Weekly Wisdom From the Autobiography of a Yogi

Sunday, September 22, we entered the Fall Equinox when the days of sunlight begin to “pale” in relation to the hours of darkness. The northern hemisphere begins moving towards the winter solstice when we have the fewest hours of sunlight. The equinox and solstices have special human significance in their relation to the sun. Since ancient times, the sun has … Read More

There is a way out of bad karma, but the “way” is narrow and straight and “you” get left behind. You want to hear more? What is karma? Karma is the self-balancing after-effects of previous actions, including thoughts and emotions, not just physical deeds. Thus, the term “karma” includes what is ordinarily considered “good” karma as well as “bad.” However, … Read More

Thank you for asking! I returned today from a seven day (Mon-Mon) seclusion at Serenity House (the cottage in the back of the Heart Song Hermitage property). The sellers of the property more or less left intact the furnishings of this fairly new cottage (which they used to rent out regularly via AirBnB). Thus, it is well appointed and fully … Read More

“Awareness precedes control,” my teacher, Swami Kriyananda would say. The “battle of Life” that high achievers and devotees refer to begins with awareness of who and what we are and the contrast with who and what we’d like to be. In this video I offer several techniques to help one develop mindfulness including one seldom shared that is given to … Read More

Paramhansa Yogananda taught that “The drama of life has for its lesson the fact that it is simply THAT: a drama!” We don’t know where we came from or where we will go when we no longer have a human body. We don’t know where the universe came from, or why. Both scientists and metaphysicians tell us that this world … Read More

Today (as of publication, June 20, 2024) is the longest day of sunlight in the northern hemisphere. Soon the warm to hot days of summer will appear in July, August, and perhaps even September. Will we remember the ice-cold days of winter and the great blizzards that have blanketed us indoors for days at a time? Or, will we just … Read More

Since ancient times the solstices and equinoxes have been celebrated by people around the world. Why?   In our urbanized lifestyles wherein we often cannot see the stars, the moon and even the sun, and where nature is replaced by steel and concrete, we might ask ourselves this question: why all the buzz around the Solstices (and Equinoxes)? Why the buzz around a new moon … Read More

I just finished reading a book recommended to me by a friend: The Surrender Experiment: My Journey into Life’s Perfection by Michael Singer.  Michael Singer describes himself as a disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda and hints that he visited Ananda Village twice long ago, but he keeps both of these facts at a distance in his book. Living on his own with no … Read More

Jean-Paul Sartre, the nihilist-existentialist author wrote “In this world that bleeds, all joy is obscene.” That’s a grim condemnation of the quest for happiness which is all but universal in human consciousness. Sartre and others like him did, however, experience the absurd obscenity of the madness of two world wars in the first half of the twentieth century and it’s not difficult to understand … Read More

How often have we heard Jesus’ words and how little do we live them. But what does it mean to love your enemies and do good to those who spite you? I saw a social media posting that declared that these words of Jesus were out of date. That post was from a Christian, BTW!  Jesus was unfairly put to … Read More