"The only power evil has is your fear of it."
A Treasury of Trueness, # 2038.......Vernon Howard
Communicating through Silence...
Everything in life is speaking, is audible, is communicating, in spite
of its apparent silence.
From the Teachings of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHNA
of its apparent silence.
From the Teachings of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHNA
Nothingness...
We must love our nothingness and think only of the ALL which is infinitely lovable...... St. Therese of Liseaux
Names...
You know that you are. Don't burden yourself with names, just be. Any name or shape you give yourself obscures your real nature........Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
To Awaken...
In mysticalprinciples@yahoogroups.com, "brittaiwersen"
wrote:
In order to awaken, one must first be aware that our entire personal
life-experience is mind-dream and therefore not real. This awareness
comes from the inner drawing on the deep knowledge that the only
reality
and substance of Life is Love. Our senses bear witness to a belief
in
two opposing powers. We must learn to consciously nothingize this
witness on a constant basis. In order to awaken we may not accept what
we believe to be our human reality. Everything hinges on our utter
conviction of One Power and the nature of this Power as Love. If we do
not have this conviction, we must find it within us. Once felt, we
must
learn to live from this Center, look the appearance-world straight in
the face and know it to be a suggestion in our mind without power,
substance, law, intelligence, identity, entity, reason or purpose.
Becoming still after this practice is a non-reactive state of
consciousness that waits upon the revelation of our Reality in Spirit.
The surrender of our belief in two powers extends to a surrender of a
separate "me"-identity. Within the acceptance of One, I Am realized.
"Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the
dead,
and Christ shall give thee light." (Eph 5:14) With Love, Britta
wrote:
In order to awaken, one must first be aware that our entire personal
life-experience is mind-dream and therefore not real. This awareness
comes from the inner drawing on the deep knowledge that the only
reality
and substance of Life is Love. Our senses bear witness to a belief
in
two opposing powers. We must learn to consciously nothingize this
witness on a constant basis. In order to awaken we may not accept what
we believe to be our human reality. Everything hinges on our utter
conviction of One Power and the nature of this Power as Love. If we do
not have this conviction, we must find it within us. Once felt, we
must
learn to live from this Center, look the appearance-world straight in
the face and know it to be a suggestion in our mind without power,
substance, law, intelligence, identity, entity, reason or purpose.
Becoming still after this practice is a non-reactive state of
consciousness that waits upon the revelation of our Reality in Spirit.
The surrender of our belief in two powers extends to a surrender of a
separate "me"-identity. Within the acceptance of One, I Am realized.
"Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the
dead,
and Christ shall give thee light." (Eph 5:14) With Love, Britta
Nothing is Mine...
Nothing is really mine except Krishna.
O my parents, I have searched the world
And found nothing worthy of love.
Hence I am a stranger amidst my kinfolk
And an exile from their company,
Since I seek the companionship of holy men;
There alone do I feel happy,
In the world I only weep.
I planted the creeper of love
And silently watered it with my tears;
Now it has grown and overspread my dwelling.
You offered me a cup of poison
Which I drank with joy.
Mira is absorbed in contemplation of Krishna,
She is with God and all is well!
by Mirabai
O my parents, I have searched the world
And found nothing worthy of love.
Hence I am a stranger amidst my kinfolk
And an exile from their company,
Since I seek the companionship of holy men;
There alone do I feel happy,
In the world I only weep.
I planted the creeper of love
And silently watered it with my tears;
Now it has grown and overspread my dwelling.
You offered me a cup of poison
Which I drank with joy.
Mira is absorbed in contemplation of Krishna,
She is with God and all is well!
by Mirabai
Contemplation...
"Contemplation is more than a consideration of abstract truths about God, more even than affective meditation on the things we believe. It is awakening, enlightenment and the amazing intuitive grasp by which love gains certitude of God's creative and dynamic intervention in our daily life. Hence contemplation does not simply "find" a clear idea of God and confine Him within the limits of that idea, and holds Him there as a prisoner to Whom it can always return. On the contrary, contemplation is carried away by Him into His own realm, His own mystery and His own freedom. It is a pure and virginal knowledge, poor in concepts, poorer still in reasoning, but able, but its very poverty and purity, to follow the Word "wherever He may go."
Thomas Merton. New Seeds of Contemplation. New York: New Directions Press, 1961: 5.
Thomas Merton. New Seeds of Contemplation. New York: New Directions Press, 1961: 5.
I Am You...
Those
who realize
true wisdom
rapt within
this clear awareness
see Me as
the universe's origin
Imperishable.
All their words and all their actions
issue from the depths of worship,
held in my embrace they know Me
as a woman knows her lover.
Creatures rise and creatures vanish;
I alone Am Real, Arjuna,
looking out, amused, from deep
within the eyes of every creature.
I Am the object of all knowledge,
Father of the world, its Mother,
Source of all things, of impure and
pure, of holiness and horror.
I Am the goal, the root, the witness,
home and refuge, dearest friend,
creation and annihilation,
everlasting seed and treasure.
I Am the radiance of the sun,
I open or withhold the rainclouds,
I Am immortality and
death, Am being and non-being.
I Am the Self, Arjuna, seated
in the heart of every creature.
I Am the Origin, the Middle,
And the End that all must come to.
Those who worship Me sincerely
with their minds and bodies, giving
up their whole lives in devotion,
find in Me their heart’s fulfillment.
Even those who do no know Me,
if their actions are straightforward,
just, and loving, venerate Me
with the truest kind of worship.
All your thoughts, all your actions,
all your fears and disappointments,
offer them to Me, clear-hearted;
know them all as passing visions.
Thus you free yourself from bondage,
from both good and evil karma;
through your non attachment, you
embody Me, in utter freedom.
I Am justice: clear, impartial,
favoring no one, hating no one.
but in those who have cured themselves
of selfishness, I shine with brilliance.
Even murderers and rapists,
tyrants, the most cruel fanatics,
ultimately know redemption
through My love, if they surrender
to My harsh but healing graces.
passing through excruciating
transformations, they find freedom
and their hearts find peace within them.
I Am always with all beings;
I abandon no one. And
however great your inner darkness,
you are never separate from Me.
Let your thoughts flow past you, calmly;
keep Me near, at every moment;
trust Me with your life, because:
I Am you, more than you yourself are.
- The Bhagavat Gita: The Song Celestial
who realize
true wisdom
rapt within
this clear awareness
see Me as
the universe's origin
Imperishable.
All their words and all their actions
issue from the depths of worship,
held in my embrace they know Me
as a woman knows her lover.
Creatures rise and creatures vanish;
I alone Am Real, Arjuna,
looking out, amused, from deep
within the eyes of every creature.
I Am the object of all knowledge,
Father of the world, its Mother,
Source of all things, of impure and
pure, of holiness and horror.
I Am the goal, the root, the witness,
home and refuge, dearest friend,
creation and annihilation,
everlasting seed and treasure.
I Am the radiance of the sun,
I open or withhold the rainclouds,
I Am immortality and
death, Am being and non-being.
I Am the Self, Arjuna, seated
in the heart of every creature.
I Am the Origin, the Middle,
And the End that all must come to.
Those who worship Me sincerely
with their minds and bodies, giving
up their whole lives in devotion,
find in Me their heart’s fulfillment.
Even those who do no know Me,
if their actions are straightforward,
just, and loving, venerate Me
with the truest kind of worship.
All your thoughts, all your actions,
all your fears and disappointments,
offer them to Me, clear-hearted;
know them all as passing visions.
Thus you free yourself from bondage,
from both good and evil karma;
through your non attachment, you
embody Me, in utter freedom.
I Am justice: clear, impartial,
favoring no one, hating no one.
but in those who have cured themselves
of selfishness, I shine with brilliance.
Even murderers and rapists,
tyrants, the most cruel fanatics,
ultimately know redemption
through My love, if they surrender
to My harsh but healing graces.
passing through excruciating
transformations, they find freedom
and their hearts find peace within them.
I Am always with all beings;
I abandon no one. And
however great your inner darkness,
you are never separate from Me.
Let your thoughts flow past you, calmly;
keep Me near, at every moment;
trust Me with your life, because:
I Am you, more than you yourself are.
- The Bhagavat Gita: The Song Celestial
Self-Pity...
Self-pity is the worst poverty; it overwhelms man until he sees
nothing but illness, trouble and pain.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
If one studies one's surroundings one finds that those who are happy
are so because they have less thought of self. If they are unhappy it
is because they think of themselves too much. A person is more
bearable when he thinks less of himself. And a person is unbearable
when he is always thinking of himself. There are many miseries in
life, but the greatest misery is self-pity.
Man is mostly selfish, and what interests him is that which concerns
his own life. Not knowing the troubles of the lives of others he
feels the burden of his own life even more than the burden of the
whole world. If only man in his poverty could think that there are
others who are poorer than he, in his illness that there are others
whose sufferings are perhaps greater than his, in his troubles that
there are others whose difficulties are perhaps greater than his!
Self-pity is the worst poverty. It overwhelms man and he sees nothing
but his own troubles and pains, and it seems to him that he is the
most unhappy person in the world, more so than anyone else.
A great thinker of Persia, Sa'di, writes in an account of his
life, 'Once I had no shoes, I had to walk barefoot in the hot sand,
and how miserable I was. Then I met a man who was lame, for whom
walking was very difficult. I bowed down to heaven at once and
offered thanks that I was much better off than he who had not even
feet to walk upon.' This shows that it is not a man's situation in
life, but his attitude towards life that makes him happy or
unhappy. ...
When Jesus Christ said, 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God,' this
teaching was an answer to the cry of humanity: some crying, 'I have
no wealth,' others crying, 'I have no rest,' others crying, 'My
situation in life is difficult,' My friends are troubling me,' or, 'I
want a position, wealth.' The answer to them all is, 'Seek ye first
the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.
nothing but illness, trouble and pain.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
If one studies one's surroundings one finds that those who are happy
are so because they have less thought of self. If they are unhappy it
is because they think of themselves too much. A person is more
bearable when he thinks less of himself. And a person is unbearable
when he is always thinking of himself. There are many miseries in
life, but the greatest misery is self-pity.
Man is mostly selfish, and what interests him is that which concerns
his own life. Not knowing the troubles of the lives of others he
feels the burden of his own life even more than the burden of the
whole world. If only man in his poverty could think that there are
others who are poorer than he, in his illness that there are others
whose sufferings are perhaps greater than his, in his troubles that
there are others whose difficulties are perhaps greater than his!
Self-pity is the worst poverty. It overwhelms man and he sees nothing
but his own troubles and pains, and it seems to him that he is the
most unhappy person in the world, more so than anyone else.
A great thinker of Persia, Sa'di, writes in an account of his
life, 'Once I had no shoes, I had to walk barefoot in the hot sand,
and how miserable I was. Then I met a man who was lame, for whom
walking was very difficult. I bowed down to heaven at once and
offered thanks that I was much better off than he who had not even
feet to walk upon.' This shows that it is not a man's situation in
life, but his attitude towards life that makes him happy or
unhappy. ...
When Jesus Christ said, 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God,' this
teaching was an answer to the cry of humanity: some crying, 'I have
no wealth,' others crying, 'I have no rest,' others crying, 'My
situation in life is difficult,' My friends are troubling me,' or, 'I
want a position, wealth.' The answer to them all is, 'Seek ye first
the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.
The Present Moment...
The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.........Gautama the Buddha
Let Go and Grow Happy...
You can spend your time struggling, in vain, to make others into what you want them to be, or you can see the inherent flaw in thinking this way, and -- rather than trying to change others to suit your needs -- see through the false idea that someone else is responsible for your fulfillment.
You can let go of those resentful feelings toward your job, because the treadmill isn't what you are doing but the way you are thinking.
You can let go of trying to change other people, because you are what is bothering you about them.
You can let go of the fear of unforeseen changes or challenges, because all you really ever have to face in any challenging moment is yourself.
Best of all, you can let go of the impossible and unbelievably self-punishing task of thinking that you are responsible for the way the world turns. The only world you are responsible for is your inner world: the world of your thoughts and feelings, impulses and desires.
You are always right where you need to be to take the next step beyond yourself.
-- Guy Finley
You can let go of those resentful feelings toward your job, because the treadmill isn't what you are doing but the way you are thinking.
You can let go of trying to change other people, because you are what is bothering you about them.
You can let go of the fear of unforeseen changes or challenges, because all you really ever have to face in any challenging moment is yourself.
Best of all, you can let go of the impossible and unbelievably self-punishing task of thinking that you are responsible for the way the world turns. The only world you are responsible for is your inner world: the world of your thoughts and feelings, impulses and desires.
You are always right where you need to be to take the next step beyond yourself.
-- Guy Finley
The Self of All...
That self is empty like space; but it is not nothingness, since it is consciousness. It is: yet because it cannot be experienced by the
mind and senses, it is not. It being the self of all, it is not experienced
(as the object of experience) by anyone. Though one, it is reflected in the infinite atoms of existence and hence appears to be many. This appearance is however unreal... But the self is not unreal. It is not a void or nothingness: for it is the self of all...
~Vasishtha
mind and senses, it is not. It being the self of all, it is not experienced
(as the object of experience) by anyone. Though one, it is reflected in the infinite atoms of existence and hence appears to be many. This appearance is however unreal... But the self is not unreal. It is not a void or nothingness: for it is the self of all...
~Vasishtha
A discourse on ecstatic possibility of true happiness ...
Under the chosen tree in garden, the master and his disciple, Mumtahina is sitting facing each other. They have been sitting in silence for such long that the disciple has lost track of time. Only sound of deep breathing. Even the birds in the garden are also observing a mysterious silence at this hour.
The masters glance is now withdrawn, his eyes closed. Following the trail of the silence of the master, the student observe the same. No permission in this path to speak before the master. The master always teaches, 'those who don't know adab or proper manner with people, shall be deprived of the holy vision in the court of the Most Majestic King which requires observing and embodying the greatest impeccable manner'. 'Adab is the beginning and adab is the end of the journey' as taught in this school of love.
From the dervish quarters a faint voice appear to the garden space. someone is reciting the Quran. "O ye who believe! Raise not your voices above the voice of the Prophet, nor speak aloud to him in talk, as ye may speak aloud to one another, lest your deeds become vain and ye perceive not." a deep sigh comes from the master. The light and shadow through the spaces of the leaves above, makes intricate patterns on the rising and falling chest of the master. The sigh become visible. Silence again.
After an unknown amount of time the master still with his eyes shut, open his lips.
"Mumtahina, pay attention". he speak in a clear voice.
"What we call soul, the ruh is what our spiritual brothers in ancient land of India calls Atma. What is the meaning of atma?"
A brief pause and as if the question was directed to no-one, the master continues to speak: "Atma means the soul of man as joy itself. Know and remember that well."
Again a brief pause and with voice raised than usual the master calls out, 'Al-laaaaaaaaah'.
"True joy, true peace is the default condition of our soul. Every moment of this human life the field of ecstatic possibility of true joy is always present. As long as there is breathing, life is a sacred dance. Life and love come from Allah and raise every soul till it dances.
True happiness is in love, and love is given to inspire divine love in the heart of man. All the beauty that man sees on earth is beauty created by the power of love, and by the power of love he learns to recognize it as a reflection of original love that brought forth this entire creation in the timeless beginning.
The water which washes the heart is the continual running of the love-stream. True happiness is in love, which is the stream that springs from one's soul. He who will allow this stream to run continually in all conditions of life, in all situations, however difficult, will have a happiness which truly belongs to him.
In its pure condition human soul is true peace itself, and when it is without peace and joy its natural condition is changed: then it start to depend upon the names and forms of the earth and is deprived of the dance of the soul. Don't let yourself fall back there.
When that cloud of sorrow comes upon your soul, put all your confidence and trust back to Allah. Do not stay under that cloud of depression and despair, come out of it. Absence of realization keeps the soul in despair. When such shadow appear, pay no heed to these passing clouds and never be hypnotized by them, but throw everything away and surrender deeply to God. No human soul is ever left unguarded and when you invoke God's help sincerely, divine breath-wind shall arrive immediately and scatter all the clouds faster than you know. Re-orient your whole intention, purify your intentions in every actions and hold fast singularly to confidence on God. Tawakkul-Allah Mumtahina, Tawakkul-Allah (trust in God). Have trust like a new born in the arms of its mother. That shall suffice to re-enter into the field of ecstatic possibility of true peace and happiness, Mumtahina and may Allah guide your heart to Truth."
The Quran reciter from the dervish quarter ends his recitation with: "Verily Allah knows the secrets of the heavens and the earth"
The master gets up, giving indication that the discourse has come to an end for today...........from Mysticsaint.blogspot.com
The masters glance is now withdrawn, his eyes closed. Following the trail of the silence of the master, the student observe the same. No permission in this path to speak before the master. The master always teaches, 'those who don't know adab or proper manner with people, shall be deprived of the holy vision in the court of the Most Majestic King which requires observing and embodying the greatest impeccable manner'. 'Adab is the beginning and adab is the end of the journey' as taught in this school of love.
From the dervish quarters a faint voice appear to the garden space. someone is reciting the Quran. "O ye who believe! Raise not your voices above the voice of the Prophet, nor speak aloud to him in talk, as ye may speak aloud to one another, lest your deeds become vain and ye perceive not." a deep sigh comes from the master. The light and shadow through the spaces of the leaves above, makes intricate patterns on the rising and falling chest of the master. The sigh become visible. Silence again.
After an unknown amount of time the master still with his eyes shut, open his lips.
"Mumtahina, pay attention". he speak in a clear voice.
"What we call soul, the ruh is what our spiritual brothers in ancient land of India calls Atma. What is the meaning of atma?"
A brief pause and as if the question was directed to no-one, the master continues to speak: "Atma means the soul of man as joy itself. Know and remember that well."
Again a brief pause and with voice raised than usual the master calls out, 'Al-laaaaaaaaah'.
"True joy, true peace is the default condition of our soul. Every moment of this human life the field of ecstatic possibility of true joy is always present. As long as there is breathing, life is a sacred dance. Life and love come from Allah and raise every soul till it dances.
True happiness is in love, and love is given to inspire divine love in the heart of man. All the beauty that man sees on earth is beauty created by the power of love, and by the power of love he learns to recognize it as a reflection of original love that brought forth this entire creation in the timeless beginning.
The water which washes the heart is the continual running of the love-stream. True happiness is in love, which is the stream that springs from one's soul. He who will allow this stream to run continually in all conditions of life, in all situations, however difficult, will have a happiness which truly belongs to him.
In its pure condition human soul is true peace itself, and when it is without peace and joy its natural condition is changed: then it start to depend upon the names and forms of the earth and is deprived of the dance of the soul. Don't let yourself fall back there.
When that cloud of sorrow comes upon your soul, put all your confidence and trust back to Allah. Do not stay under that cloud of depression and despair, come out of it. Absence of realization keeps the soul in despair. When such shadow appear, pay no heed to these passing clouds and never be hypnotized by them, but throw everything away and surrender deeply to God. No human soul is ever left unguarded and when you invoke God's help sincerely, divine breath-wind shall arrive immediately and scatter all the clouds faster than you know. Re-orient your whole intention, purify your intentions in every actions and hold fast singularly to confidence on God. Tawakkul-Allah Mumtahina, Tawakkul-Allah (trust in God). Have trust like a new born in the arms of its mother. That shall suffice to re-enter into the field of ecstatic possibility of true peace and happiness, Mumtahina and may Allah guide your heart to Truth."
The Quran reciter from the dervish quarter ends his recitation with: "Verily Allah knows the secrets of the heavens and the earth"
The master gets up, giving indication that the discourse has come to an end for today...........from Mysticsaint.blogspot.com
Self Observation...
"Self-Observation is not thinking about yourself. There is a world
of difference. Self-preoccupation is like grabbing and wrestling
with a tiger. Self-Observation is like quietly watching the tiger
walk by.
Why are we emphasizing this? it is the very key to liberating
self-knowledge. It enables us to see ourselves as we really are,
not as we imagine ourselves to be. Upon that realistic foundation,
we build a new self; and, great news, when we are different, things
are different."
The Mystic Path To Cosmic Power, p. 33...Vernon Howard
of difference. Self-preoccupation is like grabbing and wrestling
with a tiger. Self-Observation is like quietly watching the tiger
walk by.
Why are we emphasizing this? it is the very key to liberating
self-knowledge. It enables us to see ourselves as we really are,
not as we imagine ourselves to be. Upon that realistic foundation,
we build a new self; and, great news, when we are different, things
are different."
The Mystic Path To Cosmic Power, p. 33...Vernon Howard
I have been...
I have been all things unholy. If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.
St. Francis of Assisi
St. Francis of Assisi
Presence...
Presence.
Just - Presence.
You are present and aware.
"Feel into" this presence that you are.
Do not imagine anything, just feel into it.
It is not an object, yet it contains all apparent objects.
It is not a subject, yet it contains all apparent subjects.
It has no specific qualities, yet it contains all qualities equally.
Simple presence.
The Ultimate Reality is That.
It is thoughtless, yet it contains all thought.
It is not imaginary, yet it contains all imagination.
Presence.
"I am Presence and nothing other than That."
- Gilbert Schultz
Just - Presence.
You are present and aware.
"Feel into" this presence that you are.
Do not imagine anything, just feel into it.
It is not an object, yet it contains all apparent objects.
It is not a subject, yet it contains all apparent subjects.
It has no specific qualities, yet it contains all qualities equally.
Simple presence.
The Ultimate Reality is That.
It is thoughtless, yet it contains all thought.
It is not imaginary, yet it contains all imagination.
Presence.
"I am Presence and nothing other than That."
- Gilbert Schultz
Consciousness Itself...
It is the consciousness itself that has involved a part of itself in
its creation, while a part remains as Creator, as water frozen turns
into ice and yet water abides within.
From the Teachings of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
its creation, while a part remains as Creator, as water frozen turns
into ice and yet water abides within.
From the Teachings of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Jesus in Lassa. He meets Meng-ste who aids him in reading the ancient manuscripts.
IN Lassa of Tibet there was a master's temple, rich in manuscripts of ancient lore. 2 The Indian sage had read these manuscripts, and he revealed to Jesus many of the secret lessons they contained; but Jesus wished to read them for himself. 3 Now, Meng-ste, greatest sage of all the farther East, was in this temple of Tibet. 4 The path across Emodus heights was difficult; but Jesus started on his way, and Vidyapati sent with him a trusted guide. 5 And Vidyapati sent a message to Meng-ste, in which he told about the Hebrew sage, and spoke for him a welcome by the temple priests. 6 Now, after many days, and perils great, the guide and Jesus reached the Lassa temple in Tibet. 7 And Meng-ste opened wide the temple doors, and all the priests and masters gave a welcome to the Hebrew sage. 8 And Jesus had access to all the sacred manuscripts, and, with the help of Meng- ste, read them all. 9 And Meng-ste often talked with Jesus of the coming age, and of the sacred service best adapted to the people of the age. 10 In Lassa Jesus did not teach. When he finished all his studies in the temple schools he journeyed toward the West. In many villages he tarried for a time and taught. 11 At last he reached the pass, and in the Ladak city, Leh, he was received with favour by the monks, the merchants, and the men of low estate. 12 And in the monastery he abode, and taught; and then he sought the common people in the marts of trade; and there he taught. 13 Not far away a woman lived, whose infant son was sick nigh unto death. The doctors had declared, There is no hope; the child must die. 14 The woman heard that Jesus was a teacher sent from God, and she believed that he had power to heal her son. 15 And so she clasped the dying infant in her arms and ran with haste and asked to see the man of God. 16 When Jesus saw her faith he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, 17 My Father-God, let power divine o'ershadow me, and let the Holy Breath fill full this child that it may live. 18 And in the presence of the multitude he laid his hand upon the child and said, 19 Good woman you are blest; your faith has saved your son. And then the child was well. 20 The people were astonished and they said, This surely is the Holy One made flesh, for man alone cannot a fever thus and save a child from death. 21 Then many of the people brought their sick, and Jesus spoke the Word, and they were healed. 22 Among the Ladaks Jesus tarried many days; he taught them how to heal; how sins are blotted out, and how to make on earth a heaven of joy. 23 The people loved him for his words and works, and when he must depart they grieved as children grieve when mother goes away. 24 And on the morning when he started on his way the multitudes were there to press his hand. 25 To them he spoke a parable; he said, A certain king so loved the people of his land that he sent forth his only son with precious gifts for all. 26 The son went everywhere and scattered forth the gifts with lavish hand. 27 But there were priests who ministered at shrines of foreign gods, who were not pleased because the king did not through them bestow the gifts. 28 And so they sought to cause the people all to hate the son. They said, These gifts are not of any worth; they are but counterfeits. 29 And so the people threw the precious gems, and gold and silver in the streets. They caught the son and beat him, spit upon him, drove him from their midst. 30 The son resented not their insults and their cruelties; but thus he prayed, My Father-God, forgive these creatures of thy hand; they are but slaves; they know not what they do. 31 And while they yet were beating him he gave them food, and blest them with a boundless love. 32 In certain cities was the son received with joy, and he would gladly have remained to bless the homes; but he could tarry not, for he must carry gifts to every one in all the king's domain. 33 And Jesus said, My Father-God is king of all mankind, and he has sent me forth with all the bounties of his matchless love and boundless wealth. 34 To all the people of all lands, lo, I must bear these gifts--this water and this bread of life. 35 I go my way, but we will meet again; for in my Fatherland is room for all; I will prepare a place for you. 36 And Jesus raised his hand in silent benediction; then he went his way........From the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ..
ACQUIRING TRANSCENDENTAL KNOWLEDGE...
Acquiring transcendental knowledge is superior to any material sacrifice ¾ such as giving charity. Because, purification of mind and intellect that eventually leads to the dawn of transcendental knowledge and Self-realization is the sole purpose of any spiritual action. (4.33)
Acquire this transcendental knowledge from a Self-realized master by humble reverence, by sincere inquiry, and by service. The empowered ones, who have realized the Truth, will teach you. (4.34)
After knowing the transcendental science, O Arjuna, you shall not again become deluded like this. With this knowledge you shall see the entire creation within your own higher Self, and thus within Me. (See also 6.29, 6.30, 11.07, 11.13) (4.35)
Even if one is the most sinful of all sinners, one shall yet cross over the ocean of sin by the raft of Self-knowledge alone. (4.36)
As the blazing fire reduces wood to ashes; similarly, the fire of Self-knowledge reduces all bonds of Karma to ashes, O Arjuna. (4.37)...........the Bhagavad gita
Acquire this transcendental knowledge from a Self-realized master by humble reverence, by sincere inquiry, and by service. The empowered ones, who have realized the Truth, will teach you. (4.34)
After knowing the transcendental science, O Arjuna, you shall not again become deluded like this. With this knowledge you shall see the entire creation within your own higher Self, and thus within Me. (See also 6.29, 6.30, 11.07, 11.13) (4.35)
Even if one is the most sinful of all sinners, one shall yet cross over the ocean of sin by the raft of Self-knowledge alone. (4.36)
As the blazing fire reduces wood to ashes; similarly, the fire of Self-knowledge reduces all bonds of Karma to ashes, O Arjuna. (4.37)...........the Bhagavad gita
Peace...Be Still...Know That You Are God...
It is only after we begin the practice of secret prayer that we learn the efficacy of true prayer and begin to observe the changes that take place in our lives when we have periods every day for retiring to some quiet place where we can enter into a peaceful Silence, and there in secrecy commune with God. The Master taught that our prayers must be addressed to the Father that is within us, and there is no way to reach that center where God is except when we are quiet, peaceful, and serene within. So it becomes necessary to go into the closet, close the door of the sanctuary, and shut out the sounds and sights of the senses that we may touch that Center. Every thought that takes place within our consciousness reaches the throne of God and returns to us. It does not have to be seen or heard. There is only one way in which it can be measured~ it must be sacred and unselfish:
Right here within my own being is the Father, and this Father knows what thoughts I have; this Father knows the meditations of my heart; this Father knows whether I act from a standpoint of purity or from self-interest and hypocrisy.
Within us are the issues of life, and they are decided there. Within us is the entire kingdom of God. That means that within us is the entire kingdom of immortality, eternality, virtue, prosperity, harmony, health, wholeness, completeness, and fulfillment. In our human selfhood, we can never bring that forth because as a human being we are living in terms of effect and not cause, but when a human being learns to make contact with his Source, he is then drawing on the Invisible and is back in Eden.
~ Joel S. Goldsmith, The Thunder of Silence
Right here within my own being is the Father, and this Father knows what thoughts I have; this Father knows the meditations of my heart; this Father knows whether I act from a standpoint of purity or from self-interest and hypocrisy.
Within us are the issues of life, and they are decided there. Within us is the entire kingdom of God. That means that within us is the entire kingdom of immortality, eternality, virtue, prosperity, harmony, health, wholeness, completeness, and fulfillment. In our human selfhood, we can never bring that forth because as a human being we are living in terms of effect and not cause, but when a human being learns to make contact with his Source, he is then drawing on the Invisible and is back in Eden.
~ Joel S. Goldsmith, The Thunder of Silence
THE CLEVEREST SEEK GOD~
He's the cleverest, who finds God.
He's the cleverest, who gives time to find God.
He's the cleverest, who finds that supreme happiness within.
And he who can stand unshaken amidst the crash of breaking worlds,
He whose peace, the riches of peace cannot be taken away by all
the robbers of circumstances and trials.
And so this spiritual family, you all remind me by your actions
Of One whom millions forget, and that's why they suffer.
(Paramahansa Yogananda, `Beholding the One in All')
He's the cleverest, who gives time to find God.
He's the cleverest, who finds that supreme happiness within.
And he who can stand unshaken amidst the crash of breaking worlds,
He whose peace, the riches of peace cannot be taken away by all
the robbers of circumstances and trials.
And so this spiritual family, you all remind me by your actions
Of One whom millions forget, and that's why they suffer.
(Paramahansa Yogananda, `Beholding the One in All')
The Illuminate...
The illuminate sees objects as other persons do, only his sense of materiality is destroyed, for he sees them too as ideas, unreal. The illuminate's viewpoint is not the yogi's viewpoint. The illuminate finds all the world in himself, says the Gita. This means he feels sympathetically at one with all creatures, even mosquitoes or snakes..........Paul Brunton
Now you know Me...
At a court banquet, everyone was sitting according to their rank,
waiting for the king to appear. A simply dressed man came in and took
a seat above everyone else. The prime minister demanded that he
identify himself.
"Are you the adviser of a great king?"
"No, I rank above a royal adviser."
"Are you a prime minsiter?"
"No, I outrank a prime minister."
"Are you a king in disguise?"
"No, I am above that rank as well."
"Then you must be God," the prime minister said sarcastically.
"No, I am above that."
"There is nothing above God!" shouted the prime minister.
The stranger replied calmly, "Now you know me. That nothing is
me."
Traditional
ac collected by James Fadiman & Robert Frager
waiting for the king to appear. A simply dressed man came in and took
a seat above everyone else. The prime minister demanded that he
identify himself.
"Are you the adviser of a great king?"
"No, I rank above a royal adviser."
"Are you a prime minsiter?"
"No, I outrank a prime minister."
"Are you a king in disguise?"
"No, I am above that rank as well."
"Then you must be God," the prime minister said sarcastically.
"No, I am above that."
"There is nothing above God!" shouted the prime minister.
The stranger replied calmly, "Now you know me. That nothing is
me."
Traditional
ac collected by James Fadiman & Robert Frager
Douglas Harding and the Simple Way of No-thing-like Headlessness...
Excerpts from On Having No Head
(first published in 1961, available in different reprint editions since then. Emphases added to the original text are given by Timothy Conway in italics).
The best day of my life—my re-birthday, so to speak—was when I found I had no head. This is not a literary gambit, a witticism designed to arouse interest at any cost. I mean it in all seriousness: I have no head.
It was eighteen years ago [circa 1942], when I was thirty-three, that I made the discovery. Though it certainly came out of the blue, it did so in response to an urgent enquiry; I had for several months been absorbed in the question: "What am I?" The fact that I happened to be walking in the Himalayas at the time probably had little to do with it; though in that country, unusual states of mind are said to come more easily. However that may be, a very still clear day, and a view from the ridge where I stood, over misty blue valleys to the highest mountain range in the world, with Kangchenjunga and Everest unprominent among its snow-peaks, made a setting worthy of the grandest vision.
What actually happened was something absurdly simple and unspectacular: I stopped thinking. A peculiar quiet, an odd kind of alert limpness or numbness, came over me. Reason and imagination and all mental chatter died down. For once, words really failed me. Past and future dropped away. I forgot who and what I was, my name, manhood, animal-hood, all that could be called mine. It was if I had been born that instant, brand new, mindless, innocent of all memories. There existed only the Now, that present moment, and what was clearly given in it. To look was enough. And what I found was khaki trouser-legs terminating downwards in a pair of brown shoes, khaki sleeves terminating sideways in a pair of pink hands, and a khaki shirtfront terminating upwards in—absolutely nothing whatever! Certainly not in a head.
It took me no time at all to notice that this nothing, this hole where a head should have been, was no ordinary vacancy, no mere nothing. On the contrary, it was very much occupied. It was a vast emptiness vastly filled, a nothing that found room for everything—room for grass, trees, shadowy distant hills, and far above them snow-peaks like a row of angular clouds riding the blue sky. I had lost a head and gained a world.
It was all, quite literally, breathtaking. I seemed to stop breathing altogether, absorbed in the Given. Here it was, this superb scene, brightly shining in the clear air, alone and unsupported, mysteriously suspended in the void, and (and this was the real miracle, the wonder and delight) utterly free of "me," unstained by any observer. Its total presence was my total absence, body and soul. Lighter than air, clearer than glass, altogether released from myself, I was nowhere around.
Yet in spite of the magical and uncanny quality of this vision, it was no dream, no esoteric revelation. Quite the reverse: it felt like a sudden waking from the sleep of ordinary life, and end to dreaming. It was self-luminous reality for once swept clean of all obscuring mind. It was the revelation, at long last, of the perfectly obvious. It was a lucid moment in a confused life-history. It was a ceasing to ignore something which, (since early childhood at any rate) I had always been too busy or too clever to see. It was naked, uncritical attention to what had all along been staring me in the face—my utter facelessness. In short, it was all perfectly simple and plain and straightforward, beyond argument, thought, and words. There arose no questions, no reference beyond the experience itself, but only peace and a quiet joy, and the sensation of having dropped an intolerable burden. […]
Zen Buddhism has the reputation of being difficult …, and almost impossibly so for Westerners, who for this reason are often advised to stick to their own religious tradition if they can. My own experience has been exactly the other way round. At last, after more than a decade of largely fruitless searching everywhere else, I found in the words of the Zen masters many echoes of the central experience of my life: they talked my language, spoke to my condition. Many of these masters, I found, had not only lost their heads (as we all have) but were vividly aware of their condition and its immense significance, and used every device to bring their disciples to the same realization […]
Hui-neng (637-712), the Sixth Patriarch of Zen, counseled his brother-monk Ming, to stop all his craving and cogitation, and see: "See what at this very moment your own face looks like—the face you had before you were born." It is recorded that Ming thereupon discovered within himself that fundamental reason of all things, which hitherto he had sought outside. Now he understood everything, and found himself bathed in tears and sweat. Saluting the Patriarch, he asked what other secrets remained. "In what I have shown you," replied Hui-neng, "there is nothing hidden. If you look within and recognize your own 'original face,' secrecy is in you."
Hui-neng's "original face" is the best known and for many the most helpful of all Zen anecdotes: over the centuries in China it is said to have proved a uniquely effective pointer to enlightenment. Mumon (13th C.) has this comment:
You cannot describe it or draw it,
You cannot praise it fully or perceive it.
No place can be found in which to put the original face;
It will not disappear even when the universe is destroyed…
As an aid to such a realization, Bodhidharma, the First Patriarch of Zen, is said to have prescribed a good hammer-blow on the back of the head. Tai-hui (1089-1163) was equally uncompromising: "This matter (Zen) is like a great mass of fire: when you approach it your face is sure to be scorched. It is again like a sword about to be drawn; when it is once out of the scabbard, someone is sure to lose his life. . .The precious vajra [diamond] sword is right here and its purpose is to cut off the head." Indeed this beheading was a common topic of conversation between Zen master and pupil. For instance, this 9th century exchange: Lung-ya: "If I threatened to cut off your head with the sharpest sword in the world,what would you do?" The master pulled in his head. Lung-ya: "Your head is off!" The master smiled.
Evidently master and pupil, both headless, understood each other well. How well, also, they would have understood the advice of the Muslim Jalalu'l-Din Rumi, Persia's greatest mystical poet (1207-1273): "Behead yourself!" "Dissolve your whole body into Vision: become seeing, seeing, seeing!"
"Mind and body dropped off!" exclaims Dogen (1200-1253) in an ecstasy of release "Dropped off!" "Dropped off! This state must be experienced by you all; it is like piling fruit into a basket without a bottom, it is like pouring water into a bowl with a hole in it." "All of a sudden you find your mind and body wiped out of existence," says Hakuin (1685-1768): "This is what is known as letting go your hold. As you regain your breath it is like drinking water and knowing it is cold. It is joy inexpressible."
All agree that the distinction between mind and body, subject and object, knower and known, is abolished in the great Mirror-Void; seeing into one's self-nature is seeing into nothingness, into no-soul, no-mind, no-body; and this seeing is the never-failing delight and solace, far surpassing all earthly happiness.
[The eminent Zen scholar and adept, Dr. Daisetsu Teitaro] Suzuki himself puts the matter in a nutshell for us: "To Zen, incarnation is excarnation; the flesh is no-flesh; here-now equals emptiness (sunyata) and infinity."
Outside Zen, it is not easy to find statements quite so clear, and so free from religiosity, as this. However, parallels can be found in other religious traditions, as soon as one searches for them. And this is only to be expected: the essential vision must transcend the accidents of history and geography.
Inevitably the closest parallel is to be found in India, the original home of Buddhism. Sankara [8th century] the great Sage and interpreter of Advaita or absolute nonduality, taught that a man has no hope of liberation till he ceases to identify himself with the body, which is a mere illusion born of ignorance: his real Self is like space, unattached, pure, infinite. Confusing the unreal body with this real Self is bondage and misery. This doctrine still survives in India. Its last great exemplar, Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950), would say to enquirers: "Till now you seriously considered yourself to be the body and to have a form. That is the primal ignorance which is the root cause of all trouble."
Even Christianity … sometimes admits that genuine illumination must dispel the dark opacity of our bodies no less than of our soul. "When thine eye is single," said Jesus mysteriously, "thy whole body also is full of light." This single eye is surely a Hebrew version of the precious third eye of Indian mysticism, which enables the Seer to look within at his absolutely pure and luminous nature, his original face… And, St. Bernard (1091-1153) says: "It is no merely human joy to lose oneself like this, to be so emptied of oneself as though one almost ceased to be at all; it is the bliss of heaven … To become thus is to be deified… How otherwise could God be 'all in all,' if anything of man remained in man?" […]
Certainly it was interesting, later on, to find that Ramana Maharshi always advocated self-enquiry as the one infallible and direct means of liberation. He taught that as soon as we start asking the question "Who am I?" the process of inner transformation is set up, though its end—involving complete detachment of the Self from the body—may be long delayed. Again, it was particularly interesting to learn that the essence of Zen training is earnest enquiry into one's self-nature….
I do believe that if we Westerners, instead of feebly abandoning our peculiar objectivity, our freedom from pious axes to grind, were to push it to the limit, we should find ourselves at the heart of Zen. However that may be, it is clear that most of us do not, in fact, begin by asking what we are. More often it is unhappiness which drives us to look for help from a particular religion, whose teachings must then be learned, understood, and applied. Enquiry into the religion comes first; enquiry into the self comes later, as a part of instruction and practice, with a view to spiritual growth and the end of suffering.
Though it has obvious practical advantages, this specifically religious approach is, again, clearly not free from impure motives. Of course it is only sensible to desire to suffer less, and for that reason to discipline body and mind; it is the noblest of ambitions to desire the end of all suffering and the attainment of Nirvana, and for that reason to meditate systematically upon such prescribed topics as one's self-nature, using the prescribed techniques. Thousands of years of profound experience are gathered up in this precious store of practical wisdom, and if we will profit by it ultimate success is no doubt assured. True enough: only it is necessary at once to add that this success is failure, the defeat of all ambition (which, however spiritual, is still ambition); it is the realization that there is nothing to be achieved, that all is well here and now, that we have never for an instant left the goal we are striving to reach one day. Our bondage is not failure to win our liberation, but to SEE it. In fact, it is our aim that stands in the way of its realization; it is our anxiety to arrive at perfection in the unreal and unrealizable future, which hides the Perfection which is at this very moment staring us in the face.
(first published in 1961, available in different reprint editions since then. Emphases added to the original text are given by Timothy Conway in italics).
The best day of my life—my re-birthday, so to speak—was when I found I had no head. This is not a literary gambit, a witticism designed to arouse interest at any cost. I mean it in all seriousness: I have no head.
It was eighteen years ago [circa 1942], when I was thirty-three, that I made the discovery. Though it certainly came out of the blue, it did so in response to an urgent enquiry; I had for several months been absorbed in the question: "What am I?" The fact that I happened to be walking in the Himalayas at the time probably had little to do with it; though in that country, unusual states of mind are said to come more easily. However that may be, a very still clear day, and a view from the ridge where I stood, over misty blue valleys to the highest mountain range in the world, with Kangchenjunga and Everest unprominent among its snow-peaks, made a setting worthy of the grandest vision.
What actually happened was something absurdly simple and unspectacular: I stopped thinking. A peculiar quiet, an odd kind of alert limpness or numbness, came over me. Reason and imagination and all mental chatter died down. For once, words really failed me. Past and future dropped away. I forgot who and what I was, my name, manhood, animal-hood, all that could be called mine. It was if I had been born that instant, brand new, mindless, innocent of all memories. There existed only the Now, that present moment, and what was clearly given in it. To look was enough. And what I found was khaki trouser-legs terminating downwards in a pair of brown shoes, khaki sleeves terminating sideways in a pair of pink hands, and a khaki shirtfront terminating upwards in—absolutely nothing whatever! Certainly not in a head.
It took me no time at all to notice that this nothing, this hole where a head should have been, was no ordinary vacancy, no mere nothing. On the contrary, it was very much occupied. It was a vast emptiness vastly filled, a nothing that found room for everything—room for grass, trees, shadowy distant hills, and far above them snow-peaks like a row of angular clouds riding the blue sky. I had lost a head and gained a world.
It was all, quite literally, breathtaking. I seemed to stop breathing altogether, absorbed in the Given. Here it was, this superb scene, brightly shining in the clear air, alone and unsupported, mysteriously suspended in the void, and (and this was the real miracle, the wonder and delight) utterly free of "me," unstained by any observer. Its total presence was my total absence, body and soul. Lighter than air, clearer than glass, altogether released from myself, I was nowhere around.
Yet in spite of the magical and uncanny quality of this vision, it was no dream, no esoteric revelation. Quite the reverse: it felt like a sudden waking from the sleep of ordinary life, and end to dreaming. It was self-luminous reality for once swept clean of all obscuring mind. It was the revelation, at long last, of the perfectly obvious. It was a lucid moment in a confused life-history. It was a ceasing to ignore something which, (since early childhood at any rate) I had always been too busy or too clever to see. It was naked, uncritical attention to what had all along been staring me in the face—my utter facelessness. In short, it was all perfectly simple and plain and straightforward, beyond argument, thought, and words. There arose no questions, no reference beyond the experience itself, but only peace and a quiet joy, and the sensation of having dropped an intolerable burden. […]
Zen Buddhism has the reputation of being difficult …, and almost impossibly so for Westerners, who for this reason are often advised to stick to their own religious tradition if they can. My own experience has been exactly the other way round. At last, after more than a decade of largely fruitless searching everywhere else, I found in the words of the Zen masters many echoes of the central experience of my life: they talked my language, spoke to my condition. Many of these masters, I found, had not only lost their heads (as we all have) but were vividly aware of their condition and its immense significance, and used every device to bring their disciples to the same realization […]
Hui-neng (637-712), the Sixth Patriarch of Zen, counseled his brother-monk Ming, to stop all his craving and cogitation, and see: "See what at this very moment your own face looks like—the face you had before you were born." It is recorded that Ming thereupon discovered within himself that fundamental reason of all things, which hitherto he had sought outside. Now he understood everything, and found himself bathed in tears and sweat. Saluting the Patriarch, he asked what other secrets remained. "In what I have shown you," replied Hui-neng, "there is nothing hidden. If you look within and recognize your own 'original face,' secrecy is in you."
Hui-neng's "original face" is the best known and for many the most helpful of all Zen anecdotes: over the centuries in China it is said to have proved a uniquely effective pointer to enlightenment. Mumon (13th C.) has this comment:
You cannot describe it or draw it,
You cannot praise it fully or perceive it.
No place can be found in which to put the original face;
It will not disappear even when the universe is destroyed…
As an aid to such a realization, Bodhidharma, the First Patriarch of Zen, is said to have prescribed a good hammer-blow on the back of the head. Tai-hui (1089-1163) was equally uncompromising: "This matter (Zen) is like a great mass of fire: when you approach it your face is sure to be scorched. It is again like a sword about to be drawn; when it is once out of the scabbard, someone is sure to lose his life. . .The precious vajra [diamond] sword is right here and its purpose is to cut off the head." Indeed this beheading was a common topic of conversation between Zen master and pupil. For instance, this 9th century exchange: Lung-ya: "If I threatened to cut off your head with the sharpest sword in the world,what would you do?" The master pulled in his head. Lung-ya: "Your head is off!" The master smiled.
Evidently master and pupil, both headless, understood each other well. How well, also, they would have understood the advice of the Muslim Jalalu'l-Din Rumi, Persia's greatest mystical poet (1207-1273): "Behead yourself!" "Dissolve your whole body into Vision: become seeing, seeing, seeing!"
"Mind and body dropped off!" exclaims Dogen (1200-1253) in an ecstasy of release "Dropped off!" "Dropped off! This state must be experienced by you all; it is like piling fruit into a basket without a bottom, it is like pouring water into a bowl with a hole in it." "All of a sudden you find your mind and body wiped out of existence," says Hakuin (1685-1768): "This is what is known as letting go your hold. As you regain your breath it is like drinking water and knowing it is cold. It is joy inexpressible."
All agree that the distinction between mind and body, subject and object, knower and known, is abolished in the great Mirror-Void; seeing into one's self-nature is seeing into nothingness, into no-soul, no-mind, no-body; and this seeing is the never-failing delight and solace, far surpassing all earthly happiness.
[The eminent Zen scholar and adept, Dr. Daisetsu Teitaro] Suzuki himself puts the matter in a nutshell for us: "To Zen, incarnation is excarnation; the flesh is no-flesh; here-now equals emptiness (sunyata) and infinity."
Outside Zen, it is not easy to find statements quite so clear, and so free from religiosity, as this. However, parallels can be found in other religious traditions, as soon as one searches for them. And this is only to be expected: the essential vision must transcend the accidents of history and geography.
Inevitably the closest parallel is to be found in India, the original home of Buddhism. Sankara [8th century] the great Sage and interpreter of Advaita or absolute nonduality, taught that a man has no hope of liberation till he ceases to identify himself with the body, which is a mere illusion born of ignorance: his real Self is like space, unattached, pure, infinite. Confusing the unreal body with this real Self is bondage and misery. This doctrine still survives in India. Its last great exemplar, Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950), would say to enquirers: "Till now you seriously considered yourself to be the body and to have a form. That is the primal ignorance which is the root cause of all trouble."
Even Christianity … sometimes admits that genuine illumination must dispel the dark opacity of our bodies no less than of our soul. "When thine eye is single," said Jesus mysteriously, "thy whole body also is full of light." This single eye is surely a Hebrew version of the precious third eye of Indian mysticism, which enables the Seer to look within at his absolutely pure and luminous nature, his original face… And, St. Bernard (1091-1153) says: "It is no merely human joy to lose oneself like this, to be so emptied of oneself as though one almost ceased to be at all; it is the bliss of heaven … To become thus is to be deified… How otherwise could God be 'all in all,' if anything of man remained in man?" […]
Certainly it was interesting, later on, to find that Ramana Maharshi always advocated self-enquiry as the one infallible and direct means of liberation. He taught that as soon as we start asking the question "Who am I?" the process of inner transformation is set up, though its end—involving complete detachment of the Self from the body—may be long delayed. Again, it was particularly interesting to learn that the essence of Zen training is earnest enquiry into one's self-nature….
I do believe that if we Westerners, instead of feebly abandoning our peculiar objectivity, our freedom from pious axes to grind, were to push it to the limit, we should find ourselves at the heart of Zen. However that may be, it is clear that most of us do not, in fact, begin by asking what we are. More often it is unhappiness which drives us to look for help from a particular religion, whose teachings must then be learned, understood, and applied. Enquiry into the religion comes first; enquiry into the self comes later, as a part of instruction and practice, with a view to spiritual growth and the end of suffering.
Though it has obvious practical advantages, this specifically religious approach is, again, clearly not free from impure motives. Of course it is only sensible to desire to suffer less, and for that reason to discipline body and mind; it is the noblest of ambitions to desire the end of all suffering and the attainment of Nirvana, and for that reason to meditate systematically upon such prescribed topics as one's self-nature, using the prescribed techniques. Thousands of years of profound experience are gathered up in this precious store of practical wisdom, and if we will profit by it ultimate success is no doubt assured. True enough: only it is necessary at once to add that this success is failure, the defeat of all ambition (which, however spiritual, is still ambition); it is the realization that there is nothing to be achieved, that all is well here and now, that we have never for an instant left the goal we are striving to reach one day. Our bondage is not failure to win our liberation, but to SEE it. In fact, it is our aim that stands in the way of its realization; it is our anxiety to arrive at perfection in the unreal and unrealizable future, which hides the Perfection which is at this very moment staring us in the face.
Samyutta Nikaya...
Soma and Mara An adapation of a translation by C.A.F. Rhys-Davids
Once Soma, having returned from her alms round
and having eaten her meal, entered the woods to meditate.
Deep in the woods, she sat down under a tree.
The tempter Mara, desirous and capable of arousing fear, wavering and dread,
and wishing her to interrupt her focused meditation, came to her and said,
Your intent is difficult, even for the sages;
Completion cannot be reached by a woman regardless the wisdom reaped."
Then Soma thought, "Who is this speaking, human or nonhuman?
Surely it is evil Mara desiring to interrupt my focused meditation."
Knowing that it was Mara, she said,
"What does gender matter with regard to a well-composed mind,
which experiences insight in the light of the dharma?"
The evil Mara thought, "Soma knows me"
and sorrowful for the evil, instantly vanished into darkness
Once Soma, having returned from her alms round
and having eaten her meal, entered the woods to meditate.
Deep in the woods, she sat down under a tree.
The tempter Mara, desirous and capable of arousing fear, wavering and dread,
and wishing her to interrupt her focused meditation, came to her and said,
Your intent is difficult, even for the sages;
Completion cannot be reached by a woman regardless the wisdom reaped."
Then Soma thought, "Who is this speaking, human or nonhuman?
Surely it is evil Mara desiring to interrupt my focused meditation."
Knowing that it was Mara, she said,
"What does gender matter with regard to a well-composed mind,
which experiences insight in the light of the dharma?"
The evil Mara thought, "Soma knows me"
and sorrowful for the evil, instantly vanished into darkness
Solitude...
Aloneness is a wise teacher. Kierkegaard remarked that one sign of spiritual maturity was the ability to be comfortable when alone........ Vernon Howard
The Overself...
The Overself is not a goal to be attained but a realization of what
already is. It is the inalienable possession of all conscious beings
and not of a mere few. No effort is needed to get hold of the
Overself, but every effort is needed to get rid of the many
impediments to its recognition. We cannot take hold of it; it takes
hold of us. Therefore the last stage of this quest is an effortless
one. We are led, as children by the hand, into the resplendent
presence. Our weary strivings come to an abrupt end. Our lips are made shut and wordless........Paul Brunton
already is. It is the inalienable possession of all conscious beings
and not of a mere few. No effort is needed to get hold of the
Overself, but every effort is needed to get rid of the many
impediments to its recognition. We cannot take hold of it; it takes
hold of us. Therefore the last stage of this quest is an effortless
one. We are led, as children by the hand, into the resplendent
presence. Our weary strivings come to an abrupt end. Our lips are made shut and wordless........Paul Brunton
Jesus goes to the wilderness for self-examination, where he remains forty days. Is subjected to three temptations.
THE harbinger had paved the way; the Logos had been introduced to men as love made manifest, and he must now begin his Christine ministry. 2 And he went forth into the wilderness to be alone with God that he might look into his inner heart, and note its strength and worthiness. 3 And with himself he talked; he said, My lower self is strong; by many ties I am bound down to carnal life. 4 Have I the strength to overcome and give my life a willing sacrifice for men? 5 When I shall stand before the face of men, and they demand a proof of my messiahship, what will I say? 6 And then the tempter came and said, If you be son of God, command these stones to turn to bread. 7 And Jesus said, Who is it that demands a test? It is no sign that one is son of God because he does a miracle; the devils can do mighty things. 8 Did not the black magicians do great things before the Pharaohs? 9 My words and deeds in all the walks of life shall be the proof of my messiahship. 10 And then the tempter said, If you will go into Jerusalem, and from the temple pinnacle cast down yourself to earth, the people will believe that you are the Messiah sent from God. 11 This you can surely do; for did not David say, He gives his angels charge concerning you, and with their will they uphold lest you should fall? 12 And Jesus said, I may not tempt the Lord, my God. 13 And then the tempter said, Look forth upon the world; behold its honours and its fame! Behold its pleasures and its wealth! 14 If you will give your life for these they shall be yours. 15 But Jesus said, Away from me all tempting thoughts. My heart is fixed; I spurn this carnal self with all its vain ambition and its pride. 16 For forty days did Jesus wrestle with his carnal self; his higher self Prevailed. He then was hungry, but his friends had found him and they ministered to him. 17 Then Jesus left the wilderness and in the consciousness of Holy breath, he came unto the camps of John and taught.......from The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ by Levi...
Love and Power...
The wise man should keep the balance between love and power; he
should keep the love in his nature ever increasing and expanding, and
at the same time strengthen the will so that the heart may not easily
be broken.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Many seek protection from all hurting influences by building some
wall around themselves. But the canopy over the earth is so high that
a wall cannot be built high enough, and the only thing one can do is
to live in the midst of all inharmonious influences, to strengthen
his will power and to bear all things, yet keeping the fineness of
character and a nobleness of manner together with an ever-living
heart. To become cold with the coldness of the world is weakness, and
to become broken by the hardness of the world is feebleness, but to
live in the world and yet to keep above the world is like walking on
the water. There are two essential duties for the man of wisdom and
love; that is to keep the love in our nature ever increasing and
expanding and to strengthen the will so that the heart may not be
easily broken. Balance is ideal in life; man must be fine and yet
strong, man must be loving and yet powerful.
should keep the love in his nature ever increasing and expanding, and
at the same time strengthen the will so that the heart may not easily
be broken.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Many seek protection from all hurting influences by building some
wall around themselves. But the canopy over the earth is so high that
a wall cannot be built high enough, and the only thing one can do is
to live in the midst of all inharmonious influences, to strengthen
his will power and to bear all things, yet keeping the fineness of
character and a nobleness of manner together with an ever-living
heart. To become cold with the coldness of the world is weakness, and
to become broken by the hardness of the world is feebleness, but to
live in the world and yet to keep above the world is like walking on
the water. There are two essential duties for the man of wisdom and
love; that is to keep the love in our nature ever increasing and
expanding and to strengthen the will so that the heart may not be
easily broken. Balance is ideal in life; man must be fine and yet
strong, man must be loving and yet powerful.
I became Him...
First He pampered me with a hundred favors,
Then he melted me with the fires of sorrows.
After He sealed me with the seal of love,
I became Him.
Then, he threw my self out of me.
Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi
Then he melted me with the fires of sorrows.
After He sealed me with the seal of love,
I became Him.
Then, he threw my self out of me.
Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi
"The Now"...
Interviewer:
Surrendering to "what is" or "the Now*' seems to be an important aspect of
your teaching. Is there a distinction between "surrendering to what is," and
the use of the popular cliché, "go with the flow of life, where ever it
takes us"?
Eckhart Tolle:
"Surrendering only refers to this moment, whatever "is" at this moment-to
accept unconditionally and fully whatever arises at this moment. "Going with
the flow" is a more general term. For some people it is an excuse for not
taking action and it refers usually to one's life situation. Let's say you
are in a particular job and that is the flow, you stay in it.
Surrender is only in reference to Now. So "going with the flow" is not
necessarily true surrender and may lead to passivity, lethargy and inaction.
Surrender to the Now is something very different because it only concerns
accepting the reality of this moment. Whatever action is needed will then
rise out of that state of complete acceptance. The most powerful state for a
human to be in is the state of embracing completely the reality of what
is-Now. It is to say "Yes" to life, which is now and always now. There is a
vast power in that "Yes," that state of inner non-resistance to what is.
Action arises out of that if it's needed, as a spontaneous response to the
situation.
So surrender to Now never leads to inaction because it only concerns the
reality of this moment and perhaps action is needed. In the book I give the
example of being stuck in the mud. So you wouldn't say, "O.K., I surrender
to this and I'm going to stay here." It simply means, "it is;" there is a
recognition of "it is" and to saying yes to "it is." And there's much
greater power now that arises that will move through you and manifest as
action if it is needed than there could ever be in the state of saying, "no"
to "what is"-and then perhaps taking action that is always contaminated with
negativity. Whenever you say "no" and then action arises because you are
fighting "what is" that is karmic action in Eastern terms, and it leads to
further suffering because it arises out of suffering, which is the
non-acceptance of "what is"-suffering. Action arising out of suffering is
contaminated with suffering and causes further suffering, and that is karma.
Action that arises out of a state of "acceptance" is totally free of karma.
And there is a vast difference."
http://www.inner-growth.info/power_of_now_tolle/eckhart_tolle_interview_parker.h\
tm#11
Excerpted from an interview with Eckhart Tolle,
from a book called Dialogues With Emerging Spiritual Teachers,
by John W. Parker.
Surrendering to "what is" or "the Now*' seems to be an important aspect of
your teaching. Is there a distinction between "surrendering to what is," and
the use of the popular cliché, "go with the flow of life, where ever it
takes us"?
Eckhart Tolle:
"Surrendering only refers to this moment, whatever "is" at this moment-to
accept unconditionally and fully whatever arises at this moment. "Going with
the flow" is a more general term. For some people it is an excuse for not
taking action and it refers usually to one's life situation. Let's say you
are in a particular job and that is the flow, you stay in it.
Surrender is only in reference to Now. So "going with the flow" is not
necessarily true surrender and may lead to passivity, lethargy and inaction.
Surrender to the Now is something very different because it only concerns
accepting the reality of this moment. Whatever action is needed will then
rise out of that state of complete acceptance. The most powerful state for a
human to be in is the state of embracing completely the reality of what
is-Now. It is to say "Yes" to life, which is now and always now. There is a
vast power in that "Yes," that state of inner non-resistance to what is.
Action arises out of that if it's needed, as a spontaneous response to the
situation.
So surrender to Now never leads to inaction because it only concerns the
reality of this moment and perhaps action is needed. In the book I give the
example of being stuck in the mud. So you wouldn't say, "O.K., I surrender
to this and I'm going to stay here." It simply means, "it is;" there is a
recognition of "it is" and to saying yes to "it is." And there's much
greater power now that arises that will move through you and manifest as
action if it is needed than there could ever be in the state of saying, "no"
to "what is"-and then perhaps taking action that is always contaminated with
negativity. Whenever you say "no" and then action arises because you are
fighting "what is" that is karmic action in Eastern terms, and it leads to
further suffering because it arises out of suffering, which is the
non-acceptance of "what is"-suffering. Action arising out of suffering is
contaminated with suffering and causes further suffering, and that is karma.
Action that arises out of a state of "acceptance" is totally free of karma.
And there is a vast difference."
http://www.inner-growth.info/power_of_now_tolle/eckhart_tolle_interview_parker.h\
tm#11
Excerpted from an interview with Eckhart Tolle,
from a book called Dialogues With Emerging Spiritual Teachers,
by John W. Parker.
A Troubled Mind...
"How can a troubled mind
Understand the way?
If a man is disturbed
He will never be filled with knowledge."
"An untroubled mind,
No longer seeking to consider
What is right and what is wrong,
A mind beyond judgments,
Watches and understands."
........Gautama the Buddha
Understand the way?
If a man is disturbed
He will never be filled with knowledge."
"An untroubled mind,
No longer seeking to consider
What is right and what is wrong,
A mind beyond judgments,
Watches and understands."
........Gautama the Buddha
Know Thy Self - You Must Rise Above Body Consciousness...
What is man's most important task? It is to know one's Self, to
withdraw yourself from outside, from the outgoing faculties, by
stilling the mind and concentrating at the seat of the soul in the
body, which is at the back of the eyes. This is where the soul
recedes at the time of death. It is there that you will have self
awareness, by rising above and forgetting the physical body. When you
rise above body consciousness, you can know the Controlling Power
within you. That is why all Masters enjoined that we must know
ourselves first. Self knowledge precedes God knowledge. When you
become self concentrated, the surat or attention will work wonders,
wherever it may be directed. It is all a feat of the attention. If
you first become attentive, concentrated within your own self by
withdrawing from outside, you will be able to rise above the physical
body and by rising still further, you will have Cosmic Consciousness.
The macrocosm is in the microcosm. We have got the physical body and
must rise above it. We have also got the astral body in which we have
to work in the higher self. Then still beyond there is a plane where
we have to use our causal body. After rising above the physical body,
you will have self awareness. When you rise above the astral and
causal bodies, you will come into your true I-hood. You will see
that "I and my Father are One". The whole thing depends on the
concentration of your attention within yourself. Then whichever way
you direct your attention, you will work wonders.
He who rises above the body is a true Hindu, a true Mohammedan or a
true Christian. There are many schools of thought existing, but we
have to see how many students have reached that goal. That school is
very creditable which turns out suchlike people. So remain in any
formation or school of thought, but the purpose for which you have
joined that school should be before you. That is, to have God
consciousness. You cannot have God consciousness unless you have got
your own consciousness.........Sant Kirpal Singh
withdraw yourself from outside, from the outgoing faculties, by
stilling the mind and concentrating at the seat of the soul in the
body, which is at the back of the eyes. This is where the soul
recedes at the time of death. It is there that you will have self
awareness, by rising above and forgetting the physical body. When you
rise above body consciousness, you can know the Controlling Power
within you. That is why all Masters enjoined that we must know
ourselves first. Self knowledge precedes God knowledge. When you
become self concentrated, the surat or attention will work wonders,
wherever it may be directed. It is all a feat of the attention. If
you first become attentive, concentrated within your own self by
withdrawing from outside, you will be able to rise above the physical
body and by rising still further, you will have Cosmic Consciousness.
The macrocosm is in the microcosm. We have got the physical body and
must rise above it. We have also got the astral body in which we have
to work in the higher self. Then still beyond there is a plane where
we have to use our causal body. After rising above the physical body,
you will have self awareness. When you rise above the astral and
causal bodies, you will come into your true I-hood. You will see
that "I and my Father are One". The whole thing depends on the
concentration of your attention within yourself. Then whichever way
you direct your attention, you will work wonders.
He who rises above the body is a true Hindu, a true Mohammedan or a
true Christian. There are many schools of thought existing, but we
have to see how many students have reached that goal. That school is
very creditable which turns out suchlike people. So remain in any
formation or school of thought, but the purpose for which you have
joined that school should be before you. That is, to have God
consciousness. You cannot have God consciousness unless you have got
your own consciousness.........Sant Kirpal Singh
You must lose your life to gain It...
It is better to lose your life in the quest than to languish
miserably. If we should not succeed, but die of grief, ah well, so
much the worse, but, because errors are numerous in this world, we may
at least avoid acquiring new ones.
Thousands of creatures are craftily occupied in the pursuit of the
dead body of the world; so, if you give yourself up to this commerce,
above all with guile, will you be able to make your heart an ocean of
love?
Some say that the wish for spiritual things is presumption, and
that no mere upstart can attain them. But isn't it better to sacrifice
one's life in pursuit of this desire than to be identified with a
business?
So long as we do not die to ourselves, and so long as we are
identified with someone or someting, we shall never be free.
Fariduddin Attar
as collected by James Fadiman & Robert Frager
miserably. If we should not succeed, but die of grief, ah well, so
much the worse, but, because errors are numerous in this world, we may
at least avoid acquiring new ones.
Thousands of creatures are craftily occupied in the pursuit of the
dead body of the world; so, if you give yourself up to this commerce,
above all with guile, will you be able to make your heart an ocean of
love?
Some say that the wish for spiritual things is presumption, and
that no mere upstart can attain them. But isn't it better to sacrifice
one's life in pursuit of this desire than to be identified with a
business?
So long as we do not die to ourselves, and so long as we are
identified with someone or someting, we shall never be free.
Fariduddin Attar
as collected by James Fadiman & Robert Frager
Entering the Light...
In one of my meditation states of entering the "White Light", which occurs when you empty yourself of ego, I was part of All that existed and was in a state of Bliss, enjoying the incredible Love and Freedom that existed.. Even though, I had no physical body and existed within this Light as Light and Consciousness, I thought that I should use this time to learn.. So I said to the Light," What is the most important lesson that I am to learn while in the body"?.... What seemed like a kindly voice but had to be Thought, said to me, "Treat all, as you, wish to be treated"....Such short advice, but such a succinct Wisdom............namaste, thomas
Contemporary Mysticism...
The 20th century has experienced a revival of interest in both Christian and non-Christian mysticism. Early commentators of note were the Austrian Roman Catholic Baron Friedrich von Hügel, the British poet and writer Evelyn Underhill, the American Quaker Rufus Jones, the Anglican prelate William Inge, and the German theologian Rudolf Otto. A prominent non-clerical commentator was the American psychologist and philosopher William James in The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902).
In non-Christian traditions, the leading commentator on Zen Buddhism has been the Japanese Daisetzu Suzuki; on Hinduism, the Indian philosopher Savepalli Radhakrishnan; and on Islam, the British scholar R. A. Nicholson. The latter half of the 20th century has seen an increased interest in Eastern mysticism. The mystical strain in Judaism, which received particular emphasis in the writings of the Cabbalists of the Middle Ages and in the movement of the Hasidim of the 18th century, was again revealed by the modern Austrian philosopher and scholar Martin Buber. Modern mystics of note have been the French social philosopher Simone Weil, the French priest and philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and the American Trappist monk Thomas Merton.
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"Mysticism," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2008
In non-Christian traditions, the leading commentator on Zen Buddhism has been the Japanese Daisetzu Suzuki; on Hinduism, the Indian philosopher Savepalli Radhakrishnan; and on Islam, the British scholar R. A. Nicholson. The latter half of the 20th century has seen an increased interest in Eastern mysticism. The mystical strain in Judaism, which received particular emphasis in the writings of the Cabbalists of the Middle Ages and in the movement of the Hasidim of the 18th century, was again revealed by the modern Austrian philosopher and scholar Martin Buber. Modern mystics of note have been the French social philosopher Simone Weil, the French priest and philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and the American Trappist monk Thomas Merton.
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"Mysticism," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2008
Christian Mysticism...
St Paul was the first great Christian mystic. The New Testament writings best known for their deeply mystical emphasis are Paul's letters and the Gospel of John. Christian mysticism as a system, however, is derived from Neoplatonism through the writings of Dionysius the Areopagite, or Pseudo-Dionysius. The 9th-century Scholastic philosopher John Scotus Erigena translated the works of Pseudo-Dionysius from Greek into Latin and thus introduced the mystical theology of Eastern Christianity into Western Europe, where it was combined with the mysticism of the early Christian prelate and theologian St Augustine of Hippo.
In the Middle Ages mysticism was often associated with monasticism. Some of the most celebrated mystics are found among the monks of both the Eastern Church and the Western Church, particularly the 14th-century Hesychasts of Mount Athos in the former, and SS Bernard of Clairvaux, Francis of Assisi, and John of the Cross in the latter. The French monastery of St Victoire, near Paris, was an important centre of mystical thought in the 12th century. The renowned mystic and Scholastic philosopher St Bonaventure was a disciple of the monks of St Victor. St Francis, who derived his mysticism directly from the New Testament, without reference to Neoplatonism, remains a dominant figure in modern mysticism. Among the mystics of Holland were Jan van Ruysbroeck and Gerhard Groote, the latter a religious reformer and founder of the monastic order known as the Brothers of the Common Life. The 13th-century figure Johannes Eckhart, referred to as Meister Eckhart, is regarded as the foremost mystic of the Germanic tradition.
Other important German mystics are Johannes Tauler and Heinrich Suso, followers of Eckhart and members of a group called the Friends of God. One of this group wrote the German Theology that influenced Martin Luther. Prominent later figures include Thomas á Kempis, generally regarded as the author of The Imitation of Christ. English mystics of the 14th and 15th centuries include Margery Kempe and Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, Juliana of Norwich, and the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing, an influential treatise on mystic prayer.
A number of the most distinguished Christian mystics have been women, notably St Hildegard, St Catherine of Siena, and St Teresa of Ávila. The 17th-century French mystic Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon introduced into France the mystical doctrine of quietism.
By its pursuit of spiritual freedom, sometimes at the expense of theological formulae and ecclesiastical discipline, mysticism may have contributed to the origin of the Reformation, although it inevitably came into conflict with Protestant, as it had with Roman Catholic, religious authorities. The Counter-Reformation inspired the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola. The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence was a classic French work of the 17th century. The most notable German Protestant mystics of the time were Jakob Boehme, author of Mysterium Magnum (The Great Mystery), and Kaspar Schwenkfeld von Ossig. Mysticism finds expression in the theology of many Protestant denominations and is a salient characteristic of such sects as the Anabaptists and the Quakers.
In New England, the famous Congregational divine, Jonathan Edwards, exhibited a strong mystical tendency, and the religious revivals that began in his time and spread throughout the United States during the 19th century derived much of their peculiar power from the assumption of mystical principles, great emphasis being placed on heightened feeling as a direct intuition of the will of God. Mysticism manifested itself in England in the works of the 17th-century Cambridge Platonists; in those of the devotional writer William Law, author of the Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life; and in the art and poetry of William Blake.
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"Mysticism," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2008
In the Middle Ages mysticism was often associated with monasticism. Some of the most celebrated mystics are found among the monks of both the Eastern Church and the Western Church, particularly the 14th-century Hesychasts of Mount Athos in the former, and SS Bernard of Clairvaux, Francis of Assisi, and John of the Cross in the latter. The French monastery of St Victoire, near Paris, was an important centre of mystical thought in the 12th century. The renowned mystic and Scholastic philosopher St Bonaventure was a disciple of the monks of St Victor. St Francis, who derived his mysticism directly from the New Testament, without reference to Neoplatonism, remains a dominant figure in modern mysticism. Among the mystics of Holland were Jan van Ruysbroeck and Gerhard Groote, the latter a religious reformer and founder of the monastic order known as the Brothers of the Common Life. The 13th-century figure Johannes Eckhart, referred to as Meister Eckhart, is regarded as the foremost mystic of the Germanic tradition.
Other important German mystics are Johannes Tauler and Heinrich Suso, followers of Eckhart and members of a group called the Friends of God. One of this group wrote the German Theology that influenced Martin Luther. Prominent later figures include Thomas á Kempis, generally regarded as the author of The Imitation of Christ. English mystics of the 14th and 15th centuries include Margery Kempe and Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, Juliana of Norwich, and the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing, an influential treatise on mystic prayer.
A number of the most distinguished Christian mystics have been women, notably St Hildegard, St Catherine of Siena, and St Teresa of Ávila. The 17th-century French mystic Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon introduced into France the mystical doctrine of quietism.
By its pursuit of spiritual freedom, sometimes at the expense of theological formulae and ecclesiastical discipline, mysticism may have contributed to the origin of the Reformation, although it inevitably came into conflict with Protestant, as it had with Roman Catholic, religious authorities. The Counter-Reformation inspired the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola. The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence was a classic French work of the 17th century. The most notable German Protestant mystics of the time were Jakob Boehme, author of Mysterium Magnum (The Great Mystery), and Kaspar Schwenkfeld von Ossig. Mysticism finds expression in the theology of many Protestant denominations and is a salient characteristic of such sects as the Anabaptists and the Quakers.
In New England, the famous Congregational divine, Jonathan Edwards, exhibited a strong mystical tendency, and the religious revivals that began in his time and spread throughout the United States during the 19th century derived much of their peculiar power from the assumption of mystical principles, great emphasis being placed on heightened feeling as a direct intuition of the will of God. Mysticism manifested itself in England in the works of the 17th-century Cambridge Platonists; in those of the devotional writer William Law, author of the Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life; and in the art and poetry of William Blake.
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"Mysticism," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2008
Islamic Mysticism...
Islamic Sufism embraces a form of theistic mysticism closely resembling that of the Vedanta. A relatively early development in Islamic history, Sufism focuses on personal union with Allah. Through ascetic and contemplative disciplines, Sufi mystics seek direct union with God achieved through divine favour. The ecstatic language of unity with the Divine with which Sufis describe their experiences, and the positively pantheistic doctrines developed by some, have led to charges of heterodoxy. In 922 the Sufi al-Hallaj, who was accused of having asserted his identity with God was executed in Baghdad. It was left to the 11th-century philosopher al-Ghazali to reconcile Sufism and orthodox Islam. Doctrines of Sufism found their most memorable expression in the symbolic works of the Persian poets Mohammed Shams od-Din, better known as Hafiz, and Jalal-ad-Din Muhammad Din ar-Rumi, and in the writings of the Persian al-Ghazali.
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"Mysticism," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2008
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"Mysticism," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2008
Buddhist Mysticism...
Developing out of Hindu traditions and building on Hindu concepts, Buddhism perpetuates the mystical strain of Hinduism. The historical Buddha himself practised Yoga for years, before abandoning it for a more moderate regime, and Buddhism can be seen as a reform movement opposing the severest excesses of traditional Hindu mysticism. Buddhism can properly be styled a purely mystical religion, since its sole purpose is to enable all its practitioners to achieve mystical transcendence in the state of nirvana, either in their present incarnation or in a future one. Buddhism has no secular clergy in the Christian sense, only monks and nuns, who strive to achieve enlightenment through spiritual exercise and right living, thus shedding the burden of karma which keeps them in the world of perpetual reincarnation.
Though all Buddhism is mystical in emphasis, some sects are notably more so than others. This condition partly arose out of traditional Buddhist emphasis on the transmission of doctrine in voluminous sutras and on elaborate metaphysics, whereas mystical experience is often felt to transcend language and rational distinctions. The Zen school of Buddhism, which firsty arose in China in the 6th century ad, partly as a result of cross-fertilization with Daoism, and later spread to Japan and other countries, concentrates on immediate realization of the voidness of things by the demolition of conceptual structures. Zen teaching thus often uses apparently meaningless riddles (koans) or even blows in order to break the mould of the recipient's mind and free them for nirvana in the present life. Esoteric Buddhism, especially Buddhist Tantra, also developed a mystical discipline in which masters lead disciples to enlightenment by rigorous physical and mental exercises, creation and contemplation of mystic designs or mandalas, and the communication of secret truths through gestures and postures known as mudras.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Mysticism," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2008
Though all Buddhism is mystical in emphasis, some sects are notably more so than others. This condition partly arose out of traditional Buddhist emphasis on the transmission of doctrine in voluminous sutras and on elaborate metaphysics, whereas mystical experience is often felt to transcend language and rational distinctions. The Zen school of Buddhism, which firsty arose in China in the 6th century ad, partly as a result of cross-fertilization with Daoism, and later spread to Japan and other countries, concentrates on immediate realization of the voidness of things by the demolition of conceptual structures. Zen teaching thus often uses apparently meaningless riddles (koans) or even blows in order to break the mould of the recipient's mind and free them for nirvana in the present life. Esoteric Buddhism, especially Buddhist Tantra, also developed a mystical discipline in which masters lead disciples to enlightenment by rigorous physical and mental exercises, creation and contemplation of mystic designs or mandalas, and the communication of secret truths through gestures and postures known as mudras.
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"Mysticism," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2008
Hindu Mysticism...
Hinduism has perhaps the oldest tradition of mysticism. In Hindu philosophy, and particularly in the metaphysical system known as the Vedanta, the self or atman in a person is identified with the supreme self, or Brahman, of the universe. The apparent separateness and individuality of beings and events are held to be an illusion (Sanskrit maya), or convention of thought and feeling. This illusion can be dispelled through the realization of the essential oneness of atman and Brahman. When the religious initiate has overcome the beginningless ignorance (Sanskrit avidya) upon which depends the apparent separability of subject and object, of self and not-self, a mystical state of liberation, or moksha, is attained. The Hindu philosophy of Yoga incorporates perhaps the most complete and rigorous discipline ever designed to transcend the sense of personal identity and to clear the way for an experience of union with the divine self. Mysticism has traditionally been the province of the sadhus, who sometimes go to extremes of asceticism in the course of their devotions, for example by standing for years on one leg or eschewing clothing. Such pursuits are held to be a necessary corollary of the spiritual struggle to achieve mystic liberation......... "Mysticism," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2008
Getting stuck in Emptiness...
"Many spiritual seekers get "stuck" in emptiness, in the absolute, in transcendence. They cling to bliss, or peace, or indifference. When the self-centered motivation for living disappears, many seekers become indifferent. They see the perfection of all existence and find no reason for doing anything, including caring for themselves or others. I call this "taking a false refuge." It is a very subtle egoic trap; it's a fixation in the absolute and all unconscious form of attachment that masquerades as liberation. It can be very difficult to wake someone up from this deceptive fixation because they literally have no motivation to let go of it. Stuck in a form of divine indifference, such people believe they have reached the top of the mountain when actually they are hiding out halfway up its slope. Enlightenment does not mean one should disappear into the realm of transcendence. To be fixated in the absolute is simply the polar opposite of being fixated in the relative. With the dawning of true enlightenment, there is a tremendous birthing of impersonal Love and wisdom that never fixates in any realm of experience. To awaken to the absolute view is profound and transformative, but to awaken from all fixed points of view is the birth of true nonduality. If emptiness cannot dance, it is not true Emptiness. If moonlight does not flood the empty night sky and reflect in every drop of water, on every blade of grass, then you are only looking at your own empty dream. I say, Wake up! Then, your heart will be flooded with a Love that you cannot contain."
Adyashanti
Adyashanti
The universe understood in relation to the All...
According to Hermetic doctrine, The All is a bit more complicated than simply being the sum total of the universe. Rather than The All being simply the physical universe, it is more correct to say that everything in the universe is within the mind of The All, since the ALL can be looked at as Mind itself. [3] In effect, the universe is partially existent on the Mental plane, and we may in fact all be parts of The All's psychological makeup, representing parts of The All in its dream or meditation.
The Three Initiates (see The Kybalion) strongly caution that we restrain from simply declaring "I am God" for oversimplification purposes. Though you are a part of The All, you are but one small piece of that puzzle. You cannot be equated with God anymore than your toenail can be equated with you. You have the potential for perfection and to rejoin God, but you are not the totality of God. [4]
The All's mind can be seen as infinitely more powerful and vast than any of us could hope to achieve. [5] Therefore, it may be capable of keeping track of each and every particle across the expanse of the Universe, as well as maintain symbolism that applies to many lesser entities such as that seen in astrology and numerology.
Because of this view, some Hermetics also believe in the reality of magic, though magic much less visible than seen in fairy tales and television shows. If the universe is completely a mental construct, then the mind must be able to mold it and shape it, in an experience that can become closer and closer to lucid dreaming as skills improve.
The following is commentary on possibilities about The All but not anything necessarily accepted by Hermetics in general.
It may also be possible that The All has a main incarnation, which may be closer to visions of God as a physical being, just as one has a distinct self when dreaming, though everything in the dream may indeed be us.
However, even with everything in the universe being part of The All, it is possible that other things exist outside of The All. For example, The All may be just like us on its own level of existence, with its own The All above it. Other beings would be part of that greater All having the same difficulty interacting with us as anyone else has entering the dreams of others......from Wikipedia
The Three Initiates (see The Kybalion) strongly caution that we restrain from simply declaring "I am God" for oversimplification purposes. Though you are a part of The All, you are but one small piece of that puzzle. You cannot be equated with God anymore than your toenail can be equated with you. You have the potential for perfection and to rejoin God, but you are not the totality of God. [4]
The All's mind can be seen as infinitely more powerful and vast than any of us could hope to achieve. [5] Therefore, it may be capable of keeping track of each and every particle across the expanse of the Universe, as well as maintain symbolism that applies to many lesser entities such as that seen in astrology and numerology.
Because of this view, some Hermetics also believe in the reality of magic, though magic much less visible than seen in fairy tales and television shows. If the universe is completely a mental construct, then the mind must be able to mold it and shape it, in an experience that can become closer and closer to lucid dreaming as skills improve.
The following is commentary on possibilities about The All but not anything necessarily accepted by Hermetics in general.
It may also be possible that The All has a main incarnation, which may be closer to visions of God as a physical being, just as one has a distinct self when dreaming, though everything in the dream may indeed be us.
However, even with everything in the universe being part of The All, it is possible that other things exist outside of The All. For example, The All may be just like us on its own level of existence, with its own The All above it. Other beings would be part of that greater All having the same difficulty interacting with us as anyone else has entering the dreams of others......from Wikipedia
A Good Friend...
A good friend who points out mistakes and imperfections and rebukes evil is to be respected as if he reveals a secret of hidden treasure........Gautama the Buddha
One Consciousness...
Constantly think of the Universe as one living creature, embracing one being and one soul; how all is absorbed into the one consciousness of this living creature; how it compasses all things with a single purpose, and how all things work together to cause all that comes to pass, and their wonderful web and texture. (Marcus Aurelius, 170 A.D.)
What we call "I"...
What we call "I" is just a swinging door
which moves when we inhale and when we exhale.
It just moves, that is all...
there is nothing
no "I", no world, no mind or body;
just a swinging door."
Shunryu Suzunki Roshi
author of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
which moves when we inhale and when we exhale.
It just moves, that is all...
there is nothing
no "I", no world, no mind or body;
just a swinging door."
Shunryu Suzunki Roshi
author of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
Just Say "No" to Blaming Others...
A big part of our inner work in all of our relationships involves remembering this key idea: whenever we are not present and properly attentive to ourselves, we may be sure the false self is busy attending to something we'll be paying for in the days ahead. Disconcerting, yes; but there's no denying it: there are unconscious parts of us that feel good about getting us to do wrong!
Whenever we allow angry parts of us to cast blame on others for the conditions we find ourselves in, we enable the false self to keep dreaming that if it weren't for others doing us wrong we would never feel so angry, defeated, or depressed.
The truth is there are unconscious parts of us that readily find fault with others in a misguided effort to remain infallible in our own eyes. Each time we blame someone else, we agree to remain asleep in this misery-making mistaken identity. Saying "no" to this nature is saying goodbye to a host of imagined enemies this false self needs to remain itself, as well as to a war that can never be won.
We have to do a special kind of inner work if we wish to catch and cancel self-harmful behavior. It's not enough to just talk about achieving a good, contented life. Anyone can talk about that, and most do. Few will really do the interior work it takes to be free, which is why we must be different.
We must learn to put the light of Truth before all things. No such effort ever goes unrewarded. Little by little the living Light reveals within us a new and higher order of strength that has no problem saying "no" to those unconscious parts of us that care for nothing and no one, not even themselves! This new "no" then becomes a "yes" to self-wholeness -- the secret source of all healthy, happy, and unlimited relationships.
-- Guy Finley
Whenever we allow angry parts of us to cast blame on others for the conditions we find ourselves in, we enable the false self to keep dreaming that if it weren't for others doing us wrong we would never feel so angry, defeated, or depressed.
The truth is there are unconscious parts of us that readily find fault with others in a misguided effort to remain infallible in our own eyes. Each time we blame someone else, we agree to remain asleep in this misery-making mistaken identity. Saying "no" to this nature is saying goodbye to a host of imagined enemies this false self needs to remain itself, as well as to a war that can never be won.
We have to do a special kind of inner work if we wish to catch and cancel self-harmful behavior. It's not enough to just talk about achieving a good, contented life. Anyone can talk about that, and most do. Few will really do the interior work it takes to be free, which is why we must be different.
We must learn to put the light of Truth before all things. No such effort ever goes unrewarded. Little by little the living Light reveals within us a new and higher order of strength that has no problem saying "no" to those unconscious parts of us that care for nothing and no one, not even themselves! This new "no" then becomes a "yes" to self-wholeness -- the secret source of all healthy, happy, and unlimited relationships.
-- Guy Finley
Truth is Close...
Truth is exceedingly close, comforting and strong. Now isn't that a delightful thought to think about. Since Truth is close and strong, why are you weak? See Truth says something to you. It says, "I want you to know that when you tremble, I don't tremble." If you were to bring yourself back to where you should be internally, you would be right with Truth. It would be your comfort. You need nothing else on earth..........Vernon Howard
the only One...
The seeds of His love blossom in every heart.
The sounds of His flute fill every celebration.
Everyone thinks that he sings and dances
But no -
He is the only one singing.
He is the only one dancing.
- Rumi
The sounds of His flute fill every celebration.
Everyone thinks that he sings and dances
But no -
He is the only one singing.
He is the only one dancing.
- Rumi
self-transformation...
The goal of self-transformation is to remove all the veils between us
and God. The final veil is the "I," the sense of separateness we
each carry. To remove this is far from easy. Ask yourself, "How can
I take the "I" out of me?"
The great Sufi philosophers insist that our sense of
individuality is an illusion, that there is only one Reality, which
is God. So self-transformation is to remove all illusions, including
the final illusion, self, in order to experience Reality. Those who
see Sufism as a path of love say the same thing in other words. For
them, the goal is for the beloved, lover, and love to become one.
Most of us believe that we are basically all right as we are.
We just need a little more money, a little more love, a little more
free time--then we would be just fine. The Sufis believe that this
is far from the truth. We all need fundamental change; we need to
hatch into a whole new level of being. Unless we recognize the deep,
tranformational nature of the work we need to do, we are fated to
waste all our efforts. We have devleoped the psychology of the
chicken when what we really need is the psychology of the egg.
The metamorphosis of caterpillar into butterfly is a
particularly good metaphor for self-transformation. At a certain
point the caterpillar feels impelled to wrap itself into a cacoon.
Immobile, it begins to dissolve. There is no sense of a marvelous
new life that is coming; there is only the dissolving of the old, and
the deep fears that accompany this. The caterpillar literally turns
into a kind of goo, and only from that annihilation of the old form
can the magnificent new form of the butterfly emerge.
We can get a sense of this radical process of self-
transformation from those who have been through it, and be guided by
those who can help us through this process.
James Fadiman & Robert Frager
and God. The final veil is the "I," the sense of separateness we
each carry. To remove this is far from easy. Ask yourself, "How can
I take the "I" out of me?"
The great Sufi philosophers insist that our sense of
individuality is an illusion, that there is only one Reality, which
is God. So self-transformation is to remove all illusions, including
the final illusion, self, in order to experience Reality. Those who
see Sufism as a path of love say the same thing in other words. For
them, the goal is for the beloved, lover, and love to become one.
Most of us believe that we are basically all right as we are.
We just need a little more money, a little more love, a little more
free time--then we would be just fine. The Sufis believe that this
is far from the truth. We all need fundamental change; we need to
hatch into a whole new level of being. Unless we recognize the deep,
tranformational nature of the work we need to do, we are fated to
waste all our efforts. We have devleoped the psychology of the
chicken when what we really need is the psychology of the egg.
The metamorphosis of caterpillar into butterfly is a
particularly good metaphor for self-transformation. At a certain
point the caterpillar feels impelled to wrap itself into a cacoon.
Immobile, it begins to dissolve. There is no sense of a marvelous
new life that is coming; there is only the dissolving of the old, and
the deep fears that accompany this. The caterpillar literally turns
into a kind of goo, and only from that annihilation of the old form
can the magnificent new form of the butterfly emerge.
We can get a sense of this radical process of self-
transformation from those who have been through it, and be guided by
those who can help us through this process.
James Fadiman & Robert Frager
Christian Mystics...
These mystics see in the historic life of Christ an epitome--or if you will, an exhibition--of the essentials of all spiritual life. There they see dramatized not only the cosmic process of the Divine Wisdom, but also the inward experience of every soul on her way to union with that Absolute "to which the whole Creation moves."
This is why the expressions which they use to describe the evolution of the mystical consciousness from the birth of the divine in the spark of the soul to its final unification with the Absolute Life are so constantly chosen from the Drama of Faith.
In this drama they see described under veils the necessary adventures of the spirit. Its obscure and humble birth, its education in poverty, its temptation, mortification and solitude, its "illuminated life" of service and contemplation, the desolation of that "dark night of the soul" in which it seems abandoned by the Divine: the painful death of the self, its resurrection to the glorified existence of the Unitive Way, its final reabsorption in its Source--all these, they say, were lived once in a supreme degree in the flesh.
Moreover, the degree of closeness with which the individual experience adheres to this Pattern is always taken by them as a standard of the healthiness, ardour, and success of its transcendental activities
.
Evelyn Underhill
This is why the expressions which they use to describe the evolution of the mystical consciousness from the birth of the divine in the spark of the soul to its final unification with the Absolute Life are so constantly chosen from the Drama of Faith.
In this drama they see described under veils the necessary adventures of the spirit. Its obscure and humble birth, its education in poverty, its temptation, mortification and solitude, its "illuminated life" of service and contemplation, the desolation of that "dark night of the soul" in which it seems abandoned by the Divine: the painful death of the self, its resurrection to the glorified existence of the Unitive Way, its final reabsorption in its Source--all these, they say, were lived once in a supreme degree in the flesh.
Moreover, the degree of closeness with which the individual experience adheres to this Pattern is always taken by them as a standard of the healthiness, ardour, and success of its transcendental activities
.
Evelyn Underhill
A Current of Energy...
"There is in the body a current of energy, affection, and
intelligence, which guides, maintains and energizes the body.
Discover that current and stay with it."
Nisargadatta Maharaj I AM THAT
intelligence, which guides, maintains and energizes the body.
Discover that current and stay with it."
Nisargadatta Maharaj I AM THAT
The Mystery of Responsiveness..
Misbelief alone misleads; singlemindedness always leads to the goal.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
He who sincerely seeks his real purpose in life is himself sought by
that purpose. As he concentrates on that search a light begins to
clear his confusion, call it revelation, call it inspiration, call it
what you will. It is mistrust that misleads. Sincerity leads straight
to the goal.
Many are the paths that lead to success. The difficulty lies in
keeping strictly to the chosen path, or in other words in retaining
singleness of mind. There is one means only by which man can attain
to a realization of the religious ideal of the Godhead, and that is
through sincerity and singlemindedness in the conduct of everyday
life.
A person with the tendency to respond will succeed in all walks of
life; a person who is not responsive will become disappointed in all
affairs of life. Responsiveness comes by interest, also by
concentration, also by power of one's mind. ... Responsiveness may be
explained as faith, trust, concentration, singlemindedness, a living
interest, contemplation, and love. To respond means to give full
attention and not divided attention but single attention.
Responsiveness is focusing one's whole being to something of
interest. When a person, even in his interest in worldly affairs, has
so developed his faculty of responsiveness, then it becomes easy for
him to respond to the call of the Spirit.
The mystery of responsiveness is that the responsive one must forget
himself in order to respond; and the same mystery may be called the
path to perfection. A person who is not capable of forgetting
himself, however good, pious, or spiritual, will always prove
imperfect in his life. All misery comes from the consciousness of the
self. The one who does not forget is constantly called by his own
limited life, which enslaves him constantly. The one who forgets
himself receives the call of God
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
He who sincerely seeks his real purpose in life is himself sought by
that purpose. As he concentrates on that search a light begins to
clear his confusion, call it revelation, call it inspiration, call it
what you will. It is mistrust that misleads. Sincerity leads straight
to the goal.
Many are the paths that lead to success. The difficulty lies in
keeping strictly to the chosen path, or in other words in retaining
singleness of mind. There is one means only by which man can attain
to a realization of the religious ideal of the Godhead, and that is
through sincerity and singlemindedness in the conduct of everyday
life.
A person with the tendency to respond will succeed in all walks of
life; a person who is not responsive will become disappointed in all
affairs of life. Responsiveness comes by interest, also by
concentration, also by power of one's mind. ... Responsiveness may be
explained as faith, trust, concentration, singlemindedness, a living
interest, contemplation, and love. To respond means to give full
attention and not divided attention but single attention.
Responsiveness is focusing one's whole being to something of
interest. When a person, even in his interest in worldly affairs, has
so developed his faculty of responsiveness, then it becomes easy for
him to respond to the call of the Spirit.
The mystery of responsiveness is that the responsive one must forget
himself in order to respond; and the same mystery may be called the
path to perfection. A person who is not capable of forgetting
himself, however good, pious, or spiritual, will always prove
imperfect in his life. All misery comes from the consciousness of the
self. The one who does not forget is constantly called by his own
limited life, which enslaves him constantly. The one who forgets
himself receives the call of God
The Soul is Love...
The soul is made of love and must ever strive to return to love. Therefore, it can never find rest nor happiness in other things. By its very nature it must seek God, who is love. - Mechthild of Magdeburg
What is Mysticism?...
For what is Mysticism? Is it not the attempt to draw near to God, not by rites or ceremonies, but by inward disposition? Is it not merely a hard word for 'The Kingdom of Heaven is within'? Heaven is neither a place nor a time. - Florence Nightingale
Beyond All - Ashtavakra Gita...
It is hard to find
A man who has an open mind,
Who neither seeks nor shuns
Wealth or pleasure,
Duty or liberation,
Life or death. . .
He does not want the world to end.
He does not mind if it lasts.
Whatever befalls him,
He lives in happiness.
For he is truly blessed.
Now that he understands,
He is fulfilled.
His mind is drawn within,
And he is fulfilled.
He sees and he hears,
He touches and smells and tastes,
And he is happy.
Whatever he does is without purpose.
His senses have been stilled.
His eyes are empty.
A man who has an open mind,
Who neither seeks nor shuns
Wealth or pleasure,
Duty or liberation,
Life or death. . .
He does not want the world to end.
He does not mind if it lasts.
Whatever befalls him,
He lives in happiness.
For he is truly blessed.
Now that he understands,
He is fulfilled.
His mind is drawn within,
And he is fulfilled.
He sees and he hears,
He touches and smells and tastes,
And he is happy.
Whatever he does is without purpose.
His senses have been stilled.
His eyes are empty.
Opposites...
In proportion as we keep our mind free of judgments, it functions without concepts, so that when the principles of life come into expression, they come through as they did through Einstein, as pure law. Similarly, when the Spirit comes through the minds of understanding practitioners who sit in the Silence with no judgment~ not trying to get rid of a disease, not trying to overcome a sin, and not trying to destroy a fear, but just sitting there in a vacuum of God's grace~ the truth comes through in its purity, and the patient says, "I feel better or "I have had a healing."
What creates and perpetuates humanhood is the pairs of opposites~ the belief that flowers are good but that weeds are evil, the belief that robins are good but the bugs on the rosebushes are evil. If, however, we neither gloss over some evil appearance as good, which is merely an old metaphysical cliche', nor judge it bad, but recognize that all that exists is pure Soul, infinitely expressing Itself, eventually even the bugs on the rosebushes find their rightful place where they cannot perform any destructive function. Even the so-called evil people of the world begin to serve a good purpose~ they do, or they are removed from positions where they can work their purposes.
We are approaching a period in the world in which evil will find no room for expression in people, thoughts, and things. It will be crowded right off the earth, because the earth will be so full of the knowledge of this principle of one power that evil will have no channel through which to function. It will be lopped off as fast as it shows its head by this invisible spiritual power that permeates consciousness.
~ Joel S. Goldsmith, The Thunder of Silence
What creates and perpetuates humanhood is the pairs of opposites~ the belief that flowers are good but that weeds are evil, the belief that robins are good but the bugs on the rosebushes are evil. If, however, we neither gloss over some evil appearance as good, which is merely an old metaphysical cliche', nor judge it bad, but recognize that all that exists is pure Soul, infinitely expressing Itself, eventually even the bugs on the rosebushes find their rightful place where they cannot perform any destructive function. Even the so-called evil people of the world begin to serve a good purpose~ they do, or they are removed from positions where they can work their purposes.
We are approaching a period in the world in which evil will find no room for expression in people, thoughts, and things. It will be crowded right off the earth, because the earth will be so full of the knowledge of this principle of one power that evil will have no channel through which to function. It will be lopped off as fast as it shows its head by this invisible spiritual power that permeates consciousness.
~ Joel S. Goldsmith, The Thunder of Silence
Awakening by Adyashanti ...
A: Good evening. Are you enjoying yourself? Yes. I hope so. Welcome. We're awful glad to have you here. So there are two qualities or two aspects to awakening. They don't always occur simultaneously with awakening, with the realization of our nature. And one of these aspects is to put it in something so trivial as words or explanation, one of the aspects of awakening is the realization of your own nothingness, your own no-thingness. It's the direct realization that there is no separate individual being called me. It's the realization that what you are is much more akin to simple and pure awareness without form, without attributes. This is one aspect of realization. It is the most common aspect of realization. The second aspect of realization is the realization of Pure Being. It's the realization of true Oneness. Whereas to realize your own nothingness is in a manner of speaking is to go from somebody in particular to being the transcendent witness. And seeing that since there is no one in particular that is separate, that all things happen quite spontaneously in this witnessing state. It's not a state where you are being aware, it's a state where you being Awareness itself. Where you realize you are Awareness itself. Not someone or something that is aware. That's the trance state, I am something or somebody who is aware, who possesses awareness or who possess consciousness. With this aspect of awakening to our true nature we realize that conclusion that we are someone or something who is aware or conscious, is an illusion. It's much more true to say if we are anything we are awareness itself. And awareness is what is aware, consciousness is what is conscious. Not a separate or individual person. One can have that realization without having the realization of being. Being is the realization, it's not caught in the realization of emptiness. It's not caught of the witness. It is that realization where we see that the "I" is universal. That everything is an expression of being or I often call it spirit. Everything, literally everything is an expression, a manifestation of or full embodiment of spirit or being. Everything has the quality, almost as if you look in the mirror it has the quality of self-recognition. You see self in all. Or if you were more religiously-minded you may say you see God in all, as long as God isn't seen as something separate from what you are. So this is Being which is true Oneness. Everything is actually of exactly the same essence and that essence is, that substance is what you are. You are that substance, that substance is you and everything and everyone else. You can have either one of these realizations without the other. It depends. Some people get them as a package deal. You realize that you are nothing and you realize that you are everything all at the same time. Some people get the realization of nothingness without the realization of Oneness really, of pure Being. That will maybe come weeks, months or years later. In fact it's more common to realize the transcendent witness than to realize Oneness. You realize that first and the other later. Or sometimes quickly. For me they were almost simultaneously but one came about two minutes after the other. With other people they come all at the same time. But I think this is important to understand because as you start to wake up, as you start to unfold, if there is no understanding of this, it's possible to be confused because you can wake up as awareness itself without really getting the oneness part. Unless you get that Awareness itself is what everything is then that would be Oneness also. But as I say they don't always come together. It's much easier to point to one's inherent nothingness, it's much easier to point in the direction that you are awareness or you are consciousness in its witnessing aspect. That's a very easy thing to point to, it's a very easy to talk about. To point someone in the direction of Oneness, it's literally impossible 'cause there's nowhere to point. If everything is One where are you pointing? It sort of get's very difficult. That's why theres not that many pointers toward real Oneness except to say that its really what the spiritual quest is ultimately all about. Pure Being. Or as they say in India: Being, Consciousness, Bliss. It's not just Being, it's not just Consciousness, it's not just Bliss. These things aren't actually as separate as they sound when I'm talking about them. It's sounds like they are very distinct and separate but it's just the way it comes through language and it may actually come this way through experience. You may experience one to the exclusion of the other. But ultimately it's all one thing. Or as I image allot of you have heard the very famous phrase that Nisargardatta used to say: "When I look within and see that I am nothing, that's wisdom. When I look out and see that I am everything, that's love and between those two my life turns." Looking within we find that we are nothing. Looking out we find we are everything. That's the completion, that's both sides. That's a fully formed realization. And often the doorway to Oneness, to pure being is through the doorway of pure awareness, of no-thing-ness. That's why it's often talked about. It's often the doorway. To dislodge the identity from its false image and to realize that you are not the image but the awareness of the image is a much easier step in one manner of speaking than to realize that everything is one being, one spirit. Does that make sense? If it doesn't, it will. Don't worry. Everything makes sense eventually.
Adyashanti
Omega 2007
Monday Evening Satsang
Adyashanti
Omega 2007
Monday Evening Satsang
The Belief in Good and Evil...
The tree of Life was planted in the mist of us. If you eat of this tree
in the midst of you, it is said that you will live forever. If you rise
above the mind that sees good and evil, if you rise about the belief in
good and evil you will live forever. You will no longer be in the cycle
of birth and death. You will be free in your Christ identity. You will
step right out of a sense of duality and into the oneness of God.
Christ Jesus showed us this when he overcame the belief in good and
evil, which was revealed to us when he said as, "I have overcome the
world," he rose into his Spiritual Self. And from the heights of that
awareness, he was able to manifest himself in the visible or take
himself into the invisible; back and forth; visible and invisible.
When you ascend up over the mind, whether temporarily in your
meditation, or permanently in your conscious awareness, you are able to
stand in the Invisible Spiritual Self, Spiritual Creation, Spiritual
Kingdom. And this you do, right here and now. This is your inheritance!
--
Bill Skiles
www.mysticalprinciples.com
in the midst of you, it is said that you will live forever. If you rise
above the mind that sees good and evil, if you rise about the belief in
good and evil you will live forever. You will no longer be in the cycle
of birth and death. You will be free in your Christ identity. You will
step right out of a sense of duality and into the oneness of God.
Christ Jesus showed us this when he overcame the belief in good and
evil, which was revealed to us when he said as, "I have overcome the
world," he rose into his Spiritual Self. And from the heights of that
awareness, he was able to manifest himself in the visible or take
himself into the invisible; back and forth; visible and invisible.
When you ascend up over the mind, whether temporarily in your
meditation, or permanently in your conscious awareness, you are able to
stand in the Invisible Spiritual Self, Spiritual Creation, Spiritual
Kingdom. And this you do, right here and now. This is your inheritance!
--
Bill Skiles
www.mysticalprinciples.com
The Standard of God...
To learn to adopt the standard of God, and to cease to wish to make the
world conform to one's own standard of good, is the chief lesson of
religion.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
When people came to Christ accusing a person of doing wrong, the Master
could not think of anything else but forgiveness. For he did not see in
the wrongdoer what the others saw. To distinguish between right and
wrong is not the work of an ordinary mind, and the curious thing is
that the more ignorant a person is, the more ready he is to do so.
world conform to one's own standard of good, is the chief lesson of
religion.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
When people came to Christ accusing a person of doing wrong, the Master
could not think of anything else but forgiveness. For he did not see in
the wrongdoer what the others saw. To distinguish between right and
wrong is not the work of an ordinary mind, and the curious thing is
that the more ignorant a person is, the more ready he is to do so.
Kindness...
You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will
be too late......
Ralph Waldo Emerson
be too late......
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Abundance...
To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one's own in
the midst of abundance........Gautama the Buddha
the midst of abundance........Gautama the Buddha
The Coming of Truth...
The coming of truth can be devastatingly cruel to some persons and immeasurably kind to others. Or it can be both to the same person at different periods of his life. It is not directly concerned with personal happiness.............Paul Brunton
" You must Die to be Born again"...
'''These words from Jesus are very important for Self-Realization..'''I think that we all know that death is a lie. but, the
point of "Dying to be Born Again" has nothing to do with the physical
body.. It is a mental exercise in which you completely surrender your
ego and all beliefs in the existence of the body and mind.. You
accept the fact that you do not exist.. You realize that you are
nothingness.. Then something happens, something called Grace,
something called Freedom,something called Light and Love, and then you find yourself back in the body
with the intense feeling that you have just been
Born..........namaste, thomas
point of "Dying to be Born Again" has nothing to do with the physical
body.. It is a mental exercise in which you completely surrender your
ego and all beliefs in the existence of the body and mind.. You
accept the fact that you do not exist.. You realize that you are
nothingness.. Then something happens, something called Grace,
something called Freedom,something called Light and Love, and then you find yourself back in the body
with the intense feeling that you have just been
Born..........namaste, thomas
Virtue...
Do not limit God to your virtue. He is beyond your virtues, O pious
ones!
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
There is no such thing as impossible. All is possible. Impossible is
made by the limitation of our capacity of understanding. Man, blinded
by the law of nature's working, by the law of consequences which he
has known through his few years life on earth, begins to say, 'This
is possible and that is impossible.' If he were to rise beyond
limitations, his soul would see nothing but possible. And when the
soul has risen high enough to see all possibility, that soul
certainly has caught a glimpse of God.
Many have been resentful towards God for having sent them misery in
their lives, but misery is always part of life's experience. Some may
become very angry and say, 'This is not just', or 'This is not right,
for how could God who is just and good allow unjust things to
happen?' But our sight is very limited, and our conception of right
and wrong and good and evil is only our own, and not according to
God's plan. It is true that as long as we see it as such, it is so
for us and for those who look at it from our point of view; but when
it comes to God the whole dimension is changed, the whole point of
view is changed.
It is for this reason that the wise in all ages, instead of trying to
judge the action of God, have so to speak put aside their sense of
justice for the time being; and they have tried to learn one thing
only, and that was resignation to the will of God.
The Being of God is recognized by His attributes. Therefore man
speaks of God as the just God. He sees all power, all goodness in
God; but when the situation is changed, when he sees God as
injustice, he begins to think that God is powerless, and to judge the
action of God. But one must look at this from a different point of
view. Human beings are limited, imperfect, and yet we try to judge
the perfect Being, or His perfect action, from our own imperfect
standpoint. In order to judge, our vision must become as wide as the
universe; then we might have a slight glimpse of the justice, which
is perfect in itself.
ones!
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
There is no such thing as impossible. All is possible. Impossible is
made by the limitation of our capacity of understanding. Man, blinded
by the law of nature's working, by the law of consequences which he
has known through his few years life on earth, begins to say, 'This
is possible and that is impossible.' If he were to rise beyond
limitations, his soul would see nothing but possible. And when the
soul has risen high enough to see all possibility, that soul
certainly has caught a glimpse of God.
Many have been resentful towards God for having sent them misery in
their lives, but misery is always part of life's experience. Some may
become very angry and say, 'This is not just', or 'This is not right,
for how could God who is just and good allow unjust things to
happen?' But our sight is very limited, and our conception of right
and wrong and good and evil is only our own, and not according to
God's plan. It is true that as long as we see it as such, it is so
for us and for those who look at it from our point of view; but when
it comes to God the whole dimension is changed, the whole point of
view is changed.
It is for this reason that the wise in all ages, instead of trying to
judge the action of God, have so to speak put aside their sense of
justice for the time being; and they have tried to learn one thing
only, and that was resignation to the will of God.
The Being of God is recognized by His attributes. Therefore man
speaks of God as the just God. He sees all power, all goodness in
God; but when the situation is changed, when he sees God as
injustice, he begins to think that God is powerless, and to judge the
action of God. But one must look at this from a different point of
view. Human beings are limited, imperfect, and yet we try to judge
the perfect Being, or His perfect action, from our own imperfect
standpoint. In order to judge, our vision must become as wide as the
universe; then we might have a slight glimpse of the justice, which
is perfect in itself.
The Wisdom of Eckhart Tolle...
Having access to that formless realm is truly liberating. It frees you from bondage to form and identification with form. It is life in its undifferentiated state prior to its fragmentation into multiplicity. We may call it the Unmanifested, the invisible Source of all things, the Being within all beings. It is a realm of deep stillness and peace, but also of joy and intense aliveness. Whenever you are present, you become "transparent" to some extent to the light, the pure consciousness that emanates from this Source. You also realize that the light is not separate from who you are but constitutes your very essence.
You are not just a meaningless fragment in an alien universe, briefly suspended between life and death, allowed a few short-lived pleasures followed by pain and ultimate annihilation. Underneath your outer form, you are connected with something so vast, so immeasurable and sacred, that it cannot be spoken of - yet I am speaking of it now. I am speaking of it now not to give you something to believe in but to show you how you can know it for yourself.
Being is not only beyond but also deep within every form as its innermost invisible and indestructible essence. This means that it is accessible to you now as your own deepest self, your true nature. But don't seek to grasp it with your mind. Don't try to understand it. You can know it only when the mind is still. When you are present, when your attention is fully and intensely in the Now, Being can be felt, but it can never be understood mentally. To regain awareness of Being and to abide in that state of "feeling-realization" is enlightenment.
Eckhart Tolle emerged as a great spiritual leader over the last few years. His teaching through such powerful work as The Power of Now, guides all to truth, through being present in the moment in the Now, and awakening to who we truly are: natural state of Being. Below are excerpts from The Power of Now, Practicing the Power of Now, and Stillness Speaks.
The word enlightenment conjures up the idea of some superhuman accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way, but it is simply your natural state of felt oneness with Being. It is a state of connectedness with something immeasurable and indestructible, something that, almost paradoxically, is essentially you and yet is much greater than you. It is finding your true nature beyond name and form.
Beyond the beauty of external forms, there is more here: something that cannot be named, something ineffable, some deep, inner, holy essence. Whenever and wherever there is beauty, this inner essence shines through somehow. It only reveals itself to you when you are present.
When your consciousness is directed outward, mind
and world arise. When it is directed inward, it realizes its
own Source and returns home into the Unmanifested.
The Power of Now
Back To Words of Wisdom
Be present as the watcher of your mind -- of your thoughts and emotions as well as your reactions in various situations. Be at least as interested in your reactions as in the situation or person that causes you to react. Notice also how often your attention is in the past or future. Don't judge or analyze what you observe. Watch the thought, feel the emotion, observe the reaction. Don't make a personal problem out of them. You will then feel something more powerful than any of those things that you observe: the still, observing presence itself behind the content of your mind, the silent watcher.
Reincarnation doesn't help you if in your next incarnation you still don't know who you are.
Stillness Speaks
Identification with your mind creates an opaque screen of concepts, labels, images, words, judgments, and definitions that blocks all true relationship. It comes between you and yourself, between you and your fellow man and woman, between you and nature, between you and God. It is this screen of thought that creates the illusion of separateness, the illusion that there is you and a totally separate "other." You then forget the essential fact that, underneath the level of physical appearances and separate forms, you are one with all that is.
Many expressions that are in common usage, and sometimes the structure of language itself, reveal the fact that people don't know who they are. You say: "He lost his life" or "my life," as if life were something that you can possess or lose. The truth is: you don't have a life, you are life. The One Life, the one consciousness that pervades the entire universe and takes temporary form to experience itself as a stone or blade of grass, as an animal, a person, a star or a galaxy.
Stillness Speaks
The Truth is far more all-encompassing than the mind could ever comprehend. No thought can encapsulate the Truth. At best, it can point to it. For example, it can say: "All things are intrinsically one." That is a pointer, not an explanation. Understanding these words means feeling deep within you the truth to which they point.
Stillness Speaks
When you walk through a forest that has not been tamed and interfered with by man, you will see not only abundant life all around you, but you will also encounter fallen trees and decaying trunks, rotting leaves and decomposing matter at every step. Wherever you look, you will find death as well as life.
Upon closer scrutiny, however, you will discover that the decomposing tree trunk and rotting leaves not only give birth to new life, but are full of life themselves. Microorganisms are at work. Molecules are rearranging themselves. So death isn't to be found anywhere. There is only the metamorphosis of life forms. What can you learn from this?
Death is not the opposite of life. Life has no opposite. The opposite of death is birth. Life is eternal.
Stillness Speaks
Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to "die before you die" --- and find that there is no death.
The Power of Now
Humanity is under great pressure to evolve because it is our only chance of survival as a race. This will affect every aspect of your life and close relationships in particular. Never before have relationships been as problematic and conflict ridden as they are now. As you may continue to pursue the goal of salvation through a relationship, you will be disillusioned again and again. But if you accept that the relationship is here to make you conscious instead of happy, then the relationship will offer you salvation, and you will be aligning yourself with the higher consciousness that wants to be born into this world. For those who hold to the old patterns, there will be increasing pain, violence, confusion, and madness.
The Power of Now
All the misery on the planet arises due to a personalized sense of "me" or "us." That covers up the essence of who you are. When you are unaware of that inner essence, in the end you always create misery. It's as simple as that. When you don't know who you are, you create a mind-made self as a substitute for your beautiful divine being and cling to that fearful and needy self.
Protecting and enhancing that false sense of self then becomes your primary motivating force.
Stillness Speaks
When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.
Your innermost sense of self, of who you are, is inseparable from stillness. This is the I Am that is deeper than name and form.
You are not just a meaningless fragment in an alien universe, briefly suspended between life and death, allowed a few short-lived pleasures followed by pain and ultimate annihilation. Underneath your outer form, you are connected with something so vast, so immeasurable and sacred, that it cannot be spoken of - yet I am speaking of it now. I am speaking of it now not to give you something to believe in but to show you how you can know it for yourself.
Being is not only beyond but also deep within every form as its innermost invisible and indestructible essence. This means that it is accessible to you now as your own deepest self, your true nature. But don't seek to grasp it with your mind. Don't try to understand it. You can know it only when the mind is still. When you are present, when your attention is fully and intensely in the Now, Being can be felt, but it can never be understood mentally. To regain awareness of Being and to abide in that state of "feeling-realization" is enlightenment.
Eckhart Tolle emerged as a great spiritual leader over the last few years. His teaching through such powerful work as The Power of Now, guides all to truth, through being present in the moment in the Now, and awakening to who we truly are: natural state of Being. Below are excerpts from The Power of Now, Practicing the Power of Now, and Stillness Speaks.
The word enlightenment conjures up the idea of some superhuman accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way, but it is simply your natural state of felt oneness with Being. It is a state of connectedness with something immeasurable and indestructible, something that, almost paradoxically, is essentially you and yet is much greater than you. It is finding your true nature beyond name and form.
Beyond the beauty of external forms, there is more here: something that cannot be named, something ineffable, some deep, inner, holy essence. Whenever and wherever there is beauty, this inner essence shines through somehow. It only reveals itself to you when you are present.
When your consciousness is directed outward, mind
and world arise. When it is directed inward, it realizes its
own Source and returns home into the Unmanifested.
The Power of Now
Back To Words of Wisdom
Be present as the watcher of your mind -- of your thoughts and emotions as well as your reactions in various situations. Be at least as interested in your reactions as in the situation or person that causes you to react. Notice also how often your attention is in the past or future. Don't judge or analyze what you observe. Watch the thought, feel the emotion, observe the reaction. Don't make a personal problem out of them. You will then feel something more powerful than any of those things that you observe: the still, observing presence itself behind the content of your mind, the silent watcher.
Reincarnation doesn't help you if in your next incarnation you still don't know who you are.
Stillness Speaks
Identification with your mind creates an opaque screen of concepts, labels, images, words, judgments, and definitions that blocks all true relationship. It comes between you and yourself, between you and your fellow man and woman, between you and nature, between you and God. It is this screen of thought that creates the illusion of separateness, the illusion that there is you and a totally separate "other." You then forget the essential fact that, underneath the level of physical appearances and separate forms, you are one with all that is.
Many expressions that are in common usage, and sometimes the structure of language itself, reveal the fact that people don't know who they are. You say: "He lost his life" or "my life," as if life were something that you can possess or lose. The truth is: you don't have a life, you are life. The One Life, the one consciousness that pervades the entire universe and takes temporary form to experience itself as a stone or blade of grass, as an animal, a person, a star or a galaxy.
Stillness Speaks
The Truth is far more all-encompassing than the mind could ever comprehend. No thought can encapsulate the Truth. At best, it can point to it. For example, it can say: "All things are intrinsically one." That is a pointer, not an explanation. Understanding these words means feeling deep within you the truth to which they point.
Stillness Speaks
When you walk through a forest that has not been tamed and interfered with by man, you will see not only abundant life all around you, but you will also encounter fallen trees and decaying trunks, rotting leaves and decomposing matter at every step. Wherever you look, you will find death as well as life.
Upon closer scrutiny, however, you will discover that the decomposing tree trunk and rotting leaves not only give birth to new life, but are full of life themselves. Microorganisms are at work. Molecules are rearranging themselves. So death isn't to be found anywhere. There is only the metamorphosis of life forms. What can you learn from this?
Death is not the opposite of life. Life has no opposite. The opposite of death is birth. Life is eternal.
Stillness Speaks
Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to "die before you die" --- and find that there is no death.
The Power of Now
Humanity is under great pressure to evolve because it is our only chance of survival as a race. This will affect every aspect of your life and close relationships in particular. Never before have relationships been as problematic and conflict ridden as they are now. As you may continue to pursue the goal of salvation through a relationship, you will be disillusioned again and again. But if you accept that the relationship is here to make you conscious instead of happy, then the relationship will offer you salvation, and you will be aligning yourself with the higher consciousness that wants to be born into this world. For those who hold to the old patterns, there will be increasing pain, violence, confusion, and madness.
The Power of Now
All the misery on the planet arises due to a personalized sense of "me" or "us." That covers up the essence of who you are. When you are unaware of that inner essence, in the end you always create misery. It's as simple as that. When you don't know who you are, you create a mind-made self as a substitute for your beautiful divine being and cling to that fearful and needy self.
Protecting and enhancing that false sense of self then becomes your primary motivating force.
Stillness Speaks
When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.
Your innermost sense of self, of who you are, is inseparable from stillness. This is the I Am that is deeper than name and form.
Presence...
I am Presence;
not, I am present or you are present
or he is present.
When one sees the situation as it really is,
that no individual is involved,
that what is present is Presence as a whole,
then the moment this is perceived
there is liberation.
-Nisargadatta Maharaj
not, I am present or you are present
or he is present.
When one sees the situation as it really is,
that no individual is involved,
that what is present is Presence as a whole,
then the moment this is perceived
there is liberation.
-Nisargadatta Maharaj
A Purpose...
Everything that is once felt, thought, or spoken is born as a living
being, with a destiny, with a purpose to fulfill; and as it has birth,
it necessarily has death. therefore, besides living beings,
feelings, words, thoughts, and the effects of one's actions float in
the air , rise up and come down, swing hither and thither , and seek
their location in objects and in living beings.
From the Teachings of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & arranged by
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT KHAN
being, with a destiny, with a purpose to fulfill; and as it has birth,
it necessarily has death. therefore, besides living beings,
feelings, words, thoughts, and the effects of one's actions float in
the air , rise up and come down, swing hither and thither , and seek
their location in objects and in living beings.
From the Teachings of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & arranged by
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT KHAN
Satan...
In Islam, Satan is identified as the single angel who, setting
himself apart from all other angelic beings, refused God's command to
bow down before Adam on the day of his creation. When questioned by
the Creator as to why he disobeyed, the Devil answered that he bowed
down solely to the Divine, not to any of the created. Unrepentant,
he also argued that God's will determines all things, so it would not
have been possible for him to refuse God's command unless God himself
had allowed him to do so.
For this, he was banished from Heavan, and was taken away from
the presence of God. No more does the eye of God enlighten him; no
more will the touch of God give him joy.
But in spite of this punishment, he had never lost his love for
God.
He alone, of all the beings in the cosmos, loves God without
gain, without hope, without even the possiblity of feeling loved in
return. Thus, seen objectively, this unrequited love is the most
pure of any. The Devil serves without reward.
Even while bearing the burden of eternal separation, the Devil
has taken on the thankless and usually misunderstood task of creating
obstacles for human beings. What few realize is that, through rising
above these obstacles, we are able to rise to where he cannot go,
stepping over him in our ascent toward our own higher natures. The
Devil toughens us, forces us to remain awake, and offers lessons as
no other angel can. Would we have learned to walk if our parents had
continued to carry us everywhere? Our troubles and temptations, even
if truly given to us by the Devil, are still ultimately gifts of God.
James Fadiman & Robert Frager
himself apart from all other angelic beings, refused God's command to
bow down before Adam on the day of his creation. When questioned by
the Creator as to why he disobeyed, the Devil answered that he bowed
down solely to the Divine, not to any of the created. Unrepentant,
he also argued that God's will determines all things, so it would not
have been possible for him to refuse God's command unless God himself
had allowed him to do so.
For this, he was banished from Heavan, and was taken away from
the presence of God. No more does the eye of God enlighten him; no
more will the touch of God give him joy.
But in spite of this punishment, he had never lost his love for
God.
He alone, of all the beings in the cosmos, loves God without
gain, without hope, without even the possiblity of feeling loved in
return. Thus, seen objectively, this unrequited love is the most
pure of any. The Devil serves without reward.
Even while bearing the burden of eternal separation, the Devil
has taken on the thankless and usually misunderstood task of creating
obstacles for human beings. What few realize is that, through rising
above these obstacles, we are able to rise to where he cannot go,
stepping over him in our ascent toward our own higher natures. The
Devil toughens us, forces us to remain awake, and offers lessons as
no other angel can. Would we have learned to walk if our parents had
continued to carry us everywhere? Our troubles and temptations, even
if truly given to us by the Devil, are still ultimately gifts of God.
James Fadiman & Robert Frager
Take Time...
The time you take to help others along the way helps you more than it does those you help........Guy Finlay
Be Thankful...
Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.....
Gautama the Buddha
Gautama the Buddha
To Attain Knowledge...
What does mysticism really mean? It means the way to attain knowledge. It's close to philosophy, except in philosophy you go horizontally while in mysticism you go vertically......
Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel
Mysticism...
Mysticism is not this or that particular cup on the table; it is the water poured into all of them.....
~ Vernon Howard
~ Vernon Howard
The Vastness...
The mind has to know that it can't grasp
what I am about to describe.
The Vastness is perceiving itself out of itself
at every moment. within every particle of itself
everywhere simultaneously.........
Suzanne Segal
what I am about to describe.
The Vastness is perceiving itself out of itself
at every moment. within every particle of itself
everywhere simultaneously.........
Suzanne Segal
If God is within you...
'Umar 'Abu'l-Aziz once wrote a letter to Hasan al-Basri in which he
requested some brief advice that would serve him. On the back of the
envelope, Hasan wrote, "O Commander of the Faithful, if God is with
you, then what do you fear, and if God isn't with you, in what can you
have hope?"
as collected by James Fadiman & Robert Frager
requested some brief advice that would serve him. On the back of the
envelope, Hasan wrote, "O Commander of the Faithful, if God is with
you, then what do you fear, and if God isn't with you, in what can you
have hope?"
as collected by James Fadiman & Robert Frager
THE UNPUBLISHED NOTES OF RICHARD ROSE...
(The following is an excerpt from Rose’s paper
he titled, “The Mind.” Though undated, it was
most likely written in the 1970’s, prior to
publication of The Psychology of the Observer.)
The Unmanifested Mind is not demonstrable.
The technique for studying it is. If you would see
the true source of illusion, instead of living
vicariously on the screen of the theatre, --follow
the light back through the lens of the projector.
This may appear utterly ridiculous if taken
literally, but it remains that we must observe the
observer, not the make-believe which all of us
agree is life-drama. We are chained to the
theatre, rather than to a Platonic cave. We
identify ourselves with veritable shadows, and
laugh and weep at their motions. And perhaps
we come back repeatedly to see the same show,
to purge ourselves of Reality in a repetition of
drama drawn from the Matrix of the dimension
of the Unmanifested Mind.
When we observe the observer, we sense several
things. One is that we have been in a dream state,
and must return to a dream state as long as we
are in this body. We observe also that the Dream
State is very real, in that it is for us the only life
for us until we awaken. And it is inescapable that
we must deduce that dream-life is a real
manifestation of some agency within ourselves
that acts as a creator. It is as though we were
born with a false face, which all through life we
accepted as our true face, because it was all we
knew as a face, and because our friends accepted
it as true. The face would literally have to fall off
by accident for us to know that it was not our
true self.
he titled, “The Mind.” Though undated, it was
most likely written in the 1970’s, prior to
publication of The Psychology of the Observer.)
The Unmanifested Mind is not demonstrable.
The technique for studying it is. If you would see
the true source of illusion, instead of living
vicariously on the screen of the theatre, --follow
the light back through the lens of the projector.
This may appear utterly ridiculous if taken
literally, but it remains that we must observe the
observer, not the make-believe which all of us
agree is life-drama. We are chained to the
theatre, rather than to a Platonic cave. We
identify ourselves with veritable shadows, and
laugh and weep at their motions. And perhaps
we come back repeatedly to see the same show,
to purge ourselves of Reality in a repetition of
drama drawn from the Matrix of the dimension
of the Unmanifested Mind.
When we observe the observer, we sense several
things. One is that we have been in a dream state,
and must return to a dream state as long as we
are in this body. We observe also that the Dream
State is very real, in that it is for us the only life
for us until we awaken. And it is inescapable that
we must deduce that dream-life is a real
manifestation of some agency within ourselves
that acts as a creator. It is as though we were
born with a false face, which all through life we
accepted as our true face, because it was all we
knew as a face, and because our friends accepted
it as true. The face would literally have to fall off
by accident for us to know that it was not our
true self.
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