For those who have asked me to write something about this evening; In my humble view I offer this -

Please know that I approach Hinduism from the same point of view as any other religion and that is from a metaphysical one. There is much more ritual, practice and history to this subject than what is written here. I hope this helps.

A traditional and classic explanation is that on this evening, the 13th night and 14th day after the full moon, the ‘veil’ of ignorance is thinner and can be pierced more easily. Hence, all our good intentions and spiritual practices are more potent and therefor fruitful.

On a more esoteric level it is the grounding time to recognize the work (ours) and the Triumph (Shiva’s) of transcending the physical plane and all the distractions that come with it. This, in my view, is what we’re meant to do here in this schoolmaster plane. To correct the misidentification we have with all things bodily, so called material or phenomenal. We fell asleep and got distracted with the images that we’ve created, and forgot that we created them in the first place. This is Maya.

“Shiva is another name for the Knower of the field and Shakti is the field; Spirit is another name for the Knower of the field and Matter (Prakriti) is the field”. In Christianity and Buddhism it would be addressed as - Christ is another name for the Knower of the field and The Holy Ghost is the field; Buddha is another name of the Knower of the field and Perception is the field. It is the first AND second commandment of the Bible and therefor the corner stone of Judaism -1) ‘You shall have no other gods before Me.’ -  2) ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image…’ I maintain that there is only One Truth told over and over by all the great religions. 

This is not to say that we try to destroy or deny image. From one point of view we have reverence, celebrate and worship these Names and images. Our work is in transforming our sense about them.

It is the celebration of the triumphs and work of transforming phenomena to Consciousness or Spirit. In other words, seeing and feeling the so called physical world as mere shadow, subject to thought, and putting Consciousness as Substance (as what “Matters”) back to it’s throne.

If we really were in this state it would change the game a bit don’t you think? =) We would turn toward meaning instead of symbol. We would go to the Root of all things every time. The statement by Dr. Wayne Dyer, “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change”, would be a living experience. Imagine a world where all is subject to your good loving thought. There would be a pure state of Love.

In this world, the words ‘war’, ‘health’, ‘poverty’, ’success’ or ‘failure’ would not even be in our vocabulary. 

This is a part of what’s contained in every ”Om Namah Shivaya” I sing.

On Namah Shivaya!

In asking the question, “What is Yoga” the first thought that comes to mind is another question; what is life? For like life itself yoga is not a subject or object outside oneself. It is not a class that one takes, it is not a position that one poses in, and it is not meditations or mantras. It is, of course, the clothes!

Just kidding! Yoga is an approach or quality in which we do all things with. It is a mindfulness of humility, perseverance, love, tolerance, and balance while paying attention to the present (breath) and honoring all beings. It is living in the Goodness that goes beyond the duality of good and evil. Namely, doing Good without the promise of reward or fear of punishment. Balance is central; a balance that is expressed in the physical poses but ultimately goes beyond all form. Balancing male (construct, volition, and Truth), with female (intuition, acceptance, and Love). Practically speaking, it is balancing fire with softness, even ego with Sacrifice. How do I become soft when I was instructed to do one more pose on that same thigh? - How do I let go and strengthen at the same time? This is what is revealed through the technology of yoga.

Taken off the mat - it is, for example, the practice of how to be soft and loving when I am trying to write this page and there are kids screaming all around. Each yogic experience on the mat can be a whole life of material. From realizing this transitory state of life that we live in (this pose too shall pass), to offering a moving, meditative prayer with body, heart, and Mind.

In the glossary of B.K.S. Iyengar’s “Light on Yoga” there is a revealing definition of the word “ahimsa”. It carefully notes that this word does not merely mean to be “non-violent” or “non killing” but explains that it is “love, embracing all creation”. So we can say that the true meaning of ahimsa is to be loving and all embracing of the goodness of all things. To be non-violent is to be conscious of all our actions, deeds, and thoughts. I say it in this order because this is the order in which we are most likely to become aware, from gross to sublime.  From not physically fighting someone, to not having a thought of the illusion of self separate from other. Violence is one of many types of suffering. The subtlety of violence can be found in the mundane of how we chew our food, to forcing our body into positions during our asana practice.

From one perspective it can be said that Hinduism and Buddhism for that matter, are spiritual paths that say “yes” to everything. This does not mean to partake in so called evil but rather to embrace the whole, thereby transforming it to one perfect dance. Sometimes, part of that perfect dance may be sorrow. Using a practical method to achieve this transformation called Pratipaksha Bhavanam (interjecting the opposite feeling), the yogi is here to give happiness where there is sorrow, love where there is hate and ease where there is dis-ease. It is not enough to change our habits, not enough to change our thought. If one wants actual change in their experience and in the world, one must penetrate feeling. The only real feeling is Love. Everything else is illusion based on a separate self that reaches out for that which it already is.

“From the Kabbalists, to the Sufis, to Tibetan monks, and from the Aborigines, to shamans, to the Vedic holy men, the belief has always existed that the cosmos is a sea of vibration and that sound is the vessel that transports us to bathe in that ocean. The ancient Sanskrit words ‘nada brahma’ translate as, “The world is sound” or also as, “Sound is God.” Kirtan is one way we experience sound as God.” - LA Yoga Magazine

In Genesis, Moses tried to explain that life was purely spiritual and that all creation or what we call physical phenomena is but the reflection or image of God or Consciousness. Creation is depicted as “Let there be” this, and “Let there be” that - never toiling, but rather, a beautiful flow of allowing the effect of Goodness to appear. Just like what the movies; “What the Bleep”, “The Secret” and quantum physics in general have been trying to explain lately. This is also at the heart of Buddhism. Then, Moses warns; “But a mist arose and watered the whole face of the earth.” In other words, there was a misunderstanding of this law of cause and effect, of divine creation, so Moses wrote the scenario of which we are currently under the influence. One of a personal, physical God which he now calls “Lord God” (like saying “Mr. God”). A personal ruler, much like a king, that took “adamah” or red clay (matter) and “formed a living soul” out of it (the birth of mistaking shadow for substance). This was Moses’ attempt to depict the illusion of what has been called the “Adam Dream” or “Fall of Man”.

One of the keystones to Judaism (therefore, Christianity and the Muslim faith) is the monotheistic nature of God. The term “chosen ones” came from the fact that Moses knew that all so called physical phenomena is but the reflection of Consciousness… the One Consciousness. No separate God of wind, God of trees, etc. Brilliant discovery. The other huge finding was that since substance is Consciousness or God, then all things “made” from that Consciousness are its reflection and not to be confused with it’s substance. This is the same as the common saying; “Don’t mistake the menu for the meal.” When one looks at a menu one knows that it is merely a representation of the actual substance. In this case the food. Unfortunately, the error goes much deeper than eating a cardboard menu, although you would eventually die if you made this your only food. The larger problem and the cause of all suffering today has also been called “worshiping the golden calf”, Idolatry and “praying to a graven image”. Confusing shadow for substance can be likened to looking in a mirror and trying to comb your hair in the reflection. At first thought this sounds ridiculous. Who would do this? Yet, if we see the body as simply the shadow of God or our very own Consciousness we can see that we do this everyday by trying to change the outward situations while continuing to conduct our Consciousness (thinking and believing), in the same way.

So, the “mist that watered the whole face of the earth” can be seen as a misunderstanding or illusion of that which we see, touch, taste, smell and hear. In Hindu philosophy this is called maya. The result of this being the world in which we live today, where each great spiritual work has practically been destroyed by the lack of understanding metaphor. We have some Jews saying that Jesus is not the messiah because when the messiah comes he will free them from all of their enemies, Christians saying that Jesus is the only messiah that has ever existed and it is he, as a personality, that must rule your heart and Muslims saying that Islamic Jihad means something other than the internal struggle that we must fight against our own ego.

“Messiah” has roots in ’messenger’ or ‘deliverer’. What is important is the message or delivery. Jesus’ message, for instance, was love and understanding. This is what is important. This is substance. Someone once said that it’s as if Jesus said “Hey everyone, go this way!” and as he pointed with his thumb, instead of anyone going the direction he was pointing, they all started sucking it. We can thank and even love the grace of the messenger but isn’t it the message for which we are grateful? We seem to be stuck on the literal, worshipping the graven image, possessing God, Itself. This has led the world to torture, murder and countless wars.

Contained in the word “Islam” is ’slam’, this comes from ’salaam’. One of the meanings of ’salaam’ is ’surrender’. This, of course, is another way of saying “Thy will be done”. In a common example it is the relationship between a surfer and a wave. There is nothing the surfer can do but humbly learn how to be a part of the wave. Any ego or attempted dominance and the surfer is crushed. Great metaphor. When this word is taken literally it can be twisted to mean “make everyone surrender”.

What is it about us humans that want to have the corner on truth? Running around, chasing shadows with each claiming that their illusion is the only real one. We have fanatic Muslims making everyone else surrender or die, Christians claiming that everyone will burn for eternity if they don’t accept Jesus personally (even if you’re a monk in the Himalayas that has never heard of him but practice his message everyday) and we have everyone else worshiping, killing and dying for the ultimate of all golden calves… their Holy Land. The “Holy Land” is metaphor for a state of Pure Consciousness. It is not a place or object (graven image). I maintain that worshipping the graven image or form is the source of all suffering. These misunderstandings are destroying all that we love, leaving legacies of war for our children to inherit (the ultimate in child abuse) including destroying the earth itself! Please come home.

The decoding of Jesus’ “Father, Son and Holy Ghost” is an attempt to explain the science or secret of life. These are not three persons. They are aspects of Consciousness. A simple way to explain this in a short essay is to liken it to camera projection; “The Father”  (God) is the light source, “The Son” (Messenger) is the mechanical workings of the projector and “The Holy Ghost” (Man-ifestation) is the image that is on screen. This is the three in one process of Consciousness known as The Holy Trinity. In the analogy of the projector, the image can only be the reflection of the light source. Love in our heart is our light source. Love in our heart causes the fruition of Love in our experience. The Trimurti in Hinduism is a similar example with their metaphors of  Brahma (Creation), Vishnu (Shepard-Preserver) and Shiva (Phenomena). This understanding, of course, will “set you free” and this will change your enemies to loved ones. This is the message from all the messiahs; Please stop eating cardboard menus!

In Hinduism we say Shiva is the “Lord of destruction”. This can be seen as a rationalization for war or violence. After all, the Gods do it. For me, I am happy to see Shiva as that aspect of the One Consciousness that is impermanence or deconstruction. This approach has been so transformational to me. The fact is that in 100 years or so there will be no one left on this earth that is here today. There will be an entirely new cast of characters.

The moment we have phenomena, we have decay. Whether it is a human body, a leaf turning brown or a cloud going by. The Tibetan sand mandalas that take days to make and are destroyed with one swipe of the arm is an example that shows this impermanent nature of things so beautifully. So when we sing “Om Namah Shivaya”, we recognize and give reverence to this aspect of Consciousness. There is no idolatry here. No violence. No possession. This realization reminds us of the reason to be familiar with sitting still - to identify and dwell within that which will not deconstruct, that which is indestructible. This is Stillness or Emptiness.

The world is on fire! It is in part because of our lack of understanding each indigenous religion that has been graciously given to us by the enlightened prophets and poets that shared their insight and tried to explain it as poetry. Poetry tries to say with words, that which can not be said in words. So, in a sense, poetry points to something greater than itself, something beyond the story that is on the page. If we “read between the lines” we will first see white paper but in that blankness and stillness there will be the message. The message is the same every time…

Love one another!

The Buddha left his family and ate living beings.

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Aldous Huxley ingested LSD on his death bed.

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The Dalai Lama eats meat.

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George Burns smoked until he was 99 and didn’t have a trace of cancer.

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Thich Nhat Hanh wears leather shoes.

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William W. Walter thought that Hindus and Buddhists were lost and that’s why their country looks as it does; impoverished, in chaos, and full of disease.

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I was given cafe con leche as a child just before bedtime and slept like a log.

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Terence McKenna, Shamans, and “Medicine Men” throughout the Americas believe that “the reason we have language and notions like community, altruism, loyalty, brotherhood and hope is because for a period of roughly a hundred thousand years we self-medicated ourselves and suppressed the poisonous presence of the calcareous tumor of ego.”

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Jesus consorted with prostitutes, sinners, tax collectors, drank wine and ate lamb.

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Zen Master, Bon Yeon, is known to follow the tradition of hitting his students 30 times with a stick;

“Hard training, a big dash of humor, and a little bit of kimchee… very spicy!”

Question: What is Buddha? Answer: “Dry shit on a stick”!  SMACK!

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Is being smacked on the head with a stick good for you or healthy?

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Is kimchee good for you?

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Can a study be conducted proving that kimchee or hitting you on the head 30 times is harmful and may lead you away from the path?

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Is the Samurai warrior a true path when the Buddha taught non violence and loving kindness?

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Ascetics starve themselves even to the point of death.

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Is starving yourself healthy?

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Some Buddhists light themselves on fire to bring attention and compassion to a cause.

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Is self immolation healthy?

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Can a study be conducted that shows lighting yourself on fire is bad for your health?

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Is anything ever damaged in reality?

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Is anything ever lost in reality?

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Will all these beings make it to the “Promised Land”?

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The following is what I offer to this mixed bag of thoughts:

“Money is the root of all evil.” A popular misquote of 1 Timothy 6:10.

Here is a more accurate quote:

“For the love of money is the root of all evil.”

Herein may lie the answer: Maybe it’s not the thing, act, or deed that means anything? Perhaps it is the sense you have of what you’re doing that has meaning or counts? Money means nothing. It is neither good nor evil. The enlightened statement by Timothy means that when we love things instead of meaning it becomes lust. That is, craving image is the real sin. True wealth is the ability to desire and automatically give and receive on many levels. This is how it can be that some have accrued vast “fortunes” but are left with a completely impoverished and stingy sense of themselves and life, and how others that are monetarily weak, can be so wealthy, free, and generous.

In Judaism there is a law to not eat pork or shellfish.
The first level of this law is that it is unhealthy (bodily). The deeper law is to not indulge in the swinish element. To not partake (eat) in the scavenging element. A pig will eat fecal excrement because there is a piece of corn in it. Shellfish (selfish) eat the oceans floor (excrement). The even deeper meaning of this law is to teach you that you are not a limited being subject to victimization. You are the God Head, Itself.

So ask yourself who you would trust to hold on to one million of your dollars;

A man who eats bacon with his eggs in the morning but is the most loving, honest and giving person?

Or a man who never eats pork but is a cut throat business person who lies and cheats?

If you answered the former we are once again making clear that it is not what goes in the mouth but what comes out of the mouth.

Matt. 15:10 -11, 17 - 18
“Hear and understand: It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man! Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and so passes on? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a man.”
And I’ll add - This is what he believes true and so experiences!

This is another way of saying it is not the thing but how the thing is perceived that matters. The word “matter” is very telling. At present we call what matters to us “matter” and what doesn’t matter - thought, meaning, spirit, etc. The concrete sense that we have about what we call matter is in actuality gassy, thin and not substantial. The meaning, the spirit, consciousness, is hard and concrete but we don’t experience this yet because of where we put our sense of importance or substance (”what matters”). Our journey is from sense to soul. From outside to inside. From image to meaning.

So, it’s not how much yoga you do.
It’s not how many Hail Mary’s you say.
It’s not how long you can meditate for.
It doesn’t matter if you play a hand of Black Jack.
It’s not how loyal you are to one faith.
It’s not how often you go to church.
It’s not the incense, robe, shaved head or Guru.

It is your sense and your sense alone that governs your path and no one can know for sure what your sense is except you. This is why the Buddha’s head should be chopped off if you see him on the path. Because even the Buddha doesn’t want you to follow him blindly. There are no rules but there is a Natural Law to be authentic and inquisitive with an open heart. A Natural Law, like when water in a stream hits a rock it goes around it.

It is also true that anyone of these methods will lead you to enlightenment.

It’s always enlightening to see many examples of the same thing. The “story of life” is repeated over and over from cultures and ages that have never connected with each other. Yet, the same story is told. To understand the thread that links these examples together is to become face to face with the actual truth.               May the metaphor be with you!

                                                  
HINDU TRIMURTI   ~   CHRISTIAN TRINITY

BRAHMA  Creation         FATHER  Creation

VISHNU  Preservation    SON  Offspring of creation, “The Way”

SHIVA  Destruction        HOLY GHOST  Man-ifestation,
                                    Phenomena, End of creation process,
                                    That which deconstructs, Whole image

FILM  PROJECTOR      ~     INDIVIDUAL CONSCIOUSNESS

LIGHT  Source                   CONSCIOUSNESS  Substance

MECHANICS  Activity          THOUGHT  Knowing,  *Male

PROJECTION  Image          EXPERIENCE  Feeling, *Female

One must be careful mixing metaphors, remembering that these are approximations and tools for unlocking innate understanding that cannot be talked or written about.

Our journey can be viewed as the matrimony or seeing correctly the triune nature of Consciousnesses, it’s Process and it’s Manifistation. Moving from outward attachment and false identification, to inward meaning and Understanding.

“We have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us - the labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path, and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.” -Joseph Campbell

*We obviously need to keep in mind the fact that men feel and women know.  For men (Yang), the light shape of Yin and Yang, everything is spelled out and explained, in its Technicality, Analyzing and Truth. For women (Yin), the dark shape of Yin and Yang, it is Feeling, Intuition, and Love that take the front seat of consciousness.              

Note: Preservation (Hindu) is the Shepard and middle position, as is Jesus (Christian) is the Shepard and middle position. Also note that although female is at the end of the creative process, all life begins there as well (Shakti-Womb). This underscores the fluidity and ultimate oneness of this Three in One process.

In our daily lives we can always be reminded of the deeper meaning of this quote from the bible: “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” Matthew 6:3 – meaning, that although we know that to do good is to receive good (the two hands), we must work independently of this knowledge. If we think that by doing this or that good deed we will benefit from it, to whatever degree we dwell on this, we ruin the heart motive, i.e., the love of good for good’s sake (also we’re not being in the moment because we’re anticipating a future reward). In this same way, if we set out to dissolve the ego we are doomed. For one it’s already a subtle egotistical aggression against the self (“I’d be great if I killed this ego”).

Currently who we are is so mixed up with who we are not that we needn’t start picking apart what to keep and what to discard. Some energy we have is what makes us “crazy” but some of that same energy or personality is what may make us great drummers, motocross racers or ambulance drivers, etc. Again, it seems to me that the only way around this quagmire is to meditate for the sheer love and interest in meditating. Not to become “better” and not to try to dissolve the ego. To be inquisitive without commentary. Just observing. By doing this, one begins to identify themselves as the observer instead of the observed. Celebrated Tibetan author, Sogyal Rinpoche, calls it “Sky-like Mind” as opposed to the clouds (parade of characters, all our stories, comedy/drama). That which sits behind and is never stained or marked by the temporal clouds that come and go. With this clear intention – the inconsistencies, cherished human beliefs, fears, etc., become harder to believe, harder to take seriously and therefore fall by themselves without the ego saying; “I’m never doing that again!” or “I’m gonna beat this thing!” They both sound a bit violent and egotistical, do they not?

The common analogy of your mind being like a shaken jar of water and sediment is a great one but there’s one more point that can be seen from it. The jar that is shaken represents the mind full of distractions (cloudy). Yet, if we let it sit still (meditate, focus to the exclusion of thoughts) the sediment (grasping distraction) stops or settles to the bottom, leaving a perfectly clear jar of water (“empty mind”). Once your thoughts are settled and a thought of anxiety, fear or possession arises, it’s like seeing a single particle floating in a crystal clear jar of water. You can identify it and you can also see the thread that leads to its source. You’re not searching for a needle in a haystack of a million voices all trying to speak at once. Simply put, your mind is not full of chatter. When we see the origins of these things it becomes difficult to cherish them or take them so seriously and therefore cannot maintain themselves in consciousness.

We, humanity, as a species are standing at the threshold of Conscious Consciousness (Consciousness becoming conscious of itself), the ability to deduce from within out. This is the state that allows our enlightening conversations, discovery of meditation, the sciences, music and the potentiality of full enlightenment or what is often called Self Realization, but I will add that this very same virtue is also the destroyer. With the ability to deduce from a supposition comes the ability to say “what if?”, which also brings the ability to be anxious, fearful (“What if they don’t like me?”) regretful, vain and basically the ability to tether way out in dream-like free association requiring the need for meditation or focusing on the now. Fortunately what we are always doing right now is breathing. So this is why the breath is the best way to bring us back every time. If the past is over and the future has not yet come and we are spending most of our lives in these two concepts then we’re not here at all!

Dogs don’t understand mirrors. Nor do dogs understand vanity. Why is this? Because they don’t understand the concept of stepping outside of themselves and looking back. To do this requires deductive reasoning or reasoning from within out and the animal level has only unfolded, in varying degrees, to inductive reasoning or reasoning from without in. With the virtue of deductive reasoning (The Christ) comes the comment. This word is very revealing; communicating with our own mentality. It’s like saying “com-ment-ality” or even “co-ment-ality”, i.e., stepping outside one’s sense of self and looking back and commenting on it (sort of a co-brain).

Again, it is the cause of the neurotic mess that has become the so called “human condition” but at the same time, it is the wonder and glory of this elevated state of life that we are so lucky to be a part of.