Author: Mandala

In our life there comes a time, an event where nothing seems to work where and how it used to work before.

This creates a shock to the system – and out of this comes a range of emotional responses that disrupt us.

Here we are at a “Destiny crossroads” which implies a choice – but we miss the nature of the cross roads and act as if we have no choice. In fact, we fall into negative reactive patterns and responses.

Then we feel we must act decisively and react at greater and greater speed. We fall into stress and distress. We begin to create a dissociation and loss of contact with our deeper selves and our capacity for mindful awareness.

We are now caught in a circle that typically escalates and amplifies stress and distress and which fails to address the real issues. We are in fact literally trapped in a vicious circle or spiral.

The first key is that people miss the truth that they have a choice – “If you want to know the source of the river you have to swim against the current.”

If the river we are caught in is the river of reactive “busyness”, swimming against this river means coming to standstill.

This means going against our reactive busyness. The first step is to stop and take “time out”. To interrupt what we always do and come to a place of stillness and silence – to turn inwards and attain a state of “inner dwelling”. The capacity to dwell inside our inner self with a quiet awareness and non-judgmental attitude.

The first thing this achieves is to break the reactive circle and heal the dissociation. We are now back in connection with ourselves – and the inner spacious awareness out of which our sense of possibility can emerge, and further on our ability to find our own deepest responses to our life situation. Once we have accessed this wonderful quiet awareness.

How to make optimal use of this stopping and indwelling:

Here we can start by using the two-minute exercise and the seven steps to prepare us to enter a meditative state.

With these processes you begin to awake to the nature of your own suffering. Then you attune deeper to yourself and learn how to listen to the language of your heart – and ultimately to hear the “song of your heart” and to understand its deepest true longing.

You learn to discriminate between the words of your intellect and the song of your heart. The deep ability of listening develops and you discover the capacity for self-empathy; you experience in your own heart the pain you have caused to yourself and to other people.
Integrity and authenticity develop out of this courage of our self-witnessing, and you discover that these qualities are aspects of your true Nature.

You experience a great inner light within that begins to radiate from the inside out through your face and eyes.

This is the basis of the profound training within the meditative practice of the Himalaya Tradition:

To learn to listen to the song of our heart is the practice and the purpose of this way.

Having attained the gift of knowing the song of our own heart we realise that within this song is the seed of our true destiny. We realize the song itself opens the door to our true inner teacher, and when we open our hearts to our inner teacher, in silence and tranquility, we will discover that she will bring us insights about our own future destiny and the path we must follow to attain it.

Yama and Niyama Kriya – Part One

I have yearned for a deeper understanding and experience of the yamas and niyamas for many years. Their promises, as revealed in the Sutras, are filled with hope and mystery for me. I still yearn for that state of existence in which these ten topics are effortlessly and perfectly expressed.  This yearning has given rise to a very very long experiment.

Initially seeking to create harmony at the levels of speech, action, and thought, I began at the level of speech.  Topic by topic, I would study what the sutras offered as initial, book understanding.  Then I would select a personal expression of the topic and begin my experiment.  For example, the first experiment of ahimsa (non-killing, non-violence, non-harming) was to seek twenty-one consecutive days without speaking anything negative.  Each time I would utter some negativity, I returned to day one and began again.   It took me four months to complete the experiment.  Ironically, or perhaps not, the beauty of the practice came in through the “failures”.  With each “failure”, I returned to the sutras to understand why THAT failure occurred. The kleshas offer a perfect road map to these inner workings.  Armed with the academic learning of the sutras, each “failure” provided me a real, concrete opportunity to experience the kleshas at play in ME.  The sutras also kindly offer many methods for managing, controlling, or eliminating the kleshas, so that each time I returned to day one, I had new insights with which I could engage MY kleshas within ME.  The experiments became incredibly playful and delightfully consuming and nobody knew that I was “practicing” yoga!

Topic by topic I worked through the yamas in this way.  Then, topic by topic, I worked through the niyamas also at the level of speech.  With each yama, I disciplined myself to   NOT DO something.  With each niyama, I disciplined myself to DO something.  For example, the first experiment of santosha (contentment) was to speak the word “enough” with a sentiment of satisfaction each time I was offered something … anything, for twenty one days, training my mind to believe my words.

If we consider our individual karmic nature to be a large mud puddle which we are striving to make drinkable, the yamas offer us the means whereby we no long throw mud into the puddle; the niyamas offer us the means whereby we pour pure water into the puddle, making it clearer, drop by drop.

It took me a bit more than two years to complete my first round of experiments focused on the level of speech.  It took me a bit more than two more years to complete the second round of experiments where I sought to affect both speech and (physical) action.  Do you recall Swami Veda’s teachings concerning the three levels of meaning conveyed by a word which we must simultaneously understand in order to grasp the full meaning of the word or text: adhibhautika, adhyatmika, adhidaivika?  Collectively, these first years of my experiments, focused on speech and gross actions, have given me a deeper understanding and experience of each yama and niyama at the level of adhibhautika (as it relates to individual entities acting in the world, the gross level).  I have just moved into the second phase of experiments, seeking to understand each yama and niyama at the level of adhyatmika (as it relates to something happening within the human person, subtle level, the mind level)  I am intending two rounds of experiments in this phase. Currently, I am seeking twenty-one consecutive days without a negative thought in the conscious mind.  I hope this takes some time, because the
“failures” are becoming more precise and helpful.  When I do complete all of my experiments at the  level of conscious mind, I will repeat at the level of the subconscious mind.  It has been clear from the beginning that I need to ultimately work at the level of the subconscious; I have been gradually moving from the gross to increasingly subtle layers.  This second phase of the practice will take many, many, many years!  I am aware that I do not have the capacity, yet, to complete this phase.  If, however, my capacity increases, allowing me to complete phase two within this life, I will then move to a final phase of understanding: adhidaivika ( as it relates to things happening in the universal forces of nature and the conscious forces behind the forces of nature, the divine level).

There are those in the world of yoga who have said that the yamas and niyamas do not suit modern human existence and/or are too much for the average person to pursue.  As an average person living a human existence, I have not found evidence to support such claims.  To the contrary, I believe the time is fertile for human existence to turn from the tremendous progress we have made in the external world and focus our efforts internally.  Future suffering CAN be avoided!

Yama and Niyama Kriya – Part Two

I have learned a tremendous number of lessons through this practice, each lesson leading to new inquiries and subtleties of experimentation and observation!  Here are a few of the more significant lessons I’ve learned:

• The brilliance of Patanjali’s system constantly reveals itself through this practice.  The Sutras provide ALL of the challenges needed for me to succeed as well as ALL of the answers to the challenges.  It is simply up to me to apply them lovingly, skillfully, and selflessly.
• Do you recall the maxims that Swami Veda described in chapter six of Philosophy of Hatha Yoga?  From a slightly different vantage point, this practice has offered me valid proof of his maxims, which I summarize as “all that occurs at the gross level is a consequence of that which occurs at the subtle level”.  Encouraged by such proof, I am confident in progressing to subtler and subtler levels.
• Several of the experiments have been sufficiently powerful to have motivated me to make long-term commitments.  For a period of forty years (with the option to renew), I have vowed to not speak anything negative, to not speak anything untrue, to ingest only that which is pure, and to make daily contemplative study of my namesake upanishad, tejobindu.
• I have twice given up, with amused “frustration”, my attempts to eliminate the words “I”, “Me”, and “Mine” from my speech.  It appears that my attachments to these false identities remain stronger than the power of my intentions.  Please try it.  To the one who successfully completes the experiment without going into silence, my deepest respects.
• When I have tried explaining this practice to friends, it just sounds like a lot of work and a big discipline commitment.  I recall Swam Veda’s helpful words “Why suffer a discipline when you can enjoy a pleasure?”  This is no longer a discipline for me but has become both the source of and pursuit of true pleasure!  Now, I hold myself to a funny little private standard: I pretend that my teacher could call me at any time, 24/7, and I should be able to effortless answer two questions “What are you practicing, right now?” and “What are the results?”.
• Finally, and perhaps most importantly, is has become my opinion that from within the state of samadhi (perhaps samprajnata or perhaps only asamprajnata samadhi, I’ll have to get back to you), the yamas and niyamas are assumed.  Until that time, a systematic, skillful, disciplined pursuit of these ten topics provides a comprehensive methodology for attaining the supreme goal of yoga, the supreme goal of life: Realization of the Self.

There will always be aspects of my practice which involve each of the limbs of yoga.  But I have semi-jokingly said in classes before that if I were a skilled enough teacher, I would teach nothing but ahimsa, in all of its subtleties!  Such is my belief in the power of this small aspect of what Patañjali documented for us.  I give thanks to all who support and encourage me in this practice: to those beings to realized this science, to Sage Patañjali for writing it down, to our Gurudev for lighting this path for me, to Swami Veda for both his gentle love and his precise academic clarity, to Pandit Dabral who first opened my yearning mind, to the countless mind-beings watch over me each day, and to the countless physical beings who lovingly deliver my challenges. May God continue to bless us all and may we one day realize that fact.

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Editor’s Note:

Pandit Tejomaya is a pandit in the Himalayan tradition and has a yoga center in Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada.

NOW, it is time to change our language according to the breath flow and Asana. Most Yoga teachers think that we have to link Asana and Breath in such a way that they always say: “While you do this, breathe in, and while you do that, breathe out “. Students are coming to the teacher asking: “Did I do this right or wrong”? Now the teacher can realize that he taught in a way making the student dependent instead of guiding him to the freedom of self-discovery.

Slowly she can change her language to: “While you move your body in this or that way, observe the flow of your breathing. When and how does the inhalation occur and when and how does the exhalation”? Now the students become scientists, observing what happens. They learn not to judge, only to observe and become free.

I developed in Germany 7 steps as a preparation for Meditation. The 5th step is: Observe the miracle of Inhalation and Exhalation for which you have nothing to do. You receive this flow from a power that is accepting you as you are with all your weaknesses and strength. Experience yourself as an observer of the unconditional sign of love.

This realization is for me the foundation of all relaxation. When I realize that I have nothing to do, I receive the Breathflow for free, the foundation of my life, whether I am good or bad, as a permanent sign of hope and a new chance, I can start to relax completely with no effort and with great joy and gratitude.

In my seminars, I ask the participants: “Can you breathe in and out?”  Most of them say: “Yes, sure”. Then I answer: “So you are the master of your being?” “Yes, sure”, they say.  Then I challenge them and give them the task to decide as the master to breathe in and not out. I ask them to do it attentively, observing what happens at the end of the inhalation. Most people feel strange and insecure at the beginning of that experiment. But after further practice, they experience consciously an enormous power, which is forcing the exhalation to come, even though the so-called Master did not want it to happen.

That observation allows the conclusion that we cannot breathe in and out. The Breath we receive is a heavenly present, a sign of unconditional love and hope, for which we have nothing to do.

Patañjali describes in his Yoga Sutras this as the fourth state of Breath, which flows from the celestial worlds to all living beings.

NOW, after that realization, we should slowly change our language to: “Observe the flow of the Breath” and stop saying in our classes: “Breathe in and breathe out! Breathe deeply and slowly”. We are not the doer and our language should mirror that we do nothing – we are children of God and are fed by him selflessly, continuously without a break. What we can do is allow this miraculous flow to happen, to become scientists who wonder like little children and enjoy that unconditional love.

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Editor’s Note:

Wolfgang Bischoff studied with Swami Rama of the Himalayas. As well as being the Spiritual Director of Himalaya Institut Deutschland, he is a mantra initiator and is also a member of the AHYMSIN Adhyatma Samiti, or Spiritual Committee. He was instrumental in developing a long-running 4-year teacher training course accepted by the German yoga teacher association.  Himalaya Institut Deutschland celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2011

When I got the “job” to talk about “the four purposes of life,” I was puzzled.

As far as I understand, each one of us has a purpose in life; that’s why we are here on this planet! A divine spark, surrounded by subtle mind-stuff – yes, you could call it Purusha – chose this incarnation, infused by life energy (prana) and called it “me,” as far as time, space, family, problems, and joys are concerned. I am here, we are here because there is something to work out, something to learn in the school that we call life on earth.

But then I realized that the topic has an added meaning in the context of Indian, cultural, and spiritual context, here the ‘purpose’ of life is summarized in four Purusharthas.

If we look at the word, I am sure you can easily recognize the word “Purusha” in it. Let’s say it means the indweller of this body, soul, consciousness, core energy – around which all your other personality stuff sticks … until it dissolves again. (That is another topic.) I like to think of this in the metaphor of fire. Ultimate consciousness is like a fire and the part that is the cause with which “I” am identified as “me” is the spark of that fire. Now, let’s not enter the discussion of whether the whole Fire is called Purusha, or just the spark; we can leave that to thousands of years of scholarship quibbles.

The second part of the word Purushartha is “artha”. It refers to that which is gained, be it wealth/experience/health or…whatever! The point to be aware of is that we look at this through the eyes of a certain philosophy. Reality is shaped by our basic thought matrix. Yes, how we experience reality is dependent on what mind-makeup we wear, what shapes the pattern of the matrix we look through (which in turn is shaped by the society we live in). In Yoga we are called to be aware of our mind-make up, and that, of course, includes what we feed our mind.

In this way we need to be alert to what the ‘mind–makeup was and is; and what “food we feed it.” Just as the food we eat builds our body and mind, so we build our own perspective, our own matrix through which we experience the world. Swami Rama talked about building one’s own philosophy of life. He said:

You are the architect of your life. You build your own philosophy and construct your own attitudes.

We study Yogic, Indian philosophy…thus we feed our mind certain patterns of thinking, which, of course, have implications. So when we talk, in the traditional Indian context of Purushartha, it refers to the general goal of human existence from a certain perspective. In this way, for the traditional Indian (Vedic) society, there are four such purushārthas, namely:

• Dharma: “(religious, social and/or moral) righteousness, both spiritual and ritual”
• Artha: “(material and/or financial) prosperity as well as pursuit of meaning”
• Kāma: “(material) pleasure “
• Moksha: “(spiritual) liberation; or renunciation as well as detachment”

Over the long history, there have been different ways these have been considered. In the earlier texts, there were three dharma , kāma, artha; later ones include the notion of moksha . At times artha and kama have been grouped together as the lower goals (to be fulfilled first), and the higher goals: dharma and moksha.

The details of this system and its unfoldment we find in the traditions of the Dharmaśāstras and the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. These are relatively later than the Vedas (how much later, varies…anything from a couple of thousand years to 500…who knows). The prime scripture of the Dharmashastras is the Dharma sutras.

You soon will see why I was so careful in the beginning. These scriptures describe what dharma is basically as “how a Brahmin male should conduct himself” (there are but few general issues). How life is to be conducted from the beginning, with the initiations the male child receives, etc. Yes, there are a few general issues described, but mainly it details duties, rites, rules, and responsibilities for the male Brahmin.
Now in our “day and age”… this seems a very limited culturally bound portrait. What about the other groups in society? What about women???? Dharma is described in these base scriptures as right behavior in terms of ritual moral and social spheres of behavior for men and for priests. At times there is even conflict, or should I better say, incongruity with the Vedas.

It is hard to underestimate the importance of this. Because there is in many ways not only a difference in that society ‘then…and now’, but there is a difference in the perspective of the mind-make-up in the oriental mind (I choose a word wider than India) for the relationship of the individual to society and the so-called “Western mind”. These are two quite different perspectives.

In the Orient, especially in ancient Indian society, the focus is entirely on the society, the ways, structures, and belief systems of a particular society must be maintained!! Therefore if an individual misbehaves…it can be ‘sacrificed’; if the family has a problem, the individual’s happiness or even life can be sacrificed. If a village is having a problem, the family might well be sacrificed; if the tribe/clan/community is in difficulties the village might well be sacrificed. And so on.

The individual person has their place, hence their goals of life…within a certain set of social rules, which are to be fulfilled. Even now in India… the clan, the village, and the cast determine much of the behavior of the people!

In the West, the focus is not so defining on the community/ the society but much more on the goal of the individual to find and fulfill his own life’s goal. I am not saying this is better than that; I am merely highlighting the differences because from here dharma, one’s duties are somewhat different!

The duties in Indian society are strongly focused on family, village, and social strata, i.e. cast, etc. You are born into a certain family and thus you have a certain duty shaped by that, i.e. Arjuna was born a Kshatriya so it was his dharma, his duty to be a warrior, including killing people! As a warrior it was not wrong to do so, he was merely an instrument of the divine will.

One is born, into a certain set of circumstances and stays there, fulfilling one’s dharma there! i.e. one is to follow the rules and rites of that group.

A similar understanding is had in the Jewish Tradition. There is a story in the Old Testament (which can serve as a pointed example): A man is found picking up sticks on the Sabbath. So Moses is asked what to do with him, the man has violated the dharma of the society! So Moses asks God; God answers: He should be stoned to death, he has broken the ritual law!

Often the word dharma is translated as virtue, but cultures differ, and what is a virtue in one, might not be a virtue in another.

In the traditional Hindu society, then and now … just as in the Jewish traditional society…, virtue meant obeying the laws of rites and customs of society. The function of these laws and rituals was to bind the individual into the group/caste/ family/ faith (and the benefit of it is that things are preserved!)

The way of fulfilling our duty in the Western context is based on a very different mental frame. Religion and obligations have a different places. We might be born into a set of circumstances, but have a choice to grow or opt-out! We can choose the religion, we choose the rites and rituals, and we choose what we want to do with our lives.

Yes, we have incarnated with certain lessons to learn; (just as in India), but we are self-responsible for learning it, walking that path, or choosing a different one…especially once we have learned from it! (To some extent, of course, we too, due to our mental matrix, follow the pattern of the society which builds our matrix, but there is a noteworthy difference. It is hidden… thus more difficult to know, but once known easier to escape).

This difference we also find in the different understanding that the word dharma has in Buddhism: there it refers to the individual’s “suchness”, intrinsic beingness… the tree has the dharma of treeing….so the dharma of the individual is much more concerned with the individual finding its way to its true goal/ nature, the Divine within.

One could say: In the ‘Hindu-Indian’ society attention is first paid to kama and artha; and later to the individual’s “dharma” and moksha. Where in the Buddhist tradition (and maybe in the Western matrix), dharma has more the flavor of walking to Moksha…however that word is understood!

I propose to step out of the narrow confines and try to go beyond these limitations and find the meaning of the Purusharthas that is valid across time and space. From this angle: what do the four aspects /goals for human life, dharma, artha, kama, and moksha, mean?

Artha

The purpose of one’s life; in order to fulfill the purpose of our incarnation, we need a stable foundation in the world. For that, we need to have a good look at ourselves, what our tendencies, talents, desires are and where our desires come from, which of these need to be fulfilled to progress. One could say: what lessons we need to learn in the school of life which would serve as a foundation to be able to progress to secondary school or university.

In order to build these foundations, the Purusharthas tell us, we need to be taking care of our needs. In agreement with psychology, we could say: Artha is gathering the means to fulfill our basic needs for food and shelter, for safety. In the Vedic society especially, but not exclusively this issue is solved within the social strata; i.e. the group looks after its own! Gathering the means to support one’s need, in our modern materialistic world generally means “earning/having money to provide the essentials.” Artha refers to recognizing this level of physical or material need and says: it has to be taken care of! As long as we live in the world, in a physical body… we need some measure of material wealth, to look after it… be it concerning food, or shelter.

As with many things, the scale, or depth is questionable. Each person has some measure of insecurity, propelling him/her to satisfy these base needs in a different way. (For example, in some societies these base needs include fathering a son!)

Insecurity, lacking any of the above is not a comfortable feeling, it distracts from progressing to the higher goals. On this base level providing security is the goal.

In our society, money is the most important worldly resource to provide us with security (food and shelter) so that’s what people want – desperately. The amount of desperation is many times directly proportional to the extent of insecurity within. We can’t think of life anymore without money, for it is also a means for getting enjoyment and comforts of life “which we need”.

Nevertheless, every person must be taught the art of acquiring money/wealth to have a certain sense of physical safety. Hopefully, this can be done in a way that is compatible with the person’s nature and beneficial to society. The problem of human tendencies is, however, that as soon as the base level is achieved one finds new avenues of insecurities, because money can never completely answer the problem of providing security. As soon as one gets it, one worries about how to protect this hard-earned money itself; i.e. one remains insecure.

The task of artha remains and hopefully progresses to gaining that which is beyond the material level which makes it safe and secure. Keep inquiring about yourself until you become really secure within.

So you acquire wealth and a measure of stability, then what? Now allow me to make a cartoon of the old Vedic society: “share it with – the church, ah sorry, – with the priests, the ruling strata, the religious people in power – in order to keep the society going.”

There is another way: once you made money, more than you need, help those who haven’t got enough to buy food, shelter, medicine, etc. Use it to care for humanity (rather than a specific society) as we are all One humanity as Swami Rama points out!

Kama

The second Purushartha is Kama, referring to pleasure. Kama has to do with the fulfillment of desires in the world. Without deep, latent desires (samskaras) there would be no incarnation. There is something you “want to get out of this incarnation”. “Kama” is different from “karma.” The meaning of “karma” is “action” and refers to the playing out of our deep impressions of attraction and aversion. Kama is the enlivened desire that springs forth from those latent conditionings. To say that these are not there and that they all must be renounced is virtually not practical. Desires must be acknowledged and reasonably fulfilled with mindfulness so as to move towards freedom from them, not adding to a continuous cycle of fulfilling and intensifying.

So Kama refers to the art of enjoying pleasures. Having acquired some money, and having got some security the next step for everyone is to use this money for your comfort, enjoy yourself and enjoy fulfilling your duties and responsibilities.

But as with artha, there is a higher level to it. Kama is not there for its own sake, but to free you from the need to be bound by it. Being fully present, and fully available to enjoy is the secret.

I am reminded of the often-told story of Swami Veda asking: Do you know how to sip orange juice. ??? Once you experienced and satisfied your desires and hankerings after egoistic pleasures you are available for higher experiences and a higher purpose. Move on!

Dharma

Now as the base needs are covered, we touch on Dharma, we touch on the purpose, the individual purpose of life. We have provided security, we have enjoyed what there is to enjoy in life, and now we can inquire into the deeper purpose within the context of our existence.

One of my teachers summed it up: ‘first obligation is to fulfill, – is to your parents, then to society, then to your teacher/wise man/the dharma teachers…. then to your Higher Self.’

For this we have to learn to listen, to observe ourselves, and our reactions, we have to observe others as what we see in them is like a mirror for ourselves; beyond that, we have to tune into the environment and find ourselves; we have to listen to the song of our soul within the universe. With that alignment, we get closer to the awareness of “how I fit into the multidimensional web of the universe.” From there I can become aware and fulfill my unique task/purpose, paint my unique picture, fulfill my existence in this context, and naturally flow with a calm clear mind to Truth, God, and the Divine.

Dharma has been called natural law, harmony, truth, duty, wisdom, and the inherent nature of things: Our place in the web of existence. The word “dharma” is from dhri, meaning to hold together, to sustain. It’s a two-way thing, my point in the web holds the web together, and the web holds me in my place.

To live in dharma is to live with our individual nature to be in accord with the whole of the flow of things, in harmony with life itself.

To live one’s dharma, is to live taking care of yourself so that you can take care of others. As SVB said many times… take the least and give the most… that is the right dharmic life.

Everything in this universe is connected in an infinite many dimensional Web, man cannot exist alone; so dharma makes us sensitive to the connectedness, to the need of others, on all levels, in all aspects and parts of the world/existence. We are one whole. Awareness of dharma, helps us to expand our family, and brings about a holistic vision! NOT LIMITED to our society, or clan our family, but to all!!!!

The moment we see the whole world as one great existence, we also become sensitive to a supreme intelligence, that is inherent to this great Web in which we exist. Thus dharma wakes us up to the higher, wider Totality – you may call it God. We partake in this Web that is HIS/HER body. Live in this “Divine Matrix,” in a spirit of surrender & love.

Dharma teaches that the creation is so orderly, beautiful, and purposeful that we cannot in our wildest dreams think that we are separate from it. Look upon the whole creation as a great, grand orchestra that is already presenting beautiful music; we are part of the orchestra and should be sensitive to the harmony and tune ourselves to it.

Just as only that person can enjoy the music who becomes sensitive to it, so also only that person can enjoy holistic living who sees basic harmony and order around.

Acceptance of being the great Web and in it having to play our part, being in God as God… we could say….is the real essence of dharma. This acceptance prepares us for our real goal in life, called Moksha. The general and personal Goal is to reach the state Moksha or Kaivalya in Yogic terms.

Moksha

Moksha is the final liberation from all of the deep driving impressions that continually play out in the mind and the world, that keep causing us to come and go from bodily form to bodily form. Moksha means that the deep conditionings no longer bind us. Moksha is freedom from the bondage of the ropes of karma that seem to bind us.

Moksha is the direct experience of the Absolute Truth or Reality, along with the total setting aside of all false identities of who we think we are. Self-realization, the direct experience of our true nature as pure consciousness, Purusha or Atman is one stage, once that experience permanently transcends all conditionings – moksha is reached.

Thus Moksha is freedom from all limitations: so far we looked at what we need to take care of in terms of security and pleasure here in this life (each of us in our own unique way), then we start seeing ourselves as beings in the web of the existence; once we realize our relationships in that web and have learned to take care of others, with respect and love – then we realize, we are the WEB. What more is there?

For that last step, we need Grace. We may even have become great humanitarians, but still, it’s not all. The Great Vedic thinkers know that ultimately even that great desire for Moksha has to go. When that desire, when that desire too has become redundant, such a person will be happy always and everywhere. “You are that”; this is what the Upanishads tell us: you are the Web, not just the point on the crossing of threads.

The four Purusharthas

The four Purusharthas can be described as stage posts of awareness. Understand and inquire into yourself, into your being, and into your Sadhana, and check whether you live aware of the highest goals of life…and that at all times, while you are acting and being in this world!

Hari OM

 

Everyone loves a baby. It turns the edgiest person into the softest mush. It brings out the instinct to protect and take care of all of us. Recently I met a baby who was only a few days old named Somayaaga. Spending a little time with him allowed me to see a glimpse of the world from his perspective. He came into the world with seemingly no knowledge at all, but he instantly became my teacher. He reminded me that to be born means you are starting over again. Every single thing has to be learned about the world. It is all new. Someone has to feed you, bathe you, change your diaper, treat any health problems, and basically take care of your every need. Someone needs to teach you all the basic skills and knowledge that allow you to operate in the world.

I don’t have the answers about why I was born, but I do know that in the 55 years I have been on the planet I have become attached to being in the body and all that comes with it.  The smells, sights, sounds, food, people, email, computers, TV, walking, sleeping, and on and on are all things I have grown accustomed to. The attachments are countless. I am attached to so many things that have taken many years to become a part of me, that I am not even aware of everything that I am attached to.  As we learn how to operate in the world, all these attachments become second nature to us and we are no longer conscious of all of them. The planet feels like it has become my home and the only home I remember.  An even greater mystery for me now, more than birth, is the mystery of death.  They are very connected to each other and hard to separate.  They are locked together as partners in the life cycle.  It is a contract for all of us: with birth comes death.  Eventually, everyone who comes into a body has to leave it behind. We have proof of that. But clearly, I am having a lot of trouble understanding and coming to terms with the reality of my own eventual death.

The idea that someday I will shrivel up, disappear, and my memory will be erased is so difficult for me to fully comprehend and come to terms with.  Occasionally the idea of it wakes me up in the middle of the night, sometimes with sweats and a rapid heart rate. This issue is ongoing for me and at times is very pressing in my mind.  It does not totally consume me because there are a lot of times when I go about my life and forget about it.  But then some thought or event triggers it and reminds me of it all over again.  I can say that it is the driving force behind my life, and I am especially reminded of it when I sit down to meditate.  It drives me to my meditation practice and it keeps me striving for purpose in my life at every turn.  The idea of not wanting to lose consciousness at death is an incredibly strong force within me.  I am still trying to figure out what I can best do with my time now so I can be prepared for the eventual time of leaving the body and this world behind.  When I leave I want the attachments to be done, so that I am leaving it all behind without a second thought. I can practice for this, but I will not know until the time comes how prepared I actually am.

Even if we are reborn, the question remains if we carry any memories with us.  Some people, including great spiritual masters such as Swami Rama, have said this is possible.  But all I know is my personal experience, and I can’t remember anything about a possible past life, let alone any kind of details about it.   Somewhere along the way from death to birth, I lost the memory of every experience.  Perhaps it is at the moment we leave our body behind and our brain ceases to function that our memories completely disappear.  There is nothing to store them in anymore. But, is it possible that we carry something forward and that some momentum or deep consciousness comes with us?  I know that various religions and yoga philosophies have a precise belief in what it is we carry forward, but it is difficult for me to accept these ideas unconditionally as the truth.  I have not yet come to a personal belief or understanding of this process. I think this belief can only be gained by personal experience, but once we have shed the body, we have also lost our ability to speak or write about it.

The cycle of birth to death to rebirth is commonly believed to occur in some form in many religious and spiritual beliefs. These beliefs may have begun through observing the natural agricultural cycles that mimic this process. From my understanding, Hindu philosophy states that all people born on this earth are certain to die, and equally certain is the fact that all the dead would be reborn.  It is believed that we are born with Samskaras or a kind of spiritual imprint from the previous life.  Similar to Hinduism, in Buddhism death is not seen as the end of life, it is merely the end of the body we inhabit in this life. Our spirit will still remain and seek out through the need of attachment for a new body and new life.  Many religions and spiritual philosophies emphasize the impermanence of life and all that we cherish and hold on to.

It is clear to me, thanks to Somayaaga’s reminder, that when we are reborn we lose our memory of how to function in the human body.  The brain of a newborn is not developed enough to carry all that skill and knowledge.  At death, we leave our bodies behind.  That is also clear to me because of the physical proof.  It is unclear to me how (or if) it is possible to carry some memories forward with no physical body to store them in. No wonder there is such a fear of death.  Everything we know and have learned seemingly will be totally wiped out.  It all has to be re-learned if and when we are reborn.  It is a daunting thought.  We have to learn the language and the skills of whatever time period, location, and species we arrive in.  We are totally dependent on whoever is raising us to teach us.  Dying is truly the greatest act of renunciation.  And it is something everyone does.   I don’t know where, when, or if the answers will come to me about death.  Perhaps they will only come when I encounter it directly at that precise point in time.

Somayaaga also reminded me of all the devotion it took for my parents to raise me.  How do we ever thank our parents for all the love they showed us as babies?  My memories were erased from my previous life, and they were also erased from when I was a baby.  When we are old enough and conscious enough to see another baby and realize how much constant love and care it takes to raise one, it shows us how much we ourselves were cared for.   I am just now starting to understand the love my parents showed for me.  It is now over 20 years since my parents passed away.  With this new realization, how can I ever thank them?  One way I can think of to thank them is to learn to enjoy life and make the most of this opportunity.

There are all sorts of stories of people who learn they are dying soon due to an illness and come to appreciate life more than they ever had.  They start to come into the moment and realize each day is a new opportunity.  What can we learn from all of this?  We go through a lot during the process of being born. You have to learn how to operate your body and mind all over again and make many mistakes along the way.  After all that work, we need to rejoice in every second of life knowing we took that leap of faith, willingly or not, and it worked out.  That leap of faith has allowed us to be alive and witness all the wonders and drama that this life has to offer. To show gratitude for this and to make all of it worthwhile, we need to have fun while in the body and enjoy life each and every moment.  Of course, this is easier said than done and the skill of enjoying life remains an ongoing challenge for me.  But if we can master this challenge it is surely one way to thank the people who brought us into the world.