The Conscious Experience of Joy:

Joy is such a wonderful experience to have. Joy can come from large or from small things and events. Meeting a friend or delighting in the exquisite structure of a leaf can both bring deep joy to your emotional heart. 

Whatever is the key to your experience of you does not matter, ultimately. When you feel joy, experience it fully without reservation. Together with joy, love arises in you. In fact, love and joy go hand in hand.

In this meditation, keep your focus on the joy. When you do this, joy will fill your entire mind. This joy will color all your thoughts and all your thoughts will become joyful thoughts.

Forget the object that appeared to have caused this joy. The fact is that objects do not cause joy. They simply represent an opening in your contracted mind and thereby allow you to experience the joy of freedom.

What is it that these objects are freeing your mind from? They are not freeing the mind from anything. They are allowing the mind to experience liberation. When you feel free, you will experience joy. This is completely natural feeling.

In Self-Inquiry, you are always looking for exists into freedom. Life provides these exists abundantly. This universe is full openings. All objects are potential doors leading to the valley of peace in the state of liberation.

The Conscious Experience of Remaining in Stillness:

There is no place, no time, and no posture, that is a prerequisite to your remaining in stillness.

Simply have the intention to be still, and then be still, be still forever. If “forever” sounds like too long a time to be still, then question your motives for wanting to be still. What are you trying to achieve?

Are you truly attempting to reach the Absolute, the Eternal, Nirvana, the state of Enlightenment, the freedom of spiritual liberation, or do you simply want to relax for a while from a stressful day? All aims are equally valuable and none is more important.

What I want to convey, however, is that whatever you do, do it with all your fullness. Do not think that there is another thing to do afterwards that will bring you more happiness, more satisfaction, more peace of mind. Get away from the ingrained habit of believing that “happiness is just around the corner.” Also abstain from the notion that “if only you could have that, do that, achieve that,” then you would finally be content for good, all your dreams would be fulfilled, and you could live happily ever after. If you think like that, life passes you by, and the future will have nothing but regrets in store for you.

Now, in the moment, find a body position, that you enjoy and remain in that position forever, without movement. Simply be still. Pay attention to your body and make sure that nothing moves: no eye, no mouth, no tongue, no head, no finger, no toe, and no body part whatsoever, forever.

Do not attempt to control your breath, your heartbeat, your eyelids, or your thoughts. This meditation is only about remaining in a still posture. Allow your body to perform its involuntary functions. Do nothing to either hinder or further them in any way.

Meditation is always active

There is no such thing as a passive meditation, where you sit still and have something done to you. In meditation, you are always active, either on a surface level, or on a much more subtle level.

The activity on the surface level might be the intent to repeat a mantra, or to contemplate a particular saying or prayer. On the subtle level, the activity might be the intent to remain in the blissful state of the conscious Self.

Never allow yourself to be put into a state other than a state that you yourself can produce with your own intentions. Know where you are going at all times, and know it with clarity.

The happiness of meditation is not found in telling yourself that you are on a path that will, ultimately, lead you to happiness, either in this world or in another. The happiness of meditation is found in the clarity of the moment, when you are in the blissful conscious state of the Self. This Self is who you are on the most fundamental level of your being.

What is reality?

How can I define reality?

Is reality what I see, hear, smell, sense, taste? In other words, do my sense inputs define the nature of my reality? Yes, they do.

Dogs, for example, have differently developed sense organs, and therefore experience reality differently. They also have a smaller brain, and therefore have much less processing power available to them.

I could go on and on about the different species and their sense capabilities, but that would not bring me any closer to an answer to my opening question.

Actually, I touched a bit on something, namely that reality is unique to the different species that exist on this planet, mostly based on the input from the sense organs these various bodies have developed.

In other words, reality is what I perceive through my senses. Perhaps that is not entirely accurate, because the sense inputs get transformed into electrical pulses that stimulate various regions of my brain and trigger thoughts and feelings.

So, where am “I” in this process? I am dependent on input from any variety of sources. These sources can be external to my body or they are internal to the body. Whatever they are, they are brain stimulants. I can feel the wind on my skin, and I can feel the full stomach after a meal. I can hear the cars driving down the street, and I can see the darkness behind my closed eyes.

An “I” does not really exist independent of sense experiences. Sense experiences feed into a hub which after some time calls itself the “I”. The hub is the brain, where really all experiences take place, and where the sense of the “I” originates.

So, the experience of “I” and sense experiences are on the same level. They are experiences. So, that is where the key to reality is found, in experiences. Experiences are real. Experiences are what reality is.

I can focus on any experience and make it the central aspect of my life, my life’s mission, so to speak. I could use “love” or “compassion” or “greed” or any other experience and become the embodiment of this experience here on earth.

Why is it important to believe in the existence of a God?

What do we gain from believing in a God, a God who created all this? A God who created us, as well as the world around us. What is the benefit of such a belief? And there must be a tremendous benefit, otherwise a belief in God would be similar to believing in the wind that brings us an occasional reprieve from the heat on a summer’s day.

Well, at some point, people believed in various gods, such as gods dwelling in trees and forests, or the sun, or the rain, or thunder and lightning. Then some people simplified these beliefs and put them all into one God, who creates and maintains all of existence. This was a monotheistic belief that seemed to make more sense to them than believing in a multitude of gods, a polytheistic version of the forces behind this creation.

But, still, whether we believe in one God or a multitude of gods, what is the underlying benefit to us from such a belief? Is it, that when we believe in any god, our lives will run smoother, more in line with the wishes and desires of this god? And, will this god then help us achieve our individual goals more easily and without much struggle? Or is a belief in a god mostly designed to give us comfort for our journey after our souls depart these physicals bodies they inhabit on this material plane?

To answer these questions, it is necessary to gain the experience of god, or god-consciousness. This can be achieved through studying the various religious scriptures and spiritual traditions available so freely. Today, we all can order books, visit websites, enter holy shrines, in order to immerse ourselves in the words and experiences of the prophets and guides that walked the earth before us. Perhaps we are even so fortunate as to find a living master who can give us pointers towards the goal of god-consciousness.

We do not practice spiritual disciplines because we necessarily enjoy doing them, but because we sense that there is more to be attained than simply sitting in meditation for a period of time and gaining some temporary peace of mind.

God-consciousness is a concept that can be found in pretty much every spiritual and religious tradition on this planet. Different paths have been established, using different methods to help us achieve this god-consciousness. Some traditions promise the final liberation to occur only after the physical death and after a subsequent resurrection of the body during the Day of Judgment at some unknown future date.

Once god-consciousness is attained, the realization comes with it that all is contained within me. “I am god. I am existence. I am.”

And then there is no more hiding behind a god. From now on, the responsibility for all my actions, my thoughts, and everything that is in any way connected to me, rests with me alone.

For me it is all about energy

There are so many energies in existence. For example: the energy of color. Each color has its own vibration, its own energy.

The energy of these colors influences the energy of my mind, and by extension, my body and my overall sense of being.

Orange is a hot color. Blue a cool color. One agitates my mind, the other calms it down.

Then there is the energy of form. There are straight-edge forms and curvilinear forms. One is less emotional, and therefore cooler, the other more emotional, and therefore warmer.

Cool and warm are some of the basic elements of nature, or better, that is how some of the elements of nature affect me.

Then there is the energetic element of quietness and the element of noisiness.

Actually, all five sense organs have their similar dual experiences, from one extreme to another. From quiet to loud (ears); from cool to hot (eyes); from salty to sweet (tongue); from rough to smooth (skin); from aromatic to stinky (nose).

Generally, I experience life within a tolerable range within these five sense experiences. Life is not generally lived in the extreme areas of sense experiences, but somewhere in a comfortable range.

Yes, there are peak experiences at times, and those are absolutely necessary, otherwise life would appear to be a series of humdrum moments. In fact, life is secretly and actively seeking to experience peak moments. Those peak moments cannot last, however, because otherwise they would cease to be peak moments. A sustained peak moment becomes ordinary after a short while. And then the search for an even higher moment begins anew.

This search for higher and higher peak moments can clearly be seen everywhere. It is in art, in science, in cooking, in writing, in sports, in spirituality, in religion, etc. It is the search for more and deeper fulfillment. It is a search for total fulfillment of one’s inner being.

This search has ultimately nothing to do with outer achievements. It is a completely inner journey for inner fulfillment on the deepest level of one’s existence. It is a search to touch the deepest center within one’s being, at one’s inner core; or, as it sometimes called, one’s soul.

To experience the coolness of blue is stimulating my innermost being through the agency of the eyes, as well as my mind, which is really the neural network of my brain being connected to my eyes. It all takes place in the brain alone. Brain is the translator of sense inputs. Brain is the canvas on which all experiences take place. Subtle stimulation caused by the brain migrates to the center of the brain, where the sense of existence resides. Stimulating this sense of existence is blissful. This bliss is the ultimate aim of all sense inputs. After the sense input has subsided, the bliss remains, if the focus had been on it, and not on the sense input.

Sat Chit Ananda. This is a statement from the Vedic scriptures, meaning: Existence Consciousness Bliss. The Self is Sat Chit Ananda. That is the experience of the human being on its deepest level. There is nothing complicated about it. The complications arise when humans deal with thoughts. What are thoughts? Thoughts are energy fluctuations in the brain that help humans to cope with the world in which they exist. If the environment it too hot, the mind tells them to go and turn on the AC, to cool the place down. Etc. Thoughts are energy fluctuations that arise out of the need of the moment.

Thoughts and feelings are the ripples on the surface of the ocean of Existence Consciousness Bliss. They are not the ocean, although they can be an interface to help humans to connect to the deeper layers of their being. The thinking and feeling mind is the interface between the inner world of the brain and the outer world of the senses. There is the subtle mind that connects to the pure experience of Existence Consciousness Bliss, and the grosser mind that connects to the sense objects.

The impact of What Is

What is, is everything that is going on at this very moment. It is what is going on inside my mind, inside my body, as well as outside my mind and outside my body.

Whatever I am aware off right now is contained in the What Is. To have this deep realization is to be connected with full consciousness to what is happening right now as experienced by me.

I am the one who is this being that experiences all this fully. Whatever my strengths or my weaknesses are, there is no profiting or escaping from them. I am what I am. That is a fact I must face constantly, from moment to moment, in full consciousness.

I am all alone in all of this, but when the burden gets to heavy, I have the option of calling on others to help with the load. To ask for help in times of physical, emotional, or spiritual needs. There is no shame in needing help at times.

The one thing I cannot do is, to use others as props or crutches and use them for personal gains or personal needs of any kind; to use them to make me more than I am, or to fill weaknesses in me.

I also cannot hide behind a god who somehow has set up rules of behavior that I must follow in order to be a good person who ends up in heaven. Otherwise, while having lived sinfully, I would be relegated to spending time in the fire of hell.

I must live ethically, never hurting someone intentionally, always looking out for the needs of others, helping others as much as I can to overcome their personal obstacles that prevent them from accepting life in the What Is.

The state of What Is is the central focus of my life. It is my core interest, my core conviction. It is the greatest joy of my existence. On the other hand, it is also the greatest fear of my life. Panic sets in when I am confronted with deep structural change and I begin to feel like I am in a bad dream that just doesn’t want to end, although I desperately want it to. But, I have no power over what is going during those times, and that brings out the feeling of true inner panic, and I want to run away, but don’t know where, and I also don’t really want to run away, because I need to go through the experience, whether I like it or not.

The impact of What Is is truly mind opening at times. Sometimes I feel like new pathways are being carved into my brain. I sense a crackling inside my brain, and an expansion of some sort, as if blood is now flowing in areas where before there was less activity.

Life is truly amazing and never boring. As someone once said, “There is never nothing going on.”