Episode Transcript
My name is Ken Hannaman 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. Are you interested in learning meditation? Hello everyone. Welcome to the Spiritual Relationship Podcast. My name is Ken Hanuman. I'm your host. In the next 20 episodes I will talk about meditation. I've been practicing Raja yoga meditation for over 30 years. And, it was not easy in the beginning, but with knowledge and practice, it has it has turn my life around. So I wish that for everyone, because meditation is not just to calm your mind, or relaxation. It is even more than that. It is a way to self-realization and for, bringing in spiritual values in your life. So it, is very beneficial for us. It should actually not be an option. It should be part of our life. The topic today is, who am I? And this is the first step in your spiritual journey. We know who we are, like our physical, name of the body and and we know what the body looks like, gender and whatever. But our spiritual identity is that I am consciousness. I am the soul. The soul and the body, right? They go together, the soul is the energy that makes this body alive. Without a soul, the body will die. And that's what happens in death When the soul leaves the body, the body is now lifeless and it will deteriorate. It goes back to the five elements. But the soul lives on. So these are things that we need to think about when we start meditation. Many people have this question, what do you do when you meditate? I can think of a beautiful scene, you know, being on a beach or by a waterfall or something, and you can feel relaxed with that, that's great. But the truth is that we need to think of things that will help me to understand my mind and my intellect. How I can maybe change things that are causing me pain and sorrow. You know, this whole mental process that goes on within that could be change if we understand what consciousness is. If we understand the mind and the intellect and how we could transform that intellect. How with meditation and knowledge, how we could actually control our mind and create a personality and good habits that will enable me to negotiate relationship in a more powerful way that will bring happiness to me. So like I said, when we think of the soul, the being part of you or human being, think of the soul as being light. A point of light. The location in the body that we would like to say that the soul reside is. maybe right between the eyebrows here to be just below the limbic system by the pituitary gland. That's the location, and the soul controls the body. The soul gets information from what the senses bring into the brain and the brain process that, and the mind interacts with the brain. And then we develop an understanding. We make sense. We can perceive things, and then we can decide on a reaction. We have memories within us. So all of this is part of the soul. The brain is distinct from the soul. Another thing about the soul is that it is eternal and immortal. It can't die. It is energy, but it is sentient energy, meaning like it is always alive. The awareness that you have right now that you're alive, that awareness never goes away. That outlives the body. It is hard. I know this is the hard part. When we start meditation, when we talk about the soul, people sometimes think, oh, I have a soul. But the truth is that I am the soul. And even though you can't see the soul and it's very subtle. The beautiful thing about it is that you can experience it. You can understand it. And because as human beings we have this, cognitive ability to be able to sort of perceive things beyond the physical. The other thing about a soul is that it can live without the body. Well, that's what I was saying. Right. But I, I want you to just sort of think about the body being there, and I am separate from it, but I'm alive and the body is there. The body's like an instrument. You like the driver in the car, I the soul, I'm the driver and the car is the thing that I use. The car will get old and die eventually. Why is this important in meditation? Because when you look at your mind and all that information that is in the mind and all the thoughts and maybe there's so many things there that are not actually true. And that is causing sorrow. It's very important to distinguish the difference between the mind and the soul. And in the next episode we'll talk, we go in depth into what is the mind, what a mind does, the conscious mind. In psychology, you talk about the conscious mind, you talk about the subconscious, you know, deep subconscious. But in spirituality, we refer to it a little differently. Anyhow, we'll go deeper later on. When the soul is out of the body,, the soul doesn't have a gender, but the body has a gender. So you come in and then you know you're male, female. The other thing about a soul is that it is very unique each and every soul. If there are eight billions of human beings on earth, each one of us, we are very unique. A unique personality, a unique characteristic. It infinite meaning that once you're, it is almost as if the senses and the body limits or locates the, consciousness in a very specific role. But when you're out, it is almost, you're infinite or unlimited, and you can feel a connection with everyone at a spiritual level. But when your body conscious you relate in a limited way. You have your family, your friends, and your community and whatever. So that's kind of, localized or confined. But when you are soul conscious, you have an unlimited awareness. When the soul is out of the body or in meditation when you can experience being away from, the old concept of self, and you start thinking of yourself in this unlimited way. You still have this ability to think and feel. So there you can generate experience of yourself as being pure. And like I said, infinite. You can actually think of others as souls and you can have a sort of a compassion or empathy with all souls. Sort of like we're all brothers as souls, everyone. So that's a very nice experience to have, to see every human being, everyone as a soul and that they are pure or they are my brothers, or we share the same natural or original nature of peace, love, happiness, power. What I'm describing here can be referred to as wisdom. So this is innate to the soul to have wisdom. So these are the qualities of the soul. What the mind can do for us is that as we look at the mind and we see thoughts and so on, we can understand that. I'm actually looking at the thoughts because thoughts are like images right on the mind, like pictures, images, like 3D movie. So who's watching the movie? The one who's watching is the one who's self-aware that is the soul. So I am looking and I'm observing the mind. I hope you can appreciate that. I know it's a little difficult to do, but okay, I am pure, I am the one observing. I am eternal, but I'm looking at this 3D movie that is the mind. The mind is just sort of like a mirror, like a screen, and I'm looking at it. So meditation starts there with this understanding of myself as being non-physical, separate from the body. But I use the body, I interact with the body, but I have this ability to go beyond. So when I go into the episode on intellect, we'll go deeper into the spiritual intellect where you can understand things that are, you can say beyond the physical world. We'll talk about three levels of consciousness. So with that, I will close for today, this episode and I will continue next week with, a more deeper explanation of what the mind is. So I'll close for today. And remember that no matter what, your nature is peace, protect that peace. For information and how you can access free online classes and courses, go to the description below. So thank you for listening and goodbye. When you walk into a room, life gets little, you. You.
