Tense with Will, Relax and Feel

These are the words we frequently quote to describe how to practice Paramhansa Yogananda’s Energization Exercises. These last months of Spring and Summer were busy with the preparations for Swami Kriyananda’s visit in mid-July. On the heels of his visit came the two week children’s day-camp, Summer Fun Program — all the while preparing for the annual giant upscale yard sale which we call the Ananda Fun Faire. So, we’ve certainly put our “will” into the sadhana of karma yoga this summer! Generally speaking, I think most have also taken some time to “relax and feel” as well.

That having been said, the spirit of harmony, creativity, willingness, and openness in accepting the challenge and opportunity of a busy summer was the real success. “It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it!” Swami Kriyananda has often counseled. And the spirit behind the act is what really determines its success, spiritually. Divine Mother has offered the Sangha here in the Seattle area a full plate of karma yoga opportunities, and not just this summer. This “active” phase seems to have begun two or so years ago with the move of East West Bookshop to its present location. It accelerated with the original “foundation” gift towards the building of a new mandir, Temple of Light.

We are pleased to announce that the land has been purchased. Escrow closed Thursday, September 12 — the anniversary date, fifty-four years to the day that a young twenty-two year old, Donald Walters (aka Swami Kriyananda), met the renowned master of yoga, Paramhansa Yogananda and became his disciple.

Just as the pace of change in all fields of human endeavors only seems to accelerate, so too continues to grow the opportunities to deepen our spiritual understanding and attunement. I read an interesting book given to me by Bud Krogh. The book, written by Robert C. Fuller, is entitled Spiritual but not Religious. It traces the long and rich history in America of spiritual movements which lay outside traditional Christian church denominations and theologies. Paramhansa Yogananda brought from India the quintessential philosophy of spiritual “individualism” which he called Self-Realization!

And yet, he said, this is not an age for withdrawing from society, even in the name of finding God. Our age of globalization is an age of relationship, integration, fluidity, and movement, not stratification or either extreme of isolation or communalism. It is an age of balance, but also of personal initiative and responsibility. The shift of knowledge and technology to individuals is perhaps best exemplified by the phenomenon of the world wide web (the “internet”).

Thus, the balancing of individual spirituality (which the practice and philosophy of meditation epitomizes) and satsangha (serving and supporting others, exemplified, though not limited by, service-oriented intentional communities) is the ideal which Yogananda has offered for this age. Deeper than this, however, is the very concept of Self-realization. It is nothing less than revolutionary. It posits, ultimately, that not only is the idea of radical or absolute individuality an illusion, but that personal fulfillment lies in expansion of self-identity to include others (ultimately to embrace infinity).

At the same time Yogananda explained that the stamp of uniqueness is one with which we are endowed for eternity. Self-realization entails no loss of identity, only expansion of that identity! What a beautiful ideal! It challenges the very core, however, of Western ideology and philosophy which is based upon the concept of competition, conflict, and narrow self-interest (Adam Smith, Darwin, Freud), while at the same time it nurtures and builds upon the cooperative spirit of America, which was once called, the New World. This is the spirit that will emerge victorious in the decades and centuries to come. But Spirit needs instruments: helping hands, pure hearts, and clear minds making tangible and practical the presence and peace of God on earth. We need not look far for examples: our dear friends, James and Tricia Conti, are moving this month to Ananda in Mountain View (Calif.) to serve the work there, responding with joy and willingness to the opportunity offered them.