CONSCIOUSNESS

 

The subconscious level of the mind is nothing else but thought patterns superimposed one upon the other. Patterns upon patterns upon patterns, which in turn influences the analytical sector of the mind, and which in turn expresses itself through the physical body via its five senses; seeing, touching, smelling, hearing and tasting.

The trouble lies in the subconscious area of the mind which has been patterned by you to a certain extent. Also, by the environment that you are put in, or the environment in which you come into contact. These patterning might go back many, many ages or even patterning of this lifetime. When we say, “many ages” that’s good for people that believe in reincarnation, but you don’t need to believe in that.

You are nothing else but a bundle of all those patternings that are in the mind. How to find peace? How to find tranquillity? How to find that calmness? How to find the Kingdom of Heaven which is with? That is the quest, consciously or unconsciously of everyone. Everyone is seeking happiness, yet these blockages that have been created by these patterning, are those that prevents you from experiencing your Self, which by nature is nothing but joy. What is the way out?

I had a press conference in London, and most of the more prominent newspapers were represented, and I said, “What our churches lack today is that they give people no experience whatsoever.” They use just words, words, words. Half of the people only go to church to have a nice snooze and half to show off their “Sunday Best” and others to meet their friends. They learn nothing.

We want to fill the churches, not empty them. We want to fill the synagogues and all the temples. If only the priests could give people an experience of what Divinity is, and not just empty words.

This experience comes when you can go beyond the patterning of the subconscious mind.

Although the mind is a hindrance between you and your reality, it can also be used as a tool. The tool is to have the proper perspective of life, and to stop this belief that “I am a sinner, and I am so guilty about this and that and that.” Whatever has happened has happened, and it is finished. People have to learn to live here and now – but how many people live here and now? Ninety-nine point nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, percent do not!

THIS VERY SECOND IS ETERNITY

Examine your mind sometimes when thoughts are going on. What are you thinking about? You are thinking about the past. You are reliving the past all the time in the mind. Auntie Mary said that or Uncle John said this, or that happened at work, or this happened. You live in the past, and you project the past into the future, and the present is totally forgotten. For the present is the only thing that should be important. Blake said, “Eternity in an hour.” I say eternity in a second, for that very second is eternity.

How does one learn to live in the present? That is achieved through spiritual practices where you use the mind as a tool and bore through the patterning of the subconscious mind to reach the level of the Superconscious mind where Joy resides. Arriving there, you draw its energies and allow it to permeate the conscious mind and the subconscious mind until it is shown in our daily actions.

BE AT EASE WITH YOURSELF

All the belief systems were good two thousand years ago during the time of Christ, or five thousand years ago during the time of Krishna. They said, “believe.” In today’s technological society belief is no good. Today’s society does not want to believe – it wants to experience, and that is why not having the experience, and with so much dissatisfaction, there are so much diseases.

What is disease? To be at dis-ease. You are not at ease with yourself, that is disease. But through a systematic, scientific process of spiritual practices you tap that reservoir of peace and tranquillity and bring it back through the patterning of the mind; for the patterning cannot be destroyed, but they can be discarded. They can be discarded, and then that very Force of the Superconscious level penetrates and infuses and permeates the conscious level of the mind, the thinking mind. All its thought would become productive and creative and therefore peaceful. In turn, this peace starts permeating all the bodily functions, and the disease disappears.

YOUR EXISTENCE IS IMMORTAL, ETERNAL, INDESTRUCTIBLE

This world cannot be changed. There have been many, many reformers that have come and gone. Yet this world remains the same as it was two thousand years ago. Technological progress does not mean that man has evolved more. Yes, the mind has been more developed, but the quality that is needed is the unfoldment of the Heart where the Heart and the mind could combine with each other. That will be the only salvation in our times of nuclear inventions.

Collectively this world will be as it has always been, but individually great progress can be made through spiritual practices which brings you to an integrated state.

All our problems are because we live fragmentedly. I say this over and over again. From fragmentation, we proceed to integration, where the mind, the body, and the Spirit acts in harmony; for there is no division between the three.

Therefore, today there is such great need for holistic health, where the mind, body and Spirit is regarded to be a continuum and not three separate sections. All physicians have up to now divided, separated, the body from the mind and the mind from the Spirit, but a greater awareness is taking place where people are being treated holistically. Realisations are given on how to infuse the Force and the power of the Superconscious level of yourself into the other levels of your existence. Your existence is immortal; it is eternal, indestructible.

Over and over again, science has proved that you cannot even destroy a single atom, for the atom too is eternal. No one ever dies. I speak of life, never of death. There is no death, it is just a transformation. It is just discarding an old suit and putting on another suit because that which is within you is forever immortal.

In this immortality, where is the place for sin? For immortality, itself denotes omnipresence, eternity. Omnipresence and immortality are but the same thing, used as words to portray a different aspect, a different meaning of the same thing itself. Nothing is destructible.

TRUE SURRENDER COMES FROM WITHIN

Anything that happens to us has been brought upon us by ourselves. The conditions we live in or our environment is always blamed, but if you are strong enough not to take in the environment, then nothing can affect you.

My mother did this and that to me, my father did this and that to me, my boss does this and that to me, and therefore I am like this – it’s a false concept. I am like this because of my karma. I have attracted to myself the circumstances in which I am.

That is acceptance. And when you accept this, automatically, its blood brother, surrender, walks in. To what do you surrender? You surrender to the Force that is within you. You don’t surrender to any guru or any spiritual master; you surrender to the Force within you. The guru or the spiritual master helps you to accept and to surrender to the Divinity that is within you. Yes, love and devotion do exist between pupil and guru, as it would exist between friend and friend, or husband and wife or mother and father. But the true surrender comes from within you.

REALISATION IS AN ASSIMILATION OF AN IDEA

This too must not be a mental concept, for you are piling patterning upon patterning. By accepting concepts, you are only changing energies; you are shifting around energies. What we need is realisation, and what is realisation? It is a total assimilation of an idea. It is like food. You eat food, it has to be digested, but even that is not sufficient. It has to be assimilated into the entire system to produce the energies that are needed by the body – that is assimilation. It is not ideas that are sufficient.

The very assimilation I speak about is experiential, where you spontaneously experience within yourself the acceptance and the surrender to yourself. And when I accept myself, then I will start knowing myself.

BE YOURSELF

People tell you to be like Krishna, be like Christ, be like Buddha. I say, “No, do not be like them.” We don’t want second-rate Buddhas or second-rate Christs. But I say, “Be yourself.” Be first grade John and first grade Mary and first grade Jean and Jane. That is the only way you are going to know yourself, and this is not contrary to any religious belief.

I always say, “If you are a Christian, become a better Christian; if you are a Buddhist, become a better Buddhist; if you are a Hindu, become a better Hindu; but above that become a better human being.” How are we going to become a better human being? It is not by the actions that you are a better human being.

We have many do-gooders in this world that would go peddling around for charities and nursing homes and blind societies. They are doing something. But what is the motivation? Is motivation ego inflation? Or is it a surrender to themselves of a greater, higher Self within themselves by expressing this in action in serving others? So, motivation. What controls motivation? The patterning of your mind. We come back to square one.

BECOMING INTEGRATED BEINGS IN THIS LIFETIME

All problems individuals have in this world are because of misconceptions guided by the wrong patterning in the mind. If you have to remove all these layers one upon the other, another one, another one, it will take you a million lifetimes. Do you want to wait a million lifetimes to be happy? We want it here and now! That is the teaching we need today: that it can be achieved in this lifetime, that we can become integrated beings in this lifetime.

Man has that ability within himself. Using the conscious level of the mind and utilising those energies through a systematic way to tap that reservoir of Bliss, the Superconscious level, to tap that reservoir and bring it into our daily lives.

Belief patterns are not necessary. We do not want to believe in God. Forget it! We do not want to have faith in God. Forget it! But become living Gods, that is important. You want a living God, not a conceptual God. A living God that knows of Joy and Bliss, for that is the nature of Divinity. And you are that! Thou art that. “Tat Twam Asi”, as they would say in Sanskrit – “Thou art that” -but the door has to be opened – you must extend your arm to knock, and it shall be opened.
So, what do we do? Do we keep on saying that we are miserable beings? Do we keep on saying that we are rotters and there is no cure for us? There is! For you are not sick, you are not ill! The illness lies in the imagining, in the image-making that is produced in your mind through these various patterning.

THERE IS AN OPPORTUNITY IN EVERY ADVERSITY

If something is adverse in your life, why look at the adversity only? Know that there is an opportunity in every adversity. Our minds will dwell all the time on the adversities, and not looking around the corner to see the opportunities of life. We cannot do this with the conscious, analytical, left hemisphere of the brain. We have to dive deeper within ourselves to get that energy, to find that wholeness and it is so simply done. I always say it is so simple to be happy, but so difficult to be simple.

We add on these complexities to our lives. No one needs to suffer, for you are children of God, you are divine yourselves. When you approach the world with the attitude that “I am divine”, then everything changes for you and your entire perspective changes – but you need the experience of it, and the tools are there, they are built-in within you.

I have a very favourite story of mine. There was this man who used to go to a cafe, a restaurant, very regularly and he used to buy a can of Coca-Cola. He used to order the can, sit down, and take out a can opener and open the can and drink his Coca-Cola. The shopkeeper was watching this for a few weeks, and it perked his curiosity that the can has that little thing there to open it, but why does this man use a can opener? So, the shopkeeper could no longer contain his curiosity and he asked the man, “Sir, you know, on that can there is this little ring by which you can open the can. Why do you use a can opener?” The man answered, “That little thing that is there to open the can is for people who haven’t got can openers.”

So, why do you want to use can openers when you have the built-in devices within yourselves? This does not require any high intellectuality. It could be anyone – a university professor or a street sweeper.

… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang US 82 – 44