Sarasota

I asked Bobette Stanbridge to be a guest blogger. I can tell just from talking to her that Bobette has had an interesting life; once living in California and then upstate NY and now in Sarasota, FL, where she has a sprawling beautiful home and a large art room where she creates her wonderful paintings and children books: Bunky Books. Http://www.thebobetteartco.com. Here is what she wrote.

You asked me to explain how I got on the path I am on so here goes.

In 1967 the Maharishi came to America to teach meditation. The Beatles had gone to India, met him and sang about him so the young people of the world became interested. My friends and I were on a path to expanding our consciousness and were told that meditation was the way. Everyone was experimenting with mind altering drugs and I was one of the lucky ones who decided that meditation was a good path instead. That’s not to say that I didn’t try them too but I chose to give them up. I think meditation helped me make that decision.

A man named Jerry Jarvais came to UCLA in Southern California to initiate many of us. We were given mantras, which were sounds to use as our focal point in our meditation. Each of us was given our own sound. I definitely felt something when I meditated. I remember going to a group meditation at one of the halls on campus. Everyone was meditating in a large auditorium and I started laughing uncontrollably. I don’t know why but I couldn’t stop so I left. I didn’t want to disturb the otherwise very quiet room of mediators.

I meditated but not regularly for years but was always wondering where God was in all of this. After my son was born in 1974 we moved to Oregon. My husband got a job at the Steamboat ranger station up in the mountains. We moved there since it was 40 miles away from Roseburg, which was the closest city. There I met my friend Cathy who turned me onto the book The Autobiography of a Yogi by my now guru Paramahansa Yogananda. After reading his story I knew he had found God and so I read everything I could that he had written. I have been meditating ever since. George Harrison handed out the book to everyone and Steve Jobs had it given to all of his employees at his funeral.   I recommend it to anyone seeking God.

Meditation is amazing. It is very difficult to understand the effects of it because they can be very subtle. One of the things I have become aware of is a sense of knowing. I have quoted the bible but have never read it. I have learned to move energy and have watched burns disappear. I have had my own super natural experiences and even though I have had some very difficult lessons, I have thrived.

A successful life is all about choices. We are always presented with a new experience to which we must respond. It is how we respond that counts. If we experience something that is extremely difficult we can either fold or pick ourselves up and continue on. If we start to get depressed, it is extremely important to fight it any way we can because if we go into the negative it is a path that just gets more negative and we feel bad. When we are positive, we feel good. It’s a harder path to get into the positive once we are in the negative.

Our thoughts are so powerful that they can actually “throw ourselves under the bus” daily. When we let them happen without responding, we will have a life that flows. If we let them direct our actions, we need to think about the consequences before we act. Will the action be something we chose to experience? We have the ability to choose and design our lives but sometimes we let the outside circumstances direct us to a place we don’t really want to be. Do we want to spend our time fighting or grooving? Sometimes the answer is fighting. There is no right or wrong choices.   Everything we experience will teach us something.

We are creatures of habit. We do things repetitively by nature and so we would be wise to watch our habits. Habits can become addictions and addictions control us and take away our freedom to choose the habit. When we lose our balance our lives can become quite chaotic.   It is a good idea to do things in moderation. We can become addicted to anything. This includes food, sports, hobbies, sex, games, gambling, drugs, alcohol, art, music or having too many babies. Anything that we have to do, takes away our freedom to choose.

I love to create and paint most of all but I choose to balance my activities daily. I write, read, clean, cook, and do many different tasks in between my art. It also helps to have a more balanced perspective. Stepping away from something allows it to be viewed from a different perspective.

We are on this planet for such a short time. What do you want to experience? What do you want to learn? Who is the authentic you? Meditating helps to bring our focus back to ourselves because most of the time we are outwardly focused. We reflect who we are in all experiences that present themselves to us. We are all the center of our own universes and see things from our own perspectives. When we meditate, we shut out the chatter and let our spiritual aspect download a higher perspective. It allows us to have a more intimate relationship with ourselves. It helps us to love ourselves, which is my ultimate goal. Everything we put out we get back. Everything is in equal measure and love is no different. We can only love others in equal measure to the amount we love ourselves and we can only feel love from others the same.

Everything in life has atoms, movement, and consciousness and is alive. It is all a piece of God. Each of us is a piece of the puzzle and therefore important. We are all expressing God. Our job is to love ourselves because if we don’t, we do not love God. I hope that one day all of mankind will be able to love one another. We are all one.

What a wonderful post. Thank you, Bobette!