My blog this time is going to be a fairly shameless effort on my part to convince you that you need to take the Ananda Meditation Teacher Training Course. The next one starts June 18th. It is 9 days long: a week plus two weekends on both ends.
Wait, wait, don’t go away! I’m guessing you’ve thought about this before — am I right? Perhaps now’s the time to take action!
Still, I know very well what pops up in many people’s minds when this subject arises:
“Who, me? I’m not a teacher. I could never teach classes on meditation (or anything else). I’m shy. It’s not my thing. I don’t meditate well enough myself. I’m not a good public speaker.”
And on and on!
I think I’ve heard every excuse in the book. If you have a new excuse, challenge me — I’m game!
Savitri teaching a class
There is an old saying which is very true: “If you really want to learn how to do something well, volunteer to teach it.” For then you really have to apply yourself not only to learn the subject, but to figure out how to communicate it clearly.
This principle is especially true with meditation, which is so experiential. To be able to understand meditation well enough so that you can teach it, you really need to be meditating yourself.
So teaching meditation is highly motivational for your own personal practices—and this is very good news!
Feeling unworthy? Many people I’ve met, who could and should be teaching meditation, don’t, because they feel their own meditation practices are “not good enough.”
To them I say: “Even a little practice of meditation will free you from dire fears and colossal sufferings” (paraphrased from the Bhagavad Gita). This includes the fear that you aren’t meditating well enough to teach it!
Swami Kriyananda told us that the most effective teachers are often those who perhaps have not had much experience in what they are teaching. They are closer to understanding (from personal perspective) what their students are going through in their struggles with taking on a new discipline. They might be able to clarify the subject much better than a long-time meditation teacher, who may have forgotten what it’s like to be new to all this!
Please remember that thousands of souls all around you are crying out in desperation for the great life-changing techniques of quieting the mind and opening the heart.
Let that thought help you through any thoughts of inadequacy. Even if you teach only one person to meditate in your whole life, it may very well change his or her life forever, and he or she may in turn change the lives of untold numbers more.
Forget the word “teach.” It’s really just sharing something you love yourself, with somebody who needs it.
I can think of many stories about folks whom I’ve taught to meditate, but one in particular stands out. There was a young woman whom I met in about 1984. She was the mother of four children, the youngest ones being triplet daughters (toddlers at the time), and she had a demanding full-time job.
I had little hope that she could find the time to meditate, but she was (is!) a lovely, intelligent, and energetic person; and she seemed very sincere in her desire to learn whatever I could teach her about meditation, which I did in a brief one-on-one class.
Now, over 25 years later, her children are grown and gone from home. She is not only still faithfully and regularly meditating, but she is also helping to lead one of our Ananda Centers and teaching meditation on a regular basis to many people. And two of her four children are now meditators, too!
A large number of people in the world are already convinced that meditation would be a very helpful skill to add to their lives. But they still need a bit of training (from you!) in the basics of meditation, plus how to get a steady meditation practice going for themselves.
Who could benefit from learning how to teach meditation? Those who enjoys the benefits of meditation themselves and who sincerely want to share what has inspired them.
It is also an excellent skill to add for anyone who is a position of service in any capacity, most especially counselors, ministers, massage therapists, yoga teachers, healing practitioners of any type, psychiatrists, psychologists, physicians, nurses, chiropractors, naturopaths, retreat managers, and other related occupations.
Have I convinced you? Still have doubts and fears (costs too much, don’t have time off work, too far for me to travel, etc)? There is always a way! Let us help you find it.
If you are still thinking this doesn’t apply to you, then forward this post on to somebody you know, who would benefit greatly from becoming a meditation teacher.
“Take this course! It will change your life and help you change the world for the better.”
— J.D.M., California
“This is a great program for anyone wishing to deepen their meditation practice and lock in a methodology and teaching practice that can be shared with anyone, anywhere, any time.”
— JH, Massachusetts
“This course is like opening a giant store room and finding everything you ever wanted and needed inside. And you will be assisted in every possible way in learning to teach meditation. I really had not anticipated that I would finish the course thinking: ‘I am now a meditation teacher.’ But I do!”
— D.R., California
“The instructors really enjoy what they teach. They are also so devoted, inspirational, but also very professional.”
It’s a little hard for me to understand why I have self-acceptance or self-esteem issues.
I had a decent childhood, with no major abuse that I can remember. But certainly I’ve had this issue to deal with. And it certainly seems to me that this problem is epidemic in the world around me.
I thought I’d share some things I’ve learned about how to deal with the “I don’t like myself very much,” or “I’m not good enough,” or “I’m a complete failure” or “Others can do it, but I can’t” syndrome.
One place to start is a bit of introspection about the origin of issues like this. For me, I think it springs from two places:
1) Past incarnations in which I didn’t measure up to my own or others’ expectations of me.
2) Present incarnation, in which I never seemed to be successful enough, though I tried mightily.
Example: I was a good student and often, though not always, brought home straight-A report cards. Upon seeing one of these, my mother would say: “Why don’t you do this on every report card?”
And then there was the “sin thing.” Being raised a Southern Baptist, I was taught, from birth, that we are all sinners, damned to hell.
Please understand that I’m not (nor should you) blaming anybody or any circumstances of my life. I chose this life, my parents, my religious background, my personality—everything!—for purposes of learning the lessons I needed to learn in this life. (And so, by the way, did you!)
But please don’t dwell too long on the exact causes of low self-esteem, if you have trouble with it. The main thing to do is to ask: “What do I do about it?”
First suggestion: Avoid the ego trip of self-negation. “What???” You say. “How could an inferiority complex be egotistical?” It would seem to be just the opposite, right?
But Paramhansa Yogananda clearly stated that: “…an inferiority complex and a superiority complex are opposite sides of the same coin.”
It took me a while to understand this important statement, so let me give you an example from my life. When I first moved to Ananda, instead of feeling the bliss and total harmony with others here that I expected, and instead of having great meditations and going immediately into samadhi, I found myself judging myself severely and comparing myself to everybody else living here—they all seemed like real saints to me.
“It’s hard living here!” I thought. “They are strong. They can do all this meditation and attitude changing and working on themselves constantly. I’m simply not strong enough to do this all the time! They are courageous. I am a coward. I’m too weak. I should leave Ananda and not inflict myself on these great souls, thereby bringing down the wonderful vibrations at Ananda with my ICKY presence.”
Fortunately for me, I voiced these thoughts to a dear friend and fellow disciple. She thought it over and then said very sweetly, “By having such thoughts you are just being tricked by your own ego. Listen to yourself: ‘I am not this, and I am not that, and I can’t do this or that! I, I, I, me, me, me’!”
Wow! She was right, and I was able to hear this! So I sat right down and changed my attitude—almost on the spot! I started affirming (and still do): “Naughty or good, Divine Mother, I am your child. I am Master’s disciple. I am made in God’s infinite image. So what if I’m not perfect. That’s what I’m here to become! I am one with the Infinite AUM—that’s all that’s important! If I behave badly, that is not the essential me.” And there were many other such affirmations that came to me or are in Swami Kriyananda’s or Yogananda’s writings.
Another lesson: I met my husband, Sudarshan, here at Ananda. About a year after we were married in 1980, he said: “Savitri, I want to tell you something that I’ve been observing about you. You are a very kind person, very sweet, very loving. But you would never treat anybody as badly as you treat yourself. Why do you do this? Don’t you know you are being disrespectful to God within you?”
Wow, again! Again it was truly time for me to hear these words and really start trying to do something about it—to start treating myself better, as I would treat others, taking time to do fun things and to get enough rest and so on.
Show some respect for the God within you!
Swami Kriyananda has offered many worthwhile suggestions specifically for those who work with this challenge. In fact, he wrote a whole book about it called “Secrets of Self-Acceptance.” There’s a wonderful introduction to that book from which I quote:
“While traveling the road back to self-acceptance, bear in mind that you, in common with every other human being, are unique. The melody you have to sing is yours alone for all eternity. The role you have to play on Life’s stage can be played by no one else. Your allotted task is to learn to play it to perfection. That melody, however, or that role, belongs to a more expanded Selfhood than the realities you experience in your little ego. Transcend all limitation by contemplating ever-more-expanding vistas of reality. Ultimately, you will discover who you really are, behind all the ego masks that you—in common with most human beings. [Learn to move] from the ego-squeeze of self-rejection to the relaxation and joy that accompany self-expansion and total self-acceptance.”
Here’s one of my favorite “Secrets” from the same book: “The secret of self-acceptance is not identifying yourself with failure. Neither success nor failure can define you, who are made in the image of Infinite Perfection.”
And to close:
A suggested affirmation for the highest level of self-acceptance:
“No matter what happens to me or around me,
No matter what others think of me or what I do,
I love and value myself.
For I realize that I am not the little self only,
But also the greater Self,
Made by God, made in God’s image,
Ever-perfect, ever-free!”
Recently I was talking with a friend who is a counselor to many people. She mentioned that many of the folks she was working with seem to be extremely fearful, filled with anxiety for a variety of reasons, and thus mentally paralyzed and unable to move forward with their lives.
She asked if I had any advice to give to her, so that she might be better able to help these people.
First of all, we both agreed that fears and anxieties may seem justified in the world where we are living right now. It’s a scary place! Faltering economy, much unemployment, killer viruses, global warming, growing crime rates, people working too hard and for too many long hours, little or no health care available, over-stimulation / saturation through the media — the list goes on and on!
At the close of our conversation, I agreed to make a list of things which might help people live without so much fear in their lives. These suggestions are based on teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda and Swami Kriyananda, and on some of my own experiences, too.
1) Chanting or japa: Whenever I find myself gripped with fear, I start chanting a favorite chant or saying “AUM Guru,” either out loud or inwardly. I also frequently sing Swami Kriyananda’s beautiful song: “I Live Without Fear.”
Though green summer fade, and winter draw near, My Lord in your presence, I live without fear,
Through tempest, through snow, through turbulent tide, the touch of your hand is my strength and my guide,
I ask for no riches that death may destroy; I crave only Thee, your love and your joy,
The dancers will pass; the singing must end,
I welcome the darkness with You for my Friend.
2) List your blessings on a piece of paper and make a really LONG list. Dwell on these things constantly, leaving no mental space for brooding over the things you fear.
3) Put out more energy. Doesn’t matter if it is energy directed toward overcoming the thing feared or not. Just start doing something — anything, really. Take a walk. Take a run. Talk to someone positive who will lift you up. Stay busy, but make it the kind of “busy” which is divinely guided. Be actively calm and calmly active. Forget about yourself and serve others.
4) Yogananda said during the Great Depression of the 1930’s: “If I didn’t have a job and needed one, I would shake the world until it gave one to me!” What does shake the world” mean? Tons of prayer. Lots of effort in many directions. Affirmations such as: “In the center of life’s storms, I stand serene.” Positive attitudes. Non-attachment. Faith that it’s all going to be OK, even when it doesn’t seem that way.
5) Don’t be around other fearful or anxious people. We all know the positive ones, the ones who make life work well for themselves. Be with them. Ask their advice. Ask them to help you get your energy moving in the right directions.
6) Fear is really based in wanting things to be different from the way they are. An attitude of non-attachment is the key. Accept things as they are and then move forward from that position.
7) Think of the worst-case scenario for what you are afraid of. Go to the end of it in your mind and then accept it. What could possibly happen? You could die? So what — death comes to us all anyway. You could be dependent on others and lose your cherished independence? The truth is: we are all dependant on God alone. As Yogananda often said: “If God stops ticking in your heart, then all your appointments must be canceled immediately.”
8) Years ago, I experienced a series of anxiety attacks. The interesting thing about them was that I could never pinpoint exactly what was making me anxious. What was making my heart race and nameless fears paralyze me to the point of immobility or sleepless nights? I never did find a satisfactory answer, so I gave up trying to figure out what was going on and just focused on solutions. For me it was finding someone to talk to (didn’t matter at all what the topic of conversation was—it was just some human interaction which was needed) and also it helped to eat some protein like a handful of nuts or a soft-boiled egg. Your solutions may be different, but they are there to be found, with God’s help.
9) Never give in to discouragement or the feeling that you are “in this alone.” Reach out for help from God and Gurus first and then also from your spiritual teacher, friends, family, fellow devotees and disciples. Put yourself on Ananda’s healing prayer list, through Ananda.org’s Healing Prayers section.
10) Know that there are dozens of solutions waiting to be found. Pray with faith that you are going to be guided to the right one. For example, if you are unwell in some way and are not sure about the right thing to do to get well, pray to be guided to exactly the right type of treatment, one that you can afford, and one that with God’s grace will help you in the perfect way.
11) Get familiar in meditation with what it means to be “in your spine.” When fears attack, go back to that place of inner strength. From Secrets of Overcoming Harmful Emotions by Swami Kriyananda, on attaining fearlessness: “Seek peace at that calm center within, where nothing can touch you, neither fire, nor flood, nor loss of any kind.”
12) Finally, please read and re-read these wise words:
“What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee.”
—Psalms 56:3
“Look fear in the face and it will cease to bother you!”
— Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yogananda
“You must never lose courage. Divine Mother sent me to pilot you out of the clouds of your mind. Overcome all by constant inward calling on God…. I will ever lift you up, no matter how many times you fall. Keep unceasingly trying to conquer!”
—Excerpts from “A Letter to a Disciple” by Paramhansa Yogananda
Listen to “I Live Without Fear” song by Swami Kriyananda, performed by Ananda Choir:
Lyrics:
Though green summer fade, and winter draw near,
My Lord, in Your presence
I live without fear.
Through tempest, through snows,
Through turbulent tide,
The touch of Your hand
Is my strength and my guide.
I ask for no riches that death can destroy.
I want only Thee, Your love, and Your joy.
The dancers will pass, the singing must end.
I welcome the darkness with You for my friend.
I want to tell you about my friend, Sanandi Reardon, and her miracle plant.
Sanandi and I have known each other for many years. She is a deeply devoted disciple and Kriyaban who lives in Carson City, Nevada. She is unable to visit Ananda that often, though she tries to come at least once a year. She’s always a bit strapped for income, but she always gives what she can to the Ananda Annual Appeal.
Sanandi recently was laid off (again) from her job at a health food store which is having to close its doors because of the economic downturn. She has raised children of her own and also three step-sons, and now has grandchildren. All in all, she is a truly great soul and a good friend.
Through all her life challenges and for as long as I have known her, Sanandi has continued to send me dozens of letters, cards, notes, photos, and gifts every year–always upbeat, always brimming with God and Guru’s love. Recently, in one of her letters she related a truly remarkable story about a house plant she owns, including a photo to prove it.
Sanandi has always maintained a beautiful meditation room where she practices Energization, yoga, and meditation daily. She decorates it beautifully and loves to spend time there.
Part of the décor of her room are many beautiful house plants. A few months ago she noticed that her hoya plant had produced a unusually long flower stem. The stem proceeded to grow out of its pot, turn a sharp corner and nestle itself right up against her framed color photo of Yogananda, just below his chin. If she turned the plant in any other direction, the flower on it’s long stem would return to it’s position touching the photograph.
A hoya flower is really a lot of smaller flowers all clustered together, hanging off a single bare stem–looking a bit like a lot of little pink trumpets grouped together.
So if this event was not miraculous enough, one day, one of the individual pink trumpet flowerets turned itself in the opposite direction from the way all the rest of the flowerets were facing, so that it could reach up and actually “kiss” Yogananda, right on the chin.
Here are the contents of the note she wrote me to accompany the photo:
“July 24, 2009, Dear Savitri, I thought it was special when the Hoya plant produced a flower for Master (Paramhansa Yogananda), but when the little flowerets separated from the whole to offer itself to Master, I was stunned. I couldn’t wait to share this picture with you. I call it ‘Master’s Latest Devotee.’ Love and Blessings, Sanandi”
I was stunned too and asked her if it would be OK to share this story as a blog on our website. She was happy to say yes. So thank you to my dear friend, Sanandi and to her special devotee plant, also.
This story reminded me very much of the story told in The New Path, Swami Kriyananda’s autobiography: “[Paramhansa Yogananda’s] sensitivity to all living things inspired sensitivity from them in return. Not only people and animals, but even plants seemed to respond to his feeling for them. His gardens flourished. Tropical mangoes and bananas grew at Mt. Washington, where the climate is not conducive to their survival.
Shraddha Mata (Miss Sahly) told of watching one day what she called a ‘rose devotee,’ which kept turning in its vase to face Master as he moved about the room. When he was sitting in his chair, she noted that the rose was facing him. Twice, however, when he was called to the door, she noted the rose facing in that direction. Several repetitions of change of directions finally caused this event to surface in her mind.
‘Sir,’ she said finally, ‘you have a new devotee.’ She indicated the rose which, now that he was seated again, had turned back toward him.
He looked at it for a moment, then smiled.”
‘Plants,’ Master explained, ‘have a degree of consciousness.’ Above all, like every sentient being, they respond to love.
The Christmas holiday Season can get pretty crazy. Everyone knows how it feels to be frantic, over-tired, un-centered, or lonely at this time of year. This is too bad, because these Holidays can become true Holy-days and can be a time of greatest joy, if you are willing to make it so. Try a few of these suggestions—they may help!
1)While you are shopping for or wrapping or mailing or distributing gifts, pray for the person(s) to whom you are giving it and say the “Gratitude” affirmation (see #2)
2)While you are address and mailing Christmas cards, pray for the one to receive it and use this affirmation: “I give thanks to the Giver behind each gift and to the one Giver behind all that I give [and receive.]” From Affirmations for Self-Healing by Swami Kriyananda.
3)Also use the above affirmation when opening each gift or Christmas cards.
4)Save your gift tags and the Christmas cards you receive. Keep them in a basket in your meditation room and take one a day to pray for in the coming year.
5)Take a “Christmas Vow” for all or part the month of December. For example: eating no sugar, meditating a longer amount of time each day, cutting out “fillers” like TV, videos and low energy reading materials, or doing more Kriyas than usual if you are a kriyaban (Kriya yogi).
6)Study! Suggestions: re-read the Christmas story from the Bible–chapters #2 from Luke and Matthew are the best. Read slowly at the close of your meditation and feel the inner meanings of the words. Read Master’s teachings on Jesus and Christmas. Email me for suggested “Christmas Bibliography.”
7)Put out a picture of Jesus that you like. Make a small Christmas altar and look at his eyes, praying for the inner Christ Conscious to come to you in this season.
8)Set up a small “Nativity Scene” on your altar and/or re-do your altar for the Christmas season with decorations, twinkling lights, poinsettias, etc.
9)Consider participating in an 8-hour meditation, on or near December 23. If possible, do it at an Ananda center or meditation group. If not, do it on your own. Unimaginable blessings can come from Yogananda and Christ during the Christmas season, if you put forth extra effort. Be sure to have both a “spiritual Christmas” and a “social Christmas” to keep things balanced, as Yogananda taught by his example.
10)Play tapes or CD’s of Yogananda’s voice, especially those made during the Christmas Season or around his birthday (January 5th).
11)Have and light daily a special Christmas candle.
12)Get more light into your light at this darkest time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere (the winter solstice is on the 21st of December). String colored or white lights all around your home.
13)Read “Secrets of Peace on Earth,” by Swami Kriyananda, reading one page a day (and meditating on it) for the whole month of December.
14)Practice conscious forgiveness of those with whom you may have issues; take part in a Purification Ceremony or other rituals which have meaning for you.
15)Take a time of silence and seclusion. The week (or a few days) leading up to Christmas or the week between Christmas and New Years Day are often good times to do it.
16)Look around you to see who might need extra help or energy. Serve in any way you can find to offer service to others. Call and/or get together with those you know who might be ill, sad, or lonely especially at this season.
17)Music! Music! Music! Have uplifting Christmas music in your life. Chanting or listening to music is great! Ananda has much wonderful Christmas music to offer you. Attend a Christmas concert.
18)Love, give, serve, and remember who you are.
19)Consider coming to Ananda for all or a part of the Holidays. Christmas at Ananda is such a wonderful experience. I spend my first Christmas here in 1977 and promised myself never to be anywhere else. I’ve kept that promise!
20)On Christmas morning, very early, before anything else happens, meditate deeply and let the Christ Consciousness be born in the cradle of your heart.
Being in nature is where I’ve always felt most comfortable and at home. I also appreciate a snug house and a warm stove on a cold, rainy night. But if the weather is agreeable and I have the opportunity to be outside, then that would always be my first choice. Perhaps you feel the same way? Have you ever wondered why this is?
Here’s how the answer to this question was explained to me many years ago.
Shortly after I first read the Autobiography of a Yogi in about 1969, I met an American Indian named Red Eagle. He lived in a tiny shack in the forests of East Texas. A friend, knowing of my interest in Paramhansa Yogananda, suggested that I would enjoy meeting Red Eagle. My friend said that Red Eagle was a follower of Yogananda also. I had never yet met any others who knew much about Yogananda, much less followed his teachings, so I was excited to meet this man.
His home was extremely difficult to locate. We drove down many truly terrible dirt roads, deeper and deeper into the “piney-woods,” as they are called in East Texas. There were times when I doubted we’d ever find him, but finally we did. I felt we had been drawn or guided to his small clearing in the woods by some sort of mysterious force.
Red Eagle was quite a character and his living arrangements were unlike anything I had ever seen, to put it nicely. His one-room cabin, which he had built himself, had no electricity, water, or plumbing. The trees around his home were thick and close together, blocking off most of the sun. It was dark, quiet, and a bit spooky there, though very beautiful in its own way.
I explained to him, upon arrival, that I had heard he was a holy man of some sort (a shaman?) and also a follower of Paramhansa Yogananda. He happily told me stories from his extremely colorful past and how he had come to follow Yogananda’s path of Kriya Yoga. This was the very first person I had ever met who really knew about Yogananda and his teachings, and more importantly, who actually practiced them. I was thrilled and asked him questions for several hours.
Finally, probably growing tired of my questions, he asked me if I’d like to energize and meditate with him, his wife, and the friends who were with me. Naturally I agreed. This was to be my very first group meditation in this lifetime!
While energizing, he took off his shirt and showed me how he could isolate and move the individual muscles along his back during the “three-part back recharging” section of the Yogananda’s Energization Exercises. He was bald and he showed me how he could move several individual muscles in his scalp without even touching his fingers to his skull (for the scalp massaging part of the “Energizers”). Amazing! I have never seen, in all this time since I met Red Eagle, someone able to recharge and vibrate his muscles in this unusual way.
After we had meditated and it was time to leave, I asked Red Eagle why he had chosen to live so far removed from civilization. He smiled and said, “I love nature and I can meditate better here, deep in these woods. It’s very quiet and God seems closer. I think that the veils are thinner between God and me in a place like this.”
After I returned to my apartment in Houston and continued to try to meditate on my own, I often remembered his words and became convinced he was right about this. God seemed far away from me there in the city, blocked off by the concrete and the noise.
Since that time, I’ve always tried to spend as much time in natural surroundings as possible. As I write these words, my husband and I are on vacation, camping out on the Middle Fork of the Yuba River, just downstream from the Crystal Hermitage at Ananda Village. We are probably no more that ½ mile from where we live. But it seems like we are far, far away from the world. We hear only the bird songs and the beautiful sound of the river flowing over the boulders near our camping spot.
As the days go by, we grow quieter and more blissful. God seems nearer and nearer, as the veils between Divine Mother and us, as Red Eagle said to me all those years ago, seem to thin out more and more.
Why would this be so and what could it mean? Isn’t God always present within and all around us, present in everything and everyone?
Surely it is the restlessness of our thoughts, whipped up by the restlessness of the busy world around us that creates thick barriers of delusion and makes the Divine Presences grow fainter and more difficult to perceive. It is harder, though not impossible, to see God in concrete pavement, heavy traffic, and tall buildings, than in a sparkling stream or a meadow full of colorful wildflowers. It shouldn’t be this way, but it is, especially for those less experienced in cutting through the veils of delusion through many years of deep meditation.
My suggestion to you is to try to be more in nature and when you are there, to feel God’s presence revealing itself to you from behind the “thinner veils.” Try meditating in nature as much as you can, or if this is not possible for you to do often because of where you live, try a walking meditation, perhaps in a nearby park or on the street where you live. Here’s one suggested by Swami Kriyananda:
To practice interiorization of the mind…try this walking meditation. Walk alone, if possible, during this exercise, for its purpose is to interiorize the mind, not to externalize it in the company of others.
Throughout this walking meditation, make it a point to relate to God, to God through Nature, and to your own higher Self. Don’t walk vigorously. In other words, don’t hike. Walk “easefully.” Express in outward action the peace you feel in meditation.
Now be aware of the energy as it moves through your body. Feel yourself surrounded by a great, inverted vortex of cosmic energy, spinning slowly around you, and drawing you upward toward its source in infinity. Bring that energy down, after a time, into an awareness of its manifestation in your physical environment.
Listen to the birds singing: Hear the Divine Consciousness singing through them. Ask the Divine Mother if She hasn’t some special message, in their singing, for you.
Listen to the sounds in your vicinity: dogs barking, people’s voices in the distance, cars moving. Feel the Divine Mother communicating with you through all those sounds.
Gaze at the sunlight as it trembles on a leaf, at the clouds sailing overhead, at the trees, the bushes, at countless objects around you. Share those visual impressions with the Divine Mother, as if also with your higher Self.
Feel the wind on your skin, the warmth of the sunlight or the coolness of the evening air. In every thought, in every impression, make the Divine Mother a participant.
If thoughts come to you in the form of words, share them with the Divine Mother as through you were talking to Her. Don’t only think about Her in the third person. Talk to Her.
Feel yourself as the breath of divine love and joy. Walk joyfully on an earth where all beings rejoice in their unseen, heavenly origin.
Years ago I was giving a tour of Ananda Village when a woman on the tour asked me if Ananda had formed a “Women’s Liberation Group” here.
“Oh yes!” I replied. “We meet once a week!”
She was pleased and went on to ask: “And what are the topics of discussion at your meetings?”
The answer was surprising to her: “We don’t discuss anything. It’s a group of women who like to pray, chant, and meditate together; in this way we try to find our final liberation or union with our Divine Mother.” (I figured I’d better throw something feminine into this conversation).
Later her question made me think seriously about what it really does mean to be a woman in a spiritual sense? Obviously this woman had another kind of “women’s liberation” in mind, when she asked her questions. But male or female, we are all souls, striving for freedom, for liberation from the bondage of human birth and death, from attachments, and from all suffering. Our goal is oneness with our Creator, the Great Spirit which is beyond duality, male and female, or opposites of any type. This is the end of all human and spiritual evolution.
A basic urge in everyone, male or female, is based on an innate sense of incompleteness. Our lives are often directed by our striving to find that completeness or try to fulfill what we perceive as our needs! We often misplace these needs by thinking that we will become whole or complete through relationships, career, power, money, marriage, family, and so on.
Finding satisfaction through anything of this world may feel fabulous, for a time; but sooner or later, its temporary satisfaction gives way to yet another unsatisfied need. “Human desires, ever-fed, are never satisfied.” The key to happiness is found within you, not outside of you! Thus, the final liberation we are truly seeking has nothing to do with our sex, because our essential nature is the soul, beyond all duality. Perfect happiness lies in striving to liberate ourselves from attachments to all ideas about ourselves. It comes in finding out who and what we really are!
However, to balance all these thoughts, if you have chosen to take on a female body in this lifetime, this fact has various spiritual implications which cannot and should not be ignored. It is important to use one’s feminine strengths in a positive, beneficial way—in a way which will hasten one’s spiritual evolution!
Here are a few of these strengths:
1) OPENNESS — In our culture today, women are much more likely to be spiritual seekers. We are not quite as protective of old ways. We like to embrace the flow of change all around us and seek new ways of growth. Openness is the first and most important attitude anyone must have to be a seeker of truth. Without the attitudes of flexibility and willingness to embrace change, very little spiritual progress is possible. However, the opposite side of the coin is the possibility of becoming too open or mentally scattered and unable to focus our energy when needed.
2) SENSITIVITY TO ENVIRONMENT, INSPIRING OTHERS — Women are generally very sensitive to beauty or the lack of it and very sensitive to vibrations of people and places. Women are often the main forces for the inspiration and upliftment of society, preservers of beauty, music, and the arts. They feel drawn to enjoy and protect nature and our planet. It has been said that the healing of Mother Earth, if it comes, will probably be spearheaded by women. Over-sensitivity can be a real drawback for a woman, too. Learning about appropriate boundaries and shielding may be necessary. Let us use our feminine sensitivity to enhance our receptive, listening nature and turn it towards listening for Divine Mother’s voice, in the inner silence of our souls.
3) SERVICEFULNESS — This quality seems to come naturally to most women. It is a compassionate desire to nourish and protect, to give, love, and serve, easily putting one’s self last, putting one’s own needs on indefinite hold. The dangerous side of this quality is “doormat” consciousness, an attitude all too easy for many women to take. We must be strong and centered in our serviceful attitudes, and learn how to keep the balance of self-nourishment when needed, or else the “well will run dry!”
4) FEELINGS, EMOTIONS — Women often go by “heart” rather than the intellect; there is both great strength in this and also some pitfalls. Balance is always a desirable goal. Emotions can cut two ways: offered to God first, they become purified in the form of devotion and divine unconditional love for all. Constantly projected elsewhere (outside ourselves), emotions may easily slip into destructive anger and fear or emotional illnesses of many types—this is most often caused by thwarted desires and destructive emotions or wishing things to be different than they are, and not having sufficient energy to change them.
5) THE ABILITY TO LOVE DEEPLY — Feeling deep, passionate love is a blessing, but passion or mother love can all too easily become “smother” love, unless we know how to use and transmute it to its highest and best expressions; human love must be kept in balance with reason and purified in the Spirit. You are Divine Mother’s beloved daughter. Tune in to that love first and then offer it to those closest to you and to the world around you. Be a channel for God’s healing love into this world—it needs it very much!
6) BODILY FUNCTIONS, HORMONES — The moon rhythms offer us times of great spiritual growth and depth; menstruation is a natural time to be more inward, to meditate more deeply. Catch these times whenever you can. Pregnancy, motherhood, menopause, all the phases of a woman’s life have deep spiritual implications. No human love can match that of a mother’s love for her child. But again, that sword cuts both ways. Love is all the sweeter when it is transmuted into divine love.
7) SISTERHOOD — Most women find that their relationships to other women are an incredibly nourishing and helpful aspect of their lives. Men rarely seem to find the depth of friendship with other men that seem to come to women so easily. We just seem to be naturally supportive of each other. The strength of a group of women who set out to do something together can be awesome! Spiritual friendships among women are a blessing almost beyond expression. A group of women who regularly pray, chant, and meditate together can uplift the environment around them with great clarity and efficiency.
8) HAVING FUN — Playfulness and just plain having fun are wonderful goals in themselves; it goes with the thought that it’s not so much what you do but how you do it. Women often create businesses to have fun. Sure money is a factor, but why not have fun making it? The happy laughter of women having fun together has a power often envied and rarely fully understood by the opposite sex, who sometimes seem prefer to be very SERIOUS, especially in business or financial matters. Lighten up and help others to do the same, male or female. The goal and destiny of all life is JOY! You will find that divine joy is all around you if you first seek it at its source, in the silence of your own soul.
9) POWERS OF ENDURANCE — A woman may lack the physical strength of a man, but she can often keep going or overcome pain and suffering in a manner which would destroy a man quickly; it’s that amazing ability to keep on putting out energy no matter how you feel. Apply the strength and power of feminine endurance to your spiritual path. Never give up! Never say “I have failed!” Just say: “I have not yet succeeded!” and keep on going. A woman can find that perfect balance of being both a spiritual warrior and a nourishing, loving mother, simultaneously.
10) A CREATIVE SPIRIT — Creativity is a basic factor in a woman’s life. After all, she has the power within her to create life! But creativity of the highest type is not biological; neither is it necessarily artistic. It is more like the ability to be resourceful, to make something from nothing, to find solutions in the face of great challenges, to stay cheerful and creative when the chips are down. Even so, it is probably true that every woman needs an artistic creative outlet of some sort. Be creative in finding that creative outlet in yourself and don’t think that this is a frivolous need. It is an essential feminine principle! God is our creator—creativity is our nature.
11) INTUITIVENESS — Perhaps the greatest of all feminine strengths! Intuition might be defined as a knowledge or certainty which comes to us through our sixth sense, beyond the usual five sensory inputs. We just know! Developing intuition is best done through regular, daily meditation. First, practice your meditation techniques, and then sit in the silence, in an open or receptive state. It is then that our intuitive powers are developed best. This doesn’t mean that guidance comes immediately, within a meditation session. It can, and often does, come later. But inner guidance does come, more and more perfectly and strongly with every meditation.
A final suggestion: don’t get too hung up about being a woman. It is just the type of “house” you are living in right now. Among women there are so many different types and temperaments, that it is difficult to make any really general statements about what a woman should do or not do, be or not be. Fall in love with the Divine, in whatever form that takes for you—and let the great power of your own spirituality lead you to your highest potential in this lifetime—as a woman, surely, but primarily as a Soul, a beloved child of God.
