Let's close our eyes.
Let's close our eyes.
When I started meditating,
Almost eight,
Nine years ago,
I didn't know what to do,
How to do.
I just went with whatever came on my path.
And as my practice evolved over the years,
These sessions have also evolved over the years.
This particular flavor of the evolution of the meditations is what resonates with me deeply right now.
And that is what I'm sharing with all of you.
And there's no particular theme or pattern in these kind of meditations.
Other than the fact that I only share my experience that I'm having right now.
The details of it,
The intricacies of it.
And the more deeply you see something that is a matter of fact for all of us,
The matter of fact starts becoming clearer,
Starts emanating insights and wisdom.
Not someone else's insights and not someone else's wisdom,
But your own insight,
Your own wisdom.
In the process,
We do experience a deep mental and physical relaxation.
But that's not the goal of this flavor of meditation.
It is an outcome,
Yes,
It's a byproduct,
Definitely.
But the aim is to see our experience differently.
Maybe chop it up sometimes,
Zoom in,
Zoom out.
Take a different angle,
Perhaps.
You get the point.
Sometimes I liken these meditations to our evolution of believing in Santa Claus.
As kids,
We believed in Santa Claus,
Most of us.
And then at some point,
We saw something and everybody could have seen something different.
And that just collapsed the previous belief that you had about Santa Claus.
I mean,
Everyone works really hard to keep that belief going.
Even us as parents,
We do this to our kids.
Because it's fun.
But some of our beliefs create misery and suffering for us.
However,
The way out is the same way out that we had when we believed in Santa Claus.
Seeing something.
And once we see something,
You can't unsee it.
You can be in denial,
But it's very hard to unsee something.
And when I say see something,
It could be know something as well.
For example,
Let's say when you were a little kid,
You were hanging out with your best friend.
And somehow you learned either directly or indirectly that your friend said something about you behind your back.
As long as you did not know about it,
You were still best friends with them.
But the moment you came to know something,
It changed the way you saw things.
And it changed the way you felt.
That's the power of seeing something.
Truly interpreting it that is congruent with our minds,
Our bodies and our heart.
So that we are not manipulating our experience.
We are not putting a spin on things.
But we are accurately describing our own experience.
And there is somehow a magical strand to this last piece that I just said.
That once you start sharing your own experience accurately,
You will realize it resonates with others as well.
And the more personal we keep our interpretation by calling it,
This is how I see it,
This is what I believe in,
This is mine,
Etc.
It is very catered to you.
But the moment you go to facts,
Like what I am describing for the last 10 minutes,
I am not sharing an opinion,
I am sharing my own experience.
And I hope some of it resonates with you.
Where once you get to facts,
Those facts can be experienced by most others.
The ethics,
The analogies,
The triggers might be different,
But the facts remain the same.
We all experience anger the same way.
That's why we can agree,
I am angry.
My anger is no different than your anger.
It could have precipitated due to different reasons,
Yes,
But anger is anger.
Peace is peace.
There is no my peace,
There is no your peace.
Happiness is happiness.
The reason we want to be meticulous about this is because this meticulousness helps us truly interpret for ourselves what we are experiencing.
We can remove influences from our interpretations,
Influences of society,
Culture,
School,
Parents,
Friends,
And get to the facts,
And facts,
And our interpretation about those facts,
Actually dictate the quality of our life,
How we feel on a daily basis.
So wisdom and insight is an outcome of being meticulous.
And this meticulousness gives rise to clarity first.
And once you have clarity,
That clarity starts integrating with our bodies and minds.
So we start thinking appropriately and feeling congruent with our clarity.
For example,
As we get into the New Year's,
A lot of people make resolutions for losing weight,
Getting in shape.
And I am only using this as an example,
I don't mean any disrespect to anyone.
And I am going to make some assumptions to elaborate on this example.
Some of this impulse to create resolutions around health and fitness could be a projection of the culture,
Could be a projection of society,
And in other case it could just be our thinking that wants to give us a new start in life.
But because this thinking is coming out of a wish,
A desire,
And not out of clarity,
It will not colonize our bodies and minds,
Especially in the cold.
It will be orders of magnitude harder to get yourself to work out 15-20 days later.
And the habits of the body and mind will take over our new desire to be fit.
But if we came at the exact same plan through clarity by understanding how important it is for us to be fit,
Or to lose weight,
Or to gain weight,
To work out,
Its physiological,
Psychological,
Emotional benefits,
There is a higher chance of this clarity colonizing our bodies so that our bodies start complying,
To go through this tough transition of working out.
It's almost always easier to do something hard,
Or very difficult,
If you have a compelling and a clear reason to do it.
And that compelling and clear reason is almost always your own clarity and your own reason.
Thank you.
You you you you It's very easy for us to question our own beliefs than to question someone else's.
Because the only way the beliefs become loose in their stronghold that they have over us,
Or we have a stronghold on those beliefs,
Is when you're open to them being challenged.
And in these sessions,
You will hear something that will probably knock your socks off from time to time.
Not because that's what I mean to do,
But truth is not an easy pill to swallow.
But because you have signed up for this on your own volition,
Whatever you see or hear in this session will be like a seed that is sown in your heart and will start sprouting.
It's like when we are going to take a shot.
We have to leave our arm loose so that the nurse can give us a shot.
But if you tighten your muscles,
Which is analogous to not being open or ready,
The whole process of getting a shot will be very painful and nothing will go inside your body.
So as we are approaching the holidays,
For some of us it is a festive time,
For some of us it could be stressful and anxious times.
Because of what has happened in the previous years,
What you think will happen this year as well.
Now that's a belief that can be challenged very easily to make ourselves open to a new holiday season.
Not expecting the same and probably getting the same.
Same could be true about weather.
If you think winter is a nuisance,
It will stay like a nuisance.
But if you get to the fact winter is just winter,
It has nothing to do with us.
It was winter before we were here.
So winter has no personal agenda against us.
And how can we see the beauty and dance with that beauty?
To make it fun despite challenging.
What can you see that you can't unsee?
We always use this seeing or hearing for something bad.
What I mean by that is,
Everything is just fine in our lives until we start,
We get to know that something bad has happened and we start feeling that way.
But what if we could proactively use this process to understand and open up the stronghold of beliefs that are gripping our happiness and peace.
And loosen them a bit and see if they improve the quality of our life.
A question that will help or maybe kickstart this process would be to pause and ask yourself,
Is this true?
Whatever that this is,
And listen to your heart,
Not to your mind.
Is this true?
Is this true?
Thank you.
