Conscious Aging

Just feel your body, feel the vibration, the tingling of your inner body. Just by feeling, even your hands, can you feel your hands. And that energy body acts as a bridge connecting you to stillness. That one life, it's energy, pure energy, the same energy that are in the plants and the flowers and in other human beings before it's distorted by thought, by emotions. So continue feeling that as we go deeper within. And perhaps you'd like to close your eyes, listen to that silence that is in the room. And who is aware of that silence? But awareness itself, when we become aware of whether it's external silence or aware of some sort of object, whether it's outside of us or an object that is inside of us, such as thoughts or emotions, it's like turn that attention, your awareness, onto itself. By doing that, you tap into that stillness that is within the stillness, the consciousness that you are. And that consciousness coming through your form and manifesting as your individual soul. It appears to be individual, but there is really only the one consciousness, the one life, the one spirit. And you are that spirit. And even though we may, on this level of form, be different in different stages of consciousness, if you can say that, or as I was saying yesterday, some are buds, some are more open and flowering. So you may be walking in, like, both worlds right now, the world of form and that dimension that is stillness, it is the flowering of human consciousness, that unfolding that happens within that we are moving, shifting from that material world, the sense world, the world of form, into consciousness, into that stillness, into that dimension that is unconditioned, that is formless. And as we shift and move through that level, there are times where it's going to be challenging, where it feels up and down, and times that it just feels nice and smooth. But remember that those times, if there is any movement, that is the movement of form, not your true nature. Your true nature is the stillness in which you are aware of the forms manifesting and moving through time and space. But the dimension, the core of who you are, that spiritual dimension is the screen, the background, the ocean, the sky, the vastness, eternal, infinite life in which forms appear and eventually forms dissolve. The longer that forms stay in or feel the vision or our life, and the more that we have that mind level, if we connect more to that mind level, we will grab hold of that form. And when it goes, it's more painful, there's more suffering involved as it dissolves. There's a practice in India where people will go to maybe the Ganges or a place where they will burn the Dead bodies and a practice where you sit there and meditate on death. Perhaps you can even go to a cemetery and sit there and meditate. Here in the western world and meditate on death. But here in the western world, we kind of like we hide those things away. Death, There is no death. What are you talking about? Death? We put it away. And yet in some cultures, it's almost like a celebration. I was in India one time and I would hear all this music and this chanting as people are walking down the street. There's a stream of people and I saw these people holding up this on a platform, a dead body with sunglasses on it. I don't know why it needed sunglasses, but apparently it did. And they were just singing and chanting and dancing as they were bringing to the body, you know, to. I don't know where they were bringing it to, but someplace where they will cremate it in front of you and you watch it. And part of connecting to that spiritual life, the essence of who you are, which is the eternal consciousness, which is no form, is while you are here in this body and on this level of the human realm, it is beautiful to be able to practice or to be with, to meditate on the dying, the death, the letting go. It's the ultimate letting go. And even when we are on our deathbed, it will be the ultimate of I'm leaving this so called world, the form, the ultimate death. When Eckhart's mother was getting older, her body was failing her and she was very attached to her body, you know, oh, you know, I don't want to see, you know, have people see me using this walker. And we had just put her into an assisted care home and we just said, you know, have you looked around? Everybody else is using a walker. So she was very attached to her body. And I remember having the thought, I really hope as I age, I will age gracefully. And there is that process because there is a slight attachment where as I was aging and as I, my body started to change. And I realized, wow, this is harder than I thought to be able to let go of certain aspects of the way you look, you know, the wrinkles that come or your body starts sagging or you start gaining weight or whatever it is, that the change begins to happen from this age of this dimension of the world of really celebrating only youth, that youth is the best thing on the physical level. But we forget that there is the eternal youth within us, but yet we have this form. So we are in constant reminder that are you going to be one with that divine consciousness, are you going to be more attached to form? And it definitely is a process of what appears to be a process unless you're really, really super advanced and you, you know, you age and there's no problem at all with, you know, you know, no attachment to it. But there, there was. And it was like, okay, how can I age gracefully here? Because I could see that attachment because it's all around me. I see it all around me in commercials and, you know, on the TV or in movies. And, you know, the female movie stars in America, they speak about this all the time, where at a certain age it's like nobody wants them anymore. So they had all this attention and given all this attention, and suddenly you're just no good. You're too old. So they get injected here and injected there. And I look at all these women who have injected, and eventually there's something very similar in their face. Even though they have different faces, there's something very similar with all these different injections of Botox or whatever they do. And we recently have got a place now in California, in Santa Barbara. And I'm like, okay, I'm going to be faced with this all the time when I'm down there. Here it is right in my face. So. And it's this continuation of this being very meditative on the letting go, because I am on that decline of going down. And the body definitely changing, aging. And then at some point, I'll leave the body. The body will be no longer this body anymore, as my consciousness is still here. For consciousness never dies, was never born. It is. So this is our practice in our everyday lives. Every moment can be used as a practice and really is a practice if you are sincerely choosing and wanting the spiritual life. There's nothing wrong with form. There's nothing wrong with having a business, having money, having a family. It's how much are you attached to it? If it all got wiped away from you, would that be okay? And really, the ultimate test is when it happens or if it happens. Because you really can't think how you were going to respond. You may think, you know, but the ultimate test is when and if it actually happens. So this is why we cannot think that we are so called enlightened. We have no more attachments. We really ultimately don't know that until we are really tested. So any thought you have about your spiritual life is a thought. So where does that leave you? It leaves you here in the present moment to connect with this present moment and be conscious, be aware, relaxed in this moment, until something happens that you're called to action, called to speak. But we rest in that stillness, in the sole essence of who you are, without that desire to move outward, without that desire to speak or take action. Because if there's any desire in it, that is, desire comes from the mind. You have thought about it. Whereas a pure action arising from the stillness of who you are has no prior thought. No prior thought. But when action comes, it comes in. Words arise, they rise, and you speak it. In the meantime, we watch our minds going back and forth. Watch how the desires arise in us, watch how the concepts or the opinions or the judgments arise. And all of that, as I mentioned yesterday, is on the level of the material of form. And how much of that material form, life is causing you suffering, will bring you out of that material world and into the essence of who you are. Because as we are, and everyone here, because you've come here this weekend is on some sort of spiritual awakening. So the mind, the mental level, the old sort of consciousness that is in you may think it still wants this world, the world, the form. But the essence of who you are deep inside you is calling you to go into the life that is really meant as the truth of all beingness. So it's like we waffle back and forth. Because there is something that is indescribable, something that we cannot understand on the mental level, but it's bringing us home. But your mind can still be in operation and still think, no, I kind of want this and I want that, and that's okay. You may have to go there and play that out and have that desire met before you get tired of it. I met this one guy in India, and we were visiting this guru who apparently grants wishes. Don't know how he does it, but anyways, it happened for him, and he desired more sex. He wanted to experience more sex. So that's what he asked for. And he met this lady in India. And of course, he was thrilled, absolutely thrilled. But then after about a few weeks, or I don't know how long it was, whether it's a month or two months. I was there at that time for three months. So it wasn't more than three months. Anyways, he said, oh, my. I go, how's it going, you know, with the girl there? And he goes, oh, my God, all she wants is sex. So, you know, oftentimes we get what we wish for until we realize, oh, my God, like, it's way too much. Slow down. I don't want this anymore. So we get it. And we play it out until it's absolutely. We get so tired of it, we can't stand it anymore. And we go, okay, I've had enough of that. I'm going back to the essence of who I am. Until life comes along and shows you something else. Pulls at a different thread and say, you know, oh, yeah, but, you know, I want that big house. You know, and then you'll get that big house and you're happy and you might throw a housewarming party. And then all of a sudden it's like, wow, this house isn't so great. Oh, my God, my electricity bill is so big. And, you know, whatever. So life will show us, and it's showing you. And it may show a few things at a time, one thing at a time, and you get a break, it doesn't matter. But it will show you because you are on this awakening path. Everything will be dropped away from you. And I don't mean in the literal sense like, your house isn't going to drop away or, you know, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about that attachment to the things of this world. So we are shown. You will be shown what attachments you. You have. And don't be afraid to look. Don't be afraid to even admit, wow, I have that attachment. But you know what? I really want that. Or even when the pain body comes up, there may be a time and it has happened with me where I feel the pain body arising. I go in, I meditate with it, and I ask myself, you know, I truly ask myself, do I want to let this go? And there have been times where the answer is actually no. And as soon as that happens, whoop, I'm fully in that pain body. So for some reason, you need to, maybe need to experience that again. But you'll experience it and experience until you just say, no, I don't want it anymore. That's not where I'm headed to. I don't want to keep going. Being pulled back. And we'll keep getting pulled back until we are able to rise above it and choose only the one power, the one consciousness that truly exists as reality. For the forms that are impermanent is not reality. The forms that change and come and go is not reality. So what is reality but the one eternal life that is within you, deeper than that mind, body, connection? It.