Sri Vasudeva on Meditation

[Uma]

Originally Posted by TheTruth

Thanks Uma, I look forward to reading your abstracts as I'm sure do other silent but observant witnesses

I agree about the Netflix, athough I think certain shows could have an almost positive effect such as that named "Supernatural" which covers different topics, scenarios and beings. It is certainly important what mindset we possess, not only before sleep but also at the time of death. I guess they go hand in hand so do it right, and what we call death is rather an awakening.

Interestingly reading one of your paragraphs brought back a nice memory of visiting a space centre as a child, a memory that hadn't been visited in a while. Makes you wonder how many more are tucked away, it can't be all that bad I guess ;)

With your use of the word demon(s) I take it that you mean as a figurative speech, with it being your own internal negative thoughts.

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." - Matthew 6:33 KJV

Thankyou TheTruth. Your words really lifted me. <3 Yes I meant demons figuratively. Thanks for the correct quotation.

[Uma]

Yesterday (Day 8 of the 2014 40 Days Observance) Sri Vasudeva spoke a little bit about shaktipat - the descent of energy "shakti" from the higher/faster to a lower/slower source, or like the lighting of a candle using another candle, or like plugging into an outlet that is streaming energy from the Source of power for the whole universe. That is the idea of shaktipat. He is always saying that Grace is available to us 24/7 but it is we who block it out - sort of like we block the sun. So today is about troubleshooting that, it's about being receptive and open so that the grace can flow into our lives.

And for me personally, I am still into this thing of purging negative thoughts and feelings. I am learning not to repress, not to just vent either. The physical body like venting. The physical body is like a child having a tantrum. A deer after being chased by a wolf needs to shake itself, shaking off the energy of the trauma before it has had a chance to sink into the cells. I need to be especially vigilant during this sacred period of self-discipline (remembering that self discipline is really about protecting the energy and consciousness I receive in meditation). I need to be especially vigilant because I am NOT at an ashram - this has its pros and cons. I live in the ordinary world. I interact with people who live in ordinary consciousness, who are not consciously working with God, not interested in developing their full potential, or simply oblivious to it all. I am sensitive to energy. I need to protect what I have without the benefit of an ashram, and the safe environment it provides.

And yesterday, quite apart from these talks, I was reminded of the need to first process and integrate whatever the negative thought or feeling is trying to tell me or doing to me - where is it coming from? Why? What is it teaching me? Because if grace is everywhere 24/7 it is also coming through the pain. Pain is a great teacher. Maybe the greatest.

Integration means I use my intellect, and intuition, to see the painful thought or emotion from a clear objective space. This is easy to do when I am in bliss. Think about it. Have you ever fallen in love and then suddenly the world doesn't seem like such a bad place? Being in love, is intoxicating. It immunizes us to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, as Shakespeare wrote. Being is love is not so different to a heart chakra opening. Imagine living in this state all the time. I can hardly wait to see Emma Watson's new film BEAUTY & THE BEAST. I am sure it has lessons for me. I am both the beauty and the beast. Both exist in me. Why do you think these fairy tales endure through the centuries? They could only do that if they had universal appeal, and they could only have universal appeal if they touch a place within us that so deep that differences of time and culture cannot touch it.

So meditation for me is also an opportunity to remove trauma from every cell in my body. And hopefully that painful thought or feeling will not sink deeper than "cells" going into my soul's causal body, because that's when these things go so sour they turn into penicillin!

When Sri Vasudeva spoke about his experiences of shaktipat - the first one opening his Vishnua granthis at the heart and throat in 1974, and the second one opening his Rudra granthis at the brow bringing him into crown consciousness in 1978 - I remembered the ashram experiences I have had. I know what he's talking about - how a physical space can hold the energy of a Satguru - even if the physical guru is not there - and the space itself can transmit Shaktipat. And he has also taught us the formula of creating a sacred space. This is another profound concept that could be another workshop. But I know that I simply have to use every tool I've got to keep my inner world, my inner space, as sacred as possible - and also to keep my house tidy and clean physically - and to eat a purer diet...these physical things all help. But the most important one is a clean mind and a clean heart.

So he talked about openness in this way that in order to receive shaktipat, I need to have an open mind that is ready to receive, and an open heart that is ready to receive. So pure thoughts, pure feelings. Pure listening. Pure expression. The God I want to connect to is beauty, happiness, bliss, wealth, self mastery, love, joy, freedom, wisdom...so if I want to invite that kind of grace into my life, I need to express it myself. In expressing it myself, I am sending out my own shakti and inviting the greater Shakti to come towards me. So Beauty and Beast become one and the spell of maya will be broken.

Sri Vasudeva said that in our human experience we experience duality as spiritual versus secular. (That in itself is an interesting idea.) Beauty is the spiritual and the beast is the secular - this is the true idea of sin, it's just looking and falling in love with the maya, the delusion, rather than waking up. There are no demons in the world but the ones in our imagination. And it is our imagination that creates gods too. Both are blocks on the journey. But today I am not dwelling on that. Today the focus is on preparing myself, making myself ready for shaktipat so that I can receive the maximum amount I can when that portal finally opens:

"You’ll know when you are ready when you put your mind on something and there is no pull back. In the teachings that’s called वैराग्य
vairagya," Sri Vasudeva

Vairagya means "dispassion" (the idea of "not being disturbed by it"). So what is pull back? He means all that pulls us into delusion. And delusion can be all kinds of things. Anything that brings darkness is delusion. Anything that disturbs my meditation is a pull back.

So when a thought or feeling or a body ache disturbs my meditation this is a reflection of where I'm stuck, where I'm weak in my practice, where I'm not ready, where I'm blocking grace.

And the approach he advocates is not to fight with that impulse to pull back, but rather to observe it and pray or call on wisdom to know what to do, how to tackle it, and then to take the responsibility to do what needs to be done. This is a lifestyle strategy and this is a meditation practice. In the end both are one and the same.

The wisdom part of it is called विवेक viveka "discrimination" which means knowing truth from falsehood. Truth is that all is Consciousness. Energy emanates from That and manifests in the form of prana and material objects. That's truth as I know it. That is basic tantric philosophy. And Sri Vasudeva teaches that intuition that is motivated by a desire to become liberation is what becomes eventually wisdom. Wisdom takes us to the crown chakra.

Oh oh this is another long post and I haven't even got to the part I wanted to write about........

In this talk he is only INTRODUCING the idea of being ready and open to receive the abundant grace that is already within us and all around us. But the real teachings are in letting go of the blocks - the troubleshooting. I once compiled a manuscript of all this talks on meditation over a period of a decade and there was only 1 chapter on technique. The rest was all about troubleshooting the blocks!

So for me the wisdom in how to deal with the negative, the pull back and the blocks to receptivity comes from how well I can integrate the teachings - both the teachings from my guru and what life has taught me - because Life is the Guru Principle in the form of EVERYTHING. The Satguru is a manifestation of that same Guru Principle because he or she is in oneness with that same process.

When I see a picture hanging on the wall and it's crooked then that bothers me. It's like an itch. I need to straighten it. And this can be a flaw on the spiritual path. There could be a million reasons why that picture is hanging crooked. And to me, it's like Mufassa the Lion King saying to his son Simba who nearly got himself killed fighting off the hyenas...

Mufasa: Simba, I'm very disappointed in you.
Young Simba: I know.
Mufasa: You could have been killed! You deliberately disobeyed me! And what's worse, you put Nala in danger!
Young Simba: I was just trying to be brave like you.
Mufasa: Simba, I'm only brave when I have to be. Being brave doesn't mean you go looking for trouble.

I'm learning how to wait and see if the Universe wants me to straighten that picture, to be patient and to wait for the signals. Because if it doesn't that means it's not my battle to fight, it's not my lesson to learn. And this is important because as Sri Aurobindo once wrote:

"If with our hopelessly childish outer consciousness, we happened to remember having once been a virtuous banker, for instance, while we now find ourselves in the skin of a busy crook, we would be understandably confused! We are perhaps still too young to understand that our soul needed to experience the opposite of virtue, or rather that it has now opened the abscess our virtue was hiding. Evolution has nothing to do with becoming more saintly or intelligent. It has to do with becoming more conscious."

Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, Satprem ISBN 0-938710-04-4, p.107

so I'm at a stage now where I'm learning how "hell is paved with good intentions" and I need to be more in that big picture space, more in that alignment with Higher Self.

Am I making any sense? I think I may have been rambling today.

[A human Being]

Not at all, Uma, I thought you made a lot of sense! I'm just dropping by to say thanks for the thread, you write very well and I've found it very illuminating, you're really doing the forum a service by sharing the teachings, imo

[Uma]

Originally Posted by A human Being

Not at all, Uma, I thought you made a lot of sense! I'm just dropping by to say thanks for the thread, you write very well and I've found it very illuminating, you're really doing the forum a service by sharing the teachings, imo

Thanks! Good to know :)

[Uma]

The relationship between guru and disciple is a very unique one unlike any other human relationship because it is the most mystical relationship - created by the Universe to wake up the Kundalini or inner guide so that It/She/Me can bring me into my deepest, most expansive consciousness. In this talk Sri Vasudeva shared his own experiences with the outer guide (guru) who gave him shaktipat. From the start he had an energy connection with his inner guide and soon realized that his outer guide carried that same energy and consciousness as well and that their relationship was truly an inner relationship. So there was never any dependency on his part since his inner connection was so strong.

The thing is, Sri Vasudeva came into this world already having been a fully enlightened being in past life, so all he needed was a remembering - so he never lost that connection from the start. Devotees like myself have it and lose it, have it and lose it in an unending see-saw or roller-coaster, so it is a constant struggle for most of us. And the idea of the guru becomes an object of meditation for some people, which can work, as a technique, if one is a bhakti yogi type of person (a heart centered person needing to worship something - for Christians it is Christ as trimurti - Father-Source, son-Guru, Holy Spirit - Kundalini). Sri Vasudeva, although he was raised as a Hindu, never worshipped his outer guru - because he clued in right away that it was the inner relationship that was truly important - but he worshipped the Inner Guru, that guiding principle manifesting through Kundalini when it awakened in the sushumna. During Sri Vasudeva's 40 Days to moksha, he transitioned from an idolization of the Guru as Kundalini in his being, to becoming the Guru Principle itself. It is the opening of the third eye that begins this process, after the Vishnu granthi (knot) at the throat has opened.

Sri Vasudeva writes:

"…the moment the brow chakra wakes up, the moment the energy comes into the head and the brain starts to open up, we begin to feel more and more that “I am Divine!”…and we begin to feel more and more that “I am in charge of my thoughts. I can manage my thoughts.” We begin to have much more power over…using the intellect. So we need, in an energetic sense, the brow chakra. And in the sense of the brain it opens up our brain to more possibilities," Sri Vasudeva

This is really the stage where one FINALLY no longer needs the outer guru at all. It is the most advanced stage.

"The moment I felt that energy around this centre (it’s inside the brain, it’s not at this physical point [of the third eye]) a whole new shift in my consciousness came. And another tremendous shift came during the 40 Days. The 40 Days took me into the heart of this centre, the very depth of it to change my thinking from being dependent even on the idea of a guru. I lost that dependency even on the idea of a guru. It brought me into complete oneness with the guru. That was a subtle shift because even though I wasn’t dependent on the physical master, I still held the image of the physical master for reverence because it connected me to myself, and I still held on to that image and then that image had to change with me taking ownership of my space. That was my 40 Days – taking full ownership of my space." SV

According to Laya Yoga, there is actually a minor "guru chakra" that is part of the crown chakra system - but in Sri Vasudeva's teachings he is talking about guru consciousness as an awakening that happens when the third eye is opening up to crown consciousness (two different models speaking about the same thing). Guru consciousness takes us into our leadership power but to transcend even that level of "I", we have to surrender our individual power.

At this stage, I am longing for the Guru Consciousness that will take me into my own, losing all dependency on the outer guru. This is the shift I'm longing for, to come into my own power (so that I can transcend even that) - but I'm not going to be a fool who thinks she is already there when she is not. That is just delusion. So although he says,

"The outer guru is never outside of you. It’s really your own Self from deep inside relating to you with an appearance on the outside," SV

…I know that such a break from the outer guru only comes from a major shift in consciousness. And that shift comes from Grace, when I am deserving.

How will I know when I am there, when I am ready to let go of the outer guru? Sri Vasudeva gave me another clue during the guided meditation portion of the talk where in meditation we begin to connect with Source (you need to be able to feel your centre for this, to know what this Source-connection is):

"In this state you can follow any guidance that comes from within you, knowing that it is coming from the very Source of existence, if it helps you to stay in that expansive space or go deeper." SV

This was my biggest insight today. It is ONLY while experiencing those expansive moments of deep connection to Source, that I can TOTALLY trust my inner guide completely - otherwise it could be my own fantasies deluding me. There is so much clarity in that space, leaving no doubt. That is where my true Guru consciousness resides.

We have far too many false gurus in this world proclaiming themselves as enlightened. I would say some of them are partially enlightened. Too many of us are stopping short of the journey, satisfied with one spiritual experience or the other, thinking "I have arrived" (we have the free will to do that, but life will push us to go farther). Even with all this knowledge that I myself have been privy to, that I am sharing with the world, even with my experiences and siddhis, I know that I am not there yet and I'm being very honest about that. What I didn't know before was what I can trust that's coming up from inside. Now I have a better idea.

I sometimes give intuitive readings on this forum but I know that even our guides from the astral plane are not enlightened yet either. Even our spiritual guides, what some call angels, have gurus of their own. They are working on themselves on the higher planes too! Think about that! I can tell from the quality of their energy that even these guides are not in the highest consciousness of the ascended masters who come to us directly when we are ready - and they come on mass during the 40 Days to support the collective energy field. It is extremely rare when I can make a genuine connection with an ascended master who lives in the space of Source!

So I know, I have to be so careful with intuition - because it's the inner guide mixed with my own body's instinct, and causal baggage of beliefs or conditioned thinking. Intuition needs an intellect that has developed the faculty of discrimination in order to know true from false. Only then can discrimination transform intuition into wisdom, taking me all the way to the crown chakra.

I'm so grateful to know Sri Vasudeva, the man and his energy signature. I'm so grateful to have experienced glimpses of insight into what he sees and feels and knows, thanks to an awakened Kundalini. I wish that for everybody!!! But I do want to come fully into my own power - make no mistake! And I have ZERO desire to BECOME a guru myself. I am happy when people are inspired to go deeper because of something I might have said, but I don't want followers - no no no no. If you want a guru, my recommendation is Sri Vasudeva (or someone who works out best for you).

I'm so grateful to have this little insight today, another step in my journey, the insight that I need to be in that deep meditation state in order to trust the inner guidance completely…so that I am not surrendering to half truths and ego's fantasies deluding myself more. The Guru Principle is at the core of existence, not just in me or in Sri Vasudeva or in Jesus or in Buddha or in Krishna or anybody else. It is the core intelligence-wisdom residing in everything in the Universe, in that space or Source we sometimes call God (or God-Consciousness) where everything is in oneness, where all of creation emanates from and goes back into. That is the truest Guru of all.

[Uma]

This morning I noticed that I'm starting to naturally want to go to bed earlier and am rising earlier. For the past two days I've been rising at 3am all excited to do my morning meditation. I'm also more determined than ever to be more self-disciplined to maintain the pure space of the morning's meditation throughout the day because it tends to really erode by the afternoon. If I were at the ashram I would be meditating at 5am, noon and 8pm every day, going to bed at 10:00 and rising with the roosters at 4:30 (ashram schedule) So one of the things that tends to happen with this 40 Days practice is my naturally becoming more attuned to that schedule. And usually I don't bother with "religious paraphernalia" but this morning I lit a candle and some incense just because I felt like it. I love looking at the soft warm dancing fire and smelling the incense. It seems to help purify the space. I know "I felt like it" because of Kundalini's guidance from within and this Goddess Energy (this shakti of Consciousness, this Holy Spirit) is the one waking me at 3am. And because I am in geographically in daylight savings time my 3am is actually Trinidad's 4am. So Kundalini/Guru is putting me in sync over here with what is happening over there.

Sri Vasudeva teaches that this is what is supposed to happen when Kundalini is awakened and you are sincerely working on yourself.

Day 11, 2014 "The Relationship Between Inner and Outer Guru" is so packed full of really important information and uplifting meditation practice and it's ideal preparation for the 2017 40 Day experience, which starts in 2 weeks, that I'm going to stay with this one, going into it slowly, savouring every morsel. I'm going to turn this one into the mantra I keep so I am ready to get the full benefit of the 2017 40 Days.

The relationship between inner and outer guru, as I wrote about yesterday, is a profound mystical practice. But I can share my insights as I work with it on many levels throughout my day, because for me it's going to make it very natural and spontaneous in my being, which is why I'm doing it. And for you who are reading these posts, it's going to bring it home to the mundane experiences that we all have - because not everyone has access to a fully enlightened Satguru and not everyone has an awakened Kundalini. I'm thinking this way we all benefit.

This practice of guru bhakti (worship), or guru dhyana (contemplation) both lead to one-pointed focus and samadhi (bliss) and, if one is karmically ready, for moksha (liberation from reincarnation, oneness in the Light). Bhakti engages the heart chakra and dhyana engages the brow chakra. I use both. I also use Kundalini management or cocreation with awakened Kundalini. This is the Siddha/Maha Yoga path that I follow, since the Kundalini-awakened-in-Sushumna is the Inner Guru guiding me from within throughout the meditation and throughout my life.

In this marvellous, marvellous wisdom-packed talk and meditation, Sri Vasudeva has condensed everything into three basic stages. The last stage is oneness with the Guru Principle which is moksha. I can't really force that to happen. It will happen when I am ready, but I can work on the other two. And I have an idea for making the other two a part of my daily actions.

My intellect allows me to do that. We all have this ability to be in Observer or Witness while another part of us is acting in the world. We do it all the time but not consciously, not with deliberate, objective effort. And what makes this possible on a day to day basis is the self discipline that keep Kundalini moving all day long, keeps the energy high. This is what Sri Vasudeva calls that feeling of "being carried". One needs to become energy sensitive to begin to feel that.

If you have ever fallen in love, if you have ever felt your heart open up, most mothers with newborns know what this feels like, if you have ever felt so good inside your heart is all warm and fuzzy and it's like you're dancing on air all day long - that's being carried by heart chakra energy.

And we can feel that in any of the chakras, each manifesting that "being carried" feeling in its own unique way. When I'm really doing my exercises, my hatha yoga, or swimming or hiking or whatever it is, and I get into a kind of "zone" where my body is just doing it and I'm watching this happening and getting high, I mean literally high - the seratonine and dopamines and endorphins are all flooding my system, and the heat is warming my blood and my heart's pumping... that too is being carried - from my navel chakra and the other two below (the physical chakras).

And when I'm giving a reading for someone, or I'm deep into contemplating something and the intuition starts to flow and as soon as I ask a question and an answer pops into my head, and all this insight and wisdom is just coming up from somewhere deep inside...that too is being carried - through the brow chakra, maybe downloading from the crown or from my past life reservoir in my causal body, with help from my guides - both astral and causal beings and even from thoughts coming out of the most mundane things...intelligence is everywhere.

And when I'm singing or speaking and the words and music just seems to come up with a force of its own and I can't believe I said that, or I hit that high note so beautifully....that too is being carried - through the throat chakra.

But when the Guru Principle awakens inside of me, I feel directly connected to Sri Vasudeva, who is my Guru. I have asked him wherever he feels me connecting with him and he says yes he does. So this is a marvellous relationship - we live 3,000 miles apart but we can connect in this way! We are both working on this connection so that I may no longer need him at all, so that one day I will feel "I am the Guru Principle" too. When I get to that place, I will be in oneness with all of life, just as he is. We all have that potential within us. So this is my goal. And when the 2017 40 Days begin and he is doing them live with us over the internet, my connection will be that much stronger.

If you do not have a guru of your own, that's okay. When the student is ready the teacher will appear. Masters can also appear in the astral form - in a dream or while you meditate. And there is even a formula for co-creating the master's energy by co-creating a sacred space through a spiritual collective (sangha). And that's the secret of Jesus's words “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them,” Matthew 18:20 When the gathering of souls invokes the name of the Satguru (and from the Tantric point of view, Jesus was both Avataur and Satguru as a Divine incarnation of the Guru Principle), when all these souls (two or more) are doing their bhakti (worship) and dhyana (contemplation) on the Guru, on the one they want to be in oneness with - doing it together - it creates a powerful vortex of energy that sweeps everyone into it and generates the form, function and power of the master him or herself! It creates a spiritual feast for all who are hungry and thirsty to gorge themselves on. Perhaps this is what Jesus wished for during the Last Supper. There are so many mystical teachings embedded in the Bible that I have only understood properly through Sri Vasudeva's teachings. It makes me sad that priests don't know these things because they are misleading people or only given them half-truth. Even his 40 Days links him with Jesus and all the Abrahamic religions as well as Hinduism. But of course he is not affiliated with any of one them because he lives the truth of all noble paths.

Being careful what I align myself with

Stage one in today's talk was about the importance of having a guru and finding the one we need as individuals with very unique spiritual needs and goals.

On the spiritual path we begin to recognize that this earthly reality is not the only reality, that there is another one. The Hindus call this experience maya, delusion, and experience of duality. Even in the most ordinary experience I know I have a waking reality and a dreaming reality. I dream and then I wake up and later when I'm tired I go to sleep and sometimes I dream and sometimes I go to a deeper place that I don't remember dreaming in but I wake up so refreshed, it must have been a blissful experience.

"The truth is there is only inner guru no outer guru. It’s only a matter of appearance that we think that there is a guru outside there. There is no guru outside there. There is only the inner guru and what we see outside is a reflection of the inner. But because the consciousness of duality is so strong – dual “two” – the tendency is there in the illusion to think that the guru is outside. The guru is not outside and will never be outside," ~ Sri Vasudeva

This talk begins with this idea, which is really many ideas. It strikes at the heart of existence itself. Everything is delusion. I am a hologram living in a hologram. When I am in that dreamless state I am actually closer to what is real because that's my causal body, the one that is closest to Source. It's like an inert state full of potentiality, the storage room of the soul, full of past life impressions (samskaras) and seeds of intention waiting to sprout, all the hidden attachments that cause me to wake "up" into this maya world every morning.

One of the guru's "tasks" in their role as guide is to show me this hidden part of myself. And it is quite shocking to see it because that is the stuff that comes out into this world and manifests as everything I experience with my senses!

This world is like a frozen dream. I experience my universe on the inside but I think (in my delusion) that I am walking through it and it is outside of me.

How do I keep this awareness throughout my day? I'm always getting caught in the illusion. The secret is that connection. if I can't connect to Source directly, I need to hold the hand of my guru. I need to connect to his energy because it is already connected to mine. I have only to call on it and it appears in my consciousness...but only if I have been doing my guru-bhakti and guru-dhyana practice.

Sri Vasudeva gave a talk about what to look for in a guru and what to avoid. But I think many people on this forum are very close minded to having a guru so I'd like to share a different way of thinking about it. It's all about aligning yourself to someone with the qualities you admire and want to have for yourself.

It's all about aligning yourself to someone with the qualities you admire and want to have for yourself.

I'll give you an example, and this is something you can safely try at home (weather permitting). When I sit outside in Nature we have squirrels running around all the time. And when I sit to meditate as soon as I quiet my mind so there is hardly a thought coming up, these creatures don't feel afraid of me anymore and they start to come closer and closer.

Soon enough, because all this meditation over the last twenty years has brought out my psychic sensitivities, I am hearing other thoughts, not my own, but those of the squirrels!

If you think your mind is racing, you should hear the mind of squirrels! They have very twitchy, nervous, alert for danger sort of minds, constantly questioning everything around them. So now, I need to get even more centered to tune out the squirrels, but their energy is really very sweet because there is no ego in it, it's just instinct and a very simple kind of intellect operating. And sometimes I will hear the tree spirits, but usually this sort of thing happens if I am not going deep enough, if I want some insights, in which case my meditation stops short of the astral field, not penetrating into the blissful guru space of the limitless Source entering through the deepest part of the causal field. (We need the causal energy field to be able to experience Source.) (In case you're curious what the trees have told me, link.)...digressing here.

But my point is being energetically aligned with wherever my mind strays...I become connected to it, if I am not vigilant.

I've learned to be so open to people, listening without thinking of a response, the empathy becomes so huge and I'm so sensitive, that in a flash people's energies can enter into my being and I'm experiencing them as my own and then, unless the person is in love or in some other beautiful space, I'm having to clean out their baggage from my system! So vigilance through the day is so important!

That's why I'm so intent to do more check-ins throughout the day, and try to cultivate the habit of slipping into meditation practice even before I press the panic button.

Once we are sensitive and receptive to energy, and intelligent enough to realize that we are, and we want to have some sort of guidance about how to deal with this - that's when we need a guru most of all. And it's so important to select someone with the qualities you admire because you're going to soak them up energetically as well as intellectually, if you're in that open and receptive state of mind.

Doing the 40 Days practices without the protective space of an ashram and the physical (outer) guru's presence means doing extra self-discipline. So this is my goal now for the rest of this preparation period. And I'm going to just stop at Day 11 and focus on all the wonderful things in it over the next couple of days, so if you are interested, stay tuned.

That's the marvellous thing about having these 40 Days CDs (or DVDs) because I can pick any one day and stay with that one, going deeper and deeper into it so that I really become one with its teachings. Sri Vasudeva is a clear channel of wisdom and any of his teachings, every word he says, becomes to me like a mantra with the power to awaken my dormant energies and consciousness. That's why this is a sacred process.

God bless you,
Uma

p.s. Tonight, March 11, 2014 at 5:00pm (Trinidad and Tobaggo time) there will be a free live streaming on internet of Satsang with Sri Vasudeva (link). Chanting is another great tool to use on the journey both for purification and connection (more info here).

[Uma]

I just finished watching the live Satsang and I apologize for giving the wrong time (I was confused about daylight savings) - it was at 6pm Trinidad time not 5pm.

During the Satsang he spoke at length about what I just posted about! I transcribed here in case you're interested (link).

You can still watch the taped recording of the Satsang anytime you want (link). The best way is to just close your eyes. It doesn't matter if you know the chant or not, just let the rhythms sink inside (he introduces them anyway). Chanting puts me into meditation easily - whether I'm listening and not chanting, or joining in.

More on Day 11 tomorrow.

[Uma]

Purging still going on so I couldn't sleep well, had to start "late" at 5:30am rather than 3:00am. I am reminded of my last two posts and the emphasis on being careful what goes into the mind "Being Careful What I Align Myself With" and how Sri Vasudeva spoke about that last night in Satsang… so I guess that means I need to focus on this aspect today.

I have been using a mantra, as he suggested to protect my mind from the constant inundation of negative thoughts from the world around me. Of course it doesn't protect me from the inundation of negative thoughts in my own causal field, but it is supposed to keep me in that high energy state so that I am not giving power to any NEW negative thoughts. My diet is getting more and more sattvic, more pure, so my physical body has fewer issues to trouble my mind. I've also given up watching movies during this sacred period and so it's an all-out effort to keep my mind pure. I'm also attending things like church service and whatever to use the power of association focusing on the spiritual. And mindfulness throughout my day is number one, so that everything I do or come into contact with I think about as sacred. So all these are tools and there are many more.

But the tool that I'm now fascinated with is all about deepening the connection to Source through connection to the Guru Principle. I am so connected to my teacher's energy that the moment I put on one of his CDs and hear his voice, instant my Kundalini starts to warm my body and move towards the crown chakra. But I am challenged to keep that awareness all day long. It takes a while when using a mantra to charge it (same idea as charging a cellphone) so that the moment I use it in my mind, I am instantly connected to that powerful energy field that supports and carries me.

So in the meantime I have to use every tool I've got.

Thinking (if I must "think") Positive

Yesterday in my post about Day 11 of the 2014 40 Days and last night in Sri Vasudeva's talk (see last post for link to my transcript) the focus was on stuff NOT to put in the mind. So today let's turn positive and look at what to put in the mind, shall we? Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras writes that the first step in any spiritual discipline is to practice the Yamas and Niyamas, the don'ts and do's of life, to live an honourable life following whatever is "right" not "wrong", listening to that "should" voice that we call conscience (not consciousness but conscience). This brings more peace of mind during sitting meditation.

In Day 11 Sri Vasudeva teaches that the masters role model to us the best, most spiritual conduct and that we should test the outer guru at every stage to make sure the person is walking the talk! Most of all, if Kundalini moves in a way that takes me to the crown chakra whenever I tune into my guru's energy, that's the meter I use to know he is the perfect one for my growth at this stage in my life. Best, most spiritual conduct to me means the following:
✓ nonjudgmental,
✓ unconditionally loving,
✓ wise (channeling from the Light that has no ego in it),
✓ follows their own teachings (walks the talk),
✓ ever forgiving (70x7),
✓ compassion for all (and along with that, seeing all as Divine)
✓ kind,
✓ full of joy (actually radiant with it),
✓ dispassionate (anger never takes charge and is never used to harm anyone),
✓ someone I can trust completely with my spiritual growth,
✓ power of presence (his energy is like the sun entering into a space)
✓ lives in present moment consciousness (this accounts for being nonjudgmental as they never live in the past or future but look at everything with the fresh unspoiled eyes of a newborn baby)
✓ etc.

He mentioned some of these in his talk and I added a few more he has mentioned in the past. These are the qualities of a Satguru. These are the qualities of one who lives in the Source as far as a soul can live and still keep an ego of some kind because we need an ego in order to have a body.

The technique of guru-bhakti/-dhyana is simple to understand if you know what the four states of consciousness are: first you focus on the object with your love(anahata) or your mind(agyia), then you focus on the energy of the object once you feel that letting the form dissolve, then you focus on the qualities that energy emanates from letting the energy dissolve. This takes you into your causal space from which you can touch Source Consciousness. This is like the foundation formula for all kinds of practices - healing, divination, vision-boarding. It takes us through our bodies from gross to subtle-astral to subtle-causal and finally reveals Source-Consciousness. This is how mantra is used also - taking us from words to energy to qualities to consciousness. But if you don't understand any of this, then just practice the practice and the understanding will come through experience. Actually this is how I eventually understood myself!

The technique of guru-bhakti/-dhyana is simple enough to understand but takes much practice. In fact anything I focus on if it does not take me into these qualities within myself, is not worth focusing on - unless it's something really mundane and practical (like learning accounting from an accountant), but for spiritual growth, the person, image or idea I focus on has to take me into these qualities in myself. Then they are worth their salt!

But I am in the midst of a purge, a spring cleanse, a Lent… the snake sloughs off its old skin before it can emerge anew. I need to be patient with myself and trust the process, seeing nothing as wrong, nothing as negative - as Sri Vasudeva has taught me. Afterall it has taken lifetimes even to get to this point.

[Uma]

Every Sunday, in preparation for the 2017 40 Days, here is another (link)

A lovely meditation working on mind control...

My favourite part:

"The great teachers are always in a state of intuition – you know nothing so you stay connected to that which knows everything. That’s where the secret lies. The ego knows nothing but is connected to that which knows completely everything and is led to know that. The goal of the 40 days this year is to be led by the Higher Self completely and with all the power that we have to hold the ego consciousness at bay and not to become carried away by the ego. We’re going to spend 40 days in that kind practice: how to see the ego for what it truly is, how to be detached from it, and how to bring the Higher Self into being," Sri Vasudeva

[Uma]

Just sharing a short post today inspired by this (still from 2014 40 Days Observation, Day 11):

"The idea of feeling unity in the world is not to see “all as one” physically but to experience unity on the inside in the consciousness space. The energy is creating the illusion, the gross energy and subtle energies on the inside. They create the illusion of the two but when that unity comes we feel oneness beyond that separation," Sri Vasudeva

I'm trying to read this from the point of view of someone who hasn't experienced this. The idea is that creation moves out of the abstract and into the concrete:

CONSCIOUSNESS→ENERGY(NOT MOVING)→ENERGY(MOVING)→GROSS

The idea is:

INTENTION→TURNING INTO→FORM

The idea of meditation is to reverse this process:

I AM NOT THE BODY (physical)→I AM NOT THE BODY (mental/emotional)→I AM NOT THE BODY (memory/subconscious/akashic)→I AM THAT (beyond energy beyond form)

The only "observable" analogy God has given us that is within the realm of ordinary experience (that comes to mind) is ice melting first into water then into vapour. We are that which comes before even the vapour. Unity consciousness is about connecting with whatever created even the thought water.

And that's water, but to meditate on the Guru, we end up in the Source, because that's where the true Guru "lives". Where do I "live" as a soul, as a tiny piece of this Source? Part of me lives in a gross body, another part in the other bodies - but I'm just experiencing this because I have an "I", an experiencer. Really I'm none of these.

A Buddhist teacher once said we can meditate on a pen and end up in the Source. This is true, everything is connected to the Universal Source, but a pen doesn't light up my consciousness the way a guru's energy does...so on the way to the Source, I'd like to smell the beautiful flowers.

But meditation is not a conceptual process. Meditation is experiential. Energy experiences of unity are many and varied. After the energy experiences subside only the consciousness remains. My "I" changes. My world changes. That's it.

Have you ever experienced losing yourself in contemplation of something, or in worship of something? What happened? Where did you go? (I'd love to know.)