#77. Touch The Soul Of An Artist | Vigyan Bhairav Tantra

By meditating on the illusion of this world as an art form, a shift happens within you. From wherever you are in your mind to a place of appreciation, aesthetics, and beauty. And a door opens to give you a chance to enter and meet the soul of the greatest artist, GOD.

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Transcript

Namaste Sannyasa family and everyone.

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

Dhyansa.

We're meditating on 112 meditation techniques of Vigyan Bhairav Tantra.

Let us begin with one more question from the Sannyasa family member.

I have been experiencing something new in my meditations recently that I did not expect.

I have generally felt myself flowing into awareness and expansiveness quite naturally during my years of meditation.

Although of course there are many times when my thoughts arise,

Come and go through,

But now I have started to experience feeling trapped in my body and head.

I feel like I'm in this space,

Container I can't break free from,

Trapped in there with thoughts and images,

Abstract and random.

I'm so aware of this experience and so I sit with it.

But there is an unpleasant feeling,

Perhaps only my frustration.

Do I continue to simply observe until it passes?

If you take this question that arises in you to a Zen master,

He will give you a whack with a stick on your head to get you out of your expectation,

An unexpected whack on your head with a stick when you take this question to a Zen master,

To get you out of your expectations.

And then he will give you a koan.

If you go to a Zen master,

He will first of all hit you on the head if you ask this question and give you a koan to meditate upon.

He will not give you any answers but a koan.

And that koan will be something like,

If there is a goose and you take that small goose,

Put it in a bottle,

Feed the goose,

Let the goose grow in the bottle until the goose is fully grown in the bottle.

Now,

How do you take the goose out of the bottle without hurting the goose,

Without breaking the bottle?

This is a famous Zen koan which you should meditate upon if this question arises in you that you feel trapped in the body,

You feel trapped in the mind and you don't know what to do.

And this is arising out of your expectations.

You're trapped in the body,

You're trapped in the mind.

If this feeling is arising in you,

Meditate on this koan from the Zen koans that there is a goose who is now grown into the bottle,

How do you take the goose out of the bottle without hurting the goose,

Without breaking the bottle?

If that is not enough for you,

Let us try to understand this state of mind,

This question what is happening in this meditator now?

Suddenly from having experiences of awareness,

Of having experiences of expansiveness,

What happens now that this feeling of being trapped in the body and mind arises?

You say,

Now I have started to experience feeling trapped in the body and my mind.

And I did not expect this.

See that your expectation has changed.

As your progress in meditation has happened,

Now you want to be out of the body.

Now you want to be out of all the mind,

All the thoughts,

All the images.

In this idea,

What it creates is,

It creates a split in your mind.

It is not your awareness,

It is your mind that is now in a split.

One part of the mind is creating all the thoughts,

All the images.

The other part of the mind is wanting to break free from all these images,

From all these thoughts from the body.

This mind is imitating the awareness.

It is not your awareness that is trying to break free from the mind,

From the body.

Awareness is always free.

Awareness is always all-pervading.

It is never trapped in the body.

It is never trapped in the mind.

It is your mind which is imitating to be the awareness and then feeling to be trapped in the body,

To be trapped in the mind,

Fueled by your expectations.

When you sat,

When you began for meditation,

You did not have this expectation of leaving the body,

Of growing out of the body,

Of growing out of the mind.

Suddenly when awareness arises,

Suddenly when you have glimpses of awareness,

When you have glimpses of silence,

When you have glimpses of expansion,

Your mind wants to imitate that,

Your mind wants to have more of it and it starts creating the trouble for you.

It starts saying,

Now I am trapped,

I would like to be out and will continuously keep you in this unpleasant state because this mind is what is creating the projection of awareness.

It is creating the trouble for you.

Mooly Shaf,

He was going on a street and he was walking down the street cursing and just on one morning walking all alone,

Cursing in his own ways that you go to hell,

You do this,

You do that,

In his own ways he was cursing out loud.

A man on the street stopped and said,

Mooly,

Whom are you cursing?

Who is this person who is so bad that you are cursing?

Mooly said,

I don't know,

I don't know who this person is but I will come across some of the other person sooner or later.

Your mind is cursing,

Your mind is creating the trouble all the time,

Your mind is creating this,

Now,

Trap for you which is now you want to break free from this trap.

Earlier there was no trap but as soon as your mind starts to imitate the awareness,

It feels that it is in a trap and wants to break free.

See that the awareness is never trapped.

The awareness is always free.

The goose is always out of the bottle.

The way for the goose to be out of the bottle is to realize that the goose is always out of the bottle.

The goose was never trapped in the first place.

If you try to break free from the glass bottle,

If you try to break free from your mind,

You will hurt yourself,

You will only hurt your mind,

You will only hurt your body,

You will only hurt this whole practice and never be in awareness.

Your mind will keep on wrestling with your own mind and trying to create this unpleasant experience,

Giving you something to engage in.

Earlier it was engaged with the thoughts,

Earlier it was engaged with whatever contents of the mind you were experiencing,

You were witnessing,

Now it is engaged in trying to break free of the mind,

In trying to break free of this container which you feel as your thoughts,

As your images,

As whatever is going on.

See that you have to go back to awareness.

You are moving from the awareness to the mind.

You have to go back to awareness by not expecting anything,

By once again sitting in no expectation.

You say,

I am so aware of this experience and so I sit with it,

But there is an unpleasant feeling,

Perhaps only my frustration.

This frustration will keep on coming more and more as your mind will try to break free of itself.

Do I continue to simply observe until it passes?

There is an expectation in this question as well.

Do I continue sitting until it passes?

You sit in it as if it will never pass.

If you sit in it as if it will never pass,

You will always have thoughts,

You will always have images,

You will always have this container in you.

If you sit in it without expectations,

Only then the nature will change into awareness.

Otherwise the nature of this inner space will remain as the mind and you will remain trapped.

And you will remain more and more trapped the more you try to break free.

You say,

I have generally felt myself flowing into awareness and expansiveness.

You had those experiences because you sat in it without any expectations.

So once again to summarize,

Sit in meditation without any expectations.

Do not move towards the mind trying to create this container and imitate the awareness.

This awareness is all-pervading,

This awareness is always free.

Remember that.

Let us move on to the technique which we have been practicing over the past couple of sessions and listen to what Bhairava has to say in Vigyan Bhairavtantra for this technique.

Living on the manifest world as imagined or elusive,

Like a magic shoe or a painting,

And seeing all existence as transient happiness arises.

So for the past couple of sessions,

We are meditating on this nature of illusion,

On this nature of maya,

Of life as an illusion and how can we have happiness,

Knowing perfectly well that this is an illusion,

This maya,

This life is an illusion,

How can we be happy?

Here Bhairava is proposing to contemplate on three different aspects of the nature of this maya,

The first aspect we already meditated upon on treating this illusion as a magic shoe.

And now here Bhairava says,

Take it as a painting,

As a work of art.

This is something worth going into to contemplate upon.

Here Bhairava is saying,

Take this illusion of life as an art.

The moment you see this illusion of the world as art,

Suddenly there is a shift in you.

Because so far you have been always driven by trying to understand the world,

Trying to calculate the world,

Trying to control the world with your mind,

Approaching the world with your mind,

Like a scientist trying to know,

Trying to decipher everything.

The moment you move from that mind to the mind of an artist,

To look at the world as if it is a painting,

To look at the world as if it is a work of art,

There is a shift in you,

There is a center that becomes active in you which allows you to appreciate the beauty of this world,

Even of this illusion.

You suddenly start to see not only the matter but also the aesthetics,

Not only what is,

But how it is.

Suddenly the world does not remain as A plus B plus C,

But how it is put together,

The A plus B plus C.

The moment you start to move into the ways of this world,

Into the contours of this illusion,

In the contours of this art,

This grand art of this world,

A peace,

A sudden happiness arises in you which starts to appreciate this illusion just the way it is,

Without trying to fight with it,

Without trying to prove anything,

Without trying to know anything.

And you sit in this illusion,

You sit in this sense of art,

In appreciating this illusion just the way it is.

Another thing happens when you appreciate the aesthetics,

The art of this illusion.

Just like when you see an artwork,

When you connect to an artwork,

When you connect to a painting,

You start to feel the soul of the artist,

You start to connect with the artist,

You start to feel what the space this artist must have gone through,

Must have felt while creating this painting.

So if you take this world also as a painting,

This illusion of the physical world also as a form of art,

And connect with it as a work of art,

You start to feel the soul of the artist,

You start to be closer to the God,

Because this illusion,

This painting is a creation of the Creator,

And by just simply contemplating on this illusion as a work of art,

You come slightly closer to the God in you.

Let us meditate over this aspect of taking this world,

Taking whatever comes into our consciousness as a work of art,

And allow this work of art to become the aesthetics of life,

To take us closer to the soul of this artist,

To the very God in us.

Let us close our eyes and take a posture that is comfortable for you.

With your body relaxed,

Yet alert,

Head,

Neck and back aligned,

Shoulders down,

Shoulders down,

Breath flowing naturally,

As your body relaxes,

Your mind comes down,

Turn your awareness inward,

Towards your inner space.

And whatever arises in your inner space,

Contemplate over it.

Your inner space as a work of art,

Whatever arises,

Simply observe it as a work of art.

Let us close our eyes and take a posture that is comfortable for you.

Let us close our eyes and take a posture that is comfortable for you.

Sitting silently,

Observing the inner space.

Let us close our eyes and take a posture that is comfortable for you.

Let us close our eyes and take a posture that is comfortable for you.

Simply observing your inner space.

Thoughts,

Emotions,

Images,

Sensations.

Let us close our eyes and take a posture that is comfortable for you.

Contemplating on this inner space as a work of art,

Your whole inner space.

Let us close our eyes and take a posture that is comfortable for you.

Without trying to resist anything,

Hold on to anything,

Simply observing,

Contemplating on your inner space.

Let us close our eyes and take a posture that is comfortable for you.

Let us close our eyes and take a posture that is comfortable for you.

Let us close our eyes and take a posture that is comfortable for you.

Letting go of all contemplations.

Simply sitting in silence,

In awareness.

Without trying to change anything,

Resist anything.

Let us close our eyes and take a posture that is comfortable for you.

Let us close our eyes and take a posture that is comfortable for you.

Sitting in this restful awareness.

No expectations.

Already felt good?

OK.

And very gently and slowly.

You may open your eyes.

Maintaining the awareness.

Maintaining the silence.

Maintaining this state of expansion.

Remembering that awareness is always free.

And very gently the mind is the trap.

Mind trapping itself.

On your spiritual journey,

On your spiritual path,

You may also come across those traps which are created by your own mind.

If you wish to resolve,

If you wish to move on this path with me and with other meditators,

Contemplating on what all happens on this spiritual journey towards truth,

Towards love,

Towards connection,

You are more than welcome to join our community.

To apply,

Please write me an email with your introduction,

With your calling for this Sangha,

For this sannyasa family,

For this community.

And what can you give back to this community.

Thank you very much.

Namaste.

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