The Torn Page

Student Question: Something you said earlier reminded me of one of your teachings when you said that the reason that atheists don’t believe in God, but that’s only because they’re not capable of loving. So how can they achieve union with God if they don’t believe in a supreme being?

Student Question: I wanted to know if you could elaborate a little bit more on the difference between sanskaras and past lives because I mentioned to a student here that it might be interesting to study my past lives, but what for? What purpose would it serve in accelerating my growth? And it was mentioned that it is actually more correct to say that sanskaras reincarnate rather than saying that we have past lives.

Excerpt: “The Real is a limit concept,” explains Shunyamurti, the founder of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica, “because it does not occur in reality; It is that which contains reality and makes reality possible. But it does not appear within reality. [It’s] very similar to this film, The Matrix, in which ‘reality,’ the matrix, is unreality—it is illusion—and the real is beyond it. . . . So we want to bring our consciousness from the ‘reality,’ that is in fact Maya, or illusion, to the Real. Where is the Real? Well, it is beyond, but not beyond in a spatial sense—because all the concepts that we use to understand the so-called ‘reality,’ are unreal in terms of the Absolute Real. . . . But it’s very difficult to let go of these concepts, as we know. And even more difficult to let go of the belief in entities. And Sri Ramana says that this is the ultimate key to liberation. And of course the prime entity that we have to stop believing in is the ‘me’, the ego, the false self. . . . And so we have to give up our addiction to conceptualization, to constant thinking. It’s the thinking in the mind that supports the illusion of the ego; you feel real as long as you're able to justify your existence by talking to yourself. . . . So that’s what we’re doing in meditation, is we’re cutting that addiction to dispersing our energies out into the world, justifying our existence with our minds, seeking images and emotions that support the egoic fantasies, and entering into the silence—that is a death; it is the death of the ego—but the opening to eternal life, in the Real.” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, march 17, 2011.

Student Question: As you mentioned in your teaching, we need to have a strong determination in order to reach the higher chakras. In therapy we talk a lot about materialization of things by repeating mantras, for example. Can we cause this determination to be made without discovering the causes and roots of suffering? Could you just say, “I’m determined to stay in the present,” instead?

Student Question: I was wondering, what is the nature of the ego? Does it come from human nature?

Excerpt: “Each of you is a divine jewel of radiant consciousness and eternal perfection,” reminds Shunyamurti, the founder of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. “The difficulty that gets in our way is that the ego-mind does not live in reality; it lives in its theory of reality. It lives trapped in a belief system. In fact, these days it’s even worse than that: it lives trapped in a number of different, conflicting belief systems. . . . And the information overload, and the lack of structure—the lack of social values that make any sense—make it very difficult to return to the wholeness and empowerment of the Real Self. But nonetheless the truth remains: that this divine jewel of light is what you are.” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, March 3, 2011.

Excerpt: “The Supreme Reality that we are all seeking is absolutely simple. And all we really need is to abide in that simplicity, which is our true nature,” teaches Shunyamurti, the spiritual director of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. “Everyone’s looking for a good investment, a safe investment. And so my suggestion to you all is that you invest in God. It’s the only sure investment. And what is most sure is that the more you invest, the greater are the returns on your investment. So in the ordinary capitalist world, they say get a basket of investments so you hedge your bets. But, actually, because investing in the Supreme Being is a sure thing, it doesn’t pay to hedge your bets; it pays to invest—fully—in the Godself. But what kind of investment are we talking about? It’s not about money. It’s investing your love, your attention, your energy, your time—your focus on realizing the presence of God within you. . . . And so there are many many levels of consciousness through which we can rise if we are willing to let go of the lower. And this is a principle of spiritual progress: if you want to rise, you must let go of what you’re holding onto at the lower level. And this is what people are unwilling to do. They want a guarantee first that they’ll get the higher before they let go of the lower rung, and so they never get there; they get paralyzed. And this is where faith comes in. The faith of taking the risk of jumping into the abyss, the unknowable, the mystery of not knowing who you are. That’s what being fully alive means. That’s the thrill of existence, is the not knowing, when you push the envelope—and even push yourself out of the envelope—to discover the formless, infinite Self.” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, February 24, 2011.

Student Question: The wisdom that you offer helps to clarify any confusion I have regarding philosophy. But when I hear you mentioning Lacan or Freud, I encounter a lot of difficulty trying to match this wisdom to the concepts that they use. To me that’s complicated. Nevertheless, I see that there’s an intention to create bridges which give some validity to that knowledge, in Western psychology or philosophy.

Excerpt: “Meditation is simply abiding in the Self,” teaches Shunyamurti, the spiritual director of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. “Abiding in Brahman means bramacharya, that is the original state of purity. It’s the same as the kaivalya state that we have talked about before where the Purusha has extracted Itself from Prakriti. There’s no more interest in matter, in sensuality; desire falls away naturally. You’re repressing it, or suppressing it, it’s just not there because you are already all that is, what is there to desire? What is there to fear? . . . It is that level of consciousness in which one graduates from this phenomenal plane, this school in which we learn what is right and wrong, what creates suffering and what creates joy and bliss. And the ultimate bliss comes simply from abiding as the formless, eternal Presence.” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, February 17, 2011.

Student Question: Tonight in the study group we were studying chakra two, and that chakra two energies must come into consciousness and not be repressed. So how are these energies brought into consciousness? Does one have to engage in a sexual act in order to bring these energies into consciousness?