Friday - September 28, 2007
The Atma Jyoti Blog Has a New Home
As of this weekend, we will move the Atma Jyoti Blog to a new server, using WordPress software. The new web address is http://blog.atmajyoti.org/. This will improve the blog in many ways, by making it easier for us to post new articles, fixing certain bugs inherent in the old software, and giving a much more pleasing and customizable appearance to the blog.
For those who have subscribed by RSS to the previous blog, you should resubscribe using the RSS button link in the right hand column of the new blog. You can also subscribe for the RSS email, where you will receive and email whenever a new post is published.
We hope you enjoy the new presentation. If you have questions, click the Contact Us link in the navigation bar at the top of the page of the new blog.
Posted at 08:19 AM
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Friday - September 21, 2007
Does meditation affect dreams?
Q:Does meditation affect dreams?
Yes, meditation definitely affects the dreams, because it is restructuring the entire mind and consciousness. Meditation makes the subconscious conscious.
Odd dreams do occur, some even unpleasant, but it is all part of the clearing out and ordering process. There is usually little value in trying to figure them out. The purpose of the dream was accomplished while you were centered in the subconscious and often has no relevance to the conscious mind. Some dreams are significant, but it is best to let them be. Life itself is a message from the inmost Self.
Posted at 07:24 AM
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Tuesday - September 11, 2007
Delusion and Ignorance
A Commentary on the Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Nirmalananda Giri
We usually think of delusion and ignorance in terms of “ordinary” life and its situations. Those who are more occupied with “spiritual” matters assume that they are beyond such, but Angiras thinks differently, and so should we.
“Finite and transient are the fruits of sacrificial rites. The deluded, who regard them as the highest good, remain subject to birth and death.” (Mundaka Upanishad 1:2:7. Swami Prabhavananda has omitted verses 1 to 6 of this section as they enumerate various technical aspects of Vedic sacrifices. Verse seven begins the philosophical exposition of the external rites.) Swami Nikhilananda translates a bit more literally: “Frail indeed are those rafts of sacrifices, therefore they are destructible. Fools who rejoice in them as the Highest Good fall victims again and again to old age and death.” “Back they must turn to the mortal pathway, subject still to birth and to dying,” (Bhagavad Gita 9:3) says the Gita on the same subject.
Karma and religion
I think just about everybody puts karma into two lumps: Good Karma and Bad Karma. But that is not very satisfactory. Karma, like all of life, has many nuances and can vary greatly. Some karma, for example, creates more karma, and some actually dissolves karma. For example, Sri Ramakrishna said that all spiritual practices are part of Karma Yoga, but they deliver us from karma. There are material, mental, and spiritual karmas. The material and mental karmas impel us to more of the same, whether good or bad. But spiritual karma enables us to rise above the material and mental planes and free ourselves from karmic bondage.
Angiras wants us to understand that religious karma is not always spiritual. This should not surprise us when we can readily see that most religion is based on material goals. “Stuff” and “happiness” just about sums up the motives of all the religions of the world, including that of modern India. As a result, most religious acts culminate in more mental and psychological involvement, not freedom. In the verses omitted by Swami Prabhavananda it is pointed out that most religion creates karma that takes us to heaven–and then dumps us back on earth when our “merit” is used up. So we end back where we started. What a gyp.
Just because a religious act is either directed toward God or offered to God does not mean it will ultimately lead to God. Usually it leads us away from God into the labyrinth of relative existence in some form or other. Since most people have been cultivating a taste for earthly things through life after life, this suits them. But it should gall us, and we should refuse the pursuit and get off the merry-go-round.
Great suffering
So there are aspects of religion we should avoid adamantly. Otherwise: “Living in the abyss of ignorance, yet wise in their own conceit, the deluded go round and round, like the blind led by the blind.” (Mundaka Upanishad 1:2:8) “They be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch,” (Matthew 15:14) said Jesus, surely having this verse in mind.
Swami Gambhirananda’s translation points out a sad aspect of all this: “Remaining within the fold of ignorance, and thinking, ‘We are ourselves wise and learned,’ the fools, while being buffeted very much, ramble about like the blind led by the blind alone.” Buffeted very much. (“Being afflicted by many ills” is the translation of Swami Nikhilananda.) How true. Promising others the cessation of all troubles and sorrows, these religious mountebanks are more afflicted than ordinary people. Whether this is from the negative karma accruing from their dishonesty or a manifestation of their own inner diseases, the result is the same.
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Posted at 03:30 PM
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Tuesday - September 11, 2007
What Becomes of the Soul After Death?
What is the afterlife like for ordinary people or for those that are liberated? What does the liberated soul do in the afterlife? If one is liberated are they kept separate from those who are not? What decides where a person goes after death?
Because of their unique karma, no two people have the same experiences after birth in this world. It is just the same with “birth” into the astral worlds. Each person’s experiences will continue to be distinctively theirs.
One thing and one thing only determines where we go after death: our level of consciousness–our evolutionary status. What happens after we get there is determined by our karma.
A liberated person will have control over where he goes and what takes place there. But no world is inaccessible to him–including the earth plane.
You might find Sivananda’s book WHAT BECOMES OF THE SOUL AFTER DEATH? useful. It can be downloaded from www.sivanandaonline.org.
It is #44 in the list.
Posted at 08:47 AM
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Wednesday - September 05, 2007
The Ways of the Wise
A Commentary on the Dhammapada–by Swami Nirmalananda Giri
Take it within
“He who drinks in the Dharma will live happily with a peaceful mind. A wise man always delights in the Dharma taught by the Aryas.” (Dhammapada 79)
Water is essential to life, possessing many aspects necessary to the maintenance of form and function. We can live a long time without food, but not without water. Dharma is equally necessary for the true life of the inmost consciousness. But both water and dharma are valueless if they are not internalized–and not drop by drop, but by continual, deep drinking. Buddha is explaining to us that we must drink up dharma as the thirsting man seizes water and drinks it with urgency and delight. Just as the most virulent poison will not harm us, or the best medicine will not cure us, if we do not swallow it, in the same way dharma will have no effect unless we make it part of our very being by taking it into our consciousness.
Looking, touching, applying, or even immersing ourselves in water is useless if we do not drink it. And talking about it is the most useless of all! It is the same with dharma. That is why Saint Paul spoke of “Christ IN you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27) An external Christ is of no value whatsoever. That is why Jesus spoke of “eating” and “drinking” the “flesh” and “blood” of Christ–in other words, internalizing and absorbing Christ. It is the same with dharma.
Work on yourself; change yourself
“Irrigators channel water, fletchers shape arrows, and carpenters bend wood, but the wise discipline themselves.” (80)
Long ago I got an anthology of Buddhist texts, and among them was a life of Buddha. It opened with an account of a discussion taking place in a higher world regarding where Buddha should be born. Various heavenly beings had various recommendations, but finally a wise one said: “You do not understand: a Buddha can only be born in India.” They all agreed; and so it was. There are many reasons for that statement, and not the least is the Indian capacity to convey a tremendous amount of information in a very concise manner. And this verse is an example of that. It is a marvel. And if we follow it, we will ourselves become marvels.
Irrigators channel water. First, they find a source of water. Then they dig a channel to the place where water is needed. Finally, they remove the barrier between the water and the channel, and the water flows in and their work is done. It is hard work that demands perseverance and good engineering. Spirituality is not for lazies or dummies, excellent as Spirituality For Dummies may be. (Those who read it will no longer be dummies!)
Sri Ramakrishna speaks about it this way: “There happened to be drought in the country. All the peasants began digging channels to bring water. One of them was stubbornly determined. One day he vowed that he would go on digging a channel until it became connected with the river and water began to flow into it. He proceeded digging. The time came for his bath. The wife sent the daughter to him with oil. The daughter said, ‘Father, it is late already. Finish bathing quickly after rubbing the body with oil.’ He told her to go away for he still had work to do. It was past midday and the farmer still kept working. No thought at all of taking a bath. Then his wife came to the field and said, ‘Why haven’t you bathed as yet? The food is getting cold. You carry things too far. You may finish it tomorrow or even after taking your meal.’ Scolding, the farmer ran after her with spade in hand and said, ‘Have you no sense? There has not been any rain. There has been no farming at all. What will the children eat? You will all die of starvation. I have taken the vow that I will bring water to the field today and then worry about bath and food.’ Observing his mood the wife fled running. After a whole day’s bone-breaking labor...
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Posted at 01:26 PM
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Thursday - August 30, 2007
The Supreme Knowledge
A Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita
“Since you accept me and do not question, now I shall tell you that innermost secret: knowledge of God which is nearer than knowing, open vision direct and instant. Understand this and be free for ever from birth and dying with all their evil.” (Bhagavad Gita 9:1)
What thrilling words! Yet they are purely wisdom, free from exaggeration or emotionality. Prabhavananda’s translation is very interpretive–though totally correct. Here is a more literal translation by Winthrop Sargeant:
“This most secret thing I shall declare to you, who do not disbelieve: knowledge and realization combined, having learned which you shall be released from evil.”
The qualities of this great knowledge should be scrutinized by us who seek for it.
Most secret
Krishna calls this knowledge, not just secret (guhya), but most secret (guhyatamam). It is knowledge hidden from all but the knowers of Brahman, yet it can be spoken about to those who are approaching that knowledge. Essentially, Krishna is going to give us the knowledge that inevitably leads to that supreme knowledge. It is most secret because it is utterly incomprehensible–hidden–to a consciousness that is not awakened and already purified to a marked degree. For regarding those not awakened and not purified it can justly be said: “they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.” (Matthew 13:13)
Disbelief
Fake religions–and fake gurus–demand “faith” in the sense of unquestioning acceptance of doctrines and dogmas. Or they require a person’s being “convinced” by accepting their intellectual arguments. Krishna is nowhere near this kind of fakery! When he says “disbelieve” he is using the word anasuyave, which means to be free of contradiction or contention in the sense of willful contrariness, what in the American south is meant by the word “cussedness.” Krishna is not blaming a sincere unacceptance of something, but rather a perversity and negativity of mind that causes a person to intentionally reject truth. It is a symptom of conscious evil, and a lot of people have it. That is why Saint Paul urged: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief.” (Hebrews 3:12) This is not a matter of simple non-belief, as I have said. There is no wrong in not believing something, even if it comes from a limited understanding. It is the refusal to believe that is... (read more of "The Supreme Knowledge")
Posted at 01:58 PM
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Wednesday - August 29, 2007
The Silly Things Religion Prescribes
In reply to someone who wrote that they are trying to keep in mind that we are ever perfect:
It is true: we are eternally perfect in our true being–even when entangled (seemingly) in ignorance. We need only recover that perfection in our consciousness. We do not need to do any of the silly things religion prescribes.
1) We need not “please” God, because it is simply not God’s nature to be either pleased or displeased. Only ego-bound beings engage in such duality.
2) We need not “serve” God, because God needs nothing.
3) We need not worship God because such an act is simply impossible, considering our nature and God’s nature.
4) We cannot “praise” God because we don’t know what we are talking about.
5) We cannot “love” God because God is beyond being related to as an object.
6) We cannot even think about God, because God is beyond all thought or concept.
BUT: We CAN know that we and God are ONE. And that is all that is needed–ever.
There is a foolish theism and a wise theism. The Gita and Upanishads present the wise theism. The rest we can forget about. As Krishna says to Arjuna: “Be a yogi.”
Posted at 04:03 PM
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Monday - August 27, 2007
The Universal Standard of the Upanishads
For centuries there has been the misperception that the teachings of the upanishads are somehow the property of monastics–that monastics are at the top of the spiritual hierarchy in Indian spiritual tradition. NOT SO. Not one sage mentioned in the upanishads was monastic, nor was a single author of the scriptures listed in the foregoing paragraph a monastic. Sanatana Dharma is founded upon the vision of the rishis–none of whom were monastics. Sanatana Dharma propounds four ways of life that are fitting for seekers after liberation. Only one is that of the totally committed monastic. It is certainly true that through the centuries monastics have been a major factor in the propagation of dharma, that the three schools of Vedanta were formulated definitively by monastics. Shankara, whose commentaries are mentioned also in the foregoing list of philosophical works, was a monk of monks.
Nevertheless, the life of the rishis, who were married and “in the world,” is the norm of Sanatana Dharma. Any philosophy incompatible with that is not dharma. At the same time, this also means that there is no room for spiritually lazy (and cowardly) people who try to shirk or shrug off their spiritual obligations by saying: “that is for you monks.” They do not want to be thought second-class citizens, but they want to live in a second-class manner and leave the complete fulfilling of dharma to the monks. Shame! There is only one spiritual life: the Yoga Life. Whatever the conditions or circumstances, all are obliged to be yogis. Otherwise their dharma is a sham, whether monastic or non-monastic.
What does “the thread of progeny” have to do with this? The clear implication is that a Sanatana Dharmi (one who follows Sanatana Dharma) is duty-bound to marry, have children, and raise those children to also follow dharma–and yoga. The exceptions are those that become monastics from their youth or who have some impediment to leading a normal married life. “Footloose and fancy free” is not the way of the rishis. To see this for yourself, read The Grihya Sutras, translated by Hermann Oldenberg (volumes 29 and 30 in the Sacred Books of the East series). There you will see that Sanatana Dharmis are directed to have children, along with instructions on how to preserve brahmacharya in marriage (!). These are not the rules for monks, nor were they written by monks, as is clear. Behold for yourself how high the ideal is for ALL Sanatana Dharmis, whatever their stage of life (ashrama). Those who do not want to bother should leave dharma alone and join some cheap religion that lets them do as they please. There is a lot of it about.
Read more about the Upanishads.
Posted at 12:28 PM
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Saturday - August 25, 2007
Photos of the New Atma Jyoti Ashram Location
The new location of Atma Jyoti Ashram, on the slope of the Sandia Mountains, adjacent to the Cibola National Forest, in Cedar Crest, New Mexico, about thirty minutes from Albuquerque, and an hour from Santa Fe.
The new Ashram building
We were told before we moved that the skies of New Mexico could be dramatic. Only a week after we moved in we were treated to a spectacular rainbow arching through a growing thundercloud.
(On another note, now that the move has been completed, new postings of articles will resume.)
Posted at 04:41 PM
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