Discover the Treasure of Sacred Speech

The ego’s tendency to appropriate language to serve its own incomplete concepts often results in the misinterpretation of the dream field and its signifiers, emotions, and dreams. This can only be overcome by keeping the mind so still and free of egoic thought (like a hermetically sealed vessel) that its tendencies are burned away. In this selection of Q&A’s, we learn that keeping the mind free of contradictory egoic thought is the surrender required to open to the higher wisdom and divine love that can endure the ego’s burning away and accurately understand and navigate the winds of change.

This documentary screening is framed by an introduction from Radha Ma weaving themes of Russian culture, the union of earthly and spiritual realms, and the living symbols that ignite the soul’s evolution. The evening also featured an introductory essay from Shunyamurti offering a visionary context for Nicholas Roerich’s life and work—a journey through art, mysticism, and the perennial tradition that points us toward the heart of the world.

Once language is installed in our mind, and we identify with a body image via the name it has been given, consciousness finds itself detoured into an unreal plane of representation. From then on, an endless stream of mental chatter carries off the attention into memories, fantasies, reveries, and various sorts of delusional orientations, confusing projections with reality, and living through a fictional character, without noticing our alienation from the Real. Clear discernment and dispassion are necessary to extricate our awareness from the inauthentic self. This is the first obstacle that must be overcome on the spiritual journey.

Question:

I’m grateful for the chance to pose a question to Shunyamurti that, personally, seeks validation for my perspective. There’s a new Christian movement on social media labeling anything not in the Bible as satanic, including yoga and meditation. I’ve read the Bible, often using it to reconnect with God, but I also explore the Bhagavad Gita, practice yoga, and meditate daily. Personally, yoga led me back to God. I guess why this movement triggers me is due to my ego’s attachment to the spiritual practices that keep me in God’s presence, which they demonize.

Sadly, I have experienced many in my network following along this movement and therefore now seeing me as a follower of Satan for continuing my practices of yoga and meditation. I work on letting go of this attachment and to care how others view me. I’d love to hear Shunyamurti’s thoughts on this movement and why they choose to demonize practices like yoga and meditation. His teachings have deeply resonated with me over the years, and his reply means the world. Thank you in advance, namaste.

Shunyamurti’s Reply:

The answer is in the Bible: “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.” The people you speak of no doubt mean well. They do not attack yoga or meditation, but rather the false projections they have about those terms. If they knew that meditation is equivalent to what Christian mystics speak of as the highest state of contemplative prayer, in which the mind is silenced and the soul is absorbed into the Divine Presence—then they would alter their opinion.

Perhaps you should tell people that you practice contemplative prayer, instead of using the term “meditation”. And instead of using the term “yoga”, since the word means union, why not say you practice being in union with God.

Nearly all conflicts stem from misunderstandings of what words mean to others. This is magnified when the words come from different language systems. This is why many great sages taught only in silence. Silence is the real message, in any case. Prayer and meditation have the purpose of bringing the mind into peace and stillness, so that the Voice of God can be heard in one’s heart. So, you can tell others you now only practice silence and God’s peace, that passeth all understanding.

Question:

Love listening to him but saying “there is no good or bad” is very out of touch with the real world most people exist in. I understand the transcendent Spirit, and I exist in it every day to dissolve my ego. But if someone is disrespectful to someone that is bad. Verses if someone is respectful to someone that is good. You get the picture. Why is he adverse to these definitions?

Shunyamurti’s Reply:

I am reminded of the famous old Daoist story of the Chinese farmer whose plow horse, if I remember correctly, is stolen, and now he cannot grow food. The villagers all said, what a bad thing to happen. But the farmer just replied, who knows? He went out into the forest to try to find a wild horse and he came upon a whole herd that he and his son were able to bring back and train to be workhorses. All the villagers said, now he is rich, what a good thing that was to happen. But the farmer just shrugged. A few days later, the son was trying to train one of the horses and he fell off and broke his leg. The villagers said, what a bad thing to happen. The farmer again shrugged. The next week the army arrived in the village and they took every able-bodied young man from the village and forced them to fight in a war. But the farmer’s son was spared because of his broken leg. The crying villagers said the farmer was lucky. The story goes on with many such episodes to make the point that every cloud has a silver lining, there is a hidden blessing in every seemingly adverse situation. If one has faith that all that unfolds in the world is the will of God, then it is all perfect. Good and bad are relative to momentary conditions as seen from an egocentric perspective. But it is always the case that what seems bad to one may seem good to another. Since the world is a dream and made up largely of our own shadow projections, our karma is always a teaching, and should motivate not judgment but growth, deepening of understanding, humility, and reverence for the infinite intelligence, goodness, and love of God for all beings. If we had listened to God in the first place, and not eaten from the tree of the illusion of good and evil, we would all still be in paradise. But it is not too late to return.