Sri Vasudeva on Meditation

[Uma]

Here is the latest meditation in preparation for the coming 40 Day retreat just uploaded today. What a treat - a wonderful guided meditation and talk:

"Protecting the transformative space through self-discipline" (40 Days 2017, March.19/17)

I take two very important things from this talk which is to remember not to be rigid with my self-discipline because as the energies shift the focus to a different chakra/area of life, I need to work with the practice that makes most sense to me (following the inner guidance).

The other is more tips and reminders about protecting the sacred space I am building within:

"One of the things of the 40 Days that was very strong in terms of guidance was the whole idea of protecting my space. I was forced within this period to seclude myself to protect my space of self discipline. I would not have done it on my own if I wasn't forced to but I was forced to. The Universe created a situation where I was forced to be secluded. Then and only then I realized the importance of really protecting your space of transformation, your transformative space, during the period of self transformation. How important it is - the company you keep; the energies you interact with; the thoughts you keep; the consciousness you keep; the practices you hold on to - they become very important and I feel blessed that the Universe forced me into a 40 Day experience of self transformation, completely blessed. I could not have done it on my own."

Sri Vasudeva, Mar.19/17

So I'm underscoring these:

best practice (for the here and now)
best company
best energies
best thoughts
best consciousness

If I do it vigilantly, I won't be forced into it by the powers that be. (You know the saying, first God taps you with a feather then he hits you with a rock.)

[Uma]

One of the greatest, if not the greatest barrier that my mind presents to my connection with Source is my belief system. It is so deep, its roots extend into the soil of my subconsciousness mind and further down into the bedrock of countless past lives. Who knows where all these beliefs came from? There is no thought that arises that is not neutral to me. Instantaneously a belief attaches itself to it, like a white blood cells enveloping an invader, because my mind wants everything to stay just as it is, even if I don't want it to.

Evidently I am not alone in this struggle:

"...Working with you I’m trying to always break your prison of belief, I’m trying to help you to break the cages that you hold yourself in:

“I cannot achieve this." "I am a failure."
"I am lonely."
"My mind isn’t working to serve me." "I’m not making contact with the Divine inside."
"Where is the Divine?"
"Why is the Guru not making it happen for me?" "Why is God not making it happen for me?”

I have to help you to break all those things to tell you: Look at your life. Look at how you think. Look at the choices you make and you will see why you are where you are. And don’t put it to God to correct it. Take responsibility. The moment you begin to SEE what life is doing to us, question, seek knowledge. It will come to you and break the system of beliefs,"

Sri Vasudeva, 2014 40 Days, Day 27

This to me is the real gift of having a Guru sort of beat me over the head from time to time, because nobody else cares enough about me or knows my causal field or is in a clear enough space to be able to see my blocks and know how to blast them open (with love). Many a dishearted devotee has run away from this process clutching tightly to their block-of-beliefs like a child to a blanky they refuse to give up.
(Interestingly Linus from the Peanuts™ cartoon strip was the most intellectual character. Beliefs have nothing to do with the intellect but intellect has something to do with how we get rid of them.)

I like having my blocks removed about as much as I like being stuck with a knife (and no I'm not a masochist)!

But it's necessary, otherwise life will do it and it could take lifetimes. No, let's get this painful thing over with now, and let me get closer to the bliss that's waiting beyond the surgery.

Beliefs are of three kinds "I know" "I own" and "I am". I can purify these into three useful beliefs:

If I believe that I know nothing, it means my mind is silent and open to receive knowledge beyond my limited thinking. It means I can know everything but only as long as my mind is not operating like some oil well dredging up my beliefs.

If I believe that I own nothing, it means every possibility is open to me, abundance can flow into my life unobstructed, I can beat the force of the planets and their trajectory of past life destiny.

If I believe that I am nothing, it means I am open to becoming Self-realized, to becoming everything. And the joy of that is losing my selfish, judgmental "I" that is so small and so contracted and experiencing the rapture of the witnessing "I" that is so huge and invincible - while still living in a physical form, that is not buried underground "dead" but while still alive.

So these three good beliefs, as I call them, are the attitude I need to take in my meditation practice, and in life. Never surrendering to oblivion, always maintaining the connection because it needs constant vigilance. Practice makes that a little easier. And of course you can use whatever trick works for YOU (mantra, mala beads, prayer, breathing, gardening - whatever it is that keeps YOU centered, YOUR formula).

"We need to be able to master the mental space to be able to make this journey back home to total freedom and also to manifest the light in the outer space masterfully, we need a powerful mind and intellect – of course, one that harmonizes with every level,"

SV

"Harmonizes with every level" means with every chakra, and with every area of life that each chakra represents. It begins with mastery of thoughts, using breath and energy awareness, and it also means learning how to witness the beliefs from which those thoughts sprouted - not stressing out about them (because that engages too much mind) but not giving them any more power.

The best time to change beliefs is when in that meditative state because I am already at the core of myself. And if I am doing my discipline I am able to change them when they are triggered. But this is harder, because this is when I'm out in the world - hence why the practice involves MAINTAINING the connection with Source that was established during the sitting meditation.

On a last note I love this so very empowering message because Sri Vasudeva encourages me to question everything I learn, even what I learn from him, to question every belief and to test every belief until I know it to be true because of my own experience. And even THEN if something comes along that challenges THAT belief, to let it go and question and be open to the new belief until it is true to me by my own experience. This is the essence of growth.

There are so many teachings about the causal field, even harnessing the power of belief to our advantage, but today this was the focus - when belief becomes an obstacle to growth and connection with Source.

[Ground]

Originally Posted by Uma

... Who knows where all these beliefs came from? ...

This to me is the real gift of having a Guru ...

Where does this belief come from? Actually being attached to the view of getting something essential from a person, guru or the like, is a flaw in the context of a grown-up ... but it's deeply ingrained due to having been born completely helpless and unable to survive without the essential help from others.
So if you want to find out where your beliefs come from you have to go back ...

[Uma]

Originally Posted by Ground

Where does this belief come from? Actually being attached to the view of getting something essential from a person, guru or the like, is a flaw in the context of a grown-up ... but it's deeply ingrained due to having been born completely helpless and unable to survive without the essential help from others.
So if you want to find out where your beliefs come from you have to go back ...

Thank you for your thoughtful question.

This sounds like a psychoanalytic perspective, that everything comes from our earliest childhood experiences. That's the point of view that mind is the brain but I know mind is not the brain. Mind is the soul's software using the hardware of the brain. Certainly those early infant and even womb experiences can and do leave huge impressions in the soul (and even in the cells). For me the root causes of belief go much farther back than that. Reincarnation is a given for me (a topic for another thread maybe).

I don't agree with you that the need for a guru is merely a "belief" (but there are all kinds of "beliefs" about what a "guru" is and that's why Sri Vasudeva spent an entire 40 Days in 2008 focusing on explaining all that). In actual fact the Guru is a principle in the universe, a guiding principle. It exists in all things. Only a self-realized being who has made the full journey is able to manifest this principle in fullness in every moment. Guru is the evolutionary principle in everything. So it is not a "belief". When Kundalini awakens in the sushumna, it is said that the real spiritual journey begins because then that Guru Principle starts to manifest inside the soul and the soul begins to express it, to become in alignment with it, to become one with it, and ultimately to transcend it. Many people who worship gurus are not even aware of this teaching so they can't tell the true from the false. The Christians know it as the Holy Spirit.

I've had the privilege of learning from many gurus. Even if you take "guru" in its most literal sense the word means "teacher" and in order to learn anything we need teachers of some kind. In life we often teach each other, and I have found that I am the best teacher when I am the best student so I try to remain open to learning all the time - keeping that stance of "I KNOW NOTHING" as much as possible so I'm open to intuition as deep as I can get. Sri Vasudeva says that we cannot give something to someone else if we don't have it in ourselves already. The best teacher is one who empowers the person to find that in themselves. And a true teacher wants only that, to empower the other, never to have dependency or "conditions".

I don't know if that is a helpful answer to your question (trying my best). :)

[Uma]

In one of Sri Vasudeva's preamble to the 2017 40 Days (I think this one's from last Sunday) he spoke about being open to Guru's guidance coming from ALL beings.

"I do believe that once we are on the journey, we are constantly being guided by the Universe but we may not be aware of it: through the voice of those around us, through the thoughts that come into the mind, through the information that comes towards us – that we can actually see, if we have the right consciousness, that we are constantly being guided in very magical ways," SV

This is what a lot of people nowadays call experiences of synchronicity. My day is really magical when I pay attention to guidance as I try to connect the dots and make sense of the symbolism coming at me from all directions.

But this one is the most potent kind:

"And the Universe may choose the most ignorant person because they are so driven by everything around them and they are not Self-driven. So the universe can choose people right around us to give guidance without the person even knowing that they are giving guidance. Those who are completely ignorant and driven by the world around them, and those who are completely enlightened and driven by the Self that exists everywhere – so both are very driven by the Divine, one unconsciously and one consciously. Of course, you’ll agree with me that being consciously driven or consciously guided is a more elevating experience than being guided and being ignorant of the guidance. So it’s important to have faith on the journey that that guidance is there," SV

This is the one that really shows me how far I've come, because when I get triggered by someone sending me negative vibes (you know what I mean) if I'm able to transcend that lower self consciousness and rise to the witness, reframing the experience as "GOD SPEAKING THROUGH THIS PERSON" then my whole reaction changes. The main difference between me and the one who is enlightened, is that they do instantaneously whereas with me it takes effort and it's not often easy. But the greatest learning can come this way for me.

During meditation the guidance continues on the inside. It is actually ALWAYS going on inside but the outside world tends to overwhelm the mind and ego. But when meditating this is an opportunity to explore what's happening in my inner world without any distractions. And Sri Vasudeva spoke about this too:

"As chakras opened up within me in my consciousness, I loved to work with them. It was a great joy just to open up to this guiding power within me, so I can understand very clearly the Kundalini energy in awakening is the evolutionary power. It’s continuously guiding. And so when you sit for meditation it’s extremely important to look for where this energy is playing within you, and you would find it. If you have been with me for a while you would feel that tremor of Kundalini within you and you can feel it coming up within your nature. So it’s important to look for the signs of where she is. You may want to go into your head when She wants to go into the heart; you may want to go into the head when She wants to go into the gut. And so because you’re so head driven you may not able to see that She’s trying to get you to strengthen your physical system, to open up the emotional system and strengthen the nervous system of the heart. You may completely miss it because you are so focused on the head. So it’s extremely important to open up to where She is featuring, and work from where She is working. And that has been a marvellous thing for me to be able to follow Her guidance from inside. So She’s the evolutionary power inside," SV

And finally the special kind of guidance I get from a Self-realized Master helps me to interpret - because interpretation is an art and I don't always get it right. There are things my ego doesn't want to let go of and it blindsights the guidance that is trying to get through. Those are my biggest blocks. This is where a Self-realized Teacher is essential on the journey:

..."But guidance is necessary because you may miss a lot of what is happening to you because I see it all the time in dealing with seekers. I can see that they’re not even aware of how the Kundalini is working within them or where to focus although it’s happening very much inside of them they’re not able to pick up the signs. And the moment I show them what’s happening inside or tell them what’s happening inside, the journey just changes. So it’s extremely important to be guided in the best way. So we need the guidance from those souls who have made the journey or who are higher up on the journey who can really give us a hand and guide us to the next steps," SV

This kind of guidance diminishes as I grow in awareness and become a more skilled interpreter. I can ask my Guru a question mentally and the answer will come to me without my having to contact the physical guide. Or sometimes he will contact me with the answer without my physically contacting him. That shows the kind of connection that is possible between student and Teacher. When the question comes from a sincere place - and of course I can do this through prayer as well - the answer always comes, whether from the inside or the outside. And I can also pray for clarification and more details, and they come as well.

A kind of perk or side effect to all of this is the psychic and mediumship development I got over the years by applying this in my life. Those people I have read for can attest to this. It's really a by-product of meditation that is focused on getting insights. The hardest person to read for is myself. That takes a lot of self-discipline, to be able to see past the things I myself am blocking.

Things are getting intense as we near the start of the 2017 40 Days, which begins on March 25th (Saturday) as I notice more and more how everything around me begins to guide me in more obvious ways. It can be anything from the furnace breaking down to an odd bit of news in the mail to a chance meeting to a flower opening...my witnessing is heightening as I keep the discipline of this sacred period and I begin to see more as the Guru Principle guides me back home.

[Miss Hepburn]

What a breath of fresh air.

[Ground]

Originally Posted by Uma

I don't know if that is a helpful answer to your question (trying my best). :)

Since I provided the answer to my question immediately following it my question is to be called a 'rhetorical question'.

[Uma]

HAPPY SPRINGTIME :) ....................................

[Uma]

Since tomorrow Sri Vasudeva will begin the 2017 40 Days talks I am ending my preparatory contemplations with Day 40 of the 2014 40 Days, entitled "The Ultimate Secret to Self Mastery".

He spoke about the great teacher Pantajali who said that yoga means “union of individual self and Higher Self – atma: Paramatma", and that to make that union of identification with Higher Self, "your consciousness field needs to be cleaned of all its fluctuations". I've written about this in past reflections. As identity drops away the grosser energies of the body and mind and ego, only purity remains. This is not really a nothingness but a stepping into a new dimension that is actually the highest one, the pure witness space, the mountain top view of everything. For this to manifest the mind needs to become silent so that grace can lift the soul to this new vantage point. Once there the thoughts can be generated again, but they become different "When waves are created from that space they are in harmony with everything. They are created from silence, from beauty, from purity." There is still an "I", a seer, a witness, and there is still an active "I" acting in the world, but it is an integrated "I" that is pure only coming from the highest most noble intentions.

And from that space my intuitive abilities would change from only being able to read people's minds (when they are open to that) to being able to see clearly people's intentions.

The ego is very clever in hiding its true intentions, even my own ego hides its true intentions from myself if I am not being vigilant in observation mode:

"You know (when you really begin to observe) every time you are operating from that ego-driven self, not from Higher Self. If you observe your speech when speech is coming from that Selfless space it comes in the way of uplifting others. Even if it’s strong but the intention is so pure, it uplifts even when it is strong.

When we become aware of everything that we say and see where it is coming from, we have a chance to see how it can come from Higher Self and how it can come from lower self. Higher Self always opens up the space. Lower self brings contraction."
Sri Vasudeva

Recently the Universe brought me into contact with one person who was clearly coming from lower self ego and another coming from Higher Self ego so it created a little drama for me to ponder. And who am I to judge? I am a mixture of both, same as anybody else. I always try to act from Higher Self even when lower self is getting a little hostile inside and that's when I know I have more work to do to transform this ignorant little guy, this contracted form created by Higher Self that is struggling to surrender itself into purity. And because the spiritual battle is ultimately a game between "I" and "I" there has to be compassion. (Sri Vasudeva spoke about the Biblical Prodigal son and how his Father was so happy to have him back.)

So when I am met with adversity, some challenger or some challenge in my life, I am learning how to embrace it as coming from the Divine. He offered the most beautiful way to do this in the guided meditation part where he directed us to open the heart chakra:

"Open up your compassionate nature to the Universe. Hold all beings in your loving field. Learn to relate from the space of Higher Self. Bring your loved ones to mind and hold them there, bring your friends to mind and hold them there, bring your challenges to mind and hold them there," SV

Christ role modelled meeting evil with love, with compassion "Forgive them Father they know not what they do," even when they tried to destroy him.

Sri Vasudeva is teaching me to look at the lesson in it - why did the Universe send this challenge to me, and how can I embrace it/him/her in my heart with the same love I feel for those I adore? So I try to meet with everyone who challenges me as GOD SPEAKING THROUGH THEM, as I wrote before until the day when grace allows me to see the person as GOD themselves, a person I can truly love and uplift. And one day I will ultimately be able to have the gift of seeing people's intentions (as Sri Vasudeva does) and to know that behind every selfish/evil/ignorant intention is a person who is suffering inside, suffering out of ignorance - and quite possibly mirroring that same suffering that is going on inside of me as I struggle to embrace the Light in fullness.

But here's the real secret... How to eliminate darkness? Give no power to darkness. It has none anyway. Instead switch on the light! Switch it on! The darkness disappears! Voila!

[Uma]

I listened to 2 talks streamed online today - one from the morning after Guru Gita chant and the other from the evening Shiva Mahimna chant. Sri Vasudeva retold The Story of Ashtavakra and Janaka (which you can google) about a sage that teaches a king about the true witnessing "I" that is beyond waking, dreaming and deep sleep states of consciousness.

Today's preambles were an introduction to the 40 Day series which begins tomorrow and Sri Vasudeva shared some of his awesome experiences of consciousness transformation as they transpired over the original 40 Days in 1978.

So this post is just to announce the upcoming series that is a wonderful opportunity to accelerate one's meditation practice in the coming of a Divine being whose presence can awakening and hasten that evolutionary energy inside.

"Tomorrow morning as I speak about the consciousness space and the ego as we begin the journey, I’m looking forward to sharing with you the experience of the pure consciousness and the featuring of the ego and to guide you every step of the way to be able to see the ego and to dismantle the power that the ego has, giving that power back to the God within, to the Self within," Sri Vasudeva Mar.25, 2017

I know that I am looking forward and this year have more time to dedicate to really working through each day's practices more thoroughly, and sharing part of my journey with you.

May our practice be fruitful and multiply.
God bless,
Uma