March 28, 2024 Class Notes by Yaishna Santchurn

Introduction

Bhagavan will never give us a problem without giving us the power to tend to that problem.

• There are no problems that are bigger than us.
• Our course is designed for us to reflect on our responsibilities.
  • Reflection is shifting from searching for power outside to seeking power inside to be able to tend to that problem.

Review

Answer 83: Performing one’s own duty is penance. 

• Don’t waste the opportunity we have to grow through our responsibilities by engaging in svadhyaya (dating oneself). 
• Through svadhyaya, you come to know what your guna is, so that you can align with the best karma for you.
  • When you are clear about your job title, you are clear about your job description.

Answer 84: Restraining the mind is true restraint. 

• When a dam is placed before water without any outlet for release, the water will eventually break that dam/the dam will explode. 
• Similarly, when the mind is curtailed (restrained/controlled) from being extroverted, the mind will become more extroverted eventually. 
• Therefore, a better word choice than to restrain/control the mind is to direct the mind.
  • Direct the mind to be introvert/inward-looking, so rather than an explosion, there is a rediscovery of the power of the mind, intellect, ego and Spirit. 

Answer 85: The highest form of patience is to endure/accept all dualities.  

• Practice this by feeling oneself in another in interactions
• We have different names and forms, but our qualities and our center are not different.

Discourse

Question 86: What is modesty?

Answer: Modesty is that which makes us refrain from unworthy acts. In other words, modesty is not doing that which is wrong/not to be done.

• Absolute Perspective
  • Modesty is better described as morality.
  • Your morality is your personality, and your personality is structured around your value system. In other words, your value system makes up your personality, and your personality then creates morality. 
  • Modesty is doing that which is right because it fits into your value system.
• Relative Perspective
  • We can be better at not doing that which is wrong (nisiddha karma, i.e. immoral actions and kamya karma, i.e. selfish actions) by feeling that all you do is within the spectrum of public life.
    • If you feel that everyone is watching you, your value system will be richer, your personality will be more careful, and your morality will be more rigorous. 
• Tactile Narrative: Seeker to engage in reflection and personalization. 

Question 87: What is knowledge?

Answer: Knowledge is the awareness of the supreme Truth. 

• Absolute Perspective
  • All of our experiences (from the time we become self-aware to the time we die) are built on a triputi (triad) of factors
    • The Experienced – farthest from me
    • The Experiencing – the conduit or connection
    • The Experiencer 
  • Most of our efforts go into the experienced, some into experiencing, but little to none into the experiencer.
  • If you don’t know all three, that actually means you’ve never had a complete experience. 
  • Taittiriya Upanishad: Our nature is described as satyam jnanam anantam.
    • Jnanam means knowledge, but knowledge is only possible on account of Awareness, or the experiencer. 
    • If we don’t know the experiencer, we don’t know anything.
• Relative Perspective
  • A searcher is someone who is self-absorbed
  • When a searcher realizes that self-absorption is not working in attaining peace, they begin reflecting and evolve from being self-absorbed to self-aware. When they become self-aware enough, a guide comes into one’s life to guide them to this awareness.
    • Jnana → Cit
    • Experienced → Experiencing → Experiencer
• Tactile Narrative: Seeker to engage in reflection and personalization.

Question 88: What is tranquility?

Answer: True tranquility is quietude of the mind. 

• Absolute Perspective
  • Antahkarana = our inner world/doer/software is made up of four parts, from the outside in:
    • Mind
    • Memory
    • Intellect
    • Ego
  • For the mind to be quiet, the memory (that which is deeper) also has to have the texture/nature that will make the mind feel quiet. 
  • If we can make our intellect better, that will then penetrate our memory to be better, which will then penetrate our mind to be better, which will penetrate everything else about us to be better. 
  • This is why we receive a respected one by applying:
    • Chandan – for a cool mind
    • Kumkum – for a clean memory
    • Akshata – for a content intellect
• Relative Perspective
  • Quietude of mind is really tested in activity.
    • If you are quiet because you have renounced your responsibilities, your quietude is contextual and not content-based.
  • When immersed in activity, use the hiking acronym STOP to help your software to be quieter.
    • Stop
    • Think
    • Observe
    • Plan
• Tactile Narrative: Seeker to engage in reflection and personalization

Question 89: What is supreme compassion? 

Answer: Compassion is the desire for everyone’s happiness. 

• Absolute Perspective
  • Svasukha = own happiness
    • Sukha = happiness/joy
    • Sva = my nature
    • When I am tuned into my Nature, then I come to invoke this happiness and naturally then I evoke this to sarvasukha (others’ happiness)
      • Happy people cause happiness in others.
  • If you really desire the happiness of others, find your own happiness. 
  • The best way to facilitate happiness is to become enlightened. 
• Relative Perspective
  • Sanatana Dharma’s mantras/prayers are oriented towards sarvasukha (all).
    • That’s why we chant Shanti three times:
      • Peace inside
      • Peace nearby
      • Peace far away
  • If we can train ourselves to create systems for others to find their happiness, that would be a noble desire. 
  • Parampara = a guide who has found happiness is now teaching a disciple to find happiness.
• Tactile Narrative: Seeker to engage in reflection and personalization.

Course note: 3 parts to each question in Yaksha Prashna:

1. E.g. what/which/why
2. E.g. describe/tell/elaborate
3. The main content of the question

Question 90: What is straightforwardness?

Answer: Having a balanced mind/even inner world. 

• Absolute Perspective
  • Our value system triggers steadiness which triggers straightforwardness.
  • Those without a value system are unsteady, unpredictable, and volatile. 
  • If you want to be a predictable, balanced person, it starts with a strong value system which encourages steadiness. 
• Relative Perspective
  • When we get to interact with someone who is predictable/stable with their emotions, we feel such great relief being with them because we know what to expect. 
  • Those who get the grandest seva opportunities are those who are stable
    • They are stable on account of their steadiness, which is on account of their value system. 
    • Since they are stable, they are strong. 
    • If you are given many service opportunities in your life, it is indicative of your value system. 
• Tactile Narrative: Seeker to engage in reflection and personalization.

Discussion Subject

1. How do we grow out of rewarding ourselves for rightness? 
2. Envision a system which you can facilitate to help large groups of people to find their happiness. 

RAW

Last week’s RAW: Decrease your annoyance.

• Vivekji’s Observation: The best way to decrease annoyance is to understand vasanas. Every one of us was born with a specific print, so even if someone is trying their best to be better, if their print is strong in the other way, they can’t help themselves. It makes the practitioner more accepting and so less annoyed. 

This week’s RAW: What is your value triangle? What are the three most important values to you that you are actually living by?

Course Note: From April 4th to April 25th, class will formally begin at 8:45 p.m. EST.