' Peace '...
Peace does not mean physical comfort,
nor does it mean thinking only certain thoughts.
Rather,
it is a discovery of the Impenetrable Fortress Within.
-Atreya Thomas
' A good friend '...
"A good friend who points out mistakes and imperfections and rebukes evil is to be respected as if he reveals a secret of hidden treasure."
— Gautama the Buddha
' Harmonization '...
In every retreat that I hold, I can feel the minute that the retreat as a whole— certain individuals before, certain individuals after—starts to harmonize spirit and matter. When it clicks, some people get happy and some people get scared because it gets more powerful. This harmonization is the reason it's been said that, if you want to wake up, you need to hang around awakened beings.
It can be awakened human beings, awakened trees, awakened mountains, awakened rivers—it can be any environment. If we are sensitive, we can feel when environments are awakened. Human beings can be more or less awakened. So can trees or a mountain, canyon, hilltop, or a particular street corner in our neighborhood. When we are sensitive, we can feel these things. When we expose ourselves to that awakeness, to that environment where spirit and matter are harmonized, it helps us awaken.
Ultimately, that's what satsang is. That's also what meditation really is. We are exposing ourselves, and then, quite naturally, spirit and matter harmonize. All of a sudden it just clicks, without you doing anything. The less you do the better.
When we relax and allow this natural harmonization, there is a deep awakening to the beauty of our environment, just as it is, and to the beauty of our own selves. That's the Middle Way, but it's not really in the middle, it's all encompassing. This subtle influence can be very strong. It's sneaky, like mist seeping into the cracks and the crevices of our lives. It doesn't like to announce itself with fanfare.
- Adyashanti, Emptiness Dancing
' The dream-drama of life '...
Disassociate yourself from the person who has to go through with the dream-drama of life.
He is forced to act,
but you can inwardly practise this dissociation.
-- Notebooks Category 24: The Peace within You >
Chapter 3: Practise Detachment > # 213
Paul Brunton
' The State of Consciousness '...
How is it that anything so remarkable as the state of consciousness
comes about as a result of irritating nervous tissue,
is just as
unaccountable as the appearance of the Dijn,
when Aladdin rubbed his
lamp.
- Thomas Huxley
' The One and the many '...
Oneness includes the many. Non-duality is not only a realization of the formless realm or non-conceptual awareness, but also a recognition that form is none other than formlessness.
Form includes people, jobs, relationships, ideas, feelings and all other things. So what is the difference between living life as a separate self and living life from non-dual realization?
The only real difference is that instead of believing that you are a person separate from the rest of life, there is a recognition that what you are in the deepest sense is an unnamable presence. That presence is also the essence of everything you see. In that way, what you are is not separate from the rest of life. This seeing reveals a natural compassion, love, peace, and joy.
Your very essence is spacious awareness. This spacious awareness is prior to the story of being a separate person. But don’t let the realization stay there. See that the nothingness of awareness is appearing as absolutely everything.
As soon as the mind starts to associate non-duality only with nothingness, it is holding onto an idea about non-duality. That is not non-duality. Although the word “non-duality” is an idea, it is pointing to reality itself. In reality, form and formlessness are not two. The One is appearing as the many. Don’t try to grasp that intellectually. Look to where the words are pointing in your direct experience.
-Kiloby, Scott. Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment
' Phenomena '...
It is correct to say that many aspirants have undergone strange, weird, inexplicable, unrepeated, or occult experiences in their attempts to practise meditation.
But it is necessary to point out that these phenomena belong to the first or middle stages of the practice, not to the real work in contemplation.
- Paul Brunton
' The nature of being '...
”It is the nature of being to see adventure in becoming,
as it is in the very nature of becoming to seek peace in being.
This alternation of being and becoming is inevitable;
but my home is beyond."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' In an instant '...
"The good God does not need years to accomplish His work of love in a soul.
One ray from His heart can,
in an instant,
make His flower bloom for eternity."
St. Theresa of Lisieux (The Little Flower)
in Carol Kelly-Gangi
The Essential Wisdom of the Saints
NY: Fall River Press, 2008, p. 13
' Life can be simple '...
Life can be really and truly simple if we don't
fight it.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' World-Mind '...
Our roots are in the World-Mind.
In that sense, our whole life is born and grows from it--physical and non-physical alike.
There is our true Parent.
-- Notebooks Category 27: World-Mind > Chapter 2: Nature of World-Mind
> # 85 Paul Brunton
" It's all that I AM "...
Listen to the words in the video below..
The question arises,
" Why do I love you ? "..
Love is the surrender of the desire of separate consciousness called ego..
You will find this energy of love within family and friends..
These small moments within the desire of nothing for self but all for other..
These few moments called Love..
The Saints have already told you of this Reality but, you do not consider yourself a Saint and therefore are not interested..
This Love for creator is the same love for Parents..
Why do you Love the Creator ?..
Because Creator is the Source of the Energy of Love and Love is all that really exists,
all else is a 'Dreamed Hologram'..
Welcome into the Dream...
-thomas
' The subtle and mental world '...
"As I said the other day, the gross, subtle, mental and God are all within you in human form. Don't try to find subtle, mental and God in some other world — it is in you in human form. It is just the change in the vision of consciousness which gives the change of experiencing different planes and worlds.
"Now in the gross world there is human consciousness, and here on this earth and in the whole universe, also in the subtle world and mental world, there are innumerable experiences but the experiences that you have in this gross world [through the medium of the gross body], these experiences are quite different from the experiences of the subtle world [through the medium of the subtle body] — absolutely different from the subtle world, but it is all in you; you don't go anywhere, you do not rise to higher geographical or geometrical levels.
"It is all here, but as the angle of vision changes through experiencing different things, in the end you begin to experience yourself as God; after having a number of infinite experiences, you eventually ultimately experience yourself as God — that is the end. That one ultimate experience is the Real experience — all other experiences of the gross world, the subtle, the mental, all these experiences are illusory."
Meher Baba
in Ivy O. Duce
How A Master Works
Walnut Creek, CA: Sufism Reoriented, 1975, p. 312
' Belief and disbelief '...
Belief and disbelief have divided mankind into so many sects, blinding its eyes to the vision of the oneness of all life.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
For the Sufi there exists no one in this world, neither heathen nor pagan, who is to be despised, for he believes in that God who is not the God of one chosen sect but the God of the whole world. He does not believe in a God of one nation, but in the God of all nations. To him God is in all different houses where people worship Him. Even if they stand in the street and pray it makes no difference to him. The holy place is wherever He is worshipped. The Sufi leaves sectarianism to the sects. He has respect for all; he is not prejudiced against any and he does not despise any; he feels sympathy for all.
The religion of the mystic is a steady progress towards unity. How does he make this progress? In two ways. In the first way, he sees himself in others, in the good, in the bad, in all; and thus, he expands the horizon of his vision. This study goes on throughout his lifetime; and as he progresses he comes closer to the oneness of all things. The other way of developing is to become conscious of one's own self in God and of God in one's self, which means deepening the consciousness of our innermost being. This process takes place in two directions: outwardly, by being one with all we see; and inwardly, by being in touch with that one Life which is everlasting, by dissolving into it and by being conscious of that one Spirit being THE existence, the only existence.
'There is One God, the Eternal, the Only Being; none exists save He.' The God of the Sufi is the God of every creed, and the God of all. Names make no difference to him. Allah, God, Gott, Dieu, Khuda, Brahma, or Bhagwan, all these names and more are the names of his God; and yet to him God is beyond the limitation of name. He sees his God in the sun, in the fire, in the idol which diverse sects worship; and he recognizes Him in all the forms of the universe, yet knowing Him to be beyond all form; God in all, and all in God, He being the Seen and the Unseen, the Only Being.
' Balanced action '...
The pureness of perfectly balanced action based on seeing the way
things are--this is freedom and the ending of ignorance.
- Sutta Nipata
' Universal Consciousness '...
If we seek an origin for the consciousness, however small finite and limited it may be, that a man possesses, none other can be found except the universal consciousness which informs the entire universe and guides its development.
All the different kinds of consciousness come from this Universal Mind. All the highest ideals and virtues of human consciousness come from it too. Even simple religious faith indirectly has its rise there.
-- Notebooks Category 27: World-Mind > Chapter 2: Nature of World-Mind
> 82 - 83 Paul Brunton
' The real and unreal '...
”Christianity is one way of putting words together and Hinduism is another.
The real is, behind and beyond words, incommunicable, directly experienced, explosive in its effect on the mind.
It is easily had when nothing else is wanted.
The unreal is created by imagination and perpetuated by desire."
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Know Thyself '...
"All people ought to know themselves and be mindful."
Heraclitus of Ephesus
in Brooks Haxton
Fragments: The Collected Wisdom of Heraclitus, 106
NY: Viking, 200l, p. 71
' What is this madness ?'...
The world is full of mad people.
What is this madness?
Pursuing the trivial and transient whilst
Overlooking the
Jewel of non-dual Bliss.
- Mooji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Writing on Water
Mooji (Anthony Paul Moo-Young)
Padam Sangha Limited, London, 2011
' Understanding '...
You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to
your grandmother.
-Albert Einstein
' Light is God '...
The statement "Light is God" is meant in two senses:
first, as the poetical and a psychical fact that, in the present condition of the human being, his spiritual ignorance is equivalent to darkness and his discovery of God is equivalent to light;
second, as the scientific fact that has verified in its findings that all physical matter ultimately reduces itself to waves of light, and since God has made the universe out of His own substance, the light-waves are ultimately divine.
-- Notebooks Category 27: World-Mind > Chapter 2: Nature of World-Mind
> # 75 Paul Brunton
' We already are '...
Seeking good to the exclusion of evil, or pleasure to the exclusion of pain, is like asking for there to be stars to the exclusion of space.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
We can neither know nor become THAT which we already ARE.
-A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
http://www.advaita.org
' What is beautiful ? '...
”What is beautiful?
Whatever is perceived blissfully is beautiful.
Bliss is the essence of beauty."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Serving with humility '...
Why is the sea, king of a hundred streams?
Because it lies below them. Therefore it is
the king of a hundred streams.
If the sage would guide the people, he must
serve with humility. If he would lead them, he
must follow behind.
In this way when the sage
rules, the people will not feel oppressed.
When
he stands before them, they will not be harmed.
The whole world will support him and will not
tire of him.
Because he does not compete, he does not
meet competition.
- Lao-tzu
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Tao Te Ching
Translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English
Vintage Books Edition, September 1972
' Brave and patient '...
We could never learn to be brave and patient,
if there were only joy in the world.
- Helen Keller
' The same Source '...
"All creatures have the same source as we have.
Like us, they derive the life of thought, love, and will from the Creator.
Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them; but to stop there is a complete misapprehension of the intentions of Providence.
We have a higher mission.
God wishes that we should succor them whenever they require it."
St. Francis of Assisi
in Carol Kelly-Gangi
The Essential Wisdom of the Saints
NY: Fall River Press, 2008, p. 50
' Living in NOW '...
Truth conceptualized and vocalized is no longer Truth. Only where the perception has become entirely non-relational to objects has true awakening occurred. The essence of Truth cannot in any way be conceived but lies strictly in the experiencing of it.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The whole point of life is to live NOW in this present moment, always. If one makes a fetish of improving conditions in the future, one lives neither in the apparent present nor in the illusory future.
-
A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
http://www.advaita.org
' The Gospel of Thomas '...
Jesus said, "Often you have desired to hear these sayings that I am
speaking to you, and you have no one else from whom to hear them.
There
will be days when you will seek me and you will not find me."
Jesus said, "The Pharisees and the scholars have taken the keys of
knowledge and have hidden them.
They have not entered, nor have they
allowed those who want to enter to do so.
As for you, be as sly as snakes
and as simple as doves."
- Thomas the Apostle
' Falling into Reality '...
The falling into Reality is often a fear filled experience, as you feel as though you are dying..
And in fact, you are dying..
The you, as ego must die before entrance into Divine Consciousness..
This is why God is called a jealous God, as only God can enter God..
In fact, we have never left God and the entrance is just a "Realization" that we have never left God..
The dissolving of the ego during life is to lessen this fear of death that we experience upon the entrance into Enlightenment..
This fear will drive many away from this experience, this is the work of the ego and courage must be applied to drive through this obstacle of fear..
as Jesus said;" you must die, to be born"...
- thomas
' Experience is the teacher '...
”A prince who believes himself to be a beggar can be convinced conclusively in one way only:
he must behave as a prince and see what happens.
Behave as if what I say is true and judge by what actually happens."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' The circle of Source '...
"The circle of mysteries is a source of everything;
its point of origin rests, completely immutable, in itself."
Anonymous
Granum Sinapis
Translated by Karen J. Campbell
in German Mystical Writings: Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Jacob Boehme, and others
Edited by Karen J. Campbell
NY: Bloomsbury Academic, 1991
' Mind has it's own energy '...
Mind has its own energy, which mysteriously constructs forms in space and time, forms of planets, suns, galaxies, the cosmos.
Energy is expression in movement of the unseen substance. Matter is its apparent form. All things are made from it. We are a part of it.
-- Notebooks Category 27: World-Mind > Chapter 2: Nature of World-Mind
> 70 - 71 Paul Brunton
' Intermittent states '...
”All exists in the mind; even the body is an integration in the mind of a vast number of sensory perceptions, each perception also a mental state...
Both mind and body are intermittent states.
The sum total of these flashes creates the illusion of existence."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Upanishad '...
"Meditate and realize this world is filled with the presence of God."
-Shvetashvatara Upanishad, 1:12
in The Upanishads
Translated by Eknath Easwaran
Tomales, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1987
' Dhammapada '...
"Him I call a brahmana,
who speaks gentle,
instructive and true words,
and who does not offend anyone by speech."
-Gautama the Buddha
Dhammapada, verse 408
' The 'sinner' teaches '...
We can learn virtue even from the greatest sinner if we consider him as a teacher.
Bowl of Saki,by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
The question now arises how to attain to this prayerful attitude in life. In the first place, for those whose prayer is one of praise, if their whole life is to assume a prayerful attitude, they must carry this praise and gratitude into the smallest details of life, and feel grateful for the slightest act of kindness done to them by anybody. Man falls very short of this ideal in life. He is so stiff, he misses so many of the chances of giving thanks. It is sometimes because of his riches, while at other times he is blinded by his power. All that is done for him he thinks is his due because of his money or his influence. When a man has been able to attain this attitude of praise and thanksgiving for all things in life, then his life may indeed be called a prayerful life.
Those who express a hope when they pray can turn their everyday striving into prayer, providing they maintain this hope in every pursuit of life, putting their trust in God, and provided they consider all the objects of their desire as coming from one and the same source when they have gained them.
Those people who glorify God for His beauty, should see the beauty of God in all His creatures. It is of no use to praise God for His beauty, and then to criticize and find faults in His creation. For one's life to be prayerful one must always seek the good in man. Even the worst man has a good spot, and this should be sought and not the bad points. We can learn virtue even from the greatest sinner, if we consider him as a teacher. There is a tradition that Moses asked Satan to tell him the secret of life.
There are many virtues, but there is one principal virtue. Every moment passed outside the presence of God is sin, and every moment in His presence is virtue. The whole object of the Sufi, after learning this way of communicating is to arrive at a stage where every moment of our life passes in communion with God, and where our every action is done as if God were before us. Is that within everyone's reach? We are meant to be so. Just think of a person who is in love: when he eats or drinks, whatever he does, the image of the beloved is there. In the same way, when the love of God has come, it is natural to think of God in everything we do.
' Sometimes, I look at the lions '...
It is strange when a lover wants to meet and you feel that words must be written..
Ecstasy, as the man sings is the state of Love..
I keep punching little pieces of plastic called keys..
The thought that keeps pushing to learn..
But, why does Consciousness need to learn ?..
Does the idea of entertainment enter your consciousness ?..
This 'Thought' called Divine Consciousness..
The 'Prodigal son' keeps appearing within thought..
The problem that you face is that,
you keep appearing as 'Prodigal son'..
You are more than that..
You are Freedom...
-thomas
' Self-realization '...
It is the swallowing up of all differences that brings into light and points the finger at our impersonal source - the true nature of what we ARE.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Self-realization is the result of going back, reversing, reconsidering and finding out what you were a hundred years ago, before you were born. It is the very absence of presence or absence of space and time.
A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
http://www.advaita.org
' Awareness is unattached and unshaken '...
While the mind is centered in the body and consciousness
is centered in the mind, awareness is unattached and unshaken.
It is lucid, silent, peaceful, alert and unafraid, without desire and
fear. Meditate on it as your true being and try to be it in your daily
life, and you shall realize it in its fullness.
Mind is interested in what happens, while awareness is interested
in the mind itself. The child is after the toy, but the mother watches
the child, not the toy.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
' To study the Buddha '...
To study the Buddha is to study oneself.
To study oneself is to forget oneself.
To forget oneself is to be enlightened by the myriad dharmas.
To be enlightened by the myriad dharmas is to bring about the dropping
away of body and mind of both oneself and others.
The traces of enlightenment come to an end, and this traceless
enlightenment is continued endlessly.
-Dogen, "Flowers Fall"
' Mathematical evidence points to Mind '...
Is it not a miracle that physical objects, minerals like coal and oil, can be turned into heat and light and power, that is, into energies, as men are doing today?--
that matter can be transmuted into electrical energy, which can be turned into sounds, pictures, songs, and words as it is thrown across the world?
But what is the essence of this energy, whence does it come ultimately? Where else but from the Great Mind which activates the universe?
Physics derives the world of continents and creatures from energies; these in turn derive from a mysterious No-thing.
There is no room here for materialism. For if nothing material can be found at that deep level, mathematical evidence points to Mind.
-- Notebooks Category 27: World-Mind > Chapter 2: Nature of World-Mind
> 67 & 68 Paul Brunton
' From Darkness to Light '...
I first believed without any hesitation in the existence of the soul, and then I
wondered about the secret of its nature.
I persevered and strove in search of
the soul, and found at last that I myself was the cover over my own soul.
I
realized that that in me which believed and that in me which wondered, that
which was found at last, was no other than my soul.
I thanked the darkness that
brought me to the light, and I valued this veil that prepared for me the vision
in which I saw myself reflected, the vision procuced in the mirror of my soul.
Since then I have seen all souls as my soul, and realized my soul as the soul of
all.
And what bewilderment it was when I realized that I alone was, if there
were anyone; that I am whatever and whoever exists; and that I shall be whoever
there will be in the future.
And there was no end to my happiness and joy.
Verily, I am the seed and I am the root, and I am the fruit of this tree of
life.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged By
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
' Just a state of mind '...
”The idea that I am not the body gives reality to the body,
when in fact,
there is no such thing as body;
it is but a state of mind."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Be happy '...
"Be happy in order to live long.
Worry makes you sick."
Hopi Proverb
in Joseph Bruchac, Ed.
Native Wisdom
HarperSanFrancisco, 1995, p. 72
' Tremendous intensity '...
The only condition for the realization of Truth is that the
knowledge of it be desired with tremendous intensity.
You
cannot see IT, you cannot feel IT only because you do not
really want IT -
you are too preoccupied with enjoying and
sorrowing over your finite existence.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' Every atom awakens '...
Every blow in life pierces the heart and awakens our feelings to sympathize with others; and every swing of comfort lulls us to sleep, and we become unaware of all.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
'If the soul is awakened, how does it awake, and who awakens it?' We see that the time for nature to awake is the spring. It is asleep all winter and it awakes in the spring. There is a time for the sea, when the wind blows and brings good tidings, as if it awakes from sleep; then the waves rise. All this shows struggle, it shows that something has touched it and makes it uneasy, restless; it makes it want liberation, release. Every atom, every object, every condition and every living being has a time of awakening.
Sometimes there is a gradual awakening, and sometimes there is a sudden awakening. To some persons it comes in a moment's time -- by a blow, by a disappointment, or because their heart has broken through something that happened suddenly. It seemed cruel, but at the same time the result was a sudden awakening and this awakening brought a blessing beyond praise. The outlook changed, the insight deepened; joy, quiet, independence and freedom were felt, and compassion showed in the attitude.
It is the thoughts that spring from the depths of the heart which become inspirations and revelations, and these come from the hearts of awakened souls, called by the Sufis, Sahib-i Dil. The bringers of joy are the children of sorrow. Every blow we get in life pierces the heart and awakens our feelings to sympathize with others, and every swing of comfort lulls us to sleep, and we become unaware of all. This proves the truth of these words, 'Blessed are they that mourn.''
' Weeds and Refuse '...
"Cast away your existence entirely,
For it is nothing but weeds and refuse.
Go, clear out your heart's chamber;
Arrange it as the abiding-place of the Beloved.
When you go forth, He will come ,
And to you, with self discarded,
He will reveal His beauty."
-Mahmud Shabistari
The Secret Rose Garden
Rendered form the Persian by Florence Lederer
Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, 2002, p. 85
' The nature of God '...
The nature of God is a circle of which the
Center is everywhere and the circumference
is nowhere.
- Empedocles
' Only Reality remains '...
As water is serene when free of ripples, so
is the mind serene when free of thought,
when it is passive and fully receptive.
When quiet, the mind reflects Reality.
When absolutely motionless, it dissolves
and only Reality remains.
-Ramesh S. Balsekar
' The half-ego '...
Most mystics exist within Dream and Reality..
The Masters float within the stream of entering the ocean..
The rest of us continue to act within the 'Play' of materiality..
The Characters enter and leave and each gives or takes..
The Characters of this hologram are entities of Dream called egoic-self..
This Dream comes with a name and social security number..
This human that strives to exist..
This is where the Dream becomes positive or negative according to desire..
Look at your leaders and see ego and desire..
Look at your leaders and see the uselessness of desire..
Happiness has always been the goal..
Who would have ever guessed that this goal would be found in Nothingness..
-thomas
' The question of enlightenment '...
A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
http://www.advaita.org
The question of enlightenment is generally viewed from the point of view of the individual. But whenever the phenomenon of enlightenment does occur, it is only by other individuals that a certain name and form is considered to have become enlightened. The individual concerned will have in fact already disappeared as an individual entity when enlightenment occurred.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
All our feelings have significance only in relation to their relative opposites. Yet man, in his abysmal ignorance, forgets this basic fact of life and strives desperately for pleasure without pain and life without death! Without his realizing it his viewpoint has become so distorted that he struggles after mere illusions, which leads to frustration and misery, finally culminating in the utter terror of physical death.
' Surrendering the ego '...
"It is very good to cast yourself in total reliance on God and to depend on Him.
My way is as follows, said Rabbi Nahman, as each day begins I give over all my movements to God, in order that they should be in accordance with His will, then I have no worries about whether things are turning out right or not, since I rely upon Him."
Rabbi Nahman
in Alan Unterman
The Wisdom of the Jewish Mystics: Stories and Sayings
NY: New Directions, 1976, pp. 66-67
' Preparing the mind '...
Although it is true that practices by themselves
do not automatically lead to enlightenment, they
do have an essential place.
Initially, they prepare
the mind to be receptive to subtle truths.
Once
ultimate understanding occurs, practice continues
to assist in establishing the attention in the ground
of Being and to ward off doubt towards what has
been recognized in the heart.
- Mooji
' The World-Mind '...
The World-Mind is the conscious Power sustaining all life,
the intelligent energy sustaining all atoms,
the divine being behind and within the universe.
-- Notebooks Category 27: World-Mind >
Chapter 2: Nature of World-Mind
> # 56 Paul Brunton
' Remember the power '...
One should never be nervous about being
asked to tackle anything.
One has all the
power necessary to achieve everything within
oneself.
It is only necessary to remember the
power.
If people are nervous, it is because they
forget their potentialities and remember only
their limitations.
- Swami Shantanand Saraswati
Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
From "Good Company"
Element Books Limited, 1992
' Nafs Kushi '...
We should be careful to take away from ourselves any thorns that prick us in the personality of others.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
We frequently say, 'I dislike him,' 'I wish to avoid her,' but if we examine this carefully, we find it is the same element in all that we dislike, the ego. And when we turn to ourselves to see if we have it in us, we find it is there too. We should forget it, therefore, in other people, and first turn our attention to crushing it within ourselves. We should determine to have our house clean even if other people neglect theirs. We should be careful to take away from ourselves any thorns that prick us in the personality of others. There is a verse in the Quran, which says, 'Arise in the midst of the night, and commune with thy Lord... Bear patiently what others say.' This is not only a command to rise in the night and pray, but it also means that by rising in the night we crush the ego, for the ego demands its rest and comfort, and when denied, is crushed. The mystics fast for the same reason. The Sufi's base the whole of their teaching on the crushing of the ego which they term Nafs-kushi, for therein lies all magnetism and power.
For every soul there are four stages to pass through in order to come to the culmination of the ego, which means to reach the stage of the rose. The first stage is that a person is rough, thoughtless and inconsiderate. He is interested in what he wants and in what he likes; as such he is naturally blind to the needs and wants of others. In the second stage a man is decent and good as long as his interests are concerned. As long as he can get his wish fulfilled he is pleasant and kind and good and harmonious; but if he cannot get his wish and cannot have his way, then he becomes rough and crude and changes completely. And there is a third stage, when someone is more concerned with another person's wish and desire, and less with himself; when his whole heart is seeking for what he can do for another. In his thought the other person comes first and he comes afterwards. That is the beginning of turning into the rose. It is only a rosebud, but then in the fourth stage this rosebud blooms in the person who entirely forgets himself in doing kind deeds for others. In Sufi terms the crushing of the ego is called Nafs Kushi.
' Source '...
Men need and speak numerous words to express themselves, but God needed and uttered only the one creative silent Word to bring this infinitely varied cosmos into being.
However far we trace back the line of cause and effects it must come to an end in the lone cause, the great mystery which is the unseen power.
-- Notebooks Category 27: World-Mind > Chapter 2: Nature of World-Mind
> 53 & 54 Paul Brunton
' What is being spoken of ?'...
You read words that sometimes confuse you..
You hear thoughts that force you to think..
And yet, we speak to you of thoughts that flow through the mind, but are not reality..
These thoughts that flow through mind are incidents of desire..
Desires create the manifestations called materially real..
Therefore, you must become the master of thoughts..
"You are what, you think about all day ",
said Gautama the Buddha..
Are you beginning to understand ?..
You are Thought within illusion..
You create the pain of body and mind..
You choose between negative and positive..
" Straight is the Way and narrow is the gate",
said the Nazarene..
It is time to Awaken...
-thomas
' Only Awareness Remains '...
Life moves, undulates, breathes in and out, contracting and expanding. This is its nature, the nature of what is. Whatever is, is on the move. Nothing remains the same for very long. The mind wants everything to stop so that it can get its foothold, find its position, so it can figure out how to control life. Through the pursuit of material things, knowledge, ideas, beliefs, opinions, emotional states, spiritual states, and relationships, the mind seeks to find a secure position from which to operate.
The mind seeks to nail life down and get it to stop moving and changing. When this doesn't work, the mind begins to seek the changeless, the eternal, something that doesn't move. But the mind of thought is itself an expression of life's movement and so must always be in movement itself. When there is thought, that thought is always moving and changing. There is really no such thing as thought. There is only thinking, so thought which is always moving (as thinking) cannot apprehend the changeless.
When thought enters into the changeless it goes silent. When thought goes silent, the thinker, the psychological "me," the image-produced self, disappears. Suddenly it is gone. You, as an idea, are gone. Awareness remains alone. There is no one who is aware. Awareness itself is itself. You are now no longer the thought, nor the thinker, nor someone who is aware. Only awareness remains, as itself. Then, within awareness, thought moves. Within the changeless, change happens.
Now awareness expresses itself. Awareness is always expressing itself: as life, as change, as thought, feelings, bodies, humans, plants, trees, cars, etc. Awareness yields to itself, to its inherent creativity, to its expression in form, to experience itself. The changeless is changing. The eternal is living and dying. The formless is form. The form is formless. This is nothing the mind could have ever imagined.
-Adyashanti
' The man of Tao '...
THE MAN OF TAO
Chuang Tzu
The man in whom Tao
Acts without impediment
Harms no other being
By his actions
Yet he does not know himself
To be "kind," to be "gentle."
The man in whom Tao
Acts without impediment
Does not bother with his own interests
And does not despise
Others who do.
He does not struggle to make money
And does not make a virtue of poverty.
He goes his way
Without relying on others
And does not pride himself
On walking alone.
While he does not follow the crowd
He won't complain of those who do.
Rank and reward
Make no appeal to him;
Disgrace and shame
Do not deter him.
He is not always looking
For right and wrong
Always deciding "Yes" and "No."
The ancients said, therefore:
"The man of Tao
Remains unknown
Perfect virtue
Produces nothing
'No-Self'
Is 'True-Self'
And the greatest man
Is Nobody"
' Seeing the real '...
"There is no such state as seeing the real.
Who is to see what?
You can only be the real--which you are, anyhow.
The problem is only mental.
Abandon false ideas, that is all.
There is no need of true ideas.
There aren't any."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' What is the Buddha ?'...
"A monk asked Baso,
'What is the Buddha?'
Baso answered,
'No mind, no Buddha.'"
- Andrew Wilson
World Scripture: An Anthology of Sacred Texts
NY: International Religious Foundation, 1991, p. 640
' Annihilation '...
Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over
to annihilation,
can that which is indestructible in us be found.
- Pema Chödrön
' Peace is our Nature '...
That which is, is peace.
All that we need do is to keep quiet.
Peace
is our real nature.
We spoil it.
What is required is that we cease to
spoil it.
-Ramana Maharshi
' Logos '...
Logos in Greek means not only the word through which mind communicates or expresses itself but also the thought behind the word.
So the Biblical phrase "In the beginning was the Logos"
means that first of all there was the MIND, here divine mind.
-- Notebooks Category 27: World-Mind > Chapter 2: Nature of World-Mind
> # 52 Paul Brunton
' Spiritual immaturity '...
One has to blame oneself alone
if one should try to teach the Truth supreme
to those who are immature.
These might reject the highest Truth as false
because it contradicted what they had been told before
and had believed as true.
-Sri Ramana Maharshi
' In the world but not of it '...
"The wind carries the smell of the sandal-wood as well as that of ordure, but does not mix with either.
Similarly a perfect man lives in the world, but does not mix with it."
Sri Ramakrishna
in F. Max Muller
Ramakrishna: His Life And Sayings, 65
Longmans, Green, And Co., London & New York, 1898, p. 112
' Silence in the mind and heart '...
Do your work in the world, but inwardly keep quiet.
Then all will come to you.
Do not rely on your work
for realization.
It may profit others, but not you.
Your hope lies in keeping silent in your mind and
quiet in your heart.
Realized people are very quiet.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
' The World-Mind '...
The point which appears in space is a point of light. It spreads and spreads and spreads and becomes the World-Mind.
God has emerged out of Godhead. And out of the World-Mind the world itself emerges--not all at once, but in various stages.
From that great light come all other and lesser lights, come the suns and the planets, the galaxies, the universes, and all the mighty hosts of creatures small and great, of beings just beginning to sense and others fully conscious, aware, wise.
And with the world appear the opposites, the dual principle which can be detected everywhere in Nature, the yin and yang of Chinese thought.
-- Notebooks Category 27: World-Mind > Chapter 2: Nature of World-Mind
> # 48 Paul Brunton
' The Pearl of great prize '...
"When I became a lover I thought I had gained the Pearl of the Goal;
foolish I did not know that this Pearl lies on the floor of an ocean which has innumerable waves to be encountered and great depths to be sounded."
-Hafiz of Shiraz
Quoted by Avatar Meher Baba
The Everything and the Nothing, 15
Beacon Hill, NSW: Meher House Publications, 1963
' Joy '...
He who can quicken the feeling of another to joy or to gratitude, by that much he adds to his own life.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Each one has his circle of influence, large or small; within his sphere so many souls and minds are involved; with his rise, they rise; with his fall, they fall. The size of a man's sphere corresponds with the extent of his sympathy, or we may say, with the size of his heart. His sympathy holds his sphere together. As his heart grows, his sphere grows; as his sympathy is withdrawn or lessened, so his sphere breaks up and scatters.
If he harms those who live and move within his sphere, those dependent upon him or upon his affection, he of necessity harms himself. His house or his palace or his cottage, his satisfaction or his disgust in his environment is the creation of his own thought. Acting upon his thoughts, and also part of his own thoughts, are the thoughts of those near to him; others depress him and destroy him, or they encourage and support him, in proportion as he repels those around him by his coldness, or attracts them by his sympathy.
Each individual composes the music of his own life. If he injures another, he brings disharmony. When his sphere is disturbed, he is disturbed himself, and there is a discord in the melody of his life. If he can quicken the feeling of another to joy or to gratitude, by that much he adds to his own life; he becomes himself by that much more alive. Whether conscious of it or not, his thought is affected for the better by the joy or gratitude of another, and his power and vitality increase thereby, and the music of his life grows more in harmony.
' Why is God so hidden ?'...
Why is God so hidden, the Overself so elusive, the Spirit of the World as if it never were? Because the eternal and infinite Being is forever seeking to express itself in the universe in which these attributes can appear only under time and in space, that is, never in their full and real nature. This means that God is not in this world (as he really is) and that his elusiveness could not be otherwise if he is to be the true God.
Reality is everywhere and nowhere. The world is impregnated with it. Mind and flesh dwell within it.
The World-Mind is in us all, reflected as "I." This is why ever-deeper pondering and penetration are needed to remove the veil of individuality and perceive BEING.
-- Notebooks Category 27: World-Mind > Chapter 2:
Nature of World-Mind > 40 - 42
Paul Brunton
' Envy '...
Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others.
He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.
- Gautama the Buddha
' Bliss personified '...
"I am bliss personified. My physical form which you see is not real. If you could see my Real Form, you would not be yourself.
The limited human mind has not the least conception of the Sat-Chit-Ananda — Infinite Power-Knowledge-Bliss.
This state is beyond the realm of mind. It called the Nirvikalp state — the 'I am God' state.
Everyone is destined to attain this state and it is everyone's duty to make efforts towards that end."
Meher Baba
"Nirvikalp State"
Sparks of Silence
' When you are curious '...
When you are curious,
you learn.
When you are desperate,
you discover.
- Mooji
' The Universe '...
The universe comes forth from the World-Mind, from its own being and its own substance.
Therefore the universe is divine, therefore God is present in every atom and likewise in every one of us. Whoever denies the existence of God denies the very essence of his own self.
Whether the divine power is looked upon as being inside or outside oneself--and both views will be true and complementary--in the end it must be thought of without any reference to body and ego at all.
In no part of space does the World-Mind exist, and at no point in time is it to be met.
-- Notebooks Category 27: World-Mind > Chapter 2: Nature of World-Mind
> # 37-39 Paul Brunton
' Fame '...
Fame is water
carried in a basket.
Hold the wind in your fist,
or tie up an elephant
with one hair.
These are accomplishments
that will make your famous.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
" Why is life so full of contradictions?"...
It serves to break down mental pride.
We must realize how poor and powerless
we are.
As long as we delude ourselves
by what we imagine ourselves to be, to
know, to have, to do, we are in a sad
plight indeed.
Only in complete self-
negation there is a chance to discover
our real being.
-Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Paradox '...
Paradox is the only way to view both the immediate and the ultimate at the same time.
Philosophy says that its highest teaching is necessarily paradoxical because the one is in the many and the many, too, are one, because nonduality is allied to duality, because the worldly and limited points to the Absolute and Unbounded: hence the doctrine of two Truths.
Paradox is the only proper way to look at things and situations, at life and the cosmos, at man and God. This must be so if as full and complete a truth as mind can reach is desired. To express that truth there are two ways because of its own double nature: there is what the thing seems to be and what it really is. The difference is often as great as that yielded by an electronic microscope with five thousand-fold magnification when it is focused on an ant, compared to the view yielded by the naked eye.
If we question time and matter--those foundations of all our worldly experience--for their real nature, we come up against paradox and contradiction, against irrationality and logical absurdity. The only proposition which can properly be affirmed about them is that they exist and do not exist at the same time.
You cannot put It into any symbol without falsifying what It really is. Yet you cannot even mention It in any way whatsoever without putting It into a symbol. What then are you to do? If mystics declare, as they so often do, that you should keep silent, ask them why so many of them have failed to obey this rule themselves? In their answer you will find its own insufficiency and incompleteness. For although, like everyone else, they too have to function on two separate and distinct levels, yet the truths pertaining to one level must in the end be coupled with those pertaining to the other.
Paradox is the bringing together of two elements which are antagonistic yet complementary.
-Paul Brunton
' The ancient way '...
"What I teach is the ancient and simple way of liberation through understanding.
Understand your own mind and its hold on you will snap.
The mind misunderstands; misunderstanding is its very nature.
Right understanding is the only remedy, whatever name you give it."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' The song within '...
One who has become enamored with the song within,
one who is united with the inner universal pulse,
such
a one has become immune to the buffeting of the
storms of circumstance without.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' The marble and sculptor '...
Man cannot remake himself without suffering,
for he is
both the marble and the sculptor.
- Alexis Carrel
' Liberation from bondage '...
A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
http://www.advaita.org
All that we can dialectically conclude is that it is conceptually impossible to comprehend what we are because mind cannot transcend itself.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Movement in Consciousness, and nothing else, constitutes the mind and all its experience of the phenomenal universe. To realize this is the cessation of thought and liberation from the bondage of ego as mind and experience.
' The Avatara '...
50. On the tree of Sat-Chit-Ananda there are innumerable Ramas, Krishnas, Christs, etc.; one or two of them come down into this world now and then, and produce mighty changes and revolutions.
51. The Avatara or Saviour is the messenger of God. He is like the Viceroy of a mighty monarch. As when there is some disturbance in a far-off province the king sends his viceroy to quell it; so whenever there is any waning of religion in any part of the world, God sends His Avatara there
52. It is one and the same Avatara that, having plunged into the ocean of life, rises up in one place and is known as Krishna, and diving again rises in another place and is known as Christ.
-
Sri Ramakrishna
in F. Max Mueller
The Sayings of Ramakrishna
London: Longmans Green, p. 107-110
' The common ground of mind '...
The World-Mind is common to all human minds and is the field of their interaction, and the notion that A and B are independent and isolated minds is superficially correct but fundamentally fallacious.
There is a common ground of mind, a hidden linkage, and the ideas of one can be transmitted to the other, albeit often unconsciously.
-- Notebooks Category 27: World-Mind > Chapter 2: Nature of World-Mind
> # 23 Paul Brunton
' To be is to suffer '...
"To be is to suffer.
The narrower the circle of my self-identification,
the more acute the suffering caused by desire and fear time."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Heal this eye '...
"Our whole business then, Brethren,
in this life is to heal this eye of the heart whereby God may be seen."
-Augustine of Hippo
Sermon 38 on the New Testament
' Death is man's illusion '...
While man rejoices over his rise and sorrows over his fall, the wise man takes both as the natural consequences of life.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
It makes no difference to me if I am so praised that I am raised from earth to heaven, nor if I am so blamed that I am thrown from the greatest heights to the depths of the earth. Life to me is an ever-moving sea in which the waves of favor and disfavor constantly rise and fall.
In sorrow one may look to God, and in joy one may thank Him. One does not bemoan the past, nor worry about the future; one tries only to make the best of today. One should know no failure, for even in a fall there is a stepping-stone to rise; but to the Sufi the rise and fall matter little. One does not repent for what one has done, since one thinks, says, and does what one means. One does not fear the consequences of performing one's wish in life, for what will be, will be.
What will rise must fall, and what will fall must rise. Rise and fall are natural to life. No rise is permanent, or fall lasting. It is reality behind it all which is steady and dependent. ... Life is one living stream, continually running without beginning or end. Death is man's illusion. The change that hides man's existence from him he calls death. Life is still, but its flow, which is ever-moving, rises and fall in waves; it is this that created an illusion of rise and fall. All this we see is the manifestation of one Spirit in many and varied forms.
The quality of the saints is to be resigned to all that comes -- but then they do not even form a wish. They take all that comes, flowers or thorns; everything that comes, they take it. They look into thorns and see that they are flowers. With praise and with blame they are contented. They are contented with rise and fall; they take all that comes, they take life as it is.
' The World-Mind '...
The World-Mind holds in one eternal thought the entire World-Idea.
The World-Mind knows and experiences everything and everyone. It also knows the Supreme non-thing, the Real, while knowing the illusoriness of the cosmos.
The World-Mind knows all because it is eternally in all.
-- Notebooks Category 27: World-Mind > Chapter 2: Nature of World-Mind
> #s 16-18. Paul Brunton
' I Am '...
All will come as you go on.
Take the first step first.
All blessings come from within.
Turn within.
‘I am’ you know.
Be with it all the time you can spare,
until you revert to it spontaneously.
There is no simpler
and easier way.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
' Unforgetting mindfulness '...
Making mistake after mistake,
I walk on the authentic path,
Confused and confused,
I search for the unconfused nature,
Forgetting and forgetting,
I rely on unforgetting mindfulness.
-Ven Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso
' The Intelligence within the Hologram '...
The intelligence which works so untiringly in the world around us knows what to do without having to prepare a plan. It does not need to think in the way human beings think. Being infinite, its wisdom is infinite.
The Intelligence which formulated the World-Idea is living and creative--in short, Divine. The so-called laws of nature merely show its workings.
-- Notebooks Category 27: World-Mind > Chapter 2: Nature of World-Mind
> # 12- 13 Paul Brunton
' Anger '...
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else;
you are the one who gets burned.
- Gautama the Buddha
' Pleasure '...
"...pleasure is a distraction and a nuisance,
for it merely increases the false conviction that one needs to have and do things to be happy when in reality it is just the opposite."
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Detachment from results '...
Do whatever needs to be done, but do it as a spiritual being, As one who knows he is divine by nature and unlimited with the whole of life in essence.
Do it as if you are doing it for Me or for God.
Do it with equal consideration for the interests of all concerned, for God is equally in each.
Do it with utmost concentration, yet with utter detachment for the results of action.
Leave the fruit of action to Me or to God.
Do it as if it were the most important thing in the universe, yet let it be destroyed, or ignored, or ridiculed without concern, or let it be praised without elation.
Leave the response to Me or to God.
Do it, in short, as if you were not doing it at all, but as if I or God were doing it through you."
Meher Baba
in John A Grant
Practical Spirituality
John A.Grant, p. 208
' Happiness '...
Happiness is the reward we get for living to the highest right we know.
-Richard Bach
' Serving somebody '...
This is where you begin thinking..
Why should I serve another ?..
Do I not have Freedom ?..
In serving others, including the Creative Force,
you are actually serving yourself..
You become happy as others smile..
But, we are actually speaking of the positive and negative forces of hologram..
To serve is to be humble..
To serve from Love is to be Love..
We are now conversing of the ego and non-ego..
To be Free is to choose the right path...
namaste, thomas
' The path is narrow '...
"Wake up!
Seek the Truth!
Rise above ignorance!
Search out the best teachers,
and through them find the Truth.
But beware!
'The path is narrow,' the sages warn,
'Sharp as a razor's edge.'"
-Katha Upanishad, III.14
in The Upanishads
Translated by Alistair Shearer and Peter Russell
NY: Harper & Row, 1978, p. 73
' Devotion without understanding '...
Devotion without understanding is only
emotion and later becomes a passion -
fanaticism.
- Swami Krishnananda
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Facets of Spirituality
Complied by S. Bhagyalakshmi
Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1986
' Why are you unhappy ?'...
Why are you unhappy?
Because 99.9 per cent
of everything you think,
and of everything you do,
is for yourself -
and there isn't one.
- Wei Wu Wei
' Love is an attribute of the ultimate '...
We are frequently informed by religious and mystical sources that God is Love.
It would be needful for those who accept this statement to balance and complete it by the affirmation that God is Pure Intelligence.
Love is not the ultimate but only an attribute of the ultimate.
-- Notebooks Category 27: World-Mind > Chapter 2: Nature of World-Mind
> # 10 & 11 Paul Brunton
' Where is the heart ?'...
"The heart is the innermost man or spirit.
Here are located self-awareness, the conscience, the idea of God and of one's complete dependence on Him, and all the eternal treasures of the spiritual life....
Where is the heart?
Where sadness, joy, anger, and other emotions are felt, here is the heart.
stand there with attention....
Stand in the heart, with the faith that God is also there, but how He is there do not speculate.
Pray and entreat that in due time love for God may stir within you by His grace."
St. Theophan the Recluse
in George A. Maloney, S.J.
Prayer of the Heart
Notre Dame, Indiana: Ave Maria Press, 1981, p. 25
' Speak honestly '...
Vain, boastful talk repels acts of kindness and
tears the branch of mercy from the trunk of the
tree.
Speak honestly or else be silent, and then
behold grace and delight in it.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
' The ego is blind '...
While man blames another for causing him harm, the wise man first takes himself to task.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
The worldly struggle is outward struggle. The struggle on the spiritual path is inward struggle. No sooner does one take the spiritual direction than the first enemy one meets is one's own self. What does the self do? It is most mischievous. When one says one wants to fight it, it says, 'I am yourself. Do you want to fight me?' And when it brings failure, it is clever enough to put the blame on someone else. Do all those who have failed in life accuse themselves? No, they always accuse another person. When they have gained something they say, 'I have done it.' When they have lost something they say, 'This person got in my way'. With little and big things, it is all the same. The self does not admit faults; it always puts the blame on others. Its vanity, its pride, its smallness, and its egotistical tendency which is continually active, keep one blind.
By a study of life the Sufi learns and practices the nature of its harmony. He establishes harmony with the self, with others, with the universe and with the infinite. He identifies himself with another, he sees himself, so to speak, in every other being. He cares for neither blame nor praise, considering both as coming from himself. If a person were to drop a heavy weight and in so doing hurt his own foot, he would not blame his hand for having dropped it, realizing himself in both the hand and the foot. In like manner the Sufi is tolerant when harmed by another, thinking that the harm has come from himself alone. ... He overlooks the faults of others, considering that they know no better. He hides the faults of others, and suppresses any facts that would cause disharmony. His constant fight is with the Nafs (the self-centered ego), the root of all disharmony and the only enemy of man.
The mystic develops a wider outlook on life, and this wider outlook changes his actions. He develops a point of view that may be called a divine point of view. Then he rises to the state in which he feels that all that is done to him comes from God, and when he himself does right or wrong, he feels that he does right or wrong to God. To arrive at such a stage is true religion. There can be no better religion than this, the true religion of God on earth. This is the point of view that makes a person God-like and divine. He is resigned when badly treated, but for his own shortcomings, he will take himself to task, for all his actions are directed towards God.
' Problems '...
Leave the mind in its natural, undisturbed state.
Don't follow
thoughts of "This is a problem, that is a problem!"
Without labeling
difficulties as problems, leave your mind in its natural state.
In
this way, you will stop seeing miserable conditions as problems.
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
' When the mind is motionless '...
"The world is but the surface of the mind, and the mind is infinite.
What we call thoughts are just ripples in the mind.
When the mind is quiet, it reflects reality.
When it is motionless through and through, it dissolves and only reality remains.
This reality is so concrete, so actual, so much more tangible than mind and matter, that compared to it even a diamond is soft like butter.
This overwhelming actuality makes the world dream-like."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Grace is Everything '...
Grace is everything.
Grace is another name for what we are.
Grace is indefinable, ever perfect and timeless.
It is that in which time and breath play as names and forms
in their brief dance called life.
We are the experiencing and simultaneously the witness of all this.
Grace is that which calls you away from the chaos,
away from the noise of the world.
Grace is the same as peace,
but here there is no peacekeeper
nor anyone being a doer.
Grace is the breath of the Self.
- Mooji
' Grace '...
Grace flows in wavelengths from the mind of an illuminated man to sensitive human receivers as if he were a transmitting station.
It is by their feeling of affinity with him and faith in him that they are able to tunein to this grace.
-- Notebooks Category 18: The Reverential Life >
Chapter 5: Grace > # 43
Paul Brunton
' The Mirror of True Nature '...
"If you come across a true sage who has realized his true nature,
you will not be required to do anything in the way of spiritual disciplines.
This is because through his teachings,
he will reveal your true nature,
as by placing a mirror before you."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Human problems '...
It is characteristic of all deep human problems that they are not to
be approached without some humor and some bewilderment.
-Freeman Dyson
' Sensitivity '...
Sensitivity—if it merely results in egoic reactions that remain unconscious—is a source of suffering. Reacting unconsciously to the hurtful things people say and do strengthens the mental and emotional story that believes it is separate from the “others” that are causing pain. You may find it difficult to function in social situations if you are continuously hurt by what people say and do.
In the proper perspective, however, sensitivity is truly a gift. Instead of creating suffering, sensitivity can be an alarm bell that alerts you to the presence of irritation, frustration, hurt, fear, and anger that arise in your inner body and mind in reaction to outer stimuli. It is a tool that reveals the content of the story of self that separates you from the world “out there” and causes internal suffering.
Each time you are hurt emotionally and mentally by what someone says or does, notice that you are the awareness that sees the thought and emotion. In this way, you begin to see where your psychological and emotional pain lies—what your deepest rooted story of self is. In allowing sensitivity to make the story of self conscious, the story can no longer survive. In that dissolution, you realize that suffering is never caused by the “others.” It arises from not seeing the story of separateness in the mind.
-Kiloby, Scott. Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment
' The Observer '...
Do you think I know what I'm doing?
That for one breath or half-breath
I belong to myself?
As much as a pen knows what it's writing
or the ball can guess where it's going next.
- Rumi, version by Coleman Barks, from The Essential Rumi,
' True Nature beyond Dream '...
Whoever is living this dream of life must necessarily continue in the dream until,
through the grace of the guru,
he is taken right out of the confines of space-time into the instantaneous apperception of his true nature.
Only then will it be realized that what we call life is only a dream dreamt by THAT which we really are and that there never was in fact anyone to realize anything.
-
A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
' Overself '...
Turn the mind inward and cease thinking of yourself as
the body;
thereby you will come to know that the self is
ever happy.
Neither grief nor misery is experienced in
this state.
- Ramana Maharshi
`
' Vanity '...
Man's pride and satisfaction in what he knows limits the scope of his vision.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
One wishes to be admired for his clothes, his jewels, his possessions, his greatness and position, and naturally when this desire increases it makes a person blind and he loses sight of right and justice. It is natural that the desire for things that gratify vanity should have no end; it increases continually.
The tendency to look at others with hatred and prejudice, to consider them inferior to oneself, and all such tendencies come from this ego. There are even cases when people spend money in order to be able to insult another. To make someone bow before him, to make him give way, to put him in a position of inferiority, to make him appear contemptible, sometimes a person will spend money.
The desire for the satisfaction of vanity reaches such a point, that a person would give his life for the satisfaction of his vanity. Often someone shows generosity, not for the sake of kindness, but to satisfy his vanity. The more vanity a person has the less sympathy he has for others, for all his attention is given to his own satisfaction, and he is as blind toward others. This ego, so to speak, restricts life, because it limits a person.
All the knowledge that man possesses he has acquired by belief. When he strengthens his belief by knowledge then comes disbelief in things that his knowledge cannot cope with, and in things that his reason cannot justify. He then disbelieves things that he once believed in.
An unbeliever is one who has changed his belief to disbelief; disbelief often darkens the soul, but sometimes it illuminates it. There is a Persian saying, 'Until belief has changed to disbelief, and, again, the disbelief into a belief, a man does not become a real Muslim.' But when disbelief becomes a wall and stands against the further penetration of mind into life, then it darkens the soul, for there is no chance of further progress, and man's pride and satisfaction in what he knows limit the scope of his vision
' From Nothingness comes existence '...
The Absolute works with nothing.
The workshop, the materials
are what does not exist.
Try and be a sheet of paper with nothing on it.
Be a spot of ground where nothing is growing,
where something might be planted,
a seed, possibly, from the Absolute.
-Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi
' The movie of ego '...
Waking up from the movie of ego..
Imagine you are in a theater watching a movie. It’s a suspense thriller. You have attached emotionally to the main character. You have seen the struggles the character has been through. You identify with her story. You are on the edge of your seat, waiting desperately to see how it all ends—to see the grand finale when everyone lives happily ever after. When the movie ends, you know it is not real and that it never was. You are able to walk away, liberated from attachment to the movie.
The personal story of “me” is much like a movie. You have an unsatisfactory past. You are seeking the future to bring some release of that dissatisfaction.
The pointers in this book are about the possibility of waking up from the movie of “me.” It is much like sitting back in your chair at the theater and realizing, “This is just a movie. It is not real.”
In that relaxation, the present moment is realized to be the only true reality. The sense of a “separate me” with all of its suffering and searching in time is seen to be a script in the mind. What is left is unconditional love and unbounded freedom. It is then realized that completion is already here in this moment.
There was never anything to seek.
-Kiloby, Scott. Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment
' Time and Space '...
Living in time and space as we do,
we perforce live always in the fragmentary and imperfect,
never in the whole, the perfect.
Only if,
at rare moments, we are granted a mystical experience and transcend the time-space world,
do we know the beauty and sublimity of being liberated from a mere segment of experience into the wholeness of Life itself.
-- Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity > Chapter 4: Time, Space, Causality > # 3
-- Perspectives > Chapter 19: The Reign of Relativity > # 10
Paul Brunton
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)