In the course of our daily lives, we are constantly making judgements, evaluating our own actions and feelings as well as those of others. We are rewarded for our sound judgements and penalized for our bad judgements.Judgements are proactive when you decide how to act and what to say in certain situations based on your
by Rudra Shivananda The worst enemies of a spiritual practitioner are boredom and doubt. Gone are the early heady days when you found your spiritual path and embarked on a set of practice that you were sure would lead you to your goal… you now find excuses to skip your meditation. To be sure, you
By Rudra Shivananda A few days ago, we commemorated the life of a great leader for the freedom movement. Martin Luther King took up the mantle of Mahatma Gandhi and became a beacon of light not only for black Americans but for people all over the world. We need not discuss his heroic application of
By Rudra Shivananda Every year, most of us experience a day of remembrance called the birthday. Yet, as we celebrate surviving another year of life, we wonder if there is any deeper significance beyond the cake, laughter and champagne. It is wonderful to be surrounded by those who care about you. When you are young,
By Rudra Shivananda I was meeting with a student and her family last night and she was very concerned that her peers at the local university were undermining her belief in rebirth and therefore she was doubting the whole necessity for spiritual practice. In her mind, the two seemed to be linked. First off, these
By Rudra Shivananda Oftentimes, spiritual students are confused by their emotional nature and unable to come to terms with their intellectual understanding of the deeper aspects of life. It is then necessary to contemplate continuously on a truth in order to remove the emotional blockage. A mere reading or nodding acceptance is insufficient. A few
By Rudra Shivananda It may be useful for the spiritual seeker if we explore a model of consciousness that I use because it is closely correlated with yogic experience. This model differentiates between brain, mind and consciousness in a practical way for spiritual evolution. Scientists are still in the process of understanding the functions of
By Rudra Shivananda A poet, a writer, society spokesperson and fearless crusader are some of the images evoked by Maya Angelou, who recently passed away. I would also like to highlight her role as an evolved spiritual seeker who can give guidance to others seeking to rise above the waves of a turbulent life. Her
By Rudra Shivananda In key spiritual texts, re-birth and liberation are explained in terms of the moon and the Sun, keeping in mind that we are not talking about the physical sun and moon but the existential planes they represent. If a person has done a lot of good deeds, such that the good exceeds
By Rudra Shivananda Every now and then, a spiritual practitioner will contact me and reveal that he is struggling with an addiction to on-line pornography and ask about remedies. After a little research, it appears that this kind of condition is not uncommon with the proliferation of on-line sites in recent years. In a short