Who is your enemy?🔗

In the last technique, we saw that catharsis can liberate us from accu-mulated negative emotions or samskaras. Here, we use the power of visualization to handle our negative emo-tions. All the negativity you experience in your relationships is nothing but the conflict of two individual egos, two imaginary identities! If even one of these identities can be seen as false, the conflict no longer has a base to exist.

Now, you are free to say whatever you want to him. He has no more power over you. You are free to throw all your anger on him.

Let your mind say whatever it wants. Only thing, you must carefully witness each word that your mind brings up. Be aware of what you are saying, to whom you are saying it. As you witness your mind, you will find that you no longer have anything to say..! Your will see that your anger was against the identity of the person, not against the person himself. Now that the identity is gone, on whom will you throw your anger? Slowly, as you witness it, your anger dissolves on its own.

The next time you see the person, even if the same anger comes up, it will have no force. Just recall that the anger you experienced was against the personality, and the person is not the personality. Just this one understanding will awaken deep compassion in you, not only towards others, but towards yourself also. You will become more authentic in your relationships.

This technique is an instant way to become aware when you are sud-denly caught in some powerful emotion like anger or desire. Usually, we feel that all our emotions are caused by some object. We think that it comes from outside. But, the truth is that these emotions come from you. You are the source of all your emotions. The object is just a means for the emotion to express itself. The origin is you. If the emotion is bad for your consciousness, you will be freed of it by bringing awareness. If it is good for you, it will deepen through awareness.

DURATION: Not applicable

At the moment when the emotion rises inside you, become intensely aware. When you become aware, you arrest the emotion. You don't allow it to flow out of you in the form or words or actions. Now, look within for the real source of the emotion. Forget the person or the situation which caused it. Just go to the source of the energy. Just see from where the emotion is rising. If you are experiencing anger, go to the source of the anger. Just feel the irritation in the body. Feel the disturbance in the mind. You will see, you are already carrying the seed of anger inside you. You are carrying enough anger-energy inside! The other person just brought it out, that's all.

When you understand this deeply, suddenly your focus shifts from the other to yourself, from the seen to the seer.

When you realize yourself as the source of all your emotions, not only will you stop blaming others, but you will experience a deep relax-ation. You will become more flowing in your joy, and more centered in your pain.

Anger is energy!

All your emotions are pure energy! When you are caught in a powerful emotion, you cannot see that it is nothing but the play of energy inside you. All your desires, your anger, your fear – all these are nothing but the same energy to which you are giving different names! We feel trapped in our emotions only because we don't realize this. Once you experience an emotion as pure energy, it cannot have any control over your inner space again. Now you are in control! You can play with this energy in any way you want. If you wish, you can convert a negative emotion into a positive emo-tion, just with a simple decision. This technique can instantly liberate you from the clutches of your mind.

Duration: 21 minutes

Sit straight without relaxing! For this technique to work, you have to keep your body in a state of tension. Now you are going to try and get angry, and if you sit in a relaxed way you cannot get angry! Better sit in a tense way. Close your eyes. Sit with all your tension and pain. That's good because, only if you are feeling uncomfortable inside can you create anger.

Step 1: Remember the face of your intimate enemy! Just remember the per-son who really creates anger in you. It need not be a person, it could be a situation or a memory that makes you really. If you can't remember anything, just remember yourself! Sometimes, just self-remembrance is enough. You are enough to create anger in you!

Create intense anger. Actually, when you try to create it, you will understand that you are unable to create it, because none of our emotions is honest. Even our anger is never honest. Depending on the person in front of us, we decide whether or not we can afford to get angry!

Remember the person with all the force of your anger. Relive the sit-uations which create anger in you. Let your whole body tremble with anger! Create that pressure of anger inside yourself. Throw yourself into the anger. Focus all your anger on that person, that situation, that memory.

Step 2:

Now, drop the person, just forget him. Forget the situation which creates anger in you. Only be aware of the anger vibrating inside you. When you remove the external cause, the whole energy of the emo-tion turns inward and starts vibrating inside you. A moment ago, what you experienced was anger. Now, what you are experiencing is just a trembling in the body, a tingling heat in the body. The emotion is now circulating inside you as a powerful energy. When you go to the source of the emotion, you will see that it is nothing but pure energy.

GO BEYOND DESIRE

From desire to worship

ABOUT THE TECHNIQUE

You are always ashamed of your desires! You don't realize, every desire you have is only a reflection of your deep desire for inner fulfillment. You desire something only because it reflects your own inner bliss back to you!

You desire power and expansion because you know, deep inside, that you are infinite. You desire wealth because you know that you are abundance itself. You desire relationships because you know that you are Love. Not realizing this, you return again and again to the object of your desire. Again and again, through that person or object or act, you are trying to touch the space of fulfillment that is already there within you. The problem is not with having desires - it is with your attitude to-wards them. Changing the object is never a solution. Changing the attitude is the solution. When you understand this, the very object of your desire becomes for you a doorway to the Divine.

DURATION: Not applicable

INSTRUCTIONS

Make a list of all the things that you feel attached to, or which awak-en desire in you. It might be a habit, a particular pleasure, an object, a person or an action. Include anything or anyone on the list that makes you feel posses-sive, greedy or lustful. Now, sit down and meditate on the object of your desire. Meditate with a deep and devoted feeling. Never mind what the desire is! Don't think, how can I even think of such a desire when I am medi-tating? No! Anything can become sacred when you are respectful and feeling connected to it. Bring in an attitude of respect towards the object or the person. With a lustful attitude, you will reduce even a living person to an object, because you will try to possess that person. With an attitude of love and respect, you can raise even an object into a living con-sciousness. The moment you bring sanctity to it, lust will become love. Elevate the object or person to the level of a sacred being. Suddenly, you will see that the lust has been transformed into love. The passion has become compassion. Then every relationship is an ecstasy, and you experience real love.

Desires are always rising in you. You are always struggling unconsciously with your desires – either trying to fulfil them, or try-ing to suppress them. Whether you try to fulfil or suppress, you are giving reality to the desire, you are giving strength to it. The key is not to suppress them or indulge them, but simply to disconnect from them. Once you disconnect, it no longer matters whether the desire was weak or strong, right or wrong. When you unclutch from your desires, you transcend them without effort. Then there will be no struggle, and no need to renounce anything - because there will be noth-ing to renounce!

Close your eyes and sit in a relaxed posture. In a few moments, some desire will arise in you. It may be even a desire to open your eyes or a desire to move your body, any desire! Just see that desire. Just observe that desire. Do not judge. There may be so many desires; do not suppress them, just see them. Don't think your desire is right or wrong. Just see it. Let them come, let the desires arise, let them happen. Let all the desires arise in you; don't suppress them, don't judge them, just consider them and let them happen. Suddenly, before even your mind recognizes what is happening, unclutch from all the desires and relax. Do it in one stroke! Not desire by desire; disconnect from all desires together. Before your mind can raise any logical argument, just unclutch from them. Do not argue, do not logically decide, do not decide based on right or wrong. Simply unclutch from all the thoughts. Anything that comes up, just unclutch from it. Just disconnect. Just unclutch.

When you suddenly unclutch from the noise of all the desires, your mind becomes blank for a few moments. You fall into a space of silence. Catch that moment! Relax into that silence. Relax.