Spiritual Teachings With Shunyamurti

Excerpt: “Meditation is the act of gaining victory over death. And that makes it literally a life or death matter. Do we take it with that seriousness? One of the great names for a successful yogi is ‘Mrityunjay’ which means one who has achieved victory over death. There are two words for death in Sanskrit that refer to the two dimensions of death. One is ‘kal’ and kal also means time, and measure. Thus we have the word calendar (kalendar) in English, or calculate, or caliber, or Excalibur, the sword of immeasurable value, the legitimate wielder of which is given immortality. One of the great names for God is ‘Mahakal’, the great death, which is the death of death. It means entering into the dimension of eternity. But how you achieve that is revealed in the second word for death…” Recorded in the afternoon of Thursday, July 12, 2012.

Excerpt: “I hope that you have all come prepared for intense erotic experiences… have you? Those of you who were here for the film this week of the sculpture of Santa Teresa by Bernini will remember that here is a question that is open as to whether she is having a chakra four mystical experience or a chakra two orgasmic experience… and the art critics and philosophers and psychoanalysts are actually arguing over this point…. To the psychoanalyst like Lacan naturally it has to be a chakra two experience – there is no chakra four – that is the modern ideology… and this loss of the transcendent dimension has bought about the loss of the realization that our true relationship to God is an erotic one, but it is the Eros of the soul not of the ego…. The soul’s deepest desire is to be ravished by God – this is what we mean by surrender… you are literally abandoning your ego self and asking to be filled by Gods power – presence – love – bliss. This is the true erotic experience not the other one at chakra two… that is very minor and disappointing… this one is eternal – liberating – it brings salvation, but it is very much an ecstasy. It is the ecstasy in which you are transported beyond… the experience begins in chakra four but then literally you are carried upward through the three worlds…" Recorded on the evening of Thursday, July 12, 2012.

Excerpt: “As the world situation every day becomes more tamasic, we have to remain immune to the negative vibrations that are all around us that want to affect us and that want to drag us down back into ego consciousness. Because to whatever extent there is still ego within any of us, that ego is becoming more and more rancid every day – that’s really what tamasic means. It’s putrid, it’s decomposing. We’re in the final period of Kali Yuga, when not only the ego but the physical organism itself is losing its capacity to live, to remain healthy, to remain strong, to remain with an immune system that is functioning properly, because the very elements of matter have been defiled. And so it’s very important that Sat Yogis keep a sattvic energy field. Not only for the immunity of our own organism, but for the immunity of the sangha, as a super-organism, or we can be very easily be infected by the tamasic energy and then suddenly our field of love becomes one of conflict, and aggression, or lust, or fear, or simply chaos and confusion, or all at once. And the only way to maintain the coherence of your own energy field and that of the sangha is to remain in inner silence – with your consciousness united with the Source.” Recorded in the afternoon of Monday, July 9, 2012.

Excerpt: “A yogi is someone who is so sick of his ego that he wants to commit suicide. But he knows that if he does that he will have to face all the karma that he ran away from, in the next life. So it does no good. And so instead of killing the body in suicide he realizes he must commit egocide. Suicide, ‘sui’ comes from the Sanskrit ‘swa’, the real Self; the ego is the false self, the me. In fact the ‘me’ actually stands for ‘M-E,’ Machinic Entity because the ego is a machine, it’s a robot, with an operating system that was created in childhood and robotically repeats the same patterns over and over again – in just a slightly more sophisticated form. And so we have to get rid of this robot somehow. We have to give ourselves a robotomy – which is similar to a lobotomy but slightly different. In the lobotomy you get rid of the higher functioning aspects of the robot, then you are left with the lower ones. Here we want to get rid of the robot entirely so that we can be liberated in life. But to get rid of the ‘me’ requires being willing to cut our link with thoughts – to be in stillness. And the thoughts continue to emerge robotically. But what keeps the robot going, what keeps it fueled is our addiction to those thoughts. The robotic thoughts produce jouissance; they produce a kind of pleasure, an enjoyment, even though that enjoyment is painful. Every ego is sadomasochistic and it produces a kind of enjoyment in the same way that the dog enjoys the taste of its own bleeding gums when it’s chewing on a bone.” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, July 5, 2012.

Excerpt: ”Each of us comes equipped with three levels of consciousness. Unfortunately there is no instruction manual as to how to operate these three. And the society today tells us only about the ego – the primary level – that is required in order to function in this society. But if one lives only from the ego, one is living a very petty, weak, fragile life, focused on very superficial aims; the greed for money or sexual pleasure or some kind of limited power or some kind of fantasy fulfillment that always ends up disappointing one and the ego always ends up depressed and anxious and lost. And the ego consciousness is not good for very much, and it is not intended to do very much, except to get you to adulthood…” Recorded in the afternoon of Wednesday, July 4, 2012.

Excerpt: “The purpose of meditation is to become empowered. You should feel more spiritual power at the end of each meditation than you started with. How many of you feel that? Good. We need a lot of spiritual power to deal with the energy field of the world as it is today. And every day the world becomes more tamasic. And there is a very short time before major world-shattering events will occur. That if we are not strong enough to face them, and have the adequate and accurate response, can be very devastating to our equilibrium. And Sat Yogis are here not just to stay in balance for ourselves but be able to offer peace and balance and strength to others, we have to be able to channel that strength. But to do that, we first have to purify our own unconscious minds. If we are still being overturned by maya, by fantasies, by impulses of the lower chakras and by negative thoughts, negative interactions with others, then we are not able to be of any service to the world. We must complete our self-service, we must complete our own dissolution of the ego to be able to offer as a conduit as a channel the divine energies. So we must get out of the ego mind and we must enter the divine mind. If you’re in the ego mind, you are not of any help to anyone, least of all yourself.” Recorded in the afternoon of Monday, July 2, 2012.

Excerpt: “In order to be able to have some sense of God’s presence, first of all we have to recognize that what we mean by God, as a starting point, is the highest potential consciousness that you can have. Not the highest possible, the highest potential, because as soon as you say possible then that’s divided into what is possible and what is impossible. But you don’t know what is impossible; you don’t know the limits of potentiality. So we have to assume an infinite potentiality, and that you have that infinite potentiality of altering your state of consciousness to reach that of God consciousness.” Recorded in the afternoon of Thursday, June 28, 2012.

Student Question: Is it the ego that creates the illusion of growth and/or non-growth?

Student Question: To avoid falling asleep in meditation, I’ve read about a recommendation to do walking meditation instead. What advice do you have?

Student Question: What does it mean spiritually to have an identical twin?

Student Question: If one has superego projections with one’s siblings, can those projections be primary, or will they always secondary to those of the parents?

Student Question: Sometimes when I meditate I feel a kind or rush that feels like adrenaline. It feels very good and I want to go deeper into it. The problem is that it feels like I am holding my breath, and I am making this huge effort in order to go deeper. It only lasts for some time and then I feel exhausted. What should I do when this happens? Just let go?

Student Question: How do you handle drives in the lower chakras?

Student Question: Recently in a meditation my foot fell asleep and all these narratives of fear came up regarding whether or not I was hurting my foot or myself. Many of these ideas came up and once I detached from it the feeling in the foot came back. I was wondering what the symbolism of this is?

Student Question: I find myself falling asleep during meditation, why is that? How can I observe the ego falling asleep?

Student Question: When one is trapped in the lower chakras, how does one recognize that one is trapped and how does one get out of them?

Student Question: Sometimes when I meditate I start to feel a very blissful state, but after some time the opposite happens and it becomes almost unbearable and even painful. When this happens I usually stop but today I continued and as I did I thought of the word dematerialization. So I was wondering if that state is associated to “moving from the particle to the wave” that you were referring to and if it is at all related to transmutation as well, is there a connection? What is it that happens?

Student Question: What is healthy fearlessness?

Student Question: What is an angel?

Student Question: When one is trapped in the lower chakras, how does one recognize that one is trapped and how does one get out of them?

Excerpt: “I was reading ‘The Little Russian Philokalia’ today… and this first volume is the teaching of Saint Seraphim of Sarov - a great Saint of Russia… and one of his core teachings is that the true aim of Christianity or of a “true Christian life” as he puts, is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God… I think that sums up authentic Christianity very well… and I think those who are true spiritual seekers in any path can agree that this is the aim, however different religions would alter the language very slightly and that slight alteration can have huge effects…. Now Saint Seraphim does go onto say the Holy Spirit of God is already within you – it is not somewhere else – you don’t have to buy it somewhere – you don’t have to acquire it in some external way… and so really they (religions) all will agree that it is simply a question of realizing your true nature and letting go of the false self… and in the Christian path Saint Seraphim and other Christian Saints and Mystics would say that you do that through contemplative prayer – you contemplate in your consciousness which is silenced, the presence of God – the meaning of God – the beauty of God – the power of God… and simply by doing that you enable the presence of God to emerge into your consciousness… the contemplation of God precipitates the presence of God.” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, June 28, 2012.

Excerpt: “We have to perform our function well, with humility and purity; with absolute emptiness of ego – to live in the largest way, to live for God and as a manifestation of Godly power. Power of love and truth, not of ego; not of the desire to dominate or control – to surrender all of that and be in the purity and the flow of the divine nature.” Recorded in the afternoon of Wednesday, June 27, 2012.

Excerpt: ”What we are all here to discover for ourselves – not through hearsay, not through the testimony even of great sages – is what is real. ‘Who am I really?’ ‘What am I?’ ‘What is this world?’ ‘Is there a God?’ ‘Is there a purpose?’ ‘Is there a meaning?’ ‘What do I want to achieve during this short time that I have between birth and death?’ These are questions that each of us must answer in our own hearts. And while it is useful to hear the wisdom of those who have gone very deeply into reality for themselves, and whose words may be inspiring for you, we must go beyond even the great mahavakyas of the great sages and enter into our own innermost heart.” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, June 14, 2012.

Excerpt: “The obstacle is the ego. With all of its chaotic thoughts, negative thoughts, thoughts of lack, of anxiety, of anger, of lust, fear. The ego is a luxury we can no longer afford. It makes our lives unmanageable, as the twelve-step people would say. You can’t manage your life if your life is ruled by an ego because an ego is inherently chaotic, ambivalent . . . and filled with internal conflicts that get projected as external conflicts, paralysis of will, and self-deception of every sort. And all of this produces: suffering. Suffering is based on illusion because the ego is an illusion, and all of its thoughts are illusory. Once you realize you cannot trust those thoughts, you will accept only the thoughts that come from the Source, and they come as inspirations, intuitions, Aha-experiences, and wordless knowing of the true nature of reality – that leads to spontaneous egoless action.” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, June 7, 2012.

Excerpt: “What the path of Advaita says, that is different from every other path, is: all you really need to do is ask the question ‘What am I?’ And just by asking the question, not even getting an answer – in fact you don’t want an answer – as soon as you get an answer you get another belief system, another mythology, another symbolic situation that needs to be overcome because every symbolic situation you are in is the obstacle to the realization of what you are. So you don’t want an answer to the question: what you need is a wordless realization of your being, which you can only get by inquiring – not conceptually, not to find some new map or some new symbol – but to free yourself from all the symbolic constructs that have then created the need for some journey or salvation or some grace from a God, whether out there or in here; it doesn’t even matter. So the question is meant to get you out of every belief system and to keep you from creating a new one because what you need to be free of is beliefs…” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, May 31, 2012.

Excerpt: “All suffering is caused by identification with an object in consciousness: primarily identification with the physical body, and secondly, identification with language, thoughts. And those thoughts are charged with emotions, impulses, drives—images that create nostalgia, anger, fear, whatever. So there’s a whole cluster of objects, mental objects, that tend to arise that produce effects of suffering of different kinds. And to the extent we’re identified with those objects in the mind, we are on the wheel of karma. . . . And because of our identification with the body, and with thought, we cannot escape because every effort to escape just tightens the noose more: we affirm the illusion that is the cause of suffering. . . . But there is a very simple way out, and that is nonidentification with any mental objects and instead realization of the Self as the Empty Consciousness in which those objects arise.” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, May 24, 2012.

Student Question: How can I love my daughter without attachment?

Student Question: Last week you spoke about the difference between the ego mind and the Sat mind, and I didn’t really understand what the Sat mind is.

Student Question: When one is in a meditative state, in a state of awareness, and then starts to lose that awareness by getting pulled down by the lower death drive and the lower chakras. What suggestions do you have to help prevent one from falling again and again?

Student Question: There is an attachment to lack, which we don’t want to lose it seems because unconsciously it defines who we are as an ego. So the question is, how does one “attack” that attachment to lack?

Student Comment: Last week I talked about the excitement of different activities, and there are many of them that I feel so excited for. But then it creates this sense that there’s not enough time: I can’t do everything and I don’t know how to prioritize. Then I get this overwhelming sense because I want to do them all and the anxiety is coming up from that.

Student Question: We have talked about a healthy super ego. For example, recognizing where one has been inaccurate, even if it’s subtle, and not wanting to repeat that behavior again. I can see how that recognition could escalate into more of a negative attack but, how do you discern the difference?

Student Question: What is the relationship between karma, transformation and the supreme will of God?

Excerpt: “There is an inherent and eternal love between the soul and God. Sita is the signifier of the soul and Rama of God - and Sita and Rama are always together - and when Sita does become separated from Rama, through Sita’s ignorance and stupidity – karmic enmeshment with the phenomenal plane – Rama always comes to rescue her – and Rama is always victorious – and Rama is always able to build an army of monkeys to be able to help him. Monkeys are just a signifier for yogis – because yogis are those who are coming out of the monkey stage into the divine stage through their love for Rama – our love for Rama…. And so all meditation is, is the act of love between Sita (that’s you), and Rama (that’s also you)… and that’s what love really means - that you meet yourself - that love is union with the source of your being… the soul is that part of yourself that wonders into this dream field called the universe to have experiences and challenges, delights… all created by Rama for the benefit of Sita, but then we get lost in those delights and the paradise becomes a hell realm and voila… its time to meditate again… get Rama to rescue us – beam us up again – start the whole thing all over again…. So we are at that moment where Sita once more meets Rama… and so you have to ask yourself the question – am I ready to meet Rama?” Recorded on the evening of, Thursday, May 17, 2012.

Student Question: What is the superego? If you dissolve the ego, will the superego still be there?

Excerpt: “Philosophy in the modern West . . . distinguished religion from science. Religion was mythical, and science dealt with facts. . . . Postmodern Western philosophy now conceives that science itself is a myth. . . . When it comes to ultimate questions, science has no answer to them; it has to presume an origin, but it doesn’t even attempt to account for it because it cannot account for anything ultimate because that would be religion. But if, in fact, there’s no difference between religion and science, and if they are both mythological constructs, then it’s important to understand what myth is. And as Joseph Campbell has explained very clearly in all of his works, myth is metaphor. But what is it that’s being metaphorized?” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, April 26, 2012.

Excerpt: “We are here to realize the true self. The implication of that is that we have not been living in our authentic self, but in some false - unreal - persona… and if we are not living in our real self then we are not living in the real world either… and if the world is false and the self is false, then things are going to happen that are unsustainable because the false cannot survive the test of truth… and because so many on this planet are now living in the false self, we have a false world that is collapsing… you cannot live in that state of hypocrisy without karma hitting you pretty hard…. So everyone is getting lessons in karma nowadays but we are not here to worry about the political issues of the world and their karma… we are here to work out our own karma… to make sure that we are not secretly killing elephants when we are pledged to protect them… to make sure that if we are Sat Yogis, we are living up to our vows and living a yogic life and living as what Linji - the great Zen master - the great wild Zen master - called the true person – the one true person of no rank. He said every ego is out to try and get to as high a rank as possible and to try to improve its status in the world and that is all it is really interested in, and there is one true person who doesn’t care about that… who realizes that there is no such thing as rank…. It is interesting that rank has these two meanings. One is a bad smell, and the other is status…. It is rank if you are interested in rank… but he said there is only one true person of no rank and that everyone else is interested in rank and prestige, status, possessions and power - all of that… but that the one true person is the incarnation of God… the Christ…. Don’t think the Zen masters don’t believe in Christ. They do, but they have another word for that being...” Recorded on the evening of, Thursday, April 19, 2012.

Student Question: What is déjà vu?

Student Question: How can I know if my meditation practice has stagnated?

Student Question: How can we guide children from a very early age to find their awareness?

Student Question: Is the body a reflection of the mind?

Student Question: Something that I have been thinking about recently is this idea of “the third.” I know you mentioned before when we were talking about the “I of the Statement” and the “I of the Enunciation” that there is also the “Third I”; the “I of Awareness” or the “I of Shiva.” We have also studied a module in which the father comes in as the third to break the mother and child dyad, and I am sure there are many other examples, but I was just curious about the significance of this idea of the third and what it really means.

Excerpt: "Most religions are the worship of a yogi - they are constituted by that…. Christ was a yogi – Buddha was a great yogi – Mohammed was a yogi – Moses was a yogi… and so most of the religions today are either worshiping the yogi or worshiping the book that the yogi wrote, or was channeled through him… but religion was originally simply the act of becoming a yogi… so the religions that we have today are indirect and there is certainly benefit in worshiping a great yogi, but that is very different from attaining the state of consciousness that Christ attained or that Buddha attained…. And so merely worshiping and trying to imitate the life of a great yogi, while an important step, keeps one within the ego… it doesn't transcend the ego into direct God realization, and that is what we are here to do… to become the goal that those great yogis pointed at for us…. Christ would have considered Christianity to be heretical – he never said worship me – be one with the Father – I and the Father are one - you and the Father are one – we are all one - but then that gets misinterpreted…. Or in the Islamic religion, there is one prophet only and one holy book and then it stops, as if God got some inability to write after that – writer's block or something – couldn't produce any more testaments – not true…. But humans have gotten yoga block… humans have blocked their own access to the transcendent dimension of our own self, and that is what we are here to unblock… and we do that simply by silencing the egoic chatter that acts as a buffer and an obstruction between our consciousness and that of God's….. And that is the original and authentic purpose of prayer… to create a mental pathway and a link between the individual consciousness and the universal consciousness…" Recorded on the evening of Thursday, April 12, 2012.

Student Question: If Jesus and Buddha were both great yogis then why did they both reach different conclusions about God? Jesus spoke about his Father yet Buddhism denies God.

Student Question: Do Vāsanās and Sanskaras have the same meaning?

Student Question: Do we just have to sit in silence long enough to dissolve the discomfort that arises, or do we need to analyze it?

Student Question: Why is it that when I have a deep or a good meditation I sometimes want to cry? Aren’t I supposed to be experiencing bliss?

Student Question: In meditation when I finally reach some silence it is common that I will then be immediately disrupted or thrown out of it and I don’t really understand why that happens? I even experience the sensation of losing balance. Do you know why that is?

Student Question: In your talk tonight you spoke about going through this mirror of unbearable knowledge, but do you go through it or do you witness it?

Student Question: How do we learn when on an everyday basis we are in this whirlpool of being aware and wanting to transcend the ego but then at other times being really chaotic. Sometimes that chaos manifests itself physically and then the next day you can be peaceful again so how do we learn to stay in the silence?