#44. Wei Wu Wei | The Art Of Effortless Effort | Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali

Namaste and a very warm welcome to all of you in this daily live meditation session with me,

Dhyansay.

We're going through Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the way we sit in these 30 minutes of silence,

Of reflection,

Of contemplation is that we use these sutras to reflect on our life.

These sutras are not meant to make you a yogi,

To have you renounce your life and change to a mountain,

Go somewhere else to a monastery,

Have a guru and so on.

These sutras are for you to reflect on your own life,

Just in the situations wherever you are,

Howsoever you are living,

In the lifestyle that you currently have.

Each Yoga Sutra,

196 of them that we are going through,

Have some potency to reflect,

To bring truth to your life,

To bring some more meaning,

Some more peace,

Some more sense to your life which is all over the place,

Which is just going here and there without any backbone of wisdom,

Of truth,

Of silence,

Of peace.

Finally we are discussing the Ashtanga Yoga which starts with putting in values,

Establishing values in oneself.

Those values and also rules as I mentioned also yesterday,

They are the foundation without the values,

Without the discipline,

Without the rules.

Whatever you build on top,

Any practice,

Any knowledge,

Any understanding,

Any wisdom that you build on top is fragile.

It is there today and not there tomorrow,

Your life situation will change and you will move on to something else.

You will forget,

Your effort to go through the entire practice,

Your effort to transform your life will not really be fruitful if you are not having the values in place,

If you are not having the rules in place.

So hear Patanjali out what he has to say for these values and for these rules and see what they mean to your life.

Patanjali says these rules,

These values are independent of time,

Independent of place,

Independent of situation,

Independent of lifestyle that you have,

But still you judge this for yourself whether the rules that we are talking about,

Are they having any meaning to your life and try to draw from these sutras in these contemplations in these few minutes that you get for yourself.

What does this mean to your life?

Are there incidents in your life which are driven by things that you never paid attention to and now is the time to pay attention to those,

Reflect on those,

Change them and move on.

The first value that we discussed in detail yesterday was non-violence and the second value that we will go into today is truthfulness.

Patanjali says,

When the yogi is firmly established in truthfulness,

He attains the fruit of action without acting.

Let me repeat.

When the yogi is firmly established in truthfulness,

He attains the fruit of action without acting.

What is this truthfulness?

And what a wonderful proposition that without acting you get the fruits of acting.

Who doesn't want to have the fruits without having to act?

Is Patanjali trying to fool you?

Is Patanjali trying to lure you?

Or is Patanjali also being truthful and saying something that needs to be understood that is very delicate that you cannot just understand with the ordinary rational.

You cannot just understand with the ordinary mathematics,

With the ordinary mind.

For this you have to become more sensitive,

More subtle and reflect more deeply what is this truthfulness that brings so much.

That Patanjali is promising you that without action you can have the results of the action.

What do you think that means?

What is the truthfulness?

To help understand that,

See that there could be two parts to it.

The first part is to make your action into an actionless state and from that actionless,

That effortless state comes the results.

Let me repeat.

The first part is what also in Taoism is called as Vai Wu Wai.

Wai Wu Wai meaning action without action,

Effort which is effortless,

Doing which is non-doing.

So moving from doing to non-doing,

From action to inaction,

From effort to effortlessness.

This is the first part of this journey where Patanjali says when you are established in truthfulness,

Your action results or you have fruits without having to do anything,

Without having to act.

That is the first part and the second part which is when you are established in this effortlessness,

When you are established in this non-doing,

When you are acting but in inaction,

Then the fruits come.

The second part happens on its own.

You have to do the first part.

There is something that must happen from your side.

There is some action that is needed for even these fruits of inaction to happen.

What is that action?

Is truthfulness.

Is moving towards truthfulness.

Moving towards authenticity.

This truthfulness does not mean that you just speak the truth.

It is not about also a perspective of what is true,

What is false,

Everybody having their own truth,

Everybody having their own false.

Here truthfulness is not a perspective.

It is not a mind game.

It is moving towards your authentic self.

Truthfulness simply means you become more and more authentic,

More and more you.

And that is a gradual process.

It does not happen spontaneously.

It does not happen in a click.

Nobody can give this to you.

If somebody says from one moment to the other,

I will make you authentic,

He or she is lying to you,

Playing a game with you.

If you yourself think that you can move to authenticity in one step,

It is not possible.

It is a gradual process.

It is a process of unlearning.

It is a process of burning all what you have learned,

All what you have gathered,

The dust that you have gathered on yourself and move towards that authenticity within you.

Out of which,

When the action happens,

That action has the quality of inaction.

That action is effortlessness.

It is like the difference is swimming against the current in the river or floating with the river.

And the floating is this with the river,

The flow of the river is the flow of life,

Is your flow,

Is your own authenticity.

You are struggling because you are flowing against yourself.

Authenticity does not mean that you give up on what you want to achieve.

You stop acting towards your goals and suddenly stop doing everything,

Become lazy,

Not do anything.

That is not what is the meaning of floating.

So don't take it literally,

Don't catch the words,

Catch the meaning,

Catch the sensitivity behind those words.

Inaction being authentic means that you stop fighting with yourself,

Which was the first value Patanjali was giving non-violence,

Stop fighting with yourself.

But once you stop fighting with yourself,

You also have to let the dust settle.

Allow yourself to be in a state which is beyond this personality that you are carrying in your daily life,

The mask that you put on yourself while you are performing this and that.

The way to bring this gradual authenticity in becoming yourself,

In settling in your own being is to give yourself these moments where you can move beyond the name that you have been given.

The name that you have been given is a part of the world.

It has nothing to do with you.

The name that you have been given is a part of the world.

It has nothing to do with you.

The description,

The role that you are playing in the world is a part of the world.

It has nothing to do with you.

You are still virgin in your own being.

Whatever has happened to you so far has been happening on the surface.

That has been happening for the world.

You are still asleep potent inside.

Your being is still potent inside.

When you are authentic,

When you let go of this whatever is happening,

Whatever you are doing for the world,

You move back to your core,

You move back to yourself and that potency slowly starts to grow,

Slowly starts to unfold,

Slowly starts to flower.

In that action,

There is inaction because that potency,

That unfoldment happens on its own.

That is driven by the power of the whole,

By the power of the existence,

By the power of you not being an individual,

Not being a dot,

But you being the entire picture,

You being the whole and that unfoldment has the power of the whole.

It happens on its own.

Therefore,

That action becomes inaction and that inaction is bound to result in whatever fruits it may bring and those fruits,

Whatever they bring are the fruits that are meant for you,

For your authentic being.

So let us take this journey,

Move from the surface to the center,

Take these minutes of meditation to drop the name for a while,

To drop the descriptions for a while,

To drop all what we know,

Everything that we know about ourselves,

Who we are,

These are all just labels given to you by the world,

They belong to the world.

Move towards your authentic self,

Move towards yourself,

For a moment let the world be at rest.

Let everything about the world,

Your relationship to the world be at rest and giving you the chance to meet yourself,

To be authentic,

To be truthful.

Once you taste that space where you are back in yourself,

In your being,

Stay there,

Learn to establish yourself there,

Learn to hold yourself there.

In meditation,

This is done by bringing your awareness to yourself and holding it to yourself and in that process of you holding your awareness,

Everything that is belonging to the world,

That is on the surface,

That is dust,

It moves away,

All what you have learned becomes a part of your unlearning,

Becomes a part of your surface and you move towards your pure authentic truth.

Let us move into silence and practice this movement,

This gradual movement towards authentic self,

Towards truthfulness,

Towards one's own being.

Please close your eyes,

Sit in a posture that allows you to keep your body at rest,

To let go of your body if you may,

Yet an effortless alertness in your body,

Posture that is comfortable,

Not lethargic,

Alert yet not stressed.

Holding the breath to flow naturally and with every breath settling more and more in this moment,

The body resting with every breath,

The mind turning inwards,

The awareness turning inwards with every breath.

So these moments let go of your name,

Leave it at the surface outside.

As you move inwards,

Settle into this moment,

Your name,

What you do,

Who you are,

Where you live,

Leave all descriptions about you outside.

Disidentify with your name,

With your descriptions.

So much so that if someone right now calls your name,

There is no response from within you to that.

Everything that belongs to the world,

Leave it outside.

Your mind also belongs to the world.

Your thoughts,

Ideas,

Imaginations,

Whatever is going on in your mind right now,

Belongs to the world.

Leave it outside,

Move within towards your truth.

Anything that arises in your mind,

Leave it outside,

Belongs to the world,

Not to your authentic self.

All the sensations in your body,

That belong to the world,

Leave them outside,

At rest,

As you move within.

Slowly,

One day,

You may even leave your body outside and move within.

All the sensations in your body,

You may even leave your mind outside.

The nameless,

The formless,

The shapeless,

The nameless,

The nameless,

The nameless,

The thoughtless,

Emptiness,

Yet filled with presence.

All the sensations in your body,

You may even leave your mind outside.

Don't hold onto anything from the surface.

Any contents of your consciousness.

Stillness,

Floating,

Effortlessness.

Why,

Oh why?

Effortless effort.

A state of action with inaction.

Take this state to your body,

To your mind,

To your entire life.

All the sensations in your body,

You may even leave your mind outside.

And very gently and slowly,

You may open your eyes with me.

And maintain this effortless effort,

This energy,

This authenticity in your body,

In your mind,

In all aspects of your life.

Please pass on this message of being truthful to your friends,

To your family.

Namaste.