As she spoke, I started weeping and kissing her all over her face.  She was kissing me too. We were having a literal love fest. In those few minutes, I realized that a profound healing had taken place in mother.  She had finally released the charge she had carried for more than 40 years about an affair that she had long ago when she was young. The affair happened before she became an “upstanding Christian woman” whose life was devoted to serving God.  She couldn’t put it behind her because my presence had been a constant reminder. Nor could she forgive herself. 

My mom’s remarks would have been enough for me, but there is more.  A couple of months before I went to OU, my mom had angered me when she said to me:  “You are such a good person.  You have a kind heart.  You are always trying to help people… I just wish you would find God.”

“Mom stop it,” I snapped back at her in a firm voice.  “My relationship with God is fine.”

So imagine my surprise when I had a peak experience on the top floor of the temple of Shakti (the Holy spirit).  I was giving thanks for an emotional healing I was experiencing, when I saw that everything was connected, all of the experiences - joyful ones, sad ones, the ones that broke my heart open.  Everything that happened in my life had led me into that moment; everything, including my mother’s prayers. 

I smiled thinking when I get home, I’m going to tell her that I had found God in India.  And for that, I owed her a boat-load of gratitude.  Whenever she saw me after that, she asked me:  “How is your state?”  Not exactly the vocabulary of an African American great grandmother.  I would look at her amused and think - where did my mother go?  Who is that speaking through my mother?

As I had worked on healing my relationship with my mother in India, in Oakland, she had been transformed.

This newly found self-acceptance opened a door for both of us.  It deepened our relationship and brought peace between us.  My mom passed in November 2012, but not before greeting all of us, giving us her blessings, thanking us for what we had shared, and setting us free.

Going to India, and to Oneness University in particular, pulls me out of my comfort zone.  I give up my two i-phones, e-mail, National Public Radio shows like “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross, and global television shows on Link-TV that keep me in touch with the world news not reported by the mainstream media.  I leave my laptop at home, even though by day 15, I think I’m going to die without it. 

For 30 days, I am forced to be present, really present. The only thing I bring with me is three bars of Ritter Sport dark chocolate covered hazelnuts. I hold onto them until week three, when I know I am really going to need some comfort from home.

When I am there, I pay attention to the things that I often overlook at home, like the sky at at daybreak, other life forms such as lizards, monkeys, and the cranes that swoop down for an early morning feeding while we are waiting in line for the bus to the temple.  I pay attention to the unusual trees, the beautiful flowers. I pay attention to the people who prepare our food and those who wash the dishes, the women who clean the rooms, and those who tend to the grounds.  I pay attention to the sevaks, who give freely of their time and energy to support the work of the Divine.  Of course, I pay attention to the Dasas (teachers).  I also pay attention to what is coming up for me, my emotions, my mind.  I have a chance to see which situations and people are triggering me.  Because I am not able to distract myself with modern technology, I also get to see my internal patterns and the convoluted thinking that lay beneath those incidents. 

For instance, I saw someone and felt a magnetic attraction.  My experience at OU has been that when this happens, there is a past life connection.  I’ve met a man from Japan, who was son eons ago in Tibet.  I’ve meet three women who were my daughters in past lives.  So, quite naturally, I was curious to find out what our past life connection was.  

When I introduced myself and tried to strike up a conversation, this person responded with disinterest and what felt like disdain.  As I walked away, I realized the person had not even asked my name.  I felt rejected and dejected.  From that moment on, I avoided any eye contact with the person.  

This feeling stayed with me, so I realized my charge of ‘rejection’ was triggered.  As I went deeper into the suffering I saw my pattern of projecting stories onto other people.  I was walking around feeling miserable, feeling rejected by someone whom I didn’t even know. 

Then one day, a cute little ditty popped into my head:  “Some people like coffee.  Some people like tea.  Some people like Rosie.  Some people like me.”

I started to laugh… realizing that all the rest was a story in my head. 

That is the beauty of taking time apart and being in a place where you are supported energetically to get to the core of your issues.  This is yet another reason why I enjoy going to India.

This morning I woke up happy for no apparent reason.  As I drove to the dry cleaners to pick up clothes, I could barely contain the joy. Laughter bubbled up like the gurgle of a gentle brook flowing over stones.  “Pristine” is the word that comes to mind.  The day itself felt pristine.  And, the silent witness inside was excited by the beauty of the day.  The crisp air.  The sunshine.  The bright, hollow sky. The clarity of a freshly polished mind. Inner silence, deep inner silence.

It has been like that since I returned on New Year’s Eve from the Journey Into the Divine course at Oneness University (OU).  The course was beautiful, simple, powerful.  It took me a step further into the mystery of God.  Underscore “mystery.” I’ll share more about that later.  I love going to India because I always come back a little lighter, relaxed, more open, excited and grateful for this experience we call life.

I experienced another mystery during my third year at OU.  The mystery of the night skies.  One night one of my roommates and I decided to go out at night, chant, and call the names of deities to see what would happen.  In the photos above, my night sky-watching friend Rifa called to Lakshmi and the red orb appeared.  I called to Jesus and the light blue orbs appeared.  I'm sharing the Oneness Blessing with another roommate in one of the scenes.  We chanted the Moola Mantra - you can hear it elsewhere on this site - and the firmament lit up with orbs.  What I discovered is that when we are joyful, the beings all around us respond.  They love joy and happiness.  The joy was at an all-time high on the birth date of the Golden Age - December 21, 2012.  You can see the phenomenal procession of beings in the sky in the last photo.

A few days before, there was a star that seemed like it was trying to get my attention, so I laid on the ground and pointed my camera at it.  Rifa was with me. You can see what we experienced in the video below.  These were NOT the most important discoveries, but they were phenomena that bent my mind, just a little bit.  That little bit of bending was equivalent to a foot in the door to other possibilities, outside of the realm of how I have been taught to see and experience the world. That's it - "more open" is reason #3.