Bliss - Discovering the Unending Bliss Of Turiya

Hello everyone.

This is a live podcast,

Part of the KOSHI Radio Fresh program.

And today I'd like to talk a little bit about bliss and the difference between bliss states and the teria state of permanent realization.

So we experience many different states of consciousness as we move through our day,

Right?

One minute you're sad,

The next minute you're happy,

Frustrated,

Angry,

Confused,

Anxious,

Fearful.

These are states of consciousness,

Right?

So it's important to understand that states of consciousness change.

And a bliss state is highly sought after because bliss is joyful,

Right?

We feel euphoric when we are in a state of bliss.

And many people equate teria with a bliss state.

But teria,

The difference between a bliss state and teria is that teria is bliss.

It is not a state that comes and goes because all states change.

This is the common denominator for all states of consciousness.

They change.

So if you're constantly giving your attention to the emotional states inside of your body,

Then you're never going to be making any real progress towards a direct realization of teria,

Which is the permanent,

Stateless state of pure consciousness,

Which is bliss,

Right?

And so this is where the confusion comes in because teria is bliss.

But it is not a bliss state.

So teria is bliss,

But it is not a bliss state.

So you can generate a bliss state just by focusing all of your attention on your heart right now.

If you stop giving your attention to your thoughts,

Your past,

What you're going to be doing in the future,

What you're going to be doing today,

And you focus instead just on your heart,

You can produce,

You can generate a bliss state because you are focusing on bliss when you really focus on the heart.

And what seems to be in the way of bliss is states of consciousness that come and go,

Right?

Sadness,

Fear,

And all the different ones I mentioned,

Right?

And we experience this every day.

But teria is steady,

It is constant,

And it's actually there even when you're sad or even when you're angry or frustrated,

Confused,

Anxious.

It is always there,

But it's hidden by states of consciousness,

Right?

The fog of your own mind.

And it's your agreement between your ego,

Which is the sense I am me,

And your mind that generates a wide range of states.

This is why if you really focus on your heart you can generate a bliss state right now.

Instantaneously you can generate a bliss state,

But because it is a state,

It is a reflective loop of consciousness that actually does nothing to address the underlying cause of patterns of suffering.

The underlying cause of patterns of suffering.

So if you really examine your life you can see certain patterns that have developed since you were very small.

The same kind of people come in and out of your life.

The same kind of reactions to different circumstances happen again and again.

These are patterns of suffering.

And you cannot break free of patterns of suffering with just your conscious will.

You don't want to be suffering,

But your conscious will does not address the underlying cause of suffering.

So then if you step back from this,

What is the underlying cause?

What is causing suffering to occur again and again and again in your life?

So there's what you're aware of.

So you're aware of emotions,

You're aware of fear,

You're aware of sadness,

Stress,

You're aware of those things.

But underneath that in the subconscious is a realm of unconscious tendencies that is the underlying cause of all patterns of suffering.

So the ego is rooted in those tendencies,

Right?

So you can say the source of all suffering is ego,

Which is this sense I am me.

But it's not about getting rid of ego.

Ego is actually the gateway to the teria state,

Which is pure conscious awareness,

Which by its very nature is bliss.

It's not a state that comes and goes.

And this is why when you give your attention to the heart,

You experience immediately bliss.

But you also might experience fear,

Right?

When you really stop and give your attention to the heart.

Because when you dive into the heart,

There is absolutely nothing there,

Right?

There is emptiness in the core of your being.

So when you dive all the way into the emptiness,

You lose the sense of the me.

And this is terrifying to the mind and the body.

So it's natural for fear to arrive,

Arise as you dive into the heart.

But you can dive all the way through fear into the heart.

And the deeper you go into your heart,

The more and more you experience bliss,

A steady state of consciousness.

So the big challenge is to abide as teria,

Which is this pure conscious awareness.

And it's no small challenge,

As we all know,

Because the mind reacts to what people do,

What people said,

Events in the world.

We are constantly reacting to our circumstances until you master your mind.

You're a slave to your mind until you have the skill to focus on the unseen presence alive in your heart,

Which is the teria,

Stateless state of pure conscious awareness.

And it is quite a skill to stay focused on that and not get pulled into the drama of your life again and again and again.

So the deeper you go into teria,

The less and less you react negatively to your circumstances.

It doesn't matter what people say.

It doesn't matter ultimately what's happening in the world.

The piece of teria is untouched by any of that stuff that's constantly changing.

So if you're trying to fix or change yourself or change your circumstances,

It's a never-ending battle,

Right?

Because your circumstances are constantly changing.

So if you're constantly trying to change something that is always changing,

It will never produce any sense of well-being or lasting happiness.

You'll just be on the roller coaster of your emotions,

On the roller coaster of the drama unfolding in your life if you're giving your attention to what you think about your circumstances.

So the way to shift this is with sadhana,

Which is the process of removing the unconscious veils of consciousness that are hidden to your conscious awareness.

So this is the unconscious,

Subconscious stuff that is the source of all your suffering.

So it's not a going somewhere to get or a going somewhere to attain the teria state.

And I think this is one of the great fallacies of how we perceive Ramana's teaching.

We think we are going to get a bliss state.

We are going somewhere to get or we've realized bliss,

A state of bliss,

And then you try to maintain it but it's futile.

It's futile to try and maintain a bliss state because it has a beginning,

Middle,

And end.

It will change.

So even going after bliss does not address these unconscious tendencies.

And what it does is sadhana,

Which is the the fire,

The sacred fire that's essential to burn through the veils of consciousness,

Right?

So you're just fundamentally staying exactly where you are to remove the veils of consciousness,

Which are actually a grand illusion generated by mind and ego that is hidden to your conscious awareness.

So you can't do it yourself.

There is no way for you to overcome unconscious tendencies because you are totally unaware of these conscious,

Unconscious tendencies,

Right?

You don't know that they're there.

You don't know what they are even.

A lot of it is karma based on eons upon eons of reincarnation.

Many,

Many,

Many lifetimes upon lifetimes of suffering that are deeply ingrained in the genetics of your body but also in the electromagnetic field of the body.

So karma is actually stored in your electromagnetic signature,

Which is a frequency of light that is unique to you.

So all of your karma is stored in this light field.

So when the body falls away,

Any karma that has not been resolved,

That is what reincarnates this light frequency that you are.

So when the body dies,

You don't die because you're not the body.

The body is like a shell over the conscious aware presence that you actually are,

Right?

So then when you really start to understand this,

Then you can see for yourself that it's really essential to practice.

Without practice you will never burn through these veils of consciousness and you will never develop the skill to stay focused,

To stay present,

To stay aware.

You'll always be buffeted around by your mind,

Ego,

Emotions and circumstances until you really stop and you really deeply surrender to the unseen intelligence in the heart,

Right?

And so one of the great teachings of Ramana Maharshi is the yoga of prayer,

Which is bhakti yoga.

This is devotion.

This is worship.

This is surrender,

Right?

This is the act of surrendering to the unseen and inviting that vast intelligence to come in to help remove all the stuff you're not aware of.

It's an invitation to the power of the entire universe.

True prayer is the prayer of salvation.

Help me.

I can't do it on my own.

It is a letting go and emerging with the source that lives in your heart,

Which is vast indescribable intelligent presence.

So it's not like a nice thing to do.

And it is nice.

It feels nice.

It feels good to worship.

True devotion is bliss,

The bliss of the teria.

When you really surrender,

When you are really worshiping the divine,

The divine within you and all around you,

It is the invitation for that vast presence to address everything that you're not aware of.

So the bhakti yoga,

Which is one aspect of the mountain path of Ramana Maharishi,

Is essential.

And the mantra,

All mantras are prayers,

Right?

And it's an energy,

It's a light force.

And it's that light force that is like a laser beam that burns through these layers of consciousness that you know nothing about,

Right?

So meditation becomes important to you when you realize that silence is essential.

It is the essential yoga.

When you realize that bhakti yoga is also an essential yoga.

When you realize that meditation is an essential yoga and in the context of Ramana,

It's questioning the meditator.

It's confronting the egoic consciousness that always wants to be special,

Always wants to change what's always changing and seeing through the illusion of reflective consciousness.

This is the great golden key of Ramana's teaching.

So meditation is an inquiry.

Confronting the ego is an inquiry.

Confronting your emotions is an inquiry.

And then surrender is essential.

Surrender of everything.

Surrendering your doing because you cannot do to get.

You cannot do it.

You cannot do to get,

Tariya.

You are tariya but you're not in the experience of tariya because of all the layers of conscious consciousness that mostly is completely unaware to your conscious senses.

So you're not aware of all this baggage from lifetimes upon lifetimes and just baggage from this life,

Things that you've learned,

Things that you've experienced,

Right?

So letting go of all of this is an essential aspect of really embracing sadhana.

So what does it mean to really embrace sadhana?

It means you first have to recognize that you actually do need to practice,

That you actually do need to sit down on a meditation cushion and be quiet,

That you actually have to confront your ego,

Right?

This me.

You have to see what is it,

What is this me that I think I am?

This is inquiry,

Right?

So you actually have to inquire.

You have to confront the emotions.

You have to start becoming aware of your inner dialogue and what you're agreeing with in your own mind.

What are you agreeing with?

What story are you weaving in your mind?

And stop and turn your attention into the heart.

The heart is the gateway of moksha and when you have the courage to dive into your own heart,

And it takes courage because fear will naturally arise when you dive into your heart because the ego loses its hold on you.

It is the end of you controlling everything.

And when you really dive in,

It's a huge relief because you're no longer in charge and you never were in charge.

So the heart is the gateway of liberation.

And when you dive all the way in,

You never return.

And then devotion is love.

And that love is totally natural because it is who you actually are.

You are divine love beyond all ideas of love.

This is the nature of teria,

Love.

And you are that.

Om shanti shanti shanti om.

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