Category: Spirituality

Poetry, Spirituality

The Uniqueness of Love

Jivani Lisa

It Is Not The Fact That I Will Die That I Mind

but that no one will love as I did
the oak tree out my boyhood window,
the mother who set herself
so stubbornly against life,
the sister with her serious frown
and her wish for someone at her side,
the father with his dreamy gaze
and his left hand idly buried
in the fur of his dog.
And the dog herself,
that mournful look and huge appetite,
her need for absolute stillness
in the presence of a bird.
I know how each of them looks
when asleep. And I know how it feels
to fall asleep among them.
No one knows that but me,
No one knows how to love the way I do.


––Jim Moore

Photo by Ruel Madelo on Pexels.com
Spirituality

Just BE, without being ‘this’ or ‘that’

Jivani Lisa

“You cannot possibly say that you are what you think yourself to be! Your
ideas about yourself change from day to day and from moment to moment. Your
self-image is the most changeful thing you have. It is utterly vulnerable, at the mercy
of a passer by. A bereavement, the loss of a job, an insult – and your image of
yourself, which you call your person, changes deeply. To know what you are, you
must first investigate and know what you are NOT. And to know what you are not, you
must watch yourself carefully, rejecting all that does not necessarily go with the
basic fact: ‘I am’. The ideas: I am born at a given place, at a given time, from my
parents and now I am so-and-so, living at, married to, father of, employed by, and so
on, are not inherent in the sense ‘I am’. Our usual attitude is: ‘I am this’. Separate
consistently and perseveringly the ‘I am’ from ‘this’ or ‘that’, and try to feel what it
means to BE, just to BE, without being ‘this’ or ‘that’. All our habits go against it and
the task of fighting them is long and hard sometimes, but clear understanding helps a
lot. The clearer you understand that, on the level of the mind, you can be described in
negative terms only, the quicker you will come to the end of your search and realize
your limitless being.”

— Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That

Photo by Bri Schneiter on Pexels.com
Spirituality, Yoga

I AM a Divine Being

Jivani Lisa

A meditation from Nischala Joy Devi:

In a softly lit room, sit [or stand] as close as comfortably possible to a mirror.

Take a few deep breaths and let them out slowly.

Allow yourself to relax.

Take a moment to look at your own familiar face.

Allow thoughts to drift away. Bring awareness to your eyes.

Keep your eyes soft as you gaze deeply into them.

At first you may feel uncomfortable. (We rarely, if ever, look ourselves in the eye.) But the eyes are the windows to the soul, so take a look into your own.

Continue to relax and soften the gaze.

Find yourself going deeper within until you get a glimpse of the Divine Light that is ever present.

Repeat either silently or aloud, “I am a Divine Being.”….

As you allow your eyes to close, be still and experience any feelings that surface.

Practice two times a day for a week and observe how your newfound feelings and thoughts influence the vision of your True Nature, and other people’s as well. Each time you pass a mirror or think of yourself in any way, reaffirm, “I am a Divine Being.”

— From The Secret Power of Yoga, pp. 23-24

Photo by Noah Buscher on Unsplash

Spirituality, Yoga

The Virtue of Surrender

Jivani Lisa

If any want to follow me, let them renounce themselves.”

(Jesus in Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; Matthew 16:24)

Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to God as we understood [God].”
(Step 3 of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous)

In Yoga, there are 5 Observances: Cleanliness, Contentment, Discipline, Self-Inquiry, and Surrender to the Divine. This surrender means willingly trusting that there is some sort of big picture in life which we can never truly understand with our small human mind. It means giving our lives over to making the world a better place by our loving presence, by our choice to put the good of others, of the world, over our own petty wishes.

Here is how the Franciscan priest, Richard Rohr, explains surrender:

“Surrender will always feel like dying, and yet it’s the necessary path to liberation. It takes each of us a long time to just accept—to accept what is; to accept ourselves, others, the past, our own mistakes, and the imperfection and idiosyncrasies of almost everything. Our lack of acceptance reveals our basic resistance to life. Acceptance isn’t our mode nearly as much as aggression, resistance, fight, or flight. None of these responses achieve the deep, lasting results of true acceptance and peaceful surrender. Acceptance becomes the strangest and strongest kind of power. Surrender isn’t giving up, as we often think; it’s a giving to the moment, the event, the person, and the situation.”

In Yoga, these teachings on surrender tie into Bhakti Yoga (the path of devotion) and Karma Yoga (the path of selfless service). I believe these ancient spiritual teachings are precisely what the modern world needs to remember and practice so we can help make the world a more peaceful and loving place for everyone.

May we trust – and begin NOW, this very moment!

Photo by Darius Bashar on Unsplash