Welcome to Session 8 of the Meditation and Yoga Philosophy course.
Do all the practices as usual. Now, another story.
A lioness gave birth to a baby lion. It was a boy. But during the birth she died. The cub was hanging around her body when a pack of jackals came to feed on the corpse. Out of compassion they adopted the lion cub as one of their own. He grew up not knowing anything except the life of a jackal. He thought he was one of them, and behaved just like a jackal too! One day a fully-grown male lion came across the pack, and was surprised to see the young lion amongst them. He ran into the pack — of course they all scattered — caught the young male by the scruff of the neck, dragged him to a nearby pond, and put his face over the still water so he could see his reflection. The young lion was scared at first to see “another” lion staring back at him, but he soon realized that it was only his own reflection. He realized that he wasn’t a jackal after all — he was a lion, the king of the jungle!
“Guru” is a very loosely-used word these days, but its proper meaning is: “the one that removes the darkness from one’s life.” The real Guru is, essentially, the Cosmic Consciousness.
Just as the grown-up lion showed the young lion who he really was, the Guru is the one that shows us who we really are, because we have also forgotten our true nature. We identify ourselves with our name, our family, our body; but we are more than that — even more than our mind, because the mind also changes. Your body and mind are not the same as they were ten years ago, even one year ago, or one second ago!
The essence of matter is mind. The essence of mind is the feeling “I am.”
And the essence of that “I am” feeling is Consciousness.
“Cosmic Consciousness abides in the very sense of existence, in one’s very heart’s desire.”
Shrii Shrii Anandamurti
When the body and senses are stilled, we can look into the calm waters of our existence (just as the lion cub did) and find our true Self. The realization “I am the Cosmic Consciousness” is called self-realization in yoga, and its essence is the same infinite happiness; perfect peace and contentment — bliss — that we wanted in the first place. The more we feel it, the more our inner peace increases, until we realize the infinite love and peace pervading the whole universe.
“If you want to know all, know One, and that One is your own inner ‘I’-feeling.”
Shrii Shrii Anandamurti
Keep going with all the practices to be able to experience that in your life.
When you’re ready, go to the next session…
Contact us if you have any questions
