#72. Meditation Is A Revolution In Consciousness | Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali

The ignorance tries to cover the consciousness with the clouds of thought, learnings, and ideas about life, creating misery, pain, and dissatisfaction in life. In meditation, the consciousness energizes once again to unfold its wings, the awareness rises to take its crown back from the mind and puts the ego in its right place. Meditation is a revolution in consciousness, if only you allow it to happen.

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Transcript

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

Dhyansa.

We are meditating on Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

Meditation is a revolution in consciousness.

Our consciousness,

We have tried our best to make sure that we suppress the consciousness.

We create all kinds of illusions for us which we lay over the consciousness,

The illusions of all what we have learned,

All what we have seen and imagined with the thought.

We have tried our best that we do not let the consciousness rise and drive our life and lead our life.

But consciousness finds its way.

And meditation is that revolution in consciousness which wakes up the consciousness once again,

Which allows,

Which gives the energy to consciousness to break free from all what we have learned,

From all the viles,

From all the coverings that we have laid down on top of the consciousness.

And we are unable to live from our consciousness.

And therefore we go on a search because we feel that we are unable to live from our being,

From our consciousness.

So this game of ignorance and consciousness has been played for so many years.

And we try to make sure that we substitute this consciousness with the mind,

With the ego.

And we try to live with this ego,

We try to live with this mind which gives us various ideas of what life is,

Who I am,

What am I supposed to do and so on.

But none of it,

None of the ideas,

None of the learnings,

None of the modifications that the mind does to the reality,

To the truth.

The ego does to the being,

To the purpose of life,

To the sense of life,

It does not stand in front of the consciousness when the consciousness rises.

And that rise in consciousness happens in meditation.

Therefore meditation is a revolution.

It shakes up all the dirt of the consciousness.

It allows once again the awareness to rise up and take its seat where it belongs.

Right now the crown of our life,

Of our kingdom,

Of our drive is taken by the mind,

Is taken by the ego.

And therefore it leads us to places where we always remain unsatisfied.

There is always something missing.

No matter how beautiful the picture mind paints,

No matter how high the ego rises and tries to show you what is important in life,

Still this deeper feeling,

This deeper sense which is still left as a trace in our consciousness,

When that sparks,

Spirituality arises,

Then we know what the truth is,

Then we can no longer just rely on the illusion,

Not just rely on the false,

On the reality that is projected in front of us.

All of that becomes less meaningful and the consciousness,

It takes the driving seat.

It becomes the most important,

The most reliable,

The most trustworthy element in us that allows us to move further in life.

Let us hear what Patanjali has to say for today's sutra before we sit in meditation.

Patanjali says,

It's a very important sutra,

Very significant sutra packing a lot of meditation techniques in it,

A lot of wisdom,

A lot of truth in it.

It says,

Vritti Mahavidya,

What is Vritti Mahavidya?

In our mind,

All these thoughts that arise and fall,

These thoughts that come from somewhere,

They rise up,

They engage our awareness,

They disturb us,

And then they go back.

These are known as Vrittis that arise in the mind,

These modifications of the mind,

These thoughts that arise from somewhere,

We don't know where they come from,

We don't know where they are going,

But they arise,

They take a shape,

They take a form,

And then they go back into somewhere else.

Mahavidya is someone who can dis-embody these thoughts from their shape.

Meaning if you see when a thought arises in your mind,

That thought carries a certain meaning,

That thought carries a certain shape,

That thought carries a certain label,

Mahavidya is somebody,

Or is a state,

Is a state of consciousness,

Is a state of being in meditation.

When you can unwile this,

When you can uncover this,

When you can dis-embody this Vritti,

This thought,

So when a thought arises in your mind of the past,

Of the future,

Whatever is bothering you,

When you can just see that it is just a label,

It is just a label of some disturbance in your mind,

And you let that go,

When you can dis-embody that thought,

Then you are in a state of Mahavidya.

So that is step number one in the meditation,

In the technique that Patanjali presents in today's Sutra.

That is the step number one.

To be able to recognize,

To be able to learn and see that this thought that arises,

It has been given a shape,

You can also dis-embody that.

An easier way to understand this is when you look at the sky.

When you look at the sky and you see a few clouds in the sky,

And you are looking at these clouds moving from one place to the other,

But when you pay attention to the clouds,

You start to see a certain shape in the clouds.

You must have also had this in your experience as well as a child or as an adult.

You are laying on the green grass,

Looking at the sky,

And there are clouds,

And you see suddenly a bear,

Or another animal,

Or another mountain,

Or any other shape in the clouds.

We in that moment,

We know that this is not the truth,

That the bear that we see in the clouds is not a bear,

It is just a mind projecting the shape of a bear in the clouds.

So in those moments,

Two things happen.

One we,

This inner desire,

This inner wish,

This inner mind,

Wanting it to look like a bear and the wisdom and the truth in us,

Telling us,

No,

It is just a cloud.

In that moment,

You are caught up in that play.

And the same play happens in our real life as well,

In our reality,

Where all these thoughts that arise in the mind,

We want to give them a label,

We want to give them names,

We want to give them shapes,

We call them bears,

Because we have learned,

We have trained so quickly to address every thought that arises in our consciousness,

Give it shape,

Give it name,

Give it description,

Give it all these labels.

But if we apply the same principle when we apply,

When we are looking at the clouds,

That the wisdom in us says,

No,

This,

These shapes,

These labels are nothing.

The truth is,

It's just a cloud.

It's just something that has no shape,

Something that has no form,

Something that arises and passing by.

If you subject yourself in that mode,

You not only are free of the shape of the form of the engagement that that cloud takes,

And you're also finally able to see the clear sky,

You're able to see through the clouds,

The clouds pass by,

And your focus shifts to the blue sky.

Same is in the real world as well.

When you are surrounded with thoughts,

When you're having all these thoughts in your mind,

Having all these labels,

If your inner wisdom sees,

Starts to see that these labels don't mean anything,

Any kind of label,

Any description,

Any name,

Any purpose that we have attached to these thoughts are just our own mind projecting on the thoughts.

These thoughts have no meaning.

So when your inner wisdom kicks in,

You let them settle.

You are free of the shape of these thoughts,

The label of these thoughts,

And suddenly these thoughts lose power over you,

And you see the clear sky,

Which is your consciousness.

So when you reach that state of Vritthi Mahavideya,

And you project this to the bahirakalpita,

Meaning the external imagination,

This world,

As we see,

Is the outside imagination.

When we close our eyes,

And when we look within in our mind,

This imagination of thoughts,

It's our inner imagination,

And what we see when we open our eyes,

And what all projection that we see in this world,

This is the outer imagination.

So here Patanjali is saying,

When you learn this technique,

When you learn this meditation of being able to dis-label this thought,

De-energize the thoughts that are all bothering you in the head,

They rest,

And you see the clear sky,

Clear consciousness,

And similar phenomena happens also for your outside imagination.

No longer the world becomes a burden on you.

No longer the world can pose a misery and pain on you,

Because you can dis-label the world.

You can see through the illusion of the world,

You can see through,

And you can always see the truth as well,

You can always see the clear blue sky.

You can let the clouds of the world also come,

Be there for a while,

And move on.

You may choose to,

Just for the fun of it,

Give them name,

Give them shape,

Give them some description,

Give them some labels,

Or you may not.

You may always remain with the clear sky,

With the clear consciousness.

And here Patanjali says,

When that happens,

He says,

Prakasha avarna kshaya,

Then the uncovering over this light,

This inner light,

Meaning the uncovering of all this dust of the mind,

Of the ego,

And all our own creation,

All that dust is uncovered,

And the inner light once again shines,

The inner consciousness once again unfolds,

And the awareness rises.

In that awareness,

In that consciousness,

There is truth,

There is reality,

And when you move in life,

Not just with the mind,

Not just with the ego,

Not just with the thought,

But with your awareness,

With your consciousness,

Then everything leads to peace,

Everything leads to love,

Everything leads to compassion,

Because all these bliss,

Love,

Compassion,

Inner peace,

All these are your true nature,

All these are the nature of consciousness,

And when you act out of consciousness,

When you live your entire life in the light of consciousness,

Then you are always seated in inner peace,

In love,

In compassion.

Then you don't need any teaching,

Then you don't need any learning.

Let us take this in our own experience,

This teaching,

This knowledge,

This message of Patanjali in our own experience,

In our own meditation.

Please close your eyes,

And take a posture that is comfortable for you,

Where for the next moments,

Your body can rest.

With your legs crossed,

Or sitting on a chair,

Legs not crossed,

Your head,

Your neck,

And your spine aligned,

A posture that is alert,

Yet relaxed.

A nice deep breath,

Inhale from the nose,

And also exhale from the nose,

And with that exhalation allowing the body to rest.

With every exhalation,

The body resting with its own weight.

With the inhalation,

The alertness,

And with the exhalation,

The rest.

Allowing your body to find this balance between alertness and restfulness.

With every inhalation and exhalation.

With every breath,

Your mind settling,

Allowing your awareness to turn inwards.

Shifting your awareness to your thoughts.

Observing your thoughts.

Witnessing your thoughts.

Whatever is going on in your mind right now,

Silently observe.

With every exhalation,

Your mind settling,

And with your legs aligned,

Your body resting with its own weight.

Awareness more and more on your mind.

Simply watching,

Observing whatever is going on in your mind.

Thoughts rising and falling.

Simply observe if they are restored.

With every exhalation,

Your mind settling,

And with your legs aligned,

Your body resting with its own weight.

In that observation,

Notice you give labels to the thought.

You give words to the thought.

You give meaning to the thoughts.

You give images to the thought.

Simply observe without trying to change anything.

Held back.

.

Remain an observer.

In that observation,

Thought loses energy,

The thought loses its label.

Allow it to happen.

.

.

As the thought loses its label,

Its shape,

Its form,

Your awareness rises.

Slowly,

The clear sky,

The pure awareness remains.

.

Let go of all effort,

The silence and the awareness that arises in this moment.

.

Stay in that silence,

In that awareness.

.

In this silence,

There is no projection inside,

There is no projection outside.

.

Only awareness inside,

Outside,

Everywhere.

.

Let go of everything,

Anything that you are still holding.

.

Move in silence with awareness.

.

.

You may sit in this meditative silence as long as you like,

Or very gently and slowly open your eyes.

.

Maintaining this awareness,

This silence,

And this distance from the projection that the mind creates as the whole world once again becomes real,

Once again becomes your truth.

Thank you very much for joining.

If you have any questions,

Please write an email and I will take them in the upcoming sessions.

Namaste.

Reviews

Perfect!

Not easy but step by step you see what you try to see