January 30, 2022

Sowing Seeds of Peace

Paula Whang-Ramos

"The only way to reap peace, joy, and compassion is to cultivate it now."
~Yogacharya Ellen Grace O'Brian, CSE Daily Inspiration 07/15/2011

Gardeners know that those plants they repeatedly attend to will grow. If we water and fertilize the weeds, the weeds will grow. If we water and fertilize the flowers, they will blossom and grow.

Similarly, Yogis know that the thoughts, words, and actions they repeatedly think, speak, and perform will develop as habits that influence the consciousness and quality of their lives. If we allow ourselves to be carried away in fear, impatience, judgment, and frustration, then our lives can become a flurry of these seemingly uncontrollable emotional reactions. Conversely, if we intentionally learn to call on our inner peace, joy, and compassion in the presence of pleasant and challenging situations, then those qualities will mature and become the ground of consciousness for the quality of our lives.

Our daily practice of meditation and spiritually conscious living in accordance with time-tested practices, such as Kriya Yoga, can help us remember, return, and be restored in the inner peace, joy, and compassion that indwells us all. We can offer these healing qualities as spiritual salve to our own lives now. We can let our own restorative remembrance of these qualities overflow from within us as a blessing to all life. Join us for weekly meditation and Bhagavad Gita study to return, remember, and live in the peace, joy, and compassion that is immune to all earth-life circumstances. All are welcome.

Meditate with us at CSE and at Blue Lotus Center. Consciously affirm this year as the one when we claim the courageous spiritual power, presence, and wisdom to realize our worthwhile dreams. Experience the inner radiance, peace, and delight that naturally arises from meditation. Study, meditate, and grow with others devoted to thriving in 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.

January 23, 2022

See Through Changing Conditions

Paula Whang-Ramos

"Do not be distracted by conditions. Remember that every situation is temporary, subject to change.

Learn to see through it all and rely on the Source beyond the appearance.”
~Yogacharya Ellen Grace O’Brian, CSE Daily Inspiration 12/09/2021

If there is one thing we have learned over the past 22 months, it is that eventually, all conditions change, right? Desirable conditions eventually change and become undesirable. Yikes. And then, undesirable situations temporarily improve, and we are happy again. Yay. In truth, it isn’t these changing circumstances that cause our happiness or our suffering. It is the mind’s habitual attachment to opinions, judgments, and emotional reactions to these changing conditions that influence our well-being in any given moment.

If you would like the integrity of your peace, happiness, and clarity to mature beyond the distracted mind’s habitual reactivity, then I encourage you to join us at CSE and BLC for meditation. The daily practice of meditation may not immediately change our life circumstances. It can, however, reduce our mental habit of settling for temporary relief and recurring fear as guideposts for our lives.

Meditation can teach us to unplug from the reactive, undisciplined mind. Instead, our daily practice can reveal the inner power we have to choose a deeper, more spiritually grounded path to guide the integrity and quality of our lives. We can learn to access and follow a deeper wisdom within us all that reveals the Source of peace, clarity, and happiness – even during challenging circumstances. But don’t take my word for it. Join us for the regular practice of meditation and experience the effects of inner freedom for yourself.

Meditate with us at CSE and at Blue Lotus Center. Consciously affirm this year as the one when we claim the courageous spiritual power, presence, and wisdom to realize our worthwhile dreams. Experience the inner radiance, peace, and delight that naturally arises from meditation. Study, meditate, and grow with others devoted to thriving in 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.

January 16, 2022

Foster Happiness And Well-Being

Paula Whang-Ramos

“Notice the quality of mind you are nurturing at this moment. That quality is the messenger of your life.
Now is the time to foster happiness and well-being.”
~Yogacharya Ellen Grace O’Brian, CSE Daily Inspiration, 05/30/2021

In our community, we have been recently blessed with a mix of sunny days and cloudy days. Beautiful sunny days call me outside for bike rides, long walks, and gardening. On cloudy days, I hear the mind say “Where did the sun go? I wish it would return.” Well, the truth is that the sun never left. It is still right where it has always been, shining its radiant light everywhere. The difference is that my ability to see the sun is obscured by the clouds.

I find our ability to experience happiness and well-being to be like my perception of the sun. When we only focus on life’s challenges, then we may be unable to experience the divine Wholeness ever-present behind cloudy minds that obscure our view of It. We may even falsely believe that soul happiness and well-being are not possible for us because we cannot see beyond our thoughts and emotions in the moment.

In those moments, I am so grateful for the philosophy and practices of Kriya Yoga, which help me turn my attention and awareness within. From this more expansive inner view, we can open into the direct experience of soul happiness and well-being ever-present within us. And the light of our soul wholeness can help illumine our way through cloudy life circumstances we face now.

Begin 2022 in meditation with us at CSE and at Blue Lotus Center. Consciously affirm this year as the one when we claim the courageous spiritual power, presence, and wisdom to realize our worthwhile dreams. Experience the inner radiance, peace, and delight that naturally arises from meditation. Study, meditate, and grow with others devoted to thriving in 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.

January 9, 2022

Say "Yes" To The Divine Call

Paula Whang-Ramos

"When we are receptive to life, it can more easily provide us with what we want or need.

Renounce thoughts of limitation. Maintain mental attitudes--and feelings--of freedom and abundance."
~Roy Eugene Davis, Living Consciously in God, pg. 39

Paramahansa Yogananda is a beloved Spiritual Teacher in the teaching tradition at CSE and BLC. He is best known for bringing the teachings of Kriya Yoga to the USA in 1920. January 5, 2022 was the 129th anniversary of Paramahansa Yogananda's birth. At BLC, we honored Yogananda by contemplating how his receptivity to life resulted in the transformation and consciousness of millions of Americans, including our own.

One hundred and one years ago, Yogananda said "yes" to the divine call to leave the comfort of his family, culture, language, work, and spiritual community in India. As a man of color in 1920, Yogananda arrived by himself, in the USA, where he experienced racial, cultural, financial, and language discrimination, along with many other challenges. And yet, Yogananda kept his spiritual agreement to live and to freely share the teachings of Meditation, Yoga, and Self- and God-realization with sincere seekers in this country.

Yogananda's commitment to remain receptive to life contributed to the realization of many Spiritual Teachers, including Mr. Roy Eugene Davis, and Mr. Davis' disciple, Yogacharya O'Brian. CSE, BLC, and all the CSE outreach affiliates exist and serve today, because one man, whom we never met, had the courage to open into life's receptivity and divine call. The far-reaching impact of Yogananda's consent to Life is a beautiful and powerful demonstration of Yoga.

Yoga is the realization of the essential Wholeness in which we all live and breathe and have our being. This Wholeness, called by many names, is not limited by time, space, language, culture, income, social status, or COVID. The impact of any teachings you received at CSE or BLC is living proof of the timeless divine power, presence, and wisdom of the Wholeness that Yogananda shared. As we consciously step into 2022, may we consider how we can be receptive to life's call to live, serve and thrive in the freedom and abundance of Wholeness. Thank you, beloved Yogananda. Happy Birthday.

Begin 2022 in meditation with us at CSE and at Blue Lotus Center. Consciously affirm this year as the one when we claim the courageous spiritual power, presence, and wisdom to realize our worthwhile dreams. Experience the inner radiance, peace, and delight that naturally arises from meditation. Study, meditate, and grow with others devoted to thriving in 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.

January 2, 2022

Living Our Worthwhile Dreams

Paula Whang-Ramos

"With the opening of the New Year, all the closed portals of limitations will be thrown open and

I shall move through them to vaster fields, where my worthwhile dreams of life will be fulfilled."

~Paramahansa Yogananda, Spiritual Diary January 1.

Wouldn't it be fabulous to begin 2022 in the vaster fields of our lives, where our worthwhile dreams of life are fulfilled? Imagine waking up each morning in conscious gratitude for all we already have in our lives to support our highest good. Imagine walking through the activity of our days, able to hear and follow the "still small voice within" that inspires our thoughts, words, and actions towards the peace, joy, and love that we all seek. And imagine holding ourselves and others in kind compassion during those moments when our limited thinking is in need of a course correction to return to the vaster fields of divine possibility in our lives.

Oh, I know, the mind may repeatedly say, "Given my life in COVID for the past 22 months, my worthwhile dreams feel more like unattainable illusions." In those vulnerable moments, it is important to remember that a recurring thought or a strong feeling about something, does not make it true. Instead, I encourage us to inwardly ask: How can I touch into the inner clarity, courage, and inspiration needed to stop living according to my reactive thoughts and emotions? How can I live from the inner peace, joy, and wisdom that I want in my life now? How can 2022 be the year that I realize my worthwhile dreams?

In this tradition of Kriya Yoga, our daily sitting meditation practice is the foundation in which we learn to redirect our attention and awareness within, to a more fulfilling life. Meditation can also teach us how to return to this higher way of living when we become mentally stressed and emotionally reactive to ever-changing circumstances. Our daily meditation practice can help us directly experience the power and presence of uplifting, innate soul qualities to guide us. Since these inner soul qualities are unaffected by COVID-19, its effects, and our reactions to them, we can inwardly access and live from a more fulfilling way of living right here, right now in 2022. Happy New Year!

Begin 2022 in meditation with us at CSE and at Blue Lotus Center. Consciously affirm this year as the one when we reclaim the courageous spiritual power, presence, and wisdom to realize our worthwhile dreams. Experience the inner radiance, peace, and delight that naturally arises from meditation. Study, meditate, and grow with others devoted to thriving in 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.

Inspirational Messages

“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

Meditation & Yoga Center:

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