Exploring Consciousness with Vikas Pandey

The peace that meditation gives you does not have to be restricted to the time that you are sitting in meditation. Everyday life can provide the same peace through mindfulness. This episode is about cultivating a mindful lifestyle. With this approach, gradually, being mindful will become your default state.

If the events of 2020 have taught us one thing, it is that no one can predict the future. Uncertainty is not to be feared, fear about a projected future is a mere thought form arising in present moment awareness and has no inherent reality of their own. This meditation is about embracing uncertainty by living in the moment here and now.

'The cure for pain is in the pain' ~ Rumi

Have you ever observed what an emotion is? Emotions are thoughts that have recruited body sensations (usually felt in chest or abdomen) to amplify their messages. Try to observe your body sensations quietly without the overlay of thought and see what happens to the emotion.

These guided meditations were recorded during the first UK national lockdown during the Covid-19 Pandemic and there may be references to this in the recording.

Our human experience consists of perceptions of the world, body and mind. We can rest our attention anywhere but like an addiction our attention tends to rest on whatever is going through our mind. This in meditative traditions is said to be the cause of unhappiness and 'suffering' we have seen throughout time but something that is clearly evident now. Meditation is about focussing our attention and directing it anywhere but our thoughts.

Imagination is one of the greatest attributes of the human being and its creative potential is behind most if not all the advances made in the history of mankind. Left unchecked imagination can have negative consequences. We often don't observe the bubbling of random thoughts that arise in our consciousness but if we did, we would recognise that the majority of them are useless, unnecessary, irrelevant and random but the intellectual mind has the capacity to grasp just one of these thoughts and create an entire story out of it. For some, this can happen totally subconsciously yet still dictate the actions in their lives. 

Meditation anchors, return you to the present moment when lost in thought. This recognition that develops early, after starting a regular practice of meditation correlates to structural and functional changes in the brain that have been detected as early as four weeks after starting a daily practice on MRI and brain blood flow imaging studies.

We look for sources of strength and courage in the outside world not knowing that our greatest strength, our greatest potential as human beings lies within.

Welcome to the exploring consciousness podcast. The Exploring Consciousness Podcast is dedicated to discussion on meditation, mindfulness and nonduality (the philosophy of Oneness, also known as 'The Perennial Philosophy' or 'The Worlds Wisdom') and the positive impact they can bring both to individuals and humanity. It is brought to you by Vikas Pandey, consultant surgeon, meditation teacher and director of Pandey Integrated Healthcare. For more information visit www.pandey.healthcare

#happinessisourbirthright