About Satsang

Satsang, meaning "association with truth" or "gathering in truth," (सत्संग/satsaṅga) is a contemplative space where spiritual teachings are shared and wisdom is transmitted through a unique form of sacred dialogue. It is not a lecture or philosophical discussion, but rather a direct pointing to the timeless presence of being- the Self we all are.

Here is an invitation. Take some time to relax and discover comfort wherever you are sitting. Gently notice the weight of your body, the position of your limbs, and the posture of your spine. Take note of the sensation of your clothing against your skin. Notice the flow of air through your nostrils, or mouth. Observe the rising and falling of your chest, and the movement of breath, whether it be shallow or deep. Allow the body to relax and become gradually acclimatised to its physicality, to become grounded. Then, notice the sights, sounds and smells of your surroundings. Wherever you are, and regardless of the noise, activity, or absence thereof around you, notice whatever is most prominent in your environment. Spend a few moments to acknowledge it and give space to it.

Next, observe, without judgement, the flow of thoughts in the mind. Whatever thoughts are present, in whatever state you find the mind in this moment, simply observe it passively, without trying to change anything or manipulate the mind's motions. Whether the mind is calm, active, agitated, or dull. No matter how you are thinking and feeling, give space for the thoughts and feelings to be. Observe, without judgement or interruption, the reactive mind, the internal narrative voice which comments on, and reacts to, experience. Allow the mind in all its aspects to express itself as it is in this moment.

Notice the quality of your experience when the activities of the mind and body are passively observed. Attention becomes collected, focused, and one-pointed, but the mental noise of mind becomes attenuated. A space opens up between yourself, as a passive perceiver, and the object of your perception, whether it be the mind, the body, or the environment. Merely by noticing, without doing, you will create, or rather rediscover, a dimension of alert witnessing within you.

It is from this alert witnessing that the possibility for understanding can begin to dawn in you. From here, you will be receptive to the workings of your mind, to your own reactivity, but also to the greater depth and potential of your being. From here, a radical recognition can unfold: a recognition of who and what you really are. This recognition is a challenging inversion of all that you have previously understood yourself and the world to be. Rather than being a mote of dust whirled around a vast and hostile universe, limited as a mortal body and mind full of misery and subject to all the vicissitudes of life, and, rather than being separate from everything and everyone else, you are, truly, the indestructible, immovable, joyful Reality: pure awareness, the Self, beyond all the travails of the heart, in which all phenomena appear and in which all lives are lived.

Here is a challenge. Follow these words, without cavil, to where they point in you. Have faith in these words insofar as you are encouraged to test them against your own experience. You will find that your current understanding of yourself is really not understanding; it is, rather, ignorance. This ignorance, while unquestioned and unexamined, makes your experience of yourself and the world a source of suffering for you and all others. To be free from suffering, one must be free from ignorance. The darkness of ignorance is dispelled by the light of understanding, by Self-knowledge. True Self-knowledge is nothing other than the knowledge of the truth of who and what you are: the Self, and that truth is communicated here, in satsang. Satsang is the communication which can facilitate this recognition.