The Destiny of All Things

 There is an immense power

  in unifying behind a collective —
but essentially a very personal journey.

To honour how amazing it is
to always feel that here
in the energy —
we're always
supported. 

We’re here
for each other's upliftment.

We inherently believe
in the divinity within each other,
and the power in each other
to rise up.

We're not here
to put something on each other,
to add something to each other
not here to make each other feel
like we’re lacking. 

But instead,
to remind ourselves:
we already have
everything we need within.

It just has to rise up,
come through,
beyond the container of the psychology,
  the limits of the mind.

But the tradition says —
this is only ever a case
of being pointed back to ourselves.
Pointed back
to origin.
To truth.
To love.
To the authentic nature of you.

That within you
which cannot be bettered,
cannot be improved,
cannot be enhanced.

You're not here to be fixed.
You're not here to be made whole.

You're here
to recognise
that you are already so.

There is nothing to be fixed.
There is just something to be remembered and recognised
that is already inhabiting your deep Heart.

That's what a sangha is.
A group of people —
no judgement,
no indoctrination,
no requirement
to be this or that,
to have this background
or that belief.

No issue
with belief systems.
No issue
with anything. 

Just will your soul rise and express its innate potential for love?

Would it do that?
Yes —
if you let it.
If you keep saying yes.
And maybe,
if you're supported by others in it.

---

But —
you will have to step
out of the message of the world.

Because are you receiving this same message
on a daily level from the world around you?

Are you seeing it
on billboards everywhere?

"You're enough."
"You don’t need anything."

That would be the end of all commercialism,
wouldn’t it?

“Carry on.
You're doing great.
Keep opening up.”

These —
are not the messages.

Not because the world is bad.
It's just... utterly deluded.

That's all.

What’s being fed en mass —
is a lie.
The promise that what we seek
is outside of ourselves.

A lie.

Yoga is the end of this ignorance.

To come out of it
you've got to hear
a different message.

That’s why we come together like this.
That’s why I’m talking now.

Because if I sit here
for a solid hour and a half,
and you stay open.

That’s an hour and a half
of de-indoctrination.

Because nothing I'm ever going to say
is part of the world-mind.

I'm never going to tell you
you're not enough.

Never going to say
you’re lacking.

You’re only ever going to hear
what you are.

And all you need
is to turn back to it.

Everyone’s brainwashed.
  Just totally brainwashed.

And the brainwashing is
getting more and more severe.

The weird thing is,
that seems to be waking a lot of us up.

Like —
“Oh my god,
where is this going?”
“I don’t want to go there.
Let me find an alternative route”

There is only one alternative route
and that is back to yourSelf.

Until you are so anchored in the love and truth of yourSelf
that the world can no longer cause you any dilemma, doubt or fear.
You can stare it in the eye and say:

“I understand,
but I will not join you.”

Being in the world
but not of it.

Being an invitation to love
and not buying into the fear. 

There is such a need for beings like this in the world. 

---

Whatever we’re talking about in satsang,
is happening all the time.

I’ll give you an example now.

I came in this evening
and while we were chanting —
I noticed this energy
in my body. 

It came mid-afternoon.
Kind of like coffee —
quite trembly.

For me,
it tends to centre around the heart.
Radiates out from there
through the rest of the body.

Some people call it bliss.

But one man’s bliss
is another man’s agitation.

So I’m not going to label it too much.

You have certain feelings
in your body right now too, don’t you?

That’s what sitting does.
When you go quiet,
you notice things.

You notice what’s actually happening
inside of you
as you sit.

And as a result of sitting more,
or practising more,
you probably are aware
of what’s going on
in your internal domain
more than you ever were.

Probably at quite subtle levels now.

You're aware
of what’s happening
in your energetic fabric —
perhaps in your mental arena.

You’re conscious
of the way that you’re thinking.
Your emotions.

So your awareness
is being expanded —
and deepened —
into your own experience of Life.

Sometimes,
you might be feeling dense,
heavy,
depressed
in your body
when you come and sit.

Sometimes,
light and buoyant,
quite excited.

But whatever you're feeling,
you're experiencing this:

An energetic phenomenon
within the system.

The yogi
simply learns to observe —
and experience
what’s there to be observed and experienced.

Less and less
creating a judgement upon it.
Or an issue about it.
Or a reaction to it.

The yogi
is simply one
who is gently
and patiently
training themselves

to be with —
all the possible energetic configurations,
mental fluctuations,
emotional oscillations
that might be going on
within the body.

The more we learn
to observe
and rest back —
relax from what’s going on
on the surface —
the less we’re in conflict with it.

The less we feel,
“I need to change this.”
“This is bad.”
“It’s got to go.”

Or even,
“I like this, I want more of it.”
“I don’t like this, I want it gone.”

The more we can fall back
and just be with what is,
the more clarity dawns
in relationship to it.

But most importantly
the less it becomes
the master of our next move.

The less it can
trigger us
push our buttons,
make us reactive,
trigger chaos,
make us angry,
make us… whatever.

The less we are made into something
by passing fluctuations
moving through our physical and mental bodies.

So if we’re falling back from these,
what are we falling back into?

We all have different names for that place.

For that place inside of us
that’s deeper,
untouched by all this.

Can we call it —
presence?

Is the presence
that is observing agitation —
agitated?

---

Here’s the thing:

All of us have
an underlying river
of peace,
of contentment,
of total ease within us.

A presence
that is completely
undisturbable.

Out of that presence,
and into that presence,
arises all phenomena.

Every emotion
rises
and is destined to fall.

Or…
have you been stuck
in a single emotion
since you were born?

How many emotions
have you seen rise and fall by now?

You couldn’t count them, could you?

You’ve observed
countless energetic waves,
frequencies,
thoughts,
emotions,
anxieties,
stresses…

All emerging,
playing their game
in your psyche,
in your body,
in your energy.

But each one of them
had a destiny.

And the destiny
is always this:

To return to peace.
To return to stillness.
To return
to the underlying presence.

The yogis said:
this presence is one of santosha.

It’s always calm.
Always clear.
Always undisturbed.

It rests in balance
and harmony.
It rests in itself
as the indweller.

It is content in itself —
regardless of what’s fluctuating
above and around it.

Regardless of what’s moving
into it and out of it.

It remains unshaken.
It remains in equipoise.

Getting ourselves
connected up to this presence
is how we anchor
into the undisturbable,
the unfluctuating…

the santosha.

This is the second niyama

---

You're sat
in front of the Master
on the mountain.

You’ve managed to climb the mountain
and you’ve convinced her,
  that you’re a worthy student.

You’re sincere.
You’re ready.

So far,
the Master has initiated you
into five yamas.
and one niyama

And now,
she says:

“The second niyama…
is santosha.”

That means she’s going to ask you:

“Are you willing?
Will you commit
to peace,
to this underlying contentment
within yourself?”

“Will you live the calm
rather than the storm?”

“Will you commit so deeply
that you will carry this calm
wherever you go —
and when you leave it,
notice that you’ve left,
and return to it?”

Because in the calm
is great power.

Chaos imitates that power —
but it’s not that power.

Its destiny
is always to return
to the underlying santosha.

The power —
is in the calm
not in the storm.

The storm may blow,
loud and wild,
but what is its destiny?

The individual may express
anger,
worry,
rage…

But what is the destiny
of these emotions?

They return.

---

Stay in the place it returns to.
Stay in the destiny of all things.

And in that —
you’ll find your undisturbable essence
in relationship to all things.

The Master is saying:

“This is your nature.

Why do you keep disturbing yourself?

Why keep agitating yourself?
Why wind yourself up?

Why become the storm?

What led you to believe
that getting into the drama
was somehow exciting?

Aren’t you bored
of going up,
and coming down yet?

Why not stay in the origin?
Enjoy it all
from the source?”

Big commitment, that.

Hardly anybody makes it, by the way.

---

You’ll rarely find anyone
who — if you asked them:

“Would you like to rest
in peace inside yourself?” —

That wouldn’t say:

“Oh fuck yeah.”

Everyone says yes.

OK,
I’ll show you the way.
Because it doesn’t take long.

Everyone can be introduced
to the peace inside.

Quite easily.

But…

Nobody wants to stay.

Weird, huh?

We also
don’t want to stay.

I also leave it
for chips.

That means:
I leave it cheaply.

I get pulled out of my peace
for things that
aren’t worth it.

I give away
something so precious…

In fact —
the answer to all problems.

I give it away
for crumbs.

I give my peace away
to stupid things.

I give it away
to other people’s unrest.

I give it away
to my mind’s worry.

To my anxiety.

To my need to prove something.

To my need to belong.
To be seen.

I leave my innate santosha
all the time.

So the Master will ask you:

“Why are you doing that?”

“Watch carefully.
See what causes you
to give away
the treasure of treasures —
for peanuts.”

---

Because if you start
valuing peace
inside yourself…

it will show you
its worth.

But currently —
we give it lip service,
without real gravitas.

We're still convinced
all the answers
are out there.

In fixing things.
In getting in the chaos.

And we’ve got this idea
that this —
peace —
is boring.
And that —
chaos —
is interesting.

I mean,
it does look like a flatline,
I’ve got to confess…

But actually?

The spike —
is excitement
followed by depression.

It is gain
followed by loss.

It’s the game
everyone’s playing.

But the one in santosha?
This one gains and loses nothing —
and gets to experience everything.

It’s the best seat in the house.

You get to be with all of it,
You get to experience everything
but you don’t lose your peace.

That’s santosha.

---

It’s a big initiation.

To be initiated
into contentment.

We just
brought it to the light.

Now —
it’s for each of us to give it value.

Mick —
he called it paradise.

I asked for a definition on Tuesday,
and he said:

“Paradise.”

Don’t give paradise away for hell.

If you’re under the illusion —
that anything you experience in your body
is a problem for you…

Welcome to hell.

Stay in paradise —
in the peace of yourself.

Spread that vapour of peace
all over your body.

Take it to the tensions.
Take it to the mind.
Take it everywhere.

And just —
peace it to death..

Santosha.

Value the calm.

---

So how to live with Santosha?

One experience of santosha,
we can all recognise
is the returning.

We leave it —
we move to chaos.

We get entangled
in whatever mental or emotional stuff
is going on.

We get lost
in fear and panic.

And then —
we have the joy of returning.

At some point —
the inevitable return.

And now,
because your systems
are being trained with yoga
to return more smoothly,
more frequently…

and because you know
where it is in you…

the time you spend
lost in turmoil
will naturally shorten.

Like —
"Steve, I totally lose the plot…
but not for so long now."

It's not long before:

“Wait, wait — hold on — wait — what?!”

And it’s:

“Ahhh, welcome back.”

That’s better.

Just had to drop in
for a moment
and return.

So —
the time we’re exiled
from our inner peace
becomes shorter.

---

Though still —
there are times
you’ll be tested deeply.

It may feel like peace
is fragmented.
Hard to come by.

You might just get
little glimmers of it
before being pulled back out.

But still —
it’s inevitable
that things are going peaceward.  

Even more interestingly —
you may find
that you can be in turmoil…

and simultaneously
aware
of a peace beneath it.

Some part of you
remains anchored.

If I asked,
“How are you?”
you’d need to ask back:

“Which part of me
are you talking to?”

Because this one
is fine.

Peace is still happening
within whatever is going on inside

This is a very accelerated
spiritual phenomenon.

You're conscious
of that into which everything is going to return.

And so things will return quicker
because they knows
where to land.

You’ve created
a landing pad
for your emotional field.

So yes —
you can be really going through it
and yet still,
under the surface…

you are sitting easy.

You've maintained your calm.

You can even get angry —
and be calm.

(But I won’t go into that —
we covered that on Tuesday.)

That’s divine anger.

---

Anyway —
this whole initiation?

It’s just to notice:

"Oh wow —
I get to return."

"And also
I can maintain it more and more
even when there is great disturbance."

Along with this,
you begin to see the power
of your calmness.

Not because it’s some strategy.
But because when you rest in it —
with trust —
resolution starts showing itself to you.

Peace shows you
its power
to overcome the conflict. 

In that space
you begin to reflect.
You stop contributing
to the world’s noise.

And now
your response
is not from psychology —
it’s from peace.

You’ve changed the atmosphere.
You’ve influenced others.
You’ve made peace
contagious.

Now we’re not caught
in a war of reactions.
Now we’re anchored
in clarity.

Blessed are the peacemakers.

Namaste.