21-Day Dhyana Sadhana - Day 19 - Discrimination and Detachment

Day 19 for the 21-Day Dhyana Sadhana, 21-Day Meditation Practice daily online retreat as we approach Divali 2024. 

Today I speak about the Buddhi, that power of intelligence that is part of the inner instrument of mind. The Buddhi is the capacity to discriminate and can be used to liberate yourself. Using your intelligence you can begin seeing the difference between what will capture you and what will liberate you, so that you can choose more deliberately what you want in your life. 

In meditation you are guided just to open the space and see how the Buddhi can direct its power. 

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Meditation Transcript

Let's get ready for meditation.

Let me invite you to close your eyes, align your spine, come into your breathing, open up your awareness to observe. And immediately the intelligence is engaged just in observation.

Immediately a subtle choice is coming.

Is holding the tensions in my body going to keep me captured or liberated? And of course, it's an easy answer. I need to relax and place myself at ease. A relaxed state will lead me into a deeper place within. So relaxed is more liberating.

Scan the body and use your breathing to let go of the tensions, to let go of the stresses.

Cultivate a sense of ease and observe the vitality of the body. Observe the condition of the body just by looking.

And again another question may arise. If my body is depleted, will it keep me captured or will it liberate me?

Easy answer. I need to recharge, rejuvenate the body to support my spiritual process. That's the more liberating choice.

Begin breathing along the central channel. Slow inhale, slow exhale.

Become skillful even as you breathe along the central channel. Re energize the nerve plexus in the gut, the heart and the brain.

Let each breath be very conscious, deliberate, tapping into the sacred energy, sacred power in you, nourishing and healing your body.

Now come into your heart. Open up to the emotional landscape.

What are you carrying in your heart today? What vibration are you holding there? And again your intelligence will examine.

Is holding this vibration going to liberate me? Or is it keeping me captured? Is it limiting me? If it's limiting you, then you need to clear the heart using your exhale. Release any old emotions, any limiting emotions.

And now, which emotion, which vibration will liberate you? Kindness, gentleness, compassion, deep unconditional loving.

Open up to that possibility. Breathe through the heart. Cultivate that vibration. Slow inhale, slow exhale.

And you can even use your intelligence in looking at the heart. What in the heart space is limiting me? What is holding me back here? Becoming curious in your observations and staying open to the answer, open to discover.

Now join me at the brow, focusing at that point there.

If there are thoughts, that's okay. Don't react. Don't engage with the thinking as you breathe out. Seek to clear the mental field, Clear the mind. Open up to the spaciousness of the mind.

When you do this, the intelligence is becoming purified that you may use your discrimination and seek a more mature intelligence. Be open to that. Let my intelligence be guided from the soul, from the source within me. Seek to align your intelligence with the deepest part of you.

Don't try so hard. Use your breathing to relax.

Remember, the evolving and maturing of your intelligence is natural to you. You're not making it happen, you are allowing it to happen.

Let's take a deep breath. All the way in, all the way out. Channel the flow of energy down into the body towards the root and strengthen the root.

Strengthen your gut. Breathing in and out, using abdominal breathing, intelligently preparing the body for its day of activities.

But even as you re engage with your senses, you feel the physical awareness coming back. Hold on to that clarity inside that neutrality inside that sense of watching. Seek to stabilize yourself there even as you engage with the world.

As we come to the end of our meditation today, let us strongly affirm in the mind:

I stay centered in the source of my being and I align my intelligence with that deepest part of me.

May my intelligence liberate me. 

Let me invite you to bring your awareness to our group. Holding the entire group energy.

Please send Namaskar to each other in the inner space. My soul bows to you. I honor you.

Now let's come all the way back. Feeling the weight of the body.

When you're fully alert and ready, with a few gentle blinks, you can open the eyes.

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Reflection

1. What are some ways that your intelligence is hijacked and not used to liberate you? 
2. What are some ways that you intelligence chooses liberation and freedom? 
3. What can you do to realign and mature your intelligence?