As the winter nights while away and the dawn of spring approaches, I am left feeling contemplative. The world’s wonderment lays before my eyes and I fundamentally understand that both beauty and chaos can be perceived by those very eyes. I have come to understand it is I that must seek the very beauty that exists everywhere in the world. In the face of the chaos, I must perceive the beauty because the beauty of the world has been ignored for far too long. Too many of us find triumph in the defeat of others, pleasure in the pain of others, and joy in the unhappiness of others. I have come recognize that the time has come for us elevate our game and create the world so many of us long to see. A new day is approaching and with it the renunciation of all the things that seem to separate us.
Each morning I rise to build a campfire outside Adi’s and my home. It’s been a ritual of mine for the last six months and it has taught me so many things that it bears sharing. When building a fire, we must first start by creating the necessary kindling to keep the logs burning. No matter how hard I have tried if enough heat is not created at the base of the fire what I discover is often a long morning of attempting to light logs only to discover moments later the fire has been extinguished. What this has taught me is to always begin with the kindling at the base of the fire; if I start with a small bundle of sticks and brush to generate enough heat and then add the logs, I will have a fire that will last throughout the day. There is immense beauty in this lesson. What does this teach us? We must start small, at the base, and create enough energy in order for that very energy to spread into a much more robust fire.
This is the power of a personal spiritual practice (Sadhana, for more on Sadhana click here) that involves asnanas, mudras, mantras and meditation. We create the “kindling” inside our heart center and this creates the heat (tapa) that expands the fire for others to experience. When you do the japa, chanting repetitiously, then the result is tapa, the heat that burns the karma.” With this in mind, Adi, Siri Bahadur and I joined twenty other spiritual warriors to begin creating a group kindling that has the power to ignite the world to a new level of consciousness. Our Wisdom Series began this week and for the next three months we will place our attention on the power of breath and sound. By using both of these modalities we have the capacity to connect to the Divine Wisdom of the Universe.
Breath centers us and moves us inside where “the Kingdom of Heaven” resides. When we breathe at the average rate of one breath a minute; twenty seconds to inhale, twenty seconds to hold, twenty seconds to let it go; this will clean out all illness, disease, fatigue, garbage, and any nonsense that doesn’t serve our greatest good.
We are alive because of the breath of life. When we use the breath of life in a slow potency to heal ourselves, our mind, and to brighten our souls we then have the ability to heal others simply by being in their energetic field. When we breathe in slowly, consciously, hold it consciously, and let it go consciously—slowly we are able to access the Divine Wisdom of the Universe. This will heal not only ourselves but those around us. We are “kindling” the fire of our greatest potential for all to see and experience and allowing that fire to spread throughout the world.
Sound, for its part, is the very center of creation. All things manifested from sound. “In the beginning there was a Word, the word was with God, and the word was God.” When you read that in the Bible, it is saying, “The word came out of Naad, and the word merges back into Naad.” The creativity of the Creator and the creation, the lover and the beloved, the center and the expansion—all things are balanced on one thing: sound and the understood self. That element of understanding is called Naad. It’s a beautiful word.
Naad means “the essence of all sounds.” All languages contain sounds, which relate to one or more of the five elements of air, fire, water, earth, and ether. Gurbani is the spoken form of Sanskrit and is a perfect combination and permutation of sounds relating to all the five elements in complete balance. We balance ourselves by balancing the tattvas, or elements, in our body.
Our Sangat (which means company, fellowship and association) has joined together to assist and hold one another accountable to our daily spiritual practice (Sadhana) because as my beloved Adi always tells me when I resist participating in large groups, “Alone we can go faster, together we can go further.” When we dedicate ourselves to a disciplined spiritual practice we rise; when we do so with a group, we all rise. This is how we shift the lens of perception from one of fear to one of love. We begin seeing the beauty in our surroundings as opposed to the chaos. We light the embers of our soul from within to create a raging fire of remembrance that we are all one with the Creator.
It all starts with our own personal “kindling” in collaboration with the power and strength of the Sangat which assists us in the times when we need support and encouragement. This is why I joined Siri Bahadur, Adi and this inspired community of Spiritual Warriors to help do our part to illustrate all the beauty that exists in this world. It is present for all of us to see if we simply change the lens of our perception.
We will continue to practice together and watch our numbers grow as people from all over the world awaken to their true spiritual nature. As each of us begins to wipe the sleep from our eyes to reveal all of the majesty that exists around us, we will go further together. When we feel weak, we will be lifted up; when we feel strong, we will do the lifting. This is our mission. This is our calling. This is our time. We are we, we are God.
Sat Nam!