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CURRENT ISSUE SATSANG

Quieting the Mind: Relax Into Stillness
by Swami Amar Jyoti

The early translators of Eastern philosophies used terms in English that often lost their original depth and substance. I feel that either we should choose the right translations or use the original terms. For example, we do not say, “Let us do union postures.” We say “yoga postures.” The word “surrender” has been used as the translation of the Sanskrit term, sharanagati. In Western culture and history, surrender generally refers to warfare: one leader or army surrendering to another. So when Eastern holy men came in the sixties and seventies and spoke of “surrender to God,” many in the West were resentful. By surrender to God or Guru, we mean sharanagati, which has a totally different meaning.

Sharanagati is a sacred, consecrated word that means, “taking refuge in the Supreme.” Sharana means refuge or stopping, silencing, relaxing or establishing; gati means motion, something that revolves or moves. Sharanagati is when all the motions of your mind relax, all your karmas, samskars and emotions are stilled and quieted.

Many terms in Sanskrit, such as Brahman, require several sentences to translate into English. And when we say, “Everything is within your Self,” the normal understanding is that there is a cosmic entity that is the Self. That is not the real meaning. Ordinarily, self is used for ego, the sense of I-ness, an individual. Atma, which has been translated as the Self, is synonymous with Consciousness; it is not an individual. So when we say, “Everything is within your Self,” that Self is unlimited, all-pervading. It is no longer you and me.

Before coming to this indescribable Reality, let us start with the mind. The mind basically has three stages. One we call the subconscious; one is the surface or conscious mind. The third is called superconsciousness, which is the higher mind, supermind or overmind. All three are within the domain of the mind. The superconsciousness transcends our subconscious and surface, day-to-day sensual mind. Still it is not the summum bonum, the ultimate Reality.

Read full Satsang in the Spring 2012 issue of Light of Consciousness

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

This Is True Freedom: Stepping Out of Your Story
by Eckhart Tolle

Life cannot exist separately from here and now. Therefore any denial of the now, resistance to the now or running away from the now means that you miss out on life. You reach the age of eighty-five still looking for something, and you have missed the Beloved, the Divine that is here in every moment. This moment appears in different forms. It may be beautiful surroundings with wonderful people and therefore a little bit easier to enter the state of allowing. There may be moments that do not appear to be good in little or big ways: you miss the bus or plane, or something major occurs, a loss or breakdown in your life. What usually happens then is that resistance comes up, a deep no to what is. That is the reactivity of the little me, the mind-made sense of self. The deeper the no is to this moment, the stronger the little me gets. When a challenge comes, the no can become very intense.

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Dancing with the Forgotten of Chernobyl
by Joanna Macy

There is a circle dance we do in all of my workshops and classes, whether on systems theory, Buddhism, or deep ecology. We do it to open our minds to the wider world we live in and to strengthen our intention to take part in its healing. Each time we put on the music and link hands, I think of Novozybkov in the fall of 1992.

Our team of four—two Russians named Harasch and Yuri, my husband, Fran, and I—had been traveling from one town to another in Belarus and Ukraine, offering workshops to people living in areas contaminated by the Chernobyl disaster. Now we had come to our final stop: the town of Novozybkov, an agricultural and light industrial city of fifty thousand a hundred miles due east of Chernobyl. Together with its surrounding villages, it is considered to be the most contaminated city of its size that is still inhabited.

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In each quarterly issue of LIGHT OF CONSCIOUSNESS you will find spiritual inspiration on your path through articles on wisdom teachings, spiritual practices, science and spirituality, prayer and meditation, healing, personal journeys, sacred ecology, transformational art, spiritual cinema, reviews and more - writings that will encourage and inform your journey. The knowledge and insights within each issue will help you live a more aware, conscious and fulfilling life.