Three Necessary Things – November 6 2018

Three Necessary Things – November 6 2018

Yoga, meditation, all these things–they only aim at bringing the natural situation of life to conscious awareness. Much superior to yoga is considered knowledge. To know that thing… Knowledge, or gyana. Knowledge is held highest because it brings to conscious awareness the situation that already exists in life.
 
Knowledge of loss or gain. Actual loss or gain doesn’t matter. What matters is the knowledge of it. You may [win] the lottery, and all that money may be deposited in your bank account, but what matters is the knowing about it. Legally, you may possess all the wealth, but if you don’t know it…
 
Like that, the eternal life is already there. It is the knowledge that matters.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, from a recording,
1967 Teacher Training, Rishikesh
 
The ‘eternal life’ spoken of by Maharishi is experienced, in practical terms, as the joy of living. There are three things necessary for us to have the joy of living for ourself:
  1. being grounded in the Self, in the place of pure Being, via meditation;
  2. finding our way more and more to present moment awareness, that we may be present to this relative world, the only place where joy of living may be experienced; and
  3. correcting our intellect/reframing our experience of life so that our understanding of it ever more fully reflects the truth of consciousness: that we are meant to be happy, joyous and free, that bliss is our birthright and that full consciousness is our natural state.
This Vedic Meditation Thought for the Day is meant simply to give us an option, at least once a day, to see things differently than is our habit, so that over time our thinking will become more attuned to this truth of consciousness, and more and more we will be able to choose it for ourselves.
 
Today I will meditate in order to be grounded in Self; I will remember to ‘come to my senses, becoming more mindful, more present in the here and now; and I will remind myself that life is meant to be joyful, and I will be open to seeing life in such a way that I may be able to experience that joy.