An excerpt from the writings of Paramahansa Yogananda

Read, think and meditate on the following excerpt from the writings of Paramahansa Yogananda. Try to go beyond the words and realize what he means. The more you can calm down the flow of incessant thoughts in your mind, the more you will be able to realize what Paramahansa Yogananda means in these words.

“Your being has two sides — one visible, the other invisible. With open eyes you behold objective creation, and yourself in it. With closed eyes you see nothing, a dark void; yet your consciousness, even when dissociated from form, is still keenly aware and operative. If in deep meditation you penetrate the darkness behind closed eyes, you behold the Light from which all creation emerges. By deeper samadhi, your experience transcends even the manifested Light and enters the All-Blissful Consciousness — beyond all form, yet infinitely more real, tangible, and joyous than any sensory or supersensory perception.”

- What happens if you observe your thoughts?

- What happens if you ask yourself where do your thoughts come from?

- Who is thinking all these thoughts?

- Are you your thoughts, or are they something that occur to you?

- Do your thoughts belong to you, or do they just pass through your mind?

If you keep asking yourself these questions, in time, you will discover that you, the Real You, is not your thoughts and is not dependent on your thoughts. By trying to observe your thoughts, with a bit of detachment, you will develop calmness, inner peace and silence, and the ability to look inside, beneath your thoughts and the ego-personality. This sometimes leads to awareness and knowledge of the Real Self – the Spirit.

Concentration exercises and meditation, can also lead to the same experience. They too, calm down the mind, which is always busy with thoughts, and lift the veil of thoughts hiding the Consciousness within – the Real Self.

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When you look around you, watch the news or read the newspapers, what do you see? You see people of various nations, religions and groups, some living n harmony with others and some don’t. Some hate or fight each other, and others try to live in peace.

You see people with problems and people with aspirations and ambitions.

Everyone thinks and looks at the world through the mind – ego – mental programming. It is like looking at the world through colored eyeglasses. Every person lives within his/her small world, which is often the only reality for him/her.

Did you try to get out of this small world, to expand your consciousness beyond it? You don’t need money to do so, or travel to some distant place. You may have had a glimpse of this inner expansion if you practice meditation.

What happens when you read about far away stars and galaxies? What happens when you see pictures from outer space? Do you feel how small Earth is and how petty and not so important are all problems, ideas, ambitions, desires, feelings and thoughts that come from the ego, and all the events on this planet?

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People often send me questions about various subjects covered in my website. Here is one of them, about the terms Consciousness, Life Force and the Universal Consciousness.

Question:

You are probably the only author I came across who cover both self-realization and law of attraction in the writings at the same time. When you talk about self-realization, mind and consciousness are used. Mind is a tool and consciousness is the real you. This view/model is the same as the ones adopted by Eckhart Tolle and Mouni Sadhu.

When you talk about law of attration, the terms Life Force and Universal Consciousness are mentioned. Most of LOA authors use this concept as well. Is Life Force the same as Consciousness in self-realzation model? Or this Life Force is some sort of Universal Mind, which is a bigger tool than individual mind?

Answer:

Here are two of the reasons why I write on both self-realization and the law of attraction:

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How is it possible to focus the mind when it is so restless?

When you try to stop thinking, do really stop thinking, or do you just hold to the thought that you are not thinking, which is itself a thought?

Who and what it is that orders the mind to concentrate or get silent?

Can the mind concentrate itself, or is there something higher than the mind that focuses or silences it?

Concentration exercises and meditation eventually awaken something inside, some kind of silent consciousness, and it is this consciousness that focuses the mind on any chosen subject or object, and it is this consciousness that is able to cleanse the mind of thoughts and silence the mind.

This Consciousness-Awareness, Higher Consciousness is the Inner Self, and is beyond and above the mind. It is always here, but sort of hidden behind the thinking mind. There is too much focus on thoughts and sense impressions coming through the five senses, so that this Consciousness, “forgets” itself, and tend to “get involved” with the mind and the impressions coming through five senses. This is what makes it so difficult to focus the mind.

In time, as concentration gets stronger, one is able to cleanse the mind of thoughts, but this takes time and a lot of work. At this point you don’t say to yourself, “I am silencing my mind”, because this is itself a thought. You just stop thinking, but something else is there that stops the thinking. At this stage, when you stop thinking, there is no vacuum or the thought that “you are trying to stop thinking”. There is just Pure Consciousness, joy and inner peace.

From this perspective, concentration becomes simple and easy, and you are able to focus your mind easily on anything, a thought, a point on the wall, a flower, an inspiring quote, prayer, or on your work, studies, reading book or any other activity, or just enjoy being conscious, but without thoughts.