WEBVTT 00:00:09.010 --> 00:00:10.710 What we are going to describe 00:00:10.716 --> 00:00:12.973 has been called ‘The Secret Of Secrets’, 00:00:12.980 --> 00:00:16.949 the esoteric wisdom that leads to samadhi. 00:00:17.589 --> 00:00:21.189 Samadhi is the goal of all spirituality, 00:00:21.420 --> 00:00:24.450 its union with the source. 00:00:24.880 --> 00:00:27.760 the truth of who or what you are. 00:00:27.960 --> 00:00:30.596 The truth that transcends the limited mind, 00:00:30.596 --> 00:00:33.860 cannot be seen by means of the limited mind. 00:00:34.040 --> 00:00:36.899 The still point cannot be reached 00:00:36.899 --> 00:00:40.200 by means of movement. If you want to 00:00:40.200 --> 00:00:42.660 realize the still point beyond thinking, 00:00:42.660 --> 00:00:47.490 let go of all interest in thoughts and sensations, 00:00:47.760 --> 00:00:51.050 all preferences, all phenomena 00:00:51.170 --> 00:00:54.080 generated by the mind and senses, 00:00:54.290 --> 00:00:58.310 and rest in naked awareness. 00:01:20.520 --> 00:01:23.159 There are two fundamental dimensions 00:01:23.159 --> 00:01:26.400 to existence in this moment. 00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:29.520 There's that which is changing 00:01:29.520 --> 00:01:32.040 and that which is unchanging. 00:01:32.040 --> 00:01:34.860 Thoughts and sensations are a field 00:01:34.860 --> 00:01:37.460 of constantly changing phenomena. 00:01:39.659 --> 00:01:42.960 What is unchanging is the awareness 00:01:42.960 --> 00:01:45.130 of that field of change. 00:01:49.140 --> 00:01:51.299 We are usually so caught up in the field 00:01:51.299 --> 00:01:55.079 of change, fixated on its objects, that we 00:01:55.079 --> 00:01:57.720 ignored the dimension of awareness. 00:01:57.720 --> 00:02:00.659 So we start our investigation by 00:02:00.659 --> 00:02:04.259 becoming aware of awareness, 00:02:04.259 --> 00:02:07.750 being conscious of Consciousness. 00:02:43.800 --> 00:02:46.140 The challenge with resting in awareness 00:02:46.140 --> 00:02:49.080 for long periods of time, is that 00:02:49.080 --> 00:02:51.060 most people have not cultivated 00:02:51.060 --> 00:02:53.940 the concentration and equanimity 00:02:53.940 --> 00:02:56.040 to stay in awareness. 00:02:56.040 --> 00:02:58.620 We are addicted to comfort 00:02:58.620 --> 00:03:00.350 and the limited mind will want 00:03:00.350 --> 00:03:03.000 to escape from this exercise, 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:05.400 it will find it profoundly uncomfortable 00:03:05.400 --> 00:03:07.680 and will create every type of 00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:10.510 hindrance or distraction. 00:03:11.879 --> 00:03:14.730 There are two primary knots that 00:03:14.730 --> 00:03:18.239 bind us to ego identification. 00:03:18.239 --> 00:03:21.120 The body is attached to comfort 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:25.220 and the mind wants to know. 00:03:26.040 --> 00:03:28.560 If we continue to seek the comfort 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:31.319 of the body and continue to seek 00:03:31.319 --> 00:03:32.879 knowing with the mind, 00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:35.040 we will never move beyond the 00:03:35.040 --> 00:03:37.500 limited mind and body. 00:03:37.500 --> 00:03:41.040 We will remain like a herd animal, 00:03:41.040 --> 00:03:43.560 a creature that craves pleasure 00:03:43.560 --> 00:03:46.440 and avoids pain, endlessly responding 00:03:46.440 --> 00:03:50.460 to stimulus, endlessly doing, 00:03:50.610 --> 00:03:54.520 and unaware of the dimension of being. 00:03:57.120 --> 00:04:00.720 To be aware, to be fully attentive to 00:04:00.720 --> 00:04:03.239 what is happening, without the mediation 00:04:03.239 --> 00:04:06.840 of egoic conditioning, without concepts, 00:04:06.840 --> 00:04:10.500 without controlling, manipulating 00:04:10.500 --> 00:04:13.714 or distortion, without the filtering 00:04:13.714 --> 00:04:15.279 of the limited mind, 00:04:15.279 --> 00:04:18.370 is to be present without choosing. 00:04:19.079 --> 00:04:22.079 Present without choosing, and therefore 00:04:22.079 --> 00:04:24.800 without a chooser. 00:04:26.340 --> 00:04:29.100 Every time the mind moves without your 00:04:29.100 --> 00:04:32.750 willing, even the tiniest movement, 00:04:32.750 --> 00:04:35.700 it is due to filtering through the 00:04:35.700 --> 00:04:39.160 conditioning of the self-structure. 00:04:41.820 --> 00:04:44.520 The path leads to cessation of 00:04:44.520 --> 00:04:47.070 the entire whirlpool of mind. 00:04:52.080 --> 00:04:56.322 To realizing all levels of self as empty. 00:05:00.960 --> 00:05:03.410 How do I drop all doing, 00:05:03.410 --> 00:05:06.439 how do I drop mind activity? 00:05:07.259 --> 00:05:11.400 Listen closely, this is the paradox. 00:05:11.400 --> 00:05:14.880 The limited egoic mind hears that 00:05:14.880 --> 00:05:18.419 question and wants to know how, 00:05:18.419 --> 00:05:23.479 but that limited mind can't do it. 00:05:23.820 --> 00:05:27.180 The mind will always fail in any attempt 00:05:27.180 --> 00:05:32.360 to realize stillness, because the mind is movement. 00:05:33.440 --> 00:05:38.360 The mind itself is movement, 00:05:38.520 --> 00:05:41.820 it is an endless process of doing. 00:05:41.820 --> 00:05:45.240 We have to make the shift from doing 00:05:45.240 --> 00:05:47.419 to BEING. 00:05:47.419 --> 00:05:50.460 The you that you think you are is a 00:05:50.460 --> 00:05:53.994 process a constant movement, 00:05:53.994 --> 00:05:57.380 a collection of patterns. 00:06:02.400 --> 00:06:05.759 That YOU has to die. 00:06:05.759 --> 00:06:08.440 The pathological pattern of you 00:06:08.440 --> 00:06:12.419 has to end for Samadhi to be realized. 00:06:12.419 --> 00:06:15.860 Let that sink in... 00:06:16.320 --> 00:06:18.360 Spiritual teachers have given 00:06:18.360 --> 00:06:20.639 the instruction to reach Samadhi. 00:06:20.639 --> 00:06:23.639 Be still and know. 00:06:23.639 --> 00:06:26.940 Be still and know the True Self. 00:06:26.940 --> 00:06:29.819 Primordial Awareness beyond name and form. 00:06:31.359 --> 00:06:35.570 Be still and know that you are God. 00:06:37.620 --> 00:06:40.940 What exactly do they mean? 00:06:41.880 --> 00:06:45.860 What is it that becomes still? 00:06:47.280 --> 00:06:49.740 Obviously no one's physical body can 00:06:49.740 --> 00:06:51.890 become absolutely still, 00:06:51.890 --> 00:06:55.179 existing within time and space. 00:06:55.179 --> 00:06:58.620 Because time-space itself is movement. 00:06:59.539 --> 00:07:02.639 Time-space is mind, 00:07:02.639 --> 00:07:07.759 the Universe is big mind or Logos. 00:07:10.259 --> 00:07:13.500 The first Hermetic principle is that 00:07:13.500 --> 00:07:18.440 The All is mind, the Universe is mental. 00:07:19.319 --> 00:07:21.830 If the Universe is mind and mind 00:07:21.830 --> 00:07:26.340 is movement, how can I be still and know? 00:07:26.340 --> 00:07:29.520 How can you be still on a globe spinning 00:07:29.520 --> 00:07:34.460 a thousand miles per hour around its axis, 00:07:35.060 --> 00:07:40.190 spinning 67 000 miles per hour around the Sun, 00:07:41.340 --> 00:07:46.409 moving 500 000 miles per hour around the Galaxy, 00:07:46.539 --> 00:07:50.759 and millions more through the Universe? 00:07:52.380 --> 00:07:56.159 Your heart is beating, cells are moving inside, 00:07:56.520 --> 00:08:00.589 food digesting, the brain producing brain waves. 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:06.000 Your blood is pumping, energy is moving, 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:08.520 how can we be still? 00:08:08.520 --> 00:08:12.350 When the spiritual Masters say 'be still and know', 00:08:12.660 --> 00:08:15.720 they must be talking about something else, 00:08:15.720 --> 00:08:19.160 something Beyond time and space, 00:08:19.160 --> 00:08:23.280 something beyond the physical and mental. 00:08:23.280 --> 00:08:25.979 What is meant by stillness is something 00:08:25.979 --> 00:08:30.179 that we have no word for in our modern language system. 00:08:30.500 --> 00:08:33.580 The Sanskrit language, the language 00:08:33.580 --> 00:08:36.779 of the yogis, has more precise terms 00:08:36.779 --> 00:08:39.919 which point to the non-dual. 00:08:40.620 --> 00:08:44.940 The term 'shunyata' is often translated 00:08:44.940 --> 00:08:48.610 as ‘voidness’, stillness or emptiness. 00:08:49.380 --> 00:08:51.839 It is what is used in connection 00:08:51.839 --> 00:08:55.019 with 'anata' or no-self, 00:08:55.019 --> 00:08:58.172 the realization of Buddha nature. 00:09:01.500 --> 00:09:05.169 Stillness is maybe the closest English word, 00:09:05.220 --> 00:09:07.440 but it is inadequate to describe something 00:09:07.440 --> 00:09:10.250 that is not of this dualistic world. 00:09:11.519 --> 00:09:15.580 What is actually realized is the Primordial Consciousness, 00:09:15.580 --> 00:09:18.720 which is beyond stillness and movement, 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:22.270 beyond time. It is eternal, 00:09:22.270 --> 00:09:24.519 the ground of your being, 00:09:24.519 --> 00:09:27.210 the essential nature of reality 00:09:27.210 --> 00:09:30.800 that does not change. Actually it is beyond 00:09:30.800 --> 00:09:34.200 change and the changeless. 00:09:34.200 --> 00:09:37.440 When our true nature is realized 00:09:37.440 --> 00:09:40.450 it becomes obvious that stillness and movement 00:09:40.450 --> 00:09:43.490 are a duality created by the Mind, 00:09:43.490 --> 00:09:48.910 silence and noise are a duality created by the mind. 00:09:50.640 --> 00:09:53.580 Everything is already inherent within 00:09:53.580 --> 00:09:56.459 that primordial stillness, the movement 00:09:56.459 --> 00:10:00.749 of the world is identical to stillness. 00:10:01.580 --> 00:10:04.080 Be still and know, 00:10:04.080 --> 00:10:07.380 be in motion and know. 00:10:07.380 --> 00:10:10.300 It is all emptiness dancing. 00:10:10.300 --> 00:10:12.690 This is not something philosophical, 00:10:12.690 --> 00:10:14.340 but an entirely different way 00:10:14.340 --> 00:10:16.990 of interfacing with the world. 00:10:17.191 --> 00:10:20.090 Actually it's about dropping the interface, 00:10:20.339 --> 00:10:23.139 dropping the reducing valve which is 00:10:23.139 --> 00:10:26.840 the self-structure, and experiencing your true nature 00:10:26.840 --> 00:10:29.410 unmediated by the limited mind. 00:10:30.300 --> 00:10:33.120 The so-called outer world is transcended 00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:37.710 by realizing stillness, which when realized, 00:10:37.710 --> 00:10:41.090 includes that which it transcends. 00:10:42.300 --> 00:10:46.219 The duality of stillness and movement collapses. 00:10:47.399 --> 00:10:51.240 Realizing samadhi, this great awakening 00:10:51.240 --> 00:10:54.440 is just the beginning of the path. 00:10:54.440 --> 00:10:57.540 Patanjali says that the entire endeavor 00:10:57.540 --> 00:11:00.600 of yoga is aimed at the cessation 00:11:00.600 --> 00:11:02.579 of the whirlpool of the mind. 00:11:02.579 --> 00:11:05.579 'Chitta vritti nirodha'. 00:11:05.579 --> 00:11:08.570 You could say it is the cessation of karma, 00:11:10.740 --> 00:11:14.250 the cessation of deep unconscious patterns 00:11:14.250 --> 00:11:17.940 on many different levels. 00:11:17.940 --> 00:11:20.519 When we realize our true nature, 00:11:20.519 --> 00:11:23.160 we temporarily cease our identification 00:11:23.160 --> 00:11:25.210 and reaction to the mind. 00:11:26.700 --> 00:11:29.940 It's like pulling the plug on a fan. 00:11:29.940 --> 00:11:32.869 When we pulled the plug on a fan, 00:11:32.869 --> 00:11:35.107 inertia of the Fan's blades keeps it 00:11:35.107 --> 00:11:37.720 keeps it going as long as we don't 00:11:37.720 --> 00:11:39.420 plug the fan back in, 00:11:39.420 --> 00:11:43.579 it will eventually come to stillness. 00:11:43.800 --> 00:11:46.320 Karma is simply the tendency for energy 00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:49.188 to follow established pathways. 00:11:49.188 --> 00:11:52.730 When Consciousness slips back into pattern, 00:11:52.730 --> 00:11:55.440 it's like plugging in the fan. 00:11:55.440 --> 00:11:58.360 Energy follows Consciousness. 00:11:58.360 --> 00:12:01.667 Energy goes back into the old patterns. 00:12:04.380 --> 00:12:06.519 Another way of describing it, 00:12:06.519 --> 00:12:09.480 is through the law of inertia. 00:12:09.480 --> 00:12:12.870 A mind in motion stays in motion, 00:12:12.870 --> 00:12:16.620 unless acted upon by an outside force. 00:12:17.339 --> 00:12:19.620 In the matrix of the conditioned mind 00:12:19.620 --> 00:12:21.839 that we call the Universe, 00:12:21.839 --> 00:12:24.420 energy and thought cycle through fractal 00:12:24.420 --> 00:12:27.600 labyrinths that exist on a Continuum, 00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:29.820 for micro to macro levels, 00:12:29.820 --> 00:12:32.880 branching and exploring endlessly 00:12:34.519 --> 00:12:37.920 All spiritual practice is an intervention, 00:12:37.920 --> 00:12:41.040 an outside force, 00:12:41.040 --> 00:12:43.680 a Consciousness which diverts energy 00:12:43.680 --> 00:12:47.300 from flowing in the conditioned pathways. 00:12:47.300 --> 00:12:51.210 You have to be willing to change your life. 00:12:53.639 --> 00:12:55.920 Someone can do all the meditation 00:12:55.920 --> 00:12:58.440 in the world but if they go back to their 00:12:58.440 --> 00:13:00.000 same old patterns, 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:02.040 their same old routine, 00:13:02.040 --> 00:13:05.040 then the wiring remains in place. 00:13:06.800 --> 00:13:10.079 Our unconscious motivations must be 00:13:10.079 --> 00:13:12.600 excavated and faced. 00:13:12.600 --> 00:13:15.120 If through great perseverance and 00:13:15.120 --> 00:13:18.060 determination, we managed to not plug in 00:13:18.060 --> 00:13:20.160 the fan, then there is an actual 00:13:20.160 --> 00:13:23.220 cessation of the 'vritties'. 00:13:23.220 --> 00:13:26.040 A profound silence that is born 00:13:26.040 --> 00:13:28.380 within the self-structure. 00:13:28.380 --> 00:13:31.920 Every time we identify with and react to 00:13:31.920 --> 00:13:34.740 some preference produced by the mind, 00:13:34.740 --> 00:13:37.124 we plug the fan back in. 00:13:37.124 --> 00:13:39.779 The longer we remain in awareness, 00:13:39.779 --> 00:13:42.839 the more of the samskaras are purified. 00:13:42.839 --> 00:13:45.959 The more the fan slows down, 00:13:45.959 --> 00:13:47.769 and the human vessel becomes 00:13:47.769 --> 00:13:50.490 more permeable to awareness, 00:13:50.490 --> 00:13:53.621 the more we become empty of self. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999