Understanding Thoughts To Become Free

Talk & Practice.

Freedom and Happiness. Yoga Sutra -5.2 Understanding thoughts to become free. When we learn the principles of eastern wisdom, we apply discernment that becomes dispassion. The highest dispassion leads to knowledge of real self, awakens to permanent happiness.

We will learn from Yoga Sutra, Gita, and other texts together to discover the true nature.

Transcript

Or I will mute if you cannot mute. So we are, So we are in our next session, And the next session, So where we have started, We have started that the real notion of yoga is that yoga is the highest state of mindfulness or meditation. What meditation does? It reveals the knowledge of the reality. And what is that reality? That reality is my true nature. It is one common element present in every being on this universe. That is pure consciousness. So in the second sutra, We understood the process, Emptying the mind of its content, Results into the third sutra that I reveal my true nature. What is my true nature made up of? It is made up of permanent peace, Pure awareness, Truth, Wisdom, And love. You know, Once this principle settles into your mind, Will you seek and expect love from someone outside? Then you will only express love and peace and happiness to the others, Why? Because my nature is that. Where the blame, Complain, And reaction will go, It will not find any place in your mind. So at least 80% of the materials that causes the stress is gone. Rest 20% depends on your practice. So in the fourth sutra, We understood a non-meditator will continue to behave, Act, Think in the same way. There is no possibility. My master used to say that the humility is a hypocrisy for a non-meditator. Think of it. I am before my boss. Yes sir, Yes sir. Do this, Yes sir, Yes sir. Boss is gone, How crazy this guy. I have been doing it. Humility is a sign of hypocrisy for the non-meditator. It does not mean that everyone has to practice meditation. There are many people who live at the heightened state of awareness. No, But a general understanding. So then we moved into the fifth sutra. Vritaya hapanchataya kleshta a kleshta. So all these thought pattern, All these thoughts that enters in our mind, They are either painful or non-painful. So we have understood that part. Now all those trillions of the thoughts, Think of it, Conscious level of thoughts, Maybe in thousands every day. Second layer deeper than that, You have hundreds of thousands of thoughts at the subconscious level. Deeper than that, You have habitual thoughts. Deeper than that, You have impulsive. Deeper than that, You have instinctive thought pattern. And deeper than that, You have the accumulated impressions of all those thoughts in the seed form. You have to empty all of them. So now the master is saying that all these thoughts can be classified into five groups. Today we are taking up that five groups of thought. In Sanskrit, It is written as pramanaviparyayo vikalpanidras mrithi. The master will amaze you, Five groups of thoughts. First understand their name, The first group of thought is the right notion, Or you can say right perception, Or you can say the thoughts about the fact and the truth, Real cognition, That is the first group. Second group is just the opposite, The wrong perception, The wrong notion, The wrong cognition, Wrong cognition. Third group of the thoughts fancies and imagination. Fourth group of thoughts, Now it will amaze you. It is sleep. Fifth is memory. So there are five groups of thoughts that we live, We think, We from which we act every day. Why don't you understand I have told you 100 of times to put the cup in the self? You know, I have a lot of things to do in the kitchen. Now I'm not blaming anyone, I'm just making a statement. Mr. Adnan was it. You see that? What kind of a thought? It is definitely a painful thought, It has come out from my reaction. So all the five groups of thoughts are either painful or non-painful. Let me use the restroom and come back, Positive thought, Fact, Real cognition. Let me prepare a tea for you. Normal thought, Let me drive to my home and the work. It's a fact. You see that these thoughts do not create any problem in our life, Right? Now convert this into a wrong perception. Even if I'm using 10 year old car, It is running fine, But my mind says, Oh, I have no resources. I'm still using the same car. Wrong notion. See that? How many times we think like this? It is painful. Everything is right. Car is running fine, Whether it is five year old or 10 years old. I will not tell you the name. There was a beautiful woman in New Jersey who used to come for private lessons at my home. And from the, She lives somewhere on the Route 9 in Englishtown. One day she was absent. So she texted me, I did not find the matching lipstick. That is why I'm not coming today for your session. My goodness. It is a fact, I tell you. I laughed. I lost a couple of hundred dollars. That's a totally different thing. But I laughed. She's over 65 now. She looks beautiful, No doubt. She is beautiful. But I depend on something outside. See the wrong notion. Now I project myself that I'm still young having a gray beard, Fancies and imagination. Will it be painful or non-painful? Think of it. When I was only hardly 27, 28, I have told, And couple of times, I have a gray beard at that age. Inherited. So I never made it black. So I used to travel in a bus. So Indian custom is that if you see an old guy, You know, Which appears as old. So younger people used to say, Uncle, Give me side. And they used to say me. Even I felt that they are younger than me. They are older than me. And I used to say, Bless you my son. But it took me a couple of months to accept that fact. This is the way you see that how these thought pattern causes you the problem in your life. What the master is saying, Empty the mind of its content leads you to the calm mind. And that calm and silent mind reflects your true nature. And once you know your true nature, It is irreversible process. That is the beauty. Once you discover that permanent state of the peace, Your body may have acute pain. Your mind will reflect. You will say the body has an acute pain, But I'm happy. No issue. That is the journey of meditation and mindfulness. Are you understanding? The way you are given an anesthesia, If your right arm is paining anesthesia, No pain in the right arm. You experience pain in the body, But you are able to disconnect that pain from your true nature. That is the journey of higher meditation. So five groups of thoughts. First is factual. What is fact? Observed fact. I see a beautiful woman. She is beautiful. You all are beautiful. There is one more handsome. I should appreciate what is beautiful. But if I give value, Liking and disliking, I want to possess it, Wrong notion starts. Same thing, Object is the same. Women is still the beautiful, But my mind creates a thought pattern because of impulsive, Habitual, Instinctive nature that we received since our birth. We have to change this default setting of the mind, Which is the cause of the misery. So the same beautiful women, I recall that event, And there is one handsome guy who had been a very good student of mine and knows it. He is Boris. So that's a quite interesting incident so that I can tell you. You see that how the wrong notion, The second group of the thought takes over you. That is extremely dangerous, But it was a hilarious real life story. So, And knows that I shaved, I became totally barred and I shaved my beard. So Boris used to, They both, Boris and that beautiful women used to attend my classes. Boris hugged me a couple of times. This is what I always want you to look like. And the beautiful women told me, You look crazy. Grow your beard. I'm answering you how the wrong notions are created. The next day, Boris brought me, You know, The trimmer and the shaver, You know, Big machine, Which costed something around $70. You have to do shave every third day. I said, I will do it. And that beautiful women told me that don't shave it. I said, I will do it. We are influenced by the society, By the people, By our opinions, By whatever we are doing. And we create a false notion in our head. You don't remain what you are that creates a second group of thoughts. Very dangerous. You need not to give me a certification that how should I look like, But I agreed to both of them. You have to play your role. Third group of thoughts are, You are in pain, You are in suffering, You fought with your near and dear ones, You close your eyes. Had I been with some, That guy who has been wonderful, Imagination, Fancy, Daydreaming. I dream in the waking state. Do you understand what I'm saying? I start dreaming in a waking state. I look at BMW, Oh, This is what a beautiful car. I go back home, I had a liking, I start thinking, I lie down, But I must dream of that car before I sleep. Are you understanding that? Third group of thoughts. We all have the same, More or less the same experiences. You cannot reject this notion, This understanding. No one can reject this understanding. We continue to have these thoughts, Three group of thoughts. Fourth group is the sleep. I experience the absence of thoughts. When I wake up, I know I had refreshed, I had a sound sleep. Absence of, Experience of absence, But below that experience of absence, There are many layers of the thoughts are going on. That shapes my morning. You wake up in the morning, I'm totally upset and I'm tired. How many hours you slept? Nine hours. I'm still tired. Those thoughts have caused you the problem. Understand that. Look at this. So the moment you feel, The morning you are upset, It is because of those thought patterns in your life. How deeper understanding this master has. By simply one liner, He says, Praman evipary evikal panitra smratipanchatayah. We'll go a little deeper into all, Every group of the thoughts. And the fifth, We already know, The memory. The wife complains to the husband, 10 years you go, You insulted my mom and dad. Mom and dad, I still remember. How many times my husband gave me the best in, From his life, I don't remember. Good memory. Good memory. You see that? Good memory. Is it really a good memory? Just an example, I'm not complaining about women or men, You know, It applies to both of us. So the memories also haunts in the form of a thought, In form of an appearance. I had a wonderful, I'm not naming him, I'm not telling you the name. A previous incident with a barist was a wonderful incident related to me, That's why I told you that he is barist. So he lived in the Princeton, He was 65, I used to go to him for private lessons for almost three to four years, Now he is no more, And can recall it, But need not to name it. Every time I went to him and he said, When I was 40 there was no problem. But my friend, You are 65 now. The body is subject to change. See how the memories causes the problem. Simple, Simple way to understand. I don't want to accept, I don't want to accept that I'm aging. My body is now 61 years old. It has its own limitation, Let me respect that limitation and continue the journey. So this is another kind of the memory that causes you the trouble. Do you see that? So the master says, These five groups of thoughts that are either painful or non-painful. The right perception also causes the pain. Look at all of them, How beautiful they are, I'm not so that, You know, I'm seeing the fact. Then why have to compare? Painful, Non-painful. A single thought may become painful and may be non-painful. A memory may become painful, Non-painful. Wrong notion may become painful or not painful. Do you see that? Do you understand that? We have understood all these thoughts are either painful and non-painful. And all these thoughts are grouped into five categories. So recognize, Become aware, What I'm looking, What kind of a thought is entering into my mind? Hold on. There you start working on the mind. The moment you are aware, Now you see the point. That is what the master is saying. The mind is working on you, Nobody can stop you being crazy. And when you are working on the mind, You are working on the mind. Even in the entire world is crazy. You live in calmness and peace. I'm saying the world around you, Near you is the craziest. And still, You know, Thank you. Very good. I'm learning how to increase my endurance living in this environment, Either at office or at home, Or with near and the dear ones. I like you all are thinking. That's we should think because we have to reshape our life. The entire journey of meditation is a conscious evolution and transformation in a single phrase. It is not that, You know, I focus, You know, On the breath and I feel relaxed, Remain mindful. Why don't you remain mindful? You see that sometime we also see like this. I'm not mindful, I'm already angry. Why don't you, Why you are not mindful? It will not work unless you understand the entire thought pattern, The five groups of thoughts. And then why are you not mindful? So I'm using a right statement for a wrong way. And sometime we start blaming others unnecessarily. I live in wrong notion. They drop all this by becoming aware. Now see that one thing I told you, If you wake up in the morning, You are fresh and calm. How you can remain fresh and calm? At least for 10 minutes, The very first practice is to relax yourself completely before you go to sleep. You don't have 10 minutes? No, I'm very busy. Why you are busy? Because those painful thoughts are moving in your mind. They're moving in your mind, Simple reason. The mind is always running, Running and running. So you don't have time to do the practice that will calm you down, Relax you down so that you can do any work that takes three hours in only one hour. I can guarantee you. I have a young guy who is doing a private lesson for five days a week, Just after your session for the last five months. He is in IT. In these five months, He did 10 certifications in specialized services of IT. 10 certifications, Can you imagine? Which takes about one certification, Minimum takes six months. I have the proof. I'll send you all those 10 certifications. And he's secured not less than 98%. That is the power of meditation. When you get rid of these five groups of thoughts, Keep it that is non painful. Throw what is non, What is painful in your life. You will have ample time in your life to do the practice regularly, To listen to it, To contemplate and reflect. If you analyze 24 hours a day, At least waking hours, If it is 15 hours, Think of it minimum, One third of the time is wasted in these five groups of thoughts that is not at all required. Just analyze every day, Become aware. Is thought required? No, Why do you start succor me? Drop it, The mind will be lighter. I can tell you one third of the time, Minimum if your waking hours is 15 hours, Five hours is wasted. In unwanted thoughts, Some of them you invite them, Some of them enters into your mind by default. Out of that five hour, Can you spend one hour daily? Use the rest four hours for you. Just, I'm not saying that you need more explanation, Just follow this week. Remind yourself this belongs to this group of the thought. Okay, Do I need that? No, Drop it. From the very first day you will find that you are relaxed completely. You don't feel so much of tiredness. And who knows, Within a week you will find out if you are sleeping for seven hours, The hours of the sleep will be reduced and you will remain free and relaxed. My personal experience, Maximum three and a half hours to four hours. Let us start our practice today. Eyes are closed. Eyes are closed at stage one. Eyes are closed looking at the body, Becoming aware of the body. See the paradox logic. What is paradox here? We want to discover our real nature. We know that we are not the body and still I say that look at the body. But that is the way, That is the process. Look at the body steady. Find out the most comfortable position of the body. You can lie down, You can sit, You can sit on the chair, Sit, Stand, Any position of the body will do. No worries. Position of the body does not, Meditation does not depend on the position of the body. So now in that, Once you are looking at the body, Look deep inside your head in the space. So space is visible means to the mind. In that space become aware of a point in the space and that is the spark of the calmness, Which is already there all the time, My friend. Now moving to the next step, Look at the neck joint. Who is looking the mind? How it looks, You become aware, You feel. Now find out is it a painful thought and a non-painful? That is how you become aware of the entire thought pattern in your day to day life from moment to moment. And looking at the neck joint, Feeling sensation, Being comfortable and steadiness. No worries. Continue the journey in it with awareness. Move the mind on the shoulder joints, Be there. Feel the sensation, Being comfortable and steadiness. We're not doing anything. It's all about the knowledge practice. That is what we discuss in the first half. And then the mind moves on the hip joint. You feel the sensation, Being comfortable and steadiness, The entire body. The entire body is comfortable with a feeling or a sensation and there is a sense of steadiness. Who disturbs the steadiness? The mind. How disturbs the steadiness? Because of the thoughts going on in the mind, Influx of thoughts. Some thoughts are not known by the conscious mind and they prompt the body to act. So that we start visiting during the practice. What should we do? You separate, You become aware that these thoughts are separate from you. You are not these thoughts. How simple it is. How do you separate? I gave three metaphors. You are standing across the road watching the traffic. The birds flying were in the sky. In the mental space, These birds are nothing but the thoughts. Let them come, Let them go, Let them fly. Remain unconcerned. That is the meaning. What? So he was asking me, Don't give value. Value causes like, Like causes attachment, Attachment causes desire. Desire in the mind says, How to control these thoughts. Did I say you to control? See that. So clarity and conviction is required by understanding these principles. In that state of steadiness in the body, Comfort in the body is not moving. We need to purify the mind. Look inside the rib cage in the space. Experience that point of calmness and start breathing. Quick and short breath through both the nostrils. And stop this. Take a deep silence, Slow breathing. Always remember your inhalation should be deep, Silent and slow. Why that will keep your awareness on the mind that the mind is not moving habitually reacting to it. And while breathing out, Looking deep inside the forehead, Start doing the humming sound louder, Deeper and longer. Again, Take your inhalation deep, Silent and slow. Roll the Wonderful fry mornings Always in the mmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmm Take your time during the inhalation, Totally deep, Silent in slow breath and while breathing out, Do the humming sound louder, Deeper and longer. Mmmmmmmmmm Ok. MMMMMMMMM derivation. Mmmmmmmmmm. And now stop this humming sound. Become aware of the space all around your body. Your body. As if there is a cylindrical space. Inside the cylindrical space your body dwells. How simple. The space is effect. Your body is also effect. Look at the shape of the body from the top of the head to the toes. So first is the space. Then the shape of the body. The beauty is that the moment your mind is intensively aware of the shape of the body. You will start experiencing sensation in the body. Why the mind has come? Near to the body. So there is a space outside. Then the shape of the body. Then the sensation in the body and deeper inside the sensation. The stillness in the body. It is not the stillness of the body. Means that stillness from the true nature is always present. Because the mind is running outside with these five thought patterns. It loses awareness of that stillness. I'm just giving you a glimpse of deeper meditation practices. Coming in future in the following sessions. In that state of the stillness you are looking inside the heart in the space. And you look at a point in the space. You are clear. You are aware. There you mentally draw up. Shantu ham the mantra. Shantu ham. Know the meaning of this mantra. It means I am the peace. So now move deeper from the first point. Again you see the space. Pick up a point in the space. And while drawing shantu ham, Become aware of the infinite space around that point. That much you need to do. Why we are doing? Wider step? We are asking the mind there is a way to get rid of all these five pattern of thoughts. Again you go deeper from the second point. You see the space within. The mind is moving deeper within. Again you look at a point in the space. And you know while reciting the mantra mentally, Shantu ham, Your mind is absorbed into the infinite space all around. Can the mind see the infinite space? Anything that is infinite it can think of it. It can create an idea but it cannot see it. Why you are saying this? Your mind may ask, When you drop shantu ham and you absorb the mind into that infinite space, You may transcend the mind. You may find yourself here too far from the body. You may have a variety of experiences of heaviness, Lightness, Colors in the vision. No worries. Recognize and accept and continue the journey. Move deeper from the last point. You find yes you are going deeper. Pick up a point in the space. Recite shantu ham. You are fully aware, Absorbed into that infinite all-pervading space. You wait there. You may have experiences. You are aware again. Before any thought pops up, Continue to move the mind deeper. We are not giving any value to any thought pattern except the practice. Continue. Continue. Continue dropping shantu ham. Continue. During the journey, The mind will find a trek to make you fall into unconsciousness or the mind will have an influx of thoughts or the mind will go deeper and deeper and deeper. Three options are there. So you have to recognize it is going deeper. No worries. Move deeper again. Pick up a point in the space. Drop shantu ham. Wait there. If there is an influx of thoughts, That is why I am speaking, Making you aware. Falling into unconscious sleep, I am making you aware because you are listening to me. So you can continue the journey. Continue. Continue. Now doing nothing. So when I say you do nothing, The mind says, Okay, Now I have to do nothing. I will do something. I will move the body. You see that? You have to maintain that awareness. Doing nothing simply means doing nothing. Looking is doing nothing. So you look at the breath that is going in and out, Feeling the sensation. No change in the rhythm of the breath. That we keep, That awareness on the breath with the three points to prevent the mind to go out. One, To help the mind to continue to live within, To reveal the knowledge of the reality. You see that? You see that? Okay? Shanti, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti. Shanti, Shanti, Shanti. Om shanti, Shanti, Shanti. Bring your awareness on the right hand, Your awareness on the left hand. Lift your both the palms, Place it on your eyes. Open the eyes inside, Know your experiences. Bring the hands down. We will share our experiences and if you have any question, We will follow that up. Very good. So how are you John? I'm good. I like this stillness and I hope I can be able to do that several times a day. Beautiful. I like your commitment. What is going to happen that once we explore the stillness in the body, Not of the body. You see, Stillness in the home is because of the space, Not because of the wall, The structure, The shape and the size. What is going to happen then? You can discover that stillness at any point in your life and that will withdraw the mind with it. Beautiful. I like your commitment. So how are you Sophie? I'm very good. You know, It went so fast. It was so fast. That's a deeper practice. It means you have deepened the practice of meditation. My master used to say you practice meditation, It should become difficult for you to return from meditation. Or you feel as if for just five minutes. Means that there is you have transcended the time. You are aware of that moment. That is what the meditation means, Transcending the time. Beautiful. How are you my friend Michelle? I share Sophie's sentiment. The time seemed to fly. For the most part, You know, Some of the things that you were saying just made me laugh with the whole. . . What made you laugh? I think the comment about something like if you are sensing different things, That's because you are more aware of your body and just the thoughts. I never have a quiet mind unless I am passed out. That just made me laugh during the meditation. For the most part, I just felt a sense of relaxation which has been a little bit more challenging this week for my body. More challenging this week. This is a bad week, Isn't it? It didn't start off that way for me. Come on, Is any week bad or good? Did the sun did not rise? That is how we have to work on the mind. Sure. Sure. That's a beautiful, Beautiful. . . How are you Dr. Meade? I am not there. How am I? I don't have to go to the doctor. Ah, Beautiful. After being here with all of you, I have no need of going to a doctor or being a doctor. But I tell you that I feel a kind of joy. Joy. Beautiful. I wasn't feeling earlier today. Beautiful, Beautiful. Thank you. I should not go deeper, But I should explain to you that there are almost. . . Some masters say there are 15 stages of meditation. And especially this Patanjali also, What we are studying. So when we experience the joy, The name of that meditation state is known as Anand Sampragya. Sampragya, Samadhi. We'll understand that. So that is the same thing. It's a different state with the Sophie, Michelle. That is another state. Because we understand, We have experienced that. We have been doing the practice. We know the philosophy. So I don't go into that detail. Because sometimes we build an ego sense. So that stillness in the body is another state. So to see that practice is one. What I want to say, The practice is one. But because the mind is different on a given day, It can jump deeper into a state. Beautiful. How are you Anne? I felt good. I was able to push all thoughts away. All thoughts away. That's good. That's deeper. But it's deeper of a meditation. Do you see one point? That's a beautiful. . . You see that? That's why I gave a talk in the beginning. Explain you those principles. It goes into the head. If you keep your preferences of likes and dislikes outside your mind. You are a true listener. Then these principles go into your head first. And then what happens? Before we start the practice, When your mind is a true listener, That principle descends down into the heart and we start the practice. We have the experience. That is what we do. Any question? Do you have a question? Yes, I do have a question. When you are in meditation. . . But John asked me first. Go ahead. That's okay. Go ahead. Okay. I'm on your head pretty hard. Go ahead. Lady is first. I have a story about the matching lipstick. I laughed and I said, You know, Sometimes you laugh even if you lose money. So I get to a lot of those, Sometimes emails, You know, I cannot attend because I have this problem. And then I see, Look into the problem. It's not a problem. It's your attachment. Come on. So you are right, John. Almost I received 30 to 40 emails and the majority of them are males like this. They give me a hard time to think and respond in hardly one line or two lines. It's the same way. It's an education to my mind also. You see that? So, Yes, Sophie, What question you had. So when you are in a deep state of meditation, Can you have things that pop up? I would say like sensations or emotions that could come from very, Very long time ago. Yes. Answer is yes. You see that first they pop up and then they are released. So you remove those seed impressions. So mind becomes ultimately free from all the past impressions. That's good. We're singing? So, Yes, That happens. Any more question? So you see that pick up the, You have to learn from your own experiences. I'm just a pointer. Do you remember? Let the time come. If we continue the journey, My master used to say that I make masters, I don't make disciples. That is the real journey. What it means? That you become your own master of the mind. If I don't explain these principles, How you can start working on your mind? There is nothing to be hide, Hide on, You know, I need not to hide anything. That is the part of the tradition. I was lucky and fortunate to have that enlightened master to live with him for 26 years, Day in, Day night out. Then the same thing because whatever we talk, That knowledge must reveal by itself in a deeper meditation. So it's not the outer knowledge. Outer knowledge is a pointer, Only a pointer. Here is what is going to happen. You are living into that state and the knowledge reveals into you. Girish, Thank you. I have to say thank you because my battery is going to die. So I want to say thank you. Yeah, There is a good relationship between battery and meditation. Thank you.