The Spiritual Solution

good morning my friends back here today it is a beautiful morning in California and I am happy to engage with you again we're in the bed says you know of a global pandemic with Kovan 90 there's a lot of anxiety and fear and there is also a lot of panic right now people are going through different stages of grief including feeling victimized feeling angry feeling frustrated feeling helpless some resigning to the situation others accepting it and some finding deeper meaning in this global crisis in my previous communications with you we've talked about physical health and how to optimize our physical well-being in other words how to create a joyful experience of our body a joyful energetic body as I've said before we've also talked about the mental anguish that is happening and people not being able to find peace of mind in the midst of all this turbulence and we are also seeing a lot of stress which as I mentioned before compromises the immune system and leads to panic which can lead to irrational behavior but also recycles as stress compromising the immune system and causing inflammation in the body causing inflammation in the body in my previous posts have also mentioned what we call the site kind storm which is basically an inflammatory storm storm that occurs in many people as they go into acute phase of Karuma infection when they start getting respiratory distress acute respiratory discomfort and ultimately need a ventilator sometimes succumb to death all this is a company that's becoming very clear by something called a cytokine storm and the evidence is showing that if you stay Center if you stay calm if you quite in the mind then our you do deep breathing and certain yoga asanas even a simple asana like Sun Salutation a few times they take a break and do that a few times a day then these practices meditation arsenal's pranayama take it the likelihood of the cytokine storm and that would obviously influence the morbidity and mortality of Kovach 19 I have written about this and they're all the scientific citations are available and Chopra Foundation website they're also were available at the Chopra Library but today I want to talk about the spiritual aspect of this crisis and I think what is becoming obvious is that the pandemic The Cove in 1910 Deming is inducing a lot of existential anxiety existential distress exist tential suffering and in the background of all this is the fear of suffering from the physical illness and also the fear of death I think we cannot deny that this is at the moment a pandemic in the ecosystem of human human existence once again what is coming out very clearly is existential anxiety existence suffering and the fear of death and for this reason I think we need to have the only solution that can takes us that can take us beyond this existential suffering and the fear of death the only way the only way I reassure you the only way is the spiritual way understanding both intellectually and experientially what it means to be a spiritual being what really does it mean to be a spiritual being so I have written about this and most recently I wrote about this for NBC the news network you can go on their website and read my post on the CNBC website but I'd read a little bit from my notes and then I go beyond that to share with you how we can actually find a solution to exist seneschal suffering and and even the fear of death we can go beyond that both experientially and intellectually so let me read a little bit from my notes there are three levels of response to the corona 19 October 19 outbreak how it affects us physically mentally and spiritually the physical response came first and by now everyone knows about self isolation social distancing and testing the second effect on our psyches is being experienced personally but with only fitful answers and advice and the best advice in the mental areas meditation and yoga and relaxation techniques and paying attention every day to finding not just relaxation but joy and comfort in your life so that's very obvious the virus makes the need for interventions both mental physical and psychological and emotional very important and urgent in this moment and the good news is that meditation and yoga good for anti stress which is connected to a strong immune response and again up spoken at length about this but it is the third area the spiritual effect of the outbreak that is being neglected even though the presence of death whether we want it or not ebooks concerned about the state of our souls spiritual well-being is alien to many people's daily lives and with the decline of organized religion millions of people experience a sick soul of what we might say the dark night of the soul however you want to define it there's a wariness of heart there's existential dread there's a sinking feeling that nothing really matters and frequently there's a sense of resignation and helplessness so I would suggest they don't spend more than a few minutes diagnosing these feelings because everyone is almost everyone nor is it necessary to enter into metaphysical speculation although I'm going to do that today with your indulgence you know many people are advising me stay away from philosophy stay away from metaphysical speculation first of all I can't do that because it's my lifelong obsession but also I think right now the deeper understanding metaphysical understanding and philosophical understanding and intellectual understanding and experience or understanding is very important for your overall well-being very important for your overall well-being for your physical well-being for your emotional well-being for your social well-being ultimately even for things like community well-being and financial well-being and so on so with your indulgence I'm going to speculate a little bit on the philosophy of how we can actually understand metaphysics and philosophy and Eastern wisdom traditions and Western wisdom traditions to get a deeper understanding of fundamental reality which can take us beyond existential suffering and the fear of death and the fear of the unknown but we can always start our spiritual journey in the following ways having a sense of meaning and purpose in our existence loving and being loved finding true self esteem and a sense of our own worth tapping into inner peace and joy and at this moment I should say something peace of mind is an oxymoron there is no such thing okay because the mind can never be peaceful the mind is always evaluating defining describing judging and so the mind is constantly like a seesaw at one moment happy another moment side one moment enthusiastic another moment in despair one moment exhilarated another moment frustrated etc so the mind can never give you peace it is what is in the background of the mind that can give you peace and what is in the background of your mind is your soul is your spirit is your being that can give you peace and it's already there it's the peace that passes understanding so tapping into inner peace and joy by going beyond the mind that's the value of meditation by being of service to others what we call Karma Yoga do what needs to be done leave the results to the divine and by being generous of spirit these are all spiritual technologies or strategies that bring healing not only to ourselves but to others as well so we don't need to apply words like religious experience or religious ideology or dogma even the word spiritual for some people can be misleading because they confuse it with organized religion but spirituality means ultimate self awareness so and these these ideas are not original they have long traditions in both East and West and they have been examined and understood by humans throughout history and more to the point they are practical they give you a sense of control over your life and by bringing you closer to your soul or higher awareness or deeper self whatever term you like these things reverse the most damaging spiritual trend in modern society the desperate need or urge to flee from ourselves they basically allow us to get intimacy with our own self so your soul is the most important part of you in it it isn't found by running away write down how you can perform an act of kindness today show appreciation to someone offer help to those in need or bring comfort to someone feeling lonely and anxious the simple human gestures we tend to overlook and see how good you'll feel how safe you'll feel and you'll find meaning and purpose at the same time in your life so in a time of crisis the impulse is to go into emergency mode fear concern and panic but giving into these impulse impulses only engenders an epidemic of panic and ultimately leads to biological chaos I want to particularly underscore the issue of finding inner peace and joy which can seem like a remote possibility just now and in the coming months but it's not in the world's wisdom traditions it has been taught in every culture that inner peace and joy are available only by looking inward the old testament says be still and know that I am God the New Testament says that the kingdom of heaven is within the Indian Vedic tradition says Ananda or bliss lies at the heart of creation so these are universal truths but they don't matter until they are true for you personally so now is the time to make these universal truths true for you personally the secret imparted by the world's wisdom traditions is that your sense of self the simple experience of I am I exist is the gateway to inner peace and to joy meditation has nothing more than being alone in silence with yourself and letting your awareness go to the place where peace and joy are eternal and timeless that's how you must be now that's how you text an eternal truth and make it true for you it actually even doesn't matter what kind of meditation you do so observing the breath mantra meditation self inquiry self reflection mindful awareness of experience I've talked about this in the past but I want to go a little deeper right now having shared with you what I've shared publicly elsewhere as well but now let's go a little deeper so you know I for my the last 40 years have not only practiced meditation for the last forty years but I've also done something called yoga nidra at night I've also done inquiry at night and recapitulation of my life before I go to sleep and [Music] about a week ago or 10 days ago I also decided to take a week of silence and actually go deeper into my practice of inquiry and Yoga Nidra and mindfulness and even meditation on the Naumann of death so I want to share that a little bit with you and hope that you might get some benefit out of it okay so before I sleep and I do a lot of inquiry but one of the questions that I've asked myself in stillness is and we've pursued that here is Who am I Who am I and you know the practice that can take many forms ramana maharishi spoke about it practiced it and taught it for decades but here's the process that I've used so after I asked myself Who am I asked myself am i my physical body and then the answer that came to me is the physical body is a changing process was once a fertilized egg I was then an embryo I was then infant baby a toddler a teenager young adult hopefully a mature adult to knock this guy with the beard and all of that so my body has been a transforming changing process ever since I was conceived so if I identify with my body then which one is it because I can't really call my body a noun it's a verb it's a process and it's a process that's changing by the minute so if my body is my identity then that creates a lot of problems which body is my identity I've had so many of them there's a problem with identity there's also a problem with the impermanence of the body because the body in every moment that you is impermanent the body you're experiencing right now is impermanent you didn't have this body even a year ago and this is your year 2020 model and yet there's something about me that seems to have outlived the impermanence of the body the impermanence of the body that was an embryo and an infant and a baby and a toddler and adolescent so I am convinced personally that I'm not the body there in fact I'm also convinced that in the deeper reality the body is a human construct for an intermittent stream of sensations images feelings and thoughts period and they are coming and going in the twinkling of an eye so I can't hang on to the idea that I am a body it's convenient experience that I am having at the moment similarly I can ask myself am i the mind and it's obvious that the mind is an intermittent stream of thoughts and feelings and emotions and memories and desires and aspirations so the in fact in fact there's no such thing as a fixed mind either it's an intermittent stream of ideas sensations images feelings thoughts and so on so obviously I am NOT my body or even my personality because my personality is evolving in every moment of experience and interpretation of that experience so then that leads to a very deeper deeper insight into the of our being the awareness the consciousness the soul the spirit different aspects of it the conscious agent in which all this experience is happening the experience of the mind as a changing stream of thoughts changing stream of emotions aspirations the body a changing stream of sensations and perceptions even the world attaining stream of perceptions all this is happening on the screen of consciousness of witnessing awareness or the conscious agent that spiritual traditions called the soul so as I practice this at night and I practice this for decades I personally do not identify with my mind all with my body or with the experiences of the world because I recognized them as convenient human constructs for an intermittent stream of sensations images feelings thoughts perceptions which are modified aspects of my own self of my own soul of my own spirit of my own conscious being and as modified the aspects they're constantly transforming and changing but I who is witnessing them is a constant I as the seer [Music] constant in the midst of all changing scenery and the background in which all this change occurs by the body universe the background of experience the background of emotions by the way turbulent or negative or positive the background of all emotions is equanimity the background of all sensations is bliss at the background of all perceptions also bliss the background of all sound the background of all the color is liked so this is the background of experience which shakes our ideas of mind body and the world at first when you encounter this you know when I am doing my recapitulation at night and remembering things from my childhood that little argument with my mother how we made up her telling me beautiful stories and holding me in our arms my father playing cricket with me my friends and school reading poetry and Shakespeare and [Music] participating in place and going to movies together where is all that right now when I look at that first there's a little nostalgic nostalgic sadness about it's all gone it's all gone my parents are gone much of my family generation of my parents are gone and I remember my father telling me about his tribulations and trials as a prisoner of war in the Second World War when he was in the British Army on the siege and Impala Burma and talking to me about food deprivation that he experienced I remember my grandmother and grandfather on both sides telling me about the Indian partition when India broke up into Pakistan and India and the violence that occurred and so many people died I remember my grandfather also talking about the first world war and his trials and tribulations my father telling me about the Holocaust and about the story of Anne Frank and all those children who went to the gas chambers what a violent history that humans have had throughout the ages and yet not learned from it yet not learned from it so much suffering that we have inflicted but in any case you know all that is over is the memory that there should be so we can learn from it but it's over there is there is a certain nostalgia about the past but also a certain celebration that it's over but at the same time there's a existential anxiety then you know if everything is so where Who am I in the midst of all this that's happening and if I identify with anything that I've had as an experience which comes and goes then there is jeopardy in the sense that there is a feeling of anxiety and that feeling of anxiety which we call exists eventual anxiety comes from provisional identities the provisional identity I am a male I'm human I'm a body I'm a mind I'm a personality I'm changing emotions all this is just nothing other than sensations images feelings thoughts perceptions that common goal on the screen of consciousness so there is anxiety Who am I the midst of all this thought traffic as Rumi says in the midst of all this turbulence Who am I and it's becoming very clear now with this pandemic as well that this is an existential anxiety is there in every human being and it will surface at some point whether there's a pandemic or not okay it will surface at some point when you're faced with old age maybe infirmity maybe impending death maybe a cancer maybe somebody else has a cancer maybe somebody else in the family is having it it will occur mark my words if you don't have existential anxiety right now you will have it at some point unless you go beyond appearance and understand reality there is no solution other than a spiritual solution and by spiritual I mean self-awareness at the highest level self-awareness at the highest level because awareness self-awareness is there at every level you know notwithstanding the accusations by some scientists that I'm pseudo-scientists and spout pseudo-scientific profound never mind all that but everyone including the pseudo-scientists the real scientists the atheists the agnostics and the religious people are going to have existential suffering and are having some of it right now and so doesn't matter whether you believe in God you don't believe in God you're indifferent it doesn't matter you have to find a solution for your existential suffering and that can only happen if you first become comfortable with the with the more subtle aspects of existence the more invisible aspects of existence and then you go beyond that to the most invisible aspect of existence which is your own true self if you go beyond the visible aspects of existence the visible Aksum aspects of existence of what we call objects material entities physical bodies and physical universe including that tree behind me the visible aspects of existence but these visible aspects of existence are actually perceptions and perceptions as activities are in this move a perception seemed as an activity hearing as an activity sensing as an activity tasting smelling as an activity thinking as an activity these are all invisible imagination as an activity invisible so first you have to get comfortable but the invisible aspects of existence the subtle aspects of existence are real in fact they're more real because when we get overwhelmed by our thoughts our emotions our anxieties and then that creates biological chaos and the visible gets affected when we get over well by the invisible every sensation is an invisible activity every perception every thought every feeling every mission every every every aspect of anxiety invisible but so is love so his compassion sure is joy so it's a queen enmity all invisible so the invisible is what is causing the appearance of the visible supply we have to get comfortable with that even on the physical level you know atoms and particles and force fields and gravity are taught totally invisible but they from a materialistic ontological perspective those invisible aspects of existence actually function as the visible universe you've never actually seen a force field you've never seen gravity you've never seen atoms or particles of probability waves and yet that's the human construct that is supposed to express itself as the visible universe so the invisible realms of nature are much more powerful look at this coronavirus it's invisible right what is it it's a piece of genetic material a piece of RNA that messes up with your genetic activity and causes inflammation and compromised ation of the immune system and biological chaos and inflammatory storms then acute respiratory distress and even death an invisible piece of genetic material that's right now inside us outside us and between us as creating a pandemic of illness in the world visible piece of genetic information but go beyond that go beyond that even the the Kobe virus is a word for an experience and that experience is in awareness and awareness is independent of all experience how do I know that well because I can shift my attention from one experience to another in the twinkling of an eye I can think of my toes I can think of the Empire State Building I can think of my mother I can think of Wall Street I can think of the pandemic in every second I can shift my attention to anything it's only that which I'm paying attention to that becomes stronger in my awareness if I take my attention away from it it weakens in my awareness of course I need to be informed about everything but I also need to be sober in that I don't get overwhelmed by the panic and fear that is around us but it's clear that the invisible realms of existence are more powerful than any of the visible realms of existence and what's the most invisible realm of existence that you cannot see with a microscope or even see with the mind's eye that which knows the mind that which knows the body that which knows all the experience what is that when I recapitulate at night what is it that is recapitulating what is it that remembers the body of a teenager with this body and with this brain what is it that thinks about the body and the brain of that teenager what is that we call it I am i shivoham I am the witnessing awareness and that by the way cannot be experienced through a system of thought it cannot be experienced through a system of thought through a religious thought a philosophical thought a metaphysical thought or a scientific thought the most invisible aspect of existence his existence itself as pure awareness pure consciousness so it is with this understanding that the great wisdom traditions Vedanta for example speak about the causes of human suffering as the five glaciers the five glaciers KL Esha as the causes of human suffering caused number one not doing our true self the true self the invisible formless infinite timeless being in which all the experience occurs including the experience of the embodied self that we call the person pleasure number one pleasure number two is grasping and clinging at experiences that are pleasant but we know our evidence the femoral transient a flash of lightning in the sky cause number two of suffering cause number three of suffering fear recoiling from that which is reminiscent transient ephemeral part of the changing scenery cause number three cause number four identifying with the fragmented he goes south the socially induced hallucination of the fragmented mind it doesn't even exist but it's experience is real and therefore it creates anxiety the ego is afraid of its death fourth cause of suffering and then the fifth cause of suffering is the fear of death what is the fear of death is the fear of the unknown but we forget we live and breathe in the unknown all the time not withstanding everybody's predictions about the govinda pandemic somebody had asked you a year ago what's the kovat pandemic what's the risk of that you wouldn't even know most of people unless they're epidemiologists wouldn't even know what somebody was speaking about if they were speaking about a possible coded 19 endemic a year or two years ago okay but now it's causing the fear of death but what is the fear of death is the fear of the unknown the factors we live in the unknown in every moment of existence everything that is happening right now is what we call the present and the president actually is not a moment in time the present is the awareness in which time even is an experience so in that present the presence of being the presence of awareness there is no suffering there is no suffering because being is intrinsically not bound and is intrinsically free from all its experiences only when you become aware of experience at some level every every cell in your body is having an experience it doesn't even bother to tell you your conscious mind what the experiences unless something goes wrong my stomach starts feeling uncomfortable now that comes into my conscious awareness before that the stomach was taking care of itself self-regulating and this self-regulation is universal at this level of cells and the level of molecules and the level of atoms at the level of particles at the level of the biology at the level of the ecosystem at the level of the cosmos you know these days people are familiar with the term cybernetic cybernetics means automatic self-regulation it's being applied to machines now artificial intelligence but this automatic self-regulation is present in the whole cosmos and when we actually interfere with it then and then only do we experience what is being called human suffering so my friends I want to actually read to you something that I discovered yesterday and I actually put it on my Twitter on my Instagram but I want to share it with you because it was a little poem that was published by a young Indian doctor actually is a medical student his name is Dhruv Chauhan drove I thank you for this beautiful poem that I'm now going to share with everyone in the world and I'm just trying to find it and I will read it to all of you so you can experience the joy that I experienced when when I read the poem I'm still trying to locate it so bear with me okay the poem is about existence and before I find the poem and start reading it you here's the basic message and the basic message is don't worry about existence existence we will take care of its stuff existence will take care of its stuff just allow it to self regulate itself okay so here is the point from drove chauhan medical student in India thank you drew for sharing this with the world and I'm sharing it with the rest of the world my world as well so here's the point and drug says we fell asleep in one world and woke up in another certainly Disney is out of magic Paris is no longer romantic New York doesn't stand up anymore the Chinese wall is no longer a fortress and Mecca is empty hugs and kisses suddenly become weapons and not visiting parents and friends becomes an act of love suddenly you realize that power beauty and money are worthless and can't get you the oxygen you're fighting for the world continues its life and it's as beautiful it is beautiful just look at what's behind me it's beautiful suddenly you realize that power beauty and money are worthless and can't get you the oxygen you're fighting for the world continues its life and it is beautiful it only puts humans in cages that's what is happening right now humans are in cages I think it is sending us a message and the message is you are not necessary the earth the air the water and sky are fine without you when you come back remember that you are my guests and not my masters this is what nature is saying we are going to make sure that existence survives and if we are part of that existence and we don't interfere with it then not only will existence survive everybody will survive because life is sacred and the sacred is what we have taken for granted we have taken existence for granted once we go back to that place of gratitude for existence and from there a VOC divine emotions empathy compassion loving kindness joy equanimity grace then and only then we will be holy and then and only then will we be healed the word holy the word whole the word helped the word healing the same word they returned to the memory of holiness who we really are spiritual beings having a human experience sometimes good sometimes bad sometimes devastating and sometimes exhilarating but still part of the passing scenery only the seer is real so take a stand today as witnessing awareness start your journey to spirit through self reflection through self inquiry through yoga nidra through experiential knowledge of who we really are we can intellectually understand that we are the consciousness which is sandless which is formless which is infinite which is not subject to birth in death but without that there would be no other experience that is the real reality and knowing the real reality is a spiritual awakening that is so desperately needed today for our collective healing at the level of the body at the level of the mind at the level of the emotions a return to spirit be holy and be healed until tomorrow goodbye

Channel: The Chopra Well

Views: 37,635

Keywords: covid, covid19, Corona Virus, Meditation, Wellness, Immune Support, Body Awareness, Breathing, Mindfulness, Self-Regulation, Homeostasis, Boost Immune Health, Anxiety Relief, Panic Relief, Stress Relief

Id: mnviUj-9StY

Length: 49min 17sec (2957 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 04 2020