Transcript
[0:00] And what I want to talk to you about
[0:02] today is how can we transform
[0:08] what the human experience is?
[0:11] How do we improve
[0:14] what your daytoday life feels like?
[0:19] How do we do that? How do we improve
[0:21] what every moment feels like? And it
[0:25] might sound like a bit of a strange
[0:27] question, but actually that's a question
[0:28] that your mind is asking all the time.
[0:31] All the time your mind is thinking, how
[0:34] do I improve this situation?
[0:36] So in this session, you'll see me go
[0:39] through a lot of questions cuz I want to
[0:40] open it up to you. I want you to think
[0:44] the first question I'm going to ask you,
[0:47] why don't animals need to do any
[0:50] meditation?
[0:52] Right? same arms, same legs, walk
[0:54] around, still need to uh sleep and eat
[0:57] and protect ourselves from danger and
[0:59] all those things.
[1:02] What human beings are capable of doing
[1:05] is we're able to make complex things,
[1:08] complex ideas, complex buildings,
[1:11] designs. And what is it that allows us
[1:14] to do that? We've already said one or
[1:16] two people have mentioned it. What is it
[1:17] that allows the human being to do that
[1:19] that doesn't allow the animal to do
[1:20] that? It is our
[1:22] our brain our mind. So the key
[1:24] difference between a human being
[1:28] is that between the human being and the
[1:30] and the animal is the mind. Can somebody
[1:35] give me a definition of the mind? Okay.
[1:38] How many of us don't have a mind?
[1:42] Yeah. Couple of hands. No. Okay. We all
[1:45] have a mind. So what is the mind?
[1:49] Give me a definition.
[1:51] Chain of thoughts.
[1:54] Interesting. So the four subdivisions
[1:56] within the Indian tradition of sur mat
[1:59] man and bud. We can go into what those
[2:01] mean as well.
[2:03] Past, present and future.
[2:05] Oh, past, present and future. So our
[2:08] mind has the ability to comprehend past
[2:10] and future. Animals don't necessarily
[2:13] think about future or worry about the
[2:15] past or even they probably have a
[2:17] memory. Maybe they don't. Do you see
[2:19] this is not complicated where how many
[2:21] times do we even get an opportunity to
[2:23] think about these things? We don't
[2:25] really even think about these things.
[2:27] And yet for those of us that come from
[2:30] the tradition that follows Gurrans GI,
[2:32] the word mind appears everywhere. Man
[2:37] appears all the time. Gurbani seems to
[2:39] talk about your mind more than most
[2:41] other concepts. But we don't really
[2:44] comprehend what this is.
[2:46] So I
[2:48] simplify the definition of the mind as
[2:50] some of you have said as a collection of
[2:53] thoughts
[2:55] a whirlpool of thoughts that are just
[2:57] going on all the time. What is the key
[3:00] thing that is needed for thoughts is
[3:03] words,
[3:06] right? Keep hold of this word because
[3:08] I'm uh you're going to need to
[3:10] understand this as as we go on. Words is
[3:13] what is going on in your because we can
[3:15] say a thought, but what is a thought? A
[3:17] thought is a collection of either images
[3:20] or more likely it's a story going on in
[3:23] our mind. There's words going on all the
[3:25] time. There's a language of the mind all
[3:28] the time. So the one thing that
[3:30] differentiates us from animals as far as
[3:34] we know and I take your point as far as
[3:36] we know is our mind is constantly
[3:40] telling a story all the time. Our mind
[3:43] is saying something.
[3:45] Even now
[3:47] in reality, none of you are listening to
[3:50] me. In reality, you're all listening to
[3:54] your mind's interpretation of what I'm
[3:56] saying. Whatever I'm saying, it's going
[3:59] through the filter of your mind and your
[4:00] mind is saying, "I get that. I don't get
[4:02] it. I understand. I don't understand. I
[4:04] agree. I disagree." Your mind is doing
[4:06] that, right? We and animals occupy
[4:10] exactly the same space. They breathe the
[4:13] same air and they walk on the same
[4:15] ground and they get the same heat from
[4:17] the same sun. The difference between us
[4:19] and them is our mind is constantly
[4:23] having a dialogue.
[4:25] So
[4:28] now the question is
[4:31] what dialogue is going on in your mind
[4:33] right now?
[4:37] Have a think.
[4:40] Some of you are intrigued.
[4:42] Some of you are already bored.
[4:45] Some of you are daydreaming.
[4:48] Some of you are glad that you're here.
[4:49] Some of you are already regretting why
[4:51] did I come here? Yeah, this guy's going
[4:54] to just completely fry my brain.
[4:59] We don't ever
[5:01] on our day-to-day basis take a step back
[5:04] and just reflect what is my mind doing
[5:07] right now?
[5:09] But my mind is always doing something.
[5:11] There's always a story going on.
[5:16] So we can understand that the mind is
[5:18] this whirlpool of thoughts.
[5:22] And
[5:24] how your thoughts behave
[5:27] in particular when some negative event
[5:31] happens is something we need to
[5:33] understand.
[5:35] how your mind behaves.
[5:39] So
[5:41] I take the example a lot of the times of
[5:43] how my kids act because when we analyze
[5:47] how children act, we'll realize we're
[5:49] not that different from them.
[5:51] So
[5:54] I got two boys
[5:56] and they're always arguing with each
[5:58] other, always competing for the same
[6:00] toys, always want what the other one
[6:03] has. I was playing with that, now I want
[6:05] it for longer. He was playing with it
[6:07] for five minutes, now I want it for 10
[6:09] minutes. That sort of thing is always
[6:11] going on. So there's a conflict all the
[6:13] time happening.
[6:16] So kids are arguing, parent walks into
[6:20] the room and immediately shouts at one
[6:23] of the kids.
[6:25] Think about how your mind would react.
[6:27] You're playing, you're you're wrestling
[6:29] with your brother or sister or whatever
[6:30] and you're arguing with them. parent
[6:32] comes in just starts screaming and
[6:34] shouting at you straight away. What
[6:35] happens? First thing that happens the
[6:38] event happens and the mind perceives
[6:41] something's gone wrong. There's a
[6:43] threat. Yeah. In some way, daddy's
[6:46] walked into the room. Yeah. Quick. Or
[6:48] mommy's shouting. Event happens. The
[6:52] mind perceives it as a threat and then
[6:56] reacts. Yeah. In one way or the other.
[7:00] More more often than not, my kids start
[7:02] shouting back at us, right? Because when
[7:05] we were younger, our kids had this,
[7:08] right? We don't use these anymore, but
[7:12] our kids are not afraid of us the way we
[7:13] were of our parents, right? So, my kids,
[7:17] we walk into the room, we start shouting
[7:18] at them, they start shouting back at us.
[7:21] But what's interesting is what happens
[7:23] afterwards, and you'll notice this in
[7:25] your own relationships.
[7:27] If you have an argument with someone,
[7:29] you go through the same process. An
[7:31] event happens, someone says something
[7:33] bad to you, someone shouts at you,
[7:35] someone says something negative. You
[7:36] perceive it as a threat. You react
[7:38] straight away. But when it's over, what
[7:41] do you do?
[7:43] You keep thinking.
[7:45] The mind has a feedback mechanism event
[7:50] some sort of traumatic event reaction
[7:54] and then afterwards you start deciding
[7:57] that didn't feel nice I feel angry I
[8:00] feel disappointed I feel this I feel
[8:02] that you know what your mind does your
[8:04] mind replays that same trauma again and
[8:09] again and again
[8:12] am I right
[8:13] your mind replays that trauma
[8:16] The longer you replay that trauma in
[8:18] your mind, the longer you're going to
[8:21] feel that feeling that comes out from
[8:23] that. Okay? So something happens, you
[8:26] don't feel bad straight away. You feel
[8:28] bad a minute later. Once the argument
[8:30] has happened, then it starts sinking in
[8:33] and then it carries on. The story goes
[8:34] on. And the story, the thoughts then now
[8:39] convert to emotions, feelings. There's a
[8:43] feeling. There's an emotion. Now,
[8:45] emotion is a story that's attached to
[8:50] it. And emotion doesn't just happen on
[8:52] its own. Emotion is based on the story
[8:55] that you keep telling yourself.
[8:57] Isn't love the same way?
[8:59] Oh, is love the same way? Let's let's
[9:01] pick that up in the Q&A section. Yeah.
[9:03] At the moment, I want you to follow
[9:05] where I'm going with this, but I I I
[9:06] haven't thought about that myself, so
[9:08] maybe we should explore that. Yeah.
[9:13] So
[9:14] your story now becomes the most
[9:17] important factor.
[9:19] The longer the story continues,
[9:22] the longer your trauma continues.
[9:26] And we know people
[9:28] for whom some event has happened and the
[9:32] trauma, the story has not stopped for
[9:35] years.
[9:38] The feeling has not stopped for years.
[9:42] What is it that's happened?
[9:45] All that's happened is that story keeps
[9:48] replaying itself. I don't know if you've
[9:50] ever noticed, if you've ever been
[9:52] unfortunate enough to be in a in a
[9:54] collision, a car car crash of some sort.
[9:57] Yes. For the rest of that day at least,
[10:00] and even at night, that car crash is
[10:02] still going on in the mind, right? Still
[10:05] going on. You keep visualizing that same
[10:07] event. The same thing is happening.
[10:09] Every time your mind experiences a
[10:11] threat, it has that same reaction. You
[10:15] know what's even more interesting? When
[10:17] you went through that trauma, when you
[10:19] went through that car crash, when you
[10:20] had that argument, when you had that
[10:23] clash with someone or something, your
[10:26] mind released these your brain starts
[10:28] releasing stress hormones and your brain
[10:31] starts releasing chemicals so that your
[10:34] body can fight or flight, can do
[10:36] something. What is fascinating is as
[10:39] long as the story keeps getting
[10:41] repeated, those stress chemicals keep
[10:44] getting released. This is why when
[10:46] people talk about the negative impact of
[10:49] stress, it's not that the stress
[10:51] hormones are are are bad hormones. The
[10:54] stress hormones are needed for your
[10:56] body. You know, a t a tiger starts
[10:58] chasing you, you need those stress
[11:00] hormones straight away. You need to run.
[11:03] But what happens is we keep releasing
[11:05] those stress hormones and the the
[11:08] long-term
[11:09] release of those hormones is what causes
[11:11] the damage to your body and that's just
[11:14] well-known science these days. So we
[11:18] need to learn what do we do about this
[11:20] story? How do we deal with this story in
[11:23] our mind?
[11:28] What your mind is doing? Okay, we've
[11:30] talked a little bit about traumatic
[11:32] events,
[11:33] but in reality, your mind does that for
[11:36] all sorts of events. So, let's say, for
[11:39] example,
[11:40] if anyone's gone to Costco recently,
[11:44] you'll notice that the shelves are
[11:45] clearing out, right? And when you get to
[11:48] the till, there's a long queue. What
[11:52] does your mind do? You've gone to the
[11:54] shops, you need to buy some stuff,
[11:56] you're ready to pay. There's a big long
[11:58] queue. There's a big line. What does
[12:01] your mind do? Your mind first starts
[12:04] looking for a shorter cue. Why? Your
[12:07] mind has always had this question in its
[12:10] at the back. How do I make this
[12:12] situation better? At every moment, your
[12:14] mind is always asking this question to
[12:16] itself. How do I make the situation
[12:18] better? So, there's a long cue. How do I
[12:21] make the situation better? I look for a
[12:23] shorter queue. Otherwise, why do we do
[12:25] it? We're always trying to improve the
[12:27] situation in some way. If I can't find a
[12:31] shorter queue, then what does the mind
[12:33] start doing?
[12:34] Look at the queue with less items.
[12:37] Look at the queue with less items. But
[12:38] if you can't find a different queue,
[12:39] there's only one till open.
[12:44] Huh? You find a way to get the front of
[12:46] the line.
[12:48] What does your mind do?
[12:49] Start complaining.
[12:50] You say it.
[12:52] Complain.
[12:52] Start complaining.
[12:54] If I can't improve the situation, at
[12:56] least I can blame someone,
[12:58] right? Start blaming the situation in
[13:01] some way or another.
[13:02] Be patient.
[13:03] Be patient. How many people's mind
[13:04] actually does it? Be honest. Mine. Mine
[13:07] doesn't. Right.
[13:10] You don't have a choice. But your mind
[13:12] can complain. It doesn't cost anything
[13:13] to complain. Right. Right. That much is
[13:16] free.
[13:20] So your mind starts a story. Why don't
[13:23] they open another till? Look how many
[13:25] staff are standing there. They're not
[13:26] doing anything. Right? Why don't they
[13:28] open another till? Right? Why does
[13:31] everybody have to shop the same minute
[13:33] I'm shopping? What's wrong with these
[13:34] people? Yeah, they're not buying
[13:36] anything essential. I have to buy this
[13:38] stuff, right? Your mind starts doing all
[13:40] these things. If only my kids didn't me
[13:43] make me leave late, I could have been in
[13:44] the store a little bit earlier. The
[13:47] story starts.
[13:48] Now the question is that's not a useful
[13:51] story. But why is the mind doing it? Cuz
[13:53] it can't change the situation. But it
[13:55] still has to find a way to make the
[13:57] situation better. And the way I'll make
[13:58] the situation better is I'll blame
[14:00] everyone else. At least it's not my
[14:02] fault. I'm standing in this queue, but
[14:04] it's not my fault. It's his fault and
[14:06] their fault. And then you start looking
[14:07] at what everyone else has in their in
[14:09] their grocery bags and in the shopping
[14:11] trolley. It's like, yeah, look how many
[14:13] he's buying. Right? These thoughts these
[14:16] things start happening in the mind.
[14:18] So
[14:20] where am I going with this?
[14:22] Gurunanakdev gi understood this process
[14:26] of the mind. Gurunanakdev gi understood
[14:30] that the mind is always having a story.
[14:35] And what he delivers to you and me is a
[14:40] solution to that problem.
[14:42] Now you might think that's not that big
[14:44] a problem. Why does someone like
[14:46] Gurunanakdev GI need to come? Well,
[14:48] think about it. All of your issues in
[14:52] life
[14:53] really can be boiled down to one thing.
[14:56] How does my mind interpret this
[14:58] situation?
[15:00] How does my mind feel about this
[15:02] situation?
[15:04] What do I think about this situation?
[15:07] Because as I think so I feel.
[15:12] As I perceive, so I receive.
[15:17] How I view the situation determines how
[15:20] happy I am about the situation.
[15:24] Right? As I perceive, so I receive.
[15:29] What I get out of life is based on how I
[15:32] think about it. And Guru Nanak G is here
[15:35] to show you if you change the story,
[15:39] your entire experience of life changes.
[15:44] Remember, we're not talking about any
[15:46] God thing, right? Forget about God.
[15:48] Let's just talk about us, right? Let's
[15:51] worry about us before we try creating
[15:53] another trauma. How do I find God?
[15:56] Right? Let's forget that for now. How do
[15:58] I just sort my own mind out?
[16:03] And so what we need to do is we need to
[16:07] find ways to transform
[16:11] the narrative. Does anyone everyone
[16:13] understand this word narrative? The
[16:14] story that's going on in our mind, the
[16:17] constant
[16:20] trauma, the retelling,
[16:24] the memories that we have.
[16:26] You know the the the the scientists who
[16:28] study memories, you know what they say?
[16:30] They say the majority of your memories
[16:33] are fake news.
[16:37] All the things that you think that's
[16:39] exactly how it happened is actually not
[16:41] what's happened. Your mind actually just
[16:45] remembers selected bits of what actually
[16:48] happened. So even your memories are just
[16:51] a story. They're not an a factual
[16:53] recollection of what happened. Most of
[16:56] the things that you remember are not the
[16:58] way it actually happened.
[17:01] So we need to find a way to improve this
[17:04] story.
[17:06] And this goes way beyond
[17:10] the positive thinking
[17:13] that we think that we need. Just think
[17:16] happy thoughts. Just think good
[17:18] thoughts. Don't think about the
[17:20] negative.
[17:22] Right? It goes way beyond that. What the
[17:25] guru wants to do is to transform
[17:29] your very understanding of life and more
[17:32] importantly your understanding of
[17:35] yourself.
[17:37] You need to change how you think about
[17:41] yourself.
[17:44] And most of us are not willing to do
[17:47] that. Most of us are not even aware that
[17:50] that's what is available to us.
[17:54] When you go to the gara and you ma take
[17:57] this guru and you bow down, what are you
[18:00] bowing down to?
[18:04] What we're bowing down to is the most
[18:08] sophisticated wisdom on the human
[18:10] experience.
[18:12] The most sophisticated
[18:15] wisdom of you.
[18:18] You're bowing down to a teacher of you.
[18:21] Otherwise, what does the guru teach? If
[18:24] we are students of the guru,
[18:27] you go to a biology teacher, you know
[18:29] what they teach. What subject they
[18:30] teach?
[18:32] You go to a chemistry teacher, you go to
[18:34] a math teacher, or even to a tennis
[18:36] coach, you know what they teach. What
[18:39] subject does the guru teach?
[18:42] Most of us would think the guru teaches
[18:44] about God.
[18:47] But I think the guru teaches us about
[18:48] us.
[18:51] When we understand what we are, then
[18:54] we'll understand what God is.
[18:57] Right? Because we go to the gur and we
[18:59] hear these lines.
[19:04] Oh mind, you are the embodiment of
[19:07] divinity, divine light. Recognize
[19:10] yourself first. First understand what
[19:13] you are.
[19:15] Right? So we think that we are
[19:19] a mind. We think we are a body. We think
[19:21] we are a soul. But we don't really
[19:23] understand ourselves too much. So the
[19:26] guru is trying to change your
[19:28] understanding of yourself.
[19:33] So shall we do some of that today?
[19:36] Let's do that. I want you all to put
[19:38] down any of your notepads or anything
[19:40] that you have. So make sure there's
[19:42] nothing on your hands and then just try
[19:44] a little experiment with me.
[19:47] Remember
[19:50] what the guru is doing. The guru is
[19:52] refraraming your understanding of
[19:54] yourself. And guru starts by
[19:58] showing you you are far more connected
[20:02] to the world around you than you think
[20:04] you are. Let's give it a go. Close your
[20:07] eyes.
[20:17] Just take a moment
[20:21] to slow your breathing down
[20:33] and
[20:35] pay attention to your breathing.
[20:41] Notice
[20:43] that without trying,
[20:46] your body is constantly breathing in
[20:49] fresh oxygen.
[20:53] And that oxygen
[20:55] is going into your body and keeping you
[20:58] alive. And you didn't even have to try
[21:01] very hard. That body is just doing it
[21:04] for you.
[21:10] And take a moment to just think about
[21:13] where do does this oxygen come from?
[21:19] Think about all the trees that made this
[21:23] oxygen for you to breathe.
[21:34] Think about the last meal that you had.
[21:41] Where did all that food come from?
[21:47] Think about all of nature
[21:52] that is sitting in your belly right now.
[21:57] You're breathing in what the trees have
[22:00] created
[22:01] and you're eating what the earth has
[22:04] given you.
[22:09] The air that you're breathing is what
[22:12] keeps you alive. And the food that
[22:15] you've eaten is what's keeping you
[22:17] alive.
[22:19] Nature
[22:21] had to give up something in order to
[22:24] keep you alive.
[22:30] You are literally
[22:34] the essence of nature.
[22:37] You are literally alive because of the
[22:40] air of the trees
[22:42] and the food of the earth.
[22:47] That which had kept
[22:49] the trees alive
[22:52] is what is now keeping you alive.
[22:57] You cannot be here right now without all
[23:00] of nature being connected to you.
[23:05] That life energy that is in you
[23:08] is also the same life energy that is in
[23:11] nature all around you.
[23:16] You are nothing but nature.
[23:22] In fact, it is nature that owns your
[23:25] body. It is nature that sustains your
[23:28] body. It is nature that has created your
[23:30] body.
[23:35] Because you cannot keep your body alive
[23:38] without the help of nature.
[23:48] So take a last couple of breaths in
[23:52] and when you're ready, bring yourself
[23:53] back into the room.
[24:00] Your connection
[24:03] even with the air around you is so
[24:06] profound
[24:08] that we don't even take a moment to
[24:11] appreciate
[24:12] that what
[24:14] the universe breathes out, you breathe
[24:17] in. What you breathe out, the universe
[24:21] breathes in.
[24:23] And so when you talk about finding God
[24:28] or connecting,
[24:31] it's right there in under your noses.
[24:34] It's inside you. You and it are all
[24:38] connected. You cannot be disconnected
[24:41] from it. Your very body is made of the
[24:45] elements of the earth.
[24:49] What you thought was your body is not
[24:51] your body.
[24:53] Try and look after it on your own.
[24:58] If you had to breathe
[25:01] based on your own effort,
[25:03] we'd all be dead
[25:06] cuz we can't even remember where we kept
[25:08] our keys. How are we going to remember
[25:10] to breathe 24 hours a day?
[25:13] So, your body and you are connected.
[25:18] Your body and nature are connected. You
[25:21] and nature are literally the same thing
[25:25] and we need to understand what is going
[25:28] on here. We don't understand that about
[25:31] ourselves and how we are connected.
[25:35] So everyone pull out your phones again
[25:39] especially those of you who have some
[25:41] sort of Gurbani app where you're able to
[25:44] read the Shabbat and read the
[25:45] translations if you have that. If not,
[25:47] I'm going to go through a few lines from
[25:50] a shabbud and I want you to see if you
[25:52] can follow it with me.
[25:56] Everyone got it?
[25:59] So there's a shabbud that I want you to
[26:01] go through.
[26:06] I think mo most of the time you search
[26:08] by the first letter. So the first line
[26:11] is
[26:18] Let's go through this shabbud because
[26:20] it's going to reveal something that I
[26:23] feel most of us haven't really thought
[26:24] about before.
[26:28] So it's by Gurunanak Goreta.
[26:40] Destiny
[26:42] looms over the heads of all beings.
[26:45] Everyone
[26:47] has a story written for them. That's
[26:51] what the line is starting by saying all
[26:54] beings on their head on their forehead
[26:57] has their destiny written has their
[27:00] story being written for them.
[27:05] Nobody lives without their story.
[27:08] Everybody has a story. Everyone has a
[27:12] past. Everybody has a present.
[27:16] Everybody has someone somewhere that
[27:18] they came from and someone that they
[27:21] have been related to. Everyone has a
[27:24] history. Nobody is without their own
[27:27] story. And I like to think about life as
[27:29] a little bit like like a story.
[27:33] And the problem that we have is we all
[27:36] think that we're the hero. We all think
[27:38] we're the central character of this
[27:40] story. That's how we live. But we're all
[27:42] living a story. And when you take life
[27:45] as a bit of a story, sometimes it
[27:47] becomes a little bit easier to deal
[27:48] with. So when you're standing in the
[27:50] shopping queue,
[27:53] what if the story was, oh, as part of my
[27:56] story today, I had to get late.
[27:59] You see what happens? You start now
[28:02] controlling the narrative. You start now
[28:04] dictating. I'm going to say what the
[28:07] story is. I'm not going to let my mind
[28:09] just start complaining without my
[28:11] permission. Everybody has a story.
[28:14] Nobody is alive without their own story.
[28:23] Now it talks about this bigger thing,
[28:27] the oneness itself.
[28:32] is creating the story.
[28:37] There is only one thing that isn't that
[28:41] doesn't have a story
[28:44] and that's the writer of this story.
[28:47] They are alik. They don't have their own
[28:49] story being written. That universe is
[28:51] writing our story. But who is writing
[28:54] the universe's story? There's no one
[28:56] writing the universe's story. The
[28:58] universe is the writer. Yeah,
[29:02] al that there is this one thing.
[29:06] Notice the key word I'm not using.
[29:09] What's the word I'm not using.
[29:11] Thank you. I disagree with this word
[29:14] God.
[29:15] Profoundly. And those of you who have
[29:18] heard my talks before will know why.
[29:21] Because as soon as you create a God,
[29:23] there becomes an old man with a white
[29:24] beard sitting in the clouds. And we're
[29:27] not interested in Santa Claus.
[29:29] Yeah.
[29:31] So, we're talking in a different
[29:33] language because we're here to learn. If
[29:36] we're here to learn, you're here to be
[29:38] challenged. You're here to say,
[29:41] "I might need to know something new that
[29:43] I didn't know before."
[29:46] Otherwise, what is a student? What's the
[29:48] difference between a student and a
[29:50] teacher?
[29:51] The teacher knows the subject. The
[29:54] student goes with the mindset, I don't
[29:57] know. I need to know more. I'm willing
[30:02] to have whatever I know improved.
[30:07] If you think you know it all, then
[30:10] you're no longer the student. Then
[30:12] you're the teacher.
[30:15] And our title, the title that you've
[30:17] been given, if you are the follower of
[30:20] the guru, the title that you've been
[30:21] given is you're always a student.
[30:24] I say something about the sick.
[30:27] The sick is always a student. You've
[30:30] enrolled in a school where you never
[30:32] graduate.
[30:34] You're never allowed to graduate from
[30:36] this school.
[30:39] Which means every day you go with the
[30:41] attitude, I can learn something new
[30:44] today.
[30:46] And what I'm going to say today is let's
[30:48] stop using this word God. It's an
[30:51] unhealthy word.
[30:53] It's not a useful word.
[30:57] So
[31:00] there's this system
[31:03] that is writing the story. The system
[31:05] called nature. The word has come is
[31:08] doing everything.
[31:11] is a gio it is running the system I call
[31:15] hookum the natural system that's
[31:18] happening so we're all part of that
[31:20] system the system of the air the trees
[31:23] breathing we're breathing out the trees
[31:25] are breathing in the food life sun all
[31:29] of this connectivity called kudrat we're
[31:31] all part of it
[31:35] now
[31:38] the key line is what the guru wants for
[31:41] you and in reality what we all want from
[31:44] oursel what's the one thing that we're
[31:47] all looking for in life
[31:50] happiness right everyone's looking for
[31:53] more happiness and I started this
[31:56] workshop by asking how do we make life
[31:59] feel better where do we get that
[32:01] happiness from this is the line oh my
[32:04] mind
[32:06] remember this and you'll be happy
[32:13] has two meanings to recite and the other
[32:17] meaning is to know
[32:20] to know.
[32:23] Japo means here understand this know
[32:27] this system of this nature this
[32:30] unfolding sto story and sukoy and you'll
[32:35] be happy. You say that sounds simple but
[32:38] it's harder than it's than it looks.
[32:46] Day and night learn this lesson of the
[32:49] guru.
[32:51] Day and night remember the guru's
[32:53] teaching.
[32:57] Remember this provider, this system
[33:00] that's providing for you all the time.
[33:02] Remember that air that you're breathing.
[33:05] But we don't, right? We take it for
[33:07] granted. The air that we're breathing,
[33:10] the food that we eat, we even complain
[33:12] about the food that we eat. Right?
[33:18] The guru is saying, "I want you to
[33:19] change the story. Don't change what you
[33:23] do
[33:24] right now. Don't change what you do."
[33:26] The guru didn't say, "Wake up earlier to
[33:29] be happier." The guru doesn't say grow
[33:33] your hair to be happier.
[33:35] That's not what the guru is saying. The
[33:36] guru doesn't say stop eating this and
[33:39] stop drinking that to be happier. The
[33:41] guru is saying right now just
[33:43] understand.
[33:44] Understand this and you'll be happier.
[33:47] All of that other stuff will come later.
[33:50] Don't put so much pressure on yourself.
[33:52] Just understand this day and night.
[33:54] That's a big challenge already. 24 hours
[33:57] a day. Remember this. You say, "Oh my
[33:59] god, you you've already given me too
[34:01] much.
[34:03] like I can't learn anymore. I just need
[34:05] to do that.
[34:10] There's a beautiful story I remember
[34:13] being told once where
[34:18] Guru Arjun G the fifth guru is in his
[34:22] derbar in his court and
[34:26] someone new has come to see him a pundit
[34:30] a scholar of wisdom and they come to the
[34:33] guru and say guru g I'm here to learn
[34:35] from you teach me a lesson I want to
[34:38] learn from you.
[34:40] Guruji says okay but you got to keep
[34:43] coming back. I can't just teach you in
[34:45] one day. You have to come back
[34:47] regularly. They said Guru G I'm ready.
[34:49] I'm ready to learn from you.
[34:52] He says okay I'll teach you a lesson.
[34:54] Let's start with Sukman.
[34:57] And he says the first line,
[35:02] go away and learn that
[35:05] meditate, meditate, meditate and
[35:07] remember, remember remember this and
[35:09] you'll be happy.
[35:12] Sure enough, Pandit Gi goes away and
[35:14] says, "Yes, okay, that sounds good. I'll
[35:16] learn that lesson."
[35:18] A long time goes by and he never came
[35:21] back. And after a really long time,
[35:24] Guruji bumps into him once again and
[35:26] says, "You were meant to come back to me
[35:28] time and time again. What happened?" He
[35:31] said, "Guruji, that first line that you
[35:33] gave, I'm still working on it.
[35:36] I'm still working on how to be happy and
[35:39] how to remember at every moment." So
[35:42] these lessons, we skim over them very
[35:44] quickly, but they're very big lessons
[35:46] that the guru is teaching us day and
[35:48] night. Understand this.
[35:51] Now it gets a little bit deeper.
[36:01] That which is inside you is the same as
[36:03] that which is outside you. Do not see
[36:06] them as two different things.
[36:08] Let me clarify that again. Whatever is
[36:11] inside you is the same as what is
[36:13] outside of you. They're not seen as two
[36:16] different things.
[36:18] You and everything around you cannot be
[36:22] seen as two things according to guru.
[36:28] Whatever you think you are, whatever
[36:31] you're made up of, mind, body, spirit,
[36:34] memories, thoughts, history, the
[36:37] language, all your experiences, all your
[36:39] traumas, all your happy memories,
[36:41] everything that's inside you is also
[36:43] right around you as well. And all around
[36:46] you, everything around you from
[36:50] the biggest and furthest away galaxies
[36:53] to the smallest insects and worms and
[36:55] bacteria is all exactly the same as
[36:58] what's inside you. Now the guru is
[37:01] starting to give us lessons that are
[37:02] just really shifting our understanding.
[37:09] Do not see them as two different things.
[37:12] They are not two. They are only one.
[37:18] Follow the guru's instruction and see
[37:22] all of this as oneness.
[37:25] With one view, with one eye, see what is
[37:28] what you are and what everything else is
[37:30] with one eye. As in see them all as the
[37:32] same.
[37:36] In every one of us is that same thing.
[37:44] So this starts to really mess with our
[37:47] brain a little bit. Conceptually it
[37:49] sounds nice. I get it. Okay. Oneness
[37:52] sounds really good. Satwal Singh's
[37:54] talked about it before. I've heard these
[37:56] videos before. But now I'm starting to
[37:58] break them down. I'm really pausing and
[38:00] putting the pressure back on you. Do you
[38:03] get it? You are the same as everything
[38:07] around you. Just take a moment to
[38:09] process that you are the same as
[38:13] everything and everyone in this room. If
[38:16] if that becomes too conceptual and too
[38:18] hard to understand, right now we're all
[38:22] breathing exactly the same air.
[38:27] Even that connects us all.
[38:31] Even that right now connects all of you.
[38:35] that the air that you're breathing in
[38:37] and out is also the same as the air next
[38:41] in the person next to you. The same
[38:42] oxygen that's in your lungs is the same
[38:45] as the oxygen in the in the person next
[38:47] to you and the same as all around you.
[38:50] Very good question. So the question is
[38:52] how do we go about really seeing it as
[38:55] one? How do we go about understanding it
[38:58] conceptually but actually physically,
[39:01] mentally really seeing it as one?
[39:05] The first step is understanding it
[39:07] conceptually and accepting it
[39:09] conceptually.
[39:12] That's the first step. And I think most
[39:14] people don't even make it that far.
[39:16] Most people don't understand
[39:19] that we are actually the same thing. So
[39:22] what we will do is we'll look at this
[39:24] room and they'll say there's 200 people
[39:25] in this room. But the guru might turn
[39:28] around and say no there's oneness in
[39:30] this room. There's only one thing in
[39:32] this room. The question now becomes,
[39:36] does your mind constantly
[39:39] self-reference to retain itself? And
[39:43] we're going to go into that a little bit
[39:44] more. What your story is doing is your
[39:48] story is constantly saying, "I am me and
[39:51] I am the most important person and
[39:53] everyone else can can do what they
[39:55] want." Your mind is doing that all the
[39:58] time. When you're stuck in traffic, you
[40:00] want to go first. You don't want the
[40:01] other guy to go first. When you're at
[40:03] the back of the queue, you want to be at
[40:04] the front of the queue.
[40:08] So your mind, that story that we talked
[40:11] about earlier is constantly
[40:13] self-referencing and constantly
[40:15] repeating the story that I am the
[40:17] individual.
[40:19] The guru's technique is says, and which
[40:21] is what we're going to come on to now,
[40:23] change what your mind is doing.
[40:26] And that's what we're going to talk
[40:28] about now. And it'll become a little bit
[40:29] clearer. Change what your mind is doing.
[40:34] First understand the concept that only
[40:36] oneness is all around you.
[40:39] Look at the next line.
[40:45] Your wandering mind, bring it back home.
[40:50] See how Guruj is answering your
[40:52] question. Your wandering mind that goes
[40:54] everywhere and is always worried about a
[40:57] hundred different things. Bring it home.
[41:06] You're only able to do this. Your
[41:08] question is going to be, "Oh, how do I
[41:09] do that?" It says, "You need a guru to
[41:11] teach you how to do that. When you meet
[41:13] the guru, you'll know how to do this."
[41:17] So guru is not giving you instructions
[41:18] and saying off you go, leave you on your
[41:21] own. The guru is saying, "No, stay with
[41:22] me and I will further instruct you how
[41:25] to do this.
[41:40] See what you have not been able to see
[41:43] so far.
[41:49] See what you have not been able to see
[41:52] so far.
[41:55] and sit back in amazement.
[41:58] There is something amazing in this room
[42:01] right now and we're missing it.
[42:05] There's something that connects all of
[42:07] us right now, but it's invisible to us.
[42:12] Why? Because our mind is telling its own
[42:15] story. Your mind is not telling you this
[42:18] story. Your mind is not reading this out
[42:20] to you all the time. Your mind is
[42:23] telling its own story.
[42:25] I wonder what time he's going to finish.
[42:28] I wonder if my car is going to be okay
[42:30] outside or did I switch the oven off or
[42:33] did I get what I needed to to make
[42:35] dinner tonight or do I need to go pick
[42:37] up the kids? Look where your mind is
[42:39] going. All the time your wandering mind,
[42:42] the guru is saying, "Hey, bring it back
[42:45] home. There's something amazing here
[42:47] right now and you're missing it cuz your
[42:49] mind is in the past or in the future.
[42:53] Your mind is not here in this room.
[42:57] It might be planning a holiday or it
[42:59] might be making a sandwich, but it's not
[43:02] here.
[43:04] Focus.
[43:06] Where's the question from?
[43:07] Is it focused?
[43:10] It's a little bit less than focus
[43:11] because the word focus means to
[43:14] concentrate on one thing. What we're
[43:16] saying is recognize your mind's ability
[43:20] to always go somewhere else and just
[43:23] bring it back. Bring it home. Bring it
[43:25] here. So, it's less about focus on one
[43:29] thing. What it's more about is be here.
[43:32] Keep your mind here. Notice what is here
[43:36] rather than ignoring what is here right
[43:38] now. Notice that you are here. And your
[43:41] mind might initially say, well, so what?
[43:43] That I'm here. While I'm here, I might
[43:45] as well think about other things. Got I
[43:47] got lots of things to plan for, right?
[43:49] That's what our mind naturally does. So
[43:51] what? But when you're thinking about
[43:55] lots of different things,
[43:57] you miss something.
[44:00] You miss something that's here right
[44:01] now. That's amazing.
[44:04] Guruji is saying, can't you see it?
[44:08] Can't you see that which you are looking
[44:11] for is here? What are we all looking for
[44:14] in life?
[44:17] Happiness.
[44:18] Guruji is saying, "Can't you see what I
[44:21] can see? Cuz I'm so amazed by what is
[44:25] here right now." Even if you brought
[44:28] your awareness back to your breathing
[44:30] and you just took one more breath in and
[44:32] you think, "Wow,
[44:35] I'm breathing.
[44:37] Even that is a miracle. If you think
[44:40] about it, that's a miracle.
[44:44] Look at this amazing machine that's been
[44:47] created that walks on its own,
[44:51] is running with no wires.
[44:55] It's wireless
[44:57] and it's fully able and it's able to do
[45:01] so many things. And it can talk and it
[45:03] can eat and it can move and it can play
[45:05] tennis and it can run and it can dance
[45:08] and it can do so many things.
[45:10] How much did you pay for this?
[45:15] Nothing.
[45:17] It's pretty good, huh? Some of ours are
[45:19] a little bit old now. They need an
[45:21] upgrade. Yeah, maybe needs a new new hip
[45:24] replacement or something. Some parts
[45:26] need to be replaced. But it's still
[45:28] pretty amazing.
[45:30] There's nothing that you can buy that
[45:33] can replace this. And we don't
[45:36] appreciate that.
[45:38] And because you don't appreciate that,
[45:41] you don't know the value of what you
[45:43] have. So you're always looking for
[45:45] something else. That's why your mind
[45:46] always goes somewhere else. It doesn't
[45:48] stay here and think, "Oh, I can be happy
[45:51] with what I have right now."
[45:54] You know, if you think about it, if
[45:56] somebody asked you, if you were
[45:58] selfish, if you were taking your body
[46:01] for granted, you think, "Yeah, I've had
[46:03] this body my whole life. No big deal."
[46:07] Ask somebody who's missing an arm.
[46:11] They might even ask you, "How much do
[46:14] you want for that arm?
[46:18] Give me, I'll pay you. How much do you
[46:19] want for that leg? How much do you want
[46:21] for those eyes?
[46:25] And then you think, uh, I don't know
[46:27] what value. I can't put a price on this.
[46:29] You say, no, surely everything's got a
[46:31] price. A million, 5 million, 10 million,
[46:34] 100 million. Give me your eyes.
[46:38] And then you realize, wow, what I have
[46:40] is pretty priceless.
[46:42] Yeah.
[46:44] But your mind doesn't do that. Your mind
[46:47] goes all over the place. Bring it back.
[46:50] Guruji is saying, "Can't you see what is
[46:52] here?" When you see what is here,
[46:57] be amazed with what is here.
[47:03] Forget your sorrows and be happy now.
[47:09] Forget forget what your mind is saying
[47:12] is causing you trouble. What you have is
[47:16] pretty amazing right now.
[47:24] Drink this that's here right now.
[47:29] Drink the nectar. Drink the juice of
[47:33] what is available to you at this very
[47:35] moment. The juice of life, of being
[47:38] alive, of being present, of being
[47:40] healthy,
[47:42] of being ablebodied, of being safe.
[47:48] You're safe and able-bodied and wellfed
[47:52] and protected and clothed.
[47:55] How many things have we just labeled
[47:57] that so many people don't have?
[48:01] Be amazed at what you have. Drink the
[48:06] amazing drink of life that you have
[48:08] available to you right now
[48:11] and you will find all the happiness that
[48:14] you've been looking for.
[48:16] Correct me if I'm translating this stuff
[48:18] wrong, please folks. Right, what I'm
[48:21] doing is I'm literally breaking it down
[48:24] so that you can see how does this
[48:26] Gurbani stuff work.
[48:29] There's all one Shabbad. It's not 50
[48:32] Shabbads, but so many lessons in here.
[48:34] In every word, if you take it, you say,
[48:36] "Oh, wow. There's some real value in
[48:38] this stuff." One Shabbad. Yeah, probably
[48:41] five or 10,000 Shabbads in Guran Sabi.
[48:44] The manual
[48:46] of you,
[48:49] the best kept secret of the world
[48:50] really, it's here.
[48:53] Drink this essence
[48:56] and find supreme happiness.
[49:00] It's right there in your own home. Where
[49:02] are you going to go for happiness? What
[49:05] can you buy that replaces what you have?
[49:08] It's right there in your own home.
[49:16] When you think like this, it gets rid of
[49:19] your fears. You don't even worry about
[49:22] dying
[49:23] because dying is simply understanding, I
[49:27] got given this for free, but it's on
[49:29] rent. At some point, I've got to hand it
[49:31] back.
[49:33] Yeah.
[49:34] There's not many things that we rent
[49:36] anymore. When we were younger, you used
[49:38] to go to like Blockbuster Video. Our
[49:40] kids don't even know about these things
[49:42] anymore, right? You had to go and rent
[49:44] stuff. Most kids don't even know what a
[49:46] library is, right? These days. But the
[49:49] idea is this is borrowed. This is on
[49:52] rent.
[49:55] You go to the library, they don't charge
[49:57] you for the book, but the only price you
[49:59] have to pay is you got to give it back.
[50:02] It's borrowed. It's on lease.
[50:06] There's a fixed term, but you don't have
[50:09] to pay everything. 0%.
[50:12] Zero fees, 0% interest.
[50:17] But after the term is up, you got to
[50:21] hand it back. So you will not be afraid
[50:24] of dying. When you understand this,
[50:32] and when you understand this, birth and
[50:35] death do not become a trauma for you.
[50:38] You're not going to worry that, oh, I've
[50:41] got to be born again and again and
[50:43] there's reincarnation. And we had this
[50:45] question yesterday. I was talking to
[50:47] some of our friends. What is
[50:48] reincarnation? And I said, I don't know.
[50:51] I don't know if I was a mouse in my last
[50:53] life or a or a horse or a king or a
[50:56] beggar. I don't know. But I know right
[50:59] now it doesn't bother me cuz I don't
[51:02] remember my last life. And chances are
[51:04] in my next life I'm not going to
[51:05] remember this one unless I have YouTube.
[51:08] Then I can go back and check. Right?
[51:13] So you're not going to worry about your
[51:15] past. You're not going to be worried
[51:17] about dying. You're not going to be
[51:18] worried about reincarnation or am I
[51:20] going to go to heaven or am I going to
[51:22] go to hell.
[51:23] Let's not worry about that because what
[51:25] is that? That's the mind wandering off
[51:27] somewhere else again. And the guru said,
[51:30] "Hey, bring that thought. bring it back
[51:32] home because there's something amazing
[51:34] happening here right now.
[51:38] This is the most profound line of this
[51:40] shabbud
[51:42] which most people within the sik
[51:43] tradition have completely rejected this
[51:46] way of thinking but the gurbani has
[51:48] always accepted this way.
[51:56] There's a vic used here
[51:59] I am that
[52:01] I am God. I am that divine being.
[52:07] That invisible divine light.
[52:12] I am that
[52:15] there is no difference between me and
[52:16] that div that divine.
[52:20] You know this word sam is such a
[52:22] beautiful word and I find it very
[52:23] interesting where six are quite
[52:26] closedminded sometimes and say no no no
[52:29] these are not these are Hindu words or
[52:31] they or they they're from the ves or
[52:33] they're from these other traditions or
[52:34] like they're inferior you don't
[52:36] understand the value of those traditions
[52:38] either we don't understand our tradition
[52:40] we don't understand the other traditions
[52:42] even this word sam is so beautiful
[52:45] you know what the the the saying is
[52:49] that when a baby is born, it cries out
[52:54] kohham kohham. It cries and cries and it
[52:57] cries to the universe and it says who am
[53:00] I? What am I? Kohham what am I? And the
[53:03] universe replies so you are me and I am
[53:07] you.
[53:09] That's the word that guru has used. This
[53:12] is what you are. You are the essence of
[53:15] the universe. And make no mistake, you
[53:17] are not different to the universe. You
[53:19] are not different to this oneness. You
[53:21] are not different to God.
[53:26] That essence of reality, that invisible
[53:30] force,
[53:32] that light that is everywhere
[53:35] is also mine and I am it.
[53:39] There's no difference between me and it.
[53:44] That infinite
[53:47] divinity, call it God, call it the
[53:50] oneness, call it the universe, that
[53:52] whatever this is,
[53:55] whatever this universe thing is, even if
[53:56] you're an atheist, there's something
[53:58] here, right? There's something amazing
[54:01] here right now that's called life that
[54:04] we can agree on.
[54:07] That infinite being that is called the
[54:09] universal life.
[54:12] Nanuk says, "When the guru showed me how
[54:15] to find it, I realized that I and it
[54:19] were the same."
[54:28] Nanuk says, "The guru shows me what that
[54:31] is."
[54:34] But remember
[54:36] your homework is that Rahul line.
[54:45] Don't forget this and you'll be happy.
[54:48] That's your homework the guru is giving
[54:49] you
[54:53] 24 hours a day. Remember this lesson
[54:57] that
[55:01] look at this word here data. You know
[55:04] what that means? The giver and the
[55:07] receiver is one. The data, the giver of
[55:11] gifts and the pugta, the enjoyer of
[55:14] gifts are all one.
[55:17] Don't forget that lesson.
[55:19] So if you thought you were coming to a
[55:21] lesson about how to be happy, the guru
[55:24] is actually saying to you, I can show
[55:27] you how to be happy. But there's a big
[55:29] price that you have to pay. And the
[55:31] price that you have to pay is your very
[55:33] understanding of yourself has to change.
[55:36] That's the price that you have to pay.
[55:38] Otherwise, the guru doesn't have a fee.
[55:41] But he's saying first there is a fee.
[55:52] If you want to play this game, if you
[55:55] want to enter this school, the price is
[55:58] you have to give yourself up.
[56:07] First understand that the price that you
[56:10] have to pay is you have to give what you
[56:14] think you are. It's not doesn't sound
[56:18] so scary. Nobody's saying you got to
[56:21] actually give your body or you got to
[56:23] give your head or you got to give
[56:24] something or you don't have to give
[56:26] anything. You have to give your
[56:28] understanding up that I am me.
[56:31] Oh me, I am myself. Guru says that's the
[56:34] price. Give me that.
[56:37] But
[56:39] as first give up your own individuality
[56:42] that you want to live like I'm fine as I
[56:44] am don't change me just give me some
[56:47] nice lessons nope I can't give you that
[56:50] if you want to learn what the guru wants
[56:52] to teach you the price is yourself you
[56:55] are the price
[57:02] then come to this school when you're
[57:04] willing to drop that low when you're
[57:06] willing to give everything and say
[57:10] in return I want happiness.
[57:13] So if you want to know what happiness
[57:14] is, it's all in this one Shabbud.
[57:19] Now the big question is what do I do
[57:22] about it? And that's where I want to
[57:24] open it up now to Q&As's, to
[57:27] conversation, to discussion because I'm
[57:29] really good at giving conceptual ideas.
[57:32] But we need to now break down. You need
[57:35] to now challenge me as I've challenged
[57:37] you to say, how do I do it? What do I
[57:40] do? What do I need to do every moment?
[57:42] Do I need to do something? Do I need to
[57:43] focus? Do I need to do something
[57:44] different? What do I do? The guru's
[57:47] instruction is quite simple. Change your
[57:50] understanding of what you are.
[57:53] So first lesson understand this. You
[57:57] need to change what you think you are.
[58:03] You cannot ask for happiness in life
[58:07] without changing what you think you are.
[58:09] Because all of that is temporary
[58:11] happiness.
[58:13] Can't I just buy some nice clothes? You
[58:15] could, but that won't last. It'll give
[58:18] you a short-term happiness.
[58:21] But what the guru is saying is this
[58:23] permanent happiness?
[58:26] Now the question you have to ask
[58:27] yourself is is the price too high?
[58:31] Maybe I don't want permanent happiness.
[58:33] Maybe I'll say thanks but no thanks.
[58:36] I'll just go live my normal life. The
[58:38] normal life means I'm going to go
[58:40] through this emotional roller coaster
[58:42] every minute because I'm not willing to
[58:44] challenge what my mind is doing. So the
[58:46] mind is going to make me really happy
[58:48] one moment and then really sad the next
[58:50] moment and then really happy and then
[58:51] sad and I'm just going to go through
[58:53] this emotional roller coaster all day
[58:55] every day for the rest of my life. You
[58:57] say, "Okay, fine. If you're happy to
[58:58] live like that, go ahead. Nobody's
[59:00] forcing you." Or,
[59:04] and this is a big or
[59:07] have you reached the point in your life
[59:09] where you say, "You know what? I'm done.
[59:13] Enough's enough.
[59:15] I'm done with all of the anger. I'm done
[59:20] with all of the conflict and all of the
[59:24] challenges and all the battles that I
[59:26] face in my life every day. I'm done. I
[59:30] give it. Guru here. I'm done.
[59:34] When you reach that point, rock bottom
[59:37] is a really great place to be. Everybody
[59:40] needs to hit rock bottom.
[59:43] Until you hit rock bottom in your life,
[59:45] you're going to think, "Oh, I don't need
[59:46] to do this stuff. I'll just buy
[59:48] something shiny." I saw a great t-shirt
[59:50] in the center of London one day. It was
[59:53] a woman's t-shirt and it was on a it was
[59:55] on a on a rack in a in a shelf and there
[59:58] was a bunch of men's t-shirts and then
[59:59] the women's t-shirt just had in glitter
[1:00:02] saying I was going to take over the
[1:00:03] world. But then I saw something shiny
[1:00:07] and it was just I thought that's that's
[1:00:09] life.
[1:00:11] I had so much potential,
[1:00:14] but then I saw something shiny and it
[1:00:16] distracted me.
[1:00:18] And that's what we all do all day, every
[1:00:22] day, men, women, children, and
[1:00:24] grown-ups.
[1:00:26] I was going to do so much, but then I
[1:00:29] got distracted by so little.
[1:00:32] So the question is
[1:00:34] are you willing
[1:00:36] to have the happiness that guru is
[1:00:40] offering
[1:00:42] for the price that the guru is offering?
[1:00:45] If the price is to give yourself up,
[1:00:48] what are the steps?
[1:00:52] What are the steps needed in order to
[1:00:55] give yourself up? Is was that the
[1:00:56] question Vij? What are the steps needed?
[1:01:00] Now, I would say time and time again,
[1:01:04] there are some factors that you need to
[1:01:06] consider. If you're enrolling into this
[1:01:09] school, if we can just keep all the mics
[1:01:11] off until we need them. Thank you. If
[1:01:14] you're enrolling in this school,
[1:01:17] you need to follow a few things. One is
[1:01:22] golden rule. The guru is always right.
[1:01:25] These are the rules of this school. The
[1:01:28] guru is right whether you understand
[1:01:30] what the guru is saying or not. Now some
[1:01:33] of you might question how do we know
[1:01:35] that the guru is right. I don't know
[1:01:37] that the guru is right. Everyone has a
[1:01:39] religion. Everyone says their teacher is
[1:01:41] right. But in any school that you go to
[1:01:45] the first thing you need to do is you
[1:01:47] need to trust that the teacher knows a
[1:01:49] little bit more than you. When you've
[1:01:51] learned from that teacher, only then can
[1:01:53] you question, I don't think he's right
[1:01:55] or I don't think he knows this or he
[1:01:57] only knows this much, but maybe I need a
[1:02:00] better teacher. But most of us don't do
[1:02:02] that. Even with the guru, most of us,
[1:02:06] especially the younger generation,
[1:02:08] without learning from the guru, will
[1:02:10] say, "Yeah, I don't need this siki
[1:02:12] stuff. It doesn't do anything for me.
[1:02:14] It's probably not right."
[1:02:16] Most teenagers
[1:02:19] will say, "I'm atheist. I don't believe
[1:02:20] in anything. It doesn't make sense.
[1:02:24] And what I always say is, well, you
[1:02:27] haven't first understood this.
[1:02:30] You can't make a decision without even
[1:02:33] learning how to actually come to that
[1:02:36] conclusion. What did you use to come to
[1:02:38] that conclusion? Instagram. What did you
[1:02:41] use to come to the conclusion that there
[1:02:43] is nothing here? There is there is no
[1:02:45] spirituality. There is no oneness.
[1:02:47] There's no God. Like, what did you how
[1:02:48] did you come to that? What book did you
[1:02:49] study to tell you that?
[1:02:52] So first step understand that there is a
[1:02:57] teacher and you are a student. You have
[1:02:59] to align yourself with the teacher and
[1:03:02] student. You have to commit to a
[1:03:05] teacher. Now there will be those of us
[1:03:07] in the room
[1:03:09] who try lots of different spiritual
[1:03:11] traditions. I listen to a little bit of
[1:03:13] sguru. I listen to a little bit of this.
[1:03:15] Little bit of brahma kumaris. I do a bit
[1:03:18] of yoga. I do some mindfulness. I do
[1:03:20] some zen. I I go to this and that. Okay,
[1:03:24] fine. But what I would say is pick one
[1:03:27] teacher and dedicate to one teacher
[1:03:30] first.
[1:03:32] Try everything that you need from that
[1:03:34] teacher first. Hopping from one teacher
[1:03:36] to another to another is not that those
[1:03:39] teachers are wrong, but you won't get
[1:03:42] the best out of going from one teacher
[1:03:44] to another. And the analogy works even
[1:03:46] if you just think about any subject.
[1:03:49] Any subject. Pick one teacher. You pick
[1:03:52] five teachers, you're going to learn
[1:03:53] something. None none of those teachers
[1:03:55] are wrong, but they all have their own
[1:03:56] way of teaching you. Pick one.
[1:04:00] Get into one school. Learn from the
[1:04:02] teacher
[1:04:05] and understand I have to give myself up.
[1:04:10] Most people within spirituality who go
[1:04:14] to their yoga classes once a week or
[1:04:17] they listen to some mantra or they're
[1:04:20] reading some spirituality books. They're
[1:04:22] reading great things like echart toll or
[1:04:24] any of the other spiritual traditions.
[1:04:27] They haven't understood this key idea. I
[1:04:30] have to give myself up within the sik
[1:04:33] tradition. Within this spiritual
[1:04:34] tradition, the guru is very clear on
[1:04:36] what the price is up front. I have to
[1:04:39] give that up.
[1:04:41] Now comes the understanding how does the
[1:04:43] me get formed and how do I reverse it?
[1:04:46] And that's goes back to what we started
[1:04:48] at the beginning of this session. Mei
[1:04:51] gets formed every moment that I am
[1:04:55] self-referencing
[1:04:57] all day every day. I'm self-referencing.
[1:05:02] And when I'm self-referencing all day
[1:05:03] every day, if I get up and do five
[1:05:05] minutes of meditation or mantra or siman
[1:05:07] or whatever it is and you think well
[1:05:10] that didn't work so clearly this doesn't
[1:05:12] work. And the example that I use
[1:05:16] is
[1:05:18] if you are learning to swim, you don't
[1:05:21] expect on your first lesson to get into
[1:05:23] the water and to be able to swim
[1:05:25] flawlessly to the other side by the
[1:05:27] first lesson, do you? You don't expect
[1:05:30] that. You think I'm going to take time
[1:05:33] to practice and get used to swimming to
[1:05:37] the other side. It's going to take me a
[1:05:39] while.
[1:05:41] But when it comes to meditation, we
[1:05:42] don't apply the same logic.
[1:05:45] What we do is I've tried it for 5
[1:05:48] minutes. It didn't work. And we come to
[1:05:50] the conclusion it might work for other
[1:05:52] people, doesn't work for me.
[1:05:55] Right? I tried it. I tried it for half
[1:05:57] an hour and it doesn't work. But the
[1:06:00] guru, what does the guru say? Oh, by the
[1:06:01] way, you need to do this for 24 hours
[1:06:03] every day. Ah,
[1:06:06] so I've not been doing that. Right? So
[1:06:09] have patience.
[1:06:11] Understand that this is you're in it for
[1:06:14] the long term. This is not a short-term
[1:06:16] thing, but the gains can start coming
[1:06:20] very quickly. As soon as you start a
[1:06:22] practice, you start meditating
[1:06:25] regularly. And I always encourage people
[1:06:28] any meditation
[1:06:30] now I'm going to say that something
[1:06:32] which is different to what you've heard
[1:06:34] before any meditation
[1:06:37] stick to it and try it for a while. Most
[1:06:40] of us are not meditating let alone
[1:06:42] trying one type of meditation or one
[1:06:44] mantra. If it works for you to use a
[1:06:47] mantra use a mantra. If it works for you
[1:06:50] to sit in silence sit in silence. What
[1:06:52] you will find is everything works for a
[1:06:54] short period and then the mind gets
[1:06:56] bored so you have to try something else.
[1:06:58] But have your commitment keep trying
[1:07:01] every day meditate on a regular basis.
[1:07:05] People always say, "Oh, I don't have
[1:07:07] time to meditate." Yeah, my life is too
[1:07:10] busy. And what I say is there are two
[1:07:13] times in the day that you always have to
[1:07:14] meditate.
[1:07:16] When you wake up in the morning,
[1:07:19] everyone's got a couple of minutes
[1:07:20] before they get out of bed. If you
[1:07:22] don't, set your alarm 5 minutes earlier.
[1:07:25] Five minutes. Whatever time you're meant
[1:07:28] to get up, if it's 6:00, get up 5
[1:07:30] minutes before. Sit. Meditate 5 minutes.
[1:07:33] And then when you go to bed, everyone's
[1:07:35] got 5 minutes before they sleep. Put
[1:07:37] your phone down, switch Netflix off,
[1:07:40] put the book away,
[1:07:43] get the kids into bed. 5 minutes.
[1:07:46] Do that twice a day at least and you'll
[1:07:49] start seeing the benefits. So the
[1:07:52] question was what do you need? One, you
[1:07:54] need a teacher. Two, you need commitment
[1:07:56] to a practice. The third thing that you
[1:07:59] need is you need other people in the
[1:08:02] same class to help you out. And that's
[1:08:04] called sut.
[1:08:07] It's very difficult to do this on your
[1:08:09] own.
[1:08:10] If you have a life partner, if that life
[1:08:13] partner is on a similar journey, that's
[1:08:15] a huge bonus.
[1:08:18] If you have friends who are on a similar
[1:08:20] journey, it's a huge bonus. You need the
[1:08:24] support of other people to say, you know
[1:08:27] what, I tried my meditation today. It
[1:08:29] didn't work. And someone says, oh, it's
[1:08:31] okay. Try that tomorrow. Try something
[1:08:33] different. That's sut.
[1:08:36] You need more people who are also doing
[1:08:38] the same thing. There are a handful of
[1:08:41] things that you need. It's like your
[1:08:43] first day of school. You need all of
[1:08:44] these different things. Then it's
[1:08:46] practice, practice, practice
[1:08:49] because there's only five or six or 10
[1:08:52] different ways to learn how to swim to
[1:08:54] the other side. Then it's about keeping
[1:08:56] that practice going. And every time
[1:08:58] you're doing it, you need the support of
[1:09:00] the teacher to tell you you need to do
[1:09:02] this, you need to do that. That's why
[1:09:04] within this tradition
[1:09:07] you have a tradition of wake up every
[1:09:09] day and read this wisdom.
[1:09:11] Wake up every day and do a little bit of
[1:09:13] this meditation.
[1:09:15] Guru says 24 hours a day. I'm saying 5
[1:09:17] minutes to start with at least 5
[1:09:20] minutes. And every day try at the end of
[1:09:24] the day to ask yourself what did I do
[1:09:28] that can be improved today?
[1:09:31] When did I let my mind go? so far off
[1:09:34] that I allowed the story of my mind to
[1:09:36] completely ruin how I felt today. We all
[1:09:39] do that, right? Our mind goes so bad and
[1:09:43] sometimes people say, "Oh, I've got
[1:09:44] anger management issues. Oh, I've I I
[1:09:47] have lots of problems with my family
[1:09:48] members." And I'm not saying that we
[1:09:50] don't. We all, some of us have real
[1:09:51] issues in our lives. Some of us go
[1:09:54] through some real difficulties and have
[1:09:55] to deal with some horrible people who
[1:09:57] are just in our life and we can't get
[1:09:58] out of it.
[1:10:00] But you have to ask yourself the
[1:10:02] question what can I do? What did I do
[1:10:04] right? What can I do to improve? So
[1:10:08] there are many things but ultimately
[1:10:10] it's that one thing really the guru's
[1:10:12] just given us one answer in this
[1:10:13] shabbat. Just remember this 24 hours a
[1:10:16] day in ji we say something similar.
[1:10:22] Give me one lesson one understanding.
[1:10:31] that everything belongs to this one
[1:10:33] master, this oneness. Don't let me
[1:10:36] forget that. In reality, that's all you
[1:10:37] need to do. But it sounds simple, but
[1:10:40] it's actually the most challenging thing
[1:10:42] to do.
[1:10:45] So, any more questions? Please raise
[1:10:47] your hands. Let's start having a
[1:10:49] discussion on this. The question is, I
[1:10:52] personally choose not to use the word
[1:10:54] God. How does my interpretation of
[1:10:57] gurbani
[1:10:58] interpret words like bahiguru
[1:11:02] to me all of these words
[1:11:06] are trying to give attributes to
[1:11:09] something that cannot be spoken of.
[1:11:11] Yeah.
[1:11:13] The word wah just means wow.
[1:11:18] Guru means enlightener.
[1:11:20] Wow. Enlightener. Is that a name of God
[1:11:24] or is that an expression of somebody who
[1:11:26] is experiencing this oneness? The word
[1:11:29] ram that which is immersed
[1:11:33] that which is immersed in everything.
[1:11:37] Har
[1:11:38] that which is blossoming everywhere.
[1:11:42] Param that supreme being.
[1:11:47] None of these are actually names.
[1:11:49] They're just pointers
[1:11:52] because Gurobin Singh G in jabs
[1:11:55] clarifies that whatever this thing is is
[1:11:59] aname
[1:12:00] really has no real name.
[1:12:04] So when you think like that then any
[1:12:06] word that you use if it works for you to
[1:12:09] get you into that understanding of
[1:12:11] connectedness with this whatever this is
[1:12:14] this oneness call it God call it
[1:12:16] universe call it life I call it
[1:12:19] aliveness life life energy
[1:12:22] whatever word brings you back to that
[1:12:25] understanding is a good word for you for
[1:12:28] me the word God doesn't do that for me
[1:12:31] does that make sense the word doesn't do
[1:12:33] that for
[1:12:34] I find universe to be a better word cuz
[1:12:37] I think this stuff. My mind goes
[1:12:39] outwards. It doesn't think that guy.
[1:12:42] With that understanding, is it fair to
[1:12:45] assume that Sikhism is not a theistic
[1:12:48] faith?
[1:12:50] If we say it's not theistic then it
[1:12:53] becomes atheistic
[1:12:57] as in we theism is the idea that there
[1:13:02] is some deity some beingness.
[1:13:05] Most people translate the sik tradition
[1:13:08] as being monotheistic,
[1:13:10] single god, single theism, single being.
[1:13:15] I don't actually see it as monotheistic.
[1:13:18] I see it as panentheistic
[1:13:21] which is not that there is some god
[1:13:24] sitting in the clouds with a white beard
[1:13:25] in the sky but really everything is
[1:13:29] sacred
[1:13:30] whatever this thing is is within me and
[1:13:34] all around me as according to the guru
[1:13:36] as according to a shab that we've seen
[1:13:38] earlier today
[1:13:39] so in ji you start from god as one
[1:13:43] I don't
[1:13:44] so how does that go like you know the
[1:13:48] First word what we say is ekumar. So
[1:13:50] what does that mean? By saying when you
[1:13:53] say there's no god it is all universe.
[1:13:56] Yes.
[1:13:56] So how that ganak by saying means
[1:14:00] gurunanak says guranak gi does not say
[1:14:04] there is one god. He saysar
[1:14:06] okay
[1:14:07] does not mean there is one god
[1:14:09] because the word god isn't in that
[1:14:11] statement. There's ick which we know
[1:14:14] means one and then there's which doesn't
[1:14:17] mean Godar
[1:14:20] means an unfolding vibrational entity
[1:14:25] an infinite unfolding
[1:14:29] is this constantly changing molding
[1:14:34] entity. it we it doesn't even say it's
[1:14:37] an entity because doesn't come until the
[1:14:40] third word
[1:14:43] a being that doesn't even come in until
[1:14:46] then first gurunanak says there is
[1:14:48] oneness and it is constantly unfolding
[1:14:51] it's constantly oscillating it's
[1:14:54] infinite
[1:14:58] it's just infinitely molding and moving
[1:15:00] and vibrating one infinite vibration
[1:15:08] Look how different that is to there is
[1:15:10] one God.
[1:15:12] Yeah. Remember who the people are that
[1:15:15] translated this stuff for us.
[1:15:18] The definition there is one God is not a
[1:15:21] sick translation. The first people who
[1:15:24] came to translate this stuff were the
[1:15:26] European missionaries who came into
[1:15:28] India and they said what is thisar
[1:15:31] business? And whoever tried to explain
[1:15:33] it to them, they said, "Oh, that sounds
[1:15:34] a bit like our thing. We've got this
[1:15:36] thing called Godar,
[1:15:38] one God. Okay, there is one God." And
[1:15:42] the sick community was not educated well
[1:15:44] enough in English back then to be able
[1:15:46] to challenge that. So they said, "Okay,
[1:15:49] if you say there is one God, then that's
[1:15:51] what must mean, there is one God." And
[1:15:53] 250 years, we're still stuck with that
[1:15:55] definition. It's time for us to take
[1:15:57] ownership of our own definitions.
[1:16:01] We've learned English now. We're able to
[1:16:04] push back a little bit.
[1:16:06] Great question. Why is it difficult for
[1:16:08] me to say there is one God? Because when
[1:16:11] you say God, what image comes in your
[1:16:14] mind?
[1:16:17] For most people, the image that comes in
[1:16:19] their mind is a male figure that's older
[1:16:23] than them and sits in the cloud
[1:16:24] somewhere. The word has it. I have an
[1:16:28] issue with it. The word is not wrong. I
[1:16:30] have an issue with it and I feel most
[1:16:33] people have the standard definition
[1:16:35] because when you have the conversation
[1:16:37] with other people of other traditions,
[1:16:40] what definition are they using?
[1:16:44] Because if you borrow other people's
[1:16:46] terminology, you also inherit their
[1:16:49] understanding. So we might have these
[1:16:52] amazing interfaith discussions and
[1:16:54] everybody's saying, "Yeah, we're all
[1:16:55] talking about the same God." No, we're
[1:16:56] not.
[1:16:59] And I'm not trying to say the Sikhs are
[1:17:01] like this and the Hindus are like this
[1:17:02] and the Christians. I don't care. I
[1:17:04] don't want to make those divisions. I'm
[1:17:06] not trying to do that. But I'm not going
[1:17:09] to use a word that doesn't belong to to
[1:17:10] to the guru's tradition. The guru
[1:17:13] doesn't use a word like God. Why am I
[1:17:15] going to use a word like God? When you
[1:17:17] use a word like God, you inherit
[1:17:21] the understanding of that God.
[1:17:25] And to me that god is not what means
[1:17:30] comfortable with r.
[1:17:32] Yeah.
[1:17:34] But what we've done
[1:17:37] Punjabis are very clever.
[1:17:40] What we've done is every word even in
[1:17:44] our mind even if we don't use the word
[1:17:47] god we think of that same god.
[1:17:51] Raan
[1:17:52] god knows. Yeah,
[1:17:56] God knows right. Same thingu
[1:18:00] when you talk about wuru vuuru jada
[1:18:04] opera
[1:18:06] where does this idea of operala come
[1:18:08] from in punjabi we're very comfortable
[1:18:11] with this word uparala right hindi we
[1:18:14] use it as well right but gurunani is
[1:18:17] saying no there's no upurala there's
[1:18:19] andala
[1:18:21] the one that's inside not the one that's
[1:18:23] up there so when you say god or ra or
[1:18:26] permata or I grew you put your hands
[1:18:28] together and you look up
[1:18:31] right God.
[1:18:34] Why? Because we've been colonialized.
[1:18:36] The guru has an instruction.
[1:18:39] The guru's instruction is
[1:18:44] anyone who searches for this thing
[1:18:46] outside is going to fail.
[1:18:49] So when you look up, the guru I believe
[1:18:52] will tell you you're looking in the
[1:18:54] wrong place.
[1:18:55] When you look down, you're looking in
[1:18:56] the wrong place. When you look within,
[1:18:59] that's where that's where you need to
[1:19:01] find it.
[1:19:03] As soon as you look outside, what you do
[1:19:05] is you convince yourself that whatever
[1:19:07] this God thing is is something outside
[1:19:10] is greater than me, is beyond me.
[1:19:13] But it's not. It's in you. It's part of
[1:19:15] you. And the guru's instruction to us as
[1:19:17] I've understood it. And I really like
[1:19:19] your question there because you've made
[1:19:20] it very clear. Everything that I'm
[1:19:22] saying is not the truth. Everything that
[1:19:25] I'm saying is my interpretation. And
[1:19:28] thank you for clarifying that because I
[1:19:29] say that quite a lot myself as well.
[1:19:31] Nothing that I say is correct. Please
[1:19:35] assume everything that I say is wrong.
[1:19:37] Assume that because it means that that
[1:19:40] you'll go away and you'll say, I think I
[1:19:42] I like what he says, but he might be
[1:19:44] wrong. Let me go and check.
[1:19:46] Get your own understanding. I am not
[1:19:49] here to be your teacher.
[1:19:52] I am not a teacher. Why? Cuz I'm a sick.
[1:19:56] I'm just another student. And we never
[1:19:58] graduate. Cuz we have a teacher. The
[1:20:01] guru is the teacher. I cannot be your
[1:20:03] teacher. I can simply be another student
[1:20:06] that says, "Hey, you know what the guru
[1:20:08] says? This is how I understand it. I can
[1:20:11] only ever give you my interpretation. So
[1:20:13] everything I say could be wrong. Please
[1:20:16] assume it's wrong so that you go away
[1:20:18] and you understand it and then you come
[1:20:19] back and you tell me, hey, you're wrong
[1:20:21] there. I say, oh, thanks very much
[1:20:22] because I'm willing to learn.
[1:20:30] You're right that we do need to do good
[1:20:33] actions and good actions is a way of
[1:20:37] almost interacting with God. And as long
[1:20:41] as you do that in the right way, you're
[1:20:43] a step closer.
[1:20:45] My only thing that I say with that is
[1:20:47] you're absolutely right. We're not
[1:20:49] gurunanic. Re what you're saying is
[1:20:51] let's be realistic. What can we actually
[1:20:54] achieve in our day-to-day life? What my
[1:20:56] understanding is is that what's the
[1:20:59] alternative? If you look at all the
[1:21:02] other spiritual traditions, almost all
[1:21:04] the other spiritual traditions are what
[1:21:06] I would call monkbased traditions,
[1:21:09] sadhu based traditions, traditions that
[1:21:11] have come from people who weren't
[1:21:13] married, who didn't have jobs, who
[1:21:15] didn't have kids, who didn't have
[1:21:17] mortgages, and didn't have a house to
[1:21:20] look after. So, they sat and they sat
[1:21:22] and meditated under a tree, and they sat
[1:21:24] in a cave for days and months and weeks
[1:21:26] and years. And they're the ones coming
[1:21:29] and saying well you if you want to
[1:21:30] meditate you need to meditate you need
[1:21:32] to sit and you need to go and spend time
[1:21:34] doing that. I think what Gurunanak gi
[1:21:37] said was okay that's good but I have a
[1:21:40] job I have kids I have a life I have a
[1:21:44] wife I have things to do
[1:21:47] give me a technique that I can do while
[1:21:50] I'm doing all those things. And what I'm
[1:21:52] saying is while you're doing all those
[1:21:54] things, yes, do lots of good things, but
[1:21:57] be aware of this story that's going on
[1:22:00] in your mind because you can do lots of
[1:22:03] good things,
[1:22:05] but in your mind, you're doing lots of
[1:22:07] negative things. So, it's not just about
[1:22:10] doing good actions, it's also good
[1:22:12] thought. Remember that Gurbani gives us
[1:22:14] these three things that we need to be
[1:22:16] aware of. Man, bach and kam. Your
[1:22:20] thoughts, your words, and your actions.
[1:22:24] All three have to be aligned. If your
[1:22:26] actions are good, but your words are
[1:22:28] not, then you're not in alignment. If
[1:22:31] your words are good and your actions are
[1:22:33] good, but your thoughts are not, then
[1:22:35] they're not in alignment. So, all three
[1:22:37] have to be. So, I take your point that
[1:22:38] you do need to have the right actions of
[1:22:41] just how you deal with the world. But
[1:22:43] I'd say add one thing more to that.
[1:22:46] Don't stop doing that, but add one thing
[1:22:48] more. Just be aware when your mind goes
[1:22:51] off or when your mind goes into negative
[1:22:54] thinking. Try and bring your mind into
[1:22:56] that repetition. Get into that habit of
[1:23:00] just celebrating and praising while
[1:23:03] you're doing all the things that you're
[1:23:04] doing. You don't have to stop what
[1:23:05] you're doing. This is the great thing
[1:23:06] about Gurunanak tradition. You don't
[1:23:08] have to stop what you're doing. While
[1:23:11] you're doing it, you have to adopt a new
[1:23:13] way of thinking.
[1:23:15] I think there are quite a few other
[1:23:16] hands up. One, two, three. So let point
[1:23:20] out we've just been waiting. Okay.
[1:23:24] If we're all one, children might ask,
[1:23:28] why is it that there is hatred in some
[1:23:31] people and goodness in others? Why is it
[1:23:34] that if we're all one, we don't all
[1:23:36] think like one? Because there's one
[1:23:39] element inside every single human being,
[1:23:43] which is me.
[1:23:46] We all have this little thing inside us
[1:23:51] called me I am
[1:23:56] and we're born that way. In fact, the
[1:23:59] entire struggle of most spiritual
[1:24:02] traditions is to simply help you with
[1:24:04] that little thing me I am. And as long
[1:24:08] as I am, then I am becomes the most
[1:24:11] important person. The story that's being
[1:24:15] written of life is not about life. Is
[1:24:18] not about everyone. It's not everyone's
[1:24:20] story and everyone is equal. As long as
[1:24:22] there's a me, then it becomes my story.
[1:24:25] And in my story, I'm the most important
[1:24:28] one. And we all have that. We all have
[1:24:32] this sense that I am
[1:24:35] more important than you.
[1:24:38] And the guru is simply trying to get rid
[1:24:40] of that way of thinking that I am more
[1:24:42] important than you. But it's natural.
[1:24:44] But you know what the kids will ask?
[1:24:46] Why? Why do we have this I am?
[1:24:51] And in reality
[1:24:53] it's like asking why is the sky blue? It
[1:24:57] is. Why are the leaves green? I can give
[1:25:01] you a technical answer.
[1:25:03] That's mitochondria and all these sorts
[1:25:05] of things and chloroform and tell me
[1:25:07] some biologists who know more than me.
[1:25:09] Huh?
[1:25:10] Chloroplast.
[1:25:10] Chloroplast and all these things, right?
[1:25:13] It's been a while since I've learned all
[1:25:15] these things.
[1:25:17] You can explain why a leaf is green with
[1:25:20] all these things. But ultimately a leaf
[1:25:22] is green because a leaf is green.
[1:25:26] Ultimately the ego is there.
[1:25:29] Now the question is do you want to do
[1:25:32] something about it?
[1:25:34] This question has come up time and time
[1:25:36] again. And it's not just kids that ask
[1:25:38] it, especially the grown-ups will ask
[1:25:40] it. Why do I have an ego?
[1:25:45] And the way I like to think about it is
[1:25:48] imagine you're in a prison
[1:25:52] and the guru comes along and says, "Hey,
[1:25:55] I have a way out."
[1:25:59] And you say, "Wait, first tell me why
[1:26:02] I'm in here."
[1:26:05] And the guru says, "No, I have a way
[1:26:08] out. You're in a prison. I can get you
[1:26:11] out." You said, "No, but first tell me
[1:26:13] why I'm in here." And the guru says,
[1:26:15] "Look, I have a map."
[1:26:18] And you say, "No, but I need to know why
[1:26:20] before I read your map and before I
[1:26:22] trust you." And the guru says, "I have a
[1:26:25] torch and we can we can see."
[1:26:28] And the guru says, "Not only do I have a
[1:26:30] way out, I've been there. I've been out
[1:26:33] myself. I've helped lots of other people
[1:26:35] get out as well. I can help you get you
[1:26:36] out as well." And you say, "But I need
[1:26:38] to know why."
[1:26:42] And you don't you don't need to know why
[1:26:45] you have an ego. You need to understand
[1:26:48] you have an ego. And the guru has the
[1:26:50] key. The guru has the key to get you
[1:26:53] out. Now the question is, do you want to
[1:26:55] get out? That's the question.
[1:26:58] Cuz you might actually be resisting for
[1:27:01] one reason only. I quite like it here.
[1:27:05] It's okay. I get fed on time. I know
[1:27:09] this the cellmates next to me. They give
[1:27:12] us 5 minutes and we get to go outside
[1:27:14] and have a bit of a run around. I'm okay
[1:27:16] here.
[1:27:18] That's why I said before.
[1:27:20] You might be comfortable in your
[1:27:22] day-to-day life and so gurbani and the
[1:27:24] siki and spirituality and none of this
[1:27:27] stuff's going to make any sense.
[1:27:29] But when you reach the point where you
[1:27:31] say enough's enough, I'm done with this
[1:27:34] prison. I'm done with this trauma. I'm
[1:27:38] done with all of this up and down that I
[1:27:41] go through all day every day. And that
[1:27:43] you can't instill in someone else. that
[1:27:45] the guru has to stand there by the door
[1:27:47] with a key in his hand and wait for you
[1:27:49] to be ready.
[1:27:51] Are you ready to get out of this prison
[1:27:53] of the ego or are you not? When you're
[1:27:57] not ready, the guru is standing there.
[1:27:59] You come when you're ready. I'm ready.
[1:28:02] The guru is saying I'm here to get you
[1:28:04] out. The why becomes a useless question.
[1:28:08] What is the best way to meditate?
[1:28:12] I wonder whether Gurbani has a
[1:28:15] preference.
[1:28:17] I don't think the Gurbani has a best way
[1:28:19] to meditate. But Gurbani says that for
[1:28:23] the mind in this day and age, kithan and
[1:28:28] singing is the highest way in kaljug. It
[1:28:32] says kithan is purdana.
[1:28:35] And let's break that up a little bit
[1:28:38] because it needs to be understood. I'm
[1:28:40] really glad you've asked this question.
[1:28:41] What is the best way to meditate?
[1:28:44] And I've always encouraged people
[1:28:46] whatever way works for you. But I need
[1:28:49] you to understand what the guru's way of
[1:28:51] meditation is. The guru's way of
[1:28:54] meditation
[1:28:56] is not the same as prayer.
[1:28:59] When we say that
[1:29:02] we want to read Gurbani,
[1:29:05] some people say we want to do nitanim.
[1:29:10] How would you translate that? You'll say
[1:29:12] these are our prayers.
[1:29:15] Again, not a correct word. Prayer is not
[1:29:19] what we're doing. The word pray means
[1:29:22] dear Lord, I've got some stuff to ask
[1:29:25] for,
[1:29:26] right?
[1:29:28] I've got some stuff to say thank you
[1:29:30] for, but I got more stuff to ask. Yeah,
[1:29:33] pray. You are praying that something
[1:29:36] comes. Gurbani has a different
[1:29:39] technique. Gurbani says stop praying,
[1:29:43] start praising.
[1:29:46] Gurbani's method is gonna
[1:29:50] sing praises.
[1:29:52] At every moment take the opportunity
[1:29:56] to celebrate what is there. That's what
[1:29:59] githan is.
[1:30:01] That's what ga means. To sing praises at
[1:30:05] every moment 24 hours a day. Use an
[1:30:09] opportunity to say what can I say is
[1:30:12] amazing about this moment. How I explain
[1:30:14] it for my kids is I say the gurunana
[1:30:18] gave you something called wow
[1:30:20] meditation.
[1:30:22] Vahu
[1:30:24] I call it wow siman wow meditation at
[1:30:27] every moment what can you say is wow
[1:30:31] if you get into the habit of 24 hours a
[1:30:34] day being delighted
[1:30:37] by everything that is being available to
[1:30:40] you that is gurunanak's technique
[1:30:43] gurunanak's technique is to praise at
[1:30:46] every moment so there are many
[1:30:49] techniques techqu
[1:30:52] there is the technique of understanding
[1:30:55] the self gan wisdom there is the
[1:30:58] technique of dan of meditation and
[1:31:01] sitting in silence there are many
[1:31:03] techniques of even dan of yog
[1:31:08] but gurunanak's
[1:31:09] method was he says I'm a yogi too but
[1:31:14] yoga
[1:31:17] my yoga is singing your praises is
[1:31:21] yeah let's not be deluded this is also a
[1:31:23] type of yoga
[1:31:26] getting up every day and singing and
[1:31:28] every moment remembering to sing God's
[1:31:30] praises I use the word God loosely here
[1:31:32] so that we are understanding what we're
[1:31:35] talking about but to sing to be in a
[1:31:38] state of awe to be in a state of
[1:31:41] wonderment that even this moment is
[1:31:45] something so miraculous that's
[1:31:47] Gurunanak's technique of connecting
[1:31:49] think that I don't need to connect to
[1:31:51] God. I need to realize God. We don't
[1:31:55] need to find God. We need to realize
[1:31:58] that everything including you is already
[1:32:01] God.
[1:32:03] And the way you do that is being in a
[1:32:05] state of wow look why look what you've
[1:32:09] done right now in this very moment. Look
[1:32:11] how amazing everything is. That's the
[1:32:14] technique of gigon singing the praises.
[1:32:18] And you say wow so much that eventually
[1:32:22] you lose yourself that even this is wow.
[1:32:26] The technique of all spiritual
[1:32:28] traditions is ultimately to get you to
[1:32:30] one point you have to disappear. The me
[1:32:34] the barrier between you and all
[1:32:37] everything around you is me
[1:32:40] the myself. The myself is is is your
[1:32:44] biggest problem.
[1:32:46] No matter what you do, no matter how
[1:32:48] spiritual you are and no matter what
[1:32:50] your tradition is, the me, the myself is
[1:32:53] the biggest problem. The guru's
[1:32:55] technique is to not focus on deleting
[1:32:58] the myself. The focus is keep singing
[1:33:01] the praises of all around you and stop
[1:33:04] singing your own praises. Right? That's
[1:33:06] what we do all day. We do me thinking
[1:33:09] all day. I need to do this. I need to do
[1:33:12] that. Think about what happens when you
[1:33:13] wake up in the morning. When you wake up
[1:33:15] in the morning, what does your mind
[1:33:16] start doing? I need to do this. I need
[1:33:18] to do that. I haven't done that. I'm
[1:33:20] already late for that. You wake up and
[1:33:21] you're already late. You've already got
[1:33:23] 10 things to do when you wake up in the
[1:33:25] morning. So, your mind has its own
[1:33:27] meditation. I call it the mi siman. We
[1:33:30] meditate on ourselves all day, right?
[1:33:33] The guru is saying, I understand what
[1:33:35] your mind is doing. I'm going to give
[1:33:37] you a new a new technique, the the
[1:33:40] meditation. Keep meditating. keep
[1:33:43] singing the praises of everything that's
[1:33:45] all there and all around you that you
[1:33:47] forget about yourself and if you can do
[1:33:49] that even for a moment it's a great
[1:33:51] blessing if you can do that all day
[1:33:53] every day then come and speak to me
[1:33:55] because I need to know how to do that
[1:33:57] what you're saying is ego is useful
[1:34:00] because it means that I can be ambitious
[1:34:02] and I can succeed
[1:34:04] so the the importance is being given to
[1:34:06] succeeding
[1:34:08] and not to the ego so you're saying so
[1:34:11] that I can succeed So that society can
[1:34:13] function. We need the we need the ego.
[1:34:17] But what we see being demonstrated by
[1:34:22] the people who have conquered their ego
[1:34:24] by the saints by the gurus brahyanis
[1:34:27] they're not sitting there useless.
[1:34:31] They're still getting a lot of things
[1:34:33] done. Gurunanakdev gi achieved a lot.
[1:34:35] Guru goban singing gi achieved a lot and
[1:34:37] he didn't need the ego to achieve that.
[1:34:40] What you're saying is and and and it's
[1:34:42] an intellectual exercise which is I
[1:34:44] think that if I lose my ego I'm going to
[1:34:46] sit and be home and be happy all day and
[1:34:48] that's not useful to anyone.
[1:34:51] Realistically what we've seen is the
[1:34:53] ones who have dropped their ego and by
[1:34:55] ego let's clarify what we mean is this
[1:34:57] narrative of self-reerencing all the
[1:35:00] time and only worrying about your own
[1:35:02] problems. The ones who dropped the
[1:35:04] self-referencing to their own problems
[1:35:07] then were in a position to start
[1:35:08] listening to everyone else's problems.
[1:35:10] They actually started doing more sa they
[1:35:14] started saying I'm no longer now
[1:35:16] concerned with my own well-being. My my
[1:35:18] own well-being is not the highest
[1:35:20] priority. And as soon as that became not
[1:35:22] the highest priority, you started to
[1:35:24] hear the duke of the rest of the world,
[1:35:26] the suffering of the rest of the world
[1:35:27] that your priority now became to
[1:35:29] alleviate the other people's suffering.
[1:35:32] So the ones who don't have an ego, I
[1:35:35] don't believe sit at home and just with
[1:35:36] a big smile on their face. I think they
[1:35:39] actually start helping as much as
[1:35:41] possible. But it's an intellectual
[1:35:43] debate. I don't know what it's going to
[1:35:44] be like to have no ego. And I don't
[1:35:46] that's why we don't know how to answer
[1:35:48] that question from our our own
[1:35:49] experience. I can say that I've had
[1:35:51] glimpses moments where I can say I think
[1:35:54] I don't have an ego within this moment.
[1:35:56] I I think that's the experience or even
[1:35:58] to be able to articulate it brings the
[1:36:00] ego back in. But I can say from my own
[1:36:03] subjective experience that there have
[1:36:05] been moments of non-ego but not
[1:36:09] minutes or hours or weeks or days. So I
[1:36:13] don't know what it's like to act in a
[1:36:15] lifestyle without the ego. But I think
[1:36:17] it's an interesting perspective to say
[1:36:20] the ego might be useful. What I'm saying
[1:36:22] is that let's go with the guru's
[1:36:24] perspective. I don't believe guru talks
[1:36:26] in that way. I don't believe the guru
[1:36:28] says have 10% get rid of 90%. The guru
[1:36:33] is actually saying
[1:36:36] it's the ultimate disease that you have.
[1:36:38] Get rid of it. It's it's it's destroying
[1:36:40] you. So the sense that I am is the issue
[1:36:45] there. So it's an interesting way to
[1:36:48] think and I and I applaud you for saying
[1:36:50] that actually there might be some
[1:36:51] benefit to it because I can help myself
[1:36:53] and I can help others. That's probably
[1:36:55] goes back to just having a sa mindset
[1:36:58] that we talked about before which is
[1:36:59] that you just want to benefit yourself
[1:37:01] and benefit others. And I think that's a
[1:37:03] very practical way to have your mind
[1:37:05] because in reality yes go earn. You're
[1:37:09] not going to be able to do anything if
[1:37:10] you don't have food on the table and and
[1:37:12] a roof to live under. So I think it's a
[1:37:14] very healthy way to live but I don't
[1:37:16] necessarily subscribe to the idea that I
[1:37:18] need an ego to do all that.
[1:37:21] Very good question. The question is how
[1:37:23] do you define happiness spiritual
[1:37:25] happiness?
[1:37:27] And secondly do you need a little bit of
[1:37:29] stress and sadness in order to function?
[1:37:33] To me the happiness that the guru is
[1:37:36] talking about that spiritual masters are
[1:37:38] talking about isn't the happiness that
[1:37:40] we strive for. It isn't the roller
[1:37:43] coaster of always being up and never
[1:37:46] being down. It's not the I'm always
[1:37:49] happy. In fact, the word that they use
[1:37:51] and I think happiness now becomes a less
[1:37:55] relevant word when we're talking about
[1:37:56] it from from a spiritual perspective.
[1:37:58] Actually, the word is sahed,
[1:38:02] stillness, contentment. It's the middle
[1:38:05] way. It's not the roller coaster going
[1:38:06] up and down, up and down, and you're
[1:38:08] always saying, "I just want to be up all
[1:38:09] the time." It's they're always suki.
[1:38:12] They're always tranquil. They're always
[1:38:14] peaceful. The way I would describe that
[1:38:18] is the attitude of the spiritual
[1:38:21] contentedness is I don't mind what
[1:38:23] happens
[1:38:26] at every moment. I don't mind what
[1:38:29] happens. Whatever happens, I don't mind.
[1:38:33] I'm I I know where your question is
[1:38:34] coming. I can see it in your eyes where
[1:38:36] the next question is. Let me clarify.
[1:38:40] I don't mind what happens.
[1:38:43] I define hookum in this way. If it
[1:38:47] comes, let it come. If it goes, let it
[1:38:51] go.
[1:38:53] Whatever comes in life, let it come.
[1:38:55] Whatever goes in life, let it go. Now,
[1:38:58] the obvious follow-up question is, "Ah,
[1:39:01] but what if something bad is happening?"
[1:39:03] So, for example, I have kids. I'm not
[1:39:07] going to say if somebody comes to attack
[1:39:10] my kid, let them come. Right? I'm not
[1:39:14] going to do that because as part of the
[1:39:18] system of the universe is built into me
[1:39:20] as a parent that whether I like it or
[1:39:23] not, there's built into me this this
[1:39:26] instinct, this innate nature to protect
[1:39:28] my kids. So the trouble is coming, a
[1:39:33] threat is coming to my child. I'm not
[1:39:35] going to say let it come at that point.
[1:39:38] The let it come is the emotion to
[1:39:40] protect that's also there. Threat comes
[1:39:43] but the natural instinct to protect is
[1:39:45] also there. Let that come.
[1:39:48] Do you see that's where stress comes in?
[1:39:52] That's where that little bit of sadness,
[1:39:55] agitation,
[1:39:57] dealing with what needs to be dealt
[1:39:59] with. So I don't believe that the truly
[1:40:02] spiritually contented person is going to
[1:40:04] sit there and do nothing.
[1:40:07] I don't believe that's who Gurunanak
[1:40:09] was.
[1:40:10] In fact, he was so spiritually contented
[1:40:13] then why did he had to speak out against
[1:40:16] the barbaric dictators of that time? Why
[1:40:19] did he speak out against barber? Why did
[1:40:22] he speak out about social injustice?
[1:40:25] Because there was a part of him that
[1:40:27] said that in my spiritual expression is
[1:40:32] not just to look after myself, it is to
[1:40:35] look after everything and everyone.
[1:40:38] So even if it means that my life is
[1:40:40] going to be in danger, but I can help
[1:40:42] others, I'll put I'll do that because I
[1:40:44] don't I I don't have an attachment to
[1:40:46] myself anymore. I'm no longer
[1:40:51] putting myself as the highest priority.
[1:40:55] So there there is an agitation that
[1:40:58] everyone else needs to be helped now. So
[1:41:01] I don't believe that you can avoid it.
[1:41:05] The duk and suk comes in life all the
[1:41:07] time. The happiness and sadness, the
[1:41:08] challenges will come in life all the
[1:41:10] time.
[1:41:12] So you don't need to worry about whether
[1:41:14] you need to have them in your life.
[1:41:15] They're going to be there anyway. But
[1:41:18] sahed contentment is not the same as
[1:41:21] happiness. We're not trying to be always
[1:41:23] happy. It's this always peaceful and
[1:41:26] when tough times come, you respond from
[1:41:30] a position of tranquility. Your response
[1:41:33] is not from ego. Your response is from
[1:41:35] stillness.
[1:41:36] So by being sahed uh in a way we need to
[1:41:41] practice to let go of the joy that we
[1:41:43] feel when something really good happens.
[1:41:45] Yes. Absolutely.
[1:41:48] Gurbani says quite clearly, treat
[1:41:51] happiness and sadness as the same. Treat
[1:41:55] gold and dust as the same.
[1:41:58] Next million dollar question is how to
[1:42:00] do that.
[1:42:01] Then the the the million-doll answer is
[1:42:03] the guru.
[1:42:05] Start doing it. There's no how. The guru
[1:42:08] is saying treat it as the same.
[1:42:11] That doesn't mean give up your house.
[1:42:14] That doesn't mean
[1:42:16] sell your car and roll around in the
[1:42:19] mud. It's not what it means. It means
[1:42:23] have an attitude of let it come if it
[1:42:27] comes and if it goes let it go. It's an
[1:42:30] attitude. There's there's no how.
[1:42:32] There's do it and then tell me how. Then
[1:42:36] you'll know how. If somebody shows you
[1:42:38] how to walk and you're looking at it and
[1:42:40] say, "Well, how do I do it?" Well, you
[1:42:41] get up and you start walking. That's the
[1:42:43] only way to do it. You can't read any
[1:42:45] more books about this. At some point,
[1:42:47] you have to get up and start doing it.
[1:42:48] That's the how.
[1:42:51] The question is what is the
[1:42:53] interpretation of Amrit?
[1:42:57] In my early days, I wanted Amrit to mean
[1:43:00] anytime
[1:43:02] because it meant that I didn't have to
[1:43:04] get up in the morning. I desperately
[1:43:07] wanted Amrita to mean that. But Gurbani
[1:43:10] defines Amrit Villa by using this
[1:43:13] example of the the bird who wakes up at
[1:43:17] Amritabil
[1:43:20] right in the early hours of Amrit. The
[1:43:23] the song bird sings. So the guru uses
[1:43:27] the example of the bird that sings at
[1:43:29] the early hours of the morning to say
[1:43:31] that's what Amrit Villa is. And
[1:43:34] interestingly the word Amrit Villa
[1:43:36] doesn't actually appear too many times
[1:43:37] in Gurbani. There's only a handful of
[1:43:39] places where it comes am
[1:43:43] right the early hours. But what I wanted
[1:43:47] to do in in my earlier days is oh amrit
[1:43:50] is anytime that I'm remembering gurbani.
[1:43:52] And that's a great way to say well I
[1:43:54] don't really want to get up in the
[1:43:56] morning. But in reality gurbani is
[1:43:59] saying
[1:44:00] that when you wake up in the morning can
[1:44:04] your first thought be about divinity?
[1:44:07] Can your first thought be about oneness?
[1:44:10] Look at this line here which defines a
[1:44:13] sick.
[1:44:20] What we translate that to mean as the
[1:44:23] gorick wakes up and does his nitname.
[1:44:26] That's not what the guru is saying. Guru
[1:44:28] is saying as soon as you wake up,
[1:44:32] what is your first thought? That's what
[1:44:34] the guru is challenging you. is saying
[1:44:36] the real sick as soon as he wakes up his
[1:44:40] first thought is is is haram is is the
[1:44:43] divine name is the divine awareness
[1:44:47] people like me our first thought is to
[1:44:50] look at our phone we wake up in the
[1:44:52] morning that's the first thing I do I
[1:44:54] start looking for messages right because
[1:44:57] my first thought is about me but myself
[1:45:01] me siman the real gorick their first
[1:45:04] thought is about you simra. So
[1:45:08] is it actually important? It's it's
[1:45:10] built into this system into the guru's
[1:45:12] tradition of waking up early. And that's
[1:45:15] why
[1:45:17] when you wake up in the morning, the
[1:45:19] first thing your mind does is to list
[1:45:21] out all the things that it needs to do
[1:45:23] straight away. Yeah. Your mind starts
[1:45:26] telling you all the priorities.
[1:45:28] The guru is saying if you want to
[1:45:30] meditate, you need to wake up earlier
[1:45:33] than your mind, earlier than your
[1:45:36] priorities.
[1:45:38] I'll give you a perfect example. When I
[1:45:40] wake up in the morning, I'm already
[1:45:42] thinking about what time do I need to
[1:45:43] drop the kids to school, right? So, if I
[1:45:47] wake up at let's say 6:00 and I need to
[1:45:51] drop the kids to school, I only have
[1:45:52] that much time. I know I need to get
[1:45:54] ready and I know I need to get the kids
[1:45:56] ready and then get them in the car and
[1:45:58] drop them to school. What the guru is
[1:45:59] saying is that's not amrit
[1:46:03] is prior to your priorities
[1:46:06] before your priority starts. If your
[1:46:08] priority starts at 6:00 cuz you know how
[1:46:10] much time it takes for you to get ready
[1:46:12] and to get to work then is the time
[1:46:14] before that where you don't need to
[1:46:17] think about your daily priorities where
[1:46:19] you can really just focus
[1:46:21] on meditating. Try meditating at 6:00
[1:46:25] when you're when you're getting late.
[1:46:26] Can't be done. One eye is on the clock.
[1:46:29] If you're closing your eyes, one eye is
[1:46:30] trying to open to check how much time
[1:46:31] you have left. So you need to wake up in
[1:46:34] plenty of time.
[1:46:37] If ever you wake up slightly late and
[1:46:38] you think oh I got 10 minutes I quickly
[1:46:40] do some meditation it's the worst 10
[1:46:42] minutes you're trying to do
[1:46:45] let's try to just race through it and
[1:46:48] unfortunately a lot of people are very
[1:46:49] comfortable just doing that quickly
[1:46:51] racing through it but you're missing
[1:46:54] something
[1:46:55] you're missing something in the beauty
[1:46:57] of those words so the guru is saying
[1:47:00] before your priorities start wake up
[1:47:02] early wake up in sufficient time that's
[1:47:05] your villa
[1:47:07] Notice how I'm not giving you a specific
[1:47:09] time. I don't know what time you need to
[1:47:11] go to work. I'm not going to say it has
[1:47:13] to be 1:00 or 3:00. What I'm saying is
[1:47:16] when do your priorities start? Wake up
[1:47:18] in sufficient time before that that you
[1:47:21] can actually meditate without needing to
[1:47:23] have one eye on the clock. I don't think
[1:47:26] it's important to do mantr. I think it's
[1:47:29] important to get it. In fact, it's the
[1:47:31] most important thing.
[1:47:33] Most shabads begin with satgrasad. If
[1:47:37] you look at the way the guru grans is
[1:47:38] structured when the the the melody
[1:47:41] changes when the rag changes it always
[1:47:43] starts with a whole mul mantr
[1:47:46] every section of the gurug grans starts
[1:47:48] with the mul mantr why because the guru
[1:47:50] is saying everything that we're going to
[1:47:52] talk about is about that
[1:47:55] the mantra is not something for us to
[1:47:57] skip and quickly read you know you read
[1:48:00] a shabbud and it'll just say and then
[1:48:03] you try and read the no the whole
[1:48:05] shabbud is aboutg
[1:48:09] the whole Shabbat is about
[1:48:12] the whole of the guru is about the mul
[1:48:16] the whole of the mul mantr is about
[1:48:19] so it's the most important thing to
[1:48:21] understand
[1:48:23] not to do not as something that you just
[1:48:26] mechanically recite without having any
[1:48:28] understanding of what it what it is your
[1:48:31] question is
[1:48:34] if you're in a state of sahed
[1:48:36] Why does Gurbani say
[1:48:42] there are a handful of shabuds in
[1:48:45] Gurbani that have been so badly
[1:48:48] misrepresented by the six and misused by
[1:48:52] the guras and the kanis and the parties
[1:48:55] that it's really something for us to
[1:48:57] reflect on. This is one of those shabs.
[1:49:04] What we hear is whenever you have to ask
[1:49:09] something, ask for it and you will get
[1:49:12] it.
[1:49:14] Can we be honest and reflect on that and
[1:49:18] say does that actually work?
[1:49:22] How many of us have got everything we
[1:49:24] ever asked for? So either that line in
[1:49:27] Gurbani is wrong or we've misunderstood
[1:49:30] what that line is actually saying.
[1:49:33] The gurus are very systematic.
[1:49:36] Most Kithanis who sing that Shabbud sing
[1:49:40] it from that line. The way you're meant
[1:49:42] to sing kithan is you sing it from the
[1:49:44] ra line. That is not the ra line of that
[1:49:47] shabbat. Rah being the central theme of
[1:49:51] that shabbat. So you can't take another
[1:49:54] line, misrepresent it, sing that as the
[1:49:57] chorus, and everybody says, "Ask what do
[1:49:59] you want?" We've created God into like,
[1:50:04] you know, Aladdin. He finds a magic lamp
[1:50:07] and he rubs the lamp and he gets a genie
[1:50:09] and the genie says,
[1:50:13] "Whatever you want to ask, I'm going to
[1:50:14] give you. I give you three wishes, I'll
[1:50:16] give you a million wishes." We've turned
[1:50:19] God into a a genie who just grants you
[1:50:22] wishes and it just doesn't work like
[1:50:25] that. So I'll ask you to go back and
[1:50:28] look at that Shabbud, reflect on what is
[1:50:31] that Shabbat actually saying.
[1:50:34] It's not saying ask and you shall
[1:50:36] receive. It actually doesn't work like
[1:50:39] that.
[1:50:40] So it's the Shabbat that we've heard so
[1:50:41] many times, right?
[1:50:47] And I want to go down to the Rahul line
[1:50:49] first.
[1:50:53] Yeah. The divinity looks after the
[1:50:58] servants of God. Yeah. I'm going to use
[1:51:00] some of this terminology now just for
[1:51:03] convenience sake. God, right?
[1:51:07] Gurovind. The divine looks after those
[1:51:11] meditators, those servants, the ones who
[1:51:13] are devoted
[1:51:18] that divinity has brought them close and
[1:51:21] got rid of all of their or their
[1:51:23] negative qualities.
[1:51:27] Look how beautiful and giving this
[1:51:30] divine is that it gets rid of all the
[1:51:33] problems. So keep that in mind. That's
[1:51:34] the raal. It's not ask what you want and
[1:51:37] you shall get.
[1:51:44] Wherever I look in all directions,
[1:51:47] this oneness is using its power to get
[1:51:51] things done.
[1:51:54] Yeah, we can go through word by word,
[1:51:56] but I don't want to spend too much time
[1:51:57] on this.
[1:52:00] So, by this it's saying very clearly
[1:52:02] who's in control here. Are you in
[1:52:04] control or is that oneness in control?
[1:52:07] It is doing it is in control. It is what
[1:52:10] is doing everything.
[1:52:18] But in its divine system of making the
[1:52:21] sun rise and making the birds fly and
[1:52:24] making all the ecosystem of man. In part
[1:52:27] of that it also helped with its grace.
[1:52:30] It got me out of trouble.
[1:52:35] That whole system looked upon me with
[1:52:37] its glance of mercy and
[1:52:42] this being has been rid of its duke its
[1:52:48] suffering.
[1:52:51] Now
[1:52:57] it's not ask and anyone shall receive.
[1:53:01] It is a statement about this particular
[1:53:03] enlightened being. This Shabbat is about
[1:53:06] the enlightened person. Once the
[1:53:09] enlightened person has united with the
[1:53:11] divine, whatever the enlightened person
[1:53:14] says is no longer their words. It's the
[1:53:16] divine words.
[1:53:19] Whatever that enlightened person says
[1:53:21] doesn't come true. It is in line with
[1:53:25] the natural order. So it will only speak
[1:53:28] as being instructed by that divine.
[1:53:33] There once remember remember the order
[1:53:36] here somebody has been saved has been
[1:53:39] rescued has been taken out of their
[1:53:41] problems. All their duke has been
[1:53:43] removed.
[1:53:45] Why do we ask for things?
[1:53:47] We ask for things because we have duk.
[1:53:51] I'm not happy right now. So can you give
[1:53:54] me this and then I'll be slightly
[1:53:56] happier.
[1:53:58] That is what asking means. But this
[1:54:01] person is saying all my dook has been
[1:54:02] removed. Do you think they're asking for
[1:54:04] anything? They're not asking for
[1:54:06] anything. Whatever they say, however
[1:54:08] their words come out is the divine
[1:54:10] words. Now you can take a a a some
[1:54:14] interpretation. Some people would say
[1:54:15] that the murk the brahyan is that
[1:54:17] whatever bachan comes out of their mouth
[1:54:19] that has to come true. I don't know
[1:54:20] about that. Maybe, maybe not. I don't
[1:54:23] deny it. I don't know. But what I'm
[1:54:25] saying is just by analyzing the Shabbat,
[1:54:28] you can see it's not ask and you shall
[1:54:30] receive. It's saying now whatever this
[1:54:33] person asks for comes true because
[1:54:36] they're no longer asking for themsel.
[1:54:43] Such
[1:54:46] that person
[1:54:48] whatever comes out of their mouth is
[1:54:50] only the truth.
[1:54:53] Whatever comes out of that person is the
[1:54:55] truth. It's not ask and you shall
[1:54:57] receive because the next line very
[1:54:59] clearly says
[1:55:02] what that person says comes true not
[1:55:05] whatever you ask for. So look how you
[1:55:08] can misrepresent Gurbani by only
[1:55:10] focusing on one line. Ask and you shall
[1:55:12] receive. Ask and you shall receive. Then
[1:55:14] everybody thinks, "Oh, good. Now the
[1:55:16] Shabbat is on. Now now is the time to
[1:55:18] ask." So Guruji, please can I have a
[1:55:20] Mercedes, right? Sorry.
[1:55:23] So that's not the the time that you ask
[1:55:25] and you shall receive. That's not what
[1:55:27] the Shabbat means. So Gurbani is easy
[1:55:30] when you actually just take a systematic
[1:55:33] approach and say, "Let's start from word
[1:55:35] number one and carry all the way down
[1:55:37] and let's not misrepresent and move
[1:55:39] stuff as we should." We should really be
[1:55:41] going back to our and our parties and
[1:55:44] saying sorry can you sing the shabud
[1:55:47] from harin that's the raal line we need
[1:55:50] to put pressure otherwise why why are we
[1:55:52] allowing these systems to continue we
[1:55:54] all know it's not correct we all know
[1:55:56] the parties singing are not singing the
[1:55:57] right kan but we're all also
[1:56:02] too shy to hold back we don't have to do
[1:56:06] it aggressively we don't have to do it
[1:56:08] in a violent way but We do need to say
[1:56:11] the shab that you're singing is actually
[1:56:13] here that line. You know what answer
[1:56:14] they'll give you? They'll tell you, "Oh,
[1:56:17] the sat don't like it. The sat want to
[1:56:19] hear these things." No, we are the sut.
[1:56:22] We're telling you, stop singing gurbani
[1:56:25] wrong. The question is, if the
[1:56:29] translations have a Judeo-Christian
[1:56:33] interpretation,
[1:56:34] how do we resolve that? I'm going to say
[1:56:37] that even the people who have never read
[1:56:41] any Gurbani in English and have only
[1:56:43] read Gurbani in its original language
[1:56:46] still have a Judeo-Christian
[1:56:47] understanding because they're still
[1:56:48] pointing up when they're talking about
[1:56:49] permatma. So your question is how do we
[1:56:53] address that? On a superficial level, I
[1:56:56] would say that the way to address it is
[1:56:58] to learn Gurbani and read Gurbani in its
[1:57:02] original language. But that doesn't
[1:57:04] solve the problem.
[1:57:06] The way to solve the problem is to start
[1:57:09] learning siki
[1:57:11] by learning the historic spiritual
[1:57:14] traditions that predated siki. And
[1:57:17] that's where I'm going to say something
[1:57:18] that most people will find
[1:57:20] controversial. I say you must study
[1:57:23] Hinduism. You must study the vids. You
[1:57:26] must study the upanishads. You must read
[1:57:28] the Bhagat Gita. You must understand
[1:57:32] that way of thinking out of which way
[1:57:35] gurbani was was was written by the
[1:57:39] people who understood that way of
[1:57:41] thinking. The language that the guru
[1:57:43] uses are those languages
[1:57:46] not the Judeo-Christian languages. Not
[1:57:48] there is one God and there is a heaven
[1:57:50] and there is a hell and he is the father
[1:57:53] and all those sorts of way of thinking.
[1:57:55] That's the Judo-Christian way of
[1:57:56] thinking that we've now inherited
[1:57:58] because we don't study any of the
[1:58:00] ancient wisdom traditions. We say only
[1:58:04] read Gurrans, don't read anything else.
[1:58:06] I personally disagree with that way of
[1:58:08] thinking. I have benefited massively
[1:58:13] from reading ashtavakraita
[1:58:16] from reading uh about adwa vidanta from
[1:58:19] reading uh swami shankrara
[1:58:23] from reading about the bhagat gita I've
[1:58:28] understanding of gurbani has gone
[1:58:30] through the roof when I understood some
[1:58:32] of these things and I'm not saying I'm
[1:58:33] I'm a I'm a expert on any of these
[1:58:35] things but the amount of bani that you
[1:58:39] understand from understanding the Vic
[1:58:42] traditions is very important
[1:58:45] and all of our
[1:58:49] traditions were were studying all of
[1:58:53] these books. If you look at dumi takal
[1:58:57] they'll say that before you pick up pick
[1:58:59] up gur gran sab gi there are nine other
[1:59:01] grunts that you must read first and
[1:59:03] these are some of these other traditions
[1:59:06] most of our sardai traditions tell you
[1:59:09] that you have to read these things the
[1:59:11] the nirmalas the udas they were all
[1:59:13] originally reading other traditions and
[1:59:15] understanding bi from those traditions I
[1:59:18] think it's only the singaba mentality
[1:59:21] that actually got rid of all of that
[1:59:22] stuff and this is where it becomes quite
[1:59:24] difficult difficult because most people
[1:59:26] are not necessarily willing to have
[1:59:28] these conversations. Most people are not
[1:59:31] willing to understand that the Singh
[1:59:32] Saba tradition is a Judo-Christian
[1:59:34] tradition, is a British inspired
[1:59:36] tradition. Not to say that everything
[1:59:38] that they did was wrong. But the way of
[1:59:41] getting rid of all of the old ancient
[1:59:44] knowledge means you get rid of the old
[1:59:46] ancient way of interpreting Gurbani
[1:59:49] and a lot of what Gur Now I'm going to
[1:59:51] say something else and this is where I
[1:59:53] can get in trouble.
[1:59:55] A lot of what Gurbani says has also been
[1:59:58] said in some of these ancient
[1:59:59] traditions.
[2:00:00] People don't want to hear that. They
[2:00:02] don't want to hear that these things
[2:00:04] actually have similarity. But only when
[2:00:06] you go and read a lot of these other
[2:00:07] traditions, you'll see a lot of Gurbani
[2:00:10] is in there. It's not to say that
[2:00:12] Gurbani is doesn't have anything unique.
[2:00:15] Gurbani does have a lot of unique things
[2:00:17] as well. Your question was how do you
[2:00:20] break Judeo-Christian thinking? You need
[2:00:23] to study non-Judo-Christian spirituality
[2:00:26] in order to understand what context
[2:00:29] Gurbani is talking about. Firstly, read
[2:00:32] Gurbani in its original language.
[2:00:35] Secondly, read some of the older
[2:00:37] traditions that were out there. Some of
[2:00:39] them are very complimentary to Gurbani.
[2:00:41] Some of them are not. But understand all
[2:00:44] of them in order to understand
[2:00:46] non-Judo-Christian spirituality which is
[2:00:48] what gurbani
