Limit the Use of the Five Senses to Promote Peace in Life

Sat discusses "fasting for the senses," which means finding peace by doing what you have to do and nothing more.

Sat: I’d like to talk about the practice of “fasting” or limiting the use of the five senses to promote peace in our life.

Fasting goes this way: you do whatever you have to do, just don’t do anything extra. When you come home just be quiet; when you get off the phone just be quiet, and before you dial another phone number ask yourself, “Do I really want to call this person or am I just pacifying myself?” If it is pacifying, shut the cell phone off and just be quiet! You cannot imagine the profit of that; a busy work means a busy mind. So when you go out with your friends, just talk but don’t be so enthusiastic to be the talker, rather become a better listener. And when it is necessary, talk and be in the conversation, however not overwhelmingly.

Afterwards you may be driving to work and again you go back and descend to the region of the heart, and again be happy to be Home. Be like a bee on the pollen of delicious flowers, and after a while this place becomes your temple (Sat points to Her heart). Every time you remember that you have this within yourself, it is so grand you cannot wait to reside there. So when we are mental we run away from ourselves and when we are in the heart we cannot wait to get Home.

Before you go to bed, read a good book, something inspirational. Cultivate this interest to not send your senses out in a berserk manner; the senses are responsible for the un-peacefulness of the mind, because they bring in an abundance of all sorts of information. And every so often we need to pull them back in for relaxation during the day.

There was a time for Me that I would like to share with you when I was resisting silence, because so many entertaining things were happening. For example, I could be at a club or a concert and I just wanted to scream, applaud and just go with my body’s movements. And for a moment, I would remember my Home and I would notice it as I was moving about at the club or the concert. And the Home would reward me and I would just be filled with this grace and bliss, this intoxicating bliss, this drunken bliss. I wouldn’t come out of the concert to go to this state, I would still be a part of the event, but I would acknowledge inside what is important in the midst of all that. Then I would acknowledge it again in the car on the way home, or when my friends would be talking to me, or when my children were trying to get my attention. Therefore, there is no excuse for not acknowledging Home, for that is where the peace is and the sooner the better. To the people who say, “I cannot do it,” I say, “Well my dog can.” In fact every day in the summer we go to the river and he meditates with Me. You don’t have time? Don’t designate a specific time for meditation; make your life a meditation; you don’t have to sit down, you can walk and meditate.

If you practice this, what happens is that even when you are talking your mind is quiet, because you are not taking your state of Being to the mind, you are bringing the mind to your state of Being. There is a mergence then, there is a silence, there is peace and there is wholeness. I see everyday people taking pills for all kinds of imaginary ailments; it is simply a pacifier. The real remedy is silence; it is the inner silence and it is beautiful.

When you are quieting your senses do not make an effort to go from one state to another; don’t even make that transition because that transition is pushing and pulling. For example if you are going to lunch, just remember “I” and then go out for your lunch and it will remind you and it will pull you in. Just have your intention of, “When I am there I don’t want to forget Home,” and then the Home will pull you in and there is not any pulling or pushing at that time; you just automatically go in and out.

-From “Light Meditation & Silence” DVD, March 28, 2007: Sat’s Weekly Class