Wisdom Teachings - Sat Yoga, Costa Rica

Student Question:  Is there a distinction between raising levels of consciousness and expanding awareness?

Student Question:  I am in a situation where my parents want me to do a certain thing and they believe I have to do it.  I don’t want to do it just because it is their expectation, although I do believe that it is something worth doing.  If I choose not to do it in order to pursue something else, then I am left feeling bad about not doing both something worthwhile and what my parents wanted me to do.  In this case the feeling of guilt is created by doing something that I think is more important.  What should I do?

Student Question:  What is stubbornness, and when it becomes too intense, does the ego then crack?

In the postulant preparation class we studied the Seven Virtual Matriculations.  The last one was to realize that we are the oneness which dreams the cosmic dream and that that in itself is a dream, and needs be let go of.  I was thinking that if all of these habit’s that we are developing are part of the same cosmic dream, then are these all ways of enjoying it?

Student Question:  What is inverse narcissism and how does it work?

Excerpt:  "In childhood a process begins that the psychologists call socialization… what it really consists of is the stapling together of the pure awareness that is the self with the belief enforced upon you that you are the body (the identification with the body)… that is controlled by the third element which is language… you are given a name and the name sutures consciousness to the body and from then on people can call you and tell you what to do and that is in societies interest… once you buy into that through your affirmation of that socialization process, you no longer have access to the pure awareness that is your eternal self…."  Recorded on the evening of Thursday, September 08, 2011.

Student Question:  I was wondering if everything outside of awareness like fears for example, are forms of intelligence or entities that are seeking expression through awareness, or even us as that awareness?

Student Question:  How can I be loyal to myself while the ego’s agendas are still running?  How can I make good decisions when it’s coming from an egoic state?

Student Question:  Why is it so hard to keep ourselves from thinking when meditating, and what can we do to maintain these small gaps of silence?  Is there a practice that can accelerate the process?

Student Question:  What is worry?

Student Question:  Is suffering always accompanied by pain, or can you suffer without pain?  Do they necessarily go together?

Student Question:  In the study group we have been talking about desires as part of a must be logic and I wanted to know if you could expand on that?  I found myself using it recently and it feels like you say “no it’s not that it must be; you must want it”.  Take for example the case of Liberation: you must want liberation, but it’s not that it must happen.

Excerpt:  “Buddhists say that there are three types of desire.  The first one, the lowest one, is the desire for pleasure.  Then they say that more refined minds realize that what the desire for pleasure really was, is the desire to be, and that that’s the real underlying intention of all the various particular desires and objects of demand and lust…  All of those objects that we think cause us pleasure actually do not, but they give us a sense that we are.  They give us a sense that we can control something out there “therefore I am”…  But of course the object is always a disappointment because you don’t really want that object.  It’s not it, and it doesn’t give you the truth of your being, and therefore it is always something that turns into pain rather than pleasure. And so the ego eventually settles for the equation “I am suffering therefore I am”…  But that doesn’t do it either because it [the ego] realizes that it is actually suffering because it is not, but it wants to get out of it suffering so the th

Student Question:  Recently someone told me that chilies are just pain, or rather that what’s in the chili is not flavor it’s just pain.  I have done some study on this and I started tonight’s meditation in a lot of physical pain in one little area of body and then it went away.  I know that obviously it’s not really a pain in the body and I even feel that it’s not a pain in the mind, but for whatever it’s not, I don’t understand what pain is?

Student Question:  I was wondering if at this center, in regards to the running of it, if it is based upon some kind of divine ethics or some kind of divine ethical framework?  What is the logic of the ethical framework for a spiritual community?

Student Question:  You said, from what I understand, that cosmic consciousness was not the same as liberation.  I used to think that it was the same, but then in the book we read by Walter Russell it said that only Jesus attained cosmic consciousness and oneness with God.  It doesn’t seem like that really makes sense because then what about examples like Buddha and Sri Aurobindo?

Student Question:  It seems like mathematics, image and language are interdependent.  I was thinking of an image which could have a mathematical expression.  You can’t talk about mathematics, however, if you don’t have language.  I imagine it would be meaningless.  I now feel, nevertheless, there is another question: is there a pure mathematics?

Student Question:  In your article in Reality Sandwich you talked about how the cutting edge should be ridden in astonishment or something to that effect.  I am wondering what the secret is to being in astonishment and having it not be a distraction or some kind of thing in itself that you get wrapped up in.  What is the secret to being detached from astonishment and yet still be able to call it astonishment or amazement?

Student Question:  Can you please talk about what I would call the "art of replacing yourself?"  There is a book that you gave me a long time ago which talks about creating community and it spoke of this.  It specifically mentioned the necessity of replacing oneself as one of the final steps of sustainability.  Usually the ego wants to be special and hold on to its specialness and be the only one that can do something, which gives it some sort of power.  So I was thinking about this and was hoping you could talk about this?

Student Question:  Can you say something about the fall of patriarchy.  I was under the impression that we are in a capitalist patriarchy right now, but in the study group Radha was speaking of the fall of it?