You And so it's always good to prepare for whatever you're doing,
Whether it be satsang or transmission,
Meditation,
To prepare within the timeframe that allows the mind to come back to an awareness of the natural healing flow.
This means that if you prepare yourself,
Like now,
You prepare yourself just with an intention to be present to the satsang,
To be present to the transmission.
There is a part of your being that is beyond perhaps everyday awareness that connects to the deep inner stillness that's within the heart.
And you're able to receive the energy transmission that is beyond words.
So it's always very,
Very useful to prepare.
In a ritualistic way,
Sometimes it's important.
You just prepare yourself by relaxing,
Making sure the space around you is still,
Making sure that you are focused and ready for something different.
And this could apply to many aspects of everyday living,
Everyday situations,
Just living life in general,
Whatever.
To prepare your mind so that it's clear and focused upon whatever is happening,
Whatever you're doing means that you're allowing for the brain to transmit the energy in your thoughts or in your actions or in the way that you are perceiving and receiving the information around you in a very focused way.
And that is basically what awareness means.
Too many people in the world do what is called,
What is normal today actually,
And what is called multitasking.
Too many people sit around eating,
Checking their messages or looking at their phone and listening to other people around them talk.
So it's not even multitasking,
It's triple tasking,
Isn't it?
Or more than triple tasking.
You're doing so many things that really the mind isn't anywhere.
It's not connected to anything that you're doing.
It's simply jumping from one thing to another.
So we're not prepared to be present to the situation.
We're only prepared to jump from one thing to another.
This creates an addiction in the mind that it's normal to jump from one thing to another.
It's normal to be reading a book,
Watching TV,
And at the same time eating food.
Some people do this.
I've seen some people have a book there and they just check whatever they're checking in the book as they're sort of watching TV and having what is called TV dinners.
It's really difficult when you're in such a situation because you create an addiction within the mind where the mind thinks that the more activity there is around,
The more busy the situation is within yourself and around you,
Then the more it is,
Then that's a sign that you're doing things,
That you're living life,
That you're active and alive.
We know this,
Of course,
To be just a Western concept.
You know,
The more you do,
The more busy you are,
The more you're getting done.
It's not like that.
We know from people who are very,
Very focused.
I've seen this even in situations around in businesses and in situations such as in an office or in a shop.
The very focused,
For whatever reason that these people are more focused,
The very focused people are able to achieve more in less time than those who are busy,
Busy,
Busy and not focused and not able to manage to give themselves to one thing,
Rather have to jump from one thing to another.
Because this is normal,
What does this have to do with meditation?
Because this is normal,
It's normal for people to think it's everyone on an airplane.
They're sort of packing their bag as the plane lands,
Packing their bag and turning their mobile phone on to check if there are any messages and,
You know,
Preparing to get off their plane and say goodbye to whoever in that sort of casual way.
Everyone thinks that this sort of cultural paradigm that we have created today,
It's more visible today than perhaps in the past.
I remember 50,
100 years ago people would say,
My grandfather would say that,
You know,
People were very focused because there weren't so many channels of information,
There wasn't so much,
There weren't so many things going on that would distract you from being focused.
And today is just normal to multitask in that way where we just are unable to be efficient in what we're doing because our minds are not created in that way where we're able to jump from one thing to another.
Even though it may seem to the mind that we're doing several things,
It may seem to the mind that you're reading your mobile phone and managing to do whatever,
Driving,
Say,
I've seen this,
You know,
People checking their messages,
Looking at their mobile phone and driving,
Thinking that they're in control,
But we know from the facts that most accidents today have something to do with mobile phones because people are checking their messages or calling someone and not really focused on the road.
So it's not that you're more efficient because you're doing two things,
You're just creating a level of stress in the mind and that stress becomes addictive because the mind thinks that's what's normal and because you've done it once,
It's easy to do it again.
And so people get very busy,
But are they really efficient?
Meaning I don't mean just efficient in the sense getting things done,
But are they really efficient?
Meaning are you using your energy so that the natural flow of energy flows in a harmonious way?
Or are you creating a level of stress that may be addictive in itself,
Level of stress that then seems normal because people get restless.
I know in some parts of the world,
We have like mobile phone detox time,
You know,
Where you put your mobile phone away and some people feel very uneasy and uncomfortable when they don't have their mobile phone,
They don't have that channel of communication because they become so dependent upon this way of thinking that even in meditation,
This sort of state of being is brought into the awareness of meditation.
So we want to do many things.
We want to be as active as in life in meditation.
We want enlightenment and healing and relaxation and everything to happen all at once.
It can of course,
But the mind has to be present to the situation that you're actually experiencing.
And if your mind is wanting all these things,
And that is partly why we're driven to multitask because we want too many things,
Then of course there is a level of stress and anxiety that not only creates accidents as we know when people drive and read their mobile phones,
But also creates ill health and very difficult understanding of meditation because our meditation then becomes full of activity rather than coming back to a state of stillness where awareness and focused awareness,
Efficient focused awareness is part of the flow where you come back to truly what is going on in this moment rather than all the other things that you're thinking or feeling or experiencing or wanting to do or desiring or needing.
You just come back to this moment.
It's very difficult.
It's more difficult today in the world as we continue to multitask and continue to be bombarded by information and more information and more clever information,
More information that grabs our attention because that's how things are developing.
It's all about grabbing your attention and taking you to a place that is not present to yourself,
Taking you to another interesting thing that provides the mind and the body with a sort of dopamine fix.
This is what druggies say,
No fix.
A dopamine fix,
Which is a type of drug actually,
It's more powerful than the drugs that people use.
And that in itself,
Like any drug is temporary.
So you experience this sort of dopamine rush for a minute because you're doing many things and you think you're busy and wow,
Okay,
I'm getting things under control.
So I must be facing these things and managing these things and I'm in control and the dopamine is released into your body,
Into your mind and you feel good.
You have a level of happiness that makes you think that what you're doing is right because you feel good.
This is usually how people assess and discern as to whether things are working.
In meditation,
If you don't feel good,
You usually think,
Oh,
I'm not feeling so good doing this meditation.
Let me try something different or meditation doesn't work for me.
Let me do something totally different because we're sort of so addicted to this level of temporary feeling and the dopamine rush in the body.
We're so addicted to that,
That we can't really discern what it's like to come back to this present moment and just be happy being connected to what we're doing rather than connected to the many other things,
The objects and thoughts and all the other situations that are happening around us that then remove our connection to the energy that is around us.
So knowing this in a practical sense,
Knowing this,
What can we do in meditation to transform this habit so that this habit isn't really part of the reactive state which the mind creates in our meditations?
Because as we move deeper into meditation,
You can experience this now.
As you move deeper into stillness,
There are many aspects that come up to the surface.
There are many aspects of your thinking,
The structure of your thinking,
Feelings and the structure of your feelings and even physical sensations and pain and release of pain,
Muscular memories,
All sorts of things come up to the surface as you come back to this point within yourself that is still.
And if we don't have a relationship to addressing those things from a wisdom perspective,
Meaning that we're not afraid,
We don't think,
Okay,
This is coming up,
I don't really like it,
My meditation isn't working,
I just want the dopamine for now and I want to feel good for now.
If we don't have that clear discernment where we can watch from the space of wisdom that which is being released because of course the release is part of meditating,
To open up to yourself as part of what it means to accept yourself,
To open up to the way that your thoughts create certain emotional patterns or certain situations around you.
For example,
Keeping busy or pretending to keep busy,
Meaning that you're focused on everything but really not able to focus on anything is a pattern that comes up to the surface.
It creates a lot of stress.
I see that in meditation this can be very stressful when you listen or you perceive the structure of your own being and you understand that a lot of what you're doing or what you're thinking is based upon a structure of fear and you're thinking those thoughts because you don't want to face anything within yourself in a real way so you're reacting with fear to those things.
It's not that you don't want to face things but the habit within yourself is creating this structure that doesn't allow for you to truly be present.
It's not really you that's deciding this,
It's the structure that makes the decision for you to react in a certain way or to be afraid of your own emotions.
We know this.
We know in meditation some people come back to recognizing,
Oh,
It's very difficult for me to feel gratitude,
Appreciation,
Very difficult for me to feel love.
It's very difficult for me to communicate this to people,
The sense of gratitude or the sense of appreciation that I feel inside of myself but to say it in words or to communicate it in a tangible way,
That's very difficult.
That is a structure that creates reactivity and then patterns our behavior and our thinking in a certain way and that certain way is usually by creating a busyness.
Now,
I don't mean that being focused and meditating or working or doing whatever it is that you need to do is in itself distracting what I mean.
What I'm saying is if you're meditating but at the same time thinking or if you're trying to get some practical thing done and then at the same time your mind is thinking about something else or you're doing two things and your mind is thinking about something else,
This doesn't allow for energy to flow out of awareness.
The energy then flows out of your dopamine release or your stress adrenaline release that is happening in the body and you are basically utilizing energy that is not there.
Very often people who do this,
Multitask,
Manage to do this for a few years especially if you're young.
This is why we know that financial traders on the stock market have to be a certain age because you can use your energy very well,
Not very wisely but very well to keep going in this way where you're doing many things but then there is a period after I think in the stock market they say five years and you know whatever job there is a certain period where if you don't come back to a wisdom state within yourself,
A present state within what is happening then you reach a point where there is burnout because you're using the energy of your mind and you're using the energy of adrenaline release and dopamine release in the body that keeps you going for a while and makes it seem like you're having fun but actually you're not doing anything because you're not really focused and then we create structures around that limit the effectiveness of what we're doing.
So very often you know if we're strong and we say okay I want to sit in meditation now and really come back to an awareness and we use our strength to create this I want to come back to a state of presence then on some funny subtle level we notice that we are reacting to the situation not accepting the situation so we're not actually changing the situation we're just adding another dimension of stress or another dimension of dopamine into what makes us feel good but it's not really effective it doesn't help to force yourself to come back to this present moment you simply have to be present to the present moment focused this means that the first step to come back to a state of presence the first and most important step is to drop the package to let go of the mundane first step when you're driving put the mobile phone down first step when you're a trader focus just on one thing at a time first step when you're busy in the office assess if you are really focused on what you're doing and if it's coming from a space of discernment rather than just needing to get things done and you know there's so much to do today even mothers and even in just looking after a family one has to make sure this is complete and that is complete and whatever else is complete even you know like people say what does a mother do or what does a father do if you are a father staying at home and it's not that just mothers stay at home fathers stay at home also it's even worse for them because genetically they get more confused and react much more quickly most most react much more quickly they don't have the patience and the maternal love that they can but it's more easy for a mother sometimes to feel this but even with all the love that you have even with all the strength that you have things get very confusing if you're having to do this and listen to that and make sure this is okay and make sure that doesn't happen and make sure this happens in time it's a confusion and people then ask me but how can I focus on one thing when there are so many things to do I won't get everything done but here is this is where it's very important to remember that it's not about trying to get everything done but being focused and present to one thing at a time because that is the only way the mind functions this is why some people can do in four hours what most people do in eight hours and we know that it's easy to do this because there are many people who do this but they've had to transform the addiction and really challenge the way that the addiction creates habits and creates perspectives and thoughts and belief systems really have to challenge that within themselves to be able to let it go and come back to drop that baggage and come back to a space within oneself where awareness and focus is part of the meditational activity but also part of life now isn't that amazing if you can do this you can practice this in your meditation means that you can practice this in life and if you can practice this in life it means you can practice this in your meditation now isn't that wonderful to know because then we can begin to discern what is wasting our time oh that thought that I keep obsessing with that thought I'm not good enough or I'm this or that that drives me to do all these funny things is that really important you begin to discern it in such a way where you identify it that's part of awareness okay I have this thought what do I do with it do I keep it do I hold on to it do I react and feel it and imagine it and sense it or do I just observe it and say oh I have this funny thought and now my focus I just remove my focus to something that's more important that's more present in my life now this means that you have to come back to this moment your feet on the ground your breath your awareness I can hear sounds I can smell smells I can taste tastes I can touch various aspects around me and I can sense things right now this means that the addiction is challenged now of course it's easy as any addict knows it's easy to fall back into the addiction and it's not that you say to the mind okay I've identified the thought let me come back to this moment and then all of a sudden I'm free of the addiction if it was that easy then we wouldn't have addiction we wouldn't have habits that hold us to a certain pattern of thinking or feeling that is challenging in itself you know and because we create a personality ego personality that just messes things up you know where do we start we can't sort of destroy the ego all at once we don't have enough energy to do this so we and not that destroying the ego would be very good anyway it would be dangerous but we have a way to allow the ego to recognize that there is another part of an experience that's been forgotten and that is your heart so it's almost like you invite the ego to transcend its limitation and the limitation is of course the habit so you don't need to rest in the habit you don't need to anchor your personality in the habit where you're trying to get everything done or trying to chase whatever idea that your structural emotional pattern has created or your emotional structure structure has created you don't need to do this because you are sensing the joy of being present to the situation so it's actually very joyous and this is part of meditation also it's very joyous to just be present to doing one thing at a time because if you're totally involved in the activity and the activity comes from discernment it's not just a repetition which is being driven by your stress state or your anxieties state it's not that oh yeah of course I don't want to clean the house I want to sit there and paint a nice picture nothing wrong with painting a nice picture you're not really addressing the situation you know it's not an escape from the stress that it's not that that I'm speaking about just being so present to the situation that you haven't got time to think about anything else because all your energy is totally focused that is what meditation means you come back to a clear focus which means that whatever is removing you from that space of focus can just be dropped through your discernment okay I don't need this I can look at this tomorrow I can write it down in my journal look at accounting or look at the mess in the house needs cleaning here you know you can just write it down and say okay it's in my book I'll do it then you create a schedule and plan your day and but for now I'm here present to the meditation so you it's out of your thinking range you've put it in a book or you've written it down somewhere and that means your thinking can come back to an awareness of what is happening in this present moment so it doesn't need to keep going and trying to find more things because it loves to do this because of the dopamine and adrenaline sort of structure that allows for this to happen that you are now challenging this situation by being focused and being focused releases certain not hormones but similar substances similar to hormones that allow for your body to come back to a restful state allow it allows your body to relax so you can be very busy in meditation you can be very focused and totally present to a situation but your body is relaxed you've let go of that external toxic stress and you're driven by the blissful state of being present to the situation rather than to all the many other situations that the mind gets caught in or the ego gets caught in and so you're transforming your practice so that focus is part of awareness focus and awareness allows the flow from this natural state of stillness relaxation this natural state of well-being to to keep to keep moving in such a way where healing happens in the body and you you may notice this now as you relax and you just stay present to the one thing to your breath or to the mantra just staying present in such a way where you're celebrating the breath and the mantra and just letting go of the baggage of all the other things that the mind or the emotions of the body like to explore then you're coming back home you're coming back home to a space of yourself that is wise and from here discernment can happen not from desire not from need but not from once not from this not from that which is outside of yourself but from the discernment that is so very powerful in letting go of those aspects of life the baggage that then create clutter and is the reason why you is the reason why most people get caught in a level of stress that then is damaging to the health or level of anxiety or just internal tension that is damaging to the health and the more we give our energy to that which creates damage to the body the less we come back home to the state of deep relaxation the state of deep inner well-being contentment coherence within the mind coherence within our emotional structure that allows us to come back to this wonderful state of deep deep stillness as you breathe in and breathe out you may wish to continue in meditation for a few more moments just allowing the breath to flow in this gentle way almost imagining that the breath is gentle breeze flowing through all sorts of wonderful aspects of nature the trees the leaves of the trees but it's just a movement and so you're just following the movement the rhythm of your breath not touching yourself the wind doesn't hold on to one leaf and say I want to stay here forever and ever just moving from one thing to another that rhythm that flow that wisdom within the rhythm that happens when you relax your breathing when you let go of tension is manifest on many levels so you make sense and imagine if you can't sense this imagine the body relaxing even more deeply so especially the muscles around the spine the hips shoulder blades relaxing see the energy begins to flow in such a powerful way when you relax especially the hips a lot of tension when we try to do many things get get very caught in this area visualizing this state of relaxation as you breathe in this gentle way allows you to continue moving deeper into this state of well-being you may wish to continue doing this for a few more moments just relaxing and coming back to this gentle breath imagining the beautiful breeze a warm gentle breeze flowing through the trees nature just abundant nature present in a beautiful harmonious way life-giving way your breath connected to the rhythms of life letting go of the mundane stresses and anxiety I'm just connecting to the rhythms of life as the breeze flows through the trees there is space of openness that you can connect to deep within relax open and receptive deep breath as you continue for a few more moments thank you you you you
