4-22 Sunday Service

Today was a fantastic teaching by a visiting teacher.  Padma from the South Bay Ananda Ashram came by to deliver the message.

The message was very important for me to hear.  So many things were discussed.

Lately I've had a lot of frustration and stress at my job.  I've ended up using habits and crutches to deal with the stress, or in some situations I've vented inapropriately on others.

In this Sunday sermon, Padma talked about:

• Our goal is to conquer the ego
• A way to conquer the ego is to "Love God" to put God into everything we do... an exercise example was to include God in all thoughts and decisions throughout the day, "Lord God, which way should I drive to work," and so forth.  By doing so, we begin to bring God into our daily activities
• Devotion to God and others
• A sign of Ego, is when we get angry.  Anger is egoic, because it is about our identificaiton with the body.  When we get angry we should stop and think about it... why did I get angry? what triggered it.  Often it will be aspects that upset us, that we ourselves need to work on.

Building a good defense

http://www.aikidonotes.com/2012/04/redirecting-force-off-mat.html
The above article was written by me, regarding a life application of spiritualizing Aikido to daily life.  The problem I was mentioning, was that of being compelled to do something we don't want to do.

In Aikido we don't use force to combat force, but instead redirect force.  Which is what the article is about.  What the article there doesn't go into, is how to grow spiritually, to diminish the problem in the first place.

There are many practices that take us out of our self (or extend our selves) to get our attention in a larger view.  This nullifies the Ego... Desires... Anger...

Things such as:
Asana Yoga
Bhakti Yoga
Gyana Yoga
Meditation
Mudra's for various problems (such as the Mahamudra for handing unwanted desires)
and so forth.

It's not just enough to have a method of fighting a problem, one must also have a technique of expansion... to find a path to God.  By doing this, the internal problems and desires will slowly subside.

Kriya Yoga

I'm getting closer to taking the Kriya Initiation.  I just finished the last two assignments for my preparation into Kriya. 

I do know there are things I need to work on.  I need to spend more time in meditation.  Typically, I'm getting only one meditation session in a day and some days, none at all.  That's terrible.  My goal is at least a hour of meditation a day.  But realistically, I'm only getting about 30min or so. 

I'm also noticing some changes in my behavior.  I dont know if it's old age, but lately, I'm getting more frustrated with people.  I find myself at the job, snapping at people, and having less ability to control my frustrations to things that upset me. 

In reading Paramhansa's work, I came across a reference where he acknowledged the benefits of Martial Arts.  I have a feeling such training would benefit me in my own mental discipline.  So I took up Aikido recently. 

As such I have a separate blog about Aikido at www.aikidonotes.com

The space between

Today at the Ananda LA Ashram, I was meditating and asking Divine Mother to show herself to me.  In that meditative moment I had this feeling that the Divine was in the space between each of us. 

At first I thought it just a mental notion I came up with, but as I meditated on it... I realized it had some deeper meaning.

The space between us, is outside our ego boundaries.  The ego is the self identified with the body.  Once we step out of that element, and into the external space between us and others, we are no longer part of the ego. 

If others do the same, then on that level, we become united.  Our true or higher natures are all outside the little self... which makes us all united.

Finally, if God is in this space, then we all are on some level connected with the Divine. 

Inner Sounds

This morning I spent time listening to the inner sounds... and heard the sound like that of a Bee buzzing around, in and out... far and close.

I learned some Karma lessons this past weekend.  I made a selfish decision, which came back to me... in the result of something being taken from me.  I spent hours on a work of art, only to loose it in an instant.  I was extremely frustrated and angry.  Then I realized my error and this as karma.

Also of note, in my angry state of yelling at the computer and in yelling at myself, I looked over at my son, who is only 5 months old. His head was laying on a pillow as he watched me and he had this look... it's  hard to describe but a look of total compassion and love.  Like true concern for me.  It really made me want to cry.  I love my son so much and didn't know he was capable of showing such powerful concern in his eyes.

The importance of Spiritual Friends

I've recently seen first hand, the importance of a Sangha. 

Recently (for the past 3 weeks), I had been pretty sick.  I was so sick, I was not going to my Ashram/Sangha each week.  Instead I was still practicing as I could (missed a few days here and there, due to sickness) and noticed my behavior was slumping lower. 

Then I returned to the Ashram and that reconnection just inspired me.

I felt the difference of being away from them, and being back to the Ashram.  The presence of God, the power of the individuals, it was so felt.

Since having attended, and doing the fire ceremony, listening to a great teaching... it really changed my outlook, my motivations and my responses to life. 

I have found it so important for myself to be part of a Sangha/Ashram, and be around spiritual friends.  it's so necessary for me.

Service

"Service is a channel by which you express your attunement."  Swami Kriyananda.

I heard him say that in a recording from 1981. 

It's an important aspect of the spiritual path.  Often times I find myself just seeking goals. But the real goal is achieved through service.