The first of the great yoga masters to publicly travel to the West was Swami Vivekananda, who came to America in 1893 at the invitation of the Congress of Religious Liberals. He had accepted an invitation to speak at the Parliament of World Religions being held in Chicago as part of the World’s Fair. At […]
There are several branches of yoga traditionally cited as valid approaches to the goal of Self-realization. Yoga, in its fullest sense, however, is not so much a tree with different branches, as it is a comprehensive spiritual art that takes into account the varied needs of different individuals, and even the same individual at different
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Someone said something interesting to me the other day. She said she wasn’t interested in yoga because it is too “eastern.” Certainly, she should be respected for her opinion and orientation. At the same time, however, it is obvious she doesn’t understand the scientific nature of spirituality. From a practical point of view, yoga, which
Oh Ma,Your beautiful soft folds of lightdraw me from my cave.My eyes open and my legs unfold —your call is just too great.How could I withstand your siren musicdrowning my soul in love?The fire of your beautyburns throughthe shell of who I wish to be,leaving me nakedand alonewith you.Each morningyou pull me from sleepto chant
A man goes to a spiritual teacher who has a reputation for being able to perform miracles. The teacher tells the man that the miracles are irrelevant, what is important is the faith and devotion which makes miracles possible. As had happened so many times before, however, the man insists that his devotion can blossom
In virtually all meditative traditions, one finds instructions to “release” thoughts, “let go” of attachments, and “cease clinging” to likes and dislikes. These verbs imply that a quiet mind is not so much something gained or accomplished, but something already existing, underlying our present chaotic condition. The quiet mind is revealed when we lose ourselves
A man goes to a psychiatrist, who decides to use a Rorschach Ink-Blot Test to evaluate his new patient. He shows the man a page with a large ink-blot on it and asks the man to describe what he sees. The man tells the doctor he sees two people engaged in sex. The psychiatrist shows
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In yoga practice, an aspirant may worship a form of God as a means of making accessible the One, formless Absolute. This chosen form of God is called one’s Ishtadeva. The only means of determining one’s Ishtadeva is through one’s own heart, and through experiences that may arise on the spiritual path. This is the
The Goddess Kali recently answered my prayers. I had become increasingly aware of a knot of tension, of selfishness, of impurity in my consciousness and I wanted to remove it. I was raising a ton of energy in my meditation and yoga practice but I was having some trouble getting it all to flow. I
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I once asked Baba Hari Dass, “Does the world exist outside of our minds?” I had been contemplating the relationship of the outside world to my inner environment, and I wondered just what was “out there” triggering the electrical activities of my brain. “Yes,” Babaji replied, the world does exist outside of one’s mind. “But
