North American Tour, Part 8
Saturday, 20th of June 2015, Monroe meditation centre, New Jersey
Maintain poise and stay connected with Master
Here are some notes from the talk Kamlesh bhai gave after satsangh:
What drains us the most? Annoyance, our dislikes, and disagreements with others drain us emotionally. A long day’s work drains us physically, but it does not cause us to lose our temper and poise. The emotional drain creates a long-term samskara. Sometimes these samskaras can be very old, and when they come to the surface we lose our poise.
How can we solve this riddle? How can we prevent ourselves from feeling emotionally drained? How can we minimise the impacts? Let’s dissect this emotional business. One reason could be because of ‘misunderstanding’. A lot of time is lost because of misunderstanding and not knowing the truth. Thus, it is very important to understand situations and people. Time gives us the opportunity to understand and bounce back.
How to utilise time? When we take time as the ‘Lord’ – as in the Gita, where Lord Krishna says, “I am time” – we are utilising the Lord and the Lord’s resources properly. When we don’t utilise our time properly we waste His resources. These spiritual processes are designed to increase our efficiency.
In Sahaj Marg, we try not to drain others by our behaviour and actions. Also, we prevent ourselves becoming drained by maintaining our poise, not losing our tempers and staying connected with Master. This is the true test of a person. Are we meditating to be aggressive? Meditation and aggression don’t go together.
It would be good to have a seminar on this subject alone – how to lead such an efficient life that does not drain us emotionally?
Sunday, 21st June 2015
Intelligence Quotient, Emotional Quotient and Spiritual Quotient
Kamlesh bhai again spoke, and here are some more notes:
Yesterday we touched upon the subject of how to keep our energies, our inner battery, charged all the time. This remains in the balance of our core parts – somehow the body, mind and emotions are all integrated. For example, even if we work eighteen hours a day, if we are absorbed in that work, sometimes this absorbency means that we do not feel tired at all. It keeps us going. The work itself keeps us going if we enjoy it. If we dread it, even after half an hour of work we will feel deflated. But after enjoyable hard work you come back home so joyful, and then your spouse makes a very simple remark, one remark for half a second, and your entire battery will drain. This is how emotions play a part with our batteries.
In Sahaj Marg, it has been very nicely explained by the Masters. There are two things – desires and ego – that play havoc with our lives. Fulfilment of desires promotes more desires. When they are not fulfilled the battery is totally discharged and our emotions go haywire. The ego also plays the same trick on us. As long as our ego fulfilment is there we are happy, and it keeps on charging our battery all the time. The moment the ego is hurt, it is discharged to a great level. This is about day-to-day to affairs.
But suddenly, when the soul in its wisdom realises nothing else can be accomplished in this life, then it will suddenly make a decision and say, “Okay, enough with this existence, let me withdraw the entire battery,” and this is what we call death.
When the soul is being fulfilled, which is the primary goal in life, somehow life becomes meaningful, when we are on the right track. In order to fulfil that achievement, the forces of nature give us the way and increase our span of life in order to achieve that goal.
As you have seen so far, the joy or bliss of existence goes on feeding nutrition to our soul. That is why in our shastras they say that anandam (bliss) nourishes the soul.
Even in daily life we need some joy to keep us going. If there were no desirable remunerations, why would we work? We get disgusted when certain thing happens and we are fired, despite working so hard. When certain conflicts of this nature arise, which are inevitable, what to do? How to protect ourselves?
We have IQ, Intelligence Quotient, and similarly someone added another factor, Emotional Quotient or EQ. Likewise, there is the next factor, Spiritual Quotient or SQ. There is interplay among these three things. The author of the book about EQ, Daniel Goleman, concluded that EQ can be improved through meditation by improving empathy. Now how to survive in this chaotic situation by improving our EQ? Through meditation.
Even though most abhyasis seem to be meditating, are we really meditating? Is our EQ as stable as it is described in our books? Have a glance at some of the YouTube videos by Daniel Goleman. They are fascinating, actually, as a study of real life. This is how we drain our batteries because of an imbalance in all these Quotients or Qs.
Sahaj Marg is perhaps the only path recognising how to increase our SQ values and EQ values, ultimately affecting our IQ and improving our health also.
Yet, often that doesn’t happen to us. Often, the more people meditate, the more they become ‘sensitive’ towards certain things and then they become volatile. Imagine that some people have been meditating, and then they go out. Something happens and they become so agitated. They are always, as they say, “On edge”. Somehow, the sensitivity that we develop through meditation is wrongly utilised, without appropriately developing our tolerance capacity.
Often people ask, “Why am I not so sensitive?” It is precisely because of this. Imagine if Master bestowed us with sensitivity and in parallel we didn’t have the ability to tolerate things. Our EQ would go haywire. Knowing everything and having no tolerance is a disastrous combination, you see. For example, suppose somebody is thinking about you in a very bad way, and you happen to read those thoughts. If you don’t have tolerance, what will you do? Will you punch him? This is the abuse of sensitivity.
After mediation we are supposed to dive deeper and maintain that. Instead, we become very shallow like the shallow waters. So even when a leaf drops there are disturbances leading to aggression. We are no longer insensitive, like deep roaring oceans where boulders can fall or mountains can fall and we remain unaffected. So we have to create the depth within us through meditation. It is not enough to create stillness on the surface of the mind; we have to create depth as well.
We will take this up further and go deeper into this subject. Yesterday I spoke very superficially on the aspect of EQ and somehow it is going in the right direction. I hope that one day you will all sit down and see how our practice can improve our EQ, and one day I hope we will be able to take up the topic of the SQ.
Wednesday, 24th of June, Staten Island, NY, and Monroe meditation centre
Take interest
Kamlesh bhai said that we should be very gentle with newcomers and introduce the practice of Sahaj Marg gradually. Most of our preceptors try to give everything at once. He said that most of the time it is our attitude that causes newcomers to switch off, and that is one of the reasons for dropouts.
In the car, on the way to the Monroe meditation centre, the topic of conversation went towards intense love for meditation. He said that thinking of Divine Light in the heart, trying to keep that idea for as long as possible, should not become like a mantra. We should move to the next step of feeling. He said it is like when you call someone by phone, and say “Hello”, but then continue to say “Hello… Hello… Hello…” instead of listening to the other side. That should not happen with the idea of Divine Light. It should result in a feeling, and our liking for meditation should be of “deadly interest”, or else it will be difficult to go beyond.
Thursday, 25th of June 2015
Taking interest in our evolution cont.
During his morning walk, Kamlesh bhai mentioned that we should have a lot of trees in the ashram, along the border. He mentioned to one of the brothers that we should also plant trees along the border in the Kanha ashram. Imagine sixty-feet-tall trees on both sides of a ten- to fifteen-foot-wide walking trail, all around our six-hundred-acre property! The walk was a nice break for him, and in the fresh, sunny forest he looked refreshed.
Back at home, Kamlesh bhai went to work, and after lunch he sat for a while with abhyasis. This time the discussion was about how to introduce Sahaj Marg, be it in a U-Connect programme, through C-Connect or at a regular Heartfulness open house. He said that we should tell newcomers to have a belief in the system; we do not start with faith, but with belief. Faith will come over a period of time, based on experience. He said that we should tell newcomers that, while there is a system and a guide, our progress also depends on the environment in which we live. He gave a nice example: the boiling point of water in a normal environment is 100 degrees Celsius, however if the altitude changes the boiling temperature changes accordingly. If we mix salt in the water, the freezing point lowers as more salt is added, and this is due to the effect of the environment. Similarly, we should tell aspirants to create an environment that is conducive to their evolution.
While the three Ms – Master, Mission and method – are important, it is also important to remember the fourth M, myself. It all depends on me how I use these things for my personal evolution. If I am not interested in my evolution, all possible support from the Guru and the method will not be of much help. He conveyed that we have to take interest in our evolution, as Master’s support is always there.
The discussion then went on to how one-pointed attention on our practice helps us to progress. He told the story of how Babuji Maharaj drew a single line on his hand, saying, “Are you able to see this line?” He said “Yes Master.” “This is a water canal.” Then Babuji drew a second, connecting line, saying, “The water force is now reduced by fifty percent. Do you understand?” If we add more lines, the force is divided further. Similarly, if we have multiple channels running in our minds, the focus is divided, hence a single-pointed attention is required to achieve the highest.
All in all it was a treat to see Kamlesh bhai in a relaxed and casual mood, and it only showed what happens when we keep our Masters happy.
