued chanting the mantra inwardly but I kept my eyes open. Saraswati was revealing herself to me, granting insight into the natural world that existed by the creek. The river goddess revealing the hidden nature in that creek bend to me as I chanted her mantra. She began as a river goddess, thousands of years ago, the Arryans built a great civilization around the Saraswat River. The river itself is long ago dried up, only the goddess' name remains, a reminder of those ancient times living by the river.

I continued my chant to Saraswati when two large birds flew overhead. The heron, along with his mate, had come again. His mate, who was only slightly smaller and a lighter steely gray color, swooped down to the water, landed on a rock about 15 yards from where I continued to sit looking downstream, reached out with one long leg and snatched a fish from the water in her claw then flew off further downstream, the same direction he had flown when I first saw him. 

The male heron flew up and down the stream once more before I left for the day. He was  still faster than my ability to snap his picture! The weasel didn’t return from hunting by the time I picked up my mat and meditation cushion to leave. I didn’t see it again. 

Naturally, I wonder if my invocation to the goddess of rivers had anything to do with my seeing the animals who make their home by the water. I have sat by other streams, I’ve only seen one other heron, and that was in a nature preserve, not by a creek bank. I’ve never seen a weasel outside a zoo. What I find most provocative was the timing of their appearance. Which happened within a minute of my beginning to chant the Saraswati mantra. 

But such things shall be, as they should be, a mystery. 

I walked back towards my car, said goodbye to the teacher running the retreat (I think she was a little worried I was having a bad time) and slowly drove away. As I turned onto the main road to go home, I realized that I was only driving 20 miles per hour in a 45 zone. Not typical for me! I took a few miles to get used to driving at a normal speed, and by the time I reached the highway I was back up to 65 ! 

How different the pace of nature is to our modern pace. We race through life so quickly , always going to the next thing. 

Taking the time to connect deeply with nature is the perfect antidote ! 

The Diamond Heart Meditation

Many people report seeing lights in the head during meditation. These lights in the head may appear in various colors to different people. This is for me a constant experience during meditation. Many great sages have spoken of an energy that lies within the heart. I call it the Diamond Heart and have made it the focus of  my own meditations . (Many yogis have used the Diamond Heart in both his lectures and writings. but there is a persistent vision of the Blue Dot or Blue Sphere that has historic context as well as many modern day experiences to support both its profundity and absolute reality; and Muktananda’s experience alone is enough to prove it’s existence.  I never agreed with everything  written and said about the man. However, it can not be ignored that he was, despite his foibles, one of the greatest meditation teachers of the past century.)

The diamond itself is the tiniest sheath that surrounds the Self. the sages explained the subtleties of the method which would allow a meditation student, one who is willing to put in the time to cultivate the right preparation and practice, to regularly experience the Diamond Heart in their meditation. I have experienced the Diamond Heart myself using this method and want to share the simplicity of the technique I have used to clearly see, hear and experience the final sheath during meditation. 

Before we discuss learning the technique, I want to preface the technique with explaining how you should already be meditating regularly. You should have already cultivated a steady practice that includes both mindfulness and inner visualization methods. You can start by reading through these instructions several times before beginning to use them. Become very familiar with them. They need to be clear in your mind while you are meditating to make use of the subtle details of this method during your inner journey. 

(If you are not familiar with breath retention (kumbaka) I advise you should seek out expert instruction from a qualified teacher. Allow yourself time (at a least 3 months of steady practice) to become familiar with the retention of the breath before continuing with this meditation method. The use of breath retention is important for awakening the Shushumna nadi, without this awakening the blue pearl will be nothing more than a visualization exercise. This is an advanced technique and the preliminaries are an important step before attempting this. )

Find your meditation seat and begin your pranayama practice with nadi shodanam. If you are already familiar with alternate nostril breathing with kumbaka feel free to use what is familiar. My personal nadi shodanam method is in thru the right, retain, out thru the left, in through the left, retain, out thru the right, in thru the right, retain, etc…You may find it beneficial (especially in the beginning) to maintain a steady count during the inhale, retention and the exhale. For example, inhale to an 8 count, retain for 8 and then exhale for 8. At the bottom of the exhale keep the pause to the count and continue into the next inhale. 

Focus your attention on the ajna chakra. Remember that good breathing should be deep, smooth, steady, and quiet. I prefer to use time rather than count each breath, but that is up to you. I generally time my breathing for 6 minutes or about 50 breaths (the actual number of breaths is very subjective, which is why I recommend the timer).

After nadi shodanam, our next pranayam is shushumna awakening breathing. The breath should remain steady, the length of inhalation and exhalation staying the same as the previous exercise,  cease retention of the breath and allow the breath to move in and out through both nostrils evenly. Focus the attention on the junction of the nostrils above the upper lip. Concentrate on equalizing the flow of air through both sides so the flow becomes smooth and  even. You may count breaths or use a timer, this practice should be maintained for 5 minutes. This method is a key to attaining  single pointedness. Using an 8 count on both the inhale and exhale I have found that about 20 provides the ideal number of cycles. 

This makes your breath practice last about 11 minutes, the breath has worked its magic oxygenating (and calming) the system. 

Now, we turn our inner vision towards the heart chakra. Visualize a small diamond gem, about the size of a sesame seed, within the heart chakra at mid-sternum and slightly to the left. Keep the breath smooth and steady at all times. The gem may appear as clear and sparkling or it may have color, there is no need to focus on any color or clarity of the gem, just accept it into your awareness. Once you have a clear picture of it in your mind the gem may want to move to different areas of the body. Let it. Allow your attention to patiently follow it’s movement through the body until it comes to rest. 

Once it stops, consciously move the gem back into the shushumna nadi if it has moved away from the central channel. In your mind’s eye invite the motion up through the central channel into the center of the head. If you are familiar with mantra meditation, then you may recognize this as the point where the mantra arises. I have found that this point to be analogous to the height of the eyes and located in a level line back to the middle of the head. 

[SIDE NOTE: Envisioning the gem in the center of the head you may notice that the gem itself forms into the root of the Sahasrara Chakra. I came to realize that it also is at the central point between the front and rear of the Ajna Chakra as well. Understandably, the point where the Diamond Heart naturally resides, is the central locus of human consciousness. The Susumna terminates into the junction with the Sahasrara Chakra. Energy comes in through the Crown and radiates out of the Ajna Chakra through a pair of trumpet shaped tubes, the bells of the trumpets are the front and back of the chakra  (these energetic tubes make up the chakral body itself ). 

You may experience the chakras in this area differently and that’s ok. This description is based on my own internal visionary experience, and my own explanation of my own inner sight  that was revealed to me. Your own vision is equally valid. There is no need to doubt what you yourself are experiencing.]

Focus your full attention on the diamond gem. Watch its scintillating vibration/pulsation. 

If you lose your concentration and the diamond vanishes, simply return to envisioning the gem at mid-sternum and slightly to the left. 

Relinquish control to your Higher Self. Know that the Heart Diamond is that.

Let go of all effort. Simply observe.

Let it guide you, fill you, take you where it wants you to be. 

Maintain steadiness in your breath. 

My description of the experience stops here, as my own experiences of the gem have been different each time I have done this meditation. What you experience is about your own inner journey. It is different for each individual. This inner journey is the highest resonance of You-ness that there can be, and is therefore uniquely your own. 

Allow yourself to remain open to what you may see. Reserve judgments. The impressions gained may not be readily accepted by the conscious mind, or provide clear analysis using the left brains logical ways of thinking. Understand that you are experiencing something transcendent. Something transcendental. Be open to it. You now have your hands on the doors to access the deepest parts of your own Self, you are now connected with your own Self. Stay with your practice. Shanti. 

(Source Material: Kundalini the Secret of Life - Swami Muktananda) 

A concise guide to The Four Noble Truths of the Buddha (based on a dharma talk by HH The Dalai Lama)

1 To live is to struggle. Many translations of this are “life is suffering”. I like the word struggle in place of suffering, I think it gives a clearer picture without the connotations of ‘suffering’. We all struggle, we struggle to attain wealth, success, education, honors, to win wars, to beat out the other guy, these are all ways we struggle, Buddha talked about a world without struggle, a world built on equanimity. We may hear these words but they seem too far away to attain. The four noble truths give us a path to equanimity that we, as human beings, can follow. 

2 Desire is the root of our struggle. We desire things, material things, spiritual things, emotional things…the list is endless. We desire, it seems a part of human nature to desire. Can we learn to live without desire? To stop desiring? 

3 It is possible to stop our struggling! 

4 The way to stop our struggling is to follow the middle path. The middle path that Buddha taught has 8 stepping stones. I think of them as instruction on how to place our feet in order to stay on the path. 

In nutshell the fourth truth says that our actions have meaning and that we can learn to control our human activities by study of our thinking, our doing and our states of being (you may notice the 8 steps fall into these 3 categories quite neatly). 

Right Understanding

Right Thought

Right Speech

Right Action

Right Livelihood

Right Effort

Right Mindfulness

Right Concentration

We start by being aware of what we know, then expand that awareness to how we act, and lastly to how we think. When we gain a deeper understanding of the human condition our thinking, actions and states of being align with our true nature. Aligning with our true nature stops the struggle. When we cease our struggle and learn to flow with life our world becomes a better place to live for us andn everyone else.  

A Sacred Key: A clearer understanding of vibration

 I realized this weekend (@ Luminous Soul Intensive with Manorama) how mantra is the key, the entire universe is vibration, creation was spoken in to existence... OM is the primordial sound from which everything was set into motion (again vibration!)  and the chanting of sanskrit aligns us with that primordial creative force…our bodies are thought constructs of the mind. Seeing is the mind making sense of the surrounding energetic environment in which we find ourselves, nothing is actually here (in an absolute sense), we aren’t actually here.  We are elsewhere. Our highest self reamains immersed in the blue sky of eternal bliss floating on a giant lotus blossom sitting and dreaming of being where we think (in the mind) we are, and are not. 

Just a dream. Nothing to attain. Nothing to gain. Nothing to understand or explain.  

Feeling the vibration opens the possibility of waking up. Like hearing the alarm clock. The mantra is that, it’s the alarm clock ringing, saying “Time to Wake Up!”. 

Meditation, Breath, Diet and Stress: Healing Your mind while bringing your life into balance Part I

We all deal with stress. Some stress can be good for us, pushing us to set and achieve goals.  But largely stress makes us tense, fearful and jumbled. Working harder and faster at jobs we often don’t like to do the whole time pushing our minds to concentrate when we’d much rather be picking flowers or taking long walks in the countryside. Stress is part of our modern life. The australian aborigines, it is said, have no word for stress in their language! But, not so for us ‘modern’ types. While I’ve given no serious consideration to making a sudden life change and running off to live in the wild there are lessons that can be learned from ancient cultures on how to handle the pressures of life with more grace and calm. 

The ancient teachings of yoga and ayurvedic medicine give us a holistic approach to handling stress. How we breath, eat and think may all contribute to either high or lower stress levels. Learning how to perform these common, everyday activities in the correct way can provide long term relief from stress, and give us some conscious control over how we are feeling. When we learn how to eat, think and breathe (yes, breathe!) in ways that nourish and support the natural functioning of the body, stress relief comes as a side effect of upgrading our habits.   

First, we must learn to breath correctly. Breathing is something we do everyday, every second actually. We can’t get along without it, yet no one knows how to breath correctly without first getting some coaching to better understand the mechanics of how we breath and how our breath affects our moods, emotions and our ability to focus the mind. The lungs are two sacks that inflate with the contraction of the diaphragm. The diaphragm, which is shaped like an umbrella, pulls downwards on the lungs, elongating them, which reduces the air pressure inside the space (by increasing volume) and air from the outside rushes in (by diffusion) to fill the semi-vacuum created by the expansion. Next, the diaphragm relaxes (and returns upwards) which compresses the lungs and pushes the air out. While this activity is going on in the lungs, the heart will typically have beat 6 times. The average ratio between breath and heart rates is 1 to 6, that is, one breath for each six heart beats.  

Armed with a basic knowledge of how we breath we can learn how to breath correctly. That is, calmly and deeply. You might want to first lay down on the floor, or other firm surface. Place your hands on your stomach and breath in. Did your stomach rise or fall? If it rose you are breathing correctly, if it fell, that is, contracted down towards the floor, then your breathing is reversed. This is very common, we are taught as children to stick our chests out when we breath. But we should be allowing the abdomen to expand, the larger part of the lungs is located in the bottom of the lung, which expands into the abdomen when the diaphragm descends. 

A way to correct your breathing, if you are expanding on the exhale is to lie on your stomach in the yoga posture called: makarasana or crocodile pose. Begin by lying on your stomach, fold your arms underneath you to support your forehead. In this position focus your attention on expanding the abdomen as you slowly and steadily inhale. Really feel your stomach as it presses against the floor and then, as the diaphragm relaxes and you exhale, the weight of the body will cause the abdomen to contract. This is a good way to begin practice of diaphragmatic breathing and will train the breath to move smoothly in and out as the abdomen expands and contracts. 

In the next article we’ll talk about diet, begin our discussion of meditation and see how controlling stress using diet and the mind can help you handle the day to day pressures of life. 

Till then stay calm, breath deeply and remember: Steady practice brings reliable results. 

The Wisdom of the Kegon Sutra

".... I see all living beings everywhere,  and I see that each of them possesses the wisdom and virtue of Tathagata. But because of their delusions and attachments, they can not realize it."

The compassion of a Buddha

A Zen koan:

Vimalakirti asked Manjusri, "What does it mean that the Bodhisattva enters the Dharma-gate of Not-Two?"

Manjusri said, "I see it like this: in all phenomena, there are neither words nor explanations, neither presentations nor knowledge;it is beyond all questions and answers. That is what I understand with 'to enter the Dharma-gate of Not-Two'."

Being and the words explaining being ....are not the same thing.

How you see yourself is how you see everything.

If your awareness shows you only the negativity within yourself, you will see only negativity in everything around you. If your awareness is positive you will see the  positive around you. Like sees like.

We have a natural affinity for seeing ourselves in others. A natural affinity towards compassion. When our perception is clouded. If we see only the dark within ourselves,  we then see only the the dark everywhere, in everyone and everything. We become blind to all else. Until we break free of our own limitation, we are caught inside a circle of darkness. We can not see outside the circle. What we see is what we reflect and what we reflect out reflects back to us, this is a cosmic law in action. If we are surrounded by our own dark self there is no mirror to reflect the light.

 We are limited (as part of our agreement to embody our-Self)  to seeing the world only through our own eyes.

How you see yourself is how you see everything.

Yoga means union, union of the individual with the Supreme. Yoga brings together the light and the dark. The sun and moon, left and right, yin and yang, internal and external. Makes all one. Joins together. Being, non-being, form and formless.

How you see yourself is how you see everything.

How can we see the world (and ourselves) through different eyes? There are only two ways, both arise from love.

Love of the inner teacher and the scriptures can show us the inner light, or devotion to an external teacher (guru: sk. def. One who leads from dark to light) and the scriptures open our eyes just wide enough to see the shining light within.

When we see the world as it is, in this moment, both the light and the dark, we are free. Light and Dark. It is us and not us. It is others and us as well. This encompasses everything.

How you see yourself is how you see everything.

(Sources: the Bhagavad Gita, Tao Te Ching, Tamil-Cube Sanskrit Dictionary)

Tackling the Sleep(less) Monster!

Many of us struggle, tossing and turning, with sleepless nights...you can't fall asleep, or you can't stay asleep??? I think everyone has this problem now and then. Taking a holistic, natural approach for improving your sleep patterns will work better in the long run than just taking a pill (even herbal ones).  I have learned from my own experience that everyone sometimes needs help getting to sleep and staying asleep. Here are the supplements and lifestyle changes that have worked for me and people I know.

1. Drink moderately. Drinking alcohol before bed can disrupt sleep patterns leaving you awake in the middle of the night. Aside from the effects on your bladder, which can force you to get up in the middle of the night and drinking also alters the melatonin cycle, the hormonal cycle that moves in time with the natural rhythm of the earth (the sun and moon). If you are having problems with sleep perhaps skipping drinking all together for a few weeks along with implementing a few of these suggestions might get your sleep patterns back on track.

2. Medications. Along with controlling drinking alcohol, you should also be aware that medications can effect your normal sleep patterns. If you are taking medication for blood pressure or blood thinners you should ask your doctor if these can be contributing to your sleep problems. It's easy to fall into a viscous cycle of taking sleep medication that effects your natural cycles and sets you up for needing more sleep medication. If this is your pattern you should talk to a doctor. Try to find one with a respect for holistic approaches to sleep management who can help you better understand your alternatives. I'm not trying to prescribe to anyone (I'm not a doctor) but it's a pretty safe bet that sleep medication, over time, can have the opposite effect of what you want (which is to just fall and stay asleep)  and make it harder for you to doze off without medication.  Which leads me to the next topic, sleep aids.

3. Tart Cherry juice. This is my favorite sleep aid. Drink a small glass of tart cherry juice in the late evening. How does it work? Well cherry juice had both tryptophan (like turkey) and melatonin (the hormone that controls the sleep/wake cycle). Drinking cherry juice will let you sleep longer and deeper. When my sleep patterns are out of synch I reach for the cherry juice. Some people think it tastes good too! It has the added benefit of alkalinizing the body. This remedy was proven to work in elderly patients, in the study run by Louisiana University, a group of seven test subjects drank 2 8 oz. glasses of cherry juice (they used Montmorency in the trial) for a week, then a week with no juice, followed by a week of a placebo juice. Cherry juice was shown to increase overall sleep time and prevent waking in the middle of the night.


4. Exercise. Exercising, especially in the 4 hours before you go to bed, will help you relax and fall asleep easier. Different studies have recommended different types of exercise. I have found that gentle to moderate yoga works great for me. Others like aerobic exercise for at least 30 minutes. In either case the body relaxes after the exercise session is over and this level of relaxation contributes to your falling asleep easier and staying asleep longer.

5. Meditation.  Meditation will help you sleep, it will help you think, it will help you breath better...actually there is nothing meditation can't help alleviate. Try it, learn it, do it. Regular meditation time (especially before bedtime) helps calm the mind (which is good for those of you saying,"I can't sleep because my mind keeps going around and around." ). Who hasn't heard about all the benefits of meditation that have been proven by science in the past 2 decades? A simple mindfulness meditation (i.e.paying attention to your breath for 10 minutes, feeling the air move through your body...there you are meditating!) is all that you need to reap the benefits. I'll give you a hint that better sleep is only one of them!

6. One more sleep aid. Lastly, I'll tell you about my favorite herbal sleeping pill. When all else fails this is what works for me. It may or may not work for you but it has fewer side effects and less residual grogginess than most 'sleeping pills'. It's inexpensive and is worth a try when all else fails. (Though if you are doing a combination of the above recommendations it's a certainty that you are falling asleep!) The herb I'm talking about is valerian root. You can buy valerian root capsules in a health food store (I get mine at Vitamin Shoppe). They are inexpensive and work pretty quickly, usually I'm asleep 20 minutes after taking one.

It's better to take a more holistic approach to solving the sleep dilemma but if you want results fast, the cherry juice and valerian root together are unbeatable! Then, once you are getting some actual deep sleep, maybe you'll feel like learning yoga and meditation to address the issue long term.

Sweet dreams!

A Short Essay on Contentment

The highest good is like water.

Water gives life to the ten thousand things 

and does not strive.

It flows in places men reject 

and so is like the Tao.

In dwelling, be close to the land.

In meditation, go deep in the heart.

In dealing with others, be gentle and kind.

In speech, be true.

In ruling, be just.

      In business, be competent.

In action, watch the timing.

No fight: No blame.

-Lao Tzu: The Tao Te Ching -CH 8

In his master treatise “Autobiography of a Yogi” Yogananda tells the story of Mahaguru Babaji appearing to him and  revealing  how householders can be yogis just as well as hermits in the forest. This is a change in a long tradition in the east where men (mostly) would go into the forest to meditate and attain enlightenment.  

Recently I attended a yoga masterclass with Sri Dharmamittra. Among the many things I learned that day,  he gave us a gem of wisdom,  “A person who is not content will not be able to meditate.” 

We may know that contentment (santosha) is one of the Niyamas , observances that serve as the ethical pillars of yogic practice.  Dharmamitra's comment started me thinking about just what is contentment and how is it obtained. He explained this by saying that we will find meditation difficult if we are worried about paying a bill, or our health, or some other temporal state of affairs. This way of thinking brought me back to the above quote from Lao Tzu. Contentment can only be reached when we are competent in our business, true in our speech, deep in our meditation etc…Being “like water”. Flowing with life instead of against it. 

Contentment destroys ego-

                   Swami Muktananda

How is it that different scriptures and writings, both ancient and modern teachers,  are all in agreement that contentment is a cornerstone in the foundation of a spiritual life? The primary sources of both revealed (those scriptures obtained thru divine revelation)  and reflective wisdom (scriptures obtained thru the internal self-reflection of great seers) confirm this. 

Armed with this knowledge we come back to the question: How do we go about obtaining contentment? Is there a single set of guidelines we can follow to obtain it?

I think there are, but the specific requirements may vary for each aspirant on the spiritual path.What allows me to be content with my life is not the same as what satisfies you. The seed of contentment is satisfaction. While so many say they: “can’t get no, satisfaction”, to quote Mick Jagger, we can begin by deeply examining of our relationship with popular culture to find the roadblocks to our satisfaction. Without feeling satisfaction we can not feel content. But it can be difficult to feel content with what we have while we are being assailed by the steady drip-drip-drip of advertising telling us that we just need THAT ONE MORE THING to make us feel whole. 

Maybe it would be easier to go off into the woods and meditate to obtain enlightenment! Or, can we find a way to meditate in a productive way that will give us entry to more profound states of being? 

Living in the world of mortgages and car payments and five dollar lattes, (not to mention the source of all discontent, advertising!) creates an environment where just being satisfied  with what you have is a spiritual attainment! While contemplating the existential subtleties of satisfaction and how to achieve it we quickly lose sight of the goal, enlightenment…Or do we? 

Cultivating a clearer philosophical understanding of contentment, and what that would look like for each of us, we can move closer to a better understanding of our ego and how (perhaps) we may be misled chasing after shiny objects. Releasing our endless, aimless, ambition to obtain, is a powerful step towards releasing our ego attachment and turning inward. Analysis of the Ego and how it is tamed is required before we can reach contentment.

Which gets us back to the question: how do we become content? The answer to such a complex question seems incredibly simple....by letting go. By letting go of the manufactured need to have more than we already have; letting go of the manufactured need to be more than we already are; letting go of  manufactured cravings that we realize (as we become more self-aware) are no more than the cravings of the ego. 

We need to release ego and direct attention to the inward journey. My own experience has shown me that when we are grateful for what we have, and what we are, the siren song of acquiring more possessions will, as if by magic, lose its magnetic draw. Being mindful of the messages we allow into our consciousness and the (resultant) stories we tell ourselves become the missing keys to the castle. When we are attentive to Being, and direct less energy to having, then contentment will naturally appear. 

Yes, it seems almost too simple! The nature of the ego (at least my own) is to make things overly complicated to prevent us from walking the path. Once we get the understanding then we have to walk in it! Keeping answers simple allows us to honestly gauge our progress...something which only we are in a position to accurately measure (with the exception of having regular contact with an enlightened master). If the ego can trick us into believing the answers to our spiritual questions are too complicated we may loose heart for the path and remain tied to the ego...which serves the ego quite nicely, but not our higher Self.