How To Remove Conditioning Channeled by Catherine Kapahi, Ph.D. ii
2012 Catherine Kapahi, Ph.D. ISBN 978-0-9880995-5-5 All rights including the rights to translate or to reproduce this book or parts thereof except for brief quotations are reserved. Second Edition, 2014 100 Copies Published by: Kapahi Books 60 Walter Havill Drive, Unit 1208 Halifax, N.S., Canada B3N 0A9 Printed through: 48hrbooks 3349 14th St. S.W. Akron O.H. 44314 U.S.A iii
How To Remove Conditioning Channeled by Catherine Kapahi, Ph.D. Kapahi Books iv
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Dedicated at the Lotus Feet o f Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba The Eternal Witness The Merciful Guru a n d The Divine Mother a n d Father of All vi
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INTRODUCTION Dear Readers, it was on September 7th, 2012 that I heard Sathya Sai Baba say inwardly to me that we may begin a new book. Baba asked me if I was ready, and I replied that I was. I had no idea what the topic of this book would be. This became clear right away when we began. He spoke the following words, I wish to share with My Devotees the ways to become disentangled from mental formations that tend to keep them from fully being the Atmic Truth that they are... I am prepared to identify and describe the various ways that one may become free of the deluding energies of maya that act to obscure the realization and manifestation of one s Divine Atmic nature.... Baba delivered one essay everyday for 45 days to my mind which were written in a notebook. I am very grateful to Sathya Sai Baba for allowing this mind and body to be of service to Him and His Devotees, including this self. There is no doubt that these essays will benefit all who read them and lead them to the realization of the Truth that only God Exists. Sai Baba began by speaking about the differences between Atma or Truth and anatma, untruth. Atma, He explained, is Self Existent, Eternal, unaffected, Pure, Splendorous, and the Witness of everything. Conversely, everything witnessed is non-atma or untruth. This includes all objects of the senses, all forms, all thoughts, emotions, all actions, and all movements including the systems within the body. This is all changing moment to moment. Truth is changeless. Human life has no stability. This book shows the ways to find that unchanging Truth hiding behind the mind s conditioning. By simply becoming aware of conditioning, it can dissolve, laying bare an expanse of open sky-like consciousness that is the True Self of all sentient beings. viii
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Forty-Five Essays How To Remove Conditioning Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba x
How To Remove Conditioning 1 I wish to share with My Devotees the ways to become disentangled from mental formations that keep them from fully being the Atma that they are. To this end I will speak to this My Dear Devotee many, many times with the hope that she will compile these talks, these instructions, into a book that will benefit all of My Devotees. There is no one who is completely free of mental formations that arise to obscure awareness of Atma. So I am prepared to identify and describe the many, various ways that one may become free of the deluding energies of maya that act to obscure the realization and manifestation of one's Divine Atmic nature, so one may shine brilliantly all of the time with Atmic splendor. Let us begin by identifying the difference between Atma and anatma. Atma is self existent, eternal, splendorous, unaffected, pristine, pure, the witness of all. What do I mean by "all"? I mean everything that is not Atma. What is not Atma? Everything Atma witnesses is anatma, such as the body, thoughts, feelings, other than pure love, uncaused bliss, joy and happiness of Atma. The senses, everything that is heard, seen, tasted, touched, and smelled, every action taken by the body by external means with the hands, feet, and breath are anatma. All the actions going on within the body, such as metabolism, heart beat, the workings of all the internal physical systems such as the circulatory, excretory, and endocrine systems, etc. are all anatma. All of the above comprise what is seen by the Atma, the Witness, and the Seer. All 1
objects of the senses, all forms, whether planets, stars, galaxies, are non atma. How can I say this is all Anatma? Because Atma is the Truth, the Truth that never changes, never undergoes any modification, but always remains the same. This Atma is the only constant in the universe. Everything else changes. Your entire life from birth to death is nothing but a flow of changing energy patterns. It has no stability. Nothing remains the same except Atma. So is this Atma not worth knowing? Especially if it is your true nature? Ponder this and you will see it makes perfect sense; it is the rational decision to be taken. You may believe your life will be very boring, uninteresting if you are to detach from everything except the Atma that you truly are. Your life will not be boring unless you choose it to be so. Do you think My Life was boring? It was not, though I am fully Paramathma and nothing else. I assumed a body that was for Me an envelope that I could discard at Will. I am acutely aware that I have worn many different bodies during the ages. I remember them all. If you could see all the bodies you have ever worn in the past, and relive all the experiences with all the relations from all the past lives, you would clearly see and know that you are not any of that. You always are the Atma, the Witness, in all of the present moments of all the experiences you have ever participated in. I hope you are getting the idea of Atma and anatma; and that you are beginning to see that all experiences through the sense organs and sense mind of the physical body, as well as all the actions, internal and external to the body do not affect the Atma. The Atma is merely a 2
How To Remove Conditioning Witness. We will speak more about this the next time We meet. 2 My Dear Devotees, today I will explain to you one of the reasons why it is necessary for you to constantly discriminate between Atma and non Atma. It is only in this way that you will truly be free from the effects the world may have on you as a body/mind/ego. When you believe you are the body/mind/ego, you feel you are a separate entity, and all others including animals, plants, planets, and stars are separate entities. As a separate entity you believe you need to protect yourself from everything outside yourself that may harm you, or take your sovereignty as a separate being away from you. You have fear in the mind, layers of fear about many things in your subjective world. The fears such as fear of harm or pain to your physical body and the bodies of those you love or are related to, are common. Humans often fear they will lose their jobs, not have enough money for necessities or to fulfill all desires of their families and themselves. Fear to speak the truth, fear of authority figures, fear of public speaking, fear to do the right action, fear of danger lurking around, fear to be true to yourself, fear to hear criticism, judgment, harsh words, and defamation, are common fears of humans. Based on the idea that you are the physical body, you have fear of sickness, suffering, cancer, genetic disease from ancestors 3
etc. Many have fear of flying in airplanes, or of being in an elevator or on an escalator. Do you get the point? Human beings and animals have many, many fears they are aware of or unaware of until they surface. Many fears are in the subconscious mind and have not yet become conscious to the waking state mind. Some of these subconscious fears come up during the dream state, whereby the conscious mind may become aware of them. All fear is non Atma. Fear is not of the nature of Truth. It is a fact that fears grip the mind, the consciousness of humans and cause mental and physical suffering. You see humans in mental hospitals as a result of fears they cannot cope with. Anything that is not love is fear. I will talk more next time about the effects and nature of fear on the human mind and consciousness. 3 My Dear Devotees, today I will speak to you about the devastating effects of the fear that you carry in your consciousness and mind. I have often told you that purity of mind and consciousness are essential for realization of Atma. One of the impurities darkening the consciousness consists of all the fears you carry and hold on to. Many of you feel your fears are part of you; that who would you be without your fears; that your fears protect you. That if you left your fears, you would be vulnerable, that you would put yourself in harm's way. You feel your fears are a necessary garment you must wear. I tell you all this is 4
How To Remove Conditioning your delusion. All of it is blocking your consciousness, your awareness to some extent. Atma has absolutely no fear because it is the only ever existent Truth. Everything you fear is anatma, temporal and unreal. You may say, well, I am not at THAT level yet. I have a body that needs protection, and there is much violence and unrest in today's world. What you say is valid; the body needs protection; do not deliberately place your body in harm's way. Be vigilant and use discrimination. However, you need not have any fear. I have often said that those who uphold Dharma [right action based on Atmic Love and Oneness], will be protected by Dharma. This is Truth. The Dharmic thoughts, words, and actions you practice, dedicated to God, will protect you from all harm. If you have faith and trust in this, there is no scope for fear The Lord protects those who uphold Dharma. Knowing this, you should be able to let go of fears related to the safety of the physical body. You may ask, What about the fear I carry related to the sickness of the body?" If you live a life of moderation in food and exercise, have control over your senses so they do not drain your energy, have control over desires, lead a simple life of devotion to God, consume pure vegetarian food, pure water and air as much as possible, get enough rest, spend time meditating whereby the mind is given rest from thinking, then the chances of the body/mind remaining healthy the entire lifespan are very high. And there is no need to worry about genetic illness. As you have chosen your parents and family, you have agreed to undergo the effects of any genetic disease you may have to bear. You may pray to God for a cure, a healing and clemency. In some cases it is necessary to undergo a genetic illness for balancing of karma, for experience, a lesson or test. If you can bear all, 5
if you have such endurance and patience, without fear, malice or resentment, it is a great test to bring you closer to Atmic awareness. 4 I hope that you are not thoroughly confused by what I have been telling you. Bear with me and it will all become clear as We go along with these communications. To continue...the thought and emotion of fear degrades the human being, pulling awareness away from the Atmic nature, and keeping awareness in the ephemeral, the unreal. Let us take another example of fear human beings hold within the consciousness. It is fear of death. What you hold to be fear of death is the dissolution of the physical form. If you believe you are the physical form, then of course you will be afraid of complete annihilation. If you believe some religious scriptures that tell you your body will be resurrected in heaven, then your fear will be less. But how can you completely trust in something you have no awareness of having ever experienced, i.e., resurrection? Some of you may remember being on the other side in another dimension or place where you still had a body. It was not the physical body, but a replication of the physical body made up of much less dense material. You have had this experience of moving after physical death to another dimension with a less dense body because you had not yet realized that you are Atma. You are there because you still held the belief that you 6
How To Remove Conditioning were a body/mind/ego at the time of physical death. So you carried the replica of the body and the mind that you thought you were with you. You will have to be reborn again in another body to have another opportunity to purify and gain the knowledge that you are Atma, and not body/mind/ego. This process of death and birth into a new body will continue until you awaken to the knowledge that you are Atma, and in so doing rejoin with the All That Is. The fear of death is held in the subconscious mind as well, due to having experienced many deaths in many past lives; not only of your own body, in a variety of unpleasant, painful ways, but also the death of many others dear to you. Thus the fear of death conjures up thoughts and feelings of pain, suffering, loss, abandonment, depression, anxiety, and stress to name a few negative expressions of fear. Most humans hold a lot of these in varying degrees in their consciousness. These act as a psychological weight to pull you down mentally to the material level. In so doing the sense of a light, free, pure consciousness is obscured and covered. Fear burdens the consciousness and keeps you, the Pure Consciousness, entrapped in the illusion that you are a separate body/mind with a great weight or burden to bear throughout your life's sojourn. You know not how to rid yourself of it. Most around you have the same burden you have, though no one talks about it, because it is too painful a subject to entertain. Though one sees death all around, in the newspapers, television, the tombstones in graveyards, as well as in cremation grounds, almost all are afraid to go deeply into the truth about death to find out for themselves what it truly is. 7
A main fear connected with death of the physical body is the fear of losing all one's possessions and relatives that have meant the "world" to them. Without these the person has little or no identity, and this fear of losing one's identity is a great fear most cannot even entertain the thoughts about. For example, if a man loses his seniority as a CEO or President of a company for some reason like bankruptcy, or his children all move to the other side of the world for good employment, or his wife passes away, or he loses all his assets in the stock market, he may become very much stressed because he has lost part of his identity. A mid life crises for a mother whose children have all left the home, is a loss of a part of her identity as she no longer plays the role of nurturer, etc to her children in the same way. It is the loss of parts of the ego self that claimed these actions, jobs, duties and ideas, etc. as part of itself, that causes the anxiety and fear within the psychological. They were never part of Self or Atma. The consciousness of humans has erroneously identified with non-atma, the seen. Awareness and discrimination of the Buddhi (intellect) shine the Light that shows these identifications with the false to be false, not permanent and everlasting. The wise one discards them as non Atma, thus freeing the consciousness from illusory chains and veils. 8