Satsang with Fr. Bede

Satsang is a Sanskrit word meaning the coming together (sanga) of those who are seeking God, Truth, Being (Sat).

Q:   When you are talking about letting go and referring to the Void, how do you reconcile that sort of letting go and compassion with an individual sense of commitment?

A:   Yes, that is a problem!  You can only realize it in practice in your life.  Kabir, the great North Indian poet whom we read constantly, always speaks of love and detachment, and they go together. Detachment means detachment from your ego.  What is holding us is the ego-mind.  And in the Hindu tradition the mind is made of the manas, the buddhi, and the ahamkara.  We have the manas, the measuring, scientific mind; and the ahamkara, the “I-maker” – and we are all enclosed in this ego, this “I”.  That is, on the one hand, our means of growth, and on the other hand what imprisons us.  We have to break the ego, to open beyond the ego, and open up to the Divine.  But then, it is a little misleading to say you have to go beyond and then return.  Actually we are always having to go beyond and return – it is a continuous movement. Whatever situation you face, you have to face the actual situation, and go beyond it, do not simply be carried away by the situation.  But then, as you go beyond, the same moment you return and face it, so it is two movements in one.  Again, you have to go beyond the dualities.  So you only learn by experience, how to bring the insight of the One into the complex of appearances and phenomena of your daily life.  That is the business of life, really to learn how to do that.  And meditation, I think is one of the principle ways of doing it.  Within meditation we try to calm the body, the senses; calm the mind, and all its thoughts; and become aware of the Presence.  And as we become aware of the Presence, it then comes more and more into our mind and into our bodies, it integrates the whole being.  So, always there are two movements going on, one by one, or one after the other, one with the other.

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