Material Success and Happiness Through Yoga Principles

by Swami Kriyananda
(J. Donald Walters)

Copyright © 2005 Hansa Trust
All rights reserved.
Lesson Twenty-Three
God’s Place in the Business World
The Principles
I used to smile, in high school, when our football team prayed for victory over the opposition. It seemed absurd to think that God’s favor could be enlisted in a partisan cause. Good and evil were not at stake. It was, I supposed, a question of who got to Him first.
We’ve all seen examples of the all-too-human tendency to humanize God. The Greeks had a veritable pantheon (meaning, “all gods”), each god acting in an extremely human way—with lust, anger, jealousy, and other emotions mimicking the likes and dislikes of humankind. The Greek, Roman, and Norse pantheons probably all got their mythology from the Hindu gods and goddesses. I remember a lady who guided a small group of us through the Acropolis in Athens. She asked suddenly, as if expecting to surprise us, “Where do you think the Greek myths came from?”
“From India,” I replied. surprising her in turn.
“Very few people know that!” she commented.
Thus, in this discussion of God’s place in the business world, I want to plead with you not to attribute your own emotions to the Divinity. God transcends time and space. He is impersonal and impartial, and not susceptible to appeasement or flattery.
I suppose the first point to be considered in these modern times is the question whether God even exists. Most businessmen, I imagine, see no connection between spiritual and business considerations. Probably most of them don’t even see a relation between them. It is easy to see why they create this separation. If God exists, He couldn’t possibly be in there rooting like a cheerleader for the success of the human ego.
Yet there are many who believe, more sensitively, that God should be loved all the time. I was in a print shop in Calcutta many years ago, talking to one of the managers, when an errand boy passed by. I noticed that he paused briefly before a niche in the wall, placed his hands together and bowed, then moved on about his duties. I looked at the niche and saw within it an image of some Indian deity: Durga, Krishna, or Ganesha (I forget which it was). How charming, I thought, how inspiring and beautiful that in this place of worldly activity God should be remembered.
God, my Guru said, is formless and eternal, but as God He is more personal, in a sense, than the Supreme Spirit. We can think of God as He, or She. God, though an abstraction, is that aspect of Spirit which relates to cosmic creation. He is Ishwara, the Lord. The Supreme Spirit, on the other hand, exists in “that watchful state,” as Paramhansa Yogananda described it: aloof from Its creation. People cannot even visualize that state of total disinterest and non-involvement. It has even been said that many people never have an abstract thought in their lives. They cannot imagine how it is possible even to love a reality completely abstract. Most of them feel a need to personalize the object of their devotion in some form: as Krishna, Durga, Ganesha; as Jesus or Mary. It is not that God, who created everything, has any such form. He also, however, became personal in creating us, in giving us ego-consciousness, and in creating the conditions that would awaken in us human desires. His love for us is impersonal in the sense that He wants nothing from us, but it is also personal in the sense that He loves each of us as we are, and wants for us only the best.
Let me tell you of an evening, many years ago in Charleston, South Carolina, where I lived for nearly a year at the age of twenty-one. I had always thought about God. In my search for truth, however, I simply couldn’t visualize Him in personal terms. The vastness of the universe meant, to me, that His consciousness could only be infinite. It was, to me, inconceivable that He could have any interest in little “insects” like us. Yet all my philosophical probing lead me irresistibly toward a spiritual, not a material, reality. I simply hadn’t yet been able to expand my understanding of the vastness of infinity to the inclusion also of infinitesimal smallness.
I had tried to leave the Deity out of my reckoning, simply because I could see no way that He could be relevant to human affairs. At first, when I was thirteen, I had wanted to become an astronomer. With the passing years, however, I realized that any truth worth knowing for human beings had to be personally meaningful for them. Exactly how many galaxies the universe holds had no relevance except, perhaps, in the general sense that the vastness of reality is expanding to our own consciousness. I found that vastness inspiring rather than daunting or overwhelming, but what seemed important, to me, was the inspiration and not the mere fact of universal vastness.
I wanted inner inspiration, however: joy, peace of mind, a more personally meaningful understanding of life. I sought that inspiration in music, in the arts, in literature and drama, in learning, perhaps even in some better political system. I wanted anything that offered promise in these directions. Wherever I sought, however, I found only dead ends.
In college I had asked myself, “Is there really life after death?” I’d tried to imagine what that life would be. The conclusion I’d reached was life after death had to be conscious, but that it could only be an extension of whatever consciousness we’d developed here on earth. Perusal of the scriptures and attending church regularly seemed to me useless, for I had never met anyone, whether in religion or out of it, who inspired me as knowing anything, really, that I wanted to know. The churchmen I’d met seemed, if anything, less convincing than many others, for they seemed hemmed in by fixed sets of dogmas, outside of which they refused even to peer.
At last, desperate for an answer, I realized that without God, and without spiritual understanding, no answer was available. Every other line of inquiry led to materialism and mindlessness or else to insights that inspired only because they tickled a few nerves, merely!
Thus, that evening in Charleston I went out for a long walk, alone. Earnestly I asked myself, “If God exists, what must He be?” It seemed ridiculous to think that He could be like some cosmic policeman, looking down to see that we behaved, and, when we didn’t, punishing us—perhaps with hell, or with suffering. My questioning turned from God to man: “Who and what are we? Have we any connection to God, if He exists?” Then I answered my own question: “If He made us, there must be a connection!”
How, then, could He have made us? Could it have been in some way like a sculptor carving a statue—from without, inward? Absurd! For nothing existed out of which to carve or mold anything. He can only, in some way, have become us. In what way, then?
That which is most real to us is our consciousness: Whence, then, came this consciousness? If God exists, then obviously He, too, is conscious. Our very human awareness, in that case, can only derive from Him, even as existence itself has to derive from Him. Conscious beings could not have come into existence were not consciousness itself an already-existing, universal reality. Man can only manifest consciousness: he cannot create it.
Human consciousness, then, can only be a limited manifestation of infinite consciousness.
I thought of the vast variety in the manifestations of intelligent awareness in mankind. All of us, I realized, must belong to an infinite and forever conscious reality. We have sprung from that. The criminal, the drunkard, those who debase themselves and lessen their awareness by wrong living, are no different from me. The saints, too—if they exist—express potentials that must be within all humanity—indeed, also within me!
Who has the clearest understanding of things as they really are: fools? drunkards? people of lower consciousness? Or the saints? My answer, without even knowing what a saint was, was simple: the saints, surely!
Looking back now, I remember my father telling me how as a child of nine, owing to delirium which accompanied a serious illness, I had tossed back and forth in a desperation of anxiety. He had been reading Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn to me, and I’d evidently been deeply impressed by the bouts of drunkenness Huckleberry’s father had experienced. What a terrible state to fall into! In my delirium I cried out over and over again, “I don’t want to be a drunkard! I don’t want to be a drunkard!”
On my long walk that evening in Charleston I thought, “How terrible, to fall away from joy! Joy and inspiration are something all men are seeking, though most of them unconsciously! I am no different from the worst human being on earth, but, O God, let me not fall away from the ideal! Out of compassion for others also, let me find a way to uplift myself and also them.
“What is God?” I asked urgently. “What is man? What am I? My very awareness can only be a limited expression of His consciousness. Obviously, however, I can rise or fall in clarity of consciousness. The joy and inspiration I long for must depend, then, on the degree to which I absorb His consciousness into myself.
“My duty in life,” I resolved, “is somehow to become ever more receptive to His consciousness! I must absolutely reject in myself my own downward potential. I must try to raise myself toward infinite awareness!”
I determined in that instant to seek God. My first thought was to become a hermit. I had decided, previously, to become a playwright, but I’d already reached the conclusion that, ignorant as I was, it would be wrong to impose that ignorance on others. I couldn’t really believe that God, in His infinite awareness, could be conscious of any prayer of mine, but I was resolved to try to live more in the consciousness of Him. A deep longing was also born in me to help everyone on earth to see that what all are seeking is not self-forgetfulness—drunkenness and endless, trivial distractions—but joy absolute!
Thank God He did hear and listen to my desperate prayer. It was not consciously even a prayer, but my desperate longing reached out to, and touched, that Infinite consciousness. Only six months later I was led to my Guru, and was able, through Him, to understand what the divine truth and the path to God is all about.
In this chapter’s discussion of God in the workplace, I want to make it very clear that the God to whom I refer does not require that we hold a pious attitude. He is no mere image of which to stand in awe. He is our own highest Self. This Self stands transcendent above the ego. It is absolute joy—Satchidananda: conscious, eternal bliss. Love itself is, in its highest expression, the longing in all hearts for perfect bliss.
My Guru defined divine vision as, “center everywhere, circumference nowhere.” The God I say should be brought into the workplace can have that as one of its myriad centers of awareness. The devotional attitude of that errand boy in the Calcutta print shop, and of the shop’s owner who had placed that sacred image there, was valid and beautiful. Sacred images, however, are not by any means the essence of what I am trying to explain in this lesson.
God is within you. Every human being must choose for himself whether he would be a saint or a sinner. A saint is one whose energy moves upward, toward the higher, more spiritual part of his own being. A sinner is one whose energy and consciousness move downward in the spine and outward from the spine through the senses to the world. Most people’s energy moves indecisively in both directions. In the “dedicated” sinner much more of that energy flows downward, leading to unhappiness, sorrow, and a dimmer awareness. An upward flow, on the other hand, produces happiness, expansive joy, and ever-expanding awareness. Again, it is your decision. To bring God into the workplace means to have not so much a religious attitude as an aware one.
That print shop in Calcutta exemplifies the usual approach to religion—a perfectly justifiable approach, as I’ll explain later on. Yoga, however, emphasizes going within. Jesus Christ also said in words that few Christians know what to do with, “The kingdom of God is within you.” Some people think yoga has nothing to do with devotion. They are mistaken. Swami Sri Yukteswar, in The Holy Science, makes the statement that without devotion (“developing the natural love of the heart,” as he puts it) one cannot take a single step toward the realization of God.
Still, what I want to emphasize here is something that all businessmen should be able to embrace: an uplifted consciousness in their work. God, for this purpose, needs no definition for He represents a direction, not a definite goal. My Guru’s answer to the question, “Is there any end to evolution?” was in this context a classic of clarity. “No end,” he said. “You go on until you achieve endlessness.” He didn’t describe God as having any particular form. Of course he subscribed to Shankaracharya’s definition of the Infinite: Satchidananda (which I’ve defined more than once, so won’t explain here again). The important thing, however, is the direction our consciousness takes in the spine.
A fascinating feature of the ancient teachings of Sanatan Dharma is their directional nature. Both the caste system and the three gunas might be compared to a bar magnet, which has a north and a south pole, but which, when cut at any point in its length, produces a north and a south pole in each section. Thus, in the caste system, although there are gradations toward perfection, within each caste the same direction can be observed. A sudra is not a fixed quantity, so to speak. A somewhat developed sudra may be a vaisya-sudra; an even more developed sudra may be a kshatriya-sudra; one most highly developed, but still a sudra, would be a brahmin-sudra.
Among brahmins also sudra-brahmins, vaisya-brahmins, etc., may be discerned. One’s position in his own natural (as opposed to genetic) category is determined also by the degree he manifests of that category’s lower or higher potentials. Man likes to cast things firmly as if in concrete. Spirit expresses Itself in Nature very differently. Both its progress toward higher perfection and its regression toward ever-lower consciousness are unlimited.
There is a story (I hope it is only mythical) of Krishna speaking to a disciple of his named Uddhava. Looking down, he said, “You see that beetle, Uddhava? In the dim past it was Indra (king of the gods).” It is indeed true that even the gods can fall, though the thought that Indra can fall so low is appalling. Nevertheless, the struggling ego reaches spiritual safety only when it achieves nirbikalpa Samadhi—complete oneness with God. My Guru even spoke to me of certain people who had attained sabikalpa samadhi—qualified oneness with God—who, for one reason or another, had fallen from their high state.
The gunas can be described, similarly, as directional rather than as fixed states. Higher and lower levels exist within each of them. Yogananda described Rajo guna particularly as “Rajo-rajas” and “Sattwa-rajas.” In every case, those aspects within each guna which lead toward higher or toward lower consciousness are what really count for every individual. Direction of movement is the defining factor. Static definitions are much less important than the direction one is moving.
Thus, in business, or in any effort to achieve success, don’t limit your notion of God. Most people who define themselves as atheists do so, I think, because they can’t accept someone else’s notion. In Lesson Twenty I told the story of that man in Australia who came up to me after a lecture and said, “I noticed that you referred quite often in your talk to God. As it happens, I’m an atheist. Can you define God in such a way as to be meaningful to me?”
I paused a moment as I pondered this challenge. Then I suggested, “Why don’t you think of God as the highest potential you can imagine for yourself?”
He was surprised. He then answered with that quizzical expression so many Australians so often assume. “Well, yeah,” he said, “I can live with that!”
Many people would never dream of equating material success with anyone’s search for God. Few, however, would exclude greater concentration, more energy, increased creativity, and a flow of consciousness toward greater awareness from their quest for success. Few, besides, would exclude their own native desire for happiness. The highest potential you can imagine for yourself forms part, surely, of your own ideal of success. And that’s all I’m really talking about in urging you to include God in the workplace.
Well, I’ve done what I could to invite atheists and agnostics on board! I’ve shown that this subject is a matter of sheer common sense. I would like to show, furthermore, that it is common sense also to include God Himself as a conscious reality in the workplace.
It is all very well to think that the only thing needed for raising one’s consciousness is to uplift the energy and consciousness, particularly in the spine. The process is very different from—let us say—mountain climbing. A mountain climber’s efforts depend wholly on his own skill and energy. The mountain, moreover, is not conscious of his efforts. In the effort to raise one’s consciousness, one rises to greater heights within a consciousness that exists already. From above, that consciousness will cooperate in our struggle. Why do we call that consciousness, God? It is because it is a higher consciousness than what we know at present. We can appeal to it. God, in turn, responds, if we invite Him with magnetic love. An “endlessly” higher consciousness is our own highest potential. That potential is not like an unknown continent, waiting to be discovered and explored. It is aware of us as we reach toward it. In response, it reaches down willingly to help us in our ascent.
Mankind is by nature goal-oriented. A sports race that has a direction, but no goal, will not inspire runners to give of their best. They are helped in their efforts if they have a clear idea of the exact location of the finishing line. It is helpful in the divine quest, similarly, to have a concept—even a limited one—of what divine attainment entails. Limitless bliss, Satchidananda, is the goal of all striving. That goal seems distant, however, to most people. They need to be able to visualize it in terms of something they can understand.
God, in other words, although He is formless, manifests all the forms in the universe. There is a problem, moreover, with using ego-consciousness to try only to raise one’s own awareness. The ego is inclined to see all things in relation to itself. Thus, a businessman who tries to include God in the workplace by thinking, “I must uplift myself,” is likely to strengthen, not transcend, his ego.
When my Guru introduced me to the concept of God as the Divine Mother, I knew that he was speaking of an infinite consciousness, not someone feminine in form. Ramproshad, the devotional singer/saint of Bengal who worshiped God as the Divine Mother, stated in one of his songs, “Oh, a thousand scriptures declare it: My Divine Mother has no form. Yet She is also in all forms: She is everywhere! O blind ones, behold our Mother’s form in all things!” To think of God as Father, Mother, Divine Friend, Beloved is one way of invoking a conscious response from the Infinite One, who can be, for you, whatever form will uplift your mind. I began by visualizing Her as resembling the wife of my godfather, whose compassionate, motherly smile I had always found uplifting. I soon “graduated” from that visualization to imagine the Divine Mother in every tree, every rock, in every radiant sunset.
The point is, to project onto God a loving human image helps one to avoid concentrating on ego-consciousness. My Guru said that even liberated saints often take a step down the ladder of consciousness to enjoy an I-and-Thou relationship with God.
Ego-consciousness has a tendency to be centripetal: focused inward upon itself. Devotees praying to God often mistakenly think, “How can God be of help to me?” Thus, someone seeking material success may ask God for assistance toward that goal. No harm, so long as success for you doesn’t mean failure for someone else. Personal aspiration is limited because circumscribed by the ego, however, and limited aspiration can only bring limited results. It is always better to ask God for help in a righteous cause. In such a cause—in a war, for example—it is all right to pray for victory. There is a more exalted view in such matters, however. It is given in the Mahabharata.
Prior to the Kurukshetra war, both Arjuna (the leader of the Pandavas, the side of righteousness) and Duryodhana (the leader of the Kauravas, the evils side) went to Krishna (who in that epic represents God Himself) to solicit his help. When they come, Krishna is asleep. They wait, therefore. When he awakes, he first sees Arjuna, who is seated humbly at his feet. Since both men are together, however, Krishna must (according to the ethics of those times) offer his help to them both.
He resolves the dilemma by giving them a choice: either his entire army, or his presence but non-participation in the battle. He then asks Arjuna, whom he saw first upon awaking, to choose first.
“I choose Thee, Lord,” was the reply. “Wherever Thou art, there must be the outcome I seek.”
Duryodhana was very pleased with the alternative: Krishna’s entire army, with or without their commander. “What kind of a bargain would that be, anyway,” he thought, “if their commander didn’t even take part in the fighting?” Both men went away happy and satisfied, therefore.
Arjuna, however, was the wiser of the two, for he realized that where God is, there alone is victory! And so it proved.
When you pray to God, your prayers will be more effective if you don’t ask anything of Him, but simply give Him yourself, and your love.

The Application
What is the best way to bring God into the workplace? The answer depends on you—on what most awakens in your heart a feeling of reality.
If I have opened your mind to the merits of including God in the workplace, it may still be a stretch for you also to love Him. Have you only just brought yourself to believe in Him at all? Does He still seem to you, therefore, merely an abstract state of consciousness? In whatever way you approach Him, He will come to you in that aspect. Nevertheless, as your closeness to Him increases, you will feel joy constantly increasing in your heart.
Patanjali gave a fascinating definition of Yoga: Yogas chitta vritti nirodha: “Yoga is the neutralization of the vortices (vritti) of feeling.” This definition clarifies consciousness in a way that many commentators have misunderstood. Chitta is not “mind-stuff,” as Swami Vivekananda called it. Nor is it merely consciousness, as many translators aver—many of them describing it as the “lower aspects of consciousness.” It is consciousness itself, defined as feeling. Feeling, my Guru stated, is the very essence of awareness. Without feeling, intelligence is something even computers can be programmed to do. Computers, however, are not conscious: they cannot feel.
Thus, to think one’s way to truth is forever to try to approach the center of reality from its periphery. Science can never give us truth. Not only can it never plumb the depths of consciousness, but it insists on reason alone for its proofs. It can tell us about truth, but it can give us no perception of truth.
The quest for truth needs to be accompanied by a longing for direct experience. So long as there is no actual feeling involved, one is like a man who lived next door to a famous restaurant, knew the bill of fare, could describe the menu and tell how the best dishes were made, but was not hungry enough to go there and eat. Devotion is no mere excitation of feeling: It is the hunger of the heart to experience truth. Without that hunger, we can only “philosophize.”
Suk Deva, a great saint of ancient India, stated, “All time is wasted that is not spent in seeking God.” This advice, which may seem tenable only for hermits, can become acceptable to everyone if it is understood that “seeking God” means any activity that expands one’s sympathies, raises one’s consciousness, and fires the heart with enthusiasm for useful service to society. Granted, the strict definition of the meaning is stretched, but, as in the case of a bar magnet, wherever one stands at present in his spiritual evolution, activities that point his energies in the right direction may be included, if broadly, within the meaning of the term.
The great obstacle to worshiping God in the workplace is that of sectarianism. Can Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and Jews see themselves as all worshiping the same God? Whether they should be sectarian or not begs the point: The fact is, either most them are, or some of them could be. How, then, to introduce God into an environment where religious differences may surface in response to any such attempt? In such cases, it will be important to make issues of worship as broad as possible. Even to speak of God may be offensive to some Buddhists, and is likely to create hostility in communists and others who consider themselves atheists. The definition I have given of God—the joy that all men seek, though by countless different paths—is very well for this lesson, but would hardly be acceptable to people to whom philosophy seems a foreign language.
One thing you can do is emphasize periodic silence as a proved means of inducing greater harmony in the workplace. A friend of mine told me recently that the people in his office practice brief periods of group meditation at the beginning of every workday. If you have a room set aside for any of the purposes I have suggested before, your staff could also gather there for a brief period of meditation every morning. The idea could be introduced as a means for everyone to become attuned in harmony together before work begins.
What should they think about? It could be suggested to them that they watch the breath, concentrating particularly on the pauses between the breaths. Try to feel expansive calmness during those pauses, while trying to bring the consciousness of everyone there to a state of peace and harmony.
They can be encouraged to think of God as possessing those states to an infinite degree. Whether He be Jehovah, Ishwara, God, Allah, or the compassion of the Buddha, peace and harmony must accompany attunement with Him, and if one believes in no God, even so the concept of bringing greater peace and harmony to the workplace and to the workers’ lives must be universally acceptable.

Meditation
Place those two concepts (peace and harmony) mentally on the altar of your own consciousness. Think not of what God, or of what those concepts, can do for you. Think, rather, that you are offering yourself up to them. Attunement with higher consciousness demands giving of one’s self more than asking for one’s self.
Whether you think of God in abstract terms, or in more personal, human terms, you will receive much more if your entire flow of concentration and devotion is made an offering, and not turned inward toward yourself by demanding anything.

Affirmation
“In loving Thee, I offer Thee 
the peace and harmony of my own being.”

Points to Remember

1. God is no mere image of which to stand in awe. He is our own highest Self. This Self stands transcendent above the ego. It is absolute joy -- Satchidananda: conscious, eternal bliss. Love itself is, in its highest expression, the longing in all hearts for perfect bliss.
2. Every human being must choose for himself whether he would be a saint or a sinner. A saint is one whose energy moves upward, toward the higher, more spiritual part of his own being. A sinner is one whose energy and consciousness move downward in the spine and outward from the spine through the senses to the world. Most people's energy moves indecisively in both directions. An upward flow produces happiness, expansive joy, and ever-expanding awareness. To bring God into the workplace means to have not so much a religious attitude as an aware one.
3. Swami Sri Yukteswar, in The Holy Science, makes the statement that without devotion ("developing the natural love of the heart," as he puts it) one cannot take a single step toward the realization of God.
4. Many people would never dream of equating material success with anyone's search for God. Few, however, would exclude greater concentration, more energy, increased creativity, and a flow of consciousness toward greater awareness from their quest for success. Few, besides, would exclude their own native desire for happiness. The highest potential you can imagine for yourself forms part, surely, of your own ideal of success. And that's all I'm really talking about in urging you to include God in the workplace.
5. God is a higher consciousness than what we know at present. We can appeal to it. God, in turn, responds, if we invite Him with magnetic love. An "endlessly" higher consciousness is our own highest potential. It is aware of us as we reach toward it. In response, it reaches down willingly to help us in our ascent.
6. It is helpful in the divine quest to have a concept -- even a limited one -- of what divine attainment entails. To think of God as Father, Mother, Divine Friend, Beloved is one way of invoking a conscious response from the Infinite One, who can be, for you, whatever form will uplift your mind.
7. A businessman who tries to include God in the workplace by thinking, "I must uplift myself," is likely to strengthen, not transcend, his ego. To project onto God a loving human image helps one to avoid concentrating on ego-consciousness. 
8. When you pray to God, your prayers will be more effective if you don't ask anything of Him, but simply give Him yourself, and your love.
9. What is the best way to bring God into the workplace? The answer depends on you -- on what most awakens in your heart a feeling of reality.
10. In whatever way you approach Him, He will come to you in that aspect. As your closeness to Him increases, you will feel joy constantly increasing in your heart.
11. Devotion is no mere excitation of feeling: It is the hunger of the heart to experience truth. 
12. Suk Deva, a great saint of ancient India, stated, "All time is wasted that is not spent in seeking God." This advice can become acceptable to everyone if it is understood that "seeking God" means any activity that expands one's sympathies, raises one's consciousness, and fires the heart with enthusiasm for useful service to society. 
13. The great obstacle to worshiping God in the workplace is that of sectarianism. It will be important to make issues of worship as broad as possible. 
14. One thing you can do is emphasize periodic silence as a proved means of inducing greater harmony in the workplace. Your staff could gather for a brief period of meditation every morning. The idea could be introduced as a means for everyone to become attuned in harmony together before work begins.
15. It could be suggested to them that they watch the breath, concentrating particularly on the pauses between the breaths. Try to feel expansive calmness during those pauses, while trying to bring the consciousness of everyone there to a state of peace and harmony. They can be encouraged to think of God as possessing those states to an infinite degree. 
16. Place those two concepts (peace and harmony) mentally on the altar of your own consciousness. Think that you are offering yourself up to them. Attunement with higher consciousness demands giving of one's self more than asking for one's self. 

Workbook Ideas
by Joseph Bharat Cornell
Experience Universal Consciousness

Action Item
1. Go to a quiet, serene place, preferably outdoors. 
•	Begin by meditating a few minutes to calm your thoughts. 
•	Open your eyes and gaze around you. Note the many forms of Life who share this place with you. 
•	Look intently at a tree, flower, rock, or cloud. As you observe your subject, honor it as a fellow expression of Life—which has also created you. Repeat this exercise two more times.    
•	Now expand your awareness to include everything around you. 
•	In the vibrant calmness you feel, sense the unifying energy that animates all things. 

2. Make this Universal Consciousness more immediate to your own consciousness by practicing the following walking meditation:
Imagine that you and the Creator are walking together. Share with the Creator every impression you see and hear, just as you would with a treasured friend. Gaze at the clouds and enjoy them together. Take delight in the birds singing all around, and bask in the sun’s warm rays. Thank the Creator for every joy and inspiration you feel. 

Action Item
Harmony and unity are said to be defining characteristics of God. Every office staff can benefit from greater group harmony. When employees act from universal, not limited, consciousness, they become more creative, cooperative, and productive. 
•	Encourage an uplifted consciousness at work: When your colleagues have different religious or even non-religious allegiances, focus on sharing qualities associated with Higher Truth, such as inner calmness, selflessness, love, and impartial wisdom. 
•	Choose one of these qualities to practice this week. End your morning meditation by attuning to the quality and how you can express it at work.