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Spiritual teachings by Shunyamurti, the founder and director of the Sat Yoga Ashram - a wisdom school, ashram, and the home of a vibrant spiritual community based in Costa Rica. Visit us at satyoga.org
Episodes
Thursday Jan 21, 2010
A Place of Refuge - 01.21.10
Thursday Jan 21, 2010
Thursday Jan 21, 2010
Coming together in a Satsang, or spiritual gathering, “creates a womb of love in which to bathe, in which to let go of the stresses that we have to deal with ‘out there’ in that world of non-love, of competition and anger and brutality,” explains Shunyamurti, the spiritual director of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. “And the more we create a close-knit community of love, the more this becomes a refuge. And that’s what is important to the soul of each of us; we need a refuge. Everyone needs a place to be able to come and know that they’re accepted without judgment. Where they can sit and let go of everything.”
“And so we have to find the way to achieve the inner refuge. And that means we have to let go of the mind itself because the mind is where the problems lie. And we are attached to the mind because we identify with the body. As long as consciousness is identified with the physical organism, then the mind, with all of its defense mechanisms that are intended to protect that organism against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, will have to remain rigid and always on alert—and always thinking, manipulating, strategizing—to defend itself. But when we can let go of the mind—first at the ego level and then even at the soul level—then we can finally be at peace in our spirit, our Atman. That’s the only true refuge." Recorded on the evening of Thursday, January 21, 2010.
Monday Jan 11, 2010
The Necessity of Discipleship - 01.11.10
Monday Jan 11, 2010
Monday Jan 11, 2010
Excerpt: “Human nature is a variable; it’s not a constant. It changes through the ages,” argues Shunyamurti, the spiritual director of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. “And right now we’re in a time when the human ego structure is morphing at an accelerated rate into a very distorted and negative, nihilistic, and fragmented form.” And, as a result, the collective sphere is also getting more and more chaotic and unpredictable. “And so anyone who is sane feels mad in this world because the collective normality is madness; madness of a particularly paranoid kind.” And along with the paranoia, come other egocentric mind states such as desire, “the fantasy of wishful thinking that ‘Oh, if I’m only with that person then everything is gonna be fine. That person will rescue me from my despair’ or whatever. Or ‘That money,’ or ‘That car,’ or that whatever. And the projection of desire—as well as of fear—begins to operate, as well as the false duty of the karma that exists at the disillusionment point that, ‘OK, if I only get a good job and get my parents to approve of my life or society to approve of me, then I’ll be fine, and I’ll be stabilized.’ But of course none of that works either because it’s not coming from the True Self, it’s coming from a desire to please the other. . . . So we have to be constantly alert to when the ego-mind is fooling you and taking you off center. And that requires then a practice of meditation that is very intense, very constant, so that the chatter of the mind is overcome, and the silent presence of the Divine Light and Love is what is the operative power that is emanating through you. And it’s only through a surrender to God—internally—and then activating that externally through behaviors that link one in the highest way to service, communal action, harmonious, loving, compassionate, beingness in the world that will keep our souls pure, and therefore to function according to an inner compass that is accurately calibrated to true north of God-consciousness.” Recorded on the evening of Monday, January 11, 2010.
Thursday Dec 31, 2009
New Year’s Eve 2009 - 12.31.09
Thursday Dec 31, 2009
Thursday Dec 31, 2009
In 2009 we have experienced a lull, perhaps not in terms of economic crises, but in terms of acts of God. In the coming year we will bear witness to much more devastating events, but must remain detached and continue our work towards ego transcendence. This coming year for us must “involve two important advances. We must attain true authenticity” to be able to live in the True Self at all times. “And then secondly to be able to respond to these cataclysms with peace, with serenity—even with joy. And to transmit that joy. . . . we have the ability to remember that we are beings of light. That we are immaterial, incorporeal, nontemporal, nonhuman, nonlimited. And beings that dwell in the realm of the miraculous for whom this entire world is a dream that can be re-dreamed. That we are not stuck in some situation that is defined by the collective Other, or by history, or by any other force. That God is ultimate freedom and that by existing in that union with God we are free of the necessity of karmic consequences that would otherwise hold us enslaved. And to use that freedom and that power—in the service of God—in order to free not only our own self . . . but to free all beings who are lost in those false identifications that are bringing them into suffering.” Recorded on the evening of December 31, 2009.
Thursday Dec 31, 2009
Beyond the Body - 12.31.09
Thursday Dec 31, 2009
Thursday Dec 31, 2009
Student Comment: I can see that with the New Year, and subsequent times we have coming up, how I have to be part of the flow of it, and how I must release myself from this identity to allow myself to be part of the flow because things will happen that will bring us to our knees. And I must realize that I do not have to be so caught up with the mourning to be able to see it for what it is. And I must have faith that the designer has designed perfection
“This is a year that will bring great anxiety if we have not overcome the identity with the body, which is perishable. Because the things that will happen will go to the very root of our existence, and we must be ready to let go of the body if we are called upon it—but to know that the body is not essential to our being,” explains Shunyamurti, the spiritual master of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. “But who we are can never be captured in any form or pattern. So don’t let yourself be captured by a limited level of your existence that is only temporary and cannot offer the fulfillment of your being; cannot fully offer joy.”
So we want to go beyond anything that has come into human history hitherto, no matter how brilliant it may seem. “They are all very limited expressions of consciousness and we want to go beyond all of those to something absolutely new; to a way of being and knowing that has never existed before. We must allow the absolutely new to enter into our consciousness. . . . And then patterns of consciousness that are trans-individual, trans-cosmic can then emerge in a consciousness that is now vast and unlimited, no longer local, and no longer identified with a small energy field, but identified with the field of the whole cosmos.” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, December 31, 2009.
Thursday Dec 31, 2009
The Planetary Unconscious - 12.31.09
Thursday Dec 31, 2009
Thursday Dec 31, 2009
Student Question: Earlier you were talking about the individual unconscious, the collective unconscious, and the planetary unconscious, and I was just wondering what role the planetary unconscious plays in this change? Is it even aware of this happening?
“Well of course. This is the consciousness of Nature,” answers Shunyamurti, the spiritual director of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. “And so yes, the planetary unconscious is a force that is operating at every moment in very subtle ways, in all of the things that happen to us that affect our karma. . . . But, it’s only when we have surrendered to the Supreme Consciousness that contains the planetary, as well as the cosmic and the trans-cosmic, that then there is an alignment of all of these different levels. But the entire universe is consciousness, and that consciousness operates at every level—just as there is a consciousness of every cell in your body, and it is operating in alignment with all of those different levels also.” But the story of Kali Yuga is the story of separation and multiplicity; the time of individual egos denying their connection to the whole. “And so unless we transcend the ego—and realize our identity never had anything to do with the ego—then we cannot unite with Nature and with the power that is transcendent of Nature. And then we can, once we have done that, we can bring that power of God into the nature of our own bodies, and through us, the nature of the world will be reborn and revived by that recognition of unity and harmony and love that is a palpable energy that will flow through us once we have let go of the resistance of the ego.” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, December 31, 2009.