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  • Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

  • We live our lives pursuing happiness "out there"

  • as if it is a commodity.

  • We have become slaves to our own desires and craving.

  • Happiness isn't something that can be pursued

  • or purchased like a cheap suit.

  • This is Maya,

  • illusion,

  • the endless play of form.

  • In the Buddhist tradition,

  • Samsara, or the endless cycle of suffering

  • is perpetuated by the craving of pleasure

  • and aversion to pain.

  • Freud referred to this as the "pleasure principle."

  • Everything we do is an attempt to create pleasure,

  • to gain something that we want,

  • or to push away something that is undesirable that we don't want.

  • Even a simple organism like the paramecium does this.

  • It is called response to stimulus.

  • Unlike a paramecium, humans have more choice.

  • We are free to think, and that is the heart of the problem.

  • It is the thinking about what we want that has gotten out of control.

  • The dilemma of modern society is that we seek to understand the world,

  • not in terms of archaic inner consciousness,

  • but by quantifying and qualifying what we perceive

  • to be the external world by using scientific means and thought.

  • Thinking has only led to more thinking and more questions.

  • We seek to know the innermost forces which create the world

  • and guide its course.

  • But we conceive of this essence as outside of ourselves,

  • not as a living thing, intrinsic to our own nature.

  • It was the famous psychiatrist Carl Jung who said,

  • "one who looks outside dreams, one who looks inside awakes."

  • It is not wrong to desire to be awake, to be happy.

  • What is wrong is to look for happiness outside

  • when it can only be found inside.

  • On August 4th, 2010 at the Techonomy conference in Lake Tahoe, California,

  • Eric Schmidt-CEO of Google, mentioned an astounding statistic.

  • Every two days now we create as much information

  • as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003,

  • according to Schmidt.

  • That's something like 5 exabytes of data.

  • Never in human history has there been so much thinking

  • and never has there been so much turmoil on the planet.

  • Could it be that every time we think of a solution to one problem,

  • we create two more problems?

  • What good is all this thinking

  • if it doesn't lead to greater happiness?

  • Are we happier?

  • More equanimous?

  • More joyful as a result of all this thinking?

  • Or does it isolate us,

  • disconnect us from a deeper and more meaningful

  • experience of life?

  • Thinking, acting and doing,

  • must be brought into balance with being.

  • After all, we are human beings, not human doings.

  • We want change and we want stability at the same time.

  • Our hearts have become disconnected from the spiral of life,

  • the law of change,

  • as our thinking minds drive us towards stability,

  • security and pacification of the senses.

  • With a morbid facination we watch killings, tsunamis,

  • earthquakes and wars.

  • We constantly try to occupy our mind, fill it with information.

  • TV shows streaming from every conceivable device.

  • Games and puzzles.

  • Text messaging.

  • And every possible trivial thing.

  • We let ourselves become mesmerized with

  • the endless stream of new images, new information,

  • new ways to tantalize and pacify the senses.

  • At times of quiet inner reflection our hearts may tell us

  • that there is more to life than our present reality,

  • that we live in a world of hungry ghosts.

  • Endlessly craving and never satisfied.

  • We have created a maelstrom of data

  • flying around the planet to facilitate more thinking,

  • more ideas about how to fix the world,

  • to fix the problems that only exist because the mind has created them.

  • Thinking has created the whole big mess we're in right now.

  • We wage wars against diseases, enemies and problems.

  • The paradox is that whatever you resist persists.

  • The more you resist something, the stronger it gets.

  • Like exercising a muscle, you are actually strengthening

  • the very thing you want to rid yourself of.

  • So then, what is the alternative to thinking?

  • What other mechanism can humans use to exist on this planet?

  • While Western culture in recent centuries has focused on exploring

  • the physical by using thought and analysis,

  • other ancient cultures have developed equally sophisticated

  • technologies for exploring inner space.

  • It is the loss of our connection to our inner worlds

  • that has created imbalance on our planet.

  • The ancient tenant "know thyself" has been replaced

  • by a desire to experience the outer world of form.

  • Answering the question "who am I?" is not simply a matter

  • of describing what is on your business card.

  • In Buddhism, you are not the content of your consciousness.

  • You are not merely a collection of thoughts or ideas

  • because behind the thoughts is the one who is witnessing the thoughts.

  • The imperative "know thyself" is a Zen koan, an unanswerable riddle.

  • Eventually the mind will become exhausted in trying to find an answer.

  • Like a dog chasing its tail, it is only the ego identity

  • that wants to find an answer, a purpose.

  • The truth of who you are does not need an answer

  • because all questions are created by the egoic mind.

  • You are not your mind.

  • The truth lies not in more answers, but in less questions.

  • As Joseph Campbell said,

  • "I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life,

  • as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive."

  • When the Buddha was asked, "what are you?" he said simply,

  • "I am awake."

  • What does this mean, to be awake?

  • The Buddha does not say exactly, because of the flowering of

  • each individual life is different.

  • But he does say one thing; it is the end of suffering.

  • Every major religious tradition has a name

  • for the state of being awake.

  • Heaven,

  • Nirvana,

  • or Moksha.

  • A quiet mind is all you need to realize the nature of the stream

  • All else will happen once your mind is quiet.

  • In that stillness, inner energies wake up

  • and work without effort on your part.

  • As the Taoists say, "Chi follows consciousness."

  • By being still one begins to hear the wisdom

  • of the plants and animals.

  • The quiet whispers in dreams,

  • and one learns the subtle mechanism by which

  • those dreams come into material form.

  • In the Tao te Ching, this kind of living is called "wei wu wei"

  • - "Doing, not doing."

  • The Buddha spoke of the "middle way" as the path

  • that leads to enlightenment.

  • Aristotle described the Golden Mean - the middle

  • between two extremes, as the path of beauty.

  • Not too much effort, but not too little either.

  • Yin and yang in perfect balance.

  • Vedanta's notion of Maya or illusion,

  • is that we do not experience the environment itself,

  • but rather a projection of it created by thoughts.

  • Of course your thoughts let you experience the vibratory world

  • in a certain way, but our inner equanimity need not be contingent

  • on external happenings.

  • The belief in an external world independent of the perceiving subject

  • is fundamental to science.

  • But our senses only give us indirect information.

  • Our notions about this mind-made physical world

  • are always filtered through the senses and therefore always incomplete.

  • There is one field of vibration underlying all of the senses.

  • People with a condition called "synesthesia" sometimes experience

  • this vibratory field in different ways.

  • Synesthetes can see sounds as colors or shapes or associate

  • qualities of one sense with another.

  • Synesthesia refers to a synthesis or intermingling of the senses.

  • The chakras and the senses are like a prism

  • filtering a continuum of vibration.

  • All things in the universe are vibrating

  • but at different rates and frequencies.

  • The Eye of Horus is made up of six symbols,

  • each representing one of the senses.

  • Like the ancient Vedic system,

  • thought is considered to be a sense.

  • Thoughts are received simultaneously

  • as sensations are experienced on the body.

  • They arise from the same vibratory source.

  • Thinking is simply a tool.

  • One of six senses.

  • But we have elevated it to such a high status

  • that we identify ourselves with out thoughts.

  • The fact that we do not identify thinking as one of the six senses

  • is very significant.

  • We are so immersed in thought that trying to explain thought as a sense

  • is like telling a fish about water.

  • Water, what water?

  • In the Upanishads it is said:

  • Not that which the eye can see, but that whereby the eye can see.

  • Know that to be Brahma the eternal and not what people here adore.

  • Not that which the ear can hear, but that whereby the ear can hear.

  • Know that to be Brahma the eternal and not what people here adore.

  • Not that which speech can illuminate, but that by which speech can be illuminated.

  • Know that to be Brahma the eternal and not what people here adore.

  • Not that which the mind can think, but that whereby the mind can think.

  • Know that to be Brahma the eternal and not what people here adore.

  • In the last decade, great advances have taken place

  • in the area of brain research.

  • Scientists have discovered neuroplasticity - a term

  • which conveys the idea that the physical wiring of the brain

  • changes according to the thoughts moving through it.

  • As Canadian psychologist Donald Hebb put it,

  • "neurons that fire together, wire together."

  • Neurons wire together most when a person is in a state of sustained attention.

  • What this means is that it is possible to direct your own

  • subjective experience of reality.

  • Literally, if your thoughts are ones of fear, worry, anxiety

  • and negativity then you grow the wiring for more of those thoughts to flourish.

  • If you direct your thoughts to be ones of love,

  • compassion, gratitude and joy,

  • you create the wiring for repeating those experiences.

  • But how do we do that if we are surrounded by violence and suffering?

  • Isn't this some kind of delusion or wishful thinking?

  • Neuroplasticity isn't the same as the new age notion

  • that you create your reality by positive thinking.

  • It is actually the same thing that the Buddha taught

  • 2500 years ago.

  • Vipassana Meditation or insight meditation

  • could be described as self-directed neuroplasticity.

  • You accept your reality exactly as it is - as it ACTUALLY is.

  • But you experience it at the root level of sensation,

  • at the vibratory or energetic level without the prejudice or

  • influence of thought.

  • Through sustained attention at the root level of consciousness,

  • the wiring for an entirely different perception of reality is created.

  • We have got it backwards most of the time.

  • We constantly let ideas about the outer world shape our neural networks,

  • but our inner equanimity need not be contingent on external happenings.

  • Circumstances don't matter.

  • Only my state of consciousness matters.

  • Meditation in Sanskrit means to be free of measurement.

  • Free of all comparison.

  • To be free of all becoming.

  • You are not trying to become something else.

  • You are okay with what is.

  • The way to rise above the suffering of the physical realm

  • is to totally embrace it.

  • To say yes to it.

  • So it becomes something within you,

  • rather than you being something within it.

  • How does one live in such a way that consciousness

  • is no longer in conflict with its content?

  • How does one empty the heart of petty ambitions?

  • There must be a total revolution in consciousness.

  • A radical shift in orientation from the outer world to the inner.

  • It is not a revolution brought about by will or effort alone.

  • But also by surrender.

  • Acceptance of reality as it is.

  • The image of Christ's open heart powerfully conveys the idea

  • that one must open to all pain.

  • One must accept ALL if one is to remain open

  • to the evolutionary source.

  • This doesn't mean you become a masochist,

  • you don't look for pain,

  • but when pain comes, which it inevitably does,

  • you simply accept reality AS IT IS,

  • instead of craving some other reality.

  • The Hawaiians have long believed

  • that it is through the heart that we learn truth.

  • The heart has its own intelligence as distinctly as the brain does.

  • The Egyptians believed that the heart, not the brain,

  • was the source of human wisdom.

  • The heart was considered to be the center of the

  • soul and the personality.

  • It was through the heart that the divine spoke,

  • giving ancient Egyptians knowledge of their true path.

  • This papyrus depicts the "weighing of the heart".

  • It was considered a good thing to go into the

  • afterlife with a light heart.

  • It meant that you had lived well.

  • One universal or archetypal stage that people experience

  • in the process of awakening the heart center

  • is the experience of one's own energy as the energy of the universe.

  • When you allow yourself to feel this love,

  • to be this love,

  • when you connect your inner world with the outer world,

  • then all is one.

  • How does one experience the music of the spheres?

  • How does a heart open?

  • Sri Ramana Maharshi said,

  • "God dwells in you, as you,

  • and you don't have to do anything

  • to be God-realized or self-realized.

  • It is already your true and natural state.

  • Just drop all seeking,

  • turn your attention inward

  • and sacrifice your mind to the one self,

  • radiating in the heart of your very being.

  • For this to be your own presently lived experience,

  • self inquiry is the one direct and immediate way."

  • When you meditate and observe sensations within,

  • your inner aliveness, you are actually observing change.

  • This force of change is the arising and passing away

  • as energy changes form.

  • The degree to which a person has evolved or become enlightened,

  • is the degree to which one has gained the ability

  • to adapt to each moment,

  • or to transmute the constantly changing human stream

  • of circumstances, pain and pleasure

  • into bliss.

  • Leo Tolstoy, author of "War and Peace", said

  • "everyone thinks of changing the world,

  • but nobody thinks of changing him or herself."

  • Darwin said the most important characteristic for the

  • survival of the species is not strength or intelligence,

  • but adaptability to change.

  • One must become adept at adapting.

  • This is the Buddhist teaching of "annica"

  • - everything is arising and passing away, changing.

  • Constantly changing.

  • Suffering exists only because we become attached to a particular form.

  • When you connect to the witnessing part of yourself,

  • with the understanding of annica, bliss arises in the heart.

  • Saints, sages and yogis throughout history

  • unanimously describe one sacred union that occurs in the heart.

  • Whether is the writings of St. John of the Cross,

  • Rumi's poetry,

  • or the tantric teachings of India,

  • all of these different teachings try to express

  • the subtle mystery of the heart.

  • In the heart is the union of Shiva and Shakti.

  • Masculine penetration into the spiral of life

  • and feminine surrender to change.

  • Witnessing

  • and unconditional acceptance of all that is.

  • In order to open your heart,

  • you must open yourself to change.

  • To live in the seemingly solid world,

  • dance with it,

  • engage with it,

  • live fully,

  • love fully,

  • but yet know that it is impermanent

  • and that ultimately all forms dissolve and change.

  • Bliss is the energy that responds to stillness.

  • It comes from emptying consciousness of all content.

  • The content of this bliss energy born of stillness IS consciousness.

  • A new consciousness of the heart.

  • A consciousness that is connected to ALL that IS.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

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