A knowledge of the heavenly Overself cannot be had by studying, improving, or developing the benighted and fictitious ego. The only way in which it can be got is by direct experience of it. This axiom is the basis of the Short Path....
...... Paul Brunton
The Mind...
It is well known and admitted that only
with the help of the mind can the mind be
killed. But instead of setting about saying
there is a mind, and I want to kill it, you
begin to seek the source of the mind, and
you find the mind does not exist at all. The
Mind, turned outwards, results in thoughts
and objects. Turned inwards, it becomes
itself the Self.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"Be As You Are"
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
edited by David Godman
Arkana, 1985
with the help of the mind can the mind be
killed. But instead of setting about saying
there is a mind, and I want to kill it, you
begin to seek the source of the mind, and
you find the mind does not exist at all. The
Mind, turned outwards, results in thoughts
and objects. Turned inwards, it becomes
itself the Self.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"Be As You Are"
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
edited by David Godman
Arkana, 1985
Who are We?...
The "who" is the Identity of Consciousness that We have entered into as a means
of creating dreams.. Once this "Identity" is surrendered, only the nothingness
of Pure Intelligence remains.. but, first, We must Realise that We are
Consciousness............ namaste, thomas
of creating dreams.. Once this "Identity" is surrendered, only the nothingness
of Pure Intelligence remains.. but, first, We must Realise that We are
Consciousness............ namaste, thomas
P.D. Ouspensky...
Ouspensky (March 4, 1878–October 2, 1947) was born in russia. He was a world famous writer, mathematician, philosopher and spiritual seeker before he met enlightened mystic and his master Gurdjieff. Ouspensky studied intensively with G. I. Gurdjieff between 1915 and 1918. Later, he separated from Gurdjieff personally. Ouspenky's book "In Search of the Miraculous" is a recounting of what Ouspensky learned from Gurdjieff during those years. This is must read book for spiritual seekers and shows the class and intensity of Ouspensky as a seeker as well as a writer.
The first step in acquiring consciousness is the realization that we are not conscious.
When you become identified you cannot observe.
Another illusion is that we are awake. When we realize that we are asleep we will see that all history is made by people who are asleep. Sleeping people fight, make laws; sleeping people obey or disobey them. The worst of our illusions are the wrong ideas among which we live and which govern our lives. If we could change our attitude towards these wrong ideas and understand what they are, this in itself would be a great change and would immediately change other things.
We speak only about consciousness and mechanicalness. If a role is mechanical, we must observe it and not identify with it. The most difficult thing is to act yourself consciously.
The aim is to reach higher states of consciousness and to be able to work with higher centres.
When one realises one is asleep, at that moment one is already half-awake.
These small things happen according to certain definite circumstances which control them. You think you control them, but in reality they happen. We cannot 'do' because we are asleep. How can sleeping people 'do'? It is necessary to be awake; when one is awake, one can 'do'.
The first step in acquiring consciousness is the realization that we are not conscious.
When you become identified you cannot observe.
Another illusion is that we are awake. When we realize that we are asleep we will see that all history is made by people who are asleep. Sleeping people fight, make laws; sleeping people obey or disobey them. The worst of our illusions are the wrong ideas among which we live and which govern our lives. If we could change our attitude towards these wrong ideas and understand what they are, this in itself would be a great change and would immediately change other things.
We speak only about consciousness and mechanicalness. If a role is mechanical, we must observe it and not identify with it. The most difficult thing is to act yourself consciously.
The aim is to reach higher states of consciousness and to be able to work with higher centres.
When one realises one is asleep, at that moment one is already half-awake.
These small things happen according to certain definite circumstances which control them. You think you control them, but in reality they happen. We cannot 'do' because we are asleep. How can sleeping people 'do'? It is necessary to be awake; when one is awake, one can 'do'.
your Self...
If you want to remember yourself, the best thing is not to think about yourself. As long as you think about yourself, you will not remember yourself.
.......P D Ouspensky
.......P D Ouspensky
Emotion...
Let us look into emotion.. what is emotion?.. when the ego is attacked, the emotion and pain of ego is called anger... When the ego is not attacked, the emotion is friendship... when there is no ego present, the emotion is Love.. emotions are the creative ability of mind and thoughts.. these emotions can be controlled by controlling the subconscious mind..
If you know that You are not the ego, then, the emotion should be only Love.... The ego that is suffering in front of you can be helped by wisdom but the suffering is totally their own creation.. you are responsible to speak and show the energy of Love.. but, they are also responsible to feel only Love, even when the ego is attacked... this emotion of Love stops any ego pain..............namaste, thomas
If you know that You are not the ego, then, the emotion should be only Love.... The ego that is suffering in front of you can be helped by wisdom but the suffering is totally their own creation.. you are responsible to speak and show the energy of Love.. but, they are also responsible to feel only Love, even when the ego is attacked... this emotion of Love stops any ego pain..............namaste, thomas
Enlightenment and ego...
Even
if one has achieved Enlightenment, the ego remains.. Enlightenment shows You
that the ego is an illusion but while one is using the body, the illusion of ego
is strong.. Very few completely dissolve all illusion of ego while within the
life form.. The complete dissolving of ego ( which is any and all Identity) is
usually accomplished within Divine Consciousness, after the death of the body..
This is easier to accomplish after death, as there is much less desire for
worldly things and power... This complete dissolution of Identification is
called Pure Intelligence and is the end of seeking and desires.................
namaste, thomas
if one has achieved Enlightenment, the ego remains.. Enlightenment shows You
that the ego is an illusion but while one is using the body, the illusion of ego
is strong.. Very few completely dissolve all illusion of ego while within the
life form.. The complete dissolving of ego ( which is any and all Identity) is
usually accomplished within Divine Consciousness, after the death of the body..
This is easier to accomplish after death, as there is much less desire for
worldly things and power... This complete dissolution of Identification is
called Pure Intelligence and is the end of seeking and desires.................
namaste, thomas
Attachment...
Attachment to the world or ego is the reason for our constant reincarnation..
attachment is a desire.. desires must be fulfilled by Consciousness.. We are
Consciousness.. detachment is "being in the world, but not of it" as Jesus
said.. We Realise that the world is a creation of thought and can be changed by
our thoughts.. Divine Consciousness is the Creator of all that seems to exist
and is inseparable from this creation.. The main idea is to realise that We are
Divine Consciousness and not the body,mind,or thoughts that Consciousness
creates.. therefore, do not become attached to illusion............ namaste,
thomas
attachment is a desire.. desires must be fulfilled by Consciousness.. We are
Consciousness.. detachment is "being in the world, but not of it" as Jesus
said.. We Realise that the world is a creation of thought and can be changed by
our thoughts.. Divine Consciousness is the Creator of all that seems to exist
and is inseparable from this creation.. The main idea is to realise that We are
Divine Consciousness and not the body,mind,or thoughts that Consciousness
creates.. therefore, do not become attached to illusion............ namaste,
thomas
" I Am that I Am "...
the "I AM" is the Divine Consciousness that You are experiencing Now.. this is the Creator God of illusions and experience.. This Consciousness that has said; " I Am that I Am" is You.. This Consciousness is also a dream of Pure Intelligence that has no " I AM".. Pure Intelligence has no Identity or ego and therefore is Pure Love.. this is what We really are, once We Realise that there is no We, there is only Love............. namaste, thomas
Suffering...
The pain of suffering is an alarm bell to awake you to the fact that you have
strayed from the Reality of Unconditional Love.. Joy is living in the state of
Love and non-attachment.. Feeling Love is not feeling ego.. It is that
simple........... namaste, thomas
strayed from the Reality of Unconditional Love.. Joy is living in the state of
Love and non-attachment.. Feeling Love is not feeling ego.. It is that
simple........... namaste, thomas
It is a mistake...
It is a mistake, however, to turn the higher self into a mere
convenience to be used chiefly for obtaining healing or getting
guidance, for healing the sicknesses of the physical body, or guiding
the activities of the physical ego. It should be sought for its own
sake, and these other things should be sought only occasionally or
incidentally, as and when needed. They should not be made habitual. In
his periodic meditations, for instance, the aspirant should seek the
divine source of his being because it is right, necessary, and good
for him to do so and he should forget every other desire. Only after
he has done that and found the source, and only on his backward
journey to the day's activities, may he remember these lesser desires
and utilize the serenity and power thus gained for attending to them.
— Notebooks Category 10: Healing of the Self > Chapter 5: The
Healing Power of The Overself > # 133 ... Paul Brunton
convenience to be used chiefly for obtaining healing or getting
guidance, for healing the sicknesses of the physical body, or guiding
the activities of the physical ego. It should be sought for its own
sake, and these other things should be sought only occasionally or
incidentally, as and when needed. They should not be made habitual. In
his periodic meditations, for instance, the aspirant should seek the
divine source of his being because it is right, necessary, and good
for him to do so and he should forget every other desire. Only after
he has done that and found the source, and only on his backward
journey to the day's activities, may he remember these lesser desires
and utilize the serenity and power thus gained for attending to them.
— Notebooks Category 10: Healing of the Self > Chapter 5: The
Healing Power of The Overself > # 133 ... Paul Brunton
Life...
Life is the same for the saint and for Satan;
and, if they are different, it is because of their
outlook on life. The one turns the same life
into Heaven and the other into Hell.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Hazrat Inayat Khan
Mastery Through Accomplishment
Omega Press, 1978
and, if they are different, it is because of their
outlook on life. The one turns the same life
into Heaven and the other into Hell.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Hazrat Inayat Khan
Mastery Through Accomplishment
Omega Press, 1978
Concept...
I see all as a concept.. and to be seen as concepts until the concept of
Identity is also seen as a concept.. all that remains is the Nothingness that
has no concepts and therefore needs Consciousness to create concepts..............
namaste, thomas
Identity is also seen as a concept.. all that remains is the Nothingness that
has no concepts and therefore needs Consciousness to create concepts..............
namaste, thomas
Nonduality - Rising Above Illusion...
By Remez Sasson
The philosophy of Nonduality or Nondualism, which is called Advaita-Vedanta in India, says that there is just One Spirit in the Universe, and that everything, living or inanimate, is an inseparable and indivisible part of this One Spirit. This is also the meaning of the word - "not two" or non-separation". Nonduality further says that the world is an illusion, caused by the mind and the play of the senses, which make us regard the world and everything in it, as real and separate from us.
For someone not familiar with this philosophy, it might sound strange, but once understood, it can completely change one's attitude and perspective about life.
Imagine yourself feeling oneness with the Universe, enjoying bliss and peace of mind, but at the same time acting and functioning normally, in your day-to-day life. Imagine yourself being active in the world, but at the same time maintaining a state of inner detachment. Being aware of your oneness with the One Spirit, and also being aware that the One Spirit is acting and manifesting through everything, matter, plants, trees, animals and people. This is the experience of nonduality in its highest form.
Our thoughts, desires, and the five senses draw the mind outside, to the external world, and obscure the awareness of the consciousness that is beyond the mind. Through meditation, we gain inner peace and the ability to silence the mind and lift up the obscuring veil of thoughts. In this state of inner silence, we rise above the illusion of identification with the mind, thoughts and ego, get beyond the illusion of separateness, and realize the oneness with the One Spirit. It is as if a new sort of consciousness dawns, and we see the world in a different way.
With this kind of consciousness, we are able to allow the mind to be active or silent, at our command. It becomes our faithful servant, instead of being our master. We act in the material world, yet our roots are in pure, calm and limitless consciousness, which is not attached to anything and not limited by anything. In this state, we live and view the world from the non-duality point of view.
Though in our day-today life we regard other people, as separate from us, as separate units, this is only a mental viewpoint, convenient for functioning in our day to day life. From a higher state of consciousness, all are One, and the terms "I", "you", "he", "she" and "they" are not real. There is only the One Spirit, Consciousness, which manifests in limitless forms and ways. The external forms may be different, but the Spirit within them is one undivided Spirit. It is the mind, which lets us believe and feel that we are separate from others, but we are all part of the same One Spirit manifesting and expressing itself through different forms.
The concept of nonduality is not a strange idea. It can be experienced and lived right here and now, no matter where you are, and without attracting anybody's attention. It is an inner state of consciousness, not an external state.
It is possible to realize and experience it in an ashram or a cave, and it is also equally possible to do so while living in a town or city, with family and a job. This requires dedication, an open mind, inner work, and turning the mind inwards.
Most people cannot afford to leave everything behind, in order to meditate and lead a purely spiritual life. They need to work and support their family, and therefore, can devote only part of the day to spiritual pursuits. The good news is that you can walk on the inner paths of spirituality and nonduality, without abandoning your family, job or external lifestyle. With proper planning, it is possible to find the time and the energy for the inner work.
Meditation, and walking on the spiritual path, which lead to understanding and to experiencing nonduality, can be practiced anywhere, without making external changes in your life. You can stay with your job and family, and still make spiritual progress and realize the true meaning of this concept.
Look within you, be aware of what is going in your mind, search for the source of your thoughts and where they come from, learn to make your mind peaceful, and you will begin to be aware of your true essence and the consciousness beyond your mind. This will lead to a better understanding of nonduality.
What can help you to understand and experience non-duality?
Concentration, meditation, making your mind peaceful, reading spiritual literature, and if possible, the guidance of a true spiritual teacher, in person, through books, or through other means.
The philosophy of Nonduality or Nondualism, which is called Advaita-Vedanta in India, says that there is just One Spirit in the Universe, and that everything, living or inanimate, is an inseparable and indivisible part of this One Spirit. This is also the meaning of the word - "not two" or non-separation". Nonduality further says that the world is an illusion, caused by the mind and the play of the senses, which make us regard the world and everything in it, as real and separate from us.
For someone not familiar with this philosophy, it might sound strange, but once understood, it can completely change one's attitude and perspective about life.
Imagine yourself feeling oneness with the Universe, enjoying bliss and peace of mind, but at the same time acting and functioning normally, in your day-to-day life. Imagine yourself being active in the world, but at the same time maintaining a state of inner detachment. Being aware of your oneness with the One Spirit, and also being aware that the One Spirit is acting and manifesting through everything, matter, plants, trees, animals and people. This is the experience of nonduality in its highest form.
Our thoughts, desires, and the five senses draw the mind outside, to the external world, and obscure the awareness of the consciousness that is beyond the mind. Through meditation, we gain inner peace and the ability to silence the mind and lift up the obscuring veil of thoughts. In this state of inner silence, we rise above the illusion of identification with the mind, thoughts and ego, get beyond the illusion of separateness, and realize the oneness with the One Spirit. It is as if a new sort of consciousness dawns, and we see the world in a different way.
With this kind of consciousness, we are able to allow the mind to be active or silent, at our command. It becomes our faithful servant, instead of being our master. We act in the material world, yet our roots are in pure, calm and limitless consciousness, which is not attached to anything and not limited by anything. In this state, we live and view the world from the non-duality point of view.
Though in our day-today life we regard other people, as separate from us, as separate units, this is only a mental viewpoint, convenient for functioning in our day to day life. From a higher state of consciousness, all are One, and the terms "I", "you", "he", "she" and "they" are not real. There is only the One Spirit, Consciousness, which manifests in limitless forms and ways. The external forms may be different, but the Spirit within them is one undivided Spirit. It is the mind, which lets us believe and feel that we are separate from others, but we are all part of the same One Spirit manifesting and expressing itself through different forms.
The concept of nonduality is not a strange idea. It can be experienced and lived right here and now, no matter where you are, and without attracting anybody's attention. It is an inner state of consciousness, not an external state.
It is possible to realize and experience it in an ashram or a cave, and it is also equally possible to do so while living in a town or city, with family and a job. This requires dedication, an open mind, inner work, and turning the mind inwards.
Most people cannot afford to leave everything behind, in order to meditate and lead a purely spiritual life. They need to work and support their family, and therefore, can devote only part of the day to spiritual pursuits. The good news is that you can walk on the inner paths of spirituality and nonduality, without abandoning your family, job or external lifestyle. With proper planning, it is possible to find the time and the energy for the inner work.
Meditation, and walking on the spiritual path, which lead to understanding and to experiencing nonduality, can be practiced anywhere, without making external changes in your life. You can stay with your job and family, and still make spiritual progress and realize the true meaning of this concept.
Look within you, be aware of what is going in your mind, search for the source of your thoughts and where they come from, learn to make your mind peaceful, and you will begin to be aware of your true essence and the consciousness beyond your mind. This will lead to a better understanding of nonduality.
What can help you to understand and experience non-duality?
Concentration, meditation, making your mind peaceful, reading spiritual literature, and if possible, the guidance of a true spiritual teacher, in person, through books, or through other means.
the Friend...
I used to live in
A cramped house with confusion
And pain.
But then I met the Friend
And started getting drunk
And singing all
Night.
Confusion and pain
Started acting nasty,
Making threats,
With talk like this,
"If you don't stop 'that'--
All that fun--
We're
Leaving."
- Hafiz
A cramped house with confusion
And pain.
But then I met the Friend
And started getting drunk
And singing all
Night.
Confusion and pain
Started acting nasty,
Making threats,
With talk like this,
"If you don't stop 'that'--
All that fun--
We're
Leaving."
- Hafiz
Zen by Osho...
Zen does not want anybody to be a believer. Either experience or just go home. Except experience, no belief is going to help. So those who have followed Zen masters were not followers, they were fellow travelers. They were rejoicing in the master’s enlightenment. They were drinking as much of his wisdom as possible, and they were finding the path so that they could also experience the same lightning experience which dissolves all questions, all answers, and leaves you simply innocent, centered — eternity in your hands. But they were not followers, and this is very difficult for the ordinary masses to understand.
Zen is a religion of beauty. You know the Upanishadic description of the ultimate reality, satyam, shivam, sundram. Either a man can reach to the ultimate by finding the truth of his being, satyam, or he can reach by finding the divinity of his being, the goodness, or he can reach to the ultimate by finding the eternal beauty of his being. Zen is a religion of beauty. The strange fact is that if you can get one, the other two follow automatically. If you attain to truth, satyam, then shivam and sundram will follow automatically. They are one thing looked at from three standpoints. Because beauty is the heartbeat of Zen it has been more creative. It has created great poetry, great paintings. It has transformed ordinary things like archery or swordsmanship into meditation. It is not a non-creative religion; it has created and added to the beauty of existence.
In comparison to Zen, all the religions look like entertainment. Formal rituals, social conditionings — Zen goes through them like a sword cutting all the ropes that bind you. It has no ritual, it has no mantra, it has no way of sacrificing anything to anyone. The very basis of sacrifice, God himself, is missing in Zen.
Zen is pure essence, unpolluted, uncorrupted by any non-essential. You cannot take away anything from Zen, because it is only a declaration of your self-nature; neither can you add anything to Zen, because anything added will be artificial. Zen is absolutely in favor of nature. It is not against entertainment; in fact only Zen is capable of laughing, of entertainment, but its entertainment is not different from its enlightenment. The very quality of entertainment differs.
Zen does not talk about great principles, that has to be noted. It simply creates the device and leaves you to find the way out. Obviously it has been immensely successful.
Zen has only created devices, leaving you completely free to find the truth. And it is strange, more people have become enlightened through Zen than through any other religion of the world. The other religions are very big, and Zen is a very small stream. You can see these small things, and a master uses them in such a way that they start pointing to the moon.
In the world of Zen, mind is the only thing that has to be thrown out, and then you have the whole universe available. You are welcomed by the whole universe.
In Zen, when the master hits you, it means he is showing his love, he is showing his acceptance. By hitting you he is giving you an indication of his approval. That is a kind of certificate. Disciples long for years to be hit by the master. It is a very different world that Zen has created.
Zen has a very flexible methodology. It does not give commandments to be followed for generations; it does not give general principles which are applicable in every situation to every person. It is more intimate and more personal.
Zen never became the religion of the majority and it will never become. It will remain always for the chosen few, for the rare ones, just because it does not console you by giving any opium, and it does not give you promises and hopes for the future life. It insists on remaining in the present. Don’t move backwards or forwards, because the present moment is the only moment you ever have been in and will ever be in. Whenever it is, it is the present moment.
Zen wants you to approach life unconditionally. That means without any prejudice, without any precondition, without any expectation. You can be total only if you are standing at your very center.
Zen is a religion of beauty. You know the Upanishadic description of the ultimate reality, satyam, shivam, sundram. Either a man can reach to the ultimate by finding the truth of his being, satyam, or he can reach by finding the divinity of his being, the goodness, or he can reach to the ultimate by finding the eternal beauty of his being. Zen is a religion of beauty. The strange fact is that if you can get one, the other two follow automatically. If you attain to truth, satyam, then shivam and sundram will follow automatically. They are one thing looked at from three standpoints. Because beauty is the heartbeat of Zen it has been more creative. It has created great poetry, great paintings. It has transformed ordinary things like archery or swordsmanship into meditation. It is not a non-creative religion; it has created and added to the beauty of existence.
In comparison to Zen, all the religions look like entertainment. Formal rituals, social conditionings — Zen goes through them like a sword cutting all the ropes that bind you. It has no ritual, it has no mantra, it has no way of sacrificing anything to anyone. The very basis of sacrifice, God himself, is missing in Zen.
Zen is pure essence, unpolluted, uncorrupted by any non-essential. You cannot take away anything from Zen, because it is only a declaration of your self-nature; neither can you add anything to Zen, because anything added will be artificial. Zen is absolutely in favor of nature. It is not against entertainment; in fact only Zen is capable of laughing, of entertainment, but its entertainment is not different from its enlightenment. The very quality of entertainment differs.
Zen does not talk about great principles, that has to be noted. It simply creates the device and leaves you to find the way out. Obviously it has been immensely successful.
Zen has only created devices, leaving you completely free to find the truth. And it is strange, more people have become enlightened through Zen than through any other religion of the world. The other religions are very big, and Zen is a very small stream. You can see these small things, and a master uses them in such a way that they start pointing to the moon.
In the world of Zen, mind is the only thing that has to be thrown out, and then you have the whole universe available. You are welcomed by the whole universe.
In Zen, when the master hits you, it means he is showing his love, he is showing his acceptance. By hitting you he is giving you an indication of his approval. That is a kind of certificate. Disciples long for years to be hit by the master. It is a very different world that Zen has created.
Zen has a very flexible methodology. It does not give commandments to be followed for generations; it does not give general principles which are applicable in every situation to every person. It is more intimate and more personal.
Zen never became the religion of the majority and it will never become. It will remain always for the chosen few, for the rare ones, just because it does not console you by giving any opium, and it does not give you promises and hopes for the future life. It insists on remaining in the present. Don’t move backwards or forwards, because the present moment is the only moment you ever have been in and will ever be in. Whenever it is, it is the present moment.
Zen wants you to approach life unconditionally. That means without any prejudice, without any precondition, without any expectation. You can be total only if you are standing at your very center.
Zen...
Zen is not a philosophy, it is poetry. It does not propose, it simply persuades. It does not argue, it simply sings its own song.
Osho
Osho
Stillness...
Anyone can hear the noise in their mind
that's hiding within the silence.
But can you also hear the silence in your
heart that's hiding within the noise?
Only in stillness will you discover the quiet
in the middle of the chaos.
Only in stillness will we discover the hush
in the middle of the rush.
- Chuck Hillig
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Seeds for the Soul
Chuck Hillig
Black Dot Publications, 2003
that's hiding within the silence.
But can you also hear the silence in your
heart that's hiding within the noise?
Only in stillness will you discover the quiet
in the middle of the chaos.
Only in stillness will we discover the hush
in the middle of the rush.
- Chuck Hillig
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Seeds for the Soul
Chuck Hillig
Black Dot Publications, 2003
Being and Consciousness...
"There is a final state of Being and Consciousness in which alone perfect bliss
is found, to which every religion bears witness. This state transcends all
concepts of the mind and images of the senses, and is known only when the Divine
Being chooses to reveal himself to man. This is the ultimate mystery, the
ultimate truth, to which everything in nature aspires, but which so transcends
the whole order of nature that it appears as darkness rather than light, as
something unreal or illusory, as a Void, a Silence, a Negation of Being. And yet
such is the witness of every great religious tradition: in this Void, in this
Darkness, in this Silence, all fulness, all light, all truth, all goodness, all
love, all joy, all peace, all happiness is to be found."
Bede Griffiths (1906-1993)
_Vedanta and Christian Faith_
Clearlake, CA: Dawn Horse Press, 1991, p 163
is found, to which every religion bears witness. This state transcends all
concepts of the mind and images of the senses, and is known only when the Divine
Being chooses to reveal himself to man. This is the ultimate mystery, the
ultimate truth, to which everything in nature aspires, but which so transcends
the whole order of nature that it appears as darkness rather than light, as
something unreal or illusory, as a Void, a Silence, a Negation of Being. And yet
such is the witness of every great religious tradition: in this Void, in this
Darkness, in this Silence, all fulness, all light, all truth, all goodness, all
love, all joy, all peace, all happiness is to be found."
Bede Griffiths (1906-1993)
_Vedanta and Christian Faith_
Clearlake, CA: Dawn Horse Press, 1991, p 163
'To Love against the wind'...
Enemy!...
a strange and fearful word.
a fence between Reality..
a feeding ground,
for the ego..
what creates this word?.
attachment and grasping..
to steal and kill?..
is this Reality?...
the wise ones' that walked slowly.
spoke of another place.
a place of peace and Light..
a short fall into Love,
was all that was needed...
Fear is shouted by the leaders.
fear not..
the dream will end soon..
and You will Awaken...
namaste, thomas
a strange and fearful word.
a fence between Reality..
a feeding ground,
for the ego..
what creates this word?.
attachment and grasping..
to steal and kill?..
is this Reality?...
the wise ones' that walked slowly.
spoke of another place.
a place of peace and Light..
a short fall into Love,
was all that was needed...
Fear is shouted by the leaders.
fear not..
the dream will end soon..
and You will Awaken...
namaste, thomas
Osho on Kahlil Gibran...
Question - Beloved Master, Over the past ten years I am again and again reminded of the
words of Kahlil Gibran: "Man cannot reap love until after sad and revealing separation and bitter patience and desperate hardship." Please comment.
Osho - It is true about Kahlil Gibran, but not true about love. Kahlil Gibran suffered much despair, anguish. He was not what you find him in his immensely important books, THE PROPHET, THE GARDEN OF THE PROPHET, and JESUS, THE SON OF MAN. Kahlil Gibran was just the opposite.
And that is true about almost all the so-called great artists, painters, poets, sculptors, musicians, dancers. They are trying to fulfill their unfulfilled life in writing poetry, literature. That literature simply signifies their dream, not their reality.
Never meet any man like Kahlil Gibran. Read his book, THE PROPHET -- it is immensely beautiful -- but avoid Kahlil Gibran himself, because you will be very much disappointed, for the simple reason that you cannot believe that this man has produced one of the classics of the whole of history. His book stands like an Everest, but he himself lies deep down in the dark valley of despair, existential meaninglessness: angry about life, angry with life, angry about everything. And the reason is simple. It is a psychological truth that whatever you miss in your life, you fulfill in your dreams. Your dreams show what you are missing in your life.
You can try small experiments and you will be able to see it. Just fast one day, and in the night you can be certain of having a great feast in your dreams -- all delicious foods, perhaps an invitation from the king, or the president in the White House. Your dream shows that during the day you have been hungry. These creative people are able to put their dreams into their writings -- but they are their dreams.
So what Kahlil Gibran says about love is the experience of a man who wanted to love but could not love. He could not love because of his ego. The first need of love is that you should put aside your ego; and artists, poets, painters, musicians, are very egoistic people.
Kahlil Gibran could not put his ego aside. It was not love that became his despair, it was his ego that would not allow him freedom to move into the world of love. He was chained. The longing for love and being chained to the ego created the whole tension, the anguish of his life. He has to be pitied. He is certainly one of the greatest geniuses of this century, but that does not make him a great lover. The very fact that he was a great genius helped him to go on nourishing his ego. He never could become innocent like a child -- of which he talks again and again in his writings. That is his dream.
So remember, while you are reading books written by unenlightened people, looking at paintings, sculpture, architecture made by unenlightened people, beware. These people were not blissful people themselves. They were capable of projecting their dreams, but they were not able to transform their dreams into a living reality within their own being. They were utter failures as far as their own being is concerned.
Love does not need you to go into depression, despair, no -- just the opposite. Love needs you to go into silence, into peace, into meditativeness, into a tremendous rejoicing -- rejoicing just in the fact that you are alive. And out of this rejoicing, this dance, love radiates.
According to Kahlil Gibran's statement, before you reach love you have to pass through hell. Strange training... a great school to teach love! And a man who has been in despair, depression, anguish, anxiety, will become farther and farther away from love.
No, if you want to experience love you have to pass through your inner paradise. You have to become centered, you have to become so peaceful that small things of life make you dance. Just a roseflower dancing in the wind, in the rain, in the sun -- and something in you starts dancing with it. You are ready. You have graduated from the school of paradise; now love is your reward.
So I contradict Kahlil Gibran absolutely and categorically, because it goes against my existential experience. I have been through my own paradise, and after that only the fragrance of love remains. You are so blissful that you would like to bless the whole world.
Kahlil Gibran is absolutely wrong. But what he is saying is his own experience, and he never graduated from hell. He never could manage to be a loving human being. He was always sad, always a long face, always angry -- as if he was against existence itself, as if he wanted to ask existence, "Why have you chosen me to be born and suffer?"
If you want to write poetry about love, follow Kahlil Gibran.
If you want to experience love, then listen carefully to what I am saying to you.
Source - Osho Book "From Bondage to Freedom"
words of Kahlil Gibran: "Man cannot reap love until after sad and revealing separation and bitter patience and desperate hardship." Please comment.
Osho - It is true about Kahlil Gibran, but not true about love. Kahlil Gibran suffered much despair, anguish. He was not what you find him in his immensely important books, THE PROPHET, THE GARDEN OF THE PROPHET, and JESUS, THE SON OF MAN. Kahlil Gibran was just the opposite.
And that is true about almost all the so-called great artists, painters, poets, sculptors, musicians, dancers. They are trying to fulfill their unfulfilled life in writing poetry, literature. That literature simply signifies their dream, not their reality.
Never meet any man like Kahlil Gibran. Read his book, THE PROPHET -- it is immensely beautiful -- but avoid Kahlil Gibran himself, because you will be very much disappointed, for the simple reason that you cannot believe that this man has produced one of the classics of the whole of history. His book stands like an Everest, but he himself lies deep down in the dark valley of despair, existential meaninglessness: angry about life, angry with life, angry about everything. And the reason is simple. It is a psychological truth that whatever you miss in your life, you fulfill in your dreams. Your dreams show what you are missing in your life.
You can try small experiments and you will be able to see it. Just fast one day, and in the night you can be certain of having a great feast in your dreams -- all delicious foods, perhaps an invitation from the king, or the president in the White House. Your dream shows that during the day you have been hungry. These creative people are able to put their dreams into their writings -- but they are their dreams.
So what Kahlil Gibran says about love is the experience of a man who wanted to love but could not love. He could not love because of his ego. The first need of love is that you should put aside your ego; and artists, poets, painters, musicians, are very egoistic people.
Kahlil Gibran could not put his ego aside. It was not love that became his despair, it was his ego that would not allow him freedom to move into the world of love. He was chained. The longing for love and being chained to the ego created the whole tension, the anguish of his life. He has to be pitied. He is certainly one of the greatest geniuses of this century, but that does not make him a great lover. The very fact that he was a great genius helped him to go on nourishing his ego. He never could become innocent like a child -- of which he talks again and again in his writings. That is his dream.
So remember, while you are reading books written by unenlightened people, looking at paintings, sculpture, architecture made by unenlightened people, beware. These people were not blissful people themselves. They were capable of projecting their dreams, but they were not able to transform their dreams into a living reality within their own being. They were utter failures as far as their own being is concerned.
Love does not need you to go into depression, despair, no -- just the opposite. Love needs you to go into silence, into peace, into meditativeness, into a tremendous rejoicing -- rejoicing just in the fact that you are alive. And out of this rejoicing, this dance, love radiates.
According to Kahlil Gibran's statement, before you reach love you have to pass through hell. Strange training... a great school to teach love! And a man who has been in despair, depression, anguish, anxiety, will become farther and farther away from love.
No, if you want to experience love you have to pass through your inner paradise. You have to become centered, you have to become so peaceful that small things of life make you dance. Just a roseflower dancing in the wind, in the rain, in the sun -- and something in you starts dancing with it. You are ready. You have graduated from the school of paradise; now love is your reward.
So I contradict Kahlil Gibran absolutely and categorically, because it goes against my existential experience. I have been through my own paradise, and after that only the fragrance of love remains. You are so blissful that you would like to bless the whole world.
Kahlil Gibran is absolutely wrong. But what he is saying is his own experience, and he never graduated from hell. He never could manage to be a loving human being. He was always sad, always a long face, always angry -- as if he was against existence itself, as if he wanted to ask existence, "Why have you chosen me to be born and suffer?"
If you want to write poetry about love, follow Kahlil Gibran.
If you want to experience love, then listen carefully to what I am saying to you.
Source - Osho Book "From Bondage to Freedom"
The Short Path...
The Short Path calls for a definite change of mind, a thinking of
totally new thoughts, a fastening of attention upon the goal instead of the way to it. It calls for a revolution, dethroning the ego from being the centre of attention and replacing it by the Overself.
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— Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 1:
Entering the Short Path > # 58..... Paul Brunton
totally new thoughts, a fastening of attention upon the goal instead of the way to it. It calls for a revolution, dethroning the ego from being the centre of attention and replacing it by the Overself.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
— Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 1:
Entering the Short Path > # 58..... Paul Brunton
Dying to self...
Enlightenment has nothing to do with states of consciousness. Whether you
are in ego consciousness or unity consciousness is not really the point. I have
met many people who have easy access to advanced states of consciousness.
Though for some people this may come very easily, I also notice that many of
these people are no freer than anyone else. If you don't believe that the ego
can exist in very advanced states of consciousness, think again. The point isn't
the state of consciousness, even very advanced ones, but an awake mystery
that is the source of all states of consciousness. It is even the source of
presence and beingness. It is beyond all perception and all experience. I call it
"awakeness." To find out that you are empty of emptiness is to die into an
aware mystery, which is the source of all existence. It just so happens that
that mystery is in love with all of its manifestation and non-manifestation. You
find your Self by stepping back out of yourself.....
Adyashanti
are in ego consciousness or unity consciousness is not really the point. I have
met many people who have easy access to advanced states of consciousness.
Though for some people this may come very easily, I also notice that many of
these people are no freer than anyone else. If you don't believe that the ego
can exist in very advanced states of consciousness, think again. The point isn't
the state of consciousness, even very advanced ones, but an awake mystery
that is the source of all states of consciousness. It is even the source of
presence and beingness. It is beyond all perception and all experience. I call it
"awakeness." To find out that you are empty of emptiness is to die into an
aware mystery, which is the source of all existence. It just so happens that
that mystery is in love with all of its manifestation and non-manifestation. You
find your Self by stepping back out of yourself.....
Adyashanti
Silence...
Silence is the sea,
and speech is like the river.
The sea is seeking you:
don't seek the river.
Don't turn your head away from
the signs offered by the sea.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
and speech is like the river.
The sea is seeking you:
don't seek the river.
Don't turn your head away from
the signs offered by the sea.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
God give us...
God give us rain when we expect sun.
Give us music when we expect trouble.
Give us tears when we expect breakfast.
Give us dreams when we expect a storm.
Give us a stray dog when we expect congratulations.
God play with us, turn us sideways and around.
~ Leunig ~
(The Prayer Tree by Michael Leunig)
Give us music when we expect trouble.
Give us tears when we expect breakfast.
Give us dreams when we expect a storm.
Give us a stray dog when we expect congratulations.
God play with us, turn us sideways and around.
~ Leunig ~
(The Prayer Tree by Michael Leunig)
Seeing...
It is present everywhere.
There is nothing it does not contain
. However only those who have previously
planted wisdom-seeds will be able
to continuously see it.
- Dogen
There is nothing it does not contain
. However only those who have previously
planted wisdom-seeds will be able
to continuously see it.
- Dogen
Reason...
When reason tells us that God is, it does not actually know God. The antennae of intellectual research cannot penetrate into the Overself because thinking can only establish relations between ideas and thus must forever remain in the realms of dualities, finitudes, and individualities. It cannot grasp the whole but only parts. Therefore reason which depends on thinking is incompetent to comprehend the mysterious Overself. Realization is to be experienced and felt; thought can only indicate what it is likely to be and what it is not likely to be. Hence Al Ghazzali, the Sufi, has said: "To define drunkenness, to know that it is caused by vapours that rise from the stomach and cloud the seat of intelligence, is a different thing from being drunk. So I found ultimate knowledge consists in experiences rather than
definitions." The fact that metaphysics tries to explain all existence in intellectual terms alone and tries to force human nature into conceptual molds, causes it to suppress or distort the non-intellectual elements in both. The consequence is that metaphysics alone cannot achieve an adequate understanding. If it insists upon exalting its own results, then it achieves
misunderstanding.
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- Notebooks Category 7: The Intellect > Chapter 5: Intellect, Reality, and the Overself > # 1...... Paul Brunton
definitions." The fact that metaphysics tries to explain all existence in intellectual terms alone and tries to force human nature into conceptual molds, causes it to suppress or distort the non-intellectual elements in both. The consequence is that metaphysics alone cannot achieve an adequate understanding. If it insists upon exalting its own results, then it achieves
misunderstanding.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Notebooks Category 7: The Intellect > Chapter 5: Intellect, Reality, and the Overself > # 1...... Paul Brunton
The suicide of the ego...
Names such as humility,love,selflessness,empathy,and happiness, all point to one thing...
the extinction of the ego consciousness..
Why did Jesus and all of the other Mystics teach Unconditional Love as their main mantra?..
They were pointing their fingers toward Truth..
Truth must be felt to be Real..
Who seeks Enlightenment?,,
the ego or Consciousness..
only Consciousness is Real..
The ego does not wish to die and will do all in it's powers to delay death.. Consciousness sees the pains of the ego and from compassion, speaks to it with Love..
ego is only a dream but the dream also needs Love..
the ego finally feels the desire for peace and love and becomes a martyr for Love.. This is the entrance into Reality..
This is called Enlightenment...
Try it, You'll like it!............ namaste, thomas
the extinction of the ego consciousness..
Why did Jesus and all of the other Mystics teach Unconditional Love as their main mantra?..
They were pointing their fingers toward Truth..
Truth must be felt to be Real..
Who seeks Enlightenment?,,
the ego or Consciousness..
only Consciousness is Real..
The ego does not wish to die and will do all in it's powers to delay death.. Consciousness sees the pains of the ego and from compassion, speaks to it with Love..
ego is only a dream but the dream also needs Love..
the ego finally feels the desire for peace and love and becomes a martyr for Love.. This is the entrance into Reality..
This is called Enlightenment...
Try it, You'll like it!............ namaste, thomas
One pointed aim...
The desire to find the self will be surely fulfilled, provided you want nothing
else. But you must be honest with yourself and really want nothing else. If in
the mean-time you want many other things and are engaged in their pursuit, your
main purpose may be delayed until you grow wiser and cease being torn between
contradictory urges.
Nisargadatta Maharaj
else. But you must be honest with yourself and really want nothing else. If in
the mean-time you want many other things and are engaged in their pursuit, your
main purpose may be delayed until you grow wiser and cease being torn between
contradictory urges.
Nisargadatta Maharaj
From Dualism to Duality - Ramesh Balsekar...
The basic split of duality happens in Consciousness
itself, as a part of the process of perceiving
manifestation. For any manifestation to exist, it has
to be observed. For observing to happen requires an
observed object and an observer object. This duality
between observer object and the observed object is the
basic split. In the human the split goes deeper
into the dualism of "me" and the other. The observer
object assumes the subjectivity of the Absolute or
Totality or God, saying, "I am the subject, the rest
of the world is my object." The moment the "me" and
the other come into play duality gets further
subdivided into dualism. The observer object considers
himself the observer subject, the experiencer, the
doer.
Enlightenment is merely the reverse process where the
pseudo-subject realizes that there cannot be a
separate entity and the body-mind can only function as
an instrument in the manifestation of Totality. When
the sense of doership is lost, dualism is restored to
its basic duality.
Consciousness Speaks pp. 111-2
itself, as a part of the process of perceiving
manifestation. For any manifestation to exist, it has
to be observed. For observing to happen requires an
observed object and an observer object. This duality
between observer object and the observed object is the
basic split. In the human the split goes deeper
into the dualism of "me" and the other. The observer
object assumes the subjectivity of the Absolute or
Totality or God, saying, "I am the subject, the rest
of the world is my object." The moment the "me" and
the other come into play duality gets further
subdivided into dualism. The observer object considers
himself the observer subject, the experiencer, the
doer.
Enlightenment is merely the reverse process where the
pseudo-subject realizes that there cannot be a
separate entity and the body-mind can only function as
an instrument in the manifestation of Totality. When
the sense of doership is lost, dualism is restored to
its basic duality.
Consciousness Speaks pp. 111-2
The Guide...
Although it is quite true that each quester must
travel the path for himself, must move on his own two
feet, this does not mean that he is travelling
completely alone, or on his own. If he has no personal
guide to accompany him, the Higher Self is still
there, within him, pulling, drawing, leading, or
pointing, if only he can learn how to recognize it.
— Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest >
Chapter 3: Independent Path > # 78.... Paul Brunton
travel the path for himself, must move on his own two
feet, this does not mean that he is travelling
completely alone, or on his own. If he has no personal
guide to accompany him, the Higher Self is still
there, within him, pulling, drawing, leading, or
pointing, if only he can learn how to recognize it.
— Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest >
Chapter 3: Independent Path > # 78.... Paul Brunton
Dreaming by Plato...
"How can you determine whether at this moment we are
sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream, or whether
we are awake, and talking to one another in the
waking state?"
Plato
_Theaetetus_
in Whitall N. Perry
_A Treasury of Traditional Wisdom_
Varanasi: Indica, 1998 (9171), p. 97
sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream, or whether
we are awake, and talking to one another in the
waking state?"
Plato
_Theaetetus_
in Whitall N. Perry
_A Treasury of Traditional Wisdom_
Varanasi: Indica, 1998 (9171), p. 97
"See the light and disregard the picture."
"In reality nothing happens. Onto the screen of
the mind destiny forever projects its pictures,
memories of former projections, and thus illusion
constantly renews itself. The pictures come and
go--light intercepted by ignorance.
See the light and disregard the picture."
.... Nisargadatta
the mind destiny forever projects its pictures,
memories of former projections, and thus illusion
constantly renews itself. The pictures come and
go--light intercepted by ignorance.
See the light and disregard the picture."
.... Nisargadatta
Choose Wisely...
My fingers flow across the keyboard,
the location once known to me as typewriter,
my thoughts move my fingers without further thought.
the mind is in command, although the manifestation calls it muscle memory.
speaking of the mind,
a useful tool.
a thing to be used,
but not to become..
the body that carries the mind,
manifestation needs a vehicle.
the atoms dance with the music of thought.
anti-matter stands in the corner and dares not to embrace the manifestation.
We are lost.
We have fallen asleep within the mind.
the mind feels power, where yesterday,
it was just a thought..
time is unending as there is no time.
yet we fear this illusion of motion.
the body is preparing itself for return.
Consciousness watches the scene.
Is now the time?.
the place?.
if not now, when?.
the mind holds you back with fear.
why should you fear what is Real?.
the self dying is fearful at first and glorious at last.
this is the reason that you have entered this dream.
to learn of selflessness and grasping, Love and ego.
a rich man is grasping.
a camel and needle are appearing.
all Power is Yours.
choose Wisely...
namaste, thomas
the location once known to me as typewriter,
my thoughts move my fingers without further thought.
the mind is in command, although the manifestation calls it muscle memory.
speaking of the mind,
a useful tool.
a thing to be used,
but not to become..
the body that carries the mind,
manifestation needs a vehicle.
the atoms dance with the music of thought.
anti-matter stands in the corner and dares not to embrace the manifestation.
We are lost.
We have fallen asleep within the mind.
the mind feels power, where yesterday,
it was just a thought..
time is unending as there is no time.
yet we fear this illusion of motion.
the body is preparing itself for return.
Consciousness watches the scene.
Is now the time?.
the place?.
if not now, when?.
the mind holds you back with fear.
why should you fear what is Real?.
the self dying is fearful at first and glorious at last.
this is the reason that you have entered this dream.
to learn of selflessness and grasping, Love and ego.
a rich man is grasping.
a camel and needle are appearing.
all Power is Yours.
choose Wisely...
namaste, thomas
The Long Path...
The Long Path is taught to beginners and others in the earlier and middle stages of the quest. This is because they are ready for the idea of self-improvement and not for the higher one of the unreality of the self. So the latter is taught on the Short Path, where attention is turned away from the little self and from the idea of perfecting it, to the essence, the real being.
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— Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 4: The Changeover To the Short Path > # 6 ... Paul Brunton
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— Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 4: The Changeover To the Short Path > # 6 ... Paul Brunton
mere understanding...
"When is one in mere understanding?
When one sees one thing as separated from another.
When is one above mere understanding?
When one sees the All in all,
then one stands beyond mere understanding."
Meister Eckhart
in Fredrick Franck
_The Book of Angelus Silesius_
NY: Vintage/Random House, 1976, p. 23
When one sees one thing as separated from another.
When is one above mere understanding?
When one sees the All in all,
then one stands beyond mere understanding."
Meister Eckhart
in Fredrick Franck
_The Book of Angelus Silesius_
NY: Vintage/Random House, 1976, p. 23
Human desire...
Human desire differs from animal desire in that it is at root insatiable. Man is characterized by a hunger for the infinite, for an eternity of life, love and joy which, whether he knows it or not, can be nothing other than God. Assuming that God exists, it will follow that God is man's true end, for the appetite of a living organism shows its function. The stomach hungers for food because it's function is to digest food. As physical taste and hunger may often be mistaken as to their true object, desiring nothing but caviar instead of a balanced diet, man is often mistaken as to the goal of his life, desiring wealth, power or physical pleasure instead of God. But his real appetite continues to be God, for which these lesser goals are always unsatisfactory substitutes. Those who set their hearts on finite goals are always discontented; they must always have more and more and more of what they desire, and failing this are frustrated and miserable. Profound contentment is only enjoyed by animals and primitives, in which infinite hunger has not been awakened, and by the saints and mystics who have realized union with God. - Alan Watts
This is the Law...
Brothers! This is the Law:
He who cometh nigh to God
Loseth what he hath,
Aye, he loseth himself,
But gains instead the Gift Supreme,
The gift of humility.
..... Abur Hassan
He who cometh nigh to God
Loseth what he hath,
Aye, he loseth himself,
But gains instead the Gift Supreme,
The gift of humility.
..... Abur Hassan
What is Advaita or Nonduality? ...
"So, Swami-ji, what would you say that Advaita is?" The eager young woman crossed her legs and sat expectantly, pencil poised above a pristine pad of paper.
"It simply means ‘not two' - the ultimate truth is nondual," replied the Sage, reclining in a large and comfortable-looking armchair and not sitting in an upright lotus position, as he ought to have been, for the sake of the photograph that she had just taken, if nothing else.
She continued to wait for further elucidation before beginning to write but it soon became apparent that the answer had been given. "But is it a religion? Do you believe in God, for example?"
"Ah, well, that would depend upon what you mean by those words, wouldn't it?" he responded, irritatingly. "If, by ‘religion', you mean does it have priests and churches and a band of followers who are prepared to kill non-believers, then the answer is no. If, on the other hand, you refer to the original, literal meaning of the word, namely to ‘bind again', to reunite the mistaken person that we think we are with the Self that we truly are, then yes, it is a religion. Similarly, if by ‘God' you mean a separate, supernatural being who created the universe and will reward us by sending us to heaven if we do what He wants, then the answer is no. If you use the term in the sense of the unmanifest, non-dual reality, then yes, I most certainly do believe in God."
The pencil raced across the paper, recording the answer for the benefit of the magazine's readers but, as the words clashed with previous ideas in her memory, the lack of a clear resolution of her questions was reflected by an increasing puzzlement in her expression.
He registered this with compassion and held out his hand towards her. "Give me a piece of paper from your pad." She looked up, mouth slightly open as she wondered why he could possibly want that. But she turned the pad over, carefully tore off the bottom sheet and placed it in his outstretched hand. He turned to the table at his right and deftly began to fold and refold the paper. After a few moments, he turned back and, before she had had time to see what he had done, he held the paper aloft and launched it into the air. It rose quickly and circled gracefully around the room before losing momentum and diving to meet a sudden end when its pointed nose hit a sauce bottle on the dining table. "Could you bring it back over here do you think?" he asked.
"So, what would you say that we have here?" he asked, as she handed it back to him.
"It's a paper aeroplane," she replied, with just a hint of questioning in her voice, since the answer was so obvious that she felt he must have some other purpose in mind.
"Really?" he responded and, in an instant, he screwed up the object and, with a practised, over-arm movement, threw it effortlessly in a wide arc, from which it landed just short of the waste paper basket in the corner of the room. "And now?" he asked.
"It's a screwed-up ball of paper", she said, without any doubt in her voice this time.
"Could you bring it back again, please", he continued. She did so, wondering if this was typical of such an interview, spending the session chasing about after bits of paper like a dog running after a stick. He took the ball and carefully unfolded it, spread it out on the table and smoothed his hand over it a few times before handing it back to her. "And now it is just a sheet of paper again," he said, "although I'm afraid it's a bit crumpled now!"
He looked at her, apparently anticipating some sign of understanding if not actual revelation but none was forthcoming. He looked around the room and, after a moment, he stood up, walked over to the window and removed a rose from a vase standing in the alcove. Returning to his seat, he held the rose out to her and asked, "What is this?"
She was feeling increasingly embarrassed as it was clear he was trying to explain something fundamental, which she was not understanding. Either that or he was mad or deliberately provoking her, neither of which seemed likely, since he remained calm and open and somehow intensely present. "It's a flower," she replied eventually.
He then deliberately took one of the petals between his right-hand thumb and fore-finger and plucked it. He looked at her and said, "And now?" She didn't reply, though it seemed that this time he didn't really expect an answer. He continued to remove the petals one by one until none remained, looking up at her after each action. Finally, he pulled the remaining parts of the flower head off the stem and dropped them onto the floor, leaving the bare stalk, which he held out to her. "Where is the flower now?" he asked. Receiving no reply, he bent down and picked up all of the petals, eventually displaying them in his open hand. "Is this a flower?" he asked.
She shook her head slowly. "It was a flower only when all of the petals and the other bits were all attached to the stem."
"Good!" he said, appreciatively. "Flower is the name that we give to that particular arrangement of all of the parts. Once we have separated it into its component parts, the flower ceases to exist. But was there ever an actual, separate thing called ‘flower'? All of the material that constituted the original form is still here in these parts in my hand.
"The paper aeroplane is an even simpler example. There never was an aeroplane was there? And I don't just mean that it was only a toy. There was only ever paper. To begin with, the paper was in the form of a flat sheet for writing on. Then, I folded it in various ways so that it took on an aerodynamic shape which could fly through the air slowly. The name that we give to that form is ‘aeroplane'. When I screwed it up, the ball-shape could be thrown more accurately. ‘Aeroplane' and ‘ball' were names relating to particular forms of the paper but at all times, all that ever actually existed was paper.
"Now, this sort of analysis applies to every ‘thing' that you care to think of. Look at that table over there and this chair on which you are sitting. What are they made of? You will probably say that they are wooden chairs?"
He looked at her questioningly and she nodded, knowing at the same time that he was going to contradict her. "Well, they are made of wood certainly, but that does not mean that they are wooden chairs! On the contrary, I would say that this, that you are sitting on, is actually chairy wood, and that object over there is tably wood. What do you say to that?"
"You mean that the thing that we call ‘chair' is just a name that we give to the wood when it is that particular shape and being used for that particular function?" she asked, with understanding beginning to dawn.
"Exactly! I couldn't have put it better myself. It is quite possible that I could have a bag full of pieces of wood that can be slotted together in different ways so that at one time I might assemble them into something to sit upon, another time into something to put food upon and so on. We give the various forms distinct names and we forget that they are ONLY names and forms and not distinct and separate things.
"Look - here's an apple," he said, picking one out of the bowl on the table and casually tossing it from one hand to the other before holding it up for her to examine. "It's round or to be more accurate, spherical; its reddish in colour and it has", he sniffed it, "a fruity smell. No doubt if I were to bite into it, I would find it juicy and sweet.
"Now all of these - round, red, fruity, juicy, sweet - are adjectives describing the noun ‘apple.' Or, to use more Advaitic terms, let me say that the ‘apple' is the ‘substantive' - the apparently real, separately existing thing - and all of the other words are ‘attributes' of the apple - merely incidental qualities of the thing itself. Are you with me so far?"
She nodded hesitantly but, after a little reflection, more positively.
"But suppose I had carried out this analysis with the rose that we looked at a moment ago. I could have said that it was red, delicate, fragrant, thorny and so on. And we would have noted that all of those were simply attributes and that the actual existent thing, the substantive, was the rose. But then we went on to see that the rose wasn't real at all. It was just an assemblage of petals and sepals and so on - I'm afraid I am not a botanist! In the same way, we could say that the apple consists of seeds and flesh and skin. We may not be able to put these things together into any form different from an apple but Nature can.
"If you ask a scientist what makes an apple an apple, he will probably tell you that is the particular configuration of nucleotides in the DNA or RNA of the cells. There are many different species of apple and each one will have a slight variation in the chromosomes and it is that which differentiates the species. If you want to explain to someone what the difference is between a Bramley and a Granny Smith, you will probably say something like ‘the Bramley is large and green, used mainly for cooking and is quite sharp tasting, while the Granny Smith is still green but normally much smaller and sweeter'. But these are all adjectives or attributes. What is actually different is the physical makeup of the cell nuclei.
"But, if we look at a chromosome or a strand of DNA, are we actually looking at a self-existent, separate thing? If you look very closely through an electron microscope, you find that DNA is made up of four basic units arranged in pairs in a long, spiral chain. And any one of these units is itself made up of atoms of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, again arranged in a very specific way. So even those are not separate ‘things-in-themselves'; they are names given to particular forms of other, more fundamental things.
"And so we arrive at atoms - even the ancient Greeks used to think that everything was made up of atoms. Are these the final ‘substantives' with all of the apparent things in the world being merely attributes? Well, unfortunately not. Science has known for a long time that atoms mainly consist of empty space with electrons spinning around a central nucleus of protons and neutrons. And science has known for somewhat less time that these particles, which were once thought to be fundamental, are themselves not solid, self-existent things but are either made up of still smaller particles or are in the form of waves, merely having probabilities of existence at many different points in space.
"Still more recently, science claimed that all of the different particles are themselves made out of different combinations of just a few particles called quarks and that those are the ultimately existing things. But they have not yet progressed far enough. The simple fact of the matter is that every ‘thing' is ultimately only an attribute, a name and form superimposed upon a more fundamental substantive. We make the mistake of thinking that there really is a table, when actually there is only wood. We make the mistake of thinking that there is really wood, when actually there is only cellulose and sugars and proteins. We make the mistake of thinking there is protein when this is only a particular combination of atoms. "Ultimately, everything in the universe is seen to be only name and form of a single substantive.
The journalist was transfixed; not exactly open-mouthed but her pencil had not moved for some time. Eventually, she asked in a small voice: "But then where do I fit into all of this?"
"Ah", he replied. "That again depends upon what you mean by the word ‘I'. Who you think you are - ‘Sarah' - is essentially no different from the table and chair. You are simply name and form, imposed upon the non-dual reality. Who you really are, however... well, that is quite different - you are that nondual reality. You see, in the final analysis, there are not two things; there is only nonduality. That is the truth; that is Advaita." (by Dennis Waite)
"It simply means ‘not two' - the ultimate truth is nondual," replied the Sage, reclining in a large and comfortable-looking armchair and not sitting in an upright lotus position, as he ought to have been, for the sake of the photograph that she had just taken, if nothing else.
She continued to wait for further elucidation before beginning to write but it soon became apparent that the answer had been given. "But is it a religion? Do you believe in God, for example?"
"Ah, well, that would depend upon what you mean by those words, wouldn't it?" he responded, irritatingly. "If, by ‘religion', you mean does it have priests and churches and a band of followers who are prepared to kill non-believers, then the answer is no. If, on the other hand, you refer to the original, literal meaning of the word, namely to ‘bind again', to reunite the mistaken person that we think we are with the Self that we truly are, then yes, it is a religion. Similarly, if by ‘God' you mean a separate, supernatural being who created the universe and will reward us by sending us to heaven if we do what He wants, then the answer is no. If you use the term in the sense of the unmanifest, non-dual reality, then yes, I most certainly do believe in God."
The pencil raced across the paper, recording the answer for the benefit of the magazine's readers but, as the words clashed with previous ideas in her memory, the lack of a clear resolution of her questions was reflected by an increasing puzzlement in her expression.
He registered this with compassion and held out his hand towards her. "Give me a piece of paper from your pad." She looked up, mouth slightly open as she wondered why he could possibly want that. But she turned the pad over, carefully tore off the bottom sheet and placed it in his outstretched hand. He turned to the table at his right and deftly began to fold and refold the paper. After a few moments, he turned back and, before she had had time to see what he had done, he held the paper aloft and launched it into the air. It rose quickly and circled gracefully around the room before losing momentum and diving to meet a sudden end when its pointed nose hit a sauce bottle on the dining table. "Could you bring it back over here do you think?" he asked.
"So, what would you say that we have here?" he asked, as she handed it back to him.
"It's a paper aeroplane," she replied, with just a hint of questioning in her voice, since the answer was so obvious that she felt he must have some other purpose in mind.
"Really?" he responded and, in an instant, he screwed up the object and, with a practised, over-arm movement, threw it effortlessly in a wide arc, from which it landed just short of the waste paper basket in the corner of the room. "And now?" he asked.
"It's a screwed-up ball of paper", she said, without any doubt in her voice this time.
"Could you bring it back again, please", he continued. She did so, wondering if this was typical of such an interview, spending the session chasing about after bits of paper like a dog running after a stick. He took the ball and carefully unfolded it, spread it out on the table and smoothed his hand over it a few times before handing it back to her. "And now it is just a sheet of paper again," he said, "although I'm afraid it's a bit crumpled now!"
He looked at her, apparently anticipating some sign of understanding if not actual revelation but none was forthcoming. He looked around the room and, after a moment, he stood up, walked over to the window and removed a rose from a vase standing in the alcove. Returning to his seat, he held the rose out to her and asked, "What is this?"
She was feeling increasingly embarrassed as it was clear he was trying to explain something fundamental, which she was not understanding. Either that or he was mad or deliberately provoking her, neither of which seemed likely, since he remained calm and open and somehow intensely present. "It's a flower," she replied eventually.
He then deliberately took one of the petals between his right-hand thumb and fore-finger and plucked it. He looked at her and said, "And now?" She didn't reply, though it seemed that this time he didn't really expect an answer. He continued to remove the petals one by one until none remained, looking up at her after each action. Finally, he pulled the remaining parts of the flower head off the stem and dropped them onto the floor, leaving the bare stalk, which he held out to her. "Where is the flower now?" he asked. Receiving no reply, he bent down and picked up all of the petals, eventually displaying them in his open hand. "Is this a flower?" he asked.
She shook her head slowly. "It was a flower only when all of the petals and the other bits were all attached to the stem."
"Good!" he said, appreciatively. "Flower is the name that we give to that particular arrangement of all of the parts. Once we have separated it into its component parts, the flower ceases to exist. But was there ever an actual, separate thing called ‘flower'? All of the material that constituted the original form is still here in these parts in my hand.
"The paper aeroplane is an even simpler example. There never was an aeroplane was there? And I don't just mean that it was only a toy. There was only ever paper. To begin with, the paper was in the form of a flat sheet for writing on. Then, I folded it in various ways so that it took on an aerodynamic shape which could fly through the air slowly. The name that we give to that form is ‘aeroplane'. When I screwed it up, the ball-shape could be thrown more accurately. ‘Aeroplane' and ‘ball' were names relating to particular forms of the paper but at all times, all that ever actually existed was paper.
"Now, this sort of analysis applies to every ‘thing' that you care to think of. Look at that table over there and this chair on which you are sitting. What are they made of? You will probably say that they are wooden chairs?"
He looked at her questioningly and she nodded, knowing at the same time that he was going to contradict her. "Well, they are made of wood certainly, but that does not mean that they are wooden chairs! On the contrary, I would say that this, that you are sitting on, is actually chairy wood, and that object over there is tably wood. What do you say to that?"
"You mean that the thing that we call ‘chair' is just a name that we give to the wood when it is that particular shape and being used for that particular function?" she asked, with understanding beginning to dawn.
"Exactly! I couldn't have put it better myself. It is quite possible that I could have a bag full of pieces of wood that can be slotted together in different ways so that at one time I might assemble them into something to sit upon, another time into something to put food upon and so on. We give the various forms distinct names and we forget that they are ONLY names and forms and not distinct and separate things.
"Look - here's an apple," he said, picking one out of the bowl on the table and casually tossing it from one hand to the other before holding it up for her to examine. "It's round or to be more accurate, spherical; its reddish in colour and it has", he sniffed it, "a fruity smell. No doubt if I were to bite into it, I would find it juicy and sweet.
"Now all of these - round, red, fruity, juicy, sweet - are adjectives describing the noun ‘apple.' Or, to use more Advaitic terms, let me say that the ‘apple' is the ‘substantive' - the apparently real, separately existing thing - and all of the other words are ‘attributes' of the apple - merely incidental qualities of the thing itself. Are you with me so far?"
She nodded hesitantly but, after a little reflection, more positively.
"But suppose I had carried out this analysis with the rose that we looked at a moment ago. I could have said that it was red, delicate, fragrant, thorny and so on. And we would have noted that all of those were simply attributes and that the actual existent thing, the substantive, was the rose. But then we went on to see that the rose wasn't real at all. It was just an assemblage of petals and sepals and so on - I'm afraid I am not a botanist! In the same way, we could say that the apple consists of seeds and flesh and skin. We may not be able to put these things together into any form different from an apple but Nature can.
"If you ask a scientist what makes an apple an apple, he will probably tell you that is the particular configuration of nucleotides in the DNA or RNA of the cells. There are many different species of apple and each one will have a slight variation in the chromosomes and it is that which differentiates the species. If you want to explain to someone what the difference is between a Bramley and a Granny Smith, you will probably say something like ‘the Bramley is large and green, used mainly for cooking and is quite sharp tasting, while the Granny Smith is still green but normally much smaller and sweeter'. But these are all adjectives or attributes. What is actually different is the physical makeup of the cell nuclei.
"But, if we look at a chromosome or a strand of DNA, are we actually looking at a self-existent, separate thing? If you look very closely through an electron microscope, you find that DNA is made up of four basic units arranged in pairs in a long, spiral chain. And any one of these units is itself made up of atoms of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, again arranged in a very specific way. So even those are not separate ‘things-in-themselves'; they are names given to particular forms of other, more fundamental things.
"And so we arrive at atoms - even the ancient Greeks used to think that everything was made up of atoms. Are these the final ‘substantives' with all of the apparent things in the world being merely attributes? Well, unfortunately not. Science has known for a long time that atoms mainly consist of empty space with electrons spinning around a central nucleus of protons and neutrons. And science has known for somewhat less time that these particles, which were once thought to be fundamental, are themselves not solid, self-existent things but are either made up of still smaller particles or are in the form of waves, merely having probabilities of existence at many different points in space.
"Still more recently, science claimed that all of the different particles are themselves made out of different combinations of just a few particles called quarks and that those are the ultimately existing things. But they have not yet progressed far enough. The simple fact of the matter is that every ‘thing' is ultimately only an attribute, a name and form superimposed upon a more fundamental substantive. We make the mistake of thinking that there really is a table, when actually there is only wood. We make the mistake of thinking that there is really wood, when actually there is only cellulose and sugars and proteins. We make the mistake of thinking there is protein when this is only a particular combination of atoms. "Ultimately, everything in the universe is seen to be only name and form of a single substantive.
The journalist was transfixed; not exactly open-mouthed but her pencil had not moved for some time. Eventually, she asked in a small voice: "But then where do I fit into all of this?"
"Ah", he replied. "That again depends upon what you mean by the word ‘I'. Who you think you are - ‘Sarah' - is essentially no different from the table and chair. You are simply name and form, imposed upon the non-dual reality. Who you really are, however... well, that is quite different - you are that nondual reality. You see, in the final analysis, there are not two things; there is only nonduality. That is the truth; that is Advaita." (by Dennis Waite)
Contentment...
Only contentment can make you happy -
desires fulfilled breed more desires.
Keeping away from all desires and
contentment in what comes by itself
is a very fruitful state - a precondition
to the state of fullness. Don't distrust
its apparent sterility and emptiness.
Believe me, it is the satisfaction of
desires that breeds misery. Freedom
from desires is bliss.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
desires fulfilled breed more desires.
Keeping away from all desires and
contentment in what comes by itself
is a very fruitful state - a precondition
to the state of fullness. Don't distrust
its apparent sterility and emptiness.
Believe me, it is the satisfaction of
desires that breeds misery. Freedom
from desires is bliss.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
Realization of emptiness...
AN ACCOUNT OF THE
"REALIZATION OF EMPTINESS"
Dr. Ann Faraday
Ann Faraday is one of those unique individuals that basically out of nowhere, woke to the Absolute. Faraday, married to John Wren-Lewis, himself reputed to having Awakened following a near death experience, offers an interesting account of her Experience in the following article:
'I fell asleep one night in October 1985 and woke next morning without a self'
All my thoughts, hopes and fears about the future have changed radically since I fell asleep one night in October 1985 and woke next morning without a self. I don't know what happened to it, but it never returned.
This should have been an occasion for some regret, since I quite liked myself - a self born long ago when I first discovered that other people didn't automatically share my private inner space and couldn't intrude upon it without my permission. Since then I'd worked hard on myself to make it a good one, mainly by praying to God to remove the bad thoughts and feelings surrounding it. I soon came to think in terms of my Higher self and lower self - and hoped that God would always love me and forgive me so long as I at least aspired towards the Higher and abjured the lower. The Higher Self, I decided, was probably my soul which would eventually unite with God and live happily ever after.
So it came as somewhat of a surprise in later life to learn that the Soul is not to be sought in the heavens but in the depths of the psyche, especially in the lower or shadow part which I'd tried to disown. Through psychotherapy and dream-work, I discovered that far from diminishing myself, all those buried fears, guilts and weaknesses brought a welcome softness and subtlety to life. In fact they led me on to even deeper archetypal encounters which expanded the boundaries of self in to the greater collective psyche of humankind. What had begun as a journey of purification had become one of completion or individuation, and I looked forward to attaining what Jung called Wholeness, the Self or God before too long; all I needed, or so I thought, were just a few finishing touches.
'All those buried fears, guilts and weaknesses brought a welcome softness and subtlety to life'
In the meantime, in true Human Potential fashion, I was furthering all this growth by 'taking care of' and 'looking after' whichever self I happened to be into at the time. I no longer berated myself for making mistakes and was usually able to say "no" without feeling guilty. All things considered, including many years of meditation practice, I rated myself at around 3.5 on the Transpersonal Ladder of Enlightenment.
It was at this point in my imagined psycho-spiritual development that I lost myself. To compound the irony, before going to sleep that night in October 1985, I'd actually done a 'self-remembering' exercise for precisely the opposite purpose - to centre my energies in such a firm and clear sense of self that it would continue into the dreaming process instead of getting lost in it, thereby giving me a lucid dream in which I was aware of dreaming. I went off dutifully repeating the words "I am, I am, I am, ..." and was more than a little astonished to awaken some hours later, laughing because the pundits had got it wrong: the truth was much more like "I am not." I was emerging from a state of consciousness without any I or self at all, a state that can only be described as pure consciousness. I can't even say I experienced it, because there was no experiencer and nothing to experience.
And far from being a matter of regret, this loss of self came as a distinct relief. In fact when bits and pieces of my old identity - hopes, fears, goals, memories, spiritual aspirations and all the rest - began to recollect as I awoke, I tried to fight them off, in much the same way, perhaps, as the reluctant survivors of Near-Death Experiences resist the return to life's little boxes. But unlike those survivors, I brought back no blissful sense of divine presence or of a mission to accomplish, nor even intimations of immortality - just a total inner and outer Empty-ness which has remained ever since.
This may not sound like a happy state of affairs to a psychotherapist, who would probably see in it evidence of a mid-life crisis or incipient psychosis. But it is far more interesting than that. I experience this Empty-ness as a boundless arena in which life continually manifests and plays, rising and falling, constantly changing, always changing and therefore ever new. Sometimes I feel I could sit forever, knowing myself as not only a fluid manifestation of life within the arena, but also as the Empty-ness which holds it. If this is psychosis, everyone should have one, and the world would be a far more serene place for it.
After all this, I see no special significance in the approach of a new millennium, but as a psychologist, my hopes are something like this:
•I would challenge the ancient creed that developing a strong self-sense is essential in rearing children with adequate strength for living. Surely it is possible to encourage them to find a fluid identity within the constantly-changing play of life, not seeking permanence of any kind, particularly that of self. Perhaps we could even teach them to see and enjoy themselves as unique 'nonentities', instead of separate hidebound selves obsessed with survival.
•In psychotherapy, I would hope for a radically new approach to those who suffer from inner emptiness. Instead of working towards filling that void with new purpose, direction and meaning, I would aim to assist sufferers to go even deeper into Empty-ness and discover its true nature. I would actively discourage all ideas of inner-journeying towards wholeness or paths to enlightenment. These serve merely to postpone happiness here and now, and they build up the self-illusion.
•In the spiritual domain, I would fire all gurus and transpersonal psychologists who use stage-by-stage models of self-development (explaining experiences like mine as "fifth level transient" Nirvikalpa-Samadhi -- or whatever). And I would like to see the term Self with a capital S: Self-actualisation, Self-realisation, Self-transcendence - expunged from psychological and spiritual literature, reserving the word strictly for the empirical self of everyday life. It is the whole obfuscating concept of self which needs to be transcended, for in my experience there has never really been any self to transform, actualise, realize or transcend.
NOTE: For an Awakening experience seemingly initiated from a similar dream-based start, compare the above with the writings of Metta Zetty who relates in her article: "The epiphany arrived suddenly, and without warning. In fact, I was asleep when the experience began." A similar "sleep induced" experience is related to by the American spiritual teacher Lee Lozowic
"REALIZATION OF EMPTINESS"
Dr. Ann Faraday
Ann Faraday is one of those unique individuals that basically out of nowhere, woke to the Absolute. Faraday, married to John Wren-Lewis, himself reputed to having Awakened following a near death experience, offers an interesting account of her Experience in the following article:
'I fell asleep one night in October 1985 and woke next morning without a self'
All my thoughts, hopes and fears about the future have changed radically since I fell asleep one night in October 1985 and woke next morning without a self. I don't know what happened to it, but it never returned.
This should have been an occasion for some regret, since I quite liked myself - a self born long ago when I first discovered that other people didn't automatically share my private inner space and couldn't intrude upon it without my permission. Since then I'd worked hard on myself to make it a good one, mainly by praying to God to remove the bad thoughts and feelings surrounding it. I soon came to think in terms of my Higher self and lower self - and hoped that God would always love me and forgive me so long as I at least aspired towards the Higher and abjured the lower. The Higher Self, I decided, was probably my soul which would eventually unite with God and live happily ever after.
So it came as somewhat of a surprise in later life to learn that the Soul is not to be sought in the heavens but in the depths of the psyche, especially in the lower or shadow part which I'd tried to disown. Through psychotherapy and dream-work, I discovered that far from diminishing myself, all those buried fears, guilts and weaknesses brought a welcome softness and subtlety to life. In fact they led me on to even deeper archetypal encounters which expanded the boundaries of self in to the greater collective psyche of humankind. What had begun as a journey of purification had become one of completion or individuation, and I looked forward to attaining what Jung called Wholeness, the Self or God before too long; all I needed, or so I thought, were just a few finishing touches.
'All those buried fears, guilts and weaknesses brought a welcome softness and subtlety to life'
In the meantime, in true Human Potential fashion, I was furthering all this growth by 'taking care of' and 'looking after' whichever self I happened to be into at the time. I no longer berated myself for making mistakes and was usually able to say "no" without feeling guilty. All things considered, including many years of meditation practice, I rated myself at around 3.5 on the Transpersonal Ladder of Enlightenment.
It was at this point in my imagined psycho-spiritual development that I lost myself. To compound the irony, before going to sleep that night in October 1985, I'd actually done a 'self-remembering' exercise for precisely the opposite purpose - to centre my energies in such a firm and clear sense of self that it would continue into the dreaming process instead of getting lost in it, thereby giving me a lucid dream in which I was aware of dreaming. I went off dutifully repeating the words "I am, I am, I am, ..." and was more than a little astonished to awaken some hours later, laughing because the pundits had got it wrong: the truth was much more like "I am not." I was emerging from a state of consciousness without any I or self at all, a state that can only be described as pure consciousness. I can't even say I experienced it, because there was no experiencer and nothing to experience.
And far from being a matter of regret, this loss of self came as a distinct relief. In fact when bits and pieces of my old identity - hopes, fears, goals, memories, spiritual aspirations and all the rest - began to recollect as I awoke, I tried to fight them off, in much the same way, perhaps, as the reluctant survivors of Near-Death Experiences resist the return to life's little boxes. But unlike those survivors, I brought back no blissful sense of divine presence or of a mission to accomplish, nor even intimations of immortality - just a total inner and outer Empty-ness which has remained ever since.
This may not sound like a happy state of affairs to a psychotherapist, who would probably see in it evidence of a mid-life crisis or incipient psychosis. But it is far more interesting than that. I experience this Empty-ness as a boundless arena in which life continually manifests and plays, rising and falling, constantly changing, always changing and therefore ever new. Sometimes I feel I could sit forever, knowing myself as not only a fluid manifestation of life within the arena, but also as the Empty-ness which holds it. If this is psychosis, everyone should have one, and the world would be a far more serene place for it.
After all this, I see no special significance in the approach of a new millennium, but as a psychologist, my hopes are something like this:
•I would challenge the ancient creed that developing a strong self-sense is essential in rearing children with adequate strength for living. Surely it is possible to encourage them to find a fluid identity within the constantly-changing play of life, not seeking permanence of any kind, particularly that of self. Perhaps we could even teach them to see and enjoy themselves as unique 'nonentities', instead of separate hidebound selves obsessed with survival.
•In psychotherapy, I would hope for a radically new approach to those who suffer from inner emptiness. Instead of working towards filling that void with new purpose, direction and meaning, I would aim to assist sufferers to go even deeper into Empty-ness and discover its true nature. I would actively discourage all ideas of inner-journeying towards wholeness or paths to enlightenment. These serve merely to postpone happiness here and now, and they build up the self-illusion.
•In the spiritual domain, I would fire all gurus and transpersonal psychologists who use stage-by-stage models of self-development (explaining experiences like mine as "fifth level transient" Nirvikalpa-Samadhi -- or whatever). And I would like to see the term Self with a capital S: Self-actualisation, Self-realisation, Self-transcendence - expunged from psychological and spiritual literature, reserving the word strictly for the empirical self of everyday life. It is the whole obfuscating concept of self which needs to be transcended, for in my experience there has never really been any self to transform, actualise, realize or transcend.
NOTE: For an Awakening experience seemingly initiated from a similar dream-based start, compare the above with the writings of Metta Zetty who relates in her article: "The epiphany arrived suddenly, and without warning. In fact, I was asleep when the experience began." A similar "sleep induced" experience is related to by the American spiritual teacher Lee Lozowic
The Knower...
Forget the known, but remember that you are
the knower. Don't be all the time immersed in
your experiences. Remember that you are beyond
the experiencer, ever unborn and deathless. In
remembering it, the quality of pure knowledge
will emerge, the light of unconditional awareness.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
the knower. Don't be all the time immersed in
your experiences. Remember that you are beyond
the experiencer, ever unborn and deathless. In
remembering it, the quality of pure knowledge
will emerge, the light of unconditional awareness.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
What is real?...
The man who embraces the world as real,
like the man embracing a woman in his dream,
ultimately awakens to find nothing there but
himself.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1966
like the man embracing a woman in his dream,
ultimately awakens to find nothing there but
himself.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1966
Consciousness and the dream...
We must take a higher position than ordinary religion
offers and come face to face with the mystery that is
Mentalism. The nonbeing of the universe, the
nonduality even of the soul may be too mathematical a
conclusion for our finite minds; but that this
matterless world and all that happens in it is like a
dream is something to be received and remembered at
all times. We are important only to ourselves, not to
God. All our whining and praying, chanting and
praising, gathering together and imagining that this
or that duty is required of us is mere theatre-play:
Mind makes it all. In this discovery we roll up the
stage and return to the paradox of what we really
are--Consciousness!
— Notebooks Category 17: The Religious Urge >
Chapter 3: Religion As Preparatory > # 104
..... Paul Brunton
offers and come face to face with the mystery that is
Mentalism. The nonbeing of the universe, the
nonduality even of the soul may be too mathematical a
conclusion for our finite minds; but that this
matterless world and all that happens in it is like a
dream is something to be received and remembered at
all times. We are important only to ourselves, not to
God. All our whining and praying, chanting and
praising, gathering together and imagining that this
or that duty is required of us is mere theatre-play:
Mind makes it all. In this discovery we roll up the
stage and return to the paradox of what we really
are--Consciousness!
— Notebooks Category 17: The Religious Urge >
Chapter 3: Religion As Preparatory > # 104
..... Paul Brunton
sleep on!, dear dreamer...
we knock upon your door.
we bring baskets of words.
the gifts lay unopened.
the thoughts remain covered.
you have your own reality.
a reality of matter.
a dream so real.
that you remain asleep.
you cry, I am awake!.
who is this you, that shouts?.
It is the dreamed.
the thought, that demands royalty.
sleep on!, dear dreamer.
you will awaken when the pain of illusion,
becomes too dear..... dreamer!
.... namaste, thomas
we bring baskets of words.
the gifts lay unopened.
the thoughts remain covered.
you have your own reality.
a reality of matter.
a dream so real.
that you remain asleep.
you cry, I am awake!.
who is this you, that shouts?.
It is the dreamed.
the thought, that demands royalty.
sleep on!, dear dreamer.
you will awaken when the pain of illusion,
becomes too dear..... dreamer!
.... namaste, thomas
Not Intrigued With Evening...
What the material world values does
not shine the same in the truth of
the soul. You have been interested
in your shadow. Look instead directly
at the sun. What can we know by just
watching the time-and-space shapes of
each other? Someone half awake in the night sees imaginary dangers; the
morning star rises; the horizon grows
defined; people become friends in a
moving caravan. Night birds may think
daybreak a kind of darkness, because
that's all they know. It's a fortunate
bird who's not intrigued with evening,
who flies in the sun we call Shams.
From Soul of Rumi
by Coleman Barks
not shine the same in the truth of
the soul. You have been interested
in your shadow. Look instead directly
at the sun. What can we know by just
watching the time-and-space shapes of
each other? Someone half awake in the night sees imaginary dangers; the
morning star rises; the horizon grows
defined; people become friends in a
moving caravan. Night birds may think
daybreak a kind of darkness, because
that's all they know. It's a fortunate
bird who's not intrigued with evening,
who flies in the sun we call Shams.
From Soul of Rumi
by Coleman Barks
Divine Love...
My message always has been and always will be love divine. When one
wholeheartedly loves God, one eventually loses oneself in the Beloved and enters
the Eternal Life of God.
"Like a tree, this love has branches: branches of wholehearted devotion, perfect
nonviolence, perfect selfless service, self-denial, self-sacrifice,
self-renunciation, truth and self-annihilation.
"In this love are embodied all the yogas known to saints and seekers. The
highest aspect of this love, which surpasses that of love itself, is the aspect
of complete surrenderance to the will of the Beloved, that is, absolute
obedience to his wishes, whatever the cost."
Meher Baba
in Bhau Kalchuri
_Lord Meher: The Biography of Avatar of the Age Meher Baba_
Manifestation, 1st ed., Vol. 12, p. 4263
http://www.lordmeher.org/index.jsp?pageBase=page.jsp&nextPage=4263
wholeheartedly loves God, one eventually loses oneself in the Beloved and enters
the Eternal Life of God.
"Like a tree, this love has branches: branches of wholehearted devotion, perfect
nonviolence, perfect selfless service, self-denial, self-sacrifice,
self-renunciation, truth and self-annihilation.
"In this love are embodied all the yogas known to saints and seekers. The
highest aspect of this love, which surpasses that of love itself, is the aspect
of complete surrenderance to the will of the Beloved, that is, absolute
obedience to his wishes, whatever the cost."
Meher Baba
in Bhau Kalchuri
_Lord Meher: The Biography of Avatar of the Age Meher Baba_
Manifestation, 1st ed., Vol. 12, p. 4263
http://www.lordmeher.org/index.jsp?pageBase=page.jsp&nextPage=4263
The essence of life is Wisdom...
Wisdom is intelligence in its pure essence, which is not necessarily dependent
upon the knowledge of names and forms.
Bowl of Saki, February 13, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Often people confuse the two terms intellect and wisdom; sometimes they use the
word intellect for wisdom, sometimes wisdom for intellect. In point of fact
these are two different qualities altogether. The knowledge which is learned by
knowing names and forms in the outside world belongs to the intellect; but there
is another source of knowledge, and that source of knowledge is within oneself.
The words 'within oneself' might confuse some people. They might think 'within
oneself' means inside one's body; but that is because man is ignorant of
himself. Man has a very poor idea of himself, and this keeps him in ignorance of
his real self. If man only knew how large, how wide, how deep, how high is his
being, he would think, act, and feel differently; but with all his width, depth,
and height, if man is not conscious of them he is as small as he thinks himself
to be.
The essence of milk is butter, the essence of the flower is honey, the essence
of grapes is wine, and the essence of life is wisdom. Wisdom is not necessarily
a knowledge of names and forms; wisdom is the sum total of that knowledge which
one gains both from within and without.
Intellectual knowledge has much to do with the brain, while wisdom comes from
within the heart. In wisdom both head and heart work. One may call the brain the
seat of the intellect, and the heart the throne of wisdom; but they are not
actually located in the brain or in the heart. Wisdom may be called spiritual
knowledge but the best definition of wisdom would be perfect knowledge, the
knowledge of life within and without. How does one pursue the wisdom which is
within? By first realizing that intuition exists within oneself. ...
It is not meant by this that everyone should become a kind of super-being. It is
not meant at all that people should be able to perform wonders or miracles; it
is only intended that they should live a fuller life and become real human
beings, in order to bring about better conditions in the world. What do we want?
We want human beings. It is not necessary that everyone should become religious,
or exceedingly pious, or too good to live. We want wise men in business, in
politics, in education, in all walks of life; those who do not live only on the
surface and those who do not believe only in matter, but who see life both
within and without. It is such souls who will produce beauty; it is such souls
who will harmonize the world, who will bring about the conditions we need today.
upon the knowledge of names and forms.
Bowl of Saki, February 13, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Often people confuse the two terms intellect and wisdom; sometimes they use the
word intellect for wisdom, sometimes wisdom for intellect. In point of fact
these are two different qualities altogether. The knowledge which is learned by
knowing names and forms in the outside world belongs to the intellect; but there
is another source of knowledge, and that source of knowledge is within oneself.
The words 'within oneself' might confuse some people. They might think 'within
oneself' means inside one's body; but that is because man is ignorant of
himself. Man has a very poor idea of himself, and this keeps him in ignorance of
his real self. If man only knew how large, how wide, how deep, how high is his
being, he would think, act, and feel differently; but with all his width, depth,
and height, if man is not conscious of them he is as small as he thinks himself
to be.
The essence of milk is butter, the essence of the flower is honey, the essence
of grapes is wine, and the essence of life is wisdom. Wisdom is not necessarily
a knowledge of names and forms; wisdom is the sum total of that knowledge which
one gains both from within and without.
Intellectual knowledge has much to do with the brain, while wisdom comes from
within the heart. In wisdom both head and heart work. One may call the brain the
seat of the intellect, and the heart the throne of wisdom; but they are not
actually located in the brain or in the heart. Wisdom may be called spiritual
knowledge but the best definition of wisdom would be perfect knowledge, the
knowledge of life within and without. How does one pursue the wisdom which is
within? By first realizing that intuition exists within oneself. ...
It is not meant by this that everyone should become a kind of super-being. It is
not meant at all that people should be able to perform wonders or miracles; it
is only intended that they should live a fuller life and become real human
beings, in order to bring about better conditions in the world. What do we want?
We want human beings. It is not necessary that everyone should become religious,
or exceedingly pious, or too good to live. We want wise men in business, in
politics, in education, in all walks of life; those who do not live only on the
surface and those who do not believe only in matter, but who see life both
within and without. It is such souls who will produce beauty; it is such souls
who will harmonize the world, who will bring about the conditions we need today.
Waking up...
"Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don't know it, are asleep. They're born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence. You know, all mystics, Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion, are unanimous on one thing: that all is well, all is well. Thought everything is a mess, all is well. Strange paradox, to be sure. But, tragically, most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare.
Last year on Spanish television I heard a story about this gentleman who knocks on his son's door. "Jaime," he says, "wake up!" Jaime answers, "I don't want to get up, Papa."
The father shouts, "Get up, you have to go to school." Jaime says, "I don't want to go to school." "Why not?" asks the father. "Three reasons," says Jaime. "First, because it's so dull; second, the kids tease me; and third, I hate school." And the father says, "Well, I am going to give you three reasons why you must go to school. First, because it is your duty; second, because you are forty-five years old, and third, because you are the headmaster." Wake up! Wake up! You've grown up. You're too big to be asleep. Wake up! Stop playing with your toys.
Most people tell you they want to get out of kindergarten, but don't believe them. Don't believe them! All they want you to do is to mend their broken toys. "Give me back my wife. Give me back my job. Give me back my money. Give me back my reputation, my success." This is what they want; they want their toys replaced. That's all. Even the best psychologist will tell you that, that people don't really want to be cured. What they want is relief; a cure is painful.
Waking up is unpleasant, you know. You are nice and comfortable in bed. It is irritating to be woken up. That's the reason the wise guru will not attempt to wake people up. I hope I'm going to be wise here and make no attempt whatsoever to wake you up if you are asleep. It is really none of my business, even though I say to you at times, "Wake up!" My business is to do my thing, to dance my dance. If you profit from it fine; if you don't, too bad! As the Arabs say, "The nature of rain is the same, but it makes thorns grow in the marshes and flowers in the gardens."
~ Anthony de Mello, SJ
Last year on Spanish television I heard a story about this gentleman who knocks on his son's door. "Jaime," he says, "wake up!" Jaime answers, "I don't want to get up, Papa."
The father shouts, "Get up, you have to go to school." Jaime says, "I don't want to go to school." "Why not?" asks the father. "Three reasons," says Jaime. "First, because it's so dull; second, the kids tease me; and third, I hate school." And the father says, "Well, I am going to give you three reasons why you must go to school. First, because it is your duty; second, because you are forty-five years old, and third, because you are the headmaster." Wake up! Wake up! You've grown up. You're too big to be asleep. Wake up! Stop playing with your toys.
Most people tell you they want to get out of kindergarten, but don't believe them. Don't believe them! All they want you to do is to mend their broken toys. "Give me back my wife. Give me back my job. Give me back my money. Give me back my reputation, my success." This is what they want; they want their toys replaced. That's all. Even the best psychologist will tell you that, that people don't really want to be cured. What they want is relief; a cure is painful.
Waking up is unpleasant, you know. You are nice and comfortable in bed. It is irritating to be woken up. That's the reason the wise guru will not attempt to wake people up. I hope I'm going to be wise here and make no attempt whatsoever to wake you up if you are asleep. It is really none of my business, even though I say to you at times, "Wake up!" My business is to do my thing, to dance my dance. If you profit from it fine; if you don't, too bad! As the Arabs say, "The nature of rain is the same, but it makes thorns grow in the marshes and flowers in the gardens."
~ Anthony de Mello, SJ
Illusion...
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
Question...
Q: Does my realisation help others?
A: Yes, and it is the best help that you can
possibly render to others. But really there are
no others to be helped. For the realised being
sees only the Self, just as the goldsmith sees
only the gold while valuing it in various jewels
made of gold. When you identify yourself with
the body, name and form are there. But when
you transcend the body-consciousness, the
others also disappear. The realised one does
not see the world as different from himself.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"Be As You Are"
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
Edited by David Godman
Arkana, 1985
A: Yes, and it is the best help that you can
possibly render to others. But really there are
no others to be helped. For the realised being
sees only the Self, just as the goldsmith sees
only the gold while valuing it in various jewels
made of gold. When you identify yourself with
the body, name and form are there. But when
you transcend the body-consciousness, the
others also disappear. The realised one does
not see the world as different from himself.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"Be As You Are"
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
Edited by David Godman
Arkana, 1985
Be like a candle...
In truth, love for the Illuminator of hearts keeps
Lovers awake all night without food and sleep.
Oh friend, if you are a lover, be like a candle:
Melt all night long, burn joyfully till morning!
He who is like cold weather in autumn is no
lover -- in autumn's midst the lover's heart is burning summer.
Dear friend, if you have a love you want to
proclaim, then shout like a lover! Shout! Shout!
But if you are chained by sensuality, make no
claims to Love -- enter the spiritual retreat and burn away your
chains!
Oh simple man, how can a lover be joined to
sensuality? How could Jesus eat from the same trough as his
ass?
If you want to catch the fragrance of these
symbols, then turn your eyes away from everything but Shams
al-Din of Tabriz!
But if you cannot see that he is greater than the
two worlds, you are still a wretch drowned in the ocean of
heedlessness.
So go before the teachers of conventional
knowledge -- busy yourself with jurisprudence and become a
master of the science of "This is permitted and that is
forbidden."
My spirit has passed beyond childhood in love
for Shams al-Din -- love for him is not mixed with raisins and
nuts.
My intellect has left me and my verses are
incomplete -- that is why my bow has no more designs and
wrappings.
Oh Jalal al-Din, sleep and abandon speech! No
leopard will ever catch that lion!
-- Ghazal (Ode) 1196
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983
Lovers awake all night without food and sleep.
Oh friend, if you are a lover, be like a candle:
Melt all night long, burn joyfully till morning!
He who is like cold weather in autumn is no
lover -- in autumn's midst the lover's heart is burning summer.
Dear friend, if you have a love you want to
proclaim, then shout like a lover! Shout! Shout!
But if you are chained by sensuality, make no
claims to Love -- enter the spiritual retreat and burn away your
chains!
Oh simple man, how can a lover be joined to
sensuality? How could Jesus eat from the same trough as his
ass?
If you want to catch the fragrance of these
symbols, then turn your eyes away from everything but Shams
al-Din of Tabriz!
But if you cannot see that he is greater than the
two worlds, you are still a wretch drowned in the ocean of
heedlessness.
So go before the teachers of conventional
knowledge -- busy yourself with jurisprudence and become a
master of the science of "This is permitted and that is
forbidden."
My spirit has passed beyond childhood in love
for Shams al-Din -- love for him is not mixed with raisins and
nuts.
My intellect has left me and my verses are
incomplete -- that is why my bow has no more designs and
wrappings.
Oh Jalal al-Din, sleep and abandon speech! No
leopard will ever catch that lion!
-- Ghazal (Ode) 1196
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983
The Wisdom of Nisargadatta...
Give up all questions except one ‘who am I?’ After all the only fact you are sure of is that you ‘are’. The ‘I am’ is certain, the ‘I am this’ is not. Struggle to find out what you are in reality.
’I am’ itself is God, the seeking itself is God. In seeking you discover that you are neither the body nor the mind, and the love of the self in you is for the self in all. The two are one. The consciousness in you and the consciousness in me, apparently two, really one, seek unity and that is love. What do you love now? The ‘I am’. Give your heart and mind to it, think of nothing else. This when effortless and natural, is the highest state. In it love itself is the lover and the beloved.
The impersonal is real, the personal appears and disappears. ‘I am’ is the impersonal being. ‘I am this’ is the person. The person is relative and the pure being – the fundamental.
By focusing the mind on ‘I am’, on the sense of being, ‘I am so-and-so” dissolves; ‘am a witness only’ remains and that too submerges in ‘I am all’. Then the all becomes the One and the One – yourself, not to be separate from me. Abandon the idea of a separate ‘I’ and the question of ‘whose experience?’ will not arise. On a deeper level my experience is your experience. Dive deep within yourself and you will find it easily and simply. Go in the direction of ‘I am’.
Cling to the one thing that matters, hold on to ‘I am’ and let go all else. This is ‘sadhana’. In realization there is nothing to hold on to and nothing to forget. Everything is known, nothing is remembered.
At the root of everything is the feeling ‘I am’. The state of mind ‘there is a world’ is secondary, for to be I do not need the world, the world needs me.
Beyond the mind there is no such thing as experience. Experience is a dual state. You cannot talk of reality as an experience. Once this is understood, you will no longer look for being and becoming as separate and opposite. In reality they are one and separable, like roots and branches of the same tree. Both can only exist in the light of consciousness, which again arises in the wake of the sense ‘I am’. This is the primary fact. If you miss it you miss all.
Everything is a play of ideas. In the state free from ideation (nirvikalpa samadhi) nothing is perceived. The root idea is ‘I am’. It shatters the state of pure consciousness and is followed by the innumerable sensations and perceptions, feelings and ideas, which in their totality constitute God and His world. The ‘I am’ remains as the witness, but it is by the will of God that everything happens.
The concentration on ‘I am’ is a form of attention. Give your undivided attention to the most important thing in your life – yourself. Of your personal universe you are the center – without knowing the center what else can you know?
My advice to you is very simple – just remember yourself, ‘I am’, it is enough to heal your mind and take you beyond, just have some trust. I don’t mislead you. Why should I? Do I want anything from you? I wish you well – such is my nature. Why should I mislead you? Commonsense too will tell you that to fulfill a desire you must keep your mind on it. If you want to know your true nature, you must have yourself in mind all the time, until the secret of your being stands revealed.
It is right to say ‘I am’, but to say ‘I am this’, ‘I am that’, is a sign of not enquiring, not examining, of mental weakness or lethargy. Practice (sadhana) consists of reminding oneself forcibly of one’s pure ‘beingness’, of not being anything in particular, not a sum of particulars, not even the totality of all particulars, which make up a universe.
Be content with what you are sure of. And the only thing you can be sure of is ‘I am’. Stay with it and reject everything else. This is Yoga.
The one witness reflects itself in the countless bodies as ‘I am’. As long as the bodies, however subtle, last, the ‘I am’ appears as many. Beyond the body there is only the One.
’I am’ itself is God, the seeking itself is God. In seeking you discover that you are neither the body nor the mind, and the love of the self in you is for the self in all. The two are one. The consciousness in you and the consciousness in me, apparently two, really one, seek unity and that is love. What do you love now? The ‘I am’. Give your heart and mind to it, think of nothing else. This when effortless and natural, is the highest state. In it love itself is the lover and the beloved.
The impersonal is real, the personal appears and disappears. ‘I am’ is the impersonal being. ‘I am this’ is the person. The person is relative and the pure being – the fundamental.
By focusing the mind on ‘I am’, on the sense of being, ‘I am so-and-so” dissolves; ‘am a witness only’ remains and that too submerges in ‘I am all’. Then the all becomes the One and the One – yourself, not to be separate from me. Abandon the idea of a separate ‘I’ and the question of ‘whose experience?’ will not arise. On a deeper level my experience is your experience. Dive deep within yourself and you will find it easily and simply. Go in the direction of ‘I am’.
Cling to the one thing that matters, hold on to ‘I am’ and let go all else. This is ‘sadhana’. In realization there is nothing to hold on to and nothing to forget. Everything is known, nothing is remembered.
At the root of everything is the feeling ‘I am’. The state of mind ‘there is a world’ is secondary, for to be I do not need the world, the world needs me.
Beyond the mind there is no such thing as experience. Experience is a dual state. You cannot talk of reality as an experience. Once this is understood, you will no longer look for being and becoming as separate and opposite. In reality they are one and separable, like roots and branches of the same tree. Both can only exist in the light of consciousness, which again arises in the wake of the sense ‘I am’. This is the primary fact. If you miss it you miss all.
Everything is a play of ideas. In the state free from ideation (nirvikalpa samadhi) nothing is perceived. The root idea is ‘I am’. It shatters the state of pure consciousness and is followed by the innumerable sensations and perceptions, feelings and ideas, which in their totality constitute God and His world. The ‘I am’ remains as the witness, but it is by the will of God that everything happens.
The concentration on ‘I am’ is a form of attention. Give your undivided attention to the most important thing in your life – yourself. Of your personal universe you are the center – without knowing the center what else can you know?
My advice to you is very simple – just remember yourself, ‘I am’, it is enough to heal your mind and take you beyond, just have some trust. I don’t mislead you. Why should I? Do I want anything from you? I wish you well – such is my nature. Why should I mislead you? Commonsense too will tell you that to fulfill a desire you must keep your mind on it. If you want to know your true nature, you must have yourself in mind all the time, until the secret of your being stands revealed.
It is right to say ‘I am’, but to say ‘I am this’, ‘I am that’, is a sign of not enquiring, not examining, of mental weakness or lethargy. Practice (sadhana) consists of reminding oneself forcibly of one’s pure ‘beingness’, of not being anything in particular, not a sum of particulars, not even the totality of all particulars, which make up a universe.
Be content with what you are sure of. And the only thing you can be sure of is ‘I am’. Stay with it and reject everything else. This is Yoga.
The one witness reflects itself in the countless bodies as ‘I am’. As long as the bodies, however subtle, last, the ‘I am’ appears as many. Beyond the body there is only the One.
Illusion and Reality...
A thing becomes an illusion only when its reality becomes inferior to a higher reality that has already been found. Until then, it is still a reality. Only the sage has the strict right to call this world an illusion. If anyone else does so, such talk is mere babble.
Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity > Chapter 2: The Cosmos of Change > #43....Paul Brunton
Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity > Chapter 2: The Cosmos of Change > #43....Paul Brunton
To judge...
A stupid or simple person is always ready to see
the wrong in another and ready to form an opinion
and to judge. But you will find a wise person
expressing his opinion of others quite differently,
always trying to tolerate and always trying to forgive
still more. The present is the reflection of the past,
and the future will be the echo of the present; this
saying will always prove true.
- Hazrat Inayat Khan
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Hazrat Inayat Khan
Mastery Through Accomplishment
Omega Press, 1978
the wrong in another and ready to form an opinion
and to judge. But you will find a wise person
expressing his opinion of others quite differently,
always trying to tolerate and always trying to forgive
still more. The present is the reflection of the past,
and the future will be the echo of the present; this
saying will always prove true.
- Hazrat Inayat Khan
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Hazrat Inayat Khan
Mastery Through Accomplishment
Omega Press, 1978
Love manifests...
Love manifests towards those whom we like as love; towards those whom we do not
like as forgiveness.
Bowl of Saki, February 8, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
In the East, when we speak of saints or sages, it is not because of their
miracles, it is because of their presence and their countenance which radiate
vibrations of love. How does this love express itself? In tolerance, in
forgiveness, in respect, in overlooking the faults of others. Their sympathy
covers the defects of others as if they were their own; they forget their own
interest in the interest of others. They do not mind what conditions they are
in; be they high or humble, their foreheads are smiling. To their eyes everyone
is the expression of the Beloved, whose name they repeat. They see the divine in
all forms and in all beings.
Think of the life of the great Master Jesus... one sees that from beginning to
end there was nothing but love and forgiveness. The best expression of love is
that love which is expressed in forgiveness. Those who came with their wrongs,
errors, imperfections, before the love, that was all forgiven; there was always
a stream of love which always purified.
We may make an ideal in our imagination, and, whenever we see that goodness is
lacking, we may add to it from our own heart and so complete the nobility of
human nature. This is done by patience, tolerance, kindness, forgiveness. The
lover of goodness loves every little sign of goodness. He overlooks the faults
and fills up the gaps by pouring out love and supplying that which is lacking.
This is real nobility of soul. Religion, prayer, and worship, are all intended
to ennoble the soul, not to make it narrow, sectarian or bigoted. One cannot
arrive at true nobility of spirit if one is not prepared to forgive the
imperfections of human nature. For all men, whether worthy or unworthy, require
forgiveness, and only in this way can one rise above the lack of harmony and
beauty.
like as forgiveness.
Bowl of Saki, February 8, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
In the East, when we speak of saints or sages, it is not because of their
miracles, it is because of their presence and their countenance which radiate
vibrations of love. How does this love express itself? In tolerance, in
forgiveness, in respect, in overlooking the faults of others. Their sympathy
covers the defects of others as if they were their own; they forget their own
interest in the interest of others. They do not mind what conditions they are
in; be they high or humble, their foreheads are smiling. To their eyes everyone
is the expression of the Beloved, whose name they repeat. They see the divine in
all forms and in all beings.
Think of the life of the great Master Jesus... one sees that from beginning to
end there was nothing but love and forgiveness. The best expression of love is
that love which is expressed in forgiveness. Those who came with their wrongs,
errors, imperfections, before the love, that was all forgiven; there was always
a stream of love which always purified.
We may make an ideal in our imagination, and, whenever we see that goodness is
lacking, we may add to it from our own heart and so complete the nobility of
human nature. This is done by patience, tolerance, kindness, forgiveness. The
lover of goodness loves every little sign of goodness. He overlooks the faults
and fills up the gaps by pouring out love and supplying that which is lacking.
This is real nobility of soul. Religion, prayer, and worship, are all intended
to ennoble the soul, not to make it narrow, sectarian or bigoted. One cannot
arrive at true nobility of spirit if one is not prepared to forgive the
imperfections of human nature. For all men, whether worthy or unworthy, require
forgiveness, and only in this way can one rise above the lack of harmony and
beauty.
Two Steps...
"The journey of the pilgrim is two steps and no more:
One is passing out of selfhood,
and one toward mystical union with the Friend."
Shabistari
_The Secret Rose Garden_
in John Baldock
_The Essence of Sufism_
Edison, NJ: Chartwell, 2004, p. 195
One is passing out of selfhood,
and one toward mystical union with the Friend."
Shabistari
_The Secret Rose Garden_
in John Baldock
_The Essence of Sufism_
Edison, NJ: Chartwell, 2004, p. 195
Untainted surrender...
It is so easy for everyone to just simply rest as consciousness in
that same true way of being. All it requires is untainted surrender
to what you honestly know is true, and all it will cost is your
personal wants and needs. All it will cost is just your personal
dream... your illusion. Then, as you continue to let in Truth to
the point where it has replaced everything in you that is untrue,
then you come into true form. You come to know your real self,
and you come to realize and live the reality you were in when you
were very, very young. You begin to grow as a real human being,
a beloved servant of Truth, instead of as a human "wannabe," a
slave of your own illusion.
~John de Ruiter
that same true way of being. All it requires is untainted surrender
to what you honestly know is true, and all it will cost is your
personal wants and needs. All it will cost is just your personal
dream... your illusion. Then, as you continue to let in Truth to
the point where it has replaced everything in you that is untrue,
then you come into true form. You come to know your real self,
and you come to realize and live the reality you were in when you
were very, very young. You begin to grow as a real human being,
a beloved servant of Truth, instead of as a human "wannabe," a
slave of your own illusion.
~John de Ruiter
Mistakes...
Behave as best you know, do what you
think you should. Don't be afraid of
mistakes; you can always correct them,
only intentions matter. The shape things
take is not within your power; the motives
of your actions are.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
think you should. Don't be afraid of
mistakes; you can always correct them,
only intentions matter. The shape things
take is not within your power; the motives
of your actions are.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
Gautama Buddha the Unique Psychotherapist...
By Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D., Sri Lanka Guardian, March 29, 2010
Ontario, Canada --
Many people interpreting Buddhism see it as one of the numerous philosophies and religions known from antiquity. Certainly Buddhism is a practical philosophy in the sense that prevails today.
This philosophy sets up a system of vast psychotherapy. In that context the Lord Buddha was a unique psychotherapist. In general Psychotherapy means a treatment of emotional, behavioral, personality disorders based primarily upon verbal or nonverbal communication. The Buddha who was an inimitable healer helped a large number of people to overcome stress, emotional problems, and relationship problems through friendly mediation.
Dr Sigmund Freud introduced the Psychoanalytic therapy. Psychoanalytic treatment involves discussing past experiences and how these may have led to present situation and also how these past experiences may be affecting the life now. The understanding gained frees the person to make choices about what happens in the future. Psychoanalysis attempts to get to the root of the problem" by analyzing the transference relationship which develops between the therapist and patient.
Buddha did a complete form of analysis and found the route cause of affliction, then successfully treated the particular psychological ailment and brought complete mental release to the person. In this analysis he went up to past lives. Past life therapy also known as regression or resolution therapy allows individuals to complete traumatic and emotionally stimulated past experiences which on an unconscious level are unresolved.
Today PLT or Past Life Therapy is popular in the Western world and it allows the client to resolve past issues in a therapeutic setting using clinical methods. The most famous Western past life therapist was Edgar Cayce who gave over 14,000 "readings" during a period of 43 years. Edgar Cayce demonstrated the uncanny ability to put himself into some kind of self-induced sleep and he could respond to questions asked by his patients about their illnesses.
Cognitive Therapy based on gaining insight into unconscious emotions and drives mainly focusing on thoughts, assumptions and beliefs. Albert Ellis's Rational Emotive Therapy is an example of Cognitive therapy. Ellis considers strong emotions to result from an interaction between events in the environment and beliefs and expectations.
Buddhist point of view, suffering is not caused by external, traumatic events, but by qualities of mind which shape our perceptions and responses to events. These same words were repeated by the Psychologist Albert Ellis in 1953 when he introduced his action oriented therapeutic approach – Rational Emotive Therapy. According to Ellis not the event that causes psychological distress but the belief held by the client. He further argues that one's emotional distress is actually caused by one's catastrophic thinking in appraising stressful events. Ellis theories that unrealistic appraisals of stress are derived from irrational assumptions.
Psychiatrist Aaron T Beck - the developer of CBT or Cognitive Behavior Therapy emphasized the role of cognitive distortions in depression and anxiety. Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is one of the major orientations of psychotherapy and represents
a unique category of psychological intervention because it derives from cognitive and behavioral psychological models of human behavior.
Lord Buddha used numerous kinds of cognitive therapies. In the story of Kisagotami Buddha used a cognitive mode of action to give insight to a young mother who lost her little son. She was devastated with grief. She went to Buddha Carrying the dead body of her son and asked for medicine that would restore her dead son to life. The Buddha told her to get some mustard seeds from a house where there had been no death. Kisagotami went from house to house but she could not find a single house where death had not occurred. She gradually got the insight and the meaning of death. She realized death is a universal phenomenon.
Buddha often used Socratic Method to teach his doctrine. Socrates (470 399 BC) was a Greek philosopher who engaged in questioning of his students in an unending search for truth. He sought to get to the foundations of his students' and colleagues' views by asking continual questions until a contradiction was exposed, thus proving the fallacy of the initial assumption. This became known as the Socratic Method.
When the assassin Angulimala screamed at the Buddha to stop the Buddha turned and told Angulimala that he, the Buddha, had already stopped and Angulimala, to do likewise. These few words made a cognitive revolution inside Angulimala's head. He realized that the Buddha has already stopped means he does not commit any violence so now the time for Angulimala to renounce violence. He threw away his sword and became a monk.
Patachara a young woman developed an acute stress reaction when she witnessed the death of her husband two children and the parents. She came to Buddha weeping and with utter confusion. After she became rational Buddha explained her true meaning of suffering and the nature of impermanence. The story of Patachara reveals an excellent case study of trauma counseling. Trauma counseling should offer practical help that works and should teach skills to manage flashbacks, painful memories and anxiety. Buddha used practically most of the above mentioned avenues to resolve the grief reaction of Patachara.
There are obvious similarities between the Buddha's empathically based attitude and Carl Roger's term empathy. Carl Rogers plays an important historical role in the development of Client Centered Therapy and he was one of the founders of the humanistic psychology movement. Like Carl Rogers Buddha accepted people with unconditional positive regard. Psychologists claim that living an authentic life is impossible without developing empathy. Empathy is a fundamental ability for being able to develop relationships with other people, and thus develop one's personality.
Buddha believed in human freedom. Rogers felt that it was irrelevant whether or not people really had free will. He further says we feel free when choices are available to us. Rogers pointed out that the fully-functioning person acknowledges that feeling of freedom, and takes responsibility for his choices. Buddha doesn't reject the human freedom with complete responsibility for one's action.
Robert Carkhuff -one of the pioneers in Client Centered Therapy studied and worked with Carl Rogers. He published his outstanding book Towards Effective Counseling and Psychotherapy in 1967. Robert Carkhuff introduced seven co conditions such as empathy, respect, concreteness, genuineness, self disclosure, confrontation and immediacy. In psychotherapy immediacy is a vital issue. The story of Rajjumala –a domestic servant who tried to commit suicide following the harassments caused by her mistress was saved by the Buddha. This is a fabulous example of suicide prevention counseling and Robert Carkhuff's seventh co condition "immediacy".
In the Buddha's teaching meditation has a special place. Meditation can be used for personal growth. Buddhist meditation is a process of mental clarification and geared to direct perception. The purpose of Buddhist meditation, therefore is to gain intellectual understanding of the universal truth. Buddhist Vipassana meditation gives realization of impermanence, suffering and non-self. The Mettha (loving-kindness) meditation helps to reduce anger and a perfect way to control aggressive feelings. Generally meditation helps to reduce stress and anxiety. Today many psychotherapeutic centers in the East and the West use meditation as a successful therapeutic mode.
Existential Psychotherapy is a form of psychotherapy which aims at enhancing self knowledge. In Buddha's teaching existentialism is widely described. Buddhism brings up questions about ethics and the nature of our existence. The goals of existential therapy are to enable people to become more truthful with themselves, to widen their perspective on themselves and the world around them , to find clarity on how to proceed in the future while taking lessons from the past and creating something valuable to live for in the present. Also it helps to explore the client's physical, social, psychological and spiritual dimensions.
The story of Mattakundali – a young boy who was terminally ill and suffered without any medical assistance due to his father's greediness died prematurely. After Mattakundali's death his father became extremely sad and used to go to the cemetery everyday and mourn. The meaning of death is revealed in Mattakundali Jathaka in an existential form. Finally Mattakundali's father's grief was resolved. This story can be interpreted as a good example of grief counseling.
Buddha was a unique psychotherapist. His therapeutic methods helped millions of people throughout the centuries. Today the Western world has realized the psychological essence of Buddhism. Many Psychotherapeutic systems in the West derived from Buddha's teaching. Buddha showed empathy and non judgmental acceptance to everyone who came to him. He helped people to gain insight and helped in growth promotion while eliminating troubling and painful emotions. His therapeutic methods are exceptional and can be applied for all time.
Ontario, Canada --
Many people interpreting Buddhism see it as one of the numerous philosophies and religions known from antiquity. Certainly Buddhism is a practical philosophy in the sense that prevails today.
This philosophy sets up a system of vast psychotherapy. In that context the Lord Buddha was a unique psychotherapist. In general Psychotherapy means a treatment of emotional, behavioral, personality disorders based primarily upon verbal or nonverbal communication. The Buddha who was an inimitable healer helped a large number of people to overcome stress, emotional problems, and relationship problems through friendly mediation.
Dr Sigmund Freud introduced the Psychoanalytic therapy. Psychoanalytic treatment involves discussing past experiences and how these may have led to present situation and also how these past experiences may be affecting the life now. The understanding gained frees the person to make choices about what happens in the future. Psychoanalysis attempts to get to the root of the problem" by analyzing the transference relationship which develops between the therapist and patient.
Buddha did a complete form of analysis and found the route cause of affliction, then successfully treated the particular psychological ailment and brought complete mental release to the person. In this analysis he went up to past lives. Past life therapy also known as regression or resolution therapy allows individuals to complete traumatic and emotionally stimulated past experiences which on an unconscious level are unresolved.
Today PLT or Past Life Therapy is popular in the Western world and it allows the client to resolve past issues in a therapeutic setting using clinical methods. The most famous Western past life therapist was Edgar Cayce who gave over 14,000 "readings" during a period of 43 years. Edgar Cayce demonstrated the uncanny ability to put himself into some kind of self-induced sleep and he could respond to questions asked by his patients about their illnesses.
Cognitive Therapy based on gaining insight into unconscious emotions and drives mainly focusing on thoughts, assumptions and beliefs. Albert Ellis's Rational Emotive Therapy is an example of Cognitive therapy. Ellis considers strong emotions to result from an interaction between events in the environment and beliefs and expectations.
Buddhist point of view, suffering is not caused by external, traumatic events, but by qualities of mind which shape our perceptions and responses to events. These same words were repeated by the Psychologist Albert Ellis in 1953 when he introduced his action oriented therapeutic approach – Rational Emotive Therapy. According to Ellis not the event that causes psychological distress but the belief held by the client. He further argues that one's emotional distress is actually caused by one's catastrophic thinking in appraising stressful events. Ellis theories that unrealistic appraisals of stress are derived from irrational assumptions.
Psychiatrist Aaron T Beck - the developer of CBT or Cognitive Behavior Therapy emphasized the role of cognitive distortions in depression and anxiety. Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is one of the major orientations of psychotherapy and represents
a unique category of psychological intervention because it derives from cognitive and behavioral psychological models of human behavior.
Lord Buddha used numerous kinds of cognitive therapies. In the story of Kisagotami Buddha used a cognitive mode of action to give insight to a young mother who lost her little son. She was devastated with grief. She went to Buddha Carrying the dead body of her son and asked for medicine that would restore her dead son to life. The Buddha told her to get some mustard seeds from a house where there had been no death. Kisagotami went from house to house but she could not find a single house where death had not occurred. She gradually got the insight and the meaning of death. She realized death is a universal phenomenon.
Buddha often used Socratic Method to teach his doctrine. Socrates (470 399 BC) was a Greek philosopher who engaged in questioning of his students in an unending search for truth. He sought to get to the foundations of his students' and colleagues' views by asking continual questions until a contradiction was exposed, thus proving the fallacy of the initial assumption. This became known as the Socratic Method.
When the assassin Angulimala screamed at the Buddha to stop the Buddha turned and told Angulimala that he, the Buddha, had already stopped and Angulimala, to do likewise. These few words made a cognitive revolution inside Angulimala's head. He realized that the Buddha has already stopped means he does not commit any violence so now the time for Angulimala to renounce violence. He threw away his sword and became a monk.
Patachara a young woman developed an acute stress reaction when she witnessed the death of her husband two children and the parents. She came to Buddha weeping and with utter confusion. After she became rational Buddha explained her true meaning of suffering and the nature of impermanence. The story of Patachara reveals an excellent case study of trauma counseling. Trauma counseling should offer practical help that works and should teach skills to manage flashbacks, painful memories and anxiety. Buddha used practically most of the above mentioned avenues to resolve the grief reaction of Patachara.
There are obvious similarities between the Buddha's empathically based attitude and Carl Roger's term empathy. Carl Rogers plays an important historical role in the development of Client Centered Therapy and he was one of the founders of the humanistic psychology movement. Like Carl Rogers Buddha accepted people with unconditional positive regard. Psychologists claim that living an authentic life is impossible without developing empathy. Empathy is a fundamental ability for being able to develop relationships with other people, and thus develop one's personality.
Buddha believed in human freedom. Rogers felt that it was irrelevant whether or not people really had free will. He further says we feel free when choices are available to us. Rogers pointed out that the fully-functioning person acknowledges that feeling of freedom, and takes responsibility for his choices. Buddha doesn't reject the human freedom with complete responsibility for one's action.
Robert Carkhuff -one of the pioneers in Client Centered Therapy studied and worked with Carl Rogers. He published his outstanding book Towards Effective Counseling and Psychotherapy in 1967. Robert Carkhuff introduced seven co conditions such as empathy, respect, concreteness, genuineness, self disclosure, confrontation and immediacy. In psychotherapy immediacy is a vital issue. The story of Rajjumala –a domestic servant who tried to commit suicide following the harassments caused by her mistress was saved by the Buddha. This is a fabulous example of suicide prevention counseling and Robert Carkhuff's seventh co condition "immediacy".
In the Buddha's teaching meditation has a special place. Meditation can be used for personal growth. Buddhist meditation is a process of mental clarification and geared to direct perception. The purpose of Buddhist meditation, therefore is to gain intellectual understanding of the universal truth. Buddhist Vipassana meditation gives realization of impermanence, suffering and non-self. The Mettha (loving-kindness) meditation helps to reduce anger and a perfect way to control aggressive feelings. Generally meditation helps to reduce stress and anxiety. Today many psychotherapeutic centers in the East and the West use meditation as a successful therapeutic mode.
Existential Psychotherapy is a form of psychotherapy which aims at enhancing self knowledge. In Buddha's teaching existentialism is widely described. Buddhism brings up questions about ethics and the nature of our existence. The goals of existential therapy are to enable people to become more truthful with themselves, to widen their perspective on themselves and the world around them , to find clarity on how to proceed in the future while taking lessons from the past and creating something valuable to live for in the present. Also it helps to explore the client's physical, social, psychological and spiritual dimensions.
The story of Mattakundali – a young boy who was terminally ill and suffered without any medical assistance due to his father's greediness died prematurely. After Mattakundali's death his father became extremely sad and used to go to the cemetery everyday and mourn. The meaning of death is revealed in Mattakundali Jathaka in an existential form. Finally Mattakundali's father's grief was resolved. This story can be interpreted as a good example of grief counseling.
Buddha was a unique psychotherapist. His therapeutic methods helped millions of people throughout the centuries. Today the Western world has realized the psychological essence of Buddhism. Many Psychotherapeutic systems in the West derived from Buddha's teaching. Buddha showed empathy and non judgmental acceptance to everyone who came to him. He helped people to gain insight and helped in growth promotion while eliminating troubling and painful emotions. His therapeutic methods are exceptional and can be applied for all time.
Unselfish Love...
Being in a mental state of unselfish Love is the state of Happiness and
meaningfulness.. reach this state of Consciousness by thinking of others instead
of yourself.. thinking of yourself is painful because You Know in Consciousness
that the self(ego) is false and an illusion.. The only thing that is Real is
Unselfish Love.. when you depart from this Love, you enter pain and
depression............namaste, thomas
meaningfulness.. reach this state of Consciousness by thinking of others instead
of yourself.. thinking of yourself is painful because You Know in Consciousness
that the self(ego) is false and an illusion.. The only thing that is Real is
Unselfish Love.. when you depart from this Love, you enter pain and
depression............namaste, thomas
Life...
Life may not have any real "meaning" other than
the one that you have superimposed upon it.
In short, life will tend to mean for you whatever
you say that life means. For example, when you
say that:
"Life is a drag!"
"Life is a challenge."
"Life is terrible."
"Life is a dance."
"Life is a Game."
etc. etc. etc.
then Life won't disappoint you.
Life will mysteriously show up for you in ways
that fully support your heart's definition of it…no
matter how self-limiting that definition might be.
But you'll have to take some position on it.
If you're not willing to give your life any meaning
at all, then your inner fear that "My life is probably
meaningless!" will automatically win by default.
- Chuck Hillig
the one that you have superimposed upon it.
In short, life will tend to mean for you whatever
you say that life means. For example, when you
say that:
"Life is a drag!"
"Life is a challenge."
"Life is terrible."
"Life is a dance."
"Life is a Game."
etc. etc. etc.
then Life won't disappoint you.
Life will mysteriously show up for you in ways
that fully support your heart's definition of it…no
matter how self-limiting that definition might be.
But you'll have to take some position on it.
If you're not willing to give your life any meaning
at all, then your inner fear that "My life is probably
meaningless!" will automatically win by default.
- Chuck Hillig
Pure Intelligence...
Since, It is no-thing.. It needs some thing to understand what no-thing is... thus, Consciousness is born.. Consciousness is the Creator by Thought.. To arrive at no-thing,Thought must be abandoned.. beyond Thought is Pure Intelligence.. This is difficult for most to understand, how Thought is separate from Pure Intelligence, but, there appears to be a division.. as Thought is the Creative Energy and must constantly be moving and Creating and Pure Intelligence is the state of non-movement and silence........... namaste, thomas
Heaven...
In my experience, I have awakened into the state of Divine Consciousness as the Being of Light and Love..I found only Love.. there was no desire except for the desire to stay within this Light and Love forever.. could this be called a dimension?, I don't know.. I found it to be the Seat of Creation.. but, it was still not complete Freedom.. Complete Freedom is even the surrender of this Heaven and the entrance into Nothingness.. The Nothingness that dreamed this Light and Love Creator called Divine Consciousness.. To become Aware that You are Divine Consciousness, the surrender of ego is necessary.. you must die to be born.. This birth into the first Reality still contains a small part of ego called Identity.. the Identity called God.. When You have the courage to surrender even this Power, Light, and Love and give up all Personal desire for such.. then You achieve complete Freedom as the Nothingness called Pure Intelligence.. This Pure Intelligence 'Dreamed into existence' the Creator God called Divine Consciousness and is the Only Pure Reality.. All else are the Dreams called Illusion............ namaste, thomas
The inner Self...
'That inner Self, as the primeval Spirit,
Eternal, ever effulgent, full and infinite Bliss,
Single, indivisible, whole and living,
Shines in everyone as the witnessing awareness.
That self in its splendour, shining in the cavity of the heart
This self is neither born nor dies,
Neither grows nor decays,
Nor does it suffer any change.
When a pot is broken, the space within it is not,
And similarly, when the body dies the Self in it remains eternal.
~Ramana
Eternal, ever effulgent, full and infinite Bliss,
Single, indivisible, whole and living,
Shines in everyone as the witnessing awareness.
That self in its splendour, shining in the cavity of the heart
This self is neither born nor dies,
Neither grows nor decays,
Nor does it suffer any change.
When a pot is broken, the space within it is not,
And similarly, when the body dies the Self in it remains eternal.
~Ramana
The nature of Love...
Truth, Love, Grace, Reality..
All the same...
the nature of Love is non division..
duality breaks this nature and ego is born..
the nature of God is Love..
Love is the Face of God and we are the mirror............. namaste, thomas
All the same...
the nature of Love is non division..
duality breaks this nature and ego is born..
the nature of God is Love..
Love is the Face of God and we are the mirror............. namaste, thomas
To know the Self...
To know the self as the only reality and all else as temporal and transient is freedom, peace and joy. It is all very simple. Instead of seeing things as imagined, learn to see them as they are. When you can see everything as it is, you will also see yourself as you are. It is like cleansing a mirror. The same mirror that shows you the world as it is will also show you your own face. The thought `I am' is the polishing cloth. Use it.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj, from I Am That
- Nisargadatta Maharaj, from I Am That
Time is Eternity...
by Angelus Silesius
(1624 - 1677) Timeline
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Eternity is time
And time eternity,
Except when we ourselves.
Would make them different be.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
The Angelic Verses: From the Book of Angelus Silesius, Translated by Frederick Frank
|Commentary by Ivan M. Granger
This couplet (rendered here in four lines) is a delightfully circular statement that lends itself to spinning repetition or chant: "Eternity is time / And time eternity... / Eternity is time / And time eternity..." Round and round.
Although these lines circle around and disappear into themselves, they are not without meaning. Angelus Silesius is pointing out an important truth of mystical realization: Eternity is not some future event; it is not beyond time or outside of time. Eternity is discovered to be at the core of the present moment -- wherever that moment exists in time. Eternity is found within time. If you imagine time as a flowing river, the flow of time shimmers and shifts and never stands still, but eternity is the water itself. And the water is always right there, wherever you are along river. You don't have to travel upstream or downstream to discover eternity. You just have to dive in and douse yourself in it.
We can say they're different, the water and its movement, eternity and time, but that is just a game of words. The water isn't something separate from its own movement. The one is the natural expression of the other. They aren't different from each other, "Except when we ourselves / Would make them different be" through creating artificial separations in the mind.
Notice the gentle, constant embrace that entirely surrounds you...
(1624 - 1677) Timeline
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Eternity is time
And time eternity,
Except when we ourselves.
Would make them different be.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
The Angelic Verses: From the Book of Angelus Silesius, Translated by Frederick Frank
|Commentary by Ivan M. Granger
This couplet (rendered here in four lines) is a delightfully circular statement that lends itself to spinning repetition or chant: "Eternity is time / And time eternity... / Eternity is time / And time eternity..." Round and round.
Although these lines circle around and disappear into themselves, they are not without meaning. Angelus Silesius is pointing out an important truth of mystical realization: Eternity is not some future event; it is not beyond time or outside of time. Eternity is discovered to be at the core of the present moment -- wherever that moment exists in time. Eternity is found within time. If you imagine time as a flowing river, the flow of time shimmers and shifts and never stands still, but eternity is the water itself. And the water is always right there, wherever you are along river. You don't have to travel upstream or downstream to discover eternity. You just have to dive in and douse yourself in it.
We can say they're different, the water and its movement, eternity and time, but that is just a game of words. The water isn't something separate from its own movement. The one is the natural expression of the other. They aren't different from each other, "Except when we ourselves / Would make them different be" through creating artificial separations in the mind.
Notice the gentle, constant embrace that entirely surrounds you...
The Real Present...
There is the real present but there is also the illusory present. To live in the past is to die, to live in the future is to dream, but to live in the real present is to be awake, enlightened.[i]
He is a philosopher who realizes to the full, and continually feels, the presence of divinity not only within himself but also within the world.[ii]
He will look at experience from a new centre. He will see all things and creatures not only as they are on earth but also as they are "in heaven."[iii]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[i] — Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity > Chapter 4: Time, Space, Causality > # 142
[ii] — Notebooks Category 20: What Is Philosophy? > Chapter 5: The Philosopher > # 30
[iii] — Notebooks Category 20: What Is Philosophy? > Chapter 5: The Philosopher > # 114
............ Paul Brunton
He is a philosopher who realizes to the full, and continually feels, the presence of divinity not only within himself but also within the world.[ii]
He will look at experience from a new centre. He will see all things and creatures not only as they are on earth but also as they are "in heaven."[iii]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[i] — Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity > Chapter 4: Time, Space, Causality > # 142
[ii] — Notebooks Category 20: What Is Philosophy? > Chapter 5: The Philosopher > # 30
[iii] — Notebooks Category 20: What Is Philosophy? > Chapter 5: The Philosopher > # 114
............ Paul Brunton
" Unself, yourself "...
"Unself yourself!
Until you see your self as a speck of dust
you cannot possibly reach that place;
self could never breathe that air,
so wend your way there without self."
Hakim Sanai
_The Walled Garden of Truth_
Translated and abridged by D. L. Pendlebury
London: Octagon, 1974, p. 36
Until you see your self as a speck of dust
you cannot possibly reach that place;
self could never breathe that air,
so wend your way there without self."
Hakim Sanai
_The Walled Garden of Truth_
Translated and abridged by D. L. Pendlebury
London: Octagon, 1974, p. 36
Avatars...
Usually Avatars such as Jesus and Gautama volunteer to reenter the illusion to help other suffering souls.. This can only be done from the Energy of Consciousness.. beyond Consciousness is too late.. as it is a Reality of non-thought, Thought Energy is only used for creation.. Non-thought is the place of Pure Intelligence.. remember, these words are only pointers to Truth.. Truth must be experienced to Be Real.............. namaste, thomas
Jesus meditating in the desert...
He went into the desert to seek solitude and attain Enlightenment.. It took Him many days but for most, it takes many years.. I know that He woke up in Divine Consciousness but I do not think that He entered into Pure Awareness.. as He stated that He and the Father are One , therefore infering that there was still an Identity called God and He existed as this God.. If He reached the complete surrendering of Identity and was absorbed into Pure Awareness, He would most likely not return, as there would be no Identity to return.......... namaste, thomas
True Love...
True Love is Giving..
while Desire is taking..
who is giving, and who is taking?..
the giver is no one..
the taker is the illusion of separate self..
To be One is to Be not one..
............ namaste, thomas
while Desire is taking..
who is giving, and who is taking?..
the giver is no one..
the taker is the illusion of separate self..
To be One is to Be not one..
............ namaste, thomas
The Changeless...
The changeful keeps on changing, while the changeless is waiting. Do not expect the changeful to take you to the changeless - it can never happen.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj,
- Nisargadatta Maharaj,
Going beyond God...
by Angelus Silesius
(1624 - 1677) English version by
Maria Shrady
Original Language
German
Christian : Catholic
17th Century
Where is my dwelling place? Where I can never stand.
Where is my final goal, toward which I should ascend?
It is beyond all place. What should my quest then be?
I must, transcending God, into the desert flee.
(1624 - 1677) English version by
Maria Shrady
Original Language
German
Christian : Catholic
17th Century
Where is my dwelling place? Where I can never stand.
Where is my final goal, toward which I should ascend?
It is beyond all place. What should my quest then be?
I must, transcending God, into the desert flee.
Desire is suffering...
Desire gives you suffering. Whenever any
desire arises, you want to go near it, you
want to achieve it and you do, then you are
happy. You may think that the object
made you happy, but really it is the absence
of desire, that moment of emptiness, that
makes you happy.
- Papaji
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
desire arises, you want to go near it, you
want to achieve it and you do, then you are
happy. You may think that the object
made you happy, but really it is the absence
of desire, that moment of emptiness, that
makes you happy.
- Papaji
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
Adyashanti interview...
RA: Like I think you said when you had your first awakening it was as if some voice came to you and said, "This isn't the end of it, keep going."
Adya: Yeah. It wasn't as if it said something, it did say something. (Laugh) And as my own teacher used to say, she'd say, "Awakening means that we now have made a start." When you've awakened now you can really start. When I heard that so many years ago, it was quite honestly quite disappointing 'cause I'm waiting for some great event which will be the END and I can be done with all this terrible drive for enlightenment and all that. And she would say, "Well, yeah. But also remember that when you awaken it means that we've just started." And it took me years to realize what she meant was actually true. Not that you just start in the sense that there is more to seek and strive for. Not in that sense but in the sense of awakening is the end of something, the end of that desperation, the end of that feeling like you have to find more or different or better. It is a very definite end when its authentic but also opens up other doors, that are just beginning to open and that's Infinite Capacity.
RA: I'd like to probe into those doors a little bit more but let's define awakening a little bit because everybody throws that term around, you know? It kind of reminds me of the Eskimos with their 32 names for snow. I really wonder if everyone is referring to the same thing.
Adya: They're not.
RA: I don't think so either, so how would you define that term in a nutshell?
Adya: Wow! Even for me its really hard because from what I've seen awakening can happen on many different levels and it can be more or less complete. And so what I mean by that is awakening, the common thread of it, no matter how deep it is or shallow it is, the common thread, the difference lets say between a spiritual awakening and a spiritual experience is that an awakening always involves a fundamental shift in your sense and view of self, of yourself. Who you take yourself to be. With awakening that fundamental sense of who you are shifts, right? That's like the ground work for the...you can have all sorts of spiritual experiences, very powerful, they can even be quite transformative, and quite amazing but the difference between a spiritual experience and awakening is awakening has as its essence effect a fundamental shift in identity. Now where it shifts to, that's where, say for instance for people its really common to, their sense of self is very much limited to their ego and ideas and their beliefs and all of that, about themselves. Even if they have spiritual beliefs otherwise, but emotionally and psychologically they are identified with the ego level. In spiritual awakening all of a sudden that identification spontaneously leaves and goes to lets say, its very common people go, okay my new identity is awareness, I am Pure Awareness. And that's not just a thought or a concept, its a lived experience, right? Almost like your locus of where you are and what you are shifts. And that's a huge transformation. Big shift, right? Life will not be the same after that as it was before.
But what I just mentioned, that's not the end of the line of awakening by any means. That's not even full awakening. It is awakening as I would define it but its not the whole picture cause its still dualistic in the sense of you being awareness, without location but then you have the whole world of form. What's all that?
RA: Yeah.
Adya: At that point I say now you've got the world down to a nice manageable duality. You've got you as awareness, consciousness and everything else. Now there's only two things in all of existence where there used to be billions. But it still is a duality that needs to be seen through, that needs to penetrated. In Reality there isn't that duality.
Adyashanti interview with Rick Archer
Buddha at the Gas Pump.
Adya: Yeah. It wasn't as if it said something, it did say something. (Laugh) And as my own teacher used to say, she'd say, "Awakening means that we now have made a start." When you've awakened now you can really start. When I heard that so many years ago, it was quite honestly quite disappointing 'cause I'm waiting for some great event which will be the END and I can be done with all this terrible drive for enlightenment and all that. And she would say, "Well, yeah. But also remember that when you awaken it means that we've just started." And it took me years to realize what she meant was actually true. Not that you just start in the sense that there is more to seek and strive for. Not in that sense but in the sense of awakening is the end of something, the end of that desperation, the end of that feeling like you have to find more or different or better. It is a very definite end when its authentic but also opens up other doors, that are just beginning to open and that's Infinite Capacity.
RA: I'd like to probe into those doors a little bit more but let's define awakening a little bit because everybody throws that term around, you know? It kind of reminds me of the Eskimos with their 32 names for snow. I really wonder if everyone is referring to the same thing.
Adya: They're not.
RA: I don't think so either, so how would you define that term in a nutshell?
Adya: Wow! Even for me its really hard because from what I've seen awakening can happen on many different levels and it can be more or less complete. And so what I mean by that is awakening, the common thread of it, no matter how deep it is or shallow it is, the common thread, the difference lets say between a spiritual awakening and a spiritual experience is that an awakening always involves a fundamental shift in your sense and view of self, of yourself. Who you take yourself to be. With awakening that fundamental sense of who you are shifts, right? That's like the ground work for the...you can have all sorts of spiritual experiences, very powerful, they can even be quite transformative, and quite amazing but the difference between a spiritual experience and awakening is awakening has as its essence effect a fundamental shift in identity. Now where it shifts to, that's where, say for instance for people its really common to, their sense of self is very much limited to their ego and ideas and their beliefs and all of that, about themselves. Even if they have spiritual beliefs otherwise, but emotionally and psychologically they are identified with the ego level. In spiritual awakening all of a sudden that identification spontaneously leaves and goes to lets say, its very common people go, okay my new identity is awareness, I am Pure Awareness. And that's not just a thought or a concept, its a lived experience, right? Almost like your locus of where you are and what you are shifts. And that's a huge transformation. Big shift, right? Life will not be the same after that as it was before.
But what I just mentioned, that's not the end of the line of awakening by any means. That's not even full awakening. It is awakening as I would define it but its not the whole picture cause its still dualistic in the sense of you being awareness, without location but then you have the whole world of form. What's all that?
RA: Yeah.
Adya: At that point I say now you've got the world down to a nice manageable duality. You've got you as awareness, consciousness and everything else. Now there's only two things in all of existence where there used to be billions. But it still is a duality that needs to be seen through, that needs to penetrated. In Reality there isn't that duality.
Adyashanti interview with Rick Archer
Buddha at the Gas Pump.
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