http://youtu.be/_bKQXmvdr8o
My uncle Luke just sent me a clip of a man I had never before heard of. For a second, I thought it was a British comedian and that I might require subtitles to understand his humour. As he rambled several poignant thoughts consecutively, I realized that this was no comedy bit, and–I must confess–I briefly suspected that he had been reading some of my own writings. But his voice echoed even the words from my new book, which is not yet published. So instantly I realized that this is no copycat. Quite simply he speaks aloud the very same thoughts and feelings that are inside all of us. It just so happens that he speaks these words with a very cool English accent. (Brilliant!!)
I fully expect that you will agree with Russell on every single point. If any part of Russell’s message seems strange, it is only because the media and society have together caused your inner voice to compete with zillions of superfluous messages.
Russell speaks of yoga and transcendental meditation as his two main tools for feeling a brief connection with God and with the universe. And he is exactly right: these are extremely powerful tools. But let me add that these tools are much simpler to use than most people believe.
In the case of yoga, there are millions of students being told erroneously that the word “yoga” means “to join”, a verb, implying that you must do something to connect yourself to the Universe. And one fallacy becomes two, because the students are then led to believe that the “connection” that they “achieved” during the yoga class is but a temporary one, requiring many visits to the yoga school, effectively selling yoga as an addictive drug.
So let me clarify that yoga means oneness or unity and it is your very essence. There is absolutely no action required to connect yourself to the divine Universe. Your only task is to become fully aware of your connectedness.
That brings us to transcendental meditation. Again, this is commonly “sold” by some “masters” that would prefer to have many students coming back to them for more and more. But in reality, nothing could be simpler than meditation, because to meditate simply means to observe, as intently and profoundly as possible. Intently is the opposite of accidentally, and profoundly is the opposite of superficially, so the only kind of observation that doesn’t qualify as meditation is the kind of observation that we typically do throughout most of the day using the five notorious senses. (I’ve written an article on these already, so I’ll dig it up and post it here shortly.)
Russell calls these same famous senses “the limited senses” and again, he is right. The eyes see but a tiny fraction of the total light energy that surrounds us, while the vast majority usually goes unnoticed. Ditto for the other four commonly-exploited senses that keep us chasing our proverbial tail… if we continue to focus on just that which is being sold, we will continue to miss the majority of reality, and we will perpetually feel empty, desiring more stimulation.
Profound observation elegantly solves this problem! By diverting one’s attention away from the noise of the media and society (as simple as turning off all electronics) one is left with only the sound of one’s inner voice plus the zillions of messages previously recorded in our minds by the media and society. And even though this may initially seem overwhelming, I assure you that before long you will have no trouble distinguishing your innermost thoughts from the outermost, and thus the massive housekeeping chore gets lighter and lighter, and this lightening is where the transcendence comes in. All meditation, when done correctly, is transcendental. Your consciousness will expand irreversibly. You do not need a more complicated strategy to achieve transcendence. Simply stick with the profound observation for as long as possible and do it frequently.
By living a life of meditation or prayer, you will effectively distill the mental mayhem down to just the core truths, the same ones that Russell and I speak of… about love being the most important part of life, about kindness being the surest way to feel good, about focusing on abundance and cooperation instead of scarcity and competition… I’ve “known” Russell for a total of ten minutes, but I am absolutely sure that neither of us will ever claim a patent on these ideas, because they are the very same thoughts and feelings that persist in the heart and soul of every single human being.