Welcome, Namaste.  This sharing sprung from a self-meditation I was creating to ease my own state, then my enquiry led to the work of several masters, consequently quoted within.

RELAXING YOUR MEMBRANES (or could be meme brains – mind attachment to stories?)

We have layers, like an onion, of energy, surrounding our bodies, and they become denser and denser as they get closer to our actual skin, until they are so dense they begin to appear physically as part of us.  However, we should remain open to everything around us, not become shut off by hardening or tightening these layers, but use them as filters, changing the energy down gradually to the dense physical bodies that we have, and allowing an interaction with the world around us.  

If we are afraid or uptight through trying to control and protect, we tend to put up extra mental barriers, or harden those filters so that the natural osmotic process that should occur becomes blocked.  We mistakenly try to separate ourselves from the rest of the world, and the universe, and in doing so we actually become smaller as we are disconnecting from our vast and supportive source, our greater selves or consciousness, where everything is interconnected and whole, beyond any issues our smaller selves may have.  Fear can come in many shapes and forms:

1. fear of losing something – anything from:
   • an object
   • a person or relationship
   • a job
   • status or position
   • money or other benefits
   • your means of security, such as your home etc
   • control of a situation
   • secrets you are trying to keep hidden
   • your youth
   • your health
   • your own body
   • or fear of losing hold of who you may be trying to project yourself to be.

1. Of course there are many other things we may fear as well, such as sharks, storms, drought, explosions, and much more besides. But, while it is natural to fear some things, to try not to just walk slap into a disaster, it is illogical to fear them to such a degree that they interfere with our natural enjoyment of life because we are too focussed on these fears.

So, if our ego self reacts to

• what other people may think about us (whether this is real or imagined),
• or to criticism (taking offence instead of looking to see if we can learn anything valid from it before letting it go),

then we are putting up barriers that cause us to see ourselves as more separate than we are.   

But what are we really defending?  What is this ego really, with it’s artificial need to hold onto things and situations.  Who are these people around us but simply other forms of energy, just like ourselves, with their own fears, doubts, and loves.  We are all vulnerable, and if we can recognise and accept that, and not be so uptight about it, that would help a lot.  We could see perhaps that other people have their own reasons for reacting, just as we do, and try to understand instead of creating dramas.

So breathe, breathe, and let those membranes relax.  Accept that you are part of the infinite universe and rejoice in that.  Let the barriers and the masks fall away.  Be who you really want to be without any stressful need to try to manipulate and control things around you, just let it happen.  Walk in the light of who you are in spite of everything, regardless of what happens, or what others do, or may seem to think.

If we can relax those barriers, maybe even dissolve them, then we will find that we are more at peace with the world.  Any extra effort involved in creating and maintaining those barriers is stressful to us.  It drains our life energy at all levels, so we are less open to good things, love, trust, friendship, and personal appreciation of life, beauty, and the incredible stuff all around us.  Relax and give thanks for the opportunity to interact with all of it!

If you focus on fears then they are actually more likely to manifest, whereas if you relax, and just go about your life gracefully, then you are much more likely to find yourself in good situations.  

So, again, breathe, breathe, and relax those membranes.  Let the infinite universe flow around and within you, as it is meant to, renewing your life force, and allowing it in turn to flow back with it’s information about who you are being, what you are experiencing, how your are feeling.  Would you want that information to be a scrambled mess of tense emotions, no, surely not.  So let it be a clear message of how at peace you can be with life, how you can live it as on open human being, learning, appreciating, growing, loving.

RELEASING YOUR STORY

Gangaji says:  “If our story makes us feel wronged or victimised, then we suffer. If your life is about protection from pain, then your life is about suffering.  But you have the conscious choice to release yourself from the trap of suffering, and anger.  Tell yourself the truth of who you are.  There is no need to be a victim.  Meet your experiences without hiding or running or wailing or justifying or cursing, just meet them.  Recognise that all is composed of thought – it’s a story.  Are you willing to just call if off?  You are free to stop it or not.”  

So, watch how these stories play out in your life, step back and release them every time you see them playing out.  Breathe, breathe, relax those membranes, and release the stories you have been telling yourself.

Mooji says – “Consciousness is not a slave to the mind’s projections, stories, imagined requirements.  Consciousness relaxes and doesn’t have to make decisions, it follows spontaneous urges and is carried forwards.  The personal ‘I’, the idea of who you are, changes.  Consciousness does not change, it is beyond…. constant, unattached…. “

and “… you can allow the world to move without needing to prevent it or get in the way.”

There is no point fighting things that happen, or against things you fear might happen (though of course you can gently do your best to help things go well – that is an entirely different thing – a positive energy).  If you fight, it is destructive energy, destructive to the situation as well as to your health.  You might as well just say “So what, I’ll make the best of it, I’ll learn from it, I’ll cope, and it will be fine”, or “I will support this cause, or stand up for myself, or my community, in as positive a way as is possible.”  

Step back from any sense of fight in you and ask your body to relax, ask your mind to relax.  Breathe, breathe, and relax those membranes, let go of resistance.  Breathe, breathe, and allow yourself to go through things as smoothly as possible.  Rejoice in your ability to be at peace with the world, yourself, and the universe.  You owe it to yourself not to get tense and wound up.  Allow yourself to love yourself by letting go of stress.  Allow yourself to flow, and glow, with life, to be healthy and happy.  Breathe, breathe, and be at peace.

You cannot interrupt the flow of the universe, so why stress yourself out by trying.  Relax and flow with it.  Allow things to go well.  If you put up resistance you cause more problems, issues, blocks.  Create within the natural flow, learn to ride the waves with poise and beauty.  Learn how to make the best of the current available.  Help gently to mould, shape, glide, swirl, naturally fit into the flow and yet swim to make the best use of it.  You can’t manipulate it through force, you can only work with what is already there, but what is, is already primed for the best for you, is benevolent, if you let it be.

Mooji says – “The world is awake …. even in your own heart …. there is always something that is beyond ….. all change …. you observe, you witness, you are aware …. of things passing …. even knowledge, even personality, emotions, beliefs; something that is beyond healing, birth, death, that is undying, unborn, unbroken ….. “

Plus he advises – “Marinade yourself in the presence, beyond everything, no fear, no need, pure awareness.  The person is a construct, a needy self.  The presence is complete and whole …… You are one with the vibration of being, you feel lighter .…. Simply focus on the sense of being, and there are no problems.  You are in direct oneness with yourself ….. Your uniqueness does not interfere with the oneness of being.  It sings it’s magnificence – that even on one flower each petal is unique.  We are expressed uniquely in form but have one common source….. “  

So, if we can relax and let ourselves be part of the flow of consciousness, we can recognise, feel, that all of us belong to that same flow, and see beyond the little ‘I’ personalities, to a deeper shared ground.  We can let go of all that we had thought was wounded, for there is no need to hold on to that ‘I’ with all it’s imaginary attachments and wounds.  In the presence, they mean nothing, we can freely glide past them, and get on with our lives.  There is no need to try to control things.  

Gangaji says – “Stop that story about your emotions, it’s all a narrative… you stop that and you experience emotion, and then there’s a possibility to find real clarity.  You can’t find clarity on top of ideas about what you should or should not be experiencing, and why – that’s all just made up story.  Just stop, stop that, and experience what you’re feeling.  When we believe our stories (whatever they are), that we’re right or wrong, we’re fumbling in the dark, and missing some deep profound clarity.”  

And she says (about Justice) – “Be overwhelmed by both the beauty and the horror in the world – open to the hugeness of this.  Be clear about your feelings, responses ….. don’t act from revenge or superiority….. step back and allow your mind to clear and not get entangled in our emotional reactions, and recognise that there is a deeper question – what do we want for everyone – not just for ourselves in this moment, or for whoever we are identifying with – what is our collective desire in terms of justice?  These are the real issues in our world, not our tiny personal problems, whether you get your way or not.”  

BEING

Gangaji also says – “Shift your allegiance from the activities of your mind to the eternal presence of your being.  In the core of yourself there is freedom and peace and love.”

And Mooji (again) says “As pure awareness there is nothing to give up or to change, nothing sticks to you.  There is no judgement, all things come and go, including feelings.”

So I ask – Why be crying, fearful, lonely, when you have the whole universe?  Be still, listen to your heart, breathe, and know you need nothing.

Gangaji says – “Each story will end….. but you are the clear light that story appears in.”  

She also says “Lay bare your soul’s agony without dramatising or denying it.  Your soul longs to know again what was once purely and absolutely known to be the truth of who one is.  If you will meet it (with your attention), it will take you to the present moment where you are perfectly in alignment with the truth of who you are.”

Poonjaji says that Om is silence, and Shanti is peace, gratitude, and silence.  He says that without silence we cannot be at peace, it is our real nature.  It is the ground of all activity, games.  In this silence you get answers to your questions.  There is freedom in this silence, when you are no longer taken over by the chattering mind, when you have directed the mind to source, to stillness.  Here you are happy and at home, in Satsang.  You have met yourself, and it is you, it is you, and it is you.

Mooji says – “There is nothing here but you” and – “You are in harmony with everything”.

Ramana says – “You must at last return to the Self, so why not abide as the Self here and now?”  Also – “Samadhi means experiencing BLISS while remaining AWAKE”, and “Grace will lead the way”.

“There is a force in the universe which, if we permit it, will flow through us and produce miraculous results.” Mahatma Gandhi

That draws to a conclusion my realisations and enquiries for these few days. (Apart from the few notes below, inc about AGE.)

Blessings, Namaste.

NOTES:

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi awakened spontaneously at the age of 16 to his eternal nature – knowing himself to be that which cannot die.  The name of Ramana was given to him by his disciples.  It means that which resides in the heart of all being.

Sri H.W.L. Poonja, or Papaji, as he was affectionately known, was 8 when he first experienced the unstoppable bliss of his own infinite nature.  In his early 30’s he was called in a vision to go to Ramana (above).  

Gangaji met Papaji when he was 80, 7 years before he died.  He welcomed her as he welcomed all who came to his door, with eyes that were flashing with truth.

Mooji is also influenced by this lineage.

NOTES in relation to AGEING:

Pay attention to what is really precious!

In age you are more aware of making time count, but also of taking care of yourself, pacing your energy, resting and eating well, and also deepening the meaning of your existence, your moments left.  Nothing is actually lost, you find new understandings, ways of being.

Don’t mistake yourself for your body.

So many friends on the other side –

but where can it be? Where do they hide?

This reality, that can’t be denied –

perhaps like a dream, a place in the mind,

bit it seems, it soon seems, I too will reside

in this eternal space, where we all re-unite.