Individual awareness, willpower and primal life force are the same thing. Interest relates to willpower. Meditation: Disciplining the instinct and the intellect. Superconscious insights change the nature of the intellect through spiritual practice. What we put into every day gives life its quality. Look at life from the perspective of the soul; move into a positive, dynamic area of the mind. Bodhinatha reads from and comments on Living with Siva lessons. Master Course, Living with Siva, Lesson 96 Master Course, Living with Siva, Lesson 106. Master Course, Living with Siva, Lesson 110

Unedited Transcript:

[The primal life force ever resident within the body, emotions and mind of man is, when used or allowed to function...] "...what I term willpower. Now we can see that the ever present persistence of life force gives an over abundance of willpower and the ability to direct it from within. This ability to direct the willpower is the jnana, the wisdom we seek. We have but two choices: to gain jnana through learning the tried-and-tested, set patterns for living and conducting our self or, through assuming a relaxed approach of ignorance, be guided by the 'good' and 'bad' and mixed emotional forces of the wills of others. Therefore, the devotee seeks to gain the conscious control of his own willpower, to awaken knowledge of the primal force through the direct experience of it, and to claim conscious control of his own individual awareness.

"Thus we can begin to see that our individual awareness, willpower and the primal life force deep within body, emotion and mind are, in fact, one and the same -- that willpower, individual awareness and life force, their habits and usages, are but various aspects."

So that's a very interesting meditation if you haven't done that one before. Is taking three looks at ourselves, individual awareness, willpower and primal life force and saying it's the same thing. They're not different. It's just three aspects of the same thing. So it's a great meditation. So, I was looking for ways to give examples. The one I usually give, as some of you of course will remember is: The more interested in something you are (which relates to awareness) the more energy you have to do it. The less interested you are in something, the less energy you have to do it and it seems to take forever. But, if you're really interested in something, you know you spend an hour on it and it seems like five minutes. You're not interested in something, you spend an hour on it and it seems like four hours. So, it's a very interesting factor.

And interest relates to awareness. The more our awareness is engaged in something, energy is there, meaning willpower is there to accomplish it. So, this gives us the practical guideline that if we're not that interested in a subject and it's taking forever to accomplish, maybe we can find a way to make it more interesting. Find out a perspective that changes how we're looking at it from something that's kind of mundane into something that has more interest, something that's more mystical in some way. And then, we'll accomplish it in what seems a much shorter time.

Well that's how interest relates to willpower. I was looking for a similar way. Is there a similar way we can increase the life force which will then in turn increase willpower and enhance our control of awareness? That was my question. So, I looked up the word "sleepy." That was my search. In the Trilogy as a Trilogy as a one file. So, I just checked on the word sleepy and found it. So this is it.

Living with Siva; Lesson 96. So it's ten lessons earlier.

"By sitting up straight, with the spine erect, we transmute the energies of the physical body. Posture is important, especially as meditation deepens and lengthens. With the spine erect and the head balanced at the top of the spine, (the next phrase is the important one) the life force is quickened and intensified as energies flood freely through the nerve system. In a position such as this, we cannot become worried, fretful, depressed or sleepy during our meditation. But if we slump the shoulders forward, we short-circuit the life energies. In a position such as this, it is easy to become depressed, to have mental arguments with oneself or another, or to experience unhappiness. So, learn to sit dynamically, relaxed and yet poised. "

So, you don't want to be tense in other words. Just cause you're sitting up straight you don't want to create tension in the body to hold that position. Dynamic, relaxed and yet poised.

So, that's the key there, just sitting up straight. So likewise, you know, when kids are studying a lit it's easy to slump, go forward. But you can avoid that and sit up straight when doing your studies you'll have more energy, definitely.

Okay. And we have another one here. Living with Siva, Lesson 110.

"The Two Great Transmutations

"It is important to gain an intellectual concept of what it is like to experience through a prolonged term the deep, inner will of Siva--for, granted, we are always experiencing something. Therefore, it is easy to categorize in one of three departments just where the impulses are coming from that cause our motivations. Number one: the instinctive impulses are from us and from others, and mainly concern our body and baser emotions. These are easy to distinguish, as the impulses provide most of the daily activities. Number two: the impulse to speak and to think, begun through one's own efforts or those of another. This is generally based on recurring knowledge accumulated in the past, churned up through present observations and conjecture about the future. This is also easy to distinguish as these impulses generally fill any gaps that the instinctive impulses have made in a typical day. (So that's how we can fill up the whole day, right? Doing the two of those.) We can easily see that unless some break occurs, there is absolutely no room for number three, which is simply for Siva's will to occur.

"Therefore the process is one of breaking up the patterns of instinct and intellect, separating the impulses of them both, through regular and regulated periods of sadhana and meditation, so that the divine will, spiritual energy and infinite awareness can filter in and cause a new intellect to form. "

I know a good example of this is, not in our group of devotees but individuals interested in meditating. If they really want to meditate but somehow they never start the practice. This is something they really want to do. Every morning I want to meditate. They never manage to incorporate it in their life. Because, these other two, the instinct and the intellect fill up all the time somehow. And they never find the space to break that pattern and delve into the superconscious or intuitive. And of course, the, the wisdom that Gurudeva gives us is the easiest way to have a pattern of regular daily meditation and worship is when it's first thing in the morning and done at the same time. Then it becomes a habit and it just fits into our day. That's it's amazing when you watch movies on television. Everyone's getting up at 7AM right? Well, I have to get up early this morning; I have to get up at 6:30. Individuals tend to sleep in. Much later then the monks do at least. So, the first thing in the morning, whatever time that is for you. And at the same time is the best way to kind of disciplining the instinct and the intellect.

They want to take over. They want to dominate the whole day. You get up in the morning and you want to start thinking about something. If you can't find anything to think about you can look at the internet, right? That will give you something to think about; you can read that. So, the mind just wants to be filled with instinct and intellect and to break that habit can be challenging. And as I said: That's the key Gurudeva gives. The first thing in the morning because the intellect hasn't turned on as strongly as it will later in the day and same time. Then you just, your intellect and your instinct get used to that. Okay, I'm used to that. Won't really engage my intellect until after that period is finished and then I'll figure out what I need to do today. Then I'll give thought to the various issues that are facing me.

"Beginning the sadhana, and the continued practice, is the first sign that Siva's will is being done in the aspirant's life. New energy abides within him because of the transmutation from the base to the Divine. New knowledge comes forth from within him as he builds upon it through remembering his accumulated inner experiences as if they occurred but a moment ago."

So, that's a good one. So this is the idea that we can, that our intellect you know, before we've done spiritual practices is just based upon accumulated knowledge, intellectual thought. But we can add to that superconscious insights such we actually have within ourselves. And then that starts to change the nature of the intellect when it has some knowledge from within as part of it.

"Should you wish to separate number one from number two and experience the dominance of number three, Siva's will, simply begin to say to yourself, 'Siva's will will be done,' throughout each day as the occasions arise. Be careful to categorize each impulse, so that it is clear to your intellect which category you are in, just as by being more aware of the Sun than the Earth you begin to forget the Earth and come to know the Sun. Siva's will is being done always. But being more aware of the inner processes and impulses of willpower than the outer configurations of other people, their thoughts and feelings, you will soon live in the world contentedly and come to know the Shi, (S H I) the Absolute Self beyond all form, time and causation, and the Va, the All-Pervading Self, as actinic energy permeating all form, and you will rest blissfully in this new knowledge on your new intellectual threshold. 'Siva's will be done' -- the first sadhana on the path. 'Siva's will be done' -- the last sadhana on the path, after all others have been perfected."

Siva's will be done: Render that as acceptance. As one of the aspects of life that can cause us the most disturbances when things happen, we generally label negative and we can't really accept that. And that disturbs us. And sometimes, particularly if individuals have no philosophical background they can never accept it. Just ruins their life. Going along fine and then something negative happens. Someone in the family dies at an age younger than everyone thinks they should. You know, I know of, up in Toronto, a family there was talking to me fairly indirectly. They said: Have you ever faced a tragedy in your life and how did you do so? Something like that. Turns out, their daughter who was 32 and was just a couple of years into her medical career passed on. And they couldn't, they hadn't been able to accept it. They didn't think it was, should have happened.

The idea here is if we're in touch with our inner self through regular sadhana then it' easier to accept things. We don't just end up with an instinctive and an intellectual response. We have an intuitive response as well which helps us accept things. You know, what I always have to end up saying is that: The value of a life is not measured by its length. Adi Shankara lived to be 32, right? Is that a shame? Swami Vivekananda lived to be 39. So, everyone doesn't get to 80 and 90. Quality of a life can't be measured by its length. It has to be measured in another way, you know. Every day has to count whether we have 33 years worth or 90 years worth. It's what we put into every day that gives life its quality, not the length of it.

So the ability to accept negative events improves through this and therefore, we're able to avoid that, which is really an abyss. How could God let this happen? It's an abyss; it's really hard to get out. So: "It was all finished long ago," is the wisdom in our parampara. So, everything is as it should be for acceptance, for surrender.

When we look at life from the perspective of the soul that's easier to see. Cause the soul just keeps going. Leaves this life. Enjoys inner worlds for a while and comes back again. And does the same thing again. You know it keeps going. So when we can look at life from the perspective of the soul and its future journeys much easier to say: "Siva's will be done," or to accept things.

The other point here is simply realizing that we have, we can divide ourselves into three departments. "It is easy to categorize in one of three departments just where the impulses are coming from." So that's helpful. Sometimes we just think well, that's, we just think "I." We don't figure out which part of "I." It's just "I." Everything's lumped together in this one department called "I." I'm unhappy today. So, which department is unhappy? So, it's our emotional nature. And so seeing clearly where the impulse comes from; if it's instinctive or intellectual or intuitive is helpful in understanding our self and kind of where we are in consciousness at that moment. And if we're not where we want to be then we can apply some of the tools in Gurudeva's teachings and move into a more positive dynamic area of the mind.

Thank you very much. Have a good day.