Inner Engineering

Sadhguru talks about Inner Engineering - a technology for well being.

Yogi, mystic and visionary, Sadhguru is a spiritual master with a difference. An arresting blend of profundity and pragmatism, his life and work serves as a reminder that yoga is a contemporary science, vitally relevant to our times.

For more Sadhguru's insights, follow him on twitter and facebook.

Transcript

Sadguru Jagiv Vasudev is a realized master,

Mystic and yogi.

He has shown the way for people to attain to their natural joy and to live life with experience from one's own inner nature.

His presence is filled with grace and compassion.

Sadguru's scientific approach towards spirituality and work towards the upliftment of humanity have received accolades worldwide.

The words that come from him in intensity and utmost clarity,

From his deep understanding and wisdom,

Can change the very core of the being.

Belonging to no particular tradition,

Sadguru incorporates what is most valid for the modern person from the spiritual sciences.

His work,

An outpouring of his blissfulness,

Finds expression in the form of a ceaseless offering to help all beings.

Available to all who are willing,

Sadguru's life is an invitation to the divine through individual transformation.

Welcome to the Silent Revolution of Self-Realization.

The moment we are born as human beings,

Somehow our lives got complicated.

If we had come here as any other creature on this planet,

Life would be very simple – eating,

Sleeping,

Reproducing and dying one day.

Now we have to do all those things,

But after doing all those things we find somehow it's not enough.

Somehow where you are right now,

Wherever you may be,

Is not enough.

You want to be little more than what you are right now,

Isn't it?

Isn't it so?

If you know only money,

Maybe you are thinking of little more money.

If you know only pleasure,

Maybe little more pleasure,

Power,

Little more power.

Whatever it may be,

Whatever your currency may be,

But everybody is wanting to be little more than what they are right now,

The process of desiring is continuously going on.

So this longing of well-being,

Because ultimately everything that you are doing is in search of your well-being.

Whether you are going to work or you are going to the bar or you are going to the temple or you are getting married or you are having children,

You are studying in a university,

Everything is fundamentally your well-being,

Isn't it so?

Yes?

Different people may have different ideas about well-being.

Somebody thinks if they can eat twice a day,

That's well-being,

But somebody else,

That's not well-being,

Isn't it?

Your ideas of well-being may be different,

But every human being,

Consciously or unconsciously,

Constantly in search of his well-being,

Isn't it?

So what is well-being?

When do you really feel well in your life?

When do you truly feel well?

When you are very happy,

You are well.

Even if you are physically ill,

You are still well,

Isn't it?

Even if you are medically diagnosed as ill,

You are very happy right now,

You are feeling well,

Isn't it?

So fundamentally well-being means a certain level of joyfulness,

Certain exuberance of life.

What is happiness?

We can say happiness is this,

That,

But in terms of life,

Your life energies are happening in a more exuberant way than it normally happens.

Depression means your life energies have become very low and state.

Happiness means your life energies are exuberant.

There are many ways of describing happiness,

But only those who are happy know what it means to be happy.

There is nobody who has not been happy.

Everybody has been happy,

But the problem is they are not able to maintain it,

That's all,

Isn't it?

Everybody has been happy.

In the last twenty-four hours,

How many moments of joy have you known?

One,

Two,

Three,

How many?

Maybe you can count on your fingers,

Many people have nothing to count.

When you were five years of age,

A child,

How many moments of joy did you know in twenty-four hours?

Lots of them,

Isn't it?

Somebody had to make you unhappy.

Now somebody has to make you happy,

Isn't it?

The whole equation has gotten reversed somehow.

All this effort of life,

Everything that you did,

Education,

Career,

Business,

Family,

Whatever you did,

Everything was in pursuit of happiness,

Is it so?

Everything that humanity has done on this planet is in pursuit of happiness,

Is it so?

In the last hundred years,

We have done too much on this planet.

With the use of science and technology,

We have changed the very face of this planet.

Today we have the kind of comforts and conveniences that no other generation could ever even imagine,

Yes?

What royalty could not afford hundred years ago,

Today average citizens have,

Isn't it so?

Aren't most of you driving chariots with hundred,

Two hundred horses?

Yes?

Even kings could not afford this.

But are we any happier?

We are definitely the most comfortable generation ever on this planet,

Is it so,

Physically?

But are we also the most joyful generation?

So it's not worked.

Science and technology has brought enormous amount of comfort and convenience to our lives.

Things that we could not imagine just twenty-five years ago are just a living reality today,

Isn't it?

But are we any more joyful?

No.

And all these comforts and conveniences have not come easy,

They have come at a tremendous cost to every other life on this planet,

Yes?

Every creature from plant to animal to everything,

Including human beings,

Have paid an enormous price to create these comforts and conveniences and we are not even happy.

What is the point?

We are literally making a bonfire of this planet.

If you are ecstatic,

It's okay,

Burn the planet,

It's all right.

We are not even happy.

I think it's time to really look at it,

Isn't it?

Why are we burning it up if we are not even happy?

Now the problem is you are in pursuit of happiness.

It is enshrined in your constitution also here,

In pursuit of happiness.

What does pursuit of happiness mean,

That you want to do so many things to be happy?

Yes?

Yes?

That's what it means,

That you must have the freedom to do many,

Many things to be happy.

See,

Whenever happiness happened to you,

Whenever you were happy,

It doesn't matter where the stimulus was,

Where did you become happy,

Inside or outside?

Inside.

Yes?

Did you ever experience happiness out here?

No.

Such a thing has not happened because the seat of human experience is within you,

Not outside of you.

People are talking about inner happiness,

Outer happiness.

There is no such thing.

Happiness and every human experience has always been internal,

Never been external,

Isn't it?

So happiness is internal,

But the starter button is outside in the world,

Somewhere else,

In somebody else's hands.

Now some amount of inner handling is needed,

Which has not been done.

When I say inner,

I am not talking about your body or your mind,

Because your body and your mind comes from outside.

See,

When you were a child,

Your body was so small,

Now it became this big.

How?

The food that you ate,

Isn't it?

So what you call as my body,

Actually is a heap of food.

Yes?

Not a pleasant way to describe you at all.

This is actually a heap of food or a piece of this planet,

Isn't it?

Yes?

This is just a piece of the planet right now,

You gathered it this way and made it this way.

See,

All these countless number of people who existed on this planet before you and me,

Where are they?

All topsoil,

Isn't it?

This will also become topsoil,

Unless somebody buries you real deep,

Fearing that you may raise from the dead.

So this body is something that you accumulated from outside,

Yes?

What you call as my mind is a huge heap of impressions that you gathered from outside,

Is it so?

All the content of your mind is a huge impression… heap of impressions.

So between these two,

This huge heap of impressions and this heap of… I wouldn't call this huge,

This heap of food that you gathered from outside,

If you have to gather so much,

There must be something more to gather this,

Isn't it?

Yes,

But your experience of life is limited to just this,

Your body,

Your mind and your emotion.

When I say mind and emotion,

They are not really different.

What you call as my emotion is just the juicier part of the thought.

Thought is dry and straight.

Emotion is little juicy,

Without that you would feel too dry and thirsty.

So because to quench that thirst,

You make a certain part of your thought emotion.

The way you think is the way you feel,

Isn't it so?

Yes?

Right now you think this is a wonderful person,

You have sweet emotions towards that person.

Right now you think somebody else is a horrible person,

You have ugly emotions towards that person.

You cannot think he is a horrible person and have sweet emotions towards that person,

Isn't it?

You cannot think this is a wonderful person and have ugly emotions towards this person.

The way you think is the way you feel.

People think they are different simply because emotion has a certain amount of drag time.

See,

Today you thought this is a wonderful person,

Tomorrow morning your thought told you this is a horrible person.

But thought immediately changes direction.

The moment it saws a few things,

It just immediately changed direction.

Emotion cannot change its direction,

It has its own drag time,

It still continues.

But after three days,

Emotions will also change.

Maybe three days or three years,

How long you take,

It's different.

But it will change,

Isn't it?

It will catch up with your thought or no?

It does.

Emotion is more fluid,

So it has drag time,

You can't gather it immediately.

Thought you can gather it immediately and redirect it this way.

Emotion,

You can't gather it immediately,

It spills all over the place.

It takes certain amount of time to gather it.

So your thought,

Your emotion,

Your body,

Everything has been gathered from outside.

So what you have from outside,

You can gain,

You can lose,

Isn't it?

You can gather it,

What can be gathered can be lost,

Isn't it so?

And it will be lost,

Either in the course of life or in the process of death,

It will be lost.

And when you constantly live with something that is going to be lost and that can be lost any moment,

Naturally you will live a very unstable and insecure life,

Isn't it?

Just see how much of your life has been structured around your security.

Almost everything that you do is about your security,

Isn't it so?

Yes?

Is it so?

Please carefully examine your education,

Your career,

Your family,

Your children,

Your emotions,

Everything are centered around your security somehow,

Isn't it?

When you are constantly thinking about security,

When you are constantly concerned about your security,

You will not walk full stride of your life.

Every step will only be a half a step.

You cannot let yourself go completely into the process of life.

Unless the question is what will happen to me,

What will happen to me is the question,

Isn't it?

Till this problem is taken away,

You will never realize the full potential of who you are.

You will never find full expression either to your body or to your intelligence or to anything,

Till this question of what will happen to me is taken away from your life.

Only when you come to this state,

Nothing can happen to me,

Whatever,

Whichever way life is,

This is the way I will be.

Unless this is brought in within you,

You cannot take full steps in your life,

You will take only half steps in your life.

So the spiritual process means bringing another dimension which is beyond the physical into your living experience,

So that this problem of security and insecurity is gone.

Because you are so totally lost in your instincts of survival,

You think everything is within the range of this,

It is not so.

See if you don't mess with your mind right now,

To be peaceful and joyful is natural,

Is it so?

Is it so?

Do you have to go and conquer the world to be joyful?

Can you just watch the sun setting and be joyful?

Can you close your eyes and be joyful?

Yes?

Can you think about something and be joyful and not think about anything and still be joyful?

So being joyful is not happening because of any particular act in the world,

Yes?

People might have gotten there by doing many things,

That's different.

This is like on a certain day,

A bull and a pheasant were grazing upon the field.

The bull was grazing upon the grass and the pheasant,

The bird was picking ticks off the bull,

They are in some partnership.

There was a huge tree at the edge of the field.

The pheasant looked up at the tree and very nostalgically said,

Oh alas,

There was a time when I could fly to the topmost branch of the tree,

But now I do not have enough strength in my wing even to fly to the first branch of the tree.

The bull very nonchalantly said,

Oh that's no problem,

If you want to get to the top of the tree,

Every day you take a certain dose of my dung,

Every day eat some of my dung and within a fortnight you will get there.

Very hesitantly the pheasant started pecking at the dung and lo on the very first day he reached the first branch of the tree.

Within a fortnight he did reach the topmost branch of the tree,

So he went and sat on the topmost branch of the tree just beginning to enjoy the scenery.

The old farmer who was rocking on his rocking chair saw a fat old pheasant sitting on topmost branch of the tree,

He pulled out his shotgun and shot the bird off the tree.

The moral of the story is,

Many times even bull shit can get you to the top,

But never lets you stay there.

In so many ways you are trying to bull shit yourself into joyfulness,

You have gotten there many times but never stay there,

Isn't it?

Yes?

You can do this just by running on the beach,

By dancing,

By singing,

By drinking alcohol,

By taking a drug,

By doing so many things,

It all gets you there for a moment but never lets you stay there,

Isn't it?

Yes or no?

The more you don't get to stay there,

The more and more desperate you are becoming with life.

Now I am talking about joyfulness,

What it is.

There are many,

Many ways to look at this.

One simple way is,

Let's say right now you lost your peace.

If you lose your peace,

What happens with your life?

Just you today go home and yell at somebody at your home,

Your husband,

Your children or your wife or whoever is there.

If it continues,

Tomorrow morning you pick a quarrel with your neighbor,

If it continues then you go to your office and yell at your boss.

The moment you yell at your boss,

Everybody knows that you need medical help.

Yes?

When you yelled at your husband,

Wife,

They thought it's normal.

But the moment you yell in a place where there is going to be serious consequences for you,

People know you need medical help,

Isn't it?

So they took you to your doctor.

Initially the doctor tries to talk you out of it,

But you won't budge.

So the last thing is he'll throw a pill into you.

This pill is what?

Just a little bit of chemicals,

Isn't it?

If you throw this pill into you,

You do become peaceful.

Maybe not forever,

For a short period of time you do become peaceful.

It is working,

That's why so many people are popping it,

Isn't it?

It is definitely working.

Maybe just for a short while,

But it is working.

So just a little bit of chemicals is bringing peace into you.

Or in other words,

Peace is a certain kind of chemistry,

Isn't it?

If peace is chemistry,

Isn't turmoil another kind of chemistry?

Yes?

Isn't joy another kind of chemistry?

Isn't misery another kind of chemistry?

Agony another kind and ecstasy another kind?

Every human experience has a chemical basis to it.

Now I am talking about creating the right kind of chemistry within you,

Where to be peaceful and blissful is just natural to you.

You just create the right kind of chemistry.

Now this is the way you are.

This is not something that you pursue outside.

We have engineered the world today in many ways so that it functions better for us,

Isn't it?

We have done nothing about ourselves.

Engineering fundamentally means to create situations the way we want it,

Isn't it?

We have strived hard to create external situations the way we want it,

But our inner situations are not the way we want it.

What's the point now?

We are sitting in the kind of climate that we want in the outside,

But the inner climate is not good.

This doesn't work,

Isn't it?

It doesn't matter where you are.

You are sitting in a palace or in heaven,

But your inner situation is not good.

Now it doesn't matter,

Isn't it?

Yes?

People are wanting to go to heaven,

Why?

Because they have made a hell out of themselves,

Obviously.

Who told you this is not heaven?

How do you know?

How do you know that you are not already in heaven and making a hell out of yourself?

Because all the misery that you have ever experienced has happened only in your mind,

Isn't it so?

Where is the manufacturing unit for all the human misery that's happening on this planet?

California?

Where is it?

It's in your mind,

Isn't it?

This mind could have been a ladder to the divine.

This mind could have been a source of ecstasy,

But this mind has become a source of misery for most people.

Tension,

Anxiety,

Depression,

Why?

You just don't know how to handle it,

Isn't it?

Yes?

You just don't know how to handle it.

This is a miracle which has gone wrong.

With the humanity,

Human mind has gone wrong,

Isn't it so?

This is actually a miracle.

You could use this to make anything.

This moment,

If you want,

You can make yourself absolutely ecstatic with the same mind,

Isn't it so?

With the same mind,

This moment you can become depressed and totally lost.

Both are possible right now if you are willing?

Yes or no?

So,

Why has it gone wrong?

This is simply because without understanding the nature of this body,

Without understanding the nature of this mind,

Without understanding the nature of how this one exists within itself,

We are just trying to live by accident.

We are just hoping everything will be okay.

They have been telling you for thousands of years,

Don't worry,

God will take care of you,

Everything will be okay,

Everything will be okay.

Look at the world and tell me what people are going through.

Your life within,

How joyful you are,

How peaceful you are,

Happens to you only to the extent you understand and only to the extent you handle it.

To what extent you are capable of handling it,

Only to that extent,

Only to that depth you will know life,

Otherwise you will not know anything beyond that.

For example,

The mind,

How we are handling it.

Let's look at this.

See the nature of the mind is anything and everything your five senses come in touch with,

Your mind collects.

Most of the impressions that you have gathered in your mind are unconscious.

Every waking moment and every sleeping moment of your life,

Whatever comes in touch with the five sense perceptions is recorded,

Every sound,

Every smell,

Every touch,

Every sight that you have gathered is all there in your mind.

Some of them you are able to pull back and use,

Much of it you are not able to pull back.

But it is functioning,

It is creating impacts on you in so many different ways,

All these impressions.

So this mass of impressions that come in,

You have no discretion about what to take in and what not to take in.

Whoever comes your way,

Will stuff something into your head and go,

You can't stop it.

If you say,

I do not like this person,

You cannot stop input from that person.

Actually you will take in more from that person than anybody else,

Isn't it?

So your mind in one way is just society's garbage bin.

You can take garbage bin,

Whatever the content of the garbage bin,

You can take it and make it wonderful manure for yourself or you can live in the garbage bin and struggle eternally.

This is the choice that you have.

So what you receive,

There is no choice about it.

Everything that you come in touch with goes inside,

But you have the discretionary power to what to use and what not to use,

Isn't it?

That is there,

But that discretion has been lost in lot of human beings,

That's why they become compulsive human beings.

Just see how much of your life is compulsive,

How much of your life is conscious.

Please look at this.

Carefully observe yourself and see how much of you is happening consciously,

How much of you is happening compulsively.

You will see a large part of you is happening compulsively.

When you are happening compulsively,

You will not happen the way you want yourself,

Isn't it?

See,

There is only one problem with your life.

Life is not happening the way you think it should happen,

That's the only problem.

Is there any other problem?

Is there any other problem?

This is the only problem,

Isn't it?

Life is not happening the way you think it should happen.

In the same breath you claim you believe in God.

If you believe in God,

If it is not happening your way,

It must be happening his way.

You must be even more happy it's happening your God's way.

That's not the reality.

So world is not happening your way,

It's okay,

But now the problem is you are not happening your way.

This is the problem,

Isn't it?

Yes?

Nobody in the world is happening your way,

Please see.

Nobody around you will happen hundred percent your way.

Isn't it so?

Yes?

Nobody happens your way,

It's okay,

But this one person must happen your way.

If this one person doesn't happen your way,

You will become a tragedy.

That's the tragedy of humanity.

The world is not happening your way,

That is not the problem.

You are not happening your way,

That's the problem,

Isn't it?

So if things happen your way,

You have begun to understand in the world that you have to engineer it so that it happens your way.

Now if you engineer your car properly,

If you turn it here,

You want it to go here,

It goes right there.

It's a good car.

Otherwise you do it here,

It goes and turns there.

You know there were cars like that before?

Yes?

Do you know in fifties and sixties the American cars,

If you want to turn them there,

You have to turn them here?

Not anymore,

Isn't it?

Because better engineering.

The same with you.

No inner engineering has been done for you,

Isn't it?

Just by accident you are trying to happen.

So what you gather is not the problem.

Your ability to use what you want is the question,

Isn't it?

Isn't it good all the shit in the world you've gathered in your head,

It's best you collect it.

If you don't know,

You will walk into it every day.

If you know all this,

You can see that you don't walk into those things,

Isn't it?

Yes?

See,

Being free of something and being ignorant of something is very different.

Yes?

You are ignorant of the ways of the world,

You will bump into it today or tomorrow.

You know all the crooked ways of the world,

But you don't give in to that.

You consciously not there in it.

It's a different thing,

Isn't it?

So suffering is not conscious.

If you are suffering in some way,

That means that part of you has become unconscious,

Isn't it so?

Nobody consciously creates suffering for himself,

Does he?

Does he?

If different levels of suffering are happening,

That simply means different levels of unconsciousness exists within you,

Isn't it?

What is conscious within you?

That part of you,

You will keep it the way you want it,

Is it so?

Is it so?

Whatever is conscious within you,

Those parts of you,

You will keep it the way you want it.

Whatever is unconscious,

Those parts,

You are not able to keep it the way you want it.

So all that you have to do with your life is make more and more of you conscious.

If you strive to make this whole thing absolutely conscious,

This will be one hundred percent the way you want it.

This one piece of life will happen exactly the way you want it.

When that happens,

I have absolute confidence in you that you will make yourself into an absolutely blissful human being.

There's no question about that.

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Reviews

One of the best speakers I ever heard. He is opening my mind

A grounding, truthful dissection of ones life, with a simplified and easy explanation of what is truly important…🙏🏼🥰

Your talks are always inspiring, insightful and entertaining my friend…😊

Thank you for sharing your views on life 🌈 I always enjoy listening to your talks….
You always manage to bring a smile to my face , along with tears of happiness and joy, an inner peace and hope for the future ….🌈🌎🙏🏼

Going to be retelling the story of the pheasant and the bull for many years I think! 😂
More than that, I have realised that am habitually way too reactive and am now working on it. I choose bliss. 😁👍🏼 Thanks Sadhguru 🙇🏻‍♂️

You are very wise.I choose to consciously to act alone the input you have given me.maybe I can learn

Sadhgur”s talks and meditations are one of my favorite! His manner, wisdom and the way his voice is calming are a perfect compliment to his wisdom.

Top three best insight timer talks yet! So insightful! Love this! “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all other virtues.” Cicero

EVOLving www.gratefulness.org, ahimsa

WORTHY readS include Sadhguru’s “inclusive culture” perpetuating texts, “Karma” and “Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy”, aka unconditional happiness, as well as the book, “Nonviolence: Twenty-five Lessons From the History of a Dangerous Idea” by author, Mark Kurlansky. Kurlansky’s text was the non-fiction winner of the 2007 Dayton Literary Peace Prize.

So many things for me to contemplate. Very much enjoyed this talk. 🥰

I love this. So much joy
I wish all beings JOY and happiness as they were when they were 5 years old

Thank you 🙏🏼
Namaste

So powerful !!!!
From the book Inner Engineering
So relevant and moving
Well worth a listen.
Thanks for sharing
Namaste 🙏🏽
JuneB

I love Sadhguru’s teachings. His examples always hit hard as he beautifully and humerously makes life so clear. Namaste. Thank you 🙏🏽 🌼🙏🏽

If only the whole world just took a minute to listen to this guru - what a world we would be living in now ✨🙏
Thank you 🙏

Sadhguru is incredibly wise. His words have given me much needed guidance and comfort. Thank you. 🙏🏽

Sadghuru is wise beyond measure. Thank you. Gratitude from Miami🙏🏼

Sadhguru makes complex topics seem so simple, love listening to him.

This has re-centered me, thank you.

I loved this talk. The principles highly resonated, thank you

I love listening to all your talks! You break “life” down and make it so simple. Just need to keep listening to you so it sinks in and we remember what you’ve said. Thank you 🙏🙏🙏🙏😊

This was one of his best talks I have listened to and I’ve been following him on insight timer for a over a year. Thank you for bringing more understanding that we are the creators of our own joy. I have forgotten that and let my own moments of joy slip away when they used to be multiple every day. Thank you for grounding me back to the present moment and the wonderful opportunities I have every moment of every day to be grateful for.

I will listen again. Namaste 🙏🙏🙏

"The mind gathers everything." Thank you!