Don
Hoes a sportsman, businessman and a mystic poet from Baltimore visited
Minneapolis.Don now 52
started meditating when he was 14 years old.Don was initiated in to the Sant Mat by Sant Darshan
Singh Ji Maharaj in 1975.He
shared some of his works and experiences through these talks and was able
to inspire many of us to explore meditation in a more profound manner.
Talk
1: 12 Step Program to Spirituality (Jan 25th)
Don
started by relating worldly attachments to addictions and suggested
how a 12-step program for everyone could guide us towards our spiritual
goals.He then explained each
step of a 12-step program. The steps are summarized here:
Step
1 recognize that we are not in charge
Step
2 believing in a power greater than us could help us
Step
3 make a conscious decision to turn our will to the care of God
Step
4 make a moral inventory of ourselves as a first step to introspection
Step
5 admit our recognition about us to God, ourselves and loved ones
Steps
6 and 7 surrender to God and pray for help to eliminate our shortcomings
Step
8 make a list of all we had harmed and be willing to ask for forgiveness
Step
9 ask for forgiveness unless doing so will hurt them or others more
Step
10continue to take personal
inventory and admit mistakes spontaneously
Step
11pray and meditate only to
know His will for us and the power to carry that out
Step
12practice all of the above
steps and principles, and try to carry this message to others
Don
concluded by relating these steps to Sant Mat principles of surrender,
introspection, effort and grace.The
program and Sant Mat are for helping us change ourselves to be in harmony.He elaborated on the self-introspection process and stressed that we
should do it with love and a true purpose.Every
one enjoyed the talk, especially how he related all of the steps to his
own personal life.