Being Established In Bliss

Most people are established in the waking state of consciousness which includes success and failure, happiness, and unhappiness. The waking state is always changing due to the particular condition of your body, mind, and emotions. The Fourth state of consciousness is forever, unchanging and blissful. This talk by Shree will guide you in how to live in the fourth state of consciousness and know the bliss that is forever shining even while you tend to all the challenges in your life.

Transcript

Satsang Podcast with Sri,

Being Established and Bliss For most people the training has been since the very childhood to become an individual person,

To acquire skills and abilities,

To live your life as comfortably as possible,

To find your happiness,

Your satisfaction through acquiring the things that will make you feel comfortable through the love of your family members and eventually of a spouse and then of children.

This is how the human being is trained to live the life.

So there's nothing wrong with this,

But for the one who begins Yog-Sadhana,

The practice of unity consciousness,

He or she comes to realize that living the life in the prescription that was given as a child creates a life where there's ups and downs,

Happiness,

Unhappiness,

Pain,

Worry,

Doubt,

Fear,

Some joys,

Some accomplishments and success,

Some failure.

This is the human life.

For the one who becomes aware and watches and observes,

I know for myself as an example,

When I was a small child I used to observe my parents and how being very good people and very ambitious and wanting to provide for their family.

They would get up every morning,

Rush through breakfast,

Run off to work,

Work all day,

Come home exhausted.

My mother would cook the dinner for three children and after putting the children to bed would lie in bed with my dad,

Watch television,

Fall asleep and wake up the next morning and start all over again.

And sometimes on the weekends they would have a party or we'd have a barbecue or go out to dinner one night with the family and this was basically their life until a week vacation,

A week or two,

Maybe once in the winter,

Once in the summer,

We would go to a resort and they'd have some evenings out with their friends.

So this was the life that I observed and I thought,

Gee,

This does not make any sense.

There has to be more to life than this,

Than getting up every morning,

Racing off to work,

Struggling,

Coming home worried and tense and agitated from the day,

Rushing through dinner,

Watching TV and going to bed.

I thought,

Wow,

This certainly is not the kind of life that I would like to have.

And thus began my pursuit of higher awareness,

Of higher consciousness where I started to see that there was more to reality than this prescription that my parents and society was teaching me.

And finding the path of meditation,

Of course,

You begin to become aware that what you're experiencing in the human state,

In the waking state is changing.

And the example of this is always that when you go to bed at night,

It's completely changed in deep sleep.

You're completely blissful.

There's no problems or troubles or worries or successes or failures.

And in dream state,

You experience a completely different reality than you did in the waking state.

But when you wake up,

You cancel it and you say it was just a dream and now the waking state is a reality.

So you begin to observe these states of consciousness and then you begin to observe that there's one watching,

There's a knower of all the states.

And in meditation,

You can tune into that knower,

That knower that you are.

And when you tune into that knower,

You see that the mental states are changing.

They come,

They go.

The emotions,

They come,

They go.

Sometimes fearful,

Sometimes worried,

Sometimes doubting,

Sometimes happy,

Sometimes joyful,

Sometimes delighted,

Depending on the external situations.

So you become aware how you based all of your happiness,

Unhappiness,

Fear,

Worry,

Freedom on that which is changing all of the external situations of your life.

And nobody has a life that's free from any change,

From any difficulties,

From any challenges.

We all experience that to varying degrees.

So if your life is based on that which is changing,

You'll be up and down like the yo-yo,

Depending on whatever situation is happening.

Your happiness will be based on acquiring the things that you think will make you happy,

Make you comfortable,

The people that will make you happy,

Which we by now see that that never works because nobody can make you happy continually,

Maybe for short periods of time.

But then when they don't make you happy,

Then you don't like them anymore,

Or you don't want to be around them anymore.

So this human condition,

As a meditator,

You become very clear that that is not what works to bring you fulfillment,

Happiness,

Joy,

Delight,

Pure love.

And when you start to close your eyes and see that all those thoughts and feelings that you thought were so real,

They're transitory,

They're not real at all,

How can they be real if they change?

And you begin to observe through your knowingness that space of pure knowingness,

Pure bliss we call it,

Because it doesn't change into anything else that's always there behind your thoughts and feelings.

That is the real you,

We can say,

That doesn't change because everything else changes.

The you that's there in deep sleep when you're blissful,

That's there during dream when there's all kinds of strange,

Sometimes images that you're observing,

And that's there in waking state when you're interacting with the world.

So now,

Through meditation,

We're bringing the attention to that pure knower,

That pure being,

And establishing that bliss I am,

Delight I am,

Bliss you are,

Delight you are,

That same pure consciousness,

Pure existence,

And pure bliss that allows you to move your arms and legs and digest your food is the same pure consciousness that allows everyone else that you call other to digest their food,

To move,

To interact.

So that same consciousness,

That pure consciousness,

Is who we are,

Is who everyone is.

So with that awareness,

You become aware of oneness.

Even though the eyes are compelled to see all the differences,

What compels the eyes to see?

What consciousness allows you eyes to see?

The dead body lying there doesn't see anything,

Although it has eyes.

So now we're going to the source of our existence,

Which is forever blissful.

However,

The difficulty or the training has been to look for the bliss externally,

To have a delicious meal,

To share some wonderful time with a friend,

To make love,

And then you'll be blissful,

Then you'll be happy.

But we have to know 100% that that kind of external bliss or happiness or delight changes into unhappiness,

Into dweesh,

Aversion from that which is creating your unhappiness now.

And then the life goes on,

Like I observed in my family,

Struggling to make the money so that you can be secure and have a happy family life,

But no time to really enjoy it.

Very little time to really enjoy those few moments.

And even when they tried to enjoy those few moments,

Like going on a trip,

There'd be one or two hours of arguing and fighting before we even left.

Because again,

Trying to make that bliss,

That happiness that is there inside,

Manifest on the external world to bring you happiness because you've forgotten that happiness,

That bliss is your true nature.

So this is the quandary,

And this can be very familiar to you,

To those that observe and are aware.

But now we want the solution.

What I've found the solution is,

Is the more you are established in that bliss,

In that peace of your own self,

The more you're knowing you,

The you,

The me that exists alone everywhere.

And how great and vast you are that you can see the mountains,

The sky,

The ocean,

The mountains,

Sky and ocean can't see you.

So that great sentience that you are,

That we are,

That all of this is,

Is what we want to become aware of,

Rather than a sense of smallness that I'm limited to this body and I can only have certain amount of means to make myself happy or make my family happy and it's all based on buying things or getting joy from someone else's presence.

That limited changing happiness or joy or delight is what we want to negate and realize that that's not the truth.

The delight is the light of lights,

The very light that lights up the sun,

The very light that comes into your physical being and allows you to enjoy everything.

So when you're tuned into that bliss of your own self,

Of the very light of light that you are,

Then it doesn't take anything.

Just sitting there,

You're blissful.

Anything else comes,

It's a bonus.

And from that state of bliss,

You're moved to that which is blissful.

You don't put your body where there is argument or disease or uncomfortable,

Uneasy feelings.

You put your body in places where you can be tuned into your bliss.

But because this hasn't been practiced enough,

Because the bliss has not been bathed in by you and instead that bliss now projects outward into vyutan vritti,

Trying to get the outward thoughts and feelings to match that inner state of bliss because that has been the practice for so long,

This continues as long as you believe this in your mind.

So your mind will tell you,

I need this,

I need to change that and then I'll feel good.

I need to feel better in my physical body and then I'll feel good.

I need to improve my health,

I need to lose weight,

I need to go on a vacation,

I need to do this,

I need to do that,

Whatever it is,

This is what the mind will tell you.

So if you believe the mind,

You're a victim.

To be the master,

You know that the mind is your instrument and it changes.

You don't ask for it to think these thoughts,

They're just generated from nowhere,

From that very space they come.

They could be due to sun scars or past impressions,

Again that made you happy in one particular situation,

So you're trying desperately to recreate that situation again using your mind and your intellect because that's the only instrument you've been trained to use.

Now we're going to the source,

We're going to where that power,

That sunlight,

That light of lights comes from,

The pure delight that alone is everywhere.

And even though you're seeing with the physical eyes all the changing forms,

All the beautiful scenes of nature,

There's you seeing it.

The mountain doesn't see you.

Without you there,

There's no beauty.

So where does the beauty come from?

Without you there,

There's no love.

So where does the love come from?

It comes from you,

Your very source.

And now through this practice of listening,

Which is called shroven,

Listening to the words that say you are already that bliss,

You are already blissful.

And then doing the manan,

What does that mean,

I am already bliss,

I am already blissful because I think I am uncomfortable,

Uneasy,

Sick,

Diseased,

Troubled,

Worried.

That's who I think I am.

So what does that mean now to hear you are already blissful?

And you become aware that those thoughts are changing.

Those feelings are not you.

They come and they go.

But the you that's always there,

Like that you that's there in deep sleep is already blissful.

So now by practicing bliss,

By practicing meditation on that knower that you are forever blissful,

You become established in bliss.

So then when you open your eyes after your meditation sitting or after listening to these words,

Then nothing is needed,

There is nothing that you desire because you are already blissful.

And you can live your life creating the best movie of your life and doing the highest for others that might be suffering because you are already blissful and you are needless,

You are free.

But in order to maintain this awareness,

So we have shravan,

Listening,

We have manan,

Concluding or discerning who you truly are,

And then we have nididhyasan to do that meditation on bliss,

On knower,

On source,

On purity.

And now know 100% that that's who you are.

So then when the waking state,

Which is illusory,

Changing,

Comes about,

You don't believe it anymore.

You don't believe that that thought that I'm not good enough or I'm not okay or this is a problem or this is a challenge that I can't solve.

You don't believe in that anymore.

You know it's changing.

Think of all the problems that were so insurmountable five years ago,

Ten years ago,

And look at how they've changed.

So the change comes because that pure consciousness,

That pure being is guiding you.

And the mind thinks it needs to come now or needs to make a decision and then it will work out.

No,

That's what we don't believe anymore.

We tune into the bliss.

We become established in that bliss of our own self and through that establishment in bliss,

Then you move.

And then the movement happens,

Not through your personal doership as a mind that thinks it knows everything,

Thinks it knows what to do and what will make me happy and what will make me content and what will make you happy.

No.

It moves through pure knowledge of the source that's guiding everything rather than forgetting its own source and becoming an individual and seeing everybody else as separate.

Now you know everybody is that pure consciousness that you are and there's no everybody,

There's no other body.

That's other than this aberration or this movement of consciousness that's solidified into what appears to be form,

But it's all that pure consciousness.

It's all that pure existence.

So from this perspective,

You move in the light of this pure consciousness,

This guru consciousness,

The very light of lights rather than in the individual mental consciousness and you watch the miracle of life because nothing is needed for you to be content and blissful.

You already are that.

You already are realized.

It's just that the trainee has been to be a separate human being with mind and body so you can interact and enjoy the world.

It's the highest incarnation because it's the only incarnation that can realize its true source.

Animals can't do it.

Birds can't do it.

Plants can't do it.

Only you as a human being can know your source.

So you appreciate your life,

You appreciate that you have this body,

This world to enjoy,

But you know where your true enjoyment comes and if you're not experiencing this,

All it takes is more establishment,

Which means more time resting in that bliss of your own self.

Becoming to know it completely,

Not with your mind,

But with the very knower that knows it.

The mind can never know it because the mind can only know things and forms and it's not a thing or form.

It's what's at the back of all the things and forms like the artist draws the painting on the pure canvas.

So now the attention goes to the canvas,

That light,

That light of lights that lights up everything.

Without the canvas,

There's no painting.

Without you,

There's no life.

So the attention moves to you,

Amaramham Madhuramham,

Your name is immortality and bliss.

Your name is pure,

Free forever.

So this is who you are,

Your essential nature.

All the rest is superimposed on you and when your attention is established in that bliss,

You're free and only then can you really be free because otherwise you're a victim to your mind and your senses.

So it starts from not believing your mind and your senses as the truth.

Instead knowing the truth is pure,

Free forever,

Immortality and bliss and changing pure existence,

Pure consciousness.

Anything else that the mind generates,

You watch it like a passing bird flying in the sky or a cloud moving by,

Not giving it the reality and knowing that without the sky,

There's no birds,

There's no clouds.

So you become the sky consciousness.

Anything can come into it,

Smoke,

A bird,

An airplane with its exhaust,

But the sky remains the sky.

You remain you.

You remain forever established in bliss.

Om shanti,

Om peace.

May this bliss be your established nature always.