Class - Luggage

*Sat is an abbreviation for Sathyam.

Summary: Sat talks about the senses and how they are like luggage- how we carry them as binding stories of the past, present and future. These keep us from being unable to go beyond the mind. She then presents some methods for practicing the Art of Living.

Class starts with Stop Meditation. Sathyam asks everyone about their meditation. Incidentally, Sathyam has a broken toe and at the beginning of the class, She refers to how She broke her toe.
Sathyam: Tonight we are going to talk about luggage, which ones we should carry and which ones we should put down. I am just as surprised as you guys are right now about this topic (laughs).
When we enter the gate of self-realization, God-realization, or the Kingdom of Heaven, whatever you want to call it, the language doesn’t matter; we are probably very, very weightless. This is because had we had the weight or the luggage with us, the climb would be too steep. It would be pretty much impossible to carry it up.
So, tonight we are going to talk about luggage. I am sure you would be very surprised to know that the luggage we carry can be very invisible, and those are the ones that are really heavy. And what is luggage? Luggage is when we send our senses out, when it is not necessary at all. When the eyes see too much, the ears hear too much, the tongue talks too much, and the feet take you to too many places; they all bring in information which I call luggage. This luggage comes in and gets compared to the ones we had collected in the past and we either fear, love, or hate it. No matter what the situation is, this luggage will not allow us to go beyond the mind.
So, tonight I would like to talk about just one aspect of this luggage and that is time. As we all know, we all have a story that has a beginning, a middle, and an end and they all vary. Some stories are really bizarre and some are very ordinary. As soon as we admit we have a story, we bind ourselves to the past, present, and future and we are no longer homeless. What I mean by homeless is the opposite of what you think; homeless means free. So, most of us, particularly in the technologically advanced countries, put a lot of attention on time. Time is very important. One of the things that adds a lot of luggage is holding on to the story of the past. “I have a sad story, listen to me tell it … I have a spiritual story and I want to tell you about it … I have a story of a broken marriage and need to communicate it to you … I have a story that my mother was such and such and did such and such to me and I need to tell you about it.”
These stories are chains upon our neck, because the memory of each story is a belief in the world and the more belief you have in the world, the less freedom you have to move around in it. You begin to identify with it. I know you all know this, but it is not enough to know it. It is always pleasant to emphasize it over and over again, so we don’t get fooled again. When we are in the Kingdom of Self-realization and Self-recognization, the past means absolutely nothing, because we are not to identify with the story anymore.
Some of you have a lot of stories, some of them sad and some very happy. But you are not the story; the story just unfolded itself in your life. I am not my toe (referring to Her broken toe), but the story of the toe unfolded itself the way that it did. Did I experience pain? No. But the toe did what it would do in a situation of a crash.
So the Home, which is our own inner-sanctuary, does not have room for luggage and baggage. Why? Because when you take it there, it is no longer Home; we are living again in the mind. It is very tricky, it is very subtle; it will vanish as soon as you try to think of something. In other words, every time we think, we are believing in the body and the mind, every time we think, even spiritual thinking! While we are going through life, anytime we don’t take any thoughts and we are dipped into that silence, we are truly Home. That is the true being at Home, true silence in being at Home.
Any comments so far about our luggage of the past, before we go into the future?
How many of us, truthfully carry luggage?
-Everyone jokes about having all sorts of luggage.
Sathyam: When we don’t dwell on elaborating on our story, it will fade away. It is just like putting a movie on the shelf and not using it for a long time. When you try to play it after a while, you see that it has lost its quality and has faded away. Every time you drag it out, even to just show yourself how miserable you are, how victimized your life has been, or how awesome your stories have been, you are renewing this memory that should not even be there.
Now, there are a lot of remedies for that, and there are a lot of places you can go to get help for yourself, such as taking certain medications or lying on a couch and answering a lot of questions (referring to seeing a therapist). But wouldn’t it be better to learn a way where the stories are not used anymore, to the point that you forget you even have them?
For instance, when I go to My brother’s house, he remembers everything that has happened in our childhood, and he gets furious when I don’t remember them. It is as if I was under anesthesia. It is all by choice … it is a choice because it’s not as if I try to avoid it, or you try to avoid it. It is just that the new of self-recognization is so much greater than the old of slavery.
So how do we get rid of our luggage? One way of doing it is by dwelling in a high place. Every time we have this inkling, this habit of bringing out all these delicious, poisonous dishes, we raise ourselves to a higher platform of unity, purity and divinity. That is one way of doing it, having our eyes up like Yogananda does in one of his pictures.
The other way is to Stop, like we did here. As soon as a story comes to your mind, or the mind compares your story to someone else’s and you come to a conclusion, just Stop! Not try to Stop, not force [yourself] to Stop, just Stop! I don’t mean stop, sit down and meditate. I don’t mean it that way; I mean while you are doing whatever ... Stop. These are two methods to get rid of your luggage, and of course you might be able to come up with your own method that works better for you.
Now, how many of us have the habit of being concerned about the future, again being time-bound? What do we do with that? We can use the Trust Meditation, which I have given here before. This is the way the Trust Meditation was given to me: before we were born as a human being, as this form, there was a promise that was given in our bosom, that to the extent of our relaxing in the Self, everything would be taken care of, everything! The more you take thoughts, the more that promise will be in the background. It takes the backseat and it is no longer the driver, but rather the passenger.
We were born in a family that doesn’t know about this promise, and this family pushes us towards the future, tells us to make our life successful, to go out and strive, etc. And we begin to have these stories being drawn on the canvas of our Being, and the stories (drawings) begin to get so crowded that we can hardly remember the promise.
The Trust Meditation is really good for future baggage; you just trust that promise that was given to you and experience it for yourself firsthand. And if that promise is wrong and is not there, come back to Me and tell Me, “You are wrong.” But try it anyway; try to see it for yourself to make it yours.
Now, how many of you have done the Trust Meditation? I know tonight not many of the regulars are here.
-A woman talks about how her practice entails doing the Stop Meditation, followed by Trust and how that works very well for her.
Sathyam: Exactly, you tailor it your way.
Someone says: It is not easy.
Sathyam: It is not easy, but it is so much easier than the gymnastics of the mind that we are used to. If you are used to putting a bite of food in your mouth by going around behind your head and then back to your mouth again, and someone tells you your mouth is in front of you and you can put the bite directly in your mouth, it will just be weird for you.
Spirituality is not a mood, it is not knowledge, it is not even just wisdom; it is the Art of Living in Truth. And that is because when we leave this body, we are who we are anyway; so all of this striving or imaginary striving is from point A to point B, from the day the body is born to the day of death.
So freedom, freedom, freedom; I have seen wanderers that don’t have anything with them, but they have so much luggage in their mind. And I have seen, first hand actually, someone who has everything and really doesn’t have any luggage at all- really nothing at all! It is not about not having a TV and being a renunciant. Do we carry the luggage of the past, the present and the future and all of the stories associated with them? If we don’t, then we are free. If we do, it doesn’t matter what we have or don’t have, or if we live in a cave. We all know this; I am not saying anything new.
The Art of Living in Truth is to live with information that was not given to us at birth. If we all had information (i.e. the tools) on how to truly, truly live our lives, we would not have that many falls. So, there was not a guideline and yet there was. It’s just that too many people did not know it, so it did not get passed on.
Therefore, Stop Meditation is an Art of Living tool. And the Trust Meditation is really good to educate the old way of thinking, to the point where it is no longer necessary to think that way- that there is a Center and its function is completeness- that there is a Center and its function is perfection. And there is nothing that we could do by the power of the mind and by the strength of the body that could make it any better than what it already is. So this is what is meant by “Be still and know.” Know what? Just cool it, just cool it!
This Art of Living is the reason why I am here, through the years it unfolded itself, without Me having anything to do with it.
Again, we cannot individualize God; if we do that, then we don’t have the real God. Divinity does divinity, the doing does doing, and thinking does thinking. We have to quit thinking that we are God as an individual; we are not God as an individual! As long as we think we are God as an individual, sitting here or sitting there, we don’t even know God. And that is because until we don’t see individuality, we cannot know the Totality, because individuality is division. A lot of people say, “I see God in everyone,” and I ask, “everyone, really? Everyone? Perfect!” But if they know the truth, this picture will fade away, and what is left, is that orange we were talking about last time. (Referring to the discussion on 10-18-2005, titled Orange Peeling)
I give you some guidelines, so you can unmask what you are not. Every time you are tossed between “I should, I should not; I do, I do not; I want, I want not,” anytime we are caught in the see-saw of indecisiveness or judgments, we are living in duality. It’s as simple as that! So, if we find out that it is duality, we drop it and the luggage is gone for good. And next thing we know, the mind that was bringing in all this information through the senses, is now helping us to spit it out. The same mind that had the habit of gathering and going through different emotions and moods is now becoming an avenue of awareness. Does anyone have any questions or comments? (Everyone is quiet)
When we say we need to live simply, people run out and sell their cars and their clothing and start to eat simple foods, which is wonderful. But living simply is the art of realizing we are o.k. to relax in the center of our own Being, and start from there.
Can anyone say what it is to dwell in the most high? What does that mean?
A woman says: White light.
Another woman says: Highest Truth.
Sathyam: Ah ha. You see, listen, these are all concepts. What is highest Truth?
The woman responds: Just the Truth. There are no masks around it; it doesn’t have any ands, ifs or buts.
Sathyam: Ah ha.
The woman with the “white light” response says: When you tell us to be still and know, to go deeply in our own place, where we are nobody and nothing, to me that’s dwelling in the most high.
Sathyam: Yes! She is absolutely correct about dwelling in the highest Truth, the reason I asked her so vigorously is because I wanted her to dissect it. And yes, that’s what it is; it is when the junk is thrown away through the expansion of the consciousness. The most beautiful thing here is that whatever is not accepted as a belief in your consciousness, will not be your experience. So, if your consciousness is not beholding certain things as a story, that story has ended right there.
Someone asks about “conscience”.
Sathyam clarifies: Conscience is different from having a conscious voice. Conscience is do’s and don’ts. It is a very noble do’s and don’ts, but it is not the conscious voice. My Teacher told Me “listen to your conscious voice.” The conscious voice does not judge, it has no mind for judging. It is that stillness that swallows you, and in that there is Omnipresence, Omniscience, and Omnipotence.
Now, with conscience, you can say “my conscience is clear,” it means that I am a good-doer, I did my job, I helped somebody cross the street, then I cooked for my mom- my conscience is now clear. It is still a high level of purity of action, but it has nothing to do with that Divinity. If you didn’t have a good conscience, I don’t think you would be attracted to Divinity anyway, we would all be carrying guns and hurting each other.
Someone once asked Me about the difference between a psychic and being intuitive? When you don’t have any desire to know anymore, when you rest in the center of your Being and the knowing comes to you, that is Divinity! When you develop that psychic psyche, then you are really going into the gymnastics of the mind. So what if you know someone’s past, present or future? It’s still in the picture; it’s still in the Creation; it’s still a bondage, period! It is bondage! I am not judging the people who practice that; it is probably good for them. I am just saying that for us who showed up here, it’s a trap! What we really want is to wake up. The waking up happens spontaneously, it is not by force. You just get rid of the cluttered room and what is left there is the orange that is peeled. (referring again to the Orange Peeling DVD)
Now going back to what one of you said earlier about dwelling in a high place. When you say dwelling in a high place is dwelling in the “light,” I say, “o.k. light.” But it is not enough, to Me when you say that, you are still not dissecting it. It has to become ours. We have to go so deep in the meaning of it that we see more depth and we experience more realization.
Do you have any comments? (Sathyam pauses for a moment.)
I would now like to do a round of Trust practices with you tonight. I don’t even want to call it meditation, because we don’t even have to close our eyes. It’s just being vigilant!
Just sit comfortably in any position you like, because you want to be able to do it, even if you are driving or shopping. When there is activity of the mind coming in, or any type of thoughts, go back to that promise which says: “I am here to take care of everything in this picture for you. Everything! Rely on Me; give your back to Me.”
And we just relax in the trust of that promise for a few minutes.
Meditation goes on for about two minutes.
Sathyam: Please come to. (She pauses so that everyone comes out of meditation.)
This practice eliminates a lot, once you learn how to do it. The beauty of it is that it has a double gift in it. One releases you of luggage; the other replaces it with tranquility and peace. So it does not leave you dangling, it replaces the thoughts with your nature. And the closer we are to our true nature, the more peace we have. That is where Home is. Though we want to be home-less in our senses, it is good to be home-full in our hearts.
How was it for you? (Sathyam asks one of the men in the class.)
He replies: Well, what it focuses on is trust, like you said “give your back to Me and trust.” When I did that, it felt like pages of a book falling open, and shedding off.
Sathyam: Yes, yes and the beauty of it is that one day all of this talk will even shed away. There is no knowledge that needs to go in that Home. Although it is necessary now, even that page will get unbounded. It will just fall off, when you are really established in that trust.
How about you? (Sathyam asks one of the women in the class.)
-She replies by talking about her experience with doing the Trust Meditation for the first time and how much of a relief it was for her. She then talks about how she now lives her life by that Trust and doesn’t even see her life as a picture of events.
Sathyam: Isn’t it wonderful that it takes you there, so that you don’t even see the picture? That is what I was saying a little earlier, exactly what you are saying now. I said it gets to the point that you eliminate so much that you don’t even have a memory of having it before.
One of the men says: When we first started doing the Trust Meditation a few years ago, I remember you said to imagine that we are on top of the highest mountain in the coldest weather, and to trust that we won’t be cold and we won’t need any outside help- not even a fire to keep us warm.
Sathyam: That’s right. It is the truth; I have heard of Yogis in the Himalayas, who are naked in the bitter cold of winter, where most people could not even survive. It is not really a state of mind; it is getting close to your natural state. A lot of people will do it out of suggestion or willpower. We are not talking about that. We are talking about shedding things, so we are closer to the nature of who we are. At that point you’ve gotten it!
One of the women says: And then for a long time, you just really trust. I mean really, really trust. My mind is very active, so whatever worries would come up for me, I would trust. And in time it became a natural trust that I am always taken care of.
Sathyam: Different people can do this to different degrees. Some people are born with that knowledge. Some people strive and get it; some people have it later. We are talking about the Art of Living.
Most people feel that their life is in their own hands, not knowing that it really isn’t at all. Life does what life does, just like the sun shines, because it is the nature of the sun to shine. So we are trying to control a shadow. And we wonder why we cannot grasp it, or change it to make it any better.
These are just ways for those of you who would like to apply what you are hearing here, and if it is not necessary for the rest of you, just throw it away. Just throw it away, if it is not for you. But it does help some of us who need something more tangible. A lot of things are said here, but lucky those of us who actually take one and run with it, practice it, make it their own and benefit from it.
Someone asks: I understand it, but want to hear you say it again. When we talk about trust and solving a problem, can you explain that again?
Sathyam: As it is said in Most Precious, a problem cannot be solved on the level of the problem. You could try that, but what happens is that you are inviting another problem, because your eyes are not transcending to something more subtle and invisible.
So, say for example that we are very much a good doer, we are a social worker, we are “this” and “that” and all of our attention goes to fix “this” and “that.” Even Mother Teresa could not fix everything. She did what she could and it was wonderful. I am not defending not doing service; this has to be very clear. I do it Myself. What I am saying is that it is not a permanent solution. It never was and it never will be. The permanent solution is to wake up and realize.
A few years back I had a dream, which I came here and shared with the class. I dreamt that I had this intimate relationship with a man who had AIDS. In My dream, I looked at him and thought to Myself, “why am I with him?” I remember that in My dream. He said, “I am sorry to tell you that I have AIDS.” That’s devastating if you don’t know that you are dreaming, and you know what AIDS is. I said, “Oh My God, why didn’t you tell Me?” To which he replied, “I didn’t care;” he just didn’t care in My dream. Immediately I went “in” and when I went into the Center that I usually go to, I woke up.
Just as soon as I left the dreamland and decided to transcend in the dream, I woke up. When I woke up, what happened? Did I need a solution for My AIDS? Did I need to feel guilty that I had a husband and had been with someone else? What happened? By waking up, the AIDS went, the guy went, the need for a solution went, the need for hiding it went; they all went away.
The same thing goes here, when we are trying to fix things all the time. Wouldn’t it be much better to just realize who we are and just put an end to these gymnastics? And yet most don’t want to wake up, and most pretend that they are waking up and yet they are still dreaming. It is just an evolution of whatever it is...I really don’t know what goes on.
A man says: I will try to have a dream like that.
Sathyam laughs and says: We have it every day; this is just a dream right here.
A man asks: How would you tell the difference between pretending to wake up and actually waking up?
Sathyam: This is My suggestion; you don’t have to listen to it. And I don’t find Myself to be an authority; I am just sharing it with you. When it is on the mental level and the mind is mimicking the Truth that you have heard, you think that you are waking up. When you practice and you find freedom, you are actually living it. The mind will mimic wisdom and that is the worst bondage anyone could have. So, we should all rely on our own experiences. Even more than our experiences, we should rely on the expansion of our recognization. We walk the walk, that’s how we know!
How many of us have had night dreams, where in the middle of our night dream, we realized it is just a dream and that there really was no monster behind us and we just started laughing and woke ourselves up? This is what happens when we hear the Truth!
Very rarely people and more so for some people, can actually change their dream, when they realize that it is only a dream! So, when My Teacher can create or change things, it is because He knows the nature of the dream, He knows the nature of the Creation. He knows the essence of the five elements. And it is not a big deal; we can all know if we want to … or we don’t have to!
The main thing I guess I want to close with tonight is individualizing God is impossible, but by erasing our own individuality, we become that which we are. I am talking about a very fine line here and I hope that everybody understands what we are talking about. What we are talking about tonight is not about Me or you as a form.
(Sathyam pauses for a few moments.)
I asked My Teacher many years ago, “What can I do to please You?” He said, “Whatever gives you peace pleases Me.”
Sathyam then says “This is fun time now,” and hands out little plastic pumpkins for Halloween, filled with candy and a quote from Sai Baba.
Sathyam: We have to come empty handed; we can’t come with our hands full.
The read quotes are as followed:
“Every experience is a lesson, every loss is a gain.”
“What God gives is never exhausted, what man gives never lasts.”
“Peace or distraction, calm or anxiety is the product of one’s thoughts and deeds.”
“Dedication ensures success, purifies inner vision and gives lasting joy.”
“You have come from God, you are a spark of His glory, you are a wave of that ocean of bliss; you will get peace only when you again merge with Him.”
“Spirituality is an activity; it is an activity of the Divinity within.”
“Just as sugar cane does not yield sugar juice unless it is crushed, as sandalwood does not give fragrance paste, unless it is rubbed on a stone, so too the goodness of people does not come out, unless they go through difficulties.”
“Practice silence, for the voice of God can be heard in the region of your heart only when the tongue is still, and the storm is stilled and the waves are calm.”
“God can be felt and experienced only in the deepest depths of silence.”
“Bear in mind the three P’s: Purity, Patience & Perseverance. With these three you are bound to acquire good health and bliss.”
(Before the class ends, Sathyam reads Question 41 from Most Precious and adds Her comment at the end.)
“Question: How can I be happy?
Answer: Just Be, in that happiness lies, is. Just Be!”
Sathyam: “Just Be” means to stay closest to the nature of who we are.

Namaste

CLASS
Luggage
October 25, 2005