Have you seen this? Have you seen that? People always ask about my travels. But what am I going to see? What is seeing this or that going to give me?

One of my unique blessings in this life is to have so much time like this to just sit back and try to figure it all out. It’s a different vision from here. Not just a different perspective, but a different vision. I’m amazed how little my eyes see or my ears hear. These things are not important compared with the subtler vibrations that can be felt going about town.

It’s often been said that what you look for is what you will find. If you want to confirm misery in this world you will find it everywhere. If you want the world to confirm your joy, that too will be everywhere around you. Likewise, if you want to feel as one in this world, that too is possible merely be searching it out. This of course is not the end of the road, because there is still no truth in any of these experiences; they fluctuate with the tides of the mind. This is where many new age philosophies conclude. But vision has to come from a place not connected with the minds eye. We have to truly see things for what they really are.

Many philosophies suggest that everything that is not the absolute truth is illusion. I don’t agree with this. Ignorance and illusion are not the same thing. All this suffering in the world is real enough. I’ve suffered, and the last thing I was willing to accept is that my suffering was not real. The meaning behind our suffering I cannot tell you, but just like everything else in this world it can be used very effectively for spiritual advancement. It is, after all, the number one reason for people to turn to spirituality; though these days, people are just as likely to turn to pharmaceuticals.

Many people are trying to figure out the meaning not just of their lives in general, but also of specific events. What does it mean, what is the lesson? The events of our lives are often without meaning; the meaning and the lesson are “as we like.” The importance of the events of our lives is that they allow us an opportunity to see more deeply the interrelationships we share with all else. If we can see how intertwined we are with everything, other people, the elements, nature, even time, then we can begin to accept our karmas; which is the same as accepting our lives, our actions and the events of our lives.

Every action and event in our lives is simultaneously the unfolding of a previous karma and the creation of new ones. The more we can understand this process the more open and accepting of the process we can become. We also see how our own personal karmas create a weave with everyone else’s karmas and the collective karmas to create the tapestry of existence.

Dharma is different from karma in that it relates more to your personality than your actions. The scriptures speak of the four castes (or personalities) as well as a fifth caste that is a mysterious of the other four. These are archetypical classifications into which most people will fit (though it’s said that in the current age we are living, most people fit best with the fifth, unspecified caste). From within the framework of these archetypes your choices will be made. Whether or not it’s your karma to have a brick fall on your head has nothing to do with your dharma. Dharma relates more with your courage, intelligence, creativity and personality.

Following your dharma means that you follow your own personal values, the values that flow from your personality. As we age we begin to get a clearer picture of what we value. This picture arises from our experience, from the actions we make. So how does a person know what their dharma is? They look at their previous choices, the ones they actually made, and from this we come to now our dharma; our values.

Accept your karma and live up to your dharma. No ones dharma is any higher than another person’s dharma. Dharmas are as plentiful and necessary in this world as the leaves of the trees. The interconnectedness is so complete and perfect that you can’t even imagine.

Word in the yoga community is that you can experience what you can’t imagine. But to do this we have to see beyond the eyes, beyond the mind and far beyond the sense of self that seeks even for its own self.

One in a while, thru effort of luck we get to experience deeper states of satisfaction, but sooner or later our luck will change. Everything changes. We can’t hold that satisfaction, sooner or later an new desire will arise and we will once again be seeking it’s satisfaction rather than experiencing it. We must then find satisfaction in the seeking.

I’ve heard how Tantric courses all over the world are teaching men how to retain their erection. They cannot seem to see that this is a metaphor for experiencing satisfaction thru the process rather than thru the accomplishment. The attention of our actions should be on the actions themselves rather than on the fruits of the action.

In todays information age there are likely millions of techniques that can be used to gain this focus on the present moment, which is the moment our actions take place and the moment in which we want to feel satisfaction. But of course people get impatient and want to try a different technique and a different one and again some different one all the time getting more and more sophisticated. These techniques range from being very simple to being greatly complicated. For those who believe that some technique will work for them, the plethora of techniques serve only as a distraction. We must practice a single technique until we forget about achieving any fruit from it, only then will we realize that the technique itself is the fruit. On the other hand, it’s also suggested that fruit comes only from luck. Even the efforts we make for this or that comes from luck. So what are we to do?