This is it. Three simple words, with so many layers of potential meanings behind them. This weekend my boys and I watched This Is It, the documentary film depicting Michael Jackson’s rehearsals for the absolutely amazing show that he was scheduled to open in London. At a press conference full of beloved fans (who could not stop screaming in excitement), he said, “This is it. This is the final curtain call. See you in July.” Sadly, Michael Jackson died two weeks before that first concert.

After a decade’s absence from the stage, Michael Jackson, a single parent, said that it was a good time to do his final tour because his kids were old enough to appreciate it, and he was still young enough to do it. At 50 years old, he sang and danced just like he did when I was in the eighth grade. As I listened to his great old songs, I was filled with nostalgia for what was, but I also saw him from a new perspective. Viewing him from my training as a raja yogini, I saw right into the heart of him as a spiritual being. My vision changed from seeing him as a famous pop star, to seeing him as a profound spiritual teacher. 

Like all great spiritual teachers, Michael Jackson’s message was Love, and he delivered it with such tenderness and kindness. Throughout the rehearsals, as he worked with the musicians and dancers, he spoke in a very gentle voice, often saying, “Do it with the love… with the love… L.O.V.E., Love…” Involved in every aspect of the production, from casting to directing to lighting to sound to design, his brilliance shined through, and the film shows a true genius at work. At one point, Michael Jackson stood in a circle with all the cast and crew, giving them sweet encouragement. He said that they were all family and that it was all for love.

This Is It would likely have been the most spectacular concert experience the world had ever known, complete with fireworks, pyro-technology, 3D films, extraordinary costuming, and much more. Michael Jackson had created a show that would thrill his fans like never before, and within that potent entertainment experience, he intended to deliver a powerful message: This Is It. We all have to help heal this earth. If we don’t make some changes now, within 4 years the environmental devastation will be irreversible.

Michael Jackson planned to make this plea for the environment with his characteristic boldness through a 3D film in which a beautiful young girl is playing with butterflies in the lush green forest. She falls asleep and awakes to the horror of her paradise burning all around her. As a bulldozer approaches, she rushes to save the last green plant, while tears stream down her cheeks. Right at the point where the bulldozer almost crushes her, Michael Jackson was going to jump out of the screen with her, and then an actual bulldozer was going to come on the stage towards them! A man was going to get out of the bulldozer, to show that it is not the machines that are destroying the earth, but rather it is the human beings who run the machines.

As a true spiritual teacher, Michael Jackson intended to show people that the human race is sleeping and we need to WAKE UP! He was going to bring this message live to a million people at 50 sold-out shows. I sobbed as I thought of what a tragedy it is that he died before offering those shows, but then I searched for the positive, and realized that maybe now even more people will get his message through watching the documentary film, This Is It.

In the tradition of his past shows, he planned to end the concerts with the song “Man In The Mirror.”  I don’t remember if I really understood that song’s words when I was a teenager, but now as a 40-year-old yogini, I get them in the context of Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings. Michael Jackson sang, “I’m starting with the man in the mirror. I’m asking him to change his ways. No message could’ve been any clearer. If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make that change.” Likewise, Gandhi-ji said we have to BE the change that we wish to see in the world.

When we go within and change ourselves, those changes do ripple out and affect the beings around us. So how do we change ourselves? One of the most effective ways to change ourselves is through regular, daily spiritual practices. Mahatma Gandhi definitely knew the importance of meditation and other spiritual practices. Throughout all of his political activities, he took the time to lead morning and evening prayer services each day. People of all faiths, and even atheists, attended these gatherings. Meditation was a key aspect to Gandhi’s success in the world.

In the Introduction to MK Gandhi’s Book of Prayers, Michael N. Nagler writes: “There is a tendency to think that meditation and action are opposites, that one chooses between one way of life or the other. But as the Bhagavad Gita insists, meditation and selfless action are inseparable. They are opposite sides of the same coin, as complementary as breathing in and breathing out. They not only do not exclude each other, they need each other. By reaching normally untapped inner resources, one can unleash the energy needed to make major changes in one’s self and others, and the wisdom to guide that energy. Meditation enables one to act without the contaminant of selfish attachment. That applies with particular force when the action in question happens to be a revolution. Far from being a distraction, then, the devotional practices of the ashram were the very stuff of revolution. For Gandhi there was no distinction whatever between the social purpose of the community – to raise India and in the process shake off her colonial chains – and the spiritual purpose which has always been the center of ashram life – to raise the consciousness of individuals by shaking off their egocentric chains.” (Book of Prayers, by Mohandas K. Gandhi, Berkeley Hills Books, Berkeley, CA, 1999.)

In order to help the environment thrive on this sacred earth, we need to raise the consciousness of the human species. This begins by each one of us dedicating ourselves to raising our own consciousness. We can speed up the process by committing ourselves to doing daily spiritual practices. In my new book, Radiance Rising: Spiritual Practices for Daily Living, I describe basic spiritual practices that anyone – of any faith – can apply to their own life journey. (This book will be going to the printer very soon and pre-orders are now discounted on this website’s store.) In this easy-to-read pocketbook, I stress the importance of daily spiritual practices, especially cultivating the witness and sitting meditation.

Cultivating the Witness is an essential part of getting to know ourselves. By objectively witnessing all parts of ourselves, we learn to allow and accept everything that we are. We learn to love ourselves unconditionally. Gradually, as we let go of our false coverings, we become who we truly are: spiritual beings who are part of one pure love energy, the “L.O.V.E.” that Michael Jackson so often referred to.

We can practice cultivating the witness during our daily lives and also when we are sitting in meditation. While sitting still, we silently observe our thoughts, our emotions, our bodily sensations, and our breath. When we sit still regularly, the energy needed to change ourselves spontaneously arises. After meditating daily for a while, we can look in the mirror and be grateful for the transformations that are occurring within our beings.

This is it. This is the only moment we have. Regular, daily meditation is more important now than ever. May we each heed the call to look in the mirror and make that change. May all beings everywhere be uplifted by the rising consciousness created through our daily sitting meditation practices.

As more and more people dedicate themselves to daily meditation practice, I bet Michael Jackson will be smiling upon us from some distant star. Thanks for the teachings, MJ. This is it.

May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Image "Near the centre" by Eddi 07, CC license.

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As the first signs of spring appear, like the precious little violets reaching up through the grass in my yard, there is still a winter chill in the air. This morning we have sunshine in Ashland, and I am thinking of all the sunny, cheerful things that warm my heart. Like hearing my Grandma’s voice. Every time I call her, across several thousand miles, I get to hear her say, “Thank you for calling. This was a bright spot in my day.”

What are the bright spots in your days? What cheers you? What enlivens you and warms your heart? In wintertime, we all reach for warmth, but in truth, we need warmth in every season.

Once my dear teacher Basil (who passed away in July, 2009), was talking about fear vibrations, and he advised us to ask those fear vibrations what they need. He said that the answer is nearly always warmth. Coming together as a community brings us warmth and calms our limbic systems. Connecting with others breaks the illusion of separation. Doing spiritual practices with others breaks the anxiety-producing sense of being isolated.

In my memoir, The Rita Lila: A Western Yogini’s Journey to Bliss, I share this quote by Basil: “In this time of dissolving form, in this declining empire, ask yourself, ‘What am I called to do?’ and listen to your inner guidance. There is a lot of anxiety out there in the Collective, but if you take in nourishment (friends, food, practices, prayers), and listen for guidance, then you will be able to navigate through – no matter what happens. All of the information in this age produces anxiety that is both contagious and crippling… As yogis and yoginis, it is our responsibility to continually calm ourselves so that we not only lessen our personal anxieties, but we also lessen the amount of anxiety that we contribute to the Collective Anxiety.”

This article is a continuation of my last two blog posts, “The Mind Becomes That Which It Dwells Upon.” and “Bliss and Grief: My Two Lives.” In those entries, I wrote about how happiness is a choice. No matter what is happening, we have to continually choose to put our attention on things that expand us.

When we feel contracted, one way to practice putting our attention on things that expand us is through the simple, yet powerful, Freeze Frame technique developed by the HeartMath Institute. The following is copied from their website:

This 1-minute, 5-step technique, intended to be used when one is feeling stressed or out of balance, involves the following abbreviated steps:

1. Recognize the stressful feeling, and Freeze-Frame it (take a time out).

2. Make a sincere effort to shift your focus away from the racing mind or disturbed emotions to the area around your heart.

3. Recall a positive, fun feeling or time and attempt to re-experience it.

4. Using your intuition, common sense, and sincerity, ask your heart what a more efficient response to the situation would be, one that would minimize future stress.

5. Listen to what your heart says in answer to your question.

For more information on this technique, click here on Freeze Frame.

My favorite part of that exercise is number 3: recalling a positive and fun feeling or time and attempting to re-experience it. If we catch ourselves going into stress mode quickly enough, then shifting our attention toward experiencing a positive feeling in the heart can actually stop the activation of the survival brain state. Take a moment to recall a few times when you felt happy. Attempt to re-experience a time when you had a lot of fun. Then, the next time you feel a stressful reaction coming on, try this Freeze Frame technique and see what happens.

I experience loving feelings in my heart when I recall myself hugging my Guru Amma or sitting in my Grandma’s kitchen. When I think of all the things that bring me warmth, my Grandma’s kitchen is at the top of the list. It is small and cozy, with bright yellow walls and shelves holding spider plants, teapot collections, and glowing candles. Sitting at her kitchen table, listening to her tell stories, I am filled with the cheery warmth that she emanates.

Imagining myself there with my Grandma helps me to think cheerful thoughts like she does. Without knowing anything about ancient Indian sutras, she clearly understands that the mind becomes that which it dwells upon, as she consciously puts her attention upon things that expand her mind and heart. Full of spunk and enthusiasm, as she tells the funny stories from her life, her kitchen fills with the energy of her positive love.

As I’m writing this, another kitchen comes to mind. It was the summer of 2006, and I was staying in the home of my teacher Basil and his beloved partner Luna, on the island of Hawai’i. Ten of us had gathered there for a weeklong spiritual retreat. One afternoon a young man in the group offered to make me a piece of toast. Such a simple offering, there in that simple kitchen, but the magnitude of how it affected my heart sent me into a few hours of deep crying. Back on the mainland, I was a single mama who did all the cooking, and no one ever offered to make me a piece of toast. My heart was so full of gratitude that I just couldn’t stop crying!

Later, after the sobbing subsided, Basil dubbed the incident my “Maha kitchen kriya.” In Sanskrit, “Maha” means Great and “kriya” means movement that purifies. We both laughed, and he gave me the following prediction (which has thus far been true): “On your path of opening your heart, you are going to have many more meltdowns. Just relax and let them go through you.”

Regular, daily spiritual practices help me to relax and let the meltdowns go through me. The most important practice, which I describe in my new book, Radiance Rising: Spiritual Practices for Daily Living, is Cultivating the Witness. The more I practice witnessing all of myself – all of the contractions and all of the expansions – the more I am able to accept all of myself. This self-acceptance leads to incredible self-love. When we truly love ourselves, no matter what state we are in, then we can truly love others as well. That is the whole point of doing spiritual practices: to become kinder, more loving human beings.

Becoming kinder, more loving human beings is a gradual journey, but we can speed it up by committing ourselves to doing daily practices that expand our minds and hearts. Last summer I attended a retreat with my Guru Ammachi, and she gave a really potent teaching about the importance of raising our consciousness. I transcribe it here from my notes:

“The mind’s natural tendency is to flow downwards like water. The mind is not in our control – negative tendencies pull it down, like water goes down. Conversely, Consciousness moves upwards like fire. When we do things to uplift our consciousness, then the mind goes upward. Fire is always going up. With fire, we can heat water, and the steam goes up. So even water (which usually goes down) will go up, with fire. Fire equals Awareness. So we should be constantly raising our Awareness, our Consciousness, with satsangs, with books, with whatever reminds us of the Truth – whatever keeps our minds tuned to the Highest Light.”

The Sanskrit word “satsang” means being in the company of others sharing spiritual teachings and practices. I attend satsangs, kirtans (call-and-response group chantings), and group meditations any chance I get. Those communal events warm me and enrich the spiritual practices that I do daily in order to continually expand my mind and heart. While doing dishes alone in my sunny kitchen, I cultivate the witness part of my mind. I ask myself, ‘What do I need to do next to keep my heart open?’

May you also tune in to your inner being each day, and may it lead you to the warm radiance of your heart.

May all beings everywhere know the warmth of Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Photo of crystal reflecting yellow light in kitchen by Teja Shankara.

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A long, long, long time ago, in ancient India, some wise being said, “The mind becomes that which it dwells upon.” Through the ages that sutra has been passed down from yogi to yogi, all the way into this present age, when my dear teacher Basil (who passed away in July, 2009), learned it and passed it on to me. Despite my many meltdowns, Basil saw clearly that I am in a relentless process of opening my heart, so he advised me (again and again) to keep my attention on the highest state of consciousness.

The mind becomes that which it dwells upon. If we focus on our problems, we become our problems. We have a choice in where we put our attention, and wherever we place our attention, our energies follow. Energies follow thoughts. So if we place our attention on negative thought patterns, then our energies will feed those negative patterns. Conversely, if we put our attention on constructive, positive thought patterns, then our energies will feed those positive patterns.

A friend recently sent me an article on relationships by Abraham Hicks. The following two sentences really struck me: “I have reached for thoughts that give me relief. And I have relieved myself all the way into my full connection of who I really am.” We do have a choice in which thoughts we focus our attention upon.

This blog post is a continuation from my last blog article, “Bliss and Grief: My Two Lives.” In that entry, I wrote: “When I get stuck in grief, no matter how bad the pain feels, I keep saying to myself, “There I am feeling grief again. This too shall shift.” I remind myself to keep putting my attention on things that expand me, and to hold onto my intention to be happy and open to all of life. When we are contracted – no matter how bad the pain feels – it is really important that we continue to hold our intention to keep opening our hearts.”

In order to keep our hearts open through all of life’s ups and downs, we have to learn to place our attention on things that expand us. The intention to be expanded is a choice. The intention to be happy is also a choice. Once we choose happiness, then we have to learn the skill of being happy. Happiness is a life skill that can be learned, practiced, and cultivated. Our thoughts largely (if not entirely) determine our level of happiness. Thus, watching our thoughts is one of the most important spiritual practices.

In my new book, Radiance Rising: Spiritual Practices for Daily Living, I describe the spiritual practice of Cultivating the Witness. We can cultivate the witness part of our minds during meditation practice and also during our daily activities. The witness consciousness is simply that part of our minds that objectively watches everything we are. When we practice witnessing our thoughts, we get to intimately know our thought patterns, and then we can practice focusing our attention on the positive thought patterns.

This practice gradually re-trains our minds to be more careful about what they think! This is important when you consider that the mind becomes that which it dwells upon. Our thoughts create our realities. If we want to be happy in this reality, then we have to choose constructive, positive thoughts.

Since this is a gradual process, it is important to be accepting of everything that we witness within our minds. If we cultivate a lot of self-acceptance and self-love, then our minds will be more open to changing.

It can be helpful to first identify what things expand you. These might include activities, people, spiritual practices, time in nature, and so on. You can even write out a list to refer to when you are not feeling expanded. We have to consciously turn our attention toward those things, again and again and again, even when we feel despair or depression. If one thing doesn’t uplift us, then we try another thing, until suddenly we pop out of the funk and back into the happiness.

This week I witnessed a depressed state pass through my being. After a few days of trying several things which did not work, I sat down to do a 45-minute chanting practice that I do on Fridays (the 1,000 Names of the Divine Mother practice I learned from Ammachi), and during that chanting I experienced some heat moving around in different parts of my body. After the practice I ate some good, dark organic chocolate, and then I called a friend and expressed some things that had been upsetting me. As I talked, it felt as though the energies generated by the chanting (and by the chocolate) allowed an energetic fire to send the words out of my throat. After expressing my truth, the depressed state lifted and I felt blissful for the rest of the day.

That day was yesterday, and it happened to be Shiva Ratri, which is the most auspicious day of the year for honoring the Hindu deity, Lord Shiva. In the Hindu pantheon of gods and goddesses, there are thousands of different names and forms, but they are actually all aspects of the One Absolute Reality, which people in the West call God. Lord Shiva represents the universal aspect of destruction, but whenever something dies, then something else can be created, so Shiva is not just about destruction. He is about letting go of attachments that make us miserable, so we can exist happily in a creative, non-attached state.

This ability to exist happily in a creative, non-attached state is within each of us. We don’t have to wait until we die to experience the bliss of non-attachment. Rather, we can choose to witness our thoughts and let go of the attachment-based thoughts that cause us pain. We can choose to focus our attention on thoughts that bring us relief.

Tony Burroughs says it well in The Intenders Handbook: “The Intenders of the Highest Good are steadily raising our level of consciousness by keeping a closer watch on all of our thoughts. We’re learning to tame the negative thoughts and take our own power back. We’re choosing which thoughts we desire to put our attention on by envisioning only positive outcomes and turning the undesired thoughts around in mid-air, before they gain momentum.” (The Intenders Handbook by Tony Burroughs, Dolphin Press, Revised 2007 Edition.)

Take a moment to consider what thoughts bring you relief. As you practice turning your attention toward the positive thoughts that bring relief, keep in mind that changing your thought patterns is a gradual process. Be patient and gentle with yourself as you witness all the thoughts going through your mind. Accept and allow all the thoughts, and then gradually choose which thoughts to focus your attention upon.

The mind becomes that which it dwells upon. May we all choose to focus our minds on positive thoughts that bring us happiness.

May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Photo of crystal reflecting orange light in kitchen by Teja Shankara.

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Bliss and Grief, Joy and Sorrow, Happiness and Sadness. Again and again, we open to the Light, and then we find ourselves back in the darkness. In my new book, Radiance Rising: Spiritual Practices for Daily Living (which is going to the printer very soon and which is now discounted on this website store), I describe the spiritual process of expanding and contracting: “As we practice opening and closing, it is helpful for us to understand why we have to keep closing. Simply put, most of our systems are just not ready to open to the Full Bliss of the Universe all at once…. So, we open our hearts again and again, gradually expanding our capacity to be in the bliss state.”

Understanding the spiritual process of expanding and contracting is really important, especially for those of us in the West. We have to let go of our fast-paced mode of doing, and relax into a slower state of being. For most of us, changes within our beings occur very gradually over a long period of time. Once we begin to witness ourselves and we understand that the spiritual path is a gradual journey of opening the heart, then we can release the expectation that we will be happy all the time. Keeping in mind that it is our expectations that create our suffering, we can see the need to realistically approach our emotional states.

If we understand that expansions inevitably follow contractions and contractions inevitably follow expansions, then we can more gracefully navigate the shifts between joy and sorrow. We can even begin to see how these two states are really part of one whole circle. They even seem to touch each other at times, like when we laugh so hard that tears stream down our cheeks.

Kahlil Gibran describes this quite brilliantly in his chapter On Joy and Sorrow: “When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.” He goes on to say that joy and sorrow are inseparable. (The Prophet, Pocket Edition, Alred A. Knopf, Inc., NY, 1973.)

When we cultivate the witness, that objective part of ourselves that simply watches everything we are, we intimately get to know the ways in which we open and close. Take a moment to reflect on the ways you open and close. When expanded, how do you feel? When contracted, how do you feel?

My expansions feel like sparkly Bliss. When my mind and heart open, I feel incredibly connected with All that is, and I feel so in love with everything and everyone. For me, the expanded state carries the quality of excitement. At times I feel so much Radiance and Happiness rising inside that I feel like I could just bliss right on out of my skin. In my memoir, The Rita Lila: A Western Yogini's Journey to Bliss (published under my pen name Rita Ann Shankara), I share my process with learning to hold more Bliss and with allowing all my emotions to purify me.

All spiritual practices are designed to purify our minds and hearts. In the Bhakti Yoga tradition, all emotions are viewed as fuel for the purification fire, so all emotions are embraced and offered to the Beloved. I practice this with my emotions, but I notice that I have to be careful not to get stuck in the sorrowful feelings.

My contractions sometimes feel like a grief so deep that it could stop my heart from beating. I tend to cry easily and often, as anyone who has read my memoir can attest. I have a lifelong pattern of releasing my emotions through tears. I can remember feeling things quite deeply, even as a small child. In my baby book, my Mom recorded an incident from when I was two years old. It was the middle of the night, and I stood up in my crib and called out, “Daddy, Teja’s crying!”

A few days ago, after crying over something, I called a dear yogi friend of mine, and I said, “I was just crying because” and right then, he interrupted me and declared, “You were just crying because that’s what you do!” I laughed and said, “You are right. I was just crying because that’s what I do.” We then joked that I could be the crying saint. I said maybe I could put a video of me crying on my YouTube channel, and he dared me to do so.

But who would really want to watch me lying on the floor sobbing in front of my altar? Wouldn’t people rather watch a video of me laughing? (If you have an opinion on this, you can post a comment at the end of this article.)

Crying can be spiritually purifying. Sometimes people feel relieved after a good cry. But, as I said before, we have to be careful because crying can also lead to a state in which we get stuck in the pain body, that emotional mass of energy which holds all of our pains. For me, when I am in the pain body, I lose my connection with the Light, and I feel stuck in an isolated bubble of contracted energy.

Also, I sense that the Universe can’t hear us when we are stuck in our pain, because the pain can block our connection with the Universe. Yet, once we fall into the pain body, it can be difficult to find our way back out of it. That is when it is good to remember that we are not our pain, but rather we are the one witnessing the pain that is passing through us. It is also good to remember that we are not isolated in our pain. We can think of all the other people who are feeling pain at the same time, and send love to all their pain bodies.

The Buddhist path focuses on the “middle way,” which means accepting and allowing our emotions without repressing them and without indulging in them. Pema Chödrön, a Buddhist nun, describes tonglen, a practice in which we breathe in whatever feels bad and send out whatever feels good. (I did not mistype that sentence. Tonglen is actually a practice in taking in pains and giving out relief from pains.) She writes: “People everywhere feel pain – jealousy, anger, being left out, feeling lonely. Everybody feels it in the painful way you feel it. The story lines vary, but the underlying feeling is the same for us all. By the same token, if you feel some sense of delight – if you connect with what for you is inspiring, opening, relieving, relaxing – you breathe it out, you give it away, you send it out to everyone else.” (Comfortable with Uncertainty: 108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion, by Pema Chödrön and Emily Hilburn Sell, Shambhala Publications, Inc., 2002.)

Cultivating the witness part of ourselves helps us to stay in the middle, just watching, accepting, and allowing our emotions. So with grief, for example, we simply allow the grief to pass through us, without repressing it and without indulging in it. Repressed emotions get stored in the muscle tissues, which can cause illnesses, so it is important to allow ourselves to feel our feelings. Yet, we have to learn the art of feeling the emotions and then allowing them to release.

When I get stuck in grief, no matter how bad the pain feels, I keep saying to myself, “There I am feeling grief again. This too shall shift.” I remind myself to keep putting my attention on things that expand me, and to hold onto my intention to be happy and open to all of life. When we are contracted – no matter how bad the pain feels – it is really important that we continue to hold our intention to keep opening our hearts.

Sometimes during a bout with grief, if I cultivate the witness part of myself, then I pop back into the Bliss state, in which I experience self-love, inner harmony, and compassion for all beings. The witness part of ourselves is one with the Bliss of our Inner Beings, so tuning in to the witness helps us to keep a bigger perspective. If we visualize our pains in the context of the vast cosmos, then we can (sometimes) laugh at how tiny our pains are compared to the vastness of the stars.

Bliss and Grief. My two lives. Both are true, and that beautiful circle of joy and sorrow is leading me ever deeper into the vastness of my beating heart. May we all come to know the healing self-love that arises when we accept all of ourselves. May we all experience more and more happiness, even as we journey through the pains of life.

May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Photo of crystal reflecting green light in kitchen by Teja Shankara.

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On January 29^th, I turned 40, and it was one of my best birthdays ever. I felt such bliss and gratitude all day long. During my birthday weekend, I went snow-shoeing on Mt. Shasta with a dear girlfriend, and she suggested that we speak our intentions out loud while on the mountain. After hiking for a while in that invigorating atmosphere, we came to a place where there were two large rocks above us. It felt like an appropriate time to voice our intentions, but then, instead of speaking, we both just spontaneously closed our eyes and stood there in silence for a few minutes. While silent, I felt tremendous gratitude, and I heard an inner voice say, "Have openness to receive."

As I gazed out at the sun sparkles on the snow, I remembered my teacher’s last words to me. The last time I saw my beloved spiritual teacher, Basil (who passed away in July, 2009), he said, “Receive, receive, receive. You are trying so hard to go up and get the Divine. You need to allow the Divine to come down into you. Receive, receive, receive.”

Next I thought about how funny we human beings are. We are funny in how we think that our regular thinking minds are capable of knowing what we truly need. In this case, my girlfriend and I were all prepared to tell the mountain what we want to manifest in life, but instead, the mountain guided our intuitions to tell us what we truly need!

The intuition is a higher mental faculty than the regular thinking mind. When we relax our thinking minds and repeat the mantra, “I don’t know,” then our intuitive minds can guide us in a fruitful process of intending. This past year I began working with the process of intending as one of my spiritual practices, and after several attempts to tell the universe what I thought I wanted, I have come full circle back to the “I don’t know” mantra.

My journey with the intentions process began in July. The day before my spiritual teacher passed away, a friend told me that it was time for me to start teaching. I said, “I don’t know. It seems like that is what I am supposed to be doing, but I don’t really know what the Universe intends for me.” A few weeks later, I met a gypsy yogi who gave me a little book called, The Intenders Handbook by Tony Burroughs (Dolphin Press, Revised 2007 Edition). My favorite line in the book is: “What you are reaching toward is also reaching out toward you.” After reading that book, I thought I understood how to create a list of intentions that the universe would not be able to refuse!

While I was creating my super great (or so I thought) list of intentions, I met another yogi who is quite skilled at manifesting his intentions in the world. I shared my list with him and he gave me lots of suggestions on how to ensure that my intentions would manifest. He shared a couple of tips from his own experience: 1. “Whenever I need to make money, I go and have as much FUN as I can, and then the money comes. 2. “Whenever I need to make more money, I spend all the money that I have so that more money can come in.”

At that time, I didn’t yet understand something that this friend also told me, which is that manifesting intentions comes from a place of knowingness. I will explain that more, when I get to the point in the story where I really ‘got’ what that means. So, at that point, I thought that I could just ask for anything I wanted, as long as I stated “if it serves the Highest Good” at the end of each intention.

Now here is the embarrassing part, and I’m going to share it, because it is a part of my journey in humanness. One of my intentions was for the universe to send me thirty-thousand dollars by the end of September. I know that probably sounds totally crazy, but keep in mind that I was really flexible with that intention – I told the universe that it could send the money any way it wanted to! I wrote out exactly how I would use the money to create a website, to publish and promote my new book, Radiance Rising: Spiritual Practices for Daily Living, and to get out teaching in the world. I read the intentions out loud several times each day, and I was pretty convinced that somehow the money was going to come to me. Well, as you’ve maybe already guessed, there was no thirty-thousand dollar deposit in my account when the bank closed on September 30^th.

Since I am a fiery, emotional type, I was not initially able to calmly say, “Well, that’s okay. I guess that just wasn’t meant to be.” Instead, I reacted with a full-blown breakdown on the tantrum yoga path. During one of several long, loud, sobbing cries, I said out loud to the universe, “This intention making process doesn’t work for me – I am on the Raja Yoga path, and what works for me is to just surrender everything to the Divine and then trust that everything happens in perfection.”

After I calmed down from the tantrum yoga, I was able to have a rational discussion about it all with a dear yogi friend. He told me that I needed to learn a lesson in trusting the universe to support me. He said sometimes the universe requires us to spend down to our last dollar. I understood what he was saying, but then I also thought about how we have to strike a balance between surrendering and taking action. So, I typed up a sponsorship proposal and sent it out to a few people, and within a few weeks one of them deposited some money into my account. It wasn’t the thirty thousand dollars I had asked for, but it was enough to create the website and publish the next book. And, more importantly, it was enough to let me know that the universe is in support of the work I am doing.

At that point I signed up for The Bridge, a series of free email teachings on the intentions process that you can sign up to receive at www.intenders.org. While receiving those inspiring teachings, I attended a training in Reiki, a gentle hands-on energy healing system. The Reiki teacher also talked about manifesting intentions. He said that the manifestation has to go through the mind, heart, and body. That resonated with what I already believed: even though we create our realities with our thoughts, when we want to consciously manifest intentions, we first have to tune in to our intuitive minds and our hearts to discern what is really correct for us to intend. Once we surrender and deepen into the knowing of what wants to come to us (or to come through us), then we relax into that knowingness, and then the intentions can manifest.

So when we say the “I don’t know” mantra with true humility and surrender, then the intuitive mind and the heart can speak their wisdom to us, and then we suddenly DO know, from a deep place within, what it is that needs to manifest. So by admitting that our regular thinking minds do not know, then our higher minds allow us to truly know. And it is in that state of knowingness that something shifts within us, and that shifted something creates a vibration of openness that allows us to receive what it is that we intend to manifest.

When we regularly practice sitting meditation and we consciously practice cultivating the witness, then we are already well versed in listening to the guidance of our intuitive minds and of our hearts. (To learn how to begin doing spiritual practices yourself, check out my new book, Radiance Rising: Spiritual Practices for Daily Living.) This ability to sense in and listen to our own inner teacher is really what spiritual practices are all about.

Now that I have come full circle back to the “I don’t know” mantra, I am able to continue working with the intentions process as one of my spiritual practices. It didn’t work for me when I was making red-hot demands on the universe with my regular thinking mind, but it works for me now that I ‘get’ that the workable way of making intentions is through surrendering and deepening into the “I don’t know” mantra. In that state of not knowing, a real knowing emerges, and then you DO know what it is that the universe wants to give you (or to give through you).

May you surrender into what wants to arise through your life. May you have the openness to receive, receive, receive.

May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Mt. Shasta photo by Teja Shankara.

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