Blue Lotus

“If anything disturbs your peace, practice having faith that divine grace is already actively at work restoring wholeness and well-being.

Then make any necessary adjustments in harmony with that insight.”
Yogacharya Ellen Grace O'Brian, Spiritual Director, Center for Spiritual Enlightenment

Inspirational Messages

Meditation & Yoga Center:

CSE south county meditation center

February 26, 2023

Live From Inner Peace

Paula Whang-Ramos

“When thoughts settle in meditation, we naturally experience inner peace. Be conscious of that experience and take it in.
Notice it and feel your awareness expand into it. You can take it with you wherever you go.
Here’s how: After meditating, take a few minutes to inwardly ‘gather up’ that peace and intend to share it with everyone you meet.”
~Yogacharya Ellen Grace O’Brian,
Living for the Sake of the Soul, p. 89.

In meditation, we can rest in the deep inner peace, clarity, and realization that even without knowing how, we know that all is well. This restorative experience can inspire us to return to our sitting practice. And, even as we benefit from this divine remembrance of our wholeness, it is important to remember that the purpose of meditation is not to have this incredible inner experience.

The purpose of meditation is to live from and to share this deep inner peace. Before we leave our meditation seat, we can intentionally envision interacting with ourselves, others and our life circumstances from the inner peace revealed in meditation. Then, throughout our day, we return and remain inwardly grounded in that inner peace as the guide to inspire the presence we bring to all of life. The more inner peace we live and share, the more easily we experience it in meditation. The more we experience inner peace in meditation, the more we have to share with all of life!

Join us at Blue Lotus Center onsite (Wednesday evenings only) and online (Tuesdays and Wednesdays). Experience a time of meditation, study, contemplation, and divine remembrance with others devoted to realizing and thriving in our innate peace, love, and wisdom. Contribute to the realization of peace in our minds, our hearts, our families, our community, and our world. Blue Lotus Meditation & Yoga Center welcomes sincere seekers from all backgrounds. Beginning and experienced participants from all traditions are welcome at all gatherings.

February 19, 2023

The Growing Edge of Love

Paula Whang-Ramos

“We are the growing edge of love in our world.”
~Yogacharya Ellen Grace O’Brian, 06/02/2019

When we look around the world today, the mind can easily find places where improvements could be made, right? More peace is needed in that country. More justice is needed in this neighborhood. More unity is needed amidst that group of people. We might even feel a bit powerless to try to impact change amidst larger systemic inequities. Thank goodness for Yoga.

In Yoga, we stop looking outside ourselves for solutions to life problems. Through daily meditation and other yogic practices, we learn to recognize and live from the Wholeness that flows from within us. This Wholeness is called by many different holy names in different cultures and spiritual traditions.

And, in my study of those traditions East and West, one name that is often used is “Love”. Even if we don’t identify with a specific spiritual tradition, unconditional, eternal Love is a quality that could bless us all. As individual expressions of divine Love, we have the power within us to be the peace, justice, and unity that we perceive to be lacking in the world today. Imagine if we all lived as the growing edge of Love – perhaps we could contribute to the consciousness of Wholeness and Love that is building right now.

Join us at Blue Lotus Center onsite (Wednesday evenings only) and online (Tuesdays and Wednesdays). Experience a time of meditation, study, contemplation, and divine remembrance with others devoted to realizing and thriving in our innate peace, love, and wisdom. Contribute to the realization of peace in our minds, our hearts, our families, our community, and our world. Blue Lotus Meditation & Yoga Center welcomes sincere seekers from all backgrounds. Beginning and experienced participants from all traditions are welcome at all gatherings.

February 12, 2023

Choose Peace

Paula Whang-Ramos

"What is required for us to experience a peaceful heart? Willingness is the key.”
~Yogacharya Ellen Grace O'Brian, CSE Daily Inspiration 09/03/2014

Yoga teachings tell us that peace is an unchanging indwelling quality of the soul. There is nothing that we can do, or that can be done to us, that will alter, reduce or eliminate our ever-abundant innate peace. Yoga teachings also reveal that for us to experience soul peace in our daily lives, we are responsible for choosing peace, again and again.

Throughout our day, instead of choosing to react from the fear-based mind, we learn to choose to peacefully respond to life. When we sit on the beach and watch the beautiful sunset, it is easy to choose to open into peace. And, we can take a breath into inner peace as we look for our misplaced cell phone. We can choose to listen into peaceful thoughts as we sit in a traffic jam. We can choose to be silent during circumstances that challenge us. And, when we forget and react unskillfully, we can stop, take a breath and choose to respond in peace instead.

Our daily meditation practice provides the direct experiential reminder that the inner peace we seek in our daily lives already resides within us. As the peace in our meditative hearts overflows into our daily consciousness, then our peace-inspired thoughts, words, actions, and interactions can serve as a blessing to our Selves and all we meet. For the highest good of all, may we be willing servants to our inner peace!

Join us at Blue Lotus Center onsite (Wednesday evenings only) and online (Tuesdays and Wednesdays). Experience a time of meditation, study, contemplation, and divine remembrance with others devoted to realizing and thriving in our innate peace, love, and wisdom. Contribute to the realization of peace in our minds, our hearts, our families, our community, and our world. Blue Lotus Meditation & Yoga Center welcomes sincere seekers from all backgrounds. Beginning and experienced participants from all traditions are welcome at all gatherings.

February 5, 2023

Divine Love Is Always Present

Paula Whang-Ramos

“Being fully alive is the willingness to respond to the soul’s call to live by love and not fear.”
~Yogacharya Ellen Grace O’Brian, CSE Daily Inspiration 02/03/2023

The heart of wisdom teachings in the East and the West reveals unconditional, timeless, fierce love as a fundamental quality of the Source of life. This Divine Love remains ever present during good times and during our most challenging changes. It is not diminished by life-altering losses that may scare us. When we are facing these changes, Divine Love can feel obscured by our grief. Where is this unconditional timeless love when we are too overcome with fear to find It?

Even when we cannot feel or inwardly access It, Divine Love remains ever present within and around us. It breathes life through us during breathless moments of our grief. It offers a quiet inspiration when we are overwhelmed with confusion. It offers silent hope through moments of great fear. Divine Love compassionately holds us and remains fully alive within us, until we can hear our soul call us to consciously live again, in Its love, inspiration, and hope.

Join us at Blue Lotus Center onsite (Wednesday evenings only) and online (Tuesdays and Wednesdays). Experience a time of meditation, study, contemplation, and divine remembrance with others devoted to realizing and thriving in our innate peace, love, and wisdom. Contribute to the realization of peace in our minds, our hearts, our families, our community, and our world. Blue Lotus Meditation & Yoga Center welcomes sincere seekers from all backgrounds. Beginning and experienced participants from all traditions are welcome at all gatherings.
