You know,
When people like the Buddha and the yogis of the past put the energy forth that they put forth to cultivate their minds,
They did so in the recognition that there was a gap,
And a significant gap,
Between what they were currently able to experience at a conscious level and what their potential is,
What the human potential is.
The reason that we are still mystified about aspects of life,
For all our scientific nous and capability,
Is because of a lack of depth in our perception.
And we've filled that gap with our intellect,
And still haven't been able to reach to the very heart of the nature of our existence.
It's still just a profound mystery from an intellectual point of view.
What does the word yoga mean?
It actually means to yoke yourself to your experience.
What it means is to unify yourself to the experience that you are having.
To end the sense of separation.
Now that place where that sense of separation between what it is that we are experiencing,
Or this end of sense of separation between us and others,
You know that doesn't happen because we learn to sit quietly for ten minutes at the end of the day and watch our breath.
It's the highest of human endeavors to work towards our true potential as an expression of life.
To nurture our capacity for consciousness so that it gets close to our potential.
It's not an act of vanity to put tremendous effort into that because the very quality of your life,
Every aspect of it,
Everything that you experience from your first breath to the last,
Everything,
The quality of that will be determined by the quality of your consciousness.
And if you find your experience lacking,
It's all too easy to blame the experience that we're having,
Thinking we have to go and find something else to satisfy us.
But the truth is the reason we find our experience lacking is because the quality of our consciousness is lacking.
When we set out our hopes and dreams and aspirations and decide what we want out of life,
We just dream up what it is that we want and off in search of it we go.
Never stopping to ask ourselves whether we're truly equipped to give ourselves a good possibility or chance of success.
Quite often we have to drive ourselves so hard,
Willfully,
To achieve the things we want because there is a gap between what we want and our capacity to actually reach that place.
The real strength of character that it takes to get the best out of life in the most harmless way are not the sort of things that we put at the forefront when we work out how we should be applying ourselves and where we should be making our efforts.
Things like patience,
Determination,
Generosity of spirit,
Willingness to do,
Kindness,
Loving kindness,
Determination,
They aren't the things that we recognise as being really important to work at.
We work at our intellect,
We educate ourselves,
We make malleable our capacity to think,
But do we work at refining our character?
If we put just a fraction of the effort that we put into educating ourselves intellectually,
Into refining our character,
We might find life much more easy to navigate,
Our sense of expectation and entitlement might be much more realistic,
And we might find ourselves much more easy to please.
And these are the things that it actually takes.
When you sit on the cushion and you make the effort to actually learn to concentrate,
You realise that you can't do it,
That your mind is hugely distracted,
That the ability to totally focus on what you're doing when you start is very poor,
And yet the ability to extract the essence out of what you're doing absolutely is determined,
And depends upon your ability to totally focus upon what you're doing.
So that we would value intellect over and above the simple capacity to concentrate,
Or to sustain our effort patiently and not give up when it gets boring,
I'm not quite sure what went on there.
So don't let anybody tell you that the effort that you make to refine the quality of your mind is a waste of your time or an act of vanity,
Because it's not.
To get the most out of your conscious experience of being alive,
You need a mind that is in good order,
That is clear and bright,
And able to pay attention.
A mind that does not tire easily,
That does not give up when it doesn't get what it wants,
That is willing to work patiently to get the best out of its experience.
Learning to concentrate deeply is probably the hardest thing you'll ever learn to do.
It takes tremendous patience,
Perseverance,
Sustained effort.
By the time you've learned to concentrate,
You will have refined the quality of your mind and character.
The spirit of yogic endeavour is the spirit of refining the quality of our being at every level so that we can ennoble ourselves in a quiet,
Humble way.
Not in a way that's going to garner more attention or admiration from the next person,
But in a way that's going to allow us to enter more completely into life.
It's not something that you can do occasionally,
In that spare ten minutes at the end of the day.
It's something you have to be willing to build into your whole vision of your life.
There is not one thing in your life,
Unless you have someone who really depends upon you,
Who you need to care for,
There is nothing else in your life that could be more worthy of your effort and your endeavour than nurturing and growing and cultivating the quality of your consciousness.
People are looking for something inspiring to do.
Folk are disillusioned,
They are bored.
They're overwhelmed and they are numb and they're looking for something meaningful.
Generate a terminal velocity.
You're going to have to get back across a tipping point.
To tear asunder that veil of ignorance that has come upon us,
So you can see clearly and feel deeply again.
That capacity to be moved,
To be inspired,
We've let it atrophy,
We're a bit number than we were.
Once you start to claim it back,
Once it starts to come back online,
When you feel the calling to something higher,
Go for it.
While you are questioning the way in which you want to go,
And while you have in you this spirit of endeavour and enquiry and adventure,
Set out upon it.
See where it can take you,
Because it can take you far.
Plug yourself back in at the highest level and stay connected.
