Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton: Effort and Grace, April 23, 2023, live on Baba Zoom

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But once a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for conversation, more readings, songs, quotes - you never know what treasures will be uncovered!

Topic: Delving into Effort and Grace

Dear folks of Baba,

This Sunday we will again explore Darwin Shaw’s book, Effort and Grace, which is an in-depth inquiry into the inner life with Baba. It describes one of the major approaches to Baba by one who was devoted to Him for over 70 years, which culminated in a glorious intimacy with Him. Darwin was always so encouraging and optimistic in what we can do to open up to Baba’s immediate loving presence. He asserts that many of the blocks to this intimacy can be removed by our efforts and by inviting Baba’s ongoing intervention and grace.

We left off on page 31 at the beginning of the chapter, “Purifying our Hearts.” Darwin is careful to make it clear that it is not the body, the mind or the heart that goes on the spiritual journey to God (the Soul), but consciousness itself (our awareness). And along this journey, the main work of our consciousness is to eventually withdraw its tentacles from being enmeshed in the body, mind and heart and come to focus itself solely on God. However, because of the trickster Maya, the body, mind and heart are continually dragging us into the prison of time and space when we are really “the timeless spirit.” The mind is the greatest purveyor of time and space, but as our awareness moves into the deeper realm of the heart, we begin to experience some of the timelessness and spaciousness of the Soul (God). This is achieved by our strenuous efforts of purifying the heart. This process is helped most profoundly by being open to Baba’s grace. One of the greatest obstacles is our mind that keeps dragging our timeless spirit into time and space through such negative emotions as worry, greed, ambition, retaliation and the myriad forms of wanting. Darwin gives the metaphor of a chess game in which we focus on moves that counteract the cunning moves of our ego, ultimately as Darwin says, “checkmating our false self."

Each session evokes invaluable discussion that does not require having attended the previous sessions; each section stands alone and provides a window into the inner life of the lover/Beloved relationship and is virtually independent, like facets of one diamond—Baba.

For those who do not have a copy of the book, below is an attachment for following along:

https://issuu.com/ompoint/docs/shaw_effort_grace

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