Cover:
https://i.imgur.com/NaV0KWk.jpg
Rating: 4.38/5
Info:
Sometimes illumination occurs spontaneously or, as Ram Dass experienced, in a heart-wrenching moment of opening. More commonly, it happens when we polish the mirror of the heart with daily practice--and see beyond the illusion of our transient thoughts and emotions to the vast and luminous landscape of our true nature.
For five decades, Ram Dass has explored the depths of consciousness and love and brought them to life as service to others. With Polishing the Mirror, he gathers together his essential teachings for living in the eternal present, here and now.
Readers will find within these pages a rich combination of perennial wisdom, humor, teaching stories, and detailed guidance on Ram Dass' own spiritual practices, including:
Bhakti Yoga--opening our hearts to unconditional love
Practices for living, aging, dying, and embracing the natural flow of life
Karma Yoga--how selfless service can profoundly transform us
Working with fear and suffering as a path to grace and freedom
Step-by-step guidance in devotional chant, meditation and mantra practice, and much more
For those new to Ram Dass' teachings, and for those to whom they are old friends, here is this vanguard spiritual explorer's complete guide to discovering who we are and why we are here, and how to become beacons of unconditional love
EXERT:
You can imagine that substance as agolden mist that fills the air. With every breath, don’t just breathe
in air; imagine you are pulling into yourself this golden substance.
Fill with it; let it pour through your entire body.
Breathe in the energy of the universe, the shakti of the universe.
Breathe in the breath of God. Let it fill your whole body. Each time
you breathe out, breathe out all of the things in you that keep you
from knowing your true Self; breathe out all the separateness, all
the feelings of unworthiness, all the self-pity, all the attachment to
your pain, whether it’s physical or psychological.
Breathe out anger and doubt and greed and lust and confusion. Breathe in
God’s breath, and breathe out all the impediments that keep you
from knowing God. Let the breath be the transformation.
Now let the golden mist that has poured into your being focus in
the middle of your chest; let it take form as a tiny being, the size of
a thumb, sitting on a lotus flower right in the middle of your chest.
Notice its equanimity, the radiance that comes from within.
Use
your imagination. As you look upon this being, see that it isr adiating light. See the light pouring out. As you meditate upon it,
experience the deep peace that is emanating from this being. Feel,
as you look upon this being, that it is a being of great wisdom. It’s
sitting quietly, silently, perfectly poised in your heart.
Feel its compassion and its love. Let yourself be filled with its love.
Now, slowly let that tiny being grow in size until it fills your
body, so its head fills the space of your head, its torso, your torso,
its arms, your arms, its legs, your legs. So now in the skin of your
body sits this being—a being of infinite wisdom, a being of the
deepest compassion, a being that is bathed in bliss, a being that is
self-effulgent: a being of perfect tranquility.
Let this being begin to grow in size. Experience yourself
growing until everything in the room around you is within your
body. All of the sounds, all the sensory experiences are coming
from inside you
