Archive for the ‘Books’ Category

Eat, Pray, Love

Monday, April 26th, 2010

This past Thursday, I delivered a speech entitled “Eat, Pray, Love… Gratitude“. Inspired by the book Eat, Pray, Love, I was made aware of the parallels between the book and my own growth/development and chosen path in life.

Eat: Raw and living foods. Even though I am detoxing and relatively miserable at times, I know it’s a temporary state and I’m willing to push through it. The fact is: I am more concerned these days with what comes out of my mouth, rather than satisfying addictions going into it. I miss eating certain things, but I am enjoying and relishing the process and learning experiences that come with having to deal with one’s feelings head on… I can no longer eat them!

Pray: My growing involvement with church/activities. I am finding my new community to be loving, inspiring, and supportive. I’m happy to be a part of it. I am attending weekly service, as well as a Bible Study and Encounter Group. This is becoming an important part of my spiritual journey.

Love: My relationship. Am I really considering committing myself to someone with 2 young children? Am I willing to put aside most of the “me” to become a “we”. The answer is yes. I love him deeply and want to spend my life with him. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to say this – calmly, rationally, and without a drink or 5 2. Everything I am and will be, I want to share with him.

I eat. I pray. I love… 1 Cor 13:13b “But the greatest of these is love.”

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The Edgar Cayce Primer

Monday, November 30th, 2009
My current reading:

  1. The Setting
  2. The Model
  3. The laws
  4. Self-Transformation
  5. Personal Health
  6. Religion and Spiritual Psychology
  7. Knowing Thyself

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The Story of Edgar Cayce

Monday, November 16th, 2009
Last week, I started reading There is a river…, the story of Edgar Cayce. Full of his remarkable prophecies, medical cures prescribed while in a trance, and his insights into the human soul.

“Man demands a beginning and a boundary, so in the beginning there was a sea of spirit, and it filled all space. It was static, constant, aware of itself, a giant resting on the bosom of its thought, contemplating that which it was.”

Sometimes I am a skeptic. This is one of those times. Yet, how wonderful would it be if such miracles were in fact possible.

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Autobiography of a Yogi

Monday, September 14th, 2009
Considering the vast collection of books that I have “for the betterment of humankind”, it is difficult to select a favourite. However, none has intrigued or inspired me more than Autobiography of a Yogi. From his early days of being the “Mad Monk” Mukunda Lal Ghosh to his later days as Paramahansa Yogananda, his story is one of true illumination.

The greatest impact of this book for me has been in raising my interest in India and its masters and saints; learning how experienced yogis perform miracles and attain self-mastery.

  • The Saint with Two Bodies (Swami Pranabananda) was able to appear in two places at once.
  • The Perfume Saint (Ghanda Baba) had the ability to astrally-project scent and permeated odorless blossoms with rose and jasmine.
  • The Levitating Saint (Bhaduri Mahasaya) was able to defy the law of gravity as a yogi’s body was purported to lose its grossness after certain pranayamas.
  • The Sleepless Saint (Ram Gopal) took residence in a cave, engaging in yoga union for twenty hours daily, never sleeping.
  • The Fasting Saint (Giri Bala) employed a certain yogic technique that allowed her to survive without eating. It was a Kriya technique that freed the body from its dependence on mortal food – the use of a mantra and breathing exercises.
  • The Catholic Stigmatist (Therese Neumann) – although German, not Indian – was cured of blindness as a child. As an adult, she abstained from food and water, except for a daily consecrated host, slept for a mere hour or two a night, and experienced the stigmata.

Unwavering faith and devotion is also a part of the yogi’s journey. Mukunda demonstrated his deep trust on many occasions as a young devotee under his guru Sri Yukteswar.

  • Yogananda claimed to only need inheritance from the Heavenly Father; his older brother Ananta sent him and a fellow disciple on train to a selected town without money or means to return home; so moved was Ananta upon their return (having not begged for food nor rupees, circumstance amply provided them) that he asked Yogananda to initiate him into Kriya Yoga.
  • While awaiting the return of his guru by train, Yogananda received a telepathic message that he would be late, and sure to his vision, his guru arrived on the train of his instruction.
  • When asked by his sister Roma to assist in bringing her husband Satish around to spiritual matters, Yogananda implores the Divine Mother to provide nourishment for them without request. At the temple they are visiting, they are treated to a lavish meal and Satish begins to change his ways.

In describing his guru Sri Yukteswar, Yogananda said, “A master – one who has realized himself as the omnipotent soul, not the body – perceives in all men a striking similarity.” The goal of yoga is divine union; a true master seeks union in both the earthly and the heavenly realms. With mastery come the disappearance of separation and the return of original oneness.

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Yoga and the Quest for the True Self

Monday, September 7th, 2009
One night, psychotherapist Stephen Cope had a dreamt of the wanderer archetype. Free to seek the treasure of his true self after a failed romantic relationship, Cope departed for the Kripalu Center to begin a year-long sabbatical. Cope was troubled initially by the language, discipline, and devotion to the guru, wondering if he was accidentally getting involved with some sort of cult. In time, he began to realize that he had simply entered a “transformative space” – a space whereby exist the conditions for growth and make it inevitable. Over time, Cope began to experience serenity; in yoga, the fully alive human being is created on a daily basis by food, breath, sleep, movement, and word.
According to yogic philosophy, there are 5 kleshas (conditioned beiefs and behaviours) that keep people bound to “gross apparent reality.” They are seen in terms of cause and effect.

  1. Ignorance (Avida)
  2. I-ness (Asmita)
  3. Attraction (Raga)
  4. Aversion (Dvesha)
  5. Clinging to life/fear of death (Abhimivesha)

There are also 4 beliefs that continue the delusion of the kleshas:

  1. The permanence of objects
  2. The ultimate reality of the body
  3. Our state of suffering is actually happiness
  4. That our minds, bodies, and feelings are our true Self

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Ram Dass: Remember, Be Here Now

Monday, August 31st, 2009

Before Ram Dass reminded us that he was still here, he urged us to BE here…

Be Here Now describes the transformation of Dr. Richard Alpert into Baba Ram Dass through 3 stages: Harvard scholar and social scientist, psychedelics, and yogi. In the beginning, he had every indication of outward success, but was experiencing a mounting inner dissatisfaction. During this time, he began spending time and teaching courses with Timothy Leary, who turned him onto hallucinogens. After several years of experimentation with LSD, Alpert was dismissed from Harvard and began seeking altered states of consciousness in earnest. Armed with a bottle of LSD, Alpert left for India and shared his supply with those he met along the way. One of the most interesting receptions that he received was, “It’s good, but not as good as meditation.” Over the course of his travels through India, Alpert transformed into Dass and provided his Cook Book for a Sacred Life.
  • Readiness; and eventually you will encounter your guru
  • Tapaysa – renouncing the satisfaction of one’s desires
  • Allow for as much sleep as the body demands
  • Eat light, healthy, and unadulterated foods
  • The accumulation of knowledge through study
  • The practice of yoga asana with the end goal of dissolving the mind into the infinite
  • Calming the mind with mantra
  • Learning to transmute energy at a higher vibration
  • Working with the breath
  • Transmuting sexual energy into spiritual energy
  • Each new level of surrender brings new powers and faith
  • Surrounding ourselves with like-minded individuals – Satsang
  • Be straight and open
  • Distance yourself from the act of lying; seek only truth
  • A livelihood which does not increase your separateness from the world
  • Engaging in action without ego (Karma Yoga)
  • Bhakti Yoga – ultimate oneness with the divine
  • The practice of meditation
  • Understand the correct use of the rational mind
  • Reflect on your own time and space, and remember that you are HERE and NOW

The idea of BE HERE NOW (being present to the moment) is the core of what yoga means to me and brings to my life; and in return, what I wish to share with others.

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Ram Dass: Still Here

Monday, August 24th, 2009

Embracing Aging, Changing, and Dying

Ram Dass had a dear friend who was confined to a wheelchair due to a sporting accident he received when he was younger. Asked to introduce him at one of his lecture, Dass agreed with some trepidation. This courageous young man was brought onto the stage and spelled out the following on his board (he was unable to speak): “R.D. says we are not our bodies. Amen.”

This is one of the most profoundly moving lines I have ever digested from a book. What powerful words! We are not our bodies! Yet, how much advertising/media goes into trying to prove and/or convince ourselves that we are?

  • Easy to see oneself as a collection of symptoms rather than an entire being
  • The media has a massive influence on the view of aging individuals
  • Our culture paints a picture of aging as some sort of failure
  • Aging is a part of the continuity of life – part of mainstream culture, not opposed to it
  • The difference between being lonely and being alone is an affair of the Ego
  • It is the Ego that experiences aging and death; beyond ego lies the Soul
  • Constrain the Ego and get it to loosen its grip by learning how to Be Here Now
  • Letting go of the past is not denying it, but rather preventing it from colouring the present

“You will find that each time you’re able to welcome your own pain, you’ll also be welcoming the Soul, and the Soul is what can defeat the fear and suffering of pain.”

This is a mind and life-altering book. Enjoy and reflect.

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Ringing Cedars Reference Project

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

Several months ago, Book 1: Anastasia of the Ringing Cedars of Russia Series made its way into my hands. At first read, I was not inspired – in fact, I was downright angry – frustrated, threatened, put-off. I was extremely challenged. These books were against almost everything that I enjoy (sometimes to excess) in this (mostly) modern, technocratic world. Despite this, I kept an open mind and continued reading the rest of the series – finding inspiration in unlikely places. I was a skeptic.

I have enjoyed my fine dining, fancy shoes, and opulent European vacations – and it’s quite conceivable that I may continue to do so in the future. However, I am 100% convinced that life does not have to be the cold and stressful existence that many experience it to be. Life can be warm, creative, succulent, and exhilarating! The Ringing Cedars books have made me look at life in a different way – I find myself more positive, optimistic, and hopeful. With an undergrad degree in Classical History, College diploma in Programming – and having furthered my studies to become a Reflexologist, Herbalist, Reiki Master, and Yoga Teacher, I am certainly open to new ideas and concepts. I also enjoy combining my technological/IT background with my love of holism.

It was suggested to me that an excellent (and beneficial) project would be to take the contents of the Ringing Cedars Series and create a reference library of their contents, cross referenced by category and with authors/experts in related fields. The challenge, is of course, to do this in a way that does not violate copyright infringement :)

What a project this is going to be – the books contain a vast plethora of information/advice on nutrition (raw food in particular), farming, spirituality, relationships, child-rearing, education, and politics.

http://www.ringingcedarsreference.com/

Posted in Books, Feng Shui, Miscellaneous, Yoga | 2 Comments »

The Bhagavad-Gita

Monday, June 15th, 2009
The 18 Chapters of the Bhagavad-Gita:

  1. Arjuna requests Krishna to move his chariot between the two armies. When Arjuna sees his relatives on the opposing side, he loses courage and decides not to fight.
  2. After asking Krishna for help, Arjuna learns that only the body may be killed, while the eternal self is immortal. Arjuna is told that as a warrior, he has a duty to fulfill.
  3. Arjuna asks why he should engage in fighting if knowledge supersedes action. Krishna stresses to Arjuna that performing his duties for the greater good – without attachment – is the appropriate course of action.
  4. Krishna reveals that he has lived through many births, teaching yoga for the protection of the pious and the destruction of the impious and stresses the importance of having a guru.
  5. Arjuna asks Krishna if it is better to forgo action or to act. Krishna answers that both ways may have their benefits, but that acting in Karma Yoga is superior.
  6. Krishna describes the correct posture for meditation and the process to reach samadhi.
  7. Krishna teaches the path of knowledge – Jnana Yoga.
  8. Krishna defines the terms brahman1, adhyatma2, karma, atman, adhibhuta3 and adhidaiva4 and explains how one can remember him at the time of death.
  9. Krishna explains Panentheism.5
  10. Krishna describes how he is the ultimate source of all material and spiritual worlds; Arjuna accepts Krishna as the Supreme Being.
  11. On Arjuna’s request, Krishna displays His “universal form” (Visvarupa)6.
  12. Krishna describes the process of devotional service – Bhakti Yoga.
  13. Krishna describes nature (prakrti), the enjoyer (purusha) and consciousness.
  14. Krishna explains the three modes (gunas) of material nature.
  15. Krishna describes a symbolic tree7, its roots in the heavens and its foliage on earth. He explains that this tree should be felled with the “axe of detachment”.
  16. Krishna tells of the human traits of the divine and the demonic and counsels that to attain emancipation, one give up lust, anger and greed, discern between right and wrong.
  17. Krishna tells of three divisions of faith and the thoughts, deeds and even eating habits corresponding to the three gunas.
  18. Krishna asks Arjuna to abandon all forms of dharma and simply surrender unto him; the ultimate perfection of life.

1 The unchanging transcendent reality
2 The study of the inner self
3 The principle of objective existence
4 The principle of subjective existence
5 God exists and is in every part of nature
6 The cosmic vision of Krishna
7 Represents material existence

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The Four Agreements

Monday, June 8th, 2009

Ancient Toltec wisdom offers a powerful code of conduct to bring us freedom, happiness, and love

  1. Be Impeccable with Your Word
    • Through your word you express your creative power
    • Through your word you manifest everything
    • Your word is a force
    • You word can either create or destroy
    • Your word can either set you free or enslave you
    • Every human is a magician
    • Self-rejection is the biggest sin you can commit
    • Imagine what you can create with impeccability of the word
  2. Don’t Take Anything Personally
    • Personal importance causes us to be trapped
    • Nothing other people do is because of you; it is because of themselves
    • By taking things personally, you set yourself up to suffer
    • You have to trust yourself
    • There is a huge amount of freedom in this
  3. Don’t Make Assumptions
    • The problem with making assumptions is we believe them to be true
    • Emotional poison is created by making assumptions
    • Assumptions are created out of fear
    • We have the need to justify everything
    • We make the assumption that everyone sees life like we do
    • Making assumptions about ourselves creates inner conflict
    • We don’t need to justify love – it is there or not there
    • Find your voice to ask for what you want
  4. Always Do Your Best
    • You best will change over time
    • Regardless of the quality of your best, keep doing it
    • You will live life intensely when you do your best
    • You will learn to accept yourself when you do your best
    • You were born with the right to be happy
    • Doing your best is taking an action because you love it, not for the reward

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