Live Your Authentic Self | Atisha's 7 Point Mind Training

In this talk and practice, Dhyanse discusses the concept of spirituality, pointing out that it does not mean that you live the life of a monk, rather you live your own life authentically. It gives you that clarity to know who you really are and also the courage to live it.

Transcript

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

Dhyansa.

To be spiritual does not mean to live a life of a monk.

However it means to live your own life authentically,

To lead an authentic life.

But how do you lead an authentic life if you don't know who you are?

And that is why spirituality comes in,

Becomes important in life.

If you want to lead an authentic life,

If you want to lead a life of who you really are and not what the crowd tells you who you really are,

Then spirituality becomes significant.

Few minutes of silence and contemplative spirituality every morning gives you that chance,

Gives you that opening for reflection to put everything,

All the noises aside of what others are saying,

What is happening in the world.

And just be with yourself,

To be with oneself,

See what one is,

To have that authenticity,

The taste of one's own authenticity.

And then also the courage to live that authenticity,

To know oneself is one thing,

But to live oneself,

To live the authenticity of oneself is another.

Currently we are discussing Atisha's 7 point mind training which is a Tibetan-Buddhist practice called Lojong.

We are on point number 6,

The discipline of mind training.

Don't transfer the load of an ox to the cow.

That's the translation of the sutra from the practice of Lojong given by Atisha,

But what this actually means,

Especially what this actually means for our life is that take responsibility of your own life.

Don't give that responsibility to others,

To the crowd.

Don't transfer the load of an ox to the cow.

Take responsibility of your own self.

Take responsibility of the truth of your own self.

Take responsibility of the authenticity of your own self and gather the courage to live that authenticity,

That truth,

That yourself which you have discovered as a unique being and not what the crowd tells you who you are.

A short story that resonates to me when I think about this topic of authenticity and living authentically.

There was once a king who had his court open for any visitors.

Came a man,

Very strange looking man,

Strangely behaving man since the court was open.

He came in,

He said to the king,

Oh king,

You have been such a big conqueror.

You have all this large empire of yours.

You are so successful,

You're so great.

Despite all this greatness,

Despite all this conquer,

The clothes that you're wearing are not of the gods.

Your status belongs to the gods because you are such a conqueror.

You are such a great king.

You should wear the clothes of gods and not of humans.

His ego was suddenly empowered.

Yes,

Actually that's true.

I should be wearing something even more special and not the clothes of humans but rather the clothes of gods.

So he said,

Okay,

Yes,

I agree to what you're saying.

So get me the clothes of gods.

This man said,

Okay,

Give me six months.

I'll get you the clothes of gods.

It will take some money.

It will take some fortune that you have gathered all this time.

But if you agree to this,

That you will not question why am I asking for this fortune and where am I taking this?

Then in six months,

I will get you the clothes of gods.

And after six months,

When everybody thought,

Now this person will run away with all this money,

So we need to be very careful and put all the guards at alert,

This person came out with a trunk,

With a box.

So they took the box.

The king was surprised and happy to see that finally,

Yes,

As agreed,

As promised,

The person is back within six months with a box which looked very special.

So the person said,

Okay,

To the king,

Can you please take your coat,

The jacket off,

Because I would like you to wear now the jacket of the gods.

So the king,

Very excited,

Took the jacket off.

The person opened the box,

Took out the jacket,

Hold it in his hands like this and showed it to the king.

Here is the jacket of the gods.

But the gods have made a condition that while you wear all these clothes of god,

If you don't see them,

That means you have made some crime in your life.

So only to those who have not done any crime in their life,

They can see these clothes of god.

Now the king saw empty hands of this person.

Everyone in the court also saw empty hands of this person.

But nobody wanted to get accused of doing some crime in the past.

So everyone kept quiet,

The entire court.

The king also kept quiet and said,

Okay,

You bring the jacket.

He wore the jacket.

And then this person said,

Look,

How amazing you look in this jacket of gods.

It's so nice.

It fits you so well.

The king also said,

Yeah,

I feel great in this jacket of gods.

Then sooner everyone in the courtroom,

All the council members,

The entire audience,

They started clapping.

What amazing jacket of gods this king is wearing.

Nobody wanted to say anything.

They all saw that the king was not wearing any jacket.

But who wanted to admit,

Who wanted to be accused of doing a crime in the past.

So nobody said that they don't see anything.

Then this man took one step further.

He said,

Not only jacket,

I think you should take your shirt off as well and wear the entire shirt,

Entire jacket of the gods.

The king was in the middle of this situation.

He had to agree to it.

He said,

Okay.

He took off his shirt,

Took off the jacket and wore the clothes of god,

The shirt of god,

Then the jacket of god.

Everyone saw the king was half naked,

But everyone clapped.

Everyone said,

Wow,

What lovely great clothes are you wearing?

The king also became very proud of what he's wearing,

The clothes of god and everyone clapping.

Since everyone clapping,

He thought maybe,

Maybe,

Who knows,

I have done some crime in the past.

I've been to wars.

I've been to different things in life,

But everyone else is seeing this.

That means I'm really wearing the clothes of god.

This man took it further.

He said,

Oh,

This looks so good on you.

I think you should take everything off.

You should take your trousers off and wear the entire clothes of god.

King could not resist.

He could not stop.

He could not stop this in the middle.

So he sooner or later was completely naked.

Everyone clapping,

Everyone appreciating the beauty of these clothes,

Talking to each other how great the king is looking.

Everyone saw that the king was naked,

But what to do?

The man took it to the next level.

He said,

You are looking so amazing to your glory.

We should show these clothes to your entire kingdom,

Not only to the audience that is present in your court,

But to the entire kingdom.

So they made a carnival out of the king,

Took him throughout the streets of the kingdom,

All naked.

Everyone in the kingdom clapped.

Everyone in the kingdom praised the king's clothes.

No one said a word.

Everyone acquiesced because everyone feared what if they would be accused of doing a crime and punished for that.

So everyone clapped,

The king also enjoyed the parade knowing that he is naked,

Knowing that everybody else is acquiescing in fear and maybe that means that he is wearing the clothes of god.

What I am trying to tell you with this story is that fear is creating the acquiescence and that acquiescence is leading to not living an authentic life,

To not seeing the truth,

To not living the truth.

Meditation spirituality allows us to be one with the truth,

To see the truth and to say it,

To live it and to be an authentic life.

With that let us move into meditation,

Let us move into silence and for today's meditation the point of concentration that we will follow is to bring our awareness at the navel center,

At the hara center which is two inches below the navel.

When you concentrate on your navel center what this does is it gives you the strength,

It gives you the life energy that is coming out of the source,

The source of life and with that strength,

With that energy you have confidence to live an authentic life,

To live a life of who you really are.

For the next few minutes please close your eyes,

Sit in a posture that is comfortable for you,

With your hands in your lap or on your thighs,

Back straight,

Allowing your breath to flow naturally settling into its natural rhythm.

Bring your awareness and attention to the area below your navel.

And a gentle focus and attention at your navel center.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All your awareness gently settling at your navel center,

Two inches below your navel.

Feel the sensations,

The vibrations,

The energy,

The pulsations at your navel center.

All your awareness gently settling at your navel center.

All your awareness gently settling at your navel center.

All your awareness gently settling at your navel center.

Don't try to change anything.

Breathing naturally,

Body relaxed,

And your awareness,

Attention,

Focus at your navel center,

Two inches below your navel.

With every breath,

Draw more and more attention to your navel center.

All your awareness gently settling at your navel center.

All your awareness gently settling at your navel center.

All your awareness gently settling at your navel center.

As your awareness settles on your navel center,

A sense of balance,

Centeredness,

Strength arises in your consciousness.

Maintain the focus while realizing this centeredness,

This balance,

This strength.

All your awareness gently settling at your navel center.

All your awareness gently settling at your navel center.

All your awareness gently settling at your navel center.

All your awareness gently settling at your navel center.

Let go of all focus.

Simply stay silent at your center,

In your balance,

In your strength,

With awareness.

All your awareness gently settling at your navel center.

All your awareness gently settling at your navel center.

Not trying to change anything.

All your awareness gently settling at your navel center.

All your awareness gently settling at your navel center.

All your awareness gently settling at your navel center.

All your awareness gently settling at your navel center.

All your awareness gently settling at your navel center.

Stay in this silent awareness effortlessly.

All your awareness gently settling at your navel center.

All your awareness gently settling at your navel center.

All your awareness gently settling at your navel center.

All your awareness gently settling at your navel center.

If you wish to continue going deeper in this silence,

Keep your eyes closed,

Let yourself go,

Stay silent,

Stay aware.

Or very gently and slowly you may open your eyes,

Maintaining the centeredness,

Balance,

Strength,

Silence and awareness.

As you move along with your day,

Reflect on the story that you heard this morning.

And try to live more authentically.

Try to live closer to the truth,

To be with the truth,

To be who you really are.

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

Namaste.

Reviews

Thank you for this lesson and meditation on authenticity and loving closer to my truth.

Empowering talk and meditation on authenticity and centeredness. Thank you. 🙏

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