Christmas Message from India

I am in a part of India that has a strong Christian presence, a faith community that has been there since the beginning, when the Apostle Thomas came to India to share the good news about Jesus.

So here at the ashram one can find Christmas decorations, even in the Kalari Temple where the pujas are performed.  A beautiful creche stands by the entrance to the dining hall.

Last night we had a wonderful Christmas Eve celebration.  The son and daughter of Karuna Poole, one of the persons who spoke to the adult education Sunday morning class at Emmanuel, had created a play after the fashion of the Black Nativity.  A large cast sang and danced and acted out biblical stories of the Exodus and Jesus teaching and healing.  This was followed by Amma's Christmas message and all 3,000 or so of us joining Amma in a prolonged bhagan singing, clapping hands, and dancing for almost 30 minutes straight.  Very high energy!  Then Amma served us all cake.  

Christmas is the Feast of the Incarnation, God taking human form, the Divine in human being.  My message for this Christmas is for us all to let the awareness of Christ in us come to birth.  God-with-us in the reality that has not yet fully been birthed in our awareness.  If it had, then we would realize that the potential of all of Jesus' life, ministry, teaching, serving, dying and resurrection is in us also to be manifested.  We have the same power to forgive, to heal, to love that Jesus had, and that is the Christmas miracle.  We have the power of Love.  But since this realization has not yet been fully birthed into our own awareness and lives, let us practice what that would look like until it becomes truly full in us.  How are we to do this?  Forgive, release judgment, love, serve, have compassion.  These are all ways of taking up the cross, giving up the egoic enterprise and following Jesus.  May the awareness of Christ in us be born today.

A Christmas prayer

Eternal God, in the stillness of the night you sent your almighty Word to pierce the world's darkness with the light of salvation: Give to the earth the peace that we long for and fill our hearts with the joy of heaven through our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.  

(Common Worship, Church of England)
 

Emmanuel's gift for Amma

Hi, Hunt

Well, I finally got to go for darshan and present the check.  Because there are so many here the policy is that with Amma's return from China first the permanent residents got darshan, then the two public darshans on Saturday and Sunday were for Indians and so the next darshan opportunity that was for us internationals was on Wednesday, 12/12/12.  After a long sweaty day, I got changed into my best ashram clothes, and got in line for darshan.  I practiced my three sentence speech and had it written out for the translator to use.  When I got to Amma I held out the check in the envelope with your letter and started my speech.  Amma swept me up in her arms before I could get very far and she gave me a long and very loving embrace, whispering with great emphasis in my ear, "My daughter, my daughter, my daughter" much longer than usual.  She spoke to the translator, who then told me that Amma was very grateful for the gift and that it would be put to good use, and her greetings to all the members of the church.  Then I was told to sit next to Amma, right next to her, where I stayed for the next hour and a half.  It was a tremendous honor, and such a wonderful gift to me.  I prayed for you all.

Meanwhile, I probably won't post much for awhile as I continue this Amrita Yoga study.  I am learning some great things that I will be able to apply to my own teaching of meditation.

My love to you all.

Beverly

# 10 from India

I made it through the 4 day yoga course, and deciding to practice what I preach I am continuing with a 2 week course to help establish this practice.  I am finding many things that can be applied to how I teach meditation.  I have a keyboard on this internet computer that is very stiff, so this message will be short.  I will report more later, but for now I believe that I have been given guidance from the Holy Spirit to use my time here in this way.  It is all working for my purpose in being here.

Blessings to you all, and keep meditating.

# 9 from India

Friday, 12/7

I am going to interrupt my journalling here for a few days because I am now engaged in a short four day course, and I won't have the time to report as I have up to now.  I'm taking an intensive beginners course in hatha yoga, Amma style.  I know my daughter will be delighted.

I am taking this course because I want to have a spiritually focused practice involving the body, and I can already tell after just the first session that this will be helpful for how I teach the Prayer of the Lamb.  The Prayer of the Lamb is of the tradition of the Prayer of the Heart and is meant to connect with the body, to move attention from the head and thoughts into the heart, to increase awareness of the body.  The way Amma defines hatha yogo is awareness in every action.  The intentional practice of the asanas is meant as a foundation so that the same awareness is there in every action.  The intention of the sitting meditation with the Prayer of the Lamb is likewise to end up with the same awareness al the time.  So we prayer the Prayer even while in the midst of daily routine activities.  The awareness grows outside the sitting practice into the midst of the mundane, until it becomes praying without ceasing.

The course goes through Monday.  See you after that.

And keep meditating!

# 8 from India

Monday, 12/3 continued

Food: a note about life in the ashram and our basic vegetarian diet - delicious!  Maybe it's just working up an appetite, but even in its simplicity there is an innate sense of health about it.  Yesterday I enjoyed a raw salad of tomatoes and cucumbers, something I wouldn't even think of eating anywhere else in India.  But here in the ashram there is not problem.  And there are no lists of health precautions for food preparation.  We all wash our own dishes, sometimes using a little solution of "good bacteria," rinsing our plates and spoons in cold water and wiping them dry on shared dish towels.  There are no reported cases of food poisoning or stomach upset.  Interesting...

This morning the temple bell rang three times and people gathered in the Kali Temple.  Amma arrived and without any introduction began giving darshan to the ashram permanent residents.  Even with a couple of thousand of them it appeared that Amma knew them all and was greeting each one personally.  She had been away for some months, so you could tell this was special.  The love and joy filled the air, and even as an observer I felt blessed.  For us visitors our turn will come on Wednesday, they say.

Theological Reflection

In the general confession and the penitential rite of our Book of Common Prayer liturgies there is a pronounced emphasis on unworthiness due to sin.  This is lacking in Amma's bhagans, which are the closest thing to liturgical prayer that I have come across here.  There is confession of need and asking for help and comfort, but no guilt.  There is the presumption that one is always worthy enough to ask for what you need.

Comparing the Daily Office and lectionary readings with the bhagans regarding context, the bhagans are more limited in scope, more individualistic, but God is much more approachable.  It is in the seva that intention goes beyond self-interest.  The Psalms and currently Isaiah in the Daily Office readings are explicit regarding the huge gulf between the divine and humanity.

Tuesday, 12/4

Rough night last night.  The humidity was higher and it didn't cool off as much.  About 3:30 I was under attack by a swarm of tiny mosquitoes.  I got up and set up my "bug hut."  But then I was awake until morning.  So I meditated off and on for three hours.  I also pondered how so many people, several that I know here, could give up everything to come live in this challenging country, with its challenging weather, and engage such a challenging life style as an intentional spiritual choice.  In one sense this is encouraging testimony about people making positive life commitments that are a benefit to us all.  What they do there has a global effect and also is a witness and encouragement for others for self-examination and leveling up.

Another aspect is that living like this is a calling.  it is not self initiated.  The desire to live this way is a result of having experienced the divine, the grace, the love, the encounter with one who will become the focus of attention and devotion.  The desire is planted there by all this, is a result of the grace which calls into deeper relationship.

My call came from Jesus.  I am clear about that, and the deeper, challenging call to intimacy there.  My call is not to live here in India with Amma, but to be here and observe and learn.

# 7 from India

Monday 12/3

Theological reflections

I do not hear many reference references to sin from Amma.  But my western theology identifies closely with the apostle Paul in Romans 7 as he describes the human condition caught in desiring to be right with God, to be holy as God is holy, and the reality of our predilection to act just the opposite, to maintain our identity as separate from God.  Paul resolves the dilemma in Chapter 8 as life in the Spirit, God's grace as intervention, and the work of salvation, healing and sanctification/purification through the Holy Spirit - not just for our own individual sakes, but for the whole creation.

Amma, out of the Hindu tradition, talks about our vasanas or tendencies that cause us suffering.  She wants us to confess our struggles so that she can help us in those places in our lives where there is fear, envy, anger, grief, despair.  I am reminded of the literal Greek meaning of the world "poneros" which is usually translated as "evil."  The origin of the word comes from what describes the work that a slave does that will not bring him any benefit: fruitless, full of labor and woe.  This fits so well with looking at evil in Hebrew as well.  "Ra" in Hebrew means bad, rotten, spoiled.  Greek or Hebrew the words for evil point to what is killing life, not a legalistic breaking of a commandment or an intentional and willful act of rebellion against God.  Evil is the condition of entrapment in what leads to suffering, decay and death.  I believe this is what Amma is addressing in how she asks us to examine our lives.  As a pure vessel of the Holy Spirit, she ministers or channels divine healing, the same as the great healers of our own Christian tradition.

# 6 from India

Amma arrives

Finally she crossed the bridge to the island the ashram is on.  Then as her car came along the road villagers were out lining the road and showering her car with flowers.  Those of us in the ashram lined up along the route she would take around the temple toward her apartment.  Clarice and I strategically placed ourselves near the entry to her compound and aprtment along with a few hundred others.  Finally she arrived and we got to see her as she went by.  Then we were swept up in the crowd following her car into the compound.  Her small apartment was up one flight of stairs, and up the stairs went one of the children and one of the ashram dogs with her.  Everyone waited to see if Amma would come to the window.  Then who should appear in the window but the dog.  Amma's joke.  She then appeared for a few minutes commenting briefly about her trip to China, I was told by others who understood Malayalam.  She was the only spiritual leader at this conference and apparently they were hesitant to let her speak.  Still she did get to deliver her speech.

More on Seva

Day 2 at recycling.  Craig is a great guy as a supervisor, as much involved in the work as supervising others, and with a good sense of humor.  I find it helpful to make the work play.  I toss a plastic bottle across to its proper bin and yell, "Two points!" when it goes in.  I finish a bin and shout, "I won!" and start another barrel trying to empty more than the day before to beat my personal best.  If it's a game, my attitude is great, because the stuff I'm digging through is not at all appetizing.

Meditation in the Kali Temple

The temple is a really multi-purpose  building.  There is a mezzanine with balcony overlooking the main floor.  All along the sides of the balcony are little offices or shops - information office, seva office, Amma's gift shop, Ram's Bazaar for second hand items, and an open space with tables and benches where Indian women are usually working putting together bulk mailings.  The actual space on the main floor is often a bustle with people coming and going.  To sit and meditate here is like meditating in the airport or at the train station.  Close the eyes and the voices become a flow like a babbling brook.  Add a mantra - in this case, either the Prayer of the Lamb, or a simple Yeshua chant - and the atmosphere inside becomes quiet and distinctly centered on the practice and simply being.

Evening satsang on the beach with Amma

Amma aqsked a question of us all.  There are several hundred of us, probably close to a thousand gathered around her.  The pleasant breeze from the ocean mitigated the afternoon heat.  On Amma's dais were a couple of children, as usual, one of whom chanted beautifully for us all, and the ashram dogs, one of whom pushed a child to the side so as to be next to Amma.  Amma asked, "Since you began spiritual practice, have you noticed any improvement in how you are with anger, jealousy, selfishness or other emotions?  Be honest.  Do some self study now.  Then tell everyone here."  THose who responded gave testamony to how Amma had helped them.  Amma's response was that this was not what she wanted.  She was looking for a concrete example of a difficult issue not yet resolved, so that she could respond to that.  That sure sounded familiar, both what my own meditation teacher has tried to call out of us his students and what I try to evoke from those I work with.  On the one hand who wants to expose their weaknesses and shortcomings to others, yet the best learning for the whole is not in hearing reports about great success, but how the teach helps the student in the midst of where life is really at.

So I think about myself.  I can say that since I began meditating 16 years ago, I have experienced areas in my life that were problematic undergo significant change.  The first clear example that I saw was when I noticed that without either intention or effort, the irritation I would experience that would push my buttons around how other people acted or the opinions they expresse3d had so greatly dimminished that it was noteable.  That's when I kinow that meditation was a powerful spiritual practice.

That's a success story - not about me, but the mercy and grace of God at work in me.  But I also have noticed something else just as significant.  The less I committed nameable sins, the more I came to see the subtlety of sin.  Stop committing flagrant sins, and then you will come to see those same sins at play in attitudes, behind the scenes actions and nuances added to what seems good.  I have subtle ways of posturing intending to make me look good, to have control over others, to achieve (or try to achieve) my own righteousness, to get my way.  As awareness of these inner, subtle tactics comes, the more I understand how St. Francis could legitimately claim to be a great sinner even as those around him were already proclaiming him a saint.

# 5 from India

Continuation of previous thoughts...

People cry out to Amma for her help and from their stories about her, I can tell that she gives help in very concrete ways.  I translate this into the theological context that I understand and is meaningful for me.  Amma is an open channel through whom the Divine flows and works, the Divine I have experienced and named as the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, the Resurrection Presence of Jesus, his gift upon us all, the connection that is never broken although is mostly covered by the veils of our ignorance.  We do not even know how to access this incredible treasure right within our own spiritual tradition of Christianity, such potent potential and such ignorant avoidance of the divine gift offered.

So someone like Amma is needed to show in the flesh what we have been missing and to move us again into the expansion of faith, the openning of awareness, the Holy Spirit process of sanctification.  Then we can become truly human.

Recycling Seva - Well, this really wasn't as nasty as I had feared, but it was definitely in your face.  I wore my old ashram clothes and afterwards changed clothes.  I seemed to note a lingering smell about them.  Our job was to go through the bins brought from the recycling stations around the ashram.  Even though the bins are labeled paper, plastic, bottles, and hard and soft plastic and other items, each bin contained a little of everything.  We were issued big aprons and rubber gloves, and Craig, a 60-something guy from Colorado and our supervisor, helped us figure out where everything went in this initial sorting.  Others would fine tune what we did.  It was indeed grubby, but I found myself with a positive attitude even though this was a personally confronting situation.  The smell wasn't too bad because we were out in the open on the beach under some palm and pin trees.  I was the first to finish one of the barrels, so I declared myself a winner, then dove into the next with enthusiasm.  I got through two and a half during my shift.  By the end it was beginning to get to me, but all in all this was a significant breakthrough for me, someone who even avoided helping at rummage sales at church.  Only once this morning did I come close to gaging.

Amma arrives this evening (Saturday).  She is coming from Shanghai where she spoke at a UN sponsored conference, the only spiritual leader among the speakers.  All around the ashram people are painting and getting the ashram looking its best for her.

Sunday, 12/2

Amma arrived right at the end of bhagan singing last night.  Every once in a while her location would be flashed on the screens where the words to the bhagans were projected as her car made progress from the airport.  Finally she crossed the bridge to the island the ashram is on.

Time is getting short on this turn at the computer, so I will leave this as a cliff hanger until I can get another turn.

# 4 from India

The beach has a peace of its own and is a healing presence for me.  Yesterday in the late afternoon the bell rang three times which means that Amma is about to appear.  We follow the crowd and end up on the beach.  There Amma is surrounded by several hundred.

But back to the story about recycling on the beach -
After noting the peace that drew me there on the beach, I talked with the manager of the recycle center and got a few more details about the work and the model they were using.  This is really a national prototype for what they hope the whole country will use.

So I will see how I do with this tomorrow morning (Saturday).  I could say that Amma - embodying the same consciousness of Holy Spirit - knows my repulsion and need to break through this personal barrier, and has set things up in the most enticing way for me to face it.  Tomorrow will tell.

Technological fix - after much dither back and forth about what technology to bring and what to leave home, I made the wrong choices.  The iPad would not have worked because it has no USB port to insert an internet stick into.  So that purchase didn't help, although it has been a delight for my mother when she last visited for watching old TV program through Netflix.  The error with the cell phone was in not getting a SIM card before leaving.  My son's advice about setting the phone on airplane mode and using Skype through a wifi connection would have been great if there had been wifi at the ashram.  But despite what I had heard, there is no wifi at the ashram.  They tried putting a SIM card in my phone, but that didn't work.  And a trek into the nearby village to check the phone stores there was not encouraging.  They wanted to take my phone and send it off someplace for a whole week.  No way was I going to let that happen.

So now I am back to communicating through the ashram computers and the ashram international calls station.  And the iPhone will continue to be of important use as camera, calculator, Bible and Book of Common Prayer, calendar, notepad, iPod, etc.

Dog and Monkey - The ashram now has two dogs, a father and daughter.  They roam freely and are attached to Amma.  The female today spotted a monkey on one of the ledges of our flat abut three stories up.  That dog has kept the monkey pinned there for several hours by keeping guard on the ground beneath and barking eery once in a while just to let the monkey know she was till on guard.  Monkey moved up a few stories.

Saturday, Dec. 1

After sleeping ten hours straight the previous night, of course, this night I could only sleep six and then lay awake for another two hours.  Still it is rest.  Music started in at 5:00 Am as usual.  The process of re-enculturation back into the India setting is coming quickly.  I am reminded, or I remember, how overwhelming is the sense of the masses humanity, the sheer numbers of people, through all the chance encounters of passing one another as we move about the ashram.  The different colors of skin, the different languages, yet behind the eyes in each face is the recognition of another human being, another unique creation just as I am, asking the same questions, seeking comfort, love, rest, space to be and express, feeling the suffering and sorrows.  People cry out to Amma here in bhagans (hymn like songs) begging her help, her comfort and love.  And she gives it very concretely as the stories they tell relate.  I do not question this.  I know it is true.

#3 from India

This one will probably be shorter as I am limited on how much time I can use in one sitting here in the ashram so that others can use the computers too.

Recycling Seva

I really have had a repugnance about litter and handling others' garbage.  I really did not want to do this sort of thing, and I had a fear that if I let Amma work in my life with my various personal issues in heed of healing and transformation as a channel of God's grace, the process of sanctification or purification, then Amma would have me dealing with garbage, dealing with what repulses me.  After all, what you resist persists, as I have told others before.  So naturally I could expect to have to face this.  This would be my version of Francis and the leper.

So, of course, the first thing we are offered for a seva is what has repulsed me, but also with a choice for the safer job of veggie chopping.  I talked Clarice into the recycle seva without any resistance on her part. So a little bit later I walked to the new beach area where the new recycle center is.  The moment I arrived I felt a tremendous draw to the area - the open, breezy, sandy stretch to the breakwater, the waves pounding on the huge rocks of the beachhead, the shade from the palm and pine trees, and the benches all facing the sea.  I sat down and just absorbed the peace and simple, natural beauty.

Story to continue...

# 2 from India

I will be posting a bit right at first, so that you can have a sense of the setting from which I am writing.  I have no idea how regular my posts will be as things really get going here.  Amma arrived last night, and there is a definite change in the atmosphere here. 

Continued from 11/30 about the birds...

Each evening at dusk a massive number of birds descend on the ashram to roost in the trees in the grove by my flat.  I can see it all from my window.  There are the usual crows and doves, but now also white cranes.  And they make quite a racket - even during the night.  Things are quiet, then something startles them and they commence a chatter for a minute or two and then fall silent again.  Thank heavens for ear plugs!

One of the best things so far is running into several people we know either from Seattle or Amma's US tour or from when we were here at the ashram seven years ago..  This has made Clarice and I quite welcome, as we are both feeling a little overwhelmed as we comment to each other how we have aged over seven years!  But we know that we are just at the beginning of a very demanding and strenuous stay here.

Day 2, 11/30

Archana chanting in the temple at 10 AM: This was an extra archana chant (reciting the 1,000 names or attributes of the Divine Mother).  Someone said that its purpose was specifically for peace.  Since I neither have the words before me nor am able to stumble through the Sanscript fast enough to keep up, I don't even try.  But soon the Prayer of the Spirit is flowing, and there is a strong inner response of the Spirit praying within (Romans 8:26-27). 

Seva - (Selfless Service) our volunteer job assignments

We checked in at the seva office for our volunteer work assignments and were given a choice between the usual veggie chopping and a new seva at the new recycle center at the beach.  I knew immediately that the recycle seva would be the choice.  The seva manager told us that this involved sorting the garbage that the ashram residents and visiters put in the various bins, picking out what got put in the wrong bins and doing further sorting.  All of this is to handle the garbage in such a way that everything is reused and only a small amount burned.  This is being done at the ashram as a professional model for India for other communities to copy because there are no businesses that deal with recycling in India yet.  Here at the ashram 90% of the garbage can be sorted, packaged and sold for recycling or reused in the ashram or composted.  Only 10% cannot be used.

As long as a year ago when I first started planning the sabbatical and Karuna Poole was beginning the litter pick-up  project in Seattle, I felt an internal repulsion at the thought of handling other people's garbage.  So stayed tuned to the next post for the rest of the story.