My teacher Thom Knoles once recounted a story involving his teacher Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and it went a little like this.
Maharishi was in a country in South America and he’d been taken on a long tour of some tourist sites which his guides had evidently hoped he would think were amazing.
As the story goes, he wasn’t so impressed by the sites but nevertheless, when asked how he had found them, Maharishi responded as follows - “I enjoyed my self.”
I love this so much because it beautifully exemplifies 3 Vedic principles in one simple sentence.
The first being sweet truth. Rather than say he wasn’t so impressed with the sites, which wouldn’t have left his guides feeling good, Maharishi was able to say he enjoyed himself, which from their perspective, was a great result.
But it was also true because from Maharishi’s perspective, irrespective of how much he liked or didn’t like the sites, he was able to enjoy his “self” - that place of inner contentment we touch upon during meditation and which grows outwards, the more and more we meditate.
The second being the idea of always validating the high end.
What we pay attention to grows - so when we focus our attention on the best part of a person or event or situation - whatever it may be - that positivity is what reverberates around both our consciousness, and the collective - in each case - lifting it up - rather than dragging it down.
A flow on idea from this, and which can be found in the Rishis creed, is the idea that “never shall we entertain negativity,” - even if he had nothing positive to say about the sites, the fact that he could say that he enjoyed his “self” was enough to satisfy his guides that he had a good time whilst also avoiding the flow on effects of any negativity put into the atmosphere.
And finally - the idea of “self,” - not the small self doing all the stuff - but the big capital S Self - the being underneath the doing - that “Self” - that is always there and can be accessed at any time - so long as, and for as long as, we can place our awareness there.
When we can hone in on that deep inner contentment that permeates the big Self - we can turn any situation, no matter how seemingly bad, into a place where enjoyment of “self” is still possible.
In the same way that blockout shutters will make an otherwise light filled room dark, a body full of accumulated stress is what will stop an otherwise ever present big Self, from shining through the small self of our human bodies.
The best way I know to expand the big Self is the twice daily practice of Vedic Meditation.
So…go one….enjoy your Self.
Much love and Jai Guru Deva
Matt
