Spiritual Awakening Radio PODcasts: January 2011

Spiritual Awakening Radio PODcasts

  

Exploring the World of Spirituality, Comparative Religion, Mysticism, Meditation, Inner Light and Sound, the Path of the Masters, the Vegetarian Vegan diet for a Sustainable Planet, and Books

"O Soul (Surat)! Who are you and whence have you come? This world is a net spread by the mind. Why do you get entangled in it? You are a ray from the Purush (the Supreme Being) and an inhabitant of the purely Spiritual Region." (Shiv Dayal Singh)

"Consistent with the concept of flow, mystics say that only when the mind is stilled and attention is concentrated firmly at the Wisdom Eye, does the Audible Life Stream have the magnetic effect." (Alistair Conwell)

"Believed to be the most fundamental way that the God-power manifests itself to human consciousness, the Audible Life Stream is considered by mystics to be like a spiritual highway along which all souls will have to travel in order to reach the source of this power.....In a very real sense the Audible Life Stream is a cosmic symphony to which all things, seen and unseen, unknowingly dance. Underpinning all physical and spiritual levels of creation; this symphony is endlessly being performed at the very essence of our being, since we are a microcosm of the entire universe." (Alistair Conwell)

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Upcoming Programs on Buddhist Inner Sound and Light Mysticism

1/18/2011 Buddhist Inner Sound Meditation Part 1: Michele Michael, recounting the life and spiritual quest of Edward Salim Michael (1921-2006), author of a spiritual classic in the Buddhist community called, "The Law of Attention - Nada Yoga and the Way of Inner Vigilance", about encountering the sacred inner Sound. 

"When meditating with this Nada [Inner Mystic Sound], it is essential that the aspirant always seek and follow the particular aspect of it that is most subtle and 'ultra' in pitch as well as in brilliance. Even when the Sound becomes very shrill and loud in moments of deep concentration, he [or she] must not be tempted to be satisfied with it merely because it is sharp and resonant. He should relentlessly attempt to rise further and further into ever more subtle spheres of its mysterious Invisible Kingdom." (Edward Salim Michael, "The Law of Attention - Nada Yoga and the Way of Inner Vigilance", Published by Inner Traditions books of Vermont)

1/25/2011 Buddhist Inner Sound Meditation Part 2: Readings from the Shurangama Sutra (on the Transcendental Hearing of Quan Yin, the Compassionate One), Edward Salim Michael, Ajahn Sumedho, Dzogchen Ponlop, and other sources.

"You can experience the sound of silence in the mind. You hear it as a kind of high frequency sound, a ringing sound."  -- Ajahn Sumedho

"When the aspirant has recognized this Nada [Inner Sound] and familiarized himself well enough with it, he will perceive that, contrary to the ever-changing inner and outer conditions that he was used to up to that moment, this mystical Sound has a strange unearthly continuity about it. In addition to the description of this Sound given in the previous chapter, it can also be compared to the soft whisper of the wind and the continuous hissing noise of the ocean waves, with a shrill "ultra" Sound on top of it, composed of all the harmonics in the Universe. On higher spheres, this sacred Nada will have a strange sort of silvery aspect to it, somewhat similar to the uninterrupted jingling Sound of very little pieces of glass, with other smaller, ever more subtle Sounds superimposed on it, until finally these finer Sounds seem to disappear into infinity." (Edward Salim Michael, "The Law of Attention - Nada Yoga and the Way of Inner Vigilance", Published by Inner Traditions)

All for the love of wisdom and radio,

James Bean

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Mission Statement: 'There's not just one religion -- there are thousands! After years of being concerned that too few voices, too few points of view were getting heard when it comes to spiritual paths and world religions -- that the radio airwaves were not reflecting the diversity that really exists -- I started producing my own programs, exploring the world of spirituality, comparative religion, meditation, mysticism, websites, the vegetarian vegan diet, and books, bringing to the airwaves: the gentle voices of Saints, the Wisdom of Masters or Mystics, world scriptures, sacred texts, the great spiritual traditions and classics of the East & the West.' 

Interests: Exploring the World of Spirituality, Comparative Religion, Meditation, Websites, and Books, Including World Scriptures, Gnostic Texts, Spiritual Classics, Guidance by Living Teachers, and Other Books that Matter -- A Format of Essays and Interviews 

There is No Vatican of the Spirit

There is No Vatican of the Spirit

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There is No "Vatican" of the Spirit --

A Reflection on the Impermanence of Spiritual Movements in a World of Samsara (Changes, Maya, Kal, and Illusion) -- Updated, By James Bean

"The god of time (Kal Niranjan) has put a cover over the teachings of Saints and thus concealed them from humanity." (Swami Ji Maharaj, Sar Bachan Radhasoami Poetry, Volume Two, Agra, India)

As a friend Neil Tessler says: "There is no Vatican of the Spirit." He specializes in writing about the politics of Guru-succession in India, suggesting that all spiritual movements decline and turn to dust sooner or later. It's just a matter of "time" (Kal). Try as they might, spirituality can not be institionalised. Groups usually undergo a process of gradual decline, dispensing with a crucial mystical principals or techniques every so often. Living in a world of forgetfulness and spiritual slumber, how soon we forget. The decline is so gradual, that sadly, most in a group over the decades of their short human lifespan do not even notice, or would rather not be mindful about such matters. Only looking back years or decades later, the lucky ones not completely intoxicated by social status, peer pressure, or "group-think" might perhaps come to see the occasional wrong turn after wrong turn a spiritual group has made, all in the name of progress and good intentions of course:

banning books and teachings of past and recent Masters with an ever-narrowing "satsang template" of "approved" and suppressed writings leading to lost books, more and more out-of-print scriptures, missing spiritual principals, and forgotten history;

building bigger buildings 

with less meditation going on 

in those noisier, crowded buildings; 

getting busier without, yet 

not progressing as far within; 

an overall reduction 

in the percentage of the population 

having inner mystical experiences

of Light and Sound, 

and all in the name of what... 

"saving the world" by becoming less true to the ideals of the Path?

Life-changing, transformative, inner experience, a close encounter of the God-kind, is what the "world" really needs, not yet more branding, photo ops, oppressive manipulative leadership ["the CID of god"], new rules, regulations, and marketing campaigns.

With any spiritual movement, sooner or later, we are eventually left with bones, statues, dust from the past, apostles and prophets that are no more, the shoes and spectacles of the guru who lived many decades ago, and on a few occasions scrolls that are worshipped as holy books, even though these very same scrolls might instruct us to not worship books. Rather, these Holy Scriptures are advising us to be healed of our blindness, go within, develop sight, see Divine Light, and to be healed from our deafness, with ears opened to hearing inner Music - the Voice of God.

All of these great teachers of days gone-by have generally reaffirmed for their generation, the same basic truths and inner experiences. I do like my friend's phrase: "There is no Vatican of the Spirit." I find that to be a useful-if-not-ironic way of putting it. Spiritual movements come and go. Schools of Spirituality and mystics are replaced by polyester prophets parasitically interpreting the past inspiration once breathed by others. Living Saints are sometimes eventually replaced by CEO's of religious companies riding around in very expensive rickshaws of the rich and famous who seemingly are incapable of composing their own inspired poetry or prose like their predecessors. And ghost-writers don't count. All of the organizations associated with mystic-paths at present, rest assured, will meet the same fate as those of past generations, eventually being replaced with vibrant gatherings in diverse locations, new budding branches of the Living Mystical Tree of Life to replace the old, same as always – thank God.

A famous Saint from Hathras, India by the name of Tulsi Sahib used to sleep in the trunk of a tree at night. Read that somewhere. I find that to be absolutely charming as it reveals that Tulsi did not live in a mansion of opulent decadency with four or five Porsche's in the driveway (back then it would have been elephants I would imagine), an image that would have suggested a contradiction between the teacher's lifestyle and his teachings. If I ever travel to Hathras, it will not be to visit the samadh containing Tulsi's ashes, but to that tree that Tulsi once slept in, or one very much like it, and to the places where he spent much time in meditation.

There is no permanent Institution or University of Mysticism, but a decline-renewal process, a continuous pattern of Masters leaving older groups, movements, temples, ashrams or real estate, and emerging in new locations to begin again, to reboot, to reset, to renew the mystic-path on Planet Earth, to keep the torch of spirituality burning bright for another generation or two. Spirituality is the Impulse of Life from the Great Life, the Universal Soul – God – that we as soul are intertwined with, not golden temples, or idols made of wood and stone. The history of Essenes leaving Jerusalem, John the Baptist leaving Qumran, Thomas heading East, Valentinians moving out of Roman cities to create Egyptian spiritual communities in the desert, Tulsi Sahib moving from Poona to Hathras, and so it goes and always has been, an observable pattern of breaking with the past, a time-honored tradition of crisis and renewal, reaffirming one's mystic-path, making a fresh start in new locations, remaining free to exist in genuineness and authenticity. 

Kabir says: "More than all else do I cherish at heart that LOVE which makes me to live a Limitless Life in this world. It is like the lotus, which lives in the water and blooms in the water: yet the water can not touch its petals -- they open beyond its reach."  

From one of the banned and lost Gnostic Gospels from the beginnings of the "Orthodox" period of Fourth Century Christianity: "And there shall be others of those who are outside our number who name themselves bishops and also deacons, as if they have received their authority from God. They bend themselves under the judgment of the leaders. Those people are dry canals." (Apocalypse of Peter, The Nag Hammadi Library in English, online at Gnosis.org)

        An Example of a "Dry Canal" 

 

There has never been an Institution of Gnosis. 

There is no Vatican of the Spirit. 

Resistance is not futile.

Viva the Revolution.

Seneca said: "Every new beginning comes 

from some other beginning's end."