Episode Transcript
My name is Ken Hanuman and I've been practicing Raja Yoga meditation for over 40 years. In these episodes, I will share the experiences and insights I've gained from meditation and how I've integrated them into my everyday life and all my relationships. Welcome to the Spiritual Relationship Podcast. Hello everyone. Welcome to the Spiritual Relationship Podcast. My name is Ken Hanuman your host, and the topic today is protecting yourself. So I'm not saying yourself, I'm saying the self. Based on what we've discussed before in the previous episode, we're talking about the spiritual self. Now that we know about the soul and we are now practicing meditation and we're developing this new identity of being peaceful, the freedom that we feel from the meditation, the independence, the autonomy. The feeling that there's clarity within us, we would like to protect that. So I would share from my experience how you can protect yourself or how, or what I did, that has actually served me well over the many many years that I have been meditating. I started out pretty early. I was a teenager when I started studying Raj Yoga Meditation, and I, you know, it's not an easy journey because you do get influenced by the outside environment, company, the opinions of others, and then going to college and the demands of society and your role. You can sometimes get pulled into that, into that physical materialistic world. And you can lose, you can lose that access, you can lose that contact or that relationship you have with yourself. One of the ways, one of the method that I use is that every single day I will listen to spiritual teachings and the morning, classes and, and evening, morning classes. Mostly, they, you constantly refreshing and going more in depth, into knowledge of the soul and the. The philosophy of karma and how is it that ego can be confused with the self, and you want to avoid that confusion. You want to differentiate clearly, who am I from the role that I'm playing, or body consciousness. So I would like to stay in that soul consciousness, I would like to. I like to maintain my peace no matter what is happening on the outside, right? So one method, as I said, is every day to feed the intellect with knowledge and to turn on that. Think about that during the day. The next thing is to realize that the mind has a way of wandering. They can be distractions or you feel like you're thinking of things that are not really necessary or appropriate. Maybe because of influence, because you might still have some interest in things going on around you. There might be things even related to vice that can pull your addictions. So what you do with the knowledge is that you bring the intellect, the mind back to what you were, what you've been taught, or the things that you've been, studying. And you will, rather than the mind wandering, you will think about it. And it is possible to take time out during the day. It might be five minutes or three minutes, or, you know, whatever time you have. You sit quietly for a little while and let your mind be restful. Pull it away from the world, and sort of go deeper in, get back in touch with the soul, with the self, with your peace, with your calm, with the awareness that you are self-aware and you have a divine nature and your nature is peace. As the intellect gets stronger and as you're able to review the situations that might defeat you from time to time, you can review that in your, in the moments that you feel powerful in, in your meditation, and you feel okay and you can come up with a solution, you can come up with a new way of handling that challenge. Somebody says something, something happens. The news, the media, whatever, and rather than getting dragged into it emotionally and getting upset or disturbed, you can train yourself to not be overexposed to these things, or to a bad company. So the, the other method is to churn or to think about about these things and take time out, which is called traffic control. Take time out every hour. Whenever you get a chance, sit quietly and bring yourself back to your center. Another method that I really like is, to keep good companies. So in the evening I will try to be with people who share these values and they're also studying and who probably at your level, whether you're, when you're very serious about learning and you wanna be with those who are also very strong in their effort and those who can inspire you or guide you or can answer a question. Any yoga in meditation, you will be able to feel that you are not the body and that you are being, that is not physical. Therefore, you think of the self. And this lesson would be the three worlds where you move into an awareness of yourself being a being of light. Like, um, like I mentioned, thinking of yourself as, as an angel. You know, visualize that, feel it. And when we use the word angel, we are talking about you yourself, you don't have wings. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about an awareness of a self, of being of having compassion and being benevolent and caring and practicing in your mind, in your thoughts, feelings of selflessness, you know, and sharing that through your visualization imagination. You're sharing that with the world and others. So you're sitting in meditation, but you're doing this through your mind and gradually as you get deeper into it, as you, you, you pulled into the into that experience, you become the embodiment of, of that, um, awareness of yourself as being an angel or being, um, having these qualities that are helpful to mankind. You start to enjoy that. The feeling of it, the depth of it, it brings about transformation within you. So the more I practice meditation. I am developing a resource. I'm developing, an escape into a world where I am not influenced by the outside world. So that's another form of protection. The other method that I use is to believe, I do believe in God. I believe in the, but not in that, in how religion makes it out. To be that he's some, I don't see God as, as a, as someone who is there looking and judging and, and punishing I something like this. Let's say if you look at the sun, right, or nature generally, they're very benevolent. Nature is very benevolent. It doesn't ask for anything. Just gives nonjudgmental. So my concept of God is that he is the supreme soul, the supreme being. But he's constant in his benevolence and he's always available. Um, and whenever I choose to remember, and I try to increase the amount of time that I spent in that remembrance to experience him in different relationships as my father, my teacher guide, um, as a friend, as. The, the teacher, you know, like he's teaching, he's guiding. And I find when my mo, when my mind is quiet, when it's very calm and it's, and you can, you're speaking to yourself, about being in these relationships and you are trying to experience that. And, and as you practice, it grows, it, it becomes, it becomes real to you. It actually becomes more supportive and and empowering than with human relationship. That might be transactional, that might be filled with or mixed with a lot of negativity. Um, so I would prefer to have a relationship. I mean, I'm not giving up on human relationship. I would like to serve other human beings, but I would like to have this relationship with that Higher Power. Because I don't see him as one who's punishing. I don't even ask like, no, can you give me money or give me this or that. I see it like, it's like a relationship of a friend. He is the Almighty Authority, but he's there to make me a better person. He's there to guide me. I have to do the work, but he's there to teach and guide and help and, and provide emotional support that you need. So that's another form of self-protection. Another form of self, self-protection is doing elevated karma or good action. And I just mentioned, uh, a few things you can practice in meditation of using your mind to give good wishes and good feelings towards others and nature. And your body. Your body is nature. And if you can help in terms of words and advice, teaching, and maybe even help physically if you can. You don't have to cut your nose off to spoil your face. You know, you, you don't, you're not trying to beg for acceptance or for, approval. You are serving from your state of fullness, from your state of a caring heart that you, you do things without expecting. That's elevated karma. Elevated karma is when you do something without expecting anything in return. Selfless. And it, what it does is that it does come back to you. Any action that is done in this awareness, actually, it lasts forever. Like it creates a, it creates a personality and nature in you that will endear you to others and they will be, you'll never be alone. And you'll find that life becomes easier and lighter. And even when things happen on the outside, you learn how to fortify the mind from these external disturbances, you learn how to observe. But don't absorb, don't get involved. Many things are happening we have no control over, so we should be able to identify that and not to engage it. Be honest with yourself and with that. You will find that you will have emotional maturity you'll be empowered to maintain your peace, maintain your strength, you'll be stable, and then you'll be able to be like a light to the people around you. So with that, I would close. And, for those who are interested in online classes. Free online classes and meditation commentary. You can click on the link in the description and you'll, you'll get access to that. So thank you for listening, and I'll see you in the next episode. Goodbye. When you walk into a room, life gets little, you. You.
