Kailasa, God Siva's divine abode. Merge into the.river of life. Face everything in the light of the present. Be.free from life's attachments. Permanent enlightenment, a.long journey, multiple lives for most people. Pace ourself at.the right pace, trying to rush is counterproductive. Hold the.mind in the present moment, live in the eternal now. Judge.ever action, every word, Is it true? Is it kind? Is it helpful? Is it.necessary?

Master Course Trilogy, Merging with Siva,.Lesson 26, Be Like the River Water.

Unedited Transcript:

Good morning everyone. Continuing with our Merging with Siva series, River of Life, a talk which was given in 1957. Our last talk we mentioned how the Ganges is both an outer river of water and an inner river of spiritual or actinic energy. This talk begins with a similar look at Mount Kailash. So we have a very short definition in our lexicon: "Kailasa: "The four-faced Himalayan peak in Western Tibet with it's 22,028 feet tall; the earthly abode of Lord Siva." And The Encyclopedia of Hinduism gives a longer description: "Mount Kailasa, snow clad, Sivalinga-shaped mountain in the extreme north range of the Himalayas. Kailasa is also the name of God Siva's divine abode, as Vaikuntha is of God Vishnu. As such, Kailasa is taken not only as Siva's abode on Earth but as the image of Siva himself, a Sivalinga shape, bearing the stamp of nature. So it is seen as pratyaksa (manifest) Siva and has been adored from time immemorial. "The Sanskrit word Kailash means a crystal, hence the derivative meaning is crystal-clear, lustrous. Ka means 'in the water' and la means 'to shine', 'to play', or 'to dance'. The splendid reflection of Kailash in the very clean water of Manasarovar Lake is also called Kailash. It is on Kailash that Siva and Parvati have their divine play and dance." So that's the external description, then we get Gurudeva's inner description: "Every monist, in deep or superficial conversation, will occasionally admit that the Ganga is a sacred river and Mount Kailash is a sacred mountain. In admitting that, he is also somewhat of a theist at the time. Hindus believe that the Ganga and Kailasa are the ultimate temples. Most monists want to have their ashes put in the Ganga when they die. Every Agamic priest will tell us that Mount Kailasa is at the top of the head and at the top of the world. He will explain this is where God is, in and above the sahasrara chakra. This knowledge is right within the puja liturgy he chants.? Then we get Lesson 26 [MWS]: "Be Like the River Water "You can plainly see that we have to go into the subconscious basement and straighten it out, if need be, by letting go and becoming free. That?s easy to say. It?s a little more difficult to do. Why? Because the basement took time to fill, and it takes time to clean. If we were to straighten out the subconscious basement too fast, that would not be good. It would be going against a natural law. It would be like pouring hot water on plants, as they do commercially, to make them bloom quickly. We must not force natural laws, so we take time in our spiritual unfoldment. The more time you are willing to take, the less pressure you have on yourself and the faster you will attain a permanent enlightenment. "Let?s look again at the river of life as it flows into the sea, and again relate that to ourselves and see ourselves letting go of the river banks, merging ourselves into this river, flowing with it and realizing ourselves as the essence of life. Let us not worry about the past ever again. Do not even think about the past . Face everything that comes up in the light of the present, not in the darkness of the past. "Be like the river water. Water flows freely anywhere, easily finding its way around rocks and trees. Be pliable in your life, moving in rhythm with life. Let go of everything that blocks the river of life?s energy. Watch your thinking and be careful of your thoughts. Judge every action that you make, judge every word you speak, with this law: 'Is it true? Is it kind? Is it helpful? Is it necessary?' Become your own kind judge and make each second a day of judgment, for every second is really a day if you live life fully. If you life completely each second, you will experience many days inside each twenty-four hours. "Be free from life's attachments and don?t allow any more negative attachments to occur in your life. Loosen yourself?be free. Attachments bring all sorts of complications. Freedom brings no complications at all. So, that is what we have to do, recreate our lives each second. Become affectionately detached and manifest a greater love through action. Selfless service to mankind makes you free in the world of mortals. Measure yourself objectively with the river of life and merge with it into the sea of life. Let your service to man kind begin at home and radiate out to the world. Begin at home, with those closest to you, before venturing out among friends and strangers. Let your example be your first teaching. Be free from the past; abide in the present; detach yourself from the future; and live in the eternal now." And we have some of my comments. First one is on taking time, interesting. So if you try and rush spiritual unfoldment, it's counterproductive and then it will take longer to achieve a permanent enlightenment; interesting. The more time you are willing to take, the less pressure you have on yourself then the faster you will attain a permanent enlightenment. So we want to find the right speed, the key, Gurudeva's saying. Sometimes, it happened recently, talking to a family and one of the family members will say: "I want to realize the Self in this life." They're generally in their 60's when they say that; sixty year olds. And they think that they can do it so there's no sense of the timing involved in the process. So I try to say something polite in response, but it's a long journey, multiple lives for most people and we need to pace ourself at the right pace. If we go too slow meaning we're not putting in enough effort, then it's taking longer than it needs to. If we go too fast, it's counterproductive. It's like doing a task so fast you're not doing it correctly and you end up having to do it over again. You have to find the right speed in each task and not go faster than that cause you'll actually take longer. Next idea: Do not even think about the past . Face everything that comes up in the light of the present, not in the darkness of the past. So this is an interesting point. Sometimes individuals are reflecting a lot on past mistakes, so much so that they're not fully in the present. So, that's not good. The story I use is the idea that when you were young you weren't that attuned to your duties to your parents and so you neglected some of them when they were older. And now that you're mature you regret that. And you regret it so much, you think about it a lot. You're distracted from what's actually going on in the present. But as Gurudeva says, face everything that comes up in the light of the present, your karma will bring to you opportunities to help older people. But if you're so caught up in thinking about your past mistakes you won't see those opportunities and you won't take them. So, we need to let the past go and realize that everything in the past that didn't work out as we wished it did, being a wiser person now, will come around again so we want to pay attention to the present. So this is a good one: Judge every action, every word: Is it true? Is it kind? Is it helpful? Is it necessary? It's a really useful way of measuring what you're about to do or what you're about to say and it's a talk in itself, being kind, helpful and necessary. But it's a good principle if you haven't used it in your life to pick it up and use it on a regular basis. So Gurudeva says: "Be free from the past; abide in the present; detach yourself from the future; and live in the eternal now." So the eternal now. Gurudeva defines it as roughly staying within four days past and future, that we don't go past that. Sometimes he says four and a half days, getting more precise. But there's no reason to think beyond four days in the past and four days in the future unnecessarily; that's the point. Sometimes there's a reason but generally there's not particularly for the past. It's just for rehashing things from the past unnecessarily and distracting ourselves from the present. So taking up the discipline of holding the mind in the present moment unless there's a real need to go beyond it is idea there. So that is lesson 26. Thank You.