Every evening these days someone different in our community hosts kirtan/simran/meditation in their home, and lots of people from the sangat come together. It’s so cozy and nice to get together with people and meditate together. This evening as I sat in someone’s home meditating and singing with everyone else, it was such a clear moment for me. For most of us we go about every day life activities, dramas, happenings in life, etc. and while going through them they seem so important. As I sat there meditating with so many beautiful people, all those "worldly" things seemed to melt away and un-important. It was another one of the those reminders that all these comings and goings are just maya and in the bigger scheme of your life are not very important. Most will go through their whole life in this way. It’s times like these that are reminders to me of what our real purpose is here on this earth, to connect with God inside our self and in others. It’s that special time that you spend to work on developing your own spiritual self and keeping that connection with God/Guru.
Tag Archive for 'oneness'
Continuing on the theme of my previous blog post…
This morning I was driving to work and I remembered something that I do in my mind to curb judgments, "otherness", division of people, etc. The normal tendency is to react and treat people differently who you don’t know or are not part of your family. We tend to be less compassionate and understanding to these "outsiders".
This weekend I have been thinking about various things, watching my thoughts, and how my mind reacts to different things. I wanted to share these thoughts since I know they are common issues that many of us face, and hopefully it will make you think differently about similar things that you deal with in your life.
On Saturday Baba Iqbal Singh (Kalgidhar Society, Baru Sahib) visited us here in Espanola, New Mexico along with four young female students (and a few other guests) who tour with him.
To this point I had heard the name "Baru Sahib" and Akal Academy, but knew very little about the organization and what their schools were like. Before Baba Iqbal Singh arrived I was talking with someone else in the room who was telling me about the school and how boys and girls dressed exactly the same (not being able to tell if the person is a girl or boy). I also heard that there were no mirrors in the whole school (I think to prevent vanity/ego/self consciousness). I wondered how they tied their own turbans. Then later on Babaji was telling all of us about the school and how the senior children start their morning at 12:30am in the morning and finished their Amritvela sadhana at 4:30am! He went on to describe how the children were very well behaved and obedient and that many of the graduates of the school have achieved a lot in life. He "painted" a picture that appeared too good to be true as if it was a sales pitch of all the good things. I couldn’t imagine kids this way. In my mind I started wondering if the kids were happy there, or if they felt repressed or forced by their parents to become the "perfect Sikh". (Keep in mind, these thoughts were not based on any real experience except for hearing a few things about the school and talking with two students for a few of minutes). I remember going to boarding school in India and being punished harshly if I was late for Gurdwara or didn’t wake up for morning Sadhana. It wasn’t a positive experience for me and many others (Though, I turned out OK, didn’t I?) Maybe this was why I was thinking about the school in this way because of my own experience in boarding school.
Continue reading ‘Judgement, Criticism, The Mind, & Being a Sikh’
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