The Dead-end Up Here

You must have heard the sexual escapades at many monasteries, churches, yogashram, temples, gurus, and more. You would think that spiritual process which in most cases refrains from all desires including lust of sex. In fact many call all desires lust and are the first post to control no matter which path you follow. Yet it defies us. I believe the reason is the same as for any habit. And that is repeated action programs our brain to want it more even if it is unsuitable or even incapable for the body. It is no longer a body need like nutrition, hydration and calories but an entirely mental program running the show.  To make the experience even more pleasurable, the mind is able to enhance the qualities of the object desired by adding quite unrealistic filters. A good example may be a well done steak on your dinner plate. You know you are about to eat a slightly branded piece of and animal which on the sidewalk or in a crematorium will disgust you. The mind filters such thoughts c...

A sufi master, Dr. Syed Hussein Nasr during the 2013 festival of faiths in Louisville said why is it that horses do not overeat nor do most animals, but we do? Even after your belly is full, the craving for the next tasty morsel persists. Even after you can barely see, you want another drink. It doesn't take long before your heart is after another lover.  His answer was that something propels us to want everything, the point he made was that within us  is a desire for the infinite. Where does this desire for the infinite come from? Surely it can't be the organs like a mouth, a stomach or even our sexual body- none of these have a will. They serve a bigger master. Is it the brain or its representative, the mind? When we look we find no mind, no brain, just thoughts coming and going like wisps of clouds; sometimes arbitrary and other times evolved out of a stimulus. For a moment just imagine an engine behind all desires in the world incl...

As a four year old, I attended a satsang with my grand uncle who was practicing pratyahara by abandoning all usual domestic life and wandered small villages of mithila giving words of wisdom to whomever would listen. Unfortunately, 7 pm was about the end of the day for me and I pretty much fell asleep in the wonderful ambiance his presence along with candles, incense and flowers had created. All I remember is his first word which was samsara and a memory of deep peace. I asked older folks later what he meant and they told me the world. It has taken me sixty years to really understand the vastness of the word and what world he was talking about. I have spent pretty much rest of my life to try and find simplicity in teachings which mostly confuse me even now. So when Mooji says look, I find mostly noise confounding most of my senses. So I close my eyes and the loudest noise from photons disappear. What remains when I sit for a while is a vast ocean of quiet and peace with frequent d...

Why not just disappear? Take a look, a close look Are you really needed in whatever That fills your day, good and bad That makes you happy and sad? It's not a magic trick You disappear every day When you lay down to sleep When you are engrossed in tv. Are you there when you fall in love With a person, an object or an idea? Are you there when you are passionately angry or happy? Why bother showing up When all you find is suffering With an occasional smattering Of relief. Just disappear into the space always there when you close your eyes Beckoning you to spend time In solitude, reverie and meditation. Just disappear into a place So familiar it feels home. So vast, there is no end Nor beginning, just calm. Disappear to whatever aches you To unwanted arguments, Useless future plans Or past hangovers. Disappear into the background Like a tree, the cloud and the earth. Just being there to serve all That deserve your molecules.

Yoga is an adopted name originally from the word yog which is still in use by languages derived from Sanskrit. Yog simply means a way, a method, a process. Some say it comes from the word Yoke but I can't find any reference to this. Yoga as it is practiced in our neighborhoods today is just one (asanas) or may be two (pranayama) of the eight limbs of Ashtanga as taught by Patanjali in his book of sutras which is the most esteemed reference book used by yoga schools. The eight limbs of yoga are Yama, niyama, asanas, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi. The first four of these are practice of yoga but normally we find asanas (often in Hatha yoga)and  pranayama taught in most studios. The first two, Yama and niyama are codes of living as recommended by Patanajali and also by Buddha in vipassana. Practices like vegetarianism, noble silence are part of Yama and niyama practice. Pratyahara is withdrawal from five senses which is a result of yoga practice of the fi...

I love new age stuff, all of it. Except when it comes to conflict within. Should you have a good time or be so serious and do nothing but yoga an mediation on New Year's Eve? I see getting a little crazy and let it all hang out on this special day part of life, a good life. I don't see any reason why you should deny your illusory self the illusory fun just because you want something more? How do you reconcile this? The answer is mindfulness. You don't just mindfully do the esoteric so called good stuff. Mindfulness is an act worthy of all living even if it means getting crazy at New Years.

This Friday is guru poornima, the full moon of midsummer celebrated by aspirants, seekers and pure souls for thousands of years. Some lucky souls have the necessary devotion and access to a physical form of  a teacher, to whom they can surrender. As Mooji says, guru is a garbage collector, to whom you dump all that's not necessary in your life. It turns out there is not much that you need to keep. Complete surrender is nirvana. It is however not necessary to have a physical teacher in a human form to whom you download all in a surrender. Dattatreya found twenty four teachers in various forms none of whom wore long robes and beards but were available to teach everywhere he looked. My most memorable teachers and teachings start with TAT, started by Richard Rose in West Virginia. The name TAT in itself captures the essence, truth and transmission. It doesn't matter which way you follow, finding the two is essential ; true knowledge accepted by the mind and transmission of thi...

How do you wake up from sleep? A dream, a jolt, a nightmare? Nice dream with beautiful family, lots of wealth, amazing holidays? What do you do, you roll over and try to recapture the dream. Who wants to wake up? Painful nightmare on the other hand is reason enough to startle out of your reverie. Wake up and realise it was all just a dream. Be so very thankful for the pain and suffering, the nightmares in your life. One of them will finally break your tundra and make you see the truth. May you be blessed to see that what you face as pain and suffering is nothing but recollection of stored sensations in your brain coming back to haunt you. But it is simply a very bad dream. There is another way a dream ends. That is when your sleep is over, it is the morning after. Don't wait, for that usually comes at the end of your life.

Not I, the body, I the mind or I the soul but I the label was also born in love.  This body at the age of nine months and before survived due to just one reason, love. Had it not been the love from my parents, "I" would just be a lost entity. They offered "Me" the identity as an I with a name, a home, a country, a religion and a whole bunch of attributes. Nothing other than love could have such an immense impact on the psyche of the body and mind to imbue an unshakable belief that "I" actually exists. To undo this, to realize that there is no I, me or self, unfortunately I has to discount the most sacred thing in its life and being and that is the love of the creator, the creator of this I. Truth is born out of disloyalty to the love that created you. What a bummer! Love takes on this grandiose conceptual status but it starts with the body and touch which nature has designed for you to feel immediate bliss. It is the most powerful drug for all l...

Agenda for 30 October 2011:  Meditation under solfeggio tunes Conflict resolution; Buddha's method http://www.stu.ca/~spirituality/documents/RayParchelo-AMindtoFight_001.pdf Top down or bottom up? Deeksha http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D_XZ5Fn8iw&feature=mh_lolz&list=PLE47F5CF3DB4DFAAE

Recently I was watching a TVO (Ontario version of PBS) special on Buddha and his life. After enlightenment and delivering a series of sermons, his fame reached the ears of a local king of Rajgir. He donated some land and a bamboo orchard to the monk which became Buddhas home for the rest of his days. When he was not traveling the globe, he would frequently return to Rajgir and often spend considerable time meditating in a cave still maintained  on this ashram. In addition to a deep interest in visiting this cave next time I am in the vicinity which is not very far from my ancestor's farm, I was intrigued by what meditation did this all time great leader, perhaps the inventor of modern day mediation do after accomplishing everything  possible through meditation? I have asked this question to some of my friends and gurus who are obviously enlightened. What if any meditation do they do now? Answers have been generally "none" to "that once you have seen th...