Lessons from the Gita 3: God Realization – The End of Religion

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krishna  – Krishna revealing to Arjuna the timeless Way of the Yogis.

“In this world there are two orders of being: the perishable, separate creatures and the changeless Spirit.  But beyond these there is another, the Supreme Self (Brahman), the eternal Lord, who enters into (or manifests) the entire cosmos and supports it within.  I am that supreme Self, praised by the scriptures as beyond the changing and the changeless.  Those who see in me that Supreme Self see truly.  They have found the Source of all Wisdom, Arjuna, and they worship me with all their heart.”

The End of Religion

In the West, everything is a debate.   Politics is Democrat vs. Republican; economics is Capitalism vs. Socialism; and religion is so often unfortunately painted as religion vs. science, or even as one religion vs. another.  Atheists argue that all religion is a lie, and the religious respond with equally passionate claims of dogmatic surety.  We often and unwisely approach religion as a problem to be solved with our intellect, or as an “argument” to be won by debate.  Does it ever occur to us that God is an experience that is not confined by any tradition, that cannot be confirmed or denied by the perishable human intellect?

When I first began my spiritual search seven years ago, I was immediately drawn to the religions of the East like Taoism, Hinduism as expressed in the Bhagavad Gita, and especially Zen Buddhism.  What most intrigued me about them was the idea that the Divine was not something outside of me to be “believed” in, but an actual experience that is the essence of what we ultimately are.  These religions were not “true” or “untrue” in the intellectual sense of the word, but merely described paths to an experience that is beyond all words and concepts.  To “have faith” in this sense was not to have faith in a God in heaven, but to have faith that through spiritual practice the experience of God is possible to have for yourself.

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Lessons from the Gita 2 – Three Dimensions of Renunciation

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krishna – Krishna teaching the mysteries of the universe to his devotee Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita.

“Those who have attained perfect renunciation are free from any sense of duality.  They are unaffected by likes and dislikes, and are free from the bondage of self will.  The immature think that knowledge and action are different, but the wise see them as the same.” – Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita

Renunciation is a word that freaks many people out, largely because they do not understand its spiritual meaning.  They associate it with images of emaciated forest Yogis who engage in silent meditation for years at a time, or perhaps with Christian hermits spending long days and lonely nights fasting solitude.  This misunderstanding unfortunately hinders many people from integrating the blessings of renunciation into their everyday lives. For periods of intense meditative separation from everyday routine are indeed a small aspect of renunciation, but true renunciation is a state of mind that is not limited to any particular life circumstance.

The Bhagavad Gita revolutionized and redefined the idea of renunciation at time in India when the population felt that God-Realization was only attainable by a small spiritual elite.  It proclaimed that renunciation is a matter of the heart, which transcends the mundane conceptions of monk and lay person, spiritual practitioner and “worldly” person that unfortunately still dominate many religious communities today.  The Gita radically proclaimed that a life of actively serving others (while inwardly renouncing desire and practicing frequent meditation) is actually superior to a life of solitary meditation alone.  Anyone who understands that God-Realization is the highest goal of life, and strives to structure their life around this lofty ideal, is a renunciate in spirit, regardless of their vocation, race, gender, or religion.

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Three Reasons to go on a Meditation Retreat

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greatvow – The meditation hall at Great Vow Zen Monastery, where I have lived for 9 months and have participated in 10 sesshins.  I have also done one 10 day Vipassana retreat (as taught by SN Goenka), which I highly recommend.

I returned this week from a 5 day silent meditation retreat that Zen Buddhists call sesshin (sesshin is often translated as “touching the heart-mind”) at Great Vow Zen Monastery.  It was my 11th long retreat, and, as usual, it was a deeply meaningful experience.  It was also utterly outrageous and fascinating; although retreats can be difficult, for me they are like going on spaceship adventures through my own mind/body and discovering new worlds!  In this post I’ll share three reasons why I feel that going on meditation retreats is spiritually useful. This post is mainly about retreats that are 5 days or longer.  There are also shorter 1-2 day retreats that are good introductions to retreat practice, and that can be very powerful experiences.  My discussion in this post is also limited to my experience in the Zen tradition, though I have also done a Vipassana retreat which I strongly recommend as well.   For a more in depth explanation of what meditation retreats are like, and for a fuller explanation of why I think they are important, you can read my book (specifically, the section is entitled “Meditation Retreats”) in the free pdf above.

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Travel Blog 1: The Burning Ghats of Varanasi

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ganges-varanasi – The Ganges in Varanasi

Introduction

Varanasi!  How can I describe your beauty and your madness, your noble aspirations and your often chaotic reality?  Oh city of Shiva, you remind me of life’s highest goal, and the futility of chasing worldly desires.  You contain terrible poverty, but you posses the wealth of thousands of years of crystalized spiritual knowledge.  You are the victim of global capitalism’s inhumanity, but you testify to the transcendent God that is called by many names and who alone exists.  You are filled with modern pollution, but the fragrance of your devotion to God has blessed the world many times over.

I recently went on an amazing one-month pilgrimage to India, and stayed in the two holy pilgrimage cities of Varanasi and Bodhgaya.  I stayed in Varanasi for 9 days.  Varanasi is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, is considered the holiest pilgrimage site for most Hindus, and is highly influential to Buddhists as well.  The Buddha gave his first sermon just outside Varanasi in Sarnath nearly 2500 years ago.  Shankara, a great sage who influenced nearly all subsequent branches of yogic thought, is believed to have once lived here.  Tulsidass, Lahiri Mahasaya, Trailingaswami and countless other Yogi-Christ’s have blessed this city with their presence over the centuries.

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Being and Doing

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clean window  – A mind stilled by meditation is like a cleaned window that more fully reveals the beauty of the universe.

We are never satisfied by “doing,” by checking off the never ending to-do list, always waiting for an ideal future that never arrives, or musing on a past that is completely over. “If only X occurs, THEN I will be happy….” This part of our mind is never content, and keeps us chained to karma like a hamster on a hamster wheel that never stops and keeps getting faster. Planning and thinking are indeed important in their useful contexts, but we are only truly satisfied by BEING, by stepping off the hamster wheel, being fully present in each moment, and experiencing the beauty of life as it arises.

For me, Zen meditation, which I’ve been doing daily for nearly 7 years, has been a natural medicine for my mind’s addiction to stressful thinking.  In seated Zen meditation, the basic premise of the first stages is simply learning to be present without letting your mind fly off into thoughts of worry, fear, fantasy, or the past or future.  The practice is a natural stress reducer and therefore conducive to basic human happiness.  For only when we are fully present are we truly happy and free of stress (which is simply thought). And, incidentally, the sages of old tell us that the present moment is the gateway into experiencing God or our own ever-present True Nature –  a more ultimate form of happiness.

Yet even if you don’t believe this, learning to still your mind and train it to abide in the present moment without reverting to thought is an inexpressibly wonderful blessing for both religious and non-religious people alike. A mind habitually lost in thought is like a dirty window that stops us from fully expiriceing the beauty of this incredible universe. A stilled mind is like a clean window that enables us to enjoy the beauty around us, and also generally have more peace and less unnecessary stress.

So how is the mind stilled in the first stages of meditation? One breath at a time…By sitting in an upright posture and returning, again and again, to the breath. This type of mindfulness meditation is indeed simple, yet sometimes it can be so mysteriously difficult, for the mind initially craves thinking like an addict (they call it “monkey mind” in Zen for a reason!). Yet learning to still your mind with meditation is a blessing whose value cannot be quantified, and something anyone can learn to do with practice.  The effort is worth it!

May all beings know the peace of a stilled mind, and be free from stress. Have a nice day! 🙂

A Bumbling Okie’s Brief Thoughts on the Kingdom of Heaven

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Experiencing each moment, just as it is, is the “goal” of meditation. Meditation is not the attainment of a temporary blissful state, but the realization that our very life is the Way, is the Kingdom of Heaven. Thus Jesus once spoke that “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” Heaven is not a physical place, but a state of mind – a realization – that perceives reality without the obscurations of ignorance. The Kingdom of Heaven is a state of mind that perceives all beings as emantions of the One Spirit, like hairs growing out of the same head or waves on the same Ocean of Love. It is a state of mind that perceives one’s True Nature as the eternal Christ-Consciousness (or Buddha Nature, to use another religious “dialect”), not merely the body/mind. When Jesus realized this he became Jesus Christ. If Cleedus or Beckie realizes this fully, he can become Cleedus Christ, she can become Beckie Christ, etc.

To have this realization for ourselves is the goal of religion which is actual realization. As the Psalms put it, the law is then “written on our hearts.” We then no longer need the outward codes of religion, because we realize they are merely describing our own True Nature. We do not need a physical temple, because we realize our very body is the temple of the Spirit. We do not need to worship a prophet like Jesus or Buddha, because we see they are merely a “finger pointing to the moon” of our own Divine potential. How unspeakably wonderful it is to know that God can be experienced here on Earth as a human being, and that this very world is itself God’s manifestation! To realize this for one’s self is called the Kingdom of Heaven. May all beings see this for themselves! Have a lovely day… 🙂

Airports, Musing, Hafiz…!

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I just got back to India and wrote this in the Amsterdam airport during my 30 hour flight.  I can’t wait to blog more about my experience in India!

Airports…..Oy Vey! How could I be honest and say they do not annoy me… Yet airports and plane flights are an excellent place to practice meditation, patience, and to develop the “fruits of the Spirit,” as Paul the apostle called them. A person of Spirit does not surf on a wave of light above the annoyances of daily life, but simply views daily “problems” with a spiritual mentality. Every temporary hassle is an opportunity to practice kindness and patience. Every time someone gets angry with me is an opportunity to practice unconditional love. If I spiritualize my life I do not think, “How frustrating is this!” or “How annoying is this person!” but rather think, “This is an opportunity to deepen my spiritual practice.” If you free your mind and view everything as meditation, nothing can hinder your peace. The secret of all the great yogi’s and mystics is that they realized that their own mind is the key to peace, not outer circumstance. For is not our own mind the temple of God Himself, who is peace Itself? Now does Hafiz, that poet of poets, have a verse for this very principal? Of course he does…

BECOMING HUMAN

Once a man came to me and spoke for hours about
“His great visions of God” he felt he was having.

He asked me for confirmation, saying,
“Are these wondrous dreams true?”

I replied, “How many goats do you have?”

He looked surprised and said,
“I am speaking of sublime visions
And you ask
About goats!”

And I spoke again saying,
“Yes, brother – how many do you have?”

“Well, Hafiz, I have sixty-two.”

“And how many wives?”
Again he looked surprised, then said,
“Four.”

“How many rose bushes in your garden,
How many children,
Are your parents still alive,
Do you feed the birds in winter?”

And to all he answered.

Then I said,
“You asked me if I thought your visions were true,
I would say that they were if they make you become
More human,

More kind to every creature and plant
That you know.”

-Hafiz, the poet of poets!

Thoughts for Christmas on my Song, The Bridegroom

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http://jeffreyrothman.bandcamp.com/track/the-bridegroom

Nearly four years ago, I wrote this song called The Bridegroom (link above).  In it, I attempt to express the indescribable joy I find in God’s unconditional love, which ultimately is one with me and with everything.  In the Bible, the metaphor of the “Bride of Christ” is used to express our inexpressibly intimate, and ultimately inseparable Union with Spirit. Our ego or personal self is the “Bride,” or individualized expression, of the One Spirit or Bridegroom, and true everlasting happiness is found when Union with the Cosmic Bridegroom is experienced in the ecstasy of spiritual realization.

The Perfect Love that is found in God (or our own Higher Self) is incomparable and infinitely greater than any temporary happiness a person, thing, or human destiny can give you. This blissful relationship of devotion and intimacy finally culminates in Union: Love, Lover, and Beloved finally realized as inseparably one! Through his own spiritual effort, Jesus realized this Union with God and became the Christ. If we realize it through effort in meditation and the grace of God, we too become Christs along with him.

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Merry Christmas from Bodhgaya!

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I’ll be spending Christmas in the pilgrimage city of Bodhgaya, the auspicious place of Buddha’s Enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree nearly 2500 years ago. Shall I call the One Love that miraculously manifests all things Buddha Nature, Christ-Consciousness, One Mind, etc.? Is following Jesus merely believing his words, or realizing their essence in my own experience through meditation? Jesus saw his own True Nature and became the Christ, but his mission is only fulfilled when we realize the same Truth for ourselves and transcend the need for a temporary teacher like Jesus. Jesus was a “finger pointing to the moon” of our own Christ-Consciousness right now seeing out of our eyes.

It is time for the human race to stop bickering over whose religious vocabulary is correct, and to start seeking for ourselves through meditation the Bliss that is the basis of everything and that is called by many names. Jesus and Buddha experienced awakening and then gave humanity a menu through their precious words. Will we be content with the menu, or will we taste the delicious food of enlightenment for ourselves? The Buddha’s mission is only completed when we realize that we too are a Buddha. And the mission of Jesus is only fulfilled when we realize that we are ALL awakened Christs, one with the Father and eternal!

Must I go to a church to celebrate Christ-mas? This whole universe is the “church” of Christ, and every atom expresses Its Infinite Glory that even the universe itself is mere shadow of! In bowing to the Buddha, I bow to Christ, and in bowing to Christ, I bow to the Buddha. Fools cling to names and forms, but the wise see the Essence.

Merry Christmas from India, my friends!

A Few Thoughts on Spiritual Peace

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Peace that is based upon a circumstance is not spiritual peace.  For me, spiritual peace is both the experience of one’s True Nature (which is peace itself), and a general perspective on life.  To perceive through meditation and the grace of God that your True Self is eternal and indestructible is the source of a peace that cannot be shaken, and does not oscillate as circumstances inevitably change.  It is as if one is watching a movie that has all sorts of ups and downs, thinking that they are an actor in the movie.  Then they realize that the Watcher of the movie cannot be affected by the images that are, in reality, merely entertaining illusions.

Meditation does not solve all of one’s problems, for we must still do our duty, serve others, and remain subject to the law of karma as long as we are on Earth.  But spiritual realization catalyzed by deep meditation can give us access to a Peace that is beyond the constant ups and downs of life, and the gains and losses of karmic fortune.  People may pass out of our lives; we may lose all our wealth and talents; everything we love, and even our body, will someday be taken from us.  The wise, however, never grieve about this natural schema.  For the peace of God, which comes from understanding that you and God are eternally One, can never be taken from you.  To realize this for yourself is truly a priceless gift beyond any means of comparison!

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