Posts

Wishing.

Image
  Gepetto with Figero the cat, making a wish to the evening star Recently in the farmhouse cinema, we watched the second-ever full-length Disney animation, Pinocchio, released in 1940. The first was Snow White and Seven Dwarfs, three years earlier. The opening scenes of Pinocchio reveal, among other things, the origin of the song which would one day become the theme song for all of Disney - “When you Wish Upon a Star” - Makes no difference who you are. Anything your heart desires. Will come to you. In the scene featuring the song, a heartfelt, grandfatherly woodworker named Gepetto sings to the wishing star outside his window, wishing for his wooden puppet to become a real boy.  This concept of wishing is something which lies at the heart of the human experience - the most elemental nature of desire, which gives purpose and energy to all our lives. With such wishing power, comes also responsibility. Both Yogananda, and the Bhudda, are quoted as having stated that “ wishing th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Getting Clear

This week a seemingly random and distant memory came floating back into my mind, of a conversation with my cousin Angie many years ago. At the time, she had a young child, Benjamin. As Ben transitioned from baby food into little boy meals, a proper and effective diet proved elusive to achieve. It seemed that almost all conventional-store foods were causing him to break out with allergic reactions and a rash all over.  When Angie and I talked, she had arrived at what was at the time, a perplexing approach for my 20-something (year-old) mind to consider. After many visits with doctors and specialists, countless purchases and preparations of specialty food alternatives, she announced straightforwardly that she would simply feed Ben a normal diet, and his body would have to adjust. I remember very specifically her stating, “this is the world we live in, and he will have to live in it too.”  Perhaps due to my own budding awareness of the shortcomings of the average American diet, i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Gardening Your Life

Image
Beautiful painting of the timeless agrarian way by artist Bryan Haynes The time around the summer solstice in western Washington is a critical time for the aspiring vegetable farmer. Months of spring seeding and plant care in the greenhouse-nursery, and continuous rounds of weekly in-ground planting, give way to a full-time harvest schedule amidst the growing necessity of perpetual-watering, persistant planting, and the great separator of big-boy farmers from the babes: Weeding everything which should not be there .  Of course, all seasons have their natural rhythms and essential activities. But it seems that these months here on Camano are especially important to be present with life on the farm, and willing to do your best, based on what you have learned to this point.  Simply entering into the garden at times can be an overwhelming prospect. For as fast as the broccoli and zinnias can grow, one can almost guarantee there are weeds that have grown as fast or faster. The dyna...
Post a Comment
Read more

About my Father's Business

Image
Young Jesus, beginning His Father's work I was heartened this week to see an article about Pope Leo’s visit to Spain, where he was received by an impressive 1.2 million people in Madrid on Sunday - the largest crowd he has yet encountered.  In his message to the Spanish people, he encouraged them to “be brought out of our selfishness and indifference, of a comfortable, private faith…and to welcome His presence which transforms us and makes us builders of a new world.”   “God is a real presence, and we too are called to be present in the realities and challenges of society, not shying away, but personally committing ourselves to the building of the common good.”  A powerful, Catholic message - at least by the dictionary definition of the word Catholic, meaning universal, or pertaining to the whole.  This sentiment is similar to an excerpt in the final chapter in the Autobiography, whereby Yogananda wrote, “ Beyond all doubt it is pleasing to the Lord when His earth-ch...
Post a Comment
Read more

Be Happy, All The Time.

Image
Master "Mental restlessness results from an outward focus of awareness. Restlessness itself guarantees that happiness will remain elusive. The more widely we scatter our energies, the less power we have left to direct toward any specific undertaking. Octopus habits of worry and nervousness rise from ocean depths in the subconscious, fling tentacles around our minds, and crush to death all that we once knew of inner peace." Yogananda One of the most challenging battles that we come up against in our daily sadhana, is the choice to turn within when things on the outside have successfully stolen our full attention. Or in other words, we have become enmeshed in the dream again, and forgotten that our true purpose is to wake up, and realize the true Self.  Whether "the dream" be great victories in our mind, colossal upsets and failures, or even a creeping sadness and anguishing monotony of life lived in this world, they all have a way of taking our mental citizens into ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tradition and Change

Image
Tevye singing about "Tradition" in Fiddler on the Roof It was quite a few years ago now that I watched the movie “Fiddler on the Roof” for the first and only time. I remember, though not well, the movie itself as quite a bombastic display, and being a little difficult to feel totally invested in. Yet, the underlying theme has stuck with me: That of the timeless evolutionary battle, between the ideals of “tradition,” or the fixed-nature, and “progress”, the ever-changing one.  In the story, the main character Tevye (pronounced Tev Yuh), is a bearded, magnetic bear-of-a-father, whose many redeeming qualities are often overwhelmed by his strong self-identification with Jewish beliefs. It opens with Tevye’s most memorable belting of the word, and song: “Tradition!” - A resounding dedication to 'tradition' as the righteous way of life. And more specifically, the traditional roles of the father, mother, and children, as well as that of match-maker - the one responsible for ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Growing in Faith like Peter

Image
  St Peter, holding the keys to the kingdom In the various stories associated with Jesus’ disciple Simon-Peter, we observe a most sincere aspirant imperfectly growing towards perfect Faith, and the herculean challenge which accompanies growing into that Faith.  What is faith? As an idea, faith often remains abstract or hard to fathom if we don't already possess at least a little. As an experience, it is the simple realization of God’s presence in our life. Yogananda said that “ Faith means total trust - intuitive knowing, from the soul, that God is real and that his help is ever ready to flow into man’s life.”  Peter's life reveals a universal template for growing in faith: in the first meeting of Master and Disciple at the Sea of Galilee; in the loyalty and sincerity of two Souls uniting in true friendship; in the colossal challenges and frequent shortcomings along the way; and in the ultimate transcendence of one who no longer doubts nor thwarts God's presence and will...
Post a Comment
Read more