Parinama

  Succumb to warmth in the heart; Where divine fire glows John O’Donohue, from Axiom for Wildness In the yoga sutras, Joy, when it comes, is always unexpected, a surprising gift from God.   We cannot manufacture our own Joy which unlike happiness is unbounded to outer circumstances.    Joy, like sunlight filtering through the tree canopy, becomes known to us in the darkness. And comes to us through our soft tender hearts, the same door as grief and sorrow. Joy walks hand in hand with sorrow.   I found myself filled with Joy on a recent walk in the forest, the colors in the field turning, the pond dark and still.   In the next moment I am weeping for the sweetness of this moment that will surely pass, for all that I love that is passing. I think of my mother who I call everyday just to hear her voice, my groundnote, and wonder what I will do when she is gone and I can no longer hear her voice.   And I am filled with the Joy of t...

  Identifying with murky thoughts and feelings is like looking in a distorted mirror or muddied lake. Those unclear images are often reinforced by the outside world. When we identify with grumpy or angry thoughts, the mind beams them outwards….As we come to understand that our nature is joy and love, perceived suffering is unable to take root. Realizing that we do not have to be bound by any one interpretation, we alter our mode of identification. We then recognize and relate to our highest consciousness. Nichala Joy Devi, The Secret Power of Yoga It can be hard to see anything beyond our own self-centered projections onto situations. When I feel shame, it seems as if the cause of the shame is outside of me not inside.   I have been shamed. When I feel irritated, my mind locks onto some event or interaction to blame. My sense of self, grasping for security in outer events, is thrown off by the smallest of obstacles.   I feel hemmed into a small and ...

  In “The Way of the Pilgrim” a mystical seeker sets out on journey to discover how to pray “ceaselessly”, to keep the presence of God that close.   It seems like an impossible task given the many distractions and struggles in life.   On their long pilgrimage, just when they are ready to give up, they meet a teacher who offers a key to ceaseless prayer.   Prayer grows out of our deepest longings. To pray ceaselessly one needs only to be tenderly aware of the longings. The incompleteness through which our longings take form, all the ways we fail and strive and hope, yet despair, is also the way that God’s presence can become known to us.   When we experience the poverty of the material world to satisfy our endless needs for pleasure, security, immortality, a window into the divine opens. We are touched by the presence of something sustaining us that is more infinite and deeper than our own self-efforting and egoism. There is an experience o...