Dr. Froylan Alvarado Guemez Pierre Teilhard de Chardi, of the Jesuit order. Born in Orcines, on May 1, 1881 and died in New York on April 10, 1995. It was the French theologian, philosopher and paleontologist who built an integrated vision of science and mysticism with his thought; of the evolution of spirit and thought.
▪ _Religion is not just one, there are hundreds._

▪ Spirituality is one.
▪ _Religion is for those who sleep._

▪ Spirituality is for those who are awake.
▪ _Religion is for those who need someone to tell them what to do and want to be guided._

▪ Spirituality is for those who pay attention to their inner voice.
▪ _Religion has a set of dogmatic rules._

▪ Spirituality invites us to reason about everything, to question everything.
▪ _Religion threatens and frightens._

▪ Spirituality gives inner peace.
▪ _Religion speaks of sin and guilt._

▪ Spirituality says, “learn from error”.

▪ _Religion represses everything and in some cases it is false._

▪ Spirituality transcends everything, it brings you closer to your truth!
▪ _Religion speaks of a god; It is not God._

▪ Spirituality is everything and, therefore, it is in God.
▪ _Religion invents._

▪Spirituality finds.
▪ _Religion does not tolerate any question._

▪Spirituality questions everything.
▪ _Religion is human, it is an organization with men’s rules._

▪ Spirituality is Divine, without human rules.
▪ _Religion is the cause of divisions._

▪The spirituality unites.
▪ _Religion is looking for you to believe._

▪ Spirituality you have to look for it to believe.
▪ _Religion follows the precepts of a sacred book._

▪ Spirituality seeks the sacred in all books.
▪ _Religion feeds on fear._

▪ Spirituality feeds on trust and faith.
▪ _Religion lives in thought._

▪ Spirituality lives in Consciousness.
▪ _Religion deals with doing._

▪ Spirituality has to do with the Self.
▪ _Religion feeds the ego._

▪ Spirituality drives to transcend.
▪ _Religion makes us renounce the world to follow a God._

▪ Spirituality makes us live in God, without renouncing us.
▪ _Religion is a cult._

▪ Spirituality is meditation.
▪ _Religion fills us with dreams of glory in paradise._

▪ Spirituality makes us live the glory and paradise here and now.
▪ _Religion lives in the past and in the future._

▪ Spirituality lives in the present.
▪ _Religion creates cloisters in our memory._

▪ Spirituality liberates our Consciousness.
▪ _Religion makes us believe in eternal life._

▪ Spirituality makes us aware of Eternal Life.
▪ _Religion promises life after death._

▪ Spirituality is to find God in our interior during life and death.🙏🏻
_-We are not human beings who go through a spiritual experience.-_

*-We are spiritual beings that we go through a human experience.-*

In practical daily life we are hurt by small things; we are enslaved by little things. Misery comes because we think we are finite – we are little beings. And yet, how difficult it is to believe that we are infinite beings! In the midst of all this misery and trouble, when a little thing may throw me off balance, it must be my care to believe that I am infinite. And the fact is that we are, and that consciously or unconsciously we are all searching after that something which is infinite; we are always seeking for freedom.

Swami Vivekananda

I Am Drunk And You are Insane–Who’s Going to Take Us Home? By Raj Ayyar
Raj Ayyar
To: Me ([email protected])
Wednesday, December 6, 2017, 1:11 AM

Launching the month of December with two of my favorite quotes, one from
Rumi and the other from the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas.
‘I am drunk and you are insane,
who’s going to take us home?
In this city no one I see is conscious; one is worse off than the next,
frenzied and insane.
Dear one, come to the tavern of ruin and experience the pleasures of the
soul.
What happiness can there be apart from this intimate conversation with the
Beloved?
In every corner there are drunkards, while the Server pours the wine from a
royal decanter to every particle of being.’
–Rumi ed. Kabir Helminski in The Pocket Rumi (Shambhala Publications).
‘I took my stand in the middle of the world and I appeared to them in the
flesh.
I found them all drunk
none of them thirsty.’
–Gospel of Thomas tr. Willis Barnstone and Marvin Meyer: The Essential
Gnostic Scriptures.
Both quotes highlight the ‘drunkenness’ and insanity of most ego-ridden
mortals, addicted to one thing or the other–could be alcohol and other
substances, or sex, fame, power, money, food, love.
Few are ‘thirsty’ for the higher joys of spirit.
The similarities between the two quotes are quite striking.
As always, Jalaluddin Rumi is a master of frame switches in the same
verse/(s). He moves from talking about the ‘drunkenness’ of those addicted
to worldly pursuits, their frenzy and insanity. Then, he switches to the
higher wine of the soul in the ‘tavern of ruin’, presumably the tavern of
ego shattering, where the Beloved pours out the wine for the thirsty. The
deft frame switch here is from ‘drunkenness’ as a metaphor for the lost,
frenzied and addicted, to a higher thirst for the ‘wine of the Beloved’.
The second quote from the Thomas gospel is very similar–Jesus talks about
incarnating in the flesh, only to find that very few are ‘thirsty’ for the
higher gnosis; most of us are drunk on one thing or the other–alcohol or
other substances, power, money, sex etc.
I love the lines: ‘In this city no one I see is conscious; one is worse
off than the next, frenzied and insane.’ So true of New Delhi and many
other cities, but in Delhi, the frenzied addiction to power grab, property
grab, sex grab and upward mobility at any cost including murder, is at a
scary extreme here and now.
​

Weaken a bad habit by avoiding everything that occasioned it or stimulated it, without concentrating upon it in your zeal to avoid it. Then divert your mind to some good habit and steadily cultivate it until it becomes a dependable part of you.

 – Paramahansa Yogananda

Demonic verily are the worlds which are enveloped in blinding
darkness. And to them go, after death, those who harm their inner selves.
Isha Upanishad

In the Bhagavad-Gita says Lord Krishna that the self
is the friend of the self and the self also is the enemy of the
self. In the same scripture we also come across a detailed
description of the demonic qualities. Those who harm
their inner selves are those who engage in wicked actions and
harmful qualities. This verse is a continuation of the same argument on karma that started in the first verse. Do we realize how much harm we do to ourselves each day by our actions and thoughts and what opportunities we fritter away in search of things that actually do not help us in our spiritual progress?

“If you are angry or in pain, separate yourself from anger and pain and watch them. Externalization is the first step to liberation.”
Nisargidatta Maharaj

Introspection

If you find that every day you are becoming either
touchy, finicky, or gossipy, then you know that you
are going backward. The best test is to analyze your-
self and find out whether you are happier today than
you were yesterday. If you feel that you are happier
today, then you are progressing; and this feeling of
happiness must continue.
–Paramahansa Yogananda, SRF Lessons

“The real does not die, the unreal never lived. Set your mind right and all will be right. When you know that the world is one, that humanity is one, you will act accordingly. But first of all you must attend to the way you feel, think and live. Unless there is order in yourself, there can be no order in the world.”
Nisargidatta Maharaj

Introspection

You know when you are doing wrong. Your whole
being tells you, and that feeling is God’s voice. If you
do not listen to Him, then He is quiet; but when you
spiritually waken again He will guide you. He sees
your good and your evil thoughts and actions, but
whatever you do, you are His child just the same.
–Paramahansa Yogananda, SRF Lessons

The Guru

When one has found his guru there should be
unconditional devotion to him, because he is the vehicle
of God. The guru’s sole purpose is to bring the disciple
to Self-realization; the love a guru receives from a
devotee is given by the guru to God.
–Paramahansa Yogananda, “Sayings of Yogananda”

It is because God wants you that I am here with
you, calling you to come Home, where my Beloved
is, where Christ and Krishna, and Babaji, Lahiri
Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswarji, and the other saints are.
“Come,” the Lord is saying, “they are all rejoicing in
Me. No worldly joys–the taste of food, the beauty of
flowers, the passing pleasure of earthly love–can
compare with the divine joys of My home.”
There is only one Reality. It is He. Forget every-
thing else.
–Paramahansa Yogananda, “Sayings of Paramahansa
Yogananda”

O my Guru! If all the gods are wroth, and yet
thou art satisfied with me, I am safe in the fortress
of thy pleasure. And if all the gods protect me by the
parapets of their blessings, and yet I receive not thy
benediction, I am an orphan, left to pine spiritually
in the ruins of thy displeasure.
–Paramahansa Yogananda, “Whispers from Eternity

Devotee: How can I obtain Guru’s Grace?

Ramana Maharishi: Grace is the Self. That also is not to be acquired; you only need to know that it exists.
The sun is brightness only. It does not see darkness. Yet you speak of darkness fleeing on the sun’s approach.
So also the devotee’s ignorance, like the phantom of darkness, vanishes at the look of the Guru. You are
surrounded by sunlight; yet if you want to see the sun, you must turn in its direction and look at it. So also Grace is found by the proper approach you make, though it is here and now.

Obedience to the guru is necessary for attunement
with his wisdom. It is not slavery to follow the wishes
of a God-realized guru, because his wish gives
independence and freedom. A true guru is the servant
of God, carrying out His plan for your liberation.
Realize this, and you will always obey, until you find
perfect freedom in Spirit.
–Paramahansa Yogananda, “Self-Realization Magazine”

Patience
Do not look for a spiritual flower every day. Sow
the seed, water it with prayer and right endeavor.
When it sprouts, take care of the plant, pulling out the
weeds of doubt, indecision, and indifference that may
spring up around it. Some morning you will suddenly
behold your long-awaited spiritual flower of Realization.
–Paramahansa Yogananda, in a “Para-gram”

No known comparison exists in the three worlds for a true guru. If the philosopher’s stone be assumed as truly such, it can only turn iron into gold, not into another philosopher’s stone. The venerated teacher, on the other hand, creates equality with himself in the disciple, who takes refuge at his feet. The guru is therefore peerless, nay transcendental.”
– Adi Shankaracharya

Patience
Your are your own enemy and you don’t know it.
You don’t learn to sit quietly. You don’t learn to give
time to God. And you are impatient and expect to attain
heaven all at once. You cannot get it by reading books
or by listening to sermons or by doing charitable works.
You can get it only by giving your time to Him in deep
meditation.
–Paramahansa Yogananda, “Man’s Eternal Quest”

Patience
Let us forget the sorrows of the past and make up
our minds not to dwell on them in the New Year.
With determination and unflinching will, let us renew
our lives, our good habits, and our successes. If the
last year has been hopelessly bad, the New Year must
be hopefully good.
–Paramahansa Yogananda, “Self-Realization Magazine”

The Guru
In the beginning of one’s spiritual search, it is
wise to compare various spiritual paths and teachers.
But when you find the real guru destined for you,
the one whose teachings can lead you to the Divine
Goal, then restless searching should cease. A spiritually
thirsty person should not go on indefinitely seeking
new wells; rather he should go to the best well and
drink daily of it’s living waters.
–Paramahansa Yogananda, SRF Lessons

When tilling the ground for the cultivation of crops,
one needs patience to destroy all useless weeds and
to wait, even though the ground then appears barren,
until the hidden good seeds sprout into plants. It
requires still more patience to clear the field of
consciousness that is overgrown with weeds of useless
attachments to sense pleasures, which are very difficult
to uproot. Yet when the field of consciousness is
cleared, and sown with seeds of good qualities, plants
of noble activities sprout forth, yielding abundantly
the fruits of real happiness. Above all, have patience
to seek communion with God through deep meditation
and to become acquainted with your indestructible
soul, hidden within your perishable earthly body.
–Paramahansa Yogananda, in a “Para-gram”

O Christ, take possession of my heart and mind!
Be thou reborn in me as love for all men. May thy
consciousness which is in every atom manifest in me
as unconditional loyalty to Guru and the Great Ones,
and to thee, O Blessed Jesus, and to the Supreme who
is the Father of all.
–Paramhansa Yogananda, “Self-Realization Magazine”

Those who renounce life truly, in fact, enjoy life better than those
who do not, because the true sanyasis are not troubled by the fear
of loss or the possibility of gain. They accept their lot, what
comes to them without struggle and seeking and remain indifferent to what does not come to them or what has departed from them.
–Isha Upanishad (Translation and Commentary by Jayaram V)

Renunciation is not negation of life. It is not some morose and
lifeless experience. We should not renounce life because of despair
or depression arising out of our fears, frustration or personal
failures. True renunciation arises out of intense longing for the
divine, out of a state of mind in which attachment with the Divine
alone makes sense and out of a sense of freedom and fearlessness
that stem from unflinching faith in God and His supreme will.
–Isha Upanishad (Translation and Commentary by Jayaram V)

Life has to be enjoyed, but without seeking, without coveting, and
without struggling to get things done or get things for oneself. It
is the renunciation of seeking and of desiring things which
constitute the central feature of a life of true renunciation.
–Isha Upanishad (Translation and Commentary by Jayaram V)

You will receive everything you need when you stop asking for what you do not need
Nisargidatt Maharaj

Coax Christ today with your songs and the devotion
of your heart, and then coax him with your deepening
Self-realization. With all the intensity of your zeal and
inner perception, merge your consciousness in the
happiness within. Forget time. When you feel joy
spreading within you, realize that Christ is hearing
your song. You are not identified with Christ if your
concentration is merely on the words. But if your joy
is singing within, Christ is listening to you.
–Paramahansa Yogananda, “Self-Realization Magazine”

Patience

The truth is, that which you want is with you all
the time, closer than hands or feet. Any moment it
may lift you above the world and personal depression.
Wait patiently for Him.
–Sri Gyanamata, “God Alone: The Life and Letters of a
Saint”

Choose which habits you are going to destroy
in the New Year. Make up your mind about them
and stick to your decision. Resolve to give more time
to God: to meditate regularly every day, and on one
night each week to meditate for several hours, so that
you can feel your spiritual progress in God. Resolve
that you are going to practice Kriya Yoga regularly
and that you are going to control your appetites and
emotions. Be a master!
–Paramahansa Yogananda, “Man’s Eternal Quest”

If I don’t see you, remember I am working for
you in some other place. My seeing you all the time
will not necessarily help you. You will receive more
by meditating deeply and regularly. I am not here
only to help you in this life, but in the beyond also.
–Paramahansa Yogananda, Lecture

There is a vast difference between imagination
and Self-realization. Through your imagination you
may have subconscious dreams and visions of Christ
every day. But such experiences do not mean that you
are truly in touch with him. The real visitation of Jesus
is the communion with Christ Consciousness. If you
are in tune with that Christ, your whole life will change.
–Paramhansa Yogananda, “Self-Realization Magazine

May the Christmas spirit you feel not end with
today; rather may it be with you every night as you
meditate. Then in the silence of your own mind, as
you drive away all restless thoughts, Christ
Consciousness will come. If we all follow the spirit
of Jesus we shall surely experience every day his
presence within us.
–Paramahansa Yogananda, “Man’s Eternal Quest”

Read one letter, Alif, the only one,
The rest you can all forget.
Let thy spirit have a cleansing
No other study for you next.

Shah Abdul Latif

In the lives of saints and mystics of the East, the claim to have derived knowledge directly from God, without scholastic training or education, is a recurrent tale. It is said that as a boy Shah Latif was sent to learn the alphabet from Akhund Nur Mahomcd Bhatti, but he refused to proceed after the first letter, Ali], to the next letter (Bai), saying that there was nothing beyond’ Alif, the One or Unity: He was then withdrawn from the school and never got any further scholastic training. This story is to be taken with a grain of salt. Long afterwards, Shah said in the above verse that has become well known.

Silence

From the depths of silence the geyser of God’s bliss
shoots up unfailingly and flows over man’s being.
–Paramahansa Yogananda, “Sayings of Yogananda”

Absolute perfection is here and now, not in some future, near or far. The secret is in action – here and now. It is your behavior that blinds you to yourself. Disregard whatever you think yourself to be and act as if you were absolutely perfect – whatever your idea of perfection may be. All you need is courage
Nisargidatt Maharaj