ego destruction...
Each soul runs from poverty and destruction.
How sad!
It is running away from happiness
and joy.
No one can triumph before being
destroyed.
O Beloved!
Reconcile me with
destruction.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Muriel Maufroy
"Breathing Truth - Quotations from Jalaluddin Rumi"
Sanyar Press - London, 1997
How they enslave you..
You are Divine Consciousness dreaming of an experience of division called duality..
Your very essence is the energy called Love,
this is the Reality of non-egoic consciousness..
But, you have been taught since birth that you are this egoic personality called ego..
The ego is controlled by the energy and emotion called fear..
The opposite of Love is not Hate, It is Fear..
you have been taught to fear the death of the ego, which is the idea attached to the body and mind..
this fear of bodily death is the control that enslaves You..
many souls that are unaware that they are the Creative Consciousness often sell their souls for wealth, power, and fame..
this fear of death is put before you everyday in the form of news, wars, and films..
this is to keep you in the state of fear and imprisonment within the dream..
the only way to truly realize this fact is to Wake Up..
this is called Enlightenment..
This is the returning to Reality , Love, and Consciousness, that You already are..
How many will Realize this Truth and finally find Freedom?..
How many will remain trapped within the dream through the scam called reincarnation?..
Remember, only the ego can be imprisioned...
namaste, thomas
ego is the only enemy...
"No one is to be called an enemy,
all are your benefactors,
and no one does you harm.
You have no enemy except yourselves."
Saint Francis Of Assisi
Jewish Mysticism...
There is a story told about a hasidic rebbe who came
into synagogue and sat down to pray. The hasidim
noticed that he did not move and they went on with
their prayers. By late afternoon the rebbe still had
not moved from his chair. Finally, the hasidim dared
to interrupt him and ask if something was wrong. "No,"
he said, "nothing is wrong. I opened my mouth to say
'I give thanks before You' and suddenly I began to
think, 'Who is this "I" that is about to give thanks?
Who am "I"? What am "I" '? And I have been meditating
on that all day long."
The story is a very profound one. Who am "I"? What is
the "self"? It is strange; we use the word "I" all the
time, but what do we mean by it?
One way to look at the "I" is in terms of the roles
one fills in life. I am a father; that takes energy
and inner strength. I am a husband; that too takes
time and effort. I am a teacher; it demands vigor and
intensity. I am a scholar; it demands concentration
and stamina. I am a member of several communities,
serving in various official and unofficial capacities.
I am an active Jew, giving time and energy to my
people. I am a friend, searching and supporting. I am
a rabbi, a faculty member, a citizen, a consumer, an
author and editor, a colleague, a student, a son, and
much more. Some of these roles are more important to
me than others. Am "I" those important roles? Am "I"
the sum of all these social roles? The contemporary
literary critic Northrop Frye has commented that the
older we get, the harder it becomes to shed our social
masks. That's true, but are we our social masks?
Let us entertain for a minute the possibility that "I"
am not my social roles, that I am not everything that
I must be to be a functioning, effective human being.
What, then, am "I"? Perhaps, "I" am my personal
history. Perhaps, "I" am my life and everything that
has gone into it. It is true: I am my fears, my loves,
my aspirations, my body, my passions, my guilt, my
spiritual and aesthetic sensitivities. I am the
complex person that I was born, was brought up to be,
and have made myself into. In modern culture, we call
this the "self" or the "person." But is it true? Am
"I" the sum of my feelings, concepts, and actions? Is
my "self" defined by the range of emotions and
thoughts of which I am capable? Freud has shown us
that we all have inner masks by which we talk to our
selves, even lie to our selves; and that we have masks
within the inner masks, unconscious motives and
feelings of which we are unaware. This is true. But am
"I" my conscious feelings and thoughts? Am "I" my
unconscious feelings and thoughts? What, or who, am
"I"?
Let us entertain for a minute the possibility that "I"
am neither the sum of my social roles nor the sum of
my conscious and unconscious feelings and thoughts,
that "I" am neither my social masks nor my personal
masks. What, then, am "I"? To say that "I" am my
"soul" does not help. For, if I mean that I am an
observant Jew, then I am defining myself in a
sociocultural role. If I mean that I strive
personally, I am defining myself in a psychological
role. Even if I say that my soul is divine and, hence,
I am a part of God, what does that mean, aside from
being a theologically acceptable answer? Am "I" a
theological proposition? Am "I" an intellectual second
thought?
Let us start again. If "I" am not the sum of my social
roles or my psychological functions, and if "I" am not
a theologically acceptable hypothesis, what am "I"?
What is the "I" of which I speak when I talk? Who is
the "I" that is capable of returning thanks to God? Or
doing anything? Perhaps, "I" am truly no-thing, utter
void, undefinableness. Not something ethereal, like a
fine spray of water or isolated atoms in interstellar
space; but no-role, no-feeling, no-thought. Not even
the absence of these definitions; just no-thing. At
first, this is very frightening. Nature abhors a
vacuum and the mind abhors lack of definition. The "I"
shies away from lack of location. That's why we have
culture. But, if culture is secondary, what is
primary? If formulation and articulation are
secondary, what is pre- or non-, formulated?
Jewish spirituality teaches that there are three
levels of being: thought, speech, and action. First,
we think; then, we put what we think into words; and
then we act upon what we think and speak. But what
precedes thinking? What is pre-articulate,
pre-conceptual? Whatever enters our consciousness,
even if it is chaotic, has some form; and we give it
more form by thought, speech, and deed. But what is
before consciousnes? What am "I" at this level of
before-thinking, before-words, before-action? ...
After the fear comes joy. But even the joy is
secondary; it is a response. It is an echo, a
realization that "I" am no-thing but God is; that "I"
am because He is; that "I" am nothing but He; that my
no-thing-ness is true but it too is a mask for His
being-ness. Everything I think, speak, and do is
secondary and tertiary. From the innermost point,
"I-He" radiates through what my "I" thinks, speaks,
and does. My psychological functions and my social
roles are clothes, decoration. The "I" behind them is
not mine or "me"; it is He. Perhaps, not even "He" in
the sense of the God described in the words of the
tradition but "He" as the because of my "I". Joy is
allowing oneself to be aware of this. Joy is being
open to this.
David Blumenthal
"Kabbalah: Mystical Ways in Prayer"
ego is arrogance...
Keep in tune with the source and all your actions will be correct.
If you don't, there will be trouble no matter what you do.
With arrogance of ego, there is not skillfulness,
and without arrogance, everything is skillful.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
This quotation is found on page 12,
Sri H.W.L. Poonja "The Truth Is"
Yudhishtara, 1995
the Overself as Observer...
The student has to stand aside from the thought-forms,
which means that he must stand aside from the person and look at it as something external to himself.
If and when he succeeds in getting behind it,
he automatically adopts the standpoint of the Overself.
He must make the person an object and the Overself its observer.
Now this element of pure awareness is something constant and unbroken;
hence it is not ordinary consciousness,
which is a discontinuous thing made of totalized thoughts,
but transcendental consciousness.
— Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 6: Advanced Meditation > # 83
Paul Brunton
levels of Being...
You must remember that there is nothing dead or inanimate in nature.
Everything in its own way is alive,
everything in its own way is intelligent and conscious.
Only this consciousness and intelligence is expressed in a different way on different levels of being.”
P. D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous
divides the mind...
Apart from the futility of effort itself,
any attempt
to prevent thoughts from arising divides the mind
artificially into that which does the prevention against
that which is being prevented,
creating only neurosis
and conflict.
Whatever thoughts arise (being without
substance) will promptly vanish by themselves
if they
are not accepted and pursued as effective reality.
To try to erase thoughts consciously and deliberately
is like trying to wash away blood with blood.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1966
a saint...
"To be a saint,
one must be beside oneself.
One must lose one's head."
St. John Vianney
in Jill Haak Adels
_The Wisdom of the Saints: An Anthology_
NY: Oxford Univerfsity Press, 1987, p. 182
no longer asleep...
I have noticed that many souls from the United Kingdom and Switzerland have been visiting this blog..
you have awakened to the illusions of this dream..
you are seeing the powers of ego try to lead you into negativity..
welcome to Reality..
we are the observers of the illusions that the controllers try to put before us..
this dream is controlled by these controllers of duality..
but, they are losing their power over the dream..
We have Awakened..
this is their greatest fear..
they have kept us asleep for thousands of years..
Divine Consciousness has decreed that knowledge of Reality become evident..
egoism cannot conquer Reality..
illusion cannot conquer Reality..
Reality and Love are One and the same..
This Reality of Love and non separation will become evident to all souls..
Be prepared for a massive change of this illusion of life...
namaste, thomas
Karma...
Karma is only a word you have learnt to repeat.
You have never been,
nor shall you ever be a person.
Nisargadatta
success...
You have succeeded in life when all you really want,
is only what you really need.
Vernon Howard
Birth and Death...
What is birth and death but the beginning
and the ending of a stream of events in
consciousness?
Because of the idea of
separation and limitation they are painful.
Momentary relief from pain we call pleasure -
and we build castles in the air hoping for
endless pleasure which we call happiness.
It is all misunderstanding and misuse.
Wake
up, go beyond, live really.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
Grace and Overself...
A very important point:
because the ego lives in its own darkness, it cannot give light.
The light may come only from the Overself, which is the Sun and Light of human existence.
With the reason we can control the ego to some extent, but it is not possible to control the Overself.
As regards Enlightenment, this is not coming from self-willed effort; it is coming only by what the Overself does to him.
It is a matter of Grace--unpredictable--and it is the last secret.
It is like the wind that comes you do not know where from and goes you do not know where to.
It is a mystery.
At the end we have to be like little children and leave our Enlightenment to the Father and give up our lives to him.
On the Long Path the aspirant tries to improve himself.
He experiences successes and failures, ups and downs.
When he is disappointed, he gets melancholy.
On the Short Path such a situation cannot arise, because he has faith like a little child.
He has given up all his future to Overself-God and he has enough faith to trust to it.
He knows he has made the right decision and therefore is always happy.
He depends on this GRACE, he knows It, that It comes from the wisest being behind the world. Whatever will come, it will be the best.
He is always relying on the Overself and having the joy in it.
— Notebooks Category 2: Overview of Practicies Involved > Chapter 1: Ant's Long Path > # 209
Paul Brunton
see only Truth...
We want our dreams to come true
but
is the value in dreams
or Truth?
What if we were seeing only Truth?
In Its light
all dreams would be
fictitious conceptions
wishful thinkings or notions
or cherished pet ideals.
Howsoever philosophically we may explain
it won't satisfy us
unless we come to Truth
back to the Source.
- Swami Amar Jyoti
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"In Light of Wisdom"
Swami Amar Jyoti
Truth Consciousness, Boulder, Colorado, 1983
zen poem...
Unborn and imperishable
Is the original mind
Earth, water, fire and wind
A temporary lodging for the night
- Bankei
Dreams...
We dream that we are awake, we dream that we are asleep.
The three states are only varieties of the dream state.
Treating everything as a dream liberates.
As long as you give reality to dreams, you are their slave.
By imaging that you are born as so and so, you become a slave to the so-and-so.
The essence of slavery is to imagine yourself to be a process,
to have past and future, to have history.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
see yourself in others...
See Yourself In Others
Then whom can you hurt?
What harm can you do?
He who seeks happiness
By hurting those who seek happiness
Will never find happiness..
For your brother is like you
He wants to be happy
Never harm him..
Gautama the Buddha
you of the world...
you that have been reading and thinking,
have you awakened ?..
do you see the illusions of materiality ?..
do you see the Reality of that which is unseen ?..
do you know who You are ?..
the powerful seek the death of humans..
the world is ruled by murderers..
and yet some believe their lies..
Truth sees through the lies and propaganda..
lies and Truth are the duality that We have chosen to experience..
It has been quite a ride from waking sleep to wakeful Awareness..
Hold on !..
Truth and Peace are not far away...
namaste, thomas
the river and waves...
The river and its waves are one surf:
where is the difference between the river and its
waves?
When the wave rises, it is the water;
and when it falls, it is the same water again.
Tell me, Sir, where is the distinction?
Because it has been named as wave,
shall it no longer be considered as water?
Within the Supreme Brahma, the worlds are being told
like beads:
Look upon that rosary with the eyes of wisdom.
Kabir
The Songs of Kabir, 14
Translated by Rabindranath Tagore
The Play...
The Play.
What we call 'wakefulness' is also a dream,
believed to be a "non-dream-reality".
This wakeful dream is dreamt by the Self,
as the Self is the only reality, the only truth.
It is the Self that provides all roles and provides all dream characters.
The play that the Self has put together is titled:
'Hide and seek: where am I?, What am I?'
Magdi Em Be
throw all away...
If you want to go all the way, throw all away.
And right
there, there is a joy, a freedom and lightness.
Strip
everything back to nothing.
Throw your attachments,
your desires, your needs and immediately you are in
a state of total freshness.
Total wholeness.
Every human
being should do this once in a while.
The serious seeker
develops this unsparing attitude to free their minds from
the cholesterol of egoic identity.
Be in that emptiness and
you see that emptiness is completeness.
And the more
you do it, the more you enjoy the effortlessness of it all.
Now, you ignore the voice of the interpreter, the journalist,
the accountant or the mathematician and in a short while,
you won't want him back.
If you want to go all the way,
throw all away.
- Mooji
seventh plane...
"After passing the six centres the aspirant arrives at the seventh plane.
Reaching it, the mind merges in Brahman.
The individual soul and the Supreme Soul become one.
The aspirant goes into samadhi.
His consciousness of the body disappears.
He loses the knowledge of the outer world.
He does not see the manifold any more.
His reasoning comes to a stop."
Sri Ramakrishna
The Gospel of Ramakrishna, vol. 1
long and short paths...
The Long Path methods and attitudes, ideas and principles--
admirable in their place and time-
-have to be got rid of;
otherwise the Short Path truths cannot be brought in.
For the one is dualistic and objective, whereas the other is nondualistic and nonobjective.
The aspirant has to turn around and take a totally opposite direction.
— Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 1: Entering the Short Path > # 38
Paul Brunton
cease to be...
As long as you do not see that it is mere habit,
built on memory, prompted by desire, you will
think yourself to be a person -
living, feeling,
thinking, active, passive, pleased or pained.
Question yourself, ask yourself.
'Is it so?'
'Who am I'?
'What is behind and beyond all
things?'
And soon you will see your mistake.
And it is in the very nature of a mistake to
cease to be, when seen.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
Knowing Self...
"To arrive at true Self-knowledge is to arrive at God-realization.
God-realization is a unique state of consciousness.
It is different from all the
other states of consciousness because all the other states of consciousness are
experienced through the medium of individual mind.
Whereas the state of
God-consciousness is in no way dependent upon the individual mind or any other
medium.
A medium is necessary for knowing something other than one's own Self.
For knowing one's own Self no medium is necessary."
Meher Baba
_Discourses_
Myrtle Beach, SC: Sheriar Press, 2nd revised edition, 1987, p. 141
failure...
People usually fail when they are on the verge
of success.
So give as much care to the end
as to the beginning;
then there will be no failure.
- Lao-tzu
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Tao Te Ching
Translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English
Vintage Books Edition, September 1972
the short path...
The Short Path uses;
(a) thinking: metaphysical study of the Nature of Reality;
(b) practice: constant remembrance of Reality during everyday life in the world;
(c) meditation: surrender to the thought of Reality in stillness.
You will observe that in all these three activities there is no reference to the personal ego.
There is no thinking of, remembering, or meditating upon oneself, as there is with the Long Path..
— Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 1: Entering the Short Path > # 98
Paul Brunton
Entering Enlightenment...
While in the state of meditation, surrender Everything to the Universe,
This means all ego and all desires for existence.
The ego will put thoughts of fear within the mind that you are dying.
this is meant to turn you around and stay within the body and mind of this
illusion.
but, if you have the courage to die to existence, You will Awaken as Divine
Consciousness known as Light, Love, and Consciousness..
Who forces the ego to die ?..
Perhaps, it is Consciousness Itself..
Whoever is the source of this courage of self annihilation is still unknown to
me, but, the outcome is beyond dispute..
namaste, thomas
This means all ego and all desires for existence.
The ego will put thoughts of fear within the mind that you are dying.
this is meant to turn you around and stay within the body and mind of this
illusion.
but, if you have the courage to die to existence, You will Awaken as Divine
Consciousness known as Light, Love, and Consciousness..
Who forces the ego to die ?..
Perhaps, it is Consciousness Itself..
Whoever is the source of this courage of self annihilation is still unknown to
me, but, the outcome is beyond dispute..
namaste, thomas
long path and time...
Long Path has to do with progress and takes a time for it and therefore means moving in time,
and it is the ego who is working.
Short Path is not concerned with time and therefore not with progress.
Thinking only of the timeless Overself.
No idea of progress, no desire, it does not matter.
Real Self is always changeless.
Progress implies change.
All questions and problems disappear because the questioning (ego) intellect is not allowed to be active.
— Notebooks Category 2: Overview of Practices Involved > Chapter 1: Ant's Long Path > # 209
Paul Brunton
your egoic personality is taught to you...
Possibly from a very young age, we are taught that we are such and such a person and we are taught that we need to accomplish this or that in order to be recognized, or in order to be respected, or in order to earn parental love.
There are so many levels of conditioning and so much detail to our conditioning.
If you look around, you will notice that everyone walks inside their belief and image bubble, in isolation. Everyone believes they are this specific person and pursues the specific agenda they have been taught. The sense of separate self is made out of this set of ideas and beliefs about what our parents and our environment think we are and tell us we are and teach us to abide and follow in order to have a 'good' life. It is a mirage of suffering that is based on the belief that I am a separate segment of consciousness.
Maybe it is time to realize that we are not any form, we are not a body mind, we are not some incomplete object that lives in time. Maybe it is time to realize that thought cannot know what we are. After all, thought is 'known' and is not 'knowing'.
Is it not consciousness that is 'knowing'?
A thought is known by consciousness, by YOU. Thought does not know YOU. It is YOU that knows thought. Is that not so?
We can disbelieve all the BS that we have been taught and accepted. We can rest and rejoice as the wholeness and completeness of being that we are and have always been.
When will the celebration begin? How long shall we postpone it? We are freedom itself and are beyond need. We are wholeness of being.
The body needs food and shelter and the universe provides. It is the separate mind that complicates things.
Look at Monsanto. Look at the separate mind at work, the greed and grabbing quality of the separate self. Ravaging the earth and hurting each other. It is the sense of separate self that is the cause of disharmony.
Your true nature is freedom and love. Nothing takes that away from you.... Your true nature is awaiting your recognition!
Magdi Em Be
Aham Purusha...
Q: 'You are not the body,' is often spoken here. There are some who believe in the preciousness of the body so that there can be the experience of life as sacred. They feel a liberation by feeling completely present in the body.
R: "The sacredness of life is the purusha within you, experience That!
It is not the body, which can be made male or female.
You are the Purusha within the Heart of everyone whether they appear to be male or female.
It is mentioned in the Upanishads and other holy sutras that this Purusha is equal to the length of a thumb. It is within your own Heart, forever burning as a flame.
It is your own Self, your own Atman.
When you concentrate on that you will see that you are this Purusha and not the gender male or female. Though everybody is Purusha they don't identify with That, but identify with their body for their own interest.
No one is told about this eternal Purusha which doesn't come and go. It is that Purusha which speaks.
If you become That and merge with this Purusha then it speaks from where the speech arise from and not what the tongue can speak. The tongue can speak, but where does the strength come from which enables to speak?
That comes from the fountain which is called the Purusha, Aham Purusha. It is That Purusha which I refer to."
Poonja
Vibrations...
you can call these frequencies or vibrations or any other name to signify movement..
all things manifested, including us, are these vibrations that form into atoms..
Thought causes these atoms of frequency to appear as objects..
This 'Thought' is called Consciousness..
We are this Consciousness that creates by Thought..
We also create the false belief that we are the manifestation that We have created..
This is called the 'ego' or false self..
This state of mind called ego creates the mental pain of Fear..
This is because it is a false belief and is absent of the Reality called Love..
Love is the state of non-fear..
Love is the nature of Reality that some call God..
Non-fear is the state of non-ego..
Non-ego is the state of God..
God is Love..
When You have awakened into the Truth that You are Love,
You will also Realize that You are God...
As Jesus said; " I and the Father, are One "...
namaste, thomas
The Aramaic " Lords Prayer"...
The Aramaic Lord’s Prayer
-- transliteration by Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz from the original Aramaic spoken by Jesus
Abwoon d’bwashmaya
Nethqadash shmakh
Teytey malkuthakh
Nehwey sebyanach aykanna d’bwashmaya aph b’arah
Hawvlan lachma d’sunqanan yaomana.
Washboqlan khaubayn wakhtahayn aykana daph khnan Shbwoqan l’khayyabayn.
Wela tahlan l’nesyuna
Ela patzan min bisha.
Metol dilakhie malkutha wahayla wateshbukhta l’ahlam almin.
Ameyn.
O Thou from whom comes the breath of life, which is present in all realms of vibration and light.
Let thy light/sound be experienced in my own ‘holy of holies.’
Let your ideals and counsel rule.
Let your desire be, as in the universe (all that vibrates), so also on earth.
Give us bread (understanding/support) for our needs from day to day.
Loose the cords of mistakes binding us, as we release the strands we hold of others’ faults.
Do not let surface things delude us.
But free us from what holds us back from our true purpose.
To you belongs the ruling will, the life and power to do, the song which beautifies all, from age to age it renews.
Amen (Sealed in trust and faith.)
awakening from awakening...
It is very true that before we awaken, we really believe that we are exclusively and only these bodies and minds with a human personality that we experience as having our name and walking around the planet bumping into things and other people!
We then awaken and realize that we are not JUST that, but on the deepest level, we are the pure consciousness that is aware of that body/mind and all the people and things it is bumping into!
You will note the word "just" here. Even in the initial awakening to pure consciousness, we are often missing the entire truth. Many people's awakening seems to them to be an awakening to realizing that they are NOT AT ALL this body/mind and that they are exclusively the pure consciousness.
But in fact, THAT is not a balanced way of seeing reality either! Because we were completely out of balance for so many years, thinking we were nothing more than a body/mind, often, after a first awakening, we allow the pendulum to make another extreme swing from one polarity to another.
We go from..."all I am is a body/mind that goes around encountering the seen universe" to..... "I am not AT ALL this body/mind with a human personality".
Both views are only seeing one aspect of who and what we are and are ignoring the seemingly "other" aspect. We are personal and impersonal at the same time. The personal/impersonal polarities are not really polarities at all, but are more like opposite sides of the same coin.
You can't really separate them from one another. They are a perfectly seamless, non-dual whole. That's why I sometimes talk about an "awakening from awakening".
The initial awakening is an awakening to the pure, cosmic consciousness, the silent observer and watcher of all that arises and ceases. The awakening to this cosmic,pure consciousness is very necessary and important. But if we stay at this stage, we are in a very clear duality, albeit a very seemingly "spiritual" one.
This duality is on a much more subtle level than the one where we experience ourselves as simply a body mind and nothing more. We now see that we are actually pure consciousness. But we see this pure consciousness as entirely separate from all it perceives. And so, we must awaken from this awakening to pure consciousness and realize that we are not ONLY the pure consciousness, but are also all that is appearing and disappearing within it.
THIS is the real and comprehensive non-dual understanding. This is sometimes called "God realization".
Most awakenings we hear about these days are mistakenly being seen as an end of the journey, but they are actually a beginning of it. They are not an "arrival" to the destination but a "setting out" for it...
Francis Bennett
the Short Path...
The basis of the Short Path is that we are always divine.
It is with us already,
it is no new thing,
and we only have to try to recognize what is already there.
— Notebooks Category 2: Overview of Practicies Involved > Chapter 1: Ant's Long Path > # 209
Paul Brunton
the Sea...
He who looks at the foam speaks of mystery,
but he who looks at the sea is full of wonder.
He who looks at the foam expresses intentions,
but he who looks at the sea makes his heart the
sea.
He who looks at the flakes of foam makes plans,
but he who looks at the sea has no will.
He who
looks at the foam keeps busy, but he who looks
at the sea is totally pure.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Muriel Maufroy
"Breathing Truth - Quotations from Jalaluddin Rumi"
Sanyar Press - London, 1997
the worship of lucifer...
There are many humans that seek Power, Wealth, and Fame..
These are desires of the false self, otherwise known as the egoic consciousness..
They seek illusions instead of Reality..
This is the religion of lucifer..
Many leaders of this world belong to this church..
This is why, there are continuous wars and famine..
lucifer demands human sacrifices for the sustenance of negative energy..
These misguided souls that follow this line of thinking and acting are trapped within materiality..
they can never be set Free as long as they follow this egoic and selfish path..
lucifer is actually just a 'Thought Form' and exists as long as thought is projected to this form..
lucifer is part of the duality of good and bad..
he is just part of the dream that we are experiencing..
when We Awaken into Reality, lucifer is no longer in existence..
In Reality, Unconditional Love , alone exists..
There is no room for the duality of evil and good..
This Love is called by many names, such as Divine Consciousness, non-ego, and the most popular name called God..
These humans that worship selfishness and evil will eventually Wake Up and Realize that they were fooled but this is often through the Long Path of reincarnation and continuous pain..
When they become tired of the continuous pain of existence without Love, and they finally realize that wealth, power, and fame are false happiness,
They will begin to follow the Path back to Reality and Freedom...
namaste, thomas
Does the 'Devil', exist ?...
He exists as a temporary idea but not as a permanent Reality.
I'll explain.
When you think of the devil, what do you really
have? Only a thought.
Now, if it remained only a simple idea
no harm could come to an individual.
But the idea of a devil
gets wrongly mixed up with self-reference, fearful imagination,
a hypnotic attraction to danger, and other harmful states.
So now the careless person is taken over and controlled by this
directionless mass of wild energy which is called the devil.
This is the cause of all human violence and suffering.'"...
Vernon Howard
the tavern of Love...
I am drunk and you are insane
tell me, who will lead us home?
How many times have I asked you not to drink so much
for I see no sober soul in town.
Come to the tavern my dearest and taste the wine of love
for the soul is joyous only in the company of lovers.
The tavern of love is your livelihood
your income and expenses, the wine.
Be careful, not to trust a sober soul
with even one drop of this wine.
Go on playing your lute, my drunken gypsy but tell me,
between the two of us, who is more drunk?
As I left my house a Sufi approached me,
in his glance I saw a hundred gardens.
He swayed from side to side like a ship without an anchor,
while a hundred reasonable men watched on enviously.
Where are you from? I asked him.
He replied, "Half from Turkistan and half from Farghaneh,
half from water and clay and half from soul and heart,
half from the edge of the sea and half from the depths of the ocean."
--Melana Jalaluddin Rumi
Ghazal (Ode) 2398
Translated by Azima Melita Kolin
and Maryam Mafi
Rumi: Hidden Music
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001
the Short Path and reincarnation...
On the Short Path we do not care about reincarnation matters, we do not give them much importance.
On the Short Path the aspirants need the philosophical study to understand only one point:
What is Reality.
It is necessary to understand the difference between the Illusion and the Reality.
Every teacher's biggest difficulty is to get the students to understand that not only the world but also the ego is illusion.
The aspirants do not know what the ego is.
Therefore Jesus said:
"If you want to find your true Self you have to deny yourselves," meaning deny the ego.
Buddha said: "This is not I."
The Buddha taught his monks to practise saying and thinking this mantram.
There is much confusion about the two points if there is not the knowledge that all teachings fall into these two classes and if there is no understanding of the difference between them.
— Notebooks Category 2: Overview of Practicies Involved > Chapter 1: Ant's Long Path > # 209
Paul Brunton
a vicious circle...
Every pleasure, physical or mental, needs
an instrument.
Both the physical and mental
instruments are materials, they get tired and
worn out.
The pleasure they yield is necessarily
limited in intensity and duration.
Pain is the
background of all your pleasures.
You want them
because you suffer.
On the other hand, the very
search for pleasure is the cause of pain.
It is a
vicious circle.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
the Divine Romance...
"In the gross, subtle and mental spheres the lover is
conscious of being separated from the beloved, but
when all these spheres are transcended, the lover is
conscious of his unity with the Beloved.
The lover
loses himself in the being of the Beloved and knows
that he is one with the Beloved.
Divine love is
entirely free from the thraldom of desires or limiting
self.
In this state of infinity the lover has no being
apart from the Beloved. He is the Beloved Himself.
"We thus have God as infinite love, first limiting
Himself in the forms of creation, and then recovering
His infinity through the different stages of creation.
All the stages of God's experience of being a finite
lover ultimately culminate in His experiencing Himself
as the sole Beloved.
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 realise the unity
of the Lover and the Beloved in the supreme and
eternal fact of God as Infinite Love."
Meher Baba
_Discourses_
Edited by Don E. Stevens
San Francisco: _Sufism Reoriented_, vol. 3, pp.
179-180
the higher Self...
It is a mistake, however, to turn the higher self into a mere
convenience to be used chiefly for obtaining healing or getting
guidance, for healing the sicknesses of the physical body, or guiding
the activities of the physical ego.
It should be sought for its own
sake, and these other things should be sought only occasionally or
incidentally, as and when needed.
They should not be made habitual.
In
his periodic meditations, for instance, the aspirant should seek the
divine source of his being because it is right, necessary, and good
for him to do so and he should forget every other desire.
Only after
he has done that and found the source, and only on his backward
journey to the day's activities, may he remember these lesser desires
and utilize the serenity and power thus gained for attending to them.
— Notebooks Category 10: Healing of the Self > Chapter 5: The
Healing Power of The Overself > # 133
Paul Brunton
Nothing but God...
Enlightenment absorbs this universe of qualities.
When that merging occurs, there is nothing
but God. This is the only doctrine.
There is no word for it, no mind
to understand it with, no categories
of transcendence or non-transcendence,
no vow of silence, no mystical attitude.
There is no Shiva and no Shakti
in enlightenment, and if there is something
that remains, that whatever-it-is
is the only teaching.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
True deathlessness...
The personal ‘I’ is but a bundle of impermanent hopes and transient fears,
a little sheaf of cravings that change with the changing years.
Nothing that we know among them is immortal even during this present earth‑life; how then can they be immortal through all eternity?
To cultivate a belief in a personal ego that will permanently survive in a state of fixation is to prolong the illusion that even now blinds our eyes to truth ‑
unless of course we choose to regard the series of continuous reincarnations as a kind of immortality which, in one sense, it certainly is.
But this conception will not satisfy those who demand conscious unbroken continuity as a characteristic of their immortality.
We shall certainly exist after death, whether in the dream‑like stage with which it begins, the sleep‑like stage with which it ends or the new reincarnation which completes the whole circle of personality.
Yet in none of these shall we have done more than achieve a mere survival.
Let this satisfy those who want it but it is not the same as true deathlessness,
which can be achieved only by transcending the transient personality.
Wisdom of the Overself
Paul Brunton
I must utter what comes to my lips...
I must utter what comes to my lips.
Speaking the truth creates chaos.
Telling a lie saves one scarce.
I am afraid of both these.
Afraid I am both here and there.
I must utter what comes to my lips.
He who has this secret known.
He must peep into his own
Lives He in the shrine of peace
Where there are no ups and downs
I must utter what comes to my lips.
It is indeed a slippery park.
I take precautions in the dark
Die inside and see for yourself
Why this wild search afar?
I must utter what comes to my lips.
It is a matter of good form
A norm to which we all conform
It’s God in every soul you see
If he is in me why not in you?
I must utter what comes to my lips.
(Says Bulleh) the master is not far from me
Without him there none could be
That explains the suffering and pain
But mine is not the eye to see
I must say what comes to my lips.
Arieb Azhar
who looks through your eyes...
God is not hiding!
When you do not see
God it is only because you are looking
elsewhere.
So you must absolutely see
God and nothing else.
Then it is God
that is looking through your eyes.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
Returning back to the Garden...
This is the day after Richie Havens was returned to Woodstock..
His ashes were mixed with flower petals and dispersed from a plane upon the original stage and land of Woodstock..
Why is this important ?..
Woodstock was an energy of unconditional Love that existed between half a million young people..
All is Energy, All is Consciousness..
Unconditional love is known by the name of Divine Consciousness and also known by the name of God..
Some hollywood movie stars and famous musicians came to share this experience of Love for this land and this soul that loved this land..
We that are awake, know that this is a facet of the dream that we are participating within but we are awake to understand the deeper meaning of this illusion..
This soul that found itself within the energy of Love and Land is also Us..
This duality of existence..
Only the illusion can return to the illusion..
Reality can only return to Reality..
Welcome Home, Richie...
namaste, thomas
The Buddha's Farewell...
"Therefore, O Ananda, be ye lamps unto yourselves.
Rely on yourselves, and do not rely on external help.
Hold fast to the truth as a lamp.
Seek salvation alone
in the truth.
Look not for assistance to any one
besides yourselves.
"And how, Ananda, can a brother be a lamp unto
himself, rely on himself only and not on any external
help, holding fast to the truth as his lamp and
seeking salvation in the truth alone, looking not for
assistance to any one besides himself?
Herein, O
Ananda, let a brother, as he dwells in the body, so
regard the body that he, being strenuous, thoughtful,
and mindful, may, whilst in the world, overcome the
grief which arises from the body's cravings.
While
subject to sensations let him continue so to regard
the sensations that he, being strenuous, thoughtful,
and mindful, may, whilst in the world, overcome the
grief which arises from the sensations.
And so, also,
when he thinks or reasons, or feels, let him so regard
his thoughts that being strenuous, thoughtful and
mindful he may, whilst in the world, overcome the
grief which arises from the craving due to ideas, or
to reasoning, or to feeling.
"Those who, either now or after I am dead, shall be
lamps unto themselves, relying upon themselves only
and not relying upon any external help, but holding
fast to the truth as their lamp, and seeking their
salvation in the truth alone, and shall not look for
assistance to any one besides themselves, it is they,
Ananda, among my bhikkhus, who shall reach the very
topmost height!
But they must be anxious to learn."
A quote from Gautama the Buddha
Paul Carus
"The Buddha's Farewell
_Buddha, The Gospel_
Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Company, 1894
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/btg/btg94.htm:
You are the Reality...
You are the reality,
you cannot talk of reality.
The moment you talk or think of something,
it is in phenomenality and therefore conceptual.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
Undissolved ego continues...
The entity which lives in the spirit world after death is the same ego that dwelt on earth,
emanating from and sustained by the same Overself.
In this relationship,
they are still distinct and separate entities,
even though as intimately connected as parent and offspring.
— Notebooks Category 8: The Ego > Chapter 1: What Am I? > # 236
Paul Brunton
Insight into others...
I you want to get to know a man, engage him in speech. By his
words you will know him.
If he is an imposter, and someone has told
him that by their words men are recognised, and he keeps a watch on his
words to the end that he may not be found out, even so in the end he is
detected.
This is illustrated by the story of the child & his mother. A
child in the desert said to his mother, "On darks nights a horrible
black demon appears to me, and I am terribly afraid."
"Don't be afraid," said his mother. "The next time you see that
form, attack it bravely. Then it will become clear that it is nothing
but a fantasy."
"But mother," said the child, "What if the black demon's mother
has give him similar advice? What shall I do, if she has counselled
him, saying, "Don't say a word, so that you won't be exposed"? How
shall I recognise him then?"
"Keep silent and yield to him, and wait with patience," his
mother answered. "It may be that some word may leap from his mouth.
Or if it does not leap, it may be that from your tongue some word may
leap involuntarily, or in your thoughts some words or some idea may
spring up, so that out of that idea or those words you will know him
for what he is.
For then you will have been affected by him; that is
the reflection of him and his feelings that has sprung up inside of
you."
Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi
from discourse #10
traslated by Arberry
The shift to Aware Presence...
You may have overlooked that brief periods in which you are "conscious without thought" are already occurring naturally and spontaneously in your life.
You may be engaged in some manual activity, or walking across the room, or waiting at the airline counter, and be so completely present that the usual mental static of thought subsides and is replaced by an aware presence.
Or you may find yourself looking at the sky or listening to someone without any inner mental commentary. Your perceptions become crystal clear, unclouded by thought.
To the mind, all this is not significant, because it has "more important" ' things to think about.
It is also not memorable, and that's why you may have overlooked that it is already happening.
The truth is that it is the most significant thing that can happen to you.
It is the beginning of a shift from thinking to aware presence.
~ From: Stillness Speaks, by Eckhart Tolle www.eckharttolle.com
Divine Consciousness is Love...
"There is no path greater than love.
There is no law higher than love.
And there is no god beyond love.
God and love are identical."
Meher Baba
in Douglas Bloch
_I Am With You Always: A Treasury of Inspirational Quotations, Poems,
and Prayers_
NY: Bantam, 1992, p. 172
To Richie...
Tomorrow is a day of sorrow and joy..
Bitter-sweet..
My old friend Richie Havens died and we are going to spread his ashes on the grounds of the original Woodstock Festival..
I would often go to the site each year and meet him at the monument..
He felt a deep attachment to the Love that he felt there, and would return each year to try and feel that love once more..
I once sang as a backup singer with Melanie when she first began and would see her at Woodstock also..
She also felt the deep love that Woodstock represented..
The world has fallen deeply into egoic consciousness since then and that is why we all suffer now..
We could not keep that Love alive..
So now , we honor the death of one that refused to let that Love die, Richie Havens..
God be with you , Richie...
namaste, thomas
embrace the Light...
First, lay down your head
then one by one
let go of all distractions.
Embrace the light and let it guide you
beyond the winds of desire.
There you will find a spring and
nourished by its sweet waters
like a tree you will bear fruit forever.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Rumi: Hidden Music
Translated by Azima Melita Kolin
and Maryam Mafi
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001
breathe it deep...
"Do you want to awaken?
To stop being a false, artificial, self-benighted being?
Then developing and sharpening this sense –
the ability to detect fear and the source and emanations of fear –
amounts to nothing more then disengaging your own autoimmune system of ego that keeps this poison from making you sick.
Yes, to get it out, you must let it in,
breathe it deep, and allow yourself to become sickened by it.
The way out is through, and there can be no rebirth without first a death.
The trick is that there is no trick.
You just have to do it fifty times and get killed forty-nine.
It can get a little frustrating."
Jed McKenna
point of view...
Wisdom is not negation of anything.
Everything
is okay from His point of view.
That is why God
does not interfere with anything.
Everything is
okay for Him,
because every point of view
is His
point of view.
- Swami Krishnananda
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Facets of Spirituality
Complied by S. Bhagyalakshmi
Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1986
experience the gap...
Usually the mind gets activated in response to the question,
"What am I?"
It starts thinking about it until true
intelligence breaks in again and says,
"Now wait a minute that's
just more thought."
Then there can be a gap of
quietness between thoughts, and if you are very present in
that gap, you stop acting out your familiar identity.
As
soon as identity jumps into the gap, you don't feel present
anymore.
Being nobody is usually so baffling to the mind
that it starts filling that gap very quickly.
"How can I be
nobody?"
But to fill it up with a somebody is meaningless.
If you really want to know what you are, just experience
the gap, experience the openness, and let it bloom inside.
There is no better way to find out what you are.
Adyashanti - Emptiness Dancing
p.9
speech...
Man is concealed beneath his tongue;
this tongue is the curtain over the door of the soul.
When a gust of wind has pushed aside the curtain,
the secret of the interior of the house is disclosed.
We see whether in that house there are pearls
or grains of wheat, a treasure of gold,
or all scorpions or snakes;
or whether a treasure
is there and a serpent beside it,
since a treasure of gold is never
without someone to keep watch.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
--Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi
Mathnawi II: 846-848
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Daylight"
Threshold Books, 1994
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra
the fear of death...
"Perhaps the deepest reason why we are afraid of death
is because we do not know who we are."
Sogyal Rinpoche
the great mystery...
The appearance of the ego is not being denied.
What is being denied, however, is its reality.
Likewise, the thoughts and feelings that show
up for you are very real.
What’s not real, however, is a separate “you” who
is actually the ultimate, creative Source of these
thoughts and feelings.
Here’s the Great Mystery:
Yes, there are thoughts…but there’s no Thinker.
Yes, there are feelings…but there’s no Feeler.
Yes, there are words…but there’s no Speaker.
Yes, there are actions…but there’s no Do-er.
- Chuck Hillig
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Seeds for the Soul
Chuck Hillig
Black Dot Publications, 2003
third stage of meditation...
The third stage is successfully reached when he forgets the world outside,
when he neither sees nor touches it,
neither hears nor smells it with his body,
when memory and personality dissolve in a vacuum as the attention is wholly and utterly absorbed in the thought of,
and identity with,
the Overself.
— Notebooks Category 4: Elementary Meditation > Chapter 1: Preparatory > # 272
Paul Brunton
Falling into God...
Falling is the Enlightenment experience..
you fall into Divine Consciousness..
Is this why, the only fears that a baby is born with are;
the fear of falling and the fear of loud noise..
we fear heights because we fear death..
we face this same fear of death as the Enlightenment experience begins..
we fall into the death of the ego.
we fall into the desireless state of Love..
we fall into Reality..
We are born again at this moment..
We look without eyes at the brightness of Light without fear or pain..
We feel Pure Love flowing through and without..
We are Awakened as Divine Consciousness......
namaste, thomas
The Mystic of Bhutan...
To the King of Bhutan;
Higher Consciousness has told me that you have been a reader of this blog..
Welcome, seeker of Truth..
At birth you have been given the three desires of the egoic consciousness, which are Wealth, Power, and Fame..
And yet, as Gautama, you seek more..
I watch, as you give your power to the people of Bhutan, because selflessness is your nature..
Walk with us into the Nothingness of Reality..
Love is the pathway and humility is the name of the road..
There is no separation..
All is Reality and We are the same Consciousness that plays within the dreams of duality..
Welcome Home..
namaste, thomas
Existence-Consciousness-Bliss...
The Ocean cannot stay alone
and so the notion of wave is created.
When waves rise Ocean loses nothing
and when waves fall Ocean gains nothing.
Samsara, the illusion, Maya, the play,
is the wave on the Ocean of Nirvana.
Waves are not separate from the Ocean,
rays are not separate from the Sun,
You are not separate from
Existence-Consciousness-Bliss.
This is a reflection of That.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
Kabir...
"Know well, O seekers, One are both the Lord and Perfect Master;
All else is outward form and Illusion.
Give up the ego, worship the Master with your heart,
and meet the Lord.
A simple task it is or so it seems.
***********************
"Kabir says they are blind indeed,
Who think the Master to be just a human being.
Know well this truth: If you remember the Lord,
You do not get salvation -- it is far away.
But love the Master and remember Him,
And in a moment you will be transported
Across these worlds to the higher regions."
Kabir
in Issac A Exekiel
_Kabir: The Great Mystic_
Punjab: Radha Soami Satshag Beas, 1966, pp. 306, 308
Without You, there is no world...
Notice that you are the unmoved at the core of all seeming movements.
Without your unmoveability, there is no movement.
Without You, there is no world.
The world arises freshly, moment by moment, as your very self, intimately as yourself, as one.
As the world comes and goes, you do not.
As thought A dissolves and thought B arise, you do not dissolve, nor do you arise.
You are the openness of being, the vastness, the unmanifest ...
manifesting as this;
intimately so.
Magdi Em Be
Realized only by the wise...
I reached in experience,
the nirvana which is unborn, unrivalled, secure from attachment,
undecaying and unstained.
This condition is indeed reached by me which is deep,
difficult to see, difficult to understand, tranquil, excellent,
beyond the reach of mere logic,
subtle,
and to be realized only by the wise.
Gautama the Buddha
Awake Silence...
“All that is necessary to awaken to yourself
as the radiant emptiness of spirit
is to stop seeking something more or better or different,
and to turn your attention inward
to the awake silence that you are.”
― Adyashanti
Love...
When the sense of distinction and separation
is absent,
you may call it love.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
Consciousness is the only Reality...
The thinking mind, the ego, the "me" are all the same. They are different names for the same thing, which is an illusion.
It is the nature of the monkey-mind to jump about and chatter.
Ego is the thinking mind.
Mind is merely a collection of thoughts, or a collection of impressions which makes up this "me", this self image.
The ego is the identified consciousness. When the impersonal Consciousness identifies itself with the personal organism, the ego arises.
Identification with the body is so total that it gives one a sense of separate identity. Now, the separate identity is merely a concept, a concept based on the individual body appearing solid.
All there is consciousness. That is the Source from which the manifestation has come.
The only truth is I AM - I Exist. That is the only truth. Everything else is a concept. Rebirth is a concept. Your karma is a concept.
What is seeking? Seeking is "you" wanting to know God.
Consciousness is the only Reality.
Seekers continue to practice all kinds of self-torture without realizing that such 'spiritual practice' is a reinforcement of the very ego that prevents them from their natural, free state.
Enlightenment is total emptiness of mind. There is nothing you can do to get it. Any effort you make can only be an obstruction to it.
The same Consciousness prevails at rest as the Absolute and in motion as duality. When the sense of "me" disappears completely, duality vanishes in ecstasy.
Ramesh Balsekar
abiding...
"With the tongs of Truth
I have plucked the thorn of thinking
from the innermost cave
of my heart.
"Where is meditation, pleasure,
prosperity or discrimination?
Where is duality?
Where even is Unity?
I abide in the glory of Self."
Janaka
in Astavakra Gita_, 19.1-2
Translated by Bart Marshall
http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf
natural clarity awareness...
Essential Basics of Practice;
The most primary practice is the non practice of just being awareness, your default condition.
This would be practiced in a formal meditation session which is just sitting with no agenda, yet fully and totally present without any mental or conceptual engagement.
This practice is actually the fruit of practice yet appearing as our current condition in each moment.
There is no sense of self present or conceptualized objects in this non-dual state of presence.
When as this naked awareness, one just continues as this vivid and alert awareness in all the twenty four hours of the day and night in total relaxation.
Upon successful development, the chakras would be fully open and the subtle energies would be flowing in the central channel, the body would appear and feel transparent to one's inner perception, and the mind would be utterly clear with blissful feelings circulating within your inner channels.
(once you understand what they are talking about, the natural clarity awareness then the practice is to be that as much as possible.)
Jackson Peterson from
The Natural Bliss of Being
the cosmic joke...
The joke is that it is the ego,
the “me,”
that
wants enlightenment,
and enlightenment
cannot come until the “me” is demolished.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
crossing the bridge...
I can tell you from experience how utterly simple awakening is. Because you are already that which you seek (God-Source- Enlightenment), it just takes a wake-up call for you to remember that. But you are groggy with a lifetime of sleep in the all-pervasive conditioning of duality and dualism.
So when Ramesh Balsekar wrote his little book (Consciousness Speaks) that reminded me that Consciousness is all there is and I Am That, I suddenly knew, remembered, and woke up.
The deliverance that comes after the wake-up call, which flowed from my own inner voice of wisdom, filled in the details as to how this intuitive knowing that I Am That applies to daily life. It basically meant embracing every detail of life as an extension of that Consciousness that is all there is, as what is -- as is. And this meant that everything was exactly as it should be. So there was nothing left to do but just be.
It all sounds too simple to be true, but I assure you that if Destiny and Grace have determined that this is the moment for you to cross over that bridge from being the doer in life to just being, all of your Onion Vision conditioning will fall away, and you will live the rest of the journey with the clarity, freedom, and joy of Pearl Vision.
~ From: Onions to Pearls, by Satyam Nadeen www.satyamnadeen.com
Real , alone exists...
There is no alternative for you but to
accept the world as unreal if you are
seeking the truth and the truth alone.
Unless you give up the idea that the
world is real your mind will always be
after it.
If you take the appearance to
be real you will never know the real
itself,
although it is the real alone
that exists.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"Be As You Are"
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
Edited by David Godman
Arkana, 1985
what is True Awareness ?...
Q: What is true awareness?
R: "There is awareness which is aware of objects like flowers. True
Awareness is the awareness which is aware of the awareness of objects. It is
the undisturbed simple awareness in which things rise and fall."
"There is Awareness beyond
the awareness of objects and events.
You are that Awareness in which
the awareness of objects stays."
"This Awareness has no name and when you try to give it a name the
trouble arises. You are nameless and formless, you can't see anything.
Know
'I am nameless and formless,' and that 'I am aware of my own Self.' The pure Consciousness will pull you back, it is not that you will enter into it.
When you enter into it, it is ego entering, but when It pulls you It has made the choice to take you Home. This happens somehow and we can't know
why. Very rare beings are picked up by Consciousness. Once drawn in that
man's travels are over!"
"So do not give it a name or it will just be another object of someone's
observation. Consciousness cannot be observed, it is Fullness itself,
Limitlessness, Eternal itself.
You have to merge with it. Actually, it is not
merging, there is no word which describes it. You have to be as good and
pure as It so that you are picked up by It. By your own efforts you can not
do it.
Just see that you are so beautiful that you are chosen by the
bridegroom.
This is how it ends.
I hope you have understood."
Poonja
acceptance...
"Don't demand that things happen as you wish,
but wish that they happen as
they do happen,
and you will get on well."
Epictetus
The Enchiridion, 8
Translated by Elizabeth Carter
The Internet Classics LIbrary
Remember the Truth...
I keep weeping for you, my soul,
good sir, gently trying to let you
see the nature of what you love.
Not even the shadow
of an iron anchor
will last from here.
Remember the truth
that you are.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
Ponder this...
Ponder this very well.
Your sadhana, your spiritual practice does not begin when you've gone to many teachers, and you've read many books.
It actually begins when you give up everything.
That's when real sadhana begins,
when you have surrendered everything,
when you've emptied yourself of all knowledge,
all desires for liberation.
When you have become an empty shell,
then your spiritual life begins.
Until that time you're only playing games with yourself.
Ponder These Things - July 5, 1992
Robert Adams
The land of Truth...
A certain man believed that the ordinary waking life, as people know
it, could not possibly be complete.
He sought the real Teacher of the Age. He read many books and
joined many circles, and he heard the words and witnessed the deeds
of one master after another.
He carried out the commands and
spiritual exercises which seemed to him to be most attractive.
He became elated with some of his experiences. At other times
he was confused; and he had no idea at all of what his stage was, or
where and when his search might end.
This man was reviewing his behaviour one day when he suddenly
found himself near the house of a certain sage of high repute. In
the garden of that house he encountered Khidr, the secret guide who
shows the way to Truth.
Khidr took him to a place where he saw people in great distress
and woe, and he asked who they were. "We are those who did not
follow real teachings, who were not true to our undertakings, who
revered self-appointed teachers," they said.
Then the man was taken by Khidr to a place where everyone was
attractive and full of joy. He asked who they were. "We are those
who did not follow the real Signs of the Way," they said.
"But if you have ignored the Signs, how can you be happy?" asked
the traveller.
"Because we chose happiness instead of Truth," said the
people, "just as those who chose the self-appointed chose also
misery."
"But is happiness not the ideal of man?" asked the man.
"The goal of man is Truth. Truth is more than happiness. The
man who has Truth can have whatever mood he wishes or none," they
told him. "We have pretended that Truth is happiness, and happiness
Truth, and people have believed us, therefore you, too, have until
now imagined that happiness must be the same as Truth. But happiness
makes you its prisoner, as does woe."
Then the man found himself back in the garden, with Khidr beside
him.
"I will grant you one desire," said Khidr.
"I wish to know why I have failed in my search and how I can
succeed in it," said the man.
"You have all but wasted your life," said Khidr, "because you
have been a liar. Your lie has been in seeking personal
gratification when you could have been seeking Truth."
"And yet I came to the point where I found you," said the
man, "and that is something which happens to hardly anyone at all."
"And you met me," said Khidr, "because you had sufficient
sincerity to desire Truth for its own sake, just for an instant. It
was that sincerity, in that single instant, which made me answer your
call."
Now the man felt an overwhelming deaire to find Truth, even if
he lost himself.
Khidr, however, was starting to walk away, and the man began to
run after him.
"You may not follow me," said Khidr, "because I am returning to
the ordinary world, the world of lies, for that is where I have to
be, if I am to do my work."
And when the man looked around him again, he realized that he
was no longer in the garden of the sage, but standing in the Land of
Truth.
as collected by Idries Shah
Being...
Q: Is Beingness the same as God? Is this Sahaja samadhi?
R: "Beingness is very different from what most people call God. God is a
concept created by you. Beingness is just Beingness and nobody created it
because it is beyond creations and destructions. That in which all creations
abide, including God, is called Being."
"Sahaja samadhi is the melting of the individual into the natural Oneness
and Beingness of all things. It is the samadhi which involves no effort, no use of mind. It is the natural samadhi which is your natural state.
If you are Here
and not thinking, it is Sahaja samadhi. You can eat and drink and carry on
any activity while in Sahaja. Sahaja samadhi is Self in the exquisite experience
of the Fullness of Being!"
Poonja
Reality alone exists...
Reality alone exists -
and that we are.
All the rest is only a dream,
a dream of the One Mind,
which is our mind without the 'our'.
Is it so
hard to accept?
Is it so difficult to assimilate and to live?
Wei Wu Wei
Seeing...
“How much freedom do we really have? Instead of immediately rushing in with our preferred answer that we are convinced is true, can we leave that question open and unanswered? For me, it is a beautiful koan that continues to unfold and open. Is it possible to wake up, right now, from all the thoughts, ideas, beliefs and habits of mind and body that recreate and reincarnate ‘the same old world’ and ‘the same old me’ moment by moment out of thin air, out of habit?
“Nonduality, Buddhism and Advaita are all in some way about cutting through the imaginary limitations and problems created by conceptual thought –SEEING how we habitually and unconsciously choose bondage over liberation, SEEING how we are doing our suffering. Waking up is discovering another possibility.
“Of course, when I say that ‘we’ do these things, I’m not talking about the phantom self, which doesn’t really exist. So it’s not about blaming ourselves or others for ‘choosing’ bondage or creating suffering. This ‘choice’ happens out of infinite causes and conditions. It happens out of ignorance. It is a kind of hypnotic entrancement, not some personal failure. But it IS possible, when it is, to SEE how this ‘choice’ gets made, to become conscious of how we do our suffering, to wake up from this entrancement. Just as delusion is not a personal failure, awakening is not a personal success. It is the dissolution of that very IDEA of separation, limitation and ownership. Waking up is the activity of the True Self – boundless awareness, the intelligence at the heart of everything.
“Here / Now is totally open and unpredictable. Awareness has no boundaries and no limits. The survival mind keeps trying to locate and solidify itself, get a grip, figure everything out…The SEEING – the awareness – is free and unbound. Here / Now, before thought, we cannot say what is possible and what isn’t. This moment is absolutely new. It has never been here before…
“The biggest miracle is Here / Now – every moment of ordinary life. When…we’re awake, EVERYTHING is extraordinary. What makes it miraculous is not the CONTENT but the AWARENESS that beholds and illuminates and breathes life into the momentary forms. Awareness is what we love in the beloved. When we dissolve into this openness that is always Here / Now, we act from a place that is unbound. When we wake up, the whole world wakes up, because we are not separate….
“By giving nonjudgmental, loving attention to what we are doing and how we are doing it, everything changes naturally. This giving of attention is like breathing – we can’t really say whether we are breathing or being breathed. The attention I’m talking about is open, spacious awareness, not thought, analysis and rumination. It is not a task or a practice. It is our true nature. It has no cause and it seeks no result.
“Is it possible in this moment to drop all of our ideas about ourselves and the world? Is it possible to fully enjoy the delightful sounds of rain or the amazing tastes and aromas of a cup of coffee? And maybe to enjoy not only the rain and the coffee, but also the wonderful and terrible messiness of human life with all its perfection and imperfection – this whole astonishing movie of waking life – without needing it to be any different from exactly how it is, and without imagining that anything has to stay the same. That is true freedom.”
–from pp. 278-281 of Painting the Sidewalk with Water: Talks and Dialogs about Nonduality,
Joan Tollifson
Jivanmukta...
Jivanmukta (from the Sanskrit words jiva and mukti) is someone who, in the Advaita philosophy of Hinduism, has attained nirvikalpa samadhi - the realization of the Self, Parasiva - and is liberated from rebirth while living in a human body.
Jivanmukta is a unique concept in Hindu philosophy, particularly in the school of philosophy known as Advaita.
The ultimate goal of Hinduism is liberation from the cycles of re-birth. This liberation is technically called 'moksha'.
In all schools of Hindu philosophy (except Advaita) liberation is necessarily an event beyond the experience of human beings.
But the Advaita school of Shankara envisages that human beings are already liberated and the soul is already free - one has only to realise (and to accept) this freedom. Souls who have had this realisation are called jivanmuktas.
There are three kinds of Prarabdha karma:
Ichha (personally desired),
Anichha (without desire)
and Parechha (due to others' desire).
For a self realized person, a Jivanmukta, there is no Ichha-Prarabdha but the two others, Anichha and Parechha, remain , which even a jivanmukta has to undergo.
In the sramanic traditions the jivanmukta is called an arhat.
.....from Wikipedia
are we awake ?...
Those that are awake know that this manifestation is a dream and an illusion..
Those that are awake know that We are the seer of this manifestation..
Those that are still asleep believe that this is real..
Where are you ?..
Are you the body, mind, or ego ?..
Or are You, Reality ?..
These words are to awaken You..
Although Divinity, You are asleep..
Difficult to believe, is it not..
A sleeping God..
As Jesus said; " Is it not written that you are all Gods ?"..
There is much for you to contemplate tonight...
namaste, thomas
Tao Te Ching...
The very highest is barely known.
Then comes that which people know and love,
Then that which is feared,
Then that which is despised.
Who does not trust enough will not be trusted.
When actions are performed
Without unnecessary speech,
People say,
"We did it!"
- Lao-tzu
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Tao Te Ching
Translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English
Vintage Books Edition, September 1989
the Self is hidden in the heart...
The Self is hidden in the lotus of the heart.
Those who see themselves in all creatures go day by day into the world of Brahman hidden in the heart.
Established in peace, they rise above body-consciousness to the supreme light of the Self.
Immortal, free from fear, this Self is Brahman, called the True.
Beyond the mortal and the immortal, he binds both worlds together.
Those who know this live day after day in heaven in this very life.
The Chandogya Upanishad
EKNATH EASWARAN
from the same Source...
"Basically, religion is one; there is only one religion.
The source from which
this religion has come into being is continuous despite the lapses of ages.
Yet
several branches have come forth from this one religion -- such as the
Zoroastrian, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and Mohammedan religions.
There have
been many others . . .
"For example, water from the tap fills different pots for different purposes --
like washing, cooking, drinking, et cetera.
The source -- the tap -- is the
same.
Similarly, the Hindu or Mohammedan religion, or the Zoroastrian or
Buddhist or Christian religion, springs from the same source which is GOD."
Meher Baba
in Bhau Kalchuri
_LORD MEHER_: Volume One & Two, 1894 - 1925_
Myrtle Beach, SC: MANifestation, 1979, p. 252
Whatever...
Whatever you have in your mind -
forget it;
Whatever you have in your hand -
give it;
Whatever is to be your fate -
face it!
Abu Sa'id
that You are...
"Bliss is Within. That you are.
Truth is Within. That you are.
Beauty is Within. That you are.
Love is Within. That you are.
This is addressing to your own Self."
Q: I want to stay in my own Self.
R: "Then decide that only Self exists and you will never be out of it.
It is Unlimited, how can you jump in and out of it?
How can you jump into limitations, when you are Unlimited?"
"Decide: 'I am Self, I am Truth
I am God, I am Grace,'
and there will be no trouble."
Poonja
what remains is Reality...
If I ask you what is the taste of your mouth,
all you can do is to say:
it is neither sweet
nor bitter nor sour nor astringent;
it is what
remains when all these tastes are not.
Simi-
larly, when all distinctions and reactions are
no more,
what is remains is reality, simple
and solid.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
when insight arises...
When insight arises,
the passions become subdued and the problems which beset man become solved of their own accord.
We may quarrel and kill whilst we remain in ignorance,
but we must needs, feel for and with each other when we comprehend at long last that in the Overself we are one.
— Notebooks Category 6: Emotions and Ethics > Chapter 4: Purify Passions > # 167
Paul Brunton
Believe Nothing...
"Believe nothing,
no matter where you read it,
or who said it,
no matter if I have said it,
unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense."
Gautama the Buddha
Gnosticism and the Archons...
In 1945 a cache of ancient texts was discovered in a cave near Nag Hammadi in Egypt. These 52 documents are widely assumed to be original Gnostic writings almost 2000 years old. These texts are rare evidence for a mystical tradition that has a very unique creation myth. The texts refer to an off-world species called the Archons which act as overlords and deceivers of humanity at the same time. A fascinating subject with explosive ties to psychology and religion.
Gnosticism
There are different views on the history of Gnosticism. Most scholars see it rising with Christianity but this conception might be related to the emergence of Gnostic initiates into the public eye in this time period, because they felt compelled to warn Christians about the doctrine of Salvationism which they strongly opposed.
Gnostics criticized the saviour/redeemer complex of Abrahamic religions because they saw it as psychological warfare on the human mind : If humanity requires external salvation, this implies that we can not really be responsible for our own lives because we can not save ourselves. By accepting original sin as a given, Christians are taught that there is something wrong with them from birth and there is nothing they can do about it. Guilt is often used as a psychological weapon in cults in order to steer the behaviour of the flock. Gnostics were opposed to this kind of trickery because they lead to a glorification of the victim and thrive on the redemptive value of suffering.
In the Christian belief system a male God created the universe and the high priests were the only ones who were able to communicate with this God. Gnostics saw this as another form of mass mind control of the population in order to get people to follow orders the high priests allegedly received from God.
Gnostic creation myth
In the gnostic belief system planet Earth is a conscious entity. Long before Earth was created two divine entities by the names Christos and Sophia were pondering the creation of a new world. Sophia became so fascinated with it that she punged herself into their creation. This plunge created an unforseen side effect because a spiritual species called the Archons emerged. In passages of Gnostic texts these Archons are portrayed as some sort of miscarriage. The Archons gathered around a leading figure called the Demiurge, who falsely believes that he is the creator of the universe.
This demented god creates the solar system except for planet Earth. Sophia decides to morph into planet Earth but becomes captured in the inorganic solar system of the Demiurge. Sophia's emotions, grief and confusion transform into physical elements of Earth and the biosphere, thus the terrestrial globe solidifies and life arises in rampant forms but Sophia is unable to control her progeny. As Christos notices Sophias entrapment in their creation he tries to intervene in order to bring order to the biological diversity of Sophia's world. Upon making this intercession, Christos leaves a radiant afterimage in the biosphere and recedes from Earth. Sophia finds herself in the world of her solitary dreaming where a particular strain of humanity emerges and proceeds to live out a divine experiment : The unfolding of human novelty.
The Archons
About 20% of the Nag Hammadi texts talk about the species of the Archons. They are portrait as a non-physical species that can take physical form for a short period of time. One of the Nag Hammadi texts (Apocryphon of James) describes the abduction of human beings by small beings. The similarities to the "Greys" as portrayed in many science-fiction movies and as they are described by people who have experienced alien abductions are staggering, especially if you consider that the Nag Hammadi texts are almost 2000 years old, so this meme of an alien species is nothing new to human history.
The Archons are described as psychic intruders. They are not able to live in the material world like human beings but they can visit it for short periods of time. It is comparable to a human being diving in water, we can also only stay there for short periods of time. Their prefered way of entry into this reality is through the human mind. Gnostic texts warn about the Archons and their attempts to deviate human evolution from its course. They have two main methods to achieve this :
Mistakes : Human beings make mistakes but human beings are not very good at learning from their mistakes. The Archons are masters at exploiting our unwillingness to learn from mistakes
Simulation : The Archons are masters of virtual realities and holographic projection : They can create holographic images of any living thing but these holograms are not alive they only represent the original.
The texts about the Archons describe that they intend to live "through" humans, since they are unable to live in our reality in physical form. They are trying to make humans more archonic for this : They attempt to have humanity loose its connection to the natural world (nature) and spend more and more time in virtual worlds. The motivation of the Archons for doing all this is envy. The Archons envy humans because humans live in a wonderful world full of creativity which is very different from the virtual and cold environment that the Archons inhabit. Their envy also seems to be related to the divine spark that is hidden within every human being. Gnostics refer to this divine spark as "nous" and it is something that the Archons do not have because they do not have a divine origin. Nevertheless gnostic texts remind the reader that the Archons are part of creation because they came into being when Sophia plunged into her own creation.
The Archons seem to often show senseless behaviour. They get a thrill from causing human emotions like fear and from creating confusion. It is implied that the Archons feed energetically of human emotions because they do not have any emotions themselves, thus do not have any emotional energy of their own.
It is very difficult to make sense of these descriptions. What seems to make most sense is that the Archons are a way of the reality construct to test human beings and to see if we can master our own mind despite the Archons trying to cause us internal confusion. They seem to be part of a cosmic test, a way to remove consciousness that is not willing to take responsibility for its own thoughts and actions. In this sense the Archons might be a cosmic tool to incite human evolution.
As mentioned earlier, there are different views concerning gnosticism. This articles is based on the book "Not in his image" by John Lamb Lash.
from www.matrixwissen
Jesus and Non-Duality...
Probably, the most profoundly direct instruction Christ gave concerning the teaching of non-dualism is from
"The light of the body is the eye: Therefore, when thine eye is single, your whole body will be filled with light...." (Luke 11: 34)
This non-dual teaching is easily paraphrased as follows: The part of you that sees (the seer, one's Self) is your true light. Therefore, if you hold to (i.e., abide as) the seer (subject-"I") singlely or exclusively (i.e., relinquishing attention to thoughts) you will have illumination - or what some call the "enlightenment of the whole body". This is the exact instruction given in the non-dual Vedanta tradition, with the same described outcome, as related above.
See the Non-Dual Christ Consciousness described in the Vedic Verse
and Avadhut Gita verse below, very similar to the above records:
Vedic Verse -- Atharva Veda, Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.9:
In the highest golden sheath is the Godhead, unsullied, indivisible; pure is it, the Light of lights. He who knows the Self knows it. Neither sun nor moon nor stars shine there. Neither lightning nor fire finds there a place. With the radiance of that Light alone all things shine. That radiance illumines all this world.
Song of the Ever free -- Avadhuta Gita (Chapter 7 Verse 4):
In this state of realization, how can the Avadhuta
consider whether he has a body or not,
or whether he has attachment or not?
He himself is the immaculate, immovable, innate Reality
-infinite as space.
Pieter Schoonheim Samara is author of The Self, Maya, and the Heart: The Fundamentals of Non-Dualism
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