Isolation and Connection
A couple hundred years ago, the central valley of California was lush with life. It would be hard to find another place on the planet that was so teeming with life. It was a beautiful place to settle and thrive. The gold rush of the 1850s in California drew a lot of...
Spiritual Intention
Welcome! We are in the fourth day of our Transformational Training. When I was asked to say something towards the end of Dharmachakra today, initially, I had hesitation. Then, a flood of ideas and thoughts came in, mainly because this has been a very rich experience....
Struggle is the Essence of Life
Around the full moon in May 1959, Shrii Shrii Anandamurti famously said that “struggle is the essence of life.” He did not say this to glorify struggle, or just to give a positive spin on the challenges of life. Rather, was a statement made to provide a clear...
Black Elk and Neohumanism
Some of you may have read the book “When Black Elk Speaks.” It is a book that contains the transcriptions of conversations between anthropologist Joseph Meade with the great Sioux shaman Black Elk in the late 1930s. The book was one of the many influences on the...
Be Great
I recently wrote to a friend that I haven’t been in touch with for many years, though I had once been quite close with him and we [were] colleagues together, taking up some form of idealistic work. He wrote back right away, and in his greeting, said “Namaskar...
Health for Humanity
About a thousand years ago, a new approach to yoga was developed. This person, a yogi, whose name is mostly associated with it is Matsyendra. This name may be familiar to some of you because his name was used for naming a very famous yoga posture,...
The Ways of Dharma are Subtle
When I am in the role of a trainer or as an Acharya, I like that people have a clear understanding of philosophical concepts. Sometimes, I am very particular, and sometimes am quite particular in relation to fuzzy new-age thinking that I see. One of my...
Do Not Despair
A couple weeks ago, Claire sent me a link to an article, as she sometimes does. This article contained a graph that showed over the last 120 years of the frequency of what are called “Deaths of Despair.” [Graph shown below.] “Deaths of Despair” are the combination of...
Initiating A Neohumanistic Society
Talk by Ravi Logan Acharya Ravi Logan recalls his experience being initiated into yogic meditation in Seattle during the fall of 1970. He reflects on what initiation, or Diksha in Sanskrit, means as the beginning of a spiritual practice. He introduces the...
Climate Change: Meeting Our Planetary Crisis
“Humanity should unite in concerted care for the ecosystem upon which we all depend. Around the world Latin America and Asia have a much greater concern about climate change than does North America or China. We should remain vigilant in watching those vested interests who would sow the seeds of confusion in order to preserve their economic supremacy.”
Climate Change: Action In Service to Our Planet and its Ecosystem
“I don’t remember a summer like this. It has been in the 90’s (30’s Celsius) every day for the past month. That, and the Ohio humidity, make working in the garden enjoyable only in the early morning and evening this July. The heat has been oppressive. But today I am hoping that we will be blessed with an afternoon thunderstorm that will extinguish the heat and provide a good show of nature’s pyrotechnics: thunder and lightning.”
Passive and Active Meditation
“Through mantra, through visualization, or through various systematic processes of ideation…there is an active effort to concentrate the mind, to withdraw from the senses, and to turn the mind inwards in ideation upon the Great.”