True Martyrdom - 12.17.09

“Many people are seeking techniques for meditation,” explains Shunyamurti, the spiritual teacher of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. “And in my experience the use of techniques is an avoidance of the real issue that meditation is about.” The only true technique in meditation is the purification of the heart. The purity of the heart is really the love for God, and then, meditation is effortless. And the true state of surrender to God, of love for God, is martyrdom. “We have to understand that martyrdom is not the same as victimhood,” although today the two are confused. “Martyrdom is the refusal to be a victim. . . . Martyrdom is the willingness to live life fully, authentically in the midst of non-love, in the midst of adversity, in the midst of not being recognized. It is that courage that enables one’s ego to die—at every moment—so that the light can be born within one. . . . And it is only when we’re willing to be martyrs in the phenomenal plane that then we will have the reward of the mystical union with God because it is that very karma yoga action that purifies the soul.” So “in the meditative state we must touch into that part within us that is pure, that is inherently always, eternally pure. . . . and we must go into that essence and rest in that place because that is the place where we are already one with God. Nothing needs to be achieved and therefore, no technique is necessary.” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, December 17, 2009.