Spiritual Teachings With Shunyamurti

A Place of Refuge - 01.21.10

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.

The Necessity of Discipleship - 01.11.10

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.

New Year’s Eve 2009 - 12.31.09

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.

The Birth of the Godself - 12.22.09

“In these days before Christmas is a time to be incubating the Christ-self within us Who must be born,” explains Shunyamurti, the spiritual master of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. “And the ceremony of the birthing of one’s Godself and the death of the ego was always recognized as the most sacred of all days, and the entire year leads up to this moment. . . . But to do that, to give birth to the Christ-self, we must surrender the ego-self. We must empty out the mind of all residue of ego in order to be a pure vehicle for the Supreme Intelligence, the Supreme Love. To fill and to emanate and to be shared. Those are the gifts under the Christmas tree. It is the gift of the divine virtues that we can role model and transmit and appreciate in the other.”

“So I hope you will give yourself the gift of being the gift that brings that empowerment to all of us and as a model to the entire world because this is the moment when the world is in its darkest days; this earth has never seen darker days than the ones we are in now. And these are the days in which we must give birth to the light. And we can’t say somebody else will do it. We have to take responsibility for doing it. You know the Christmas tree is filled with lights. It is a festival of lights; but we must be those lights.”

“And so I wish you all every blessing on achieving that—and doing it now because it takes so much time to purify the soul that if we wait, if we waste even one day and say, ‘I’ll start tomorrow,’ or ‘I’ll start after my vacation,’ or I’ll start whenever, the time won’t be there. There’s no more margin. It has to be done now and ceaselessly; an ongoing purification of the self has to be the regimen that organizes our lives. . . . we pay the price of the ego, and what we gain is the priceless union with the Source of all being.” Recorded on the evening of Tuesday, December 22, 2009.

True Martyrdom - 12.17.09

“Many people are seeking techniques for meditation,” explains Shunyamurti, the spiritual teacher of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. “And in my experience the use of techniques is an avoidance of the real issue that meditation is about.” The only true technique in meditation is the purification of the heart. The purity of the heart is really the love for God, and then, meditation is effortless. And the true state of surrender to God, of love for God, is martyrdom. “We have to understand that martyrdom is not the same as victimhood,” although today the two are confused. “Martyrdom is the refusal to be a victim. . . . Martyrdom is the willingness to live life fully, authentically in the midst of non-love, in the midst of adversity, in the midst of not being recognized. It is that courage that enables one’s ego to die—at every moment—so that the light can be born within one. . . . And it is only when we’re willing to be martyrs in the phenomenal plane that then we will have the reward of the mystical union with God because it is that very karma yoga action that purifies the soul.” So “in the meditative state we must touch into that part within us that is pure, that is inherently always, eternally pure. . . . and we must go into that essence and rest in that place because that is the place where we are already one with God. Nothing needs to be achieved and therefore, no technique is necessary.” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, December 17, 2009.

A New Myth - 12.12.09

Student Question: You were saying that this is a time when all the myths have to gather together to create a new myth. Can you say a little more about that?

“Well for one thing all the religions are exhausted now,” explains Shunyamurti, the founder of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. They can no longer provide the energy of spiritual transmission. And what’s worse, scandals permeate all the world religions now to the point of collective distrust. “And there’s a negative charge now on religion instead of a positive aura of reverence. Now people assume it’s hypocritical, or ‘What do they want? How are they gonna exploit me?’ and people have great fear of it, and with good reason.”

“And the cynicism that’s built into the modern ideology of materialism and scientism makes a lot of people think that religion is automatically anti-reason, anti-intellectual, anti-scientific. None of this is true.” But, nonetheless, we have reached a point culturally in which the most brilliant and avant-garde thinkers are moving further and further away from religion. So where is higher spiritual knowledge going to come from? “We have to create new passageways for Spirit to be able to enter the world. And so this can only be done at an individual level at this point until enough individuals come together to create new kinds of spiritual communities that are not dependent on the belief systems, credos, institutionalizations of the lineages that have become exhausted.” Recorded on the afternoon of Saturday, December 12, 2009.

The Age of Sexuation - 12.12.09

Student Comment: So just to clarify, the sexuation trauma has been the central trauma and that we’ve sought—through chakra two—the perfect love relationship to heal it, for the past two thousand years. So, essentially, it has been the trauma of the second half of Kali Yuga.

“Once the identity became based on the body instead of based on Spirit; that’s the shift that happens in Kali Yuga. Before Kali Yuga, you are a Spirit who has a soul and a body, that’s in Treta [Yuga]. In Dwapar Yuga, you’re a soul that has a Spirit and a body. Then in Kali Yuga, you’re a body that in the beginning has a soul and Spirit, but then only has a soul, and then eventually you're only a body. That’s the way we are now and it has been for the last several hundred years, at least in the West where there’s a total materialism. . . . Once Spirit, which is the source of love, has been cut off, and the soul, which is the depth dimension of the human being has been cut off, then you're just a surface ego. And what do you have to give?” Recorded on the afternoon of Saturday, December 12, 2009.

Presence & Redemption - 12.12.09

Excerpts: “Understand that pure Presence is your natural state. It is only that we have been in exile from our own Presence. We have been lost in the labyrinth of the mind. . . . So, by becoming Present, we are letting go of our preconceptions and our illusions about the world that keep us in a state of dissatisfaction and in flight from the present moment. . . . And so we invite the Self back into the space by creating a true, sacred space in our own mind. . . . Now we must surrender the house of the mind to the Holy Spirit and—in that way—we become the vehicles of Spirit. We become the Elohim: the many who incarnate the One. And this produces then a new order within the physical plane. A New Order of the Ages, Novus Ordo Seclorum.”

“This is the same story. It’s told in every culture. It’s told in many different ways with many different names. . . . But it’s our story, it’s not the story of someone who lived in India. It’s not the story of someone who lived in Palestine. It’s not the story of even a man. The story of the Virgin Mary is the same story in female form, or Ishtar, or Isis. The story is told in the same way for man, woman, even animal. For all creatures there is that same movement: exile and then return and the restoration.” Recorded on the afternoon of Saturday, December 12, 2009.

The Supreme Renunciation - 12.10.09

“Many of you are practicing the supreme renunciation,” reveals Shunyamurti, the founder of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. “The supreme renunciation is to renounce the realization of your oneness with God. It’s the most painful ascetic practice one can undertake. . . . And so it’s very easy to attain liberation because all you’re doing is letting go of renunciation . . .” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, December 10, 2009.