Author | Meditator | Old Himalayan soul | Philosophy lover | Airy gardener | grandmother | Peacebuilder |
Dena Merriam
DENA MERRIAM began working in the inter-faith movement in the late 1990s when she served as Vice Chair of the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders held at the United Nations in New York in 2000. She subsequently convened a meeting of women religious and spiritual leaders at the Palais des Nations in Geneva and from that gathering founded the Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW) in 2002, an organization chaired by a multi-faith group of women spiritual leaders.
In 2008, Ms. Merriam was one of the founding members of the Contemplative Alliance, which later became a program of GPIW. The purpose of the Alliance is to bring together meditation teachers and practitioners in a collective effort to uplift and transform society, while caring for and honoring our Mother Earth. For over 40 years, Dena Merriam has been a student of Paramahansa Yogananda and a practitioner of Kriya Yoga meditation. She is also a long-time student of the great texts of the Vedic tradition. Ms. Merriam received her master’s degree from Columbia University and has served on numerous boards.
She is currently the Chair of the International Advisory Council of the Auroville Foundation in India. In 2014 she received the Niwano Peace Prize for her interfaith peace efforts and holds an Honorary Doctorate in Peace Studies from Mahachulalongkornvajravidyadara University (MCU) in Thailand. She is the author of My Journey Through Time, The Untold Story of Sita, When the Bright Moon Rises, Rukmini and the Turning of Time, and To Dance with Dakinis.
https://www.denamerriam.com/
My 10 Best
(In no particular order)
The Holy Science
Sri Yukteshwar was a realized yogi, astute scientist and mathematician, and accomplished astrologer, who lived in India during the later part of the 19th century and early 20th century. One of his great contributions was to recalculate the Yuga system based on a deep understanding of astronomy and astrology, and to demonstrate that we have moved out of the part of the cycle known as the Kali Yuga, the most materialistic age, and are in the early centuries of the Dwapara Yuga, the electrical age or age of technology. His brilliant recasting of the Yugas sheds new light on all of history and had a great impact on me, shaping the way I understand our current era.
Autobiography of a Yogi
This book had the greatest impact on my life, setting the course for my journey. Yogananda takes the reader on a spiritual journey, and I found so much that was familiar, a worldview that I knew deep inside to be true. It was like a long-awaited home coming. After reading the book, there is no returning to who I was before. Yogananda opens the door to our own potential, to what is possible for each one of us to attain, the spiritual heights accessible if we but make the effort. We encounter many realized beings and extraordinary happenings and know that this is the future that awaits each one of us.
The Yugas
Joseph Selbie takes the work of Sri Yukteshwar to another level, describing in great detail the qualities and characteristics of each of the four yugas. While modern historians judge an era by the outer accomplishments – i.e. writing, development of cities, etc. – in the east, traditionally, an era was judged based on spiritual insight, wisdom and mind power. Selbie revisits history in light of this viewpoint.
The Physics of God
A mark of our current era may be the meeting of science and spiritual in a new language to describe the fundamentals that underlie the universe. Joseph beautifully brings together the latest physics and the wisdom of the sages to show that they are essentially in agreement but use different language. This is an essential step forward for humanity because as the architecture of religion falls away, a new spiritual scientific architecture will begin to take its place.
Fearless in Tibet: The Life of the Mystic Terton Sogyal
I read this book as my own memories of a life in 12th Tibet were beginning to awaken in me – a life where important spiritual steps were taken. The book affirmed a deep belief in me – that there is more going on than appears to the eye, on the outer surface. This is true of all world events. We see only the outer layer of things and not the inner workings. The book made me realize that the story of Tibet is not over. There are many more chapters yet to be written, chapters already in formation in the ethers.
The Return of the Feminine and the World Soul
I read this book in the early days after I had founded the Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW), and it confirmed my belief that the feminine energy is much needed now to help the world in transition. It was as if Llewellyn beautifully articulated the values, goals and purpose behind the founding of GPIW, and it made me realize that supporting and strengthening the feminine was a global need not just a personal desire.
Tapaswaji: Saint who lived for 185 years
This is a biography of a saint whose life spanned two centuries. He left for the Himalayas to go into solitary retreat when India was under the rule of the Mughals, and he emerged when it was under British rule. During those years, he had many, many mystical experiences where his beloved deities manifested physically for him. This book again showed me that changes on the surface, empires that come and go, are of less relevance than our inner experiences where we can cross time periods and dimensions. In his travels he encountered beings from millennia earlier as the boundaries of time and space were erased.
The Inner Sky
I chose this book but actually it is all of Steven’s work that has had a profound effect on me as he shows how astrology is designed to assist the awakening or evolutionary process and to enable the working through of karma. If one knows how to read the sky, one can glimpse one’s past, the work of the present and the future trajectory. Steven has helped give evolutionary astrology the prominence that it has today. As I always say, karma is not a system of reward and punishment. It is a process that enables the individual to learn and awaken. Connecting deeply with the planets and stars can aid this process.
Lifecycles: Reincarnation and the Web of Life
A friend told me about this book after I had published my first book My Journey through Time: A Spiritual Memoir of Life, Death and Rebirth. I had never done any study in the field of reincarnation because my own experiences and memories arose organically in me. So this was my first foray into the field, and I was surprised at how much research has been done, how much confirmation. I never needed any convincing because of my own experiences, but for those in whom the memories have not yet awaken, who may still have doubts, this is a well-researched study of the topic.
The Bhagavad Gita
I put this book last but it has perhaps had the greatest impact on me as it is a book that has stayed with me through several lifetimes and has proved to be an anchor in my spiritual life over decades and centuries. This dialogue between Sri Krishna and his disciple Arjuna is filled with wisdom for everyday living, counseling us on how to overcome difficulties, maintain our balance and cultivate our inner life while working in the world, in whatever position we find ourselves.