In December, I was delighted to be interviewed by Gowri Goli and Gayathri Pandey. The interview was used for a segment on a TV Asia broadcast.
Thank you to Gowri for sending us the interview video, and allowing us to use it. It was just put on my YouTube channel in four parts.
Comments and likes on the videos are welcome!
In case you missed them, there have been many slideshows and articles posted recently.
You are encouraged to share, like and comment.
Important note about LinkedIn:
When you go to my LinkedIn Page, you must be logged in to LinkedIn to see all my articles via the "See more" link under "Published by Michael".
Medium.com
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ElephantJournal.com
All these planets will be in a row (pretty much along a straight line) in the early morning sky starting Jan. 20 for about a month.
The easiest way to see them is to look to the southeast before sunrise. Locate Venus, the very bright planet to the southeast. Then locate Jupiter to the southwest higher in the sky than Venus. Mercury will be to the left (east) of Venus and a bit lower in the sky. Saturn and Mars will be between Venus and Jupiter. Mercury is always rather close to the sun, so after Mercury rises, the sun will rise shortly after.
From a Jyotish perspective, I do not believe this is very significant, but it will be a beautiful sight.
I’m excited to report that Elephant Journal just published my article, "What it Really Means to Live in Harmony with Nature".
Elephant Journal is an online magazine with articles about yoga, organics, sustainability, conscious consumerism, enlightened education, the contemplative arts, and more.
My article is currently featured on the home page of the Elephant Journal website as a Staff Pick, so we hope to get a lot of views. Your comments on the article will greatly help engagement.
Note: You can also help by liking, sharing and commenting on my Facebook post and Twitter Tweet about the article.
Thank you!
Everyone has their own fixed idea: Christians, Jews, Hindus, New Agers, agnostics, and atheists including denominations within each group. So has the term “God” lost its meaning? Does it make sense for each little caucus to uniquely use the term “God” in their own way? Or could it be that by deepening our understanding, we can free humanity from years of bias, indoctrination, and superstition? Or has humanity not yet embraced the nature of life and existence adequately to take on such a task? Can unity in the midst of diversity exists among religions? Through deeper understanding, can apparently contradictory perspectives on religion be understood as different angles of approach to the same one thing? The same one “God”?
Hopefully there are at least some people who are willing to refine and evolve their understanding of the word “God”. You would think people would need a better reason to believe what they believe than that they happen to be born into one religious perspective or another. However, that is rarely the case. Generally most everyone on the planet considers themselves to be one of the very fortunate few born into the right perspective on religion and God.
So what can we do about this? How do we go about attaining a deeper understanding of life and existence? Firstly, I would suggest taking a deeper look. Take time to think. Time to ponder. Time to reflect. Time to sort things out in a manner that makes sense.
The rational, the spiritual, the diverse religions, the diverse cultures need not be at odds. Nor does the world need one religion with one universal perspective. What is needed is an understanding that does not bury our heads in the sand, but rather integrates all aspects of life, all religions, all fields of study, all cultures, all people, all perspectives, all that is. Such an understanding that puts all the pieces of the puzzle of life together does indeed exist, but we need to look deeper than our indoctrinations.
I’m pleased to share that Entrepreneur.com just published another of my articles: “How to Say ‘No’ the Right Way and, Yes, There Is a Right Way”.
You are encouraged to help spread the word by sharing my social media posts about the article. The links below take you directly to my posts. It is best to use the below links rather than sharing from the article itself.
Enjoy!
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Every drop of rain eventually finds its way back to the ocean. Some drops rush down the mountain stream and quickly return. Some drops get stuck in a spinning whirlpool for a long time. Some go fast for a while and then get stuck in a whirlpool… back and forth from one situation to the other. If you watch water tumble down a mountain stream, you will see it all.
Everyone eventually gets enlightened. Everything gravitates back to Oneness. Progress is measured not in years but in lifetimes. The longer the delay, the more the suffering.
The closer you get the sweeter your life.
Venus and Moon are very close together now and can be seen in the early morning sky with Saturn between them. Moon moves quickly so if you want to take a look, do so tomorrow morning. Of course, Saturn and Venus move more slowly so you can see them close to one and other for a while. Saturn moves more slowly than Venus so right now though Venus is higher than Saturn in the morning sky, next week Venus will be lower than Saturn.
Also, Jupiter will start moving retrograde around 11 p.m eastern time tonight, Thursday (Jan 7). A planet is very powerful around the time it is making that shift.
You can see Jupiter tomorrow morning if/when you go outside to see Venus, Saturn, and the Moon. Jupiter will be a bit to the west of straight up over your head. Jupiter is bright (though not as bright as Venus) so it should be easy to see.
I was asked the following question regarding the previous blog, “Free Will and Predetermination are One: The Experience“:
I wonder, when first experiencing the gap, does one swing back and forth between the doer and the witness quickly and involuntarily?
To which I respond:
Yes indeed. At first before enlightenment, the witness is experienced briefly from time to time. Particularly at first, the gap between the witness and the doer is huge. In time, they coexist with no gap between the two. Desirelessness and desire, sequentiality of time and no time, free will and predetermination, efforting and effortlessness, control and no control… all these dichotomies merge (resolve, become the same thing). In the resolution of paradox they become one (unification). As is said, you and God are One. It is as if you live at the edge (mergence, junction, unification) between polar opposites… fully in the Absolute and fully in the relative at the same time.
There is so much confusion regarding “desirelessness”, for example. Desire in life does not cease in enlightenment. Just consider the story of so many saints, even Lord Rama. They have many desires. Yet they were simultaneously fully awake to the level within which is already one with everything and so can desire nothing.
Initially in early enlightenment, a gap between the two is experienced. In time, they coexist with no gap between the two. They are experienced as the same thing… two sides of the same one coin.
Early, unintegrated glimpses of enlightenment can enrapture one so much with the Absolute that for a time people may feel overwhelmed by that aspect of their being that is free from desire. It is also easy to make a long standing mood or attitude of freedom from desire. In time one moves past the overwhelm and confusion. Integration of paradoxes takes place and life becomes more natural.
On Dec. 20 I wrote a blog about Free Will vs. Predetermination that you may wish to reread before proceeding. In this blog I illustrate what it is like to experience it, not as a theory, but in the here and now.
Consider the notion of ‘effort’. At first glance effort can seem to be the assertion of free will. You use free will to make something happen. Such effort is an attempt to overcome karma. Such effort is tiring. It is a struggle.
On the other hand, such effort is also predetermined karma. All action resides at the interface between free will and karma. The question becomes your relationship with that interface, that edge. When the edge is ridden, free will and karma are experienced as one. Effort and effortlessness become the same thing. You are doing and not doing at the same time.
At first, this is experienced as ‘witnessing’. You are doing, but it is as if you are watching the doing happen. There is a separation, a gap, between you, the doer, and you, the witness. It is sometimes described as if there is a movie camera in your head watching everything happen.
However, in time, the dichotomy of the doer and the witness are experienced as one. Your effort just happens while you are fully engaged in the doing as coming from your own free will. At the same time, you carry your actions while nature carries you. It is all the flow of nature… superfluid. Karma and free will are experienced as the same thing simultaneously and without contradiction.
When that dichotomy is experienced as one, other contradictory notions also merge as one… for example; past, present, and future. The sequentiality and simultaneity of time merge as the same thing. Paradoxes resolve within you as a moment to moment experience.
The following points may assist reflection:
The Truth about Religion and Flatlining
