Claim happiness then radiate it out to other people. We find ourselves naturally doing what we were doing in previous cycles of life. Gurudeva's discovery of the Shum language of meditation. Happiness resides within our soul. Feel that energy in the spine: be uplifted, more positive.

Unedited Transcript:

Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo Mahesvara, Guru Sakshat, Parabrahma, Tasmai Sri Gurarve Namaha,

Good morning everyone. We just fit. It's good.

Our talk this morning's beginning with today's Merging With Siva lesson which is on the "Diamond of Light." I'll read from that and comment on it to start.

"How do you avoid unhappy states of mind? By consciously flowing awareness into the radiance, the light emanating from the self-effulgent being within the lotus of the heart. Direct awareness through controlled breathing. Remembering this basic principle, tell yourself that it is there, and soon you will begin to feel it. You will actually cause to grow within yourself a subtle nerve force that will turn awareness into the inner being so that consciously you can feel the Self God, your Sivaness, and its emanation that even now exists within you. In this way you can experience true bliss, true happiness, blissful happiness that does not cycle or fade."

Well this is the idea of inner happiness verses outer happiness. It's an important teaching, particularly for parents to convey to their children, and is the opposite of Madison Avenue. Madison Avenue, which is advertising in case anyone from abroad doesn't know Madison Avenue. Madison Avenue is the street in New York where all the advertising agencies are. They're all grouped together. And their job is to make us what to buy things and the, try and convince us that we'll be happier if we own them.

So, recently, just to test me I was given an IPad to see if it would make me happier. Monks were testing me they gave me an IPad; it wasn't even my birthday. So I tried very hard not to show any additional happiness. Fact I recently went on a trip and I didn't even take it with me. Show my detachment. But it's true. You know, it's how western thinking impresses us and because it's so all pervasive, even in Asia these days, the world is becoming more one world, less of a difference between Asia and the West.

We tend to think that somehow, happiness comes from adjusting what's on the outside. "If this person treats me differently, I can be happy." That's a common one you know. We're not happy because our spouse or friend isn't treating us the way we want them to so that makes us unhappy. How do they have to treat us so we'll be happy? Maybe we don't even know, right? But we're conditioning our happiness based upon another person rather than just claiming it. It's so much easier if we just claim our happiness and then we radiate it out to other people.

So that's the idea. The happiness is when our consciousness is in our soul nature or in our higher chakras. That's inner happiness. It's not a bubbly emotional happiness; it's a constant steady bliss. The constant happiness or satisfaction with life the way it is.

"One moment of contact with your inner being that resides within the lotus of the heart, that is always there -- one moment -- will clear up a whole situation in the external area of the mind. It will give you clear insight into how you should live your life, how to meet your circumstances, how to avoid whatever you do not want to find yourself involved in as the cycles of your life begin to repeat themselves."

So insight comes when we have an overview and we've talked about that some in recent weeks. In other words, the English expression is: "You can't see the forest because of the trees." Meaning we're so involved in our life, in our patterns, in experiencing them that we have no overview of what we're going through. We don't see the overall direction or the overall repetition of certain cycles. So, the idea is: When we go inside ourselves regularly through meditation, through temple worship, we end up with the insights regarding the overview. We see the pattern of our life more clearly.

So this relates from the previous lesson which I wanted to read from, Lesson 61.

Gurudeva states:

"Ponder over what you are doing now, how you are living, and then go back and find out within yourself how that compares to a previous time in your life when you were living more or less in the same way. In this way, you will come to know what area of the mind you will become aware in next."

In other words, we repeat things. A-B-C-D. So if we find ourselves in B again we can be pretty sure C is coming up. And then after that D. Our life goes in cycles.

"In this way, you will come to know what area of the mind you will become aware in next. But then there are the greater experiences that have even longer cycles -- perhaps a three-year cycle, a five-year cycle, a ten-year cycle or a fifteen-year cycle."

So one of the cycles we found interesting is 36 year cycles. It's easier in a life of an institution than the life of the individual to observe all of your 36 year cycles but just to give you a sense of how it works: The idea is we find ourselves naturally doing what we were doing 36 years ago. There's an energy or an impulse to do it.

So, what are some examples? We had two large Innersearch Programs to India 1969 and 1972 and we had no large programs to India until approximately 36 years later, 2004 and 2008, exactly on the cycle. Large programs to India.

We started the work, the initial research work, on our line of gurus book, parampara book, in 1972 and we picked it up 36 years later at the end of 2007. Had an energy to pick it up and to continue it.

Kaduvul Temple started in 1973, had a lot of construction and so, the end of 2009, 36 years later we started putting all the tile around the temple on the outside, couldn't help ourselves. Energy came back.

In terms of something hasn't happened yet: Gurudeva's vision of Lord Siva on San Marga occurred in 1975 so 36 years later is next year, 2011. Beginning of 2011 so something special should tend to happen on San Marga in the Swayambhu Lingam area.

We're consciously planning something ourselves, we want to put up what are called "Vision Paintings" that are being done. (He's in Kerala that artist?) We have a very fine mural artist in Kerala who's moving forward on vision paintings. Deva Rajan's making frames for them so we hope to have all of that out there. That's something we're doing but we'll see what else happens inwardly.

And the Sphatika Lingam arrived in 1986, two 12 year cycles. Is this year as 2010, so it gets it's base this year. Oh, 24 years later, it's a huge base, metal base for it. It's coming later this year.

So on a personal level, the idea is that it's easier to accomplish major tasks when they tie into doing the same activity in a cycle of multiples. Say for example, 12 years. Or said another way if we want to predict our future look and see what major activities we were doing in cycles of 12 years before and we get a sense of what may be coming around again.

Continue with the lesson:

"This self-luminous emanation is like a diamond that is filled with light. Think about it in that way. It is filled with light, this diamond that resides within the lotus of your heart. Try to visualize this clearly and precisely as you read. Visualization of inner things is the same as opening an inner door for awareness to flow through to gain the experience that is already there. Visualization helps to pinpoint awareness and hold awareness concentrated in one certain area of the mind and gently move it to another. With this shining diamond constantly within the body, how could you become aware of an unhappy area of the mind? How could you become selfish? How could you hold resentment? How would it be possible for you to dislike another? This diamond within the lotus is within others too. "

Certainly one of the key points there is this one: "Visualization of inner things is the same as opening an inner door for awareness to flow through to gain the experience that is already there." So we'll look at that more in a few minutes. But, it's not something that's normally said. Other words if you want to find something that's inside of you, if you visualize it first, meaning you're creating it with your mind; you're not actually seeing it, you're imagining it. Visualization means to imagine or paint a mental picture. So, if you want to find something inside of you, if you imagine it or visualize it first, that makes it easier to actually see it second. So, visualization or imagination is a way of having the actual experience.

Next is the story from the Switzerland. It's written up in the 12 Shum Meditations Book, most, many of you have seen that. This is Gurudeva's discovery of the Shum Language. 1968 Ascona Switzerland.

Gurudeva says:

"The feeling began to come that what was really needed was another language, a new, fresh language, one giving me a vocabulary that we could use to accurately describe inner states of consciousness. Two or three days later we traveled to Venice, Italy, for a few days excursion. This idea of a new language was still very strongly in my mind so I went within and wrote down some instructions to my outer self as to how to proceed, where to go to be able to unfold this language. My instructions were: 'You go within the ooda current.' That is the current of mind flow where language exists. And following the instructions my spine lit up in a beautiful pale yellow and lavender light. The yellow and the lavender intermingled, one color coming in and out of the other. It was just beautiful! But I only found one end of the ooda current so did not have any results in Venice. Three days later, after returning to Ascona, I found both ends of the ooda current while working within myself. Within two hours of meditation, the script, the fundamental alphabet of 18 sounds and the syntax, as well as some of the basic vocabulary all came through. The first word to be uttered was Shum. Shum now names the language of meditation. As fast as I could write I wrote it all down and ran downstairs to one of the monks shouting, 'I have it! I have it! Here is our language.'"

Gurudeva goes on to say paragraph or so later:

"The meditative perspective of the Shum language is deep within the mind. It is called shumif. In shumif we have the consciousness that we are the center of the universe. We see light within the spine as the central pole, and then open our eyes and look out into the world."

So, Gurudeva, after he developed the Shum language, focused on the spine and the energy within the spine and seeing that. So moving to that in our May basic meditation he gives the following commentary:

The May Mamsani:

"One of our most powerful mamsani is simshumbisi kaif. The wavy line represents awareness flowing: niimf. Awareness flowing from one are of the mind to another is called niimf. Here it flows from the fourth dimension where simshumbisi is into the seventh dimension, where awareness is completely aware of itself, kaif. This mamsani you can live with all of the time. Carry it with you on a little card in your pocket all month long. It is the easiest one, the most vital one and one of the most powerful. Feel the power within your own spine when you meditate on simshumbisi. The mamsani tells us that until we are aware of being aware in the beautiful bliss of kaif, where awareness,does not move, because it is so centered within itself, we must constantly be centered in simshumbisi. When you are not feeling up to par, remember this mamsani and move awareness into simshumbisi. Sit, breathe, become aware of simply being aware of these inner energies deep within the spine. These energies come from the central source of it all. Then feel yourself going in and in into the seventh-dimensional area of the mind, kaif, being aware of simply being aware. This state is not beyond your reach. it does take a little bit of quieting down, however; but not a great deal of spiritual unfoldment is needed. It is very easy to attain kaif. Just try. You will see for yourself just how easy it can be."

So this is a specific practice that talks about the generalization, it's an example of the generalization we were talking about before of inner happiness. Happiness resides within our soul, in our soul nature. All we have to do is be there.

So, this is saying: You can be there by feeling the spiritual energy that's in the spine it's a very specific example or practice. If we can simply feel that energy in our spine we can be uplifted, be more positive in the moment. Feel content.

So the last thought is, it's just little exercise on the spine. I'll read it and then we can practice it for two minutes.

"Begin by feeling the actinic energy within the spine. Visualize... (Remember we talked about first we visualize or imagine and then that leads into the actual experience. Visualize a clear tube within the center of your spine being filled with yellow light coming from the top of your head. See the pure life force, yellow in color, flowing through the spine and out into the nerve system."

So let's all try that for two minutes, we can sit up straight, feel the physical spine and then imagine within that a hollow tube and within that hollow tube we see a yellow light in the top of our head down to the base of the spine.

[Pause in audio for practice exercise on the spine]

Aum Namah Sivaya. Have a wonderful day.

[End of transcript.]