Spiritual life & practical life

[Guest guest]

Pranams Sadhaks,<br><br>The separation of

spiritual & practical aspects,<br>is essentially a creation

of fragmented mind.For<br>outwardly life the

distinction may be perceived<br>as follows:<br><br>Holistic

is spiritual.....partial is practical.<br>Universal

is spiritual....Global is practical.<br>Global is

spiritual.....National is practical<br>National is spiritual...Regional

is practical<br>Regional is spiritual...Local is

practical<br>Local is spiritual... selfish is practical.<br><br>This

appears to be the basis for our spiritual

life.....Bahujana Hitaya,Bahujana Sukhaya.<br><br>For inwardly

spiritual life(which normally Sadhaks live),the distinction

may be perceived as follows:<br><br>Selflessness is

spiritual,selfishness is practical.Unless one lives in equilibrium with

the NATURE,the survival/sustainance needs have to be

met through social reciprocation by exchanging what

we HAVE with what we NEED!This process of living on

social dependence is subject to law of economics,which

is practical!<br><br>This is only a preposition to

explain the seeming contradictions we are noticing in our

day-to-day life.It may also explain to some extent the

purpose why our Rishis/sanyasins/sadhaks pursuued their

Spiritual Sadhana in forests or remotely located Ashrams

where they lived a simple life. <br><br>The most

apparent reason why this separation between SPIRITUAL &

PRACTICAL exists, is the Human Limitations in terms of

Physical, Mental, Emotional,& Socio-economic factors.The

simple way to reduce/remove it may be as

follows:<br><br>1)To be aware of the Causes for the same.<br><br>2)To

have develop a conviction & committment to work to

overcome it.<br><br>3)To get in to the ACTION ,(to begin

with SELF,HERE & NOW) through a royal step-by-step

approach of SADHANA,i.e,

SHRUDDHA,SWAVALAMBAN,SEVA,SANSANG,SAMSKAR,SAFALYA<br>whereby a contemporary

SADHAK overcomes the compusions of

selfishness for

SURVIVAL,SUSTAINANCE,SECURITY,SAFETY,STABILITY & SUCCESS in this worldly life

and qualifies to

lead a Selfless(Spiritual)

life!<br><br>Nachiketashram.

[Guest guest]

Namaste<br><br>Thank you for addressing Uma's

post. Please forgive my ignorance here as I attempt to

understand.<br><br>You say "The simple way to reduce/remove it may be as

follows:...2)To have develop a conviction & committment to work

to overcome it." This sounds great in theory, but

how can a person work to overcome this gap between

the spiritual and the practical if no further

explaination is given? Theories and ideas work only so far,

quite frankly, before one is left asking the question,

"How does this apply to my life?". Where there's a

will there's a way, they say. If I don't know where

the door is, or how to turn the door knob, or even

how to walk, how can I be expected to walk through

it? A mother does not send her child to her first day

of school without proper pencils and a notebook,

even clothes and shoes. <br><br>Yes, it is true that

many have taken to living a spiritual life outside of

the societial "norm", but it is also true that many

of us are not at that stage in our learning. We are

all at different points along this path, and for

those of us that are beginners, these things can

sometimes become frustrating.<br><br>Perhaps some of our

learned members can indulge me in elementary-school-level

explainations of "leading a spiritual life". <br><br>In

Love<br>Erica

[Guest guest]

Erica,<br><br>I find it helpful when I meditate

to sing to myself the names of God..Constantly

keeping His/Her name before me along with the traits of

love and blessings which have been bestowed on

me.<br>This by-the-way, is an excellant way to go to sleep

and upon rising in the morning can bring new

revelation of the Devine.<br><br>"In conclusion, my

brothers, fill your minds with those things that are good

and thatdeserver praise, things that are true,

noble,right, pure, lovely, and honorable."<br><br>In order to

do this you just have to tell the fearful, mean,

cruel, unkind, hurtful and godless thoughts to leave.

But at the same time have an opposite thought to

replace it with.<br><br>Examples:<br><br>Poor me thoughts

can be replaced with such things as: <br><br>I am

blessed by God. I have been given the mind of God.

Because God lives in me and his love shines through me, I

am blessed with many friends. Because God is in me,

I am the righteousness of God and the righteous are

blessed at whatever they set their hands

to.<br><br>Thoughts of poverty or need can be replaced with such

as:<br><br>All of my needs are met. Because I do give, both of

my self and my possessions, it is given back to me

in even greater quanitity - my cup over

flows.<br><br>Fearful:<br><br>We have not been given a spirit of fear, but of

power and a sound mind.<br><br>Greater is He/She who is

in us, than he who is in the

world.<br><br>######<br><br>These are just some things that you can tell

yourself,

to build up your faith so that you can walk in the

spiritual life. Always looking for the good and not the bad

will help you in your walk. And others will probably

list things that they use to increase their faith and

their spiritual walk also.<br><br>For me meditation is

thinking about God and His love.<br><br>shalom<br>vicki

[Guest guest]

One of the advantages of having a true Guru,

whose intention is to lead you to your highest,

unbounded potential, is that these kinds of difficult

questions about ourselves are safely addressed by him/her,

and all one has to do is follow. In the absence of

that, we have to use a trial and error method, ask

questions, read, and use these as triggers to reach the

Guide/ Guru within, until the Guru finds us.

<br><br>Living consciously, on the basis of Spiritual laws, is

one of the highlights of the so-called New-Age

movement. As a spirit having a physical experience, at the

beginners level, it simply means to take spiritual

responsibility for one’s own actions; at the level of the

highest of realized souls, it implies living at the level

where Divinity descends within the physical form and

one is able to live on earth plane if needed, like

Mahamuni Babaji, also known as Babaji Maharaaj and others.

Of course there are also those who choose to live

amongst us or in solitude, in various forms of divine

presence.<br><br>Lives of many, many enlightened souls have shown us

that one can live in “practical life” and yet be able

to practice the principles of Truth. My favorite is

Lahiri Mahashaya, the disciple of Babaji who was asked

to take the specific technique of “Kriya Yoga” to

the people, teaching them that they don’t need to

retreat into the forest to attain enlightenment. Buddha,

after trying all the various methods, brought his

attention to addressing the “here and now”. In his famous

parable, he says - if a hunter is hurt and bleeding, do

you spend time talking about his karmic reasons for

being hurt or what he needs to do for his future karma?

Neither, he says, in fact one attends to the present

wound, the immediate need to get the bleeding to stopped

and get the strength back. <br><br>Maharishi (MMY)

says there are two ways to clean house. One is to take

each and every piece of junk, examine it, analyze it,

and then throw it away, or to take a big broom and

sweep it all away. The big broom is the practice of

meditation. While he said this in the context of TM, I see it

applying at various degrees to all sincere disciplined

spiritual practice, no matter what the path maybe.

<br><br>My personal conclusion so far, is a balance of the

two extremes. I attempt to acknowledge, analyze and

understand my “junk” while at the same time engage in

disciplined to “sweep” the junk away. As Vicki

suggested, I use affirmations, and other techniques also to

keep my mind grounded. (Often I fail, then I pick up

and try again!!! ) For the mind can only handle one

topic with focus at a time. If we use our will to fill

it with those of higher nature, we don't allow

others to get in the way. Spirituality is not a

part-time occupation; unless it is integrated within our

daily lives, there will always be something getting in

the way.<br><br>I notice that the topic of

discipline/obstacles in sadhna has had few takers. However, from

conversations with people, here and IRL, it seems to be a large

obstacle for many. Some have even suggested laziness to be

an important issue one has to deal with. I’m curious

about member views? Is it an important aspect of your

sadhna? Is it something one is uncomfortable talking

about? This gets us into the thick of walking the talk

of spiritual knowledge, a tough but important aspect

of the journey towards (Self)

God-realization.<br><br>Where are all our members? I'd like to hear from

all!!<br><br>_/\_ Tat twam asi<br><br>Uma

[Guest guest]

It has been my experience that spirituality

begins as a selfish thing. It has to! It is not others

that are a mess, but me - know what i

mean?<br><br>Then as we grow spiritually, we evolve into an

understanding of spirituality on the universal/global level

which includes oneness not only with God/The Self, but

with everyone and everything.<br><br>vicki

[Guest guest]

The earlier message got garbled. I am

reposting.<br><br>Hello Uma and all other members,<br><br>I've been

member for some weeks, but this is my first

post.<br>Obstacles in sadhana are so many and so common. Sadhakas

are upset by them, and some temporarily stop their

practises.Some times they just give up for good.<br><br>Yes,

laziness is an obstacle for many, especially in the

beginning, after the initial enthusiasm has worn off.<br>It

is an accepted fact among sadhaks, and advanced

sadhaks and Gurus confirm that obstacles of various kinds

are an integral part of spiritual

sadhana.<br><br>These can take various forms and shapes.One thing most

of us would have noticed is some actual disturbance

like the phone or door-bell ringing just when we are

engaged in sadhana.<br>When we have planned some special

session, a sudden guest, an illness or accident(small, but

requiring our attention) to a child or someone in the

family will prevent us from getting on with it.<br>We

ourselves could fall ill. Some incident could have upset us

and made us angry or depressed, that we are not able

to concentrate.<br>It could just be too cold or hot

for us to sit down for a long time.<br>Drowsiness

while meditating, pain or discomfort some-where in the

body, are other obstacles.<br>And that wonderful

creation of God, our Mind, will wander hither and thither,

will throw up all kinds of long-forgotten and

unnecessary irrelevant memories.These could be quite

upsetting, and we will blame ourselves for ' thinking '

these thoughts.Just ignore them, and watch them as if

you have nothing to do with them. Do not let them

trouble you. Do not identify your self with these

thoughts.<br><br>So obstacles can be external and internal. Internal

factors can be physical or mental.<br><br>Now for the

other part - discipline in sadhana:<br>Without

discipline one cannot proceed and succeed in sadhana.<br>The

main thing to remember and follow is : PERSEVERANCE,

DOGGED PERSEVERANCE!<br>Especially in the beginning,

never let anything get in the way.I quote Uma here:'

Spirituality is not a part-time occupation'. So give it all

you have.It is very demanding.The best way for

beginners is ' same place, same time, same practice'.If

this is followed, after some months, or years,(time

varies from person to person) it will ' set in'. And

then you will never want to stop or give it a short

holiday even.<br><br>This requires a lot of grit and

sacrifice too. Your own family, and friends and others will

not understand your commitment and zeal, and you will

have to face some resistance, antagonism and

irritation from them. Some times lose some

friendship.<br><br>If you are indeed committed, and willing to go on,

you will reap rich rewards. These again can only be

realized and enjoyed by you alone. But the change will

begin from 'inside' and slowly permeate to the external

aspects of your life.<br>It is indeed ' spiritual

adventure' There are the dangers and the pitfalls, and the

thrills and the Joy of achievement.<br><br>Happy

Adventure !<br><br>Jai Maha Maya!<br><br>Matrka7

[Guest guest]

Namaste Matrka7...<br><br>Thank you for your

insightful first post. <br><br>Discipline is something that

does not come easy for anyone. I have found that when

I am least disciplined is the time I need it most!

When newness wears off, and when that dreaded

"mundane" feeling settles in, where can one reach or turn

to find a new sense of contentment? How can we take

this boredom and turn it into fulfillment?<br><br>It

seems that as each "layer of the onion" comes to

surface, we get comfortable with our state of mind. When

the top layer starts to wilt and turn brown, we then

are interested in peeling the layer back.

<br><br>***<br><br>As a side note, I want to let the members of my

Saadhnaa Club family know that my post the other day was

quite out of character for me. When we let negative

energies get to us, there's no telling what other

negativity we will direct back outwardly. I do apologize.

<br><br>In Love,<br>Erica

[Guest guest]

if you don't realize the divine perception within you are lost tatswami