Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton: Reprogramming Our Experience, Aug 27, 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: Reprogramming Our Experience

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 have begun Darwin’s chapter on Reprogramming Our Experience where we left off on page 78. In his usual low-key fashion, Darwin would stress how we unconsciously program our lives. If we tend to be pessimistic, we create a negative life for ourselves; if we are optimistic, we create a more positive life. If we go a step further and imagine a divine life for ourselves with Baba, in time this will become our life. The qualities of truth, beauty, love and purity will be ours. This is based on the truth of Baba’s words when He says, “Whatever you want to be, that you become.” I once asked Darwin, “What is the biggest mistake the Baba lovers are making?” He responded, “They think of themselves as small and they remain small. Think BIG! Think even beyond the conventional spiritual box.”

With encouragement, Darwin would say we have to become conscious of the many ways we limit our receptivity to Baba’s unconditional love. We think, Baba won’t love me until I get my weaknesses more under control. It is only when I remember and obey Him constantly that He will be pleased. Baba has said that He loves and adores us no matter what, but we take the limiting and unfavorable reactions of others to us over our lifetime as proof that we are not lovable. We project the attitude of others and our own self-judgment onto Baba and thereby program our own unhappiness. I am not enough. I am always falling short. These are manmade and self-created judgments, and they limit the precious intimacy we could be enjoying with Baba’s ever-available companionship. We are all a mixture of selfishness and love, and if we condemn ourselves each time we are selfish, we are programming unhappiness and sabotaging our own joy. Darwin would say, we have to acquire a healthy self-acceptance and know that Baba always accepts us as we are while encouraging us to go deeper. There is a Sufi saying that beautifully expresses Baba’s intervention in our lives:

To Be United with Him

If you were to be united with Him only after the extinction

of your vices and the effacement of your pretensions, you

would never be united with him!

Instead, when He wants to unite you to Himself, He covers

your attribute with His attribute and hides your quality

with his Quality.

And thus He unites you to Himself by virtue of what comes

from Him to you, not by virtue of what goes from you to Him.

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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