Day 2: Why Transform?

Chapter 1

Meditation

As we start in meditation, again just a quick reminder that I did not create myself. In this vast universe, many levels of energies, subtle energies, which have brought me about for a few decades. And our part is to become receptive to them, and that requires deeper and deeper relaxation, and searching for the right alignment. Then how do these subtle energies relate with us? It is very important to pay some attention to our breath, especially the movement of the abdomen, up and down, corresponding to breathing in and breathing out.

That naturally tends to deepen our breathing, and also assists relaxation, and also assists this very mobile mind to stay here, connected with the rhythm of breathing in and breathing out. In our contemporary usage in English, the word breath no longer carries quite the richness of many levels of energy that is still carried by the Chinese word qi, and the Sanskrit word prana. Breath has many levels of energy in it, just a reminder from the oldest Upanishad, prana Vai Brahma, prana is Brahma, and also a reminder from the Bible, the book of Genesis. God created human beings from the earth and breathed His own breath into them to make them alive. We need to bring our attention to this very great mystery that as long as I am alive, it is a breath of God in me, a particle of divinity in me, not exclusively in me, but in all our relationships, how can I be more related with this particle of divinity within myself and in the others?

So I keep my attention on simply breathing in and breathing out without trying to stop my breathing either outside or inside. The fundamental pranayama, in fact Patanjali even speaks about it, is simply the awareness of breathing. Since the ordinary mind has a natural tendency to be anywhere but here and any other time but now, I wish to relate it or connect it with something more stable, namely the body, finding more and more stillness in the body and I see if I can become aware of the vertical axis from the top of the head to the base of the spine in the body. Great traditions refer to this as the axis mundi, the world axis passing through each one of us and I connect my mind to this vertical axis but not very rigidly because it is not accustomed to being still and it will rebel. So I allow the movement of the mind up and down the axis but not away from it.

So a little exercise of discipline and will and gradually without forcing it, the movement of the mind down the axis gradually gets coordinated with breathing out and as I breathe in the mind can move up the axis but I don't intentionally force anything here nor do I hold my breath outside or inside but it naturally deepens. Great. Mind can be, mind can be invited to keep returning to this very great mystery that the fact that I am alive means that a particle of divinity or the breath of God Himself is in me. It is an amazing suggestion from a great scripture, not to easily dismiss. I try to become more and more sensitive to how does it evoke, what sort of feeling this kind of remark evokes in me.

But remaining relaxed, maintaining the right posture, not knowing everything. If I can be clear about the obvious fact that I did not create this breathing apparatus, then I can entertain this mystery. Do I breathe or am I being breathed? Yes. So so now I take three more breaths and then we'll stop here. Thank you.

Chapter 2

Talk

Well, a little bit continuing from yesterday, as I said that the whole discipline of yoga really is a science of transformation. Why do we need transformation?

Maybe you would all recall your own New Year's resolutions and will probably agree that in many cases we have very good ideas, but something in us doesn't carry out those ideas. This is actually a very important thing to understand that usually we are not integrated internally, that our mind understands many good things. We agree this is a good idea, including transformation. Then the body says, well, transformation is a good idea as long as I don't have to change. Let me actually give you a couple of very classical examples. These are not ordinary people. St. Paul, for example, a third of the New Testament are letters of St. Paul, hardly a negligible person. This is what he says in the letter to the Romans. I do what I do not wish to do, and I do not do what I decide to do. Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita, again not a negligible person, he is a legendary warrior, and he asks Krishna, how is it that we find ourselves doing even evil things against our own wish? We can read wonderful teachings of the great scriptures. For example, love thy neighbor, or even love thy enemy. Look at your life. How frequently have you been able to love your enemy? So there are very great teachings. Something even makes sense to us.

We agree, or something in us agrees. But then what has to carry that out belongs somewhere else. Usually it is actually conditioned by all kinds of demands and this and that. And this is why one needs to understand that the part of the whole business of transformation is really to see one's own internal fragmentation and then the need for that integration. In fact, this is really one of the fundamental purposes of yoga. First of all, so that our body and mind and emotions will coordinate with each other. They are not separated from each other, not having a different domain. That, of course, is itself requiring an enormous amount of practice, discipline. This is why yoga, by the way, you probably all know it, comes from the same root as huge in Sanskrit, which really means union to connect, to integrate, to join. First of all, integration within and then integration with higher levels, ultimately really with Brahma. But it is often also translated, this is not the root meaning of it, but as a way or as a path. I myself, a long time ago, wrote a book called The Yoga of the Christ, which was a way of saying the teaching or the way according to Christ, how to come to the center. So it is sometimes translated as a discipline, which itself is rather interesting translation and because it is a discipline. Therefore, first of all, to understand that one of the major purposes of yoga is to internal integration, so that what I think is what I feel and that my body is willing to do it, carry it out, rather than part of me agrees, part doesn't agree, etc. The other thing to keep in mind is a very large idea, in fact, in all great traditions, that we have many levels of reality, not only outside us, but also inside us.

And actually, let me here bring a remark from Saint Paul, if you're interested, it's in the letter to the Corinthians, first letter to the Corinthians, where he actually says that the eyes of the flesh see the things of the flesh, eyes of the spirit, the things of the spirit. And very strong suggestion that as long as I am committed exclusively to the eyes of the flesh, which is, by the way, all our training, all our scientific instruments, very remarkable ones, are extensions of the eyes of the flesh, which is why some of our astronauts say, well, we went to the moon, we didn't see any angels, so angels don't exist. So should we therefore dismiss what Christ said? He didn't have any trouble seeing angels. The Buddha didn't have any trouble seeing angels. Eyes of the spirit are what can see the spirit or spiritual beings. This is a very important idea. Therefore, the strong emphasis on cleansing the organs of perception, that doesn't mean a quantitative extension of the eyes. It's a qualitative shift that is required. I often invite people to think of some mythological figures, if you like, or maybe in person you have met somebody, very remarkable, because it can clarify many things, that there are many levels of reality. For example, if we imagine if the Buddha was sitting here looking at something, it's easy for us to imagine that he would see something quite differently from what I see. Or Christ or Lao Tse, any figure that speaks to you. And the advantage of that is that it always clarifies this idea that there are many levels of reality and that the subtler levels require subtler perceptions. And that the suggestion is, as I said, many levels outside as well as inside, and that there is a correspondence. If I am wholly committed to level or eyes of the flesh, then when I meet other people or read some scripture from another tradition, for example, I would look at only the level of the flesh. But if I can at least occasionally be connected with the eyes of the spirit, from that level I would see the spiritual aspect of the other person. Why is it that our modern cosmology, which is all physical cosmology, does not see the spiritual aspects of the universe? Because we are not inviting our scientists to develop their spiritual eyes. Which is also the reason I therefore remind you there is actually only one remark of Christ, which you can find in all the four canonical Gospels, and even in the letters to the Romans by Saint Paul and in Prophet Isaiah, there is only one remark, which is you have eyes, but you do not see. You have ears, but you do not hear. Much of the whole spiritual discipline can be expressed in terms of cleansing of the perceptions. Some of you may know, there has been much fanfare about the Vipassana meditation.

Actually, Vipassana is the Pali word for Sanskrit Vipassana, which means to see. That's where it comes from. That's the root of that word. So to see differently, by differently, not just randomly differently, but from a deeper level. We sometimes use the word, especially, I should maybe remind you of this. In general, in the Abrahamic tradition, one speaks about higher levels, which has a downside to it. There is a bit of a tendency to imagine that God is somewhere up there. In India, the general tendency is to speak in terms of deeper levels. If you look at any of the, if you like, religious diagrams from India or tankas in Buddhism or Hinduism, they're always concentric circles or concentric triangles or concentric right angles. Precisely because the idea is that deeper and deeper you go, this is where you find the subtlest and subtlest reality. That your deepest self is identically the same as the subtlest or, if you like, the highest reality. So in the biblical tradition, generally one speaks in terms of higher levels. In India, generally one speaks in terms of deeper levels. But we don't need to be outwitted by geometrical metaphor. It's simply, this is really a reference to subtler levels. But each tradition acknowledges that they are within us. This is why I quote it from Saint Paul. Eyes of the flesh, see the things of the flesh, eyes of the spirit, the things of the spirit. And then very strong emphasis, and this is a slight variation that I already mentioned yesterday, namely in the Indian tradition, at the very deepest level it will be identically the same as the highest reality. That is somehow a little missed out in the Abrahamic tradition that is not emphasized or it's a little problematic. Which is why, for example, throughout the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna is repeatedly saying or inviting Arjuna to come to his level of being, mother bhava, that is Krishna's own level of being. Krishna is there representing the very highest divinity and the ultimate call is to come to his level of being. That doesn't mean it's easy. I mean, throughout Indian history one might think of a dozen people or well depends. So this is not to say that any of this is easy but nevertheless what is the direction, what is the call to keep in mind. So when we speak about transformation, it is not something outside project. It is really a project inside and very strong suggestion. Now I'm intentionally using a little bit of an Indian metaphor here but I can easily translate it to the other.

That the general forces of nature, of prakriti, are outward and that what is therefore required is a counter flow. This is exactly the expression Patanjali uses called counter flow in Sanskrit is let me see if I can recall that now here. In any case it will come back to me and that nivriti which is to say inward movement. So there is pravriti, outward movement and nivriti. If we looked at it from a biblical point of view that the general natural tendency is downward and that the spiritual call is upward. But the suggestion everywhere is, by the way sometimes I point out these differences between the two major, I feel like there are really two major cluster of spiritual teachings, the Abrahamic and the Indian. It's good to know the differences but I invite you not to get so attached to that only one formulation is somehow right, the other is not right. Particularly in physics, this was a very helpful lesson in history of physics, our fundamental realities only particles are only waves and this created a crisis in physics in the 1920s because in some experiments they were like particles and in some experiments they were like waves. So there used to be even a joke in physics laboratories. By the way that is my previous background, I was a professor of physics since you were asking me earlier and that on Monday, Wednesday, Friday they were waves and Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday they were particle and on Sunday the Lord rested because nobody could figure out what to make of this. Then the major contribution that was made by very important physicists was that our description of reality depends on the experimental setup and in some experimental setup they behave like waves and in some other setup they behave like particles and I strongly recommend to you that cultural perspectives are like experimental setups. Particularly when a great teacher says something, if Christ has said something it is almost impossible for Christians to somehow say well that's only one way of expressing it. Well that's clearly the way of expressing it. Similarly for the Buddhists what the Buddha said is the way of expressing it. You see what I'm saying and that so my recommendation to you all is to regard the cultural perspectives as like experimental setups. Then it is very important and in fact very useful if you are a searcher, if you are a missionary then clearly the other guy is wrong so it just proves the fact. But I am inviting you to be searchers. If you are a searcher then actually to see two seemingly contradictory expressions but coming from serious people not just randomly somebody just arguing then one realizes that expression of truth is not the truth. Expression is pointing to something and all the great sages have said that the ultimate cannot be expressed but they still have to say something. They are talking to some people. They have to use the language and repeatedly they have said in one form or the other that it's like describing colors to a blind man but they still are obliged to describe so they will say well red is like it feels hot and green is something nice and cool. So they are obliged to give these descriptions because their pupils or disciples are eager to somehow connect with it but they keep saying that it cannot be described. But then once a great teacher says something that becomes an e-day fix in the tradition. So I often point out seemingly contradictory statements but my hope there is not to convince you to buy one or the other but actually not to be taken in by either expression to see how do I actually verify any of this. Otherwise you can join departments of theology or philosophy and keep arguing. I did that too. You need for your career you need to do all this but that's just mostly talk. But searchers are actually in a way happy to have more than one expression because then it calls you to search for something which is not bound by the expression. It's beyond the expression. So let me return to so you would occasionally hear me point out the differences but it's not to convince you to buy one expression or the other.

So very important idea that these levels of realities are within us as well as outside us and that we need to gradually there are different ways of saying it to cleanse our perceptions is one way of saying it. There are I should point out two major modes in the religious literature of the world. One mode is I will take examples from the alchemical tradition. One mode is that we are mostly lead but by practice or by discipline we can convert some of this lead into gold. That you would find yoga literature is a good example of this. Or in China it this let me mention the other mode then I will point out to you that every culture has both of these modes. The other mode is that we are mostly gold already but we are not aware of this. For example Vedanta in India and in China Confucianism is very much more like the former mode therefore you need to learn history you need to learn the arts and practice something so that you can become more and more gold. Taoism on the other hand is just the reverse you should forget everything you learn because that is just corruption. Because purely gold already exists all this learning is just adding more and more veneer on top of this. So the cultural therefore the cultural attitudes end up becoming very different in the two cases. If you're interested in Greek philosophy it actually influenced the rest of the western culture. Paramanides is very much on the side of we are all gold. Heraclitus is on the side of we're mostly lead we need to work hard to come to gold.

So you will but the reason I'm mentioning these are the two standard modes of expression in the world literature. But my recommendation is not to get attached to either one of them because we need to begin from where we are whether we are gold or lead doesn't matter it's mostly theoretical but I need to see whether I have an integration within myself or do I need to bring about an integration occasionally one sees that one has all kinds of very clear perception. So I'm inviting you now to think even each one of us is not always at the same level. Now I can speak in the first person singular just to remind you occasionally I'm completely surprised how totally self-occupied I can be nobody else matters I alone or even sometimes we joke well okay so far we have been talking about me now maybe we'll talk about you so what do you think of me you see this is but don't just buy what I'm saying you see if some of this applies to then sometimes I can find myself even uncharacteristically quite generous and compassionate and concerned about others so these levels actually exist within us also they're not just merely a theoretical idea if you become if you begin to become more and more careful observers of what is going on I will probably emphasize this much more tomorrow because the whole every serious teaching very much emphasizes self-study or self-observation that is a fundamental requirement but I will come to that tomorrow today I just want to still stay with why we need to be transformed of what is the purpose of this so the reason is that if I begin to see within myself that there are different levels but I'm not always at one level or the other and I wish to be at a slightly more if you like sometimes we say a more serious level or a more spiritual level or a more compassionate level these are varieties of phrases we use then one wonders what stands in the way and very strong suggestion that we are all very much addicted to the status quo so some of you may have read a lot of existentialist writers like Albert Camus or Jean-Paul Sartre particularly some of the French authors have written a great deal of material on and they would point out one could have an absolutely terrible household situation maybe a terrible job or even a dog who is terrible but one just cannot let go of this or one even leaves the job soon ends up acquiring a job which is just like the same or a marriage one has a divorce and then ends up marrying somebody very much like the same situation that the addiction to the status quo is very large and it is understandable why it is so large because whatever I now am is the end product of lots of forces from the family from the culture from my education from everything and to shift any of this to change any of this radically is fighting against all of these large forces and there is a very strong tendency for them to keep the symbiotic relationship and here we have another very important idea common to all these spiritual teachings we may use the word soul just merely to convey the notion not every teaching uses the same word for example in India it'll be jiva atma individual spirit if you like it would be the right word for it but that the soul is essentially a representative of the divine in me if you like it's a part of the spirit in me by the way this let me take a moment here to make this point clear soul is personal so your soul is different from my soul but spirit is not personal there is a little bit of a problem particularly starting actually nearly well it began with saint benedict but became a fix with daycart in the 16th century that spirit is the same as soul which has created more problem for people because in fact the remark of christ in the new testament is unless you leave your soul behind you cannot be a fault which i said unless you leave yourself behind literally the word in greek there are three words pnoema suke psyche we would say in english and soma soma is the body psyche is the soul and pnoema is the spirit the whole new testament has clear expression of these three words and almost everywhere psyche is translated as soul except at this place where he says unless you leave your soul behind you cannot be a follower of mine that for modern christians would seem completely outrageous statement because soul and spirit are considered the same especially since daycart therefore there they translated unless you leave yourself behind self is vague enough you can mean by whatever you like right i'm inviting if you read some of these things in the original every book in the new testament was written in greek so i'm not being merely pedantic about it by mentioning their greek origins so in any case i'm inviting your attention here what is actually more common to all the tradition that the soul has an element of the spirit it enters into a body for not for the purpose of the body but for the purpose of the soul because the soul wishes to come back to the spirit here i will quote to you a remark of plutinus in my judgment the greatest greek philosopher although he regarded plato to be his teacher so i guess we have to allow that possibility he said our soul psyche is the greek word is amphibious in nature it can sink completely into the matter or it can soar into the one that one is his expression for god or ultimate so if the soul which is if you like part of the spirit in principle and it wishes to soar into the one that is what it's but there are many many problems which is what we need to understand why the difficulty of transformation a simple example a magnetic needle has only one real property namely it points to the north magnetic north but if there are other magnets around it cannot point to the magnetic north north so our soul by nature wishes to connect with the spirit lovely remark of saint augustine 1700 years ago our soul i'm quoting him our soul cannot be at rest until it is stayed in god god but there are many many distracting magnets all our education the entire society is run here i will quote to you a remark of christ himself isn't one of the gospels the whole world is in the sway of the prince of darkness this is christ's remark in buddhist tradition or hindu tradition generally they say it's being driven by fear and ambition sometimes there's a fear and desire that's another expression but we don't need to buy this i invite you right now to think of four most powerful people in the world one representing your own country most powerful military forces most powerful money one representing russia second from a nuclear power point of view the second in she representing china the most populous country in the world more the representing india the most largest democracy in the world and soon will actually bypass within five years china in population are they being driven by anything spiritual these four leaders they are running the world and we are all subject to this this is the point i'm trying to make that we you look at you if you have children which i myself have what do we do we want them to do well of course every parent wants them to do well but what does this mean to compete in the school so they can go to get graduate school or get postdoctoral fellowship or whatever is the corresponding or get a good job make more money this soul has many many distracting magnets around that's the point i'm trying to make and there it is also important for me to point out this is not unique to our situation in fact it's really interesting for us to realize is throughout human history and i will just quickly give you a couple of examples nobody could come to god unless they were certified by the devil oh if you don't meet your devil you can never come to god look at any of the prophets i will just take two examples the buddha you probably all know the story that he was encountered by mara mara is the buddhist version of the devil and every human being is subject to precisely what he was subjected to temptations what are the temptations this is what mara said to him i will turn this mountain into a mountain of gold if you forget about all this business of setting the wheel of dharma in motion or i'll give you sovereignty over the three worlds this is a very indian expression three worlds refers to the the lower world and the middle world and the higher world three world meaning the all the whole universe or he sends his own daughters sometimes it is said three daughters sometimes seven daughters to seduce him you think any of these four leaders i mentioned are immune to any of these are we immune to this if the buddha has to be tempted after many lives this is not only the only one life by the way in the buddhist tradition he had many lives similarly christ he's also tempted by the devil people often don't realize this in the christian tradition but here we find two very interesting remarks and i'm drawing your attention to this because you need also to face your devil otherwise it's a nice idea to be transformed but it will never happen without the devil you cannot come to god that's what i'm telling you the buddha says to mara this is one of his last statements before his enlightenment mara i see you are a part and parcel of myself and what did christ say to the satan get the behind me satan neither one of them want the devil or satan or mara to disappear or to die why they recognize this this is part and parcel of themselves and christ actually invites the satan to help from behind satan now maybe first of all i should personalize it for us all modern language carlion unless you see your shadow and encounter it you cannot be free but the shadow side or the devil or the satan has a lot of energy much more than the other side generally which is why it's running running the world so not to deny the satan or the devil or mara but how does one utilize that energy or something we have in indian mythology there is constant struggle going on between the good guys and the bad guys if you like between the devas and the demons they were the like angels actually this actually in this context the two relevant sanskrit words are the demons are the angels or devas and i just remind you if you and they are constantly arguing with each other fighting with each other and usually it's the debtors who win because they have a hell of a lot of energy the other side have good ideas good understanding even but they don't have so much energy but look within i'm inviting you this is if you're seriously interested in transformation which is the purpose of yoga to see that all these lovely mythological stories are actually psychological realities then now here this might interest you just to clarify this that is but both of these have the common father in the indian tradition in fact in the indian tradition all stories including in the mahabharata where in the bhagwad gita there is this battle about to take place the battle is always it's never this is a little difference from the biblical tradition that at the end of the days evil will be completely defeated only the good will remain nobody in india ever says this evil will always remain and good will always remain because they are both of the same father so struggle there is between us one and us two not between us and them all stories in india you can think of any mythological story in india so in this particular story deityas and adityas are fighting they both have the same common father kashyap which literally means vision deityas are their mother is diti which literally means limited so they are products of limited vision aditya are their children of aditi which is the opposite of diti so buster vision so they are children of larger vision now we can look within ourselves look in the society we have sometimes quite clear ideas which are arising from a larger vision but also we have perceptions ideas fantasies desires arising from more limited vision and they're always fighting with each other but the suggestion is not to be against the creatures of limited vision but how to make use of their energy to serve a larger vision so that requires a very clear self-perception first of all i'm giving you some of these examples what is the meaning when we speak about transformation sound like a good idea but what is to be transformed internal disintegration internal struggle and fight and there's a lovely remark of roomy maybe i should remind you he said if you have not yet seen the devil go look in the mirror is there anybody here who does not occasionally feel jealousy or competitiveness wanting to get the better of the other person how can i shine how can i all this is what is the devil small-mindedness is children of limited vision so when we speak about yoga as a science of transformation which is really what largely what i'm actually speaking about i'm inviting you to see the necessity of encountering the devil again you look at any of the prophets by the way i you didn't quite emphasize this enough whether it's prophet muhammad or christ himself anybody the buddha i just mentioned they all have to encounter the devil and therefore don't be against the devil then you'll be in real trouble because devil is like the head examiner if you become against the examiner then you'll fail so it's very important actually to understand to see one's own mara or one's own devil if you like the psychological expression that doesn't express it so nicely in my judgment but it's still the shadow side if you like that's one way of approaching it it then very strong suggestion particularly patanjali in the yoga sutras really the whole first chapter is more or less dedicated to this abhyas and vairagya abhyas would seem fairly obvious that practice is required everything requires practice if you want to be a good athlete or a good physicist or a good philosopher or a good musician or anything you need to practice that would seem fairly obvious but it is important to realize is that abhyas actually has also a slightly different call to it because despair is a very natural consequence of any serious spiritual undertaking because one soon realizes that one is far from the actual level that is required so it can easily lead to despair and to me it has been very striking that particularly in the middle ages many of the christian saints speak about different kind of sins but they all agree that the greatest sin is assidia that's the latin word for despair for them despair is actually a sin against the holy spirit they regarded that to be the greatest sin much more usually people if you think of sin they think of sex or something but that's not for these great saints in in the christian tradition despair was the greatest sin that you're basically saying that the holy spirit is unable to do something for you it's the sin against the holy spirit so i invite you to keep this in mind not to give into despair but to realize the limitations that one needs assistance one needs help teaching scriptures more than anything else in my judgment a community of fellow searchers actually is a great help otherwise we tend to take things too personally as if i alone am given to this trouble or this despair or this wickedness no one begins to see that this is a human condition one is actually in country so self-knowledge very soon becomes a knowledge of the human condition i will return to this whole idea of self-knowledge or self-study maybe tomorrow but for the time being just essentially to to really summarize this that undertaking of transformation is necessary and in the process one would have to see both the divine aspect of myself otherwise they won't be alive as i just quoted from the genesis by the way if you're interested that's the second chapter seventh verse in the genesis read that carefully god breathed his own breath into them to make them alive as long as i'm alive is god's breath in me it's a remarkable statement and then but at the same time there is mara there is the devil if you like which is a tester so not to be in that sense not to be against it but to see if it can be brought to help get thee behind me satan lovely expression of christ i think we need to stop now but let me

Chapter 3

Homework

suggest to you homework if you like seriously consider two things first is remaining in touch with your breath so being aware of your breath seriously wonder do i breathe or am i being breathed so this is not a theoretical question you're watching your breath and the second part is is what do i see the main obstacle in me to transformation is it lack of time lack of money lack of right teaching lack of suitable company whatever so don't take my word for it but what is what is the main difficulty thank you very much we'll see you tomorrow