Inspirational Messages

October 31, 2021

Remember with Love

Paula Whang-Ramos

"Things are what they are. What they are to us is up to us."
~Yogacharya Ellen Grace O'Brian, CSE Daily Inspiration 10/21/2014

Divine Mother Nature reminds us that Autumn is a time of great transitions. We experience less daylight and more darkness. Animals prepare to withdraw into hibernation. Plant life sheds that which is no longer needed, and weather changes call us to remain inside. It is a time of endings and going within. After 19 months of COVID captivity in our homes, our ego minds may perceive this time as a negative, undesirable season.

From a spiritual perspective, we can honor this season as a sacred time to consciously turn within and commune in the Source of life that eternally flows through all life. In this inner space, we join in Oneness as we grieve and let go of that which has ended, as we listen, receive, and are held in the divine power, presence, and love that never dies.

All are welcome this Wednesday at BLC online for our special gathering to Remember in Love, our loved ones who have passed from this earth realm. Join us for a time of meditation, inspirational teachings, and prayer into the Source of unconditional eternal divine love. Offer the name of your beloved into our Circle of Remembrance. Let yourself be held in the inner peace and unconditional love that is stronger than loss.

Meditate and study Yoga with us at Blue Lotus Center. Study, grow, and celebrate with others devoted to thriving in peace, love, and wholeness. Make this the year that we affirm and skillfully live in peace - in our minds, our hearts, our families, our community, and our world. Blue Lotus Meditation & Yoga Center welcomes sincere seekers from all backgrounds.

October 24, 2021

The Practice of Letting Go

Paula Whang-Ramos

“Detachment is our ability to maintain a spiritual perspective based on the truth of our being.
This is remaining even-minded, the ability to be nonreactive to people and circumstances,

and see with the eyes of love and of wisdom.”
~Yogacharya Ellen Grace O’Brian, CSE Daily Inspiration 07/13/2014

When I was new to the spiritual path, I remember mistakenly thinking that detachment was the practice of letting go of those activities and circumstances that made me feel uncomfortable. I wrongly thought this spiritual practice cultivated even-mindedness by giving me permission to do only that which felt easy and safe for my judging mind. However, as a spiritual practice, detachment is not the relinquishment of outer life circumstances and agreements, even those that we don't like. At its core, detachment may not even involve any outward changes at all.

As a spiritual practice, detachment involves changing our inner perspective, not our outer circumstance. It is not a call to avoid our lives. Rather, detachment is an inner call to stop living our lives as a reaction to the mind's judgment of every circumstance. Detachment guides us to dive more deeply within, where the unconditional love and wisdom of our essential Wholeness resides. And from this deeper inner truth of what we are, we again emerge and experience our life circumstances from the deeper integrity of our soul, and not the superficial reactivity of the mind.

We can also learn to rely on our meditation practice as our daily companion that helps us live from our spiritual core, as we develop and mature minds that are more consciously responsive to soul wisdom and less reactive to passing emotions and thoughts. Because the truth is that we may be called to remain in difficult life circumstances. And our practice of detachment and meditation can help us be less reactive and more spiritually present to the divine love and wisdom waiting to inwardly guide us through these interesting times.

Meditate and study Yoga with us at Blue Lotus Center. Study, grow, and celebrate with others devoted to thriving in peace, love, and wholeness. Make this the year that we affirm and skillfully live in peace - in our minds, our hearts, our families, our community, and our world. Blue Lotus Meditation & Yoga Center welcomes sincere seekers from all backgrounds.

October 17, 2021

A Living Prayer

Paula Whang-Ramos

"May I serve. Make me a bridge between East and West, between generations of enlightened teachers in this tradition
who came before and those yet to come. Let me be a lamp on the path for seekers of God."
~Ellen Grace O'Brian, 1981

Sometimes we pray a prayer. Sometimes the prayer prays itself through us. In my own experience, for a prayer to have power, I have to remember it, hold space in my life for it, listen into it, follow it, and allow it to change me and grow through me into a higher good beyond my mind's wildest imagination.

When I reflect on Yogacharya O'Brian's spiritual journey, I believe that forty years ago, she had a prayer prayed through her, when her Guru, Mr. Roy Eugene Davis, accepted her as a disciple on this path of Kriya Yoga. It was a big prayer to learn, live, and freely share teachings of the eternal Wholeness that loves, inspires, and enlivens everything we are and experience. Forty years later, Yogacharya O'Brian continues to share this prayer in selfless service to the Holy One within us all.

In divine grace, we experience this living prayer in action as the worldwide ministry headquartered at the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment, in San Jose CA, and the teachings Yogacharya freely offers on her website and around the world. We also experience the abundance of Yogacharya's prayer in CSE's thriving affiliate groups and organizations. Blue Lotus Center exists as a living blessing in the stream of Yogacharya's prayer. If you have ever benefited from any BLC service, then you have directly experienced the blessing of the prayer that lives through Yogacharya today.

Join us online or live at CSE this morning as we offer our love and gratitude in celebration of Yogacharya's 40 years of service and devotion to Self- and God-realization for sincere seekers of all backgrounds and traditions. Join Yogacharya and our beloved extended spiritual family at CSE as we step into a year-long stream dedicated to our own pilgrimage into the Divine that indwells us all. Listen, live into and allow the divine prayer of the eternal Wholeness within you to be heard and expressed through you - in this lifetime!

Meditate and study Yoga with us at Blue Lotus Center. Study, grow, and celebrate with others devoted to thriving in peace, love, and wholeness. Make this the year that we affirm and skillfully live in peace - in our minds, our hearts, our families, our community, and our world. Blue Lotus Meditation & Yoga Center welcomes sincere seekers from all backgrounds.

October 10, 2021

Turn Towards Truth

Paula Whang-Ramos

"Spiritually conscious living involves turning—turning away from appearances to rely on what is true,
turning away from limiting beliefs and turning toward freedom, turning away from fear and turning toward love.
It takes boldness to turn and embrace our divine identity but when we do, we are given a new life.
Turning toward Truth is the direct path; no preparation is needed."
~Yogacharya Ellen Grace O'Brian, CSE Daily Inspiration 04/26/2012

This month, as we dive into Chapter 2 of The Bhagavad Gita, we see Arjuna, who represents us - the seeking soul, beginning to turn towards Krishna, who symbolizes our indwelling divine Truth. It would be nice if all it took to keep our commitment to live in divine Truth was for us to say we will do so, and it is done. It would be nice, but it would not be true. Because as we know from our own direct experience, this turning away from old unworthy habits, and turning toward that which serves our highest good, is a process, not an event.

In the Gita, we witness Arjuna's (i.e., our own) repeated yearning for freedom as he turns towards Krishna/Truth. We also witness Arjuna's repeated retreat to his old beliefs and stories of limitation. Fortunately, even more powerful than Arjuna's fear is Krishna/Truth's unconditional clarity in knowing our true integrity as spiritual beings, unconfined by our earth life circumstances and stories. Truth sees our essential wholeness even when we forget. And, in great compassion, patience, and fierce love, Truth waits for us to turn towards It once again. When we have the courage to turn towards this inner path, then Truth illumines the way into the freedom and love that we are and that we deserve in this lifetime.

Meditate and study Yoga with us at Blue Lotus Center. Study, grow, and celebrate with others devoted to thriving in peace, love, and wholeness. Make this the year that we affirm and skillfully live in peace - in our minds, our hearts, our families, our community, and our world. Blue Lotus Meditation & Yoga Center welcomes sincere seekers from all backgrounds.

October 3, 2021

Pray From The Soul

Paula Whang-Ramos

"Prayers are answered in infinite ways."
~Yogacharya Ellen Grace O'Brian, CSE Daily Inspiration, 09/27/2021

When we pray from the mind, we often ask for a desired outcome. We believe that the realization of that outcome will increase happiness and peace or alleviate suffering. And if that specific outcome is realized, it might provide these desired conditions, at least temporarily. But, most of us do not yearn for temporary peace and happiness, or the alleviation of suffering for just a little while. Most of us want permanent peace, unshakable happiness, and the wisdom to avoid or minimize suffering, right?

When we pray from the soul, we pray to shift our inner consciousness. Instead of trying to narrow our options to a specific circumstantial outcome, we pray to open and align our consciousness in the divine Source of peace and happiness that is not weakened or changed by circumstances that scare the mind. We pray to illumine our inner vision and deep listening into the infinite opportunities of divine grace and guidance that constantly flow through our lives.

In our daily practice of meditation, we can dive deeply into the wholeness of the soul, beyond the limitations of the mind. In meditation, we listen and wait for the inner shift from the mind into the heart. We may not hear a specific earthly solution to our problem. However, from this inner expansion of our consciousness, we can open into divine possibilities that wait to be realized by us, and offer us peace, courage, clarity, and hope through the most difficult life circumstances.

Meditate and study Yoga with us at Blue Lotus Center. Study, grow, and celebrate with others devoted to thriving in peace, love, and wholeness. Make this the year that we affirm and skillfully live in peace - in our minds, our hearts, our families, our community, and our world. Blue Lotus Meditation & Yoga Center welcomes sincere seekers from all backgrounds.

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

Meditation & Yoga Center:

CSE south county meditation center