Increase The Light Blog

Everything listed under: Yogananda

  • Silent Retreat

    Silent Retreat

    with Mary Ann Johnston and Sandi Jones
    Oct. 29, 30, 31     Fee: Love Offering
    Orientation: Friday 11 a.m. & 6 p.m.

    “Every person needs a retreat, a ‘dynamo of silence’, where he may go for the exclusive purpose of being newly recharged by the Infinite.” —Paramahansa Yogananda

    This Silent Retreat, located at Song of the Morning Retreat, is devoted to taking us out of our dependence on the world, then allowing God to fill us. Keeping silence will help you connect to your inner self, find peace within and experience the eternal present. The retreat will include yoga, readings from Yogananda’s writings, guided and silent meditation, nature walk, chanting, and as much time for personal inward reflection as you need.

    Song of the Morning a Yoga retreat of excellence, is a slice of heaven, tucked into a secluded forest in northern, lower Michigan, east of Vanderbilt. In addition, this 800 acre retreat is nestled within hundreds of acres of pristine state forest.

    When you leave on Sunday, you may find you are a different person than the one that arrived Friday. 

    Mary Ann has given classes on spiritual living, breath work, and healing throughout Michigan and the Southwest.

    Sandi Jones has taught hatha yoga and meditation in the Golden Lotus style for over 20 years and has a background in education and social work.

    Mary Ann and Sandi will be available for individual healing energy sessions, or personal mentoring.

    You are invited to come at any time during the week for extended personal reflection.

    For Reservations and accommodations, contact: office@Goldenlotus.org
    or phone: 989 983 9101. Hope to see you here.

     Blessings to all,  Mary Ann

    Mon, May 3, 2010 (No comments)

  • Silent Retreat

    Sandi Jones and I, Mary Ann Johnston are giving a Silent Retreat at Song of the Morning, November 20-22.  For more information you can check the schedule on this web site.

    Keeping Silence will help you connect to your Inner Self; to find peace within and experience the eternal present. This retreat will include readings from Paramahansa Yogananda’s writings, guided and silent meditation, nature walk, chanting, and as much time for inward reflection as you need. Silence will be held by ‘attendees, from Friday 8 p.m. through the Sunday Service, except for two sharing periods.

    Mary Ann is a practicing healer/occupational therapist. She has given classes on spiritual living, breathwork,  and healing  throughout Michigan and the Southwest.  She authored Sustained by Faith & Messages from Jesus.

    Sandi Jones has taught yoga and meditation in the Golden Lotus style for over 20 years and has a background in education and social work.

    Hope to see you here, Love, Mary Ann


    Mon, October 19, 2009 (No comments)

  • The Spiritual Return of Jesus

    “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”  --Matthew 24:29-30

    In his book The Second Coming of Christ, Paramahansa Yogananda interprets the above passage as referring to Jesus appearing to individuals in a spiritual form, not in a physical body (Volume II, pp. 1312-1314). However, he does not consider this to be “the Second Coming of Christ”. Yogananda regards the Second Coming of Christ as the awakening of each individual soul, in the course of its spiritual development, to unity with the Christ Consciousness – God as the omnipresent, guiding intelligence in creation. First, one experiences the Christ Consciousness; then one can merge with it. Thereafter, the soul is able to ascend to oneness with God as the Supreme Being, the ultimate Source of all that ever was and will be.


    In commenting on Matthew 24, Yogananda says that, immediately after great tribulations and upheavals in nature, even greater troubles will ensue: the sun and moon will be darkened, great “falling stars” of meteors will enter the earth’s atmosphere, and the many seas will be roiling with upheavals and tidal waves. Then those who become sufficiently developed spiritually will be able to “see the embodied Christ Consciousness (Jesus) coming out of the ethereal clouds of the darkness of closed eyes into the Christ light of the spiritual eye, his form radiant with luminous heavenly power and great glory.”

    The spiritual eye is the sixth chakra – the astral organ of spiritual sight. By deep, devotional meditation, with the eyes turned upward and one’s concentration focused at the midpoint between the eyebrows, it is possible to see the light of the spiritual eye. Yogananda speaks of this wondrous light in his writings. He says that being born again (being born in Spirit) means seeing the Christ light of the spiritual eye, entering through it into Christ Consciousness, and finally, by further development, merging into Cosmic Consciousness. This is the kingdom of God – the blissful state of oneness with God as the Supreme Being, the Source of all beings and all creation.

    As in the above prophecy of Jesus, many of the prophecies that have been received in our times speak of enormous changes coming to our earth and solar system, with the earth being enveloped in darkness for several days. Some of them explain that these changes are part of a long-awaited process for the purification and regeneration of the earth and its life forms and for beneficial changes in our galaxy. They speak of opportunities for spiritual growth, which already are all around us. They advise us that, in order to take advantage of these opportunities and cope with what is coming, we need to open our hearts and minds. They tell us we should make every effort to participate in the spiritual transformation that is taking place … that God and divine beings are there to help us every step of the way.

    In Messages from Jesus, Jesus spoke to Mary Ann about his return. Among other things, he said that, although many like her had already experienced his return, when he would return for all mankind, “all shall know.” He told her that he would come “in Christ Consciousness, for all people everywhere, with the glory of the heavens and earth”, and “the highest heavens and all of nature rejoicing.” (Third Edition, 2009, pp. 46-47)
    –George Johnston


     
    Sat, October 17, 2009 (No comments)

  • Omnipresence

    Yogananda said,  "God’s omnipresence is our omnipresence; we are just as much a part of Him now as we ever will be. All we have to do is improve our knowing." —Mary Ann

    Sun, March 1, 2009 (No comments)

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