Applying Meditative Awareness

This podcast by Shree leads you into using meditative awareness to help overcome life's challenges. It lists eight difficulties one may face in life and how there is no permanent solution if you remain just in the waking state of consciousness. The meditative awareness is the solution state and that you can experience directly and remain uninvolved and free but do your best in dealing with every difficulty of life.

Transcript

Satsang Podcast with Sri.

Applying meditative awareness,

Eight solutions to difficult life situations.

As meditators we become aware that while we are in meditation when the eyes are closed and we take that time to focus on that space of purity,

Of freedom and bliss,

The problems seem far away.

Just like in deep sleep when the mind is not active there are no problems.

However when there are difficult situations in life and your mind is ruminating and obsessing about them then it can be very difficult to focus on that pure space of freedom that you are,

That I am and that all this is.

So I've come up with a list of eight difficult life situations and in the next series of podcasts I thought to go over each one in detail.

For this introductory one I will cover all eight difficult life situations with a brief synopsis of how to deal with these situations using the meditative awareness.

First let me list the eight difficult life situations.

It will be interesting as I'm listing these situations to notice any change in your space or awareness because if you're like me you'll be able to see just by talking about these difficulties you experience the anxiety,

The fear,

The worry that these difficulties bring about.

Of course you will not be experiencing all these difficulties at this time but possibly one or two or three or maybe even all eight of them are things that you can relate to from your past or you're worried about in your future.

It doesn't matter whether or not these difficulties are in your life experience right now or not.

We still want to know that anything that comes up,

Any difficult problems,

Struggle in your life that comes up that you will be able to deal effectively using your meditative awareness.

Meditative awareness is not only the space when your eyes are closed and you're alone in your room.

Meditative awareness is bringing out or eliciting that fourth state of consciousness at any time during your day,

At any time when the mind becomes active and the mind is telling you that this is a problem and you need to think about it to find solutions because as we've seen the mind is limited in its solution finding.

So we want to deal with these solutions from the fourth state,

From the awareness of the vastness of the whole that you are and not only through the limited instrument or mechanism of your mind.

So let's start with the eight difficult life situations.

They start from waking up in the morning and they end with falling asleep at night.

So the first one is when you wake up in the morning regardless of how soundly you slept at night,

Sometimes you might wake up with anxiety,

Fear about the day,

All the problems from the day before might come back into your awareness.

Your system might be too tamasic or rajasic,

Meaning either sluggish and you're not able to think clearly or hyperactive rajasic and all the worries and fears and concerns of all the things that you have to do during the day may come to you.

So right away just waking up in the morning as a human being might be a difficult life situation.

So then we want to be able to deal with that.

But first let me list all eight and then I'll get back to dealing with them more specifically.

Second one is work difficulties.

In work situations there might be competition,

There might be a sense of smallness,

Not being good enough to do your job,

There might be a lack of fairness,

Somebody was promoted and you weren't and you deserved it more.

There might be a sense of ego that why am I not being recognized,

Why are other people getting more attention than I am,

Why I am not getting ahead in my career or my profession.

Third one is health problems.

Now the body is such that it's like a machine that things will break down no matter how healthy you are.

There can be trouble with pain,

Back problems,

Leg,

Knees,

Ankles,

Any part of the body can go out regardless of your age,

Even from sports injuries.

There can be illnesses,

Whether they're chronic illnesses or whether they're illnesses such as cold or flus that affect your mental state.

Being overweight or even underweight,

Not being able to control your diet is a big stressor and of course the ultimate which is fear of loss of the body,

Fear of death.

Four is your financial worries.

Lost money in the stock market,

You don't have any money to invest for your future,

For your retirement,

You have too much money and there's trouble managing your money.

You have to be very careful,

Frugal with your money because you're afraid you won't have enough.

Financial worries can take all of these different possibilities regardless of not having enough or having too much.

Number five is one that most people have experienced,

Relationship problems.

There's jealousy,

Someone else is giving attention to your spouse.

You're looking at younger women which is a problem with middle-aged women and seeing how much better they look.

You fear of losing what you have,

Someone that you love is looking at someone else or possibly it's unrequited love.

You love someone and they don't love you back.

Even if things are going good in your relationship,

There's a sense of attachment.

You become attached to the pleasure-giving object and if that object or person doesn't give you pleasure anymore,

Then you can get into anger or even hatred or aversion.

We've talked about that a lot,

Rag and dweesh.

The sense of fairness comes up in this too.

Why is someone giving more attention to someone else and not to you?

It's not fair.

Number six,

Family disputes.

Sibling rivalry,

Trying to outdo your brother or your sister or your brother or your sister trying to outdo you.

Again,

The ego mechanism comes into play here.

It's about how to take care of your children between you and your husband or wife.

Aging parents,

Parents that are becoming old and unable to take care of their financial needs or manage their financial situation or take care of their health on their own.

Many family problems are the source of great stress.

Real problems with your taxes,

Pure choices that you've made,

Future fears of things that you've done or not done.

This again is a large cause of stress to many people.

And then culminating in number eight,

Which is falling asleep at night.

You're trying to sleep because sleep will get you away from your mind,

But there's so many worries and concerns and fears in your mind about things that you could have done better in the past,

About the future,

Things that could happen to you.

And there's also bad dreams at night when you wake up,

Something is chasing you,

Something happened to you,

And there's anxiety and fear going through your system or inability to actually fall asleep at night because the mind is so active.

There's so much rajas,

Hyperactivity in the system.

So we want to have or use the meditative awareness to deal with these eight difficult life situations.

The first way,

Of course,

As I spoke about the three gunas,

Rajas,

Tamas,

And sattva,

This will apply to all of them because meditative awareness also means creating more sattva,

Light,

Balance,

Easiness in your system.

And this comes from the practice of ashtaṅyog,

The eight limbs of yoga,

Which we've talked about many times,

Taking care of the physical,

Mental,

And emotional bodies so that we're united with that source existence.

And sometimes what you eat in terms of your diet can be either rajasic or tamasic,

And you want to create more sattvic,

Eating more vegetables,

Fruits,

Grains,

And less meat that will create tamas,

Not using drugs or alcohol,

Which could create either rajas or tamas,

And balancing your diet as much as possible.

Of course,

Nobody will be perfect with that because that's the human condition.

We want to satisfy the body,

But we want to be aware of how to create more sattva in the system because that sattva will help in your meditation,

Will lead you into the meditative awareness,

And allow you,

Again,

To not focus on these eight difficulties that are really mental difficulties.

Because as we've talked about many times,

When you're in deep sleep,

None of these eight difficult life situations are there.

For that time when you're asleep,

There's no problem.

So we want to analyze this and to become aware that these problems only arise in the waking state.

So the ultimate solution is not to be in the waking state.

However,

When the mind is going through these difficulties,

It can be difficult not to be in the waking state because the mind wants to keep you grounded in the waking state because the mind believes that it has the solutions and that you need to keep thinking about these things to find the solution.

The mind is a solution-focused mechanism.

So if you can't immediately just close the eyes and watch the space and know you're the knower and then there's no problem there,

We want to have other solutions to deal with these difficult life solutions on a daily basis.

So again,

Let's cover all eight.

Number one was waking up in the morning.

When you wake up in the morning and the mind immediately comes in with fear or worry or agitation or you even just notice in your physical system uneasiness,

Heart maybe begin to beat faster.

Immediately the solution is Amaramham Madaramham.

Start repeating the mantra.

The mantra will neutralize the anxiety and your attention will go to I am immortal,

I am blissful,

Rather to all the thought producing problems that your mind will create.

If your physical system is feeling anxious,

Begin the deep breathing.

Exhaling slowly,

Fully,

Watching the pause slightly when the breath is held in.

Exhaling slowly,

Observing that pause.

In that pause is that fourth state of consciousness.

It's right there with you.

So we want to redirect the mind away from the anxiety producing,

Stress producing thoughts,

Either of the past or of the coming day that come up in the morning.

And these techniques will do that.

Again in the next eight weeks I'll talk more completely about each one of these categories.

But for now I'll just go over each one briefly.

Number two is work difficulties,

Competition,

Sense of smallness,

Fairness or ego.

The ego is such that it believes that I am separate.

I am an individual.

So as long as you are an ego individual,

There will be competition,

There will be sense of greatness or sense of smallness,

Sense of fairness or sense of no fairness.

So in work situations,

First step is to bring in the vision of oneness.

It's all your own self.

Everybody is doing their best.

Everyone is identified as an ego that is trying to struggle to get the most for themselves.

And maybe if the ego is expanded,

That themselves will include their loved ones,

Their family and maybe even some of their coworkers.

So the problem with work difficulties is the ego mechanism and the fear of loss and gain will come into play.

So the meditative awareness says that I alone am the whole.

It is all one being.

So you see others as your own self and you deal with them in that way.

And when you do that,

Everyone will like you and appreciate you.

So the difficulties will fall away.

Rather than remaining in a state of ego consciousness,

You'll be conflicting or fighting with other egos.

So the vision of oneness is essential to deal in the workplace.

Health problems is number three.

Whatever is going on in your body will keep changing because the body is made up of the five elements,

Earth,

Water,

Fire,

Air and space.

And it's constantly in change.

So you need to focus on that which is unchanging,

Pure,

Free forever.

As long as you're identified as a body,

You will suffer.

It's as easy as that.

And the solution is to meditate on who you truly are.

You are pure,

Free forever regardless of what's going on in your physical body,

Whether you're overweight or underweight,

Whether you have a chronic disease,

Which we all have because the body will all perish one day,

Or whether you have fear of the body perishing.

These health issues,

Body issues are based on identification with the body.

So we want to free ourselves from identification with the body and identify as the space,

Pure,

Free forever.

This takes more coverage and again in the third one of the series,

I will talk about that some more.

Four is a biggie,

Financial worries.

Maybe you've lost money in the market,

Maybe you've had some big expenses,

Maybe you fear for your retirement not having enough.

Maybe you have a lot of money but it's difficult managing it.

Whatever the financial concern is,

Again,

Body identification.

You need to take care of your body and that requires green energy or money to be able to survive in this world.

So there has to be a lot of trust in the space,

In the consciousness that you are,

Which is the ultimate or infinite prosperity because when you have knowledge of your true self,

When you're in that meditative awareness,

You have access to unlimited support because the energy of the universe is now available to you.

So in order to overcome fear of not having enough or financial worries,

You need to trust in that space.

Next one,

Relationship problems.

Number five,

Jealousy,

Fear of loss,

Unrequited love,

Attachment,

Aversion,

And fairness.

We've talked about this a lot in previous podcasts because it is a big source of stress for most people,

Whether it's relationships with family members,

As we'll talk about next,

Or love relationships.

It's a big trigger because when you're in love with someone or experience love,

You're actually experiencing your own true nature.

So when you now know this,

That it's your own self that you're experiencing,

You're not as dependent or attached to the other person to bring you that same sense of love.

So the solution to this is how to unfold or how to become aware of the love that you are,

Forever shining as you.

And then through that vision of love or oneness,

You'll deal much more effectively with other people,

Seeing them as your own self and at the same time not needing them for the source of your joy,

Happiness,

Or satisfaction.

You become aware that that joy,

Happiness,

And satisfaction is already there within you,

Like the example that's given of the person who has their eyeglasses on but is unable to find their glasses and is looking everywhere for them and asking their wife or husband,

Have you seen my glasses?

That love that you are is already with you,

Is already there.

And we'll talk more in the future about how to tap into that love.

Number six,

Family disputes.

People dealing with aging parents,

Dealing with their children that are difficult,

Problematic,

Or siblings with this rivalry,

And again,

How to focus on family problems through that vision of oneness rather than using the mind to find the solutions.

The mind is useful too,

But it's not all that we have.

So first,

You want to feel peaceful within yourself because if you're not peaceful within yourself,

You will have disputes,

Whether it's with family members or coworkers,

Because without that peace inside,

Then you will try to find it outside by making everything or the world to agree with you so that you can be more comfortable in duality.

But that will never happen completely.

So to overcome disputes,

You have to first know the peaceful state within yourself.

Seven legal problems,

Poor choices that you've made in the future,

Future fears.

Again,

If you're focusing on that,

Using your mind,

It's limited.

So we want to tune into that unlimited power,

Which will give you solutions that come from beyond your own limited mental capacity.

And eight,

Culminating in falling asleep at night.

Because of all these difficult life situations,

The mind is racing.

You have worries,

You have fears,

And you even have bad dreams.

So we want to calm the system down at night,

Reading something that is uplifting,

That's a knowledge point,

Listening to a podcast,

Beginning to do some of the breathing techniques which I'll give you to help you to fall asleep.

Bringing the mind away from believing itself,

That the mind has the solutions and that you need to think about it.

And so it's a two-fold process of calming the body,

Mind,

And emotions,

And also not believing in the mind that's telling you that you have to keep thinking these thoughts.

As I talked about last time,

Dropping the mind into the ocean of pure existence,

Pure consciousness,

And pure bliss,

Which is what you do every night when you go to sleep.

Except not being the doer,

You're not doing this physically.

It just happens when you fall asleep.

So we want to learn here how to allow the mind to easily become absorbed into the space of peace,

Of ease,

And freedom.

Directing it there so as that being you will come to experience yourself,

The very knower which is pure,

Free,

Forever.

This is just a brief synopsis of how to deal with these eight difficult life situations.

If there's any that I left out,

You can let me know.

And as I said,

In the next eight podcasts,

I'll go over each one more specifically.

But for now,

Just taking what we've learned from this talk,

You want to close your eyes,

Watch the space,

And trust that the mind can become absorbed or dropped into that ocean of bliss that you are.

And for some time,

Sitting in meditation,

Knowing who you are,

The very knower,

Pure,

Free forever.

Ama ramham madhu ramham.

And you can continue to meditate for a few minutes on your own.

Om shanti,

Om peace.

May this peace be with you.

Reviews

Thank You! I am looking forward to the detailed talks! 💚