Exploring Breath, Consciousness, and Spiritual Awakening

Yam Sox focuses on conscious breathing, meditation, and the concept of nothingness as a path to spiritual awakening and inner peace.

### The Path to Self-Realization: A Conversation on Breath, Nothingness, and Awakening
* 🌬 Yam Sox describes his daily routine, which includes starting the day with a **prayer to Mother Earth** and focusing on **conscious breathing** throughout the day.
* 😌 Conscious breathing is emphasized as a way to **calm anxiety and connect with the nervous system**, with Yam Sox sharing personal experiences of using breath to **manage panic attacks**.
* 🕉 The concept of "nothingness" is explored, with Yam Sox discussing how **emptiness and spaciousness** are often misunderstood or feared in Western culture.
* 🧘 The discussion delves into the difference between **dualistic and non-dualistic approaches to spirituality**, with Yam Sox highlighting the **value of both paths**.
* 📖 The transmission of knowledge is discussed, with Yam Sox explaining the difference between **"lower" and "higher" knowledge** and how **higher knowledge is about uncovering what is already within**.
* 🌌 Contemplation on the void and the nature of consciousness is explored, with Yam Sox discussing the **experience of deep surrender** and the **dissolution of the ego**.
* 🌟 Symbolism, such as **mandalas and stargazing**, is discussed in relation to **spiritual practice** and the mind's tendency to be drawn to **patterns and symmetry**.
* 🌿 The conversation touches on the **interconnectedness of all beings**, with Yam Sox reflecting on the idea that we are **all made of stardust** and share a **common source**.

hello hello hello Ezekiel how you doing man doing well how are you doing I'm excellent good it's good it's good to talk to you you as well so I think we'll just get right into this I mean I don't really have a structure or anything it's quite I mean yeah how's your day been quite well yes yeah yours what is a day the life of yam Sox look like well you know I I wake up and before my feet touch the ground I always do a prayer a prayer to Mother Earth for giving me this body to use and do higher things with it and I spend most of my time doing my Mantra with my inhale and exhale I try to remember the names of God and what I do during my breathing throughout the day that changes so you're very focused on your breath and how you breathe absolutely and how do you um so do you think you should force breath or do you think there's times where you should just let it be or what are your thoughts

on like meditation and breathing in general. I think a lot of people might have the impression that conscious breathing means manual ual breathing, but I think it's just awareness of your breath letting it be is a good way that you've described it. Absolutely, yeah. And so I know there's different breathing methods, right? So like is there a certain one that you feel like you've mastered, or is there a certain one that you feel like you want to master? Not in particular. It's more of a natural kind of awareness, just having as long breaths as I can, deep and cyclical. How long is the cycle for of your breathing? I think I did time it actually a few days ago, something like uh probably 10 seconds. That's awesome, yeah. Mhhm. And is that all diap like diaphragm like on your diaphragm or is that like um like how does it come in like does it fill your chest up first and then your diaphrag around we're like I found that just filling the

stomach up first, and then the chest seems to be the most soothing for me. Tummy breaths. So do you feel like when you breathe, is it easier to release things? Or is it easier to like release certain emotions? Or like how do you what's the correlation between your breath and like your emotional state, your mental state, and all that kind of stuff? Well, the breath is so intimately connected with the nervous system. When you picture someone who is anxious, one of the visions, visuals that might come up is the idea that their breath is hyperventilating. But it goes both ways too. A great way to calm someone who's panicked is to slow the rhythm, and that helps me absolutely too. And so I, yeah, everyone talks about like slowing down your breathing when you're getting anxious or getting panic attacks. I mean, is that something that you've experienced in like do you have like any advice people that also go through that as well? Oh yeah, I used to have a lot of

anxiety, and the simplest thing that helped me was breathing. When I used to have such panic attacks, I found that the first thing to take control over is your breathing, and then go from there. Mhm, is there like a correlation between willpower and also breath as well? Like, have you found a correlation between that twoo? I think you'll often find that before someone makes a real big decision, the first thing they do is take a deep breath. And so you find your, do you take deep breaths before make decisions like that? Are you doing it? Yeah, no, I both, both. Yeah, you're already taking 10-c breaths, so that's funny. And so one thing that interests me, especially with some things that I've seen with yours, is the science of nothingness. Yes, if you can talk on that and what does that mean? Well, I kind of came to the conclusion about nothing in my dormitory at college, just thinking about how, you know, nothing as a word. We use it so freely in a sentence without thinking about it, but

If you really place emphasis on this idea of nothing, nothingness, then it starts to be a solution to so many big philosophical questions. For example, if you just ask yourself what came before everything, just the simple answer is, well, by definition, nothing. You know, if you had something come before everything, then it would be a part of that everything. So, inherently, before everything comes nothing. But that sounds a lot like God to me. And so, this idea of nothingness, right? Like, why do you think people have a problem with maybe, um, emptying themselves and becoming nothing? Or having some kind of feeling of emptiness inside of themselves? Like, why do you think there's a resistance towards that? I suppose we feel like we should become something or someone, and to be no one is an insult in our culture. To be nobody, to feel empty, is a negative trait. But you have to come to these adjectives to be able to find spaciousness and openness. These are qualities of that emptiness and spaciousness.

openness. Can you describe is there like different degrees of it? Do you think there's like different um Peri of your life where you feel spaciousness and openness like what is that like? Yeah, you know, there's a mathematician who once studied various degrees of nothingness and he started enumerating them. I'm not well versed in his research, but absolutely you can come to a kind of nothingness and then come to an even deeper kind of nothingness and I wouldn't know how to describe the differences between them but I think that emptiness is infinite and there is no bottom of the rabbit hole. M now is there certain energetic call is certain like energetic quality or like what do you find begins to happen within yourself when you start to experience you know that emptiness or that nothingness that emptiness nothingness spaciousness is all a synonym to me for Consciousness for Consciousness is the very B that contains all of it this experience as a human so when we rest in that emptiness

we are abiding within ourself the very movie screen in which it all takes place, rather than identifying with the thoughts that appear. Do it, yeah, do you? Do you think that everything is kind of a mirror? Like, in order for you to have a kind of moment of self-realization, do you think that maybe you can? Or like, what is your take on just Consciousness, you know, being the or being The Observer, and then looking at things and using them as kind of like a mirror to ABS wake up and stuff like that? Yeah, yeah. Then this nothingness intrinsically cannot be seen, cannot be heard. It is, by definition, the absence of form. Then, in order to experience it, we require some other kind of method than direct experience. We rely on the objects of our experience to serve as a reminder that we are witnessing, since we can never observe the Observer through the observing itself. We are reminded, and then that way everything does kind of act as a mirror. And can you talk a little bit about that relationship between like

being the object versus the subject or being the subject being viewed. When we watch a car drive by, we often don't feel like that's us which is being driven by. We feel like there is space between the entity that's doing the watching of the car and the car itself. And this is the difference between the subject and the object. The subject is on the seeing side, and the object is on the scene. And when we recognize the distinction, we feel like we don't have to identify so much with our body and our mind, for they too are just like passing cars. And so there's this um, there's this thing that I personally have looked at on my journey, yes. And there's this thing called apophatic, uh, theology. So this is kind of something because we're talking about like nothingness and you know the object things like that object and subject. But um, I'll read the definition of it. So, apophatic theology, also known as negative theology, is a theology that attempts to describe God by negation.

speak of God only in absolute sear terms, and to avoid what may not be said. So in Orthodox Christianity, apathetic theology is based on the assumption that God's Essence is unknowable or ineffable, and on the recognition of the inadequacy of human language to describe God. So the apathetic tradition in Orthodox is often balanced with C. F. theology, or positive Theology, and belief in the Incarnation, through which God has revealed himself in the person of Christ. So what is your thoughts on the way of negation and just that definition in general? Absolutely, I find that since we experience the very presence of creation, then in order to understand what came before it, we have to think in terms of absence, and it's a beautiful way to get in communion with that source, to consider a quality that everything has, and then negate it, and then that's a quality The Source must have had. For example, we might say that everything is changing; therefore, when we negate that quality and apply it to the source, we

find that the source must be changeless or. Here's another one if everything has qualities of good and bad in it then the source must be Beyond these qualities. And how do people apply kind of negation in their life right maybe they have a busy life. So what is maybe someone who's a busy person lives in a city how does negation come into play in each moment of their life practically speaking. It's something that we can do to acquire a kind of Detachment from the world. When we understand that the source has qualities which are Beyond those in the world then we begin to feel those qualities as separate from the world. Whereas so many of us are so engaged with going to work raising a family it can often tie us to certain identities in the world. But through the practice of negation we can come to a sense of Eternal identity which is beyond the world. So kind of like an Eternal Vision right like seeing things from the end eternity is one of those qualities that the source has and therefore you

and me and everyone being a soul that is an expression of that Source. When we come into our divine qualities inherited from that, then we find ourselves to be Eternal as well. What do you think of maybe how I describe this? How do you think the body comes to play in spiritual transformation, right? So when we negate ourselves, for example, we enter into sort of a state of emptiness and negation. We find ourselves in somewhat of a heightened, maybe alert awareness, and we feel energized. We feel one with everything, and so we're, it seems like we're kind of negating the body or kind of distancing ourselves from it. But how can there be, you know, connection to the or what's the connection between the body and negation as well? Yeah, it's important to not ignore the body. The body is our vehicle through which we serve others, and this spaciousness that we come to through a hidden sense of awareness, it transcends the body, but that doesn't mean the body is meaningless. The body is one of the

things which is contained by that awareness and therefore it's one of the tools we have at our disposal to share love sincerity truth compassion so like as awareness. For example, you Tred to make your way towards this awareness, right? How do you begin your path to um realizing yourself as this awareness? Because at this when I first started out, right, and I started out with meditation, um, I had to start. I had to start to very closely observe my thoughts, at least this is how I, this is the route that I took. So somewhat in a way of self-observation where like I would catch my eye thought start to comment over things, you know, give different labels over things, and I watch it very closely like, like you're, like a, you say, like a predator watching over its prey, and like I look super closely and there gets to a point to where, at least I've noticed that my ego then just stops throwing these constant thoughts because I can see right through them, um, so that's kind of the route that I took.

but for somebody that's trying to um negate, and someone that's trying to, you know, realize himself as this awareness, what are some tools, what are some keys that they can access to um experience this well. Just as you have shared, keeping within your intellect that knowledge, that the one thinking is not necessarily I, so trying to do some positive reframing which takes this eye's out of the subject. For example, we put so much weight on our sense of self being perfect. If you walk into a room and your body accidentally knocks over a, let's say, a vase, and it smashes on the ground, the mind may say I did this, and so I must clean it up. And there's nothing inherently wrong with phrasing that situation in that way. However, we immediately tie ourselves to this and might feel, feel a negative feeling that arises from it. Other languages often, like Japanese for example, they don't usually put yourself at the subject of such incidents. And it's an entirely equivalent way of seeing things where they instead rephrase it as oh, the vase fell down and

now it must be cleaned up. The situation hasn't changed. We've just placed I out of the terminology, and you still take accountability for what needs to be done. It's just now your sense of self is unaffected by the circumstance. So what other languages have you noticed has a strong identity with the eye, and what kind of what other cultures have you seen like? Have I know languages myself. I don't know how to speak Japanese either. However, this is just something I've picked up from those who do speak Japanese. Research in our culture. English. We certainly always call ourselves I and relate to the objects of our experience. Yeah, definitely. And so I feel like there's a point to where you observe a lot to where I mean you kind of you feel this awareness, right? You feel there a deep sense of like maybe peace or gratitude or whatever it may be. Mhm. Um, is there a point to where you also disidentify from awareness? Or you is there is there even can you go even deeper than that? Or is

there just um you feel this heightened sense of awareness. You feel calm and at peace and one with yourself. Is there a point to where you can go beyond that? That's something that the Buddhists try to accomplish with their principle anatman. That you can get to a kind of awareness that's so nonu that there is no self. There is a witnessing but no witness, an observing but no Observer. It's not something that I've experienced so I can't speak on behalf of it but here goes that eye again creeping in. So yeah sneaky. What's funny is like when I when so I mean where I've learned kind of like non-u or kind of like meditation meditative teachings was from like a Christian Mystic and yeah they brought these Concepts and one of the ways in which they described for example like um they call it ego and gluing where you know you watch yourself enough you watch the eye thought enough to where it starts to become unglued from your head space and what start to happen is that

you kind of experience it almost feels like a swarm of flies fly around your head, or it feels like some kind of mask is starting to get come off, or something like that. Um, but have you experienced, have you experienced anything like that? Or like, what are your thoughts on maybe that term that I mentioned, ego ungluing, or maybe like, um, yeah, maybe a veil coming off of the eyes or something like that. I like that ego and gluing. Um, actually, in my own path, I found that when I did struggle with deep existential kind of dread and my panic attacks would becoming more severe, I would try to remember that I am not suffering, the suffering is occurring to me. And despite this kind of higher awareness that the mind and the consciousness are distinct, what I actually found to be most helpful was to bring in a sense of duality in a healthy way where I would call out to whatever is listening, instead of identifying with the listener. I would externalize that Observer as the one who I'm speaking to, and so I'd call out and say

that you know, I'm lost in the suffering. Please pull me from the mire of all this. Maya is that Sanskrit term, and I found that it actually alleviated a lot of the suffering. And so, although I can speak very highly about the non-dual path, I have found that duality is still an extremely valuable part of this experience, and it's not something I have seen as something needed to let go of. In fact, it can be a beautiful expression of that spaciousness itself. And like just be specific also, people that are watching, like what does a non-dual versus dualistic mean, and then also like what do you, what what cultures or what maybe countries you think this would probably work best in, like non-du versus having more of a dualistic mindset. Well, non-dual simply means that there's no distinction between the subject and the object, that you consider truth as one. And so, whatever duality that exists, binary such as creation and Creator, you'd consider as Noni and within your own experience.

you'd see the self and the universe as non-different whereas duality creates a distinction between yourself and the universe, between the creator and creation, and to me it's not that one belief system is correct and another is incorrect. It's just that they have different utilities depending on the moment. Culturally, the Western world is very much used to duality, that we experience ourselves individually as separate from the world. And in more Eastern traditions, such as Zen Buddhism or Buddhism in general, and different sects of jism and Hinduism, there is a non-dual tradition that is very prevalent. Individually, it's up to the practitioner whether they wish to follow the path of non-duality or duality, but they both lead to the same. I have this question that came up in my head right now, but how do you think, what's your take on transmission of knowledge, right? So if you follow more of like a Zen path, right, I feel like knowledge would be more

transmitted through mind and the development or just letting go in general. Like I feel like the essence of I feel like a lot of knowledge that you gain is from intuition, from letting go, from even maybe a master, um, that can kind of intuitively, uh, transmit teachings into your Consciousness. Whereas I mean maybe more a dualistic perspective, it's like maybe it's more physical, maybe it's more like in a book, you read it, you learn, you get the knowledge of it. But like what's your knowledge on or what's your take on the transmission of knowledge and all that kind of stuff? In the ancient language that is Sanskrit, there's this beautiful pair of words AAR viia and VI which separate knowledge into two kind. There is lower and higher. And lower knowledge is that which has to be sought out to be acquired. You have to go to some master, some teacher, some book, or some course, or some lecture. You're not born with it, so you have to go out, expend effort to gain it. But the reason this is considered

lower knowledge is because it's not knowledge that's with you. Everything that is gained eventually has to be let go of. So even the highest PhD is not something you get to take with you after your leaving of this body. Whereas higher knowledge is just the reverse. It's something that everyone has but it gets obfuscated. And so it requires a deconstruction to realize what's been there already. And so the reason that some gurus can seem to transmit knowledge intuitively is not because they are delivering something to you but showing you what's already inside you just with consent deconstructing what's preventing you from realizing the truth already embedded in you. That's very fascinating. Do you feel like you learn that way or do you feel like you've taken a different route? I have found that I best relate to knowledge when I can Discover it within my own experience. Yeah, yeah. And I mean do you have a guru yourself like someone that you that has taught you many things? Well, you know I I do look up to

this Guru, which is known as Jagad Guru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj. However, he did leave his body about a decade or more ago, and he has a foremost disciple known as Swami Mukundananda. And I have been in very brief contact with him, and he kind of explained, that with no direct terms, that the lineage continues, and so if I wanted, I could look up to him as a guru, since his Guru has left his body, died. So perhaps Swami Mukundananda could fill that role for me. So what comes to my mind right now is like I remember having a dream, and this kind of ties into transmission of knowledge, but I so in this dream like it occurred because I was doing a certain practice at the time, which I haven't really done recently, but it was like a standing chiong practice where it's called the Grand Circle, where you just stand, and you allow yourself to breathe into your diaphragm, you allow the entire body to relax, and you just stay present.

you know with yourself, and you just wait. To you know for the D gen to get filled, and for that kind of rush of energy to come up. But I had a dream, and in which there's like a ladder. If I can recall the exact setting, but I remember climbing up a ladder. And there's just, just Guru who had like a bunch of like oil or honey. And I was climbing up this ladder. Then he just poured it over me. And was like kind of got the feeling that I was getting kind of the teaching pass on to me or something like if I kept going. Like but like have you had any dreams like that or any gurus try to teach you or show you things about yourself like that. I did have uh one Swami come to me in a dream, and he gave me a business card. And it said Swami something or another. And later that week when I was out and about, I found one of those sidewalk libraries where you can leap a book take.

a book, and I pulled out a book, and I opened up randomly through it, and out fell out uh ripped page about the shape of a business card with the same name on it, and I must confess I've lost the card, and I don't remember what this Swami's name was, but that was one of those moments where I dreamt of such an encounter happening, yeah, yeah, and so I mean, so having the, we talked a little about knowledge and kind of transmission of knowledge like higher knowledge in general, I feel like that has to do with more of your, that, yeah, realizing yourself as awareness, having this higher intellect, um, have you found certain practices that are, have you looked into certain practices that also develop your heart, or also like, is there something behind that as well, is there a distinction between having high-end awareness and then versus being kind of present and conscious in your heart, or absolutely, yeah, I found that you can develop this heightened sense of awareness, but the question then arises, what are you going to do with

it it's, of course, very affirming to have this spiritual knowledge. But what use is it then to just keep it to yourself? So then that is where the practice of HTI or sa devotion and service come in to then go and sh share that. And so we open up our mind first as the gateway to our heart and then expand our heart so we can share it with others. And what what are ways of devotion that you find like just a you know what are just ways of devotion that you commit yourself to first and foremost recognize that that Divinity of your awareness is non-different from the Divinity of the awareness within everyone that comes across you. So although you may not get to experience yourself directly, you can experience others. And as others appearing to you, they are that mirror like we talked about before but also a manifestation of that source which is your opportunity to serve. Yeah and I want to go to a concept or at least that I found also happened as I was kind of developing or this eye was

developing awareness or whatever. I'm just using this to kind of try to communicate, but this. I was trying to develop my awareness and such and such. Um, there's this concept called the void in which someone can find themselves as they begin to deconstruct and let go. They find themselves surrendering into this unknown space that can seem endless, that can seem endlessly dark, um, empty, all that kind of stuff. And it can also, I mean, for some people at least that I've seen, it produces like terror inside of them. Like completely letting go can kind of be something scary. Um, but can you go into that concept, the void? What does that mean? And how have you seen it manifesting people? The zero, not zero. This void is a glimpse at the source. From nothing, everything arises. From stillness, movement is inspired. From darkness, light transpires. To return to that void is to return to the Akash, the seed-like state of existence. Of course, it can be very bewildering to come to such a

nothingness when we feel so attached to somethingness, but it is known that that void is none other than the essence of your very self. And so, how do, how do, how do you get to points? Because I've seen different people take different paths towards this, right? Some people do it through contemplation. Like, for example, you can kind of contemplate. So, if you say right now, for example, and you want to take in your experience, right? And you want to look on, look at what's going on, you can kind of start to observe how the space between objects versus objects themselves, how there's a different range of colors, but they all happen within awareness. So, you can kind of like visually kind of take in things and then start to deconstruct it and feel the separateness and the, and the, this, yeah, the, the, the room and how there's objects in it versus spaciousness. And you can kind of contemplate that way. Um, there's obviously in meditation where you can close your eyes and then just go into

this and you're not necessarily looking at things visually, but you feel a deep sense of like this is kind of where I belong. This is where I'm going. Some people when they, I mean when they go through traumatic stuff, can put them in this sort of state of entering the void or maybe death can bring about, yeah, getting close to the void. So what is your, I mean how have you seen the different ways of or different paths in which people take to go towards this and can you kind of describe those ways? It all has to do with deconstructing what's in front of it. Like you used the term Veil a few minutes ago, there is something which is in front of it and that's all this. And when we do Close Our Eyes in meditation, it might feel like we're just adding another veil in between the light and the witnessing. However, it's not that we're adding anything new by closing our eyes, such that there's something behind. We're really getting rid of the light and so we're getting a sneak peek.

at what's behind it so too in a more deeper sense. When we fall asleep at at night, although we can close our eyes, we can't close our ears, but still we're able to turn away from the experiences of sound while sleeping. And so cars may drive by, people in the house may speak, but you're none the wiser. So there is a deeper kind of pivoting of the senses to turn inward, not so different than when we sleep. We can somehow shun the experiences of the senses through the perception of knowledge and come into a kind of dreamless, sleepless waking, Le fourth state, sometimes known as the state of Tua, that is total absorption in nothingness. And that's something that happens after for most people a long time of meditating. Many people never experience that. I can't say I myself have. You um, what are you, what are your thoughts on the doctrine of the Soul, like what, what does that or what does that [Music] mean? There is a passage in the Bhagavad

Gita, that ancient scripture, that says to the wise, Darkness is the day, and daylight is the darkness night. For the sage, it is daytime; for the ignorant, nighttime. For the ignorant, it is daytime; for the wise, of course, this isn't a literal statement that enlightened people stay up all night. Nighttime simply means that your sense of identity is in the world, and daytime means to be pulled back such that your sense of identity is in the source, that source of light itself. And to most worldly people, this is a terrifying thought to have your sense of self stripped away from the world since we hold on to so many things in the world. The worldly people, that sounds like a kind of death, a kind of nighttime. And I suppose a Dark Night of the Soul, therefore, is when someone comes to awareness of this point that to be identified with the world, this is true night, true darkness, and you have to find that light. I like that um one thing that I find too is that um sleep can also

kind of talked about sleep earlier too. Um, sleep has a very, and your relationship to sleep, right, is very, it's very important how you relate to sleep. So, like, if you view sleep as like, Oh, I finally get to like go to sleep, like in the day, like that, it usually relates to how you're unconscious throughout your day, and you're just going through the emotions because you would much rather put things off into your sleep rather than be awake and conscious and alert during your, during the daytime. At least, at least that's what I think. But, um, I found that, yeah, I found that as I observe more and as I become that witness or as I become the witness or whatever, MH, um, I feel like I see through sleep, and that I can kind of, I don't know, just drift off into, yeah, the source and things like that. Like, sleep is not necessarily something that I'm heavily identified with, if that makes sense. Yeah, one of the epithets for Arjuna, the protagonist in The Bhagavad

Gita is one who has conquered sleep, and the Buddha is also described as one who is fully awake while asleep and fully asleep while awake. Yeah, good stuff right there. And so, what are some contemplations or what are some things that you felt like have transformed your state of consciousness? Like, what do you find is a helpful contemplation for you? It's helpful to positively reframe negative situations. Contemplating on the positive rather than the negative can transform any situation into a blessing, and the more that we feel like this present moment is a blessing, then the more we can be present in it. If we feel like this moment is an obstacle, then of course you're not going to want to be here, be as conscious as you can be. So, a practical technique to be more alert, conscious here and now, is to reframe the events in our life in terms of the positive so that we don't feel so averse to be here now. Yeah, and what's the, what's the

thought process behind your like your YouTube channel or like your TikToks. Like, I see you have like different things, such as like what do you call like chakra like different days are different chakras um like chakra Sundays sacral chakra Mondays. Like, what's your thought process behind that? Nothing too deep other than that. I feel like it's a good parallel between the seven days of the week and seven chakras. I'm sure I'm not the first to make this observation, but it's a fun way to make every live stream that I do different with different colored lightings and a different theme of the day. Just gives it a bit of character, that's all. Yeah, definitely. And I mean, what are your favorite things to talk about on live streams, just in general? Like, what do you love talking about? I love talking about whatever I can do to soothe the questioner. I feel like it's one thing to shake someone awake, and it's another thing to bring them breakfast in bed and say good morning, welcome to the day. It's a

beautiful time to be alive. Both ways will get the person awake, but the first way is a little bit more brute force, and you'll get the person awake by shaking them, but they'll just want to go to bed right after, whereas someone that you gracefully give compassion to, they'll wake up a little more naturally without attachment to go right back to sleep. And analogously, in my live streams, I love to create a comforting space for people to blossom according to their own timeline, rather than trying to give them anything which forces them awake, if that makes sense. Yeah, it does. Um, if you can transmit it like what is a way, how would you describe Awakening or how would you kind of reveal it to somebody, I suppose it's not so different than how a flower simply blossoms naturally with the presence of the Sun. You'll find that all the petals on a daisy, they're closed up at nighttime, but when sunlight happens, they naturally open up without even touching, you know, you don't

have to go to every daisy in your yard and start pulling at the petals. Just shining a light is all it takes, and it does it itself. The opening so to Awakening is something that I feel like is not something that needs to be transmitted, as it is just shining whatever light is already within you, and the flower, the aspirant does the rest naturally themselves. What's your thoughts on like, um, what do you call it, mandalas, or like, um, I don't know, the lotus flower and things like that. What's your thoughts on that? Yeah, you know, I have one on my wall just besides this tapestry of space, and it's beautiful how often I catch myself just kind of absorbed into it. It's a great catch of your mind, I think, to have a symbol with you to remind you of presence when our mind is drifting. It's good to have something that catches it, especially symbolically. Yeah, I mean, I haven't looked too much into it, but like, what is, what is like the

significance of like maybe the different patterns in the mandalas and things like that. Like what how does it how does the way that it looks like maybe affect um you subconsciously or something like that. Well of course geometrically that's highly rotationally symmetric. You could rotate it by a little just a few degrees and everything would line up on itself so there's so much happening radially. It all spirals out and it pulls your attention one pointedly onto a center and that's so symbolic. That's not so different than the process of meditation where we have all these thoughts spiraling around us and we're trying to make our thoughts one-pointed pull ourselves to the jewel at the center the witness as that's Prett cool. And so I mean are are you into like um like star signs or anything like that or like. Do You observe the patterns of the stars as well do you think there's something symbolic behind that. I mean I'm looking at your stars right now back as your thing so I'm thinking maybe.

there's something behind that. Or why you have that up there. Well, this was a gift for my parents when I went to University, and I lived in the dormitory. Something to put on my wall to keep me dreaming of big things. I think always found myself staring into space. And uh, I mean, do you think that's a practice though, like just staring into space? Do you think there's some kind of effect it does? Because I know people stargazing, for example, like is there anything behind that? Or what are your thoughts on like stargazing or stuff like that? Yeah, I'm sure it's no coincidence that the background of this podcast too is uh, Starscape. And yeah, more so than that, I have had many moments in which I was looking upon the stars and filled with moments of Revelation. I mean to be able to just try to comprehend the vastness of space really helps minimize the ego, that's for sure. Definitely do you think we come from the Stars though? Well, we are made of

Stardust and what what exactly do you think that that would mean like if someone's made out of Stardust right. Like do you think there's a certain vibration they give off or does that have to play into maybe the way that someone's uh role in society is or is it does it get that deep or is it just just start. I I think it is a beautiful point that before our sun existed there was another star that lived its whole lifetime and it blew up and our bodies are made up of the remnants of that star. And so in some way all of us are from the same place then that we all share a common source. The molecules atoms particles energy in our body well I'm sure that many of my particles have rubbed up against yours in the previous star that went supernova and that's a nice thought to think of how we all really come from the same place. Yeah definitely and what are your thoughts on manifestation you know we have a kind of bank account with the universe where we

can make deposits with doing good things and make withdrawals by asking for things, but if you really want to manifest things, you know, ask the universe to give you nothing. And from that nothingness, everything arises. And so is there a certain because I don't know there's a lot of techniques out there, um, would you just simplify it by just saying that, or is there how else would you describe manifestation? Is there a certain technique that can also describe it in another way? I would picture this thought experiment. Imagine a soccer field, and you went out to the soccer field, and you started digging a hole. Eventually, with that hole now in the soccer field, it's only natural that the soccer ball will find its way into that hole at some point. Just at the movement of the ball throughout time, things tend to find their lowest energy state, and it takes a lot less energy to put a ball in a hole than it does to take something out of a hole. So to manifestation, to create something in your life, you first must have the space.

for it, and so holding space for something is a great way to kind of beckon the presence to feel that absence. At some point, are these like masculine and feminine principles that all imply? Well, in my experience, the masculine and feminine refer to inward and outward, that things that take you inward are considered the masculine Divine masculine, and things that express outwardly, that's the divine feminine. So yeah, take so in breath, that's masculine, and then out breath would be feminine. That's correct, that's cool. Um, and then is that how you balance those energies by having a certain way of breathing like is that, is there a way to balance your energies like that? Precisely, there is another quote from the Bhagavad Gita that talks about renouncing the in breath into the out breath and the out breath into the in breath. Our outward breath is all to do with releasing, and our inward breath has all to do with accepting. So although the breath in this case is only a symbol of something more.

metaphorical. Physically equalizing the inward and outward breath is a great way to come in touch with the spiritual breath of releasing and accepting. And I feel like coming to a close here. Maybe is there maybe one other topic that you'd like to cover real quick. Or is there anything that you would like to leave people with in general. Well, I would love to extend my gratitude to you for sharing this space with me and for hosting it for so many other beautiful souls. I imagine I'm very blessed to be here and I thank you deeply for this conversation. Yeah, thank you. And uh, where can people find you by the way. I go by yam socks. Y a M s o x on all my platforms and my link tree. L i n k T.E yam Soxs has a link to everything that I do in case viewers wanted to find out. Awesome. Well uh, thank you for coming on and sharing the wisdom and just the knowledge that you have. And um, my pleasure is and let's um and this right.

Describing Awakenings and The Experience of Nothingness with Yamsox

Expanded Minds Podcast

The Significance of Conscious Breathing and Nothingness in Meditation

Conscious breathing is a key aspect of the interviewee's daily routine, focusing on deep, cyclical breaths to connect with higher things.

The interviewee emphasizes the importance of conscious breathing in calming the nervous system and dealing with anxiety and panic attacks.

The concept of nothingness is discussed as a solution to philosophical questions, with an emphasis on the resistance towards emptiness and the spaciousness it can provide in life.

The Role of Consciousness and Negation in Self-Realization

Consciousness serves as the observer, using the objects of experience as a mirror for self-realization.

The distinction between the subject and object allows for a detachment from body and mind, leading to a spiritual transformation.

Negation is a practical tool for acquiring detachment from the world and realizing one's eternal identity, transcending the body but still acknowledging its importance in serving others.

Practicing self-observation and positive reframing can help in realizing oneself as awareness.

Different cultures and languages have varying degrees of emphasis on the self, affecting individual identity.

In the pursuit of deep awareness, some aim to transcend the self, as seen in Buddhist principles and Christian mystic teachings of "ego ungluing.

" Finding a balance between recognizing the self and externalizing the inner observer can be beneficial for self-awareness and coping with existential dread.

The Significance of Non-Dual and Dualistic Perspectives

Non-dual perspective sees truth as one, with no distinction between subject and object, while dualistic perspective creates a separation between the self and the universe.

The Western world is more inclined towards duality, while Eastern traditions such as Zen Buddhism and Hinduism follow a non-dual path.

Knowledge transmission in the non-dual path is intuitive, focusing on deconstructing what's already inside, while in the dualistic perspective, knowledge is acquired through external sources.

Swami Mukundananda is presented as a potential guru for the speaker, and the significance of a dream related to a standing qigong practice is discussed in the context of knowledge transmission.

Spiritual Dreams, Higher Knowledge, and the Practice of Devotion

Dreams of gurus imparting knowledge and teachings are not uncommon in spiritual journeys.

The concept of the void represents a glimpse of the source and the essence of the self, often leading to a sense of surrender and fear.

Different paths, such as contemplation and meditation, can be taken to reach this state of deconstruction and realization of the self within awareness.

Exploring Paths to Consciousness and Sleep

Different paths to reaching a state of consciousness and entering the void were discussed, including meditation, sleep, and the doctrine of the soul.

The concept of sleep was examined in relation to consciousness, with the idea that positively reframing situations can transform consciousness.

Reframing events in life in a positive light can help in being more alert and conscious in the present moment.

The creator uses the parallel between the seven days of the week and the seven chakras to bring diversity to their live streams.

They aim to provide a comforting space for their audience to naturally blossom and awaken, rather than using force.

The significance of mandalas lies in their radial symmetry, which symbolizes the process of meditation and drawing one's attention to the center.

The creator's thought process behind the content involves using symbolism and natural processes to create a comforting and awakening experience for their audience, incorporating the parallel between the days of the week and chakras, as well as the significance of mandalas in meditation.

They aim to provide a gentle and natural awakening experience, while also using symbolic elements to capture the audience's attention.

The Concept of Stardust and Manifestation

Our bodies are made of the remnants of a star that exploded before the existence of our sun, implying a common origin for all of us.

Manifestation is described as creating space for something in life, with the analogy of digging a hole in a soccer field to attract what is desired.

Balancing masculine and feminine energies is linked to the inward and outward breath, with the inward breath symbolizing acceptance and the outward breath representing releasing.