My walk

I just got back from a very peaceful walk along the waterfront in the marina.  I chanted the divine name the entire way and let my whole life and self lay out in front of me for a look.  It was good to detach from it, take none of it personally and simply to re-align with the presence of God in the moment.  I got a lot of encouragement from it and enough separation to see a few things that need to be changed as well as some things that I would just like to change.  The idea of finding your “all” in God is the most quenching of ideas.  To find and carry that strength and contentment within yourself at all times is the highest of ideals.  I am extremely happy to have had someone whisper the idea into my ear.  Santosha.

adhoc

This is just a note to encourage anyone out there who has set themselves on a spiritual quest to keep going.  Don’t be distracted, don’t be discouraged.  If you are seeking at all, you are one in a hundred thousand.  If you are earnest and sincere you are one in a million.  If you trust in the Divine and realize the goal; God laughs and claps as one breaks free…for you are one in a billion.  The sages say that ultimately we all succeed and will dance with the ideal, either now or later.  Let me package my best hopes for you and hand them to you today.  Let me add to that my fairest thoughts and sweetest biddings to set you on your way.  In the words of Swami Vivekananda, “Don’t seek God, see God.”

Vivekananda on science…

“Modern science has really made the foundations of religion strong.  That the whole universe is one is scientifically demonstrable.  What the metaphysician calls ‘being’, the physicist calls ‘matter’; but there is no real fight between the two, for they are one.  Though an atom is invisible, unthinkable, yet in it are the whole power and potency of the universe.  That is exactly what the Vedantist says of the Atman.  All sects are really saying the same thing in different words.”

Honest investigation into truth can never be a bad thing and for the seeker, never a dangerous thing.  What is dangerous is when immature conclusions are grasped and insisted upon too firmly, only to be disproved later.  The whole truth will never fit into the confines of a mind; but a mind must always subject itself to stretching beyond its current limit.  The infinity of the Divine should be appreciated in all things.  Science and the highest religion are uniformly striving to see things as they really are; science from the external world and religion from the internal.

from science fiction…

The following bit can be found in most scriptures of the world religions, but I found it in a short science fiction story by Bruce Sterling.  I quote it here for inspiration:

” ‘Tell me about this grave,” she said. ‘What are we doing here?’

‘You wanted to see what I do these days.  Well, this is what I do.’ Borislav set a pretty funeral bouquet against the headstone.  Then he lit candles.

‘Why do you do this?’

‘Why do you ask?’

‘You’re a rational man.  You can’t believe in religious rituals.’

‘No,’ he told her, ‘I don’t believe.  I know they are just rituals.’

He knew why… He did it because it was a gift.  It was a liberating gift for him, because it was given with no thought of any profit or return.  A deliberate gift with no possibility of return.

Those gifts were the stuff of history and futurity…the world’s only genuine gifts.  All the other things in the world were commodities.”

gilded balls of poison

The sages simply state the reason for this life is the realization of our true nature.  Without this information the transient world is a confusion of senses, devoid of anything permanent and fulfilling.

“…experience is the only teacher…Fulfilling any desire is like putting a stick into a hornets’ nest…finding out that desires are but gilded balls of poison.”  –Inspired Talks

One can never get enough of sense pleasure; its only ultimate fruit is exhaustion.  You will press the button of your vices until you simply are unable to press the button anymore.  The wise man sees this and walks away.  If the material world is all one has, he will grow old in bitterness and watch it slowly fall between the fingers of his aging hand.  The sages say this is needless, as all we are seeking can be found within ourselves.  Nothing, nothing outside is necessary for contentment and bliss.  You are welcome to get off of the treadmill at anytime and draw your strength and enjoyment from the very presence of the Divine within yourself.  Even a moments pause is enough to touch it.  For more, only clean the mirror of the mind with practice and it will become all that you are able to see.  This is the best kept secret of life.  Do not squander the idea.  Ponder on the notion and become an expert in its intricacies.  Set out to prove or disprove it, only do the work.  With earnestness and sincerity, the goal will be reached…regardless of your varying motivations along the way.

milch cow

“Religion, the great milch cow, has given many kicks; but never mind–it also gives a great deal of milk.  The milkman does not mind the kick of the cow if it gives much milk.” –Sw. Vivekananda

Browsing the web in the last six months, it is plain that religion is under attack.  I think that attack, well deserved, is a defense and not an offense.  The state of religion in my country (US) is a head shaker to say the least.  In the rest of the world?  Laughable as the fighting continues.  So what is my post about?  It is about why I would still be interested in religion while so many good arguments exist for its abolition.

My spiritual life feeds me in way that no other food can.  My ruminations on love, my inspiration to a higher ideal, my quest to manifest pure love have been so fulfilling, so challenging and so promising that I could not simply throw them away in the face of other failures.  You see, religion has nothing to do with institutions, archaic systems of thought or ignorance in the face of startling discoveries.  True religion stretches the mind to be as open as it can be.  True religion strives to learn right lessons from experience…the only teacher.  True religion is to identify readily the love that exists in every person and to call it out…to inspire it.  It changes the world not by changing others, but by changing the practitioner.  It is not enacted through laws…civil or spiritual; it is not contained in buildings or belief systems; it is not carried by institutions or books.  It is self contained within everything.  It has always existed, depends on nothing and is always aware.  Dust off the mind and see it.  Let go of the ego and be it.  Until then don’t dare to teach it. We are all universally seeking one thing in this big house and all of us are looking in different places with different means to find it.  We are calling it many things.  It is the house itself we are seeking and when we realize we are all in it the fun will begin.

nothing

In the collection of Swami Vivekananda’s teachings called “Inspired Talks”, he offers a beautiful quote:

“No amount of ignorance or wrong ideas can put a barrier between the soul and God.  Even if there be no God, still hold fast to love.  It is better to die seeking God than to live as a dog, seeking only carrion.  Choose the highest ideal and give your life up to that.  Death being certain, it is the highest thing to give up life for a great purpose.”

That is the charge.  Belief systems are not the end all of religion.  It is the ideal and its realization.  Atheism is as welcome in that mix as orthodox religiosity.  When it comes to scrutiny of the mind, leave nothing apart from investigation.  When it comes to love, leave nothing apart from its realization.

the One.

ok, so I read that like 90 percent of blogs have died since the big surge a while back and I felt ashamed.  So, even though it isn’t popular anymore and even though it’s not cool anymore…I will continue to blog where I left off.  There is a story about a swami who gave a weekly class at a University.  It tells about a time when no students showed up for the class.  One of the Swami’s assistants dropped by the class quite late and found the swami addressing an empty classroom.  When he asked the swami what he was doing, the swami replied that he spoke for the pleasure of the divine and would remain faithful to his duty, even if no students were present.  Oh, btw, the other thing the article said about blogs is that 91 percent of them were blogging for an audience of one.  Tongue in cheek as that might be that ONE might not be who we suspect.