Self Inquiry Meditation: Reveal Your Inner Truth

In this podcast, we explore the question “Who am I” by looking at separating the illusion from the truth and finding out who we really are. We’re not concerned with the world around us, just with ourselves - asking “who am I”. For those on a journey of self-discovery, this session will have significant meaning. There are five layers of our being. We’re going to go into these five layers and peel back each layer, in reaching from the illusion to the truth of who we are.

Transcript

Hi,

This is Dhyansey and you're listening to Dhyansey Meditation Podcast.

This meditation session was given on 3rd of December 2018 in Basel,

Switzerland.

In this meditation session,

I talk about the key that separates the illusion and the truth.

A very warm welcome to all of you in this Monday evening meditation session with me,

Dhyansey.

I'm thankful to all of you because you came in this rain.

You chose meditation over other things for the evening.

I'll be guiding you through the next 60 minutes into introspection,

Into meditation.

For today's session,

I would like to share something that I have as a realization constantly in my meditations over the last two decades.

This realization is that there are two aspects of existence,

Of life.

One is the truth and the other is the illusion.

The truth that arises out of consciousness,

Out of being conscious,

And the illusion that arises out of our unconsciousness.

And these two things,

These two aspects of existence,

These two aspects of life,

The truth,

The illusion,

They both are playing with each other.

In wisdom traditions,

It's called as Leela.

It's the play of the truth and the illusion,

The consciousness and the unconsciousness.

Those who choose to be with the unconsciousness,

With the illusion,

They become a part of this world.

They go on setting goals in life and they get carried away with the illusion of what this life,

What this existence has to offer.

And there are those who dedicate their entire life to the truth.

They go on a spiritual journey,

They become spiritual leaders,

They become religious leaders or they get absorbed in the pure truth.

They only dedicate their entire life for the truth.

For me as a meditator,

Almost throughout my life,

What I realized is getting carried away with the illusion or getting carried away with the truth.

Both are not my path.

I'm not suggesting anything here today.

All I'm sharing is what has been the path for me as a meditator over the last two decades,

Almost my entire life,

Where I saw that this play between the truth and the illusion is something both have to be lived at the same time.

Sometimes we are unconscious,

Sometimes we are conscious.

It's like when you go and watch a movie and while you're watching the movie,

Sometimes you get carried away with the illusion of the movie and you cry when there is an emotional scene or you laugh when there is laughter on the screen.

And there are moments when you realize,

Oh,

You're just watching a movie.

It's just a movie.

If you just get carried away with the movie,

That's also not the perfect way of watching the movie.

If you just always see the truth that you're just watching a movie and it's just a movie,

You won't enjoy the movie.

For me as a meditator,

That has been the constant to observe and to live both the illusion and the truth.

This illusion in wisdom traditions is called as Maya,

The world that we live in and everything that is created,

Everything that starting from who am I to what is all this world around us is all created out of this illusion.

As a meditator,

What is the starting point to live both the illusion,

To live both the truth,

Is to witness both of them,

Is to understand both of them,

Is to observe both of them playing in your life,

Having a balance in your life and just being a witness,

Taking a step back and witnessing the illusion,

Witnessing the truth.

For today's meditation,

The starting point of that witnessing is with oneself,

Is the question,

Who am I?

We're not concerned with the world around.

We are simply concerned with ourselves.

Who am I?

If some of you here are on a spiritual quest,

On a journey in their life to find out who they really are,

This session is very significant for you all,

For those who are on this genuine quest of understanding oneself,

Beyond words,

Beyond descriptions,

Who am I?

How do we approach this question,

Who am I?

Do we approach this intellectually?

Do we approach this emotionally?

Do we approach this spiritually?

In wisdom traditions,

There is a key to answer this question,

To separate the illusion,

To separate the truth,

To understand who am I?

And that key is whatever is changing,

Whatever is not permanent is the illusion,

Whatever remains constant,

Whatever remains permanent is the truth.

Now in this backdrop of what remains,

What keeps on changing and what remains constant,

How do we understand ourselves?

There are five layers of our being,

And this is just one of the many ways of understanding oneself.

For today's session,

We're going to go into these five layers of our being and peel the onion of our being,

Layer by layer,

In reaching from the illusion to the truth of who we are.

It starts with the physical body.

In yogic traditions,

It's called the annamaya kosha.

Anna means food,

Physical matter.

Maya,

Maya,

The illusion,

The illusion of the physical.

Kosha is the layer,

Annamaya kosha,

The layer of the physical body,

The illusion of the physical body that we carry with us all throughout our lives.

When we are born,

How big are we?

A small handful,

A few grams,

And throughout our life,

We keep on changing.

The body keeps on changing.

The body grows,

Even if the size of the body remains constant,

But everything about the body keeps on changing.

Everything that is there in your physical body is changing all the time,

And one day comes when this physical body is no more.

What makes you say that you are the same person who was when you were born,

When you were five years old,

When you were ten years old,

When you are now at whatever age you are and what you will be when you are fifty,

Sixty?

What makes you,

When you look at the picture,

What makes you say that that's you?

The body is constantly changing.

What is it that is not changing?

What is that sense that is not changing?

Start with that.

Keep this notion,

Even if as an assumption for today's meditation,

Whatever is changing is not you.

You have it,

But it's not you,

And whatever is not changing is you.

So the body,

You have it,

You take it from the outside world,

From the earth,

From the food that you eat and you grow,

And one day you leave it.

So the body is the illusion you are not the body.

That would be the first layer that we will take our awareness to.

The second layer,

The prana maya kosha,

Prana,

The energy.

What is running in this body?

Breath,

Incoming breath,

Outgoing breath.

We are taking the prana,

The life energy from somewhere and going through in our body with this breath throughout our lives,

In and out.

There is a constant exchange of this energy,

The circulation of energy that is going on between you and the outside world.

That is what is the prana maya kosha.

That layer of your existence where you are just the energy that is going on between you and your outside world,

That exchange that is happening is happening with the prana maya kosha,

Meaning your energy body.

If you go deeper,

One level deeper,

You will come to what is known as manu maya kosha,

Your mind.

The layer of your mind,

The mind screen where you see all your thoughts,

All your imaginations,

All your projections.

That layer,

What is that layer?

Where these thoughts are keep on changing.

They come and go,

Emotions come and go,

Ideas come and go,

Concepts come and go.

Where are they coming and going?

That layer of your being is in yogic traditions called as manu maya kosha or the layer of the mind,

That being,

The layer of mind of your being.

We will become a witness to that and we will go one step deeper.

When you realize that even that layer of mind is changing and you go one level deeper,

You come to what is known as jnana kosha,

Which is the layer of knowledge,

The jnana maya kosha,

The layer of all the knowledge that you have about yourself,

About the world,

About whatever you have learned throughout your life.

All that knowledge is comprising of this layer of jnana maya kosha,

Of the layer of knowledge that you carry in your being,

Which is very very deep,

Subtle,

Embedded in your being.

Only when you are silent,

Only when your awareness penetrates through the body,

Through the energy,

Through the mind,

You come to realize that you are nothing but a collection of all this knowledge that you have carried throughout your life.

Is there something deeper than that?

You see that this knowledge also keeps on changing.

What your notions are about what is right,

What is wrong,

How the world is,

Who you are,

Also keeps on changing,

That knowledge is also not permanent.

Which means there is one level deeper.

When you go one level deeper,

You come to what is known as the bliss body,

The ananda maya kosha.

This is the fifth and the final layer of your being,

Which can come in your experience,

Which can come in your awareness when you sit in meditation,

When you go in silence.

And what is this bliss body,

That sense of silence,

That sense of bliss,

Of peace,

Of inner peace,

Which has become a goal for so many spiritual traditions.

But it's not a goal,

You have it in you.

You have that inner peace always in you.

All you need to go is deep down in yourself and come in tune,

Come in touch with that layer of your being,

Which is known as ananda maya kosha,

The bliss body.

Is there something more?

Since the witness can witness all these five bodies,

All these five layers of the being,

The witness must be something else.

Throughout this journey of witnessing these five layers,

You will realize that there is something constant.

All these layers are changing,

All the experience of these layers are changing,

But there is something that remains constant in your experience,

In your realization,

In your deepest silence,

In your deepest awareness,

And that has no name.

That is you,

That is the truth,

That is something that remains constant,

Permanent.

It was never born,

It will never die.

These five layers are born,

They will die,

But this something that is just the awareness,

Just the witness,

Just this deeper sense of that you could witness all these five layers is constant.

In today's meditation,

We are going to go layer by layer and allow ourselves to just try to witness these layers one by one.

So we'll go from the body and go one level deeper to the pranic body,

One level deeper to the mind body,

One level deeper to the knowledge body,

And the final bliss body.

Once you have gone through the witnessing of all these five layers of your being,

Try to see whether you can recognize something that is not changing.

While all these five things and the experience of these five layers is changing,

Can you come to something in you that has no name,

That has no definition,

That has no shape,

No size,

No description,

And is not changing?

If you can come to that,

Stay there.

Stay in the silence,

In the awareness of that which is not changing.

Start with the body and with the unchanging permanent self,

Simple awareness in silence of meditation.

I'll guide you through each of these layers to tell you when to move from which layer to the next layer and so on.

But when it comes to silence,

When it comes to going beyond these five layers,

That's where you're on your own.

You'll sit in silence for five to ten minutes,

Remaining in tune with what is not changing,

With what is always there,

With what is permanent in you,

And simply stay in that silence for some minutes.

Before we sit in this wonderful process of going through layers of our being,

I would request you to shut off your mobile phones if they are still on,

And take a nice comfortable sitting posture,

Even if you have to sit next to the wall,

Just to keep your back straight,

And sit in an easy posture which is not coming in your way,

Which is not keeping you always in pain and your body in pain.

Try to take an easy posture and then we will move into meditation.

Close your eyes.

Take a nice deep breath.

Inhale from the nose and also exhale from the nose.

Arrive in this moment here with me to go into deep,

Into meditation for the next minutes.

Allow your body to settle and your breath to also settle in a nice rhythm of breathing in and out.

Keep your face relaxed,

Shoulders down,

Your back straight,

In a posture that is comfortable for you.

Now bring your awareness to your body.

Just take a moment to recognize your body,

Become aware of all the parts of your body,

Your head,

Your neck,

Your shoulders,

Arms,

Chest,

Navel,

Your back,

Your hips,

Your legs.

Give yourself another minute or so to settle your awareness in your body.

Notice whatever comes naturally to you about your body.

As you remain aware of the body,

Take this moment to realize that this body is changing.

It's never the same.

Try to become aware of yourself and then feel your body.

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And ask yourself,

What is it that is not changing as your body changes?

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I am aware of the body which is changing and I am also aware of what is not changing.

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Now feel the sensations in your body that happen with every inhalation and exhalation.

As you breathe in and breathe out,

The energy that is flowing in your body,

Sensations that are flowing in your body,

Keep your awareness on the sensations.

As the breath moves in and out,

The sensations keep on changing.

This is a layer of energy of your being.

Remain in awareness of these sensations and feel them changing as you breathe in and out.

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As you feel these sensations,

Direct your awareness to what is not changing.

And feel that sense of witness of the observer who remains constant.

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Keep your awareness on the sensations as your breath comes in and out.

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Observe the sensations,

Observe the observer.

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Go deeper and now observe your thoughts.

On your mind screen,

Thoughts coming and going,

Simply observe them and allow your awareness to settle on this Manumaya Kosha,

The layer of mind screen.

Don't touch any thought,

Just observe it.

See how one thought is coming and going and the next thought comes in and goes.

Observe all the movements of your mind.

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As you observe your mind,

Try to feel what is not changing.

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Mind keeps on moving,

Let it flow,

You simply observe.

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Go deeper into yourself and realize everything that you know about yourself,

All the knowledge and this and that.

Take note of all this layer of knowledge that you have about yourself.

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Also notice the sense of what remains not changing.

What has remained throughout this meditation,

Constant.

The witness,

The observer,

The sense of awareness.

Go deeper into yourself and be in tune with your inner silence.

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Silence,

Peace in your heart,

Allow yourself to tune into this peace,

Silence and stillness that is there in you.

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Fall deep into this silence.

Let yourself go.

Let yourself go.

You are absolutely still.

Silent and aware.

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Stay in this moment,

In this stillness and awareness.

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You are never changing your awareness.

Silent,

Pure awareness.

Now gently become aware of your breath flowing in and out.

As you come back to the body,

Very gently and softly become aware of your body.

Come back to the body,

To the sensations in your body.

To your mind.

To this moment.

And when you feel ready,

Very softly you may open your eyes.

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If you wish to remain in the stillness,

Stay there.

If you wish to move your body,

Do that.

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Reviews

This is soooo good. So informative and a perfect bridge to use for going from guided to silent meditation 🧘🏼‍♀️ ✨️ 🙏

WOW. Thank you so much. I'll be saving this one to my favourites. I've been doing an Awakening meditation each morning 🧘🏼‍♀️ So glad yours came through my feed! 🙏 Namaste

Absolutely brilliant insights and sensitively and expertly presented and shared
Thank you 🙏🏻

Thank you for the wisdom

This is the first time I was able to go somewhat deep into each of the koshas. Still challenging to go deeper in pranamaya, manomaya, and jnanamaya. Hope this is a good start to go deeper. Wonderful guidance!🙏🏻

Excellent description of the five koshas in the introductory talk.

Amazing!
Was that really 30 mins?
This is something I will repeat often.
Thank you.

Truly centering towards the self

Interesting, calming and helpful. Thank you

Great meditation. Very clear to understand and make sense.

The message about 5 layers was interesting: Body, energy, mind, knowledge, bliss. The meditation teacher announced that there was something beyond the layers, something that was constant and never changed. Here I have my doubt: isn’t everything fleeting and changing? Nothing stays the same forever. The meditation teacher made the distinction between illusion and truth, saying the illusion was something that changed, while truth was something that didn’t change. Here I have the same doubt.

The guided meditation itself was very peaceful and pleasant. The only drawback for me was the annotation of “s” at the end of any words: peace, sensations, thoughts, etc. The meditation teacher always drew is out, making a “sssssss” sound that was rather jarring for me.