Conversations about Meher Baba

Late Night Chat with Jeff: Telling others about Baba, Aug 18, 2024, 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! The Topic: Explaining Baba to Others: A ChallengeDear Folks of Baba, We all have been faced at some point with trying to explain who Baba is to those who haven’t heard of Him, and we have also had to face being around family, neighbors or people at work who disapprove of our life with Baba. These two situations are often challenging in their own way. How do you deal with these? In the first situation, do you say directly who Baba says He is, or do you skirt around the issue by referring to Baba as a spiritual master from India or deflect the question by talking about His teachings instead? Do you have a usual way of introducing Baba or do you often have to use your intuition each time in assessing the situation? Baba has said, “Your job is to bring My name to the ear of a person, and My job is to bring it from ear to heart.” You may feel relieved that He has discouraged “proselytizing” which often puts people off. I’ve heard a wide range of approaches to sharing Baba, and they are all valid. I’ve never heard a fellow Baba lover say, “Mind your own business!” when that is exactly what one might fantasize sometimes. Just joking! Explaining Baba to others can definitely be a challenge, and there is a natural fear of being rejected or even scorned. In the second situation, it can be difficult and even alienating when family or colleagues or people in our neighborhood express their outright disapproval for following Baba. How can we explain that we had no choice; it was our destiny. In some cases, the Baba-lover sometimes becomes an outcast, the black sheep of the family, and is never really accepted.This can definitely be very hurtful and even lonely sometimes, especially when there are no Baba-lovers where one lives. Some have chosen to go completely within in their life with Baba to avoid being hurt or disapproved of. Others have joined meditation and religious groups, spiritual centers and yoga classes to find like-minded people. For many, joining zoom meetings has been a godsend for those who find themselves cut off from family and friends. Have you had to deal with such circumstances and what have you done? I think it will be informative and helpful to hear what others have done. Some of their methods might be applicable to your own situation.In His love with the help of friends, Jeff To join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact AngelaThis event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Late Night Chat with Jeff: Favorite Baba Quotes, July 28, 2024, 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: Your Favorite Poems, Stories or QuotesDear Folks of Baba, As a change of pace, I thought it would be engaging and inspiring to share our favorite poems, stories or quotes (they needn’t be just Baba’s words) and why what you have chosen is meaningful and impactful to you. What is the context in which this poem, story or quote has touched your life? Was it life-changing? Did it offer an insight that has significantly contributed to a more harmonious inner life? Is it a spiritual affirmation that you return to again and again? The quote, story or poem needn’t be something from the past, but could be something that you’ve read recently. And it can be something that you yourself have written or felt inspired from Baba to write. So take out those old trunks or search your computer for one of your favorites, something that has served to elevate your spirit over the years and and inspired you to persevere in your life with our Beloved. I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world. - Mother TeresaIn His love, JeffTo join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact AngelaThis event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Late Night Chat with Jeff: Grief, Heartache and Loss, July 21, 2024, 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: Grief and LossDear folks of Baba, So many in this country devoted to Baba are from the Baby Boomer generation, born in the 1940s and 50s, and so most have suffered the poignant loss of their parents. And now many of their contemporaries are passing on. The younger generations as well as the Baby Boomers have also lost near and dear ones through divorce, the breakup of close friendships, and have even been left heartbroken in romance and by family. Also, there are close friends who have had to move away and are never seen again. These are heart-rending events even if they are expected, and how we deal with them is critical to our well-being and inner life. There are few ways to speed up the short-term process of grief; there is usually an inevitable minimum length of time to make the inner adjustment. What can be critical spiritually is how we deal with the long-term effects so that there is not a sense of irredeemable loss. What Baba has said about death is immensely helpful, and fortunately, He often awakens in us the knowing that our near and dear ones are not forever gone, but they are right here and have not gone anywhere. They are still present, but they are invisible. In the late 1930s, when one of Baba’s circle of close followers in England passed on at an early age, He said of her, "She is still here; where else can she go? Only you do not see her, for being without her coat and hat on, you do not recognize her." It is unacceptable to our soul that someone is gone forever, that they are no longer here. And to believe this is to plunge ourselves into the deepest grief. The heart cannot accept this! There is a hospice saying, “Grief is love that has no place to go.” The object of our love is no longer physically here, and so for most people their love is painfully backed up, and that is experienced as grief. But if we think that our close ones are still here, although invisible as Baba says, there is a place our love can flow to. Our relationship can continue, although in a different form than when our dear one was physically here. This is a most loving consolation that Baba has built into our inner experience. And the love we send to the departed ones or those who may have rejected us or who have moved away is received by them and responded to in kind. The relationship needn’t stop with death at all or when they are physically distant! And Baba gives us the assurance that we will meet again and continue the sharing of love. Mehera, who suffered the greatest loss when Baba dropped His body, eventually found Him with her most intimately after she passed through her initial period of unimaginable grief. How have you dealt with the death of a close one? What have you done when someone has rejected your love or disowned you? How have you involved Baba in this painful adjustment and how do you feel now? Has the grief and loss and heartbreak brought you to a deeper place within and to a more mature love? And closer to Baba?I couldn’t resist quoting this Rumi poem on death:On the day I die,when I’m being carried toward the grave,do not weep.Don’t say, He’s gone, he’s gone.Death has nothing to do with going away.The sun and moon set,but will they not come up in brightnesstomorrow?The grave is merely a veilover reunion in paradise.The human seed goes into the groundlike a bucket into the wellwhere Joseph’s spirit dwells.It grows and comes upfull of some unimagined beauty.When your mouth closes on this side,it opens on that sidewith a shout of triumph that echoesin the placeless air!With help from friends, in His love, JeffTo join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact AngelaThis event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Late Night Chat with Jeff: Feeling Unworthy, July 15, 2024, 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: The Feeling of UnworthinessDear folks of Baba, One of you made a suggestion as a topic for discussion--the feeling of unworthiness--which we have touched on previously. It is very elusive because it is not only a debilitating emotion but also a self-deprecating attitude facing many Baba lovers in their lives with Him. To disentangle the emotion connected with unworthiness from the negative attitude toward our self is a part of the solution. Many have inherited, in passing through childhood, a feeling of unworthiness that can come from a variety of sources: parents, siblings, their peer group and teachers, and also, they may have brought it with them from their previous lives. Understandably, the negative influence of this can often affect our relationship with Baba. That is, we can even feel unworthy in front of Baba, which is the last thing He wants us to feel. Unlike many people in our lives who love us with strings attached, Baba loves us unconditionally. Even Darwin Shaw, when he met Baba for the first time, was unprepared for the experience of Baba’s unconditional love. It is rarely ever seen in this world! One of the most insidious contributors to unworthiness is our mental ideals that we have bought into, which are set too high for what we are capable of achieving. We wind up always falling short, and sadly, the people in our life often remind us of that. One thing I learned from the mandali is that our ideals should be practical—what is the next baby step we can take—not the impossible achievement of the highest. We don’t learn to play the piano in one week! The ego has a way of colluding with the mind to guilt-trip us when we fall short of our mental ideals. On the other hand, the ideals formed in the heart are much more compassionate, not so black and white. The heart knows just what we are capable of in the present, our next step. In fact, the ego is fighting a battle for the supremacy of our attention, and it is a victory for it when the ego can get us thinking negatively about ourselves instead of remembering Baba and others with love. The ego can also hide in feeling superior to those who have a healthy attitude toward themselves, seeing their attitude as naive and an expression of the ego! Or the ego can hide out in envy of others, rather than having a positive appreciation of the valuable qualities they express.We are a mixture of love and selfishness, and to expect that we will always be loving is to expect the impossible. Inevitably, we are going to have to witness ourselves being selfish sometimes and learn to forgive ourselves from the heart, and not let the mind find fault with and demean us. That is, we need to listen to the compassionate voice of the heart, not to the critical voice of the mind. Someone might say, can’t this lead us to being complacent? Yes, and that is something to be aware of but not to the extent that we pressure ourselves into striving for something that is beyond our capacity. And if we become complacent, it is Baba’s job to see that we grow and awaken; He won’t let us rest on our oars for too long. I know this is an enormous subject, and these are only some of the aspects of unworthiness. How much has the feeling of unworthiness been a part of your life? What triggers this feeling in you? What are some of the ways you have found to respond to this feeling of unworthiness? Was unworthiness something you experienced much more in your early years with Baba, and now you are more accepting of your shortcomings? This is one of Mehera’s favorite quotes of Baba, “Seeds germinate in soft soil. I plant my seed of love, not in your strengths, but your weaknesses." Humility can be greater than strength.In His love, JeffTo join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact AngelaThis event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Late Night Chat with Margi Connor: Alisa Genovese, July 12, 2024, live on Baba Zoom

Late night chat centered around our Beloved. A sharing of hearts.Jai Baba everyone!It has been a little while since I have been able to get on here to facilitate the late night chat! I'm grateful Baba worked it out this week. I hope Jeff has been holding down the fort for all of y'all.This week we will have a very special guest, Alisa Genovese. She has been a guest on here before about a year ago with Pamela Butler-Stone speaking about the Heartland Center in Oklahoma. Her work there is wonderful and she may touch on that, but I invited her back to share some of her stories and experiences with Baba and the mandali throughout her life. She came to Baba in her early life and her relationship with Him has flourished ever since. She was fortunate enough to get to India early on and spend ample time with His close ones. Later, Alisa married Robert Dreyfus and had two children with him. She now works as a psychotherapist and goes just about wherever Baba directs her to go. Let's just say she has her hands in many pots in the Baba world. I don't want to give too much away, but her stories are ample and precious.Looking forward to reconnecting with all of you this Thursday and handing the spotlight over to Alisa!In His Love, MargiTo join the email list for Late Night Chats, please contact AngelaThis event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Late Night Chat with Jeff: Stuart Baker, July 8, 2024, 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! Special Guest: Stuart BakerDear folks of Baba, Tonight we have as our guest, Stuart Baker, who was part of the Boston Baba group that formed in the early 1970s. Prior to that, though, at the age of 15, he experienced a profound discontent, and what welled up inside him was an overwhelming desire for the deepest truth and happiness. He describes how he "silently made that desire known to the universe." At the time, he knew nothing about God. What followed unexpectedly was a spiritual awakening that began a gradual clearing away of his imperfections and impurities, which revealed to him a whole new dimension of himself. But after about a year, to his horror and grief, this divine experience was suddenly and gradually withdrawn with no explanation. He was left utterly empty and broken. In 1970, Meher Baba entered his life and let Stuart know that He was one and the same as the nameless, formless God that he had experienced several years before. He put “one drop of His love" in Stuart’s heart and conveyed to him that "it was his turn to work his way back to Me" and wished him “good luck!” The last 54 years have been that journey. Stuart will be happy to answer any questions as he shares his story, and at the end, he will lead us in a brief heart-centered meditation on Baba that he has led Baba lovers on over the last several years. This evening will be a very meaningful glimpse into Stuart’s interior life which began with a profound awakening followed by years of inner work which has led him to where he is today.“If the door of your Soul were to open for an instant,you would see that the heart of every existent thingis your intimate friend!” RumiIn His love, Jeff To join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact AngelaThis event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Late Night Chat with Jeff: How does Baba communicate with you? June 30, 2024, 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: How Does Baba Communicate with You?Dear folks of Baba, Most of us speak to Baba in the course of our day, but how do you find that He communicates with you? We know there are as many ways for Him to communicate as there are His lovers. There are subtle intuitions from Baba that guide us in the many complicated situations in our lives. There are sweet reminders that He is there enjoying our company, like seeing His image in a formation of clouds or hearing “Don’t Worry. Be Happy” on the radio when we desperately need help. There is His ready sense of humor in everyday situations that have His unmistakable signature. There are verbal and non-verbal flashes of insight that distill a complex aspect of our life into a miraculous simplicity. There is the feeling of His warm presence that suddenly shows up in an uncomfortable or scary situation. For some, there can be an internal green light that gives us the inspiration to go forward with a certain course of action. How incredible that the God-man Himself, the Avatar, can be so personal and intimate with someone as ordinary as ourselves, while at the same time He is paying personal attention to billions of other people throughout the world! So many new people are drawn to Baba because they feel dissatisfied with following God as an external religious observance. They long for a communion with the Divine on a daily basis that is entirely personal. There is a longing in us to know how He feels with all that we do, and yet this requires developing a greater and keener receptivity and attunement to Him on our part. Just that there can be this communion with the God-man is so extraordinary! What are some of the ways Baba communicates with you? They needn't be just profound insights, but can be even humorous and light-hearted communications that let you know that He is with you: that is, life-changing interventions as well as amusing and entertaining exchanges. Darwin used to encourage us to put no limits on how Baba makes Himself known in our lives. When we learn to let go of such things as unworthiness and low self-esteem, we begin to open up to His joyful intervention in our lives without our requiring to have attained some high spiritual state as a prerequisite. How can we improve our receptivity to picking up Baba’s communications with us? Baba has said, “I am whatever you take me to be.” He can be so many things—companion, Beloved, sweetheart, inspirer, confessor, playmate, guide, therapist, intimate friend and much more. A special thanks to one of you for suggesting this topic! In His love, Jeff To join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact AngelaThis event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Late Night Chat with Jeff: Dealing with Anxiety, June 23, 2024, 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: Dealing with AnxietyDear folks of Baba, One of the emotions these days that many people who come to the Center experience in their lives, especially young adults, is anxiety. Of course, one of the reasons is the unstable condition of the world today—widespread dishonesty and greed, distrust of our institutions, an epidemic of narcissism, and the increasing polarity between people in our society. In some of the Baba lovers, the anxiety is felt directly, but in many the anxiety is below the surface, a nameless shadow that is difficult to access and experience directly and give to Baba. Where does anxiety come from? In my own experience, it is fear that is at the very root of anxiety, but rarely do we encounter fear is its raw form, and for this reason, it is difficult to give its enervating effect--which secretly saps our vitality--to Baba. When I am faced with raw fear, which rarely happens, I seize that opportunity to give that fear, the very source of anxiety and worry, to Baba. It takes tremendous inner work to give these to Baba, layer by layer, until their power to cast a shadow over our present moment, is diminished. From what I gathered from Darwin, it is best to go directly to the emotions that feed the thoughts in order to lessen the ticker-tape of mind chatter. In this case, a concentrated focus on anxiety at the heart level (thank Baba it interfaces with the body so we can follow it), and giving it energetically to Baba will result in creating what Darwin called "inner space.” And that is essential in developing detachment from anxiety. Mind you, the state of the world is not helping! Of course, the dissolving effect of remembering Baba and taking His name in the heart always does so much to counteract anxiety, and as the mandali have said, this is actually a form of loving service to Baba. Baba has written, “There are very few things in the mind that eat up as much energy as worry… Worry has never done anyone any good, and it is very much worse than mere dissipation of energy, for it substantially curtails the joy and fullness of life.” Worry and anxiety, twin bedfellows, are often as close as we get to fear. I have found, unfortunately, that sometimes giving my anxiety and worry to Baba is like clipping off the tops of weeds without getting to the root itself. The tops keep growing back. The worrisome conditions of our present fragile and unstable world situation fortunately drive us to take shelter in Baba within, which is a good thing. The outer world is not likely to change substantially with our small individual efforts, but Baba says He can work through us, even without our knowing. I have no doubt that our efforts to remember Baba and live a spiritual life helps Him to help the world. I am reminded of a cable that Baba sent to Delia DeLeon during World War II as Germany was bombarding London. Delia was a classic worrywart, with every reason to worry in this devastation, but in His cable, He wrote in part, “Remain calm. If you remain calm, I can work through you.” I try to remain as relaxed as possible at the innermost level in spite of the distressing news that is continually hitting the air waves. How much are worry and anxiety a part of your life? What forms do they take in your life at a personal level as well as when you think about the state of the world? What methods have worked for you in neutralizing or diminishing anxiety’s influence? What part does remembrance of Baba play in counteracting this? How successful are you at seeing the bigger picture at play and becoming more aware of the grand scheme of things? Baba has said, “I tell you, don’t worry, be happy. Why? Because I know the ending, and the ending is beautiful.”In His love, JeffTo join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact AngelaThis event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Late Night Chat with Jeff: Inner freedom, June 16, 2024, 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: Inner FreedomDear folks of Baba, We have an inherent longing to be free. Prophet Mohammed once spoke about a newborn child, “This child may cry out in its helplessness, but it doesn’t want to go back to the darkness of the womb. And so it is with your soul when it leaves the nest and flies into the sky over the wide plain of a new life. You would not trade that freedom for the warmth of where it was. Let loving lead your soul. Make it a place to retire to, a kind of monastery cave, a retreat for the deepest core of your being. Then build a road from there to God, your Beloved.” Darwin Shaw would give the metaphor of the unlimited world of awareness (or consciousness) on the one side and the limited world of our thoughts, emotions, desires and deeper feelings on the other. Our awareness is like an octopus whose tentacles are always trawling for something in this limited world, getting enmeshed in thoughts, emotions, desires and even our deeper feelings. Our consciousness is always bound by this activity, and we do not enjoy that inner freedom which is our birthright. Darwin would say: what we have to do is withdraw our tentacles of awareness from being enmeshed in the limited world of our sanskaras (impressions) and turn toward the unlimited realm of our soul, Baba Himself. We need to become detached from our thoughts of right and wrong, good and bad, gain and loss, and become deeply aware but not enmeshed in our emotions, desires and feelings which continually pull us into the racing river of our sanskaras. We cannot capture the soul in the net of these experiences. It is not so much willpower, but love, that helps us to withdraw our tentacles so we can live in our soul. Some of this detachment can be helped by psychological methods, but in the end the shortest path is by bringing love into all that we do, infused with Baba's love, and in doing so, we will enjoy the intrinsic freedom of our soul.One day Baba conveyed these words to me here at the Center that defined freedom in a most surprising and seemingly paradoxical way: "Freedom is having no choice but to love.” When we are prompted by love, there is a feeling of freedom in spite of our having no choice. Reflecting Baba’s words to me, Eruch would often say, “I exercised my free will to become His slave.” At the deepest level, it is not what we want, but what love prompts us to do that matters. Ideally, this requires the incredible patience and inner surrender to wait until love inspires us, rather than being prompted by good, or right or duty—the infinite variety of “shoulds". Unfortunately, we often don’t have the luxury to wait for love to be the doer; but eventually and gradually, with Baba’s grace, love will win out. Freedom is the capacity to respond wholeheartedly to the unpleasant demands that life often places on us. It is about wholeness and self-acceptance, and the loss of freedom is wanting something different from what is.What has been your experience of withdrawing from identification with thoughts, desires and emotions? What pulls you most powerfully into the world of Illusion? It could be, for example, something like demanding what we think of as justice and fairness. Darwin would talk about creating inner space by giving the contents of our heart to Baba, to make room for Him to live in us. He would say, “The deeper the feeling, the deeper the healing.” Through this inner work, we can enjoy greater freedom in this moment without always being lured into the finite world. It is possible to be fully aware of the world of time and space, everyday life, without being enmeshed in it. This is real freedom!In His love, Jeff To join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact AngelaThis event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Late Night Chat with Jeff: Impeding the flow of Love, June 9, 2024, live on Baba Zoom

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! Dear folks of Baba, From time to time, Darwin Shaw would say that we are embodiments of Baba’s Divine Love in every moment, and we are meant to flow with that love. It is our living potential and our destiny. Unfortunately, our reactions to others, to ourselves and to the world repeatedly impede the flow of Baba’s love emanating through us. One of the major obstructions to this flow is our mind with its notions of right and wrong, good and bad, appropriate and inappropriate, loving and unloving. We release or withhold this love according to what our mind deems worthy. As Baba says, for many people, certain conditions have to be met before there is a release of love. We require that the object of our love must be deserving. Our love is rarely unconditional, even sometimes with parents for their kids. We let our reactions block the flow of love, even though it is possible to react negatively to someone or to some circumstance and simultaneously send love. We can walk and chew gum at the same time. I witnessed Dr. Harry Kenmore, one of the mandali, react powerfully many times to others, even seemingly in a negative way, and yet a powerful flow of love was emanating from him at the same time. I used to say, he could flow through the Himalayas, so powerful was the flow of his love. Obstacles were simply blown away in its current. On an overcast day, the sun is still radiating its light; it is the cloudy weather condition that is resisting the sun’s rays. Likewise, Baba’s Divine Love is always emanating from us in every moment, but it is the many veils of the ego that are continually diffusing its radiance. Darwin would talk about this love as an invisible current emanating at the heart level in each of us. For most people, he would say that this invisible current flows toward themselves, toward “I, my, me and mine,” and often stops there. This current needs to be reversed so that it simultaneously flows out to the world and to Baba within. It is a fusion of our love and vitality, a vibrational flow, that emanates from the heart center, and not from the head with all its thinking. Another way of putting it, this flow might be described as the natural generosity of the spirit. If we let this current flow toward Baba, which is the best thing we can do, it is His joy to return it transformed and, as Darwin has said, “it flows back into us where it can be expressed in the world of forms as a giving energy.” How do we know that there is such a current? Suppose you are in an expansive mood among friends when someone enters the room with whom you’ve had a very painful past experience. Suddenly, the expansive current stops; the heart pulls back and constricts in a tangible way. From this, it is clear, then, that there had been a flowing and expansive current before the person entered the room. Darwin would say that this is where the internal work begins: in this moment, by tuning into Baba’s warm expansiveness and then flowing out toward that person at an inner level in spite of our initial negative reaction, it is possible to flow through the reaction. Love is on a different and higher track altogether. And when we don’t flow toward a particular person or situation, we diminish ourselves by that much. We become smaller. For example, if I find children noisy and unruly, very demanding, I may unwittingly block the flow to a profound part of my inner life, the child in me. The same is so true with many things we reject: we shut down. This is not to say that this flowing current must always be expressed outwardly. Sometimes it is wise to let the flow remain invisible, with no outer expression, such as in cases where someone might respond to your warmth the wrong way and take advantage of you. Sometimes we have to love from a distance, while still remaining in a flowing state. Do your reactions sometimes make it impossible for you to respond at the same time with the flow of love? What type of emotional reactions most often tend to break your flow of love? Are you able to experience that the flow of love is on a higher and different track in you than the lower emotional or desire track? Do you experience substantial fluctuations of expansiveness in your response to others and the situations in your life? Can you feel that blocking the flow of your love leaves you feeling diminished in a subtle way? In His love, Jeff To join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact AngelaThis event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily