No disrespect intended, but I am not a fan of comebacks like ‘Don’t worry about why you are here … just worry about how you are going to get out’ or ‘You don’t need to know why you are here, you should simply focus on how you are going to get out’.
The main problem with these types of non-answers, these deflections, is the presumption that we are not here for good reason(s). …
Continue readingWithin the Vaishnava tradition, the conditioning of the souls in the material world is said to be anādi – beginningless. If English speakers wish to understand the finer points of the Sanskrit word anādi, there are probably a number of English words they should steer clear of, for example …
Why might clear understanding of anādi be important? …
Continue readingTo tell someone who strongly feels they are suffering, and/or this world is very much a place of misery, that they are not in fact suffering at all, and not a fallen soul being punished for their sins, but a divine part of God eternally engaged in the beautiful divine lila (pastimes) of God is unlikely to resonate positively. Reality of suffering is so proven and real that such a idea is more likely lead to negative judgement about God. …
Continue reading1. God chooses to taste and explore rasa.
Our life adventures, dark or light/conscious or unconscious regardless, contribute, albeit in a small way, to the completeness of that exploration. How? Our personal experiences of emotion/feeling, by dint of our enternal jiva individuality, together with our current lifetime tailored conditioning, have a uniqueness about them, and thus value because they add to the completeness of God’s exploration. …
In pondering my own mortality, and in particular the temporary nature of life on Earth, I stumbled into a comparing of my life here with the taking of a vacation.
That a vacation is temporary is not normally perceived as a problem. And that a holiday is not forever is not actually thought of as an impediment to enjoyment of the holiday. …
Continue readingAccording to Vedic thought, planet Earth is located in the midway planetary system (Bhu-loka), and our present time is near the beginning of Kali Yuga, the last of the four cyclic ages.
Planet Earth, as a middle level planet, is not typically a place where enlightened beings tend to take birth. Compared to the other three yugas, Kali Yuga is characterised as the age of least enlightenment. …
Continue readingThe lyric of this song is a bit of a rant against what I consider the dumbed-down values and social expectations placed upon us by government/corporations in 2012 UK society (perhaps this is a global trend?) – together with my observation that generations presently growing up do not realise that just a few decades ago ideas like sending small babies to daycare so mum can hurry back to the work place, or the necessity of both partners working just to make ends meet would have seemed outrageous. …
Continue readingThe lyric of my song is an imagined conversation between God and a soul, loosely based on the two-bird-in-a-tree analogy found in the Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad … but presented strictly in terms of my own understanding 🙂
Free listen/download of song at
http://www.songsofdave.com/song-details.php?id=262
Verse 1
So if you want me
Know where to look
Find my number
It’s in the book
‘So’ to convey this is not the beginning of the dialogue, ‘Know’ intended as both suggestion and acknowledgement. …
Continue readingI am not dismisive of being in ‘love’, or the associated euphoric feelings.
My proposal is that love is simply the wrong word. The correct word is ‘infatuation’. Sorry … I know it doesn’t sound so lofty 🙂
And that love is not a feeling or state of being … rather a giving; a caring; a doing … always a conscious choice. …
Continue readingIn my opinion religion and faith often have very little to do with spiritual awareness. In most cases they have more to do with devotion, love, dependency, belonging, etc.
I am certainly not suggesting such things are not wonderful and desireable, but just that they don’t automatically translate to spiritual awareness. And in some cases produce just the opposite!
What do I mean by spiritual awareness? …
Continue reading
