#32 The Seen, The Seer And The Identification | Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali

While you are watching a movie, why do you get emotional or fearful or joyful? Perfectly knowing well that it is just a movie, why do you respond to the projection? This phenomenon of identification is significant to understand as it determines the entire experience of our life, which is also a projection.

Patanjali says, break the identification to come out of the miseries.

Transcript

Namaste and a very warm welcome to all of you in this daily life meditation session with me the answer suppose you are watching a movie or just remember the last time you saw a movie how entertaining how involving whatever was happening on the screen if there was laughter you laughed if there was sorrow you cried if there was horror you got scared everything that was happening all the drama all the romance all what was projected on the screen you were going through the experience you were feeling the same things you had the fear you had the laughter you had the joy you had the romance all was happening in you as well as it was happening in front of the screen why we take this as granted we take this as the normal we all know that what is being projected on the screen is just a projection is just an illusion is just unreal but still we feel everything in us as real why it is important to understand why we respond to that because this is what forms the basis of our understanding of our consciousness of our understanding of the reality and the illusion how to separate and draw the line between reality and the illusion we are currently going through yoga sutras of Patanjali Patanjali wrote these sutras thousands of years ago when there was no screen when there was no projection but still whatever he says is still very relevant today because the mind is also just like the screen the widescreen in front of you when you're watching the movie it's also a screen so the principles have not yet changed the medium has changed the setup has changed and we are moving more and more from the setup inside to the setup outside from the projection in the mind from our own imaginations in the physical world we have the imagination in front of the screen just think of it like this if somebody some alien or somebody from the past 500 years ago would wake up today and see us all of us sitting in front of the screen and just responding to the widescreen to just the pixels on the screen to the bytes of the sounds and of the visuals is completely deter determining the experience that we have in that moment so real experience that we have in the moment that we completely forget ourselves in that moment we immerse so much that that becomes a reality for a moment we even forget where we are sitting we even forget who we are we even forget what is the situation right now and where we are heading this is becoming more and more stronger deeper and will come a point where we will not be able to draw the line and differentiate between what is real and what is not real because the projection that we are creating is becoming so immersive that today that that little sense of differentiation that we have in us which we call as sanity that we say yes I know this is just a movie it will end at one point what I see is not real if this is put aside if this is overcome if this is if this is suppressed or if this is just covered with so much of the projection so intense a projection that you are unable to distinguish between reality and the illusion then you just remain in that illusion that illusion becomes your reality so Patanjali is for thousands of years still relevant today even if the setup has changed from the mind to the screens and to eventually something else that is coming Patanjali will remain relevant he will continue to tell us that move out of the projection and come to reality how he is taking us through this journey through these yoga sutras currently we are on the sadhana path which is to build the discipline of yoga to build that that lifestyle the discipline that clarity of perception so that we can differentiate between the illusion and the reality and also live that in our daily life let us go through a few sutras that we have been starting from we have been discussing what is misery what are the misery creators just like on the screen if you see the misery and what is that misery so Patanjali talked about that misery now he wants to talk about when you see the misery on the screen of a movie what is this that you start feeling the same what is it that you are responding to whatever is happening on the screen that is what Patanjali would like to discuss further continuing where we left off in the sutras he says hayam dukham anagatam which means pain that has not yet come is avoidable so he's just talking about those miseries that we are creating for ourselves if we stop creating those miseries those projections the pain will stop the next one is very relevant to what we just discussed right now where he says drishta drishtayo samyoga heyya hetum the cause of that avoidable pain is the union of the seer and the scene this is again important to understand where there are two things there is the seer and then there is the scene just like you in the movie while you're watching the movie you are the seer you are watching the movie and the scene is the projection the movie he says this avoidable pain this avoidable pain can be avoided if this relationship if this union of the seer and the scene does not happen once again from your own experience bring your awareness to this to this mechanism this identification that happens when you when the seer is seeing something this identification is what creates the reality you have to experience this you have to internalize this principle in your own experience in situations where you are the seer and you see something and you very quickly identify with it and with that identification whatever that scene brings the experience you experience the same so here patanjali five thousand years ago or ten thousand years ago i don't know how old these sutras are but he had established this mechanism right in place saying that this relationship of the seer and the scene is causing the misery this identification this union is causing the pain so if you dis identify with what is seen and who is the seer then the problem is resolved then there is no misery so there are three things to analyze in this situation the seer the scene and this identification right now he is very much focusing on the identification in the sutra he says this relationship of the seer and the scene this identification this union is what creates misery so while you are watching the projections on the screen or watching the projections of your own life see that are you identified with the scene are you involved so much with the scene that you have completely forgotten the seer and this identification is what is bringing misery so you must do something about this identification then he says what that means is the scene is of the nature of the gunas illumination activity and inertia now here in this sutra patanjali is describing the scene you know this scene of the movie you know the setup of that but now patanjali is taking this one step back more towards reality where he is describing the scene he is saying this entire physical reality this this what we call as nature this what we call as prakriti in sanskrit this entire nature this physical psychological reality that we are living this scene it has three qualities it has three different distinct characteristics in every experience in every experience of the scene we can understand and we can taste these three distinct qualities the first one is rajas rajas is the movement you see that there is this movement in in this scene in this experience which we are going through and which pushes us here and there the second is tamas which is inertia which is there is there is stagnation that there is there is something that is impeding the movement and the third the sattva the illumination the balance the harmony if you look at yogic philosophy if you look at ayurveda or any other asian ancient wisdom everything is divided into these three the rajas the movement the tamas the non-movement and the sattva which is the balance between the movement and the inertia and the entire even in if you look at ayurveda the entire food what we call as food is classified into these three different categories because they say that what you consume is what you experience so the quality of what you consume determines the quality of your experience and in order to manage the quality of your experience of life you must manage these three qualities the movement the inertia and the balance the harmony the light which is neither the movement nor the inertia then he says so this scene this physical reality this has nature of these three gunas the illumination the activity and the inertia it consists of elements the five elements the earth the water the fire and the so on and he says and sense organs once again the five senses whose purpose is to provide both experiences and liberation to the purusha the scene now this is important to understand here patanjali says that this entire projection that we are living the physical the psychological the scene this that we are having in front of us this has all these qualities this has all these gunas it's made up of all these five elements we can perceive this with the five senses but why is it there it is there so that the consciousness that we are the seer that we are can not only have the experience can have the diverse experiences but also it becomes the ground for liberation it becomes the reminder for liberation that while you're going through this experience this experience itself is becoming a waking a wake-up call for you to say this is not real and you must come out of it you must go back to your true nature you must come out of the projection as if while you're watching the movie on the screen if that movie itself is encouraging you to to come out of the illusion of the movie to once again look back at the seer look back at who is seen and not at what is being shown on the screen this is also the basis of meditation while we are in meditation we separate between what is being seen what who is the seer and this process of identification once we can isolate these three we can get rid of what is being seen we can get rid of the identification and we can focus very much on the seer in today's silence in the next minutes while we go deep in ourselves we'll start with what is the scene and we'll move from there on to the identification and then to the seer that I invite you to close your eyes and find yourself in a posture that is comfortable with your back straight face relaxed head relaxed breathing in from the nose a deep breath also exhaling from the nose with that allowing the body to settle allowing the mind to settle in your awareness in your senses in your mind whatever is arising see it as the projection just like as if you're watching a movie whatever arises in your mind through your senses all form this movie which you're watching silently the ambient noises are a part of the movie the projection your thoughts your inner chatter is a part of the movie that you're watching and Your mind is a part of this movie that you are watching.

Even your body is a part of the movie that you are watching.

As you watch this projection in front of you,

In front of your awareness,

Notice that you get involved,

That you get distracted,

That you forget that this is a projection,

This is identification.

Allow yourself to be at a distance from this projection.

Whatever you feel in your senses,

Whatever arises in your mind,

In your body,

Is all the projection.

Remain at a distance.

Observe silently without getting involved.

Remaining aware of the projection,

Your five senses,

Your mind,

Your body,

Whatever arises in your consciousness.

Always remaining at a distance,

Uninvolved,

Silent,

Aware.

Yeah.

Perfect.

Gradually your awareness is free from all projections.

Allow that to happen.

Flow with it.

Be with your awareness.

Pure awareness.

You may continue in the same way that you have been in the past.

You may continue in this silence in pure awareness as long as you like.

Or very gently and slowly you may open your eyes with me.

And what you see,

What you hear.

Once again remember the projection,

Remember the scene,

The seer and the identification as you experience this in your daily life.

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

Namaste.

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