Treasures Along the Path

Circa Early 1980's
Maturity – awareness of the realities of others and being able to accept them and to relate to them.

God consciousness is our birthright. We are a soul, not a body. The purpose of life is to realize this reality.

Many people have reached the level that will never be satisfied by food, drink, procreation and dying. We want wisdom. We want to satisfy the hunger of the heart. We want to satisfy the needs of the soul for joy, the real joy, and for wisdom.

The passage from childhood to maturity starts with a certain amount of spontaneity, joy and trust in life, but often can progress to fixity of ideas and opinions and an incapacity to relate to others who think differently.

Instead of talking to people, listen, and talk with them.

If we want to understand maturity, we want also to understand how to educate ourselves toward that maturity. Reach out toward happiness and fulfillment in true joy.

Look at your potential, instead of where you’ve come from. Think of how I can grow from here, from where I am. We are all children of God.
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2/23/85

When we want to express something from inner inspiration we can go within, and seek creativity in the chakras.

Kriyananda explains that it is from our chakras that we gain energy and our ability to relate to the world.

When we sleep, we withdraw into the spine and are recharged by the chakras. This is what gives us our true sense of refreshment.  New insights into an issue that we didn’t have the night before may come.

When we withdraw consciously into our spine, we can achieve the same result.

Kriyananda discusses how thoughts and inspiration are universally, not individually, rooted.
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5/26/02

Consciousness, Energy and Right Action – put energy into anything that you want to succeed at.

Yogananda’s Energization Exercises are the cornerstone of the teachings of self-realization.

They help us to become aware of, and then control, the divine energy that is always flowing through us.

When we learn to direct this energy inward and upward to the spiritual eye—instead of expending it outward through the senses—we can use it to change our world.
To support this work, go to: https://www.ananda.org/support/treasures/

Divine Joy Through Humor – laugh at something and tension will dissolve at a resting point in your mind

• The cause of delusion is the desire to make things other than they are.
• Your own true nature is one with everything.
• The more we look for things outside ourselves, the more we begin to become dissatisfied with everything. When you are constantly outwardly focused and not coming back to your center, you can’t find joy.
• Sometimes fulfilling a desire can help you relax into yourself. It can remind you that your inward joy is something uplifting and wonderful.
• The tensions of this world are tensions of involvement and attachment, such as the thought of  needing to do this or that, and that it’s terribly important. The soul knows that nothing is really important. The soul knows that it’s all just a play of Divine Mother.
• Watch your reaction to things and see whether it is taking you toward the inner self or toward the outer self and ego. Is it taking you into an attitude that gives you more joy, or into an attitude that deprives you of that joy?
• Lahiri Mahasaya said that we need to find the rest points of the mind. The mind gets an idea and it swirls around, then finally the thought is finished. If you can catch it just before a new thought begins, you can go into Samadhi.
• The restless mind and the restless breath are two causes of delusion. Try to catch them between one thought or breath and the next.
• Why is gazing into the horizon beneficial – especially at the ocean? We live in a world of three dimensions, and by gazing at the horizon line you reduce the three dimensions into one dimension. When you try to go through the horizon line into no dimension, you get away from outward complication, into the center of everything.

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8/12/1982

Creativity and Yoga – yoga brings you into a flow of energy.

Yoga offers much potential. It does not tell you where you ought to go. It takes you where you are and you can discover your own potential.

We can transcend ego and offer ourselves as channels for divine creative energy.

As we grow spiritually we can become powerful catalysts for positive change in the world.
To support this work, go to: https://www.ananda.org/support/treasures/

Circa 1975

• Christ was born in a humble manger. Let Christ be born in the manger of your own humility. That will be the true birth and the true second coming. You are not just this physical body and this ego, you are pure consciousness and joy. We can reclaim our oneness with Christ consciousness.
• The purpose of religion is to turn people toward high ideals, greater realization and fulfillment of life.
• Man has come to understand that this world which we thought was solid and a finite creation of God, is not solid at all. It is composed of as much space, as the universe around it. There is nothing but energy!
• The Hindu scriptures describe the whole universe as coming into existence out of God’s consciousness.
• God’s still consciousness vibrated and those vibrations created thoughts, thoughts became light, then matter. God and all of creation are made of light.
• In the Bible Christ said ‘I and my father are one.

To support this work, go to: https://www.ananda.org/support/treasures/

11/6/1982

Changing habits is difficult if you depend only on thought and reason. 

Our minds are influenced by desires and attachments. When we reach a superconscious state we can change a deep-seated habit in one meditation!

Substitute something to replace the habit you wish to be rid of for a time, until the desire for it goes away.

Ask God and guru to help you establish new habits.

If a habit you want to let go of comes back, instead of saying ‘I failed,’  say ‘I haven’t yet succeeded.’
To support this work, go to: https://www.ananda.org/support/treasures/

7/6/85

Can You Change Your Destiny? – Yes, we can directly influence our soul’s evolution by the amount of positive energy we manifest.

As light can transform the darkness, so also can spiritual effort, positive energy and will power dissolve the negative karma that might have ensnared us.

We have one absolute destiny, we’ve come from God and we must go back to Him.

We are children of God.

Hell is a state of consciousness.

Kriyananda speaks of the state of mosquito consciousness that draws them to you.

There is no fixed destiny. You can pick and choose what is best for you.

You can redirect your destiny.
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1979

Becoming Childlike – we are the children of God

Children and saints have a pure instinct to trust and accept. The saints  are in the process of eliminating their egos, but children are in the process of developing their sense of ‘I and mine.’

Even as the ego develops however, we remain as the children of God. When we learn to trust more in God and accept what comes our way, the ego begins to crumble away.

God is going to give you lessons you need. Everything comes from the hand of God.
To support this work, go to: https://www.ananda.org/support/treasures/

1980 – Melbourne, Australia

Ananda’s Model for Cooperative Community is based on meditation and harmonious living.

Kriyananda said, “I think the cooperative community movement is the most important thing going on.”

A leading attitude with cooperation is to give to others instead of taking.

Some communities have failed because they are seeking “a perfect community.” People are not perfect. Work with people where they are, not where you think they should be.

It helps in starting communities to have a group with shared goals and ideals.

Kriyananda advises holding up the ideal of world brotherhood.

One of the reasons Ananda Communities succeed, is their shared focus on meditation and spiritual growth. When you are peaceful and calm within, the natural result is outward peace and calmness.
To support this work, go to: https://www.ananda.org/support/treasures/