#90. To Believe Or Not To Believe | Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali

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

Dhyansa.

We're meditating on Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

Last few reminders on this path to emptiness on this path to the ultimate freedom,

Patanjali is looking at the meditator.

Patanjali can see through the meditator and all throughout this journey whatever Patanjali has been telling to the meditator to drop this,

To drop that,

To do this,

To not do that,

All is fine.

But now at the final steps,

At the final door of emptiness of the ultimate freedom,

Patanjali looks at the meditator and he has the urge to say something more about the emptiness.

He has the urge to tell the meditator something more which the meditator is still hiding.

What is the meditator still hiding?

What is it that Patanjali still has to say after all these sutras,

After these hundreds of sutras that he has imparted as teaching to the meditator?

What is it that is so important even at the very last stage?

Patanjali all throughout this journey said,

Drop the thoughts.

And the meditator,

He thought,

Well these thoughts are all creating a problem for me anyways,

Okay I will listen to these teachings,

I will drop the thoughts.

Then the sutras go on unfolding and said,

Drop the body,

You are not the body.

And the meditator thought,

Fine,

I am also having all these pains.

I see the rational that this body is also aging and at some point of time this body will not be there.

So it is okay.

Let me also listen to Patanjali and drop the body.

Patanjali said,

Drop the ideas of this and that.

He also agreed to that.

You also,

The meditator also saw some rational,

Some sense,

Some logic in what Patanjali was imparting as the wisdom and the meditator,

You,

Is fine with it.

He went through the teachings very calmly.

But all throughout this journey the meditator is still hiding something in.

The meditator is still holding on to something which one has to drop before the doors of emptiness open.

And that one thing which you are hiding,

Which every meditator is hiding,

Is belief system.

Is your belief system,

Is everyone's belief system,

Every meditator,

Every person has a belief system.

And the true door to ultimate freedom,

The emptiness,

The nothingness,

Only opens when you are ready to even drop that.

See that the belief system is the foundation of what we call as our mind,

Is the foundation of what we call as ourselves.

So to drop the belief system,

This is something requiring a lot of convincing to you.

This is something that is requiring a lot of convincing to every meditator.

Why to drop the belief system?

Because I am here asking for love,

I am here asking for inner peace,

I am here asking for joy,

I am here asking for purpose in life,

And you are asking to drop the belief system,

The complete foundation.

This is the way of Patanjali to say that even that last load that you are carrying,

That last piece,

That last ball of mass that you are carrying in yourself,

That belief system,

Even that has to be dropped.

Only then you can be in emptiness.

See that it does not matter whether you are a feast,

Believing in God,

Or an atheist,

Not believing in God,

Both are belief systems.

See that whether you believe in science,

Whether you go by science,

Or you go by religion,

Both are belief systems.

This much awareness Patanjali has given to you through these sutras,

This much heightening of your consciousness has happened throughout these sutras,

That you can see through all these systems,

And see that these are all belief systems.

Even science is a belief system.

You have learned to believe that when something is statistically proven,

When something is physically proven,

When something is proved by instruments,

That is the truth.

What is that?

That is a belief.

I am not demeaning science,

I am saying science has its own place,

But it is a belief system.

You have made a choice by choosing science,

You have made a choice of belief system.

If you go the opposite way,

If you go in all these superstitions and religious beliefs,

That is also a belief system.

It has its own place,

It serves you about a certain aspect of your life,

But these all are belief systems.

At least this much you should be able to see in your awareness that everything that you can think of,

Everything that you agree to,

Everything that you rationalize is founded on the belief system.

Even whatever you agree to,

Whatever you rationalize is founded on the belief system.

You can take any example,

Whatever I am saying right now,

If that you absorb and filter it through your mind,

Through the rationals,

Then you are applying your belief system.

Then you will only listen to me when this is an agreement with your belief system.

If this is not in agreement with your belief system,

You will reject it.

You will say what this guy is saying does not make much sense.

What this guy is saying is another concept,

Is another belief system.

So this is something that you have to see through in your own awareness.

This much clarity is expected out of you throughout your meditation practice,

Throughout your journey,

To see through everything that is there projected by your mind,

By your feelings,

By everything that is arising in your consciousness,

All are belief systems.

Even to that extent,

Patanjali is saying all these philosophies,

All these theologies,

All these systems,

All these frameworks to explain you as an example chakras,

Or anything that he has been explaining to you,

All is based on a framework.

The framework has a belief system in place and now he is asking the meditator to drop all belief systems,

To drop the belief system of science,

To drop the belief system of religion,

To drop any concept of theism,

Atheism,

Any logic,

Any rational,

When you want to enter into emptiness.

This is the condition he places because emptiness is not complete if you enter with your belief system.

If you enter into emptiness with something holding on to something in your pockets,

Something in your inner space,

When you enter,

Then what you enter,

What you see is not true emptiness,

It is still a projection of your belief system.

So to have that true ultimate freedom,

The kevalya,

The nirvana,

He is asking you to even drop that belief system and move into emptiness as pure consciousness.

Let us hear what he has to say in this regard in the final sutras of kevalaipada.

He says,

Drashta drasya uparaktam cittam sarva artham.

Seer colors the scene and mind objectifies everything accordingly.

Seer colors the scene,

What you see,

Everything that you see,

Everything that you understand,

Seer colors the scene,

Whatever you see is your own color,

You give it your own color,

You give it your own meaning,

Seer colors the scene and mind objectifies everything accordingly.

Mind is then giving you all the rationals,

It is objectifying,

It is dividing whatever that you see in small paths,

In small objects and then you start to give meaning to those objects,

Then you start to understand those objects.

This is the process that the seer gives the color to the scene and the mind objectifies everything accordingly.

And Patanjali is saying drop all of it.

The seer must not give any color to the scene,

Mind must not objectify anything,

Only then is kevalaam,

Only then is emptiness.

Chitti aprati samkramyama tad akara apathau svabuddhi samvedanam.

Knowledge of its own nature through self-cognition is obtained when consciousness assumes that form in which it does not pass from place to place.

What that once again means is when the consciousness is pure,

When the consciousness is not changing forms,

When the consciousness is not ŏ,

Not assuming that form in which it passes from place to place meaning when the consciousness is not changing,

When the consciousness is pure,

When the consciousness is clean,

When when the consciousness is absolutely transparent,

Only then you have emptiness.

In that emptiness,

There is knowledge of the Self.

In that emptiness,

There is knowledge of our true nature,

Who we really are.

Once you are in the emptiness,

Many things happen.

And we may not even lure you to tell you what is in the emptiness.

Patanjali,

Here,

In the very end,

Says in one of the sutras,

Once you are in the emptiness,

You have self-knowledge.

But he has been elaborating all throughout this journey that once your consciousness is pure,

You rise up to your true nature.

But the point here is that you must have a clean consciousness when you enter into emptiness.

And the rest follows the truth,

The self-knowledge,

The love,

The peace,

The purpose.

Everything follows afterwards.

All what is needed,

What is important to remember,

To focus on at these final stages,

At the doorsteps of Kevalam,

Is do not enter emptiness with anything in your pocket,

Anything in your inner space.

Enter completely clean.

Let us take this knowledge,

Let us take this wisdom into our meditation.

How to do this as a meditation,

How to enter into emptiness without having anything in the inner space?

There is a technique called Neti-Neti.

How to do that technique?

When you are sitting in silence,

When you are sitting in awareness,

Whatever arises in your consciousness,

Thought,

Ideas,

Images,

Past,

Present,

Future,

Any concepts,

Anything that arises in your consciousness,

You cancel it.

You say,

I am not this.

Or you simply cancel that thought.

You keep on cancelling,

You keep on ignoring,

You keep on being indifferent,

You keep on cancelling everything that arises in your consciousness.

Only when something arises in your consciousness.

While you are sitting in silence,

If nothing arises in your consciousness,

Good.

If something arises in your consciousness,

You cancel it.

You cancel it until there is nothing left to cancel.

And then you even cancel this process of you cancelling everything.

As you proceed in silence,

As you proceed in awareness,

You will see that by and by,

When you do not let any idea,

Any thought touch you,

When you cancel all of these and move in silence,

There is an emptiness that is created.

There is an emptiness that is revealed,

That is always there,

That you are not creating,

That has always been the case,

And you suddenly have the doors open.

Suddenly you are in a place where there is peace,

Where there is pure love,

Pure consciousness.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Close your eyes.

Sit in a posture that is comfortable for you.

With your breath flowing in and out,

Naturally,

Gently,

Without any force,

Without any control.

As your body settles,

Your mind is settling,

Turn your awareness to your inner space.

And sit silently in your inner space,

In awareness,

And whatever rises in your consciousness.

Cancel it.

If you have to use a thought for that,

You may say,

I am not this,

I am not the thought,

I am not the body,

I am not this concept.

Anything that arises in your consciousness,

Cancel it and leave space for emptiness.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Don't wait for things to arise.

You remain silent and aware.

If something arises,

Arises,

And you cancel it.

If nothing arises,

Simply remain silent and aware.

Let me take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Don't fight with anything.

Simply cancel with the strike of a sword.

Maintaining your silence,

Your awareness,

And effortlessness.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Don't hold the breath.

Allow everything to remain natural,

Flowing on its own.

And you,

Silent,

Aware,

And cancelling everything that arises in your consciousness.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

When there is nothing left to cancel,

There is emptiness.

Don't hold back anything.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let these leaves,

Let them go.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

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Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Drop the idea of dropping.

Cancel the idea of canceling.

You are and you are not.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.

Let us take this into our meditation.