We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But once a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for conversation, more readings, songs, quotes - you never know what treasures will be uncovered!
Baba’s Work Projects—Us!
Dear folks of Baba,
It takes a long time for us to realize that we can’t do this on our own. We need inside help. I remember Dr. Kenmore, one of Baba’s mandali, saying that no matter how you manipulate and re-arrange “imperfection”, you cannot get “Perfection.” In Harry’s words, “Perfection has to reach in from the Other Side and pull you out of imperfection!” Baba Himself gave the metaphor of a jar with all of us inside; we cannot get out unless someone on the outside removes the lid. All the advances in psychology, medicine and spiritual practices, although often helpful in our inner journey toward Perfection, cannot provide the final step of lifting us out of imperfection, this world of illusion and our false self. We have a profound and incurable nostalgia for this dear old world of ours and our close ones. To sign up as volunteers on Baba’s list of billions of “Work Projects” speeds up the strenuous, seemingly interminable process immeasurably. And it is love, expressed moment to moment, day by day, year in and year out, that helps Baba to help us out of this rut we got ourselves into eons ago. Love is the great Dissolver of the veils that keep us from drowning in Baba’s Ocean of Divine Love and Light.
In this next chapter, Darwin Shaw explores some of the fundamental ways that our ego manages to keep us lulled by this enticing dream of illusion. Many of the things we have to give up, which consist primarily of inner attitudes and misconceptions, are what most people would consider “a normal life.” We are not inclined to give up our normal life until we see that it is preventing us from experiencing a deeper and more fulfilling life that we long for. And this means we have to go against the current of much of our present life. It is really Baba who precipitates this whole re-orientation, and He usually sees to it that it goes smoothly at first before we become His work projects in real earnest. Our perpetual reward for this internal work on ourselves is Baba’s continuous companionship.
In this book, Darwin mostly relies upon our intuitive understanding of what he writes, but having been around him for years, I found that I needed real life examples and clarification which he graciously provided. The examples you share from your own experience are so helpful for all of us in understanding many of the nuances of the inner life with Baba. Whether you know it or not, sharing your struggles and breakthroughs will really help clarify the subtleties of the spiritual life for others.
What are some of the ways that Baba guides you and works with you inwardly?
Here is a quote from a poem that Mani, Baba’s sister, used to share:
“I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown. And he replied: “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night…”
In His love, Jeff
PS. I think we left off on page 8
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