31-Day Meditation Challenge: Day 15

Welcome! This is the fifteenth lesson to a 31-Day Meditation Challenge recently recorded in July of 2020 entitled "Seek and Find Within." The audio recording is divided into an opening discourse and a guided meditation.
One more round of the lifted arm penance. The main thing to appreciate is how the intensity of sensation can either optimize or diminish our sense of self-control and consciousness. Obviously, the hope is the former.
Enjoy.

Transcript

All right, What's up everybody? Cool, So day 15, Congratulations. Second day of this Praktine Ancient Yoga Sub-Challenge. We're gonna hold up the left arm for about 20-25 minutes. Okay, So let's sort of discuss or contemplate yesterday's practice. I'm certain it was challenging for everybody and the challenge more than likely was within the body or within the mind and the reality is both. But if you take a second to analyze, You know, The the the breadth of your experience, You know, You might have found either the body or the mind to have been distinctly challenging. And so what was actually going on, Right? What was the utility of it? If you participated skillfully and willfully, I think that's a better word, If you participated willfully and overcame, At least in flashes, The impulse to drop the arm, That pressure or that pain or that acidity, However it is you were contemplating or experiencing it, In those moments of resilience, Of will, Forced you to dig deep, Which is a phrase we all know. But in that sort of pressure, You touched a space that was uniquely powerful, Uniquely present, Uniquely connected to the moment at hand. And so this is sort of the whole point behind meditation and more specifically the whole point behind these sort of stricter guidelines to the practice. It's all about restraint and imposing limitations and a little bit of stress into ourselves so that we force ourselves to access this position. And I think position is a nice way of thinking about it. And the more familiar we are with this position, And that position literally sort of within our brains is the firing of particular networks of neurons that over time becomes a really prominent part of our persona. And so every breath that you take, Feeling that you're occupying this position, Just consider that that is becoming more and more and more a part of your being, Physically and psychologically. And so we impose this stress onto ourselves to achieve that space. And so before we get into the challenge today, I wanted to talk about, I mentioned yesterday this idea of bliss and the joy of sort of the fire of the arms, That if you're a powerful meditator, If you're occupying that position, You should be experiencing bliss. Bliss is a deceptive word and joy I don't think was the best word to use. Bliss does not equate to happiness. Bliss does not equate to pleasure. Bliss does not equate to joy or sort of like, You know, Celebration. It's not necessarily positive. When we're speaking about bliss from a meditative angle, Bliss is anything that provokes more consciousness. Because meditation and these ancient meditators, What they believe life to be is the blooming of consciousness. And whether that a negative experience encourages consciousness or a positive experience encourages consciousness, The negative or positive, The sweeter the bitter, Is irrelevant. That's just sort of the play of the world changing its myriad forms to provoke our own awareness. And so bliss is just that. And if we reflect on what happened yesterday, You're holding up your arms, Certainly it sucked, Certainly it was uncomfortable. But if you play the game well, It provoked your awareness and therefore was bliss. And so as you start to build this relationship between consciousness and bliss, And they sort of like loop into each other, What emerges from that is truth. And so what truth is, My favorite sort of synonym for truth is inclusivity. What you realize is that all the pieces of the puzzle fit together. That everything, No matter how deplorable or horrendous or inconvenient or scary it is, We often reject sort of the negative parts of life or the negative facets. All of these pieces, Whether they last a moment or they last a lifetime, Have a role to play in the grand scheme of life. And then we fall back into this idea of life being the sort of resurgence or re-emerging of consciousness. Truth is our ability to see that, To see that everything holds meaning. And so if we sort of, The yogis appreciated these ideas and reduced these concepts of truth, Bliss, And consciousness into a mantra. And the mantra is Sat-Chit-Ananda. Truth, Consciousness, Bliss. And this sort of like simplifying of these ideas and then sort of chaining them together allowed yogis to sort of conjure them up in moments of practice and then, You know, Allowed them to utilize that through the penances that they were practicing, Lifting the arms and whatnot, But also it allowed them to interact with life, Often the negative situations, From that lens of inclusivity, From that lens of bliss, And from that lens of consciousness. So I hope this all sort of clarifies, You know, What you're trying to do and what you're experiencing when you're lifting your arm up and, You know, What you're experiencing in the initiation of life as well. Cool. So that said, The mantra I want you to work on today, Yesterday we were saying, I am the same, Which was, You know, Sort of like integrated. It's like, Oh, I am the same as this pain. I am the same. I am one with this situation. I am one with my body. Today we're gonna use a different approach and create a different relationship to the process. I'd like you to say, I am NOT this body. I am NOT these sensations. I am NOT. I am NOT. I am NOT. And in that, You're sort of repelling the experience and trying to create a little bit of space, Drawing a line in the sand with what is not you, What is external to you, Which is the body and the mind, And then what is sort of within you or what is, You know, Closest to this position deep inside, Which would be consciousness. And so if you just repeat this mantra throughout the process, You know, Psychologically it's gonna, It's gonna create a, Create a landscape that makes this inner space a bit more clear and a bit more distinct. Cool. So let's get into this. We have 23 minutes to practice today. Lovely. Comfortable seated position. We're gonna work with the left arm. This is called Urdhva Bhuj, The lifted arm penance. Okay, Comfortable seated position. Left arm reaches up. Right arm, Wrist on knee. Straighten the right arm. Press the right wrist into the knee a little more and again, You're gonna feel that the more work you put into the right arm, The lighter the chest becomes and the lighter the left arm becomes. Drag your shoulder blades away from the skull. Bring a random finger to each to the right thumb. A gentle fist with the left hand. Eyes are closed. Tilt the hips forward. Feel the spine lengthen. Tuck the chin in. Feel the base of the skull decompress. Soften your face. Let's work through the four techniques we've learned together so far. First, Posture. We've already established it, But now sit in a way that provokes more confidence and power. Broaden the chest. Straighten both of your arms. Tilt your hips further forward. Lengthen through the spine, Reaching your skull to the ceiling. Something like that. And despite the fact that it takes more energy, You want to pay attention to that sense of will. So now that you've built your pose, Take a moment to mentally commit to stillness. And if you simply repeat in the mind, I'm not gonna move. I'm gonna hold this today. The more times you repeat that promise, It becomes more real. The first time, Fairly shallow. It's more a suggestion, A hope, A prayer. But then you say it again. I'm not gonna move. And the intention becomes more concrete. So take a few more breaths. All right. Second lesson, Directional breathing. As you inhale, Swell into the belly and then the chest. Nice and slow. Feel the seven directions of the breath. And as you exhale, Pull the belly in. Keep the spine tall. Again, Appreciate these seven directions. The more you commit to breathing into the belly, The more relaxed your nervous system is going to be, The more tolerable the acidity in the arm is going to be. And so breathing into the belly is a priority. Now let's all take a moment as you inhale, Hold the breath. And as you exhale, A gentle hum or a gentle om. And as the lungs empty, Again, Hold the breath at the bottom. Do this a couple times. And so I want you to notice that as you hold your breath, Carbon dioxide starts to build in the body as a whole. Carbon dioxide is acidic. The longer you hold your breath, The more acidic your entire body becomes. And that should feel good because it generates an experience of balance. Instead of the left arm, The raised arm, Burning in its own independent acidity, The more you hold your breath, The body matches the intensity. And despite how intense it all is, Because it's even, It's balanced, It's a bit more tolerable. And so you can hold your breath throughout the practice today to create that sense of harmony. I'm gonna chime back in in about 15 minutes. Remember Sat Chit Ananda. The challenge of this, The suffering, The stress, The pain, It boosts your consciousness. That's the whole point of meditation. We want to be more conscious in our lives. The more conscious we are, The more we appreciate the role of this exercise, The easier it is to see truth. The easier it is to see that this moment is meaningful, A lifted arm is meaningful, Pain is meaningful, All the pieces of the puzzle fit. And the deeper point is hopefully this mentality will bleed out into the rest of our lives so that we see the world from a lens of inclusivity. We see every mosquito, Every struggle, Every catastrophe as enriching. Let's all take a deep breath in together, Deep breath out together. The mantra, I am NOT this body. You you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you slow down the breath and breathe into your belly if the acidity in your arm is intolerable hold your breath intensely inhale hold exhale hold experiment the pain of it is the imbalance of it fill the rest of the body up with co2 let the whole body become acidic and you'll find there's a strange piece in that uniform intensity you you you you you you I'm not this body and so what is bliss this is not joy it's not pleasure it's not immediate satisfaction or immediate gratification bliss is the experience of existence the awareness of our lives as our lives happen to us bliss is that which makes us more conscious and so analyze your practice right now is the acidity in your arm is the challenge of it enlivening you is it forcing you into this position of consciousness if so it is bliss and now that you understand that meaning and all of the stress is put together in an understandable way it might open you to the actual physical experience you might see past the mind's perceptions and feel that buzzing and tingling and solidity as actually pleasurable slow down the breath okay so let's end strong everyone rebuild your posture hips tilt forward spine lengthens remember this right arm is a foundation wrist pressing into knee gentle mudra with the right hand straighten the left arm a little more feel the shoulder tighten as if it's turning to stone locked in place it feels good to be in control right slow down the breath breathe into the belly Jit is consciousness the yogis force consciousness out of themselves by punishing the body as we become more conscious we can appreciate that suffering and struggle provokes that consciousness that is bliss and as we put those pieces together truth emerges and we realize everything is meaningful that is truth and so for the last few minutes with that bouncing around in your head feel openly your practice today embrace the acidity in the left arm and repeat the mantra from time to time I am NOT this body you you now in closing back to the opening conversation was the problem the body or the mind it was the mind our concepts of the sensations our interpretations of the experience painted them as brutal intolerable as suffering and stress but when we organize our thoughts root ourselves in that position of consciousness it's not so bad and can leverage that three breaths full embrace it's not so bad right slow release the left wrist to the knee drag the shoulder blades away from the skull straighten the arms mudras random fingers to each thumb repeat the mantra I am NOT this body bring your hands to heart center relax your shoulder blades down your back and just try to clarify for yourself in a physical way this position inside in reality it's a certain activation of the brain in a certain disposition of the nervous system but you can map it out as a place that place is consciousness to the Prachin to the ancient yogis that is soul that is up month and lift your thumb knuckles to third eye center back to the technique focus and sensitivity feel the tingling of your thumb knuckles pressing into the skin of your forehead and just observe that it is similar enough to the tingling and vibrating and quivering of the left arm as it was raised it's not good it's not bad but it is enlivening and because it stimulates your consciousness it is bliss let's take one more inhale deepen your focus as you exhale hold your breath release your wrists back to your knees random fingers to each thumb hold for as long as you can when you need to breathe in breathe in through the nose and then again hold your breath now with the lungs full holding breath repeat the mantra I am NOT this body I am within this body and everyone exhale keep the spine tall with your next inhale open the eyes I'm within this body