Summary: KD discusses the importance of practice, particularly the practices of Mantra repetition and the Hanuman Chalisa, and recalls how Maharajji’s Western devotees initially began chanting the Chalisa. <br> “So, Maharajji said a couple of things. He said, “Hanuman Chalisa, every line of Hanuman Chalisa is Mahamantra.” Second, He said, “Hanuman Chalisa has the power to change fate.” Now, don’t, I have no idea what He’s talking about. But that’s what He said. And it feels to me, you know, we don’t know what’s going to happen, what’s coming to us tomorrow and the next minute and the next second, but not everything is pleasant. There’s sickness, there’s disease, there’s suffering, all kinds of things, so through this practice, those rocks, those boulders in the river of our lives are removed.” – Krishna Das<br> KD: You know, I don’t know if you know the story about how we came to know the Chalisa. I think I’ve told it a few times, a few million times. We used to come to the temple every day and we were handed this little pamphlet, a little booklet, with a picture of a flying monkey on it, you know? We knew it was a Hanuman temple. We knew that much, so after I had about 100 of these books in my room, these booklets, I just happened to ask the guy giving it out, I said, “Well, what is this thing?” You know? And he said, “It’s a prayer to Hanuman.” And I said, “Oh, really?” So, I thought, if we learn this, then we could sing it to Maharajji because, you know…<br> The whole, I keep saying this but it’s really, we’ve grown up with one tiny little type of love understanding. You know? That it’s between two people or two things, that it’s a, as my Indian father used to say, “Relationships are business. You do your business. Enjoy. But, love,” he said, “that’s something else that lasts 24 hours a day.” The idea is that real love is who we are. It’s what’s breathing in and out of our bodies. It’s what’s looking out of our eyes. It’s who we are. You don’t get it from somebody else. You don’t get it from anything. You don’t even get it from God. It’s God within us, is the love, is our own true nature. This is a big thing because we can hear this a million times and it just stays in the head, but it doesn’t get into the gut, you know? And even, we talk about compassion and kindness and loving kindness, you know, one of my teachers, Tsoknyi Rinpoche invited me to come sing at one of His retreats where he was going to teach about devotion for the first time. Usually devotion is a part, an integral part of the Tibetan path, but it’s not spoken of separately usually, it’s understood that without devotion, nothing happens. Not like gooey yucky slurpy slimy miserable devotion, but real natural aspiration of the heart to be living in love. And so, one of the things he told his own students, he said, you know, “You think you can have compassion for another person or all beings and hate yourself? How could that possibly happen?” It’s not possible. So, for us Westerners who are so locked inside of our little cell, a little jail cell of egoistic cravings and desires and fantasies and imaginings, for us it’s really the only way to get the key out of that jail cell, is to be kind to ourselves. Try to figure out how to be kind to ourselves. So, think for a second about how your day goes, ok? Where is your head? What are you thinking about? How are you feeling as you go through your day? You wake up, you know? Stagger to the kitchen for a cup of coffee or tea, chamomile tea… but think about how you go through the day. How much of the time you go through your day are you living in love? How much of the day everybody you see is like, full of beauty and grace and their just to bless you by their presence? Huh? How many? One? Your dog?<br> Joseph Goldstein, one of our good friends and great meditation teachers, was giving a private interview to one of his students, and his student was really struggling with depression and anger and all kinds of stuff tha...
