Stop Meditating—Do This Instead (It's 1000x Stronger)

Stop Meditating—Do This Instead (It's 1000x Stronger)

Author Name:Adhvaitha

Youtube Channel Url:https://www.youtube.com/@adhvaitha

Youtube Video URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpbaS_Tm5kg



Transcript:
(00:00) Closing your eyes to meditate is not waking you up. [music] It is giving you a temporary escape from the matrix that you are still trapped in. Right now you are asleep. Not physically asleep but asleep with respect to consciousness. You're moving through your day on autopilot reacting to everything instead of creating anything.
(00:21) Someone criticizes you and you are upset. Deadlines approach and your mind panics. A conversation goes wrong and you replay it all night. You are not in control but you are being controlled. And so most people are not the architect of their life but they are the victims of it. And here is what most spiritual seekers never discover.
(00:44) Meditation will not wake you up until you understand the reality for what it is. [music] In fact, keeping their eyes closed for 10 to 20 minutes every single day might be keeping most people asleep. You sit on a cushion for 20 minutes, find some peace, feel like you are progressing spiritually. But the moment you stand up and walk back into your real life, you are right back where you started, reactive, identified with your problems, trapped in the matrix of your mind.
(01:15) And that is why most people spend years in meditation, but yet [music] they don't wake up. Yet they don't understand anything about reality. It's like they're escaping life instead of understanding it and transforming it. Today we are exploring something very different. We will explore something that has the potential to actually wake you up while your eyes are open.
(01:35) Something that shifts you from being a victim of your destiny to being the conscious creator of it. And it is more powerful than any meditation practice that you might have done. First we will come to an ancient verse and it goes like this. Now the meaning of this verse is very very profound.
(02:07) This powerful ancient verse talks about the different levels of spiritual practice for a seeker and it explains the hierarchy of practices. It starts from puja that are rituals which is very popular in India. It is a sort of connection that devotees develop with the devata with the god with form and they offer various offerings.
(02:33) They perform pujas and they connect with the divine in a certain way. And this verse tells us that kot puja is equivalent to one's totra which translates to performing pujas 1 cr times or 10 million times is equivalent to reciting one's totra which is one bajan or one prayer with intensity and emotion. This verse is not mathematical in any way.
(03:02) These are not exact numbers but the verse is simply trying to show us the power of the higher levels of spiritual practices. Similarly, the verse tells stora japaha. Reciting bhajans or prayers or stotras 10 million times is equivalent to one japa which is about repetition of a single mantra in a very intense manner.
(03:28) And then it goes on to say chanting japa for 10 million times is equivalent to one dhana. Dhana is meditation. And here you might think meditation is truly powerful. But the next point is what we must understand here. It goes on to say 10 million meditations is equivalent to the dissolution of mind. So what we are aiming for here with any spiritual practice is manalaya.
(04:05) So meditation people are doing for the sake of meditation itself. People are doing meditation to overcome their stress, overcome their anxiety and to overcome their mental health issues and that's fine. But when it comes to spiritual understanding, first we must focus on dana and then dhana becomes powerful. So ghana is always more powerful than dana.
(04:29) Nana is about wisdom and consciousness. Dana is meditation. Consciousness is the fundamental reality and reaching there is the aim and meditation is just one means to get there and that by itself without the deeper understanding of reality can even become a hindrance if we do it unconsciously and if we hold on to it as a technique and whenever you are stuck at whatever level for example let's say you sit for meditation and there are so many thoughts so many disturbances and you are not able to meditate properly then what you need to
(05:04) do is to go back to japa and start chanting a mantra. Again when it comes to mantra it is better to consult a teacher or a guru who specializes in that and to pronounce it in the right way. When you chant japa, it is much easier than meditation because you have an object in your awareness and you're repeating it constantly.
(05:29) And whenever you can't even do that because of stress or anxiety or a lot of thoughts then you must step back to stotra which is about prayer or bajons or some kind of chanting of stotras which is much easier than mantras because it is much more physical and it is more about doing than going within.
(05:53) And if you cannot do that also because of whatever reasons because of your mental health or your state of being then go back to puja which is about developing connection with the divine which is about developing connection with god which is about rituals which is more physical in nature where mind is not involved but body is mostly involved.
(06:16) So we must choose the spiritual practice which is most aligned to us based on our present condition. For a certain individual dana or meditation might not be possible immediately because of his mental tendencies and disturbances. Instead of forcing it you must focus on the other practices which might be even more powerful for your situation at that point in time.
(06:42) That's what this verse is talking about. And ultimately it will all culminate in manlaya which is the dissolution of mind. And only when the mind is dissolved will we be able to see the reality for what it is. And we can understand it in this way. Imagine that you are wearing red glasses and through that red glasses and through that red lens you are looking at reality and you're looking at the sky and the trees and the roads and so on.
(07:10) And after a while, imagine that you have forgot that you are wearing the glasses and you begin to assume that the sky is red, the road is red, the trees are red and everything is red. In reality, nothing is red. Only the color of your lens is red. Similarly, Vanta says we don't perceive the reality for what it is. Because of our avidya, because of our ignorance and because of the various patterns and limiting beliefs within our mind, we perceive the reality right through the lens of our mind. So imagine that this is the
(07:49) mind which is sort of a lens or a filter and let's say this is the reality that we are seeing and experiencing all around us. Reality can be anything. It can be your health, your wealth, your relationships, the different experiences that you go through or it can be pure perception of reality.
(08:11) It's it can be the experience that you are having right here right now. So Vanta says nothing in reality is as you are experiencing it. You're experiencing a certain aspect of reality and certain manifestation of reality because of the nature of your mind which acts as a filter and your perception is being adulterated because of the lens that you're wearing and that lens is your mind and all spiritual practices are designed for manoa that is the dissolution of mind which leads to true freedom and absolute perception With this let's come to the most
(08:52) powerful practice that is even higher than meditation or dana. This is what we call sakshi or in English witnessing. It is like the open eye meditation. For this to work you should first understand certain basic principles of vanta. If you explore certain other videos within our channel about vanta and consciousness you will have some clarity on what this reality is.
(09:21) And then this witnessing this sakshi is just about seeing reality. Now as you are looking at me, as you're watching this video, I just want you to take a deep breath. Let go [snorts] and just look at this. See this without any labels, without any judgments. Just look at what is. Just be in this silence for a moment. You can see how
(10:23) you are perceiving reality from a higher perspective. Once you begin to witness it's as though you have taken one step back and you are being aware of the body of the reality and everything that is happening but somehow you are peaceful and somehow you are beyond the experience of time. Now the more you do it the better it is and the more you understand vanta the more powerful this becomes.
(10:55) But this is called witnessing, which is just about being aware, which is just about taking a break and seeing reality and seeing things for as they are without labels, without judgments, without conclusions. And this is the challenge for you for the next seven days. Whenever you are in stress, whenever you're in anxiety, whenever you feel resistance within you, I just want you to do this.
(11:21) Sit without closing your eyes. Keep your eyes open and just take a deep breath as we did before let go and for 10 to 30 seconds just witness. Just be the sakshi and practice witnessing. If stress comes don't label it as stress but be a witness to it and be aware of it and let that consciousness dissolve stress and anxiety.
(11:51) Whatever is happening whenever you need to take a break throughout your day just sit with your eyes opened and begin to witness and this can be a very powerful practice. Shankarachara called consciousness as the light of lights and every negative pattern whether it is stress, anxiety, suffering it comes from darkness.
(12:12) It comes from ignorance and darkness and light can never be in the same place. So once you bring in that consciousness and once you begin to witness once the light comes in every aspect of darkness should fade away. So that's the goal with witnessing. And next check out this important video that we had created on awareness meditation which talks about if at all you practice meditation how to practice it in the most effective way and what should be the understanding in your mind before you even begin to meditate.