The wonderful thing about this yogic path is that you can stay in your home with your beloveds doing what you’ve already chosen to do and get enlightened while you’re there.  Except it’s harder in some ways because you have your usual dance patterns, the way you interact with everyone in your life. And they want you to keep being the same old…

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Maayaa“

This is the point of meditation, that your Kundalini will climb your spine and merge into your sahasrara.  That you will be jivanmukta, enlightened while alive.  And you will be engaged with the world — fulfilling your dharma, completing your karmas, giving from the… 

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Merging Into the Inner Infinity“

Soul is not Self.  When you experience the soul level of your being, it is profound.  It is meaningful.  It is deep and holy.  You are deep and holy.  Yet, there is more.  Soul is like the sunlight shining through a window.  Your soul is a window through which you can see…

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Self & Soul“

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Maayaa is illusion. Moha is delusion.

The difference can be confusing, though it is easy to sort out. A magician doing card tricks is a master of illusion. To believe that their illusions are real is delusion.

Our world is made of energy, manifesting as matter. This means that matter isn’t really solid. You could call it an illusion. Some meditative traditions base their teachings and practices on this principle.

Kashmiri Shaivism says the illusion is real — you are living in a movie set. But there is nowhere else to go. This is Shiva’s movie set. The storyline is compelling, due to Shiva’s incredible creativity.

All the players are Shiva in disguise. The disguise is called Maayaa, the illusory power of Consciousness.

Maayaa is like the night sky on the Fourth of July in America. The stars and expanse beyond them are hidden by exploding fireworks. Maayaa is the fireworks. Maayaa is a great and powerful energy, so powerful that she can hide Shiva from you.

As you enact your part in the storyline, unfortunately you get lost in it. Your happiness depends on the story. Your whole sense of self is determined by…

Your mind has the ability to erase an old way of looking at the world. Your mind has the ability to create a new relationship with the world. Your mind has the ability to see the same old world in a whole new way. You’ve been looking for the change to come from…

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “One Pulsation“

Clinging means your happiness depends on this certain thing. Repulsion means your unhappiness is guaranteed by a certain thing. But when any single thing will either give you happiness or unhappiness, that thing or that person is in charge. You already know not to rely on the weather for your happiness, yes? How about…

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Differences Divide“

What are you hanging on to?  Let me put it another way. Anything that you’re hanging on to, if God wants you to have it, you will still have it when you surrender to God. God wants the best for you…

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Surrender to God“

What do you do when there’s nothing left to seek? There’s nowhere to go, nothing to gain, for it is all already found within, oh, Shiva. Instead of looking for something to get, something to fill me, I am already full. So, I look for what I… 

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Sanctification“

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

At the beach, I revel in watching the waves rolling onto the shore. Each has its own personality. One wave is taller but another is wider.

One wave washes farther up the shore. Another gets swallowed up by one coming from behind. Yet they are all made of the same ocean water. They are all the same while they are all different.

Like this, Shiva is being everything in the universe. Every individual and every single thing is different from the others, yet all are made of Shiva. Shiva is having a glorious time being multifaceted, like a bride wearing three different wedding gowns at her wedding events. We love the play of the differences!

While Shiva is having a good time being you, you might not be enjoying it quite so much. Your focus on differences creates a “pushmi-pullyu” effect. Simply look at a serving platter full of cupcakes. You can get caught up in which of them will be most to your liking. But if someone beats you to it, you might have a few words to say or maybe a plan for payback. Unfortunately, things can escalate, even get out of control quickly.

Yoga says, “Look within. Find your own essence — see the One Divine Reality hidden in all.” Then you delight in the superficial differences. Your experience is like turning the wheel on a kaleidoscope, getting ever changing colors tumbling in the unchanging ray of light. And you get to eat your cupcake.

One way to work on your inner deepening is based on a sophisticated understanding of how energy becomes matter, including the physical matter of your own body.

You delve into your own experiences, exploring the cosmic process in reverse. You expand your awareness in a meticulously step-by-step process.

Sharire samhara kalanam. — Shiva Sutras 3.4

Dissolve the tattvas, each into the preceding, to realize the highest tattva, Shiva.

An easy example is vision. While you are seeing an object right now, perhaps words on a page, this is because you have the ability to see. This capacity of seeing is more subtle than any single object upon which you gaze. In this awareness, you have now expanded inward, dissolving from a single visual into your capacity for seeing. Each of these levels is a tattva (principle of Consciousness).

Delving into your ability to see, you realize that it is merely one type of perception, utilizing only one specific sensory capacity. Perception itself is greater than any single sensory pathway. Exploring into perception itself, you encounter…

To discover who you are is the purpose of meditation.  It is an inner exploration that takes you deeper and deeper within.  But at the end of your meditation, your peripheral vision is wider.  Your focus didn’t shut you down. It opened you up.  Your capacity for caring, compassion…

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Peripheral Vision“