Musings on the Truth

If you want the truth, don't be for or against anything.

In the universe, there are things that are known and unknown. In between is the truth.

If you don't measure your beliefs with some measure of doubt you may miss the truth.

Everyone has the capacity to know their true home but not everyone knows how.
To do so requires knowing who you truly are by observing and understanding the
self. After that it is all downhill.

Health Mantra

Here is a great mantra that I find relaxing and healing. It's called the Health Mantra (Siri Gaitri Mantra), one of the oldest mantas from the Vedas dating back four thousand years. The first part of the mantra, Ra Ma Da Sa, expands every part of your being into heaven for healing any illness you may have. The second part, Sa Say So Hung, brings the healing qualities back to you.

If you click the video to the right you will hear Snatam Kaur sing it.

Ra Ma Da Sa, Sa Say So Hung

Ra - symbolizes the Sun. The Sun is the source of energy, life and warmth of the universe and purifies and energizes all beings.

Ma - symbolizes water. It is healing, cooling and nurturing.

Da - the Earth principle which provides calming and grounding of body and mind.

Sa - symbolizes air, sky and space. It is prana - the life force of the universe.

The second Sa is the turning point causing the spirit to descend from heaven back into the body for vitalizing it with healing life.

Say - is the pathway for the healing force to follow.

So - brings the healing force into your personal body.

Hung - comes in two parts: Hu, the vibrating force of God. It is sounded with the lips slowly coming lightly together while making a humming sound. The second part: ng, causes the sound Hung to vibrate in the head and down into the chest. This brings the vital force into all parts of the body. The vibrating sound "ng" is produced by bringing the back of the tongue up against the palate while opening the mouth.

As you chant the mantra, simply allow yourself to expand out into the universe and merge back with the healing force. Enjoy.

My Experience

The most beautiful truth is not about worldly facts but about the innermost experience of yourself. An intellectual conception is not as significant or interesting as an experience that finds the truth within you - the true Being. Is it really impossible to have definite answers to questions that are thought to be incontestable? Can an experience beyond consciousness and thoughts be described accurately with words. I believe it can. I am suggesting that it is possible to describe a subjective experience that is beyond consciousness and thoughts.

My experience with the subjective world is one of extreme clarity and beauty. With all senses nullified I exist in complete silence and go into a sea of tranquility. And then, in that one moment the answer appears; "There is no reason." There is no reason for things to exist. The human mind thinks there needs to be a reason or a purpose for things to exist. Don't get me wrong, I like to believe that human beings have a purpose for existing; that we are here to evolve into higher conscious beings, but that is still my mind at work. We may be evolving but accoring to my vision that is not why we exist.

When I am in deep tranquility and vividness I have a vision that everything in the universe and beyond is interconnected and it all interplays synergistically; each individual thought and action affects everything in the web of life and death one way or another. I see fields of energy throughout the universe connecting all things. But that doesn't mean interaction has a purpose. The whole mess of stuff and things moving and changing exist within no change. There is formless in the form, unchanching in the changing, nameless in a name and God in everything. By any other name it is still the same.

Each individual can reach his own answer by returning to the fundamental introspection of his own being and become totally aware of his own distinctiveness. Subjective innermost personal experience is necessary for understanding the Absolute.

Pure awareness, therefore, seems to me the best way for answers to all so called unanswerable questions. You cannot understand the truth until you have experienced it personally and inwardly. You can fool yourslef into thinking you know much more about who you are and why you exist, and so you over-estimate thinking and believe that the mind alone gives you a true explanation. But remember, the mind is wrong 99% of the time. You cannot find the answer to the ultimate question, "Why am I," until you go beyond the mind and take possession of the innermost experience of yourself.

Why am I?

The persistent mind wants to know, among other things, why the universe with all its stars, planets and life on earth exist. The need to know is what the mind, with its attached ego, demands. The mind is forever seeking answers to questions to which it can never know. The mind wants to know not only who am I? but why am I? The first question was answered in the last two posts. This post will attempt to answer the second question.

Our senses relay information from the outside world to our brain which interprets the information as facts. The interpretations are filled with past experiences, beliefs, assumptions and generalizations. The interpretations the mind makes are no more factual than the moon is made of cheese, the earth is flat or the earth is the center of the universe. Our cognitive biases are formed from what we want and think to be true of "what is out there." The mind is wrong about 99% of the time. You cannot rely on the mind to give you answers to incontestable questions. It's impossible. There is no way to escape the illusions generated by the mind because the illusions are manifestations garnered over thousands of years - generations after generations.

One way, and maybe the only way, to find the answer to "why am I?" is to still the mind and go beyond the ego. I am not talking about your general run-of-the-mill meditation here. To still the mind and go beyond the ego you must go beyond the limitations of your own consciousness into a realm of clarity seldom sought by most human beings. The clear vision is like a conscious altered state in which you have an "aha" experience. In the vividness you are still awake but no thoughts are being processed or perceived. To go into this increased state of vivid awareness you have to learn to quell all senses and become one with the internal and external universe. The answer will come if you are patient enough and are willing to listen without letting thoughts muddle the view. You might want to go back a read my post, "Going beyond Thoughts," August 25, 2011, in order to get a better understanding of how to clear your mind of thoughts.

To start the process of going beyond the mind you must sit in a very comfortable position with pillows, bolsters or whatever it takes to be as comfortable as possible. This you can experiment with until you get what is just right for you. Close off all of your senses as much as possible. You may want to wear ear plugs to muffle sounds, a scarf or bandanna over your eyes to shut out light, and position you arms and hands in a way they don't feel heavy. You cannot try to clear your mind of thoughts because the more you try the more they will invade your mind. It becomes a useless task to try. Begin by relaxing into your breathing and focus on the breath. Thoughts will invariably come and go but pay no attention to them. Keep your concentration, attention and focus on the breath. The breath comes in and the breath goes out. Relax but don't fall asleep.

It may take thirty minutes, an hour or even more before thoughts begin to dissipate fully. With the senses dampened and no thoughts there will be quietness beyond your imagination. You will be floating in a sea of tranquility. If you happen to come out of the tranquil state at this time you will discover more time has passed than expected. But if you continue on with your journey you will become deeply engulfed in the present moment and your sense of reality will become more vivid. The longer you stay in the sea the clearer the answer will become.

While you are in the sea of tranquility you will experience ultimate reality but may not remember it immediately when you come back to normal reality. If you do remember the experience you will have your answer. If you don't remember, it may take you a few more attempts before you do. In either case it will be your experience of ultimate reality and the answer to why you and everything else is here.

I encourage you to take the plunge into the miraculous sea of tranquility. And please let those of us on this site know what you discovered. If enough of us describe our experiences we might come up with a consensus and have a universal answer to the "ultimate" question. I will describe my experience on the next post.

Who am I? cont'd

The question, who am I? discussed in the previous post was, on the whole, answered by saying I am the true Self. We are all the true Self but we may not realize it because of the grasp the ego has on us. What is in one individual is the same in all individuals - an eternal power that pervades the entire universe. Each individual human being must discover this for themself.

There is nothing absolutely stable, nothing permanent in us except for the knowing there is constant change. In us as well as in the universe there is ceaseless movement and change. Our bodies as well as our thoughts, emotions, feelings, desires, i.e., everything that combined roughly called the body and mind are constantly changing and moving; there is nothing absolutely stable and permanent except for the feeling that we have always been the same person no matter what our age. There has always been the feeling, or better yet the knowing, we are the same being from year to year. This unchanging presence is the very ground of our eternal existence. This is the true Self.

This is why we can experience the universe as something spreading deep within us as well as spreading out into boundless space even beyond the universe, beyond all stars and planets, beyond space and time. Everything is unlimited and constant yet forever changing. This is the one common ground we all have in common. That one common ground is the basis for the oft heard sayhing that we are all One.

If it is true that we are the unchanging as well as constant moving why does this ceaseless "going on" even exist? Is there a purpose for all of this stuff and all of this moving and changing? There cannot be movement without non-movement and there cannot be non-movement without movement. One without the other has no meaning. The system of movement and the system of non-movement are not two separate independent systems at all, but actually one system. They are one and the same.

To think of yourself as separate and independent from all else is an illusion of the mind because there is only one reality and that reality is oneness. Since we are all ultimate Beings and there is only one ultimate Being there cannot be many ultimate Beings. There is no division between movement and non-movement, between change and non-change, and between you and me.

Next, Why am I?

Who am I?

Eckhart Tolle mentions in his book, The Power of NOW, that he once had thoughts about his life being so meaningless that he thought he couldn't live with himself any longer. And then suddenly he became aware how peculiar that thought was. "If I cannot live with myself, there must be two of me: the 'I' and the 'self' that 'I' cannot live with."

I know I have, and probably other people have asked "Who am I." Not only who am I but why am I? The first question may be easier to answer than the second. I would like to tackle the first question first and then the second question later. Please feel free to chime in and post your comments at any time.

When I am in deep meditation - I mean really deep - there is no sense of self. Like today, I prepared myself for meditation by getting into some very comfortable clothing. I looked at the clock, it was 3:15 PM. I put ear plugs in my ears and shooter's ear mufflers over them with a bandanna around my eyes. No sound and no light was evident. Then I sat cross legged in a swinging hammock and placed my arms and hands in such a position they weren't touching anything. It was like suspended animation with most of the senses shut off. All there was was a sense of breathing and a sense of presence. I then began imagining breathing through the chakras beginning with the first chakra at the base of the spine. Slowly I went up the spine, one chakra at a time, concentrating on the chakras as my breath went in and out of the spinning wheels.

I don't remember reaching the last chakra. The only thing I could sense was presence and a void - an open space that seemed to extend on forever. And then the sense of presence was gone - there was no self. The only thing that remained was silence and space. And then it seemed as though suddenly my senses came alive. I could feel my breathing and my arms resting in my lap. I could hear, ever so slightly, the muffled sounds of dogs barking and a little stream of light coming in around the edges of the bandanna. I took the bandanna and ear muffs off and discovered my legs were asleep; numb from sitting cross legged. I looked at the clock on the wall and it was 5:30 PM. Two hours and fifteen minutes had passed.

Had I been asleep for more than two hours, in deep dreamless sleep, or had the self become one with the Absolute? I was either in deep nondreaming sleep or had completely lost the self. Whatever the case, I had been formless with no identity of the body or mind. Sri Nisargadatta says, "When you are very quiet, you have arrived at the basis of everything. When you are in that state, you have no awareness of your existence." Evidently the self with all of its concepts, thoughts, senses, beliefs and even consciousness had left for those two hours and fifteen minutes. The true Self was the only thing remaining.

Most Ancient Mantra

In the Rig Veda there is a singing mantra (the Gayatri Mantra) which is said to be the oldest mantra known to man. Below is the mantra with my interpretation of the phonetic pronunciation. Below the mantra is a translation by Swami Vivacananda. You can click on the video at the right to hear Deva Premal sing the mantra. I use the lovely mantra as a sing along in my yoga classes.

Om bhur bhuvah svah
(Om boo bo-vaha - va ha)

Tat savitur varenyam,
(Tatsavitu varne-neyam)

Bhargo devasya dhimahi;
(Bargo deva-sademahe)

Dhiyo yonah prachodayat
(Deyo yona-- pra-choo-die-ya)

Translation:

We meditate on the glory
Of that Being who has
Produced this universe;
May He enlighten our minds.