We are now well into the season of Lent, a 40-day period that begins with Ash Wednesday and ends, April 17, two days before Easter Sunday.

What can Lent involve for those like myself, who lean heavily on Eastern spirituality, particularly the eternal way of Sanathana Dharma, aka Hinduism?

Lent is associated with penance, preparation, and purification of the mind, body, and spirit. Fasting, almsgiving, and abstaining from meat are the three pillars of Lent.

People may also abstain from desserts, coffee, even sex, among a host of other possibilities. In this post, I share some possibilities from the Tantric perspective.

What if we were to give up certain types of thoughts and images? Could we give up particular feelings, too?

When Lent began, a good friend who is my unwitting spiritual director (he does not know it) asked me to observe the Lenten season with the following injunction: be joyful.

He did not say much more; however, his cryptic message offers a lot in its profound sim...

Most of us, myself included, have been shaped by a theology dominated by the male perspective, where the supreme Godhead is typically depicted as male. This cultural norm is reflected in our language, as we often refer to God as 'he'.Shaktiism, however, offers a unique and powerful alternative.

Shaktiism, the source of Ananda Bhairava, is a form of Tantra that celebrates the ultimate reality as feminine, a powerful source of inspiration for women, offering them a unique path to empowerment.

Ananda Bhairava Tantra offers men and women a way to connect to the direct experience of what it means to know, see, seek, and be in a relationship with ultimate reality as feminine instead of masculine.

This approach does not obliterate the need to relate to ultimate reality through male references and that archetype of masculinity.

Shaktiism, Sri Vidya, and Ananda Bhairava provide a platform for all, regardless of gender, to balance the excessive masculine references in our spirituality, foste...

We used to embark on journeys to India with our students as pilgrims, searching for what we would refer to as the other half of the soul, a concept inspired by the profound writings of our esteemed mentor, Bede Griffiths. Our recent trip to India was especially poignant; it marked the first time in 26 years, since 1999, that we ventured without our students.

Although our intentions were different this time, we carried forward many of the invaluable lessons and practices we had cultivated throughout our pilgrimages. Along the way, we reminisced about some of those transformative experiences, and there’s one particular story we believe deserves to be shared.

If you had the opportunity to travel with us on a train through India, you would likely feel a wave of nostalgia while watching this video. There were numerous moments when we longed for the camaraderie of our fellow pilgrims, sharing in the depth and joy of the journey alongside us.

However, we must be clear: we have decided n...

"Take only memories, leave only footprints."
— Chief Seattle. 

In a small village not far from the culturally rich town of Pudukottai in Tamil Nadu, there is a remarkable spiritual vibration that endures to this day.

The town dates back 2,000 years to a period when Jainism was quite prominent in the region. The Jains are ascetic monks who practice extreme forms of deprivation, as evidenced by their hard stone beds carved out of rock. Similar to Buddhists, they beg for food in a nearby village and limit their intake to one meal a day. They also spend long periods in silence and meditation.

“Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.”
― Anita Desai

What surprised me was the security guard's knowledge of Nada Yoga. He demonstrated this by creating resonant tones inside the rock temple, once used by the monks. He accomplished this using a ventriloquist-like technique, producing sounds from various spots outside the main shrine. It was nothing short of extraordinary. He then ...

In Tantric mantra practice, the keys refer to specific elements that can enhance the effect of mantras. These keys are direction, bija, and the deity's name. Each of these elements plays a crucial role in the effectiveness of the practice, and understanding them can significantly improve your Tantric mantra practice.  

Our experience of teaching Tantric practice over four decades has led us to a significant realization: the clarity of our perspective is as important as our actual practices. This understanding can enlighten and empower you, as it reveals that if the underlying message of our practice is muddled, no amount of effort will yield the desired results, leading to disappointment and frustration.

In this blog, we delve into invoking the goddess Lakshmi for abundance. Amidst the plethora of information (and misinformation) out there, the application of the 3 keys, by themselves, can indeed help with our manifestation process, reassuring and boosting our confidence in the spiri...

What better way to begin a new year than with fundamentals? At the heart of mantra practice, which for us in our Yogic Mystery School is quite sophisticated, is what we identify as our core mantra practice.

 In my book, The Yoga of Sound: Tapping The Hidden Power Of Music And Chant, I describe our core mantra as one that simultaneously, by its sound and its meaning, conveys to us a sense of the highest reality. 

This understanding is just the starting point of our process. The two significant forks on the road are: 

1. Do you have such a mantra?
2. Does it continue to serve its purpose?
3. Is this mantra sufficient for all your needs?

If you can answer yes to these questions, it is unlikely that you need mantras.  

On the other hand, most people will not answer no to at least one question. 

Each of these questions deserves its own process of discovery.  

Let's begin with the first.

1) Do you have a core mantra?

If you don't have one, here are two examples:

oṁ namaḥ śivāya |

oṁ...

Often, at the close of a year, we talk about how fast the year has gone by, which, when you think about it, is a disservice to the gift of time, life, and consciousness.  

In case you didn't know, there are 31,536,000 seconds in a year. In other words, we have thirty-one-and-a-half million opportunities for awareness, awakening, and realization in the coming year, as much as we've had for this one.

Here are some journaling questions to ask ourselves at the end of this year in view of upping our game in 2025:

What did I do with my time, energy, and consciousness this year—2024?

Am I genuinely satisfied with my choices for improving my consciousness this year?

 Has the quality of my consciousness improved over the year as a direct result of my choices?

What do I hold responsible for my consciousness this year: my choices or my circumstances?

The biggest realization I've had in my life is that quality of life equals quality of consciousness. No matter what one has (or does not h...

There are three dimensions of music worth discovering, and although the three are related, we may value one above the other. In our Yogic Mystery School, we are discovering all three of them at this time, even though we emphasize one during our current process. These three dimensions are aesthetic, therapeutic, and mystical, and each offers specific benefits.

In our process, the method is primarily directed toward the aesthetic, because, in order to create beauty with our voices, we've got to learn theoretical and technical components that have been simplified into three parts: chromatic calibration, developing ragas, and rhythm that involves timing.

We are three groups working as one whole. On the one hand, some are tone-deaf and have no sense of music theory or technique, while on the other, there are skilled musicians who are well-trained technically and theoretically. In between are the developing musicians who have various levels of theory and technique, some more than others. All t...

Life is precious, and it is precious to be in a relationship with other humans. There is a beautiful mantra that we pray that goes, Sarvesham Svasthir Bhavatu.

It's a beautiful mantra to pray for the world because many mantras, Vedic mantras in particular, are praying for the well-being of all. Sarvesham means everybody, all creatures, all beings. Sarvesham Svasthir Bhavatu.

Svasthi is this beautiful word that connotes blessing on the one hand and well-being on the other. May there be a sense of well-being that prevails in our world with everybody. Sarvesham Svasthir Bhavatu.

Sarvesham Shantir Bhavatu. That there be peace, that there is this prevalence of peace in human consciousness. Sarvesham Purnam Bhavatu.

Again, the word Purnam, in the middle of these other words that are recurrent, Sarvesham and Bhavatu, means fullness, and we can interpret it two ways. On the one hand, we can say that this is a prayer asking everybody to be filled with the fullness of God's presence, and we ...

Science, we know, is constantly making discoveries in ways that reinforce some theories while others are either discarded or forced into being modified or upgraded. In Darwinian fashion, only the fittest theories survive. In this manner, science mimics the development of our consciousness in our lives.

As we evolve, some of our thoughts, behaviors, habits, and beliefs are reinforced because they align with the discoveries we make in life. In many instances, however, we are challenged to discard outmoded ways of thinking and behaving or upgrade them to be in alignment with our evolving consciousness. Many humans resist this process.

We often tend to embrace only those discoveries that align with our established thoughts, behaviors, habits, and beliefs. Adapting ourselves to change does not come naturally to us, especially when the rate of change is as rapid as it is in our post-modern civilization. It is our predicament today, and mantra practice can help.

The way to work with evolutio...