Clean the Mind every Day with Meditation

The attachment to sensual objects and to the pleasure they give is like the soot that sticks to the inside of the chimney and dims the light. Clean the chimney by namasmarana (repetition of the Lord's name) every day and the flame will shine for you and others. 

Also do good deeds and be in good company. Proper atmosphere is very essential for the development of a spiritual aspirant. 

That is why spiritual seekers in the past left their homes and lived in the hermitages maintained by the sages. This is akin to keeping a pot of water immersed in water. That way, the water in the pot will then not be lost through evaporation. Therefore be careful, that the success you have won in the promotion of virtue, in the conquest of baneful habits and in the assumption of regular disciplines, are not frittered away by trite company, loose talk, cynical criticism or lackadaisical effort.

Baba (thought for the day)

If we repeat a mantra every day, we get more relaxed, experience silence and that is cleaning the mind. 

And it gets easier to analyze, right, if we see it with more inner distance, whatever, it should be easier to understand and especially if it is about higher knowledge. 

The proper atmosphere is more kind of a problem, because we live in a normal social environment, no ashram and no spiritual community. That seems to me sometimes too heavy.
As it is very important for spiritual aspirants to be in the right company, I sometimes just don't get it. In the ashram we were together, but it was not the same coming back and my family was gone, they went to Spain. 

I had always the feeling that there were only empty houses left, coming back here and I didn't know what I should do in that environment. 

It had to do with the family, but it was not clear why and it had to do with TM and that was also not clear why and it had to do with all the rest and that is still not clear.

It was all gone, whatever that was, what had made me feel okay here or what made me come back, I had been in Paris before and felt okay, but it was a kind of homesickness which probably made me come back in the hope with TM it would be possible to change something, whatever that would be. 

But what had felt like friendship, because yogis are our friends, that turned out to be no friendship. In Paris I was better. When I met my ex in the ashram with Baba I probably hoped it would get again as it had been in Paris, but that was not the case at all.

Years and years I tried to find he reason why it was not possible to analyze it. And it said, if we don't know the source, we cannot understand it. Baba made it inside come up, but that took a long time.

Every time I saw my mother, first I was glad and after I was again glad to not see her anymore, it was a disturbed relationship.
So I tried to tell her with a letter what I had to know, because I had to follow the inner master and she avoided always to give an answer. But I got the answer from the brother, who had no idea what he was talking about ... of course, that couldn't work. It means she told everybody what she thought about it, only she didn't ask me. 

After all the national leader turned out just being an actor, not a yogi, not real and therefore, he was probably the worst relationship I could be in. I needed something real, not an actor and that is how the whole thing broke in pieces, after all no friendship and that was no basis, we could not build on that, no ideal. 

Therefore, I asked Sai Baba and he said that it was not the right path. Anyhow it turned into nightmares, because it seemed impossible to be understood. As long as we didn't know the source, we cannot understand it. But how can we get aware of the source, if it lost? 

We were not even aware that something got lost. I didn't know what he meant in telling, if the source is lost, we cannot understand it. What was meant by source and why did he tell that?

I tried about everything to get it or to change it and it didn't work. My ex who should be of help to get the right answer, turned into the opposite and was at the side of the enemy telling that there was nothing wrong with TM, even though Baba had said that it was not the right path, so he turned into an enemy as well.

And Baba said that he doesn't know what he is doing, that was of no help either. Going on no matter what obstacles are coming up, that is how we went on. In the past years I had the feeling that it got that heavy I couldn't get up anymore, burnout, it too just too long. 

I would have liked to stay in the ashram, but instead I got together with my ex and hoped he would help to find the answer. It all looked good, but it was all upside down. He didn't know what he was doing, he lived a dream and he went on the path of least effort, the only thing left is, we had to realize what a dream is, because he lived a dream. 

I would have preferred to stay in the ashram, whatever, it was never the right level. 

But it had to do with time, it was somehow packed in periods of time and that is also difficult.  

The first step is discrimination. If we don't focus on the observer, there is no focus, no real focus. It has to go beyond the mind to be real, otherwise, it is illusion. Only on the screen which is permanent we can see all that what is just passing by. After a certain time, a period of time until on the spiritual level time is transcended, we get aware of the observer, it gets established in our consciousness and that is how we recognize the light in us.

First we are in the light and we discriminate between light and shadow, the light is permanent value and the shadows are moving. Or we see it as the ocean, that is permanent, the waves are moving.

It is after a certain time period, Baba calls it the conclusion of a time period, time gets transcended, if we are focused on the observer. It was nevertheless difficult to grasp that time period or to find the right words to describe it so that it does make sense. 

The first step is discrimination, we have the observer and the observed and observing. First we are in the light afterwards we recognize the light in us and the spiritual aim is to get aware that we are the light, all is light to get to the universal level. That question is how we get there. 

It has to be a real level, not what we think it is.  

If we are not focused on the observer and on discrimination, we are not even able to recognize an obstacle and take false friends for our friends, but the false friend or the actor was personal staff of the yogi and yogis are our friends, you can conclude that TM is not a right path, it was only deceiving. And I met someone else, he said, we did it, but he didn't understand. What he doesn't know is just that, TM cut off the source and even if he tries to understand, he has lost the instrument to be able to understand. TM uses the intellect for technique and mediation and all problems are solved, it cannot inquire anymore and it cannot ask questions and get answers ...

That is why they get lost.   

When the spiritual disciplines (samskaras) lead to inner refinement, you will experience union with the Divine. - Baba

But spiritual discipline is meditation. The OM is constantly present, but only if we meditate regularly and listen to the sound of OM in our inner awareness, we get aware of it. If we forget it again, we are back into the body. It is also inside aware during sleep and at night in the dream. As soon as it is forgotten, we are in body consciousness again. Body is dark and the journey is from darkness to light to get to that inner awakening. 

That first vision of the higher self reflected just that reality. 

The self is the light, love and beauty and in that light the body was sleeping and dark and the 'I' was in that body, but it didn't belong there, that was possible to be seen in that light. It was just there, because we think we are the body.

However, it is not that easy to be understood, because seeing the light doesn't mean we are the light.

First I got aware of being in the light and we get aware of the light in us and it means afterwards getting aware that we are light, but it has to be on an universal level and that includes everybody. 

You cannot see Me, but I am the Light you see by.

You cannot hear Me, but I am the Sound you hear by.

You cannot know Me, but I am the Truth by which you live. 

SSB

If we are in the body, we need to move from darkness to light. There is a gap between the body and the light self and in that gap was a blue ribbon and in that blue ribbon was written 'self'. 
That is how I got aware of the light in me and ever since that inner light is expanding. But it began with the first step and that is discrimination between the ocean and the waves. First we get aware of the difference between lasting and eternal values and the relative just passing by stuff in our mind, it means we are in the light and by meditation and observing we get aware that the light is in us and finally we should progress to the reality that the light is everywhere. 
I and you are We and We is He. 'Thou art That', 'I am that' and 'all are that' (That Tvam Asi). That is how the light expands from we to all. 
   
First you are in the light. Then the light is in you. Finally, you are the light and the light is everywhere. (SSB)

We progress from the I, which is identified with the body to 'We' what is 'He' is also an important step, because it has to be 'we'. In our own body and small self we cannot get to the realization that all are that. It has to be experienced or seen to become a living reality. The level of our 'I' is identified with the body, therefore, in living for others, in self-sacrifice, we can get to the beauty of the reflection of divinity. 

Without concentration nothing can be done. And we use that concentration through-out the day. Why is that same concentration so difficult to come in spiritual matters?
Because the mind is outward turned, and by desire the mind clings to object. But the mind can be trained to concentrate inwardly, and the heart can be cultured to grow with love for God. How? By sadhana. The best sadhana (meditation) is that every act through the day be done as worship of God.

(SSB)

I quote a text about the 'Tat Tvam Asi', Thou art That. If two or three are in his name together, he is in the midst of us. It needs two to be 'we' to get to the reality that it is 'He' or divinity. 

If we understand it wrongly and project something in the ego what is not understood properly, we get into an ego trip, what usually happens when devotees think they give Darshan. 

Darshan is the reflection of truth, seeing truth.

We are only able to reflect that highest, non-changing, always same level of reality, called truth, if we have realized that truth. It means people who are in the mind, will feel that realized truth level reflected in their own consciousness and we get lifted up and out of the mind by the presence of a realized being, but that doesn't mean they have realized it themselves, they still have to do the work. 

Nobody is fully awakened and not in the body, if he is not 360° awake. 

Enlightened means always aware and even during sleep. It means not no sleep at all, but a different level of sleep, our inner awareness is not lost, the self-awareness is present during sleep. Nobody who has not fully realized that level of divinity or truth is able to give Darshan. 

When we talk about 'thou', what is meant is 'that', what Baba called time transcended on the spiritual level, on the worldly level it is the conclusion of a period of time and it means after that time something new is beginning.

When the Upanishads say 'Thou,' they are not using human language but are trying to convey a divine experience. They are neither using Sanskrit, English, Hindi nor any other language. They are declaring an experience that is imponderable, beyond the knowing of the mind or the grasping of the intelligence, "whence all speech turns back with the mind, not reaching It." So, if instead of trying to understand the term 'Thou' upon that level-where mind and speech cannot enter and they came back unable to comprehend It-and you persist in taking it to mean a physical and psychological level, then the inner implication of 'Thou' has not yet dawned upon you. They are not saying that 'Mr. So and So' is Brahman. That is an absurdity.

Therefore, you first have to understand what this 'Thou' is that they are referring to when they declare that 'Thou art That.' They are not referring to the you that is seen, the you with name and form. They are referring to the unseen You. They are not referring to anything whatsoever that is seen; they are referring to Thou as the hidden, unknown seer of all thing seen, the knower of all things known. In that dimension, Thou, the hidden seer of all things seen, art That, that which alone prevails. That verily is your source, your alpha and omega-You, the unseen You, who may know the world, but the world can never know You. Even your father and mother cannot know You unless they themselves have already understood the true meaning of 'Thou Art That.' There is a need for long study, the need of sitting at the feet of a knower of Brahman and listening to what he has to say about Brahman, about maya, about yourself and about your relationships. You must listen, reflect and meditate. 

Sivananda Online