SELF: Your Best Friend

"Friends here lies the ’rub’ in yoga, spirituality and meditation. Already the ‘un-patterned’ pure intelligence of nature and the cosmos, already the true pure bliss itself, already all perfect yogis, (even those who do not do ‘yoga’ or meditate!) already the ‘yoga’ & meditation itself, except for blinding ignorance, nothing sets us apart or stands between us and our immortality. " Enjoy references to the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras in this enlivening practice and talk with John.

Transcript

Please just get comfortable,

Let's close our eyes and just be as comfortable as possible.

Already the comfort itself,

Nothing is more comfortable than self,

Consciousness.

Just feel the breathing moving effortlessly through the nostrils.

You don't have to do a thing.

The conscious,

Already present,

Is nothing but the truth.

Never changes.

Everything is changing in the presence of the truth that's always been and will ever be.

There is no other truth.

Already the absolute.

Breathing,

Coming and going,

Consciousness doesn't come or go anywhere.

Wherever you go,

Consciousness has already reached.

Already being ourselves.

Only blinding us is our ignorance,

In the sense that we ignore ourselves.

We ignore our presence,

Getting lost in ideas.

All that's getting lost is eventually the truth getting lost to itself,

Eventually rediscovering itself.

The teaching reveals the truth.

So I was just sharing with Rach this morning,

In terms of all the yogified peeps,

Meditators,

And people really putting in such amount of effort,

And it's admirable,

Everybody is doing so much to try to come to terms with,

I guess it's the relationship we have with nature,

The relationship we have with creation,

And trying to understand what it is and trying to come to terms with it.

And the Bhagavad Gita,

It's an amazing book,

I mean if you can order it,

The Penguin version of it,

Penguin Classics by John Masquaro,

Juan Mascaro,

It's just so worthwhile reading.

Krishna takes place on the battlefield,

I think we shared that,

You know,

Krishna then teaches Arjuna in the middle of a battlefield,

And I mean our life is a battlefield,

So like,

The teaching is so apt,

And Krishna teaches Arjuna the first order of business,

When Arjuna says to him,

Hey,

These guys are fighting for my kingdom,

My inheritance,

Which I mean everybody fights for inheritance,

Right?

That's where you get the families all fighting each other,

And then the families are all opposed to him,

And they all want his kingdom,

And he basically just wants the kingdom for them,

You know,

He wants his kingdom to be peaceful and nice for all his family and his friends and his teachers,

And there they are fighting him for his kingdom.

So he says to Krishna,

What,

Just take me into the middle of the battle here,

The two,

So I can see the two armies,

You know,

Fighting and aligned up against each other.

So Krishna drives the chariot,

He's the chariot here,

Now it's very important to note that Krishna is the self,

Okay,

And drives the chariot into the middle of the two armies.

And then Arjuna,

This king,

I mean he's like a huge warrior,

And he's a strapping guy,

Massive,

And everybody's,

You know,

In those days everybody was sitting on the old balconies waiting for this war to start,

You know,

And then there's Arjuna says to Krishna,

Hey man,

All these guys,

Yeah,

They're my teachers,

He taught me how,

He's my archery teacher,

He's these old guys fighting for the kingdom,

I'm not fighting these guys,

I refuse to fight and I refuse to,

And he drops his big bow and arrow down,

Which he won in a big contest and nobody in the world,

It's all,

You know,

Nobody in the world could win that thing because nobody could pull the arrow,

Nobody,

He was the only one who could pull the string,

The bow string,

But he drops Gandiva,

It's called,

His bow,

And he says I'm not fighting to Krishna.

He says these are all my family,

These are all my teachers,

My loved ones,

I refuse.

Krishna turns to him,

And what does Krishna do?

He says to him,

Hey man,

Your tears are for those beyond tears,

You know,

And are your words,

Words of wisdom,

He says to him.

So bottom line is,

As I was saying to Raj this morning,

He doesn't,

He teaches Arjuna's self-knowledge in the middle of the two battles,

Two armies,

In the middle of the battlefield,

He gives the teaching of self-knowledge to Arjuna,

Okay,

And that's the point I'm trying to make.

He doesn't tell him,

He doesn't teach him meditation,

How to stand on your head,

How to do mantras,

How to do all these things,

You know,

And hold your nose and breathe and no,

He teaches him pure knowledge of self,

Boom,

Straight up.

He says those,

The people who think that there's something dying and those who think they are killing something both don't know anything about the truth,

You know,

And so he goes into the whole,

Launches into self-knowledge.

So I mean,

Then he says to Arjuna,

Listen,

You know,

Because Arjuna still has doubts and he's,

Oh my gosh,

You know,

But what about family and if I go into this war,

You know,

It's going to be immoral war because,

And I'm going to be thought of as an immoral person the rest of my life and history will write me as an immoral person and Krishna turns to him and says to him,

If you don't fight this war,

Your name will definitely go down in history as a wuss.

You know,

He says,

What's happened to you?

And they know each other,

They've been buddies since they were kids,

You know,

Surfing buddies,

You know,

In that kind of friendship,

You know,

They've been inseparable from each other and it's the beauty of this dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna who are the best friends and there's another symbolism there is that the best friend that you ever have in your life is self,

You know,

Throughout your life,

Self has been with you never any further than or closer than the closest.

So he says to Arjuna,

He says,

What's happened to you?

What's happened to your balls?

He says,

You become a wuss,

A eunuch,

He says,

You know,

And then Arjuna doubts,

You know,

Has his doubts about self knowledge and everything and he says,

Well,

You know,

If you can't take this,

You know,

Some people do yoga.

So he goes through and he explains Samkhya yoga,

Karma yoga,

The rest of the Bhagavad Gita has explained to Arjuna how you can do yoga to remind you of,

You know,

What I was just talking about,

You know,

In the beginning,

Self knowledge,

Self atma.

So this yoga,

Samkhya yoga,

Karma yoga,

Bhakti yoga,

Devotional stuff,

You know,

And then there's this Raja yoga,

Which is the combination,

I guess,

Of all three.

And so he says,

Well,

If you can't take this knowledge,

Then and you can't swallow it,

Then here,

Try this.

Some people hold their breath.

Some people offer the breath into the in the inflowing breath into the outflowing breath,

The outflowing breath into the inflowing breath.

You know,

They in prana,

Yama,

You know,

The practices of prana,

Etc.

So,

But the beginning,

It says,

Boom,

This is the truth,

You know,

And like all these texts,

It's the same and the same in the big Bible of yoga,

Which everybody's like,

You know,

It's like the Ten Commandments of yoga,

The Patanjali yoga sutras,

Which the whole world has gone into.

Patanjali doesn't sit him down,

Sit down and say,

Now sit on your head,

You know,

Hold your nose and stare between your eyebrows.

And you know,

You know,

He doesn't.

He tells you straight up what self is.

He says,

Yoga is when all the mental fluctuations,

The citta vrittis,

The modifications of vrittis are no longer bothersome.

That's the second verse he says.

The first verse he says,

Now we're talking about yoga.

Having heard about this yoga,

This is yoga.

Yoga citta vritti nirudha means when yoga is when all the fluctuations in the mind no longer bother you.

Why?

Because the main vritti,

The I vritti,

The thought of oneself has been resolved.

And then the next third verse he says,

Tatatras tu svarupa vasanam,

When yoga happens,

When all the fluctuations no longer bother you in the mind,

You're not worried about them.

And then the seer abides in themselves in their own true nature.

The seer abides in their own true nature.

How?

So he did,

But then again,

All I'm making the point is he doesn't sit down and say,

Okay,

This is what yoga is.

You know,

Hold your nose,

Stand on your head,

Stare between the eyebrows,

Listen for sounds coming in your ears,

You know,

And chanting mantras and things.

No,

He doesn't do that.

He tells you straight up what self is.

So he tells you what yoga is,

Is nothing but self.

So in fact,

The whole of this Yoga Sutras is a teaching about self.

And if you take it,

Then he tells you,

Do this,

Do this,

Do this,

Do this,

Do this,

Do this practices,

Do all the Yamas and the Yamas.

But the first teaching in all these books and texts is the teaching about self.

Atma.

Reviews

Brilliant talk thank you 🙏 I could really relate to this because I’ve often felt there is something more than just the practices

I enjoy your down to earth banter about such deep teachings and explaining it so simply. Everything comes back to learning about our sacred self.