what would you recommend that I we can do you know after the meditations I went out
for a walk and what was what happened in the meditation which was this merging of I
would say consciousness with the sensation of whatever it was that we were exploring and the
seeing the sensing that the being it one as soon as I walked out it all became separate
again then the trees were there and I was here yes what what recommendation or guidance could
you give us as to how you said there's no how but to make that the moment-to-moment reality
a meditation like this morning
dismantles the believed and more than just the believer felt solidity and density and
separation of our experience it dissolves it and you have that experience now when
the meditation comes to an end and we go off to lunch or go for a walk we don't remain in
that condition through force of habit that there is a returning to the old patterns of thinking
and feeling in this case particularly feeling but we don't go all the way back and then we
do a similar kind of meditation again there is this dissolution of the sense of solidity
objectivity other-ness density particularly in the feeling of the body the body feels pervaded
by the light of awareness it feels sensitive light weightless but then sure enough two or
three hours later through force of habit the old feelings have come back again but again we
don't go all the way back something of the old way of feeling and perceiving not just
thinking but feeling and perceiving and that's why these yoga meditations are so powerful
they act on our feelings and perceptions not our thoughts something something of what we
experienced in the meditation is retained and part of the old way of feeling and perceiving
has been dissolved we never go all the way back again so each time we come back to these kinds of
yoga meditations we are gradually eroding or erasing old habits of feeling sensing and
perceiving in our conversations like this this evening we are exposing and eroding patterns
of thought and that is important but in the meditations particularly the yoga meditations
we are exposing and erasing old patterns of feeling sensing and perceiving and this is where
the root of the separate self lies the separate self doesn't just lie in our beliefs the deeper
and larger aspect of it is in our feelings in the body and these feelings in the body are
immune to non-dual conversation they require a finer approach and they are very tenacious
as I said this morning they these feelings have been laid down when the body was still
soft and sensitive and open they were they were laid down deeply in the body layer after layer
particularly early on in our childhood and they have the separate self has as it were solidified
in the body and it's not just a couple of hours of yoga meditation is not going to dissolve that
density we we have to soak there the image I sometimes uses than the image of a kitchen a
tea cloth that an old kitchen tea cloth with the we've washed numerous times in the washing
machine and the washing machine gets 90% of the dirt I'd but the wine stains and the tea stains
remain they are immune to em Ajax, Persil and there's some another agent is required so
you put the tea towel in in a water tub of water you need to leave it soaking in the soapy water
it's this soaking that affects the removal of this last 10% the wine and the tea stains so
the the wine and the tea stains are there but seem to be these residues of separation in the
body that tea stains and it is this soaking in these yoga meditations that is to my knowledge
in my experience the most penetrating and the most effective and as I think I said some time earlier
this week this this approach was implicit in the Vedantic approach for instance ramana maharshi
sat for many hours is just in silence with his students that he was doing this but it was own
it was own it was just a soaking inside when I say just a soaking in silence it's very powerful there
was this soaking in silence and these feelings gradually come up to the surface layer upon there
and they are dissolved but in this approach we are a little bit more proactive as I said this
morning we're not actually doing anything to the body but we are we are encouraging these
tensions to come out of their hiding places in the body and we are we are kind of lovingly teasing
them out of their hiding places and then we are leaving them to soak or offering them to this
the transparent space of awareness so it's it's a little bit more it's a little bit more penetrating
so in answer to your question I would keep keep exploring your experience in this way keep
participating in these yoga meditations as well as all the other means that we have here and don't
look for immediate results don't be disappointed when you go outside in the afternoon and think oh
the old habits of sensing and perceiving have come back it takes it takes time remember the
Zen master on his deathbed I'm doing fine but my body is having a hard time keeping up this
was a Zen master at the end of his life it takes years this is not the Oh everything just appears
in awareness there's nobody here and there's nothing to do approach that doesn't uproot these
deep layers of suffering in the body it plasters them over it excuses them but it doesn't give us
the deep peace and satisfaction that we seek so don't look for immediate results but at the same
time don't feel that you're aiming for something that is going to finally take place that there
is no there is no end to this process the process itself is enjoyable what could be more enjoyable
than this morning's meditation I mean it wasn't it wasn't torture was it it wasn't and it wasn't
like sitting in his own monastery facing the wall in silence for it's it's enjoyable sorry I didn't
mean to to disparage okay but that's why they say in in the direct path the path is the goal
in the progressive path we are treading the path hoping to get to the goal do these exercises with
a sense of there's nothing to be achieved by them we are already standing as that which was to be
achieved we are already and what was achieved was not achieved it was recognized to be that
which is prior to all experience we are already standing as the goal these yoga meditations are
what my teacher called a post enlightenment sadhna it's not even necessary to do them one
could recognize one's true nature and be happy with that recognition but if we want to take this
recognition out into life not just experience it in the privacy of our heart but if we want
our relationships to express it if we want our activities and our environment our circumstances
if we want our the whole realm of our life all realms of experience to be colonized and
permeated by this understanding then this post enlightenment solder is is necessary