The Truth in Me

Besides the obvious truth (“I am a human being”) and the spiritually yet-to-be experienced truth (“I am pure consciousness, free and eternal”), what is the truth in me now, at this moment?—this is an important question that every spiritual seeker has to grapple with.

Where Are You Parked?

It may be helpful to think of our consciousness as a car and the different parts of our personality as parking lots. The body is one parking lot, the mind another, the ego yet another, and so on. It is obvious that my car will be directly impacted with whatever happens at the lot where it is parked. If there is fire at the lot, my car is in danger. If I hear of the fire, I’ll be anxious and rush to get my car out of that place. On the other hand, if there is fire in some other parking lot, I wouldn’t care so much, for I won’t be affected by it.

Responsibility for our Actions

About a year ago, one of the students sent me this question:

"We are instructed to forget the bad done to us by others - the idea being that this was something we had coming to us (karma, taking responsibility for our past actions). My question is, what about the reverse? One could argue if we do bad to others, that we should forget that because it was something that they had coming to them, which, of course, does not sound right. I am wondering your thoughts on that."

And this is what I wrote in reply:

Death, Silence, Space

Last December I got an email from a dear friend informing me that his father had passed away peacefully at 92. I went to the shrine and offered a special prayer for his father and his family. Not surprisingly, I remembered my own father––and specifically the moment when I had received a call late at night informing me of my father’s peaceful passing almost exactly a year after I came to Boston. I remember that moment vividly, as if it happened this morning. As soon as I had heard the news, I had experienced a sudden void, a deafening silence within me, and it had lasted for several hours.