I’m still getting unlimited benefits from Sahaja Yoga Meditation after 41 years daily practice:

Posted in 21st century trend, alert mental silence, benevolence, birthday, collective consciousness, dynamic inner silence, enlightenment, freedom, hope, joy, Kundalini, life, love, meditation, people, Sahaja Yoga Meditation, Shri Mataji, smile, thoughtless awareness, timelessness, well-being, yoga means 'UNION'
Tagged 21st century trend, birthday, cool breeze, fulfillment, humanity, inner freedom, inner peace, inspiration, life, Sahaja Yoga Meditation, self-realization, Shri Mataji, thoughtless awareness, wellbeing
Here’s a new melody/rythmn I played spontaneously in morning meditation today (and some top music stars talking about thoughtless-awareness and the cool-breeze)
Posted in 2023, 21st century trend, alert mental silence, creativity, dynamic inner silence, Ed Saugstad, fulfillment, fun, inspiration, joy, Kundalini, life, light, meditation, music, smile, talent, thoughtless awareness, timelessness, well-being
Tagged alert mental silence, Ed Saugstad, fulfillment, inspiration, joy, meditation, music, Neil Young, thoughtless awareness, Van Morrison, WeMeditate
Yesterday my wife and I felt a deep peace filling our nervous systems and I heard the same from friends in various parts of the world. There is definitely a general change of frequency taking place on Earth which is fine tuning, but also exposing embedded corruptions, individually and collectively. For over forty years I’ve been advising others to develop subtly by meditating (long before most doctors discovered its usefulness).
Please take a few minutes a day for this. The only way out of all this mess created by human beings is in-and-up. Otherwise the shaking and quaking is going to be experienced more and more intensely, and the roots of the chaos in us cannot be replaced by harmony.
Lots of love,
Ed
Posted in 2022, 21st century trend, alert mental silence, benevolence, collective consciousness, dynamic inner silence, enlightenment, freedom, fulfillment, gratitude, hope, humanity, joy, Kundalini, life, light, love, meditation, mental silence, peace, silence, smile, thoughtless awareness, well-being, yoga
Tagged harmony, hope, inner, joy, life, Sahaja Yoga meditaion
Ed leading international online meditation via Australia today
(I finally got a chance to visit Australia!😃🇦🇺🦘)
Posted in 2022, 21st century trend, alert mental silence, collective consciousness, dynamic inner silence, Ed Saugstad, enlightenment, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, Ganesha, grace, gratitude, happiness, hope, humanity, inspiration, joy, Kundalini, life, love, meditation, mental silence, reality, Sahaja Yoga Meditation, Shri Mataji, smile, spirituality, synchronicity, thoughtless awareness, timelessness, togetherness, well-being, yoga means 'UNION'
Tagged austra, fulfillment, inner freedom, joy, Sahaja Yoga meditaion, ShriMataji.org
An artist’s depiction of possibly the first historical mention (Bible) of the cool breeze https://wemeditate.com/subtle-system/kundalini (“Wind of the Holy Spirit”) and flowing waves of light (“Tongues of Flames”) above the heads of Self-realized human beings:
Posted in 21st century trend, alert mental silence, benevolence, collective consciousness, dynamic inner silence, enlightenment, freedom, fulfillment, grace, gratitude, happiness, hope, humanity, joy, Kundalini, life, light, meditation, peace, reality, smile, spirituality, thoughtless awareness, well-being, wisdom, wonder, yoga means 'UNION'
Tagged 21st century trend, cool breeze, inner freedom, Pentacost, Sahasrara Chakra, self-realization, Tonques of Flames, Wind of the Holy Spirit
Celebrating the 98th Birthday of my spiritual Mother today
https://shrimataji.org
There are two main reasons for the present Chaos,
in which all corruptions are being exposed:
For all good people to turn to their
Spirit for ultimate fulfillment;
And for already balanced, sensitive and dynamic persons to develop their
power of Witnessing.
Simple.
Keep your mind clear and your
heart brimming with love.
Posted in 21st century trend, alert mental silence, benevolence, collective consciousness, don't panic, dynamic inner silence, enlightenment, forgiveness, freedom, innocence, inspiration, joy, Kundalini, life, light, love, meditation, nature, peace, reality, Sahaja Yoga Meditation, Shri Mataji, spirituality, storm, synchronicity, thoughtless awareness, timelessness, togetherness, well-being, yoga means 'UNION'
Tagged 21st century trend, alert mental silence, collective consciousness, dynamic inner silence, joy, synchronicity, thoughtless awareness, universal love
We all seem to be climbing a great mountain, some slower, some quicker. Up here near the summit we discover that we are free from the bindings of our egos, conditionings and physical bodies — that we exist permanently above and beyond these limitations. In Rhonda Byrne’s new book, The Greatest Secret, I was happy to hear that deep experiences I’ve been having for almost forty years, through the teachings of Shri Mataji and the practice of Sahaja Yoga meditation, are becoming mainstream. This isn’t because of mass media, but because human beings are asking the right questions and feeling reality within themselves.
But I find that this new book, although it beautifully describes thoughtless-awareness and natural detachment from internal and external complications, is missing much of the detail that so many of us have experienced through daily, actual meditation. Among the most prominent phenomena is the amazing ‘cool breeze’ that flows in our central nervous systems when human beings attain joyful equilibrium. Also missing are the details of the workings of our subtle-systems of energy centers and channels, and the benevolent Kundalini energy in our spines.
Of course, the highest priority is the deep, silent meditation itself, a natural, essential state that should be achieved by all. But The Greatest Secret is only a glimpse through the window of enlightenment.
Just sayin’.
https://wemeditate.co
Posted in 2021, 21st century trend, alert mental silence, benevolence, books, collective consciousness, enlightenment, freedom, fulfillment, grace, gratitude, happiness, health, hope, humanity, inspiration, joy, Kundalini, life, light, love, meditation, mental silence, peace, reality, Sahaja Yoga Meditation, Shri Mataji, silence, smile, spirituality, thoughtless awareness, well-being, wisdom, yoga
Tagged harmony, inner freedom, inner peace, inner silence, joy, kundalini, meditation
Meditation and Neuroscience
Mental Silence benefits your brain.
• Meditators showed around 7% more grey matter, the largest published difference between healthy groups.
• As grey matter decreases with age and with most mental illnesses, this difference throughout the brain is associated with a younger and healthier brain.
• The grey matter difference was more marked in areas related to the control of attention and emotions.
An investigation on the influence of mental silence in the human brain has just been published in the magazine Plos One. The article is entitled: “Larger whole brain grey matter associated with long-term Sahaja Yoga Meditation: a detailed area by area comparison”. The original text is available at the following link:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0237552
It is said that, for more than forty thousand years, human beings have a language that allows us to communicate with precision, that language is reproduced within our brain as thoughts without interruption. When negative thoughts are repeated in vicious cycles, our mental health can be affected with issues such as stress, anxiety or depression.
Today there is plenty of scientific literature that shows that being with the attention in the present moment, in the here and now, is beneficial for our psyche and our general health. Unfortunately, thoughts take us out of the present moment and to stop the thoughts for a long time is not easy, especially when we are not doing tasks that demands much attention.
Yoga includes many different techniques, among which meditation (Dhayana in classical yoga) plays a leading role. The first yoga treatise, “The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali”, mentions that “yoga is the suppression of the modifications of the mind.” In ancient yoga a higher state of consciousness has been described, called “Nirvichara Samadhi”, which can be translated as “mental silence” or “thoughtless awareness”. In this state, the mind is calm, with a feeling of inner bliss, and with the attention focused on the present moment. Sahaja Yoga Meditation puts into practice the goals of classical Yoga to achieve the state of Nirvichara or mental silence.
Researchers led by Professor Sergio Elías Hernández from the University of La Laguna in Tenerife (ULL), in collaboration with scientists from King’s College London University, Jaume I University of Castellón and Sermas of Madrid, have been exploring for more than ten years the benefits of the state of mental silence on the human brain.
The study was carried out at the ULL MRI scanner, where the researchers recorded the brain anatomy of 23 meditator volunteers, experts in Sahaja Yoga meditation, and 23 non-meditating volunteers. Both groups were made up of healthy volunteers and both groups did not differ in age, educational level, ethnicity, proportion of men and women, etc.
To better understand this study, we must mention that the brain tissue is classified, according to its appearance, into three types: grey matter, made up of neuronal bodies and interconnections, (dark grey in resonance images); the white matter, formed by nerve fibers or long connections between distant areas, (light grey in the resonance images), and the cerebrospinal fluid or watery substance that fills the interior voids and serves as protection and transport of chemical substances.
The study of brain anatomy showed that meditators had, on average, 7% more grey matter in the whole brain. This type of comparison of the grey matter of the brain has been made in recent years among other groups in: athletes, musicians, taxi drivers, Buddhists, mindfulness meditators, etc. In these cases, the analyses showed that the group studied had local differences, greater grey matter, in brain areas associated with their specific practice, but the difference was never in the whole brain as it is the case with mental silence. The difference of 7% larger grey matter is especially significant if one takes into account that our brain loses between 0.15% and 0.3% of grey matter per year and small differences in grey matter can mark whether or not we keep intact our cognitive functions. It should be also noted that diseases, typical of the elderly, such as Alzheimer’s, senile dementia or Parkinson’s are also associated with loss of grey matter.
An advance of this study was published in the same journal Plos One in 2016, but the available methodology did not allow a detailed study to be made to see how the grey matter differences were distributed in the different areas of the brain. Given the uniqueness of the group differences observed throughout the whole brain, the researchers had to develop a specific statistical method (ad- hoc) to be able to evaluate these differences, area by area. Of all the brain areas, the grey matter difference was significantly larger in meditators in the right temporal lobe, an area associated with emotions, and in both frontal lobes, areas associated with cognitive and emotional self-control functions.
Study authors: Sergio Elías Hernándeza*, Roberto Dortab, José Sueroc, Alfonso Barros-Loscertalesd, José Luis González-Morae, Katya Rubiaf
a: Departamento de Ingeniería Industrial, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain.
b: Departamento de Matemáticas, Estadística e Investigación Operativa, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain.
c: Centro de Salud Jazmín, Sermas, Madrid, Spain.
d: Departamento de Psycología, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain.
e: Departamento de Fisiología, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
f: Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College, Londres, UK.
*Author for more information: Email: sehdez@ull.edu.es
SAHAJA YOGA MEDITATION: https://wemeditate.co
Posted in 2021, 21st century trend, collective consciousness, enlightenment, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, happiness, health, hope, humanity, inspiration, Kundalini, life, light, meditation, peace, self-isolation, smile, thoughtless awareness, togetherness, well-being, yoga
Tagged 2021, 21st century trend, freedom, happiness, lockdown, meditation, togetherness
Two weeks before May 5, 1982, I learned how to meditate (really meditate, in thoughtless awareness, feeling the benevolent effects of my very own kundalini energy in me). Now Sahaja Yoga is celebrating 50 years of establishing global transformation, from a time when meditation was viewed as an esoteric hobby, to the present when it’s recommended worldwide by health experts for its universal balancing and integrative effects.
How time flies. Today it’s been half-a-century since that crucial sprouting that’s since risen into this majestic tree. Then, for me, it was still a 12-year-old sapling that has gradually lifted me into reality.
It’s so peaceful and fulfilling up here. Thank You, Shri Mataji, and everyone that has dedicated their lives to establishing this essential metamorphosis. 🦋🌳
Posted in 2020, 21st century trend, alert mental silence, benevolence, collective consciousness, enlightenment, freedom, fulfillment, grace, gratitude, happiness, health, hope, humanity, joy, Kundalini, life, meditation, peace, Shri Mataji, silence, smile, spirituality, thoughtless awareness, timelessness, togetherness, well-being, yoga
Tagged fulfillment, joy, peace, Sahaja Yoga meditaion, Sahasrara Day, thoughtless awareness
Posted in 2020, 21st century trend, alert mental silence, art, books, Brigitte Saugstad, collective consciousness, creativity, dreams, Ed Saugstad, enlightenment, family, forgiveness, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, fun, Ganesha, grace, gratitude, happiness, health, heart, hope, humanity, India, innocence, inspiration, joy, Kundalini, life, light, love, meditation, Oakee Doakee, peace, reality, Shri Mataji, Sir Ed Word, smile, spirituality, thoughtless awareness, well-being, yoga
Tagged Canada, Ed Saugstad, meditation, Sahaja Yoga meditaion
😀
Posted in 21st century trend, Christmas, collective consciousness, creativity, fun, happiness, inspiration, joy, life, love, meditation, music, party, smile, talent
Tagged Christmas 2019, concert, Rachelle Jeanty, Rayah, Vienna
.
Dear Friend!
Year 2020 will be the last one of the age of materialism…
✨“The biggest and grandest alignment comes on December 21, 2020 when Jupiter joins Saturn in what’s referred to as the great conjunction. “✨
✨“These grand conjunctions come every 20 years, but this meeting has extra gravitas. It marks the end of a 200-year cycle of unions in earth signs that’s brought the age of materialism, banking, capitalism and corporations.”✨
✨“December 2020 kicks off a new 200-year cycle of unions in air signs. What that will bring isn’t entirely clear yet, but early indications are that thought, philosophy and truth will prevail. This is going to be a big shift.”✨
Posted in 21st century trend, alert mental silence, collective consciousness, courage, creativity, don't panic, enlightenment, forgiveness, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, fun, grace, gratitude, happiness, heart, hope, humanity, innocence, inspiration, joy, Kundalini, life, light, love, meditation, peace, Shri Mataji, synchronicity, the new Roaring Twenties, timelessness, togetherness, well-being, wisdom, wonder, yoga
Tagged 2020, new age, new Roaring Twenties
~Edward Saugstad
~Lyall Watson
Posted in 21st century trend, alert mental silence, collective consciousness, enlightenment, forgiveness, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, grace, gratitude, happiness, heart, hope, humanity, innocence, inspiration, joy, Kundalini, life, light, love, meditation, people, reality, smile, spirituality, synchronicity, thoughtless awareness, wonder
Tagged angels, collective consciousness, enlightened collectivity, enlightenment, inner freedom, Supernature
Posted in 2019, 21st century trend, art, Brigitte Saugstad, children, creativity, Ganesha, happiness, hope, Inner Peace Day, innocence, inspiration, joy, life, light, love, meditation, peace, silence, smile, talent, thoughtless awareness, timelessness, togetherness, well-being
Tagged 2019, Brigitte Saugstad, Ganesha, Inner Peace Day, meditation, springtime
“Happy New Year!”
(meditate to regenerate)
🌹🍀🌹🍀🌹🍀🌹
Like millions of dew drops, each perfectly reflecting the morning sun, may every cell inside me naturally reflect the Heart of God.
I will no longer be divided from Her by my two arbitrary balloons of ego and conditionings.
Her promise to me is healing equilibrium and eternal Union.
Unconditionally do I accept my destiny divine.
or here:
http://edsaugstad.com/VIDEO-files/the-cool-breeze-and-forgiveness-from-The-Shack.mp4
Posted in 2019, 21st century trend, alert mental silence, enlightenment, forgiveness, freedom, fulfillment, grace, gratitude, happiness, health, hope, joy, life, light, love, meditation, peace, silence, smile, thoughtless awareness, well-being, yoga means 'UNION'
Tagged 2019, good health, inner peace, world peace
or here:
http://edsaugstad.com/VIDEO-files/the-cool-breeze-and-forgiveness-from-The-Shack.mp4
Sarayu = Wind: The name is the feminine derivative of the Sanskrit root सर् sar “to flow”; as a masculine stem, saráyu- means “air, wind”, i.e. “that which is streaming”.
https://www.sciencealert.com/yoga-and-meditation-in-the-us-are-totally-exploding-right-now
Posted in 21st century trend, Christmas, creativity, enlightenment, freedom, fulfillment, happiness, hope, inspiration, Kundalini, life, meditation, mental silence, music, peace, people, reality, Shri Mataji, thoughtless awareness, well-being, yoga means 'UNION'
Tagged cool breeze, Ed Saugstad, Eero Heinonen, Matt Malley, Neil Young, Sahaja Yoga meditaion, Shri Mataji, thoughtless awareness, Tim Bruce, Van Morrison
Have you ever spontaneously flown somewhere, not knowing what to expect but feeling a rare thrill rising in your heart? When my wife first heard that many of our friends were booked to fly to Greece to celebrate Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Light, she took out her smart-phone and booked two seats for us.
I’d never been down to that fabled peninsula in the Mediterranean Sea, but my first impression was similar to that of India, an ancient world that I’ve had the privilege of visiting many times. This initial intuition that began when my wife came home and announced that we would soon be going there, was boosted when we eventually boarded an airliner half full of laughing, singing, childlike Indian women, all of whom had also strongly felt the calling.
My first impressions there were that everything was familiar. It was easy to get around in, like any other Western country. The freeways were almost empty and everyone seemed to drive slowly, which was very relaxing (although it did occur to Brigitte and me that maybe due to the economic hardships the locals are experiencing, not many can afford to speed, or even to drive). Then a massive wall of dark grey-purple cloud rose up and washed the landscape clean with a brief rain. We found it to be a significant welcome for all the pilgrims showing up that weekend, and I was reminded of the ancient demigods who were believed to inhabit this land in prehistory. (Human beings, in particular one or two ‘poets’, long ago wrote perverted interpretations of these titans’ lives on Earth, lowering them to the level of incest and murder, ideas unfortunately still generally accepted today.)
My wife’s favourite thing in life is to wake up early near a beach and go for a long walk and foot-soak there. We were sheltered near the scenic end of a bay, and because it was outside of the busy summer season, there was hardly anyone around. In Greece, even the stray dogs and cats seem at peace as they stretch out beside strangers and give the impression of being completely fulfilled (when actually they’re cleverly making friends to get something to eat!). Every morning our hearts would stretch out to the distant islands and mysterious waters so our souls could consume the vast beauty and deep history around us. We attended colourful Diwali functions, enjoyed ourselves immensely with many new and old friends, and even ascended the ancient inland hills to the Centre of the World, the Navel of Creation! (Weeks later, Brigitte hasn’t lost the inspiring heart-boost that she still rides on daily.)
They say that Zeus, king of the demigods, in order to determine the centre of the world, sent two great eagles flying, one from each extreme, east and west. They met in the place that was later named Delphi. A most magical place! I really felt like I was back in India where everything began thousands of years ago, not in young Europe any more. There’s even a natural free-standing stone in the original centre of the sacred grounds, recognizable as the Hindu child-god, Ganesha, emitting amazing vibrations (light and cool).
All two-hundred-and-fifty of us felt light and joyous, many reminded of the old tours of central India that we used to go on in the nineteen-eighties. In contrast to the great subtle significance of this location, Brigitte pointed out that the manmade history was just full of ego. Pompous conquerers would display statues of their officers there to show the gods and all the world how very important they were. Even down in the so-called civilized nation-state of Athens, such a great, benevolent genius (I would go so far as to say divine messenger) like Socrates was killed by men-on-ego. And here we are, thousands of years later, repeating the same patterns in our heads, hearts and actions.
Descending back down to the twenty-first century at the end of the day, I remembered how, as a twelve-year-old child in Canada in 1970, I had suddenly been overwhelmed to write a long Social Studies essay on the Greek gods, accompanied by a hand-drawn wall mural; and in Art class I passionately attempted to carve a plaster-of-Paris bust of Socrates. I didn’t know what overcame me at that time, but now I guess it was personal insight into a higher realm of existence. Forty-eight years later I’ve breathed those essential airs and walked upon the very roots of legend that send the restless mind up into soothing meditation.
If you’ve never been to Greece, go there soon — with an open mind and heart.
Best wishes (pure desires),
Ed
more photos here:
https://www.facebook.com/edward.saugstad/media_set?set=a.10156077110191545&type=3
Posted in 2018, 21st century trend, enlightenment, friendship, fun, Ganesha, Greece, Happy Diwali!, holiday, hope, India, inspiration, joy, life, light, love, meditation, smile, timelessness, wisdom
Tagged gods, Greece, Happy Diwali!, Pallas Athena, Socrates, time travel
Posted in 2018, creativity, Ed Saugstad, fun, holiday, inspiration, life, light, meditation, music, nature, peace, smile, thoughtless awareness, timelessness, well-being
Tagged Cabella, Ed Saugstad, keyboard improv., TEV
Posted in 2018, art, books, creativity, drugs, Ed Saugstad, enlightenment, friendship, fun, happiness, hope, India, inspiration, life, love, meditation, music, Oakee Doakee, party, Shri Mataji, Sir Ed Word, smile, talent, writing
Tagged Brigitte Saugstad, Ed Saugstad, love, Oakee Doakee, Sir Ed Word
🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷
.
🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷
Posted in 21st century trend, alert mental silence, enlightenment, fulfillment, happiness, health, hope, Inner Peace Day, Kundalini, life, meditation, peace, silence, smile, thoughtless awareness, well-being, yoga means 'UNION'
Tagged fulfillment, inner peace, inner springtime, kundalini, meditation, Sahaja Yoga meditaion
Posted in enlightenment, freedom, health, life, meditation, peace, reality, silence, thoughtless awareness, well-being
Tagged freedom, inner peace, life, meditation, regeneration
Posted in 21st century trend, alert mental silence, life, meditation, peace, well-being
… In Sahaja meditation, there is no deliberate effort to “concentrate,” and certainly, you do not need to focus your attention on a specific object. In fact, the goal is to avoid concentration or mental activity altogether. There’s no need to be mindful of or engage with your thoughts and feelings while meditating.
In fact, you won’t want to. Engaging your mind in such mental noise will only drag your attention back down to the first floor — that mental plane — rather than remaining in the state of thoughtless awareness. Thoughtless awareness is not simply a thought vacuum or state of thoughtless emptiness on the mental plane. It is a whole new dimension of awareness, higher awareness that is difficult to describe to someone who has not yet experienced it. We cannot fully conceive of its depth or describe it with language we’re accustomed to using on the ordinary mental plane.
…
Posted in alert mental silence, collective consciousness, enlightenment, freedom, fulfillment, happiness, health, hope, joy, life, meditation, peace, Shri Mataji, silence, thoughtless awareness, well-being
Tagged alert mental silence, beyond Mindfulness, inner peace, peace, real meditation, Sahaja Yoga meditaion, thoughtless awareness
Posted in 1982, freedom, India, life, light, meditation, smile, well-being, yoga
Tagged 1982, Ed Saugstad
A few years ago a friend of ours was among the runners-up for a prestigious international short films award. After the viewing ceremony, a celebrity in the audience (Natalie Portman) sent Silvina a note telling that she had never felt such a deep experience from a spiritual film before.
May the Force be with us.
… but, unfortunately for so many (including misled children), ‘mindfullness’ has nothing to do with it.
Posted in alert mental silence, children, happiness, health, life, meditation, peace, school, thoughtless awareness, Uncategorized, well-being
Tagged meditation, mindfullness, real meditation
Posted in alert mental silence, enlightenment, freedom, fulfillment, happiness, health, heart, hope, humanity, joy, Kundalini, life, love, meditation, peace, reality, silence, smile, thoughtless awareness, well-being, wisdom
Tagged inner peace, last line of defense, meditation, world peace
Time is an illusion
There is always enough of it for us to rise up
and enjoy the big picture
in meditation
whenever we choose
e.s.
Don’t forget: whatever happens, Trump and all the Big Bad Boys ain’t got NOTHIN’ on THIS Power! (individual and collective) …
(Subtle Tsunami ) …
(meditate ) …
(just sayin’ ) …
Posted in Kundalini, life, meditation, thoughtless awareness
Tagged Meditate to Regenerate, thoughtless awareness, trump card
For the period of about a year-and-a-half after I finally found out how to actually meditate in April 1982 (having put in much effort already for eight years, without benefit) and I moved away from the party neighbourhood of my youth, there seem to be no photos of my amazing progress. Now, by chance, I saw THAT Ed, exactly thirty-four birthdays ago, strolling along with a wedding procession in the heart of New Delhi!
I had arrived alone at 2:00 a.m. in humid Bombay two weeks before, after an exhausting series of flights, with an overweight suitcase and a phone number. It was the first international journey in my quarter century of life on Earth. (Little did I guess then that I would return to India more than twenty times!) Someone back home in Vancouver had just bought my ’65 Chevy panel van, enabling me to join my new yogi friends on the India tour. A kindly airport police officer
helped me reach the others, already a huge, international group of pilgrims, and that very evening I met Shri Mataji, the founder and teacher of Sahaja Yoga meditation, on the first of many joyful occasions over the coming days, years and decades, in various countries.
Among the many memorable events in Delhi was our viewing of the new Gandhi movie in the cinema that it had world premiered in just nine weeks before. (As a girl, Shri Mataji had spent time with Gandhi at his ashram, where he would sometimes implement Her advice on spiritual issues.) I remember walking out of that air-conditioned building and looking up at the hot, wide blue sky, realizing that those historic happenings had taken place not long ago under this very canopy.
I was lucky to be among those few of us from Canada (at that time there were only a handful of people practicing Sahaja Yoga in North America) that were invited to stay for a few days with Shri Mataji in Her daughter’s house. Several massive public programs were held throughout the city, and I attended my first puja, which celebrated Shivaratri at that time. At the compound where we all met each day, someone organized a cake and candles 🎂, and some new friends sang Happy Birthday to me that third day of February … so long ago, now! I drank lots of yummy chai there, discovering too late that the caffein was brutal on my sensitive liver. We also travelled up to the Himalayan foothills, where I saw some Indian girls enjoy snow for the first time. I spent that wonderful month in India without getting sick, a bit of a miracle (although as soon as I got back to the West I cleared out quite thoroughly!)
I still feel all that as a solid building block in my evolution, and this unexpected window view now brings a fresh breeze to grownup Ed.💨
(And, adding an interesting twist to the perspective: I happen to be turning 59 now, the same age Shri Mataji was when we first met back then!)
Shri Mataji gave each of us a present that afternoon (6 Feb 1983)
They were original Indian artworks. Somehow I managed to hold on to mine (the only thing I have left from my early twenties). It now hangs in my little art-studio in our homestead in the Vienna Woods:
(read more here …)
https://edwardsaugstad.com/reaching-the-top-reloaded/
.
Posted in 1983, birthday, Ed Saugstad, enlightenment, fulfillment, happiness, India, joy, Kundalini, life, meditation, Shri Mataji, silence, smile, spirituality, thoughtless awareness, well-being, yoga
Tagged birthday, Ed Saugstad, India, Sahaja Yoga meditaion, Shri Mataji
Posted in 2017!, freedom, fulfillment, happiness, health, heart, hope, humanity, joy, Kundalini, life, love, meditation, silence, smile, thoughtless awareness, well-being, yoga
Tagged freedom, joy, life, thoughtless awareness
My dear blog has fallen into the shadows of neglect. Let’s see if we can remedy this.
My first beam of light here in … 2017 already!? … has to do with our current world sit-u-eh-shun.
Keeping it really simple: There are only two wrong turns in life: one is left, the other is right.
Psychologists used to believe that everything was piled up on top of each other inside of us — that we had to pass through the subconscious and all kinds of other gobbledygook in order to rise up to our higher, ideal selves. Well, as it turns out, we’ve got the past (conditionings) and emotions running in our left sympathetic nervous system, all our future projections (ego) in our right sympathetic nervous system, and a beautiful ascending waterfall of evolution smack-dab in the middle: the once mysterious parasympathetic/autonomous system.
If you look around (and in the mirror) you’ll find that most everyone — with the exception of most babies, maybe — is being led around by those carrots-on-strings that are our thoughts streaming from one extreme and/or the other. Very rarely do we encounter peaceful souls who know exactly who and why they are, and are satisfied with that. The whole jumble in most of us is now becoming increasingly transparent in world affairs. Unless and until we can naturally zoom into central focus mode, that mega-mess is not going to fade away. It will only continue to get worse until we click and fine-tune into the center of ourselves. That’ll reveal that reality is not noisy after all, unlike most of our previous identifications.
I put a helpful link at the end of this post (a technique I can sincerely vouch for after almost thirty-five years of daily use) but first I’d like to share this insight from the I Ching about our collective 2017.
In this new (very, very temporary!) Trumpish age, people, lost in their own self-mistrust and misleading ideas, tend to mistrust others more and more. The big picture changes then to Innocence, a quality, by the way, that never actually leaves a human being, but simply becomes buried and ignored deep inside. Every one of us is empowered with the instrument and all the natural means to reawaken this universal quality. It’s not a manmade procedure, but something builtin, ready and waiting for our desire and attention to trigger it.
Be alert and quiet, and you will discover that the present moment is bigger and more abundant with amazing possibilities than you have ever imagined.
THE JUDGMENT
FELLOWSHIP WITH MEN in the open.
Success.
It furthers one to cross the great water.
The perseverance of the superior man furthers.
True fellowship among men must be based upon a concern
that is universal. It is not the private interests of the individual
that create lasting fellowship among men, but rather the goals
of humanity. That is why it is said that fellowship with men
in the open succeeds. If unity of this kind prevails, even
difficult and dangerous tasks, such as crossing the great water,
can be accomplished. But in order to bring about this sort of
fellowship, a persevering and enlightened leader is needed
— a man with clear, convincing, and inspiring aims and the
strength to carry them out. (The inner trigram means clarity;
the outer, strength.)
THE IMAGE
Heaven together with fire:
The image of FELLOWSHIP WITH MEN.
Thus the superior man organizes the clans
And makes distinctions between things.
Heaven has the same direction of movement as fire, yet it is
different from fire. Just as the luminaries in the sky serve for
the systematic division and arrangement of time, so human
society and all things that really belong together must be
organically arranged. Fellowship should not be a mere
mingling of individuals or of things — that would be chaos, not
fellowship. If fellowship is to lead to order, there must be
organization within diversity.
THE LINES
Nine in the third place means:
He hides weapons in the thicket;
He climbs the high hill in front of it.
For three years he does not rise up.
Here fellowship has changed about to mistrust. Each man
distrusts the other, plans a secret ambush, and seeks to spy on
his fellow from afar.We are dealing with an obstinate
opponent whom we cannot come at by this method. Obstacles
standing in the way of fellowship with others are shown here.
One has mental reservations for one’s own part and seeks to
take his opponent by surprise. This very fact makes one
mistrustful, suspecting the same wiles in his opponent and trying
to ferret them out. The result is that one departs further and
further from true fellowship. The longer this goes on, the
more alienated one becomes.
(then changing to …)
Ch’ien, heaven, is above; Chên, movement, is below. The
lower trigram Chên is under the influence of the strong line it
has received from above, from heaven. When, in accord with
this, movement follows the law of heaven, man is innocent
and without guile. His mind is natural and true, unshadowed
by reflection or ulterior designs. For wherever conscious
purpose is to be seen, there the truth and innocence of nature have
been lost. Nature that is not directed by the spirit is not true
but degenerate nature. Starting out with the idea of the
natural, the train of thought in part goes somewhat further and
thus the hexagram includes also the idea of the unintentional
or unexpected.
THE JUDGMENT
INNOCENCE. Supreme success.
Perseverance furthers.
If someone is not as he should be,
He has misfortune,
And it does not further him
To undertake anything.
Man has received from heaven a nature innately good, to
guide him in all his movements. By devotion to this divine
spirit within himself, he attains an unsullied innocence that
leads him to do right with instinctive sureness and without any
ulterior thought of reward and personal advantage. This
instinctive certainty brings about supreme success and
“furthers through perseverance.” However, not everything
instinctive is nature in this higher sense of the word, but only
that which is right and in accord with the will of heaven.
Without this quality of rightness, an unreflecting, instinctive way
of acting brings only misfortune. Confucius says about this:
“He who departs from innocence, what does he come to?
Heaven’s will and blessing do not go with his deeds.”
THE IMAGE
Under heaven thunder rolls:
All things attain the natural state of innocence.
Thus the kings of old,
Rich in virtue, and in harmony with the time,
Fostered and nourished all beings.
In springtime when thunder, life energy, begins to move
again under the heavens, everything sprouts and grows, and
all beings receive from the creative activity of nature the
childlike innocence of their original state. So it is with the
good rulers of mankind: drawing on the spiritual wealth at
their command, they take care of all forms of life and all forms
of culture and do everything to further them, and at the proper
time.
(I ‘performed’ in an old primary school here in Vienna for over a hundred children recently, reading from my books, meditating a bit and partying with my Roland Handsonic. We had lots of fun communicating, dancing and playing music together. My friend, who’s a teacher there, told me a few weeks later that the mood and vibrations of the school had been surprisingly improved by that event. Many children were more cheerful afterwards — the mother of an autistic child was amazed to find her child so balanced and happy — and my friend felt light and cool entering the school each day! Click on the following link to enjoy more experiences about Sahaja Yoga meditation …)
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Posted in 2017!, alert mental silence, enlightenment, forgiveness, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, happiness, hope, humanity, I Ching, Inner Peace Day, innocence, joy, Kundalini, life, love, meditation, peace, Shri Mataji, silence, smile, thoughtless awareness, well-being
Tagged ascent, hope, Inner Peace Day
(viewable on computers)
(in case you understand german)
here are a few segments of the recent interview about some of my experiences with Sahaja Yoga meditation:
(more on the YouTube page)
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In a suburb of Vancouver thirty-four years ago, when people would look at you like you just flew in from Mars if you mentioned meditation or yoga, I was very lucky to find an authentic technique for attaining thoughtless awareness — that natural state that has now been proven to bring on essential equilibrium. My daily experiences with all that are still improving, with no end to all the delightful surprises in sight.
Here’s a little taste. Hope you can also enjoy that.
Posted in alert mental silence, enlightenment, freedom, fulfillment, grace, happiness, health, hope, joy, Kundalini, life, love, meditation, peace, prisons, school, silence, smile, thoughtless awareness, well-being, yoga
Tagged alert mental silence, free meditation, inner peace, meditation in prisons, meditation in schools, Sahaja Yoga meditaion, thoughtless awareness
This is important, valuable knowledge, and the results are easily accessible:
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This is a survey that I recently filled out for a Czech university student:
Hello, this survey was created to collect some information for my final work at school. Thank You for Your time and help. Anna
1. Are You male or female?
Male
2. How old are You?
Over 40
3. How long have You been practicing Sahaja Yoga meditation?
Almost 34 years (every day)
4. Were You born into a family practicing Sahaja Yoga meditation?
No
5. How often do You meditate?
I reach thoughtless awareness (meditation) many times a day
6. Did Sahaja Yoga meditation lower Your stress?
Yes
7. Did Sahaja Yoga meditation reduce some of Your negative personality traits?
Yes
8. Are collective Sahaja Yoga meditation activities important for You?
Yes, a lot
9. How do You participate in Sahaja Yoga meditation? (more answers possible)
I meditate alone at home
I attend seminars in my country
I attend seminars abroad
I attend programs
10. If You used to be a smoker, did You stop smoking with Sahaja Yoga meditation?
Yes
11. Had You ever been addicted (to alcohol, drugs, internet…)? Did it stop when You started practicing Sahaja Yoga meditation?
Yes
12. Is there a difference during Your day, when You were able to get into thoughtless awareness from the days You did not manage?
Yes. If I don’t attain thoughtless awareness often the stress and noisy thoughts build up in me. These dissolve very quickly in the thoughtless awareness state.
13. How did You get into Sahaja Yoga meditation?
A friend found it then told me. (I was one of the first regular 15 or 16 Sahaja Yoga meditation practitioners in North America in 1982)
14. How did meditation help You?
It has improved my life completely and improves it daily, in every way.
15. Try to describe how big importance Sahaja Yoga meditation has in Your life.
It is the most important happening in modern times, not just for me but for everyone, worldwide. Here is the last paragraph of my online testimonial, read already by hundreds of thousands of people:
https://edwardsaugstad.com/reaching-the-top/
“In these few years I have met countless individuals from all walks of life — from London to Calcutta and from Moscow to Los Angeles — who have lived this miraculous metamorphosis and are using this natural power to transform themselves and others. It is my sincerest desire that anyone who reads these words will not judge the message mentally, but will make an honest, scientific investigation into the historic subject which now faces them. If their desire is pure and their determination for revealing the truth is undaunted, I have no doubt that they will also achieve this magnificent inner-awakening which is dawning to the human race.”
16. Did Sahaja Yoga meditation help You with some psychological disorder? What disorder did You have? How did meditation help You?
I was completely damaged by heavy recreational drugs (taken from age 14 to 24) and from a traumatic childhood. I was anti-social, unhealthy and miserably lost in life. Now I am a dynamic, popular global writer, artist and musician, loved and respected by those who come to know me.
17. Did Sahaja Yoga meditation or something related to it cause something negative to You?
It’s impossible for Sahaja Yoga meditation to harm a person. It is a completely natural, gentle and benevolent inner process. Only human beings can harm themselves and each other.
18. Did You feel any new sensation after You received self-realization?
My whole perception changed: clearer, more focused, more peaceful, lighter, more loving — and I am able, on my newly enlightened nervous-system, to feel the flowing divine Vibrations, like a cool breeze, that is only felt emitting from something or someone auspicious, constructive, beautiful, innocent and eternal. (The key to collective consciousness.)
19. Why do You meditate?
Meditation is not a hobby or pastime. It (thoughtless awareness) is a unique, essential state like waking, dream-sleep and deep-sleep. Anyone who does not attain meditation is living a fractured, unfulfilled life.
20. How is Sahaja Yoga meditation different, according to You, compared to any other meditations/religions/spiritual paths?
Sahaja Yoga meditation awakens the natural energy inside us whose only purpose is to connect us to reality, the pure, beautiful all-pervading Spirit. That is meant to be the very most basic and essential process of all spiritual paths.
21. Is there anything more You would like to say? Here is Your opportunity:
from: https://edwardsaugstad.com/reaching-the-top/
“Just over three decades ago, on Tuesday, April 20th, 1982 to be exact, I stumbled up out of a dark place and found myself filled with a permanent light and focus. I still can’t believe my luck. . . . I was born into a large family in a city in Canada. My parents were then chronic alcoholics and most of my memories, which reach back as far as my third year, are dark and fearful. I and two younger brothers were raised mostly by our older sisters. Our parents often fought. When my father left the family he was replaced by a man who I deeply feared as he treated us harshly and sometimes beat my mother. Twice, as a small child, I badly broke my right elbow. The second break was so severe that I almost lost my arm. My mother was not there that time to comfort me as she was being kept in a mental hospital, withdrawing from alcohol addiction. Throughout my early school years …”
Posted in alert mental silence, enlightenment, freedom, fulfillment, happiness, health, hope, humanity, joy, life, love, meditation, silence, smile, spirituality, thoughtless awareness, well-being, yoga
Tagged freedom, hope, Sahaja Yoga Meditation, Shri Mataji
A letter from a friend today:
We were invited yesterday by a charity group specialized in offering services to families (one of the oldest and most respected in our region) to their monthly event. We were the highlight and we meditated with about 25-30 people, parents and children. The children LOVED it. Many came from mental problems, nothing really disturbing, but evidently very heavy atmosphere: adults looked really sad and hopeless, some of them; children had ADHD (“my kid cannot sit still not even for two minutes”). Children, stayed for the entire program, fifty minutes, and they didn’t want to go outside to play. They wanted to talk to us. They wrote us thank-you cards and amazing feedback. We even have it on tape and hope the parents will agree to have it posted on the website. And the “two-minute-only kid stayed in meditation all the time. He told his parents that he wants to meditate in the car, that he never felt so calm and in control, that he was sooo stressed out from school and now he is happy. He asked us to come to his school because his teacher is under a lot of stress, then he told his mom to do this meditation because she is under a lot of stress. His mom could not thank us enough, and also the other parents. But the children, they were ANGELS, and the parents were worried sick about “them not being OK” 🙂
Posted in children, happiness, health, hope, innocence, inspiration, life, meditation, peace, silence, smile, thoughtless awareness, well-being
Tagged freedom, inner peace, meditation, Sahaja Yoga meditaion
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When I started meditating over 33 years ago (really meditating: experiencing thoughtless awareness) it completely changed who and what I was. Everything gradually improved for me, at every level. Here are some young friends sharing that tirelessly throughout the world. Hope shines.
http://meditatetoregenerate.org/about
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Posted in enlightenment, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, hope, humanity, life, meditation, thoughtless awareness, well-being
Tagged Egypt, inner freedom, meditation, thoughtless awareness
Posted in 2015, alert mental silence, enlightenment, friendship, fulfillment, health, heart, holiday, hope, humanity, life, meditation, music, party, silence, smile, talent, thoughtless awareness, togetherness, well-being, yoga
Tagged Expo 2015, Meditate to Regenerate, Sahaja Yoga meditaion
Posted in children, happiness, health, hope, Kundalini, life, meditation, school, silence, thoughtless awareness, well-being
Tagged inner freedom, inner peace, peace in schools, Sahaja Yoga meditaion, school children
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Posted in alert mental silence, freedom, happiness, health, hope, life, meditation, peace, silence, smile, thoughtless awareness, well-being
Tagged happiness, life, meditation, peace, Sahaja Yoga meditaion
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Posted in alert mental silence, Christmas, enlightenment, forgiveness, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, heart, holiday, hope, humanity, joy, life, meditation, peace, thoughtless awareness, togetherness, Uncategorized, well-being, wisdom
Tagged alert mental silence, Christmas, freedom, friendship, happiness, hope, joy, love, silence
Although this article may sound fanatically new-age-ish, it is basically a sound summary, but missing the most important point at the end: the individual members of the society that determine their own fate together must essentially be enlightened in order to avoid the same or worse mistakes in the future … http://www.naturalnews.com/032258_economic_collapse_2012.html
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(and, enlightenment/meditation/alert mental silence is not something achieved through reading or believing, but is an actual, simple state that can be reached and maintained by anyone, as explained here by Professor Katya Rubia)