The above audio cast gives some background and context to the inspiration shared at the end of it. So the first 30 minutes is background story of some of the teachers along my path and how it came to be that I would find myself not just reading (again) but completing the Panchandasi. As I mention in the transmission, it’s not long, that teaching, but I had put it down many years ago and only returned recently and finished last night. There comes a point when we need to ditch all stories. Until that point (different for us all), they can be useful. So, I offer this cast of stories with the intention that it may speak to you as the lessons of the last chapters of the Panchadasi did to me last nigh; a helpful whisper of how to approach meditation, with the remembrance of “just this, just this”.
Neti Neti - the subtitle - is “not this, not this”. It is a playful finger waggle when thoughts arise. That is the lesson I received orally from an Ana Costa (Anahata Yoga) colleague. In the application I was introduced to the concept by, under certain circumstances it could be more of a stern request for the dissolution of arising thoughts. However, I had learned this phrase more in the context of gratitude. A giggling at the “thanks for a beautiful, but still distracting ‘test’”. It’s an experience of something pleasing but we use the term to still say, “not this, not this” so we can return to the mission of attempting to recognize ourself as The Self, or Brahman (as it is written in the Panchadasi and explained in this audio transmission). IF you click on the link of “Neti Neti” above, it seems that it is utilized differently than what I had inferred from my colleague many many years ago. It reminds me more of the inquiry of “Who/What am I?” (with the response being neti neti to most answers that might seek consideration).
Now, “Just this, just this” is slightly different. We already have the recognition but it’s not yet our default state. It is an allowing of what you have already experienced and know to come forward into full expansion. Or, it is an allowing to melt into it and dissolve not the thoughts that arise but your very sense of you as a thought-maker. The thoughts are not distracting, the very concept of the yourself as “I” is ;)
Enjoy the audio as you should get more from it, and find out why I’ve posted these peacock pictures and how Saraswati comes into the picture by listening in.
Transmission notes and supplements:
How Goddess Saraswati got her ride (vahana) - Her relation to the peacock - and why the peacock is India’s national bird-being.
Share this post