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“Yoga: Science of the Absolute” Now in Print (Read Sample Here)

We have finished publication of Abbot George’s new book, Yoga: Science of the Absolute–A Commentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and it is now available in paperback and ebook format at Amazon and other online outlets. For a limited time the ebook is on … Continue reading

Chakras and Meditation: What Is the Best Practice?

To someone who asked which of the chakras was the best to focus on in meditation. Meditation on a specific chakra can confine and limit the yogis awareness. What happens spontaneously alone is correct and worthy of attention. I wrote in Soham Yoga: “Sometimes during … Continue reading

5 Useful Questions About Meditation

To someone who asked if Soham means “I am he” or “I am that.” “So” is not a personal pronoun. It only means the impersonal “That.” It is a simple matter of linguistics. “I am He” is an absurd mistranslation because neither Brahman nor the … Continue reading

Add the Dharma for Awakening Series to Your Spiritual Library

Part 2 of 5 Ways to Grow Your Spiritual Library Last week we discussed the five ways you can expand your spiritual library: Web content, PDFs, podcasts, eBooks, and printed books. Today we will highlight one of the most important sections on our website, the Dharma for … Continue reading

5 Ways to Grow Your Spiritual Library – Part 1

5 Ways to Grow Our Spiritual Library
Growing a spiritual library is important for the aspiring yogi. The study of the books and sacred texts which deal with the nature of the true Self (spirit) and its realization is one aspect of swadhyaya, one of the “Ten Commandments” of yoga (yama and niyama) outlined by the sage Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras. Food for the mind in the form of spiritual reading is a tremendous help to the yogi.

OCOY.org is itself a spiritual library, with over 1300 web pages, blog posts, PDF downloads, books and other resources, and in this series of articles we will show you some of what we have available for your spiritual library.

We endeavor to make the writings of Abbot George Burke and others on OCOY.org available in a variety of formats to suit the habits of those who read here. There are five ways to grow your spiritual library, whether digital or in print.

1.Read Online. For those who wish to explore our site and get a taste of its content, this is ideal. Be sure to bookmark OCOY.org or any pages you are reading so you can easily come back at any time. Of course you can print out the articles for reading later. Because of the length of the books available on our site, they are broken down into chapters, each with its own web page. If you want to access the full, undivided books, you can…

2.Download a Free PDF. Our E-Library has PDF’s of much of the books and content on our site, as well as other books which we share from other sources. These can be downloaded for free and read on your computer at any time, or printed out for convenient offline reading.

3.Listen to Podcasts and Audiobooks. Abbot George has made over 30 podcasts and radio interviews available in our Podcast section. In topics ranging from the yoga life, vegetarianism, monastic life, saints and spiritual figures he has known, and much more, you will find much to interest you and profit from.

Do you have iTunes? You can access our podcasts in the iTunes Podcast directory. You can also subscribe to our podcast feed, so the most recent podcast from Abbot George will be downloaded to your iTunes directory. You can also listen to our podcasts at Stitcher.

We are investigating the costs of having Abbot George’s books made into professionally recorded audio books, and hope to have them available in the future.

What are the Consequences of a Misuse of Free Will Regarding Negative Spirits?

bondage to evil - misuse of free will

To someone who objected to what I wrote in the section “What are ‘demons’?” in Satsang With the Abbot.

“Those who are devoted to the gods (devas) go to the gods. Those who are devoted to the ancestors (pitris) go to the ancestors. Those who are devoted to the spirits (bhutas) go to the spirits. Those who are devoted to me surely come to me” (Bhagavad Gita 9:25).

Those who worship or link up psychically with the bhutas go to them after death. The more those spirits gave things to them or did things for them in this world, the more karmic debt is created, and the longer they are in bondage to them.

They worship them because they have an affinity for them–they are like them. So negativity attracts and compounds negativity.

This happens in various degrees according to the intensity of the karmic connections. Furthermore, those spirits do not willingly let go of their slaves, and follow them into subsequent incarnations and endeavor to entrap them again and again.

Just because this is an ugly situation to contemplate does not mean it is not real. There are many people who deny the Nazi Holocaust because they just cannot believe that human beings could be so evil and perpetrate such cruelty on other human beings. But they did and do. And it is the same in the astral worlds.

What about “free will”?

It is the use of their free will that gets the prisoners in the condition I have described. Of course people have free will over their destiny, and it is the corruption and misuse of their free will that puts them people into these horrible situations.

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