Can I remain where I was before this thing popped up?
Michael A. Singer
This is the first important question a yogi asks. And it is around this question that the practice is developed: learning to stay centered in Witness Consciousness while things out there pop out in front of us and things in here come up from deep inside.
Yoga is all about learning to stay seated while Life happens in and out. It is about developing the skill of not allowing habit mind take us down into the muck and mire of human drama as it is so inclined to do. It is about learning to not get so lost in "little me" with its reactivity, its emotions, and its thinking.
We realize, in the beginning, how we are perceiving and responding to the world through a heart and mind clouded with samskara. We see how our present tendencies of grasping, clinging, pushing away, stuffing down, and resisting life on account of these samskaras doesn't bring anything but suffering. We begin to see how much these stored impressions/preferences are holding us back from living a full life, how they are in the way of something so much better we cannot quite comprehend but know is there. We begin to recognize the distinction between the "little me" in the drama and the "I" that is watching it. We choose "I" over "me". We decide we want to be clean inside, free of all this stuff "me" stuffed.
When we establish ourselves in Witness Consciousness, by working the pause, we remain up at the level of "being aware, the One consciousness/ that which we are" ...We stop dropping down to meet the stuff at its level, getting all tangled up in it. Instead, we allow the stuff to come up to where we are as the neutral, equanimous Witness, to be experienced and then to be released. We practice Yoga so we can be free of that cloud cover; so we can see clearly; and so we can experience the conditions of happiness already within us.
Then, with devoted practice and some release of samskara blockages, we will encounter other questions, the most important ones: What is that unconditional peace, joy, compassion, and love that is being freed from these blockages? Where is that coming from? What is the Source of this clear Consciousness I am experiencing more and more with everything I release?
We fall into that Source...becoming One with it.
Well, once we get there, there will be no more need for practicing, learning, or teaching. We will be home, where we always were. Hmm!
All is well in my world.
Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( February 26, 2024) Exploring Witness Consciousness and Beyond. https://tou.org/talks/
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