This essay is a near-verbatim adaptation of the live spoken teaching, edited only for continuity and readability.
I am not feeling very well today. I am surprisingly sensitive to salty food—it completely throws me off. Yesterday, I accidentally put too much salt in my meal, and I have felt out of sorts all day. But I did not want to cancel, because I am still able to be here.
How are your practices going? What makes a sangha? Imagine the ideal for a moment—a group of people who are each engaged in their own practice. While those practices are individual, it is not about conformity. There are certain elements that are shared in terms of values. If we value light, love, intelligence, and heart—these shared values—they are not about conformity, but rather about finding people who appreciate what you appreciate in life.
So, sangha… if each of us has our individual practices, but they center on these values as a means of cultivating more of those qualities—say, light is something you cherish, or heart is something you love, and your daily practice brings more light and more heart—then, as a sangha, we have that collective strength together. We say, this matters to us. And it keeps that strong, even if you may be in a world of people who do not care about mathematics. Imagine the Pythagorean Mystery School—Pythagoras and his sangha of mystic mathematicians 2,600 years ago. They practiced mathematics together, and it did not matter if the world did not know math at the time. They did.
Our individual practices strengthen the substance of the sangha. Think of it as one big bank account, but instead of putting money into it, we put our attention into it. We put our practice into it. Imagine if we were all, you know, at the highest level of this practice—there would be gravity, there would be power between us. So sangha has the individual part, and it also has the group meeting. We are good about this—we come together and meet consistently. Thank you to everyone who comes here regularly. That is essential—the consistency, the rhythm of meeting.
That is why I am here today, I think. One of the main reasons is because you all have been consistent, and I said, all right, I am going to be here. Because it gives us something—it is important that it is reliable to our subconscious. There is a kind of reliability that is very important, that we can depend on the consistency. As long as I am feeling reasonably well, I will still show up.
So there is the individual, and then there is the collective. Now, there is one more element for sangha that is very important, which is the interpersonal. It would be good if, for example, two people became friends and texted each other—something like, "Here is my practice, how is your practice? Did you do that thing we talked about in class this week?" That would be wonderful. You should be friends with each other. I do not know how to do that online. Usually, if we were meeting at a temple space, everyone would mingle afterward, and you would make friends, right? But I am not sure how to reproduce that here. Actually, I would be very grateful if anyone had a suggestion.
What strengthens the fabric of sangha is the interconnected, woven threads. The mathematical side of me wanted to decompose sangha into its constituent frequencies—its basis, to use another mathematical term. What is the basis for the space that we call sangha? And a basis is essentially the fundamental building blocks of something. So it has this individual part, it has the collective part, and it has the interconnected part. And then, I think, one more thing is required: inspiration.
If you, for example, were to practice some of these things, there would be something you could bring. I am so grateful that you are here at all, and you bring so much, but I am pointing you out because you are always honest and say, "Nothing, you did not do anything," right? That is the only reason I am mentioning you, because you are so straightforward about it. I am sure several people did not practice. But the whole idea is, we go through the obstacles of practice together. Maybe this week you did your meditation—but then something happened, or perhaps something new occurred that was really wonderful, and it brings some collective momentum.
I am on this journey with all of you, too, and I am trying to figure out how to make this work better. What I would love is if we had a rich, full sangha of people who love light, intelligence, and heart.
Sangha, or satsangha, means association with truth. And association with truth, essentially in this context, is translated as spiritual community. So, when we live in a world that is not so interested in enlightenment, not so interested in humility and silence and spirituality in all those ways that are very counter to much of society's interests—right? Most of society, especially in America… I do not know, is it worse in America? We have our mixed parts, some more, some less.
But we come together and say, we are interested in enlightenment. Which means a variety of things, right? And even in a way, we are trying to discover what it means to be interested in enlightenment. But to create a community, to have a community, to be a part of a community—and, in doing so, to create that community—because each one of us is creating it simply by being here. We are establishing a lifestyle opportunity, something that may not otherwise exist.
Think about Silicon Valley. They have their own lifestyle there; they are all startup people, tech-oriented, and they live in a particular way, right? So… I have a longing for a world that experiences light, that experiences deep, unconditional love, freedom, peace, and humility. It is a wonderful experience that I have had myself with a very small group of people over the years, but I want it to be bigger. I want to invite people into creating that world. So that is the creation of the Sangha.
There are people who simply do not want to do this by themselves, right? So what is the potential there? What is the solution for that? Well, a solution might be that maybe someone could host a Friday morning meditation, where everyone shows up and perhaps I am not there. That would be an interesting experience. You would get a day where you actually do some more meditation, so it is not just once a week. Or maybe anyone who wants to volunteer—one person might say, "I will do Sundays," and another might say, "I will do Thursdays." Then you would have something every day, and you could just show up here together. That could be enjoyable.
Another option is perhaps a larger catalog of recorded meditations. You could use recorded meditations, so it feels as though you are doing it with me, and I record the meditation. I already have a number of those. I am really open to suggestions. I was not sure what we were going to talk about today, but I suppose it is Sangha, and I have been wanting to discuss that.
I have never used Zoom breakout rooms before, so that is a good idea. Also, a WhatsApp group, I think, would be really good. Would you all like a WhatsApp group? I think that would be helpful, because it is a good group chat environment. In Circle, it is a bit different—you have to go and seek it out—but I think everyone here has WhatsApp, right?
I like the idea of having additional meditations during the week. And some of us hosting them—I like that initiative. It would serve my purpose of having a bit more of this routine that I am building. I do find a lot of value in the guided meditations that I have recorded. Do you have any requests for different versions of those? I kind of build my routine—my weekly routine—around those meditations, in a way.
From a higher perspective—from 3,000 feet up—because at the end of the day, you could have this meditation, for instance. You were talking about externalities—the moon, the planets, and so on. Having a guided meditation for those specific moments is something that could help. Like a full moon meditation. That is a great idea. It is something that, for me, makes me feel closer to what I said during that sermon. Because now I have something solid to use. I can say, "Hey, it is a full moon, I have my meditation," and it is easier for me to implement something. So, for me, guided meditations could be even more powerful.
What about the interconnected aspect? I want you all to know each other. I do not know, maybe that is awkward to bring up, but how would it be if… after people mingle—but we cannot really mingle, because we just get off the computer. It is one of the digital problems in society. There is no mingle time. I used to go to these meditations, and the mingle time was one of the most enjoyable parts. We would meditate for an hour, and then they would have to ask us to leave 45 minutes later because everyone would stay and talk, get to know each other. It is nice, because one of the things about Sangha is shared values.
Any strong community has shared values—meaning they find something valuable that they agree is valuable, right? Like, I remember the sheet I made of our values. I made those very clear. But most of all, with this, it is silence, meditation, light, heart. And also, a refinement of the mind, which I might call intelligence.
I can create breakout groups for after class, if anyone wants to stay and mingle. But some of you do like WhatsApp, right? The thing with WhatsApp is that it needs to be curated. You have to make sure to share some kind of information; otherwise, we would just be talking with me, but not with each other. The purpose is… I am not sure. I will send you something.
Discord is another option. It has chats and everything—voice chats, video chats, you can share your screen, and you can have events and host them, just like on Zoom. So, it is like Circle, plus Zoom, plus calendar—it has everything. Even group chats, even voice chats. There is no feature on Earth that is not in Discord. On Circle, people have not been using the chat. That is why I am considering something else; maybe WhatsApp would be better. Because on Circle, they have not used it, so why would they use Discord? But Circle does not have voice, right? With Discord, you can have multiple sections and rooms, and anyone can come and go. You might have five people in there, and you can just drop in to say hello, or simply sit in silence. It is like a living room. So it is very much what I was envisioning.
So, Sangha—very much the origin—I am thinking of someone like Ramana Maharshi. He had a community. He was a truly lovely, enlightened being in the 20th century. There was a wonderful community meditating with him and with each other, centered on the teachings of enlightenment. So Sangha… Sangha is—It is necessary; otherwise, we get pulled into the currents of other interests. Our desires may shift—you have to cherish the desire for enlightenment. It is difficult to develop and to find. This desire—it is a feeling, an inspired feeling, actually. And when you find it, Sangha helps to sustain it.
I do not know if I have helped you all feel that feeling when you practice—the sense of something greater, something beautiful, something within us that is always present. And it is sacred—the feeling of sacredness, the longing for sacredness. And then the way… the way to it. A way to actually experience that, cultivate it, build it collectively, and then share in it.
It is like imagining if there were only one physicist in the world. He would not have much—he would not be able to share it with anyone. You could not have discussions about physics, right? So, it is a cultivation. And so Sangha—a spiritual fellowship—is very important.
There is a Buddhist Sangha. It has its communities all over the world. There is a great deal of Buddhism happening. That is an ancient Sangha, going back many centuries. But there is something a little more unique that—what we are doing as a Sangha is at the intersection of the mind and the heart. There is a kind of empowerment that is somewhat new. Even in Buddhism, there are mental practices, but now we are using mathematics, computer programming, and modern tools—modern disciplines—as part of the practice. It is a rare synthesis, though it is a very natural one, because mathematics is pure mind. Meditation is pure mind. Heart and mind are one. It is this mind space that encompasses all of that.
There is a lot of overlap. What I am sharing is that there are Sanghas with more specificity. For example, my Param guru—my guru's guru, my teacher's teacher—had a Sangha that was very much centered primarily on light. And they stabilized their lifestyle through computer programming, believe it or not. I actually come from a computer programming lineage. They would earn a significant income through computer programming, and there was a whole system he taught them for how to do it. Even people who had no computer programming skills whatsoever—he would teach them, and then they could build their lives in such a way that they had ample time for meditation, ample space for quiet, and a level of opulent living that was conducive to spiritual growth. Instead of being distracted by other things.
So, what am I sharing here? There is this focus on love, light, and intelligence. It is somewhat unique to what we are doing. I would like to strengthen that gravity—those as the core values, right? Because if you were in a Taoist Sangha, for example, it would be more focused on nature. It is a slightly different path. The mechanism of awakening is different. And so, within love, light, and intelligence, there is a particular mechanism of awakening. It is—well, without trying to describe it now, because it is difficult to articulate, and I have already spent all these sessions with you sharing it anyway. There is a mechanism of awakening. How do we shift our mind field? The topology of our mind—the shape of it—so that we can touch the divine.
That is what I am trying to share, and in a very direct way. I would love to help anyone who genuinely wants to experience that. I want to help. And then we can build Sangha. That is part of why we are here. I think that is important.
Obviously, there are only nine of us here today. I did not promote it or anything, and that is part of the reason. But this is the seed. We are the seed. Once we reach a sort of critical mass, it should grow automatically. That tends to happen. If there were fifty of us, then it would just start growing on its own, and it would continue to grow. By deepening our practice, we are actually working toward that. It would be amazing if—imagine there are fifty people, or more, showing up, and each of you could hold our twenty-minute daily meditations. That would be really special.
In a way, we are founding a Sangha together. Especially those of you who keep coming consistently and are truly invested in what we are doing here. And the people who come and leave and do not return—their values just were not as aligned, that is why. People's values run very deep.
When I met my teacher, I thought, "Oh my god, that is it. I have been looking for that my whole life." I recognized it almost instantly. I had never met anyone teaching with the values he was using, and it was very, very close to what resonated with me. And then after ten years, I thought, "Okay, Noel, now I am going to do it in a way that is even more exactly me." But my teacher's focus is light, mindfulness, and heart. I suppose it is actually quite similar.
For me, what I think about Sangha is, as I said, association with the truth. And for me, I believe that the truth is the one dreamer dreaming all dreams, and it is non-dual in nature, meaning we are all one, we are all interconnected. I have been intellectualizing this in service of the one, not just for the sake of intellectualization. I love something that I said—the mind and heart are one.
Jnana yoga—the path of discrimination—is very much about understanding. Krishnamurti did this. He says, if you get it, if you understand the truth, you are not going to do these things, you are not going to think that way. It is like, if you understand the truth, you will be kind to your neighbor. Because you will not just understand it, but know it—deeply know it in a holistic way.
The reason I said the mind and the heart are one is—well, it is interesting to divide them. They are usually thought of as separate, but it is difficult for me to see them as two, actually. Because what is mind? I think it is partially because we want to say, "Here is my mind, and here is my heart," but really, everything is in mind. So, the word "mind" is a little bit of a funny thing to use, because it seems as if it is more directed toward the head, but really, the heart and the mind are this field in which all experience occurs. It is the knower, right? There are different dimensions of it. The mind tends to be more abstract, the heart tends to be more intuitive, but they are both within the field of knowing—the field of cognition, the field of consciousness, the field of experience, or even going beyond experience.
In yoga, sometimes they say you have to destroy the mind. In fact, he says this: destroy the mind. And it is interesting, because the mind can go even further out to become a mind that is no mind. There is no experience in it. Or, a mind that is all, which is similar to the unity I am talking about—a waking nirvana state, in a way, where nirvana comes into the world, and the cosmic body becomes your body. The cosmic mind becomes your mind. And you might think, "Okay, but there is Adam, and then there is the whole thing." But really, I am the whole thing, and Adam is just part of it. So it is a different shift that can happen when you are in a kind of nirvana state.
Where the illusions of separativity dissolve. So, ultimate truth—or satsanga. "Sat" means truth, and it is really referring to the ultimate truth: understanding the fundamental nature of existence, the essence of existence. It is more than just understanding—it is an ecstatic being of it. It is the embodiment of it. And that is what these enlightened beings have achieved. They know the ultimate truth, and they say things like, "You were never born."
Strange statements like that can be confusing, and you might wonder, what does that mean? But yes, you actually were never born. If you inquire, you will discover the truth—that you were never born—and you can see it in the present moment. You might think, "Wait, but I was born on this date, at this time." But no, that was not you being born; that was simply something that happened within you, a part of your experience. These are non-denominational truths that exist. I am not even sure they are—well, I am more than not sure. They are not even particularly human. This is the truth of existence, though.
So enlightenment simply does that. It is wonderful. And you can experience it through love. The knowing of it is ecstasy itself. Because to know this, you have to dissolve. You have to be nothing. Or you have to be everything—perhaps more the Bhakti approach: I am everything. And then you start speaking as Jesus did, saying, "I am the one Son of God," and people misunderstand you. But that is what he was expressing. He was seeing that he is everything. There are a few teachers I have read who say things like, "I am the supreme reality." It can sound as if their egos are out of control, right? But really, if you ask them further, they will say, "Oh, you are also the supreme reality, and so is everyone." So their egos are certainly not out of control.
Let us do some meditation. My goal is to keep it to about thirty minutes. Maybe we should start setting a timer, so that we actually do the part that matters most, which is meditation.
Racing the self. Cessation of the self. In meditation, we become nothing. And in doing so, we become what we unacceptably are. Always. Forever. And attention to the heart center. They awaken the faculties of the home. Often, our assemblage point—that center from which we feel our being—is in the head. Move it to the heart. Look out from the heart. Assemblage point. Location: right in the center of the chest. And reach out with your heart. This is the metaphysical reality—thank you. Large heart, expansive heart. Centered in that. Salvage point in the—A little easy to go on. In front of you. There is a shift in the structure of your energy when you do this.
And if you are experiencing the light, you can use the light by bringing your heart into the light, merging with the light emanating from—light from metaphysical practice. Light is a very high frequency. Heart is big and bright. Brilliant. So it is important in this meditation to feel your qi activated, your kundalini. It subdues the mind. We are not simply sitting here. We are basking. And that she was steeped in the energy. You can just feel it in your heart. Perhaps all around, if you are activated enough. It appears as a luminosity within the mind. And I allow that luminosity—brilliant—to wash you away, dear True Self.
Peace is freedom. The personality, the self-reflection—let go of individuality. I am anonymous, yourself, absorbed in the unknown and the unknowable. We find our way into that space through gentleness of letting go. Existence with the world—release the burden. Thought, story—just simply… but we are. Innocent child of the universe, letting love carry us away. Bing. Thus, silence. Erase us. Experience.
A sense that you are submerged in heart—its warmth and love. Your own nature, all around, within. Perched on the edge of eternity. When you are ready, we can come out of the meditation.
When we generate all this love, we have the capacity to hold abundant goodwill for the world, because we are so complete. We have none of what Krishnamurti calls inward poverty. We have inner wealth instead. Richness. Come up. Make all people really look for that.
It is very hard for me to be still in life, and this is a good opportunity. At least once a week, I completely become still and enter a different space, so it is very interesting that I am able to do that. Whatever happens, it just allows me to relax completely. So, you became very still. Did you see any light? Interestingly, today there was orange and yellow, and there was purple. And pink. Thank you for your confirmation. Just so everyone knows, this is not imagining light—this is actually perceiving the light, usually in waves, and you can see it. Light is the substance of mind; it is made of light. And so, that is one of the goals I would love to help all of you experience—this visual phenomenon. Yet, it is not based on photons; it is not the ordinary light that comes from a bulb. It is recognized as the essential substance of mind. When everything stops appearing so solid and physical, you can see this. It is very beautiful to be able to experience that.
We have been doing this for about three years now—almost four, actually. I showed you the light before that as well. It is really enjoyable to gather in person and gaze with each other; you can see the light by eye-gazing. That is how my teacher taught me—by gazing at each other.
I am also very relaxed, and I also dozed off. So, amazing. Thank you. Try to stay alert. No dozing—dozing is not ideal. It is good that you became relaxed and saw the light, but dozing is not ideal. It should feel like absolute alertness at the same time. Well, I do not know—it depends. I am a little light in my presence myself, so I can understand.
Sometimes, in meditation, I hear the music, and it is not that the voice is unclear, but I just feel distant. Energetically, sometimes the energy feels like a giant room. Like a giant room, like the sun. Or a stadium, like one large room. As you speak now, I am having this image of an energy I have experienced—it is like a black room. Inside, it is all black, but you know it is a room, and there is space between us because the energy opens, the dimensions open up. Sometimes everything blacks out, and I feel the universe. I felt that, but you were really, really far away. I could hear you, but I had to pay more attention, like, "Oh, he is talking, pay attention." That is good. If you go into a deep state and my words stop making sense, then they have done their job. You do not have to keep listening to me. In fact, that is why I talk—to help guide you into that state where the mind turns off. Once you are there, just do your own thing. You know you are there. Just be what you are.
I think we should stop to be on time, unless there are any urgent comments that people want to share. We never want to miss those.
Another thing: maybe invite any of your aligned friends who might want to be a part of this. Word of mouth is a better way than... You know, if you resonate with this, it is likely you have a close friend or two who resonates in the same way. Namaste.