RishiVid2016

Unmani in Rishikesh, March 2016

1. Who Needs Meaning? 00:22:00
We often take life very seriously, as if it really means so much. It is so important for ‘me’. It is all about ‘me’ and how special I am. How meaningful ‘my’ life is. How much purpose ‘my’ life has. We imagine that without this purpose and meaning life would not be worth living. If we explore together, we can discover that life has no meaning for ‘me’, - simply because there is no separate ‘me’. At first this can seem devastating for this ‘me’...

2. Feeling Stuck 00:23:52
The life that we live often feels like a prison. We can feel stuck in the situation, the relationship or job that we are in. We long to break free from everything. We can try to change the circumstances. When we break up with our relationship, we feel some freedom mixed in with perhaps some heartbreak or regret. When we change jobs, again it can feel heartbreaking, although in a different way maybe. The new job is not quite what we were longing for. It carries its own sense of feeling stuck. While it is new, it can seem more free. But after a while it also becomes heavy and serious with the same feeling of being stuck...

3. What Is Missing? 00:18:49
Unmani encourages you to investigate what is true in your own direct experience. Without blindly believing any concepts, belief systems or without having any faith. To really investigate like a scientist. Look at the evidence in your direct experience, not what you think. If you really look at the evidence and the nature of thought then you can see thought is unreliable. It is changing all the time. Whatever you think is true now is bound to change at some point. Look at your direct experience, not your interpretation of your direct experience, but actually your direct experience. Follow that, moment to moment, investigating what you actually know...

4. The Spiritual Identity 00:24:42
What is the difference between spiritual and unspiritual? We come to India for a spiritual experience. But I am interested in you waking up to the so-called spiritual in your so-called ordinary lives. Not just in having a very sweet, beautiful, spiritual, different experience here in India. This kind of spirituality seems to be actually quite an identity that we take on. When we go somewhere else we play a different role. Let’s have a laugh at it...

5. Coming Down To Earth 00:21:16
There is always the seeing of whatever this body feels and whatever sensations it goes through. And that seeing of it is never touched by anything that happens with this body. Knowing that, is not an escape from experiencing and fully feeling whatever the body is going through. There is no hiding place or safety in that seeing of it. You still have to experience whatever this body is experiencing...

6. Your Own Authority 00:22.31
It is surprising to acknowledge how simple this really is, because it seems so complicated. We hear about awakening and enlightenment. We hear and read about these wonderful concepts. We take notice of what the Great Masters have taught. It can seem like it is meant for people who have studied a lot, worked really hard and sacrificed a lot. It couldn’t possible be for ordinary people like us. Of course it is very safe to believe that, because it means that you can stay small. You can stay limited to what you think about yourself...

7. What Are You Waiting For? 00:15:29
The spiritual search seems all about getting it - whatever ‘it’ is being presumed to be. Sometimes we call ‘it’ awakening, enlightenment, feeling better, being happy,  fulfilled, having a shift etc. We are waiting for a point where it is all done. Whatever we think should be done. We wait for some proof that it is all over, all fixed, all finished, that some goal has been reached. Especially when we hear about other peoples stories about their experience of recognition. It can seem like something very special needs to happen…
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8. Paradox After Paradox 00:19:13
Living this life, we meet paradox after paradox. And again when we wake up to the reality, we meet paradox after paradox. The thinking finds that extremely annoying because it cannot understand paradoxes. As soon as we think we know how it is, we can also say that it is the opposite. As soon as we recognise that our True Nature is Awareness, the thinking wants to land in that and start to live as Awareness. It tries to become Awareness or practice being aware, which, of course, is just a mind game…

Total time: 02:47:52