Building Resilience Through A Personal Practice

An eye-opening, inspiring and practical discussion on how meditation can help you build resilience and access inner peace amongst the constant changes of life. So relevant and important, especially in this time.

Transcript

Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya.

Namaste and welcome.

So today I was going to talk a little bit about developing resilience.

You know we've gone through a very difficult time,

The entire world.

A lot of people have seen their lives really turned upside down.

Things have become,

You know,

We thought we were in control of everything,

We knew where our life was going.

And for many people their lives practically became upended.

And looking forward we're not quite sure how everything is going to pan out from here.

Now we see,

You know,

This great disruption in society in relation to all these protests that are going on all around the world in relation to racism.

So as individuals and as society we face many challenges.

And the big thing is how to find that place where we can live our life in the world but as they say not to be of the world.

Where we are not being battered by the storms that arise,

By all of the turmoil that suddenly may arise in our life.

I don't think anybody's life is just like perfectly level and even keeled all the time.

And of course the big question is how can we traverse this life?

How can we move through this life and actually find peace,

Actually find joy and real happiness?

It is possible to be that resilient,

To face almost any form of adversity or difficulty,

To be so well grounded that we're not really battered by these storms,

The highs and lows of the experience of life.

And it becomes possible through the development of a personal practice.

When we speak of a yoga practice we're not just speaking of asana,

That's one aspect,

But we look at yoga as an entire lifestyle,

A way of being.

And the cultivation of a personal practice means learning how to really absorb and experience the great ancient and eternal truths that are espoused by the great teachers and by the yoga texts and the Vedas,

To learn how to absorb that,

If I can put it that way,

To actually internalize it and to begin to live a different type of life.

This life will result automatically in people becoming more compassionate and showing kindness to all,

Not just those that you favor,

Even those that may consider themselves your enemies,

How you can actually feel compassion and kindness for them,

How you cannot be disturbed by even what people would see as great tragedy,

How to maintain this evenness,

How to find actual peace,

The peace that we all seek,

And to taste that happiness that we all actually yearn for.

The process of yoga not only teaches how this is possible,

But provides really practical instruction on how this can become a reality for you and I,

For everyone.

I've been practicing and teaching yoga for over 48,

49 years now and I have experienced in my own life and observed in the lives of people that have actually developed a personal practice,

How utterly transformative the yoga process is.

The foundational principle of all yoga teaching,

The thing upon which everything is based,

Is this understanding of the difference between that which is material and that which is actually spiritual.

Unfortunately many people have no really clear idea of what is spiritual.

The foundational teaching of yoga is that this body,

This external garment,

Is exactly that.

It is only a garment,

Something that you are temporarily occupying.

There will come a time when you will have to leave it.

The idea of tying an identity,

Of seeking validation,

Of seeking love,

Of seeking security in a temporary material vehicle is just not very sound.

Not only is it not sound,

It will always result in unhappiness.

Practically all of the infinite varieties of unhappiness and insecurities that people feel and experience is tied to this fundamental principle and the process of yoga is about awakening us,

Awakening ourselves to this realization that I am an eternal spiritual being,

A glorious and wonderful eternal spiritual being.

That I am different from this vehicle that I am using.

And the more a person is able to actually experience the reality of that,

This is called enlightenment and the more one becomes enlightened,

The more one experiences that reality,

The more you become free from all of the difficulty associated with life in this world.

Since ancient times this was the focus of all yogis.

Yoga was practiced for self-realization and God-realization.

That is why it was practiced.

If you can begin to learn about this profoundly wonderful spiritual truth and to begin to build a daily practice that helps you come to really experience the reality of your actual spiritual identity,

This is so utterly liberating.

It frees one from all anxiety,

From all fear,

From all trepidation.

And the principle,

Principle and most effective part of the yoga process for doing this is the process of meditation.

It is through yoga meditation that one can grow in their appreciation and gradual realization of their true spiritual identity that you will actually come to experience the reality of your true self and you will be freed from all of the baggage that comes from associating the body as the self.

And I'll just state it again and please do try to listen to this carefully.

Almost all suffering and insecurity arises from falsely identifying the body as the self.

It can never work out well for anyone.

Youth is a very temporary experience.

Good health and suppleness is also,

Yeah,

It may last for a considerable amount of time,

But it is still a limited and temporary experience.

So we really encourage people to take up this process of meditation and you'll see posted around wherever these things have been posted a number of resources that help people with tools that you can use to aid you in this journey and to come to experience the reality of this spiritual truth.

And of course the principle means will be through the process of meditation and most specifically through the process of mantra meditation.

People wrongly think that meditation is a process of calming the mind,

That if you try not to think about a lot of things and focus on one point and bring your mind under control that that is meditation.

Reality is that that is considered pre meditation.

This was one of the Ashtanga yoga processes,

Limbs of Ashtanga yoga,

The Ashtanga yoga process,

Where one practiced Pratyahara and then Dharana,

Where the mind was withdrawn from sensual experience and brought to focus in one place.

And this was done in preparation for what is called Dhyana or meditation.

It is not necessary to go through that process which is quite arduous and difficult.

In this current age in which we live the most easy,

Powerful and appropriate means for self realization is to take spiritual sound,

Mantra,

And to become absorbed in that.

I mean if you can visualize the way in which people when they go to the sacred Ganges,

The Ganga,

And standing waist deep with folded hands offering great respects,

Immerse themselves in the river and then rise up again and immerse themselves.

The process of engaging in mantra meditation,

It means we are immersing ourself in that which is purely spiritual,

Purely transcendental.

And the effect it has is that the heart and the mind become cleansed of all the dust and dirty things that have accumulated over not just this lifetime but many lifetimes.

That this transcendental sound is the purifying or the cleansing medium.

And what will happen when we engage in this process is gradually we will grow in our personal experience of the awakening of my true spiritual identity and my connecting with that.

So I would really like to beg from you that on this International Yoga Day that you consider actually exploring,

Adopting,

And beginning to practice this aspect,

This most important and central aspect of the entire yoga process because it will bring you everything that you have ever sought.

Full knowledge,

The awakening of deep spiritual knowledge,

The awakening of my true spiritual identity,

The awakening of spiritual love,

Everything that you seek from within your heart can be experienced in full through this process.

So I'd like to ask you to join me in the most joyful and easiest form of mantra meditation is called kirtan,

This kirtan.

We have someone that has received this spiritual sound through an ancient lineage and they will sing this sound.

It doesn't matter what kind of voice you have,

Whether you're out of tune or in tune,

That's all completely irrelevant.

But just the person who has received it from a lineage of great spiritual teachers will now share that by singing this transcendental sound.

And you listen,

You take it in,

You immerse yourself in it,

And then in response you repeat the chanting.

And again,

The person that is leading leads with the chanting of the mantra and everybody joins in and sings in response.

So the mantra that I will use is a very simple one,

Very well known.

It is the om hari om and I will sing this twice and then ask you to join me in responding by singing also.

Thank you.

Om hari om.

Om hari om.

Om hari om.

Om hari om.

Om hari om.

Om hari om.

Om hari om.

Om hari om.

Om hari om.

Om hari om.

Om hari om.

Om hari om.

Om hari om.

Om hari om.

Om hari om.

Om hari om.

Om hari om.

Om hari om.

Om hari om.

Om hari om.

Om hari om.

Om hari om.

Om hari om.

Om hari om.

Thank you so very much.

And I'm very happy that we could join you all in the celebration of this day.

So from New Zealand,

Wishing you well.

Namaste and turning you back over to our hosts in Australia.

Arribao.