Conversations about Meher Baba

Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton: Baba’s Presence in our day, Mar 23, 2025 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: Baba’s Presence in Our DayDear folks of Baba, One of you suggested this topic and posed this question to ask ourselves: “There are many special places in this world to which folks can travel and experience the gift of Baba’s presence. But what about the places where we live, these places Baba has put us? Where you are, where you live, is there a special time or place you sometimes feel the gift of Baba’s presence? Even though the mind may be rattling away in the background, are there times when Baba brings your heart to center stage? Does His presence at times happen unexpectedly? Do you feel Baba’s presence alone, in group situations, or both? Sometimes Baba’s presence brings a deep feeling of calm and clarity, sometimes longing, joy, tears, sometimes all together. Can you describe Baba’s presence?” Expanding on this topic, how does Baba show up in your life? What special times and places in your day do you feel Him with you? In opening up to Baba, He enters personally into our lives--wherever we are, at home or work or on vacation—through us, His divine presence seeps into these places, and we and others respond naturally to the atmosphere that is created. When I go to the homes of Baba lovers (as well as others who are focused on the divine), I feel the warmth and expansiveness of His living presence that they have cultivated through their continual loving focus on Him. I have no doubt that these places actually become a repository of His divine impressions that are tangible and can be felt. We are discussing places here, but are there times of the day that are imbued for you with Baba’s loving presence? Time itself can become inhabited for us by Baba. He has recommended the practice of “dressing our soul with Baba”: the first thing in the morning, at twelve noon, around five o’clock and just before going to bed. Baba has said that with this practice, we will eventually feel His presence throughout the day. There are also the times we devote to the prayers, and spare moments during the day when we “steal away” to Baba. Maybe in the car on the way to work is a time set aside by us to remember Him. Do you find that there are special times that can be reminders of the many ways we infuse our remembrance of Him into our lives so that every day is an adventure with Him? Aren’t those moments wonderful when Baba just shows up spontaneously without any effort on our part? How do you experience Baba’s presence? What are some of the places in the course of your day that invariably remind you of Him? What special times bring His presence for you? Feel free to describe some of the unique moments and places which you share with Baba. “It is important for each of us who love Baba to be with Baba. Baba is with us, every second, but it becomes complete when we are with Him.” Mani, Baba’s sister 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

Sahavas for Everyone: Humility, March 19, 2025 live on Baba Zoom

Sahavas for Everyone. First and third Wed of the month."Humility" (from Twelve Ways of Realizing Me) by Meher Baba. ❤ Love to all no exceptions! ❤ Jai Baba!Hosted by Laurent Weichberger in SCThis 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

Nick Principe ”Sharing Baba’s Kindness,” Mar 17, 2025, live on Baba Zoom

Nick will tell stories he heard from the Mandali, in the context of trying to live a life of the spirit. Special Baba's Birthday edition! Questions and comments welcome!Hosted by Diana Goodheart in NCThis 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 Wolverton: Forgiving Others, Mar 16, 2025 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 Challenge of Forgiving OthersDear folks of Baba, In the past, we have had several sessions on Baba’s forgiveness of us and the challenge of accepting His forgiveness, but we haven’t delved into the struggle involved in our forgiveness of others. Baba has said that there is one thing He cannot give us: harmony among ourselves. We have to give that to Him. And without forgiveness, how can there be harmony? Of course, we all turn to Baba for help in this process because this is one of the foremost ways of pleasing Him: “Without love none can cultivate the noble habit of forgetting and forgiving.” I think it will be invaluable to hear how others have dealt with this monumental effort. Forgiveness is essential for achieving inner harmony, a prerequisite for entering into the divine love within that Baba embodies. Baba has given many insights to help in this process such as regarding others as Baba in disguise, that others are all forms of Him. That is, to go to the extent of seeing the other person not as a separate being from Him but as Baba Himself. Would we want to withhold our forgiveness from Him? There is the Golden Rule of Jesus, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” How do we feel when someone continues to condemn us for things we have done? One invaluable insight that Baba has given is: “You forgive a wrong done to you in the same measure in which you love the wrongdoer.” Baba has highlighted the essential need of cultivating love for someone who has wronged us as a requirement for forgiveness. However, when someone has hurt us deeply, we often lose any love we have for them, and so forgiving them is the last thing we feel inclined to do. It can require tremendous work to forgive them. Fortunately, carrying a lack of forgiveness for someone is always a burden to the heart, and that burden carries within it intrinsically the seeds of forgiveness. A loving forgiveness is the only thing that will free us from psychological entanglement. How long are we going to hold on to our lack of forgiveness?One thing which Baba has said that has helped me are His words, “All differences between one another are merely superficial and cannot affect the love we feel for each other deep down.” I find that the assertion of this truth within keeps love ever in the background and helps to dissolve the unacceptable thought that the love shared with someone is gone; the love is still there but it needs to be felt again. We still love each other even though, because of the hurt or insult we’ve endured, it seems it’s been lost! It is important to point out that our forgiveness doesn’t have to be done externally with the person. Sometimes someone may be especially abusive and keeping a distance is required. Or the person may no longer be living, as in the case of a parent who has passed on. Fortunately, forgiveness can be done within and doesn’t require the physical presence of the other person. Sometimes, it is simply enough to just be in readiness to forgive if the other person is not at the point of being willing to work on the issue. One of the Christian mystics, Thomas a Kempis, wrote, “If you knew all, you would forgive all.” If we are able to empathize with the circumstances that someone has had to experience in their lives, we would have the understanding that would help in forgiving them. Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.”What methods have worked for you? Can you give an example to illustrate this without revealing names? Is there an ongoing situation that still burdens you? What if the person continues their inappropriate behavior and are not likely to ever change? What do you do in that situation? Do you have an example in which speaking with the other person has helped? Or even confronting the person about their disturbing behavior has worked? Does it help in forgiving someone to remember when you yourself have been guilty of the same behavior in the past?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

”Community Building” a talk by Angela Lee Chen, Mar 15, 2025, live on Baba Zoom

As part of the Baba Zoom celebration for its fifth anniversary, Angela Lee Chen spoke about Community: what benefits it brings, and how to strengthen it.(For the entire celebration of Baba Zoom's birthday, see https://youtu.be/1cfuwimpNw4)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 W: Baba’s Unveiling of Divine Love, Mar 9, 2025 live on Baba Zoom

Topic: Baba’s Unveiling of Divine LoveDear folks of Baba, I once asked Darwin Shaw, one of Baba’s Western mandali, “What is the biggest mistake Baba lovers are making?” Without a trace of criticalness, he said, “They think of themselves as small, and they remain small! Think BIG! Think outside of even the conventional spiritual box.” Baba encouraged this also, even using the word “BIG” in capital letters. Darwin would impress upon us that we are embodiments of Divine Love right now, rather than thinking that we will attain this only in some distant future. On an overcast day, we say the sun isn’t out. But it is there in full glory. The clouds are just blocking it. And in the same way, the clouds covering our consciousness are blocking the stupendous sight of the Divine Love within us right now!Back in the early-1980s in the old Pilgrim Center, Baba gave me a metaphorical vision of this dynamic with His unfailing sense of humor. I see before me a man sitting on a chair with a faucet or spigot in his hands. Behind him is the infinite ocean of Divine Love which is ceaselessly striking against him with full force! But by the time the ocean passes through him, all that he offers from his little spigot is a few miserly drops! Where did all the love go! What Baba implied in this vision was that by the time the inner ocean of Divine Love passes through the countless layers of our ego and personality self, all that comes out is severely limited: the ocean is reduced to a mere stream, at most a river, or with some people only a few measly drops! I found with Baba’s mandali that His love came through them with few obstructions, few impediments, and we received their love to the extent that we were receptive. Baba would often say that we have to get out of the way. We are the cloud cover blocking the sun! It is not that our love has to grow really, for it is already fully developed and present, and merely has to be unveiled and expressed. I find this dynamic supremely hopeful, a different paradigm from what people normally think about love.How to unblock the sun of Divine Love within us? There are so many ways that Baba has given. Foremost, as Eruch would share, is to focus on Baba’s personality in any way, shape or form. Baba has said that even though His form is illusory, it contains the Reality, and as we focus on His form the clouds of consciousness automatically, though gradually, dissolve in His divine presence. In whatever way we focus on Him--His presence, His personality, His life, serving His cause of Love, saying His name--the Divine Love that He is and which is our very soul can flow through us.How does this help us? If we think that we are embodiments of Divine Love right nowrather than sometime in the distant future, then we are not only asserting the truth of our being, but we are honoring our own Soul. Our Soul will never agree that Divine Love is only a future attainment. And not to be in alignment with our Soul can create a deep, unnecessary disharmony within our inner life. Darwin would stress that the proper use of the intellect is to unfailingly assert that Baba with His Divine Love is always with us in every moment. Although we might not be aware of it, to think otherwise is profoundly disheartening and pulls down our spirits.How can we help in channeling the Divine Love within us? Darwin used to say, “Don’t think of yourself as a base of operations. Think of yourself as a conduit.” In this way, we are less apt to obstruct or impede the flow of Divine Love when we think of ourselves as a vehicle, with love flowing through us rather than coming from us as most people think. This can result in what Darwin encouraged in us, “High self-esteem without egoism.” With all their love, the mandali did not radiate a sense of self-importance.Do you feel at the innermost level that you embody Baba’s Divine Love, even if you are only sometimes aware of it? In what ways do you observe that you are obstructing the flow of this love? Can you see Darwin’s distinction of thinking of ourselves as a conduit rather than as a base of operations? Can you see how that impedes the flow of love through us? Do you spend too much time dwelling on the past and the future and are unavailable to this love within that is in the present?I once quoted Baba’s words to Meherwan Jessawala, one of the mandali, “Live more and more in the present which is ever-beautiful and stretches away beyond the limits of the past and the future.” I asked him what these words meant to him. He replied, “You won’t find Baba in the past or the future. You will only find Him in the present.” In His love, JeffTo join the email list for Late Night Chats, contact AngelaThis event was recorded live. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

Sahavas for Everyone: Anne Haug, Mar 5, 2025 live on Baba Zoom

Sahavas for Everyone. First and third Wednesday of the month.Please join us with special guest Anne Haug."My work for the last 15 years has been facilitating the self-inquiry model of Byron Katie to support the dismantling of stressful thoughts through her systematic and methodical process called The Work."We know from Baba that this world is an illusion — a dream — whose purpose is for our awakening, and I continually find self-inquiry to bring me and those I work with closer to Baba, closer to our true Self. I have shared this process on Baba Zoom through an introduction as well as a series of 18 tutorials, weaving Baba’s words with The Work."Since my retirement a few years ago, I have delved into Jungian studies and most recently psychological types, which inform a deeper understanding of life in illusion. Most recently I have been in a study group on Infinite Intelligence and find that my experience in self-inquiry enlivens those studies. My passion is to live and share Baba’s love and truth through these accessible modalities to more deeply embrace the Path of Love." ~ A.H.Avatar Meher Baba is in each one of us. And His Love is the focus of this gathering. Open discussion with each session having a topic or theme. Hosted by Laurent Weichberger in SC. This 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

Nick Principe ”Sharing Baba’s Kindness,” Mar 3, 2025, live on Baba Zoom

Nick will tell stories he heard from the Mandali, in the context of trying to live a life of the spirit. Special Baba's Birthday edition! Questions and comments welcome!Hosted by Diana Goodheart in NCThis 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 W: Self-forgetfulness, Baba Remembrance, Mar 2, 2025 live on Baba Zoom

Over the years, many Baba lovers have shared with me that they find that their work in the world takes them away from their focus on Baba. Hours go by preoccupied with mundane details at work that they feel have nothing to do with their spiritual life and only contributes to the bottom line of the companies they work for. They have barely any time to remember Baba until after work. This same scenario goes on year after year. Mine was the opposite problem as I will describe, but an exchange with Eruch throws light on this whole subject.Back in the mid-1970s before I began working at the Center, a buddy of mine and I were working together as house painters. Much of our painting work was in Briarcliffe Acres, an upscale residential area just north of the Center. Back then, I would describe myself as a Baba remembrance machine; I would say “Baba, Baba, Baba...” inwardly--with each brush stroke, while sanding, caulking, cutting in windows and baseboards, all with Baba’s name. We worked together for six months, and then we went to India. One day while at Meherazad, we were sitting just outside Mandali Hall on a bench with Eruch. My buddy asked, “Eruch, I work as a house painter, and sometimes hours go by and I haven’t even thought of Baba. He is the most important Being in the world, and He has asked us to make Him our constant companion, and I’m often not even remembering Him! What can I do about that?” Eruch replied in his very casual way, “In the beginning, it’s important to remember Baba, to repeat His name, see the movies, go where Baba has been and read all the Baba literature. But in time it becomes important to forget yourself. When you forget yourself, Baba can then live through you. You’re not aware of it, but He is living through you. So, lose yourself in your painting.” He went on to say, “Get wholeheartedly lost in your activities, and when you come out of that absorption, remember Baba—that is, when you remember to remember, remember Him!”In that moment, I felt the undeniable truth of Eruch’s words; they were indelibly imprinted in the core of my being: “When you forget yourself, Baba can then live through you.” That was a turning point for me in my life with Baba, because I had become a bit rigid in remembering Him all the time. I had lost the playfulness that had always been a part of me since childhood, the spontaneous enthusiasm of my college days, the genuine fun in life that I experienced over the years. Since that brief, life-changing conversation with Eruch, I have found that self-forgetfulness and remembrance of Baba make a vital and complementary dynamic in my inner life. So, this is how I translate Eruch’s words into my life: when I get into something, such as volleyball or music or gardening, I lose myself. Baba, as Eruch said, can then live through me even though I am not aware of it. And after the activity, I remember Him. So, it’s an alternating between Baba remembrance and self-forgetfulness. I found, when it was all Baba remembrance, I would become a little stiff and unnatural, and if it’s all self-forgetfulness, that also can sometimes become unbalanced. Self-forgetfulness and Baba remembrance work beautifully and harmoniously together for me. That awareness freed me up to do a lot of things on the Center that might not technically be considered “Baba.” Baba liked games, skits, jokes, movies and spontaneous gatherings, because in them we forget ourselves. Like gardening–-you can lose yourself among the flowers and hours fly by. It’s heavenly. I asked Margaret Craske’s dancers, most of whom were deeply devoted to Baba, if they remembered Him out on the stage in the midst of their performances. This was ballet at its highest level at the time. They all said that they remembered Baba before their performances, and then lost themselves in their dancing on stage. Afterwards, they would dedicate their performance to Baba. They had all tried at one time to remember Him during their performances, but they confessed that it took away from their total absorption in the dance.Have you faced this dilemma in your own life, of getting into things so deeply that you forget Baba and then feeling that you are letting Him down? Will what Eruch said make a difference in your approach to, say, your computer work, which can absorb your attention for hours? Does self-forgetfulness change the way you approach what you normally think of as unspiritual? Do you resolve this challenge by keeping Baba always there in the background while you focus on the practical details of life in the foreground? Do you sometimes find that you overdo getting into things and forget Baba, like watching football all day on Sunday? In His love, JeffTo 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

Nick Principe shares Baba’s Birthday letters from Mandali, Feb 25, 2025

Nick Principe spent much time with the mandali in India in the early 70s and 80s, especially Baba's brother Jal and Eruch. Today Nick will share correspondence and Baba's birthday letters he has saved over the years. Audience questions are welcome.Hosted by Betty Lowman in CAThis 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