Note from RA: After the webinar on Sun Mar 22, JB wrote some powerful insights in response to discussions we had and to the question asked about what opportunities we are being given at this moment in time .

There are six different threads of thoughts which are interwoven with each other at the same time, so to give space to each thought I will be posting one everyday so scroll down to see according to the numbers.

JB - You are a star!! Always grateful for your meaningful contributions pertinent to the current times. Blessings!!!!

I’d like to lean into some of the topics we discussed and heard. All of the input triggered a flow of thoughts, and I’d like to offer them back to sangat for feedback and refinement. As a seeker and learner, I can learn from my mistakes, and you can help me do that. When I write, I tend to write in statements – please treat them as questions for discussion. These are reflections from my personal experience. As such, they may not apply to you. Such is the universal nature of our Masters, that there are probably seven billion (and counting) different ways to interpret and access Their message.

Over the next few short posts, I share why I believe times like these are opportunities. Most directly, I share my direct reflections about the fact that we cannot currently attend samagams. We are part of a sangat, we are in a Kaaflaa (Bauji uses this word; kaafla is like a group of our hunter-gatherer ancestors who travelled together, and leveraged each other’s skills and knowledge to survive), and we are each flowers in Nanak’s Bageecha. But we come alone, we die alone, and thus we must take the opportunities we can to personalize this journey and do our own personal Khoj, under the Guidance and Gaze of our Masters. What a beautiful opportunity to empower ourselves to find and connect with our Selves!

Death, suffering, and transformational shifts in our environments can be magnifying glasses to focus on what it is we’re doing with our lives. Why do I do certain things? Why do I associate with certain people? Who brings joy and who brings pain? What do I think about this uncomfortable state I’m in right now?

These are examples of powerful conversations I’ve had with myself and with trusted spiritual loved ones during my own crises, changes, and difficulties, and combined with the guidance of our mahapurakhs represent a sharpening of my spiritual sword, a refinement of my focus. In metallurgy, there is the Crucible. It is the process by which we expose metals to enormous heat and pressure, melting them down and forming them into new objects; in fact, it is the process we use to transform coal into diamonds.

So, will this be a crucible for you?

PART 1

jaa kau musakal at banai ddoiee koi na dhei || laagoo hoe dhusamanaa saak bh bhaj khale || sabho bhajai aasaraa chukai sabh asaraau ||

chit aavai os paarabraham lagai na tatee vaau ||1||

When you are confronted with terrible hardships, and no one offers you any support,when your friends turn into enemies, and even your relatives have deserted you,and when all support has given way, and all hope has been lost

-if you then come to remember the Supreme Lord God, even the hot wind shall not touch you. ||1||

At the dawn of the universe, at the beginning of this construct we call “Time”, the Guru knew that the coronavirus would one day come. Furthermore, he empowered it, and he enabled it. And in that flow of motion, let us take a deep breath, and remember:

Satgur Sabhna Da Bhalla Mannaaeyndaa

These are difficult times, and with it comes anxieties and fears. We enjoy a constant flow of freedom, peace, and relative ease. This new reality around us has presented a brash change in our realities, and change is often very difficult to process on the best of days.

Lean into your Guru. Lean into Gurbani. As we discussed on the virtual Kids Class, it is our Olaa.

As mentioned in the last post, I often write in statements, but I am happy if you treat them as questions. In other words, they are discussion theses, not facts that can’t be disputed. These are reflections from my personal experience. As such, they may not apply to you.

During the virtual kids class earlier this week, we discussed the idea that perhaps we have been taking Samagams for granted. I think this is a beautiful sentiment, because samagams are, in fact, a gift in our life, especially if we’re utilizing them for what they’re intended. So to that end, if this inspires us to attend samagams with greater focus, greater attention, greater intention, and greater discipline, then that’s wonderful.

For me, I don’t think I’ve been taking samagams for granted. Rather, I’ve been taking life for granted.

In my view, the samagam was never the end point. It was never the objective. It’s easy to see why it feels like the objective, but the samagam has always been a tool. It’s been the signposts on the highway, but not the destination. Distorting those two things lets us believe that the real work is just showing up to the samagam. This has a double complication. Firstly, that’s not the real work. Secondly, it’s worth introspecting whether or not we have ever truly shown up for a samagam. I, personally, have not. Showing up is different from attending. Certainly there is immense value and positivity in attending, but showing up is an active effort.

As we are witnessing now, samagams and local sangat (as we know them) are structures that can crumble when faced with adversity like this. But as tools, they have hopefully provided us with the resilience, inspiration, and guidance we need to carry on the infinite samagam within us. The samagam, after all, can crumble; your surti, your aatma can not. That is timeless, infinite, infallible, invincible.

So; if samagams never come back… are you ready?

PART 2

This journey inwards is the most important journey you’ll take as a physical being. We can and will continue to conduct webinars, online sangats, kids classes, and YouTube Simran watch parties, all of which will help us ease our longing, but will not be total solutions to the task we are ultimately here to accomplish. The opportunity here is to go deep inside ourselves, and to do sangat with, for, and of our Selves. When I consider that imperative task, it puts a whole new spin on the phrase:

PART 3

Brahm Giaani Ka Sabh Oopar Haath

The God-conscious being extends his hand to all.

As previously mentioned, I often write in statements, but I am happy if you treat them as questions. In other words, they are discussion theses, not facts that can’t be disputed. These are reflections from my personal experience. As such, they may not apply to you.

For now, we are without one of the many gifts that our Masters gave us – the physical manifestation of the saadh sangat through local sangat and samagams around the world. The gift remains eternal, but now we must mobilize that eternal gift as an internal gift. Whether or not we’ve been practicing this already, this is a massive opportunity to lean into the overarching guidance of our Masters.

Jaisee Sangat, Taisee Rangat

As is your sangat, so is your character

With this ultimate task in mind, we shine a new lens on the samagam, and its role as a tool to take us deeper into ourselves. The physical samagam that we attend serves as encouragement and it shows us the powerful kaafla of which we are a part. It gives us solace and comfort on the difficult journey within. In my opinion, as I’ve mentioned before, the samagam isn’t the destination, it is the collection of signposts on the highway to the destination. But ultimately, you are the driver, and it is your responsibility.

And so I come to this next opportunity of a soultime. For me, this is an opportunity to examine myself and question the responsibility I am taking for my journey. If I depend on the samagam for this, I’m effectively putting my spirituality in the hands of public health officials. That seems like a slight misalignment of goals! This is an opportunity to take control of your spirituality, your personal khoj, and your journey. This is your chance to seize your Self. That’s two separate words. “Your Self.” It’s your chance to discover your Inner Self, and to validate if you haven’t just been outsourcing it to those public health officials!

Bauji tells us that we’re like lightbulbs, and that the world around us is but a mere play. An older uncle recently called me spontaneously, and unbeknownst to him, he called me during a particularly down period. He reminded me that the world around is merely for our entertainment, and that we must bring our lights to the show. And thus, we are lightbulbs, and a current gives us our light.

So what is the current telling you, now?

As previously mentioned, I often write in statements, but I am happy if you treat them as questions. In other words, they are discussion theses, not facts that can’t be disputed. These are reflections from my personal experience. As such, they may not apply to you.

For 32 years, my family has attended sangat and samagams. In August 1988, Ottawa held its first ever samagam, just a couple months after we were introduced to local sangat. We had already purchased tickets for a family vacation to Florida, and the local sevadaar at the time encouragingly told us we should cancel because we wouldn’t want to miss the samagam. We didn’t listen; we went to Disney World (Currently closed, sorry folks!), and we came back on time for the second half of the samagam. Life would never be the same after that.

For the better part of the next 25 years, our family raced to every samagam in our reach. Back then, there were about sixteen samagams a year, significantly less than the quantity we see today. We packed up our station wagon, and then our minivan, filled it with other Ottawa kids or uncles and aunties, and off we went on road trip after road trip, to samagam after samagam. My best friends and my best memories are only in my life because of sangat and samagams.

Attending those samagams were extraordinarily important in my youth and into my adulthood. They were something to look forward to between bullying at school, school itself, homework, and whatever else occupied my time as a kid. The samagam became that oasis in the desert. I cannot recount the number of times that a samagam ended with groups of us kids crying, desolate at the end of the samagam, and having to return to “the real world”.

In the past, I’ve shared my experience that the samagam is not the destination, but rather a tool for the journey within. It is undoubtedly a Spiritual Oasis in the Desert of Maya, but as Bauji writes, the true Oasis is actually in our consciousness.

Samagams are important tools, and they are an Oasis. The way I see it, our journey is to:

• Move towards 2 weeks of Maya and 3-4 days of Oasis, and try to recognize your Divine; then,

• Move towards 6.5 days of Maya and an evening of Oasis, and try to recognize your Divine; then,

• Move towards 23 hours of Maya and 1 hour of Oasis, and try to recognize your Divine; then,

• Move towards 1 hour of Maya and 23 hours of Oasis, and try to recognize your Divine; then,

• Move towards 1 second of Maya and 23:59:59 of Oasis, and try to recognize your Divine; then

• Merge and become your Divine.

PART 4

Eyk Nimakh Jey Bissreh Swami, Jaanoh Kott Dinass Lakh Bareeyaa

If I were to forget my Lord and Master, even for an instant, it would be like millions of days, tens of thousands of years.

PART 5

As previously mentioned, I often write in statements, but I am happy if you treat them as questions. In other words, they are discussion theses, not facts that can’t be disputed.These are reflections from my personal experience. As such, they may not apply to you.

In this time, fear, anxiety, doubt, uncertainty, ambiguity, and sadness might all be felt. These emotions are real, and they need to be acknowledged. Our emotions carry great power; of all the animals in the world, the sheer diversity of emotional capability possessed by humans is unique – as far as we know!

I trust my emotions as a tool of the Divine. Our Guru is “Beant”, but even when I feel extraordinarily Happy, the Guru’s happiness is even grander. And even when I love to my fullest extent, the Guru’s Love is even grander. And even when I reach pits of sadness and despair, the Guru’s sadness and despair is even deeper. The Guru is unlimited and without border. And every time I reach a new height of happiness, a new extent of love, and a new depth of despair, I have come to see it as an opportunity to marvel at the limitless nature of the Divine. To think, if I could feel this way with my human capacity, the infinite extents of the Guru are incredible and awe-inspiring!

An old sangat friend shared the parable I briefly mentioned on the call. There is a potential that our emotions can become overwhelming. That is okay. It is allowed. We are but human. But one of the visualizations that has helped me is that of the Enlightened Observer. When we are in our deeply human moments, and our emotions have us overwhelmed, it is like we are in the ocean current, surrounded by our emotions, being dragged along by that current. But the Enlightened Observer has a lawn chair and umbrella on the white sands of the beach, and is observing the current as it goes by. One is drowning in his emotions. But the Enlightened Observer is enjoying her emotions, acknowledging their presence, and allowing them to move by at whatever speed it needs, accepting the Divine Order.

Our masters have provided us a lamp to use on our journey into the forest of our deep self. Such a journey requires a heightened awareness, and awareness is developed by understanding what is within you. “Fake it till you make it” is an often used strategy, but also has the danger of suppression and repression, which we know from “Power of Thoughts” is undesirable. To continue with the imagery, the lamp allows us to shine a light on the dark trees in our inner journey, acknowledge their presence, accept them as part of your journey, and then replace – and not suppress – their effects, and move beyond them.

Are you experiencing emotions or thoughts that feel overwhelming? Can you use this as an opportunity to sharpen your awareness?

As previously mentioned, I often write in statements, but I am happy if you treat them as questions. In other words, they are discussion theses, not facts that can’t be disputed. These are reflections from my personal experience. As such, they may not apply to you.

Throughout Gurbani, we’re given countless qualities and descriptions of the relationship between Gursikh and Guru. In this short post, I’ll share a few that come to mind. This time is a perfect time to leverage the symbolism of the world around us to dive deeper into our inner journeys.

PART 6

1) Surrendering to a Higher Power

The Governments have told us to stay home and obey physical distancing. This has likely represented inconvenience for you. It may be uncomfortable, or even unbearable. These uncomfortable realities don’t have room for negotiation. You must obey the higher power.

2) Staying at home – Residing Within

Don’t go to work. Don’t go to school. Don’t go on public transit. Stay. At. Home. Stay within. Gurbani often tells us to investigate our “nijj ghar”. So, do your “workouts” in your Home. The symbolism is unavoidable:

Nanak, Ghar Baithheyaan Jog Paayeai, Satgur Kai Updesh

O Nanak, Yoga is obtained even while sitting in your own home, by following the Teachings of the True Guru. ||64||

3) Only Essential Services will remain open

We hear that only “essential businesses and services” will remain open. The rest are noise. Shut off the noise and focus on your true essence. Declutter our thoughts and focus deeply on our essence.

4) Exercise Discipline in Hygiene

Wash your hands, and do it every 20 minutes with warm water and foamy soap. Scrub the insides of your fingers, get both thumbs, don’t forget that pinky finger, and definitely make sure you get your fingernails. Make the Effort (Udham); develop this Discipline (Sanjum); as you go about your daily activities, be Attentive (Dhiyaan/Saavdhaan) so as to invoke your discipline whenever necessary. Sound familiar?

5) Public Transit will shut down, you should not commute in to work

I have on countless occasions said things like “man if I didn’t have to commute for an hour every day, I could sit in Simran or do my paath or take out a new shabad”. Well, for many of us, the Guru has now taken away so many of our excuses. We now have the opportunity to confront our ego on these matters.

6) Single-Minded Attention and Focus

If you’re like me, you’re probably consuming way too much news, media, content, and memes about this virus. I read articles, I read the forwards I get on WhatsApp, and I watch videos from esteemed public health experts to better protect myself and those I love. For most, if not all waking moments, I am somehow interacting with thoughts about this virus. Imagine if I could do that when times were good, and be single-minded on the Divine!