Tag Archives: devotion

Social Orders of Motivation

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Q: Why do fear, anger, and shame run the lives of so many people? Can people get out of these circles of influence and live lives of love and altruism?

A: We need to look at the seven major social orders of motivation that play out in human life:

  1. Shame and embarrassment – the drive to not have one’s awkwardness, deficiencies, or secrets revealed
  2. Fear – the motivation to escape or avoid situations or objects that frighten one or that one perceives may cause them harm or loss
  3. Anger and rage – the impulse to harm or attack others, to right perceived injustices, or to force others to do one’s will
  4. Challenge and competition – the quest to be superior or the best, or to be recognized for one’s achievements, and to succeed
  5. Compassion and love – wanting to make a difference in the world, for one’s life to mean something, and to help and heal others
  6. Devotion and aspiration – the impetus to grow and transform spiritually and draw closer to the Divine
  7. Grace – the sharing of the Divine Spiritual Light to support personal and spiritual transformation, and to fulfill the devotion and aspiration of those who seek to advance spiritually

We see examples of how these seven orders of motivation play out in society:

  • Social control usually employs shame (1) to influence people to adhere to the social norms of the family, friendship, education, employment, civic, and religious arenas of life.
  • Politicians and demagogues—as well as many who seek to sell their products and services—often tap into fear (2) and anger (3) motivational frames.
  • Those who seek to gain respect from others and wish to be perceived as successful and winners draw their inspiration from challenge and competition (4).
  • Those who are on the spiritual Path awaken love and compassion (5) and devotion (6), which enfires them to make spiritual progress and actualize their personal and spiritual potentials.
  • Those who have achieved spiritual Mastery share the Grace (7) of their Divine Empowerment.

In Mudrashram®, we support the development of compassion and love (5), and aspiration and devotion (6) through our teachings, meditation training, and Light Ministry. To shift out of the lower four social motivational platforms into these two higher ones, you need to focus your attention on your inner spiritual essences—your attentional principle, the spirit, and the Soul.

We teach you how to do this in our intermediate meditation classes, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program. Those who have not meditated before will benefit from taking the Introduction to Meditation Program, which prepares you to perform the more advanced meditation practices of our intermediate courses.

Developing the Habit of Meditation

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By George A. Boyd © 2020

Q: How can I develop a regular meditation practice?

A: You need to identify a congruent strategy that enables you to sustain a regular meditation practice. Seven major strategies that chelas of different meditation traditions adopt include:

  1. Doing meditation under the teacher’s commandment (Agya) – Disciples meditate in obedience to their Guru and out of fear of displeasing their Master. These disciples develop strong discipline and use their will to overcome inner resistance or laziness.
  2. Asking intuition – In this strategy, you ask your intuition and Higher Self whether it is time to meditate. This inward-looking, curious, and expectant mindset invites the guidance of the Soul.
  3. Inspired reading – This strategy involves reading materials from the lineage’s teachers, or listening to audio or video recordings of their Master to inspire disciples to meditate. In the Mudrashram® tradition, this involves listening to the inspired guidance in our Light Sittings, listening to Question and Answer recordings, reading books channeled from the Swamis, studying the Mudrashram® Correspondence Course, or receiving a Soul Attunement Guidance Channeling. My third teacher, Sant Darshan Singh, encouraged his chelas to read selections from the writings of the Sant Mat Masters to evoke the desire to meditate.
  4. Spontaneous meditation – This meditation is not a voluntary, “choosing to meditate.” The spirit calls you to meditate and you are simply pulled into the slipstream of your spirit opening the Path within. I experienced this when I studied with my second teacher, Sat Guru Balyogeshwar Paramahansa: my spirit irresistibly drew my attention into the state of meditation, where I was led to open and contemplate the four channels of the Nada on the Seventh Transcendental Path.
  5. Planning meditation into your day – In this strategy, you schedule meditation every day, and you develop the habit of meditating at the same time. Going on a meditation retreat where there is a structured schedule of meditation can help you develop these habits.
  6. Strong devotion and longing for Liberation – Powerful Bhakti—love for God and a desire to be free from the bondage of the world—drives some disciples to meditate with great zeal. Those who have this gift of devotion take every unoccupied moment to meditate.
  7. Connection with the inner Master – In this variety, you do meditation when you commune with the guide form of your spiritual Master on the inner Planes. You might receive some inspired guidance and direction from your guide, and then, you do specific meditations, as the guide directs you.

You may notice that you resonate with one or more of these strategies. Whichever of these strategies you choose, it is important to do meditation daily. When you wake up in the morning, think about how you will bring meditation into your day. Ask yourself: “When will I do this?” Feel your motivation for doing meditation. Remember your goal for this session of meditation.

Those who first begin to meditate find there are many distractions that make it hard to pursue their contemplative practice. However, with further practice and deeper experience of the insight, love, and bliss of meditation, you will develop a strong desire to go deeper, to explore the next level, and to progress into your next level of spiritual growth.

The Permutations of Devotion

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By George A. Boyd © 2020

This was written on Good Friday, 2020, at a time when the devotion of 2.07 billion Christians are focused on the Lord Jesus Christ on the day of his Passion.

Devotion is a pure quality of the spirit. This purest, unalloyed, sublime emotion, which the spirit fees towards God, is often expressed in increasingly distorted ways as you depart from the spirit’s loving heart.

  1. On the dense shores of Matter, devotion becomes perverted into the intense craving of greed, of lust, and of the desire for revenge and retribution. It shows up as the addict’s craving for food, for alcohol, and for drugs; and as the criminal’s driven pursuit of money through theft, robbery, and extortion.
  2. When these base passions and addictions have been worked through, devotion masquerades as anxiety and obsession. The over-solicitous parent, who tries to control every aspect of her daughter’s life; the young woman obsessed with trying to live up to perfect standards of beauty and performance—these draw upon this distortion of devotion. Romantic infatuation—the obsessive fascination and yearning of romantic love—also springs from this layer of devotion.
  3. When perfectionism, worry, and romantic obsession are put away, devotion appears as the drive for career and academic success and advancement. This characterizes the workaholic, whose work is the most important thing in his life; or the overly conscientious student, who dedicates himself to his studies to every waking hour.
  4. At the next layer, devotion becomes the quest for excellence and highest performance. The athlete, who dedicates her life to perfecting her skills as a runner; or the musician, who practices long hours to master the violin—evoke this type of devotion.
  5. The next aspect of devotion is personal idealization. The sports fan who idolizes his baseball team; or the music fan who follows his favorite band from concert to concert, and buys all of their songs—these evidence this type of devotion. The adulation of celebrities also taps this zone of devotion.
  6. Devotion next channels as dedication to a cause. The religious zealot, who attempts to proselytize people to join her religion; or the political activist, who attempts to persuade people to vote for her candidate and support him—these operate from this facet of devotion.
  7. Devotion is next typified by spiritual idealization. Here a devotee looks to a spiritual leader as superhuman, or a Divine Representative, who is portrayed as perfect, all knowing, and the embodiment of all that is good and holy. The devotee, who commits himself to spiritual advancement, and seeks to obey and please his spiritual leader, drinks from this deep well of devotion.
  8. Freed from clinging to any form, the spirit who realizes itself beyond the trammels of mind, knows itself to be of the same essence of God. Once this state of inner innocence has been achieved, the spirit becomes capable of returning to this primordial fire of pure devotion, and loving God in purity and truth.
  9. At the final stage of this journey of devotion, when the spirit re-unites with the Divine Beloved, devotion is submerged in the Oceanic tides of Infinite Love. Here, the devotee and the Divine become one, and there is no longer any separation.

As the fire of Divine Love purifies these layer over the spirit, you become increasingly capable of acting upon successively deeper expressions of devotion—until Divine Love removes the final gossamer veil, and reveals you as you have always existed, as pure spirit born form the immortal Light of God.

Contemplate these layers of devotion. Offer them all upon the inner crucible of your heart’s purest love, so you may emerge as the radiant butterfly from this cocoon of matter and mind that has entombed you through the Ages.

Arise, oh spiritual butterfly—and now, at long last, become free!

The process of learning to re-unite the spirit with God is called Nada Yoga. It trains you how to free your spirit from the trammels of matter, and how to travel through the inner channels of light and sound back to re-union with its Divine Beloved. We teach Nada Yoga in our intermediate mediation courses, the in person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program.