Chennai Visit

It was a wonderful meeting with Bodhinatha gurudeva at Chennai at the GRT Grand Hotel. Some of the key takeaways from that appointment are

• See and Love Siva in everyone, remember that each has that potential of Sivaness yet to be realized.
• Pay full attention without any internal chanting when in a conversation, this will make sure others don't feel that you are pre-occupied.
• Pay attention to the few crucial problems / complaints from the many if they are thrown at you.
• Perfection in Willpower automatically leads to direct cognition. And willpower cultivation means – finishing what you start and making sure you do things to the best of your abilities, putting more effort in every step possible. It doesn't matter if the work being done is trivial like washing a vessel, cutting a vegetable or advanced as developing software or designing a complex algorithm. Willpower can be applied equally in both.

I am also reading a book called “Effortless Meditation”. The wonderful thing I realized about it is that if a thought is coming spontaneously in your mind and if you perceive it that it came (without getting into the thinking aspects of it) then you are in stillness and in effortless meditation. The idea is to be in Effortless meditation all of the time.

Understandings from Gurudeva’s Podcasts

 

Had these Beautiful learning's from Gurudeva’s Audio lectures from Kauai Aadheenam website. Just listening them changes my life and it comes stronger every time on my psyche. Jotting down the ones which i remember and must apply

Anger management: Gurudeva speaks about anger management and says that the spiritual energy accumulated over a month’s time can dissipate in 30 seconds of anger. The power just goes into air and never comes back. To even start meditation one must be well versed in conquering anger. When we get angry we end up opening two of the lower chakras. And it takes a while for them to close.

So the soul has to be very watchful and understand that the instinctive mind and intellectual mind and the emotions are present as tools. To use them as tools and not get used by them.

My Visualization of the same:

Qualities of the soul: Gurudeva says that all the souls have the same qualities. Qualities of finding happiness in making others happy, loving and seeing Siva in each and everyone. It also has indomitable Will but the will is used as a tool in serving others and society at large and not always oneself. (which is common in folks on Anava Marga)

We believe what we affirm: Gurudeva says an affirmation which is carried out for 5 or 6 days becomes a belief. It moulds the subconscious. This is why it is said by all great observers that “what we think so we shall become”. Few affirmations taught by gurudeva is

“I can, I will, I’m capable”.

“I will be what I will to be, I will do what I will to do”

• Entering the “Guha” within oneself every once in 5 or 6 days by renouncing the externalities like computer, past and future plans etc to renew oneself.
• One of the ways to Merge with Siva is to be a good householder, provide wife and family with all that they need, so that they release the Shakti power from within, to live a conflict free existence free from the lower chakras – and then finally leading to the final merger through breath control and hatha yoga. Gurudeva warns time and again about the creation of bad karmas if a householder ignores family life and does not do his dharma by becoming too detached.
• Many lessons are repeated again and again and again by souls in the University of life. Gain the perspective of the immortal soul which has come from Siva, living with Siva and undergoing experiences in His cosmic dances of creation, preservation, destruction and finally merging with Siva.
• When you make a decision to meditate – anticipate challenges from others around you, anticipate challenges that would come from within you. If you are able to anticipate that your own instinctive elements wouldn't allow it to continue, and then persist in your meditation you might probably succeed! Don't expect the lessons from life to be easy. Its not !

Nice podcasts

 

I love the following podcasts. Downloaded them to my iPod over the weekend.

The first one is from Robin Sharma (author of “The monk who sold his ferrari)

http://www.robinsharma.com/success_podcast_ic_2.htm

And the second is my favorite from my gurudeva

http://himalayanacademy.com/audio/podcasts/

Resounding words

 

Restarted reading Merging with Siva which had been disrupted for quite some time due to externalities.

These words from gurudeva have been resounding in my brain since last night.

“We on the spiritual path must work hard at keeping ourselves detached from friends, places, habits. Only then can we keep awareness free enough to travel uninhibitedly through the sublime, inner areas of the mind.”

‘Begin to feel that observation is one of your finest faculties, one that you most cherish. It is the first faculty of the awakening of your superconscious. Mentally say to yourself many times, "I have good observation. Therefore, I am superconscious."’

“That is superconsciousness, and that is very real. More real than a table, a chair, an automobile or a person sitting next to you is this feeling of being an intense sheath of energy right in the eternal moment, with no past, no future. This is superconsciousness.”

Making today better than yesterday - everyday !

 

I Read a very Nice message from Gurudeva:

Use feeling to understand

Spiritual things you must understand with your heart, with your feeling. Feeling and thinking, working together, give you that deep understanding that you need to cognize the wisdom of the spirit. All you can do in living your life every day is to make today just a little bit better than yesterday was. You will then have confidence in yourself, so that tomorrow will be all right, too, and you won't fear the tomorrows. Why? Because in striving to make today the perfect day of your lifetime, you bring through your spirit. You allow the spirit, God, to permeate through all layers of your mind.

Putting the soul in Action

When you control your emotions, you are bringing through your spiritual being. It is only your spiritual being, your soul in action, bringing through the spirit, or bringing through God, that can control the mind. When you are living in an emotional state, you are only experiencing the mind temporarily out of control. And like anything that gains its own momentum, even if you do not control it, it will subside automatically after a period of time until it builds up again. This is all caused by subtle transgressions of natural laws of the mind, in this life and in previous lives.

Giving Generously – subtle laws

There are many subtle laws. For instance, if you are planning to do something for someone and then you decide for some reason that you won't, all of the spiritual power that you had previously brought through from your spiritual being will be coagulated and blocked by your hesitation. Then tomorrow will not be as good as today was. It will be worse.

Living in Spirit is Living in the ‘Now’

To keep your spirit flowing, always allow yourself to be in the line of understanding. In other words, do not allow misunderstanding to arise in your mind. Should misunderstanding arise, sit down, be quiet and do not get up until you understand the problem. You might have to sit for an hour. Instinctively your animal nature will not allow you to do that, but if you use willpower and persist, tomorrow will be a perfect day. Now, this is easy to talk about, and also easy to understand, but it takes a very discerning mind, utilizing the power of discrimination, to master these laws of the mind.

Purifying oneself

So, you must purify yourself. You purify yourself by being kind to others, being generous until it hurts, being benevolent, being ready to serve at all times until you are strained in serving. Put a smile on the faces of other people. Gain your happiness and your positive states of mind by making other people happy. Negative people are always worried about themselves. Positive people are concerned with the happiness of others. Be strong enough to understand, and do not allow yourself to sleep at night until you have understood the problems of the day. If you go to sleep with problems on your mind, you will go into a confused state of mind, and you will toss around and later say, "That is just the dream world" or "I had a nightmare." All you did was lose your consciousness in a troubled subconscious state. But if you practice yoga, and you sit and master each problem before falling asleep, even if it takes you several hours, you will gain enough rest for the next day, for you will have made this day a perfect day.

Seize every opportunity!

Seize every spiritual opportunity you have to advance your soul, because when you do, the reaction is glorious on you. But when you resent and when you fight within yourself, the reaction is disastrous unto yourself, because you lose the battle when you begin to fight your own inner Self. You win the battle when you begin to express yourself spiritually, when you begin to live with Siva.

Source: Himalayan Academy – Living with Siva - Life is meant to be lived Joyously

Put more energy !

Read this great advise from Gurudeva today:-

Then when we are working in our daily life, involved in external things and material affairs, the point of reference is that the energy within and the core of the energy and the Self itself are real. The key is to put more energy into each activity you are engaged in. Rather than renouncing it, really work at it. Put your whole self in it. Get enthusiastic about it. Then you are flooding more life force through the body, right from the center of life itself. Having the Self as a point of reality reference and not the material things, with the life force constantly flooding through these nerve currents, you are actually seeing what you are doing as part of the cosmic dance of Siva, as the energy of Siva flows in and through you. Through this practice you can cut through many of your deep-rooted subconscious hang-ups that were provoked in past lives without having them come to the surface, simply by creating a new habit pattern of facing and looking at yourself as a divine being performing your dharma in God Siva's perfect universe. You create the new habit patterns by doing everything as best you can, with as much forethought and as much energy as you can command. This approach will bring steady progress on the path of personal spiritual realization and transformation.

MOST PEOPLE THINK OF THEMSELVES AS REMOTE FROM GOD, BUT THE HIGHEST SOULS ARE LIVING WITH HIM EVERY DAY, NO MATTER WHAT THEY ARE DOING. THEY ARE LIVING WITH GOD, WHOM WE CALL SHIVA, WHILE WORKING, WHILE DRIVING OR performing ordinary chores. Siva is, for these remarkable devotees, closer than their breath, nearer than their hands and feet. This is the true spiritual life, which recognizes that there is nothing that is not Siva. Living with Siva is Siva consciousness. The reconciled past releases consciousness into the eternal moment in which we see Siva as the life and light within everyone's eyes. Living with Siva is living with everyone -- every reptile, fish, fowl, animal and creature, to the very smallest -- in a consciousness of the one life force within all of them that sustains this perfect universe. Truly, God Siva is everywhere. He is the energy within our mind manifesting thought. He is the thought thus made manifest. He is the light within your eyes and the feel within your fingers. God Siva is the ignorance which makes the One seem as two. He is the karma, which is the law of cause and effect, and He is the Maya, which is the substance of evolution in which we become so deeply immersed that we look upon the outside world as more real than God. God Siva is all this and more. He is the Sun, the Earth and the spaces between. He is the revealed scriptures and those who have scribed the scriptures. He is all who seek the wisdom of scripture, too.

Siva dances in every atom throughout this universe. Siva dances energetically, ceaselessly, eternally. Siva is perpetual movement. His mind is all-pervasive, and thus He sees and knows everything in all spheres simultaneously and without effort. Siva is the Self, and He is the energy we put forth to know the Self. He is the mystery which makes us see Him as separate from us. He is the energy of life, the power in the wind. He is the dissolution called death, the peace of motionless air. He is the great force of the ocean and the stillness on a calm lake. Siva is All and in all.

Our great God Siva is beyond time, beyond space, beyond form and form's creation, and yet He uses time and causes form. He is in the sky, in the clouds, in the swirling galaxies. Siva's cosmic dance of creation, preservation and dissolution is happening this very moment in every atom of the cosmos. Supreme God Siva is immanent, with a beautiful human-like form which can actually be seen and has been seen by many mystics in visions. Siva is also transcendent, beyond time, cause and space. Such are the mysteries of Siva's being.

Jai Gurudeva