A famous Hindu chant is often chanted in yoga studios and training worldwide. The words are “lokāḥ samastāḥ sukhinaḥ bhavantu.” While the word "sukha" is usually translated as happiness, giving the mantra the meaning of "may the world be happy," there is a more meaningful etymology to this word that is particularly significant at this time.

"Sukha" does mean joy and delight, but there is equally, or perhaps more strongly, the sense that it refers to ease, comfort, and coziness. Consider regions around the world where people are struggling with the necessities of life under the daily threat of war, oppression, or violence. One way of holding them in our prayers is to ask that their lives ease up into a more comfortable existence.

In this guided meditation, taken from our Yoga of Sound Immersion, you will engage in a simple yet powerful prayer that embodies the spirit of the Vedas. It is designed to be accessible to everyone, even those without knowledge of Sanskrit,...

Yoga, Tantra, and the Vedic experience, which we engage uniquely in our Yogic Mystery School, is about heightened consciousness, which, in turn, is related to several factors or variables.
 
From everything we have discovered through human psychology and the Age of Enlightenment in the West, our psychological health and emotional well-being are crucial factors influencing our everyday consciousness. And suppose there is a state of consciousness that is more evolved, significant, higher, and more profound than our everyday consciousness. In that case, that state cannot be entirely disconnected from our self-awareness born of our physical and psychological development. In other words, there has to be some connection, a living connection, not an arbitrary mental assumption, between all types of consciousness.  Since John Welwood's seminal discovery of spiritually bypassing, we now know that someone deeply engaged in spiritual practices could avoid addressing their emotional...

Bede Griffiths would often tell us how important it is to live close to nature, which is why he designed a lifestyle for the monk modeled on Indian village life.

So very often, when we encounter nature, we want to engage the experience through the lens of our phones and cameras, documenting the encounter instead of experiencing it.

Can we experience our experiences as experiences?

If you want to explore what this means, try and become aware of how much of the human experience you are having at any moment is consumed by descriptive and inferring thoughts, images (of others one might be connected to), projections into or away from the immediate experience and associations with other matters, even if related to the experience. 

Imagine the ability to experience an experience, no matter what it is, with a minimal amount of thoughts, associations, projections, and imagination. What would a peach, or some wonderful fruit, taste like? Even the simplicity of eating something...

OVERVIEW: ABOUT THIS BLOG

I've put quite some thought into this insightful blog that can help you discern the best approaches in your meditation practice. The approaches are those that stimulate creativity and productivity in contrast to those that take us into depth consciousness and mystical relationships.

There's quite a bit of insights in the blog for teachers, coaches, and healers, as well as professionals and everyday spiritual practitioners. You will need to read the blog to understand the concluding recommendations on why it is best not to engage both approaches simultaneously.

FUNCTIONAL MEDITATION VERSUS MYSTICISM

The word "meditation" is most often used in a generic sense to mean any type of spiritual practice. Since the Herbert Benson study at Harvard, practices that elicit what is called the "relaxation response" have come to be the benchmark for meditation practices. Any practice that helps you lower your stress can, inversely, increase your productivity and...

Because spirituality, like life, is about relationships.

What is spirituality about most of all? One word that perhaps most humans will relate to behind the various norms and practices is "connection."

On the one hand, as humans, our spiritual connection (with the divine) is with something we don't see with our physical eyes; on the other, it is with something we discern through a different sense: something like intuition, perhaps.

In other words, there is a paradox behind the word "connection" and the process involved. We seek connection through a mysterious process about something that words often fail to define: the divine reality. It is challenging to pin down the divine truth as this, that, or the other. Yet, we believe in it and relate to it as a reality, or, in most cases, the truth, the supreme reality.

"Paradox" is another word critical to deep spirituality, as paradox helps us resolve the profound contradictions that arise within us due to spiritual experience and process....

In many places worldwide, humans hurt other humans in the most horrendous ways. At times, it happens in our families, neighborhoods, and backyards.

What happened in Israel on Oct 07 was awful and emotionally devastating. And now Gaza is  painful to follow. And then, there's Ukraine; and Sudan.

In some ways, one feels helpless. What can we do, we ask, to end these human conflicts? Where does our power lie? One response is prayerful chant.

There is nothing political about this post. It is simply an assortment of peace prayers in multiple languages that can be sung sequentially and simultaneously. 

You probably have places on the planet that deeply concern you. Please join us in collectively praying and chanting for peace on a global scale. 

Featured on this page is a video with graphics that serves as a meditation, a complete text of the lyrics, and a video showing the guitar chords if you want to learn it.

PUT ON A GOOD HEADSET AND KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN...

If you like stories and lessons learned from life, this blog is for you. On the one hand, it is an invitation to engage in self-discovery on the order of bija mantras for the chakras. And on the other hand, it encourages you, the seeker and the practitioner, to not take anyone's word for granted but to seek and discover the truth for yourself. 

The Buddha taught:

"Believe nothing because a wise man said it,
Believe nothing because it is generally held.
(and there'e more to this quote below...)

It was called Y2K: the year 2000. People were terrified that something terrible would happen at the turn of the millennium, particularly around digital clocks not resetting and the chaos ensuing. But, paradoxically, my life was getting exciting. Just the year before, I had recorded my album Nada Yoga at an incredible studio deep in the California redwoods. Kenny was an engineer who recorded the Grateful Dead and many other greats. I was excited about a multiple-album contract...

We can use any mantra for healing. However, understanding a mantra and, more importantly, cultivating a relationship with the power or intelligence behind the mantra can further the healing process.

Where does one begin with mantras and healing?

One way is to invoke the God of Healing: Dhanvantari.

Here are two variations:

om namo dhanvantaraye
or
om dhanvantaraye namaha

Learn more about sacred sound

In the video below, I share the pronunciation for this mantra for healing along with some chanting and other information.

Below the video, you will find reflections to help deepen your mantra practice around healing along with some questions for journaling.

Click the play button on the video below:

Questions for journaling and reflection:

When we need healing, we follow directions. What's the mantra for healing, we ask. Someone gives us a mantra, and we say it with faith.

What is it then that heals us: our faith or the mantra? Is the mantra a vehicle for our faith? Or is our faith...

What is oneness, and why do we desire it so much?

I believe oneness is our blueprint for spiritual homeostasis, a natural return to balance, harmony, and unity. However, the tendency to move out of this original state is part of our naturalness, as well. That's the oneness paradox we must learn to manage with skill.

PARADOX

In other words, losing the oneness experience is part of regaining it. When we grasp this paradox, we start to appreciate oneness as a unity that embraces diversity and differentiation. Oneness does not need to be a homogenous mushy soup of unity.

HOMEOSTASIS

The key is awareness of oneness lost as it is lost. If the desire to restore oneness begins when we lose it, a different process ensues in contrast to recovering or restoring oneness after the fact. We learn that there is no need to lament this loss but be present in the unfolding process and be willing to guide its return back to spiritual homeostasis.

PERFECTIONISM
The loss of oneness is the explication,...

As humans, we seek and value experience. Our experience is best when it involves all parts of ourselves. The more of ourselves we include, the more fulfilled our experience.

Imagine a family sitting around a table to partake of a meal, like Christmas or Thanksgiving. If there is an argument between a couple of individuals, the rest of the family cannot enjoy the meal.

This dynamic happens to our experience when there is an internal conflict going on during our experiences: for example, watching a movie. Although we might be doing something enjoyable, we are not enjoying ourselves.

This dynamic happens during spiritual practice, as well. We are doing something supposed to make us feel better, but we feel dead inside. There is not enough juice in our experience to fulfill us.

Tantra is a path that teaches us how to have full experiences. We learn to include the disparate parts of who we are by pulling them together into the cohesiveness.

Sometimes, it is not so much that parts of...