[Uma]

I've fallen 2 days behind (easy to do when you're living outside of an ashram and have a busy schedule) but no matter, it's just a stretching out of the 40 Days :) One line stood out for me:

All the purification that we do is simply to clear the mind so that the essence will come alive.
~ Sri Vasudeva (paraphrased)

This morning's talk is a reminder to me that purification of mind (what is called tapas in Sanskrit) is really about expansion, about opening up to all that we are, to our essence...and the really hard work for that IMHO is not done in sitting meditation but in our relationships mostly with other people (but of course also our relationship to our body cells, to our subtle bodies, to our planet, to situations especially karmic situations etc...).

To experience my essence my mind and heart need to become as light as a feather. This is probably the meaning of the ancient Egyptian idea of the soul's entry into the after life, where the god Maat puts the soul's heart on a weigh scale and compares it to a feather so the soul is able to enter heaven... heaven, essence, as light as a feather. A rock will fall but a feather will stay aloft.

Sri Vasudeva does not spend a lot of time talking about techniques of meditation except one, the technique of practicing mindful relationships with others.

He focuses on teaching us to become more aware of how centered we can stay AFTER meditation sessions whilst involved in relationships in the world (being in self-mastery in relationships). That's the really tricky part but that's where the real homework for meditation lies, and is probably the most reliable test of one's spirituality.

In relationships our mind and heart tends to contract and fall into familiar patterns...and then we've lost the benefits of the meditation. We then experience pain, sadness, victim consciousness. But when we open up to essence through relationships, interacting in relationships on a spiritual level or understanding them on a spiritual level, that's when our mind and heart expands so that next time we sit in meditation it is much easier, because there's less baggage to clear away.