To Love...
To Love is to surrender your ego.. you surrender your ego to your parents, your spouse, your children, your friends.. you enter the state of Humility which is another word for loss of ego.. you give up your own wants and needs so that the needs and wants of others can be met..you become quiet when others would have defended themselves.. This is the only manner in which unselfish Love is experienced.. This is the lesson taught to you by Divine Consciousness to show you that if you wish to merge with God, you must enter the state of non-ego to enter the Reality of Unselfish Love that is called God...........namaste, thomas
Unity...
A good soldier is not violent.
A good fighter is not angry.
A good winner is not vengeful.
A good employer is humble.
This is known as the Virtue of not striving.
This is known as ability to deal with people.
This since ancient times has been known
as the ultimate unity with heaven.
- Lao-tzu
A good fighter is not angry.
A good winner is not vengeful.
A good employer is humble.
This is known as the Virtue of not striving.
This is known as ability to deal with people.
This since ancient times has been known
as the ultimate unity with heaven.
- Lao-tzu
Demand Nothing...
When you demand nothing of the world, nor of God, when you want nothing,
seek nothing, expect nothing, then the Supreme State will come to you
uninvited and unexpected.........Nisargatta
seek nothing, expect nothing, then the Supreme State will come to you
uninvited and unexpected.........Nisargatta
The Basic Idea...
Quote from Saint Paul: "In Him we live and move and have our being." In Mind we have God, man, and the universe. All are of Mind, pure Being, pure Consciousness, so in Mind we humans live, move, and have our being. Is not this a mentalistic statement equivalent to the religious statement of Saint Paul? The fact that the saint arrives at it through his own personal experience and that the mentalist arrives at it either through his own deep reflection or personal revelatory experience does not alter the identity of the basic idea.
— Notebooks Category 17: The Religious Urge > Chapter 5: Comments On Specific Religions > # 97........Paul Brunton
— Notebooks Category 17: The Religious Urge > Chapter 5: Comments On Specific Religions > # 97........Paul Brunton
The Fundamental Source...
To know this Reality directly
is possible only through practicing non-duality.
When you live this non-separation,
all things manifest the One, and nothing is excluded.
Whoever comes to enlightenment, no matter when or where,
Realizes personally this fundamental Source.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hsin Hsin Ming
Translated by Richard B. Clarke
is possible only through practicing non-duality.
When you live this non-separation,
all things manifest the One, and nothing is excluded.
Whoever comes to enlightenment, no matter when or where,
Realizes personally this fundamental Source.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hsin Hsin Ming
Translated by Richard B. Clarke
Leaving the Matrix...
Leaving the Matrix, Religion vs. Mysticism
by James Bean
Copyright July 2005
"In the Loka (realm) of Kabir he saw the forms of many Kabirs, but looking again he saw that it was but one form multiplied." (Amar Mul of Sant Dharam Dass and Guru Kabir)
That sentence reminds me somewhat of Neo in the Matrix. There was a scene where there were many Neo's. The difference is, the Matrix was a world of illusion created by the Architect, a character most definitely patterned after the Demiurge of Gnostic philosophy, a false and jealous god who seeks to collect souls for himself and attempts to prevent them from returning to the True Heaven above, their true Home, through a variety of tricks. The eastern term for this Demiurge is the Kal Niranjan (lord of time, lord of death, lord of illusion). The Kal also is a metaphor for the universal mind or, one might say, collective ego of the cosmos.
A variety of negative thought-beliefs are used to prevent souls from success in meditation. The fall of Kal as is described in the Anurag Sagar of Kabir is one of the most innovative explanations of the origin of evil I've even found in the world religions. One can easily see the drama of Kal being played out every day in the world of self-limiting, false beliefs about why it is impossible to meditate today, why "it is impossible for me to be enlightened", why "it is impossible for me to taste heaven now". "Woe, woe, woe is me". The mind has the potential to be infected with many possible Kal.exe viruses, so to speak: 1) A crazy guru or crazy cult gives all paths a bad name and this reinforces the ego's desire to remain asleep. 2) One believes one does not have enough "time" to meditate and of course never chooses to make time. 3) One might believe "after the kids are all grown up and they are retired", then they will meditate. Famous last words, and, no forwarding address. 4) During a sermon a TV evangelist says "meditation is evil" - "satan will get you" - "don't read Psalm 46:10" - "Do not be still and know that God is God" - "don't study the mystics, they are heretics". Don't leave the matrix? "You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave." (The Eagles, "Hotel California") They teach that meditation provides an opening for the devil to enter. Actually, I think it's the opposite. It provides an opportunity for the devil to leave.
Everyone wants to go to heaven, but not quite yet, it seems. In other words, even amongst the religious, the ego and perception of the material world of the five senses is so overwhelming, that generally most can not conceive of what it is like to take a break and stop being engrossed in one's own thoughts, for awhile, and to close one's eyes and stop looking in the outward direction, for a change. Shabbat - Sabbath rest from creation in order to know the Creator.
Many seek to bring god here, to materialize god politically in the world outside, instead of choosing to spiritually ascend to where God is. The ego seeks to create god after it's own image and likeness instead of letting go and re-identifying with one's true identity: soul. So much of religion is focused on intellectual understandings and material structures: 'correct' doctrine - beliefs in the mind of one sort or another and limited to that - no spiritual experience of that which is talked about, visiting god in physical temples or other external buildings of worship, and the replaying of rituals using physical objects that can, at best, only symbolize spiritual truths.
The Missing Spiritual Dimension
The devotee however, has an internal focus. No need to wait for a second coming. God never left; he is already here, within, in our midst, right now, in this present moment. The human body is the true "temple of the Spirit". Thus, one closes their eyes and looks within, entering the 'door' to the temple via the Third Eye Center, also referred to as the Single Eye and, the Seat of the Soul. In other words, we have the ability to see and hear spiritually. Instead of allowing this ability to remain dormant and unused, the devotee develops his or her ability to see and hear spiritually during meditation practice. The Holy Grail is within us. Instead of being content with "types and shadows", rituals that only demonstrate eternal truths, the mystic "partakes of the divine nature" each and every day during their meditation. They "eat and drink" God on a spiritual level by contemplating his Divine Light - "darkness is no longer dark to me", and becoming absorbed in the Sound of heaven, the Music of the Spheres or Song of the Creator playing softly beyond the silence. Living Gnosis Now.
The greatness of a Master lies in the fact that when one meets Him, He initiates him into the Mysteries of the Beyond and gives Him first-hand experience of being born anew, and then by regular practice the initiate may transcend into the Beyond at will and enjoy the ineffable sweet symphonies of the Word which no ears have heard and no eyes have seen on earth." (Kirpal Singh, Spiritual Elixir) In the Gospel of Thomas found in Egypt, the Master said to his living students at the time, "I will give you what no eye has seen, what no hear has heard, what no hand has touched, and what has never occurred to the human mind. (Coptic Gospel of Thomas, Saying 17)
by James Bean
Copyright July 2005
"In the Loka (realm) of Kabir he saw the forms of many Kabirs, but looking again he saw that it was but one form multiplied." (Amar Mul of Sant Dharam Dass and Guru Kabir)
That sentence reminds me somewhat of Neo in the Matrix. There was a scene where there were many Neo's. The difference is, the Matrix was a world of illusion created by the Architect, a character most definitely patterned after the Demiurge of Gnostic philosophy, a false and jealous god who seeks to collect souls for himself and attempts to prevent them from returning to the True Heaven above, their true Home, through a variety of tricks. The eastern term for this Demiurge is the Kal Niranjan (lord of time, lord of death, lord of illusion). The Kal also is a metaphor for the universal mind or, one might say, collective ego of the cosmos.
A variety of negative thought-beliefs are used to prevent souls from success in meditation. The fall of Kal as is described in the Anurag Sagar of Kabir is one of the most innovative explanations of the origin of evil I've even found in the world religions. One can easily see the drama of Kal being played out every day in the world of self-limiting, false beliefs about why it is impossible to meditate today, why "it is impossible for me to be enlightened", why "it is impossible for me to taste heaven now". "Woe, woe, woe is me". The mind has the potential to be infected with many possible Kal.exe viruses, so to speak: 1) A crazy guru or crazy cult gives all paths a bad name and this reinforces the ego's desire to remain asleep. 2) One believes one does not have enough "time" to meditate and of course never chooses to make time. 3) One might believe "after the kids are all grown up and they are retired", then they will meditate. Famous last words, and, no forwarding address. 4) During a sermon a TV evangelist says "meditation is evil" - "satan will get you" - "don't read Psalm 46:10" - "Do not be still and know that God is God" - "don't study the mystics, they are heretics". Don't leave the matrix? "You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave." (The Eagles, "Hotel California") They teach that meditation provides an opening for the devil to enter. Actually, I think it's the opposite. It provides an opportunity for the devil to leave.
Everyone wants to go to heaven, but not quite yet, it seems. In other words, even amongst the religious, the ego and perception of the material world of the five senses is so overwhelming, that generally most can not conceive of what it is like to take a break and stop being engrossed in one's own thoughts, for awhile, and to close one's eyes and stop looking in the outward direction, for a change. Shabbat - Sabbath rest from creation in order to know the Creator.
Many seek to bring god here, to materialize god politically in the world outside, instead of choosing to spiritually ascend to where God is. The ego seeks to create god after it's own image and likeness instead of letting go and re-identifying with one's true identity: soul. So much of religion is focused on intellectual understandings and material structures: 'correct' doctrine - beliefs in the mind of one sort or another and limited to that - no spiritual experience of that which is talked about, visiting god in physical temples or other external buildings of worship, and the replaying of rituals using physical objects that can, at best, only symbolize spiritual truths.
The Missing Spiritual Dimension
The devotee however, has an internal focus. No need to wait for a second coming. God never left; he is already here, within, in our midst, right now, in this present moment. The human body is the true "temple of the Spirit". Thus, one closes their eyes and looks within, entering the 'door' to the temple via the Third Eye Center, also referred to as the Single Eye and, the Seat of the Soul. In other words, we have the ability to see and hear spiritually. Instead of allowing this ability to remain dormant and unused, the devotee develops his or her ability to see and hear spiritually during meditation practice. The Holy Grail is within us. Instead of being content with "types and shadows", rituals that only demonstrate eternal truths, the mystic "partakes of the divine nature" each and every day during their meditation. They "eat and drink" God on a spiritual level by contemplating his Divine Light - "darkness is no longer dark to me", and becoming absorbed in the Sound of heaven, the Music of the Spheres or Song of the Creator playing softly beyond the silence. Living Gnosis Now.
The greatness of a Master lies in the fact that when one meets Him, He initiates him into the Mysteries of the Beyond and gives Him first-hand experience of being born anew, and then by regular practice the initiate may transcend into the Beyond at will and enjoy the ineffable sweet symphonies of the Word which no ears have heard and no eyes have seen on earth." (Kirpal Singh, Spiritual Elixir) In the Gospel of Thomas found in Egypt, the Master said to his living students at the time, "I will give you what no eye has seen, what no hear has heard, what no hand has touched, and what has never occurred to the human mind. (Coptic Gospel of Thomas, Saying 17)
The Human Mind...
The human mind, finite and limited though it be, can become an inlet to the universal Mind. Such a happening is attended by blissful yet tranquil feelings. This little being that is me merges into larger consciousness that is pure infinite Being--until the body calls me back.
— Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 1: Their Meeting and Interchange > # 36.......Paul Brunton
— Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 1: Their Meeting and Interchange > # 36.......Paul Brunton
How Suffering Ended...
There was once a man who insisted he knew what he was talking
about. Consequently, he talked only with those who talked as
he talked and avoided those who talked differently. Those who
agreed with him were called friends, while those who disagreed
were called enemies.
But the man lived in terrible tension. He could never find
enough friends and was always harassed by enemies. Still,
he received an odd enjoyment from his nervous agitation.
One day his supposed friends deserted him. Although suffering
terribly, he noticed something peculiar. By losing his friends
he also lost his enemies. From that day on he sensed how his
suffering could end. And when he finally understood, his suf-
fering did end.
Both friends and enemies exist as ideas in a divided mind, so
by rising above these ideas a man becomes unified, and therefore
truly friendly."
Inspire Yourself, p. 113...Vernon Howard
about. Consequently, he talked only with those who talked as
he talked and avoided those who talked differently. Those who
agreed with him were called friends, while those who disagreed
were called enemies.
But the man lived in terrible tension. He could never find
enough friends and was always harassed by enemies. Still,
he received an odd enjoyment from his nervous agitation.
One day his supposed friends deserted him. Although suffering
terribly, he noticed something peculiar. By losing his friends
he also lost his enemies. From that day on he sensed how his
suffering could end. And when he finally understood, his suf-
fering did end.
Both friends and enemies exist as ideas in a divided mind, so
by rising above these ideas a man becomes unified, and therefore
truly friendly."
Inspire Yourself, p. 113...Vernon Howard
An interview with Adyashanti...
Saunders: Do you use the terms “awakening” and “enlightenment” interchangeably, or are you talking about two different experiences?
Adyashanti: Awakening is when you realize that what you thought you were was nothing more than a dream, and you perceive the reality outside the dream, what’s dreaming the dream of you. It’s not just a mystical experience. It is actually realizing the underlying unity of all things.
Simply because you’ve had an awakening, however, does not mean you stay awake. Enlightenment, in simple terms, is when you stay awake. If the awakening is abiding, that’s enlightenment. And most awakenings are not abiding — at least, not initially.
Saunders: Awakening and enlightenment sound like head-bound or heart-bound concepts.
Adyashanti: Enlightenment has nothing to do with the head or the heart. Certainly, the head and the heart tend to open up, but that’s a byproduct. Enlightenment is actually waking up from the head and from the heart. It’s waking up from the dream of “me” and seeing the oneness of all things. That’s what I mean by “reality”: that oneness. The truth is that you are that unity. You are not simply a particular person in a particular body with a particular personality; you are that one reality, which manifests itself as all these seemingly separate things.
Saunders: Are the body and physical sensations illusory?
Adyashanti: Yes and no. Ultimately, everything’s a dream, and yet you still have to deal with the body. It’s still there. You can call it “a dream,” but it’s still going to hurt if you bump your head.
Safransky: Most traditions suggest that years of spiritual practice are necessary before one becomes enlightened, but you say that it’s a mistake to look to the future, to see spiritual awakening as some kind of goal.
Adyashanti: One of the best ways to avoid awakening is to let the idea of awakening be co-opted by the mind and then projected onto a future event: something that’s going to happen outside of this moment. Of course, something may happen in the next moment — something’s always happening in the next moment — but the truth lies right here and right now; it is right here and right now. This looking to the future isn’t really the fault of the spiritual practices themselves; it’s the attitude with which the mind engages in the practices — an attitude that is seeking a future end and seeing that end as somehow inherently different from what already exists here and now.
The role of the spiritual practice is basically to exhaust the seeker. If the practice does what it’s supposed to do, it exhausts our energy for seeking, and then reality has a chance to present itself. In that sense, spiritual practices can help lead to awakening. But that’s different from saying that the practice produces the awakening.
The spiritual practitioner is like someone who’s running and is really tired and wants to rest. You could say, “Well, just stop, then.” But they have this idea that they have to cross a finish line before they can stop. If you can convince them that they can just stop, they’ll be amazed. They’ll say, “I didn’t know I could stop and rest.” Or maybe they won’t hear what you’re telling them, and they’ll have to go all the way to their finish line. And after they cross it, then they’ll stop and say, “Wow! It feels really good to rest.” So awakening can come after you cross the finish line in the future, but it’s also possible to find it at any point along the way if you stop for just a moment.
As I see it, reality is always looking for that moment of vulnerability, when we let our guard down. It’s not looking for good people or bad people. Clearly some real scoundrels have had amazing experiences of reality, right? Some are transformed by them, and some aren’t. Reality is not operating on any moral principle. It’s looking for a moment when the seeker is exhausted. It can be prompted by some tragic event: an illness, or the death of a loved one, or a divorce. Reality rushes into the crack and presents itself.
Safransky: Many people say they feel most alive right after having experienced some great loss. Their world stops.
Adyashanti: Exactly. Everything is stopped. Now, whether they stay stopped is another matter. Just because somebody has a difficult experience and feels much more alive as a result, it doesn’t mean they won’t go back to their neurotic ways later. After that initial awakening, there is almost always the work of cleaning up, of the “me” surrendering itself. I usually say that’s the beginning of the second phase of spirituality: what I think of as “life after awakening.” There’s this myth of “That’s it. I have that experience; I hoist my enlightenment flag, and it’s over.” Sooner or later most everybody realizes it’s not that simple. There’s a whole other phase of the spiritual life that happens after awakening, and in some ways it’s more subtle and complex and difficult to navigate. There’s not much written about it, and most of what is written is so old and trapped in tradition that modern people can’t make sense of it.........from thesunmagazine.com
Adyashanti: Awakening is when you realize that what you thought you were was nothing more than a dream, and you perceive the reality outside the dream, what’s dreaming the dream of you. It’s not just a mystical experience. It is actually realizing the underlying unity of all things.
Simply because you’ve had an awakening, however, does not mean you stay awake. Enlightenment, in simple terms, is when you stay awake. If the awakening is abiding, that’s enlightenment. And most awakenings are not abiding — at least, not initially.
Saunders: Awakening and enlightenment sound like head-bound or heart-bound concepts.
Adyashanti: Enlightenment has nothing to do with the head or the heart. Certainly, the head and the heart tend to open up, but that’s a byproduct. Enlightenment is actually waking up from the head and from the heart. It’s waking up from the dream of “me” and seeing the oneness of all things. That’s what I mean by “reality”: that oneness. The truth is that you are that unity. You are not simply a particular person in a particular body with a particular personality; you are that one reality, which manifests itself as all these seemingly separate things.
Saunders: Are the body and physical sensations illusory?
Adyashanti: Yes and no. Ultimately, everything’s a dream, and yet you still have to deal with the body. It’s still there. You can call it “a dream,” but it’s still going to hurt if you bump your head.
Safransky: Most traditions suggest that years of spiritual practice are necessary before one becomes enlightened, but you say that it’s a mistake to look to the future, to see spiritual awakening as some kind of goal.
Adyashanti: One of the best ways to avoid awakening is to let the idea of awakening be co-opted by the mind and then projected onto a future event: something that’s going to happen outside of this moment. Of course, something may happen in the next moment — something’s always happening in the next moment — but the truth lies right here and right now; it is right here and right now. This looking to the future isn’t really the fault of the spiritual practices themselves; it’s the attitude with which the mind engages in the practices — an attitude that is seeking a future end and seeing that end as somehow inherently different from what already exists here and now.
The role of the spiritual practice is basically to exhaust the seeker. If the practice does what it’s supposed to do, it exhausts our energy for seeking, and then reality has a chance to present itself. In that sense, spiritual practices can help lead to awakening. But that’s different from saying that the practice produces the awakening.
The spiritual practitioner is like someone who’s running and is really tired and wants to rest. You could say, “Well, just stop, then.” But they have this idea that they have to cross a finish line before they can stop. If you can convince them that they can just stop, they’ll be amazed. They’ll say, “I didn’t know I could stop and rest.” Or maybe they won’t hear what you’re telling them, and they’ll have to go all the way to their finish line. And after they cross it, then they’ll stop and say, “Wow! It feels really good to rest.” So awakening can come after you cross the finish line in the future, but it’s also possible to find it at any point along the way if you stop for just a moment.
As I see it, reality is always looking for that moment of vulnerability, when we let our guard down. It’s not looking for good people or bad people. Clearly some real scoundrels have had amazing experiences of reality, right? Some are transformed by them, and some aren’t. Reality is not operating on any moral principle. It’s looking for a moment when the seeker is exhausted. It can be prompted by some tragic event: an illness, or the death of a loved one, or a divorce. Reality rushes into the crack and presents itself.
Safransky: Many people say they feel most alive right after having experienced some great loss. Their world stops.
Adyashanti: Exactly. Everything is stopped. Now, whether they stay stopped is another matter. Just because somebody has a difficult experience and feels much more alive as a result, it doesn’t mean they won’t go back to their neurotic ways later. After that initial awakening, there is almost always the work of cleaning up, of the “me” surrendering itself. I usually say that’s the beginning of the second phase of spirituality: what I think of as “life after awakening.” There’s this myth of “That’s it. I have that experience; I hoist my enlightenment flag, and it’s over.” Sooner or later most everybody realizes it’s not that simple. There’s a whole other phase of the spiritual life that happens after awakening, and in some ways it’s more subtle and complex and difficult to navigate. There’s not much written about it, and most of what is written is so old and trapped in tradition that modern people can’t make sense of it.........from thesunmagazine.com
To Know...
"To know that you are God is another way of saying that you feel completely with this universe. You feel profoundly rooted in it and connected with it. You feel, in other words, that the whole energy, which expresses itself in the galaxies, is intimate. It is not something to which you are a stranger, but it is that with which you, whatever it is, are intimately bound up. That in your seeing, your hearing, your talking, your thinking, your moving, you express that which it is that moves the sun and other stars."
-Alan Watt
-Alan Watt
The Fingers of God...
We are The Fingers of God.. We touch, feel, learn, and Realize.. We are the Consciousness of God that moves these Fingers.. We are not separate from the Body of God.. We are the extension of Unity.. This always Seeking.. This always Learning.. This always Becoming.. This is US.. This is Reality.. We feel separate because fingers are separate but united within the Hand.. Our goal is to Realize that We are the Hand of God.............namaste, thomas
Everlasting Inheritance...
An Unfinished Poem by Adyashanti
Listen now, or lose your life, for what I have to say is what you have imagined in quiet moments but have failed to realize in full. Perhaps you were too timid or astonished at the critical moments, or couldn’t find the courage to step through the veil of your frail life when the door was opened for you.
Or perhaps you wanted to keep your life as your own, and chose to hold onto a few pennies when you could have had gold. No matter, for yesterday has passed into the dust of remembered dreams, and tomorrow’s story is yet to be written.
Which is precisely why you and I are now here together. You and I. You and I. Oh, the sheer mystery of it—how could anything be more grand? Stand with me here at the precipice and take my hand in yours, for I am good company to those ready to depart familiar ground. If not, then let loose of my hand now and take that of a more familiar companion. For where we stand is known, but our next step will not be—nor the one after or the one after that.
So shoulder all of your longing and intent and leave all else behind. I give you fair warning: The world you are about to leave will not be there when you return. For nothing truly left behind is ever the same upon our return. Let us not waste any more time on discussions or debates; you have surely been caught in those tide pools too long already. Too much talk is wearying to the soul and evades the spirit of things. Longing is the true measure of a man or woman and alone has the power to draw us out of ourselves and into the vast air of eternity. But we shall not rely only on the winds of longing, for they can be fickle and unpredictable. We shall also need the fire of intent—that fine-tipped arrow of courage flying true and straight to its goal, piercing through the fabric of our dreams as it goes.
This is as fair a day as any to begin the journey back to your origin. So lift your foot together with mine and we will step off the well-trodden paths and into the uncharted woods where the essence of things lies waiting for you to open your eyes.
It is time to begin watching your steps, dear companion. For you have already wasted the goodness of too many days stumbling along with the unconscious drove. Today I bid you to place no foot upon the earth without feeling the sinews, skin, and bone of your feet with each step. How awake you are to the least of things will determine how awake you become to the greatest in due time. For in the play of time, the great and manifold diversity of things in the end proves their unity. And it is toward the end that we are headed, for it is only by means of the end that we arrive here, on this spot, free and immortal.
I can see in your eyes a fear and confusion. All this talk of endings brings a tremble to your bones. But fear not, for I do not speak of death or chaos except to point out that you have already fallen prey to both. No, I talk of awakening from the death of sleepwalking in dreams and veiled imagination. Beyond the veil all is well, and more well than I can attest. Within the immortality of what you are, there is a contentment and peace born only of your true identity.
Have you not been told how grand you are, how uncontained, how limitless? I for one maintain that you are as unseen and eternal as the space that spans beyond the myriad universes. I praise the immortal self—not one self among many, but the self within all selves. For everywhere I go, and in each and everyone I meet, I greet my secret and unseen self. For I know each man and each woman as I know myself, none greater or lesser in essence or worth.
I have no desire or pull toward the gods, nor sacred relics, nor holy books. For I have waded through the various dogmas and found them lacking the essential vision, the unitary glance that reveals God’s hand within every gesture. Why should we go looking for more than we are, when we are what we are looking for? Beware of a misguided longing, for it leads in the end to brutality. How much blood has already been spilled in God’s name and how much more to come?
I bid you, dear companion: Throw off the yoke of belief, for to arrive at the nobility of truth you must be cleansed of all borrowed knowledge till you are as innocent as the day before you were born. You must forge from within your longing a fiery sword of discrimination, unsheathed from the past—starting now on this hill we stand upon, determined to never again take anything secondhand, but instead prove true or false each statement yourself.
For truth belongs to neither man or woman, nor holy book, nor well-reasoned philosophy or belief, but only to itself—immortal and pure. I seek only to remove untruth from your mind so that you may be restored to the unitary vision which is your everlasting inheritance.
© 2006 by Adyashanti.
Listen now, or lose your life, for what I have to say is what you have imagined in quiet moments but have failed to realize in full. Perhaps you were too timid or astonished at the critical moments, or couldn’t find the courage to step through the veil of your frail life when the door was opened for you.
Or perhaps you wanted to keep your life as your own, and chose to hold onto a few pennies when you could have had gold. No matter, for yesterday has passed into the dust of remembered dreams, and tomorrow’s story is yet to be written.
Which is precisely why you and I are now here together. You and I. You and I. Oh, the sheer mystery of it—how could anything be more grand? Stand with me here at the precipice and take my hand in yours, for I am good company to those ready to depart familiar ground. If not, then let loose of my hand now and take that of a more familiar companion. For where we stand is known, but our next step will not be—nor the one after or the one after that.
So shoulder all of your longing and intent and leave all else behind. I give you fair warning: The world you are about to leave will not be there when you return. For nothing truly left behind is ever the same upon our return. Let us not waste any more time on discussions or debates; you have surely been caught in those tide pools too long already. Too much talk is wearying to the soul and evades the spirit of things. Longing is the true measure of a man or woman and alone has the power to draw us out of ourselves and into the vast air of eternity. But we shall not rely only on the winds of longing, for they can be fickle and unpredictable. We shall also need the fire of intent—that fine-tipped arrow of courage flying true and straight to its goal, piercing through the fabric of our dreams as it goes.
This is as fair a day as any to begin the journey back to your origin. So lift your foot together with mine and we will step off the well-trodden paths and into the uncharted woods where the essence of things lies waiting for you to open your eyes.
It is time to begin watching your steps, dear companion. For you have already wasted the goodness of too many days stumbling along with the unconscious drove. Today I bid you to place no foot upon the earth without feeling the sinews, skin, and bone of your feet with each step. How awake you are to the least of things will determine how awake you become to the greatest in due time. For in the play of time, the great and manifold diversity of things in the end proves their unity. And it is toward the end that we are headed, for it is only by means of the end that we arrive here, on this spot, free and immortal.
I can see in your eyes a fear and confusion. All this talk of endings brings a tremble to your bones. But fear not, for I do not speak of death or chaos except to point out that you have already fallen prey to both. No, I talk of awakening from the death of sleepwalking in dreams and veiled imagination. Beyond the veil all is well, and more well than I can attest. Within the immortality of what you are, there is a contentment and peace born only of your true identity.
Have you not been told how grand you are, how uncontained, how limitless? I for one maintain that you are as unseen and eternal as the space that spans beyond the myriad universes. I praise the immortal self—not one self among many, but the self within all selves. For everywhere I go, and in each and everyone I meet, I greet my secret and unseen self. For I know each man and each woman as I know myself, none greater or lesser in essence or worth.
I have no desire or pull toward the gods, nor sacred relics, nor holy books. For I have waded through the various dogmas and found them lacking the essential vision, the unitary glance that reveals God’s hand within every gesture. Why should we go looking for more than we are, when we are what we are looking for? Beware of a misguided longing, for it leads in the end to brutality. How much blood has already been spilled in God’s name and how much more to come?
I bid you, dear companion: Throw off the yoke of belief, for to arrive at the nobility of truth you must be cleansed of all borrowed knowledge till you are as innocent as the day before you were born. You must forge from within your longing a fiery sword of discrimination, unsheathed from the past—starting now on this hill we stand upon, determined to never again take anything secondhand, but instead prove true or false each statement yourself.
For truth belongs to neither man or woman, nor holy book, nor well-reasoned philosophy or belief, but only to itself—immortal and pure. I seek only to remove untruth from your mind so that you may be restored to the unitary vision which is your everlasting inheritance.
© 2006 by Adyashanti.
The False Ego...
The first step toward ceasing such wrong self-identification is to recognize the body to be but a state of consciousness, and the ego to be but an idea.
— Notebooks Category 21: Mentalism > Chapter 2: The World As Mental > # 87....Paul Brunton
— Notebooks Category 21: Mentalism > Chapter 2: The World As Mental > # 87....Paul Brunton
St. John of the Cross/On A Darkened Night...
"On a darkened night,
Anxious, by love inflamed,
-- O happy chance! --
Unnoticed, I took flight,
My house at last at peace and quiet.
Safe, disguised by the night,
By the secret ladder I took flight,
-- O happy chance! --
Cloaked by darkness, I scaled the height,
My house at last at peace and quiet.
On that blessed night,
In secret, and seen by none,
None in sight,
I saw with no other guide or light,
But the one burning in my heart bright.
This guide, this light,
Brighter than the midday sun,
Led me to the waiting One
I knew so well -- my delight!
To a place with none in sight.
O night! O guide!
O night more loving than the dawn!
O night that joined
The lover with the Beloved;
Transformed, the lover into the Beloved drawn!
Upon my flowered breast,
For him alone kept fair,
There he slept
There I caressed,
There the cedars gave us air.
I drank the turret's cool air
Spreading playfully his hair.
And his hand, so serene,
Cut my throat. Drained
Of senses, I dropped unaware.
Lost to myself and yet remaining,
Inclined so only the Beloved I spy.
All has ceased, all rests,
Even my cares, even I;
Lost among the lilies, there I die."
St. John of the Cross
Translated from Spanish by Ivan M. Granger
http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/J/JohnoftheCro/DarkNight.htm
Anxious, by love inflamed,
-- O happy chance! --
Unnoticed, I took flight,
My house at last at peace and quiet.
Safe, disguised by the night,
By the secret ladder I took flight,
-- O happy chance! --
Cloaked by darkness, I scaled the height,
My house at last at peace and quiet.
On that blessed night,
In secret, and seen by none,
None in sight,
I saw with no other guide or light,
But the one burning in my heart bright.
This guide, this light,
Brighter than the midday sun,
Led me to the waiting One
I knew so well -- my delight!
To a place with none in sight.
O night! O guide!
O night more loving than the dawn!
O night that joined
The lover with the Beloved;
Transformed, the lover into the Beloved drawn!
Upon my flowered breast,
For him alone kept fair,
There he slept
There I caressed,
There the cedars gave us air.
I drank the turret's cool air
Spreading playfully his hair.
And his hand, so serene,
Cut my throat. Drained
Of senses, I dropped unaware.
Lost to myself and yet remaining,
Inclined so only the Beloved I spy.
All has ceased, all rests,
Even my cares, even I;
Lost among the lilies, there I die."
St. John of the Cross
Translated from Spanish by Ivan M. Granger
http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/J/JohnoftheCro/DarkNight.htm
The Power of Now...
Be present as the watcher of your mind -- of your thoughts and emotions as well as your reactions in various situations. Be at least as interested in your reactions as in the situation or person that causes you to react. Notice also how often your attention is in the past or future. Don't judge or analyze what you observe. Watch the thought, feel the emotion, observe the reaction. Don't make a personal problem out of them. You will then feel something more powerful than any of those things that you observe: the still, observing presence itself behind the content of your mind, the silent watcher.........Eckhart Tolle
Bliss is Within Us...
Bliss is within us.
There's no journey about it.
You have to realize it.
How?
Reject the things
which are barriers
and impositions upon Bliss:
the worries of the past
and the plannings
of the future.
If you want true Bliss
forgive and forget
everything, without exception,
any sin, even to the extent of
'Forgive them, Father
for they do not know
what they are doing.'
If you can do that
then only can you hope for Bliss;
not otherwise.
- Swami Amar Jyoti
There's no journey about it.
You have to realize it.
How?
Reject the things
which are barriers
and impositions upon Bliss:
the worries of the past
and the plannings
of the future.
If you want true Bliss
forgive and forget
everything, without exception,
any sin, even to the extent of
'Forgive them, Father
for they do not know
what they are doing.'
If you can do that
then only can you hope for Bliss;
not otherwise.
- Swami Amar Jyoti
The Five Skandhas...
The Buddhist doctrine of egolessness seems to be a bit confusing to westerners. I think this is because there is some confusion as to what is meant by ego. Ego, in the Buddhist sense, is quite different from the Freudian ego. The Buddhist ego is a collection of mental events classified into five categories, called skandhas, loosely translated as bundles, or heaps.
If we were to borrow a western expression, we could say that "in the beginning" things were going along quite well. At some point, however, there was a loss of confidence in the way things were going. There was a kind of primordial panic which produced confusion about what was happening. Rather than acknowledging this loss of confidence, there was an identification with the panic and confusion. Ego began to form. This is known as the first skandha, the skandha of form.
After the identification with confusion, ego begins to explore how it feels about the formation of this experience. If we like the experience, we try to draw it in. If we dislike it, we try to push it away, or destroy it. If we feel neutral about it, we just ignore it. The way we feel about the experience is called the skandha of form; what we try to do about it is known as the skandha of impulse/perception.
The next stage is to try to identify, or label the experience. If we can put it into a category, we can manipulate it better. Then we would have a whole bag of tricks to use on it. This is the skandha of concept. The final step in the birth of ego, is called the skandha of consciousness. Ego begins to churn thoughts and emotions around and around. This makes ego feel solid and real. The churning around and around is called samsara -- literally, to whirl about. The way ego feels about its situation (skandha of feeling) determines which of the six realms of existence it creates for itself.
The Six Realms
If ego decides it likes the situation, it begins to churn up all sorts of ways to possess it. A craving to consume the situation arises and we long to satisfy that craving. Once we do, a ghost of that craving carries over and we look around for something else to consume. We get into the habitual pattern of becoming consumer oriented. Perhaps we order a piece of software for our computer. We play with it for awhile, until the novelty wears out, and then we look around for the next piece of software that has the magic glow of not being possessed yet. Soon we haven't even got the shrink wrap off the current package when we start looking for the next one. Owning the software and using it doesn't seem to be as important as wanting it, looking forward to its arrival. This is known as the hungry ghost realm where we have made an occupation out of craving. We can never find satisfaction, it is like drinking salt water to quench our thirst.
Another realm is the animal realm, or having the mind like that of an animal. Here we find security by making certain that everything is totally predictable. We only buy blue chip stock, never take a chance and never look at new possibilities. The thought of new possibilities frightens us and we look with scorn at anyone who suggests anything innovative. This realm is characterised by ignorance. We put on blinders and only look straight ahead, never to the right or left.
The hell realm is characterised by acute aggression. We build a wall of anger between ourselves and our experience. Everything irritates us, even the most innocuous, and innocent statement drives us mad with anger. The heat of our anger is reflected back on us and sends us into a frenzy to escape from our torture, which in turn causes us to fight even harder and get even angrier. The whole thing builds on itself until we don't even know if we're fighting with someone else or ourselves. We are so busy fighting that we can't find an alternative to fighting; the possibility of alternative never even occurs to us.
These are the three lower realms. One of the three higher realms is called the jealous god realm. This pattern of existence is characterised by acute paranoia. We are always concerned with "making it". Everything is seen from a competitive point of view. We are always trying to score points, and trying to prevent others from scoring on us. If someone achieves something special we become determined to out do them. We never trust anyone; we "know" they're trying to slip one past us. If someone tries to help us, we try to figure out their angle. If someone doesn't try to help us, they are being uncooperative, and we make a note to ourselves that we will get even later. "Don't get mad, get even," that's our motto.
At some point we might hear about spirituality. We might hear about the possibility of meditation techniques, imported from some eastern religion, or mystical western one, that will make our minds peaceful and absorb us into a universal harmony. We begin to meditate and perform certain rituals and we find ourselves absorbed into infinite space and blissful states of existence. Everything sparkles with love and light; we become godlike beings. We become proud of our godlike powers of meditative absorption. We might even dwell in the realm of infinite space where thoughts seldom arise to bother us. We ignore everything that doesn't confirm our godhood. We have manufactured the god realm, the highest of the six realms of existence. The problem is, that we have manufactured it. We begin to relax and no longer feel the need to maintain our exalted state. Eventually a small sliver of doubt occurs. Have we really made it? At first we are able to smooth over the question, but eventually the doubt begins to occur more and more frequently and soon we begin to struggle to regain our supreme confidence. As soon as we begin to struggle, we fall back into the lower realms and begin the whole process over and over; from god realm to jealous god realm to animal realm to hungry ghost realm to hell realm. At some point we begin to wonder if there isn't some sort of alternative to our habitual way of dealing with the world. This is the human realm.
The human realm is the only one in which liberation from the six states of existence is possible. The human realm is characterised by doubt and inquisitiveness and the longing for something better. We are not as absorbed by the all consuming preoccupations of the other states of being. We begin to wonder whether it is possible to relate to the world as simple, dignified human beings......from ncf.ca
If we were to borrow a western expression, we could say that "in the beginning" things were going along quite well. At some point, however, there was a loss of confidence in the way things were going. There was a kind of primordial panic which produced confusion about what was happening. Rather than acknowledging this loss of confidence, there was an identification with the panic and confusion. Ego began to form. This is known as the first skandha, the skandha of form.
After the identification with confusion, ego begins to explore how it feels about the formation of this experience. If we like the experience, we try to draw it in. If we dislike it, we try to push it away, or destroy it. If we feel neutral about it, we just ignore it. The way we feel about the experience is called the skandha of form; what we try to do about it is known as the skandha of impulse/perception.
The next stage is to try to identify, or label the experience. If we can put it into a category, we can manipulate it better. Then we would have a whole bag of tricks to use on it. This is the skandha of concept. The final step in the birth of ego, is called the skandha of consciousness. Ego begins to churn thoughts and emotions around and around. This makes ego feel solid and real. The churning around and around is called samsara -- literally, to whirl about. The way ego feels about its situation (skandha of feeling) determines which of the six realms of existence it creates for itself.
The Six Realms
If ego decides it likes the situation, it begins to churn up all sorts of ways to possess it. A craving to consume the situation arises and we long to satisfy that craving. Once we do, a ghost of that craving carries over and we look around for something else to consume. We get into the habitual pattern of becoming consumer oriented. Perhaps we order a piece of software for our computer. We play with it for awhile, until the novelty wears out, and then we look around for the next piece of software that has the magic glow of not being possessed yet. Soon we haven't even got the shrink wrap off the current package when we start looking for the next one. Owning the software and using it doesn't seem to be as important as wanting it, looking forward to its arrival. This is known as the hungry ghost realm where we have made an occupation out of craving. We can never find satisfaction, it is like drinking salt water to quench our thirst.
Another realm is the animal realm, or having the mind like that of an animal. Here we find security by making certain that everything is totally predictable. We only buy blue chip stock, never take a chance and never look at new possibilities. The thought of new possibilities frightens us and we look with scorn at anyone who suggests anything innovative. This realm is characterised by ignorance. We put on blinders and only look straight ahead, never to the right or left.
The hell realm is characterised by acute aggression. We build a wall of anger between ourselves and our experience. Everything irritates us, even the most innocuous, and innocent statement drives us mad with anger. The heat of our anger is reflected back on us and sends us into a frenzy to escape from our torture, which in turn causes us to fight even harder and get even angrier. The whole thing builds on itself until we don't even know if we're fighting with someone else or ourselves. We are so busy fighting that we can't find an alternative to fighting; the possibility of alternative never even occurs to us.
These are the three lower realms. One of the three higher realms is called the jealous god realm. This pattern of existence is characterised by acute paranoia. We are always concerned with "making it". Everything is seen from a competitive point of view. We are always trying to score points, and trying to prevent others from scoring on us. If someone achieves something special we become determined to out do them. We never trust anyone; we "know" they're trying to slip one past us. If someone tries to help us, we try to figure out their angle. If someone doesn't try to help us, they are being uncooperative, and we make a note to ourselves that we will get even later. "Don't get mad, get even," that's our motto.
At some point we might hear about spirituality. We might hear about the possibility of meditation techniques, imported from some eastern religion, or mystical western one, that will make our minds peaceful and absorb us into a universal harmony. We begin to meditate and perform certain rituals and we find ourselves absorbed into infinite space and blissful states of existence. Everything sparkles with love and light; we become godlike beings. We become proud of our godlike powers of meditative absorption. We might even dwell in the realm of infinite space where thoughts seldom arise to bother us. We ignore everything that doesn't confirm our godhood. We have manufactured the god realm, the highest of the six realms of existence. The problem is, that we have manufactured it. We begin to relax and no longer feel the need to maintain our exalted state. Eventually a small sliver of doubt occurs. Have we really made it? At first we are able to smooth over the question, but eventually the doubt begins to occur more and more frequently and soon we begin to struggle to regain our supreme confidence. As soon as we begin to struggle, we fall back into the lower realms and begin the whole process over and over; from god realm to jealous god realm to animal realm to hungry ghost realm to hell realm. At some point we begin to wonder if there isn't some sort of alternative to our habitual way of dealing with the world. This is the human realm.
The human realm is the only one in which liberation from the six states of existence is possible. The human realm is characterised by doubt and inquisitiveness and the longing for something better. We are not as absorbed by the all consuming preoccupations of the other states of being. We begin to wonder whether it is possible to relate to the world as simple, dignified human beings......from ncf.ca
When I Know...
When I know I am nothing; that is wisdom
When I know I am everything; that is love
My life moves between the two.......
nisargadatta
When I know I am everything; that is love
My life moves between the two.......
nisargadatta
Moods...
"You must believe nothing; you must know everything. So right now,
you can begin to know something that is both startling and very
edifying - esoterically educational. And here it is, given to you
very directly. It doesn't make any difference at all how you feel.
It doesn't make any difference whether you're happy or unhappy,
depressed, or elated, excited or bored. I am telling you something
that you don't know quite how to take yet and understand, but take
it as a fact. Just do that much, and you can do that.
I'm telling you the truth, that you have made a great mistake in
thinking that it's important how you feel and so you try to mani-
pulate your moods in order to feel what you call a good feeling
and avoid what you call the bad feelings, but it just doesn't happen.
They are stronger than you are in your present state of misunder-
standing of life.
Let's go at it again, like a knight with a lance toward the enemy.
You can be just completely unconcerned from now on with your feel-
ings, with your emotions, with those surges of feeling mournful,
of feeling pessimistic, of feeling grouchy. No matter what the
feeling is, you really, that means in reality, have nothing to do
with it. You just think you do and having made that enormous blunder,
thinking that you're supposed to control your emotions, that you're
supposed to kick out the bad ones and invite the new ones. Believing
in that, now you're caught up in an impossible task and wherever you
look, everybody is trying to feel good because they feel bad and
their feeling good is as bad as the feeling good.
There is nothing more important for your spiritual growth than for
you to know that you are not your feeling."
from a talk given 4/18/1987
Vernon Howard's Higher World - MP3 CD Volume 11, talk 258
you can begin to know something that is both startling and very
edifying - esoterically educational. And here it is, given to you
very directly. It doesn't make any difference at all how you feel.
It doesn't make any difference whether you're happy or unhappy,
depressed, or elated, excited or bored. I am telling you something
that you don't know quite how to take yet and understand, but take
it as a fact. Just do that much, and you can do that.
I'm telling you the truth, that you have made a great mistake in
thinking that it's important how you feel and so you try to mani-
pulate your moods in order to feel what you call a good feeling
and avoid what you call the bad feelings, but it just doesn't happen.
They are stronger than you are in your present state of misunder-
standing of life.
Let's go at it again, like a knight with a lance toward the enemy.
You can be just completely unconcerned from now on with your feel-
ings, with your emotions, with those surges of feeling mournful,
of feeling pessimistic, of feeling grouchy. No matter what the
feeling is, you really, that means in reality, have nothing to do
with it. You just think you do and having made that enormous blunder,
thinking that you're supposed to control your emotions, that you're
supposed to kick out the bad ones and invite the new ones. Believing
in that, now you're caught up in an impossible task and wherever you
look, everybody is trying to feel good because they feel bad and
their feeling good is as bad as the feeling good.
There is nothing more important for your spiritual growth than for
you to know that you are not your feeling."
from a talk given 4/18/1987
Vernon Howard's Higher World - MP3 CD Volume 11, talk 258
Real Purpose...
He who with sincerity seeks his real purpose in life is himself sought by that
purpose.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
One may ask, 'What is the best way for a person to understand his life's
purpose?' If one follows the bent of one's own mind, if one follows the track to
which one is attracted, if one follows one's own inclination, which is not
satisfied with anything else, one feels, 'There is something waiting for me
(which one does not know at the time), which will bring me satisfaction.'
Besides, if one is intuitive and mystical, it is easier still, because then one
is continually told what is the purpose of one's life. For nature has such a
perfection of wisdom. One sees that the insects are given the sense to make
their little houses and to protect themselves and make a store of their food.
The bees, who have the gift of making honey, are taught how to make honey. So
nature has taught every soul to seek its purpose. It has made every soul for
that purpose, and it is continually calling that soul to see that purpose. If
the soul does not hear the call and sleeps, it is not the fault of nature, which
is continually calling. Therefore, if I were to say in a few words, how to find
one's purpose, I would say: by waking from sleep.
Every being has a definite vocation, and his vocation is the light which
illuminates his life. The man who disregards his vocation is a lamp unlit. He
who sincerely seeks his real purpose in life is himself sought by that purpose.
As he concentrates on that search a light begins to clear his confusion, call it
revelation, call it inspiration, call it what you will. It is mistrust that
misleads. Sincerity leads straight to the goal.
That way is best which suits you best. The way of one person is not for another
person, although man is always inclined to accuse another person of doing wrong,
believing that he himself is doing right. ... That purpose is accomplished when
a person has risen above all these things. It is that person then, who will
tolerate all, who will understand all, who will assimilate all things, who will
not feel disturbed by things which are not in accordance with his own nature or
the way which is not his way. He will not look at them with contempt, but he
will see that in the depth of every being there is a divine spark which is
trying to raise its flame toward the purpose.
When a person has arrived at this stage, he has risen above the limitations of
the world. Then he has become entitled to experience the joy of coming near to
the real purpose of life. It is then that in everything that he says or does, he
will be accomplishing that purpose. ... We come to understand by this that the
further we go the more tolerant we become. Outward things matter little. It is
the inward realization which counts. However sacred duty may be, however high
may be the hope of paradise, however great the happiness one may experience in
the pleasures of the earth, however much satisfaction one may find in earthly
treasures, the purpose of life is in rising above all these things. It is then
that the soul will have no discord, no disagreement with others. It is then that
the natural attitude of the soul will become tolerant and forgiving. The purpose
of life is fulfilled in rising to the greatest heights and in diving to the
deepest depths of life: in widening one's horizon, in penetrating life in all
its spheres, in losing oneself, and in finding oneself in the end. In the
accomplishment of the purpose of life the purpose of creation is fulfilled.
Therefore, in this fulfillment it is not that man attained, but that God Himself
has fulfilled His purpose.
purpose.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
One may ask, 'What is the best way for a person to understand his life's
purpose?' If one follows the bent of one's own mind, if one follows the track to
which one is attracted, if one follows one's own inclination, which is not
satisfied with anything else, one feels, 'There is something waiting for me
(which one does not know at the time), which will bring me satisfaction.'
Besides, if one is intuitive and mystical, it is easier still, because then one
is continually told what is the purpose of one's life. For nature has such a
perfection of wisdom. One sees that the insects are given the sense to make
their little houses and to protect themselves and make a store of their food.
The bees, who have the gift of making honey, are taught how to make honey. So
nature has taught every soul to seek its purpose. It has made every soul for
that purpose, and it is continually calling that soul to see that purpose. If
the soul does not hear the call and sleeps, it is not the fault of nature, which
is continually calling. Therefore, if I were to say in a few words, how to find
one's purpose, I would say: by waking from sleep.
Every being has a definite vocation, and his vocation is the light which
illuminates his life. The man who disregards his vocation is a lamp unlit. He
who sincerely seeks his real purpose in life is himself sought by that purpose.
As he concentrates on that search a light begins to clear his confusion, call it
revelation, call it inspiration, call it what you will. It is mistrust that
misleads. Sincerity leads straight to the goal.
That way is best which suits you best. The way of one person is not for another
person, although man is always inclined to accuse another person of doing wrong,
believing that he himself is doing right. ... That purpose is accomplished when
a person has risen above all these things. It is that person then, who will
tolerate all, who will understand all, who will assimilate all things, who will
not feel disturbed by things which are not in accordance with his own nature or
the way which is not his way. He will not look at them with contempt, but he
will see that in the depth of every being there is a divine spark which is
trying to raise its flame toward the purpose.
When a person has arrived at this stage, he has risen above the limitations of
the world. Then he has become entitled to experience the joy of coming near to
the real purpose of life. It is then that in everything that he says or does, he
will be accomplishing that purpose. ... We come to understand by this that the
further we go the more tolerant we become. Outward things matter little. It is
the inward realization which counts. However sacred duty may be, however high
may be the hope of paradise, however great the happiness one may experience in
the pleasures of the earth, however much satisfaction one may find in earthly
treasures, the purpose of life is in rising above all these things. It is then
that the soul will have no discord, no disagreement with others. It is then that
the natural attitude of the soul will become tolerant and forgiving. The purpose
of life is fulfilled in rising to the greatest heights and in diving to the
deepest depths of life: in widening one's horizon, in penetrating life in all
its spheres, in losing oneself, and in finding oneself in the end. In the
accomplishment of the purpose of life the purpose of creation is fulfilled.
Therefore, in this fulfillment it is not that man attained, but that God Himself
has fulfilled His purpose.
A Golden Compass...
Forget every idea of right and wrong
Any classroom ever taught you
Because
An empty heart, a tormented mind,
Unkindness, jealousy and fear
Are always the testimony
You have been completely fooled!
Turn your back on those
Who would imprison your wondrous spirit
With deceit and lies.
Come, join the honest company
Of the King's beggars -
Those gamblers, scoundrels and divine clowns
And those astonishing fair courtesans
Who need Divine Love every night.
Come, join the courageous
Who have no choice
But to bet their entire world
That indeed,
Indeed, God is Real.
I will lead you into the Circle
Of the Beloved's cunning thieves,
Those playful royal rogues -
The ones you can trust for true guidance -
Who can aid you
In this Blessed Calamity of life.
Hafiz,
Look at the Perfect One
At the Circle's Center:
He Spins and Whirls like a Golden Compass,
Beyond all that is Rational,
To show this dear world
That Everything,
Everything in Existence
Does point to God.
~ Hafiz ~
(I Heard God Laughing - Renderings of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky)
Any classroom ever taught you
Because
An empty heart, a tormented mind,
Unkindness, jealousy and fear
Are always the testimony
You have been completely fooled!
Turn your back on those
Who would imprison your wondrous spirit
With deceit and lies.
Come, join the honest company
Of the King's beggars -
Those gamblers, scoundrels and divine clowns
And those astonishing fair courtesans
Who need Divine Love every night.
Come, join the courageous
Who have no choice
But to bet their entire world
That indeed,
Indeed, God is Real.
I will lead you into the Circle
Of the Beloved's cunning thieves,
Those playful royal rogues -
The ones you can trust for true guidance -
Who can aid you
In this Blessed Calamity of life.
Hafiz,
Look at the Perfect One
At the Circle's Center:
He Spins and Whirls like a Golden Compass,
Beyond all that is Rational,
To show this dear world
That Everything,
Everything in Existence
Does point to God.
~ Hafiz ~
(I Heard God Laughing - Renderings of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky)
Lose Falsehood...
"When seeing what must be lost for the sake of truth, lose it as
fast as possible, for example, imaginary rightness."
Cosmic Command, # 439....Vernon Howard
fast as possible, for example, imaginary rightness."
Cosmic Command, # 439....Vernon Howard
As Is...
As is the human body, so is the cosmic body.
As is the human mind, so is the cosmic mind.
As is the microcosm, so is the macrocosm.
As is the atom, so is the universe.
- The Upanishads
As is the human mind, so is the cosmic mind.
As is the microcosm, so is the macrocosm.
As is the atom, so is the universe.
- The Upanishads
Your Work...
Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it........Gautama the Buddha
The Dream...
While the dream is still continuing, he cannot help taking its scenes and figures as being quite real. But if someone rings a bell until he awakens from the dreaming state, he will then see that both scenes and figures were mere figments of his own imagination. In a sense, the teacher of philosophy acts as this awakener did, except that he directs his efforts to the sense-deceived consciousness of everyday life.
— Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest > Chapter 6: Student-Teacher > # 28.......Paul Brunton
— Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest > Chapter 6: Student-Teacher > # 28.......Paul Brunton
One Whole Heart Home...
Lovers in their brief delight
gamble both worlds away,
a century's worth of work
for one chance to surrender.
Many slow growth-stages build
to quick bursts of blossom.
A thousand half-loves
must be forsaken to take
one whole heart home.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Version by Coleman Barks
"Birdsong"
Maypop, 1993
gamble both worlds away,
a century's worth of work
for one chance to surrender.
Many slow growth-stages build
to quick bursts of blossom.
A thousand half-loves
must be forsaken to take
one whole heart home.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Version by Coleman Barks
"Birdsong"
Maypop, 1993
Orthodoxy...
In his book The Sermon on the Mount: The Key to Success in Life, the famous Divine Science minister Emmet Fox wrote: "The first thing we have to realize is a fact of fundamental importance, because it means breaking away from all the ordinary prepossessions of orthodoxy. The plain fact is that Jesus taught no theology whatsoever. His teaching is entirely spiritual or metaphysical. Historical Christianity, unfortunately, has largely concerned itself with theological and doctrinal questions which, strange to say, have no part whatever in the Gospel teaching." He adds that: "It will startle many good people to learn that all the doctrines and theologies of the churches are human inventions built up by their authors out of their own mentalities, and foisted upon the Bible from the outside, but such is the case." Furthermore, Fox asserts that "Jesus has been sadly misunderstood and misrepresented in other directions too. For instance, there is no warrant whatever in his teaching for the setting up of any form of Ecclesiasticism, of any hierarchy of officials or system or ritual. He did not authorize any such thing, and, in fact, the whole tone of his mentality is definitely anti-ecclesiastical. All through his public life he was at war with the ecclesiastics and other religious officials of his own country." ..........from ocatch.com
Nisargadatta Maharaj - I Am That ...
The personality (vyakti) is but a product of imagination. The
self (vyakta) is the victim of this imagination. It is the taking your-
self to be what you are not that binds you. The person cannot be
said to exist on its own rights; it is the self that believes there is a
person and is conscious of being it. Beyond the self (vyakta) lies
the unmanifested (avyakta), the causeless cause of everything.
Even to talk of re-uniting the person with the self is not right, be-
cause there is no person, only a mental picture given a false rea-
lity by conviction. Nothing was divided and there is nothing to
unite.
self (vyakta) is the victim of this imagination. It is the taking your-
self to be what you are not that binds you. The person cannot be
said to exist on its own rights; it is the self that believes there is a
person and is conscious of being it. Beyond the self (vyakta) lies
the unmanifested (avyakta), the causeless cause of everything.
Even to talk of re-uniting the person with the self is not right, be-
cause there is no person, only a mental picture given a false rea-
lity by conviction. Nothing was divided and there is nothing to
unite.
Love...
We are all born for love. It is the principle of existence, and its only end....
Benjamin Disraeli
Benjamin Disraeli
A Paradox...
The illuminate is conscious both of the ultimate unity and immediate multiplicity of the world. This is a paradox. But his permanent resting place while he is dealing with others is at the junction-point of duality and unity so that he is ready at any moment to absorb his attention in either phase.
— Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 115........Paul Brunton
— Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 115........Paul Brunton
Total Harmony...
My daily affairs are quite ordinary;
but I'm in total harmony with them.
I don't hold on to anything, don't reject anything;
nowhere an obstacle or conflict.
Who cares about wealth and honor?
Even the poorest thing shines.
My miraculous power and spiritual activity:
drawing water and carrying wood.
- Layman P'ang (c. 740-808)
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Enlightened Heart"
An Anthology of Sacred Poetry
Edited by Stephen Mitchell
Harper & Row, New York , 1989
but I'm in total harmony with them.
I don't hold on to anything, don't reject anything;
nowhere an obstacle or conflict.
Who cares about wealth and honor?
Even the poorest thing shines.
My miraculous power and spiritual activity:
drawing water and carrying wood.
- Layman P'ang (c. 740-808)
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Enlightened Heart"
An Anthology of Sacred Poetry
Edited by Stephen Mitchell
Harper & Row, New York , 1989
Everyday Enlightenment ...
One of the ways to try and describe it is it's like a sort of living, vibrating, interested, alert 'something' that permeates absolutely everything and is everything and - you know, in fact, that it's always been there. One of the things is there's that feeling almost of a 'watcher', so at one time there was a sort of feeling of this awareness, almost like something holding its breath, and this intense aliveness, and now I guess that that aliveness isn't separate, not that it ever was separate. So yes, the senses are seeing the coffee cups, they're hearing the hiss of the gas stove and that's what senses are for! That's fine! It's just part of the story, but the other thing is deeply embedded in everything. It is everything........
Everyday Enlightenment
p.104
Sally Bongers
Non-Duality Press
Everyday Enlightenment
p.104
Sally Bongers
Non-Duality Press
Form and Formless...
"So long as there is the perception of name and form in oneself, God will appear
with form, but when the vision of the formless reality is achieved there will be
no modifications of seer, seeing and seen. That vision is the nature of
consciousness itself, non-dual and undivided. It is limitless, infinite and
perfect."
-Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi-
[from David Godman's book, The Power of the Presence, part one.]
with form, but when the vision of the formless reality is achieved there will be
no modifications of seer, seeing and seen. That vision is the nature of
consciousness itself, non-dual and undivided. It is limitless, infinite and
perfect."
-Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi-
[from David Godman's book, The Power of the Presence, part one.]
THE GARDEN OF EDEN...
The Garden of Eden typifies man's original state of perfection before he began to have experience. The Tree of Knowledge means the Life Principle which can be used both ways. It bore the fruit of the knowledge of both kinds of experience, good and evil, freedom and limitation. Man must choose which kind of fruit he will eat. "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve." 101 Man makes his choice consciously but generally in ignorance. The serpent typifies the Life Principle viewed from the materialistic viewpoint; it casts man from his perfect state through his belief in duality and separation. Man chose to depart from Good, and man alone must choose to return to It. God lets him alone; for he is a free agent and may do as he wills with himself. When man decides to return to his Father's House, he will find that his Father is still there. "Act as though I am and I will be." "Onlook the Deity and the Deity will onlook thee." "Be firm and ye shall be made firm." "As though hast believed so be it done unto thee." 102 "Ask and it shall be given unto you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you." 103 God's Creation is Perfect and we must wake to the fact and know that we are now in the Kingdom of Heaven.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Footnotes
284:101 Josh. 24:15.
284:102 Matt. 8:12.
284:103 Matt 7:7.
The Science of Mind, by Ernest Shurtleff Holmes [1926]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Footnotes
284:101 Josh. 24:15.
284:102 Matt. 8:12.
284:103 Matt 7:7.
The Science of Mind, by Ernest Shurtleff Holmes [1926]
Rest...
Rest in natural great peace
This exhausted mind
Beaten helpless by karma and neurotic thought,
Like the relentless fury of the pounding waves
In the infinite ocean of samsara.
Rest in natural great peace.
NYOSHUL KHEN RINPOCHE
This exhausted mind
Beaten helpless by karma and neurotic thought,
Like the relentless fury of the pounding waves
In the infinite ocean of samsara.
Rest in natural great peace.
NYOSHUL KHEN RINPOCHE
The 4 Paths of Yoga...
There are four main paths of Yoga - Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga and Raja Yoga. Each is suited to a different temperament or approach to life. All the paths lead ultimately to the same destination - to union with Brahman or God - and the lessons of each of them need to be integrated if true wisdom is to be attained.
Karma Yoga, The Yoga of Action
It is the path chosen primarily by those of an outgoing nature. It purifies the heart by teaching you to act selflessly, without thought of gain or reward. By detaching yourself from the fruits of your actions and offering them up to God, you learn to sublimate the ego. To achieve this, it is helpful to keep your mind focused by repeating a mantra while engaged in any activity.
Bhakti Yoga, The Path of Devotion or Divine Love
This path appeals particularly to those of an emotional nature. The Bhakti Yogi is motivated chiefly by the power of love and sees God as the embodiment of love. Through prayer, worship and ritual he surrenders himself to God, channelling and transmuting his emotions into unconditional love or devotion. Chanting or singing the praises of God form a substantial part of Bhakti Yoga.
Jnana Yoga, The Yoga of Knowledge or Wisdom
This is the most difficult path, requiring tremendous strength of will and intellect. Taking the philosophy of Vedanta the Jnana Yogi uses his mind to inquire into its own nature. We perceive the space inside and outside a glass as different, just as we see ourselves as separate from God. Jnana Yoga leads the devotee to experience his unity with God directly by breaking the glass, dissolving the veils of ignorance. Before practicing Jnana Yoga, the aspirant needs to have integrated the lessons of the other yogic paths - for without selflessness and love of God, strength of body and mind, the search for self-realization can become mere idle speculation.
Raja Yoga, The Science of Physical and Mental Control
Often called the "royal road" it offers a comprehensive method for controlling the waves of thought by turning our mental and physical energy into spiritual energy. Raja Yoga is also called Ahtanga Yoga referring to the eight limbs leading to absolute mental control. The chief practice of Raja Yoga is meditation. It also includes all other methods which helps one to control body, energy, senses and mind. The Hatha-Yogi u ses Relaxation and other practices such as Yamas, Niyamas, Mudras, Bandhas etc.. to gain control of the physical body and the subtle life force called Prana. When body and energy are under control meditation comes naturally. .........from sivananda.org
Karma Yoga, The Yoga of Action
It is the path chosen primarily by those of an outgoing nature. It purifies the heart by teaching you to act selflessly, without thought of gain or reward. By detaching yourself from the fruits of your actions and offering them up to God, you learn to sublimate the ego. To achieve this, it is helpful to keep your mind focused by repeating a mantra while engaged in any activity.
Bhakti Yoga, The Path of Devotion or Divine Love
This path appeals particularly to those of an emotional nature. The Bhakti Yogi is motivated chiefly by the power of love and sees God as the embodiment of love. Through prayer, worship and ritual he surrenders himself to God, channelling and transmuting his emotions into unconditional love or devotion. Chanting or singing the praises of God form a substantial part of Bhakti Yoga.
Jnana Yoga, The Yoga of Knowledge or Wisdom
This is the most difficult path, requiring tremendous strength of will and intellect. Taking the philosophy of Vedanta the Jnana Yogi uses his mind to inquire into its own nature. We perceive the space inside and outside a glass as different, just as we see ourselves as separate from God. Jnana Yoga leads the devotee to experience his unity with God directly by breaking the glass, dissolving the veils of ignorance. Before practicing Jnana Yoga, the aspirant needs to have integrated the lessons of the other yogic paths - for without selflessness and love of God, strength of body and mind, the search for self-realization can become mere idle speculation.
Raja Yoga, The Science of Physical and Mental Control
Often called the "royal road" it offers a comprehensive method for controlling the waves of thought by turning our mental and physical energy into spiritual energy. Raja Yoga is also called Ahtanga Yoga referring to the eight limbs leading to absolute mental control. The chief practice of Raja Yoga is meditation. It also includes all other methods which helps one to control body, energy, senses and mind. The Hatha-Yogi u ses Relaxation and other practices such as Yamas, Niyamas, Mudras, Bandhas etc.. to gain control of the physical body and the subtle life force called Prana. When body and energy are under control meditation comes naturally. .........from sivananda.org
Anger...
A good friend asked me to answer a question about anger and what causes anger.. anger is the ego demanding that something happen in this illusion called life to appear according to the desires of the ego.. as we should know, desires cause pain but we all still have desires and expect them to come into creation.. All desires will come into fruition unless we change the desire.. Why would we create desires that harm us?.. once again, it is the false ego that we think we are.. but, we have never been taught about the ego and therefore are unaware of the pain that we will cause ourselves and others by our thoughts and actions.. Anytime that you have a desire that would cause pain to others and ourselves, know that this is from the ego which is called the "AntiChrist".. this is also called "satan" by those of religious background.. Christ is the essence of Love.. Love does not wish harm to anyone or anything.. Love is Happiness.. Remember Love and practice Love, it is Reality.. Hatred is non reality and is the challenger to God.. May you feel Love and may you feel Peace....this is called Reality, this is called God, this is called You...........namaste, thomas
Ego Immortality...
"The changes of personal identity under the process of reincarnation alone show that the little ego's immortality is a religious illusion. Only by finding its higher individuality is there any chance of preserving any identity at all, before nature re-absorbs what it has spawned."....Paul Brunton
What is Science?...
Kalidas recently inquired:
Dear Friends
Are we referring to 'Science' defined by the 4 properties below?
Science - deduce a chain of reasons which can further recursively be broken
down to one of the 4 rules
1. Mass exists
2. Mass moves (speed limited to that of light)
3. One mass-particle attracts another
4. Two charges exists - they attract or repel
[Any additional property must only be added if not one of the above 4]
Entire biological system or present day technology is an 'emergent' property
of the above 4 rules.
How does it conflict with 'Consciousness ' ?
Are we asking regarding who the 'first observer' was despite being 'created
out of the observed'..?
Regards
Kalidas
Reply:
We have already dealt with what we mean by science in a previous post: http://groups.google.com/group/Online_Sadhu_Sanga/web/what-is-science
Your first “rule” that “mass exists” is already problematic even from the viewpoint of modern physics. There is currently no consistent definition of mass or matter considering what we know from advanced physics such as quantum theory, theory of general relativity, string theory, etc. Is mass a drag effect caused by the field of the Higgs boson, if it exists, or the cause or the effect of the curvature of Riemannian space-time, or is its true nature mysteriously concealed as dark matter. Even classically there are two concepts of mass: inertial mass (resistance to force) and gravitational mass (attractive force between masses). They are equivalent, but no theory exists to explain this peculiarity. Theories now exist that describe the universe in terms of pure activity without reference to mass or particles. This is reminiscent of the ancient philosopher Heraclitus who said that all is becoming and not being. Thus the concept of matter has been disputed philosophically since antiquity and that disputation is unabated to the present day. Aristotle did not even consider matter an independent substance. His idea was that matter was always codependent - the matter of something, i.e. of some form or kind. Thus mere flesh and bones can never describe a hand without knowing the essential determination of that ‘for the sake of’ which it exists. This idea is not found in any of the modern concepts of matter although there are relational concepts of matter being considered. And all this barely scratches the surface of this extremely complex subject.
I think we must understand the great importance of the critical investigation of scientific dogmatics, and it is equally important to understand that a scientific critique of science is also science. In the East, Vedanta (which seeks to know the absolute truth) advocates inquiry or critique, jijnasa - athato brahma jijnasa. In the West Socrates also admonished us: an unexamined life is not worth living. The intelligent critique of unexamined presuppositions of science, the willingness to dive deep into reality, may not be the path of a crowd pleaser who is content to repeat the patently manicured science lessons imbibed by a gullible schoolboy. But if we are really after Truth it is wise to first examine the historical, philosophical and scientific meaning of ideas like matter or mass before using them as a ground for establishing a basis for scientific knowledge. It would be like building a house on quicksand.
In fact, I consider this to be the main problem of modern science: it thinks it has solved the problems of philosophy by ignoring them. Quite expectedly this attitude has brought about a crisis that scientists now face at the frontiers of the numerous branches of science, whether in physics, astronomy, mathematics (e.g. Godel), biology, or artificial intelligence. In other words, the failure to deal with immanent ontological and epistemological problems must eventually lead to irresolvable paradoxes and confusions. And this is what is being experienced as science tries to refine itself. This is inevitable, and it is good, because this is one way that knowledge progresses.
Next. To claim that consciousness ‘emerges’ from matter is merely to give a name to an undefined and undemonstrated conviction. With equal conviction one can claim that matter emerges from consciousness. It is in fact much easier to understand that matter is a concept than to think that matter can produce consciousness, i.e. a concept of itself.
Consciousness is the immediate existence of a concept, in other words, a direct subjective experience. One can experience that they are conscious or have consciousness, which is effectively their implicit concept of the world. Consciousness is always consciousness of something, just as concept is always concept of a content, or matter is always matter of a form. If an objective content (matter as substance) can produce a concept of itself then it can no longer be considered material substance, because cognition is a characteristic attributable to what we call spirit. Matter refers to the content of a concept, not the concept itself. In an ultimate sense we can say that matter is undeveloped consciousness/concept, while consciousness fully developed knows itself to be spirit. But only when we recognize that matter represents implicit consciousness (in an undeveloped stage), can we then properly understand how a conscious observer is related to the observed.
The chief characteristic of life is consciousness or sentience, which philosophically considered is a determinate concept. Consciousness exists for every organism, because an organism is not simply an aggregate of material components, but is a material content organized and unified under an individual concept of its own. All consciousness intrinsically possesses free will or spontaneity, where ‘spontaneous’ implies it has no cause other than itself, and is thus free from any external or material causality. It is because of free will that the trajectory/behavior of a living organism cannot be simply determined using the laws of physics and chemistry. Thus although the path traced by material objects can be determined by such laws, Kant has said, “there can never be a Newton of a blade of grass.” At the same time, in order that freedom not be a mere formal or abstract ideality (i.e. whimsical, a self destructive anarchy that negates freedom) it must be actualized or realized in relation to necessity. Thus, for example, you remain a free citizen of the State if you follow the law, but loose your freedom if you violate it. So necessity is not contrary to freedom but essential to it. In the same way we may understand that the ideality of life requires the reality of a body in order to actualize itself.
Objects that are independent of each other do not have a unifying concept intrinsic to an aggregate of such objects as we do find in the members of an organisms. In an organism, its constituents exist for and are produced by the organism and each other, as much as they produce the organism. There is an existent internal unity present such that they are cause and effect of each other.
Independent material bodies such as we find in the solar system, are not held in unity by any intrinsic concept that constitutes that specific aggregate of bodies, but by the formally existing force of gravity which can equally act on any contingent set of bodies. A formal or abstract arrangement such as this is called mechanical. It is therefore categorically distinct from the existing intrinsic unity of the biological organism.
An organism is not a simple aggregate of independent bodies or parts, but its constituents are members of a unified whole. Unity is not external to the members but determines their intrinsic nature as members by their relationship to each other and the organism as a whole. The heart pumps blood for the maintenance of the body, but the body as a whole also provides for the maintenance of the heart. The intrinsic necessity that connects one part with another and with the whole cannot be explicitly set down as an external or formal law. It is already an internally existing unity that is not established by any externally or formally applied law. To use the suggestive Kantian terminology, the unity of an organism is a constitutive and not a regulative principle, whereas the unity of a mechanical system is a regulative and not a constitutive principle.
Another area besides mechanism in which the regulative principle of law is applicable is the unity of the free citizens of a State. Here again we have entities whose otherwise contingent (free) or independent nature is controlled by laws. But, of course, in the case of free citizens of the State we also have to consider their intrinsic moral nature by which the laws are not only established but by which they also derive their effectiveness or are followed.
--
----------------------------
Group Homepage: http://mahaprabhu.net/sadhusanga
Dear Friends
Are we referring to 'Science' defined by the 4 properties below?
Science - deduce a chain of reasons which can further recursively be broken
down to one of the 4 rules
1. Mass exists
2. Mass moves (speed limited to that of light)
3. One mass-particle attracts another
4. Two charges exists - they attract or repel
[Any additional property must only be added if not one of the above 4]
Entire biological system or present day technology is an 'emergent' property
of the above 4 rules.
How does it conflict with 'Consciousness ' ?
Are we asking regarding who the 'first observer' was despite being 'created
out of the observed'..?
Regards
Kalidas
Reply:
We have already dealt with what we mean by science in a previous post: http://groups.google.com/group/Online_Sadhu_Sanga/web/what-is-science
Your first “rule” that “mass exists” is already problematic even from the viewpoint of modern physics. There is currently no consistent definition of mass or matter considering what we know from advanced physics such as quantum theory, theory of general relativity, string theory, etc. Is mass a drag effect caused by the field of the Higgs boson, if it exists, or the cause or the effect of the curvature of Riemannian space-time, or is its true nature mysteriously concealed as dark matter. Even classically there are two concepts of mass: inertial mass (resistance to force) and gravitational mass (attractive force between masses). They are equivalent, but no theory exists to explain this peculiarity. Theories now exist that describe the universe in terms of pure activity without reference to mass or particles. This is reminiscent of the ancient philosopher Heraclitus who said that all is becoming and not being. Thus the concept of matter has been disputed philosophically since antiquity and that disputation is unabated to the present day. Aristotle did not even consider matter an independent substance. His idea was that matter was always codependent - the matter of something, i.e. of some form or kind. Thus mere flesh and bones can never describe a hand without knowing the essential determination of that ‘for the sake of’ which it exists. This idea is not found in any of the modern concepts of matter although there are relational concepts of matter being considered. And all this barely scratches the surface of this extremely complex subject.
I think we must understand the great importance of the critical investigation of scientific dogmatics, and it is equally important to understand that a scientific critique of science is also science. In the East, Vedanta (which seeks to know the absolute truth) advocates inquiry or critique, jijnasa - athato brahma jijnasa. In the West Socrates also admonished us: an unexamined life is not worth living. The intelligent critique of unexamined presuppositions of science, the willingness to dive deep into reality, may not be the path of a crowd pleaser who is content to repeat the patently manicured science lessons imbibed by a gullible schoolboy. But if we are really after Truth it is wise to first examine the historical, philosophical and scientific meaning of ideas like matter or mass before using them as a ground for establishing a basis for scientific knowledge. It would be like building a house on quicksand.
In fact, I consider this to be the main problem of modern science: it thinks it has solved the problems of philosophy by ignoring them. Quite expectedly this attitude has brought about a crisis that scientists now face at the frontiers of the numerous branches of science, whether in physics, astronomy, mathematics (e.g. Godel), biology, or artificial intelligence. In other words, the failure to deal with immanent ontological and epistemological problems must eventually lead to irresolvable paradoxes and confusions. And this is what is being experienced as science tries to refine itself. This is inevitable, and it is good, because this is one way that knowledge progresses.
Next. To claim that consciousness ‘emerges’ from matter is merely to give a name to an undefined and undemonstrated conviction. With equal conviction one can claim that matter emerges from consciousness. It is in fact much easier to understand that matter is a concept than to think that matter can produce consciousness, i.e. a concept of itself.
Consciousness is the immediate existence of a concept, in other words, a direct subjective experience. One can experience that they are conscious or have consciousness, which is effectively their implicit concept of the world. Consciousness is always consciousness of something, just as concept is always concept of a content, or matter is always matter of a form. If an objective content (matter as substance) can produce a concept of itself then it can no longer be considered material substance, because cognition is a characteristic attributable to what we call spirit. Matter refers to the content of a concept, not the concept itself. In an ultimate sense we can say that matter is undeveloped consciousness/concept, while consciousness fully developed knows itself to be spirit. But only when we recognize that matter represents implicit consciousness (in an undeveloped stage), can we then properly understand how a conscious observer is related to the observed.
The chief characteristic of life is consciousness or sentience, which philosophically considered is a determinate concept. Consciousness exists for every organism, because an organism is not simply an aggregate of material components, but is a material content organized and unified under an individual concept of its own. All consciousness intrinsically possesses free will or spontaneity, where ‘spontaneous’ implies it has no cause other than itself, and is thus free from any external or material causality. It is because of free will that the trajectory/behavior of a living organism cannot be simply determined using the laws of physics and chemistry. Thus although the path traced by material objects can be determined by such laws, Kant has said, “there can never be a Newton of a blade of grass.” At the same time, in order that freedom not be a mere formal or abstract ideality (i.e. whimsical, a self destructive anarchy that negates freedom) it must be actualized or realized in relation to necessity. Thus, for example, you remain a free citizen of the State if you follow the law, but loose your freedom if you violate it. So necessity is not contrary to freedom but essential to it. In the same way we may understand that the ideality of life requires the reality of a body in order to actualize itself.
Objects that are independent of each other do not have a unifying concept intrinsic to an aggregate of such objects as we do find in the members of an organisms. In an organism, its constituents exist for and are produced by the organism and each other, as much as they produce the organism. There is an existent internal unity present such that they are cause and effect of each other.
Independent material bodies such as we find in the solar system, are not held in unity by any intrinsic concept that constitutes that specific aggregate of bodies, but by the formally existing force of gravity which can equally act on any contingent set of bodies. A formal or abstract arrangement such as this is called mechanical. It is therefore categorically distinct from the existing intrinsic unity of the biological organism.
An organism is not a simple aggregate of independent bodies or parts, but its constituents are members of a unified whole. Unity is not external to the members but determines their intrinsic nature as members by their relationship to each other and the organism as a whole. The heart pumps blood for the maintenance of the body, but the body as a whole also provides for the maintenance of the heart. The intrinsic necessity that connects one part with another and with the whole cannot be explicitly set down as an external or formal law. It is already an internally existing unity that is not established by any externally or formally applied law. To use the suggestive Kantian terminology, the unity of an organism is a constitutive and not a regulative principle, whereas the unity of a mechanical system is a regulative and not a constitutive principle.
Another area besides mechanism in which the regulative principle of law is applicable is the unity of the free citizens of a State. Here again we have entities whose otherwise contingent (free) or independent nature is controlled by laws. But, of course, in the case of free citizens of the State we also have to consider their intrinsic moral nature by which the laws are not only established but by which they also derive their effectiveness or are followed.
--
----------------------------
Group Homepage: http://mahaprabhu.net/sadhusanga
Something More...
Meditation and self-discipline
are not all that's needed, nor even
a deep longing to go through
the door of freedom.
You may dissolve in contemplation,
as salt does in water,
but there's something more
that must happen.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
are not all that's needed, nor even
a deep longing to go through
the door of freedom.
You may dissolve in contemplation,
as salt does in water,
but there's something more
that must happen.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
Achieving Empty Mind...
As soon as you have made a thought, laugh at it. Lao-Tzu.......We are plagued by constant useless thoughts of the past and future.. these thoughts keep us in misery and keep us from living in the "Now".. this is what empty mind means.. If you practice living in the present moment, it will become easier to live without foolish and painful thoughts that distract you and keep you in this world of illusion.. always looking for material things to try and find Happiness.. The only Happiness that you have ever felt has been invisible, It is Love.. If you live in the present second, you will begin to feel Reality instead of the illusions of painful thoughts..As I have said before, It is impossible to be unhappy in the present second..Try this method of Living and find out for yourself..........namaste, thomas
"God alone is enough."...
Let nothing upset you,
let nothing startle you.
All things pass;
God does not change.
Patience wins
all it seeks.
Whoever has God
lacks nothing:
God alone is enough.
.......St. Theresa of Avila
let nothing startle you.
All things pass;
God does not change.
Patience wins
all it seeks.
Whoever has God
lacks nothing:
God alone is enough.
.......St. Theresa of Avila
All Spiritual...
As long as you're dreaming that you're awake,
there will be no end to your fears or your desires.
They will only end when you become fully
awakened to your own dreaming.
Suffering finds its roots in your desire to be free
from something that's present…even if it's only a
desire to be free from dreaming the Dream.
But no desire is really spiritual...including the
so-called spiritual desire to have no spiritual
desires.
And yet, paradoxically, it's all absolutely
spiritual.
Yes! All of it.
Every fear. Every desire.
- Chuck Hillig
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Seeds for the Soul
Chuck Hillig
Black Dot Publications, 2003
there will be no end to your fears or your desires.
They will only end when you become fully
awakened to your own dreaming.
Suffering finds its roots in your desire to be free
from something that's present…even if it's only a
desire to be free from dreaming the Dream.
But no desire is really spiritual...including the
so-called spiritual desire to have no spiritual
desires.
And yet, paradoxically, it's all absolutely
spiritual.
Yes! All of it.
Every fear. Every desire.
- Chuck Hillig
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Seeds for the Soul
Chuck Hillig
Black Dot Publications, 2003
The Personality of God...
What I have found while Being within Divine Consciousness is that there is an
Intelligence that would speak to me, but is this Intelligence merely Myself
answering Myself with Knowledge already Known within Divine Consciousness since
there is Only Oneness..or is this feeling of division only because I still had a
small part of the ego left.. the final Freedom is to dissolve all ego and
finally become that which you Are.. Therefore, this Personality that we call God
is Real but it is the Personality of the Intelligence and Love that we actually
Are, once the illusion of the ego is erased........namaste, thomas
Intelligence that would speak to me, but is this Intelligence merely Myself
answering Myself with Knowledge already Known within Divine Consciousness since
there is Only Oneness..or is this feeling of division only because I still had a
small part of the ego left.. the final Freedom is to dissolve all ego and
finally become that which you Are.. Therefore, this Personality that we call God
is Real but it is the Personality of the Intelligence and Love that we actually
Are, once the illusion of the ego is erased........namaste, thomas
Being...
There is no period so far off in the future, no time so distant in the past, no area anywhere in space, that will be or has been without Being. If men can find it today, they will find it then as they found it in antiquity. If they commune with it on this earth, or enter into some relationship with it here, they can do likewise on other planets. Moreover it remains ever the Same, the Unchanged and Unchangeable.
— Notebooks Category 28: The Alone > Chapter 1: Absolute Mind > # 106..... Paul Brunton
— Notebooks Category 28: The Alone > Chapter 1: Absolute Mind > # 106..... Paul Brunton
The Soul Dreams...
Every experience on the physical, astral or mental plane is just a dream before
the soul.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
The soul in itself alone is not other than consciousness, which is all
pervading. But when the same consciousness is caught in a limitation through
being surrounded by elements, in that state of captivity, it is called soul. ...
Every experience on the physical or astral plane is just a dream before the
soul. It is ignorance when it takes this experience to be real. It does so
because it cannot see itself; as the eye sees all things, but not itself.
Therefore, the soul identifies itself with all things that it sees, and changes
its own identity with the change of its constantly changing vision.
The soul has no birth, no death, no beginning, and no end. Sin cannot touch it,
nor can virtue exalt it. Wisdom cannot open it up, nor can ignorance darken it.
It has been always and always it will be. This is the very being of man, and all
else is its cover, like a globe on the light. The soul's unfoldment comes from
its own power, which ends in its breaking through the ties of the lower planes.
It is free by nature, and looks for freedom during its captivity. All the holy
beings of the world have become so by freeing the soul, its freedom being the
only object there is in life.
the soul.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
The soul in itself alone is not other than consciousness, which is all
pervading. But when the same consciousness is caught in a limitation through
being surrounded by elements, in that state of captivity, it is called soul. ...
Every experience on the physical or astral plane is just a dream before the
soul. It is ignorance when it takes this experience to be real. It does so
because it cannot see itself; as the eye sees all things, but not itself.
Therefore, the soul identifies itself with all things that it sees, and changes
its own identity with the change of its constantly changing vision.
The soul has no birth, no death, no beginning, and no end. Sin cannot touch it,
nor can virtue exalt it. Wisdom cannot open it up, nor can ignorance darken it.
It has been always and always it will be. This is the very being of man, and all
else is its cover, like a globe on the light. The soul's unfoldment comes from
its own power, which ends in its breaking through the ties of the lower planes.
It is free by nature, and looks for freedom during its captivity. All the holy
beings of the world have become so by freeing the soul, its freedom being the
only object there is in life.
Jesus Speaks on Love...
Question: Beloved Jesus, We have many teachings on different qualities of God, be it Father, Mother, Wisdom or Love. Yet I constantly hear from my friends that Love is the greatest and the only thing we need. Is it really enough to love to attain one's Christhood and Buddhahood? Or is there a more primal quality of God - like Self-transcendence - to which Love is an addition? Thank you.
Answer from Jesus: An excellent question, and you are on the right track concerning self-transcendence. However, it all depends on how you use words. You see, from a certain viewpoint one could say that love is the central quality of the spiritual path, but that is true only if one understands the difference between human love and Divine Love.
The essential quality of Divine Love IS self-transcendence, the drive to BE MORE. It was this quality that gave the Creator the drive to create—in order to become more of itself by expressing itself in form and in the form of self-conscious co-creators. So without this form of love, nothing would be created, and thus one can say that the master key to Christhood and Buddhahood is to have this Divine Love, which can only be done by becoming one with the flow of love, the River of Life itself.
In contrast, human love is possessive. It is focused on an object of love and wants to keep that object. In order to accomplish this, human love seeks to control, which can happen only by stopping self-transcendence and thus stepping outside the river of Life. Human love expects, even demands, to be received and it demands something in return. It will only express itself when certain conditions are met, which proves that it is not sufficient unto itself. Anything that is not self-sufficient is not Divine but springs from the consciousness of separation and lack.
Divine Love needs no object but is expressed to all life, as the sun shines upon all. It does not need to own any particular object and is constantly flowing, expressing itself with no conditions and regardless of any conditions. It is content to express itself and demands or expects nothing in return, not even to be received. It receives its joy from flowing and being what it is.
My point being that if you strive to be an open door for Divine love – and sincerely seek to transcend all human expressions of so-called love – then you can indeed reach Christhood and Buddhahood. However, this will also require you to realize that Divine Love has many expressions, many manifestations. And in order to have Divine Love, you must master these and be able to express them.
Let me mention the four primary qualities of Divine Love. As Mother Mary explains, everything is created from an interaction of the expanding and the contracting forces. However, for there to be a sustainable creation, there must be balance between the two, and it is the Christ mind that is the key to this balance. When there is balance, love will flow from the Father through the Holy Spirit and superimpose the immaculate concept upon the Mother Light. Thus we have the traditional Christian trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit with the addition of the Divine Mother. Each represents a quality of Divine Love:
•The Father represents Divine Love expressing itself as power or will.
•The Son represents Divine Love expressing itself as wisdom or balance.
•The Holy Spirit represents Divine Love expressing itself as love, but a self-transcending love that sets life free from bondage.
•The Mother represents Divine Love expressing itself as purity or the immaculate concept.
These four qualities correspond to a teaching given by the Ascended Host in previous dispensations about the threefold flame. As explained by Mother Mary, the energy from your I AM Presence first descends into the Secret Chamber of your heart, which is behind the heart chakra. It comes down as the pure light that is represented as the color white and corresponds to the Mother and God Purity. It then splits into three plumes of spiritual fire, called the threefold flame. One plume in blue and represents the Father and God power. One is golden yellow and represents the Son and God Wisdom. The third is pink and represents the Holy Spirit and God Love.
The importance is that the size of your threefold flame determines your creative powers—it determines how much light can stream from your I AM Presence into your four lower bodies. If one of the four aspects of this heart flame becomes unbalanced, you will tend to misuse your creative powers and this reduces the size of your threefold flame, reducing the size of the pipeline through which the light must flow. Thus, you will receive less creative light which lowers your consciousness and turns your attention away from your higher being.
The only way to reverse this trend and attain genuine spiritual growth is to balance your threefold flame so that all four aspects of it are in perfect harmony, meaning that they express Divine Love in manifestation rather than an unbalanced manifestation of human power, human wisdom, human love or a human definition of what is pure. This can be done only by attaining Christ discernment which is the key to knowing what is a balanced and an unbalanced expression of any of the four qualities. That is why I so often stress the importance of balance on this website.
When you have balanced your threefold flame, you can start working on attaining balance on each of the seven spiritual rays that make up the material universe. Each ray corresponds to one of the main chakras and the rays are as follows:
•First ray, God power and will.
•Second Ray, God wisdom and balance.
•Third ray, God Love and selfless giving.
•Fourth ray, God Purity and oneness with higher purpose and law.
•Fifth ray, God truth and healing, restoring all to the immaculate concept.
•Sixth ray, God Ministration and selfless creativity.
•Seventh ray, God Freedom and independence.
The key to mastering each ray is to become one with the River of Life so that Divine Love can express itself through each of your chakras as needed. You have thus attained mastery on all seven rays, which is one of the major stages of Christhood.
You are quite right in your observation that many of today’s spiritual seekers do not realize the nature and qualities of Divine Love. Thus, they have been misled into thinking that love is all they need, while failing to see that it is Divine Love in all of its seven major manifestations that one needs. Instead, they are seeking to express human love, often disguised as spiritual love.
In this respect, I must point out that the 1960s are by many spiritual people seen as a crucial decade that marks a turning point in the spiritual evolution of humankind. There is some truth to this but not as much as many people think. The reality is that during the 1960s certain spiritual energies and teachings were released into the four lower bodies of the Earth’s energy field and the collective consciousness of humankind. These energies and teachings were designed to help people overcome the blocks to the free flow of Divine Love and the potential was indeed great.
Unfortunately, as so often happens on Earth, the highest potential was not fulfilled. The reason was that all of the false teachers on this planet sought to counteract our release, and because of the propensities of the human ego, they were relatively successful. Many sensitive people were indeed awakened by the new energies, but they were then misled by the false teachers and their egos into expressing love in the form of human love instead of transcending the old state of consciousness and expressing Divine Love.
For example, one of the blocks to the free flow of Divine Love was people’s unwillingness to express feelings toward each other. One manifestation of this was the rather restrictive attitude many people had toward any physical expression of love, from hugging to sexual love. The false teachers managed to turn many of the awakened people into a pointless rebellion against society's norms on sex, so that they thought a greater expression of love meant free sex. Thus, the human ego – which can never get enough of any earthly pleasure – became an ally in getting many spiritual people to take a detour into the free love movement rather than the freeing love movement that transcends human sexuality.
One example of this is the famous Beatles’ song with the refrain, “All you need is love, love is all you need.” This song was actually designed – not consciously by the songwriter but by the false teacher who released it from a lower realm – to insert a psychic hook into people’s consciousness. Along with many other songs from the Beatles and other groups, this turned many sincere seekers into a detour of rebelling against society and withdrawing from it – through drugs, free sex, rock music and alternative lifestyles – rather than working from the inside to help society self-transcend.
Thus, the potential of the 1960s was not fulfilled and parts of it remains unfulfilled to this day. However, in later years this has been somewhat remedied by the emergence of a group of more mature spiritual seekers with greater Christ discernment.
Unfortunately many spiritual people today still believe all that is required for spiritual growth is to express love, but they define this in a human way. This is often a form of soft, gentle and kind love that never challenges anyone and thus cannot free them from the bonds of the ego. As I have now explained, if you want to attain genuine spiritual growth, you must master – and be the open door for the expression of – first the four basic qualities and then the seven qualities of Divine Love. Divine Love – in all of its manifestations – truly is all you need.
Human love will get you nowhere, regardless of the fact that so many people have managed to delude themselves into thinking human love will get them to heaven or a higher state of consciousness. Again, this is a deliberate effort to slow down the breakthrough that can potentially happen in this age. To avoid being misled into another detour of human love, you need to understand how your ego is seeking to mislead you. Begin by understanding the gray thinking of the ego, and then study all of my discourses on the ego. If you do not rise above the self-centered – although well-camouflaged – love of the ego, you will have no chance of entering the flow of Divine Love.
As I seek to explain throughout this website, the Christ consciousness is not a passive force that leaves people in a limited state. It is an active force that goes into the world, meets people where they are and – if necessary – challenges their illusions in order to give them a free choice of following the Living Christ or continuing to follow anti-christ. This is a choice they do not have until they have encountered the Living Christ or Christ Truth. Thus, Divine Love accepts no conditions that stop its flow and it seeks to help people overcome their conditions. However, unconditional love also has no attachments to people's reactions, thus it challenges people and then leaves them free to make their own decision, as opposed to the human need to control...........from askrealjesus.com
Answer from Jesus: An excellent question, and you are on the right track concerning self-transcendence. However, it all depends on how you use words. You see, from a certain viewpoint one could say that love is the central quality of the spiritual path, but that is true only if one understands the difference between human love and Divine Love.
The essential quality of Divine Love IS self-transcendence, the drive to BE MORE. It was this quality that gave the Creator the drive to create—in order to become more of itself by expressing itself in form and in the form of self-conscious co-creators. So without this form of love, nothing would be created, and thus one can say that the master key to Christhood and Buddhahood is to have this Divine Love, which can only be done by becoming one with the flow of love, the River of Life itself.
In contrast, human love is possessive. It is focused on an object of love and wants to keep that object. In order to accomplish this, human love seeks to control, which can happen only by stopping self-transcendence and thus stepping outside the river of Life. Human love expects, even demands, to be received and it demands something in return. It will only express itself when certain conditions are met, which proves that it is not sufficient unto itself. Anything that is not self-sufficient is not Divine but springs from the consciousness of separation and lack.
Divine Love needs no object but is expressed to all life, as the sun shines upon all. It does not need to own any particular object and is constantly flowing, expressing itself with no conditions and regardless of any conditions. It is content to express itself and demands or expects nothing in return, not even to be received. It receives its joy from flowing and being what it is.
My point being that if you strive to be an open door for Divine love – and sincerely seek to transcend all human expressions of so-called love – then you can indeed reach Christhood and Buddhahood. However, this will also require you to realize that Divine Love has many expressions, many manifestations. And in order to have Divine Love, you must master these and be able to express them.
Let me mention the four primary qualities of Divine Love. As Mother Mary explains, everything is created from an interaction of the expanding and the contracting forces. However, for there to be a sustainable creation, there must be balance between the two, and it is the Christ mind that is the key to this balance. When there is balance, love will flow from the Father through the Holy Spirit and superimpose the immaculate concept upon the Mother Light. Thus we have the traditional Christian trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit with the addition of the Divine Mother. Each represents a quality of Divine Love:
•The Father represents Divine Love expressing itself as power or will.
•The Son represents Divine Love expressing itself as wisdom or balance.
•The Holy Spirit represents Divine Love expressing itself as love, but a self-transcending love that sets life free from bondage.
•The Mother represents Divine Love expressing itself as purity or the immaculate concept.
These four qualities correspond to a teaching given by the Ascended Host in previous dispensations about the threefold flame. As explained by Mother Mary, the energy from your I AM Presence first descends into the Secret Chamber of your heart, which is behind the heart chakra. It comes down as the pure light that is represented as the color white and corresponds to the Mother and God Purity. It then splits into three plumes of spiritual fire, called the threefold flame. One plume in blue and represents the Father and God power. One is golden yellow and represents the Son and God Wisdom. The third is pink and represents the Holy Spirit and God Love.
The importance is that the size of your threefold flame determines your creative powers—it determines how much light can stream from your I AM Presence into your four lower bodies. If one of the four aspects of this heart flame becomes unbalanced, you will tend to misuse your creative powers and this reduces the size of your threefold flame, reducing the size of the pipeline through which the light must flow. Thus, you will receive less creative light which lowers your consciousness and turns your attention away from your higher being.
The only way to reverse this trend and attain genuine spiritual growth is to balance your threefold flame so that all four aspects of it are in perfect harmony, meaning that they express Divine Love in manifestation rather than an unbalanced manifestation of human power, human wisdom, human love or a human definition of what is pure. This can be done only by attaining Christ discernment which is the key to knowing what is a balanced and an unbalanced expression of any of the four qualities. That is why I so often stress the importance of balance on this website.
When you have balanced your threefold flame, you can start working on attaining balance on each of the seven spiritual rays that make up the material universe. Each ray corresponds to one of the main chakras and the rays are as follows:
•First ray, God power and will.
•Second Ray, God wisdom and balance.
•Third ray, God Love and selfless giving.
•Fourth ray, God Purity and oneness with higher purpose and law.
•Fifth ray, God truth and healing, restoring all to the immaculate concept.
•Sixth ray, God Ministration and selfless creativity.
•Seventh ray, God Freedom and independence.
The key to mastering each ray is to become one with the River of Life so that Divine Love can express itself through each of your chakras as needed. You have thus attained mastery on all seven rays, which is one of the major stages of Christhood.
You are quite right in your observation that many of today’s spiritual seekers do not realize the nature and qualities of Divine Love. Thus, they have been misled into thinking that love is all they need, while failing to see that it is Divine Love in all of its seven major manifestations that one needs. Instead, they are seeking to express human love, often disguised as spiritual love.
In this respect, I must point out that the 1960s are by many spiritual people seen as a crucial decade that marks a turning point in the spiritual evolution of humankind. There is some truth to this but not as much as many people think. The reality is that during the 1960s certain spiritual energies and teachings were released into the four lower bodies of the Earth’s energy field and the collective consciousness of humankind. These energies and teachings were designed to help people overcome the blocks to the free flow of Divine Love and the potential was indeed great.
Unfortunately, as so often happens on Earth, the highest potential was not fulfilled. The reason was that all of the false teachers on this planet sought to counteract our release, and because of the propensities of the human ego, they were relatively successful. Many sensitive people were indeed awakened by the new energies, but they were then misled by the false teachers and their egos into expressing love in the form of human love instead of transcending the old state of consciousness and expressing Divine Love.
For example, one of the blocks to the free flow of Divine Love was people’s unwillingness to express feelings toward each other. One manifestation of this was the rather restrictive attitude many people had toward any physical expression of love, from hugging to sexual love. The false teachers managed to turn many of the awakened people into a pointless rebellion against society's norms on sex, so that they thought a greater expression of love meant free sex. Thus, the human ego – which can never get enough of any earthly pleasure – became an ally in getting many spiritual people to take a detour into the free love movement rather than the freeing love movement that transcends human sexuality.
One example of this is the famous Beatles’ song with the refrain, “All you need is love, love is all you need.” This song was actually designed – not consciously by the songwriter but by the false teacher who released it from a lower realm – to insert a psychic hook into people’s consciousness. Along with many other songs from the Beatles and other groups, this turned many sincere seekers into a detour of rebelling against society and withdrawing from it – through drugs, free sex, rock music and alternative lifestyles – rather than working from the inside to help society self-transcend.
Thus, the potential of the 1960s was not fulfilled and parts of it remains unfulfilled to this day. However, in later years this has been somewhat remedied by the emergence of a group of more mature spiritual seekers with greater Christ discernment.
Unfortunately many spiritual people today still believe all that is required for spiritual growth is to express love, but they define this in a human way. This is often a form of soft, gentle and kind love that never challenges anyone and thus cannot free them from the bonds of the ego. As I have now explained, if you want to attain genuine spiritual growth, you must master – and be the open door for the expression of – first the four basic qualities and then the seven qualities of Divine Love. Divine Love – in all of its manifestations – truly is all you need.
Human love will get you nowhere, regardless of the fact that so many people have managed to delude themselves into thinking human love will get them to heaven or a higher state of consciousness. Again, this is a deliberate effort to slow down the breakthrough that can potentially happen in this age. To avoid being misled into another detour of human love, you need to understand how your ego is seeking to mislead you. Begin by understanding the gray thinking of the ego, and then study all of my discourses on the ego. If you do not rise above the self-centered – although well-camouflaged – love of the ego, you will have no chance of entering the flow of Divine Love.
As I seek to explain throughout this website, the Christ consciousness is not a passive force that leaves people in a limited state. It is an active force that goes into the world, meets people where they are and – if necessary – challenges their illusions in order to give them a free choice of following the Living Christ or continuing to follow anti-christ. This is a choice they do not have until they have encountered the Living Christ or Christ Truth. Thus, Divine Love accepts no conditions that stop its flow and it seeks to help people overcome their conditions. However, unconditional love also has no attachments to people's reactions, thus it challenges people and then leaves them free to make their own decision, as opposed to the human need to control...........from askrealjesus.com
Jivanmukta...
Jivanmukta (from the Sanskrit words jiva and mukti) is someone who, in the Advaita philosophy of Hinduism, has attained nirvikalpa samadhi - the realization of the Self, Parasiva - and is liberated from rebirth while living in a human body.[1]
Jivanmukta is a unique concept in Hindu philosophy, particularly in the school of philosophy known as Advaita. The ultimate goal of Hinduism is liberation from the cycles of re-birth. This liberation is technically called 'moksha'. In all schools of Hindu philosophy except Advaita, liberation is necessarily an event beyond the experience of human beings. But the Advaita school of Shankara envisages that human beings are already liberated and the soul is already free - one has only to realise, and to accept, this freedom. Souls who have had this realisation are called jivanmuktas........from wikipedia
Jivanmukta is a unique concept in Hindu philosophy, particularly in the school of philosophy known as Advaita. The ultimate goal of Hinduism is liberation from the cycles of re-birth. This liberation is technically called 'moksha'. In all schools of Hindu philosophy except Advaita, liberation is necessarily an event beyond the experience of human beings. But the Advaita school of Shankara envisages that human beings are already liberated and the soul is already free - one has only to realise, and to accept, this freedom. Souls who have had this realisation are called jivanmuktas........from wikipedia
Duality and Unity...
When duality is blended with, and within, unity it is the true jivanmukta realization. The One is then experienced as the Two but known to be really the One.
— Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 123......Paul Brunton
— Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 123......Paul Brunton
Mind...
To the dull mind nature is leaden; To the illuminated mind the whole
world burns and sparkles with light.....
Ralph Waldo Emerson
world burns and sparkles with light.....
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ram Tzu Speaks...
Ram Tzu knows this...
When a glimmer of
Understanding appears,
You have cancer.
It will grow...
Relentlessly replacing
You with Itself.
Until you are gone.
- Ram Tzu
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
No Way for the Spiritually "Advanced"
Ram Tzu
Advaita Press, 1990
When a glimmer of
Understanding appears,
You have cancer.
It will grow...
Relentlessly replacing
You with Itself.
Until you are gone.
- Ram Tzu
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
No Way for the Spiritually "Advanced"
Ram Tzu
Advaita Press, 1990
Only One...
There cannot exist two beings, God and oneself. Oneself, as one knows the self,
is a limited part of being, like a bubble in the sea that has no existence of
its own. It is only a temporary condition. By effacing oneself one does not
annihilate oneself: it is the finding of the self, a self that is perfect.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
is a limited part of being, like a bubble in the sea that has no existence of
its own. It is only a temporary condition. By effacing oneself one does not
annihilate oneself: it is the finding of the self, a self that is perfect.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
The Void...
"Many people are afraid to empty their minds lest they may plunge into the void. They do not know that their own mind IS the void."........
- Huang Po
- Huang Po
Peace of Mind...
If there is peace in your mind you will find peace
with everybody. If your mind is agitated you will
find agitation everywhere. So first find peace within
and you will see this inner peace reflected every-
where else. You are this peace! You are happiness,
find out. Where else will you find peace if not within
you?
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
with everybody. If your mind is agitated you will
find agitation everywhere. So first find peace within
and you will see this inner peace reflected every-
where else. You are this peace! You are happiness,
find out. Where else will you find peace if not within
you?
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
A Poem to Reality...
I asked All that Be, please take me away from me.. The All that Be did not speak
but carried me away to Reality and Light.. As Love bathed me in it's wonderous
Joy, and light shown for a distance of forever, I brazenly spoke to That Which
is All.. I spoke and said, WHY?.. The All that Be said:" So that selflessness
would Know that It's True name is Love".. When the voice had spoken, I returned
into the Illusion...........namaste, thomas
but carried me away to Reality and Light.. As Love bathed me in it's wonderous
Joy, and light shown for a distance of forever, I brazenly spoke to That Which
is All.. I spoke and said, WHY?.. The All that Be said:" So that selflessness
would Know that It's True name is Love".. When the voice had spoken, I returned
into the Illusion...........namaste, thomas
Jesus Speaks...
The least you should know about the ego, Part 4.
A discourse by Jesus
NOTE: This teaching was given on May 7, 2006.
The ego has a very specific mission, namely to prevent the Conscious You from rediscovering and then abandoning the original choice to turn away from God—the decision that gave birth to the ego. This decision was made by the Conscious You, but it was not made in the full clarity of the Christ consciousness. It was made because the Conscious You had started experimenting with the duality consciousness, the consciousness of anti-christ. Thus, the Conscious You did not clearly see what the decision entailed, and it did not fully understand that its reasoning was based on dualistic thinking. The ego will do anything in its power to prevent you from overcoming this blindness; it will do anything to prevent the Conscious You from projecting itself outside the ego’s illusions.
You need to understand that the Conscious You made its fateful decision because it did not see the absolute reality of Christ and had become blinded by the veil created by the duality consciousness. Thus, the Conscious You believed its reasoning was sound, and it felt that the decision to turn away from the teacher was either justifiable, necessary, beneficial or its only option. Because the Conscious You had already been partially blinded – meaning divided – by the dualistic logic – as Eve was divided in her mind by the serpent’s statement that she would not surely die – it did not see that its reasoning was relative. It did not understand that the serpentine logic seems reasonable only when viewed through the filter of duality, a state of mind in which everything is relative, meaning that anything can be justified.
My point here is that the Conscious You is made in the image and likeness of God, meaning your I AM Presence. Therefore, you are not a bad or evil person and you are not stupid. If the Conscious You knew better, it would do better. The problem is that as long as the Conscious You looks at the world through the filter of dualistic logic, it cannot fully know better. It cannot see beyond the relative logic of anti-christ to see the absolute reality of Christ.
Why the universe seems to confirm the ego’s illusions
The essence of the duality consciousness is that the Conscious You – guided by the false teachers of this world and the ego – creates its own “reality,” a world view that is centered around the illusion that created the ego. Everything in this world view is born from the central illusion that created the ego, and thus everything seems to support that illusion. In other words, as long as you look at the world through this filter, everything you see will confirm that the ego’s illusion is right. If you wear yellow glasses, the world will appear to have a yellow tint, and it will do so until you take off the glasses and see the world without a filter.
Yet there is an even deeper reality in the sense that the world not only appears to be colored. The reality you experience in the material universe is shaped by the ego’s beliefs. This is an essential point that all sincere spiritual seekers need to understand. As I explain throughout this website, the material universe acts like a mirror that reflects back to you whatever you send out. That is why I told people to do unto others what you want them to do to you. The reality being that the universe will do to you what you do to others. This is a safety mechanism that aims as serving as a substitute teacher for those co-creators who have turned away from the spiritual teachers assigned to humankind. When you have no contact with the teacher, your only way to learn is to see the consequences of your actions, and thus the universe mirrors back to you what you send out.
You must now understand that the law of free will mandates that if you turn away from God and your spiritual teacher, you must be allowed to learn from your own actions. Thus, a spiritual teacher cannot interfere with your learning process until you decide to seek the teacher’s help. The teacher is not trapped in your personal illusions, your ego’s house of mirrors, so he clearly sees through the veil that blinds you. Yet he cannot explain this to you until you rise to the level of the path where you are open to this explanation. And thus, the teacher must wait until the Conscious You begins to question the illusions created by the ego.
The teacher is fully aware of the essential problem, yet only a student with a certain amount of maturity can even begin to grasp this problem. What is the essence of the problem? Your ego has used the duality consciousness to create a mental image of what it thinks the world is like—or rather what it wants the world to be like so that it can uphold the basic illusion that created your specific ego. The Conscious You has partially identified itself with this world view and is therefore seeing the world through the colored glasses represented by the ego’s illusion. At the same time, the Conscious You – as the director of your attention, which is your creative force – is projecting this world view into the cosmic mirror. And guess what the mirror is reflecting back?
Do you now begin to see the problem? The Conscious You is using its creative faculties to project a dualistic image into the material universe, and the cosmic mirror is reflecting it back, meaning that what comes back to you seems to affirm the ego’s world view. If your ego has created the image that God is an angry and unjust being in the sky who has abandoned you, then the material universe will reflect back to you conditions that seem to affirm this image. You simply will not be able to experience God directly as long as you identify with the illusion of separation, and thus the material universe will hide the reality that God’s being is in everything. Everything you experience in this world will seem to confirm the belief that God is not here and thus you have been abandoned by God. Likewise, if you believe life is a struggle, the cosmic mirror will reflect back to you physical conditions that make your life a struggle.
In other words, you are a co-creator with God, and you can never stop co-creating. As I have said before, you will inevitably create your own circumstances, and the choice is whether you create through the dualistic sense of identity defined by the ego or through your divine identity that is anchored in your I AM Presence. The Conscious You has the ability to identify itself as anything it conceives and accepts as real. Thus, if the Conscious You identifies with the mortal identity defined by the ego, you will believe you are a mortal, human being living in a limited world that makes your life a struggle. And because you have identified with this world view, your soul will gravitate toward a planet where these conditions are physically manifest—because they have been created by the collective consciousness of the lifestreams living on that planet.
Starting to question the ego’s identity
As long as you identify fully with the world view created by the ego, everything you see MUST be forced into the framework of that world view. In other words, until the Conscious You begins to suspect that it is more than the ego, you will be unable to question the world view of the ego. You cannot bear to lose your sense of identity, so if you think the ego’s mortal identity is all there is, you will be unwilling to question it, and thus you are unreachable to a spiritual teacher. Instead, you will try to interpret everything that happens to you in a way that reaffirms the ego’s world view. And because the mind of anti-christ uses relative logic, you can twist almost anything in such a way that it proves what you want to believe. This is what is commonly called circular logic.
But then how can you ever escape the illusions created by the ego? Because God has built a safety mechanism into the material universe, as Mother Mary explains in her book. That mechanism is the Mother Light’s tendency to return to its ground state, to equilibrium. In other words, if you use your co-creative abilities to create something that is out of alignment with the laws and the creative intent of God, your creation will not be sustainable. It will exist only in time and space, meaning that the Mother Light will inevitably break it down.
The consequence is that your life becomes a constant struggle to uphold the ego’s illusions. The more you seek to hold on to the illusions, the more you create a counter-force that seeks to break them down. Thus, your life truly does become a struggle because you are fighting against the basic force of the material universe. The Mother Light is designed to break down every structure that is not in alignment with God’s law. In order to uphold your ego’s illusions, you must seek to force the entire universe to conform to the ego’s world view.
A group of co-creators can force a localized part of the universe to conform to their world view for a time. That is why humankind has managed to force the Mother Light that makes up planet Earth to conform to its collective world view. Yet no matter how strongly the co-creators believe in their illusions, they cannot force the Mother Light to maintain them forever. They will inevitably create a counter-force that will break down the world they have created. You clearly see this in human society today in the form of diseases, lack, poverty, short life-span, lack of food, pollution and natural disasters and imbalances.
The consequence is simple. One way or the other, you must learn that the ego’s world view is false. If you will not listen to a spiritual teacher, you must learn by hitting your head against the concrete wall of the universe—until you finally break down and start to wonder whether there might be a better way. It is always sad for a spiritual teacher to watch people who refuse to question the illusions of their egos and thus create increasingly severe crises in their lives until they finally break under the strain and cry out for help. Yet we are bound by the law of free will to let people run their course until they ask for our help. Thus, we can only watch as people box themselves in until they can no longer move.
My point is that once the Conscious You has identified itself with the ego’s dualistic world view, it is very difficult to break the spell of that illusion. The universe itself will actually seem to confirm the ego’s world view by complying with it for a time. This is why you see so many people who are absolutely convinced that their world view is correct. Yet you also see that the basic world view shared by most people progresses over time. Centuries ago, many people believe the Earth and the universe were very small. They believed the Earth was flat and that the sky was a dome covering the planet.
This world view has changed because in every generation a few people dared to question the world view of their society and their egos. Thus, in this age, there is a crop of people who are ready for the harvest of once again reconnecting to their spiritual teachers and being lifted – fully and finally – out of the dualistic illusions of their personal egos and the collective ego of this planet. Yet you must understand that there are forces that will do anything they can to prevent your personal awakening, and they have a very powerful weapon to use against you, namely the subtlety of the duality consciousness. So let us take a closer look at exactly how subtle things can be in the world where everything is relative.
When everything is relative, who is right?
The ego is born out of your separation from God, and thus it can only see itself as being separated from God. For the ego, God and God’s reality remains a mental concept that can be conceptualized but never experienced directly. The Conscious You can experience God directly, but only through the Christ consciousness. Thus, as long as you look through the filter of the ego, you cannot experience God directly, meaning that you must settle for a description over the direct experience. My point being that if you cannot know reality through direct experience, you MUST “know” reality through a description and that description will INEVITABLY be affected by the consciousness of separation. If you were not affected by the consciousness of separation, you would not need the description.
As I have explained in the previous discourses, the reality of Christ is that everything was created out of God’s being. Thus, nothing can be separated from God in reality. Something can be separated from God only through a mental illusion created in the mind of a self-conscious co-creator. The consciousness of the ego is born out of separation, meaning that it has a fundamental, built-in duality. You are here; God is somewhere else. There is a division between you and God.
The result is that instead of experiencing God directly, the ego can only conceptualize God, but this conceptualization also has a built-in duality. You see, to the ego there is no such thing as an absolute truth, a truth that cannot be debated or has no opposite. The ego sees only duality, and thus when the ego conceptualizes God, it can do so only by putting God on a relative scale, meaning that God must have an opposite.
As I have said before, the Conscious You can never quite lose its memory of its divine origin. Thus, the Conscious You knows that God exists and that God is entirely good. The ego would prefer to have the Conscious You forget everything about God, which indeed has happened to some people on a temporary basis. Yet a spiritual seeker cannot forget God’s existence, and thus the ego must incorporate the existence of God into its world view—or the Conscious You will no longer accept the ego’s view.
Yet when the ego conceptualizes God, it does so in a relative way. The Conscious You knows God is good, but as long as it is affected by the ego’s logic, it cannot fully experience the goodness of God, meaning that it cannot see that it has no opposite. Thus, the Conscious You is likely to be ensnared by the ego’s logic, namely that the goodness of God is on a relative scale where it has an opposite. The opposite of good is evil, and life on this planet provides plenty of evidence that seems to prove that evil is real. Thus, it is tempting to believe that God’s supposed opposite – call it the devil or whatever you like – is as real as God and possibly necessary to complete the balance of creation.
Do you see my point? The ego – through the consciousness of anti-christ – creates a mental image that portrays God as not being a self-sufficient, independent reality that has no opposite. Instead, it portrays God as an incomplete being and God’s goodness is defined only in relation to its opposite. Goodness is no longer absolute; it is defined as the opposite of evil.
Why you can never win a dualistic argument
Take note of the subtlety overlooked by many religious people. They assume that even if good is defined as the opposite of evil, what they define as good is still in alignment with God’s absolute goodness. However, this is the great illusion of the ages that has led to virtually all of the religious conflicts and wars seen on this planet. When you see through the consciousness of separation, you can NEVER see God’s absolute reality and goodness. You see ONLY a relative goodness, and it now becomes possible – even inevitable – that you define goodness in a way that is relative to – and thus seems to affirm – the basic illusion that created your ego!
Throughout the ages, individuals and societies have had different definitions of what is good. Even though God gave Moses the command not to kill, those who claimed to represent God to the Israelites often defined it as good to kill their enemies. This is an obvious example of the fact that the ego cannot see the absolute goodness of God but inevitably turns it into a relative concept that can be defined according to what seems to give the ego a temporary advantage.
Once the Conscious You puts on the colored glasses of the ego’s dualistic logic, it sees the world through a filter that defines two opposites. The ego can see nothing beyond these relative opposites and thus it will claim – to its dying day – that there is nothing beyond relativity. In this relative world view, there are not absolutes, thus there is no way to determine what is in alignment with God’s goodness and what is out of alignment with absolute reality. This can be determined only through the clarity of the Christ mind. That is why I said:
The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. (Luke 11:34)
The point being that when your eye is single – meaning that the Conscious You sees the one, undivided truth of Christ – your lower being is an open door for the light of God to shine into this world. Yet when your vision is divided – meaning that the Conscious You sees through the dualistic filter – your being if filled with the darkness of the duality consciousness. The light from your I AM Presence simply cannot shine through your mind in its pure form but is colored by your ego’s beliefs and thus turned into darkness.
The essence of the relative logic is that when everything is relative, nothing can be proved or disproved in an absolute sense. It is not a matter of WHAT is right and wrong; it is only a matter of WHO is “right and wrong,” meaning who is able to convince others. This gives a clear advantage to the beings who are most skilled in using the relative logic of the mind of anti-christ and who are the most willing to manipulate, lie and coerce in order to control others.
The story of the Serpent in the Garden of Eden is meant to illustrate that once you start partaking of the duality consciousness – the tree of the knowledge of RELATIVE good and evil – you are easily manipulated by those who have spent lifetimes in this frame of mind and have no scruples about lying in order to control you. There is only one way out. You cannot use the mind of anti-christ to escape the consciousness of separation. Thus, you must realize that the ego has created a giant illusion in which everything appears to be relative. As long as you stay within the framework of this illusions, you can NEVER escape the grips of the ego.
I have seen many sincere spiritual seekers who have fallen prey to the illusion that they can use the intellect to outsmart their egos and the prince of this world. Some even think it is their job to convince their own ego, the egos of other people or the forces of this world that they are wrong. Yet this will inevitably cause you to engage in the dualistic struggle created by the ego, and thus you will only become more involved with that struggle. If you try to use the mind of anti-christ to outsmart the forces of anti-christ, how can you avoid becoming more involved with the mind of anti-christ?
This is the illusion that caused many co-creators to fall in the first place. As explained by the Elohim of Peace, many co-creators fell for the illusion that they should turn off the light of their God flames until certain conditions were met in this world. We might also say that some co-creators began to believe that instead of letting the light of their God flames consume the darkness in this world, they needed to engage in a debate with the darkness and seek to persuade those trapped in it to come back to God. Yet when you try to catch the greased pig, you inevitably end up covered in mud.
When it comes to dealing with the duality consciousness of the ego, there is only one approach that will work. You cannot out-reason the consciousness of anti-christ, for when everything is relative, there can be no final argument. The devil loves to have you engage him in an attempt to outsmart him, and he will even allow you to feel that you have won the argument. Yet the devil is not trying to prove himself right; he is only trying to keep you engaged in the consciousness of anti-christ. Likewise, your ego is not concerned about you winning one battle, as long as it wins the war by keeping you trapped in the dualistic struggle so that you do not see the forest behind the trees.
This is an essential point that too many spiritual seekers have not understood, and thus you need to ponder it very carefully. You simply CANNOT WIN by engaging in the dualistic arguments of the ego. You cannot convince or convert your ego because it can NEVER experience the Spirit of Truth but will ALWAYS see only a dualistic description. Thus, you can NEVER make the ego see absolute truth, and instead you get pulled into a senseless argument of trying to prove the superiority of one dualistic description over another dualistic description. To avoid this eternal trap, ponder my words:
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. (Matthew 10:16)
You must learn from the example of how I dealt with the devil after my fasting in the wilderness (Luke, Chapter 3) or how the Buddha dealt with the temptations of Mara as he was ready to enter Nirvana. We both remained non-attached. I rebuked the devil and the Buddha stated his right to be the Buddha on Earth. Yet we did not engage the forces of duality at the level of duality.
You can NEVER win by engaging in a dualistic argument, nor can you further God’s cause by fighting dualistic battles. You can win only by rising above the consciousness of duality, simply leaving behind the dualistic arguments and struggles of your ego. And to do that, you must reach for the undivided truth of Christ that empowers you to see the fallacy of the ego’s dualistic form of thinking.
In the coming discourses, I will give you some examples of how the ego seeks to keep you trapped in the dualistic struggle by setting up various belief systems that are based on duality. The purpose is to keep you fighting the dualistic battle that allows both your ego and the forces of anti-christ to steal your life force in order to survive.
A discourse by Jesus
NOTE: This teaching was given on May 7, 2006.
The ego has a very specific mission, namely to prevent the Conscious You from rediscovering and then abandoning the original choice to turn away from God—the decision that gave birth to the ego. This decision was made by the Conscious You, but it was not made in the full clarity of the Christ consciousness. It was made because the Conscious You had started experimenting with the duality consciousness, the consciousness of anti-christ. Thus, the Conscious You did not clearly see what the decision entailed, and it did not fully understand that its reasoning was based on dualistic thinking. The ego will do anything in its power to prevent you from overcoming this blindness; it will do anything to prevent the Conscious You from projecting itself outside the ego’s illusions.
You need to understand that the Conscious You made its fateful decision because it did not see the absolute reality of Christ and had become blinded by the veil created by the duality consciousness. Thus, the Conscious You believed its reasoning was sound, and it felt that the decision to turn away from the teacher was either justifiable, necessary, beneficial or its only option. Because the Conscious You had already been partially blinded – meaning divided – by the dualistic logic – as Eve was divided in her mind by the serpent’s statement that she would not surely die – it did not see that its reasoning was relative. It did not understand that the serpentine logic seems reasonable only when viewed through the filter of duality, a state of mind in which everything is relative, meaning that anything can be justified.
My point here is that the Conscious You is made in the image and likeness of God, meaning your I AM Presence. Therefore, you are not a bad or evil person and you are not stupid. If the Conscious You knew better, it would do better. The problem is that as long as the Conscious You looks at the world through the filter of dualistic logic, it cannot fully know better. It cannot see beyond the relative logic of anti-christ to see the absolute reality of Christ.
Why the universe seems to confirm the ego’s illusions
The essence of the duality consciousness is that the Conscious You – guided by the false teachers of this world and the ego – creates its own “reality,” a world view that is centered around the illusion that created the ego. Everything in this world view is born from the central illusion that created the ego, and thus everything seems to support that illusion. In other words, as long as you look at the world through this filter, everything you see will confirm that the ego’s illusion is right. If you wear yellow glasses, the world will appear to have a yellow tint, and it will do so until you take off the glasses and see the world without a filter.
Yet there is an even deeper reality in the sense that the world not only appears to be colored. The reality you experience in the material universe is shaped by the ego’s beliefs. This is an essential point that all sincere spiritual seekers need to understand. As I explain throughout this website, the material universe acts like a mirror that reflects back to you whatever you send out. That is why I told people to do unto others what you want them to do to you. The reality being that the universe will do to you what you do to others. This is a safety mechanism that aims as serving as a substitute teacher for those co-creators who have turned away from the spiritual teachers assigned to humankind. When you have no contact with the teacher, your only way to learn is to see the consequences of your actions, and thus the universe mirrors back to you what you send out.
You must now understand that the law of free will mandates that if you turn away from God and your spiritual teacher, you must be allowed to learn from your own actions. Thus, a spiritual teacher cannot interfere with your learning process until you decide to seek the teacher’s help. The teacher is not trapped in your personal illusions, your ego’s house of mirrors, so he clearly sees through the veil that blinds you. Yet he cannot explain this to you until you rise to the level of the path where you are open to this explanation. And thus, the teacher must wait until the Conscious You begins to question the illusions created by the ego.
The teacher is fully aware of the essential problem, yet only a student with a certain amount of maturity can even begin to grasp this problem. What is the essence of the problem? Your ego has used the duality consciousness to create a mental image of what it thinks the world is like—or rather what it wants the world to be like so that it can uphold the basic illusion that created your specific ego. The Conscious You has partially identified itself with this world view and is therefore seeing the world through the colored glasses represented by the ego’s illusion. At the same time, the Conscious You – as the director of your attention, which is your creative force – is projecting this world view into the cosmic mirror. And guess what the mirror is reflecting back?
Do you now begin to see the problem? The Conscious You is using its creative faculties to project a dualistic image into the material universe, and the cosmic mirror is reflecting it back, meaning that what comes back to you seems to affirm the ego’s world view. If your ego has created the image that God is an angry and unjust being in the sky who has abandoned you, then the material universe will reflect back to you conditions that seem to affirm this image. You simply will not be able to experience God directly as long as you identify with the illusion of separation, and thus the material universe will hide the reality that God’s being is in everything. Everything you experience in this world will seem to confirm the belief that God is not here and thus you have been abandoned by God. Likewise, if you believe life is a struggle, the cosmic mirror will reflect back to you physical conditions that make your life a struggle.
In other words, you are a co-creator with God, and you can never stop co-creating. As I have said before, you will inevitably create your own circumstances, and the choice is whether you create through the dualistic sense of identity defined by the ego or through your divine identity that is anchored in your I AM Presence. The Conscious You has the ability to identify itself as anything it conceives and accepts as real. Thus, if the Conscious You identifies with the mortal identity defined by the ego, you will believe you are a mortal, human being living in a limited world that makes your life a struggle. And because you have identified with this world view, your soul will gravitate toward a planet where these conditions are physically manifest—because they have been created by the collective consciousness of the lifestreams living on that planet.
Starting to question the ego’s identity
As long as you identify fully with the world view created by the ego, everything you see MUST be forced into the framework of that world view. In other words, until the Conscious You begins to suspect that it is more than the ego, you will be unable to question the world view of the ego. You cannot bear to lose your sense of identity, so if you think the ego’s mortal identity is all there is, you will be unwilling to question it, and thus you are unreachable to a spiritual teacher. Instead, you will try to interpret everything that happens to you in a way that reaffirms the ego’s world view. And because the mind of anti-christ uses relative logic, you can twist almost anything in such a way that it proves what you want to believe. This is what is commonly called circular logic.
But then how can you ever escape the illusions created by the ego? Because God has built a safety mechanism into the material universe, as Mother Mary explains in her book. That mechanism is the Mother Light’s tendency to return to its ground state, to equilibrium. In other words, if you use your co-creative abilities to create something that is out of alignment with the laws and the creative intent of God, your creation will not be sustainable. It will exist only in time and space, meaning that the Mother Light will inevitably break it down.
The consequence is that your life becomes a constant struggle to uphold the ego’s illusions. The more you seek to hold on to the illusions, the more you create a counter-force that seeks to break them down. Thus, your life truly does become a struggle because you are fighting against the basic force of the material universe. The Mother Light is designed to break down every structure that is not in alignment with God’s law. In order to uphold your ego’s illusions, you must seek to force the entire universe to conform to the ego’s world view.
A group of co-creators can force a localized part of the universe to conform to their world view for a time. That is why humankind has managed to force the Mother Light that makes up planet Earth to conform to its collective world view. Yet no matter how strongly the co-creators believe in their illusions, they cannot force the Mother Light to maintain them forever. They will inevitably create a counter-force that will break down the world they have created. You clearly see this in human society today in the form of diseases, lack, poverty, short life-span, lack of food, pollution and natural disasters and imbalances.
The consequence is simple. One way or the other, you must learn that the ego’s world view is false. If you will not listen to a spiritual teacher, you must learn by hitting your head against the concrete wall of the universe—until you finally break down and start to wonder whether there might be a better way. It is always sad for a spiritual teacher to watch people who refuse to question the illusions of their egos and thus create increasingly severe crises in their lives until they finally break under the strain and cry out for help. Yet we are bound by the law of free will to let people run their course until they ask for our help. Thus, we can only watch as people box themselves in until they can no longer move.
My point is that once the Conscious You has identified itself with the ego’s dualistic world view, it is very difficult to break the spell of that illusion. The universe itself will actually seem to confirm the ego’s world view by complying with it for a time. This is why you see so many people who are absolutely convinced that their world view is correct. Yet you also see that the basic world view shared by most people progresses over time. Centuries ago, many people believe the Earth and the universe were very small. They believed the Earth was flat and that the sky was a dome covering the planet.
This world view has changed because in every generation a few people dared to question the world view of their society and their egos. Thus, in this age, there is a crop of people who are ready for the harvest of once again reconnecting to their spiritual teachers and being lifted – fully and finally – out of the dualistic illusions of their personal egos and the collective ego of this planet. Yet you must understand that there are forces that will do anything they can to prevent your personal awakening, and they have a very powerful weapon to use against you, namely the subtlety of the duality consciousness. So let us take a closer look at exactly how subtle things can be in the world where everything is relative.
When everything is relative, who is right?
The ego is born out of your separation from God, and thus it can only see itself as being separated from God. For the ego, God and God’s reality remains a mental concept that can be conceptualized but never experienced directly. The Conscious You can experience God directly, but only through the Christ consciousness. Thus, as long as you look through the filter of the ego, you cannot experience God directly, meaning that you must settle for a description over the direct experience. My point being that if you cannot know reality through direct experience, you MUST “know” reality through a description and that description will INEVITABLY be affected by the consciousness of separation. If you were not affected by the consciousness of separation, you would not need the description.
As I have explained in the previous discourses, the reality of Christ is that everything was created out of God’s being. Thus, nothing can be separated from God in reality. Something can be separated from God only through a mental illusion created in the mind of a self-conscious co-creator. The consciousness of the ego is born out of separation, meaning that it has a fundamental, built-in duality. You are here; God is somewhere else. There is a division between you and God.
The result is that instead of experiencing God directly, the ego can only conceptualize God, but this conceptualization also has a built-in duality. You see, to the ego there is no such thing as an absolute truth, a truth that cannot be debated or has no opposite. The ego sees only duality, and thus when the ego conceptualizes God, it can do so only by putting God on a relative scale, meaning that God must have an opposite.
As I have said before, the Conscious You can never quite lose its memory of its divine origin. Thus, the Conscious You knows that God exists and that God is entirely good. The ego would prefer to have the Conscious You forget everything about God, which indeed has happened to some people on a temporary basis. Yet a spiritual seeker cannot forget God’s existence, and thus the ego must incorporate the existence of God into its world view—or the Conscious You will no longer accept the ego’s view.
Yet when the ego conceptualizes God, it does so in a relative way. The Conscious You knows God is good, but as long as it is affected by the ego’s logic, it cannot fully experience the goodness of God, meaning that it cannot see that it has no opposite. Thus, the Conscious You is likely to be ensnared by the ego’s logic, namely that the goodness of God is on a relative scale where it has an opposite. The opposite of good is evil, and life on this planet provides plenty of evidence that seems to prove that evil is real. Thus, it is tempting to believe that God’s supposed opposite – call it the devil or whatever you like – is as real as God and possibly necessary to complete the balance of creation.
Do you see my point? The ego – through the consciousness of anti-christ – creates a mental image that portrays God as not being a self-sufficient, independent reality that has no opposite. Instead, it portrays God as an incomplete being and God’s goodness is defined only in relation to its opposite. Goodness is no longer absolute; it is defined as the opposite of evil.
Why you can never win a dualistic argument
Take note of the subtlety overlooked by many religious people. They assume that even if good is defined as the opposite of evil, what they define as good is still in alignment with God’s absolute goodness. However, this is the great illusion of the ages that has led to virtually all of the religious conflicts and wars seen on this planet. When you see through the consciousness of separation, you can NEVER see God’s absolute reality and goodness. You see ONLY a relative goodness, and it now becomes possible – even inevitable – that you define goodness in a way that is relative to – and thus seems to affirm – the basic illusion that created your ego!
Throughout the ages, individuals and societies have had different definitions of what is good. Even though God gave Moses the command not to kill, those who claimed to represent God to the Israelites often defined it as good to kill their enemies. This is an obvious example of the fact that the ego cannot see the absolute goodness of God but inevitably turns it into a relative concept that can be defined according to what seems to give the ego a temporary advantage.
Once the Conscious You puts on the colored glasses of the ego’s dualistic logic, it sees the world through a filter that defines two opposites. The ego can see nothing beyond these relative opposites and thus it will claim – to its dying day – that there is nothing beyond relativity. In this relative world view, there are not absolutes, thus there is no way to determine what is in alignment with God’s goodness and what is out of alignment with absolute reality. This can be determined only through the clarity of the Christ mind. That is why I said:
The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. (Luke 11:34)
The point being that when your eye is single – meaning that the Conscious You sees the one, undivided truth of Christ – your lower being is an open door for the light of God to shine into this world. Yet when your vision is divided – meaning that the Conscious You sees through the dualistic filter – your being if filled with the darkness of the duality consciousness. The light from your I AM Presence simply cannot shine through your mind in its pure form but is colored by your ego’s beliefs and thus turned into darkness.
The essence of the relative logic is that when everything is relative, nothing can be proved or disproved in an absolute sense. It is not a matter of WHAT is right and wrong; it is only a matter of WHO is “right and wrong,” meaning who is able to convince others. This gives a clear advantage to the beings who are most skilled in using the relative logic of the mind of anti-christ and who are the most willing to manipulate, lie and coerce in order to control others.
The story of the Serpent in the Garden of Eden is meant to illustrate that once you start partaking of the duality consciousness – the tree of the knowledge of RELATIVE good and evil – you are easily manipulated by those who have spent lifetimes in this frame of mind and have no scruples about lying in order to control you. There is only one way out. You cannot use the mind of anti-christ to escape the consciousness of separation. Thus, you must realize that the ego has created a giant illusion in which everything appears to be relative. As long as you stay within the framework of this illusions, you can NEVER escape the grips of the ego.
I have seen many sincere spiritual seekers who have fallen prey to the illusion that they can use the intellect to outsmart their egos and the prince of this world. Some even think it is their job to convince their own ego, the egos of other people or the forces of this world that they are wrong. Yet this will inevitably cause you to engage in the dualistic struggle created by the ego, and thus you will only become more involved with that struggle. If you try to use the mind of anti-christ to outsmart the forces of anti-christ, how can you avoid becoming more involved with the mind of anti-christ?
This is the illusion that caused many co-creators to fall in the first place. As explained by the Elohim of Peace, many co-creators fell for the illusion that they should turn off the light of their God flames until certain conditions were met in this world. We might also say that some co-creators began to believe that instead of letting the light of their God flames consume the darkness in this world, they needed to engage in a debate with the darkness and seek to persuade those trapped in it to come back to God. Yet when you try to catch the greased pig, you inevitably end up covered in mud.
When it comes to dealing with the duality consciousness of the ego, there is only one approach that will work. You cannot out-reason the consciousness of anti-christ, for when everything is relative, there can be no final argument. The devil loves to have you engage him in an attempt to outsmart him, and he will even allow you to feel that you have won the argument. Yet the devil is not trying to prove himself right; he is only trying to keep you engaged in the consciousness of anti-christ. Likewise, your ego is not concerned about you winning one battle, as long as it wins the war by keeping you trapped in the dualistic struggle so that you do not see the forest behind the trees.
This is an essential point that too many spiritual seekers have not understood, and thus you need to ponder it very carefully. You simply CANNOT WIN by engaging in the dualistic arguments of the ego. You cannot convince or convert your ego because it can NEVER experience the Spirit of Truth but will ALWAYS see only a dualistic description. Thus, you can NEVER make the ego see absolute truth, and instead you get pulled into a senseless argument of trying to prove the superiority of one dualistic description over another dualistic description. To avoid this eternal trap, ponder my words:
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. (Matthew 10:16)
You must learn from the example of how I dealt with the devil after my fasting in the wilderness (Luke, Chapter 3) or how the Buddha dealt with the temptations of Mara as he was ready to enter Nirvana. We both remained non-attached. I rebuked the devil and the Buddha stated his right to be the Buddha on Earth. Yet we did not engage the forces of duality at the level of duality.
You can NEVER win by engaging in a dualistic argument, nor can you further God’s cause by fighting dualistic battles. You can win only by rising above the consciousness of duality, simply leaving behind the dualistic arguments and struggles of your ego. And to do that, you must reach for the undivided truth of Christ that empowers you to see the fallacy of the ego’s dualistic form of thinking.
In the coming discourses, I will give you some examples of how the ego seeks to keep you trapped in the dualistic struggle by setting up various belief systems that are based on duality. The purpose is to keep you fighting the dualistic battle that allows both your ego and the forces of anti-christ to steal your life force in order to survive.
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