CHRISTINE JONES grew up in an Italian-American Catholic family, and in the 1970s she embraced the meditative practices of yoga. Here she explores a few jewels from that journey, highlighting that we are all on our own unique path, bringing together the best of various backgrounds and cultures.
I grew up in a very cookie-cutter suburb in the USA and attended Catholic school. By the time I was 17, there were only two things I was sure of. First, I wanted a gold headboard, because that was my Italian heritage’s conditioning. Second, I was likely to go to hell because the nuns told me so.
I remember the first time I meditated in 1978, actually asking Jesus not to send me to hell for doing it. I did it anyway, and eventually discovered I was a brave adventurer longing for an untrodden journey.
In 1980, I crossed paths with Ram Chandra, Babuji, the founder of the Heartfulness way. My heart was so deeply moved by him in this unforeseen moment. My first thought was, “Why didn’t anyone teach me to look for a saint of today?” The only references I had in my repertoire were the Christian saints I had learned about from the nuns. They hadn’t prepared me to meet a holy man from India.
The moment I saw him, an inner pearl of wisdom ignited at a soul-to-soul level, and I recognized that he was one of them. My second thought was, “I want what you have.” The sudden and unlikely reaction that he silently evoked couldn’t be learned in any school.
I slowly re-educated myself through this newfound resource and I have remained a meditator of his method for 44 years. This study and practice has continued through two other masters after him. The constant that has never changed is the continual inner development, its mirroring effect on my personality, and how my worldview has become my own.
The constant that has never
changed is
the continual inner development,
its mirroring effect on my personality,
and how my
worldview has become my own.
The things I have learned have been stunning! To have countless spiritual experiences with a living master is a far cry from being taught about them in the past. The hidden universe waiting for me within my own heart was something I could never have imagined.
I kept pages in journals documenting the unraveling of a simple girl who had no idea what an authentic spiritual life had in store for her. Finally, I began to understand that I wasn’t really on a journey, but rather an unearthing of a birthright to be claimed.
One of the Heartfulness guides, Chariji, taught me two golden jewels about the spiritual journey. The first is that you cannot see growth incrementally, because it comes in unexpected leaps. He added, “Each leap will be consecutively bigger than the last one.” The second gem he shared is that the journey is like climbing a mountain, sometimes feeling that you will never reach the peak. He smiled and said, “But when you get to the top of that mountain and begin going down the other side, it goes really fast!” His hopeful encouragement often felt impossible for me to believe.
Throughout the years, I read so much from masters and saints, mystics of the past, and modern self-development gurus. I felt like I would never make it to their level on so many occasions, sometimes reaching the point of exhaustion. But I kept going and never gave up.
When the pandemic entered our lives in 2020, it felt like my security blanket was unceremoniously taken away from me. Suddenly, everyone’s life changed. I found myself being dared to be alone in new ways. I decided to dive deeper into my meditation practice, and the journey. There are references to a journey through the 7 chakras in other practices, whereas in Heartfulness there are 16 of them.
Babuji often calls them points. I systematically went through one of these points each day for a week at a time. The entire process of navigating the inner journey took me almost 4months. I then extended my exploration to the 23 circles that Babuji also documented in his research. This took another three months. Finally, I began to observe my intellect transmuting into intelligence and evoking an assured wisdom in such a way that I could no longer entertain the feeling of doubt. It really ignited after the second round of doing this inner work when a significant turning point happened all on its own.
The instruction came from deep within:
“The Role of the Talent is to stay hidden within the role.”
By acquainting myself skillfully with each aspect of the points and circles of the inner journey, I developed a capacity to partner with the conditioning of opposites instead of the resistance they offered. As a result, a peaceful balance remained without needing to defend anything contrary. By co-operating with the unraveling of a point and accepting it, good or bad, I understood why Babuji didn’t refer to them as chakras, often naming the points as “knots.” Intuitively, I knew these knots would flower into a chakra only when there was no resistance to “what is” left in me. It was my leap over the mountain top.
Ironically, the “Peace that surpasses all understanding,” taught to me in Catholic school, came to fruition through my study of yoga. But yoga is much more fundamental than that. I believe, it took lifetimes of intense interest for this cycle to complete itself.
Most spiritual seekers know that Yoga means union, to join. I began to experience a resonance, an undercurrent making its way through my spiritual anatomy. I understood that what I am really joining with is that mysterious original simplicity that came before creation.
I grasped from within why the role of the talent stays hidden within the role, for the ultimate union is with the uncreated Self.
My vision is now focused on what is beyond the dual concepts that lay conditioned in the chakras.
Have I arrived there yet? Probably not.
Is there really a place to arrive? I suspect there isn’t.
After a lifetime of commitment, day in and day out, I have finally arrived at trusting my heart. The years of inner research made me no longer afraid to be an original thinker. And I’m pretty confident, hell doesn’t exist after all!
