[Uma]

Day 5 Mar.30/16 link

The Challenge of Moment-to-Moment Practice
Today's talk reminded me of something Sri Vasudeva taught me many years ago - that it is more productive to practice meditation in every moment while acting in my world mindfully with only a short intensive sitting meditation, than to spend hours trying to meditate and then behave carelessly during the rest of the day. In other words it needs to be a lifestyle change not just something I do each day like brushing my teeth.

It's a lifestyle challenge to change the way I observe and listen and interact with my world. It's a challenge for me to become prayerful in every moment, to hold an attitude of gratitude in every moment, and to keep reminding myself that I am being held in a larger space than the one my little mind can conceive of, and that I am part of a Self that is much larger than the "I" that I think I am. Sri Vasudeva calls this the background against which the "I" experiences life: "That" (see yesterday's talk).

No doubt about it, the more I hold on to a meditative space from a grounded space during my day-to-day activities (in touch with my divine Self yet not floating away out-of-body), the better results I get from sitting meditation practice…and in fact it carries over to the dream state as well. In other words: I must soldier on and make this a way of life (and a moment-to-moment way of life if I want to progress faster). I guess this is what separates the serious seeker from the casual tourist. (Nothing wrong with tourism but to really get to know a country you need to live there.)

Deepening the Observer
For me, the art of meditation begins with learning how to deepen the observer part of me. The deeper my observer, the more power I have to manage myself and my world, the more connected I feel to the infinite. The Masters give us the macro lenses and the telephoto lenses when we are deserving.

I am sure there is a lot more to come in his talks about the art of observation because once you start meditating you realize there is an awful lot going on behind the scenes! For starters the physical body starts to complain - it complains all the time, like a spoiled or neglected child - I'm hungry, I'm tired, I'm bored… And noticing all the chatter in the mind like a hailstorm of thoughts… and feeling your feelings, the emotions rising and ebbing like waves on the shore… and for those of us who are sensitive to energy, noticing what else is happening on a subtle level... The list of things to observe seems endless.

Wouldn't all this looking just overwhelm me? I think of Austism and the torture that over stimulation of the senses must bring to people with this disorder. This is where centering comes in - knowing my center of relaxation, knowing how to relax in the midst of the battle of life. That's the key to it all - to the practice of meditation in the moment. It's about having a magic pause button where I can freeze the action in the moment and take an inventory of how I am feeling, thinking, where my observer is placed, what's going on around me, what's going on inside of me etc. etc. etc. and then when I see more possibilities, that brings relief, objectivity, self-mastery and I can push play again.

This practice is what eventually comes naturally to the enlightened ones. Enlightenment is a gradual process. Doing the practice helps bring it on. He said it during the guided meditation:

I open my mind and heart to be carried
to be held
to be supported
I know I am already held
I simply want to be aware of it
~ Sri Vasudeva

Becoming more enlightened is about being able to live in this world from a place of self-mastery where you see more possibilities and have more options and feel better about stuff...

Let me rise above the battle consciousness
that I may be immersed in Your play
as Your energies flow in and through me.
Let me be a conscious seeker
conscious of You
in me and around me.
~ Sri Vasudeva