[[Swami Sarvapriyananda]]
[[
[email protected]]]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krCpcpYPmSQ&ab_channel=VedantaVideo
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well as i was just saying a little while ago a monk of our order the one who's
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founded our particular order of monks uh swami vivekananda
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he came to this country in 1893 he was the first hindu monk to come to the west
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to the united states and teach about hinduism um you know among the religions in india
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buddhism is the one which is more well known in the west and it's always been missionary that means it's gone out and
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spread itself but hinduism is mostly being ethnic so it has stayed within the boundaries of india mostly
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but all of that changed with vivekananda in fact recently you must have heard of
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the world uh yoga day which was which is i think the summer equinox 22nd uh
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june june yeah so that's now been declared by the united nations of the world yoga day the day it happened a couple of three
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years ago it was like actually an article in wall street journal about a man who started
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the talk that was swami vivekananda most people don't know about it more than 100 years ago
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so and it was the new yorkers who caught him first that you come to our city and teach
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so he started the vedante society here in 1894 and he was the first of a series of
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teachers from the east which has not stopped even till today there are yogis
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and meditation masters and llamas and all sorts of teachers and different traditions hinduism is so
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vast and varied so you have tantra teachers coming teachers of bhakti like
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the hare krishna people they are also very well known many people look at me and say hurry krishna i'm not from that
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tradition but that's one tradition in hinduism the most ancient tradition we have
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in hinduism is is the one i represent vedanta
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you may have heard of the vedas which are the holy books of the hindus in the vedas
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towards the end of these texts you find texts called the ubanishads
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so the system based on the upanishads is vedanta literally it means the end of the vedas
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by which you mean the highest teachings the final teachings of the majors so the system is based on that the upanishads
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that's why it's called vedanta literally end or the final teachings of the veda
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and that has been the foundation the philosophical and spiritual foundation of most of hinduism other systems evolve
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later on vivek khan the primarily taught that and that's our main uh our central teaching
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you might say in our order in india our order is very well known it's called the ramakrishna mission if you google it
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it's big there for the last more than 100 years it's been there
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but the tradition of monasticism i belong to it goes back
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to at least 13 1400 years ago to shankaracharya who was the major teacher
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of vedanta in vedanta we have many schools so the school which i belong to
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is the non-dualist school it's called advaita vedanta it is like full
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revolution full disclosure but what you say in here is full disclosure where i'm coming from
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so it's so what we'll be talking about is a particular approach to spirituality
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but it's very different from religion i'm not here to preach religion it's nothing it doesn't have anything to do
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with believing in something um it's it's very impersonal it doesn't require anybody to be
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to believe or be a hindu or anything like that absolutely nothing to do with it
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it's impersonal it's experience based it's insight based in fact a more modern way of putting
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what i talk about would be the yoga insight
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insight into what we are the reality about ourselves
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well i'm already getting into my talk is there anything that you would like to ask before we start i'll talk for about
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maybe um 30 30 to 35 40 minutes
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30 minutes and then we go into q a anything that you would like to comment on or say anything before we start off
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should i just go into it okay i'll go into it um
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i'll start with the chant and i'll try to limit the sanskrit to that so
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all the ancient texts sounding fast with but uh they're easily translatable into english so
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it's kind of nice to spread any sanskrit problems everybody can handle it
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i don't know when i was teaching in hollywood a couple of years back there was this
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gentleman who would sit at the back and uh he we divide the system when the science
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people put too much for him he would raise a hand that meant too much landscape get back to england
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i would always flag it a little bit of transmit here but we can do it without most of it but
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feel free to interrupt me at any time and ask a question about what i'm saying
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all right it's customary to start with a chance i'll start with a chant
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[Music]
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[Music]
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lead us from the unreal to the real lead us from darkness unto light
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lead us from death to immortality all peace
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peace
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well as i was just saying um this whole system is based on the
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upanishads and these upanishads are many in number but primarily 10 which we draw upon
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these texts go back to they cannot be precisely dated but three
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to four thousand years at least even more maybe um
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luckily there are 108 upanishads which are available to us but we primarily study 10 of them biggest of them could be a
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sizable book in sanskrit original the smallest of them would fit in less than a page
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luckily all of them can be condensed into one sentence
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if you would like to know what the upanishads basically say they are expressed in what are called in
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the upanishads great sentences sanskrit mahabharata great sentence or profound sentences
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they condense the entire teaching of the opponents and the teaching is this
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you are the absolute the ultimate reality which we are seeking the whole point and purpose of this game
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of life of this universe that thou art in fact that's a direct
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translation of an upanishadic saying it means that thou art
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your reality is the reality of the universe what might be called god in religion
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is basically our own inner reality and the whole point of these teachings
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is if you recognize that reality if you experience it then that would solve all
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your problems in fact you would ask me what is the purpose of the
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upanishads of vedanta the purpose is uh it can be put in two ways one is the
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direct way which would appeal to people today say manhattan even thousands of years after they said this
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it is to overcome suffering and attain bliss
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overcoming suffering and attainment of profound lasting happiness that's the
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point of this entire exercise in fact and that's the whole point of spirituality in india it's not just
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vedanta all the systems aim at this in fact if you know the story of the buddha
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the buddha set out to find out if there is a way out of suffering that was the quest of the buddha it's
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the same quest the insight that the upanishads that the vedanta offers is if you know yourself
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then you transcend suffering what is this yourself that vedanta
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speaks about upanishads say that we are not what we think we are
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we think that we are these limited creatures of flesh and blood with a mind
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that's the most that we can think of but we are a person this person and this person that's we we don't even question
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this the upanishads say that if you would look inwards if you would inquire
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inwards then you would find an extraordinary reality which is present here in the
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immortal spirit um spirit is they have a very precise meaning they're not mysterious at all
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spirit god these are sometimes vague terms but as we shall see today what the upanishads talk about what vedanta
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teaches is very different i mean there is no way of
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not understanding there is no way of mysterious language in fact it's helpful to compare
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different approaches to spirituality the most common approach which you find mostly in religion
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is what vedanta would call the devotional aspect the bhakti approach
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where you are supposed to start with faith there is a god and you believe in the
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god and you surrender to this god and you follow a certain way of life in the hope that
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one day we end up you know meeting god going to heaven i saw a big billboard
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you know on the road it's there after death you will meet god call 815
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for the truth so but you see god is distanced from you whatever god
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is it's distanced from you by time after look at the language after
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death which means not now not right here right now at 6 45 in
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manhattan not now after death another similar billboard it says
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heaven is a place and it says again i call eight one five i should we should call them eight one
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five but that's traditional religion for you it's not just in christianity or judaism
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in you have entire traditions in hinduism which are like that which are they're all true
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without the one unique characteristic of vedanta which is very useful i think and very needed for this world is that it
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considers all religion to be true it does not lay exclusive claim on the truth
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at the core of every religion we believe is the same teaching but in different language different stories different
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practices different approaches which makes the whole thing richer swami vivekananda our founder you know
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he would say that more religions the better he said i believe that every human being should
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have his whole religion i mean there should be seven billion religions here and that would be better than having
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only one religion but as a matter of fact there is i mean aside what i'm talking right now
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all of us whatever religious or spiritual tradition we belong to we do cherry pick a little bit we do
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take in what we believe in what we understand and what suits us and we adapt it to us so even in the same
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religion it may be in the narrowest church two different members of the congregation wouldn't understand it in the same way
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anyway vedanta believes that at the core of all spiritual traditions there is this truth
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one approach is the devotional approach but the problem with the devotional approach is
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it depends heavily on faith so you believe in this and you're separated from that ultimate reality god
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heaven or whatever you call it by time after death by space not here in heaven even look at
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the language heaven is a place in contrast to that when vivekananda
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came here he presented a second approach not the vedanta approach i'm talking about but second approach it's good to contrast
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these approaches then you understand what vedanta is really about a second approach which vivekananda
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presented here and which really appealed to people in this country he said it's not believing religion is
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not believing in something religion is realization religion is experience if there is a god i must see this god if
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i'm if i'm an immortal soul i must know it i must feel it realize it
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so he taught the path path of what is today called patanjali yoga
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yoga has become a very umbrella term now it includes a lot of different practices
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but what he taught here he called it raja yoga in fact his book rajiv was published from new york before this
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first book to be published the central approach in that path this is the second path i'm talking about
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central approach in that path is you meditate you'll be shown techniques of meditation and at the end of which when
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you practice this you will have these extraordinary experiences which will prove to you the truth of
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spiritual life that you are not the body and mind that you are in existence apart from the body and mind and so on
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so a proof what what is called mystical experiences it's not just for mistakes of the church
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but it's for everybody and vivekananda taught that now if religion is something that you
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can experience in fact that's how vivekantha became a monk he would go to his master ramakrishna sri ramakrishna
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was a very well-known spiritual master in india and the best nowadays
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he went to his own master with the question have you seen god look at the question
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have you seen god that means have you experienced god not have you read about him do you believe in it no have you
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seen god so the yoga path of the path of patanjali yoga promises
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experience but there is a big but here also
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the but here is the the problem here is the experience they talk about
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is an extraordinary experience it's not something that we have right now you meditate it might take years of hard
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work inner work until you come to that experience
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so until that time you are in the same boat like a person
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who's believing in god you're also trying to experience them in contrast to that is the third
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approach which i'm going to talk about today not one based on belief
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you have to believe in something take something for granted and wait till after that you go to that place
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no you don't even have to take a series of complicated meditation exercises
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which will finally give you certain experiences not even that
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what and we'll do it today what we will do today is the path of this is called the path of knowledge or path of
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non-dual vedanta it's available right now right here
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and you are that reality according to vedanta that thou art so
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using our day-to-day experiences using that all that we have right now
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can we get an experience of that can we get an insight into this spiritual reality that vehicle speaks about
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our own real self can we get that experience here and now
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directly continuously available not in a different place not in a
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different time not something that you have to wait for not something that you have to go somewhere
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not something other than you it is you yourself right here right now
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an insight into our real nature can we do that so nondual without the presence of a
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variety of approaches to gain that insight
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today i'll be speaking about one of these approaches um there's a vast literature as i said
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upanishads but after the open issues also many masters wrote many texts over the last two three thousand years
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especially after shankaracharya who came 1400 years ago after that many teachers have written many of these texts so one
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of these texts i will use one verse from that text today
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to help us to go deep within ourselves into our own experience
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and see what these people are talking about that this experience we have about
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ourselves we have profoundly mistaken this just the surface of our being the reality about ourselves can we sense it
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can be intuited at least a glimpse of it today so that's what we are going to do this
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sets the background to what i'm going to talk about i haven't started yet though
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but it's very direct this background is important it's very direct and it's easy to grasp and easy easy to
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do this text which i'm going to use now is in the non-dualist tradition
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it's called the analysis of the seer and the sea drink grisha viveka in sanskrit the
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analysis of the seer and the sea and i'm going to take only the first verse from it from the transparent text
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was written about 700 years ago by a master called vidyarnya in the south of
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india um so that's what we're going to do now
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as we go into this i'm going to what we're going to do is
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try to intuit that inner reality which we're not speaks about as we go into this i would like you to
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hold on to and remember one operating principle a very simple principle common sensical approach
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what you see is different from you the seer and the seam are two different
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things it's as simple as i am seeing this piece of this cloth this cloth is clearly different from me
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the eyes see this cloth and the eyes and the clout are clearly different from each other
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so the seer and the scene are two different things just hold on to this principle
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you understand what i'm saying in a very simple way i mean take it in a very nice child-like way yeah okay i see something
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it must be different from it we'll start with this the verse i'll tell you tell it to in
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sanskrit and then we'll go into the english translation the verse goes like this
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what does this mean there are four parts usually the same
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speed versus usually they have four quarters four parts and the whole process has four steps
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each quarter talks about one of these steps so the first part it starts in this way
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the whole principle is it takes you from something simple external step by step
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to the reality four steps first step very simple
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the eyes are the seer and the forms are the same
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trunks means whatever you see so rupam literally means form literally it means color but also extended to mean
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form the all that we see physically see there are forms people and buildings and math
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ceiling all these are forms these are seen and the eyes are the seer
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you might say no no i am the ceo of the guys yes that will come later but take it in a very naive step-by-step childlike fashion
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from the known to the unknown as the saying goes so the eyes are the seer and
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the forms are seen immediately notice one thing the eyes are different from what they
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see clearly the forms are different those things are out there and the eyes are here in fact
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the only thing that eyes cannot see can you tell me what it is what is it that the eyes cannot see
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themselves yes you're right you might say no that's not true i can see my eyes in the mirror but you can
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only see the reflection of your eyes in the mirror the way i see something directly like this i can't see my eyes
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like this even a picture or a selfie it's just a picture even if you see i can see myself and in
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the screen there but even that's a picture i can't see my eyes can't see my eyes directly so the only thing that
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they cannot see are themselves they can only see things which are different from themselves so the first principle is the
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seer and the scene are different the eyes which are the seer are clearly different from what they see one
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second thing note that the same eyes
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perceive a variety of the scene you see different colors different shapes people
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and animals and buildings and the sky and the trees thousands of things which are seen but
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all by the same pair of eyes so in that sense the conclusion is the
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seer is one not that we are one night but one not in a vision seer is one
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the scene are many the seer is one and the scene are
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many the second point the third point which you notice immediately
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the scene keep changing you saw this busy street outside before
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that you saw the subway now you come in here and you're in hearing class and again you will leave and you see so
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many different things it keeps changing but these here the eyes relatively are
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unchanging same the same pair of eyes relatively unchanging see a variety of changing
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things very simple facts you might feel like yeah yeah get on with it
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but it's important to hold on to these three and we'll see the point at the end of it seer and the scene are different
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one the seer is one the scene are many two
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and the seer is unchanging seeing are continuously changing all throughout our lives are changing
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okay this is stage one let's go deeper
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take a step back from the word being seen by the eyes let's take a look let's experience the
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eyes how do we experience the eyes the eyes themselves become the scene seen within coats now
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seen as inexperienced and what experiences your eyes that my eyes are open that my eyes are closed
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that i need glasses that there's something gotten into my eyes all of this how do i know
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with the mind are you with me on this one step back into yourself it's the mind which
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recognizes what's happening to the eyes the sanskrit for that quarter is
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the eyes now become the scene and the mind becomes the seer
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immediately apply those three principles which we got three observations which we got seer and the scene are
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different yes you got it they are different the mind is clearly not the eyes you can again physically see the
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eyes are of vision the mind is something subtle inside so the mind which sees the eye
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sees didn't coach sees in the sense it knows that my eyes are open or closed or so and so forth
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so the mind is the seer and the eyes become the sea what about the world still the same
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the eyes see the world but the eyes are experienced by the mind this is stage two
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and we clearly see number one the mind of the eyes are different seer and the scene are different
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second observation the eyes themselves have um
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you know different inputs the eyes the sense organs not only the eyes the skin and the nose and the sense of touch and
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smell and taste all of these they present a variety of different inputs
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all of them are experienced by the same mind the mind being one
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the inputs of the sense organs are many the seer is one the same are many
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second observation still holds true third
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the seer is unchanging and the scene are changing clear sometimes
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i thought my eyes were very good now i need glasses for my eyes the condition of my other sense organs
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is also changing the body is changing all of that is understood by the same
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mind relatively unchanging here you might say the mind changes continuously true but
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the mind changes into the mind more thoughts talks into thoughts and thoughts so the fear remaining relatively
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unchanged the same are changing three observations cr and the scene are
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different the seer is one the scene are many the seer is unchanging c not changing
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step three go deeper get deeper now the magic begins
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so far it's been common sense are you with me so far are we on firm ground all right
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it's like climbing up the stairs you put your feet firmly on one step before you move up to the next one
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so now we go deeper the mind itself look here is the world
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here are the eyes somewhere inside diffuses the mind the mind itself
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becomes the object which we try to see the mind becomes the sea
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in sanskrit
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the mind itself becomes the scene and it is true that we experience the
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mind who does not experience the mind thoughts emotions
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happy sad pleased irritated want this don't want that like this it's
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like that i understand i do not understand i remember can't remember it's on the tip
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of my tongue all of these things are the mind and who does not experience it we
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experience it we experience our minds directly if you experience your mind
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then your mind is the same something that you experience an object of experience
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and there's an object of experience a scene there must be a seer
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and you remember the seer and the scene must be different so there must be there is a fear of the
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mind which is not the mind that which shines upon the mind and
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reveals the mind to you so first point is that the seer of the
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mind let's just call it the witness sanskrit is sakshi which means witness
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there is a witness within you which shines upon the mind i'm using shine a light metaphor because inside you can
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see it's revealed if you look inside you will see your thoughts are there emotions are there
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feelings are there what shines upon the mind
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let's call it the witness the real you you are the one which shines upon the mind
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and that witness must be different from the mind here is something see so far it was
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common sense eyes are different from that matte yoga mat
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we know it's clear the eyes are different from the mind the mind is something psychological eye eyes
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are physiological clearly different but i the witness i'm different from the
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mind here you're beginning to if you are careful you'll catch me here wait a minute this is where it begins to be new
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this is where vedant actually starts undeniably the mind is experienced
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so there must be an experiencer of the mind you must be the experiencer there's another there's a psychologist here in
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new york greg good he is very interested in vedanta so he teaches us puts a lot of vedante in his
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teachings he suggests a simple experiment he says
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that uh have a thought in your mind like just think two plus two is four
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just a thought now consider the feeling of that experience
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of thinking two plus two is four are you aware of two plus two four or is
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two plus two four aware of you that's a weird question nobody asked you for in that sense that way earlier think
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about it are you not aware of your thoughts are your thoughts aware of you or are you aware of your thoughts
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think about just experience it two plus two four clearly it was the thought which you were aware of
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so there is something within you which shines upon your thoughts which is different from your thoughts
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not only is it different from your thoughts not only are you different from your thoughts that witness you different from your
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thoughts but you are one your thoughts are many
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throughout the day you have thousands of thoughts feelings emotions memories
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desires ideas all of these things come and go they flit back and forth in the light of that
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witness so the scene are many and the seer is one
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and third the same observation still holds good that consciousness that witness within
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you is unchanging what changes are the thoughts or the emotions what changes is the mind
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throughout our days and nights and months and years of our life is the mind which changes
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what vedanta points out is that there is an unchanging witness which shines in the mind
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that does not change three points the witness which is the real you which
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is with what vedanta is trying to point out to you and we shall see an exercise to try to appreciate that
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that witness is different from your mind you are not
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your mind second you are one your mind is full of
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thousands of different thoughts you are unchanging mind is continuously changing and the body is changing and
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the world is changing too but you want that unchanging light that witness witness consciousness
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there's a nice story which the islam is the monks in the himalayas tell about this
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that you are different from your mind you see here itself you can begin to apply vedanta and it helps
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one a man went from delhi to the himalayas but here you go to the therapist but
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the monks in india have played more or less the same role as the therapist here so he goes to the monk and the higher
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you go the wiser the monk is supposed to be not true i've stayed in the himalayas in
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a little hut about 10 000 feet in the in gangotri where these source of
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the river ganga the kanji's riverweight comes from and there are monks with even now there are monks who stay in caves and
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little huts there and there's a place even higher 14 000 feet
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above the glacier where um there are some monks who stay there so i thought maybe i could go and stay there
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and ask the monk where it stayed there and he said don't go you can barely keep body and soul
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together there let alone meditate and do your spiritual practices it's just useless stay here so higher you go you're not necessarily
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wiser you're colder basically
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um yeah because there you know the hot i stayed in i remember there's no there's
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no electricity so there's no furniture there's no question of anything to warm you i mean if it's
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um 30 or 40 outside it's 30 and 40 inside the room and your blankets are also 30
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30 degrees so you have to warm it up with your own body heat um
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so this monk tells this person who's come what do you want and this person says in
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hindi it says i'm miserable i'm unhappy i'm miserable help me
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and the monk says to him now you can also understand the technique he's applying he says are you
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aware of your misery do you feel your misery you do you feel your unhappiness
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this man says of course that's why i'm here i am unhappy i feel unhappy that's why i've come to you i
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didn't feel it why would i say i'm a man and then the monk says if you feel your
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misery if you experience your misery then you are the experiencer of the misery and the miseries the experienced
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the seer and the scene cannot be the same you are not miserable you are the knower of the misery in your mind
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you must be apart from that in order to experience it
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as much as i must be something different from this clock in order to experience this club
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and this man thinks uh this monkto tells him think about it meditate upon this
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and come back tomorrow this man meditates upon it and thinks about heart about it and actually if you do that you
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will actually feel immediately a space between you and your mind but anger in your mind
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is an anger in your mind you are not angry the one which saw the peaceful mind is
35:06
the same one which is seeing the angry mind the same one which means again see the peaceful mind that one is not angry
35:13
that one is not miserable that one is not upset
35:19
now this person feels it and he comes back to the market and says you are right
35:24
i am not the misery in the mind the misery in the mind is the scene i'm the seer of that i'm so peaceful now
35:32
here's the real point of the story the monk immediately scolds him and says no you are not peaceful you are the seer of
35:40
the peace in your mind you see what happens is that's the trap we fall
35:45
into the moment the mind calms down a little oh i'm so quiet so calm it's the mind which is
35:52
happy quiet and calm the one which witnesses that calm mind
35:58
is also the one which with witness that upset mind it one which witness the miserable mind
36:04
that one is not affected by the movements of the mind the ups and downs of the mind the misery and the happiness
36:11
of the mind the anger and the peace of the mind that one is not peaceful in
36:17
fact the word they use in vedante which means peace itself
36:23
that one which you are that witness self is peace itself
36:28
it does not get agitated or disturbed by the movements of the mind
36:34
you are not peaceful you are the witness of the peace of the mind you are the witness of the peaceful
36:39
mind then only you can be safe from the mind otherwise what would happen to that man
36:45
is the moment he comes down from the mountains and goes to delhi maybe um
36:52
with the beautiful air i don't know if you've heard about it
36:57
and get struck in the traffic famous traffic in famous traffic in delhi and you'll get upset and you'll think oh i
37:05
was so happy so peaceful in the himalayas now become upset again it's because you're again identified
37:12
with the mind you get there was uh
37:17
there was a funny story recently some kind of tension between india and china
37:25
and uh somebody's some some press somewhere the chinese are threatened that you know we can be
37:30
in delhi in 24 hours um and somebody again replied from a from
37:35
the indian press no you can't because delhi is heavily defended on all sides by traffic
37:41
nobody can get steady in 24 hours so anyway it gets upset because again
37:48
i'm connected to the mind if only you know that you are not the mind the mind
37:53
goes on functioning but you're not the mind you're not the body this is the central teaching
38:00
of vedanta that you are something much bigger much faster than the mind and
38:06
body you identify yourself with you see normally we think of ourselves as
38:12
bodies with consciousness what vedanta wants you to do is to
38:17
reverse that you are a consciousness with a body experiencing a body
38:23
operating a body embroiding you are not a body with consciousness your consciousness
38:30
it makes a huge difference when you make you make this biggest change this reversal
38:37
the wall street journal article referred to about vivekananda on the international day of yoga a few years
38:43
ago the journalist was she was very humorous she wrote
38:49
yoga which is so popular across the west in the united states especially especially in new york every other
38:54
corner has a yoga studio people who flock to the yoga studio
38:59
would be shocked to know what viveka on the top he thought you are not the body
39:05
and they would be further shocked to know that he further went on to say you are not the mind either
39:11
there is the body and needs to be taken care of there is the mind it needs to be taken care of and managed but you are
39:17
not either of them you are that witness self that consciousness
39:23
apart from the thoughts in the mind apart from the body not physically apart
39:29
it's supposed to be all pervading but operating through the mind and body
39:34
unchanging whereas the body keeps changing the mind keeps changing one whereas the thoughts are many the
39:42
body is a composite of many things now the immediately the question will be
39:48
oh that sounds cool can i experience it like i experienced the body clearly okay it's here i can
39:54
experience the mind too all right here i experience the mind can i experience this witness self
40:00
you're talking about we come to the last part of the verse remember just the opening theme this is
40:05
the first verse in that little book the last part of the verse says
40:11
sorry bad news you cannot experience that witness self but hold on
40:18
in fact vivek himself said the real self which vedanta speaks about is not something to be known but before you get
40:24
up and he said why did you invite me in there in a perfectly nice afternoon in manhattan to if you can't experience
40:31
that with myself it's more than experienceable it's not an object to be experienced it's the one
40:38
which experiences the verse says the witness self the witness is never an
40:46
object to be experienced it is that which experiences all objects
40:52
a good way of understanding this is take the example of the eyes themselves
40:59
if you ask you cannot experience it however how do i know it's even there that this witness this pure
41:05
consciousness unchanging awareness you speak of how do i even know it's there
41:11
one example is the eyes themselves
41:17
suppose i say that did you you went to bendable body was the swami
41:23
there say yeah he was there if somebody asks you how do you know
41:30
you'll say i saw him so the proof of the fact that the swami was there you saw the song right you saw
41:36
the song that's the proof and then these other people there i don't know let me look at look at the
41:42
they register with the maybe they sign the names or something yeah those people they're there because if they signed out
41:49
if somebody asks you where are you there will you say
41:55
that yeah i was there i saw myself so i must have been there no
42:01
you don't your own existence here does not depend upon you seeing yourself
42:07
let me put it in an even more simple way everything here if i ask you is there a
42:13
water container there you'll say yeah i can see it is there a swami sitting in front of you
42:18
yeah i can see it everything that you can see here you can say that yes it's there i see it
42:25
now if i ask you do you have eyes are your eyes there
42:30
[Music] you say yes will you say yes they are here because i can see them
42:36
no you can't see them and yet you're sure the eyes are there
42:42
every object is there because you see it the eyes testify to their
42:47
presence but how do you know that your eyes themselves are there and you guys themselves are there by
42:54
seeing what will you say that i've got eyes bye
42:59
by seeing this clock you say that islam is wearing this orange cloth by seeing what will you say that i have
43:06
got eyes that you've got eyes tell me sounds like a riddles but you're by
43:12
seeing any object correct sometimes people say that by seeing the eyes actually look at the mirror no you
43:17
don't if you look at anything if you see it then you've got eyes perfectly good eyes which are working see anything
43:24
seeing anything proves two things to you one thing which is obvious the object whatever you see
43:31
second thing which we miss are the eyes themselves that you have working eyes which are revealing that objective now
43:37
the point of this example is this witness consciousness is exactly like that
43:43
if you say what is the proof that there is this witness consciousness that i am this pure consciousness
43:48
the fact that you experience anything at all that you see things that you touch or
43:55
smell or taste that you can think that you feel angry that you feel peaceful
44:00
that you can understand something that you cannot understand something that you recall something that we cannot recall
44:06
something some sometimes all of these are experiences and they are all made possible by that one
44:13
unchanging light within us which is our own self which we really are so that's the proof of the existence of
44:19
that that witness consciousness okay this is the teaching
44:25
of that one verse which takes you from the physical world
44:31
to the mental world inside back to the witness consciousness you see physical world the forms of the word
44:38
eyes are the seer the word is separate from the eyes eyes are the same the mind is the seer
44:44
sucking word within the thoughts ideas further back that consciousness is the seer see here within quotes and the mind
44:51
is the scene ultimately that consciousness alone is the seer the experiencer of everything in your life
45:00
imagine this if your eyes are here you can see this room suppose you shut your eyes
45:07
then you cannot see the room but are you gone no you're still there
45:12
right you're still there you just you you are a person who is not seeing anything anymore that's all that's your
45:18
experience but imagine that witness consciousness suppose it's not there then what will
45:23
happen if we have correctly grasped the concept you'll see it's just blackness nothing
45:29
will there won't be any experience at all all experience depends on this consciousness
45:35
this consciousness plus the mind you can think this consciousness plus the intellect
45:40
you can understand this consciousness plus the memory you can recall things this consciousness plus mind plus eyes
45:47
you can see things consciousness plus mind plus ears you can hear things
45:53
that consciousness is essential the core of our being towards the end of that text the text
46:00
which i'm referring to it gives exercises i'll just tell you about the exercise and stop it's more
46:05
important to ask your questions or you can talk about it
46:10
it gives you meditative six meditative exercises to um to
46:16
intuit this this witness consciousness and to stabilize in it
46:23
so one of the techniques is this take up any object
46:30
pick up any object so yes the water bottle the green water bottle
46:36
and you put it in front of you and you look at it and then step by step go back that it's
46:42
an object i am the seer of that object object is the scene the eyes are the sphere and you close your eyes the eyes
46:50
are seen the mind is experiencing the clothes that the eyes are closed that is experienced by the mind that's
46:56
the mind i am the witness of the mind
47:01
step back from there you do not try to catch hold of the witness you cannot
47:08
just acknowledge since the mind is appearing mind is experienced i am i i am the experiencer
47:15
of the mind i am the witness self at that point
47:21
you are supposed to use a text a vedantic text which
47:27
what you have discovered the text tells you i am the self-effulgent
47:34
unchanging consciousness and that self-effergent unchanging
47:41
consciousness existence itself consciousness itself bliss itself
47:47
that i am that should refer not as a chant
47:53
but as something should be as as clear as here is the clock
48:00
the word refers to an object here similarly i am that unchanging self-luminous witness
48:08
consciousness repeat that in the mind but it should point to something quite real within you
48:15
i am the witness clearly i am the witness i am unchanging
48:22
i am consciousness itself why consciousness itself because you are aware whatever you are you must be aware
48:30
as you hold on to that the mind quietens down
48:36
that text also should be dropped technique is drop the object that means
48:42
the thoughts in the mind drop the text also that i am the witness consciousness that that also stopped doing it and
48:49
remain as the witness consciousness
48:58
you'd like to try it now you're already trying to look at my hand
49:05
and use the hand to become aware that your eyes are watching
49:12
close your eyes go deeper become aware that the
49:18
mind noticed the closing of the eyes that's the mind
49:25
which is hearing this understanding this that's the mind that is clearly revealed to you
49:33
that which it is to which it is revealed that is the witness consciousness which i am
49:42
i am consciousness i am the shining witness
49:51
i am unchanging eternal
50:01
i rest in my own peace peace nature
50:10
the word changes the body changes
50:17
from childhood to youth to middle age to old age
50:24
the mind changes
50:31
from morning to evening how many times it has become irritated it's become
50:37
happy become curious dull sleepy alert mind
50:43
changes continuously all of this is revealed to me in my own
50:49
light and that unchanging light within
51:03
that light is serene
51:09
that life has no problems
51:25
you feel comfortable you can open your eyes
51:54
there any questions comments yes
52:00
observations it's a part of our understanding
52:12
absolute self is essentially a witness yes consciousness is separate
52:20
and you witness that but i feel that my essence is
52:26
to have free will and to be an actor as opposed to just purely the seal
52:32
so where is the decision-making i don't just age
52:38
and things happen that i witness but i actually make things happen
52:43
so where does that either happen as a duality instead just happen at the consciousness
52:49
level and i witnessed that something much more fundamental where's the free will i was very well
52:55
resolved i understand um first of all in vedanta we identify the self the witness self with
53:02
consciousness the mind is something different from consciousness consciousness i'm using
53:08
consciousness the word as a translator free translation of the sanskrit word chaitanya
53:13
which means awareness like a light shining the light doesn't do anything it just reveals what is
53:19
now when it release the first thing that is revealed to you is a mind
53:25
thoughts ideas that's where decisions are taken that's where feelings arise that's where likes
53:31
and dislikes are that's where rational thinking takes place all of this we can be aware we can be
53:37
aware of our minds working charting a day trying to come to a decision getting to a decision
53:43
so this getting to decision impacting vedanta these activities are very clearly classified so decision making
53:50
for example is said to be a function of the intellect in sanskrit
53:55
mind present presents a variety of thoughts and options emotions
54:01
there is something called smriti which means memory which you recall all that is like a hard
54:07
disk stored here all of these are functions in the in the subtle sphere in
54:13
in the in the mind i'm using mind as a catch-all phrase for all of this literally if you see the sanskrit word for it
54:20
which means inner instrument so this body is an external instrument inside you have a subtle inner instrument like
54:26
a software in a computer but you are not that also and the proof of that is
54:32
you are if you your essential nature was free will and decision making you would
54:38
always be having free will and decision making and yet there are times when you're not exercising that there are
54:43
times when you are in the reverie or you are sleepy or you have fallen asleep or
54:49
you are in a dream you're completely in a dream lot of things are happening but really when you
54:55
wake up from it it's not that you're making any decisions just mind playing like like a movie
55:01
then deep sleep comes where everything shuts down and according to vedanta for example in deep sleep
55:08
are you there in deep sleep or not you our first reaction might be to say no i'm not there in deep sleep but then
55:13
that leads to a paradox who slept if you did not sleep according to vedanta deep sleep is not
55:21
an um absence of experience it's an experience of absence it's just like you
55:27
open your eyes and see this world and close your eyes and see blankness but the scene blankets also kind of seen
55:34
deep sleep is like that so you see what continues throughout all our experiences is awareness
55:41
free will for example according to vedanta free will is in the mind in nature so the feeling of freedom so you are
55:48
exercising free will if you're living in a police state in say eastern europe or somewhere you feel that your free will
55:54
has been curtailed all of these experiences are um are illumined by the greatness
56:00
consciousness it's not that you're just a witness you are a witness and you deploy all of
56:07
these things just think of all of these faculties like memory and free will and intellect
56:14
and emotions all of them just think of them like apps on your smartphone all of these things are
56:21
resources available to you to your consciousness to do things with them right
56:27
would that make sense
56:32
yes in some of the buddhist readings i've done they talk a lot about ego is that
56:38
similar to the witness that you're not talking about no no no here's the difference in the
56:45
if you read buddhism and vedanta the first thing you come across is it seems to be an enormous contradiction because
56:51
the buddha said that there is no self no permanent inner self is there what we
56:57
consider to be a person is just an illusion it's a continuous stream of thoughts feelings emotions if you
57:03
analyze it this there's no particular self to be found but ego is not a permanent entity
57:11
if you look deeper so it seems to be contradictory to the vedanta position because vedanta seems to say that there
57:16
is an eternal self within but if you look deeper the what the buddha denied is also what
57:22
the what they want to deny it does not say that eternal self within is an object
57:28
the ego is an object you can right now feel it i say to yourself you have a feeling of your own own business of your
57:36
own existence and yet the one which feels that that's the real you not the person which
57:43
is felt you are vedanta keeps on saying that you
57:49
are not this person after all the person disappears when you go to sleep the person has been continuously
57:55
changing it's a work in progress from your baby to your teenage years to your youth to now and further ahead the
58:02
person is changing which person are you in this stream are your collection of all of them
58:09
vedanta would say that you are the pure subject that consciousness which experiences a person in terms of
58:16
body mind what about a person who experience multiple personalities
58:22
you can still explain that it's the same consciousness getting identified with the particular mental makeup which is
58:28
the person here or the person there if that mental makeup is fractured somehow
58:34
into multiple personalities the same consciousness would get identified with this or that or the other one and would
58:39
feel like a house at war with itself [Music]
58:46
in vedanta one thing to do is note that
58:51
they're talking about fact something available right here not something to be believed in
58:57
not even something to be experienced much later it's something available right here let
59:02
me ask you this we went from the world seen by the eyes
59:08
then the eyes experienced by the mind and the mind shining in the light of the consciousness now if i say the world out
59:16
here is it a fact or is it philosophy it's a fact does it take it in a live way yeah it's a fact i experience it
59:23
the body the eyes and the body are the facts right now or is it
59:28
theory it's a fact you experience it right now go deeper
59:34
the mind thoughts emotions ideas are the facts are the experiences or are
59:40
the theories i feel happy it's a fact that's your direct
59:46
inner experience isn't it now the witness consciousness which
59:51
shines upon the mind is it a fact or is it theory or philosophy at this point most
59:58
people would say oh that's something that i have to experience i have to understand
1:00:03
consists it's as much a pact as this thing when right now
1:00:11
this process should if you carefully attend to it world eyes
1:00:17
mind and me shining meanings not the person the impersonal consciousness shining
1:00:23
upon the mind should be evident right now
1:00:30
yes um so we how are our witnesses connected to each other i guess it's a very good question
1:00:37
we'll explore that in in coming classes but vedanta says ask this question exactly the question you asked
1:00:44
you'll be glad to know this is something that in the bhagavad-gita which is one of the texts of vedanta krishna takes up
1:00:51
the 13th chapter how many witnesses are there so there are a dozen people here 15 people are there
1:00:59
15 witnesses are there 10 million witnesses out there in new york are there 7 billion witnesses in the world
1:01:06
today or if you include the animals and everything trillions of witnesses
1:01:11
or is there one and vedanta has a startling conclusion there's one witness
1:01:18
we are actually all of us one immortal
1:01:23
makes you feel good this being one being united
1:01:29
it's it's not a slogan brotherhood or sisterhood it's not a slogan
1:01:36
that we are all one vedanta takes it very seriously in fact the fundamental teaching of vedanta is that one
1:01:43
existence within ourselves which shines forth you see what makes us different
1:01:48
clearly our bodies are different you can count clearly our minds are different
1:01:55
the knowledge that you have i don't have the memories that she has i don't have
1:02:00
our minds are different but if i'm not the body if i'm not the mind if i'm the light shining on this
1:02:07
mind what to differentiate the light shining of this mind from the light shining on that one
1:02:14
in fact the question vedanta would ask is why do you think we are different not
1:02:20
why do you think we are one we are different in terms of body personalities minds but we are one as
1:02:27
far as that inner self is there literally one existence not only all human beings all animals do all sentient
1:02:34
sentient beings where consciousness is manifest we are all one being right now
1:02:41
and not only the most profound question not only that it also touches upon the question of god
1:02:51
that is the god that made up the worships that one consciousness unbroken
1:02:56
consciousness within all beings it's not a god of faith
1:03:02
one person asked a monk in the himalayas give me an irrefutable proof of the existence of god
1:03:08
and the answer was your existence that only makes sense in this vedantic
1:03:13
framework because our existence that witness consciousness if it is one unbroken witness consciousness in all
1:03:19
beings and the immortal consciousness body is dying minds change
1:03:24
that consciousness is unchanging that is what is
1:03:42
in fact i'll make one more observation here uh we don't have time no
1:03:48
if you do need to go though certainly yeah but we're not out of time
1:03:54
it's this you know in the world of religion there are two kinds of religions you
1:04:00
will notice one are the theistic religions which believe in some kind of god
1:04:05
judaism christianity islam and many varieties of hinduism in hinduism god is
1:04:10
understood in different ways but there is a god vishnu or shiva or
1:04:15
divine mother in hinduism god can be male or female and there is a form of god worship which is both male
1:04:22
and female it's called or beyond gender
1:04:28
with form without form so all these are religions which believe
1:04:33
in a god but there are religions who do not believe in god
1:04:39
buddhism they don't talk about god there are other religions in india for
1:04:45
example jainism this is not so well known outside india they are
1:04:51
probably the most peaceful religion on earth the fundamental practice is peace non-violence they have the giant monks
1:04:58
where filters masks over their mouth so that they don't kill guns
1:05:03
and they walk with a peacock feather fan so that they can gently sweep aside ants when they walk on the backs so they are
1:05:09
that non-violent i think sam harris he said in a talk
1:05:15
that uh the it's only for the giants the more fanatic they are the less you have to fear them
1:05:23
but anyway they don't believe in existence of a separate god now how do you make sense of them
1:05:31
from the theistic religions if you look at buddhism it seems to be atheistic how can you have a religion without god
1:05:37
and from the buddhist perspective when you look at the theistic religions their question would be what superstition what
1:05:42
god proved this god where is this god of yours there's no proof it says to believe
1:05:50
from the vedantic perspective both make sense that thou art let's say that's the
1:05:57
summation of all the teaching the that there refers to god the thou
1:06:03
there refers to you and what it means is that pure consciousness witness consciousness within you is also the god
1:06:10
of religion it's one and the same thing when you put it make a difference
1:06:16
between yourself and that ultimate reality and you worship it is a god it becomes a taste of creature
1:06:22
when you look within an inquiry within and try to find out the reality that becomes a buddhistic kind of
1:06:27
religion but in both cases you reach the same result his observation out there
1:06:34
well thank you very much we'll end with the peace chant yes well swami just
1:06:39
the practice of the object the eyes the mind the pure consciousness it just seems like a
1:06:45
really valuable meditation it is can you give some advice on how to uh
1:06:51
apply that just like on a daily basis what's effective what's doable in a normal lifestyle absolutely
1:06:59
you see the difference between this meditation and what we call the patanjali yoga meditation particularly
1:07:04
yoga meditation demands exclusive time it's very powerful but it demands exclusive time you have to sit in an
1:07:10
asana you have to block out the word and turn inwards and meditate for hours and hours morning and evening it demands a
1:07:16
lot of time this one is very different it can take up any kind of experience
1:07:22
you have in the world because that with yourself is always there and should should be in principle always
1:07:27
discoverable so every experience you have in the world is potentially a
1:07:34
place a time for meditation especially it's useful when you are in trouble
1:07:40
yes when you're upset really it works and it works like magic if you try it a little bit beforehand and you get the hang of
1:07:47
it like riding a bike then you can navigate a crowded street like that outside also very fast
1:07:52
um all that you need to do is first of all
1:07:58
not been on the preliminary entry into vedantes remember stop
1:08:03
stop s stands for stop t stands for take a breath
1:08:11
o stands for orient yourself that i'm going to do the vedantic meditation now
1:08:16
so o is this vedantic meditation where whatever was bothering me
1:08:24
is an object is the scene it might be a person
1:08:30
it might be something in my body a health problem it might be something somebody said
1:08:35
which has come into my mind it's a thought a feeling of guilt a feeling of humiliation a feeling of rejection
1:08:42
whatever whatever hurts irritates it's a thought it's not you
1:08:49
remember millions of thoughts like that have come and gone in the last 20 30 40 years of
1:08:55
your life it will go away to be never remembered again in instance
1:09:02
you distance yourself open up a space between you and the thought i am the witness of this thought in the witness
1:09:08
of its non-existence and the witness of its arising and the witness of its being shining in
1:09:15
my light i will be the witness of its disappearance i am that unchanging witness
1:09:20
consciousness repeat it to yourself use that very annoying thought that thought itself
1:09:26
don't try to push it out use it for spiritual practice they'll become your best friends
1:09:32
because when you're hurting when you are irritated there is a motivation to come out of that pain
1:09:38
at other times um you know when you are okay you don't really feel like that you need some kind
1:09:44
of spiritual practice or protection but when you are in trouble when you are unhappy you need you have
1:09:50
the motivation to come out of it so you use that unhappiness use that pain you can use it for physical pain also
1:09:56
the more better you get at it incredible things there are stories swami turian and then
1:10:01
or this of people having operations performed with without anesthesia
1:10:08
don't try it right now not after one class you're asking for trouble
1:10:17
yes use that use the technique is very simple whatever bothers you
1:10:23
the thought or the sensation use it to turn inward the whole trick is
1:10:29
to turn inwards you see our whole problem is in normal life day-to-day life we are
1:10:34
flowing outwards we see outside hear things outside taste smell touch and think about things
1:10:42
outside people outside even south side even the body is outside
1:10:47
even the mind is outside and our whole life is in this but the
1:10:53
so that requires the only way to put it is you're moving like this you need to turn like this
1:10:59
it can't be expressed in language but you get a feeling of it you get it do you understand what i'm talking about
1:11:05
you can understand it you can't express it in language language is really not meant to deal with this language is
1:11:10
meant to deal with the objective world try it it works
1:11:18
there are other ways which we will talk about come next time um
1:11:25
this is just a taste of what's there it's a vast feeling you can imagine thousands of years
1:11:31
people have been working away at this should i end with the peace chant
1:11:38
sean
1:11:52
thank you thank you thank you
1:12:02
i'm afraid thank you i'm afraid i've intruded upon your stretching
1:12:16
[Music] yeah you know i actually have one question something that we experience regularly
1:12:22
doing this work and those of you that have worked privately with us um how you would think about this from the
1:12:28
standpoint of consciousness we find that people get better faster and uh
1:12:36
heal quicker when they apply awareness absolutely um
1:12:42
now would you call that the awareness in the mind or the consciousness whichever it is it is better the more
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you step back from the body into the mind remember stepping back from the body into the mind is not living in your head
1:12:56
it's living in awareness in fact it's a more it's more being more present not being more intellectual and lost in
1:13:02
your thoughts one reason why vedanta doesn't work is if you leave it at the
1:13:07
level of the health of the intellect when you feel oh i learned a nice philosophy today or an ancient indian philosophy today it
1:13:14
will not work for you then the mind quickly takes it up and compartmentalizes it puts it there
1:13:20
rather if you use a kind of say a ballistic mindfulness exercise
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instead of thinking if you feel the presence here and now you have already taken a step into
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awareness and any kind of activity that you do
1:13:36
stretching eating walking working in that awareness will
1:13:42
definitely be enhanced yeah yeah i mean we honestly see that
1:13:47
the parts of the body that are the most injured have the most lack of consciousness
1:13:53
both the person that's working and they're not conscious and we the
1:13:59
practitioners become unconscious and so just bringing consciousness to it the change happens quicker okay one book i
1:14:06
would recommend is it's not a vedanta book but a very useful thing for vedanta and for the practice here what's the
1:14:12
miracle of mindfulness fake nathan it's a classic it's what really it's a he's a buddhist
1:14:17
monk but it's it's practical it's immediate
1:14:23
right now right here it immediately you see the benefit yeah we we often joke you just want to take a
1:14:29
pill and then everything goes away but it doesn't in fact it doesn't it doesn't in fact um and we see that so
1:14:36
maybe i can use that consciousness argument to convince people to pay attention you see in principle
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a pill is an object but consciousness is closer to your own reality
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the growth the thing which you use which is closer to yourself the more powerful it is
1:14:53
and the more control you have over it i think it might stop working
1:15:00
so what does everybody think should we end here or do you want to do a few i mean it's a little i mean it's kind of
1:15:06
an interesting environment to go into stretching it i don't know i really take a boat do people need to leave
1:15:14
yeah yeah i think it's time that's okay this was about this so please come again