Video 14

Vedic Christianity, Class 14 · Practice of the Presence of God · Swami Chidbrahmananda

[Music] learn to make [Music] yours [Music] my child or it's not that you won't face Danger but they don't last forever [Music] foreign [Music] Open Your Grave striking more to you sincerely [Music] foreign ER of the wicked as I am the mother never fear whenever Where You Are [Music] [Applause] me to yourself I am a mother if you want peace my child don't see the faults of others see your own faults learn to make this world your own one is that stranger my child [Music] [Music] when the shadows of this world come to your lord and love it seems so far away from it seems so far away only take me to alone let me forget [Music] when in doubt I may please in those things that pass away in those things [Music] foreign [Music] and when I do drop Shimmer Shimmer brightly alone let me remember the brighter one oh my Lord don't let me Wander from your shining lines [Music] just to fall on fireflies it's just a fall of fireflies take me to the Lord [Music] foreign [Music] and when they do drop shimmers brightly low [Music] let me remember the brighter one I need foreign all right good evening everyone it's been a while since we've talked about these things just about a month so I had a fantastic time I went out to the east coast to the vedanta center in Washington DC and uh just got to touch base with my friends out there that were part of that eight years at that Center and had such a warm and beautiful time together it's a very inspiring Center if any of you want to go somewhere that's just sweet and watch watch the devotees there I've never seen anything like it with their dedication to that Center they really know it's their own that they've that it's their devotion that creates it and their natural Karma Yoga you know in the eight years I was there we never had to ask for anything to be done we would have a Karma Yoga day we never had to assign tasks the 15 20 25 people would show up and all the bathrooms would be done all the gardens would be weeded all the carpets would be would be vacuumed just such a devotion and then a huge meal always there in the monastery in eight years I had to cook like three times you know the devotees would always show up with food for the monks and uh it was just such a beautiful experience I was very glad to be there and then I spent 10 days camping in the Rocky Mountains with an old brahmacari friend of mine when I first joined back in 1999 in San Francisco and uh for the first time in my life I was brought to Tears by Beauty I went on this hike and uh just came around this corner and just saw those mountains just forced up into the sky in a beautiful clear steel gray turquoise lake with the with the mountains reflected in them and I just stood there just the word ma halfway on my lips just knowing experiencing really for the first time in my life the smallness of the senses the smallness of a body the absolute impossibility for this to absorb the Divine to even begin to see a beauty that was so clearly Beyond all of my hungers all of my ability to swallow oh just sit there and just to be pressed against that limitation was really something and just to have that inside open up and just just thinking of God thinking of mother thinking of this is just a manifestation tiny in this infinite universe and I can't I can't even I can't even touch it not even this in this tiny little portion and uh it's just just beautiful and and and being able to come and bring it down and and talk about brother Lawrence here who spent every day in that ecstatic state of just having to come up with ways of covering his Bliss so that it didn't come over it didn't uh spill out and get attention didn't spill out and water ego uh it's it's really I guess the bottom line that what a wonder that we get to talk about these things what a wonder that we're going to know this and realize this soon that on our time scale it's nothing in the face of the Beloved in the face of mother and to be able to to read about these great sages and these great Saints and to have the opportunity to touch a truth that's that's as old and Beyond ourselves to know that this is our right that it's not a favor that God created this for this for this understanding for this manifestation it's not to be earned it's merely to be realized accepted that it's not an acquisition that it's yours already your learning is about how to accept it how to trust an unconditioned love that you can't imagine in this world how to accept a Grace that requires nothing of you how to let go of a mind that contains your karma and locks you into smallness it's yours and it's mine and we get to talk about it and we get to learn about it and dream about it until we are finally ready to set down our limitation our restrictions and limitations that swamiji says that that really just makes us that there's nothing nothing there's no positive here there's no addition here that makes us us it's merely limitations merely restrictions that create a personality that create a body that create a mind and that as soon as we're ready to to to take a chance on fearlessness mothers there so we're going to jump into brother Lawrence's fifth letter tonight and he says I received this day two books and a letter from Sister blank who is preparing to make her profession and upon that account desires the prayers of your holy society and yours in particular I perceive that she reckons much upon them pray do not disappoint her beg of God that she may make her sacrifice in view of his love alone and with a firm resolution to be wholly devoted to him I will send you one of these books which treat of the presence of God a subject which in my opinion contains the whole spiritual life and it seems to me that whoever duly practices it will soon become spiritual so he's saying here anything that we do in our spiritual life that's considered sacrifice I mean even our worship anything that we consciously do should be done fully fully meaning there's no room for anything else it's done fully for the love of God fully in response to the love of God so we don't go into our practice with the idea of getting or the idea of earning or the idea of acquiring or the idea of controlling or doing anything we go into our practice fully in a response a natural response to love to the love of the Divine a love that has no bottom a love that Swami brahmananda says you will just begin to understand when you reach nirvikalpa samati that you will eternally eternally fall in love with a partner a beloved who is always more beautiful the next day that you see him or her that is always more kind the next time you speak to him or her who is more embracing and and larger in in his gifts to you then from the last time you received anything from him that we live this life as a response to that not in a search for that not in a begging for that not in a longing for that but in a response born of that to know that it exists whole and complete and it is disguised as this moment and that to see it to realize it to understand it is to be fully present here in this moment so this woman who's about to take her vows and asking praying for him to bless her or to pray to God for her his prayer is this that she will make this sacrifice in view of Love Alone with a firm resolution to be wholly devoted to the divine and we see this mirrored in in other places where he's written that that that Holy means not the rest of your life not a summary of the past of your life but that Holy devoted always exists Here and Now So In This Moment you're not looking at what you're going to do or how you're going to become or what you hope to be someday you're always dealing with your with your gift to the Beloved Here and Now that to be wholly devoted to him doesn't require a past and a future it requires giving this moment always completely to the divine so that in your moment if you realize there's a part of you that isn't being offered what do you do you simply offer it you just simply start you just simply go if there's something that you should be doing he says that you're not doing what do you do you do it no thought about it no need for machinations of grief and sorrow and repentance and oh whoa me and I'm so terrible creating a story of mine that again hides the present love of the Divine behind a curtain of nonsense a curtain of limitation called an ego because your ego loves it when you say spiritual life is difficult your ego loves it when it when you say oh I'll realize God in my next life or probably 500 lives from now your ego loves you to get discouraged and to believe that this is rare and unattainable why because then ego can raise up that red cape of hero and say I'll save you let's meditate two hours a day now you know let's do this let's do this let's be the doer that reaches God and try and try and work and work and it draws in a whole story of history and projects a long future of success and glory of the day that you'll finally be able to grab hold of God by your own effort and your own sacrifice that is ego and that is what he is warning her about right now always have your action be in response to the Beloved in response to love so that it's not a doing on your part it's a worshiping it's a surrendering it's giving and he says that uh that these practices will have to be wholly done for through whole whole a whole devotion devoted to him I know that for the right practice of it the heart must be empty of all other things this is why uh ramakrishna says there is nothing like discernment and renunciation he says there's nothing like it he loves discernment and renunciation why because this is what brother Lawrence is talking about emptying the heart of all the Clutter of all the confusion of all the numerous things that you think are going to add to you are going to provide something to you forgetting the fact that you cannot be added to and you cannot be taken from there is nothing in this world for you to take that's why you're born naked and crying that's why you die and exit alone there's nothing here there's nothing here but a story nothing here and so he says for the right practice of it the heart must be empty of all of the other things now how do you do that do you give up everything that you enjoy and love no you look through everything that you know and love until you see God until you see the divine glittering in those objects and you realize it was never those things that cluttered your heart that were going to give you your pleasure and your fulfillment and your wisdom that it's always the name of God that's being reflected in this these things it's always the name of God in this world that brings you to your knees that brings you Joy that brings you Bliss that brings you wholeness and security his name is written secretly in Everything That Glitters so to empty the heart is to see the glittering name and drop the rest Let It Go don't hold on to it know that it's merely story merely a thought and has no existence independent of you so I know for the right practice of it the heart must be empty of all other things because God will possess the Heart Alone why because of that exact experience that I had in the mountains the heart is going to explode as soon as God begins to reside there because there is no container for what we are hoping to understand and know to to to to realize we always want to call it an experience because you know that that's because of our disease of using the mind to find God our disease of using the body to find our Bliss you know that that because of that constant use of body and mind that's where we go for our answers that's you know we try and figure it out and how do we figure it out we think about it and we add all the relationships together of all of the objects we've sorted out in our mind and divided and put in their boxes and we try and build a castle the Babel the the Tower of Babel you know the Tower of Babel in the Old Testament you know when the world the story of the myth goes that uh you know that one time all of humanity spoke the same language and they decided that they were going to build a tower to reach God and so they started building this Tower and God looks down and he says look at these guys with this kind of unity and with this kind of hutzpah as a world they're going to kill themselves they're going to mess everything up by building a tower to reach me and so what he does he goes down and he gives them all a different language he breaks that he breaks that Unity of ego and shows them that the mind isn't going to reach God that nothing you can build is going to reach the Divine and they scatter amongst the world and so that's that's you know the our problem you go into your mind you look for answers and the things that you build in your philosophy and in your religion and in your understanding and even in your concepts of God you get a little buzz maybe of Joy from thinking about it you think oh I'm almost there and then what happens you know mother always comes down and stirs the pot a little bit you know puts a few of your favorite little trinkets in front of you and you're like oh there they are and the tower comes crashing down and you wonder why can't I do this because God doesn't exist in the mind you know God is pure mind he doesn't exist in the body and the things that we can grab he can't be put in front of our observing self because he is she is that is our observing self because God will possess the heart alone and as he cannot possess it alone without emptying it of all besides so neither can he act there and do in it what he pleases unless it is left vacant to him So In This Moment you're offering everything to the Beloved and what is the Beloved going to do he's going to spontaneously Act through you now does that mean you've lost yourself does that mean you don't get to do all the fun stuff you love to do and it ruins your life because you've had to give it up for for a third party out there who wants to take control is you know I always hear that that religion is about control you know about about giving up any sense of your own dignity your own knowledge your own your own it's utterly not that to give yourself up to God is to give yourself to your very own highest ideal don't you experience that when you read the upanishads or when you read any of these these beautiful ancient scriptures don't you don't doesn't it feel like they're telling you something that you somehow already knew I mean I remember when I first started reading these fantastic scriptures and reading takora the life of ramakrishna always having that Sensation that someone had secretly gone into my mind while I was in the shower and it was hanging on the door there and rifled through the pockets and picked out all of my aha moments all of the little times in life where I'd been like oh that's I get that that's what it is it goes in there grabs all of my aha moments went out put them on the computer organized them typed them up put them in good pros and then printed them out and stuff them back in my pockets again that's always how it feels when I read the vedanta that somebody has it all figured out because it is in fact your own it is not something that someone or something came together as a third party and is giving you these writings these writings are your own and where do they come from this eternal moment this is The Vedas this moment is The Vedas the books and the writings and the teachings they're crystallized from this one Eternal moment that you're sitting in the here the now and if you learn to listen which is to Give Your Heart Holy to the Beloved if you are able to empty which means to not act out of mind and out of ego and out of body but to be spontaneously inspired by your highest thought your highest nature your highest understanding of business you'll know that you wrote the scriptures in that state that the scriptures were always yours always your own understanding and realization of the nature of is the nature of the I am that he cannot act there and doing it what he pleases unless it is left vacant to him that ego has to go away has to let go has to surrender yes that's exactly right later later there is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and more delightful than that of a continual conversation with god does that mean that we have to just in our mind now start talking to God constantly you know not not at all what we have to understand is that everything that you're doing right now is an interaction with the divine that every conversation you had today was with the Beloved it wasn't with multitudes of people cashiers Bankers taxi cab drivers people on the street everything you did today was a prayer every action that happened today was your interaction with the other the divine that God which you have relegated to the other side of your ego fence so that you think it was a cashier you think it was a banker you think it was a taxi cab driver and because of that you barely remember the response you barely remember the conversation you had an opportunity to share in Divine love to feel a prompting to serve that person and to give them something that would have changed their day that would have would have opened their light in this flash of real love somebody who really cared somebody who really was selfless somebody who had let go of the chain for a moment but instead we talked to Cashiers and we talked to bankers and we talked to taxi cab drivers and quite often said things that just didn't matter and didn't change anything we have to open that heart we have to give it wholly over we have to abandon this idea of a self that needs to do anything and to be absorbed in the Divinity that is this moment this interaction with life that if your mind was pure if you could stop the thought that is being stirred up by those two little fingers me and mine if you could silence that like Rama in the woods you would hear the birds singing The Vedas like ramakrishna on the shore of the Ganges you would hear the waves repeating the ancient mantras because you live in the scriptures you live in God everywhere present poured out in love and beauty everywhere all the time without end open the heart open the heart there is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and more delightful than that of a continual conversation with god those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it those who practice and experience it practicing Silence of the Mind practicing seeing God in everything that we encounter practicing hearing his voice learning lessons from everything to hear the rustle and the leaves and to learn something of God to walk down the street and instead of just plugging our ears with a pair of headphones and being distracted by beautiful things in that Silence of walking down the street we say ma teach me something and we open our heart and we open our eyes we open our ears and we listen and we wait and mother teaches us something mother touches us somehow or we pray as we go along Ma I'm not seeing you anywhere teach me how you hide in all of these things show me your Googling your twinkling eye and the person that I'm passing and then we look at the person that we're passing and we look beyond the personality we look beyond the the the the the Hipster outfit and the colored hair and the piercing in the eyebrow we look beyond that and we see our mother giggling quietly through that eye as she passes us and we fall in love we fall in love again for the first time there is not in this world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual conversation with god those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it yet I do not advise you to do it from that motive it is not pleasure which we ought to seek in this exercise but let us do it from the principle of love and because God would have us because God wants you because God loves and God has prepared an entire universe to welcome you to bring you to this knowledge to this experience of being that every experience in your day today was meant to bring you somehow closer that every bit of suffering and pain or confusion that you went through today was somehow designed to get you to detach to let go of these trinkets that fill the heart and don't leave any room for the Divine for your lover for your highest realization your highest inspiration it is not pleasure which we ought to seek in this exercise so when we sit for meditation it's not the enjoyment of a good meditation that we're sitting for it's sitting in the presence of what is the presence of God right I like to think of that in terms of Sun Tanning you know if you if you lay out in the sun you know you're just laying in the sun your body's reacting in the normal natural way that it does to the sun you're getting that tan of course it's old-fashioned to get a tan we don't do that anymore but you know in the in the old days I'd lay out there on the chaise lounge even at 13 and work on getting and imagine getting this body to tan it was something but to lay out there all you don't have to be like okay more melatonin in zone four on the wrist you know oh oh wait over on the finger on the left more melatonin no all of the change that's necessary in your life all of the growth that's necessary in your life all of the movement and going toward the Divine that's necessary in your life will happen because you're in the presence of God consciously you are aware of an awareness within you you're aware of the witness and just being aware of your own awareness brings out that melatonin of bliss brings out that tan of love in the heart be consciously with God all through your day every moment of it which really boils down to this moment always this moment love God right now be aware of the Beloved mother your beloved brother father son your highest ideal it is not the pleasure that we seek in this exercise but let us do it from a principle of love and because God would have us were I a preacher I should above all other things preach the practice of the presence of God and were I a director I should advise all the world to do it so necessary do I think it and so easy to knew we but the want we have of the grace and assistance of God that is what our practice is for that's what our discernment is for so that we can realize how much we have longed for the divine when we come to when when talker says that you have to love God with the combined love and I can never remember the whole list but this that and the other it doesn't matter what that list is the way to do it is not to stop loving those things and learn to love God it's coming to the understanding that the things that you love in those things is God and you look through those things you look through your partner you look through your mother you look through your your image on the shrine you look through these things to the god that is inspiring the love that you experience in them and by knowing that the real love behind all of these things is the divinity is how you become aware of how much you have loved God forever how much you have longed for God in that constant quest for the perfect boyfriend or the perfect girlfriend or the perfect job or the the biggest raise or the most praise that you can ever come that all of that was your longing for a moment with God a moment with the Fulfillment that only God is a moment of the perfect love that only God is and what is that God your very self without offensive ego that says God is there and I am here it's laying down everything taking up space in your heart with a lie ah no knew we but the want we have of the grace and assistance of God we should never lose sight of him no not even for a moment believe me make immediately a holy and firm resolution never more that you will willfully forget him and to spend the rest of your days in this sacred presence deprived For the Love of him if he thinks fit of all consolations you know to do it for the sake of love nothing else do it because it's what you are not for any other reason there is no acquisition there is nothing that can be added to you by anything that you do think or say in this world nothing so stop thinking of God in terms of acquisition and start understanding its nature of being and through that being that constant companionship you do the becoming automatically you don't have to whip yourself you don't have to drive yourself you don't have to push yourself and force yourself all discipline is inspired when it's the presence and voice of Love inspiring it spontaneously from deep within your own self a familiarity and an intimacy that you have looked outside for forever it's time to give it up make immediately a holy and firm resolution never more to willfully forget him and to spend the rest of your days in Her Sacred presence deprived For the Love of him if he thinks fit and deprived of all consolations if it's what is if it's what's best if you can touch that Shrine within just once if you can find that thumb thumb sized hole in the heart where that Blissful absolute the unchanging self somehow is slipping through in a pure love that is the motive the energy that you use for Every Breath You Take and for every thought you think and for every action you make if you can find that heart that that Shrine within your heart and if you can let go of all stories that's the only way to find it let go of everything your mind is saying to you as non-existent just let it go and instead of using your mind to think your own thoughts use your mind as as a satellite dish to Intuit the presence of God which is watching it to Intuit that Infinity from which the self is watching a place that cannot be objectified cannot be put in front of the senses a place of Infinite Space and infinite silence the framework of every object and every noise from which your infinite self has been sitting patiently forever in its own Bliss in its own fullness as this play captures it and holds it captive set heartily about this work get to and full just be enthused where's the enthusiasm jump into this you have so much opportunity in front of you at this very moment it's not something you have to do tomorrow stop thinking in terms of that it's right here be enthusiastic about opening to it about touching it don't begrudgingly change your life don't begrudgingly let go of these objects and trinkets of the world that gave you nothing but hunger right that's what discernment teaches you that the only thing this world this world can give you two things actually this world can give you hunger and this world can give you distraction those are the only things that you can get here and for many people we think that's good enough right I mean some of those people we get addicted to these things that give us a little distraction or a lot of distraction we get addicted to these things that make us hungry that make us want more and the more you get the more you want you know the thing about the objects of the world and the hunger and lust of the senses is that it tricks you because as you jump into it thinking I'm just never going to say no to this self again it starts getting more and more particular you know you first you start going to the gym I got to be beautiful so you make yourself beautiful but suddenly you demand only beautiful people that work out at the gym right so you work out more at the gym and you get that special haircut then you get that great job you've got money now and suddenly your desires require people that make at least this much money and spend at least this much time on their body and have at least this much power at work and this much Authority in their jobs and this this family level and this nationality you become a connoisseur and you start being led by your nose to the far reaches of the world in search of a perfect thing that doesn't exist and you spend your whole life and one day you're 90 years old and that beautiful gym body is sagging and dragging on the ground behind you hanging over the edges of your sandals and you're thinking to yourself I can't get what I love anymore and you're alone and bitter and angry because you were a fool it's your opportunity not to be a fool that's what from the Swami probably Nanda one of my favorite the way he used to say that word he says why is it that you do these things because you are dumb and the way that that would just ReSound off of his lips you just knew it to be true not offensively because you knew he was talking to the self that knew that anything else was stupid that's discernment to accept that you're stupid and set about not being stupid by being constantly in the presence of God giving your heart wholly over to the Beloved living for an ideal that's higher than Stars an ideal that you've always wanted right if you want to know what your ideal is write what you hope they write about you and your obituary he was the nicest guy gave he was so generous she loved me she loved everybody she treated like everyone like like her very own family and write your obituary and know that's what you are and it's your own self calling you there call her God if you want to as long as the ego puts him on the other side of the fence you're hungry for him that fence is yours to remove take it out as best you can and if you can't then just enjoy the conversation hang out at the edge of that fence all the time talking to the Beloved resting your arm on it so heartily said about this work and if you do it as you ought be assured that you will soon find the effects of it that's a promise all all the great sages tell you that you know it was a brahmananda says do it for a year and if you haven't felt any Bliss come and slap me do the work if you don't believe in God do the work you haven't earned the right to not believe in God you're just being lazy it's easy to take that hook off the wall and say I just don't believe in it it doesn't it doesn't change a thing earn the right to say you don't believe in God if you don't believe in God do the practices that the science of sages says will show you God do the work and if you don't find God then you have the right to say you don't believe in her then you've earned the right to say there is no such thing but if you're not willing to do the experiments if you're not willing to do the work and the studies shut up be a hedonist that's fine but don't put it under the guise of atheism put it under the guise of ignorance and then we can be happy that we can stop fighting about these things right so heartily said about this work and if you do it as you ought be assured that you will soon find the effects of it I will assist you with my prayers poor as they are I recommend myself earnestly to yours and those of your holy Society being theirs and more particularly yours the sixth letter up into writing to the same person I have received from Mrs blank the things which you gave her for me excuse me I wonder that you have not given me your thoughts of the little book I sent to you and which you must have received pray set heartily about the practice of it in your old age it is better late than never it's that little little booklet on on the practice of the presence of God and she's getting it in her old age it's better late than never you know right now you're most of you are young a few glaring exceptions in here but most of you are are at the beginning or you know not quite at the middle yet certainly what a beautiful thing what an amazing opportunity you've got the energy to do it you you've got you've got the bodies that can sit and can work and you've got the time to practice you know you you can still see to read the scriptures so do it he's saying I cannot imagine how religious people can live satisfied without the practice of the presence of God I don't get it for my part I keep myself retired with him in the fund or the center of my soul as much as I can right here The Shrine of the heart the Cave of the heart for Saint John of the cross the Shrine of the heart for takur and and vedantans you know for my part I keep myself retired that's an interesting word he keeps himself in Repose so it's not this isn't retiring you know we don't sit there defending ourselves against the onslaught of all the world it's a retiring it's something you back in that's what Netty Nettie is not this not this it's a retiring it's a backing end to the lap of the Divine mother and you have to back in why because you can't objectify her she's not going to get on this side of the senses you know I remember when I first was in the monastery I was just waiting for mother to come up here to me you know at every turn I like you know I'd be home in the monastery alone Swami would be in India or something and I'd walk up the stairs just thinking oh a moth could walk out of the shrine right now you know I'm not gonna do this and Ma didn't you know she wasn't popping out of the woodwork to entertain me or to inspire me and I used to get bothered by that and I remember sitting in the shrine and complaining to her I was like Mom what's going on here tacos saw you everywhere he was constantly popping off into ecstasy you know one of my French toast what's going on how come nothing here I got my answer you know in the way that mother gives answers she said you go through your senses for everything if I appear to you through your senses where are you going to go look for the rest of your life to find me you're stupid you're a fool if I step in front of your senses you're gonna go digging for me in the world for the rest of your life hoping to see me again I'm right here I am the intelligence that you're using to think about me I am the existence that you're using to become aware of awareness I'm the love that you're using to love me to look for all the things that you are inspired by in the world what do you need some Apparition in front of you for I am you I'm living your life before you even realize what happened I see the most Quiet Things of your mind that you have yet to discover I am the Stillness within the peace that you're desperately looking for I'm already there the thought that you're having this moment I knit it for you I put it there what do you think I'm going to knit the giant crocheted me to entertain you with I am the crocheter of everything you've ever seen heard touched or tasted I am the mother where are you if you can't see me what have you put up in front of yourself that you haven't recognized me I am that cab driver that cashier that Banker how much we could have shared if you had known that how much you could have grown today had you seen that I can't imagine how religious people can live satisfied without this practice of the presence of God for my part I keep myself retired with him in the fund or center of my soul as much as I can and while I am so with him I fear nothing but the least turning from him is utterly insupportable the least glancing to the left or to the right is a Barren hunger in a wasteland of delusion he's come to see this he's come to know this than to forget God for a moment Is A Wasteland we pray that every day in that that that thing that we that we repeat oh how I long for the day when a moment separation from you it's the truth we pray to see it someday why you don't have someday you don't have a future you know one time I was riding back from a limo of Swami prabhudananda and it was his 85th birthday and I turned to myself what's it like to be 85. like I'm always making five-year plans for myself you know like in five years I'm going to do this that or the other I said what's it like to be 85 when you really can't make a fire You Can't Make A Five-Year Plan and he smiled he said oh we're going to get personal are we he said well he said to be honest with you it's no different than being 20. because I was never promised another day I was never promised tomorrow and I've lived my life knowing that I was never promised tomorrow and I was quiet the whole way home I was like that is the most beautiful and riching wonderful thing I've ever heard to learn to live in the moment there's nothing in the future for you if you put something in the future you might as well never have it because there is no future there's only now and if you're not having what you desire now if you aren't fulfilled now in this moment if you're not happy and full of joy there's nothing out there that's going to change it there's this moment that will allow you to change it the here and the now don't go looking for your joy don't go looking for your happiness remember what he told us he said to you it is your quest for happiness itself that prevents you from being happy because to go on a quest for happiness you have to decide that you're not happy right you have to believe the story that you don't have it if you're going to go look for it the scriptures are telling you are God you are this entire universe and more thou art that what do you think you're going to go get that's going to fix something you are that take your retirement your Repose and accept it open to it be inspired by it think about it until it trickles down all the way to the foundation of your wrong thinking and finally clicks that one foundational primordial switch that you got wrong when you were three and suddenly you realize oh my God I am I fear nothing but the least turning from him is insupportable this exercise does not much fatigue the body it is however proper to deprive it sometimes well nay often of many Little Pleasures which are innocent and lawful for God will not permit that a soul which desires to be devoted entirely to him should take other Pleasures than with him that is more than reasonable right so we we don't engage even if it's not a matter of right and wrong right it's a matter of inspiration it's the it's the ego that wants to go collect a few little trinkets no it's not a big deal no it's not a big problem no it's not wrong but if it's the ego going and collecting these little things you're still hungry you're still not understanding that you're free of the need for that you still believe that that that that the meaning of freedom is to be able to do what you want do you see the oddness in that freedom is not the ability to do what you want freedom is to have no want freedom is to find this moment perfect to find yourself mysteriously blissful mysteriously intelligent mysteriously loving and in that place of zero thinking zero imagining zero calculating love manifests and you never make a wrong move you never say the wrong thing you never feel anger jealousy hatred bitterness loneliness defeat depression because you're standing in love you're standing in intelligence and you're tripping out trying to figure out what existence means wow what is this to be aware of awareness what a thing this exercise doesn't much fatigue the body so it's not a matter of some heroic effort driven by need and hunger to find something out there that is true doesn't involve that it is proper though to deprive the body sometimes no it's proper to deprive it many times of the Little Pleasures which are innocent and lawful because God will not permit that the soul which desires to be devoted entirely to him should take other Pleasures than him right that's that constantly going inward when you feel that first impetus of hunger stop identify where it's coming from because you know what it's not coming from you it's coming up from a body or it's coming up from a mind and if it's coming up from either one of those it's going to change the moment you touch it so even if you fulfill it there's another card right behind it asking for more so even on the small things stay present stay in the company of the Divine I do not say that therefore we must put any violent constraint upon ourselves so don't misunderstand no we must serve God in a holy freedom we must do our business Faithfully without trouble without disquiet recalling our mind to God mildly and with Tranquility as often as we find it wandering from him right because it only has to be violent and big if you takes a bigger chunk than the moment than the present it takes a huge exertion of of of of mental energy to give the whole rest of your life to God to never ever indulge in that Vice again to give up this thing for the for the rest of my days that's a huge exertion of enormous scale that you certainly need an ego to accomplish but that's not where it lies it's in this gentle quiet moment where if you notice the mind is wandering from the thought of the Beloved from the conversation with god you just gently give it a little tap like the needle on a record player and then it can keep playing the music of being right so it's not heroic efforts and great overcomings it's a quiet faithfulness for no other purpose than the beauty of love In This Moment this moment that never begins and never ends you just slowly keep tapping gently in a friendly peaceful way over here mind say the Mantra again try one more time to do it perfectly under that name again and see what you can see I do not say that we therefore must put any violent constraint upon ourselves no we must serve God in a holy freedom all right Freedom comes by being present Freedom comes when you know that there's no story that defines this present moment there's no history behind it there's no yesterday to give you the troubles for this moment this moment is always new always fresh always pure always undefined there's no future to project from it no anxiety that's necessary about how to win this moment will be the future that you think is coming without Ever Changing without ever moving this moment is all that you have ever had and it is always free always pure always blissful and contains everything that you need to navigate it perfectly you need nothing else allow yourself to know that allow yourself to let go of your story that created the idea of what you are allow yourself to silence a mind that's constantly trying to tell you what the moment is instead of letting you experience it as it is let go of a future that's constantly defining the necessity of change the necessity of do the necessity of get or hope or long for let go of that and be here in the I am the very name of God and experience this holy freedom that brother Lawrence is talking about they should stop there so with Mother's permission we'll stop any questions ideas challenges Corrections very good thinkers want to see a man of this kind of awareness that we study yeah he's not in either or it's not a duality is really awareness it's it is awareness it's not a deep thinker although by observing him you would think he was a terribly deep thinker because his thoughts come from the deepest place you know but it's not an acting it's not a doing he's constantly in the presence of God that's all he never forgets that he's in the presence of God and in that presence he has learned of God he's learned about love and intelligence and being God Whispers to him constantly the truths that we read scriptures for yeah no he's not an actor of any kind he's an isser [Laughter] foreign yes yeah I said a year I'm a little anxious right but if the person is doing for more than even three years and then doesn't have that experience of love and it's not established there then who should I slap uh well you can slap whoever told you but the thing is you better be really care that you'd be sure that you did it you know they they that you didn't fudge here and there or that you were a little bit less than sincere or Earnest in it you know it's it's it one of one of the most powerful things I read by Swami Vivekananda is toward the end of his life that he says I came to realize that I'm responsible for every single thing that happened in my life that I can't blame anybody it's not that anything wasn't done for me or given to me all of it was my fault that's a hard thing to realize you have not realized God not because of some defect in something you haven't realized God because you don't want to that's all holy mother says clearly you can have your realization this very moment if you want it but we very much like our ego we very much like this very comforting set of limitations and restrictions that keep us secure and comfy and King that allows us to occasionally nibble on this little Vice there or this little delectable there we're content with that we're happy with that so it's really much more a matter of do you want this or not and so when you're sitting there and you're forgetting God are you bringing your mind back or are you giving it a little bit more of a leash okay we'll see how far we can get before I get in trouble we'll see what we can do before somebody notices you know this this is our trouble this is our trouble we don't know what exists in the things that we think we want we're not looking through them we're looking at them and we're trying to take them so it's that but with discernment that'll fix itself no yes sincerely his mind will not try to slam anybody because if your mind would not like to slap anybody you know if you have to slap you'll slap yourself that's right you find that person within yourself that's right thank you maharash all right try swamiji may we all know these things as our very own somebody do this quickly so that you can take the class