Ego and the News

Contemporary spiritual teachers advise against paying too much attention to the news media because they appeal pruriently to the ego, which is obsessed with self-preservation yet drawn paradoxically to the adrenaline rush of danger.  Maybe the co-existence of those two factors explains the popularity of horror and violence in entertainment media -- we are able to feel the physical/emotional reaction without being in any real danger.  The simulation of imminent danger also promotes ego's agenda to focus consciousness on personal survival rather than on Oneness. I wouldn't discount either the grotesque satisfaction ego draws from the experience of remaining safe while watching others endure hideous suffering.

You Will Call, I Will Answer

Harvard Law professor William Stuntz discusses his impending death. He describes his feelings about issues that most of us are not forced to confront on a daily basis. His thoughts deserve a place in your consciousness.


You Will Call, I Will Answer

Surrender

Surrendering the belief in good and evil means it is no longer necessary to look for the good in evil people or circumstances. Surrendering personal will means abandoning the need to impose your own conceptions of good and evil on your surroundings. Acceptance of the Universe as it is allows you to surrender to the Spirit within and let God's will manifest through you; and ultimately to dissolve that ego-imposed sense of separation that denies you access to Oneness with All that Is.‏

Book Review: Chants of a Lifetime by Krishna Das

Sometimes when reading a book on a spiritual topic, I realize that I am not really reading to learn something new, but only seeking validation of what I already believe. The author will state a point and my inner judge evaluates it, concluding “Yes, this is consistent with what I believe,” or “No, this is wrong, this is all rubbish.” It is a difficult thing to suspend judgment and simply allow the author’s ideas to flow through my consciousness, particularly when the book is one I have been invited to review. When that does happen, though, I find the inner voice is still there, but in a different tone -- “This Truth feels familiar … This Truth is one I have not experienced yet.” This state in which reactions come more from the higher Self than from the small self is difficult to attain. What surprises me in retrospect about the experience of having read Chants of a Lifetime is that Krishna Das managed to evoke that less judgmental state naturally, without my being aware this was happening. By the time I had finished reading I had accepted his truth -- not necessarily as true for me, but as unquestionably authentic for him; not that these truths are different, but that each of us sees truth from a different angle.

The book includes a CD of Krishna Das performing his moving and powerful music. Yet Chants of a Lifetime is not a book about chanting -- or singing; Krishna Das uses the words interchangeably. Nor is it an autobiography, though it does remind one of Autobiography of a Yogi. It is more in the nature of a memoir, the memoir of a lifelong love between Krishna Das and his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, or Maharaj-ji as he is most often called in the book. Maharaj-ji is named in the first sentence of the Preface and in the penultimate sentence of the final chapter. His name is to be found on almost every page. Krishna Das’ devotion to his guru’s physical incarnation is the theme of the first part of the book: how he traveled to India to meet Maharaj-ji; how the experience changed his life; and ultimately, how their separation and the guru’s physical passing threw the disciple into a tailspin that lasted years. In the subsequent chapters, Krishna Das describes how he came to realize that the loving relationship he believed he had lost was just as real and as present as it had been in the days spent in the guru’s entourage in India. Ultimately, we learn how he found peace in the arms of his guru long after the latter had left his physical form.

Except for the accounts of time spent with Maharaj-ji in India, Krishna Das devotes little attention to the actual events of his past, but takes the reader through an intensely open and honest experience of his mental/emotional/spiritual roller coaster of a life. He shares with us the insights he has gained -- purchased at the cost of much suffering, not because of the guru relationship but in spite of it. He paints a picture of Maharaj-ji as almost a reluctant teacher. This was a saint or boddhavista who had chosen to incarnate for the purpose of guiding his disciples to a higher understanding, but who stubbornly refused to spoon feed them. The lessons learned from the guru did not fall from his lips like pearls, but were planted like seeds in the consciousness of the disciple to bear fruit only when the student was ready and able to receive it. It seems that much of what Krishna Das learned about himself from his teacher came to light after his guru’s physical passing, as he reflected upon and experienced the flowering of what had originally seemed relatively inconsequential remarks heard and remembered, but not initially understood.

Chanting does play an important role in the book, as it does in Krishna Das’ life. He is a professional musician and leads kirtan -- “chanting the Divine Name”, according to the book’s glossary -- throughout the world. The defining experience of his time with Maharaj-ji in India was that of chanting the Names of God. Most importantly, chanting became his spiritual practice. Krishna Das describes the ways in which chanting brought him at last to a condition of love and peace. Clearly he believes this practice can do the same for each of us. He describes chanting in the way that others describe silent meditation, which he himself found unsatisfying. It is easy to believe that chanting would provide the same experience to anyone who performed the practice with the same love and devotion as he.

Chanting is well known to us in the West, whether it be the enthusiastic chant of the Hare Krishna movement, the repetition of a guru-given mantra as in Transcendental Meditation, or even the recitation of the rosary. Thomas Ashley-Farrand, a Vedic priest who has devoted his life to teaching Sanksrit mantra, asserts that the very words carry a vibrational energy that in and of itself has the capacity to shape our experience. I believe that Krishna Das would ascribe greater importance to the intensity of feeling with which the Names are spoken or sung. Repeating Om, or Ram, or any of the other Names of God is not the key to a higher experience if performed mechanically; it is the love that the chanter feels for the Divine, and expresses through the chant, that leads to the dissolution of the small self and to the peace and joy that come from the realization of Oneness. The book therefore is a testament to the transformative power of spiritual practice of all kinds, of which chanting is only one. The understanding of what the practice has meant for Krishna Das is the greatest lesson I learned from the book, a lesson that by itself would justify spending the time to read it and get to know this remarkable individual. This experience taught me much about myself as well as about Krishna Das.

When Krishna Das saw his guru in life for the last time, Maharaj-ji asked him “How will you serve me in America?” The disciple replied, “I will sing for you in America.” Many turbulent years passed before this prophecy was realized, but sing he does, and his song resonates in the heart of the reader after the last page has been turned.

Chants of a Lifetime, a book and CD by Krishna Das, is published by Hay House, www.hayhouse.com. It is copyrighted by Krishna Das. Krishna Das has his own website, www.krishnadas.com.

Federal regulations require me to disclose that I received a complimentary copy of Chants of a Lifetime, including the accompanying CD, from Hay House for review purposes.

Surrender as a Constant Practice

Surrender is the recognition that seeking God is pointless because God is nowhere to be found; but that God will come to you if you are open and accepting. This openness is first achieved in meditation or other spiritual practice, where the demands of body and mind are set aside in favor of your relationship with Spirit. However, few if any are so fortunate as to be able to spend all their time focused exclusively on a formal practice. Eventually the demands of the world must also be given some attention. For most of us, the great majority of our time and attention is devoted to worldly matters.

It is essential, then, that we learn to carry the attitude of surrender with us as we go about our daily affairs. This does not mean to be passive, but rather to conduct ourselves always in ways that are attentive to the inner Voice that first comes to us in our practice. In fact, we will find that maintaining our intention to surrender to the will of God is a very demanding exercise out in the world. First of all we must be mindful; mindful of the influence of body and mind on our attitudes and behavior, and mindful also of our interactions with people and with worldly situations, aware that these too are Divine creations. We must provide food, clothing and shelter for ourselves and any others who depend upon us, yet we must seek to do so in ways that are consistent with our commitment to Spirit. In the time-honored phrase, we must be "in the world but not of it". This requires continual self-discipline, recognizing and dealing appropriately with the demands of the small self from the perspective of the larger Self.

Joel Goldsmith reminds us of the ancient teachings that God will provide for those who surrender to It. In more contemporary terms, "being in the flow" means that by maintaining our connection to Spirit, we navigate easily the straits and shoals of worldly life. God provides the ship, the wind and the sails; all that It asks of us is to steer. With a firm and steady grasp of spiritual practice as our rudder, we are sure to bring ourselves and our communities safely to harbor.

Happiness and Buddha Nature

From Krishna Das' forthcoming book, Chants of a Lifetime:
"Ultimately, we'll come to live in a state where our hearts are so expansive, so open to love, that everyone and anything is free to come and go without being judged or pushed away."

What Am I?

What am I?

There are so many things I sometimes identify with that are not me.  I am not my car or my house.  I am not my computer.  I am not any of my belongings.

I am not my friends or my family.  I am not any of these precious relationships, no matter how closely I may cling to them.

I am not this hand, this foot, not even this heart and lungs, not even - dare I say it - this brain through which all my experience surges ceaselessly like a storm of lightening.

I am not this thought that is passing through my consciousness at this instant.

That which I am would exist if all these things were destroyed, or if they had never existed.

I am none of these things that seem to distinguish my being from any other.  I am Universal Spirit; I am Oneness; I am that which is real and has no opposite; I am Life.  Existence coalesces around me, individual elements lose their identity. I am the swirling black hole at the end of this Universe into which matter falls and becomes undifferentiated energy, or at the birth of the next spewing individuality newly re-formed.  I am Universal awareness, spinning the mandala of existence, consciousness without duality, without judgment, surpassing time and space ... I am no thing but that without which no thing, no condition could appear ...  I am that I am.