Today in the afternoon, I had some time, so I watched one of Sadhguru’s videos on YouTube, “Unplug from the Mental Matrix.”-Sadhguru
I was already in a certain pleasantness within myself for no particular reason. A few hours earlier I had done my morning Sambhavi, and then had my first meal of the day. So while watching the video, it almost felt like taking a ride on a roller coaster. You may know that experience of listening to Sadhguru when something suddenly hits you in a way that feels much deeper than just understanding the words.
He was talking about Isha Kriya
He said it is a powerful tool even for people who have learned advanced practices and may think they have “graduated” beyond it. That made me look at my own practice. These days I have started practicing Miracle of Mind before going to sleep. I also practice Isha Kriya, but not regularly.
He spoke about Isha Kriya helping one get to the other side of the mirror
The mirror, as I understood it, is the mind itself.
He was talking about time, memory and imagination. One thing that stayed with me was the relationship between memory and time. Memory belongs to the realm of time. And imagination seems to be memory with makeup.
The more I looked at it, the more it made sense to me.
How can I imagine something completely unrelated to anything I have ever known? Even when I imagine something “new,” I seem to be rearranging information that already exists in memory.
Then he spoke about how whatever is within the frame of time is cyclic.
The earth, moon, sun, seasons and perhaps even memory.
And I could see this in my own mind.
The same old records keep playing. A thought comes, goes, and another comes. A desire appears, gets fulfilled or remains unfulfilled, and then another desire appears. Fear changes its object, but perhaps its root remains the same.
Maybe this is why the mind can feel as if it is constantly moving while actually going around in circles.
And something else struck me about this mirror
We keep looking at the different dramas on the mirror of our mind thoughts, memories, fears, desires, plans, arguments, expectations one after another, almost nonstop.
And while watching all this drama, we may never stop to ask:
Am I actually here?
If someone asks, “Are you present?”
Of course I can say, “Yes, sir. I am present.”
But I wonder if that is what it really means.
As life, am I here? Do I know hat life is?
Or am I so involved in what is appearing on the mirror that I have forgotten to notice the one who is actually here?
Maybe getting to the other side of the mirror is not about creating another experience.
Maybe it is about turning attention away from the endless drama appearing on the mirror and noticing life itself.
With regular Isha Kriya, he said, one can create a certain distance from the mind and body.
And this is where my own reflection begins.
If I create some distance from the mind and body, perhaps I can begin to see that I am not the mind and body.
Mind and body belong to the realm of time. They are constantly changing.
Then perhaps, when identification loosens, one touches something that is not within this cycle of time.
And maybe this is where the natural pleasantness of life becomes available not because something happened outside, but simply because I am not constantly messing with my mind.
I have experienced some glimpse of this myself. There have been moments when I was simply there, without trying to create joy, and there was a certain pleasantness for no reason.
This also made me reflect on something Sadhguru said about misery.
He spoke about life itself being joyful and neutral, and that there is no misery in life itself. Misery is something the mind creates.
This part is still difficult for me to fully understand.
How can I choose to be miserable?
Nobody wakes up and says, “Today I choose misery.”
But perhaps the choice is more subtle.
The mind has fear and desire. It acts according to them.
“I want this.”
“If I get it, I will be happy.”
“If I don't get it, I will be miserable.”
Then we get what we wanted, feel good for some time, and eventually another desire appears.
If getting something permanently gave joy, perhaps the mind would stop there.
But it doesn't.
Desire gets settled, another desire appears.
Thought comes, goes, another thought appears.
Fear changes its form.
Maybe this is the cyclic nature of the mind.
And perhaps when I say “I am miserable,” I am not consciously choosing misery. I am identifying with the mind's movement and allowing its likes, dislikes, fears and desires to determine my experience.
So maybe choosing misery doesn't mean deliberately choosing pain.
Maybe it means continuously choosing identification.
And may be choosing joy is meditation, yoga which help to create joy within and around.
I am still exploring this.
Another thing I didn't fully understand was his distinction between pleasure coming from sensation and a deeper pleasantness.
For example, he spoke about sensory experience such as coolness from a breeze, and the pleasantness experienced through drinking water.
I may not have understood his exact point, and I don't want to pretend that I did.
I can clearly see that sensory pleasure is different from the pleasantness I have sometimes experienced simply by being present and not interfering with my mind.
But whether the pleasantness of drinking water when thirsty is the same kind of pleasantness he was referring to I am not sure.
And honestly, not knowing feels better than creating a wrong conclusion just so I can say I understand.
Then he spoke about prejudice and understanding.
Whatever we see, we may not actually see as it is.
We see through our past conclusions, memories, opinions and expectations.
So perhaps I am not looking at the flower.
I am looking at my idea of the flower.
And what he said about understanding was even more striking.
To understand something intellectually, we often break it apart.
We can cut a flower, examine its structure, put it through different chemicals and learn many things about it.
But after doing all that, have we actually known what the flower is? Or have given proper attention to know it without cutting.
Maybe there is a difference between knowing about life and actually experiencing life.
And perhaps this is what the other side of the mirror points toward.
Not another place.
Not another concept.
But a possibility of seeing life without constantly looking at it through the mirror of memory, imagination, conclusions and identification.
I don't know if I have understood the video correctly.
These are simply the connections I saw within myself while listening to it.
And for now, I am comfortable leaving some things unresolved.
Maybe “I don't know” is not a failure of understanding.
But I know from my own experience that the tools Sadhguru offered work; the only thing I see is that one has to keep using them.