Sunday Service Notes (from Ananda LA)

Sunday notes from Ananda L.A. (www.anandala.org):

OM is the cosmic vibration of God
In the Bible it's described as, "In the beginning was the Word..." is a reference to the vibration coming down from source and resounding at a rate to make the physical world.

Material consciousness:
you can feel this by thinking about your thoughts and seeing where they reside (material or spiritual.)  An example of this was a car accident the speaker witnessed outside the Ananda location this past week. One particular person was very negative and soaked in material consciousness... expecting the worst.  Expecting a nightmare to unfold from the police.  From insurance.  From the victim.  When given a spiritual perspective, the negative person said "oh your so niave" but in reality, they are just in a different consciousness (material consciousness - as opposed to spiritual.)

To live in fear makes us separate from God.

people who demand people do their spiritual path - is a validation thing. We should be happy to see people seeking God (no matter what their path.):
stage 1 of spirituality.  This occurs when someone just starts out on a path and wants people to do what they do because they got something out of it.  Stage 2: can be the pride... like "i've found God... but you haven't..." "this is right, that is wrong..."  stage 3: we dont have to change the world, in order to feel ok.  We can be in the world and start to see everyone as our spiritual brothers and sisters. 
"our Guru is ours.. we can never know anyone else's guru."

If you ever see anyone attuning to God - support it.  It may not be your path, but try to be a channel to support them and their choice for God.

Help in difficult times

Yogananda taught his disciples that our effort is 25%, his effort as our guru is 25% and God's effort is 50%.

How this helps is this:
If I am struggling with something, I call to my guru - Yogananda and remind him of this and say - I'm providing my effort... please provide yours, and help me to get God's... and I know I'll overcome.

It works.  It worked this morning, and it's worked in the past with me. 

Jai Guru.

Poem

Why do you have the right,

To do all the things you hate in me

To yell and scream into the night.

To complain and bring my faults for me to see.

To talk down to me and faults show

Where I live in fear of criticism and rage

Where I’m told “you should know…”

You’re not the only one living in a cage.

You may not be able to do much in life

But I have less freedom each day, each night

When we’re home, from you  I get so much strife

If I respond the same way to you-you say I have no such right.

I hate being angry… and for that I apologize

But you have no idea how much I hold back

When you criticize me to the point of agonize

All I know is how much peace I lack.

You aren’t the problem, I know

But you seem to think only you suffers in life

I try each day to be better and grow

My joy is killed by all this frustrating strife.

I don’t want to upset you, or make you mad

You deserve joy but you don’t see one thing

I don’t want to be the one to make you sad.

But honestly, it’s not me who’s causing you this pain.

One thing I’ve learned, is this so clear

Stop the insults, and criticism of family and friends

You must give and not talk about others dear

It’s time for both of us to make amends.

No more criticism of father, other and friend

Just be happy with who you are and where

I also need to do the same and make amend

Give your life to God, give all for him to bare. 

I refuse from this day on, to be angry at you

But you should also know that it’s not fair

To judge me unkindly daily and peace so few

Together we can improve and be a Holy pair.

But we have to stop criticizing others… both you and I.

Last Week

Last week was very tough and challenging.
It started with work related stress. But then I had some personal challenges.  The first challenge was Wed. morning and I prayed and prayed and was able to overcome the challenge without any problems.

Thursday, I had a major release.  I prayed and offered it up to Master Yogananda.  As he said: your effort is 25%, the guru's effort is 25% and God is 50%.  So I tried to do my best with this release we were doing at work.  I prayed that Guru and God would take care of everything else.

The release went very well.  I was doing fine.  But in the afterglow of the success at work, I got material minded.  I started thinking of a possible bonus from my job.... heard I might get one, and started mentally spending the money before i even had it.  I was going through websites looking for cameras... spending hours looking and researching different cameras... and i put my spiritual life on the back burner Thursday night, Friday.

Then, Friday, my wife told me about a bill that came in... due to a mistake on my part, I had a bill that's now 3 times normal.  It upset me so much, that I flipped out and started screaming about the bill.

Later, I went to bed and my wife yelled at me for coming to bed late.  Then I just walked out of the bedroom and tried to sleep in the living room.  I was so angry.  So upset.

I went into a quick and deep depression.  I just felt like my life was so messed up that everytime i want something i find i can't afford it.  I became self absorbed and then apathetic.  My saturday was like a dream. I felt so depressed and unconnected to everything.

But by Sat. night I felt better.  What I did was piece this weekend back to the source of my problems.   It all started with materialism.  When I fell into a situation, I didn't use any tools or meditate or try to be rational... I flipped out.  That was because I was weak: due to not meditating and thinking only of this camera.

But come Sat evening I got my mind back into a positive situation.  I made lunch for my wife and felt better. I think making meals for my wife was what helped me.  It got me to stop thinking of my own situation. 

I did develope a migraine later. not sure if it was related. 

Sacrifice

Sometimes we give up something and we think of it as a Sacrifice. For example, we might hear people say, "I sacrificed my family for my job."

The thing is though - that the word sacrifice has a very interesting meaning.  It comes from two root words: Sacri and Fice.  These words are Old English, and refer to "Holy" and "To make."  It means, litterally, "To make Holy."

The word was a reference to the transformation of something from corrupted to something Holy. 

With this in mind, we can then ask ourselves, what are we really sacrificing?  Can we honestly sacrifice our family for a job?  No.  Not really.  The job (a mundane, external work) doesn't make the family Holy. 

Many things in life, that I used to think of as a 'sacrifice' were simply losses.  Sacrifice means you've converted something into something Holy.  But most of the time I was giving things up for things not important.  In other words, it was not a Sacrifice, but loosing something out of ignorance. 

To me, this topic is important. It's not just a topic of entemology, rather it has significance.   It helps me see what I'm really giving up and if it's for the right reason.  If I spend less time with the family, so I can make more money... am I making something Holy?  Or am I loosing the family for something false?

It puts into perspective of what's Holy and what we should and more importantly SHOULDN'T be giving up. 

Sunday Service: The Eternal Word & Fire Ceremony

Yesterday - on Sunday, Jan 1, 2012 - I went to Ananda LA and had a great experience.  They did a fire ceremony.  I remember hearing about the fire ceremony from my Buddhist days.  Although I never attended one, I did listen and tried to recreate it in my own home, when I lived alone in Fontana.

But yesterday, I actually attended a fire ceremony.  A fire ceremony is a symbolic ritual - where rice or seeds are cast into a fire.  This rice (or seeds) is symbolic of bad karma, being burned up in the Fire of the Eternal God.  This was guided - Ram, who led the ceremony would toss the rice in the fire, while we the congregation changed a mantra and stretched our arms out towards the fire - mentally releasing our personal karma into the fire.

Then, afterwards, Ram and Dharmaraj sat before the audience and one by one we approached one of them.  I had a slip of paper, on the back of which I wrote a personal message of my goals which would be burned.

I approached Ram and he did a ceremonial prayer and touched my heart.  I felt the energy from his hand, as it vibrated against my chest.  When he was done he said something like "By the Grace of God and Guru - you are Free."  It's not an exact quote... just what I remember him saying - I could be wrong.

At that point I went up to the platform and burned my piece of paper and threw it in the bowl - symbolizing my release from my problems.

The service itself was about the Eternal Word: AUM.  A quote from "Rays of the One Light" was read - which was a parallel translation of the Bible and Bhagavad Gita.  The Biblical quote was from John, about "In the Beginning the Word was with God and the Word was God..."

The Eternal Word, isn't the Bible, or any Holy written work.  For the Word was in the beginning - and the Word predated all writing.  The Word is the comforter, the Holy Spirit... the creative force AUM.  It lives in every cell, every atom.  By realizing that, and taking communion with that Word, we find Heaven.  It is the very presence of God.

Forgiveness

I was watching a documentary tonight, on this very subject.  I didn't care much for the documentary, as it seemed to cater more to the idea of not forgiving others, when it's "too much."

In other words, when there is "true evil" as some people interviewed said, then they said, "one shouldn't forgive."  They even addressed those that forgive terrible crimes committed against their families, as not being healthy.  That, as many interviewed claimed, it is healthier to express anger and resentment.

But that just isn't the case, in my view.  When we look at forgiveness from the point of view as having conditions (i.e. "only forgive if one shows you repentance,") than one isn't really offering anything.  It's simply a tit for tat relationship.  Nor does it allow one to dissolve the bond between themselves and the negative incident, when there is no repentance. 

Forgiveness, when done without any conditions being met, allows the victim to disconnect from the wrong doer.  Without forgiveness, one just holds in the resentment and anger.  Expressing anger, just never seems to burn it off.  How many of us who hold on to anger, ever really get rid of it, until we forgive?  Isn't it true, that the anger just repeats over and over again - as though not satisfied?  A murder goes to jail, instead of the death penalty, and the families of the victims feel there's no satisfaction.  Yet those that truly forgive, and for the right reasons, find a release from the pain and agony.

One person in the documentary said, "I can't believe in a God that loves the criminal as much as the victim."  I'm trying not to be judgmental.  I mean, I have a terrible temper - I'm no saint of forgiveness myself, but when I heard that I thought - What limited thinking.  That's a person who only see's life, as this flesh and blood body.  They aren't looking at the eternal soul.  Once, one meditates, and steps away from identifying with the body... even just conceptualizing that possibility, that they are not the body, one releases this old fashioned notion of revenge.  Forgiveness is all too clear as the proper course of action.

I've also heard people attack the notion of Ahimsa or Non-Violence, as an invitation for others to harm us.  But it's not so.  As a Buddhist Monk I know would say: What if you came home to your house and you found your mother (that you love) in a altered state of mind, running mad with a knife stabbing people.  Would your first reaction be to pick up a gun and kill her? Or would it be to attempt to subdue her first? 

We would all try and subdue her.  But when it comes to people we don't identify with, society often all too quickly rushes in to maim, torture or kill.  If there's a solution without taking a life, why not first take that course of action? 

If life is more than this meat body... if it is a spiritual experience in physical form, then each action we take has a consequence.  If the action we take, is for revenge (no matter how much we justify it), then we simply are creating a future response of more problems.  The pattern repeats and repeats itself. 

In the documentary I was watching tonight, one guy who was a grief counselor stated: Well these people who forgive others - they still grieve.  As though the forgiveness failed.  Forgiving others doesn't necessarily mean you stop grieving.  It does however mean, you move on.  I've never seen someone who holds a grudge move on.  How often they will open those old wounds and rekindle that burning fire deep down inside. 

But to those that forgive others.  To them, we see a radiance.  A total change and transformation.

But true forgiveness is not something to be done because we are afraid God won't forgive us.  Nor is it about forgiving if we get something from it (like repentance.)  True forgiveness is free.  The mind that only things of this world as the only world, can't comprehend it.  It will war against forgiveness.  It will make excuses to hold on to anger, hatred, violence, revenge.  It will not understand, because to understand one must break free of the concept that this is all there is. 

In this new year of 2012, I hope to see more forgiveness - in my own actions and in those around me.  I tend to have a temper.  I quickly get mad, but also forgive quickly.  This new year, I want to transform my reactions, so that my anger doesn't rise to the top.  That my desires diminish.  That my state of emotion is more neutral and less dualistic, swinging to and fro.