Svadhyaya:

Sva is a reflexive pronoun in Sanskrit, meaning “one’s own self.” In this context, it refers to the Atman or Soul. Dhyaya means “to contemplate.”

There are two fundamental questions we should ask ourselves on our awakening journey. The first is “What is God?” The second, and perhaps more fundamental of the two is “What am I?” When we ask this question, we are not inquiring about our personalities, those masks we put on and take off like a favorite coat. We are contemplating the core of us: that which animates and gives life to the mind and body, that which we are, the Soul.

Inward-Turning

When we turn inward to contemplate the reality of our existence, there is one eternal constant; we are That, individualized units of pure existence-being. The essence of us is the essence of all life.

Everything we read, study, and absorb should lead us to the answers that bring us face-to-face with the ultimate reality: the truth.

The realization of the Self, removes suffering, setting us free.

Reflection of Consciousness:

So many of us spend our time dreaming about how we want life to be, we forget to live the life we have. We live our lives in the shadows of our thoughts and beliefs hiding from the light of the Soul. But I know a secret, the truth is, the life we are experiencing is not a reflection of our hopes, dreams, wishes, or random thoughts, nor was it ever meant to be.

What we are experiencing, whether we perceive it as pleasant or unpleasant, happy or sad, fulfilling or unfulfilling, is a reflection of our consciousness made manifest. Consciousness, in this sense, is our fundamental spiritual perception and understanding of our world and our place in it. It is an intricate blend of the patterns carved into our minds from previous behaviors and beliefs, as well as our habitual states of awareness and thoughts (cognitive biases), and the level to which we realize the truth of our spiritual existence-being.

Paradigm

The spiritual paradigm within which we function is our consciousness and it is our consciousness that is expressing as our current events and circumstances. 

In order for us to permanently change our world and our experiences in it, we must have a dramatic shift in our spiritual consciousness-paradigm. Our consciousness is not fixed; it is fluid and expansive and with Spirit as its foundation, it is without limitations and boundaries.

The more established we are in the truth of our existence-being, the more the infinite potential of our spiritual reality we will express and manifest as our experience in this world.

The Miracle:

Somewhere, deep inside us, we know we are the weft threads of a seraphic tapestry: a blended miracle of Spirit and light. But we also know we are more than just a product; we are the hand God put forth when woven is this world. We are the waters of life, and the life that moves those same waters. We are the actor and the play. We are the witness and the drama. We are not born, and we will not die; we live in the forever realm of Spirit because we are that same Spirit made manifest. 

Alpha & Omega

God is the truth of us. God is the heart of us. God is the journey and the destination. We have not been left abandoned in the cold to find our way home alone. We have only to turn to the source within, that consciousness-presence silently waiting to be called upon. But, to realize this truth, we need to learn to intently listen to the song of our Soul. And to do this, everything we are not must come to a complete, absolute, and unconditional stop.

Eternity

Our bodies must still, our thoughts must recede, our in-breath must surrender to our out-breath. It is then we step outside the boundary of time to experience the truth of our existence-being. It is then, time ceases to exist for us because for time to exist, there must be motion, and without motion this time-space continuum has no relevance to us or reality for us.

We step into breathless, timeless eternity when it all grinds to a halt.

Good & Righteous:

Every road home is a good and righteous road home, and there are as many roads home as there are Souls to travel them. All enlightenment traditions lead to the same realization though; we are, at the core, spiritual beings of God light and wonder, unbound by time, space, and circumstances.

No matter which tradition we belong to, or spiritual path we’re on, the process is the same; enlightenment and liberation come when the ego is dissolved, our false belief in a separate reality has permanently ended, and we awaken to the truth of our existence-being.

The Journey

All spiritual paths are journeys of awakening and realization, and their traditions espouse the quieting of the mind and the letting go of egoism and restrictive thoughts and behaviors. They decry aloud the adherence to fundamental doctrine that leads to dogma and stagnation and encourage Self-contemplation and the development of our own discernment.

Self-Reliance

We cannot awaken to the reality of our spiritual existence and serve a restrictive ideology that caters to egotistical wants at the same time. My Guru, Roy Eugene Davis, always pushed me to be self-actualized, Self-sufficient, and Self-realized. He never told me what or how to think. He instead lived an awakened life I could admire and emulate, as well as leaving behind a vast opus of philosophical and spiritual compositions that inspire and illuminate.

We Walk Our Own Road

We each have our own spiritual road to travel, and no one can walk it for us. And we must never allow well-meaning people to dictate to us how we will walk our own road home or how we are to think and act.

The path to enlightenment is an inner one that does not respect the dictates of dogma, creed, or doctrine.

Knowing:

We, as Souls, intuitively understand grace and its redemptive role. We know there is a supportive and nurturing spiritual energy flowing through all creation and we can learn to participate with it. Grace is not the unknowable, untenable, etheric energy of an omnipresent, omnipotent being higher than us, capriciously deciding who to help and who not to help.

Grace is the ever-present, infallible divine intelligence, in action within us, and it is always available to us. The ever-flowing action of grace is to lead us home to permanent awakening. Its presence is potently experienced when we surrender to the Infinite in whatever form we perceive it. Grace is witnessed in the compassion of others: by the hand reaching out to help us when we stumble and fall, by the arms embracing us when we suffer, by the tears of another, shed for us when we are in pain.

Surrender

It is in the moments of need and surrender, when our consciousness expands beyond its previous conceptual boundaries, that we are given the beautiful gift of God’s grace. In these moments, we become aware we can either choose to step into the current of Spirit leading us home or turn and walk the other way.

Surrendering to grace is not giving up and letting go of Self-determination. It is an honoring of the Divinity within and a profound listening to the quiet voice echoing throughout our being, flawlessly pointing and guiding the way home.

If we want to experience grace, we need only open ourselves to its guidance and actions. We need only to be Spirit Led.

Choose:

There are profound moments in each of our spiritual journeys when God asks us to choose who we want to be and how we are going to live. Moments of such dramatic poignancy, time comes to a standstill, and the truth of who and what we are looks back at us from the mirror of introspection with a blunt and uncompromising glare; that timeless hour, that endless minute, that forever second, when the soundless reflection of our lives, staring back at us, compels us to ask, “Who am I, and what is my purpose?” 

These are moments of awakening when the undeniable starkness of our current reality and the grayness of our everyday existence creates a Soul yearning for the light of freedom so strong, so overwhelming, we can only bow our heads, feeling the fullness of separation and suffering as it washes over us. Knowing it is impossible for us to return in consciousness to the way we were before, we begin our search for joy, peace, and lasting happiness.

Expansion of Consciousness

It is in these moments, when our consciousness expands beyond its previous conceptual boundaries, we are given the beautiful gift of God’s grace and the awareness we can either choose to step into the current of Spirit leading us home or turn and walk the other way. Often, we hesitate because we know if we step into the current and surrender, we are choosing to let it take us where it will.

But the truth is, all choice distills to a single choice; will we surrender to God’s will or continue to walk in the shadow of egoic delusion? 

Be Relentless:

Regardless of the personal philosophy we have developed from your own experiences this lifetime, and no matter how our story is unfolding, whether we are full of joy or overwhelmed with sadness, we must not let it prevent us from finding God and freedom. 

There is one thing spiritual aspirants of every enlightenment tradition learn to do; we learn to include the Divine in our daily life. We include God in our moments of joy, our moments of sadness, our quiet moments, and our active ones. We make God part of our story: including God in our lives excludes hopelessness from our lives.

God is Our Story

If we include God in our story, over time, our story becomes the pursuit of God. We go from keeping our appointment with God, through prayer and meditation, to living, breathing, and moving in God no matter our story. We go from thinking about God to realizing God is expressing as us and through us. We develop and nurture a mystical relationship with the Divine when we unremittingly include God in everything we think and do. Then our story moves from searching for freedom to living in freedom. 

The Truth

I learned, from years of experience, and with my Guru’s blessing, that Spirit is in the suffering and pain in the same measure as It is in the joy and peace. It lies just beneath our thoughts and feelings regardless of their degree or intensity.

This life is a dream play, a Lila. Sometimes the dream is light and joyful, and sometimes the dream is dark and painful. But it is still just a dream, a delusion. The more we include God, the more we see through the dream to the wonderous Reality behind it.

Pain vs Suffering:

Yoga does not teach us we can escape karma and pain. It teaches us we can rise above karma and suffering. Pain and suffering are not the same.  The Vedic concept of suffering is very different from the Westerner’s understanding.

The word in Sanskrit for suffering is Dukham. It literally means, ‘Bad axle hole.’ It is the understanding that suffering is a function of the mind. When we are presented with challenging patterns and circumstances, the mind goes looking for the answers. Most often, when we come to the answer, we resist the choice we need to make to resolve it. The mind moves on past the answer not accepting the resolution presented to it and returns to its starting point: hence, ‘Bad axle hole.’

Emotional Angst

Suffering in the Vedic sense is more akin to emotional angst; the mind goes around and around refusing the resolution and therefore the dissolution of the karma. According to the Vedas, this can go on for lifetimes as it is the individualized mind and its contents the Soul takes with it from incarnation to incarnation. These contents, known as subliminal activators  or samskara, are always looking for expression and resolution. 

The truth is the freedom we so desperately desire waits for us down the path we most vehemently resist. 

Guru:

God often sends awakened Souls here to help us on our pilgrimage home. They are spiritual lighthouses, illuminating the darkness of ignorance and guiding us over the treacherous seas of delusion.

My Guru, Roy Eugene Davis, was one such beacon of light, and his presence and God-realized consciousness was the single most important gift of grace I was ever to receive. 

The First Lesson

The first lesson I learned from Roy came as the answer to a question. I asked him, while visiting CSA the next summer, “When I die, will my Soul…” Before I had finished asking the question, he was shaking his head no. I stopped mid-sentence and looked at him. His gaze seemed to penetrate to the core when he slowly said, “You don’t have a Soul, you are a Soul.” The weight of his simple words and the depth of his consciousness had a profound effect on my psyche. I went silent, internalizing his realization as my own. 

God Cries

You see, we are living tributaries. Our individualized spiritual existence reflects and honors the Universal Spirit that is the heart of us all. God breathes, we are his breath. God cries, we are her tears. God sees, we are the living colors swirling in ever mystical beauty. We are the trees of his forest, the waves of her ocean, the rays of his sun. There can be no God without us, and there can be no us without God. 

Awareness:

To choose to be Spirit led in all things, is to move through life as an awakened participant. When we are aware enough to turn inward and connect with the higher reality behind the mind, the need to manipulate the world to get what we want, or desire falls away.

When we acknowledge and accept the guidance of the consciousness-presence of God within us, every need and every righteous desire is met by it. The practices of acceptance and right living are integrated into every enlightenment tradition the world over. They are central principles, built into the spiritual path, designed to weaken and dissolve the ego’s hold over us. They break down the perceived barriers between the individual Soul and universal Spirit.

Acceptance

Learning to accept what is in front of as it is, and doing the right thing, regardless of how we feel or perceive the circumstances we are experiencing, are fundamental and indispensable foundation stones needed to build an authentic spiritual life. These practices also teach us to have faith, patience, and perseverance.

They are the forges of Spirit that mold us into humble and awake Souls. God does not express divinity through arrogance, and hubris is devoid of creative Spirit. 

Save Ourselves:

There is no scriptural evidence that a God outside us will descend from Heaven and lift us out of the muck of our minds into a rarefied, clear state, or if we live good lives, the next celestial place will be a forever utopia.

If anything, the scriptures give us the means and inspiration to save ourselves now. But, before we can use any of the tools and techniques these sacred texts proffer, we must recognize and accept the psychological challenges we have created for ourselves through previous choices and behaviors. No one is responsible for our current states of awareness and our ongoing circumstances but us. And no one is responsible for our freedom from these perceived restrictions but us.

If we desire liberation and the freedom that comes with it, we must attend diligently to what is ours; a house will not clean itself and to have a healthy garden, we must pull up the weeds by their roots. 

Be Fearless

It is an uncommon and intrepid individual who is willing to face themselves in the courtroom of honest inner scrutiny. But if you were not prepared for a brighter, clearer, unrestricted future, you wouldn’t be looking for deeper meaning; it would never occur to you to begin to search for more profound answers. It means simply, you’re ready to be free.

You intuitively know there is something more to life than the everyday hum drum you have been experiencing. You want to know, realize, and live that, as of yet defined, spiritually awake existence. You want the Kingdom of Heaven now, not later, not after, now! 

The truth is, if we want to wake up, we must grow up. It’s just the way of it, and no amount of preaching or sermonizing will change that fact. Self-actualization and Self-realization is an integrated and inseparable process of awakening.

The Path

The spiritual path is not the path for those who are running from, or wish to escape, this reality. It is the path of acceptance and courage, and it leads to freedom and the awakening of an unrestricted, boundless existence-being. But it comes at a price. The cost of freedom is the dissolution of ego, that false sense of a small separate self. To dissolve the ego, we must be willing to confront the psychological subliminal activators that support and encourage us to wallow in selfishness and self-aggrandizement. It is not possible to continue to have and express a narcissistic relationship with life and awaken to the all-ness of God.

The boundary between Soul and Spirit is the prison of the ego.

Defined

Dharma is a broad term that has evolved over the centuries to mean many things: cosmic law, scripture, teachings, doctrine. But in this case, I am using the term as described by the Scholar Rupert Gethin to mean, “The basis of things.”

Dharma is the basis of our spiritual pursuit of God. Dharma, in this sense, prescribes how we should act, the ethical conduct enumerated in the eightfold path of Yoga that leads to liberation.

A Righteous Life

Our dharma, as spiritual seekers, is to live a righteous life, confront and dissolve the ego and its subordinates, pray, meditate more, and contemplate higher realities.

We are not called to further ensnare ourselves in life’s delusion by trying to carve our name for all to see in the mountain of materialism.

Why?

We are in this world to live with enlightened engagement, to free ourselves by waking up, and to experience the truth as our own. We are here to realize we are the truth, residing within this temporary expression we call by name as human.

Acceptance

Accepting ourselves, this world, and the lives we are living, is the great spiritual paradox; we must accept our flawed personalities and the imperfect world that is before us to experience the perfection of Spirit that is within us.

Our journey to Soul remembrance is a journey of acceptance and nonresistance, and to step onto the path of transcendence and freedom is to pilgrimage through the valley of acceptance and nonresistance.

Tranformative Secret

This is the transformative secret that turns our lives into a sacred demonstration of God’s perfection. Much of our journey to Soul remembrance is learning to accept ourselves, others, and our world without judgement.

Faith

To do this we must have faith: faith that our intuitive intelligence knows the way, faith that the Spirit of God indwelling will never abandon or forsake us once we turn towards it.

Finally, we must have faith despite all appearances, there is an escape from our discontent and suffering. To experience this, we must believe in ourselves and the inner knowing of our hearts.

The Mind

When the mind is clear and free from attachments, aversions, and stops clinging to this life and appearances, the light that we are will shine forth unobstructed, and that same light will then reflect back to us as our experiences in the world. There is no need to try and force life into a sculpted version of what we want and desire.

Immortal Creatures of Light

If we know ourselves to be immortal creatures of light and Spirit, that is the only experience we perceive reflected back to us. We then see through the unreal dream in front of us to the Spirit and light behind it; we are free of its delusive grasp. We know the truth, regardless of façade or persona.

Don’t Push The River

The message of redemption is that the river of grace flows through the valley of surrender and acceptance to the ocean of freedom. Sometimes meandering, sometimes surging but still, it flows, sweeping downstream, unrelentingly towards the ocean of consciousness without fear of reprisals or of going in the wrong direction.

In 1970 Barry Stevens wrote “Don’t push the river: (it flows by itself).” Those words are as true today as they were decades ago. The only action we need to take is to simply step into the river and let it carry us to the source.

The Way of No-Resistance

The less we resist the universal Spirit within us, and the more we listen and participate with it, the more influential it becomes and the quicker and surer the return home. We simply have to learn to listen better, in this moment, to the unerring knowledge of Spirit within us.

Faith & Courage

But this requires an act of faith and courage because Spirit does not tell us what to do tomorrow or next month or next year; it tells us only what to do now. It will not reveal what will happen by following its lead. It asks us to trust it knows the best way home.

Be Spirit-Led

Part of the spiritual growth process is to be Spirit-led, and to be Spirit- led is to live in and by grace. To live in grace is to be anchored in the timeless consciousness-presence of God within us and listen and act in accordance with its pronouncements. As we learn to follow the directions of God within us, the separate sense of existence we call ego begins to purify and lose its delusive hold over us. When we live in this way, we live a consecrated life of enduring grace that expresses the perfection, beauty, and elegance of universal Spirit within.

Practice

With practice, we learn to turn our attention away from the material world and outer involvement at will. Eventually, we master the ability to detach from sensory engrossment altogether; the senses turn inward on command.

In the World But Not of It

We learn to be truly in the world but not deluded or ensnared by it. Moving through the noise and confusion with full control over our senses, we contribute to the world without being drawn into the Lila.

The Lila

To play our part in the drama of humanity awake, unscathed, and free from entrapment, with attention always on the goal of liberation is to be master of our senses.