The Nature of Thought, Part Four
Author: Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
Description: Become the watcher. There is a deeper you who is the watcher of your thoughts. With practice, preside as the watcher and in presiding you will carry that inner presence so necessary for a full and fruitful life. From "The Guru Chronicles" the establishment of Kadavul Hindu Temple on the lush, tropical Garden Island of Kauai and the arrival of Lord Nataraja and company. A keynote and comments from a Bodhinatha Zoom Satsang: Yogaswami: "Even meditation is work. Practice remaining summa for ten minutes." Gurudeva's description of sitting in meditation. "Master Course Trilogy, Merging with Siva", Lesson 210. "Guru Chronicles."
Transcription:
Good morning everyone. This morning we're finishing "Merging with Siva" Chapter 30 titled "The Nature of Thought" drawn from "The 1970 Master Course". And we only have one lesson so I've added some other material at the end.
Lesson 210
"Become the Watcher
"We must be aware that it is only reawakening consciousness into a natural state, and that there is nothing mystical, difficult or inward that has to occur to hold an awareness of the inner and outer simultaneously from one central point in the mind. It is only because one is not accustomed to thinking in this way that it may seem difficult. But little children are in this state much of the time, and it is natural to them.
"The beginning stages of watching the mind think I shall describe as similar to sitting quietly with your eyes open and, while not thinking about anything in particular, simply looking at what is around you—all of the time feeling somewhat empty on the inside, but seeing what is in front of you, to the left side of you, to the right side of you, above you, below you, and knowing what each object is, but not thinking about any object or collection of objects. (A Gurudeva sentence. That's a masterful sentence there.) Your eyes are watching; who lives behind them is the watcher. The objects that the mind perceives are similar to your thoughts.
"When you close your eyes and begin thinking about the objects you have been looking at, duplicating your surroundings in your mind by creating thought pictures of those objects, there is a deeper you who is the watcher of those thoughts. This you can practice all through the day almost anywhere you are. It takes no particular skill or practice. It can be done at any time. You are simply becoming conscious of the natural processes of awareness, consciousness and thought which have been going on day after day all through your life up to this point.
"Each time you practice being the watcher, using the method just outlined, as soon as you begin to succeed, you will immediately receive the impact of realization of the extent of involvement in the external mind that had occurred between these periods of practice. You will find that the more you practice regularly, increasingly, more frequently, you will remember to continue “the witness” in the midst of daily life—while riding in conveyances, talking with people, shopping in crowded stores, even in the midst of a disagreement or at the pinnacle of a creative flow. “You,” the watcher, will preside, and in presiding will carry that inner presence so necessary for a full and fruitful life.
"With this in mind, be encouraged, for we must remember that total involvement in the externalities of the mind seems to be the cultural trait of this century. Therefore, it may take a few years to change
the pattern. To send awareness soaring within to home base is not easy when the rest of the world is plunging in the opposite direction. If at first you only succeed a few minutes a day being able to watch the mind think or watch the eyes see, that is sufficient, as long as the practice is regular and consistent, day after day.
"Other kinds of practice previously outlined in the sadhana of this book will strengthen this ability and increase your capacity to maintain that equal balance between the inner and the outer, if performed with regularity. This intricate study of awareness steadied versus fluctuating thought can only be pursued by taking the slow and sometimes arduous approach, not being overly enthused by success or discouraged by failure."
And that's the end of the lesson. So we're going to read from "The Guru Chronicles." Usually we do this at the beginning of a new lesson but today we're going to do it at the end of this lesson. So this is putting the "Master Course" material into an historical perspective per the writings of "The Guru Chronicles". So we're in that, roughly in the 1970's in "The Guru Chronicles."
"This establishment of Kadavul Hindu Temple on the lush, tropical Garden Island of Kauai, Earth’s most remote land mass, at the base of Hawaii’s oldest extinct volcano, known as Mount Waialeale, eventually was recorded in the State archives by the Governor as the first Hindu temple in Hawaii. With the arrival of Lord Nataraja, thousands upon thousands of devas of the Second World and devas and Mahadevas of the Third World penetrated the inner atmosphere of the Lemurian mountaintop island of Kauai from several ancient temples—in Sri Lanka, the precious Kumbhalavalai Koyil, mystic Nallur and potent seaside Tiruketeeswaram, and in India, the mighty Chidambaram, Thanjavur’s Brihadeeswarar, which I am said to have built in a previous life as Rajaraja Chola, according to several jyotisha nadishastris, and the sin-dissolving Rameswaram, overflowing in healing waters in twenty-two wells. The three worlds had at that moment become connected as one, and the Saivite Hindu religion began to flourish on this side of the planet.
"Gurudeva had another vision of Lord Murugan, known in North India as Karttikeya, around the same time. One early morning in his small chalet near the Tiruvadi Monastery in San Francisco, adjacent to the temple on Sacramento Street, Gurudeva had a vision that brought Lord Murugan even further to the forefront of his order’s life. Suddenly, he found himself flying with a handsome, muscular being around the monastery room. Gurudeva later told the monks that he had asked the powerful being who he was, and received the reply, “If you don’t know, who does?” He knew, it was Murugan Himself. Gurudeva was so inspired by that encounter, he planned to write a book called "Flying with Murugan". Though the book never manifested, Murugan’s influence in and on the Order did, and Gurudeva always felt the first of all sannyasins, son of Siva, was the tutelary head of his monastic community. Many of the monks were given a name of Lord Murugan and taught to regard this mighty one as a personal guide and example of purity, detachment, willpower and speed of accomplishment."
Right, end of our "Guru Chronicles."
And the last one is from a recent Zoom Satsang Keynote. Part of the Zoom Satsang Keynote is to read quotes from Yogaswami and comment on them. So Yogaswami's quote here is:
"Even meditation is work. Practice remaining summa for ten minutes."
And then my comment is:
Yogaswami's statement is pointing out that meditation is not simply a matter of relaxation, which is how some teachers present it, but requires conscious effort to control the mind.
And that brought to my mind this following quote from Gurudeva:
"Sitting in a state of real meditation one must be more alive and alert than a tightrope walker suspended without a net on a taut cable three hundred feet above the earth. Do you suppose that this man is sleeping, that he allows his mind to wander? No, every muscle and sinew of his body, every thought, every feeling within him is absolutely under his control. It is the only way he can maintain the balance which keeps him from plunging to the earth beneath. He must be the master of himself all the while seeking to identify with his pure soul being not allowing attention to be pulled here and there. To the physical body, to outside sounds, to the thoughts of the path or to concerns about the future. In meditation you will feel the same intensity of purpose as the tightrope walker. Every atom in your being must be alive, every emotion under control, every thought seeking to impose itself upon your mind set aside until your purpose is accomplished. If the man three hundred feet up in the air feels a gust of wind coming against him he must exercise perhaps a hundred times more will and concentration to remain poised in his precarious condition. Likewise in meditation your mind must be intensely concentrated upon a particular object or thought. And yet your find an opposing thought seeking to divert your attention. The opposing thought may simply be a wind from your subconscious. You must then put more effort into the object of your concentration so that the opposing thoughts will be set aside and not have power to topple your balance."
Thank you very much. Have a wonderful day.
[End of transcript.]