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tadyatha om gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha

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Jyotishavidya Practice


Rashi - Samchara - Bhava - Graha - Ratna - Nakshatra - Amsha - Varga


Puja versus Seva

Sacrifice Transforming Ignorance into Wisdom

To Serve Is to Learn


Sample Seva recommendation

1322_StElizHungary_SimoneMartini.jpg

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary,

by Simone Martini, c. 1322-1326

Fresco cycle with scenes from the life of Saint Martin of Tours; Chapel in lower church of San Francesco in Assisi, italy

" We work on ourselves in order to help others,

but also we help others in order to work on ourselves."

~~Pema Chodron

Magical Learning Seva!
This sacred truth is not fully proven until after the dematerialization event. During the meeting of one's guidance council, it is shown that the meek did inherit the earth.

Because of the unique privilege which is offered to ministers and helpers to observe the relationship between thoughts-emotions-material outcome, those who serve are blessed with extraordinary and rare wisdom to understand one's own dilemmas and predicaments. Although it is not widely believed, ministries of service are more effective than any other path of advancement.

It is called selfless service because during the offering of the service, the focus is directed entirely upon the customer, the client, the patient, the help-needing one, the disenfranchised. The center of attention is that awkward imbalance-seeking-a-remedy.

In this environment of lifting focus away from ones own concerns and toward the concerns of another, aremarkable clarity of understanding takes place. A cheerful by-product of seva, the wisdom usually models exactly the understanding that is needed to solve one's own immediate problem.

This is why Learning Seva comes so highly recommended by all sages.

Super-selfish, yes!

Seva is actually the most selfish possible decision. During the attentive service, one is receiving * for free * specifically targeted information.

Bringing the question, getting the answer

The knowledge gained about the client's beliefs-and-behavior can be seen by the wise one to be providing a precise matching answer to those questions about Self that one brings to the Service practice.

Learning Seva is quite magically enlightening when intentionally, consciously targeted toward those who share one's own life dilemmas but in a more intense degree.

What doesn't work

Seva undertaken in the attitude of pious righteousness, sympathetic pity, dehumanizing distancing, or materialistic efficiency, does not provide answers to the brought questions. Serve patiently and listen carefully.

It's not about " them" . It's about you.

" Anas reported that the Prophet ṣallallāhu 'alayhi wa sallam (peace and blessings of Allāh be upon him) said, "If a Muslim plants a tree or sows seeds, and then a bird, or a person or an animal eats from it, it is regarded as a charitable gift (sadaqah) for him."

~~ Sahih Bukhari

Exposing the // Blind Spot //

Find the missing answer

Witness quality neutral attention to behavior of others

Scientific observation, compassionate assistance

Use the skills you already have

Role model to those coming up behind you


Learning-Seva

The educational practice of Learning-Seva = straightforward and effective.

It works at a common-sense level for two reasons.

  • First, it feels good to help other people. Noble actions raise the vitality.
  • But second and more important at a pragmatic level of getting information that can change behavior , Learning-Seva when properly targeted is a scientific method of exposing a blind spot.

Learning-Seva =s an eye-opener .

One targets a population that is suffering from one's own similar problem, Yet, in a slightly worse degree of suffering. In other words, these are people who are making the same mistake as oneself, but they are less advantaged in general - they have less intelligence, fewer resources, or just heavier obligations overall.

Example

Perhaps a person is having financial problems. Expenses continually exceed income. Could be home finance or business finance.

One begins to feel like a victim. Self-doubt overwhelms the native. Crippling emotions such as self-criticism, fear, and anger often emerge as the problem worsens.

One feels beleaguered by apparently unanswerable "W-questions " [who-what-when-where-why-how]: What is happening? Why? Where is the money going? What negative path is the money following? Clearly there is a blind spot in one's management process.

Learning-Seva Offering

In response to such a dilemma, go teach a basic personal finance = "checkbook-management" class in a community center (including religious communities). Teach teenage parents how to handle cintamani * mani * money .

A bigger task could be to help a well-intentioned but financially incompetent service group to rationalize its budget.

The Seva-giver will see it pretty quickly. People with chronic money problems hold some cherished negative beliefs about cintamani * mani * money . They often believe that if they don't buy it now, it won't be there tomorrow (unstable emotions, lack of trust in one's power to create).

They lack impulse control often. They are often invested in a negative expectation that there will never be enough: the religion of scarcity, inadequacy, insufficiency.

We're talking deeply held beliefs. Teaching, skills training, meeting with these folks will be an eye-opener. One will see oneself reflected in their mirror rather quickly. Chances are that one's own positive intelligence will see the match in the lower folk and eradicate it, realizing that like attracts like. Only Learning Seva can expose the blind spot. Works like a charm to solve one's own problem and helps others in the process.

QUOTATION Paramahansa Yogananda,

Autobiography of a Yogi , sarga-16, Outwitting the Stars


" Superstitious awe of astrology makes one an automaton, slavishly dependent on mechanical guidance.

The wise man defeats his planets - which is to say, his past

  • by transferring his allegiance from The creation to the Creator.

The more he realizes his unity with spirit , the less he can be dominated by matter.

The soul is ever-free; it's deathless because birthless. It can't be regimented by stars.[end quote]

Ritual Remedial Puja versus Charitable Service (Seva): which works better?

Q:

I know you disagree with Pooja as a technology for correcting bad karma. You would be disappointed to know that I got a KSY pooja done for myself recently.

A:

IMO doing a KSY puja is perfectly OK and won't hurt anything! Plus, it will help the pujari financially. That is a nice thing for the pujari : )

  • It is not the goal to put every pujari out of work!

  • Nevertheless, ritual puja = much less remedially effective than direct charitable service offered to those suffering"immediately below" ones own social station.

The choice to serve = effective when one's sacrificial intelligence is directed toward those who have precisely one's own type of suffering , but in a recognizable form (near to one's own social setting) and in a worse, more debilitating version .

Q:

What is your opinion on Pariharas for Doshas and Karmas being suggested by certain group of astrologers?

A: Thanks for a great question. I do not favor superstitious remedies of any kind.

Seva is the ideal remedy in all cases of perceived misfortune. SEVA requires some thought! It works best when the service is offered to those who suffer from one's own problem, but their suffering is in a slightly worse degree.

Serving these folks is Typically, an eye-opening experience which allows one to see the problem-causing behaviors being demonstrated in real-time by other people.

The one who is offering Learning Seva gains the privilege to watch negative beliefs and unconscious negative habits of the"victims ". The one-to-one correspondence between negative expectation and negative outcome is quite vivid! It is like watching an instructional movie!

Naturally, those who receive the offering of Learning Seva often do benefit from one's kind and courteous service to those less fortunate. However, the real beneficiary is indeed oneself. One who offers intentional "targeted Seva" to precisely those persons who have exactly a matching problem (but in a worse degree of suffering) are themselves the true beneficiaries.

Learning Seva is actually the most selfish activity in the world.

It works, it is intelligent, and Seva is free!

Sincerely,

BP Lama, Jyotisha

Puja as Market Commodity

Concern that blocks effectiveness: One is often quite psycho-emotionally disconnected from the puja .

The temple discourse has become a "commodity" to be paid for and consumed. Since the beginning of Kali Yuga, just about everything in life has a price -- and puja is no exception.

  • the originally sacred sacrifice, which is the cornerstone of all religions, has now become, in most applications and in most religions, what Das Kapital 1818-1883 economics Karl Marx called a fetish.

  • the core rituals which once evoked the deepest inner connections to the Divine are now (often) mere external fascinations, approach as superstition, apprehended as a power outside oneself.

The power to change must always originate within.


Externalized, outer-material focused rituals are not really capable of creating change.

  • An externalized ritual gives the illusion of doing something efficacious, but without the moral and spiritual engagement of direct committed participation in the action,

  • the ritual has no meaning to the native,

  • and it cannot provoke real change.

When the puja becomes a commercial commodity that is passively bought and sold, the transformative "intention" of sacrifice is completely lost.

Great Saints Agree


During the past three millennia, religious reformers in all the great religions have noticed this degrading of authentic sacrifice in religious practice.

They have tried to correct it by calling the people back to intimate prayer with the Divine and toward charitable service.

They knew that Intention which is the dedicated purpose and personal engagement of the action, is where the transformative, healing power of human life is rooted.

And they were aghast to see that sacrificial religion had become a business.

Think of Yeshuah (Jesus Christ) turning over the money tables in the Temple in Jerusalem. Think of Protestant Reformation 1483-1549 hymns Martin Luther tacking up 95 theses which argued for rejecting the selling of indulgences and annulments. Think of Satyagraha 1869-1948 Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi redirecting attention to the intentional acts such as cotton spinning and rejecting archaic superstition at every level.

There are hundreds more saints like them who came to earth to reject superstition and materialism in favor of opening to Divine intelligence through humility and intentional devotional practice.

All the Great Teachers

QUOTATION Tenzing Gyatso, A Policy of Kindness : An Anthology of Writings By and About the Dalai Lama


" I am interested not in converting other people to Buddhism but in how we Buddhists can contribute to human society, according to our own ideas.

I believe that other religious faiths also think in a similar way, seeking to contribute to the common aim ....

Just as Buddha showed an example of contentment, tolerance, and serving others without selfish motivation, so did Jesus Christ

  • Almost all of the great teachers lived a saintly life - not luxuriously like kings or emperors but as simple human beings.
  • Their inner strength was tremendous, limitless, but the external appearance was of contentment with a simple way of life.

... The motivation of all religious practice is similar - love, sincerity, honesty. The way of life of practically all religious persons is contentment. The teachings of tolerance, love, and compassion are the same. A basic goal is the benefit of humankind - each type of system seeking in its own unique ways to improve human beings.

  • If we put too much emphasis on our own philosophy, religion, or theory, are too attached to it, and try to impose it on other people, it makes trouble.

Basically All the great teachers, such as Gautama Buddha, Jesus Christ, or Mohammed, founded their new teachings with a motivation of helping their fellow humans. They did not mean to gain anything for themselves nor to create more trouble or unrest in the world.

Most important is that we respect each other And learn from each other those things that will enrich our own practice.

  • Even if all the systems are separate, since they each have the same goal, the study of each other is helpful."

True Puja = Sacrifice Sacrifice = sacri + fice // making sacred //

Sacrifice means changing something from a low level of energy to a higher level of energy. Sacrifice means transforming ignorance into wisdom.

  • True puja can be very sincerely and deeply efficacious for a religious person who is intimately and prayerfully involved in the sacrifice.

Unfortunately, in reality, most people"throw money at it" in a state of ego-dysfunctional anxiety. In the materialistic mentality, one feels that one cannot lose the productivity time or that one somehow does not have the"expertise" to conduct a proper sacrifice.

  • As a result of the anxiety and fear perpetrated by a culture of materialistic superstition, one does not make the necessary effort to change oneself from the inside out (which is what true sacrifice is all about). Thus no sincere change occurs.

Without the intention to personally open to the divine , which paid puja does not provide, there is no benefit.. (Except of course the benefit to the pocketbook of the priest!)

Learning Seva requires Intention


Approaching negative [akashic memory patterns] or suffering with the tool of charitable service * Seva, on the other hand, can give excellent results. Seva requires intention, to be present and personally engaged.

  • In seva, the energy value being sacrificed is one's personal intelligent participation and productivity time .

Highest Values: Time and Intelligence


In the modern individualized world, the citizen's waking time and applied intelligence are high-value , essential survival resources .

In mentalized material culture of the present era, time and intelligence are normally used strictly for purposes of generating cintamani * mani * money , prestige, physical sustenance or relaxation, or some other value of physical, social or material advancement.

  • " Advancement" essentially"accumulation"

  • Accumulating skandha, which means rather literally getting to the"top of the heap" .

Each individual receives a certain allocation of these fundamental modern resources. One perceives a trajectory of"success " through material advancement which can be achieved by the skillful utilization of intelligence and time. (Presuming health, time of peace, economic freedom, etc.)

When the Competitive-Acquisitive Behavior is Blocked


When the advancement is blocked, when one can't mentally"figure out" the next step forward of the material-success trajectory, amodern educated person feels deep frustration leading to suffering.

  • One is blocked in getting married, getting money, finding a job, getting a house, making a financial deal, landing a movie contract, etc.

  • These mental blockages which would not have seemed very important to denizens of earlier non-mentalized ages.

  • Nor do they seem so weighty to those surviving in garbage heaps or being tortured in prisons or fighting infectious disease or dying in war.

Nevertheless, the modern agony is realistic; for those caught in its clutches modern suffering is very real.

Heaping Compulsions: Survival and Guilt


The heap-building, acquisitive, ego-justification process that is driven by the mental engine and fueled by the guilty inner voice of should is urgently survival-compulsive.

  • Although spiritual authorities uniformly recommend pulling back from the hysterical quest for more more more material acquisition, the reality is that most people cannot get off the Acquisitions addiction.

At root, hoarding is a basic survival instinct programmed into our old carnivore brains. The brain signals that if one is going to have enough life force to produce offspring, one needs to go consume the life force of another animal. The life force moves from container to container, in tantric dance: eat and be eaten, says the oldest part of the human brain.

It's very hard for an individual to separate from the cultural expectations long enough to get a clear perspective on the compulsion .

  • Acquisitive behavior --"getting" married,"getting" a job, "getting" respect -- is deeply programmed into the survival brain, and widely praised by collective brain of modern culture.

  • Acquisitive and competitive "heaping" behavior makes us feel socially valued and physically safe.

On a psycho-mental level, very real - to the point where serious blockage on the progress-trajectory causes the native to try removing the blockage via suicide or divorce among other catastrophic "solutions".

QUOTATION Tenzing Gyatso . (1994). the Path to Enlightenment .

Glenn H. Mullin (Trans. and Ed.)


" We should remember that everything but Dharma is useless at death,

and instead of wasting our lives on meaningless activities,

we should blend our mindstreams with the teachings and with practice.

Doing so benefits us as individuals

and benefits the world by strengthening its spiritual basis."

The Higher Truth


Indeed, the best spiritual advice is to completely abandon the heaping process. Compulsive goods-and-status acquisition is well known to be a colossal waste of Earth Life time .

  • Yet, so few people can hear the truth that our Earth incarnations are rare and precious, and should be used for the highest purposes of merging the human consciousness with the Divine.

~~ 14th Dalai Lama 1935- Policy of Kindness Tenzing Gyatso


Compassion is the desire for another to have freedom from suffering.

Love is the desire for another to have happiness.

Reality of the Common Person


The higher message is a lot of blah-blah to a person driven by hungry-mind and desperate for social approval. They think, if I don't please my parents and make a good marriage I am going to"die" . That is reptile-brain speaking. If I lose my house through bank foreclosure I am going to"die" . The inner snake, again.

Periodically the USA news outlets will report married homeowners committing joint suicide because their house payments are too late.They will be forced by finances into what seems to the snake-brain like fatal loss of public dignity leading to certain death. In reality, they must move from a house into a rental apartment.

Looking at this situation from the rational outside view, of course the decision to take one's life for such a superficial reason of local reputation is outrageous and an insult to God. Again, the snakey brain does this work.

The traditional father who believes he must murder his daughter because she will not marry according to his wishes. He too is driven by the terrible urge to control for survival. Accumulate, control, command the material forces : this is the dangerous and pervasive voice of the reptile brain.

Compassionate Advice, then


The compassionate approach to solving the blockage problem thus needs to take a step down and presume that the acquisitions addiction will keep barreling forward.

What common folk need is the most effective psychic technology for removing the blockage and re-starting the flow of acquisitions.

Nothing else make sense.

Material Mind at Work
The natural human commercial instinct is simply to trade one heap for another heap - , give a cow or goat or 7 ratti gemstone to a priestIt seems reasonable that paying a penance to a spiritual technician should raise the psychic energy high enough to remove the"roadblock" open my path to a beautiful bride, ahealthy child, anew house, or a promotion at work. This is how the material mind works.

Search for Effective Remedies


When blocked in desire-driven accumulations, the progress-oriented person seeks a familiar solution in the habitual field of material activity. The material mind is stuck in the modern habit of using the energy of consciousness to generate self-focused physical-mental-social value .

Naturally, one looks for a commodity or technology to open the way toward resumption of heaping.

One makes a thoughtless donation of money or an animal; perhaps a gem of so many rattis; or one purchases a ritual puja.

If you prefer to offer Puja to protective deities, then keep in mind the power of an offering based in gratitude for one's blessings.

Whether you choose puja or seva, the conscious intention is to express appreciation for one's advantage in life.

Puja is a precious opportunity not to complain about how serious one's own problems are but more to emphasize how much one values the privilege of communicating with the Divine.


The Union of Bliss and Emptiness: Teachings on the Practice of Guru Yoga

by 14th Dalai Lama 1935- Policy of Kindness Tenzing Gyatso , trans. Thupten Jinpa, p.35

" Offerings should not be influenced by fluctuations of motivation and they should not be procured by devious means--offerings procured through wrong means are not good offerings.

They should be arranged with proper motivation. As explained in the precepts of refuge, you should make offerings of the first portion of your food or drink of the day, whether it be food, milk or tea.

offerings should be made of what is edible; it is not helpful to arrange a torma that could not be eaten and then to say OM AH HUM, OM AH HUM. If you can in reality transform something into delicious food just by reciting OM AH HUM three times, then it is alright!

On the other hand, if your offerings remain as mere tsampa (roasted barley flour) after having repeated OM AH HUM a thousand times, it will not help much.

The offerings should be the best you can afford. At least you can offer the first portion of your daily food, as no one can live without food! Our offerings should be something which is edible.... [Even] if you make water offerings in a proper manner, you can generate great merit."

Change must come from within

Authentic sacrifice cannot be performed on one's behalf, absent one's present-time full-focus engagement, by another person.

  • The exception is when the native is deeply spiritually engaged in austerities and self-reflection, while the priest is simultaneously linking to one's psychic intention.

  • The intention has a clear shape on the astral plane, and if it is consciously harnessed to the puja, this can be indeed efficacious for re-directing the downstream from the astral plane to the material plane - and changing the course of material events.

However, this level of spiritual attunement between the practitioner and the priest is exceedingly rare.

from the comedy routine of Swami Beyondananda :

What did the Yogi say when he walked into the Zen Pizza Parlor?

  • " Make me one with everything."

When the Yogi got the pizza, he gave the proprietor a $20 bill. The proprietor pocketed the bill. The Yogi said "Don't I get change?"

  • The proprietor said, "Change must come from within."

Q: I don't understand how Seva can help me solve these crushing problems. It's nice to help other people. I could go so far as to say like the Budhhists that it will create merit in this life or the next. Fine. Bui

It seems to me that Seva is more recreational - volunteer work, something to fill in my extra time. It's not very useful for me personally.

Why do you always recommend Seva as a one-size-fits-all solution - especially when the problems are serious, like mine are?

Q:

Learning Seva is very straightforward and effective. It works at a common-sense level for two reasons. First, it feels good to help other people. Noble actions raise the vitality. But second and more important at a pragmatic level of getting information that can change behavior, Learning Seva when properly targeted is a scientific method of exposing a blind spot.

Learning Seva is an eye-opener . One targets a population that is suffering from one's own similar problem, Yet, in a slightly worse degree of suffering. In other words, these are people who are making the same mistake as oneself, but they are less advantaged in general - they have less intelligence, fewer resources, or just heavier akashic-memory pattern overall.

For example, say that one is having financial problems. Expenses continually exceed income. Could be home or business. One begins to feel like a victim. What is happening, where is the money going, what negative path is the money following?

  • Clearly there is a blind spot in one's management process. So, for example, go teach a basic checkbook-management class in a community center, or teach teenage parents how to handle cintamani * mani * money .

    The Seva-giver will see their blind spot pretty quickly in the mirror of the served ones.

People with chronic money problems hold some cherished negative beliefs about money. They often believe that if they don't buy it now, it won't be there tomorrow (unstable emotions, lack of trust in one's power to create). They lack impulse control often. They are often invested in a negative expectation that there will never be enough: the religion of scarcity, inadequacy, insufficiency.

We're talking deeply held beliefs. Teaching, skills training, meeting with these folks will be an eye-opener. One will see oneself reflected in their mirror rather quickly. Chances are that one's own positive intelligence will see the match in the lower folk and eradicate it, realizing that like attracts like. Only Learning Seva can expose the blind spot. Works like a charm to solve one's own problem and helps others in the process.

QUOTATION Tenzing Gyatso : The Pocket Dalai Lama

Religion = Optional


" I believe there is an important distinction to be made between religion and spirituality.

Religion I take to be concerned with belief in the claims to salvation of one faith tradition or another--an aspect of which is acceptance of some form of metaphysical or philosophical reality, including perhaps an idea of heaven or hell. Connected with this are religious teachings or dogma, ritual, prayers and so on.

Spirituality I take to be concerned with those qualities of the human spirit--such as love and compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness , contentment, asense of responsibility, asense of harmony, which bring happiness to both self and others.

While ritual and prayer, along with questions of nirvana and salvation are directly connected with religious faith, these inner qualities need not be, however.

  • There is thus no reason why the individual should not develop them, even to a high degree, without recourse to any religious or metaphysical belief system.

This is why I sometimes say r eligion is something we can perhaps do without .

What we cannot do without are these basic spiritual qualities."

Personal Engagement Required


A bought puja, paid for on the same instinct which tells an ovulating lion to eat a zebra, is just another material-plane solution with no personal spiritual engagement.

Purchased"solutions " which do not require personal engagement do not create true sacrifice that evokes transformative change.

Money exchanges will not"lift" the awareness out of the material plane and up to the astral or mental fields of consciousness, where one might gain the perspective needed to perceive a long-term solution.

Nothing originates on the material plane.


The material plane is the outcome, the result,"the buck stops here" .

Physical reality is end of a long process originating on the spiritual plane, percolating down to the mental plane, if not apprehended in the mental plane then dropping down to the astral plane, and only if the native cannot grasp any of the higher levels of perception does reality need to manifest on the material plane.

Common-sense Material Remedies


Material blockage usually does not have a material origin. Most material problems are mental or psycho-emotional in origin. Problems that are indeed material in origin can generally be solved with common-sense material remedies, such as medical treatment for a health problem or professional accounting to resolve financial distress.

There can be a lateral transfer of energy on the material plane, but increased awareness requires moving the perspective up to a higher particulate level.

First, try mental and spiritual reflection


Before even considering the need to make an energy-transforming sacrifice, one should have already exhausted the common-sense levels of material remedy, including not only technical, professional help -- but also one's own psychic perception

Do everything that can be done within one's capability, including both mental and spiritual reflection on the problem.

Meditation, concentration, and reflection are conscious means of access to the mental plane, and most people can do these if they try. Simply entering a restful mental state and asking for divine guidance, or asking for help from the spirits in the moments immediately before falling asleep, can produce deep insight and compelling direction toward real-life solutions in a shockingly speedy way.

If the problems have not resolved after common-sense treatment, meditation and/or prayer, and intelligent personal inquiry into solutions, then the problem is not solvable within one's own capabilities, and an energy transformation on a higher plane will be required.

Paid puja is a commercial transaction that occurs strictly on the material plane connecting one to the pujari. Unless some extraordinary circumstance are in place, which might connect one to the pujari on higher planes, continuing to expect improvement on the material plane after the common-sense remedies have been exhausted is not only fruitless but also really quite superstitious.

Learning Seva raises the consciousness and makes changes at the astral level


The practice of Learning Seva = selfless charitable service = efficacious for making substantial changes and releasing downflow blockages on the astral plane.

Learning Seva is efficacious because the native has injected the material value of one's time and intelligence, the tools of service, with love.

Love (not desire, but love) is the most pure energy in existence. Love is the"glue" which holds together the material, astral, mental, and spiritual planes of reality.

Without love connecting everything to everything else, the whole universe would go kablooey, in an instant!

Getting Un-Stuck: Learning Seva is Love, and Love is Flow


In the act of commitment to Learning Seva , the native has chosen to act from the motive of love (concern for another, or compassion) rather than the motive of survival (or accumulation).

The Intention to use the assets of time and intelligence for the benefit of others, functions as a"reverse flush" . This psychic back-flush sends "stuck energy" that is plugging up the flow of acquisitions on the material plane, back up to the higher planes.

Love and cintamani * mani * money


Love is the greatest open secret of all material life. The more love one invites into one's life, the more cintamani * mani * money and power one can access.

Consider the amount of money and resources that some contemporary authentic spiritual figures are known to have at their disposal. They are authentic saints such as

They act almost exclusively for the benefit of others, from a motive of compassionate love.

They do not personally hoard more than a few yards of cloth and a couple of pair of shoes. But they can access and control many millions in resources.

Love actually does create money. But the person who lives immersed in love usually has no desire to hoard. Love only flourishes when it flows freely.

Intent


But let us say that one is not a great saint, and one cannot yet extend the consciousness to imagine living"immersed in love"and owning very little. One would rather live a bit closer to the Earth, enjoying a fat bank account, ahappy healthy family, and a peaceful old age. This is achievable.

It does take a bit more effort for the non-saint, though. The natural hoarder does not easily abandon the"me-first" state of mind which allows love to come in.

It is easiest to start small, and it is essential to properly target one's service to achieve precise results.

Begin with intent. The very decision to offer conscious service marks the germ-moment of transformative trajectory, out of anxious suffering and into conscious awareness. The decision to sacrifice one's conscious time, for the benefit of others, is truly momentous.

Target the Correct Beneficiaries


Then, target the time and intelligence toward actions in charitable service for those who have precisely the same problem as oneself, except in a greater degree of painful intensity. This helps to match the"energy going out" to the"energy going in" on the astral plane imagery, where the subconscious expectations are stored.

When one is personally involved in the service work, inevitably the intelligence is engaged. Even while the less conscious flow of love and appreciation is ongoing, one is consciously learning something practical and insightful about the patterns of expectation and habitual reaction which trigger and perpetuate the troublesome [akashic memory patterns].

There are no victims in this world. Yet many people carry massively negative expectations. Without awareness, naegativity in the mind will re-create cycles of poverty and violence almost indefinitely. The dark mind harbors afflicted emotions, such as anger and greed; assumptions about inevitable failure, and fear-driven reactive behaviors.

Noticing


If for example one is having trouble with financial management, and one goes to serve those who subsist on a few paisa each day, one may notice that despite their terrible victim state even this tiny money is partly spent for alcohol or sense pleasure. From one's higher but still similarly-suffering perspective, one may note the negative expectations, the exhaustion, and other aspects of victim-mind which drive the cycles of world poverty.

This "noticing" is a moment of sacrifice , when a pattern of ignorance (not knowing how this pattern quite works) changes into a pattern of knowledge.

One apprehends and identifies the destructive pattern. One transfers the wisdom of positive new knowledge back into one's own astral field of perception. One's own expectation and presumption is altered by the new knowledge.

Thus the servant of those suffering severely may benefit quickly from insight gathered during the service action.


Similar results might be gained from serving victims of a terrible accident, such as burned children. Are their parents attending with love and grace, not pleading or angry around their healing children but providing the best calm spiritual love environment for healing?

One engaged in charitable service may notice a pattern applicable to one's own life, that the parents who can accept the tragedy without blame or complaint, whose prayers for their child's healing are calm and open to divine guidance, get a much faster healing both emotional and physical for their child.

Transfer this value into one's own field of awareness. Such a point of intelligence is invaluable in aiding one's own solution. Information gained in properly targeted charitable service is usually of immediate usefulness! But anyway that is the power of sacrifice: transforming ignorance into wisdomr.


It is unlikely that paying a pujari or wrapping colored cloth strips around one's head or wearing of talismans or serving milk to statues will ever Directly Engage the native intelligence the way that hands-on, accurately targeted, charitable service can do.

Sample Seva recommendation

Seva_example_D1.jpg


Learning Seva is at least as effective as remedial ratna and often Seva provides a much more powerful correction to the pre-incarnationally planned ignorance present at the time of birth. Learning Seva is most efficient when the population served is suffering from one's own pre-incarnationally planned dilemma but in a slightly more burdened setting.

Seva is the single most efficient way to move ahead in life.


One seeking a Sacred Jewels recommendation was prescribed in order of priority (1) munga (2) Pushkara-raja (3) Manika.

However, the native was also advised to keep in mind that properly targeted Learning Seva will provide as good or better results:

The gifts of Kanya-Mangala must be used very carefully

Mangala in a rashi of Kuja's enemy Budhacan create career obstacles due to the precision of your thinking, which others can perceive as criticism of the quality their work.

  • One is gifted at finding the flaws in any argument, plan, or design - but having found the problem, one may not always be able to fix it. Shani-yuti-Kuja

  • Kuja's drishti to lagna + Shukra can damage your naturally pleasant personality and cause you to deliver a complaining, critical or subtly discontent first impression during a job interview.

Seva Target

Learning-Seva scientifically exposes the " blind spot"

By offering Learning-Seva (selfless service for purpose of illuminating one's own Blind Spot) on behalf of adolescent [Mangala] students (5) who need instruction in analytical and manual skills (rashi of Budha) you can remove much of the subtle psychic debris which presently blocks your career path (gochara Shani in 10).

The [akashic memory patterns] correction occurs as one gains experience in explaining complex procedures [Kanya] in simple and non-confrontational [Shani] ways to young people who are trying to get ahead, but find themselves in a very competitive [Mangala] labor [Shani] market and needing to gain more practical [Kanya] experience.

  • Your service-teaching and leadership (10) can naturally benefit the students as they gain essential skills practice

  • Yet, the real value of Learning-Seva goes to you the benefactor

The secret of obstacle-destroying Seva = one who serves those immediately below oneself may observe others of one's own same general disposition as they make one's same habitual mistakes , and suffer the same habitual consequences .

Seeing others repeat one's own patterns, it becomes rather obvious rather quickly what the problem is. One may then apply highly intelligent course-corrections, based on the wisdom obtained via your service.

Best Learning Seva offerings for intelligent young students (Mesha-5) include

  • tutoring and supervision in hands-on learning WRT engineering problem-solving,
  • engine-driven movements such as drilling, digging, propulsion
  • fuels [Vṛścika] especially oil
  • uses of information technology, computer software,
  • writing, especially analytical writing about problems such as safety reports

Bottom line: if you are not presently able to work for salary (largely because of Shani Delay) keep your skills in marketable shape, keep building your professional record, and earn some wisdom by doing volunteer work *in your field of trained expertise*. Help those immediately below you - in your case, those who are also not working in a tight job market but who are worse off because they have not even finished their skills training and they need more practice.

In general, when Shani transits sthāna-10, one receives heavy responsibilities. So it is quite consistent with Shani gochara to accept some volunteer leadership responsibilities in a practical craft-skills training venue, with emphasis on skilled work of the hands [Kanya] especially writing and problem analysis. Pay attention to student behaviors which might cause you, if you were the boss, to fire them or not hire them.

  • Very likely you will notice some irksome (Mangala-Kanya) mental and verbal behaviors that are not producing a good first impression.
  • That's your wisdom data!
  • Now go make that important course correction.

If possible, maintain some commitment to Learning Seva throughout your life so that the annoying features of Mangala-Kanya can be kept in check while the analytical power and manipulative skills can be sustained.

Q: Dear miss Lama,

You brim with kindness! Thank you for your words of compassion, certainly when I can afford it, ishall contact you again.

You talked of remedial seva.

May I venture to ask what kind of seva I can precisely perform as a struggling author?

Authors are hard to get by here, & being in the situation iam in, it's hard to think of assisting others.

Thank you


A: You are a writer. Tutor those who are learning to write. For example, adult literacy Learning Seva . Or, tutor college students struggling to compose essays. Or, create a website with lessons on craft and style of writing in your genre, that can be accessed by those who are just arriving at your level of knowledge, or operating immediately below your level.

Offer only as much time as you can spare, perhaps only an hour per week or similar. Learning Seva is most effective when offered to those who share our same dilemma (e.g., concern with successful writing) but who are operating at a level just below our own (new learners of writing, from basic orthography to composing paragraphs perhaps to write a job letter, to writing reports or stories etc.)

Learning Seva can be paid or unpaid. The payment amount actually does not change the effectiveness of Seva.

Learning Seva 's effective comes not from whether there is money involved, but rather from the mental activity of focusing on someone else's problem for a fixed period of time.

However volunteer unpaid Seva is usually easier to arrange in the beginning. As one's skill set grows, Learning Seva may ultimately expand to serving millions; when that happens, the necessary funding for an increasingly large scope of service will indeed arise.

Key points:

Seva is not primarily a gift for the recipient. It is primarily a gift for oneself.

The act of skillful giving offers something outward. Liberating this quantum of intelligent energy outward will create a free space inside. Into that free interior space comes gratitude.

Almost immediately one may feel intense gratitude when engaged in service to others, during the act of serving, as one observes that one is actually stationed above those whom one is serving; this is gratitude for the measurable abilities which we already possess and which are being utilized tangibly in the act of service. In other words, it produces clear evidence of one's birthright creativity, intelligence, and ability to help.

Also Learning Seva generates immediate wisdom as the offerer is in the act of service being reminded to clear the victim narrative [story of being eaten] . One gains practical, hands-on experience of human nature. Hearing the negative ego-membrane doubt narrative of those served provides a splendid education in human nature. (" I can't speak _____ language, ican't think clearly, ican't write well, iam too poor to learn, iam too tired to learn, ihave too many problems, idon't believe change is possible...")

One is reminded that we all carry these debilitating claims in own interior narrative, and these victim statements are a primary cause of scarcity, and it is a very good practice to clear them out of the mind on a daily basis!

It is a nice by-product that the person being served is also benefitting, but the ultimate purpose of Learning Seva is to clear a creative, gainful space within oneself.

Seva is the single best way to remediate the akashic-memory pattern of self-doubt (which is the worst of all [akashic memory patterns] for creative human beings).

Learning Seva works much more consistently and predictably than gems or puja, and it's free!

Q: ... What if the 'damage' is so vast that no amount of seva could offset it?

Aren't there some types of trauma that could never be healed?

Or that must be healed with medication, or getting a completely new life, or psychotherapy. Seva seems too ... indirect.

A:

Actually, Learning Seva has the capability, when practiced intelligently, to correct nearly any pre-incarnationally planned condition.

Intentional Seva must be carefully crafted and adjusted over time to continuously address the beneficiary target that is just immediately below one's own station in life.

For example, aperson struggling with a feeling of never getting ahead financially, of money leaking out of the budget, frustrated in attempt to achieve social mobility via material wealth -- such a person can learn a great deal about this pre-incarnationally planned situation by serving those with just slightly worse levels of ignorance.

All unrecongized [akashic memory patterns] is simply ignorance , and the correction for ignorance is gnosis/knowledge.

At the precise moment when one is able to acknowledge that one indeed created the dilemma for the purpose of learning something important, at that moment the karma of obligatory repetition of the learning-challenge is completed.

The problem may be very complex. Yet, at the moment of accepting ownership of the situation because one did indeed create this dilemma as one's own spiritual classroom, the stuck feeling disappears. Previously in bondage to guilt or grief, one could only HAVE the problem. However, at that moment of taking ownership, one gains the power to actually SOLVE the problem.

Example: offering the Learning Seva of teaching an adult class

A person with financial frustrations may offer a Learning Seva using their financial skills, perhaps by teaching a class in basic household budgeting, or how to save for a house or invest for a child's education.

The setting should be middle-class or lower-middle-class because generally this is a middle class problem. The seva-motivated basic-finance instructor, over the period of a few repeating service terms, let's say from fall term through spring term of teaching a night or weekend 'adult class', may start to hear the stories of frustration from folks who reveal their beliefs.

'I set the budget but my wife always overspends' or 'my teenage kids want every new electronic gizmo, ialways buy them what they want' or 'we've been trying to buy a house for years, but we always need the money for something else' etc etc.

Being at a slightly higher level of awareness, the instructor will start to notice, by looking slightly downward, how the failure narrative works in this setting. People disempower themselves via their deeply held beliefs, and in the above case the instructor will start to notice how negative beliefs (my wife will bankrupt us with her luxury spending; emergencies always sabotage my savings; even if we buy a house, some disaster will ruin it, etc).

These Shani-structured, apparently mandatory resistance narratives "no change allowed" (Shani, akashic-memory pattern, anti-change) narratives deserve the rapt attention of one who is offering the Learning Seva ! Attend carefully to the chain of reasons that people use to justify their failure.

Listen to their negative expectations, their repeating collapse scenarios. Hear the language of: prediction, obligation, naecessity, it has to happen this way, because this problem is who I am....

IMO this is the enormous benefit of Learning Seva : to gaze into the mirror of self-belief. Learning Seva provides the opportunity to identify one's own pre-incarnationally planned problem; to offer a skill that one already possesses in that problem area; and to offer that compassionate skill to people who are quite likely to show respect and appreciation because you are offering something they need. However, they need help because something fails, again and again, and they will tell you or demonstrate to you in a vivid way what fails, why it fails, how it fails , where the blockage is . They intimately know the Shani-structured, apparently mandatory resistance-to-change pattern.

The beneficiaries, those having one's own problem in a slightly worse degree, will show you the MIRROR of your own narrative.

Listen for the toddler language of always and has to . Those stuck in an akashic-memory pattern trap often report:

"it's always like this", "she always does that" , "I always lose" .

Adults know that nothing "always " repeats so consistently in human relationships; but when suffering deep akashic-memory pattern, the person feels very stuck. They show their traumatic pain and grief in the toddler view of the world. When we are in pre-school, if the dog caught the ball three times, then the dog will always catch the ball. If it happens a few times, it "has to" repeat forever.

Whereas an adult knows that the dog might chase the ball 10,000 times, and it will catch some percent of those, on a somewhat fluctuating pattern involving the dog's health, age, condition of the grass in the park, et-cetera . A toddler However, saw it three times, and that's the end of the analysis! We can hear any deep fearful wound in the language of grief and guilt: in English, these are the modals must, have to, supposed to, should, ought to etc.

So, first IDENTIFY the [akashic memory patterns]. In your case, perhaps the pre-incarnationally planned dilemma of feeling unable to change jobs, improve jobs. Then, offer Seva to those who seek employment. As an example, perhaps teach a community class in how to mount a job search, do the visualizations, promote a positive identity via social media etc. Then notice who among your beneficiaries just really can't get a job, or can't get a better job.

They'll tell you why this "always " fails. They"want to" fix it, but"can't" fix it. It is a narrative of 'inevitable failure', 'inevitable disappointment'. Can't live with the boss/authority figure; yet can't live without them either.

Then look for the matching narrative in one's own inner dialog. It will be there, albeit at a higher level of material or social success since you are indeed making the Learning Seva offer from a higher level of awareness. But still, stuck is stuck. Look in this remarkable mirror. Locate the matching negative beliefs. Observe the matching gap between expectations and reality.

Seva permits this amazing oracular mirror mechanism that TELLS THE ANSWER to the pre-incarnationally planned dilemma - no matter how traumatic or how deeply cherished. Yet Learning Seva only works properly when the problem of the beneficiaries is the same as one's own problem, However, in a slightly worse degree (slightly thicker veil of ignorance, slightly deeper trauma).

Example: offering the Learning Seva of writing a book

I knew a brilliantly intelligent woman decades ago who had a series of horrible romantic breakups from manipulative, thieving men; her own abusive father was a notorious criminal; and she was terrified of getting married to a bad husband despite really, really wanting a family. She undertook a Learning Seva of research. She reasoned that there were other women in her precise dilemma: awful fathers, repeating trauma in adult love with men, yet some of these women indeed succeeded in picking a good man and built the life and family they deserved.

Her Seva was to interview 20 intelligent women with abusive fathers, some who succeeded in marriage and some who failed, and to tell their stories in a book that could be read by those seeking this exact information. (This was decades before the internet...) Not only did this author find the narrative of negative expectations which perpetuated failures, but she also documented the lives and choices of those who chose to (repeatedly, diligently) self-correct their negative convictions and indeed produced reasonably healthy marriages and families. She learned what SHE wanted to know by looking in their mirror. AND she provided a mirror that could be used by others seeking that specific narrative image. As of this writing, she is still married to her husband of decades, with grandchildren expected soon.

Q: I was wondering if doing a puja for KSY would remove the good and bad effects or KSY or just the bad. Good and bad is really all relative to me. Whatever happens takes one to the path which they are meant to be on.

A: Puja

Puja is OK if the intention behind the puja is to achieve deep personal surrender to reality as-it-is. If the puja ritual serves as a reminder that one is striving toward patience and greater understanding of the human condition, then Puja is a positive action.

Puja ideally is a respectful invitation to the spirits with whom one would like to enter into collaboration toward a specific goal. Puja is OK if it is a cooperative ritual where one asks for the support and intelligence of the deity to enter one's mind so that one may serve others with neutrality and compassion.

However, the mindless, ego-driven ritual of petitionary prayer (give me this thing, give me that power) is worthless. Very popular, but utterly dysfunctional, and spiritually worthless! The power is never outside oneself, it is always inside.

Blockage to power is always caused by negative beliefs. Puja is, at best, aneutral act of praise and appreciation; a thank-you to the collaborating spirits.

But in terms of getting results, removing blockage to success, puja itself will not expose the negative thoughts which are causing the problem. Indeed, improper (petitionary) puja tends to mask the mental errors which are driving the dissatisfaction.

A:

Seva better than Puja

The recommendation:

in preference to puja (which is so prone to corruption through petitionary motives) is Seva - service.

It is recommended to identify a problem in life (exempli gratia, financial challenges of the university student) and then seek out a population who have the problem in a slightly worse degree (e.g., struggling, less educated, working class) and offer some targeted service to that population. E.g., volunteer at a free tax clinic at spring break, or teach high-schoolers or immigrants or young parents how to balance a checkbook, or how to make and keep a monthly budget.

The service should be offered to those who are fairly close to one's own situation, but who have the particular problem, at a slightly worse intensity. And the offering should be regular (exempli gratia, weekly) and the activity = simple, like tutoring (not full service social work). The regular samplings allow one to see patterns in the data, over time.

The goal is not to solve anyone's problems for them, but to provide skills by which the beneficiaries may solve their own problems. The value of the Learning Seva comes when one starts to notice that certain people are not able to use or accept your simple, regular offering of knowledge or skill. This is the 'aha' moment that exposes one's own subconsciously held resistance. It works like a charm to increase one's personal empowerment and progress.


Seva functionality

What happens in the intelligent Learning Seva process is that one will start to recognize that the folks one is serving may display a pattern of ignorance, manifesting as negative beliefs. One notices that this net of negative expectations is consistently holding them in a state of financial/social/intellectual/emotional paralysis.

E.g., they may believe they are 'not good with math', or 'I will never understand English' or that taxes are immoral, or that the gov't is out to get them, or that it is impossible to understand the US banking system, or 'I always get cheated' ... or one of thousands of class-and-culture packaged, naegative presumptions.

It's much easier and faster to see dysfunctional behavior in other people than in oneself.

Intentional, specifically targeted Learning Seva reveals the essential, naegative patterns through the actions of others. This is not an abstract teaching as in a book. It is real people, showing the results of their beliefs. Actions speak louder than words. Therefore, the Learning Seva option is much more efficient than the Puja option, for purpose of exposing the negative beliefs which prevent success.

Seva is recommended as a superior alternative to Puja if the person wants to clear a blockage quickly. It is also OK to sit in deep meditation and scan the mind for blockages, if one has that sort of deep-stillness personality and the meditation practice is really established. But I believe that for normal (busy, intelligent, observant) people like you and me, going out into the community for a tightly structured, purposeful, targeted service, that closely matches the problem one is trying to solve oneself, is much more immediate, efficient and realistic.

Q:

Namaste Mam,

... still I am unemployed mam please check my horoscope what is problem in my horoscope, their is sun in radical lagan along with mercury,Venus and mars And also chandra-mars yoga but I am very poor this time even I am not able to paid your fees because my finance conditions is not good and Jupiter is in 10th house but there is no jobs please check mam what is the problem when will I get a good job? Is there government job ya private,Please revert mail.

Thank you very much

A:

Namaste,

... Although free Jyotishavidya readings are not available, please be encouraged to continue studying the principles of interpretation provided in the Samayavidya. The nativities of public figures and family members (those whose biographies are well known) are the best examples, allowing the principles of Jyotisha analysis to be matched to real-life events. The study of others' nativities may produce a great illumination; Yet, the study of one's own nativity tends to increase fear and darkness. Follow the light.

Also, please consider the value of Learning Seva (selfless service) as a learning tool. As a general rule, when Seva is offered to those who suffer one's same life dilemma (but in a slightly worse degree, or perhaps a slightly less social advantage) then the learning and improvement of real conditions tends to occur very quickly.

For example, if the presenting learning-challenge is finding a suitable job, then the Learning Seva is best directed toward those who are perhaps less qualified that yourself but who are frustrated with obstacles they encounter when seeking jobs.

Listen to the narrative that jobless people use to describe their situation, and look for descriptive elements which reveal negative expectation and self-pity. Then inspect one's own self-narrative. Is there evidence of a negative belief?

Changing the belief results in changing the reality. All power resides within the Self.

Wishing you and your family every happiness, healing from sorrow, guidance by inner light, and success in all of life's endeavors,

BPL

QUOTATION from Shantideva's Bodhicharyavatara


Until the essence of enlightenment is reached

I go for refuge to the Buddhas.

Also I take refuge in the Dharma

And in all the host of Bodhisattvas.

-- For the Benefit of All Beings: A Commentary on"The Way of the Bodhisattva"

by 14th Dalai Lama 1935- Policy of Kindness Tenzing Gyatso ,

translated by the Padmakara Translation Group


" The first of these is the power of the support, which is to take refuge in the Three Jewels and to generate bodhichitta.

  • The second power entails deep and sincere regret for all the negative actions we have done until now and the negative emotions we have indulged in. This requires reflection on the harmful effects of negative actions.

  • The third power is the resolve never again t o commit these negative actions, even if it were to cost us our lives.

  • The fourth is the power of the antidotes, such as prostrations, recitation of mantras, and specific purificatory practices."

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