Dear Friends,
What is the purpose of a spiritual retreat supported by the Energy of Svami Purna? We are in the field of Light which heals the body, mind, and soul and clears karma, bringing us into a deeper state of consciousness and a new experience of Life itself. We transcend normal ways of thinking about the world and experience deeper feelings of Joy, Peace, and Love. Our meditation becomes more profound and concentrated as we dive deeper into the essence of our being. We come together to create a sacred space for supporting one another on the spiritual path. We see life in more vivid colors. Through music, we sing our praises to the True Self, That which is the Source of all Creation. We journey back to our True Nature, the Pure Soul, the Infinite Self - beyond all suffering and duality. Please join me in this journey back Home. It is a very special opportunity...
With love,
Brian
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Meeting Mataji
Dear Friends,
Recently I met Merrill and Mataji in White Plains, NY through a meditation Meet-Up group. After having dinner with them, I attended Mataji's class, and at the end, Maria, one of the students, offered to house me. At night, I tried to turn on Persistence, but she was dead. I had left the headlights on. So Maria called her husband, Harry, who immediately came to assist. He attached the jumper cables and after a few minutes, Persistence came to life. I followed them home and settled in my new room. Satsangs have been happening every day. Today I attended a meditation at the home of Mataji and Merrill. At the end, they asked me to hold kirtan (singing to Divinity). I had composed a song called "Mataji, Jai, Jai" which we all sang together. I had tears in my eyes. Mataji held her palms together and continued to express her namaste throughout the music. She is the expression of the Mother of the Universe. I bow to the Divine Mother which breathes life into our heart, mind, and body. She is the Creation itself, the life force of manifestation. Oh, Divine Mother, bring us into Your arms and show us how to love You.
Always at Your service,
Brian
Recently I met Merrill and Mataji in White Plains, NY through a meditation Meet-Up group. After having dinner with them, I attended Mataji's class, and at the end, Maria, one of the students, offered to house me. At night, I tried to turn on Persistence, but she was dead. I had left the headlights on. So Maria called her husband, Harry, who immediately came to assist. He attached the jumper cables and after a few minutes, Persistence came to life. I followed them home and settled in my new room. Satsangs have been happening every day. Today I attended a meditation at the home of Mataji and Merrill. At the end, they asked me to hold kirtan (singing to Divinity). I had composed a song called "Mataji, Jai, Jai" which we all sang together. I had tears in my eyes. Mataji held her palms together and continued to express her namaste throughout the music. She is the expression of the Mother of the Universe. I bow to the Divine Mother which breathes life into our heart, mind, and body. She is the Creation itself, the life force of manifestation. Oh, Divine Mother, bring us into Your arms and show us how to love You.
Always at Your service,
Brian
Monday, April 22, 2013
Dissolution of the World
Dear Friends,
Consider your experience of the world. It is all based on thought, and all thoughts are passing feelings. None of them are permanent. Even the idea of "me." The sense of "me" changes as well as thoughts about others, the world and God. None of it is the Truth. All thought is a passing illusion made up in the mind. Therefore, our experience of reality is untrue. It is purely based in this illusion. When we believe firmly in the illusion - that there is a me and a separate world - we suffering according to this identification. Whatever happens to the "me" cause happiness or sadness. Thus, life is like living on a little boat in the ocean that can be capsized any moment by a big wave.
The purpose of Jnana Yoga is to contemplate on the reality that we have created out of the identification with the ego. Look at every thought and say, "not this, not this." This is not me, this is not me. And one by one, the belief in separate me dissolves and thus, the whole world disappears from the mind and one is left with the True Self, the Absolute Reality, That which is inconceivable and beyond the mind. Then there is no one left to suffer. The true Awakening is the awakening from the dream of thought, the identification with mind and body. We are so attached to thought and body that we truly believe we are these things. In other words, the more we indulge in the illusion of thought and desire and habitual patterns of life, the more we solidify the sense of me. The more solid the me, the deeper the suffering. The more we let go of the sense of me, its selfishness and desires, the less suffering occurs. Let us begin to question this separate sense of self. Who am I? As the ego dies, consciousness is freed from the person, and Truth is revealed - infinite, whole, complete...Purna
With love,
Brian
Consider your experience of the world. It is all based on thought, and all thoughts are passing feelings. None of them are permanent. Even the idea of "me." The sense of "me" changes as well as thoughts about others, the world and God. None of it is the Truth. All thought is a passing illusion made up in the mind. Therefore, our experience of reality is untrue. It is purely based in this illusion. When we believe firmly in the illusion - that there is a me and a separate world - we suffering according to this identification. Whatever happens to the "me" cause happiness or sadness. Thus, life is like living on a little boat in the ocean that can be capsized any moment by a big wave.
The purpose of Jnana Yoga is to contemplate on the reality that we have created out of the identification with the ego. Look at every thought and say, "not this, not this." This is not me, this is not me. And one by one, the belief in separate me dissolves and thus, the whole world disappears from the mind and one is left with the True Self, the Absolute Reality, That which is inconceivable and beyond the mind. Then there is no one left to suffer. The true Awakening is the awakening from the dream of thought, the identification with mind and body. We are so attached to thought and body that we truly believe we are these things. In other words, the more we indulge in the illusion of thought and desire and habitual patterns of life, the more we solidify the sense of me. The more solid the me, the deeper the suffering. The more we let go of the sense of me, its selfishness and desires, the less suffering occurs. Let us begin to question this separate sense of self. Who am I? As the ego dies, consciousness is freed from the person, and Truth is revealed - infinite, whole, complete...Purna
With love,
Brian
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
I am One, I want to be Many
Dear Friends,
I contemplate the statement, "I am One, I want to be many." How is it possible to explain this koan? If I am One, how can there be an individual and many objects? Yet it is happening. The One Divine Mind dreams itself into countless characters that play out their roles according to their programming or karma. Yet still there is only One Being that cannot be seen, cannot be touched and cannot be understood.
Consider a dream at night. I dream I am one character interacting with so many other characters and it seems so real that I may start to sweat or scream in my sleep. Indeed, I truly believe I am that character in a dream world. Yet when I wake up, I find that none of it actually happened. My mind created all the characters and played them so realistically that it became the reality. Yet now I find myself waking up as "me" again. The illusion of the dream was so real that I believed it to be true.
What if this reality now - the Brian character typing on a computer - is the exact same scenario. I must wake up one more time from the Brian-identification to find out that it was all a dream. That it seemed so convincing that I took it seriously and suffered for it. When consciousness is "woken" from the dream, it becomes what it is. The Ultimate Truth. The Divine Mind. The Infinite Presence. The entire Brian-character was just a dream.
"I am One, I want to be Many." How is it possible?
With love,
Brian
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Love of the Soul
Dear Friends,
The great Sage of the Upanishads, Yajnavalkya said to his wife, Maitreyi, "In truth, it is not for the love of a husband that a husband is dear, but for the love of the soul in the husband that a husband is dear."
One could write volumes on this single statement, it is that deep. Divine Love, otherwise known as Prem in Sanskrit, is infinite and unconditional love. Reasonless love. The Heart never shuts down. It is embraces the Soul that underlies all of creation. This is the only possible way to experience Divine Love. If there is any trace of difference in the mind, then the Heart is not absolutely open to everything. If everything is realized to be the One Soul, then Love is all around and there is nothing but That. With Prem, there is no you and I, not this and that. There is only One Being. One Heart. This Love is incomprehensible to the mind. It is only when the mind is gone that this Love dawns. The mind is the lens through which consciousness is blinded, so that the recognition of One Soul is lost. Therefore, it is a very good thing when you have lost your mind. Divine madness dawns and the Beloved appears everywhere. A person may be in tears all the time because his Beloved is felt in every experience. Imagining a time when you fell romantically in love with someone, and life felt so exciting and vibrant. Why couldn't you sustain that? Wouldn't it be overwhelming to experience this feeling all the time? My Beloved is immanent in all things, and I am lost in the power of this love. I am drowned in the Ocean of Nectar.
The road to Prem means giving up all conceptions of life, all desires, and all the fundamental beliefs we have of Reality. Only then may we enter the realm of the Heart, and the lover and Beloved become One.
At Your Service,
Brian
The great Sage of the Upanishads, Yajnavalkya said to his wife, Maitreyi, "In truth, it is not for the love of a husband that a husband is dear, but for the love of the soul in the husband that a husband is dear."
One could write volumes on this single statement, it is that deep. Divine Love, otherwise known as Prem in Sanskrit, is infinite and unconditional love. Reasonless love. The Heart never shuts down. It is embraces the Soul that underlies all of creation. This is the only possible way to experience Divine Love. If there is any trace of difference in the mind, then the Heart is not absolutely open to everything. If everything is realized to be the One Soul, then Love is all around and there is nothing but That. With Prem, there is no you and I, not this and that. There is only One Being. One Heart. This Love is incomprehensible to the mind. It is only when the mind is gone that this Love dawns. The mind is the lens through which consciousness is blinded, so that the recognition of One Soul is lost. Therefore, it is a very good thing when you have lost your mind. Divine madness dawns and the Beloved appears everywhere. A person may be in tears all the time because his Beloved is felt in every experience. Imagining a time when you fell romantically in love with someone, and life felt so exciting and vibrant. Why couldn't you sustain that? Wouldn't it be overwhelming to experience this feeling all the time? My Beloved is immanent in all things, and I am lost in the power of this love. I am drowned in the Ocean of Nectar.
The road to Prem means giving up all conceptions of life, all desires, and all the fundamental beliefs we have of Reality. Only then may we enter the realm of the Heart, and the lover and Beloved become One.
At Your Service,
Brian
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Devotion gives you wings
Dear Friends,
Devotion is the combined power of love and dedication. When you love something so much, you will spend every second of the day thinking about it and serving its cause. My devotion is to Swami Purna, the essence of Truth. That is why I chose to take this journey.
Truth is important to me. It is the Source of who we are. It is why we exist. Out of Truth comes the qualities of love, peace, and joy. We are all seeking these qualities. We all want permanent happiness. Normal daily thoughts have never given us permanent happiness. And every moment of our existence on this planet has been dominated by thought! We live in a world of thought. This is the Maya, the illusion, the imagination of the mind. The mind can never experience Truth. It is only a filter. The purpose of satsang is to cancel out all thoughts so that we can experience Reality as it is, not as the mind experiences it. We come to satsang to empty our mind, not get more information. As the dualities of our mind dissolve, we disappear and only the Mystery is left.
Let us devote ourselves to the Mystery. It is the cessation of suffering and the dawn of true Peace. Wouldn't it be nice to no longer be bound by the limits of the mind? Wouldn't it be nice to go to the Great Beyond where no person has gone before? This quest is worth living and dying for. I cling to the feet of His Grace Svami Purna who represents this Presence. By connecting to the mighty Ocean, the drop becomes the Ocean. Let us return to where we came from. Let us go Home. The Beloved is waiting.
With love,
Brian
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
A Baby likes the Holy Name!
Dear Friends,
I am staying with Christopher and Kimberly in Opelika, Alabama for 2 weeks. Their child's name is Asha. Asha is 7 months old. Many nights, Asha's crying wakes my body up, and I can feel the grumpiness. "I'm tired, it's loud," says the mind. But she drifts off to sleep quite quickly after someone soothes her. One night at around 2am, she cried for a long time in spite of all the soothing. Perhaps she was sick, perhaps her teeth were hurting. Then Kimberly got desperate. She said, "Will you play the harmonium and chant mantra for her?" I agreed. So she placed Asha on the floor in front of the harmonium and I started to play. Soon she was not crying anymore and her mouth agape, listening to the singing. She appeared to be stunned. Every time I quieted down, she started to complain again. So I chanted and chanted with Kim for 40 minutes or so. "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare" - the great Mahamantra. And as I chanted, the holy mantra took over the mind and my mood became happier and happier until soon, I was absorbed in the energy. It seemed to be a rather transcendental state. And then Asha was asleep, and she went back to bed, content with the sound of Krishna.
This was the case with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, an incarnation of Krishna who cried as a baby until everyone started chanting Hari. Then he stopped and smiled happily. His purpose was to teach people to sing the name of Hari all the time, for it would purify the sins of the heart, mind, and soul. Asha was teaching this lesson too. It is beautiful how the mind can move from a grumpy state to a deep meditation within minutes even in the middle of the night. Now I wake up to the crying and pray for Asha's healing, and the mind does not dwell in negativity.
May the Lord Hari bless our meditations and bring happiness in our lives.
With love,
Brian
I am staying with Christopher and Kimberly in Opelika, Alabama for 2 weeks. Their child's name is Asha. Asha is 7 months old. Many nights, Asha's crying wakes my body up, and I can feel the grumpiness. "I'm tired, it's loud," says the mind. But she drifts off to sleep quite quickly after someone soothes her. One night at around 2am, she cried for a long time in spite of all the soothing. Perhaps she was sick, perhaps her teeth were hurting. Then Kimberly got desperate. She said, "Will you play the harmonium and chant mantra for her?" I agreed. So she placed Asha on the floor in front of the harmonium and I started to play. Soon she was not crying anymore and her mouth agape, listening to the singing. She appeared to be stunned. Every time I quieted down, she started to complain again. So I chanted and chanted with Kim for 40 minutes or so. "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare" - the great Mahamantra. And as I chanted, the holy mantra took over the mind and my mood became happier and happier until soon, I was absorbed in the energy. It seemed to be a rather transcendental state. And then Asha was asleep, and she went back to bed, content with the sound of Krishna.
This was the case with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, an incarnation of Krishna who cried as a baby until everyone started chanting Hari. Then he stopped and smiled happily. His purpose was to teach people to sing the name of Hari all the time, for it would purify the sins of the heart, mind, and soul. Asha was teaching this lesson too. It is beautiful how the mind can move from a grumpy state to a deep meditation within minutes even in the middle of the night. Now I wake up to the crying and pray for Asha's healing, and the mind does not dwell in negativity.
May the Lord Hari bless our meditations and bring happiness in our lives.
With love,
Brian
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