Sri Vasudeva on Meditation

[rosannarose]

Now that is just beautiful uh and really true.
Out of subconscious thought, my mind wanders every time I draw or do something creative. I could sometimes get lost in a drawing for long time. I even tanned the left portion of my body because I had to stay in a angle to a window, hahaha.

[Uma]

I began a study of the lunar constellations in Hindu/Vedic astrology (a sidereal system known as Jyotish) some years ago and decided to share this knowledge on an open-access (free) sort of e-book I am creating on a website because I felt this knowledge was too important not to be shared with the world. Also because I invite other people who are researching the same things to contribute to it so it's co-created like Wikipedia (but not that big!).

It's really advanced stuff, yet accessible even if you know zero about vedic astrology. Some amazing discoveries about what the ancient Indias, Chinese and Mayans knew thousands of years ago and prior...

Today I wrote a post about my interpretation of Sri Vasudeva's teachings on the chakras, in case you are interested. Here's the link to it.

[Uma]

My सद्गुरू Satguru, Sri Vasudeva (lineage of Siddha Yoga / Maha Yoga)

The 40 Days Observance is an annual ashram retreat and online meditation experience hosted by my wonderful teacher Sri Vasudeva and his organization Blue Star. In 2015 I began posting my reflections about his teachings and sharing my own practice insights on Spiritual Forums. I tried to make these very profound and esoteric teachings understandable (as much as I understand them) to people not so familiar with the Sanskrit terminology and advanced meditation. I'm not trying to preach to anybody, just sharing what I knew at the time of writing the post, and looking for answers same as anybody else.

2015 40 Days reflections:
Introduction to the 2015 40 Days Observance link
Day before 40 Days Self-Mastery = World Mastery
Day 1 The Master within
Day 2 The Field behind form
Day 3 Yogic-Taoist combination technique
Day 4 Experiencing your Essence through relationships
Day 5 How Masters help us back to our centre; Who needs a Guru?
Day 6 Granthis - the Knots also Introduction to our 4 bodies/states
Day 7 The joy of moving from "doer" to "non-doer"
Day 8 Observing the power of the mind to create its reality
Day 9 The 4th state
Day 10 Centred in the Space beyond forms
Day 11 (Easter Sunday)
Day 12 Entering the Zone of pure potential
Day 13 Non-attachment as a proactive thing; Observing thoughts in meditation; Choosing thoughts wisely; Chidakasha - the space of memories
Day 14 Pranayama exercises
Day 15 Opening the chakras - what your yoga teacher doesn't know
Day 16 Prana awareness; Being fed from the inside and (Genesis 3:3)
Day 17 The crown chakra - the only one that is real
Day 18 Conversations with God; The power of sacred space
Day 19 Three brains meditation
Day 20 Mastering my lower nature; The joy of getting to know my chakras
Day 21 My heart chakra - bridge to infinity or limitation; Social function of the heart chakra
Day 22 Meditating to create a world without lawyers, policemen and doctors; spiritual vs religious
Day 23 My body is perfect for my soul's purpose; Moving prana while meditating; chakra teamwork
Day 24 Mastering sexual energy
Day 25 The tragedy of the soul in the human experience;Saraswati - the power of speech; Lakshmi - energy of the heart; Kali - the dismantling energy
Day 26 Karma is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get; Types of karma and other terminology
Day 27 Soul's relationship to the body
Day 28 The Secret to All Relationships & Freedom in Relationships
Day 29 Using the brow chakra effectively in relationships; Why cleanliness is next to Godliness; The best thought form of all
Day 30 Equipoise & letting go
Day 31 Ego battles with itself
Day 32 How to get the most out of mantra repetition

2016 40 Days reflections:
Introduction Introduction to the 2016 40 Days Observance and this video link
Night before Preparation = Better Meditation
Day 1 Seeking the Self Within
Day 2 Mind is not a Brain!
Day 3 Being Mindful of BOTH Anatomies
Day 4 That which is beyond mind
Day 5 Deepening the practice
Day 6 Piloting my plane during sitting meditation practice
Day 7 Discriminating & detached observing
Day 8 Uniting head, heart & body
Day 9 Centering
Day 10 The Guru Principle
Day 11 Meditating on the Guru
Day 12 Light my light with your light
Day 13 Observing where I'm blocked
Day 14 Oh Goddess within
Day 15 Spring cleaning
Day 16 Goal of meditation
Day 17 Keeping my private eye on my "I"
Day 18 Acknowledging Divine power & presence and letting go to it
Day 19 Breath to brow <3 the joy of pranayama & More about prana
Day 20 Mantra power
Day 21 Guru Consciousness
Day 22 Present Moment Awareness
Day 23 No Free Lunch!!!
Day 24 From knowing to flowing to flying
Day 25 Surrendering doer-ship
Day 26 Observing ego transforming
Day 27 The super-charger meditation
Day 28 Strengthening my nervous system
Day 29 Striving for Satya Yuga consciousness
Day 30 Sporting with the elements
Day 31 Gut consciousness & power
Day 32 Emotional intelligence in the play
Day 33 Spiritual Intelligence of Crown Consciousness
Day 34 Following my Joy
Day 35 Every spiritual experience is a gift that should be put to work
Day 36 The importance of moment-to-moment meditation
Day 37 Transforming karma from the inside
Day 38 Coming into my own power
Day 39 The final surrender!
Day 40 How a master transforms other people's anger
Day After Appreciating the gifts of the 40 Days
ॐ

There is more here:
2010 40 Days transcripts: link

[Uma]

Notes from Day 24 of the 2015 40 Days' Observance. I just realized I'd forgotten to write about day 24!

Mastery of sexual prana

This talk was all about the second chakra, what it's for, what its qualities. It's such a misunderstood chakra. It can control our lives if we don't learn how to manage all that lust down there. And on top of that, because corporations rule the world these days, that means advertising dollars rule media and the golden rule of advertising is that sex sells. If an advertiser can suggest that some sexual gratification is going to come out of using their product or service, it will be in their advertisement, whether subtly or very obviously. There used to be regulations controlling the kind of content advertisers were allowed to use, because the perfect advertisement creates an addiction to something, some product or service, so that you want it and think you need it. Advertisers know all the tricks - they know how to reinforce by repetition, by subliminal implanting, same as in hypnosis, how to get their message into your brain at a deep level, so deep that you unconsciously buy their stuff, so deep that you become one of their partners, sharing their stuff with other people, giving them free market research. It is happening everywhere all the time. It is because advertisers are the masters of the sexual chakra, knowing how weak people are, how we have become slaves to that primal area.

From the view point of meditation, the idea is to get unstuck. A lot of negative ideas and emotions come from the lower chakras implanting themselves in our mind and even to the point of creating dis-ease in the body. If we were not caught up in one or another of these survival thinking issues we would not need to incarnate on this earth plane to grow up.

Mastery of sexual prana is not about tantric sex. Mastery of sexual prana is about recycling this lust energy, this energy that separates us into very rigid ideas about male and female, and taking that subtle energy (prana or chi or life force) and moving it through yogic techniques or taoist techniques into another chakra higher up. That purifies it. That brings us more power and radiance and joy of life.

So how do you move lust into another chakra and change it into something more pure?

In my own practice this only works if I am able to get centered, not only to quiet my mind but to allow myself to feel so connected to the Divine I don't think about taking out the trash or paying bills or anything else. I then need to feel my chakras, to locate them, using ujai breathing, visualization, mental focus and working with Kundalini. With the lower chakras I can use muscles as well, pulling up the perineum with mula bandha to locate the first Tan Tien point in the kidneys. Then the idea is to bring it into whatever chakra you want.

Transmuted sexual energy
In the navel chakra it brings vitality, a lot of power and makes your body shine. This is great if your immune system needs a boost, or you need the support of your body for more willpower, or if you are in training for some sport and you need to conserve your core power energy. This is what is done in Mantak Chia's Taoist inner alchemy practices.

Sri Vasudeva advocates taking it even further than the navel chakra, for really balanced living. When your heart chakra begins to open you begin to be able to love others and yourself unconditionally. Sexual prana taken to the heart chakra brings a beautiful fluttery feeling there - like being in love. You see that in enlightened beings, the love that comes out of their eyes - of course they are also receiving it from the crown chakra as well. The crown is a greater heart space.

And then taking it up into the throat, our speech is more charismatic and loving and carries the vitality of the navel chakra as well.

Then taking it up further into the brow chakra, we begin to be more open-minded:

"And when that chakra is taken up in the higher consciousness of unconditional loving, no judgement, seeing the soul (or perceiving the soul in the other), when that happens it happens in a whole different change of energy awareness because then we feel the energies that create gender and we are able to move the energy differently from the gender urge that is strong. We can move pranas from there that can hold that place into an energy bind that is taking our power away and controlling us" ~ Sri Vasudeva, Day 24, 2015 40 Days Observance.

The soul is beyond gender, androgenous. It is only for the purposes of procreation that the sacral chakra needs us to experience ourselves as a gender, in cooperation with Mother Nature.

And taken up into the crown chakra, the sexual prana becomes like an intoxicating drink that makes us feel stoned. In the Vedic mythology this is called Soma, the drink of the gods.

I am telling you these things because I have experienced them. The higher the energy space I'm in when I begin, the easier it is to move these energies around. The hard work is in getting into the habit of practicing and building that high energy space. The rest is easy beezy once you get the hang of moving prana.

Happy meditating.

[itsjustaname]

Originally Posted by 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

---

I agree that whatever intangible aspect that there is of ourselves, our identity, is not necessarily localized in the brain, maybe not even in the body. However, if you study psychological science and neuro-brain science (maybe akin to your reference to Mr. PH.D I am not a bunch of chemicals) you will find sensible ways that they reason the brain is responsible for much of our psychological functioning, if not the more nebulous subjective consciousness, the feeling of what it is to be you

[Uma]

Originally Posted by itsjustaname

---

I agree that whatever intangible aspect that there is of ourselves, our identity, is not necessarily localized in the brain, maybe not even in the body. However, if you study psychological science and neuro-brain science (maybe akin to your reference to Mr. PH.D I am not a bunch of chemicals) you will find sensible ways that they reason the brain is responsible for much of our psychological functioning, if not the more nebulous subjective consciousness, the feeling of what it is to be you

Thanks for your interest in my post. I needed to rant because of the hegemony of Cartesian science that privileges matter over mind when really the functioning begins from a more subtle space. Without the soul, the brain is just a vegetable.

I have studied psychological science and neuro-brain science (I have a masters in clinical social work). And sure enough they've made a lot of interesting discoveries such as neuroplasticity, the importance of emotional engagement in psychotherapy as a change mechanism etc. I have also watched my husband's soul awareness shine as he slowly died of brain cancer and more of his real self was able to emerge, sadly as he lost consciousness of it all. He speaks to me now from the beyond.

The soul needs a functioning brain because that's the hardware for interfacing mind (which is not brain) with body and also for receiving input about the environment through the five senses, so you're quite right that the brain is responsible for much of our psychological function, but without the soul-mind it could not do that. It would only react as a vegetable reacts, in as much as a vegetable has a psychology. (Well all sentient beings have consciousness but that's another topic.)

What's really fascinating to me about the body is that it's made up of 50 trillion plus or minus insect-like cells that communicate using the chemical hormones that the brain produces but that these cells also have a kind of mind of their own and our mind influences them profoundly. It is the mind that begins the process that ends with the chemicals. All the stress responses of the body producing cortisol and blood rushing out of the brain and into the limbs - some of these are automatic hard wired into the body, like a chicken body still running with the head cut off. But that's not mind.

The soul does exist beyond the physical body. I have talked to them many times. If you're interested and open to that kind of experience I can give you a reading some time.

I just get annoyed at the whole psychology field that caters to big pharma and many of whom are assuming an undeserved role of the secular priest without any real understanding of what mindfulness is yet they call themselves "experts". I know of a famous one who is also a devotee of my guru who said once that psychology is trying to psychologize spirituality, rather than admit that it all springs from spirituality. I met another, a psychologist in one of my CBT classes who was using mindfulness as an intervention yet admitted they didn't understand what it was. I just lost faith in psychology. I got totally turned off it.

But I guess eventually all paths will eventually lead to the same truth, so time may change that - even science will have to let go some of its dogma and embrace the fact that other kinds of science equally as valid do exist and the human experience is a lot more complicated that they believe. But as long as money and power are what this world is based on, that will not likely happen in my lifetime.

Mind is so so much more complex than we can imagine. So complex I've even started a research site about it, based on years of investigation into ancient cosmology related to lunar astrology. The things our very ancient ancestors knew about the mind is...well, mind-blowing! If you're interested, here's the link to it LINK.

[TheTruth]

Thanks for sharing your journey Uma, some inspiring knowledge indeed.

[ajay00]

Hi Uma,

Thank you for putting over here this insightful, informative and well-detailed thread. Brilliant effort.

[Uma]

I am back reactivating this thread to announce a brand new series of 40 Days' Observances. This is an actual retreat done in Trinidad each year at the ashram of my Satguru Sri Vasudeva, also streamed live over internet FOR FREE for a limited time so anyone can join in. (For those who are new to this, Sri Vasudeva is from the lineage of Siddha masters beginning with Baba Nityananda. This is a path ("yoga") that is focused on the transmission of higher consciousness and energy ("shakti") of transcendence through the one who possesses it in order to activate the Kundalini or Inner Guru to elevate the consciousness as far as it can possibly go in the human experience.)

For me the 40 days are never far away. I have all the recordings of Sri Vasudeva's retreats going back to 2002 and I listen to them whenever I can, whenever I need a pick-me-up, or even in the way of an oracle, just picking one at random and hearing what guidance I need to hear in the moment.

They are progressive, even when they cover the same basic material, and each year more of the divine mystery unfolds and I get new fresh new insights and a boost of inspiration to push myself onward and inward!

This year he has begun a month early preparing us for the new 40 Day Retreat in Trinidad that is streamed live. The idea is to start doing the discipline that purifies - body, mind and soul - and so receive the teachings and their energy in a deeper way.

The theme for this year is "Lifting Maya's Veil: Tips for Self-Transformation". If you'd like to hear the meditation and talk that introduces it, here is the link: LINK

I will probably share my own experiences once again as I follow the 40 Days, so this is an invitation to those of you who are interested to participate. You will also have the ability to see my progress since I have posted in the past (see my "writings" link below my signature). I love reading autobiographies of seekers of enlightenment myself, especially when they are being honest about where they're at, not preachy - and I try to be the former (please feel free to beat me over the head if I'm being the latter - I want to be free of ego impurities!).

[Uma]

Today is the first of the 40 Days of Lent. I'm using this as an opportunity to prepare myself for Sri Vasudeva's 40 Day retreat, journaling here. I feel a strong urge this year to be extra self-disciplined, more than ever before, in my spiritual practice.

I'm using the 2014 40 Days as a prequel to the 2017 40 days. This one is focused on Self Mastery. Its title was "Self Mastery - Learn How to Drive the Human Experience Masterfully from Soul Consciousness". That's my goal in becoming more self disciplined.

I am always beating myself up. "Not good enough" is a very negative mantra. On the positive side it means I strive for excellence. On the negative side it means I have no compassion for myself. In Day 1, 2014 I was thrilled to hear this:

"I always say discipline is not to restrict us. It should be to protect us, to protect the light that is growing in us. That’s why we need to be disciplined: disciplined in our actions, disciplined in our thoughts, disciplined in our feelings, disciplined in our connection we make with the Divine. And meditation helps us, spiritual practices help us – but every day in our lives there must be some kind of discipline because if there isn’t you’re going to find yourself being more and more weak, more and more divided within. Discipline is really a protection that helps us to grow in the light." ~ Sri Vasudeva

This helps me think about self-discipline in a better way. I start my day with meditation but that nice space will erode throughout the day if I don't do check-ins to maintain it. The goal is to hold on to the fruits of meditation in every moment and that's why self discipline.

I don't have to beat myself up to grow stronger. Life will do that for me. My job is to hang on to the Divine in any way I can as I strive to "be a light to my world" so that light will keep flowing my way driving away darkness.