There are two viewpoints: a qualified truth for the lower stage of
aspirants which admits duality; and the complete viewpoint of
nonduality for the highest student; thus for practical life, when
dealing with other people or when engaged in some activity,
those in the first stage must accept the notion of the world being real,
because of expediency; yet even so, when they are alone or when
keeping quiet, inactive, they ought to revert back to regarding the
world, which includes one's own body as a part of it, as idea. Only
for the sage is the truth always present, no matter whether he is with others,
whether he is working, or whether he is in trance, and this truth is continuous awareness of
one Reality alone and one Self alone...........Paul Brunton
The Ideal of Limitlessness...
Even to utter the name of God is a blessing that can fill the soul with light
and joy and happiness as nothing else can do.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
In the East, religion is sown in the heart of the child from birth, no matter to
what religion he may belong. The invocation of the name of God becomes a daily
custom, which he consciously or unconsciously repeats in sorrow as well as in
joy. 'bismillah' -- In the name of Allah, or 'al-hamdulillah' -- Praise be to
Allah, or 'Allahu akbar' -- God is great, and 'ya Allah' -- O God; such
expressions as these are used at the beginning and the end, as well as in the
midst of every ordinary conversation. This attunes the believer and even
attracts the unbeliever to the thought of God, which in the end leads the seeker
to self-realization and the peace of God.
A thousand people may say the same prayer; but one person's prayer said with
such faith and belief is equal to the prayers of a thousand people, because that
prayer is not mechanical. Man is mechanical and he generally says his prayers
mechanically too. If he is genuine and if he has faith and belief and devotion,
all he says has an effect; and that effect will perform miracles. ... When he
invokes the names of God man forgets his limitations and impresses his soul with
the thought of the Unlimited, which brings him to the ideal of limitlessness.
This is the secret of life's attainment.
The mystic on the spiritual path perseveres in wiping out this false ego as much
as he can, by meditation, by concentration, by prayer, by study, by everything
that he does. His one aim is to wipe out so much that one day reality, which is
always there buried under the false ego, may manifest.
By calling on the Name of God, in the form of prayer, or in zikr, or in any
other form, what the mystic does is to awaken the spirit of the real ego, in
order that it may manifest. It is just like a spring that rises up out of the
rock and that, as soon as the water has gained power and strength, breaks even
through stone and becomes a stream. So it is with the divine spark in man.
Through concentration, through meditation, it breaks out and manifests; and
where it manifests, it washes away the stains of the false ego and turns into a
greater and greater stream. This in turn becomes the source of comfort,
consolation, healing and happiness for all who come into contact with that
spirit.
and joy and happiness as nothing else can do.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
In the East, religion is sown in the heart of the child from birth, no matter to
what religion he may belong. The invocation of the name of God becomes a daily
custom, which he consciously or unconsciously repeats in sorrow as well as in
joy. 'bismillah' -- In the name of Allah, or 'al-hamdulillah' -- Praise be to
Allah, or 'Allahu akbar' -- God is great, and 'ya Allah' -- O God; such
expressions as these are used at the beginning and the end, as well as in the
midst of every ordinary conversation. This attunes the believer and even
attracts the unbeliever to the thought of God, which in the end leads the seeker
to self-realization and the peace of God.
A thousand people may say the same prayer; but one person's prayer said with
such faith and belief is equal to the prayers of a thousand people, because that
prayer is not mechanical. Man is mechanical and he generally says his prayers
mechanically too. If he is genuine and if he has faith and belief and devotion,
all he says has an effect; and that effect will perform miracles. ... When he
invokes the names of God man forgets his limitations and impresses his soul with
the thought of the Unlimited, which brings him to the ideal of limitlessness.
This is the secret of life's attainment.
The mystic on the spiritual path perseveres in wiping out this false ego as much
as he can, by meditation, by concentration, by prayer, by study, by everything
that he does. His one aim is to wipe out so much that one day reality, which is
always there buried under the false ego, may manifest.
By calling on the Name of God, in the form of prayer, or in zikr, or in any
other form, what the mystic does is to awaken the spirit of the real ego, in
order that it may manifest. It is just like a spring that rises up out of the
rock and that, as soon as the water has gained power and strength, breaks even
through stone and becomes a stream. So it is with the divine spark in man.
Through concentration, through meditation, it breaks out and manifests; and
where it manifests, it washes away the stains of the false ego and turns into a
greater and greater stream. This in turn becomes the source of comfort,
consolation, healing and happiness for all who come into contact with that
spirit.
Self-Delusion...
Self delusion is the belief in the Ego, this is the only delusion that we
have.. When we have completely surrendered this Self delusion, we find our True
Self.. We know that this experience is Real because we have no more Desires to
bind us to the Ego, and are finally Free.. This Freedom and Love that we
experience is the Most Real Event that we have ever experienced.. This
experience is the reason why those that have found this Truth start Schools that
often become Religions, as the person finds that they must transmit this
Knowledge to others so that they too will rise beyond Ignorance and
Pain..........namaste, thomas
have.. When we have completely surrendered this Self delusion, we find our True
Self.. We know that this experience is Real because we have no more Desires to
bind us to the Ego, and are finally Free.. This Freedom and Love that we
experience is the Most Real Event that we have ever experienced.. This
experience is the reason why those that have found this Truth start Schools that
often become Religions, as the person finds that they must transmit this
Knowledge to others so that they too will rise beyond Ignorance and
Pain..........namaste, thomas
An Inner Revolution...
The enlightenment I speak of is not simply a realization, not simply the discovery of one’s true nature. This discovery is just the beginning—the point of entry into an inner revolution. Realization does not guarantee this revolution; it simply makes it possible.
What is this inner revolution? To begin with, revolution is not static; it is alive, ongoing, and continuous. It cannot be grasped or made to fit into any conceptual model. Nor is there any path to this inner revolution, for it is neither predictable nor controllable and has a life all its own. This revolution is a breaking away from the old, repetitive, dead structures of thought and perception that humanity finds itself trapped in. Realization of the ultimate reality is a direct and sudden existential awakening to one’s true nature that opens the door to the possibility of an inner revolution. Such a revolution requires an ongoing emptying out of the old structures of consciousness and the birth of a living and fluid intelligence. This intelligence restructures your entire being—body, mind, and perception. This intelligence cuts the mind free of its old structures that are rooted within the totality of human consciousness. If one cannot become free of the old conditioned structures of human consciousness, then one is still in a prison.
Having an awakening to one’s true nature does not necessarily mean that there will be an ongoing revolution in the way one perceives, acts, and responds to life. The moment of awakening shows us what is ultimately true and real as well as revealing a deeper possibility in the way that life can be lived from an undivided and unconditioned state of being. But the moment of awakening does not guarantee this deeper possibility, as many who have experienced spiritual awakening can attest to. Awakening opens a door inside to a deep inner revolution, but in no way guarantees that it will take place. Whether it takes place or not depends on many factors, but none more important and vital than an earnest and unambiguous intention for truth above and beyond all else. This earnest intention toward truth is what all spiritual growth ultimately depends upon, especially when it transcends all personal preferences, agendas, and goals.
This inner revolution is the awakening of an intelligence not born of the mind but of an inner silence of mind, which alone has the ability to uproot all of the old structures of one’s consciousness. Unless these structures are uprooted, there will be no creative thought, action, or response. Unless there is an inner revolution, nothing new and fresh can flower. Only the old, the repetitious, the conditioned will flower in the absence of this revolution. But our potential lies beyond the known, beyond the structures of the past, beyond anything that humanity has established. Our potential is something that can flower only when we are no longer caught within the influence and limitations of the known. Beyond the realm of the mind, beyond the limitations of humanity’s conditioned consciousness, lies that which can be called the sacred. And it is from the sacred that a new and fluid consciousness is born that wipes away the old and brings to life the flowering of a living and undivided expression of being. Such an expression is neither personal nor impersonal, neither spiritual nor worldly, but rather the flow and flowering of existence beyond all notions of self.
So let us understand that reality transcends all of our notions about reality. Reality is neither Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Advaita Vedanta, nor Buddhist. It is neither dualistic nor nondualistic, neither spiritual nor nonspiritual. We should come to know that there is more reality and sacredness in a blade of grass than in all of our thoughts and ideas about reality. When we perceive from an undivided consciousness, we will find the sacred in every expression of life. We will find it in our teacup, in the fall breeze, in the brushing of our teeth, in each and every moment of living and dying. Therefore we must leave the entire collection of conditioned thought behind and let ourselves be led by the inner thread of silence into the unknown, beyond where all paths end, to that place where we go innocently or not at all—not once but continually.
One must be willing to stand alone—in the unknown, with no reference to the known or the past or any of one’s conditioning. One must stand where no one has stood before in complete nakedness, innocence, and humility. One must stand in that dark light, in that groundless embrace, unwavering and true to the reality beyond all self—not just for a moment, but forever without end. For then that which is sacred, undivided, and whole is born within consciousness and begins to express itself.
© Adyashanti 2008
What is this inner revolution? To begin with, revolution is not static; it is alive, ongoing, and continuous. It cannot be grasped or made to fit into any conceptual model. Nor is there any path to this inner revolution, for it is neither predictable nor controllable and has a life all its own. This revolution is a breaking away from the old, repetitive, dead structures of thought and perception that humanity finds itself trapped in. Realization of the ultimate reality is a direct and sudden existential awakening to one’s true nature that opens the door to the possibility of an inner revolution. Such a revolution requires an ongoing emptying out of the old structures of consciousness and the birth of a living and fluid intelligence. This intelligence restructures your entire being—body, mind, and perception. This intelligence cuts the mind free of its old structures that are rooted within the totality of human consciousness. If one cannot become free of the old conditioned structures of human consciousness, then one is still in a prison.
Having an awakening to one’s true nature does not necessarily mean that there will be an ongoing revolution in the way one perceives, acts, and responds to life. The moment of awakening shows us what is ultimately true and real as well as revealing a deeper possibility in the way that life can be lived from an undivided and unconditioned state of being. But the moment of awakening does not guarantee this deeper possibility, as many who have experienced spiritual awakening can attest to. Awakening opens a door inside to a deep inner revolution, but in no way guarantees that it will take place. Whether it takes place or not depends on many factors, but none more important and vital than an earnest and unambiguous intention for truth above and beyond all else. This earnest intention toward truth is what all spiritual growth ultimately depends upon, especially when it transcends all personal preferences, agendas, and goals.
This inner revolution is the awakening of an intelligence not born of the mind but of an inner silence of mind, which alone has the ability to uproot all of the old structures of one’s consciousness. Unless these structures are uprooted, there will be no creative thought, action, or response. Unless there is an inner revolution, nothing new and fresh can flower. Only the old, the repetitious, the conditioned will flower in the absence of this revolution. But our potential lies beyond the known, beyond the structures of the past, beyond anything that humanity has established. Our potential is something that can flower only when we are no longer caught within the influence and limitations of the known. Beyond the realm of the mind, beyond the limitations of humanity’s conditioned consciousness, lies that which can be called the sacred. And it is from the sacred that a new and fluid consciousness is born that wipes away the old and brings to life the flowering of a living and undivided expression of being. Such an expression is neither personal nor impersonal, neither spiritual nor worldly, but rather the flow and flowering of existence beyond all notions of self.
So let us understand that reality transcends all of our notions about reality. Reality is neither Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Advaita Vedanta, nor Buddhist. It is neither dualistic nor nondualistic, neither spiritual nor nonspiritual. We should come to know that there is more reality and sacredness in a blade of grass than in all of our thoughts and ideas about reality. When we perceive from an undivided consciousness, we will find the sacred in every expression of life. We will find it in our teacup, in the fall breeze, in the brushing of our teeth, in each and every moment of living and dying. Therefore we must leave the entire collection of conditioned thought behind and let ourselves be led by the inner thread of silence into the unknown, beyond where all paths end, to that place where we go innocently or not at all—not once but continually.
One must be willing to stand alone—in the unknown, with no reference to the known or the past or any of one’s conditioning. One must stand where no one has stood before in complete nakedness, innocence, and humility. One must stand in that dark light, in that groundless embrace, unwavering and true to the reality beyond all self—not just for a moment, but forever without end. For then that which is sacred, undivided, and whole is born within consciousness and begins to express itself.
© Adyashanti 2008
Your own body is farther from you than God is ...
Man is closer to God than the fishes are to the ocean.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
One day Inayat was praying on the roof of the house, offering his prayers and he
thought to himself that there had not been an answer yet to all the prayers he
had offered to God and he did not know where God was to hear his prayers and he
could not reconcile himself to going on praying to the God whom he knew not. He
went fearlessly to his father and said: "I do not think I will continue my
prayers any longer, for it does not fit in with my reason. I do not know how I
can go on praying to a God I do not know." His father, taken aback, did not
become cross lest he might turn Inayat's beliefs sour by forcing them upon him
without satisfying his reason and he was glad on the other hand to see that,
although it was irreverent on the child's part, yet it was frank, and he knew
that the lad really hungered after Truth and was ready to learn now, what many
could not learn in their whole life.
He said to him: "God is in you and you are in God. As the bubble is in the ocean
and the bubble is a part of the ocean and yet not separate from the ocean. For a
moment it has appeared as a bubble, then it will return to that from which it
has risen. So is the relation between man and God. The Prophet has said that God
is closer to you than the jugular vein, which in reality means that your own
body is farther from you than God is. If this be rightly interpreted, it will
mean that God is the very depth of your own being." This moment to Inayat was
his very great initiation, as if a switch had turned in him, and from that
moment onward his whole life Inayat busied himself, and his whole being became
engaged in witnessing in life what he knew and believed, by this one great
Truth.
The innermost being of man is the real being of God; man is always linked with
God. If he could only realize it, it is by finding harmony in his own soul that
he finds communion with God. All meditation and contemplation are taught with
this purpose: to harmonize one's innermost being with God, so that He is seeing,
hearing, thinking through us, and our being is a ray of His light. In that way
we are even closer to God than the fishes are to the ocean in which they have
their being.
Many think that spiritual attainment can only be achieved by great labor. It is
not so; labor is necessary for material attainment, but for spiritual attainment
what one needs is a seeking soul like that of Moses. Moses falling upon the
ground may be interpreted as the cross, which means, 'I am not; Thou art.' In
order to be, one must pass through a stage of being nothing. In Sufi terms this
is called Fana, when one thinks, 'I am not what I had always thought myself to
be.' This is the true self-denial, which the Hindus called Layam, and the
Buddhists annihilation. It is the annihilation of the false self which gives
rise to the true self; once this is done, from that moment man approaches closer
and closer to God, until he stands face to face with his divine ideal, with
which he can communicate at every moment of his life.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
One day Inayat was praying on the roof of the house, offering his prayers and he
thought to himself that there had not been an answer yet to all the prayers he
had offered to God and he did not know where God was to hear his prayers and he
could not reconcile himself to going on praying to the God whom he knew not. He
went fearlessly to his father and said: "I do not think I will continue my
prayers any longer, for it does not fit in with my reason. I do not know how I
can go on praying to a God I do not know." His father, taken aback, did not
become cross lest he might turn Inayat's beliefs sour by forcing them upon him
without satisfying his reason and he was glad on the other hand to see that,
although it was irreverent on the child's part, yet it was frank, and he knew
that the lad really hungered after Truth and was ready to learn now, what many
could not learn in their whole life.
He said to him: "God is in you and you are in God. As the bubble is in the ocean
and the bubble is a part of the ocean and yet not separate from the ocean. For a
moment it has appeared as a bubble, then it will return to that from which it
has risen. So is the relation between man and God. The Prophet has said that God
is closer to you than the jugular vein, which in reality means that your own
body is farther from you than God is. If this be rightly interpreted, it will
mean that God is the very depth of your own being." This moment to Inayat was
his very great initiation, as if a switch had turned in him, and from that
moment onward his whole life Inayat busied himself, and his whole being became
engaged in witnessing in life what he knew and believed, by this one great
Truth.
The innermost being of man is the real being of God; man is always linked with
God. If he could only realize it, it is by finding harmony in his own soul that
he finds communion with God. All meditation and contemplation are taught with
this purpose: to harmonize one's innermost being with God, so that He is seeing,
hearing, thinking through us, and our being is a ray of His light. In that way
we are even closer to God than the fishes are to the ocean in which they have
their being.
Many think that spiritual attainment can only be achieved by great labor. It is
not so; labor is necessary for material attainment, but for spiritual attainment
what one needs is a seeking soul like that of Moses. Moses falling upon the
ground may be interpreted as the cross, which means, 'I am not; Thou art.' In
order to be, one must pass through a stage of being nothing. In Sufi terms this
is called Fana, when one thinks, 'I am not what I had always thought myself to
be.' This is the true self-denial, which the Hindus called Layam, and the
Buddhists annihilation. It is the annihilation of the false self which gives
rise to the true self; once this is done, from that moment man approaches closer
and closer to God, until he stands face to face with his divine ideal, with
which he can communicate at every moment of his life.
Recognition...
Enlightenment is but a recognition, not a change at all.
So instead of working so hard and struggling to "improve" who I think I am - all I really need do is remember who I truly am........Adyashanti
So instead of working so hard and struggling to "improve" who I think I am - all I really need do is remember who I truly am........Adyashanti
A Mystic...
The mystic is really anybody who seeks to experience above all else, the direct expression of God/Source/Being in one’s life. He or she is anyone with the deep desire and courage necessary to look - and see - beyond the obvious conditioning of our manufactured world view; to see beyond the illusions of our self-created identities, and find what lies forever before and all around us, as the One that is All. The path is one of surrendering all that we currently hold on to as belief, identity, intellect. What emerges is the full expression of Being within the language of Love.......ronda larue
Sin...
"It is true that we cannot be free from sin, but at least let our sins not be always the same.” .......
St. Teresa of Avila
St. Teresa of Avila
Blessed...
"Blessed is the servant who loves his brother as much when he is sick and useless as when he is well and an be of service to him. And blessed is he who loves his brother as well when he is afar off as when he is by his side, and who would say nothing behind his back he might not, in love, say before his face.”........
St. Francis of Assisi
St. Francis of Assisi
Ignorance...
Ignorance is the root of suffering.
When I use the word "ignorance,"
I am speaking about ignoring the truth of who you
are in favor of some problem or identification with suffering.
Ignoring the limitless truth of yourself,
ignoring the eternal presence of divinity, of beingness itself,
is the very source of continued suffering.
Continued suffering occurs
when your concepts of happiness, truth, and freedom
are seen as separate from who you already are.
When I speak of suffering,
I am referring to what could be called "unnecessary" suffering,
when you are wrapped up in replaying your own
or the world's dramatic stories
over and over in your mind.
Unnecessary suffering is actually the resistance to suffering.
Unnecessary suffering can be dropped in an instant,
yet it is usually perpetuated through cycles
of mental and emotional activity
as an attempt to escape the experience of emotional pain.
~Gangaji
Excerpt from "The Diamond In Your Pocket,"
When I use the word "ignorance,"
I am speaking about ignoring the truth of who you
are in favor of some problem or identification with suffering.
Ignoring the limitless truth of yourself,
ignoring the eternal presence of divinity, of beingness itself,
is the very source of continued suffering.
Continued suffering occurs
when your concepts of happiness, truth, and freedom
are seen as separate from who you already are.
When I speak of suffering,
I am referring to what could be called "unnecessary" suffering,
when you are wrapped up in replaying your own
or the world's dramatic stories
over and over in your mind.
Unnecessary suffering is actually the resistance to suffering.
Unnecessary suffering can be dropped in an instant,
yet it is usually perpetuated through cycles
of mental and emotional activity
as an attempt to escape the experience of emotional pain.
~Gangaji
Excerpt from "The Diamond In Your Pocket,"
Tolerance...
The first sign of the realization of truth is tolerance.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
A soul shows the proof of its evolution in the degree of the tolerance it shows.
The life in the lower creation shows the lack of tolerance. The tendency of
fighting with one another, which one sees among beasts and birds, shows the
reason at the back of it, that intolerance is born in their nature. ... But when
a soul has evolved still more, tolerance becomes the natural thing for him.
Because the highly evolved soul then begins to realize 'Another person is not
separate from me, but the other person is myself. The separation is on the
surface of life, but in the depth of life I and the other person are one.'
Therefore tolerance is not learned fully by trying to follow it as a good
principle. It is learned by having the love of God, by attaining the knowledge
of self, and by understanding the truth of life.
A Sufi tries to keep harmony in his surroundings, the harmony which demands many
sacrifices. It makes one endure what one is not willing to endure, it makes one
overlook what one is not inclined to overlook, it makes one tolerate what one is
not accustomed to tolerate, and it makes one forgive and forget what one would
never have forgotten if it were not for the sake of harmony. But at whatever
cost harmony is attained, it is a good bargain. For harmony is the secret of
happiness, and in absence of this a person living in palaces and rolling in gold
can be most unhappy.
The first step to the attainment of the truth cannot be taught in books, or be
imparted by a teacher. It must come spontaneously, namely through the love for
truth. The next step is to search for it; the third step is the actual
attainment. How can one attain? In order to attain truth one must make one's own
life truthful. ... Passing from the state of natural man, through the state of
being a lover of truth and a seeker after truth, one begins to express truth ...
One begins to understand what the great teachers have taught. Then one becomes
tolerant to the various religions. Nothing seems strange any more. Nothing
surprises. For now one begins to know the innermost nature of man; one sees the
cause behind every action. Therefore tolerance and forgiveness and understanding
of others come naturally. The person who knows the truth is the most tolerant.
It is the knower of truth who is forgiving; it is the knower of truth who
understands another person's point of view. It is the knower of truth who does
not readily voice his opinion, for he has respect for the opinions of others.
When man gains insight into himself, he also gains insight into the hearts of
others. All this desire for learning occult or mystical powers or psychic powers
now disappears, because he begins to see all this power in one truth -- loving
truth, seeking truth, looking for truth, living the truthful life. That it is
which opens all doors.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
A soul shows the proof of its evolution in the degree of the tolerance it shows.
The life in the lower creation shows the lack of tolerance. The tendency of
fighting with one another, which one sees among beasts and birds, shows the
reason at the back of it, that intolerance is born in their nature. ... But when
a soul has evolved still more, tolerance becomes the natural thing for him.
Because the highly evolved soul then begins to realize 'Another person is not
separate from me, but the other person is myself. The separation is on the
surface of life, but in the depth of life I and the other person are one.'
Therefore tolerance is not learned fully by trying to follow it as a good
principle. It is learned by having the love of God, by attaining the knowledge
of self, and by understanding the truth of life.
A Sufi tries to keep harmony in his surroundings, the harmony which demands many
sacrifices. It makes one endure what one is not willing to endure, it makes one
overlook what one is not inclined to overlook, it makes one tolerate what one is
not accustomed to tolerate, and it makes one forgive and forget what one would
never have forgotten if it were not for the sake of harmony. But at whatever
cost harmony is attained, it is a good bargain. For harmony is the secret of
happiness, and in absence of this a person living in palaces and rolling in gold
can be most unhappy.
The first step to the attainment of the truth cannot be taught in books, or be
imparted by a teacher. It must come spontaneously, namely through the love for
truth. The next step is to search for it; the third step is the actual
attainment. How can one attain? In order to attain truth one must make one's own
life truthful. ... Passing from the state of natural man, through the state of
being a lover of truth and a seeker after truth, one begins to express truth ...
One begins to understand what the great teachers have taught. Then one becomes
tolerant to the various religions. Nothing seems strange any more. Nothing
surprises. For now one begins to know the innermost nature of man; one sees the
cause behind every action. Therefore tolerance and forgiveness and understanding
of others come naturally. The person who knows the truth is the most tolerant.
It is the knower of truth who is forgiving; it is the knower of truth who
understands another person's point of view. It is the knower of truth who does
not readily voice his opinion, for he has respect for the opinions of others.
When man gains insight into himself, he also gains insight into the hearts of
others. All this desire for learning occult or mystical powers or psychic powers
now disappears, because he begins to see all this power in one truth -- loving
truth, seeking truth, looking for truth, living the truthful life. That it is
which opens all doors.
Believe Nothing...
Believe nothing on the faith of traditions,
even though they have been held in honor
for many generations and in diverse places.
Do not believe a thing because many people speak of it.
Do not believe on the faith of the sages of the past.
Do not believe what you yourself have imagined,
persuading yourself that a God inspires you.
Believe nothing on the sole authority of your masters and priests.
After examination, believe what you yourself have tested
and found to be reasonable, and conform your conduct thereto.............Gautama the Buddha
even though they have been held in honor
for many generations and in diverse places.
Do not believe a thing because many people speak of it.
Do not believe on the faith of the sages of the past.
Do not believe what you yourself have imagined,
persuading yourself that a God inspires you.
Believe nothing on the sole authority of your masters and priests.
After examination, believe what you yourself have tested
and found to be reasonable, and conform your conduct thereto.............Gautama the Buddha
Homage...
“He who pays homage to those who deserve homage, whether the awakened (Buddha) or their disciples, those who have overcome the host (of evils), and crossed the flood of sorrow, he who pays homage to such as have found deliverance and know no fear, his merit can never be measured by anybody.”......
Friedrich Max Muller
Friedrich Max Muller
Bliss...
If you want to reach a state of bliss, then go beyond your ego and the internal dialogue. Make a decision to relinquish the need to control, the need to be approved, and the need to judge. Those are the three things the ego is doing all the time. It's very important to be aware of them every time they come up.”....
Deepak Chopra
Deepak Chopra
Perceive...
Perceive these two things now: the dreamlike character of life in the world, and the illusory character of the personal ego. Hence the need of the "What am I?" enquiry, that the illusion of the ego may be dispelled. When you can see these things clearly, then you may be still and undisturbed, unentangled, and unillusioned amid the struggle of life. You will be wise, free, impervious to the petty persecution of men--their lies, malice, and injuries--for being no longer identified with the personality, you are no longer their target............Paul Brunton
Your Purpose...
Never forget the purpose of why you're here. It is true in the
Absolute Reality there is no purpose. The universe has no purpose for
existing. You have no purpose for existing, in the Absolute Reality.
But as long as you believe you have a body or a mind, then your
purpose is to become no purpose. You spend your energy becoming
nothing. But do not believe you are nothing when you haven't become
nothing yet.
Be honest with yourself. See where you are coming from, by the way you
react to life situations every day. This will tell you where you are
at, by the way you see yourself reacting to life's predicaments. Life
will present to you many predicaments, and it's up to you to see
these things in the right perspective: never to be frightened, never
to believe anything is wrong, always to know, even though you believe
you are a body, you are not alone. There is the Pure Awareness that
is with you all the time, just awaiting your recognition, awaiting
your understanding that you are not the body, that you are a spirit,
called the Atman, Brahman, Absolute Reality. This is who you really
are. This is your real nature.
– From Robert Adams' Silence of the Heart'
Absolute Reality there is no purpose. The universe has no purpose for
existing. You have no purpose for existing, in the Absolute Reality.
But as long as you believe you have a body or a mind, then your
purpose is to become no purpose. You spend your energy becoming
nothing. But do not believe you are nothing when you haven't become
nothing yet.
Be honest with yourself. See where you are coming from, by the way you
react to life situations every day. This will tell you where you are
at, by the way you see yourself reacting to life's predicaments. Life
will present to you many predicaments, and it's up to you to see
these things in the right perspective: never to be frightened, never
to believe anything is wrong, always to know, even though you believe
you are a body, you are not alone. There is the Pure Awareness that
is with you all the time, just awaiting your recognition, awaiting
your understanding that you are not the body, that you are a spirit,
called the Atman, Brahman, Absolute Reality. This is who you really
are. This is your real nature.
– From Robert Adams' Silence of the Heart'
Truth is the Highest Religion...
Those of us who have studied philosophy over many years, know that this doctrine has been around in different parts of the world under different disguises. The Buddhists aren't the only ones to know it. The Vedantists know it, the Taoists know it, the Shintos knew about it, Platonists, Egyptians -- even the Laplanders, some of the Laplanders. Any place where there's been any kind of civilization, there's always been someone who's known about it. So I don't like people who think that it's something very peculiar to them, that it belongs to their tradition or their religion. That's not the way to look at it. Truth is higher than any religion. It doesn't belong to any religion. In two or three hundred years, all the religions that we know now may not be around any more. But that doesn't mean that Truth will not be around.
-- Anthony Damiani August 83
-- Anthony Damiani August 83
Should All be Awakened?...
"One may ask why the awakened ones do not awaken people in the
world from the sleep of confusion. The answer is that it is
not to be advised that little children, whose only happiness
is slumber, should be awakened. Their growth depends on their
sleep. If they are kept up late they become ill, and will not
be so useful in the affairs of life when they are grown up.
Childhood needs more sleep, and the children must sleep. Such
is the nature of immature souls. They are children, however
old their bodies may appear. Their fancies, their joys, their
delights are for unimportant things in life, as the life of
children is absorbed in sweets and toys. Therefore those who
are awakened walk slowly and gently, lest their footsteps may
disturb the slumber of the sleeping ones. They only awaken on
their way those whom they find tossing in their beds. They are
the ones to whom the travelers on the spiritual path give their
hand quietly. It is for this reason that the spiritual path is
called the mystical way. It is not unkind to awaken a few and
to let many sleep, but on the other hand it is great kindness
to let those slumber who require sleep."..........Hazrat Inayat Khan:
world from the sleep of confusion. The answer is that it is
not to be advised that little children, whose only happiness
is slumber, should be awakened. Their growth depends on their
sleep. If they are kept up late they become ill, and will not
be so useful in the affairs of life when they are grown up.
Childhood needs more sleep, and the children must sleep. Such
is the nature of immature souls. They are children, however
old their bodies may appear. Their fancies, their joys, their
delights are for unimportant things in life, as the life of
children is absorbed in sweets and toys. Therefore those who
are awakened walk slowly and gently, lest their footsteps may
disturb the slumber of the sleeping ones. They only awaken on
their way those whom they find tossing in their beds. They are
the ones to whom the travelers on the spiritual path give their
hand quietly. It is for this reason that the spiritual path is
called the mystical way. It is not unkind to awaken a few and
to let many sleep, but on the other hand it is great kindness
to let those slumber who require sleep."..........Hazrat Inayat Khan:
Jesus teaches the people. He takes Peter, James and John and goes to a high mountain and is transfigured before them...
THE news soon spread that Jesus and the twelve were come, and many people came to see. 2 And Jesus said, Behold, you come to see, but that means naught. If you would have the benedictions of the Christ, take up your and follow me. 3 If you would give your life for selfish self, then you will lose your life. 4 If you will give your life in service of your fellow men, then you will save your life. 5 This life is but a span, a bauble of to-day. There is a life that passes not. 6 Where is your profit if you gain the world and lose your soul? What would you take in payment for your soul? 7 If you would find the spirit life, the life of man in God, then you must walk a narrow way and enter through a narrow gate. 8 The way is Christ, the gate is Christ, and you must come up by the way of Christ. No man comes unto God but by the Christ. 9 The kingdom of the Christ will come; yea, some of you who hear me now will not pass through the gates of death until you see the kingdom come in power. 10 For seven days the master and the twelve remained in Caesarea-Philippi. 11 Then Jesus, taking Peter, James and John, went forth unto a mountain top to pray. 12 And as he prayed a brilliant light appeared; his form became as radiant as a precious stone; 13 His face shone like the sun; his garments seemed as white as snow; the son of man became the son of God. 14 He was transfigured that the men of earth might see the possibilities of man. 15 When first the glory came the three disciples were asleep; a master touched their eyes and said, Awake and see the glory of the Lord. 16 And they awoke, and saw the glory of the Lord; and more, they saw the glory of the heavenly world, for they beheld two men from thence stand forth beside the Lord. 17 And Peter asked the master who awakened them, Who are these men who stand beside the Lord? 18 The master said, These men are Moses and Elijah, who are come that you may know that heaven and earth are one; that masters there and masters here are one. 19 The veil that separates the worlds is but an ether veil. For those who purify their hearts by faith the veil is rolled aside, and they can see and know that death is an illisive thing. 20 And Peter said, Praise God! And then he called to Jesus and he said, My master and my Lord, this is the gate of heaven, and it is well that we remain. 21 May we go down and bring three tents; a tent for you, a tent for Moses, and for Elijah one? But Jesus answered not. 22 And Moses and Elijah talked with Jesus on the mount. They talked about the coming trial of the Lord; 23 About his death, his rest within the tomb; about the wonders of the resurrection morn; the transmutation of his flesh, and his ascension on the clouds of light; 24 And all symbolic of the path that every man must tread; symbolic of the way the sons of men become the sons of God. 25 The three disciples were amazed, and suddenly the ethers were surcharged with song, and forms as light as air moved all about the mountain top. 26 And then from out the glory of the upper world they heard a voice that said, 27 This is the son of man, my chosen one to manifest the Christ to men. Let all the earth hear him. 28 When the disciples heard the voice they were afraid; they fell upon the ground and prayed. 29 And Jesus came; he touched them and he said, Arise, fear not; lo, I am here. 30 Then they arose, and as they looked about they saw no one; the men had gone. The master only stood with them. 31 As Jesus and the three came from the mountain top they talked about the meaning of the scene, and Jesus told them all; and then he said, 32 Till I have risen from the dead tell not to any one what you have seen. 33 But the disciples could not comprehend the meaning of the words, Till I have risen from the dead. 34 And Jesus told them once again about his death, and rising from the grave; about the kingdom of the soul that was to come in glory and in power. 35 But Peter said, The scribes have taught that e'er the king shall come Elijah must appear. 36 And Jesus said, Elijah has already come; but scribes and Pharisees received him not; 37 And men reviled him, bound him, cast him in a prison cell, and shouted with a fiend's delight to see him die. 38 What men have done to him, that they will do to me. 39 Then the disciples understood that Jesus spoke of John whom Herod slew..........from The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ
The Bhagavad Gita...
"Arjuna said,
'Of the constantly united who worship you with love
and those with the imperishable unmanifest,
which has the best knowledge of union?'
"The blessed Lord said,
'The mind focused on me, those who worship me
eternally united, endowed with supreme faith,
they are thought to be most united with me.
"'But those who worship the imperishable, ineffable,
unmanifest, omnipresent and inconceivable,
unchanging, immovable, constant,
controlling the senses, the same intuition everywhere,
they attain me, rejoicing in the welfare of all beings.
The exertion is great for those whose consciousness
is set on the unmanifest, for the goal of the unmanifest
is reached with difficulty by the embodied.
"'But those renouncing in me all actions,
intent on me with undistracted union,
who meditating worship me,
I soon become their deliverer
from the ocean of the death cycle, Partha,
whose consciousness has entered into me.
"'Keep the mind on me; let the intuition enter into me;
then no doubt you will live in me hereafter.
If you are not able to keep consciousness steadily on me,
then by yoga practice seek to attain me, wealth winner.
If you are unable even in practice,
become intent on my work;
doing actions for my sake also, you will attain perfection.
If you are even unable to do this,
then resorting to my union,
renouncing all the fruits of action, act self-restrained.
For knowledge is better than practice;
meditation is superior to knowledge;
renunciation of the fruit of action
is better than meditation;
from renunciation peace follows.
"'A non-hater of all beings, friendly and compassionate,
free of "mine," free of ego,
indifferent to pain and pleasure, patient,
the yogi who is always satisfied, self-restrained,
firmly resolved with mind and intuition focused on me,
who is devoted to me, this one is my beloved.
"'Whomever the world does not trouble
and who does not trouble the world,
who is liberated from the anxieties of joy, anger, and fear,
this one also is my beloved.
"'Whoever is impartial, pure,
capable, detached, untroubled,
who renouncing all undertakings is devoted to me,
this one is my beloved.
"'Whoever does not rejoice nor hate nor grieve nor crave,
renouncing good and bad, who is full of love,
this one is my beloved.
"'The same toward enemy and friend
and thus in honor and disgrace,
the same in cold, heat, pleasure, pain,
freed from attachment,
alike in blame or praise, quiet,
satisfied with anything whatever,
homeless, steady-minded,
the person full of love is my beloved.
Those who worship this immortal justice previously spoken
endowed with faith, intent on me, devoted,
they transcendentally are my beloved.'
'Of the constantly united who worship you with love
and those with the imperishable unmanifest,
which has the best knowledge of union?'
"The blessed Lord said,
'The mind focused on me, those who worship me
eternally united, endowed with supreme faith,
they are thought to be most united with me.
"'But those who worship the imperishable, ineffable,
unmanifest, omnipresent and inconceivable,
unchanging, immovable, constant,
controlling the senses, the same intuition everywhere,
they attain me, rejoicing in the welfare of all beings.
The exertion is great for those whose consciousness
is set on the unmanifest, for the goal of the unmanifest
is reached with difficulty by the embodied.
"'But those renouncing in me all actions,
intent on me with undistracted union,
who meditating worship me,
I soon become their deliverer
from the ocean of the death cycle, Partha,
whose consciousness has entered into me.
"'Keep the mind on me; let the intuition enter into me;
then no doubt you will live in me hereafter.
If you are not able to keep consciousness steadily on me,
then by yoga practice seek to attain me, wealth winner.
If you are unable even in practice,
become intent on my work;
doing actions for my sake also, you will attain perfection.
If you are even unable to do this,
then resorting to my union,
renouncing all the fruits of action, act self-restrained.
For knowledge is better than practice;
meditation is superior to knowledge;
renunciation of the fruit of action
is better than meditation;
from renunciation peace follows.
"'A non-hater of all beings, friendly and compassionate,
free of "mine," free of ego,
indifferent to pain and pleasure, patient,
the yogi who is always satisfied, self-restrained,
firmly resolved with mind and intuition focused on me,
who is devoted to me, this one is my beloved.
"'Whomever the world does not trouble
and who does not trouble the world,
who is liberated from the anxieties of joy, anger, and fear,
this one also is my beloved.
"'Whoever is impartial, pure,
capable, detached, untroubled,
who renouncing all undertakings is devoted to me,
this one is my beloved.
"'Whoever does not rejoice nor hate nor grieve nor crave,
renouncing good and bad, who is full of love,
this one is my beloved.
"'The same toward enemy and friend
and thus in honor and disgrace,
the same in cold, heat, pleasure, pain,
freed from attachment,
alike in blame or praise, quiet,
satisfied with anything whatever,
homeless, steady-minded,
the person full of love is my beloved.
Those who worship this immortal justice previously spoken
endowed with faith, intent on me, devoted,
they transcendentally are my beloved.'
Consciousness...
Chandrakirti, a Mahayana Buddhist guru, said, "We teach the illusion of existence only as an antidote to the obstinate belief of common mankind in the existence of this world." What he means by this is that the world is only relatively existent in relation to the physical senses and the physical brain. The senses report its existence quite correctly and Mentalism agrees with mankind in the factuality of this experience. But it says this is only a relative truth, that the basic or real truth is that both world and self exist in consciousness, that they are nothing else than Consciousness itself.........Paul Brunton
Aware...
“Right now, as you read this, you exist and are aware that you exist. You are undoubtedly present and aware…. Once it is pointed out it can not be grasped or understood very quickly because it is just a matter of noticing, ‘Oh, that is what I am!’ It is a bright, luminous, empty, presence of awareness; it is absolutely radiant, yet without form; it is seemingly intangible, but the most solid fact of your existence; it is effortlessly here right now, forever untouched. Without taking a step you have arrived; you are home. No practice can reveal this because practices are in time and in your mind….........John Wheeler
God alone is Power...
This, that has been troubling me and that I have been battling, is an appearance that I am retaining in my thought as a mental image: it is not really a thing. I cannot win a battle over nothing, but I can relax in quietness and in confidence, and realize that this picture with which I am confronted is nothing but a picture~ not a person or a condition, even though it may appear as person or condition.
This world is not to be feared or hated or loved: this is the illusion, and right where the illusion is, is the kingdom of God, My kingdom.
My kingdom is the reality. This, that my eyes see or my ears hear, this is the superimposed counterfeit, not existing as a world, but as a concept, a concept of temporal power.
My kingdom is intact; My kingdom is the kingdom of God; My kingdom is the kingdom of the children of God; and My kingdom is here and now.
All that exists as a temporal universe is without power. I need not hate it, fear it, or condemn it: I need only understand it.
And as we sit beside a person who is ill, and realize, "I will not give power to this disease, this sin, or this false appetite. This is temporal power which means it is no power, and I will not believe in it," we shall find him getting better, and then we will know that we have proved, if only in a small way, that temporal power is not a power in any form.
~ Joel S. Goldsmith, A Parenthesis In Eternity
This world is not to be feared or hated or loved: this is the illusion, and right where the illusion is, is the kingdom of God, My kingdom.
My kingdom is the reality. This, that my eyes see or my ears hear, this is the superimposed counterfeit, not existing as a world, but as a concept, a concept of temporal power.
My kingdom is intact; My kingdom is the kingdom of God; My kingdom is the kingdom of the children of God; and My kingdom is here and now.
All that exists as a temporal universe is without power. I need not hate it, fear it, or condemn it: I need only understand it.
And as we sit beside a person who is ill, and realize, "I will not give power to this disease, this sin, or this false appetite. This is temporal power which means it is no power, and I will not believe in it," we shall find him getting better, and then we will know that we have proved, if only in a small way, that temporal power is not a power in any form.
~ Joel S. Goldsmith, A Parenthesis In Eternity
Our greatest enemy is ourself...
Verily, he is victorious who has conquered himself.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Our greatest enemy is ourself. All weakness, all ignorance keeps us from the
truth of our being, from all the virtues hidden in us and all perfection hidden
in our souls. The first self we realize is the false self. Unless the soul is
born again it will not see the kingdom of heaven. The soul is born into the
false self; it is blind. In the true self the soul opens its eyes. Unless the
false self is fought with, the true self cannot be realized.
The soul is a bird of paradise, a free dweller in the heavens. Its first prison
is the mind, then the body. In these it becomes not only limited, but also
captive. The whole endeavor of a Sufi in life is to liberate the soul from its
captivity, which he does by conquering both mind and body.
If a man has control over himself, he will smile and be patient even if he is
exposed to rages a thousand times. He will just wait. He who has spiritual
control has great control; but he who has it not can control neither spiritual
nor physical events. He cannot control his own sons and daughters, for he never
listens to himself first. If he listened to himself, not only persons but even
objects would listen to him.
There is a poem by the great Persian poet Iraqi in which he tells, 'When I went
to the gate of the divine Beloved and knocked at the door, a voice came and said
-- Who art thou?' When he had told, 'I am so and so', the answer came, 'There is
no place for anyone else in this abode. Go back to whence thou hast come'. He
turned back and then, after a long time, after having gone through the process
of the cross and of crucifixion, he again went there -- with the spirit of
selflessness. He knocked at the door; the word came, 'Who art thou? ', and he
said, 'Thyself alone, for no one else exists save Thee'. And God said, 'Enter
into this abode for now it belongs to thee'. It is such selflessness, to the
extent that the thought of self is not there, it is being dead to the self,
which is the recognition of God.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Our greatest enemy is ourself. All weakness, all ignorance keeps us from the
truth of our being, from all the virtues hidden in us and all perfection hidden
in our souls. The first self we realize is the false self. Unless the soul is
born again it will not see the kingdom of heaven. The soul is born into the
false self; it is blind. In the true self the soul opens its eyes. Unless the
false self is fought with, the true self cannot be realized.
The soul is a bird of paradise, a free dweller in the heavens. Its first prison
is the mind, then the body. In these it becomes not only limited, but also
captive. The whole endeavor of a Sufi in life is to liberate the soul from its
captivity, which he does by conquering both mind and body.
If a man has control over himself, he will smile and be patient even if he is
exposed to rages a thousand times. He will just wait. He who has spiritual
control has great control; but he who has it not can control neither spiritual
nor physical events. He cannot control his own sons and daughters, for he never
listens to himself first. If he listened to himself, not only persons but even
objects would listen to him.
There is a poem by the great Persian poet Iraqi in which he tells, 'When I went
to the gate of the divine Beloved and knocked at the door, a voice came and said
-- Who art thou?' When he had told, 'I am so and so', the answer came, 'There is
no place for anyone else in this abode. Go back to whence thou hast come'. He
turned back and then, after a long time, after having gone through the process
of the cross and of crucifixion, he again went there -- with the spirit of
selflessness. He knocked at the door; the word came, 'Who art thou? ', and he
said, 'Thyself alone, for no one else exists save Thee'. And God said, 'Enter
into this abode for now it belongs to thee'. It is such selflessness, to the
extent that the thought of self is not there, it is being dead to the self,
which is the recognition of God.
Perception...
That which a mystic cannot see or does not see before his eyes he sees
in space; and therefore if a thousand people say, 'This does not exist',
yet for the mystic it does exist. While they depend on the objective
world one day to produce their thought in a material form, the mystic
sees it already in space. Naturally his faith becomes more firm and
powerful, whereas the faith of those who depend upon the objective world
becomes weaker every time their wish does not come true. When a person
says of something that it is not there, the mystic says, 'It is there,
it is before me, I see it.' But because the other cannot see it he is
confused; thus the same idea that confuses the one confirms other in his
faith.
This is how the mystic builds steps to climb to his final destination,
which is the real meaning of resurrection. Whereas the man that has not
made any steps, no sooner loses touch with the objective world than he
is lost in space. The mystic finds steps already made in space to help
him on his climb upward, but the other finds himself lost when once the
garb of the objective world is discarded. Then the soul feels no ground
under its feet, while the mystic has already attained his goal.
May this help the seekers in finding
and threading the path which leads upwards
to luminous realms, and the treasure
of the Internal Peace...
---S.W.P.
in space; and therefore if a thousand people say, 'This does not exist',
yet for the mystic it does exist. While they depend on the objective
world one day to produce their thought in a material form, the mystic
sees it already in space. Naturally his faith becomes more firm and
powerful, whereas the faith of those who depend upon the objective world
becomes weaker every time their wish does not come true. When a person
says of something that it is not there, the mystic says, 'It is there,
it is before me, I see it.' But because the other cannot see it he is
confused; thus the same idea that confuses the one confirms other in his
faith.
This is how the mystic builds steps to climb to his final destination,
which is the real meaning of resurrection. Whereas the man that has not
made any steps, no sooner loses touch with the objective world than he
is lost in space. The mystic finds steps already made in space to help
him on his climb upward, but the other finds himself lost when once the
garb of the objective world is discarded. Then the soul feels no ground
under its feet, while the mystic has already attained his goal.
May this help the seekers in finding
and threading the path which leads upwards
to luminous realms, and the treasure
of the Internal Peace...
---S.W.P.
Dhammapada...
Abandon anger,
Be done with conceit,
Get beyond every fetter.
When for name & form
You have no attachment
--have nothing at all--
no sufferings, no stresses, invade.
-Dhammapada 17, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
Be done with conceit,
Get beyond every fetter.
When for name & form
You have no attachment
--have nothing at all--
no sufferings, no stresses, invade.
-Dhammapada 17, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
To See Within Others...
You'll start feeling a lot less fearful of others once you realize that anyone who wants to impress you with all that he knows... really doesn't understand much at all!.........Guy Finlay
This is Love...
“This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.”......
Jalal ad-Din Rumi
Jalal ad-Din Rumi
Christlike...
If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of India would be Christian today.....
Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Two Mistakes...
There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth: 1.) not going all the way; and 2.) not starting........Gautama the Buddha
Endurance...
Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes........Gautama the Buddha
"I" as Consciousness...
Everything remembered is a thought in consciousness. This not only applies to objects, events, and places. It also applies to persons, including oneself, he who is remembered, the "I" that I was. This means that my own personality, what I call myself, was a thought in the past, however strong and however persistent. But the past was once the present. Therefore I am not less a thought now. The question arises what did I have then which I still have now, unchanged, exactly the same. It cannot be "I" as the person, for that is different in some way each time. It is, and can only be, "I" as Consciousness......Paul Brunton
The Eight Bondages...
"The eight bondages or snares are hatred, shame, fear, grief, condemnation, race prejudice, pride of family and smugness. Removal of the eight bondages leads to magnanimity of the Heart. "
From: The Holy Science by Sri Yukteswar
From: The Holy Science by Sri Yukteswar
Don't be Afraid...
Don't be afraid. Human birth is full of suffering and one has to endure everything patiently, taking the name of God. None, not even God in human form, can escape the sufferings of body and mind.
I tell you one thing my child -- if you want peace, do not find fault with others. Rather, see your own faults. Learn to make the world your own. No one is a stranger, my child; the whole world is your own.
(From Sri Sarada Devi's last words, spoken before passing away on July 20, 1920)
I tell you one thing my child -- if you want peace, do not find fault with others. Rather, see your own faults. Learn to make the world your own. No one is a stranger, my child; the whole world is your own.
(From Sri Sarada Devi's last words, spoken before passing away on July 20, 1920)
Truth is God...
God is truth, and truth is God.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Many intellectual people, with their various ideas, differ from one another in
their opinions and in their way of looking at things, in their speculations, but
do the prophets differ from one another? No, they cannot differ. The reason is
that it is the various minds which differ, not the souls. The one who lives in
his mind, is conscious of his mind; the one who lives in his soul is conscious
of the soul. ... When a person is living in his mind, he is living through the
darkness of the night. The moment he rises above his mind and awakens in the
light of the soul he becomes spiritual. And if a thousand spiritual people
speak, they will say the same thing, perhaps in different words but with only
one meaning, for they have one and the same vision. This is why spiritual
realization is called the truth. There are many facts but only one truth. The
facts can be put into words but not the truth, for God is truth, the soul is
truth, the real self of man is truth.
We generally confuse truth with fact, and we often use the word fact for truth.
When we look at it from the mystic's point of view we find that words are too
intricate ever to explain what is truth. ... Truth is that which cannot be
pointed out, because all things that can be compared have their opposite, but
neither God nor truth has an opposite. Names are to point out forms, and words
are to distinguish one thing from another, while definitions come from the pairs
of opposites or at least from differences. That which is all-pervading and is in
all things and beings, that which every word explains and yet no word can
explain, is God and is truth.
The seeker after truth goes out into the world and he finds innumerable
different sects and religions. He does not know where to start. Then he desires
to find out what is hidden under these sects, these different religions, and he
begins to seek the object which he wishes to gain through wisdom. Wisdom is a
veil over truth, even wisdom cannot be called truth. God alone is truth, and it
is truth that is God. And truth can neither be studied nor taught nor learned;
it is to be touched, it is to be realized; and it can be realized by the
unfoldment of the heart.
Truth is one, God is one, life is one. To me there is no such thing as two. Two
is only one plus one.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Many intellectual people, with their various ideas, differ from one another in
their opinions and in their way of looking at things, in their speculations, but
do the prophets differ from one another? No, they cannot differ. The reason is
that it is the various minds which differ, not the souls. The one who lives in
his mind, is conscious of his mind; the one who lives in his soul is conscious
of the soul. ... When a person is living in his mind, he is living through the
darkness of the night. The moment he rises above his mind and awakens in the
light of the soul he becomes spiritual. And if a thousand spiritual people
speak, they will say the same thing, perhaps in different words but with only
one meaning, for they have one and the same vision. This is why spiritual
realization is called the truth. There are many facts but only one truth. The
facts can be put into words but not the truth, for God is truth, the soul is
truth, the real self of man is truth.
We generally confuse truth with fact, and we often use the word fact for truth.
When we look at it from the mystic's point of view we find that words are too
intricate ever to explain what is truth. ... Truth is that which cannot be
pointed out, because all things that can be compared have their opposite, but
neither God nor truth has an opposite. Names are to point out forms, and words
are to distinguish one thing from another, while definitions come from the pairs
of opposites or at least from differences. That which is all-pervading and is in
all things and beings, that which every word explains and yet no word can
explain, is God and is truth.
The seeker after truth goes out into the world and he finds innumerable
different sects and religions. He does not know where to start. Then he desires
to find out what is hidden under these sects, these different religions, and he
begins to seek the object which he wishes to gain through wisdom. Wisdom is a
veil over truth, even wisdom cannot be called truth. God alone is truth, and it
is truth that is God. And truth can neither be studied nor taught nor learned;
it is to be touched, it is to be realized; and it can be realized by the
unfoldment of the heart.
Truth is one, God is one, life is one. To me there is no such thing as two. Two
is only one plus one.
Illusion of Matter...
"Physicists have discovered that the apparent
solidity of matter is an illusion created by our senses. This includes the
physical body, which we perceive and think of as form, but 99.99% of which is
actually empty space."
"So your physical body, which is form, reveals itself as essentially formless
when you go deeper into it. It becomes a doorway into inner space. Although
inner space has no form, it is intensely alive. That "empty space" is life in
its fullness, the unmanifested Source out of which all manifestation flows. The
traditional word for that Source is God.".......eckhart tolle
solidity of matter is an illusion created by our senses. This includes the
physical body, which we perceive and think of as form, but 99.99% of which is
actually empty space."
"So your physical body, which is form, reveals itself as essentially formless
when you go deeper into it. It becomes a doorway into inner space. Although
inner space has no form, it is intensely alive. That "empty space" is life in
its fullness, the unmanifested Source out of which all manifestation flows. The
traditional word for that Source is God.".......eckhart tolle
The Illusion of the Material World...
The key to understanding that the material world is an illusion is to know that
all objects including ourselves are unlimited numbers of atoms that are actually
quite far apart.. they are small galaxies that appear to come together to form
objects.. this is the belief that we have formed in our consciousness and the
limited ability of our human senses to see and feel only limited frequencies..
Once you have traveled beyond the frequencies of the material plane, you will
realize that it is all just a projection of our thoughts on a screen.. This is
why it is so important to surrender the ego, so that you can experience Reality
as it Truly Is............namaste, thomas
all objects including ourselves are unlimited numbers of atoms that are actually
quite far apart.. they are small galaxies that appear to come together to form
objects.. this is the belief that we have formed in our consciousness and the
limited ability of our human senses to see and feel only limited frequencies..
Once you have traveled beyond the frequencies of the material plane, you will
realize that it is all just a projection of our thoughts on a screen.. This is
why it is so important to surrender the ego, so that you can experience Reality
as it Truly Is............namaste, thomas
Religion...
Religion is a state of power and influence over the humans.. Spirituality is the
individual path of the soul towards the knowledge of Truth.. We can learn from
religious texts but the True Power comes not from texts but from our experience
with Consciousness.. All knowledge of Truth is the same, it just appears in
different languages .. It becomes ceremonies when the religious leaders become
filled with the ego and wish to give a show to those that desire a physical
representation of the teaching..This is to draw the souls to the ceremony to
gather money from the students..therefore power and wealth is the aim... but we
know better, that is why we are here.. as knowledge of the Truth requires no
money.........namaste, thomas
individual path of the soul towards the knowledge of Truth.. We can learn from
religious texts but the True Power comes not from texts but from our experience
with Consciousness.. All knowledge of Truth is the same, it just appears in
different languages .. It becomes ceremonies when the religious leaders become
filled with the ego and wish to give a show to those that desire a physical
representation of the teaching..This is to draw the souls to the ceremony to
gather money from the students..therefore power and wealth is the aim... but we
know better, that is why we are here.. as knowledge of the Truth requires no
money.........namaste, thomas
The Physical Body...
Until man loses himself in the vision of God, he cannot be said to live really.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Man wrongly identifies himself with the physical body, calling it 'myself.' And
when the physical body is in pain he says, 'I am ill,' because he identifies
himself with something which belongs to him but which is not himself. The first
thing to learn in the spiritual path is to recognize the physical body not as
one's self, but as an instrument, a vehicle, through which to experience life.
Every soul seeks after beauty; and every virtue, righteousness, good action, is
nothing but a glimpse of beauty. Once having this moral, the Sufi does not need
to follow a particular belief or faith, to restrict himself to a particular
path. He can follow the Hindu way, the Muslim way, the way of any Church or
faith, provided he treads this royal road: that the whole universe is but an
immanence of beauty. ... Therein lies the whole of religion. The mystic's prayer
is to that beauty, and his work is to forget the self, to lose himself like a
bubble in the water [like a drop in the ocean].
As life unfolds itself to man the first lesson it teaches is humility; the first
thing that comes to man's vision is his own limitedness. The vaster God appears
to him, the smaller he finds himself. This goes on and on until the moment comes
when he loses himself in the vision of God. In terms of the Sufis this is called
fana, and it is this process that was taught by Christ under the name of
self-denial. Often man interprets this teaching wrongly and considers
renunciation as self-denial. He thinks that the teaching is to renounce all that
is in the world. But although that is a way and an important step which leads to
true self-denial, the self-denial meant is the losing oneself in God.
There is a [Hadith] which says: 'Mutu kubla anta mutu', which means, Die before
death. A poet says, 'Only he attains to the peace of the Lord who loses
himself.' God said to Moses, 'No man shall see me and live.' To see God we must
be non-existent.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Man wrongly identifies himself with the physical body, calling it 'myself.' And
when the physical body is in pain he says, 'I am ill,' because he identifies
himself with something which belongs to him but which is not himself. The first
thing to learn in the spiritual path is to recognize the physical body not as
one's self, but as an instrument, a vehicle, through which to experience life.
Every soul seeks after beauty; and every virtue, righteousness, good action, is
nothing but a glimpse of beauty. Once having this moral, the Sufi does not need
to follow a particular belief or faith, to restrict himself to a particular
path. He can follow the Hindu way, the Muslim way, the way of any Church or
faith, provided he treads this royal road: that the whole universe is but an
immanence of beauty. ... Therein lies the whole of religion. The mystic's prayer
is to that beauty, and his work is to forget the self, to lose himself like a
bubble in the water [like a drop in the ocean].
As life unfolds itself to man the first lesson it teaches is humility; the first
thing that comes to man's vision is his own limitedness. The vaster God appears
to him, the smaller he finds himself. This goes on and on until the moment comes
when he loses himself in the vision of God. In terms of the Sufis this is called
fana, and it is this process that was taught by Christ under the name of
self-denial. Often man interprets this teaching wrongly and considers
renunciation as self-denial. He thinks that the teaching is to renounce all that
is in the world. But although that is a way and an important step which leads to
true self-denial, the self-denial meant is the losing oneself in God.
There is a [Hadith] which says: 'Mutu kubla anta mutu', which means, Die before
death. A poet says, 'Only he attains to the peace of the Lord who loses
himself.' God said to Moses, 'No man shall see me and live.' To see God we must
be non-existent.
Books...
Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.
Henry David Thoreau
US Transcendentalist author (1817 - 1862)
Henry David Thoreau
US Transcendentalist author (1817 - 1862)
Teach each Other...
One Friday Hodja stood up in the pulpit in the mosque to preach a sermon.
"Oh ye believers, do you know what I am going to talk about today?"
"We have no idea," they answered him.
"Well, if you have no idea at all, then what's the use of my talking to
you?"
With that remark he descended from the pulpit and went home.
The next Friday he returned to the mosque and once again stood up in the
pulpit and asked the congregation, "O ye true believers, do you know what I am
going to talk about today?"
"Yes," they answered.
"Well, if you already know, then what's the use of my telling you?" And he
again descended from the pulpit and went home.
Again the following Friday, he entered the mosque, mounted the pulpit, and
asked the same question: "Oh ye true believers, do you know what I am going to
talk to you about today?"
The congregation had prepared their answer in advance: "Some of us do, and
some of us don't."
"In that case," Hodja said, "let those who know tell those who don't." And
he went home again.
as collected by James Fadiman and Robert Frager
"Oh ye believers, do you know what I am going to talk about today?"
"We have no idea," they answered him.
"Well, if you have no idea at all, then what's the use of my talking to
you?"
With that remark he descended from the pulpit and went home.
The next Friday he returned to the mosque and once again stood up in the
pulpit and asked the congregation, "O ye true believers, do you know what I am
going to talk about today?"
"Yes," they answered.
"Well, if you already know, then what's the use of my telling you?" And he
again descended from the pulpit and went home.
Again the following Friday, he entered the mosque, mounted the pulpit, and
asked the same question: "Oh ye true believers, do you know what I am going to
talk to you about today?"
The congregation had prepared their answer in advance: "Some of us do, and
some of us don't."
"In that case," Hodja said, "let those who know tell those who don't." And
he went home again.
as collected by James Fadiman and Robert Frager
A Philosopher...
Today, I met a teacher of Philosophy.. he did not know that his spiritual guides led him to me as he does not believe in spiritual guides.. A man of philosophy is a man that seeks Truth.. he seeks it in the non religious path as he is tired of the religious words and practices of men that say they know Truth but do not..perhaps, he will find some value within the words of Mystics that appear on my blog.. but whatever happens, his teaching will be influenced by what he reads.. he will learn that Philosophy is the beginning of the path to Mysticism.. His mind will be moved by knowledge that Philosophy merely points at.. He will find Truth but he must first learn about the Ego.................namaste, thomas
What is God?...
God is a word that means different things to different people. To many Taoist or Buddhist the word is not part of their religion's glossary. To Hindus that word has a different meaning than it does to a Christian. Muslims have a different perspective and so do the Jews. So for the purpose of The Mystic Doctrines website, we need a common definition of God.
Quoting different sources from each religion before revealing the definition.
Taoism
Tao, the subtle reality of the universe cannot be described, That which can be described in words is mearly a conception of the mind. Although names and descriptions have been applied to it, the subtle reality is beyond the description.
Tao Teh Ching - beginning of chapter 1
The subtle essense of the universe is elusive and evasive.
...
It is the subtle origin of the whole of creation and non-creation. It existed prior to the beginning of time as the deep and subtle reality of the universe. It brings all into being.
Tao Teh Ching - portions of chapter 21
Buddhism
"There is, O monks, an unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unformed. Were there not, O monks, this unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unformed, there would be no escape from the world of the born, originated, created, formed.
"Since, O monks, there is an unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, and unformed, therefore is there an escape from the born, originated, created, formed."
The Gospel of Buddha - Sermon at the bamboo grove at Rajagaha
Hinduism
Neither the multitude of gods nor great sages know of my origin, for I am the source of all the gods and great sages.
A mortal who knows me as the unborn, beginningless great lord of the worlds is freed from all delusion and all evils.
The Bhagavad-Gita - The tenth teaching, verses 2 & 3
Sihkism
There is One, only One Supreme Being, Truth Eternal, Creator of all seen & unseen, Fearless, Without hatred, Timeless Being, Non-Incarnated, Self created, Realized by the Grace of Guru (Perfect Master Only.)
Guru Granth Sahib Page 1
Judaism
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1
For thus saith the Eternal that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the self existent One; and there is none else.
Isaiah 45:18
Christianity
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. He was present originally with God. All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without him was not one thing made that has come into being.
Gospel of John 1:1-3
Sufism
You are the Absolute Existence which causes (our) transient (existences) to appear.
Masnavi - Book 1 - Creator and Creation
Now, a definition of God.
God is the indescribable, uncreated, self existent, eternal all knowing source of all reality and being.................from the Reluctant Messenger
Quoting different sources from each religion before revealing the definition.
Taoism
Tao, the subtle reality of the universe cannot be described, That which can be described in words is mearly a conception of the mind. Although names and descriptions have been applied to it, the subtle reality is beyond the description.
Tao Teh Ching - beginning of chapter 1
The subtle essense of the universe is elusive and evasive.
...
It is the subtle origin of the whole of creation and non-creation. It existed prior to the beginning of time as the deep and subtle reality of the universe. It brings all into being.
Tao Teh Ching - portions of chapter 21
Buddhism
"There is, O monks, an unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unformed. Were there not, O monks, this unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unformed, there would be no escape from the world of the born, originated, created, formed.
"Since, O monks, there is an unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, and unformed, therefore is there an escape from the born, originated, created, formed."
The Gospel of Buddha - Sermon at the bamboo grove at Rajagaha
Hinduism
Neither the multitude of gods nor great sages know of my origin, for I am the source of all the gods and great sages.
A mortal who knows me as the unborn, beginningless great lord of the worlds is freed from all delusion and all evils.
The Bhagavad-Gita - The tenth teaching, verses 2 & 3
Sihkism
There is One, only One Supreme Being, Truth Eternal, Creator of all seen & unseen, Fearless, Without hatred, Timeless Being, Non-Incarnated, Self created, Realized by the Grace of Guru (Perfect Master Only.)
Guru Granth Sahib Page 1
Judaism
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1
For thus saith the Eternal that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the self existent One; and there is none else.
Isaiah 45:18
Christianity
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. He was present originally with God. All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without him was not one thing made that has come into being.
Gospel of John 1:1-3
Sufism
You are the Absolute Existence which causes (our) transient (existences) to appear.
Masnavi - Book 1 - Creator and Creation
Now, a definition of God.
God is the indescribable, uncreated, self existent, eternal all knowing source of all reality and being.................from the Reluctant Messenger
The Normal Man...
The normal man thinks he is body plus mind, with emphasis on the body. But self-questioning and analysis show that, although he certainly has these two things and is certainly associated with them, the "I" is in fact neither of them. It is, by contrast, not changing and quite elusive. It is not in space, as the body is, nor in time, as the mind is. It is, in fact, a mystery. The attempt to find out what it is brings up the questions of existence, life, activity, and consciousness........Paul Brunton
Rabbi Yeshua ben Yosef's "New Testament"...
The story of Jesus is well-known; most everyone, whether religious or not, knows the tale. Yet, it is invariably told from a Christian point of view, and by that I mean from a theological perspective. This is a brief overview of the historical context of the development of the Christian Church, and of the subsequent development of Christian theology and the New Testament, told from a very different perspective.
It started with the teachings of Rabbi Yeshua Ben Yosef, a rabbi from Galilee during the time of the late second Temple period. This was an era of intense political and cultural upheaval for the Jews. They were being occupied by a foreign power, Rome, which was at the height of its strength. The obscure young Rabbi, who hailed from Galilee as did the famous Rabbi Hillel a generation earlier, wandered the countryside teaching the Torah, which was unremarkable in a time when there were many obscure young rabbis who wandered the countryside teaching the Torah. Both his method of teaching and the substance of his teachings were nothing new; he gave a verse of Scripture and then offered a Midrash (or his own personal interpretation) on the verse. Again, this was in no way unusual, for the legal requirements of the Law had not been fixed at this time, and while the Temple stood, the Torah was still fluid and open to debate. He was arrested for being an agitator against the Roman government, tried and executed, which was also unremarkable, for there were literally thousands of such Jewish men who were martyred by Rome during this time. It was said by his followers that Yeshua ben Yosef had performed many miracles during his lifetime, and had even risen from the dead. Even this was not unique, for in the Talmud there are stories of other Jewish "miracle-workers" at this time who were trained in Jewish mysticism and performed miracles. And, with the exception of his small band of followers, his passing went unnoticed both in Jewish and non-Jewish circles, an obscure figure swallowed up in the tumultuous history in which the land of Judea was unraveling.
After Yeshua ben Yosef's death, his followers kept together, now led by Yeshua ben Yosef's brother Yaakov. They continued the dead rabbi's teachings, for they believed that he was in fact the Meshiach who would return to lead the nation of Israel into a golden age both politically and spiritually, and that not only the Jews but all nations would acclaim him as their king, anointed by God to be the religious leader of the earth, when all peoples would come under the Torah.
This group of observant Jews, the followers of Yeshua the Anointed as he was now called, were centered in Jerusalem. They continued their observance of Judaic Law, obeying its statues and commandments and offering sacrifices at the Temple, and the sect flourished even under the pressure from the many Jews who did not like the talk of Yeshua ben Yosef being Yeshua ha-Meshiach, or the Anointed One of God, for talk of this sort would invariably attract the attention of the Roman authorities.
One of the Jews hostile to the sect experienced a vision, something not uncommon at this time. As a result of this vision, he also joined the ranks of the followers of Yeshua ben Yosef, joining to the sect. His subsequent teaching was to have grave consequences in the decades and centuries to follow. His name was Shaul of Tarsus, and he was a Hellenized Jew who had studied under the finest Torah scholars in Jerusalem. Not only was he acquainted with the Jewish Law and mysticism, but familliar with Greek philosophy and Hellenistic culture as well.
Shaul, now known by his Hellenized name "Paul", took a Nazerite vow and set out to spread the Torah with the message that Yeshua ben Yosef was God's Anointed One who would lead all peoples, both Jews and non-Jews, into the promised era of a time where the Torah would be the Law of the world, and that Yeshua ben Yosef would be the chief administrator of this Law. Paul had excellent schooling, for he had been a pupil of Rabbi Gamaliel, the grandson of Rabbi Hillel. He knew not only the Written Torah but the Oral Torah as well, especially the teaching of the Law which dealt with the responsibilities of the non-Jew were the Seven Laws of Noah, or the Universal Law, since they dealt with all mankind, and not just the children of Israel. Paul began to travel around the Mediterranean, turning his attention to an increasingly gentile audience. He founded many congregations of believers in the sect, teaching that not only Jews but Gentiles would be included in the World to Come, which was the phrase the Jews used for the time of the Meshiach.
Paul had great difficulty in keeping the small groups of gentile believers in line with the Jewish doctrines of the Law. Unlike the Jews, these gentiles did not have centuries of traditions and experience to fall back upon, and many of them were already beginning to drift away from the Torah and mix other religious beliefs with what Paul had taught. This often prompted him to write letters to the various groups to chastise them and to teach them the proper way to interpret his teachings. There was also much resistance and hostility from the Jewish communities, who were anti-Gentile in nature and did not like Paul's teaching that the Righteous Gentiles of the world would have salvation as would the Jews.
In the sixth decade of the Common Era, tensions in Judea and the surrounding areas were rising to a head, and many of the Jews were organizing themselves into a Maccabean-type revolt to throw out the Roman invaders. War broke out which culminated in the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. By this time, Paul and the other leaders of the sect were dead or in exile. The small groups of gentiles, who now were starting to call themselves Christians (the Hellenized form of the Hebrew word Meshiach) found themselves bereft of Jewish leadership. Most Jewish Christians, dismayed at the destruction of the Temple, realized that the return of Yeshua ben Yosef would not happen in their lifetimes. They left the sect and returned to mainstream Judaism, which was now Pharisaic Judaism, the only kind which survived the destruction of the Temple and of Jerusalem.
How the scattered gentile Christian sects handled the sudden loss of the Jewish leadership of Paul and the main group centered in Jerusalem was a crucial factor in what happened next to the foundling religion. Without Hebrew-speaking teachers to give them a rabbinic and Hebraic interpretation of the terms in the Jewish scriptures, the gentile believers had to turn to the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Tanach which had been compiled "at Alexandria about the middle of the third century B.C.[E.]" (Kelly, 1959.). Greek words used for concepts such as "prayer", "messiah", "salvation", and "savior" did not have the same connotations in Greek as they did in Hebrew, and so new meanings were given to these words. It would be well over a hundred years before the new religion could come up with any elder or leader who could read or speak Hebrew. The same problem arose in interpreting the Judaic and Rabbinic thoughts and teachings of Yeshua ben Yosef and Shaul. Thus, within a generation of the destruction of the Temple, the non-Hebraic sects found themselves cut off from the Hebrew Torah, the basis of all the teachings of Rabbi Yeshua ben Yosef.
With Gentiles in control of the new religion, the power struggle between Christianity and Judaism began. Offices of leadership localized around the major centers of the main groups located in Asia Minor and Greece such as Antioch and Galatia and Corinth. The greatest problem the new religion faced was the void left by the absence of the tremendous body of rabbinic interpretations which Yeshua ben Yosef and Shaul had been able to draw upon for their teachings. To be able to keep control of the new faith, this meant the gentile leaders had to come up with a non-Jewish system which would work on interpreting the Jewish scriptures and the Jewish teachings of the sect's original founders. This new system would have to be palatable to its now gentile-dominated audience or else the Jews might gain back control of the sect. There was, in fact, still a remnant of the original Jewish believers of Yeshua ben Yosef as the messiah. Later known as the Ebionites, they criticized the gentile groups for mixing non-Jewish elements into the teachings of the new faith, further separating themselves from the gentile sects.
Since Judaism at this time was heavily engaged in proselytizing and siphoning off many potential converts, it was looked upon as Christianity's greatest rival religion. To counter this, church fathers developed theological concepts which "proved" that Christianity was a "better" religion, such as the idea that Israel had been replaced by the church, and the church was now the "new Israel". Words such as "Messiah", "salvation", "Bible" took on new meanings. This re-defining of Judaic terms was necessary in supporting the emerging theology. As the churches grew, there was a developing consensus that a new body of scripture was needed. The only scriptures available were the Jewish scriptures, which the Jews claimed as their own. Macrion, a second century Christian Gnostic who was the first to assemble a corpus of Christian writings, alarmed the mainstream Christians who quickly dubbed him a "heretic". " [Gnosticism] (was) the enemy whose dangerousness resided in the evidence that it had on its side a more consistent systematization of the biblical premises" (Blumenberg 126). The urgency for a body of Christian writings was further heightened by the writing of the Mishna in 200 C.E. by Rabbi Yehuda ha-Nasi, which became an instant classic in Jewish literature; more importantly, a rallying point for the Jews.
During the decades following the destruction of the Temple, the new religion had floundered along with no set doctrine, no set institutionalized structure, and no set leadership. Most of the sects, especially in the peripheries of the Empire, came under Gentile leadership who were woefully unfamiliar with the teachings of Judaic Law and the Rabbinic interpretations of the scriptures, and they began to interpret the purely Jewish teachings of Jesus and Paul by non-Jewish means such as Greek philosophy or by theological concepts of other religions. Large numbers of different sects, such as Gnosticism, Valentinianism, and Marcionitesm, began to develop. These spun off from the early Christian communities which had been founded by Paul and the other apostles. These sects had no set theology, no set ideology, no clear purpose or direction. Christianity, for many decades after the fall of the Temple, was in a liquid flux. No single theology or group was dominant in the early struggle for power and authority. What is clear here is that the line of tradition was irretrievably broken in the decade after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 C.E., when the Jewish leaders of the Christian sect were killed or driven off. The result was that the oral teachings of Rabbi Yeshua ben Yosef and Rabbi Shaul lost their Jewish interpretations.
Yet, the most important product of this power struggle of the early sects was the development of the body of sacred writings which would become the New Testament. As the oral teachings of Jesus were written down, problems arose due to the way theology developed during the first few centuries. With the Church Fathers interpreting teachings based on the religion of Judaism, which they knew little about, they became aware of discrepencies with what they were teaching. Often, their theological ideas were not supported by the literal interpretation of the texts. Instead of changing their theology to conform to the teachings of Jesus, they instead altered the texts to fit their theological interpretations . This trend in Christianity continued down to modern times, where the translations from Greek to English were altered to fit theological ideas. The only problem the Church had was the danger of an alternate body of interpretations which would challenge the theology of the Church. Since Judaism was the only source which could effectively produce a challenge to the Church’s teachings, steps were taken to ensure that this did not happen. Even to this day, in-depth rabbinic interpretations are not taught, to my knowledge, in any seminary in any Christian country [and by rabbinic interpretations, I mean teachings from the Jewish point of view, and not teachings about Jews and Judaism from the Christian point of view].
The main problem the early Church faced with developing a body of sacred Christian literature was not a lack of material, but an excess. The Church had taken the oral teachings of Jesus and then had them committed to writing in the second century. These writings reflected the various nuances of the societies in which they were produced. The Christians then had collected them into one body of work, edited them, and assembled the ones which would support their theology. There were many different gospels, epistles, and teachings that had been floating around, all with a different slant. Every viewpoint imaginable was repretsented; from anti-Judaic Gnosticism, which opposed not only the Jewish Scriptures and the Jewish God, to pro-Judaic writings which threatened the developing theology about Jesus' divinity. There was no clear consensus as to what was canonical or non-canonical. Books which are known because they were mentioned by the early church fathers [such as the Gospel of Barnabas, the Gospel of Andrew, the Revelation of Peter, the Gospel of Peter, an Epistle of Christ to Peter and Paul, and the Gospel of James] were discarded. The books which are now part of the canon of the New Testament, such as the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Revelation of John, were disputed for centuries. Not until the end of the fourth century was there even a list of the books which agrees with that of the present-day New Testament canon. Other books, such as the Epistle of Barnabas, written sometime in the early second century, were held to be authoritative throughout the first centuries of Christianity's formative period. Writings told stories of how Jesus, as a young boy, made clay figures of birds come to life and made children who bullied him drop dead with a word. Other writings taught that the Jews were damned by God and the destruction of the Temple and the exile of the Jewish people from the Holy Land proving that the Church was the "new Israel". These new theological ideas were used in the sermons and preaching of the Christian Fathers and had a direct effect upon the developing theology. This “New Testament” was then used by the Church to justify its authority and achieve power over its constituents. In the early fourth century, the Roman emperor Constantine formally adopted Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire. Thus the Church achieved great political power. One of the first uses of this new power was to prohibit Jews from teaching the Torah to gentiles, often under the penalty of death. Christianity thus claimed a clear victory over its main religious competitor.
The most critical factor which must be grasped is that the New Testament did not produce the church, but that the church produced the New Testament............from geocities
It started with the teachings of Rabbi Yeshua Ben Yosef, a rabbi from Galilee during the time of the late second Temple period. This was an era of intense political and cultural upheaval for the Jews. They were being occupied by a foreign power, Rome, which was at the height of its strength. The obscure young Rabbi, who hailed from Galilee as did the famous Rabbi Hillel a generation earlier, wandered the countryside teaching the Torah, which was unremarkable in a time when there were many obscure young rabbis who wandered the countryside teaching the Torah. Both his method of teaching and the substance of his teachings were nothing new; he gave a verse of Scripture and then offered a Midrash (or his own personal interpretation) on the verse. Again, this was in no way unusual, for the legal requirements of the Law had not been fixed at this time, and while the Temple stood, the Torah was still fluid and open to debate. He was arrested for being an agitator against the Roman government, tried and executed, which was also unremarkable, for there were literally thousands of such Jewish men who were martyred by Rome during this time. It was said by his followers that Yeshua ben Yosef had performed many miracles during his lifetime, and had even risen from the dead. Even this was not unique, for in the Talmud there are stories of other Jewish "miracle-workers" at this time who were trained in Jewish mysticism and performed miracles. And, with the exception of his small band of followers, his passing went unnoticed both in Jewish and non-Jewish circles, an obscure figure swallowed up in the tumultuous history in which the land of Judea was unraveling.
After Yeshua ben Yosef's death, his followers kept together, now led by Yeshua ben Yosef's brother Yaakov. They continued the dead rabbi's teachings, for they believed that he was in fact the Meshiach who would return to lead the nation of Israel into a golden age both politically and spiritually, and that not only the Jews but all nations would acclaim him as their king, anointed by God to be the religious leader of the earth, when all peoples would come under the Torah.
This group of observant Jews, the followers of Yeshua the Anointed as he was now called, were centered in Jerusalem. They continued their observance of Judaic Law, obeying its statues and commandments and offering sacrifices at the Temple, and the sect flourished even under the pressure from the many Jews who did not like the talk of Yeshua ben Yosef being Yeshua ha-Meshiach, or the Anointed One of God, for talk of this sort would invariably attract the attention of the Roman authorities.
One of the Jews hostile to the sect experienced a vision, something not uncommon at this time. As a result of this vision, he also joined the ranks of the followers of Yeshua ben Yosef, joining to the sect. His subsequent teaching was to have grave consequences in the decades and centuries to follow. His name was Shaul of Tarsus, and he was a Hellenized Jew who had studied under the finest Torah scholars in Jerusalem. Not only was he acquainted with the Jewish Law and mysticism, but familliar with Greek philosophy and Hellenistic culture as well.
Shaul, now known by his Hellenized name "Paul", took a Nazerite vow and set out to spread the Torah with the message that Yeshua ben Yosef was God's Anointed One who would lead all peoples, both Jews and non-Jews, into the promised era of a time where the Torah would be the Law of the world, and that Yeshua ben Yosef would be the chief administrator of this Law. Paul had excellent schooling, for he had been a pupil of Rabbi Gamaliel, the grandson of Rabbi Hillel. He knew not only the Written Torah but the Oral Torah as well, especially the teaching of the Law which dealt with the responsibilities of the non-Jew were the Seven Laws of Noah, or the Universal Law, since they dealt with all mankind, and not just the children of Israel. Paul began to travel around the Mediterranean, turning his attention to an increasingly gentile audience. He founded many congregations of believers in the sect, teaching that not only Jews but Gentiles would be included in the World to Come, which was the phrase the Jews used for the time of the Meshiach.
Paul had great difficulty in keeping the small groups of gentile believers in line with the Jewish doctrines of the Law. Unlike the Jews, these gentiles did not have centuries of traditions and experience to fall back upon, and many of them were already beginning to drift away from the Torah and mix other religious beliefs with what Paul had taught. This often prompted him to write letters to the various groups to chastise them and to teach them the proper way to interpret his teachings. There was also much resistance and hostility from the Jewish communities, who were anti-Gentile in nature and did not like Paul's teaching that the Righteous Gentiles of the world would have salvation as would the Jews.
In the sixth decade of the Common Era, tensions in Judea and the surrounding areas were rising to a head, and many of the Jews were organizing themselves into a Maccabean-type revolt to throw out the Roman invaders. War broke out which culminated in the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. By this time, Paul and the other leaders of the sect were dead or in exile. The small groups of gentiles, who now were starting to call themselves Christians (the Hellenized form of the Hebrew word Meshiach) found themselves bereft of Jewish leadership. Most Jewish Christians, dismayed at the destruction of the Temple, realized that the return of Yeshua ben Yosef would not happen in their lifetimes. They left the sect and returned to mainstream Judaism, which was now Pharisaic Judaism, the only kind which survived the destruction of the Temple and of Jerusalem.
How the scattered gentile Christian sects handled the sudden loss of the Jewish leadership of Paul and the main group centered in Jerusalem was a crucial factor in what happened next to the foundling religion. Without Hebrew-speaking teachers to give them a rabbinic and Hebraic interpretation of the terms in the Jewish scriptures, the gentile believers had to turn to the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Tanach which had been compiled "at Alexandria about the middle of the third century B.C.[E.]" (Kelly, 1959.). Greek words used for concepts such as "prayer", "messiah", "salvation", and "savior" did not have the same connotations in Greek as they did in Hebrew, and so new meanings were given to these words. It would be well over a hundred years before the new religion could come up with any elder or leader who could read or speak Hebrew. The same problem arose in interpreting the Judaic and Rabbinic thoughts and teachings of Yeshua ben Yosef and Shaul. Thus, within a generation of the destruction of the Temple, the non-Hebraic sects found themselves cut off from the Hebrew Torah, the basis of all the teachings of Rabbi Yeshua ben Yosef.
With Gentiles in control of the new religion, the power struggle between Christianity and Judaism began. Offices of leadership localized around the major centers of the main groups located in Asia Minor and Greece such as Antioch and Galatia and Corinth. The greatest problem the new religion faced was the void left by the absence of the tremendous body of rabbinic interpretations which Yeshua ben Yosef and Shaul had been able to draw upon for their teachings. To be able to keep control of the new faith, this meant the gentile leaders had to come up with a non-Jewish system which would work on interpreting the Jewish scriptures and the Jewish teachings of the sect's original founders. This new system would have to be palatable to its now gentile-dominated audience or else the Jews might gain back control of the sect. There was, in fact, still a remnant of the original Jewish believers of Yeshua ben Yosef as the messiah. Later known as the Ebionites, they criticized the gentile groups for mixing non-Jewish elements into the teachings of the new faith, further separating themselves from the gentile sects.
Since Judaism at this time was heavily engaged in proselytizing and siphoning off many potential converts, it was looked upon as Christianity's greatest rival religion. To counter this, church fathers developed theological concepts which "proved" that Christianity was a "better" religion, such as the idea that Israel had been replaced by the church, and the church was now the "new Israel". Words such as "Messiah", "salvation", "Bible" took on new meanings. This re-defining of Judaic terms was necessary in supporting the emerging theology. As the churches grew, there was a developing consensus that a new body of scripture was needed. The only scriptures available were the Jewish scriptures, which the Jews claimed as their own. Macrion, a second century Christian Gnostic who was the first to assemble a corpus of Christian writings, alarmed the mainstream Christians who quickly dubbed him a "heretic". " [Gnosticism] (was) the enemy whose dangerousness resided in the evidence that it had on its side a more consistent systematization of the biblical premises" (Blumenberg 126). The urgency for a body of Christian writings was further heightened by the writing of the Mishna in 200 C.E. by Rabbi Yehuda ha-Nasi, which became an instant classic in Jewish literature; more importantly, a rallying point for the Jews.
During the decades following the destruction of the Temple, the new religion had floundered along with no set doctrine, no set institutionalized structure, and no set leadership. Most of the sects, especially in the peripheries of the Empire, came under Gentile leadership who were woefully unfamiliar with the teachings of Judaic Law and the Rabbinic interpretations of the scriptures, and they began to interpret the purely Jewish teachings of Jesus and Paul by non-Jewish means such as Greek philosophy or by theological concepts of other religions. Large numbers of different sects, such as Gnosticism, Valentinianism, and Marcionitesm, began to develop. These spun off from the early Christian communities which had been founded by Paul and the other apostles. These sects had no set theology, no set ideology, no clear purpose or direction. Christianity, for many decades after the fall of the Temple, was in a liquid flux. No single theology or group was dominant in the early struggle for power and authority. What is clear here is that the line of tradition was irretrievably broken in the decade after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 C.E., when the Jewish leaders of the Christian sect were killed or driven off. The result was that the oral teachings of Rabbi Yeshua ben Yosef and Rabbi Shaul lost their Jewish interpretations.
Yet, the most important product of this power struggle of the early sects was the development of the body of sacred writings which would become the New Testament. As the oral teachings of Jesus were written down, problems arose due to the way theology developed during the first few centuries. With the Church Fathers interpreting teachings based on the religion of Judaism, which they knew little about, they became aware of discrepencies with what they were teaching. Often, their theological ideas were not supported by the literal interpretation of the texts. Instead of changing their theology to conform to the teachings of Jesus, they instead altered the texts to fit their theological interpretations . This trend in Christianity continued down to modern times, where the translations from Greek to English were altered to fit theological ideas. The only problem the Church had was the danger of an alternate body of interpretations which would challenge the theology of the Church. Since Judaism was the only source which could effectively produce a challenge to the Church’s teachings, steps were taken to ensure that this did not happen. Even to this day, in-depth rabbinic interpretations are not taught, to my knowledge, in any seminary in any Christian country [and by rabbinic interpretations, I mean teachings from the Jewish point of view, and not teachings about Jews and Judaism from the Christian point of view].
The main problem the early Church faced with developing a body of sacred Christian literature was not a lack of material, but an excess. The Church had taken the oral teachings of Jesus and then had them committed to writing in the second century. These writings reflected the various nuances of the societies in which they were produced. The Christians then had collected them into one body of work, edited them, and assembled the ones which would support their theology. There were many different gospels, epistles, and teachings that had been floating around, all with a different slant. Every viewpoint imaginable was repretsented; from anti-Judaic Gnosticism, which opposed not only the Jewish Scriptures and the Jewish God, to pro-Judaic writings which threatened the developing theology about Jesus' divinity. There was no clear consensus as to what was canonical or non-canonical. Books which are known because they were mentioned by the early church fathers [such as the Gospel of Barnabas, the Gospel of Andrew, the Revelation of Peter, the Gospel of Peter, an Epistle of Christ to Peter and Paul, and the Gospel of James] were discarded. The books which are now part of the canon of the New Testament, such as the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Revelation of John, were disputed for centuries. Not until the end of the fourth century was there even a list of the books which agrees with that of the present-day New Testament canon. Other books, such as the Epistle of Barnabas, written sometime in the early second century, were held to be authoritative throughout the first centuries of Christianity's formative period. Writings told stories of how Jesus, as a young boy, made clay figures of birds come to life and made children who bullied him drop dead with a word. Other writings taught that the Jews were damned by God and the destruction of the Temple and the exile of the Jewish people from the Holy Land proving that the Church was the "new Israel". These new theological ideas were used in the sermons and preaching of the Christian Fathers and had a direct effect upon the developing theology. This “New Testament” was then used by the Church to justify its authority and achieve power over its constituents. In the early fourth century, the Roman emperor Constantine formally adopted Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire. Thus the Church achieved great political power. One of the first uses of this new power was to prohibit Jews from teaching the Torah to gentiles, often under the penalty of death. Christianity thus claimed a clear victory over its main religious competitor.
The most critical factor which must be grasped is that the New Testament did not produce the church, but that the church produced the New Testament............from geocities
If God Is, I Am...
Close your eyes, fill yourself full of God, and then be a beholder and see what miraculous things God does through you, although not always according to your expectation... You are that child of God...
...the minute I know that God is love, I have no problems. That ends them. If I know that God is infinite intelligence and that it is God's good pleasure to give to me the kingdom, what kind of problem could I have?
If God is, then I am. I cannot say, "I am yesterday," and I cannot say, "I am tomorrow."
All I can say is "If God is, I am."
~ Joel S. Goldsmith, The Art of Spiritual Healing
...the minute I know that God is love, I have no problems. That ends them. If I know that God is infinite intelligence and that it is God's good pleasure to give to me the kingdom, what kind of problem could I have?
If God is, then I am. I cannot say, "I am yesterday," and I cannot say, "I am tomorrow."
All I can say is "If God is, I am."
~ Joel S. Goldsmith, The Art of Spiritual Healing
Anger...
“You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.”
.......Gautama the Buddha
.......Gautama the Buddha
Thought and Appearance..
It was Plato who rightly pointed out that experience is really a medley of changing opinions and conflicting beliefs, thereby offering contrast with the orderliness and consistency of reasoned knowledge. This is why we have to begin intellectual analysis of the world by separating the realm of sense perception from the realm of reasoned perception, as though they were entirely different. But we must not end with such an artificial separation. For in the higher stages we climb to the viewpoint which reunites them again. The Thought is then the Thing. The Appearance is then also the Real!........Paul Brunton
Be Aware...
"Here is a principle which will keep you standing in the right
place. Whenever you do not know what to do about something, simply
be aware that you do not know, and do nothing else. Be aware of
your condition, perhaps agitation or displeasure, and stop right
there. Never mind if this does not seem like the right response.
Never mind if you can't see how this can solve that financial
problem or that domestic difficulty. Unawareness of the whole
picture is the only problem, so awareness is the only right
action. Prove its rightness for yourself."
The Esoteric Path to a New Life, p. 31..... Vernon Howard
place. Whenever you do not know what to do about something, simply
be aware that you do not know, and do nothing else. Be aware of
your condition, perhaps agitation or displeasure, and stop right
there. Never mind if this does not seem like the right response.
Never mind if you can't see how this can solve that financial
problem or that domestic difficulty. Unawareness of the whole
picture is the only problem, so awareness is the only right
action. Prove its rightness for yourself."
The Esoteric Path to a New Life, p. 31..... Vernon Howard
The Road...
Once you realize that the road is the goal and that you are
always on the road, not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty
and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural
and simple, in itself an ecstasy........Nisargadatta
always on the road, not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty
and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural
and simple, in itself an ecstasy........Nisargadatta
Sudden Enlightenment...
'Sudden Enlightenment' means precisely the immediate apperception of
all that in fact we are. 'Enlightenment' is 'sudden' only because it
is not in 'time' (subject to sequential duration). It is
re-integration in intemporality.
'Posthumous Pieces' by Wei Wu Wei
all that in fact we are. 'Enlightenment' is 'sudden' only because it
is not in 'time' (subject to sequential duration). It is
re-integration in intemporality.
'Posthumous Pieces' by Wei Wu Wei
Misery...
Misery needs your conspiracy; it needs your help.
Without your resistance misery cannot survive.
~ Adyashanti
Without your resistance misery cannot survive.
~ Adyashanti
Spiritual Practices...
If spiritual practices serve the purpose of stopping the mind,
they are strong allies. But if they deepen the belief that you are someone in particular
who practices something in particular in order to get something that you do not believe is already here,
then they are an obstruction. They keep you spinning around yourself
rather than allowing you to deepen into yourself.
~ Gangaji
they are strong allies. But if they deepen the belief that you are someone in particular
who practices something in particular in order to get something that you do not believe is already here,
then they are an obstruction. They keep you spinning around yourself
rather than allowing you to deepen into yourself.
~ Gangaji
Stop Thinking...
Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction, but we don't realize this because almost everyone is suffering from it, so it is considered normal. This incessant mental noise prevents you from finding that realm of inner stillness that is inseparable from Being........
Eckhart Tolle
Eckhart Tolle
The Gift...
Make a gift of your life and lift all mankind by being kind, considerate, forgiving, and compassionate at all times, in all places, and under all conditions, with everyone as well as yourself. This is the greatest gift anyone can give.
David R. Hawkins
David R. Hawkins
Nirvana...
If he refrains from the final mergence into Nirvana, it is not only because he wants to be available for the enlightenment of his more hapless fellows, but also because he knows that he has really been in Nirvana from the beginning and has never left it......Paul Brunton
Hot Coal upon your Chest...
A Buddha once said that if you wish to rise above the ego and find your Real Self, then you must persue this quest by imagining that you are tied to the ground by ropes and a piece of hot coal is placed upon your chest.. with the same desire that you try to shake this hot coal off your chest is the same intention that you must use in your quest to shake off the ego... I have found this knowledge to be True.. So shake off the ego and find Reality with this same strength of Mind.. This is the only intention that you must have.. the ultimate intention.. so strive and succeed..................namaste, thomas
Karma...
There is no good and no evil. In every
concrete situation there is only the
necessary and the unnecessary. The
needful is right, the needless is wrong.
The situation decides.
Every situation is a challenge which
demands the right response. When the
response is right, the challenge is met
and the problem ceases. If the response
is wrong, the challenge is not met and
the problem remains unsolved. Your
unsolved problems - that is what
constitutes your karma. Solve them
rightly and be free.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
concrete situation there is only the
necessary and the unnecessary. The
needful is right, the needless is wrong.
The situation decides.
Every situation is a challenge which
demands the right response. When the
response is right, the challenge is met
and the problem ceases. If the response
is wrong, the challenge is not met and
the problem remains unsolved. Your
unsolved problems - that is what
constitutes your karma. Solve them
rightly and be free.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
Intuition...
A man who is sincere and makes philosophy his lifes endeavor, will emanate that sincerity. A man who thinks it and lives it will touch the intuition of others.
Richard Rose
from
http://www.bestspirituality.com/
Richard Rose
from
http://www.bestspirituality.com/
What Meditation Has Taught Me...
I don’t know to what degree meditation is known in its very real and core essential. I do know that I used to understand it only superficially, but I have learned. Meditation is the gateway to a new world, a greater mind, a capacity we have that is infinite and divine in its essential.
Years ago I had the privilege of having private darshan (audience) with Muktananda. I was very Westernized at the time, to say the least. In his presence, however, I felt an enormous surge of love in my heart and a huge dedication to helping the world through my profession. When I asked for advice as to my further development, he said, “Meditate, meditate, meditate.” While I thought that was superficial at the time, I have learned it is essential. It is The Essential.
What is there about meditation that makes me say this?
We are essentially Divinity (Spirit), precipitated as we descend from the creative heights into this material plane. We learn here, and we return. Meditation is learning here and return, both at the same time.
When we meditate, we loosen the ties with our earthly home by removing attention from the body, from the emotions, and from the ordinary preoccupations of life. Then we are in a place of silence; we are at the cusp. We remain in contact with the earth, but we are open to reception from High Planes, from the Cosmic Wisdom. If we retain what we learn (if we remember it), we can weave it into life and grow progressively into the Spirit-beings that we are...........By Maurie D. Pressman, M.D.
Years ago I had the privilege of having private darshan (audience) with Muktananda. I was very Westernized at the time, to say the least. In his presence, however, I felt an enormous surge of love in my heart and a huge dedication to helping the world through my profession. When I asked for advice as to my further development, he said, “Meditate, meditate, meditate.” While I thought that was superficial at the time, I have learned it is essential. It is The Essential.
What is there about meditation that makes me say this?
We are essentially Divinity (Spirit), precipitated as we descend from the creative heights into this material plane. We learn here, and we return. Meditation is learning here and return, both at the same time.
When we meditate, we loosen the ties with our earthly home by removing attention from the body, from the emotions, and from the ordinary preoccupations of life. Then we are in a place of silence; we are at the cusp. We remain in contact with the earth, but we are open to reception from High Planes, from the Cosmic Wisdom. If we retain what we learn (if we remember it), we can weave it into life and grow progressively into the Spirit-beings that we are...........By Maurie D. Pressman, M.D.
Gautama the Buddha Speaks...
THUS has it been said by the Buddha, the Enlightened One: It is
through not understanding, not realizing four things, that I,
Disciples, as well as you, had to wander so long through this round of
rebirths. And what are these four things? They are the Noble Truth
of Suffering, the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering, the Noble
Truth of the Extinction of Suffering, the Noble Truth of the Path that
leads to the Extinction of Suffering.
As long as the absolutely true knowledge and insight as regards
these Four Noble Truths was not quite clear in me, so long was I not
sure, whether I had won that supreme Enlightenment which is
unsurpassed in all the world with its heavenly beings, evil spirits
and gods, amongst all the hosts of ascetics and priests, heavenly
beings and men. But as soon as the absolutely true knowledge and
insight as regards these Four Noble Truths had become perfectly
clear in me, there arose in me the assurance that I had won that
supreme Enlightenment unsurpassed.
And I discovered that-profound truth, so difficult to perceive,
difficult to understand, tranquilizing and sublime, which is not to be
gained by mere reasoning, and is visible only to the wise.
The world, however, is given to pleasure, delighted with pleasure,
enchanted with pleasure. Verily, such beings will hardly understand
the law of conditionality, the Dependent Origination of every thing;
incomprehensible to them will also be the end of all formations, the
forsaking of every substratum of rebirth, the fading away of
craving; detachment, extinction, Nirvana.
Yet there are beings whose eyes are only a little covered with dust:
they will understand the truth...........Gautama the Buddha
through not understanding, not realizing four things, that I,
Disciples, as well as you, had to wander so long through this round of
rebirths. And what are these four things? They are the Noble Truth
of Suffering, the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering, the Noble
Truth of the Extinction of Suffering, the Noble Truth of the Path that
leads to the Extinction of Suffering.
As long as the absolutely true knowledge and insight as regards
these Four Noble Truths was not quite clear in me, so long was I not
sure, whether I had won that supreme Enlightenment which is
unsurpassed in all the world with its heavenly beings, evil spirits
and gods, amongst all the hosts of ascetics and priests, heavenly
beings and men. But as soon as the absolutely true knowledge and
insight as regards these Four Noble Truths had become perfectly
clear in me, there arose in me the assurance that I had won that
supreme Enlightenment unsurpassed.
And I discovered that-profound truth, so difficult to perceive,
difficult to understand, tranquilizing and sublime, which is not to be
gained by mere reasoning, and is visible only to the wise.
The world, however, is given to pleasure, delighted with pleasure,
enchanted with pleasure. Verily, such beings will hardly understand
the law of conditionality, the Dependent Origination of every thing;
incomprehensible to them will also be the end of all formations, the
forsaking of every substratum of rebirth, the fading away of
craving; detachment, extinction, Nirvana.
Yet there are beings whose eyes are only a little covered with dust:
they will understand the truth...........Gautama the Buddha
Depending too much on the written word...
"A man came to the market with a shopping
list and lost it. When to his great joy he found
it again, he read it eagerly, held on to it till
he had done his shopping -- then threw it away as
a useless scrap of paper."
Anthony de Mello, SJ
list and lost it. When to his great joy he found
it again, he read it eagerly, held on to it till
he had done his shopping -- then threw it away as
a useless scrap of paper."
Anthony de Mello, SJ
The Teaching of Jesus on Contemplation ...
Jesus continues in his teaching on prayer to tell us that in our spiritual life we should be mindful, not distracted, not scattered. We should live with a sense of the presence at all times. This is implicit when he says, “Set your mind upon God’s Kingdom before everything else, and everything else will come to you as well”. What does this mean? Surely it means to be, to be present, to live attentively in the present moment, and then you will be mindful of the Kingdom of God, which means the presence of God within you and between us at all times. It’s very close to what the Buddhists call mindfulness. It’s what the Christian tradition calls “praying at all times”.
2 One of the great benefits of meditation in daily life, if you meditate regularly every day, morning and evening, is that you’ll find that more and more deeply you become aware of this continuous life of the Spirit going on in your depths, in the depth of your own being. It’s going on at all times, not just when you are praying but whatever you are doing, wherever you are, whoever you are with, at any time of the day or night and even whatever you are feeling. This is the deepest ground of being, the ground level of existence on which we are standing. This is the present moment, that present moment that contains past and future. We are always in the present moment, even if we are thinking about the past or thinking about the future, we are in the present moment aren’t we? That is what we mean by praying at all times.
3 To live in a contemplative way doesn’t mean we have to live in a monastery or living a very quiet form of life. It means that whatever we are doing, fulfilling our duties or our vocation, we are present to what we are doing and to the presence of God in that action. To pray at all times means that actually we are opening a deeper level of our consciousness to the prayer of Christ in us. St Paul helps us to understand this when he says, “We do not know how to pray, but the Spirit prays within us, deeper than words.” The symptoms of this are joy and peace. You can experience joy even when things go wrong, and you can experience peace even in times of stress or anxiety, because of this joy and peace that Jesus promised us and communicated to us – his own peace, his own joy. In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “I give you my own peace, my parting gift to you and I give you my joy so that your joy may be complete.” It is in this joy and peace that we find the real experience of God. They are not dependent on external circumstances. They are there in good weather and bad weather, when things go well, when things don’t go well, when you are happy, when you are unhappy. It’s always there. The contemplative life is to be rooted in that ground of being, to have your feet standing on that solid ground, to be rooted in that ground of love.
4 That’s the meaning of the daily meditation discipline. That’s why we do it. You don’t always feel like meditating, do you? Sometimes you are not in the mood for it. Sometimes you feel you are not doing it very well, you are not making much progress. But it’s our commitment to that regular daily practice that we discover the fruit in this experience of continuous prayer in daily living. We find that even without trying to do it, our mind is set on God’s Kingdom above everything else.
Living Fully in the Present Moment
5 At the conclusion of this section of St Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Don’t worry about tomorrow; every day has enough problems of its own.” He’s talking about living fully and faithfully in the present moment. Be present. Be real.
6 Actually as you understand and discover what the present moment means, what it’s like living in the present moment, and you will discover that in your own experience as you meditate day by day, you discover that you don’t forget the past. You don’t become irresponsible about the future. The past and future are now related to the central primary experience of the present moment. There may be some aspects of the past you have still to deal with, some leftover business that you haven’t finished yet, some emotional or moral responsibilities that you have yet to attend to arising from your past behaviour, some things you don’t understand about the past that you’ve got to learn to understand before you can move on. It doesn’t mean either that you ignore the future and just pretend that there isn’t going to be any future – you still pay your insurance policies or your car tax or make your bookings for the plane long enough in advance to get a cheap rate. The past and the future have a certain reality which we have to respect. But you will find that as you learn to live in the present moment, you will become less anxious about the future and less controlled by the past. You won’t be living so much out of the fears for the future or the memories of the past. You won’t be living behind yourself or ahead of yourself. And you won’t be so trapped in the past especially those aspects of the past that cause anger, guilt, or sadness. You know, you’ve had fights, or family feuds, or people have betrayed us, or our employer made us redundant or we had a fight with a friend. Those experiences of the past are very powerful. They can linger – we may struggle with forgiveness for many years. But what you will find is that, as you discover what the present moment means, you will be able to deal with those memories and experiences of the past much more freely, much more peacefully.
7 Contemplation sets us free. When Jesus said that he came to show us and to bring us the fullness of life, so that we could live life to the full and maximise our full human potential, he said it is the truth that will set you free. This is what we discover through meditation: the truth.
Prayer of the Heart
8 So those are the essential elements of Jesus’ teaching on prayer that we find in The Sermon on the Mount: being free from external obsessiveness, practising interiority, silence, trust, calmness of mind, mindfulness and being present.
9 If you were to say, “How can I put those good teachings into practice” what you are asking is, “how can I pray”. That question, “how can I truly pray; how can I deepen my prayer, how can I pray better” is the question which when sincerely asked, takes us to a deeper level of our spiritual journey. It leads us, in God’s own time, in God’s own kindness, eventually to the practice of meditation, to the prayer of the heart.
Laurence Freeman OSB
Excerpt of tape “Meditation: An Introduction for Friends”
December 1997
Pecos, New Mexico, USA
2 One of the great benefits of meditation in daily life, if you meditate regularly every day, morning and evening, is that you’ll find that more and more deeply you become aware of this continuous life of the Spirit going on in your depths, in the depth of your own being. It’s going on at all times, not just when you are praying but whatever you are doing, wherever you are, whoever you are with, at any time of the day or night and even whatever you are feeling. This is the deepest ground of being, the ground level of existence on which we are standing. This is the present moment, that present moment that contains past and future. We are always in the present moment, even if we are thinking about the past or thinking about the future, we are in the present moment aren’t we? That is what we mean by praying at all times.
3 To live in a contemplative way doesn’t mean we have to live in a monastery or living a very quiet form of life. It means that whatever we are doing, fulfilling our duties or our vocation, we are present to what we are doing and to the presence of God in that action. To pray at all times means that actually we are opening a deeper level of our consciousness to the prayer of Christ in us. St Paul helps us to understand this when he says, “We do not know how to pray, but the Spirit prays within us, deeper than words.” The symptoms of this are joy and peace. You can experience joy even when things go wrong, and you can experience peace even in times of stress or anxiety, because of this joy and peace that Jesus promised us and communicated to us – his own peace, his own joy. In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “I give you my own peace, my parting gift to you and I give you my joy so that your joy may be complete.” It is in this joy and peace that we find the real experience of God. They are not dependent on external circumstances. They are there in good weather and bad weather, when things go well, when things don’t go well, when you are happy, when you are unhappy. It’s always there. The contemplative life is to be rooted in that ground of being, to have your feet standing on that solid ground, to be rooted in that ground of love.
4 That’s the meaning of the daily meditation discipline. That’s why we do it. You don’t always feel like meditating, do you? Sometimes you are not in the mood for it. Sometimes you feel you are not doing it very well, you are not making much progress. But it’s our commitment to that regular daily practice that we discover the fruit in this experience of continuous prayer in daily living. We find that even without trying to do it, our mind is set on God’s Kingdom above everything else.
Living Fully in the Present Moment
5 At the conclusion of this section of St Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Don’t worry about tomorrow; every day has enough problems of its own.” He’s talking about living fully and faithfully in the present moment. Be present. Be real.
6 Actually as you understand and discover what the present moment means, what it’s like living in the present moment, and you will discover that in your own experience as you meditate day by day, you discover that you don’t forget the past. You don’t become irresponsible about the future. The past and future are now related to the central primary experience of the present moment. There may be some aspects of the past you have still to deal with, some leftover business that you haven’t finished yet, some emotional or moral responsibilities that you have yet to attend to arising from your past behaviour, some things you don’t understand about the past that you’ve got to learn to understand before you can move on. It doesn’t mean either that you ignore the future and just pretend that there isn’t going to be any future – you still pay your insurance policies or your car tax or make your bookings for the plane long enough in advance to get a cheap rate. The past and the future have a certain reality which we have to respect. But you will find that as you learn to live in the present moment, you will become less anxious about the future and less controlled by the past. You won’t be living so much out of the fears for the future or the memories of the past. You won’t be living behind yourself or ahead of yourself. And you won’t be so trapped in the past especially those aspects of the past that cause anger, guilt, or sadness. You know, you’ve had fights, or family feuds, or people have betrayed us, or our employer made us redundant or we had a fight with a friend. Those experiences of the past are very powerful. They can linger – we may struggle with forgiveness for many years. But what you will find is that, as you discover what the present moment means, you will be able to deal with those memories and experiences of the past much more freely, much more peacefully.
7 Contemplation sets us free. When Jesus said that he came to show us and to bring us the fullness of life, so that we could live life to the full and maximise our full human potential, he said it is the truth that will set you free. This is what we discover through meditation: the truth.
Prayer of the Heart
8 So those are the essential elements of Jesus’ teaching on prayer that we find in The Sermon on the Mount: being free from external obsessiveness, practising interiority, silence, trust, calmness of mind, mindfulness and being present.
9 If you were to say, “How can I put those good teachings into practice” what you are asking is, “how can I pray”. That question, “how can I truly pray; how can I deepen my prayer, how can I pray better” is the question which when sincerely asked, takes us to a deeper level of our spiritual journey. It leads us, in God’s own time, in God’s own kindness, eventually to the practice of meditation, to the prayer of the heart.
Laurence Freeman OSB
Excerpt of tape “Meditation: An Introduction for Friends”
December 1997
Pecos, New Mexico, USA
It is time to Speak..
I post many writings from Saints and Inspired Teachers.. but, it is time to speak from my Self... The reason that we are here is to learn to become Free.. Free from pain, Free from ignorance, Free from Ego.. This is the Truth.. We can only be Free when we Free ourselves from the illusion of the Ego.. We are not the Ego.. We are the frequency of Light and the energy of Love.. this is the Truth.. so grab onto the Truth and become Free... As you diminish the Ego you will enhance the energy of Love.. this is your True Self.. This is what you call God.. This is Reality...This is your goal in Life.. This is the meaning of Life... May , you know Love and may you know God and may you know that you are Both..............namaste, thomas
False Identity...
You cannot be both horse and rider at the same time.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
The ego has two sides: the first one is the one we know, and the next one we
must discover. The side we know is the false ego which makes us say, 'I'. What
is it in us that we call 'I'? We say, 'This is my body, my mind, these are my
thoughts, my feelings, my impressions, this is my position in life.' We identify
our self with all that concerns us and the sum total of all these we call 'I'.
In the light of truth this conception is false, it is a false identity.
By reasoning with oneself and by trying to study oneself analytically it is
possible to get nearer to the true knowledge of one's being. If we consider that
every part that constitutes our being has its own name -- the hand, the foot,
every part of our being has a different name, quality and purpose, and even a
separate form -- what is it then in man which says 'I' and identifies itself
with what it sees? It is not our head, hand or foot which says 'I' nor is it the
brain. It is something that we cannot point out which identifies itself with all
these different parts and says 'I' and mine and knows itself to be the person
who sees. This in itself is ignorance, and it is this which the Hindus have
called avidya.
How can you be that which you possess? You cannot be the horse and rider at the
same time, nor can you be carpenter and tool at the same time. Herein lies the
secret of mortality and immortality.
What has taken possession of this accommodation? A deluded ego that says, 'I.'
It is deluded by this body and mind and it has called itself an individual. When
a man has a ragged coat he says, 'I am poor'. In reality his coat is poor, not
he. What this capacity or accommodation contains is that which becomes his
knowledge, his realization, and it is that which limits him. It forms that
limitation which is the tragedy of every soul.
Now, this capacity may be filled with self, or it may be filled with God. There
is only room for one. Either we live with our limitation, or we let God reign
there in His unlimited Being.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
The ego has two sides: the first one is the one we know, and the next one we
must discover. The side we know is the false ego which makes us say, 'I'. What
is it in us that we call 'I'? We say, 'This is my body, my mind, these are my
thoughts, my feelings, my impressions, this is my position in life.' We identify
our self with all that concerns us and the sum total of all these we call 'I'.
In the light of truth this conception is false, it is a false identity.
By reasoning with oneself and by trying to study oneself analytically it is
possible to get nearer to the true knowledge of one's being. If we consider that
every part that constitutes our being has its own name -- the hand, the foot,
every part of our being has a different name, quality and purpose, and even a
separate form -- what is it then in man which says 'I' and identifies itself
with what it sees? It is not our head, hand or foot which says 'I' nor is it the
brain. It is something that we cannot point out which identifies itself with all
these different parts and says 'I' and mine and knows itself to be the person
who sees. This in itself is ignorance, and it is this which the Hindus have
called avidya.
How can you be that which you possess? You cannot be the horse and rider at the
same time, nor can you be carpenter and tool at the same time. Herein lies the
secret of mortality and immortality.
What has taken possession of this accommodation? A deluded ego that says, 'I.'
It is deluded by this body and mind and it has called itself an individual. When
a man has a ragged coat he says, 'I am poor'. In reality his coat is poor, not
he. What this capacity or accommodation contains is that which becomes his
knowledge, his realization, and it is that which limits him. It forms that
limitation which is the tragedy of every soul.
Now, this capacity may be filled with self, or it may be filled with God. There
is only room for one. Either we live with our limitation, or we let God reign
there in His unlimited Being.
Everything Comes Back to Nothing ...
Inexplicably it comes. When you least expect it. For a reason you can never know. One moment you are striving, figuring, imagining, and then, in the blink of an eye, it all disappears. The struggle disappears. The striving disappears. The person disappears. The world disappears. Everything disappears, and the person is like a pinpoint of light, just receding until it disappears. And there's nobody there to witness it. The person is gone. Only, only awareness remains. Nothing else. No one to be aware. Nothing to be aware of. Only that remains itself. Then it's understood, finally and simply.
Then everything—all the struggle, all the striving, all the thinking, all the figuring, all the surrendering, all the letting go, all the grabbing hold of, all the praying, all the begging, all the cursing, too—was just a distraction. And only then is it seen that the person was, is, and ever will be no more than a thought. With a single thought, the person seems to reemerge. With more thoughts, the world seems to reemerge right out of nothing. But now you know.
The incarnation is nothing more than a thought. A thousand incarnations are but a thousand thoughts. And this amazing miracle of a mirage we call the world reappears as it was before, but now you know. That's why you usually have a good laugh, because you realize that all your struggles were made up. You conjured them up out of nothing—with a thought that was linked to another thought, that was then believed, that linked to another thought that was then believed. But never could it have been true, not for a second could it have actually existed. Not ever could you have actually suffered for a reason that was true—only through an imagination, good, bad, indifferent. The intricacies of spiritual philosophy and theologies are just a thought within Emptiness.
And so at times we talk, and I pretend to take your struggles seriously, just as I pretended to take my own seriously. You may pretend to take your own struggles seriously from time to time, and although we pretend, we really shouldn't forget that we are pretending, that we are making up the content of our experience; we are making up the little dramas of our lives. We are making up whether we need to hold on or surrender or figure it out or pray to God or be purified or have karma cleansed—it's all a thought. We just collude in this ridiculous charade of an illusion pretending that it's real, only to reveal that it's not. There is no karma. There is nothing really to purify. There's no problem. There is only what you create and believe to be so. And if you like it that way, have at it!
But we cannot continue this absolute farce indefinitely. We cannot continue to pretend this game we play, indefinitely. It's impossible. Everything comes back to nothing.
And then it's a bit harder to hold a straight face consistently for the rest of your life.
Transcribed from a talk in Pacific Grove, CA, June 9, 2006.
© 2006 by Adyashanti. www.adyashanti.org
Then everything—all the struggle, all the striving, all the thinking, all the figuring, all the surrendering, all the letting go, all the grabbing hold of, all the praying, all the begging, all the cursing, too—was just a distraction. And only then is it seen that the person was, is, and ever will be no more than a thought. With a single thought, the person seems to reemerge. With more thoughts, the world seems to reemerge right out of nothing. But now you know.
The incarnation is nothing more than a thought. A thousand incarnations are but a thousand thoughts. And this amazing miracle of a mirage we call the world reappears as it was before, but now you know. That's why you usually have a good laugh, because you realize that all your struggles were made up. You conjured them up out of nothing—with a thought that was linked to another thought, that was then believed, that linked to another thought that was then believed. But never could it have been true, not for a second could it have actually existed. Not ever could you have actually suffered for a reason that was true—only through an imagination, good, bad, indifferent. The intricacies of spiritual philosophy and theologies are just a thought within Emptiness.
And so at times we talk, and I pretend to take your struggles seriously, just as I pretended to take my own seriously. You may pretend to take your own struggles seriously from time to time, and although we pretend, we really shouldn't forget that we are pretending, that we are making up the content of our experience; we are making up the little dramas of our lives. We are making up whether we need to hold on or surrender or figure it out or pray to God or be purified or have karma cleansed—it's all a thought. We just collude in this ridiculous charade of an illusion pretending that it's real, only to reveal that it's not. There is no karma. There is nothing really to purify. There's no problem. There is only what you create and believe to be so. And if you like it that way, have at it!
But we cannot continue this absolute farce indefinitely. We cannot continue to pretend this game we play, indefinitely. It's impossible. Everything comes back to nothing.
And then it's a bit harder to hold a straight face consistently for the rest of your life.
Transcribed from a talk in Pacific Grove, CA, June 9, 2006.
© 2006 by Adyashanti. www.adyashanti.org
Infinite Attraction...
Once we understand that we have the love and creativity of God within our minds, we can know that circumstances, people, and opportunities are synchronistically drawn to us by infinite attraction. We do not need to force square pegs into round holes nor pummel people to our wills. In our divine alignment, we can let all that is ours by right of consciousness be drawn to us. God operates in the world by acting through the inspired users of our spiritual inheritance. This is the stuff of miracles.
~ Margaret Stortz
~ Margaret Stortz
Meeting Reality...
No person needs to prepare to meet God; we are meeting God every day and every hour in the day. We meet God in the rising sun, in the flowing stream, in the budding rose, in the joy of friendship and love, and in the silence of our own soul....
~ Ernest Holmes
~ Ernest Holmes
Overcoming Self...
Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self........
St. Francis of Assisi
St. Francis of Assisi
Acts of Love...
"Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.”
St. Teresa of Avila
St. Teresa of Avila
Out of Yourself...
"All that God asks you most pressingly is to go out of yourself - and let God be God in you"........Meister Eckhart
The Mystic Achievement...
This overcoming of all the usual barriers between the individual and the Absolute is the great mystic achievement. In mystic states we both become one with the Absolute and we become aware of our oneness. This is the everlasting and triumphant mystical tradition, hardly altered by differences of clime or creed.”........
William James
William James
An Early Saint...
A great figure in this dynasty, Tukaram, (1608-'50) was a peasant trader by profession but ranks as the crown of Maratha sainthood after Jnaneshwara. The woman poet Bahinabai speaks of him as the steeple or pinnacle of the edifice whose foundation Jnaneshwara had laid. Rameshwar, a contemporary disciple, declaired that " in jnana, bhakti and vairagya (dispassion) there was no one to match Tukaram". Even today his songs sway our emotions as they did his contemporaries.
The secret lies in the rustic simplicity and utter frankness on self-revelation in his songs together with their profound understanding and ardent devotion. He had not an easy life. He could not get up any interest in trade, with the result that he and his family often went hungry,and his wife developed into a scold, as well as she might. The local Brahmins declared that, being of low caste, he had no right to compose poems and ordered him to throw them into the river flowing through the town. Obediently he did so, but the waters washed them ashore undamaged. Abashed by this, his critics allowed them to be kept. He rose above body-conciousness while still in the body. In a well known poem he declares; "I witnessed with my own eyes my bodily death. That was indeed a unique sacrament!" He started (like his prototype Namdev) as an ordinary devotee of God as Vitthala but attained transcendent experience "I went to see God and there stood transfigured into God'" he says.
He is one of those rare saints who have disappeared bodily at the end of life. Since there was no body to entomb there is no shrine to him to which pilgrims can repair. Instead they go to the spot on the river bank where his poems were washed ashore. There is a beautiful atmosphere there.....From the Mountain Path
The secret lies in the rustic simplicity and utter frankness on self-revelation in his songs together with their profound understanding and ardent devotion. He had not an easy life. He could not get up any interest in trade, with the result that he and his family often went hungry,and his wife developed into a scold, as well as she might. The local Brahmins declared that, being of low caste, he had no right to compose poems and ordered him to throw them into the river flowing through the town. Obediently he did so, but the waters washed them ashore undamaged. Abashed by this, his critics allowed them to be kept. He rose above body-conciousness while still in the body. In a well known poem he declares; "I witnessed with my own eyes my bodily death. That was indeed a unique sacrament!" He started (like his prototype Namdev) as an ordinary devotee of God as Vitthala but attained transcendent experience "I went to see God and there stood transfigured into God'" he says.
He is one of those rare saints who have disappeared bodily at the end of life. Since there was no body to entomb there is no shrine to him to which pilgrims can repair. Instead they go to the spot on the river bank where his poems were washed ashore. There is a beautiful atmosphere there.....From the Mountain Path
What is the best way to control emotions?...
As I've been saying—with the silent mind. When you feel strong
emotions arising, instead of getting busy, busy, busy, instead of
nervously doing something, relax; try to be silent. There are many
ways of doing this. Instead of letting your emotions run wild with
your mind, unable to forget whatever it is that's bothering you, sit
down, relax, and focus your mind on the flow of your breath—watch
exactly how your breath flows into your nervous system on inhalation
and out of it on exhalation. This is very simple. When you concentrate
on your breath, you automatically calm down. This is living
experience; it has nothing to do with religious belief. You're
observing your own nature. As long as you're alive, you're breathing.
So, just focus your full attention on the coming and going of your
breath and the way you feel. If you can do this, your emotions will
automatically settle down and your fixations disappear. It's very
simple and very practical. I can guarantee that if you watch your
breath for just twenty-one cycles, your nervous emotions will vanish.
I'm not making this up or exaggerating. It's people's experience. And
to enjoy the benefits of this technique yourself, you don't have to
identify with any religious group.
Lama Thubten Yeshe
emotions arising, instead of getting busy, busy, busy, instead of
nervously doing something, relax; try to be silent. There are many
ways of doing this. Instead of letting your emotions run wild with
your mind, unable to forget whatever it is that's bothering you, sit
down, relax, and focus your mind on the flow of your breath—watch
exactly how your breath flows into your nervous system on inhalation
and out of it on exhalation. This is very simple. When you concentrate
on your breath, you automatically calm down. This is living
experience; it has nothing to do with religious belief. You're
observing your own nature. As long as you're alive, you're breathing.
So, just focus your full attention on the coming and going of your
breath and the way you feel. If you can do this, your emotions will
automatically settle down and your fixations disappear. It's very
simple and very practical. I can guarantee that if you watch your
breath for just twenty-one cycles, your nervous emotions will vanish.
I'm not making this up or exaggerating. It's people's experience. And
to enjoy the benefits of this technique yourself, you don't have to
identify with any religious group.
Lama Thubten Yeshe
The Law of Action...
Those who throw dust at the sun, the dust falls in their own eyes.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Raise not dust from the ground; it will enter into your eyes. Sprinkle some
water on it that it may settle down and lie under your feet.
To delve into a matter which matters little, is like raising dust from the
ground.
Man forms his future by his actions. His every good or bad action spreads its
vibrations and becomes known throughout the universe. The more spiritual a man
is, the stronger and clearer are the vibrations of his actions, which spread
over the world and weave his future. The universe is like a dome: it vibrates to
that which you say in it, and echoes the same back to you. So also is the law of
action: we reap what we sow.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Raise not dust from the ground; it will enter into your eyes. Sprinkle some
water on it that it may settle down and lie under your feet.
To delve into a matter which matters little, is like raising dust from the
ground.
Man forms his future by his actions. His every good or bad action spreads its
vibrations and becomes known throughout the universe. The more spiritual a man
is, the stronger and clearer are the vibrations of his actions, which spread
over the world and weave his future. The universe is like a dome: it vibrates to
that which you say in it, and echoes the same back to you. So also is the law of
action: we reap what we sow.
The Bhagavad Gita...
"'Divine indeed is this quality-produced illusion
that is difficult to penetrate;
they attain me who transcend this illusion.
Deluded evil doers, the lowest people, do not attain me,
their knowledge robbed by illusion,
attached to demonic existence.
"'Four kinds of benevolent people worship me, Arjuna:
the suffering, those wanting knowledge,
those wanting success, and the wise, Bharata bull.
Of them the wise, eternally united,
devoted to the One, is the best.
I am extremely fond of the wise, and this one is fond of me.
All these are noble, but the wise is considered my soul.
Staying in this soul union with me is the supreme goal.
"'At the end of many births the wise attains me.
Vasudeva is thus all to this great soul who is hard to find.
Those whose knowledge is taken away by various desires
attain other gods, practicing various disciplines,
constrained by their own nature.
Whoever wants to worship with faith
any form one is devoted to,
on that one I bestow this unswerving faith.
United by this faith one is eager for this propitiation,
and receives from there the desires ordained by me.
But this fault of the short-sighted is temporary.
"'Those unenlightened think of me, the unmanifest,
as fallen into manifestation,
unaware of my highest being, eternal and supreme.
I am not visible to all; enveloped in yoga illusion,
this deluded world does not recognize me, unborn and eternal.
I know the past and present and future beings, Arjuna,
but no one knows me.
By the duality delusion arising from like-dislike, Bharata,
all beings fall into confusion at birth, scorcher of foes.
"'But of those in whom evil has come to an end,
whose actions are pure, they liberated from duality delusion
are devoted to me with firm vows.
Those who strive for release from old age and death,
taking refuge in me, know this God fully,
the oversoul, and action without exception.
They who know me as Lord of being, divine Lord
as well as Lord of sacrifice, and also at the time of death,
know me with united consciousness.'
that is difficult to penetrate;
they attain me who transcend this illusion.
Deluded evil doers, the lowest people, do not attain me,
their knowledge robbed by illusion,
attached to demonic existence.
"'Four kinds of benevolent people worship me, Arjuna:
the suffering, those wanting knowledge,
those wanting success, and the wise, Bharata bull.
Of them the wise, eternally united,
devoted to the One, is the best.
I am extremely fond of the wise, and this one is fond of me.
All these are noble, but the wise is considered my soul.
Staying in this soul union with me is the supreme goal.
"'At the end of many births the wise attains me.
Vasudeva is thus all to this great soul who is hard to find.
Those whose knowledge is taken away by various desires
attain other gods, practicing various disciplines,
constrained by their own nature.
Whoever wants to worship with faith
any form one is devoted to,
on that one I bestow this unswerving faith.
United by this faith one is eager for this propitiation,
and receives from there the desires ordained by me.
But this fault of the short-sighted is temporary.
"'Those unenlightened think of me, the unmanifest,
as fallen into manifestation,
unaware of my highest being, eternal and supreme.
I am not visible to all; enveloped in yoga illusion,
this deluded world does not recognize me, unborn and eternal.
I know the past and present and future beings, Arjuna,
but no one knows me.
By the duality delusion arising from like-dislike, Bharata,
all beings fall into confusion at birth, scorcher of foes.
"'But of those in whom evil has come to an end,
whose actions are pure, they liberated from duality delusion
are devoted to me with firm vows.
Those who strive for release from old age and death,
taking refuge in me, know this God fully,
the oversoul, and action without exception.
They who know me as Lord of being, divine Lord
as well as Lord of sacrifice, and also at the time of death,
know me with united consciousness.'
The ESSENE GOSPEL OF PEACE...
And though the sun was now set, they departed not to their homes. They sat round about Jesus and asked him: "Master, which are these laws of life? Rest with us awhile longer and teach us. We would listen to your teaching that we may be healed and become righteous."
And Jesus himself sat down in their midst and said: "I tell you truly, none can be happy, except he do the Law."
And the others answered: "We all do the laws of Moses, our lawgiver, even as they are written in the holy scriptures."
And Jesus answered: "Seek not the law in your scriptures, for the law is life, whereas the scripture is dead. I tell you truly, Moses received not his laws from God in writing, but through the living word. The law is living word of living God to living prophets for living men. In everything that is life is the law written. You find it in the grass, in the tree, in the river, in the mountain, in the birds of heaven, in the fishes of the sea; but seek it chiefly in yourselves. For I tell you truly, all living things are nearer to God than the scripture which is without life. God so made life and all living things that they might by the everlasting word teach the laws of the true God to man. God wrote not the laws in the pages of books, but in your heart and in your spirit. They are in your breath, your blood, your bone; in your flesh, your bowels, your eyes, your ears, and in every little part of your body. They are present in the air, in the water, in the earth, in the plants, in the sunbeams, in the depths and in the heights. They all speak to you that you may understand the tongue and the will of the living God. But you shut your eyes that you may not see, and you shut your ears that you may not hear. I tell you truly, that the scripture is the work of man, but life and all its hosts are the work of our God. Wherefore do you not listen to the words of God which are written in His works? And wherefore do you study the dead scriptures which are the work of the hands of men?"
And Jesus himself sat down in their midst and said: "I tell you truly, none can be happy, except he do the Law."
And the others answered: "We all do the laws of Moses, our lawgiver, even as they are written in the holy scriptures."
And Jesus answered: "Seek not the law in your scriptures, for the law is life, whereas the scripture is dead. I tell you truly, Moses received not his laws from God in writing, but through the living word. The law is living word of living God to living prophets for living men. In everything that is life is the law written. You find it in the grass, in the tree, in the river, in the mountain, in the birds of heaven, in the fishes of the sea; but seek it chiefly in yourselves. For I tell you truly, all living things are nearer to God than the scripture which is without life. God so made life and all living things that they might by the everlasting word teach the laws of the true God to man. God wrote not the laws in the pages of books, but in your heart and in your spirit. They are in your breath, your blood, your bone; in your flesh, your bowels, your eyes, your ears, and in every little part of your body. They are present in the air, in the water, in the earth, in the plants, in the sunbeams, in the depths and in the heights. They all speak to you that you may understand the tongue and the will of the living God. But you shut your eyes that you may not see, and you shut your ears that you may not hear. I tell you truly, that the scripture is the work of man, but life and all its hosts are the work of our God. Wherefore do you not listen to the words of God which are written in His works? And wherefore do you study the dead scriptures which are the work of the hands of men?"
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