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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 Sep 16, 2010
Imitation & Competition – 09.16.10
Thursday Sep 16, 2010
Thursday Sep 16, 2010
Student Question: Why is competition so prevalent in this society?
“Because the ego’s an imitation: you become who you are by imitating others,” argues Shunyamurti, the founder of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. “But deep down, you know you’re just an imitation, and an imitation is a phony. And so you hate the one you’ve imitated. Now, the only reason you imitated them was because you loved them, and desired them, and thought they were great. But once you have become their imitation, then you wanna kill them so they no longer exist to take away your sense that you're the real one, because whenever they appear, they’re a threat, now, to you. . . . So, the ego is always terrified that it’s an impostor. And, therefore, it has to be unique, and it has to be superior to the other or it can collapse easily into non-entityhood.” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, September 16, 2010.
Thursday Sep 16, 2010
Envy of the Other – 09.16.10
Thursday Sep 16, 2010
Thursday Sep 16, 2010
Student Comment: In my darkest moments, I was faced with the fact that I hated the other’s aliveness. I feel like it’s one of the things that, if there’s going to be love and compassion for the other, has to be overcome. I don’t know if it’s just the terror of seeing how dead one is inside that makes it so threatening when somebody else is alive, and maybe this isn’t as universal as I think, and that’s why I’m asking.
“Well, it’s one way that it shows up. I think every ego envies, at an unconscious level, and hates people who it believes are happy. And especially if it’s a kind of happiness that is closed to them,” explains Shunyamurti, the director of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. And it’s universal “that you pick a shadow figure to dehumanize because you believe that they are enjoying something you can’t enjoy. . . . So it’s universal in terms of the envy, but the way it shows up is different. But every ego is in a state of competitiveness with every other ego. And that competitiveness creates a negative sense that is almost continuous . . . so that everyone’s comparing themselves to the other.” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, September 16, 2010.
Thursday Sep 16, 2010
Karma & Retribution – 09.16.10
Thursday Sep 16, 2010
Thursday Sep 16, 2010
Student Question: The agencies of evil and greed operate around the world openly and freely because there is no retribution. Such arrogance. Is there retribution to be paid, or do they get away with murder?
“No. There is ultimate justice in the universe,” assures Shunyamurti, the spiritual director of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. “The law of karma reaches everywhere, but it’s not immediate. And in part, the reason why it cannot be immediate in this time period is that everyone participates in that evil to some extent, and therefore everyone deserves to suffer. And so the evil is the payment for evil. No one wants to live in an evil world, but no one’s willing to become good. And so it is the collective karma of the populations of the world that put up with evil in the society and the government—in whatever structures have been created that are accessories both before and after the fact. And it is our awakening from this internalized evil that is necessary if we’re going to change the world and bring about the kind of retribution you’re talking about. . . . And the weak point in what prevents this full balance from being re-achieved is that there hasn’t become yet a critical mass of beings who have transcended the ego. When that happens, then the world will deserve to be restored to the Garden of Eden state that we have destroyed.” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, September 16, 2010.
Thursday Sep 16, 2010
Defeating the Shadow – 09.16.10
Thursday Sep 16, 2010
Thursday Sep 16, 2010
Student Question: In this transition of becoming porous—so you can perceive the miraculous—won’t that porosity also permit whatever residues that remain to boil up to the surface?
“The more of this work you do, and the more serious you take it, the more you flush out the repressed unconscious traumas, resistances, egocentricity, narcissism—all of the very core, dirty truth—the hidden truth of the ego—it gets revealed. And that’s when the going gets tough, and you need to have an energy field of love that will unconditionally accept you when you feel miserable and unworthy of even being on a path like this,” reminds Shunyamurti, the founder of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. “And that’s why it’s so important that we have a stable community that recognizes the shadow work, and that valorizes it, and that doesn’t stigmatize anyone for going through some negative period when the cloud of Maya is over their heads and you can’t even see them cause it’s so thick, but you still see the light through the cloud. . . . And we have to prepare ourselves, and each other, for the difficulty of facing the shadow—and defeating it, as a spiritual warrior.” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, September 16, 2010.
Thursday Sep 09, 2010
The Cloud of Maya – 09.09.10
Thursday Sep 09, 2010
Thursday Sep 09, 2010
Student Question: When you’re in Maya can you realize God? And then also, is Maya created for you to get back to God?
“Yes you can only see God when you're in Maya. And you can only see Maya when you're in God, this is true. Maya and God are two poles of the same ultimate reality,” reminds Shunyamurti, the director of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. “And it is given [to] us so that we can—by understanding it—get the juice out of it, the nectar, the divine nectar that is contained within every suffering, within every negative situation there is some gem of wisdom that we can extract from it and grow into greater God-consciousness. So rather than simply get negative about the negative, become a scientist seeking what is the hidden jewel, what is the hidden divine nectar that I can take out of this apparent disaster, and realize that it is a great blessing?” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, September 9, 2010.
Thursday Sep 09, 2010
I-dentity – 09.09.10
Thursday Sep 09, 2010
Thursday Sep 09, 2010
“We are all beings of bliss. Do you experience that? Bliss is our natural state,” provides Shunyamurti, the founder of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. “But once the Self, that is blissful, mis-identifies Itself with the physical organism and with the ego image, the ego complex, you could say, then It loses Its bliss. . . . So have you ever bought a new car, and soon after you drive it off of the lot it gets dented? And suddenly this new car that felt very heavenly, that made you feel wonderful because you bought the car you really wanted, and everything was perfect—the first dent takes all of that away. . . . So all of us are living with that: we go from an ‘I’ to an ‘I’-dentity; the ‘I’ gets dented. And once we have an identity, then we are filled with [a] sense of hurt cause when you're dented, you're hurt, and you don’t feel perfect; you feel defective. You feel used. And even abused. And so most of us are riding around in these vehicles, these car-bodies, creating karma, and feeling more and more abused, and more hurt—and more like we’re lost and don’t even know why we’re in the car or where we’re going, or what this whole journey is all about. And as long as we’re in the car we can’t figure it out. And as long as we’re identified with the car, we can’t get out of the car.”
“And so Sri Ramana, who is one of our inspirations in Sat Yoga, always says that the first question has to be ‘Who am I?’ and to realize that the ‘I’ is not the body and it’s not the mind and it’s not the ego and it’s not the self-image—and it’s not any of the things that you have attached yourself to in order to anchor yourself in an i-dentity. And that’s all that we have to do is to let go of that and to abide in the Self, to rest in the ‘I’ prior to the dent. . . . And so it is necessary to rest, just as you do in deep sleep, to rest in presence, without the fear of the death of your identity. And know that in that peacefulness, there is release—and it will be eternal release if you allow it—into a vast state of presence in which the fear of death will be completely dissolved. And the fear of life. And then, this world becomes a heaven.” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, September 9, 2010.
Thursday Sep 02, 2010
Two-Pointedness – 09.02.10
Thursday Sep 02, 2010
Thursday Sep 02, 2010
Excerpt: “As you all know, I’m sure, it goes quite against the grain of this time period to be building a monastery. . . . [and] spiritual retreats of the old type are falling away, losing their credibility, their integrity, the interest of people in leading a life devoted to contemplation of God, and a life of what has been called ‘blessed simplicity.’ And yet—because of all of that, and because of the hyperactivity of the modern world, and the disappointment that we all have come to feel about the projects of the modern age, and of science itself, as having led to a dead end, and to the destruction of our ecosystem, and to the un-sustainability of the modern way of life—there is a new interest—there’s a new wave of interest in creating spiritual communities in the world. But somehow we have to put the old wine into a new bottle that makes it attractive to the modern mind.”
“So our approach here is very secular, and it’s open to anyone from any spiritual background. And we don’t focus on whatever name you have for the Ultimate Reality because it’s beyond any name or any dogma or any creed. It’s a matter of realization. And that realization can only happen when the mind is in silence. And so that’s why meditation is the central act that forms the core of a spiritual life.” Someone once asked the great twentieth century sage Ramana Maharshi what the best way to achieve liberation was, and he replied “one-pointedness.” “The problem is that most people can’t do it; most people who sit to meditate have a very hard time silencing the mind. It seems to me that before we learn one-pointedness, we have to master two-pointedness . . .”
“And when we create an ashram, we are creating an entangled energy field that is like a metaphor used in ancient India called ‘The net of Indra’ where there’s this wonderful net that is the whole universe, and that at the corner of each point where the nettings meet, there’s a pearl, a beautiful jewel, that reflects every other jewel within itself—it’s really the holographic paradigm before that word existed. And it was recognized that that indeed is the structure of the universe: that each one of us is a microcosm that contains the entire universe and every being within it. And if will be in our meditative core, we will realize that oneness with all beings, and there will be no more conflicts, no more antagonisms, no more alienation.”
“And so an ashram is simply that practice, and the fulfillment of the desire to live a life with other beings who want to also live in openness, not in defensiveness, and to share the beauty of life at the highest level with one another. . . . And that act is the most revolutionary act that you can perform. And it will bring you in connection with all the other beings—the great sages and saints who are here on the earth today, the avatars, who are working secretly, silently together to create such a new world.” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, September 2, 2010.
Thursday Sep 02, 2010
Spiritual Entropy: Now and Then – 09.02.10
Thursday Sep 02, 2010
Thursday Sep 02, 2010
Student Comment: When you mentioned the “Hundredth Yogi Effect,” or critical mass, I remembered all of the other spiritual traditions, such as Christianity, Buddhism, etc., which all had great expectations to transform the world as well. I agree that the problem of the world today is a spiritual problem, but I have noticed that there is a continual falling away of spiritual movements, and I wanted to know why this is.
“The spiritual traditions that are now dying . . . were formed at what’s called the ‘Axial Age.’ They were what sustained humanity as the human ego became darker and denser and more materialistic,” explains Shunyamurti, the founder of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. “And there has been a fall. ‘The Fall of Man’ is a true concept. And these religions were to maintain the Light in the darkness, but they all recognized that the darkness was increasing. . . . And this was understood: that we would come to such a climax, you could say, of the situation on earth in which the souls would reach their lowest point of entropy, but it would be at that point when we would awaken. And because of the realization of what we have done to the planet, we would reclaim our spiritual birthright and overcome the forces of darkness and bring about a new age. . . . But we have to bring this about; we can’t wait for a messiah or a Buddha to come. We have to be the avatars who bring this about; we must take responsibility for this.” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, September 2, 2010.