Stilling the Monkey Mind Through Yoga

This past Saturday Jeri Senor (Yoga Alliance RYT 500), yoga teacher and past owner of South Asheville Yoga, and I presented a seminar at the Asheville Community Yoga Center (http://ashevillecommunityyoga.com/) to a full house of intent yogis.   It was a 4 hour class called “Moving Into Stillness: Grabbing the Monkey by the Tail”.  Our goal was to share the yoga practices from the sutras of Patanjali, and how to move from a physical hatha yoga practice into a steady seated meditation, the end result being, stilling the monkey mind, to make way for an experience of pure awareness.

A clip from the lecture portion of the workshop is posted below.

 

Support for Quieting the Mind

Ramana Maharshi - Great Sage from the early 19th Century

In Ramana Maharshi’s book Who Am I?, he answers the following question:

“Are there no other means for making the mind quiet?”

Ramana replies, “…the practice of breath control, meditation on the forms of God, repetition of mantras, restriction on food, etc., are but aids for rendering the mind quiet.

…Of all the restrictive rules, that relating to the taking of sattvic food in moderate quantities is the best; by observing this rule, the sattvic quality of mind will increase, and that will be helpful to Self-inquiry [meditation].”

What are Sattvic Foods?

In Ayurvedic and Yoga traditions, foods can be divided into three categories: sattvic, rajasic, and tamasic.

A good diet for meditation

Tamasic foods are heavy, dead, stale and cause inertia.  Foods that fall into the tamasic category include meats, processed foods in boxes or cans, foods that are stale, sugary foods, overly cooked, old or even rancid. These foods have a dulling effect on the mind.  They incline one to have a dull mind and a stagnant body.

Rajasic foods are stimulating, heating, promote activity and restlessness. They disturb the equilibrium of the mind and may cause agitation and frustration. Rajasic foods include alcohol, spicy foods, eggs, garlic, chocolate, coffee, or any other stimulant. Meats and processed foods are also said to fall into this category.

Sattvic foods are “sweet, fresh and agreeable”. Most fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and vegetables fall into this category, as do any foods that are considered whole foods.  “Whole foods” means that they are as unrefined and unprocessed as possible before consumption.  (Note: By sweet we are not speaking of sugars or desserts. When one’s palate is healthy, most vegetables and fruits have a sweet, pleasant taste.)

Ayurveda and Yogic diets can be quite specific depending on the individual. But as a general rule, eating a whole foods diet of fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and seeds, is often enough for most people to experience the benefits of a Sattvic diet.

You may find the documentary Forks Over Knives interesting as a stimulus to try a sattvic diet, and explanation as to why a whole foods plant based diet is so beneficial for the body and the mind.  As of this writing, it is available on Netflix Watch It Now Option.  This documentary is based on a book called, The China Study: Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-Term Health, by T. Colin Campbell

The video below expands on this idea of Sattvic foods as a positive support towards quieting the mind.  It focuses on how overall lifestyle contributes to our clarity of consciousness and quiet mind.

Meaning and Life

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” -Nietzsche

The Storm After Dawn

There have been many times in this life experience when I have acutely felt that I was not this body, this history, this conglomeration of personality traits or inherited genetics. I knew it as true, not because of inference or deduction or because someone or some scripture told me, but because it was direct and unquestionable. During those times, joy, freedom, and peace were eternal and the only real thing. Yet, despite my

realization of this truth, the mind would bring clouds, and I would wonder, “What is the meaning of all of this? Why is there this rise and fall of pleasure and pain, gain and loss, success and failure.”  My ability to remember the reality of freedom faded like the bright dawn of spring behind storm clouds.

After meditation this morning I sat in the bright sun on the overlook outside of my home, and the question of life and meaning arose for me once more.  I began to think of how I conceived myself to be,  and I wondered what it was really all about. I know I am a meditation teacher, a writer, a Vedic astrologer, a musician, etc.  But all of these are just concepts. They are of my personality. They are the concepts that life flows through. Notice that I was not questioning the meaning of life, but the relationship between meaning and life.

Sometimes our purpose is simply to see the beauty around us.

Back in college, as I studied psychology and philosophy, I would often wonder at the meaning of life. What’s it all about, I would ask. As the years passed and I realized that the mind likes to have answers to this question, I found that it was a silly question. I wasn’t 100 percent sure why it was a silly question, but it seemed to me, that meaning and life, while related, were not to be looked at in this way. And so this morning as I sat on the overlook and this contemplation of the relationship between meaning and life arose, I saw a woman walking in the parking lot of the apartments below the condominiums. We live on a beautiful mountainside at the top of a development. The woman below was walking with her face turned to all the lovely colors of the autumn trees. It was as if the answer was before me:  she was there to see the beauty of this season. Life was flowing through her body and personality and taking in the fiery yellows, oranges and reds as the leaves were dying.

I realized that for today, the meaning of this life experience was to see the beauty in the changing world — seeing the beauty that is right here, beyond the mind’s thoughts and expectations. This may not be true tomorrow or the next day, but for today it is.  Tomorrow my meaning might be working with clients and completing this newsletter, or exercising, or helping a friend.

It was then that it occurred to me that life is eternal. It is the ground of being from which all else springs. It needs no meaning. We are all individual expressions of that one life. Our individual life experiences require meaning to continue, but that meaning is only as glorious or pedestrian as we define it with our minds. For our personalities to continue, a sense of meaning and purpose is essential.  Yet this is not the case for life. It flows eternally. So the problem of meaning is not for life, but for our own individualized expressions.

Before walking outside, and after meditation, I had picked up a book, Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, a survivor of the holocaust, author, and doctor.  It speaks to this point. The passage I opened to follows:

Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl

“As we said before, any attempt to restore a man’s inner strength in the camp had first to succeed in showing him some future goal. Nietzsche’s words, “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how,” could be the guiding motto for all psychotherapeutic and psychohygienic efforts regarding prisoners. Whenever there was an opportunity for it, one had to give them a why—an aim—for their lives, in order to strengthen them to bear the terrible how of their existence. Woe to him who saw no more sense in his life, no aim, no purpose, and therefore no point in carrying on. He was soon lost. The typical reply with which such a man rejected all encouraging arguments was, “I have nothing to expect from life any more.” What sort of answer can one give to that?

What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.

These tasks, and therefore the meaning of life, differ from man to man, and from moment to moment. Thus it is impossible to define the meaning of life in a general way. Questions about the meaning of life can never be answered by sweeping statements. “Life” does not mean something vague, but something very real and concrete, just as life’s tasks are also very real and concrete. They form man’s destiny, which is different and unique for each individual. No man and no destiny can be compared with any other man or any other destiny. No situation repeats itself, and each situation calls for a different response. Sometimes the situation in which a man finds himself may require him to shape his own fate by action. At other times it is more advantageous for him to make use of an opportunity for contemplation and to realize assets in this way. Sometimes man may be required simply to accept fate, to bear his cross. Every situation is distinguished by its uniqueness, and there is always only one right answer to the problem posed by the situation at hand.”

What this means to me, based on my past contemplative practices, study, and living, is that we each have our own meanings based on our  personality characteristics, ideals, and goals, and that our station, fame, or perceived affect does not diminish or elevate our meaning. The personality is an expression of life. If we can identify with this one life, and be with it, then our interactions as a personality develop meaning. We listen to life for the meaning. Our experiences are dependent on life for meaning, yet life is not dependent on meaning.

What stops us from accepting that life needs no meaning but our individualized selves do? First, it is the confusion that our transitory selves are eternal. When we so identify with what is transitory and insist that our transitory selves must persist forever,  we become a little crazy and do and think things that are not based on fact. Then it is our identification with the mind that says “All must have a reason and a meaning.” While this is true for the personality — who you think you are — it is not appropriate to apply this idea to life itself. Life exists with or without a meaning. So used to identification with the mind and what it has to say, we will not allow ourselves to just be with life.

Our task is to realize the mind’s proper place and application. Once we can do this, then we are closer to knowing the truth of what we truly are. A hammer is good for certain tasks, as is a screwdriver, but they are not interchangeable in their application.

When interacting with our individualized life experiences and directing our relative purpose, the mind is helpful.  When seeking to realize our absolute purpose, being is most important.  With an organized, efficient, and functional mind, we can make good plans and understand how to get from point A to point B. With an ability to detach from the mind when it is not helping, we can experience our being — life itself — and know the joy, freedom, and peace that holds and supports all experience.

Rather than questioning the meaning of life, get to know life.  Find out what life is.  There are plenty of contemplative practices out there to help with this. Find the one that suits you and stick with it until you know what there is to know.

If you want to question the meaning of something, question the meaning of your personality and find the why for who you are and what you are to accomplish through this personality and individualized life experience.  Then direct your life experience by that knowledge. Keep in mind that we can have a long-term goal for our meaning, but we also live, moment to moment, day by day, month by month, and year by year.  While all of those individual moments will contribute to the fullness of your meaning, sometimes courses change or our routes need to go a different direction for a while before it all makes sense.

Please see the video below for a further explanation of this topic.

Autumn Juicing

Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead - Inspiring Video - Watch it on Netflix "Watch it Now!"

After watching a movie called, “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead” about a man who lost a considerable amount of weight, improved his health, and cured a disease he had for 9 years, I was inspired to write this article on juicing.  (You can watch this inspiring and powerful documentary on Netflix “watch it now” option.

In 2008 I was informed of the benefits of juicing. I began juicing to increase my vegetable and fruit intake, as well as to benefit from the micro-nutrients that you just can’t get from macro nutrient food, such as animal products or processed foods. Since that time, I have been very happy with the health benefits I discovered through juicing.  My experience with juicing showed increased energy, metabolism and even had an interesting effect increasing my mental balance and peace of mind.  (see the end of this blog for some of my favorite autumn juicing recipes)

Autumn is the perfect time to include more vegetables and fruits into your diet, either through a cleansing fast, or just having some juice as a snack (or meal replacement). We are preparing for Winter and our bodies experience the change from warm hot weather, to cold and dry. It is most often, during the change of seasons that we experience illness, colds and flus.  By proactively increasing your intake of health nutrition rich, easily digestible foods, and decreasing the intake of overly processed foods, you can make the transition from Summer to Winter healthy and happy.

While investing in a juicer, may seem expensive, in reality it is not. When I was first turned on to juicing, I would go to my local health food store and spend $4.00-$5.00 on a 12 oz. fresh juice beverage (usually beets, greens, apples and carrots).  Realizing, that was not cost effective I bought my own juicer, and found I could make 12-18 oz. juice for under a dollar per serving. I’ve had my juicer for 3.5 years, and it’s still going strong.

Get Started Juicing.

The following information on Juicing is from Mercola.com.

“Juicing helps you absorb all the nutrients from the vegetables. This is important because most of us have impaired digestion as a result of making less-than-optimal food choices over many years. This limits your body’s ability to absorb all the nutrients from the vegetables. Juicing will help to “pre-digest” them for you, so you will receive most of the nutrition, rather than having it go down the toilet.

Juicing allows you to consume an optimal amount of vegetables in an efficient manner. If you are a carb type, you should eat one pound of raw vegetables per 50 pounds of body weight per day. Some people may find eating that many vegetables difficult, but it c

an be easily accomplished with a quick glass of vegetable juice.

You can add a wider variety of vegetables in your diet. Many people eat the same vegetable salads every day. This violates the principle of regular food rotation and increases your chance of developing an

Celery leaves has high content of vitamin A while the stems are an excellent source of vitamins B1, B2, B6 and C with rich supplies of potassium, folic acid, calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, sodium and plenty essential amino acids. Celery is an excellent source of immune boosting vitamin C, allowing it to be a fighter of the common cold. Its anti-inflammatory properties have also been found effective against asthma. Do your research first though. Some people are sensitive to certain ingredients in celery.

allergy to a certain food. But with juicing, you can juice a wide variety of vegetables that you may not normally enjoy eating whole.”

Juicing has had a powerful impact on my health. Here are some of my favorite combinations for Fall.

Favorite Autumn Juicing Recipes

Apple Carrot Juice- Wash clean two green apples and three carrots. Run them through the juicer.

Homemade V-4 Juice – Wash and clean half a green pepper, half a tomato, three stalks of celery and half a lemon. Juice the green pepper. You’ll be surprised at how much juice is in a pepper! Then juice the tomato, and the celery, in that order. Finish with half a lemon, rind and all. Try dropping the lemon in cut portion down if you can. Then pour a few tablespoons of purified water through the juicer, to carry out any left over juice.

The Simplest Juice – Juice half a celery heart.

Beyond the Cosmic Weather Patterns

A Course in Tranquility Lesson 14 of 14 — Beyond the Cosmic Weather Patterns

“When you’ve seen beyond your self, you will find peace of mind waiting there.”
-George Harrison. From Within You, Without You

I imagine a homeless person spends a great deal of time looking for shelter. A person with the means to procure shelter does not do this. One with shelter, has additional freedom to explore other aspects of life, such as finding food, or sleeping soundly, out of the elements. Meditation and internalization of attention serves to build a spiritual shelter from our mental/emotional and cosmic weather patterns.  Once built we are then free to explore meaningful matters, such as our relationship to the divine, our life purpose, and the totality of our being. We move from simply looking for an escape from our mental-emotional torment or spiritual vapidness, to diving head first into the richness of exploring a divine, and very much alive consciousness, which is our own Self.

When we do not have a meditation practice it is easy to for us to be shaken by our mental/emotional weather patterns.  If you have a consistent meditation practice, and you still get easily shaken mentally and emotionally, try not meditating for a few days. You will then appreciate the benefits of your practice more thoroughly. You may realize through this fast from meditation, that while your current shelter (meditation practice) may have a leaky roof, or very noticeable draft, that it is much preferred to no shelter at all! Take this as an opportunity to patch up the points in your practice that may need repair. Then you can look forward to very satisfying spiritual exploration.

Assessing Your Current Meditation Practice

If you are like most spiritual aspirants in search of tranquility, spiritual peace, and inner wisdom, you have been meditating for a while. You have noticed that your life has improved a bit. You’re not so touchy, or irritable. You smile more. You understand much more of the spiritual literature that you read. Yet, you may still feel as though you haven’t broken through to that direct connection that the spiritual masters experience. You may still feel separate from the totality of being (God). You may feel like your inner guidance and knowing isn’t what it really could be. Arriving at this point in your evolution, it is advised to take a close look at your practice, to properly and honestly assess your efforts.

Check List for Assessing Your Spiritual Shelter

#1 Is Your Practice Simple?

Ask your self, “Do I have two or three techniques that I can use consistently to calm my mind and emotions?  Or do I jump around from one technique to another, thinking there is something wrong with the technique, since I’m not getting the results I want?”

For the last 10 years, I have used about three techniques consistently.  They are simple.  They are not complicated. They get results. (You have read about them earlier in this course.) When I practice a technique, I give my full attention to it. When I repeat a mantra, I endeavor to sink all of my attention on listening to that sound within my awareness. If other thoughts arise, I brush it aside, and return to the mantra. I do this over and over and over again, no matter how many distractions arise. Then in a few minutes or even sometimes an hour, super-consciousness dawns. I am thought free and existing in the silence.

What made this work? Was it the special meaning of the words?  Was it that I got lucky? No. It was that I decided that I was going to glue my attention on this one word phrase (the mantra), letting all distractions pass until my inner peace was unveiled.

By “ignoring distractions” or “letting them pass”, I like to use the idea of walking through a forest.  You want to get from where you are, a normal mental state, to where you want to be, a clear mental state. We can look at this as though we are moving from point A to point B within a forest. In between point A and point B, there are rocks, trees, fallen logs, vines, poison ivy, streams, and shrubs. These are like your meditation distractions. When you want to get from point A to point B in a forest, you start walking (using your meditation technique). When you come upon a fallen log, you step over it. When you come upon a stream, you jump over it. Etc. You don’t make it into a big deal. You pass them by, giving them very little thought, and you most definitely stop thinking about them, once you have moved beyond them. Treat the mental, emotional and physical distractions you experience during meditation like this. Keep your eye on the technique, while moving through the distractions without too much engagement of your attention.

#2 Are There Stressful Situations in Your Life that You Can Change?

It’s hard to meditate when you are under the pressure of a difficult relationship, have extreme money complications, or have poor health. There is a reason that, in the past, a person accepted in a spiritual tradition had to be a monk, nun, or renunciate type. By giving up all the things in life that cause most of our drama (relationships, money, sex, work,  addictions, etc.), spiritual aspirants of the past, had seemingly less hurdles to overcome. Luckily, in this day and age, anyone with a little sense can have a comfortable home, a healthy body, and a decent work situation that doesn’t take up too much of their vital energy to maintain.

Ask your self, “Am I serious about wanting to experience spiritual growth and tranquility in my life?” If your answer is “Yes, of course I am.” Then when you have people in your life that cause you grief, stress, and heartache on a consistent basis, and this gets in the way of having a satisfying meditation practice, you will have no problem moving on from that relationship, or at least adjusting it, to avoid this unneeded distraction. You have your priorities straight, right?

Remember, you can’t meditate to experience what the masters experience, if you are caught up in emotional turmoil every time you sit down to meditate. Our goal, in regards to this course, is to assist your awakening process to fully unqualified happiness, peace and knowledge, that the masters know. It is not to provide a crutch that allows you to continue in relationship that depletes your soul force. You can meditate, and reset your system as often as you like, after every bad relationship encounter. But that isn’t propelling you onward to higher realizations.

This same idea applies to proper dietary and exercise choices (or lack thereof). It applies to work that constantly puts you under unpleasant strain, and wears you down. It basically applies to anything that takes up your time, that you can avoid through cognitive or behavioral change.

#3 Do You Get Enough Rest?

Is it common that when you meditate, your head bobs, you find your self caught in daydreams, you fall asleep easily as soon as your body starts to relax from the process, or your awareness seems very dull and cannot concentrate? This may be an indication that you need more sleep, or to under take some stress management measures to get your energy back.

Consider taking a nap? Yes, it’s ok to take a nap, and it doesn’t have to mean something is wrong with you. Consider going to sleep earlier. You may have to rearrange your day or cut out some activities to make this possible, but remember, your desire is for spiritual freedom. So you are willing to make this sacrifice. Proper rest, may very well be the first step, that turns your meditation from a dull, half awake revelry, to an enlightening and enlivening process that jump starts your life and spiritual growth.

#4 How Do You Feed Your Mind and Senses?

When you are not meditating, what do you do with your time?  What kinds of books do you read?  What kind of places to you frequent? What kinds of TV shows do you watch? What is the general emotional quality of the people you spend time with?

What ever you feed your mind and senses, that builds up the quality and state of your consciousness. If you read or watch psychologically disturbing, or emotionally charged media, your consciousness will become colored with that energetic pattern. If you spend time with angry, depressed, or confused people, you will resonate in that pattern as well. You will have a harder time meditating than someone who gets their nourishment from long peaceful hikes in the sunshine, or who spends their time with quiet, purposeful and happy people, or who chooses to read spiritually uplifting and inspirational literature.

One thing you might want to ask your self, is “Why do I enjoy these psychologically and emotionally charged forms of entertainment?” It could indicate a boredom or dissatisfaction with life. It could also indicate that you do not really value your Self enough to treat your self to wholesome and happier forms of enjoyment. If this is the case, admit it. Then do what you need to make choices which are more supportive of your endeavors to “awaken”. This may involve a bit of therapy, or just some motivated will power. Everyone is different, and you must find your own way in this regard.

#5 Are You Really Interested in Clearer States of Consciousness

“Am I really interested in clearer states of consciousness?” This is a question I don’t think gets asked enough.  A lot of people proclaim to be interested in spiritual growth, but their idea of spiritual growth might be skewed. Many think that upon awakening, they will become super human. Magical powers will awaken in them. They will know everything. Suffering will never touch their life situation. This shows an interest in fantasy, not understanding.

If you are simply interested in relaxation, and learning to be happier in general. Keep meditating and smiling. But it takes more than a simple meditation relaxation practice to wake up. You need intention, drive, motivation, and patience. You need to seek out people who can help you experience more clarity and spend time with them. You need to assess your life, and make sure you are making choices that keep you from being unduly distracted during meditation so you can focus your attention on deeper matters, beyond relaxation.

When you wake up in the morning, and when you sit to meditate, inwardly proclaim that you are here to wake up, and you are happy about it. Proclaim that you are looking forward to greater Self-knowledge and wisdom with each new day. Mean it!  Accept it as true for you! Relax into that reality, as though it is as natural as the sun rising every morning.

Once we develop a consistent meditation practice, and it has served to de-stress our nervous system, and give us a measure of peace through withdrawing our, often over stimulated, senses we have created an internal shelter. Now we can direct our attention to higher matters, such as exploring our true nature and our relationship with the divine.

Satisfying, Enjoyable, Spiritual Exploration

Over time, meditation becomes enjoyable and deeply satisfying. Once we master the basics, and can set up the proper environment to meditate with ease, we find that all the hard work and practice pays off. This will be the case with any activity we want to excel at and master. Learning to water ski, playing poker well, enjoying successful business interactions, singing, etc; all of these require a lot of commitment to master the fundamentals. Yet, once mastered, a person can enjoy the activity with zeal.

For some reason, I’ve noticed, that many people think, that just by saying they are on a spiritual path, they expect meditation to be knock-your-socks-off fantastic. Realistically, it can be that way, but we need to be honest with our selves, that it might take some time and training to get there.  By now, we know what we need to do to make spiritual exploration and meditation as enjoyable as getting in a nice hot bath, after a long days work in the cold.  (If you still aren’t sure what you need to do, please review all past lessons up to this point.)

“Enquiry is for really contemplating, discovering and feeling out what we are.  Once we are settled, we must direct our attention to truly analyzing and contemplating our Self.”
-Nisgaradatta Maharaj

What Can You Do Now, to Make the Most of Your Practice, and Experience Spiritual Growth as the Masters Do?

#1 - Take some time to reflect on what you would like to know, spiritually speaking.

• Are you interested in experiencing a cosmic conscious state, beyond the ego and your personality and history?
• Do you want to have a greater sense of life and your relationship to the wholeness?
• Do you want to know what it is like to know God’s infinite Love?
• Do you want to know beyond a doubt, that you are eternal and immortal?

These questions are very important. Once you have direct knowledge of their answers, a lot of doubt and despair in your life will evaporate. Get clear on what you really want to know. Write it down. Write down why you want to know this? Once you can have a clear definition of what you want to explore in your spiritual practice, state with intention that you are willing to do the work to have the realization. At the beginning of your meditations, state your intention again. Say, “I am doing my part to know the truth of my being.” Then say, “And I allow the grace and compassion of the infinite to do what I cannot do.”

“That which was there in deep sleep (no I) there was happiness. Now we have an I and are asking to find happiness.  Where there is I there is no happiness.”
-Nisgaradatta Maharaj

#2 To experience a cosmic conscious state, beyond your personal history and limited knowledge as an individualized unit of the One Reality, you need to expand your boundaries. After you have meditated, using a technique you’ve found useful, and are rather peaceful and settled, lift your awareness up into your crown chakra, or just hold your awareness about an inch or two above your head. With your awareness at this point, simultaneously focus on your breathing.

Now, as you do this, acknowledge who you think you are. Acknowledge the quirks of your personality, the failures you’ve made, the successes you’ve experienced, the people you surround your self with, how you feel like you belong to a certain family, how you define your self as having a particular career. With each breath release your attachment to one defining characteristic of your personality at a time. When you’ve run out of characteristics to release (That may or may not take awhile. Time doesn’t really matter, so don’t rush it.) then continue with a relaxed yet attentive focus on the breath and the crown of your head. With each breath feel your self moving through the crown and expanding. Your boundaries are no longer confined to your skin. Imagine what it would feel like to be aware of the room around you, then the house, then the city, then the continent, world, solar system, galaxy, etc, until you reach the edges of the known universe. Go beyond that, then rest in that experience.

At first this may seem like simple imagination, and it will be. It may be hard to imagine your consciousness as encompassing the city, the galaxy etc. Go as far as you can. As your imagination becomes engaged with each daily practice, you release your identification with your limited form. In time, your imagination will give way to the direct experience.

This practice will also work, to encourage a greater sense of your connection to the wholeness of life.

#3 To know what it is like to know the experience of God’s Infinite Love, repeat the above procedure. This time, once you have expanded as far as your imagination and consciousness will allow at present, rest there. Now as you breathe, remember a time when you felt perfectly cared for and loved, or imagine what that would feel like.  On each breath, send that feeling out into your expanded awareness, on the exhale. On the inhale, feel that same love, with intensity, rushing back through the cosmos and into your body.

No matter what arises, seemingly good or bad thoughts or distractions, in your mind during this practice, let this unconditional love flood the cosmos with each breath. If you have a hard time feeling love, you may have to practice feeling it. Use past memories to help access the feeling. The deeper your practice, the greater will be your ability to accept and feel what is always there, a deep abiding love and peacefulness, that is God’s (and yours) very being.

#4 To know beyond a doubt that you are eternal and immortal, the above exercises are helpful, as they lift you out of your mistaken sense of self. Yet there is a special way to know your eternity and immortality.

As you sit in the silence after effectively practicing your meditation technique, then ask your self, “What am I?” Sit quietly and wait for a response to come up for you, either as a thought, feeling, or sensation. Ask again. Continue to objectively watch what rises into your awareness with each asking. “What am I?”

After a while of practicing in this way, then ask your self, “What is it that is aware, of these things (that which has arisen in your awareness)?” Continue to reflect, asking this question. You will find, that on each asking, “What is aware of these changes in consciousness, that I think I am?” You will become aware that there is something that you cannot see, that is the witness, the observer. Get comfortable existing as that unconditioned, quiet, clear presence that sees and experiences all things.

Once you have this direct experience, and can maintain it, you will know your immortal nature. You will know that this same presence, that you are, has been there when you were dreaming last night, when you were at your work two days ago, during your first day of school, and even before you were born. You will know your eternity.

These practices need to be performed on a regular basis, until you have the direct experience of their fruition. This may take days, weeks, months, or even years. Yet, the knowledge provided by these realizations is superior to any other kind of knowledge. Knowing what you are, puts to rest most of your other burning questions, and releases you from much doubt and despair. Needless to say, if you are going to contemplate anything, contemplate what has been covered in this lesson.

Sincerely, Ryan Kurczak 2010

Awareness Throughout the Day

A Course in Tranquility Lesson 13 of 14– Awareness Throughout the Day

The weather bothers many people.  You may have noticed, that sometimes it is too cold, or too hot, or too humid or too dry. No matter what state the weather is in, someone can complain about it. The weather patterns are caused by a multitude of factors, such as time of year, solar activity, the movement of tectonic plates, the flapping of a sparrow’s wings, your car ride to work, etc.

Our life experiences are like those weather patterns. Sometimes it rains when we want to play outside. Sometimes the sun shines beautifully when we are stuck at a desk finishing a report. Sometimes it’s fifty degrees and all the snow has melted, on the weekend of our ski trip.  Sometimes our weddings have the perfect breeze and bluest skies. Sometimes our fishing trips couldn’t be more crisp and temperate.

Our minds are like those weather patterns. Some days we are struck with motivation and courage. Other days, we are despondent and don’t see the point. Some days we are in love, and not a thing can go wrong. Other days, our anger comes out at the drop of a hat.

Just like the weather patterns, our life experiences and mental states are often the result of an infinite number of factors. Our past choices influence our future experiences. Our collection of negative experiences, turns our mind darker. An abundance of luck and opportunity, keeps us thinking positively. The planets, past lives, any thing we can imagine, can have an effect on our experiences and our mind.

These are all external factors. A child sees thunder and lightning and rain outside, and says, and protests, “But I don’t want to go outside!  I don’t want to get wet!”. An adult sees the same weather patterns, and reaches for her rain coat, umbrella and rain boots. She goes about her day, and still doesn’t get wet. A child sees ice and snow across the the land, and says, “But I don’t want to get cold!  Don’t make me go out there.”  The adult puts on his winter jacket, wool hat, gloves and insulated boots. He goes about his day, warm.  Note, how it didn’t matter the cause of the weather.  What mattered was the response.

As we grow in wisdom, we learn that we do not necessarily need to be overly influenced by the weather patterns of life situations or mental states, just as we do not need to be unduly influenced by the weather patterns of nature. Now, it is obvious that some “severe weather” needs to be respected, no matter what the case, but all-in-all, with wisdom we learn how to move through life and take the necessary and useful actions to prevent the weather from slowing down our lives.
Meditation

On numerous occasions, I have experienced the power of meditation to change my state of consciousness.  I may have been experiencing a passing sadness, frustration, or confusion. Not knowing what else to do, I meditated. I used the techniques I know, with intention, and really gave my self to the process. After completing the techniques I sat in the silence, with my attention in the higher brain centers (The Spiritual Eye and Crown of the Head). Almost like magic, I felt the mood lift.  I felt my confusion replaced with an inspiration to take action in some way. The very act of sitting, meditating, and waiting, cleared away what ever temporary storm cloud was blinding me at present.

Waiting in the silence is where the transformation occurs. You practice the technique to reign in your scattered awareness. Your awareness has lost its power because it is focused on too many “what if’s” or “could be’s”. From here, the moods can settle in, because the awareness is not concentrated or light enough to move through or rise above them. Once the awareness is concentrated by the practice, it has risen above the influence of the difficulties you perceive. From this “higher” vantage point, your much vaster Self, with connections to the wholeness and wisdom of life, can send a breeze of inspiration, to get your ship back on course. Your inner tranquility resumes its rightful place as the center of your awareness.

Short Term Spiritual Memory – Long Term Spiritual Memory

Have you ever been in a physical situation you did not like? Have you ever been ill or injured?  Have you ever found your self in a relationship that was draining and debilitating? Have you ever been in an unsafe environment? What did you do in these situations? Hopefully, you acknowledged your present circumstance, and then looked for a way out or a solution to your circumstance.

I’ve noticed that in situations like this, when there is difficulty in the external world, most healthy minded people seem to remember that before the difficulty arose, there was a peacefulness and happiness in their life, and they do what is necessary to return their experience to that natural state of ease. If they are sick, they go to the doctor. If they are in an unsafe environment, they leave. If relationships are harmful, they cut the relationship off, and find more pleasant people. There is a sense of memory here. By remembering that there was a time when things were comfortable and good, we do what is necessary to restore that equilibrium.

I have also noticed, that, even in seemingly healthy minded people, there can be a disconnect in this process, when it comes to their mental/emotional/spiritual states. Let us say that a mood comes upon a person. All of the sudden, the person cannot even imagine what it was like to be happy and calm. Their minds sink into quick sand, and they are paralyzed. They forget that just an hour before they were happily moving through life. Now they are in darkness, and they do nothing to move through it. They sit in the darkness.

Even from a spiritual perspective, there are times when our minds are filled with light and wisdom, and our intuition is humming as we move spontaneously in the world. Then for whatever reason, our wisdom shuts down. Once again, we are stuck in mental patterns that cannot grasp or accept the wholeness of life as our very being. We start making decisions from a fearful, unbalanced point of view.

It is common to think that we have no control over these situations, and that we just have to ride them out. This thought creates that reality. Then we are helpless, and adrift on a sea of uncertainties with no tools or instruments to guide and steer our course. The reality is, that as we are embodied, we will be subject to cosmic weather patterns. The reality also is, that there have been countless awakened souls in this world, who have realized this. They created, for us, umbrellas, rain coats, winter jackets, scarves, gloves, boots, etc, for us to move through those weather patterns. These are in the forms of meditation techniques, and awareness practices, and scriptures, and wisdom.

A deeper factor of confusion, is identification with our STATES of consciousness, rather than identification with consciousness itself. When you are in a bad relationship, or in an unsafe environment, it is easier, to know, “Hey, this isn’t who I am. In fact, this is dangerous to my embodied self, so I am going to get out of here!”  Since our thoughts, emotions, and states of consciousness, seem to be internal, as if they are who we are, it is not so easy to shake those off, because why would you want to shake our ‘self’ off anyway?

Our emotional states, common thought patterns, and regular states of consciousness are the building blocks of what we call the personality. The personality is really just the organized pattern of behavioral characteristics that your ‘soul’ is expressing through. Yet, from a little kid, we are taught this is who we are, and that we have to defend and sustain this ‘character’. What happens after that is we go through life, trying to sustain this idea of our self. We come upon a situation where we need to act out of character, because it is appropriate, and we do not. We maintain our idea, at the expense of being inappropriate.

Imagine that you have been taught that you are a good person. You are nice and kind to everybody. You make everyone feel good and give them what they want. It is totally out of character for you to do anything to hurt someone else’s feelings. You have been accepting and reaffirming this personality for 35 years. Yet, one day, you meet a person who is cruel to you, and is about to cause you a lot of problems. Your personality is strong!  You feel dissonance, but I should be nice to everyone, you think. I should give this person what he wants, because to deny it, would make him feel bad. It’s five years later and you are now in a codependent relationship with someone who always professes they love you, yet by their actions often makes you feel bad, either through verbal or physical abuse. You can’t leave, because that would make them feel bad.  They love you after all, and you are not a personality that makes waves.

That is a bit of an extreme example, but it happens on more benign levels every day to every one. Because we are more interested in sustaining a consistent personality, we create more and more problems for our selves, and the world.

This occurs, because we have forgotten that we are not our thoughts, emotions, reactions, and states of consciousness. We have forgotten, that we are the consciousness, the space, in which all of these things manifest and then fade away.

By listening to an awakened person, or noting how they move through life, we can see that no matter the circumstance, it is possible to remain, balanced, poised, calm, and even peaceful. This is our natural state. We can pay close attention (closer than even our infatuation with discord) to those times in our lives when everything feels right and in harmony.  We can note how we feel after being with an even-minded person, or in a holy environment, or on top of a mountain with the quiet sun shining on us,  or how we feel after a deep meditation. We can remember, this is our natural state. We can reclaim it as our natural state.

When the cosmic weather patterns change, and we notice a frustration, anxiety, discord, anger, or despondency creeping across our awareness, we can acknowledge it.  We do not claim it for our selves, or even define our selves by it. We can say, “Ahh, here comes some rain and hail in the form of this state.” We simply acknowledge the weather pattern rolling in. Then we can ask, “Since I am familiar with this state, what might be a good thing for me to do, so I can go about my life naturally, without be unduly influenced by it?”  You pause to contemplate for a moment. You remember that the last time you felt a depression coming on, that it worked really well to go to the gym and work out. You noticed you felt one hundred times better after that. You may remember, that the last time you were feeling overwhelmed and confused, that you went into your meditation chamber, and meditated, and then prayed, and then asked for divine grace to flow through and assist. You remember, that after that, you were able to deal with your situation more easily.

The main point of all of this, is to start giving more attention to the times when you feel calm and collected and aware, remember those times, and then when your internal environment starts to develop some unpleasant weather patterns, you begin to acknowledge that those internal difficulties do not define you. From there you remember what helped you deal with those situations in the past, and then take action. Develop your long term spiritual memory.

Every Moment

Every moment there is awareness. Every moment, you are aware of something. That doesn’t mean that you remember everything from every moment, but know you are always there.

Within this manifesting world, change is the constant. Some experiences seem very repetitious and similar from day to day, but the fact is that no moments are exactly the same. Not even your personality, no matter how hard you hold on to it, is the same from day to day.

We can take this knowledge and accept it. Now our expectations will not be shattered. We know the truth. We know that trying to recreate anything from the past, is futile. We stop wasting our time in that way. We stop imagining, that if only we had the right combination of ingredients we could return to that state that was so wonderful before.

Now that our awareness is free of expectations and the wrong use of our imagination, it becomes empowered. It’s energy can be directed to what is actually happening around us. We can see with clear vision. We can respond to the changing world with confidence and precision.

Imagine someone on the ocean waiting to surf. They are out on the ocean waiting for a wave. Yet, their mind is absorbed in that one perfect wave they road three years ago. All of their thought is bent on feeling that slight warm breeze from the south that preceded that perfect wave. They are watching the horizon, waiting for the sun to hit that magic degree that brought about that beautiful experience. And as they wait for the recreation of this long past, now unreal experience, wave after lovely rolling wave passes them by. The surfer misses the thrill of thousands of waves that are actually there, all because of absorption in the past, a now unreal reality.

When we are identified with simple awareness of our consciousness we respond appropriately to every circumstance, and see clearly the current state of reality around us. Whatever you experience through out the day, let it flow through you. Do not latch on to it, or try to identify with it. If you are going to identify with anything, let it be the space in which all your experiences occur. This also applies to your internal experiences. Your thoughts, emotions, memories, and states of consciousness arise within you, yet you are the space in which they arise.

At first this can feel wrong or unnatural. That is only because you are used to identifying with circumstances and personality traits. I’m not saying its easy either. It takes practice. If it helps, remember those times when you were in deep sleep. There was no personality or thought there, yet YOU persisted. So you can survive this. You will not cease to exist. That is often the common fear. Your personality may change its state, into something more wholesome, and in tune with the infinite, and by that standard, the you you know will cease to exist. But the real you always remains.

(Note: You can say that you did not exist in deep sleep, but it’s not true. If you didn’t exist then, how you are still existing now? It’s more appropriate to say, that you don’t remember existing in deep sleep. If you think about three days ago, do you remember every second and every action that you took? Just because you don’t remember existing then, doesn’t mean you didn’t.)

Practicing a Single Truth

A useful tool we can use throughout our lives to move us into this state of awareness and tranquility is practicing a single truth.
According to Vasistha’s Yoga we can experience tranquility and an enlightened state by adopting one of two mental positions. The first mental position is, “I am nothing. Nothing I see, experience or do, is me.” The second mental position is, “I am everything. Every thought, action, person, God, Goddess, experience, creature, and thing is me.”

#1 “I Am Nothing”

According to Nisargadatta Maharaj, to hold to the mental position that I am nothing, is wisdom. You become the space in which all things occur, and then not even that. You are awareness itself. You are aware of everything that passes through your field, yet you know it is not you. No longer identifying with anything, when things change, you are not disturbed. You are free.

#2 “I AM Everything”

According to Nisargadatta Maharaj, to hold the mental position that I am everything, is love. Now there is nothing which you are not. No matter what anyone does to you, you are doing it to your self. No matter the weather patterns, it’s ok. It’s just you anyway. Every concept of the divine is your very self. The smallest atom, to the vastness of the universe is you. You are doing everything, because you are everything. Here your mind can expand beyond its small confines, and thought itself becomes unnecessary, because as you can see, everything is happening without thought anyway!

What does this do to the mind?

Our problems arise when the mind becomes engaged. We believe, we have to think about things, figure things out. We try, and sometimes our conclusions line up with experience, and sometimes they fall far from the mark, and often we notice that correlation between the two is random.
The mind is for storing information. It is for balancing your check book, writing a coherent letter, or planning a house, or calculating a physics equation. The mind is not meant for figuring things out beyond remembering and calculating.

If you hold the state that “I am nothing”, then you have nothing to think about. Your thinking doesn’t matter. You are in neutral, being nothing. You find that the world continues, even without your thoughts to validate it. Thoughts still arise. You still get up in the morning and make bacon and eggs for breakfast. Yet, none of this is you. You don’t have to think about it anymore. It happens.

If you hold the state that “I am everything”, then you don’t have to think about interacting with the world in particular ways. It’s all you. You continue to learn and grow and change, and yet your thoughts don’t matter, because it happens anyway. You still exist as everything. If someone gives you a million dollars, you don’t have to think about why you deserved it. You gave it to your self. If someone runs into your car, you don’t have to contemplate what karma led to this, it was just something you felt like doing at that time.

Now the mind will resist and rail against this. You may even think this is total crap, and a good way to get out of responsibility for your actions. Well, according to the Gita, you are not the doer of anything anyway. God is the doer. When you claim responsibility, you claim karma. Then you have to suffer the good and bad of your fate. If you are everything or nothing, then it doesn’t matter, you experience your self, as it is. No need for judgment, or reasons.

This does not indicate that you will become a base and vile person either. The natural impulse of consciousness is towards harmony and peace. When you give up identification with mind, through consistent practice of one of these truths, you will find that your actions are actually in accord with a higher process.

Think of nature. The flowers grow. The cows eat the grass. The lions eat the cows. The sun shines. The clouds rain. Sometimes those flowers are weeds, and sometimes they are roses. Sometimes the cows are clearing a field, and sometimes they are destroying it. Sometimes the lion is providing food for his young, and sometimes he is removing a sick or lame cow from the heard. Sometimes the sun shines and brings life to the marigolds, and sometimes the sun scorches the earth and kills people of heat stroke. Sometimes the rains water the gardens, and sometimes they swell the rivers and destroy villages. That is what happens.

If you want to burden your self with responsibility and karma, you are welcome to it. It is your mind that tricks you into thinking this little person is so important, that your responsibility will truly make a difference. By practicing a single truth, until you know it fully as reality, the mind cannot keep a hold on you. Then you move beyond the mind, and act with the same grace and naturalness as the natural world. You realize the “little you” is an expression of the wholeness of life and its cycles, and from this knowledge, your awareness expands until it is fully absorbed by the you that is the wholeness of life itself.

This may seem overwhelming, or far beyond your current scope of understanding. That’s fine. You have to start somewhere, and this is the starting point. Contemplate which one of those truths with which you feel you resonate most easily. Then write it down somewhere you will see it often. Put it in your meditation space too. Put it beside your bed. Put it anywhere you spend a lot of time.

Then, moment by moment, day by day, year by year, imagine your truth as a reality for you. Explore what you might feel like if it was true, right now. Dedicate your self to its practice. You will find as you ripen, the implication of the truth will dawn within your understanding. You will know its reality, just as assuredly as you know your self as a man or a woman. It won’t be a thought or a concept, but a direct experience.

In this way, every moment of your day becomes imbued with tranquility, and divine remembrance.

Sincerely, Ryan Kurczak 2010

What to Do When You are Not Tranquil

A Course in Tranquility Lesson 12 of 14 — What to Do When You are Not Tranquil
We will begin this lesson with a discussion between Nisargadatta Maharaj, a 20th century master, and a
student.

Questioner: I have met many realized people, but never a liberated man. Have you come across a
liberated man, or does liberation mean, among other things, also abandoning the body?
Maharaj: What do you mean by realization and liberation?
Q: By realization I mean a wonderful experience of peace, goodness and beauty, when the world makes
sense and there is an all-pervading unity of both substance and essence. While such experience does not
last, it cannot be forgotten. It shines in the mind, both as memory and longing. I know what I am talking
about, for I have had such experiences.
By liberation I mean to be permanently in that wonderful state. What I am asking is whether liberation is
compatible with the survival of the body.
M: What is wrong with the body?
Q: The body is so weak and short-lived. It creates needs and cravings. It limits one grievously.
M: So what? Let the physical expressions be limited. But liberation is of the Self from its false and
self-imposed ideas; it is not contained in some particular experience, however glorious.

———–

As touched on earlier in this course, there is often the idea that tranquility and liberation of
consciousness indicate a glorified human condition. Sometimes, even when established in the Self, on
the surface of consciousness, violent waves or turbulence may arise, either in the form of health
challenges, relationship confusion, financial disparity, societal discord, or any other number of
unpleasant circumstances. The questioner, in the above passage, indicates that he thinks liberation
means abiding permanently in a wonderful state! The Maharaj reminds him that liberation is abidance in
the Self, and not abiding in identification with the changing phenomena the Self may witness.

Interacting in a world, through a mind and body, we have limitations. As it says in the Yoga
Sutras, in the chapter 3 on Soul Powers, that the reason we do not know everyone else’s thoughts, is
because that would result in confusion of minds. Here limitation is necessary. It does not say, we
cannot know other people’s thoughts, only that we don’t, to avoid confusion. We do not exist in this
world as completely unlimited, because we have agreed to play a role. If there was no limitation to our
roles, confusion would result, and nothing would ever get done, nor would any karma get exhausted.

Liberation being of the Self, we can turn within, know and be our real nature, yet return to the
world to play our part as it is necessary. Often we do not want to play our parts, because it is not
glorious, or wonderful, or like all the wonderful dramas on TV. The interesting thing to remember, is that
all those dramas on TV are imagination, and not real. We try to shape reality to match a fantasy, which
are distinctly different. Our real nature is beyond all of this. It is not fooled by fantasy, nor is it bound by
‘reality’. It simply is. And in that “is-ness” is beauty, love, and wisdom.

Our stories, our history, our past, those thoughts we habitually think, are those limitations with
which we identify. They are also the reasons we do not allow ourselves to be happy.  As Eckhart Tolle has
said, “Listen to people’s stories and they could all be entitled ‘Why I Cannot Be at Peace Now.’” We can
say things like:

“I cannot be at peace now, because I am not with that special someone.”
“I cannot be at peace now, because I don’t have enough information to be enlightened.”
“I cannot be at peace now, because I am confused about some areas of my life.”
“I cannot be at peace now, because I am dying.”
“I cannot be at peace now, because I am alive, and want to be dead.”
“I cannot be at peace now, because I don’t have a cigarette.”
“I cannot be at peace now, because I have no money.”
“I cannot be at peace now, because I have all the money in the world, and am still missing something.”
“I cannot be at peace now, because I had an unhappy childhood.”

The stories that are possible in this world are vast, and endless. This is precisely why our stories
don’t matter when it comes to tranquility. It is also why, even if we are not tranquil, we learn to let go of
identification with tranquility, in order to remain there. Attachment to peace and tranquility is still
attachment. Imagine if everything in your life was perfect, and yet for a moment or an hour or two you
become angry, depressed, agitated. Or maybe for a day, or a month or a year, you were sick. Rather
than letting it pass, which it will do one way or another, you dwell. Then, once it passes, you continue
dwelling, trying to figure out what it was all about. Why did you have that passing mood? Why did
you get sick? etc. etc. Tranquility is shaken, and we continue shaking it, even after the un-tranquil
situation passes.

This is not to say, that if you have a problem, you shouldn’t figure out what was causing it so you
can avoid future experiences of that problem. However, you can usually tell if a problem is worth using
energy to explore if it is recurrent. For example, if you have one bad relationship, but the rest were
pretty good, chances are, it isn’t much to worry about. If you have one bad relationship after another,
that might be an indication to explore possible causes and remedies. If you fall and bruise your leg, and
yet for the past twenty years, you have almost a perfect record of not falling, you can let that one pass
too. However, if you find that throughout your life, you’ve been clumsy, that might be an indication
that you could explore and remedy that problem.

What’s the answer to “What do I do when I’m not tranquil, or when things don’t work out
exactly as my expectations would suggest?” Let it pass.

Roy Eugene Davis, once told a story of a person who wrote to him. The writer had mentioned
how Mr. Davis writes and speaks about realizing our immortality and eternal life. The writer then went
on to say, how he found it a depressing possibility that he could potentially live forever. The problem
there, was that the writer was identified with his life situation. Mr. Davis, was not speaking about the
immortality of the life situation.

This is a common problem that many spiritual aspirants face. They do not understand what it
means to be spiritually liberated or to exist in tranquility, because they do not have a very good memory
of what that is like. They don’t remember what it is like to be identified with the immortal sense of “I
Am”. All they remember is immediate, limited life situation.

When we first learn to meditate, we are learning to calm the mind and emotions and to refine
the nervous system to be able to process clearer states of consciousness. When we first adopt
recommended lifestyle routines at the beginning of our spiritual path, we are making choices to cut back
on the amount of distractions we will have in life, so we can direct our energy to remembering and
re-establishing our consciousness in the timeless “I Am”.

After this becomes stable, we then dive deep, practicing holding our awareness as the “I Am”. It
is this practice, and they call it practice for a reason, that allows us to exist free, because we then know
what we are, beyond any doubt. We can also exist as we are, without doubt. When this realization
dawns, we know. No matter what anyone else says, or what the doubts of anyone else may be, we are
unmoved by them. Just as no one could make you doubt that a ripe red apple is sweet, no one could
shake you from the realization of your Self.

How is this done?

First we make sure our meditation practice is stable. This means we meditate every day with
alert, yet relaxed intention, and we have found a technique or an understanding of what it takes to calm
down the mind and emotions. That may include determining activities, foods, or personal interactions
that get your mind and emotions spinning, and minimizing their influence.

If you want to be Self-realized and Tranquil, you need to realize that meditation is an excellent
tool for that, but it must be understood properly. There is a stage beyond experiencing peacefulness
that needs to be activated for optimal benefits.

In stage two, you begin doing your best to exist as the “I am”. This is the state beyond:

“I am meditating.”
“I am a personality.”
“I have these likes and dislikes.”
“My breathe is quiet.”
“I am in a still room.”

You move to the simple experience of the room you are sitting. You simply experience the
thoughts that rise and fall in your mind. You simply feel a passing emotion or memory. All the while, you
are aware. You are not aware as being identified with anything in particular. You are aware of your
Self as the witnessing presence. You can’t see it. You can’t feel it. You can only be it.

You can drive your awareness deeper. With eyes closed, and in a very quiet room, you imagine
withdrawing your awareness from your senses. As you do this, memories, thoughts and emotions now
become “external.” You drive your awareness deeper, withdrawing your awareness away from even
these subjective internalized (yet still external from the vantage point of the Self) perceptions.

This takes dedication and practice. Some times it feels like it takes lots of energy and
concentration. The rewards are worth it. Even if you pull your awareness only to the level of being
aware of the memories, emotions and memories, that is good. Keep endeavoring to pull it deeper. One
day, you will withdraw even from that! If only for a second or two, it is progress. You continue, until it
becomes natural and easy.

As you get used to holding your awareness on this sense of “I Am”. It becomes easy. You have
been practicing so long, that you can hold your awareness there effortlessly, because you know how it’s
done. Just like driving a car may seem like a big task if you’ve never driven one, with practice you hardly
have to think about it. Be patient yet consistent. Continue practicing, and letting your self grow stronger
in concentration at your own rate. We all take to this work with varying backgrounds and abilities, but
we all reach the same state.

When All Else Fails

Sometimes we try. We use our self-effort. We apply all the knowledge that we have, and yet we
still fall into a space of sorrow or unconsciousness. When this occurs, a very good practice is learning to
surrender into grace. Now grace is our very own nature, and so we are essentially surrendering into our
Self. But you see we only fall into sorrow when we cannot shake free of the feeling of being limited as an
individualized being, a personality, a history, a series of expectations that needs fulfilled. We are much
vaster than all of that. Surrendering into grace is surrendering into that vastness, that is omnipotent and
omniscience and forever established in love and wisdom, at least, that is the closest words can come to
what it feels like.

How is it done? Wherever you are, you let go. You may be in pain, or in an uncomfortable
situation that you desperately wish to be different. You may be in a life situation and suddenly find your
self wanting to be in a much better place, or maybe you suddenly discover another avenue in life that is
more in line with your expression as a divine being of love, yet you have a history, and obligations, and
commitments that need fulfilling. You cannot see your self changing overnight, yet you desperately feel
the calling. You let go, and surrender into the vastness of your being. The little you can do nothing. You
know, because you’ve tried, or you’ve found your self too paralyzed to move.

Imagine or remember a time when you got a rock or a bug in your eye. It burns and hurts. Your
friend says, “Hey, I’ll help you out.” Yet every time they make a move to take the offending object out of
your eye, you flinch, close your eyes and pull away. Sure it may hurt a little more as the object is
removed, but if you relax, then in an instant, you can see again, and the sting is gone. That same
mechanism that would allow you to surrender to that aid, is the same mechanism, or feeling state that
accompanies surrender.

Whether it be in meditation, or prayer, or in daily living, when you have done your best, and you
cannot conceive of anything more you could do, try letting go. Surrender, knowing the rest of you, the
universe, will move in such away to either make the crooked roads straight, or provide the wisdom to
understand your situation with clarity. This may take practice, but it is well worth the effort. Give it a try
when you are not tranquil, and don’t fight it when your tranquility comes rushing back to you quicker
than your little self thinks it deserves.

Thought for the day: “Not even the very wise can see all ends.”

Sincerely, Ryan Kurczak 2010

What Fires Will We Make This Day

Dawn Breaks,

Solar rays cascade over the icy coast, refracting off the stone cliffs

Our ships sail fast between the parted waters

Leaving the land behind.

Carrying us away from the ring of distant battles.

 

For many years the land held our banners high,

Without question or concern for the scars we burned into Her.

 

Now a new day has come.

After paying our debts through the longest night,

Cast from our homes on uncertain waters,

We open our sails to the wind,

Seeking the fire that was our genesis.

 

There were two.

Before the ether split our immortal soul,

Ignorance had arisen ages before.

A long line of rulers set the stage for our departure.

The Sages spoke quietly,

And the wisdom fell on distracted ears.

 

We did our best to win back the truth,

with adamantine will, sword and bow.

These were not the paths leading back to our treasure.

In our haste we forgot the way.

We forgot that peace is not won with war.

 

Thinking back.

I remember the sacred fires we made,

In groves of Banyan, Oak, then Pine.

Old trees sacrificed in a circle of ancient stones.

Ashes to feed the ground.

And smoke rising to the moon.

Like holy offerings of food and prayer,

On an altar to the divine Mother.

I remember the warm flaming light,

That cleansed our thoughts

And sustained our temples.

 

Now waves break before our vessel

Each unfurling movement

Carries the golden glow of the rising sun

To my eyes.

What fires will we make this day?

What need is there under these healing rays?

Practices For Moving Fully as Your Self

A Course in Tranquility Lesson 11 of 14 — Practices For Moving Fully as Your Self

Letting Go of the False Sense of Self – Or – Getting Over Yourself

It has been said, if there was no self, there would be no problems. Why?  Because everything that is a problem is in reference to something that a ‘self’, or a personality with a history, either wants or wants to avoid.

Let’s consider the bugs. Every day, I would conservatively imagine, trillions of insects are eaten, run over, stepped on, poisoned, or killed in some way. They do not have a personality or a history as we humans do. They do not look around at all the ‘senseless’ death and say, “Why did this happen to my friends? What are we to learn from this slaughter!?” No. They continue multiplying, eating, and doing what bugs do. It’s not a problem for them.

Humans on the other hand feel very important.  At this point in time, there are only about 7 billion of us after all, and that is a very small number compared to the 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 (10 quintillion) insects in the world, as estimated by the Pulitzer Prize winning Dr. E. O. Wilson of Harvard University. It is this sense of importance that makes it all the harder to shake off our false sense of self.

To some, comparing humans to bugs seems absurd and callous. Why?  Because some are very attached to their sense of self. That’s fine. With that attachment comes potential suffering and confusion. If that’s what they want, they can have it. They can continue the dream, that the unreal is real, and the real is absurd.

We have to remember, that when dreaming, the dream seems very real. If a loved one dies or leaves us in the dream, we cry painfully, and sometimes even wake up with terrible sadness ringing on. If we find a jewel worth millions of dollars, our elation is no less than if we were awake. We are dreaming even now.

There are people in this world who have either had a near death experience, a spontaneous mystical awakening, or an awakening experience brought about through dedication to their spiritual practice. All of them testify to the reality, that this life, is but a dream. Once a awake, all those things that seem so darn important fade away. Then a great peace descends, like a flood of light, and a knowing of immortality, eternity, and playfulness fills one’s consciousness.

Higher Meaning, Order, Purpose and Significance – A Trap to Avoid

Once that peace descends, it is easy to say, yes, we are all just bugs spinning through an infinite cosmos, and smile, because the cosmos is beautiful, and it’s not a problem to be an insignificant bug, because significance is not the point. If you want a point, it’s the being, and the beauty of it all. And when folks who are still dreaming, point, and say, “You’re crazy. Significance is the point! We have to find out the meaning of life! We need to find our purpose and BE somebody in this world! Etc. Etc. Etc.” The awakened ones enjoy the display, knowing the dreamer is part of it all too.

If that is the case, you may ask, “Why ever search for a higher good or meaning or significance?” Is there a higher good if everything is consciousness? Not to my present knowledge. Saying there is a higher good, is further creating categories and divisions in consciousness where there are none.

But…yes there is a but…life is much easier for all involved when there is an order and a structure to things. Not being able to see the beauty of life all around and within, it is easy to fall into lethargy and say, “What’s the point?”  The inspiration towards a higher good, meaning and significance, is really an inspiration to realize the freedom of the Self, and the totality of Being. Many do not know that, and so philosophize or contemplate their higher purpose. This is good. Ultimately, they will realize their higher purpose is Being, harmony with the vastness of consciousness, and not a mental construct or moral dogma. Through philosophy, they will reach a point where realization dawns, that mental concepts and constructs cannot provide the understanding they seek, and they will have to let go of the attachment to figuring things out through the mind. When they do, the light will shine through. Through contemplation, they are moving beyond the mind, into direct experience of Reality.

When in tune with the vastness of our consciousness (beyond the limited sense of self) we would naturally take care of our world and be supportive of others who have yet to realize what we realize, because its all us anyway. Until we are in tune with the vastness and intelligence of our consciousness, we need to be told how to act, as if we were in tune with it. We are practicing.

Awakening is also not an excuse for anarchy. Having a functional, well run government, allows the people of the world to relax, and trust that they are protected and cared for. Making healthy choices allows the body to run without making too much noise, comfortably, so the incarnated soul can explore consciousness and its wonders. To deny the trap of man-made significance, is not to deny that order and harmony are very good supports to awakening. When we have less disorder and chaos, it is easier to turn within, knowing that everything is well. This is why many awakened people promote scriptures and codes of conduct that keep us in line. A well tended garden produces more enjoyable fruits, than one overrun by weeds and neglect.

Letting Go of Attachment to Emotions – We Are Not Our Emotions

Emotions are another matter to consider. Awakening is not to give the impression that once awake, you sit around like a fool on a hill, smiling benignly and ignoring reason and good sense.  Although, once awake and free of attachment and aversion, you can do that if you want. My intention is to share that an awakened one sees the world, and can interact with it appropriately, but does not lose sight of the fact that it is a dream, a temporary play of light and shadow across the infinity of consciousness.

It is also good to realize that we do not have to become like a corpse, emotionless and cold. Emotions seem like an integral aspect of who we are, our sense of self. This is true to a degree. By reflecting on emotional habits and tendencies, we can say, yes, Sam, the personality, has a tendency to be happy when business is going well, and sad when it rains, and he gets angry when he hears about injustice in the world, and elated when he sees homeless people being fed.

Sam can be awake to his true nature, wearing the clothes of his personality, and his emotional habits. The difference between an awakened Sam and one that is lost in identification with the dream, is that Awake Sam, chooses to play the role we all know and love, being emotional in the ways we are used to.  However, Awake Sam is not bound by that role. Meaning, he is not so identified with it, that he forgets that emotions and personality are just the play of consciousness. He can change, and has the freedom to take off his emotional habits and tendencies at will, if it is not appropriate to what is happening right now. He also has the sensitivity and wisdom to know when playing his role, and stepping out of that role is appropriate.

If Sam wants, he can totally reinvent himself. He can decide he’s had enough of his past habits, and take actions to change them, through relaxed will and consistent intention. He can reinvent himself, because he knows there is nothing all that important about the personality we call Sam.  Although that personality may be enjoyable throughout its chosen duration.

This is a scary thought for many people. It is liberating for many others. The effect it has on you, is up to you.

Exercises To Have Your Own Direct Experience of this Knowledge

As mentioned above, this realization can occur from a near death experience, a spontaneous awakening episode, or through dedicated spiritual practice. Our emphasis is not to seek out near death experiences, or to wait around for a spontaneous awakening, but to do what works to ripen our consciousness through spiritual practice. If I wanted, I could sit around on a street corner waiting for some one to give me a million dollars, or I could get up and start earning money to work towards that goal. It’s not impossible that someone, one day, might tune into my consciousness, and hand over the cash, as I sit on the cold hard concrete, but it’s much more likely that I will reach that goal in this lifetime by taking appropriate action.

We’ve discussed many topics in this course that will help to harmonize the life and better prepare the ground of our consciousness for awakening. Review past lessons to strengthen your understanding of these processes.  The following exercises, performed daily, will further purify your consciousness on the deeper levels.

You must stick with them and not give up. As many enlightened teachers have said, “It is better to dig one deep well, when in search of water, than to dig hundreds of shallow ones.” If the mind gets bored, or feeds you the line, “You just haven’t found the right technique, keep looking.” Ignore it.  You are not the mind. Keep going until you have realized what you are.

Always remember, meditation techniques are to serve to engage your attention, to build up the strength of your concentration, so you can hold your awareness on a point until realization dawns. When our attention is weak and every distraction disrupts our focus, we must practice a technique. As time goes by, our attention grows stronger. No longer do we care how bright the room is, or how loud the people outside are, or how many thoughts we have, or how we have a little emotional unrest inside. We can remove our awareness from these things, and sink it into the Self. With each movement of our awareness in the Self, we gain direct knowledge of the fullness of our being. When all that knowledge has been integrated, we are awake.

These advanced techniques are more easily practiced after you have proficiency in mantra or breathe awareness, and you can easily calm your mind and emotions. Don’t despair if you are still working on developing your attention, or calming your mind and emotions. Everyone has to learn how to do it. It’s part of the process.

Also know, that spiritual practice is very good, but it is not substitute for working out mental/psychological/emotional disturbances. It is best to work those out with a professional, and save your spiritual work for just that, spiritual growth. If you have mental/psychological/emotional difficulties, regular spiritual practice may help you move through them, but that is not the point of spiritual practice. This kind of work is for a person who has taken care of themselves in the outer world, so they can turn within without the distraction of mental/psychological/emotional distraction.

Mundane example: Meditation is not going to fix my plumbing, but I guarantee a plumber will. Sitting around meditating on having functional plumbing, is a waste of time when a simple phone call will work. Then once the plumber has done his job, I don’t have to worry about the plumbing anymore and can direct my attention to the Self.  Make sense?

Once you are accustomed to being settled and turning within, begin adding one of these practices to your sitting meditation on a regular basis.

Advanced Meditation Practices

Breathing Through the Spine

Step 1: After sitting quietly for a while in meditation, turn your attention to your spine and the space between the eyebrows. Imagine there is a hollow tube running through the spine, from the base of the spine, up through the spine, up through the skull and ending at the spiritual eye, the space between the eyebrows.

Step 2: Begin breathing slightly deeper, in a comfortable and relaxed manner. Maintaining your attention on the spine and spiritual eye.

Step 3: Now, link the breath to the spine. As you inhale, imagine you are pulling a current of energy up through the spine. It can feel like cool water ascending from the spine to the spiritual eye.

Step 4: On the exhale, imagine that same current of energy flowing down from the spiritual eye like water, warm, soothing, and relaxing. Remain attentive, upright and alert, but let your being relax with each repetition.  Let go of the external world, and move deeper into the Self.

Step 5: After a comfortable duration (don’t strain) of this practice, take another deep inhale, and pull the energy up to the spiritual eye. Then keep your attention at the spiritual eye, feeling that energy there, and let your breath return to normal. Now you are just sitting quietly with your relaxed attention at the space between the eyebrows.

Step 6: Stay relaxed and attentive in this way until the end of your meditation. Then go about your day.

Listening to Silence

Listening to the silence is a very good practice. If we could just do this, that would be all we would ever need to do. Why don’t more people advise it? It can be difficult. It is often hard enough for people to hold their attention on a mantra or visualization, imagine the difficulty focusing on the absence of sound. The good news is, that listening to silence is not exactly what the words imply. We are actually listening to something.

Step 1: After a duration of quiet, relaxing and alert meditation, bring your awareness up to your crown. Simply feel the area at the top of, and/or just above your head.

Step 2: Keeping your feeling at the crown, become aware of your sense of hearing. Listen to the silence in the room, or just around your head. Do you hear a faint sound, such as a high pitched squeal, or a constant tone, or an electrical frequency? Give your attention to that sound.

Step 3: Hold your attention on this sound for a minute or two. If you are like most people, your attention will easily wander. Stay focused, and gently bring your attention back to the sound as many times as you have to.

Step 4: Now listen deeper. Do you hear a different tone or frequency behind or within the sound you initially heard? If so, direct your attention to that sound. If not, stay with the initial sound. Listen for another minute or two.

Step 5: Listen deeper again. Has the sound shifted, changed or deepened? Give your awareness to this sound. Stay listening to this for a minute or two.

Step 6: Continue this process of listening deeper to the sound behind the sound you are hearing. Keep gently returning your attention back to the process, no matter how many times you get distracted. Keep your attention at the crown, throughout the process.

When you begin this practice, be easy on your self. Do it when you are well settled, and in a fairly quiet environment. As your attention grows stronger, and you can go deeper and deeper into this sound, you may eventually become aware of a sound, like the roaring of an ocean, all the while aware of nothing else but being this sound.

You are listening to the OM vibration. By listening deeply, you are following this vibration back to its source, which is pure consciousness, your true nature.

Do not overly engage your mind or analyze techniques. They are for the process of strengthening your concentration and ripening your consciousness. Practice your daily meditations without attachment to the results. Simply do it. Don’t think about it.

Then after meditation, read a scripture that is sacred to you, or speaks to you. If you like analysis, analyze what you are reading. Try to understand the clear intention of the author. In this way, you ripen your consciousness through meditation, and then when you have a direct experience of Self-revealed knowledge, you will have the information from reading the scripture to help you make sense of it.

The words you read about spiritual growth are only to serve as sign posts. That way, when you have a certain experience, the information you gathered from study, allows you to make sense of your process. Always remember, the real power comes from daily spiritual practice.

Sincerely, Ryan Kurczak 2010

Knowing the Truth of Unity Consciousness

A Course in Tranquility Lesson 10 of 14 — Knowing the Truth of Unity Consciousness

“Because you are in variety, you say you understand unity — that you have flashes, etc., remember things, etc.; you consider this variety to be real. On the other hand Unity is the reality, and the variety is false. The variety must go before unity reveals itself — its reality. It is always real. It does not send flashes of its being in this false variety. On the contrary, this variety obstructs the truth.” -Ramana Maharshi

Up to this point in our study of enlightenment and tranquility we have covered:

Lesson 1: Being happy for no reason; Living a natural and spontaneous life; Meditation

Lesson 2: Love and Relationships

Lesson 3: Health

Lesson 4: Vision and Purpose

Lesson 5: Grace and Spiritual Practice

Lesson 6: Absolving your past

Lesson 7: Reality Vs. Your Story

Lesson 8: Practicing your faith

Lesson 9: Forgiveness

The past lessons are meant to serve as a proper foundation to launch this process of moving into tranquility. As it is stated in the Gita, “First, we are to work to discover what we are, and become self-realized. Once we know what we are, then our work is to remain in tranquility.” Once we set in motion the principles outlined in the previous lessons, we are to continue tending our garden and let the seeds of our positive intention to learn and grow come to fruition. As this continues, we then have our capacities directed to understanding what we are, and to experience the truth of life and its meaning.

Since this work, is not intended to birth a religion or a new dogma, you may find that you still need a religious observance, or a specific teaching to guide your quest for self-knowledge and tranquility. By all means, explore your bible, Gita, Yoga Sutras, Buddhists texts, Koran, Zen works, etc. The morality and lifestyle regiments will do well to keep your days organized and focused, which is useful for everyone. Let the words of the following lessons guide your mind into contemplation and direct experience of reality “as it is” and acceptance of full knowledge of what you are beyond your false sense of self.

Now we move into the deeper side of practice. In the second half of these lessons, we will challenge the most instinctual and ingrained tendencies a human being can cling to. It is these final threads we endeavor to clip, that we may float free into our pure conscious nature, while living out a natural life in this realm, or in any realm we may find to inhabit.

The quote from Ramana Maharshi, at the top of this lesson, summarizes one of the prime difficulties a spiritual aspirant faces as they move more fully into their pure conscious, tranquil nature — the false idea that we exist as separate and varied beings, and are trying to re-experience our unity with the wholeness of life.
The devotee says, “I am experiencing separateness from God and the divine consciousness. I want to know Unity consciousness. I want to know my pure blissful nature. When I meditate I have flashes of insight into oneness and peace, but then I re-experience this sense of separateness.”

The Great Sage responds, “Unity consciousness does not send flashes of its being into this false variety. The Unity is always there, the reality. Yet the waves of our concept of variety washes over it, and so we only see the Unity, when the waves recede.

It is the concept of variety and separateness that obstructs the truth of unity. When we can see through the concept of variety, unity will reveal itself clearly.”

Keep in mind, this is only my conjecture of how this conversation could be stretched out. But the point of all this, is that, typically we say we are separate from the divine infinite consciousness, and on those days when we have a really great meditation or an extremely satisfying stress free day, that we catch a glimpse of unity consciousness and peace. When we say we are longing for unity, we are affirming a duality and separateness.

Unity, duality, separateness, these are all just words. They have no corresponding reality. Imagine what would happen if you dropped these concepts. If there is no Unity, then there is no duality. If there is no longing to be reunited in God, then there is no separateness from God. It is the words and concepts we used that keep us from experiencing reality, as it is, right now.

Exercise – Accept The Reality of Unity Right Now

1) When you next meditate, avoid any thoughts or the entertainment of any notions that you are doing this to become closer to God.  Of course the thoughts and notions will arise. Just ignore them. A good friend once told me, “Just because someone tells you something, doesn’t mean you have to believe it.” The same goes for your thoughts. Just because they show you possibilities and ideas, doesn’t mean you have to listen to them or even buy their product.

2) Use your meditation technique, because you know it is going to calm your mind and emotions and settle down the waves that make you think and feel you are separate from the wholeness of life. Do this until you are settled and peaceful. Then simply sit. Acknowledging that the room you are inhabiting, the couch you are sitting on, the candle you are looking at, is a direct, unified, manifestation of the divine essence that is all things.

3) Just sit.

Thoughts may still rise and fall, but ignore them.  Let go of the sense that for you to experience the divine presence directly, you need to have fabulous visions, or see the future, or feel ecstasy. Remember, real love is unconditional. Love the divine as it is revealing itself to you right now in this moment. That may be an empty room, or the darkness of your closed eyes, or the steadiness of your breath, or the sunshine reflecting of the house next door. Do not shun the divine presence, just because it is appearing as it always has, normally, and openly.  Look beyond appearances to the simplicity of the beingness in the moment.

This is why so many people fail to wake up or accept grace within their lives. They have a fairy tale of what it “should” look like. Love the divine for what it is, not for what you would like it to be. Wouldn’t you ask the same of anyone else? Don’t you want to be loved for what you are without any reservations, without having to put on a show, or having to act unnaturally? Why not show that same respect to the divine within and around you? Just as your heart would burst if you knew that kind of love, and you would smile from ear to ear, and your presence would radiate peace and warmth all around you, see how the divine presence responds in that same situation of unconditional love and acceptance.

We talk of Self-realization. What does that mean? It means we know the fullness of our being. We know we are beyond the mind, body, senses, time, space, etc. It means we know we exist, perpetually. We know we are eternally and immutably free, and that our only chains and bondage come from the concepts we adopt as true, and the defining characteristics we accept that we may experience a limited existence as a particular kind of being. But these are all just words with no corresponding meaning until you have direct experience of what this feels like. That is why we meditate and endeavor to practice a life that will harmonize our nervous systems and free our consciousness to have this direct experience. It is the spiritual practices that we choose that creates the grooves that directs us back to the acceptance of our true nature.

We can say that meditation or spiritual practice doesn’t work for us, but what we are really saying is that, it is not working on the time-scale we would like it to. Any authentic spiritual practice undertaken with the proper motive and surrender into the process will lift us up and out of our limited “character” that we have chosen to play in this life time. However, since we’ve chosen to play the game, we will of course come back to that character until the game is over.

The free soul, has learned the rules, knows that he/she is identified with particular chess piece on the board game of life, and is willing to be a good sport and play the game until the end. Once done, the free soul is awake, and can willingly choose if he/she would like to play again, or just exist in pure consciousness.

Self-realization directly experienced is what reveals to us the rules of the game we are playing, and shows us the proper perspective from which we are playing it. We know we are not the chess piece; we are the hand that moves it. When the chess piece falls, we move on to another game, if we choose.

Spiritual Practice and Experiencing Unity

When asked about the aim of spiritual practice, Ramana Maharshi said, “Removal of ignorance is the aim of practice, and not the acquisition of Realization.  Realization is ever present, here and now. Were it to be acquired anew, Realization must be understood to be absent at one time, and present at another time. In that case, it is not permanent, and therefore not worth the attempt. But Realization is permanent and eternal and is here and now.

Again he was asked, “Grace is necessary for the removal of ignorance?”

Maharshi replied, “Certainly. But Grace is all along there. Grace is the Self. It is not something to be acquired. All that is necessary is to know its existence. For example, the sun is brightness only. He does not see darkness. Whereas others speak of darkness fleeing away on the sun approaching. Similarly, ignorance is also a phantom and not real. Because of its unreality, its unreal nature found, it is said to be removed.

Again, the sun is there and also bright. You are surrounded by sunlight. Still, if you would know the sun you must turn your eyes in his direction and look at him. So also, Grace is found by practice alone although it is here and now.”

If you want to know unity you must look at unity. You must not focus on separateness and variety. You see your next door neighbor, the tree outside, the computer in front of you, or your cat on the couch, and you say, “they are separate from me.” You create separateness in this way. The first step to experiencing unity is to start accepting the notion that all that you experience is not separate, but is a continuous extension of your being.

In the autumn, when the leaves turn gold and orange and purple, you sit on a mountain top and a deep yearning arises to be one with nature and its beauty. This is separateness. Instead, see the colors, and the trees blowing in the wind, and smile. Accept that beauty as your very self. You have dressed your self in Autumn’s splendor.

In meditation, you look on the face of your spiritual teacher or your depiction of the divine on the altar before you, and you long to know what that teacher knows or be one with that manifestation of God. You divide the wholeness. Instead, accept that what they know, you know, and you are expressing it through your particular life situation. Accept that you are as much a part of them as your hand is to your elbow. They may be separated by a short physical distance, but they are a part of the same body. The hand and the elbow are equally important to have a working appendage. Do not judge what part of the body of God you may be.  It is still the body of God.

In time, as your practice becomes stronger there is another practice to undertake. Now instead of working to change your ideas ‘that you are separate from all of life’ to ‘accepting that you are one with all of life’, you let go of even that. You no longer decide to say, “I am one with everything.” You no longer label your oneness. You simply experience life as it comes. No labeling, just experiencing. You surrender to the truth of your self as all.

You no longer need words or concepts to prove it, or to remind your self about it. You are IT! Another discourse with Ramana Maharshi will help to clarify this point.

A devotee asked, “By the desire to surrender constantly, increasing grace is experienced, I hope?”

Maharshi replied, “Surrender once for all and be done with the desire [to surrender]. So long as the sense of doership is retained there is the desire; that is also personality. If this goes the Self is found to shine forth pure.

The sense of doership is the bondage and not the actions themselves.

‘Be still and know that I am God.’ Here stillness is total surrender without a vestige of individuality. Stillness will prevail and there will be no agitation of mind. Agitation of mind is the cause of desire, the sense of doership and personality. If that is stopped there is quiet. There ‘Knowing’ means ‘Being’. It is not the relative knowledge involving triads, knowledge, subject and object.”

The devotee inquired at this, “Is the thought ‘I am God’ or ‘I am the Supreme Being’ helpful?”

Maharshi said, “‘I am that I am.’

‘I am’  is God — not thinking, ‘I am God’.

Realize ‘I am’ and do not think I am.

‘Know I am God’ — it is said, and not ‘Think I am God.’”

So we see, from here, we must move from thinking to knowing. By meditation we clear the way to know directly. Knowing does not come from thinking or reasoning, it comes from having the capacity to experience what is, rather than our labels and ideas about what we’d like ‘what is’ to be.

In the next lesson we will explore specific advanced techniques useful to moving into this wisdom and Self-knowing. They may not be easy, but they are effective, and take practice, as with all things. Of course, your current meditation practice is helpful too, so long as you are intent and attentive to the procedure.

Sincerely, Ryan Kurczak 2010