Become Self-Aware | Atisha's 7 Point Mind Training

There are 2 ways to approach anything. With Thought or with Awareness. We have learned to use thought as a proxy of awareness. Our whole world is constructed out of thoughts. Even what we know about our body-mind. In this guided practice, you will learn to put your thought behind and become self-aware, pure awareness.

Transcript

A very warm welcome to all of you in this daily live meditation session with me the Hansa.

Today is 21st of June,

That's World Yoga Day.

So on this auspicious day,

My greetings and best wishes to all the yogis,

Yoga practitioners,

Yoga teachers,

Meditators and everyone who is on the path towards health,

Well-being,

Spiritual growth,

Inner peace,

Happiness,

Peace,

Love,

Joy,

Not just for oneself but for everyone else in the world.

May you take your steps further in this journey which is towards not just good for oneself but good for everyone.

In these sessions,

We are right now on point number 4 of Atishwar's 7 point mind training.

This point number 4 is all about taking the valuables from meditation and applying this to our entire life.

So here Atisha talks about the 5 strengths that arise out of meditation and how we can take these 5 strengths and apply throughout our life,

Not just for the practice and the moments of meditation but throughout our life.

Today we are discussing the last strength which is awareness.

This is one of the most fascinating phenomena that we human beings experience.

This awareness,

What we call as awareness.

It's a dimension which can be explored in so many different ways and so many different parts of it.

One can go and dive into the understanding and come back enriched.

Today I would like us to focus more on what we call as self-awareness.

What is this self-awareness and why is this so much valuable?

When we talk about self-awareness,

There is a lot of talk,

Not just in the spiritual world but in the business world,

In the corporate world,

In all aspects of life.

Now suddenly everyone wants to be self-aware.

What is the value of being self-aware?

See that you approach your life through thought,

Mainly through thought.

The entire construct of your understanding of life,

Your view,

Perception of life,

Even your own body,

Even your own mind and the entire world.

How this world is organized,

What is right,

What is wrong,

What should be done,

What should not be done,

The entire construct of life is based on thought.

And this thought that you have,

This single brick,

The single foundation of your entire world is something that not always belongs to you,

Something that is easily hacked,

That is easily manipulable.

So we need another foundation which is this self-awareness,

Which is this direct contact with the world,

Direct contact with our own body,

Direct contact with our own mind,

Direct contact with everything around us.

That direct contact with everything around us not only allows us to experience,

Have that first-hand experience of our own body,

Of our own mind and of this entire world,

But also allows us to create the understanding of what this is all about,

What life is all about,

What am I doing all this time,

Whatever I am doing in life.

Not by thought,

Not by what thought tells me and what thought I constantly tell myself,

That repetition of thought that we constantly tell ourselves which creates our worldview,

Which creates our belief,

Which creates all our convictions,

They are just repetitions and like a hypnosis.

In order to appreciate awareness you have to understand that you are hypnotizing yourself with thought.

The more you repeat thoughts the only thing that is happening is that you are falling into what can be called as a hypnosis.

Hypnosis is nothing but you falling for a pattern unconsciously,

You are unaware and somewhere you have let that suggestion,

Let that idea,

Let that thought come in and stay in you.

That is what a hypnosis is all about and that is what we are doing to ourselves,

Not only the world outside is doing to us,

But we are doing this to ourselves as well.

A wife she comes back home tells the husband,

Hey you know I had all these headaches all throughout these years,

Now they are gone.

Husband says,

Wow how did that happen?

Wife says,

I went to a hypnotist,

It was recommended by a friend and the hypnotist told me to repeat,

He said go in front of the mirror and repeat I don't have headaches,

I don't have headaches,

I don't have headaches,

I don't have headaches,

So I just constantly kept on repeating until my headaches are gone.

The husband says,

Wow that's great.

So the wife says,

You know you have been lately very dull in bed,

Why don't you see this hypnotist,

Maybe something works out for you as well.

So the husband that evening goes to that hypnotist,

Had his session,

Comes back home,

All energized,

Sees his wife,

Rips his clothes apart,

Takes the wife,

Throws her in bed and says,

Honey just wait for a second,

I come back,

You stay right here.

Goes to the bathroom,

Few minutes later he comes back and makes great love to his wife.

The wife is very happy,

Very glad to see the change,

He had never made love like that to her before.

Then the husband says,

Honey let's do it once again,

Wait a moment,

I come back.

He goes to the bathroom,

Stays there for five minutes,

Comes back,

Makes second round of great love to his wife,

The wife is even more astonished,

All satisfied and super happy to see what's happening.

The husband says,

Honey let's do that once again,

Wait here.

He goes to the bathroom,

Spends another five minutes,

Comes back and the third round is even more spectacular.

And the wife,

She's of course,

She can't believe what's all happening,

She's all tired but the husband wants to go on and so she,

This time when the husband says,

Wait,

I go to the bathroom and I come back in five minutes,

The wife follows this time to see what actually is happening in the bathroom with the husband.

So she sees what is the husband doing,

The husband is standing in front of the mirror repeating she's not my wife,

She's not my wife,

She's not my wife.

Of course,

There is some value in the lies that we live in the hypnosis that we live,

Otherwise why would we live in the hypnosis that we live.

But that is one way of living.

You can choose to live in the hypnosis or you can choose to live in the awareness where you are not living out of a thought,

You're not living out of a hypnosis but out of the direct experience of your body,

Of your mind,

Of this world,

In that living out of self-awareness,

In that living out of awareness,

There is peace,

There is tranquility,

There is happiness,

There is nothing that all these things are dependent upon.

These things are intrinsic to your nature,

Love,

Compassion,

Happiness,

Joy but we go out in the world because we are under a hypnosis,

We do this to ourselves.

So in today's session I invite you to see this first hand in your own experience,

What I'm talking about the hypnosis and the awareness,

The self-awareness.

The way to do this is when you will close your eyes,

You will not approach your body with your thought,

You will approach your body with your awareness.

Before the thought tells you I have legs,

I have hands,

I am this body,

Be aware.

What is the awareness telling you?

Is the awareness telling you that you are this body?

What is the shape of the body that this awareness is telling you?

Are you aware of your body or is it when you take your awareness inwards towards your body,

All you can be aware of is some fuzzy sense of this body.

Rest is all just a thought.

Rest all the imagination how my inner world is,

My lungs,

My ribs,

My stomach,

Everything about how we perceive our body is just coming out of our own thought.

I'm not saying that that's not a fact but I'm saying in your experience,

In your understanding,

In your view,

Don't approach it with the thought,

Approach it with awareness.

Do this to your body honestly and see what picture do you make out of your body.

Do this to your mind and see what picture do you make out of your mind and so on and approach everything first with awareness.

By living with awareness,

By having this direct contact with the body and the mind,

It is a game changer,

You will know so much more about yourself that just as an example,

Before any ill health comes,

You will know and you will be able to act before any ill health in your body comes,

Before any ill health in your mind comes,

You will know much more before and you will not have to go through the entire misery.

And the same applies to rest of the world before you get into acts where you put yourself into misery.

If you approach your life with self awareness,

You probably are not going to find yourself in those situations.

With that,

I invite you to close your eyes,

Sit in a posture that is upright and allows you to have few moments of meditation,

Of silence,

Of centered awareness.

Your hands,

Your legs don't have to be in a particular posture as long as they are at rest.

It's good.

Take a nice deep breath,

Inhale from the nose and exhale from the nose.

Turn your awareness inwards towards what we call as body.

Give yourself next minutes to silently be aware of the body.

Try not to think about your body,

Not to feel your body but become aware of your body.

With every breath,

Awareness brighter,

More towards your inner space.

And from that observe your body.

Don't try to change anything,

Allowing your body to find its natural stillness while you simply observe your body,

Not think about it,

Not try to feel it,

Approach it with awareness.

Don't try to give it shape.

If there is shape,

It's fine,

If there is no shape,

It's also fine.

Just observe your body with awareness.

Good.

Thank you.

With every breath,

There is more stillness,

More silence,

More awareness.

In this awareness,

Observe your body.

In this awareness,

Include your mind.

In this awareness,

Include your mind.

Observe your body and mind as one.

In this awareness,

Observe your body.

In this awareness,

Observe your body.

Don't approach yourself with the thought.

Only with awareness.

Don't confine this awareness in any shape.

Allow this sense of body and mind to become shapeless as you remain aware of it.

In this awareness,

Observe your body.

Allow this awareness to expand outwards.

From yourself to wherever it goes,

Outwards.

Approaching everything with awareness.

Open,

Expanded awareness.

If you wish to stay in this silence,

In this expanded awareness,

You may keep your eyes closed and continue.

Otherwise,

Very gently and slowly,

You may open your eyes.

Maintaining this sense of expanded awareness,

This approach to everything with awareness and not with thought.

As you proceed during your day,

Maintain this towards your body,

Towards your mind,

Towards everything around you,

The approach of awareness and not of thought.

See how this changes your experience of the day.

I'll see you tomorrow at 7 am CET.

Namaste.

Reviews

Amazing as always! I wish I knew what happened to Dhyanse. He hasn’t posted in 4 years on any of his online spaces. He’s such an amazing spiritual guide!

A truly powerful meditation. Thank you