Awakened Life-Force

Yogacharya David

 

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Picture: Tibetan painting of Chakras

It has been interesting to observe the role of life-force during the past several months. With low blood counts for months before I went into the hospital I relied upon life-energy coming in at the medulla oblongata and along the spine to fulfill what I was directed to do through this body, even though it was a struggle I was able to do all that God had asked me to do due to this vital energy that is independent of bio-chemical processes.

With the operation I had, and the recovery time immediately after, the role of life-energy was consumed with sustaining the body and enacting its healing. As I was healing I continued to feel that life-force in the spine and this added force made recovery go smoothly. Both doctors and nurses as well as visitors all commented on how well I looked; recovery was going extraordinarily well due to the role of life-force. Prayers from many, even from great distances, added enormously to the life-energy and its healing power.  

Physical science has yet to recognize the role of life-force that is independent of, and superior to biochemistry. It is evident that even though we all inhabit human bodies, we eat food and breathe oxygen, yet there are vast differences in the life-force we exhibit. It can run the gambit of extraordinary physical health and vitality, emotional range, mental liveliness, all the way to spiritual illumination. Physical science can explain part of why individuals have these differences, but it cannot explain it all.

As my body’s recovery has continued, life-force (what in yoga is called prana) has been made available for other uses. As recovery proceeded it was as if I was “waking up” to other areas of life. I could now envision our coming together for a Christmas/New Years’ Service; the idea of doing more writing, being able to focus on Mother’s Work, and opening myself to the “next phase” of my life’s work all came alive for me.

There is no doubt that for full functioning in this world the body needs to be an instrument that is in working order through biochemical processes; in this physical science has made tremendous progress. Like a vehicle, you are not going to get far if the car is mechanically unsound, and like a computer you are not going to be able to surf the web or use it to write if a virus is destroying it. However, even if the vehicle and the computer are functioning perfectly, they will simply remain inert without a human being operating them. Even so, a human body may have nothing physically wrong with it, but without a soul and spirit guiding the life-energy flowing through it, it will have no meaning and will not really come to life.

Here is the great discovery in ancient times by yogis, we can consciously access greater life-force by intelligent means. This allowed yogis to exist without oxygen for long periods of time, and to either heat or cool the body to counter temperature extremes. Life-energy is also a healing force and can be used to heal one’s own body or the produce healing for others. As it comes to light in Western science the discovery of life-force will be one of the great “new discoveries” of all time.

As an intelligent force, prana does not just respond to your conscious use of it, but it will also guide you. In this regard we may distinguish between two different forms of life-force. In the first case life-force guides natural processes, the growth of plants, movement of planets, and the health of human beings among billions of other functions in nature. There is also Prana we spell with a capital P. This higher, transcendent Prana is Divine Intelligence attuned to a much higher frequency of thought and energy than nature’s prana.

We know this Prana through the awakened faculties in the spine and brain; in these times these faculties are usually dormant in human beings. Guidance gained through intuitive perception of higher consciousness is of a much greater order; it is an expression of Divine Will. Through merging human will with Divine Will Prana forms the basis for the next stage of evolution. This is referred to as the transformation of the human into the Divine.

As we enter into this New Year become conscious of prana life-energy coursing through your body as a tingling, electrical force that is necessary for all your body functions. Then stretch your subtle senses to feel that same vital force in nature, giving life and consciousness to water, trees, and animals. Through deep meditation awaken awareness in your cerebrospinal system to Pranic Life-Force, the life-giving, blissful and all-knowing Consciousness that has the capacity to lift you up into your oneness with God. Be a pioneer in this greatest of discoveries today and bring in the New Year with the promise of a much greater life! Have a blissful and prosperous New Year.

 

The Light Ever Shining

Yogacharya David

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This Christmas morning the full moon shines above as a beacon of light to all the darkened world below. This reminds me that the Christ-child was born into this world to bring Light and illumine all creation, to all those who would receive the Light.

Avatars (the descent of Divinity into flesh) come to this world to help awaken it to the fact that all creation is of Divine origin. The world and those identified with it lose all relationship with their innate Divinity, and thus suffer and create further suffering for others. God, a respecter of man’s free will, beckons all humanity to rediscover the truth of their true nature. However, mankind is stubborn and stiff-necked in their adherence to being bound in their ignorance.

Therefore God sends examples of fully realized Beings, avatars of immense spiritual realization and strength. These divinely realized Beings are not meant to be set up as idols and worshiped from a distance; rather they come to awaken the same Divine nature in each individual that the avatar is awakened to within him or herself. It is man’s ignorance that says, “Divinity resides in that one only.” This ignorance acts in opposition to the very reason why an avatar takes incarnation. To embrace and become fully awakened to one’s own Divine nature fulfills the purpose of a Divine Incarnation.

To “receive” Jesus Christ is more than to proclaim faith in his Divinity, it means to realize through experience your same Divinity. It means you have looked within and you have seen the Divine Light shining as a star; you have been inspired by three wisdom kings to surrender the gold of the world, the bitterness of the world, and even your joy and worship at the feet of the Christ-Light being born within you. It is to protect that Light from the vain jealousy and hatred of King Herod, seething within and seeking to destroy the Light. It is to love and nurture that Christ-Child-Light at every turn, to never deny it or side with the forces of this world in their desire to suppress that same Light. To receive the Christ means that you experience the whole story within you.

So, on this precious Christmas morning, let us sense the sacred meaning embedded in these wonderful stories and images. Let us follow that star by going deeper into a meditative state in which we are illumined within by the Christ Light. Let us hear the angelic music of Spirit singing the song of Bliss and Joy that is within and everywhere about us and manifests as universal love and service. These are not just stories of another time and place, this is your journey, discovering who and what you truly are. It really is, as is said, “The Greatest Story Ever Told!”

It is in this Spirit that I write to you this morning, and it is my keen desire that you should know the truth of it. Not simply because I have said so, or that great realized Beings have told you so, but because you were inspired to seek this truth out within the laboratory of your own Being.

Please accept this as my Christmas Card to you, this year I simply have not been able to send out my usual Christmas Cards. We have received so many beautiful cards, and with each card I receive the love and good wishes sent with each of them. One card came from Dianne D. had this wonderful quote from C.S. Lewis that says so much: “The Son of God became a man to enable men to become Sons of God.”

Have a joy-filled Christmas.

Winter Solstice Soaring

Yogacharya David

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Picture: View of Himalayas from Dahl Cheena

Each year the earth’s rotation around the sun brings the northern hemisphere to its furthest distance from the solar center, the Winter Solstice. It is the darkest time of year and symbolically it is the death of the calendar year. Since ancient times there has been a connection with the change of seasons, the movement of the stars and changes in consciousness.

When I first became aware of awakening to higher consciousness I did not need an astrologer to tell me that the Winter Solstice had powerful influences, for I was fully cognizant that each year it would take me into a deep experience. The annual buildup to the solstice was always a powerful and difficult time for me. There are many people who talk of having holiday blues, and while there are many human reasons for this there are also many who are consciously or unconsciously experiencing the influence of the Winter Solstice.

A great feeling of psychic pressure and isolation would descend on me weeks before the solstice. Since my late teens I was aware through pre-natal memories and Grace that there was something more to life than simple human existence. I did not have a name for this something more, it might be God, but if it was it was different than a vague or philosophical notion of God, it had to do with something deeply personal, yet beyond my personhood; I had an incredibly strong drive and need to know what that something was. Each year the build-up to Christmas, and more explicitly to the solstice, was like entering into the threshing floor where the wheat is beaten in order to release the grain of realization from the shaft of ignorance.

There is an important difference between a crisis that involves the ego only and a spiritual crisis. The ego looks exclusively to itself in such a crisis, becoming more self-involved by feeling sorry for itself and looking to blame others or feeling shame at its own existence. In a spiritual crisis the self looks beyond the ego to find answers; it expands rather than contracts. My spiritual crisis of the solstice would, just as predictably and mysteriously, lift with the apex of the solstice; then I would feel its uplifting power.

The chick that is still surrounded by the shell of the egg begins to peck at the shell, knowing somehow that the answer to a larger world lies outside of the shell. With increasing vigor it pecks and pecks at the limiting shell to find release. If some outside force were to break the shell apart prematurely the chick would not develop properly and it would be prone to sickness and death. Likewise, there is something in the struggle to know God by pecking apart the shell of ignorance that is necessary for the development of the individual; otherwise the realized Self would not fully develop.

Realization brings a new way of looking at life-experiences. The pain and difficulties of the past are still remembered, however there is now a known purpose behind every blow taken in life, and this makes all the difference. When we come to know there is an exact and ennobling reason for everything that happens then spiritual suffering is resolved, which is the largest portion of suffering in the world. I now see how each painful build-up to the solstice down through the years was awakening a greater inner resolve to know God.

During this past year the build-up to the solstice “crisis” has been of a physical nature. This body went through three hospitalizations culminating in the removal of three tumors and the removal of three sections of the small intestine. This morning as this solstice arrives I have felt a definite inward release from the body’s crisis. It began this a.m. with an experience with Mother and Father Hamilton, replaying many scenes of their early spiritual life together through my inner vision. Then came an infusion of spiritual power flowing into this body; this was followed by an inspiration to write to you about the nature of the winter solstice. Now a surge of bubbling blissful joy is flooding my being and radiating out. Without pre-awareness on my part the body and spirit continues to replicate the pattern of the Winter Solstice cycle with the precision of a cosmic clock. Do we not live in a marvelous and wonder-filled universe?  

I have often thought we missed the timing of the birth of Christ by a few days; what should have been the winter solstice. There is a definite uplifting spiritual current that comes at this time. I am reminded of my stay at a small Ashram established by Anandamayi Ma in the Himalayas at Dahl Cheena. Watching from the porch of the small dharmashala at the Ashram, that was perched on a plateau hundreds of feet above a valley floor below, giant eagles would launch themselves from nearby tree branches with barely a flap of their wings and then soar upon the updrafts. Six foot wings made them soar without effort.

Taking full advantage of this change at the Winter Solstice, stretch your wings and feel the solstice’s uplifting currents and fly with “wings as Eagles” (Isaiah 40:31).

 

Blessings of God Gurus and You

Yogacharya David

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Picture: I pronam to you; taken at sunset on the shores of the Arabian Sea by Chad

I thank you all for your great love and prayers over these last months. I feel like I am in good hands for this surgery tomorrow. I was in for a maximum iron infusion last evening and the attending nurse had worked at the University Hospital for many years with some top surgeons there, and for the last couple of years she has been at Providence. She said if there was anyone she would want as a surgeon, it would be my surgeon.

I think I have the easiest “job” tomorrow, that is to show up for the surgery. Others will be working hard and some may have worries, but I will be fast asleep!

I do not know what recovery will look like afterwards, but when I can I will let you know how I am doing. I am sure that in between time Carla and Cate will send out notices on my current status. For now, I am doing well, the body is very tired and has its ways of showing its displeasure, but I feel the blessings of God, Gurus and you.

 

Be Born Anew

Yogacharya David

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A devotee recently said that she planned to spend Christmas Eve and morning alone, deeply meditating instead of rushing about to far-flung family. She had a glow as she spoke of this coming event.

While many may not be in a position to take this time away from the many events scheduled during these holidays, I would very much encourage you to plan time for your spiritual Christmas, as well as your social Christmas. If the holidays are only for eating and drinking and making merry, then where is the time for celebrating the birth of Christ?

Sri Yoganandaji used to take the day before Christmas for a six hour meditation at Mount Washington. Oftentimes he would have visions of Jesus during this time and feel deep communion with him. Then on Christmas day he would have social Christmas with food and the exchanging of gifts. He was balanced in all ways.

This is a powerful time of year and we can live it in such a way that wears us out through activity, or we can feel melancholy and blue, or we can live it in balance; celebrating the birth of Christ-consciousness within and enjoying social Christmas as well. We can drink deeply from the well of Bliss within, and then share that Divine Light with all the world. How much more do we have to share with this world when we have contacted God first!

Even though I may not be able to be with you in body for these Christmas celebrations, I will definitely be with you in Spirit. I would remind you that the breadth and depth of Christ-Consciousness cannot be fully fathomed by the human mind; so there is always more for us to experience, learn and be transformed as we dive deeper and soar higher in this mighty venture of knowing God.

Do not let your mind limit you to the possibilities of what you may be as you grow in Christ-Consciousness. You are a child of the Infinite, and as such you are made in His likeness and image. This season symbolizes the birth of this supreme Consciousness into the world and in you. Be sure to capture its sacred significance as it approaches and receive God’s great gift for you, to be born anew in Christ Consciousness.

Health Note: The most recent news has come from the long awaited results of the Las Vegas biopsy. Dr. S. said it surprised him but the tumor showed signs of being melanoma. When I said I thought of that as skin cancer he said yes, it starts on the skin, but can migrate to different parts of the body. He thought I must have had the cells on the skin but my immune system successfully fought it off. Then some of the cells floated through the blood system and started growing in the stomach. There are times when the immune system does not recognize that these cells do not belong and the tumor is left to grow. They will take further samples during the operation but he feels confident it will confirm this diagnosis, as it fits all the facts known so far. In aftercare I would receive immunotherapy; boosting the immune system so that the immune system recognizes and destroys any future growth of these melanoma cells. They will also use some of my cells for a research project to develop a vaccine for others. My hemoglobin count has dropped more, but is not at the point of needing transfusions. The doctor has ordered intravenous iron to be injected early this week before the operation, which is still scheduled for the 10th  at 10 a.m.

Additional Note: There are a larger number of recent emails I have received stating I have appeared in many dreams. In all cases it has been assuring to the dreamer that all is well, with everything proceeding toward positive results. As always, it is wonderful to hear from you.

Years

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