DATE: 01 Mar 2008, 5:27 am / MOOD: Sat nam

AUM Shanti – Peace to all.

One often comes across the concept of "surrender" in religious and spiritual teachings and at some point on the Path it becomes a forefront issue. Even if not, it can be an interesting idea to play around with. I mean, who surrenders? Why surrender, and to whom or what? And why is the idea so prevalent and stressed?

Well, it is stressed because it is usually not omissible for development. It may come to the seeker in a variety of ways; a statement such as "losing your life so that you may gain it", or that you need to be "born again before you can enter the kingdom of heaven".

So what is this stuff about "surrender"?

I say this often, and now again, so please bear with me; yoga is extremely simple in its most basic of forms. If something is overly difficult it probably is not yoga, or it is and you are not ready for the particular stage you are attempting. Yes, there is work, and it is not easy, but it also should not be overly complex or too difficult. When you are ready, it will be doable, albeit with some effort.

Descartes said so humorously "cogito ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am), and most people sort of stick with this idea, and take it the step further into believing that they are who they think they are. Ask anybody and they will rattle off the usual descriptions and names and titles and so on. It is seemingly simple and correct and understood, and besides, if you don't like what or who you think you are, you can always change what you think about yourself, and so change yourself. But of course, you are not changing your Self at all – you are only changing what you think and modifying your self-concept.

The Self exists as is without modification. It needs no changing. It cannot be changed. It exists whether there are thoughts or not. It is really the pervasive Energy availabe to you to use to create your self-concept by means of your mind. The Self only needs to be realized. And to realize It there is only one way – one has to become It. But in order to become It, you have to give up your ideas about It because You are not what or who you think. The moment you stop thinking (or rather, identifying your Self with your mind), you start uncovering who You are. You are always there. It is only that you have this mistaken identity of a self-concept, and you believe that You are that. You are not. And the belief that You are, conceals the Self, and is the source of all misery.

It helps to grasp the two-you thing first. One you is this self-created, thought-up you. It consists only of mental concepts and descriptions and attributes that your mind has assigned to it for various reasons of likes and dislikes and ego identification. Whatever follows your words "I am…" reflects this self-created you. Whatever you think of yourself, those thoughts, feelings and ideas, are self-created mental constructs, and the conglomeration of all your mental (including psychological) efforts is what you call "me". And it is this self-created, thought-up, and really, illusionary "me" that has to be surrendered to the "real You". That is what is meant by "surrender".

That there are two "things" one refers to as "you" inside of a single entity immediately becomes a logical inconsistency (even to the mind!). But the mind does not make real and unreal distinctions, nor does it fool itself. It merely produces thoughts according to direction. Your consciousness attaches to either your self-concept, or it re-merges with your Self, and that is your choice to make.

If you make the mistake of identifying who You are with who you think you are, you exist in a state the yogis call "illusion", since the center of your experienced universe is then based upon and functions according to the principles of a mistaken idea that your consciousness accepts as real. It is like working on a lengthy mathematical equation after you have made an initial error at step one. Even if you follow all the laws in some great book of instruction and solicit the help of your peers, it really doesn't matter how long you slave through it, your conclusions about yourself and everything related to that "me" – all of it – will always be flawed at each and every step.

Fortunately the work is frustrating and hard and always produces questionable conclusions mostly productive of irritation, doubt, pain and at times great suffering. And at that point one may get tendencies to go back to the very beginning and take a new look at the foundational principles of your being and your ideas about your self and your Self. And there is no principle more foundational than what you call "I", and no more potent a question than "who am I?"

If you miss (or choose to miss) this step of asking "who am I?", you'll start a new search for a better calculator and buy more manuals and visit more experts and even do a refresher course in math, or find somebody to help you either manage and manipulate your mind changing skills, like a therapist or like-minded escapist friends, and keep occupying yourself with the plentiful outer distractions of all kinds to help you to avoid the question of who You are, which can initially only be approached and found in silence.

But if you are seriously reconsidering your original thought, the "I" thought, and you examine how it came about, and by what power, and you can begin to discriminate between the real You and the made-up you, what follows is the practice (indeed a practice), of surrendering; or the re-directing of your consciousness away from the identification with the idea-self to the consciousness of your Being, which is consciousness to begin with, and which is a lot more peaceful and all-encompassing and loving, and filled with Bliss.

The practice of surrendering is rare in some ways because it feels like dying, though it is only the death of the self-concept. But surrendering is also highly auspicious since it brings the practitioner to any one of a multitude of Paths. And as Yogi Berra says, "If you find a fork in the road, take it." Because you have to do something. Stagnation is not really a good option. Choose the path to your real Self at this fork. The other path leads in a circle the yogis call "samsara", which has the implication of wandering the same paths over and over again, which is not really an attractive idea.

Is it any wonder that one of the oldest messages from mankind's wise ones for the generations to follow and even carved into the pyramids is "Man, Know Thy Self"?

Think about it… uhm, well, no, don't. Just be.

Namaste.

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DATE: 01 Mar 2008, 5:25 am / MOOD: Sat nam

OM Shanti

I never ask people to believe what I say. In fact, I recommend you don't, because I may be wrong, or at least wrong for you. Take a look and listen only if you feel so inclined, and then, and only then, evaluate and experiment in the ways you are competent with. Use the tools you have available to you. Then make up your own mind. That is the preferred way.

Zen, Tantra, Jnana, other yogas and generally most inward-looking paths came about because of a change in the direction of the flow of investigative consciousness inherent in us all. Instead of looking for answers out there (in the world and with the mind), you look into the Self in here (away from the world and eventually without the mind).

The natural direction of the mind is outwards. Inward-looking paths turning the mind on itself change this direction 180 degrees back onto the Self. So the ideas and concepts are a little different than what the normally outward-looking individuals are used to. In fact, these ideas can seem the exact opposite, and in some ways they are. So it can be very confusing, frustrating, and initially make outward-looking people feel insecure and scared. Yet that is the echoing advice that comes to us so incessantly in one form or another throughout our lives - to somehow know or get to know your Self.

For instance, in the Bible it is said that you must give up your life in order to live. Here is the quote from Matthew 10:39 (Amplified Bible): "Whoever finds his [[a]lower] life will lose it [the higher life], and whoever loses his [lower] life on My account will find it [the higher life]."

So the outward-looking to inward-looking turn can feel very much like losing ones (established, accustomed) life. You can figure for yourself which life to you is higher and which is lower in this quote – you sort of have to if you are in doubt about the path to choose.

Which brings me to the idea of "Life Between The Spaces".

Once again Zen is helpful here; it is not the frame of the door so much as it is the framed space that has great value. From the vantage of Tantra, the moment of change is much more significant than what is changed from or to. Tantrics pay much closer attention to these changes rather than the before and after of it. A fine example of pause before and after is that of your breath.

It is not the inward or outward breath that is as important as the spaces in-between them that needs attention, because there,for a moment in time, is a suspension of breath which is deeply significant and really cool to watch.

Kriya Yoga takes it even further with the slogan of "breathlessness is deathlessness". The statement, from an outward-looking perspective, is impossible to process. No breath, no life. Period. Even the inward-looking people can become confused. But consider the line from the Kena Upanishad: "That which is not breathed by the breath, but that by which the breath breathes: know that to be God, not what people here adore."

Breath is just one example of a significant change we should be more aware of when studying the Self in an inward-looking manner, but there are many other changes both evident and not so evident, obvious and not so obvious.

The change from one season to another is truly only a miniscule part of a second. So are the solstices. Day turns into night at a very particular instant, and from asleep to awake for us is a matter of mere seconds.

Most of these changes are not all that frequent and we really don't think of them much or tune into their times of change a such, but two of these changing things are very common and very near us, and they present us with some of the greatest opportunities to attempt to lay hold of the Now, which is where the Self resides.

The first one is the breath. We breathe 21,600 times a day, so it seems we could set aside a few of them to look at what this breath looks and feels like when it comes to the little suspensions or pauses in-between the inward and outward breaths.

The first thing you'll notice there is the silence. Mind is primarily fueled by breath, and when the breath is suspended or slowed down, the mind is slowed accordingly even though it may not seem like that to us at first.

The other really cool feeling is the immediacy of that period of pause, as though you are closer to the Now, and the thing is, you are. Play with it a little. I think you'll be amazed.

Just imagine if we could tap into those little seconds of Now 21,600 times a day - how familiar we could have become with it! So it seems a pity that we have to creep up on the Now like this since it is always available to us, if only we could let go of our obsessions with the past and the future – or with the before and after, rather than the in-between - or as in the case of our breath, the pauses in-between our in and out breaths.

The other opportunity available to us, albeit 21,600 times less frequent, is our first waking moments when sleep changes back into the waking state. It is only a few seconds, but it is extremely valuable if we pay attention to it and use it properly.

You probably notice within seconds of waking the first thoughts entering – what time is it? What day is it? What are my duties for today? What issues remain from last night or yesterday that I have to take care of today? Thoughts come seemingly from the outside into you. Slow at first, then speeding up into the myriad within a very short time.

A great practice is for you to go to the world at that time instead of it coming in to flood you. You change the direction in a manner of speaking. Thoughts do not flood into you – you go out to meet the world. It a matter of who is in charge here - you or your world.

It's not easy to get right, but with practice it gets to work quite well. Make your last thoughts before sleep some reminder that when you wake up, you will, at least for a minute or so, not move at all and just watch the thoughts come in. Do this for a few days and then try to go out to meet the world, (all of which happens in these first few seconds after waking), which will be much more by your own proactive choice than by numb reaction.

Remember that what lies in-between all returning change – the seasons, the solstices, the days, your waking moments, and at the top and bottom turns of your every breath, is the Now.

By noticing these auspicious in-between moments we can catch glimpses of the Now and get an idea of Self in there, and perhaps even a little deja vous of the old "at home" feeling, a memory of who You are perhaps...

Check it out. If nothing else it is quite a bit of fun. Besides, what harm could it do?

Namaste.

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DATE: 04 May 2007, 12:53 pm / MOOD: Sat nam

On Becoming 100  

In the Isha Upanishad we find this sutra (verse): "Continuing to act in the world, one may aspire to be one hundred."

At first glance this line may suggest to the reader that by acting properly in this world one can hope to reach the age of one hundred, and such an interpretation is fine because it has positive connotations and urges one to act in ways conducive to a ripe old age. There is nothing wrong with such an interpretation.

But the Upanishads are Scriptures, and Scripture has layers of meaning. Living to become one hundred is the gross meaning if you want to strive to become really old. Go for it. It's a great idea and should be the goal of almost everybody. Few will argue with this goal.

But the line also has a spiritual meaning. In Vedic literature 100 symbolizes the state of enlightenment – that state where the self is experienced and seen as everything, and also, everything is seen as the self in a state of Oneness. The numbers of the 100 symbolize the outer world of phenomena or the sensory world of experience, the relative world, as one zero, the inner world as the world of the Absolute – the other zero, and the one symbolizes the state that represents the joined-together state resulting from the combination of both the relative and the Absolute (usually achieved during meditation).

So, to aspire to be one hundred, in this Upanishad, has the meaning of aspiring to be or become Enlightened. But it also leaves the seeker some helpful hints:

There are two worlds (if you like); one is relative and one is Absolute. The relative world is the world that you can sense – see, feel, hear, taste, and smell, and the very sophisticated mind that assimilates and accommodates all these details thus gathered. The other world is the Absolute – the 'world' of Oneness – in which the inner world is 'enjoyed', first, during meditation, and later, continuously.

Many practitioners, and some seekers have the idea that the mind is the 'enemy', and as such it must somehow be 'controlled' – usually by some radical measure such as mental focus or force or sitting in a sensory deprived space, or by somehow 'changing' the mind, again by mental force or by simple substitution. All of these methods, although they can be used (but only as a long stretch), they are not the suggested way of fruitful meditation at all.

Meditation is allowing your self to enjoy your inner world, and by such enjoyment, sink deeper into the world of the Absolute, and to the extent that the practitioner can achieve this, the relative world becomes less substantial in its existence and experience. The trick is to not interfere with your consciousness in meditation. No, it knows just exactly where it wants to go – it's been there before and it wants to go there again. And my Friends, the place it wants to go is home. Here home. In the Self home. To be and exist as the Absolute Self, or that which it really is all the time except for our petty little egos cutting and dividing it and calling it "I" and "me" and "mine" and thus making the Self seem like the self by dividing the Oneness of "Me" into me and not-me.

Now, although meditation – the one zero of the 100 - provides the method to achieve the Absolute (or rather regain the experience thereof), the other zero – representing the sensory relative world - must not be overlooked. It requires our full participation. You must live in this world. You have no choice really since you have a body that requires feeding and cleaning and excreting and growing and clothing and shelter. Which means you need a job, for which you need the education or the skills and training, and all the associated pain and suffering and trauma, the loves and hates, and all the emotions and thoughts… you get the idea, you know it well – it is the world out there. There is no escaping this.

What the Upanishad line tells us though is that we must not try and escape this outer world. We must embrace it (in meditation, the word is 'enjoy'), and not just some of it, but all of it. Live the full life. Don't hide from the pain or shirk your duty. Do as you must or have to, as it is required, and then, do more if you can for the sake of compassion, such as helping those in need who are really everywhere around you.

For those seekers having found some measure of competency in meditation, the temptation may be to 'escape' some of the difficulties in the outer world by means of meditation. Such action would be contradictory to the advice of the Upanishad line. You must have the full experience of the outer world. For most of us, this is really no problem, because it is all that we have (or so we believe).

For those having no experience of the Absolute, meditation is said to be the way. For those who have mastered meditation, action in the world should not be avoided. It is only through a combination of both the relative and the Absolute – the inner and the outer worlds – meditation and life – that the Totality of Oneness can be fully Realized.

Don't live only in here. If you can live competently in here, then don't ignore the outer world by shutting yourself off to the experience thereof, or as this Upanishad says, you will go into "blinding darkness".

But don't live only out there either. Learn some meditative techniques. It is really not that difficult and it requires only a desire to do so and some perseverance. Because if you live only out there, says the Upanishad, into "even greater darkness" you will go, which most of us know better than we'd like to.

The middle name of Yoga is 'balance'. So, let us not meditate all the time and let us not just 'live' all the time, but let us meditate and live equally, thus aspiring to be one hundred, attain to Enlightenment, or really, simply realize your Self.

Namaste.

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DATE: 04 May 2007, 12:49 pm / MOOD: Happy

The Watcher in the Dream

If you think back, perhaps you have had a dream that you remember, a significant one, or maybe a scary one, or even a nightmare.  Then, for some of us, perhaps for most of us, while you are having this terrifying dream, there is another consciousness in you, in your dream, that tells you that this is only a dream, and that it is ok, and that you merely have to go through the nightmare. 

There is a dreamer inside of the dream, like a spectator almost, but one that delivers commentary to you.  So there are seemingly (at least) two entities here.  One is the dreamer experiencing the nightmare, and the other is like a sub-dreamer who is also conscious of it all, but not really experiencing the nightmare so directly, though observing it all.

Meditation leads to something like that.  You become more aware of an observer-consciousness existing inside of you.  And this observer-consciousness grows over time and becomes part of your daily life in this world as your meditation practice progresses. 

Just as the extreme terror of the nightmare is tempered by another observer-consciousness even though in the dream, so too is the reality of this life and the world somewhat tempered by the development of your own observer-consciousness.

This does not make you more or less of a participant at all, but one develops more of a tendency to see the world and your life for what it really is - a passing phase, with an underlying, more stable reality that becomes much more valuable to you. 

The effect of this is that you gain more control over affairs in your world from inside of you, even though nothing changes outside - all of that still remains the same.  But it becomes so that instead of being at the mercy of what life brings to you, you control your "reaction" to it through this insight and understanding, even though you are unable to affect things in the world in any real way.

In short, you start living from here to there - and not from there to here.  You increasingly manage your life from in here, and you are increasingly not managed by what comes from outside. So the result of meditation is that everything changes for you, and yet, nothing out here changes at all.

That is what meditation does for me, and for many others. Try it.

Namaste.

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DATE: 04 May 2007, 12:36 pm / MOOD: Happy

On Friends

 

Ah, yes, we speak of friends... You know, it more seems we have 'occasional' friends - friends for occasions and as the occasion fades, so does the friend. And so we have drinking friends, and gossip friends, and the adventurous ones, and the passionate ones, and the deep ones. We also have the righteous and spiritual ones (those that keep us on the straight and narrow, so to speak), and so on, almost endlessly.

As we move from occasion to occasion through life and time, there we find like-minded individuals to scratch our back for us, and we perhaps even return the favor some, and this is then loosely called "friendship". But, other than for the occasion, it is not a long-term relationship, and I don't believe that it always should be, because the occasion passes for one or for the other, or for both simultaneously if they are fortunate. And we all change, sooner or later, and our personal direction or pathway our evolution - is pretty much laid out for us already.

In the meeting of two individual entities, there are four items of note; the speed of evolution of each, and the direction of movement (pathway) of each. And each can usually be quite different. So, over long terms, few of these relationships really sustain the pressures of these moving differences, and we come to say "friends come and go". And they do, and mostly they should.

But while they are there, and share the same space, direction and time, they are extremely valuable to have. We too provide these friends with value, and so there is the beauty of such synchronicity, albeit temporary, and the mutual filling of needs that is experienced by both people as truly great and significant, and it is.

Misfortune comes into play when one wants to keep such friends (or even places) beyond their appointed time, and even make efforts to do so, which is like being in love with someone who really does not care for you at all but then, who wants to be in such a situation? Yet, there is the romance (the experience of synchronicity) of the relationship - or as it was shared then, and people don't really like change, so we sometimes cling with some pain and suffering before finally letting go and "moving on". From places as well, but it is clearer with those we call friends.

I suggest the pain and suffering is not always due to the now missing comrade in arms, but in the pain of the self trying to hold itself back to the past on the one hand, while reaching for and longing for evolution, which is at hand and urging, or pushing ahead with development, regardless of our perceived occasion. A "time to get out" message, so to speak.

If you have a lack of pain for what was, it is such a 'sign' that you have accepted your evolution - your natural moving on through space, time, and age. It's a good feeling to be "in" time, as opposed to before it (early and bored) or behind it (late and hurried). The feeling then is like... I am glad to be home, here home, or even deeper: I am glad to be home, Here Home.

True friends, or what we can call Friends, lead us, or at least keep reminding us, that Home is Here, and we should really try to get there.

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