Soul Weather September 2006 | Anandamayi Ma& the Information Superhighway
Welcome to this September Soul Weather. We are in the earth season, which is such an interesting season because it sits in between. It doesn’t always announce itself in the same obvious way as the other seasons and yet it holds us in a very particular threshold. This month, when I was meditating and preparing for the transmission, it was Anandamayi Ma who came through and she arrived with a teaching that feels very much of our time. Before anything else, there was her presence itself, which is so heartwarming and so full of unconditional love. She holds us in our dilemmas, our challenges, our joys and our griefs and there is such compassion in the way she meets us because she really sees us here in this realm and understands the boots on the ground feeling of being human in a world like this.
The first thing she brings forward is the context we are living in now. There is so much happening in terms of extreme fire and extreme water expression and we are witnessing those expressions while also living inside an informational environment unlike anything human beings have known before. That is the piece she really wants us to look at. We are living on the information superhighway and within an hour we can find out that a glacier has cracked in Nepal, see the images, hear from first responders and watch recordings almost immediately. Fire, flood, death, upheaval, all of it can arrive in our awareness so quickly now. So the teaching doesn’t begin by asking you to escape this reality. It begins by naming how strange and intense this reality actually is.
What is so interesting in the way Ma frames this is that she doesn’t speak about the information highway as though it were merely a technological problem. She says that in a way, this kind of access has for many centuries been the space where yogis functioned. The profoundly clairvoyant beings, the ascended masters, the individuals in bodies or not in bodies who could access what was happening in many places at once, that is the field they lived in. But now ordinary humans are plugged into a version of that field through the phone era, through instant transmission, through images, through recording and through the internet itself. So we are participating in something spiritually unusual, even if we do not usually describe it that way. That is part of why this time feels so charged.
And that is also why the phrase our nerves are shot belongs exactly where it belongs in this teaching. No wonder our nerves are shot. We are witnessing impermanence constantly and immediately and the deeper issue is not only what we are witnessing but how we are meeting it. We are meeting impermanence without the spiritual context, teachers and practices that have traditionally helped humans walk with it. That is one of the central discoveries in this transmission and it is important not to lose it by making the teaching too broad or too polished. The problem is not simply modern stress. The problem is that human beings are now watching fire, flood, death and upheaval across the planet in real time while often lacking the structures of meaning that once helped us stand in relationship to loss, change, death and uncertainty.
So Ma’s response is not to tell you to reject the era you are living in and she is not suggesting that information itself is bad. In fact, her conclusion goes in the opposite direction. She says to trust this era, to use this information superhighway, to use it to your benefit, to use it well and to be wise about it. But before she gets there, she makes a very practical correction. Move away from voices that emphasize fear. Lean into media that opens learning possibilities. That is very specific guidance. There are voices, channels, sources and forms of presentation that are built to intensify alarm. There are also ways of receiving information that make room for understanding, learning, perspective and more conscious witnessing. She is asking you to become far more discerning about what kinds of voices you let shape your perception.
That discernment matters because it opens the doorway to her deeper correction around impermanence. Impermanence, as we usually meet it, feels finite and threatening. It feels like disappearance, like loss, like something being taken away and not returned. It feels like a rupture that concludes in scarcity. And when you are taking in events from around the world at the speed of the information stream, it is easy to conclude there. It is easy to take impermanence only as tragedy, only as collapse, only as a threat. But Ma’s correction is very clear and it needs to remain clear. Impermanence is not only loss. That line carries so much of the teaching. It is not an abstract comfort. It is an exact reframing of the reality we are witnessing.
Then she gives the image that holds the teaching. If you are a slow-moving river and you are a tortoise and you are pulling back and you are observing, you begin to witness something very different from what the information superhighway shows you when you are taking it in at speed. You begin to witness the very powerful cycle of death and ultimately always rebirth and regeneration. That is the discovery. The river and the tortoise are not decorative metaphors here. They are teaching a pace of perception. They are showing you that if you slow down enough to observe from a different place, what comes into view is not only ending, but ending within a larger cycle. Death appears, yes, but so does rebirth. Loss appears, yes, but so does regeneration.
This is why pace matters so much in the transmission. Observe is one of the strongest words in it and observe from a yogi perspective is really the spirit of the teaching. Not observe from a panic perspective. Not observe from the point of view of alarm, doom and fear amplification. Observe. Pull back enough to see. The river doesn’t rush to conclusions. The tortoise doesn’t turn every change into catastrophe. Both offer a way of witnessing that allows a larger truth to become visible. And that larger truth is that impermanence belongs to a cycle. It doesn’t only signify disappearance. When you slow down enough, you begin to see that the same reality that contains death also contains rebirth and regeneration.
I think this is where the earth season becomes such a beautiful container for the teaching, because earth already knows how to hold this cycle. Earth knows decay and nourishment, ending and continuation, compost and renewal. So when Ma brings forward impermanence in this season, she is not doing it in a philosophical vacuum. She is placing it in a field where regeneration is already part of the logic. That is why the correction is not merely emotional. It is structural. If you only meet impermanence through fear, you misread the system. If you slow down enough to witness it through a wider lens, then abundance and regeneration become visible where fear first showed you only scarcity.
That shift in witnessing doesn’t make you less caring. In fact, it makes deeper care more available. Ma says that all of this brings out in us a level of care, generosity and presence for others. I think that is so important, because she is not asking you to become detached from the world. She is not asking you to become cooler, harder, or more distant. She is asking for a different quality of witnessing, one that doesn’t begin and end in fear. When fear is not the dominant lens, there is more room for care. There is more room for generosity. There is more room for presence. And those qualities matter very much in a time when so many beings, in so many places, are living through upheaval.
This is where the circles come in. There is the circle we are in together in a transmission like this and then there are the many circles within your own life and environment. Family circles, friendship circles, community circles, learning circles, prayer circles, circles of grief, circles of support, all of these are part of the ecology of how we live. Ma widens the frame here, because she is not speaking only to the solitary individual looking at a screen. She is also speaking to the being who belongs to circles, who offers presence within circles and who is shaped by the circles they inhabit. The gift of presence in this circle and in all the many circles within your environment, matters in this time. It is not a small thing.
Then she gives us the image of the hearth and I think it is one of the most beautiful moments in the whole transmission. To be at the hearth is to be together in this experience of impermanence. That line carries so much. The hearth is warmth, yes, but it is also shared attention, shared life, shared presence and shared orientation. It is a place where human beings gather while living through the seasons. And what we are gathered in, according to Ma, is not only impermanence in the thin sense of passing things, but impermanence that also holds regeneration and eternity. So even in the image of gathering, she preserves the whole cycle. We are not gathered only around loss. We are gathered around a reality in which death, rebirth, regeneration and something eternal are all present together.
This is why the end of the teaching is so interesting, because she doesn’t conclude by rejecting the modern world. She concludes by saying to trust this era that we are living in of the information superhighway. Use it. Use it to your benefit. Use it well. Be wise about it. That is not a passive message. It is not resignation. It is not blind optimism. It is a call to conscious participation. We are alive now, at this time, when this is happening. So the work is not to fantasize about another age in which things would have been easier to metabolize. The work is to bring more wisdom into how you participate in this one, which means being more aware of the voices you are taking in, more aware of whether those voices emphasize fear or open up learning possibilities and more aware of the posture from which you observe.
That is why I would be very careful not to reduce this transmission to a general message about coping with hard times. It is more exact than that. It is a teaching about what it means to witness impermanence in an era of unprecedented informational immediacy and about how exposed we are to the realities of the planet without necessarily having the spiritual context that would help us walk with those realities consciously. It is a teaching about why our nerves are shot, yes, but even more, it is a teaching about how to observe differently. Slow down enough to witness like a river or a tortoise and the larger cycle begins to appear. Move away from fear-emphasizing voices. Lean into media that opens learning possibilities. Gather at the hearth. Be together in the circles of your life. Use the era wisely.
If I were to hold one line at the centre of the whole month, it would be that impermanence is not only loss, because that line opens everything else. It opens the possibility of regeneration.
It opens the possibility of observing from a yogi perspective rather than from reflexive alarm. It opens the possibility of receiving information without immediately collapsing into scarcity.
It opens the possibility of understanding this time not only as an age of overload, but also as an age asking something very particular of us.
We are being asked to witness more consciously. We are being asked to choose our voices more carefully. And we are being asked to remember that what looks finite at first glance may be held in a much larger rhythm than fear first allows.
So this month, if you can, step off the highway for a while. Not forever and not in denial of what is happening, but long enough to gather your perspective, long enough to remember your teachers and your practices, long enough to let the river teach you pace and the tortoise teach you witness. Then come back and engage this extraordinary time more wisely. Let yourself notice what voices are shaping your perception. Let yourself lean toward learning rather than fear. Let yourself gather at the hearth with others and remember that we are together in this experience of impermanence, regeneration and eternity. That, too, is part of the teaching of this time.
Your 7-Day September Practice
Day 1: Notice the information highway
☐ Pay attention to how often you check news, social media, messages, or feeds today.
☐ Write down the moments when your body tightens after taking in information.
☐ Ask yourself: “What kind of information am I living inside all day?”
☐ End the day with 5 quiet minutes of simple observation.
Check-in:
Did the information leave you clearer, or more scattered?
Day 2: Move away from voices that emphasize fear
☐ Notice one source, account, channel, or voice that consistently amplifies alarm.
☐ Step back from it for the day.
☐ Replace it with one source that opens learning possibilities instead.
☐ Write: “Today I noticed the difference between fear and learning in…”
Check-in:
What changed when you stopped feeding fear-based input?
Day 3: Practice the river and tortoise pace
☐ Choose one event or issue that has been affecting you.
☐ Instead of reacting quickly, sit with it for 10 minutes in silence.
☐ Read or reflect more slowly than usual.
☐ Finish this sentence: “When I slowed down enough to observe, I saw…”
Check-in:
Did slowing down change what the situation looked like?
Day 4: Work with impermanence differently
☐ Think of one change, ending, or loss you are currently living with.
☐ Write what feels finite or threatening about it.
☐ Then ask: “What larger cycle might also be here?”
☐ Write one sentence beginning: “Impermanence may also be showing me…”
Check-in:
Could you sense anything beyond loss alone?
Day 5: Become a compassionate witness
☐ Spend 10 minutes simply witnessing what is happening in you today without trying to fix it.
☐ Notice your thoughts, emotions, and body responses.
☐ If judgment shows up, come back to observation.
☐ Write: “Today I witnessed…”
Check-in:
Was it easier to judge, or to observe?
Day 6: Return to your circles
☐ Think of the circles you are part of right now: family, friends, community, work, prayer, learning.
☐ Choose one circle to show up for more consciously today.
☐ Offer one act of real presence, whether that is a message, a conversation, a prayer, or quiet attention.
☐ Finish this sentence: “The circle that needs my presence most right now is…”
Check-in:
How did it feel to bring steadier presence into one circle?
Day 7: Gather at the hearth
☐ Step off the information highway for a set period today, even if it is only 30 to 60 minutes.
☐ Use that time to sit quietly, journal, be in nature, pray, or share space with someone you trust.
☐ Reflect on this line: “Impermanence is not only loss.”
☐ Write one paragraph on what regeneration means to you now.
Check-in:
What became more visible when you stepped away from the stream?
Simple daily scorecard
At the end of each day, rate yourself from 1 to 10 on:
discernment
presence
pace of observation
openness to learning
steadiness in your circles
