Encouragement

You will have to go on discriminating and make a sustained effort to convince your mind of the fact that japa, meditation, and all other spiritual exercises, have for purpose your awakening. On this pilgrimage…

Friday 9 September 2022

… Later I’m back in New York sitting around with Irwin and Simon and Raphael and Lazarus, and now we’re famous writers more or less, but they wonder why I’m so sunk now, so unexcited…

Chant and Be Happy!

Chant when I go downstairs in the early morningChant as I walk around the block each day with radiant smile at 20 degrees Chant and remember all my misjudgments and chant not to repeat themChant…

Making Everyone Happy

Melita Maschmann, Encountering Bliss: My Journey through India with Ānandamayī MāDelhi : Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 2002 It is as difficult to escape the grace of a Guru, as the revenge of a tiger.Indian proverb Last…

Dark, Mysterious, Radiant

Bithika Mukerji, Life and Teachings of Sri Ma Anandamayi: A Bird on the WingSri Satguru Publications, 1997 This is a work similar in aim to The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, but about 1/5th the length. …

Radiant Bliss

1. Recently ten of us became acquainted with Japanese-American Mayumi Oda in the Writing Our Own History class.  Here autobiography had just been published, Sarasvati’s Gift. As an artist Oda had a breakthrough when she…

The Teachings Are Infinite…

I vow to learn them all.–from Bodhisattva Vows “You Are That Person” A student asked Soen NakagawaDuring a meditation retreat: “I am very discouraged. What should I do?”Soen replied, “Encourage others.” At the beginning of…

Concentration Is Consecration

Sri Eknath Easwaran distinguishes two kinds of spiritual reading: that of instruction and that of inspiration.  Simone Weil’s book, Waiting for God, is an example of the latter, as  it is fecund with material for…