Sanskrit

Adam Wes Namaste. Welcome, everybody.

Well, Ariella must be forgetting, so we should probably text her really quickly.

Colleen I'll text her, Adam.

Adam Wes Thank you. And then I'll text Argnoria and David, and then we'll get started.

Oh, there's Andrea. Nice.

So today, I would love to do a little saging. Does anybody have sage?

Okay, so sage is very important, and this is how you do it. This is actually quite a bit.

Now, what sage does is, mathematically speaking, the material of sage permeates the field because it permeates space, and it has a particular intrinsic property. Everything has a property. A blueberry and a strawberry have different intelligence, different innate, intrinsic properties that they bring into the field of subjective experience.

Sage has a very powerful property that's similar to selenite, the crystal. It purges. It purifies. It's very powerful. It's almost like bleach, but spiritual bleach. It clears things.

Now, this is a lot, but sometimes... Let's do a little less. I'll take this out. One way you can do it is take a piece off.

You could really fall in love with burning sage. The smell, the scent of it, brings a quality of Pavlovian conditioning. Whenever I smell it, it reminds me of when I began meditating formally.

Landed on my leg. Ouch.

Okay, so you see how much I've got here? You can put it under your arms, around your head, between your legs, under your feet, on your back, and you sage yourself and your space.

Nobody has any sage on them? They want to do some saging with me? When we sage together, that'll be really interesting.

If you don't have sage, I recommend you buy it and try it. This is quite a bit. You can take a little leaf, even. That's enough if you're sensitive to smoke.

Kira's like, "Much!" I don't know. Kira doesn't like smoke that much, I don't think. All right.

I need a little sage because, when I go live and people are mean, it's good to clear that with sage. I don't know if anybody saw the mean guy. I just went live, and somebody was kind of mean about it.

All right, so we're going to dive in and get started. The goal today is to do a... In fact, I'm going to set a little alarm, and we'll have a full meditation, so I'm going to keep the sermon a little shorter.

Today will be a little bit different. I wanted to invite a few sermon topics. Does anybody have something they want to talk about related to enlightenment? A couple of ideas. Let's get three ideas. I'm not saying I'll do it. In fact, I already think I know what I'm going to do, but if you have an idea, it would be interesting to hear.

I want to hear from Ariella. Sermon suggestion, Aria. Top of your head.

Ariella For today or for the future?

Adam Wes Perhaps today, if it feels aligned, or for the future.

Ariella I don't know. What's just coming to me is openness.

Kira Love.

Adam Wes Nice. Openness and love. Okay, Jacob, how about you?

Jacob Forgiveness.

Adam Wes Oh. That's actually a very good one. Forgiveness.

All right, let's just take a moment.

Those are great ideas for future weeks. I'd love to do the forgiveness one, but I think I'm going to have to contemplate it a little bit. There is a very deep history and lineage around forgiveness, particularly in Christianity, but in all religions. Jesus was big on that, and it's beautiful.

How about we talk about Sanskrit today? Sanskrit's a good one.

One of the reasons Sanskrit's so great is because it is one of the most robust languages for enlightenment. Jeez, this is getting a little smoky. Give me a second.

Sanskrit is an ancient language that, as far as I know, is a precursor to Hebrew, even. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, and then Sanskrit was even before that.

Sanskrit is a powerful language because it provides a robust lexicon for describing certain dimensions and aspects of enlightenment as practice and ontology.

I use that word ontology a lot. I think it's an important word for everybody to know. It's the philosophy of the study of being. When something is ontological, existential is a similar word for it.

There's an ontology to enlightenment. What is consciousness? What is ultimate truth? What is existence? What is matter? What is energy? Sanskrit provides an incredible lexicon, a collection of words, to reference these subtle, esoteric concepts that English does not have, and most languages don't have, because a language is a reflection of the culture that uses it.

If you're an Eskimo, apparently you have many words for snow. If you're an ancient Greek, you have many words for love. They apparently have many words for love or many words for snow, and it's always a reflection of the values and the focus of a particular culture.

Sanskrit comes from an ancient Indian culture that was extremely advanced spiritually and centered on enlightenment.

There are a few words, I would say 10 or 30 words, perhaps even, that you really, really have to know. Not just know, but contemplate. Try to find your own personal semantic reference point for the meaning of those words.

What I mean by that is, here's a word, but is there an experience for it? The Eskimo may say, "Well, there are these 10 different kinds of snow. There's that kind of snow, and that powdery snow, and that old snow, and that icy snow." They have life experience with it.

Sometimes, when we propose a Sanskrit word, there isn't yet an experiential semantic reference point to genuinely use that word. But when you have the word, it sometimes provides you with an insight into your meditation, like, "Oh, whoa, I did experience that thing," or, "There is that aspect of my life."

Words empower us. We live by the language that we speak. It empowers us. The metaphors we use empower us. Positive language versus negative language.

Krishnamurti is an interesting example. A lot of times, he didn't like to say the word "I," so he would say "the speaker." He never said, "I do this." He had this way of speaking where he didn't even like to be separate or an entity, and he was living in enlightenment that way.

So let's go over some Sanskrit words that are really relevant. I encourage you to... In fact, I have a document with, I think, 75 words that I can share with you, and definitions from the summer mathematics course. But for now, we'll look at the practice hall.

Okay, I'll share the screen.

Let's see, how much time do we have? Ten minutes.

If you go over here to Spirituality at sfi.school, first of all, as you can see, there are nine sermons up here from just this year. I'm doing a lot of work to put these sermons up here, and I noticed that Praveen always clicks the email and looks at the sermon. Thank you, Praveen. But nobody else does.

So please, when I send an email to the Love Light Sangha, take a moment and say, "Oh, whoa, let's look at the truth one from last week," just briefly.

Kira I look at it directly, okay?

Adam Wes I figured there are some exceptions to that. Thank you, Kira.

This is actually very special because this is a really polished transcript. It's clean and paragraphed and has titled sections. I encourage you to either look over the transcript or read the essay, which is an adaptation. It's supposed to be verbatim, although sometimes it polishes it just a little too much.

There's a study guide with quotes, key points, and an assignment. So tomorrow, or whenever, go and look and see what the assignment is, and see if you can do it. Actionable focus for the week, all of these things. Optional reflection prompts. Have you been doing these?

There's an invitation for anybody who maybe isn't in the group. It's kind of meant for somebody who's just browsing this page. That's just one right there, and there are nine of those on the site right now.

I actually may go back and add old ones because we've got another 20 or so just from autumn, winter, and summer.

Okay, so let's go to the practice hall right here. If we scroll down, you'll see Sanskrit words.

Here are 21 Sanskrit words that you can contemplate and study.

Now, Ariella, I know you're very into Judaism and Hebrew. You can also say, "Is there a Hebrew word for dhyana, for example? Is there a Hebrew word for ahamkara?" Generally, there are, actually. There are quite a few Hebrew words. This might be really interesting to you.

So let's go through these.

Atman. Atman is the soul. It's the individuality, the essence of individuality. It has a slightly different connotation than soul. Think of it as the coalescence of the universe into an individual entity, but in the most essential form.

When you go into meditation and experience the gold light of meditation, you are actually merging in a depth of essentiality that is an expression of the Atman.

Mom, today, I know you see your colors a lot. What I was actually suggesting was to just set the intention to experience the gold. Try to experience the gold. That's something that you don't talk about as much, so consider that.

Everybody, I think that's a very powerful level of light. Any light is powerful. Mom, your colors are amazing and they're important, but just for variety purposes, I wanted to suggest the gold as something perhaps new for you.

Ahamkara is the created self. The soul exists in an eternal state. Think of it as the potentiality. But the ahamkara is the self that evolves through time. It's your evolving, created manifestation of self. I believe what it actually means is "I created." It literally means created self.

Aham vritti.

Kira I have a question.

Adam Wes Yeah?

Kira For the ahamkara, is that just over one lifetime, or does it extend for multiple lifetimes?

Adam Wes That's a good question. Let me answer that to the best of my ability.

The ahamkara is changing from day to day. However, it has a great deal of momentum involved. A sport you played when you were 12 years old has left an imprint, as a form of momentum, on your ahamkara to this day. Whether it's dormant or active is dependent on how much that's being expressed in your ahamkara right now.

Ahamkara is evolving. However, we do have multilife tendencies from karma, so there should be some elements of ahamkara. For example, I think I've been Japanese and a mathematics person for many lifetimes, and those things are expressed in my created self.

I don't think it's totally renewed. I'd actually have to think about that, or feel into that and look. The Atman includes multilife tendencies as well as predilection, but ahamkara is the way your subjectivity experiences your life, the way you've built yourself.

Think of the Atman as more of an eternal structure. The ahamkara can actually be aligned or not aligned with your soul. It's a very, very important topic.

Aham vritti, notice aham is there again, means the perturbation in perfection. Vritti is a wave. It's a perturbation, a disturbance.

What it's really talking about is the disturbance. There's this fundamental isness that is without ripples, and the vritti is a disturbance. It's a thought. It's an imposition.

The fundamental vritti is the aham vritti. It's the sense that "I am," which is actually an imposition on ultimate truth.

Bless you, Mom.

An imposition on ultimate truth is this aham vritti. If you can go to the root of all thought, of all ideation, that is the I thought, aham vritti. It's actually an interesting form of jnana yoga, self-inquiry, to look: "Okay, who am I?" You can uproot that and go into a state of dissolution. The light helps one to do that, actually.

The vritti has a very particular quality. You can actually see it. It looks like the ripples on the surface of a pool. They ripple, and you see the shadow of the sun, and there are ripples moving.

There's a light that looks like that. It's not Shakti, it's vritti. Sometimes, if you're in the light and you blink, you'll see these little waves running away like mice. It's the vritti. You're actually seeing your thoughts. It's a really interesting mystical perception.

Okay, samskara. So special. Samskara means manifestation.

This universe of galaxies and planets and people and plants and animals and molecules, and the periodic table of elements, is samskara. It's creation, which is different from Maya, which is illusion.

Samskara is a little more pure, might I say? Not pure. I don't know a good word for it. There's a lot of subtle connotation here, so you can explore these. What is the subtle connotation? It's not just equal to manifestation. It's within a context of Sanskrit.

Karma means action. Now, it's not just action. We're going to go a couple more minutes. It's action as it pertains to the way that it informs the subjective space of mind.

You see? The word means action, but who cares about action? If you're really into enlightenment and Sanskrit, which Sanskrit is, karma means if you do this, you feel this way, and your actions inform your states of mind.

Okay, let me just pick a couple more because it's going to take too long to go through all of these.

Dhyana.

Kira Go deeper on karma.

Adam Wes Yeah, well, each of these could be a whole sermon.

Dhyana is profoundly important. It's the seventh limb of yoga. In yoga, we culminate in samadhi, the experience of total dissolution and impersonal existence as the ultimate reality.

Dhyana is a meditative absorption in an effortless state of stillness, but you haven't yet dissolved into impersonal existence. It's also not dharana, which is before it. It's not focus. It's effortless meditation.

That's very, very important. We seek to experience dhyana.

This is incredible. Dhyana actually led to the word Zen. It's actually the same word.

Kira Isn't it dhyana?

Adam Wes No.

Kira It's dhyana?

Adam Wes Yeah.

Kira Dhyana? Okay.

Adam Wes I've never heard anybody say dhyana before, and I've never said it that way, but... I'm kidding. Look it up.

You missed what I was saying here. Dhyana is the word Zen. I know they sound completely different, but that's because the dialects couldn't say the word in the same way. It actually translated to the word Zen, and Chan before it. I think it was Chan and then Zen. It's a really interesting etymological sequence.

Zen actually means that meditative absorption state.

Okay, let's see. I'll pick two more.

Moksha means liberation or enlightenment. It's specifically talking about somebody who's been liberated from the bondage of selfhood. To achieve moksha is very much the goal of the Sangha.

Sangha means association with truth, the spiritual community. A Sangha has a central value of progressing toward the point of moksha.

Samadhi is a meditative state indicative of one who's in moksha. Accidentally falling into samadhi means that you're close to moksha. Actually, it doesn't. Moksha means a full liberation. There's no self left anymore. You've actually become fully enlightened.

Samadhi can happen spontaneously, whether or not it's there, but when you're in moksha, your meditations are samadhic.

Let's see, Shakti. Shakti is the light. It actually is the fabric of consciousness. Everything is made of Shakti, and light is a way that it manifests visually.

But it's more than just light. It's not just the light of your computer screen or looking at something. It's consciousness. It is a feeling. It is the substance, the fabric, the essence of mind and existence. In fact, Shakti is very much an ontological phenomenality and reality.

Most people have a materialist outlook on what existence is because science has really led us to think existence is made up of things. But things don't exist on their own. They exist within the experience of the witness.

The actual substrate of existence rises out of the experience of consciousness, in which the contents of consciousness are galaxies and samsara.

Oh, I actually thought that said samsara. So when I said samsara before, I was talking about samsara. That word right there is actually samskara, which means something else. Is samsara on here?

It's not even on here. Well, samsara is an important word that I love. I guess I wanted to talk about it.

Wait. Oh, this is the wrong word. The definition is samsara. Samskaras are impressions. They're actually a different thing.

All right, let's get started. Any questions? Did you enjoy this? There's a lot here.

Kira So much.

Adam Wes Okay, good.

A Bhakti Raja mystical Sangha has to have a talk about Sanskrit. You could explore Sanskrit for the rest of your life, and there would be no end to what you could study. It's very, very powerful.

Jacob, you're into physics. It'd be really interesting for you to explore Sanskrit from a physics perspective, right? Physics is all about natural law. We're inquiring into the nature of the universe. Sanskrit provides something that goes beyond the limitations of Western thought.

Physicists are a little bit arrogant at times. They know everything, right? You know what I mean. I'm not saying you are. But that's the thing. As physicists, we come into this world, and I think a materialist knows all.

Yes, Andrea. Namaste. I like that you raised your hand.

Andrea P How do you use it in everyday life? Do you read it? Do you repeat it? How do you recommend it for us?

Adam Wes Use it to describe your spiritual experiences. Use it to go deeper in your meditation. Use it to guide you, teach you, and refine the way you live.

If you know the word karma and you actually study karma, there's a whole bunch of words related to it: karma bandha, karma phala, vikarma, akarma, all these words. This is like the little seed. You could go down the rabbit hole with karma and look at all these words. They describe ways to live.

Vikarma means bad action. What's bad action? Akarma means nonaction. Karma bandhana means the attachment to the results of your action. All of these are relevant terms in becoming more conscious.

If you know those words, you can contemplate those topics. That's the reason.

Also, as a community, it gives us a common language to discuss these things. If I can say "Sangha," everybody knows what I mean. I don't have to say, "Well, a spiritual community that's centered on progression toward moksha." I don't have to say that anymore because we know what that means.

Okay. Namaste.

Another one I was thinking of doing, Enlightened Beings, would be fun, to talk about all these people that I have here. There are 20 really interesting people up here, and they all have degrees of enlightenment or complete enlightenment.

I hope you're reading your book, Think on These Things.

All right, let's meditate.

Thirty-three. Okay, let's set the timer for 25 minutes. We'll do a quick, tiny share.

Music time.

Okay. Praveen, did you like that? Good. I felt like you'd appreciate this talk.

All right. Start by focusing on the heart, feeling gentleness.

Anahata, the heart chakra. Activate it, clear it, open it, expand it, purify it. Give it attention for a few minutes.

First step in meditation.

One of the key ways to open the heart is to feel gentleness, to disarm resistance, at least starting with a heart-centered meditation.

Feel. Listen to the magnetism and charge of Anahata.

There's a connection between love and being. When we're in love, when we're in love with existence, when we're in love with all, there's a sense of returning to the simplicity of being, the warmth of it.

Everybody needs to make sure they're awake. Hands up.

Focus on being and heart, but also the light. Light as a visual luminosity that you can feel.

Feel into the light. Use the light in your meditation, into that vitality.

To see the light, to experience the light, you have to expand your field. Soften your hold on physicality. Allow everything to become fluid and holographic.

There's an imminent luminosity, a latent luminosity, that will shine if there's no resistance to it. When we allow things to become fluid, that luminosity can emerge.

I'm seeing it right now, everywhere. Join me, or perhaps you already are.

The light is love. Enjoy. A source of joy. What we're made of.

You can do it with your eyes closed or open, whatever feels more natural.

Let the universe shine. Let yourself shine.

Expand your mind. You are not just the body.

Let your field of attention expand.

We are the light.

The beautiful thing about Sangha and meditation is there's a feeling of sacredness. Try to cultivate that feeling. It's hard to find.

It's there. It's available.

We've opened our hearts. We've opened the causal planes of light.

Power makes you more of what you are. Let's put a little power into it.

A rocket with intention moves in the direction it faces. This power is an ambient power that can move through us, of existence.

Last song.

So let love permeate your mind. There's a phenomenal love, velvety warmth, like a summer night.

Can be you.

Let's bring it into the field.

Acknowledge it.

Being there already.

Bring attention to your heart center. Feel the whole world out there. One with it.

Namaste.

That was great. Jacob, I would love to hear from you for 30 seconds before you have to hop off. How was your meditation?

Jacob Mine was very good.

Adam Wes So good to have you here. By the way, if I ever call on anybody and you just don't feel like saying anything, you can just pass. It's okay. You don't need to.

Well, thanks, Jacob. Wonderful.

Mom, how was your meditation?

Colleen Also very good. Thank you, Adam. I know I fell asleep at one point, and you said something and I came right back.

Adam Wes Can you describe your light experience?

Colleen The color experience was very rare, to start immediately. Nice. I did see some yellow, and the yellow was a little bit darker, so I'm not at gold, but maybe getting there. And then my usual purple, green, pink.

Adam Wes Beautiful. It might have been gold. Gold usually has a little bit of a different texture to it. It seems like a different kind of light, but not that much.

Colleen Thank you, Adam.

Adam Wes You're welcome. Namaste, Mom. Thank you, everybody.

Who hopped off? Oh, it was Jacob. Jacob has a session right away.

Ariella, I would love to hear from you, and then we'll go.

Ariella Can you hear me?

Adam Wes I can.

Ariella I was able to connect with the light, and then I focused on the light of our solar system, the light of our galaxy, and the light of our universe. I don't know if that was appropriate or not.

Adam Wes Expanded scopes are an important part of meditating, actually, because they make your field go larger. But make sure not to use the word light metaphorically. I'm not necessarily saying you're doing that.

Expanded scopes are more of a reaching of attention. The light is very much here. You can feel it move through your body, in front of you or through your body, and it's a visual experience.

Usually, if the light is there enough, you might not even be able to see your computer, or the computer looks different because it's fogging up. It's like going into the disco and they've got the smoke machine, except it's divine and magical and much more etheric, touching and tickling your soul as it moves through the air around you.

Perhaps that's what you saw, though.

Ariella It was a good experience.

Adam Wes Wonderful, wonderful. Do the expanded scopes. That's wonderful.

One of my teachers, whom I studied with for a few years, used to really emphasize that. In fact, she did exactly that. She'd say, "Now feel that it's you and the moon, and now it's you and the sun, and now it's you and the whole solar system, and now it's you in the galaxy, and now it's the other galaxy."

She'd expand scopes for five minutes every time we meditated. That was a big thing for her.

Ariella It's a game.

Adam Wes It's a good way not to have your field so small.

Ariella Yes.

Adam Wes That can actually make the light more accessible as well. Beautiful. Good job with the light.

Well, namaste, everybody. Thank you.

If you haven't been reading, please consider even just a page or two, maybe one page a day, of Think on These Things. It's a very sweet book. It's a very powerful book, and it could bring a lot of happiness and empowerment to your life in a very leveraged way.

Don't take the suggestions of the teacher lightly. I can't believe I'm saying that, because I always like it when my teachers say that to me.

There's a reason I'm suggesting it. Here's an opportunity in your life to tap some wisdom that's out there that you might not see on the screen at the mall or in a passing, scrolling Instagram Reel. There's something special here that is calling to you: Think on These Things by Krishnamurti.

Also remember the principle of the month, which is gratitude. Try to feel gratitude, and if you lose touch with it, that's okay. Just come back to it.

The routine element of the month is a formal mindfulness practice for 15 minutes a day. These are things that you can do. Meditate at sunset and when you wake up.

Good job, everybody.

If anybody wants to join us tomorrow for the Coding Constellation, it starts tomorrow. It's two hours a week for five weeks. I highly recommend it.

If you've never done code before, that's okay. If you're not good at math, that's okay. It's a small group, so I'll be able to give very personalized attention to everybody.

Namaste, Lee. Good to see you. Thanks for being here. You guys are amazing.

Bye, Andrea. Bye, Praveen. Bye, Kira. Good meditation, Kira. Wonderful.

Bye, everybody.

Sanskrit provides a shared language for contemplating and recognizing spiritual experience, while heart-centered meditation and expanded scopes make the light more accessible.

• Sanskrit offers a robust lexicon for the practice and ontology of enlightenment.
• Spiritual words become meaningful through an experiential semantic reference point.
• Atman is the soul, the essence of individuality and a more eternal structure.
• Ahamkara is the evolving, created self, which can be aligned or not aligned with the soul.
• Aham vritti is the fundamental I thought, the root disturbance or imposition on ultimate truth.
• Karma is action as it informs the subjective space of mind.
• Dhyana is effortless meditative absorption and stillness, distinct from focus and from complete dissolution.
• Moksha is liberation from the bondage of selfhood, and samadhi is a meditative state indicative of one who is in moksha.
• Sangha is association with truth, a spiritual community centered on progression toward moksha.
• Shakti is the fabric of consciousness, experienced as light, feeling, substance, and the essence of mind and existence.
• Heart-centered meditation begins with Anahata, gentleness, and the disarming of resistance.
• Expanded scopes allow the field of attention to grow larger and can make the light more accessible.

Contemplate the Sanskrit terms and look for your own experiential semantic reference points. Let the words describe your spiritual experiences, deepen your meditation, and refine the way you live.

• Attention to the heart, with gentleness and less resistance.
• Awareness of Anahata and its magnetism and charge.
• Effortless stillness rather than focus.
• The light as a visual luminosity that can be felt.
• A softened hold on physicality, allowing experience to become fluid and holographic.
• An expanded field of attention beyond the body.
• The feeling of sacredness available through Sangha and meditation.
• How actions inform states of mind.

• Which Sanskrit term has an experiential reference point for you?
• What is present when resistance softens around the heart?
• How does the field feel when attention expands beyond the body?