this moment...
Nothing that we can see is real.
We confuse the physical form
with life,
but there is nothing real except self-remembering
the effort to be present to this moment
Robert Burton
Osho's writing about ego...
I posted this essay by Osho about the false center of the human mind and yet, in many groups, nothing was mentioned about the teaching..
Were the humans asleep?..
In this essay, Osho gave you almost all of the answers to life and yet most humans did not even read the whole essay..
Is time that important?..
Too much to read to gain Freedom?..
Humans spend years reading a few quotes or sentences and try to grasp wisdom and yet will not spend a few minutes to understand life..
The ego does not want to be free and therefore, tells you that time is important and that you might become bored with the content..
How many among you are strong enough to bypass the thoughts of the ego and rest within the knowledge given?..
Freedom requires work..
namaste, thomas
Ego --- the false center...
The first thing to be understood is what ego is. A child is born. A child is born without any knowledge, any consciousness of his own self. And when a child is born the first thing he becomes aware of is not himself; the first thing he becomes aware of is the other. It is natural, because the eyes open outwards, the hands touch others, the ears listen to others, the tongue tastes food and the nose smells the outside. All these senses open outwards.
That is what birth means. Birth means coming into this world, the world of the outside. So when a child is born, he is born into this world. He opens his eyes, sees others. 'Other' means the thou. He becomes aware of the mother first. Then, by and by, he becomes aware of his own body. That too is the other, that too belongs to the world. He is hungry and he feels the body; his need is satisfied, he forgets the body.
This is how a child grows. First he becomes aware of you, thou, other, and then by and by, in contrast to you, thou, he becomes aware of himself.
This awareness is a reflected awareness. He is not aware of who he is. He is simply aware of the mother and what she thinks about him. If she smiles, if she appreciates the child, if she says, "You are beautiful," if she hugs and kisses him, the child feels good about himself. Now an ego is born.
Through appreciation, love, care, he feels he is good, he feels he is valuable, he feels he has some significance.
A center is born.
But this center is a reflected center. It is not his real being. He does not know who he is; he simply knows what others think about him. And this is the ego: the reflection, what others think. If nobody thinks that he is of any use, nobody appreciates him, nobody smiles, then too an ego is born: an ill ego; sad, rejected, like a wound; feeling inferior, worthless. This too is the ego. This too is a reflection.
First the mother - and mother means the world in the beginning. Then others will join the mother, and the world goes on growing. And the more the world grows, the more complex the ego becomes, because many others' opinions are reflected.
The ego is an accumulated phenomenon, a by-product of living with others. If a child lives totally alone, he will never come to grow an ego. But that is not going to help. He will remain like an animal. That doesn't mean that he will come to know the real self, no.
The real can be known only through the false, so the ego is a must. One has to pass through it. It is a discipline. The real can be known only through the illusion. You cannot know the truth directly. First you have to know that which is not true. First you have to encounter the untrue. Through that encounter you become capable of knowing the truth. If you know the false as the false, truth will dawn upon you.
Ego is a need; it is a social need, it is a social by-product. The society means all that is around you - not you, but all that is around you. All, minus you, is the society. And everybody reflects. You will go to school and the teacher will reflect who you are. You will be in friendship with other children and they will reflect who you are. By and by, everybody is adding to your ego, and everybody is trying to modify it in such a way that you don't become a problem to the society.
They are not concerned with you.
They are concerned with the society.
Society is concerned with itself, and that's how it should be.
They are not concerned that you should become a self-knower. They are concerned that you should become an efficient part in the mechanism of the society. You should fit into the pattern. So they are trying to give you an ego that fits with the society. They teach you morality. Morality means giving you an ego which will fit with the society. If you are immoral, you will always be a misfit somewhere or other. That's why we put criminals in the prisons - not that they have done something wrong, not that by putting them in the prisons we are going to improve them, no. They simply don't fit. They are troublemakers. They have certain types of egos of which the society doesn't approve. If the society approves, everything is good.
One man kills somebody - he is a murderer.
And the same man in wartime kills thousands - he becomes a great hero. The society is not bothered by a murder, but the murder should be commited for the society - then it is okay. The society doesn't bother about morality.
Morality means only that you should fit with the society.
If the society is at war, then the morality changes.
If the society is at peace, then there is a different morality.
Morality is a social politics. It is diplomacy. And each child has to be brought up in such a way that he fits into the society, that's all. Because society is interested in efficient members. Society is not interested that you should attain to self-knowledge.
The society creates an ego because the ego can be controlled and manipulated. The self can never be controlled or manipulated. Nobody has ever heard of the society controlling a self - not possible.
And the child needs a center; the child is completely unaware of his own center. The society gives him a center and the child is by and by convinced that this is his center, the ego that society gives.
A child comes back to his home - if he has come first in his class, the whole family is happy. You hug and kiss him, and you take the child on your shoulders and dance and you say, "What a beautiful child! You are a pride to us." You are giving him an ego, a subtle ego. And if the child comes home dejected, unsuccessful, a failure - he couldn't pass, or he has just been on the back bench - then nobody appreciates him and the child feels rejected. He will try harder next time, because the center feels shaken.
Ego is always shaken, always in search of food, that somebody should appreciate it. That's why you continuously ask for attention.
You get the idea of who you are from others.
It is not a direct experience.
It is from others that you get the idea of who you are. They shape your center. This center is false, because you carry your real center. That is nobody's business. Nobody shapes it.
You come with it.
You are born with it.
So you have two centers. One center you come with, which is given by existence itself. That is the self. And the other center, which is created by the society, is the ego. It is a false thing - and it is a very great trick. Through the ego the society is controlling you. You have to behave in a certain way, because only then does the society appreciate you. You have to walk in a certain way; you have to laugh in a certain way; you have to follow certain manners, a morality, a code. Only then will the society appreciate you, and if it doesn't, you ego will be shaken. And when the ego is shaken, you don't know where you are, who you are.
The others have given you the idea.
That idea is the ego.
Try to understand it as deeply as possible, because this has to be thrown. And unless you throw it you will never be able to attain to the self. Because you are addicted to the center, you cannot move, and you cannot look at the self.
And remember, there is going to be an interim period, an interval, when the ego will be shattered, when you will not know who you are, when you will not know where you are going, when all boundaries will melt.
You will simply be confused, a chaos.
Because of this chaos, you are afraid to lose the ego. But it has to be so. One has to pass through the chaos before one attains to the real center.
And if you are daring, the period will be small.
If you are afraid, and you again fall back to the ego, and you again start arranging it, then it can be very, very long; many lives can be wasted.
I have heard: One small child was visiting his grandparents. He was just four years old. In the night when the grandmother was putting him to sleep, he suddenly started crying and weeping and said, "I want to go home. I am afraid of darkness." But the grandmother said, "I know well that at home also you sleep in the dark; I have never seen a light on. So why are you afraid here?" The boy said, "Yes, that's right - but that is MY darkness." This darkness is completely unknown.
Even with darkness you feel, "This is MINE."
Outside - an unknown darkness.
With the ego you feel, "This is MY darkness."
It may be troublesome, maybe it creates many miseries, but still mine. Something to hold to, something to cling to, something underneath the feet; you are not in a vacuum, not in an emptiness. You may be miserable, but at least you ARE. Even being miserable gives you a feeling of 'I am'. Moving from it, fear takes over; you start feeling afraid of the unknown darkness and chaos - because society has managed to clear a small part of your being.
It is just like going to a forest. You make a little clearing, you clear a little ground; you make fencing, you make a small hut; you make a small garden, a lawn, and you are okay. Beyond your fence - the forest, the wild. Here everything is okay; you have planned everything. This is how it has happened.
Society has made a little clearing in your consciousness. It has cleaned just a little part completely, fenced it. Everything is okay there. That's what all your universities are doing. The whole culture and conditioning is just to clear a part so that you can feel at home there.
And then you become afraid.
Beyond the fence there is danger.
Beyond the fence you are, as within the fence you are - and your conscious mind is just one part, one-tenth of your whole being. Nine-tenths is waiting in the darkness. And in that nine-tenths, somewhere your real center is hidden.
One has to be daring, courageous.
One has to take a step into the unknown.
For a while all boundaries will be lost.
For a while you will feel dizzy.
For a while, you will feel very afraid and shaken, as if an earthquake has happened. But if you are courageous and you don't go backwards, if you don't fall back to the ego and you go on and on, there is a hidden center within you that you have been carrying for many lives.
That is your soul, the self.
Once you come near it, everything changes, everything settles again. But now this settling is not done by the society. Now everything becomes a cosmos, not a chaos; a new order arises.
But this is no longer the order of the society - it is the very order of existence itself.
It is what Buddha calls Dhamma, Lao Tzu calls Tao, Heraclitus calls Logos. It is not man-made. It is the VERY order of existence itself. Then everything is suddenly beautiful again, and for the first time really beautiful, because man-made things cannot be beautiful. At the most you can hide the ugliness of them, that's all. You can decorate them, but they can never be beautiful.
The difference is just like the difference between a real flower and a plastic or paper flower. The ego is a plastic flower - dead. It just looks like a flower, it is not a flower. You cannot really call it a flower. Even linguistically to call it a flower is wrong, because a flower is something which flowers. And this plastic thing is just a thing, not a flowering. It is dead. There is no life in it.
You have a flowering center within. That's why Hindus call it a lotus - it is a flowering. They call it the one-thousand-petaled-lotus. One thousand means infinite petals. And it goes on flowering, it never stops, it never dies.
But you are satisfied with a plastic ego.
There are some reasons why you are satisfied. With a dead thing, there are many conveniences. One is that a dead thing never dies. It cannot - it was never alive. So you can have plastic flowers, they are good in a way. They are permanent; they are not eternal, but they are permanent.
The real flower outside in the garden is eternal, but not permanent. And the eternal has its own way of being eternal. The way of the eternal is to be born again and again and to die. Through death it refreshes itself, rejuvenates itself.
To us it appears that the flower has died - it never dies.
It simply changes bodies, so it is ever fresh.
It leaves the old body, it enters a new body. It flowers somewhere else; it goes on flowering.
But we cannot see the continuity because the continuity is invisible. We see only one flower, another flower; we never see the continuity.
It is the same flower which flowered yesterday.
It is the same sun, but in a different garb.
The ego has a certain quality - it is dead. It is a plastic thing. And it is very easy to get it, because others give it. You need not seek it, there is no search involved. That's why unless you become a seeker after the unknown, you have not yet become an individual. You are just a part of the crowd. You are just a mob.
When you don't have a real center, how can you be an individual?
The ego is not individual. Ego is a social phenomenon - it is society, its not you. But it gives you a function in the society, a hierarchy in the society. And if you remain satisfied with it, you will miss the whole opportunity of finding the self.
And that's why you are so miserable.
With a plastic life, how can you be happy?
With a false life, how can you be ecstatic and blissful? And then this ego creates many miseries, millions of them.
You cannot see, because it is your own darkness. You are attuned to it.
Have you ever noticed that all types of miseries enter through the ego? It cannot make you blissful; it can only make you miserable.
Ego is hell.
Whenever you suffer, just try to watch and analyze, and you will find, somewhere the ego is the cause of it. And the ego goes on finding causes to suffer.
You are an egoist, as everyone is. Some are very gross, just on the surface, and they are not so difficult. Some are very subtle, deep down, and they are the real problems.
This ego comes continuously in conflict with others because every ego is so unconfident about itself. Is has to be - it is a false thing. When you don't have anything in your hand and you just think that something is there, then there will be a problem.
If somebody says, "There is nothing," immediately the fight will start, because you also feel that there is nothing. The other makes you aware of the fact.
Ego is false, it is nothing.
That you also know.
How can you miss knowing it? It is impossible! A conscious being - how can he miss knowing that this ego is just false? And then others say that there is nothing - and whenever the others say that there is nothing they hit a wound, they say a truth - and nothing hits like the truth.
You have to defend, because if you don't defend, if you don't become defensive, then where will you be?
You will be lost.
The identity will be broken.
So you have to defend and fight - that is the clash.
A man who attains to the self is never in any clash. Others may come and clash with him, but he is never in clash with anybody.
It happened that one Zen master was passing through a street. A man came running and hit him hard. The master fell down. Then he got up and started to walk in the same direction in which he was going before, not even looking back.
A disciple was with the master. He was simply shocked. He said, "Who is this man? What is this? If one lives in such a way, then anybody can come and kill you. And you have not even looked at that person, who he is, and why he did it."
The master said, "That is his problem, not mine."
You can clash with an enlightened man, but that is your problem, not his. And if you are hurt in that clash, that too is your own problem. He cannot hurt you. And it is like knocking against a wall - you will be hurt, but the wall has not hurt you.
The ego is always looking for some trouble. Why? Because if nobody pays attention to you, the ego feels hungry.
It lives on attention.
So even if somebody is fighting and angry with you, that too is good because at least the attention is paid. If somebody loves, it is okay. If somebody is not loving you, then even anger will be good. At least the attention will come to you. But if nobody is paying any attention to you, nobody thinks that you are somebody important, significant, then how will you feed your ego?
Other's attention is needed.
In millions of ways you attract the attention of others; you dress in a certain way, you try to look beautiful, you behave, you become very polite, you change. When you feel what type of situation is there, you immediately change so that people pay attention to you.
This is a deep begging.
A real beggar is one who asks for and demands attention. And a real emperor is one who lives in himself; he has a center of his own, he doesn't depend on anybody else.
Buddha sitting under his bodhi tree...if the whole world suddenly disappears, will it make any difference to Buddha? -none. It will not make any difference at all. If the whole world disappears, it will not make any difference because he has attained to the center.
But you, if the wife escapes, divorces you, goes to somebody else, you are completely shattered - because she had been paying attention to you, caring, loving, moving around you, helping you to feel that you were somebody. Your whole empire is lost, you are simply shattered. You start thinking about suicide. Why? Why, if a wife leaves you, should you commit suicide? Why, if a husband leaves you, should you commit suicide? Because you don't have any center of your own. The wife was giving you the center; the husband was giving you the center.
This is how people exist. This is how people become dependent on others. It is a deep slavery. Ego HAS to be a slave. It depends on others. And only a person who has no ego is for the first time a master; he is no longer a slave. Try to understand this.
And start looking for the ego - not in others, that is not your business, but in yourself. Whenever you feel miserable, immediately close you eyes and try to find out from where the misery is coming and you will always find it is the false center which has clashed with someone.
You expected something, and it didn't happen.
You expected something, and just the contrary happened - your ego is shaken, you are in misery. Just look, whenever you are miserable, try to find out why.
Causes are not outside you. The basic cause is within you - but you always look outside, you always ask:
Who is making me miserable?
Who is the cause of my anger?
Who is the cause of my anguish?
And if you look outside you will miss.
Just close the eyes and always look within.
The source of all misery, anger, anguish, is hidden in you, your ego.
And if you find the source, it will be easy to move beyond it. If you can see that it is your own ego that gives you trouble, you will prefer to drop it - because nobody can carry the source of misery if he understands it.
And remember, there is no need to drop the ego.
You cannot drop it.
If you try to drop it, you will attain to a certain subtle ego again which says, "I have become humble."
Don't try to be humble. That's again ego in hiding - but it's not dead.
Don't try to be humble.
Nobody can try humility, and nobody can create humility through any effort of his own - no. When the ego is no more, a humbleness comes to you. It is not a creation. It is a shadow of the real center.
And a really humble man is neither humble nor egoistic.
He is simply simple.
He's not even aware that he is humble.
If you are aware that you are humble, the ego is there.
Look at humble persons.... There are millions who think that they are very humble. They bow down very low, but watch them - they are the subtlest egoists. Now humility is their source of food. They say, "I am humble," and then they look at you and they wait for you to appreciate them.
"You are really humble," they would like you to say. "In fact, you are the most humble man in the world; nobody is as humble as you are." Then see the smile that comes on their faces.
What is ego? Ego is a hierarchy that says, "No one is like me." It can feed on humbleness - "Nobody is like me, I am the most humble man."
It happened once:
A fakir, a beggar, was praying in a mosque, just early in the morning when it was still dark. It was a certain religious day for Mohammedians, and he was praying, and he was saying, "I am nobody. I am the poorest of the poor, the greatest sinner of sinners."
Suddenly there was one more person who was praying. He was the emperor of that country, and he was not aware that there was somebody else there who was praying - it was dark, and the emperor was also saying:
"I am nobody. I am nothing. I am just empty, a beggar at our door." When he heard that somebody else was saying the same thing, he said, "Stop! Who is trying to overtake me? Who are you? How dare you say before the emperor that you are nobody when he is saying that he is nobody?"
This is how the ego goes. It is so subtle. Its ways are so subtle and cunning; you have to be very, very alert, only then will you see it. Don't try to be humble. Just try to see that all misery, all anguish comes through it.
Just watch! No need to drop it.
You cannot drop it. Who will drop it? Then the DROPPER will become the ego. It always comes back.
Whatsoever you do, stand out of it, and look and watch.
Whatsoever you do - humbleness, humility, simplicity - nothing will help. Only one thing is possible, and that is just to watch and see that it is the source of all misery. Don't say it. Don't repeat it - WATCH. Because if I say it is the source of all misery and you repeat it, then it is useless. YOU have to come to that understanding. Whenever you are miserable, just close the eyes and don't try to find some cause outside. Try to see from where this misery is coming.
It is your own ego.
If you continuously feel and understand, and the understanding that the ego is the cause becomes so deep-rooted, one day you will suddenly see that it has disappeared. Nobody drops it - nobody can drop it. You simply see; it has simply disappeared, because the very understanding that ego causes all misery becomes the dropping. THE VERY UNDERSTANDING IS THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE EGO.
And you are so clever in seeing the ego in others. Anybody can see someone else's ego. When it comes to your own, then the problem arises - because you don't know the territory, you have never traveled on it.
The whole path towards the divine, the ultimate, has to pass through this territory of the ego. The false has to be understood as false. The source of misery has to be understood as the source of misery - then it simply drops.
When you know it is poison, it drops. When you know it is fire, it drops. When you know this is the hell, it drops.
And then you never say, "I have dropped the ego." Then you simply laugh at the whole thing, the joke that you were the creator of all misery.
I was just looking at a few cartoons of Charlie Brown. In one cartoon he is playing with blocks, making a house out of children's blocks. He is sitting in the middle of the blocks building the walls. Then a moment comes when he is enclosed; all around he has made a wall. Then he cries, "Help, help!"
He has done the whole thing! Now he is enclosed, imprisoned. This is childish, but this is all that you have done also. You have made a house all around yourself, and now you are crying, "Help, help!" And the misery becomes a millionfold - because there are helpers who are also in the same boat.
It happened that one very beautiful woman went to see her psychiatrist for the first time. The psychiatrist said, "Come closer please." When she came closer, he simply jumped and hugged and kissed the woman. She was shocked. Then he said, "Now sit down. This takes care of my problem, now what is your problem?"
The problem becomes multifold, because there are helpers who are in the same boat. And they would like to help, because when you help somebody the ego feels very good, very, very good - because you are a great helper, a great guru, a master; you are helping so many people. The greater the crowd of your followers, the better you feel.
But you are in the same boat - you cannot help.
Rather, you will harm.
People who still have their own problems cannot be of much help. Only someone who has no problems of his own can help you. Only then is there the clarity to see, to see through you. A mind that has no problems of its own can see you, you become transparent.
A mind that has no problems of its own can see through itself; that's why it becomes capable of seeing through others.
In the West, there are many schools of psychoanalysis, many schools, and no help is reaching people, but rather, harm. Because the people who are helping others, or trying to help, or posing as helpers, are in the same boat.
...It is difficult to see one's own ego.
It is very easy to see other's egos. But that is not the point, you cannot help them.
Try to see your own ego.
Just watch it.
Don't be in a hurry to drop it, just watch it. The more you watch, the more capable you will become. Suddenly one day, you simply see that it has dropped. And when it drops by itself, only then does it drop. There is no other way. Prematurely you cannot drop it.
It drops just like a dead leaf.
The tree is not doing anything - just a breeze, a situation, and the dead leaf simply drops. The tree is not even aware that the dead leaf has dropped. It makes no noise, it makes no claim - nothing.
The dead leaf simply drops and shatters on the ground, just like that.
When you are mature through understanding, awareness, and you have felt totally that ego is the cause of all your misery, simply one day you see the dead leaf dropping.
It settles into the ground, dies of its own accord. You have not done anything so you cannot claim that you have dropped it. You see that it has simply disappeared, and then the real center arises.
And that real center is the soul, the self, the god, the truth, or whatsoever you want to call it.
It is nameless, so all names are good.
You can give it any name of your own liking.
From Beyond the Frontier of the Mind by Osho
within...
“What lies behind us
and what lies ahead of us
are tiny matters
compared to what lives within us.”
― Henry David Thoreau
to be yourself...
To be yourself,
in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else
is the greatest accomplishment.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
free will...
What we call our voluntary actions are in
fact involuntary,
and our supposed personal
free will is nothing but an ineffectual and
temporary obstruction to the natural,
involuntary workings of the universe.
But
even our false assumption of volition is as
involuntary as everything else and can only
fall off when we have involuntarily seen it as
fake.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
what is world sanity?...
The world is a group illusion created by group consciousness..
to exist in this world of illusion, a matrix of belief is created by those egoic entities that control the minds of the world consciousness..
these entities worship the god of egoic consciousness..
this is a false god of selfishness and division..
"Thou will have no false gods before Me", says the Voice of Reality..
Your work within this illusion is to awaken from this dream of non-reality..
Will selfishness and ego lead you into the shadows of darkness?..
Or will the non-selfishness called Love lead you into Reality?..
You have been through this experience many times through the experience called reincarnation..
You continue this non-sense of reincarnation because you believe that You are the illusion called ego..
How many lifetimes will it take before You Realize that You are not the illusion?..
I can only shake your cage,
Only You, can wake up...
namaste, thomas
Knowledge and Action...
"To know and not to do is not to know."
Wang Yang-Ming
"Knowledge without action is not knowledge."
Hujwiri
"But be ye doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving your own selves."
_James_ 1:22
"There is a big difference between a scholar and a holy man."
Sri Ramakrishna
"Wisdom without action hath its seat in the mouth; but by means of action, it
becometh fixed in the heart."
Shekel Hakodesh
in Whitall N. Perry
_A Treasury of Traditional Wisdom_
Varanasi: Indica, 1998, (1971), p. 745-748
You are the Teacher...
Think more deeply than the conventional mass of guru-followers,
dare to do and you will come to perceive that in the end there is only one Teacher for each man,
his own Overself;
that all other and outer gurus are merely channels which IT uses.
"It is He who lives inside and speaks through the outer guru's voice,"
declares a Tibetan text.
Why not go direct to the source?
— Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest > Chapter 6: Student-Teacher > # 821
Paul Brunton
Religionists...
Religionists do not know Thy mercy as we know it.
A stranger cannot know Thee as a friend.
Thou saidst: "Sin, and I shall cast thee into Hell!"
Tell that to the person who does not know Thee!
--Omar Khayyam
as collected by Idries Shah
mental current...
"To direct the mental current towards the basic unity
of all things
and to divert it from the observation of
differences is 'Observance" (_niyama_);
therein lies
transcendent bliss.
It should be practiced regularly
by the wise."
_Tejo-bindu Upanishad_, 1.18
in Whitall N. Perry
_A Treasury of Traditional Wisdom_
Varanasi: Indica, 1998 (1971). p. 153
simply be quiet...
The sense of attainment of objects of
desires also will not give happiness.
This
gives bondage.
It is absence of desire
which brings Happiness.
It is only desire
which disturbs eternal Peace and Rest.
This desire is the disease of mind, live
without it, and be Happy.
Happiness is true
Self and is always Here.
The prescription
for this Happiness is to simply be Quiet.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
Pure Knowledge...
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
provisional ego...
"To avoid inaction on the one hand and pride of action on the other, it is
necessary for the aspirant to construct in the following manner a provisional
and working ego which will be entirely subservient to the Master.
Before
beginning anything, the aspirant thinks that it is not he who is doing it, but
the Master who is getting it done through him. After doing it he does not tarry
to claim the results of action or enjoy them, but becomes free of them by
offering them to the Master.
By training his mind in this spirit he succeeds in
creating a new ego which, though provisional and working, is amply able to
become a source of that confidence, feeling, enthusiasm and "go" which true
action must express.
This new ego is spiritually harmless, since it derives its
life and being from the Master who represents Infinity, and since, when the time
comes, it can be thrown away like a garment.
There are thus two types of
egos'
”one which can only add to the
limitations of the soul, and the other which helps towards emancipation.
The
passage through the limiting ego of the worldly man to the egolessness of the
infinite life lies through the construction of the provisional ego generated
through wholehearted allegiance to the Master.
The construction of a new ego
which is entirely subservient to the Master is indispensable to the dynamics of
spiritual advancement."
Meher Baba
_Discourses_
San Francsico: Sufism Reoriented, 6th. ed., 1967, vol. 2, pp. 179-180
personality as myth...
It is hard to look upon the reality of one's own personality as a myth.
Few are likely even to make the attempt, so undesirable does it seem.
And there would be small chance of success if there were not a concurrent attempt at discovering the reality of the Overself,
which is to displace the myth.
— Notebooks Category 8: The Ego > Chapter 1: What Am I? > # 22
Paul Brunton
The hologram of illusion...
This illusion of reality is really just a dream from Consciousness..
We are Consciousness..
Creative Thought..
We have grasped onto the Personality of this Creative Thought and call ourselves
Divine Consciousness because It is endless and creates from the energy of
Light..
We are Divine because We are One, without another..
There is no separation except the separation of dream from Pure Awareness..
When there is no longer a need for a 'We', All Energy forming this Creative
Dream is absorbed back into Pure Thought..
As a wise Rabbi once said; " you must die to be born"..
This applies to the dream and beyond the dream..
As above, so below..
namaste, thomas
Seer and Seen...
You are Divine Consciousness which is the Creator of the Dreams and illusions..
When, You have finally surrendered the egoic consciousness of being God and give
all that You are to the Universe, You return as Energy to Pure Awareness..
Pure Awareness has no notion of Itself..
There is no Duality to see something else..
You are Pure Thought without any seer or seen..
This is why Divine Consciousness was thought into existence..
To act as the Seer and the Seen..
namaste, thomas
the gospel of thomas...
"Jesus said: '... the kingdom is inside you and it is
outside you too.
You will discover this if you come to
know yourselves, and you will realize that you are
children of the living Father.
But if you do not know
who you are, you live in poverty and you are that
poverty.'"
"When you make the two, one, and when you make the
inner as the outer and the outer as the inner, and the
upper as the lower, ... then you will enter [the
kingdom]."
Jesus
_The Gospel of Thomas_
Saying 3, 22
Silence is Light...
The Teacher is one who knows the Truth
and
can transmit this Truth to a humble one by look,
by touch, by thought,
or as Arunachala does, by
Silence.
This Silence is the Light that does not
move.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
This quotation is from:
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
a few words...
Most of the quotes and teachings have about ten to twelve readers thoughout the world but one posting of only a few lines have already reached 195 readers..
the word... strange, enters my mind..
these fewest of sentences are grasped by more than any other quote or teaching..
below is the quote..
''''''''
"Human birth,
the desire for liberation,
and the
company of the wise are rare thing on this earth.
Those who are blest with all three are the most
favored of men.
Sri Shankaracharya
in Whitall N. Perry
_A Treasury of Traditional Wisdom_
Varanasi: Indica, 1998 (1971), p. 261
........................
birth,liberation, and wise humans, draw the most response..
how strange that these few words draw so many to think and read..
perhaps, it only requires a few words to enter Enlightenment...
namaste, thomas
giving limitlessly...
When you have understood that all existence,
in separation and limitation, is painful, and
when you are willing and able to live integrally,
in oneness with all life, as pure being, you have
gone beyond all need of help.
You can help another
by precept and example and, above all, by your
being.
You cannot give what you do not have and
you don't have what you are not.
You can only give
what you are - and of that you can give limitlessly.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
stillness...
"I went to see Nuri. I saw him sitting in meditation
so motionless that not even one hair moved.
I asked, 'From whom did you learn such deep
meditation?'
'I learned it from a cat waiting by a mouse hole. The
cat was much stiller than I.'"
Al-Shibli
in Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
_Travelling the Sufi Path of Love: Sayings of Sufi Masters_
Inverness, CA: Golden Sufi Center, 1995, p. 83
Overself...
When we experience Mind through the senses we call it matter.
When we experience it through imagination or thinking we call it idea.
When we experience it as it is in its own pure being,
we call it Spirit, or better, Overself.
— Notebooks Category 28: The Alone > Chapter 2: Our Relation To the Absolute > # 134
Paul Brunton
myself...
When Thou didst sit upon Thy throne, with a crown upon Thy head, I did prostrate
myself upon the ground and called Thee my lord.
When Thou didst stretch out Thy
hands in blessing over me, I knelt and called Thee my master.
When Thou didst
raise me from the ground, holding me with Thine arms, I drew closer to Thee and
called Thee my beloved.
But when Thy caressing hands held my head next to Thy glowing heart and Thou
didst kiss me, I smiled and called Thee myself.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged By
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
awake and free...
"Part of awakening, if it is true and authentic,
is the gift of freedom to the whole world.
Upon awakening, freedom is given to everybody.
True freedom isn’t simply ‘I’m free.’
True freedom is ‘Everything is free.’
This means everybody has the freedom to be who they are
– whether they are awake or not awake, deluded or not deluded."
Adyashanti
the Buddha Mind...
That's all you have to do - just abide in that
stillness.
If you know how to be with that stillness without
looking for
anything else then that stillness is no longer just a
stillness and
that stillness is the Buddha Mind, it is the luminous
awareness.
In that stillness you are going to discover your true
nature.
The discovery of your true nature is the true
liberation, is the
bodhi, is the great awakening.
- Tulku Thubten Rinpoche
witnessing presence...
To "watch the thinker"
is another way of saying:
listen to the voice in your head,
be there as the
witnessing presence.
- Eckhart Tolle
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Power of Now"
Eckhart Tolle
New World Library, 1999
a book's cover..
Who is this being?..
that speaks so strange..
the clothes do not match the voice..
he speaks of the invisible and yet all we see is real..
thinking is laborious and painful for the masses..
and yet, he takes enjoyment and delight within this consciousness..
what a strange old man!..
what is real and what is illusion?..
what are likes and dislikes?..
the seer has no likes or dislikes says the voice..
the rain continues it's dominance on the world and the world hides within a room..
the sun will appear and the light will shine his face upon this book..
the book remains closed for those without adventure..
namaste, thomas
simple awareness...
"It's true that you are probably engaging in some activity or other in this present moment.
For example, right now you are reading these words on this page.
What you are doing in the present moment is constantly going to be changing.
You may set aside this book and take a drink of water, eat something, or go answer the phone.
But whatever you happen to be doing, the most basic sense of existence is always about being.
Being is always the very simple reality of your conscious awareness in this present moment.
The `doing' of the present moment is always obviously secondary to simply being.
Now I am reading; now I am taking a drink of water; now I am eating something; now I am talking on the phone.
What is the one common factor in every one of these statements? Isn't it the now I am? The now I am precedes any particular doing.
The now I am is the substratum, the most basic underlying reality that makes possible all the varied, ever-changing human experiences or doings.
Before we are anything else—a man, a woman, old, young, well or sick—we are a human being.
So, there you go.
The mystery is solved.
Who you are is being itself, simple awareness in the here and now."
p.67
Francis Bennett
I Am That I Am
Non-Duality Press
Dispassion...
Dispassion doesn't mean to separate oneself from
people but to understand that this world is not real.
Dispassion is attachment to God.
When a yogi gets dispassion, he sometimes gets
the thought to leave the body. But to leave the body
by being in the body is real dispassion.
Dispassion is a state of mind in which one can live
in desires without desire.
- Baba Hari Dass
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Silence Speaks
Sri Rama Foundation
Santa Cruz, California 1977
Psalms...
When I move (from my own thoughts) to experiencing You,
You immeasurably enlarge my understanding.
Turn my eyes from looking at illusion,
And give me life in Your Way
It is good that I was afflicted,
That I might learn the higher Teaching
I will never forget Your teachings,
for through them You have come alive within me.
--Psalm 119: 32, 37, 71, 40
we sit alone...
we sit alone and think..
how many are awake?..
many are alive, but how many are awake?..
do they know, that we are the same thinker?..
do they know that we are dreaming?..
do they know that our desires become real?..
so many thoughts for consciousness to ponder..
Is this only a game for consciousness?..
good and bad become a tennis game of thoughts..
'straight is the way and narrow is the gate' is proclaimed by one that is wise..
'pearls before swine' become a mantra of wisdom..
who throws a rope to a survivor?..
perhaps, it is ourselves that saves ourselves...
namaste, thomas
God-realization...
It is not by self-realization that man realizes God,
it is by God-realization
that man realizes self.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged By
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
an ocean of consciousness...
Realize yourself as the ocean of consciousness
in which all happens.
This is not difficult.
A
little of attentiveness,
of close observation of
oneself,
and you will see that no event is outside
your consciousness.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
silent amid agitation...
"It is true that the voice of God,
having once fully penetrated the heart,
becomes strong as the tempest and loud as the thunder.
But before reaching the
heart it is as weak as a light breath which scarcely agitates the air.
It
shrinks from noise, and is silent amid agitation."
St. Ignatius of Loyola
in Carol Kelly-Gangi
_The Essential Wisdom of the Saints_
NY: Fall River Press, 2008, p. 3
Union...
"The first step is to say,
"God,"
and nothing else;
the second is intimacy;
and the third is to burn."
'Attar
in Robert Frager, Ph.D.
_Heart, Self & Soul:
The Sufi Psychology of Growth,Balance, and Harmony_
Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 1999, p. 207
redemption...
The human being will bring about its own redemption,
if only we would allow it to do so.
But instead we
hypnotize the mind with ideas that may suit other
persons but are unsuited to us,
we practise techniques
that warp our proper development,
we follow leaders
who know only the way they have themselves walked and
who insist on crowding all seekers on it regardless of
suitability,
and we join groups which obstruct our
special line of natural growth.
— Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest >
Chapter 5: Self-Development > # 203
Paul Brunton
Tao Te Ching...
If you realize that all things change,
there is nothing you will try to hold on to.
If you aren't afraid of dying,
there is nothing you can't achieve.
Trying to control the future
is like trying to take the master carpenter's place.
When you handle the master carpenter's tools,
chances are that you'll cut yourself.
(Tao Te Ching, trans. by Stephen Mitchell)
the answer...
you want the answer to all answers..
It cannot be done while in the dream..
in separation, there is no unified vision of Reality..
there is Consciousness within all of the dream, but, the levels are different
according to experience..
why is there concern about Knowing?..
Knowing is soon enough..
just living is enough for Now..
seeking is the ego exploring..
Love is Reality exploring..
namaste, thomas
the Great Mystery...
When “what isn’t” is chosen over “what is,”
then things appear to move.
Movement, however, doesn’t necessarily mean
that things are changing, and it certainly doesn’t
mean that anything is being “improved.”
The Great Mystery is discovered only in seeing
the inaction within the action and, at the same
time, seeing the action within the inaction.
- Chuck Hillig
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Seeds for the Soul
Chuck Hillig
Black Dot Publications, 2003
World-Mind...
World-Mind is only a function of Mind.
It is not a separate entity.
There is only one Life-Power, not two.
Hence it is wrong to say that World-Mind arises within Mind,
as I said in The Wisdom of the Overself.
Similarly of the Overself;
it too is a different function of the same Mind.
— Notebooks Category 28: The Alone > Chapter 1: Absolute Mind > # 51
Paul Brunton
our eternal nature...
However it is important to understand that there is nothing to
acquire,
but only an error to be exposed,
because acquiring
necessarily involves using,
and so strengthening that spurious 'I'
whose dissolution we require.
For this merely a readjustment is
needed,
such readjustment being the abandonment of identification with
an inexistent individual self,
an abandonment which leaves us
unblindfold and awake in our eternal nature.
Wei Wu Wei
Fear is a Choice...
you are here, because you are seeking the 'meaning of life'.
the meaning of life is non-attachment to life..
non-attachment to life, body, other humans, home, habits, egoic consciousness, etc..
the atttachment to these desires and the knowledge that they will end, brings the pain of Fear..
Fear is that which keeps the egoic consciousness trapped within Karma and Reincarnation..
You are not egoic consciousness and therefore, You cannot feel Fear..
but, you do not Realize this yet..
and this is why, you still feel the pain of Fear..
Love contains no Fear..
meditate upon this..
Love contains no ego..
meditate upon this..
God is Love,
You are Love...
namaste, thomas
Infinite Love...
"The best of all forces which can overcome all difficulties on the way is the
love that knows how to give without need to bargain for a return.
Pure love is
matchless in majesty.
It has no parallel in power and there is no darkness it
cannot dispel.
God only listens to the language of the heart and its message of
love, which needs no ceremony or show; only silent devotion for the Beloved.
"God is not understood in His essence until He is also understood as Infinite
Love.
Divine Love is unlimited in essence and expression, because it is
experienced by the soul through the soul itself.
The sojourn of the soul is a
thrilling divine romance in which the lover, who in the beginning is conscious
of nothing but emptiness, frustration, superficiality and the gnawing chains of
bondage,
gradually attains an increasingly fuller and freer expression of love
and ultimately disappears and merges in the Divine Beloved to realize the unity
of the Lover and the Beloved in the supreme and eternal fact of God as Infinite
Love."
Meher Baba
in Bhau Kalchuri
_Lord Meher_, Vol. 20
Asheville, NC: MANifestation, 2001, p. 6653
a garment for Consciousness...
When a man is busy in earnest,
he is unconscious of his pain.
I mention this insensibility to pain
so you may know how much the body
resembles a garment.
Go, seek the one who wears it;
don't kiss a piece of cloth.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
philosopher and mystic...
It must be clearly understood that it is only the philosophical
quest,
the path of the Bodhisattva, which we advocate here,
which is
threefold.
The mystical quest is not.
It is simpler.
It requires only
a single qualification--meditation practice.
But it gives only a
single fruit--inner peace-
-whereas the threefold quest yields a
threefold fruit:
(1) peace, (2) the intellectual ability to instruct
others, (3) service.
If therefore philosophy calls for a greater
effort than mysticism, it compensates by its greater result.
And
whereas the mystical result is primarily an individual benefit, the
philosophical result is both an individual and social one.
— Perspectives > Chapter 1: Overview of the Quest > # 42
Paul Brunton
separation...
Everybody sees the world through the idea he has of himself.
As you think yourself to be, so you think the world to be.
If you imagine yourself as separate from the world,
the world will appear as separate from you and you will
experience desire and fear.
I do not see the world as
separate from me and so there is nothing for me to desire, or fear.
Nisargadatta Maharaj
one sublime vision...
"The soul comes to a stage of realization
where the whole of life
becomes to
him one sublime vision of the immanence of God."
Hazrat Inayat Khan
_The Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan_, Vol. 14, "Aphorisms"
progress...
The surest sign of spiritual progress is a total
lack of concern about progress.
There is an utter
absence of anxiety about anything like liberation
and a sort of hollowness in one's being,
a kind of
looseness and involuntary surrender to whatever
might happen.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
the One Mind...
The One Mind
is experiencing itself in us,
less in the ego-shadow and fully in the Overself,
hardly aware in that shadow and self-realized in the light that casts it...
— Notebooks Category 28: The Alone > Chapter 1: Absolute Mind > # 24
Paul Brunton
mark of a christian...
Not only in the words you say,
not only in your deeds confessed,
but in the most unconscious way
is Christ expressed!
Is it a beatific smile, the holy light upon your brow?
Oh no, I felt his presence when you laughed just now!
To me twas not the truth you taught,
To you so clear, to me still dim.
But when you came to me you brought
a sense of him!
And from your eyes he beckons me.
And from your lips his love is shed
til I lose sight of you and see
the Christ instead!...
~from the poem, Mark of a Christian, by an unknown British author.
only one truth...
"In all ten directions of the universe,
there is only one truth.
When we see
clearly,
the great teachings are the same."
Ryokan
in Stephen Mitchell
_The Essence of Wisdom:
Words from the Masters to Illuminate the Spiritual Path_
NY: Broadway Books, 1998, p. 89
manifestation...
Everything that you see, are photons that appear as solid
manifestation..
why does God Dream?..
why do we dream?..
Dreaming is Consciousness exploring..
manifestation is a dream from God and since We are this Consciousness called God, We also have the ability to manifest according to our belief in this ability..
This is how miracles occur..
How did Jesus and His Apostles perform miracles and how did Jesus appear and disappear?..
Because, Consciousness has the ability to change the photons into an illusion of manifestation that can be perceived by the frequencies that are available to the eye..
All is a hologram caused by Consciousness..
namaste, thomas
thoughts are waves...
All thoughts and emotions are not real.
They are
like the waves that dance on the surface of the ocean
for a few seconds or minutes and then they return to
where they have arisen from.
Then they are no more
wave, but they are ocean.
How long can a wave keep
its form as a separate personality?
Papaji
dispassion and detachment...
"What you need will come to you
if you do not ask for what you do not
need.
Yet only few people reach this state of complete dispassion and
detachment.
It is a very high state,
the very threshold of liberation."
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
footprints of the Friend...
Do not be flattered by reason,
reason is only
the child of the mind.
But true friendship
is born out of love and
is the water of life.
The footprints of the Friend
are all over the world.
Follow them and walk into life.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Rumi: Hidden Music
Translated by Azima Melita Kolin
and Maryam Mafi
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001
the dissolved ego...
Vernon Howard's
SECRETS OF LIFE
**********************************************************************
"If I don't have a compulsive need to appear successful,
what do I care if you
make more money than I?
If I have no unhealthy attraction to shallow social
functions, does it bother me if I get no invitations?
If I have freedom from
fearful dependency upon persons and objects,
will I be pained if you no longer
wish to be my friend?
If my artificial needs fall away through self- insight, do
I need to think about these things at all?
No.
If my false sense of 'I' has dissolved, who is there to suffer or complain?"
Pathways to Perfect Living, p. 51
in every atom...
The whole is implanted in every part entirely -
every cell of the body contains the totality of
the personality biologically.
If you take one
cell of the body you can study the whole of
the person,
it contains the reflection of the
total personality.
Likewise, the whole
Cosmic Being is reflected in every man
- nay, in every atom.
- Swami Krishnananda
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Facets of Spirituality
Complied by S. Bhagyalakshmi
Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1986
selfishness...
"The more mine and I,
that is to say I-attachment and selfishness, recede,
the
more God's I,
that is God Himself,
increases in me."
_Theologia Germanica_
Bengt Hoffman, Tr.
NY: Paulist Press, 1980, p. 79
Be that State...
The state we call realization is simply being one’s self,
not knowing anything or
becoming anything.
If one has realized,
he is that which alone is and which alone has
always been.
He cannot describe that state, he can only be that.
~Ramana Maharshi
Ram Tzu Speaks...
Ram Tzu is a madman...
He rants and raves
Spits, shouts
Waves his arms and
Talks gibberish.
All to get the attention
Of phantoms.
The authorities take
A dim view
O such behavior --
Ask Jesus.
If Ram Tzu were clever
He would lay low.
No one likes
Their existence questioned --
It’s disturbing.
If you don’t like
Ram Tzu’s ravings
Take heart...
His disciples will eventually
Render him palatable.
- Ram Tzu
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
No Way for the Spiritually "Advanced"
Ram Tzu
Advaita Press, 1990
the mind focused...
The mind turned inwards is the Self;
turned
outwards,
it becomes the ego and all the
world.
Cotton made into various clothes we
call by various names.
Gold made into various
ornaments, we call by various names.
But all
the clothes are cotton and all the ornaments
gold.
The one is real, the many are mere names
and forms.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"Be As You Are"
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
edited by David Godman
Arkana, 1985
no thought...
He thinks without thinking,
He feels without feeling
He is intelligent
But he has no mind.
He has personality
But with no thought for himself
Ashtavakra Gita
Thomas Byrom, trans
Love is Self...
Questioner: "Love postulates duality. How can the Self be the object of love?
Maharshi: "Love is not different from the Self.
Love of an object is of a lower
type and cannot endure,
whereas the Self is Love.
God is Love."
Sri Ramana Maharshi
in _Teachings of Yoga_
Translated and edited by Georg Feuerstein
Boston: Shambhala, 1997, p. 139
every living moment...
Unconscious people read the scriptures
like parrots saying Ram, Ram,
in their cages.
It's all pretend-knowledge.
Read rather, with me, every
living moment as prophecy.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop, 1992
Who is Awake ?...
"The ego does not awaken;
the ‘me’ does not awaken.
We are not the ego; we are not the ‘me.’
We are that which is awake to the world,
and we are the whole world as well, when seen from the true perspective."
"It is not ‘me’ that is enlightened.
It is not the person that is enlightened.
It is enlightenment that is enlightened…
Everything must be verified for and in oneself."..
Adyashanti
live by truth alone...
Learn to live without self-concern.
For
this you must know your own true being
(swarupa) as indomitable, fearless, ever
victorious.
Once you know with absolute
certainty that nothing can trouble you but
your own imagination,
you come to disregard
your desires and fears, concepts and ideas
and live by truth alone.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
from long to short path...
The average man is the victim of his own past,
the slave of his personal history.
He is conditioned by its thinking,
molded by its disciplines,
and dominated by its traditions.
Its influence fades all too slowly.
This is why the transition from the Long to the Short Path is so often the consequence of some unusual upheaval or some mesmeric contact.
— Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 4: The Changeover To the Short Path > # 114
Paul Brunton
devotion of thought...
When we devote ourselves to the thought of God, all illumination and revelation
is ours.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
The whole aim of the Sufi is, by thought of God, to cover his imperfect self
even from his own eyes, and that moment when God is before him and not his own
self, is the moment of perfect bliss to him. My Murshid, Abu Hashim Madani, once
said that there is only one virtue and one sin for a soul on the path: virtue
when he is conscious of God and sin when he is not. No explanation can fully
describe the truth of this except the experience of the contemplative to whom,
when he is conscious of God, it is as if a window facing heaven were open, and
to whom, wherein he is conscious of the self, the experience is the opposite.
For all the tragedy of life is caused by being conscious of the self. All pain
and depression is caused by this, and anything that can take away the thought of
the self helps to a certain extent to relieve man from pain, but
God-consciousness gives perfect relief.
The Sufi realizes the truth of his being, and his whole life becomes an attitude
of prayer, in spite of his free thought and his rising above good and bad, right
and wrong. When a person loves, he may be in the crowd, and yet be unaware of
those around him, being absorbed in the thought of the beloved. And so it is
with the love of God. He who loves God may be in the crowd, yet, being in the
thought of God he is in seclusion. To such a person the crowd makes no
difference. Sadi says, 'Prayer is the expansion of the limited being to the
unlimited, the drawing closer of the soul to God.' ... those who realize the
truth of their being, they recognize their God ideal in all of His creation.
They see their divine Beloved in all manifestations, in every name and form.
The ultimate freedom of the soul is gained by concentration, by meditation, by
contemplation, and realization. What concentration is needed for the freedom of
the soul? The concentration on that object which is prescribed by one's
spiritual teacher, that by the thought of that particular object one may be able
to forget oneself for a moment. And then what contemplation is necessary? The
contemplation that 'this, my limited self, is no longer myself but God's own
instrument, God's temple, which is made in order that the Name of God be
glorified'. What meditation is required? The meditation on the thought of God,
the Being of God, forgetting absolutely one's limited self. And the realization
is this, that then whatever voice comes to one is God's voice, every guidance is
God's guidance, every impulse is divine impulse, every action is done by God. It
is in this way that the soul is made free, and in the freedom of the soul lies
the purpose of life.
Is not God enough for our souls, and is He not sufficient to inspire us and to
illuminate our wills and guide our souls? Is He any less of a friend here or in
the spirit life? He is the great well-wisher. In Him mercy is complete. He is
the Soul of all souls. When we devote ourselves to the thought of Him, all
illumination and revelation are ours.
the Tao...
"One who has attained the Tao is master of himself,
and the universe is dissolved for him."
Tu Lung
in Whitall N. Perry
_A Treasury of Traditional Wisdom_
Varanasi: Indica, 1998 (1971), p. 905
superimposed freedom...
There is no attainment and no cultivation
of original nature.
You are Consciousness,
not a farmer!
Why work for that which you
already are?
Do not mentate, do not stir a
thought.
Trying to get out of superimposed
bondage,
which is the notion that you are
separate from Existence,
you will land in
superimposed freedom.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
Thought is the servant of the Mind...
In non-duality, there are many words written about us being 'I Am'..
This is good knowledge for the beginning of the journey..
But, 'I Am' is the God of Creation that is composed of the Energy of Love, Light, and Consciousness..
Is this the end of the Journey?..
Who was It that said; " Let there be Light" ?..
It is 'Source',
That without a name..
Pure Intelligence with thoughts that ponder..
That Energy without form or ego..
That Energy that is Us, when we have given all that we are to Source..
We exist as the Energy of Thought and Love without any personal identity or memory..
Contemplate upon this Reality of Nothingness and lose your self...
namaste, thomas
let us examine the dream...
We find outselves within a dream of pain and abandonment..
Where are We and why are We here?..
We are here to examine the concept of Duality..
Right and wrong, up and down.. in and out..
What a strange ride we are on.
We are Consciousness and yet we volunteer to feel the pain of duality..
Why do We do this?..
Perhaps, curiousity and knowledge is the answer..
Perhaps, having the identity of a separate entity entices us..
Whatever reason that We feel as Consciousness, is strong enough for manifestation of that Thought..
Whatever Wish that we think of is good enought for an illusion of reality..
That is the Power that We possess..
I could speak of the evil that controls this world and the name that it is called,
but, my goal of a paragraph to transfer knowledge is already passed...
namaste, thomas
' I Am God'...
"Philosophers, atheists and others may affirm or refute the existence of God,
but as long as they do not deny the very existence of their own being they
continue to testify to their belief in God
- for I tell you with divine
authority, that God is Existence, eternal and infinite.
He is EVERYTHING.
"Whether man knows it or not, there is for him only one aim in life,
and
eventually he realizes this when he consciously experiences his own eternal and
infinite state of 'I Am God.'"
Meher Baba
_Life At Its Best_
Sufism Reoriented, 1957, p. 13
form and emptiness...
Pao-t'ung says;
"Form and emptiness are the same.
From the buddhas above down to the smallest insect below, every creature is basically empty.
This form cannot be seen by the eyes.
Only true emptiness can see it.
And this form cannot be heard by the ears.
Only true emptiness can hear it.
The myriad things we know and feel all depend on our six senses.
But form and emptiness are not separate."
From The Heart Sutra commentaries by Red Pine
Counterpoint Press
1919 Fifth St.
Berkeley, CA
Ram Tzu speaks...
Ram Tzu knows this...
You are caught
In a web of beliefs.
You spin them from
Your own abdomen
They are made from
The substance of your self.
You believe in
Your own power.
You consider yourself
The Source.
Even though
When under duress
You pay lip service
To an all powerful God.
You believe in
The supremacy of technique.
You are convinced that if
You can but manage...
Your mind
Your money
Your breath
Your energy
Your body
Your faith
Your relationships
Your prayers
You will unlock the door
To peace, happiness and contentment.
Guess again.
OM...
My body caught fire like an ember,
as I brought the syllable OM,
the one that says "You are That,"
into me.
I moved through
the six chakra centers
that urge human beings to action
and out into the lightedness
where Lalla lives now.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
amused by the drama...
When Source feels the drama of the human predicament with all its contractions, limitations, and infinite diversity, the overall sensation comes closest to our English word 'amusement'. It is experienced with great humor and a sense of aliveness in contrast to Its normal state of infinite expansion at rest.
We don't yet have detailed enough words to adequately express this phenomenon, but the dictionary defines 'amusement' as "engaging the attention in a manner that keeps one interested or engrossed in a laughter-provoking, light, or frivolous way." Sure sounds like Source to me! Amusement only makes perfect sense when you feel the Oneness rather than the separation.
In the third dimension, everything in relation to God is felt as oh-so-serious. In the fourth dimension, my experience of how Source operates is all playful, amusing, with an infinite sense of humor in Its diversity.
Maybe the old concept of Jehovah conditioned our minds to regard God as anything but playful or amusing unto Itself. But I have to tell you, this is the quintessence of Source in my story.
~ From: Onions to Pearls, by Satyam Nadeen. www.satyamnadeen.com
waking...
"It is universal Spirit or universal consciousness that wakes up to itself
…what we are wakes from the ‘me.’
What we are wakes up from the seeker.
What we are wakes up from the seeking."..
Adyashanti
insight...
Only those who are able to see their own
face
without a mirror will be able to see
their true nature.
What kind of seeing is
this?
To see without the mirror is to see
not with eyes seeing objects
but as THAT
which sees.
It is the in-seeing or insight
by Consciousness itself in which there is
no one who is seeing.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
the fear of death...
the ego fears everything, especially death..
this is why we fear everything..
what is rarely spoken or thought of by the ego in it's constant ambition for continuence of life is that the most painful death is old age..
disease, blindness, deafness, inability to walk,
the slow ticks of the clock which brings physical pain..
and yet, in our younger years, we fear death most of all..
as it is often spoken in jest;
" Everyone wants to go to Heaven, but no one wants to die"..
I believe that it is time that we laugh in the face of death and ego..
We do not really die..
you already knew that, but death still haunts you..
What is the answer?..
Live each day as though, it is your last..
you will never feel more alive...
namaste, thomas
governed their minds...
"The homes of householders
who have governed their minds
and have banished their
sense of egoism
are as good as solitary forests,
cool caves or peaceful woods."
_Yoga Vasishtha_
in Ram Dass
_Journey of Awakening: A Meditator's Guidebook_
NY: Bantam, 1990 (1978), p. 129
no opposition...
To divide and particularize is in the mind's
very nature.
There is no harm in dividing.
But separation goes against fact.
Things
and people are different, but they are not
separate.
Nature is one, reality is one.
There are opposites, but no opposition.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
control of mind...
Those who have given deep thoughts to the world are those who have controlled
the activity of their minds.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
He is thoughtful whose mind is directed by his will, whose mind fulfills his
intentions, whose mind is under the control of his intention. ... Only those who
have controlled the activity of their minds have given deep thoughts to the
world. Those whose minds are working mechanically like a machine, or just
reflecting the activity of those around them, may appear to be living beings,
but the mystic would say differently; for it is not till a person has gained
mastery over his mind, till he is above this activity, that he is a ruling
power, a true person.
When we think about it, we find that all the things that are accomplished in
this world are accomplished by the power of mind. ... Whatever man creates in
science, in art, in phenomena or wonder making, in poetry, in music, in
pictures, in everything that he brings into being, is all achieved by the power
of mind. ... If he does not control his mind, he is not a master but a slave. It
lies with his own mind whether he shall be master, or whether he shall be slave.
He is slave when he neglects to be master; he is master if he cares to be
master.
Mastery lies not merely in stilling the mind, but in directing it towards
whatever point we desire, in allowing it to be active as far as we wish, in
using it to fulfill our purpose, in causing it to be still when we want to still
it. He who has come to this has created his heaven within himself; he has no
need to wait for a heaven in the hereafter, for he has produced it within his
own mind now.
People pursue spirituality with their brain: that is where they are mistaken.
Spirituality is attained through the heart. What do I mean by the heart? Is it
the nervous center in the midst of the breast, the small piece of flesh that
doctors call the heart? No, the definition of the heart is that it is the depth
of the mind, the mind being the surface of the heart. That in us which feels is
the heart, that which thinks is the mind. It is the same thing which thinks and
feels, but the direction is different: feeling comes from the depth, thought
from the surface. When thought is not linked with feeling it is just like a
plant rising up from the earth, the root of which has not gone deep. A thought
without feeling is a powerless thought; it is just like a plant without a deep
root. A tree the root of which has gone deep into the earth is stronger, more
reliable, and so the thought deeply rooted in the heart has greater power.
It's all It...
In the domain
of unconsciousness
you see within and without.
In the pervadedness of Consciousness,
there is no within and without;
it's all
It.
- Swami Amar Jyoti
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"In Light of Wisdom"
Swami Amar Jyoti
Truth Consciousness, Boulder, Colorado, 1983
God's ego...
God's ego...
Does God have an ego?..
I have found through personal experience that the Creator God which some call Divine Consciousness has a Personality with the constituents of Love, Light, and Consciousness, but, I found no individuality called ego..
The 'Source' of Divine Consciousness, that which said; " Let there be Light" has no ego or personality and uses Divine Consciousness as a mirror to understand It's existence..
But, this is only my experience and explanation..
namaste, thomas
annilhilation of ego...
We usually miss one vital point..
The ego is a dream..
When You annihilate the ego..
You are just awakening from a dream..
namaste, thomas
attachment to the illusion...
"A man must separate himself from all attachment to physical reality,
said the
Maggid,
until he rises through all the spiritual worlds and becomes one with
God,
his own individual existence having been annihilated.
Then he is really
called man."
Rabbi Dov Baer
in Alan Unterman
_The Wisdom of the Jewish Mystics_
NY New Directions, 1976, p. 54
a paradox...
The illuminate is conscious both of the ultimate unity and immediate multiplicity of the world.
This is a paradox.
But his permanent resting place while he is dealing with others
is at the junction-point of duality and unity so that he is ready at any moment to absorb his attention in either phase.
— Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 115
Paul Brunton
eternity is always Now...
Francis Bennett:
"Christians all over the world often talk about their belief that the Christ will come again one day and transform the whole planet and create the kingdom of God "upon earth as it is in heaven". But my sense now is that whenever a person wakes up to the ever present presence of awareness as their very being itself, Christ "comes again" in that human life. They enter into eternity when they come to discover that eternity is always NOW. They come to know in their own, direct experience, that the kingdom of heaven is within them. The Christ has "risen again" in such as these. They are his hands and feet and eyes in this world as they walk about spreading the peace and love of Christ where ever they go, as they allow the risen Christ to look out upon the whole world with their own eyes of mercy and love! Happy Easter everyone! Christ is risen...He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
The Self of pure awareness is the only thing that is ultimately "real" because it is the one thing that is always present and never changes. All else, on an absolute level, is just a dream arising and passing away. Think of "this morning" right now. Dream-like huh? Now think of some imaginary, possible future scenario. Even MORE dream-like, huh? The only thing that is ultimately real is NOW, the living NOW. NOW =the Self and the Self= NOW. You ARE the NOW. What else could you possibly be when that is all that is real and alive? And you must be real and alive, right?
If you are drawn to an awakened teacher or saint, that is because there is enough conscious awareness in you to recognize the conscious awareness in them. Otherwise you wouldn't even notice them or be interested in them in the least. The love and light you see in a saint is within you. The holiness you feel in their presence is your holiness. They are not special at all, but are the very same Self that you are. They are the Self manifesting as a "teacher", seemingly "outside" of you. But in reality, they ARE you! And you are them! In loving them and feeling devotion toward them, you are loving and feeling devotion to your self.
We sometimes talk about enlightened people or unenlightened people. For the sake of discussion we use these terms. And, on a relative level, such people could be said to ‘exist’, but only on a relative level. On an absolute level there is no such thing as ‘enlightenment’ and there are no such animals as enlightened people or unenlightened people. Believing that these exist on an absolute level is to imply that you are lacking something right now that you need to ‘attain’ something that you don’t have. But there is really nothing wrong with you right now on an absolute level of being and you don’t need to attain anything on that absolute level. You are already complete and whole on that level. You always have been and always will be, perfect, on that level. What we call, enlightened people are simply noticing something that, what we call unenlightened people, are not. What is that which they are noticing? The people we think of as enlightened are noticing that simple awareness is the one reality that is ALWAYS present and never changes or leaves, ever. What we call an unenlightened person is failing to notice this fact. Otherwise, enlightened and unenlightened people are just the same. There is no essential difference between you and the most ‘enlightened’ person on the planet today. You both have all the same parts more or less, all the same human faculties, all the same possibilities and potentialities. It’s not at all that one has something that the other lacks. One is simply noticing this constant presence of awareness and the other is not. Noticing awareness is not an attainment of anything whatsoever. You do not attain awareness because you have ALWAYS been aware. How could you NOT be aware? Even if you are feeling very unaware right now, there is something/someone who is aware of that feeling! Is there not? Noticing awareness, becoming ‘enlightened’, is not a gaining of any quality or reality that you presently don’t have. It is a simple waking up to a fact that has always been true!
This seeming continuity that we normally take to be the static entity called, “me, myself and I”, is not a solid, static entity at all. It is more like a waterfall or a stream...very much in a constant state of change and flux, very ‘fluid’. That is why we can accurately say that we are empty of a self on one level. The “Self” that we REALLY are on the deepest, absolute level is unchanging and infinite. It actually is not in need of this body/mind construct we normally think of as “me”. It can exist without the body/mind, but the body/mind cannot exist without it! The “me” is just like the appearance of a wave in this vast, infinite Sea of Consciousness. The wave seems to be here for a moment and then suddenly, it’s gone back into the great sea. It’s taken another form or, one could more accurately say, it’s gone back into formlessness. ‘Where” does the wave go when it ‘dies’? Nowhere!
If something is relatively true and real it is also relatively untrue and unreal. In other words, it is “true or real” in a certain set of circumstances and settings and is untrue and unreal in others. We are all searching for a truth and reality that will remain always true, always real. The problem is when we look for this stable unchanging, true reality in all these temporary things we see around us. Such a search for permanency in the impermanent is bound to be frustrating. We are looking for something to give us what it never could. This is a sure recipe for unhappiness. It’s like that old definition of the word, “insanity”: We do the same thing over and over while expecting a different result!
Some teachers are erudite and very eloquent and some are inarticulate and simple in expression. But in either case, it is never the words of the teacher alone that bring illumination or clarity to the seeker. The silence and love that flow from the heart of a true teacher, these are themselves ‘the deepest teaching’. Without these, there is no teaching, no matter how profound one’s words may seem. Such words spoken not from silence and love are clanging gongs and crashing cymbals, so much empty noise, as Saint Paul called any teaching or action without love in 1st Corinthians chapter 13."
return to Now...
There is nothing to forget if there is only Now..
Everything is a Dream..
You are the Divine Consciousness that is dreaming..
But, because you believe otherwise, you have forgotten..
return to Now Consciousness...
namaste, thomas
true insight...
This is the true insight,
the permanent illumination that neither comes nor goes but always is.
While being serious, where the event or situation requires it, he will not be solemn.
For behind this seriousness there is detachment.
He cannot take the world of Appearances as being Reality's final form.
If he is a sharer in this world's experiences, he is also a witness and especially a witness of his own ego--its acts and desires, its thoughts and speech.
And because he sees its littleness, he keeps his sense of humour about all things concerning it, a touch of lightness, a basic humility.
Others may believe that he stands in the Great Light, but he himself has no particular or ponderous self-importance...
— Notebooks Category 20: What Is Philosophy? > Chapter 4: Its Realization Beyond Ecstasy > # 205
Paul Brunton
doubting...
One who doubts everything
should also
doubt one’s own conclusions
in order to be
a consistent skeptic.
- Swami Krishnananda
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Facets of Spirituality
Complied by S. Bhagyalakshmi
Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1986
I am the Voice...
I am the Voice that hides behind the curtain of egoic consciousness..
I am You when you are no longer..
I am the Reality that you seek..
I speak within the Light of Love..
I have never forgotten you, as you are my dream..
Let us join Voices and sing with Unity..
For this Voice is You...
namaste, thomas
the Voice...
"The voice that is heard deep within the soul is My voice --
the voice
of inspiration,
of intuition,
of guidance..."
Meher Baba
in Kitty Davy
_Love Alone Prevails: A Story of Life with Meher Baba_
Myrtle Beach, SC: Sheriar Press, 1981, p. 179
the Godhead...
The whole thing is to love God and taste His sweetness.
He is sweetness and the devotee is its enjoyer.
The
devotee drinks the sweet Bliss of God.
Further, God is the
lotus and the devotee the bee. The devotee sips the honey
of the lotus.
As a devotee cannot live without God, so also God cannot
live without His devotee.
Then the devotee becomes the
sweetness, and God its enjoyer.
The devotee becomes
the lotus, and God the bee.
It is the Godhead that has
become these two in order to enjoy Its own Bliss.
- Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
by M. (Mahendranath Gupta)
Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Society, 1942
Doomsday...
"One of the illusions [of life] is that the present hour is not the critical ,
decisive hour.
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.
No man has learned anything rightly until he knows that every day is Doomsday."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Individuality and mind...
"The gods and the sages experience the Infinite
continuously and eternally, without their vision being
obscured at any moment.
Their minds are surmised by
the spectators to function, but in fact they do not.
Such surmise is due to the sense of individuality in
those who draw inferences.
There is no mental function
in the absence of individuality.
Individuality and
mind-functions are co-existent.
The one cannot remain
without the other."
Sri Ramana Maharshi
in Whitall N. Perry
_A Treasury of Traditional Wisdom_
Varanasi: Indica, 1998 (1971), p. 918
Nobody exists...
You don't even exist! You're all an optical illusion. Nobody exists.
I'll tell you this much. We've all been totally brainwashed since birth.
Everything we believe is false, everything. You are false.
I am false. There is no reality. If there were a reality, you'd not be able
to express it, for it would be beyond human conception. If there were a
truth, we would not be able to understand it, for it would be beyond the
finite mind. The finite mind cannot understand anything, cannot know
anything. Yet there’s no finite mind, so there’s no one to know anything.
This is a dream world you're in now. You are dreaming the mortal dream,
that you are a man, you are a woman, you are a child, you have a job,
you go through certain experiences, things happen to you in your life.
Yet this is not true. This is a lie. In reality, you've never been born,
you do not prevail, and you do not die. There's no one who ever dies,
for there’s no one who was ever born.
How can you see yourself this way? By remaining silent.
By not reading so much. By not remembering anything.
You should understand yourself, that you are the one. You are the only
one. There are no others. There is only that which has always been,
and that is you. When you realize you do not have to practice sadhana,
or meditate, or go through spiritual practices with yoga, life becomes
easy, wonderful. There’s no striving for anything. There’s no trying to
become somebody or something. You are your self. You have always
been your self, the self which is bright and shining, the self which is.
You are that self.
Robert Adams - The collected works.
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