“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.”
– Thích Nhất Hạnh
 
Kabir – The couplet
तू तू करता तू भया, मुझमे रहा नु हू ।
बरी फेरी बलि गई, जीत देखूं तित तू ||

Transliterated:
Tu Tu Karta Tu Bhayaa, Mujhme Raha Na Hoo |
Bari Pheri Bali Gayi, Jit Dekhun Tit Too||

Translation:
Reciting your name all the while, I forgot me completely |
My essence merged in you, my ego and troubles vaporized, everywhere I see you ||

My understanding:
A simple practice that took me forty-plus years to understand, and a few more to develop – to stay free of the deviations that desire, ego and the senses push onto me, I have to stay forever focused on the voice of the self (soul/atma/cit/God).

The wisdom of the ages teaches us to use japa (repeated chanting of the same word / name / phrase) to lead to meditative states. In that meditative state, find the true meaning of silence and the absence of ALL sensory input. At that point, you will awaken the “turiya awastha”- the state where you are one with the Self – and you can have open conversations with God/Self/Atma.

The path of worldly pursuit, recognizing the danger of allowing this, uses the ethereal construct of ego to dangle the temptations of desire in front of us, and distracts our focus in the practice of japa – hence few, if any, will truly find that true meditative/reflective state. But if you can ignore distraction for long enough (it is long enough when you connect to true silence) you can have that distraction-free conversation with the self – who will give you the direction you need to stay on the proper path to self-realization. I have walked there, and much as I keep returning back to this world’s physical spaces to take care of physical appearances and the needs born thereof, that space has so much more to offer that I find myself spending longer moments there each day.

This is not a path which you will share with anyone else – you can be shown the path, but it is up to you alone to walk it, and for each individual to make that journey all alone, divorced from all physical senses and bodily attractions and commitments. For those senses, attractions and commitments belong to the body – this is a journey of the Self separate from the physical body.