Vigorous Breathing

When you feel the lightness,

follow up with the Rhythmic Breathing.

Feel the quietness.

Quietly we sit with ourselves.

There may be emotions, feelings, thoughts –

quietly we experience them.

Just sitting quietly,

experiencing all movements as waves.

Whether they may be of emotions, feelings –

they can all be experienced within the quietness.

Just as waves arise in the ocean and pass away,

settle back in the ocean,

so also waves of feelings and emotions and thoughts rise in you –

rise in the ocean of your being,

the ocean of quietness-

reaching to profound silence.

 

We will continue to sit in this manner,

quietly relaxed with ourselves.

Just being an objective watcher, experiencer

of those waves that arise in you;

as also being aware of the workings of the force.

We are just being with ourselves,

coming to know of ourselves,

coming to know of ourselves even in sleepiness – lethargy.

In this way you can be reaching to the here and now,

which is the ever present presence of your Self, eternal in you.

The immutable wherein all mutation happens.

Thoughts continue to mutate; feelings, emotions mutate;

in the ground of your being the waves rise and set in the ocean.

The mutation happens in the ocean.

The ocean is immutable.

So the process of coming to know yourself as thus

is to be with yourself objectively;

experiencing thoughts, feelings, emotions,

being aware of yourself even in the moments of sleepiness and lethargy.

They are all visitations of nature and its workings.

You are ALL there is to be known.

When you know yourself, as you continue to know more of yourself,

you continue to discover more of the reality.

You are the reality:

what you are presently and what is yet to manifest.

What is yet to be known,

about the reality that which you are.

So every moment we learn to see ourselves.

We come to an awareness of ourselves,

in those moments when we move about,

when we act, when we express,

what we express, how we express,

our attitudes, our motives, our feelings,

our emotions, our thoughts, our silences,

our moments of despair and sorrow,

being alone, or being with another, in a crowd.

 

So we sit to be with ourselves

and when we walk out of this sitting,

we are still with ourselves.

There may be conversations, there may be laughter,

you are still with yourself.

There may be the joys of experience,

radical experiences,

and yet there may be moments of dryness,

periods of despair, frustration,

you are still with yourself.

All these are parts of the self-discovering process.

Throughout these moments you always remain.

When is it that you are not?

So we sit here to be with ourselves.

Coming to know ourselves more consciously –

with a greater awareness.

So to bring about this greater awareness of ourselves,

to bring about this greater manifestation of ourselves,

to know more of the unknown that which we are,

we take to techniques,

we take to sadhana,

we take to the presence of an awakened one,

refuge in ourselves and the awakened master.

His/her presence can bring about new discoveries in ourselves –

speed up the discovery.

He is the catalyst that brings about

the activity of self-discovery.

 

 

We take to concentration in the heart.

We try to reach to an inner quietness.

In that concentration in the heart,

we reach more and more with the inner quietness.

If you have managed to be with this quietness

continue to remain so.

And if you can bring your heart into it,

some feeling, inspiration

in what you are doing,

in this quietness,

that becomes extremely helpful.

 

If you are finding it difficult to be relaxed within –

if you are sleepy,

you can do some quick and vigorous breathing.

Take a few deep breaths now

and allow yourself to relax with the breath.

Feel the lightness, relax with the lightness.

Try to settle inwards.

Try to reach deep within yourself.

 

Whenever we pray we reach to our own selves.

For what is within us is without

and what is without is within us.

When the heart is touched, prayer is reached

and meditation begins.

 

There are untold mysteries hidden within you

and those who reach out to search for these mysteries

are therefore called mystics.

For they seek the mysterious.

To them the whole life becomes an unfolding mystery.

The door to enter to unfold these mysteries is the heart.

The heart is the door.

So it was that Christ said:

“The kingdom of God is in your own heart.”

And so also:

“Ask and you shall be given it,

Seek and you shall find,

Knock and it shall be opened unto thee.”

So ask, seek and knock with devotion,

with your complete Self.

 

The body is the temple,

the heart is the shrine,

wherein you will find

truly your face divine.

 

When you have reached to this quietness,

and in that quietness you have surrendered completely,

there will awaken in you the mother-force

and you shall have a new birth.

 

Whenever you feel the need to steady yourself,

you can always come back to observing your breath.

You can also use a spell of quick and vigorous breathing

and then from the observation of the breath

you can come to the awareness of yourself as the observer.

You can also relax in-between,

when you feel yourself getting tense,

but first observe the tension,

learn to see it very objectively,

then relax with the outside,

give up concentration for a while.

And then once you are relaxed

with the outside, with the sounds outside –

or you can take a little journey with your mind,

relax, visualize, imagine, use your imagination to relax,

there is no limit to you

and once you are relaxed

through observing the breath,

you have reached to being steady –

then go back to concentration in your heart.

Being with the quietness within.

Our refuge is within ourselves.

And it is this refuge when one finds

that is the basis of a beginning of a new life.

 

We will consciously take refuge within ourselves

by chanting the refuge mantra.

You are welcome to join me,

but if you have already found the silent refuge within yourself,

you have your freedom to continue to remain silent or join me.

 

I take refuge in the truth of my being

Dharmam Sharanam Gachchhami

Dharmam Sharanam Gachchhami

The truth of your being is Dharma.

 

Sangham Sharanam Gachchhami

I take refuge in the Sangha, in the company of those who seek after this truth.

Sangha is the community of seekers, the commune.

The atmosphere generated by such a commune is conducive for such seeking.

There is a concentrated atmosphere, when a group, a community, seeks together.

Sangham Sharanam Gachchhami

 

Maonam  Sharanam Gachchhami

Maonam is silence.

Normally, ordinarily it is understood to be

“not speaking”.

But really when you speak,

if you are established in an inner silence,

you are established in maonam.

You may be in expression, in action,

and yet be in maonam, in silence within.

For all things are born of silence.

We take refuge, I take refuge

in the silence of my Self.

Silence is my own Self that which abides.

There is therefore silence in my words.

There is silence in my expressions,

in my most intense expressions and actions

there is silence.

I take refuge in the silence of my Self.

Maonam Sharanam Gachchhami.

 

And where there is silence, there is peace.

Shanti.

Where there is no silence, there cannot be peace.

We take refuge, I take refuge

in the peace of my Self.

I am at peace with myself

and I am at peace with the world,

with the whole creation.

Shantim Sharanam Gachchhami

 

We keep an attitude of prayer when we chant.

It helps when we take refuge.

Shantim Sharanam Gachchhami

 

Punyam Sharanam Gachchhami

 

I take refuge in the pureness of my soul,

the essence of my soul.

That which is eternal,

that which is sacred,

the silence of my Self.

The profundity that which I am,

the innocence that abides in me,

and in all things and beings,

the innocence that pervades the whole creation.

In that I take refuge.

Myself and with others who seek.

 

Pavitram Sharanam Gachchhami

 

 

Divyam Sharanam Gachchhami

 

I take refuge in the divinity that is within me.

Divya also means light.

I take refuge in the light

that dwells within me and in all things and beings,

and so therefore reach to enlightenment.

Divyam Sharanam Gachchhami

 

The refuge is within us.

The light is within us.

The silence is within us.

The peace is within us.

The truth dwells within us.

 

Through our selves we reach to our Selves.

And when we find the truth in ourselves,

when we find our Selves,

truly we find the Truth,

the light in all things and beings.

This is our faith.

 

Delighting together as a congregation as a Sangha.

 

 

(Collective singing)

Hare Ram, Hare Ram, Ram Ram, Hare Hare,

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare.

 

 

Panchmadhi

30 January 1996