We are born with a body, we have a mind, and we possess everything necessary to be happy. Yet we are not the body, and we are not the mind. The body and the mind are merely instruments of the soul. We may have much, and still not be happy. Only when we act from the level of the soul can we feel fulfillment; only then do we truly have the possibility to experience life. My Guruji says: “We did not come into this world to live, but to experience life.” In our experience of the world, the body and the mind play a very important role.
The body and the mind, as instruments of the soul and tools of our will—our sankalpa—are capable of transformation through regular practice. Abhyasa, in Sanskrit, means repetition: the steady repetition of the same action. Just as a drop of water gradually wears away stone, regular practice is able to transform our entire nature. Practice is capable of extraordinary things.
Everything is in constant motion. Nothing remains still, and therefore life gives a person the opportunity both to rise and to fall. To descend, one needs only to do nothing—time itself will take care of it. Yet that same time can be like a precious jewel: it can be the most valuable thing we possess. Practice always works with the manifestation of time. And when practice becomes perfected, it can take control even of time itself. Time may become a tool in the hands of one who has gone beyond the mind, one who abides in samadhi.
In samadhi, time does not exist. Samadhi is the absence of action, the absence of mind, the absence of practice as such. Yet in order for samadhi to occur, practice is necessary. And through practice, transformation becomes possible. Then the highest and most powerful practice may happen—the practice in which there is no practice at all. This practice can give everything.
Samadhi is the absence of practice in which everything is realized, yet to arrive there, practice is required. What is essential is intention. If there is intention, there will be realization. If there is intention, everything becomes possible.