A personal reflection on Sri Vasudeva's Day 30 of the 2015 40 Days
In meditation thoughts, feelings and body impulses arise and I am taught not to fight with them but to notice and ignore them, to stay centered. If I have been doing my homework during the day I will maintain this witness state not allowing the outside world to destabilize me. In this talk Sri Vasudeva focused on one's attachment and the tendency to judge everything is constantly at play to destabilize all relationships.
Attachments derive from liking and not liking. Judgments arise from conditioned thinking. It's a really tough habit to break. He says it's born of Nature, inside of us and that we should not attempt to kill that but to rise above it.
Sri Vasudeva emphasizes the words of Swami Vivekananda that had such a huge impact on his own spiritual journey:
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"Let go the rope that drags thee on."
~ Swami Vivekananda
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The rope is the rope of attachment and anything else arising out of mind/body to destabilize it. When I am too caught up in my likes and dislikes, that rope yanks me down to gross reality and disturbs the still waters of my inner peace. The teaching of equipoise or equanimity is called in Sanskrit Samatwam. Buddha called it "the middle way".
In meditation he said to give attention to the way prana is moving inside.
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The more you come into even mindedness the prana becomes more balanced, the breath becomes more rhythmical, and the peace becomes more evident. So you know by the condition of the breath how rhythmical, how peaceful is the quality of the mind. ~ Sri Vasudeva
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Remembering that breath and mind (intention) both carry prana, that's what I use to restore my peace when something has rocked my boat.
Unfortunately on the spiritual path, we sail out of the harbour into the the open ocean and the sea gets pretty rough - testing the seeker with everything they've got, as the stakes get higher and shore is no longer in sight!
This is when every tool becomes important, every kind of support critical. And he reminds to also open up the space to the grace of the masters, that they are in support also.
(((sigh)))