Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Spiritual Sense. Much love and blessings. Today we're diving into meditation and mindfulness. What is the difference between meditation and mindfulness?
Are you doing your meditation right? You know, we're not going to tell you what you should be doing, but a lot of people are wondering about this. Like, what is the difference? How does it work? Am I doing it right?
There's actually thousands of different kinds of meditation, and mindfulness is just one out of many.
And when we use different types of meditation at the right time in the right way, then we get a lot of benefit from doing them.
But if we're just stuck on one thing and we're not using it in the right way, then a lot of people just give up. They just start doing these practices. Something doesn't work out, and then they just abandon ship, and they say, oh, it didn't work for me.
I'm no good at it. And then they. They don't get any benefit from it. So we're going to dive into what these different types of meditation are, how you can use them. So, you know, what is going on.
Welcome, Sherene. How are you doing?
[00:01:12] Speaker B: Hello, Michael.
I'm doing wonderful. I'm thinking about what you're just saying.
Why do people give up?
[00:01:22] Speaker A: Yeah, well, a lot of people do give up.
And one of the things I've realized, having taught meditation for a long time, is that the Internet has done terrible disservice because people, when they type in meditation, like, if you go on Google and type in meditation and you get a description of what it is, you. It's describing a very particular kind of meditation where people. Where basically it says something like, meditation means that you sit there and observe your thoughts and try and not think anything.
And anyone who does meditation knows that's not a very good thing to do because you can't stop thinking. So what happens is people, they read this description, and they sit there and they say, okay, I'm going to meditate now. And they go like this.
And then they try and stop thinking, and they're like, oh, I'm thinking, oh, what about this? What about this? What about this? And then they start getting stressed out about it. Oh, my God, I'm still thinking. I shouldn't be thinking. I don't want to be thinking. Oh, I'm thinking. I shouldn't be thinking. And then they get irritated about it, and then they say, you know what?
I've tried meditation. It didn't work for me. And that's it. And they give up.
What a shame. Right?
[00:02:46] Speaker B: And that's because it is a shame.
[00:02:47] Speaker A: And that's because the idea of what they think meditation is is this one very, very nuanced description that has been cut and pasted, cut and pasted across thousands and thousands of articles. So now when you type it in, this, this thing comes up again and again and again.
So now you know.
[00:03:06] Speaker B: You know there is a slight distinction, right? Even in mindfulness, there are two aspects to it. One is non judgmental awareness of your thoughts. Right? Just you're watching your thoughts and being nonjudgmental about it.
And the second one is blanking your mind.
Let's talk about the first one. I can't think of anything more boring than sitting and observing my thoughts. Like, really, why would I want to do that?
No, this was before I started meditating right now because I've had a knowledge base and I've really transformed the way I think. I'm happy to observe my thoughts now. But when I first started. Can you imagine just sitting and observing your thoughts when you first started?
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Well, that's awful. I remember doing it when I started.
I remember sitting for my first class, noticing my thoughts for the first time, and frankly being quite concerned about my mental health.
[00:04:12] Speaker B: Exactly right. I'm like, are you serious? What am I doing here? Why am I observing these random, stupid thoughts? Like they're not the most elevated, uplifting things?
[00:04:23] Speaker A: Yeah, there's a TV show here, there's worrying about this person here, there's a bit of music flying in and it's just like, whoa, this is so a.
[00:04:30] Speaker B: Lot of people think. Exactly. I don't care how non judgmental I'm about it. It just like, oh, such a waste of my time when I first started, right now if I observe my thoughts, okay, I can understand because there's been 30 years of practice of reframing my thinking, and so it's okay. But that, right? And now when people tell me new people, right, they haven't done anything, and then I'm imagining myself 30 years ago and I'm thinking, oh my God, are they doing this?
Like, how are they not going crazy?
And it should really be called mindlessness. This is really mindlessness. What is this?
Not mindfulness.
And the other part, now let's talk about the second part, which you said about blanking the mind. Right? I loved what you were saying, right? Like blank the mind. And then I think, oh, it's. I'm still having a thought. Blank the mind. You're just forcing the mind to do things it's not supposed to Be doing?
[00:05:37] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like. It's like having a microphone and not using it to speak into or sing into. Right. That's what it's for. You know, there's like a computer is meant for certain purposes.
Washing machine is meant to, you know, to wash clothes. The mind is meant to think thoughts. That's what it's for. Create images, create feelings.
So mindfulness, it's. We're not against mindfulness. Just to be clear, if anyone's thinking we're dissing mindfulness, we're not dissing it. We're saying that people, people who. No, a little bit, A little bit people who don't do meditation themselves have cut and pasted a just very nuanced, very kind of like limited description of this thing called mindfulness across thousands of articles. Because I get loads, like these magazines and I look at some of the stuff and it's like they don't. The people aren't doing the practice. They don't. They're just writing about things they don't know about, you know, and then it gets cut and pasted across the thing. And now all these people are trying to do this one thing that doesn't work. And so that's a big problem, actually. And a lot of people are being put off of meditation because of misinformation. You know, like, there's political misinformation, which is one thing, but there's like spiritual misinformation.
And so it's. There's the same thing going on and on and on.
So the. The benefit of mindfulness, before we get into what meditation is, the benefit of mindfulness is that if, let's say, for example, I'm working on a project, like, I've spent a lot of time writing. Writing stuff, right? Writing emails and books and different things. And so if I'm focused on something and I'm very mindful of what I'm doing, I'm very, very aware of what I'm doing, giving it my full attention, my heart and soul. I'm like totally in the zone. That's a form of mindfulness, like being in the zone, like complete concentration, just everything is just there, right? It's a very nice flow state. So you could say mindfulness is sort of like a flow state experience, which is great. If I'm going on a walk, I want to be mindful of what I'm seeing, what I'm noticing being in the experience.
So I actually prefer the term radical nowness. Radical nowness. So you're completely in the now.
And you're just here having this experience and just being aware of the wonder of everything, which is great. That's like fully enjoying being alive. And I think that's a great practice to have.
But just sitting there just randomly trying to stop thinking is a serious problem that all good meditators who are long practices, you know, like practitioners over many years, just realize it's a bad idea.
[00:08:30] Speaker B: You know, one other thing, Michael, I don't mean to contradict you, but I am going to contradict you.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: She's going to contradict you.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: Totally contradict you. Can I contradict you?
[00:08:40] Speaker A: Yeah, go ahead. You can have a way. Offended.
[00:08:42] Speaker B: You want.
How many years have you been meditating?
[00:08:49] Speaker A: 27 years.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: Okay. After 27 years, you're able to come into a flow state.
So this flow state didn't happen right away, right? This being in the radical now didn't happen right away?
[00:09:09] Speaker A: No, I didn't.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: And so as part of your, like if you're meditating, right, as part of a large set, things you do in meditation, if you do a small part of it as. Okay, let me just be in the now, that's good.
But actually mindfulness is not even being in the now, right? Mindfulness is really non judgmental observing of your thoughts, nonjudgmental observing of your thoughts.
And so I feel this nonjudgment observing of your thoughts, just as a small subset of what you do in your meditation practice is wonderful. And also it really, you can do it much better after 27 years. Not maybe 27 years, maybe 25 years. No, no, I'm just kidding. Maybe even two years of meditation, right? You do two years of really solid other forms of meditation, which we can talk about today, then you do observing, non judgmental observing of your thoughts. Then I can understand, right? But to say that someone who's just starting right out, they're so anxious, they're so stressed, and then they're just observing their stressed out, anxious thoughts. That's exhausting.
[00:10:35] Speaker A: Yeah, it's awful. It's awful. Yeah. So this is why a lot of people end up giving up doing meditation for that very reason.
So. So mindfulness is observing your thoughts without. Without judgment, which has its benefit, and there's no question about it. And I practice that myself to some degree, and so does Shree. But meditation is where you are focusing your mind and your attention, your intellect, something. And there's different kinds of meditation. So we're going to talk about a higher form of meditation called Raj Yoga, which is the ultimate meditation in my Opinion. But you can still use the same method for anything. Like if I'm focusing on, say, these sunglasses. If I was just to imagine these sunglasses in my mind, not that would be particularly useful. I'm focusing my thoughts and my attention on this, right? Or I could focus on this cup, or I could focus on a person. And. And actually we are doing meditation in that context all the time. So, like, if I think about Shireen, right, let's say, oh, I wonder how Shireen's doing. I'm meditating on her because I'm. That's yoga, right? Means I'm focusing on. So if I think about the sky, then I'm meditating on the sky. I'm focusing on the sky. I'm imagining the sky or the sun. Or if I think about my work, then I'm focused, my attention, my mind on my work. So people are doing a kind of meditation all the time. It's just that the sorts of things that we're focused on aren't necessarily the best things to be focused on, you know, so meditate. The highest form meditation is using what you're already doing anyway.
So you're already a meditator. I tell my students this. Everyone already does meditation. You're already a meditator. You're already good at meditation. The only difference is instead of focusing on random stuff, we're focusing on eternal, blissful, unlimited experiences. God, the higher self, the wonder of life, virtues, powers, you know, spiritual awareness.
[00:12:52] Speaker B: Who I am, right? Who you are, Who I am as a soul.
[00:12:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: There's one thing you said that the Internet did a lot of disservice to meditation.
I feel in another way, Internet did a lot of disservice is people think that they can just see a YouTube video or, you know, go to a meditation app, follow a meditation and really learn to meditate.
I really feel that any of these practices, right. It's wonderful that everyone wants to do it, but I feel that you need some kind of a environment, some kind of a sangha, some kind of a gathering, and, you know, a proper teacher, all of those things to be able to do it properly.
I feel, yes, you will take some benefit. You will take some benefit by listening to meditations, guided meditations by people.
[00:13:58] Speaker A: What about. What about a podcast like this, Shereen? Surely there's some benefit.
[00:14:02] Speaker B: And that's what I'm saying. You will take benefit. You will take benefit, but it can't replace.
It can't replace you actually going to a proper class and learning and putting the time in it's true.
[00:14:22] Speaker A: Yeah. When I started, I used to. I used to go twice a day for like an hour and a half or two hours. Twice a day for like years and years physically.
So that was very helpful for me. And I'm not sure if I just had a bunch of meditations on the Internet, it would have been the same.
[00:14:46] Speaker B: Right, right.
In those first years, how many times did you do mindfulness?
[00:14:53] Speaker A: None.
[00:14:55] Speaker B: That's my point.
[00:15:00] Speaker A: I mean. No, actually, no, no, let me rephrase that. I probably did mindfulness without intending to. Quite a lot, actually, but not on purpose.
Like, I vividly remember my first meditation class, Right. I remember because they had all these, like, white. These nice white kind of meditation chairs, right? And they're comfortable. And I remember sitting there in this first time I went for meditation, I was sitting there in a class. There's all these people, 6:00 in the morning, 6:30.
And I was just sitting there and there was like a little bit of music playing and then it went silence and. And I'm like, just noticing my thoughts because I had never sat in silence for that long before because I was always doing something or listening to music or something. And I literally remember just being. Just noticing, like, they're just. The thought would come and then another one, and then I'd feel something and I'd look around the room and I what's going on with these people? And, like, what does this mean? And there's this music and there's another thought and why am I doing here? Like, is this a good thing for me to be doing? And it was just going round and round and round and it was quite exhausting, quite frankly, actually, because. No, because the funny thing is, even though we're going to share in a moment, like how to do meditation, and even though people told me how to do it, I still didn't understand what I was doing.
So I was just sort of sitting there just like.
But I didn't give up. I think I got divine grace. I think one of the things we get is that you get. You get like magic powers. Like, you get magic special, like, if you're willing to put in, do the work and in the right way. And you're like, you're open to. To go to the next level. There's some magic that comes in that keeps us going until we figure out what we're doing.
[00:16:55] Speaker B: Right, right.
[00:16:56] Speaker A: Yeah. That was my experience.
[00:17:00] Speaker B: That's wonderful. I remember the first time I noticed that my mind was all over the place was I was asked to translate for someone, I was brand new, maybe two months into meditation.
And I think my meditations were okay because I was so blessed out and so in love with God that that's all I was thinking. I was flying.
So all those were fine. But when I noticed, actually my thoughts and how bad they were was when I was translating for this person first.
So she was talking in Hindi and I had to translate it into English. And first my Hindi is not that great.
And then the Hindi that's used in the Brahma Kumaris is very, very specific. It's not like I'm used to, like, regular Hindi, not the Hindi. Like spiritual Hindi. Right.
And then first it's not that great to begin with. Right. And then.
Then I had to. And I remember sitting there and she's like talking and I'm perfectly understanding what she's saying. That's not the thing that I'm not understanding what she's saying.
But I missed total sentences because my mind was all over the place.
Totally all over the place.
Oh, my God, it was so embarrassing. I wanted the floor to open up and me to disappear.
[00:18:31] Speaker A: Wow.
Oh, gosh. So you. So what were you thinking about?
[00:18:38] Speaker B: It was so bad that she started talking in English.
[00:18:41] Speaker A: Well. Oh, God.
What were you. What were your thoughts going to when you weren't. So she's saying stuff. You're supposed to just translate it, but what were you thinking instead?
[00:18:54] Speaker B: You don't realize how much you really need to be present to translate.
[00:18:58] Speaker A: No, I'm sure it's very.
[00:18:59] Speaker B: Every word they're saying, you have to pick it up and then translate. Right?
[00:19:03] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
[00:19:03] Speaker B: Totally. I was not there. Not there. And then where was my thoughts? I don't know.
All over the place, somewhere else. At first, I wasn't understanding some of the things she was saying.
And I'm like, what the hell is that?
And then I realized, oh, it's unadulterated.
[00:19:28] Speaker A: Oh, gosh.
How did you recover from that?
[00:19:36] Speaker B: I told you, I wanted the earth to open up and go inside. I obviously recovered because I'm still here after 30 years.
But I really did notice how bad my mind was, how much I really needed to improve where my mind was. Right.
And.
And now I'm glad that actually that incident happened. You know why? Because now when I look back and I think, oh, I've come so far.
[00:20:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:15] Speaker B: So.
Yeah.
And so it feels like appreciative. Appreciative of the work I put into it. Appreciative of my mind. Appreciative of what is doing. I feel Very appreciative.
[00:20:32] Speaker A: Yeah, it's wonderful, isn't it, to look back and go, wow, what a. What an upgrade. You know, because initially the mind has just got us totally, like, it's just all over the place and we're like at the mercy of the mind. That's how we start out our journey normally. And then gradually we get. Get more control over it, and then it doesn't rattle us, you know, like, even though now I have random thoughts, I. I kind of laugh. I was thinking about this. Actually. A sign of success is having a sense of humor.
So if the mind goes off on its trip about whatever it is, I can laugh, I can go, oh, that's funny, right? And it totally disarms it, whereas previously it would just be off and there's nothing I could do about it, pretty much.
So that's, that's a huge success because once we can laugh at it, then we can bring it back.
So meditation is a lot about deciding what we want to focus on. And the mind doesn't necessarily agree with it. And then we have to talk to the mind very nicely and say, now, now, now, let's go back over here. It's like a, like a goat, you know, like a wandering goat. It just wanders around you. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Come, come back over here. There we go. That's better. Little kids, you know. No, no, no, no, no.
So it just, it wanders around and our job is to sort of streamline it into wherever we want it to go, right?
[00:22:06] Speaker B: So, you know, so when we are talking about meditation, right? So there is mantra meditation, there is transcendental, which is different from mindfulness, and mantra is different from all of those things. And what we do, which is Raj Yoga meditation, which is different from actually the Patanjali Raj Yoga, we do Brahma Kumari's Raj Yoga meditation. I'm partial to it, obviously. I'm partial to it.
[00:22:33] Speaker A: She's a bit biased, isn't she?
[00:22:36] Speaker B: The reason why I'm partial to it is I feel that it encompasses a lot of these things.
You can pick a mantra if you want to, you can watch your mind, observe your mind if you want to. But they are just small aspects of it. And I've noticed when these, whether mindfulness in Raj Yoga or picking a mantra in Raj Yoga, why are they so effective? Is because I do do a body of work in meditation here. And then when I incorporate these things, then they are very effective. If I just do that, that's not effective.
If I do all of, you know, the Brahma Kumari's Raj Yoga, which is the basis of it is I'm a soul. And to really see yourself as a soul and to connect with the supreme soul and also to think about time, the time period we are in and you know, to have a larger context of time, to have a larger context of karma. So to meditate on all of these things. But the main one is about soul, supreme soul, going home, all of these things, right. So if I keep doing these meditation, that meditation, right. I keep doing it again and again and again, which is repetition is very important in Raj Yoga is if I keep doing this again and again and again and then I incorporate a little bit of mindfulness. I incorporate, I take a mantra and meditate on the mantra, or I keep chanting a mantra, then they are very effective. But if I don't do this part right, where I am cleansing my mind, I'm elevating my mind, I am fixing my mind on eternal things, not temporary things that just pass through, you know, like temporary things. Right. And so if I'm fixing my mind on just temporary things, then for me that is not meditation.
Fixing your. For me that. And the reason why I say it's not meditation is because if I'm spending this kind of time on something, it better give me results.
Otherwise why am I spending time on it?
[00:25:10] Speaker A: Yeah, you want to get results, I.
[00:25:13] Speaker B: Want to get results. Right. I can't keep going to college and I don't pass. Right. If I'm going to college, I want to be able to get results. I want to be able to get a degree and all of those things. And so in meditation also, I need to get results.
And what I've noticed is when the mind is focused, concentrated on eternal concepts where the soul or the supreme soul or going home or time, which is eternal, then there is deep transformation within us and that's the result.
Right. And when I do that, and then if I do a little bit of mindfulness, which I do a lot now, then that's fine, then it really works.
[00:26:03] Speaker A: Yeah. So you need 30 years to do mindfulness. You shouldn't start at the beginning.
[00:26:09] Speaker B: Oh, and the other mindfulness that I do more than even my own thoughts, Right. And non judgmental observance of my own thoughts is first I don't just. If I observe my thoughts and if they're going in a direction I don't want it to go, which is if they're going on temporary things, you know, anything temporary, then I redirect it. I don't just sit there and observe. I redirect it back to my original self which is eternal soul. I redirect it back. But there is a non judgmental observance of other people.
Do do that is when I'm sitting and that I shouldn't have an opinion. I don't need to control them. I don't need to do anything. I can just sit here and have a non judgmental observance of someone else. My own mind. I have control and I can change it.
[00:27:13] Speaker A: Yeah. Better than trying to think about other people and why they should be different.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: Right.
[00:27:19] Speaker A: Why are they doing those stupid things? Because that can take up a lot of the thoughts, isn't it? In the mind.
[00:27:24] Speaker B: Right, right. And also it's not the best use of our time, right. To just allow your mind to go in random places. It's not the best use of our time.
[00:27:33] Speaker A: No, it's not.
Doesn't change them, does it? So it's not effective. I like what you were saying by the way, about how there's all these different practices because I gog training where we have 12 different meditation practices and all of them are actually included in Raj Yoga in one way or another. Like for example, meta meditation, which many people have heard of, which basically is where you say you think of someone and you say may you be happy, may your life go well, may you experience ease, may you be safe. Right. So you're kind of giving good wishes to somebody. Right. Which is a very nice thing to do. It's like loving kindness and a lot of people like that. But that's in Raj Yoga but on a much higher level. So you're having good wishes, pure feelings, soul, conscious vision, blessings, the cash.
[00:28:23] Speaker B: Like there's, it's like seeing them as an eternal soul.
[00:28:25] Speaker A: Yes. Like meta meditation times by a hundred. Right. It's way more powerful. But it's the same basic principle. Giving good wishes, pure feelings to other people. So you're focused on giving that love but you're seeing them as a, as an eternal being and you're coming from a deeper state within yourself while you're doing it and having remembrance, giving, success.
[00:28:51] Speaker B: All these are aspects of Buddhists, right? Buddhism, mindfulness and meta.
I really like to call it mindlessness. Really I would, I prefer meta hundred times over this whole mindless watching my stupid thoughts, right. And not doing anything about it when I can do something about it, like why am I doing this? Like what's the result? But anyway, I feel metta has a very high result. Yeah, it's Great because your heart becomes clean, you have love for people, your mind becomes clean. You know, at least you are thinking of higher things instead of just thinking of the same stressed out watching your same stressed out anxious thoughts. And so Metta I feel is a very good form of meditation.
But I agree with you. It is in Raj Yoga where we say good wishes and pure feelings, right? It's like the be all and end all of meditation. Anything happens, just have good wishes and pure feelings.
[00:29:53] Speaker A: He says whatever happens, blessings to everybody. You know.
And then another thing that people have in meditation is visualization. Meditation, right? Like where you visualize either what you want or you visualize something that you want to create. That, that's in Raj Yoga as well, but at a higher level in the sense that like visualize the golden age. Visualize your future self. See that it's already done. Feel that it's already done. Feel you've already attained everything. So like all these practices, because I have so many books and so many courses and trainings that I've done, right? And anytime I read one, I'm like, oh, that's in this deeper. That's in the merli. It's in the deeper teachings, right? Even, even for example, having like in meditate, what's the point of meditation? The point of meditation is transformation of ourselves, right? It's to become more loving, more peaceful, higher consciousness, soul consciousness liberated, like free, right? I mean to have high states of consciousness. And in one of the teachings today that I was reading, it said study practice of virtue. And then see what percentage you're experiencing that virtue like peace or love or bliss. And how much of it is it increasing over time? So you start here, right? With this amount of, let's say this amount of love in your heart. And then six months later, how much love do you feel? Right? And what's the percentage increase?
Right. That's a teaching in Raj Yoga. That's exactly the same thing that corporate is doing to make their, you know, the third quarter profits, right? The principle is the same. You go from this to this by this date, right? So even things like project management and making progress and all this stuff, it's in all these books and gets results.
It's in spiritual teachings as well. Isn't interesting.
[00:31:58] Speaker B: It's the same thing, right?
Right. You know the other thing I was thinking about mindlessness.
[00:32:08] Speaker A: Shireen's not offended.
We can't say we're not dissing mindfulness.
How did you.
She's not into it. If it, here's the thing, if it.
[00:32:22] Speaker B: Worked so subtle about this.
[00:32:23] Speaker A: If it worked and it did great even. Here's the thing, right? Let's just frame this. People who are Buddhist practitioners, right, like proper Buddhist monks and all the rest of. They don't practice mindfulness all the time. They have all these other practices. You know, there's all these different Buddhist practices that are much higher level than that which they do.
[00:32:42] Speaker B: Right, right, right. No, I love Buddhism, right? I'm not talking about Buddhism. I'm not talking about all of the aspects. I just. I love meta meditation.
[00:32:51] Speaker A: Yeah, meta meditation.
[00:32:52] Speaker B: Wonderful.
[00:32:52] Speaker A: So you've got all these great practices, right? But what we're talking about, why did.
[00:32:56] Speaker B: Mindfulness all of a sudden?
[00:32:58] Speaker A: Internet knows. The Internet. Internet just took this one thing that isn't even what Buddhists who came up with this do very much, and they just spread it all over the Internet and confused everyone and made everyone just unhappy and disturbed. So that's why we're against it. You know, we're not actually against it. We just think it's a bit of a problem at the beginning.
[00:33:20] Speaker B: You know, it's also. It's big business now. Yeah, it's such big business, right? So many apps and so many things and so many. So it's a meditation. It's good for a business model. I'll tell you why it's good for a business model. There's nothing about change.
If someone tells you, hey, in Raj Yoga, you have to do this and this and this and this, right?
[00:33:48] Speaker A: You have to change all these things and change all these things.
[00:33:50] Speaker B: You have to change all these things and it's not a good business model.
[00:33:53] Speaker A: They're like, oh, I don't know about this, but you say, no, just observe your thoughts. Don't worry about changing.
[00:33:57] Speaker B: Just observe your thoughts. Just watch your thoughts.
[00:33:59] Speaker A: Just watch your thoughts and you'll be fine. You know, don't worry about. Don't worry about changing your life, changing yourself, changing your state of consciousness.
[00:34:07] Speaker B: Yeah, don't worry about anything. Just.
It's a great business model.
[00:34:11] Speaker A: Great business model. Yeah. It's a bit like all these spiritual books that say there's nothing to change at all in any way. You're already enlightened. That's basically the message. You're already enlightened. Exactly. Like you are. Nothing to do because everyone's like, fantastic.
Exactly. Yeah, baby.
[00:34:31] Speaker B: So 2 million copies. Because I made a statement like that.
[00:34:34] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
[00:34:35] Speaker B: If you tell them, hey, actually get up and become soul conscious and consider yourself to be a soul. Remember the Supreme Soul. Change your sanskaras you know, change the way you think. Don't have ego, don't have, you know, laziness. Don't do all of these things. Get up in the morning and meditate. No one wants to do that.
[00:34:52] Speaker A: Oh my God.
[00:34:53] Speaker B: Change your lifestyle.
[00:34:54] Speaker A: Run for the hills. Run for the hills. Let's just watch our thoughts and so it's all good.
[00:34:58] Speaker B: Yeah, let's just watch our thoughts and be a little mindless for a little bit.
Science is supporting us, Angel.
Oh yeah, because I'm researching a lot on the neuro, the current neuroscience and also self regulation science, right? Research on self regulation.
One of the basic premises that we in Brahma Kumari's Raj Yoga do is I am a peaceful soul, right? I'm a peaceful soul. So I'm a peaceful soul is actually an identity statement.
You're shifting your identity from being shireen to being. I am a peaceful soul.
And the current research shows that aspirational statements like let's say I'm feeling not very peaceful and I say I want peace, right? That is an aspirational statement, I want peace. Whereas an identity statement is I'm a peaceful soul.
So apparently identity statements are about 30 to 40% more likely to be effective than aspirational statements. And especially in transformation, right? In transformation, identity statements really help, really work. And so if you want transformation, if you don't want your anxiety, if you don't want your stress, you don't want peacelessness, you don't want whatever is going on in your life which you don't like, you not only you don't want, but you really want love and you really want peace and you really want a connection with the higher power, you really want self realization, then mindlessness is not going to work. Obviously then to have these identity statements, I am a peaceful soul, that really works.
Those kinds of identity statements, especially identity about our eternal nature. Nature. There's an eternal part of us, right? There's an inner life we have. We are all stressed and anxious and all of this because of the external life trauma. All of this is because of the external life that is going on because we are not focused on what is actually happening with the soul.
And so these kinds of methods really work.
[00:37:41] Speaker A: So this is the practice of anyone's life wondering well what is the practice? You know, we have a whole training which you can get for free. We have a whole bunch of free stuff. We've spent years and years and years creating wonderful things for you for free from our hearts.
So you can get them in the description by the way. But one practice you can do now is simply to think to yourself from your heart. I am, I am an embodiment of peace, the soul. I'm a spiritual being. I'm not this body. We like our body, right? So you have to remember we've got nothing against the body. The body is very, very useful, right? Otherwise we won't be able to talk. So, hooray, hooray, hooray. This is a remarkable thing, this body.
But I'm not this body. I'm in the body. I'm not the body. And I'm this being of infinite peace, infinite light, infinite bliss.
Behind here, in the mind, behind the mind, behind the brain, there's a light, shining light.
And so you're shifting your identity from I'm this person here with this body to I am a spiritual being, a tiny little point that is filled with peace and bliss and love and joy.
And if you see yourself and remind yourself of this again and again and again and again, it gradually sinks in and you gradually feel profoundly liberated from everything.
And so that's a much better practice. It's just to focus. I'm a soul, I'm a soul. I'm this light.
And it goes from thoughts, right? Thoughts, to awareness, to experience.
And what we want is to get to experience, where you become an embodiment of peace. So you actually feel that deep peace in your body. Like you actually embody the feeling of peace and love and bliss. Like actually feeling it genuinely all the way down.
[00:39:47] Speaker B: You do feel it, right? And science is. Is supporting us that you do feel it, right? It's not just you're sitting there and.
[00:39:56] Speaker A: Thinking that, no, you're not thinking about it.
[00:39:57] Speaker B: After enough practice, you start experiencing peace.
[00:40:01] Speaker A: That's right. So it starts with a thought. Starts with. It starts with knowledge. Or you learn about something intellectually, right? Knowledge, then it becomes a thought. I'm a soul, I'm a soul, I'm a soul. And nothing. There's no experience, right? A lot of people, they get to that point where they're thinking about it. So it's not working. It's not working. But that's because they're at that level, right? You have to keep doing it. Then it becomes awareness, which is more like, I'm aware. It's like it's gone into the thought. It's more like you're experiencing it like you're in it. And then it becomes an embodied feeling. And you go, ah, I feel great. I feel great. I feel great. This is wonderful. Hooray. Hooray, hooray. This is the best, right?
That's the point of meditation, is you go, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Then you know you've gone into the feeling, right? And that comes after the practice enough times and it doesn't even have to be that many times. It's just a matter of just putting in a little bit of effort, putting in a bit of love.
And if you get distracted, which of course will definitely happen, then there needs to be. You've put your hand on your heart and say, I love myself. I'm grateful I'm even doing this and I'm a soul and I'm going to do it again. And then you come back and you do it again and again and again and again.
So it's actually very, very simple. First step, right? This is. We're not going to give you the whole, whole bunch of things here because there's too many different masterful levels of practice, but that's a wonderful thing to do again and again. And the, the first lesson is actually the last lesson. So even though this is something that both Shireen and I learned a long time ago, it's the still the best thing, don't you think, Shereen? Ultimately.
[00:41:51] Speaker B: Absolutely, absolutely. And you know, because you keep forgetting, you keep getting involved in the physical world and then you keep forgetting and then you again, you have to get into to it. Then you. I mean, every time now it becomes faster and easier to come back, but still, it's amazing. It's. It's something you can keep doing. Keep doing. It's wonderful.
[00:42:15] Speaker A: Yeah. You go from. And what happens after a while is you go from like. So it starts off all theoretical, right? Like, I actually sent out a survey to a bunch of people, thousands of people, that said, do you agree that you're a spiritual being having a human experience? And pretty much like 100 of the people, maybe 99, said yes. Right. Because everyone already knows this intellectually, who are spiritual people. Right. Then the next question was, how often do you actually experience being a spiritual being, like, embodied? And everyone's like, well, you know, because that's the practice. Yeah. So we know about it, but then we come into the, the experience of it.
And then as we do it more and more and more, we can come into that experience quicker and easier.
So that I like, for example, let's say I'm working on something and I get caught up in it and why isn't this working? Or then I can stop and say, you know, it doesn't matter, I'm a Spiritual being. This is all fun and games like this is all just a great game. I'm. I'm okay. I'm safe, I'm secure. It's all good. I'm eternal. There's no end.
So it's fine, right? It. And it's a very liberating sense of freedom, freedom and ease that comes over me.
And then, and then it's time for tea or whatever.
Right. For like you come into this state of freedom more and more and more and life becomes a lot more amusing and a lot more rich and we wake up, power this nightmare into the wonderful dream.
So that's meditation. Meditation is about awakening.
[00:44:11] Speaker B: Yeah, it is about awakening. It's about self realization.
[00:44:18] Speaker A: So the point of meditation.
[00:44:20] Speaker B: Transformation.
[00:44:21] Speaker A: Transformation, yeah. Is that you. The whole point of it, like, what's the end result of all this meditation? The end result is you don't need to do meditation anymore because you're living from a state of higher consciousness.
Naturally, that's the end result of it.
So you're kind of doing yourself out of a job by practicing it in a way.
So.
But that's the end result. And until then, we have to put in the work.
Yay. So what blessing have you got for us?
[00:44:54] Speaker B: Compassion.
[00:44:56] Speaker A: There you go. That's what we need for meditation.
[00:45:01] Speaker B: You recognize the individual qualities that make everyone extraordinary, lifting them in their self belief to shine a unique light.
Your kind and unwavering vision has become a beacon of reassurance, restoring faith in others worth.
[00:45:32] Speaker A: That's beautiful.
So compassion for others, compassion for yourself.
And if anyone has got caught up in this mindfulness stuff on the Internet, it's not your fault because it's. That's what everyone talks about. But now you know, there's all these other things that are much more powerful that you can practice.
And like I said, we have a bunch of free trainings, meditations and all these things to support you doing this in a real practical way. You can get them in the description, sending you lots and lots of love, blessings and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.
