I continue looking a little bit deeper into spiritual practice and how to create a meaningful practice within just everyday life,
Within all parts,
All aspects,
All parts of one's experience of what it means to be a human being.
It's very difficult to understand sometimes,
To understand how meditation,
How spiritual practice is very much part of our experience of life.
So the purpose of today's satsang is to look a little bit deeper into creating a meaningful connection to life from a spiritual perspective.
Now we do this all the time without effort,
Without even really needing to term our practice spiritual or meditational.
All the time there is this inner,
Deep,
Deep movement,
Communication to come back to a state of equilibrium,
A state of stillness or a state of harmony with all and everything.
It's part of life.
That inner force I call sometimes the life force or the creative life force is very much part of our expression of what it means to be human.
So our physical manifestation is an expression of that creative life force,
Our mental communication and conceptual perspective of life is a manifestation of this creative life force.
Our emotional feelings and experiences also that is a manifestation of the creative life force,
Even if dysfunctional,
Even if limited.
On some level,
The creative life force is searching for a communication that brings its full potentiality into this visible world.
So even if within this physical manifestation,
Within the visible world,
It seems like the life force is not really communicating in its full potentiality,
The communication that is sustaining this movement is fully alive in potentiality.
So even if you're feeling tired,
The fact that you're alive is a miracle.
Even if you're feeling upset or depressed or challenged or confused or overwhelmed or whatever,
The fact that you're alive is a miracle.
It's a miracle simply because it is,
There are no words to even begin to explain how miraculous it is that you're alive,
That you have a level of consciousness that can realize itself in such a way that makes it unique,
Makes it individual,
Makes it just an experience that only a very minute amount of atoms and molecules can create.
The fact that your body,
The atoms and molecules inside of your body have this aliveness,
Consciousness,
Is a miracle.
So if we realize this,
Then we realize that the communication that is happening deep within,
Even beyond the manifestations that we see,
The physical,
Emotional,
Mental manifestations,
Even beyond body,
Mind and emotions are miraculous in themselves.
When we begin to celebrate the miracle of aliveness,
Then we begin to transcend to a space within ourselves or an open-minded space within ourselves that can begin to align itself to that which is natural throughout the universe,
That is the creative life force that is allowing for the molecules and atoms within our bodies and within the earth that we're standing upon and within the space that we're breathing to function and move in this vibrancy that creates life.
When you breathe this space into your body and when you align your consciousness to this communication that is sometimes invisible and veiled to the mind or to the emotional body or even to the physical body,
Then we touch upon an endless source of energy.
And it's not just that this endless source of energy allows us to comprehend our potentiality,
But it begins to communicate our potentiality within the physical limited structure that we may find ourselves experiencing.
So even if your mind is reactive or if you're feeling depressed or if you're feeling caught in some situation,
That is just the surface of what is going on.
There are many,
Many layers that sustain that external picture of an experience.
There are many layers even beyond the molecules that create the possibility for your mind to be able to think those thoughts.
There are structures that are invisible to awareness,
To even science today,
That maintain that equilibrium that allows for the creative life force to constantly reach for state of equilibrium.
And that communication,
That movement towards equilibrium or sense of balance,
That is the most basic aspect of creation.
That is what is behind everything.
So behind the physical manifestation,
Behind the mental thoughts that you have,
Even behind consciousness there is this equilibrium that is seeking to create balance.
And see if we are in touch or in alignment with that communication that is seeking to create balance,
Then that becomes the intentional way that we live our lives.
So it becomes our spiritual practice,
It becomes our meditational practice,
Not by doing anything specific,
Not even by sitting and closing your eyes and meditating,
But simply by being in touch with the very basic nature of matter,
Of creation.
And it's wonderful because we are in touch,
On some level we are in touch but we've just forgotten that which we are in touch with.
So it's almost similar to the way that you have feelings.
You remember sometimes you have feelings and then you have all these feelings that are all over the place and you're feeling all sorts of intensities of emotions and realizing all this and that and ups and downs and what have you,
All happening at the same time.
But then you forget the very basic feeling of appreciation,
Gratitude,
Which of course is a profound expression of this state of equilibrium that is what consciousness comes back to when it realizes itself.
And this state of gratitude or appreciation is,
Even though an outer expression of this beautiful consciousness that we share with everything,
With all life,
Is a more fundamental aspect that we can build our practice upon than our emotional ups and downs or our thinking this and that or our dualistic deductions of what we need to do.
So if we are not in touch with such a fundamental aspect of creation,
Meaning gratitude and appreciation of just being alive,
Then the basis,
The foundation by which we build our understanding of the world,
Even of our practice,
The foundation by which we practice our meditation is somehow not strong enough to allow for a transcendence where realization is the outcome.
We cannot transcend to a space where we appreciate the world as it is if we don't appreciate and understand the qualities of appreciation within the life that's being presented in whatever format that's being presented to you at this moment,
Whatever format,
Whether positive,
Negative,
We cannot appreciate,
Then that appreciation is lost on other levels.
Also it's the same as love,
If we cannot find a way to love just aspects of ourselves and appreciate aspects of ourselves and communicate from a space of love towards those aspects within ourselves in a real way,
Then it's very difficult to find real love outside of oneself because it's the communication that is important here.
So if you don't know,
If you can't remember the language of love and you can't remember how to communicate love to the basic aspects that create consciousness within yourself,
Parts of your being,
You cannot love your body,
Then your body won't love you back.
You cannot love your complexity or your ups and downs for what they are,
Then those ups and downs won't love you back.
So you will constantly be battling with the space that doesn't see itself,
Doesn't realize itself and appreciate that realization and celebrate that realization simply because life is a miracle.
We'll constantly be looking for something that's better than a miracle,
But how can anything be better than the miracle of life?
Oh,
Just let me find whatever it is that the mind is attached to or your ego is desiring and then I can come back to that sort of gratitude that Tony is speaking about or the appreciation that Tony is speaking about because now I'm too busy to think about that or feel that.
It's almost like saying,
Well,
I won't say I love you until,
You know,
Until I know how to say it,
But then you stop speaking and you're silent and you don't say anything and you don't practice how to speak,
So you forget how to speak and then you say,
Well,
One day when I know how to speak,
But I won't actually begin to practice until I know how to speak the words,
Then I won't begin to practice at all because,
You know,
I have to know how to speak before I can speak,
But like anything in life,
We have to take those steps and even if those steps seem ridiculous or seem silly or seem compromised or seem just not real on some level,
If we don't take those steps where we feel appreciation even for those aspects of ourselves that we don't really appreciate and just say,
Okay,
What makes me unique is my funny self,
That funny part of myself that I don't really appreciate,
But I appreciate it,
You know.
We can appreciate everything,
Like in nature,
We can appreciate the beauty of nature,
But there aren't,
Nature isn't always beautiful.
Sometimes it's very destructive.
Sometimes it's very harsh and very raw.
And so the idea of beauty that we have maybe is translated into something softer and more gentle and more nice.
And we can't say,
Well,
This part of nature is not beautiful and this part of nature is beautiful so I don't like this part of nature,
But this,
Yeah,
This is nice.
I like the little flower,
But I don't like those bugs.
That's not beautiful.
I don't like that part of nature.
I like the beach,
But I don't like the stormy weather,
You know.
As soon as you begin to play that game,
Which of course is the game of not being able to see the potentiality of communication in this moment,
Then we're caught in the egoic sorting out of what is good and what is bad,
Which is a form of dualism that mankind has played for thousands and thousands of years,
Where we judge,
Where we compare,
Where we have ideas of good and bad,
What is better,
What is worse.
Of course then it's easy to forget the appreciation and gratitude,
Because if we're caught in the judgment,
There's very little space for gratitude.
Yeah,
Yeah,
I'll feel the gratitude after I've judged this situation.
It's like,
What are you doing?
Spiritual practice is coming back to basics,
Coming back to the essential nature of things.
So whether you do this in meditation or whether you do this in your life,
It's exactly the same.
If you don't do it in life,
But you do it in your meditation well,
Then perhaps you're deluding yourself.
Perhaps you're pretending in your meditation to have reached a state of consciousness that isn't really the state of consciousness that's manifesting in your life.
So always look at how things are presenting themselves,
How nature,
How life,
How situations,
Manifestation around you is presenting itself and communicating that which is important for your practice.
You can choose to ignore it and most do.
You can choose to ignore the signals and the information that's being communicated to you and blame it on the world.
I can't love anyone because no one loves me.
You know,
It's a very common belief system.
Can't appreciate anything because no one appreciates me.
Can't appreciate anything because I don't have the capacity or knowledge of how to appreciate anything.
You know,
And then we have all sorts of justifications and excuses that play out in the mind,
Especially in the mind,
But also when the mind is volatile in the emotional aspect of your being.
So when your mind and emotions are volatile,
The space is full of that volatility.
What I say,
What I communicate,
The wisdom of appreciation and gratitude,
Just more concepts that fill your mind.
Sense why it's so important right now in this moment to come back to sensing,
Experiencing in this very physical body,
What it means to be full of gratitude,
To feel it,
To sense it,
To physically sense gratitude,
To appreciate everything as it is without the need to get caught in the volatile emotional aspect of yourself or in the volatile chaotic aspect of the mind,
Ego mind.
Just let go and come back to the still space and fill the still space with gratitude,
With appreciation just for being here,
Listening and being receptive to the wisdom that now is transmitted from deep within your heart to all aspects of your being,
To all aspects of life.
With every breath that you take,
Deep profound breath,
Sensing appreciation,
Sensing gratitude,
With every breath,
Allowing the breath to come back to the still point within,
Sensing the breath as it expands in the abdomen,
As your body just opens up in a receptive way to the beautiful light of consciousness that filters through every cell of your body,
That filters through every part of your body,
Every organ within your body,
That filters through your mind,
That filters through your third eye,
That filters through deep within the space of the heart,
That filters through all over the place,
All around you,
Within the space.
As you express and communicate this sense of appreciation and gratitude,
Consciousness expands and transcends the mundane and reaches out and interacts and connects to your potentiality.
Now we continue with the Hu meditation.
