Self realization and god realization

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Today we're talking about self realization and God realization. What does it mean to understand our real self, our true self, our higher self, and connect with God? So if you're interested in deepening your experience and coming from a higher state of consciousness, then you're in the right place. Shireen and I have been doing meditation for about 30 years each, and we've had lots of wonderful experiences that we'd love to share with you. So let's dive into this. Hello, Shireen. Lovely that you're here. [00:00:42] Speaker B: Hello, Michael. [00:00:44] Speaker A: Yay. Well, this is the main thing, isn't it? That's the main thing when it comes to our spiritual practice. [00:00:50] Speaker B: The main thing out of the main thing, [00:00:51] Speaker A: main thing of the main thing. Like, there's so many things in spiritual teaching, you know, being compassionate and, you know, being of service and practicing different things. But these are the two, like, pillar practices. Who am I and experiencing it and who is God and coming into that powerful experience. So there's a great quote I'd like to start with from ancient spiritual quotes, which is, I think it's mentioned in the Gita and it's also mentioned in other ways, in different ways. Renounce your body, bodily relations and bodily religions, consider yourself to be a soul, and constantly remember me alone. That's the secret right there. That's the. That's the magic secret. It just takes rather a long time to really understand what that means. So we're going to unpack this. What do you. What does this mean, Shireen? This is the magic, magic code to self realization and God realization. [00:02:03] Speaker B: You know, what comes to mind is there's so many self help books, right? So much like we have a Barnes and Noble right here. And I go there and there's a whole section on self help, and it seems to be the biggest section. And what I've noticed is actually self realization is not self improvement. So self help is really self improvement. You're trying to improve the personality. You're trying to improve Sherene, you know, I'm trying to improve what Shireen does, doesn't do. But self realization really goes to the heart of the situation. And really you realize who you are beyond the personality, beyond Shireen, who am I? And so self realization is really important. And to understand what self realization is very important. [00:03:11] Speaker A: That's right. Self realization is about who you are behind all of the different things that self help books are talking about. And this first part of the quote, you renounce or release the identity of the body. This is like a code. First we have to realize I'm not this body, whatever it looks like, and all the personality and all the details of the body. So imagine if you remove that awareness, that awareness, just imagine you release it. There's no body. Imagine your body's finished. That's a secret. Then imagine all your relationships and connections that we're thinking about all the time, they're all released. And then all your ideas and opinions about various things, imagine that's all removed. What a relief. And then, and then. [00:04:20] Speaker B: What a relief. [00:04:21] Speaker A: No thoughts. And then consider yourself a soul, which means consider yourself a point of radiant, luminous, divine light. [00:04:33] Speaker B: You know, let's unpack the first part. What was the first part? [00:04:38] Speaker A: Renounce or release [00:04:39] Speaker B: first [00:04:40] Speaker A: body. [00:04:43] Speaker B: Renounce the body. So the body is not. Let's talk about renouncing the body, right? So what happens is so much of our lives we are working on perfecting the costume. The costume should look this way, should look this way, should look whatever, right? The face should look this way, the hair should look this way. You know, all of that, we're going on and on and on and on. And I'm not saying we shouldn't take care of the body, but inordinate amounts of time we spend taking care of the body. And so when I learn to renounce the body and then I can come into a healthy relationship with the body where I'm taking care of the body, but I'm not obsessed with it. [00:05:43] Speaker A: Yeah, it takes up a massive amount of mental and emotional energy and, and it. And so that's the non self, right? So like who self realization is, what is this? Who am I really? And who am I not? And this, this whole thing is what you could call the non self. It's not me, you know, because realistically it's going to end. I mean, you can tell that it's not me because the fact is the body was once a little baby. Imagine there it was, a little baby, and then got bigger and bigger and bigger and then it gets older and older and older and then it's all going to end. It's going to collapse. So that's. And it's changing every day, isn't it? The cells are changing all the time. So this, the self is watching, is witnessing the non self, the things in life, isn't it? [00:06:42] Speaker B: One of the feelings about soul consciousness or considering yourself to be a soul is also this, That the soul is an actor. And as an actor I have a costume and that's the body. And because I mistaken myself to be the costume, we have a lot of fear because of that, especially age. Right. I'm meeting a lot of people who feel, oh, I'm old. And because I'm old, I depressed and I'm this and that. Like, everyone grows old. Every costume is going to grow old. There's no way out of that, but that my identity with the costume is so much. That the costume is growing old and I'm getting. The soul is getting depressed. Right? And that's when I feel that this whole. Consider yourself to be a soul and, you know, forget your body and all of that. That's what I feel is so important, is like we have collapsed our identity with the body so much that there's so many problems we have because of that. [00:08:06] Speaker A: Exactly. Because if I. I mean, if I'm in excellent health and I look great and everything's wonderful, then it's like, okay, well, there's certain happiness there. But if the body's sick or is getting old or whatever it is, the more I'm attached to it, the more depressed I'll get. And I find profound relief in just imagining that there's nothing here. You know, like thinking, all right, this thing is here physically, but let me imagine in the future was not that far in the future. It won't be here, but I'll still be consciousness, having an experience and be myself. What I think is me, actually, is just the feeling state, the mind and all these things. That's going to be the same, but this is not here. And as soon as I come into that experience, then I actually find it very funny. The whole thing, it brings profound lightness. You know, it goes from all these problems to, oh, I'm free. This is great. It's instant relief, actually. And it makes everything seem more manageable because I'm not this thing, you know, it just happened to be here. [00:09:30] Speaker B: Another part of self realization I feel, Michael, is that it is a game. And only if I consider myself to be an actor and this is a costume, do I know there is a play. And I don't have to take everything that's happening in the play personally. Right? Like you've been in school plays, let's say, and in the school play, someone is supposed to beat you up, take a stick and beat you up. And that's just part of the script. Let's say you're not going home thinking, oh, my God, I need a therapist, because that person beat me up. Now, you know, it's a play, and you shed your costume and you go home and you forget that you ever. Whatever happened in the play, you're not taking it seriously. And I feel part of self realization is understanding. This is a play, this is a movie going on. This is a script, there's a script. And I don't have to take everything so personally. [00:10:41] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. It's a huge relief. It's a huge relief. It really is. Because the body consciousness, what we're talking about is body consciousness or like limited consciousness versus soul consciousness. Body consciousness is, I am this person, everything's important. I need to protect myself physically because that's the only thing that is real. I need more money, I need more security. I need this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this and this long list. And if I get all the boxes ticked, then I've won the game and then I can feel okay about myself. That's the old game and it's extremely exhausting because first of all, you can't get them all ticked all the time. And secondly, it might not make any difference at all when you do, which is even worse, you know, whereas soul consciousness, we say I'm a spiritual being and there's a different meaning of life, which is more about can I just enjoy being alive and can I share my love and, and do something of meaning with my life and express and enjoy and eat cake, you know, have some chocolate. [00:11:51] Speaker B: Cake is a nice one. [00:11:54] Speaker A: It's a different mentality and a lot of people who've had near death experiences, I've heard, I've read so many stories and watch videos about this, they might be like super materialistic and money and getting ahead and like everything's about how much they need to achieve and achieve and achieve and achieve and achieve. And then they have some accident and they leave their body, they go into the light, they look down on their body and go, this is not me at all. That thing over there, that weird looking thing. And then they experience all the love and the bliss and they have, might have a past, a life review of what they did and how it made people feel. And then they don't even want to come back most of the time and they're mostly forced back in and because they've got things to do here and I've heard so many times they come back and they feel the, the only purpose of their life is to be loving. They're like, they have complete. That's. That's the whole point. And [00:12:51] Speaker B: I have two things to share about that because I've had a couple of near death experiences. One thing is it's easy to be detached from the body when you Are away from the body, in the body. To be detached from the body is harder. When you're above looking at the body, you're like, okay, done. You're really ready to, [00:13:17] Speaker A: you [00:13:17] Speaker B: know, let it go. It's much easier to be detached. That's one. The second one is I've had a couple of very powerful near death experiences. And the first year or so my life really changed. But after that, sustained change in my life only happened from a sustained spiritual practice. It didn't happen because of that one near death experience. And that's something we need to remember. It's okay if we didn't have near death experiences or random experiences. The practice of soul consciousness itself will give you so many wonderful experiences. You can really springboard yourself forward. Yes, a near death experience does springboard you forward, but it lasts only so long. You forget. Afterwards, life becomes very normal and you get into your old patterns and stuff. And to be able to really, you know, there was like this one near death experience I had when I realized I wasn't enjoying my life. And of course I changed a lot of things and I started, you know, really actively making, taking steps to enjoy my life. But it was not the near death experience that made me enjoy it. It was a sustained practice of so many things I did over the years that made me enjoy my life. [00:14:47] Speaker A: Exactly. And the realist, realist, realistically, we can't force a near death experience because we might nearly die or die completely. So it's not a very good practice to have. Okay, I need to have a near death experience. What am I going to do? I don't know, have an accident, Take an overdose. I mean, it's not a good idea. Like it's not something you can. [00:15:07] Speaker B: No, it's. Overdose is not [00:15:08] Speaker A: a good idea. Something you can organize to have. But the good, but what you can do is, is do these practices, which is in a way kind of. I haven't had a near death experience, but I have had lots of experiences where I'm out of the body looking down, which I imagine is sort of similar. What, what was your experience of like meditation, going beyond compared to the near death experience? [00:15:35] Speaker B: Near death experience is so funny because near death experience is almost like there is a sense of seeing without the eyes, there's a sense of being without the body, there's a sense of hearing without the ears. You're not in the body, but you're hearing everything, seeing everything and they have come alive. So it's really, you could say paradoxical because you're not in the body, but the senses are alive. And so I was. The senses were alive, but also the soul really was alive. And that connection to God was very clear. It was almost like talking to you like that. So that also happened and all of these are happening at the same time, but that's the experience. But the most important thing I remember is more than even soul consciousness, this connection with God was so alive, so real, like I'm talking to a being in front of me. It was very powerful. And that feeling now even though I'm saying, oh, it doesn't last, that connection in one near death experience, that connection I had with God and that interaction I had with God settled something very deep in my heart. I didn't know I had that. Like there was some deep something in the heart that it settled and it never really came back. That previous feeling. Right. The heart just stayed settled till now. You don't know what is going on in your heart many times. But when I was having that interaction with God I felt something, you know, like something settle into my heart. Like, you know, I'm settling God in my heart and then that just stayed that way. [00:18:04] Speaker A: That's beautiful. What a, what a blessing. It's a special blessing. [00:18:10] Speaker B: That's the only thing I would say. Oh, it sustained over time. Everything else I had to sustain. [00:18:16] Speaker A: Well, I mean that's a big deal, isn't it? [00:18:17] Speaker B: But that's, I [00:18:18] Speaker A: mean that is very significant. [00:18:19] Speaker B: Sustained over time. [00:18:20] Speaker A: To have a deeper connection with God and have your heart settled is a big deal, you know, I mean that can take a lifetime. [00:18:30] Speaker B: It is a big [00:18:31] Speaker A: deal. [00:18:32] Speaker B: But it was not, hey, whatever brought on the near death experience was not very pleasant and you know, the body was going through a lot of things and it was not something I was expecting really. It was just unexpectedly happened and you know, it was just going through a lot and so all is well that ends [00:18:59] Speaker A: well. There we go. That was a relief. Yes. So, [00:19:06] Speaker B: so yeah, don't invoke [00:19:07] Speaker A: a new [00:19:08] Speaker B: experience. Don't invoke. [00:19:09] Speaker A: We can't invoke it and it wouldn't be safe to do. So as far as I know there's no say. I mean I've actually heard people practice suicide because it was a, it was a trend in some place. I read some book, I think it was Malcol Gladwell book or something and people were practicing like what are you doing? Practice. So we're not encouraging any of that. Just to be very clear, it's disclaimer. But so what is your experience between that and Your spiritual, regular spiritual practice. And like deep meditation, like let's say because [00:19:46] Speaker B: in deep meditation let's talk about God. Right. Not just soul consciousness. In my connection with God in the regular, that felt like there was a back and forth. Right. I was saying something in my mind and God was responding back. Right. There was a back and forth with the mind. In my meditation it's more like I feel like merged in love these days. Just merged in love. And it many times feels as real, it feels as close. Many times if my mind is wandering, it doesn't. But many times it feels as real and as closed. [00:20:46] Speaker A: But it's that [00:20:47] Speaker B: there's like God is right here with me. This presence is right here. It feels that way. So it's not that much difference. [00:20:59] Speaker A: That's good to know. Right. So these things we're talking about can be experienced now with practice rather than having to wait. [00:21:09] Speaker B: Absolutely, absolutely. [00:21:11] Speaker A: And it's, and there's two, there's three steps. One is you release the non self, release all the stuff that isn't me because that's the stuff holding us back from having spiritual experiences. It's been caught up in the body thinking about people all the time, having all sorts of random opinions about stuff. All of those three things are a massive block because that they take up so much energy and there's so much ego around it. So we say all right, that's all done. I personally find it helpful to imagine I physically died because then I get a sense of not having any of that stuff to even worry about. Like ah, what a relief. You know, I mean of course you lose a lot as well. So it's like, oh no, I'm losing. But it's who am I? Without a body, without people and without any opinions and strong beliefs about things, what's left? It's just a shining beautiful soul of infinite love. And, and then in that state of that feeling of freedom, then I can easily connect with God because God is just basically like that. God is a loving, shining, beautiful being without all these physical human things. So in, in this Raj Yoga practice, you first of all consider yourself a soul. Like we've talked about, point of light. And then we go into the golden light, the home, and God is like a shining sun, like a point in that light. And I, I personally feel like I can go closer and closer and closer into it and it's kind of like gets more and more powerful. [00:23:03] Speaker B: Right, right. You know, merging in love. You know, one of the things I feel that we need to understand about God is Like a radio, right? And a radio, like a broadcasting station. So let's say there's a broadcasting station, right, you know, in that house right there. And I'm the radio right here. If my radio is not tuned to the broadcasting station, it doesn't matter how close the broadcasting station is. I'm not going to get anything but the broadcasting station. God is broadcasting love and peace and power and everything you need all the time, right? Anything the soul needs, God is broadcasting. That's his job, right? That's the job of the broadcasting station. God is to broadcast what you need, but your job is to tune the radio. And so tuning the radio means you have to become soul consciousness. But every time you have a thought that is an opinion of someone, a defect or this or that, then that's static and you will not be able to get the broadcast properly. So I feel these days, right, the only blessing I keep receiving from God is I have to be static free. I have to be completely so clean and clear and there's nothing else going on that I'm able to connect really well. Because like the broadcast is happening all the time, all the time. But if I'm not tuned in, that's I'm not receiving anything. So the tuning is the soul consciousness and also all the static needs to go. [00:25:05] Speaker A: Exactly. And the static is these things thinking about people. Static, thinking of having strong opinions about random things and like whatever it is, you know, opinion, the news and blah, blah, blah, a media, whatever it is, you know, and then the actual, the body itself. What's the third one? The relationships, the body and opinions. And then of course there's, you know, anger, greed, last attachment, ego, negativity. But they're sort of all in some way related to those three things, aren't they? [00:25:44] Speaker B: Having [00:25:45] Speaker A: negative thoughts about people, about the media, negative thoughts about the news or wanting a person or wanting things or whatever it is, clear it all out and there's nothing there. [00:25:58] Speaker B: You know, I feel these days, let's say you did do something right? You didn't do the right thing. You did whatever you didn't do. Let's say we are having a conversation and you didn't do it. I can be right about you not doing it or I can have transcendence. I can't have both. I don't need to be right, I need transcendence. I need this radio to be connected to the broadcast station all the time. So people are so hung up on being right. You don't have to be right. You just have to connect to God, I have so many opinions. Like why do we have so many opinions? Because I'm convinced I'm right. My opinion is the best thing. It's not. It's just static. [00:26:50] Speaker A: Yeah, you can be right or you can be happy. That's what it comes down to. It's not helpful. This is why it's people, the body and our opinions. That's the. Those three things are all holding us back from self realization. Because if they're all gone, then what's left is just love and light. You know, I remember talking to someone actually who was like, if I let go of all these vices, there'll be nothing left. That's what she said. So there sometimes can be a fear that if you did get rid of all the stuff that we're familiar with, there's nothing underneath of it. But there. That's not true. There is actually deep, deep peace underneath. So we have to have a bit of faith. [00:27:36] Speaker B: You know, One last thing I want to mention before we do break for a. Not break before we do a experience meditation is that familiarity. You know we know this, right? I know I'm the radio. I know I need to receive from the broadcasting station. I know I need to tune myself. I know all of these things. But the familiar feels so important. What that person said about me feels so important. These relationships feels very important. That situation feels very important because it's familiar. And soul consciousness is not that familiar. And that's what we need to really learn to do is go beyond our comfort zone, go beyond the, you know, familiar and really experience these states. [00:28:34] Speaker A: Yeah, it's unfamiliar. It's. That's why self realization and God realization is not experienced by most people ever because we're stuck in on these other things. So. [00:28:50] Speaker B: Right. [00:28:51] Speaker A: But the good news is that it can be done step by step. Right now [00:29:00] Speaker B: you're going to take lead us. [00:29:01] Speaker A: All right. Would you. I can get started with a few breaths. Ah, yes. So just have the willingness. Are you willing to release the ordinary and come to. Into the extraordinary, into the higher awareness? And let's be willing to let go of thinking and worrying and associating with the body. Just imagine your body gets lighter and lighter and heavier and heavier and it dissolves and it melts away just like you're a thousand years in the future and it's all a distant dream. This image, there's no body in this. Just light. And now imagine all the people in your life and imagine their body disappears and underneath is all spiritual beings. Everyone you know is actually just Shining spiritual being. So you all the other relationships turn into spiritual, shining, happy souls. So you're now having a relationship with the souls. And now imagine all the things you know about intellectualizing and opinions, they all get forgotten. It's almost like you have amnesia, your memory loss and it all just completely disappears. So there's no thoughts about anything because you don't know anything. And all that's left over is this beautiful, blissful shining light with a big smile, completely free. Everyone is soul conscious, pure light around you. Everything else fades and fades away. And imagine floating up, up, up beyond this world into a world of beautiful, infinitely vast, golden pink light, radiant light. And in that beautiful light is God, the ocean of bliss welcoming you home. Welcome back. And sending you so much love, so much feeling of belonging and peace and welcome, welcome, welcome. Everything is beautiful. You're completely relaxed, nothing to do. You've attained everything. You've finally reached your destination. And just merging that piece, merging that love. Everything is completely healed. And you're fully charged. And far, far, far away is this tiny little planet and this strange little game. And gently bring your awareness back to the little game and you just like coming back into a video game or a virtual reality movie type of thing experience. And here we are in this strange world. Welcome back. Welcome back to the great game. Fun and games. So you just need to do that 108 times, ready [00:33:58] Speaker B: for [00:33:58] Speaker A: the thousand times a day. You'll be all right. [00:34:00] Speaker B: A day. The right dosage is important. [00:34:05] Speaker A: Thousand times a day. [00:34:06] Speaker B: This is God's blessing for you. Communication. You have the strength to express yourself freely without fearing how others might judge you. There's a refreshing feeling of being in touch with who you are, allowing your inner truth to show itself and bring you peace. Communication. [00:34:34] Speaker A: Beautiful. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And what a wonderful thing to talk about. This is the main thing. So if you forget everything else we've ever mentioned in this podcast and just practice this, that's the main thing. Consider yourself a soul and remember God. God to now you know, right? This is the secret. This is the main thing. It's the most important thing and it has the most profound effect on our well being out of anything and on our awakening and fortune and all good things come from this. So it's the easiest thing in some ways and the hardest thing in other ways. So this is kind of like a near death experience without any trouble. You don't need to have anything else, just practice that. If you'd like to go deeper into these things, we have free courses meditations on these experiences that you can get in the description. If you have any episodes you want us to talk about, leave a comment. And sending you many, many bless.