TEACHINGS OF SWAMI PREMODAYA

The body is a natural reservoir of joy.

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Your body is your most effective environment for learning the art of controlling your mind — which means being able to direct your attention, at will.

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You are not a biological being. Only your body is biological. The rest of you is spiritual, through-and-through.

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The whole reason you can focus, can get somewhere, can advance inwardly, the reason you can advance spiritually, is because this mind and this body exist in this lifetime. The body is really the enhancer of the mind. My experience is, when you die, mind remains, and then you’re really stuck, because you can’t go anywhere. There’s no body to move somewhere, to do something, with whatever the mind has put its attention on. Then you aren't in the same degree of control as when you’re in a body. Then your mind determines your reality and your experience in a much more direct, much more haphazard way, unless and until you reach that profounder point while still in the body; unless you anchor yourself, find your place in Eternity and Infinity, here now—before your mind determines it for you. Because it doesn’t have the control the body gives you.

The body is actually a gift of control. It’s like the steering wheel. It’s not the enemy. It’s not what keeps you locked in the car. It’s what allows you to go somewhere. Conventionally it’s thought of as what has you locked in the car, you want to get out of the car. No, it’s the steering wheel. It’s what allows you to get somewhere.

The ego is just a grab bag of pre-set preferences.

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Ego is only interested in one thing: getting its own way.

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Ego is memory misused. It’s the ‘you’ you think you are, the ‘you’ you hope you are, and the ‘you’ you wish you weren’t. Ego is the direct manifestation and expression of the survival instinct — as well as all desire, identification and attachment.

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‘I-me-mine' is your constant mantra, your continuous meditation. This is the exact opposite of the Divine. The Divine is 'everything-everyone-everywhere'. Give up the poison of 'I-me-mine' — and the Divine becomes immediately apparent.

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The ego’s job: to come up with excuses as you move forward — more and more, subtler excuses.

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Ego is the reaction of turning away from being truly and fully engaged with the continuous change and actual non-knowing which is simply the context of all human experiencing, the core nature of self-aware presence itself.

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What's ego? The feeling of ‘I’. What's the Divine? The feeling of ‘us’. There's no more I — there's just we.

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Anything that feels like something other than love — that will be ego.

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Your ego is not the problem. The problem is that you follow the ego, you listen to it, you believe it. Stop believing what your ego tells you and then there’s no problem.

You practice meditation, so meditation can practice you.

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Everything that you do, amounts to meditation. Whatever you focus on, whatever you concentrate on, whatever you give your energy to, whatever you think about — is ‘meditating’ upon it. Ordinarily, that is not the everyday understanding of meditation, but it’s true. Most people are meditating on their problems.

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When you relax, the universe starts to answer questions you never even asked.

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Most people are meditating on what they like, or don’t like. Most people are meditating on how to be happy, how to have a better life, how to make more money, how to get sex — so don’t be confused. What you give your attention to, IS your meditation. Formal meditation, the ‘practice’ of meditation, is an antidote for these involuntary meditations that people are always engaging in without realizing it. You get to focus on something different, something perhaps of your choosing.

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You become what you focus on.

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Wherever you put your attention, that's your life.

Life is other people.

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If you want love, the worst method is to look for it. If you really want love, become a lover. Better yet, just become Love . Be Love itself: Love everyone you meet. Even Love everyone you will never meet! Stop wanting to be loved, and start loving — and your life will be a blessing to the entire world — to existence itself.

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Everything you have, has been given to you to share.

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Other people, are the path to God.

The acceptance of the fact of death is an essential element of a valid spiritual path.

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Death is neither the end of life nor the opposite of life. Death is the backdrop for life -- the chiaroscuro that provides depth, meaning, urgency, profundity, clarity -- the motivation to live. But above all, death is the mysterious beyond, itself.

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How you live determines how you die. How you live and how you die determines your experience of Eternity. And this continues to go on—your destiny ever-changing, on and on—until you get to some kind of liberation, some kind of true realization, some kind of break with the illusions of phenomena (which are neither the Eternal nor the Truth nor the Divine).

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Death is not the outside turns off, death is the inside is all that's left.

A human life is an opportunity for God — nothing more, nothing less.

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God doesn’t bring contentment; contentment brings God.

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Do you really think that Truth, God, Self-Realization — will come to you with no effort on your part? Or with only minimal effort? You will have to stake everything on it. You will have to be willing to pay the price of admission. Willingness is the key.

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The usual position is the ‘anti’ position, concerned with everything except that which matters — God.

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When you are unwilling to be surprised, you're unwilling for God.

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Only God IS.

Only Reality IS.

Only that which is, IS.

I bow to the Truth within you. I bow to the Truth that is you.

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You just have to be willing to accept that it might already be under your nose, that it might actually be close at hand, and always has been close at hand... Let the singing and dancing begin!

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God doesn't make mistakes. Existence doesn't mess up. And you are an expression — no matter what you think. You are an expression of perfection itself.

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It's not about you going somewhere. It's about you becoming acceptable to God.

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If you really want the Divine, you must pay the price of admission. The divine’s price of admission is ‘you.’ You pay with ‘you’— you hand yourself over, in toto. You pay with all of you, so that there’s no ‘you’ left at all. Nothing left. You hand over all remaining vestiges of what you call ‘you’. Nothing left at all. You disappear completely — only an empty space, everywhere where before there was an ‘I’ or a ‘me’ or a ‘mine.’ You die:; no you; no you of any kind. You simply go away.

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Intention isn’t significant, until God’s intention has you.

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If all is God’s will, then all is not only as it is, but amazingly enough, as it should be, as it has to be, as it must be, as it can only be. So why not relax? Why not rejoice?

The Guru is an alive presence that can actually challenge you (which mind can never do).

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The Guru is God’s intervention for you, God coming into your life.

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My work is to help you end suffering, to find clarity, to go beyond all the barriers that have been created in you. My effort is to help you reach to your true self.

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The Guru is not your 'good father' nor your 'good mother'. The Guru is not your role model. He or she is not in your life to 'improve' it, or even to improve you. The Guru is the fire that burns away your ordinary life — leaving only Truth.

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The Guru is a permanent optimist.

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The Guru is like a prison guard — gives you a real shakedown, taking all your little weapons you hide (which equals your resistance).

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Understanding what the Guru says is more important than agreeing or disagreeing with what the Guru says.

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If you are really my disciple, and you submit to my heart. it will lead you to me.

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For the devotee the Guru is the doorway to the universal.

Discipleship is a vehicle for transcendence itself.

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Guru/disciple is one thing: a relationship — a relationship that leads to the Divine.

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A disciple lives an intentional life.

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...The Guru/Disciple relationship is falling in tune with the vibe of the Guru, more and more falling into that energy. It’s not imitating the Guru, it’s not acting like the Guru, it’s not trying to be like the Guru (because you can only be you). The Guru appears as this body and this person, but you also carry the inner Guru. And when you fall more in tune with the vibe of the outer Guru, more and more, the inner Guru comes to the surface.

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A Spiritual Master, an actual Guru, is simply a perfected disciple, an utter devotee — one who has become so lost in their Master, abides in the Master — such that they themself have become suitable for representing the Divine — the essence of their Master's message — to others.

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Discipleship is a recognition. It’s when the disciple has recognized his/her true teacher, his/her Master. A moment comes when the disciple recognizes “Yes, this is the one. Through him/her I find my Freedom.”

Joy is the human experience of the Divine itself.

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Just existing, is the greatest possible pleasure.

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There’s no handbook. The handbook is your heart; the confusion is your head.

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When you ‘analyze’ happy, it takes you to unhappy.

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Cheerful optimism is the antidote to everything.

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You have no reason not to be optimistic, actually. Hasn't everything, even the worst and most terrible things, eventually worked out? That's the real reason for a kind of a blanket optimism... If you look back over your life...in a sober, sincere way, you’ll see that it's always worked out.

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Attachment to enjoyment limits your ability to enjoy, and guarantees eventual misery. So when you’re not attached to enjoyment, you enjoy much more.

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The center of a human being has at its core, joy and bliss.

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‘Inner Peace’ isn’t a state. It’s an understanding — an understanding that nothing is wrong.

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Ask, ‘What am I still not willing to drop, not let go of?’ That answer is your most significant information.

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A human being is responsible for one thing only: His own happiness.

You must make yourself available to Grace, attractive to Grace, vulnerable to Grace, receptive to Grace. You don't get Grace – Grace gets you.

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Walking on water isn't as great a miracle as the ability to walk, itself.

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Life is a miraculous process, and you just aren’t calling it that. You’re calling it “Tuesday”.

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Grace is experienced by everyone, but recognized by only a few. If you’re breathing, you’re in Grace. To be allowed to breathe, is a specific form of Grace. Grace-based miracles make up the very fabric of all of our lives, yet are commonly unrecognized, unappreciated and unacknowledged.

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You're living in the midst of the Miraculous. Open-mindedness is appropriate.

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So here is my definition...of Grace. And it has to be understood from an operational side (so this is a definition written with the operational in mind): ‘That set of both lawful and non-lawful forces, which operates in different forms, as the functional manifestation of Truth, as activated Divine Love and Wisdom'.

The spiritual path is a call from the other world — so the rest is just about hearing it more clearly, and answering it more fully.

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‘Spiritual path’ is not just a metaphor. It's very literal. It means you actually have to go somewhere.

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Never see yourself as having arrived. Always see yourself as going forward.

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The question is: ‘Are you going in the right direction?’ not ‘How far along am I?’

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The voyage toward Truth is a voyage away from society.

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Everyone is a spiritual seeker, whether they know it or not. Ultimately, whatever captures your desire, is actually a form of longing for your essence, your true self. You are seeking the Divine, no matter what you’re seeking.

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For conventional people, those as yet unwilling or unable to grow, those who still cannot see beyond their own culture, beyond all cultures — their present is their future. I invite you to do better. I encourage you to be unconventional, to be truly spiritual.

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The conventional life is meaningless. It leads nowhere. It's a hall of mirrors. The real life is spiritual life — the life that grows, the life that expands, that satisfies once-and-for-all, and forever afterward. This world is beautiful, but is only a shadow of the spiritual world.

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All spiritual advancement is about relinquishment — comes only through relinquishment. Start living in the reality of God, Grace and Guru. Build your hut on the path of relinquishment.

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The spiritual path isn’t the accumulation of anything; it’s the letting go of everything. The spiritual path isn't anything more. and nothing less, than renunciation. It’s the one word that’s the definition of the spiritual journey: renunciation. Renunciation isn’t negative. It sounds negative to our ears, giving something up, renouncing something, letting go of something, stepping away from something. It sounds extremely negative. Most of us shy away, even from the word, once we hear it. But it’s not negative at all. This is why you have to be tricked, because words don’t convey the reality; words are limited. Even though renunciation is the exact, correct, accurate, perfect word, it has connotations that people don’t like. You get fooled by the word itself, so you have to be counter-fooled, so that you won’t reject that which is in your best interest. It’s like when they make the cough medicine cherry flavored. But you’re all adults; there’s no reason you can’t understand that renunciation is all it’s about, and nothing else.

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Renunciation means you become willing to let go of what isn't true, what isn't real and wasn't you. It turns out that most of what we are carrying is that: the untrue, the unreal, and the not us...

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Relaxation is the stones the spiritual path is made of.

You are standing at the intersection of Eternity and Infinity. Recognizing this, is all that matters.

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The Unknown does not change. The Unknown is the totality of Eternity and Infinity.

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Whenever we look deeply into anything, it’s a window into everything.

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Why not taste the Eternal and the Infinite and the Divine, before the physical death comes? Why not be willing to be the prey, and let the Divine, the-all-and-the-everything, come crashing into you?—capture you?! So that you (just as you are) can know something of that which is absolutely Real, absolutely True, Eternal, Infinite — already your true condition.

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When you can finally admit to yourself, and know it absolutely — that God knows, and you don't — and that God always will — and you never will, then you can relax and let the bus drive itself. Then you get to breathe easy, laugh more, and not worry so much. Then you get to know better, that whenever you mistake time and space for anything, it's still Infinity and Eternity.

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Your dilemma is: how do you turn your attention to the Divine? Because if that’s your tendency, then you’re saved; then that’s what you’ll take into death, that’s what you’ll take when you move toward Eternity. When you move into Infinity you’ll take the tendency to attend to the Divine. Then you’ll go in the right direction, whatever it turns out to be. You at least will be in the ballpark.