Change Is The Only Constant | Atisha's 7 Point Mind Training

This existence is changing every moment. To align with that change is to be spiritual. In this session, we meditate upon the following sutras from Atisha: Two tasks - one at the beginning and one at the end. Whichever of the two occurs, be patient. Keep the two, even at your life's expense.

Transcript

Namaste and a very warm welcome to all of you in this daily live meditation session with me,

Dhyansa.

This universe,

This cosmos,

This existence is changing.

It's always changing,

Every second,

Every minute,

Every moment it is getting into the new,

Leaving behind the old,

The past.

We may think that the earth is every year rotating,

Revolving around the sun,

But the entire system is just moving into space,

Into nowhere,

Coming out of nowhere,

Moving into nowhere,

Constantly moving,

Constantly changing.

At no moment it is stopping.

At no moment it is the same as it was a moment ago or a few moments ago or ever in history before.

Spirituality is the recognition of this change that the entire existence is always changing.

To be spiritual is to acknowledge this change,

To be in tune,

To be in alignment with this existence,

With this change that is happening every moment.

The world that we describe to ourselves,

The world as we see,

We also call it a changing world.

We also see it as a changing world,

But actually this world of perception,

This world of desires,

This world that we have constructed is never changing.

For hundreds of years it has been the same.

We only feel,

We only say that it is changing because we would like to see it changing along with the existence,

But it is the same.

The same problems,

The same miseries,

The same sorrows,

The same limitations we as human beings have been facing for generations,

For years,

For decades,

For centuries.

Just take a look at the miseries of a human being.

The same problems of power,

Money,

Sex,

Of wanting this,

Of wanting that,

Of wanting more love,

Having the preachings of compassion,

Fighting with the ego,

You name it.

The same topics across generations,

Across ages,

Across centuries and wisdom traditions have come and gone by.

People have come and gone by giving these teachings,

Making sure that at least a few of the people are uplifted,

Are taken above their normal consciousness to raise their and uplift their consciousness to see that the world never changes,

But the existence,

The cosmos,

That is what is alive,

That is what is changing and to be in line with it,

To be in tune with that changing cosmos,

Changing existence is the wisest thing in life to do.

Spirituality,

Meditation is all about that change.

To be aware of that change,

To acknowledge that change,

To be in tune with that change and when we have fallen off that,

Also to be aware that we have fallen off that change,

That movement of the universe,

The movement of the existence and to restore that alignment back with the universe,

With the existence.

In these current series of sessions,

We are going through 7 point mind training of Atisha.

We are almost at a closure where we have covered the core principles of Atisha's mind training and in the point number 7 where we are right now,

Atisha is ensuring that nothing is left unsaid,

No stone is left unturned,

So he is still giving final add on points to the practitioners of meditation that while you are practicing,

While you are establishing the practice of meditation,

Take care of some more of these points to ensure that you never lose track,

You are always in alignment with existence.

Let us go through the sutras for today.

Atisha says,

Two tasks,

One at the beginning and one at the end.

Whichever of the two occurs,

Be patient.

Keep the two even at your life's expense.

Let me repeat,

Two tasks,

One at the beginning and one at the end.

Whichever of the two occurs,

Be patient.

Keep the two even at your life's expense.

What are these two tasks which one at the beginning and one at the end has to perform?

There are two meanings to that,

One,

Atisha is talking about the practice of meditation.

The practice,

The sadhana that you set for yourself,

He is saying,

One at the beginning,

One at the end.

He is establishing a routine for you to start the day with few moments of contemplation,

Few moments of meditation,

Silence and to end the day also with few moments of spiritual contemplation,

Few moments of silence.

So,

He is giving a very set practical formula,

Practical guideline of how to establish meditation in daily life.

We in our current lifestyles,

In our current understanding of things,

Assume that everything can be made quick,

Everything can be extracted so quickly that I take a pill and life is great.

That doesn't work with meditation,

That doesn't work with spirituality.

You have to build a certain discipline and here Atisha is talking about building the discipline by having it as the first thing in the morning and having it as the last thing before you go to bed.

It doesn't have to be long,

It can be even one second of that acknowledgement.

It can be few minutes of silence,

It can be one hour of meditation.

It doesn't have to be any specific time,

Whatever time you can allocate.

But if you can start the day and end the day with few moments of meditation,

Silence,

The quality of your day,

The quality of your night,

The quality of your sleep completely changes.

So many of us,

We have sleeping problems.

Why?

Because we don't close the day.

We don't end the day with silence.

We drag along the day into the sleep and that is why there are so many sleeping problems.

We miss life during the day,

We miss the rest during the night.

Something must change.

And the change here,

Atisha,

Very practically is suggesting that begin the day and end the day with few moments of silence,

Few moments of meditation.

The second meaning is not just the practice,

But the perspective that you have towards when the day begins and the day ends.

What does it mean?

How to approach the beginning of the day,

How to approach the beginning of the night?

The beginning of the day,

Approach with freshness,

That you have a new start,

That you have a completely new beginning,

A completely discontinuity from the past.

The only purpose of sleep is to build the discontinuity,

To create the discontinuity from the past.

Sleep is not only for the body to rest,

Sleep is to discontinue the past.

You can discontinue the past every moment,

That would be the ideal state of living.

But if you are still carrying the whole day with you and in sleep,

If you don't discontinue the past,

The next day will be all loaded with the past and you will just continue and repeat the patterns.

See that our body is also changing the cells every 7-10 years and is completely renewing.

Your mind is also completely renewing,

Completely in a possibility to be afresh,

To not have any load of the past.

But that is only possible if you have that fresh beginning,

If you have that fresh start of the day and use the sleep as that instrument of discontinuity.

And when you wake up,

Make sure that you have a very fresh beginning,

A completely fresh perspective of possibilities in your daily life,

That when you begin the day,

You are completely new.

The canvas is wide open,

It's tabula rasa,

It's white,

You can paint it as you like.

If you begin your day with that possibility,

Things start to happen.

And this old,

Monotonous,

Boring,

Discontinuity that you have been carrying from the past,

The load that you have been carrying from the past will be out of your life.

And what to do at the end?

To be thankful,

To be grateful of what you had experienced during the day.

No matter how the day went,

No matter how the experience went,

If you end the day with gratitude that you are alive,

That you had that wonderful experience of life or a challenging experience of life,

Even if it's challenging,

If you are grateful to life,

To existence,

To give you the chance to experience life,

And with that,

And plus with meditative silence,

If you go into sleep,

The sleep will have a completely different quality.

It will be so deep,

It will be as if you will be reborn the next morning.

So these are the two aspects that Atisha is proposing.

One is for the meditation as a practice in the beginning at the end of the day,

And second is to have this perspective of a fresh start in the morning and having the gratitude,

The thankfulness of whatever the experience of the day was.

Secondly,

He says,

Whichever of the two occurs,

Be patient.

Meditation happens on its own accord.

You have to be patient.

You cannot force it.

You can only allow it to happen.

So please keep in mind,

Whatever happens in the moments of meditation,

Be open,

Be patient,

And let things unfold by themselves.

It doesn't matter if you are having a bad experience,

If you are having lots of thoughts,

If you are having everything out of your control,

Or you are having beautiful moments and your mind immediately moving into silence,

Allow it to happen on its own accord.

Whichever occurs,

Be patient.

Let it happen on its own accord.

Four monks,

They were sitting in a cottage.

They had determined to meditate all night long.

So in this cottage there was no light.

They put a candle in the middle and then they took a vow to remain in silence for the entire night.

They said,

We will meditate the entire night and we will not speak a word throughout the night.

They lit the candle,

They sat across the candle,

Closed their eyes.

And few moments later,

One of them opened his eyes because he saw the candle flame was flickering and the flame went off.

He said,

Oh,

The candle flame went off.

The second monk said,

Why are you speaking?

Why are you disturbing everyone?

The third monk immediately responded,

Aren't we supposed to not talk?

Didn't we say that we take a vow of silence?

The fourth one also responded,

He said,

Am I the only one who is silent here?

Be patient,

Be silent.

Don't respond to things in meditation.

Allow them to unfold on their own.

And the last point which Patisha mentions here,

Where he says,

Keep the two even at the life's expense.

Here he is just exaggerating the importance.

He is saying,

It is so important to be aware,

To be silent,

To be thankful,

To be fresh,

To have this discipline in your life that safeguard this discipline.

Be at this discipline at the cost of your life's expense.

Just trying to say that it is the most important thing in your life.

So please take it seriously.

For today's session,

We will do this in three parts.

I will chant Aum for a few times.

You will listen and if you feel like you can chant along or just simply listen and allow your body,

Allow your mind,

Allow all your energies to vibrate along with the chant of Aum to break all these patterns that you have kept and all the contractions that you are holding onto,

Allowing the vibrations to let your energies be free once again,

There will be for a few minutes and then afterwards you will sit in this contemplation that everything is changing,

You will allow your body and mind,

Everything to change,

To move,

To be free and not contracting and holding onto anything and in the last phase you will just simply sit silently.

With that please close your eyes,

Hands in your lap or on your thighs,

Your back straight,

Shoulders down,

In awareness inwards.

Nice deep breath in.

Aum.

Aum.

With every chant allow your body to open,

Allow your mind to relax and all your energies to vibrate with the chant of Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

Allow the body to change,

The mind to change,

All your energies to reorganize on their own.

Aum.

Aum.

Allow everything in you to realign to existence,

To the ever changing existence every second,

Every moment.

Don't come in the way,

Simply observe,

Witness the existence changing and you changing along tune into this change with the reverberations of Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

Let your past completely burn with the vibrations of Aum.

In a total let go of the changing existence,

Moving along with the existence.

Aum.

Simply observe the vibrations,

The sensations,

The reverberations in yourself,

In your body,

In your mind and in these moments let the change happen.

Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

You remain silent and aware and let the change happen on its own accord.

The body,

The mind,

All the energies,

Let them settle,

Let them align with the existence.

Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

Stay silent and aware.

Let meditation happen on its own accord.

Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

Aum.

If you can sit longer in this silence,

Let go of yourself completely.

You may do so on your own,

Along your own inner silence with awareness.

Or very gently and slowly you may open your eyes.

Maintaining this inner silence,

Awareness and an alignment with the existence,

The ever changing existence which we cannot stop,

Which we cannot even try to stop.

So it's futile to stop it or to hold oneself.

And as you go through your day,

Bring this sutra of remaining in this ever changing existence.

I will see you tomorrow at 7 am Central European Time.

Namaste.

Reviews

This one really resonates with me. The less I judge myself in meditation, the more I am able to just let go and let the meditation unfold as it is. Thank you ❤️

I have have been listening to Dhyanse’s meditations for many months. This is a very important one for me.

Wonderful practice. Thank you 🙏💙🙏