WEEKLY CONTEMPLATION: MY STATE

This week during your daily meditation, contemplate the following:

"I GIVE WHAT I FEEL. NO MATTER WHAT I SAY OR WHAT I DO, NO MATTER WHAT MY WORDS OR ACTIONS, I GIVE MY OWN STATE."

Dear Friends,

How can I ever hope to uplift another when I, myself, am in a state of suffering? More importantly, what can I ever expect to give to someone I love when I, myself, am in a state filled with unhappiness or anger?

Do I justify my inability to offer compassion and love by saying things like: "I can't control what I feel; I can't just turn love on and off anytime I wish; How do you expect me to be nice to someone who is so mean and selfish?"

One of the things that I always try to remember on my journey through life is that I can very conveniently and very easily throw up my hands and give in to a victim mentality. That way, I am off the hook, I can put the responsibility somewhere else, and I can put the blame on someone else.

For many years I blamed my conviction and the subsequent 15-life sentence I received on the attorney who represented me, along with the police informant whom I believed with all my heart set me up. I was convinced that it was because of them that I was in prison. I was a victim and they were clearly to blame for what happened to me.

One day I realized, during a meditation session, that I was the one dealing drugs; I was a drug dealer, and I was the one who set myself up. The attorney and the informant weren't to blame for what happened to me-I was. I saw clearly, in that understanding, that everything that happens to me in this life is truly the result of my own past actions. More importantly, I realized how much pain and suffering I had endured by carrying around the anger and hatred I felt inside for the attorney and the informant by blaming them. Those feelings were eating me up alive inside and I didn't even know it.

It was then that I knew that I had to begin taking responsibility for my own life and my own actions, otherwise I would continue to poison my own state, as well as offer that same poison to the world.

I also understood that although a victim mentality may temporarily change the way others react to me, it would never help my inner experience. My moment to moment experience was always determined by my inner state, not what I said or did in the world.

The state I give to my loved ones, as well as the world around me, is the state I give to myself.

If I claim to be a victim, without realizing that I have the ability to change my own state, I am ultimately living in a prison of my own making, trapped by my own emotions. I am in a state of unconscious ignorance and I suffer because of my wrong understanding.

The truth is that we are all Divine beings, filled with Wisdom and Power. Meditation will validate this for us through our own inner experience.

Meditate!

Love and Blessings,

Alan

WEEKLY CONTEMPLATION: TRUE FAITH & TRUST

This week during your daily meditation, contemplate the following:

"You can be my horse if you never win a race."

Dear Friends,

I had a dear friend of mine, some years ago, that I admired very much. Although he had an unpredictable and quirky nature, he nevertheless elicited a level of wisdom and compassion that never failed to uplift me and give new meaning to my life.

He seemed to always know how to reach people, especially us kids, since he was our basketball coach and teacher. He had the amazing ability to invariably get us out of our insecurities, depressions and feelings of unworthiness. Sometimes it was just a word, a look, the wink of an eye, or putting his arm over your shoulder at just the precise moment you needed that reassurance.

It wasn't so much what he did, as much as when he did it and how he did it. He always seemed so tuned into what was going on inside us and had that special gift of getting us to open up, even if we tried so hard to hide it. The truth was we wanted desperately for someone to recognize that we were hurting but our pride and our feelings of shame always got in the way.

Later on in my life, I began to realize, at a very deep level, that spirituality was not limited to the scriptures, to books or even liberated Masters, that we could receive blessings from the most mundane and subtle situations. In fact, I began to see that it wasn't until we could see the Divine presence in everything, from these so-called "non-spiritual" circumstances, to the highest levels of wisdom, that we could ever attain the greatest prize of all--Enlightenment, total Freedom.

One day, I remember being in the team's huddle at a high school basketball game when we were losing badly. One of the players, a really sweet kid, was having a horrible day on the court and you could see clearly that it was affecting him, as well as the team, profoundly. As we formed a circle around the coach, I could see that the kid was on the verge of tears. He was obviously blaming himself for the team's demise and it was tearing him apart inside.

Under most circumstances, the move that most coaches would make in that kind of situation would be to take the young man out and let him sit for a while so that he could regain his composure. But instead, coach sat there very quietly until the eyes of the entire team were on him, including the young man, and simply said to him--"You can be my horse if you never win a race." The coach then stood, nodded to everyone, then sat down as the team ran back onto the court. It was thrilling.

In that moment, I experienced what my meditation teacher has always referred to as "True Faith and Trust." It was obvious to all of us there that day that the coach was not acting from a textbook or a rigid set of coaching rules. Not at all. He was totally connected to his heart, and from that place he was able to touch the hearts of every one of us there that day, and especially that young man.

Love and Blessings,

Alan

PS I am learning how to "blog" and hope that you will take advantage of the opportunity to comment on this contemplation. (Click here to read my blog) You may leave your comments at the end of each entry. Note: You may need to sign up for a gmail user ID. If you have any questions, please call Lorena or April at 901-483-5968 or click here to e-mail her. They will help you get started.

PLEASE SAVE THE DATE:
March 13, 2008

On March 13, 1980, Alan Gompers was sentenced to serve 15-years to life in a maximum security prison for selling drugs.

On March 13, 1986, Alan was released from prison after being granted Clemency from the Governor of New York.

On March 13, 2008 we'll celebrate the 22nd anniversary of his release with a pre-launch of his long-awaited memoir

"Maximum Security:
The True Meaning of Freedom
(Burns Park Publishers, May 2008)


For more information, please visit:
www.alangompers.com


If you have any questions, please call
Sarika Gore at 917-334-1832
Or Lorena Rostig at 901-485-5968

or click here
to e-mail
for more information

WEEKLY CONTEMPLATION: UNDERSTANDING THE POWER WITHIN US

This week during your daily meditation, contemplate the following:

"When you really make an intention, do not take it lightly. Once you focus all of your being on your intention and hold that intention firmly in your consciousness, remembering it continuously, the universe, God's power within you WILL manifest it for you."

Dear Friends, What an amazing teaching. What an extraordinary possibility to contemplate. Can you imagine, in your wildest dreams, what this would mean if it were true. Well, dear ones, the great beings, the sages and Masters, down through the millennia, have all told us that it is true. We actually hold all the power of the universe deep within our own being--everyone does. My meditation teacher always said that "it's the truth whether you believe it or not." What I have come to understand and value so greatly in my life now is my growing ability to recognize more and more the difference between a belief arising out of my mind and real knowledge arising out of an intention that was invoked from my heart. For me, a belief is a hope, which is an idea, ultimately a thought originating in my mind. I can believe something is true and be very convincing to myself and other people about it but until it becomes bathed in "real knowledge" I won't really "know" it to be true, no matter how strong my belief is. A belief can help lead me to real knowledge but in order to enter that realm I must let go of my beliefs and enter the "experience waiting for me on the other side." I may believe totally in the power of love, and teach all about its virtues and benefits. I can give very concrete examples of how it has changed the course of history. I can point to the faces of people who live in a state of love and have testified to the incredible ecstasy they feel that transformed their lives. Yet, if I never experienced love for myself, my knowledge would always be incomplete, for only through a direct inner experience can I gain true knowledge; Inner experience and true knowledge are synonyms. All my life I had been searching for happiness but my experience was always filled with great sadness and despair. Yet, at the deepest level of my being, I truly believed that happiness did exist and the only reason I was able to continue on was because of this belief, even though my moment to moment existence was miserable. So having a belief does serve an important purpose after all. But one day, sitting in the prison yard of a maximum security prison, scared out of my mind, I fell into meditation, not having any idea why that had happened or even knowing how to do it. When I came out of meditation about 20 minutes later, I felt happier and more alive than I had ever known was possible. For the first time in my life I actually experienced the happiness and joy that had eluded me for so long, and I finally "KNEW" what real happiness was. That EXPERIENCE totally changed my life, a transformation that has continued to grow within me to this very day, some 28 years later. Everyday, when I get up in the morning, I thank my meditation Master and the universe for this great gift and make an INTENTION to hold that experience of love in my consciousness all throughout the day. It is because of that intention that my life is filled with great abundance and contentment. I "Know" that the universe has responded to me because my life is a beautiful reflection of my intention, and I will be forever grateful. Love and Blessings, Alan PS I am learning how to "blog" and hope that you will take advantage of the opportunity to comment on this contemplation. (Click here to read my blog) You may leave your comments at the end of each entry. Note: You may need to sign up for a gmail user ID. If you have any questions, please call Lorena or April at 901-483-5968 or click here to e-mail her. They will help you get started.

Final Liberation 12/31/07

How would your current life and lifestyle be affected if you made the pursuit of Final Liberation your absolute intention from this moment on?

The great spiritual Masters tell us, again and again, that to reach the ultimate goal of complete Freedom and Enlightenment, we must focus our EVERY moment on The Inner Self, on God. My greatest challenge is to remember that this is what I want most in my life.

Paradoxically, the more challenging my life is, the stronger my intention is to focus on God. In fact, the more intense my life is, the more I am inspired to make my sadhana, my spiritual practices, my priority. Conversely, when my life is light and easy, my tendency is to relax and allow my focus on the Self to slowly dissolve into the turbulence of my mind.

It is all very subtle at first. I continue to meditate, of course. I never stop doing that. I continue to offer my love, to come from my heart. But my interest slowly, imperceptibly, moves toward outer things: politics, movies, TV, sports, etc. Now these are not bad things, necessarily. But when I do this, I tend to forget the Self. I forget the great Truth that everything is God, that nothing is other than God. As I pursue all these worldly things, I find myself ultimately getting lost in them. My mind takes me on a trip until something comes along to wake me up. The more lax I become, the more my mind leads me all over the place, and the more I forget the inner experience.

But I have received Shaktipat, the incredible spiritual awakening. Slowly, I begin to notice the little things that are breaking down all around me. I soon see that I am no longer experiencing the wonder and beauty of my own life. If I don't heed these warning signals, invariably the negativity in my life heats up even more. I get so uncomfortable! Finally, I see it. I have gotten lost. I am no longer in my heart. I have drifted into a dull, unconscious state of mind. But it is those very realizations that bring me back to my intention to be free.

More and more, I am absolutely certain that to be free of the pain and fear of this life, I need to constantly remember the Self and how wondrous it is to live from my heart and the love that eternally resides there.

When I look back, after 28 years of commitment to meditation and my other spiritual practices, I see clearly that my life is most affected by my inner awareness of gratitude. Remembering to be grateful for all I have been given always brings me back into alignment with The Shakti, with Grace. But most of all, when I am happy and content, my gratitude arises on its own.

I would like to encourage everyone to take the time this week to contemplate, then write down, the ways your life might change or be affected by making Final Liberation-Total Freedom- your absolute intention from this moment on.

Happy New Year, dear ones.

Love and Blessings,

Alan

Longing & The Divine Experience 12/16/07

"When the Divine experience is being searched for, it is the intensity of the longing for that experience that does all the work. Look at me, and you will see a slave of that intensity" -Kabir ______________________________________________
Dear Friends,

I have come to recognize, over the years, that the greatest gifts I have been given are this body and this life. I first entertained this understanding through the words of the great meditation Master, my teacher, Swami Muktananda. He always taught that only in this body, only in a human incarnation, can we attain final Liberation, total Freedom.

Over time, my experience of those words has deepened, especially as I see more and more clearly that this body and life of mine are relentlessly changing and growing older each day. As I continually watch my body change, as I relentlessly assess my ever-evolving status in this life, I have come to the absolute realization that no matter what I do, or how well I take care of myself, or how much I hold on to my existence, my life is moving to an inevitable conclusion.

The questions that come up for me now, as I contemplate this situation are: "What is it that I really want from this life? How do I use these wonderful Divine gifts, this body and this life, to get there?

It is now very apparent to me that whenever my focus becomes totally identified with this world around me, whenever I get lost in my thoughts, whenever I wander in the continual streams of connsciousness that flow relentlessly through my mind, something inevitably happens to jar me and bring me back to the moment. Each time this occurs, no matter how much pleasure I have had, how much success has come my way, it is replaced by the realization that it all happened, it's finished, gone forever and nothing really important has happened.

Immediately, I am thrown back to my Self, to my spiritual practices, to meditation, and to an even deeper longing for the Divine experience. In that moment, I feel a renewed longing for the eternal treasure lying inside me, just waiting for me to come home--where life is forever.

So instead of using this body and this life for the temporary outer pleasures, I can use it to meditate, to contemplate the Truth, to focus on God.

Every moment is precious. Every day is an opportunity to come closer to The Self. We have this body and this life on lease, then we have to give them back. We have to take great care of them, that is true, so we can use them as the vehicle to take us to Freedom.

Kabir told us, we must cultivate that intensity of the longing for the Divine, otherwise we will pass through this life without attaining the greatest prize of all--total freedom, eternal life, and ecstasy without end.

So let our New Year's resolution for 2008 be: To focus our hearts and minds on developing the longing for total Liberation, the experience of an unbroken state of the Divine.

My Love and Blessings,

Alan

11/4/07

Take time during your daily meditation practice to contemplate the following:

"Without the experience of love there can be no love, for love exists in the experience. Meditation is the key to unlocking that experience within all of us."