There are some who claim the conscious mind is your enemy. That we need to live in Spirit and heart feeling to really understand ourselves. Still others claim the heart gets wrapped up in emotion and takes us down the wrong path time after time. Both are true… but neither is wholly true. I thought to explore this question a bit. The mind is a tool. And a darned good one, I might add! But it needs to be used as a tool, and, as they say, we need to be sure we are using “the right tool for the right job.”

It is usually thought that there are many Gods in yoga and Hinduism: Shiva, Ganesha, Kali, Lakshmi, etc. While each of these characters does have a reality of its own, it is a mistake to think that Hinduism is truly polytheistic. All such depictions represent an aspect of God. I myself am a man, a husband, a public speaker, and a bookstore manager. Are there four of me? I am also an American, a Californian, a college graduate, and a voter. Maybe there are eight of me? (One is surely more than enough, thank you!)

There seems to be a bit of a lack of clarity over what “yoga” actually is and means, so I thought I’d try to be a bit more exacting as perhaps opposed to how the term is often used. As these terms are often either misused or misunderstood I thought a little explanation might shed some light. Yoga is a practice and method of uniting one’s little self with the larger Self. “Yoga” actually means “yoke” and the two words have the same etymological root.

Many have heard or used the word attunement. Here is one dictionary definition of it: Attunement is being aware of and responding to the emotions of another person and is the process by which we form close relationships. It is that essential component that allows us to feel close and connected to others. But why talk about that here? What does that have to do with spirituality? In short, everything! In that realm, however, it is not about emotions and not about any particular individual.

All pain in our lives serves a purpose. How can we know what Spirit is trying to tell us? That is a good question. Perhaps the most important of questions. After all, if our major purpose here is to be educated, knowing how to make the most out of the schooling that has been provided to us seems pretty crucial. There is no algorithm for this. No step-by-step answer. You cannot simply do A, then B, then C… and voila! There’s the answer. Like almost everything in life, attitude is primary. If we have the right receptive attitude the lessons tend to make themselves clear... and I should rush to add, but even then not always.

There is much confusion over this term. It has the connotation that Spirit has been offended. This is somehow then followed by either anger or punishment or both. However, this is merely a reflection of our own limited consciousness. We ourselves can get angry, feel offended, or want to lash out at someone, and so assume Spirit is the same. Nothing can be further from the truth. What, then, is meant by “sin”? Glad you asked…

A minister was standing outside the Church after a Sunday Service. He was shaking hands and speaking briefly with each parishioner. One lady, however, grabbed his hand and would not let go. She went on and on about all her troubles. After a while he interrupted and said, “Ma’am. You must understand: I am in sales, not in management!”

It’s the time for New Year’s Resolutions. You know, those promises we make ourselves that too often don’t make it till Groundhog Day (for those of you unaware of that holiday, it’s February 2nd. Happy Groundhog day in advance, in case I forget to mention it later. :-)) The trouble with failed promises, however, is most often not our lack of will; it is that we have a tendency to pick unrealistic goals.

Yogananda spoke often about the true spirit of Christmas. Most tend to personalize the presence of Christ. He was born at such-and-such a time, he lived in Ancient Israel, etc. The birth we are really celebrating is the birth of what Yogananda called Christ Consciousness…

Many people meditate, try to meditate, or feel guilty for no longer meditating. I have been a meditator for many decades and a meditation teacher for about 30 years. I have learned a few things that you may find helpful if any of those descriptions applies to you.

1. Meditation is a method and practice, not a hard and fast goal….

A friend shared that she had a willful six-year-old son. He almost always wanted things exactly his way. One morning he was quite anxious for the day to get started, but when he awoke he realized it was still the middle of the night. Not to let such a small impediment stop him, he went to the top of the stairs and yelled for the whole world to hear, “I want it to be day!!” Suffice it to say, the rotation of the earth did not accelerate to meet his demand.

Thousands of speakers and events have been hosted by East West over the past 50+ years. For most of that time, we were one of the few places to meet and hear remarkable spiritual and consciousness leaders. But as the world changes, so must we. Online attendance to our events has dropped substantially. The time has come for us to accept that events are no longer a useful part of our service to you. Much of what was once hard to find is now wonderfully easy to find online; the variety and choices are immense…

Each of us protects little aspects of ourselves because of our false belief that it is our little personality that needs protection. I often notice that even amongst deep devotees—those who have truly committed their lives to change and growth—there is an overwhelming desire to shrink and defend rather than to let go and grow. When a flaw is pointed out the immediate natural response is, “That’s not me!” One often becomes annoyed or withdrawn.

It has often been said that humility is a mark of spirituality, and this is so. But “humility” needs to be well understood, I think, to really grasp what that means. Interestingly, Yogananda defined “humility” as “self-honesty.” If we have any conscious awareness, we want to be better than we are. I am sure that is true for everyone reading this. But in our quest, it is quite natural to envision ourselves as perhaps better than we are in fact—or worse!

I was doing my stress management training program in Colorado for a government agency. A woman came up to me at the end, and shared that one of her stressors was not enough time to get her work done. Hardly unique, but I felt to probe a bit for more details. She was a manager there and found she spent so much time helping staff she fell behind on her own work. My first impression was how sweet she must be. But, as sometimes happens for me, a few alarm bells went off and an intuition came. Something seemed “off.”…

We all want to do what’s right. We all (hopefully!) accept that our own sight is limited by our past experiences and our current fears and desires – the twins that cloud judgment and intuition. I have personally made it a life-long practice to do my best to constantly ask for guidance. There are many images of Spirit, and each speaks to us individually, but the process is the same…

Goodness gracious! The news has been challenging, to say the least: inflation, war, elections, recession, mortgage rates, hurricanes and warming, etc. etc. How can one hope to maintain equanimity and a cheerful disposition in the face of such things? I am glad you asked…

Western religion has a notion of hell. I believe it is broadly misunderstood, though – like most broadly accepted ideas – there is a grain of truth in it. I’d like to explore the notion this week and uncover what is actually true. We unfortunately tend to create our own hells. That is NOT to say that every strongly unpleasant thing that happens to us is some disastrous error on our part…

We all know (or at least most of you reading this!) what good behavior looks like. Be kind, be non-judgmental, be supportive, smile, listen attentively, etc. The difficulty is that sometimes we wind up engaging in behaviors other than these. Ever noticed that?

Renunciation is a word that tends to leave people feeling that denial is involved. That, of course, is somewhat unattractive, so renunciation tends to be quite unpopular! But true renunciation is of the heart. It is not about denial; it is about understanding that nothing on the outside will ever truly fill the hole in our heart…