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Talk: What Do You Rehearse?
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– Br. Shankara
July 7, 2019
Click for NOTES & QUOTES from the talk (PDF)
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July is a month for study of Karma Yoga, a spiritual path leading to the abandonment of selfishness. As a karma yogi, you practice offering your actions and their results, as well as your perceptions, thoughts, and feelings to the Divine Presence.
Even before fully knowing this Presence, you hold firmly to the belief that the Presence is within each person or other living being that you interact with or serve. Working and abiding in this spirit, you are increasingly able to release attachment to your activities and their results. This yields the freedom and contentment promised by Karma Yoga.
“Even a little practice of this yoga will save you from the terrible wheel of rebirth and death …” — Sri Krishna, Bhagavad Gita, Ch. 2
Spiritual practice allows you to observe your thoughts and feelings, your personal “inner reality.” As you learn to watch your thoughts, you realize that, subconsciously, you affirm again and again a particular version of reality. These affirmations are rehearsals of a “play” you believe in, and the roles you have learned to enact.
Yet, great spiritual teachers tell us that the play itself, and the characters you appear to be, are nothing more than fabrications of your mind.
For example, Sage Vasistha told Lord Rama: “The mind-stuff (citta) is the cause of the existence of all material objects. As long as there is citta, the three worlds (waking, dreaming, and dreamless sleep) also appear in one’s perception as real.” (Nectar of Supreme Knowledge, 4.9)
But, as Swami Vivekananda insisted, that which has been caused by your past and present thoughts and actions can be changed by new actions and different thoughts. You can, quite deliberately, rewrite your play!
For example, a Harvard University neuro-scientist, Jill Bolte Taylor, had a massive stroke that took her left-hemisphere mind completely “off-line.” Result: She discovered a right-hemisphere personality of which she’d been completely ignorant.
As Taylor worked for years to regain her left-brain functions, she learned: “Nothing external to me (has) the power to take away my peace of heart and mind. That (is) completely up to me. I may not be in total control of what happens to my life, but I certainly am in charge of how I choose to perceive my experience.” — from her book “My Stroke of Insight”
On Sunday morning, we will explore the meaning of these ideas, and how they integrate with the practice of Karma Yoga.
“There’s a wonder in the way we’re always free / to change the world by changing how we see …” — Cyndi Craven
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#828282″ divider_position=”bottom” _builder_version=”3.25.3″][/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.25.3″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” custom_margin=”30px||”]Note: There is silent meditation in the Chapel from 10:30-11am, before each Sunday’s talk. After the talk, devotees and friends meet in the Monastery from noon to 1:30pm, for tea, coffee, snacks and a continuation of our spiritual fellowship.
Spiritual talks and classes are open to the public and free of charge.[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_divider show_divider=”off” _builder_version=”3.25.3″][/et_pb_divider][et_pb_image src=”https://vedantaatlanta.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/rehearse.jpg” _builder_version=”3.25.4″ animation_style=”fade”][/et_pb_image][et_pb_sidebar area=”sidebar-1″ _builder_version=”3.16.1″][/et_pb_sidebar][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.25.3″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.25.3″ background_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0)” custom_padding=”0px||4px|||”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25.3″][et_pb_post_nav _builder_version=”3.25.4″][/et_pb_post_nav][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]