HAPPINESS IS GOOD. BLISS IS BETTER. We have a higher standard of living and more ways to instantaneously fulfill every desire than ever before. Then why are we unhappy? Because happiness isn’t what we really want. Happiness alone is fleeting and not deeply transformative.
Bliss is a spiritual state where happiness, profound meaning, and enduring truth converge. With bliss comes an unshakable joy, a practical wisdom, and a lasting solution to our personal and planetary sufferings. Based on a successful seminar taught by Sean Meshorer, a leading spiritual teacher and New Thought minister, The Bliss Experiment contains dozens of stories of real people learning from everyday situations, backed by more than five hundred scientific studies. This is the one essential book that distills and unifies seemingly competing practices, philosophies, religions, and psychologies.
Meshorer includes exercises that have worked time and again for people from all walks of life—including him. Meshorer suffers with severe chronic pain and is able to live his life to the fullest through the practices he shares here. Bliss helps with stress, anxiety, and depression. It makes people more successful, better able to see and seize opportunities, and build or improve relationships. Give these ideas and practices twenty-eight days of dedicated attention and you will see results. You only need a moment of bliss to benefit the rest of your life. The text includes links to bonus videos of Sean Meshorer expanding on the book’s themes and demonstrating the exercises.
Happiness Is Good, Bliss Is Better
Video trailer for the book, The Bliss Experiment: 28 Days to Personal Transformation by Sean Meshorer.
This week marks the 60th anniversary of the death of one of the 20th century’s most important spiritual figures. On March 7, 1952, Paramahansa Yogananda passed away in Los Angeles from an acute coronary occlusion, just after speaking at a banquet in honor of the Indian ambassador. In his last speech he said, “Somewhere between the two great civilizations of efficient America and spiritual India lies the answer for a model world civilization.” He worked tirelessly to achieve that dream, ever since 1920, when he arrived in America, and to the extent that an East-West synthesis has been realized, he deserves as much credit for it as anyone.
Yogananda is best known for his groundbreaking memoir, “Autobiography of a Yogi.” It has sold well over four million copies since its publication in 1947, and I suspect it has been read by two or three times that many, because it is the sort of book people lend to their friends. This was especially true in the 1960s and ’70s, when Baby Boomer seekers were thirsty for Eastern wisdom and couldn’t afford the five bucks to buy the AY, as it has come to be known. (I know the hardcover cost five dollars then because I still have my copy, and I hope this essay will repay the karma of not returning it to whoever loaned it to me.) Based on my research for my own book, American Veda, the AY prompted more Americans to explore Indian spirituality than any other text.
An iconic memoir would be legacy enough for any spiritual leader, but Yogananda’s contribution far exceeded that book. The first major Indian teacher to settle in America, he was rightly called by the Los Angeles Times “the 20th century’s first superstar guru.” After arriving in Boston to lecture on “The Science of Religion,” he toured the country addressing huge audiences. In 1924, he made L.A. (which he dubbed “the Benares of America”) his permanent home and the headquarters of his Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF). Anyone who has visited the organization’s Southern California facilities knows why I say that the founder had the best real estate karma of any other guru.
I often cite Yogananda as a leading example of the qualities that virtually all successful Eastern spiritual teachers possessed. Because he spoke eloquent English and was well schooled in Western ways before leaving India, he could communicate to rational Americans ideas that must have seemed exotic and strange in the pre-World War II era. His reverence for Jesus made him non-threatening to Christians, even though his yogic interpretation of Jesus’s teachings was unconventional to say the least. At the same time, his logic and pragmatism made his ideas acceptable to secular audiences as well. He skillfully tread the fine line between maintaining the integrity of his tradition (Hinduism in general and Kriya Yoga in particular) while also adapting the language, format and delivery systems to modern America. It didn’t take him long, for instance, to offer Sunday services — complete with pews and organ music in some locations — because that’s the day Americans get spiritual. He also distributed some of his teachings by mail order, a somewhat newfangled technology in the 1920s.
Yogananda arrived the year Warren G. Harding was elected, and he died during Harry S. Truman’s last year in office. His legacy is still going strong. SRF, along with some smaller breakaway organizations (the largest is Ananda Sangha), are represented in virtually every major city. Of all the gurus who came here, only Swami Vivekananda, founder of the Vedanta Society, and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the Transcendental Meditation movement, can match his impact.
His success can be attributed to several factors, in addition to his seminal autobiography: his long tenure in this country, his personal charisma, his results-driven package of offerings, and his appeal to both secular and religious students. Everyone who meditates, goes to yoga classes or has, in any way, benefited from India’s great spiritual heritage, owes a debt of gratitude to Yogananda. It is only fitting that he is interred in the resting place of so many American celebrities, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, five miles from the hilltop sanctuary that he made his home.
Philip Goldberg is a spiritual counselor, public speaker, and author or coauthor of numerous books. His latest publication is American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation, How Indian Spirituality Changed the West. His websites are www.AmericanVeda.com and www.PhilipGoldberg.com
Alice Sommer Herz is thought of with affection by hundreds of thousands of people in the world as both a sage and a saint. Her wisdom is evident in almost everything that she says. Her saintliness is seen in her almost unique tolerance and her compassion. She has the true gift of forgiveness. “Life is beautiful, love is beautiful, nature and music are beautiful. Everything is a present.” Alice Sommer Herz
The Bodhicharyavatara was composed by the Indian scholar Shantideva, renowned in Tibet as one of the most reliable of teachers. Since it mainly focuses on the cultivation and enhancement of Bodhichitta, the work belongs to the Mahayana. At the same time, Shantideva’s philosophical stance as expounded particularly in the ninth chapter on wisdom, follows the Prasangika Madhyamika viewpoint of Chandrakirti.
The principal focus of Mahayana teachings is on cultivating a mind wishing to benefit other sentient beings. With an increase in our own sense of peace and happiness we will naturally be better able to contribute to the peace and happiness of others. Transforming the mind and cultivating a positive, altruistic and responsible attitude is beneficial right now. Whatever problems and difficulties we may have, we can thereby face them with courage, calmness and high spirits. Therefore, it is also the very root of happiness for many lives to come.
Based on my own little experience I can confidently say that the teachings and instructions of the Buddhadharma and particularly the Mahayana teachings continue to be relevant and useful today. If we sincerely put the gist of these teachings into practice, we need have no hesitation about their effectiveness. The benefits of developing qualities like love, compassion, generosity, and patience are not confined to the personal level alone; they extend to all sentient beings and even to the maintenance of harmony with the environment. It is not as if these teachings were useful at some time in the past but are no longer relevant in modern times. They remain pertinent today. This is why I encourage people to pay attention to such practices; it is not just so that the tradition may be preserved.
The Bodhicharyavatara has been widely acclaimed and respected for more than one thousand years. It is studied and praised by all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. I myself received transmission and explanation of this important, holy text from the late Kunu Lama, Tenzin Gyaltsen, who received it from a disciple of the great Dzogchen master, Dza Patrul Rinpoche. It has proved very useful and beneficial to my mind.
I am delighted that the Padmakara Translation Group has prepared a fresh English translation of the Bodhicharyavatara. They have tried to combine an accuracy of meaning with an ease of expression, which can only serve the text’s purpose well. I congratulate them and offer my prayers that their efforts may contribute to greater peace and happiness among all sentient beings.
Treasured by Buddhists of all traditions, The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicharyavatara) is a guide to cultivating the mind of enlightenment, and to generating the qualities of love, compassion, generosity, and patience. This text has been studied, practiced, and expounded upon in an unbroken tradition for centuries, first in India, and later in Tibet. Presented in the form of a personal meditation in verse, it outlines the path of the Bodhisattvas–those who renounce the peace of individual enlightenment and vow to work for the liberation of all beings, and to attain buddhahood for their sake.
This version, tranlated from the Tibetan, is a revision by the tranlators of the 1997 edition. Included are a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a new translators’ preface, a thorough introduction, a note on the translation, and three appendices of commentary by the Nyingma master Kunzang Pelden.
Bodhisattvas renounce nirvana and vow to work for the welfare of all beings. This pivotal work outlines the path that bodhisattvas should follow as they seek to teach others the path to nirvana. It contains moral instruction and meditation exercises for bodhisattvas to practice as they engage in their work. One of the great classics of Mahayana Buddhism, this text is beloved by Buddhists of all traditions.
“Shantideva’s work is required reading for an understanding of Tibetan Buddhism, and the clarity and crispness of this new translation makes it an accessible way into this world.”–Publishers Weekly
Residing at the Holy Hill: (source www.sriramanamaharshi.org)
The first place of Ramana’s residence in Tiruvannamalai was the great temple. For a few weeks he remained in the thousand-pillared hall. But urchins who pelted stones at him as he sat in meditation troubled him. He shifted himself to obscure corners and even to an underground vault known as Patala-lingam. Undisturbed he spent several days in deep absorption. Without moving he sat in samadhi, unaware of even the bites of vermin and pests.
But the mischievous boys soon discovered even this retreat and indulged in their pastime of throwing potsherds at the young Swami. There was at the time in Tiruvannamalai a senior Swami by name Seshadri. Those who did not know him took him for a madman. He sometimes stood guard over the young Swami, and drove away the urchins. At long last he was removed from the pit by devotees without his being aware of it and deposited in the vicinity of a shrine of Subrahmanya. From then on there was some one or other to take care of Ramana. The seat of residence had to be changed frequently. Gardens, groves, shrines – these were the places chosen to keep the Swami who himself never spoke. Not that he took any vow of silence; he just had no inclination to talk. At times texts like Vasistham and Kaivalya Navaneetam used to be read out to him.
A little less than six months after his arrival at Tiruvannamalai, Ramana shifted his residence to a shrine called Gurumurtam at the earnest entreaty of its keeper, one Tambiranswami. As days passed and as Ramana’s fame spread, increasing numbers of pilgrims and sightseers came to visit him. After about a year’s stay at Gurumurtam, the Swami – locally he was known as Brahmana-Swami – moved to a neighboring mango orchard. It was here his paternal uncle, Nelliyappa Aiyar, traced him out. He was a pleader at Manamadurai. Having learnt from a friend that Venkataraman was then a revered Sadhu at Tiruvannamalai, he went there to see him. He tried his best to take Ramana along with him to Manamadurai. But the young sage would not respond. He did not show any sign of interest in the visitor. So, Nelliyappa Aiyar went back disappointed to Manamadurai. However, he conveyed the news to Alagammal, Ramana’s mother.
The mother went to Tiruvannamalai accompanied by her eldest son Nagaswamy. Ramana was then living at Pavalakkunru, one of the eastern spurs of Arunachala. With tears in her eyes Alagammal entreated Ramana to go back with her. But, for the sage there was no going back. Nothing moved him – not pitiable sobs of his mother. He kept silent and sat still.
A devotee who had been observing the struggle of the mother for several days requested Ramana to write out at least what he had to say. The sage wrote on a piece of paper quite in an impersonal way:
The Ordainer controls the fate of souls in accordance with their prarabdhakarma (destiny to be worked out in this life, resulting from the balance-sheet of actions in past lives). Whatever is destined not to happen will not happen, try as you may. Whatever is destined to happen will happen, do what you may to prevent it. This is certain. The best course, therefore, is to remain silent.
Disappointed and with a heavy heart, the mother went back to Manamadurai. Sometime after this event Ramana went up the hill Arunachala, and started living in a cave called Virupaksha after a saint who dwelt and was buried there. Here also the crowds came, and among them were a few earnest seekers. These latter used to put him questions regarding spiritual experience or bring sacred books for having some points explained.
Ramana sometimes wrote out his answers and explanations. One of the books that were brought to him during this period was Sankara’s Vivekachudamani which later on he rendered into Tamil prose. There were also some simple unlettered folk that came to him for solace and spiritual guidance. One of them was Echammal who, having lost her husband, son, and daughter, was disconsolate till the Fates guided her to Ramana’s presence. She made it a point to visit the Swami every day and took upon herself the task of bringing food for him as well as for those who lived with him.
In 1903 there came to Tiruvannamalai a great Sanskrit scholar and tapasvin known Ganapati Sastri. By the age of 21 he had mastered Sanskrit, intently delved into all the major Puranas and Vedas, engaged in austere tapas at several holy places and had been awarded the title Kavyakantha (one who had poetry in his throat) by an august assembly of scholars and poets in North India. His father had initiated him into the secrets of the worship of the Divine Mother and he intently pursued the path set down by the ancient scriptures of the land.
Ganapati had visited Ramana in the Virupaksha cave a few times, but once in 1907 he was assailed by doubts regarding his own spiritual practices. He ran up the hill, saw Ramana sitting alone in the cave, threw himself on the ground before the sage and appealed to him, saying, “All that has to be read I have read; even Vedanta Sastra I have fully understood; I have done japa to my heart’s content; yet I have not up to this time understood what tapas is. Therefore I have sought refuge at your feet. Pray enlighten me as to the nature of tapas.”
Ramana silently rested his gracious eyes on Ganapati for some fifteen minutes, and then replied:
If one watches whence the notion ‘I’ arises, the mind gets absorbed there; that is tapas. When a mantra is repeated, if one watches whence that mantra sound arises, the mind gets absorbed there; that is tapas.
To the poet-scholar this came as a revelation, a new spiritual path opened to mankind, and he felt the grace of the sage enveloping him. He then proclaimed that henceforth Brahmana Swami, which Ramana was then called, should be addressed as Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. He thoroughly surrendered himself to the Guru, composed Sanskrit hymns in his praise and also wrote the Ramana Gita, which explains Ramana’s teachings.
From that day on the young sage was known as Ramana Maharshi, the Maharshi, or just Bhagavan by his devotees.
Q&A part V of the Hitchens vs. Turek debate at VCU, VA. Full debate: http://www.vimeo.com/1904911
and (annotated)
Again ethics, Hitchens reference about Sokrates who would feel shame when making a dishonest or shady argument clearly points at Tureks demagoguery (Hitler=Humanist) from before.
At 3:03 Hitchens is asked about the purpose of life though, enjoy the answer.
Many have wondered who the Divine Mother is, yet she is part of all spiritual traditions as a Presence. This video was created as a communication of her Being.
Light of the Presence – God the Mother
God the Mother manifests as the fabric of time itself and as the light within all things. Inseparable from the Oneness, she is the Oneness in manifestation. A sequel to “Devi Prayer – Hymn to the Divine Mother.”
There are literally tens of thousands of hours of audiotape and videotape footage of Maharishi speaking: on the unbounded nature of human consciousness, on the wide-ranging benefits and subtle mechanics of the Transcendental Meditation technique, on the unity of life that underlies within both man and nature. Much of the videotapes come from Maharishi’s keynote addresses over 50 years to government conferences, science symposiums, education seminars, and business meetings in virtually all countries.
There are also countless hours of videotape of Maharishi talking to the press.
n 1968, at the height of one of many spikes of interest in the Transcendental Meditation technique over the past five decades, Maharishi was interviewed by the Canadian Broadcast Corp (CBC) Television while in the midst of leading an advanced meditation course at Lake Louise in Canada. As Maharishi walked along the banks of the lake, he spoke about the inner nature of life and how meditation allows any individual to unfold the limitless energy, creativity, and power that lies, latent, within every human being.
In 1968, the word “meditation” was still an oddity, research on the Transcendental Meditation technique was just in its early stages at Harvard and UCLA medical schools, and there were just a few hundred thousand people meditating around the world.
Today, everything has changed. Just take a look at the content of this blog and the TM.org website.
This classic video provides a rare glimpse into Maharishi’s message from over 40 years ago—a message that inspired a generation of young people, that captured the interest of researchers, and that led Time magazine, in a cover story on “The Science of Meditation” in 2004, to proclaim Maharishi as the teacher most responsible for the upsurge of interest in meditation in the West.
The video is just six minutes, but it tells the whole story.
Transcript:
Maharishi: “The depth of the lake, and the ripples, and the beautiful reflection of the glacier, reminds me of the story of inner life. The mind is deep like a lake, the ripples on the surface represent the conscious mind, the activity of the mind on the surface. And the whole depth of the lake is silent and that is the sub conscious mind which is not used by the wave. But if, the wave could deepen, and incorporate more silent levels of the water, the waves could become the waves of the ocean – the mighty waves.
This is what happens in Transcendental Meditation. The surface activity of the conscious mind deepens and incorporates within its fold the depth of the sub conscious. Nothing remains sub conscious the whole sub conscious becomes conscious and a man starts using the full potential of the mind. And the reflection of the glacier on the water is like the impression that the objects of the mind perceives and as long as the mind is not capable of maintaining its essential nature which is bliss consciousness, so long the mind gets imprinted by the perceptions of the objects and this is called the bondage of the mind…”
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi goes on to say: “…Such a life where the value of the matter dominates is called material life and the spirit gets annihilated. But when through the practice of Transcendental Meditation the mind goes deep within to the source of thought, transcends the thought and gains bliss consciousness and is capable of maintaining that, even when it comes out into the worldly experiences of objective nature, then it is called spiritual life. That the spirit is not capable of being overshadowed anymore by the objective experience and this is spiritual life, this is life in eternal liberation and without this life is in bondage…”
Maharishi: “…What is needed is the bliss out of Transcendental Meditation, the joy, the happy mood. If all the population of the people could practice Transcendental Meditation they will enjoy all this nature to the maximum. We are going to create a society free from suffering and stress and strain and then really the gift of God on Earth, such pretty nature, will be enjoyed by everyone.”
Lake Louise, Canada was a very beautiful place for Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to give this profound lecture…
*Documentary by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) 1968
For those seeking Enlightenment, Self-Realization, No-Mind, Buddhahood, Nirvana, Liberation, Oneness, Utter Completion, All-Being, Bliss, Zen, Peace, Love, Truth, Pure Awareness, Infinity, The Absolute, Reality, God, Tao, Source, Presence, Spirit, Divinity, Nature, One Mind, Collective Consciousness, Formless Existence, etc.
ACIM – Extreme Forgiveness & Acceptance for Enlightenment
Full-blown, extreme, radical forgiveness & acceptance brings utter peace of mind. Forgiveness for Enlightenment. Inspired by A Course in Miracles (ACIM).
HAPPINESS IS GOOD. BLISS IS BETTER. We have a higher standard of living and more ways to instantaneously fulfill every desire than ever before. Then why are we unhappy? Because happiness isn’t what we really want. Happiness alone is fleeting and not deeply transformative.
