Steve Jobs Speaking about Life and Death

Steve Jobs said this speech, while addressing Stanford in 2005... it's quite amazing and speaks directly to the spiritual role we all have:

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart…
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Realization of late

Lately, I've found my mind drifting into negativity.  We all have seen the protests going on.  Whether you support the protesters or find them frustrating - whether you are angry with the police involved or not... it stirs emotions.

For me it has stirred emotions.  I recently took down several posts I had made.  Some about Yogiraj and some about the Occupy movement.

The reason I took my opinion down, was due to my personal path.  I was reminded of my spiritual path, when I listened to a lecture by Swami Kriyananda titled "Blessings of Discipleship."

In this short lecture, he basically said:
Don't compare with others.  Everyone has their own path.  Everyone  has their own problems and their own germ of consciousness, which they have to work with life's experiences.

Meaning: I shouldn't be spending time mentally consuming negativity about protests, or about various people I may or may not agree with. After all, each has their own path.  Each has their own problems, and their own consciousness that needs to work out their problems in their own way.

Today's mistake

Over the past few days, I haven't been meditating.  Today, as a result, I made a mistake. 

I need to stay focused.  The problem is, like with medicine, when things are normal - I often think "Oh I can skip today. I'm fine."  Only to end up a few days later with a problem.

The reality for me is, I need to meditate daily.  I need to be in conversation with similar spiritual people, daily.  I need to study spiritual material daily.  When tempted, I need to use the techniques taught: affirmation, hong-sau, lifting consciousness, etc. to achieve a higher state of mind.

Attune: Finding Unity with Others

Today, I had a spiritual experience at work.

I had a conversation with someone at work.  In conversation, I found I was judging them. 

At some point in the afternoon, I took a walk outside in the cold air.  Few people were walking around, so I took a seat somewhere secluded.

I sat and meditated on Yogananda.  I came to realize in this state, that the person I was juding came to my mind and I felt this thought: Do you realize you are one with this person?  What do you get by judging him?

I realized that judging this other person, was solidifing my eronious belief that I am seperate from others.  It divides one from another.  This division makes the ego feel "superior" and "better" than the other. 


On a gross level, I realized that I and this fellow shared similar desires, issues with the ego, frustrations, fears and so forth.  In that regard, we were the same.

In a more refined way, I contemplated that my spirit is not my body.  My consciousness is not just in the body.  If the expansion of my consciousness is infinite, then that of other people - including this person I judged, is also infinate in expansion.  As such, at some point, our consciousness' would be one.

I felt better connected to this person and others around me and went back to work feeling much better in general.

Help From God (littlegiftsofgod.wordpress.com)

Here's a wonderful, uplifting article on Help From God:
http://littlegiftsofgod.wordpress.com/2011/09/02/is-it-important-for-us-to-ask-for-help-from-god/#comment-13

Daily Inspiration from Ananda

 From Ananda.org

Daily Inspiration
October 24, 2011

Stand by whatever lessons you’ve learned from life.
People may urge you to see things their way, but the only truth you can ever really know is one you’ve experienced for yourself.

Change your mind only when new experience obliges you to see things differently.

From Living Wisely, Living Well by Swami Kriyananda

Meditation on Yogananda

After some Yoga postures, I sit in meditation.  In this state I first do measured breathing.  Then I do Hong Sau for some time - I mentally hear "Hong" on the breath inhale and follow each inhale from the nostril to the third eye. As I exhale I hear "Sau" and follow the exhalation from the third eye. After that, I exhale 3 times, to signify the end of Hong Sau.  At this point, I hold the image of a golden circle encasing a blue area at the third eye.  In the center of the blue is a 5 pointed star of light, shinning outwards.  I call Paramhansa Yogananda.  I see his image in the light and focus on his eyes.  As I send messages through the 3rd eye, I listen receptively at the heart center.

More on this can be learned at the online Discipleship Course held by www.anandaonlineclasses.org

Restless Thoughts and Desires

 From A Handbook for Discipleship:

When you allow the mind to become restless with thoughts and desires, then you bring yourself down to a level where God can’t communicate with you.

Highlights from Chapter 2 of A Handbook for Discipleship

Highlights from Chapter 2 of Handbook for Discipleship:

First of all, we need to develop attitudes of humility, of wanting to learn, of being willing
to give up one’s own desires, of giving up one’s normal human tendency to justify
oneself, to insist on being right. Unfortunately it’s all too common for disciples to act as
if the guru were some sort of heavenly slave, always doing them little favors. You find
this sort of person saying, “Oh, Master did this for me, or, Master did that for me.” They
don’t understand what Master is. They reduce Master to the level of a human personality,
when he is so much more.

The first step in becoming a true disciple is to be a proper human being – that means
relinquishing those things that prevent one from attaining the state of consciousness of
the guru.  What is a human being in its improper human state? First of all, it clings to that
state. It says, “I am real. My body is real; my personality is real; my ego is real.”
Secondly, it says, “I am more real than anyone else. If they suffer, I don’t feel it. If I
suffer, however, I do feel it. Therefore I am more real. When I am happy, I feel it. When
other people are happy, I’m happy for them, but in a different way!”

To be a true disciple, we need also to have the attitude of openness to the guru, to be
willing to be corrected at any time.

The guru asks things of us that are not convenient,
and the ego goes through certain tests because of this. Every devotee on the path goes
through the same basic tests, though each one will have his own individual challenges as
well. The first is negativity. Invariably it happens when you first come onto the path that
someone tries to turn you away from it. Someone will say negative things, and you start
to listen. Either you are swayed towards this negativity, or you resist and say no.

You can tell if something is the pull of delusion or not by the kind of consciousness you
develop from it. Does it give you peace? Does it give you joy? Or does it undermine that
peace and joy?

The next test that comes along is a certain rebelliousness. The disciple thinks, “You are
asking too much of me. I am not going to do that much. I’ve got my life to lead, too.” The
disciple doesn’t want to be asked to give up everything because that doesn’t seem fair.
So, in reaction, he rebels.

The third test is the thought, “What the guru is saying may be right for him and for a few
others, but he doesn’t understand me and my needs.”

The most important aspect of being a true disciple and overcoming the tests on the path is
the commitment of loyalty – the commitment of trust.

The true disciple is
always thinking only of how he can serve God and guru more, of what more he can give.
If the devotee starts to think of how he can get more experience or more realization, then
he falls back into delusion. It has to be a constant giving, and in that giving, God can give
us more.

The guru is omnipresent. As true disciples, we
should try to become omnipresent like him.

I would say the important thing is not to go looking for a guru. Look for God. God will
send you what you need at the time that you need it. Our devotion should always be to
God. I remember Yogananda saying to one disciple, “Never mind what happens to me.
Don’t forget God.” God is our common Father. He’s the one we’re looking for.

God is the Guru

From Handbook for Discipleship:

But we must remember that God is the guru – no human being can be a
guru. God is the guru, and he acts through the agency of an enlightened soul. But a true
guru will never take the credit to himself for being a guru.

Need for Discipleship

When I first came to write this blog, I started a twitter account (of the same name) at the same time. It was at that time, someone reached out to me and sent me a private message on Twitter, saying "You are your own guru."  He had a link to his website, which I went to.  He had some great philosophy and some good ideas. His thinking was sound and he had his own interpretation of spiritual doctrines.

However, as time has passed, I've determined that although one is their own guru in time, right now most of us are not.  What I mean is, yes in an eternal sense, we are our own guru.  But at this moment are we?  Right now, my life is about my children, my video games, my art.  If I was truly my own guru would I do all those things? some?

The thing that turns people off the concept of a Guru (and bothered me for some time) is the various abuses of the title "guru" that we've seen.  Similar abuses are from "priests" and "ministers."  It seems people with spiritual credentials sometimes are wolves in sheep's clothing.

Many of us, also are reluctant about the concept of a Guru, because we think it means giving up free will.  Or being "controlled."  Neither is true, when working with a true Guru (at least according to Swami Kriyananda.)

In the book Handbook for Discipleship, the search for a Guru is likened to finding a master artist, to learn from.  Or a master Violinist to teach you the art of the Violin.  It's having someone who knows the pitfalls, see's your inner being and can guide you through that which you must endure, and help show you ways to work your life in the best spiritual way.

Swami Kriyananda writes in Handbook for Discipleship:

Is it still necessary to have a guru? It is not necessary only if you have come into this
incarnation so advanced that you are already your own guru. Remember the purpose of
the guru is to make you your own guru. He’s only there to help and guide you to the point
where you can take over on your own. He isn’t there to continue to keep you as a
disciple. He’s there to make you as great or even greater than he. There is no jealousy in
God. A guru is trying to make you strong enough, wise enough, to be able to tread a
straight path yourself, without any further help on his part.

In the West, we like to do things "on our own."  The idea of having a "guru" seems like having a crutch, or giving up your free will. But neither is true.  It's the ego identification that is being given up.

The goal, is to be our own guru.  Actually the goal, for most spiritual paths, is to return to the Divine and unite with the Divine.  Through a process growth, we can become our own guru, find God, and become one again with the Divine source.

We bring in all that we get

From "The Art and Science of Raja Yoga" Swami Kriyananda writes in the chapter on Affirmations that we create the events in our life - events we both enjoy and despise.

The reasoning for this goes back to the aspects of how things manifest in creation.  He writes:

The universe of thought, known as the casual universe, manifests itself on a grosser level of vibration as energy, the astral universe.  Man's inner thoughts, similarly, must be energized before they can be translated into outward action.

 He gives an example from Yogananda. Yogananda had a student who was getting into a lot of car accidents.  Yogananda told him to "be more careful" and the student was a bit perturbed.  He evidently wasn't the seeming cause of the car accidents.  As his car was hit while parked, or from behind.  But then in time, he kept getting the same advice from his teacher.  Finally, he realized he needed to be less careless in his life.  As he changed his attitudes in life, the accidents stopped.

This is a perfect example of how seeming unrelated situations come back to us.  How karma and emptiness play out in our lives.  I have a friend who's a great teacher to me.  Many would be shocked to hear that, as she's so bitter, mean spirited and angst driven.  But her life is a lesson to all.  Everything she has, she attracts.  Her bitterness returns again and again.  She exclaims a political viewpoint she feels, if met will write the world's ill's.  But if it's met, she'll have another problem.... and another.  She blames one person, then another and another.  What returns to her life is lack.  Lack of peace. Lack of work.  Lack of health.

In my own life, I tend to live out of fear.  Fear of the boss. Fear of job loss. Fear of loosing my family.  I need to not do that.  My friend is a great example of the return.  It's simple harmonic theory.  We create a harmonic and attract a similar chord in our lives.

Prayer to God

From Ananda:

Divine Mother, Heavenly Father,
Dearest Friend, Beloved God,
Lord Jesus Christ, Babaji-Krishna, Lahiri Mahsaya, Swami Sri Yukteswarji,
Beloved Guru, Paramhansa Yogananda
Saints and Sages of all religions, we humbly bow to you all.
May Thy Love shine forever on the sanctuary of our devotion,
And may we be able  to awaken Thy Love In all hearts.
Aum, Peace, Amen.