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April 13 - April 23, 2024
“Experience is what differentiates spirituality from religion.
what happens when you read a book on a subject that does not speak to your heart? Your mind wanders every second sentence, right? Eventually, you realize that you have no idea what you have just read. You scan back in the text until things start to look familiar. To finish the book, you really have to concentrate!”
let us forget about concentration. For worldly matters, it may be necessary, but it fails entirely in the spiritual realm.”
“Effortless focus,”
Meditation is best when we have no expectations—not even for meditative experience! If something happens, fine. If you have no experience, it’s still okay.
love is the pinnacle of human nobility.
a beginning meditator may read a spiritual book, but they may not understand much of it. If they read it again after having meditated for some time, they’ll start to find gems that they didn’t notice on the first read.
This statement makes a big deal
not every religion offers a practice that would allow an aspirant to experience the truth of its scriptures for themselves, and to have a real, nonimaginary experience of the object of their worship. In other words, even when gyan and bhakti are present, there isn’t always a functional element of karma yoga.
Trainers are not selected because of their degree of advancement. They are chosen based on their willingness to serve and their knowledge of the Heartfulness approach.
trainers must practice daily and take regular sittings from other trainers.
“Spiritual service must be selfless.
you are the least likely to be disturbed! In this busy world,
Suppose you tell your friend, ‘I’ll only meet you when it’s convenient for me.’ That means that your convenience is more important to you than your friendship. Meditation is another kind of meeting. It’s a sacred meeting with the Self, which is our friend within.”
If you’re passionate about something, you will always find a way.
It should be so automatic that we never have to think about it.”
we only drop our efforts when we become content. But we are only content when we finally drop our efforts!”
Close your eyes very softly and very gently. Let’s begin with the toes. Wiggle your toes. Now feel them relax. Relax your ankles and feet. Feel energy from the earth entering the soles of your feet. Feel it move up your feet to your knees, relaxing the legs. Relax your thighs. The energy moves up your legs … relaxing them. Now, deeply relax your hips … stomach … and waist. Relax your back. From the top to the bottom, the entire back is relaxed. Relax your chest … and shoulders. Feel your shoulders simply melting away. Relax your upper arms. Relax each muscle in your forearms … your hands …
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today I’m really going to meditate properly. I’m going to think of divine light continuously. Those days, there was no meditation at all! It was only struggle.”
“Accept them,” he said. “Love them, even. Thoughts are not your enemies. If you fight with thoughts, you will surely lose!
“The thoughts we have in meditation are like wine flowing out of its bottle. They have been inside us all along, even if we weren’t aware of their presence. We only become aware of them when we’re meditating and they start coming out. Thoughts come only to leave, you see. So let them come.
We may not retain that memory at a conscious level—we may not retain the existential memory—but its emotional content certainly remains with us.
The greater a thought’s emotional intensity, the stronger its subconscious influence.
The ego says, ‘my nationality, my language, my culture, my body, my intellect, my ideology.’
Even the soul is not ours! The ego appropriates.
feeling of ‘mine-ness’ has a side effect.
When we feel that something is ours, we develop expectations.
When our expectations are met or exceeded, we are happy, and we react positively. When they are unmet, we react negatively.”
Every reaction contains either like or dislike, attraction or aversion, desire or fear.
no such thing as a neutral reaction
emotion comes from the ego?”
Sit in a comfortable pose with the intention to remove all the impressions you have accumulated during the day. Close your eyes. Imagine that all the complexities and impurities are leaving your entire system. They are flowing out behind you, from the area between your tailbone and the top of your head. Feel that they are leaving you in the form of smoke or vapor. Remain alert. Gently accelerate the process with confidence and determination, applying your will as needed. If your attention drifts and other thoughts come to mind, gently bring your focus back to the cleaning. Continue this
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if you could cut fear and desire, all our fantasies about God would disappear in one stroke.
that you give a gift to someone you love. You think and think about what would suit them best. You buy it and lovingly wrap it. However, when presenting it to your loved one, that person snatches it out of your hands, rips off the paper, and rushes away with it—all without any acknowledgment. How do you think that would make you feel? They accepted your gift while ignoring its giver. Well, if you really love that person, you won’t mind at all. However, they have missed the point of your gift.
“To take advantage of others, to turn another person into an object for the sake of one’s own pleasure produces guilt.
Passion leads to guilt, but in compassion, you become ennobled.
O Master, Thou art the real goal of human life. We are yet but slaves of wishes, putting bar to our advancement. Thou art the only God and power to bring us up to that stage.
a fool recognizes a mistake in retrospect, and an intelligent person recognizes it during the act, but a wise person knows beforehand and avoids it.”
O Master! Thou art the real goal of human life. We are yet but slaves of wishes, putting bar to our advancement. Thou art the only God and power to bring us up to that stage.
To some, having a guru is a mere formality. To others, the guru is a teacher. To some people, he is the teaching itself—its embodied, living example.
