Welcome to Day 10 of our 40 Day Retreat 2009.
Yesterday, I was speaking on the very exciting subject of witnessing and doing so in an expanded Field of awareness. Today, I will continue with that subject.
Training Yourself in Witnessing
I think it is extremely important to train yourself in terms of witnessing. During our discussion period yesterday I advised some of those who were there, to begin with a simple practice of repeating the mantra or an affirmation inside as you meditate and begin to observe the breathing. Of course, it is extremely good training and discipline for the mind, keeping the mind attentive, keeping the thoughts in focus. In doing that we are able to see how we can witness in a very simple event.
Train Yourself in Meditation
Yesterday, I spoke about witnessing while eating or speaking and looking at all that is happening on various levels. You can train yourself to do this whilst you are meditating. It is a good time, because when you are meditating you shut yourself off from all the visual things around you and you have time to concentrate inside without being visually disturbed.
As you begin to repeat the mantra inside or an affirmation or to focus on one thought continuously, you can actually begin to see what happens at different levels of your Being. When we are caught up in prayer or even in repeating a mantra we can think so many other things whilst we are doing it. We do not really train ourselves in witnessing properly. That simple activity if we do it for ten or fifteen minutes, trains the mind into being attentive and being strengthened by keeping one thought there. When you can do that it gives a kind of mastery, a kind of power that you need to have. This may seem like a simple exercise but it is not so simple after all because it is not so easy to do. If you sit for five minutes you can see how the mind strays.
It is a good practice if you can sit for fifteen or twenty minutes or even half an hour and being able to observe what happens at every level of your being as you do this simple task of keeping your attention on a thought and looking at what is happening to the body, to the mind and to the emotional being and what is happening even deeper than that. It is simple training but very effective.
Seeing What Disturbs the Mind
As you begin to do that simple task you will actually begin to see what disturbs the mind andwhat pulls you away from it. Those are very good things to see. They tell you a lot. You see the things that move you away from going deeper inside. You may be caught up in things about work, things about relationships, pleasure, power and you see how these things take you away from your journey inside. You tend to lose your self-mastery because you can be hijacked by so many things inside of you. You are sitting looking like you are meditating very deeply but all kinds of things are happening in the inner space. That is no kind of self-mastery. Of course we might master a posture but inside there is no mastery.
If you take my very simple advice and learn to train yourself each time you say a mantra inside. Let us say ‘Om Namah Shivaya…Om Namah Shivaya…Om Namah Shivaya…’; be attentive every time you say it with every repetition and look at everything that is happening at the same time within your Being. If your body feels tired you can begin to use the breathing ‘Om Namah Shivaya…’ and synchronize the breath with the mantra, breathe into the navel area and you find your vitality begins to increase. If you feel emotionally unstable as you say it, say it with compassion and love, when you say it just open your heart and begin to observe your emotional being, it can bring control over the emotional being as you maintain a stable emotional state while you are saying it.
Of course, if you find yourself emotionally or mentally unstable the breath is a powerful tool in helping you to stabilize emotionally and mentally and even physically in terms of vitality. Breathing is powerful; in fact breathing is called pranayama. Prana is subtle energy and it is a movement of energy inside of you as you breathe.
As you go deeper into this awareness you will become aware and as you go inside you are actually touching a part of your being that is supporting you, empowering you, and nourishing you. This is what we call the Source inside. A simple exercise can take you through different levels of awareness and Being and allow you to tap into the Source. Simple but not so simple!
How the Liberated See the World
Today, I want to bring you another dimension and that is seeing with the eyes of the wise. How do those who are liberated see the world? Those living in a higher state of consciousness how do they see the world?
I am going to quote another verse from the Shiva Sutras, this is an enlightening verse and I love the verse because it describes how I see the world, ‘Nartaka Atma’. It says that my Self is like an actor, my Self, my purest ‘I’ inside is like an actor on the world stage.
If someone was playing or acting a role in a drama the person is able to play that role so effectively that you actually believe the person is that role. Isn’t that how we feel when we look at any movie or any play? We are so taken up with the person who is acting that we do not differentiate that this person is acting. We are so caught up in the ‘reality’ of it because the person is so good in the acting.
When that person is acting they are fully aware that they are acting and they are really acting in the best way that is possible. Their inner being is seeing the whole act and they are trying to manage the whole thing so that you can believe that they are what they are portraying and the more effectively they do that the more you are taken up in the drama.
As you go deeper inside of you and as you begin to experience the different bodies inside, as you begin to experience the different levels of consciousness inside, how do you think you see the world? Just like an actor! You are able to see every level of your Being clearly physically, emotionally, mentally. You are able to see how all the roles you assume in a lifetime, they are only roles that you play.
As you touch that inner space you realize that space is different to all the other things you do because you are not the body, you can feel this is only a body that you have taken up. You can feel that your subtle or astral being is an energy body that you use to drive this physical body and you can feel that your causal body has lots of memories from the past that come up and influence you. You can feel separate from all of these even when they come to you. Then you can assume anything, you can choose any role when you are doing it; you are seeing how you are choosing the role. You can put yourself completely in the role just like an actor on a stage. That is how the enlightened sees the world.
Difference Between an Actor & Enlightened Being
Of course, when I say this, sometimes people will say if you are in this state then you are pretending because you are only acting these roles. Of course, it is a valid question.
The difference is that the person who is acting the role from an enlightened state, from a liberated state and from a more aware state, they see it differently. It is not just an act for them because they are in touch with a deeper space inside that allows them to see the world differently. They are in touch with the Source, the Being. When they look into the world they see the existence of the Source in everything. They see every other person as being in the Source. There is compassion, forgiveness and love naturally flowing from inside for everything whether they express it through their bodies or not. That is the awareness, that it is all one.
It is very natural for them to allow compassion to flow and when they do it, when they assume any role, they do so in accordance with a Higher Power. They do nothing unless they feel that this greater power is guiding them to do it.
They are not doing it for money like an actor or for fame. They are doing it because they feel that inner sanction. They align themselves completely to the task allowing this greater Self inside to flow into the task. They are watching the whole thing and they are seeing how they are just a servant of the Divine in doing it.
Although it is an act that they are doing, the Source from where the act is flowing is beyond them and they are doing it in accordance with a higher principle or law that we call the Karmic Law. They are being true to this task that is given by that higher power. They are opening up themselves so that this power can flow in and through them as they get involved in the task. They are trying to be completely in line with the Divine. That is a whole different way of acting. Not just like an actor in a normal play. This is the enlightened state of being.
Inspiration to Know More
This is how we will all feel as we go deeper inside. Some of you can feel it already. Sometimes in glimpses you get this feeling that it is all a beautiful play. The more you align yourself to what the Universe wants you to do, what this higher self wants you to do or what this higher power is drawing you to do through the law of karma, the law of cause and effect. You will actually feel great joy and fulfillment as you do it. This is a different way of acting.
It is worth every effort to begin to practice training the mind, getting the mind more attentive, mastering the mind so that it is not restless and tuning the mind to the higher self inside to be more aware of the Source and to aligning itself to the Source. In the beginning it is training but afterwards it flows naturally.
By beginning to practice self-awareness in everything you do, you are making a wonderful journey inside of you that will help you to evolve and to grow. When you stay in this state with a scattered mind, lack of true self-awareness and lack of training then you are staying in a field of misery. What can I say? That is not a place that I love. It is a place that I got out from and I am very happy that I did that at a very early age. Allow yourself to go deeper inside. Allow yourself to see the vastness of the inner world. Allow yourself to travel into a different space and this is with you every day because every day you are challenged by your world.
When you are stuck in body consciousness and in your subtle energy being, in emotion, thought and limitation, it is not a nice space to be. I am sure you will agree. There is fear, doubt, darkness, unhappiness, questions, guilt, unworthiness stress and lots of other things. Is that what you want?
When you get caught up in all these roles that are meant for you to grow that is what you get. You can perform all these roles in the perfect way if you become more aware of all the levels of your being and try to be more established in that Source, in that Being where you can connect with the Higher Self within you, the Source within you and be guided as to your roles in this life.
I wish I could say more to you. I wish I could talk again and again to try to inspire you to know more. This is important. These are important lessons for living. This is the way we develop life skills that we have not been taught in our ordinary educational institutions. These are important life skills to learn. Learn them now!
It is all about awareness. It is all about heightening self-awareness, deepening your level of witnessing, communicating with your Source, your Being, feeling that connection and manifesting the Source in everything you do in heightened awareness. Then you see with the eyes of the wise, then the Shiva Sutras come alive in the knowledge ‘Nartaka Atma’. It is only a play.
I am a player on a stage. My Atma, my soul is a player on a stage. In that awareness, I am driven by the inner power. I align myself to my duties and responsibilities in the play and I bring the inner power in everything I do. There is joy, there is satisfaction, and there is adventure in doing this.
back to top |
