The “Spirituality For Everyone” Course  Multimedia info

Chapter Sixteen

 

 

16   Chapter Sixteen: When Thy Will Be Done Becomes My Will Be Done   (Read the full chapter)

            

 

 

 

   

16a   Intro

             

 

 

 

   

16b   Spirituality and Worldly Desires

             

 

 

   

 

16b1   Clarifying what spirituality is by describing what it’s not

                

 

 

 

   

16b2  Using manifestation techniques

             

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

   

16b3   It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature

              

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

16b4   Are you really ready to drive this thing?

            

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

16c   Clarifying Your Intentions and Goals

            

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

16c1   Weeding your desires

                

 

 

Video Adjunct:

In this one-and-a-half minute clip, dear Buddy Baba shows what it feels like to run after desires all the time.

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

16c2   Asking for the highest

              

 

 

 

16c3   Accepting the inevitable

               

 

        

            

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

16d   The Supreme Surrender

              

 

 

Audio Adjunct:

Listen to Chapter 18 of the Glorious Bhagavad Gita Sung in English, titled, "The Yoga of Liberation by Renunciation" which describes the three-fold nature of actions done with or without attachment:

"Sacrifice, gift, austerity should not be relinquished, but done; sacrifice, gift, austerity are purifying to the wise. But even these works, Arjuna, should still be performed, though leaving attachment and the fruits; such is my best and certain conviction."

                    

 

 

Video Adjunct:

In this 6 1/2 minute video, I share a story from the Ashram of surrendering to a challenging time of long finger blistering hours playing an Indian mridung drum during a week of around-the-clock chanting sessions, and the sweet fruits of surrender that came right in the midst of my surrender to the chant.

 

 

 

 

Video Adjunct:

This song from Night Lotus Production's "Bhajans with English Translations" project was composed by a twentieth century devoted soul named Goswami Bindu Ji Maharaj. It describes the deep surrender that comes with intense devotion. "I have no idea where I am going; He is calling me and I am going...The only thing I know is that I am attaining the ocean of love. This isolated drop is being swept away."

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

   

16d1   The importance of divine guidance

                

 

 

Video Adjunct:

This music video is an example of some powerful divine guidance I received while writing the first edition of Spirituality For Dummies. I felt guided to include some of the powerful mantras I'd learned from my Guru, especially Om Namah Shivaya, which Muktananda would give out on small cards as people came up to greet him. An acquaintance who had lived at the same Ashram I'd lived in many years earlier gave me a strict talking to about how this mantra is to precious to share publicly, and we went back and forth with dueling stories supporting both sides of the issue. The process of writing a chapter every week for many months was already challenging enough, and I considered leaving the mantra out of the book. The next day, I turned on the TV to find a close-up of a man saying Om Namah Shivaya with a feverish anxiety. As the camera pulled out, I saw it was a scene from "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," and something bad was about to happen to the man. I wrote to share this encounter with the Ashram acquaintance, and said, "Look this is how most of the public has already been introduced to the mantra Om Namah Shivaya. We can do better."

The next day, I received a call asking me to edit the first music video of a somewhat known kirtan singer named Krishnadas. The project had already been filmed, would take a couple days to design and edit, and it was a rare paid gig that would bring some much needed funds, so I said, "Yes." What was the chant in this video? None other than Om Namah Shivaya. That divine guidance cinched the deal, and even inspired me to record a track of myself singing the mantra on the audio CD that came with the book. Here is the music video, a piece of which was included in a later documentary about Krishnadas's life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

16d2   Understanding to whom you’re surrendering

                

 

 

 

                

 

 

 

   

16d3   Welcoming “Thy Will Be Done”

                

 

 

 

 

   

16d4   Understanding that everything happens for the best

               

 

Video Adjunct:

Watch a powerful 1-minute video of Peace Pilgrim sharing her optimistic vision for the future of our world.

 

 

 

Video Adjunct:

When I need to remember to trust the plan and see the best in everything, I like to sing "Amazing Grace." This ten-minute video shares a rendition from the Sun Valley Opera House, with some Sanskrit mantras at the end to a slide show of nature's beauty. "Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come. It was grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home."

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

   

16e   Depending on Spirit