Namaste and a very warm welcome to all of you in this daily life meditation session with me the Anse.
We are going through yoga sutras of Patanjali,
So my salutations to this knowledge of yoga,
To Patanjali for opening the doors to this knowledge for us and for this moment for this opportunity for us to come together and go through this knowledge towards truth towards liberation.
We hear this word truth,
We come across this word truth in so many different ways when we talk about spirituality and also in our daily life.
But what does this word truth really mean?
We use it in our daily life,
We have an assumption about it,
But we never pay attention to what is true,
We just take this for granted that there is something that is known as truth and we go on either with our daily routines utilizing the concept of truth or we are on a spiritual journey looking for truth.
But what is the truth that we are searching,
That we are looking for that is somewhat missing?
Have you ever paid any attention,
Any moments of contemplation of what is this truth and what is the significance of this truth?
If there is something like truth,
What is the significance?
Why are we searching for truth?
Is there a utility in our daily life?
Is there a deeper value of understanding what truth is,
Reaching to what truth is?
What do you make of truth when you think about truth,
When you bring your mind to truth,
What is truth?
Is truth an agreement of labels?
As an example,
I take this stick and the truth we can say that this is a stick,
But actually when we say that the truth is this is a stick,
It is just a label given to something and you and I and everybody have agreed to this label that we will call this object a stick.
So is truth just an agreement of labels or is truth just an agreement,
A common agreement of perception?
Few blind people,
They were surrounded,
They were put around an animal,
A big animal and they had never come across that animal in their life and the animal was huge.
So they started using the senses that they had which is their touch,
Their smell and then they kept on touching that animal from different angles.
Those blind people who were touching,
Who were holding on to the leg,
The leg felt very very stiff,
Very very thick.
They said well I am holding on to a pillar,
So this animal must be a pillar.
Some people who were holding on to the tail,
They said that this feels very flexible,
It has hair in it,
This feels like a brush,
So this animal is like a brush.
Those who were holding on to the trunk,
They found it very long,
Very flexible,
They said this is like a long pipe.
Different point of views,
Different sense perceptions these blind people had and they gave their own versions of what was an elephant in the room and these different blind people since their sense of perception was also true but they could never really figure out the entire truth because they were just only relying on their sense perception.
So is the truth the sense of perception or is the truth more than sense of perception?
Is the truth your thought,
Your reasoning?
Can you reach to the truth with your thought,
With your reasoning?
If you examine your thoughts,
You will see all your thoughts.
99.
99% of all your thoughts are not your thoughts,
They are part of whatever you have gathered from the outside and are just holding in your mind and different people are holding different thoughts,
Different even reasonings in their mind,
So there is also never really an agreement on thought and reason.
Can you reach to the truth with reason,
With thought?
Ask yourself.
We are so proud of thought,
Of reasoning,
The entire world that we have constructed,
The entire system how we operate,
We have constructed based on relying on the thought,
Relying on reasoning but can we reach to the truth with thought or reasoning if not the entire system,
The entire operating model that we have put for ourselves and we are functioning together in this world with that model,
With that system,
If that is not taking us to truth then what it is worth?
So think about all these things,
How can you reach to the truth,
Contemplate about what is it that will take you to the truth.
Can your belief take you to the truth?
Is belief the truth?
We all have so many different beliefs in this world,
So does that mean there are several different truths or is there one truth?
The answer to that lies in how pure your consciousness is.
The answer to that lies in you coming to a point where you realize that your sense perceptions,
That your thoughts,
That your beliefs,
None of these things,
None of these vehicles can ever take you to the truth and you must go beyond all of these to reach to the truth.
So where does the truth lie?
How to reach to the truth?
This is what yoga,
Meditation,
Spirituality is all about.
The more purer your consciousness is,
The further you can go,
The further you can penetrate your thought,
Your sense perceptions,
Your beliefs and go beyond.
So a critical element on this journey towards the truth is to purify the consciousness,
Is to constantly work on yourself and purify your consciousness because that consciousness is what then creates a different sense of perception,
It creates the thought,
It creates the reasoning,
It also creates the beliefs.
If the consciousness is completely impure,
You have to rely on these vehicles because these are the substitutes,
These are things that are not light,
These are substitutes to light but when you have more and more purity in your consciousness and you are at the other end of the spectrum where there is intrinsic light in your being,
Then you may not need the thought,
You may not need the belief,
You may not need your sense perceptions to arrive to truth.
You can penetrate through these clouds and be in the open sky and see everything the way it is.
And truth is nothing but things the way they are.
If they are dynamic,
You see the dynamic nature of things.
If they are static,
You see the static nature of things.
But what is truth,
Truth is the nature of things seen as it is,
Without any distortions of the thought,
Of the reasoning,
Of the perception,
Of the beliefs.
Therefore this journey towards truth,
The journey towards this clarity of consciousness leads to a place which is of bliss,
Which is of peace,
Which is of freedom.
Let us try to go through what Patanjali has put together in his Yoga Sutras regarding this topic,
How to reach to truth.
Patanjali says,
Nirvichara vesher adhe adhyatma prasada,
What that means is the concentration without reasoning being purified,
The chitta becomes firmly fixed.
Therefore in other very simple words,
When you can concentrate your mind in a way that there is no object,
And we have been discussing the movement from randomness to one object to no object,
When your mind can move beyond the reasoning,
When your mind can move beyond the thought into a space which is thoughtless,
Into a space which is reasonless,
Into a space where your mind is fully fixed,
Concentrated,
Your chitta is completely silent,
That's the place where it begins,
That's the place where the mind is completely silent and there is a possibility of truth.
In the next sutra,
Patanjali says,
Ratnabhara tatra prajna,
The knowledge in that is called filled with truth.
That space,
That thoughtless space,
That reasonless,
Beliefless space,
That contentless space is what is filled with truth.
Again these are metaphors to make you understand when Patanjali is saying filled with truth,
That that space,
That thoughtless space is filled with truth,
Doesn't mean that there is something,
An object that is filling that space.
That space remains objectless,
But there is truth in it,
There is that emptiness is the truth in itself,
That emptiness is in which you can experience the truth.
So on an experiential level you can understand,
You can feel,
You can be one with truth,
But you cannot objectify it just to put in a sutra and to make you understand Patanjali saying that that space is filled with truth.
And lastly Patanjali says,
Shrut anumana prajna bhayam,
Anya vesha,
Vishesha artha tva,
The knowledge that is gained from testimony and inference is about common objects.
We were saying earlier that the knowledge that this is a stick is a common object,
It is gained by testimony and inference,
That we have made an agreement about it,
That from samadhi just mentioned is of a much higher order.
So what we are discussing the truth,
When you reach to this samadhi where there is thoughtlessness,
Where there is objectlessness,
The truth that arise in it is of much higher order.
Being able to penetrate where inference and testimony cannot go.
So Patanjali is clearly saying that no testimony,
No thought,
No inference can go there where you can go with this samadhi which is objectless,
Which is thoughtless.
Let us move into silence with that knowledge from yoga and bring this to our meditative practice,
Bring this to our silence where we move from the mind that is randomly moving in different thoughts to one pointedness and towards a place where there are no thoughts,
There is no movement and the chitta,
The mind is completely silent.
Please close your eyes.
Take a posture that is comfortable for you.
Allowing your breath to flow naturally and with every breath your body to relax,
Your mind to settle,
Your awareness to become brighter,
To be in this moment.
For the next silent moments keep your awareness on your mind,
On your inner space and whatever arises let that go,
See that it is not the truth.
Discard everything that arises in your consciousness as not the truth.
No views,
No thoughts,
No beliefs,
No contents in your consciousness.
No thoughts,
No beliefs,
No beliefs,
No contents in your consciousness.
With every breath bring your awareness more and more inwards.
Letting it settle,
Observing your mind.
Acceptden.
As you silently observe your mind,
Let your breath flow naturally,
Don't try to change it.
Passively observe whatever arises in your mind,
In your consciousness,
And let it pass on.
The thoughts,
The images,
The thoughts that are in your mind,
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The thoughts at 7 a.
M.
Central European Time.
Namaste.
