Swami Kamalananda
Speaks on "Centers, Circles, and Cycles of Perfection"
Sunday, November 16, 2014 at 11:00am
The three “C’s” in the subject title for this Sunday are not mere symbols, nor are they mere philosophical concepts: They are Powers of Divine Perfection. By our understanding of them we grow, we attain greater happiness and become more wise. By appreciating how they work we also gain access to higher states of consciousness.
—S.K.
From the Gurus and Swamis : AUM
"Day receives night,
morning succeeds the evening,
spring follows winter;
such is the incessant play of time.
Life on earth is constantly fading away,
but this longing for it lingers on.
To be born is to die,
to be born again in a mother’s womb,
only to taste again the cup of sorrow.
Such is the law of creation (Samsara).
Then, O man!
How canst thou remain so satisfied in the
world of the senses?"
—Swami Shankaracharya, The Moha-Mudgar, from “The Way of Wisdom & Self-liberation” by Swami Premananda
* * * * * * * * * * *
"I have come to this earthly globe as an individual
unknown to all the individuals dwelling in this universe of
creation.
Yet I am at once in harmony with life here — all lives in
this portion of infinity wherein life welcomes life in an
unending current of conscious existence.
Light reveals my presence.
I am, but who am I veiled in mystery before the vision of
all other percipient multitudes?"
—Swami Premananda Giri, “Prayers of Soul”
* * * * * * * * * * *
"I may go far, farther than the farthest star,
but I will be Thine always!
Devotees may come, devotees may go,
but I will be Thine always.
I may bound over the billows of many lives,
forlorn beneath the skies of loneliness,
but I will be Thine always.
The world may leave Thee,
while playing with Thy playthings,
but I will be Thine always.
Thou mayest take everything away that Thou gavest me,
but I will be Thine always."
—Swami Yogananda Paramahansa, from “Whispers from Eternity”
Noble Thoughts: ("Let Noble Thoughts come to us from all sides." —Rigveda)
“Within the circles of our lives
we dance the circles of the years,
the circles of the seasons
within the circles of the years,
the cycles of the moon
within the circles of the seasons,
the circles of our reasons
within the cycles of the moon.
Again and again we come and go,
changed, changing. Hands join,
unjoin in love and fear,
grief and joy. The circles turn,
each giving into each, into all.
Only music keeps us here,
each by all the others held.
In the hold of hands and eyes
we turn in pairs, that joining
joining each to all again.
And then we turn aside, alone,
out of the sunlight gone
into the darker circles of return."
—Wendell Berry, “Closing the Circle”
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls... The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back to where they were. The life of man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves."
—Black Elk, "Black Elk Speaks"
* * * * * * * * * * * *
“Whenever inbreath and outbreath fuse, at this instant touch the energyless energy-filled center.”
—Lakshmanjoo, "Vigyan Bhairava," translated by Paul Reps
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"When the inward and outward are illumined and all is clear, you are one with the light of sun and moon. When developed to its ultimate state, this is a round luminosity which nothing can deceive, the subtle body of a unified spirit pervading the whole universe. Then you have the same function as the sun and moon."
Liu I-Ming, "Awakening to the Tao"