The American River Retreat 2011At this year’s annual summer retreat, Babaji presented a sadhaka’s toolbox of cautions, warnings, signs, maps, and methods for the aspiring yogi and yogini.  The retreat outline is given below.  It is interesting to note that it begins with what we should never allow to happen from the outset – Negligence of remaining aware of Brahman, …

Class Notes from Babaji’s May visit to California and Oregon

Purifying the Mind
Mind, when it ceases to vibrate, is Brahman.  Sri Ramakrishna has said that pure mind is God.  Lord Buddha states that pure mind is Buddha Mind. Ordinary mind is finite….but “from the infinite the finite has come….”

Faster than sound is light.  Faster than light is the speed of the mind, of thought.  But Brahman “outstrips all that runs…”

We must tune this mind to be swift, to return to Original Mind, Buddha Mind.  If pure mind is God, then it must be that impure mind is not God.  Therefore, impure mind is the only thing standing in our way.  So we have to purify the mind.  This is where sadhana comes in, a great necessity.  When you purify the mind then it is nothing more than Pure Consciousness.

Spring Weekend Seminar with Babaji Bob Kindler

Student’s Reflection and Notes
One of the indelible parts of this retreat for me was to learn that many of the 97 “minor” upanisads (out of 108) in the Vedas incorporate what we have come to know as Yoga and Kundalini Yoga. Many are given the names of the Deities and some Incarnations as well, suggesting an element of Tantra. As Babaji stated in classes this visit, the rishis had a deep love of Yoga.

Student Notebook
From Babaji’s Mainland Classes

San Francisco Satsangs
[The following are salient points from Babaji’s evening discourses and answers to peoples’ questions.]:

Some luminaries teach only the upper crust of humanity, but Avatar befriends all, not just the wise.  Sri Ramakrishna has the greatest compassion for the suffering masses.

Here, in Bhurloka, the physical realm, we are working against the odds.  That is why people come here — to become masters of freedom.  “If you can do it here, you can do it anywhere”….”it” meaning gain your freedom, moksha/mukti.

If one only reminds the soul about its true nature from time to time, one may be surprised how fast it catches on.  But you also have to work at it from various angles.

Susan’s Reflection

“The Seattle retreat was wonderful in every way!  Mantra, Tantra and Yantra were explained in wonderful detail with Babaji’s inimitable style accompanied by his usual array of AMAZING charts to facilitate deeper understanding.  

The location was charming and everything was well organized, comfortable, and divine, along with wonderful, erudite and sweet spiritual companions/seekers, good food and lots of cozy places to relax and further study and ponder all the deep, thought provoking teaching and transmissions given by Babaji on this most lovely of retreats.  Many thanks!”

Reflections on the Kundalini Retreat 2010
by Akshaya-bhakti

First, I must acknowledge the sweet, devotional aura which pervaded the retreat.  I realize through the teachings that even positive feelings are transitory, are part of the dualities of life; however, being with guru and sangha at the idyllic Buckhorn Springs Retreat Center brought a  rare joy that I can instantly recall in its full intensity.   Even when I watch the luminous faces in my slide show of Medha’s photos, I am overcome by a deep sense of love that goes beyond mere convention.  

Hawaii Sankhya Retreat Reflection: A Poem

Who can describe the eternal?
That fairy land of delicate peace
Where the mind is so big it is gone
And no reason exists to describe it at all.

Class Notes from Babaji’s classes in Oregon and in the prisons
October, 2010

The Way of the Rishis
These beings, rishis, came, lived, struggled and survived, and did not find fault with the teachings or the world.  How is this possible when there are so many imperfections here? This is what they realized:

11/14, First Class in the Hawaii Kundalini Yoga Series with Babaji Bob Kindler Over time, monastics got ahold of the Upanisads and accented the formless in them – interpreted and commented upon them with an emphasis on the formless Reality.  But God with form is just as important, and perhaps more important because most people prefer it.  They don’t have …

Dissolving the Mindstream

During Babaji’s visits to the mainland there is always a particular thread running through the various themes and their corresponding teachings.  As I looked through my notes, “Dissolving the mindstream” was that thread over Babaji’s 2010 summer visit.  This is both a Yogic and Vedantic meditation, called involution, that extracts one’s consciousness from apparently “external” gross objects, then from “internal” subtle objects, until one’s consciousness abides in Consciousness alone – Brahman, Paramatman, Chidakasha, Paramasiva.  This meditation cannot be done without a cosmology, which explains why Babaji has, over the past 17 years of SRV’s history, been insisting that we learn our Sankhya. (Jai Lord Kapila!).  That system underlies Patanjala Yoga, Vedanta, Tantra, and Yoga Vasishtha.  So it is no surprise that throughout this last visit, Babaji pulled out chart after chart presenting this cosmology from each of these perspectives and the process of involution again and again.  Thus, may we row, row, row our boats assiduously up the mindstream, deftly converging all tributaries, gross to subtle and subtle most, to our Source.

It may be of interest to everyone that Babaji will lead us through the meditation of Dissolving the Mindstream at the upcoming Kundalini Yoga Retreat, October 7 – 11.  Further, December’s Hawaii Retreat will focus specifically on the Sankhya darshana of Lord Kapila.  Please see our retreats page.

The following are from a student’s notebook.