Hi there and welcome,
Paul Carlos here,
Sacred Spiral Yoga.
In today's contemplative meditation I'll be offering suggestions and guidance with connecting to our own unique soul essence.
Most of us will instinctively know this is only to be found within our heart and spirit.
To authentically bring out the unique spark of one's own soul,
As it were,
We have to first of all come into a certain kind of relationship with ourselves.
One that is firstly profoundly accepting.
This is not condoning our own bad behavior and attitudes for example,
Rather in the sense of acknowledging and then genuinely learning from our so-called mistakes in service of growth and development.
So we could see our progress as a course of adjustment.
Secondly a relationship that is grounded in the type of self-value that goes beyond our material and social self-achievements and superficial levels.
A good example of this is to profoundly realize in the deepest way that I in essence am not my body,
My job,
My financial status,
My name,
My cultural identity and many other identities that we tend to hold.
So we could say that process is in a way seeing through and then setting aside what in yoga are called the false identities.
And this of course once we go through that process allows our true original nature as a divine universal being to shine through.
This is not available with intellectual cleverness,
Rationality,
Rather as mentioned this is revealed by allowing our heart and spirit to shine spontaneously forth in everything we do and say.
When we strive and place energy into attempting to present a contrived facade or a copy of other folk who may be seen as popular,
Successful,
Trendy and so on,
We end up doing our true self down and live into the identity of a cheap carbon copy.
Many of us tend this way and those who do tend also to lack a genuine belief in themselves and one way or another hold a less than appropriate value,
Self-esteem.
Self-worth based on any material factor or group of factors will not stand the test of time.
This material plane known as samsara in the Sanskrit is an ever-shifting interplay of polarities,
Pairs of opposites and as such all material rises and falls,
Comes and goes.
So we can see clearly that a self-value system based in samsaric elements will also come and go,
Sometimes sooner sometimes later,
But once gone we are left adrift in a sense,
Alone and extremely subject to the vicissitudes of duality.
In truth our true original being is really powerful and most worthy of our true allegiance.
It is commonly hidden or rather buried beneath the social and educational conditioning so strong and prevalent in our society.
Once we are prepared to set out on the journey of self-discovery and spirituality with a genuine intent and the will to tackle the hurdles and obstacles,
We quickly realize what an ally we have in our authentic heart and spirit.
We also find that it feels truly wonderful to rediscover our seat of authentic power in the heart.
This is never expressed as self-importance,
Arrogance or superiority,
Rather a quiet and deep-rooted confidence that is built on our new discovery of our true self grounded in our heart,
Which is to say grounded in the divine.
This is the Atman in the yoga system,
The ancient Vedic law,
The inner flame of the supreme creator.
We are all capable of reaching and aligning within our personal lives and of course this indeed is the true goal and purpose and meaning of yoga or union.
To listen and hear the still small voice of our heart,
We need to become deeply familiar with setting aside our busy thinking mind and reach for inner silence.
Regular meditation practice is one of the best ways of attaining this.
In this practice we need to always reach for present-minded awareness and the observer mode of awareness.
Step aside so to speak and watch everything dispassionately,
Non-judgmentally.
We cultivate this mindfulness both on the cushion in formal meditation and more so at all times during our busy lives.
We never try hard and force a quietening of inner chatter.
This will unerringly make it worse.
We simply harness and redirect our attention towards and into silence.
True inner silence is emotionally neutral or empty,
Thought free and so is still.
We are not trying to distract ourselves from the mind and so is still.
Still in the body,
Mind and the spirit.
In yoga we speak of channeling and regulating the flow of our mind-field attention.
Quietening of the internal fluctuations paves the way for us to receive direct knowledge from our heart.
This is a sense of simply knowing.
When this comes never rush back to common thinking awareness.
Take your time and savour the rare state of inner peace and equanimity,
So valuable in today's high stress,
Worry and anxiety environments.
The Tibetan word for meditation is gom and translates as becoming familiar with our object of meditation.
Familiarity is well known,
Usually associated with easy.
We recognize immediately and know what to do.
While there are deeper implications too,
On an initial level it means we need to practice regularly,
Every day really in our busy modern world.
This familiarity serves us to be able to quickly and easily align the meditative state on demand.
Again a high value skill for modern living.
The second familiarity of great value we gain by regular meditation practice is that of coming to know intimately our true nature,
Our true universal self expressed as pure awareness,
As said earlier most worthy of our authentic identification.
Self-worth built on knowledge of self at this level provides us with a trustworthy and lasting value structure.
When we ignore our heart and spirit we effectively ignore true cosmic beingness and stall the process of getting to know ourselves in this way,
As we busily engage all the usual worries,
Concerns and infatuations of the common social self,
Which as we saw earlier is actually the false self.
So I would suggest running this audio along with my other meditations regularly to gain a true familiarity both with the principles and the process of entering a meditative state.
We'll return now to normal common consciousness,
Awareness.
Take a few generous breaths,
Open your eyes and ground back into the room or environment that you are in.
Take good care and I look forward to connecting for the next meditation.
Rich blessings,
Thank you for joining and we'll see you soon.
Namaste.
