Ultimate Freedom

John Friend's 2009 Anusara Yoga Tour is called "Ultimate Freedom," and today is a day in which those of us who live in the United States and call it home, celebrate our nation's independence.

The readings in Paramahansa Yogananda's Spiritual Diary for the first week of July provide rich insights on this subject...

"Freedom means the power to act by soul guidance,
not by the compulsions of desires and habits.
Obeying the ego leads to bondage;
obeying the soul brings liberation."

"Before you act, you have freedom,
but after you act, the effect of that action
will follow you whether you want it or not.
That is the law of karma.
You are a free agent, but when you perform
a certain act, you will reap the results of that act."

"Man's freedom is final and immediate,
if he so wills; it depends nor on outer
but inner victories."

"The way to freedom is through service to others.
The way to happiness is through meditation
and being in tune with God...
Break the barriers of your ego;
shed selfishness; free yourself
from the consciousness of the body;
forget yourself; do away
with this prison house of incarnations;
melt your heart in all, be one with all creation."

Happy Independence Day!

Waste Some Time

I spent 12 hours at the Chicago O'Hare Airport yesterday, en route to Des Moines. It turns out the computers were down at O'Hare, which meant my flight into the airport was delayed and then I missed my connection, as did thousands of people.

My husband continued on standby - but my son and I did not get on a flight until later that night. After having been up since 4 AM to meditate, I was exhausted.

I suppose some would look at that time spent in the airport and consider it wasted time. On the other hand - there was nowhere else I could go or be. So, my son and I enjoyed each others' company over margaritas and beer, and I was able to re-connect on the phone with a Chicago friend.

In many ways, yesterday was an invitation to live in the present moment. I found myself connecting to and talking to people in many lines I had to be in. I would never have met these people otherwise. Everyone was in the same boat, and most were simply making the most of it. People were friendly, and guards were let down.

Today, as I reviewed the suggested summer spiritual practices from the Brussats' website that I referred to a few days ago, I found this entry:

7. WASTE SOME TIME

"It does no good to think moralistically about how much time we waste. Wasted time is usually good soul time," Thomas Moore has observed. Summer is just the right season for idleness and just messing around with things. Quit doing and revel in just being."

This was a good reminder for me of what I have always loved about summer, especially all those years I was an educator. The summers were times to simply be.

I used to tell my students when I was still teaching theology, that prayer was "the art of learning to waste time gracefully" - a definition I borrowed from Thomas Green, SJ.

Pay attention this summer to moments you may have to slow down, and waste some time!

Treat Yourself With Wisdom and Love

This comes from today's issue of the newsletter Jewels in the Lotus, and I thought it is a perfect way to begin this month. Thank you Cathy for your words!

"Imagine living your life as your higher self all the time. Imagine being able to make choices from the heart quickly and easily. Imagine being able to allow others to be just as they are. You easily speak your truth without conflict or confrontation. Life flows along and you handle all the challenges with grace. There is great peace in your heart and you are in tune with your breath. Joy and peace are your natural state. Your vibration is high and love is all around you. Decisions come from a deep place and one that is steeped in unconditional love. Actions and words are combined with your radiant power and you own this power fully.

Sounds amazing? It is and at can be when you live life more fully as your higher self. When you access this state of being in your daily life, it changes the way life flows.

Many of us can reach this state in meditation or even in relaxation, but the tricky part is to carry that level into the physical world and into our daily activities. There are others who are so stressed out in daily life that they have trouble turning off their brains. One way that helps me is before I get out of bed each morning- I take 3 full deep cleansing breaths. I ask to act with love, guidance, wisdom (add any other positive trait)- and to go through my day meeting challenges or situations with grace and ease. Sometimes it works, and sometimes…not so much. The point is to stay in each present moment and not beat yourself up over any perceived mistakes.

When you think about it, many people have difficulty doing what honors them most. We have expectations of ourselves and of others that are not always met. So what is the best way to handle life? With wisdom and love. And, how do we move forward from here?

Taking a broader perspective of your life and the higher purpose of all the events in it, will help you see beyond the ego- and will help you incorporate the lessons into the highest potential. From this vantage point, you can see the world view instead of the "little me" view. This expansive view will lead to acceptance and understanding. Allow yourself time to integrate and rejuvenate. Treating yourself with wisdom and love offers you the opportunity to forgive the past and move forward."

13 keys to living as your higher self

• release judgments (of yourself and of others)
• breathe deeply throughout the day
• don't hold on to anger, resentment, or guilt
• be in the present moment
• hold joy in your heart
• allow yourself to feel whatever emotion comes up
• leave your past behind.
• surrender trying to control life
• stand solid in your core and true to your heart.
• stay connected to your inner self as often as you can
• be very grateful for all the blessings that are manifest in your life
• clear out old emotional baggage
• see the beauty and joy in all things

See website:
www.jewelsofthelotus.com

Alone on the River

It was beautiful on the river this morning. The water was as calm as its been in a long time, even though it is still pretty muddy from all the rain we have had. I have not been able to get a glimpse of the riverbed - except for a brief one when I emerged by the boat launch.

I paddled today with a minimum of effort, and once more found myself heading upstream in the middle of the river...Humm....

I watched a blue heron fly over me - and then slowly and gracefully amble its way along the banks of the first island I tend to paddle towards. When I rounded the corner of the island and reached that place between islands and straddling two states that I love, I saw a much younger heron perched on the corner, surveying the river upstream...

As I floated for a while, I reflected on how it has nearly been a year since I bought Grace, my kayak, and came into the river, very unexpectedly, after nearly a year of meditating by its banks. My journey began with me sitting by a bench for about nine months, followed by meditating a footprint away from the water as I sat on a rock. The river beckoned - urging me to come inside - and almost days later I was in the water, without ever having planned to do so or having imagined it in my wildest dreams. I simply heard the voice of the river calling me soul to soul, and I could not resist it...

My experiences on the river can all be distilled into an incredible spiritual journey. The river and its inhabitants have been witnesses to all that has unfolded within me, and they have been the harbingers of messages that have yielded many a sacred insight...

Reflections of recent meditations, prayers, and writings I have been gestating collided in my mind - bleeding into each other - in a virtual symphony of such rich interior experiences that simply eludes articulation...

I enjoyed every moment on that river this morning - entering into every fleeting second as fully as I could. I thought of the three brief quotes I posted on Twitter this morning, so emblematic of my own life lessons:

"It's never too late - in fiction or in life -
to revise."
- Nancy Thayer

"It's never too late
to be what you might have been."
- George Eliot

"Until you make peace with who you are,
you'll never be content with what you have."
- Doris Mortman

Simple lessons - and very complex ones have been learned on this river that have changed the course and direction of my life and soul. And as I drove out of the park, a blue bird flew out in front of me as an exclamation of joy and I recalled lessons learned from Rumi as well:

"Love is the bottomless
ocean of life..."

Walk Around the Lake

On Friday, I was in the water by 6:30 AM, and it was absolutely delicious. I came back and sat for a two hour meditation that was just as exquisite. When I came out of my morning meditation, I found an email waiting for me in my inbox from a friend who had been kayaking around the lake that is very close to where she lives, about the same time I was kayaking in the river that is just as close to where I live...

Frederic Brussat and his wife Mary Ann have a lovely website which features all kinds of wonderful and inspirational insights and suggestions - all related to spiritual practice. In one section of their site, they list a number of suggestions for summertime practice. Here is an entry on this list:

23. WALK AROUND THE LAKE

In one of his poems, Wallace Stevens observed: "Perhaps the truth depends upon a walk around the lake." Ponder that thought as you circumnavigate a lake, a pond, a field, or even your block. Just the experience of moving puts things in perspective and enables you to take in the big picture.

I think of the many insights that have come to me by meditating by the banks of the river, or communing with its healing currents. If I had the opportunity to be by the ocean more often, I know I would seek out its comfort as I did while visiting Cape Cod last summer.

Make it a point to visit a body of water this summer and be open to whatever gifts you may receive!

Visit the Spirituality and Practice website:
http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/practices

Favored Prayers

An affirmation arose in my heart during my yoga class on Thursday. It has merged with a prayer and has now become a mantra - repeated in the depths of my meditation...

While I will not record it here, this simple mantra bears similarity with several prayers that have been my favorites, at various junctures of my life. The first one, is one I have loved since I was in my teens, and it has found its way back into the cave of my heart once more - and has been whispered fervently for several weeks...

The second was a favorite in my twenties, while I worked on my M.A. at St. Louis University, a Jesuit institution, and moonlighted as a liturgical musician. I often played and prayed a musical rendition of this prayer...

The third comes from a beloved mystic - who was beatified on my 50th birthday, which I celebrated in Paris. I began that Sunday morning by exploring Notre Dame during Mass, never feeling as much energy in a church as I did in that one. Significantly, my 50th fell on a Sunday, the very day of the week I was born...

And the last verse, comes from a disciple of Yogananda, and is actually the end of my mantra...

Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

Prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola

Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty,
my memory, my understanding and my whole will.
All that I am and all that I possess
You have given me: I surrender it
all to You to be disposed of according to Your will.
Give me only Your love and Your grace;
with these I will be rich enough,
and will desire nothing more.

Prayer of Abandonment by Charles de Foucauld
Father,
I abandon myself into your hands;
do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you:
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me,
and in all your creatures.
I wish no more than this, O Lord.

Into your hands I commend my soul;
I offer it to you
with all the love of my heart,
for I love you, Lord,
and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into your hands,
without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
for you are my Father.


"For God alone suffices..."
Sri Gyananmata

The River Calls Me in Darkness

The river calls me in darkness...I cannot sleep...For days it seems to elude me...Is this a new pattern in my life?

I arise and am in the water paddling upstream very early in the morning. Once more, I angle up the river by paddling in the center, something I never really do...And once more I sense the river is urging me to seek balance...

It is hazy, quiet, and as still as the river has been in a very long time. The surface of the water is covered with many little pools of bubbles, looking almost as if someone has spit into the river all over the place. It reminds me of the physical - as well as the spiritual act of purgation - a step on the ladder of Divine ascent - reaching out hungrily towards illumination...

My soul is in such need of illumination...

I paddle and an interior voice prays and sings a song by Cat Stevens:

"I listen to the wind,
to the wind of my soul.
Where I'll end up, I think
Only God really knows..."

I am in a place between places - once more in "kumbhaka" - that pause between breaths so impregnated by the presence of the Divine. Even Grace, my beautiful kayak and companion, is held captive by the stillness of the water, merely floating, and not being taken downstream...

I sit, I float, I wait, I pray, I ask, I bargain, I forgive, and I recite ancient words from the Upanishads:

"Lead me from the unreal to the real.
Lead me from darkness to light.
Lead me death to immortality."

I reflect on Marianne Williamson's post this morning:

"Let miracles replace all grievances..."

And this quote by Yogananda:

"Whatever you want others to be,
first be that yourself.
Then, you will find others responding
in like manner to you."

And a bright light shares this:

"Bring your LIGHT into this world
by doing the things you love,
living your values, feeling your feelings
and speaking your TRUTH."

And she also offers this:

"The very Center of our Love
is the spot of Grace
that issues Peace."

And this one as well:

"Go Deep, confront your resistance,
investigate your shadows, and open your heart."

As another bright light I know, would say, what else is there?

I continue to paddle, reaching my favorite spot, and am deeply touched by my yoga teacher's class and theme yesterday. She invited us to let go of the limiting effects of "anava mala" - and the dust it leaves on our hearts. She asked us to consider relinquishing once and for all our sense of not being good enough, and to do every pose as an offering to release our limitations.

I was moved almost to tears as I considered all the limiting dialogue I have subjected myself to...

My teacher shared a beautiful affirmation she said every day for a year to transform an aspect of herself. And here on this river, this morning, my own arises from deep within my soul. I sense it holds the key to change...

I emerge from the river, with the energy to take on whatever the day may bring...

From the Soul

I've spent a portion of this day putting the finishing touches on a series of yoga classes I am going to do for clergy men and women at the Virginia Theological Seminary. I am excited because it allows me to combine my two loves of yoga and spirituality. During the course of three days we will dance our way from the practice of yoga as one that contributes to greater wellness - to one that is best expressed in the physical embodiment of prayer.

From time to time during the course of the day, I have checked for inspiration here and there from my various online friends. It seems we support one another sometimes in ways that are both unexpected and timely.

These are some of the morsels that fed my soul today...

"When you do things from your soul,
you feel a river moving in you, a joy."
- Rumi

"Dream big! Journey far!
But inhabit each step
…with joy!"

"I live in the hope of meeting HIM
but the meeting is not yet.
There is the agony of wishing,
my heart wanders,
waiting with the restless mind."
- Deepak Chopra

"Love is a second life;
it grows into the soul,
warms every vein,
and beats in every pulse."
- Josepth Addison

"What are 'I' and 'You'?
Just lattices in the niche
of a lamp through which
the One Light
radiates."
- Shabistari, 13th century Persian

"As there is no language
for the Infinite,
how can we express
its mysteries
in finite words?"
- Shabistari