The Monk Dude
Dada Nabhilananda
Los Altos Hills — I believe that love will change the world. Many wiser people than I have said this before, but not everyone seems to be listening, so I’m saying it again. Not only wise and great people say this. Even musicians say it. Musicians like The Beatles: “All you need is love…” or Hal David and Burt Bacharach: “What the world needs now is love sweet love…”
So a lot of people seem to agree that love is really important. And after all, it comes from inside of us right? So how do we get more ready access to it?
If I ask you where, in your body, love comes from, you’ll probably touch your heart. I decided to check, so I asked someone who really ought to know, a cardio-vascular surgeon. But he said, “No. In the heart there are a lot of arteries and veins and blood and ventricles and stuff, but I’ve operated on 147 hearts, and I never saw any love.”
“So how come I feel love in my heart?”
“Ah,” he said, “You’re talking about your spiritual heart.” In yoga we call this the “Anahata Cakra”. That’s the bit that gets all warm and feels like it’s glowing when you see a picture of a cute little girl with a puppy and go, ‘Ah’.
Or you gaze up on a pitch dark night to see the stars, floating like frozen shoals on the ocean of night, and your mind leaps out to embrace the infinite, and you catch your breath. How would you like to feel that ‘Ah’ all the time?
There is a method for developing this feeling. That’s what spiritual chanting and meditation are for. They help connect your mind with your spiritual heart.
A lot of people think meditation is just for relaxation or stress relief. But those are just side effects. Meditation was invented for a bigger reason. It brings something we want even more than good health.
After all, you don’t find people singing: “All you need is health, da da da da da all you need is relaxation, da da da da da, all you need is lower blood pressure, stress management is all you need.”
What the world needs now really is love. And you need it too – so unless you’re from some other world, listen up.
The chanting and meditation practice that I teach can help you to tap into the source of love within you, so that gradually you feel it all the time. Here’s what one practitioner said: “I used to think that in order to be happy, I had to be with someone. But now I realize that I’m someone.”
Sounds great doesn’t it? So don’t just dream about it. Go to this link, and you can download a free guided meditation and chanting MP3 and start practicing right away. Connect to your spiritual heart, and from there the feeling will spread. And love will change the world. (Photo by Arlene S. Chua)
(About the Writer: Dada Nabhanilananda, also known as the Monk Dude, is a yoga monk and an award winning songwriter, a meditation instructor and author. He lives in Los Altos Hills in California. For more of his music and works, visit his website on www.themonkdude.com.
You can also support his works through the Enlightened Leader campaign http://www.rockethub.com/projects/42779-the-enlightened-leader-project).
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