The FREEDOM Blog

In the world of spirituality today, particularly non-duality, the concept of 'choicelessness' has become extremely popular. We have even spoken about it. However, there is something that needs to be understood... You can not act from choicelessness!  Choicelessness is actually a realization, not a philosophy or technique by which to live, and yet many use it as if it was just that. "I will not make any effort to Awaken or to inquiry into the Self, because if it is meant to happen, it will simply happen effortlessly."  When experienced or thought of like this, the concept of choicelessness is something of a poison that infects the will. This is a very subtle point which is extremely easily misunderstood. It goes along with the concept of non-doership. The Gita tells us that even the wise are confused by the ideas of action, non-action, right action and wrong action, because there can be doing in non-doing and non-doing in doing. For instance, you decide you like the i...

I am often accused (by one of my local 'gurus') of "Poverty Consciousness," to which I like to remind them that what I generally have is not poverty consciousness, but rather simplicity consciousness. There's a big difference. Nowadays, with the Secret video, books on the law of attraction, the divine matrix, etc. etc. there is again a big 'new age' push for prosperity consciousness. With the vast majority of people this idea of prosperity consciousness indeed springs from their inherent poverty consciousness. The feeling that occurs for them is that "I don't have and I want!" So, I begin to visualize all the things I WANT in order to manifest them. It doesn't matter if they need them or not, whether having them will be detrimental to themselves, others or the planet. Screw all that! I WANT IT... I VISUALIZE IT ... I DEMAND IT. This has nothing to do with prosperity, just plain old greed repackaged in a new box - prosperity consciousn...

Many people talk of spiritual realization - seek it, treasure it, even speak as if they have 'achieved' it, but often it is not REAL-ization, but rather a form of spiritual MENTAL-ization or INTELLECTUAL-ization. The key facet of REALization is the word REAL. It is a concrete recognition, not simply a mental or intellectual understanding. Now, I am not demeaning a mental or intellectual understanding of spirituality or Truth, but only wish to make the distinction clear. Let me give a couple of my common examples. First, nearly anyone who has ever had a child knows that there is a HUGE difference between thinking about having a child and actually conceiving and giving birth to one. When you look down at your own child, lying there, alive, virtually helpless, and squiggling, you know...YOU KNOW... that your life will NEVER again be the same! Or, going to India. Many people know far more about India than I do. They can name every sacred site, teacher, language spoken, etc. They ca...

The other day it came to my attention, when a friend cried out, "I have Power!" that this is part of the fundamental problem, particularly when it comes to some of the new age and alternative thinking. It is the basic distinction of Having versus Being: like I 'have' prosperity' rather than I 'am' properity; or I 'have' enlightenment, rather than I 'am' enlightenment. (Also note the distinction 0f I am enlightenMENT versus I am EnlightenED.) The I "Have" creates a duality that is less subtle even than I Am. I AM is a doorway; I HAVE is a very definite 'me' and 'not me'. Let's get into grammar for a moment. In Sanskrit (and a number of other languages) there is actually not a verb for 'to have'. You can 'be with' something, like 'I am with this car' or 'this car is being with me' or even 'it is my car,' but not I have this car. (I know, subtle distinction.) But it does s...

Aja: So imagine for a moment, that you have heard about this great place, Puddletown, and it sounds like a really great place, where everyone is happy and peaceful, and blissful, and there's no problems there. Puddletown is the place to be.  It's filled with people and everything is wonderful. So what's the first thing you do? What would you do? Student: Be skeptical. Aja: Be skeptical? Good! What else would you do? Student: Find out what they're eating. Aja: Find out what they're eating?  Okay. Well, that wasn't exactly where I was going, but along those lines. But yes, you'd start studying it, researching it, finding out what you could about it. Now, as you did that you'd start finding out a lot about Puddletown and you would start to believe in this place called Puddletown. You'd even know their diet. You'd probably start eating like a Puddletonian. Then you start trying to figure out how to get there. But the problem is that the informati...

Everyone knows what a diode is. Well, actually, I have no idea what a diode is - some electrically thing. But forget that. You are a DIOD. So what is a DIOD? Let me explain: Part 1. There are two basic ways of looking at the universe, Existence, All of THIS: one is that it is a totally mechanical spontaneous arising, of elements that randomly came together much like the pieces of a watch that just happened to fall together into Watchness, or the thousand monkeys on typewriters ultimately coming up with Shakespeare, OR There is intelligence behind all of this, a God/Dess, Isness, a great Singularity of Intelligence, Cosmic Beingness, Wisdom, Creator, Creatress, Creatrix, Network, Hoo Haa, Divine Wow, Big Bangaroonie, that Expressed, Imagined, created, manifested the 100 trillion stars and 100 trillion cells of you and everything else perfectly, OUT OF HIM/HER/IT-SELF. Now, we're not saying that the first group is dummies, but....duh! Which makes more sense? Which feels right? Which ...

I know it's hard to imagine, sometimes, but all that is, whatever is, is perfect. In honor of my good friend and former student, Jnanacharya, I'd like to point out, as he did, that perfect does NOT mean 'double good'. Perfect means that there is nothing wrong; things are exactly as they are meant to be. Whatever is happening in the Uni-verse is happening just as it is meant to happen. So, why don't you believe this? Because your 'mind' is telling you differently. The mind says"No, it should be like this or that or the other." But if your mind wasn't speaking, would it not be perfect? It's very much like the question, "If a tree falls in the woods and there's nobody there to hear it, would it make a sound?" So, rephrasing this - "If a situation arose, but no mind to say it is a problem, would there be a problem?" Obviously not. Does that mean you do nothing? Yes and No. You do nothing. The universe does everything. B...