Become centered in your own infinity...Get to the source of who you are...That which is timeless, infinite, benign, eternal and deathless.

The path of yoga is to seek your perfect centre. To recognize that all that goes on around us, all that comes and goes is not our pure essence. They are several steps away from your true essence. True essence is beyond pain, beyond suffering, and even beyond happiness. It’s simply a state of is-ness. Bliss. Perfect Consciousness. Light.

In this body there is an Atma, a soul. And this soul is part of the greater soul - the Parmatma. That is the universal ocean of love, of light, of energy, and we are but a drop in this infinite ocean. But in this human condition we believe that this drop is separate from the whole. And in this separateness, we feel isolation, loneliness. We don’t experience the interconnectedness between ourselves, between others, strangers, family, even nature. This isolation creates many fears and discontentedness. When a loved one passes we feel their loss, we feel the loss of their presence in our lives. This is only because we see ourselves as separate, because we are so attached to this body- this imperfect body that surrounds the perfect part of us that’s inside.

This body is subject to pain, decay, disease and ultimately death. But the Atma, the soul, is eternal. The soul is our light. It is energy and energy cannot be destroyed. So, in Yoga we say, we are this Atma - this eternal aspect, this filament of light that is part of the whole, that is part of the ocean. It never changes. But what changes is nature. Nature moves. Nature is subject to birth and death. All things in nature are caught in that cycle. But the Atma is not. The Atma is beyond nature. Through the path of yoga we can learn to understand this. We learn to live in that capacity. This is known as Moksha, liberation.

It is liberating to live in that infinite aspect of you. It is that infinite aspect of you that pervades the whole universe. Breathes the whole universe. When you live in that vibration, you are free from sorrow, free from the suffering of this body, free from feeling the sorrow of loss. So when things arise in your life you feel sorrow and you feel joy, always remember that at the centre of you is the Atma. The only problem is that we forget. We become so caught up in trying to find a few moments of peace and we don’t know how to find that peace because we’re always seeking it in the external. We seek it by trying to find the approval of others. We seek it in material possessions. We seek it in distractions - movies, t.v. and other things. But these are all external. These are all part of nature and subject to those same conditions that nature is: they are not eternal.

Only that which is eternal will bring you peace. Nothing else will bring you lasting peace. So when hurtful things, sad things, things that trouble you arise in your life, as difficult as things may be, use that to get closer to your Atman, use that as an opportunity to remember, “Ah, Yes. This life is in unsatisfactory as it is, living life only through the five senses.” This is when we must use those moments to go within, to go deep, deep, deep within.

Recognize the cycle in our own life, how joys have come, how sorrows have come, neither have lasted. Neither the joys nor the sorrows. They always come in cycles. In 20, 30 40 years, have you found lasting peace. NO! Or else you wouldn’t be here. All the great sages in the past have recognized that life is indeed suffering. It is one of the 4 noble truths that the Buddha has mentioned. Life is suffering. And so you have to transcend and start on a path, that of seeking that which is eternal. This is what the sages have called enlightenment. The state of bliss. The state of freedom. Imagine living life unattached, unattached to that which is subject to the cycles. Living without fear, living without regret, living without the past and living without the future. That each moment is perfection unto itself. That YOU, the infinite YOU, is perfection unto itself. This is the meaning of yoga: union - union in that there is no separation.

The essence of all things, the sacred energy that pervades through all things, inside the rocks, inside the trees, the cuckoos, the peacocks, the squirrels, the dogs, the monkeys, your friends and your family, within all these things exists something eternal. They are connected to you, as you are connected to them. Living through the mind and living through the senses, grasping at the external, you will never know that, because anything through the mind is of the past or of the future. Even if you think you are perceiving this moment now, it is always reflected through your negative mind, through your past. Even when you think about your future, it is really only the past being broadcasted into the future, because you have no concept of what the future really is. You only know the past. So those past experiences are just being forecasted into the future. The past is an imperfect memory and the future is an imperfect forecast because it hasn’t happened yet. And it can never really happen as you image it. So both conditions wastes your spiritual energy. That spiritual energy is found only in the present moment.

To live the present moment as it is, without opinions, that will bring you out of the drug of the mind. That’s all the mind is, it’s just a drug. It’s hallucinatory. Even in this present moment there is still that current going through you, of the past. So we must seek diligently to be in the present moment to cut off the negative mind, to cut off the positive mind and maintain a state of centeredness, the Middle Path, the Dharmic path. And in this centre you’ll find your spiritual energy. Through practice you’ll l develop a relationship with your Atma, your soul, and the eternal soul Parmatma. The stronger the connection, the more you’ll see life for what truly is. Nature comes and goes. Bodies come and go. joys come and go. But there is still that that does not come and go. That which is eternal. That which is perfect. That which is bliss. That which is love. Undying, indestructible.

As we practice today, be very diligent to keep your mind present. Just remember the benefits with each breath, breathed in with consciousness, breathed in with awareness, breathed in with intelligence and intention, that you are moving step by step, closer and closer to your own inner divinity. With each step fragments of the negative mind and positive mind, fears sorrows, with each step will begin to fall away. So use that as your strength to propel you along your path, the path of yoga.

Take a few deep breaths. Centre yourself. Get you spine straight, your neck straight, with the chin tucked in a little bit and bring your hands into prayer pose. Rub your hands together and set your intention. I am a perfect being. Perfect consciousness. A perfect yogini.

DISCOURSE GIVEN AT THE DIVINE EARTH ASHRAM
April 18th, 2010.