Sri Vasudeva on Meditation

[Uma]

Welcome to the forum rideforever

[Uma]

I'm just noticing I skipped day 12 and posted day 6 twice (((weird)))

In this talk Sri Vasudeva reminds me about tuning out the heaviness of the physical body, and tuning into the lightness of being, giving more attention to that lightness, that in turn helps to silence my mind. And giving more attention involves breathing into the heart chakra or into the brow chakra (or both), increasing that sensation of weightlessness.

No gravity. Zero point field.

When I get into that space my hands begin to float around without my consciously doing it. The weightlessness is doing it.

That's how to centre. Once I am centered in that lovely floaty feeling, I can switch the mind back on if I want to and my thoughts will have more power to manifest things magically... like mind over body healing.

Or once I am centered, that's the moment to pray to the masters for grace, to open the knots that hold me in limited consciousness. The prayer becomes more powerful when expressed in the weightless space.

That's why Sri Vasudeva calls it the space of all possibilities.
It is a zero.
Why? Because the ego is quiet. So the soul can dance free, like a baby again.

[Uma]

I will be posting again in this thread for those who wish to share in my journey of going deeper within and exploring the deepest aspects of the science of the Kundalini through the path of Maha Yoga. My thing is to try and take this, in a very practical way, into every aspect of my life. I look forward to getting support from you and to invite you to join me in sharing insights as well as our own stories of the agony and ecstasy of trying to live in a more enlightened way (as much or as little as we wish).

The 2016 40 Days Observance (March 26 to May 5) is a live interactive webcast of inspiring and profound lectures and meditations given by my own amazing teacher, Sadguru Sri Vasudeva. There will be many opportunities to join in chanting of sacred mantras as well, if you wish. And during this time you can ask him questions directly and he will answer during the conversations portion of each day.

Introduction video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u4mlwV6V_I
Programming live stream (including archival footage): http://original.livestream.com/blue_star
Website: www.blue-star.org
Snapshot overview of the 40 days experience from the 2010 observance: www.cocreatinganewworld.blogspot.ca/

[Uma]

Tonight on the magical night before the 40 Days Sri Vasudeva spoke about the importance of preparation before entering into a meditation retreat or any spiritual practice.

"Let your every breath
be a ritual of cleansing and receiving
the power of God within you."
~ Sri Vasudeva

Even with a bit of preparation I definitely get more out of my meditation practice.

I'm not much of a ritualistic person

Having been raised irreligiously (I entered into my spiritual practice through direct experience) I have learned about the power of rituals to put me into the best space for a nice and productive meditation experience. Nothing too fancy. I happen to like aromatherapy, crystals, candles, inspiring images, cushions, clean quiet places to sit or meditate in asana… all the "stuff" that automatically triggers my body to sit up a little straighter. In fact I turned my bedroom into a kind of mini spa/yoga studio. When I feel better I relax more.



It's not about Getting Caught up in the Rituals - it's about Letting Go.

If a ritual process or object doesn't do anything for me, I don't use it.

A Posture or Attitude of Reverence Invites the Masters

Being in the right frame of mind, open minded and open hearted, is my invitation to the Divine to enter my space. As my teacher said, "All true masters who have really touched you spiritually bring them to mind with all the love in your heart." I ask them to help and they do!

Do you prepare yourself and your space? I think meditation is like anything else, you get out of it what you put into it.


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Tomorrow's live talk and meditation begins at 5:15 a.m. Trinidad time.
(Here's a link to a time zone converter.) link
Don't worry if you missed it, these are archived for a limited time on the livestream: http://original.livestream.com/blue_star

[Uma]

SEEKING THE SELF WITHIN

In today's talk Sri Vasudeva introduced Maha Yoga. He spoke a bit about who we are as both Seeker and Self combined. Most importantly his talk and guided meditation itself was (as always) a means to directly experience my own God-Self!

He Gives Me Hope

He reminded me that as a seeker I can get so caught up in being stuck in one stage or another when in fact evolution itself is pushing me to evolve in consciousness whether I know it or not.

I've taken some of his comments and categorized them not just because I love to categorize (I do) but because it's helpful for me to know that while I can be progressing in one stage, I still have unfinished business in another! For me it's a reality check.

#1 Even When I am Being a Bad Girl I am Still a Seeker

"Even those who are caught up in the worldly pleasures and pursuits, they too are seekers - seekers after happiness, freedom, love, joy - just seeking in the wrong places (they will find pleasure not happiness, and together with the pleasure they will find pain)." In other words no one is ever left behind. Life teaches us as well as any master.

#2 Observation! Observation! Observation!

"We need to observe when spiritual awakening happens on our journey; we need to be able to see the signs of spiritual awakening and we need to know how to follow through with that - how to engage in the proper sadhanna or spiritual practice that this journey may be able to continue without many challenges." Simple, perfect.

#3 Remember - I Don't Have to Do This All By Myself

"Learning how to tap into that field of the master; learning how to engage in the relationship with the master - meaning how to observe your own spiritual awakening; and to observe how the outer master can awaken your inner master (that's the engagement with the outer master so that your inner master can be awakened); and learning how to journey through the different stages to your own personal freedom." A lot of information crammed in here...to really understand it you need to listen to the talk - really "listen" meaning with an open mind and receptive heart and then contemplate it turning it over and over in your mind until it makes sense.

#4 The Day Will Come When I Don't have to Do Anything Anymore

Grace is also a factor in my unfolding! When I look back at each stage on my journey after all the tough work of ploughing the field, planting the seeds, watering, waiting, weeding and finally harvesting the fruits of my labour, there was always Grace smiling like the dawn bringing me the joy of the doing, the reaping and the remembering. After all the agony and the ecstasy Grace was always there in so many forms. And when I thought I was the doer I wasn't really - Grace was doing through me.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tomorrow's live talk and meditation begins at 5:15 a.m. Trinidad time.
(Here's a link to a time zone converter.) link
Don't worry if you missed it, these are archived for a limited time on the livestream: http://original.livestream.com/blue_star

[Uma]

Day 2 03/27/16. http://original.livestream.com/blue_star

Today's talk makes me angry.
My fundamental experience of myself is that I am not a physical body but that my embodied "I" is a body of light/energy/consciousness temporarily residing in a physical body - one that it will cast off one day until it enters a new one. But most western scientists discredit this notion and the ones who speak about it are ridiculed! The subject of today's talk speaks to my frustration in living in these dark ages - in a world dominated by ignorance and power structures that control what is acceptable scientific knowledge and what is not. Or is there an uglier reason than that - because if you have mind-body awareness you can (potentially) do self-healing for free and that would threaten the trillium dollar pharmaceutical industry!

No Mr. Ph.D, I am Not just a Bunch of Chemicals!
Neuropsychiatrist and author Dr. Daniel J. Siegel gave a talk in which he said he keeps asking other psychiatrists to define "mind" and says that nobody can. That's because they are looking in the wrong place. Mind is not in the brain. Nobody can reduce me to a bunch of chemicals! Thank you Dr. Siegel for opening up this discussion!

Sri Vasudeva speaks to a fundamental concept that is sorely missing from our education system that:

"We are not the brain. The brain allows us to operate in the body from the spirituality.
so what we have in the spiritual body is a mind
and it is the mind that is influencing the cranial brain, the heart brain and the gut brain and every part of us."

There is an ancient science of the subtle body as thorough and exacting as western science is to the biological body but the world has yet to break that hegemony of epistemologies! That's why I love books like War of the Worldviews by Deepak Chopra and Leonard Mlodinow . They hit the nail on the head! Here's aother open minded approach: http://www.icrcanada.org/research/approach

Stop Distorting my Truth and Spreading Lies!
Mindfulness is very popular in the western therapy movement but it is not really understood by the practitioners! This reduction of mindfulness is focused on relaxing the body only, not going deeper than that. Jon Kabat Zinn took it from Buddism, extracted his interpretation of it and discarded the essential teachings out of which mindfulness sprang. They are doing the same thing western yoga has done to the real yoga - repackaging it into something it is not, except in the most superficial way.

Sri Vasudeva says the beginning of the spiritual journey is in discovering the existence of our subtle body:

"The first shift that happens in spiritual awakening
is that we move from physical human consciousness
into the experience of another self inside of us."

Another self inside...yes. I have had the awareness of my subtle body my whole life because I never lost it from childhood. We all have this awareness in childhood but we've forgotten. It was a miserable childhood being the only one I knew who knew this. I remember a qi qong instructor telling me that he's seen people in his class experiencing their subtle energy for the first time and it upsets their worldview so much they run out of the classroom in fear.

Peace
My rant is over. I have to accept the world as it is. And that is what these talks are about also - to live in a space where this kind of thing cannot upset me. To be reborn in self. The day will come when subtle body awareness will be the norm. There will be no more people who crucify the truth.


Happy Easter

[Miss Hepburn]

Sri Vasudeva says the beginning of the spiritual journey is in
discovering the existence of our subtle body:

"The first shift that happens in spiritual awakening
is that we move from physical human consciousness
into the experience of another self inside of us."

Very Nice!
I have been 'checking out' Sri Vasudeva.

[Uma]

Hey Miss Hepburn, nice to see you - thanks for the thumbs up

[Uma]

Day 3 03/28/16

As a follow up to yesterday's talk, Sri Vasudeva today introduced the anatomy of the subtle body - our true MIND - and how it corresponds to the physical anatomy of the brain. Lots of terminology I won't go into here.

MIND>MATTER
What excites me is the possibility of becoming so aware of my mental and physical body that I can operate all parts of them masterfully sort of like a hardware and software genius! This is the "amazing invitation of yoga" that he speaks of. It's a very practical yoga for living in the human experience! I think back to a time when I could do this to an amazing extent and lost 30 lbs in 30 days! Unfortunately I could not maintain that space of awareness. I subsequently fell from Paradise and lost that ability. But I know it's possible!

I will only quote two things he said that touched me as particularly brilliant:

"The brain itself only functions to the extent to which the soul is manifesting its intelligence." ~ Sri Vasudeva

Considering putting this on a T-shirt... So if I want to be more intelligent - intellectually intelligent, emotionally intelligent, socially intelligent, more mindful of my body's needs to keep it healthy and vibrant - I need to develop my soul qualities. That's being in the command center - the "seat of power" that he has spoken of in other talks.

MIND>MIND
And this one has to do with mastery over the subtle body:

"With spirituality you are able to use more of your brain as the chakra centers open and the spiritual center of the mind opens up more." ~ Sri Vasudeva

When the chakra centers open and the third eye of the mind opens more, then I begin to connect with an infinite stream of consciousness, intelligence and love that can power up my whole biological-mental-emotional-intellectual-social system beyond my own limited capacity. This is like reiki power. This also brings psychic powers. This is like allowing God to do the work for me. (Much more on that later.)

The guided meditation in this talk takes you through the experience of self-mastery step by step - but you need to listen to the whole talk to understand the terminology. (link http://original.livestream.com/blue_star)

[Uma]

Day 4 03/29/16

Today I realized there are 3 basic stages to deepening my meditation practice if I really want to experience That, my transcendental Source, within:*

1. Keep Asking Myself "Who Am I?"

In all your meditations you need to open up the space,
not to own anything,
not to be anything,
not to believe anything.

Opening up, in the context of today's talk, means opening my ego, purifying my ego, transforming my ego.
The enlightened realization will ultimately be "I own nothing, I am nothing, I know nothing"
or "I am everything, I own everything, I know everything".
In terms of meditation I watch my breathing but I am not my breath.
I label my breath but I know nothing about "breath".
Who is watching?
Who is asking who is watching?
self-inquiry itself takes me deeper and deeper.
But it's a bottomless pit.
The infinite That, pure conscious being is unknowable.
But I can touch it, feel it, know it is there
like the wind on my face
becoming the hurricane in my heart
and then when my mind is tired of thinking
and my heart just wants to feel...

2. Surrender Everything

Whatever you own, whatever you believe, whatever is existing there in the space, you surrender it."

realizing I cannot know God
I cannot own God
I cannot believe in God
there is nothing left but for me to surrender to the no-thingness
the "That" that springs out of no-where
when my mind gets so weary of all this thinking
when my ego is no longer interested in attaching itself to anything
it's like falling into a deep sleep while wide awake
yummy...

3. Enjoy the Bliss, When it Comes

This is the magic moment
the opportunity to catch the tiger by its tail
and go for the ride of my life!
oh Grace will you take me now?

Sri Vasudeva ended his guided meditation with a beautiful prayer that I'd like to share with you:

I don't know who I am; I just know that You are.
I don't know where I am going; I just know that You are.
I need You to inspire my mind.
I need You to drive me through this human experience.
I need my “I” to be driven by You.
You are the love that is within me.
You are the Light that spreads through my being.
You are the wisdom that manifests in my mind.
You are everything to me.
You are all that I am and more.
I cannot imagine That which You are, but I am content just to revel in your existence in me.
I am happy that you are holding me.
Oh infinite Self You are That,
Tat Twam Assi "That thou are art"
my mind cannot conceive of Your greatness
but my heart can feel Your presence of love
hold me in Your infinite being
take me through this journey of life
open my consciousness that i may feel more of Your existence in me
fill my being with Your light
and i pray that i can be aware of Your existence within me
in every moment of my existence
take away all feelings of unworthiness
because of Your existence in me I am always worthy
You make me worthy
let me never feel separate from You
let me always know that You are taking care of me
You are holding me
You are carrying me
my ego seeks only you to be renewed
i bow to you oh Supreme One
my heart my mind my body the all of me are offered to You
aum peace peace peace
∞

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*quotes are all by Sri Vasudeva from today's talk (link)