Connectedness...

Good Morning!

       A few days ago I began a sadhana on the beach. I needed some inspiration not only for meditation but as a poetess as well. Each day for the next week I will spend an hour in the morning sitting on the beach meditating and contemplating. Of course I will have pencil and paper in hand to jot down any inspiring thoughts that should come my way. Yesterday after my return home this little piece of brevity came to me. 

  

      While meditating, I became aware of how the waves rolling up on the shore and then back out to sea 

sounded much like our breath while inhaling and exhaling. As I sat with my eyes closed noticing how my breath rolled back and forth in time with the waves, I also became acutely aware of the silence in between each crash of wave. For just a hair's breath did it occur and yet I was drawn to it. At the onset of meditation I was keenly aware of not only the waves but the sounds of laughter from nearby children playing in the water, an airplane preparing for departure off in the distance and the sound of birds. At first these sounds seemed separate and distinct, but after a while it was as if they were happening inside me, or me inside them. As if I had become one with the sound and I was no longer just me, but I was the wave, the children.

     “Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but must always participate in the swell of the ocean, so we can never experience life by ourselves, but must always share the experience of life that takes place all around us.” ~ Albert Schweitzer

 This experience showed me, on a deeper level, how truly connected we are with everything around us.

Jai Maa,
Nirvani

What is a Mystic? (Caroline Myss)

  
 This is a video clip of Caroline Myss, the famed Western author of 'Sacred Contracts'. I just had to share. I read a great deal and watch many uplifting and inspiring video pieces online and often I come across something that just shakes me to the core. Well, this is one of those pieces. Caroline could not have described what makes a person a mystic and not just a spiritual seeker. I know that it is the driving force of every soul on earth to become a mystic. I am not speaking of the Ego-mind, but the SOUL to reawaken to its Divine Love. My purpose in life is to become a mystic...I may not achieve this in one lifetime, but I will do all that I can to bring me closer. Once you have tasted even a little bit of spiritual mysticism you can never go back to the ignorance of not knowing. 

Love&Light,
Nirvani

Sexual Energy is Sacred

"To act upon the whim of every thought or belief that comes to our minds, is not really the healthiest approach. People need to ask more questions if they are confused about something - even if they are sure of something they should ask too, especially if there isn’t any real proof to back it up. To take down the dark forces of the artificial matrix - we have to keep our consciousness above it, while also being willing to be pro-active in creating change on the physical level. This is an individual and personal calling and sometimes it just means mastering the world of lower forces by not being a product of their influence. 

 Psychic abilities and intuition take humility and openness with neutrality, so the minute the Ego gets involved or the emotional body and its triggers - it can keep us from the clear seeing and throw us into negative reaction. This is about Unity Consciousness and being our own personal detectives when it comes to how we sort out information, while also being willing to go on a deep inner voyage to be sure that the body, mind and spirit are all working together in harmony and that union within is achieved. This allows the clarity we long for and discernment with wisdom, which keeps us from getting stuck in projections or assumptions. Once we feel we got a grip on it, then react - but not in fear, in empowerment and recognition of our divine power to change the game. Get out of the gossip and hype whether its positive or negative and get into the TRUTH, by finding it on your own terms, with integrity. 

Sexual energy is Sacred, and it is not treated as such in our culture and this is a deep programing that doesn’t serve anyone or anything. It gets further exacerbated by new age deceptions. To allow it to lure a person in based on it triggering a lower chakra, rather than it being based on the heart or soul connection, is a form of energy vampirism and manipulation, which even if consensual, is destructive. It is encouraged in our society so it takes a lot for many to really see through it and how damaging it is for the collective and our own Awakening and soul evolution. It feeds dark occult technologies that are trying to use our vital spiritual essence against us, which connects to our kundalini and how we use this power. If we don’t allow it to flow and be guided by our higher self, it becomes thwarted and activates the lower reptilian energy that is all about conquest, domination, seduction, addiction and lower based pleasure. 

It is a free-will Universe, so do what you will, but pay attention, because this same force that we all have, has the power to transform the World and shouldn’t be blocked by the conditioning’s and social engineering of this system we live in, that doesn’t care about Mother Earth, or God/ess Sacred Union… When we connect to this raw power without interference, we become the divine embodiment of our true self. The dark forces of deception with all of its hooks that prey upon the lost, wants to step in to be the ultimate power, using all it can to break us down to the lesser self who thinks only in terms of instant gratification and Ego power. We are much better than that!"

Author Unknown

I cannot take credit for this piece and am not sure who wrote it, but came across it on Tumblr and thought it was well worth sharing. I have seen in various places on the internet and off so many young and older people alike who are in a desperate search for something. Most are oblivious to what it is that they are seeking, the soul is ALWAYS striving to find its way back to Source. The ego is tangled up in the many SAMSKARAS (life forces) that bind us from life to life, until we can untangle ourselves from them we will not be truly free. Many of these 'life forces' tend to keep us stuck in the lower chakras, most especially the Sacrel Chakra or sex chakra, not allowing us to experience the SATCHITANANDA (being, consciousness, bliss) which is the utimate destination of the soul. We become absorbed in body pleasure, which can essentially bind us. Working to 'unstick' the chakras takes a great amount of self-discipline, surrendering ego and channeling the energies of these samskaras into more healthy and productive outlets. Remember, the ego is out for its own gain, at the expense of the body and soul.

Jai Maa,

Nirvani

The Wild Heart

The Wild Heart

Effeminate one,

Equivocate no more.

Stop undermining

Your purpose.

That pretentious ego bitch

Has been stealing

Your identity.

De-domesticize the

Feline, sitting perched

And pretty, kept in

Ornate patriarchal cages.

You hold the key

Against your

Counterfeit heart.

Dig a little deeper.

The feral roots are there.

A woman's liberation

Is not found in deprivation.

The wild heart

Knows no boundaries.

Nirvani Teasley, 2013

Ganesh for my New Car!

  Upon my return from a trip to visit family in Washington State, my dear husband surprised me with a new red hot Kia Soul. I was so thrilled to finally get my own car and as a christening gift for the car he ordered me this beautiful handmade Ganesh to hang over my rear view mirror. It was made by my friend Amanda, originally meant to be a necklace, but the minute I saw it I knew it was meant for my car. I invoke Ganesha whenever I travel for safety and to remove all obstacles that keep me from the Beloved! I am most blessed!

Om Gam!

Nirvani

Being Hindu is to stop being fanatical....

Being Hindu is to stop being fanatical…it is being cosmopolitical

Advaita Vedanta of Sri Shankaracharya ( circa 780 AD – 820 AD), Shaivism with its many branches,Vaishnavite systems with their deism, the Tantric system with its own inner esoteric logic, the neo-Vedanta of the Ramakrishna Order and the lived daily lives of countless wo/men with their sacred rituals have come to mean for us Hinduism. Some of us live by the philosophy of Sri Ramanujacharya (circa 1017 AD – 1137 AD); some of us try to integrate within us the teachings of Patanjali (circa 2nd BC) while again some among us would want to live by the dictum of Sage Vashishtha. We are a Faith community which has no one language; our practitioners may appear unrecognizable to each other, leave alone to the devotees of other religions. We have no one book to live by; we accept no one centralized source of doctrines. In truth, we have only our own inner loci of control to lead us to God. Our concept of the universe has been mistakenly confused with the philosophy of pandeism (sic). In fact, we are a community evolving with the times. Our concept of dharma does not mean only a specific cognitive space or an area of discourse which separates our lives into little-boxes and relegates the idea of the holy to the realm of what is commonly understood by spirituality. Our religion is a lived religion which sees natural ambition for earning wealth, having sex within marriage, and having fulfilling careers to be integral to self-actualization. Thus, Hinduism is a religion which is eminently practical and does not concern itself too much with the life to come. It is enough to enjoy and live this present life to the full. It is only within Hinduism will one find an equal stature being given to the householder and the renunciate. Both can and do attain God. In all other religions of the world, the renunciate is compulsorily seen as superior to the layperson. In all probability the apaurusheya Upanishads and the Vedas relate the lived-experience of non-celibate happily wedded seers, both women and men. Those who seek Hinduism for magic, for personal peace, for some sort of harmony and certainty, seek in vain. Their quest is misplaced. Hindus know that to be spiritual is to be uncertain, to desire holiness often immature, to seek magic and miracles may be non-scientific and betray a need to find quick-fix solutions to real problems which need long working out. To seek peace in a world torn by strife is foolishness and moreover, selfish. How can a spiritual person seek inaction and solipsism when countless around her or him are illiterate, hungry and live with no proper sanitation? Hinduism rejects these desires as been unworthy of the human being. This world is not meant to be a seclusion: it is meant to be one of action, and relentless self-appraisal: am I fighting the good fight? Am I living my swadharma?

(Read the rest of the editorial here : Lectio Divina )


This was a very eye-opening article and I feel that it has much merit, at least for me. Would love to know any thoughts on it!

Jai Maa,
Nirvani

Happy Holi...

Happy Holi!!

Blessings to all on this day of celebration. May your lives be full of colorful joy!

Child's Play

Child's Play

Ascending into Heaven’s arms

Shadows bend and darkness never harms

The void, where nothingness is bliss

Dominate mind ceases to exist

Riding upon the primordial planes

Silence constrains and awareness reigns

Rebirth of the transcendent soul

No longer under ego’s control

Dissolving into supernal happiness

No sin to confess, no law to transgress

Comfort in this skin, nothing to adjust

Surrendering Self to absolute trust

Absorbing love in recesses of heart

The place where passion starts and will depart

Submit will, give entirety of existence away

Bliss is found in child’s play

Jennifer Adams Teasley ©2013

She is a Goddess

~ Artist Rafael Espitia Perea

‎"A goddess is a woman who emerges from deep within herself. She is a woman who has honestly explored her darkness and learned to celebrate her light. She is a woman who is able to fall in love with the magnificent possibilities within her. She is a woman who knows of the magic and mysterious places inside her, the sacred places that can nurture her soul and make her whole. She is a woman who radiates light. She is magnetic. She walks into a room and male and female alike feel her presence. She has power and softness at the same time. She has powerful sexual energy that’s not dependent on physical looks. She has a body that she adores and it shows by the way she comfortably lives and moves in it. She cherishes beauty, light and love. She is a mother to all children. She flows with life in effortless grace. She can heal with a look or a touch of the hand. She is fiercely sensual and fearlessly erotic and engages in sex as her way to share with another in touching the divine. She is compassion and wisdom. She is seeker of Truth and cares deeply about something bigger than herself. She is a woman who knows that her purpose in life is to reach higher and rule with love. She is woman in love with love. She knows that joy is her destiny and by embracing it and sharing it with others, wounds are healed. She is a woman who has come to know that her partner is as tender, lost, and frightened as she has been at times. She has come to understand the scars of the boy in him and knows that together, love can be the relief, the healing of their wounds. She is a woman who can accept herself as she is. She can accept another as they are. She is able to forgive her mistakes and not feel threatened by another’s even when attacked. She is a woman who can ask for help when she needs it or give help when asked. She respects boundaries, hers and another’s. She can see God in another’s eyes. She can see God in her own. She can see God in every life situation. She is woman who takes responsibility for everything she creates in her life. She is a woman who is totally supportive and giving. She is a Goddess."

(Courtesy: Conscious Connections Now )

Sri Maa

The whole and part together make up real Perfection. 

~ Sri Anandamayi Ma

Life is the Practice

   
   
I was just having a conversation with my daughter on the phone. We were talking about spiritual practice. She was telling me how she needs to start back to church. I shared with her my own feelings about this subject. A spiritual teacher that I follow, Shambhavi Saraswati, a Tantrika in the Kashmiri Shaivism tradition, gave a wonderful satsang on how everything in life is a spiritual practice, from doing dishes to sitting in meditation. We tend to forget that everything we do is devotion to God, to our true Self. The key is remembering. Being present in every moment. When my heart is open I see the synchronicity in many things. Nothing is coincidental. Even the most mundane activities can teach us if we are aware. Life is so simple, we complicate it. We cause so much of our own suffering.

Letting go of always striving for something is the key to real inner piece. I am learning to be more gentle with myself and letting go of guilt is like unloading an elephant from off my back. It is healthy to have regret, it is unhealthy to harbor guilt. Shambhavi says that simple consistent ritual in life has such lasting results. On the spiritual path, it is best to take baby steps and we will find in time our steps will get bigger and bigger. Remember, life is the practice. Approach everything you engage in with reverence. From washing dishes to performing japa.

Jai Maa,
Nirvani

Seeker (ghazal)

Seeker (ghazal)

I seek night and day, for just a glimpse of that bliss,

To refresh my depleted soul, to end its weariness with that bliss.

I call near and far, with only echoes for my friends.

My spirit mellows, fatigued of unconsciousness of that bliss.

I shed tears, hollowed out spheres wanting to be filled with what?

It evades me, time and again, the insatiable kiss of that bliss.

I touched its flighty wings once and screamed ecstatic silence.

I fell delirious into its open arms and still I was dismissed by that bliss.

To have tasted of the rapture, but never keep is Jennifer's madness.

And in death, with only a whisper on lips of the awareness of that bliss.

Jennifer Adams Teasley©2013

The Cosmic Poet

Becoming

Becoming

Love is an ocean without bounds.

What river does not empty into this sea?

Despite obstacles barring the heart,

surrender comes ’round eventually.

The soul, like a river, flows

into the limitless ocean of bliss,

becomes one with the ocean

then Love becomes This.

Jennifer Adams Teasley

©2013

Alphabet Mantra

Alphabet Mantra

Like the all in the oneness,

Like the branch and the vine

Like the call and the answer

Like the drink and the wine

Like the earth and the heavens

Like the forest and trees

Like the gate and the pathway

Like the hawk and the breeze

Like the iris and petals

Like the jewel and the mine

Like the known and the knowing

Like the laugh and the line

Like moonlight and darkness

Like nowhere and near

Like the oak and the acorn

Like pain and the tear

Like the quest and the seeker

Like rain and the flower

Like the sea and the islands

Like time and the hour

Like union and yearning

Like the vision and view

Like waves and the water

So I am to you.

So I am to you, Love

And you are to me

We dwell in each other

Like salt in the sea.

O alleluia, o alleluia

O alleluia, o alleluia.

©2001 Jan Phillips

An old friend made this video a while back and I listen to it now and again...It is a beautiful song and the imagery just adds to the beauty. We are all interconnected. Isn't that amazing to ponder?....Enjoy!

Jai Ma!

Nirvani

Habits

Habits

Karmic echoes 

spread wide like arms

on a limitless ocean,

fragments of lives

lived, another time

other places,

 firmly embossed on

souls in need of

catharsis, to

remain, till

these bents

no longer

bind 

Jennifer Adams Teasley 

©2013

    I've been thinking a great deal lately about habist, how they become so ingrained in us like deep roots taking hold so firmly they become entrenched and almost immovable. I have many of those kinds of habits...from outward daily routines to deepest thought processes. I realize that the older I get the more difficult it is to break habits, that bind me down like lead weights, making me feel almost helpless to overcome them. It has only been through very intense consistent sadhana that I can even begin to touch them. Japa mantra has a cleansing effect like nothing else, but I still struggle to make chanting a habit, because of the habit of not being consistent...It can be quite frustrating. I do understand though, that my soul is forever trying to find its way back to its Source and so I continue the uphill battle, and though it hurts, the pain constantly brings more awareness.

Jai Maa,

Nirvani

Meditation

I came to you today

sat in lotus, listening

for the gentle whisper

of your presence.

I'd come here to this place

so many times before,

fought the chaos

of an unruly mind, hoping

just once, for the faintest

glimmer, the tiniest spark

of recognition.

I'd chant my Om 

so reverently, a sacred prayer

to you, willing it out

into the ether, then silent

I would await your reply.

And though you'd never answer,

or so it would seem,

I'd feel you watching, 

the observer, making sure

that in the silence, I would

know somehow, that I was in

a holy communion 

with my Self.

Jennifer Adams Teasley

Am I Love?

Do I feel deeply a sincere love for all beings around me,
or am I making some kind of drama of love to confuse others? 
Do I live the life of actual love or do I make a show of love
and use the word love like a professional, an expert, to win the                      friendship and favor of others?
Do I have love or am I love?
Am I alive or am I life?
Am I conscious or am I consciousness?
Am I blissful or am I bliss?
Am I searching for ultimate reality or am I ultimate reality?

Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati


I was listening to a podcast this morning from Manorama, who teaches Sanskrit and Yoga Studies and she spoke these words from her Guruji and it struck me with great force. I wrote them down and read them over and over again. I actually felt overwhelmed by tears. Frankly, these are questions I had not directly thought of and applied to my life. I have decided to make these words my motto for the 2013 year and will place them where I can see them  and will ask myself these questions every day of this year. These are questions that we should all ponder and reflect upon as we meditate each day. It is not enough to speak of love, we must be love....I know very few human beings in my life who actually live as if they are love itself, including myself. This is my New Year's resolution, to strive everyday to become Love, what I am.

Jai Maa,
Nirvani

Words from Mundaka Upanishad

"As from a blazing fire, thousands of sparks of fire fly out, so these various beings you see in the world all spring forth from Brahman and go back to Him again. Pure, higher than the highest, He has no body, no breath, no mind; He is inside and outside everything. Yet, from Brahman have come your life, your mind, eyes, ears, hands, feet, space and air, light and water, and the very earth itself. It is He who binds all these together.
About Him, they recite this poem:

'Fire is His head, His eyes are the sun and moon;
His ears, the directions -- north, south, east and west;
His breath is the wind, the Vedas his voice;
Under his feet the earth has sprung up,
And all things know Him as their innermost Self.'

"The man who knows this secret, hidden in the cave of the heart, breaks open, here and now, the knot of ignorance.

Mind, sharpened by worship and meditation, will be the arrow. Fixing it on the bow, with full concentration, draw back and hit the target, the Indestructible Brahman. There is a sacred word -- OM -- which is the bow; your own self is the arrow and Brahman is the target. Without trembling, hit the mark, and like the arrow, lose yourself in It! Then all the knots of the heart are broken, all doubts disappear and all actions trail away when He is realized, who is the farthest away of the far away, the nearest of the near, the light of lights."

Mundaka Upanishad

(Shared from one of my favorite facebook pages: Veda Knowledge)

Jai Maa,

Nirvani

The Human Spirit!

Thanks to Fellow Officers, Newtown Police Don't Have to Work on Christmas

The holidays have been rough for the Newtown Police Department, which is why officers from across Connecticut joining forces, so that not a single Newtown officer has to work on Christmas Day. The plan has been kept on the down low for the past few days, since the various police departments are making the effort not for the press but as a gesture of solidarity with their fellow officers. After whispers of the touching gesture from local law enforcement emerged on Twitter over the weekend, however, the Newtown Police Department confirmed the news in an interview with The Atlantic Wire on Monday. "They've been actually non-stop with their aid. It's pretty amazing," said Newtown police spokesperson Sergeant Steve Santucci said of his fellow Connecticut officers. "And tomorrow, they'll be at our assistance so that Newtown [officers] can be home with their families.".....

 read further at  The Atlantic Wire

This is truly heartwarming and worth sharing! Everyday we see so much of the human spirit and how glorious it is!!! It is acts like this that bring us closer to our true 'Self'' Thank you for such a wonderful example! 

Blessings to all!

Nirvani

My Kismet

John William Waterhouse

My Kismet

‘Oh what webs we weave’

Iconic words of yesteryear come to mind

Only to realize that it is I who have been deceived

Unwittingly, self-contriving my own destiny

Left me spinning in a loop of unending pain

Mixed with joy and a tad bit of bliss

A karmic cocktail imprinted on my consciousness

The causatum of thought and action

Runs deeper than my mere puny grasping intelligence

My kismet ascertained

Or so it would seem, until my soul whispered to me

‘Find your true Self and get off this train

Of perpetual death and rebirth

For you are but a drop in the ocean of Source’

And so began my journey of Self-Realization

Jennifer Adams Teasley ©2012