The Game...
The game is "Hide and seek".. We have been playing this game for eons.. We pretend to be a tree or an animal or even a human.. We play because We find pleasure in movement and creation.. We play until we become tired.. Then We return Home to rest in Love.. How can We Know Love until We live as ego?.. We Know One by Knowing the Other.. This is the essence of the dream of duality.. Duality is the Mirror of Knowledge.. Duality is "The Game"...You win by not playing....... namaste, thomas
Be It...
When thought, discipline and experience have
done their utmost and finally accept utter defeat,
they then cease to function altogether. That
state is beyond both words and silence. It is
neither one thing nor another. The Absolute
noumemon cannot be experienced. To know
it is to BE it.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
done their utmost and finally accept utter defeat,
they then cease to function altogether. That
state is beyond both words and silence. It is
neither one thing nor another. The Absolute
noumemon cannot be experienced. To know
it is to BE it.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
Man and God...
A Buddhist statue in India is a Indian, in China it is Chinese, and in Japan it
is Japanese. This is natural. When man pictures angels he draws them like human
beings; he only adds wings to them. Man cannot imagine God's personality as
being different from man's personal- ity; that is why he attaches to God his
ideal of the perfect man.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged By
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
is Japanese. This is natural. When man pictures angels he draws them like human
beings; he only adds wings to them. Man cannot imagine God's personality as
being different from man's personal- ity; that is why he attaches to God his
ideal of the perfect man.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged By
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
Gone to the Unseen...
At last you have departed and gone to the Unseen.
What marvelous route did you take from this world?
Beating your wings and feathers,
you broke free from this cage.
Rising up to the sky
you attained the world of the soul.
You were a prized falcon trapped by an Old Woman.
Then you heard the drummer's call
and flew beyond space and time.
As a lovesick nightingale, you flew among the owls.
Then came the scent of the rosegarden
and you flew off to meet the Rose.
The wine of this fleeting world
caused your head to ache.
Finally you joined the tavern of Eternity.
Like an arrow, you sped from the bow
and went straight for the bull's eye of bliss.
This phantom world gave you false signs
But you turned from the illusion
and journeyed to the land of truth.
You are now the Sun -
what need have you for a crown?
You have vanished from this world -
what need have you to tie your robe?
I've heard that you can barely see your soul.
But why look at all? -
yours is now the Soul of Souls!
O heart, what a wonderful bird you are.
Seeking divine heights,
Flapping your wings,
you smashed the pointed spears of your enemy.
The flowers flee from Autumn, but not you -
You are the fearless rose
that grows amidst the freezing wind.
Pouring down like the rain of heaven
you fell upon the rooftop of this world.
Then you ran in every direction
and escaped through the drain spout . . .
Now the words are over
and the pain they bring is gone.
Now you have gone to rest
in the arms of the Beloved.
"Rumi - In the Arms of the Beloved", Jonathan Star
New York 1997
What marvelous route did you take from this world?
Beating your wings and feathers,
you broke free from this cage.
Rising up to the sky
you attained the world of the soul.
You were a prized falcon trapped by an Old Woman.
Then you heard the drummer's call
and flew beyond space and time.
As a lovesick nightingale, you flew among the owls.
Then came the scent of the rosegarden
and you flew off to meet the Rose.
The wine of this fleeting world
caused your head to ache.
Finally you joined the tavern of Eternity.
Like an arrow, you sped from the bow
and went straight for the bull's eye of bliss.
This phantom world gave you false signs
But you turned from the illusion
and journeyed to the land of truth.
You are now the Sun -
what need have you for a crown?
You have vanished from this world -
what need have you to tie your robe?
I've heard that you can barely see your soul.
But why look at all? -
yours is now the Soul of Souls!
O heart, what a wonderful bird you are.
Seeking divine heights,
Flapping your wings,
you smashed the pointed spears of your enemy.
The flowers flee from Autumn, but not you -
You are the fearless rose
that grows amidst the freezing wind.
Pouring down like the rain of heaven
you fell upon the rooftop of this world.
Then you ran in every direction
and escaped through the drain spout . . .
Now the words are over
and the pain they bring is gone.
Now you have gone to rest
in the arms of the Beloved.
"Rumi - In the Arms of the Beloved", Jonathan Star
New York 1997
Truth cannot be defined...
Truth cannot be defined, although it can certainly be experienced. But experience is not a definition. A definition is made by the mind, experience comes through participating. If somebody asks, "What is a dance?" how can you define it? But you can dance and you can know the inner feel of it. God is the ultimate dance...... Osho
Detachment...
All this implies that matter is also a myth, unreal. Still more it implies that the ego is a myth, illusory. Here, then, is the first practice of the ultimate path: think constantly of that Mind which is producing the ego, all the other egos around, and all the world, in fact. Keep this up until it becomes habitual. The consequence is that one tends in time to regard his own ego with complete detachment, as though he were regarding somebody else. Furthermore, it forces him to take the standpoint of the all, and to see unity as fundamental being.
.......... Paul Brunton
.......... Paul Brunton
The One...
Simply put, you are The One.
But - - you're pretending to be "two."
So then you start to desperately seek for a
reunion with "The One."
The incredible irony is that it's a One which
you already are – and have never stopped
being.
A dog chasing its own tail will only get
dizzy and an occasional mouthful of hair.
But in Enlightenment, there's really no
further chasing of anything.
Only, perhaps, a deepening.
Enlightenment is simply being willing
to dance joyously – and with total
gratitude – to whatever music that's
being played for you – moment to
moment.
After all, it's all for your benefit
Just don't sit out the Dance!
- Chuck Hillig
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Seeds for the Soul
Chuck Hillig
Black Dot Publications, 2003
But - - you're pretending to be "two."
So then you start to desperately seek for a
reunion with "The One."
The incredible irony is that it's a One which
you already are – and have never stopped
being.
A dog chasing its own tail will only get
dizzy and an occasional mouthful of hair.
But in Enlightenment, there's really no
further chasing of anything.
Only, perhaps, a deepening.
Enlightenment is simply being willing
to dance joyously – and with total
gratitude – to whatever music that's
being played for you – moment to
moment.
After all, it's all for your benefit
Just don't sit out the Dance!
- Chuck Hillig
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Seeds for the Soul
Chuck Hillig
Black Dot Publications, 2003
Wisdom of C.S. Lewis...
A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.
A man who is eating or lying with his wife or preparing to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness and temperance, is, by Christian standards, in an infinitely higher state than one who is listening to Bach or reading Plato in a state of pride.
A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.
Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.
An explanation of cause is not a justification by reason.
Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable.
Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.
Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.
Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.
Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.
Eros will have naked bodies; Friendship naked personalities.
Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.
Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.
Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.
Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.
Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.
A man who is eating or lying with his wife or preparing to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness and temperance, is, by Christian standards, in an infinitely higher state than one who is listening to Bach or reading Plato in a state of pride.
A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.
Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.
An explanation of cause is not a justification by reason.
Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable.
Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.
Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.
Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.
Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.
Eros will have naked bodies; Friendship naked personalities.
Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.
Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.
Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.
Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.
Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.
Christ Consciousness...
Are any of us equal to a Master
Mystic?... I know that even though I have Realised Reality, I am still a student
of Unconditional Love that Yeshua spoke of.. The only thing that we can do is
point in the direction of Truth.. we cannot give you Truth.. Only you can be
absorbed within Truth.. This is why I write and post.. to point the way to
Freedom by way of extinction of ego.. don't worry, You will still exist!, but,
in a much happier and friendlier manner........ namaste, thomas
Mystic?... I know that even though I have Realised Reality, I am still a student
of Unconditional Love that Yeshua spoke of.. The only thing that we can do is
point in the direction of Truth.. we cannot give you Truth.. Only you can be
absorbed within Truth.. This is why I write and post.. to point the way to
Freedom by way of extinction of ego.. don't worry, You will still exist!, but,
in a much happier and friendlier manner........ namaste, thomas
Violence...
Nature is built upon the foundation of violence..animals killing each other for food or entertainment.. cancer cells seeking life by killing its' host..Why is violence and its' twin called fear, a major experience within the worlds of matter?... since cain and able, humans have killed each other for personal survival.. What is Divine Consciousness attempting to teach us, through these illusions of horror?... The answer is actually quite simple.. To Know God is first to Know what God is not...This is our journey.. to Know that self(ego) is not of God and therefore a state of pain and violence.......... namaste, thomas
The Infinite...
All things - all beings and all activities, no matter how ordinary - are equal expressions of the Infinite. There is no more or less Infinite, no higher or lower Infinite. Therefore, all attempts to either find or hold onto the Infinite are based in illusion. And illusion itself is none other than the Infinite.
The Infinite uses all measures in order to awaken in all the various forms in existence. It uses birth, life, death, happiness, sorrow, clarity, and delusion in order to awaken. All of your seeking is in reality the activity of the Infinite as well. No matter how far astray or deluded you become, you can never get a single step away from the Infinite's embrace. If you could all at once stop believing your dreaming mind and be completely still right in the midst of your present state, the Infinite would effortlessly present itself.
- Adyashanti
The Infinite uses all measures in order to awaken in all the various forms in existence. It uses birth, life, death, happiness, sorrow, clarity, and delusion in order to awaken. All of your seeking is in reality the activity of the Infinite as well. No matter how far astray or deluded you become, you can never get a single step away from the Infinite's embrace. If you could all at once stop believing your dreaming mind and be completely still right in the midst of your present state, the Infinite would effortlessly present itself.
- Adyashanti
Who is God?...
There is no "He", there is only "Us".. there is no separation.. all separation is only an illusion of thought.. There is only Consciousness that seeks to know Itself by creating a mirror to look at Itself.. this mirror is called Duality.. Duality is not Real, It is only a learning device.. The Purpose of Creation is to learn what the Power of Non-Duality is.. This Power is called Love.. Love is non-separation and non-ego and is Reality.. Dissolve the selfishness called ego and you have done all that needs to be done.. Once ego is dissolved, Reality called Love, appears naturally............ namaste, thomas
Thinking...
Thinking cannot get rid of thinking, but it can go to the limit of thinking. Seeking cannot get rid of seeking, but it can go to the end of seeking. If seeking is not denied or frustrated, if it is allowed to run its full course, it will come to its natural limit. However, it is Consciousness that dissolves the seeking thought, just as water dissolves the sugar cube. Seeking should be allowed to run its course for it is in the dissolution of thinking, not in the frustration of thinking, that Consciousness is revealed, that Consciousness tastes itself. Seeking never finds what it is looking for. It is dissolved in it. From the mind’s point of view, it is the end of seeking, rather than its fulfilment, that brings about the revelation of Presence. From the point of view of Reality, it is the experience of Consciousness recognising itself, that brings about the end of seeking.
..... Paul Brunton
..... Paul Brunton
Are you worried?...
Are you worried? Do you have many "what if" thoughts?
You are identified with your mind, which is projecting
itself into an imaginary future situation and creating fear.
There is no way that you can cope with such a situation,
because it doesn't exist. It's a mental phantom.
- Eckhart Tolle
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Power of Now"
Eckhart Tolle
New World Library, 1999
You are identified with your mind, which is projecting
itself into an imaginary future situation and creating fear.
There is no way that you can cope with such a situation,
because it doesn't exist. It's a mental phantom.
- Eckhart Tolle
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Power of Now"
Eckhart Tolle
New World Library, 1999
The dream world...
The dream world contains all the relevant
features of the "actual" world. But the
continued appearance of a thing is not
proof of its reality, regardless of whether
it appears to the dreaming mind or the
waking senses. Only with the dissolution
of all appearance does one awaken to the
ultimate Reality of the Self.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
features of the "actual" world. But the
continued appearance of a thing is not
proof of its reality, regardless of whether
it appears to the dreaming mind or the
waking senses. Only with the dissolution
of all appearance does one awaken to the
ultimate Reality of the Self.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
Osho on Perfection...
In life, only mad people ask for perfection. The perfectionist is another name for someone who is getting ready to become mad.
Change your basic philosophy of that of an achiever. Relax into your being. Don’t have any ideals, don’t try to make something out of yourself, don’t try to improve upon God. You are perfect as you are. With all your imperfections you are perfect. If you are imperfect, you are perfectly imperfect — but perfection is there. Once this is understood, where is the hurry? Where is the worry? You have already slowed down. And then it is a morning walk with no destination, going nowhere. You can enjoy each tree and each sunray and each bird and each person that passes by.
Perfectionism is a neurosis. It is an illness. And the more you try to become perfect, the more frustrated you will become. The goal of perfection has led the whole of humanity towards madness; the earth has almost become a madhouse. I don’t teach perfection. What do I teach? I teach wholeness, not perfection. Be whole; be total; but don’t think about perfection.
A person remains incomplete unless he becomes enlightened. You cannot expect perfection from a person before enlightenment, but you can expect perfection in a skill. You cannot expect perfection in the being, but in the doing it can be expected, there is no problem about it. An archer can hit the target without ever missing it — and may not be in it. He has learned the technique, he has become a mechanism, a robot. It is simply done by the head and the hand.
Meditation has nothing to do with perfectionism, but perfection comes as a by-product. As you become silent it follows you, wherever you go it is there — and it is not something dead, hanging around you. It is growing. That is the most miraculous thing about it, because we always think of perfection as the dead end.
Why this obsession with perfection? Then you will be tense, anxious, nervous, always uneasy, troubled, in conflict. The English word ‘agony’ comes from a root which means: to be in conflict. To be constantly wrestling with oneself — that is the meaning of agony. You will be in agony if you are not at ease with yourself. Don’t demand the impossible, be natural, at ease, loving yourself, loving others. And remember, a person who cannot love himself because he goes on condemning, cannot love anybody else either. A perfectionist is not only a perfectionist about himself, he is about others also. A man who is hard on himself is bound to be hard on others. His demands are impossible.
If you love the woman, you love the woman with all her limitations, with all her imperfections; she loves you with all your imperfections and limitations. But this is what — particularly to the Indian mind — is very significant: perfection. And to demand perfection is a kind of neurosis. It will drive the other neurotic, and as far as you are concerned, you are already neurotic. If you ask perfection in any human being you will create trouble for yourself and for the other, and your life will be nothing but misery. The real man of understanding and intelligence accepts the imperfections of the other and still loves. Love is great enough; it can even love people who have no character, people who are not pure according to your ideas, people who sometimes go astray, people who sometimes commit small sins. Love is big enough to accept all this and to transform it too.
A perfectionist is neurotic. And not only is he neurotic, he creates neurotic trends around him. So don’t be a perfectionist, and if somebody is a perfectionist around you escape away from him as fast as you can before he pollutes your mind. All perfectionism is a sort of deep ego trip. Just to think of yourself in terms of ideals and perfection is nothing but to decorate your ego to its uttermost. A humble person accepts that life is not perfect. A humble person, a really religious person, accepts that we are limited, that there are limitations.
Ego wants to be the first, ego wants to put everybody below itself; hence it takes itself seriously. Hence it is perfectionist: it demands perfection, which is impossible. Nobody is perfect; nobody can exist for a single moment if he is perfect. Imperfection is the way of life, because it is possible to grow only if you are imperfect. If you are perfect there is no more growth, no more evolution. If you are perfect you are stuck. Perfection means death; imperfection means flow, growth, movement, dynamism. The ego demands perfection of oneself and of others too. It asks for the impossible, and because the impossible cannot be achieved it can go on living. It is not happy with the ordinary; it wants the extraordinary, and life consists only of the ordinary. But the ordinary is beautiful, the ordinary is exquisite. There is no need of anything extraordinary. The ordinary life is sacred, but the ego condemns it as mundane. It demands extraordinary life. Hence all the religions go on inventing stories about their founders which are all untrue: Moses separating the sea, Jesus walking on the water… all these stories are inventions, lies, created by the followers just to prove that their master is extraordinary; he is not an ordinary human being.
Buddha says: Meditation is enough to solve your problems, but something is missing in it — compassion. If compassion is also there, then you can help others solve their problems. He says: Meditation is pure gold; it has a perfection of its own. But if there is compassion then the gold has a fragrance too — then a higher perfection, then a new kind of perfection, gold with fragrance. Gold is enough unto itself — very valuable — but with compassion, meditation has a fragrance.
Meditation makes one perfect — not a perfectionist, remember. A perfectionist is a neurotic. Meditation makes you perfect, but not a perfectionist. Perfection comes just like a shadow to meditation: you need not bother about it, you need not care about it. it is simply there, it will follow you. The perfectionist has an idea of a goal ahead of him and the meditator has no idea of perfection; perfection follows him from the beyond like a shadow. That is the difference between a perfectionist and a perfect man. Perfection is behind the perfect man and ahead of the perfectionist. Because it is ahead it drives him nuts. he is trying to become it, he is sacrificing his present for the future and once you become accustomed of sacrificing your present for the future your whole life will be ruined; not only this but your future lives will be ruined.
Meditation is not a static thing. It is a balance. You will have to attain it again and again and again. You will become more and more capable of attaining it, but it is not going to remain forever, like a possession in your hands. It has to be claimed each moment — only then is it yours. You cannot rest, you cannot say, ‘I have meditated and I have realised that now there is no need for me to do anything more. I can rest.’ Life does not believe in rest; it is a constant movement from perfection to more perfection. Listen to me: from perfection to more perfection. It is never imperfect, it is always perfect, but always more perfection is possible.
Perfection is a goal somewhere in the future, totality is an experience herenow. Totality is not a goal, it is a style of life. If you can get into any act with your whole heart, you are total. Totality brings wholeness and totality brings health and totality brings sanity. The perfectionist completely forgets about totality. He has some idea how he should be, and obviously time will be needed to reach that idea. It can’t happen now — tomorrow, day after tomorrow, this life, maybe next life… so life has to be postponed.
The ego remains imperfect and goes on demanding perfection. My whole message is to see the truth, to see the hell that ego creates in the name: of perfection, uniqueness — and to let it drop. Then there is a tremendous beauty — no ego, no self, just a deep emptiness. And out of deep emptiness is creativity, out of that nothingness arises bliss, SATCHITANANDA, truth. Being, bliss, all arise out of that absolute purity. When the ego is not, you are a virgin. Christ was born out of a virgin; your nothingness is that Mother Virgin, Mother Mary.
The moment you desire something you are saying that “I am wiser than the whole.” You are saying that “You don’t know what has to be done and I have come to advise you.” You are telling the whole that “The way things are is not right: they should be according to me.” Prayer is just the opposite of desire. Prayer means, “The way things are is absolutely perfect, they are as they should be. Hence, I have nothing except a deep gratitude.” Real prayer is bowing to existence in tremendous thankfulness because whatsoever is, the way it is, is the most perfect way it can ever be. A prayerful heart knows that the universe is perfect each moment; it is moving from perfection to more perfection. The world is not moving from imperfection to perfection, remember: it is moving from perfection to more perfection. That’s the understanding of the prayerful heart. But we are full of desires.
You are human, in a certain time, in a certain space, with certain limitations. Accept those limitations. Perfectionists are always on the brink of madness. They are obsessed people — whatsoever they do is not good enough. And there is no way to do something perfectly — perfection is not humanly possible. In fact, imperfect is the only way to be. So what do I teach you here? I don’t teach you perfection, I teach you wholeness. That is a totally different thing. Be whole. Don’t bother about perfection. When I say be whole, I mean be real, be here; whatsoever you do, do it totally. You will be imperfect but your imperfection will be full of beauty, it will be full of your totality. Never try to be perfect otherwise you will create much anxiety. So many troubles are there already; don’t create more troubles for yourself.
I don’t teach perfection. Perfection simply creates neurosis in people. Perfectionists are neurotics; they drive themselves crazy in trying to be perfect, because they are trying to do the impossible. I teach totality; I teach wholeness, not perfection. Be total in whatsoever you are doing. Be total. If you are angry, then be totally angry. If you are in love, then be totally in love. If you are sad, then be totally sad. Don’t be halfhearted in anything. That is a totally different approach towards life.
The path of Buddha is of total surrender: total surrender to the dhamma, to tao, to the universal law, to God. These are different names for the same phenomenon. We are living in a cosmos, not in a chaos. Everything is as perfect as it can be; nothing can be improved upon. The very idea of trying to improve upon things is sheer stupidity. Those who have known, they have known the absolute perfection of existence. Then what is left? To dissolve in the whole and celebrate!
Change your basic philosophy of that of an achiever. Relax into your being. Don’t have any ideals, don’t try to make something out of yourself, don’t try to improve upon God. You are perfect as you are. With all your imperfections you are perfect. If you are imperfect, you are perfectly imperfect — but perfection is there. Once this is understood, where is the hurry? Where is the worry? You have already slowed down. And then it is a morning walk with no destination, going nowhere. You can enjoy each tree and each sunray and each bird and each person that passes by.
Perfectionism is a neurosis. It is an illness. And the more you try to become perfect, the more frustrated you will become. The goal of perfection has led the whole of humanity towards madness; the earth has almost become a madhouse. I don’t teach perfection. What do I teach? I teach wholeness, not perfection. Be whole; be total; but don’t think about perfection.
A person remains incomplete unless he becomes enlightened. You cannot expect perfection from a person before enlightenment, but you can expect perfection in a skill. You cannot expect perfection in the being, but in the doing it can be expected, there is no problem about it. An archer can hit the target without ever missing it — and may not be in it. He has learned the technique, he has become a mechanism, a robot. It is simply done by the head and the hand.
Meditation has nothing to do with perfectionism, but perfection comes as a by-product. As you become silent it follows you, wherever you go it is there — and it is not something dead, hanging around you. It is growing. That is the most miraculous thing about it, because we always think of perfection as the dead end.
Why this obsession with perfection? Then you will be tense, anxious, nervous, always uneasy, troubled, in conflict. The English word ‘agony’ comes from a root which means: to be in conflict. To be constantly wrestling with oneself — that is the meaning of agony. You will be in agony if you are not at ease with yourself. Don’t demand the impossible, be natural, at ease, loving yourself, loving others. And remember, a person who cannot love himself because he goes on condemning, cannot love anybody else either. A perfectionist is not only a perfectionist about himself, he is about others also. A man who is hard on himself is bound to be hard on others. His demands are impossible.
If you love the woman, you love the woman with all her limitations, with all her imperfections; she loves you with all your imperfections and limitations. But this is what — particularly to the Indian mind — is very significant: perfection. And to demand perfection is a kind of neurosis. It will drive the other neurotic, and as far as you are concerned, you are already neurotic. If you ask perfection in any human being you will create trouble for yourself and for the other, and your life will be nothing but misery. The real man of understanding and intelligence accepts the imperfections of the other and still loves. Love is great enough; it can even love people who have no character, people who are not pure according to your ideas, people who sometimes go astray, people who sometimes commit small sins. Love is big enough to accept all this and to transform it too.
A perfectionist is neurotic. And not only is he neurotic, he creates neurotic trends around him. So don’t be a perfectionist, and if somebody is a perfectionist around you escape away from him as fast as you can before he pollutes your mind. All perfectionism is a sort of deep ego trip. Just to think of yourself in terms of ideals and perfection is nothing but to decorate your ego to its uttermost. A humble person accepts that life is not perfect. A humble person, a really religious person, accepts that we are limited, that there are limitations.
Ego wants to be the first, ego wants to put everybody below itself; hence it takes itself seriously. Hence it is perfectionist: it demands perfection, which is impossible. Nobody is perfect; nobody can exist for a single moment if he is perfect. Imperfection is the way of life, because it is possible to grow only if you are imperfect. If you are perfect there is no more growth, no more evolution. If you are perfect you are stuck. Perfection means death; imperfection means flow, growth, movement, dynamism. The ego demands perfection of oneself and of others too. It asks for the impossible, and because the impossible cannot be achieved it can go on living. It is not happy with the ordinary; it wants the extraordinary, and life consists only of the ordinary. But the ordinary is beautiful, the ordinary is exquisite. There is no need of anything extraordinary. The ordinary life is sacred, but the ego condemns it as mundane. It demands extraordinary life. Hence all the religions go on inventing stories about their founders which are all untrue: Moses separating the sea, Jesus walking on the water… all these stories are inventions, lies, created by the followers just to prove that their master is extraordinary; he is not an ordinary human being.
Buddha says: Meditation is enough to solve your problems, but something is missing in it — compassion. If compassion is also there, then you can help others solve their problems. He says: Meditation is pure gold; it has a perfection of its own. But if there is compassion then the gold has a fragrance too — then a higher perfection, then a new kind of perfection, gold with fragrance. Gold is enough unto itself — very valuable — but with compassion, meditation has a fragrance.
Meditation makes one perfect — not a perfectionist, remember. A perfectionist is a neurotic. Meditation makes you perfect, but not a perfectionist. Perfection comes just like a shadow to meditation: you need not bother about it, you need not care about it. it is simply there, it will follow you. The perfectionist has an idea of a goal ahead of him and the meditator has no idea of perfection; perfection follows him from the beyond like a shadow. That is the difference between a perfectionist and a perfect man. Perfection is behind the perfect man and ahead of the perfectionist. Because it is ahead it drives him nuts. he is trying to become it, he is sacrificing his present for the future and once you become accustomed of sacrificing your present for the future your whole life will be ruined; not only this but your future lives will be ruined.
Meditation is not a static thing. It is a balance. You will have to attain it again and again and again. You will become more and more capable of attaining it, but it is not going to remain forever, like a possession in your hands. It has to be claimed each moment — only then is it yours. You cannot rest, you cannot say, ‘I have meditated and I have realised that now there is no need for me to do anything more. I can rest.’ Life does not believe in rest; it is a constant movement from perfection to more perfection. Listen to me: from perfection to more perfection. It is never imperfect, it is always perfect, but always more perfection is possible.
Perfection is a goal somewhere in the future, totality is an experience herenow. Totality is not a goal, it is a style of life. If you can get into any act with your whole heart, you are total. Totality brings wholeness and totality brings health and totality brings sanity. The perfectionist completely forgets about totality. He has some idea how he should be, and obviously time will be needed to reach that idea. It can’t happen now — tomorrow, day after tomorrow, this life, maybe next life… so life has to be postponed.
The ego remains imperfect and goes on demanding perfection. My whole message is to see the truth, to see the hell that ego creates in the name: of perfection, uniqueness — and to let it drop. Then there is a tremendous beauty — no ego, no self, just a deep emptiness. And out of deep emptiness is creativity, out of that nothingness arises bliss, SATCHITANANDA, truth. Being, bliss, all arise out of that absolute purity. When the ego is not, you are a virgin. Christ was born out of a virgin; your nothingness is that Mother Virgin, Mother Mary.
The moment you desire something you are saying that “I am wiser than the whole.” You are saying that “You don’t know what has to be done and I have come to advise you.” You are telling the whole that “The way things are is not right: they should be according to me.” Prayer is just the opposite of desire. Prayer means, “The way things are is absolutely perfect, they are as they should be. Hence, I have nothing except a deep gratitude.” Real prayer is bowing to existence in tremendous thankfulness because whatsoever is, the way it is, is the most perfect way it can ever be. A prayerful heart knows that the universe is perfect each moment; it is moving from perfection to more perfection. The world is not moving from imperfection to perfection, remember: it is moving from perfection to more perfection. That’s the understanding of the prayerful heart. But we are full of desires.
You are human, in a certain time, in a certain space, with certain limitations. Accept those limitations. Perfectionists are always on the brink of madness. They are obsessed people — whatsoever they do is not good enough. And there is no way to do something perfectly — perfection is not humanly possible. In fact, imperfect is the only way to be. So what do I teach you here? I don’t teach you perfection, I teach you wholeness. That is a totally different thing. Be whole. Don’t bother about perfection. When I say be whole, I mean be real, be here; whatsoever you do, do it totally. You will be imperfect but your imperfection will be full of beauty, it will be full of your totality. Never try to be perfect otherwise you will create much anxiety. So many troubles are there already; don’t create more troubles for yourself.
I don’t teach perfection. Perfection simply creates neurosis in people. Perfectionists are neurotics; they drive themselves crazy in trying to be perfect, because they are trying to do the impossible. I teach totality; I teach wholeness, not perfection. Be total in whatsoever you are doing. Be total. If you are angry, then be totally angry. If you are in love, then be totally in love. If you are sad, then be totally sad. Don’t be halfhearted in anything. That is a totally different approach towards life.
The path of Buddha is of total surrender: total surrender to the dhamma, to tao, to the universal law, to God. These are different names for the same phenomenon. We are living in a cosmos, not in a chaos. Everything is as perfect as it can be; nothing can be improved upon. The very idea of trying to improve upon things is sheer stupidity. Those who have known, they have known the absolute perfection of existence. Then what is left? To dissolve in the whole and celebrate!
Heaven and Hell...
The creation of hells is the mind turned outward
saying "I am the body."
The creation of heavens is the mind turned inward
knowing "the kingdom of heaven is within."
Mind turned inward will see its Source and
then never return because you stay with what you love most.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
saying "I am the body."
The creation of heavens is the mind turned inward
knowing "the kingdom of heaven is within."
Mind turned inward will see its Source and
then never return because you stay with what you love most.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
Who are You?...
I have realised that while Awake
within Divine Consciousness, I had no name and no thoughts of a separation
called name was within Consciousness... Was there Identity?, yes,, the Identity
of Divine Consciousness, a State of Intense Love and Knowledge, but still far from the Final Reality of Nothingness
called Pure Awareness.......... namaste, thomas
within Divine Consciousness, I had no name and no thoughts of a separation
called name was within Consciousness... Was there Identity?, yes,, the Identity
of Divine Consciousness, a State of Intense Love and Knowledge, but still far from the Final Reality of Nothingness
called Pure Awareness.......... namaste, thomas
Christhood...
What I have found when I have surrendered the ego and life desire during meditation and Awakened within Reality as Light and Love is that I was given a choice to stay within Reality or return to the body.. I chose to return to the body for the sake of my friends and relatives.. The dropping of the ego while still within the body is called "Christhood".. You exist as Presence while still present within and without the body.. You exist as Your Real Self and not the false self of selfish illusion.. If you chose to stay Awake within Reality, another soul will be placed within the body to continue it's learning.. this soul will have all of your memories and will seem slightly different than the soul that vacated the body........... namaste, thomas
Zen...
“Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.”
....... Alan Watts
....... Alan Watts
Duality...
We are separate only in mind.. You are what you think about all
day.. You decide whether you will welcome separation from each other and
separation from Reality.. You have chosen to pretend to be separate, so that You
can learn what separation is.. separation is a non- real event and contains the
pain of ego.. pain is a major part of ego and is used as a teaching tool to lead You back to
non-pain called selflessness and Love.............namaste, thomas
day.. You decide whether you will welcome separation from each other and
separation from Reality.. You have chosen to pretend to be separate, so that You
can learn what separation is.. separation is a non- real event and contains the
pain of ego.. pain is a major part of ego and is used as a teaching tool to lead You back to
non-pain called selflessness and Love.............namaste, thomas
Return to Source...
Empty yourself of everything.
Let the mind become still.
The ten thousand things rise and fall while the Self watches their return.
They grow and flourish and then return to the source.
Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature.
The way of nature is unchanging.
Knowing constancy is insight.
Not knowing constancy leads to disaster.
Knowing constancy, the mind is open.
With an open mind, you will be openhearted.
Being openhearted, you will act royally.
Being royal, you will attain the divine.
Being divine, you will be at one with the Tao.
Being at one with the Tao is eternal.
And though the body dies, the Tao will never pass away.
- Lao-tzu
Let the mind become still.
The ten thousand things rise and fall while the Self watches their return.
They grow and flourish and then return to the source.
Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature.
The way of nature is unchanging.
Knowing constancy is insight.
Not knowing constancy leads to disaster.
Knowing constancy, the mind is open.
With an open mind, you will be openhearted.
Being openhearted, you will act royally.
Being royal, you will attain the divine.
Being divine, you will be at one with the Tao.
Being at one with the Tao is eternal.
And though the body dies, the Tao will never pass away.
- Lao-tzu
Belief...
Belief has killed more people than non belief.. why must you believe anything?.. Forget belief and find personal experience.. In personal experience, there is no need for belief as belief is not needed when you have experienced Reality and Truth.. do you believe because your parents or teachers have trained your mind to believe in what they want you to believe?.. Go beyond belief and find Truth that cannot be spoken with human words.. belief is something that you have not yet found to be True, this is why you are forced to believe instead of KNOW.. It is time to Know.. It is Time to Know... IT IS TIME TO KNOW ........... namaste, thomas
Born again...
We need to know the truth, the wisdom-knowledge, but it is not enough.
We need to have the living mystic experience, the vital feeling of
what I am, but it is not enough. For we need to synthesize the two in
a full actual intuitive realization, conferred by the Overself. This
is Grace. This is to emerge finally--born again!
— Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter
2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 51....... Paul Brunton
We need to have the living mystic experience, the vital feeling of
what I am, but it is not enough. For we need to synthesize the two in
a full actual intuitive realization, conferred by the Overself. This
is Grace. This is to emerge finally--born again!
— Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter
2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 51....... Paul Brunton
" you must die, to be born again"...
The bible has been translated many times and usually translated by
someone that was not Enlightened.. especially during the leadership of Emperor
Constantine and the council of nicea in 325ad.. Constantine shaped the words and
contents to suit his own agenda of making Jesus into God and not just another
spiritual teacher.. therefore, the bible states that Jesus said;" you must be
born again".. but, any Mystic knows that you must let the ego die to enter
Reality.. entering Reality feels as though you were just born.. Therefore,
knowing that Jesus was a master mystic, I am certain that He was
misquoted.......... namaste, thomas
someone that was not Enlightened.. especially during the leadership of Emperor
Constantine and the council of nicea in 325ad.. Constantine shaped the words and
contents to suit his own agenda of making Jesus into God and not just another
spiritual teacher.. therefore, the bible states that Jesus said;" you must be
born again".. but, any Mystic knows that you must let the ego die to enter
Reality.. entering Reality feels as though you were just born.. Therefore,
knowing that Jesus was a master mystic, I am certain that He was
misquoted.......... namaste, thomas
The fear of extinction...
The concept of us being anything but a human body that
occasionally feels a bliss called Love is difficult.. The sub-conscious mind has
been trained to believe that we are a body with a soul that might arrive in a
good place called heaven, if we are good.. The most difficult idea to wrap our
minds around is that in Final Reality, we do not exist.. In daily life, to not
exist is called humility and is praised as good and loving.. but, to take this
Truth to the highest plane of humility and love is to not exist within Spirit..
Only Spirit Existing.. As Jesus said;" you must die, to be born".. giving your
greatest gift (life,self) is the greatest Love............ namaste, thomas
occasionally feels a bliss called Love is difficult.. The sub-conscious mind has
been trained to believe that we are a body with a soul that might arrive in a
good place called heaven, if we are good.. The most difficult idea to wrap our
minds around is that in Final Reality, we do not exist.. In daily life, to not
exist is called humility and is praised as good and loving.. but, to take this
Truth to the highest plane of humility and love is to not exist within Spirit..
Only Spirit Existing.. As Jesus said;" you must die, to be born".. giving your
greatest gift (life,self) is the greatest Love............ namaste, thomas
Rumi on False Ego...
by Sologak
Rumi teaches us that our worst enemy is hiding within ourselves, and that enemy is our Naafs or false ego(نفس). Rumi describes our heart as a mirror. Naturally, this mirror becomes dusty, and we have to wipe it to take the dust off. In a mystical way, Rumi is effectively instructing us the way of wiping this mirror so the reflection may fall more clearly, equaling wiping our hearts from the falseness and dualities that are surrounding us. Therefore, Nafs or False Ego(نفس) equals any inclination which springs from disregard of love, harmony, beauty, and being unconcerned with well being of all others.
Rumi also teaches that in Sufism, there are four stages of self purification:
1. Self becoming emptied
2. Self becoming illuminated
3. Self becoming adorned
4. Self-having-passed-away.
The Sufi, through these stages of purification, travels the inner way, the 'Spiritual Path'. Having traveled this path, the Sufi becomes a perfect being and arrives at the threshold of the 'Truth'. In this 'True Center' for higher education, there are no professors and his and her only guide will be the absolute 'Love'. Here, Sufi's only teacher is love, his and her books are love, and his and her being is love...
Who is in the house of my heart,
I cried in the middle of the night.
Love said,
"It is I, but what are all these images that fill your
house?"
I said, they are the reflection of your beautiful face.
Love asked,
"But what is this image full of pain?"
I said, it is me lost in the sorrows of life
and showed Love my soul full of wounds.
Love offered me one end of a thread and said:
"Take it so I can pull you back
but do not break the delicate string."
I reached towards it but Love struck my hand.
I asked, why the harshness?
Love said,
"To remind you that whoever comes to Love's holy space,
proud and full of himself
will be sent away.
Look at Love with eyes of your heart.
Who gets up early
to discover the moment
light begins?
Who finds us here,
circling bewildered like atoms?
Who comes to a spring thirsty,
and finds the moon reflected in it?
Who, like Jacob,
blind with grief and age
smells the shirt of his lost son
and can see again?
Who lets a bucket down and brings up
a flowing prophet?
Or like Moses,
goes for fire and finds
what burns inside the sunrise?
Jesus slips into a house to escape enemies,
and opens a door to the other world.
Solomon cuts open a fish,
and there's a gold ring.
An oyster opens his mouth
to swallow one drop
Now there's a pearl.
A Vagrant wanders empty ruins
Suddenly he's wealthy.
But don't be satisfied with poems
and stories of how things
have gone with others.
Unfold your own myth,
without complicated explanation,
so everyone will understand the passage:
Love has opened your heart
Start walking towards love.
Your legs will get heavy and tired.
Then comes a moment of
feeling the wings you've grown, lifting...
..... Rumi
Rumi teaches us that our worst enemy is hiding within ourselves, and that enemy is our Naafs or false ego(نفس). Rumi describes our heart as a mirror. Naturally, this mirror becomes dusty, and we have to wipe it to take the dust off. In a mystical way, Rumi is effectively instructing us the way of wiping this mirror so the reflection may fall more clearly, equaling wiping our hearts from the falseness and dualities that are surrounding us. Therefore, Nafs or False Ego(نفس) equals any inclination which springs from disregard of love, harmony, beauty, and being unconcerned with well being of all others.
Rumi also teaches that in Sufism, there are four stages of self purification:
1. Self becoming emptied
2. Self becoming illuminated
3. Self becoming adorned
4. Self-having-passed-away.
The Sufi, through these stages of purification, travels the inner way, the 'Spiritual Path'. Having traveled this path, the Sufi becomes a perfect being and arrives at the threshold of the 'Truth'. In this 'True Center' for higher education, there are no professors and his and her only guide will be the absolute 'Love'. Here, Sufi's only teacher is love, his and her books are love, and his and her being is love...
Who is in the house of my heart,
I cried in the middle of the night.
Love said,
"It is I, but what are all these images that fill your
house?"
I said, they are the reflection of your beautiful face.
Love asked,
"But what is this image full of pain?"
I said, it is me lost in the sorrows of life
and showed Love my soul full of wounds.
Love offered me one end of a thread and said:
"Take it so I can pull you back
but do not break the delicate string."
I reached towards it but Love struck my hand.
I asked, why the harshness?
Love said,
"To remind you that whoever comes to Love's holy space,
proud and full of himself
will be sent away.
Look at Love with eyes of your heart.
Who gets up early
to discover the moment
light begins?
Who finds us here,
circling bewildered like atoms?
Who comes to a spring thirsty,
and finds the moon reflected in it?
Who, like Jacob,
blind with grief and age
smells the shirt of his lost son
and can see again?
Who lets a bucket down and brings up
a flowing prophet?
Or like Moses,
goes for fire and finds
what burns inside the sunrise?
Jesus slips into a house to escape enemies,
and opens a door to the other world.
Solomon cuts open a fish,
and there's a gold ring.
An oyster opens his mouth
to swallow one drop
Now there's a pearl.
A Vagrant wanders empty ruins
Suddenly he's wealthy.
But don't be satisfied with poems
and stories of how things
have gone with others.
Unfold your own myth,
without complicated explanation,
so everyone will understand the passage:
Love has opened your heart
Start walking towards love.
Your legs will get heavy and tired.
Then comes a moment of
feeling the wings you've grown, lifting...
..... Rumi
The Divine Light...
The Divine Light is who We Are.. In Divine Consciousness, We
exist as Light and the binding Energy called Love.. We are in this very state of
existence now but are asleep within this dream.. Beyond this Light and Love is
the final Reality called Pure Awareness, which is Realised when We have
surrendered everything including Identity............... namaste, thomas
exist as Light and the binding Energy called Love.. We are in this very state of
existence now but are asleep within this dream.. Beyond this Light and Love is
the final Reality called Pure Awareness, which is Realised when We have
surrendered everything including Identity............... namaste, thomas
Desires...
Whatever comes, let it come, what stays
let stay, what goes let go, always keep
quiet, and always adore Self: This is
the essence of living skillfully in the world
appearance. During all activities of life
always know that you are the Self. The
way to live a happy beautiful life is to
accept whatever comes and not care
about what does not come.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
let stay, what goes let go, always keep
quiet, and always adore Self: This is
the essence of living skillfully in the world
appearance. During all activities of life
always know that you are the Self. The
way to live a happy beautiful life is to
accept whatever comes and not care
about what does not come.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
I Am That...
Quotes from I Am That, by Nisargadatta Maharaj
“All separation, every kind of estrangement and alienation is false. All is one—this is the ultimate solution of every conflict.”
“You are not in the body. The body is in you.”
“The way to truth lies through the destruction of the false. To destroy the false, you must question your most inveterate beliefs. Of these the idea that you are the body is the worst. ...Realize that what you are cannot be born nor die and with the fear gone all suffering ends.”
“You are so accustomed to think of yourselves as bodies having consciousness that you just cannot imagine consciousness as having bodies. Once you realize that bodily existence is but a state of mind, a movement in consciousness, that the ocean of consciousness is infinite and eternal, and that, when in touch with consciousness, you are the witness only, you will be able to withdraw beyond consciousness altogether.”
“You need not reach out for what is already with you. Your very reaching out makes you miss it. Give up the idea that you have not found it and just let it come into the focus of direct perception, here and now, by removing all that is of the mind.”
“See that you are not what you believe yourself to be. Fight with all the strength at your disposal against the idea that you are nameable and describable. You are not. Refuse to think of this or that. There is no other way out of misery, which you have created for yourself through blind acceptance without investigation. Suffering is a call for inquiry, all pain needs investigation. Don’t be lazy to think.”
“Believe me, there is no goal, nor a way to reach it. You are the way and the goal, there is nothing else to reach except yourself. All you need is to understand and the understanding is the flowering of the mind.”
“The yogi comes to know many wonders, but of the self he remains ignorant. The gnani may look and feel quite ordinary, but the self he knows well.”
“Nobody ever fails in yoga. It is all a matter of the rate of progress. It is slow in the beginning and rapid in the end. When one is fully matured, realization is explosive. It takes place spontaneously, or at the slightest hint. The quick is not better than the slow. Slow ripening and rapid flowering alternate. Both are natural and right.”
“You can only know your self by being yourself without any attempt at self-definition and self-description. Once you have understood that you are nothing perceivable or conceivable, that whatever appears in the field of consciousness cannot be your self, you will apply yourself to the eradication of all self identification, as the only way that can take you to a deeper realization of your self. You literally progress by rejection—a veritable rocket. To know that you are neither in the body nor in the mind, though aware of both, is already self-knowledge.”
“We dream that we are awake, we dream that we are asleep. The three states are only varieties of the dream state. Treating everything as a dream liberates. As long as you give reality to dreams, you are their slave. By imaging that you are born as so and so, you become a slave to the so-and-so. The essence of slavery is to imagine yourself to be a process, to have past and future, to have history.”
“There is no need of a way out! Don’t you see that a way out is also part of the dream? All you have to do is see the dream as dream. ...Wherever it leads you, it will be a dream. The very idea of going beyond the dream is illusory. Why go anywhere? Just realize that you are dreaming a dream you call the world and stop looking for ways out. The dream is not your problem. Your problem is that you like one part of your dream and not another. Love all, or none of it, and stop complaining. When you have seen the dream as a dream, you have done all that needs be done.”
“You want something like round-the-clock ecstasies. Ecstasies come and go, necessarily, for the human brain cannot stand the tension for a long time. A prolonged ecstasy will burn out your brain, unless it is extremely pure and subtle.”
“Experience, however sublime, is not the real thing. By its very nature it comes and goes. Self-realization is not an acquisition. It is more of the nature of understanding. Once arrived at, it cannot be lost.”
“If you want to make real progress, you must give up all idea of personal attainment. The ambitions of the so called yogis are preposterous. A man’s desire for a woman is innocence itself compared to the lusting for an everlasting personal bliss..”
“Do not try to know the truth, for knowledge by the mind is not true knowledge. But you can know what is not true—which is enough to liberate you from the false. The idea that you know what is true is dangerous, for it keeps you imprisoned in the mind. It is when you do not know, that you are free to investigate. And there can be no salvation, without investigation, because non investigation is the main cause of bondage.”
“Awareness is ever there. It need not be realized. Open the shutter of the mind, and it will be flooded with light.”
“You merely dream that you roam about. In a few years your stay in India will appear as a dream to you. You will dream some other dream at that time. Do realize that it is not you who moves from dream to dream, but the dreams flow before you and you are the immutable witness. No happening affects your real being—that is the absolute truth.”
“What you need will come to you if you do not ask for what you do not need.”
“Why desire at all? Desiring a state of freedom from desire will not set you free, because you are free. See yourself with desireless clarity, that is all.”
“All separation, every kind of estrangement and alienation is false. All is one—this is the ultimate solution of every conflict.”
“You are not in the body. The body is in you.”
“The way to truth lies through the destruction of the false. To destroy the false, you must question your most inveterate beliefs. Of these the idea that you are the body is the worst. ...Realize that what you are cannot be born nor die and with the fear gone all suffering ends.”
“You are so accustomed to think of yourselves as bodies having consciousness that you just cannot imagine consciousness as having bodies. Once you realize that bodily existence is but a state of mind, a movement in consciousness, that the ocean of consciousness is infinite and eternal, and that, when in touch with consciousness, you are the witness only, you will be able to withdraw beyond consciousness altogether.”
“You need not reach out for what is already with you. Your very reaching out makes you miss it. Give up the idea that you have not found it and just let it come into the focus of direct perception, here and now, by removing all that is of the mind.”
“See that you are not what you believe yourself to be. Fight with all the strength at your disposal against the idea that you are nameable and describable. You are not. Refuse to think of this or that. There is no other way out of misery, which you have created for yourself through blind acceptance without investigation. Suffering is a call for inquiry, all pain needs investigation. Don’t be lazy to think.”
“Believe me, there is no goal, nor a way to reach it. You are the way and the goal, there is nothing else to reach except yourself. All you need is to understand and the understanding is the flowering of the mind.”
“The yogi comes to know many wonders, but of the self he remains ignorant. The gnani may look and feel quite ordinary, but the self he knows well.”
“Nobody ever fails in yoga. It is all a matter of the rate of progress. It is slow in the beginning and rapid in the end. When one is fully matured, realization is explosive. It takes place spontaneously, or at the slightest hint. The quick is not better than the slow. Slow ripening and rapid flowering alternate. Both are natural and right.”
“You can only know your self by being yourself without any attempt at self-definition and self-description. Once you have understood that you are nothing perceivable or conceivable, that whatever appears in the field of consciousness cannot be your self, you will apply yourself to the eradication of all self identification, as the only way that can take you to a deeper realization of your self. You literally progress by rejection—a veritable rocket. To know that you are neither in the body nor in the mind, though aware of both, is already self-knowledge.”
“We dream that we are awake, we dream that we are asleep. The three states are only varieties of the dream state. Treating everything as a dream liberates. As long as you give reality to dreams, you are their slave. By imaging that you are born as so and so, you become a slave to the so-and-so. The essence of slavery is to imagine yourself to be a process, to have past and future, to have history.”
“There is no need of a way out! Don’t you see that a way out is also part of the dream? All you have to do is see the dream as dream. ...Wherever it leads you, it will be a dream. The very idea of going beyond the dream is illusory. Why go anywhere? Just realize that you are dreaming a dream you call the world and stop looking for ways out. The dream is not your problem. Your problem is that you like one part of your dream and not another. Love all, or none of it, and stop complaining. When you have seen the dream as a dream, you have done all that needs be done.”
“You want something like round-the-clock ecstasies. Ecstasies come and go, necessarily, for the human brain cannot stand the tension for a long time. A prolonged ecstasy will burn out your brain, unless it is extremely pure and subtle.”
“Experience, however sublime, is not the real thing. By its very nature it comes and goes. Self-realization is not an acquisition. It is more of the nature of understanding. Once arrived at, it cannot be lost.”
“If you want to make real progress, you must give up all idea of personal attainment. The ambitions of the so called yogis are preposterous. A man’s desire for a woman is innocence itself compared to the lusting for an everlasting personal bliss..”
“Do not try to know the truth, for knowledge by the mind is not true knowledge. But you can know what is not true—which is enough to liberate you from the false. The idea that you know what is true is dangerous, for it keeps you imprisoned in the mind. It is when you do not know, that you are free to investigate. And there can be no salvation, without investigation, because non investigation is the main cause of bondage.”
“Awareness is ever there. It need not be realized. Open the shutter of the mind, and it will be flooded with light.”
“You merely dream that you roam about. In a few years your stay in India will appear as a dream to you. You will dream some other dream at that time. Do realize that it is not you who moves from dream to dream, but the dreams flow before you and you are the immutable witness. No happening affects your real being—that is the absolute truth.”
“What you need will come to you if you do not ask for what you do not need.”
“Why desire at all? Desiring a state of freedom from desire will not set you free, because you are free. See yourself with desireless clarity, that is all.”
Emptiness...
What has the yoga practitioner been looking for for so many years?
To get to know the part of you which is not you. You can only say, "I am not the body, emotions and thoughts;" but before saying that you must know what the body, emotions and thoughts are. To know yourself calls for listening, being receptive, open. In this opening all refers to yourself. If you are completely open to the expressions of life, they refer to life, because they are only life and nothing else. So when you learn what you are not, you are learning what is an expression of yourself. And, pedagogically, it is better to go this way; to investigate first what you are not, to understand profoundly what it is that you are not. And it is important to do this in the moment itself. When fear and anxiety appear, when hate and all the feelings appear; see them on the field, in the moment they occur. You have to be alert and open, and at a certain moment the openness will refer to itself. Because what you are fundamentally is only openness. Openness is not an object, it is quite simply emptiness, empty of objects, a question mark. So you cannot affirm what you fundamentally are. If you do, you make it an object and it belongs to what you are not.
Jean Klein
Transmission of the Flame
Third Millennium Publications
Santa Barbara
1990
To get to know the part of you which is not you. You can only say, "I am not the body, emotions and thoughts;" but before saying that you must know what the body, emotions and thoughts are. To know yourself calls for listening, being receptive, open. In this opening all refers to yourself. If you are completely open to the expressions of life, they refer to life, because they are only life and nothing else. So when you learn what you are not, you are learning what is an expression of yourself. And, pedagogically, it is better to go this way; to investigate first what you are not, to understand profoundly what it is that you are not. And it is important to do this in the moment itself. When fear and anxiety appear, when hate and all the feelings appear; see them on the field, in the moment they occur. You have to be alert and open, and at a certain moment the openness will refer to itself. Because what you are fundamentally is only openness. Openness is not an object, it is quite simply emptiness, empty of objects, a question mark. So you cannot affirm what you fundamentally are. If you do, you make it an object and it belongs to what you are not.
Jean Klein
Transmission of the Flame
Third Millennium Publications
Santa Barbara
1990
Unconditional Love...
Unconditional Love is the feeling of Love for all humans without any
demand that Love be returned.. To expect others to show you Love just because
you have shown Love to them is acting from the state of self desire or ego.. Love is the energy of Real Self that flows from your mind and consciousness into the consciousness of that which You Perceive.. This Flow is a circuit or circle of Energy that is felt as bliss.. This feeling can only be experienced when the ego is not present.. when the ego is absent,the Self is Present.. This is Presence.. This is our natural state of existence within Divine Consciousness........ namaste, thomas
demand that Love be returned.. To expect others to show you Love just because
you have shown Love to them is acting from the state of self desire or ego.. Love is the energy of Real Self that flows from your mind and consciousness into the consciousness of that which You Perceive.. This Flow is a circuit or circle of Energy that is felt as bliss.. This feeling can only be experienced when the ego is not present.. when the ego is absent,the Self is Present.. This is Presence.. This is our natural state of existence within Divine Consciousness........ namaste, thomas
To forget oneself...
Our 'normal' living, based on nothing but mental image-forming, has become so abnormal, that we are rarely able to give any attention to anything natural.
It is only when one is able to be one with nature -- witness what happens in nature without any personal reaction -- that it is possible to step out of the bind of the thinking mind, and be connected with the Being in which everything exists as part of Nature.
This is not really difficult. All it means is to forget oneself for the moment, as an individual entity, and feel the same stillness within and without. And then you see nature not as something stationary but as life, as movement.
All things in nature are one with totality, that they do not claim a separate existence as me and the other. There is total acceptance in nature.
~ Ramesh Balsekar, from: Nuggets of Wisdom
It is only when one is able to be one with nature -- witness what happens in nature without any personal reaction -- that it is possible to step out of the bind of the thinking mind, and be connected with the Being in which everything exists as part of Nature.
This is not really difficult. All it means is to forget oneself for the moment, as an individual entity, and feel the same stillness within and without. And then you see nature not as something stationary but as life, as movement.
All things in nature are one with totality, that they do not claim a separate existence as me and the other. There is total acceptance in nature.
~ Ramesh Balsekar, from: Nuggets of Wisdom
It's sound is love...
The flute of the Infinite is played without
ceasing, and its sound is love:
When love renounces all limits, it reaches
truth.
How widely the fragrance spreads! It has
no end, nothing stands in its way.
The form of this melody is bright like a
million suns: incomparably sounds the
vina, the vina of the notes of truth.
- Kabir
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Songs of Kabir
Translated by Rabindranath Tagore
Samuel Weisner, Inc.
York Beach, Maine, 1988
ceasing, and its sound is love:
When love renounces all limits, it reaches
truth.
How widely the fragrance spreads! It has
no end, nothing stands in its way.
The form of this melody is bright like a
million suns: incomparably sounds the
vina, the vina of the notes of truth.
- Kabir
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Songs of Kabir
Translated by Rabindranath Tagore
Samuel Weisner, Inc.
York Beach, Maine, 1988
Good and Evil...
There is no good and no evil. In every
concrete situation there is only the
necessary and the unnecessary. The
needful is right, the needless is wrong.
The situation decides.
Every situation is a challenge which
demands the right response. When the
response is right, the challenge is met
and the problem ceases. If the response
is wrong, the challenge is not met and
the problem remains unsolved. Your
unsolved problems - that is what
constitutes your karma. Solve them
rightly and be free.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
concrete situation there is only the
necessary and the unnecessary. The
needful is right, the needless is wrong.
The situation decides.
Every situation is a challenge which
demands the right response. When the
response is right, the challenge is met
and the problem ceases. If the response
is wrong, the challenge is not met and
the problem remains unsolved. Your
unsolved problems - that is what
constitutes your karma. Solve them
rightly and be free.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
What would Jesus do?...
What would Jesus do?.. is really saying:" How would Unconditional Love React?.. Jesus Realised Christhood, which is the state of non-ego otherwise known as the state of unselfish love or what we call God.. Therefore, Jesus represents in our minds, the human equivalent of Love.. This is why Jesus was made into a god by the Catholic church and Emperor Constantine at the Council of Nicea in 325ad... The greater question is;" What would we do?".. Free Choice once again raises it's hand...........namaste, thomas
Misunderstood...
Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
... Ralph Waldo Emerson
... Ralph Waldo Emerson
Love is the mystic path...
Bowl of Saki, September 17, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Mystics of all ages have not been known for their miraculous powers or for the
doctrines they have taught, but for the devotion they have shown throughout
their lives. The Sufi in the East says to himself, Ishq Allah Ma'bud Allah,
which means 'God is Love, God is the Beloved', in other words it is God who is
Love, Lover, and Beloved. When we hear the stories of the miraculous powers of
mystics, of their great insight into the hidden laws of nature, of the qualities
which they manifested through their beautiful personalities, we realize that
these have all come from one and the same source, whether one calls it devotion
or whether one calls it love.
Love is that state of mind in which the consciousness of the lover is merged in
that of the object of his love; it produces in the lover all the attributes of
humanity, such as resignation, renunciation, humility, kindness, contentment,
patience, virtue, calmness, gentleness, charity, faithfulness, bravery, by which
the devotee becomes harmonized with the Absolute. As one of God's beloved, a
path is opened for his heavenly journey: at the end he arrives at oneness with
God, and his whole individuality is dissolved in the ocean of eternal bliss
where even the conception of God and man disappears.
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Mystics of all ages have not been known for their miraculous powers or for the
doctrines they have taught, but for the devotion they have shown throughout
their lives. The Sufi in the East says to himself, Ishq Allah Ma'bud Allah,
which means 'God is Love, God is the Beloved', in other words it is God who is
Love, Lover, and Beloved. When we hear the stories of the miraculous powers of
mystics, of their great insight into the hidden laws of nature, of the qualities
which they manifested through their beautiful personalities, we realize that
these have all come from one and the same source, whether one calls it devotion
or whether one calls it love.
Love is that state of mind in which the consciousness of the lover is merged in
that of the object of his love; it produces in the lover all the attributes of
humanity, such as resignation, renunciation, humility, kindness, contentment,
patience, virtue, calmness, gentleness, charity, faithfulness, bravery, by which
the devotee becomes harmonized with the Absolute. As one of God's beloved, a
path is opened for his heavenly journey: at the end he arrives at oneness with
God, and his whole individuality is dissolved in the ocean of eternal bliss
where even the conception of God and man disappears.
Liberation is our nature...
Mukti or liberation is our nature. It is another
name for us. Our wanting mukti is a very funny
thing. It is like a man who is in the shade,
voluntarily leaving the shade, going into the sun,
feeling the severity of the heat there, making
great efforts to get back to the shade and then
rejoicing, "How sweet is the shade! I have reached
the shade at last!" We are all doing exactly the
same. We are not different from the reality. We
imagine we are different, that is we create the
bheda bhava [the feeling of difference] and then
undergo great sadhana [spiritual practices] to get
rid of the bheda bhava and realise the oneness. Why
imagine or create bheda bhava and then destroy it?
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"Be As You Are"
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
edited by David Godman
Arkana, 1985
name for us. Our wanting mukti is a very funny
thing. It is like a man who is in the shade,
voluntarily leaving the shade, going into the sun,
feeling the severity of the heat there, making
great efforts to get back to the shade and then
rejoicing, "How sweet is the shade! I have reached
the shade at last!" We are all doing exactly the
same. We are not different from the reality. We
imagine we are different, that is we create the
bheda bhava [the feeling of difference] and then
undergo great sadhana [spiritual practices] to get
rid of the bheda bhava and realise the oneness. Why
imagine or create bheda bhava and then destroy it?
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"Be As You Are"
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
edited by David Godman
Arkana, 1985
The pain of ego...
I said, 'Thou art harsh, like such a one.'
'Know,' he replied,
'That I am harsh for good, not from rancor and spite.
Whoever enters saying, "This I," I smite him on the brow;
For this is the shrine of Love, o fool! it is not a sheep cote!
Rub thine eyes, and behold the image of the heart.'
....... Rumi
'Know,' he replied,
'That I am harsh for good, not from rancor and spite.
Whoever enters saying, "This I," I smite him on the brow;
For this is the shrine of Love, o fool! it is not a sheep cote!
Rub thine eyes, and behold the image of the heart.'
....... Rumi
Where is the perfect teacher...
The short answer is that there is none outside of your Self.. Only the Divine Consciousness that is You, will not lie or deceive you.. All other teachers are still linked to at least the smallest ego which is called Identity.. 99.99% of all souls upon death will remain at different levels of Divine Consciousness.. Only the very few will surrender themselves completely to be absorbed into Pure Awareness.. Was Jesus the perfect teacher?.. does a teacher become angry?.. Jesus did!.. Does a teacher laugh at the lack of Knowledge within his students?.. Jesus did!... Once Jesus walked into a room in which His apostles were praying to the God of Creation.. Jesus laughed at them and said that they were praying to the wrong God.. There are many good teachers in the world.. listen to their words but do not worship them.. If their words and ideas match what your Consciousness says is correct, then, you have learned Wisdom.. Contemplation and Meditation are the tools for your learning.. All Knowledge is already within YOU.. start the inward journey to your Self..........namaste, thomas
Realisation...
There are very few souls with the Realisation that They and God are One.. Jesus, Gautama,Krishna, and a few others were able to fully Realise Reality while within the body.. These souls had the ability to manifest anything within the world.. the world is just a hologram and anything can be changed by the power of Belief.. you train the subconscious mind by staying awake and aware of all of the thoughts of the conscious mind.. You are not the mind or the thoughts, You are the Watcher of the Thoughts.. You are Consciousness.. The subconscious mind is the Soul.. It will accept all thoughts and therefore manifest these thoughts.. You must take control of the mind so that the mind can train the subconscious mind(Soul)... Watch for thoughts of ego.. do not allow these thoughts to continue, let them dissolve... Eventually, You will not have to do anymore training, as the ego has dropped like a leaf.. You will not feel the pains that you felt before.. happiness will walk with You.. This is the state of Grace.. This is the state of Unselfish Love.. These are the attributes of that which we call God.. This is why it is written that We are made in the image and likeness of God...............namaste, thomas
The fear of death...
The fear of death haunts us daily.. people joining gyms and dieting.. safety within society.. and so on.... It really is the sense of loss.. we spend our lives gathering the atoms of materiality into a pile.. It is this "Desire" for the illusion of materiality that keeps us within the dream... When we finally tire of this action of gathering, we begin to give away and throw away this pile... when we can finally throw away the pile of egoic thoughts, We become Free... Death, then becomes an old friend that welcomes You back home... The first question that We always ask ourselves is; "Why did I struggle so hard to stay there?".........namaste, thomas
Original Thought...
Have you ever had a thought and believed it to be an 'original'? This is not necessarily true. While it may be a light bulb moment for you it is nothing new. It is merely your understanding of the concept that is new to you.
Far from being depressing to think that there is nothing new under the sun, I find it comforting to know that these questions and concepts have been around for as long as human kind has been aware of Self. The words may change but the basic idea is the original theme.
Think of someone from the pages of history, someone you admire. Read about them and think about what they are saying in their writings. They had the same questions as you and I. They wrote down their understandings in the language of the day.
Let us take this one step farther. Every glass of water, every breath you take holds the same energy as someone you admire from history. Perhaps it even is the very same molecules that person inhaled or drank!
Thought patterns work this way too. Thought is simply energy; and we know that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it simply 'is'. Some people have labeled this energy as the mass consciousness or group mind. I prefer to think of it as more of an overlay.
Each person on earth has thoughts and these thoughts are infused with some form of emotional energy. So, in turn, these thoughts and emotions go into the ethers as a thought and energy infused packet, which we feel or 'tune in' to.
These thought energy packets become like a cloud or thread within a tapestry, that can effect people a far distance away or even from the distance of time. An overlay.
There are some schools of thought that believe this overlay is the underlying source of our dreams. Perhaps this is so. This overlay can affect us in our waking hours as well.
There are many places on earth that hold the energy of sacred ceremony and group-thoughts. For example, we've all felt 'something' at a cemetery; and at one time or another we have all heard of a 'haunted house'. We have all been, at one time or another, in a house that is not haunted per se, yet we get a feeling of the former or present occupants of the house. We label it 'vibes'. Perhaps what we are feeling is the thought-energy overlay that remains, however recent, of the people and events that have been in that space.
Modifying the Overlay
At this time, much of the world is in turmoil, confusion and worry. These thoughts are all being 'recorded' in the overlay. In turn, this overlay affects the very physical properties of the world and our lives. The question is, how can we work with this overlay or counteract it?
Recognition: It is when we become aware of the fact that we are contributing to the overlay that is the first step in changing our world and lives.
Monitor: Monitor your thoughts. Keep your inner eye upon your thoughts. Now, that sounds simple, yet in reality, it is more difficult at first than it appears. It takes constant vigilance. When you find yourself dwelling upon 'negative thoughts', stop! Immediately turn it around from a negative to a positive.
Feel: Feel the emotions that coincide with these thoughts. The moment you recognize that you are giving or surrounding thoughts of fear or intense dislike with the accompanying emotion, you will feel a 'tenseness' somewhere in your body. A flip-flop of your stomach or a sinking feeling are but two indicators that there is a strong emotion encompassing the thought.
Acknowledge: This coincides with monitoring your thoughts. Rather than say, for example, "I really hate this or that". Acknowledge that the situation is put before you by your Soul for your growth and understanding.
Affirm: When we affirm something we are placing it in a positive light to teach us and further our understanding and growth. We hold it to be our Truth. Usually this takes the form of "And so it is"; "It is done" or "It is so".
Be precise: The Universe is quite literal in fulfilling our thoughts and expectations. When we say, "I want (blank)" the Universe hears this and says, "You got it! A lot of exactly as you requested." So what do you get? More "want".
When one looks at the steps it sounds like it would take a lot of 'time' and a lot of bother. Really though, it can all happen within the space and time of a thought. Have patience in the practice of these steps and they will soon become second nature. You can and do change your world when you change your thoughts. It does not matter if they are not original. Make them your own by surrounding them with your unique energy signature.
TurtleZen.com
Far from being depressing to think that there is nothing new under the sun, I find it comforting to know that these questions and concepts have been around for as long as human kind has been aware of Self. The words may change but the basic idea is the original theme.
Think of someone from the pages of history, someone you admire. Read about them and think about what they are saying in their writings. They had the same questions as you and I. They wrote down their understandings in the language of the day.
Let us take this one step farther. Every glass of water, every breath you take holds the same energy as someone you admire from history. Perhaps it even is the very same molecules that person inhaled or drank!
Thought patterns work this way too. Thought is simply energy; and we know that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it simply 'is'. Some people have labeled this energy as the mass consciousness or group mind. I prefer to think of it as more of an overlay.
Each person on earth has thoughts and these thoughts are infused with some form of emotional energy. So, in turn, these thoughts and emotions go into the ethers as a thought and energy infused packet, which we feel or 'tune in' to.
These thought energy packets become like a cloud or thread within a tapestry, that can effect people a far distance away or even from the distance of time. An overlay.
There are some schools of thought that believe this overlay is the underlying source of our dreams. Perhaps this is so. This overlay can affect us in our waking hours as well.
There are many places on earth that hold the energy of sacred ceremony and group-thoughts. For example, we've all felt 'something' at a cemetery; and at one time or another we have all heard of a 'haunted house'. We have all been, at one time or another, in a house that is not haunted per se, yet we get a feeling of the former or present occupants of the house. We label it 'vibes'. Perhaps what we are feeling is the thought-energy overlay that remains, however recent, of the people and events that have been in that space.
Modifying the Overlay
At this time, much of the world is in turmoil, confusion and worry. These thoughts are all being 'recorded' in the overlay. In turn, this overlay affects the very physical properties of the world and our lives. The question is, how can we work with this overlay or counteract it?
Recognition: It is when we become aware of the fact that we are contributing to the overlay that is the first step in changing our world and lives.
Monitor: Monitor your thoughts. Keep your inner eye upon your thoughts. Now, that sounds simple, yet in reality, it is more difficult at first than it appears. It takes constant vigilance. When you find yourself dwelling upon 'negative thoughts', stop! Immediately turn it around from a negative to a positive.
Feel: Feel the emotions that coincide with these thoughts. The moment you recognize that you are giving or surrounding thoughts of fear or intense dislike with the accompanying emotion, you will feel a 'tenseness' somewhere in your body. A flip-flop of your stomach or a sinking feeling are but two indicators that there is a strong emotion encompassing the thought.
Acknowledge: This coincides with monitoring your thoughts. Rather than say, for example, "I really hate this or that". Acknowledge that the situation is put before you by your Soul for your growth and understanding.
Affirm: When we affirm something we are placing it in a positive light to teach us and further our understanding and growth. We hold it to be our Truth. Usually this takes the form of "And so it is"; "It is done" or "It is so".
Be precise: The Universe is quite literal in fulfilling our thoughts and expectations. When we say, "I want (blank)" the Universe hears this and says, "You got it! A lot of exactly as you requested." So what do you get? More "want".
When one looks at the steps it sounds like it would take a lot of 'time' and a lot of bother. Really though, it can all happen within the space and time of a thought. Have patience in the practice of these steps and they will soon become second nature. You can and do change your world when you change your thoughts. It does not matter if they are not original. Make them your own by surrounding them with your unique energy signature.
TurtleZen.com
The Wisdom of Father Thomas Merton...
A daydream is an evasion.
A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all. No man can serve two masters. Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire.
Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.
Be good, keep your feet dry, your eyes open, your heart at peace and your soul in the joy of Christ.
By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet.
Death is someone you see very clearly with eyes in the center of your heart: eyes that see not by reacting to light, but by reacting to a kind of a chill from within the marrow of your own life.
Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul.
Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.
I cannot make the universe obey me. I cannot make other people conform to my own whims and fancies. I cannot make even my own body obey me.
If you want to study the social and political history of modern nations, study hell.
In the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for "finding himself." If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence.
Just remaining quietly in the presence of God, listening to Him, being attentive to Him, requires a lot of courage and know-how.
Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone-we find it with another.
Love seeks one thing only: the good of the one loved. It leaves all the other secondary effects to take care of themselves. Love, therefore, is its own reward.
A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all. No man can serve two masters. Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire.
Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.
Be good, keep your feet dry, your eyes open, your heart at peace and your soul in the joy of Christ.
By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet.
Death is someone you see very clearly with eyes in the center of your heart: eyes that see not by reacting to light, but by reacting to a kind of a chill from within the marrow of your own life.
Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul.
Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.
I cannot make the universe obey me. I cannot make other people conform to my own whims and fancies. I cannot make even my own body obey me.
If you want to study the social and political history of modern nations, study hell.
In the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for "finding himself." If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence.
Just remaining quietly in the presence of God, listening to Him, being attentive to Him, requires a lot of courage and know-how.
Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone-we find it with another.
Love seeks one thing only: the good of the one loved. It leaves all the other secondary effects to take care of themselves. Love, therefore, is its own reward.
Mindfulness...
Buddha said in the Dhammapada:
Those who are not mindful are as if already dead.. (ye pamatta yatha mata).
Those who are not mindful are as if already dead.. (ye pamatta yatha mata).
Osho quotes...
Zen is the only religion in the world that teaches sudden enlightenment. It says that enlightenment takes no time, it can happen in a single, split second.
Meaning is man-created. And because you constantly look for meaning, you start to feel meaninglessness.
This is the Zen approach: nothing is there to be done. There is nothing to do. One has just to be. Have a rest and be ordinary and be natural.
Zen is a kind of unlearning. It teaches you how to drop that which you have learned, how to become unskillful again, how to become a child again, how to start existing without mind again, how to be here without any mind.
Philosophers are never happy here. Now is not their time, and here is not their space. They live there, they live somewhere else.
Zen is all-inclusive. It never denies, it never says no to anything; it accepts everything and transforms it into a higher reality.
Happiness is a shadow of harmony; it follows harmony. There is no other way to be happy.
You come to the master only in deep humbleness, because learning is possible only in humbleness. You have come to surrender, not to perform, not to manipulate, not to impress.
Zen people love Buddha so tremendously that they can even play jokes upon him. It is out of great love; they are not afraid.
When I say that you are gods and goddesses I mean that your possibility is infinite, your potentiality is infinite.
Zen is a totally different kind of religion. It brings humanness to religion. It is not bothered about anything superhuman; its whole concern is how to make ordinary life a blessing.
You become that which you think you are. Or, it is not that you become it, but that the idea gets very deeply rooted - and that's what all conditioning is.
You and your brain are two things. The brain is your machinery just like everything else is your machinery. This hand is my mechanism; I use it. My brain is my mechanism; I use it.
The disciple is not hankering for knowledge; he wants to see, not to know. He wants to be. He is no longer interested in having more knowledge; he wants to have more being.
Zen has no theory. It is a non-theoretical approach into reality. It has no doctrine and no dogma - hence it has no church, no priest, no pope.
Meaning is man-created. And because you constantly look for meaning, you start to feel meaninglessness.
This is the Zen approach: nothing is there to be done. There is nothing to do. One has just to be. Have a rest and be ordinary and be natural.
Zen is a kind of unlearning. It teaches you how to drop that which you have learned, how to become unskillful again, how to become a child again, how to start existing without mind again, how to be here without any mind.
Philosophers are never happy here. Now is not their time, and here is not their space. They live there, they live somewhere else.
Zen is all-inclusive. It never denies, it never says no to anything; it accepts everything and transforms it into a higher reality.
Happiness is a shadow of harmony; it follows harmony. There is no other way to be happy.
You come to the master only in deep humbleness, because learning is possible only in humbleness. You have come to surrender, not to perform, not to manipulate, not to impress.
Zen people love Buddha so tremendously that they can even play jokes upon him. It is out of great love; they are not afraid.
When I say that you are gods and goddesses I mean that your possibility is infinite, your potentiality is infinite.
Zen is a totally different kind of religion. It brings humanness to religion. It is not bothered about anything superhuman; its whole concern is how to make ordinary life a blessing.
You become that which you think you are. Or, it is not that you become it, but that the idea gets very deeply rooted - and that's what all conditioning is.
You and your brain are two things. The brain is your machinery just like everything else is your machinery. This hand is my mechanism; I use it. My brain is my mechanism; I use it.
The disciple is not hankering for knowledge; he wants to see, not to know. He wants to be. He is no longer interested in having more knowledge; he wants to have more being.
Zen has no theory. It is a non-theoretical approach into reality. It has no doctrine and no dogma - hence it has no church, no priest, no pope.
Higher than Heaven...
At every instant and from every side, resounds the call of Love:
We are going to sky, who wants to come with us?
We have gone to heaven, we have been the friends of the angels,
And now we will go back there, for there is our country.
We are higher than heaven, more noble than the angels:
Why not go beyond them? Our goal is the Supreme Majesty.
What has the fine pearl to do with the world of dust?
Why have you come down here? Take your baggage back. What is this place?
Luck is with us, to us is the sacrifice!...
Like the birds of the sea, men come from the ocean--the ocean of the soul.
Like the birds of the sea, men come from the ocean--the ocean of the soul.
How could this bird, born from that sea, make his dwelling here?
No, we are the pearls from the bosom of the sea, it is there that we dwell:
Otherwise how could the wave succeed to the wave that comes from the soul?
The wave named 'Am I not your Lord' has come, it has broken the vessel of the body;
And when the vessel is broken, the vision comes back, and the union with Him.
.......... Rumi
We are going to sky, who wants to come with us?
We have gone to heaven, we have been the friends of the angels,
And now we will go back there, for there is our country.
We are higher than heaven, more noble than the angels:
Why not go beyond them? Our goal is the Supreme Majesty.
What has the fine pearl to do with the world of dust?
Why have you come down here? Take your baggage back. What is this place?
Luck is with us, to us is the sacrifice!...
Like the birds of the sea, men come from the ocean--the ocean of the soul.
Like the birds of the sea, men come from the ocean--the ocean of the soul.
How could this bird, born from that sea, make his dwelling here?
No, we are the pearls from the bosom of the sea, it is there that we dwell:
Otherwise how could the wave succeed to the wave that comes from the soul?
The wave named 'Am I not your Lord' has come, it has broken the vessel of the body;
And when the vessel is broken, the vision comes back, and the union with Him.
.......... Rumi
The ego...
The ego can effect tremendous achievements in the domain of worldly life but it can do nothing in the domain of spiritual life. Here its best and only achievement is to stop its efforts, silence itself, and learn to be still.
........ Paul Brunton
........ Paul Brunton
Radical Emptiness...
To the extent that the fire of truth wipes out all fixated points of view, it wipes out inner contradictions as well, and we begin to move in a whole different way. The Way is the flow that comes from a place of non-contradiction—not from good and bad. Much less damage tends to be done from that place. Once we have reached the phase where there is no fixed self-concept, we tend to lead a selfless life. The only way to be selfless is to be self less—without a self. No matter what it does, a self isn’t going to be selfless. It can pretend. It can approximate selflessness, but a self is never going to be selfless because there is always an identified personal self at the root of it.
Being selfless isn’t a good, holy, or noble activity. It’s simply that when there is no self, selflessness happens. This selflessness is very different from having a moralistic standpoint. When action is selfless, it tends to do no harm. It tends to be the salvation, the secret alchemy that awakens and removes conflict. It’s a byproduct of not having a self. It just so happens that reality is overflowing with goodness and love.
This is radical emptiness—where everything is arising spontaneously. There is no more need to discriminate with the mind between what seems to be the right thing or the wrong thing to do. In ego-land it’s helpful to have an ego that can discriminate between right and wrong, but at a certain point, that’s not what you are operating by. You are operating by the flow of the Tao, which is a higher order of intelligence. You don’t need to intellectually discriminate anymore because the Tao discriminates without discriminating; it knows without knowing; it moves without moving. There is no sense of being enlightened or unenlightened. Since there is no self, there is nothing to be enlightened or unenlightened.
We can talk about enlightened beings and non-enlightened beings, and conceptually that has a use. But when there is no self, when there is radical emptiness, the whole enlightenment thing is sort of irrelevant because reality has become conscious of itself, which is enlightenment. That’s what is often missed. People believe that enlightenment is an improvement on reality, like becoming a super human being or God-knows-what. But enlightenment is when reality is awake to itself as itself within itself.
© 2006 by Adyashanti.
Being selfless isn’t a good, holy, or noble activity. It’s simply that when there is no self, selflessness happens. This selflessness is very different from having a moralistic standpoint. When action is selfless, it tends to do no harm. It tends to be the salvation, the secret alchemy that awakens and removes conflict. It’s a byproduct of not having a self. It just so happens that reality is overflowing with goodness and love.
This is radical emptiness—where everything is arising spontaneously. There is no more need to discriminate with the mind between what seems to be the right thing or the wrong thing to do. In ego-land it’s helpful to have an ego that can discriminate between right and wrong, but at a certain point, that’s not what you are operating by. You are operating by the flow of the Tao, which is a higher order of intelligence. You don’t need to intellectually discriminate anymore because the Tao discriminates without discriminating; it knows without knowing; it moves without moving. There is no sense of being enlightened or unenlightened. Since there is no self, there is nothing to be enlightened or unenlightened.
We can talk about enlightened beings and non-enlightened beings, and conceptually that has a use. But when there is no self, when there is radical emptiness, the whole enlightenment thing is sort of irrelevant because reality has become conscious of itself, which is enlightenment. That’s what is often missed. People believe that enlightenment is an improvement on reality, like becoming a super human being or God-knows-what. But enlightenment is when reality is awake to itself as itself within itself.
© 2006 by Adyashanti.
Be open...
Be open, sensitive, be fully aware of what is from moment to moment. Don't build around yourself a wall of impregnable thought. The bliss of truth comes when the mind is not occupied with its own activities and struggles.......
- Krishnamurti
- Krishnamurti
The Teacher...
Who is the Teacher?.. It is correct that the only Teacher is Divine Consciousness.. but, upon Realising Enlightenment, this Knowledge becomes Remembered.. This is why an earthly teacher can only point the way to Truth, they cannot give you Truth..Real Learning is a solitary event.. Perhaps, it is this way to teach you about the Oneness that solitary connotes.. In the end, Our experience as Consciousness is to learn what division is ,so that we can Know non-division.. Non-division is called Love.. Division is called ego.............namaste, thomas
You...
Jean Klein from Transmission of the Flame
Dr. Klein, could you say something more about everything we see being a projection?
Generally we think that an object exists outside ourselves, that it has an independent existence, but that is only a belief. It is not based on experience or fact. The so-called object outside of us needs consciousness to be perceived. Consciousness and its object are one, so you create, you project, the world from moment to moment. When the body first wakes up in the morning, at the same moment the world wakes up. You project the world; it is you who creates the world from moment to moment.
Do you mean that action creates the world as we see it, so that when I wake up in the morning and I see the room and what is in it, the room only exists when I wake up?
Firstly, when you wake up you don't see the room, you see only your memory. You see a corner of the ceiling and you say, "I'm in a room," but it is only memory which you are projecting and calling the room. Your seeing is only fractional. What you call your environment is certainly 80% memory.
When your listening (Klein uses listening as the equivalent of the natural state, sahaja) is global, every moment is new, otherwise there is only repetition. As long as there is the reflex to take yourself for somebody you will see only fractions, and see your surroundings from a fractional point of view. It is this fractional seeing which creates a problem; otherwise there is no problem. So it is you who creates the problem.
Jean Klein
Transmission of the Flame
Third Millennium Publications
Santa Barbara
1990
p.162-3
Dr. Klein, could you say something more about everything we see being a projection?
Generally we think that an object exists outside ourselves, that it has an independent existence, but that is only a belief. It is not based on experience or fact. The so-called object outside of us needs consciousness to be perceived. Consciousness and its object are one, so you create, you project, the world from moment to moment. When the body first wakes up in the morning, at the same moment the world wakes up. You project the world; it is you who creates the world from moment to moment.
Do you mean that action creates the world as we see it, so that when I wake up in the morning and I see the room and what is in it, the room only exists when I wake up?
Firstly, when you wake up you don't see the room, you see only your memory. You see a corner of the ceiling and you say, "I'm in a room," but it is only memory which you are projecting and calling the room. Your seeing is only fractional. What you call your environment is certainly 80% memory.
When your listening (Klein uses listening as the equivalent of the natural state, sahaja) is global, every moment is new, otherwise there is only repetition. As long as there is the reflex to take yourself for somebody you will see only fractions, and see your surroundings from a fractional point of view. It is this fractional seeing which creates a problem; otherwise there is no problem. So it is you who creates the problem.
Jean Klein
Transmission of the Flame
Third Millennium Publications
Santa Barbara
1990
p.162-3
The fear...
Ram Tzu knows this;
The fear never leaves you.
It is part of you
As tied to your center as your breath.
Touch it,
Stroke it
Get to know it well.
As long as you are
It will be with you.
You scream
You shout
You rage
You want quit of it.
You push it away with all your strength.
But hear this;
It thrives on all this exercise
You give it.
It gets stronger when
You give it something to push against.
Left alone it will wither and die.
But you know you can not leave it alone.
You must always fight the fear.
It is your nature to always fight.
Yet sometimes there is Grace, You disappear into it
And there is no longer a battle.
The warrior is gone.
- Ram Tzu
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
No Way for the Spiritually "Advanced"
Ram Tzu
Advaita Press, 1990
The fear never leaves you.
It is part of you
As tied to your center as your breath.
Touch it,
Stroke it
Get to know it well.
As long as you are
It will be with you.
You scream
You shout
You rage
You want quit of it.
You push it away with all your strength.
But hear this;
It thrives on all this exercise
You give it.
It gets stronger when
You give it something to push against.
Left alone it will wither and die.
But you know you can not leave it alone.
You must always fight the fear.
It is your nature to always fight.
Yet sometimes there is Grace, You disappear into it
And there is no longer a battle.
The warrior is gone.
- Ram Tzu
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
No Way for the Spiritually "Advanced"
Ram Tzu
Advaita Press, 1990
They...
They are the chosen ones
who have surrendered.
Once they were particles of light
now they are the radiant sun.
....... Rumi
who have surrendered.
Once they were particles of light
now they are the radiant sun.
....... Rumi
The Heart of God...
The Heart of God is called Pure Awareness.. Pure Awareness has no ego, therefore, there is no Awareness of Itself.. no duality, no division, no other.. therefore, there is no mirror to see Itself.. Pure Awareness is the Void or what is called the "State of Nothingness".. .. Nothingness created by Thought the illusion of division called Divine Consciousness as a way to see Itself and Learn about Itself.. Remember that non-ego such as Pure Awareness is called Unconditional Love.. Unconditional Love is the Essence of Pure Awareness.. ego is the state of division called non-love.. This is the "Free Will" that We have been given.. To choose thoughts of non-ego called Love or choose thoughts of ego called Pain........... namaste, thomas
Personality...
The personality is Consciousness called Identity.. It is not the ego.. the ego is just a lot of memories and a culmination of people telling you who you are.. Identity is our feeling of separation even within Divine Consciousness.. We are One and yet We still have the desire for Individuality.. This is where We are now while experiencing life and continues beyond life.. The next step to Freedom is to surrender this desire for Individuality and Realise Nothingness.. This state is Highest Reality and Home.. Letting go, means giving up the illusion of separation and identity and surrender All to Reality.. Until We can accomplish this, we will keep returning into the material worlds to manifest our desires for separation and attachment for the illusions of materiality...............namaste, thomas
Peace...
When suffering reaches its zenith or frustration is drawn out too long, when the heart is resigned to hopelessness or the mind to apathy, people often say that they do not wish to live any more and that they await the coming of death. They think only of the body's death, however. This will not solve their problem, for the same situation--under another guise--will repeat itself in a later birth. The only real solution is to seek out the inner reality of their longing for death. They want it because they believe it will separate them from their problems and disappointments. But these are the ego's burdens. Therefore the radical separation from them is achievable only by separating permanently from the ego itself. Peace will then come--and come forever.
— Notebooks Category 9: From Birth to Rebirth > Chapter 1: Death, Dying, and Immortality > # 172...... Paul Brunton
— Notebooks Category 9: From Birth to Rebirth > Chapter 1: Death, Dying, and Immortality > # 172...... Paul Brunton
Surrender...
As the river surrenders to the Ocean,
surrender yourself to the Self, the Source.
And if you find you are still swimming on
the surface of the Ocean, stop swimming
and you will sink to the Depths of Love.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
surrender yourself to the Self, the Source.
And if you find you are still swimming on
the surface of the Ocean, stop swimming
and you will sink to the Depths of Love.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
God...
The god of the cannibals will be a cannibal, of the crusaders a crusader, and of the merchants a merchant.
.... Ralph Waldo Emerson
.... Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sleep...
Some Mystics say that during sleep, You as Divine Consciousness return to that Consciousness of non-ego.. but, within Consciousness there is still an identity of separation.. It appears that You must be within the illusion to break free of the illusion.. It is your desires that keep you separated from You.. you must appear again and again within the illusions to fulfill these desires.. all wishes will be manifested.. this is the power of God and this is the power of Us.. There is no difference.. All desires including life itself must be relinquished to enter Reality.. You do not have to desire Reality.. all you must do is stop desire and attachment to the illusions.. Reality will appear on Its' own................namaste, thomas
The Christ...
Consciousness taking charge of the mind is really becoming "The Christ".. when
You and the Father are One, then You have accomplished what You were sent here
to do.. This is the meaning of Consciousness taking control of the body and mind
of the object that You have entered.. You are the Consciousness that I am
speaking of.. You are The Christ and You are also Nothing.. This is why humility
is the first step on the ladder to Freedom............namaste, thomas
You and the Father are One, then You have accomplished what You were sent here
to do.. This is the meaning of Consciousness taking control of the body and mind
of the object that You have entered.. You are the Consciousness that I am
speaking of.. You are The Christ and You are also Nothing.. This is why humility
is the first step on the ladder to Freedom............namaste, thomas
Irony...
Pure Awareness is a term that a few Mystics such as Nisargadatta use to
describe Nothingness.. Nothingness is Reality without any separate self.. The
irony is that Pure Awareness is not even aware of Itself as that would require a
separate entity to be both Seer and Seen.. Since this Nothingness created the
Divine Consciousness that created the levels of Creation and life, It must have
Awareness of this Consciousness even if It is not Aware of Itself.. Thus
creating the illusion of separation so that there is a Seer and Seen.. This is
the mirror of learning for Pure Awareness..to find out what Awareness and
Nothingness Is........... namaste, thomas
describe Nothingness.. Nothingness is Reality without any separate self.. The
irony is that Pure Awareness is not even aware of Itself as that would require a
separate entity to be both Seer and Seen.. Since this Nothingness created the
Divine Consciousness that created the levels of Creation and life, It must have
Awareness of this Consciousness even if It is not Aware of Itself.. Thus
creating the illusion of separation so that there is a Seer and Seen.. This is
the mirror of learning for Pure Awareness..to find out what Awareness and
Nothingness Is........... namaste, thomas
Nothingness...
What some have written as "Pure Nothingness" is what I call "Pure Awareness".. It is the same state of No-thingness.. But, I think that souls first have to Realise that they are Divine Consciousness before they are ready to reach the next and last level of Reality called Nothingness (non-ego)... the nature of Divine Consciousness is Light,Love,and Consciousness and yet "at One" with an asterisk.. for there is still the identity within the Identity.. this identity within Identity is the Creator of Worlds.. and yet is just a dream from Nothingness.. The binding power of unselfishness called Love is the very Energy that we call God.. un-self-ish, you have been given this hint for many lifetimes.. ...... namaste, thomas
Existence...
"Cast away your existence entirely,
for it is nothing but weeds and refuse.
Go, clear out your heart's chamber;
arrange it as the abiding-place of the Beloved.
When you go forth, He will come in,
and to you, with self discarded,
He will unveil His beauty."
Mahmud Shabistari (1250? - 1340)
from _The Secret Rose Garden_
Translated by Florence Lederer / Edited by David Fideler
for it is nothing but weeds and refuse.
Go, clear out your heart's chamber;
arrange it as the abiding-place of the Beloved.
When you go forth, He will come in,
and to you, with self discarded,
He will unveil His beauty."
Mahmud Shabistari (1250? - 1340)
from _The Secret Rose Garden_
Translated by Florence Lederer / Edited by David Fideler
Dropping like a leaf...
The ego can hide anywhere and hides well within the Spiritual Path.. but to say that You are Enlightened merely means that You have seen past the illusion and seen Reality.. this appears as ego because the ego of the listener is angered that the veil of deceit is being lifted and it too may eventually be dissolved.. you are speaking of the ego dropping like a leaf, this is true.. you do not notice it gone until something brings it to your attention through the actions of others.............namaste, thomas
Ego dissolution...
If you do not believe in ego dissolution, then what is your perception of
Reality?.. Is it strumming harps and singing to God?.. or perhaps, sitting on a
throne next to a man figure named god.. What is your future?.. maybe a heaven
filled with people that you once knew.. hopefully, Love is within your dream of
Reality.. But, what is Love?.. meditate on this question and you will Realise
that Love is the state of non-ego.. therefore,, If God is Love then God is the
Consciousness of non-ego.............. namaste, thomas
Reality?.. Is it strumming harps and singing to God?.. or perhaps, sitting on a
throne next to a man figure named god.. What is your future?.. maybe a heaven
filled with people that you once knew.. hopefully, Love is within your dream of
Reality.. But, what is Love?.. meditate on this question and you will Realise
that Love is the state of non-ego.. therefore,, If God is Love then God is the
Consciousness of non-ego.............. namaste, thomas
Dropping the mind?...
The answer is understood according to your level of Consciousness... In the
Enlightenment experience, the mind is the last vestige of separate ego that must
be surrendered to Reality if Self Realisation is to occur.. In the human life
experience, the mind must be dropped as commander of the body.. Consciousness
must take command of the body and mind.. This is the Reality of
Existence...........namaste, thomas
Enlightenment experience, the mind is the last vestige of separate ego that must
be surrendered to Reality if Self Realisation is to occur.. In the human life
experience, the mind must be dropped as commander of the body.. Consciousness
must take command of the body and mind.. This is the Reality of
Existence...........namaste, thomas
Pilgrimage...
By Lalla
(14th Century)
I made pilgrimages, looking for God.
Then I gave up, turned around,
there God was inside me!
Oh Lalla, why do you keep on
wandering, and begging?
Make just a little effort. Act!
And God will appear in the form
of a love that fills your heart.
-- from Naked Song, by Lalla / Translated by Coleman Barks
(14th Century)
I made pilgrimages, looking for God.
Then I gave up, turned around,
there God was inside me!
Oh Lalla, why do you keep on
wandering, and begging?
Make just a little effort. Act!
And God will appear in the form
of a love that fills your heart.
-- from Naked Song, by Lalla / Translated by Coleman Barks
The mind...
As you say, there is nothing but Consciousness.. but, the irony of using the mind for Enlightenment is interesting because, You must drop the mind to enter Enlightenment.. The mind cannot comprehend nor enter that which is beyond human mind.. and yet it is said that all is Mind... So, the key must be that human mind is just a shadow of Divine Mind with little to do except create the desires of the illusion called life...............namaste, thomas
The seeker...
What was never lost can never be found. Your very search for safety and joy keeps you away from them. Stop searching, cease losing. The disease is simple and the remedy equally simple. It is your mind only that makes you insecure and unhappy. Anticipation makes you insecure; memory, unhappy. Stop misusing your mind and all will be well with you. You need not set it right, it will set itself right, as soon as you give up all concern with the past and the future and live entirely in the now................ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Huang Po...
Huang-po Hsi-yun (?-849) was a Chinese Zen Master, and the teacher of Lin-chi (Rinzai).
There is not much information about the life of Huang Po. However he taught in the tradition of Zen Buddhism. Huang Po taught that enlightenment could be achieved by a silent mind and putting an end to conceptual thinking. This is a similar teaching to other Zen Masters such as Bodidharma and Dogen.
" This is a short extract by Huang Po on the nature of the mind and Buddha nature: All Buddhas and all ordinary beings are nothing but the one mind. This mind is beginningless and endless, unborn and indestructible. It has no color or shape, neither exists nor doesn't exist, isn't old or new, long or short, large or small, since it transcends all measures, limits, names, and comparisons. It is what you see in front of you.
Start to think about it and immediately you are mistaken. It is like the boundless void, which can't be fathomed or measured. The one mind is the Buddha, and there is no distinction between Buddha and ordinary beings, except that ordinary beings are attached to forms and thus seek for Buddhahood outside themselves. By this very seeking they lose it, since they are using Buddha to seek for Buddha, using mind to seek for mind. Even if they continue for a million eons, they will never be able to find it. They don't know that all they have to do is put a stop to conceptual thinking, and the Buddha will appear before them, because this mind is the Buddha and the Buddha is all living beings. It is not any less for being manifested in ordinary things, nor any greater for being manifested in Buddhas."
From: Stephen Mitchell's The Enlightened Mind - An Anthology of Sacred Prose, Harper Perennial, 1991.
There is not much information about the life of Huang Po. However he taught in the tradition of Zen Buddhism. Huang Po taught that enlightenment could be achieved by a silent mind and putting an end to conceptual thinking. This is a similar teaching to other Zen Masters such as Bodidharma and Dogen.
" This is a short extract by Huang Po on the nature of the mind and Buddha nature: All Buddhas and all ordinary beings are nothing but the one mind. This mind is beginningless and endless, unborn and indestructible. It has no color or shape, neither exists nor doesn't exist, isn't old or new, long or short, large or small, since it transcends all measures, limits, names, and comparisons. It is what you see in front of you.
Start to think about it and immediately you are mistaken. It is like the boundless void, which can't be fathomed or measured. The one mind is the Buddha, and there is no distinction between Buddha and ordinary beings, except that ordinary beings are attached to forms and thus seek for Buddhahood outside themselves. By this very seeking they lose it, since they are using Buddha to seek for Buddha, using mind to seek for mind. Even if they continue for a million eons, they will never be able to find it. They don't know that all they have to do is put a stop to conceptual thinking, and the Buddha will appear before them, because this mind is the Buddha and the Buddha is all living beings. It is not any less for being manifested in ordinary things, nor any greater for being manifested in Buddhas."
From: Stephen Mitchell's The Enlightened Mind - An Anthology of Sacred Prose, Harper Perennial, 1991.
The nature of the mind...
The nature of the mind is to keep the screen
of Consciousness filled with seductive mani-
festations.
In short, we all love the razzle-dazzle that comes
along with the appearance of "The Other."
Above all, your mind doesn't want to be kicked out
of the "Ego Game" too quickly.
It desperately wants to be the last final Survivor.
The Big Cosmic Joke, however, is that the mind
is as non-existent as is the very ego that it's been
trying so hard to protect.
Ah, isn't it fun to pretend?
- Chuck Hillig
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Seeds for the Soul
Chuck Hillig
Black Dot Publications, 2003
of Consciousness filled with seductive mani-
festations.
In short, we all love the razzle-dazzle that comes
along with the appearance of "The Other."
Above all, your mind doesn't want to be kicked out
of the "Ego Game" too quickly.
It desperately wants to be the last final Survivor.
The Big Cosmic Joke, however, is that the mind
is as non-existent as is the very ego that it's been
trying so hard to protect.
Ah, isn't it fun to pretend?
- Chuck Hillig
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Seeds for the Soul
Chuck Hillig
Black Dot Publications, 2003
Why is boredom, painful?
Because, you are thinking of yourself... the ego is the source of mental pain.. remember who You are.. You are just watching the thoughts of the mind.. You are not the mind, and You are not the thoughts.. therefore, You cannot feel any pain.............namaste, thomas
The Ocean...
Late, by myself, in the boat of myself,
no light and no land anywhere,
cloudcover thick. I try to stay
just above the surface,
yet I'm already under
and living with the ocean.
From Essential Rumi
by Coleman Barks
no light and no land anywhere,
cloudcover thick. I try to stay
just above the surface,
yet I'm already under
and living with the ocean.
From Essential Rumi
by Coleman Barks
Know Yourself...
From: "I AM THAT" by Nisargadatta Maharaj
"Use your mind. Remember. Observe.
You are not different from others.
Most of their experiences are valid for you too.
Think clearly and deeply,
go into the structure of your desires
and their ramifications.
They are a most important part of your mental
and emotional make-up
and powerfully affect your actions.
Remember, you cannot abandon what you do not know.
To go beyond yourself, you must know yourself."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Use your mind. Remember. Observe.
You are not different from others.
Most of their experiences are valid for you too.
Think clearly and deeply,
go into the structure of your desires
and their ramifications.
They are a most important part of your mental
and emotional make-up
and powerfully affect your actions.
Remember, you cannot abandon what you do not know.
To go beyond yourself, you must know yourself."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Awakening...
The whole of creation was made in order to awaken. But awakening is chiefly of
two kinds: one kind is called birth, the birth of the body when the soul awakens
in a condition where it is limited in the physical body, and so man becomes
captive; and there is another awakening, which is to awaken to reality, and that
is called the birth of the soul. God lost in manifestation is the state that we
call awakening. Manifestation lost in God is realization. In my language I would
call the former dream and the latter awakening.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged By
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
two kinds: one kind is called birth, the birth of the body when the soul awakens
in a condition where it is limited in the physical body, and so man becomes
captive; and there is another awakening, which is to awaken to reality, and that
is called the birth of the soul. God lost in manifestation is the state that we
call awakening. Manifestation lost in God is realization. In my language I would
call the former dream and the latter awakening.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged By
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
Pure Awareness...
By using the duality of a seemingly separate Consciousness called Divine Consciousness, Pure Awareness attempts to learn of Itself by seeing what It is not.. this is the same mirror of duality that we are involved within on our journey through this life.. Our belief that we are separate ego instead of knowing that We are Pure Awareness or even Divine Consciousness presents the mirror of learning.. We learn about loss of ego called Love and the exaltation of ego called Sin.. Sin in the mental state of ego... Unconditional Love is the mental state of non-ego...Pure Awareness is Total Unconditional Love and only Unconditional Love can enter................ namaste, thomas
Ego annihilation...
Most souls fear annihilation.. They want to keep their separate identity and still remain as God.. They have this ability to remain separate within Divine Consciousness but not within Pure Awareness.. This is why We continue to experience separation and lack of Unconditional Love while in this state of ego.. Many souls will stay within Divine Consciousness, as it is a state of Love and Light but there will always be a yearning for the highest Love of non-existence.. Non existence of ego or identity is the final goal and is our True Identity.. The Identity of the Nothingness that Created Divine Consciousness that created life.................namaste, thomas
The Overself...
The Overself should not be reached merely in trance; it must be known
in full waking consciousness. Trance is merely the deepest phase of
meditation, which in turn is instrumental in helping prepare the mind
to discover truth. Yoga does not yield truth directly. Trance does not
do more than concentrate the mind perfectly and render it completely
calm. Realization can come after the mind is in that state and after
it has begun to inquire, with such an improved instrument, into truth.
— Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 7:
Contemplative Stillness > # 122...... Paul Brunton
in full waking consciousness. Trance is merely the deepest phase of
meditation, which in turn is instrumental in helping prepare the mind
to discover truth. Yoga does not yield truth directly. Trance does not
do more than concentrate the mind perfectly and render it completely
calm. Realization can come after the mind is in that state and after
it has begun to inquire, with such an improved instrument, into truth.
— Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 7:
Contemplative Stillness > # 122...... Paul Brunton
"I and the Father are One"...
There is only God.. whether you call God , father or not.. The personalities or identities called Jesus or Gautama or us , are just dreams from the Energy and Consciousness called God.. These different personalities are just a game that God is participating in.. They are mirrors of different levels of Consciousness.. The relationship that you have with these personalities is the relationship between You and You.. There is nothing closer than Reality.. There is nothing that is not God...........namaste, thomas
Unity...
It's sheer illusion
to try to separate
the phenomena
from the Reality,
and then try
to love phenomena first.
It just doesn't happen that way.
Naturally
we end in failure.
You don't have to try
to achieve
unity with others.
It is fallacious thinking
and doing.
Realize the unity
of everything
and everyone
within you
first.
- Swami Amar Jyoti
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"In Light of Wisdom"
Swami Amar Jyoti
Truth Consciousness, Boulder, Colorado, 1983
to try to separate
the phenomena
from the Reality,
and then try
to love phenomena first.
It just doesn't happen that way.
Naturally
we end in failure.
You don't have to try
to achieve
unity with others.
It is fallacious thinking
and doing.
Realize the unity
of everything
and everyone
within you
first.
- Swami Amar Jyoti
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"In Light of Wisdom"
Swami Amar Jyoti
Truth Consciousness, Boulder, Colorado, 1983
No-thing...
"God is a pure no-thing,
concealed in now and here:
the less you reach for him,
the more he will appear."
Angelus Silesius (1624 - 1677)
from Stephen Mitchell
_The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry_
http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/S/SilesiusAnge/Godisapureno.htm
concealed in now and here:
the less you reach for him,
the more he will appear."
Angelus Silesius (1624 - 1677)
from Stephen Mitchell
_The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry_
http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/S/SilesiusAnge/Godisapureno.htm
Be lost in the Call...
Lord, said David, since you do not need us,
why did you create these two worlds?
Reality replied: O prisoner of time,
I was a secret treasure of kindness and generosity,
and I wished this treasure to be known,
so I created a mirror: its shining face, the heart;
its darkened back, the world;
The back would please you if you've never seen the face.
Has anyone ever produced a mirror out of mud and straw?
Yet clean away the mud and straw,
and a mirror might be revealed.
Until the juice ferments a while in the cask,
it isn't wine. If you wish your heart to be bright,
you must do a little work.
My King addressed the soul of my flesh:
You return just as you left.
Where are the traces of my gifts?
We know that alchemy transforms copper into gold.
This Sun doesn't want a crown or robe from God's grace.
He is a hat to a hundred bald men,
a covering for ten who were naked.
Jesus sat humbly on the back of an ass, my child!
How could a zephyr ride an ass?
Spirit, find your way, in seeking lowness like a stream.
Reason, tread the path of selflessness into eternity.
Remember God so much that you are forgotten.
Let the caller and the called disappear;
be lost in the Call.
............ Rumi
why did you create these two worlds?
Reality replied: O prisoner of time,
I was a secret treasure of kindness and generosity,
and I wished this treasure to be known,
so I created a mirror: its shining face, the heart;
its darkened back, the world;
The back would please you if you've never seen the face.
Has anyone ever produced a mirror out of mud and straw?
Yet clean away the mud and straw,
and a mirror might be revealed.
Until the juice ferments a while in the cask,
it isn't wine. If you wish your heart to be bright,
you must do a little work.
My King addressed the soul of my flesh:
You return just as you left.
Where are the traces of my gifts?
We know that alchemy transforms copper into gold.
This Sun doesn't want a crown or robe from God's grace.
He is a hat to a hundred bald men,
a covering for ten who were naked.
Jesus sat humbly on the back of an ass, my child!
How could a zephyr ride an ass?
Spirit, find your way, in seeking lowness like a stream.
Reason, tread the path of selflessness into eternity.
Remember God so much that you are forgotten.
Let the caller and the called disappear;
be lost in the Call.
............ Rumi
Life in Pure Awareness...
There is no more "life", there is only Pure Awareness... life is found in the lower Consciousness called Divine Consciousness and is the place that We inhabit now.. We exist Now as Creative Consciousness for learning but upon surrendering this lower Consciousness of separate identity, We enter Non-Existence.. This is the highest point of Love, as you give everything that you are, as a gift to God...........namaste, thomas
Let go...
Let go of what has passed. Let go of what may come. Let go of what is happening now. Don't try to figure anything out. Don't try to make anything happen. Relax, right now, and rest. -Tilopa
Non-duality...
The bell tolls at four in the morning.
I stand by the window,
barefoot on the cool floor.
The garden is still dark.
I wait for the mountains and rivers to reclaim their shapes.
There is no light in the deepest hours of the night.
Yet, I know you are there
in the depth of the night,
the immeasurable world of the mind.
You, the known, have been there
ever since the knower has been.
The dawn will come soon,
and you will see
that you and the rosy horizon
are within my two eyes.
It is for me that the horizon is rosy
and the sky blue.
Looking at your image in the clear stream,
you answer the question by your very presence.
Life is humming the song of the non-dual marvel.
I suddenly find myself smiling
in the presence of this immaculate night.
I know because I am here that you are there,
and your being has returned to show itself
in the wonder of tonight's smile.
In the quiet stream,
I swim gently.
The murmur of the water lulls my heart.
A wave serves as a pillow
I look up and see
a white cloud against the blue sky,
the sound of Autumn leaves,
the fragrance of hay-
each one a sign of eternity.
A bright star helps me find my way back to myself.
I know because you are there that I am here.
The stretching arm of cognition
in a lightning flash,
joining together a million eons of distance,
joining together birth and death,
joining together the known and the knower.
In the depth of the night,
as in the immeasurable realm of consciousness,
the garden of life and I
remain each other's objects.
The flower of being is singing the song of emptiness.
The night is still immaculate,
but sounds and images from you
have returned and fill the pure night.
I feel their presence.
By the window, with my bare feet on the cool floor,
I know I am here
for you to be.
This poem is about an insight related to vijnanavada. It is a difficult poem, fit to be explained in a course on vijnanavada. You are there for me, and I am here for you. That is the teaching of interbeing. The term interbeing was not yet used at that time. Although we think of the Avatamsaka when we hear the term interbeing,the teaching of interbeing also has its roots in vijttanavada, because in vijnanavada, cognition always includes subject and object together. Consciousness is always consciousness of something.
~Thich Nhat Hanh
.......... from allspirit.com
I stand by the window,
barefoot on the cool floor.
The garden is still dark.
I wait for the mountains and rivers to reclaim their shapes.
There is no light in the deepest hours of the night.
Yet, I know you are there
in the depth of the night,
the immeasurable world of the mind.
You, the known, have been there
ever since the knower has been.
The dawn will come soon,
and you will see
that you and the rosy horizon
are within my two eyes.
It is for me that the horizon is rosy
and the sky blue.
Looking at your image in the clear stream,
you answer the question by your very presence.
Life is humming the song of the non-dual marvel.
I suddenly find myself smiling
in the presence of this immaculate night.
I know because I am here that you are there,
and your being has returned to show itself
in the wonder of tonight's smile.
In the quiet stream,
I swim gently.
The murmur of the water lulls my heart.
A wave serves as a pillow
I look up and see
a white cloud against the blue sky,
the sound of Autumn leaves,
the fragrance of hay-
each one a sign of eternity.
A bright star helps me find my way back to myself.
I know because you are there that I am here.
The stretching arm of cognition
in a lightning flash,
joining together a million eons of distance,
joining together birth and death,
joining together the known and the knower.
In the depth of the night,
as in the immeasurable realm of consciousness,
the garden of life and I
remain each other's objects.
The flower of being is singing the song of emptiness.
The night is still immaculate,
but sounds and images from you
have returned and fill the pure night.
I feel their presence.
By the window, with my bare feet on the cool floor,
I know I am here
for you to be.
This poem is about an insight related to vijnanavada. It is a difficult poem, fit to be explained in a course on vijnanavada. You are there for me, and I am here for you. That is the teaching of interbeing. The term interbeing was not yet used at that time. Although we think of the Avatamsaka when we hear the term interbeing,the teaching of interbeing also has its roots in vijttanavada, because in vijnanavada, cognition always includes subject and object together. Consciousness is always consciousness of something.
~Thich Nhat Hanh
.......... from allspirit.com
Attachments...
The disciple who was most constantly in attendance on Buddha was Ananda. The disciple who followed him about for more years and for longer journeys than any other was Ananda. Yet the disciple who was among the last of all to attain Nirvana was also Ananda. The lesson is that if a disciple gets attached to a competent master his progress will be facilitated, but if he gets over-attached to the personality of his teacher, then his further progress will be hindered. For his ultimate task is to free himself from all attachments and to learn to stand resolutely on his own feet.
— Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 5: Teaching Masters, Discipleship > # 173...... Paul Brunton
— Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 5: Teaching Masters, Discipleship > # 173...... Paul Brunton
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)