Here in this scenic setting I allow myself to relax totally – first by just relaxing into the environment. The secret of relaxation is so simple, it is simple acceptance. I am aware of the sounds, the touch, the smells. I can visualise in my mind this place – the green lawns, the woods, the pond, the geese, the ducks, the swans, the loons. I don't want anything to be different. I just let everything be itself. I relax with reference to the external world – then my mind is available for meditation.
Om Namah Shiva…..
I relax further by becoming aware of different parts of the body part by part.
I relax further by watching breath passively. The frame of mind is relaxed, accepting – so even if my mind goes away, I am relaxed – I simply bring it back.
…… In this relaxed frame of mind I appreciate that
Basically I am a simple conscious being – conscious of memories, ego, thoughts, feelings, breathing, body, the world…..
Basically I am a simple conscious being and I am comfortable with myself. If I feel this is true for me right now, I can affirm that I am comfortable being myself by saying so mentally.
Sri Raam Jai Ram …..Rama OM Rama Rama Jai Ram
Thoughts arise in the mind. Any thought arising in the mind has a form which is the object of that thought. After the thought goes and before the rise of another thought, what obtains in the mind? Silence obtains.
This silence in the mind is not separate from the conscious person, the awareful person.
Like the reflection of the sun in a clear still pond is not seperate from the sun. The still waters of the pond reflect the sun totally, accurately.
A stone thrown in – the ripples make it look like the sun is agitated – sun is moving. So too thoughts arise in the mind. When a thought occurs, that conscious person becomes the subject who recognises the form of the thought, the object. When a thought occurs thus, there seems to be a subject object relationship
Between two thoughts, there is no subject-object relationship. The silent mind is one with the conscious person. All that is there is one formless consciousness – awareness.
That formless consciousness or awareness always remains formless. It does not change just because there is a thought. While thought does not exist apart from formless consciousness, the consciousness itself never undergoes any modification
Just like the sun is undisturbed by the ripples in the still clear pond - the reflection may appear to be disturbed, also having ripples, but the sun itself has no ripples in it.
So too thought which is an apparent change in consciousness, leaves no imprint on consciousness, no ripples in consciousness. The ripples of thoughts are for the mind, not for Consciousness-I.
In a still pond, without ripples, the reflection of the sun is still, without ripples, just like the sun. ooking at the reflection, we can recognise the sun easily, as the sun is.
So too the unchanging Consciousness is recognised in a silent mind, in the silence between thoughts. That silence is an attribute of the mind, in the absence of thoughts and is a reflection of consciousness as it always is. It is easy to recognise that Consciousness is of the nature of peace in a silent mind.
And like the sun is not effected by ripples in the pond, even through the reflection is affected, in the same way consciousness which is ever of the nature of peace, silence, is not effected by the presence of thoughts.
Like the sun is not dependent on the absence of ripples in the pond, Consciousness which is ever of the nature of peace, is not dependent on the absence of thoughts.
I have a silent mind; that is experience. I am silence, peace by nature; that is knowledge. In spite of thinking, I am silence. I never changes. I is nirvikaarah, unchanging, satyam
This recognition frees me from the notion that I am subject to agitation. While thoughts are not away from me, I am always free from thoughts. Whether a thought is good or bad, sacred or profane, shallow or profound, it does not cause any change in me. That is the meaning of the sentence "Aham shantah; I am silence, I am peace.
Cid ananda roopah shivoaham shivoham..
Cid ananda roopah shivoaham shivoham..
Cid ananda roopah shivoaham shivoham..
