This week, Kriyabans from the Assisi Institute will share aspects of the spiritual life as Isha Das turns to other work on our behalf. Today’s reflection comes from Mary McFee.
“You are as close to God as you ever will be. You only must improve your knowing.”
Yogananda
“Divine Mother doesn’t make it hard for her children to come home.”
Isha Das
I can and do complicate most anything. In my ever-present need to control my life, my egoic mind takes off like a rocket before I even know it is moving. Speed equals the illusion of control! But the beginning of the solution could not be more simple: pause and breathe with awareness. Breathing in was the very first thing I did in this life, and it will be the very last thing I will ever do. Breathing is simple, but not always easy! It can actually be painful, both physically and mentally, to take a deeper, slower breath. Yet thanks to my years of practice on the spiritual path, the sensations of in/out, up/pause/down, empty/pause/full, accept/pause/surrender are a dear and familiar gift. When my body will accept deeper, slower breaths, the more readily will my mind begin to accept that initially unwelcome pause. In that moment, my soul can observe my egoic mind to ask: What is going on?What is the feeling? What is the memory? What is needed? Divine Mother always tells me the truth. If I can continue slow breathing and minimal thinking, the next right thing always becomes clear. Dothis next. Surrender this thought! Stop longer. Just make a decision! I love you. In a book about Dr. Lewis, one of Yoganandaji’s direct disciples, his wife recounts how just before he died, Dr. Lewis asked her to help him to a sitting position — surely, so that he could offer his very last breaths in and out to his beloved Guru. May we all have the grace and the will do do the same.
In this moment,
Divine Beloved,
I offer you both the
Pain and the delight
Of pausing to breathe with you
