“We come to the profound realization that the true path to liberation is to let go of everything.” Jack Kornfield
As we grow and change and evolve it is natural that our needs and our environment should change and evolve along with us, otherwise we are like a rose trying to bloom in the desert of the past. Our life is a reflection of what we value and, as what we value transforms, so does our life transform: our environment, our friends, and our activities. Sometimes these changes require a decision be made that says, “This doesn’t fit me anymore; it doesn’t describe me. I’m going to let it go and replace it with something better, something higher.”
It very often requires courage to let go, to detach. In fact, Sunburst teaches that detachment is one of the important words describing the virtue of courage. One of its opposites is grasping.
It takes courage to go into battle, but it also takes courage to walk away from the battlefield when we are called to stop fighting. An example is to let go of a relationship or an activity that no longer serves you. We grasp, clutching onto the hope that someone else or something else will change. We hold onto key people, places, and things because we are attached (sometimes addicted), and feel that we need them, that we won’t be happy without them, even if we are miserable with them.
Detachment is key on the spiritual path. It is difficult to go far without it—like trying to reach the top of Mount Everest but forgetting your water or your oxygen, or like trying to sail into outer space without dropping your booster rockets. Detachment is the ability to let go of every person, place, or thing that holds us back from progressing along the way. There are activities and people that, although they bring some pleasure or comfort in the moment, it is more destructive than constructive to have them in our lives. How can we detach so that we can move over onto the fast track in our spiritual life? After all, letting go leaves a void.
Filling that void with devotion is key. When we develop a love for God and a passion for God Union, where God becomes our mother, father, lover and best friend, our all-in-all, then little else is needed. “Become a spiritual alcoholic!” Yogananda said. This passion for God gives us the courage to do what we must do to live a healthy, serviceable life on the fast track to God. Devotion, in its ultimate form, gives us the ability to let go of everything, even of the small self we perceive ourselves to be, cleaving at last solely to the act of loving God.
God please empower me to let go of everything and everyone that is holding me back on the path homeward. I only want to see Your face. I only want to be with You. Make me a courageous Warrior of Light, strong in Your service. I am Yours, forevermore.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” ~Winston Churchill
We are in the month of Scorpio, so it is an auspicious time to study and more deeply embody the virtue of courage. Courage has many sources. A new source of courage has come to me recently. It began with a look…
I watched the trailer to the movie, “Awake”, on the life of Paramahansa Yogananda. I have been waiting for years for someone to make a movie about the life of this great Teacher, and now has happened and I can’t wait to see it. Through the image on my computer screen I looked into the eyes of Yogananda, or rather, he looked into mine, and I saw in them something I didn’t have. There was this intensity of focus. I imitated that look of his, putting it into my eyes, and I realized: he was totally awake. And totally courageous. What did this mean? What was the difference between his consciousness and mine?
Generally, my mind is in neutral. My will says, “We are driving to the store now. Here we go,” and my body goes along for the ride, basically unaware. My mind goes along too. On the way it wanders everywhere. That is what I would call being in neutral gear.
The awake state is much different. The gear switches into forward drive. My will says, “We are driving to the store now. Here we go,” and my mind says, “Okay, I’m driving to the store,” my body says, “I’m going to the store,” and all along the way to the store my will, my mind, and my body are in alignment. They are all doing the same thing. This is not just living in the present moment, a worthy goal in itself, but in the awake state there is a very special ingredient: there is a force of intention and purpose. Instead of going to the store like a sleeping woman can be carried across the river in a boat, I am going to the store with intention, and with my will, my mind, and my body in alignment behind this intention.
Here’s the result of this practice: my entire body is energized, my mind is clear, and there is a power that begins to run in me. I’m awake! When I say that I’m awake I’m not talking about THE spiritual awakening. I’m talking about a state of consciousness that is not asleep, but is truly alive, clear, powerful, and naturally courageous. I know I can do whatever God asks me to do.
This practice, applied to all activities and projects, can become a way of life where one can become a powerhouse for God.
If you live in the Central Coast area of California, “Awake” will be shown at the Edwards Cinema 10 Theater in Santa Maria on Tuesday, November 11th at 7:30pm. Tickets will not be sold atthe theater and must be reserved online here. Tickets are $11.00 each. For more information, contact Sarah at: [email protected].
Click here for information on other screenings around the country.
Paramahansa Yogananda said, “Drink with the hero the good wine of virtue.” I feel that my Sunburst friends, Al and Dawn, are heroes, and that hearing their report of a recent trek into the high Sierras is drinking the good wine of the virtue courage with them. This is most apropos because we have just entered the month of Scorpio where we are studying and embodying the quality of courage, and certainly admiring it in others.
Our friends can inspire us. Dawn and Al recently took a trip to the high Sierras, and brought back photographs of God’s breathtaking creation. The vistas are so majestic that one feels a sense of deep beauty, and a longing to enter the frame. I want to enter into it because I know that looking at the photographs doesn’t compare to being there. Standing on top of a mountain, almost 10,000 feet high, and looking down into a sky blue lake of pristine water with the smell of pines all around is really special.
Banner Peak (12,942 ft.) – High Eastern Sierras
Dawn and Al have had that experience because they imagined it, then worked to earn it. Their intense love of God’s oh-so-obvious presence in the high country motivates them to go and be there. They plan in detail, prepare physically, organize their lives and gear, then pack. They drive for hours just to get to the trailhead. They carry backpacks with forty or more pounds—camera gear, and everything else needed for a week on the trail—up steep mountains and down tricky descents. They sometimes even trek over rugged terrain where there is no trail. But what a sublime reward!
I don’t want to be a couch potato. The qualities I see in these friends of mine are exactly the qualities needed to attain God-union: perseverance, the willingness to work for it, courage, passionate enthusiasm, and an intense love for the journey and the goal.
Practicing the Sunburst meditation techniques out in such pristine beauty has to be an amazing experience. At the first opportunity, I will go climb such mountains; until then, I’ll continue my inner trek. My strength is renewed by the example of my friends at Sunburst.
Dawn on the worst part of the climb on day hike of day 4. Rocks are moving and it’s steeper than it looks.
