How to Integrate Science & Spirituality & Delete Karma (Meditational Talk)

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Hello,

I hope you can hear me.

Today satsang continues with the transmission of knowledge,

Of self-knowledge and what this really means.

Very often when we look within the deeper aspects of ourselves we believe that what we're seeing is knowledge.

For me knowledge like the Dalai Lama is put in an interesting way.

Knowledge is much more than intellectual knowledge.

It is the knowledge that goes deeper than just my knowledge.

Knowledge is an understanding of how we acquire knowledge and how we see and feel and hold on to knowledge and not only understand knowledge but also how we interact with this knowledge so that it becomes a part of what we're doing.

So knowledge is not just a perception of the world.

Knowledge is activity in the world.

So the Dalai Lama was explaining to some person who was interviewing the Dalai Lama on some TV channel perhaps that spirituality and spiritual practice in his perspective of course the Buddhist spiritual practice is more than a negation of worldly knowledge.

More than a negation of worldly knowledge in the sense that if we are practicing spirituality it means that we have to negate scientific thought or intellectual thought.

It is actually an integration of such thought so that our spiritual practice can become much more than the normal mundane mind and thinking that the mundane mind holds on to more than that in a way that the Dalai Lama was explaining becomes an integration of spirituality and science becomes an integration of the sacred and the mundane.

So for me knowledge is not negating the mundane but rather allowing the mundane to be seen through higher perspectives.

So it is not negating the thinking mind or the aspect of the mind that likes to see things from a very specific perspective but opening up to other perspectives.

An intelligent mind,

Spiritual practice that has wisdom within it is open and flexible not rigid and not caught in one perspective or another it is open and free.

That is what is important to understand when in meditation that spiritual practice is more than letting go of the mundane.

It is seeing things from a higher perspective.

When we do this then all activity that we are experiencing,

Our thinking,

Our feeling,

Our activities that we manifest in the world,

Our internal activities,

The way we feel about ourselves,

Our belief systems becomes more open to our intuition,

More open to the perspective that is creative and that allows for all those aspects to move to something much more noble,

Something much more profound.

So our mind becomes more integrated and the way we think becomes more open to other aspects of ourselves that before made no sense.

Spiritual practice then becomes a journey in flexibility,

A journey in letting go of rigidity,

A journey in being open,

A journey in letting go of our limited,

Limited closed perspectives that we so dearly hold on to.

This is why someone like the Dalai Lama when speaking about spirituality that it is not a separate,

Not a separate activity than the activities that we live out in this world.

Spirituality is an integrated perspective of such activity.

It makes sense.

It makes sense to you in the world and it makes sense to you if you're in a spiritual community or in a monastery like many of the monks that work with the Dalai Lama.

It makes sense if you're a mother.

It makes sense if you are working as an executive that an intuitive mind,

A mind that is open and creative is part of deep spiritual practice,

Is part of gaining access to self-knowledge.

The question then is not is spiritual truth valid in the mundane or is spiritual practice important?

We know this to be very important to sit and allow yourself a deeper perspective of being open.

The question is how do we create such a perspective?

How do we allow such a perspective to happen?

How do we allow the mind to be integrated?

How do we allow a sense of openness in the way that we are dealing with situations,

The way we think,

The way we feel?

How can we be open when we are lost in certain thoughts?

How can we be open when we are lost in certain feelings?

How do we gain insight when we are lost into those,

In those aspects without knowledge of how to be free of them?

How do we be,

How can we be free when the mind is caught in the activity of thinking and the thinking is spiraling down to a level that is lower consciousness,

A level where we are creating separation from the essence of ourselves,

The essence that is joy and love.

How to bring a different reference into spiritual activity?

Kabir says the only way is to focus on the divine light inside.

Divine light means not some esoteric concept or some far removed feeling that is a nice idea but divine light is the creative force that is within you,

Within that aspect of you that is intuitive and open that is part of you.

By focusing your attention,

By bringing that as a focus,

A reference in your spiritual practice even if difficult in the beginning,

What happens is that everything opens in a way that is impossible to see when doing this practice.

It is impossible for you to understand what it means to be free until your focus is on freedom.

It is impossible for you to understand what it means to be open until your focus is on a reference that is open.

Kabir puts it in this way in his sutra,

I see the divine light inside,

Outside and everywhere by looking constantly at the divine light of the divine even I have become divine.

So what Kabir is saying here is that it is only possible to move to a higher perspective of consciousness,

Wisdom and knowledge by making sure that your reference is very clearly focused on the divine light within.

The divine light is known as sat,

Truth.

By remembering aspects of yourself that are beautiful,

By remembering truly who you are,

By remembering the true self,

The true self begins to create a momentum that only becomes obvious with patience,

With time.

You begin to delete the way the mind is addicted to thinking,

The way the feelings are addicted to feeling and begin to see,

Think and feel in a very different way.

It is very important as you breathe in and breathe out as you focus on the breath that you're not just focusing on the breath,

That you're focusing on the freedom that comes from breathing,

The light that your body feels as you breathe in and breathe out.

The light that is inside of your breath,

Outside of your breath,

Everywhere as you do this,

Lose yourself in this beautiful perspective of integration,

Of oneness where the breath is free of whatever limiting thoughts,

Whatever physical aspects that the body throws out at you,

Whatever feelings that your emotional body throws out at you,

Make sure that as you breathe in and breathe out,

You're simply watching what is going on and losing yourself in the space of light,

The breath free and open.

As you do this,

In stillness,

Be aware,

In stillness be aware how your mind gently transcends itself,

How your thoughts gently allow for something more to fill that space,

How your feelings gently transcend themselves,

How they allow for something more to fill that space,

That something more is beyond comprehension.

As soon as your mind or your feelings try to understand that space,

Then you're lost in the thought of what that space means.

You have an idea what light means,

You have an idea what truth means and that is a perspective,

That is an idea of truth,

Not a direct experience of truth.

Hence the deeper you go,

The more profound the meditation gets,

The more profound the work gets.

What you do is slowly let go of all concepts,

All thoughts,

All feelings,

All perspectives that the mind ego creates around anything what you're thinking,

What you're feeling,

What you are,

So that you're totally open to that which is more inside of you,

That space of stillness,

That space of freedom that is beyond those thoughts,

Beyond those feelings,

The light that is beyond anything,

That is inside you,

Outside of you,

Everywhere.

As you do this,

It's not that you lose yourself and become impersonal to a space that is alien from yourself,

It is that you become more who you truly are.

The real self is able to manifest its qualities,

Its beauty,

The Atma is able to manifest its qualities in a much more clear way,

Simply because the space that you're creating as you breathe in and breathe out,

As you let go of all the perspectives,

All the thoughts and feelings expands,

The light inside is everywhere,

Is inside and outside,

So there is no expansion,

There is a simply letting go of what veiled your perception of this light.

When you remove the veils that prevent you from seeing that light is inside,

Outside and everywhere,

That is what feels like expansion,

Feels like expansion because you move away from the little perspective that you think you are,

Our idea of who we are,

The perspective of the world that we think the world is,

To something much more profound that allows for divine intelligence,

For higher consciousness,

The mind begins to think with such consciousness,

With higher consciousness,

Begins to see and is capable of understanding aspects of you,

The world,

Reality,

In such a way words fail to transmit that knowledge,

That knowledge that you have access to,

Direct access to as you go deeper and deeper,

Simply because words,

Like any other man-made concept,

Inherently carry within them some form of limitation,

Language can be beautiful,

Poetry is beautiful,

Language can be a reflection of the divine but it is not the divine,

My words to you are so that you are able to let go of the language that your mind constantly has in the background,

The chit-chatting that happens in the mind,

So that the reference,

The light that you are focused on,

The true reference that is meditation,

Allows for another language to speak to you,

That is the language of truth,

The direct access to sat allows for such communication,

It is not that those aspects of your mind or feelings or the way your brain functions stops as the Dalai Lama says,

They simply open up and become more creative,

More intelligent and more wise,

You begin to see things from a beautiful perspective,

Beautiful perspective that is knowledge,

Not just spiritual knowledge but knowledge that can be useful in your daily activity,

Knowledge about yourself,

Knowledge about others,

Knowledge about the world that can be practical and tangible,

Meditation needs to be this way,

It needs to be an activity,

It can't be some perspective or stillness where you believe meditation is a place that you reach and you become inert in that place because it's like heaven,

You know once you're there,

There is nothing more to do,

Such a belief system is a belief system and in itself limiting when your mind is free,

The activity of your mind is free and more vital,

More vibrant when you're focused on the light within,

You simply remove the shadows of the mind that then allow the mind to expand into deep intelligence,

Deep activity which can be very useful in a real sense in this world,

Can help you to understand how to do things in a more beautiful way,

In a more interesting way,

In a way that doesn't recreate suffering,

Recreate stress,

Recreate tension,

So it is not that you need to find that way,

Sit there focus on a problem,

Try to resolve the problem by thinking about it,

That simply brings awareness to the level of the problem,

As Kabir says,

See the problem in the light of truth,

This means do not get attached to the problem,

Remain free from the problem and allow the problem to simply be there from that sense of detachment but your reference,

Your real reference is a beautiful light and that slowly removes the shadows,

The limitations of that problem so that you understand that the problem actually is a gift,

The problem is a beautiful gift as it is part of the light,

There is no illusion in the end,

Maya is not real even though Maya is an illusion,

The idea of Maya is also an illusion,

In the end everything is born out of itself and the real aspect of creation,

The real aspect of the creative force that is also yourself is this light,

When you come back to that essence,

When you come back to that core which I call Atma,

Then you come back to the very creative force that allows the mind to think in a way that is more interesting,

More intelligent as you restructure the whole mind so that it becomes integrated,

Becomes complete in the way it sees things,

So rather than waste your energy and your time and your effort,

Getting depressed about problems,

Meditate,

Meditate upon the light within and allow that light,

That structure,

That deep structure of light to be what it is inside,

Outside,

Everywhere so that you can see clearly what it is that you are being gifted with,

All the beautiful things that are there for you to transform,

Change so that they are part of what is divine,

So that they are part of what the light is,

As Kabir says by looking constantly at the divine light of the divine,

Even I,

Your ego,

Have become,

Has become divine and that is the spiritual practice,

May your day to day be a reminder that the work is not focusing on problems or situations that disturb you,

But rather on transforming the ego,

The idea of I,

So that its reference is the light,

The divine,

The truth within yourself rather than the problems that you are attached to.

By doing this,

You delete karma from your life,

You delete the Maya and the idea of the Maya and come back to who you truly are.

Thank you.