Experiment #29: Sharing My Spiritual Questions for Swami Nityananda Publicly and In Advance of our Live-Streamed Q&A Dialogues
This is me putting my thoughts on the M.O.N.K.E.Y. B.A.R.S. by practicing "S" for "Serve While Connected"
If reading time is hard to come by or you’re interested in a more human experience, there is a “Read-to-You” version of this article.
If you’re new here, welcome! The “M.O.N.K.E.Y. B.A.R.S.” part of Monkey Bars for the Monkey Mind is my acronym for the system I use to create and maintain a happy life, which I introduce in Experiment #1.
“S” is for "Serve While Connected," which I introduce in Experiment #11. You can see all of my “S” experiments so far by clicking here.
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On Monday, I got a calendar reminder that it was time to share my questions with my spiritual teacher, Swami Nityananda, for Awake Yoga Meditation’s virtual Satsang event on Friday (today).
Satsangs are essentially public Q&As or “AMAs” (ask-me-anythings) where one can ask sincere spiritual questions to a spiritual leader. On a deeper level, satsang means “gathering in the company of truth.” So, this is why sincerity is an important part of the process.
For years, I’ve had the privilege of being the person who asks Swami questions and then dialogues with her on behalf of the community. Sometimes I’m asking my questions and other times I’m asking questions from community members. The experience has not only been an incredible honor, but it’s also been an incalculable learning experience for me—and a lot of fun.
I discuss a little bit more about my involvement in Awake Yoga Meditation’s Satsangs in Experiment #20: Meditating on Whether God is Beyond Gender.
My routine is that I keep a running Google doc of my sincere spiritual questions that come to me as I practice “E” for “Engage with Spiritual Teachings” on the M.O.N.K.E.Y. B.A.R.S., which I introduced in Experiment #6. I find that having a Google doc easily accessible on my phone is helpful for capturing the questions that come to mind randomly throughout the day as well. I also use this Google doc to keep track of community questions.
Then, on the Monday before the Friday Satsang, I see my calendar reminder and start reviewing what I’ve collected. I follow my intuition—which Swami teaches is how the Divine speaks to us—and discern which questions would be optimal to explore that week.
I try to give myself a day or two for this step and then I share the chosen questions or topics with Swami. We’ve found that sharing questions in advance like this allows the conversation to be even richer, but we also welcome questions during the Satsang itself.
During the event, we open with Swami offering some entry points for what will be a 20-minute silent meditation. Then, we meditate together. After that, we have the Satsang. We end the event with a couple of prayers. All of this happens from the comfort of your home over Zoom.
I have never shared the questions and topics I ask in advance because, perhaps, I’ve been nervous about asking them (see Experiment #1 for how anxiety and perfectionism are common threads in my life!).
But I thought I’d try an experiment and share them ahead of time. I have come to believe that it is of service to share what we love with others (see Experiment #12) and to share our works-in-progress with others (see Experiment #13). At a fundamental level, I think it helps us—well, me, at least—move beyond the illusion of perfectionism. We can see that as humans, we are all always evolving, growing, and expanding our knowledge and wisdom and creativity.
In other words, it helps us see ourselves in each other instead of only seeing separateness.
Three questions
So, tonight, I have three questions prepared. We may get to all three or we may only get to one.
If the questions are of interest to you, you might enjoy joining us live. It’s at 7:30pm EST and it’s free. It can be live streamed on Zoom or YouTube. If you’re not able to make it, a replay is published the following day on AYM’s Substack newsletter, Feel Love Now with Swami Nityananda (for paid subscribers only).
Okay, here are the three questions:
From someone in our community: “Within our community, it seems commonly heard that ‘God is the only doer.’ For some reason that doesn’t seem to make sense to me when so many ‘egos’ with selfish interests are making the decisions and doing the actions in this world. Ultimately, I know there’s only the Divine expressing itself in all things; however, this question still baffles me. And maybe others?”
Can love be expressed through violence? Is "tough love" a thing? Does the story of Jesus overturning the tables of the money-changers in a temple indicate violence? Anger? Is this Jesus losing his temper at “neighbors” who see the world differently than him? Is Jesus “picking a fight” here? From Matthew 21:12-13: “Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer”; but you are making it a den of robbers.’”
Why do we chant 3 aums. Is there a significance to 3? Why not 2? Or 4 or 5?
Again, my hope is that sharing what I love and showing a work-in-progress is of service. Sometimes it’s nice to know that there is a place where we can ask our deep spiritual questions about the universe and engage in sincere conversation. In my opinion, it’s hard to find someone more loving, more compassionate, more wise, and more approachable than Swami Nityananda.
Have you ever participated in a Satsang? If so, where? Do you have any burning, sincere, spiritual questions that you would want to ask? How have you tried to find answers for those questions? I’m always happy to ask a question on your behalf at AYM’s next Satsang. Or, if you’d like, you can leave a question in the comments below. You’re also, as I said, welcome to jump on tonight and ask via the chat in the Q&A.
As always, thank you for stopping by and I hope you have a very happy day.
With love,
Jonathan