SURRENDER OF
THOUGHTS
-
Watching your thoughts, the move
into seer rather than the seen; understanding it energetically ; brief
reiteration of the 5 step process from
participant to awareness
-
Going deeper – the awareness that what seem ‘my’ thoughts are not my thoughts! Thoughts happen; they are not my thoughts but
the cosmic flow; thoughtlessness is not having no thoughts but claiming them
not as mine thus being disengaged from them
-
Seeing this through the visual analogy of a thermometer; you
abide as the sages do, in the world and
yet not of the world; this move up the energetic thermometer is what these
weekly gatherings are enabling
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Self enquiry is the real sadhana
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Surrender
of thoughts! A powerful and beautiful tool! The thinking mind
subsides and the universal working mind comes into full force – thus surrender
of thought and action!
-
Winding up the meditation
Om
Chants begin…
Everyone just relax and see
yourself in that beautiful inner place where you gather at these meetings…green grass…blue skies…rolling
hills all around you…and a beautiful clear pool in front of you...
And
in that pool see your glowing reflection…and watch… your thoughts as they rise
(from what you call your mind) and drift away…rise and drift…. Rise and drift. Become aware how the witnessing self, is outside
this reflection/ outside this picture of ‘you self and its thoughts’. Be
present to this for a while… abide as the seer not the seen … and
watch how the thoughts are rising and drifting and not impacting/engaging you
as the witnessing/Self . Abide as the vast
sky, the seer, its stillness and deep
inner silence even as the seen - the thoughts - rise and drift by. If you
continue this for a while the thoughts will appear less, become less apparent, You
will be less and less engaged - like the still vast sky the clouds untouched by
the clouds drifting by. Don’t step in to
self…. don’t step into its thoughts, don’t stop them … if thoughts come let
them rise …and if you remain the seer and engage not… they continue to drift
away. This is a visual imagery of the move/switch of your centre of being -
from the participant caught in thoughts to still awareness; you shift from the
moving clouds to the still sky; from what you are aware of to awareness….
Continue,
to watch this happening in that pool in front of you. Seeing that ‘self’ which has the thoughts;
seeing the thoughts as they rise . In
this seeing you have moved from the seen to the seer. Your very
centre of being/focus/awareness shifts. (In
your last gathering with us we explained to you the shift…the process from self
to Self…from the engaged participant (I am thinking…I am feeling…I am doing…I
am up…I am down) to awareness rather than what you are aware of …)
What
is happening through this all important witnessing - is an energetic
disconnection from the Divyaa self (put your own name here). So become aware of
what actually happens in energy terms as your focus/awareness/beingness shifts
from self to Self : a) For those moments the divyaa self
without the life force of your attention/awareness is ‘dissolving’/losing its
hold ( like a movie character
without anyone seeing the movie loses its importance and fades away ; b) You are actually in
energy terms un-impacted by the divyaa self issues, so while divyaa maybe going
through whatever it is NOT affecting your energy field – as you now abide as
the seer/witness/awareness which cannot be affected by the seen ! In this way your energy field remains
unaffected by ‘Divyaa and its thoughts’ and is vibrating at a higher frequency
and further enabling the shift!
Thus it’s
a very important step…a daily sadhana! Everyday as you get up, through the day
if that is all you do: instead of ‘I am thinking…I am feeling’
you become aware Divyaa (put your own
name here) is thinking; Divyaa is feeling. As you do that unceasingly through the day …somewhere even that
name falls and you become aware that the body/mind
is thinking and feeling -its more impersonal now than the ‘Divyaa self’. And as
you continue to unceasingly abide here 24X7 aware of whatever is happening
through the body/mind- it becomes more intangible - even that solid body
identification starts to drop and you become aware that ‘this role that you are /this movie or cartoon character’ if you like…is
playing out its role; and as you unceasingly abide here, even that dissolves and
you become aware all that is happening…thinking…feeling…doing…is simply a flow of consciousness. So you
move from ‘I/me’ to ‘that Divyaa self’ out there; to the impersonal body/mind,
to the intangible role/character to the universal flow… the complete absence of any trace of individuation. (In-depth mediation on this 5 step process was done previously and is
in the 6.12.2016 transcript)
This
is where the sages abide, they live in the world - seemingly carry out
activities…seemingly think and feel -but they abide simply as awareness! This is the shift from self to Self….from the
engaged participant to witnessing to awareness rather than what you are aware
of…! Of course these steps that we have outlined to you today as five steps
are a fluid process, a ripening and are broken up here simply for explanation -
you may find yourself at any of those steps at different times …wherever you
find yourself abide there till automatically the next step happens…don’t
enforce.
***
But
today we are taking you through this, to something deeper, to the awareness
that your thoughts are not really yours!
That indeed, thoughts seemingly arise on their own - nothing to do with
you! As
thinking ‘happens’, you feel “I am
thinking” …but if you really become aware, really practice mindfulness, and
become present and watch self even for a few moments you will become aware:
Where do the thoughts arise from? Where do
they come from? Often seemingly random…disconnected…? If you were really the
source of your thoughts, surely you could will/determine which thoughts to have
and not have? But your experience will
show you that is not true.
Spend a few moments becoming aware of your thoughts at different points
of the day and you become be aware that what you specifically consider your
thoughts can’t really be yours because if they were yours, if you were the
source you could will and indeed arrange which thoughts to have and when! But
you can’t! Billions of years have you lived as engaged participant/me/my
thoughts/ups and downs, not even knowing that there was another state of being and
that you were not your thoughts. And
now the complete and utter grace of this lifetime: The awareness that I am not
my thoughts. Just this … just this awareness that I am not my thoughts- I am
not my feelings…just that single step is what will take you through to what you
call awakening….
Take
not our word for it - but if you watch your thoughts you become aware “I really
have no hold on them - they come of their own accord”! Watch beloveds, become aware, and this will
become apparent to you. In this do you realize that ‘my thoughts’ are just the
cosmic flow…nothing to do with you …they are not your thoughts…they are not
your feelings. We want you to practice this for the remainder of the week,
spend a few moments, an half an hour perhaps NOT meditating, NOT reading/hearing this transcript but simply
sitting by yourself for half an hour and watching your thoughts ! And you will
become aware Oh! My God! The thoughts just arise from seemingly nowhere…often
random disconnected…i really have no hold on them…and there are so many layer
upon layer I am usually not even aware of…! This MUST be your own realization
not acceptance of our words to really bring about the awareness and change!
Make this your week’s sadhana, as once you become aware of it you don’t need to
repeat the lesson! Become aware of this during your day, or even now as you are
sitting here focusing on our voice and message, thoughts maybe rising… from where?
How? Why? No answer…!
And
so we reiterate the first step: mindfulness, becoming present to this! Being aware how thoughts rise from nowhere. Yes
often you may see an external trigger or link, and yet one thought leads to
another to a third to a hundred billion different thoughts…! And from where did
that trigger even come? So the first step is simply become
aware of this: OWN THIS! That I have no control over them…i cant be the
source…if i was i could will my thoughts…stop them…direct them…plan them…every
layer. Be aware that that is NOT so. Thus these cannot be my thoughts! In the
real-iztion you real-ize they are just the cosmic flow… nothing to do with you…
they are not your thoughts…they are not your feelings… if you do this exercise
attentively, it should be that simple…that obvious.
And
then the second step: is become aware of the thoughts even as they rise. I Once you are done with the first step and
own the first step of thoughts having a source other than you so they are not
your thoughts, then all you have to do henceforth Is watch them even as
they arise! Initially it will not be immediate; you will catch yourself in the
middle of a hundred thoughts and say Ah! Oh! Where have those thoughts come
from…!? A trillion thoughts going through you that perhaps you are not even
fully aware of …from where are they coming. But as you continue to do this
sadhana, catch yourself thinking …you will be able increasingly to become aware
of your thoughts even as they rise - and
importantly, due to being present and due to the shift from self to Self (of
self enquiry) - these thoughts start to loosen their hold on you even as they
rise…the beginning of thoughtlessness indeed!
We
have already told you that self inquiry is not
thought/thinking …so do you see the beauty of this… the moment you start
this self enquiry you move from thought to thoughtlessness! Let us explain this to you: At a very simple
level, self inquiry is not thoughts because a) self inquiry is a shift of focus
from outside objects/events (thought) to inside (Self reflection); you have
withdrawn your focus from the outer objects and things pertaining to thoughts -
to within/the source/Self…! (Thus so many subtle but important shifts in this
simple process) b) In self enquiry
you spontaneously shift from the engaged self (and its seeming thoughts) to
Awareness. Thus it is automatically the shift into witnessing and finally
abiding as awareness if one sustains the
self enquiry! TRY this, see how it works, see how the thoughts loosen their
hold, and fade away…
And
as you do this day after day, week after week you will find a lessening of
thoughts. Thoughts continue, but
below your level of awareness, and so soon you will find yourself abiding in
awareness rather than what you are aware of. Thoughtlessness is not having no
thoughts but not identifying with the thoughts…not claiming the
thoughts…not getting entangled in them…therefore you will shift from the
engaged participant to witnessing - to awareness rather than what you are aware
of. In that you will not even be aware of the many thoughts that are going
through…they are happening there somewhere far on that stage for which you have
bad seats in the play…there are like snippets of conversation of people around
you in which you are not concerned and you can barely hear them…that is what it
means when we say you will abide as awareness rather than what you are aware
of.
You
will simply abide in a higher frequency than the denser frequency of thoughts …
in a higher dimension than the dimension where thought exists! We
gave you many examples in your last
gathering…like an aircraft which flies
above the clouds you will be like that aircraft above the clouds that you
call your thoughts; you will have broken
through the network or the grind of thoughts that is called human consciousness;
self enquiry is like a pole vault out of
the state of being you called self and its thoughts; thus over time you
will abide as awareness rather than what you are aware of…! A subtle… gradual…
ripening…a series of shifts…a process… from the engaged participant/I/me…to the
witness who is aware of the thoughts but claims them not…to awareness rather
than aware what you are aware of.
***
Come
see this visually and conjure a vertical thermometer: The
lowest portion being the lowest frequency:
the ‘me’; the ego self; the ‘i’; the ‘i am thinking…I am feeling…I am
hurting…i am happy…i am sad. See it
visually, that when you engage in self enquiry, and as you shift your awareness
higher and higher and higher, as you move from the participant to witnessing you
go up up up that thermometer. And when you abide as awareness - you go right to
the top…! Understand the thoughts are going on below - in the conjured
thermometer your centre of focus/awareness slides upwards and abides right to
the top - but the bottom of the thermometer doesn’t disappear; it’s your
focus/awareness that’s raised. So understand
that the thoughts are going on below, below your level of awareness, they make
up what you call you and your world – the role that you are and the world -
cannot exist without them (like an actor without a script or the props and
supporting cast)! But now (the real) you, your frequency abides above the
thoughts - thus you claim them not…you identify with them not…you are affected
not…impacted not…you abide as the sages abide in the world and yet not of the
world. The world is, the character you is, but you are not them!
And
this is what your weekly gatherings here are doing - taking you up that
vertical frequency thermometer - helping you to abide there higher and higher, firmer
and longer. All of you make this shift when you are in
meditation…but the trick is to maintain that in your day to day
life…quicker…faster…longer…firmer till that becomes a frequency in which you
abide…and you sometimes choose to come down as and when required.
***
So,
simply put, Self enuiry… mindfulness … being present …being aware not
only in meditations beloveds but through your day as you awake… is the sadhana…
which we have been talking about week after week…year after year….in different
ways. The process must start: a)
The Divyaa (put your own name here) gets up; the body/mind does this, the role
is playing out as it must; it’s all a flow of consciousness (It will not always
be exactly in this sequence…) but day to day this sadhana. b) And moment to
moment catch yourself when you are thinking…become aware where did that thought
rise from? Where is the source ? Did i will it?
Where can I pin the tail on the self who is thinking? You will not find
it…! c) Who is aware of these thoughts? If I am aware of them I cannot be them…! If I am aware of the char
obviously I am not the chair…I am awareness! I am the seer not the seen ! In
all of this, thought will take a backseat automatically…no need to suppress…no
need. As mentioned already Self enquiry
is not about the answers…but a shift from the outer to the inner…from the lower
to the higher frequency, the shift from self to Self! In self enquiry you are automatically
connected to what you will call your Higher Self…and it’s Grace…and its
stillness…!!
***
Now we
come to a beautiful gnosis, we will give you a beautiful clue, a tool if you
like to answer what many of you are thinking “But how do i do this mindfulness?
What do i do through the day when
thoughts arise…?
Listen
well: for today we introduce to you the surrender of thoughts! All of you
present here are aware of ‘surrender’ of action… most of you are living in
varying degrees of surrender already. Most of you
have learnt and embraced that your destiny is actually your higher self free
will plan and whatever happens happens for the highest good of you and all.
Many of you are also aware that whatever happens through a you is through a you
and not by a you for the highest good…for whatever the Consciousness’s play
requires…this non doer ship, this allowing whatever consciousness wills through
a you….that is surrender…
But
now you will use the same surrender directly on your thoughts…!! Whatever thoughts arise surrender your
thoughts…! Surrender your thoughts. Just
be present to this, what a beautiful clue or tool …surrender of your thoughts. a) What does this mean? Whatever
thoughts may arise or drift by - judge them not - claim them not - try to
change them not – stop them not. b) No labels – no judging : good thought or bad thought /happy sad/
loving angry etc. c) No labels - no judging:
I want this thought /I don’t want this thought! d) And then at a deeper level -
disidentification with the thoughts, not claiming them as mine (they are not
‘my’ thoughts) - it’s consciousness at play - they have nothing to do with you;
thus as you claim them not, as you identify not (just like you are least
concerned with the thoughts of a stranger) can you more easily not judge them
and thus surrender them. You will find
this a powerful tool to use - whatever thoughts arise surrender them…judge them
not…label them not…identify with them not…claim them not…automatically
entangled not will you be. Surrender your thoughts… whether it’s a good thought
or a bad thought or angry thought…surrender your thoughts…
This
isn’t easy to do when you are the engaged involved participant, but as you
practice mindfulness, as you engage in self enquiry, as you abide as witness …
you are able to surrender thoughts! Thus we urge
the sadhana …!
Surrendering
of actions paradoxically is easier than a surrendering of your thoughts! As mentioned above most of you
have already lived or moved into degrees of surrender. Now start doing this
with your thoughts. We reiterate:
- So first you will be aware of
your thoughts… as they arise (or in the middle of them) you become aware they
are not yours because if they were you
could stop them/plan them. You become
aware the thoughts are rising from outside you…
-Secondly
you will simply become present to who is aware of these thoughts? In that
automatically will move into awareness… from self to Self…seen to seer.
-Thirdly you will (be able to) use
this tool called surrendering of your thoughts…judge them not…label them not.
Thus when they further dont have the life force of your attention… the thoughts
will start to dissipate…fade away…dissolve…! You will abide higher and higher
on that vertical frequency thermometer…!
-So if you have to take one thing
home today it is surrendering of all thoughts whatever they may be! Grapple not
with them …the more you will grapple with your thoughts the more will they have
a hold on you…allow them to arise…judge them not…surrender them to the
universe…and you will find yourselves in increasing inner silence.
Meditation
is a surrendering of thoughts. When you sit here and move to the
higher frequency there is an automatic surrendering of your thoughts. Now do this in your day to day world - do not
let these just be beautiful words you hear here - do your day to day sadhana. Every
week we give your simple clues and tricks…everyday keep aside half an hour not
for mediation…not to hear this as a recording…but to do what we tell you…simply
watch your thoughts…they will initially come thick and fast and furious…but as
you watch…as you witness…as you surrender your thoughts…whatever they may
be…surrender… and thoughts will loosen their hold on you…
Through
analogy: The thoughts will become like a little ant on an elephant…you
will break through the thought barrier…you
will be like an aircraft above the clouds
of thoughts; you can call that detachment, you can call it witnessing,
awareness, living in the now.
And
as you practice this day in and day out - as it becomes the state you abide in
rather than the state you visit time to time - the thinking mind subsides and the working
mind comes into full force! Whatever you require in that now…those thoughts
will flow into you…the right decisions…the right actions…the right words…surrender of thoughts and action!
***
So
once again see yourself in that beautiful place and whatever thoughts maybe
rising now…watch…where are they coming from ? Have you
called them ? Have you created them ? No…they just come…? In that awareness, knowledge
the self enquiry begins…where is the source? When you try and catch the source
of your thoughts there is no source…it is the play of consciousness…but what
you do contact is your own source…your own self…the witness…awareness who is
aware of all this!! In that self enquiry you shift from self to Self…into
witnessing…into awareness…and then whatever thoughts arise…as they
arise…surrender them…like a waterfall…allow them to flow…like a Prasadam
give them away…like clouds drifting by…let them drift away…suppress
not…direct not…judge not…label not…how freeing a path beloveds…how freeing a
path…
Let this be your experience even
as you sit here….and through sadhana in your day to day life
And So It Is…And So It Is…And So
It Is.
SYNOPSIS
The complete
and utter grace of this lifetime…the awareness that I am not my thoughts. Watch
your thoughts as they rise from what you call the mind and sail away…; you are like
the still sky…and the thoughts are simply clouds which drift away…
So
where do thoughts arise from… where do they come from… seemingly random… often
disconnected…? If you were really the
source of your thoughts, surely you could will/determine which thoughts to have
and not have? But your
experience will show you that is not true.
Take not our word for it - but if you watch your thoughts you become
aware “ I really have no hold on them …they come of their own accord”! Watch
beloveds, become aware, and this will become apparent to you. In this do you
realize that ‘my thoughts’ are just the cosmic flow…nothing to do with you…they
are not your thoughts…they are not your feelings…
Come
practice mindfulness…becoming present to this…be aware how
thoughts rise from nowhere. As you do you will catch yourself in the middle of
a hundred thoughts and say Ah! Where have those thoughts come from…?
Come
engage in self enquiry…self inquiry is not thoughts because a)
self inquiry is a shift of focus from outside objects/events (thought) to
inside (Self reflection)’; b) in self enquiry you spontaneously shift from the
self (and its seeming thoughts) to Self (The source! Awareness beyond the realm
of thoughts)! Thus in self enquiry you move
from thought to thoughtlessness …from participant to witness…. to finally
abiding as awareness…
Come
conjure a vertical thermometer: the lowest portion being the
lowest frequency : the ‘me’; the ego
self; the ‘i’; and when you engage in
self enquiry you spontaneously move from this self - to awareness; in the conjured
thermometer your centre of focus/awareness slides upwards and abide right to
the top…! Of course the bottom of the thermometer doesn’t disappear; it’s your
focus/awareness that’s raised. So understand
that the thoughts are going on below…below your level of awareness … they make
up what you call you and your world…. but you…your frequency abides above the
thoughts.
So
come surrender your thoughts…judge them not… claim them not…try to
change them not…stop them not. This isn’t easy to do when you are the engaged
involved participant, but as you practice mindfulness, as you engage in self
enquiry, as you abide as witness … you are able to surrender the thoughts! And
what does surrendering your thoughts mean? No labels, no judging ( good thought or a bad thought) and then at a deeper level
disidentification with them, not
claiming them as mine (they are not ‘my’
thoughts) …it’s the consciousness at
play; in the latter, as you claim them not, as you identify not with them can
you easily not judge them and thus surrender them...
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