Spiritual Knowledge

Silhouette of a Man in Front of a Round Blue Light

I’m not doing anything

By Hari-kirtana | December 31, 2019

Well, that was intense… and scary and strange and tragic and wonderful – so long, 2019! It’s natural to look back at the end of the year and reflect on what we’ve done before we look ahead to what we hope to do. Personally, my tendency is to think more about what remains to be done rather than about what […]

Being Present Through Transitions

By Hari-kirtana | September 4, 2018

The ‘official’ summer season, as opposed to the calendric summer that still has a few weeks to go, has come to an end. Back to school, back to work, back to whatever we get back to when September arrives. September is a month of transitions. The Sanskrit word ‘sandhya’ describes a juncture between one time and another, such as the […]

Let The Sun Shine

By Hari-kirtana | June 15, 2018

Well, at least for the moment, the clouds have parted over the DC area, the rain has ceased, and sunlight is ricocheting through the trees, creating a million shades of green. The early sunrise and late sunset are one of the reasons I love the month of June. Grammar police? Not so fast: the sunrise and sunset are two things […]

6 Steps To Developing Resolute Determination

By Hari-kirtana | January 3, 2018

I used to tell people that I don’t make New Years resolutions. I told myself that, too, but the truth is every year I made a few without telling anyone. Being secretive about them was a way to give myself an out if I didn’t follow through on them. Over the past few years I’ve gotten a lot better at […]

Understanding the Fluctuations of the Mind

By Hari-kirtana | December 22, 2017

In his Yoga-sutras, Patanjali defines yoga as the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind. Curiously, yoga philosophy thinks of the mind as a form of matter. It’s subtler than what we normally think of as ‘matter’ in that it’s a metaphysical aspect of the physical world. One way to understand the mind is to visualize it as if it […]

Awakening Our Spiritual Senses

By Hari-kirtana | November 26, 2017

I routinely speak about ‘awakening our spiritual senses’ in my classes. As often as not, a student or two will linger after class to ask what I mean by ‘spiritual’ senses. The idea that we have a dormant set of spiritual senses waiting to be stirred is a curious notion. We assume that senses, by definition, are made of matter […]