Sight, Sound, Touch, Taste and Smell.

Our eyes and our senses are the means of our knowledge; they teach us that something is there.  Through our five senses we gain knowledge of our universe; whatever is there is known to us through our sight, touch, smell, hearing and taste.  All that is in the world is knowable, you hear about a beautiful place and you have the desire to go there, you go and then you gain direct knowledge of that place, how it looked, what was there, how did it smell etc, we have the opportunity to gain that knowledge.

But how do we know that we really exist, we need not use a means of knowledge to prove our existence because we simply are, it is self evident.  We cannot say at any time that we are not here.  The scriptures tell us that we never die, the body will come and go, but ‘You’ will always remain.  Whatever our difficulties seem to be this is due to our ignorance of our true self, real knowledge about the ‘I’ is cause for happiness, that which we are all seeking.  And true happiness is that with no beginning and no end.  Through our senses the world is residing in our intellect, in awareness and everything else depends on this awareness, it is our senses that are causing this ignorance, they cover all reality.  So through our practice we must begin to learn how to withdraw our senses completely to find the lightness that eradicates the darkness.  Knowledge and ignorance cannot exist in the same location and we have to transcend our ignorance by the practice of withdrawing our senses know as Pratyahara. 

Learning may be both painful and enjoyable in many different ways, the mind can play a tug of war, but the painful thoughts are eliminated once the internal conflict is stopped by withdrawing the senses, and there is a complete concentration of the mind, if this state can be maintained then we can reside in a well of happiness and bliss. 

Recently a fellow Yogi asked me had I felt this state of complete bliss, if it is real, if it exists, how can we know?  Actually the very deep experiences we have shouldn’t be disclosed, as they are different for everyone and comparisons should not be made.  However to get to this stage in our beings we need to really dedicate ourselves to our practice, without dedication and discipline it wont come, you have to be ready and prepared for change.  You can be the master of your own destiny with self exertion, and with this you will get sign posts along the way and flickers of the real true ‘I.’  Without sight, without hearing, without taste, without touch and without smell, a difficult feat I hear you all cry.  But when the prize is pure joy then how can we not dive deep into our hearts for that and make the necessary changes and enjoy every breath.

Looking forward to seeing you all on the mat.