Celebrating Guidance

Tags

celebration, guide, guru, spirituality

Friday July 27th was a special day in many ways. Astronomically, the full moon was accompanied by the longest duration total lunar eclipse in this century. Spiritually, Indian tradition celebrates this full moon as a ‘festival’ to honor our Gurus – those who provide us guidance on our path. Those who eclipse our doubts and being light and radiance to our hearts.

Over our morning coffee in the backyard, my wife suggested that I “call in well” to work… an idea that I was already considering, and hence readily agreed to. Family time. What better way to celebrate a festival? On Friday, family time meant spending time at the local bookstore, followed by lunch a new local fave where almost every entree can be ordered in a “gardein” (vegetarian or vegan) variation.

But first, the bookstore. As my daughter browsed the ‘young adult’ section, I wandered over to the nearby ‘spirituality’ stacks, to see what was new. I have ‘discovered’ some beautiful treasures of Rumi, Thich Nhat Hanh and Iyengar in these spaces in the past. And being in that space, I remembered. Wait. I had been meaning to order this particular book online since the day it was released in June. Maybe they have it in the store? So began the scouring of the ‘Spirituality’ shelves – first, a broad sweep of “books by author”, then “books by subject”. But to no avail. After wandering nearby into “mysticism” and other subjects with the same empty-handed was, I thought – maybe it was not for me to find this book today.

And then it struck me – maybe I ought to ask for ‘guidance’. The lady shelving books was right in my vicinity, every so often bringing a book to shelve in the very sections that I was searching in. So, I swallowed my slightly bruised ego, and timed my plea – ‘excuse me but could you look up a book for me?’ – with her return back to her computer terminal. In less than the time it took me to say the title, she said softly – yes, we have eight copies in the store!

Eight. How could I have missed all eight in the small corner in which I had been looking? She must have seen the quizzical look in my eyes, for she then said – “I have been watching you searching in ‘Spirituality’ – but this one is shelved in ‘Personal Growth’.” And where’s that, I asked? She proceeded to point to a stack in the diametrically opposite corner of what is a fairly large store – at least fifty feet away. So much for my conviction, my knowing of where to exactly find what I was looking for.

As I cradled “my find” proudly and stood in the checkout line along with my daughter’s choice, I wondered. How long would I have searched (again) in that ‘Spirituality’ section for my book – the very section where I had casually searched at least twice before on previous trips, and had left empty-handed thinking – I’ll just have to order it online. And how easy it was to “find”, when I asked the one who knew, and all they had to do was point me to the location. I did all the finding for myself after that… it must have taken less than a minute.

Yes, we often hear – embrace the ‘struggle’ (I call it ‘striving’), for it isn’t even really struggle, and that our struggle is part of our journey. We (are expected to) learn from our life’s strivings, our pains, our wounds, our bruises, so that when victory and healing comes, it may be even sweeter. What if part of our spiritual journey is to learn about when it is prudent to ask for guidance, from those who have walked the path before? While there is no shame in being (temporarily) lost, and believing that we can find our own way, we run the risk of letting our (small) ego misguiding and misdirecting us. Would it not be be a tremendous waste of our heart’s potential and energy if we were to accept being lost, to return home ‘empty handed’ as our spiritual destiny?

So, it was on the very day that I honor my Guru(s), that I was taught yet again – humility, acceptance, willingness to ask and then follow, and much more. I felt raised a little bit, in a gentle loving way, to the next stage. All in the search event for a book which has now become a metaphor for seeking loving guidance, illumination and practice of “The Heartfulness Way”.

Kumud @AjmaniK

Join us Sunday July 29th at 9amET for our weekly twitter chat in #SpiritChat. So many of you have provided guidance for so many on our community. This 7th Anniversary chat will honor all of you, your light, and your love. Namaste. – Kumud

P.S. My daughter’s book choice? “Gathering Blue” by Lois Lowry.

Celebrating guidance, rising in the center, among the five petals of the hibiscus…

Celebrating Guides and Guidance

Tags

celebration, guidance, guides, guru

We celebrate a lot of occasions in our lives. Birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, weddings, national holidays, international days, and much more. There is one annual celebration that is perhaps unique to Indian (vedic) tradition – it is the celebration of our spiritual guide(s) and the guidance that they provide to us. As it is with most Indian spiritual traditions, this celebration is also connected to the lunar calendar.

This year, the celebration of our guide(s), referred to as “Guru” in India, is marked for July 9th 2017. In modern times, the term “Guru” has expanded much beyond its original usage to refer to an ‘influential teacher’ or ‘subject matter expert’. The original use of the term referred to a highly revered ‘spiritual teacher’ who was trusted by royalty to provide advice, and to impart guidance to those who ‘qualified’ to be guided. And what made one ‘qualified’ to be taught or guided? Consider this:

“To him (or her) who has thus approached reverently, whose heart is tranquil, and whose senses are under control, let the wise Guru teach the real knowledge, by which the true and immortal Being is known” – Mundaka Upanishad

The Upanishad(s) are a series of wisdom “books” that distilled the essence of the ancient Vedas, which themselves contained the wisdom and traditions of ancient India. The word Upanishad literally means, “to sit near the sphere of influence of” (the radiance of the guide or Guru). There are many stories and parables about how the guide would test the student, before agreeing to accept them as a student. Think of it as an entrance examination or a college application – one had to be accepted in order to enter the “sphere of the guide”!

But, I digress a bit. Let me briefly return to the three qualifications of a student as referred to in the quote. First, “one who has approached reverently”. This implies a sense of humility, a willingness to learn, and an “emptying of the vessel” by the student. Second, “whose heart is tranquil”. This suggests a state of harmony within the student’s heart. We stand to learn and absorb much more (in any environment) if our heart is at peace – don’t you think? Third, “whose senses are under control”. To me, this refers to the state of our mind, our power of discernment, and how well we have control of the same.

It may seem like all the qualities that ‘qualify’ us to be taught by a ‘spiritual guide’ are the very qualities that we are seeking help for from our guide in the first place! If we already had these three qualities developed within, why would we need the guide or Guru anyway? What more could the guide teach us? The answer is perhaps in the last part of the quote – “let the wise teach the real knowledge by which the true and immortal is known”.

We arrive with reverence, harmony and good discernment. We receive guidance towards truth and immortality. That is worthy of celebration, don’t you think?

Namaste,

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. Join us on twitter for our weekly #SpiritChat conversation on Sunday, July 9th 2017 at 9amET (USA) / 1pm UTC / 630pm (India). We will celebrate our guides and share guidance over tea, cookies, and a guided, online meditation to follow at 8pmET (contact me directly for details on this). Namaste.

Celebrating Guides and Guidance that arrives through many mediums, from many directions…

Update: Storify Summary of Chat – https://storify.com/ajmanik/on-guides-and-guidance

On Guidance and Guides

Tags

freedom, guide, guru, spirituality

Most of us will readily accept and acknowledge that we often get ‘stuck’ at some waypoint in our lives. The guidance of a mentor or guide in these instances has the potential to greatly reduce the life energy that we may expend in getting ‘unstuck’ from our situation. The quality of the guidance that we receive in these moments can even mean the difference between (spiritual) ‘life’ and ‘death’.

My first year working at NASA, I was fortunate enough to find a guide who was willing to train and mentor me. These weren’t just engineering lessons, mind you. They were career and life lessons, inside and outside of the work environment. Over the years, the lessons that I learnt from him served me well, and encouraged me to be open to training and mentoring those who were willing to ask and listen. Now that I look back, I am glad that I did not listen to the ‘work whispers’ about him being a ‘tough guy who expects a lot from his students’ and so on. I am glad that I chose to evaluate whether he was the right guide for me from my own experience with him. After my graduate school thesis advisor, he was the second person who I trusted with my professional life and career guidance.

So, what was it that made my relationship with these guides in my life stand out from acquaintances and friends? They were willing to help when asked, without any hesitation or even a hint of a negative attitude. They showed, beyond a shadow of a doubt, by their actions, that they had my best interest at heart. They did not ask me to serve them – they were always serving me. They wanted me to accomplish bigger and better things than they had accomplished. They were willing to share some of their life stories, about moments when they themselves were ‘stuck’, and how their guides helped them to get past those roadblocks. They opened their hearts and homes, their families and friends to me, and we became family.

This is not to say that a good guide, in order to provide great guidance to you, needs to meet ALL of the above criteria – although, it does not hurt if you develop that special relationship with them. One thing is for sure. In order for us to accept guidance that we will actually act upon, the guide has to convey that they have our best interest at heart. Their highest, an perhps only ‘agenda’, is for us to succeed and not remain ‘stuck’. They do not want to necessarily hold our hand all the time, although they are willing to do even that if that is what it will take for us to develop trust in their guidance.

The great guides have walked the path, are present when called upon, point the way when asked, give us the tools to remove that which blocks our progress, and serve us with a loving heart so deep that it takes our breath away…

Some of us may question whether we even need an ‘external’ guide in our lives. This happens because some of us may have been led astray or been caused egregious harm by a guide that met seemed qualified to provide good guidance. Our heart and spirit refuses to ‘trust’ the external, and so we retreat to the internal guide. Our own ‘inner compass’. Yes, there are some among us who have that inner strength and reservoir of spiritual energy to be able to get ‘unstuck’ by themselves, to carry their own map as they climb the mountain. And I say, more spiritual power to them. For me, I am the Edmund Hillary who would not dream of climbing the mountain for the first time without my trusted Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay. I submit my welfare and well-being into the sherpa’s hands.

How about you? Are you ‘going it alone’, relying purely on ‘inner guidance’? Or do you have an ‘external’ guide – or maybe even a team of them – who walk the path with you? How did you find your guide(s)? What criteria did you use to determine that they were the best guide(s) for you? Have you ever been disappointed in a guide that you chose and then switched to different one? How did that change your life and what did you learn in the process?

In this month of July 2016, we have been talking about freedom in our weekly #SpiritChat conversations on twitter. One could ask – how does our reliance on a guide impact our ‘spirit of freedom’? Join us Sunday morning, and share some of your guidance with us.

Namaste,

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. For more about the student/teacher/Guide/Guru ‘principle’ in Indian culture, do see this Wikipedia article about the Guru Purnima Festival, which falls on July 18th/19th this year… Also see, Celebrating the Guru (Guide) in Vedic Tradition. Namaste.

On Awareness and Flow

Tags

awareness, flow, guide, guru

A Nature Walk with ‘Sheila’

There are those who are the salt of the Earth. They may not look outwardly prosperous or ‘wealthy’, but their wealth lies in their empathy, compassion, resilience, and sense of awareness. You feel the flow of their life-force when you are around them, and in their presence, some droplets from the stream of their innerspring of spirit get sprinkled onto you! 

Our guide for the nature walk at the resort today was “Sheila”. Of ‘Native American’ descent, we found out very quickly that this was not just an ordinary ‘walk’ for her. She gave us a bit of the history of the area, and patiently educated us about almost every tree, shrub and flower that we walked by. Her eyes would light up, her step would quicken, her voice would rise in pride when we came across native species – palms, palmettos, spiders, butterflies, alligators, and more. 

The highlight of the walk – as she told me after it was over – was the ‘calling of the owls’. It was the first time that she had been able to attract not one or two, but four or five owls with her calling. As she explained it, the call went something like “who. who. who cooks for you.” To watch a ‘barred owl’ in full flight is a thing of beauty. To hear Sheila interact and engage with them with her voice was like having premium seating at nature’s orchestra performance with a master conductor. 

There were conversations about bullfrogs, cicadas, all kinds of water fowl, swans, snakes, armadillos, wolves, deer, bobcats, and of course, alligators. There were woodpecker and finch sightings, the Florida ‘state butterfly’ (zebra longwing, horizontal black and yellow stripes), and even a monarch butterfly or two. 

Yes, she was knowledgeable about her environment, about the land, the plants, and the animals. More than that, What transpired in those two plus hours of ‘walking’ with this wonderfully graceful, grey-haired, ‘salt of the earth’ spirit-guide of a human-being was the realization that I was walking with a deeply caring individual whose entire mind, body, spirit and soul lives in awareness and flow. It brought the realization to me that our guides, our gurus, our mentors, are available to us at many of life’s turns – though we may to make a bit of an effort and walk into their presence with an open heart.

No, not an effort to actively go ‘seek’ them, but to make ourselves available to be led “off the beaten pathways” of our everyday lives into unfamiliar territory. And sometimes, that ‘effort’ may mean that we may have to awaken at 6:30am on a “vacation day” – to go discover our spirit-guide, to bring ourselves into their field of awareness, and discover our flow in That serendipity. 

Namaste,

Kumud

P.S. Join us in our weekly twitter chat, with hashtag #SpiritChat ~ Sunday August 2nd at 9amET/1pmUTC. We will discuss “Awareness and Flow”. If you have some favorite ‘flow’ experiences, particularly those that came about as a result of serendipity, please do share. Thank you, and Namaste 🙂

Our Spiritual Teachers

Tags

guru, spiritchat, spirituality, teachers

Our association with teachers runs wide and deep. The width represents the diversity of teachers that have influenced our (spiritual) lives during various stages of our passage through life. The depth represents the intensity of (recurring) impact our teachers may have had on us in the course of time. Width is created as a result of our willingness to be open. and remain open, to the influence of (new) teachers. Depth is created by our association with our teachers in the dimensions of time and (heart) space.

A large part of the (spiritual) student teacher relationship is an act of volition. Many of us feel that our parents, in particular our mothers, were our first spiritual teachers and influencers. Our proximity to our parents (or caregivers), our dependence on them in our formative years, created this primary studentship in our hearts and minds. This studentship planted some lifelong seeds in our heart. In our pre-primary and primary years, we were for the first time, exposed to the influence of caregivers and teachers outside the home. The width of our engagement with teachers was broadened with these interactions, and seeds of the “desire to learn” were hopefully planted within us. As we advanced in our years, through middle and high school, many teachers continued to widen our horizons in our “formal” education.

The inspiration and influence of teachers outside of our “formal” education was perhaps equally, if not more important in the development of our character and personality. The “teacher” who taught us how to play chess, the “teacher” who taught us how to drive a stick shift, the “teacher” who tried to bully us on the playground and taught us to “dig deep” and stand up for ourselves, the “teachers” and best friends who would spend hours on the phone before final exams working through thermodynamics problems with us… I am sure you get the idea. I am sure you can think of many similar “informal” teachers who imparted many life-lessons to you.

And then there were the teachers who influenced us from beyond our physical association with them. Their impact was felt in our lives through their words and stories embedded in books – some of which we were required to read as part of our “formal” education, and some of which we were fortunate enough to stumble upon in a library, or through the grace of a gift from a good friend or relative. Some “teachers” may have influenced us through short videos, or even through online interactions. Some of us may have even experienced the “distance teaching” influence which speaks directly to our heart.

Regardless of their medium of influence, the width and depth of the impact of our teachers can vary widely. So, what makes a great teacher? And why? I asked this question of my daughter, who happens to be one of my greatest teachers. Her response was ~ “…my favorite teacher is the one who lets us play, lets us be a little crazy when we want to, and participates in our play. she is herself a child at heart…”

For those of you who have read this far, I hope I have helped you reflect a bit on the role of teachers in your life. The other side of the coin is: who do you consider yourself to be a teacher to? What value do the values of trust and truth hold in the (spiritual) student-teacher relationship? What lesson can we learn when a teacher seems to “walk away” from us, their student? I invite you to join me and the #SpiritChat community on twitter in a live chat on Sunday, May 17th at 9amET/1pmGMT to discuss some of these questions. Who knows, you may find the teacher (or student) that you may have been searching for!

Namaste,

Kumud