Spiritualseeker
13 September 2009, 07:52 PM
http://journeytozen.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/its-all-in-your-mind/
Namaste,
So I was reading in Paramahansa Yogananda’s lecture transcriptions from the book “Man’s Eternal Quest-Collected Talks and Essays On Realizing God In Daily Life” and came across something very interesting that I wanted to share.
Paramahansa Yogananda quotes the Gita “Those who are attached to sense pleasures cannot gain the mental equilibrium of meditation; they fail to receive union with God through ecstasy (samadhi).”
Yogananda goes on to say, “Learning to disconnect oneself mentally from the disturbance of sensations brings peace of mind. That man who remains untouched by sensations that come and go, being neutral to their ever-changing stimuli, manifests the soul’s essential changelessnesss; in that unchanging consciousness he becomes one with the Changeless Infinite.” (pg 303)
This seems to be an indepth teachings that the saints of India realized through introspection, meditation, and other yogic disciplines. Most of the time we seem to be identified with our mind and body. This brings about great suffering in many ways that only manifest more suffering. For an example: If one dwells over their sadness, anger, and so forth they will become identified with that emotion and thus suffer more. We begin to believe we are our emotions. Since we become identified with the emotions we lose touch with our true nature.
There is nothing inherently wrong with emotions. They are protective barriers for us. So it is not so that we suppress the emotions. Nor do we act in the extreme opposite and identify with them. We can simply observe them arise and see them as insubstantial (they have a beginning and end). Everything is changing so there is no permanent emotion. When we learn to accept things as they are and to dance with Siva or with life, we begun to loosen up and not take our thoughts and emotions so seriously.
If we learn to detach from not only the body but the mind we can get in touch with our True Nature. This True Nature has many different names in the many different traditions. To Mahayana Buddhist it may be our Buddha-nature. We all have the potentials to become buddhas just like Sidhartha Gautama.
In Santana Dharma (hinduism) it may be refferred to as the Soul or the Individualized spirit. In the glossary in “Man’s Eternal Quest” it states that “The Soul is the true and immortal nature of man, and of all living forms of life; it is cloaked only temporarily in the garments of causal, astral, and physical bodies. The nature of the soul is Spirit: ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new Joy.”
It is not enough to believe that you have buddha nature, or Soul, or Atma. What is required is practice and perseverance. We need to break the bondage to our minds and our bodies. Through practice we can realize that we are not our excessive thinking or the aches and pains in this dying body. Our True Nature is Ever One with the One Life that Manifest all Life. This is Ultimate Reality to Buddhist or Brahman of the Hindus. This Reality is said to be possible for even us in this age. We only need to put effort into practice. Continuous meditation, introspection (such as asking yourself “Who Am I”), and prayer can guide us along to True Understanding.
May we all awaken to our True Nature and let go of our Egoic attachments to the mind and body.
Aum
Namaste,
So I was reading in Paramahansa Yogananda’s lecture transcriptions from the book “Man’s Eternal Quest-Collected Talks and Essays On Realizing God In Daily Life” and came across something very interesting that I wanted to share.
Paramahansa Yogananda quotes the Gita “Those who are attached to sense pleasures cannot gain the mental equilibrium of meditation; they fail to receive union with God through ecstasy (samadhi).”
Yogananda goes on to say, “Learning to disconnect oneself mentally from the disturbance of sensations brings peace of mind. That man who remains untouched by sensations that come and go, being neutral to their ever-changing stimuli, manifests the soul’s essential changelessnesss; in that unchanging consciousness he becomes one with the Changeless Infinite.” (pg 303)
This seems to be an indepth teachings that the saints of India realized through introspection, meditation, and other yogic disciplines. Most of the time we seem to be identified with our mind and body. This brings about great suffering in many ways that only manifest more suffering. For an example: If one dwells over their sadness, anger, and so forth they will become identified with that emotion and thus suffer more. We begin to believe we are our emotions. Since we become identified with the emotions we lose touch with our true nature.
There is nothing inherently wrong with emotions. They are protective barriers for us. So it is not so that we suppress the emotions. Nor do we act in the extreme opposite and identify with them. We can simply observe them arise and see them as insubstantial (they have a beginning and end). Everything is changing so there is no permanent emotion. When we learn to accept things as they are and to dance with Siva or with life, we begun to loosen up and not take our thoughts and emotions so seriously.
If we learn to detach from not only the body but the mind we can get in touch with our True Nature. This True Nature has many different names in the many different traditions. To Mahayana Buddhist it may be our Buddha-nature. We all have the potentials to become buddhas just like Sidhartha Gautama.
In Santana Dharma (hinduism) it may be refferred to as the Soul or the Individualized spirit. In the glossary in “Man’s Eternal Quest” it states that “The Soul is the true and immortal nature of man, and of all living forms of life; it is cloaked only temporarily in the garments of causal, astral, and physical bodies. The nature of the soul is Spirit: ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new Joy.”
It is not enough to believe that you have buddha nature, or Soul, or Atma. What is required is practice and perseverance. We need to break the bondage to our minds and our bodies. Through practice we can realize that we are not our excessive thinking or the aches and pains in this dying body. Our True Nature is Ever One with the One Life that Manifest all Life. This is Ultimate Reality to Buddhist or Brahman of the Hindus. This Reality is said to be possible for even us in this age. We only need to put effort into practice. Continuous meditation, introspection (such as asking yourself “Who Am I”), and prayer can guide us along to True Understanding.
May we all awaken to our True Nature and let go of our Egoic attachments to the mind and body.
Aum