Living Grace

People frequently ask me if there is a relationship between the Guru and our own Self-realization. This is a great question! As a starting point, the Guru mirrors to us our own innate divinity, our own potential to live a divine life. Most of us live in a dream world,...

One of the core teachings of both Yogananda and mystical Christianity is the need for Self-realization, the discovery of our true identity. We all tend to identify with who we think we are, which includes an entire collection of our self-constructed images and...

The spiritual life is about moving our center of gravity from the surface self, the egoic personality, to the deep self, the soul. This movement can only happen within a milieu of childlike trust born of love. The problem, however, is that the surface self is fueled...

Monday: Yogananda tells us, “Think of God always.” At one level, he is telling us to stay awake, to be consciously focused. Such focus is crucial because what we concentrate on concentrates on us; whatever we attend to attends to us; whatever we gaze into gazes...

In case you have not noticed, life is becoming increasingly complex. The more complex life becomes, the more we should strive for simplicity. The goal of the spiritual life is to become increasingly simple as we focus on one unifying purpose: to become love by loving...

In the yogic scriptures, creation is often referred to as leela, or divine play. Yogananda tells us that this play is for our “evolution, education and entertainment.” God does not play with us and all of creation in order to be entertained. Rather, God wants to teach...