We feel a desire and try to fulfil it. It may be a desire or craving for some type of food or drink, or for a particular object of material enjoyment, or it may be a sexual desire, or a desire for companionship, excitement, or any other vital drive that wells up in us. In some cases we try to ... Views: 74
Everyone experiences the tug of desire. We observe something and suddenly we want to have it. We experience something pleasant and we want to have it happen once again. Sometimes we feel a sudden urge for something after being exposed to a commercial message. At other times we can simply be in a ... Views: 616
How does an individual come to devotion to the Divine? There are well-known instances that involve some kind of key experience of the Divine, such as the story of Saul on the road to Damascus, or even extreme cases such as Dannion Brinkley who was struck by lightning, declared clinically dead ... Views: 566
Sri Ramana Maharshi famously inquired into the question ‘who am I?’. Through constant self-examination with this question, the seeker begins to separate himself from the idea that he is the body, or the particular life-energy formation or mental sense that make up his external, surface ... Views: 595
There are quite a few anecdotes and statements by individuals about remembering past lives, and there is an entire field of study dealing with what is called ‘past life regression therapy’. Some of the more intriguing incidents involve young people who can describe a village in some distant ... Views: 317
We frequently hear the advice that we could have much more peace and satisfaction in our lives if we were not always trying to ‘manage’ things. We are encouraged to just ‘go with the flow’. Even spiritual seekers are frequently asked to let the ‘force’ work without interference from our mind or ... Views: 82
People in the West who have been introduced to yoga, primarily Hatha Yoga, come to understand that there can be substantial health benefits to the practice of yoga. Meditation has also been shown to help reduce stress, aid in achieving rest and sleep, and thereby enhance health for the ... Views: 539
It is first necessary to distinguish pleasure from joy. Pleasure may arise from the most insignificant, external factors, a sense impression, a lucky or fortuitous turn of events, or some passing vital response to a circumstance. Pleasure is a response of the surface being to something which has ... Views: 371
It is a quite natural impulse. An individual has an extraordinary, unusual and in some cases, inexplicable experience, outside of his normal realm of experiences. Either through vital enthusiasm, a feeling of ego-aggrandisement due to the extraordinary nature of the experience, or through sense ... Views: 453
The principle Patanjali set forth for the practice of samyajma provided that one would be identified with and gain complete knowledge with the object of the practice of concentration. Those who choose to identify with the vast galactic panorama of stars and space would find their consciousness ... Views: 493
If we observe what happens to our inner psychology when we experience physical pain, we will see that we mostly tighten ourselves up, tensing the body, focusing intently on the experience of the bodily pain. By doing so, we actually intensify the pain experience through this focus and it takes ... Views: 488
Some years ago, there was a movie coming out of Hollywood that was based on the premise that someone was ‘cursed’ with having to tell the truth at all times. The premise was developed as a comedy with the idea that rather than using flattering terms or avoiding any harsh statements, the ... Views: 132
A woman recounted her experience of living in a small intentional community during her 20’s. The community arranged to get broken bags of cement from a nearby production facility at no charge. She was tasked with driving a van, loading up the 40# bags, and bringing them back to the location ... Views: 272
The great mysteries that have occupied humanity since the dawn of human existence include the questions: where do we come from, where do we go when we die, how has this vast universal creation manifested and what is its purpose and significance, do we have a soul, and what, if anything survives ... Views: 8
It is a common occurrence for practitioners of yoga to adopt a position on one extreme or the other. Either they get fixated on dealing with weaknesses, failures, and attacks by forces inimical to their yogic progress; or else, they take the position that there is no reality to these forces and ... Views: 562
The goal of integral yoga is both a shift of standpoint from the individual egoistic view to the divine standpoint, and the transformation of human nature to express the divine force as it manifests new phases of the evolution of consciousness in the world. This involves thus not only a ... Views: 609
It is a constant complaint that we have to take on boring, distasteful, mechanical or otherwise unpleasant jobs in order to survive. Then we create a bifurcation in our minds between “work time” and “personal time” or “sadhana” (if we happen to be practicing any form of yoga). We thus spend a ... Views: 409
Whatever the predominant aspect of the individual nature, the spiritual aspiration seizes upon that as the leading power to carry the sadhana forward. Nevertheless, at some point, it is important to recognize both the value and the necessity of the other aspects for what is after all an integral ... Views: 444
Every individual has a unique set of current capacities, difficulties and predilections in the nature. Spiritual growth therefore is not “one size fits all”. Some have a strongly developed mental power, others a vibrant emotional being, and still others have an active vital nature and / or ... Views: 682
An Integrated Approach to Achieving Harmonious Balance of Life on Earth and
Preserving Our Future and Our World
We are facing a sixth “mass extinction event”. We are destroying the complex interplay between
the ocean, the earth and the atmosphere that keeps our climate in balance. We ... Views: 712
Worlds and Beings Exist Beyond What We Can Perceive With Our Physical Senses
Posted on June 4, 2024
Explorers of the world came across situations and beings with whom they had no prior contact and found some of them to be extremely dangerous while others seemed to be neutral or even positive. ... Views: 314
The evolution of consciousness involves an increasing level of complexity as successive levels of consciousness are layered and then interact with each other, with each layer attempting to not only express its own native way of seeing and acting, but also needing to accommodate the demands and ... Views: 410
In our modern world, we see the wide dissemination of yoga, primarily as a means of gaining some measure of control over the body, through the postures developed and taught under the rubric of ‘hatha yoga’. In many instances, teachers of hatha yoga have taken the step of teaching their students ... Views: 616
The ancient sages developed a basic ‘life plan’ for people to be able to pursue in their lives a balanced agenda consisting of Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. Dharma essentially was following the individual life purpose and being true to one’s own life and destiny. Artha was the pursuit of ... Views: 287
The power of concentration is well-known. It is a power that we utilize daily to accomplish the various tasks set before us, or to achieve some goal that we have set for ourselves. In yoga, also, the power of concentration is required. The focus and intention behind the concentration is the ... Views: 688
Attaining the proper poise of equality is an essential step for the yogic practitioner. It is quite easy to fall into a fatalistic view that basically says “what happened was what had to happen”, without further consideration about the process through time and the direction, momentum and ... Views: 595
Western psychology is still a relatively young science, and it necessarily does not have the complete picture of all the complex interactions that take place within our being. By starting to look inwards, and starting to deal with the powers of mind, will, emotion, nervous impulses and ... Views: 188
Practitioners of yoga are not exempt from the play of the gunas, the qualities of Nature, and thus, are from time to time, subject to bouts of discouragement and depression when tamas is in the ascendent. It may happen when a particular goal or ambition is thwarted or delayed, as the frustration ... Views: 625
We are trained to appreciate external beauty of form, whether in life or in art. This training internalizes cultural preferences. Thus, the ideal of beauty changes depending on which culture is providing the cultural background and which time-frame encompasses the judgment term. Based on ... Views: 611
A particular propensity arises through affinity with an energetic flow through a particular energy center, or chakra. If the individual is receptive on that level, he is able to manifest the powers that are at play through that chakra centre. At the same time, it must be recognised that a ... Views: 467
Just about anyone who has experienced a long trip with young children will relate to the question ‘Are We There Yet?’. Ten minutes into the journey, and every 5 or 10 minutes thereafter, the children ask if we are at the destination yet. They have no realistic sense of time, distance or process. ... Views: 87
Sri Aurobindo’s famous aphorism, cited in the headline above, describes the issue that spiritual aspirants have to resolve as they take up the practice of Yoga. Human individuality was developed to create an apparently independent nexus of observation and action, thus providing a platform for ... Views: 94
For most people, the experience of losing the sense of the ego is unplanned, fleeting and even, unappreciated as it occurs. They simply shift their identification elsewhere without recognising what exactly is taking place with respect to the seat and focus of their conscious awareness.
For the ... Views: 205
There is no way to achieve “instant” yogic realisation. There is no automatic technique, there is no pill one can take to suddenly become enlightened. The sages ensured that we understand the needed patience, persistence and efforts required in the various accounts of realised souls and how they ... Views: 595