Outline Webinar Sunday August 13, 2023
Topic: meditation
You are stuck with the Mind. If it is dis-eased (subject to unwanted emotions) you can manage its symptoms, which never ends, or you can eliminate the cause of the disease, which is to say worry (samsara). Worry is a useless emotion because it does not change outcomes. At a bare minimum, managing it presupposes a rudimentary disinterest in objects. Eliminating the cause requires serious commitment.
A. Big Picture Analysis.
The mind is an object. It can be your friend or your enemy. It if you know yourself as the unborn Self, the mind will become an object of amusement.
Discipline i.e. Meditation (nididhyasana)
Topic: Recycling
To get the mind on your side, two types of meditation are recommended. (1) Removing thoughts (Yoga) and (2) Using thoughts (Vedanta). Mind is a wheel that recycles. It won’t provide friendly useful thoughts unless you train it. It is a dog that will settle down and sleep at your feet assuming you know you are the ever-full unborn Self. It will even fetch the paper in the morning if you commit to training it.
How to Train the Mind
Vedanta is a commitment to shifting your identity from the mind to the Self. It is accomplished by visualization, autosuggestion, sankalpa, and scriptural logic that cultivates an appreciation of the difference between what is apparently real and what is real, satya-mithya vasana. This distinction should become hard and fast subconscious knowledge (samskara) you can count on. It is the ultimate security.
Example: Mandukya Upanishad convinces us (1) that we have the wrong identity and (2) shows us by inference the right identity. Inference is a valid means for removing ignorance of the whole and complete unborn Self.
Practice
You need to:
(1) turn the mind inward
(2) observe it as the subject, the Only Knower
(3) and then look for divisions to see if there is a second knower.
Yoga is Turning the Mind Inward
1. Withdraw from the senses. Scan the body, synchronize attention with the breath.
2. Retrieve attention from the thought flow.
3. Lock attention onto the silence. Silence is an indicator that reveals the unborn Self, which
is a great hidden treasure—the Nidhi Point.
Vedanta is Identifying the Hidden Knower
4. Identify the unobserved observer.
5. Look for divisions. Is there something else observing you?
6. If so, what is observing the observer?
7. If not, accept the unborn changeless observer as yourself.
8. Affirm this fact with confidence, “I AM the Nidi Point.”
Meaning of Nidhi: Treasure, Fund, Wealth, Center, Nest, Receptacle, Hidden, Concealed, Guardian
