One of the great cosmic laws, I think, is that whatever we hold in our thought will come true in our experience. When we hold something, anything, in our thought then somehow coincidence leads us in that direction that we have been wishing to lead ourselves.
Richard Bach
Neti! Neti!
Sixty years on the planet, 25 years studying yoga, and for some reason, I have never heard the term Neti! Neti! until the day before yesterday.(Or at least, I was not consciously aware of it.) Ever since I came across the explanation of it by Swami Vivekananda, I was tripping over it in my mind. I even wrote about it yesterday and mentioned it in a video I felt compelled to do. (I spelled it wrong in the video lol) . Anyway, it was so in my mind. I was literally going around the house mentally repeating, "Neti! Neti-Not this! Not this! Then, today I am listening to Michael Singer's podcast and there it is.
Of course, rational mind looks at this and says it is merely a coincidence but something else tells me there is some cosmic law at work, some kind of unseen connection there between what I write or speak about, and then what he shares. This happens so many times! I can not get over how everything lines up in my learning with him as a teacher. It is a little "woo-woo".
I don't, as I mention, follow anyone. I make it a point to be a willing student to any message or teaching that Life provides both in Jnana and in Karma ,if it resonates with the wise self within, and not to get lost as a follower or worshiper of the messenger or the teacher. Singer's teachings came into my life in a very serendipitous way and they have resonated with me at the deepest level from the beginning. They are so in sync with where I am at in my learning day by day. I have no idea what this means ...but there seems to be some uncanny wavelength connection, if that makes any sense ...I think, write, share things before I hear him saying the same thing (rational mind is looking at this statement as if it and the writer of it are crazier than a bag of hammers lol). I can't explain it.
Anyway, it is all good.
The Four Meanings For Life
Meaning One: Life is here to meet my desires and subdue my fears
The below podcast is speaking to the three meanings we can give to Life (but somehow I came up with four). We can, as most of us do, make Life all about serving the ego, the psyche, the self concept, or "little me" by doing our best to ensure that it gets what it needs to feel comfortable inside and that it avoids what makes it uncomfortable. The level of comfort and discomfort it experiences is based on what "out there" has the potential to disturb or stimulate our stored stuff or our impressions from the past, which are our samskaras. Getting what is desired, and avoiding what is feared, is the major Life objective. What we are doing in this Life purpose, then, is taking our amazing light of consciousness, who we actually are, and shining it obsessively and narrowly on this "little me" with all its dramas. We identify with what we are shining on and "forget" that we are "Not this! Not this!" ( Neti! Neti!)
Meaning Two: Letting go of the part of self that fears and desires
The second meaning we can give to Life, then, is one of letting go. We realize how conditional and unproductive our goals are in the first meaning. We start to see how this "little me" we are focusing so narrowly on and identifying with is again "Neti! Neti!" It is not who we are and the things we are putting all our energy towards attracting or averting are so unimportant. We see how Life is not here to serve this me; who we really are is here to experience Life. We start using whatever Life gives us to help us let go of the part of us that fears and desires, clings and pushes away, so we can do just that....Experience Life fully as the Experiencer and not the ego.
Meaning Three : Opening up to Shakti
The more we let go of our resistance to Life as it is and our conditional expectations, the more we let go of our false self, and the more we let go of this self concept...the more we let go of our desires and our fears. The more we let go of those, the more samskaras will be released. With the natural release of samskaras the more open we will be to the natural flow of Shakti. This is the third meaning of Life: to Free the Shakti.
Meaning Four: Following the Shakti back to the source
The more freely the Shakti flows the more happy, peaceful, blissful and loving we will be. This is where the forth meaning for Life comes in. We will feel so good, we will want to find out where this amazing feeling is coming from. We will trace the Shakti back to its Source. We will from there realize we are a part of that Source, Singer tells us, and merge back into it, into Oneness, into Yoga.
How cool is that?
All is well!
Michael Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( October 20, 2023) Reaching for Life's Highest Meaning. https://tou.org/talks/
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