Sattvic Emotions

To dance the great dance towards the beloved of all, the cosmic entity, one will have to cultivate certain qualities and characteristics. One will have to cultivate strong determination, kind action, kind intention and madhuvidya to bring one's mind near to him. One will have to cultivate a little contentment, a little willingness to accept both joys and pleasures and weals and woes of this human life. Emotions rise and fall so today you are happy and tomorrow you are angry or disturbed by someone's actions. The next day you feel sad and lonely. The following day you are nervous and the day after that you feel good again. Emotions are like this. They are fickle and they may go this way and that. One cannot rely on feelings alone to recognize Parama Purusha. One must utilize one's mind as well and one's subtle perceptions. Feelings are like thoughts in the mind, the feelings that go here and there are like thoughts and you should treat them in the same fashion. Pay attention only to knowledge of the eternal Self, experience of the eternal Self, and the sattvic emotions that arise from that experience. Do not be overly concerned with the other thoughts in the mind and feelings that rise and fall. Let them come and go.

Many feelings, thoughts, experiences of pain and sorrow, loss, nervousness and fear come in the human life. When one accepts them all as the ever-changing faces of Parama Purusha, as the beloved speaking to you through different experiences, different faces, they will then have no hold. When you leave this world, they will have no hold upon you. In this way, you will eliminate the samskaras. When your mind is in reaction to experiences, "I do not want this pain. I must get rid of it. I do not want to feel this way. It is bad. I am so upset to feel this way, I will get rid of it," that reaction sustains your attachment. You attach to the elimination of some feelings and as a result, you always draw them due to your attachment. When you neutralize your mind in acceptance, contentment and equanimity of mind then whatever the feelings or thoughts, they are rising and falling in the mind and you can maintain the long view. Today they are this way. Tomorrow they will be another way. Your experiences are less distressing. When the final days come, the experiences will not cling to you. They will roll off of you like water off of the duck's back because you have not latched onto them.

You must bring all pleasant and unpleasant experiences into equanimity by taking madhuvidya and recognizing that all things of this world are temporal. Just do not feed all the negatives with your anticipation, worry and distress. In this way, cultivating equanimity and the opposite of negatives, then the mind settles down time. It gains peace and calm and is more suited for Brahma sadhana. Many times people have barriers to doing Brahma sadhana. Many times, you find new sadhakas, new initiates cannot sustain but instead they go away. They find sadhana difficult. For this reason, they go away. When you give them certain kinds of encouragement and support, many can sustain. They need their elder brother or sister to walk them gently through their experience, to stay in touch with them, to be a spiritual friend to them, asking them how it is going, letting them know not to worry but simply enjoy and sustain.

When yama and niyama are not followed and the mind is very turbulent, then all through the sadhana the turbulence of the mind is churning and one can do nothing but think of all the weals and woes of one's life. When one does not detach from these passions, they fill the mind. When one is ever concerned about one's problems, they fill the mind. Therefore, the beginning sadhaka may have a great deal of trouble with these things. Additionally they may have trouble with different physical problems. Some find that they cannot sit. It causes this and that pain and they cannot concentrate. They are sensitive to sounds around them or in the distance. A dog barks. Someone has a TV in the next apartment. They are so aware of every little tiny disturbance.

When they cannot meditate in a calm and quiet place because their mind is too loud, you can help them in stages. Let them have some music or guided inductions so that they can get to a place where then they can begin to do meditation. The minds of people are not strong because of eating meat, not following yama and niyama, not taking madhuvidya. These mental habits bring disturbances to the mind and make Brahma sadhana very difficult. They need your help to get to the point where they can take the practice of yama and niyama seriously and can practice the precepts. In this way, they can attempt to gain some equanimity of mind.

When you have new initiates, one of the first things to talk about is how to gain equanimity of mind so that one can concentrate. Make sure they know they need to be well rested so that when doing sadhana, they do not just fall asleep. Help them to practice the cultivation of opposites and detachment from the passions in the mind whether they are worries or attachments to desires. Help them learn this unweaving of engagements so the mind gains a little calm. They need to learn to watch their minds with no judgments so they can notice when they are reacting with self-diminishments, opinions and judgments and they can learn to let them go. When they see they are getting caught up in their thoughts, help them remember who is thinking the thoughts. From there, their mantra can take them forward. They always return to the mantra by recognizing who is having thoughts, "Ah! I am having thoughts. Who am I?" Then they can begin their mantra again.

Small adjustments in the meditation practice can make very great differences. They can go from a person who is so frustrated they are about to give up to someone who can finally do the practice just by making slight adjustments. For that reason, you have to stay with the person, following up with them regularly for the first two or three months of their sadhana. Otherwise, they will have trouble to get established, trouble with routine, with body, with external noises and with thoughts. Sometimes if tamas is too great, they have trouble with fog or sleepiness in the mind. Then besides not following yama and niyama, they may have a problem with diet. If they eat rajasic or tamasic foods, it affects the mind. All these together can give them difficulty. You cannot ask a person to change everything all at once. You will have to go step by step and keep encouraging them. Are there any questions regarding working with your new initiates?

Q. When you say provide guided imagery, do you mean a recording?

A. You can do this when they cannot concentrate and you have suggested music but their minds are still floating off or they are distracted with this and that. Sometimes their inner suggestion to pratyahara is weak. I do not find it objectionable that they use some sort of pratyahara, not to do all shuddis, but some sort of pratyahara to begin their meditation. For some people, this might help a great deal so that they can concentrate their mind but it should go on for a little while and then fade. It is not to be their whole meditation but to deepen them, a sort of induction because they do not have capacity to do this for themselves. Then, over time, you begin to use it less. For some people it may mean that they can meditate then when they can do ten minutes silent meditation after it is done, that is better than stopping their practice because they cannot meditate.

The point is in the beginning to get them to meditate, to begin to establish a little practice twice a day. In that, people need whatever help you can give them. If many people are going away unsuccessful, you must look at what you are doing and increase your success rate. Think what you can do to increase your success rate in number of people who will stay with sadhana. They try and find it too difficult so you must help them, inspire them, give them something to make it easier. If they have a guided induction for the first two or three months of meditation and then get into the habit of meditation and sitting, they can begin to fade that crutch and do more independently as they gain confidence.

You don't need to offer this to everyone but to those who are having trouble doing their practice. That is why you check back with initiates very soon after you have given the practices. You will also find people who have been doing meditation practices but not on a regular basis. They may have taken different initiations and done different practices for a number of years. They have the capacity to meditate but they may lack full inspiration so they start and then stop different practices. They can concentrate. They can meditate but they still need inspiration. For them, it is helpful to have steps they can take so they can graduate from one thing to another and feel they are moving forward and making progress. You can give short readings on the qualities and characteristics and beauty of the divine as this will help them also. To do this work is a great grace and a great service. It is the expression of your sadhana.