Conversations about Meher Baba

Angela Lee Chen - Baba Zoom
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  • SPIRITUALITY

Different hosts, different topics, sometimes featured guests: but always about loving Meher Baba in the present tense. Conversations are held live on Baba Zoom at various times. If you want to join the conversation, visit babazoom.net for more information: the calendar of events, and login information is available under the ”Virtual Meetings” page.

  1. 22H AGO

    Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton: E&G: ”Completeness in Baba,” May 5, 2026, live Baba Zoom

    Most people feel incomplete, that there is something profoundly missing in their lives. It is not their fault if they think that such a fulfillment lies in fame, recognition, a soul mate, material success, expertise in some field or producing a great work of art. And unfortunately, even when pursued, these goals are never fully secured. In the partial satisfaction of what they think is missing, the goal post keeps getting moved farther away. There is always much more that is needed! That is why eventually everyone turns to God who is Completeness Itself. The divine incarnations are the very embodiments of wholeness, and the feeling that there is something missing is dissolved when in their Presence. Unfortunately, everything on this side of the Divine is incomplete. That is why the focus on the Divine is regarded as the highest pursuit, which is our own completeness, and it cannot be attained at the level of the world. In focusing on Baba in any way, shape or form, we are moving toward completeness, toward our own wholeness. When our wanting the things of this world ends, wholeness can appear. There are many efforts we can make from our side that will help Baba awaken the experience of completeness in us. Two such methods are to cultivate self-acceptance and self-compassion. We are a mixture of love and selfishness, and we are going to witness ourselves falling short of love time and again. We will one day have to accept these shortcomings in ourselves and remain in the present and not be so self-critical. Baba has said that God-realization is the simultaneous experience of the extreme opposites. We have to one day become aware of life in its totality, including the opposites of good and bad, rather than accepting only its good side. This means being aware of both sides in ourselves and in the world, but without acting out the extremes. At the same time, we must remain sensitive and not become indifferent toward the pain and suffering of others. Such efforts lead to wholeness. Another requirement for attaining wholeness or completeness is to stay in the present and not live in the past or future. I once quoted Baba’s words to Meherwan Jessawala, one of the mandali, “Live more and more in the present which is ever-beautiful and stretches away beyond the limits of the past and the future.” I asked him what these words meant to him. He replied, “You won’t find Baba in the past or the future. You will only find Him in the present.” To stay in the present with Baba is to imbibe His oneness and through this, our own wholeness. We must build up an increasing tolerance for mental discomfort, because if we don’t, we will always be trying to escape into the past or future or to some distraction in the present. There is another challenging requirement for experiencing our intrinsic wholeness. Most of us find it easier to experience "the oneness of Baba within” in themselves, but find "the oneness within” in the company of others is a much greater challenge. Baba has said in this Advent that “the path is through people.” This requires experiencing Baba in others, tuning into their essence which lies behind the personality self. It requires a huge expansion of who we experience ourselves to be—that is, to include all others in the experience of our “self”. We have to become more detached from the likes and dislikes of our personality self, to rise above our attitude of approval and disapproval of others, and to penetrate beyond the external level to Baba within others. This oneness, when achieved, is permanent and is untouched by the ups and downs of our reactions to others and the world. When we respond to Baba in others, this does not mean that they will necessarily reciprocate. We have to share Baba’s love with no strings attached. It is enough to offer love from our side, so to speak, and if they respond with love, that is icing on the cake! The results are left to Baba. There are some occasions when we may have to keep an external distance from someone (as in the case of a person who is abusive), but not at the level of the heart; our heart should not close at the inner level because that would deny the truth of our innate completeness. All this requires tremendous work on ourselves, but Baba will make it happen one day in each of us. Our soul is meant to include all, not just those who please our small personality self. "A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “the universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thought and feelings as something separate from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening the circle of our understanding and compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty." - Albert Einstein In His love, Jeff

    1h 13m

  2. 6D AGO

    Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton: E&G: ”The Divine Qualities,” April 28, 2026, live Baba Zoom

    Topic: The Divine Qualities, the link to the Soul Dear folks of Baba, “To penetrate into the essence of all being and significance and to release the fragrance of that inner attainment for the benefit and guidance of others by expressing in the world of forms--truth, love, purity and beauty--this is the sole game that has intrinsic and absolute worth.” - Meher Baba As we surrender more and more of our interior to Baba, clearing out the strangers in our heart, we begin to create what Darwin calls “inner space.” With inner-directed awareness, we gradually see into the interior dynamics of our psyche, equivalent to lifting up the hood of our car to observe how the engine operates. We see on one side of this inner space our reactions to life linked directly to our impressions (sanskaras), the conditioning we’ve accumulated in all our lives. On the other, deeper side are our loving responses to life that are directly connected to our soul, to Baba Himself. A part of our essential work is to transmute our reactions into loving responses, through our divine qualities. This is the purification of the heart. As the heart is emptied of our sanskaric reactions, inner space is made for the divine qualities to naturally flow in from Baba. Giving our interior to Baba requires great effort on our part. As we gathered from Darwin, it involves focusing deeply on our reactions and emotional complexes, taking time to feel and delve profoundly into them and then give them energetically to Baba. In this way, these reactions and emotional complexes are gradually dissolved in Baba. Darwin would say, “The deeper the feeling, the deeper the healing.” The divine qualities can all be encapsulated in Baba’s words—truth, love, purity and beauty. For example, Baba says that the opposite of anger (a reaction) is patience and tolerance (our loving response). The opposite of greed (wanting, acquisition) is generosity. The opposite of lust (craving) is purity. The same is true of all our reactions; they have their counterparts flowing in from the soul: for example, retaliation is sublimated into forgiveness, self-centeredness into empathy and compassion, jealousy into appreciation of the qualities of others, suspicion into trust. Our reactions are experienced as a superficial (though sometimes very intense)aspect of our heart, whereas our responses have great substance and depth. In every situation, we are faced with a choice, whether to give in to our reactions or favor our loving responses. It is through the divine qualities coming directly from Baba that our consciousness moves its focus from our ego, with its self-centered reactions, to imbibing the universal love of our own soul. Baba’s divine impressions, as Darwin describes, “filter in through our heart center.” In fact, His Divine Love and Grace is radiating right now in this moment in each of us with full strength; we are mistaken if we think it only happens in His physical presence. I was truly heartened when I read where Baba says that the work we do in cultivating our divine qualities in this lifetime is carried over into our future lifetimes. Whatever progress we make with, say, patience in this life becomes our intrinsic capacity in the next life. We may lose our present material benefits in the next life, but the work we’ve done in cultivating any of the divine qualities is never lost. As our consciousness moves closer to our soul, Baba is then free to express the divine qualities through us. Our heart becomes a vehicle for the divine qualities rather than for our reactions. We are eclipsed by Baba. He becomes more and more the doer. As Darwin would say, we begin to “merge with Him.” Over time, Darwin assures us, “In His infinite, oceanic divine love radiation, we lose track of the little streams of our sanskaric currents. In their place, we experience a steady, sustained flow of truth, love, purity and beauty. We are meant to experience this coming in from Him within us, not in a sporadic or passing way, but continuously.” With our heart in this receptive state, a longing is naturally awakened in us to serve Baba in some way. What are we being called to do in our personal life? What type of service resonates with the unique nature of our heart? Baba says it is enough to be “in readiness” to serve and opportunities will then naturally arise, revealed to us in the needs in the world around us, especially where love is lacking. As Darwin says, “Each person who comes to Baba is put to work.” This may not require always some outward expression. Even just loving Baba within is service because through Him that love goes out to the world. “I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God sending a love letter to the world.” - Mother Teresa In His love, Jeff P.S. We are continuing on page 89.

    1h 17m

  3. APR 17

    Sahavas for Everyone: guest Tracey Schmidt, April 16, 2026 live on Baba Zoom

    "I have fallen in love with the world." - Tracey Schmidt Sahavas for Everyone, third Thursday of the month. Avatar Meher Baba is in each one of us. And His Love is the focus of this gathering. Open discussion with each session having a topic or theme. Hosted by Laurent Weichberger in SC. Jai Baba! This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

    1h 3m

  4. APR 14

    Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton: E&G: ”Surrender, A Giving Over,” April 14, 2026, live Baba Zoom

    Dear folks of Baba, In attempting to surrender to Baba as He has asked of us, if we were to experience that we are actually surrendering our limited love in favor of His supremely unconditional Love, it would be much more acceptable. But we have to actually know and feel this greater Love in the One we are surrendering to. We are not comfortable with blind faith, and fortunately Baba allows us to test His love through the many situations in our life. Once our soul is fully convinced of Baba’s unconditional Love, we can then become completely confident in our efforts to surrender. Here is how Baba, back in early 1968, introduced me to the initial step of what He means by surrender. It was during college, and I found myself in great mental turmoil. I found myself agonizing over what I was going to do in the future, I was deeply regretful and ashamed of many of the things I’d done in my college days, I was nostalgic about my childhood that had been truly idyllic, and, I was faced with the prospect of being drafted into the Vietnam War which I determined was not going to happen! After struggling for months in this disturbing mental state, Baba rescued me one day with these words, conveyed to me within with perfect clarity: “In every moment, there is always something loving that can be done.” With those words came the implication from Baba: just look around and feel what love is prompting you to do. I found that even being in readiness to love was enough for Him. This message from Baba became the blueprint for my life. Years later, in working with Kitty Davy here at the Center, I found someone who was the very embodiment of these words from Baba! I saw that she came—unfailingly--to each moment with full awareness and gave her best in her efforts to please Him. With Baba, I found that surrender is not a one-time accomplishment. It is a moment-to-moment endeavor to try to express love for His sake. Baba brought home to me something that I found supremely important: in trying to love, that is, even if I am doing a poor and inadequate job of it—it is still love itself! It is the intention that counts with Baba. He has said, “Whatever you do with love has perfect results.” On the subject of surrender, Darwin would often share with us the importance of being a vehicle, a conduit of Baba’s love. Ideally, love is coming from Baba through us. It becomes important not to impede this flow from the inner dimension by imposing our expectations, our likes and dislikes and wants on this love as it expresses itself through us; we must eventually surrender completely to this flow of love. In order to accomplish this, Darwin would impress upon us the need to become intimately sensitive to our intuition in the moment, the voice of the heart, rather than the voice of the mind. Ultimately, Baba says, “Surrender is a gift from man to Master.” We need to make continual efforts on our part, however inadequate, to yield to the flow of His love through us. When this becomes more and more our natural state, Baba says that we will one day experience this truth: “He who surrenders knows no one but the Beloved.” He will become our All in all, and His love will be the only doer! A part of surrendering to Baba is our adopting the attitude that it is really Baba doing everything through us, what He calls the provisional ego. About the provisional ego, Darwin says, “It is a matter of taking responsibility for our actions and feelings, yet bypassing the ego and attributing everything to the Master, to His doing. Our purpose is to minimize the sense that we are doing anything.” This means not imagining that we are doing anything in isolation from Baba, that He is a part of and included in everything we do. Darwin confirmed this: “It means not holding anything back or keeping a secret life of your own on the side.” Everything is shared openly with Baba, even our so-called greatest sins. We discover that we can go through our most difficult periods much faster than if we face them alone, for He is our most intimate friend who always supports us through everything without condemnation. We are being invited into the intimate world of complete surrender. We move out of our old place where we once lived alone, and, as Darwin so aptly describes, Baba becomes our new address. There is no greater embodiment of this supreme surrender to Baba than Mehera, His Beloved. She responded to His every move, His every wish, His every mood, with perfect surrender, like the eyes surrendering effortlessly to light. In the few movies with Baba in which she appears, we see that intimate love and surrender. There is a popular song with words that capture Mehera’s one-pointed devotion to Baba: “You’re my world, you’re every breath I take. You’re my world, you’re every move I make. Other eyes see the stars up in the skies, but for me they shine within your eyes.” In His love, Jeff

    1h 15m

  5. APR 8

    Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton: E&G: ”To be natural most godly,” April 6, 2026, live Baba Zoom

    Dear folks of Baba, In my early years with Baba, I tended to do everything in the extreme. During one period, I had decided to say His name inwardly with each footstep. It was during this time in the early 1970s in Meherazad that Eruch was taking a group of us up Seclusion Hill, sharing stories as we climbed. I was ten or so feet behind Eruch, and at one point I looked up from taking Baba’s name and Eruch gave me a poignant look which clearly said, “Jeff, you are so preoccupied with what you’re doing there that you are not with us in this moment!” At that very moment, I felt deeply the truth of his words. I had been so preoccupied with my little practice that I was not being natural. This is not to say that saying Baba’s name isn’t important and invaluable, but not to the extent that we are elsewhere in the moment and not really present. One day at Meherazad, during this same trip, a close friend and I were sitting just outside Mandali Hall on a bench with Eruch, and my friend said, “Eruch, I work as a house painter, and sometimes hours go by and I haven’t even thought of Baba. What can I do about that?” Eruch replied in his very casual way, “In the beginning, it’s important to remember Baba, to repeat His name, to see the movies, to go to where Baba has been, and to read all the literature. But in time it becomes important to forget yourself. When you forget yourself, then Baba can live through you. You’re not aware of it, but He is living through you. So, lose yourself in your painting.” He affirmed the supreme value of self-forgetfulness. That was a turning point for me in my life with Baba, because I had become a bit rigid and unnatural in trying to remember Him all the time. I had lost the playfulness that had always been a part of me since childhood, the spontaneous enthusiasm of my college days, the genuine fun in life that I experienced over the years. Since that brief, life-changing exchange with Eruch, I have found that self-forgetfulness and remembering Baba make a vital and complementary dynamic in my inner life. Eruch would say, “Get wholeheartedly lost in your activities, and when coming out of that absorption, remember Baba.” And he would add, “When you remember to remember, remember Him!” All the practices we do as a part of our inner life with Baba—such as dressing our soul with Him, saying His name inwardly, our prayers, giving our interior to Baba, the provisional ego, focusing on His companionship--are like golden tributaries flowing into a glorious and magnificent river as it makes its way toward Baba’s all-inclusive ocean of Love. Eventually, all these practices become integrated into what Eruch would call “a natural life” with Baba, in which we forget ourselves as children do. Children spread innocence and spontaneity and love in this world, simply by their enthusiasm in the moment. Being “natural” is not a transcendent state, but is very much in “the here and now”, where we are in the world, in touch with what is happening. Over the decades, as we are swept up more and more in Baba’s love, the separation that we have felt our entire life begins to dissolve: between ourself and Baba, ourself and others, ourself and life. These distinctions gradually blur in the warm and simple presence of Baba’s love. Sooner or later, Baba brings us to a state where we are no longer driven by our usual agenda, ulterior motives disappear, and our life requires little micro-managing on our part. This does not mean that there are no ups and downs, but we take them as welcome challenges to be overcome with Baba. We will eventually find that the extremes of life, often experienced in youth, have been miraculously harmonized in a way that we could not have imagined! We find that Baba knows exactly what He is doing with each of us to bring us to a place where we are on our knees in gratitude. We realize that Baba has delivered us naturally to a state far more loving and full of warmth than we could ever have imagined possible. In following the many forms of remembrance of Baba, there comes a sense more and more that He is actually the doer, and we are the witness. An unexpected transition gradually takes place where it seems that Baba is orchestrating everything, that He is behind the unfolding of our day, a day definitely full of more love than if we were actually in charge. I am reminded of the words of Baba most often quoted by Eruch over the years in Mandali Hall: “To be natural is most godly.” What Baba meant by “natural” can mean many things. For me, I tend to believe it is doing what aligns with our deeper heart. How have you dealt with the challenge of making efforts to change while at the same time being natural? Do you feel ”being yourself”, so to speak, sometimes can lead to complacency without making any deeper efforts at all? What part does self-forgetfulness play for you in being natural? In His love, Jeff

    1h 9m

  6. APR 6

    Caregiving Discussion Group Part 2, April 4, 2026, live on Baba Zoom

    Last Saturday's discussion on giving and receiving care was so well-received that we wanted to give another opportunity for people to share. Many of us are at a time in life when we're either receiving or giving care to friends, family or pets. We can use some shared wisdom to buoy our spirits when caring gets tough. Join us this week! Last week's meeting is recorded at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3JpkDRHFQ8 Hosted by Betty Lowman in CA This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

    1h 54m

  7. MAR 31

    Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton: E&G: ”The Provisional Ego,” Mar 30, 2026, live Baba Zoom

    Dear folks of Baba, In the chapter on “Changing Our Address”, Darwin discusses at length the provisional ego recommended by Baba as a means of bypassing our ego, that small, limited self that hides our wholeness, our inherent divinity. Putting the provisional ego into practice is profoundly challenging and elusive, but it is where we are ultimately heading. How do we get there? What are the intermediate steps? Here is how Baba describes what He means by the provisional ego (provisional meaning temporary, a substitute arranged for the time being only): “Think of me in everything you do. Eat, dance, but forget yourself in the action and think of me instead. This is union through action. The less you think of yourself and the more you think of Baba, the sooner the ego goes and Baba remains. When you — ego —go entirely, I am one with you. So, bit by bit, you have to go. Today your nose, tomorrow your ears, then your eyes, your hands, everything. “Think of me when you eat, sleep, see and hear. Enjoy everything, but think it is all Baba. Baba enjoys it. Baba is eating it. Sleep soundly in Baba, and when you wake up remember it is Baba getting up. Keep this one thought constantly with you. If you do wrong, then think it is Baba doing wrong. If you get a pain, think it is Baba getting a pain. Then it will be all the time Baba ... Try to forget yourself and do all for Baba. Let it be Baba all the time!” For those on the path of self-effacement, the provisional ego is the final practice in annihilating the ego. It usually begins as an exercise, but ultimately the truth behind the provisional ego will be revealed in us through experience. That is, the provisional ego is useful as a method, but it has to eventually become a reality. In lifetime after lifetime, we identify with the character before us and are pulled into the whole illusion of Creation. What we are being asked to do is to remain fully aware of Creation and express love, but not identify with anything in it. Baba has said that we are really infinite, but we identify with the mind, and instantly we become a person! If we didn’t do this, we would remain the Infinite that we really are. All this is a very tall, tall order from Baba. Bit by bit, we have to go. We are not really our roles; we are really Baba in disguise. Kitty Davy would often quote this line from the Bible, “… I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” What I found most difficult to reconcile in the practice of the provisional ego is Baba’s statement: “When you do wrong, then think it is Baba doing wrong.” That initially seemed like giving us a blank check to do anything. In spite of my wholehearted efforts to think of everything as being done by Baba, it took over a decade for this to begin to be real for me. I remember Eruch saying one day in Mandali Hall on this subject, “The moment you take credit for doing anything, the whole provisional ego collapses like a house of cards.” Too often my reaction to some of the selfish things I would do was just too intense to blame it on Baba and the provisional ego! I would have to go back again to the drawing board and start the practice all over again. Here is an exchange that took place years ago that was profoundly helpful to me as a valuable intermediate step leading toward practicing the provisional ego. I was in Mandali Hall in Meherazad, and I said to Meherwan Jessawala, one of the mandali, “I have tried Baba’s practice of the provisional ego over the years, sometimes for months on end, but I’ve never been able to make it stick. I do it for a while, and it is very helpful but then it somehow unravels and I don’t keep it up. It becomes more of a mental exercise rather than an actual experience. What do you suggest I do?” Meherwan looked at me very intently and said, “Try this. When you wake up in the morning, say to Baba, 'Come with me as I begin my day.' When you have breakfast, say, 'Baba, join me for breakfast.' When you go to work, say, 'Baba, come with me to work. Be with me when I come home.' When you have to piddle, say to Baba, 'Come with me. I have to piddle.' This was the perfect answer to where I found myself inwardly at the time—the perfect intermediate step. He was suggesting to me to first be more grounded in Baba’s companionship, He and I, before attempting to practice the provisional ego, a very tall order! I said to Meherwan, “What you have suggested is plan B until I’m ready for plan A.” He smiled at that and said, “Yes!” In following this practice, there comes a sense more and more that Baba is actually the doer and we are the witness. An unexpected transition gradually takes place where it seems that Baba is orchestrating everything, that He is behind the unfolding of our day, a day definitely full of more love than if we were actually in charge. What challenges have you faced in trying to put the provisional ego into practice? In His love, Jeff (or shouldn’t it be Baba?)

    1h 16m

  8. MAR 30

    Caregiving Discussion Group, March 28, 2026, live on Baba Zoom

    Baba says, "If we suffer in the sufferings of others, and feel happy in the happiness of others, we are loving God." Many of us are at an age where we need care, or have dear friends and family who need care. Let's get together today and share stories of our experiences. Bring helpful quotes or stories from Baba to share. Hosted by Betty Lowman in CA This event was recorded live. To be first to be notified of a new video on this channel, please hit the red subscribe button, then the notifications bell. To join future live events, see www.babazoom.net. Please join our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/meherbabafamily

    1h 50m
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Different hosts, different topics, sometimes featured guests: but always about loving Meher Baba in the present tense. Conversations are held live on Baba Zoom at various times. If you want to join the conversation, visit babazoom.net for more information: the calendar of events, and login information is available under the ”Virtual Meetings” page.

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  • Creator
    Angela Lee Chen - Baba Zoom
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    100
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    Conversations about Meher Baba