The Magic & Mysticism of Hinduism, Rev. Lea Alvarado, November 17, 2019

so good morning morning everybody it's a little toasty in here it's a little toasty midge hot can someone turn the air down Cathy lovely Cathy in the back would you mind running into town with more people it gets a little stuffy and we're closing the door to not be a distraction there so all right so this whole month we're talking about the golden thread of truth that runs through all religions and so I've been talking about different religions today we're talking about the magic and the mysticism of Hinduism yeah and so Hinduism should be a picture here that I just different pictures that I gathered Hinduism is reported to be the oldest religion on the planet Wow over 4000 years it has been in existence and it's actually if there's no founder it's a combination of philosophies and beliefs and cultures that all melded together to create Hinduism yeah yeah and Hinduism is such that they believe in one God people assume that they believe in many gods but there's actually not true there's one God Brahma and the ultimate source the ultimate reality there are gods and goddesses which are over 300 million of them they revere these goddesses but they all see them as faces of the one faces of the one yeah and one of the most popular ones is Ganesh the remover of obstacles I think most of us know who Ganesh is yeah yeah yoga and meditation came from Hinduism it is such a part of our culture is it not it is yeah they gifted us with that yeah yeah and so the wisdom of Hinduism came from many many places but one of their sacred texts is the Vedas and the Vedas has such condemn that we can apply to our lives today yeah and one of the the aspects of the Vedas is the Upanishads and Claudia had a lovely passage from the Upanishads the Upanishads that what it means is to sit near and so to sit near means to connect to the divine it means to recognize a divine presence that is always right there we just have to sit near it we have to connect to it and make a concerted effort to connect in the Upanishads it says this there is a secret dwelling the Lotus of the heart within this dwelling as a space and within that space is the fulfillment of our desires never fear that this inner treasure of all reality will wither and decay this knows no ageing when the body ages this knows no dying when the body dies so the wisdom of the Upanishads the wisdom of the Vedas it goes way beyond form it goes way beyond the conditions of the body it goes way beyond our mind it goes much deeper than that in the bhagavad-gita it says this the power of God is with you at all times through the activities of the mind senses breathing and emotions and is constantly doing all the work using you as a mere instrument so what this is saying is that we are instruments of the divine every single one of us are instruments beyond the flesh-and-blood beyond this bodysuit that we where we are instruments and so think about that for a moment but as you go through your life in your day-to-day life as you interact with your family as you come to this spiritual centre that indeed we are more we are more than simply this body suit we are much more than simply our flesh and blood we are instruments you know we work so hard on our spiritual path do we not we work so hard reading spiritual texts and attending spiritual things and meditating and doing all the things that we think we should do in order to achieve awakening but I say that we are already awake you would not be here if you weren't already awake you would not attend spiritual gatherings you would not read any spiritual texts if on some level you weren't already awake and so you know I've been talking these last three weeks about all these beautiful religions Buddhism Islam Hinduism in amazing practices and incredible sacred practices and devotion devotion and yet we don't need to memorize a sacred text we don't need to go to an ashram for a month and meditate in silence we don't need to chant chant mantras we can do all those things and certainly they connect us deeper to that divine essence but truly truly the most important thing that we can do in order to recognize that we are awake is to go within and in Hinduism that is what they do when it says to sits near that is what that means to connect in and I was talking to one of our practitioners this week about devotion and how devotion in these other philosophies in other parts of the world this is slightly different than how it is in our culture in the United States yes we don't fully understand what devotion is and when we hear the word devotion we associate it with perhaps the religion that we don't connect with that doesn't align with who we are o devotion that's that's not really that's not really us but really what devotion is is devotion is is devoting yourself to your practices devoting yourself to recognizing the truth that you are divine you are already that it's just remembering it it's just remembering that truth and yes the practices help of course they help to remind us of that yeah you know our mind is a powerful instrument as well boy our mind can draw us to that fact remind us of that truth but our mind can also pull us away yeah our mind is so powerful that it can push us away and it can get us caught up in these stories that we believe are true and they're not caught up in the lack and the limitation and I'm not doing enough spiritually or I need to do more in order to be awakened or I need to do more in order to be enlightened or I need to do more more and more and more and more and so then we're convinced that we are not who we need to be in order to be spiritual the bhagavad-gita what one of the things I love about the wisdom of the bhagavad-gita and and the Vedas and all of it is it so aligns with our teaching and so it says this one who has control over the mind is tranquil and heat and cold in pleasure and pain and an honor and dishonor and has ever steadfast with the supreme self so it's having control over the mind how do we do that is it possible to control the mind not an easy thing in Hinduism they believe in karma so what you do in this life you come back and the next life and perhaps experience something negative you might come back as a dung beetle if you think negative in this life and so they believe that right they believe that ours is a slightly different take on that law of cause and effect we have a slightly different take on what that means and and really it just means that whatever energy you are putting forth is what you get back that's as simple as what it is and so ernest holmes our founder says this all manifestations are effects and can be changed by changing the mental cause by changing the mental cause and so it's paying attention to our mind what are the thoughts that pull us away from our practices what are the thoughts that pull us away from our connection to the divine all of us have patterns thinking all of us have certain patterns and ways of thinking that draw us a wave and distract us from where we want to be all of us have that and so what are those patterns for you each one of us have that and they can be changed they can be altered but it just like going back to the word devotion it takes discipline it takes practice it takes commitment if we want something different we have to be willing to do something different in our life right yes Joshua in the way of mastery says what you will experience in your tomorrows is only effect of what you are choosing to drop into the field of your awareness as thoughts now so what we do today the patterns of thinking that we have impact what shows up tomorrow now this this principle though can be misunderstood because then in spiritual circles we start to think that everything I do is going to impact my tomorrow and I have to watch every word I say and after watch every thought I have be careful of that because that's not what this was intended to do this is intended to merely show you the impact and the effect of where we place our attention and our energy that's it and you know all minds are connected so if we are focused on something that is negative or something we're swirling in something that impacts all minds so we had a responsibility actually when you think about it we have a responsibility because our mind is connected to all Minds we are one we are one with Hall and we and so we have the power to choose in any moment Joshua says we're either in love or fear and when you think about it in your own life are you not in either love or fear we're either expressing we're an expression of love that is our natural Nick that's the nature of who we are or we are in fear and it's and it's and we get swept up in that and it's when we can catch ourselves as we start to spiral downwards and as soon as we catch it and we have the awareness of it we can bring ourselves back to sit near a wonderful guy by the name of Joe Dispenza I'm gonna share his story some of you may be familiar with his story I'm gonna back up a second here we'll get to that I'll get to that what happened oh dear okay sorry okay okay having issues here so Joe Dispenza years ago was in a really bad bicycle accident where he broke six of his vertebrae oh yeah she's pretty intense he was 23 years old so this is many many years ago I think he might be in his fifties or sixties now and he the doctors basically said you will you won't walk again we're gonna let's do this surgery to try to fix it and let's put these rods in your back and he said mmm no thanks I'm gonna I'm gonna check myself out of the hospital so he went home and he couldn't walk so he was face down on his bed for weeks and one of the things that he knew is that the power that made the body is the power that heals the body he knew this and so as he fate was face down in his bed every day for three hours every single day he reconstructed every single vertebrae took him three hours to get through every single those six vertebrae and he shares that in that time period he would often as he was working on the vertebra his mind would go to fear it would go to fear and he'd see himself in a wheelchair and then he'd bring himself back to the vertebra focus on the vertebra focus on the fir-tree focus on that knowing that the power that made the body heals the body and he kept bringing himself back in six weeks he no longer went to fear he no longer went to that place of seeing himself in the wheelchair and in nine and a half weeks he was completely healed he stood up he walked he was a the accident was a triathlon that he was in so in 12 weeks he began training again lifting weights again and he's never had pain in his back sense he healed himself through his thoughts is that powerful or what and we forget that we have this power we forget that we have access to this that it is within every single one of us he knew that he had this he believed that he had this now he went to fear his thoughts pulled him away to fear as it does for all of us and he kept coming back he kept coming back and we may have to do that a thousand times I don't know I mean it took him a lot to keep coming back but he did it so if he could do that what could we do in our own lives with something in your life that you would like to heal what's something in your life that you would like to transform or change or how would you like to reinvent yourself is there something in your life that you would like to have even a small change a small transformation what would that look like what are you willing to do to make that change happen many people ask us what our symbol means some explain really fast here this is basically the process of creation and so what the symbol means that top layer starts with an idea a divine idea something you want to change in your life something that you want to shift in your life that's that top layer it moves down into the second layer the second layers is is as if you're planting a seed and this is where you nurture it in this middle layer nurturing it now we can nurture us nurture positive in a positive way or we can nurture it in a negative way can't we so if you imagine a seed when we plant a seed in the ground if we don't water it and we don't make sure it has enough sunlight and we don't make sure that it's nurtured in the right way it's not really going to grow it's the same thing with a desire that we have in our life how do you want to nurture that desire are you nurturing it with love are you saying I know I can do this this is possible for my life or are you having a desire and then in that middle layer saying no I don't think this I don't think this is possible it's funny how we are as humans you might have one possible thought and then 10 thoughts that say we can't do it yeah right yeah so this is this is what happens in that middle layer how are we watering it how are we caring for it how are we nurturing it determines what gets manifested here this last layer is the form that it turns into based on what we have done to nurture it this is the pop process of creation very simplified version of that yeah so if we want to change something in our life and we want to manifest something in our life it's important to pay attention to the patterns of our thoughts to pay attention to what are those things that are pulling us away and to recognize that that divine power that is within every single one of us wants us to have an extraordinary life do you want an extraordinary life who wants an extraordinary life some of you didn't raise your hands you're like yeah okay very good hey okay love that yes yeah you know so we just the in Hinduism they talked about this principle called moksha and moksha is the end of suffering its liberation and what it is is about letting go of attachments it's letting go of these thoughts that are there it's never going to shut down by the way right the thoughts are never could stop but we always have control over whether or not we allow those thoughts to carry us and push us away or bring us back to Center so moksha is the possibility of liberation and it is possible for all of us but it does take devotion it does take bringing us back it does take seeing that vision of that like as Joe Dispenza saw the wheelchair bring myself back to focusing on my vertebra so whatever that is for you have that desire hold that vision of what you want in your life and know that it is possible it is absolutely possible and you know the feeling state it Jay just said this earlier that earnest home said change our thinking change your life but really it's change your feelings change your life because our feelings are the most powerful thing we can do when there's something that we desire in our life yes our thoughts are the first thing but it's also feeling it as if it's already so feeling it as if it's already so I love this quote Joe depent Joe Dispenza said this teach your body emotionally what it would feel like to believe in this way to be empowered to be moved by your own greatness to be invincible to have courage to be in love with life to feel unlimited to live as if your prayers aren't already answered imagine if we walk all of us walked around and be hey as if our prayers were already answered so bringing to mind something in your life right now that you desire more than anything and imagining it is if it were already done already done and feel it in your body feel it in your life feel it as if it's right here right now and if you did that every single day even just once a day imagine the difference it could make in terms of how you felt in terms of the the how how your life would unfold and so we indeed are here instruments of the divine our minds are connected we do have this responsibility to shift and to work on shifting our own thoughts because as I shift mine it shifts the collective it impacts everybody else not just here in this community outside this community in the world we do have that power do you get that we absolutely have that and so let's say our affirmation together again I am an instrument of the divine let's just close your eyes and just feel that I am an instrument of the divine and so I want to end I want to end with a greeting that is a Hindu greeting and you all know this a namaste and so if you all want to join me in that placing your palms in the center of your chest namaste is I bow to the divine in you and so right now just bring to mind someone you'd like to bow to someone that is dear in your heart right now someone who is hurting right now someone who is having a challenge right now and just bowing in great reverence and honor and love to that beautiful being that you see before you in your mind's eye and so just moving into prayer I asked the practitioners to stand in high consciousness and so right here right now we just feel the essence of spirit we are standing near we are sitting near that presence more and more and more we recognize that presence we feel that presence we stand in that presence we sit in that presence and we feel such gratitude for the opportunity to be reminded that all minds are connected that that our patterns of thinking once we become aware of them that we have the power to change them we can move from fear to love we have the power to choose in any moment and so I am knowing that this is so I am knowing that we are recognizing more and more that we are the divinity that God is that we are that divine expression and it moves in and through and around and for us it is who we are we are already awake we need to own this and take responsibility for this and love that this is who we are and so I am knowing that this I'm declaring this and affirming this for each one of us and so I'm knowing that it was as we go out into our weeks we are recognizing these patterns of thinking that we are recognizing our divinity that we are remembering this and taking time to check in taking time to connect in and so I just say thank you thank you God for this time thank you God for for this moment thank you God for this breath and so we just let this go and we allow it to be and so it is namaste I bow to you I see the deepest light the best in you you can feel it if you reach down inside let it grow let it grow we're all one heart one mine mistake Wow Lia that was special that was wonderful alright everybody one more time let's give a hand to chrysalis here they come hello Scituate yes Rachel wrote it didn't you yeah okay yeah [Music] [Music] they feel like you just won't ride [Music] [Music] the show [Music] when you open up to the lungs I we'll be [Music] not your true [Music] [Music] to keep you strong [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] Herbie wanted to stand up - you guys are so amazing thank you for me for being here thank you thank you thank you your voices are extraordinary yeah thank you so this is time and our service for our offerings and just thank you thank you in advance for all that you give as it allows us to do what we do so thank you so if you want to place your gift on your heart whether that's financial means or energy we take that to place it on your heart and just let's say our affirmation together this perfect gift is spirit in form circulating and blessing all it touches freely I give and joyously I receive and so it is [Music] take me home over on me constantly that's what it means give me all you got come on Oh Oh you've gotta say it one more time Oh sing that line again here we go Oh comes to me you need comes to us indeed that we are blessed and it is overflowing and multiplied thank you thank you God and so it is just a little bit a little bit we should be happy read my affirmation okay it's kind of hard to follow that so if you are here for the first time today please know that we welcome you with open hearts open hands thank you for

Channel: CSL BoulderValley

Views: 63,615

Keywords: Science of Mind, New Thought

Id: iykn9UJmV0E

Length: 33min 25sec (2005 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 17 2019