Listen To The Music Of The Soul: Talk + Meditation

The water is so clear.

I can't believe I'm here.

I'm so happy to be here.

I'm so happy to be here.

I'm so happy to be here.

I'm so happy to be here.

I'm so happy to be here that I don't need to know anything.

I'm so happy to be here that I don't need to know anything.

So making sure that any technical devices or any distractions around you are somehow either put away or for now ignored or detached from,

Just so that you're ready for the transmission.

Sometimes it's very difficult to ignore or detach from the surrounds that cause stress or that cause tension or that cause us to react in that way where our hearts get tense.

You know,

The energy within our physical structure not only tenses up but our hearts being such a sensitive organ tenses up in a way where we change the physiology of the body.

It's a sort of automatic response to a situation,

Whatever the situation is,

If there is noise or confusion or just one's general egoic perception of the situation,

You know,

You want something to be in a certain way and of course whatever we want is very different from the ways things turn out in life.

You know,

If we want to control things or if we want to make sure things turn out in a certain way,

There are too many variables for us to sort of make sure that every time things turn out in that way.

Not always a positive way but in the way that we think is best for ourselves.

So this creates tension.

And this tension is very much part of what removes us from the meditational experience or makes the meditational experience much more difficult.

So if our physiology is not relaxed and if our physiology is not conducive to meditation,

Then we're somehow fighting ourselves.

And I see this many,

Many times.

I remember in the monastery,

Many,

Many monks,

You would imagine the monks wouldn't have much to stress about simply because everything is more relaxed in a monastery.

You don't have to worry about wages,

You don't have to worry about people's different situations,

You don't have to worry about mortgages or material things that most people worry about.

It's a very relaxed place to be on one level.

Of course there is all sorts of things going on in a monastery that creates a sort of tension sometimes that if not addressed in a way that is positive can lead to various reactions,

Physical,

Physiological reactions that are very same ones that happen in society when there is confusion around or when there is misunderstanding of why certain situations are there and rather than create a fight or flight reaction,

How we can maintain sort of state of equilibrium in the tension that is being perceived around us or in the tension that's being created around us.

That's very difficult if the physiology of the body is tense and is just reacting in such a way where it's difficult to relax.

So what do we do?

So in mysticism there are many ways of actually addressing this problem because it's a problem that is part of the human evolution,

Humanity's evolution.

It's something that we just have to understand rather than fight within ourselves or struggle with within ourselves.

So mysticism has understood this and there are many ways,

Some ways I don't really agree with because I think we need to speed up our transformation rather than wait for things to fall into place.

Speeding up the transformation doesn't mean being pushy or being not full of humility or not full of patience.

It just means that whatever it takes we can give to the situation so that things change.

So if our hearts are affected say by the stress,

The physiology stress,

The body physiology stress reaction of fight or flight,

Then it's very important that we address this in a real sense rather than create a philosophy around it or hope that things will change or just look for better experiences that may help us to sort of reduce the tension that we're feeling in the physiology of the body.

It's very important to address the situation from a realistic and a very concrete down to earth way that helps to change the physiology of your body.

And mysticism means that you can choose very specific ways that go beyond for example taking some sort of medication.

Now if you are taking medication because the situation is very bad it's not a problem but very often we're addicted to this paradigm that medication will resolve everything and so that's the first thing we reach out for rather than reaching out for the alternatives and there are alternatives that just require the sort of knowledge and the understanding of the situation,

The knowledge that comes from the understanding of the situation to allow us to choose certain ways of addressing tension that changes the tension immediately,

That really addresses the tension.

It's not a philosophy or a wishful sort of thinking but it's a real practice.

And one of the secrets of mysticism is the heart.

You know you probably have read poetry,

Rumi and many other poets speak about the heart.

Now of course we're speaking about in mysticism we're speaking about the heart as a physical organ as well as many as well as energetic and mystical but the physical is important because that's the first thing to address.

It's important that we relax this muscle so when I speak about relaxing the body in meditation I'm very much focused on relaxing the heart,

The physical organ that is the heart.

You can sense this.

Do you know when there is stress sometimes there is a tension in the chest that happens especially if you are sort of trying to do too many things meaning that you're sort of chasing time.

You know how people think this is normal in the Western world especially that we're always running.

It's not that doing too much is a problem,

That's actually a good thing,

But we're always running to try to catch up with the expectations that we have within ourselves.

These expectations are not logical or useful because they don't create any sort of efficiency.

They don't create a helpful situation,

They just create a delay which creates more tension.

Then this tension is very often reflected in the heart area and there is a tightness that happens.

Now most people are not aware of this but if you are in practicing meditation it's very obvious when this happens because there is a physiology that is speaking to you in that moment that is obvious.

So if you are practicing meditation then it's obvious that there is something that is not quite in balance.

So this subtle signal no longer communicates in a subtle way.

The tension is obvious in the sense that you notice a sort of stress.

So the one thing that is important to do when you notice this is to make sure that that physiology doesn't create a sort of mental reaction to the situation.

Because very often when the heart reacts in a certain way,

The physical heart reacts in a certain way,

We create emotions and we create perspectives about the situation that bring us back into communication with the limbic brain which is the fight or flight reaction part of the body where we just,

We are impulsive and we just react in the moment and we don't really understand what's going on,

We just react from whatever space is most powerful.

So if the physiology of the body is sort of communicating its tension in a very powerful way that's the space that we will react from.

The limbic brain will say oh this is important and we need to respond.

But a response that comes from stress is always a response that is not conscious.

And this is important to understand.

You know like some people think it's okay to shout,

You know like if you're driving a car to shout at someone because they're doing something silly,

Whatever they overtake or whatever they do and then somehow justify the mind says oh that was very silly so I'm going to be and the reaction is coming from stress I'm going to be whatever.

Like if you looked at it from a perspective that is far removed from the situation you would think that's a very silly action.

I'm not saying to judge your action but to see it from a space of non-reaction which means that you're stepping outside of the impulse that the limbic brain is wanting to sort of capture your attention and push you into and that impulse you need to resist on some level and that changes the reaction within your heart.

So if you don't resist it then you're acting out from a space of stress really and your reaction will be immature.

Your reaction will be also damaging to yourself.

So not only sort of later on perhaps you'll regret that you reacted in such a way but or later on if someone points out something to you you think oh that could have done it better and not only that but you're actually damaging the structure of the physical heart as well as the space of the energetic heart because as soon as the physical heart gets damaged by stress then you're teaching the energy of the heart to block or to constrict in such a way where the physiology sort of mirrors the emotional,

Energetic and mystical aspect of the heart and so we close up,

We close to that subtle body communication that is happening and we simply become aware of the stress and we close to everything that is around us but we don't close in such a way you know just for a moment if we repeat this many many times and many people repeat this of course in not such a dramatic way but very often our actions are due to stress rather than due to consciousness.

So our actions don't evolve out of the space of consciousness meaning that we are really mindful and aware of what's going on and we are deciding from a space of freedom okay this is the action that fits and allows the situation to be a learning,

To be an excitement,

To be joyful and blissful in a way because we're learning from the experience.

Most people don't do that,

Most people react to the situation because they're reacting to this body physiology and the limbic brain sort of removes you from the space of consciousness and acts out impulsively from this stressful,

From this very stressful situation that you may not be aware of because the body physiology isn't really speaking to you in language,

Speaking to you beyond language so you only become aware of the physiology of the body later on you know when the stress hormones are already there and have triggered this impulsive behavior and limbic brain to function in a certain way then you know it's already too late because then you recognize oh I am stressed look at me you know I'm shouting and I'm my shoulders are tense and my face and my breathing and my heart rate changes.

Now you know some people say how do you know things Tony because actually whenever I'm communicating to someone I'm not even listening to very much of what they're saying because very often what people are saying the words that people are using is just a trick is just like it's just the words of the limbic brain you know the reactive words that don't make sense so you know it's like why listen to those words what why not connect to the energy of the heart so when you're communicating to yourself or communicating to others you know this is the space where you can notice changes before the changes even become noticeable for the person and this area around the body or in the chest area you can notice not only the obvious the physical obvious you know the way the person is breathing the way the person is communicating in their posture the way you know the subtlety of color in the face and the eyes you know all this is reflecting the heart rate variability what is known as HRV heart rate variability in the body and the heart rate variability depends on your state of consciousness so if you are in a relaxed state of consciousness your heart rate variability will be very different than say if you're triggered by your limbic brain to react in a certain way and shout or to get upset or to sulk or to be unhappy or to feel awful or to you know instruct into a fearful sort of little relief system or whatever you know there are so many reactions and usually they're not positive ones you know that then will be obvious your heart rate variability will be very different and that that's because this is a measurement of your body physiology so knowing this knowing that we have this tool and this is somehow how I connect to people and this is how you can connect to people by just connecting to the heart now it's very difficult to do this if you're not connected to your own heart you know so it's best to first start by sort of connecting to the heart rate variability that you're experiencing because as soon as you become aware of this it's like music as soon as you begin to play the piano it becomes obvious you know that there it's much more complex than just someone moving their fingers and you know but you're learning so you're connected to this and you it's a wonderful sort of transformation of just watching things happen you know as we do when we are you know observing our reactions to choosing the space that allows the freedom of choice you know to choosing a space where the body physiology relaxes because if you're aware of your heart rate variability for example by placing your hand your hand that you write with and on top of the heart area and then you're somehow connected you know the neurons in the brain will somehow connect to the palms of your hands and because these are energy points and will reveal to you that yes there is something going on so you're connecting to a part of yourself that perhaps you don't have time for because you're reacting to all sorts of situations around you so this means that you are connecting to heart rate variability because you can hear you know when you put your hands on your heart area you can hear the body physiology your heartbeat you can hear it you can try this now it's wonderful immediately as soon as you do this you relax because it somehow tells your heart to relax you know there is a communication it's okay you know this is very powerful posture it's a mystical posture it's not just you know something that feels good this is what you do when you are wanting to connect to the heart area and on top of that and you know besides connecting to the heart in that way you are connecting to the way that the heart is creating sound within your body your heartbeat now you can continue connecting to the sound by creating this biofeedback communication within yourself it's in sort of a biofeedback informative receptive space of what is understanding your body physiology what's going on inside the way mystics have done this is by as soon as you are aware of your heartbeat and the sound of your heartbeat you replicate this in your thoughts now this may sound complicated but it's actually very easy so first it requires that you come back to stillness so that you are aware of the heartbeat so you are connected and you feel sense the heartbeat yes just like you are doing now it's more obvious you are still and you can feel the heartbeat and you can hear the heartbeat it echoes in a vibrational sort of way beyond just noise or sound that sort of stimulates the ears to hear a certain vibration it's an inner vibration that you connect to you can relax the body if there's any tension because the more relaxed you are the easier it is to somehow connect to this vibration as you connect to the vibration and create this sound within yourself so you extend the sound of your heartbeat into all aspects of your experience so it's almost like repeating the vibration of a heartfelt mantra you just listen to the heartbeat and you repeat the sound but in a visual sort of way so it's not through sound you're just sensing this movement this vibration this interesting sort of connection that you're now slowly slowly getting more in touch with you're allowing this to be the monitor that allows you to connect to your heart rate variability or what is going on now when you're in this state of awareness this is a this is consciousness deeper consciousness if there is a flight or fight sort of situation or if you feel rigid or tense uptight and you want to respond to a situation from that typical repetitive habitual perspective that the limbic brain finds easier to understand rather than consciousness which the limbic brain finds complicated to understand because it requires patience relaxation very different a very different reaction than being impulsive it requires sort of maturity it's a sort of understanding when when you allow yourself to come back to this space of awareness then there is a certain freedom sensory freedom a physiological freedom because you're letting go of the overload but a feeling of freedom where now that you're in touch with your heart you can choose that which touches you in a way touches your heart in a way that creates meaningful a meaningful experience rather than just a reaction to the situation that is around you so that means you are a co-creator of your experience because that meaningfulness that you are connecting to is of course an aspect of your consciousness that you are intentionally sharing and sort of transmitting to the space around you so you're a co-creator because it's the heart rate variability changes everything around because there is a mystical sound in the universe that you can connect to that you are connecting to as you relax this heartbeat that you are now sensing in your body so that it is in touch with this universal creative force that has a rhythm that's very different from the one that is tense the rhythm is aligned to the space of stillness that comes with relaxing the heart rate variability in this way as soon as your heartbeat relaxes then you are aligned to the possibilities and because your mind now sees these possibilities due to the freedom that you're experiencing by letting go of the impulsive behavior reactive behavior this freedom now can actually move you to manifest things in such a way where it seems like the world is supporting you in a way that it hasn't before this is so very powerful that when you know how to put this into practice it's like music music is so very powerful when you know how to listen or to play music in such a way so that you can listen to the to the to the musical notes in in a profound and powerful way that it's the same the heart rate variability is the music of the soul so it allows you to listen to what is meaningful in your experience so you don't waste time just reacting just living out your habitual thoughts or living out your habitual reactions whatever those reactions may be I bought out I I sort of shared with you the experience of the car but you know there are so many things in the world today many people are so reactive today it's simply because many people are out of touch with the most important aspect of themselves their hearts now as it you are not only a co-creator or a manifesto of the beauty of being in touch with the space of the heart you are actually also a pioneer this is what it means to be a spiritual practitioner or a mystic and you're a pioneer in the sense that you are by example showing that this simple way of coming back in touch with what is more meaningful what is more profound in your experience you're sharing this with the world so like music you know when you play music people listen even if they don't understand this music of the soul that you are now sharing with others means that people will listen in the beginning only from the soul and so because they're caught in their minds they will not understand they will still feel stressed they will still feel perhaps even misled by you and confused upset by you you know whatever but their soul their essence will resonate with the vibration of sound that you are now in touch with and so that creates a space of oneness and slowly slowly takes a lot of patience as the Dalai Lama said you know sometimes it takes lifetimes it takes a long time for everything to make sense for everyone to come back to a heartfelt connection to life this doesn't justify focusing on the lacks or the negatives of the situation just means that we have to be more committed more give more time give more energy to coming back to a heartfelt connection to the situation than ever before and this is the gift when there is when when there is reactions around you when people are in fight-or-flight reactions around you it's not a good thing to join them and enter into a fight-or-flight reaction it's good to come back to the space of consciousness because then you can unlike the many who feel that they're disempowered by the situation by the universe by the world by their life by their emotions by whatever you will reach a point where you can see and sense and experience this freedom that slowly slowly also becomes obvious to people around you and that for me is not only very powerful but it's also very compassionate it's a very compassionate loving way to approach whatever it is difficulties that maybe we may face as a culture as humanity today in this world that is very reactive where everyone is speaking about war and this and that and what have you it's very very easy to put this into practice and very important to put this into practice because we don't put this into practice and we continue reacting say you know we watch the news or we listen to someone's situation and then we feel negative meaning that we the stress of the situation is creating a reaction to the situation because negativity is always a reaction and where the heart rate variability moves from the rhythm of joy bliss to the rhythm of negativity that means becomes more impulsive or it becomes more constricted in some way where you can't where you're unable to listen to the mystical sound of your heartbeat and connect to this mystical sound so that it relaxes not only relaxes in such a way where you live longer and you live in a more healthy way and your mind is more coherent and your thoughts are more relaxed or more coherent but also you transform the situation because you are a co-creator and a manifestor in that situation you are a manifestor of something very different than what is being manifested today in the world so as you breathe in and breathe out and let go of tension you let go of the noise that the mind gets caught in and you touch this part of your body the heart area and you connect as you breathe in and breathe out you connect to the rhythm of your heart and consciously slow this down so just feel the heart rate relax and it's useful to just sense joy as you relax the heart area you're not pushing it's not about struggling to relax your heart it's more about inviting your heart to come back to more relaxed state through joy and breathing in letting go of tension and then moving deeper and connecting to the rhythm the sound of your heartbeat deep breath letting go and you may wish to continue this for a few moments just to understand and to feel comfortable with this wonderful powerful meditational attitude you may wish to practice this every time you find yourself in a reactive state or in a difficult state where the heart rate starts to increase and moving in rhythms which are not very coherent then you can relax and come back to a state of deeper deeper a deeper connection with letting go just calming and being still and inviting the positive into the space as you relax just remembering joy or visualizing imagining joy deep breath as you continue for the next few moments letting go deep breath thank you