Ego Training...
Some people believe that we should not dissolve the ego, we should train it to become good.. They speak in this manner because they have not yet attained the Wisdom to Know that ego, by it's very nature is anti-love.. They believe that anti-love can be trained to become love.. A foolish activity but, the ego says to their mind that this is the correct path.. The ego is an illusion that is created by the thoughts that wander through our minds.. we begin to believe that we are these thoughts and emotions.. We are Spirit, not thoughts,body,or make believe self.. Why are you trying to make an illusion into Reality?.. It cannot be done.. nor should time be wasted in this activity.. You are given only a small time within each body to Realise Reality before You reincarnate and start all over again with the memory of Your past Spiritual experiences erased.. The time is Now to experience God.. If You really live within the second of Now, the ego will not exist.. It will hide within your mind but will have no power over You.. It will become very small and be known as identity.. When fully destroyed and there is no longer a separate identity.. This point is called Pure Awareness and is our goal.. This is the Nothingness that ego can never experience, no matter how much training you give it.........namaste, thomas
Grow Wiser...
The desire to find the self will be surely
fulfilled, provided you want nothing else.
But you must be honest with yourself and
really want nothing else. If in the mean-
time you want many other things and are
engaged in their pursuit, your main purpose
may be delayed until you grow wiser and
cease being torn between contradictory
urges. Go within, without swerving,
without ever looking outward.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
fulfilled, provided you want nothing else.
But you must be honest with yourself and
really want nothing else. If in the mean-
time you want many other things and are
engaged in their pursuit, your main purpose
may be delayed until you grow wiser and
cease being torn between contradictory
urges. Go within, without swerving,
without ever looking outward.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
Sorrow...
You feel fear and pain because you believe that you are the body or
that you are in the body.. but, what if You knew that the body is in You.. Fear
would leave You and Certainty of Reality would be Your life.. Reality is beyond
divorce and physical pain.. these experiences are only aspects of a play that
You are watching and participating in.. They are not You.. by being a prisioner
of time, you believe that these experiences of pain are unending and sorrowful,
but, it is only a Play , and "the Play must go on".............namaste, thomas
that you are in the body.. but, what if You knew that the body is in You.. Fear
would leave You and Certainty of Reality would be Your life.. Reality is beyond
divorce and physical pain.. these experiences are only aspects of a play that
You are watching and participating in.. They are not You.. by being a prisioner
of time, you believe that these experiences of pain are unending and sorrowful,
but, it is only a Play , and "the Play must go on".............namaste, thomas
Poem of Reality...
The mind thinks of mundane thoughts of ego.. The Consciousness watches the mind wander aimlessly within the power of thought.. The feeling of non-separation brings the pleasure of Love.. The believing in separate ego flowers into the mortality of the material world.. The crying for Peace manifests the desire for non-existence.. Awakening into Reality lifts my feet above the ground......namaste, thomas
Spirituality...
Most people do not really know what spirituality is and assume that it has to do with a religion, but this is entirely not true.. Spirituality is a path of Self learning.. It appears as a Holy State because by dissolving the false self that we call ego and by staying mentally awake to the thoughts of your mind and rejecting thoughts that are selfish and unloving, You become Spiritual.. Spiritual is that which is unseen but the fruit of Spirituality is Unconditional Love for All.. Unconditional Love was the main teaching of Jesus and all of the other Spiritual Masters... Unconditional Love is also called God.....................namaste, thomas
Easter...
A Mystic Disappears.. Why did the body of Jesus disappear?.. Why did these atoms speed up to form Light and leave the evidence on the shroud...Could the Knowledge that the soul was not the illusion of body have a bearing on the existence of the body.. Consciousness forms the illusion that trillions of atoms are forming a hologram of the material world and body.. This is the reason that we say that the world is an illusion, It is just the Thought Energy from Divine Consciousness.. Science is just beginning to understand the hologram aspect of material existence that is spoken to them through the language of mathematics.. Through the dissolving of the illusion of Jesus' body and the rebuilding of the illusion of body in His later apparitions form a dialogue of visible and invisible. which is just an awareness of only a small frequency of Light.. Was this episode of life and death meant to instill us with higher belief in the Truth of His teachings, or was it for something that only each One of us can understand within Spirit?...........namaste, thomas
Bliss is always Present...
Self is always Present, Bliss is always Present.
You are not to work at attaining it,
just remove the obstacles by which you can't see it.
The hindrance is only one: Attachment to the past.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
This quotation is from:
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
You are not to work at attaining it,
just remove the obstacles by which you can't see it.
The hindrance is only one: Attachment to the past.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
This quotation is from:
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
Enlightenment...
Enlightenment is not about words and
thoughts and concepts which can be
doubted. Enlightenment is always Here.
By "Here" I don't mean this present space.
Here is somewhere within where mind
cannot reach. Presence is always Here
and you are always That. This Here is
not the opposite of "there." This Here is
nowhere, it is your Heart. When mind is
still all comes back to the Heart. All the
cosmos is but a speck in your Heart.
Turn mind over into This Here and it is
lost. Then only Light, Wisdom and Love
remain and This you are not different or
apart from.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
thoughts and concepts which can be
doubted. Enlightenment is always Here.
By "Here" I don't mean this present space.
Here is somewhere within where mind
cannot reach. Presence is always Here
and you are always That. This Here is
not the opposite of "there." This Here is
nowhere, it is your Heart. When mind is
still all comes back to the Heart. All the
cosmos is but a speck in your Heart.
Turn mind over into This Here and it is
lost. Then only Light, Wisdom and Love
remain and This you are not different or
apart from.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
The Blessed Buddha once said:..
Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu should dwell aware and clearly comprehending!
This is our instruction to you. How, Bhikkhus, is a Bhikkhu Aware?
Here, Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu lives contemplating these four objects:
1: Body as a mere form: Just a group of foul and fragile organs...
2: Feeling as a reactive response assigned to any sense contact...
3: Mind as only a changing set of mentalities and habitual moods...
4: Phenomena simply as perceived momentary mental states...
While being keen, ardent, clearly comprehending, and acutely aware,
thereby removing covetousness, lust, greed, envy and any discontent,
displeasure and frustration rooted in this evanescent world...
It is in this very way, Bhikkhus, that a Bhikkhu is Aware...
And how, Bhikkhus, does a Bhikkhu train clear comprehension?
Here, Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu is one who acts clearly comprehending just
exactly whatever he is doing right now, while going forward or back;
when looking ahead or looking aside; when flexing or extending limbs;
when wearing robes & carrying his bowl; when eating, drinking, tasting
& chewing food; when defecating & urinating; when walking, standing,
sitting; when falling asleep, waking up, speaking, & when keeping silent!
It is indeed in such a way that a Bhikkhu lives in clear comprehension...
Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu should dwell aware and clearly comprehending.
This is our instruction to you!
This is our instruction to you. How, Bhikkhus, is a Bhikkhu Aware?
Here, Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu lives contemplating these four objects:
1: Body as a mere form: Just a group of foul and fragile organs...
2: Feeling as a reactive response assigned to any sense contact...
3: Mind as only a changing set of mentalities and habitual moods...
4: Phenomena simply as perceived momentary mental states...
While being keen, ardent, clearly comprehending, and acutely aware,
thereby removing covetousness, lust, greed, envy and any discontent,
displeasure and frustration rooted in this evanescent world...
It is in this very way, Bhikkhus, that a Bhikkhu is Aware...
And how, Bhikkhus, does a Bhikkhu train clear comprehension?
Here, Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu is one who acts clearly comprehending just
exactly whatever he is doing right now, while going forward or back;
when looking ahead or looking aside; when flexing or extending limbs;
when wearing robes & carrying his bowl; when eating, drinking, tasting
& chewing food; when defecating & urinating; when walking, standing,
sitting; when falling asleep, waking up, speaking, & when keeping silent!
It is indeed in such a way that a Bhikkhu lives in clear comprehension...
Bhikkhus, a Bhikkhu should dwell aware and clearly comprehending.
This is our instruction to you!
Discover the Presence...
“The great mystics of all religions agree that in the very depths of the unconscious, in every one of us, there is a living presence that is not touched by time, place or circumstance. Life has only one purpose, they add, and that is to discover this presence. The men and women who have done this – Francis of Assisi, for example, Mahatma Gandhi, Teresa of Avila, the Compassionate Buddha – are living proof of the words of Jesus Christ, ‘The kingdom of heaven is within.’
“But they are quick to tell us — everyone of them – that no one can enter that kingdom, and discover the Ruler who lives there, who has not brought the movement of the mind under control. And they do not pretend that our own efforts to tame the mind will suffice in themselves. Grace, they remind us, is all-important. ‘Increase in my my grace,’ Thomas a Kempis prays, ‘that I may be able to fulfill thy words, and to work out mine own salvation.’
“The hallmark of the man or woman of God is gratitude – endless, passionate gratitude for the previous gift of spiritual awareness…. it surrounds us always. Like a wind that is always blowing, said Francis de Sales; like fire, said Catherine of Genoa, that never stops burning..”
-Eknath Easwaran
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“But they are quick to tell us — everyone of them – that no one can enter that kingdom, and discover the Ruler who lives there, who has not brought the movement of the mind under control. And they do not pretend that our own efforts to tame the mind will suffice in themselves. Grace, they remind us, is all-important. ‘Increase in my my grace,’ Thomas a Kempis prays, ‘that I may be able to fulfill thy words, and to work out mine own salvation.’
“The hallmark of the man or woman of God is gratitude – endless, passionate gratitude for the previous gift of spiritual awareness…. it surrounds us always. Like a wind that is always blowing, said Francis de Sales; like fire, said Catherine of Genoa, that never stops burning..”
-Eknath Easwaran
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is anyone without Spirit...
The Spirit is never taken away from anything or anyone because everything is Spirit.. Spirit is the Consciousness of the Divine and is used as a moving and creative force for creation.. We can feel the Holy Spirit when we have surrendered what is not Spirit.. What is not Spirit are the illusions of ego and the creations of ego, such as hatred,non-love, selfishness and the many thoughts that we call evil..You are never lost, You have just forgotten who You are.. this lack of memory is caused by belief in separation from God called ego.. Once You Realise this Truth, which is usually found through direct experience with Spirit, called Enlightenment, then all feeling of loss are gone and only Unity and Love are Known..........namaste, thomas
Atheist...
Many people do not believe in a god or gods because of the definition of God that they have been taught.. Teaching that God is an old man on a throne waiting to judge you into heaven or hell is preposterous for the thinking human.. Therefore, they choose to disbelieve.. But, science is closer to their belief systems in seeking Truth.. As science evolves into the knowledge of Truth, these atheists will become believers of Universal Knowledge, as Complete science is the same as Complete Truth.. they are one and the same.. As science knows that energy cannot be destroyed but only changed into different forms, so, the energy of Thought changes the manifestations of life into different forms.. the Source of Thought is Divine Consciousness and will be eventually understood by all, once science catches up with Mysticism.................namaste, thomas
Where is "I"...
If we assume that by metaphysical probing he discovers and by ultramystic practice he sees at last that the ‘I’ is not in the body but the body is really in the ‘I’; if he realizes that the personal ‘I’ like everything else within his ordinary experience is really a thought‑construction which feigns a permanent and stable entity of its own; if he penetrates deeply beneath it and uncovers its hidden essence as mind, what has he done? He has got rid of a mistaken idea ‑ however powerful, however hypnotic and however over‑confident his belief in it formerly was ‑ and he has substituted for it the contrary idea of his higher individuality, the Overself.
Wisdom of the Overself
The Immortal Overself
The Hidden Side of Selfishness.......Paul Brunton
Wisdom of the Overself
The Immortal Overself
The Hidden Side of Selfishness.......Paul Brunton
Our True Nature...
Our true nature is that simple and undeniable presence
of awareness that illumines all thinking, feeling and
perceiving. Always present and radiantly clear, it is never
obscured by time, circumstances or thoughts. The
body, mind and world rise and set in awareness and
have no independent existence apart from awareness.
Awareness, your real being, is all there is. You are not
the limited person you have taken yourself to be. Look
for the separate self and you find it entirely absent.
Seeing this, suffering, doubt and confusion effortlessly
drop away, revealing your natural state of innate hap-
piness and freedom. Understanding who you are is
immediately and always available – here and now.
- John Wheeler
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
John Wheeler
Shining in Plan View
Non-duality Press, 2005
of awareness that illumines all thinking, feeling and
perceiving. Always present and radiantly clear, it is never
obscured by time, circumstances or thoughts. The
body, mind and world rise and set in awareness and
have no independent existence apart from awareness.
Awareness, your real being, is all there is. You are not
the limited person you have taken yourself to be. Look
for the separate self and you find it entirely absent.
Seeing this, suffering, doubt and confusion effortlessly
drop away, revealing your natural state of innate hap-
piness and freedom. Understanding who you are is
immediately and always available – here and now.
- John Wheeler
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
John Wheeler
Shining in Plan View
Non-duality Press, 2005
Male and Female...
I have accepted the notion that God is the essence of female and male, but,
this would be just another example of Duality. even within Oneness.. Therefore,
I must come to the conclusion that this is the level of God called Divine
Consciousness and not the Heart of God called Pure Awareness.. as Divine
Consciousness is the moving and creating energy of God and thus needs to divide
to evolve and create.. this is seen in our smallest life forms.. As above, so
Below...............namaste, thomas
this would be just another example of Duality. even within Oneness.. Therefore,
I must come to the conclusion that this is the level of God called Divine
Consciousness and not the Heart of God called Pure Awareness.. as Divine
Consciousness is the moving and creating energy of God and thus needs to divide
to evolve and create.. this is seen in our smallest life forms.. As above, so
Below...............namaste, thomas
Morality...
Morality is a concept that is made up from the rules of humans.. It is moral and even considered brave to kill during wars.. It is immoral for many islamic woman to not cover her body.. Morality is usually forced upon humans by higher authorities.. Therefore, Morality cannot be used as a method to determine higher spirituality level..Only the level of non-ego or what we call Love can determine spiritual level.. If you exist within the energy of Love, then, morality is not needed, as You have risen beyond morals...............namaste, thomas
Nisargadatta Speaks...
Refuse all thoughts except one: the thought 'I am'.
The mind will rebel in the beginning,
but with patience and perseverance
it will yield and keep quiet.
Once you are quiet, things will begin to happen
spontaneously and quite naturally,
without any interference on your part.
To know the self as the only reality
and all else as temporal and transient,
is freedom, peace and joy. It is all very simple.
Instead of seeing things as imagined,
learn to see them as they are.
When you can see everything as it is,
you will also see yourself as you are.
It is like cleansing a mirror.
The same mirror that shows you the world as it is
will also show you your own face.
The thought 'I am' is the polishing cloth.
Use it.
Why not turn away from the experience to the experiencer
and realize the full import of the
only true statement you can make: 'I am'.
Just keep in mind the feeling 'I am',
merge in it, till your mind and feeling become one.
By repeated attempts you will stumble on the right
balance of attention and affection and your mind
will be firmly established in the thought-feeling 'I am'.
Whatever you think, say or do,
this sense of immutable and affectionate being remains
as the ever-present background of the mind.
Do not bother about anything you want, or think, or do,
just stay put in the thought and feeling, 'I am',
focusing 'I am' firmly in your mind.
All kinds of experience may come to you -
remain unmoved in the knowledge
that all perceivable is transient
and only the 'I am' endures.
No way to self-realization is short or long,
but some people are more in earnest and some are less.
I can tell you about myself.
I was a simple man, but I trusted my Guru.
What he told me to do, I did.
He told me to concentrate on 'I am' - I did.
He told me that I am beyond all perceivables and conceivables -
I believed. I gave my heart and soul, my entire attention
and the whole of my spare time
(I had to work to keep my family alive).
As a result of faith and earnest application,
I realized my self ('swarupa') within three years.
You may choose any way that suits you;
your earnestness will determine the rate of progress.
Establish yourself firmly in the awareness of 'I am'.
This is the beginning and also the end of all endeavour.
To know what you are you must
first investigate and know what you are not.
And to know what you are not,
you must watch yourself carefully,
rejecting all that does not necessarily go with basic fact 'I am'.
The ideas: I am born at a given place,
at a given time, from my parents
and now I am so-and-so, living at, married to,
father of, employed by, and so on,
are not inherent in the sense 'I am'.
Our usual attitude is 'I am this' or 'that'.
Separate consistently and perseveringly
the 'I am' from 'this' or 'that'
and try to feel what it means to be,
just to 'be', without being 'this' or 'that'.
All our habits go against it
and the task of fighting them is long and hard sometimes,
but clear understanding helps a lot.
The clearer you understand that on the level of the mind
that you can be described in negative terms only,
the quicker you will come to the end of your search
and realize your limitless being.
When you see the world you see God.
There is no seeing God apart from the world.
Beyond the world to see God is to be God.
The light by which you see the world, which is God
is the tiny little spark: 'I am', apparently so small
and yet the first and the last
in every act of knowing and loving.
The mind will rebel in the beginning,
but with patience and perseverance
it will yield and keep quiet.
Once you are quiet, things will begin to happen
spontaneously and quite naturally,
without any interference on your part.
To know the self as the only reality
and all else as temporal and transient,
is freedom, peace and joy. It is all very simple.
Instead of seeing things as imagined,
learn to see them as they are.
When you can see everything as it is,
you will also see yourself as you are.
It is like cleansing a mirror.
The same mirror that shows you the world as it is
will also show you your own face.
The thought 'I am' is the polishing cloth.
Use it.
Why not turn away from the experience to the experiencer
and realize the full import of the
only true statement you can make: 'I am'.
Just keep in mind the feeling 'I am',
merge in it, till your mind and feeling become one.
By repeated attempts you will stumble on the right
balance of attention and affection and your mind
will be firmly established in the thought-feeling 'I am'.
Whatever you think, say or do,
this sense of immutable and affectionate being remains
as the ever-present background of the mind.
Do not bother about anything you want, or think, or do,
just stay put in the thought and feeling, 'I am',
focusing 'I am' firmly in your mind.
All kinds of experience may come to you -
remain unmoved in the knowledge
that all perceivable is transient
and only the 'I am' endures.
No way to self-realization is short or long,
but some people are more in earnest and some are less.
I can tell you about myself.
I was a simple man, but I trusted my Guru.
What he told me to do, I did.
He told me to concentrate on 'I am' - I did.
He told me that I am beyond all perceivables and conceivables -
I believed. I gave my heart and soul, my entire attention
and the whole of my spare time
(I had to work to keep my family alive).
As a result of faith and earnest application,
I realized my self ('swarupa') within three years.
You may choose any way that suits you;
your earnestness will determine the rate of progress.
Establish yourself firmly in the awareness of 'I am'.
This is the beginning and also the end of all endeavour.
To know what you are you must
first investigate and know what you are not.
And to know what you are not,
you must watch yourself carefully,
rejecting all that does not necessarily go with basic fact 'I am'.
The ideas: I am born at a given place,
at a given time, from my parents
and now I am so-and-so, living at, married to,
father of, employed by, and so on,
are not inherent in the sense 'I am'.
Our usual attitude is 'I am this' or 'that'.
Separate consistently and perseveringly
the 'I am' from 'this' or 'that'
and try to feel what it means to be,
just to 'be', without being 'this' or 'that'.
All our habits go against it
and the task of fighting them is long and hard sometimes,
but clear understanding helps a lot.
The clearer you understand that on the level of the mind
that you can be described in negative terms only,
the quicker you will come to the end of your search
and realize your limitless being.
When you see the world you see God.
There is no seeing God apart from the world.
Beyond the world to see God is to be God.
The light by which you see the world, which is God
is the tiny little spark: 'I am', apparently so small
and yet the first and the last
in every act of knowing and loving.
Finish...
"Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Heaven...
In the realm of spirits which we call heaven and which we see as being beyond the creation realm, karma still exists because we still believe that we are separate entities.. this karma must be manifested within the next life.. when you speak of the thoughtless state this means that there is no individual to think.. To Be thoughtless is to be devoid of the separation called ego.. To be within Divine Consciousness is still to be within the thinking state but with a small amount of ego left called identification.. when you finally relinquish this last bit of lower self, then You become the Nothingness called Pure Awareness and are finally Free of all karma and incarnations.. Therefore, to Be is not to Be............namaste, thomas
Samadhi...
Much of the writing of Plotinus is descriptive of the state Hindus
call Nirvikalpa Samadhi. It is the total dispersal of the world from
the field of awareness, a complete flight from sensations, thoughts,
mental images, the physical body, and, above all, from any and every
kind of activity. To an outside observer, it may seem to be a trance
state, but he would not be correct in his observation, nor altogether
wrong. It is as deep as contemplation can possibly go. It is
Consciousness freed from any kind of personal admixture, staying only
with itself. All these other things being removed, what is left is
then true self-knowledge, even if it is unconscious to the ego.
— Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 8: The
Void As Contemplative Experience > # 75..... Paul Brunton
call Nirvikalpa Samadhi. It is the total dispersal of the world from
the field of awareness, a complete flight from sensations, thoughts,
mental images, the physical body, and, above all, from any and every
kind of activity. To an outside observer, it may seem to be a trance
state, but he would not be correct in his observation, nor altogether
wrong. It is as deep as contemplation can possibly go. It is
Consciousness freed from any kind of personal admixture, staying only
with itself. All these other things being removed, what is left is
then true self-knowledge, even if it is unconscious to the ego.
— Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 8: The
Void As Contemplative Experience > # 75..... Paul Brunton
Beyond Karma...
The secret of Spirituaity is to go beyond Karma.. Karma is created by the mind
through thoughts.. Once, you Realise that You are not thoughts or mind but are
in fact Divine Consciousness, then, You do not identify Your Self as anything
but what It Is.. This is the State of Love, which means that You do not return
to incarnation anymore.. This is the sinless state of Reality.. sin, is the
deviation from Truth.. The choice to become Nothing is really the Realisation
that you are No-thing.. This is the natural state of non-ego or what we call
Divine Consciousness.................namaste, thomas
through thoughts.. Once, you Realise that You are not thoughts or mind but are
in fact Divine Consciousness, then, You do not identify Your Self as anything
but what It Is.. This is the State of Love, which means that You do not return
to incarnation anymore.. This is the sinless state of Reality.. sin, is the
deviation from Truth.. The choice to become Nothing is really the Realisation
that you are No-thing.. This is the natural state of non-ego or what we call
Divine Consciousness.................namaste, thomas
Let Go...
What is not stable and permanent, let go.
There is only one thing left.
Worlds and gods will disappear, but This will not.
When you are reminded of this keep your eye on it,
not with the intention of having it, but just to BE it!
All the things you want are in the "let go" category:
House, wife, body, parents, gods, let go.
What is left? What cannot go? That you ARE!
You cannot go because you have never come
and anything that comes must go.
Find out what it is.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
There is only one thing left.
Worlds and gods will disappear, but This will not.
When you are reminded of this keep your eye on it,
not with the intention of having it, but just to BE it!
All the things you want are in the "let go" category:
House, wife, body, parents, gods, let go.
What is left? What cannot go? That you ARE!
You cannot go because you have never come
and anything that comes must go.
Find out what it is.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
Beyond the Beyond...
"Beyond this shore
And the farther shore,
Beyond the beyond,
Where there is no beginning,
No end.
Without fear, go."
~ Buddha ~
..............................................................................
And Gautama also speaks of going beyond Divine Consciousness when he says to go
beyond the beyond..(into Pure Awareness).........namaste, thomas
And the farther shore,
Beyond the beyond,
Where there is no beginning,
No end.
Without fear, go."
~ Buddha ~
..............................................................................
And Gautama also speaks of going beyond Divine Consciousness when he says to go
beyond the beyond..(into Pure Awareness).........namaste, thomas
The Mind...
Think and meditate about the mind, and how it involves you in all kinds of
schemes and desires. Try to watch how the mind works, and how thoughts arise.
For a while become an observer of your mind and its thoughts. Follow the way
they arise, move and make way to other thoughts. Pay attention how they entice
you to think them.
Now you have done something you may have never done before. You have thought
about your thoughts, you have viewed the mind from the outside, as if you were
watching someone else's mind. Without realizing it, you have watched the mind as
if you were separate from it. Wow! Think about it!
Now I ask you, who are you, the mind and its thoughts, or the one watching the
mind? If you have followed the above advice, then you have made a great
discovery: You are not the mind. You are the one who is watching it.
It is possible to develop the habit of looking at the mind as if from the
outside, as if it is not yours. Try not to be involved in the thoughts and
desires that arise, and at least in theory, separate yourself from the mind.
Just convince yourself that it is not you. Do it often, until you really start
to see that you are separate from the mind, which is some kind of a power you
can use.
Each day devote some time watching how thoughts enter your mind. Don't try to
think, just follow their movement dispassionately. Watch how they come, try to
claim your attention, grow, then wither, and new thoughts arise.
By experience you will come to appreciate how great and useful is this way of
treating the mind. If your concentration ability is strong enough, it will be
easier and faster to reach the conclusion that you are not the mind.
If you treat your thoughts with indifference, you will experience inner silence.
In this silence there is happiness, power, content and the certainty that
nothing can harm or disturb you anymore. By "you", I do not mean your body, I
mean you, your consciousness that at this moment of inner silence you consider
as yourself. You now know without the slightest doubt that you are not your
thoughts or mind, but something bigger and vaster.
A different kind of Consciousness......
When there are no thoughts, there is no vacuum. There is a feeling of
beginning-less and endless consciousness and awareness. Not awareness of
something, but just awareness. You can get some idea of what I mean, if you
remember how you felt in a completely dark and quiet room. You could see and
hear nothing, yet you were conscious. It was some sort of lack of sensory
perception, yet you had full consciousness. Not consciousness of something, but
just awareness of yourself. It is the same here, but vaster.
It is not the body that enters a peculiar and different state. It is neither the
mind, because it is silent. At this moment there are no concepts or thoughts in
the mind. As there are no thoughts, this consciousness cannot be an illusion, as
it is the mind that creates illusion, and it is not present now.
This consciousness is not something new. It is not something strange, peculiar,
unnatural or supernatural. It the substratum of our life, but we never pay it
attention. We let the mind rule and create our life. You may not accept it, but
what we call life, is actually a dream, a sort of a movie weaved by the mind. We
never stop to think and examine the mind and its thoughts. We have got
accustomed to live in the mind, rely on it, and accept whatever it presents us.
This Consciousness you are reading about is real, eternal, one and indivisible.
Due to ignorance and the way the mind works, we consider ourselves as a separate
organism with body and thoughts.
From the standpoint of the Indian philosophy Advaita-Vedanta all is
illusion-Maya. It is only the One great Universal Consciousness that exists.
While sleeping and dreaming, we see a world. This life we call awakening is also
a dream, but a longer one. When we stop our thoughts and quieten the mind, we
find out who we are and always were. When the coverings and sheets of the mind
are removed, we see reality as it really is..........Remez Sasson
schemes and desires. Try to watch how the mind works, and how thoughts arise.
For a while become an observer of your mind and its thoughts. Follow the way
they arise, move and make way to other thoughts. Pay attention how they entice
you to think them.
Now you have done something you may have never done before. You have thought
about your thoughts, you have viewed the mind from the outside, as if you were
watching someone else's mind. Without realizing it, you have watched the mind as
if you were separate from it. Wow! Think about it!
Now I ask you, who are you, the mind and its thoughts, or the one watching the
mind? If you have followed the above advice, then you have made a great
discovery: You are not the mind. You are the one who is watching it.
It is possible to develop the habit of looking at the mind as if from the
outside, as if it is not yours. Try not to be involved in the thoughts and
desires that arise, and at least in theory, separate yourself from the mind.
Just convince yourself that it is not you. Do it often, until you really start
to see that you are separate from the mind, which is some kind of a power you
can use.
Each day devote some time watching how thoughts enter your mind. Don't try to
think, just follow their movement dispassionately. Watch how they come, try to
claim your attention, grow, then wither, and new thoughts arise.
By experience you will come to appreciate how great and useful is this way of
treating the mind. If your concentration ability is strong enough, it will be
easier and faster to reach the conclusion that you are not the mind.
If you treat your thoughts with indifference, you will experience inner silence.
In this silence there is happiness, power, content and the certainty that
nothing can harm or disturb you anymore. By "you", I do not mean your body, I
mean you, your consciousness that at this moment of inner silence you consider
as yourself. You now know without the slightest doubt that you are not your
thoughts or mind, but something bigger and vaster.
A different kind of Consciousness......
When there are no thoughts, there is no vacuum. There is a feeling of
beginning-less and endless consciousness and awareness. Not awareness of
something, but just awareness. You can get some idea of what I mean, if you
remember how you felt in a completely dark and quiet room. You could see and
hear nothing, yet you were conscious. It was some sort of lack of sensory
perception, yet you had full consciousness. Not consciousness of something, but
just awareness of yourself. It is the same here, but vaster.
It is not the body that enters a peculiar and different state. It is neither the
mind, because it is silent. At this moment there are no concepts or thoughts in
the mind. As there are no thoughts, this consciousness cannot be an illusion, as
it is the mind that creates illusion, and it is not present now.
This consciousness is not something new. It is not something strange, peculiar,
unnatural or supernatural. It the substratum of our life, but we never pay it
attention. We let the mind rule and create our life. You may not accept it, but
what we call life, is actually a dream, a sort of a movie weaved by the mind. We
never stop to think and examine the mind and its thoughts. We have got
accustomed to live in the mind, rely on it, and accept whatever it presents us.
This Consciousness you are reading about is real, eternal, one and indivisible.
Due to ignorance and the way the mind works, we consider ourselves as a separate
organism with body and thoughts.
From the standpoint of the Indian philosophy Advaita-Vedanta all is
illusion-Maya. It is only the One great Universal Consciousness that exists.
While sleeping and dreaming, we see a world. This life we call awakening is also
a dream, but a longer one. When we stop our thoughts and quieten the mind, we
find out who we are and always were. When the coverings and sheets of the mind
are removed, we see reality as it really is..........Remez Sasson
Streams of Love...
The great teachers of humanity become streams of love.
Bowl of Saki, April 15, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Forgiveness is a stream of love which washes away all impurities wherever it
flows. By keeping this spring of love, which is in the heart of man, running,
man is able to forgive, however great the fault of his fellow man may seem. One
who cannot forgive closes his heart. The sign of spirituality is that there is
nothing you cannot forgive, there is no fault you cannot forget.
The great personalities who have descended on earth from time to time to awaken
in man that love, which is his divine inheritance, have always found an echo in
innocent souls rather than in great intellects. Man often confuses wisdom with
cleverness, but a man can be clever and not wise, and by cleverness a person may
strive and strive, and yet not reach God. It is a stream, the stream of love,
which leads towards God. ... Law has no power to stand before love; the stream
of love sweeps it away. When the woman accused by everyone was brought before
Christ, what arose from the heart of the master? The law? No, it was love in the
form of mercy and compassion.
In correcting a mureed of his faults it is not the intellect that is of much
use. It is the pouring out of the stream of love which can wash away the stains;
closing one's eyes to their faults, forgiving them, and yet correcting them with
all tolerance, gentleness, and humility; making before them all things natural,
nothing too horrible, but showing them the picture of a better life and thus
drawing them toward that which is ideal and beautiful. When the teacher finds
that the mureed is wrong he will not tell him that he is wrong, but will show
him what is right.
The great teachers and prophets, and the inspirers of humanity of all times have
not become what they were by their miracles or wonder-workings; these belong to
other people. The main thing that could be seen in them was their loving manner.
... One may ask: How to cultivate the heart quality? There is only one way: to
become selfless at each step one takes forward on this path, for what prevents
one from cultivating the loving quality is the thought of self. The more we
think of our self the less we think of others.
There is no greater magnetic power than love. Its magnetic power is very great.
It changes a person's voice, his heart, his manner, his form, his movement, his
activity, everything becomes changed. What a difference between water and rock;
that smoothness and that liquid state of being, the rise and fall of the surface
of the water compared with the rigidity of the rock! The great teachers of
humanity become streams of love. It is the first sign of the sage or holy man
that he himself becomes love. His voice, his feeling, his presence, everything
makes one realize that there is something open in him which we do not find in
everybody; this something is his deep love.
Bowl of Saki, April 15, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Forgiveness is a stream of love which washes away all impurities wherever it
flows. By keeping this spring of love, which is in the heart of man, running,
man is able to forgive, however great the fault of his fellow man may seem. One
who cannot forgive closes his heart. The sign of spirituality is that there is
nothing you cannot forgive, there is no fault you cannot forget.
The great personalities who have descended on earth from time to time to awaken
in man that love, which is his divine inheritance, have always found an echo in
innocent souls rather than in great intellects. Man often confuses wisdom with
cleverness, but a man can be clever and not wise, and by cleverness a person may
strive and strive, and yet not reach God. It is a stream, the stream of love,
which leads towards God. ... Law has no power to stand before love; the stream
of love sweeps it away. When the woman accused by everyone was brought before
Christ, what arose from the heart of the master? The law? No, it was love in the
form of mercy and compassion.
In correcting a mureed of his faults it is not the intellect that is of much
use. It is the pouring out of the stream of love which can wash away the stains;
closing one's eyes to their faults, forgiving them, and yet correcting them with
all tolerance, gentleness, and humility; making before them all things natural,
nothing too horrible, but showing them the picture of a better life and thus
drawing them toward that which is ideal and beautiful. When the teacher finds
that the mureed is wrong he will not tell him that he is wrong, but will show
him what is right.
The great teachers and prophets, and the inspirers of humanity of all times have
not become what they were by their miracles or wonder-workings; these belong to
other people. The main thing that could be seen in them was their loving manner.
... One may ask: How to cultivate the heart quality? There is only one way: to
become selfless at each step one takes forward on this path, for what prevents
one from cultivating the loving quality is the thought of self. The more we
think of our self the less we think of others.
There is no greater magnetic power than love. Its magnetic power is very great.
It changes a person's voice, his heart, his manner, his form, his movement, his
activity, everything becomes changed. What a difference between water and rock;
that smoothness and that liquid state of being, the rise and fall of the surface
of the water compared with the rigidity of the rock! The great teachers of
humanity become streams of love. It is the first sign of the sage or holy man
that he himself becomes love. His voice, his feeling, his presence, everything
makes one realize that there is something open in him which we do not find in
everybody; this something is his deep love.
The Liberated One...
Beyond non-personal freedom lies Liberation. A liberated person has transcended any motivations, personal or non-personal.
Everything happens spontaneously, free of any sense of being the doer of deeds.
The liberated one has association with consciousness but does not dwell there. The liberated one has returned consciously to the ultimate principle, which resides before the consciousness. He or she is the awareness of consciousness. An evolution has taken place in that person.
~ From: The Impact of Awakening, by Adyashanti www.adyashanti.org
Everything happens spontaneously, free of any sense of being the doer of deeds.
The liberated one has association with consciousness but does not dwell there. The liberated one has returned consciously to the ultimate principle, which resides before the consciousness. He or she is the awareness of consciousness. An evolution has taken place in that person.
~ From: The Impact of Awakening, by Adyashanti www.adyashanti.org
Ego and Enlightenment...
When someone has "achieved" Enlightenment, and tells another of this event, they
are often thought of as egoistic.. But, You do not "achieve" anything.. You
Realise Everything.. This experience is exactly the opposite of egoism, as the
ego must be surrendered into Nothingness to enter Reality.. Therefore, unless
someone is delusional, It is impossible to be egoistic and also Enlightened.. Of
course, this changes once You re-enter the material world and ego is again
present within the mind.. This is why the teaching of "No Mind" is taught by
Mystics, as the mind is the source of ego and No-Mind is the source of Divine
Awareness...............namaste, thomas
are often thought of as egoistic.. But, You do not "achieve" anything.. You
Realise Everything.. This experience is exactly the opposite of egoism, as the
ego must be surrendered into Nothingness to enter Reality.. Therefore, unless
someone is delusional, It is impossible to be egoistic and also Enlightened.. Of
course, this changes once You re-enter the material world and ego is again
present within the mind.. This is why the teaching of "No Mind" is taught by
Mystics, as the mind is the source of ego and No-Mind is the source of Divine
Awareness...............namaste, thomas
Thought...
"Why chase after thoughts, which are superficial ripples of present
awareness? Rather look directly into the naked, empty nature of thoughts; then there is
no
duality, no observer, and nothing observed. Simply rest in this transparent, nondual present awareness. Make yourself at
home in the natural state of pure presence, just being, not doing anything in
particular."
~ Jamgon Kontrul Rinpoche ~
.............................................................................
This is the state that nisargadatta spoke of when he said that you must move
beyond Divine Consciousness to Divine Awareness.. Divine Consciousness is the
moving state of creation and thought and Divine Awareness is beyond thought and
is Pure Being...........namaste, thomas
awareness? Rather look directly into the naked, empty nature of thoughts; then there is
no
duality, no observer, and nothing observed. Simply rest in this transparent, nondual present awareness. Make yourself at
home in the natural state of pure presence, just being, not doing anything in
particular."
~ Jamgon Kontrul Rinpoche ~
.............................................................................
This is the state that nisargadatta spoke of when he said that you must move
beyond Divine Consciousness to Divine Awareness.. Divine Consciousness is the
moving state of creation and thought and Divine Awareness is beyond thought and
is Pure Being...........namaste, thomas
Needs...
What you need will come to you, if you
do not ask for what you do not need. Yet
only few people reach this state of com-
plete dispassion and detachment. It is
a very high state, the very threshold of
liberation.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
do not ask for what you do not need. Yet
only few people reach this state of com-
plete dispassion and detachment. It is
a very high state, the very threshold of
liberation.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
Formless Consciousness...
First, one awakens to personal freedom: the realization that you are formless consciousness itself. As consciousness, you are free of body-mind identity.
Then, there is the awakening to non-personal freedom. This is the birth of a vast non-personal Love for the whole, for all beings and all things. It is the realization that, you are the whole. Therefore, a freedom that is in any sense personal seems pale in comparison to a love, which is so much greater.
This is a phase of surrendering any and all personal attachments to the greatest good, the Self. As self-centered concerns dissolve, a love that is all-inclusive sweeps you up into its arms and into a new life of service, celebration, and love.
~ From: The Impact of Awakening, by Adyashanti www.adyashanti.org
Then, there is the awakening to non-personal freedom. This is the birth of a vast non-personal Love for the whole, for all beings and all things. It is the realization that, you are the whole. Therefore, a freedom that is in any sense personal seems pale in comparison to a love, which is so much greater.
This is a phase of surrendering any and all personal attachments to the greatest good, the Self. As self-centered concerns dissolve, a love that is all-inclusive sweeps you up into its arms and into a new life of service, celebration, and love.
~ From: The Impact of Awakening, by Adyashanti www.adyashanti.org
A Single Light...
It is as if a raindrop fell from heaven into a stream or fountain
and became one with the water in it so that never again can the
raindrop be separated from the water of the stream; or as if a
little brook ran into the sea and there was thenceforward no
means of distinguishing its water from the ocean; or as if a
brilliant light came into a room through two windows and though
it comes in divided between them, it forms a single light inside.
~St. Teresa of Avila
and became one with the water in it so that never again can the
raindrop be separated from the water of the stream; or as if a
little brook ran into the sea and there was thenceforward no
means of distinguishing its water from the ocean; or as if a
brilliant light came into a room through two windows and though
it comes in divided between them, it forms a single light inside.
~St. Teresa of Avila
The Center...
Heaven and earth are impartial;
They see the ten thousand things as straw dogs.
The wise are impartial;
They see the people as straw dogs.
The space between heaven and earth is like a bellows.
The shape changes but not the form;
The more it moves, the more it yields.
More words count less.
Hold fast to the center.
- Lao-tzu
They see the ten thousand things as straw dogs.
The wise are impartial;
They see the people as straw dogs.
The space between heaven and earth is like a bellows.
The shape changes but not the form;
The more it moves, the more it yields.
More words count less.
Hold fast to the center.
- Lao-tzu
Seng T'san, the third Zen Patriarch: The Mind of Absolute Trust ...
The great way isn't difficult for those who are unattached to their preferences.
Let go of longing and aversion, and everything will be perfectly clear.
When you cling to a hairbreadth of distinction, heaven and earth are set apart.
If you want to realize the truth, don't be for or against.
The struggle between good and evil is the primal disease of the mind.
Not grasping the deeper meaning, you just trouble your minds serenity.
As vast as infinite space, it is perfect and lacks nothing.
But because you select and reject, you can't perceive its true nature.
Don't get entangled in the world; don't lose yourself in emptiness.
Be at peace in the oneness of things, and all errors will disappear by themselves.
If you don't live the Tao, you fall into assertion or denial.
Asserting that the world is real, you are blind to its deeper reality;
denying that the world is real, you are blind to the selflessness of all things.
The more you think about these matters, the farther you are from the truth.
Step aside from all thinking, and there is nowhere you can't go.
Returning to the root, you find the meaning;
chasing appearances, you lose there source.
At the moment of profound insight, you transcend both appearance and emptiness.
Don't keep searching for the truth; just let go of your opinions.
For the mind in harmony with the Tao, all selfishness disappears.
With not even a trace of self-doubt, you can trust the universe completely.
All at once you are free, with nothing left to hold on to.
All is empty, brilliant, perfect in its own being.
In the world of things as they are, there is no self, no non self.
If you want to describe its essence, the best you can say is "Not-two."
In this "Not-two" nothing is separate, and nothing in the world is excluded.
The enlightened of all times and places have entered into this truth.
In it there is no gain or loss; one instant is ten thousand years.
There is no here, no there; infinity is right before your eyes.
The tiny is as large as the vast when objective boundaries have vanished;
the vast is as small as the tiny when you don't have external limits.
Being is an aspect of non-being; non-being is no different from being.
Until you understand this truth, you won't see anything clearly.
One is all; all are one. When you realize this, what reason for holiness or wisdom?
The mind of absolute trust is beyond all thought, all striving,
is perfectly at peace, for in it there is no yesterday, no today, no tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let go of longing and aversion, and everything will be perfectly clear.
When you cling to a hairbreadth of distinction, heaven and earth are set apart.
If you want to realize the truth, don't be for or against.
The struggle between good and evil is the primal disease of the mind.
Not grasping the deeper meaning, you just trouble your minds serenity.
As vast as infinite space, it is perfect and lacks nothing.
But because you select and reject, you can't perceive its true nature.
Don't get entangled in the world; don't lose yourself in emptiness.
Be at peace in the oneness of things, and all errors will disappear by themselves.
If you don't live the Tao, you fall into assertion or denial.
Asserting that the world is real, you are blind to its deeper reality;
denying that the world is real, you are blind to the selflessness of all things.
The more you think about these matters, the farther you are from the truth.
Step aside from all thinking, and there is nowhere you can't go.
Returning to the root, you find the meaning;
chasing appearances, you lose there source.
At the moment of profound insight, you transcend both appearance and emptiness.
Don't keep searching for the truth; just let go of your opinions.
For the mind in harmony with the Tao, all selfishness disappears.
With not even a trace of self-doubt, you can trust the universe completely.
All at once you are free, with nothing left to hold on to.
All is empty, brilliant, perfect in its own being.
In the world of things as they are, there is no self, no non self.
If you want to describe its essence, the best you can say is "Not-two."
In this "Not-two" nothing is separate, and nothing in the world is excluded.
The enlightened of all times and places have entered into this truth.
In it there is no gain or loss; one instant is ten thousand years.
There is no here, no there; infinity is right before your eyes.
The tiny is as large as the vast when objective boundaries have vanished;
the vast is as small as the tiny when you don't have external limits.
Being is an aspect of non-being; non-being is no different from being.
Until you understand this truth, you won't see anything clearly.
One is all; all are one. When you realize this, what reason for holiness or wisdom?
The mind of absolute trust is beyond all thought, all striving,
is perfectly at peace, for in it there is no yesterday, no today, no tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your True Identity...
Jac O'Keeffe quote,
What you are has nothing to say. Your true identity isn't concerned with being known, seen, recognized, or appreciated. Your true identity is beyond all of this.
What you are has nothing to say. Your true identity isn't concerned with being known, seen, recognized, or appreciated. Your true identity is beyond all of this.
Consciousness...
The Sufi believes that consciousness has, so to speak, produced matter, or
substance, out of itself, while yet remaining itself in its original state.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged BY
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
substance, out of itself, while yet remaining itself in its original state.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged BY
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
The Overself...
From the human standpoint the Overself is‑ the deeper layer of mind where man can become conscious of‑God It is the timeless spaceless immanence of the universal being in a particular centre.
Wisdom of the Overself
The Immortal Overself
...Paul Brunton
Wisdom of the Overself
The Immortal Overself
...Paul Brunton
Understanding Non-Duality...
The understanding of non-duality requires a great deal of contemplation and meditation.. Sitting in Silence is something that we should do everyday.. Jesus bypassed the metaphysical aspects of non-duality by teaching people to practice Unconditional Love as the path to Freedom.. Unconditional Love is non-duality.. non-love is the illusion of separation called ego.. Therefore, by practicing and being Unconditonal Love, You have Become Yourself......namaste, thomas
The Binary Code...
You and your mind? That implies a split does is not? The ego does not exist. The body is something the mind is nothing. The whole universe is made of something and nothing. It's the basis for the binary code. You are not your thoughts! No one can help you because there's no "you" to help!.............from wayghost
Brain and Karma...
If it takes the whole brain to produce one thought, it also takes the whole universe to perform a single action. Like a neuron, electrons and atoms seem to be independent, yet a change of electron spin at one extreme of the universe will be mirrored, instantly and without sending signals, by a paired electron billions of light years away.
So the “binding effect” is cosmic as well as personal; it exists “in here” and “out there.” The net result is that you are an activity of the whole universe, an insight that sounds abstract, but just as a single thought requires your brain to perform a huge number of unseen calculations, so Karma performs unseen calculations to produce you.
As we now can prove, change and stability coexist in the brain; without both it couldn’t operate. When you remember an old birthday, you can call it “my” thought, but you feel no personal connection to synapses and dendrites or the firestorm of signals passing over them.
Brain cells work by totally predictable means involving exchanges of electrical charges between sodium and potassium atoms and simple oscillations between positive and negative electrical impulses. Somehow that mechanical stability produces free, creative, unpredictable thought forms.
The rishis asserted the same about Karma. It is infinitely flexible and infinitely inflexible depending on how you look at it. Unknown forces are free to reshape you without your knowledge. They do it all the time, since none of us has the slightest awareness of how our brains move from thought A to thought B.
This opens the question of how much choice we exercise over our next lifetime. The coexistence of opposites is a paradox, and unless we solve it we have no control over the afterlife; we are just caught in the meshes of a machine that can produce any outcome according to its own whims.
Adapted from Life After Death: The Burden of Proof, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2006).
So the “binding effect” is cosmic as well as personal; it exists “in here” and “out there.” The net result is that you are an activity of the whole universe, an insight that sounds abstract, but just as a single thought requires your brain to perform a huge number of unseen calculations, so Karma performs unseen calculations to produce you.
As we now can prove, change and stability coexist in the brain; without both it couldn’t operate. When you remember an old birthday, you can call it “my” thought, but you feel no personal connection to synapses and dendrites or the firestorm of signals passing over them.
Brain cells work by totally predictable means involving exchanges of electrical charges between sodium and potassium atoms and simple oscillations between positive and negative electrical impulses. Somehow that mechanical stability produces free, creative, unpredictable thought forms.
The rishis asserted the same about Karma. It is infinitely flexible and infinitely inflexible depending on how you look at it. Unknown forces are free to reshape you without your knowledge. They do it all the time, since none of us has the slightest awareness of how our brains move from thought A to thought B.
This opens the question of how much choice we exercise over our next lifetime. The coexistence of opposites is a paradox, and unless we solve it we have no control over the afterlife; we are just caught in the meshes of a machine that can produce any outcome according to its own whims.
Adapted from Life After Death: The Burden of Proof, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2006).
Perception of Separation...
Jac OKeeffe quote,
"Same in essence, different in expression." Take this view with all that you see and with whom you meet today. Do not identify with being a part of creation. You are That which is all of it. Let your perception of separation fall away. All in creation is the same in essence, different in expression.
"Same in essence, different in expression." Take this view with all that you see and with whom you meet today. Do not identify with being a part of creation. You are That which is all of it. Let your perception of separation fall away. All in creation is the same in essence, different in expression.
Who Teaches Spirituality?...
The work of the spiritual teacher is like the
work of Cupid. The work of Cupid is to bring
two souls together; and so is the work of the
spiritual teacher: to bring together the soul and
God. But what is taught to the one who seeks
after truth? Nothing is taught. He is only shown
how he should learn from God. For no man
can ever teach spirituality; it is God alone who
teaches it.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Hazrat Inayat Khan
Mastery Through Accomplishment
Omega Press, 1978
work of Cupid. The work of Cupid is to bring
two souls together; and so is the work of the
spiritual teacher: to bring together the soul and
God. But what is taught to the one who seeks
after truth? Nothing is taught. He is only shown
how he should learn from God. For no man
can ever teach spirituality; it is God alone who
teaches it.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Hazrat Inayat Khan
Mastery Through Accomplishment
Omega Press, 1978
It IS...
The common conception of immortality would make it an indefinite prolongation of personal existence. The mystic conception would make it an indefinite prolongation of personal bliss. The philosophic conception, however, transcends both these notions because it discards the personal life and replaces it by its ultimate non‑egoistic root, the individual Overself. The first two are still within the time‑series, albeit it is not the kind of time we ordinarily know on earth, whereas the third is beyond any possible consideration of time or succession. It IS. Such true deathlessness can be attained only in the Overself, for this does not derive its life, as the body does, from another principle. It has life of itself.
Wisdom of the Overself
The Immortal Overself
Paul Brunton
Wisdom of the Overself
The Immortal Overself
Paul Brunton
The Root of Pain...
What is the root of pain? Ignorance of
yourself. What is the root of desire?
The urge to find yourself. All creation
toils for its self and will not rest until
it returns to it.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
yourself. What is the root of desire?
The urge to find yourself. All creation
toils for its self and will not rest until
it returns to it.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
Nothingness...
No-thing-ness..is Pure Awareness.. Everything in existence is not solid, It is
Thought.. 99.99999999% of all atoms is empty space.. this Nothingness of empty
space is Consciousness.. This Thought creates the illusion of the solidity of
matter.. Pure Awareness is the Source of the Energy of Thought called Divine
Consciousness.. Divine Consciousness is Our State of Being, while within the
Frequencies and Dimensions of Thought Creation.. We are the fingers of the Hand
of God.. We appear separated but are really attached and part of God.. We also
have the ability to create at will, using Thought power called
Belief................namaste, thomas
Thought.. 99.99999999% of all atoms is empty space.. this Nothingness of empty
space is Consciousness.. This Thought creates the illusion of the solidity of
matter.. Pure Awareness is the Source of the Energy of Thought called Divine
Consciousness.. Divine Consciousness is Our State of Being, while within the
Frequencies and Dimensions of Thought Creation.. We are the fingers of the Hand
of God.. We appear separated but are really attached and part of God.. We also
have the ability to create at will, using Thought power called
Belief................namaste, thomas
Emptiness...
In sitting meditation, we experience emptiness directly as the simultaneous absence of thought and presence of awareness. We experience form as the thought and sensation which arise from the condition of non-thought. We experience non-duality as the nature of Mind in which thought and the absence of thought are no longer mutually exclusive – they have the same taste.
We may experiences flashes of emptiness and non-duality soon after we first learn to meditate. These flashes inspire us to deepen our practice. Significant periods of emptiness generally require a few years of regular practice.
In everyday life, it is possible to begin to observe form, emptiness, and non-duality – immediately. Form, emptiness, and non-duality are aspects of existence:
•Form is the quality of solidity, permanence, separateness, continuity, and definition.
•Emptiness is the quality of insubstantiality, impermanence, indistinctness, discontinuity, and ambiguity.
•Non-duality is the recognition that existence and experience are permeated by the qualities of form and emptiness. These qualities are in constant erratic flux. Our searches either for security (form) or excitement (emptiness) are based on attempts to control that flux.
Having explored the view, we must validate that conceptual understanding in our lives. Unless emptiness and form become evident in our experience of life, the practices of Vajrayana Buddhism can be no more than an exotic hobby.
Habitually, we adhere to form and reject emptiness. We experience the world as having better and worse components. We attempt to collect and consume that which we see as better, and to rid ourselves of that which we take to be worse. We try to manipulate and stabilise our situations using conceptual trial-and-error understandings of cause and effect. This life-strategy intermittently fails due to erratic intrusions of emptiness. Things we thought were objectively desirable prove ambiguous in their desirability. They modulate and mutate in terms of what they mean to us. Undesirable situations and phenomena cannot be entirely eliminated – because they are not separate from us. Often our actions do not have the effects we expect. Just as we think we have everything under control—on the verge of achieving lasting happiness—some unexpected problem arises and wrecks our plans. We experience emptiness as confusion, ambivalence, ambiguity, chaos, termination, insecurity, disarray, loss, disintegration, inexplicable anxiety, loss of direction, and apparent misfortune.
We only fear emptiness because we imagine a characteristic form will be lost – we fear forever. We cling to form as security because form temporarily allows us to pretend that it is not also empty. Dissatisfaction is created by continual bids to secure forms – which subsequently prove to be empty of security. Dissatisfaction is also created by continual bids to dissolve insecurities which subsequently prove indissoluble. It is not possible to find anything other than this. Emptiness and form always define each other – as each other.
Form can be understood as ‘existence’ and emptiness as ‘non-existence’. Emptiness however, is not merely ‘nothing’. Emptiness need not be experienced negatively. Emptiness is the arena in which everything occurs. It is the creative space in which form comes into being. Form can only exist because of emptiness; which is why emptiness is often referred to as ‘the great mother’ or ‘the womb of potentiality’.
Some words which value emptiness positively are: freedom, spontaneity, opportunity, relaxation, serendipity, inspiration, potential, humour, creativity, relief, wonderment, vastness. We must enjoy emptiness if we are to enjoy form. A gracious relationship with form is impossible unless we relate courageously with emptiness – because emptiness and form are non-dual. They are aspects of each other.
This endless non-dual reflection is the limitless dance of Vajrayana Buddhism. Our spiritual practice consists simply of learning to dance with the emptiness and form of phenomena. Vajrayana introduces the one taste of emptiness and form. We develop the ability to actively savour apparently polarised tension, rather than experiencing it in a victim rôle. This apparently polarised tension, after all, is merely created through ongoing attempts to attach to form whilst rejecting emptiness.
We need to observe the way in which we attempt to solidify emptiness. In so doing, we crush our freedom through attempting to impose form on situations where reality is in creative flux. Alternatively—in the disconcerting gaps between contrasting segments of life—we might sense a dimension of being that is independent of circumstances. It is interesting—on finding this space—to allow events to remain undefined a little longer than usual. Settling into uncertainty and feeling its texture – life can disclose itself as emptiness and form: beads on the thread of energy which comprise the nature of experience. We can simply flow with the multiplicity of definitions manifested by reality. We can swim in swirling torrents of form and relax in still pools of emptiness.
This requires that we allow polarities to coexist. We can deliberately entertain experiential and existential paradoxes. We can embrace our impulsiveness and caution, credulity and scepticism, craziness and absolute sanity. Unless we are prepared to feel the texture of these erratically alternating possibilities – the energy of being remains incomprehensible. If we delightedly embrace the possibility of expanding into the fierce totality of each moment—as it arrives—we can know what it is to be alive.
..........from arobuddhism.org
We may experiences flashes of emptiness and non-duality soon after we first learn to meditate. These flashes inspire us to deepen our practice. Significant periods of emptiness generally require a few years of regular practice.
In everyday life, it is possible to begin to observe form, emptiness, and non-duality – immediately. Form, emptiness, and non-duality are aspects of existence:
•Form is the quality of solidity, permanence, separateness, continuity, and definition.
•Emptiness is the quality of insubstantiality, impermanence, indistinctness, discontinuity, and ambiguity.
•Non-duality is the recognition that existence and experience are permeated by the qualities of form and emptiness. These qualities are in constant erratic flux. Our searches either for security (form) or excitement (emptiness) are based on attempts to control that flux.
Having explored the view, we must validate that conceptual understanding in our lives. Unless emptiness and form become evident in our experience of life, the practices of Vajrayana Buddhism can be no more than an exotic hobby.
Habitually, we adhere to form and reject emptiness. We experience the world as having better and worse components. We attempt to collect and consume that which we see as better, and to rid ourselves of that which we take to be worse. We try to manipulate and stabilise our situations using conceptual trial-and-error understandings of cause and effect. This life-strategy intermittently fails due to erratic intrusions of emptiness. Things we thought were objectively desirable prove ambiguous in their desirability. They modulate and mutate in terms of what they mean to us. Undesirable situations and phenomena cannot be entirely eliminated – because they are not separate from us. Often our actions do not have the effects we expect. Just as we think we have everything under control—on the verge of achieving lasting happiness—some unexpected problem arises and wrecks our plans. We experience emptiness as confusion, ambivalence, ambiguity, chaos, termination, insecurity, disarray, loss, disintegration, inexplicable anxiety, loss of direction, and apparent misfortune.
We only fear emptiness because we imagine a characteristic form will be lost – we fear forever. We cling to form as security because form temporarily allows us to pretend that it is not also empty. Dissatisfaction is created by continual bids to secure forms – which subsequently prove to be empty of security. Dissatisfaction is also created by continual bids to dissolve insecurities which subsequently prove indissoluble. It is not possible to find anything other than this. Emptiness and form always define each other – as each other.
Form can be understood as ‘existence’ and emptiness as ‘non-existence’. Emptiness however, is not merely ‘nothing’. Emptiness need not be experienced negatively. Emptiness is the arena in which everything occurs. It is the creative space in which form comes into being. Form can only exist because of emptiness; which is why emptiness is often referred to as ‘the great mother’ or ‘the womb of potentiality’.
Some words which value emptiness positively are: freedom, spontaneity, opportunity, relaxation, serendipity, inspiration, potential, humour, creativity, relief, wonderment, vastness. We must enjoy emptiness if we are to enjoy form. A gracious relationship with form is impossible unless we relate courageously with emptiness – because emptiness and form are non-dual. They are aspects of each other.
This endless non-dual reflection is the limitless dance of Vajrayana Buddhism. Our spiritual practice consists simply of learning to dance with the emptiness and form of phenomena. Vajrayana introduces the one taste of emptiness and form. We develop the ability to actively savour apparently polarised tension, rather than experiencing it in a victim rôle. This apparently polarised tension, after all, is merely created through ongoing attempts to attach to form whilst rejecting emptiness.
We need to observe the way in which we attempt to solidify emptiness. In so doing, we crush our freedom through attempting to impose form on situations where reality is in creative flux. Alternatively—in the disconcerting gaps between contrasting segments of life—we might sense a dimension of being that is independent of circumstances. It is interesting—on finding this space—to allow events to remain undefined a little longer than usual. Settling into uncertainty and feeling its texture – life can disclose itself as emptiness and form: beads on the thread of energy which comprise the nature of experience. We can simply flow with the multiplicity of definitions manifested by reality. We can swim in swirling torrents of form and relax in still pools of emptiness.
This requires that we allow polarities to coexist. We can deliberately entertain experiential and existential paradoxes. We can embrace our impulsiveness and caution, credulity and scepticism, craziness and absolute sanity. Unless we are prepared to feel the texture of these erratically alternating possibilities – the energy of being remains incomprehensible. If we delightedly embrace the possibility of expanding into the fierce totality of each moment—as it arrives—we can know what it is to be alive.
..........from arobuddhism.org
Thought...
It's funny that we have to use thought to reach the door of Reality, but then have to drop thought to enter Reality.. because, our thoughts are of our own creation.. our creation can be Heaven or Hell.. It depends on our Free Will.. Thoughts of non-existence of false self bring us Home to Divine Consciousness but the highest Reality exists beyond all thought.. It is Pure Awareness.. This is the Creator of Thought.. Thought is used as the Energy of Creation.. This is why Jesus said;" Is it not written, that You are Gods".. He uses the Plural because Divine Consciousness is the Plural of Identities but the Singularity of God.. The Final Reality is the Realisation of non-identification, non-existence, that Nothingness that Creates all that which is Everythingness.....namaste, thomas
Belief and Books...
So much belief and credence is given to the bible,torah,koran,and so forth, but are these needed?.. Have we risen in Consciousness to travel beyond words.. Does God need books to reveal what is already visible?.. You are immersed in Knowledge and Truth if you dare to see and feel.. you seek Love within your life and yet you do not Know that Love is God.. you keep looking up into the sky or in books to find God and yet all you have to do is feel Love.. This is both the Essence and Being of God.. How long will we live in pain and separation before we Realise that "belief" is the wall that separates us from Reality.. Reality and God do not need belief, to exist.. We use this power of thought called belief to create.. do we think that we can create God by the power of belief?.. but, this is what is being taught by religion.. as though we are giving a gift to God by believing in Him/Her/It...We do not need to believe, We need to Realise Reality..........namaste, thomas
Controlling your Mind...
The easiest method that I have used over the years to achieve the state of happiness is to stay Awake each second.. this requires that you are serious about changing your thoughts and life.. when a thought of negativity comes within the mind, such as being stuck in traffic or waiting in lines, you must be awake to these thoughts and refuse them, knowing that by refusing these thoughts, you will achieve the state of peace.. peace is the place of no ego.. ego demands that the experiences of life conform to your demands.. learn to flow with the river of life and stop trying to push the river.. When, the people around you notice that you are not affected by experiences that would disturb them, you will see enquiring eyes from them, wondering how you are able to be so relaxed.. this is how you will know that you are progressing in your own mind control..........namaste, thomas
Freedom...
Freedom is not
arrogance
Freedom is not
self-assertion
Freedom is
where you feel joy.
Without learning anything
you know everything
and having everything
you are bound by nothing;
this is the true nature
of a free soul.
- Swami Amar Jyoti
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"In Light of Wisdom"
Swami Amar Jyoti
Truth Consciousness, Boulder, Colorado, 1983
arrogance
Freedom is not
self-assertion
Freedom is
where you feel joy.
Without learning anything
you know everything
and having everything
you are bound by nothing;
this is the true nature
of a free soul.
- Swami Amar Jyoti
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"In Light of Wisdom"
Swami Amar Jyoti
Truth Consciousness, Boulder, Colorado, 1983
Human Life...
What drives the life of humanity is ego.. the subconscious mind is the personality that you create.. It contains the thoughts that flow through your conscious mind.. It does not differentiate between good and bad thoughts.. you should be in control of good and bad, which are actually called non- ego and ego or Love and selfishness.. you do not have to let go, to observe the thoughts of mind.. all you have to do is stay Awake.. stop falling into the average human sleep of hypnosis that is called normalacy.. You are Consciousness and Light, but you have forgotten Your Name.. stay awake each moment to remember Your Real Self............namaste, thomas
Unconditional Love...
Jac OKeeffe quote;
All that can be understood as love arises from what you are. All that can be understood as peace arises from what you are. All that can be called freedom or joy arises from what you are. Yet love and peace and freedom and joy are but ideas that can never hold a candle to what you are.
All that can be understood as love arises from what you are. All that can be understood as peace arises from what you are. All that can be called freedom or joy arises from what you are. Yet love and peace and freedom and joy are but ideas that can never hold a candle to what you are.
The Crucifixion...
He whose body is eaten by worms or burnt by fire remains untouched and unharmed. His personality returns as surely as tomorrow’s sun, whilst his essence has neither gone nor come: it is!
Wisdom of the Overself
Scorpion of Death
Rebirth
.... Paul Brunton
Wisdom of the Overself
Scorpion of Death
Rebirth
.... Paul Brunton
Belief...
Belief is the programing of the sub-conscious mind by the conscious mind.. this is proven by hypnosis.. under suggestion by hypnosis, the body will be changed immediately to conform with your belief in the commands of the hypnotist.. this is how healing works.. the body is an illusion created by mind and is changed by mind by the power of belief.. hypnosis is the controlling of the sub-conscious mind by another but you can learn to accomplish this yourself.. the daily activities of the mind program the sub-conscious mind without you even realizing it.. the purpose of the Spiritual Path is to awaken to watching the mind from the level of Consciousness and using the mind to train and program the sub-conscious mind to accept only thoughts of non-ego.. eventually, ego thoughts will rarely enter and when they do, You will be watching them and dissolving them into nothingness.. The biggest secret of this paragraph is that the Sub-Conscousness Mind is also The Soul..............namaste, thomas
Ram Tzu Speaks...
Ram Tzu knows this - -
You can only be lost
If you are trying
To get somewhere.
- Ram Tzu
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
No Way for the Spiritually "Advanced"
Ram Tzu
Advaita Press, 1990
You can only be lost
If you are trying
To get somewhere.
- Ram Tzu
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
No Way for the Spiritually "Advanced"
Ram Tzu
Advaita Press, 1990
Going Home...
On its return journey the soul gives back all its properties to their own
sources. Then it is the soul in its own essence that is left, merging into the
ocean of consciousness where nothing of its previous properties remains. Even
its love and kindness and its nice feelings it cannot take higher than the world
of the angels.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged By
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
sources. Then it is the soul in its own essence that is left, merging into the
ocean of consciousness where nothing of its previous properties remains. Even
its love and kindness and its nice feelings it cannot take higher than the world
of the angels.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged By
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
Accusations and Defenses...
The game of ego requires duality.. The game of ego takes the roles of both accuser and defender.. When Jesus was brought before the court of the Romans to defend Himself, He remained silent.. Why would a man, not defend his life?..especially when He was innocent.. This is the question that we must ponder to recognise Freedom.. Jesus was practicing non-duality.. There was no false self or false illusion of life to defend.. He was at One with Reality.. He was at One with the Father.. This was the lesson that He taught, by using His very life as an example of Truth..........namaste, thomas
The Art of Now: Six Steps to Living in the Moment ...
A friend was walking in the desert when he found the telephone to God. The setting was Burning Man, an electronic arts and music festival for which 50,000 people descend on Black Rock City, Nevada, for eight days of "radical self-expression"—dancing, socializing, meditating, and debauchery.
A phone booth in the middle of the desert with a sign that said "Talk to God" was a surreal sight even at Burning Man. The idea was that you picked up the phone, and God—or someone claiming to be God—would be at the other end to ease your pain.
So when God came on the line asking how he could help, my friend was ready. "How can I live more in the moment?" he asked. Too often, he felt, the beautiful moments of his life were drowned out by a cacophony of self-consciousness and anxiety. What could he do to hush the buzzing of his mind?
"Breathe," replied a soothing male voice.
My friend flinched at the tired new-age mantra, then reminded himself to keep an open mind. When God talks, you listen.
"Whenever you feel anxious about your future or your past, just breathe," continued God. "Try it with me a few times right now. Breathe in... breathe out." And despite himself, my friend began to relax.
You Are Not Your Thoughts
Life unfolds in the present. But so often, we let the present slip away, allowing time to rush past unobserved and unseized, and squandering the precious seconds of our lives as we worry about the future and ruminate about what's past. "We're living in a world that contributes in a major way to mental fragmentation, disintegration, distraction, decoherence," says Buddhist scholar B. Alan Wallace. We're always doing something, and we allow little time to practice stillness and calm.
When we're at work, we fantasize about being on vacation; on vacation, we worry about the work piling up on our desks. We dwell on intrusive memories of the past or fret about what may or may not happen in the future. We don't appreciate the living present because our "monkey minds," as Buddhists call them, vault from thought to thought like monkeys swinging from tree to tree.
Most of us don't undertake our thoughts in awareness. Rather, our thoughts control us. "Ordinary thoughts course through our mind like a deafening waterfall," writes Jon Kabat-Zinn, the biomedical scientist who introduced meditation into mainstream medicine. In order to feel more in control of our minds and our lives, to find the sense of balance that eludes us, we need to step out of this current, to pause, and, as Kabat-Zinn puts it, to "rest in stillness—to stop doing and focus on just being."
We need to live more in the moment. Living in the moment—also called mindfulness—is a state of active, open, intentional attention on the present. When you become mindful, you realize that you are not your thoughts; you become an observer of your thoughts from moment to moment without judging them. Mindfulness involves being with your thoughts as they are, neither grasping at them nor pushing them away. Instead of letting your life go by without living it, you awaken to experience.
Cultivating a nonjudgmental awareness of the present bestows a host of benefits. Mindfulness reduces stress, boosts immune functioning, reduces chronic pain, lowers blood pressure, and helps patients cope with cancer. By alleviating stress, spending a few minutes a day actively focusing on living in the moment reduces the risk of heart disease. Mindfulness may even slow the progression of HIV.
Mindful people are happier, more exuberant, more empathetic, and more secure. They have higher self-esteem and are more accepting of their own weaknesses. Anchoring awareness in the here and now reduces the kinds of impulsivity and reactivity that underlie depression, binge eating, and attention problems. Mindful people can hear negative feedback without feeling threatened. They fight less with their romantic partners and are more accommodating and less defensive. As a result, mindful couples have more satisfying relationships.
Mindfulness is at the root of Buddhism, Taoism, and many Native-American traditions, not to mention yoga. It's why Thoreau went to Walden Pond; it's what Emerson and Whitman wrote about in their essays and poems.
"Everyone agrees it's important to live in the moment, but the problem is how," says Ellen Langer, a psychologist at Harvard and author of Mindfulness. "When people are not in the moment, they're not there to know that they're not there." Overriding the distraction reflex and awakening to the present takes intentionality and practice.
Living in the moment involves a profound paradox: You can't pursue it for its benefits. That's because the expectation of reward launches a future-oriented mindset, which subverts the entire process. Instead, you just have to trust that the rewards will come. There are many paths to mindfulness—and at the core of each is a paradox. Ironically, letting go of what you want is the only way to get it. ...................Jay Dixit
A phone booth in the middle of the desert with a sign that said "Talk to God" was a surreal sight even at Burning Man. The idea was that you picked up the phone, and God—or someone claiming to be God—would be at the other end to ease your pain.
So when God came on the line asking how he could help, my friend was ready. "How can I live more in the moment?" he asked. Too often, he felt, the beautiful moments of his life were drowned out by a cacophony of self-consciousness and anxiety. What could he do to hush the buzzing of his mind?
"Breathe," replied a soothing male voice.
My friend flinched at the tired new-age mantra, then reminded himself to keep an open mind. When God talks, you listen.
"Whenever you feel anxious about your future or your past, just breathe," continued God. "Try it with me a few times right now. Breathe in... breathe out." And despite himself, my friend began to relax.
You Are Not Your Thoughts
Life unfolds in the present. But so often, we let the present slip away, allowing time to rush past unobserved and unseized, and squandering the precious seconds of our lives as we worry about the future and ruminate about what's past. "We're living in a world that contributes in a major way to mental fragmentation, disintegration, distraction, decoherence," says Buddhist scholar B. Alan Wallace. We're always doing something, and we allow little time to practice stillness and calm.
When we're at work, we fantasize about being on vacation; on vacation, we worry about the work piling up on our desks. We dwell on intrusive memories of the past or fret about what may or may not happen in the future. We don't appreciate the living present because our "monkey minds," as Buddhists call them, vault from thought to thought like monkeys swinging from tree to tree.
Most of us don't undertake our thoughts in awareness. Rather, our thoughts control us. "Ordinary thoughts course through our mind like a deafening waterfall," writes Jon Kabat-Zinn, the biomedical scientist who introduced meditation into mainstream medicine. In order to feel more in control of our minds and our lives, to find the sense of balance that eludes us, we need to step out of this current, to pause, and, as Kabat-Zinn puts it, to "rest in stillness—to stop doing and focus on just being."
We need to live more in the moment. Living in the moment—also called mindfulness—is a state of active, open, intentional attention on the present. When you become mindful, you realize that you are not your thoughts; you become an observer of your thoughts from moment to moment without judging them. Mindfulness involves being with your thoughts as they are, neither grasping at them nor pushing them away. Instead of letting your life go by without living it, you awaken to experience.
Cultivating a nonjudgmental awareness of the present bestows a host of benefits. Mindfulness reduces stress, boosts immune functioning, reduces chronic pain, lowers blood pressure, and helps patients cope with cancer. By alleviating stress, spending a few minutes a day actively focusing on living in the moment reduces the risk of heart disease. Mindfulness may even slow the progression of HIV.
Mindful people are happier, more exuberant, more empathetic, and more secure. They have higher self-esteem and are more accepting of their own weaknesses. Anchoring awareness in the here and now reduces the kinds of impulsivity and reactivity that underlie depression, binge eating, and attention problems. Mindful people can hear negative feedback without feeling threatened. They fight less with their romantic partners and are more accommodating and less defensive. As a result, mindful couples have more satisfying relationships.
Mindfulness is at the root of Buddhism, Taoism, and many Native-American traditions, not to mention yoga. It's why Thoreau went to Walden Pond; it's what Emerson and Whitman wrote about in their essays and poems.
"Everyone agrees it's important to live in the moment, but the problem is how," says Ellen Langer, a psychologist at Harvard and author of Mindfulness. "When people are not in the moment, they're not there to know that they're not there." Overriding the distraction reflex and awakening to the present takes intentionality and practice.
Living in the moment involves a profound paradox: You can't pursue it for its benefits. That's because the expectation of reward launches a future-oriented mindset, which subverts the entire process. Instead, you just have to trust that the rewards will come. There are many paths to mindfulness—and at the core of each is a paradox. Ironically, letting go of what you want is the only way to get it. ...................Jay Dixit
Seeking to Know...
But, who is Knowing?.. the ego is actually the seeker.. It convinces you to keep seeking, instead of Being.. The seekers believe that someday, they will be free.. This is the egos' method to keep you locked within materiality.. The only Freedom is the present moment.. all other moments do not exist.. the thin road to Reality lies within Now............namaste, thomas
Life is a Misery...
Life is a misery for the man absorbed in himself.
Bowl of Saki, April 3, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
The more living the heart, the more sensitive it is; but that which causes
sensitiveness is the love-element in the heart, and love is God. The person
whose heart is not sensitive is without feeling; his heart is not living, it is
dead. In that case the divine Spirit is buried in his heart. A person who is
always concerned with his own feelings is so absorbed in himself that he has no
time to think of another. His whole attention is taken up with his own feelings.
He pities himself, he worries about his own pain, and is never open to
sympathize with others. He who takes notice of the feelings of another person
with whom he comes in contact, practices the first essential moral of Sufism.
A person who, alone, has seen something beautiful, who has heard something
harmonious, who has tasted something delicious, who has smelt something
fragrant, may have enjoyed it, but not completely. The complete joy is in
sharing one's joy with others. For the selfish one who enjoys himself and does
not care for others, whether he enjoys things of the earth or things of heaven,
his enjoyment is not complete.
When a person is absorbed in himself, he has no time for character-building,
because he has no time to think of others: then there is no other. But when he
forgets himself, he has time to look here and there, to collect what is good and
beautiful, and to add it naturally to his character. So the character is built.
One need not make an effort to build it, one has only to forget oneself.
Every step in evolution makes life more valuable. The more evolved you are, the
more priceless is every moment; it becomes an opportunity for you to do good to
others, to serve others, to give love to others, to be gentle to others, to give
your sympathy to souls who are longing and hungering for it. Life is miserable
when a person is absorbed in himself; as soon as he forgets himself he is happy.
The more he thinks of himself, his own affairs, work and interests, the less he
knows the meaning of life. When a person looks at another he cannot at the same
time look at himself. Illness, disappointments and hardships matter very little
when one can look at them from a higher standpoint.
Bowl of Saki, April 3, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
The more living the heart, the more sensitive it is; but that which causes
sensitiveness is the love-element in the heart, and love is God. The person
whose heart is not sensitive is without feeling; his heart is not living, it is
dead. In that case the divine Spirit is buried in his heart. A person who is
always concerned with his own feelings is so absorbed in himself that he has no
time to think of another. His whole attention is taken up with his own feelings.
He pities himself, he worries about his own pain, and is never open to
sympathize with others. He who takes notice of the feelings of another person
with whom he comes in contact, practices the first essential moral of Sufism.
A person who, alone, has seen something beautiful, who has heard something
harmonious, who has tasted something delicious, who has smelt something
fragrant, may have enjoyed it, but not completely. The complete joy is in
sharing one's joy with others. For the selfish one who enjoys himself and does
not care for others, whether he enjoys things of the earth or things of heaven,
his enjoyment is not complete.
When a person is absorbed in himself, he has no time for character-building,
because he has no time to think of others: then there is no other. But when he
forgets himself, he has time to look here and there, to collect what is good and
beautiful, and to add it naturally to his character. So the character is built.
One need not make an effort to build it, one has only to forget oneself.
Every step in evolution makes life more valuable. The more evolved you are, the
more priceless is every moment; it becomes an opportunity for you to do good to
others, to serve others, to give love to others, to be gentle to others, to give
your sympathy to souls who are longing and hungering for it. Life is miserable
when a person is absorbed in himself; as soon as he forgets himself he is happy.
The more he thinks of himself, his own affairs, work and interests, the less he
knows the meaning of life. When a person looks at another he cannot at the same
time look at himself. Illness, disappointments and hardships matter very little
when one can look at them from a higher standpoint.
Spiritual Help...
The greatest help or service you can do to the
world is the imparting of knowledge of the Self.
Spiritual help is the highest help you can render
to mankind. The root cause of human sufferings
is ignorance. If you can remove this ignorance in
man, then only can he be eternally happy. That
sage who tries to remove the ignorance is the
highest benefactor in the world.
- Swami Sivananda
`Karma Yoga
Swami Sivananda
Published by the Divine Life
Trust Society, India, 1985
world is the imparting of knowledge of the Self.
Spiritual help is the highest help you can render
to mankind. The root cause of human sufferings
is ignorance. If you can remove this ignorance in
man, then only can he be eternally happy. That
sage who tries to remove the ignorance is the
highest benefactor in the world.
- Swami Sivananda
`Karma Yoga
Swami Sivananda
Published by the Divine Life
Trust Society, India, 1985
Shri Atmananda from Spiritual Discourses: Consciousness alone, perceives...
CONSCIOUSNESS ALONE, PERCEIVED OBJECTIVELY AS WELL AS SUBJECTIVELY
1. Light by itself is not perceptible to the naked eye. You perceive light only when it
is temporarily obstructed by an object. This perception of light you wrongly call
the object. This is a phenomenon usually misunderstood; and the fallacy is, on the
face of it, obvious.
Similarly, pure Consciousness is not perceivable, as is evident in deep sleep. But
when it is confined or limited to a particular object, it seems to become perceptible.
Even then, it is not the object but it is Consciousness alone that is perceived.
Therefore, nobody has ever seen or perceived an object, but only light or Consciousness.
2. Take hold of an object. You find the object cannot appear without the help of
Consciousness. Take hold of Consciousness that is in the object. This is possible
only with the help of a Guru. Then you reach pure Consciousness objectively.
Take hold of Consciousness in the senses or mind in the same manner and you
reach pure Consciousness, your real nature, subjectively. Both being one, you
stand in advaita.
If you achieve that degree of identification with the light of knowledge as you had
with body in the waking state, there is nothing more to be achieved. Then the impersonal
becomes stronger than the personal. The sadhaka [aspirant] who stands as the
personal does the sadhana [spiritual work] of acting the part of the impersonal.
‘I know I am.’ In this, the ‘am’-ness does not belong either to the senses or to the
mind. This is intrinsic. This is the nature of self-luminosity.
1. Light by itself is not perceptible to the naked eye. You perceive light only when it
is temporarily obstructed by an object. This perception of light you wrongly call
the object. This is a phenomenon usually misunderstood; and the fallacy is, on the
face of it, obvious.
Similarly, pure Consciousness is not perceivable, as is evident in deep sleep. But
when it is confined or limited to a particular object, it seems to become perceptible.
Even then, it is not the object but it is Consciousness alone that is perceived.
Therefore, nobody has ever seen or perceived an object, but only light or Consciousness.
2. Take hold of an object. You find the object cannot appear without the help of
Consciousness. Take hold of Consciousness that is in the object. This is possible
only with the help of a Guru. Then you reach pure Consciousness objectively.
Take hold of Consciousness in the senses or mind in the same manner and you
reach pure Consciousness, your real nature, subjectively. Both being one, you
stand in advaita.
If you achieve that degree of identification with the light of knowledge as you had
with body in the waking state, there is nothing more to be achieved. Then the impersonal
becomes stronger than the personal. The sadhaka [aspirant] who stands as the
personal does the sadhana [spiritual work] of acting the part of the impersonal.
‘I know I am.’ In this, the ‘am’-ness does not belong either to the senses or to the
mind. This is intrinsic. This is the nature of self-luminosity.
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