Words from Patanjali: "Find Rest on the Path"

 



Transcript:

You feel the path beneath your feet as you walk.
You hear the debris beneath your feet,
the twigs crackle, the leaves.
You touch the bark of trees as you walk by.

They affect you:
Sometimes the path is pleasurable,
such as when you take your shoes off and
walk across soft grass.
Other times, the path is painful, or sad,
or frustrating, and it is like the thorns
entering your feet, or hard places like
stones that you walk over.

~But, it is always the same path.~

And you can rest your mind from the
fluctuations of the highs and the lows
as you walk the path.  You can rest and relax
by finding EQUANIMITY within all things,
finding stillness within all things.
And yes, walking that path requires
great self-discipline. 

You are learning that,
by disciplining yourself to light the candles,
to sit on the cushion, to get yourself
out of the bed when you would rather sleep,
or to meditate when you'd rather go into the bed.

But, really, look at it this way:
when you still the fluctuations of the mind
which is the objective of meditation,
and of one-pointedness, you actually allow
more REST in your life.

Think about this: when disturbing events
happen, with your equanimity of mind and
your inner peacefulness, you could stand
in the eye of the storm and be relaxed,
because you are not drawn away by the
emotive reactions of others to the phenomena.

So this is a perspective, that what seems
to be a narrow path of ardent discipline,
a tight squeeze of a journey,
squeezing between those trees
to stay on that path
...is in reality, a rest.

You not only rest in the present situation,
but when your outward casing expires
your mind does not expire, quite the contrary.
What seems to be this narrow path of Dharma,
of self-discipline in eating, self-discipline of the
habits of the body, self-discipline in the patterns
of the thoughts ...what seems to be
this narrow stretch that you have to
squeeze into with all of your might,
is in reality a most EXPANSIVE place!

For you, with your consciousness,
can go across the universes. 
You can go across what is called time.
You can go across distances.
You could be on the inside of the most
microscopic things.  And on the contrary,
your consciousness could be with a planet,
or a star system, because mind is non-local.

So, do you see, as one door you close,
in reality you open a much more expansive door?

And again, of the marga-s, it is a point
that I want to make, that your children,
you have also affected.  Their thoughts,
your energy has affected, with the thoughts
that you thought around them, and with
the articulations of the principles
which were important to you.

You have affected them on this level,
and you have affected them on
the physical level as well, so that they
have a mind towards health, and the
importance of foods, and the importance of rest.
You also taught them many things about the
circumstances around them, and you have
imparted your wisdom to the best
of your ability to them.

This is something to hold your head up over.
It's something to feel good about.
Your words actuate the scenes and scenarios
and situations of their lives.
Even now your words in mothering them
are ACTUATING PRINCIPLES.

In the same way, the wisdom of the path of
Dharma also actuates you, and all of us,
in a myriad of ways, in so many ways, not
only in this life, but in future lives, and not
only in future lives but if you can become
skillful in understanding the dynamics
of the mind, and of the timelines,
and of the lifetimes, then you can also
affect the past.
You can affect the future.
You can affect all time.

And you will learn more of this
in the weeks to come.
We will explore this more,
and we will travel in and out of time.

But remember the REST, the resting,
the relaxation, the Samadhi.
Remember the rest [available on this]
arduous path, [which is] a two-sided coin.


Music
Title: Raag Ahir Bhairav
Bansuri: Rakesh Chaurasia
Tabla: Sri Bhupinder Singh Chaggar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_F0fShQZa4




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