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Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

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We live our lives pursuing happiness "out
there"

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as if it is a commodity.

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We have become slaves to our own desires and
craving.

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Happiness isn't something that can be pursued

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or purchased like a cheap suit.

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This is Maya,

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illusion,

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the endless play of form.

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In the Buddhist tradition,

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Samsara, or the endless cycle of suffering

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is perpetuated by the craving of pleasure

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and aversion to pain.

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Freud referred to this as the "pleasure principle."

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Everything we do is an attempt to create pleasure,

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to gain something that we want,

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or to push away something that is undesirable
that we don't want.

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Even a simple organism like the paramecium
does this.

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It is called response to stimulus.

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Unlike a paramecium, humans have more choice.

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We are free to think, and that is the heart
of the problem.

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It is the thinking about what we want that
has gotten out of control.

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The 
dilemma of modern society is that we seek
to understand the world,

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not in terms of archaic inner consciousness,

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but by quantifying and qualifying what we
perceive

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to be the external world by using scientific
means and thought.

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Thinking has only led to more thinking and
more questions.

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We seek to know the innermost forces which
create the world

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and guide its course.

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But we conceive of this essence as outside
of ourselves,

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not as a living thing, intrinsic to our own
nature.

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It was the famous psychiatrist Carl Jung who
said,

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"one who looks outside dreams, one who looks
inside awakes."

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It is not wrong to desire to be awake, to
be happy.

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What is wrong is to look for happiness outside

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when it can only be found inside.

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On August 4th, 2010 at the Techonomy conference
in Lake Tahoe, California,

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Eric Schmidt-CEO of Google, mentioned an astounding
statistic.

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Every two days now we create as much information

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as we did from the dawn of civilization up
until 2003,

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according to Schmidt.

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That's something like 5 exabytes of data.

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Never in human history has there been so much
thinking

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and never has there been so much turmoil on
the planet.

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Could it be that every time we think of a
solution to one problem,

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we create two more problems?

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What good is all this thinking

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if it doesn't lead to greater happiness?

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Are we happier?

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More equanimous?

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More joyful as a result of all this thinking?

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Or does it isolate us,

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disconnect us from a deeper and more meaningful

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experience of life?

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Thinking, acting and doing,

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must be brought into balance with being.

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After all, we are human beings, not human
doings.

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We want change and we want stability at the
same time.

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Our hearts have become disconnected from the
spiral of life,

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the law of change,

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as our thinking minds drive us towards stability,

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security and pacification of the senses.

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With a morbid facination we watch killings,
tsunamis,

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earthquakes and wars.

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We constantly try to occupy our mind, fill
it with information.

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TV shows streaming from every conceivable
device.

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Games and puzzles.

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Text messaging.

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And every possible trivial thing.

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We let ourselves become mesmerized with

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the endless stream of new images, new information,

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new ways to tantalize and pacify the senses.

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At times of quiet inner reflection our hearts
may tell us

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that there is more to life than our present
reality,

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that we live in a world of hungry ghosts.

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Endlessly craving and never satisfied.

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We have created a maelstrom of data

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flying around the planet to facilitate more
thinking,

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more ideas about how to fix the world,

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to fix the problems that only exist because
the mind has created them.

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Thinking has created the whole big mess we're
in right now.

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We wage wars against diseases, enemies and
problems.

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The paradox is that whatever you resist persists.

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The more you resist something, the stronger
it gets.

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Like exercising a muscle, you are actually
strengthening

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the very thing you want to rid yourself of.

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So then, what is the alternative to thinking?

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What other mechanism can humans use to exist
on this planet?

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While Western culture in recent centuries
has focused on exploring

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the physical by using thought and analysis,

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other ancient cultures have developed equally
sophisticated

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technologies for exploring inner space.

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It is the loss of our connection to our inner
worlds

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that has created imbalance on our planet.

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The ancient tenant "know thyself" has been
replaced

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by a desire to experience the outer world
of form.

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Answering the question "who am I?" is not
simply a matter

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of describing what is on your business card.

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In Buddhism, you are not the content of your
consciousness.

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You are not merely a collection of thoughts
or ideas

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because behind the thoughts is the one who
is witnessing the thoughts.

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The imperative "know thyself" is a Zen koan,
an unanswerable riddle.

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Eventually the mind will become exhausted
in trying to find an answer.

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Like a dog chasing its tail, it is only the
ego identity

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that wants to find an answer, a purpose.

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The truth of who you are does not need an
answer

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because all questions are created by the egoic
mind.

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You are not your mind.

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The truth lies not in more answers, but in
less questions.

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As Joseph Campbell said,

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"I don't believe people are looking for the
meaning of life,

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as much as they are looking for the experience
of being alive."

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When the Buddha was asked, "what are you?"
he said simply,

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"I am awake."

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What does this mean, to be awake?

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The Buddha does not say exactly, because of
the flowering of

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each individual life is different.

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But he does say one thing; it is the end of
suffering.

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Every major religious tradition has a name

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for the state of being awake.

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Heaven,

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Nirvana,

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or Moksha.

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A quiet mind is all you need to realize the
nature of the stream

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All else will happen once your mind is quiet.

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In that stillness, inner energies wake up

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and work without effort on your part.

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As the Taoists say, "Chi follows consciousness."

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By being still one begins to hear the wisdom

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of the plants and animals.

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The quiet whispers in dreams,

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and one learns the subtle mechanism by which

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those dreams come into material form.

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In the Tao te Ching, this kind of living is
called "wei wu wei"

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- "Doing, not doing."

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The Buddha spoke of the "middle way" as the
path

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that leads to enlightenment.

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Aristotle described the Golden Mean - the
middle

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between two extremes, as the path of beauty.

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Not too much effort, but not too little either.

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Yin and yang in perfect balance.

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Vedanta's notion of Maya or illusion,

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is that we do not experience the environment
itself,

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but rather a projection of it created by thoughts.

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Of course your thoughts let you experience
the vibratory world

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in a certain way, but our inner equanimity
need not be contingent

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on external happenings.

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The belief in an external world independent
of the perceiving subject

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is fundamental to science.

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But our senses only give us indirect information.

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Our notions about this mind-made physical
world

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are always filtered through the senses and
therefore always incomplete.

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There is one field of vibration underlying
all of the senses.

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People with a condition called "synesthesia"
sometimes experience

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this vibratory field in different ways.

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Synesthetes can see sounds as colors or shapes
or associate

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qualities of one sense with another.

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Synesthesia refers to a synthesis or intermingling
of the senses.

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The chakras and the senses are like a prism

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filtering a continuum of vibration.

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All things in the universe are vibrating

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but at different rates and frequencies.

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The Eye of Horus is made up of six symbols,

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each representing one of the senses.

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Like the ancient Vedic system,

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thought is considered to be a sense.

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Thoughts are received simultaneously

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as sensations are experienced on the body.

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They arise from the same vibratory source.

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Thinking is simply a tool.

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One of six senses.

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But we have elevated it to such a high status

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that we identify ourselves with out thoughts.

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The fact that we do not identify thinking
as one of the six senses

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is very significant.

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We are so immersed in thought that trying
to explain thought as a sense

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is like telling a fish about water.

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Water, what water?

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In the Upanishads it is said:

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Not that which the eye can see, but that whereby
the eye can see.

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Know that to be Brahma the eternal and not
what people here adore.

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Not that which the ear can hear, but that
whereby the ear can hear.

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Know that to be Brahma the eternal and not
what people here adore.

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Not that which speech can illuminate, but
that by which speech can be illuminated.

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Know that to be Brahma the eternal and not
what people here adore.

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Not that which the mind can think, but that
whereby the mind can think.

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Know that to be Brahma the eternal and not
what people here adore.

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In the last decade, great advances have taken
place

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in the area of brain research.

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Scientists have discovered neuroplasticity
- a term

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which conveys the idea that the physical wiring
of the brain

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changes according to the thoughts moving through
it.

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As Canadian psychologist Donald Hebb put it,

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"neurons that fire together, wire together."

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Neurons wire together most when a person is
in a state of sustained attention.

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What this means is that it is possible to
direct your own

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subjective experience of reality.

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Literally, if your thoughts are ones of fear,
worry, anxiety

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and negativity then you grow the wiring for
more of those thoughts to flourish.

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If you direct your thoughts to be ones of
love,

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compassion, gratitude and joy,

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you create the wiring for repeating those
experiences.

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But how do we do that if we are surrounded
by violence and suffering?

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Isn't this some kind of delusion or wishful
thinking?

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Neuroplasticity isn't the same as the new
age notion

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that you create your reality by positive thinking.

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It is actually the same thing that the Buddha
taught

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2500 years ago.

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Vipassana Meditation or insight meditation

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could be described as self-directed neuroplasticity.

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You accept your reality exactly as it is - as
it ACTUALLY is.

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But you experience it at the root level of
sensation,

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at the vibratory or energetic level without
the prejudice or

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influence of thought.

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Through sustained attention at the root level
of consciousness,

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the wiring for an entirely different perception
of reality is created.

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We have got it backwards most of the time.

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We constantly let ideas about the outer world
shape our neural networks,

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but our inner equanimity need not be contingent
on external happenings.

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Circumstances don't matter.

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Only my state of consciousness matters.

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Meditation in Sanskrit means to be free of
measurement.

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Free of all comparison.

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To be free of all becoming.

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You are not trying to become something else.

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You are okay with what is.

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The way to rise above the suffering of the
physical realm

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is to totally embrace it.

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To say yes to it.

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So it becomes something within you,

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rather than you being something within it.

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How does one live in such a way that consciousness

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is no longer in conflict with its content?

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How does one empty the heart of petty ambitions?

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There must be a total revolution in consciousness.

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A radical shift in orientation from the outer
world to the inner.

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It is not a revolution brought about by will
or effort alone.

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But also by surrender.

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Acceptance of reality as it is.

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The image of Christ's open heart powerfully
conveys the idea

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that one must open to all pain.

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One must accept ALL if one is to remain open

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to the evolutionary source.

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This doesn't mean you become a masochist,

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you don't look for pain,

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but when pain comes, which it inevitably does,

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you simply accept reality AS IT IS,

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instead of craving some other reality.

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The Hawaiians have long believed

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that it is through the heart that we learn
truth.

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The heart has its own intelligence as distinctly
as the brain does.

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The Egyptians believed that the heart, not
the brain,

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was the source of human wisdom.

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The heart was considered to be the center
of the

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soul and the personality.

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It was through the heart that the divine spoke,

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giving ancient Egyptians knowledge of their
true path.

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This papyrus depicts the "weighing of the
heart".

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It was considered a good thing to go into
the

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afterlife with a light heart.

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It meant that you had lived well.

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One universal or archetypal stage that people
experience

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in the process of awakening the heart center

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is the experience of one's own energy as the
energy of the universe.

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When you allow yourself to feel this love,

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to be this love,

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when you connect your inner world with the
outer world,

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then all is one.

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How does one experience the music of the spheres?

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How does a heart open?

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Sri Ramana Maharshi said,

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"God dwells in you, as you,

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and you don't have to do anything

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to be God-realized or self-realized.

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It is already your true and natural state.

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Just drop all seeking,

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turn your attention inward

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and sacrifice your mind to the one self,

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radiating in the heart of your very being.

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For this to be your own presently lived experience,

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self inquiry is the one direct and immediate
way."

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When you meditate and observe sensations within,

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your inner aliveness, you are actually observing
change.

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This force of change is the arising and passing
away

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as energy changes form.

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The degree to which a person has evolved or
become enlightened,

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00:23:08,570 --> 00:23:11,280
is the degree to which one has gained the
ability

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to adapt to each moment,

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00:23:13,480 --> 00:23:16,260
or to transmute the constantly changing human
stream

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of circumstances, pain and pleasure

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into bliss.

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Leo Tolstoy, author of "War and Peace", said

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"everyone thinks of changing the world,

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but nobody thinks of changing him or herself."

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00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:47,750
Darwin said the most important characteristic
for the

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survival of the species is not strength or
intelligence,

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but adaptability to change.

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One must become adept at adapting.

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00:24:11,780 --> 00:24:15,320
This is the Buddhist teaching of "annica"

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- everything is arising and passing away,
changing.

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00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:21,710
Constantly changing.

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00:24:21,710 --> 00:24:28,710
Suffering exists only because we become attached
to a particular form.

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When you connect to the witnessing part of
yourself,

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with the understanding of annica, bliss arises
in the heart.

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00:25:12,940 --> 00:25:19,940
Saints, sages and yogis throughout history

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00:25:26,860 --> 00:25:31,080
unanimously describe one sacred union that
occurs in the heart.

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00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:33,670
Whether is the writings of St. John of the
Cross,

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Rumi's poetry,

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00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:39,760
or the tantric teachings of India,

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00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:41,880
all of these different teachings try to express

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the subtle mystery of the heart.

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In the heart is the union of Shiva and Shakti.

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Masculine penetration into the spiral of life

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and feminine surrender to change.

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00:25:59,220 --> 00:26:00,080
Witnessing

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and unconditional acceptance of all that is.

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In order to open your heart,

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you must open yourself to change.

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00:26:11,530 --> 00:26:14,240
To live in the seemingly solid world,

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00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:15,540
dance with it,

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00:26:15,540 --> 00:26:17,170
engage with it,

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00:26:17,170 --> 00:26:18,440
live fully,

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love fully,

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but yet know that it is impermanent

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00:26:23,300 --> 00:26:29,990
and that ultimately all forms dissolve and
change.

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00:26:29,990 --> 00:26:33,790
Bliss is the energy that responds to stillness.

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It comes from emptying consciousness of all
content.

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00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:42,040
The content of this bliss energy born of stillness
IS consciousness.

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A new consciousness of the heart.

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A consciousness that is connected to ALL that
IS.