This passage by Kerri Lake reminds me of what I learned from my dad: Yatha dristi tatha sristi. The world appears as you see it. If my sight is clear the world looks clear. When I look at the world with eyes filled with "me against you" or "what is there for me", my life shrinks and I get disconnected with the essence of life which I call unitive consciousness or my true nature.

All of us have two eyes to see the outer world and to be connected with outer world and for survival. We also have an invisible third eye-trinertra- to see the light within that liberates us from self-created conflict, darkness and bondage. As a human being I do have a need to survive and be safe physically, mentally, emotionally and relationally. When I do not get stuck with the survival level and go beyond that level I feel the vastness of the clear sky with no restricting boundaries. It is an experience of oneness, of freedom and living life fully. To me life is a journey, an ongoing process of learning, growing and developing. This is the way I get connected with essence of life. I know who I am and that's a blessing.
Namaste!

I love this short parable. It teaches us that under the duality there is oneness. The salt doll realizes that oneness by dissolving the separateness. Our personal ego-based identity does not realize Universal identity as long as it holds onto ego bound identity. Self-realization is the realization of my Real Self which is universal. It is an experience of oneness regardless of apparent differences. The wave is the ocean. I have had many glimpses of my real or true self. When I am fully absorbed in meditation I lose my individual identity. Individual consciousness becomes universal consciousness. There have been times when I have experienced oneness with nature. I have experienced such oneness in unconditional love relationships. They are spiritual experiences for me. Such experiences have enriched my life and have made me a better person.
Namaste!

"Somewhere someone needs help. Send love. It matters." writes Carrie Newcomer. Yes. We all sometimes need love to sustain life. When someone needs my loving and supportive hand I feel compassion for that person and I do whatever I can. When I offer my hand unconditionally to the other my heart is filled with love and joy. I believe all of us are endowed with the gift of love. When I send love to someone who needs help I experience oneness with the other person. It is fulfilling and joyful. It is a spiritual experience , an experience of unitive consciousness. We are witnessing a horrible war in Ukraine causing property and human destruction, innocent people suffering and dying.

"Somewhere someone needs help." I deeply feel for people going through such suffering. I have chosen to breathe in the weight of their suffering. I pray for them and make financial contributions to help them. I know there are many obstacles the Ukrainians are facing at this time. I know I am not capable of bringing change in this situation. I recognize it. They are still in my mind and heart. I breathe in and do whatever I can to be helpful to them. I breathe out knowing and accepting what I cannot change and do not add more emotional pain in me. I do what I can and let go what I can't do. Awareness keeps me awake to do what I can do and intelligence and discretion to know what I cannot.

​Namaste!

Paul Kalanithi wrote essays for The New York Times and Stanford Medicine reflecting on being a physician and a patient, the human experience of facing death, and the joy he found despite terminal illness. He passed away at the age of 37, in 2015. Below is my reflection after reading excerpt from his best-selling book, When Breath Becomes Air.

We are a multidimensional human being. Science helps understand the body-mind complex, the physical, mental and emotional dimensions of us as human beings. Its approach is objective. There is something beyond the objective frame of reference. It is personal and subjective. It is the inner world of unconditional love or divine love. It is personal world yet it is transpersonal and universal. I keep my mind open and free to understand and appreciate the world of Science and the world of Spirituality. This way of living has helped me to appreciate both types of world.
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Namaste.

Based on the excerpt from the article written by Meg Wheatley, I had the following reflection:

In my relatively long life journey ( I am 96 years old) I have encountered many ups and downs and there were a few times I felt groundlessness, a sense of sinking down without bottom, darkness without rays of hope. In such dark times of my life I felt and saw the light of based on the ground of unwavering faith. Faith is the light that hardly gets extinguished.

I felt dense darkness and groundlessness during the second stage of my life. I felt helplessness and hopelessness. They were dark periods of my life. Light of Faith in the higher power helped me go through dense darkness and see the light. Keeping my mind open and curious, accepting myself as imperfect, mindfully reducing the noise in my mind, and being grateful to my family and friends for holding my hands when I was falling down have been very helpful to me.
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Namaste!

"Heartbreak comes with the territory called being human." as Parker Palmer says in this passage. As human beings we all go through all kinds of sufferings-physical, mental, emotional and relational. Our challenge is how do we turn the power of suffering toward new life. Trying to numb the pain of suffering as anesthetics deepens our suffering. Keeping our heart suppressed and closed and making it hard and inflexible creates more suffering. When I relate to my suffering and or someone's suffering with an open, subtle and compassionate heart, I develop greater capacity to take in my sorrows and joys. This is spiritual alchemy.

I have encountered many losses in my life causing a lot of emotional pain. And I have learned how to relate to my painful experiences by keeping my heart open and processing my pain with loving kindness. This is the way I relate to "life's little death" without numbing and suppressing my pain without an anesthetics.
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Namaste.

Here is my reflection after reading the excerpt from Jacques Verduin's article:
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We all are interbeings. The face of intrabeing is also the face of interbeing. What I do has an impact on the other and what the other has also an impact on me. We all are intertwined. If I am aware of my wrong doing and do not defend it and ask for forgiveness I get redeemed of my wrong doing. Every moment of offense carries within it the grace of redemption.

We all are facing the wave of COVID19 virus. If I do not take precautions such as taking vaccines and a booster it may have an impact on others who come in contact with me. We do not live on an isolated island. We all are connected with others. As I am 96 years old I am more susceptible to getting the virus. By taking vaccinations and a booster shot I am protecting myself and also protecting others coming in contact with me.

Responsibility is the other side of the face of freedom. In that way my freedom is in your hand of responsibility and your freedom is in my hand of responsibility. Sadly for some people freedom is a one way street. Free but not responsible. Knowing that we all are interconnected and remaining aware and implementing that knowledge in every walk of my life helps me act wisely. I know my freedom is in your hands and your freedom is in my hands. My fate is in your hands and your fate is my hands. We are interconnected. We are not an isolated island. May we all have this awakened state of mind.

Namaste!

Here is my reflection after reading an excerpt from Ken Wilber's book - One Taste.
When I look out from the eyes, the seer is looking out, the witness consciousness is looking out untouched by what is being seen. What is being seen changes but not the seer or the witness. I like what Ken Wilber says, " There is only One State, within which different states arise. There is only One Taste, through which various different tastes flow." Though we see different selves, there is only One Self. When we realize this Truth, "the heartbeat of compassion will resound. A constant cloud of caring will rain on every parade." as Ken Wiber says.

When I am in deep meditative state the self-created walls of divisiveness and fragmentation melt away and I experience unitive state of consciousness, only One Taste. By practicing Meditation, this state of unitive consciousness stays longer and longer and that's a blessing. The heartbeat of compassion and caring continues resounding. Clouds clear up and in the vast pure Emptiness I experience fullness.
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Namaste!

Chelan Harkin is a mystic poet and his poem is posted in awakin.org. Here is my reflection to his poem:

Nature offers many wonderful gifts in our hands everyday and we say "Wow!" I get up early in the morning watching the sun rising and I say "Wow!" I hear the birds chirping and feeding their little babies and the words come out from my mouth, "Wow!" When I see the older brother taking care of the little younger brother my heart is filled with joy and I hear myself saying "Wow!"

There is an old saying in Sanskrit like" ksane kasne yaha upeti navatam tadeva rupam ramaniyayata." Beauty brings joy every moment. When I keep my mind and heart open to perceive and experience it fully each moment, my heart is filled with wonderment. I experience such Aha moments when I fully live in the present moment. When I was a child I had more "Wow!" moments. As I got older I became more thought minded and rational than heart minded and emotional which to some extent dried the flow of my heartfeltness. As I am growing older I have been able to create a dynamic balance between head and heart. This is one of the ways I have reconciled wonder with rationality.

​Namaste!