Now is the time to know
That all that you do is sacred.
Now, why not consider
A lasting truce with yourself and God.
Now is the time to understand
That all your ideas of right and wrong
Were just a child's training wheels
To be laid aside
When you finally live
With veracity
And love.
Hafiz is a divine envoy
Whom the Beloved
Has written a holy message upon.
My dear, please tell me,
Why do you still
Throw sticks at your heart
And God?
What is it in that sweet voice inside
That incites you to fear?
Now is the time for the world to know
That every thought and action is sacred.
This is the time
For you to compute the impossibility
That there is anything
But Grace.
Now is the season to know
That everything you do
Is sacred.
~ Hafiz ~
(The Gift - versions of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky)
Dependence on Others...
All dependence on another is futile, for what others can give
others will take away. Only what is your own at the start will re-
main your own in the end. Accept no guidance but from within,
and even then sift out all memories for they will mislead you.
Even if you are quite ignorant of the ways and the means, keep
quiet and look within; guidance is sure to come. You are never
left without knowing what your next step should be. The trouble
is that you may shirk it. The Guru is there for giving you courage
because of his experience and success. But only what you dis-
cover through your own awareness, your own effort, will be of
permanent use to you.
Remember, nothing you perceive is your own. Nothing of
value can come to you from outside; it is only your own feeling
and understanding that are relevant and revealing. Words,
heard or read, will only create images in your mind, but you are
not a mental image. You are the power of perception and action
behind and beyond the image.
I Am That
Sri Nisargadatta
Chapter 98
others will take away. Only what is your own at the start will re-
main your own in the end. Accept no guidance but from within,
and even then sift out all memories for they will mislead you.
Even if you are quite ignorant of the ways and the means, keep
quiet and look within; guidance is sure to come. You are never
left without knowing what your next step should be. The trouble
is that you may shirk it. The Guru is there for giving you courage
because of his experience and success. But only what you dis-
cover through your own awareness, your own effort, will be of
permanent use to you.
Remember, nothing you perceive is your own. Nothing of
value can come to you from outside; it is only your own feeling
and understanding that are relevant and revealing. Words,
heard or read, will only create images in your mind, but you are
not a mental image. You are the power of perception and action
behind and beyond the image.
I Am That
Sri Nisargadatta
Chapter 98
The Right Decision...
When the ego is displaced and the Overself is using him, there will be no need and no freedom to choose between two alternatives in regard to actions. Only a single course will present itself, directly and unwaveringly, as the right one.........Paul Brunton
The Bhagavad Gita: A Love Affair...
By Jack Hawley:
I find myself totally in love with one of the world’s most ancient spiritual texts, the Bhagavad Gita. This amazes me because I have never been very interested in scriptures, religion and all that stuff. My wife Louise also loves the Gita, but this isn’t so surprising. She’s softer than me, less worldly. So where did all this amore come from?
A quarter century ago when we were on our way up to a remote mountaintop in southern India to be with our Teacher Sathya Sai Baba, we stopped for the night in a roadside guesthouse. Glad to have finally climbed above the scorching summer heat, parched for something to read, I picked up a tattered copy of the Gita from the little bed table. Flipping through it, I suddenly stopped where Krishna, the Divinity figure in the Gita’s story, was presenting the clearest, most sublime description of the very nature of God I had ever heard. “Louise, this is God talking,” I said, and proceeded to read several chapters aloud. Then we sat, rapt, silent, appreciating. Our great love affair with the Gita had begun.
Since then, fascinated, I have researched and written four books on the Gita. Although sometimes referred to as a scripture, the Bhagavad Gita (“Song Celestial”) is not just about God. It’s an epic mystical poem about life, death, love and duty from the peoples who settled in the river valleys of what is now called India, and developed a sophisticated culture thousands—probably scores of thousands—of years ago. It’s a half-inch thick masterpiece love song about the heights and depths of the human soul.
It lays out the moral and spiritual principles found in the very earliest scriptures of this ancient land. One of them, the Rig Veda, is said to be the oldest record of mankind! To read the Gita, therefore, is to reach countless epochs back in time. And yet, these almost prehistoric teachings feel strangely familiar now, as if coming from a comfortable place we shared in some primeval past.
I love this extreme ancientness. I’m awed that the Gita precedes by thousands of years the societies now referred to as “cradles of civilization.” I know it sounds odd—me, a too modern man, revering a cobwebby old book—but it’s not just its age. I venerate the fact that its utter truths have been tried, tested and purified down through so many centuries. Like water that gradually filters down through earth and comes out sparkling pure, these important ideas have passed down through the sands of time and been scrubbed clean in the process, eventually emerging as pure truth. So it’s the truth I love, and the Gita is by now a fountain of truth. It gladdens me to drink of it.
What is the essential wisdom of this wondrous old book?
I love this question. While writing my latest book, Essential Wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita, I had to reach deep into my great affection for this old book for the answer.
The Gita’s wisdom turns out not to be intellectual or theological abstractions but down to earth, usable ideas for living more happily. The real gold in it are its nuggets for living a fuller, more graceful and loving life. This is true wisdom.
The Gita’s uncomplicated prescription for life in today’s divisive, disturbing world is this: If you want to be truly happy—defined as being free from your present agitations and anguish—you have to spiritualize your life. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you become more religious—but more spiritual. Bam, it’s that simple!
I love too its audacious insistence that human suffering can indeed be overcome. Flying in the drooping face of the ubiquitous modern assumption that sorrow and pain are inevitable, the Gita argues that it is not. “The sure sign of a spiritual person is permanent cheerfulness,” it says, and then explains how to achieve this impossible dream.
I love the personal help I get from the Gita. It pulls me into my highest, most lofty nature, and then beyond even that. It repeatedly confirms and proves to me that I have within me all the glory and power of the universe—as does everyone else. Indeed, to reach this amazing loftiness is the aim of all spirituality.
And yet, in the final analysis—and this is indeed amazing—the Bhagavad Gita is not just about happiness, scholarly principles or erudite teachings, or even about the Gita itself. It’s about you! It’s about helping you slip quietly into your own inner truth. Your only real destination, after all, is your divinity within. In the end it’s all you have.
I find myself totally in love with one of the world’s most ancient spiritual texts, the Bhagavad Gita. This amazes me because I have never been very interested in scriptures, religion and all that stuff. My wife Louise also loves the Gita, but this isn’t so surprising. She’s softer than me, less worldly. So where did all this amore come from?
A quarter century ago when we were on our way up to a remote mountaintop in southern India to be with our Teacher Sathya Sai Baba, we stopped for the night in a roadside guesthouse. Glad to have finally climbed above the scorching summer heat, parched for something to read, I picked up a tattered copy of the Gita from the little bed table. Flipping through it, I suddenly stopped where Krishna, the Divinity figure in the Gita’s story, was presenting the clearest, most sublime description of the very nature of God I had ever heard. “Louise, this is God talking,” I said, and proceeded to read several chapters aloud. Then we sat, rapt, silent, appreciating. Our great love affair with the Gita had begun.
Since then, fascinated, I have researched and written four books on the Gita. Although sometimes referred to as a scripture, the Bhagavad Gita (“Song Celestial”) is not just about God. It’s an epic mystical poem about life, death, love and duty from the peoples who settled in the river valleys of what is now called India, and developed a sophisticated culture thousands—probably scores of thousands—of years ago. It’s a half-inch thick masterpiece love song about the heights and depths of the human soul.
It lays out the moral and spiritual principles found in the very earliest scriptures of this ancient land. One of them, the Rig Veda, is said to be the oldest record of mankind! To read the Gita, therefore, is to reach countless epochs back in time. And yet, these almost prehistoric teachings feel strangely familiar now, as if coming from a comfortable place we shared in some primeval past.
I love this extreme ancientness. I’m awed that the Gita precedes by thousands of years the societies now referred to as “cradles of civilization.” I know it sounds odd—me, a too modern man, revering a cobwebby old book—but it’s not just its age. I venerate the fact that its utter truths have been tried, tested and purified down through so many centuries. Like water that gradually filters down through earth and comes out sparkling pure, these important ideas have passed down through the sands of time and been scrubbed clean in the process, eventually emerging as pure truth. So it’s the truth I love, and the Gita is by now a fountain of truth. It gladdens me to drink of it.
What is the essential wisdom of this wondrous old book?
I love this question. While writing my latest book, Essential Wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita, I had to reach deep into my great affection for this old book for the answer.
The Gita’s wisdom turns out not to be intellectual or theological abstractions but down to earth, usable ideas for living more happily. The real gold in it are its nuggets for living a fuller, more graceful and loving life. This is true wisdom.
The Gita’s uncomplicated prescription for life in today’s divisive, disturbing world is this: If you want to be truly happy—defined as being free from your present agitations and anguish—you have to spiritualize your life. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you become more religious—but more spiritual. Bam, it’s that simple!
I love too its audacious insistence that human suffering can indeed be overcome. Flying in the drooping face of the ubiquitous modern assumption that sorrow and pain are inevitable, the Gita argues that it is not. “The sure sign of a spiritual person is permanent cheerfulness,” it says, and then explains how to achieve this impossible dream.
I love the personal help I get from the Gita. It pulls me into my highest, most lofty nature, and then beyond even that. It repeatedly confirms and proves to me that I have within me all the glory and power of the universe—as does everyone else. Indeed, to reach this amazing loftiness is the aim of all spirituality.
And yet, in the final analysis—and this is indeed amazing—the Bhagavad Gita is not just about happiness, scholarly principles or erudite teachings, or even about the Gita itself. It’s about you! It’s about helping you slip quietly into your own inner truth. Your only real destination, after all, is your divinity within. In the end it’s all you have.
Eckhart Tolle...
Eckhart Tolle
Touching the Eternal
(India Retreat 2002)
When I began to teach, when I began to understand the inner transformation
that had happened to this form, I began to see that it's intimately
connected with surrendering.
It's intimately connected with the surrendered state that is totally aligned
with now, and I began to teach that.
Of course, the state of non-surrender is the ultimate root cause of
suffering, which humans have been in for thousands and thousands of years.
So I began to teach that there's no need to suffer anymore, and gradually I
saw that even those who were able to totally surrender to now still
experienced wave movements of pain in their lives, even though they were
surrendering.
And then I began to learn about the human pain body as I observed that, and
realized that every human carries his or her share of collective human pain.
That's ultimately what the pain body is...it is the manifestation of human
unconsciousness.
And humans carry it in here...in the body.
It's an emotional energy field that is not flowing...life energy that is
stagnant, trapped, and manifests either as anger, or as great fear, or as
the heaviness of depression.
It's an energy field of pain that humans carry.
And sometimes they don't even know it's there.
It's dormant at times, and life works beautifully...you surrender to now.
And you might even think, "That's it.
I've come to the end of it (Pain body attack)."
And then suddenly a little trigger happens, a little thing goes wrong or
even a little thought comes into your head that proliferates and becomes a
trigger for an enormous influx of pain...in whatever form: anger, fear,
heaviness of sadness.
And suddenly you're completely overtaken by that.
It flows into your mind and it energizes all the mind structures of the ego.
It energizes and amplifies the story...all the identifications.
And so the me, the self, the mind-made self becomes extremely empowered.
The delusion becomes empowered through that human pain.
And you start thinking, all thoughts refracting the energy field of the pain
body.
So the pain body has moved into your mind and it's controlling your thought
processes and actually feeding on each thought.
You strengthen the pain body through those thought processes, because each
thought corresponds to the energy, the vibrational frequency of the pain
body.
If it's anger, it will be thoughts of anger.
And that's how the pain body renews itself.
And so, the pain body becomes 'self.'
You identify with it as the self.
It possesses you, so to speak, and it feeds on other people.
It wants to make somebody unhappy, and it wants somebody else to make me
even more unhappy.
And usually it succeeds, because one active pain body during its active
period, - once it's fed on your mind and other people's reactions - will
subside, it will go back to dormancy.
During the active period it will feed on your mind and on people around you,
and it will easily awaken other people's pain bodies if their pain bodies
are at a stage of readiness, to come out of the dormant stage.
And so, one pain body can easily awaken several pain bodies in its vicinity.
You can notice it in families.
It sometimes happens in your workplace, anywhere people gather.
One heavy pain body in a committee meeting can awaken every other pain body
that has been dormant in that committee.
And you get big drama.
It's wonderful to watch how it works.
If your pain body is active, it may be active for an hour, or it may be
active for a whole day, or even for several days...it varies a lot.
For some people it's only active for a few minutes, but those tend to be
people who are already becoming more conscious, so it cannot linger...it's
recognized before it can really get hold of your mind.
If you go outside and your pain body is active, you also attract other
active pain bodies, because active pain bodies attract each other.
You may walk into a situation with an active pain body, which you may be
hiding in the moment, (it's in your mind, it's active, it's using your
mind), but you're smiling, and suddenly someone attacks you in some way.
That was somebody whose pain body recognized yours, "Oh, here's food."
Then you go away from that person, go around the corner, and again someone
attacks you.
The whole world seems to be hostile.
Every pain-body recognizes you unless it's totally dormant, because it's
just gone through the active period and just doesn't want anymore pain--it
hasn't digested the pain yet.
They like to meet each other, and feed on each other.
For some people, the pain-body is associated also with the opposite
sex...that's a strange thing, but not that uncommon.
And that is often the case when you've had a painful relationship with a
parent and your relationship with a man or woman is associated with the pain
body.
It is not uncommon for people to choose their partner through their
pain-body, unconsciously of course.
When you fall in love, quite often, the pain-body has a part in that, and
the strong attraction you feel is partly the attraction through your
pain-body to someone else's pain-body, who perfectly complements yours.
So you feel drawn to that person, very strongly.
And we all know people (perhaps even ourselves), who are again and again
drawn to the same kind of person that creates the same kind of pain for
them.
And they say "This time I'm not choosing the partner with the pain-body
anymore.
I want somebody conscious." And so you choose somebody who practices
meditation, who's a vegetarian, and then surely he or she must be conscious!
And maybe you forgot that Hitler was a vegetarian too. (lots of laughter
thru this whole piece!
And then you start living together, and you realize that suddenly it's
happening again...."I've married the same man again." That's because the
attraction was there through the pain-body.
Many marriages are like that...made in 'heaven' and this one is made in
'hell'.
Pain-bodies recognize each other.
Pain-bodies do not want to be recognized in themselves for what they are.
They don't want the light of your attention on them.
They want to flow into your mind, to renew themselves by using your mind and
using other people.
They (pain-bodies) can only continue to renew themselves if you don't
recognize them for what they are...if the recognition isn't there each time
you get taken over totally.
Immediately it's become 'self', the 'me'... an unhappy 'me'.
So to break that is simply to be alert enough, and of course you cannot make
yourself be alert enough.
The alertness, the presence that is required to watch the pain body cannot
be attained through effort.
It's either there or it isn't there.
In your case it's there, because you're here (in India).
That is a clear sign that enough presence is there for you to meet the
pain-body with alertness, and watch it if possible, the moment it arises as
an enormous energy impulse.
Whoosh!
And to watch that...maybe you can't stop it yet, you don't need to stop it,
just watch.
If possible catch it (pain body attack) before it becomes a thought, catch
it on the energetic level just as it begins to move into your mind.
Now that is easier to do with certain pain-bodies than with others.
If your pain-body's frequency is predominately heavy, enormous heaviness and
density, so that when it takes you over you go, 'ooohhhh!'
You have slow and heavy thought processes about how dreadful everything is,
completely pointless and dreadful, and the whole world is just dreadful.
Now those are easier to catch because they arise more slowly.
Then there are other pain-bodies that contain a great deal of fire and
anger.
They come quickly and it's very hard to catch them because there's virtually
no gap.
They arise as an energy phenomenon, but before you know it's an energy
phenomenon it's already become a thought, and you're shouting at some body.
(lots more laughter)
Or if nobody is around, you're shouting in your head!
And so the pain-body has already taken over your mind.
The most difficult one to catch (pain-body) is if it's predominately angry.
You may not be able to catch it because the gap between seeing the pain-body
as an energy phenomenon and it becoming a thought and thereby a 'me', the
'self', is too short or almost non-existent.
In that case, all you can hope for is that in the middle of that, somewhere
an observing presence watches you in motion.
From underneath the pain body there is a witnessing presence, but it may not
happen yet.
It may be that you have to wait until it's subsided and then very quickly,
the awareness is there and suddenly you realize, "That was the pain-body.
There it was. It was just feeding on my mind and on this situation."
And the more consciousness there is the sooner you wake up after it has
subsided.
You can wake up as the anger subsides.
There is sometimes a gap when the energy field goes down.
The pain-body begins to leave your mind...begins to withdraw because it's
been feeding enough...it begins to withdraw from your mind and at this
point, you can sense it as an energy field.
You haven't failed...you're there now.
And any time you're there as the presence, it's fine.
You can catch other pain bodies as they arise as an energy phenomenon:
"There it is!" You watch it, you allow it to be.
This is the key...you allow it to be.
You cannot fight it.
The key is even here, even here, to bring in the 'yes', because it is.
It is.
What can you do?
It's right here.
It is.
It is the 'such-ness' of this moment.
And so you embrace it....this implies there is a witnessing presence.
You embrace it, you allow it to be.
And the amazing thing is you begin to realize that there can be a
spaciousness around it, even in the case of a pain body...even in the case
of an angry pain-body which fumes and shouts.
And suddenly you know it and allow that to be there...there is suddenly a
little bit of space around it.
You may find yourself in the midst of a shouting match with some body and
suddenly you see.
It's like looking at someone else going through the motions.
It's like looking at a pre-determined script which you are compelled to act
out.
Freedom arises when you see the non-personal nature of the pain-body, when
you see the non-personal nature of the emotional pain ultimately, or the
anger doesn't recognize itself as pain.
You see the non-personal nature of all those energy movements that we call
pain-body movements.
They are recognized as human pain.
They only become personal when they amplify and energize 'a story in my head
that is my story', and it is 'me', the fictitious self...the delusion that
it is a personal matter.
When you allow the pain-body to be there as an energy phenomenon it's no
longer a personal matter.
And you realize it's very similar in every other person.
It's basically the same.
Touching the Eternal
(India Retreat 2002)
When I began to teach, when I began to understand the inner transformation
that had happened to this form, I began to see that it's intimately
connected with surrendering.
It's intimately connected with the surrendered state that is totally aligned
with now, and I began to teach that.
Of course, the state of non-surrender is the ultimate root cause of
suffering, which humans have been in for thousands and thousands of years.
So I began to teach that there's no need to suffer anymore, and gradually I
saw that even those who were able to totally surrender to now still
experienced wave movements of pain in their lives, even though they were
surrendering.
And then I began to learn about the human pain body as I observed that, and
realized that every human carries his or her share of collective human pain.
That's ultimately what the pain body is...it is the manifestation of human
unconsciousness.
And humans carry it in here...in the body.
It's an emotional energy field that is not flowing...life energy that is
stagnant, trapped, and manifests either as anger, or as great fear, or as
the heaviness of depression.
It's an energy field of pain that humans carry.
And sometimes they don't even know it's there.
It's dormant at times, and life works beautifully...you surrender to now.
And you might even think, "That's it.
I've come to the end of it (Pain body attack)."
And then suddenly a little trigger happens, a little thing goes wrong or
even a little thought comes into your head that proliferates and becomes a
trigger for an enormous influx of pain...in whatever form: anger, fear,
heaviness of sadness.
And suddenly you're completely overtaken by that.
It flows into your mind and it energizes all the mind structures of the ego.
It energizes and amplifies the story...all the identifications.
And so the me, the self, the mind-made self becomes extremely empowered.
The delusion becomes empowered through that human pain.
And you start thinking, all thoughts refracting the energy field of the pain
body.
So the pain body has moved into your mind and it's controlling your thought
processes and actually feeding on each thought.
You strengthen the pain body through those thought processes, because each
thought corresponds to the energy, the vibrational frequency of the pain
body.
If it's anger, it will be thoughts of anger.
And that's how the pain body renews itself.
And so, the pain body becomes 'self.'
You identify with it as the self.
It possesses you, so to speak, and it feeds on other people.
It wants to make somebody unhappy, and it wants somebody else to make me
even more unhappy.
And usually it succeeds, because one active pain body during its active
period, - once it's fed on your mind and other people's reactions - will
subside, it will go back to dormancy.
During the active period it will feed on your mind and on people around you,
and it will easily awaken other people's pain bodies if their pain bodies
are at a stage of readiness, to come out of the dormant stage.
And so, one pain body can easily awaken several pain bodies in its vicinity.
You can notice it in families.
It sometimes happens in your workplace, anywhere people gather.
One heavy pain body in a committee meeting can awaken every other pain body
that has been dormant in that committee.
And you get big drama.
It's wonderful to watch how it works.
If your pain body is active, it may be active for an hour, or it may be
active for a whole day, or even for several days...it varies a lot.
For some people it's only active for a few minutes, but those tend to be
people who are already becoming more conscious, so it cannot linger...it's
recognized before it can really get hold of your mind.
If you go outside and your pain body is active, you also attract other
active pain bodies, because active pain bodies attract each other.
You may walk into a situation with an active pain body, which you may be
hiding in the moment, (it's in your mind, it's active, it's using your
mind), but you're smiling, and suddenly someone attacks you in some way.
That was somebody whose pain body recognized yours, "Oh, here's food."
Then you go away from that person, go around the corner, and again someone
attacks you.
The whole world seems to be hostile.
Every pain-body recognizes you unless it's totally dormant, because it's
just gone through the active period and just doesn't want anymore pain--it
hasn't digested the pain yet.
They like to meet each other, and feed on each other.
For some people, the pain-body is associated also with the opposite
sex...that's a strange thing, but not that uncommon.
And that is often the case when you've had a painful relationship with a
parent and your relationship with a man or woman is associated with the pain
body.
It is not uncommon for people to choose their partner through their
pain-body, unconsciously of course.
When you fall in love, quite often, the pain-body has a part in that, and
the strong attraction you feel is partly the attraction through your
pain-body to someone else's pain-body, who perfectly complements yours.
So you feel drawn to that person, very strongly.
And we all know people (perhaps even ourselves), who are again and again
drawn to the same kind of person that creates the same kind of pain for
them.
And they say "This time I'm not choosing the partner with the pain-body
anymore.
I want somebody conscious." And so you choose somebody who practices
meditation, who's a vegetarian, and then surely he or she must be conscious!
And maybe you forgot that Hitler was a vegetarian too. (lots of laughter
thru this whole piece!
And then you start living together, and you realize that suddenly it's
happening again...."I've married the same man again." That's because the
attraction was there through the pain-body.
Many marriages are like that...made in 'heaven' and this one is made in
'hell'.
Pain-bodies recognize each other.
Pain-bodies do not want to be recognized in themselves for what they are.
They don't want the light of your attention on them.
They want to flow into your mind, to renew themselves by using your mind and
using other people.
They (pain-bodies) can only continue to renew themselves if you don't
recognize them for what they are...if the recognition isn't there each time
you get taken over totally.
Immediately it's become 'self', the 'me'... an unhappy 'me'.
So to break that is simply to be alert enough, and of course you cannot make
yourself be alert enough.
The alertness, the presence that is required to watch the pain body cannot
be attained through effort.
It's either there or it isn't there.
In your case it's there, because you're here (in India).
That is a clear sign that enough presence is there for you to meet the
pain-body with alertness, and watch it if possible, the moment it arises as
an enormous energy impulse.
Whoosh!
And to watch that...maybe you can't stop it yet, you don't need to stop it,
just watch.
If possible catch it (pain body attack) before it becomes a thought, catch
it on the energetic level just as it begins to move into your mind.
Now that is easier to do with certain pain-bodies than with others.
If your pain-body's frequency is predominately heavy, enormous heaviness and
density, so that when it takes you over you go, 'ooohhhh!'
You have slow and heavy thought processes about how dreadful everything is,
completely pointless and dreadful, and the whole world is just dreadful.
Now those are easier to catch because they arise more slowly.
Then there are other pain-bodies that contain a great deal of fire and
anger.
They come quickly and it's very hard to catch them because there's virtually
no gap.
They arise as an energy phenomenon, but before you know it's an energy
phenomenon it's already become a thought, and you're shouting at some body.
(lots more laughter)
Or if nobody is around, you're shouting in your head!
And so the pain-body has already taken over your mind.
The most difficult one to catch (pain-body) is if it's predominately angry.
You may not be able to catch it because the gap between seeing the pain-body
as an energy phenomenon and it becoming a thought and thereby a 'me', the
'self', is too short or almost non-existent.
In that case, all you can hope for is that in the middle of that, somewhere
an observing presence watches you in motion.
From underneath the pain body there is a witnessing presence, but it may not
happen yet.
It may be that you have to wait until it's subsided and then very quickly,
the awareness is there and suddenly you realize, "That was the pain-body.
There it was. It was just feeding on my mind and on this situation."
And the more consciousness there is the sooner you wake up after it has
subsided.
You can wake up as the anger subsides.
There is sometimes a gap when the energy field goes down.
The pain-body begins to leave your mind...begins to withdraw because it's
been feeding enough...it begins to withdraw from your mind and at this
point, you can sense it as an energy field.
You haven't failed...you're there now.
And any time you're there as the presence, it's fine.
You can catch other pain bodies as they arise as an energy phenomenon:
"There it is!" You watch it, you allow it to be.
This is the key...you allow it to be.
You cannot fight it.
The key is even here, even here, to bring in the 'yes', because it is.
It is.
What can you do?
It's right here.
It is.
It is the 'such-ness' of this moment.
And so you embrace it....this implies there is a witnessing presence.
You embrace it, you allow it to be.
And the amazing thing is you begin to realize that there can be a
spaciousness around it, even in the case of a pain body...even in the case
of an angry pain-body which fumes and shouts.
And suddenly you know it and allow that to be there...there is suddenly a
little bit of space around it.
You may find yourself in the midst of a shouting match with some body and
suddenly you see.
It's like looking at someone else going through the motions.
It's like looking at a pre-determined script which you are compelled to act
out.
Freedom arises when you see the non-personal nature of the pain-body, when
you see the non-personal nature of the emotional pain ultimately, or the
anger doesn't recognize itself as pain.
You see the non-personal nature of all those energy movements that we call
pain-body movements.
They are recognized as human pain.
They only become personal when they amplify and energize 'a story in my head
that is my story', and it is 'me', the fictitious self...the delusion that
it is a personal matter.
When you allow the pain-body to be there as an energy phenomenon it's no
longer a personal matter.
And you realize it's very similar in every other person.
It's basically the same.
The Error...
The scientist's error begins when he assumes there is a gulf between the idea and the thing. For it is only his assumption. The experience of the thing and the idea of it are not two sunderable entities. If they were, we should register them as such. But actually we don't; we find that they form a unit of experience, a unit in consciousness.......Paul Brunton
The Dao...
The Daodejing teaches that humans cannot fathom the Dao, because any name we give to it cannot capture it. It is beyond what we can conceive (ch.1). Those who wu wei may become one with it and thus obtain the dao. Wu wei is a difficult notion to translate. Yet, it is generally agreed that the traditional rendering of it as "nonaction" or "no action" is incorrect. Those who wu wei do act. Daoism is not a philosophy of "doing nothing." Wu wei means something like "act naturally," "effortless action," or "nonwillful action." The point is that there is no need for human tampering with the flow of reality. Wu wei should be our way of life, because the dao always benefits, it does not harm (ch. 81) The way of heaven (dao of tian) is always on the side of good (ch. 79) and virtue (de) comes forth from the dao alone (ch. 21). What causes this natural embedding of good and benefit in the dao is vague and elusive (ch. 35), not even the sages understand it (ch. 76). But the world is a reality that is filled with spiritual force, just as a sacred image used in religious ritual might be (ch. 29). The dao occupies the place in reality that is analogous to the part of a family's house set aside for the altar for venerating the ancestors and gods (the ao of the house, ch. 62). When we think that life's occurrences seem unfair (a human discrimination), we should remember that heaven's (tian) net misses nothing, it leaves nothing undone (ch. 37)
A central theme of the Daodejing is that correlatives are the expressions of the movement of dao. Correlatives in Chinese philosophy are not opposites, mutually excluding each other. They represent the ebb and flow of the forces of reality: yin/yang, male/female; excess/defect; leading/following; active/passive. As one approaches the fullness of yin, yang begins to horizon and emerge. Its teachings on correlation often suggest to interpreters that the DDJ is filled with paradoxes. For example, ch. 22 says, "Those who are crooked will be perfected. Those who are bent will be straight. Those who are empty will be full." While these appear paradoxical, they are probably better understood as correlational in meaning. The DDJ says, "straightforward words seem paradoxical," implying, however, that they are not (ch. 78).
What is the image of the ideal person, the sage (sheng ren), the real person (zhen ren) in the DDJ? Well, sages wu wei (chs. 2, 63). In this respect, they are like newborn infants, who move naturally, without planning and reliance on the structures given to them by others (ch. 15). The DDJ tells us that sages empty themselves, becoming void of pretense. Sages concentrate their internal energies (qi). They clean their vision (ch. 10). They manifest plainness and become like uncarved wood (pu) (ch. 19). They live naturally and free from desires given by men (ch. 37) They settle themselves and know how to be content (ch. 46). The DDJ makes use of some very famous analogies to drive home its point. Sages know the value of emptiness as illustrated by how emptiness is used in a bowl, door, window, valley or canyon (ch. 11). They preserve the female (yin), meaning that they know how to be receptive and are not unbalanced favoring assertion and action (yang) (ch. 28). They shoulder yin and embrace yang, blend internal energies (qi) and thereby attain harmony (he) (ch. 42). Those following the dao do not strive, tamper, or seek control (ch. 64). They do not endeavor to help life along (ch. 55), or use their heart-mind (xin) to "solve" or "figure out" life's apparent knots and entanglements (ch. 55). Indeed, the DDJ cautions that those who would try to do something with the world will fail, they will actually ruin it (ch. 29). Sages do not engage in disputes and arguing, or try to prove their point (chs. 22, 81). They are pliable and supple, not rigid and resistive (chs. 76, 78). They are like water (ch. 8), finding their own place, overcoming the hard and strong by suppleness (ch. 36). Sages act with no expectation of reward (chs. 2, 51). They put themselves last and yet come first (ch. 7). They never make a display of themselves, (chs. 72, 22). They do not brag or boast, (chs. 22, 24) and they do not linger after their work is done (ch. 77). They leave no trace (ch. 27). Because they embody dao in practice, they have longevity (ch. 16). They create peace (ch. 32). Creatures do not harm them (chs. 50, 55). Soldiers do not kill them (ch. 50). Heaven (tian) protects the sage and the sage becomes invincible (ch. 67)..........The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
A central theme of the Daodejing is that correlatives are the expressions of the movement of dao. Correlatives in Chinese philosophy are not opposites, mutually excluding each other. They represent the ebb and flow of the forces of reality: yin/yang, male/female; excess/defect; leading/following; active/passive. As one approaches the fullness of yin, yang begins to horizon and emerge. Its teachings on correlation often suggest to interpreters that the DDJ is filled with paradoxes. For example, ch. 22 says, "Those who are crooked will be perfected. Those who are bent will be straight. Those who are empty will be full." While these appear paradoxical, they are probably better understood as correlational in meaning. The DDJ says, "straightforward words seem paradoxical," implying, however, that they are not (ch. 78).
What is the image of the ideal person, the sage (sheng ren), the real person (zhen ren) in the DDJ? Well, sages wu wei (chs. 2, 63). In this respect, they are like newborn infants, who move naturally, without planning and reliance on the structures given to them by others (ch. 15). The DDJ tells us that sages empty themselves, becoming void of pretense. Sages concentrate their internal energies (qi). They clean their vision (ch. 10). They manifest plainness and become like uncarved wood (pu) (ch. 19). They live naturally and free from desires given by men (ch. 37) They settle themselves and know how to be content (ch. 46). The DDJ makes use of some very famous analogies to drive home its point. Sages know the value of emptiness as illustrated by how emptiness is used in a bowl, door, window, valley or canyon (ch. 11). They preserve the female (yin), meaning that they know how to be receptive and are not unbalanced favoring assertion and action (yang) (ch. 28). They shoulder yin and embrace yang, blend internal energies (qi) and thereby attain harmony (he) (ch. 42). Those following the dao do not strive, tamper, or seek control (ch. 64). They do not endeavor to help life along (ch. 55), or use their heart-mind (xin) to "solve" or "figure out" life's apparent knots and entanglements (ch. 55). Indeed, the DDJ cautions that those who would try to do something with the world will fail, they will actually ruin it (ch. 29). Sages do not engage in disputes and arguing, or try to prove their point (chs. 22, 81). They are pliable and supple, not rigid and resistive (chs. 76, 78). They are like water (ch. 8), finding their own place, overcoming the hard and strong by suppleness (ch. 36). Sages act with no expectation of reward (chs. 2, 51). They put themselves last and yet come first (ch. 7). They never make a display of themselves, (chs. 72, 22). They do not brag or boast, (chs. 22, 24) and they do not linger after their work is done (ch. 77). They leave no trace (ch. 27). Because they embody dao in practice, they have longevity (ch. 16). They create peace (ch. 32). Creatures do not harm them (chs. 50, 55). Soldiers do not kill them (ch. 50). Heaven (tian) protects the sage and the sage becomes invincible (ch. 67)..........The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
At the Center...
At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want....
Lao Tzu
Lao Tzu
The Secret Sayings of Jesus...
By Ariadne Green
Searching for Jesus’ words, his true teachings, amongst what Christianity has presented as the authoritative works in the New Testament, the four canonical gospels, left me wondering if Jesus had other things to say that might better satisfy my quest for enlightenment. Could he have left a secret written legacy and if he had, did any of it survive?
About eight years ago, I began my research into the Gospel of Thomas, an early Christian text written in Coptic and discovered in Egypt in 1945 amongst a set of what are considered Gnostic codices. I was looking for references to a spiritual initiation called “bridal chamber”, a spiritually transformative initiation described in Gospel of Philip, and one that was thought to have been taught by Jesus to his disciples. What I discovered was a great deal more.
Conveying a mysterious and enlightening doctrine of spiritual wisdom that would have been a radical departure from Judaic tradition, and baring some similarity with many of the parables and aphorisms (sayings) of four canonical gospels of the New Testament, the 114 saying of the Gospel of Thomas are remarkable testament of the teaching of Jesus “the Nazarene”. The author of this extraordinary gospel has been debated by scholars many of whom have attributed it to an unknown Gnostic writer, who was thought to have used the identity of the Apostle Thomas in order to gain acceptance amongst his Gnostic peers However, the Gospel is not consistent with Gnostic ideology leading many scholars to conclude it cannot be considered Gnostic. Labeled a heresy by the early Church, a more recent debate amongst scholars and theologians as to the importance of the Gospel of Thomas has led many to believe it was misjudged.
Rather than heresy, were these sayings in the Gospel of Thomas instead the authentic words of Jesus Christ? And furthermore, was it Jesus himself who compiled his own sayings into writing? Five clues suggest that The Gospel of Thomas was Jesus’ own attempt to leave a written legacy:
The introductory line, “These are the secret sayings which the living Jesus spoke and which Didymos Judas Thomas wrote down”, is a dedication written as a secret code name whose meaning “Twin-Praise God-Twin”, is an equation uniting two with God. The same mystery is contained in several other sayings, for example, in saying 22 on “making the two one,” and is elaborated on in the Gospel of Philip, where it is described as an initiation taught by Jesus. At the same time, the identity obscures the author’s identity, giving praise to someone within Jesus’ inner circle—his twin soul.
The early date given to this Gospel, as early as 30-60 AD, suggests that it could have been written within the years of Jesus’ ministry
The fact that in two sayings Jesus makes reference to his sayings as his words, (for example: “these stones will minister to you.”), suggests he was presenting this gospel himself.
The wisdom in the sayings is of such a profound philosophical and mystical nature that the sayings stand out as the writing of a teacher whose wisdom exceeded that of the Jesus portrayed in the four canonical gospels.
There is considerable evidence to suggest that the Gospel of Thomas was well circulated and highly regarded, enough so that the other gospel writers, in fact, drew from the sayings of the Gospel of Thomas when composing their own narratives about Jesus ministry. For instance, of the 114 sayings in the Gospel of Thomas, 21 or more, in one form or another, are found in Mark, usually adapted into an embellished narrative and put into a context of his public ministry. Also, paraphrased references to some sayings unique to The Gospel of Thomas were made by both Paul in 1 Corinthians and by Clement of Alexandria, in Stromata iii.13.92-93, suggesting that long before the gospel was deemed heresy, it was considered a source of Jesus words. And amongst Gnostic writing, a number of works were titled using the identity of Thomas, probably because the Gospel of Thomas was so highly regarded that the authors of these texts hoped their own writings would gain greater credibility.
Rather than relying on transcription of his spoken word, it is not hard to imagine that Jesus would have composed his more complex sayings and parables in writing, whether it was for a public sermon or in his private sessions with his disciples. Jesus says: “I will give you what no eye has seen, and what no ear has heard, and what no hand has touched, and what has not occurred to the human mind.”
Many of the sayings point the disciples, Mary Magdalene included, inwards on a journey of self-realization and recognition of the Kingdom within. Jesus says, “If those who lead you say to you: ‘Look, the kingdom is in the sky!’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you: ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fishes will precede you.
Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and outside of you.”
When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize that you are the children of the living Father. But if you do not come to know yourselves, then you exist in poverty, and you are poverty.”
The Kingdom that Jesus refers to is far different from the heavenly Kingdom described by other gospel writers. Jesus’ Kingdom is not of the next world but of this world, a dimension concealed to the un-awakened mind yet spread out before those who have lifted the veil enough to see. His disciples he likens to children and he reminds them that they are all children of God pointing them to the light that is contained within them. He says, “There is light within a person of light, and it shines on the whole world. If it does not shine, it is dark.”
Why was Jesus’ own Gospel not included in the New Testament? Opinion. In fact, as pointed out by Elaine Pagels in her book, Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas, negative opinion may have erupted very early, as it appears that the Gospel of John was written partly to counter the testimony of the Gospel of Thomas. One probable reason for Thomas’ omission is that did not support an apocalyptic view or the position that Jesus was God incarnate, as did John for instance, Instead, Jesus is the initiator into a mystery housed within every human soul, a charismatic mystic, philosopher and even a rebel who had dedicated his ministry to lighting a fire in the spiritual community. Jesus said, “I have cast fire upon the world, and look, I’m guarding it until it blazes.”
Ariadne Green is the author of Ariadne’s Book of Dreams, 2001 and Divine Complement, 2006. She lived on Maui for 17 years and now resides in California. Her forthcoming book, Divine Complements Forever, explore the twin soul legacy of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.
Searching for Jesus’ words, his true teachings, amongst what Christianity has presented as the authoritative works in the New Testament, the four canonical gospels, left me wondering if Jesus had other things to say that might better satisfy my quest for enlightenment. Could he have left a secret written legacy and if he had, did any of it survive?
About eight years ago, I began my research into the Gospel of Thomas, an early Christian text written in Coptic and discovered in Egypt in 1945 amongst a set of what are considered Gnostic codices. I was looking for references to a spiritual initiation called “bridal chamber”, a spiritually transformative initiation described in Gospel of Philip, and one that was thought to have been taught by Jesus to his disciples. What I discovered was a great deal more.
Conveying a mysterious and enlightening doctrine of spiritual wisdom that would have been a radical departure from Judaic tradition, and baring some similarity with many of the parables and aphorisms (sayings) of four canonical gospels of the New Testament, the 114 saying of the Gospel of Thomas are remarkable testament of the teaching of Jesus “the Nazarene”. The author of this extraordinary gospel has been debated by scholars many of whom have attributed it to an unknown Gnostic writer, who was thought to have used the identity of the Apostle Thomas in order to gain acceptance amongst his Gnostic peers However, the Gospel is not consistent with Gnostic ideology leading many scholars to conclude it cannot be considered Gnostic. Labeled a heresy by the early Church, a more recent debate amongst scholars and theologians as to the importance of the Gospel of Thomas has led many to believe it was misjudged.
Rather than heresy, were these sayings in the Gospel of Thomas instead the authentic words of Jesus Christ? And furthermore, was it Jesus himself who compiled his own sayings into writing? Five clues suggest that The Gospel of Thomas was Jesus’ own attempt to leave a written legacy:
The introductory line, “These are the secret sayings which the living Jesus spoke and which Didymos Judas Thomas wrote down”, is a dedication written as a secret code name whose meaning “Twin-Praise God-Twin”, is an equation uniting two with God. The same mystery is contained in several other sayings, for example, in saying 22 on “making the two one,” and is elaborated on in the Gospel of Philip, where it is described as an initiation taught by Jesus. At the same time, the identity obscures the author’s identity, giving praise to someone within Jesus’ inner circle—his twin soul.
The early date given to this Gospel, as early as 30-60 AD, suggests that it could have been written within the years of Jesus’ ministry
The fact that in two sayings Jesus makes reference to his sayings as his words, (for example: “these stones will minister to you.”), suggests he was presenting this gospel himself.
The wisdom in the sayings is of such a profound philosophical and mystical nature that the sayings stand out as the writing of a teacher whose wisdom exceeded that of the Jesus portrayed in the four canonical gospels.
There is considerable evidence to suggest that the Gospel of Thomas was well circulated and highly regarded, enough so that the other gospel writers, in fact, drew from the sayings of the Gospel of Thomas when composing their own narratives about Jesus ministry. For instance, of the 114 sayings in the Gospel of Thomas, 21 or more, in one form or another, are found in Mark, usually adapted into an embellished narrative and put into a context of his public ministry. Also, paraphrased references to some sayings unique to The Gospel of Thomas were made by both Paul in 1 Corinthians and by Clement of Alexandria, in Stromata iii.13.92-93, suggesting that long before the gospel was deemed heresy, it was considered a source of Jesus words. And amongst Gnostic writing, a number of works were titled using the identity of Thomas, probably because the Gospel of Thomas was so highly regarded that the authors of these texts hoped their own writings would gain greater credibility.
Rather than relying on transcription of his spoken word, it is not hard to imagine that Jesus would have composed his more complex sayings and parables in writing, whether it was for a public sermon or in his private sessions with his disciples. Jesus says: “I will give you what no eye has seen, and what no ear has heard, and what no hand has touched, and what has not occurred to the human mind.”
Many of the sayings point the disciples, Mary Magdalene included, inwards on a journey of self-realization and recognition of the Kingdom within. Jesus says, “If those who lead you say to you: ‘Look, the kingdom is in the sky!’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you: ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fishes will precede you.
Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and outside of you.”
When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize that you are the children of the living Father. But if you do not come to know yourselves, then you exist in poverty, and you are poverty.”
The Kingdom that Jesus refers to is far different from the heavenly Kingdom described by other gospel writers. Jesus’ Kingdom is not of the next world but of this world, a dimension concealed to the un-awakened mind yet spread out before those who have lifted the veil enough to see. His disciples he likens to children and he reminds them that they are all children of God pointing them to the light that is contained within them. He says, “There is light within a person of light, and it shines on the whole world. If it does not shine, it is dark.”
Why was Jesus’ own Gospel not included in the New Testament? Opinion. In fact, as pointed out by Elaine Pagels in her book, Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas, negative opinion may have erupted very early, as it appears that the Gospel of John was written partly to counter the testimony of the Gospel of Thomas. One probable reason for Thomas’ omission is that did not support an apocalyptic view or the position that Jesus was God incarnate, as did John for instance, Instead, Jesus is the initiator into a mystery housed within every human soul, a charismatic mystic, philosopher and even a rebel who had dedicated his ministry to lighting a fire in the spiritual community. Jesus said, “I have cast fire upon the world, and look, I’m guarding it until it blazes.”
Ariadne Green is the author of Ariadne’s Book of Dreams, 2001 and Divine Complement, 2006. She lived on Maui for 17 years and now resides in California. Her forthcoming book, Divine Complements Forever, explore the twin soul legacy of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.
Mysticism and Messianic Faith...
By Vine of David Team June 23, 2009
Our first publication, Love and the Messianic Age by Paul Philip Levertoff, has met with an overwhelmingly positive response in the Messianic Jewish and Christian world. However, there are some individuals who are very uncomfortable with this book and perhaps even refuse to read it. That is because Love and the Messianic Age is Levertoff's effort to compare concepts in the New Testament (specifically, the Gospel of John) with those of Chassidic thought, including mysticism. Levertoff was a Jewish believer who was raised in a prestigious Chassidic family and well educated in Chassidic Judaism.
Some Christians are wary of anything labeled "mystical." Mysticism specifically provokes concern in some Christians because they equate it very directly with occultism, in the sense of paganism or Satanism. However, just because something is mystical does not at all mean that it is associated with paganism or Satanism.
The Bible, especially the New Testament, plainly contains mystical concepts. Some people would be appalled by that statement because they do not know the correct definition of the term "mystical." Their confusion is semantic in nature.
Merriam-Webster defines the term "mystical" as: "a) having a spiritual meaning or reality that is neither apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence b) involving or having the nature of an individual's direct subjective communion with God or ultimate reality."
Let's examine this Pauline passage in the light of the above definition:
"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:31-32)
Paul interprets Genesis 2:24 in a way that completely departs from its plain meaning. He sees it as a profound reference to the Messiah and his assembly. This is, by definition, mystical. It is, of course, by no means pagan or satanic. Had Paul not explained this symbolic interpretation of Genesis, we may never have come to it by rational analysis.
Numerous other examples of mysticism can be found in the New Testament. The following passages can only be interpreted mystically:
Yeshua calls himself the "bread from heaven" (John 6:48-58). He declares, "Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him" (v. 56).
Paul speaks of a man (quite probably himself) caught up into the "third heaven" in a possibly out-of-body experience (2 Corinthians 12:2-4).
"This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666" (Revelation 13:18).
The prologue of the Gospel of John describes the Word that was with God and was God in the beginning, in which was the life, the light of men (John 1:1-18).
All of the following are mystical by definition:
Expressions of personal communion with God
Depictions of angels or the spiritual world
Revelations from God in the form of visions or dreams
Profound spiritual interpretations of passages beyond their face value
Each of these mystical ideas are prominent features in the writings of the Apostles. But when people express concern about mysticism, they probably are not concerned about these things. Rather, their concern is with such things as paganism, idolatry, superstition, or divination, and rightly so. But this is not the type of mysticism that you will find in Love and the Messianic Age.
Extra-Biblical Jewish Texts
One of the goals of the Messianic Jewish movement is to restore the original Jewish world view of our Rabbi Yeshua and his earliest followers. The only way to accomplish this is by engaging in Jewish literature and drawing comparisons. In doing so, one cannot afford to ignore such mystical contributions as those found in Philo, the Targums, merkavah/hekhalot literature, the book of Enoch, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and other Jewish apocalyptic writings. That does not mean we should accept every idea expressed in all of these writings. Some of these ideas will be directly contradicted by the Scriptures. Others will illuminate their meaning and help uncover the Hebraic mindset of the apostolic community.
If we concede that there are real parallels for the New Testament in extra-Biblical literature such as the Dead Sea Scrolls or Josephus, are we forced to believe that these writings are authoritative, divinely inspired, or inerrant? No--rather, they are valuable tools that help us understand the history and world view of Judaism during the Second Temple period and throughout the centuries. When we point out common ground with Apostolic writings in Jewish literature, this does not amount to an endorsement of every idea they contain. Rather, this should simply lead us to a deeper level of respect and understanding for both traditions, as well as their shared and divergent histories. Sometimes comparative study will help us understand our commonalities; other times it helps us see our distinctions more clearly.
Anachronism?
Chassidic teaching, of course, should not be considered context for the New Testament, because it developed hundreds of years later. It would be anachronistic (a chronological mistake) to claim that the Gospel authors read Chassidic literature such as the Tanya. But that is not at all the message or intention of Levertoff's work.
In the Christian world, Levertoff frequently encountered a caricaturized view of Judaism among Christians that saw it as dry and ceremonial, devoid of any personal relationship with God or experience of God's Spirit. One goal of this book was to shatter that stereotype and to demonstrate the common ground between Judaism and Christianity. He accomplishes this task by drawing out the numerous points of similarity between basic ideas in Chassidic and New Testament thought. This is not to say that one derived from the other, but the numerous areas of overlap are striking, and they point to the ancient Biblical tradition from which Chassidic thought was derived.
Reading Love and the Messianic Age will not lead you to believe that either John or Yeshua were eighteenth-century Chassidim. Instead, you will find yourself inspired and challenged by the message of love and devotion to God that is shared by both Chassidic Judaism and the Gospels.
Our first publication, Love and the Messianic Age by Paul Philip Levertoff, has met with an overwhelmingly positive response in the Messianic Jewish and Christian world. However, there are some individuals who are very uncomfortable with this book and perhaps even refuse to read it. That is because Love and the Messianic Age is Levertoff's effort to compare concepts in the New Testament (specifically, the Gospel of John) with those of Chassidic thought, including mysticism. Levertoff was a Jewish believer who was raised in a prestigious Chassidic family and well educated in Chassidic Judaism.
Some Christians are wary of anything labeled "mystical." Mysticism specifically provokes concern in some Christians because they equate it very directly with occultism, in the sense of paganism or Satanism. However, just because something is mystical does not at all mean that it is associated with paganism or Satanism.
The Bible, especially the New Testament, plainly contains mystical concepts. Some people would be appalled by that statement because they do not know the correct definition of the term "mystical." Their confusion is semantic in nature.
Merriam-Webster defines the term "mystical" as: "a) having a spiritual meaning or reality that is neither apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence b) involving or having the nature of an individual's direct subjective communion with God or ultimate reality."
Let's examine this Pauline passage in the light of the above definition:
"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:31-32)
Paul interprets Genesis 2:24 in a way that completely departs from its plain meaning. He sees it as a profound reference to the Messiah and his assembly. This is, by definition, mystical. It is, of course, by no means pagan or satanic. Had Paul not explained this symbolic interpretation of Genesis, we may never have come to it by rational analysis.
Numerous other examples of mysticism can be found in the New Testament. The following passages can only be interpreted mystically:
Yeshua calls himself the "bread from heaven" (John 6:48-58). He declares, "Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him" (v. 56).
Paul speaks of a man (quite probably himself) caught up into the "third heaven" in a possibly out-of-body experience (2 Corinthians 12:2-4).
"This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666" (Revelation 13:18).
The prologue of the Gospel of John describes the Word that was with God and was God in the beginning, in which was the life, the light of men (John 1:1-18).
All of the following are mystical by definition:
Expressions of personal communion with God
Depictions of angels or the spiritual world
Revelations from God in the form of visions or dreams
Profound spiritual interpretations of passages beyond their face value
Each of these mystical ideas are prominent features in the writings of the Apostles. But when people express concern about mysticism, they probably are not concerned about these things. Rather, their concern is with such things as paganism, idolatry, superstition, or divination, and rightly so. But this is not the type of mysticism that you will find in Love and the Messianic Age.
Extra-Biblical Jewish Texts
One of the goals of the Messianic Jewish movement is to restore the original Jewish world view of our Rabbi Yeshua and his earliest followers. The only way to accomplish this is by engaging in Jewish literature and drawing comparisons. In doing so, one cannot afford to ignore such mystical contributions as those found in Philo, the Targums, merkavah/hekhalot literature, the book of Enoch, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and other Jewish apocalyptic writings. That does not mean we should accept every idea expressed in all of these writings. Some of these ideas will be directly contradicted by the Scriptures. Others will illuminate their meaning and help uncover the Hebraic mindset of the apostolic community.
If we concede that there are real parallels for the New Testament in extra-Biblical literature such as the Dead Sea Scrolls or Josephus, are we forced to believe that these writings are authoritative, divinely inspired, or inerrant? No--rather, they are valuable tools that help us understand the history and world view of Judaism during the Second Temple period and throughout the centuries. When we point out common ground with Apostolic writings in Jewish literature, this does not amount to an endorsement of every idea they contain. Rather, this should simply lead us to a deeper level of respect and understanding for both traditions, as well as their shared and divergent histories. Sometimes comparative study will help us understand our commonalities; other times it helps us see our distinctions more clearly.
Anachronism?
Chassidic teaching, of course, should not be considered context for the New Testament, because it developed hundreds of years later. It would be anachronistic (a chronological mistake) to claim that the Gospel authors read Chassidic literature such as the Tanya. But that is not at all the message or intention of Levertoff's work.
In the Christian world, Levertoff frequently encountered a caricaturized view of Judaism among Christians that saw it as dry and ceremonial, devoid of any personal relationship with God or experience of God's Spirit. One goal of this book was to shatter that stereotype and to demonstrate the common ground between Judaism and Christianity. He accomplishes this task by drawing out the numerous points of similarity between basic ideas in Chassidic and New Testament thought. This is not to say that one derived from the other, but the numerous areas of overlap are striking, and they point to the ancient Biblical tradition from which Chassidic thought was derived.
Reading Love and the Messianic Age will not lead you to believe that either John or Yeshua were eighteenth-century Chassidim. Instead, you will find yourself inspired and challenged by the message of love and devotion to God that is shared by both Chassidic Judaism and the Gospels.
A very, very, very short history of mysticism...
The term mysticism derives from The Mystical Theology, a tiny treatise written by the greatest Christian writer of the sixth century, Dionysius the Areopagite, a.k.a. Pseudo-Dionysius or St. Denys [the Areopagite]. But Dionysius is in no way the "founder" of Christian mysticism. That honor belongs to none but Jesus the Christ himself. But there was mysticism long before Jesus was born. God "strolled in the Garden" with man (Heb. 'adam). Jacob saw heaven opened. God spoke to Joseph through dreams. Moses communed with God on Sinai. David lost himself in dancing for the Lord.
But when Jesus declared "I and the Father are one," (Jn. 10.30) he proclaimed in himself the union of God and humankind, and he offers it to all who follow him (he gave the power to become sons of God to all who believe. (Jn. 1.12).
From there, the mystic heart is seen in the letters of the apostles: Paul reached the divinized state of losing his "self": I no longer live, but Christ lives in me! (Gal. 2.20) James wrote that every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of Lights, in whom there is no variation nor shadow of turning. (Jas. 1.17) Peter proclaimed that Christ even descended to hell to liberate imprisoned souls, (1 Pet. 3.19) and John understood the most sublime truth of God's essence: God is Love! (1 Jn. 4.8,16). This is only the beginning. Every century has been influenced by Christian mystics—from apostles and martyrs, Church Fathers and Desert Mothers, to monks and nuns of religious orders, to the lay mystics—men and women and boys and girls in every century, in every denomination, in every walk of life........by jon zuck,
But when Jesus declared "I and the Father are one," (Jn. 10.30) he proclaimed in himself the union of God and humankind, and he offers it to all who follow him (he gave the power to become sons of God to all who believe. (Jn. 1.12).
From there, the mystic heart is seen in the letters of the apostles: Paul reached the divinized state of losing his "self": I no longer live, but Christ lives in me! (Gal. 2.20) James wrote that every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of Lights, in whom there is no variation nor shadow of turning. (Jas. 1.17) Peter proclaimed that Christ even descended to hell to liberate imprisoned souls, (1 Pet. 3.19) and John understood the most sublime truth of God's essence: God is Love! (1 Jn. 4.8,16). This is only the beginning. Every century has been influenced by Christian mystics—from apostles and martyrs, Church Fathers and Desert Mothers, to monks and nuns of religious orders, to the lay mystics—men and women and boys and girls in every century, in every denomination, in every walk of life........by jon zuck,
Christian Mysticism...
To many modern Christians, words like "meditation," "mystic," and "mysticism" bring to mind Eastern religions, not Christianity. Certainly Eastern religions are known for their mysticism; however, mysticism is not only a vital part of the Christian heritage as well, but it is actually the core of Christian spirituality. Mysticism simply means the spirituality of the direct experience of God. It is the adventure of "the wild things of God."
The direct experience of God is a kind of knowing, which goes beyond intellectual understanding. It is not a matter of "belief." It is marked by love and joy, but it is not "emotional experience." In many ways, it is better described by what it is not. To describe what it is, we must use metaphors—the marriage of the soul to Christ, the death of the "old man" and birth of the "new man," being the "body of Christ."
Jesus proclaimed "I and the Father are one," (Jn. 10.30) showing the world what the union of God and man can be. Christian mysticism is about nothing else but this transforming union.
Christ is the sole end of Christian mysticism. Whereas all Christians have Christ, call on Christ, and can (or should) know Christ, the goal for the Christian mystic is to become Christ—to become as fully permeated with God as Christ is, thus becoming like him, fully human, and by the grace of God, also fully divine. In Christian teaching this doctrine is known by various names—theosis, divinization, deification, and transforming union.
A common misconception about mysticism is that it's about "mystical experiences," and there are many volumes on such experiences in religious literature. But true mysticism is not focussed on "experiences" (which come and go) but with the lasting experience of God, leading to the transformation of the believer into union with God.
A very, very, very short mystical apologetic.
To know God directly shows that mysticism is different from any passive or legalistic kind of Christianity. It means:
That while we honor the Scriptures, we want to know God directly, not just through Scripture.
While we respect our heritage of teachings about God, we want to know God directly, not through doctrines and teachings.
While we gather in communal worship, we want to know God directly, not just through the Church.
Some readers may find this unsettling. Maybe you believe it doesn't apply to you, because you "know" that your church is purer and more correct than others. Even if that were true, is it a substitute for knowing God directly? Or, you might also feel that trusting the Bible alone gives you knowledge of God directly from the Source. But it was written by mystics, listening to God speaking his Word in their hearts. Is it possible for you to read it directly, without the conceptions of your language, time, culture, and personal history? Are you sure you wouldn't understand it very differently if you were reading it, say, in third-century Damascus?
The religion we call "Christianity" changes, but God is eternal. Mystical faith wants to know this unchanging God to whom Christianity leads us, the One behind the beliefs and the words, the One whom beliefs and words cannot describe. We want to follow Jesus' example more closely, and go beyond the religion about Jesus, and take the religion of Jesus: the knowledge of the Father and unconditional love he had, and urged us to have......... by jon zuck,
The direct experience of God is a kind of knowing, which goes beyond intellectual understanding. It is not a matter of "belief." It is marked by love and joy, but it is not "emotional experience." In many ways, it is better described by what it is not. To describe what it is, we must use metaphors—the marriage of the soul to Christ, the death of the "old man" and birth of the "new man," being the "body of Christ."
Jesus proclaimed "I and the Father are one," (Jn. 10.30) showing the world what the union of God and man can be. Christian mysticism is about nothing else but this transforming union.
Christ is the sole end of Christian mysticism. Whereas all Christians have Christ, call on Christ, and can (or should) know Christ, the goal for the Christian mystic is to become Christ—to become as fully permeated with God as Christ is, thus becoming like him, fully human, and by the grace of God, also fully divine. In Christian teaching this doctrine is known by various names—theosis, divinization, deification, and transforming union.
A common misconception about mysticism is that it's about "mystical experiences," and there are many volumes on such experiences in religious literature. But true mysticism is not focussed on "experiences" (which come and go) but with the lasting experience of God, leading to the transformation of the believer into union with God.
A very, very, very short mystical apologetic.
To know God directly shows that mysticism is different from any passive or legalistic kind of Christianity. It means:
That while we honor the Scriptures, we want to know God directly, not just through Scripture.
While we respect our heritage of teachings about God, we want to know God directly, not through doctrines and teachings.
While we gather in communal worship, we want to know God directly, not just through the Church.
Some readers may find this unsettling. Maybe you believe it doesn't apply to you, because you "know" that your church is purer and more correct than others. Even if that were true, is it a substitute for knowing God directly? Or, you might also feel that trusting the Bible alone gives you knowledge of God directly from the Source. But it was written by mystics, listening to God speaking his Word in their hearts. Is it possible for you to read it directly, without the conceptions of your language, time, culture, and personal history? Are you sure you wouldn't understand it very differently if you were reading it, say, in third-century Damascus?
The religion we call "Christianity" changes, but God is eternal. Mystical faith wants to know this unchanging God to whom Christianity leads us, the One behind the beliefs and the words, the One whom beliefs and words cannot describe. We want to follow Jesus' example more closely, and go beyond the religion about Jesus, and take the religion of Jesus: the knowledge of the Father and unconditional love he had, and urged us to have......... by jon zuck,
"I Am"
‘I am’ is an ever-present fact, while ‘I am created’ is an idea.
Neither God nor the universe have come to tell you that they
have created you. The mind obsessed by the idea of causality
invents creation and then wonders ‘who is the creator?’ The
mind itself is the creator. Even this is not quite true, for the
created and its creator are one. The mind and the world are not
separate. Do understand that what you think to be the world is
your own mind........
"I Am That" ..Nisargadatta
Neither God nor the universe have come to tell you that they
have created you. The mind obsessed by the idea of causality
invents creation and then wonders ‘who is the creator?’ The
mind itself is the creator. Even this is not quite true, for the
created and its creator are one. The mind and the world are not
separate. Do understand that what you think to be the world is
your own mind........
"I Am That" ..Nisargadatta
Is there a God?...
Countless thousands have been slaughtered by those who claimed to know the answer to this question. Countless others turn their heads in jaded indifference as the slaughter continues today. After having conceived of God, humans sought to give this concept a name and then likened it unto themselves. Though men could exercise dominance over the land and all animals, they were subject to the forces of nature and ultimately death. Therefore, these forces were relegated to the realm of God. The fury of nature in all of its forms became acts of God and death became His will. Droughts, earthquakes, famine were all considered to be due to the wrath of God. If a life was lost it was Gods will that it be so. This concept became the crude origin of all present day faiths.
Few things in life are as powerful, or as frightening, as a man who is certain that he is right.
Tragically however, mankind was not satisfied with a God that he could not control. Feverishly he sought ways in which to appease Gods wrath, to gain His favor, to know His will. The ultimate result was prayer, sacrifice and ritual. Through these methods, mankind sought not only to understand, but to control God. All major faiths perpetuate this practice even to this day in a vain attempt to control God. They would argue in response that they are asking God to control them. Therefore they are justified in their actions because they are performing the will of God. Rivers have run red because of those who claimed to be doing the will of God.
“go and learn what this means, I will have mercy and not sacrifice” Jesus, Matthew 9:13
It has been said that mankind is only limited by his imagination. The truth is that you have no idea of how truly limited your imagination is. Our thoughts, and hence imagination, are based upon experience and perception. While you dwell in the flesh your sensorial perception is limited to a very narrow band of the available spectrum. To assume that our physical senses are capable of perceiving the totality of available data is absurd. It is however, under these blind restrictions that we attempt to conceptualize God.
What most religions hold as dogma, principals of faith upon which to direct ones life, are actually the blueprints of an ideology designed to consolidate power and authority in the hands of a few and to hold those less worthy in submission. Truth became a thing to be possessed and the priest became its sole dispensers. The God created and defended by this mentality became a very jealous God with little tolerance given to contrary beliefs. Violations of “Gods Law” were met with swift and cruel punishment.
Thus in the name of God and under His authority, militant faiths pressed forward conquering lands and murdering the innocent. No description of hell could fully encompass the horrors committed in the name of God. Those who abandoned their will to the authority of the priest became anesthetized to the atrocities that they themselves were committing.
In similar fashion, today’s practitioners of the faith are anesthetized to the plight of the hungry and oppressed, believing that their financial contribution to the needs of the church will somehow help to alleviate suffering in the world. How pathetic and shallow is this belief.
Is there a God?
When a wave rises and crest above the surface of the ocean does it then ask if there is an ocean? Though the wave appears deceptively separate from the ocean beneath it, it will inevitably return to its source. So it is with all living things. We spring forth from a sea of conscious energy only to return again. Yes, there is a God that exists independently of mankind’s belief systems. A God that is not empowered by oblations and worship but is sufficient unto itself. A God who’s unity embraces every thread of your being and every moment of your life. God is the source of all things. As the wave is to the ocean, so our soul is to the source from which it sprang. Our separation is only an illusion. The Saints and Prophets among us have sensed this truth and sought to share it with others. These sacred truths were then seized by the priest and subsequently misinterpreted to bolster their own claims to divine authority. God is not without witness however as saints have appeared in every age. The Masters have left records in flesh, stone and paper that mankind could not destroy. It would be easier to extinguish the sun. As a word, having left the lips can never be unspoken, truth once having been revealed by God can never be fully concealed.
Yes, there is a God
“Believe nothing, O monks, merely because you have been told it . . . or because it is traditional, or because you yourselves have imagined it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings--that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.”
The Buddha
Do not abandon your own will to embrace that of another. Do not assume the path simply because it is well trodden. Do not overly concern yourself with the existence of God. Merely live daily in an attempt to embody the attributes of what you perceive God to be and you will come to understand that as God is, You are...........
from Ascended Master.com
Few things in life are as powerful, or as frightening, as a man who is certain that he is right.
Tragically however, mankind was not satisfied with a God that he could not control. Feverishly he sought ways in which to appease Gods wrath, to gain His favor, to know His will. The ultimate result was prayer, sacrifice and ritual. Through these methods, mankind sought not only to understand, but to control God. All major faiths perpetuate this practice even to this day in a vain attempt to control God. They would argue in response that they are asking God to control them. Therefore they are justified in their actions because they are performing the will of God. Rivers have run red because of those who claimed to be doing the will of God.
“go and learn what this means, I will have mercy and not sacrifice” Jesus, Matthew 9:13
It has been said that mankind is only limited by his imagination. The truth is that you have no idea of how truly limited your imagination is. Our thoughts, and hence imagination, are based upon experience and perception. While you dwell in the flesh your sensorial perception is limited to a very narrow band of the available spectrum. To assume that our physical senses are capable of perceiving the totality of available data is absurd. It is however, under these blind restrictions that we attempt to conceptualize God.
What most religions hold as dogma, principals of faith upon which to direct ones life, are actually the blueprints of an ideology designed to consolidate power and authority in the hands of a few and to hold those less worthy in submission. Truth became a thing to be possessed and the priest became its sole dispensers. The God created and defended by this mentality became a very jealous God with little tolerance given to contrary beliefs. Violations of “Gods Law” were met with swift and cruel punishment.
Thus in the name of God and under His authority, militant faiths pressed forward conquering lands and murdering the innocent. No description of hell could fully encompass the horrors committed in the name of God. Those who abandoned their will to the authority of the priest became anesthetized to the atrocities that they themselves were committing.
In similar fashion, today’s practitioners of the faith are anesthetized to the plight of the hungry and oppressed, believing that their financial contribution to the needs of the church will somehow help to alleviate suffering in the world. How pathetic and shallow is this belief.
Is there a God?
When a wave rises and crest above the surface of the ocean does it then ask if there is an ocean? Though the wave appears deceptively separate from the ocean beneath it, it will inevitably return to its source. So it is with all living things. We spring forth from a sea of conscious energy only to return again. Yes, there is a God that exists independently of mankind’s belief systems. A God that is not empowered by oblations and worship but is sufficient unto itself. A God who’s unity embraces every thread of your being and every moment of your life. God is the source of all things. As the wave is to the ocean, so our soul is to the source from which it sprang. Our separation is only an illusion. The Saints and Prophets among us have sensed this truth and sought to share it with others. These sacred truths were then seized by the priest and subsequently misinterpreted to bolster their own claims to divine authority. God is not without witness however as saints have appeared in every age. The Masters have left records in flesh, stone and paper that mankind could not destroy. It would be easier to extinguish the sun. As a word, having left the lips can never be unspoken, truth once having been revealed by God can never be fully concealed.
Yes, there is a God
“Believe nothing, O monks, merely because you have been told it . . . or because it is traditional, or because you yourselves have imagined it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings--that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.”
The Buddha
Do not abandon your own will to embrace that of another. Do not assume the path simply because it is well trodden. Do not overly concern yourself with the existence of God. Merely live daily in an attempt to embody the attributes of what you perceive God to be and you will come to understand that as God is, You are...........
from Ascended Master.com
Ekhart Tolle Quotes...from "The Power of Now"
"I cannot tell you any spiritual truth that deep within you don't know already. All I can do is remind you of what you have forgotten" - Page 6
"The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately, it is not so much that you use your mind wrongly—you usually don't use it at all. It uses you." - Page 13
"all the things that truly matter — beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace — arise from beyond the mind" - Page 14
"All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness" - Page 19
"Emotion arises at the place where mind and body meet. It is the body's reaction to your mind — or you might say, a reflection of your mind in the body" - Page 20
"It wasn't through the mind, through thinking, that the miracle that is life on earth or your body were created and are being sustained" - Page 20
"You may not yet be able to bring your unconscious mind activity into awareness as thoughts, but it will always be reflected in the body as an emotion, and of this you can become aware." - Page 22
"Love, joy, and peace cannot flourish until you have freed yourself from mind dominance" - Page 24
"Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within" - Page 24
"Pain is inevitable as long as you are identified with your mind" - Page 25
"Nobody’s life is entirely free of pain and sorrow. Isn’t it a question of learning to live with them rather than trying to avoid them?
The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self-created as long as the unobserved mind runs your life.
The pain that you create now is always some form of nonacceptance, some form of unconscious resistance to what is. On the level of thought, the resistance is some form of judgment. On the emotional level, it is some form of negativity. The intensity of the pain depends on the degree of resistance to the present moment, and this in turn depends on how strongly you are identified with your mind." - Page 27
"Where there is anger, there is always pain underneath" - Page 32
"The psychological condition of fear is divorced from any concrete and true immediate danger. It comes in many forms: unease, worry, anxiety, nervousness, tension, dread, phobia, and so on. This kind of psychological fear is always of something that might happen, not of something that is happening now." - Page 35
"an emotion is the body's reaction to your mind" - Page 36
"Power over others is weakness disguised as strength. True power is within, and it is available to you now" - Page 36
"The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief systems, and often also political, nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you." - Page 37
"Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to "die before you die" — and find that there is no death" - Page 38
"When you are present, you can allow the mind to be as it is without getting entangled in it. The mind in itself is a wonderful tool. Dysfunction sets in when you seek your self in it and mistake it for who you are" - Page 40
"To be identified with your mind is to be trapped in time: the compulsion to live almost exclusively through memory and anticipation" - Page 40
"Life is now. There was never a time when your life was not now, nor will there ever be" - Page 41
"Nothing ever happened in the past; it happened in the Now. Nothing will ever happen in the future; it will happen in the Now" - Page 41
"The quality of your consciousness at this moment is what shapes the future — which, of course, can only be experienced as the Now"- Page 50
"Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry — all forms of fear — are cause by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of nonforgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence" - Page 50
"To be free of time is to be free of the psychological need of past for your identity and future for your fulfillment" - Page 59
"Be at least as interested in what goes on inside you as what happens outside. If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place" - Page 64
"Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally" - Page 68
"You cannot find yourself by going into the past. You can find yourself by coming into the present" - Page 75
"...words in themselves are not important. They are not the Truth; they only point to it" - Page 85
"Don't get stuck on the level of words. A word is no more than a means to an end. It's an abstraction. Not unlike a signpost, it points beyond itself" - Page 90
"At the deepest level of Being, you are one with all that is" - Page 105
"...the ultimate purpose of the world lies not within the world but in the transcendence of the world" - Page 117
"You find God the moment you realize that you don't need to seek God" - Page 122
"The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately, it is not so much that you use your mind wrongly—you usually don't use it at all. It uses you." - Page 13
"all the things that truly matter — beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace — arise from beyond the mind" - Page 14
"All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness" - Page 19
"Emotion arises at the place where mind and body meet. It is the body's reaction to your mind — or you might say, a reflection of your mind in the body" - Page 20
"It wasn't through the mind, through thinking, that the miracle that is life on earth or your body were created and are being sustained" - Page 20
"You may not yet be able to bring your unconscious mind activity into awareness as thoughts, but it will always be reflected in the body as an emotion, and of this you can become aware." - Page 22
"Love, joy, and peace cannot flourish until you have freed yourself from mind dominance" - Page 24
"Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within" - Page 24
"Pain is inevitable as long as you are identified with your mind" - Page 25
"Nobody’s life is entirely free of pain and sorrow. Isn’t it a question of learning to live with them rather than trying to avoid them?
The greater part of human pain is unnecessary. It is self-created as long as the unobserved mind runs your life.
The pain that you create now is always some form of nonacceptance, some form of unconscious resistance to what is. On the level of thought, the resistance is some form of judgment. On the emotional level, it is some form of negativity. The intensity of the pain depends on the degree of resistance to the present moment, and this in turn depends on how strongly you are identified with your mind." - Page 27
"Where there is anger, there is always pain underneath" - Page 32
"The psychological condition of fear is divorced from any concrete and true immediate danger. It comes in many forms: unease, worry, anxiety, nervousness, tension, dread, phobia, and so on. This kind of psychological fear is always of something that might happen, not of something that is happening now." - Page 35
"an emotion is the body's reaction to your mind" - Page 36
"Power over others is weakness disguised as strength. True power is within, and it is available to you now" - Page 36
"The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief systems, and often also political, nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you." - Page 37
"Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to "die before you die" — and find that there is no death" - Page 38
"When you are present, you can allow the mind to be as it is without getting entangled in it. The mind in itself is a wonderful tool. Dysfunction sets in when you seek your self in it and mistake it for who you are" - Page 40
"To be identified with your mind is to be trapped in time: the compulsion to live almost exclusively through memory and anticipation" - Page 40
"Life is now. There was never a time when your life was not now, nor will there ever be" - Page 41
"Nothing ever happened in the past; it happened in the Now. Nothing will ever happen in the future; it will happen in the Now" - Page 41
"The quality of your consciousness at this moment is what shapes the future — which, of course, can only be experienced as the Now"- Page 50
"Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry — all forms of fear — are cause by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of nonforgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence" - Page 50
"To be free of time is to be free of the psychological need of past for your identity and future for your fulfillment" - Page 59
"Be at least as interested in what goes on inside you as what happens outside. If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place" - Page 64
"Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally" - Page 68
"You cannot find yourself by going into the past. You can find yourself by coming into the present" - Page 75
"...words in themselves are not important. They are not the Truth; they only point to it" - Page 85
"Don't get stuck on the level of words. A word is no more than a means to an end. It's an abstraction. Not unlike a signpost, it points beyond itself" - Page 90
"At the deepest level of Being, you are one with all that is" - Page 105
"...the ultimate purpose of the world lies not within the world but in the transcendence of the world" - Page 117
"You find God the moment you realize that you don't need to seek God" - Page 122
Mastery...
A man who is helpless before his own mind is helpless before everything in the
world. Mastery lies not merely in stilling the mind, but in directing it towards
whatever point we desire, in allowing it to be active as far as we wish, in
using it to fulfill our purpose, in causing it to be still when we want to still
it.
From the Teachings of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & arranged by
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
world. Mastery lies not merely in stilling the mind, but in directing it towards
whatever point we desire, in allowing it to be active as far as we wish, in
using it to fulfill our purpose, in causing it to be still when we want to still
it.
From the Teachings of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & arranged by
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
The Ego...
The ego totally ceases to exist and is fully absorbed into the Overself only in special, temporary, and trance-like states. At all other times, and certainly at all ordinary active and everyday times, it continues to exist. The failure to learn and understand this important point always causes much confusion in mystical circles. The state arrived at in deep meditation is one thing; the state returned to after such meditation is another. The ego vanishes in one but reappears in the other. But there are certain after-effects of this experience upon it which bring about by degrees a shift in its relation to the Overself. It submits, obeys, expresses, and reflects the Overself.
— Notebooks Category 8: The Ego > Chapter 1: What Am I? > # 213.......Paul Brunton
— Notebooks Category 8: The Ego > Chapter 1: What Am I? > # 213.......Paul Brunton
Enlightenment by Destruction...
"Make no mistake about it--
enlightenment is a destructive process.
It has nothing to do with becoming better or
being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling
away of untruth. It's see through the facade
of pretense. It's the complete eradication of
everything we imagine to be true."........Adyashanti
enlightenment is a destructive process.
It has nothing to do with becoming better or
being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling
away of untruth. It's see through the facade
of pretense. It's the complete eradication of
everything we imagine to be true."........Adyashanti
Living by Grace...
The goal of the mystical life is for us to become beholders of God in action, where we ascribe nothing to ourselves~ not even good motives. We no longer have desires. We no longer have needs... This is called "living by Grace."... If I prayed for something, it would mean I have a desire, an end, an object in life that I am seeking. But I have nothing to pray for. I have only this minute to live, this minute in which I must be fulfilled by the Spirit... That is what the mystical life is~ attaining that degree where every day you find yourself not wondering about tomorrow because there is no tomorrow for you; there is only a tomorrow for God.
~ Joel S. Goldsmith, Living By Grace
~ Joel S. Goldsmith, Living By Grace
What we have...
Before our white brothers came to civilize us we had no jails. Therefore we had no criminals. You can’t have criminals without a jail. We had no locks or keys, and so we had no thieves. If a man was so poor that he had no horse, tipi or blanket, someone gave him these things. We were too uncivilized to set much value on personal belongings. We wanted to have things only in order to give them away. We had no money, and therefore a man’s worth couldn’t be measured by it. We had no written law, no attorney or politicians, therefore we couldn’t cheat. We were in a really bad way before the white man came, and I don’t know how we managed to get along without the basic things which, we are told, are absolutely necessary to make a civilized society.
-- Lakota Sage Lame Deer (from John Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions
-- Lakota Sage Lame Deer (from John Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions
What is Nirvana?...
Discourse by Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh
In Buddhism, we speak of nirvana which is the cessation of all suffering. Nirvana, first of all, it means the cessation, the extinction of all suffering. But our suffering come from our wrong perceptions. Avidia, misunderstanding. And that is why the practice of meditation, the practice of looking deeply has the purpose of removing wrong perceptions from us. If you are able to remove wrong perceptions, you will be able to be free from the afflictions and the sufferings that always arise from wrong perceptions. You have wrong perception on yourself and on the other, and the other has wrong perception on themselves and on you and that is the cause of fear, of violence, of hatred. That is why trying to remove wrong perceptions is the only way to peace. And that is why nirvana is, first of all, the removal of wrong perceptions. And when you remove wrong perceptions, you remove the suffering.
Ultimate reality is free from birth, and dying
To meditate deeply, you find out that even ideas like being and non-being, birth and death, coming and going, are wrong ideas. If you can touch reality in that, you realize that ultimate reality is free from birth, from dying, from coming, from going, from being, from non-being. That is why nirvana is, first of all, a removal of notions of ideas that serve the ways of misunderstanding and suffering. If you are afraid of death, of nothingness, of non-being, because you have wrong perceptions on death and on non-being. The French scientist, Lavoure, said there is no birth, there is no death. He observed reality around him and came to the conclusion that it isn’t so great, it isn’t so bad.
The notion of death cannot be applied to reality
When you look at a cloud, you think of the cloud as being. And later on when the cloud become the rain, you don’t see the cloud anymore and you say the cloud is not there. And you describe the cloud as non-being. But if you look deeply, you can see the cloud in the rain and that is why it’s impossible for a cloud to die. A cloud can become rain, snow or ice, but a cloud cannot become nothing. And that is why the notion of death cannot be applied to reality. There is a transformation, there is a continuation, but you cannot say that there is death because in your mind to die means from something, you suddenly become nothing. From someone, you suddenly become no one, and so the notion of death cannot apply to reality, whether to a cloud or to a human being.
In Buddhism, we speak of nirvana which is the cessation of all suffering. Nirvana, first of all, it means the cessation, the extinction of all suffering. But our suffering come from our wrong perceptions. Avidia, misunderstanding. And that is why the practice of meditation, the practice of looking deeply has the purpose of removing wrong perceptions from us. If you are able to remove wrong perceptions, you will be able to be free from the afflictions and the sufferings that always arise from wrong perceptions. You have wrong perception on yourself and on the other, and the other has wrong perception on themselves and on you and that is the cause of fear, of violence, of hatred. That is why trying to remove wrong perceptions is the only way to peace. And that is why nirvana is, first of all, the removal of wrong perceptions. And when you remove wrong perceptions, you remove the suffering.
Ultimate reality is free from birth, and dying
To meditate deeply, you find out that even ideas like being and non-being, birth and death, coming and going, are wrong ideas. If you can touch reality in that, you realize that ultimate reality is free from birth, from dying, from coming, from going, from being, from non-being. That is why nirvana is, first of all, a removal of notions of ideas that serve the ways of misunderstanding and suffering. If you are afraid of death, of nothingness, of non-being, because you have wrong perceptions on death and on non-being. The French scientist, Lavoure, said there is no birth, there is no death. He observed reality around him and came to the conclusion that it isn’t so great, it isn’t so bad.
The notion of death cannot be applied to reality
When you look at a cloud, you think of the cloud as being. And later on when the cloud become the rain, you don’t see the cloud anymore and you say the cloud is not there. And you describe the cloud as non-being. But if you look deeply, you can see the cloud in the rain and that is why it’s impossible for a cloud to die. A cloud can become rain, snow or ice, but a cloud cannot become nothing. And that is why the notion of death cannot be applied to reality. There is a transformation, there is a continuation, but you cannot say that there is death because in your mind to die means from something, you suddenly become nothing. From someone, you suddenly become no one, and so the notion of death cannot apply to reality, whether to a cloud or to a human being.
Controversy...
In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves...........Gautama the Buddha
The Source...
The only One who knows all of it is God, and mystical people know just to go to the Source. When we become aware of our Selves, we will see that we are all a part of God. In the Zero-Point Field, that huge creative medium existing everywhere, there is a frenzy of activity as particles from the "soup" seem to spring into existence, relate to other particles, achieve certain levels, and then fall back into the soup in their oneness with God. Will we not do the same? Will we not then lose these personalities and bodies and all in the process? We will all fall back into the Oneness that is God and will be the better for it, ceasing to be limited and controlled by these elements of form. Why keep ourselves in these weak, sickly bodies that belong to a fairly primitive order of existence, limited to a view of just three dimensions and one time period, and to these personalities full of lower-level thinking, destructive characteristics, and only vague awareness? They are useful now, but for the eternities we need more. When we realize the infinite knowledge, serenity, calmness, peace, and fulfillment that come from being in the Presence, we will wonder why we found these earthly, limited lives to be so attractive.........From Mysticalspirituality.com
Who We Really Are...
Well then, just who are we? We see that we are not our physical forms, nor our brains, nor our personalities, nor our electro-chemical thoughts, Remember that these physical things are just energy being allowed to vibrate in such a way that the form becomes visible to others. This energy is God, but we suspect that there are types energy that do not vibrate in ways that makes outward manifestations, and we need to understand that we are being shaped by elements that we cannot see, touch, or measure at this point in our awareness. We can safely say that we are manifestations of God: everything is a manifestation of God, but that is as far as we can go. We remember that we are using a body, a mind, and a personality at this particular point in the sequence of things, but the real "us" is what we have referred to as the "Self," and this Self is in constant knowing contact with God. It is aware of God, whereas the ego is not so aware, having been created by God for a different, limited purpose. As we saw, the ego therefore cannot be enlightened. The Self is already enlightened, but is allowed to be covered up by the ego temporarily until certain physical things are accomplished in this world. So the Self is God and thus there is no duality when we receive intuitions from God through the Self. That is why we can go no further in saying just who we are: when we fully comprehend the Self, we will know, and we will be aware of the Presence and will thus know everything, but the knowledge is ineffable and can only be understood experientially and not rationally..........from Mysticalspirituality.com
The Quest...
His quest for God has reached its terminus but his quest in God will now start its course. Henceforth his life, experience, and consciousness are wrapped in mystery.
— Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 4: The Changeover To the Short Path > # 54........Paul Brunton
— Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 4: The Changeover To the Short Path > # 54........Paul Brunton
Ritual...
All these divisions we see on all sides, all these disputes and opposition, are caused because men cling to ritual and outward observances, and forget the simple, underlying truth. It is the outward practices of religion that are so different, and it is they that cause disputes and enmity -- while the reality is always the same, and one. The Reality is the Truth, and truth has no division. Truth is God's guidance, it is the light of the world, it is love, it is mercy. These attributes of truth are also human virtues inspired by the Holy Spirit.
(`Abdu'l-Bah, Paris Talks)
(`Abdu'l-Bah, Paris Talks)
Reality: God's Secular Name...
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing it, doesn't go away." —Philip K. Dick
For all of human history, cultures have created gods, and stories about them, to explain the powerful natural forces that were beyond our control, comprehension, and often ability to cope. For millennia "God" has been little more than an catch-all cosmic concept for everything from thunder bolts to comet trails.
But as science began to show us what really caused natural phenomenon, bit by bit, God faded into the distance, and our supernatural notions became irrelevant or trivial. Real answers to ancient mysteries emerged, and we were left with old stories that didn't quite make sense or ring true in any deep, this-world, realistic way. Until recently...
In the last decade a new way of experiencing God has emerged from within religious traditions around the world, grounded in our best scientific understandings of physical, biological, and cultural evolution. Millions of religious folk have moved from merely thinking about God as some unnatural, otherworldly entity to experiencing God as natural everyday reality filled with awe and mystery—no religion required. It's one of the reasons why so many people polled say they are "spiritual" but not "religious."
For evolutionaries, God is no less than a sacred proper name—a meaningful personificaiton—of ultimate reality, seen and unseen. God is the "Abba" or cosmic father that Jesus knew he was one with and we were all children of. God is the rainbow we can see with the naked eye and the infrared light we can't see. God is the fabric of reality, the very matter and energy of which we are made and the empty space that allows it all to be. As I discuss briefly in Chapter 6 of Thank God for Evolution:
God is the Mystery at the Center of our amazement that the Universe is here at all, that it is what it is, and that it is always becoming, yet always somehow whole.
God is the Mystery at the Heart of consciousness, conscience, compassion, and all the other forms of co-creative, co-incarnational responsiveness of life to life.
God is the Mysterious Omni-Creative Power through which the Universe is and ever becomes more intricately and wondrously fulfilled through the interactions of all its parts (each of which contains a spark of the Whole).
Science is now how we seek truth about the nature of reality, of which we are an inseparable part. Anything short of serious group inquiry into the nature of reality is nothing more than someone just sitting around thinking about God.
Those who speak on behalf of reality are the true prophets of our age, whether they be religious, nonreligous, or even anti-religious. I'll say more about this in future blog posts.
"Science is, at least in part, informed worship." —Carl Sagan
For all of human history, cultures have created gods, and stories about them, to explain the powerful natural forces that were beyond our control, comprehension, and often ability to cope. For millennia "God" has been little more than an catch-all cosmic concept for everything from thunder bolts to comet trails.
But as science began to show us what really caused natural phenomenon, bit by bit, God faded into the distance, and our supernatural notions became irrelevant or trivial. Real answers to ancient mysteries emerged, and we were left with old stories that didn't quite make sense or ring true in any deep, this-world, realistic way. Until recently...
In the last decade a new way of experiencing God has emerged from within religious traditions around the world, grounded in our best scientific understandings of physical, biological, and cultural evolution. Millions of religious folk have moved from merely thinking about God as some unnatural, otherworldly entity to experiencing God as natural everyday reality filled with awe and mystery—no religion required. It's one of the reasons why so many people polled say they are "spiritual" but not "religious."
For evolutionaries, God is no less than a sacred proper name—a meaningful personificaiton—of ultimate reality, seen and unseen. God is the "Abba" or cosmic father that Jesus knew he was one with and we were all children of. God is the rainbow we can see with the naked eye and the infrared light we can't see. God is the fabric of reality, the very matter and energy of which we are made and the empty space that allows it all to be. As I discuss briefly in Chapter 6 of Thank God for Evolution:
God is the Mystery at the Center of our amazement that the Universe is here at all, that it is what it is, and that it is always becoming, yet always somehow whole.
God is the Mystery at the Heart of consciousness, conscience, compassion, and all the other forms of co-creative, co-incarnational responsiveness of life to life.
God is the Mysterious Omni-Creative Power through which the Universe is and ever becomes more intricately and wondrously fulfilled through the interactions of all its parts (each of which contains a spark of the Whole).
Science is now how we seek truth about the nature of reality, of which we are an inseparable part. Anything short of serious group inquiry into the nature of reality is nothing more than someone just sitting around thinking about God.
Those who speak on behalf of reality are the true prophets of our age, whether they be religious, nonreligous, or even anti-religious. I'll say more about this in future blog posts.
"Science is, at least in part, informed worship." —Carl Sagan
God & Reality...
That the universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse of the atoms, I will no more believe than the accidental jumbling of the alphabet should fall into a most ingenious treatise on Philosophy.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all art and science.
As long as there will be an unknown there will be a God.
Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.
The divine madness was subdivided into four kinds, prophetic, creative, poetic, erotic.
The God I believe in is not so fragile that you hurt Him by being angry at Him, or so petty that He will hold it against you for being upset with Him.
Called or Not Called, God is Present
God is, by definition, ultimate reality. And one cannot argue whether ultimate reality really exists. One can only ask what ultimate reality is like.
The earth, the sun and stars, the universe itself; and the charming variety of the seasons, demonstrate the existence of Divinity.
At the core of our being we manifest God, and we become all that we love in God. This is what is meant by "The Living God is a Man".
The religious, who, of course, ascribe the origins of grace to God, believe it to be literally God's love, have through the ages had the same difficulty locating God. There are within theology two lengthy and opposing traditions in this regard: one, the doctrine of Emanance, which holds that grace emanates down from an external God to men; the other the doctrine of Immanence, which holds that grace immanates out from the God within the center of man's being.
There is no dichotomy between spirit and flesh, no split between Godhead and the world. Spiritual union is found in life, within nature, passion, sensuality - through being fully human, fully one's self.
I have put duality away, I have seen that the two worlds are one: One I seek, One I know, One I see, One I call. He is the first, he is the last. He is outward, he is inward.
I don't know about God. The only things I know are what I see, feel and smell.
What if you slept; and what if in your sleep you dreamed; and what if in your dream you went to heaven and there you plucked a strange and beautiful flower; and what if when you awoke you had the flower in your hand? Oh, what then? - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all art and science.
As long as there will be an unknown there will be a God.
Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.
The divine madness was subdivided into four kinds, prophetic, creative, poetic, erotic.
The God I believe in is not so fragile that you hurt Him by being angry at Him, or so petty that He will hold it against you for being upset with Him.
Called or Not Called, God is Present
God is, by definition, ultimate reality. And one cannot argue whether ultimate reality really exists. One can only ask what ultimate reality is like.
The earth, the sun and stars, the universe itself; and the charming variety of the seasons, demonstrate the existence of Divinity.
At the core of our being we manifest God, and we become all that we love in God. This is what is meant by "The Living God is a Man".
The religious, who, of course, ascribe the origins of grace to God, believe it to be literally God's love, have through the ages had the same difficulty locating God. There are within theology two lengthy and opposing traditions in this regard: one, the doctrine of Emanance, which holds that grace emanates down from an external God to men; the other the doctrine of Immanence, which holds that grace immanates out from the God within the center of man's being.
There is no dichotomy between spirit and flesh, no split between Godhead and the world. Spiritual union is found in life, within nature, passion, sensuality - through being fully human, fully one's self.
I have put duality away, I have seen that the two worlds are one: One I seek, One I know, One I see, One I call. He is the first, he is the last. He is outward, he is inward.
I don't know about God. The only things I know are what I see, feel and smell.
What if you slept; and what if in your sleep you dreamed; and what if in your dream you went to heaven and there you plucked a strange and beautiful flower; and what if when you awoke you had the flower in your hand? Oh, what then? - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
John Wheeler - Natural Intelligence...
Will there be an energy and a contraction? So in other words, if I’m really being me, then I’m exuding an energy that’s being me that I’ve been presumably squishing a little bit so then that would be an attractive force…
John: Well, take the – take these – take all these fearful limiting thoughts, these thoughts that hold us back and make us judgmental and afraid of doing this and doing that and all these kind of constructs. Just kind of strip that off a little bit and then there’s going to be a functioning there that’s not – like there already is a functioning there that sometimes when we have all these ideas about who I am, all these binders, these limiting filters, so what – it’s just like that those things kind of fall away because you know, that we’re saying that’s not really my identity.
So the natural intelligence functioning through the body/mind without the dualistic filter. That’s – that’s what happens. Is it you doing it? No. Is it an individual? No. But it’s life living you, life functioning through you without – without getting you know, kind of distorted through like you know, that I’m – that I’m a limited person. That’s all. But it’s – it’s – it’s already doing that. It’s always been doing that. Like when the sperm and the ovum came together and that little baby grew, were you doing that?
But it was happening. It – it grew, it came – grew fingers, it came out, it grew up, it became a child, it had all these capacities, all these wonderful things. It never was thinking what am I doing? But somewhere along the line, we picked up this concept, this thing of like so somehow I am separate from everything. There’s something wrong with me. But what I’m saying here is that that is not true. That child at that stage didn’t have that idea. So you know, because it is a concept and because it’s learned and because when we examine it it doesn’t really hold water, that intelligence seeing through that dissolves that, dismantles that concept.
So just like that energy of the child just functioning in – in – in a body, living moment by moment following life flowing through, that’s like, yeah. Let’s you know, so. And that’s just like a – a side benefit that just it happens anyway. I mean, because it’s just – it’s more like the way it is. And – and thoughts will come up and decisions will come up and energies will come up and they’ll move you here and they’ll move you there and you’ll do this and you’ll do that, and but never with ever a sense that there’s something wrong with you anymore.
John: Well, take the – take these – take all these fearful limiting thoughts, these thoughts that hold us back and make us judgmental and afraid of doing this and doing that and all these kind of constructs. Just kind of strip that off a little bit and then there’s going to be a functioning there that’s not – like there already is a functioning there that sometimes when we have all these ideas about who I am, all these binders, these limiting filters, so what – it’s just like that those things kind of fall away because you know, that we’re saying that’s not really my identity.
So the natural intelligence functioning through the body/mind without the dualistic filter. That’s – that’s what happens. Is it you doing it? No. Is it an individual? No. But it’s life living you, life functioning through you without – without getting you know, kind of distorted through like you know, that I’m – that I’m a limited person. That’s all. But it’s – it’s – it’s already doing that. It’s always been doing that. Like when the sperm and the ovum came together and that little baby grew, were you doing that?
But it was happening. It – it grew, it came – grew fingers, it came out, it grew up, it became a child, it had all these capacities, all these wonderful things. It never was thinking what am I doing? But somewhere along the line, we picked up this concept, this thing of like so somehow I am separate from everything. There’s something wrong with me. But what I’m saying here is that that is not true. That child at that stage didn’t have that idea. So you know, because it is a concept and because it’s learned and because when we examine it it doesn’t really hold water, that intelligence seeing through that dissolves that, dismantles that concept.
So just like that energy of the child just functioning in – in – in a body, living moment by moment following life flowing through, that’s like, yeah. Let’s you know, so. And that’s just like a – a side benefit that just it happens anyway. I mean, because it’s just – it’s more like the way it is. And – and thoughts will come up and decisions will come up and energies will come up and they’ll move you here and they’ll move you there and you’ll do this and you’ll do that, and but never with ever a sense that there’s something wrong with you anymore.
End of Your World ...
The truth of our being is not content until it has freed itself of its own misunderstanding, its own fixations, its own illusions.
To allow that to happen, as a human being, we have to be willing to be honest with ourselves. While not denying what we've seen, we also have to see how things are, right here and right now. We need to look. We need to ask: "What in me can still go into division? What in me can still go into hate, into ignorance, into greed? What in me can cause me to feel divided, isolated, full of sorrow? Where are those spots in me that are less awakened?
We need to see these places, because that which is awakened in us is compassionate. Its nature is undivided, unconditioned love. It doesn't move away from that which is unawakened; it moves toward it. That within us which is awakened doesn't move away from the contradictions in our thought patterns or behaviors. It doesn't move away from fixations, it doesn't move away from pain, but quite the opposite. It moves toward it…..........Adyashanti
To allow that to happen, as a human being, we have to be willing to be honest with ourselves. While not denying what we've seen, we also have to see how things are, right here and right now. We need to look. We need to ask: "What in me can still go into division? What in me can still go into hate, into ignorance, into greed? What in me can cause me to feel divided, isolated, full of sorrow? Where are those spots in me that are less awakened?
We need to see these places, because that which is awakened in us is compassionate. Its nature is undivided, unconditioned love. It doesn't move away from that which is unawakened; it moves toward it. That within us which is awakened doesn't move away from the contradictions in our thought patterns or behaviors. It doesn't move away from fixations, it doesn't move away from pain, but quite the opposite. It moves toward it…..........Adyashanti
Perceive...
1. To obtain knowledge of through the senses; to receive impressions from by means of the bodily organs; to take cognizance of the existence, character, or identity of, by means of the senses; to see, hear, or feel; as, to perceive a distant ship; to perceive a discord. Reid.
2. To take intellectual cognizance of; to apprehend by the mind; to be convinced of by direct intuition; to note; to remark; to discern; to see; to understand. "Jesus perceived their wickedness." Matt. xxii. 18. "You may, fair lady, Perceive I speak sincerely." Shak.... "Till we ourselves see it with our own eyes, and perceive it by our own understandings, we are still in the dark." Locke.
3. To be affected of influented by.... "The upper regions of the air perceive the collection of the matter of tempests before the air here below." Bacon......(from selfknowledge.com)........So, we see that the word "Perceive" is a method of using the senses to learn, but what is not mentioned is the sense that is beyond the physical senses, that is the sense of "Knowing"... This sense of Knowing is achieved by existing within The State of Devine Consciousness.. This sense is practiced by Spiritual Masters while in the physical state...............namaste, thomas
2. To take intellectual cognizance of; to apprehend by the mind; to be convinced of by direct intuition; to note; to remark; to discern; to see; to understand. "Jesus perceived their wickedness." Matt. xxii. 18. "You may, fair lady, Perceive I speak sincerely." Shak.... "Till we ourselves see it with our own eyes, and perceive it by our own understandings, we are still in the dark." Locke.
3. To be affected of influented by.... "The upper regions of the air perceive the collection of the matter of tempests before the air here below." Bacon......(from selfknowledge.com)........So, we see that the word "Perceive" is a method of using the senses to learn, but what is not mentioned is the sense that is beyond the physical senses, that is the sense of "Knowing"... This sense of Knowing is achieved by existing within The State of Devine Consciousness.. This sense is practiced by Spiritual Masters while in the physical state...............namaste, thomas
Meditation...
By means of meditation we can teach our minds to be calm and balanced;
within this calmness is a richness and a potential, an inner knowledge
which can render our lives boundlessly satisfying and meaningful.
While the mind may be what traps us in unhealthy patterns of stress
and imbalance, it is also the mind which can free us. Through
meditation, we can tap the healing qualities of mind........
Tarthang Tulku
within this calmness is a richness and a potential, an inner knowledge
which can render our lives boundlessly satisfying and meaningful.
While the mind may be what traps us in unhealthy patterns of stress
and imbalance, it is also the mind which can free us. Through
meditation, we can tap the healing qualities of mind........
Tarthang Tulku
Love All...
Love all God's creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God's light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day..........
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Native American Wisdom...
Long before I ever heard of Christ or saw a white man, I had learned the essence of morality. With the help of dear Nature herself, my grandmother taught me things simple but of mighty import. I knew God. I perceived what goodness is. I saw and loved what is really beautiful…I lived the natural life…Any pretty pebble was valuable to me then; every growing tree an object of reverence…
(Ohiyesa, Charles Alexander Eastman, `The Soul of an Indian')
(Ohiyesa, Charles Alexander Eastman, `The Soul of an Indian')
The Inspiration...
The inspiration may be pure Spirit but, because it must come into a particular man, he receives it in a particular way, interprets, expresses, and communicates it in a personal way, so that the purity is at best a little adulterated, the integrity a little lost. His character may be as selfless as he can make it, but the colouring of his mind can only fade out to a particular extent because his body is still there, his entire past history is there graven in the subconscious, and body is interfused with mind. All this will vanish with death, or some while after death if he is not fully advanced..........Paul Brunton
The Infinite Way - Joel Goldsmith...
The work is "always" within your own consciousness. What appears out here as your material world is nothing more than your present state of consciousness objectified. By objectified I mean that your mind interprets your state of consciousness as materiality.
Your state of consciousness is reflected back to you as a material place, thing or condition because that is how mind interprets INFINITY. Mind can only interpret INFINITY "through a glass darkly" - This means mind deluded with the conceptions of good and evil, incorrectly interpret the reality based on the hypnotized level of this misconception.
This is how healings take place. Not because God is healing anything. God made ALL that was made! Since this is the TRUTH, God NEVER made anything that needs to be healed. Therefore the material condition which suggest such nonsense is a very deception of mind and needs only to be realized as the NOTHINGNESS it already is! As the realization dawns deep enough, mind will re-interpret that state of consciousness and "appear" to you as a healing.
No actual healing really took place. The only thing that took place is mind more accurately interpreted the REALITY based on it's attained realization of the TRUTH! All matter is minds misinterpretation of the Omnipresent SPIRITUAL and INVISIBLE perfection of God itself!
Your state of consciousness is reflected back to you as a material place, thing or condition because that is how mind interprets INFINITY. Mind can only interpret INFINITY "through a glass darkly" - This means mind deluded with the conceptions of good and evil, incorrectly interpret the reality based on the hypnotized level of this misconception.
This is how healings take place. Not because God is healing anything. God made ALL that was made! Since this is the TRUTH, God NEVER made anything that needs to be healed. Therefore the material condition which suggest such nonsense is a very deception of mind and needs only to be realized as the NOTHINGNESS it already is! As the realization dawns deep enough, mind will re-interpret that state of consciousness and "appear" to you as a healing.
No actual healing really took place. The only thing that took place is mind more accurately interpreted the REALITY based on it's attained realization of the TRUTH! All matter is minds misinterpretation of the Omnipresent SPIRITUAL and INVISIBLE perfection of God itself!
The Ego...
Not to belabor the point but the ego is the only thing that prevents us from
feeling the Divine.. The Divine is Pure Love, the ego is anti-love and selfish..
Therefore, for Miracles to happen and All to feel the state of Bliss, the ego
must be destroyed.. The more that the ego is disolved, the more that you feel
Love and the more that you feel the Presence of God.. It is simply mathmatics..
To be cured of diseases and ills, you must Believe that it is Possible.. This
Belief is found by living within the Presence of Divine Consciousness.. This is
the reason that Living in the State of Love was the main Teaching of Jesus..
Jesus taught the Apostles to Heal and to perform Miracles by teaching them the
Power of Belief and the Power of Living within Divine Consciousness.. These
Powers are also available to us if we follow the same Path as
Jesus.........namaste, thomas
feeling the Divine.. The Divine is Pure Love, the ego is anti-love and selfish..
Therefore, for Miracles to happen and All to feel the state of Bliss, the ego
must be destroyed.. The more that the ego is disolved, the more that you feel
Love and the more that you feel the Presence of God.. It is simply mathmatics..
To be cured of diseases and ills, you must Believe that it is Possible.. This
Belief is found by living within the Presence of Divine Consciousness.. This is
the reason that Living in the State of Love was the main Teaching of Jesus..
Jesus taught the Apostles to Heal and to perform Miracles by teaching them the
Power of Belief and the Power of Living within Divine Consciousness.. These
Powers are also available to us if we follow the same Path as
Jesus.........namaste, thomas
The Buddha's Last Instruction ...
“Make of yourself a light,”
said the Buddha,
before he died.
I think of this every morning
as the east begins
to tear off its many clouds
of darkness, to send up the first
signal – a white fan
streaked with pink and violet,
even green.
An old man, he lay down
between two sala trees,
and he might have said anything,
knowing it was his final hour.
The light burns upward,
it thickens and settles over the fields.
Around him, the villagers gathered
and stretched forward to listen.
Even before the sun itself
hangs, disattached, in the blue air,
I am touched everywhere
by its ocean of yellow waves.
No doubt he thought of everything
that had happened in his difficult life.
And then I feel the sun itself
as it blazes over the hills,
like a million flowers on fire –
clearly I’m not needed,
yet I feel myself turning
into something of inexplicable value.
Slowly, beneath the branches,
he raised his head.
He looked into the faces of that frightened crowd.
~ Mary Oliver ~
(House of Light)
said the Buddha,
before he died.
I think of this every morning
as the east begins
to tear off its many clouds
of darkness, to send up the first
signal – a white fan
streaked with pink and violet,
even green.
An old man, he lay down
between two sala trees,
and he might have said anything,
knowing it was his final hour.
The light burns upward,
it thickens and settles over the fields.
Around him, the villagers gathered
and stretched forward to listen.
Even before the sun itself
hangs, disattached, in the blue air,
I am touched everywhere
by its ocean of yellow waves.
No doubt he thought of everything
that had happened in his difficult life.
And then I feel the sun itself
as it blazes over the hills,
like a million flowers on fire –
clearly I’m not needed,
yet I feel myself turning
into something of inexplicable value.
Slowly, beneath the branches,
he raised his head.
He looked into the faces of that frightened crowd.
~ Mary Oliver ~
(House of Light)
Miracles...
In
speaking of Miracles, I can state that the greatest miracles that happened
to me were the times when I was able to surrender the ego completely and merge
with God.. This sense of merging is really just the dropping of the illusion of
the ego and the Realization of Reality, which is that, we are inseparate from
Devine Consciousness and cannot be separated.. But, the false belief in
separation keeps us in ignorance and pain.. We have "Free Will", which means
that we have the right to be wrong.. This "free will", will create all that we
desire, be it Righteous or Foolish.. Therefore, if we are Wise, we will use our
"free will" to become finally Free and experience the "Greatest
Miracle"............namaste, thomas
speaking of Miracles, I can state that the greatest miracles that happened
to me were the times when I was able to surrender the ego completely and merge
with God.. This sense of merging is really just the dropping of the illusion of
the ego and the Realization of Reality, which is that, we are inseparate from
Devine Consciousness and cannot be separated.. But, the false belief in
separation keeps us in ignorance and pain.. We have "Free Will", which means
that we have the right to be wrong.. This "free will", will create all that we
desire, be it Righteous or Foolish.. Therefore, if we are Wise, we will use our
"free will" to become finally Free and experience the "Greatest
Miracle"............namaste, thomas
Riches and Power...
Riches and power may vanish because they are outside ourselves; only that which
is within can we call our own.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Where is man's wealth? It is in his knowledge. If his wealth is only in the bank
and not in his knowledge he does not really possess it. It is in the bank. All
desirable and great things, values and titles, position and possession, where
are they? Outside? No, because outside is only that which one knows by the
knowledge one has within. Therefore the real possession is not without but
within. It is the self within, it is the heart which must be developed, the
heart which must be in its natural rhythm and at its proper pitch. When it is
tuned to its natural rhythm and pitch, then it can accomplish the purpose for
which it is made.
The claim to be kind and sympathetic is like a drop of water saying, 'I am
water,' but which, on seeing the ocean, realizes its nothingness. In the same
way, when man has looked on perfection, he realizes his shortcomings. It is then
that the veil is raised from before his eyes and his sight becomes keen. He then
asks himself, 'What can I do that I may awaken this love and sympathy in my
heart?' The Sufi begins by realizing that he is dead and blind, and he
understands that all goodness as well as all that is bad comes from within.
Riches and power may vanish because they are outside of us, but only that which
is within can we call our own. In order to awaken love and sympathy in our
hearts, sacrifices must be made. We must forget our own troubles in order to
sympathize with the troubles of others.
is within can we call our own.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Where is man's wealth? It is in his knowledge. If his wealth is only in the bank
and not in his knowledge he does not really possess it. It is in the bank. All
desirable and great things, values and titles, position and possession, where
are they? Outside? No, because outside is only that which one knows by the
knowledge one has within. Therefore the real possession is not without but
within. It is the self within, it is the heart which must be developed, the
heart which must be in its natural rhythm and at its proper pitch. When it is
tuned to its natural rhythm and pitch, then it can accomplish the purpose for
which it is made.
The claim to be kind and sympathetic is like a drop of water saying, 'I am
water,' but which, on seeing the ocean, realizes its nothingness. In the same
way, when man has looked on perfection, he realizes his shortcomings. It is then
that the veil is raised from before his eyes and his sight becomes keen. He then
asks himself, 'What can I do that I may awaken this love and sympathy in my
heart?' The Sufi begins by realizing that he is dead and blind, and he
understands that all goodness as well as all that is bad comes from within.
Riches and power may vanish because they are outside of us, but only that which
is within can we call our own. In order to awaken love and sympathy in our
hearts, sacrifices must be made. We must forget our own troubles in order to
sympathize with the troubles of others.
John Wheeler on the I and the ego...
But if we look at that and examine that just like we’re looking at these other things, what is the me?
Or who am I? What am I actually? We’re gonna see a couple of things and both are just fine. One is we see that that me is only an idea that comes and goes and that’s not what I am. So the conceptual me is not my true nature. And we see that and that unlinks that identification with that because okay let the ego get enlightened, let it suffer, let it do whatever it wants to do cause that’s just about that image, but that’s not what I am, it doesn’t describe me. Or if we look at that sense of me and say what am I actually? and actually trace it back to what I actually am, what my real presence is, we discover the true self, the true presence, the true being. And then I am that already. So that’s pretty good.
So it’s like if we look at this me as either the imaginary self and see that that’s not what I am, that kind of resolves the suffering based on that. But if we take that sense of me to refer to the true self, so to speak, then we find I already am that effortlessly and there’s no separation. And both are, sometimes when I talk about this, both sides of that are useful to see what I’m not and also to see what I truly am. And some of the teachers have said something like that. I think it was Nisargadatta, he said something like 'stop being what you’re not and don’t refuse anymore to be what you are.' In practice, what does this really look like? The best way to describe it is like a sense of confusion on identity. I don’t know who I am. I haven’t looked at my being. It’s not clear what that is. Nobody’s pointed it out. I haven’t stopped long enough to notice it so my mind has stepped in, the mind has stepped in and said, I’ll tell you what you are. And it’s not malicious, it’s just saying look if you don’t know you’re looking, you want to know, I’ll try to tell you what you are. And the closest it can come up with is this sense of a conceptual self even though that’s only a concept, but we don’t really spot that and then we begin to think that that image is what I am and the mind begins adding to that and it puts more and more things on it.
And then in our life we find ourselves suffering under this kind of wavering identity. Like what am I? And the mind is saying all these things like you’re limited, you’re not enlightened, you’re not good enough, you’re small, you’re unsatisfactory, whatever, but that’s not you though, see that’s the mental picture of you. But at some stage since we haven’t stopped and looked at this we are basically believing that and we think that that’s what I am. And that is not a pretty sight, usually.
(laughter)
John: I mean the separate self notion and all these ideas, if you look at them they are mostly negative. There are some good ones, but they are largely kind of limited. Why? Because the very notion of being a separate self outside of reality is already a huge comedown, it’s already a huge limitation, so the very core concept on which everything is based on is already a limitation. It doesn’t feel right. It’s like children already at a young age they start to feel uncomfortable being a separate someone. But instead of actually getting to the root of that and trying to take it back and see what’s going on, we keep trying to correct that by throwing all of these antidotes onto it. And it can make it accentuated. So it feels like, you know, those jaw breakers, they add layers and layers of candy on, so it’s like this mind idea gets from the I thought like a pearl or oyster or something like that from that little seed it gets another layer: I’m a body. I’m a John Wheeler. I’m a spiritual being. I’m not enlightened. I’m not good enough. I’m this. I’m a person. And each and every one of those things is just an idea. But until we question that, until we come back to look at this who am I question, the odds are every time the mind comes up and says something like that we’ll go oh, that’s true. There’s something wrong with me. And even the spirituality itself can be just an addition onto that thing itself. That’s why all the teachings, you know, Buddhism and all these things, and they do say that at some stage the teaching itself, the satsang, the language, the pointers
all that gets discarded. It has to get discarded cause you can’t spend the rest of your life being a seeker going for an awakening or something and not there yet. That’s not gonna cut it. Cause that is not satisfying. It’s actually suffering. If you see what your being is and don’t pick up a concept it has no suffering, it has no problems, there’s nothing wrong with the being. The moment I pick up the idea that I need to get enlightened, I’ve already started suffering. So there is a Zen story where somebody said to the teacher, “What’s the cause of suffering?” And he said, “Seeking enlightenment.”
These tricky Zen stories, wow, that’s a heavy one, that’s amazing.
(laughter)
John: The same teacher said, “What’s the cause of the ignorance?” And he said, “Trying to get rid of it.”
John Wheeler
Rockville, MD
May30-June 1
Or who am I? What am I actually? We’re gonna see a couple of things and both are just fine. One is we see that that me is only an idea that comes and goes and that’s not what I am. So the conceptual me is not my true nature. And we see that and that unlinks that identification with that because okay let the ego get enlightened, let it suffer, let it do whatever it wants to do cause that’s just about that image, but that’s not what I am, it doesn’t describe me. Or if we look at that sense of me and say what am I actually? and actually trace it back to what I actually am, what my real presence is, we discover the true self, the true presence, the true being. And then I am that already. So that’s pretty good.
So it’s like if we look at this me as either the imaginary self and see that that’s not what I am, that kind of resolves the suffering based on that. But if we take that sense of me to refer to the true self, so to speak, then we find I already am that effortlessly and there’s no separation. And both are, sometimes when I talk about this, both sides of that are useful to see what I’m not and also to see what I truly am. And some of the teachers have said something like that. I think it was Nisargadatta, he said something like 'stop being what you’re not and don’t refuse anymore to be what you are.' In practice, what does this really look like? The best way to describe it is like a sense of confusion on identity. I don’t know who I am. I haven’t looked at my being. It’s not clear what that is. Nobody’s pointed it out. I haven’t stopped long enough to notice it so my mind has stepped in, the mind has stepped in and said, I’ll tell you what you are. And it’s not malicious, it’s just saying look if you don’t know you’re looking, you want to know, I’ll try to tell you what you are. And the closest it can come up with is this sense of a conceptual self even though that’s only a concept, but we don’t really spot that and then we begin to think that that image is what I am and the mind begins adding to that and it puts more and more things on it.
And then in our life we find ourselves suffering under this kind of wavering identity. Like what am I? And the mind is saying all these things like you’re limited, you’re not enlightened, you’re not good enough, you’re small, you’re unsatisfactory, whatever, but that’s not you though, see that’s the mental picture of you. But at some stage since we haven’t stopped and looked at this we are basically believing that and we think that that’s what I am. And that is not a pretty sight, usually.
(laughter)
John: I mean the separate self notion and all these ideas, if you look at them they are mostly negative. There are some good ones, but they are largely kind of limited. Why? Because the very notion of being a separate self outside of reality is already a huge comedown, it’s already a huge limitation, so the very core concept on which everything is based on is already a limitation. It doesn’t feel right. It’s like children already at a young age they start to feel uncomfortable being a separate someone. But instead of actually getting to the root of that and trying to take it back and see what’s going on, we keep trying to correct that by throwing all of these antidotes onto it. And it can make it accentuated. So it feels like, you know, those jaw breakers, they add layers and layers of candy on, so it’s like this mind idea gets from the I thought like a pearl or oyster or something like that from that little seed it gets another layer: I’m a body. I’m a John Wheeler. I’m a spiritual being. I’m not enlightened. I’m not good enough. I’m this. I’m a person. And each and every one of those things is just an idea. But until we question that, until we come back to look at this who am I question, the odds are every time the mind comes up and says something like that we’ll go oh, that’s true. There’s something wrong with me. And even the spirituality itself can be just an addition onto that thing itself. That’s why all the teachings, you know, Buddhism and all these things, and they do say that at some stage the teaching itself, the satsang, the language, the pointers
all that gets discarded. It has to get discarded cause you can’t spend the rest of your life being a seeker going for an awakening or something and not there yet. That’s not gonna cut it. Cause that is not satisfying. It’s actually suffering. If you see what your being is and don’t pick up a concept it has no suffering, it has no problems, there’s nothing wrong with the being. The moment I pick up the idea that I need to get enlightened, I’ve already started suffering. So there is a Zen story where somebody said to the teacher, “What’s the cause of suffering?” And he said, “Seeking enlightenment.”
These tricky Zen stories, wow, that’s a heavy one, that’s amazing.
(laughter)
John: The same teacher said, “What’s the cause of the ignorance?” And he said, “Trying to get rid of it.”
John Wheeler
Rockville, MD
May30-June 1
What Is Non Duality? .. by James Braha
Non-dual understanding provides the visceral answer to the age-old question “Who am I?”
It is the perception of our true nature, and confirms what sages have been saying for eons: Who we
truly are is neither mind nor body, both of which are transient and therefore illusory. Who we are,
essentially, is consciousness or awareness.
What Can Understanding Of Non Duality Do For Me?
Seeing this clearly does not make us essentially different from anyone else. But it distinctly
alters our experience. The result is a more graceful life, greater acceptance of what is, and a
quantum reduction of psychological suffering.
More than anything, it is the end of the perpetual search for wholeness and completeness that forms
the background of most peoples’ lives. It is the end of the sense of “becoming” this or “becoming”
that, as well as the seemingly never ending craving to fill the void that began the moment we
believed our separateness.
It is the perception of our true nature, and confirms what sages have been saying for eons: Who we
truly are is neither mind nor body, both of which are transient and therefore illusory. Who we are,
essentially, is consciousness or awareness.
What Can Understanding Of Non Duality Do For Me?
Seeing this clearly does not make us essentially different from anyone else. But it distinctly
alters our experience. The result is a more graceful life, greater acceptance of what is, and a
quantum reduction of psychological suffering.
More than anything, it is the end of the perpetual search for wholeness and completeness that forms
the background of most peoples’ lives. It is the end of the sense of “becoming” this or “becoming”
that, as well as the seemingly never ending craving to fill the void that began the moment we
believed our separateness.
Unselfish Love...
I live north of New York City and was born and raised on the border of the City.. I eventually moved upstate to see Trees and open parking spaces.. I was a student of Meditation and Mysticism and quickly learned that whatever I wished for, came True.. This experience of Thoughts becoming reality always stunned me but always furthered my belief in higher powers.. I live in a dangerous city that exists in what was once know as the country.. Five blocks away, there are gangs and killings, drugs and prostitutes and the egos running wild with desires.. But, where I live, there are trees ,grass, sky, birds, deer, racoons, fox, groundhogs, carp in a muddy pond behind my house and peace in a city that has rarely known peace.. This house, land, pond, and animals were in my vision before it was given to me by Consciousness for a price that is too low to mention.. This experience was given to me as proof that good and peace can exist in a place where good and peace are rarely known.. Most of my neighbors are african-american and we have always found friendship as a bond.. Tonight, my neighbor, who is a grandmother to three small girls were walking across their yard and the girls started to wave to me, even though they had only met me on a couple of occasions, they then told their grandmother to wave to me.. I'm sure that she felt somewhat foolish, but still obliged their demands.. They waved to me with complete love and kindness and just wished to share this feeling with me and their grandmother.. they desired nothing in return, but loved the fact that I continued to wave to them.. Then, the Holy Spirit spoke to me the words of Jesus, when He said;" And the children shall lead them".... Jesus was speaking of Unselfish-Love.............namaste, thomas
Wisdom by Sri Nisargadatta...
"Go deep into the sense of 'I am' and you will find. How do you find a thing you have mislaid or forgotton? You keep it in your mind until you recall it. The sense of being, of 'I am' is the first to emerge. Ask yourself whence it comes, or just watch it quietly. When the mind stays in the 'I am', without moving, you enter a state that cannot be verbalized but can be experienced. All you need to do is to try and try again."
"We discover it by being earnest,
by searching, inquiring,
questioning daily and hourly,
by giving one's life to this discovery."
"It has nothing to do with effort.
Just turn away, look between the thoughts,
rather than at the thoughts.
When you happen to walk in a crowd, you do not fight every man you meet,
you just find your way between.
When you fight, you invite a fight.
But when you do not resist, you meet no resistance.
When you refuse to play the game, you are out of it."
"Pay no attention [to your thoughts]. Don't fight them. Just do
nothing about them, let them be, whatever they are. Your very
fighting them gives them life. just disregard. Look through."
"The all important word is 'try'.
Allot enough time daily for sitting quietly
and trying, just trying,
to go beyond the personality,
with its addictions and obsessions."
"You just keep on trying until you succeed.
If you persevere, there can be no failure."
"What prevents you from knowing is not
the lack of opportunity,
but the lack of ability to focus in your mind
what you want to understand.
If you could but keep in mind
what you do not know,
it would reveal to you its secrets.
But if you are shallow and impatient,
not earnest enough to look and wait,
you are like a child crying for the moon."
"It is not a matter of easy, or difficult.
Either you try or you don't."
"We discover it by being earnest,
by searching, inquiring,
questioning daily and hourly,
by giving one's life to this discovery."
"It has nothing to do with effort.
Just turn away, look between the thoughts,
rather than at the thoughts.
When you happen to walk in a crowd, you do not fight every man you meet,
you just find your way between.
When you fight, you invite a fight.
But when you do not resist, you meet no resistance.
When you refuse to play the game, you are out of it."
"Pay no attention [to your thoughts]. Don't fight them. Just do
nothing about them, let them be, whatever they are. Your very
fighting them gives them life. just disregard. Look through."
"The all important word is 'try'.
Allot enough time daily for sitting quietly
and trying, just trying,
to go beyond the personality,
with its addictions and obsessions."
"You just keep on trying until you succeed.
If you persevere, there can be no failure."
"What prevents you from knowing is not
the lack of opportunity,
but the lack of ability to focus in your mind
what you want to understand.
If you could but keep in mind
what you do not know,
it would reveal to you its secrets.
But if you are shallow and impatient,
not earnest enough to look and wait,
you are like a child crying for the moon."
"It is not a matter of easy, or difficult.
Either you try or you don't."
The Window...
The window is the absence of the wall, and it gives air and light because it is empty. Be empty of all mental content, of all imagination and effort, and the very absence of obstacles will cause reality to rush in..........Sri Nisargadatta
The Key...
What is the key to the Short Path? It is threefold. First, stop searching for the Overself since it follows you wherever you go. Second, believe in its Presence, with and within you. Third, keep on trying to understand its truth until you can abandon further thoughts about it. You cannot acquire what is already here. So drop the ego's false idea and affirm the real one..........Paul Brunton
Life Itself...
For whoever seeks God in some special way,
will gain the way and lose God who is hidden in the way.
But whoever seeks God without any special way,
finds Him as He really is...He is Life itself.
~ Meister Eckhart ~
will gain the way and lose God who is hidden in the way.
But whoever seeks God without any special way,
finds Him as He really is...He is Life itself.
~ Meister Eckhart ~
Materialism...
I have found that Conscious Realization of the Presence has caused more than the
death to our materialism, It has caused the Death to our Ego.. Being Conscious
is being in Reality.. You are watching the play, the movie, the illusion.. You
are separate from pain.. You are separate from ignorance.. You are experiencing
the "Heaven on Earth" that is spoken of.. You are here a short time, a wink of
an eye of eternity, We are Free and yet we put outselves in chains by our
thoughts............namaste, thomas
death to our materialism, It has caused the Death to our Ego.. Being Conscious
is being in Reality.. You are watching the play, the movie, the illusion.. You
are separate from pain.. You are separate from ignorance.. You are experiencing
the "Heaven on Earth" that is spoken of.. You are here a short time, a wink of
an eye of eternity, We are Free and yet we put outselves in chains by our
thoughts............namaste, thomas
Conscious Realization...
Any moment in which we have the conscious realization of the presence of God, we have "died" to our materialism. The birth of the Christ has taken place. Twenty times a day it can take place in meditation, and each time it does, some part of the human past that has continued to intrude is wiped out.
~ Joel S. Goldsmith, A Parenthesis In Eternity
~ Joel S. Goldsmith, A Parenthesis In Eternity
Excitement...
The World and the Media try to entice you into the desire for Excitement through Movies and Entertainment, but there is a higher Knowledge...They speak of excitement, but I find that I have no need for excitement..
Excitement is a speeding of the heart and lungs and is an un-natural state..
Your Real State is Peace.. The rising of frequencies towards Knowledge by raising your thoughts is somewhat accurate,
except that once you align yourself with Reality (God), you have bypassed all
these frequencies and have merged with Devine Consciousness.. Therefore, you can
take many steps to Freedom or you can take only One.. The choice is yours.. The
feeling of Joy is the feeling of non_ego.. So the choice is, Will you continue
with the belief in the ego or will you rejoin Devine Consciousness?.. The answer
is Surrender............namaste, thomas
Excitement is a speeding of the heart and lungs and is an un-natural state..
Your Real State is Peace.. The rising of frequencies towards Knowledge by raising your thoughts is somewhat accurate,
except that once you align yourself with Reality (God), you have bypassed all
these frequencies and have merged with Devine Consciousness.. Therefore, you can
take many steps to Freedom or you can take only One.. The choice is yours.. The
feeling of Joy is the feeling of non_ego.. So the choice is, Will you continue
with the belief in the ego or will you rejoin Devine Consciousness?.. The answer
is Surrender............namaste, thomas
Awareness...
That we know this awareness exists means only that we have an idea of awareness. We do not see that awareness as itself an object, nor can we ever do so. If we are to know the awareness by itself, first we would have to drop knowing its objects, its reflections in thought, including the ego-thought, and then be it, not see it...........Paul Brunton
Light...
Light--The understanding principle in mind. In divine order it always comes
first into consciousness. Light is a symbol of wisdom. When Jesus said, "I am
the light of the world" (John 8:12), He meant that He was the expresser of Truth
in all its aspects.
Light, inner--The illumination of Spirit resident in the center of every man's
being.
Can you allow yourself to bask in the light of Self-Love and Self-Acceptance?
Can you see and accept both your strengths and your flaws? Can you find a way to
break from being a "victim" of your challenges and your lessons?
Life would be easy if the answers to these questions were "Yes." For most of us,
we are in the struggle called "living" and can not find the time and energy to
even ask these questions, let alone, develop the answers. These are questions
that people have asked and struggled to answer since the first humans had enough
consciousness to realize that they were more than just animals attempting to
survive in a difficult, dangerous world. The lessons of consciousness that we
historically struggle with are often ones like: What is my purpose? or Why am I
alive? or Is there a God? or What happens when I die? or How can I find Love? or
How can I keep the faith even as the storm of humiliation and disappointment
surround me? There are no easy answers... but for each of us the process of
discovery along the path to finding these answers is what our lives are all
about.
I believe that each one of us is connected to a higher consciousness and our
goal in life is to learn from our flaws/challenges so we can get a less filtered
view of this pure consciousness. We are trying to connect with the God within us
and to bask in the light of unconditional love and consciousness.
At some point, we must acknowledge our imperfections and find a way to accept
these challenges as the lessons we have to learn. By accepting these flaws and
giving up the "fight against them," we can free our energy to find a better way
to our life's purpose and our goals. By giving up being a victim to our
weaknesses or imperfections, we can invest our time and energy in moving more
freely to the light of higher consciousness. Why is it easier to accept other
people and their imperfections, than it is to accept our own? Accept and
celebrate your flaws, especially if you wish to find a way to move in more
positive directions.
Along the way, find and celebrate the God within you. You may be surprised to
find how surprisingly familiar this supreme consciousness really is. (For me,
God is not a religious term. It is a word that symbolizes unconditional love in
the purest form and the highest consciousness that connects all living things.)
The light of God surrounds me;
The love of God enfolds me;
The power of God protects me;
The presence of God watches over me.
Wherever I am, God is.
prayer for protection - james dillet freeman - 1941
first into consciousness. Light is a symbol of wisdom. When Jesus said, "I am
the light of the world" (John 8:12), He meant that He was the expresser of Truth
in all its aspects.
Light, inner--The illumination of Spirit resident in the center of every man's
being.
Can you allow yourself to bask in the light of Self-Love and Self-Acceptance?
Can you see and accept both your strengths and your flaws? Can you find a way to
break from being a "victim" of your challenges and your lessons?
Life would be easy if the answers to these questions were "Yes." For most of us,
we are in the struggle called "living" and can not find the time and energy to
even ask these questions, let alone, develop the answers. These are questions
that people have asked and struggled to answer since the first humans had enough
consciousness to realize that they were more than just animals attempting to
survive in a difficult, dangerous world. The lessons of consciousness that we
historically struggle with are often ones like: What is my purpose? or Why am I
alive? or Is there a God? or What happens when I die? or How can I find Love? or
How can I keep the faith even as the storm of humiliation and disappointment
surround me? There are no easy answers... but for each of us the process of
discovery along the path to finding these answers is what our lives are all
about.
I believe that each one of us is connected to a higher consciousness and our
goal in life is to learn from our flaws/challenges so we can get a less filtered
view of this pure consciousness. We are trying to connect with the God within us
and to bask in the light of unconditional love and consciousness.
At some point, we must acknowledge our imperfections and find a way to accept
these challenges as the lessons we have to learn. By accepting these flaws and
giving up the "fight against them," we can free our energy to find a better way
to our life's purpose and our goals. By giving up being a victim to our
weaknesses or imperfections, we can invest our time and energy in moving more
freely to the light of higher consciousness. Why is it easier to accept other
people and their imperfections, than it is to accept our own? Accept and
celebrate your flaws, especially if you wish to find a way to move in more
positive directions.
Along the way, find and celebrate the God within you. You may be surprised to
find how surprisingly familiar this supreme consciousness really is. (For me,
God is not a religious term. It is a word that symbolizes unconditional love in
the purest form and the highest consciousness that connects all living things.)
The light of God surrounds me;
The love of God enfolds me;
The power of God protects me;
The presence of God watches over me.
Wherever I am, God is.
prayer for protection - james dillet freeman - 1941
Life and Learning...
To live a single day and hear a good teaching is better than to live
a hundred years without knowing such teaching.
--Gautama the Buddha
a hundred years without knowing such teaching.
--Gautama the Buddha
Attainment...
He has not attained who is conscious that he has attained, for this very consciousness cunningly hides the ego and delivers him into its power. That alone is attainment which is natural, spontaneous, unforced, unaware, and unadvertised, whether to the man himself or to others........Paul Brunton
Illumination...
Illumination is the attainment of the fourth-dimensional consciousness in which we no longer see materially, hear materially, or believed materially, but in which we see through the appearance, just as we would see through the appearance of a mirage on a desert.
The human being, living in the third dimension, sees an ailing body or a disturbed mind, and longs to do something about it, whereas the fourth-dimensional consciousness sees through it. This does not mean that this higher consciousness has no awareness of the existence of such things, but to the fourth-dimensional consciousness they do not have existence as reality. That is the difference. Even Jesus saw the crippled man, but while his physical eye took cognizance of this condition, his inner eye saw through the appearance to the man's Christhood.
The fourth-dimensional consciousness sees the discords as well as the beauties of this world, but when it sees these, it does not become hypnotized, enthralled, or excited by them. This enlightened consciousness sees both abundance and lack as but temporary phases of human existence~ here today, and perhaps gone tomorrow~ full well realizing that it makes little difference what the appearance is because the reality is still there. And what is reality? The reality is consciousness. If through our consciousness we manifest a certain amount of supply or abundance, and if for some reason it is wiped away, what difference does that make, if we still have the consciousness that brought it forth?
Illumination frees us from the fear, hate, or love of any form in the external world.
"I" live by the Spirit of God, not by external things, thoughts, or persons, but by the Spirit of God.
~ A Parenthesis In Eternity.......Joel S. Goldsmith
The human being, living in the third dimension, sees an ailing body or a disturbed mind, and longs to do something about it, whereas the fourth-dimensional consciousness sees through it. This does not mean that this higher consciousness has no awareness of the existence of such things, but to the fourth-dimensional consciousness they do not have existence as reality. That is the difference. Even Jesus saw the crippled man, but while his physical eye took cognizance of this condition, his inner eye saw through the appearance to the man's Christhood.
The fourth-dimensional consciousness sees the discords as well as the beauties of this world, but when it sees these, it does not become hypnotized, enthralled, or excited by them. This enlightened consciousness sees both abundance and lack as but temporary phases of human existence~ here today, and perhaps gone tomorrow~ full well realizing that it makes little difference what the appearance is because the reality is still there. And what is reality? The reality is consciousness. If through our consciousness we manifest a certain amount of supply or abundance, and if for some reason it is wiped away, what difference does that make, if we still have the consciousness that brought it forth?
Illumination frees us from the fear, hate, or love of any form in the external world.
"I" live by the Spirit of God, not by external things, thoughts, or persons, but by the Spirit of God.
~ A Parenthesis In Eternity.......Joel S. Goldsmith
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