01.02 Happiness-1 What Is Initiation To Mindfulness

The Happiness series is a journey to discover inner happiness by understanding what is our real nature followed by simple, easy and effective practices , free from cult, dogma, belief and religion. Listen, Learn, practice and Enjoy.

Transcript

Very good.

We are studying from one of the greatest texts,

Ashtavakra Gita.

In the first chapter,

We are understanding the very nature of the real self,

True nature.

Satchidananda.

So what the master says,

SAKARAM ANIRTAM VIDDHI NIRAKARAM TUNISCALAM.

Very beautiful verse.

ETAT TATTVA PADESHENANA PUNARBHAV SAMBHAVA SAKARAM ANIRTAM VIDDHI NIRAKARAM TUNISCALAM.

The master says,

Recognize that blueness of a sky is not real.

He didn't say sky,

But I'm just making the things easy to understand.

Recognize that the apparent is not real while the unmanifest,

The one who is sitting deep inside the heart is real.

Then he says,

VIDDHI NIRAKARAM TUNISCALAM ETAT TATTVA PADESHENANA.

Through this initiation into the real self,

You will escape falling into the unreality again.

And when you escape falling into the unreality again,

No anxiety,

No stress.

It brings an end to the suffering.

Know all that has a form.

Then he says,

ETAT TATTVA PADESHENANA PUNARBHAV SAMBHAVA SAKARAM ANIRTAM VIDDHI.

SAKARAM ANIRTAM VIDDHI.

So know,

Recognize,

Understand which has a form is constantly changing.

And what is changing cannot be real.

Body is changing.

Mind is changing.

Beards are changing.

Everything changing,

The formless consciousness is my,

Is your real self.

That is the simple translation of this word.

Who can recognize apparent reality and the true reality?

That is the question.

That is why the master says recognize.

So then he uses another word,

Initiation into the truth.

Initiation.

So what is this initiation here?

There are many customary rituals through which the initiation is given.

Here,

What is that initiation?

Initiation normally means preparation for meditation,

Preparation to become a seeker so that the seeker succeeds in meditation.

Initiation means a preparation.

Or you can say the preparation for the mind of a seeker,

Mind of a person so that he becomes seeker.

There are many ways.

By touch,

By giving some mantra,

By giving some discipline.

But he is not talking of any such discipline of initiation here.

So what is that initiation?

That is what I was talking just before.

To everyone.

When Shobha said something.

So that initiation is to be done in the intellect.

By understanding.

Initiation,

Not,

You know,

It's not a ritual.

So what is it?

Let me raise three or four points of initiation into the intellect.

It is the master guides and then you work on your intellect.

Master guides and explains and then you work on the intellect.

Then the intellect is initiated.

When the intellect is initiated,

You are a seeker.

You can recognize what is real and unreal and you succeed in meditation.

So what is this initiation?

We have to drop the nature of the mind that is craving,

Obsession.

Stephen was just talking about that in a different way.

So what is that?

That the moment I have a craving and obsession and an ego sense,

What happens?

Mind leaves the understanding of what is right and good.

Mind leaves that understanding of what is just and unjust.

Then this mind applies all the corrupt means to live our life.

What is that?

How dare you inserted me?

Corrupt means.

No,

I want only this.

That is what,

You know,

Stephen talking in a different way.

So the first thing I have to drop that craving,

That obsession completely from the intellect so that the intellect is initiated.

Second point.

Where your intellect is sitting for satisfaction and contentment.

Tell me where your intellect is sitting.

Just after the meditation session,

I will take a cup of tea.

Contentment is sitting there.

So our intellect is sitting sometime in the food,

Sometime in the physical pleasure,

Sometime in anything,

In earning money,

Sometime in clothes,

Sometime in my car.

So that where the intellect is sitting,

If the intellect is sitting in anything outside,

In any person outside,

Then we,

The intellect becomes slave.

Our contentment depends on a person and an object outside.

This initiation needs to be understood.

So how long this initiation should last?

24 by 7.

Where the intellect should sit 24 by 7 in the heart within,

Where the real self is sitting.

All the time,

While doing all the activities outside,

No matter what you are doing.

So this is what he is talking.

He did not talk then,

You know,

Here is a mantra that by which you get initiated.

He is not talking of any cult,

Dogma,

Belief,

Religion,

Mantra.

Very right,

Forthwith.

Now let us take up another point of initiation.

Someone triggers you a little and your ego takes over.

You start reacting,

You start inserting people.

The intellect is destroyed.

Whatever you have learned for years from the teacher has already gone.

So what the master is saying,

That initiation into the intellect means,

Are you easily influenced by the pain and the pleasure and the sorrow and the happiness of the world?

Or you have tolerance level?

Do you tolerate?

It happens in everybody's life,

In business,

In profession.

Now with honey,

Withdraw yourself.

If your intellect withdraws completely from those pain and the pleasure felt by the mind inside,

Hold on.

The intellect says hold on.

So that's why I suggest if honey says something,

Keep quiet.

If she doesn't or he doesn't say anything,

Still keep quiet so that your intellect becomes aware what is going on outside.

Look at this,

That intellect,

That intellect.

You know,

Our life is not always smooth.

Nobody's life is smooth.

We have health,

We have sickness,

We have challenges in our personal,

Professional life.

Life is full of dualities.

Road,

The path of the life is not always straight.

Path of this life is not always we meet good people,

We meet bad people.

We meet good people,

We meet bad people.

Is my intellect calm,

Not affected,

Not get easily disturbed?

So once we have that state of the intellect,

You know,

I explained the four things.

If I repeated the first thing that I said,

Find out where the intellect is sitting.

So normally the intellect sits in the craving and the obsession for a thing,

For a person,

Any,

Anything.

I have also a craving and obsession.

That is why I am always ready five to ten minutes before the session.

So you see,

You can take the craving and obsession in a positive and in a negative sense.

Second point,

Where your contentment is sitting.

You see,

It's a beautiful point.

So I am explaining this verse based on the teachings of the other masters.

But principles are the same,

So I can take the reference from the contentment.

When you wake up in the morning and intellect says you are happy,

Contented,

Or you wake up in the morning,

The intellect says you have to do a lot of things.

You are rushing and running and anxious.

That intellect is not a seeker.

It cannot succeed into meditation.

That is the second point.

The third point is to get easily influenced by the pain,

Pleasure,

Easily influenced.

You don't look good and you are influenced.

What happened to me?

Why it happened to me?

So that intellect also starts comparing with other people.

Oh,

You said this one a very good thing and you are inserting me.

You have destroyed what you have learned even for 10 years.

The mind is constantly comparing that intellect cannot succeed.

This is initiation,

What the master is saying.

And the fourth one,

My life is full of dualities.

The road of the life is not always smooth,

But I can keep my intellect smooth and calm.

That choice is with me.

Can I live with that choice?

Now come to the verse.

So what the verse says.

Now you already got initiated.

You all are seekers.

So now listen from the seeker's point of view.

He says,

Sakaram Nritham,

Anritham Vidhi Nirakaram Tu Nischalam.

Clay pot is a clay only.

You have a clay pot,

A ceramic pot.

You see on the top,

What is?

It is ceramic.

Bottom,

Ceramic.

Right side,

Left side,

Ceramic.

That cup is a form,

Appears.

It is in appearance.

The master is saying anything that has the form in the name,

It is constantly changing.

Hence it is unreal.

Allow your intellect to settle in the formless behind that.

Crush that ceramic cup.

What is left?

Ceramic.

Buried down into the earth,

What is there?

Ceramic.

So the very essential nature of the thing cannot be destroyed.

The name and the form and the age can be destroyed.

This is what he says.

Why he is saying this?

This body,

61 years ago,

This much,

Gradually became six feet,

Had black beard,

Now grey.

And one day this body will fall down.

Not body,

The name and the form will fall down.

It means I am not the body.

The one who is sitting in the body,

That is pure consciousness,

Is I am.

That is the first point he is making.

The second point he is making,

What is unmanifest is real and what appears is the apparent reality.

What is seen by the sense organ in the mind,

Whatever is seen by the sense organ in the mind,

I see my dad.

So my mind says my dad should live forever.

Let everyone die.

Do you see the craving and obsession?

Do you see the comparison?

Do you see the duality?

Now that intellect cannot reach to that state of meditation.

I have to see the fact as a fact.

Everyone is changing.

Name and the form is changing.

When the mind,

Intellect settles inside and that mind looks inside into the unmanifest,

We discover.

What we discover?

We discover the real self.

The way I understand.

The way I know as a fact.

The way I understand the reality of the sky is not blue.

The wave is not the water.

Clay pot is not the clay.

Similarly,

I understand this body,

Breath,

Mind,

Intellect and the ego is not me.

I am the pure consciousness.

I am the pure consciousness.

So he says to the seeker who got initiated,

He says this is what my initiation.

Master is saying to a that that to a position.

And he makes such a bold statement you have.

You will never find in any other text.

He said this much.

We need to enter into the highest state of meditation.

And then what he says that you never find.

He says Ponnar bhava sambhava.

Forget about all the suffering.

It brings an end to all the suffering from today,

From here and now.

That is why I titled this series as happiness here and now.

Summarizing intellect is settled in the real self.

No,

But I don't know it.

Let the intellect be settled constantly deeper inside the heart.

Maintain that awareness.

You will recognize the mind is craving.

Bring the mind back.

Running after.

Bring the mind back.

First,

Let it be settled in contentment inside.

And then you start living your life,

Daily,

Your personal life,

Your professional life,

Your social life.

So what is going to happen?

The mind enters into that calm and peace.

But then he makes a very big statement.

Ponnar bhava sambhava.

He says not only it brings an end to the suffering,

It will also bring an end to the cycle of birth and death.

Don't go to those masters who give you a lot of promises that if you do this,

This will happen.

No,

He says recognize what is real,

What is unreal.

Recognize.

Who recognizes?

Intellect.

Is the intellect ready?

That is why I explained the four points.

So once the intellect is ready,

Recognizes what is real and unreal,

You settle yourself into pure consciousness.

Not only it brings an end to the suffering,

But it also brings an end to the cycle of birth and death.

Is your mind crazy after that,

After listening to it?

You have missed the point.

That is why I explained to you.

Is the intellect settled?

I have to check whether this intellect is settled within in the state of contentment,

Not easily influenced by the pain and the pleasure outside.

Then only you meditate because you are meditating in your daily life with eyes open,

Performing all your duties.

That leads us to the state of meditation.

So it means the meditative state is behind performing your duties in your personal life,

In your professional life,

In your social life,

Interacting with the people,

Interacting with the things.

24 by 7,

Meditative state is behind.

This is what he is talking about.

So let us start our journey of meditation.

Eyes are closed and eyes are closed and you are looking at the body.

You become aware of the body.

When you are aware of the body,

You feel the body is steady and the mind is facing within.

You may complain,

The body,

You know,

I cannot sit or I,

You know,

It's uncomfortable today.

It is all because of the mind.

It has a craving,

An obsession for something.

You may know it,

You may not know it.

Fact is this.

And then look at,

Look at the neck joint.

When you look at the neck joint,

Just be there.

When you are there,

What happens?

You feel the sensation.

You feel the sensation,

Comfortable and steadiness.

Make sure we are not doing anything.

The intellect,

The work of the intellect is to know,

To recognize,

To be there.

I know Stephen,

What work I have to do through the body and the mind and the sense organs to know Stephen is here or Sameer is here or anyone else is here.

No,

Recognize.

So recognize sensation,

Being comfortable and steadiness.

And what is beyond that is the inner space.

Allow the mind to settle into that space.

Look at the shoulder joints.

Be there.

Be there.

Feel the sensation.

When you feel that sensation,

Being comfortable and steadiness,

See behind that.

There is still the space.

What the Master is saying,

Allow the mind to live into that unmanifest,

Formless,

Shapeless and see what happens.

Look at the hip joint.

Be there.

Feel.

You see that?

Recognize.

What do you recognize?

Sensation.

Being comfortable.

Being steady.

And what is behind sensation,

Comfortable and steadiness?

Entire body from the top to the toes.

Awareness of the entire body.

All the joints.

Being there.

Feeling sensation,

Comfortable and steadiness.

Behind that steadiness,

Oh,

Common element,

That is space,

Unmanifest.

And all being carefree.

I'm using these terms to help your mind and the intellect to understand it clearly.

Otherwise,

They all are single step.

You'll be surprised.

Let the time come when I'll take you to just it is a single step.

So being carefree.

Carefree means what?

You're standing across the road watching the traffic.

You know the traffic is separate from you.

Similarly,

The thoughts,

Feelings,

Sensations,

Forms,

Images,

Whatever enters into your mind is separate from you.

You see,

This is what the master is saying.

Even when we know the sky is not blue,

Still the sky appears blue.

See that?

But I know similarly thought,

Feeling,

Images appear in the mind,

Disappear in the mind.

They come and go.

Quality of coming and the going and changing helps me to recognize these are not real.

So I have no craving and obsession for any thought images.

Hence,

I'm separate from it.

So I separated myself from the unreal.

That much is to be done.

We separate from the unreal.

The real manifests naturally,

Automatically.

It is already there.

I told you in a ceramic pot,

The ceramic is always present.

But we fall into delusion.

Now this pot and that pot,

This design and that design.

Ultimately,

It is ceramic.

It is clay.

Ultimately,

We may have different names,

Different bodies,

Different shape,

Different color,

Different sizes.

But we are essentially one.

Now look at the head and the neck.

So we start with the name in the form.

What is the name head and the neck?

So we have a form of the head and the neck.

That is the challenge we have to accept through the mind.

We have always to start with the form to enter into the formless.

So look at the head and the neck.

Are you aware of the name and the form?

Be there.

And then I say experience,

Sensation,

Relaxation and stillness.

So again,

It is an experience in the mind.

Sensation,

Relaxation and stillness.

But recognize sensation,

Relaxation and stillness is an experience.

They do not have any form,

But the name is already there.

You see,

I said sensation,

Name,

Relaxation,

Name,

Steadiness,

Stillness,

Name.

What we have to recognize?

Formless.

So go behind that.

Look behind,

Look deeper,

Become aware of the deeper.

And if the intellect is settled inside,

What will happen?

You will instantly experience,

Recognize.

Here it is.

You see that I like to translate every verse into a practice every day,

Every time.

So look at the right arm.

Are you aware right arm is the name and it has a form.

It is a shape.

Become aware of it.

Be there.

Feel.

Now what do you feel?

Now your experience is sensation,

Relaxation and stillness.

And what is behind that experience?

So when the mind and the intellect both are educated again and again,

The time comes.

You are totally settled in that pure consciousness.

This is what the master is saying.

Left arm,

Be there.

It's a name and the form.

You recognize.

Now you recognize sensation,

Comfortable,

Relaxation and stillness.

Still that is you recognize.

Sensation,

Relaxation and stillness.

Then going behind.

What is that going behind?

I told you a clay pot.

Going behind it is all clay.

So you go behind that name and the form.

I trust you understand because there is no other suitable word than going behind.

It is not a physical in nature that I'm in front of you and I'm going behind you.

There is no movement as such.

There is a movement of the mind.

Now become aware of the middle portion of the body from the shoulder to the ribcage to the belly and the spine.

The entire middle portion of the body.

Just see that.

Oh it's a clay pot.

Very good.

Then I added one more thing.

So that the intellect is settled in sensation,

Relaxation and stillness.

From there you can go behind easily.

And then you go behind.

Oh there is an infinite space.

What the master is saying unmanifest,

Formless.

That formless is our essential nature.

We're not doing anything.

Like a clay pot is placed in front of you and then I say go behind the clay pot.

So you don't move.

Who moves?

Many people miss that point.

Who moves?

Your intellect moves.

You see oh all is clay.

Pot is simply the form and the form is always unreal.

Right leg.

Right leg.

Did I say right leg?

Name.

Does it have a form?

Yes.

Very good.

So I created another step in between.

So look at the right leg.

Experience,

Sensation,

Relaxation and stillness.

And then I say go behind.

Remember the way you go behind the clay pot to recognize it is all clay.

Form appears.

Blueness appears in the sky but the sky is real.

How simple it is.

But I told you if the intellect is not initiated properly it will never happen.

It may happen just now.

You may forget but it needs practice,

Practice and practice.

Move the mind on the left leg.

Move the mind on the left leg.

Just recognize and become aware.

What I'm doing.

Name and the form.

That is all I'm saying.

Anyone can say this.

You can say this.

You can become a teacher.

Name and the form.

And then sensation,

Relaxation and stillness.

And then going behind that.

So every time you find a common element.

What is that?

That formless real nature,

Real me is Nishchalam.

Always motionless,

Always steady,

Always full of peace and happiness.

I'm not saying,

Master is saying.

So we use another device to reach to that state.

Physical world outside.

Become aware of the room.

You see I said room.

It's a name.

It has always a shape.

And then we can recognize all the items present in the room.

It has a name.

It has a shape.

Who knows it?

Physical mind.

Where is physical mind?

It is obsessed with the sense organ.

That physical mind is not able to realize and recognize the true nature,

My friends.

This is what I was saying in the beginning.

So I just recognize it is the physical mind that recognizes the name in the form of an object.

Now let us become aware of the body.

Physical body.

Physical body.

Physical mind.

It is still the physical mind.

Why?

Name,

Body.

Form,

Body.

One more problem comes.

This physical mind claims,

Declares with a wrong notion that this body is alive.

Can any matter be alive?

Like hydrogen,

Carbohydrates,

Protein,

Fat.

They are matter and that is what the body is.

So you know the mind which is not initiated,

It sticks with the body like a glue.

Everything is okay.

I understand it.

I got it.

But see that?

That is why they step.

Okay,

Let us go deeper.

Deeper than the physical body.

Breath.

I said breath.

Breath is a name.

So it has a form.

The form is movement.

That's how you recognize the form of a breath.

Short breath,

Long breath,

Deeper breath,

Whatever it is.

But what happens to the mind becomes subtler,

Subtle.

So it is not.

Breath is so much important.

We recognize the subtle mind that this mind not only can recognize the physical objects with the name and the form,

It can also recognize the subtle object which cannot be seen by the eyes.

And now I see.

You know when you make the mind subtle,

What is happening?

You are moving the mind within.

You're helping the intellect to settle.

You see how clear our masters are.

No belief,

No cult,

No dogma.

Everything is so clear,

Lucid.

And this can only happen in the state of calmness.

If I get disturbed over small things,

A pain,

Pleasure,

Duality,

Conflict,

The mind is running outside.

How can you recognize these subtle movements of the mind?

You see,

Now your mind will say,

Oh that makes sense.

Then what is subtler than the breath?

Subtler than the breath are the thoughts,

Feelings,

Images,

Experiences that appear and disappear in the mind.

Can I recognize them?

Yes,

They all are images.

They appear in the mind due to the past impression,

Craving,

Obsession,

Duality,

Conflict,

Pleasure,

A lot of reasons.

So the subtler mind recognizes these movements of the thought.

There is a movement,

Yes.

It means changing,

Yes.

And what is changing is not me.

It is still unreal.

Keep looking.

Where?

If the thought comes,

Keep looking.

If thought is not there,

There is a space.

No worries.

See that?

My master used to give us a simile that if you talk to me a couple of times when I used to talk of this text,

He said,

Look at,

You just keep sitting at the highway.

Standing across the highway,

You sit there.

Start from the morning.

You have only a few vehicles.

In the in the afternoon,

Early afternoon,

You have a lot of it.

During the day,

In the evening,

You have a lot of it.

And what about in the midnight?

You only see the highway clearly.

Hardly a vehicle passes by.

Same thing happens.

When we have intense awareness inside,

You will find the dark night.

One master explains that is perhaps in the Tantra text.

It says it is a dark night of the soul.

Dark night of the soul means you you are almost making a transition from the world outside to the world of meditation.

And then is anything mind can see deeper than the thought?

No,

It only sees the space.

Okay,

Let the intellect be settled in that space.

Objectless state.

Really?

Yes.

No object.

No object.

No name.

No form.

I recognize the formless state.

Recognize means what?

I can only recognize when I'm conscious.

When I'm conscious,

When there is a consciousness behind,

Is the consciousness before I or I is before consciousness.

Be there.

Simply be there.

That's all.

You have recognized.

You are there according to the teaching.

The master says When you reach to that formless state,

You recognize that you are pure consciousness.

You are your real self.

Unmoving.

Motionless.

What a beauty of this master.

You will recognize that intellect where it is settled.

The intellect will take the mind there.

That only can move the body.

That only can have an amaze in the mind.

And if you're totally settled there,

What a beauty.

You're already doing nothing.

So just do nothing.

Just you're already doing nothing.

Actually,

The state of doing nothing is the state of meditation.

So live into that before we return and share our experiences.

Shanti Shanti Shanti Bring your mind on the right hand.

Your mind on the left hand.

Lift your Buddha palms.

Place it on your eyes.

Open the eyes inside.

Know your experiences.

Bring the hands down.

Very good.

How are you Vivek?

Was missing you.

Yeah,

How are you?

Yeah,

I'm good.

I was away a couple of days.

But today what I felt,

I mean I felt like I'm in that kind of state where I've achieved everything and I'm just relaxing.

I mean nothing to do.

Only relaxation.

I've achieved everything.

That is what the intellect is totally settled in the contentment.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

So not many people know and Stephen,

This guy served,

We have a common same master.

He served the master since childhood when he was hardly five or six years old.

Now he is an IT professional.

So that also makes a difference.

So how are you Vivek?

It was totally deep and very relaxing and peaceful.

Very relaxing and peaceful.

Very good.

Very good.

Live into that.

How are you Stephen?

I am feeling the same.

I'm very relaxed.

Very content.

Very content.

Yes.

Felt my whole sense of being was just centered in my heart center and never left there.

Beautiful.

Never left there.

That's a beautiful point.

That also indicates the intellect is totally settled in the contentment inside.

Normally we see that,

You know,

When no,

No,

I have to now see the expression.

No,

No,

I have to go there.

Intellect is there.

I don't like this guy.

Intellect is there.

I feel pain.

Intellect is there.

See that.

And when that intellect is settled deeper within,

Let the world go to hell.

I'm in peace.

My master used to say that.

In a good sense that no,

I need not to care about it.

Why you care?

In Hindi it looks very good,

But you know,

I translated that into English.

So that is what my master used to say.

So I used to sit on every word what master used to say and for hours and hours and all say,

I said,

Okay,

This is what it is.

This is what he is saying.

That is what we are.

The journey is.

How are you,

Ashok?

I'm good.

I'm very peaceful.

Very peaceful.

Yes,

Yes.

Very peaceful.

Very good.

How are you,

Shobha?

Very good.

She doesn't want to return from the.

.

.

That is what happens in our life,

Day-to-day life.

You know,

Whenever we have a passion for an object or a person outside,

The mind does not want to return into the real world,

A real material world.

So now compare that with that when I feel that contentment inside,

Can this mind or the intellect run after anything outside?

Will I ever be disturbed?

Just see.

I'm just using the metaphor to explain.

That is what the meditation is.

So very good.

That is all for today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.