Be an example: Chintz Bana

Watch the video about the transformation of Chintz Bana, who got a lot of material success but was left with a feeling of emptiness. Watch how he was able to transform that feeling through breathing techniques learnt through Art of living and service to help transform prisoners.
Watch it here.

Talking about synchornicities....

Synchronicity: Coincidence of events that seem to be meaningfully related, conceived in Jungian theory as an explanatory principle on the same order as causality.

Now that we have that definition out, let me state some synchronicities that have happened of late...

I was at the PCC store at Greenlake deciding what to buy from the bulk items, when I came across an ionized water dispenser that was selling water for cheap. I was just looking at that dispenser and reading some stuff when the song that was playing at the background changed to tune that was familiar. As I was placing what that tune was similar to, I was reminded of this beautiful song by the band called Indian Ocean. The lyrics of the song came in again... 'Maa rewa, tharo pani nirmal, khal khal behko jayo re' meaning, ' Oh beautiful river, your water is so pure, and you glide along gently'. The synchronicity ofcourse was that my buying water coinciding with the song in the background that was similar to the one by Indian Ocean on appreciating the purity of water of Narmada river.



B) Today I went to the east west bookstore to a talk by Margaret Carson about the 'Healing of waters' and we did some guided meditations imagining the purification of water we held in a glass. Silly as this exercise may seem, there is some research done by Masaru emoto showing that the crystals of water form beautiful or deformed shapes depending on the kind of messages(good or bad) posted on the container in which they are held after a period of time..This person at the talk seemed very passionate about the ocean and healing of the ocean so we did a guided meditation imagining that we are at an ocean doing just that.. The experience felt good. Now, here's where the synchronicity kicks in: Towards the end of the talk, we did one last guided meditation where we held water in a glass in front of us and send it our positive intentions and thoughts. While I was doing this, this song by Indian Ocean came to my mind. After the meditation, while sharing experiences, I mentioned this song(actually sang the first line) and it's meaning. The lady at the talk was surprised. She also mentioned that during the guided meditation, a thought came up to her that there would be 'a song' and she was like, 'What song?'. And also, the song is by Indian Ocean while the talk was about purifying water and in particular her passion for ocean. I love these synchronicities, even mathematically their probability is relatively small(i.e. probability of two independent events happening simultaneously = product of probability of the two events happening).

A beautiful prayer

Watch it here. The video has both visual and audio appeal.

The lyrics go:

Asatoma Sadgamaya

Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya

Mrityurma Amritangamaya

Meaning (my interpretation added):

May I move from untruth to truth, from lack of clarity to clarity, from illusion of life to reality of self.

May I move from darkness to light, from negative thoughts to positive thoughts, from fear to love, from worry to peace, from stress to relaxation, from depression to joy, from resentment to gratitude. May I move towards a fuller appreciation of life, towards a celebration of life, towards a greater understanding of this grand journey, towards this grandoise unravelment of the self.

May I move from fear of death to the truth of my own immortality. May I find my true self that resides within me and know that it resides within everyone and everywhere. May I with this realization spread the word of love,peace and truth through my actions, through my thoughts, and through my words.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti hi

Peace Peace Peace.

Jon Kabat Zinn on Mindfulness Meditation @ Google

Beuatiful songs

The 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje was in Seattle last summer. I was there for his talk in one of the big auditoriums in Downtown seattle. The introductory song, consisted of 'Karmapa Khyenno'...
This song, whose lyrics I didn't understand, struck a chord with me.. I was deeply resonating with its tune and it seemed to remind me of something...I was a little in tears listening to this song.
I found it on youtube later on:


Here's a similar tuned song:

Veronica on After life

Bashar, Veronica, St. Germain - These 'non-physical' entities are my favorite source of information and inspiration.

Here's a video by Veronica on after life: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnMcTagpJv8

Enjoy!

Holy shit!! - The concept of God, Part 2

Holy shit indeed. I mean it literally.
Let's back up a moment. In the previous post, I mentioned that God being omnipresent means that God is present in every thing imaginable and also everything beyond our imagination. Now, shit is something we see every day and by our previous definition, God is present in shit.

Now, some might look at this as an attempt to deprecate God. To them, I would say, please look deeper into what is being implied. I hold God(which I don't think is a person, btw, I just think of God as a divine consciousness that is the 'Unseen seer' or the 'Unmoved mover') in the greatest of love and awe. Even if I did deprecate God, God doesn't judge. Humans judge, God doesn't. God just observes and thrills in our actions, and responds to our thoughts, beliefs and cocreates our reality with us.
God is a consciousness, and it pervades everything. If you go to a chemist or biologist and ask her to look at the molecular structure of shit, she's not going to say that the molecules look shitty! She might just go into the technical details of what kind of atoms and molecules bond together to form the thing we call, shit.
But the fact remains, that every object in this world has one thing in common.. It's made up of molecules.
Going one step further into the physics of it: String theory says, that the fundamental essence of all matter is energy and energy vibrating at different rates produces different kinds of matter (correct me if I am wrong).
So what we call 'shit', is just the outward appearance, it's fundamental essence is energy.. You could also call that energy or essence, God. And we all know that God is what we call (w)hol(l)y (or whole), and thus shit is also a part of the whole and hence, holy.

Holy shit!!
Here's an associated funny video: What is sacred?

Making sense of a few spiritual concepts

While reading new-age, spiritual, religious, self-help books, I came across many concepts that seemed conflicting at first. A deeper examination revealed that they build on each other. For example, there is this concept of 'letting go'. A person who hears this for the first time, might sarcastically comment, 'Oh yeah, let go of your job, it's all good'. And then there is another concept of 'following your bliss or passion'. Do these two concepts seem to conflict with each other?
Now, another concept I have encountered is, 'Nothing matters'. Now you are like, 'that's even worse than letting go'. Well, all these concepts have their contextual frames of reference, where they hold good. So here's my understanding of these concepts:


1. Letting go: Letting go refers to letting go of worries and cares, past hurts, grief, anger, hate, etc. It's not about letting go of your passions or your happiness. This concept comes from the larger than life perspective that whatever is showing up currently in your life in the form of circumstances, people, situations, etc are for your highest good...that essentially circumstances you are currently facing are perfect for your spiritual growth despite apparent evidence to the contrary. It comes from the larger than life perspective that life is meant to be fun, life is a game, we need to enjoy the journey and not worry about the destination. That doesn't mean you don't dream, on the contrary, it means that you could dream as much as possible but don't let your circumstances curtail your beliefs that you can achieve these dreams... As you can see, letting go is in total harmony with 'following your bliss or passions', because you have done away with worries and fears that stop you from pursuing your passion through the process of letting go or surrender.

2. Circumstances don't matter, only state of being matters:
This concept is related to the concept of 'letting go'. This concept is essentially the same as "thought-belief-creation paradigm"[2] or the "Be-do-have" [1] paradigm.
Normally, people look at their cicumstances and say, oh I am having a bad time, if only things were better, I could be more happier and enjoy my life.. This is the 'have-do-be' paradigm. That is, if I have my (fill in: money, skills, time etc), I can do the things I like to do, and therefore be happy. The, 'have-do-be' paradigm comes from the belief that happiness is a product of circumstances.
Now, the new paradigm, the 'be-do-have' paradigm is essentially based on the understanding that happiness is a state of mind and therefore be happy, and your circumstances will change for the better. On the other hand, if you choose to be depressed, worried, fearful,and all the negative states of being, then your circumstances will mirror those states of being..You see this is a vicious circle.
The 'be-do-have' paradigm goes hand in hand with the 'thought-belief-creation' paradigm, which states that your thoughts and beliefs create your reality..literally.
I have tested this concept out, works very well. I thus immediately check myself if I see myself having thoughts that are based on fear or doubt or lack. For example, 'I somehow seem to lack the resources I need to pursue my passion'...This thought is based on 'lack', and by our paradigm, you would get stuck in circumstances that reflect your belief of lack.
Thus, we get this concept of 'Circumstances don't matter, only state of being matters' [3] i.e. to say, irrespective of how good or bad the circumstances seem, they can always get better. For that to happen, stop worrying and change your state of being to happiness or joy or peace and once you change your state of being to joy or peace or happiness, you would then create better circumstances from these positive states of being.

3. Nothing matters
This is the ultimate and one of the broadest spiritual concepts I have encountered.
Though it may be difficult to apply, understanding this concept can keep your boat afloat in the most depressing of times. I have personally come to a realization of this concept through some experiences I had in 2007.
I read about this concept in a book and I asked myself, how can "Nothing matter?". Ofcourse, my grades matter. Ofcourse, money matters. How the heck can you say that nothing matters?
It seemed like I was challenging the universe. The universe responded in kind by giving me a profound experience, where the only way I thought I could get out of the situation was by letting go of my fears, and by understanding that even if the worst possible thing happened to me, that would be ok - Once I came to that level of acceptance of my situation and its worst case possibility, the situation cleared magically and all my fears were unfounded. I then realized that this situation had a lesson for me- Nothing really matters.
The broader spiritual basis for this concept is that death is just a horizon[5] and that you always exist either with a physical body in the physical reality or as a spirit being in the spirit realm[1], which indicates that death is a transition from the physical realm to the spiritual realm; and also that the core of your being or the spirit that you are is a spirit of love, bliss and joy. So despite the seeming travails that you face on earth, when you go back to the spiritual realm, it would seem like you just spent a day on earth, and you are back home, full of joy and full of love.
That is why nothing matters on earth or anywhere, for the core of your being is always untainted and always full of love, bliss and is also eternal[1].


Summary
The three concepts of 'letting go', 'thought-belief-creation paradigm', and 'nothing matters' are in perfect harmony with each other. 'Thought-belief-creation paradigm' is very practical, since once you begin to test this concept out([2]&[3]) (and notice that for example, if you have been thinking of someone all day, you get a call from that person or you get a visit, etc ), you have immediately started empowering yourself with this paradigm. Another way to use this paradigm is to have a list of intentions that reflect what you wish happen in your life and then say those intentions or give thought to those intentions everyday. 'Letting go' is also a useful concept, although, this concept is usually applied in practice once a person reaches a certain level of spiritual growth or if circumstances are such that you surrender to god/goddess/All-that-is and trust that the circumstances are assisting your spiritual growth.
Nothing matters is useful if you want to get the broadest perspective possible on life.. Life is essentially meaningless, it is you who assign meaning to it based on your beliefs and expectations. And circumstances turning out one way or the other doesn't matter, because in the ultimate reality, you are a whole, complete being of love, light, and bliss..you(or we) are essentially god in the ultimate reality. This is explained very well in [1].

References
[1] Conversations with god series. Neale Donald Walsch.
[2] Ask and it's given. Abraham Esther Hicks.

[3] Channeling video by Darryl Anka: Circumstances don't matter.

[4] Spiritual growth. Sanaya Roman.
[5] Autobiography of a yogi. Paramahamsa Yogananda.

Channeled messages resources

One of the purposes of this blog is to disseminate spiritual knowledge and wisdom that I have gained from my personal experiences (good and bad - though now I just look at them as experiences that altered my perspective - especially the so-called bad ones) and by persual of books. I also take great pleasure in pointing out to sources of knowledge and wisdom on the internet.

The internet is a fantastic place to get inspired messages and spiritual guidance if you know where to look.
Channeling is a form of dissemination of knowledge or wisdom. This is a process where two people are involved. One is the channeler, who acts as a channel or as a medium for the second person or entity. This second person or entity is a non-physical being or a being without a physical body that channels information through the channel or medium.
You might question this whole channeling process. By all means, be sceptical. My take on this is that, the messages being disseminated through the channels are consistent with the knowledge that I gained through reading spiritual books.
Let me give you an example: In the book, 'Home with God' by Neale Donald Walsch,
it is stated that contrary to what many people think, 'The body doesn't house the soul or the spirit, it is the other way around: the soul houses the body'.
The above statement was clarified in a channeling session by Bashar(on youtube) when the entity stated that the soul houses the body and not the otherway around. Did Bashar's channel, Darryl Anka, read 'Home with God'? Well, if he did, he is keeping track of many, many spiritual books and their messages. On the other hand, it seems more likely that this channeling process is legitimate.
So, as in the above example, I just looked to see if the messages have a 'ring' of authenticity and truth to them (based on my existing understanding gained from reading books), but in the process, I also got convinced about the authenticity of this channeling process.
So, my suggestion would be to be 'open' to the channeled messages and see if you find a 'ring' of truth to them.

Below is a list of my favorite channeling links:
On Youtube!
1) Darryl Anka on Bashar
2) Bashar - Circumstances don't matter
3) Tuning in - trailer of a documentary on channeling
4) Veronica
5) St. Germain on love vs fear
6) Steve Rother and group
7) Abraham-Esther-Hicks
8) Galactic council voice
9) Trisha Newton



On Webpages
1) Lightworkers
2) Crimson circle
3) Salusa
4) Kryon
5) A huge collection of channeled messages
6) Wisdom of the light

Have fun and enjoy the learning or remembering.

World of light: Good video

Introduction
You read these books on philosophy and spirituality and some of them can be abstract to begin with, mind-boggling to begin with, paradigm-shifting to begin with, confusing to begin with... I remember when I first read the 'Complete works of Swami Vivekananda' in my 10th grade/class. I was mind-boggled and confused. It is a great compilation of the essence of vedanta and correlates well with the western spiritual books I have read (E.g.: Conversations with God series by Neale Donald Walsch). The idea that was mind-boggling was the idea of my identity. In that book, Vivekanada explaining the concepts of advaita(or non-dualistic philosophy of creation), said that who you are is not the physical body, who you are is not the mind, who you are is verily the spirit.
The terminology used is: Atman, Brahman.
Atman is analogous to Holy spirit in christianity, and Brahman (not to be confused with Brahma or the creator god) is analogous to Father the God in christianity. Except that, Brahman was supposed to be undescribable. The best analogy that could be given to Brahman was an omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent being of light, knowledge and bliss (sat-chit-ananda). Brahman is supposed to be something that pervades everything and everyplace and everywhen. Brahman is supposed to be the very essence of life and non-life.

So, you have an ideological understanding of the identity. But visually, not so much.
Here comes along a video (see below), that comes close to describing this idea of this magnificent being of light and love that is supposedly our identity, but that we forget this after our birth and assume that we are just the body, that we are just the mind.
As one video I saw mentioned, we are the hosts that inhabit this body, we are the hosts that go beyond time and space, we are the hosts, who are gods. Indeed, ye are all gods. In vedas, it is mentioned, Aham Brahmasmi(I am Brahman or Atman = Brahman, Holy spirit = Father the God).

Watch the colorful video here.

Some excellent wisdom transmitted through channels on youtube

You can get spiritual food for thought, wisdom, from a multitude of sources in our digital age:
a) Experiences in life: They teach you a lot don't they..especially the "bad" ones.
That relationship that didn't work out and left a hole in your heart taught you about yourself, it refocussed you perhaps on what's more important in your life. Maybe you found the love you are seeking within yourself.
Personally, I have learnt a lot from graduate school. It has been a whirlwind 2 years so far, and I can't even begin to tell you how important these two years have been in shaping my spiritual perspective, that broader, larger than life perspective.
It has taught me so many things: how to respect people irrespective of their standing, how to be honest, how to not be too hard on myself.. I used to push myself hard and condemn myself when I didn't meet my goals. I learnt to be very gentle with myself. I also learnt about unconditional love due to a relationship. I thank that person for that experience.
These two years, have been far more enlightening spiritually, in building my character, my personality so to speak than academically. Academically too, I have learnt to become more efficient and focussed, but my greatest gift to myself so far have been the worst experiences I have had. For, I have learnt a lot about myself from these experiences.

b)Books: The single most inspiring source of wisdom and comfort I have had during the roller-coaster of my graduate school experience.
Numerous books have helped me understand the importance or lack thereof of so many things in life. Again, the most important thing I have learnt or understood is the perspective that makes life tick spiritually, physically and emotionally.
Perspective is such an important tool, for it is perspective that shapes your perception of reality and it is the way you perceive your experience that makes you label an experience as 'good' or 'bad'. Someone who had a laid back attitude in life would take a so called 'bad' experience much more easily than a person who is 'rigid' in his or her beliefs.
Well, do we need books to change our perspective? Apparently, some of us do. For some of us, even books don't suffice.. we need hard-hitting experiences to come to a point where we say, enough is enough.. this is not how I am going to live my life, this is not how I am going to look at my life or as in my case, I took on a perspective that "nothing really matters", which is not to say you don't do anything. But, what this "nothing really matters" means is that, circumstances are just circumstances without a label of good or bad, it is we that attach this label of 'good' or 'bad' to circumstances according to our beliefs and perspective. You may not be able to change the circumstances in your life, not just yet maybe, but you could definitely alter "your experience" of it, by having a much broader perspective in life.

c) Youtube: Yep baby. Youtube is just a click away and among the gazillion videos out there, there are some that really send the message across. Some of these videos, are delivered by non-physical entities through a trance channel medium. Now, you don't have to worry too much about the authenticity of these mediums, but believe me, the messages are as good in wisdom, clear and practical as I have ever come across in the many spiritual books that I have leafed through.
Here are some of them:

1) We bid you a great greeting, we are veronica!!!
2) Circumstances don't matter, only state of being does
3)On love

Enjoy and learn.

Hail Barack Obama

What an amazing candidate with extraordinary oratorical abilities whose speeches inspire you at the core of your being. I am really happy for America, I am also happy for the black community in America and the hopes it brings them to see someone of their own become the president of United states. You should take a look at some of his speeches on youtube to see the truth and heart-felt conviction with which his speeches are given.
The one below seemed to me a really exquisite speech. It's hard to imagine that a politician can speak about ideals with so much conviction and consistency, as does Barack Obama. Hat's off to you, Mr. President.


Neale Donald Walsch, the author of a best-selling series of books, "Conversations with God", frequently talks about spiritualizing politics (that is doing away with all the mud-slinging that is oft a part of political campaigns and actions, and at the same time coming from core priniciples and ideals that reflect a strong character and a strong leader). And Barack Obama, I think is one person who lives up to his ideals both in private life and in public perview, which is important to be a leader who spiritualizes politics.

Excellent video on the concept of god

Watch the following video: It's hilarious to say the least and more importantly has a good message.
How we make up our ideas on god

Near death experiences

Some cool stories:

1) Beyond the veil
2) Into the void

Two videos:

1) Youtube
2) Stroke of insight

Meditation videos

There are a lot of cool meditation videos on youtube. Some of my favorites below:








The sunset meditation video on this page is beautiful. Watch it if you have the time.