Kosi: Recent Episodes
Kosi
Suicide can seem like a solution for ending the agonizing feeling of despair, but what if this is a great lie that only guarantees your suffering will continue for eons? What if your own direct experience of unending bliss is a real possibility even if you feel trapped in an endless cycle of despair?
What is the no-mind state? And how does this continuous state permanently end the pain of the past?
Satsang is when the power of the universe kisses the earth. It is a sacred meeting. But what is the purpose of satsang? What does it do for you?
Satsang is when the power of the universe kisses the earth. It is a sacred meeting. But what is the purpose of satsang? What does it do for you?
Satsang is when the power of the universe kisses the earth. It is a sacred meeting. But what is the purpose of satsang? What does it do for you?
Satsang is when the power of the universe kisses the earth. It is a sacred meeting. But what is the purpose of satsang? What does it do for you?
Remembering the raw and real events of 911—is it possible to forgive in the context of this tragedy? What is the real nature of forgiveness?
What is the nature of resolve? And perhaps more importantly, what is the nature of moksha—the ultimate release from eons of suffering?
The mind has the power to hijack direct realization with spiritual concepts or mere mental understanding. How do you overcome this trick of your mind?
The thoughts of your mind follow sight and sound. But what is the eye of your mind? What is the ear of your mind?
How do you put an end to suffering you know nothing about? This is the essential teaching for real progress in your spiritual evolution.
What do you do in this moment of unprecedented change? Do you resist it or simply stop and accept what is?
What are vasanas and why is it important to transcend this unconscious hardwired programming?
What is the vortex that sets you free from unconscious tendencies that cause suffering to repeat even after the most profound experiences of bliss or freedom?
Logos is an ancient word that means divine principle or divine light. What is the logos within you? And how can it liberate you from the great sea of samsara—endless suffering?
What is the nature of tapas? How does the sacred fire of this discipline burn through the great illusion of reflective consciousness?
What is Manna? What is this alchemy of your salvation? Is this the food that will satisfy the deep longing within you for happiness, freedom, peace, and love?
What does living love actually mean? What is the spiritual bypass? Does it eliminate the need for sadhana or spiritual practices? What does sadhana actually mean and how can it help you?
What does Ramana’s teaching really do for you? What if your ego was an illusion or mirage? How does understanding the reflective nature of ego help you break free of the powerful genetic movement of your mind to fight?
Once you are exposed to this teaching it is natural to think 'what do I do with this?' or 'what now?' This is a movement of mind outward to the world through the lens of your senses. But what is more important than any movement of your mind? What is the importance of surrender?
The way of freedom is known as the razor's edge. What is this edge and who walks upon it? This question represents a deep dive into the heart of enlightenment.
What makes the teaching of Ramana Maharshi so difficult? Is it the complexity or its utter simplicity? What does it take to make real progress?
Practice is simply essential to develop the skill required for liberation. The full power of Ramana's teaching can only be fully realized in the willingness to practice fiercely and continuously.
What does resolve mean and how can it help you break free of the suffering nature of your mind. How can you abide in the awakening moment or the intimate realization of your eternal nature?
The mind is like a tiger that pulls you into the great illusion of Maya—the suffering nature of life. To ride the tiger is the great teaching of Papaji—the sublime vigilance of now. To master your mind is the deep recognition there is no mind.
The great teaching, or dharma of Ramana Maharshi, is the power of stop. Stop running. Stop hiding. Stop lying. Stop thinking. But how do you stop when your mind continually wants to fight or react to life situations? Is it even possible to stop thinking?
The instant you deeply agaze upon the form of Arunachala Siva, the ancient and eternal master of Ramana Maharshi, you fall into the eternity of your own heart. This vast presence smashes the mirror of your ego—the source and substance of all the trouble you face in life.
The golden mean is the ancient philosophy of Aristotle also known as the middle way, which helps you break free of the paradoxical nature of life or the existence of opposites. Satsang is not a philosophy, but is actually the golden mean itself—a vast indescribable energy that immediately cuts through the paradox or the illusion of you to reveal the truth of you—unending happiness.
The satguru on the inside is the vast indescribable eternal presence of pure happiness. To abide in this presence requires that you surrender everything—every thought, desire, attachment. The moment you surrender everything is the moment you abide in the satguru as the satguru—the eternal ONE.
Moksha is liberation from samsara the great ocean of suffering—the karmic wheel of birth, life, death, and rebirth. It is a divine word, but what comes before any word?
You must have the fierce desire for liberation in order to break free of the ancient coins of suffering—fear and doubt, attachment and desire, pride and arrogance. How do you break free of this ancient currency that keeps you trapped in suffering for eons?
Knowledge will not set you free. The one who seeks knowledge is the ego and the more knowledge you collect the bigger the ego and the greater the arrogance. It is a trick of the mind to avoid the overwhelming intimacy of discovering the overwhelming love and happiness in your heart.
What do you do when your inquiry no longer seems to work? What do you do when you have been to satsang enough times that your mind "knows" the right answer? This podcast explores actual purpose of self-inquiry and the devotional practice it represents. True self-inquiry is the living presence of the empty cup of your heart. It was never meant to be purely a mental exercise.
This teaching represents ruthless truth telling, ruthless vigilance, and the ruthless resolve—the intense effort essential for the effortless realization of the eternal happiness of your being.
The teaching of Ramana Maharshi is not about knowledge or what you know. It is not even really about understanding. It is much more simple. In fact, it is so simple this teaching can be rejected by the idea that you know what it is, but this overlooks the depth this teaching represents that simply cannot be known. The mountain path of Ramana Maharshi is best described as a way of life devoted to the simplicity of pure being.
Who wants enlightenment or freedom? Who is this who that wants lasting happiness or nirvana? The greatest stumbling block to freedom is thinking you know or understand what you have read about freedom or enlightenment. The ego never makes it to the mountain top. You will never enlightened. What does it mean to be enlightened? What is freedom really?
Beyond the four states of consciousness—awake, asleep, deep sleep—there is Turiya or pure consciousness. Beyond Turiya there is Sunyata--the 5th dimension of enlightenment where no words exist. This is powerful spiritual knowledge, but in order for this to have any value you must apply the question 'Who Am I?' all the time wherever you are. This is the spark that ignites a sacred fire within you.
The work of self-inquiry—the essential moment to moment inquiry—is the key to ending all forms of suffering. Over time this will become automatic—a constant inquiry. If you actually apply this very simple teaching every day you will be astounded by the overwhelming natural happiness of your being.
New Year's resolutions tend to be about the things that change, but what never changes? Until you stop and start doing the work of self-inquiry there is no possibility of breaking free of suffering.
The natural tendency of mind is to focus on your problems, and strategize, plan, struggle, and fight to get rid of what you don't want and keep what you have. This is nature of Samsara—the great ocean of suffering—the great illusion of this world—the karmic wheel of birth and death. How can you cross this great ocean? How can you permanently put an end to all of your problems? How can you experience lasting happiness?
The supreme illusion is the very deep feeling that you are your body. This feeling or sense that you are the doer is the root cause of all forms of suffering. Seeing through this illusion is the radical shift that frees you immediately from all forms of suffering.
If you want freedom there has to be a willingness to dive so deep that the diver is lost and only the diver remains. What does that mean? How exactly to you break free of the limitations of mind and ego?
The Dharma of Stop is the essence of the teaching of Ramana Maharshi. The moment you stop following, believing, interpreting your thoughts is the moment you can discover the source of all thoughts. The dharma of stop cuts through the root cause of all your suffering; the deep belief that you are your body.
Inquiry is powerful when it is fresh. If your inquiry becomes a formula or a method to get rid of what you don't want or if you already know the "right answer" then your inquiry is dead. The fresh aliveness of inquiry lives in not knowing. Its only true purpose is to burn through the egoic identification with your body to reveal the living happiness that you are—the causeless joy of pure being.
We tend to think of karma as good or bad, but karma has nothing to do with moksha or liberation. Karma is simply the predestine actions of the body contained within the genetics and DNA of your physical form. All fear, anxiety, stress, worry and many other forms of suffering are caused by your deep identification with the physical form. The moment you discover the causeless joy within you that is free of the body, it is possible to live an ordinary life free of the body and its predestine actions—as the constant bliss of pure being—a deep relaxation as your life take its own natural course.
Fear and doubt are two sides of the same coin. Both fear and doubt are associated with a story that lives in your genetic mind. If you want to mature in your awakening it is essential see through this story and intimately meet both fear and doubt. It is the death of the doubter and the death of the one who is afraid —the willingness to die before you die —that ultimately sets you free from the suffering nature of mind.
Siva is the eternal now that you are. To be free in the midst of the struggles of everyday life the challenge is always to see through the illusion of you and discover ever more deeply the freedom of You. It is the radical annihilation of the feeling that you are the doer—an intimate discovery of the source of the one who is seeking freedom
The burning desire of freedom is the great call of the heart. To answer this deep call require is the resolve necessary to break free of the ironclad trap of the genetic mind and ego This fierce resolve of freedom is the end of postponement and the beginning of discovering directly, intimately, the freedom you are. It is the willingness to die to any idea of you and remain ruthlessly vigilant as the pure presence of being. What does this mean exactly? And how does desire set you free?
Freedom lives in the simple and immediate recognition of the truth of who you are, but it requires a certain amount of courage to face what you are avoiding. It requires the courage to face the great demon of death and requires an intimate examination of what is really going on inside of you.
Neti Neti is an ancient spiritual practice. It is an inquiry that enables you to see through anything the mind says you are. The Neti Neti of Now ends the spiritual search for enlightenment and cuts through the false hope that the teacher or guru will miraculously fix your life circumstances. It is a simple stop that reveals your eternal nature, which is free of any role, any circumstance, or movement of mind to fix or change—the radical teaching of Ramana Maharshi.
The deep feeling that there is something wrong with you seems like it has no origin or that it has simply been with you your entire life, but the feeling of worthlessness or self-hatred can be traced back to the trauma of the birth process. But the moment you shine the light of your consciousness onto the shadow child there is a natural shift from the blame of immaturity to the responsibility of maturity.
Attention is the single word that describes the teaching of Ramana Maharshi. If you stop and ask yourself the question, 'where is my attention?' you can begin to notice what you are giving your attention to—you can begin to the source of the attention.
The natural tendency of mind is to avoid pain and seek pleasure. We resist what is and build stories about our life circumstances to justify or explain our resistance to what is, but it is the resistance to whatever is unfolding in your life that generates suffering. In the willingness to fully welcome what is there is a natural expansion and deepening as the freedom of now.
The powerful energy of Ramana's teaching combined with the grace of Sri Amma Karunamayi is a potent force that burns through the genetic mind. This energy lives beyond mind. It cannot be grasped or understood and has the innate power to release life times of suffering.
Ruthless hereness without an expectation of a result is essential for a deep fresh inquiry. It supports the evolution of spiritual maturity. This requires a ruthless truth telling. What do you think enlightenment or self-realization will give you?
What really matters? What do you really want? Rarely do we stop, tell the truth, and get clear about what we really want, but these two questions are essential for the evolution of your spiritual maturity.
Understanding what you are feeding your brain is one of the great secrets of breaking free of deeply ingrained patterns of suffering—the fear, anxiety, doubt, anger, and the many moods you experience as you move through life. What if it is really possible to reprogram your brain so that you can recognize the happiness that is simply always here?
Facing everything is simply the willingness to surrender of the mind to the infinite realm of the heart. It is the willingness to welcome whatever is happening in your life without following the movement of mind to resist, fix or change.
The courage to love is the sweetest surrender of the three primary powers of mind—memory, projection, and imagination. These powers of mind are the reflective consciousness that create a very powerful illusion that betrays or hides the living truth of you. The courage to love is the willingness to see through the lie of you to discover directly, intimately, the truth of you.
The Super Ego is the invisible whip that you use to torture yourself with negative thoughts and beliefs about yourself, other people and your circumstances. Seeing through this whip lives in discovering the source of the Super Ego.
This is not a political or theological or even a national discussion—it is much closer to the bone? What happens when you are willing to deeply examine the terrorist inside of yourself? Who is the terrorist really? This conversation is intimate, uncomfortable, awkward, and can evoke the rage, fear, and profoundly deep despair that is often hidden underneath. In meeting this hell directly, intimately, this collective insanity, this shadow that can lurk in your own mind, and the collective mind, can reveal the peace that surpasses all understanding.
Logos is an ancient word that means ground or reason or simply word. It goes all the way back to Aristotle who realized that logos is what differentiates a human being from animals or the natural ability to perceive, understand and discern, but the logos of now reveals the primary ethos of your own direct discovery of the living happiness that you are and always be. What is ethos and how can it serve as a guide to a deeper abidance in the realization of yourself as Freedom?
The life of the buddha reveals three secret keys that are essential for self-realization or the direct experience of lasting happiness. This discussion takes a deep look at the buddha's life to reveal how these ancient secrets can help you end patterns of suffering in your life right now.
What actually happens inside of you to create a negative emotion? Can a negative emotion even exist without your ability to imagine what something someone said or did means about you or someone else? In the willingness to take responsibility right now, right here, you can discover directly the truth of you that is always alive and fresh right now.
The power of the genetic mind is perhaps the greatest barrier to to liberation and self-relization. The genetic mind is deeply rooted in the ego or the deep sense 'I am me' often based on an unconscious and conscious sense of self-hatred. To pull out this deep root of self-hatred is the willingness to end the internal war with yourself. It requires the deep gravitas or resolve to remain still as stillness to discover ever more deeply the freedom that is simply always here.
Dusting of the Buddha cuts through all of the myths and ideals about the realization and teaching of the of the Buddha to reveal what his realization and teaching really represents. It opens the door to a deeper understanding of yourself and supports your own direct discovery of what eternally free of any mood or circumstance that you experience in life.
A juggernaught is an unstoppable force and was the name given to a powerful entity in a 1950s comic strip. It is also the perfect metaphor to illustrate how deeply challenging it is to break free from your conditioned patterns of behavior. Awakening takes a fraction of a second, but liberation from these very powerful movements of the egoic mind is more than a little challenging. This podcast reveals how you can put an end to the seemingly unstoppable force of your egoic mind.
Doubt is the mind closing around an idea as well as an identity. It is this closing of mind and the identification with yourself as the doubter that leads to more and more doubt. It creates a kind of cocoon or bubble that acts as a veil or smoke screen that creates an invisible barrier to the happiness and freedom that you are. Doubt by its very nature is a thought that lives in the past, which is constrained by the limitations of the mind. To pop the doubt bubble you it is essential to confront the doubter. Is the doubter real?
Walking on the razors edge is the essence of Papaji's teaching, which lives in the willingness to discover what is always already stopped. A single thought is too much to carry on the razors edge. This teaching represents the end of following your thoughts outward to the manifest world and represents a stopping to look inward to directly recognize the vastness that you are that lives inside and outside of your physical form.