Lesson 1
"Discover Your True Self" & Journey Ahead
This session tries to give a very brief overview of our meditation course, "Discover Your True Self", which began by asking who or what we are. Through the study, the answer was discovered to be that we are pure awareness and consciousness. Understanding this question was emphasized, as it is the foundation for understanding our existence. The course then delved into the precise definition of the self and the problems that can arise in realizing it, with solutions being offered. This session and all preceding sessions of the course will focus on Vedantic meditation as a means of bringing this newfound understanding into a tangible, experienced reality.
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Lesson 2
Focusing on the Notion of 'I Am'
This session will guide you in focusing your attention on the simple yet powerful notion of "I am." By keeping your mind on this present moment awareness, you will learn to overcome the obstacles that prevent insight into your true nature. This meditation will help you to strengthen the mind and understand that the urge to find oneself is a sign that you are getting ready to know the truth.
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Lesson 3
Acceptance and Non-resistance
This session will guide you in learning the art of acceptance and non-resistance. You will learn to not pursue pleasure or shun pain, but to accept both as they come, and enjoy them while they last. You will learn to let go of them as they must, and understand that the real bliss is in the awareness of it. This meditation will help you to understand that all happiness comes from awareness and the deeper the awareness, the deeper the joy. By practicing acceptance of pain, non-resistance, courage and endurance, you will open deep and perennial sources of real happiness and true bliss.
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Lesson 4
The Oneness of Self and World
This session will guide you in understanding that there is nothing wrong with the world, but it is our thinking of ourselves as separate from it that creates disorder. You will learn that selfishness is the source of all bad, and the separate ego-self is only an imagination. You will learn that the intelligence and power are all used up in our imagination and it has absorbed the real you so completely that you cannot grasp. This meditation will help you to understand that the witness and the witnessed become one in witnessing, the hearer and the heard become one in hearing, the lover and the loved become one in loving. Every experience is an opportunity to come to your real self and understand the oneness of self and the world.
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Lesson 5
Seeing Beyond Name and Form
This session will guide you in understanding how name and form hide reality. Giving name and form is an obstacle to freedom because then the substratum consciousness cannot be seen. You will learn that calling something a statue of a horse hides the granite, and seeing a ring will not allow you to see the gold. You will learn that name and form can never leave consciousness, just as a ring can never leave the gold. This meditation will help you understand that before a wave rises it is ocean, before desire moves, it is peace. You will learn to destroy craving and bondage by identifying as the experiencing, not the experiencer, not the experienced.
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Lesson 6
The Silence of Truth
This session will guide you in going beyond all concepts and ideas to find the truth. In the silence of desires and thoughts, the truth is found. You will learn to go beyond the three states of becoming, being and not being, and understand that whether you plan or don't, life goes on. But in life itself, a little thought wave arises in the mind that indulges in fantasies and imagines itself dominating and controlling life. Life itself is desireless, but the false ego self, the thought wave in the mind, wants to continue seeking pleasure, therefore it is always engaged in ensuring its continuity. Life is unafraid and free. You will learn to leave the idea of influencing events and be liberated, as the very notion of doership and being a cause is bondage. You will understand that the self is undivided, ever present, ever complete, bliss itself, and it is you.
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Lesson 7
Understanding the Inner Self
This session will guide you in understanding that everything comes from within. The world in which you live has not been projected onto you, but by you. You will be asked to question the body, mind, society, nation, humanity, even god or the absolute, and understand that everything rises, stays and dissolves unto you. You will be asked to question yourself about your own existence, the idea of "I am" and your relationship to the world and others. You will be encouraged to consider and question the idea of your identity, origins, and beliefs about yourself. This meditation will help you to understand that all hangs on the idea, "I am."
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Lesson 8
Examining the 'I Am'
This session will guide you in thoroughly examining the 'I am'. You will learn that the false 'I' lies at the root of every trouble, it is a sort of skin that separates you from reality. The real is both within and without the skin, but the skin itself is not real. You will learn that the false 'I' is born in you, but you are not it. You will understand that it is due to identification with this false self and body that has made you a stranger in your own world and made the world alien and inimical. You will learn that without the sense of 'I am' life goes on, and there are moments when we are without the sense of 'I am' at peace and happy. But with the return of the 'I am' thought, trouble starts. This meditation will help you to stay with this 'I' to be free of it, watch it in operation and at peace, understand how it starts and when it ceases, what it wants and how it gets it, till you see clearly and understand fully.
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Lesson 9
Dissolving the False 'I'
This session will guide you in understanding that you cannot escape from your own obsessions, you can only cease nursing them. It is because the false 'I' wants to continue that we struggle with our obsessions. You will learn that the real self does not need to continue because it is indestructible. The self is indifferent to the destruction of forms and expressions, but to strengthen and stabilize the false 'I' we do all in vain. The false 'I' is being rebuilt from moment to moment, it is unceasing work and unceasing mental activity. The only radical solution is to dissolve the separative sense of "I am such and such a person" and then pure being remains.
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Lesson 10
Consciousness and the Stillness Within
This session will guide you in understanding that consciousness cannot be felt or understood by the senses or the mind. It is found only by being still and not seeking it. By stopping all thoughts, especially the thought of the false self, for a moment, you will find the stillness within and be free from suffering.
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Lesson 11
The Ultimate Truth
This session will guide you in understanding that before all beginnings and after all endings, you are. You will learn that what you are, you already are, and everything is local and temporary except for you. You will be reminded not to forget what you are, and that ultimately, you are beyond being and non-being. This meditation will help you to find the one who was present at your birth and will witness your death.
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Lesson 12
The Eternal Self
This session will guide you to understand that there is a state beyond forgetting and remembering. You will be introduced to the idea that beginning-less begins forever and that you need to find what it is that you have never lost. This meditation will help you overlook the moveable and find yourself to be the ever-present. You will learn to understand that whatever happens, you remain. You will be reminded that you were never born, and therefore cannot grow old, and that you are neither born nor can die, and have nothing to remember or forget.
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Lesson 13
The Unchanging Reality
This session will guide you in understanding that you are beyond the experiencer, ever unborn and deathless. You will learn that reality is not an event, it cannot be experienced as it neither comes nor goes. You will understand that there is no such thing as an experience of reality, only reality is, and there is nothing else. You will be reminded that there was no coming, it was always so. You will learn that you can only be what you are in reality, you can only appear to be what you are not. You will understand that what comes and goes has no being, what changes is not real, and what is real does not change.
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Lesson 14
The Effortless Freedom
This session will guide you to be quiet, stay unattached to your thoughts and not make effort. You will learn that to be bound takes effort, but to be free takes no effort. You will understand that thinking and intellectualizing about the self will never reveal it. This meditation will help you to let go of thoughts and effort to find the effortless freedom.
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Lesson 15
The Quietness of Peace
This session will guide you to understand that peace is beyond thought and effort. You will be reminded that keeping quiet is the key to the storehouse of love and peace. You will learn that you are quietness and to be careful not to make it an experience, as this is the mind tricking you out of it with the trap of witness and witnessed. You will learn that being is being, there is no witness and no witnessed, and that after letting go of the object, you should not hold onto the subject either, let go and be quiet.
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Lesson 16
The Present Moment
This session will guide you to understand that you are this moment, and to not attach your mind to any direction. You will learn to let go of practices, the past, and the future, and not even the emptiness of your heart. You will be reminded that there is not even space to be free forever, and to introduce yourself to this moment. You will understand that this moment is always now, it never changes, it is freedom, free from mind and concepts, and is your fundamental birthright. The best use of this moment is to drown in it, let go and be quiet.
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Lesson 17
The Effortless Self
This session will guide you to understand that you are inside of the inside, and to not dwell anywhere and make no effort. You will learn that the concept of effort and practice is bondage. This meditation will help you to just keep quiet wherever you are, let go of thoughts and effort and just keep quiet.
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Lesson 18
The Precious Present Moment
This session will guide you to understand that the present moment is light, is self, and it is not bondage or freedom, it is most precious beyond any idea. You will learn that this moment is the screen on which all is projected, it is always still and untouched, and it is out of time. You will understand that there is no difference between the self and this presence. To be in this moment, you will be asked to abandon all desires including the desire to be in it.
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Lesson 19
The Pure Consciousness
This session will guide you to understand that you are pure consciousness, the fullness of love, in love and the emptiness of awareness, you are existence and the peace beyond peace. You will learn that you are that screen on which all is projected, the light of knowledge and the one who gave the concept of creation to the Creator. You will be asked to forget what can be forgotten and to know yourself to be that which can never be forgotten. You will understand that you are the substratum on which everything moves and to let it move. You will be reminded that you are this, you are now, you are nowness and that there is nothing that can be out of this now. You will be assured that you are truth and only the truth is.
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Lesson 20
The Ultimate Truth of Existence
This session will guide you to understand that there's nothing missing, you are and that this is the ultimate truth. You will learn that you are totally alone because, bliss alone is, only self is. You will be reminded that the only thing that can't be denied is your own existence. This meditation will help you to keep quiet and reveal yourself to yourself. You will learn that self-knowledge is worth sacrificing anything for because everything else is just a mirage rising out of consciousness.
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Lesson 21
The Consciousness Beyond Notions
This session will guide you to understand that you are consciousness, not one who is conscious. You will learn that beyond notions and creations you exist, and that there are no words for that beyond words. You will be reminded that the self doesn't need to understand itself, and that freedom is beyond the concept of freedom. You will understand that you are what remains when the concepts of I, mind and past disappear.
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Lesson 22
The Non-Conceptual Self
This session will guide you to understand that the self is not a concept. You will learn that the ego and mind and all creations arise out of self, as self. You will understand that even the ugliest of doubts and the most separate of differences rise from the self. You will be reminded that in self, there are no do's and don'ts. You will be guided to see yourself as the ocean, and all forms as your waves dancing on you, and that this is knowledge.
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Lesson 23
Understanding the Self
This session will guide you to understand that you should not pretend to be what you are not and don't refuse to be what you are. You will learn that life will escape and the body will die, but it will not affect you in the least. You will understand that the real does not die, the unreal never lived. You will be reminded that you are neither the body nor in the body, there is no such thing as body. You will learn that the absolute precedes time, the absolute is. You will be guided to understand that your body is short of time not you, and that just understanding yourself is eternity.
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Lesson 24
Discharge into the Self
This session will guide you to understand that there are no differences, no disturbances, and no one to be disturbed. You will learn that giving rise to an 'I' or any other thought, is giving rise to a wave, but water remains water, so allow everything to be for it is yourself. You will be guided to discharge into what you truly are: happiness, bliss, being, fulfilment, and pure awareness. You will be reminded that only awareness is, only self is. You will learn that nothing ever happened or ever will, and that you have always been perfect love and peace.
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Lesson 25
Being Beyond Knowing
This session will guide you to understand that you cannot know your real being, you can only be what you are. You will learn that whatever you are changelessly that you are beyond all doubt. You will be reminded that to be, you must be nobody and to know that you do not know is true knowledge. You will understand that in reality, you were never born and shall never die. You will be guided to be nothing, know nothing, have nothing and understand that one can only be it without knowing. You will learn that what you don't know that is prior most and before you acquired this knowledge I am, that is the real estate.
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Lesson 26
The Original State
This session will guide you to go back to the source and take your stand in the original state, the absolute. You will be reminded that prior to witnessing, you are. You will understand that something prior to the creation of the body knows that there is a body. You will learn that when you did not have the body, complete satisfaction existed. You will be guided to understand that the One who knows these appearances is the Self and that the I am-ness is a part of the play and you are prior to the I am-ness. You will be reminded that I prevail prior to anything I ever exist, prior to the appearance of childhood that is my eternal State. You will learn that you only observe the appearance and disappearance of beingness and that when you didn't know that you were, that is your true state.
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Lesson 27
The Unborn and Absolute
This session will guide you to understand that you are unborn and shall ever remain unborn. You will be reminded that the world and the mind, everything are unreal but you are not. You will be guided to recede into the state prior to identification with the body. You will be reminded that the witnessing of beingness happens to the eternal principle, the absolute. You will learn that the absolute never had any experience that it was alive and that the absolute has no needs and ever prevails. You will be guided to the non-attention, pure state that has no attention, and to understand that you are the absolute.
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Lesson 28
The Timeless and Absolute
This session will guide you to understand that before the beingness was there, and to look at that state and be in that state. You will be reminded that the timeless and spaceless existence doesn’t know it is, that is reality, that is truth. As the eternal principle, you will be guided to prevail in spite of all happenings. You will learn that the absolute witnessing of the I am-ness occurs, this is the Siddha standpoint. You will be reminded that you, the absolute, are not this I am-ness. You will be guided to understand that not knowing is perfection and knowing is imperfection and fraudulent. When the I am goes into oblivion, that is the eternal state, no form, no beingness.
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Lesson 29
Transcending Duality and Manifestation
This session encourages the listener to go beyond the duality of subject and object and to transcend the idea of manifestation. Through the process of Atma Yoga, which is the practice of abidance in the self, the listener is guided to transcend individuality and to reach a state of total quietude and rest, where there is no birth or death and no coming or going. The session also highlights the idea that the absolute self is not the body or even the indwelling beingness, but a witness to it.
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Lesson 30
The Absolute Truth
This meditation session focuses on the concept of the absolute truth, which is beyond understanding and knowledge. The speaker encourages the listener to transcend the ego and the understanding of the self and to instead, abide in the state of non-understanding to truly understand oneself. The session also emphasizes the importance of transcending the states of waking, sleep and knowingness during meditation to reach the state prior to one's birth.
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Lesson 31
Transcendence of the Ego
This session focuses on the concept of the "I am" and the illusion of beingness. The speaker posits that the true self, or Parabrahman, exists beyond the knowledge of "I am" and that this state is the eternal and absolute state. The session encourages the listener to meditate on the state prior to the experience of "I am" and the world, and to transcend the illusion of beingness to reach the true self.
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