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Writings and Readings Blog

Madhu Bazaz Wangu

Speaking and Writing Schedule

Posted on February 24, 2011
in Being in Nature
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Dear Readers, Below is my speaking and writing-with-other-writers schedule until June 2011. I look forward to seeing you at one or all of the following events. What has Writing to do with Meditation? A Three-Part Lecture Series: March 3, April 7 & May 5 This writing workshop teaches what it means to write meditatively and how to learn the discipline. Sponsored by Northland Public Library For further Information Call: 412-366-8100 Registration at: http://www.northlandlibrary.org Pennwriters Mindful Writers Group The goal of the Mindful Writers Group is to write with the whole self-mind, heart and body. Starting on Wednesday, March 16, 2011 the Mindful Writers will meet every Wednesday from 9:30 to 12:30 at Eat'nPark. Please join Mindful Writers Group Homepage on Yahoo.com. Writing Meditation: A Pennwriters Workshop A Writing Meditation Workshop will be presented at the Pennwriters Annual Conference. The conference will be...

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The Devi Gita: Chapter Seven

Posted on February 11, 2011
in Meditation, Reading
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Instruction in the Yoga of Devotion HIMALAYA INQUIRES ABOUT THE PATH OF DEVOTION, AND THE GODDESS INDICATES THE EASE OF THIS YOGA. 7.1 Himalaya Spoke: Describe the path of devotion that focuses on you, O Mother. By such devotion, supreme knowledge easily develops in the ordinary person filled with passions. 7. 2-3 The Goddess Spoke: There are three well-known paths leading to liberation, Mountain King: the yoga of action, the yoga of knowledge, and the yoga of devotion, my good sir. Of these three the latter is the easiest to practice in all respects, appealing naturally to the heart without distressing the body or mind. THE GODDESS DESCRIBES THE FIRST THREE GRADES OF DEVOTION ACCORDING TO THE THREE GUNAS OR QUALITIES OF NATURE 7. 4-10 Devotion as practiced by human beings is of three kinds, in accord with the qualities...

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The Devi Gita: Chapter Six

Posted on January 17, 2011
in Meditation, Reading
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The Goal of the Yogas: The Knowledge of Brahman THE SUMMARY OF THE GOAL OF THE YOGIC DISCIPLINES 6. 1. Cultivating the Yogas just described, one should meditate on me as the true form of Brahman with sincere devotion, assuming the proper posture, O King. 6. 2-14 It (Brahman) is manifest, well fixed, pervading the hearts of beings, indeed; it is the great foundation. Thereupon all that moves, breathes, and blinks is established. Know that as existent and nonexistence, as the most desirable, as supreme, as beyond the understanding of humankind. What is luminous, what is smaller than the small, in which the worlds and their inhabitants are rooted, This is the imperishable Brahman; it is the life principle, speech, and mind. This is the real, the immortal; know, good sir, that this is what...

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The Devi Gita: Chapter Five

Posted on January 17, 2011
in Meditation, Reading
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Instruction in Kundalini Yoga HIMALAYA INQUIRES ABOUT YOGA 5.1 O Great Queen, describe that yoga with all its limbs which bestows supreme understanding, So that by practicing it, I may become fit to see the truth. THE GODDESS GIVES BRIEF DEFINITION 5. 2-5 The goal of yoga is not found in the heavens, nor on earth, nor in the underworld, But in the union of the individual soul and the supreme Self; thus do skilled adepts define yoga. Impending the practice of yoga are the obstacles, said to be six, O Faultless One. They are designated as desire and anger, greed and delusion, arrogance and jealousy. Adept yogis use the limbs of yoga to break through these obstacles and to reach the goal of union. Restraint and observance, followed by posture, breathe control, withdrawing the senses, concentration, meditation and finally...

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Happy New Year!

Posted on January 17, 2011
in Being in Nature
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Dear Readers, Happy New Year! The festivities of November and December are over. The earth has gone dormant under white, silver and black. The trees are bare, the birds have stopped their chorus, puddles of grey grass peek through the melted snow and the sunlight is faint. Life has faded to a dreamlike state from where creative ideas emerge. Muses awake. There is hardly a better time to write. These days when I am in the thick of writing, warmth glows within that is beyond any ordinary emotion. Writing lulls me and draws me within. One of the many treasures of my life as a writer (and meditator) is being steeped in silence and solitude during winter months -- away from noise and fast paced life. Through unhurried writing and sitting, I...

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The Devi Gita: Chapter Four

Posted on December 20, 2010
in Meditation, Reading
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INSTRUCTIONS IN THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE 4. 1-2 THE GODDESS'S REASON BEHIND THE REVELATIN OF HER COSMIC FORM The Goddess said: How distant you are, so humble, from this form of mine, so magnificent! Yet out of affection for my devotees, I have displayed such a form. Not by study of the Vedas, nor by yoga, charity, austerity, or sacrifice can you see this form in any way, without my favor. 4. 3-8 THE GENESIS OF THE INDIVIDUAL SOUL DUE TO IGNORANCE AND ITS SUBSEQUENT KARMIC ENTANGLEMENTS Listen, O king, let us return to the original subject regarding the supreme Self and how it becomes the individual soul. By combining with apparent limitations, the self seemingly assumes the role of an active agent and so on. The soul performs diverse acts, the sole cause of virtue and vice. Thereby it...

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The Devi Gita: Chapter Three

Posted on November 26, 2010
in Meditation, Reading
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The Goddess Reveals her Cosmic Body (Viraj) 3. 1-4 THE MYSTERIES OF MAYA AND THE GODDESS'S ENTRY INTO THE CREATION I imagine into being the whole world, moving and unmoving, through the power of my Maya, Yet that same Maya is separate from me; this is the highest truth. From the practical point of view, Maya is regarded as self-evident. In reality, however it does not exist-only the supreme exists, in an absolute sense. I, as Maya, create the whole world and then enter within it. Accompanied by ignorance, actions and the like, and preceded by the vital breath, O Mountain. How else could souls be reborn into future lives? They take on various births in accord with modifications of Maya. 3.5-12 THE GODDESS IS NOT TAINTED BY THE DIFFERENTIATED MANIFESTATIONS Modified by apparent limitations, I become differentiated into parts, like...

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The Devi Gita: Chapter Two

Posted on October 27, 2010
in Meditation, Reading
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Chapter Two 2. 1-10 GODDESS AS PREEXISTING CAUSE OF THE UNIVERSE & MAYA The Goddess: May all the gods attend to what I have to say. By merely hearing these words of mine, one attains my essential nature. I alone existed in the beginning; there was nothing else at all, O Mountain King. My true Self is known as pure consciousness, the highest intelligence, the one supreme Brahman. It is beyond reason, indescribable, incomparable, incorruptible. From out itself evolves a certain power renowned as Maya. Neither real nor unreal is this Maya, nor is it both, for that would be incongruous. Lacking such characteristics, this indefinite entity has always subsisted. As heat inheres in fire, as brilliance in the sun, as cool light in the moon, just so this Maya inheres firmly in me. Into that Maya the actions of souls, the souls...

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The Devi Gita: Chapter One

Posted on October 8, 2010
in Meditation, Reading
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The Appearance of the Great Goddess as the World-Mother 1.1-19 Vyasa said: O Hear the tale of Sati's death! Sati's (the Devi's manifested potency) father did not invite Sati and her husband, Shiva, to the great fire sacrifice. Sati felt insulted. In the presence of the invited dignitaries, she jumped into the sacrificial pit and killed herself. With Sati's death, Shiva lamented bitterly, joy shriveled up in the heart of every being. The world was drowned in a sea of misery. Consumed by disease, planets retrogressed, fortunes of gods declined and they suffered misfortune. At such a time of crisis rose a great demon named Taraka. For thousands of years he performed vigorous asceticism and became master of the three-tiered universe. Brahma, impressed by his dedication and asceticism, gave him this boon, "Only...

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The Devi Gita: Introduction

Posted on October 8, 2010
in Being in Nature, Reading
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THE DEVI GITA Song of the Goddess The Devi Gita (Song of the Goddess) is an important fifteenth century text from the goddess tradition (Shakta) of India. The scripture has ten chapters that form a section of a much larger work, Devi-Bhagavata Purana. The Purana itself may have been composed as early as the twelfth century to which the Devi Gita was inserted at a later date. It depicts the Goddess as the benevolent World-Mother. In the Purana she is less of a warrior goddess, as she is in some previous textual examples, and more a nurturer and comforter of her devotees and a teacher of wisdom. This development in her character culminates in the Devi Gita. The author of the Devi Gita is indebted to the Bhagavad Gita for many of...

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