Yoga Wisdom and Kabbalah

Equinox: Days of Awe

2010-09-16T00:32:00.005-04:00

The period of weeks before and after the Autumn equinox is very auspicious. Day and night are mostly equal. There is a balance in the earth, also in our bodies and minds which are of the earth. This is a very good time to go deep and fly high, to cop to our foolishness and offer it up, to open up to grace and to set noble intentions for the season and year to come.
Not surprisingly many religions have holy periods at this time. The Hindu tradition honors and worships God as the divine mother for nine days in this period. The Jewish tradition honors the divine father and celebrates its highest holy days during this period known as the Days of Awe. Consider these intentions (kavvanot) for yourself and your life:

* To be effective on this occasion and in these rituals
* To transcend the old worlds you’ve been in
and transport to a new gestalt, world view and realm
* To go beyond the old box reality you’ve been living
and rise up see a new view of life and the universe
and live that in fullness,
* To be a witness to a sacred presence
wherever you are and wherever you go
* To become pure instruments
of God’s love and blessing in the world
* To find your voice, your true voice
and sing your own sweet song
* To let go any fears you have about looking bad or taking risks
and take on who you most love to be
and do what you most love to do
and share that with all

We Swam the Seven Seas

2010-09-13T15:02:00.004-04:00

Tuesday Morning July 6, 2010, Assateague Island
On News of the Death of an Old Friend

Breakdown, cry. Stunned and saddened
We go way back, you and I, to 1962, almost 50 years
We went through Navy Frogmen/Seal Team Training together

We swam the seven seas together
The Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, the Pacific

We learned and practiced Yoga together on the beach in Mexico
I introduced you to my cousin and you went and married her
I was Best Man and got you to the ceremony late

Now suddenly you’re gone and I’m crying
A call on my cell from Mataji, the divine mama
He wants you to have a wonderful vacation
Now go jump in the Atlantic
Where you two would often swim side by side

I run into the water this early morning
Chanting Om Tryumbakums as I dive through incoming waves
Before I get one third through the memorial prayer
There you are right before me in our Guru’s arms
Like a little babe held over his heart
But you’re fully grown and smiling with gold light around you both

I swim and dive again and again like a porpoise
As I head back toward shore I see now, my brother
That you’re everywhere –
In these miraculous ocean waves sparkling with light
The sky, the beach
Everywhere, everywhere, no limitation

Assateague Island July 8, 2010
Northeast Wind Blowin’

Went swimming again this hot July morning
The gradient was terribly uneven, Joe
No place to land marines; tell the Command
But the ocean is as ever cold at first, then comforting

We all come here to earth and one day go on
“Gathered to our people,” as it says in the Torah
How and when is our karma
No matter that

Be so joyful, my brother
In the land of no boundaries, borders or limitations
See you again one day -- for sure
Om Shanti

* * *

As I’m getting in my car a family in a truck drive up
Park and begin to unload. I overhear the parents
Teasing two little girls in the backseat
“Mom and Dad are going to the beach, see you kids later …”

“Oh, no,” they scream piling out
All are laughing. “You guys are tough,” I tell the mom.
She laughs again, “Oh, we’re bad.”

The kids haul off for the water carrying between them
A big rubber boat filled with air
Shaped just like the bigger ones we used to roll off of
Strapped to a speed boat

Dropping frogmen every 20 yards

O’ those were the days, Sudharman
I’ll bet you’re swimming in this ocean right here, right now

In Sacred Memory of Sudharman Joe Fenton

2010-09-06T10:23:00.003-04:00

Selections from S h o r t T a k e s
The Traveler’s Handy Weekly Torah Gita Calendar

The Eagle – A Call to Return

1. Heaven and earth are called to hear these words
2. That shower down as rain on young growth
3. Ask your ancestors and spiritual elders

to inform you and teach you
4. Is it not God, your father and mother
Who made you and makes you even now
5. Who establishes you and has you endure
6. A rock (solid foundation)
Whose actions are perfection
Whose ways are always just
7. God empowers and hovers above you
Like an eagle rousing its nest
8. If you become coarse and extravagant
You lose sight of God
9. God’s countenance becomes hidden
You are reduced to nothing
10. Leaving not trace of your existence
(Ayin, no-thing, just this!)
11. Your enemy is false perception
12. Thinking: There is no God
I am the one deserving credit
No discernment
13. Now clean the land
(dedicate all your thoughts and actions
To the benefit of all)
14. All nations bear witness.
My arrows are drunk with blood
My sword devours
(Look straight into these power images
This is an entrance)
15. Sweeping misfortune, bloated by famine
Ravaged by plague, deadly pestilence
The attack of fanged beasts let loose
Poisonous serpents creeping
And striking from the dust
The terror within and from without
Death dealt by the blade
To everyone: young men and maidens
The aged and babies
16. The strength of your enemies wanes
Even now (one’s foolishness is disempowered)
17. Who God vindicates is vindicated
God’s portion is those who choose God
18. See, there is none other than I;
I deal death and give life. I wound and heal

And I live forever (I am the I am)

Selections from Deuteronomy 32.1-52

September Song

2010-09-04T17:18:00.001-04:00

hey, today I feel like playing hooky
running away

-- with you

to lie down and hang out beside a waterfall
or stretch out on a mountain-top and look at the sky

shall we just slip away ?!?!

A New Year Soon Beginning

2010-09-04T00:29:00.002-04:00

According to the Hebrew calendar we are now in the year 5770
The holiday of Rosh Hashanah, Head of the Year
Marks the beginning of a new year

5 7 7 1

5+7+7+1 = 20 Kaf
Each of the 22 Hebrew letters
is a doorway and a pathway
For those who choose to meditate
on the letters

Pathways between infinite depths
on the tree of life
Over the ages the sages
Have drawn lines
from one s'firah (infinite depth) to another

For example, from the South into the Heights
And back again if you choose;
This is the pathway of Kaf
So say quite a number of past and present kabbalists

Others assign Kaf to the pathway
Between two other infinite depths on the tree of life
Which shows us that it doesn't matter all that much
What their maps say
Go on your own jouney and see what you find
Meditate on these letters

A new year just starting in this coming equinox period: 5771
Blessed all year by the number 20, the letter Kaf
Come on through the door

Gold and Enlightenment

2009-04-24T12:32:00.001-04:00

Mystics say:
There are ten infinite depths on the Tree of Life

Sages count 49 days from the full moon in Passover
Until the Jubilee/Sinai – the receiving of infinite wisdom

Each infinite depth is a cluster of associated symbols
The game they play is merging and mixing
Two sefirot, infinite depths, for each of these 49 days

This fifteenth gate begins the week of Tiferet
The first day is Hesed merged with Tiferet

Walking along the Rivanna Trail just before sunset
Tiferet with Hesed, Hesed with Tiferet
Two clusters of symbols -- interspersed

Tiferet: dawn, the east
Entrance into the temple sanctuary
Of your own heart

The beauty of Hannah-Rachel
The magnficent illumination of Yakov-Yisra-El
And Hesed: loving kindness, gold, compassion, wealth, the south

Tiferet, the first day
The dawn of loving kindness

Oh, these great trees in the setting sun
Okay, be on the look-out
For a beautiful heart awakening

Turn east, turn south. Keep your eyes open
Gold and enlightenment are here now

Fasting as a Spiritual Practice

2008-10-08T11:15:00.002-04:00

Let's be sensible about eating and fasting.

Fasting has several useful effects on our bodies and minds. 1) During a fasting period, the body begins cleaning house and immediately starts eliminating toxins long stored which is healthy (and sometmes uncomfortable). 2) Fasting also shifts and refines consciousness, which of course is powerfully useful during times of inner reflection and worship; 3) Fasting is an austerity which purifies the mind and develops will power. And finally 4) when millions of people all around the globe choose to fast together with an uplifting and spiritual intention, this seems to have real effect on the worlds we live in and on our day-to-day lives.

Now -- about eating both before and after a fast: It doesn't matter too much what you eat before a one day fast, but drink a good bit of water if your fast includes no liquids. You could actually eat nothing all day before a one day fast and still fast the next day, which would be a two day fast. (Many people do three day, seven day and 30-day fasts as regular spiritual pratices -- but almost always "with" water.) So, it doesn't really matter what you eat "before" a fast day.

However, there's a tendency to gorge one's self after the fast. This is not advised because you have arrived at an uplifted and altered state of consciuousness, and stuffing youself will bring you down into the trough of day-to-day life. It's hard not to gorge ourselves at a big break-the-fast dinner where the vibe very soon becomes eat-eat-eat! This is no big sin; it's sort of fun. But we do lose the high. However if you fast a long time (3 days or more), it's quite dangerous for your body to eat heavily as you begin to break your fast.

A common Yoga practice is to do a liquid fast one day each week or every two weeks.

Rumi says fasting will turn a crust of bread into a seven-layered dessert.

2008-10-06T14:19:00.000-04:00

Israel Journal

August 29, 2008
Friday night in Tel Aviv one block from the sea
After forty years here I am back in Israel
Watching the red sun set west into the Mediterranean

It’s hot here, also lovely. This Sabbath night
I’m heading for the sea
This Tel Aviv is a modern hip Mediterranean city
The streets are safe enough, I see
For women to walk here and there alone in the dark

It feels both strange to be here, and home again also
12:30 at night I’m walking down to the beach
(5:30 in the afternoon back in Virginia)

Okay, here I am (he-nay-nee) send me, use me

Gentle waves rolling in loud, standing in the sound
A cool summer breeze blowing over soft sand
Batches of grey beneath a dark blue night sky

The taste of eons, timeless time
Beyond history, beyond names and countries
And newspaper headlines -- just this open sea

Out there is Africa and Europe, Turkey, Italy and Greece
Egypt, Spain and Morocco. When I was a young Navy frogman
I used to swim in these waters. Now I’ve come back
To this holy land on another octave. O my God
Let me be a clearing for peace, an ocean of love and light

Notes on the Akeda - The Binding of Isaac

2008-10-06T14:03:00.003-04:00

Abraham builds an altar there, lies the wood in order
Binds Isaac his son and lays him on the altar
Abraham stretches forth his hand and takes the knife …
-- from Genesis 22

Not all images in scripture are pretty or easy to swallow. But if we put aside our old fix on it – if just for awhile – and open up to the possibility of new understanding and insight – then our psyche’s are open for renewal, healing and transformation.

Rabbinic sages selected this terrible/wonderful story, or set of Tarot images in Genesis (B’rei-sheet) – where the wise old mature patriarch goes up on the mount and offers his son as a burnt offering to God. Questions arise immediately: why would a loving and just God ask such sacrifice? How could a loving devoted father ever make such a sacrifice? What is happening to Isaac during this story? And what do these power images bring to our own hearts and psyches as we investigate this tale – with neutrality and an open mind?

See the story in Genesis; look it over. What happened just before with Hagar and Ishmael? What does Abraham have to “prove?” What do we each have to prove – and for what reason? Why is this in scripture?

Abraham’s will becomes one with God’s will; in blessing others, God is blessing through him, which is our destiny also and our heritage.

In truth there is no one correct meaning to this scriptural portion. In fact there is no one innate, unadulterated meaning to anything in the world or in life. Nothing has any innate meaning in and of itself; things just are what they are. “I am that I am,” God tells Moses and tells us. We put the meanings on everything. Since that’s so –- look to see a magnificent meaning to put on these images. Consider that you’re investigating a power dream and every character in the story here is a part of your own self.

Here are some meanings one might “try on.” But you too can and should try on some of your own meanings and share them with others. This is just to prime your pump:

Previously (Geness 21) Abraham is asked to let go his wife Hagar and their son, his first born, Ishmael and send them off into the wilderness with just a loaf of bread and skin of water. Sarah tells him to do so. He inquires of God and is told to do what Sarah says. It’s a sacrifice that is hard for him. He argues with Abimelek (desert chieftain and Father-King) about a well of water taken away from him. Abimelek says, consider it never happened. Hagar is called on by an angel of God. Her eyes are opened. She become enlightened, illumined, sees a well of water and raises her son as an archer to be a father of great nation. Abraham plants a tamarisk tree and passes onto us a new name and quality or attribute of God, symbolized by the tamarisk tree.

In this section Abraham uses an important Torah mantra three times, Heenayni. Here am I (being absolutely present, ready to hear and do immediately). The final test: let go your attachment to your most cherished one. If we would be truly free and achieve self-mastery, we can have no other attachments before our attachment to God.

Even so, we might well sacrifice self-mastery and freedom to spare the life of our most beloved. Probably Abraham, who has already gone through eleven earlier tests, has become so surrendered to God’s will by this point in the evolution of his soul – that his will is really merged with God’s will (but he doesn’t quite realize it yet) -- which is the only way, I believe, he could go through with such an awful, awe-filled test – and pass it. His faith, his active belief, is very mature. He has just seen that when he let go Hagar and Ishmael, which appeared to be cruel and unreasonable at the outset, it turned out that Hagar found her own faith and became illumined, and her son set off into his own noble destiny. The early rabbinic commentators all say one of the two young men who Abraham and Isaac left back with the donkey is Ishmael. Abraham has gotten back what he sacrificed. In fact, later we will see that after Sarah’s death, Abraham remarries Hagar who has matured to become Keturah and they have many children together.

Rashi reminds us that God never tells Abraham “to slaughter” Isaac, only to take him up to Moriah and offer him as sacrifice. Abraham tells the two young men: “We’ll worship and come back to you.” How does he know that? Hasn’t he been told to offer his son as a burnt offering? Probably this man of great faith, who has seen all his sacrifices return to him 100 times over, believes in the inexplicable and indefinable love and justice of this God he worships so full out.

Meanwhile, Isaac isn’t really a lad or a youth. Bible scholars counting genealogies figure Abraham is 134 years old when this happens, and Isaac is 34. He’s still a youth in the eyes of his father however – and that must be sacrificed utterly in order for Abraham to pass the baton, the torch of leadership, the robe and the bowl -- to the next patriarch. The patriarch Isaac is called forth in this section. His faith is tested also – and he too passes the test, which is why the rabbis call this section, the Akeda, or the Binding of Isaac on the altar.

When Isaac asks his father where is the sacrifice animal, Abraham tells him God will present one. This is when Isaac “knows,” say our sages, and immediately Isaac agrees. His father is also his teacher, his rebbe, and he aligns himself 100 percent with Abraham: “They both go together,” is repeated twice in this section.

Torah sages explain that when a name or word or line is repeated in scripture, it is a sign of great affection and love from God. When Abraham stretches forth his hand and takes the knife, an angel of God calls to him saying: “Abraham, Abraham.”

Isaac comes up the mountain as a mature disciple, and comes down a realized sage and patriarch of a great religious tradition. Yah (God) proves or tests Abraham, (tests, proves;NiSSaH) also means “uplifted.” Abraham was uplifted by his own power, which is the meaning of “the trial," as Midrash says (quoting Psalm 60.6): “You give those who revere you trials by which they uplift themselves as banners.” (They do it on their own...) When God calls to him later: “Abraham, Abraham,” [this shows] he now has become whole, cleaving to the root of that Abraham-above aspect [his true nature, his higher Self], which is why the sages say, “The patriarchs are the chariot” [our lower, human selves and personalities are “the seat” for our upper hidden Self. -- R’ Art Green].

The entire ritual is transformational for both Abraham and Isaac, which is offered to us in scripture for our own transformation. The offering by both of them takes them to another level of consciousness, into another realm, as it were, where everything in the world is visible, where everything we could ever want or need is visible and available to be taken and used. Thus Abraham sees a ram with its horns caught in a thicket, and substitutes that for his son Isaac. Historically one might say this is the moment when humanity wakens to a more evolved state and human sacrifice, which at one time was commonplace, is dropped altogether. Eventually, animal sacrifice is also replaced by prayer and self-sacrifice.

The life of Abraham as reported in scripture bestows upon us yet another attribute of God. Abraham calls this place, this awareness, Adonoi-jireh, the place where God sees, or the place where God is seen, or where everything is visible. God is invisible after all. But God can be realized. We can experience samadhi, super-consiousness. We enter a state of oneness at that level of consciousness and thus -- see through God’s eyes, as it were.

Earthquake!

2008-06-22T19:44:00.008-04:00

Nineteenth day in the month of Shivan
In the year 5768 (since we’ve been counting)

Notes from the Sefer Yetzirah, the Book of Creation
month of sivan (may-june); constellation gemini
four power symbols in this order: y v h h
tribes of levi and zebulon
we begin in the east
at sunise

About Korah
"Even the greatest person, when he's just for himself --

What is he?" asks the Sefat Emet

Earthquake!
With 250 elect chieftains, many also from tribe of Ruben
Korah of Levi rises in the face of Moses, saying

All the congregation are holy
Why do you lift yourself up

Moses falls on his face and says
In the morning God will show you

O Levi, singers of joyous praises
and warriors for truth
Don't take on too much
Just carry your part of the boat

In your songs and dances of devotion
You draw very near
But now you want to be the High Priest

Let's each of us take our fire pans and incense burners
and let us light them and make our offerings

This brings us to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting
With so much fire burning and incense rising
The glory of God is experienced by all present

Moshe and Aharon pranam (prostrate) full out

On the face of the earth
Datan and Abiram come out and stand at the door
with their wives and children

A hand moves the earth
Earthquake!
Opening and devouring Korah and many more
A plague of fear begins to spread

Aaron runs into the midst of the assembly
Stands between the living and the dead
And stays the plague

Write Aharon's name on the rod of Levi

Put the rod of Aaron beside the Torah

Take refuge in the dharma
The testimonies of what's eternally so

* * *

When you receive my prasad, the grace gift for you
Set apart of it a gift for God
a tithe of the tithe
[a tenth of the tenth]

This is recorded to you:
the corn of the threshing floor
the fullness of the wine press

Set apart the very best for God

Selections from Korah Numbers 16.1-18.32

Being Peaceful with Money in Daily Life

2008-05-27T00:31:00.004-04:00

As told by Swami Satchidananda of Integral Yoga

The commercial world greatly encourages you to spend and spend. Don’t get caught in that. In order to spend, to save and to give, you should have it first.

Don’t try to live up to some expected or presumed standard of living. The real standard is your joy of life. And that comes from a peaceful, happy mind with self-dignity.

Don’t earn ten dollars and spend fifteen, which is often the way people live, thinking “Oh, I have to have this and that.” The agony of trying to pay such bills certainly outweighs the joy of buying.

Comfort is not in the house, the bed, the clothes or the food; it’s in the mind. When you spend too much and then worry how to pay the bills, there’s no comfort at all.

If you find it difficult to pay all the bills, that means you have spent more than you earned. In such a situation you can’t even enjoy your family, because of constant grumbling, “Oh, how can I pay these bills?”

It will be very easy to pay all the bills if you spend according to your income. So let’s learn to live the simple life. We can do it; everything is possible.

Make Money

In the Ramayana epic, when the villain was wounded and bleeding, the author Valmiki writes: Ravana’s mind was “shaking like that of a debtor.”

Make money. It doesn’t matter what the job is. No job is more menial than to be a debtor. We shouldn’t hesitate to take any job available. A poor man need never lose his dignity, but a debtor loses his dignity.

Until you pay back your debts, cut back on all your expenses. Live with what you have now, or even if you have to –- sell some things.

God is Giving You a Lot, Always Save a Little

says Thiruvalluvar in the Tirrukkural. If you earn ten dollars, make sure you put one dollar in savings. In your budget, consider savings as one part of your expenses – because anything might happen. You may lose your job or fall sick. You save yourself.

God has given you a lot. Save some. Even the poorest man can save a little.

Try to keep a few dollars to save. If you make $1,000, don’t let your spending exceed $900. It’s always better to save a little from what we earn. Even ants save a little food for a rainy day.

Don’t even depend on insurance companies. Remember there may be a rainy day.

If you get more money than you need through your salary or a bonus, don’t go spend it all immediately and come back empty-handed. Put it in savings.

How Many Breaths Remain?

Some Yoga scriptures say you’ve been sent here with just a certain number of breaths. You have to budget your life according to that amount of breaths.

Budget your life – and not only your money, but in everything: your hours, your days, your entire life could be budgeted.

An intelligent person simply asks and looks: “How much am I making and how much can I afford to spend?” If necessary, cut down drastically. Budget your life.

Sage Thiruvalluvar says, householders should divide their money into five parts: some to honor departed souls; some for God [manifesting in all living beings]; some for guests; some for relatives; and some for one’s self. Then still, some also for a rainy day.

Selections from Swami Satchidananda on Family Finances
Published by the Yogaville Federal Credit Union
These selections compiled and edited by Prahaladan
(Philip David Mandelkorn) May 2008

Passover

2008-04-12T01:03:00.004-04:00

Dear friends,

Loving greetings of peace and congratulations on being invited to a Passover Seder, which is a ritual dinner with matzah (unleavened) bread, wine and other goodies. Lord Jesus was celebrating and leading a Passover Seder with his disciples at the Last Supper. When he told them, "This is my body and this is my blood," he was holding up the matzah and the wine used during the Seder ritual -- which is an annual retelling of the Exodus from bondage in Egypt (three thousand years ago) across the Red Sea, through the wilderness and into the Promised Land.

This festival meal and telling of the tale is enjoined on us in scripture -- each generation shall tell of this to your children, "how we were slaves in Egypt and God freed us with an outstretched arm and a strong hand."

Whether this ancient tale (The Ten Commandments) is legend, myth or history is not as important as is its allegorical meaning to those today who choose to embrace this ritual. For we are all in bondage to any number of old programs running through our minds somewhat automatically if anything sets them off -- like repeating tape loops And often these hard-wired reaction patterns are of no use to us or anyone else whatsoever. To be freed from this bondage is in fact to be in a state of freedom, liberation and joy -- which is the Promised Land, and which is our true heritage.

That's what the Passover ritual dinner is really all about. Keep that in mind as you enjoy the meal and re-telling of the exodus from Egypt.

Passover begins at sundown Saturday and goes for eight days. Seder dinners are celebrated on the first and often the second evening of Passover.

What if?
Egypt in scripture is the material world
Pharaoh is the ego
Moses is the ear that hears intuition
and the eye that sees revelation
Blood on the doorway is the dedication of our own lives
The death of the first born is the first negative thought
that clusters like grapes and like yeast
into our on-going complaints and worries
Waiting for bread to rise is procrastination
Miriam is the well of devotion in our hearts
Aaron is the love in our hearts
Crossing the Red Sea is transcendence,
The promised land is enlightenment and liberation, and
The children of Israel are the white cells
the healing truth seekers

And what if
Our bondage is what runs us from behind
Old wiring that we need only see and put out in front of us
And thank it for sharing
But today we're choosing more noble possibilities.

And what if
The ten plagues are the other side of the ten commandments
Ten words, ten sacred letter symbols, and
What if all the letters in the Torah are one long name of God
And each letter is a pathway
And every two letters make a gateway that
We pass through just by meditating on the letters.

And what if
Elijah is that person who came over the other day and
Helped get your car started when it wouldn't go.

And what if
Drinking wine with a blessing is playing the game of faith,
Eating matzoh is playing the game of passing over, and
What if you're the lamb of sacrifice, so your entire life is
For the benefit of everyone everywhere.

Set Free in the Open Country

2008-04-08T18:19:00.003-04:00

The ritual for a leper to be cleansed:
Leprosy, afflictions have come to the surface

When the priest or priestess outside the camp
Sees a leper is healed of scaly affection
(Infection and affliction)

Once we face it clearly and take responsibility completely
Without blaming anyone, even ourselves
The healing has begun

Bring two live clean birds, cedar wood
Crimson and hyssop leaves
Also freshwater in an earthen vessel
Gather the elements for a ritual

Dip all in the water
Sprinkle that water seven times on the one to be cleansed
Now set the birds free in the open country

Ritual is playing with God to alter consciousness
Be free in the open country (mantra)

You who were sick can now go wash your clothes
We wear our actions like a coat of colors
Selfless actions wash our clothes

Shave your hair
Re-dedicate one’s life to God, serving all

Bathe in pure water
Investigate scripture

Be clean and enter the camp
Thus we are purified for service in the family of humanity

But stay outside your tent for seven days

Your tent is code for The Tent of Meeting
Which is realizing you are the oneness of everything always
Let's prepare seven days for this reunion on the eighth day
The day of infinity, the day beyond time and space

Selections and Notes on Leviticus 14 Metzora

The Temple Keeper and the Sleeping Man

2008-04-01T23:45:00.007-04:00

Once there was a gathering of holy men and women in the courtyard of a south Indian Temple, which was maintained by Namdev, a great devotee of God. He could and would regularly go into the inner sanctum and talk intimately with the deity enshrined there.

Meanwhile in the courtyard, Jnanadev (pronounced yahna-dave), who was something of a rascal, was lining up all the other saints and sages for a fun game. “We’ll have this potter saint here,” he said, pointing to an old man leaning against the wall of the temple, “come forward and thump us all on the head and tell us as he goes along how baked we each are. The most baked one gets the first piece of cherry pie.” Everyone clapped, but Namdev, who thought the whole enterprise was frivolous and quite disrespectful to the sacred presence in the temple and the courtyard.

But he was ignored. And the potter saint began walking around bunking people on the head with a wooden stick and calling out, “Two-thirds baked,” “Half-baked;” “Three-fifths baked;” and so on. As the potter approached, Namdev turned and quickly strode away trailed by jeers and laughter.

He went into the inner sanctum and poured out his heart. “How can they joke about things like this?” he said, overcome with disappointment and humiliation. Then an inner voice spoke to him, saying, My beloved child, go out of the temple by the rear entrance, into the forest and out to the three gold hills that you know. There on the third hilltop you will find a wise one who will reveal everything.

Immediately Namdev ran into the forest, through the paths he knew and up to the three hills. He passed over the first and second, then slowly ascended the third gold hill.

At first it seemed no one was there. But when he looked more carefully he saw a rag-muffin sort of fellow lying on his back in the grass dozing. As Namdev slowly drew closer, he saw that the man’s bare feet were propped up on a Shiva-lingam, which is a smooth oval stone, a form considered by many a most sacred image of the Absolute oneness, of the divine. One does not even point one’s feet toward such an altar; perhaps in moments of great devotion, one’s head or hands might touch -– but NEVER one’s feet.

Quickly Namdev walked over to the Shiva-lingam, knelt down and ever so gently removed the sleeping man’s feet from the altar, carefully setting his legs and feet down onto the grass while trying not to wake him. But lo, immediately under the man’s feet -- there again was another perfectly beautiful Shiva-lingam. Quickly Namdev knelt and removed the man’s feet again shifting them the other way. Immediately another Shiva-lingam was visible under the bare feet of the sleeping one. Namdev put his head down on the ground next to the Lingam and lifted the sleeper’s feet, this time setting them gently onto his own head.

At that moment Namdev became one with everything and everyone. He was overwhelmed with joy and fullness. All the questions and answers about life he’d ever wondered were sparkling with wisdom like stars in the night sky.

How long he lay there beside the sleeping man, he never knew. A time came when he did get up and walk back to his own house, where he remained for two days off and on in blissful meditation.

At the beginning of the second night there was a knock at his front door. When Namdev opened the door, there stood the deity of the temple right at his doorstep. Where have you been, Namdev? You haven’t come to visit with me for some time.

“Oh, my Lord,” said the saint, “You’re everywhere always, and I know it. Thank you. Thank you so much. Won’t you please come in and have some chai.”

A Perpetual Fire

2008-03-31T10:17:00.003-04:00

Here are some teachings from the Scroll of Leviticus, a scripture giving us guidance how to stay in touch with a sacred presence in our lives and to work together as a holy community.

O ye priests and priestesses,
Here is the burnt offering ritual:
Leave that offering on the altar through the night
Until morning while the fire of the altar (consumes it)

We offer ourselves, and wait overnight until morning
To see if we might be accepted into this sacred service
One more day

Dressed in linen
Carry the ashes of the burnt offering to the altar
In everyday clothes
Take the ashes outside the camp to a clean place
Sometimes your service is visible; sometimes invisible

Keep the fire in that altar burning; don’t let it go out
Every morning feed it with wood

Our passion for life is the fire on the altar
Daily we feed it with love given to us by The Beloved

Present your burnt offering
Turn into smoke the fat parts of the offering

The fat is fuel. With sincerity our offerings become the fat parts
And now the offerings are smokin’!

A perpetual fire is burning in the altar (of your heart)
It’s inextinguishable -- from Levicus 6.2-6

This selection from a Leviticus portion 6.1-8.36 known as
Tzav/Command

The Book of Tao reports:
When a great leader leads
People don’t know they’re being led
There’s an art to being an effective Commander

The first words of this portion begin:
Command Aaron and his sons ... -- Lev. 6.1

The Work of a Weaver

2008-03-01T02:28:00.003-05:00

The Work of a Weaver in Colors
Selections from Names/Shemot in Vayakhel Exodus 35.1-38.20

This is the title I have given to a series of scripture selections from the book of Exodus, which in Hebrew is called Shemot, Names.

Six days work, but make the seventh day holy
Throughout your habitations enjoy a Sabbath of complete rest
Kindle no arguments (fires. Instead) take gifts to God

God is advising the children of YisraEl (Israel) how to pattern their lives in order to cross the wilderness on a journey from bondage to the promised land of liberation. It is also a map for all spiritual seekers today.

Whoever is moved by an inner spirit to make wave offerings
Before God, come forward bringing your offerings

Think of this scripture as a powerful dream, and a mirror. We are invited to bring offerings to the feet of the Lord.

The leaders bring lapis lazuli, onyx stone and other gems
As we bring freewill offerings, we become royalty
We are the precious stones for setting

In this part of the timeless story we are about to construct a movable tabernacle or sanctuary in the wilderness, like a mobile Lotus Temple. We bring our precious stones as offerings. On another level, through such devotion it begins to seem like we ourselves are the precious stones.

Yah (God) calls Betz’l-el’s name
Filling that name with ruah Elohim, divine spirit
Full of wisdom, understanding and knowledge
In all craftsmanship for teaching others

Meditate on these letter symbols: B Tz L A L
Drawing forth the skillful artist within
Bayt Tzade Lamed Alef Lamed

God singles out two spiritually gifted artisans to construct the sanctuary accouterments. Betz’l-El and Oholibama. Mystics say the entire Torah is one long sacred name of God. Certain configurations of letter symbols, when focused on, are quite empowering, such as the letter symbols making up the names of these gifted artists.

Morning after morning we continue to bring freewill offerings
Each according to our own calling

Sunset and sunrise are auspicious periods of the day. We are directed to make our offering in the mornings – for this blesses our day. We are each called to offer what we are naturally good at. We may also offer up our foolish habits.

Our gifts offered up are more than enough for all the service needed
In the realm of the miraculous there is always more than enough

The Torah reports that the people kept coming forward bringing free will offerings, so many that Moses had to say, “Stop, stop – there’s more than enough here to construct this sanctuary.”

With gold clasps (love), couple all the units to one another (us)
So that the Sanctuary becomes whole and one (a hole in 1)

Under God’s directions we are shown a design, a meditation- visualization for constructing a sacred temple and meeting place with God in our own hearts. In the devotional consciousness that arises from making sincere offerings to the Beloved, and in the midst of our visualizations, we sometimes go into Samadhi. In such superconscious states it seems like we ourselves are the very partitions and instruments of this amazing sanctuary.

Make a wooden ark overlaid with pure gold within and without
And cover it with pure gold (infinite compassion)

Kabbalists use images and language in scripture as a code indicating certain pathways to and from various realms of refined consciousness. Gold, for example, indicates loving compassion, one of ten infinite depths on the tree of life.

Let us make (of ourselves) vessels of pure gold to offer libations
The bowls, ladles, jars and jugs in the sanctuary (are we)

(Let us become also) a pure gold stand of seven lights (the menorah)

We are already a stand of seven lights, of seven chakras or centers of energy and consciousness. As we become ever more compassionate, our light is ever more illuminating.

Make also an altar of incense and sacred anointing oil
Setting a crown of gold round about

The incense is our praises and prayer
The anointing oil comes from meditating on the oneness
Thus we are crowned with love

Sages say the heartfelt prayers we make are a sweet savor before God. And our inner meditations create the invisible oil of silent service as priest and priestess for the people.

Let everyone in whose heart Yah has put wisdom and skill
To carry out God’s words – come near and do it!

The screen for the gate of the court is the work of a weaver in colors
Of blue, purple and scarlet revealing the cherubim design

With all the colors, beauty and pathos of this world
God creates a veil of illusion

The weaver of colors is, of course, the one who has created us. During selfless service there are certain colors of majesty that appear in one’s aura. In Psalms, the Shepherd David sings: “Enter God’s courtyard with thanksgiving.” The scripture points to the gate of this courtyard and says that it’s covered by a screen, the work of a master weaver who also weaves images of cherubs into this vast panorama. Such sacred forms and images, moortis (in Sanskrit), are also entrances into the courtyard of God’s sanctuary.

Bring Forth the Holy Artist in You

2008-02-18T22:52:00.005-05:00

Selections from Names/Shemot in Ki Tissa Exodus 30.11-34.35
We're crossing the wilderness in the second scroll of the Old Testament. God is passing the dharma to us, the eternal wisdom, in practical language and instruction. We are encouraged to tap our intuition and artistry. We are instructed how to direct our devotion effectively and powerfully. And we are invited into a sacred contract with divinity.

God singles out Bezalel and Oholiab
Endowing them with refined awareness
Ability, craftsmanship and knowledge
Bring forth the holy artists in yourself

How quickly one turns aside from the way God shows us
We tend to bow and sacrifice to golden calves
Thinking God can be defined by one form or another

Prostrate and pray: pardon my iniquity
We remember your vow to our ancestors
Take us for your own and go in our midst

In the morning present yourself to me
And I’ll pass before you revealing compassion
Kindness, truth, omnipotence, patience and vast love
Remembering your good deeds, and for the repentant
Forgiving sins, rebellion and error

God says, hereby I make a covenant with you
Take a count of your numbers (This is empowering)

You Israelites (all seekers of truth) keep my Sabbaths
As a sign between us forever to know you’re consecrated

Give some money as an offering
To support the Tents of Meeting
Always give something to support sacred places

Redeem every firstborn
Don’t come before me empty-handed
Every child is our firstborn. Come before God with offerings

Don’t offer sacrifices to me with leaven (pride)
When you’re stiff-necked, I don’t go in your midst
Lest you be destroyed. So leave off your finery (vanity)

Don’t boil a kid in its mother’s milk
Have compassion for all animals

Come down from the heights bearing the covenant
Two tables of stone (letter symbols) inscribed on both sides
The work and writing of El (of God)

Write down these teachings (and live them)
For with them you strike a covenant with God

From the Teachings of Yitro

2008-01-27T16:09:00.000-05:00

In the first scroll, Genesis we went from a pradise into Egypt, which in this scripture represents the snares of the material realm. In the second scroll, Exodus, we found outselves enslaved by our attachments. We cried out and were led out of bondage into freesom. We began to cross the wilderness toward a promised land of non-duality, fullness and peace. On the third month after crossing over the Reed Sea and beginning our adventures in the wilderness, Yitro (Jethro), Moses' mentor and father-in-law appears and instructs Moses and all of us how to carry ourselves in this purification journey of awakening. This portion of scripture is known as the heart of the heart of the Torah. This is Sinai, the revelation of the eternal wisdom.

Selections from Names/Shemot in Yitro, Exodus 18.1-20.23

Yitro hears all. With loving respect Moses prostrates before him
A fountain of blessings is God, says Yitro, who is freeing you

Draw up from within yourself the capable one
Humbled before the vastness, who loves straight-forwardness
Let this, your nobility, govern you through all seasons of life

In three days God’s coming to meet you (Start counting now)
Sanctify yourselves by washing your garments (your actions)

Men and women stay apart three days (Build vitality)
Set boundaries about the mount
By respecting one another’s boundaries, thus we ascend

Morning of the third day -- look at the mountain
It’s altogether billowing smoke as if from a great furnace
Bolts of thunder tearing open the heavens
Lightning flashing all about and fire coming down

The mountain is trembling. God’s descending in fire
Everything’s shaking (and so are we, can’t talk, can’t move)

The sound’s getting louder (We enter its silence and hear)
I am the Lord your God who brings you out of bondage
Out of the straits, out of narrow-mindedness

I am God. I show thousands of generations of mercy
Take my names and use them wisely

The seventh day celebrate the oneness
Bring honor to your parents (and teachers with an honorable life)

Don’t kill off anyone (with put-downs, including yourself)
And don’t adulterate (the purity in you)

Whenever you steal, you steal from yourself; so don’t bother
And no false witnessing – (say what you see, no more, no less)

When you covet anything that someone else has
That stops your own estate from manifesting
Make an earthen altar (Make an altar of this earth)

A Lifetime High

2008-01-14T22:32:00.000-05:00

Dear one,

New moon, new beginning
Highly auspicious time
What can we bring to the altar?
What is there to give up?
Good time to let go something really sleazy

(food indulgences, mind weaknesses
inconsiderations and presumptions
any sense of entitlement,
and all put-downs, including self put-downs)

Ah, good food for God
New moon and here's the offering

God doesn't want your good things, say the sages
Give God your petty, not pretty things
And shazam ~ Transformation!

I listened to Swami Satchidananda on YouTube
[Thanks to Sraddha, the one with active belief]
He was saying -- do actions for everyone
Without expecting anything back
Without looking to get the fruits
Not even a thank you

Okay, yes, accept fruits if they come to you
But don't be looking for them
Otherwise, you lose
The joy of having given something

The month of Shevat is the January-February time
A cluster of symbols: Aquarius, the water-bearer,
The angelic quality of GabriEl, also the Tribe of Asher
Bringer of the dharma, the fountain of eternal youth
The power name: Hey Yohd Vahv Hey
[Not pronounced, visualized]

As for Asher – abundance, wisdom and wealth of royalty -- Genesis 49
The majestic kingdom of the divine presence; we call this Asher

Bring an Offering Mystics say every new moon can be a mini-Day of Atonement, Attunement, At-one-ment. But to get the blessing of a clean slate, of a clear mind, of a new beginning blessed with auspiciousness and fulfillment, one must come before the altar (in one's heart) with a genuine offering.

Scripture details several types of acceptable offerings before the divine: thanks-giving offerings, peace offerings, fire offering (tapas, the burning of self–discipline and suffering offered up), free will offerings, sin offerings, guilt offerings and wave offerings (waving light and incense before the altar; waving tree branches under the heavens).

To walk away with an empowering blessing that's lasting, one must be willing to dig deep and find some old sleazy habit of mind that's been running it's tape loop for some time now; take full responsibility for that -- which is copping to it (without adding any self put-down); and bring that as an offering. Yes, the sages say God doesn't want your good stuff; bring God your not nice stuff.

Does God really want your sleazy stuff?

I personally don't think God "wants" anything. However that transcendent consciousness seems to interact with our less illumined selves according to certain recognizable and dependable laws of the universe. Somehow, by being "willing" to look at our own junk and cop to it 100% and offer it up – lo, it turns inside out. That's when we say, God has accepted our offering and we've been given a blessing.

By uncovering one of our foolish attitudes from the past (the sleazy stuff); seeing it for what it is and taking responsibility for it (not blaming Mom or Dad, or the government or the culture we're in, or our gender. or our race or our religion), that itself is a genuine act of honesty and power. And that itself brings a blessing. (Yes, God wants your sleazy stuff.)

And when we get a blessing, we feel good; we feel high -- for a day or so usually; then it often slides back into the trees again ...

Unless ...
we're willing to "be" that blessing out in the world. To walk the talk, to stand up and be counted -- no matter what it may look like to others, no matter what we may look like.

That is, it takes courage to go uncover some sleazy stuff from the past, cop to it and offer it up. And it takes courage to receive the blessing deeply and walk the talk of the blessing, "to be that" in the world on-goingly. Then it's not just a two day high; it's a lifetime high.

http://youtube.com/profile?user=SatchidanandaAshram

12 Signs, 12 Stones, 12 Tribes

2007-12-23T16:19:00.000-05:00

The Declarations of YisraEl

Yakov (Jacob) calls his children:
Gather yourselves together
I’ll tell you what will befall you in the end of days
Listen to YisraEl your father:

Let us gather ourselves together and be uplifted together
In this way we experience that we are YisraEl, the oneness
Also the none-ness

Rubin, my first-born, my might and my strength
Excellence of dignity and excellence of power
Rubin is our loving nobility, our concern for all others

Beware of instability like water
Rubin, don’t let your heart “completely” run the show

Shimon and Levi, a kinship with weapons of violence
Avoid such council or you cannot unite with my glory
Beware anger and willfulness that slay men
And cripple animals

Because their sister Dinah was dishonored
Levi and Shimon killed the perpetrator
And all the men of his tribe
And cut the hamstrings of their cattle

Anger is fierce and wrath is cruel
You will be divided and spread through all the tribes

Shimon becomes the personification of our strength
And our wisdom. Levi becomes the priesthood
The musicians and the truth warriors
Even most terrible sinners can rise up to be great saints

Yehudah (Judah) you’ll be praised
Victorious over your enemies. Your relatives will bow
Before your majesty. You’re a lion
Who holds the scepter and the ruler’s staff

You’ve bound yourself to the sacred vine
The most choice wine. You bathe in sacraments
Your ensign is red and white. Teeth white as milk
Eyes red with the intoxication of God

How cruel Yahudah was; how noble has he become
He’s a k’shatriyah, a selfless king
Whose eternal commitment is for the welfare of his people

Zebulon, treasure-finder
You dwell at the shores of the seas
Shipping master, skillful merchant who supports

Issachar solid and strong who sees the resting place
And couches down in there knowing the goodness
The pleasant land. You bow your shoulder and live to serve

What a pair these two Issachar and Zeb
Issachar sees the Sabbath and charts the heavens
Zebulon knows the infinite depths

Dan is the wise and neutral judge for his people
Also the creative energy, a serpent in the way

Who bites the horses’ heel protecting the people
So the enemy rider falls backward

The kundalini (power energy) rises up through the spine
To the crown, illuminating the supreme court
The sentence is always fair. The guidance is always useful
The enemy rider is our selfishness

YisraEl sees a fiery chariot approaching. He raises his hand
O' God, I await your deliverance --
And completes the blessings

Warrior Gad, protector of the innocent, a troop may attack
But you will troop on them and see them scatter and run
A warrior-leader, invincible protector of the innocent

As for Asher – abundance, wisdom and wealth of royalty
The majestic kingdom of the divine presence; we call this Asher

Naphtali runs free in the fields (of consciousness)
He passes on the dharma with words of beauty and victory

The poet, the artist, the story-teller
The puppet and the puppet-master

All these qualities are in us. Each has its own totem
As we choose, we draw on them and bring them forward

Yosuf is a fruitful vine by a spring (the living waters)
Though attacked and tested, his resolve never falters

Empowered by the almighty one, by the shepherd
By the stone of YisraEl, by God of your fathers and mothers

Who blesses you with the heavens and the infinite depths
With the breasts and womb of the goddess
With succor, Eros and progeny who live honorably

To the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills
His arms are strong. Her hands are skillful
You are the crown, the head, the prince of our family

Tamar and Yosuf (Joseph) are male and female personifications
Of our foundation, the illumined sage at our core
The miraculous ability to reproduce, to be reborn
To love each other unconditionally. This is our inheritance

Benjamin’s totem is the victorious wolf
Who devours his prey in the morning and at night
Divides the spoil

Benjamin shares the wealth with all
Benjamin is our generous heart
Our most powerful weapon. We ride in the victor’s chariot

These are the twelve tribes of YisraEl
Twelve aspects of our illumination
As our father declares unto us and blesses us
Each of us according to the cut of our own blessings
From Genesis 49

Eight Mystery Nights

2007-12-09T23:57:00.000-05:00

o’ nobly born,
it's in the darkness that magic happens and creation occurs
who we each are is nothing filled with everything
nothing is the womb of creation
in the darkness is the hidden light

Eight Mystery Nights

First day, grey cloud sun white cloud mountain
Looking down into a dark valley
Speckled with Hanukah and Christmas lights.
Cold north wind blowing south
The wind is a messenger calling out:
"All instruments, come forward"

Second night, three lights burning.
The server light illumines the others and is not diminished
Go into the Tent of Meeting. How? Offer yourself up
And keep your eyes open for miracles
The everyday becomes miraculous

Third night. Four angels visiting.
The miracle of planning a future together
'Stead of "just goin' along"
Choose the life you want to have

Fourth night we're served wine while the candles are burning
Fifth night miracle: As the last light extinguishes
A great mystery becomes clear:
The Hanukah candle and the light in the fireplace
It's all the same light

Sixth night visions in the flames: the teacher's face
Becomes a black goddess with fire eyes
Leaping-mountain-fire-ram, the sixth day
A ram caught in the thicket are we

Seventh night, eight candles burning, including the shammos
The Illuminator, the remover of ignorance.
Eight is infinity.These are the mantras:

Seven years of plenty
The land produces in abundance
Lay open all that is within

New moon, new beginnings
Eighth night a palace of light. If I haven't told You already
Thanks for guiding us to kindle these lights of peace
Let's sound the cymbals, the loud-sounding symbols
The message: How to purify the sacred temple within
Simply re-dedicate our lives for everyone's benefit

With Your light, we see light. But You are not diminished. Look -
A bush is burning, but the leaves and branches

Are not consumed. Let's check this out ...

* * *

When I first approached my teacher, he was seated on a carpet
A flower arrangement and a bowl of fruit beside him
I went forward to offer a tape cassette I'd made
My knees buckled; I fell headfirst before him, Abrech
One is simply moved to kneel
We celebrate the light and the dark for without the dark
We cannot discern the light

I lit two menorahs and two Sabbath candles
Twenty angels in the living room
Twenty-seven Buddhas in the flower blossoms
The serving candle is now a small red coal

There beside the menorah and the flowers is his photo
He’s sitting beside a tiger
His hand gently resting on the tiger's paw
Once he put his hand on mine the same way

Smoke shoots up; spirit flying free. Even in the dark it's visible
The Server returns to the all

My teacher is gone like the shammos
His light is in me now and he is not diminished

A Certain Place

2007-11-26T01:30:00.000-05:00

From Be’er-sheba to Haran
Via the well of the Seven Infinite Depths
We come to the land of Auspiciousness

This is story of a person on his path of awakening. We find Yakov (Jacob) having just left his home and family and running for his life. Exhausted and bereft of almost all possessions, he’s crossed the river and in the open countryside finds a place to lie down and sleep.

He comes upon a certain place (makom)
That seems familiar, takes stones of that place
Puts them under his head, sleeps and dreams

A certain place [place, makom, one of the names of God]
Take stones from the places you like and consider them runes
Investigate the 22 stones, 22 letters, 22 power symbols

A dream, a ladder, a stairway
Angels of God ascending and descending
Suddenly Yah (God) is standing beside him
Saying: “I am with you”

Yakov (Jacob) awakens, declaring
God is surely in this place (makom)
How awe-inspiring is this place; it must be God’s temple
This is a gate into heaven (In this temple is the holy of holies)

This place: the very place you are right now
Take off your shoes; you’re on holy ground

He sets the stone up as a pillar (as an altar)
First a pillow then a pillar, declaring:

If I return safe to my father’s house, then
This stone set up as a pillar is God’s abode
And I’ll always set aside a tithe (a tenth) for you
Cut a deal with God; strike a covenant; get into relationship

He goes briskly to the land of the people of the East
Let’s join him and we also will go along on this adventure into
The infinite depth of the East, Dawn, Tiferet
Entrance to the temple

Look, a well in the open and a stone
On the mouth of the well
Do you wonder which stone, which letter, which number?

Friends from Haran (auspiciousness) and Laban’s daughter
Rachel, a shepherdess

Rachel, the shepherdess, and David, the shepherd
In scripture are personifications of the infinite depth of Malkhut
The majesty and kingdom of God, also the mouth of the divine

Yakov rolls the stone off the mouth of the well
And waters Laban’s flock
And kisses Rachel

Giving water to the other’s animals is a symbol-image
Signaling a sacred partnering, lovemaking and fertility
Unasked, Rebekah gave water to Isaac’s camels
Yakov water’s Rachel’s sheep, and later
Moses waters Zipporah’s flock

Laban runs to greet Yakov (his nephew) and kisses him
Declaring: you are truly my bones and flesh
What shall your wages be

Laban’s two daughters: Leah and Rachel
Leah has beautiful eyes
Rachel has beautiful form

Beautiful eyes see beauty everywhere
Beautiful form is an image and symbol of the divine
In Sanskrit, a moorti

Yakov loves Rachel and for her serves seven years
Which seem but a few days because of their love

Give me my wife for my time is fulfilled
Laban gives Yakov also his daughter Rachel as wife

Yakov’s wages are the two daughters of Laban
And their two handmaidens, Bilhah and Zilpah
These are the mothers of the twelve tribes of Yisra-El
For these four wives, Yakov serves fourteen years

Yah (God) sees Leah is unloved and opens her womb
Leah bears a son and names him Ruben –
“A son of seeing!” My husband will love me

Whoever has beautiful eyes surely bears beautiful children
Leah’s world is filled with the glory of God’s beauty
“She walks in beauty,” as the Navahos say

She conceives again and bears Shimon, “God hears”
The highest hearing is two-way hearing
You hear the voice of intuition, perceive the revelation
And like Yakov, also your voice is heard on high

She conceives again and bears a third child
My husband and I are forever connected
Yakov names the child Levi (attached, connected)

Married or divorced, dead or alive, we are always connected
Together having brought these souls to earth
We’ll always share this blessing

Again she conceives, has a son and says
“Let me praise God”
She names him Yehudah (Judah, praise)

As one can see, our mother Leah
Enjoys a rich devotional intimacy with God
To which we each are heir

The practice of Bhakti Yoga gives us beautiful eyes
Yoga means yoking finite awareness to infinite awareness
There are several paths or technologies for doing so
Bhakti Yoga is the path of devotion.
Leah is a master of devotion

More to kome …

from notes on Genesis 28-29 Nov 25, 2007
Lunar month of Kislev (November-December) 5768

Take One of the Stones

2007-11-24T01:13:00.000-05:00

From the Adventures of Jacob Genesis 28:10-17
Jacob leaves Be’er-shiva and heads for Haran
From Be’er-Shiva, the well of the seven infinite depths
To Haran, the land of auspiciousness

Taking one of the stones (power-letter symbols) of that place
He puts it under his head and dreams of a ladder
A stairway going from earth to heaven
Suddenly, Yah (God) stands beside him speaking

If we meditate on any one of the ancient runes, those early Hebrew letter symbols, we too will come to see the pathway uniting earth and heaven, which is also along our own spine, our tree of life, seven chakras (centers of consciousness) and ten sefirot (infinite depths). In the Ajna chakra, at the third eye center, where Hokhmah and Binah meet, (Revelation and Comprehension), we're blessed with a personal vision of God. Beyond that – at the crown -- is just the oneness, Diamond Consciousness, the Thousand-Petaled Lotus.

I give this place to you and your descendents
Spread out west, east, north and south
Remember I’m with you and protecting you

We are both Jacob and Jacob’s descendents.
God’s timeless gift to us we remember now:
This very place and this very moment is the gate of awakening
Transcendence, from dust and water babies into our fullness:
Everything and everyone are we; this realization is the blessing

Now take it wherever you go –
Up, Down, West, East, North and South

Jacob awakens and declares:
Surely God (Yah) is in this place and I didn’t realize it
How awesome. This is the abode of God
And gateway to heaven

Seven infinite depths, seven double letter symbols:
Up and Down, East and West, North and South
And precisely in the center: a Holy Palace of Light
Yes indeed, spread out in all directions

Stories of Isaac and Rebekah

2007-11-13T00:27:00.000-05:00

from Genesis 25-26

This is the story of Yitzak (Isaac)
Son of Avraham and Sarah

At 40 Yitzak marries Rebekah
Yitzak pleads with God on the behalf of his wife
Yah (God) responds and Rebekah conceives
Pleading to God for another is often effective

During the pain of her pregnancy
Rebekah asks, “Why do I exist?”
This is a useful investigation and meditation for us each

Yah replies: Two nations are in your womb
Two peoples apart while in your body
Our selflessness and our selfishness

Let the elder serve the younger
And let the younger thus learn and serve the elders

Twins are born, Esau and Yakov (Jacob)
The boys grow up. Esau becomes a skillful hunter
And an outdoorsman. Yakov is mild and stays in the camp

There’s famine in the land Famine: a code and sign for
Going down into the dangers and blessings of this material plane

God appears to Yitzak and says:
Stay in the land I show you. Reside in this land
I will be with you and bless you

Yitzak stays in Gerar. When men ask him about his wife
He says, she’s my sister, thinking: the men might kill me
On account of Rebekah because she’s beautiful
Beauty, alas, stirs up covetousness

Yitzak sows in the land and reaps a hundred fold
Yah blesses him. “The man grows richer and richer”
(Mantra) Until he’s very wealthy

One hundred, the power symbol K’uf on the tree of life
A pathway between the kingdom and the glory

The Philistines stop up all the wells
Dug by Avraham’s servants filling them with earth

Abimelech says: Go away from us
For you have become far too big for us
Wealth, alas, stirs up envy

Yitzak departs from there, encamps and settles
In the valley. He digs wells anew
His servants find a well of spring water

For all us water babies, water is life itself and in arid lands
Water is nearly invaluable and therefore also a symbol
Of the dharma, the eternal wisdom that brings immortality

Local herdsmen quarrel with him saying
That water is ours. He calls that well Esek, contention

They dig another well and there is dispute over that also
He calls this well Sitnah, enmity

He moves from there, digs another well
There is no quarrelling. He calls it Rehoveth, spaciousness

Saying, “Yah grants us ample space to increase the land”
This too is a mantra. All these places are also within us
We have to dig deeper and deeper to reach the wide open place

Yitzak goes to Beer-sheva (the well of seven)
Yah appears to him that night saying

I am the God of your father and mother
“Be fearless; I'm with you and I'm blessing you” (a mantra)

These people and places are parts of us, including the quality
In each of us that can actually see and hear the Absolute

Yitzak builds an altar there and invokes God’s name
God's essence is in God's name

There too he pitches his tent
We too can pitch our tents at the altar of conscious devotion

An Evening with Shefa Gold and Friends

2007-11-08T08:14:00.000-05:00

At a recent evening program in Washington, D.C., Rabbi Shefa led chanting of short phrases of scripture and liturgy followed by moments of meditation interspersed with occasional teachings and comments. The chanting (in both Hebrew and English) refined consciousness which bought about intuition and revelation. Shefa accompanied the chants with a sruti box (a small harmonium) and a hand drum. Three of her friends and students also played drums. Another led movement for some of the chants. The room filled. Between chants Shefa said:

We prepare for prayer by chanting: “Oh pure soul, in you I see endless possibilities.” Go inside and see yourself when you were a little baby, an infant, and bless that baby with all potential, with every conceivable possibility.

“O’ God, show me my end, and what is the measure of my days? (from Psalm 39.5) Go beyond the tyranny of time. Go way into the future, to the end of your days, when you’re wise and mature. See yourself then. Now invite that wise elder who is you to come here now and comfort and guide you and bless you in what you are up to these days. You can go back also from here all the way to the time of your infancy and small childhood, and let go any clusters of protection from bruising that may have occurred and is still being held by the body somewhere. Worries marry and have babies.

Remember that there is the one who comforts and delights our soul, despite all the concerns and worries that sometimes bubble up in these dry days between Sabbaths. What does that wise elder in you say and advise you today?

During our great adventure in awakening inside this palace of existence, the art is practicing balancing intention with surrender: over and over again use the will with focused, forthright intentionality while simultaneously surrendering fully to the unknown, to the great mystery.

In the silence after a chant, focus on the breath; breathe into the heart. Open up and let go. Be a channel of that great love. Inside God’s names is the essence. Let that essence in us blossom and flow through us ever more and more.

“From the moment of birth unto death, Hallelu-Yah.” (from Psalm 150.6) I hear sambas and tangos, congas and djembes. I see dark-haired dancing goddesses.

“When worries multiply within me, your comfort soothes and delights my soul.” (from Psalm 94.19) In the teachings of the prophet Isaiah are amazing guidelines for breaking free.

Go back to a place and time when your heart was overflowing with love, light and joy -- and feel that love for God now. Also go back in time to the occasion when you felt devastated by a great loss and hurt and grief and sorrow

“He transforms her wilderness into delight, her wasteland into a divine garden.” (from Isaiah 51.3) Look inside. See that divine garden flourishing. What plants, bushes, flowers and trees are there. Look and see.

God is saying to each of us, “You’re engraved on the palm of MY hand.” (from Isaiah 49.16) We are the lines on God’s hands. So let’s do what we can to lead a noble life. We are that close; we are never forgotten.

And look at the lines also on “our” own palms. Let us touch palms with one another and then look at our hands. Now we are forever touched, transformed, merged with the other. There are symbols on our palms. (ancient runes?) Look -- on our hands are the ten teachings, ten words, ten power symbols, five opposite five.

And now journey into the heart: “Unify our hearts to love and to be in awe of your name, your essence.” (from Psalm 86) It’s not just awe. The translating scribe added love to the line.

Go back to a time when you experienced so much love, light and joy and feel that love for God now. Go back in time also to when you were trembling in the presence of something so amazing, so overwhelming, so terribly vast and powerful, and also feel that awareness now before this vast presence. Marry these two acknowledgements inside your heart.

What great devastation in your past do you still harbor? Bring this love to that place and melt that knot of sorrow and dismay so you can be like a little babe again – overflowing with infinite possibilities and all magnificent potential.

For more, see: RabbiShefaGold.com

You Are the Elect of God

2007-10-31T00:13:00.000-04:00

Selections from In the Beginning, Chayei/Sarah Lives, Genesis 23-25
In this scripture the goddess of wisdom and artistry
Appears as Sarah, Prophetess and partner
Of the patriarch Avraham, mother of Isaac
And godmother of Ishmael who is born on her lap

Sarah lives 127 years and dies in Hebron. While mourning
Avraham speaks to the descendents of Het
127, 1+2+7=10, as in ten infinite depths, as in ten words
As in ten power symbols on two tables of stone
Five opposite five

You are the elect of God, say they
Who gives himself or herself utterly to God
Becomes the elect of God

Bury your dead in the choicest of sites
In the cave of Makpelah
In the field of Ephron facing Mamre

The cave of Makpelah is the double cave
The cave inside the cave
Entrance to Eden, says the Zohar, the Book of Splendor

Avraham gives Ephron 400 silvers
Sarah is buried in the cave of the field of Makpelah
“Field” usually indicates a state of refined consciousness

Four hundred silvers is code, O’ ye reapers of the field
Silver indicates the infinite depth of the north
From whence flows the dharma, the Torah, the eternal wisdom

400 is the power symbol Tahv on the tree of life
Pathway 'tween the kingdom of God and the foundation stone
Which, O’ Nobly Born, is your illumination

Avraham takes anther wife Ketorah (Spice)
Who bears Avraham (more) descendents
Hagar (the stranger) matures into Ketorah
Who weds her beloved

He wills all he owns to Yitzak and while alive gives gifts
To his other children by directing them (us)
To the land of the East

Isaac (Yitzak) receives the mantle of leadership
We are each evolving to become Isaac:
Laughter, joy, bliss personified. But how?

By going to the land of the East, dawn
Entrance to a sacred temple of light, wisdom and love
Avraham's gift to us: Rise at dawn, worship and meditate
Enter the shrine

The life span of Avraham is 175 when he breathes his last
Dying at a good ripe age, old and contented
1+7+5=13 1+3=4. On the tree of life, the power symbol Dalet
A pathway between revelation and deep understanding

His childen Yitzak (Isaac) and Ishmael bury him
In the cave of Makpelah
Where to this day our matriarchs and patriarchs lie sleeping

After Avraham’s death Eloheem blesses Yitzak
The Goddess blesses Isaac

Mantra: You are the elect of God

Is Anything Too Hard or Amazing for God

2007-10-22T11:18:00.000-04:00

Selections from Vayera in B’re-sheet/Genesis 18

Sitting at the entrance of the tent of meeting
Yah (God) appears by the trees
“By the trees” is the entrance to a meeting place
With Yah, if one dares continue such a journey as this

Three high beings standing near (appear)

My Lord, don’t pass by your servant
He touches the ground

Avraham can see something of their magnificence
He knows of whom they are, and speaks
As if speaking to God, while thinking:
How can I graciously welcome them
I know they’re not men and women
Nor do they bathe in water or eat what we eat
I’ll behave as if they are my human guests

Please, let a little water be brought to you
Bathe your feet
Recline under the tree

Do as you say, they reply
Avraham shows us how to host
Angels show us how to be guests

Sarah makes bread
The Goddess, nature is the Provider

I will return to you when life is due
Sarah laughs (You laughed. I didn’t. You did)
Is anything too hard or amazing for God Gen: 18.1-15

One informs Sarah she will become pregnant
She laughs, both because it’s so outrageous
At their ages, and because she’s so delighted
He catches her laughing. She denies it
Playing with him (So they’ll call the baby
Yitzak, Isaac, laughter, joy. Gen 21.3)

Is anything too hard or amazing for God!?
This a mantra passed on to us each from Sarah and Avraham
It’s also a question, a consideration and a meditation

Get Going!

2007-10-19T12:43:00.000-04:00

Selections from In the Beginning/Lech Lecha Genesis 12

Yah (God) says go forth from your native land
To the land that I’m showing you
All the families of earth will bless themselves by you

Avram sets out from Haran (auspiciousness)
For the land of Canaan (humility)
God appears to Avram and promises this land
(This consciousness) to his offspring (all of us)

Avram moves to the hill country
And pitches his tent near Bethel
Let’s all of us pitch our tents near the house of God, bet’ El

He builds an altar there to God and invokes God’s name
A quality of God. By honoring and using various sacred names
We may perceive and draw on various facets of the divine

Famine in the land
Avram goes down to Egypt, mitzra-eem.

This is a code and sign. Famine indicates entering
The material realm with all its risks and attractions
These are the straits, mitzra-eem, in this scripture: Egypt
We must pass through this stage on our journeys home

As Avram is about to enter the straits
He says to his wife Sarai
I’m aware that you’re beautiful
We are spiritual sister and brother; please declare this

In Egypt Sarai is praised before the King
And carried to his palace
Sarai is the goddess riding on the vehicle of God

We remain alive thanks to one another
Because of Sarai, it goes well with Avram
He acquires plenty

Yah afflicts Pharaoh and his house with big plagues
Pharaoh can be seen as the ego, the decider, who at first
Wants whatever looks good, which can be misleading

We begin to learn that selfishness brings a mess of trouble
This in turn detaches us from chasing after only material successes
The material realm begins to lose its grip on us

All this is a blessing from the Goddess Sarai, wife of Avram

Notes from Noah: How to Live Forever

2007-10-11T08:17:00.000-04:00

Selections from B’re-sheet/In the Beginning, Genesis 6.9-9.1

These are the generations of Noah
A man righteous and wholehearted; Noah walks with God

When the earth becomes corrupt and full of violence
Body ages, begins breaking down, readies to dissolve
God says to Noah The Noah part of us hears the inner guidance

Make a wooden ark with compartments
300 long, 50 wide, 30 high Each numeral is a power symbol
Create light at the top in your ark "Let there be light"
With an entrance on its side and with three decks (levels)
Visualize this ark in your heart and mind

I’m bringing the flood. Except for you
The breath of life from under heaven is perishing
What happens when we leave our physical bodies

But I’m establishing my covenant with you
And your companion and your children. Enter the ark

Noah is a name for our soul. The ark is our covenant with God
A pact made between us and our maker. Even as we agreed
While still undifferentiated, to play the game of separate identities, we will never forget who we really are
This is the covenant

Take also into the ark every living thing of all flesh
Both male and female who come unto you to keep them alive. Take food for yourselves and for them.

These body cells contain all species of life. The parts of us
Made of elements of earth return to their elementary nature
Meanwhile, Noah, our soul, continues to be safe and sound
Even in the presence of the angel of death to all flesh

In the 2nd month (Iyar/Apr-May/Taurus)
The fountains of the great deep burst apart
The windows of heaven break open
Waters of the flood are on the earth

Rain falls forty days and forty nights
Forty-forty repeats the letter symbol M, mayim
The element of water. The mother’s waters break --
The flood. We’re about to enter a new world: rebirth

Blotted out from earth is every living substance above ground. Only Noah and those with him remain

There are three decks in the ark, three levels of faith
Standing on the top deck everything in the world disappears
Pure consciousness alone remains

A wind passes over the earth. The waters assuage
In the 7th month (Tishri/Sept-Oct/Libra)
The ark comes to rest on Mt Ararat

The 10th month (Tevet/Dec-Jan/Capricorn) mountaintops
Can be seen. Noah sends out a raven and a dove
Which toward evening returns with a plucked olive leaf

On the first day of the new year (Nisan/Mar-Apr/Aries)
Noah removes the covering from the ark

In the second month (Iyar/Apr-May/Taurus) the earth is dry
God says to Noah: you and your family go forth from the ark. Bring every living thing. Be fruitful and multiply
Replenish the earth

Go forth from the ark
Be fruitful and multiply
Replenish the earth
As we pass on what we’re given, we increase a thousand-fold

Noah builds an altar unto God (and so can we)
In all generations you may re-establish your covenant

With me. The sign of our pact is my rainbow in the clouds

When we see it, you and I, remember the pact between us
See a rainbow and remember this covenant with your divinity

Where Are You?

2007-10-05T07:36:00.000-04:00

Selections from In the Beginning/B’re-sheet Genesis 1.1-3.21

In-the-beginning creates El (God and Goddess)
The heavens and the earth

Let there be light and separate it from darkness
All living creatures be fertile and increase

Let’s make humanity in Eloheem’s (in the Mother’s) image
Creating male and female with plants for food

This is the story of heaven and earth:
The seventh day, we declare it holy

YHVH (God) forms humans from dust of the earth (adamah)
Breathing into our nostrils the breath of life

We are living beings!
(We awaken in the palace of existence)

A garden is planted in Eden in the east
With a tree of life in the middle
Also knowledge of right and wrong (duality)

A river from Eden waters the garden,
A land of gold and lapis lazuli

We’re free to eat from every tree in the garden
If we eat the fruit of duality, we get both life and death

All alone? Let’s make a helpmate, birds and animals too.
A deep sleep, now fashion woman, now fashion man

Bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh (Wow!)
Naked and unself-conscious, two become one flesh

For clothing God has made us garments of skin (of light)
(The entire universe is our home)

God is calling to us now, saying “Where are you?”
(You have only limited time here.
What are you doing with your life?)

Eleven Treasures – A Vast Wealth Within

2007-10-04T22:53:00.000-04:00

Selections from Devarim/Words in V'zot Habracha Deuteronomy 33.1-34.12

God comes from Sinai with lightning flashing (revelation)
The tribes are assembling (Draw forth these treasures)

Let Ruben live and not die. Let his people be numbered
(Ruben is our immortality. Each day we dedicate – counts!)

Hear the voice of (King) Judah (Genuine prayer enthrones us)
Levi, your breastplate is filled with faith, your prayer
A sweet aroma (Levi is the sincere devotee in us each)

O Benjamin, you dwell forever between the shoulders of God
(God dwells between our shoulders in our Benjamin heart)

For you Joseph, the dew of heaven, the best of worlds
Everywhere treasures in the everlasting hills
(Joseph, our foundation stone, is the illumined sage within)

Rejoice Zebulon on your journeys and Issachar in your tents
Sacrifice in the mountains. Draw riches from the infinite depths
(Issachar charts the heavens. Zeb gets wealth from the seas)

Gad, a mighty one of valor, fulfills God’s design
Blesses and enlarges us. Gad is a fierce lion protector
Tearing arm and scalp, expanding east. (Gad is our integrity)

Dan, a lion’s whelp springing forth (a power goddess)
(Eden, headwaters of the Jordon is Dan, a fountain of Torah)

Naftali is the land of opportunity awash in God’s blessings
Everywhere gold (compassion), everywhere wisdom
(Naftali is the wish-fulfilling gem)

Most blessed is Asher who dips his foot in oil, favorite of his kin
Secure all his days. (Generosity, meditation, silent service --
Asher is our children and this is our wealth)

The ancient one is our refuge. Be happy, O’ YisraEL
Ye disciples of holiness, We are supported by everlasting arms

Be fearless now. Ascend the heights
And view the lands that God is giving you

Torn to Pieces -- Conversations with my Guru

2007-09-19T08:58:00.000-04:00

Be Clear and Straight 1971 Before we had an Ashram, I was on the Yogaville (Satchidananda Ashram) planning committee. We came up with a motto and a goal. I was in charge of getting lots of round pins made that we could wear on our shirts and blouses with Let’s Will Yogaville printed on them. These we would distribute to be worn by those who were taking on this intention. At that time my guru, Swami Satchidananda, the Founder of Integral Yoga, told me, “Make the letters clear and straight.”

Over the years I’ve taken his guidance -- make your letters clear and straight -- also to mean: Make your words clear and straight. Make your sentences clear and straight. Make your conversations clear and straight. And make the teachings clear and straight.

Sing a New Song 1976 As a writer and editor, I listened carefully to the things Sri Gurudev said to us about how to write. “Don’t just collect the writings of others and string them together for an article or a book,” he said. “Use your own experiences, your own interpretation. This is your contribution.”

In the Psalms the shepherd David says, we are each called to “sing a new song” unto God.

Completion 1978 A number of us were traveling on a pilgrimage to holy places in India with Sri Gurudev. We’d been visiting holy temples and sites where great saints had lived and taught. Recently we’d visited the village and ashram of a local, much beloved guru who was the spiritual head of the whole town. He had sat and talked with our Gurudev and showed where his leg was hurting. Gurudev held our host’s leg and stroked it gently. The sage gave us each a treasure, a white top cloth that we could wear as we chose or carry folded over one shoulder. I really loved it.

So thickly populated was this land that everywhere we went in India there were people. Even in the countryside and on rural roadsides there were always people around. But one occasion was different. Soon after our visit with the local sage, we were driving across south India not far from where Gurudev was raised as a child. He stopped our cars and beckoned for us to get out and walk with him silently across a dry, wide barren expanse of open land and rocks. As far as the eye could see, not a soul was anywhere in sight in all directions. We traversed flat dry ground of rocks and stony hollows for some time. Gurudev led us to the edge of a deep crevice or pit in the earth. Looking down into the steep well of jutting stones, all we could see far below was the harsh bottom of the pit. Gurudev then told us a story from his youth.

A local man had disappeared from the community for some time and could not be found. If he was alive, his family had been abandoned. If dead, no one knew and there was no completion, no funeral – just worry and alarm.

As youths, Gurudev and a friend had chosen to go exploring – far beyond the safe areas their parents had given them permission to go. After some time they had come to this very place, and there down at the bottom of this pit they had found the body of the missing man.

He pointed where the body had been lying. I leaned forward and looked down over the edge. At just that moment a slight wind arose and lifted the folded top cloth off my shoulders. I reached out, but missed it as it floated and fell before our eyes -- straight down to the bottom of the pit where Gurudev was pointing. It was a gift from a holy man. As I considered climbing down. Gurudev said. “Leave it.” And that’s just what we did.

Zen Master, Zen Students 1980 I accompanied Sri Gurudev on a visit to the Providence, R.I. Zen Center of the late, ever ebullient Korean Zen master, Rev. Seung Sahn. In traditional robes of Zen monks, his American disciples, heads and chins clean-shaven, listened attentively to Sri Gurudev’s talk. Afterwards they approached him and, curious about his long hair and beard, said: “You’re a monk, are you not?” Why don’t you cut your hair?

He sliced the fingers of his right hand across the fingers of his left. “I could cut my fingers all the same length too,” he replied.

There were no more questions.

There are many ways and styles of carriage one may take on as a stand for what one believes and does.

A Gift from God 1986 Over a long period of time I was editing the Living Gita for publication. Finally, I turned it in to Publications. A few days later, Sri Gurudev called me and asked if my part of the writing and editing of the book was completed.

“Yes, I think so,” I said hesitantly, wondering if I’d missed something.

“Are you sure?” he continued.

I couldn’t think of anything else. “Yes,” I said.

Two days later he had Publications send me a check for a several thousand dollars – which was quite a surprise. I’d done the whole job over the years as Karma Yoga, as a service to the community. He waited until my part was complete so all my efforts were without expectation of financial reward. He helped me make a pure offering.

I called him. “I can’t accept this, Gurudev.”

“Yes, you can,” he said. “You’re householder; you have to earn money for your family. You can accept it.”

That night at a Saturday satsang, a gathering of the community and guests to hear the timeless teachings, Gurudev told us that when God gives you a gift, don’t question it: “Am I really worthy of this or not?” A gift from God – you "accept it immediately," he said.

No questions asked. No justification. Amazing grace, like the old song goes.

My Dad 1989 It was Father’s Day at the Virginia Ashram. I had been invited to give a short talk before Sri Gurudev’s satsang – a sharing of the wisdom. My dad had passed away a year before and I missed him a lot. I told some stories of things I learned from my father when I was growing up, and then stories of things I’d learned from my spiritual father, from Sri Gurudev over the years.

After Gurudev’s talk later that evening, he came over, put his hand on my shoulder and whispered in my ear. “Your father was here tonight,” he said.

Torn to Pieces “Even the pious avoid a perfect saint,” said Rumi, the wonderful 13th century mystic poet. “Someone that surrendered and free is a lion,” the Sufi master continued. “Try to be friends with one and you’ll be torn to pieces instantly. In fact, you’ll become a lion. If you want to stay a cow, then stay away.”

After Gurudev had left his body, I dreamed one morning I was in his house talking with him. I told him the mistake I made was trying to get close to him through Shanti.

“You used another’s friendship to be my friend?” he remarked.

“Yes,” I admitted. Then we hugged.

In the dream his children came running, a boy and a girl. “Father, someone is buying our house.” We noticed that the roof needed some support. He looked over at me for assistance. Quickly I called a few people. “Friends, can you spare a few moments to help us shore up this roof?” People came right over and we shored the roof laughing. (It took us awhile to let go each other, so closely were we bonded.)

Half-waking from this dream, I remembered Rumi saying, if you try to be friends with a lion, you’ll be torn to pieces. Someone asked: “Did you try to be friends with a lion?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Are you a lion now yourself?”

“I don’t know, but I have been torn to pieces.”
.

The Eagle – A Call to Return

2007-09-13T23:15:00.000-04:00

Selections from Devarim/Words in Ha’azinu Deut. 32.1-52

Heaven and earth are called to hear these words
Which come down as rain showering on young growth

Remember the days of old. Ask your ancestors to inform you
Your spiritual elders will teach you

Is it not God, our father and mother, who made us
And establishes us, even now having us endure

A Rock (solid foundation) whose actions are perfect
Whose ways are always just

Like the eagle rousing its nest, hovering above its young
God empowers and hovers over us

When we become course and extravagant, we lose sight of you
I hide my countenance. I can reduce you to nothing
Leaving not a trace of your existence (Ayin, no-thing, just this!)

Our enemy is false perception thinking: “There is no God
I’m the one who deserves the credit.” No discernment
And as for the demons who pursue us
(Selfishness, greed, lust, anger and hatred) Disaster is nigh

Now clean the land and all nations bear witness:
My arrows are drunk with blood. My sword devours
(Look straight into these power images. This is an entrance)

Sweeping misfortune, bloated by famine, ravaged by plague
Deadly pestilence and the attack of fanged beasts let loose
Poisonous serpents creeping and striking from the dust

The terror within and from without -- death dealt by the blade
To everyone: young men and maidens, the aged and babies

Who God vindicates is vindicated
God’s portion are those who choose God. We are God’s people
The strength of our enemies wanes even now

See, there is none other than I
I deal death and give life. I wound and heal
And I live forever (I am the I am)

Enter the Covenant - Cross over the Jordan

2007-09-03T23:56:00.000-04:00

Enter the Covenant
Selections from Devarim/Words in Nitzavim Deuteronomy 29.9-30.20

We stand this day all of us before God
Let us enter again into the sacred covenant

(“If you’ll be our God, we’ll be your people”
“If you’ll be my people, I’ll be your God”)

Thus God is established as our beloved
And we are established as God’s people

As we return to God and heed these teachings
With all heart and soul, God restores our fortunes
(As we walk the Blessing Way, we too are blessed)

God is bringing us together from the four corners of the earth
Into the land our ancestors occupied
(An awakened state. All our parts come together in oneness)

As we walk in these teachings
God opens our hearts to love all and serve all

We experience abounding prosperity in all our undertakings
God delights in our well-being

Set before us this day is life or death, prosperity or adversity
Heaven and earth are called and present to witness our choices

Surely this isn’t baffling to you – or beyond your reach
Choose life, choose love, choose the Lord your God

Walk in the way of these teachings; thrive and increase

By following these teachings and holding fast to their source
We will live and long endure in this Promised Land

Which is the awarenesses of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
(Of loving-kindness, courage and perfected faith)

Cross Over the Jordan
Selections from Devarim/Words in Vayelech Deuteronomy 31.1-30

As you cross over the Jordan, God crosses at your head
(As we transcend, we are crowned with divinity)

Destroying the nations already there (Fear, worry, greed

Dullness, criticism, sense of lack and self-righteousness)

And Joshua (the invincible) goes over before you
Now be strong and of good courage
It’s Yah who goes with you and God doesn’t fail or forsake you

To the Joshua (in us) God says:
Go with the people into the land and cause them to inherit it
I go before you; fear nothing

Teach this song to your children and students
A song of witnessing (observing without judging)
A song bringing us into a land flowing with milk and honey

A song never forgotten for all generations, revealing
God is the witness, the omniscient and the omnipresent

Assemble all the people and speak these teachings
That all may hear and have awe before God
And be moved to walk in the Way

And children to come will also hear and learn the Way
In doing this, you will live long in the land over the Jordan
(A Promised Land -- of illumination)

Take this book of wisdom-instruction and put it (in your heart)
Beside the Ark of the Covenant with God

Eat your fill. As you wax fat (be careful not to)
Turn to other gods (but look within for) the Levities
(The holiness within) bearing the Ark of the Covenant

Assemble all your elders and leaders and call heaven and earth
To witness (this revelation that) I am alive and in your midst

Moses is writing the song of the Torah this very day
Teaching the letters and words to us even now
(And listen:) Singing this song into our ears and into our hearts

Paint This Story on the Stones

2007-08-27T23:41:00.000-04:00

Selections from Devarim/Words in Ki Tavo Deuteronomy 26.1-29.8

You are standing this day before God

Cross over the Jordon and enter the land God is giving you
(Come into the land of awakening)

Make an altar of unhewn stones
A place to re-dedicate your life to God
(Love all and serve all)

Set up great stones. Paint this story on the stones
Plaster and write on them the words of God’s teachings
(The story is in the stones, in the letters. Each is a symbol)

We cry out and with a strong hand
God brings us forth from the straits

To this place -- a land of milk and honey
(Nirvanna, mind-nakedness, nothing lacking)

Listen to the voices of God

Chop wood, carry water (Do your work, do your calling)
Tithe the tithe of your increase (Steady on, steady on)

Consecrate your home
By sharing with people so they won’t be in need

See what God does before our very eyes
Delighting in making us prosperous and multiplying us

With our abundance let us serve all in joy and gladness
(Say aloud) “My father was a wandering Aramean”

A treasured people are we who walk in the Tao
Along the natural way

In the glory of God’s praises we are uplifted to be holy

Now call out to God: Look forth from your sacred abode
And bless your people and this land!

Fulfill the Words that Cross your Lips

2007-08-19T13:52:00.000-04:00

Selections from Devarim/Words in Ki Tetze Deuteronomy 21.10 -25.9

Wherever you go and wherever you are
This is the camp of the Lord

When you say you’ll do something, do it!
Fulfill the words that cross your lips
(This is empowering)

If you feel impure, bathe in clean water
And re-dedicate yourself to your most noble intentions

Use honest weights and measures
With no alternate weights in your pouch
In this way endure in the land of your sacred inheritance

Don’t be indifferent to another’s difficulties or losses
Assist however you can

You’re always free to divorce (No one owns another)
When you marry, consider it forever
Give happiness to the person you marry

Don’t regularly dress yourself as someone you are not

Don’t prostitute yourself
Even for what you consider a sacred cause

Lend to relatives and friends without charging interest
Thus, God blesses you in all your undertakings

Never defame anyone
Or speak disrespectfully of their intimate life

Whoever takes sexual advantage of an innocent woman or man
Must stand face to face before our mother and father in heaven

Don’t abhor or exclude anyone who may derive from
Another culture, ethnic background or nationality
Including those from races or lands where we were persecuted

Remember to forget Amalek
(“Beware of pride until your dying day.” – Baal Shem Tov)

Kabbaklah for Beginners Only (4) -- God Has Given You Treasure

2007-08-16T12:32:00.000-04:00

Out of envy, Yosuf was strippd of his coat of many colors and sold into slavery by ten of his brothers, all but Rubin and Binyamin (Benjamin) who weren't present. He was carried down to Egypt, but over the next 17 years he rose up to become the Prime Minister, second only to Pharoah. During a long famine his father Jacob sends his brothers to Egypt for grain. They come to Yosuf, but don't recognize him and he imprisons one of them, Shimon, and sends them home loaded with grain, but won't see them again, he says, until they bring Binyamin, the favorite after Yosuf disappeared. Yakov is hesitant but he is the sheik of an extended family community whose children are facing starvation. Reluctantly Yakov sends Binyamin along on the second trip to Egypt, praying that no tragedy will befall them.

With the gifts and double money in our hands -- and Binyamin
We rise up and go down to Egypt (into the straits)

We stand before Yosuf (the governor of Egypt, the magician)
Who sees Binyamin (his brother) and says,
Prepare the meal. They’ll dine with me at noon

Fearful, we are brought into Yosuf’s house. To the steward
We say: We found our money in the mouth of our sacks
We’ve brought it back and other money also -- to buy food

He says: Peace be to you. Fear nothing.
The God of your fathers and mothers -- and your God
Has given you treasure in your sacks

Surely this is a beautiful Torah mantra we can affirm and repeat
“Be peaceful. Fear nothing. God has given me treasure in my sack”

He brings Shimon (to us) and gives us water for bathing
We wash our feet and food is given to our animals
Shimon looks good. Shimon is quiet and peaceful, and glad to see us

When Yosuf arrives we present our gifts and bow flat out
(Through an interpreter) He asks, Is your father well? We say

Yes, he’s still alive. Yosuf says, is this your youngest brother
God be gracious to you, he says to Binyamin, and hurries away
To weep for his heart so yearns for his brother. Then he returns

Now set on bread (the meal), he commands
He is served at his table and we at ours, for the Egyptians
Do not dine with the Hebrews

Hebrews, descendents of Eber, a patriarch-sage appearing
In the ten generation geneology from Noah to Abraham

We marvel to see that our places have been set in an order
From the first-born unto the youngest

Portions from before the Prime Minister are taken to us each
Binyamin’s portion is five times so much as any of ours
We drink with (the governor of the land) and are happy

Note that the brothers are not envious of Binyamin
Who appears to be the Prime Minister’s favorite
Yosuf was given a coat of many colors
Binyamin gets five times as much as the others Gen 43.34

Stealing Silver, Stealing Gold

Yosuf commands that our sacks be filled with food
And he puts every person’s money in the mouth of his sack

He says to also put his own silver goblet in Binyamin’s sack
At morning light we are sent away with our donkeys

When we have gone not far from the city, he tells his steward
Follow, overtake them and say: Why reward evil for good
Is not this in which my lord drinks and divines

We are overtaken and reply: Far be it from us to do such a thing
How could we ever steal silver or gold from the lord’s house
If you find it here, that person shall die and we’ll be your slaves

Silver and gold are literal examples of wealth, and also symbols
Silver and gold are the infinite depths of courage and compassion
They must be earned. They can never be stolen

Just as you say: In whose possession (the goblet) is found
Will be my bondsman (slave) and the rest of you will be blameless

Hurriedly we take down our sacks and open them
He searches beginning at the eldest to the youngest
In Binyamin’s sack the goblet is found

We tear our clothes (in grief), reload our animals and return to the city
We fall on the ground before Yosuf, who demands
What have you done? Don’t you know that I see the future

God has found out our iniquity, says Yahudah. What can we say
How do we clear ourselves? We are your bondsmen

Far be it from me to do so, replies Yosuf. Just the man
In whose hand the goblet has been found. He’ll be my slave
But the rest of you -- go in peace unto your father Gen.44.17

The test is before us every moment
Give up your cleverness

More to come. See: Kabbalah for Beginners, Parts 1-3 posted earlier

Give the Best You Have

2007-08-12T23:45:00.000-04:00

Selections from Devarim/Words in Shoftim Deut. 16.18-21.9

Give the best you have to God
This is an offering without blemish

Who chooses God is chosen by God

Let Yah, God, (Yud-Heh-Vahv-Heh) put thoughts in our minds
Words in our mouths and actions in our hands

Enter the land God is giving you; occupy and settle it

Pursue justice and righteousness and in this way
Thrive and occupy the land of your holy inheritance

If something is baffling to you, go to a sacred place
Present your bafflement as an offering
Listen for wise guidance

What you hear from your intuition and conscience
Do it right away

Respect others’ boundaries

Don’t take bribes or gifts that blind you from wisdom
And pervert your words from speaking the way

Put judges and officers at all your gates
Watching what’s coming in your ears, eyes, nostrils, mouth
And what’s going out

Be fearless in battle even against overwhelming odds
God is with you

Never set yourself above anyone
Walk the middle path
Reign in enlightenment

Be wholehearted with God. With your life
Write your own Torah
Live that your life may become scripture

By keeping these letters near and looking daily into these teachings,
All through your life you will be enthroned

Kabbalah for Beginners Only (3) -- What is God Doing to Us?

2007-08-09T00:19:00.000-04:00

Jealous of their father's love for Yosuf (Joseph), his brothers ambush him, strip him of his coat of many colors, throw him in a pit and then sell him into slavery. He is taken down into Egypt, but over the next 17 years he rises up to become the Prime Minister to Pharaoh.

God Makes Me Fruitful

Yosuf marries the priestess Asenath (Zuleika)
And travels through the land

She wins his heart. (See the Qur’n) Sufi mystics tell a great love story
Between Yosuf and the woman who had him thrown into the dungeon
She repents and after her husband dies, takes on many austerities
Becoming ever more purified until her inner beauty
Becomes so evident and radiant, Yosuf can no longer resist her

In the seven years of plenty the earth brings forth in heaps
He gathers and lays up all the food in the cities and the fields
So much as the sand of the seas until they leave off counting

Before the famine two children are born to Asenath and Yosuf
Manasseh meaning God makes me forget my toil
And Ephraim meaning God makes me fruitful (a mantra)

Children as named in scripture are often fruits or qualities described
That we may draw on also. What a blessing to let go the past
What a blessing to be fruitful and prosperous for the benefit of all

In all the lands the seven years of famine begin
But there’s bread (food) in Egypt

When the land of Egypt is famished, the people cry to Pharaoh
Go to Yosuf, he says. Yosuf opens the store houses

All the countries come to Egypt to buy corn (grain) Gen. 41.57
They come to Yosuf who's called Zaphenat-Paneah
Food-Man-of-the-Living (the Provider). He’s feeding everybody

Provisions for the Way

There’s famine in the land of Canaan.
Yakov (Jacob) learns there’s corn in Egypt and says,
Why look at one another
Go down there and buy some that we may live and not die

Yosuf’s ten brothers go down to Egypt, but not Benyamin
Lest harm befall him, says Yakov. The sons of YisraEl (Yakov) go

Yosuf is governing the land and selling food to all the people
His brothers come and bow before him faces to the earth

He sees and knows them, but makes himself strange to them
He remembers his dreams and says: Where do you come from

He is dressed and bearded as an Egyptian noble
He uses an interpreter to speak with them

From Canaan to buy food. Maybe you’re spies, he says
To see the nakedness of the land. My lord, we’re your servants

We’re all one man’s sons and upright men, twelve brothers
The youngest is with our father and one is not.

To see if there’s truth in your words, says Yosuf.
One of you go get your brother. Until then you’ll be bound here
He imprisons them all together

The tradition calls Yosuf a tzaddik, a righteous one
And an enlightened spiritual master. In that context
Observe how Yosuf is leading his brothers toward redemption

On the third day Yosuf says, because I’m in awe of God
If you’re truly upright men, let one of you be bound in prison
But go, take food for your families and bring your brother back

They speak to one another: Concerning our brother
Surely we’re guilty. We saw his distress. He besought us
But we would not hear. Thus has this distress come upon us

I said, don’t sin against the youth, says Rubin,
You wouldn’t hear. Now his blood is required of us

Ever since Yakov’s grief overwhelmed him – and all of them
Yosuf’s brothers sorely repented their cruel jealousy and envy
Since then, their conspiracy has bound them in guilt
They are not surprised by their fate, even accepting of it

Not realizing Yosuf can understand them (There’s no interpreter)
He turns away to weep. Then he returns and says
Take that one (Shimon) and bind him before their eyes

Each of us gets just what we need for our illumination and fullness
This is not always obvious and calls forth our faith
Shimon has a magnificent destiny. But in his unenlightened youth
He is strong and very proud. When his humility arises, he will awaken

(Unbeknownst to them) Yosuf commands:
Fill their vessels with food. Restore every man his money
And give them provisions for the way Gen 42.26

What is God Doing to Us?

We depart and at a lodging place on the way open our sacks
See our money in the mouths of our sacks and trembling
Exclaim: Our money is restored. What is God doing to us
A question that we all wonder at one time or another

We come to Yakov our father in Canaan and report it all:
He said, bring your youngest brother I’ll know you’re not spies
And look, every man’s bundle of money was in his sack

Yakov: You’ve bereaved me of my children Yosuf and Shimon
And now you’d take away Benyamin (Benjamin)? Rubin urges him
Slay my two children if I don’t bring Benyamin back to you
Sure, Yakov will kill his own grandchildren? Rubin’s wasting his breath

His brother is dead. My son will not go down with you
If harm befalls him, you'll bring down my grey hair to the grave

Yosuf and Benyamin are the only children of Yakov’s beloved Rachel
Who died giving birth to Benyamin. Yosuf seemed to be the favorite
Now Benyamin, the youngest of them, all is especially dear

But famine is sore in the land and the food from Egypt is eaten
Go again, says Yakov, buy a little food. Yahudah (Judah) speaks
The man said we won’t see his face less our brother be with us

Send the young man with me that we may live and not die
Also our little ones. I’ll be surety for him.
If I don’t bring him to you, I’ll bear the blame forever

What good is blame? says Yakov, will that bring back the dead?
And yes, I know you and Rubin will try to protect him

YisraEl (Yakov illumined) says:
Take of choice fruits of the land as a present
Also balm, honey and spices and double money in your hand

Yisra-El literally translates: the one who wrestles with God
And/or: the one who goes straight to God

Also take your brother and arise. Go to the man
And God Almighty give you mercy. And as for me
If I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved Gen. 43.14

Sometimes in life there’s only one choice
And God Almighty give you mercy

More to kome See Sections 1 and 2 also

Who Does God Worship?

2007-08-07T23:58:00.000-04:00

Here's a story my guru Swami Satchidananda used to tell:

Once Lord Vishnu was walking around the palace carrying a small wooden box, looking into it with great interest and holding it very closely, like a precious treasure, again and again peering in very closely, even reverently. His wife Lakshmi saw his going about like that and became curious. "What's in the box, dear?” she asked.

"Oh nothing, nothing," he said and quickly hid it behind his back. But she saw him do that and got up and came over.

"Come on now, what's in that box, honey?"

"Nothing at all to concern yourself with," said Lord Vishnu. But then he looked in the box again very closely.

"Okay, give it to me," demanded his wife, putting her hand out.

"No, no," said Vishnu. But after all, Lakshmi is the Goddess. So she simply reached over and took it out of his hands.

He stood still and watched her. Lakshmi opened the box and peered inside.

Nothing. She couldn't see anything. She peered very closely. Then she said, "Why there's nothing in here but some dust." And she leaned close pursing her lips to blow it out.

"No, stop!" cried Vishnu. She froze. Gently he took the box from her hands and held it before her. "See, this is dust from my devotees' feet," he said. "It's the most precious of all that I have."

“Look at that,” said Gurudev, “the Lord worshipping the dust of his devotees' feet. That shows you how precious to God is your devotion.”

Don’t Come Empty-Handed

2007-08-06T10:16:00.000-04:00

Selections from Devarim/Words in Re’eh Deuteronomy 11.26-16.17

This day I set before you a blessing or a curse
Hearken to God’s teachings or ignore the wise guidance

Pass over the Jordan; go in and possess the land
God is expanding your borders
(Your holdings and your understanding)

Destroy the nations you are dispossessing
Who have been serving lesser gods
(Vanity, self-image, greed, selfishness, gossip, anger, etc.)

God is blessing you and causing you to rest
From all your enemies round about you
(Those old thought patterns)
Dwell in safety

Rejoice before God with your sons and daughters
And also with those who serve you
And with the Levite (the holiness) within your gates

Love God with your heart and soul
Do what is right and good in God’s eyes

We are a people consecrated to God
Rejoice before God in all that you put your hand unto

Set aside every year a tenth part of the yield
Spend the money as you want

Don’t harden your heart before the needy
Rather open your hand; give readily without regrets
Feed outsiders, orphans, widows and widowers

Remember we were enslaved
Remember the day of our departure from bondage

Sacrifice in the evening at sundown
Don’t come before God empty-handed

We each bring our own gift
According to the blessings God is bestowing on us

Hand in Hand with the Beloved

2007-08-02T00:01:00.000-04:00

The world you see is all a projection of your mind. Everything you actually see is seen inside your head on the back of your retina in an upside-down image. Your mind turns the perceptions over and makes a story out of it. The story is a lot what you inherited.

You may be attached to this world of survival, right and wrong, devils and angels, the righteous and the sinners. You are right and the evil ones are wrong. Without realizing it, most of us most of the time would rather be right than eat.

The time is ripe to let go those old stories and declare yourself free.

Death is not necessarily an evil. Death is a doorway, perhaps to a sweeter land. And sin -- sin is “missing the mark.”

Since the God we love and worship is both omnipotent (almighty) and compassionate (all-loving), then certainly it must be God's will that people sometimes suffer, including me and you. It must be part of the great mystery of life. At least something good comes from our suffering -- you and other great souls are touched and filled with compassion and dedicate your lives to the benefit of everyone else.

How about the martial arts -- judo and karate, even Tai Chi. Will they completely disappear in heaven? And chess too -- no books on how to play chess better? All gone when war goes away? Don't you think, like peace, war is also part of God's design?

God's holy mountain is Zion, the realm of active belief, faith. The prophet painted a picture of paradise -- when the wolf eats grass and the lion lies down with the lamb. The wolf eats the grass of the field when he's feeling sick and needs to throw up. Otherwise, in wolf heaven, he'd prefer something else to dine on, I assure you. The prophet should have said, "... then the cattle will eat the grass of the field..." That's more like it, the way heaven ought to be, don't you agree?

Make your life into myth; write your own legend. Include peace for all, if that's the world you choose to live in. No more "very soons." No more "hopefully’s." Don't wait any longer. Be bold. Go for it. Step into it. Declare it so and live it yourself. Gandhi said, "Live the possibility you want for others." Jesus says, "You will all do even more than I am doing. Here, stand up on my shoulders ..."

The war of good versus evil, with evil ultimately vanquished by the victorious Godhead -- was useful for some years, but is not always useful to you. Consider other games in the unfolding of your life. Write your own myth with your own life.

A time comes when you declare yourself no longer a "seeker." Declare yourself "the finder!" Of course, you can always take refuge at the feet of the shepherd. But look and listen – you are being called now to swing out through the stars, hand in hand with your beloved.

In the Land of Nothing Lacking

2007-08-01T14:40:00.000-04:00

Selections from Devarim/Words in Ekev, Deuteronomy 7.12-11.25

Listen YisraEl (put your own name here)
You are (to transcend) pass over the Jordan “this day”

Only this is required: Respect God with awe. Walk in the Tao
Love and serve all (God in manifestation)

Don’t be stiff-necked. Cut away the thickness about your heart
(Don’t be proud; be soft-hearted and compassionate)

Yah (God) tests and proves us to (let us) see what’s in our hearts
Hardships strengthen us like a father trains his children

Ascend the mountain and receive the tablets of stone
Tablets of the Covenant inscribed with the fingers of God

With your own eyes -- see the glory is everywhere!

Don’t ever think it’s your doing. Remember, it’s God
Who gives us power to get wealth and fulfill the Covenant

God brings us to a good land of brooks, fountains and depths
Of fruitful vines, trees and honey, a land of nothing lacking

Eat and be satisfied, and give thanks to God
For bringing us here and giving us this good land

God separates the tribe of Levi to bear the Ark of the Covenant
To stand before, minister to and bless in God’s names
To this day Yah (the Lord) is Levi’s inheritance
(The Levite in us supports holy places and teaches the Way)

Practice these instructions.
They empower you to possess the land (of non-duality)
And occupy the land of nothing lacking

Lay up these words in your heart and soul.
Set them as signs on your hands and symbols on your forehead
(Meditate on these letters and teachings)

Thus we dislodge all ignorance in us
And see that everywhere we tread is our home

Be fearless. God is in our midst. None can stand against us

A Strong Hand

2007-07-28T00:04:00.000-04:00

Selections from Devarim/Words in Va-Ethannan Deuteronom 3.23-7.11

Scattered among the peoples – seek God with all heart and soul
Listen YisraEl (all truth wrestlers getting it straight)
The Lord your God is the oneness of everything everywhere

I am Yah El (the Lord your God). I hear the pleas of my people.
I’m bringing you up from the narrow places
Be careful and walk the way I’m showing and teaching you

Now see with your own eyes:
A mountain flaming high into a dark dense sky
A mighty voice speaking out of fire and thick clouds

Becoming ten sounds, ten words
Ten symbols inscribed on two tables of stone

With a strong hand God rescues us from blinding bondage
Out of the midst of fire, Yah (God) speaks with us face to face
And strikes a covenant with us

I am beyond any manner of likeness one could draw or engrave
I show mercy for thousands of generations

Honor your parents and long endure and increase greatly
Sacred is the Sabbath, a seventh day – make it so

(Of course) don’t murder people or be adulterous
Or steal from each other or bear false witness against anyone
Or covet your neighbor’s spouse or home or vehicles or wealth

Ten words Alef, Bayt, Gimal, Dalet, Heh,
Vahv, Zayin, cHet, Tet, Yohd

Impress them in the hearts of your children
Bind them as a sign on your hands and between your eyes
On the doorposts of your house and write them on your gates
(They are your gates)

If you make God your treasure, you’ll find God’s love is on you
Be a nation who has God close at hand

Go the mountain top. Strike a covenant with God.
Inherit the good land

The Angel Fish

2007-07-25T09:12:00.000-04:00

I asked the captain of the Icebreaker to lay over for awhile. My men and I leapt into the icy arctic waters wearing drysuits, rubber mittens and booties inside our long fins and even rubber head gear. Only our faces outside our facemasks were exposed to the ice water. Thus we swam across the Arctic Circle.

There’s a cave mentioned in the Book of Genesis, where the patriarchs and matriarchs lie buried, the Cave of Makpela, which means the double cave, the cave inside the cave, an entrance to Eden.

I was missing my old swim buddy. Jack and I went through Navy Frogman training together. He was one of those guys that things always seemed to go right for. He was a great swimmer, a fine athlete, light-haired and light-hearted, wiry and strong. An easy-going, handsome Navy Seal and a very laid back guy. The girls loved him. I was a bit envious. He was raised in Florida and very much at home in the oceans of the world.

I took off the rubber mittens just for a minute to check my depth gage and the knife on my belt. When I tried to climb the roap-ladder back onto the ship – I had to be hauled aboard. I’d lost so many heat calories through my hands in just that one minute, I was nearly out of strength. Learn and live.

We were on our way toward the north pole to the Distant Early Warning Site, riding for a few weeks on this Icebreaker ship that was bringing supplies to the men who manned that station on 18 month assignments in the frigid north. But this was summer and the ship could almost get into shore. Some icebergs in the harbor blocked the way. Good job for Frogmen with plastic explosives.

Hard to believe just a few weeks ago I was in the Caribbean swimming with dolphins, going on deep water scuba dives with Jack, blowing up cliff sides on a deserted island to practice making landing ramps for Marines who would want to hit the beach running.

One day – just for fun –- we re-mixed the gas in our air tanks, lowering the oxygen percentage so if we went way down we wouldn’t absorb too much oxygen and get drunk down there – Raptures of the Deep, they call it – and it’s dangerous. Swimmers have been known to take off their bottles and mouthpieces and hand them to fish passing by.

A mile or so off the coast of St.Thomas we swam way, way down 300-350 feet. We found an old wreck and several thick glass oval-shaped beer or ale bottles that the sailors must have tossed over a century or more before. I still have one. Just then in the deep -- a huge, but gossamer thin angel fish swam between us. It was as big as we were were. I could see Jack’s outline through the translucent body of the angel fish, very cool. The Caribbean water is clear as glass for hundreds of feet; it’s so beautiful.

On the way back to the surface we had to stop about 20 feet down for about 15 minutes and decompress -- letting the compressed air out of our blood streams, back into our lungs and exhaled out into sea. We’d get the bends if we went right up to the surface after being that deep for that long. While we were hovering there waiting, a school of yellow sharks swam over and began to circle around us.

Fish in the sea won’t usually attack anything their size or bigger. Those sharks looked plenty big to me. Underwater everything always appears about one fifth larger than it really is. Maybe they were just four feet long, but they looked strong and menacing -- and they were sure checking us out. We slid the large metal air tanks off our backs and, wrapping the straps around our right arms, held them as shields. before us. Behind us, we gripped each others’ left arm drawing our backs together, moving our fins gently to stay in place. Let those ugly monsters circle round and round. If they attacked, all they’d get would be a mouthful of metal – I hoped. We definitely had each others’ backs.

I looked over at Jack. The man was smiling. When you smile underwater ocean water gets inside the face mask and that looks pretty funny. I couldn’t believe the guy was smiling.

Five more minutes seemed like an hour to me. I kept looking at my watch. But we got out of the water and climbed up on a waiting ship where the sailors were holding loaded rifles to shoot at the sharks if they attacked us. I didn’t think those bullets would have done anything at that depth.

Legend has it that the Cave of Makpela is where all babies who die go; where warriors who die in noble warfare go; and where all martyrs go at death. This is their gateway home.

Swimming underneath an iceberg is something you never forget. It’s like a gigantic crystal with the sun rainbowing through the ice in a magnificent color spectrum. You just didn’t want to blow up these babies. Also, in the arctic during the summer, sunset and sunrise are the same thing at the same time. It never really gets dark.

It was fun up there. I goofed around with some native Eskimos in their hunting kayaks who lifted their javelins as if they’d found a huge strange sea creature coming up out of the water. We laughed and laughed together -- the only language that we shared. They invited us to their igloos to meet their kids and wives.

But there was a gnawing in my gut and an emptiness. Just a few weeks back on a Saturday afternoon Jack had gone with a date to the white sand beach and beautiful blue waters of Magen’s Bay in St. Thomas. A freak thing happened. A white hammerhead shark, a really big one -- somehow found its way into this popular swimmers’ beach – hungry, and struck – of all people -- my swim buddy. He cried out. His girl and others began to run in to get him. But Jack shouted at them, “No, don’t come in. Don’t come in.” And he was struck again -- and again. And killed.

And I wasn’t there to cover his back. Immediately they sent me away to the Arctic to blow up icebergs because my swim buddy was killed in St. Thomas and there was nothing I could do about it.

The whole team went out to Magen’s Bay the next day and went into the water with weapons and found that big hammerhead and killed it. They found Jack’s arm inside the shark’s belly with his Rolex underwater watch still on his wrist running just fine.

Did you know that Iceland is green and Greenland is white and icy? Who woulda thought that?

After clearing the way for the Icebreaker, I forged some orders to get us out of there and caught us a flight with some Air Force pilots heading back to the States. When I got back to our base in Little Creek, Virginia, one of Jack’s girlfriends hit on me a little – I was the closest thing to him she could find. She was very attractive; I wanted to go with it. But we felt like siblings and neither of us could get into it.

For Jack Gibson of sacred memory

Eating Smart

2007-07-18T09:11:00.000-04:00

Good health and happiness are our birthright.

Don’t trade it away.

According to Yoga sages,

the three main causes of disease are

stress, toxins, and bad eating habits.

Here are some good eating habits advised by the sages:

1. TOTALLY DIGEST THE LAST MEAL before eating again. If people only waited long enough for everything to digest there wouldn’t be any hospitals. How do you know when everything’s digested: When there’s a raging appetite—then its time for dinner.

2. EAT ONLY WHEN YOU’RE REALLY HUNGRY. That means eat for your stomach, not for your tongue, not for the clock, not out of habit, nor for social reasons only. No matter how recently or how much was eaten before, people often feel “false hunger” at habitual mealtimes. Sometimes too, you see or smell something nice and immediately you feel hungry, or look at the clock and think, “time to eat.” Instead have a glass of water, wait ten minutes. False hunger will disappear. If it returns in force, it’s authentic. Eat and enjoy.

3. STOP PUTTING TOXINS IN YOUR BODY. Some very useful things in this world are strictly poison for the human body. Despite conventions of the day, caffeine, nicotine, purine, alcohol, dope, drugs, uppers, downers and most chemical preservatives in packaged foods are toxic. All flesh foods have purine, red meats most of all. Lungs were not designed for nicotine — otherwise you’d find it in the air free of charge. Psychedelics and frequent marijuana weaken the nervous system; caffeine burns out the adrenal glands. Some people can cut out toxins all at once. Most people find it easier to ease into a healthier diet over a period of weeks.

4. CHOOSE VITALITY FOODS. Rather than always worrying about what to avoid, focus on putting in healthy food: fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, seeds, nuts, tofu, beans, dairy products, honey and fruit and vegetable juices. Little by little move toward clean, plain food. Choose easily digestible foods, not too spicy, nor full of stimulants. Eat for energy, not for your tongue. Your taste will change quickly.

5. TAKE SIMPLE MEALS not mixing too many foods in one meal. It’s easier for the body to digest and assimilate one food instead of two, two rather than three, and so on. When you use less energy for digestion, there’s more for you during the rest of the day. You’ll need less sleep too. It’s not always necessary to balance this and that in one meal. More important is taking healthy easy-to-assimilate food. For most efficient digestion, it’s advised to eat either all cooked or all raw in one meal, all fruits or all vegetables. For example, raw food requires more time to digest. When you mix raw and cooked in the stomach, only a small portion of the raw food digests.

6. DRINK WATER WITH YOUR MEALS, not milk, not soda, not juices — just water. And that water should only be sipped occasionally. It’s best not to drink much until 20 minutes after you’ve finished eating. When you wash down your food with liquids, the digestive juices are diluted. Only part of the meal is digested. The rest remains in the stomach fermenting, turning to gas and mucous. That clogs you up and lowers your resistance to colds, flu, etc.

7. WHEN YOU EAT, JUST EAT — don’t read, or watch TV, or even talk much. Chew the food well, enjoy the taste. In fact, meditate on what you’re doing. If you think about anything else, be sure to think positive thoughts. Food you eat affects your mind as well as your body. Thoughts during eating go into the food and affect you later.

8. DON’T EAT WHEN YOU’RE ANGRY, DEPRESSED OR IN A HURRY. Food taken at such times is poisonous. It doesn’t digest, and leaves you feeling worse. Better to wait awhile to eat, even if that means missing the meal. It’s good to skip a meal now and then anyway — build a great appetite, digest everything.

9. DON’T EAT BEFORE YOU GO TO BED — even for several hours. If you’re really hungry at night, have a warm beverage, or perhaps a piece of fruit. If you can train your mind to let you do this, you'll sleep like a baby, and hours earlier awaken refreshed and raring to go. If you eat at night, your dreams are fitful, you need additional hours sleep and you wake tired.

10. CONSECRATE THE FOOD before offering it in your living temple. Consider where it all comes from originally, and how its energy might be used most nobly. “Lord, thanks for giving me of yourself as this food. Kindly grant me discriminating wisdom, non-attachment and peace of mind to be of service to your creation.” Or say your own prayer. Be sincere. Then eat with this thought in mind.

11. NO FANATICISM, no extremes. Even with all these guidelines, keep your life flexible, and be willing sometimes to bend the rules a little. Don’t batter your friends with your opinions. Instead, inspire them with your radiant health and good cheer.

ENJOY!

Self-Mastery

2007-07-17T15:13:00.000-04:00

Controlling the Thoughts and the Mind

For thousands and thousands of years the Yoga sages have observed and taught their students that the mind is by nature "outward-turning." That is, it tends to flit about from thought to thought capriciously and from subject to subject like a cork bouncing about in the open sea. The trouble with that is some places the mind bounces into are whirlpools of unconstructive thinking. And as you know, many thought patterns bring with them accompanying emotions -- some of which are disturbing and even debilitating.

Thus, the teachers encourage us to re-train our minds, to actually take control of our minds -- so "we" choose what thoughts the mind will focus on. This is self-mastery.

Probably the most effective tool for retraining the mind, for reversing its direction from naturally being outward-turning to naturally being inward-turning, is the practice of meditation. It's like training a horse; it's done in stages -- and gently. The first stage is concentration (dharana in Sanskrit). You focus the mind on one thing or sound or image - over and over again. And whenever the mind wanders off to another thought (and it surely will for some time) -- as soon as you notice that has occurred -- gently bring the mind back to focus on your object of concentration/meditation.

After some practice, the mind will stay on what you've asked it to stay thinking on. You can tell that has happened because 15-20 minutes go by and it seems like two or three minutes. This is meditation, dhyana -- unbroken flow of cognition from subject to object.

The final stage, samadhi or superconsciousness, is when the mind stays in meditation and it seems like subject and object have merged; there's a feeling of oneness with the object of meditation. For exampe, if you've been focusing on a rose -- then sudenly you feel like "Hey, I am the rose; it's all rose. Wow, this is great!"

The only real practice or discipline is in the first stage, concentration, in which we consciously draw the mind back to refocus on the object we have chosen to meditate on. Stages two and three, meditation and samadhi, just naturally occur with time; you can't "practice" them. You just practice concentration.

Acknowledge your Friends

2007-07-08T17:50:00.000-04:00

One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment. And as the students left the room, each one handed in their papers. That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.

On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. "Really?" she heard whispered. "I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!" And: "I didn't know others liked me so much," were most of the comments.

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.

Some years later one of the students was killed in Viet Nam and his teacher attended the funeral of that student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked handsome and mature. The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.

As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. "Were you Mark's math teacher?" he asked. She nodded yes. Then he said: "Mark talked about you a lot."

After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher. "We want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket "They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it."

Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him. "Thank you so much for doing that," Mark's mother said. "As you can see, he treasured it."

Mark's former classmates began to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, "I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home."

Chuck's wife said, "Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album."

"I have mine too," Marilyn said. "It's in my diary."

Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. "I carry this with me at all times," Vicki said. "I think we all saved our lists."

That's when the teacher sat down and cried, again.

Kabbalah for Beginners Only (2) -- Down into Egypt

2007-06-29T02:46:00.000-04:00

Please see earlier posting: Goddess of Erotica- For Beginners Only (1)

which introduces this series of selections and commentaries on the Yosuf adventures in the last portions of Genesis.

Down into Egypt

Selections from Genesis 39-40

Yosuf is brought down into Egypt by the Ishmaelites
And sold there to Potiphar an officer of Pharaoh

A caravan of Ismaelite merchants carry Yosuf down into Egypt
Ishma-El which translates “God hears,” is a code meaning
Keep the faith and follow your destiny. Egypt, mitzra-eem
Also translates as “the straits.” Egypt is the material world

Yah (God) is with Yosuf who is a prosperous man
Prosperous – what he touches, flourishes
He’s so recognized by his master
And appointed overseer of his master’s house

Our master’s house is the kingdom of heaven and earth
We are each called to this role and service

God blesses the house for Yosuf’s sake
God’s blessings are on all that we have
In the house and in the field

Consider that a Yosuf/Tamar quality is within us each
By consciously bringing that person forward in our lives
We come into God’s blessings of prosperity

Yosuf is well-proportioned and has a handsome countenance
People leave everything in Yosuf’s hands Gen. 39.6

His master’s wife is attracted to him and says, Lie with me
Yosuf replies: My master has put everything into my hands
Except you, his wife. How can I do this

Day by day she entices him to make love with her
One certain day Zuleika (Asenath) takes hold of his clothing
He flees. She calls the men

Look he brings a Hebrew to mock us, who tries to lie with me
I called out. He fled but left his garment in my hand – see

For the Egyptians, “Hebrew” means the descendents of Eber
Those from across the river (Nile), to the East

The tradition honors Yosuf for successfully resisting temptation
Perhaps he succumbed to a love affair with Zuleika, and later repented
What’s important is that he left his garment in her hand

Hearing these word later, the master’s anger arises
He puts Yosuf where the king’s prisoners are bound Gen: 39.20

He’s flogged, shackled and imprisoned. In this scriptureEgypt represents the material world into which we incarnate
And become imprisoned in narrow-mindedness

Interpretations Belong to God

He’s there in prison, but God is with him showing kindness
The prison keeper commits all the prisoners to Yosuf’s hand
That’s us. We are both the prisoners and we are also Yosuf

Yah (God) is with Yosuf. Whatever he does, God makes it prosper
Contemplate the letter symbols in his name. Hew them out

During this time the king’s chief butler and baker offend him
He puts them in ward under the captain of the guard
Who chooses Yosuf to minister to them

In one night each dreams his own dream.
According to the interpretations of their dreams
They become sad. (Considering what they might portend)

Why? asks Yosuf. They say: None can interpret our dream
Interpretations belong to God, says Yosuf. Speak them

The butler’s dream:
A vine with three branches growing, budding
Blossoms shooting out becoming clusters of ripe grapes

In my hand is Pharaoh’s goblet. I take the grapes
Press them into Pharaoh’s goblet and give it into his hand

The interpretation, says Yosuf: three branches are three days
In three days Pharaoh will restore you unto your office

Then remember me, show kindness, mention me to Pharaoh
Bring me out. I was stolen and have done nothing
To be in this dungeon Are we not each responsible for our lot

Three days is Pharaoh’s birthday. The chief butler is restored
But he forgets Yosuf, who remains in prison Gen 40.23

One prisoner cannot free another prisoner. Yosuf asked help
From a prickly shrub. Don’t make a brace of rotten wood
Watch and see -- God will absorb Yosuf in such intimate joy
That the dungeon will disappear (Rumi)

Dreams of a King
Notes on Genesis 41.1-44.17

Two years pass. Pharaoh dreams: I’m standing by a river
Lo – out of the river come seven cattle well favored, well fed

Now seven others come out of the river ill favored, lean fleshed
The thin ones eat the fat ones. I waken, sleep and dream again

Lo – on one stalk grow seven ears of corn, rank and good
And now seven thin ears spring up, blasted by the east wind
The thin ears swallow up the full ones

Pharaoh awakens, his spirit troubled
He calls all the magicians and wise ones of Egypt
None can interpret the dreams. Then the chief butler speaks

When we were in ward we dreamed. A young man (now 30)
A Hebrew servant interpreted our dreams, and so it was
I was restored to my office

Pharaoh sends for Yosuf. I hear you interpret dreams
Not I, says Yosuf. God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace

Pharaoh speaks his dreams. The dreams of Pharaoh are one
Says Yosuf. God is declaring to you what God is about to do

The seven fattened cattle and seven full ears are seven years
The seven lean cattle and empty ears are seven years of famine

God is showing you seven years of great plenty thru all the land
Then arise seven years of famine. The plenty is forgotten
A very grievous famine will consume the land

The dream is doubled unto Pharaoh twice, meaning
It’s established by God who brings it shortly to pass Gen. 41.1-32

Set Aside One Fifth

Yosuf says, let Pharaoh look for someone wise and discreet
And set that person over the land, and appoint overseers
And during the seven years of plenty take up the fifth part

And so should we during times of profit and plenty, put aside one fifth
And don’t hesitate to use that during sparse periods

Gather all the food of these good years that come
And lay up corn (set aside sustenance) for food in the cities
To keep as stores to the land during the years of famine

The thing is good in the eyes of the king and of his servants
Where can we find such a person as this, says Pharaoh
In whom is the spirit of God. And to Yosuf he says

Because God shows you all this, there is none wise like you
I’m setting you over my house. According to your words
All the people are governed. You are second only to the throne

Cream rises. Yosuf is always being set above to rule the house
And so should we set the Yosuf-Tamar portion within us to run it all
How? Consciously bring their qualities forward

Pharaoh removes his signet ring and puts it on Yosuf’s hand
He puts a gold chain about Yosuf’s neck and makes him
Ride in the second chariot, and all the people cry before him

“Abrech” (Bow before the king’s father-counselor)
Pharaoh names him Zaphenath-Paneah
(The Provider, and the Revealer of Secrets) Gen 41.45

Goddess of Erotica -- for Beginners Only (1)

2007-06-26T00:21:00.000-04:00

People like a good tale with heroes, villains and beautiful heroines
With adventure and magic, with delicious food and wine of the gods
With intoxicating music and dharma combat of awesome warriors
With love, and throughout it all a presence
Of something sacred.

“Beginners only” means to gain entry we must use Beginner’s Mind
If just for now, put aside all judging and assessing; be open-minded
For a moment let go thunking the way you see life
Is the way it is. Otherwise
We can’t even get to the second chapter.

Also as we approach the gate, we approach respectfully
Like approaching a holy goddess, like approaching a great scripture

We can start anywhere and call it the beginning
So here’s where we’re going to start: We're gonna jump in
Right in the midst of the Yosuf stories near the end of the first Scroll
(Genesis in the sacred Torah Veda sometimes called Old Testament).

Well, it is old, for sure. Put aside any past attitudes and views
About this scripture. Just come in with Beginner’s Mind

Also look at your palms. Are there any letter symbols there?
Five fingers each hand. Five opposite five. This is a code.
Keep it in mind

Intro: Yosuf has been sold into slavery by his envious brothers, all but Benjamin and Rubin. Yahudah was the ringleader. When Yakov their father hears that his son has been slain by a wild beast (envy) he begins to mourn in grief. His sons and daughters (their wives) rise to comfort him, but to no avail.

The perpetrators are shocked and repentant and begin the turning (t’shuvah). Among them is Yahudah who moves away from the family and sets up his own sheikdom. He marries and has three sons, two of whom die before his eyes and then his wife dies too. His daughter-in-law Tamar is sent back to her father’s house.

He goes to Timna to shear his sheep and as he passes Enaim (tr. “the opening eye,” which is an awakening mind) at the entrance of the way, he sees whom he believes to be a curvacious temple prostitute to whom, though her face is covered, he is irresistibly drawn.

He doesn’t know it’s his daughter-in-law, Tamar. He thnks it's the veiled goddess of erotica and fertility. He propositions her and promises to pay her with a kid from his flock. Tamar accepts Yahudah's signet, cord and staff as surety for his pledge.

They make love and conceive the Davidic lineage. Meanwhile, Yosuf has been sold and resold several times as a slave. He is purchased by the captain of the palace guard under Pharaoh in Egypt …

(2) Down into Egypt … more to kome … check it out …

Swimming Upstream

2007-06-25T12:04:00.000-04:00

One who is pure and sees
Who speaks the truth
And lives it
Who does one’s one work, one’s calling
That person is admired and loved

Who is determined and longs for freedom
Beyond the desiring mind
They call that person uddha-soto, one who goes upstream

[where we are welcomed]

When a traveler at last comes home from a far journey
--With such gladness do our families and friends receive us.”

-- Dhammapada 16

A three month intention: Get familiar with the realm of the miraculous

New Moon -- Turn a New Page

2007-06-18T16:27:00.000-04:00

Friday night end of the month of Shivan (May 15-June 16)
Late sunset, looking West
Taking notes in a clearing near the Rivanna Trail

For good health at this time
Use upright Yoga postures
See the letter symbol Vahv (V)

O ye people of the book
Turn a new page
Let your prophet re-appear
See the letter symbol Tet (t)

I am an ocean of love and light

It’s dark on the way out of the forest
Lightning bugs keep showing me the path
Even where to pause for a dangerous dip

I remember catching lightning bugs as a boy
Punching holes in the top of the jar for air
And letting them go. Also, getting my younger brothers and cousins
To let them go free. They haven’t forgotten

On the way, on the dark path home I realize
I am this forest, these trees, this sky. It’s magnificent
And frightening too – so much mystery and depth

I stop and gently shake a lifted tree branch as a wave offering
From us – the entire forest
Now all the trees and bushes are my pals
We touch each other affectionately as I leave the woods

* * *

We Really Are Free

2007-06-18T16:22:00.000-04:00

End of Sabbath up in the Blue Ridge Mountains
Birds calling sun descending
This is the end of a day and the beginning
Of a new day and a new week

Brought along my tenor guitar.
Singing as the sun sets:
“O I’ve come up to your mountain
Tell me what to do”

Sing my names. Dance, worship and play
Have fun and witness
And show the way

What are your names?

You know a few. Discover more
This very week

There sinks the sun
Brilliant orange gold
It’s almost too much
To behold

* * *

We really are free o m

What's the Use of your Education

2007-06-18T16:15:00.000-04:00

What profit is there from learning and scholarship
If it does not lead you to the feet of the divine Section 1 Kural 2

What is the use of your education if you are not going to realize God and use your life for the service of humanity in the name of God? This is the purpose of education. This is real education. Examinations and grades are not that important. They have their part, but keeping the mind well balanced is the most important. Learn the lessons well, but not with the intention of competing with anybody. Even your studying can be a sort of meditation. Don't even worry about grades. Just ask yourself: "Am I studying well? Am I getting the essence? Am I getting the knowledge?" You study for the knowledge, not for the grade.

Grading itself sometimes degrades the education. Everybody is equal, but not all will have the same capacity. You do to your capacity; that's all. In a way there are no two human beings one hundred percent similar. So forget all this competition. Keep your mind calm and say, "I am doing all I can. I am learning to get knowledge so that I can equip myself for future service to humanity and that's my goal in studying. Not to make money or to do anything else. I am simply equipping myself to serve humanity better.”

This will keep your mind calm and serene. This will turn your studying into sadhana, spiritual practice. Whenever you are doing anything in the name of service to humanity, it becomes sadhana; it becomes Karma Yoga, selfless service – including all your studies.

Even when you eat, you can feel, "I am eating to gain enough pure energy to serve people.” Then your eating also becomes Karma Yoga. You’re not eating for your sake. It might seem like you’re eating for your stomach. But who ultimately gets the benefit? Others. A car gets polished, a lube job, a full tank of gas -- but for whose sake? For the car? No, for the owner who uses the car. In this way, you keep yourself, your vehicle, in good shape. Put in the proper fuel. Have the lube job done well. Don't let your radiator boil over.

In the same way, education is to equip yourself to serve others. That’s real education.

Selected from Sri Swami Satchidananda’s Commentaries on the Tirrukural
For the entire book, contact Integral Yoga Publications 434/969-3121

Good Business Yoga

2007-06-18T16:06:00.000-04:00

When in business, if you look after the concerns of others
As your own -- your business will prosper Section 14: Kural 120

The seller should put himself in the position of the buyer.
And the buyer should put himself in the position of the seller

You can be a very good business person and also a good Yogi who does fair business. If you’re the seller, just think how would you want to buy something? You would want to buy a very clean product that’s worth the money you pay. The seller should think, “I'm honestly giving a clean product and it’s worth the price.” The buyer should be thinking, "I'm not here to get away with a steal. I should pay a fair price. After all, the seller had to take time to go far to get the product and then present it to me at my convenience. Otherwise, I’d have to go to the manufacturer myself. So, I should pay the seller the price he paid plus some of his overhead expenses, plus a little profit to continue his business.”

During my business period I used to clearly explain what’s behind the price: Parts ‑ this much; Labor - this much; My profit -- this much.” You can even explain the profit: My overhead (rent, electricity, telephone, labor, etc.) - this much.” These I've paid already including. labor and overhead expenses. This percentage is for my profit. This is the total; take it or leave it.

You’re not interested in robbing anyone, and at the same time you’re not interested in losing money because you also should grow. Sometimes there’s a rainy day. There will be a certain month business will be low, maybe not even enough to cover your overhead expenses. Think on all these things before you fix a price. Then explain it clearly if customers want to know. It might take awhile to build your business that way. But once your customers know that you’re that honest, they’ll never go anywhere else.

Once the saint Ramakrishna saw that one of his students, a very humble disciple at the time in charge of the kitchen, had gone to the market and bought a wok. “How much did you pay?” asked Ramakrishna.

“Ten rupees, sir.”

“How much did he ask?”

“He asked ten rupees."

“You just paid ten rupees? Didn't bargain at all with him?”

"No, sir, I thought it was the right price.”

“How do you know that? Is the money from your pocket? It's Ashram money. You are doing business. Go back. Bargain a little. Say that our people say it's too much. I can give you only 5 rupees.”

And he went back, bargained a little and the buyer and seller agreed on a price of seven rupees. He came back with three rupees. That's good. That's also yoga. There's nothing wrong in asking for a lower price. If you don't ask, you don't get.

A Yogi should respect everybody and everything – including money. Respect your dollars. In India there are festivals, auspicious occasions where devotees put bundles of currencies and coins on the altar and worship God as the goddess Lakshmi in the form of money. There’s nothing wrong in it. Money is also God in a different form of energy. If you don't respect it, it won't come to you.

Sometimes I see people getting change, coins and currency. They just grab it and crush it together like a rag you’d throw in the trash bin. Then they tuck it below by their buttocks. What kind of respect for money is that? Instead, take it and fold it neatly. When I receive some dollars, immediately I see if the corners are dog-eared. I straighten them up, put them together all the head all one side, fold it well and then put it in the pocket. I respect money. And the money knows. It's happy to come to you if you respect it. If you treat it in a rough way, “Oh, what kind of person is he who doesn't even know my worth.”

Nowadays pockets are low. But it’s good to carry your money next to the heart. See everything as manifestations of the same cosmic energy and treat it and respect it all properly; this is Yoga.

Selected from Sri Swami Satchidananda’s Commentaries on the Tirrukural
For the entire book, contact Integral Yoga Publications 434/969-3121

Blue Lagoon

2007-06-18T15:58:00.000-04:00

B l u e L a g o o n
A Relationship with a Spiritual Teacher

If you have a little musical talent, you can learn to play a guitar all by yourself. Just by listening to others, watching them play and playing a lot yourself, over the years you can learn a good bit that way. But you can learn a lot faster with a mentor, a skilled master who can point out that if you just hold your arm this way, you can reach the strings more easily and move around too. Of course, you’re bound to learn this yourself eventually -- when you’re 65.

The best athletes in the world, the Olympians, all have personal coaches. And they were quite talented even before they found their coaches. Since what we spiritual seekers are up to is nothing less than self-mastery, doesn’t it stand to reason that we’ll be more effective and successful in our endeavors if we get some guidance from someone who has already achieved self-mastery? This is a no-brainer.

Wonderful books by wise people are real treasures. Altars with spiritual objects and images are safe havens. But a religious symbol or a picture or statue on the altar won’t knock us on the head when we doze off during meditation. A spiritual teacher who loves us will sometimes point out our foolishness to speed us on the way. And that’s the ticket home; find your guru

Guru in Sanskrit means remover of darkness or ignorance. However beware, sometimes the ego masquerades as your guru. It’s very useful to have a real person showing the way. But when we become convinced that having a personal spiritual preceptor is a key for all the locks, now what? We can’t insist on exactly when our teacher will appear. We can’t just snap our fingers. It’s like finding our beloved. But we can prepare ourselves for the re-union. It’s like using a Hatha Yoga Book or CD before venturing to check out the active Yoga instructors in the area.

As you come across others’ teachers and you consider them yourself, observe those teachers: are they attached to their students or to name and fame, or both? Sometimes you may go on a few false starts. You might have thought a certain spiritual teacher was right for you, but after awhile you may sense this is not what you were really looking for. That’s okay, don’t drop out now. As an old Navy Seal, I can tell you that you often have to swim through coral reefs to reach the blue lagoon.

Students and guests at a program sometimes would ask Swami Satchidananda how to find their guru, how to know if this is the right person? Sri Gurudev would say. “Ask about his spiritual background, his lineage. See how he manages funds. Look carefully at his students -- do you like what you see? But finally,” he added, “the eyes meet and they don’t want to part.”

The relationship with one’s spiritual teacher is quite subtle and even irrational, sometimes with words, sometime with no words. You ask him one question and he often answers another, which was your real issue, but you weren’t conscious of it when you asked. It’s hard to follow a person who’s always seems to be changing and will challenge you, sometimes even hurt your feelings.

Some time ago when I was editing his commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita (Song of God), with Gurudev’s encouragement I was also rewriting all the verses or slokas into modern English. A couple years had passed. One day he called me. “How’s the Gita coming, Prahaladan?”

“Just fine,” Gurudev,” I replied.

“The operation will be a success, but the patient will be dead,” he said.” I got the message and completed the manuscript in a few weeks. He wasn’t talking to me just about that book project, but also about the way I’d been doing my whole life.

Perfect Service A long-time devotee, Amma Kidd tells a story about when she was serving as an assistant in his house when Gurudev had guests visiting. They were sitting together before a glass coffee table when she brought over some coffee and dessert. After the guests had gone, Gurudev called her over. “Amma, see this clear glass table; it renders perfect service and is nearly invisible. Let your service be just like that.”

Some guests had given a beautiful Tai Chi demonstration for Gurudev and some of his secretaries. After they left, he told his secretaries, ”Be just that centered, clear and peaceful – only do it ten times faster.”

The Refuge And of course, your spiritual teacher is always a refuge of love and comfort. After my dad died and I’d come back to the Ashram from his memorial service, Gurudev saw me in the hallway, came over, took me into his arms and held me near his heart. That was all and that was plenty.

On another occasion, I was fortunate to be among a few guests at a small dinner with Gurudev. Ice cream was being served for dessert with a goopy fruit topping that could be added. I jumped up to help serve the topping. As I reached over to spoon some over his ice cream, I spilled the fruit compote right onto the clean white table cloth beside his plate. I was mortified. Immediately, but unnoticeable to others, Gurudev gently laid his napkin over the dropped fruit and softly whispered to me, “Oh Mama.” I was able to continue serving.

Some of the things he told me over the years: “Pass the word. Do your own book. Use your own experiences. Make the letters clear and straight.” And he also said: “You know the teachings. Now can you live them!” To this day I live with that challenge and this great calling.

The teacher can’t walk the path for us. But he can point the way and give us tools to smooth the journey. We use the external guru until we have an unquestioned connection with the internal guru.

And what if your teacher dies, leaves his body, transcends? What then? Should you look for another person to show you the way if you’re not yet completely “realized?”

Yes and no.

According to the sages, nobody ever really dies. “What is, always is,” says the Bhagavad Gita, “and what isn’t, never will be.” Our bodies come and go like old clothes that we discard. Consciousness continues. A deep relationship with a spiritual teacher – or with anyone we really love – surely transcends a physical death. Sri Gurudev taught that, “The guru‑disciple relationship never ends. It’s always there. Whether the guru leaves the body, or the disciple does, they are not ever separated.”

Over the ages devotees from all walks and paths report on-going, spiritually intimate relationships with their spiritual preceptors – even after one or the other has left the body. Moreover, so many sincere seekers report connecting with a spiritual teacher whom they never met in person. For example, many down-to-earth Christians report a very real and on-going relationship with Lord Jesus, who left his body almost 2000 years ago.

I remember when a group of us were traveling in India with Sri Gurudev. At one location in the evening some Indian devotees were dancing a tale for us all. One of the dancers in particular was captivating us. "The dancer is telling the story of my life,” Gurudev explained. “He's never seen me before today.” He saw that surprised us. “I have many devotees who are very close with me and who've never met me physically." That opened my mind a little further.

Beyond Time and Space Even these days many Yoga practitioners speak of an intimate connection with Swami Satchidananda – and they never knew him in person. “Sometimes it’s better that way,” Gurudev used to say. “When you come to your teacher in person, the ego sometimes jumps up and gets in the way.”

Even so, I still think it’s good to have a teacher to talk with occasionally. He or she need not “replace” your long-time beloved, your spiritual preceptor, your Satguru.

The great 18th century hassidic master, the Baal Shem Tov, Master of the Good Name, told his disciples to find a wise teacher to assist them after he’d gone on. But how will we know who to choose? they said. “Ask him how to overcome pride,” said their teacher. “If he gives you an answer, keep looking. You have to watch out for pride ‘til your dying day.”

After Sri Gurudev left his body in August, 2002, I looked about to find him in some astral plane – so I could keep in touch with him. Then one morning I heard his voice speaking. “I’m here, Prahaladan; I’m inside you now.” That’s not possible, I thought, what about all my foolishness? “That’s okay, I’m here anyway. Time for you to be that Satchidananda.”

Staying Close So many of Gurudev’s disciples and devotees report very similar experiences, and the same message. Over the years when I had to lead a spiritual program I would go before my altar and ask Gurudev if he’d please step in and do it. Even after he left his body, I’d still do this. Recently I thought I heard that familiar voice say – “You don’t have to call on me; you do it this time.” I protested and asked, “Won’t you do it just one more time.”

“One more time,” that voice said, “but next time you do it.”

I agreed. Recently I led a Passover Seder at the Ashram in Virginia. As usual, we set up a small table for the prophet Elijah with his own wine (grape juice) glass. In past years Sri Gurudev would come in, sit there and share the Seder with us. Of course, we always filled the glass, and did so again this Passover. After the Seder as I was packing up my guitar, I noticed that the wine glass beside his plate was empty. I hadn’t seen anyone come and touch it or drink it. So I concluded that he was there and it all went okay.

As the great Tibetan Yogi, Milarepa lay dying, he called his closest disciples forward and whispered his last teachings to them: “Don’t do anything you’d feel sorry for later.”

Last Words On July 20th 2002 I went to a Guru-Poornima weekend celebration at the Virginia Ashram, a full moon time when disciples and devotees traditionally honor their guru – and the ultimate guru also. I didn’t realize this would be the last time I’d see my beloved Gurudev in person this lifetime. A few weeks later, while visiting with devotees in India, he left his body rather suddenly. That July morning at Yogaville, I was still in the habit of taking notes as he spoke. These are the last words I heard my teacher say:

“The gurus are everywhere
When the moon is full the mind is fully open
This is Guru Poornima [Enlightening Fullness]

“You learn from everybody and everything
If you’re ready to hear

“Give all your fruits to others, and pray:
Make me a good listener!

“Take lessons from everyone and everything in life.”

* * *

The Healing Breath

2007-06-18T15:48:00.000-04:00

Loving greetings of peace in Satchidananda.

Try out some deep breathing with visualizations to heal any area of your body and mind. Here is info for doing so.

1. Sit quietly and comfortably with straight back, open shoulders and chest. Call on the one you adore.
2. Begin deep three-part breathing (Dheerga Swasam). After a couple minutes
3. Add visualization and a short retention at top of the in-breath, and continue a few minutes longer.
4. Sit quietly with normal breathing enjoying the results of this practice.

Dheerga Swasam Deep three-part breathing: Inhale thru the nostrils way down into the abdominal portion of the lungs until the abdomen puffs out a little. (Don’t overdo it or strain).

Breathe it out gently and slowly thru the nostrils. At the end of the out-breath draw in the diaphragm a little to force out a bit more air from the bottom of the lungs. After a few in and out breaths, next time fill up the abdominal portion of the lungs and also the chest area. Breathe it out slowly as before, remembering to draw in the abdomen a little at the end of the exhale.

After a couple times, repeat again, but this time fill the abdominal portion, the chest portion and also breath up into the chest all the way to the chin so the collar bone tends to rise just a little -- like filling a vessel from the bottom to the top.

Be careful not to work too hard at this or move the body much. It’s mostly directing the breath with the mind. This is Dheerga Swamam, the deep, three-part Yogic breath.

The Visualization: During the in-breath visualize white light/gold light prana (vital energy) coming into your system from above, coming down through the crown of the head and down into the area that isn’t well. During the short retention, visualize the prana circulating about in that area, cleaning, purifying and strengthening all the cells and muscles in that part of the body. During the out-breath visualize any weaknesses or disturbances in that area of the body (and mind) washing out of the system, out of the body; and repeat a few times.

This is a very powerful practice. Try it out two or three times/day. You will see results within a few days, even sooner.

What I learned as a US Navy Frogman

2007-06-18T15:43:00.000-04:00

What I learned as a US Navy Frogman (now called SEALS)

* Stick with your swim buddy, hell or high water. Dead or alive, don’t come back without him.

* Encourage an air of invincibility, also, be shrewd in the planning and the execution of a mission.

* Carefully prepare Plan Alpha, and always have a Plan Bravo, a back-up plan. (What if the boat or paddles are gone when you get back to the water’s edge with the microfilm? What’s the back-up plan? Swim out to the waiting sub? Go inland? Contact your buddy team?).

* Treat the men well; roll up your sleeves and join them sometimes during a challenging event. (Example: we have to move all the explosives manually within the next few hours. The whole team’s out there sweating – including the Platoon Commander.)

* Have fun on your missions, even outrageous. But don’t be careless or inadvertently harmful.

* Stay strong and flexible. Continue to swim when you’re not on an operation or a mission.

* There are a lot of brave people on your team. Honor them; but don’t indulge weaknesses.

* Praise a person publicly; correct him privately.

* Be pro-active. Freely come up with ideas and ways to improve the operations.

* The rules are guidelines. Be completely responsible for all your decisions and actions. Be ready for anything

Tell the Children

2007-06-18T15:38:00.000-04:00

Tell the children through their generations to make fringes
In the corners of some of their garments

And put with the fringe of each corner – a thread of blue
A most beautiful blue

Whenever we look at that color
We remember all the teachings of God
And begin being that

Instead of being run round by old patterns of thought
Chasing after all our desires
And wander from the way

Just be these teaching; live them
That’s being holy to your Beloved
That’s back on track

Here’s the mantra:
I AM God Your Lord
Who brings you out of the narrows
To be your God
Ah-knee Elo-heem

* * *

Selections from the Book of Numbers Ch. 15: 37-41
Called BeMidbar, In the Wilderness
Prahaladan 6/8/07 15 Shivan 5767

2007-06-11T00:04:00.000-04:00

O’ the water, o’ the sky

Crown Chakra notes:
Binah, the ocean, the divine mother
Vast understanding

Poison ivy. Skin itching red spreading
Time for a healing
Try this, try that

I drive to the ocean
For a swim in the cold early June water
A few stroll the beach

Her first wave washes over my feet and ankles – wow
I feel cold rush thrilling embrace

No one in the water but me
After a few minutes I’m warm numb
Playing in the waves, turnin’ somersaults
Like a kid runnin’ barefoot

Birds in formation swoop in a rolling arc
A wave from the goddess
A salute

When I finally come out, I can’t see my towel or pack
Look up and down the beach and jog along the ocean

There’s a man in a beach chair.
Heading toward him, looking around
Sixty-sixth street, he says. Did you just swim across the ocean?

Feels like it, I laugh and remember
Parked on 67th

O the water o the sky
O the long sand beach

If in fact it really is “all one”
Then I’m part of all this beach-ocean bird-sky
We are That

For now my skin feels great
But I won’t get rid of this poison ivy
Until I get the lesson from this purification

Time to clean the body, practice Hatha Yoga
Some fasting, saunas, and light eating
Ten day cleanser, a good project

Give up owing, pay your way
No more debts. There’s the lesson

For extra credit also consider
Give up owning
Nothing’s yours then everything’s yours

* * *

Virginia Beach 6/4/07

Disappearing in the Light

2007-06-04T00:34:00.000-04:00

Blu Ridge Mountain notes
Oh the mountains are still there
And so is this pure air

Just want to be content
Putting aside worry-mind
Tho justified of course

Identify what the worries are
Then set aside worry mind
Lo and behold
Everywhere blue skies above

And now from the east
The song of the spring wind

Nadav and Avihu
Disappearing in the light

Once upon a time
Four brothers and sisters became ordained
To minister to the people,
Intermediaries it might have seemed
But really, just candles
In the light-sharers sorority/fraternity

The Abbot was known as Yudah-Dahya,
(In the time of this story he doesn’t know he’s the Abbot)
Yes, the same Yudah-Daya you know from Hawaii (H W Y H)
“How ah ya?” Yudah-Daya would often say
Making a bad pun on the name of the place

Hawaii
There’s a beautiful little fish in the Hawaiian waters
Known by the people as the
Humahuma-nukanuka-appah-wahoo

Say it aloud a few times and you'll see
It makes you smile
Humahuma-nukanuka-appah-wahoo
(This is surely a charming mantra, don’t you agree)

Scripture reports that the two elder siblings
Offered a strange or alien fire at the altar
(Thus it is usually translated in English --Leviticus 10)
And were consumed by the fire
Only their tunics and sandals remained

There are tales also of a certain Yoga sage from South India
Who completed his time in this world, entered a room near his devotees
Who some days later opened the door
And saw no trace of his body whatsoever.

Yudah-Daya and Whatsoever liked to swim in the Hawaiian waters
And watch the Humahuma-nukanuka-appah-wahoos go swimming by
And in the late afternoon feel the east wind
Blowin’ in a spring breeze

Aaron looks and sees the priest and priestess
Disappearing in the light, so does Moses
No one speaks

When he was young, Moses saw a man beating another man to death
In his fury he killed the overseer with his bare hands
Then he fled the land
Something comes along and gets us goin’ on our journeys
Something we never even imagined
And off we go

Yudah-Dayah was a hippy who liked to leave the city
And hitchhike to the ocean and run beside the waves

Notes and quotes were in his coats
And scattered by wind
One note that landed today reads:

Moses tells his brother Aaron
Stay centered, Kohane, hold your peace. God is talking

Thru them who are near unto me
I’m sanctified and before all the people I’m glorified

And yes, the effulgence is sparkling in our faces
And we can see it shining off each other
No time for the priest to grieve right now
(Nadav and Avihu, those are Aaron’s kids)

Disappeared in the light and now they're shining off our faces
That is, whenever we’re uplifted into a sparkling presence
We call this consciousness: Nadav and Avihu

Yudah-Dayah says, finish this study with the smiling mantra
Humahuma-nukanuka-appah-wahoo

May these inquiries we are pursuing together
Be of benefit to everyone everywhere

a m n

Chakras & the Tree of Life

2007-06-04T00:05:00.000-04:00

The Goddess The base chakra, Muladhara in Yoga, where the kundalini goddess of serpentine power lies sleeping, is what the Kabbalists call Malkhut, the kingdom and majesty of God. It is none other than this very world we live in, and it's blessed with a divine feminine presence, Shekhina, the presence of divinity in the here and now."Behold me both as the one and the many," teaches the Bhagavad Gita, "and wherever you look, you will see my face." This is Malkhut. Among it's many signs are the moon and the sea, grace, the Sabbath day, Jupiter, the bride of God, and the holy city entered by the holy king, and the promised land.

As the spiritual seeker ascends, climbing the tree to the next sefira, the kundalini rises to the next chakra, swadhishthana in the reproductive area. In Kabbalah this infinite depth is called Yesod, the Foundation, Union or the Illumined Sage. Other signs of Yesod are maturity, wholeness, peace, the

Above Yesod are Netzah and Hod, Victory and Glory, who in combination express the yang and yin aspects of the powerful navel chakra, Manipura. Think of the disciplined figure skater practicing again and again and again. That persevering strength is Netzakh--Victory. When she stands on the winner's dais showered with honor and acclaim, that prakash or sparkling energy is Hod, Divine Glory.

In the Heart is Your Beloved
Anahata, the heart chakra, in Kabbalah is called Tiferet, the fullness of faith and the perfection of beauty, whose archetypes in the Hebrew cosmology are the illumined ones, Jacob and Hannah. For Christian devotees, Jesus and Mary are in the heart center; and in Hindu imagery it's Krishna and Radha (or Ram and Sita). Other signs of Tiferet are the sun, the East, the perfection of humanity, Sri Ram, the Sun King, Atman personified (our higher Self, YisraEl), children, and the Elder giving blessings in the world. Who is really in the heart chakra? It is you and your beloved.

Just above the heart are the infinite depths of Hesed and Gevurah, Compassion and Courage, who when combined may be experienced at the throat chakra, Vishuddha, which some Yogis say is the base of one's will power. Kabbalists teach that Hesed is the infinite depth of loving kindness and mercy. Hesed has several other connotations: grace, bounteous love, the South, wisdom and gold.

Gevurah is often expressed as awe, strength, judgment (karma), power, definition, silver, the North and wealth. "The awe we feel before the majesty and magnificence of this cosmos," writes Rabbi Art Green. This is Gevurah. These qualities are also describing refinements of awareness at different chakras, in this case, Vishuddha, near the base of the throat.

A Personal Vision Sri Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh writes: "As this energy rises from center to center through the chakras [and sefirot], supersensual visions appear to the aspirant. New worlds with indescribable wonders and charms unfold. The practitioner gets divine knowledge, power and bliss, ascends another rung, and reads from the Divine Book. When this energy reaches the sixth, Ajna chakra, the seeker is blessed with a personal vision of God."

Geographically and anatomically situated at the level of the eyebrows in the center of the head is the Ajna chakra combining the infinite depths of Hokhmah and Binah, Revelation and Comprehension. Hokhmah is also seen as primordial wisdom, the first utterance, the Omkar, Ganesha, and the beginning. It's mate is Binah, contemplation and understanding ...

See the rest of this article in the Fall 2004 issue of Integral Yoga Magazine
or in this weblog. For more articles in or to subscribe to Integral Yoga Magazine, call 434/969-3121 ext 242

The Miracle of Enrollment

2007-06-03T23:52:00.000-04:00

The Miracle of Enrollment

“How did Lord Jesus turn water into wine?” a Theology professor once asked his class in an essay exam. One student wrote one sentence only, turned in his paper and got an A. This is what he wrote:

When the maiden saw the master, she blushed.

That is to say, when Mary recognized who Jesus was, she awakened to her own true nature – and in that breakthrough her world became transformed. The water turned into the finest wine.

So one might say Mary‘s faith turned the water into wine. But where did she get her faith from at that very moment? Let’s go back. There’s a wedding party and they’ve run out of wine, but there are cisterns of cool water nearby. Mary is worried how to host the guests. She turns to her son, “Come on, do something. Now or never.”

He looks at her. He sees into her. He sees her divinity. “Mary!” When he sees it, she sees it. (This is enrollment). When she sees who she is, she blushes; she changes worlds. She goes from survival into the realm of the miraculous. The water turns into wine.

So you could say by his seeing her divinity, Jesus turned the water into wine. Holy men and women are naturally enrolling. Wherever they go, they see our divine nature and then we see it too. That’s why they’re so lovable

We can also do this. Keep looking for people’s greatness. And when we see it, immediately they see it too. This is the miracle of enrollment.

Prahaladan 1/24/07

Centers of Consciousness

2007-06-03T23:44:00.000-04:00

Centers of Consciousness

There are centers of energy along the spinal system from the base of spine to the crown of the head, called wheels or chakras, vortexes of energy. These are somewhat physical, but mostly are astral body pathways, we're told.

These chakras each have their own realms of awareness. For example, the base chakra is survival consciousness -- "Me Tarzen, You Jane. Let's get food, get shelter and mate, babe."...

However, when the upper centers are activated, this base chakra is revealed also to be the abode of all our ancestors and the sages– who sometimes appear to us at the crown chakra, referred to as the “thousand petal lotus.” Well, they don’t actually “appear” to us because at the crown center we’re experiencing oneness, Samadhi. So if a wise teacher “appears,” we feel we are that. We have become one with that awareness. That’s the nature of the crown chakra.

Sigmund Freud well explained the human view and inclinations from the second chakra -- much of which is determined by sexual instincts and sub-conscious inclinations and viewpoints.

The third, navel area chakra is a base power source for getting things done from a very centered place, very Zen.

The next chakra is the heart center and Carl Jung well articulated the view from that center of consciousness with the anima and the animus and big love flowing in the heart realm and archetypes within projected outside on others, etc.

There are still other levels of awareness, windows of consciousness -- that most folks most of the time don't look out of (we mostly operate from the first two or three chakras, sometimes from the heart also).

The Prophet Ezekial beautifully offers a view from the 6th chakra, the so-called third eye center, when he describes his vision of the divine chariot. [See Ezekial Chapter One. I’ll include a contemporary translation in this weblog under the label, Introduction to Kabbalah]

There are also energy vortexes at the base of the throat and just above the crown of the head. Many report that the serpentine sexual energy, kundalini, transmutes as it rises up from sleep at the base of the spine, waking and rising to and through the different centers. And as it rises, it transforms into ever more refined levels of power and subtlety.

Introduction to Kabbalah

2007-06-03T11:04:00.000-04:00

A Letter to Friends

Warmest greetings.

Some time ago, a friend asked me to share some things that might introduce him to Kabbalah, which is a language of distinctions that help us identify and experience various, ever more refined levels of consciousness. The selections offered on this website, I think, will give you a feel for this body of study. Kabbalah literally translates "receiving," and refers to receiving intuitive "revelations" that don't always lend themselves to words or rational explanation, but nonetheless impact our states of mind and ways of being. The investigations offered on these pages are door-openers to this sort of "receiving."
As you may know, Kabbalah draws on words, images, sacred names and letter symbols found in the Torah, or the Old Testament. Just as one need not be Hindu to draw practical wisdom from the sacred Bhagavad Gita, one need not be Jewish to use this rich treasure chest of wisdom and tools of awakening. Those raised in or embarked upon this rich spiritual tradition may already have some familiarity with the power symbols awash in its vast milky way of light and illumination. Others not yet familiar with the Torah, but drawn to this investigation, may want to find a Bible and read through Genesis to start. The Book of Psalms is also a good entree’ to this scripture. I'm also posting a Weekly Torah Calendar here, brief overviews of different portions of the scripiture. These too will give you a feel for the scripture in the context of this conversation.

Prahaladan, Month of Iyar 5766, April/May 2006

Two Silver Trumpets

2007-06-03T04:06:00.000-04:00

"... the only thing left is rest and recovering and making meaning of these past two weeks. I would guess that I am cracking open a new chapter in my life. Why not embody it all?"
-- from a friend's recent email

My dear heart,
Loving greetings

I had no idea you were so injured when you fell - and still you remained a gracious hostess!
I know you'll heal all the way and may that be soon.

Here we are in B'medbar, in the wilderness, in the realm of purification. Your ribs are broken and I'm covered with poison ivy (I "never" catch poison ivy) -- probably we should be thanking God for this little cleansing thing going on in us -- but who designed it this way?

Here are some notes from today's Torah:

Silver trumpet, silver moon, o’ ye priests and priestesses
Through our service of the trumpet a silver moon
Is waking in us. Its tone calling us to our center
And sending us on our journey

We journey by stages. To move to the next stage
Open yourself to the call of the silver trumpet
Access both to inner and outer resources
On our journey of purification

Is this whole lifetime a journey of purification?
But how did we get impure
And isn’t that God’s doing also?
We could have been created flawless, like the angels
So what’s this purification journey in the wilderness?

It’s a game, man. You designed it
And choose to play it, don’t you remember?
Just don’t get too significant about it

Well, my dear, this must be just what the doctor ordered for each of us.

The doctor?

The Big Doctor

Oh.

There are lessons here for us, Rabbi. When we get the message -- no reason to suffer any longer. Meanwhile, let's offer up our suffering -- a burnt offering, a sweet savor.

Who we are is two silver trumpets -- beaten work

Love from a brother on the way with you
Prahaladan

Many of the themes in this message were drawn from Rabbi Shefa's comments on Numbers 8-12 in her wonderful book, Torah Journeys published by Ben Yahudah Press. For more, go to RabbiShefaGold.com