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The Ananda Sangha News

Ananda Sangha of Portland
July 306 Dwapara (2006)

PDF (hi-res) 2.37M, | PDF (low-res) 750K (PDFs include photo galleries)
PDF July Calendar, 45K

In This Newsletter

Articles & Letters

Lead Article: Freedom
Summer Thoughts

Freedom: Igniting the Dynamite (by Yogananda)

The Yogic Scheme of Life (by Swami Kriyananda)

Try This Out

News, Events and Schedules

Portland News

Ananda Worldwide

The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita is Available

Class and Event Announcements

Weekly Postures Schedule
Birthdays
 

Freedom

A comedian once noted that he often heard people wishing for immortality who did not even know what to do with themselves during a free afternoon.

Freedom from limitation is a fundamental quality each of us intuitively seeks to experience, for it is an attribute of the soul—and thus part of our essential nature. We rebel against tyranny and limitation outwardly because it is foreign to our inner nature.

America was born during the end of Kali Yuga (the age of materialism) and the beginning of Dwapara Yuga (the age of energy). The United States was pioneered by individuals on a quest for religious freedom. We became a country through a struggle to throw off the tyrannical rule of an abusive and dominating power.

More than any other country on earth, the US holds the spirit of freedom, respect for individual choice, and opportunity for personal growth. There are forces everywhere that would work against such freedoms, here in the US as well as around the world--even in ourselves.

Yogananda repeatedly urged us to have the courage to do battle against those forces. He said, “Life is a battle for joy all along the way. May I fight to win that battle on the spot where I now am.” We can do battle outwardly, and there are times when outer battle is both necessary and righteous (dharmic).

However, every day we have the power to use our will to overcome the patterns that oppress our inner freedom—selfishness, greed, unkindness, self-involvement. Every time we fight the battle against smallness we gain an increasing sense of freedom inside.

“Even a little practice of this inward religion will free one from dire fears and colossal sufferings.” So we quote from the Bhagavad Gita each week during the Festival of Light in Sunday Service. The inward religion referred to is the practice of Raja Yoga; those attitudes, thoughts, and actions that bring us an experience of Spirit in the stillness of our own consciousness.

Let us determine to make as great an effort to free ourselves of tyrants as we do to express freedom outwardly. Only then will we be truly joyful, and only then can we truly bring peace and freedom to this earth.

With deepest love,

daiva and ganga mata

Summer Thoughts

We will continue to have our Friday evening meditations from 7-9 at the Mandir. Saturday morning long meditations will continue from 6-9 am at the community temple (all are welcome!). Sunday Services will continue as usual at the Mandir.

We have added Saturday evening vegetarian potlucks at the Ananda Community to the calendar—5 pm, bring bathing suits for a dip afterwards (or come early). These may lead to games, kirtans, or just friendly satsang.

Alex Madsen has offered to help coordinate outdoor adventures with anyone who is interested. Feel free to contact him to get involved. The 4th of July picnic at the community should be delightful as usual—see below for details.

In addition there is the opportunity to go to Seattle during the period of July 22-August 5 and reciprocate the support they brought to our Mandir remodel— email contact@anandaseattle.org to participate. (You can go for any amount of time in that period).

We will also have Guru Night at the community sometime in August (watch for details in the next newsletter). And there is plenty of time for reading The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita and the newly released book How to be Happy All the Time.

Let’s recharge our batteries and prepare for an Autumn of renewed vigor in our quest for Self-realization. Joy, oh Joy.

Portland News

• Beaverton Farmer’s Market Parking—Find the perfect parking space for the Farmer’s Market and support the Living Wisdom School seventh & eighth grade! Parking (in the mandir lot) is only $3 and if your car needs washing while you shop—its only an additional $5 (minimum donation)!

• Living Wisdom School Summer Programs, August 7-11—Enjoy stories, songs, arts & crafts & yoga in The Joyful Heart (ages 3 1/2-5 years). Or experience games, cooking, creating handicrafts & swimming in Fun in the Sun (ages 6-11 years). Call the Living Wisdom School at (503) 671-9112 for registration information.

• Meditation Training—Our next Meditation for Starters class is Tuesday July 11 or Thursday July 27, 7:309pm; $40 (including materials). Watch for our month long Developing an Inner Life: Learn to Meditate coming in September, 4 Tuesdays, 7-9pm; $150 (including materials).

• Engagement: Congratulations to Bob Flagel and Mary Lu Taylor who announced their engagement last week. The happy wedding date will be sometime next spring. May the blessings and grace of the Master’s be always with them!

• Join the Ananda Choir! In June our choir began preparations for a concert in September. There is still time to join! Now is a perfect time, even if you’ve no experience singing. If interested, please speak to Satyaki (satyaki@anandaportland.org), our Music Director. Also, in order to allow choir members to attend the Ananda Yoga Teacher Training the choir will now be meeting on Wednesday evenings at 7:30pm in the Ananda Community room.

• Guitarists & Harmonium Players: would you enjoy learning to play the songs for the Festival of Light on Sundays? It’s a wonderful way to become part of the Sunday Service team! If so, talk with Satyaki.
   

Ananda Worldwide

• Two spots left –Ananda Pilgrimage to India, October 2006! There is still time to sign up for this trip of a lifetime. Enrich your spiritual life by visiting the places and people who are immersed in the energy of our line of gurus. Travel with David & Asha Praver and Durga & Vidura Smallen, who will shepherd you lovingly and joyfully. Visit with Swami Kriyananda and our gurubais in Gurgaon, as well as Master’s family and other Great Souls, shrines, and pilgrimage spots. It will change your life.
      For more information, write to pilgrimage@ananda.org, or call Marilyn Holm at 650-559-9893.

• The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita book launch a success—A sell out crowd packed the Herbst Theater in downtown San Francisco for a fabulous evening of inspiration. A joyful, deeply reverential atmosphere pervaded the auditorium. Many of those attending felt a special blessing to be at the "birth of a new Scripture," as Yogananda called his Gita commentaries. Visit www.swamikriyananda.org for online audio and video of this special event.

• Swami Kriyananda’s Talks online! Many of Swami Kriyananda’s public talks are now available online! Look for recent talks from his trip to America and The Way of Awakening television program. Visit www.swamikriyananda.org.

• New from Crystal Clarity! Crystal Clarity is thrilled to share the first in a new series of books by Paramhansa Yogananda. How to Be Happy All the Time features previously unreleased material by the famed 20th century spiritual master. We know you will relish this first treasure in the new "Wisdom of Yogananda" series. Watch for the book in our boutique, coming soon!
   

Freedom: Igniting the Dynamite

from the early writings of Paramhansa Yogananda

The Gita Bhagavad says no matter how little virtuous tendencies one has acquired in this life or has brought from the past, he should not be discouraged to behold through his telescopic inner vision the self-created artificial karmic mountains of evil. He must realize that with a little spark of deep meditation he can ignite the dynamite of eternal goodness within himself and explode all those chimeric mountains of self-created evil of many incarnations.

The Gita says every soul must remember that beneath the smeared dress of ignorance lies the eternally beautiful image of Spirit within himself. He should continuously try by every means to wash off the stubborn taints until they are gone.

Every man, whether born with material tendencies or moral tendencies, must not fail to rouse his spiritual powers by continuously fighting restlessness with the silence of meditation. The Gita says if any soul ever dies trying to be calm he would be reborn a spiritual man with a great determination to fight ignorance. This way he would have a better start in his second incarnation.

A soul who dies fighting ignorance will have the inner heavenly satisfaction while he is in the astral world of not having succumbed to the onslaughts of ignorance. And a soul who is able under all circumstances to conquer the continuously invading evil tendencies by continuous ever-increasing depths of meditation is bound to conquer and be established in eternal bliss and cosmic consciousness and freedom in this life and forever. He will enjoy the eternal happiness in the ever-present present tense; he will enjoy happiness in the eternal now.

The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita is Available!

Rarely in a lifetime does a new spiritual classic appear that has the power to change people's lives and transform future generations. This is such a book. This revelation of India's best-loved scripture approaches it from an entirely fresh perspective, showing its deep allegorical meaning and also its down-to-earth practicality.

Join our Each One—Reach One Campaign!

The Each One - Reach One Campaign is, in some ways, like the Random Acts of Kindness and Pay It Forward movements that swept the nation a few years ago. These movements inspired people to reach out beyond their immediate family and friends, often to people that they didn't even know and maybe wouldn't ever know, and give them an unexpected gift. Our Each One - Reach One campaign offers, in the form of The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita, a tool to help bring uplifted consciousness, deep inner peace and bliss.

Do you know someone who would benefit from uplifted consciousness, deep inner peace and bliss? Then join our Each One - Reach One Campaign. When you purchase a copy of The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita at the regular cover price, we will provide you with additional copies at HALF PRICE! Purchase additional copies to give away to family, friends, co-workers, local libraries, and others you would like to reach out to and help us uplift the world one person at a time.

The Yogic Scheme of Life

from The Art & Science of Raja Yoga by Swami Kriyananda

Spirit, in manifesting the phenomenal universe, did so by the principle of dwaita (duality). The one consciousness of Spirit, moving a part of Itself in opposite directions from a state of rest in the center, took on an appearance of innumerable separate existences. But these existences are an appearance, merely, like the waves on the sea. They have no essential reality of their own except as the sea itself is real.

A close view of the ocean surface reveals not only large waves and small ones, but wavelets upon larger waves, ripples upon larger ripples, their complexity increasing the more closely one studies them. Duality, too, is no simple, single movement left or right or up or down from, but still fairly suggestive of, the central, unmoving Spirit. There are movements within movements, dualities within dualities, oppositions within oppositions, until the essentially still nature of things is completely lost sight of in a welter of complexity.

Everything manifested has its opposite: love and hatred, pleasure and pain, heat and cold, light and darkness, positive and negative, male and female—and yes, good and evil. Within each of these opposites there are relativities—gradations of light and darkness, for instance, within the overall phenomenon of darkness, and gradations of good and evil within the general movement of consciousness towards evil.

What, indeed, are good and evil? Evil is that movement of consciousness and energy which obscures the essential reality of things as the Infinite. Good is that which helps to clarify that reality. The reality itself simply is. There is no other reality in relation to which it might be termed good. But in relative existence, which is the state of things in the manifested universe, evil is evil because it obscures the true state of things and thereby induces progressively the bondage of delusion (maya), of limitation of all kinds, of inharmony, and enmity, and hatred, which are signs, simply, of identification with one expression of reality (one’s own ego) to the exclusion of all others.

The movement of consciousness toward this state of progressive duality is an actual force—necessary to bring the universe into manifestation. It is what is known as the satanic force. God, the Supreme Spirit, is not directly responsible for the delusions and sufferings that result from the existence of this force. To manifest creation at all, it was necessary to produce a separative movement of consciousness, but the further ramifications of this movement developed as a result of that force itself assuming the delusion of a separate existence, and seeking to perpetuate its own consciousness of individuality—if we may consider individual an all-but-infinite consciousness, unlimited by form of any kind. Satan—not a man in a red suit with horns, tail, and cloven hooves, but an omnipresent, conscious force—is a reality, one to which every master has definitely testified. It is not merely a subjective thought in the minds of men, but a universal stream of magnetic power into which men may be drawn by their own active interest in, and desire for, the endless variety of manifested phenomena rather than the one all-dissolving consciousness of Spirit.

The opposite stream of consciousness—from complexity to divine oneness—is necessary also to the cosmic balance. Man can enter this stream, too. The choice is up to him. Each stream of consciousness has power to affect only those who enter it of their own free will. Assuming that most people, out of ignorance, have already entered the negative stream, it is possible for them, by changing their own interest, to come out of it and enter the positive stream....

Egoism is the sole cause of bondage. It is because of ego that desires infest the heart. My guru defined the ego as the soul identified with the body. So long as this identity persists, every action by the body will be viewed as an action by oneself. So long, therefore, will the body (or its successor in a future incarnation) have to bear the consequences, good, bad, or indifferent, of that action. Such is the law of karma, the counterpart, on a subtler level, of the physical principle of action and reaction. Soul freedom consists essentially of banishing this sense of ego by realizing that we are not the body, but the Infinite Spirit.

The Art & Science of Raja Yoga Intensive: A Course in Self-Realization

Twice a year we offer a 14 class in-depth course in The Art & Science of Raja Yoga—A Course in Self-Realization. This class is a combination of study and personal application. Through the practice of meditation, yoga postures, pranayam and the eight-fold path as described by Patanjali you will explore the Art & Science of “Knowing God”. The class is an important component of preparing for Kriya Yoga initiation.

Tuesdays Sept 12—Nov 21 (plus 3 Saturdays), $575 (materials extra)
Taught by Daiva & Ganga Mata
 

Class and Event Announcements

Celebrate Independence Day!

Join us at the Ananda community for an afternoon of fun with friends. The pool will be open, the volleyball net set up and the grill hot! July 4, 12-4pm. Please bring a vegetarian potluck dish to share and a blanket or lawn chair. The community will be supplying veggie dogs, fixing's & sodas.
 

family activities at the ananda community

Join us at the Ananda Community for joyful family-friendly evenings of satsang and friendship. We’ll start with a vegetarian potluck at 5pm and then enjoy a family friendly activity together. Look for evenings of family movies, storytelling, kirtans and more!

Saturdays July 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, 5pm. Free. Bring a Vegetarian Potluck dish
 

Ananda Yoga Teacher Training in Portland

Experience the depth and breadth of Ananda Yoga and learn to share the life-changing experience of yoga with others. With small classes and expert, individualized instruction, this is far more than a training program on how to teach yoga postures; it’s a transforming experience in the complete science and application of yoga. This is a unique opportunity: Ananda Yoga Teacher Training here in Portland. You can fit Yoga Teacher Training into your active life! Classes are held weekly on Tuesday evening, bi-monthly on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings, plus a one-week retreat at the Expanding Light Retreat Center at Ananda Village in California. Overall, the course is about 6½ months.

Training begins September 5, 2006 continuing to April, 2007 Taught by Uddhava (David B. Ramsden), E-RYT 500, Daiva Glazzard, and Lorna Knox The cost of this course is $2800 ($2500 if paid in full by 8/1/2006). Class size is limited to 15 students.

Click here for complete details and a downloadable application!

Try This Out: Food Recipe for Fruit Curry

Fry in 2 tablespoons butter: 2 large diced tomatoes, 3 sliced bananas, 1 quartered and sliced apple, 1 sliced onion (optional), a small handful of raisins, and a handful of sliced almonds (blanched and slightly browned in butter), with a tablespoon of curry powder, 1 stick of cinnamon, 3 whole cardamom pods, 2 cloves, and (if desired) a little ginger. Simmer slowly for 25 minutes. Serve with brown rice. Makes 4 servings.
 

Weekly Postures Schedule at the Mandir

NOTE: There will be no yoga classes from July 17 to 26. Regular classes will resume on July 27.

 July Birthdays

2      Gavin Hankins
        Kris Knight

6      Nancy Gierut-Wicker

7      Julian Potter
        Laurie Chadwick

9      Ted Cutler

10    Marilyn Britton

15    Henrique Konzen

17    Steve Ridabock

18    Jan Alexander
        Imani Rose

23    Alexa Kaeo

25    Larry Worm

28    Marilyn Baughman

30    Lenna Britton

Blessings to all these great souls! If you’re missing from our list, please let us know.

Sign up for Weekly Inspiration from Ananda Portland emails--send us your email address to weekly@anandaportland.org.

 

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