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January 21, 2012
On a warm summers night there was no more beautiful place to be than the Shiva ashram at our Saturday night Satsang.
Swamiji began by welcoming us all with great love and respect. He also welcomed all those watching in many parts of the world on the internet and gave a special welcome to a group visiting from Kashmir who had joined us in Mt Eliza. In honour of our guests, Swamiji spoke briefly about the principles of Kashmir Shaivism which he described as a “philosophy of consciousness”. He said that if we reject the fear and desire that contract and limit our consciousness we become “Shiva himself”. Swamiji quoted the great poetic scripture of the Upanishads which say that behind the temporal flux of the world is an unchanging reality: “being itself lies inside of us like oil in sesame seeds”. We need to learn how to extract this “oil” or our potential, Swamiji said.
Tonight the great being referred to was the Vedantin Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj who Swamiji had the great pleasure to meet on one occasion. Swamiji said that while both Vedantins and Shaivites believe that consciousness underlies everything, Vedantins hold that the world is an illusion, while Shaivites see it as a play of consciousness.
Maharaj was unusual in that he had no ashram: he lived in an apartment with his family and continued to ply his trade as a cigarette salesman. However, he also practiced yoga and his inner life changed when he met a teacher who told him to contemplate the “I am”. He attained the Self after 3 years and his high state encouraged people to came to have his darshan and listen to his dialogues. His influence still spreads today.
A questioner at one darshan in the late 1960s asked him, “When a person dies what happens?”. Maharaj answered, “According to his belief is what happens. Life is an illusion, and death likewise”. Swamiji commented, “Experience gives us our beliefs, but belief also influences our experience. The yogis say that the “world is as you see it” The seeker then asked, “What about the jnani?” to which Maharaj replied, “the jnani does not die because he does not imagine himself born. He is free”. Swamiji observed of this statement, “The jnani is not attached to desire and fear. We get caught in our dramas which absorb our energy and take us from knowledge of the Self. Shaivism says that knowledge is bondage; by which it means limited knowledge…a higher knowledge will free us from our bondage”.
Maharaj then said, “All the universe is cradled in consciousness”. Swamiji commented of this beautiful statement that “if we understand the laws of consciousness we can navigate the universe. We need to learn to experience the source of the universe which is perfect order and harmony. Despite the chaos of our minds, our essential nature is not different fro this essence of the universe: we too possess perfect harmony within which is always possible for us to obtain in meditation”. Maharaj encouraged his seekers to “Deepen and broaden your awareness of the Self and all blessings will flow”. Swamiji then shared with us that he “profoundly believes this to be true. I have lived my life from this awareness. I have always believed that if I am in touch with the Self then the outer world will flow”.
Ramana advised that, “The Guru turns your attitude to the spark within” to which Swamiji commented, “This is Shaktipat or the awakening”. Swamiji then added, “the whole of reality is held in the light of our awareness and illumines our experience of life. Become established in that light. Let go of your obsessions in meditation and go deeper. It is a skill to do this, but as you practice you will find deeper layers of your being are revealed. There is a conscious power within – the alive Self. We should search and find it. We have al the tools we need to do this.”
Swamiji then led us into meditation using Maharaj’s words “I am”. He said , “repeat I am and let it point to the feeling of I am that lies behind the words.
Recent Satsangs
January 14, 2012
Tonight was the last Satsang of the summer retreat and the night before the Intensive. The buzz of shakti in the air and the palki procession making its way around the ashram was a sure sign of a special evening.
We were in for a special treat when Swamiji and Devi Ma played the main chant, Hare Ram. At the beginning of his talk, Swamiji warmly welcomed everyone watching from all over the globe.
There was a special presentation of Baba’s book, ‘Play of Consciousness’ to Joan Butcher. Joan had lost her book many years ago and to her astonishment a couple on the retreat found it in a bookstore in Queensland. This amazing synchronicity created a wonderful feeling of joy as Joan was reunited with the book which also contained a letter to her from Baba.
Keeping with tradition the night before the Intensive, Swamiji referred to Ganeshpuri Days, which is a collection of question and answers with Baba Muktananda from Swamiji’s days in Baba’s Ashram.
Swamiji described the 4 qualifications of a disciple as described in Shankaracharya’s book, ‘The Crest Jewel of Discrimination’. These include:
- Viveka (discrimination) - know what is good and what is bad.
- Vimesha (renunciation)- let things go.
- Virtues which include: control of mind, restraint of external sense organs, withdrawal from sense objects, forbearance (ability to withstand difficulties), one-pointedness of mind and faith that truth will prevail.
- Longing for liberation.
Answering a question on Japa (mantra repetition) Baba said, “You begin to enjoy the mantra when the mind becomes one with it.” Swamiji commented, “If you pour yourself into it you’ll go into another state of consciousness.”
Swamiji referred to Baba’s message, “See God within your Self and you’ll see God in others. To love, you have to know your own heart.” Baba said, “One can give to others only the love they have.”
Baba said, “Whatever you do should satisfy your own heart, your own soul. Not for anyone else.” For meditation we focused on the teachings of Baba and all the great sages, that is as Swamiji said, “The Self is within every person, beauty is within as every person.” We then repeated the mantra Om Namah Shivaya focusing on the inner Self.
January 7, 2011
This Satsang was the beginning of the Summer retreat, ‘Entering the stream of Shakti’. Swamiji began with his traditional welcome, especially welcoming those who had come from far away to take part in the retreat. He said how the essence of spirituality is to be found in the heart-to-heart welcome of another person.
Swamiji’s talk tonight was on Zen Buddhism; “There’s something about Zen”. He said that it is “stripped-down spirituality”. It’s about just “becoming present and meditating”. It is full of stories of Gurus and disciples and Swamiji joked about how it usually involves the disciples getting hit by something. Swamiji spoke briefly about Buddhism’s history saying that it began in India, and that the great being, Bodhidharma, brought the teachings to China, and from there a form of it later travelled to Japan and became known as Zen Buddhism. Swamiji spoke about how “the impulse of divinity transmutes itself” in a manner appropriate to the time and place, retaining its essence.
Swamiji spoke firstly from the teachings of a Zen sage who asserted that Zen was about seeing and hearing directly. Swamiji spoke of how we bring our own neuroses and delusions to how things are. The Zen sage encouraged us to “fuse inside and outside into one solid, thoroughly peaceful state”; one big block of reality. Swamiji led us in a little dharana focusing on this. The sage taught, “All you people are Buddhas right now but you don’t even realize it”. Swamiji compared this to Shaivism which says, “you are Shiva, but you don’t know it.” Swamiji explained that if you don’t know your true nature, you are caught in the ups and downs of life. The Zen master said, “if you don’t have the transcendental eye, how can you attain meditation?” Swamiji articulated how the tradition of yogic wisdom also speaks about “opening the third eye” to see the subtle; “the mystery behind the mundane”. He explained that as you meditate you naturally develop this; you see the reality of things.
The Zen sage said that although his tradition considers Enlightenment fundamental, it does not stop there. Swamiji stated that his use of the term ‘Enlightenment’ seemed analogous with our use of the word ‘Awakening’. It is not enough, Swamiji said, to just experience the Self. You have to keep living your life and dealing creatively and powerfully with things that arise. Swamiji declared that our true nature is peaceful, open, and loving. Any negative states aren’t you. The sage said that these states are simply caused by “habitual actions”. Swamiji encouraged us not to get caught in anger, depression or fear, but to get rid of it. See it and let it go, don’t be scared.
Swamiji reminded us how Bhagavan Nityananda used to say, “bhavana rakho”: ‘keep the feeling’. Swamiji told us to “stay in that [good] state”. The sage said that if you can get to “fundamental mind” (the Self), you must treat it as if you were raising an infant. Illuminate everything with your awareness. Swamiji told us to treat our mind as if it were our baby, don’t let it be sullied by anything. Always be conscious of taking care of that baby. Swamiji said, “We ignore the care and tending of this little baby of our mind”. Shankaracharya stated that one needs a human birth to attain Enlightenment. Therefore, one should use this lifetime to pursue liberation. Swamiji said that all great beings have the “same mission” which is to tell us of a possibility.
Swamiji spoke next from the teachings of Suzuki Roshi. Roshi began the first Zen centre in the US. He said that the aim is to have complete experience or full feeling in each moment of practice. Enlightenment and practice are one. Roshi spoke about “stepladder Zen”; that the idea of practice to get somewhere is a mistake. Swamiji asked us to “begin where you are”, “have the meditation you’re having” and “change the goal to something you can attain”. You can always attain what is; “be fully present to whatever it is, it’s no failure”. Roshi said to “just sit”, and that’s perfect meditation. Just be as you are.
Roshi said that “if we do not have some warm big feeling in our practice, then that is not good”. Swamiji explained that if your practice is lifeless, then you’re not being kind enough to yourself. Roshi said that the purpose of instruction is to teach us to be kind to ourselves; “Watch your breath not just to stop the mind but to take good care of your breath”. Swamiji taught, you should be able to get in touch with the current of joy in your meditation; the Spanda principle. Roshi stated that the secret is to not forget the true mercy of the Buddha, who takes care of everything. Swamiji said that if you can sit in a place of peace and joy, then that itself is Enlightenment”.
Roshi told us to take care of our breath, just as a mother takes care of her child. If the baby smiles, the mother smiles. If the baby cries, the mother is worried. That close relationship, being one with your practice is the point. Swamiji spoke about how in Baba’s ashram, there was great discipline but there was also “tremendous warmth” behind the discipline. He spoke about how real discipline is not external, but discipline of the mind. Roshi said that the idea of teachings is not to restrict freedom but to give freedom. He said, as soon as you break a rule we will know what’s wrong with you, and can better help you.
Swamiji told us to meditate with love, and cultivate feelings of love and peace. Love leads to love. Hatred does not lead to love. Swamiji said that “tearing thoughts” are the “worst affliction”; the state opposite to what Roshi is talking about. They make you “absolutely miserable”. He urged us to not beat ourselves up. But if you do have tearing thoughts, don’t beat yourself up for having tearing thoughts. Swamiji told us, “You are the Buddha nature, you are Shiva, you are Consciousness itself. Get to that place where you know who you truly are”.
New Year's Satsang, December 31, 2011
Tonight was the annual New Year’s Satsang in which Swamiji gives his New Year’s message. The program began powerfully with a palki followed by the arati.
As is tradition at the beginning of his talks, Swamiji warmly welcomed everyone with love and respect just as his teacher Baba Muktananda always did. Quoting Baba Swamiji said, “The supreme Shakti exists in everybody, equally in men and women. You will understand this when you know your Self.” Swamiji continued, “It’s not enough just to have the teaching but you need to absorb it…Baba meditated on his Guru to such an extent that he pulled him into his own being.”
Swamiji described the three forces we encounter in the world. First force is desire, ‘I want’, second force is the block and third force is the resolving force. Swamiji said that initially his New Years message was “To become clear in first force, to know what you want.” However it evolved into, “Nurture the inner power, the Kundalini Shakti, the divine power.”
He continued, “We have within us such a great power. Unleashing that power helps us become clear in first force…Every moment is a moment to nurture and expand the inner power. This is your ultimate skill.” In order to do this, Swamiji said, “The best material of worship is attention and what you give attention to is the highest thing.”
Quoting Baba Swamiji said, “Parashakti is within us all the time and it is supremely compassionate.” Swamiji then asked us to contemplate how we could nurture the inner power throughout the year and what we need to do. Each person wrote their resolutions on a sheet of paper while we did a goddess puja to honour and increase shakti, energy and love. On completion of the puja we meditated. During darshan everyone offered their resolution to the shakti by placing their piece of paper in the big silver bowl near Swamiji. It was a lovely way to bring in the New Year.
Christmas Eve Satsang: December 24, 2011
Swamiji wished us all a Merry Christmas, and noted humorously that at Christmas, we receive the dispensation of Jesus, and we also deal with our family karmas. He told us to remember the Self, and be completely untouched. He pointed out that our families “know how to push all our buttons”. “Be yogis”, he said, and you’ll survive Christmas.
Swamiji’s topic tonight was his Guru, Baba Muktananda and he spoke from an unedited transcript of one of Baba’s talks from 1979. Baba said, “I welcome you all every day; a person should learn how to welcome another person, because God is concealed there.” He said that modern people use a new word for God, for example, Consciousness. These words are all the same, but “some people get dysentery when they hear a certain word”. Swamiji commented that this was probably referencing some people’s “allergy” to the “G word [ie, God]”. Swamiji said that if you resist a word, for example, “God”, then you’re ‘stuck’ in something.
Baba said, “There is no sickness for man except the sickness of his own understanding”. Swamiji elaborated, saying that we filter the world through our own understanding and get a distorted picture. Baba referred to this as one of the three diseases of man. The second disease, according to Baba, is a lack of knowledge of the Self, and the third is thinking you know something when you don’t. For these reasons, taught Baba, a man becomes his own enemy.
Baba stated that all religions seek the same thing. Swamiji quoted, “Thou art That, tattvam asi”. Baba said, all these words [for God, Consciousness, etc] come from That. Baba said that man has the delusion of lack of understanding; you erase God’s creation and you superimpose your own delusion. Every person has his own delusion. Swamiji extrapolated, everyone has his own way of looking at the world and maybe some aspects of that are detrimental. He encouraged us to “throw away what doesn’t serve you”.
A questioner asked Baba, “why do you always refer to God as male?” Baba made a joke, then answered seriously, “God is neither male nor female. He is Consciousness. There are only outer differences between a man and a woman, and God is free from outer differences”. Swamiji said that according to scripture, God can’t be directly defined, you can refer to Him only by what he is not; “Not this, not this – neti neti”.
Swamiji spoke about the Shaivite understanding of God as the divine couple, Shiva and Shakti. Shiva is Consciousness, and Shakti, the “feminine divine”, is energy, and the “ability of Consciousness to know itself”. Swamiji emphasized these two are completely one and can’t be separated. In the Upanishads, it is stated that there is only one fire, but it takes different forms, ie – an electric bulb, a wood fire, the digestive fire. This is same as Consciousness; all individual consciousnesses belong to universal Consciousness.
Swamiji encouraged us to not go with our knee-jerk reactions, but to choose our reactions to things that happen; to become more conscious via self-observation. Swamiji declared that the one Self or essence is in all of us, and he quoted, “There but for the Grace of God go I”.
Swamiji asked, “how do we know Consciousness?”. He affirmed that the key to our whole success in living this life is in understanding ourselves. Baba said, “always remember your Self. God is inside you. Always remember that.” Swamiji urged us, “don’t just think of mundane things and personal drama. There’s a higher truth to you; a transcendent truth. If you remember that, then mundane life works better.” Swamiji encouraged us, “Search within you for that vibration of the Divine, for the actual experience of a higher vibration. Every one of us can have that.” Swamiji told us to move beyond “all the dreary pettiness” and get in touch with something much greater.
Swamiji asserted that “There’s a place within of extraordinary joy. Every effort you make to find that is good. Find that place within you. Nobody can find it for you. You can reject it all (what the sages say), or you can experiment for yourself.” With those final words we then meditated.
Christmas Satsang: December 17, 2011
This week was a celebration of Christmas. The children were buzzing with excitement upon seeing the Christmas tree lit up. The program began as usual with a chant, only this time, the children led the chant and did a marvellous job! Afterwards there was a presentation to Swamiji of a beautiful mala that was just made in Ganeshpuri, India which. Devi Ma placed on the murti (statue) of Bhagavan Nityananda.
The entertainment for the children (and the adults) began with a beautiful Christmas carol sang by Rosemary Hughson. Then Marco the magician performed some magic, Italian style with audience participation. The next act had a slightly different flavour. Dub FX and Flower-fairy performed live music using only the sounds of their voices to create songs with a beat, sound effects and lyrics. Not only was it very impressive but also entertaining. Swamiji joined in for a jam playing the harp.
During kids’ darshan, the children received a bag of chocolate from Swamiji & Devi Ma. Once all the children were at the kids program Swamiji began his talk by quoting his Guru, Baba Muktananda, welcoming everyone with love and respect. The topic of his talk was question and answers with Swami Ram Das on the teachings of Jesus Christ. Ram Das said, “Try to live the life filled with love. If you have love in our heart then the ten commandments are automatically observed.” Swamiji commented, “Jesus’s message is clear, the essence of everything is always love.”
Swamiji then observed, “Baba would say, if you hang out with the Guru, you become the Guru.” Swamiji asked us to contemplate the company we keep in our minds. He encouraged us to ‘keep the company of good thoughts.’
Swamiji commented, “Our true nature is spirit. No matter how many mistakes we make, in the end we get to the goal.”
Regarding Jesus, Ram Das said, “Jesus Christ is an incarnation of divine love. The thought of Christ brings peace and purity to the mind…Christs words are simple and direct yet sweet and kind. Love one another is the keynote of his teachings.” Swamiji reminded us that “the generous heart of the divine is in every one of us.”
Swamiji concluded his talk saying, “This is the message of Jesus and all the great beings, to love one another. Go inside become quiet, let go of negativity and contraction.”
After the meditation we all came up to wish Swamiji and Devi Ma a Merry Christmas, thus concluding the festivities of the annual Christmas Satsang. |
