2017 NEW YEAR'S PRAYER...

Let us not focus on

what we hate,

Let us focus on

what we Love. 

Amen. 

Forgiveness and Trust

Forgive those who have wronged you;
we are all doing the best 
we can at any given moment.
Never be ashamed for having trusted;
you will be stronger for the lesson inside the pain.

Coping With Change

Sharing our wisdom is an integral part of living a balanced life. I am honored my Guruji has blessed me with the seva of passing along the lessons I have learned throughout the years.

Today I had the great good fortune of sharing these words with a young man on Instagram. They seemed to resonate, so I share them with you.

Namo Namah
Bhakti

June 9, 2015

INSTAGRAM @jai_bhakti
TWITTER @BhaktiBrophy

What Is The Small Mind / Ego?

A student just asked me to explain the difference between the word ego as used by Freud, and the small mind/ego as it relates to raja yoga/meditation. Here's my reply.

Namo Namah,

Bhakti

BHAKTI BROPHY QUOTE No. 9: MAYA

"Maya doesn't stand a chance when faced with the Truth."

~ Bhakti Brophy


©2014
All Rights Reserved

JAI BHAKTI™ BLOG BHAKTI BROPHY: THE VALUES I MOST ADMIRE IN A PERSON

This evening I was asked what values I admire most in a person. Here is my response:


"An Open Mind and Open Heart:
The ability to forgive oneself and others.
The ability to Love oneself and others."

Forgiveness and love start right here, right now.



Jai Bhakti!
Victory to Love and Devotion!™
THAT is what my blog is all about,
Hence the name.

Namo Namah, my Friends.
Namo Namah!





©2014 DL BHAKTI BROPHY
All Rights Reserved

Thank you for asking permission before reposting.

BHAKTI BROPHY QUOTE #0.1 "THE CIRCLE"

"Every one of us is the center of the circle." 

~ Bhakti Brophy





©2014
All Rights Reserved

Bhakti Brophy QUOTE # 3 -- RECONCILING HUMANITY & SPIRITUALITY

Your humanity
will never diminish
your spirituality.



©2014 DL Bhakti Brophy

BHAKTI BROPHY QUOTE No. 462: SHIVA SHAKTI

Shiva is the screen.
Shakti is the movie.


©2014 DL Bhakti Brophy
All Rights reserved

BHAKTI BROPHY QUOTE No. 0112358: THE NATURE OF CHANGE

"The only thing that stays the same is change."



©1991 Brophy

BHAKTI BROPHY QUOTE No. 7.7 COMPASSION

Compassion is the only answer because Love is truly all that exists under the veil of Maya--Maya itself being a manifestation of the One.


©2014

Quote #7

Look inside.
There You Are.







©2013 DL Bhakti Brophy
All Rights Reserved

Quote # 0.6 You Are the Water

Let go of the Riverbank.

©2013

Quote # 57 Transmutation of Anger

"Anger is a ball of constricted energy that comes from and dissolves back into Pure Consciousness. What happens in between is your choice."

To read the entire essay regarding transmuting anger back into Pure Consciousness energy, click here.

JAI BHAKTI™ BLOG Reader Question Regarding My "Anger Management" Quote

A dear friend and fellow blogger, Judy, asked an interesting question regarding my "Anger Management" quote.
Here is my quote:

"Oh anger. I will stare you in the face until you bow down and melt back into Pure Consciousness. How Dare you veil my joy?"

Here is Judy's question:

"Is this your anger? Someone else's?"


Here is my answer to Judy's question:

What an interesting question!
In this case, it was indeed my anger.

Yesterday, I was experiencing a high level of physical pain, yet, I was still highly aware of the Divine Love swimming and dancing around in my Heart. This is an interesting experience, because I'm Witnessing both the physical and spiritual aspects of my being at both times. What a gift.Often when I am in a higher level of physical pain than normal, I cognitively "know" that this place within my Heart exists, yet the pain sensations veil the actual experience of being enveloped in Divine Love.

What happened was, while in this state of Union, I went onto YouTube and watched the Good Morning America interview with the jury foreman of the Jodi Arias trial, and while listening to him speak, I noticed this surge of anger welling up inside. As you probably know, when this type of anger wells up, the anger (ego) tries to take center stage. Being in the Witness State of watching my emotions, I literally "watched" and was totally aware of this anger consuming every part of my being: my face getting heated, thoughts racing, etc.

At that moment, I was left with a clear choice: react to the anger (feed the anger, by reacting to my thoughts, maybe leaving a disgruntled comment on YouTube) or simply continue watching the emotion of anger until it burns itself out and subsides. And that's what I chose to do.

All emotions are balls of constricted energy. They come from Pure Consciousness, and, ultimately, return back into pure consciousness. What happens in between those two points is ...well, it's usually a hot mess of drama! And more uncomfortable, un-enlightening emotions. 

Because I was connected to my Inner Self, I was able to see the exact moment when I was given the choice to react or observe.

I chose to observe and ride out the tsunami of anger until it dissipated.

I found your question so interesting.

The SAME technique, of observing, rather than reacting, can be employed when we are experiencing other's anger. 

I must admit, I often DO get caught up in my emotions and react. That's part of the human condition. People often talk of spiritual "practices" or their meditation "practice", and that's just it: until we become completely liberated form the trappings of the ego, we practice the techniques that keep us connected to our Inner Self, the Self of All (aka God, Pure Consciousness, Divinity, our Buddha nature, etc.).


And thank you for that enlightening question. It was quite interesting to go back and deconstruct yesterday's experience with the heated anger. The funniest thing is: I don't even know why the anger got so intense! What triggers us is not important; how we react is key. 

Quote #10

Where are you grace?
Come out an play!


The above quote is an excerpt from one of my poems.
To read the entire poem click here or visit www.bhaktilovepoems.blogger.com 

Have a fabulous day!
Love,
Bhakti

QUOTE #17 Anger Management

Oh anger. I will stare you in the face until you bow down and melt back into Pure Consciousness energy. How dare you veil my joy?
AUM



c. May 2013 D.L. Bhakti Brophy
All Rights Reserved.

Quote #5

"Music is the elixir that keeps me alive."  
               -- Bhakti Brophy 
                C. 2010 All Rights Reserved

BHAKTI BROPHY SAYS...

Stop ... Relax ... Listen ... Let go


The above mantra is a Trademark of D.L. Bhakti Brophy and may not be reproduced without permission.

LIFE GOES ON...

Hello Everyone--It has been a long time since my last...post. I am trying SO hard to get back into the blogging game again--it's just difficult after spending the past year virtually in bed, trying to find some way to live with this chronic pain. It seems as though I've been getting bombarded with one thing after another. For example, in the past week alone, I have found out that the L4 and L5 discs are bulging in my lower back; I thought that problem had been resolved years ago. Now, with the onset of severe lower back pain (only on the left side) and the recurrence of sciatica, I find that the discs are still bulging--or 're'bulging, if you will. Just today I found out that I am majorly vitamin D deficient, I have traces of Lymes disease (which explains the cramping hands/knees/joints), and I have high cholesterol (I just KNEW eating a half gallon of ice cream every-other-day would kill me!).

Well, this is not the topic that I chose to write about today. In fact, I tried to upload 5 new photographs that I took in honor of my great friend from across the pond, SA, a.k.a. 'MILADYSA', but Blogger has failed me. So, instead of not posting anything at all, I posted the first thing that came to mind: and I suppose my health has been on my mind today.

The GOOD news is this: when I thought about the fact that I have borderline Liver damage (I found out all of this 'great' health news via blood work, by the way; except for the bulging discs, which were found via an MRI test), all I could think about was "I don't want to die so young. I don't want to die at all!"

I sat down with this statement in my head, and I must admit, it threw me for a loop! I had been dealing with depression and suicidal thoughts (NOT suicidal tendencies--there is a GREAT difference between the two) ever since I have been wrestling with the severe chronic pain condition. Sometimes I just thought there was simply no way I could go to sleep at night knowing I was going to wake up feeling the same pain. Ultimately, not only my faith in, but my knowledge of the Self within saved me from such dark thoughts. Connecting to the Self within (also known, as Sally Kempton points out, as the Buddha Mind, or as I would point out, as 'The Way') is the ONLY way to overcome depression and the only way to get through the darkest hours of our lives. We have to know that there is something greater than our minds that is running the show. We're only the puppets in this here game called life, people. "Believe-me-you", as my elderly first grade teacher used to say.

When I had the thought that I didn't want to die of liver failure, I got out my laptop, lied down on the bed, and just let myself think about what it was that really scared me about the thought of dying of liver failure. What's the difference of dying from spinal disease, dying of old age, or dying of liver failure? I don't think there is a difference, but the thought of dying from liver failure scared the hell out of me.

As I lie on the bed, I let the feeling of fear run throughout my entire body; I knew running from it would make it worse. I wanted to go into the fear and see what it was all about. It truly made no sense to me whatsoever that I should feel such a fear of death; I thought I had dealt with--and gotten over--that fear a long time ago. I was wrong.

When I turned on the computer I immediately turned to my friend Sally Kempton's website (http://www.sallykempton.com/) and just began to navigate my way through her site; I wasn't looking for anything in particular, but Sally tends to be a vehicle in my life that leads me to the answers I am looking for. Ultimately, I wound up reading this kick ass article about loneliness that truly struck a chord with me. It described my experience of loneliness to a T. (In general, I think people fail to realize how lonesome it is to live with a long illness. I believe the deep depression I went through last month had to do with dealing with the loneliness that was crippling me throughout the last year--since my last surgery in November of 2006.) The article also touched on the importance of connecting with the inner Self while dealing with loneliness. As soon as I began to breathe deeply and connect myself with the loving warmth of the Self within, my fear of death literally lifted. It vanished. My fear of dying of liver disease lifted, too. I now know that it truly DOESN'T matter how I die. The point is: DEATH IS INEVITABLE.

CLICK HERE to read Sally's article.


My fear of dying of liver disease was actually my fear of dying in general. My immediate thought was "I don't want to die yet! I haven't accomplished what I wanted to do in this lifetime yet! I haven't served the world enough! I haven't been able to show my good heart to the world!" That wasn't coming from an ego point of view, it was sincere and was coming from my heart. Albeit, it was still fear of death.

Once I read Sally's article and established myself in the Self--i.e. once I let myself dissolve in the Ocean of Love also known as Pure Consciousness (the Self/Buddha Nature), I rested easy knowing that whenever I die will be the right time for me to die. If I die young, perhaps that's because God has other things in store for me than what I think He has in store for me in this lifetime. It's not my call--that's GOD territory. GOD, of course, being another name for the Self within.

With much love, I pray you all know that I miss you, my blogger friends, and I hope you leave a comment so we can converse again, just like we used to in the olden days. ;)

Bhakti
tags: Jaibhakti, Bhakti Brophy, Sally Kempton, the Self, Buddha Nature, severe chronic pain,