Photo by Niklas Ohlrogge via Unsplash.

The Integral Yoga Ministry welcomes you join the Annual Integral Yoga Virtual Memorial Service Sunday, November 3, 2024, 1pm – 3pm Eastern. We know that the loss of a loved one is difficult and can’t be easily adjusted to no matter how long ago they passed. We also have seen first hand how that pain can be made easier with emotional and spiritual support. We want to provide you with that support.

When we lose a family member, a friend, and even an animal family member, we want to honor them in a way that shows love and recognition of how they have given meaning and joy to our lives.

Likewise, all the great spiritual traditions teach us different ways of honoring loved ones as they pass on. In order to commemorate our family and friends, as well as recognize that Truth is One, Paths are Many, we hope you can join us in our virtual Integral Yoga Memorial Service to invoke divine blessings upon the departed souls and to bring us all comfort and peace.

The service will highlight:

1. Our Faith Representatives will share their insights and prayers.

MEET OUR INTERFAITH LEADERS!

2. An Integral Yoga Arati (Waving of Light as a Blessing for All)

3. A slide show of loved ones and their qualities to warm us with sweet memories and inspiration

4. A beautiful candlelight ceremony to send prayers to our loved ones as they continue their soul’s journey.

Please join us online for this virtual service. Register and receive the Zoom link here.

PLEASE NOTE: If you wish us to include your loved one in the memorial slide show, please send us their picture, full name, date of birth and of passing, and two to three positive qualities for which they will be remembered. Email this information to iyministryboard@gmail.com no later than Monday, October 21.

Also please bring a candle for the candle lighting part of the service.

This offering is free.

Donations are welcome to offset Ministry expenses.

 

The post Integral Yoga Virtual Memorial Service: Nov. 3, 2024 appeared first on Integral Yoga® Magazine.

Photo: Musicians gathered on stage for a rousing finale of the concert.

It was ten years ago, Saturday, June 7, 2014, to be precise that the “Global Garland Interfaith Kirtan for World Peace Celebrating the Centennial Birth Year of Sri Swami Satchidananda” was held at the magnificent Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Chants from a variety of faiths rang out in the Cathedral in the largest kirtan concert ever held in the USA.

More than 2,000 celebrants were treated to sacred sounds from Grand Gongmaster Don Conreaux, Krishna Das, Mandala, Soul Kirtan, Kirtan Rabbi, and GuruGanesha Singh. Sam Rudra Swartz served as the evening’s emcee. Powerful voices and an ecstatic audience made for a memorable evening honoring the Yoga master whose dedication to interfaith understanding is even more significant today.

The historic gathering was the first such event at St. John the Divine on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the world’s largest Gothic Cathedral. The Cathedral generously donated its space and its staff. Other sponsors included The Temple of Understanding, Gratefulness.org., and the LOTUS Center for All Faiths.

The Interfaith Kirtan for World Peace was produced by Integral Yoga Institute New York, its general manager Chandra/Jo Sgammato, and event producer Rebecca McKenzie, and promoted to the public by then-new ticket platform BrightStar Live Events.

Enjoy this video overview of the concert and let’s continue to be instruments toward manifesting universal love and world peace.

The post 10 Years ago: Global Garland Interfaith Kirtan for World Peace appeared first on Integral Yoga® Magazine.

The post The Swami & The Rabbi: Jewish Mysticism Meets Integral Yoga appeared first on Integral Yoga® Magazine.

Integral Yoga Ministry is honored to host a series of Interfaith dialogues to draw out the specifics and the experiences of those of different faiths who were drawn to the mystical aspect of their faith and are gracious to share that with us all.

This first program in the series (viewable here) featured a conversation between L.J. Milone, Spiritual Director of the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington DC, and Integral Yoga Reverend Bhagavan Metro. Hosted by Rev. Premajyothi Devi (Integral Yoga Institute of New Jersey) and facilitated by Rev. Shankar Fern (Integral Yoga Institute of New York). This program was recorded via Zoom on Nov. 11, 2023.

The post Christian Mysticism Meets Integral Yoga appeared first on Integral Yoga® Magazine.

Photo: Chanwei via Unsplash.

All major mystical traditions have recognized that there is a paradox at the heart of the journey of return to Origin. Put simply, this is that we are already what we seek, and that what we are looking for on the Path with such an intensity of striving and passion and discipline is already within and around us at all moments.

The journey and all its different ordeals are all emanations of the One Spirit that is manifesting everything in all dimensions; every rung of the ladder we climb toward final awareness is made of the divine stuff of awareness itself. Divine Consciousness is at once creating and manifesting all things and acting in and as all things in various states of self-disguise throughout all the different levels and dimensions of the universe.

The great Hindu mystic Kabir put this paradox with characteristic simplicity when he said:

Look at you, you madman,

Screaming you are thirsty

And are dying in a desert

When all around you there

is nothing but water!

And the Sufi poet Rumi reminds us:

You wander from room to room

Hunting for the diamond necklace

That is already around your neck!

We are so addicted, either to materialism or to transcending material reality, that we don’t see God right in front of us, in the beggar, the starving child, the brokenhearted woman; in our friend; in the cat; in the flea. We miss it. This world is not an illusion….In an authentic mystical experience, the world does disappear and reveal itself as the dance of the divine consciousness. But then it reappears, and you see that everything you are looking at is God, and everything you’re touching is God. This vision completely shatters you.

Knowing that we are looking for something we already have (and are) does not, of course, mean that the journey is unnecessary, only that there is a vast and sublime joke waiting to be discovered at its end.

One serious explanation of this joke at the heart of the journey is, of course, that our essential self is hidden from us by what the Sufi mystics call “a hundred thousand veils of illusion.”

Placed in this dimension of time and space and matter, we forget who we are; we identify our essential nature with what surrounds us and with what our culture and society and parents and ordinary senses tell us about ourselves.

A massive journey is then needed for us to “dis-identify” with everything we have falsely learned about ourselves so that we can experience, with the “hundred thousand veils” burned away, the glory of our true identity…

About the Author:

Andrew Harvey has taught at Oxford University, Cornell University, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, The California Institute of Integral Studies, and the University of Creation Spirituality as well as the at various spiritual centers throughout the United States. He was the subject of the 1993 BBC film documentary, The Making of a Modern Mystic and appears also in Rumi Turning Ecstatic, Marion Woodman: Dancing in the Flames, and The Consciousness of the Christ: Reclaiming Jesus for A New Humanity. He has also worked with the great Iranian Sufi dancer, Banfsheh Sayyad, in producing a film, In the Fire of Grace, which marries Sufi inspired dances to the stages of Rumi’s understanding of the path of Divine love. He is also Founder & Director of the Institute for Sacred Activism, an international organization focused on inviting concerned people to take up the challenge of our contemporary global crises by becoming inspired, effective, and practical agents of institutional and systemic change, in order to create peace and sustainability. (This article is excerpted from his book, The Direct Path: Creating a Journey to the Divine Using the World’s Mystical Traditions.)

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Photo: Melissa Askew via Unsplash.

The goal of Yoga is to realize the Divinity within. This can be explained in different ways. A devotee will say, “I want to know God. I want to commune with God.” The jnani will say, “Tat Tvam Asi. I am That. I want to know this Truth—this Self or Cosmic Consciousness—fully.”

These are different pathways to God, to the one Truth. Pathways are like escalators or ladders. To go up, we make use of the escalator, but once we go up, we no longer need it. Pathways help to raise us up. That is the very idea of spirituality and religion. Religion means to bind back or to go back from where we came. We came from God; we are to go back to God.

Or, if you do not believe in the word God, think of yourselves as parts of the whole universe. We have forgotten and we think that we are just individual separate selves. We need to remember the Oneness. You may ask, “Why am I separated now? Why am I calling myself an individual? What separates me from other individuals?” The answer will be, “My body and mind, which are different from another’s body and mind.”

So in what way we can become one? We can try to transcend the different bodies and minds, but ultimately, we must realize they are all one and the same. That is our goal: to realize that Divinity, that God is within us and everybody. When we realize that Divinity in us, we will be able to see the same Divinity in everyone and everything and thus feel the Oneness. That is the real communion, the real Yoga. Only in that way will the entire world become one family.

That doesn’t mean that we should discard all these differences. The differences will be there, but we discard the idea that they are permanent differences. They are only temporary and ever-changing. That which always remains, that which never changes is the pure Divinity.

Differences are necessary but the point we put the stress on is the universal, the common thing that unites us. When we remember the Oneness, we can enjoy the many, the variety. Then the differences become a nice flower garland, a flower bouquet of multivarious flowers. We are all flowers that make up one beautiful bouquet. We are all the different jewels to make up one beautiful necklace.

If we forget our essential Oneness, we focus on the differences and distinctions and then we fight and make ourselves unhappy. So let us be rooted in that unity to enjoy the diversity. That is the goal of life. The aim of Yoga, and all the different spiritual paths, is to see and, even more so, to experience the same Truth that underlies all these different philosophies and teachings. Let us enjoy the Oneness of our shared Divinity now and always. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.

By Sri Swami Satchidananda

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Everyone seeks happiness, but happiness is never stable. Something always happens to disturb our happiness. Religions were born to show a path to happiness that never dies. The mystical aspect of most faiths are particularly drawn to this quest. The Integral Yoga Ministry is honored to host a series of Interfaith dialogues to draw out the specifics and the experiences of those of different faiths who were drawn to the Mystical aspect of their faith and are gracious to share that with us all.

First in this series will be honored guest: L.J. Milone, Spiritual Director of the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, DC., who will join Integral Yoga Minister Reverend Bhagavan Metro to explore the topic: “Christian Mysticism Meets Integral Yoga.”

This online program will take place Saturday, November 11, 2023:  1:00 – 2:30 p.m. ET.  More info and registration here.

The post Contemporary Mysticism: Paths to Spiritual Awakening appeared first on Integral Yoga® Magazine.

The House  will be a beacon of mutual understanding, harmonious coexistence, and peace among people of faith and goodwill. It consists of a mosque, church, synagogue, and educational center to be built on Saadiyat Island, the cultural heart of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Through its design, it captures the values shared between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and serves as a powerful platform for inspiring and nurturing understanding and acceptance between people of goodwill. The vision for the Abrahamic Family House originated after the signing of the Document on Human Fraternity by Pope Francis and Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb in February 2019. This landmark will be a place for learning, dialogue, and worship – open to all and a true reflection of the UAE’s belief in tolerance and hospitality.

Within each of the houses of worship, visitors will have the opportunity to learn about religious services, listen to holy scripture, and experience sacred rituals. A fourth space—not affiliated with any specific religion—will be an educational center where all people can come together as a single community devoted to mutual understanding and peace. The Abrahamic Family House will host a variety of programming and events—from daily religious services to international summits. Currently under construction, the project’s anticipated completion date is in 2023 and will be one of several undertakings the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity will advise upon.

The post Interfaith Complex To Be Built in Abu Dhabi appeared first on Integral Yoga® Magazine.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.

If we want to make all our days holy days we should think of the inspiring thoughts of the great sages and saints. Otherwise, when we celebrate this holiday season, it will be just once a year fun. Instead, let us utilize the season to reaffirm that we wish to lead lives filled with love and our minds filled with peace. Then you are truly a religious person, a spiritual person—whether you are a Jew, a Christian, or you are celebrating Kwanzaa and honoring the meaningful principles of a beautiful culture.

Yes, to be religious or spiritual is very simple. When we say, “May the Christ be born” or when we light the menorah, what does this mean? It means: “May you recognize the Light in you. May we tear up the veil and see the Light.” And with that Light we certainly will see nothing but Light everywhere. It is only then that we can also have unconditional love.

To love unconditionally, we have to learn how to sacrifice or rise above the little selfish ego. We have to learn to see God’s face in every atom in the whole world. When we want peace and happiness then we should also give peace and happiness. And we should not take away somebody else’s peace and happiness.

 Beloved friends, that’s what I would love to tell you during this holy season. Holy days should remind us of our inherent Divine nature, our inherent peace and joy, which is called, in religious terms, “the image of God” within you.

Whatever names are given to this Truth—God, Consciousness, Being, Christ, Allah, Shekinah, Siva, Shakti—they are not different. They are all just different names for that one Truth. Whatever be the holy occasion, it is there to remind us and to renew our awareness of that Truth that we are the image of God.

At least during these holy days we should raise above these differences and recognize the spiritual oneness we all share. Unfortunately, even in the name of religion we have somehow injected these differences. But, the real purpose of religion is to remind us of our spiritual oneness.

All these celebrations and festivities are simply aids. They help us to remember these truths. This season may be a time in which you put up your tree, decorate your homes, light the menorah, exchange gifts, and so on. But, it should not just stop there. If, after the celebrations you awaken a little different person, a little better person, with a more peaceful mind and loving heart, then you really have celebrated these holidays as holy days.

May you recognize the Light in you. Look within, experience that joy, that peace, that holyday spirit. Let these holy days bring this awareness to you so that you can celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and all the holy days every day of your life. That is my sincere wish for each of you. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.

By Sri Swami Satchidananda

The post Let the Holidays Become Your Light-filled Holydays appeared first on Integral Yoga® Magazine.

Explore the site to learn how we can transform our minds; the wisdom that lies in the body; why attention matters and how to cultivate it; and the use of mindfulness to promote mental health, help break the cycle of addiction, overcome othering, and more. Essays are complemented by powerful illustrations and audio-visual content from the Mind & Life archives and podcast.

“As a global community, we’re up against some very big challenges; yet reading through these essays offers a healthy dose of optimism,” writes Mind & Life President Susan Bauer-Wu. “Minds can change. Minds do change. We have the knowledge and understanding to foster greater well-being, nurture more caring and compassionate communities, and engage our hearts and minds proactively in combating climate change.”

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The New Monasticism, a new book by Rory McEntee and Adam Bucko, is a rallying call for new types of spiritual life and communities; as an overview of the theological, philosophical, and contemplative foundations behind the new monasticism; and as a whole-hearted advocacy of interspirituality as an approach that can accelerate human spiritual growth and maturity.

The book is in a very real sense part of Teasdale’s legacy. Rory McEntee serves as Executive Director of the Foundation for New Monasticism and helped found the Interspiritual Movement, which are both deeply indebted to Teasdale’s pioneering work. Adam Bucko is an activist, spiritual director to many of New York City’s homeless youth, and co-author of Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation, which we chose as one of the Best Spiritual Books of 2013. Bucko, who spent time at Satchidananda Ashram–Yogaville, pays tribute to Swami Satchidananda, one of his teachers in the acknowlegments.

Spirituality & Practice magazine reviewed The New Monasticism and you can read their review here. The book is now available from all booksellers, including Amazon.

The post The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Living appeared first on Integral Yoga® Magazine.

“ Mission: JOY ” is the moving and charming documentary about the friendship between Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu and their secrets of finding joy in troubled times. These unlikely friends impart lessons gleaned from lived experience, ancient traditions, and the latest cutting-edge science regarding how to live with joy in the face of all of life’s challenges. “Mission: JOY” is an antidote for the times.

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