Stop

Struggling

 

and

Start

Living

6

Enlightenment Journal | 35

th

 Anniversary Issue | Fall/Winter 2016–2017

Ellen Grace O’Brian

“Stop struggling and start living!” That was the bold invitation on the first flyer we 

distributed inviting people to learn how to meditate, practice the principles of 

spiritual living, and attend a new worship service. “Everyone is welcome,” it said. 

The vision behind those statements was of a large group of spiritual seekers, 

regardless of religious background, sitting together in the silence communing 

with the One Reality often called God.

As a founding minister, I remember well the first worship services held at 2 pm 

on Sunday afternoons at the Odd Fellows Hall in the Rose Garden area of San 

Jose. The ideal time was not 2 pm, but a local Baptist group held their services 

in the morning slot. Friends, family, and students of yoga and metaphysics who 

wanted to support the new Center attended our first Sunday service in October 

1981. Excitement filled the air that first day and hopefulness about how quickly 

the divine vision was unfolding. That hopefulness lasted six days until the 

following Sunday arrived; no one, not one person, showed up for the second 

worship service. The reality of ministry stared me starkly in the face.

On many Sunday afternoons following, only a handful of people showed up  

for services, usually just two or three. Sometimes two of them were my own 

young children who didn’t have a choice about where they were going to be 

that day. After a few months, it was time to quit. It really seemed too hard. We 

were paying to rent an empty hall—offering a worship service to one or two 

Why not live in the highest way? 

—Paramahansa Yogananda