Moonbeams in August
“Spread your mind from the moonbeam-visible objects to the dim stars and distant skies lying beyond in the eternal stillness of the ether, all throbbing with life. Watch the moonbeams spread, not only on one side of the earth, but everywhere in the eternal region of your spacious mind. Meditate until, in the cool moonbeams of your calmness, you race over trackless skies and, in realization, behold the universe as Light.”
“Metaphysical Meditations” by Paramahansa Yogananda p. 87
“Conversing with God”
The Entity
… actually a full moon in a summer nighttime sky
I thirst for the taste of Divine Love again that I seem to remember having as a child. I yearn to get acquainted with God. As an adult, “getting to know” God as a person never occurred to me. I was too busy with supplicatory prayer– a one-way conversation and, as such, not a conversation at all. Or I prayed prayers of Thanksgiving but never enough for all I was given. Yes, childhood prayers were better but they are long gone.
Sister Draupadi of Paramahansa Yogananda’s Self Realization Fellowship first introduced me to the idea “of getting to know God” in her talk on “Prayer is a Conversation with God”. I listened to her talk a few times. I prayed a lot but my prayer life entailed prayers for the hardships of life, protecting people, praying for “good” outcomes… I never thought to become acquainted with, if I may say, the “personhood” of God. Yes, I said prayers about his attributes but never said, as Sister Draupadi suggests we say, “I want to know all about you, God” or words to that effect.
Yogananda says God is shy. Quite a few times I have looked deeply into the eyes of my psychiatric social worker husband who is very shy and on the Spectrum and thought I saw God in him for a flicker of a moment. They were profound experiences, gone in a few seconds. Yogananda says God wants our love but He wants us to give it freely.
I must think deeply about this.
“A Butterfly of Eternity”
“With the sharpness of my will I tore to shreds the stifling chrysalis of ignorance.”
“Now I am a butterfly of eternity, gracefully sweeping thorough the empyrean. Bespangled with whirling galaxies, in joy I spread my Nature wings. Behold my deathless beauty!”
“Cut the dark threads of thy shrouding fears, O my brothers! Follow me in the flight to Him.”
from “Whispers from Eternity” by Paramahansa Yogananda… P. 251
Vedic Philosophy from India 500 to 1500 year B. C. Passed down to Yogananda and “Rediscovered” in the 20th Century A.D.
Connecting the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda with the Schumann Resonance bridges ancient Vedic science and modern geophysics. While Yogananda lived and taught decades before the term “Schumann Resonance” became popular in mainstream wellness circles, his teachings on Om (Aum), the Cosmic Vibration, and brainwave states align perfectly with the concept.
Here is how his spiritual philosophy intersects with the Earth’s natural frequency:
1. The Cosmic Vibration (Aum) and the Earth’s Hum
Yogananda taught that the entire universe is created from and sustained by a primordial, intelligent vibration, which he identified as Aum or Om (the Cosmic Sound).
The Spiritual Side: In his book Cosmic Chants, Yogananda explained that by chanting and meditating, a person tunes the “radio of their heart” to this underlying cosmic rhythm.
The Scientific Parallel: The Schumann Resonance (7.83 Hz) is a literal electromagnetic “hum” or heartbeat generated between the Earth’s surface and the ionosphere, triggered by lightning strikes. It is the baseline vibrational background of our planet. Mystics and meditators often view the Schumann Resonance as the physical, planetary manifestation of that cosmic Aum vibration.
2. Brainwave Entrainment and Kriya Yoga
The fundamental Schumann frequency of 7.83 Hz sits right at the border of Alpha (8-12Hz) and Theta (4-8 Hz) brainwaves.
Alpha/Theta States: These frequencies are scientifically associated with deep relaxation, high creativity,superlearning, and profound meditative states.
Yogananda’s Techniques: The advanced meditation techniques Yogananda taught (like Kriya Yoga and the Hong-Sau technique) are designed to calm the nervous system, slow the breath, and switch the brain out of high-stress Beta waves. When a yogi enters a state of deep, breathless stillness (Samadhi), their brainwaves naturally drop into the Alpha and Theta zones—effectively synchronizing, or “entraining,” with the Earth’s 7.83 Hz heartbeat.
3. “Tuning the Instrument”
Yogananda often used the analogy of a radio. If your mind is full of restless, chaotic thoughts, your “receiver” is full of static, making it impossible to hear the divine melody.
”Gradually the subconscious repetition [of the mantras] will change into superconscious realization, bringing the actual perception of God.” — Paramahansa Yogananda
“Meditation” by esw
Modern proponents of the Schumann Resonance say something very similar: in our world of concrete, Wi-Fi, and artificial EMFs, we get “de-tuned” from the Earth. Practicing Yogananda’s meditation techniques is a way of clearing that bio-electrical static so your body and mind can return to their natural, grounded state of harmony.
( A Gemini summary of my research on Altered States of Consciousness and alpha brain rhythms 50 years ago and “finding” Yogananda 20 years ago and my following his practice now.)
“The Sun Gaze of My Love Ne’er Sets”
(Photo by ESW, “The View”)
“I take a sacred vow: Never shall the sun gaze of my love sink below the horizon of my thought of Thee. Never will I lower the vision of my lifted eyes to place it on aught but Thee.
Never will I do anything that reminds me not of Thee. Actions springing from ignorance lead to nightmares. May I weave only sweet dreams of noble achievements, for they are Thy dreams.” ~ Paramahansa Yogananda
from “Whispers from Eternity” by Paramahansa Yogananda, p. 115
“I beheld Thee hiding in a flower”*
” …The mystery of life and immortality lay in the pollen; and Thine infinite touch transfigured the breast of the bee tasting Thy sweetness.
Oh, reveal to me the wonders of creation, Thine endless secrets that even the tiniest roadside weed bears in its bosom!”
*from “Whispers from Eternity” by Paramahansa Yogananda, p. 220.
Crying Leaves, Flowers and Eternity
“At dawn and the opening of lotus buds, my soul flower softly unfolds to receive Thy light. Each petal is bathed in rays of bliss. The early breezes waft the perfume of Thy presence.”
From “Whispers from Eternity” by Paramahansa Yogananda” p. 81.
The leaves shed raindrop tears for much of April and the same rains brought forth the blossoming Dahlias in Andrew’s garden. Soon their petals will wilt and shrivel with old age and other blossoms will replace them just as our bodies will wilt and we will shed them like so many shriveling petals…
and we will go home for awhile
only to return for more lessons to learn on the school of earth.
Ode to a One-eyed Dog (a humble attempt 27 or so years ago)
“Inwardly think constantly of the Beauty behind flowers; the Light behind the sun; the Life that twinkles in all eyes, that beats in every heart.”
Paramahansa Yogananda
The Epitome of Humility
Ko-ko in her later years… one of my best teachers
You open our eyes to the Infinite
with your soft-brown one-eyed stare,
your gentle, pink-tongued kisses
and your deep, dark velvet ways.
You open our hearts to Eternal Love,
joining in our displays of affection,
cringing at discord in dire dejection,
Oh, Love-Dog with a failing heart!
You work your love-magic on all you meet
with a willful wag of your toy-like tail.
You soothe us in sorrow and defeat
with the soulful "ear" of your single eye.
In your own pain, you have comforted us.
Losing Dad you licked Mom's tears.
Mom died and your kisses brought me back
from the shrieking world of grief and fear.
And you are getting old, as I lie beside you bed,
my nose nuzzling your greying head,
inhaling your sweet doggie scent,
I feel the fragile flutter of your tender heart.
Lulled by the hum of your delectable delight,
warmed by your love, touched by your joy,
filled with awe at each breath you take,
I see in you God's mystery of life.
(Ko-ko died in 2000 sending me a vision after her death)
The Return of the Animals
“Gradually extend the boundaries of the glowing kingdom of your love to include your family, your neighbors, your community, your country, all countries– all living sentient creatures.”
Paramahansa Yogananda
We rejoice at the spring bird-song of the mating season during the day now that we have the spring peeper choruses at night… some of the most beautiful sounds on the planet. We search every rock in every pond, looking for turtles sunning. The first opossum of the season appear and what a thing of joy it is. No longer is he cringing in some nest of wood and leaf debris for shelter from the cold. He is running past our door to find a mate. All round and rotund.
Animals work their unique and miraculous magic on depressed souls and bring joy. Animals are natural anti-depressants… how a child’s face lights up with joy to touch an animal or observe one up close. Adults, too, are wooed by their innocence. Animals bring enchantment, enrich our lives. That is why therapy dogs and other animals do such good work in hospitals, prisons, hospices for the dying, wherever there is misery.
The return of the animals brings music to the air, replacing the ominous gale winds of winter and the blanketed silence of snows. Insects hum and buzz. Birds sing and chirp. Windows are opened wide to allow sweet- smelling, soporific breezes to blow through our houses. Little green shoots become beautiful flowers in our gardens, along side roads, in the fields. Trees come to life again, gods of greenery. Fat, red-breasted robins perk up the lawn in their search for worms. And we no longer have to worry about animals starving. The deer we see mid-March in groups, scavenging for food are thin and weak. And the squirrels have run out of their stores as well, raiding the bird feeder which they normally leave to the birds. A late Spring means animals will starve and die with no edible items.
And yet, with all the pleasure the return of the animals brings us, do we welcome them with open arms? No, we fumigate our land and spread pesticides all over their territory. Many species of birds are heading towards extinction due to our use of pesticides and, generally speaking, our “development” of the land. We destroy vernal pools, thinking them mere puddles rather than the breeding place of frogs and salamanders. We take the babies of spring– the lambs, the calves– away from their mothers and slaughter them. Sometimes with abject cruelty, in full view of the mothers. The mothers wail in anguish. We break bonds stronger than the supposedly solid bond of human matrimony that nowadays fails as often as it succeeds.
In The Letter Writer, famed author, Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote: “In his thoughts, Herman spoke a eulogy for the mouse who had shared a portion of her life with him and who because of him, had left this earth. “What do they know–all these scholars, all these philosophers, all the leaders of the world–about such as you? They have convinced themselves that man, the worst transgressor of all the species, is the crown of creation. All other creatures were created merely to provide him with food, pelts, to be tormented, exterminated. In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an eternal Treblinka.”
This is how we repay those who bring us such joy, such love, such purity– those who uplift, save lives, care for us. It has been said that a dog is the only creature who loves his caretaker more than he loves himself. Dogs have it over us in this.
Spring is here and, with it, the return of the animals. Without them, as Rachel Carlson warned, it would be a “silent spring”.
The Orchestra of Spring
“The orderly manner in which the universe is run shows that it is guided by some form of intelligence that permeates all created things.”
Paramahansa Yogananda
Watercolor by David M. Carroll
“Spotted Turtle Nesting in Moonlight”
When nature awakens in late March or early April, sap starts flowing in the trees and ice changes to water marking the end of hibernation. This is the grand opening of the wetlands and the pilgrimage to the vernal pools as David M. Carroll writes in his “Swampwalker’s Journal: a Wetlands Year.” A vernal pool is a body of water which fills up in autumn and winter and is swollen in the spring but often dries up completely by the end of the summer. Carroll describes vernal pools so beautifully: “It is at snowmelt and ice-out, the last sleets, first rains, and the earliest warming breaths of spring that they beckon wood frogs, salamanders, and spring peepers from surrounding upland woods, where they have passed the winter in rotted-out trees roots [a reason not to ‘clean up’ the woods], under layers of bark and litter, in small mammal tunnels and other hibernacula in the earth.” The melting snow heralds the march of the amphibians. “Vernal pool habitats hold a galaxy of small things that come to life the instant ice and snow turn back into water.”
Carroll walks the swamps, as the title of his book suggests, in search of mating salamanders and spotted turtles, bogs, fens and all wetland flora and fauna. He tells us that there must be a certain collusion of events– several warm days in a row followed by a darkest of nights with temperatures ideally in the mid-50s with rain preferably two nights in a row. And then the magical migration begins. The salamanders begin their “annual pilgrimage” to the vernal pond to mate.
My husband and I were lucky enough to have a vernal pond on the property next door to us and when Spring sprang out of the depths of winter, the sound at night from that pond made us feel as if we are camping out next to a vast wetland. The music of the spring peepers played through the night throughout the house, often starting overeagerly in the late afternoon. This manic symphony thrilled us every year. It was the first sign of Spring for us. The quality of joyousness and the affirmation of life gladdened our souls. Going to sleep with that sound made us remember what we so often forget, to give thanks to our Creator for his magnificent creatures.
This story, however, does not have a happy ending. In his epilogue to the “Swampwalker’s Journal,” David Carroll explains why it took him more than 7 years to complete this book. He writes that he became involved in saving some of the wetlands in his book and says sadly nearly all of his interventions have or will become “losing battles.” He describes the plight of the wetlands, bogs and fens as a “landscape of loss.” And he scorns our human selfishness as he writes how it “reveals explicitly the extent to which we think of ourselves as owning all living things, along with the very earth, air, and water in which they live, as if we possessed some divinely mandated dominion over all creation.” He warns: “As we will learn in time none of this belongs to us.”
Paramahansa Yogananda:
“WE SHOULD BATHE OUR SPIRITS IN THE DEEP, PURE FEELING THAT STIRS WITHIN US WHEN WE GAZE ON THE GLORIES OF HIS CREATION. THIS IS THE WAY TO KNOW GOD AS BEAUTY.”
“Northern Lights”
esw 2006
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!
“LOVE IS THE DIVINE POWER OF ATTRACTION IN CREATION THAT HARMONIZES, UNITES, BINDS TOGETHER“
PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA
To Thomas:
Slowly creeping towards our fourth decade together. Will we make it? Love grows deeper against a background of eventual, inevitable loss. A loss more unimaginable than one’s own demise.
I look deeply into your eyes, my eyes linger, falling into your blue orbs, while you, in turn, delight in my gaze, going far beyond the polite looks people use in everyday conversations. We pause too long. I fall into the abyss of your sky blues and feel reverence. Reverence for your happy spirit, infectious mood. Reverence for the God I see in you.
It is not the Eros of our first decade that has morphed into something much deeper. Attraction, yes, but of a different nature. Attraction of the heart, the soul, the spirit. We bring each other to pure joy, bliss, a sharing of spirit. We give each other a taste of Oneness with all. Meditation has become our love-making. Nature has become our Temple. This life has become suddenly the blink of an eye.
In the Hush of it All…
As Christmas recedes into yesteryear, and as turtles and other creatures sleep in frozen slumber, and the New Year dawns after the birth of winter, let us weather the sorrows and “Fully enjoy the wonder and beauty of each instant.”
Paramahansa Yogananda
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
The Oneness of It All
In this month of darkness, in this the darkest month, the light of the human spirit shines forth in a fullness shown by so many, in so many ways. As the days grow shorter, houses and trees are decorated, and snow falls. In the hushed silence of the nights, lights shine in windows, and the beauty is shared by all. For this season of giving brings the festivals of lights: Diwali (now past), Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa. Each tradition incorporates light in its ceremonies and decorations. But all is not well. Millions know no peace in any season.
Yet even those living in the worst conditions show the light of the human spirit and celebrate the season of light in personal ways. For the human spirit is indomitable.
In December’s darkness we light lights. For we are beings of light. A light glows within each one of us. And, at the most basic level, we are beings of light because we are made from stardust. Perhaps that is why the stars hold such majesty for us– we are made from star material.
Einstein said: “A human being is part of the whole, called by us the ‘Universe”– a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, and feelings, as something separated from the rest– a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
When Spiders Rule
A chill wind blows the yellowing leaves off the trees. They drift down to the ground like giant snowflakes. The air is pregnant with the feel of the coming holidays. Fall has truly come with the sudden drop in temperatures. November appears as a mirror image of March. November is the vibrant color of decay while March is the decaying color of about-to-burst-forth Spring.
The birds are at the bird feeder all the time now. They are not stopped by our presence when we come to fill the feeder or blow leaves under it. Nothing stops them. They swoop around the feeder and the surrounding trees like Kamikaze pilots, darting here and there recklessly. The squirrels are in a frenzy as well, stock piling and burying acorns and walnuts which they will retrieve without fail in a month or so in a snow-covered land.
The trees are most beautiful for me at this time of year, when many of them are bare and a scattering of leaves remain on dark brown branches. The leaves that remain on the trees blow on the limbs with dainty grace in their precarious positions. Yet these are the survivors. The other leaves have fallen and gone the way all living things eventually go. Most trees have lost all their leaves and they stand in stark contrast against the blue sky, the stormy sky, even the night sky. They are perhaps most beautiful at night, like arms reaching up to the darkness trying to grab at the stars twinkling between the branches. Moonlight dances on their limbs.
November is the last glimmer of color and in some places the color seems to be predominantly yellow. A carpet of yellow lines the woods now. And now one can see inside the woods, so dark and impenetrable in summer. Some forests have carpets of oak leaves– dark brown tan in color. Or there are forest paths with variegated colors– vibrant crimsons against yellows and faded greens and tawny tans. The unmown lawns are now taken over by the spiders and, at moments, one can see a world of webs covering fields that only appear in a certain slant of sunlight. It is the silent take over of the spiders before the snows come.
The yellow, the brown, the crimson leaves are complemented by the ubiquitous yellow, brown and crimson mums that appear on the roadside near mail boxes, on porches or along driveways. These tough little flowers withstand frosty chills and stand tall throughout most of November. Hearty souls and so giving in their colorful, velvety splendor.
Soon the season of lights will begin. Autumn, as a season, seems the fastest to come and go. I hold each moment in my hands as a treasure, but the moments all sift through my fingers like grains of sand. Then Christmas comes and fades in a flash, and we are into the Nor’Easter blizzards of January. Another year is gone. The years do go faster as you grow older. We go about living our lives, trying, against our natures, to treasure the good moments. Now in November, at Thanksgiving, it is our time to say thank you. Inspired by the Native Americans let us thank the earth. Let us say thank you to the trees for their constantly changing beauty, to the stars for their piercing presence in the night sky, to the leaves for their beauteous colors, to the sun for its life-giving power, to the Spring for its awakening hope, to the Summer for its warm, thriving growth, to the Fall for its bounty, to the Winter for a time of renewal, to the snow flakes for their hushed, white silence that transforms our world, to the animals for their pure souls, to our families and friends for their love, and, lastly but mostly, to the Higher Power of our belief.
Happy Thanksgiving and may you each be blessed with the all embracing, pervasive Love in nature.
Love from Above
“… the Cosmic Beam, the Divine Light pouring from the projection booth of Eternity.”
Paramahansa Yogananda
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Repetition of Forms
The Marsh in Winter (Millbrook, NY)
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Sheep in Winter (Standfordville, NY)
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“Nature is very beautiful; but still, in one sense, it is very silent: it tells us of the beauty of everything without revealing the Beauty that is behind everything.”
Panamahansa Yogananda
The Wave in the Ocean (adapted from a talk given by Swami Sarvapriyananda)
A wave floating upon the ocean
of conciousness
I know the end is near
for I see the shore ahead
upon which I will crash
and become droplets of ocean spray
flying way up high
in the sky
only
to fall to earth
again as a wave
in the ocean
only to die again when I hit the shore
in a seemingly endless cycle of births and deaths and rebirths
until a sunbeam enlightens
and the I
evaporates
and finally will be vaster than the ocean
in the infinite consciousness of space
no more to be reborn.
💖💖💖”Just as your consciousness pervades your whole body, the consciousness of Christ is equally present throughout the cosmos– in every tree and plant, in every bird and animal, in all human beings.”💖💖💖💖💖💖💖 Paramahansa Yogananda
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Autumnal Septuagenarian Love
Waking to your touch
electricity in
your massive
healing hands
without a glint
of sexuality…
Waking to your smile
whispers sweetly
to my soul…
like the first time
so long ago
on our first walk
together
when your arm
brushed against mine
and shook our worlds
out of their solitary
orbits and
sent us to the moon!
Your grey fluffy hair
sparkling silver threads
entices every time
I sniff your fragrance
and inhale the heavens
the warmth
of your cheeks
in our fleeting
embrace
I would it
would last forever
like our love!
The smile lines etched
around your sky blues
alter the pulse
the course of my blood
and with each glance
reach for the stars
twinkling inside my head!
The wrinkles in your cheeks
and your furrowed brow
pluck at the strings
inside my bosom
for I know the hard times
and worries that
engraved them on your face!
As day turns to night…
On the doorway
to Orpheus
in pillowed embrace
your big hand
holds mine
and makes me
feel safe and loved
and little
as you drift off
leaving me wishing
for morning
to awaken once
more to you
fears tears
so long to wait
till morning!
We are old
How did this happen?
and we are in love
more than ever
youthful passion gone
replaced by years of fidelity
affection, quarrels, laughing,
teasing, crying
always sharing, caring
yet attraction still stirs
and the years of together
have sewn our souls to one!
Loss is inevitable
and unacceptable
In equal measure
The God I used to find
in nature
I now find in you
And the ecstasis
of gazing at the sky
now rests with the mystery
of you!!
A happiest of birthdays to the love of our many lifetimes together! Hope to continue our journey together to enlightenment!
May the rest of your seventies be healthy and happy and filled with love!
💖Your wife
Face to face
“Be fearless, sincere, and loving and you will be able to look everyone in the face, knowing that you have done your best.”
Paramahansa Yogananda
Divine Intelligence
“God is manifest in everything! Look at the beautiful earth, and how nature keeps it in balance– how there is a plan, an Intelligence behind everything in creation.”
Paramahansa Yogananda
Star Blossoms
“When you find that your soul, your heart, every wisp of inspiration, every speck of the vast blue sky and its shining star blossoms, the mountains, the earth, the whipporwill and the bluebells are all tied together with one cord of rhythm, one cord of joy, one cord of unity, one cord of spirit, then you shall know that all are but waves in His cosmic sea.”
Paramahansa Yogananda in “Metaphysical Meditations,” p. 36
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“Homage to Kandinsky” (esw)
The World Within
“When the body and mind become totally still, one begins to perceive the manifestation of Spirit.”
Paramahansa Yogananda
MOONSIDE 
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