Hinduism: Week 2
Summary: Sunday, September 20-Friday, September 25, 2015
The word advaita is loosely translated as “having no duality,” implying that the proper or spiritual way of understanding things is outside the realm of comparison or judgment. (Sunday)
Karma, rightly understood, creates responsible and self-actualized people instead of fear-based people. (Monday)
Morally speaking, the illusion of our separateness makes it hard for us to seek the common good. (Tuesday)
The Hindu sources clearly say contradictory things, but they are each contributing their waters to a pool of wisdom that we can swim inside of and thus learn to honestly struggle with the conflict itself—which can be quite broadening, deepening, and enlightening. (Wednesday)
How can we do “pure action”? Only by gradually detaching from all the fruits of action and doing everything purely for the love of God, Lord Krishna teaches. (Thursday)
“A person is what his deep desire is. It is our deepest desire in this life that shapes the life to come. So let us direct our deepest desire to realize the Self.” —The Chandogya Upanishad, Chapter 3, 14:1 (Friday)
Practice: Darshan and Namaste
In the Hindu tradition, darshan (or darsana) is to behold the Divine and to allow yourself to be fully seen. Many Hindus visit temples not to see God, but to let God gaze upon them—and then to join God’s seeing which is always unconditional acceptance and compassion.
I invite you to spend several minutes with one you love—a human or perhaps a beloved dog—looking into their eyes. Without speaking, simply mirror to each other love and respect through your gaze. During the silence, allow the source of love within you to well up and flow from you. Receive the love flowing from the one gazing at you. It is all one love. Witness the Divine Presence in both self and the other.
Bring your experience of darshan to a close by placing your palms together at your chest, bowing, and speaking “Namaste.” (Namaste is a familiar Indian greeting which means “I bow to you.”) Or you may prefer to say, “The Christ in me sees the Christ in you.”
Bring this loving gaze and an inner stance of humility and recognition to all you encounter today.
Gateway to Silence:
The Christ in me sees the Christ in you. Namaste.
For further study:
Bhagavad Gita (translated by either Stephen Mitchell or Eknath Easwaran)
Raimundo Panikkar, Christophany: The Fullness of Man
Wayne Teasdale, Bede Griffiths: An Introduction to His Interspiritual Thought
