Beginning Saint

The word Yoga is a Sanskrit word that means “union with God…….. union with your highest-Self.” What does “union with God” mean?

A beginning saint learns that feeling “one with God,” recognizing “God” the greatest power within your own self, can be the biggest realization you’ve ever had. A beginning saint is a person who wants to know and trust that divine power within him or her.

As we speak, there are thousands of yoga studios and centers around the world that provide instruction in the various forms of physical exercise and stress release which students in rapid paced societies need for both physical and emotional survival. 

Most yoga centers focus on what is called “outer yoga” the physical postures and sitting positions that purify the physical body to prepare the student for “inner yoga.” They teach asanas (sitting and standing postures) which enable corrections in the physical body structure that allow the spirit within to evolve more easily.
The great saint Patanjali of India wrote the Yoga Sutras, discoveries he made from his research in meditation.  His first teaching or Sutra is:  “Yoga is the stilling of the modifications of the mind. Then the seer rests in his essential nature.” This means, that when one lets go, or quiets down his own mind full of distractions, desires, worry, fear and so forth, he can have an experience of his blissful, happy, aware, “highest God-Self.”

The majority of yoga instructors emphasize the importance of establishing both strength and stability in ones sitting posture for meditation. It’s difficult to focus on quieting the mind when the body is distracted or in pain. When the student is able to create a firm sitting foundation, he or she is much more able to focus and empty his mind, and because of this, is then more likely to experience the peace and blissful feelings that great sages are able to attain.

Right now is an exciting time in the world where so many thousands of human beings both desire and practice the teachings that will lead them to those peaceful states. The practice of inner yoga can eventually lead one to enlightenment, the constant state of awareness of ones highest Self.  Eventually practicing outer yoga, encouraging the development of a flexible body can lead to developing a powerful and stable mind - able to achieve great focus and actions in the world.

Beginning saints practice both outer and inner yoga, the juice that allows for the perfection and fruition of the God-Self, the consciousness of one’s highest being.  Both elements of yoga work together to help the student achieve purification and clarity of purpose. Both together lead to spiritual transformation of the individual and the planet at large.

A true saint is a being who knows that he or she is divine and that you are as well.  The true saint is supremely free, and has no expectation of needing to perform a role, a job, or a particular responsibility in life. There have been saints who lived in every country on the earth.  They may not have been identified as a saint by any other person or spiritual tradition, but they existed with the knowledge, understanding and experience of a true saint just the same…. one who knows they are God, living as a human being in this lifetime.

Saints have also lived as householders, monks, grocers, farmers, teachers, scientists, kings and queens, and have literally performed everyday functions in all walks of life.  There have also been famous saints who became self-realized as children.  Many used their healing powers to help others. Many were revered teachers.

Many helped others in a wide variety of life tasks, as doctors or nurses, feeding people and healing wounds.

But often saints assumed the role of spiritual guides. They performed purification rites and rituals and brought students to their same state of light and love.  They taught how to live a pure, happy, joyful life and how to still and purify the mind.  In many cases they even taught people how to cook, how to eat properly, how to take care of their own body through hatha yoga, cleansing. and eating properly. They taught us how to be a partner, a parent, a student, a world citizen, a responsible member of society.  They taught us how to be a true human being in the world. 

A few rare enlightened saints down through the ages also became Gurus, the highest form of sainthood.

A true Guru is a person who not only is self-realized, but can make his or her students realize, or know and attain the same spiritual state. A true Guru is an enlightened saint, who after serving his or her own Guru, may have earned the power to awaken sacred energy in another. The Guru’s role is to guide the seeker over his or her lifetime to the highest truth.

Through both their words and their own behaviors they teach us how to live a pure and beautiful life.  They teach us how to discriminate between what is of value in life and what is of no value. True enlightened beings teach us which elements in life are temporary and which elements inf life are eternal.

In the presence of a true Guru one’s life is transformed forever. The greatest gift in this lifetime is to find your own true Guru who resonates with what you already know within yourself. The Guru helps us transcend the small- self habits and beliefs that contribute to our suffering, and inspires us to overcome the ignorance and limitations that bring us back to earth lifetime after lifetime to endure the consequences of past actions.  The Guru helps us to purify those misunderstandings and create an uplifting new life for ourselves. Ones Guru is ones best friend forever who has committed their life and love to our spiritual evolution.

“Beginning Saint” is based on the understanding taught by the true enlightened saints of all spiritual traditions, that God, Supreme Consciousness exists everywhere, in everything and everyone, including in you and each one of us. “Beginning Saint” teaches that when the reader contemplates and practices seeing the divine in everyone, especially his or her own self, the entire planet Earth benefits. Individuals focus on the best in each other and themselves and have a happier attitude toward life.

For centuries, however, in many spiritual traditions, powerful people maintained control of what was taught to the common man or woman of the time.  Some controlled through fear, through their judgments, and through their individual interpretations of the scriptural teachings of the times. Some teachings developed around what they thought the average person in their society could intellectually comprehend. Other teachings were blatantly designed to control the economics of the culture, the status quo of the elite, caste, or cultural hierarchy.  

But it was the mystical wing of ancient spiritual traditions that have the most in common with other spiritual traditions; those of unity consciousness; to love one another; the power of our mind to create our world; and purification of our mind through love, compassion, forgiveness and generosity.  “Beginning Saint” presents these life-purifying teachings and skills in the simplest, understandable way. It’s goal is to help the reader to make total sense of his or her life, to empower him with the tools to create the life he/she wants, and the skills to make it happen.       

If you are not already an enlightened content and happy being twenty-four hours a day, you’re probably a Beginning Saint, a saint in process, like me.  A Beginning Saint is just starting to learn what it means that God is everywhere, in you, in me, in him, in her, in everyone, everything, everywhere. The poet saint named Hafiz describes it best I think.

                                      You’re It! 

                                         God

                                      Disguised

                            As a myriad things and           

                                  Playing a game

                                         Of tag

                           Has kissed you and said,

                                   “You’re it!—-

                           I mean you’re Really IT!”

                                       Now

                             It does not matter

                          What you believe or feel

                          For something wonderful,

                          Major-league Wonderful,

                              Is someday going

                                        To

                                    Happen.

This is the teaching of all true saints. They are telling you that you are really GOD, living as you in this lifetime, playing this wonderful game of hide and seek, living in your body as the person you are, choosing all the members of the family you have, in order to discover your own greatness- so you can learn to live 24 hours a day in the consciousness and awareness of your God-Self, you highest Self - your wise, happy, loving, joyful, brilliant, strong, playful, creative, kind, and radiant splendid Self.  

For centuries this understanding has been kept a secret, but it’s out now.  You’re IT! But is that enough to know? Not really…..because God is within everyone, we each need to develop the life skills to use our mind and our life in the most uplifting way.  The true saints tell us there are only two obstacles to happiness:  the belief that we are separate from God, and the kind and quality of the choices we make.  The book, Beginning Saint maps the start of the journey to the ecstatic state of an enlightened saint. 

In the blogs to follow we will identify the essential life skills that a person needs in order to navigate a happy meaningful life.  Most education in the twenty-first century is focused on material innovation. Beginning Saint proposes a transformation in consciousness. The true saints are prototypes for human beings of the future. We will learn more about the qualities of those saints who have existed since time immemorial and do exit in all cultural and spiritual traditions around the Earth.  

Most of all, this Website is a place you can come to, to remind yourself of who you truly are, so that you do not go into doubt about yourself.  We all need reminders of our greatness every day —- it takes practice to become stable and certain of your God-identity. In the mean time we will present teachings and exercises that will help you maintain the knowledge and peace of that awareness as long as you need a little reminder.  I know I still need to go to the teachings of the great ones…….they are a pure, safe, refuge for our highest Self.

This week, practice seeing yourself as a ray of God in your form!

Although I have been a psychotherapist for over thirty-five years, have treated hundreds of wonderful bright people from every ethnicity and culture on earth, it remains a mystery to me why the most important education - of life skills, what are we doing on planet Earth in these bodies, how to be a person in the world skills, how to communicate, negotiate, resolve conflicts, how to take care of these bodies, how to earn a living, and what happens to us when we die answers…….are never taught in our schools.

Why? The truly enlightened saints of all the major spiritual traditions have known for centuries. They’ve even tried to teach us, “God is everywhere.” But the interpretation of the knowledge, “God is everywhere,” has been taught more often as a threat, “If you don’t believe God is everywhere, you will be punished.” than taught as a revelation of love, Oneness, of magnificence, or of upliftment. When I almost died myself I was motivated to find out the truth. “Why am I here? What am I supposed to do here? What is the purpose of life anyway?” I asked myself. “Is there really such a thing as God, and if so, how do I experience God’s presence? How can I help people love each other better if they don’t even know who they are themselves, let alone the truth that not only are they God, in the form they live in, but the person they live with is also God. The child, husband, wife, friend, parent, boss, and even “enemy” is also God, taking the particular form of that person. Then I asked myself, “So what do you do about the knowledge once you know it?” My beloved grandmother was dying in a hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, and almost at the same time two friends asked me to be their child’s godmother.

How can I authentically teach children about God when I don’t have absolute conviction about what it’s about myself.” “Who does know? I thought to myself.

So, I started reading the teachings of the greatest saints across the world and practicing their various meditations, contemplations and exercises. I met at least five or six saints on my own journey, and discovered that the true saints seem to be all saying the same thing. “You are that great presence that you have been looking for.” In one way or another, in different cultures and different languages and rituals, they each are telling us, “We’re It! We are God - all of us.” They also teach physical and thinking practices that will help us have an actual feeling experience of our divinity. They teach us how to achieve and maintain an imperturbable mind and life. They teach us how to transform limiting beliefs, and how to view this life with excitement and passion free from fearful thoughts. What is required of a student of a true saint? Practice! As I practiced and practiced myself I found their teachings bringing me the most wonderful fruit. I decided to write down these teachings and experiences to share with my godchildren.

I’m hoping that by reading Beginning Saint and coming back and back to this website, that what you discover here will ignite your own longing to know and experience the magnificent, exquisite beginning saint, that is the God-Self that is within you.

SAINTS HAVE MORE FUN!  

Love, Joy, bliss, Happy, Laughter, Play, Clarity,  Brilliant, Compassion,Patient, Peaceful, Dancing, Singing, Enthusiastic, Expressive, Thrilling, Creative,Healthy, Shinning, Radiant, Sweet, Natural, Courageous, Content, Brave, Self-confident, Trustworthy, Eternal, Present,

These are the synonyms of a Saint and many many more!

Read Beginning Saint to discover and develop the Saint in You!