I recently completed the Yoga Teacher Training course at the Expanding Light. It was an amazing month filled with great joy and laughter, profound wisdom, and personal growth.
Some of my fellow trainees/teachers/friends on a hike to Bald Mountain
The program was an incredible experience. It was a blessing to receive a broader and deeper understanding of yoga in all its aspects. I was blessed to go on this inward journey with a wonderful and inspiring group of people. Even after a week of the program I couldn’t hardly believe that I had only known them such a short time. It was a month of learning together, growing together, and laughing till our cheeks hurt too much to continue (and then laughing a little more). It is a great joy to meet people from all walks of life and all ages that share this deep common interest and love of yoga.
Triangle Pose on Bald Mountain
Even though I already “knew” these teachings of yoga and meditation, the program broadened and deepen my understanding in ways I couldn’t have anticipated. It also made me grow. With one week left in the program I felt like I had given it everything I had. I felt like I was being stretched (haha) beyond what I could handle.
I started thinking, Why was I putting myself through all this? Why did I want to be yoga teacher anyway? I found myself wishing I could just find God by staying in my little cabin in the woods. I asked Trimurti (who leads the Karma Yoga program) if he had a few minutes to talk. I told him how I felt like I didn’t have what it takes to be a yoga teacher and explained what I was going through.
Trimurti helped remind me of the bigger picture. There was only a small bit of time till I completed the program, then I would be able serve people in this way. A weight began to lift off my shoulders and a veil lifted from my mind.
I began to remember the reason I had taken this program in the first place. It was to serve Master and help spread these teachings. It was to be a channel for His light in the world. Me be a channel? There had been some self-limiting part in my mind saying “Who me? Who am I to be a channel? I’m just a simple devotee. I can’t do that.”
And so I pushed the thought of me being a teacher away. But, in that talk with Trimurti, the tide was turned (bless you Trimurti). I was able to accept that I could in fact be a channel for Master in the world. I again saw this training then on the much broader scale of life-purpose. I wasn’t just trying to become a yoga teacher. I was trying to become a better channel for the Light. Now that was a cause I could get behind with my whole body, mind, heart and soul.
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.”
Note from the editor: May 22 marked the launch of a newly published original edition of the Autobiography of a Yogi in Italian. The event took place in Milan.
Swami Kriyananda addressed a full room of 500 avid listeners, after having given a number of magazine and television interviews the previous days, and a private donors’ dinner at the hotel.
The event seemed to be happening in an astral heaven, with every little detail full of brilliant light and colors: the flowers, the musicians, the choir, the new Autobiography and other books, including the Italian publication of the New Renunciate Order.
Entrance to the Hotel Brun where the launch took place
As people came into the hall, Ananda musicians were chanting Wave of the Sea (devotional chant by Yogananda), creating an uplifting atmosphere. Narya Tossetto, one of Ananda Europa leaders, introduced the evening. Then the choir sang songs in Italian and English, with Door of My Heart in Bengali as well.
Chanting
Two well-known Italian authors spoke briefly about the importance of the Autobiography in their lives, and about Swami Kriyananda as a magnificent channel for Yogananda’s presence and love. A known television personality gave his testimony, and then there was a brief slide show of images and quotations from Yogananda.
Swami Kriyananda speaking
Swami Kriyananda spoke for over an hour, most of it while standing, and the entire audience was rapt in their attention and wrapped in an aura of bliss.
It seemed that no one was breathing. Many in the audience were new to Ananda, and everyone left with light in their eyes. Swami Kriyananda told the story of his meeting with Yogananda and other stories, transmitting the experience that Yogananda is the nearest of the near and the dearest of the dear.
Autobiography of a Yogi
He urged people to get the book in its new translation of the original edition, the version which changed his own life and consciousness, and that of countless thousands, even millions, of other truth seekers.
A part of the success of the Autobiography, he said, actually traces back to him. In the early years, the book didn’t sell well. In fact it was offered to many publishers, but none of them were interested. Only the Philosophical Library press took it on. It did not sell well for them, so SRF, the organization Yogananda founded, was able to get the publishing rights back.
At this time Swami Kriyananda was in charge of correspondence and the Lessons, Yogananda’s home-study course. He noticed that most people dropped out after a year, and almost all, after two years. But those who stayed were those who had read the Autobiography. So he suggested that instead of promoting the Lessons, they should promote the book. His proposal was accepted, and from that time the book’s distribution began to grow.
Swami Kriyananda singing with the choir
To date, nearly the entire printing of 5000 Italian copies has been sold or placed in bookstores all over Italy through our distributor, which is the second or perhaps by now the largest, distributor in the country. We will be reprinting soon.
The talk will soon be posted on internet, in Italian of course. No translation is available at this time.
Swami Kriyananda
Swami Kriyananda then left for a few days of vacation, and then on May 27 he flies to Seville, Spain, where he will be joined by about devotees from Ananda Assisi and hundreds of Spanish devotees, to launch the Spanish translation of the original Autobiography.
He returns to Assisi on May 31, and after a few days of rest, goes on to Rome where on June 5 he will be one of the keynote speakers at the Rome Yoga Festival, speaking to hundreds, perhaps over a thousand people, in the vast park grounds of an ancient Roman Villa. After that, he will inaugurate the new Ananda Yoga and Meditation Center of Rome.
“…listen to my music.” We had a very deep evening of honoring Swami Kriyananda on his 84th birthday - I wish you all could have been there, for the vibration of the entire evening was very much in keeping with where Swami’s consciousness is right now - deep bliss. I hope you can take a few minutes to listen to these songs that we sang this evening, to feel a little of the spirit of who Swami Kriyananda is.
Blessed the Life
God’s Call Within
Thy Will
Home Is a Green Hill
It was a simple, but very deep evening, with a little chanting and these four songs before Jyotish and Devi gave very moving, inspiring talks. The evening ended with a half an hour of meditation, and we left with some Prasad, a sweet morsel offered to Master for his blessing.
Speaking personally, my life would be empty without the gift of Swamiji’s music. It has brought such meaning, purpose, direction, and bliss into my life. I simply don’t know how I could bear to live without it.
Thank you Swamiji, for ALL you have given to us, in every aspect of our lives, and for your continued example of living for God. I’ll end with a quote from God’s Call Within:
Leave to the weak his craven life!
To the coward leave his dreaming!
O my saint, wake up! Reclaim the light.
Seek the truth behind all seeming.
I’ve lived in quite a few Ananda communities and centers over the years. While reflecting on my experiences, the thought occurred to me that Ananda is not a place, but rather, a choice.
Let me explain.
My first experience of Ananda took place in 1975, when I was in my teens. I had flown to California from Ohio with two friends. We took a taxi ride from the Sacramento airport up the long road to Ananda Village.
When I first set foot on the land I suddenly felt that, for the first time in my life, I was home. I remember sitting on the lawn holding an orange in my hand and feeling this energy flowing through me. I felt no need to go anywhere or do anything; for the first time in my life, I was completely content.
I was not very old, but already I had experienced enough of life to know that everything people told me would lead to fulfillment only brought emptiness.
I stayed at Ananda for five wonderful weeks, then returned to Ohio.
Yuba River canyon seen from Ananda Village
The following year, one of my friends and I had an inspiration. We decided to return to the Ananda area and live like hermits down by the Yuba River.
We had come to know the river fairly well the year before, walking down the old dirt road (“Sunset Boulevard”) that leads to it from behind the Ananda Meditation Retreat.
In those days that section of the Yuba River was beautiful and pristine. The water was crystal clear, pure enough to drink. There was no one around and we camped right beside the rushing river.
Well, the Yuba was pristine, but unfortunately, we weren’t.
We had brought with us all our worldly habits, our old ways of thinking and behaving, and before long, our experiment with living like spiritual hermits had become a joke.
One morning I sat in my tent to meditate and the thought came to me: “This isn’t what I came here for. I came here to find God.”
In that moment, I remembered clearly the experience I’d had the year before at Ananda Village, the feeling of God and Guru’s grace flowing through me.
Entrance to the Meditation Retreat
Holding onto that memory, I stood up from my meditation seat, left my tent and marched up the steep and winding path to the Meditation Retreat.
My mind and heart were focused on God and Guru. I was returning to the source of my inspiration. Walking up that hill, I felt like Master’s soldier. Arriving at the Retreat, I had a long meditation.
After that, things changed pretty quickly. A short while later I was back in a yoga program at Ananda Village. At the end of that summer, I took kriya initiation. Next year, I moved to the Village.
But it all came about because of what I had felt inside, and my reaction to it.
Those of you who are reading this may have had a similar experience.
And so I’d like to ask you now to pause for a moment, and remember the first experience you had of Yogananda’s grace. How his transforming love and energy came into your heart; how he spoke to your soul, and how you responded to him.
Ananda Meditation Retreat Temple
This is Ananda.
This is what binds us together. This is what we are celebrating today.
Ananda isn’t a place. Ananda is a choice.
As Swami Kriyananda has written, “God chooses those who choose him.”
I don’t know how many times people have come to me commiserating over thwarted good intentions of meditation or some other aspect of their own spiritual practice, only to have fallen short in their discipline in some way.
When I offer support I have been met on more than one occasion with, “Oh but it’s alright for you. You’re disciplined. You’ve got this… you can do that”!
I remember reading of Yogananda speaking with one of his devotees who, in a similar circumstance said to him, “Oh, but it’s alright for you, Sir, you’re a Master”.
Yogananda’s stern retort bellowed, “And what do you think MADE me a master?”
How do these people think I became disciplined? Sheer will, hard work, and determination, until it is not perceived as hard work any more.
Making statements like the examples above are actually just a ‘cop out’. Anyone making such a claim is really denying responsibility for their own actions, or inaction, justifying to their reason/ego that they are somehow not to blame for the inadequacy.
“It’s not my fault I’m not as good as you… you’re better equipped than I…I’ll get there…eventually… I’ll try harder…I will, but…”
All humans are equally equipped with the same fundamental: divinity. There is no favouritism in Creation. No human has an advantage over another. We just think they have. Our true natures are disciplined and perfectly attuned to the Divine already. It is only maya’s (creation) cunning veil of illusion that leads us to believe our bad, undisciplined habits are inherent in our nature. They are not, but we have nurtured these habits for such an inconceivably long time that they are deeply embedded in our subconscious.
We have to UNLEARN all that we think we are and remember our true nature. If we feel inadequate before one who is perceived as an advanced devotee just know that we too have exactly the same potential as they. An important note here is that only a true master would know how advanced a particular devotee is anyway. Outward appearances of great discipline do not necessarily mirror spiritual advancement.
I view the disciplines of Yoga as an essential investment in the bank of Self realization and actually look forward to and carry out my practice in joy consciousness of self-offering. It is then not perceived as a chore but appreciated as a delightful privilege, of having been given the grace of this sacred knowledge of the ancient practice of Yoga in this life.
There is no way of putting this but bluntly. Spiritual advancement is dependent on 3 things, neutralization of karma (past and present), divine grace and OUR OWN EFFORT. Master taught that the disciple has to put in 25% of the effort required to attain liberation in this life. Guru will provide a further 25% and the remaining 50% will be given as God’s grace, via the guru. But the 25% that must come from each one of us must be 110% of what we think we are capable of. We must always go that bit more and push our self-fabricated boundaries. Each week we can aspire to sit that bit longer and go that bit deeper into our practice. We won’t get anywhere by being passive; for waiting for Realization to come to us. God helps him who helps himself!
We owe it to ourselves to take ownership of the fact that it is our own effort that is lacking, not the grace that is assuredly ours if sincere and consistent in our endeavours. Our technique may not be as good as we would like, but don’t think that qualifies us to lay blame elsewhere and give up. If we are truly sincere then we must carry on as best we can, all the while praying for the guidance and strength to improve. If we are falling short in some way and are looking for an excuse to divert away from our goal we must look to ourselves and answer these two questions honestly, “Just how badly do I want Realization?” And, “How much am I willing to change in pursuit of that goal?”
If we offer our practice up to God, by acknowledging Him as the Doer in all things, we can let go of any expectations of a desired outcome, leaving it to Him to sort out. What a huge burden taken immediately from our shoulders, but we must never become complacent or smug in our expectations of faith. We need to regularly turn up, offer ourselves in habitual devotional practice, and wait as children who have complete and utter trust they will receive what they need from a loving parent. The child doesn’t know what it needs, but it knows the parent does.
Nayaswami Kriyananda often quotes the invaluable and beautiful words from a passage of Sir Edwin Arnold’s translation of ‘The Song Celestial’. “But if, in this, thy faint heart fails, bring Me thy failure!” As long as our perceived failures are given to Him, then we transmute our perceived failure into ‘not yet succeeded’.
We can be ever heartened knowing that by sincere and uninterrupted efforts, we WILL be noticed by the Guru and help WILL be forthcoming, however badly we think our practice. Nayaswami Kriyananda speaks of a disciple who, try as he might, was not practicing Kriya correctly. Swamiji, not feeling comfortable in telling the disciple directly of his shortcomings, took it to Master who smiled. He knew of the problem and of the unerring devotion of the disciple in question and told Swamiji that he was doing the kriyas for him…
I Will…
O Lord, my heart’s love I will give unto Thee,
My ardent desire is my soul to be free.
I will move mountains, and rivers will ford,
For my soul to unite in One Gracious Accord.
But I’ll just wait a bit, for time is aplenty,
It’s alright for others, but I’m not quite ready.
“All in good time, Thou wilt come when Thou’st meant”,
I won’t put myself out…
Though perhaps during Lent.
To Thee I do chatter, my thought Thou’st behold,
So no need to work on this burdensome load,
Smug in the knowledge that some day I’ll find
That place I much read of, that Kingdom sublime.
Lord I’ll try harder, but I’m sure I’ll be given
All that required to succeed in my mission.
I won’t have to do much, sure faith is enough
To carry me through when the going gets tough.
But I promise I’ll sit more than minimum dues,
I will eat healthier food and this weight I will lose,
I will make it my business not to pry ‘to affairs
That do not concern me; I’ll keep to my prayers.
I will look unto heaven, the moon and the stars
And longingly wish for a place in Thine arms.
I’ll no longer be passive; I will act for the Good,
I will strive so much harder than I thought that I should.
I’ll no longer expect Thy gifts, undeserved,
And wonder why progress decidedly turbid.
My world will transform with the happiness I’ll get,
When I go that bit further…
I will… but not yet!
