31-Day Meditation Challenge: Day 29

Welcome! This is the twenty-eighth 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.

This lesson goes over the yogic concept of reality as MAYA or Illusion. I share how yogic meditation is also concerned with "knowing" what reality is versus just observing is and what it's made of.

Enjoy.

Transcript

All right,

Good evening everyone.

Day 29,

Even closer.

The last three sessions I'm hoping to make this all very very simple.

We've been in the midst of many ideas,

Many of which I'm sure you don't remember,

But some I hope have sort of stuck with you.

And just to highlight the nature of meditating through a philosophical lens,

Which the yogis did.

The yogis were absolutely sort of embodied philosophers and they applied the creativity of their inquiry,

Not just to the world and the environment,

But also to themselves.

So I hope some of these stuck.

And the way we can interact with these philosophies is just go back and read what you have already read and consider what you've already considered.

And if you're motivated to go back and listen to some of the sessions and what you'll find,

What I found through my practice is as I sort of take a second loop around these ideas and read books I've read twice over or thrice over.

You know,

Different sentences,

Different chapters,

Different ideas that didn't mean anything to me then mean everything to me now.

And that suggests that we're trekking deeper into the wilderness of these concepts and becoming more powerful or more advanced practitioners.

Because there is a degree of intricacy and a degree of skill involved in really understanding these huge concepts.

Yesterday I sort of made the statement that a strong body can lift heavy things and a strong mind can understand deep expansive ideas.

So there's something to gain or a direction to grow into.

But simplicity.

And so what we're gonna get into for the last three days is essentially mindfulness,

Which is the most popular form of meditation,

At least in the West.

And what it simply is is you're holding stillness,

You're breathing slowly,

You're letting thoughts come and go,

And you're essentially just appreciating anything that arises,

Positive or negative,

Comfortable or uncomfortable.

And that that essentially leads to a more relaxed nervous system which builds your immune system and gives you a reprieve from the stress that sort of accumulates in the mind.

But you know following the footsteps of the yogis,

What are we actually paying attention to when we are mindful?

And that is of course reality.

But what is reality?

And this is the idea.

Reality is maya.

Reality is not absolute.

Reality is the illusion of experience.

So I wanted to share a little story,

A little dream I had that really empowered this concept of maya for me.

And so I'm in this giant room and I'm a disembodied sort of camera just watching a scenario play out.

And in this room there are hundreds of yogis lined up in curved rows.

And these yogis are in a pose,

A king half pigeon,

So their hips are open and they're bending backwards and bringing their feet to their heads.

And this other character is walking through the rows.

And the far rows,

These yogis,

Are in distress.

Their bodies aren't ready,

Their bodies aren't open to sort of assume the shape,

Yet they are trying.

And in their effort there's a lot of suffering in their faces and a lot of pain in their bodies.

And as this character walks further and further and further forward,

The grace and the skill and the beauty of these postures becomes more pronounced.

And at the very first row this character looks and me,

This disembodied camera,

Sort of pans in into what the character is observing.

And he looks at the most beautiful king pigeon.

And in the eyes of this practitioner there's still a single tear.

There's still the drop of suffering,

Which is the concept of Buddhism and a necessary idea to appreciate within ourselves if we need to meditate powerfully.

Even when things are perfect there is still a little bit of discontent,

A little bit of dissatisfaction.

And so at this point this character walks up some stairs,

Opens into a balcony,

And watches a star being born.

Then all of a sudden I wake up and I see a star being born and it's more beautiful than the dream.

And I'm thinking as I'm watching this star being born,

How can what's real be more beautiful than a dream?

Dreams are the most beautiful thing there is.

And then all of a sudden I actually wake up and I'm staring at my ceiling and it's daytime.

So it's this dream within a dream experience and as I'm laying in my bed all of a sudden the idea of Maya emerges.

And it's that when we are immersed in the experience of our lives we think it is real.

But if we wake up to a higher dimension of reality,

Something that we feel is more real,

We often think that the unreal thing,

That the dream contains more beauty,

More wonder,

More adventure,

More magic.

And it's only until we learn to appreciate mindfully the experiences that we have that we can see that this reality,

Which we are so used to and comfortable with,

Is actually the dream.

And this is sort of the whole point of contemplating Maya and being mindful is we learn to appreciate reality as a dream.

And so with that,

What is Maya constructed through?

The yogis didn't just sort of sit openly without thinking.

They analyzed the constructs of this dream reality,

This always changing dynamic experience.

And they found that the two eyes of Maya so to speak are time and space.

And this is what we're gonna observe specifically today.

As you hold your stillness,

As you feel the tingling sensations of your body,

I want you to consider,

And I'll cue it,

That you are on the timeline of infinity.

There are 16 billion years behind you and there is just as many years ahead of you.

And if you just take a second to actually consider that,

You will feel time behind you and ahead of you.

You will feel your small position in this infinite experience.

And then the same can be said with space.

If you take a second to apply your intelligence and your awareness to the fact that there are infinite miles of space to the left and to the right of you,

Above you and below you,

You will actually feel the magnitude of this dream,

Of this ephemeral transient evolving experience that we think we know.

And if you just sit in that for a while,

An innate mysticism will emerge,

A sense of mystery,

A sense of wonder.

And this is sort of the hope that we can actually access a state of wonder while sitting down in our homes.

The more we feel our bodies,

The more committed we are to thinking while feeling,

The more true it becomes.

And by the end,

Maybe not today,

But by the end of a committed practice,

The dream of reality will be the only thing you sense.

And this is what defines meditation in terms of like a mystic context,

Which is beautiful stuff.

Alrighty,

So let's get into this everyone.

Strong seated position.

And find this balance between technique and no technique.

You're doing something but you're not really doing anything.

You're applying effort but there's really nothing to apply yourself to.

You're just sitting down.

Slow down the breath.

Breathe deeply into the belly.

Now let's consider how easy this actually is.

Your arms are not lifted over your head,

So this is easy.

You're not laying down face-first on the floor,

So this is easy.

There's nothing to reject.

Meditation is mystical and to meditate seriously defines you in some way as a mystic.

Mysticism is derived from the word mystikos,

Mystery,

Something secret,

Something hidden.

It's also derived from the word mystes,

Which means to be initiated.

Meditation as a mystic art suggests that you are initiating yourself by learning techniques,

Studying philosophies,

And practicing them to recover something that is not obvious.

And that something is a more expansive and open understanding and relationship to reality.

Something our minds overlook and something our bodies can't fully experience.

So take a couple moments to consider,

Appreciate,

And maybe even feel that through what you're doing right now,

Through meditation,

You can open your awareness into the world you know to see it in a different way,

In a way that proves more inspiring and more awesome.

Slow down the breath.

Slow down the breath.

Now mindfulness is the counterbalance to the philosophical intricacies of yogic meditation,

To the physical austerity and technicality of yogic meditation.

But the two can exist simultaneously.

Just be present to the rising and falling of sensations and thoughts without following them or entangling yourself.

In that your experience of physical peace increases,

Your capacity to interact within yourself graciously and compassionately with dignity increases.

And so now the stage is set.

Mysticism.

Mysticos.

Mestes.

Through this I initiate myself into something secret.

Take the time to feel 16 billion years of history behind you.

Start with yesterday.

And at the same time feel billions of years ahead of you.

Your territory on that timeline is infinitesimal.

But you're still connected to it.

You This is called Laya Yoga.

Laya means trance.

And the Laya yogis meditated on Maya.

They meditated on the illusion of reality.

They meditated on the illusion of time.

Like waves moving from the future into the past,

They allowed themselves to be hypnotized by it.

Now start to consider space.

Start from your body to the left of you.

There are light years of space.

Millions upon millions of miles right next to you.

To the right,

To the left,

In front of you,

Behind you,

Above you,

And below you.

And when you breathe more deeply,

You swell into these directions.

But you only colonize inches at most.

You you you you you you you you you as you feel your body feel time feel space sense that infinity and is the mind is divinized with these ideas your relationship to the ordinary experience of existing through flesh and through bone starts to subtly change and it is beautiful meaningful enriching awesome in the truest sense of that word you you you you billions of years behind you even though the past is inaccessible to us it's right there at least it was right there billions of years ahead of you and that future is rushing into you second to second and that rip current of time is steadily cutting through the three dimensions of space and so at this point I hope you can feel what the laya yogis worshiped the trance of this physical dream I hope you can appreciate that you are initiating yourself into a unique perspective by spending your time learning and practicing philosophies and techniques and in that you are a mystic and so consider at this point this dream that you yourself while practicing are walking through the center row observing the fact that countless people are assuming awkward shapes and suffering and struggling to assume them and even those that can assume these shapes perfectly still have tears in their eyes because there is always dissatisfaction because there's always desire for more even within each of us right now but when we are mindful present and open-minded we can ascend this staircase and see the heart of it I am what I am but there is more there is a truth there is a center point and it calls we learn to sense that center point fall into its trance we gain access to a higher dimension of experience something that feels true something that doesn't seem to be affected by change outside of the reach of grief outside of the reach of confusion to spend one minute here considering that something far within space and somehow beyond time slowly bring your hands to heart center increase your sincerity mystical miss this by playing these games restraining my body emptying my mind through focus I gain access to something hidden whether it is only the phenomenon of my psyche or something actual something outside me doesn't matter the subjective experience is real enough slow down the breath thumb knuckles to third eye center and so that balcony from which we can see the heart of reality birth itself again and again moment to moment to moment is consciousness and that consciousness manifests as far as we know in the prefrontal cortex right behind where your thumbs are touching your head and the fact that the yogis surmise this just by feeling their bodies is profound so stand on that tiny balcony and see the star of the world birthing itself that star includes your mind your thoughts your body your life and the infinities of time and space take one more exhale hold the breath release your wrists to your knees tall spine hold for as long as you can when you need to inhale slowly through the nose and again hold the breath be mindful of these sensations of the challenge open to both pleasure and pain open to focus and distraction when you need to exhale exhale take a few more mindful breaths now before you open your eyes imagine that this inner space is one reality the external space is another and as your eyes open you wake up from one dream to another inhale the eyes open just say Maya real unreal phenomenal changing here and gone you