Upasana Meditation: The Ultimate Reset

Welcome to another little gathering for Upasana,

The most amazing meditation.

Why amazing?

Because it brings you back to yourself.

The most amazing.

There's nothing more amazing you discover than.

.

.

Well,

Is it something you have to discover?

Well,

Haven't we already discovered that we're amazing?

Already existing,

Already inseparable,

Right?

Already part of the whole totality of existence.

What a trip,

Okay?

So now,

What does Upasana do?

Upasana just brings you back and reminds you what is existing here like?

What is it like to exist without all the distractions that are going on?

I mean,

We've just been through one big distraction now.

Now we can all just settle down and relax,

Be calm.

But how do you be calm?

Okay,

The way to really.

.

.

People have been calm for generation upon generation is by discovering and being introduced to the calmness itself.

The calmness,

The stillness that is oneself.

There's nothing stiller than consciousness.

Space.

Anything happening in space?

Everything's moving,

Moving,

Moving around in space.

But is space ever moving?

All the sounds moving around in silence.

Silence ever being disturbed by any of it?

And what you find is all the thoughts moving around in consciousness.

Consciousness,

Has it ever moved?

Never.

It's like the highway on which all the cars are traveling.

The highway never moves,

Right?

Imagine if the highway started moving suddenly underneath you.

How would that feel?

A bit of a problem.

For us to experience everything and perceive and have all these sensations and experiences going on,

There has to be something that is stable,

Constant,

Unchanging.

For all the changes to happen,

There has to be something that has never changed.

And that is oneself.

Self is the changeless.

You can try changing your name,

Changing your clothes,

Changing your identity,

Changing nationalities,

Change countries,

Change everything.

But self,

You cannot change.

Not possible.

We're just naming it differently.

That's all.

And so it's the same consciousness in every one of us,

Just named it differently.

This talk we have every week is about one subject,

One topic,

Right,

Which is on everybody's minds.

Eight billion of us have got no problem thinking about self.

But the problem comes in when that idea that we have of ourselves gets challenged,

Threatened,

And feeling,

You know,

Cornered.

So this is when we get into a bit of a fix and a bit of turmoil.

And then where does it end?

By resolving the world or shall we just resolve the thought of ourselves?

Because we can't.

The world is going to keep on changing no matter what we decide,

Which direction we go in.

But the center of the whole thing,

The source,

The stillness itself never changes.

And that's what we take each other,

We take ourselves to every week at this time,

The source.

So what we have in spirituality and yoga,

Meditating,

Mindfulness,

All this kind of thing.

Mindfulness,

Being mindful of what?

Huh?

What are we being mindful of?

To be still and be peaceful,

What is it that we are being mindful of?

Everybody says,

What?

I don't know.

Actually,

I haven't studied mindfulness.

But what is making me mindless or absent?

That's the thing to ask myself.

And the answer is very simple.

One thought.

I,

The thought of myself,

Which really doesn't actually even exist.

Right?

Does the thought exist or not?

So I'll just share with you something I wrote in the last week.

As a human being,

We are already topped up without doing a thing.

Full consciousness,

Empty or full?

Full up,

Full bandwidth,

Right?

Born with it,

Born complete.

Identification with the I being in inverted commas,

I-dentification,

Is all that keeps getting us in trouble.

Taking up all our energy and effort all day,

Long,

Is a thought.

I,

The I-maker,

Making us all unwell,

If you like,

If at all we are unwell,

Is identification with a thought.

Because we are identifying with something that doesn't exist.

More important and most important is the one getting identified,

The identifier.

So who is that?

That is what we are here to discuss and find out on these little chats we have.

To see oneself as we are,

Not in terms of anything.

Not in terms of what we owe or own,

Are about to own or owe,

Or what we are about to do or what we do.

Not in terms of anything.

To see ourselves as we are.

Consciousness,

In consciousness there are no terms,

Right?

There's no terms and conditions apply.

So nobody there to recognize that in consciousness.

In self-knowledge,

Once you know yourself,

Right,

As the identifier,

There's no longer any thought anymore of yourself,

Right?

Then there's no more any problems.

Why?

Because there's only one problem and that is having to resolve the thought of myself.

Until that is done,

I'm always going to be jumping around and trying to complete the thought,

Isn't it?

And that's the job of the ego,

To resolve itself.

And so until we get that right,

In the West,

We have got no hope,

No clue as to what we are doing here,

Where we are going,

What is taking place.

Anything in the experience we are having of creation,

Anything in the experience telling you anything about the nature of what you are experiencing?

Is anything in the experience up to now,

Has anything in the experience we are having of ourselves and of creation,

Universe,

Told us anything about the experiencer,

Ourselves,

Oneself?

No.

And nothing ever will.

So this is where the teaching of self-knowledge comes along and introduces us to what?

The source of peace,

The source of bliss,

The source of joy,

The source of happiness,

All right?

So what we're getting a lot of in spirituality,

Yoga,

Meditation,

Is getting introduced to a lot of practices,

Right?

Has anybody ever introduced you to the source,

To the source of bliss,

Source of peace,

Source of happiness,

Source of joy?

No.

And this is the problem.

Because how?

Getting into meditation and all that,

Of course we're going to go and experience bliss,

Joy,

Peace,

Happiness,

Of course.

Because why?

Because the practices are that good and that powerful that they suppress,

That rather than suppress,

They suspend this I-thought for a moment in time.

But that's not true bliss.

Does true bliss suddenly come in a flash like lightning and then suddenly disappear,

Right?

Where does it go?

No.

Does the sky ever disappear,

Right?

Does space disappear?

Silence disappear?

No.

Sounds come and go and disappear.

Forms,

Objects come and disappear in space.

But space,

Abundance,

Right?

Total abundance,

Full of objects,

Full of forms,

For everything appearing in space,

Right?

In the form of abundance,

Okay?

And the same is true of happiness and bliss,

Peace,

Joy,

Completeness,

In abundance.

Happiness is in abundance.

It doesn't just come because we have a coffee and then disappear.

Or come when we have a bliss moment,

Eating ice cream,

It disappears immediately.

Or we're doing some yoga and then suddenly it disappears.

It doesn't disappear.

It's total constant,

Non-stop,

Eternal actually.

And this is what you discover when you discover the nature of who you are.

So let's just get down to what we are doing today,

And that is to bring ourselves back to the source,

The source of joy,

Source of peace.

So if you wouldn't mind,

Please just let's close our eyes,

Get comfortable,

As comfortable as possible,

And just close the eyes.

And notice,

Please,

Consciousness doesn't come about just because we close the eyes.

Already we are all conscious.

Already we are all present.

Consciousness doesn't come from anything.

Already conscious,

Whether the eyes are closed or open.

Already you are aware.

Try to be unconscious.

You cannot.

Impossible.

So while everything is going on in consciousness,

Consciousness is never disturbed.

Consciousness never changes,

Whether the eyes are open or closed.

Thoughts are coming and going.

So you don't have to worry about your thoughts.

You don't have to worry about anything.

Just being yourself,

Conscious already,

Is effortless,

Absolutely effortless.

Effortless.

No matter what thoughts keep coming and going,

Consciousness never changes.

Self never changes.

I'd like you to now just focus on your breathing.

Feel the breath moving in your nostrils.

You'll notice the moment you focus on your nostrils,

You notice a coolness there.

Feeling the breath come and go focuses the mind.

The habit of the mind and tendency of the mind is to dance around,

Keep on jumping from one thought to another.

Now just focus on the breath.

Now bring your awareness to the back of your throat.

Now bring your awareness to the back of your throat.

Feel the breath,

Air moving in the back of your throat.

Breath comes and goes effortlessly.

Now the coolness,

No longer in the nostrils,

Is where?

Wherever we place our awareness is where all the prana goes.

Now coolness,

No longer in the nostrils,

Is in the throat.

Heart beating effortlessly.

You don't have to do a thing.

Now move your awareness to your lungs.

Feel the coolness now is in the lungs.

Breath rising and subsiding.

Like the tides in the ocean.

Breath coming in,

Breath going out.

Coolness,

Effortless.

Now just feel your body resting on the earth beneath you.

Earth supports the body unconditionally,

Effortlessly.

The earth is making absolutely no effort to support the body.

Nor is it making any effort to be in space.

All the planets,

Stars,

Effortlessly suspended in space.

Who is making all this effort?

I,

Thinking I have to do something to get something.

Thinking I have to get peaceful.

I have to get peace,

Stillness.

I forget peace,

Stillness has already arrived just by being here.

Already here,

Stillness never moves or changes,

Never goes anywhere.

I keep rushing around doing,

So thinking I need to do stillness,

Do peace.

Peace and stillness escape me.

I cannot do anything to be conscious.

There is no conflict between the body and the earth.

There is no conflict between the body on its own and nature.

There is no conflict anywhere.

The whole universe is absolutely conflict-free,

Tension-free.

There is no agitation anywhere in the universe.

Each star,

Planet,

Solar system is suspended effortlessly in the eternal stillness.

Coming back to the breath,

Just feel the breath again in your nostrils.

Coolness now,

Back in the nostrils.

But still beating,

Effortless.

To be conscious,

Still,

You don't have to do a thing.

To be present,

Still,

You don't have to undo anything.

To be,

To exist,

You don't have to let go anything.

Already effortlessly that presence in which everything is present.

What is there to do?

Let go all doership and just recognize how easy it is.

To be is already the easiest of the easiest.

Effort-free,

Conflict-free.

No conditions apply.

Now just listening to the sounds around you.

Any sound will do to remind you of the silence already present.

While all the sounds keep coming and going,

Silence remains one and the same.

Permanent,

Unchanging,

Undying,

Regardless of how many sounds come and go.

Silence,

Inexhaustible,

Accommodates all the sounds.

While all the sounds,

No matter how loud,

Boisterous,

Persistent,

Resolve and exhaust themselves in silence.

Silence never gets exhausted.

Ever fresh,

An ocean of stillness.

Silence never changes or disappears.

In the same way,

No matter how many thoughts,

Ideas keep coming in,

Consciousness,

Consciousness,

Inexhaustible,

Never changes.

Permanent,

Undying,

Ageless,

Timeless.

Consciousness,

Always fresh,

Ever-present,

Just needs remembering.

Getting lost in all the thoughts,

Ideas we forget about consciousness.

Taken for granted.

Just like we get lost in all the sounds and forms,

We forget about silence and ignore the space.

So too,

Lost in all our attachments to ideas,

Thoughts,

Objects of all kinds,

We forget about ourselves.

The one seeing,

Enjoying all the objects,

Thoughts,

Entertaining the thoughts,

Serving the thoughts,

Getting lost in the thoughts,

We forget ourselves.

Without whom?

What thoughts?

What ideas?

What memories?

Without you,

The changeless,

Being there first,

All the changes are meaningless.

First you are,

Present,

Ever-present.

Then comes all the ideas.

First you are conscious.

Then only can you have a thought.

Changeless,

In all that is changing,

Be that consciousness which you all are already.

We all are effortlessly and enjoy all the changes taking place.

Coming back to the breath,

Just feel the breath moving again through the whole body.

Body still resting on the earth,

Hasn't moved anywhere.

Nothing changes in the changeless,

Timeless,

Absolute.

That is yourself.

Be that and enjoy all the changes effortlessly.

Om Om Om Thank you.