Carried by a Promise

“I enjoyed read­ing the book and found much to pon­der in it. Swami Radhananda’s close­ness to the bod­hisattva Tara was inter­est­ing (and offer­ing of 7 water bowls which is a specif­i­cally Tibetan prac­tice). Thank you so much for the oppor­tu­nity to read the manuscript.

“Car­ried by a Promise is the mov­ing account by Swami Rad­hananda of her devoted rela­tion­ship with her Guru, Swami Sivananda Radha, span­ning many years. Apart from her inner spir­i­tual expe­ri­ences along the way, she also chron­i­cles learn­ing how to deal skil­fully with the power pol­i­tics at play within almost every organ­i­sa­tion, sec­u­lar or spir­i­tual. An impor­tant aspect of any path is this abil­ity to trans­form chal­lenges into oppor­tu­ni­ties for learn­ing and practice.

“Ulti­mately it is a story of ded­i­cated love and sur­ren­der to the Divine Light. Swami Radhananda’s absolute devo­tion to Swami Radha shines through­out the pages and is an inspi­ra­tion for us all.”

With all good wishes in the Dharma,

Ten­zin Palmo — Tibetan Bud­dhist nun, founder of the Dongyu Gat­sal Ling Nunnery

See tenzinpalmo.com to find about more about  her won­der­ful work in train­ing young Bud­dhist women.

Many of you who have vis­ited the Ashram know that we hon­our the Divine Fem­i­nine through the Divine Mother mantra, which comes from a text called Ananda Lahari (wave of bliss). At the end of this talk, I ask every­one to join me in repeat­ing this mantra. Try bring­ing it in to your day so that every­thing you do becomes wor­ship. I wel­come your reflections.

O Divine Mother
May all my speech and idle talk be Mantra
All actions of my hands be Mudra
May all eat­ing and drink­ing be the offer­ing of obla­tions unto Thee
All lying down be pros­tra­tions before Thee
May all plea­sures be as ded­i­cat­ing my entire self unto Thee
May every­thing I do be taken as Thy worship

In the sec­ond part of the web­cast, I read from a chap­ter I call “The Begin­ning. ” At this time I was in a chal­leng­ing mar­riage and had two young chil­dren. At a Life Seals work­shop with Swami Radha I came to some enlight­en­ing insights about how I was lying to myself… As I think back over this time, more than 30 years ago, I still remem­ber the feel­ing of vul­ner­a­bil­ity and how Swami Radha held me in the Light. In the Sat­sang that fol­lowed the work­shop, I expe­ri­enced the power of silence.

Please feel free to send your reflec­tions about a time in your life when the teach­ings awak­ened you and you responded with grat­i­tude. How does silence affect you?

Swami Rad­hananda pre­sen­ta­tion for her new book read­ing, Car­ried by a promise from Yasod­hara Ashram on Vimeo.

For any­one who missed the Thanks­giv­ing live web­cast, we are post­ing it here in four parts. Here’s the first.…

It was an excit­ing event, with about 90 peo­ple in atten­dance in the Radha Room at the Ashram, and 50 com­put­ers tuned in from around the world. In Spokane the Radha Yoga Cen­ter teach­ers watched it together instead of hav­ing a class. And we’ve heard from view­ers as far away as New Zealand. Tech­nol­ogy can make us one!

Update on the book: The man­u­script is in design phase, with the inte­rior going through its final proof, and cover ideas grad­u­ally com­ing together. Quotes are com­ing in from carbon-neutral printers.…

The assign­ment in this sec­tion is to reflect on one ideal or qual­ity you would like to bring to life. And inten­tion­ally bring it into your day. I would love to hear your comments.…