Brother Zachary

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...

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 ...

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 ...

  St Peter, holding the keys to the kingdom In the various stories associated with Jesus’ disciple Simon-Peter, we observe a most sincere disciple, 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 wil...

  Jesus entering the desert As the world and its various faiths and peoples move towards greater familiarity and ultimate integration, so too do our google calendars have a much more international and diverse flavor of celebrations. This last week has been a full calendar when it comes to holidays - the celebration of those days which are indeed holy, when we treat them as such. First, beginning one week ago Saturday, was Valentine's day: a day for opening the heart and celebrating love and relationships, with its tradition tracing back to the martyred Saint, Valentine. Then, followed on Sunday by Maha Shivaratri, or the great night of Shiva, which celebrates Shiva on the 14th night of the lunar cycle, right before the new moon, for a full night of fasting, chanting and devotion to Lord Shiva. Tuesday was the official Lunar New Year, the first new moon, which is celebrated in many eastern cultures, like China, and gives way to longer festivals and celebrations for the remainder of ...

Yogananda made the statement “God is simple, everything else is complex.”  The Master’s simple aphorism provides us with timely and indispensable context for navigating life in a highly energetic modern world of increasing complexity.   The rapidity of man's movement alone, appears to be accelerating at previously unimaginable speed - what to mention, the speed of his thoughts! Just to be here, now, the average citizen is daily tasked with the balancing of worlds and the compartmentalizing of myriad perspectives.  In addition to our own personal, social, and familial realities, there are political, economic and religious wars waged across the globe; duality expressing itself in incredible and often drastic extremes. Like those engaged in fighting for a righteous cause for the benefit of others, and those invested in a kind of blatant oppression of the rights of others, existing side by side, without any kind of standardized agreement as to which is which. Or, the pil...