Conflict...
Conflict...
There is no conflict within God..
Conflict is caused by the false belief that We are separate from God..
We call this, egoic consciousness..
Once, We Realize that there is no ego or separation,, conflicts end..
This is called Humility and Love..
Love is the only Law,
All other laws are created by the false ego...
namaste, thomas
Do we tell you too much ?...
I can tell you that You and God are one,
but, can I tell you more without causing you fear ?.
Jesus said that He and God are One and you accepted it as Truth but only for Him..
This is the state of Divine Consciousness and is Your Nature and Reality..
Do you have the courage to know the Final Truth ?..
Not many can.
The Fear of non-existence is beyond the mind and ego to comprehend..
The mind is the ego and will not accept that it is an illusion..
How can you accept that you are also an illusion ?..
You accept yourself as a separate egoic consciousness and cannot comprehend anything else..
You as Energy will always exist, but, you as ego is only a dream..
How much courage do you have ?..
Will it help if I tell you that You are Love and Awareness ?..
Yes, I think that it will...
namaste, thomas
Be who you are...
“Be who you are and say what you feel,
because those who mind don't matter,
and those who matter don't mind.”
― Bernard M. Baruch
Asleep , Awake, Aware...
To be asleep or spiritually dead is to believe that You are the dream called egoic consciousness..
To be awake is to know that You are Divine Consciousness , One with God and live with this Knowledge at every moment..
To be fully Aware is to know that there is only Pure Awareness (God) and You are just a dream from this Awareness..
namaste, thomas
a powerfully held thought...
"The problem of the relation between the mind and the body disappears when we grasp these great truths,
that the body is only an experience of consciousness and that such an experience can be external during wakefulness or internal during dream,
but is actually as much a powerfully-held thought in both cases as is the outside space which is set up to contain both the body and the world."
Paul Brunton, 'The Wisdom Of The Overself'
you too disappear...
Just when you thought you had made it or that you belonged here, the return movement begins. Perhaps people close to you begin to die, people who were a part of your world.
Then your physical form weakens; your sphere of influence shrinks. Instead of becoming more, you now become less, and the ego reacts to this with increasing anxiety or depression. Your world is beginning to contract, and you may find you are not in control anymore.
Instead of acting upon life, life now acts upon you by slowly reducing your world. The consciousness that identified with form is now experiencing the sunset, the dissolution of form.
And then one day, you too disappear. Your armchair is still there. But instead of you sitting in it, there is just an empty space. You went back to where you came from just a few years ago.
~ From: A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle
The Way...
"Huoan said to Minister of State Ceng Tai:
'The essential point in studying the Way is like balancing stones to weigh things:
just get them even, that is all — it won't work if one side is too heavy.
Pushing ahead and lagging behind are both the same in being one-sided.
When you realize this, you can study the Way."
Huoan
in _Zen Lessons_, 209
Translated by Thomas Cleary
NY: Barnes & Noble, 1989, p. 133
The transcending of thought...
The transcending of thought happens not
through suppression but through the natural
absence of volition or desire brought about
by the recognition of one’s true nature.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
The Natural State...
You will recognize that you have returned to your natural state
by a complete absence of all desire and fear.
After all, at the root of all desire and fear is the feeling
of not being what you are.
Just as a dislocated joint pains only as long as it is out of shape,
and is forgotten as soon as it is set right,
so is all self-concern a symptom of mental distortion which disappears
as soon as one is in the normal state.
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
Forgiveness...
The key to forgiveness is to forgive from the heart -
not from the mind.
- Sheri Rosenthal
The Light of Consciousness...
The Light of Consciousness as Revealed by Turning the Light Around to Illuminate Itself
When you look directly into your own mind or consciousness in a moment of contemplation you can recognize the nature of that consciousness directly. That is called “turning the Light around to illuminate Itself”. There is no material substance there and no permanent personality found. It’s also noticed that consciousness is an aware knowing.
It’s also easily observed that consciousness is always manifesting impermanent thoughts, images, sensations and perceptions. All of those manifestations are its own Light. The Light spontaneously manifesting as provisional and impermanent empty, light-forms, can be considered to appear as holograms. All there is, isthe Light of Consciousness appearing to Itself. This is like the inseparability of water, its transparent clarity and its shimmering waves as the complete definition of the ocean itself.
This Light is aware and luminous hence all the manifestations are enlivened, vivid and vital. They arise from a Source of infinite potential that in Itself is never revealed to be different from its own manifestations of Light. Nothing exists outside of the Light.
Enlightenment is a moment when the Light shines upon Itself. The essential aspect of the Light is like transparent space. The cognitive aspect of the Light is a condition of aware knowing. The material aspect of the Light is a spectrum of radiant symmetries whose self-organizing energies only point to the infinite Intelligence that embodies the Light.
Outside of this Light nothing else shines or appears nor perceives. Only the Light knows Itself.
Without paying heed to countless numbers of systems, traditions, philosophies and religions that promise that only they understand the Light; just look directly into the Light by turning the Light of attention inward to shine upon Itself. If successful, you will only see Light upon Light, wonder upon wonder within the domain of the Light of Love’s allure and its ceaseless delight.
"God is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The parable of His light is, as it were, that of a niche containing a lamp; the lamp enclosed in glass, the glass shining like a radiant star: a lamp lit from a blessed tree – an olive-tree that is neither of the east nor of the west – the oil whereof is so bright that it would well-nigh give light of itself even though fire had not touched it: light upon light!”
You are that Light! Shine bright and enlighten your world!
Jackson Peterson
Friday Night Dreams...
We are here on a Friday Night thinking about Reality..
Why are we not dancing, singing, and becoming intoxicated ?..
Perhaps, Truth is more important than illusions..
I have time to contemplate and meditate and yet I see those that are lost within duty..
My only duty is to the Unseen,
Their duty is to the manifestations..
I see Self within these apparitions called lives and grieve with them for their pains..
But, I cannot call to them with Knowledge of the Unseen,
they would be bewildered and mentally lost..
So, I remain the Observer of the Dreams..
The Awareness that enjoys Light..
The Dreamer of Worlds..
The end of desires...
namaste, thomas
Bhagavad Gita...
"Those who see Me in all
And see all in Me --
I am not lost to them,
And they are not lost to Me."
Krishna
_Bhagavad Gita_ 6:30
The Ashtavakra Gita...
But O how wonderful!
I am the unbounded
deep in whom all living things naturally arise,
rush against each other playfully,
and then
subside.
- Ashtavakra Gita
Chapter 2, verse 25
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
The Heart of Awareness: A Translation
of the Ashtavakra Gita
By Thomas Byrom
Shambala, 1990
where man ends, where God begins...
With the maturity of his soul, a man desires to probe the depths of life, he desires to discover the power latent within him, he longs to know the sources and goal of his life,
he yearns to understand the aim and meaning of his life, he wishes to understand the inner significance of things, and he wants to uncover all that is covered by name and form.
He seeks for insight into cause and effect, he wants to touch the mystery of time and space, and he wishes to find the missing link between God and man- where man ends, where God begins.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged By
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
Do I see ?...
"When my Beloved appears,
With what eye do I see Him?
With His eye, not with mine,
For none sees Him except Himself."
Muhyiddin Ibn al- 'Arabi
in Reynold A. Nicholson
_The Mystics of Islam_
Routledge, Kegan Paul, London, 1914, p. 165-166
me meditation...
There are exquisite moments when the usual meditation stops - moments of being absorbed in a lover's embrace, in the sound of beautiful music, or in the colors of a sunrise.
There are moments where there is no "you" being practiced, there is simply beingness. And in this simple beingness there are peace, insight, clarity, and naturalness, an effortless grace and ease of being.
But we believe very strongly in our me meditation, and so these are usually just brief moments before the normal practice is picked up again: "I am this body; this is who I am. You are that body; that is who you are. This is my culture; that is your culture. These are my beliefs; those are your beliefs. You are my enemy; you are my friend. You want something from me; I want something from you", etc.
The truth of who you are, however, is simpler than anything that can be practiced. Personal suffering, on the other hand, is very complex, and for it to continue it must be practiced. If you are suffering, just as an investigation, see if you are 'practicing' your suffering.
~ From: The Diamond In Your Pocket, by Gangaji
Stay here...
Ascetics wander shrine to shrine,
looking for what can only come
from visiting the soul.
Study the mystery you embody.
When you look up from that,
the dub grass looks fresher
a little ways off, and even more
green farther on. Stay here.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
looking for what can only come
from visiting the soul.
Study the mystery you embody.
When you look up from that,
the dub grass looks fresher
a little ways off, and even more
green farther on. Stay here.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
Action...
However many holy words you read,
however many you speak,
what good
will they do you if you do not act on upon them?..
Gautama the Buddha
The still center...
"When we find the still center of our being, we find it to be all happiness.
When we remain in the surface of our being, we yearn for happiness but never find it.
For there the mind is always moving, restless, scattered."
"Only one who has intimately felt this divine peace, however briefly, can know its inestimable worth.
Only one who has felt this divine love, however seldom, can know that its indescribable joy is above all earthly ones."
Paul Brunton
" Sons of God "...
The 'sons of God' is the state of Divine Consciousness and is not the 'Final Reality' of 'Pure Awareness'..
You are still locked into the belief in Duality..
God is 'One', there is no separation..
All belief in separation is created by the Dream of separation called ego..
Release the belief in this Dream and Realize that You are much more that just 'sons of God'..
You are actually all that does Exist and all that does not Exist..
When You Realize this,,
You will Realize that there is no 'You'...
namaste, thomas
A Mystic...
The mind must be left behind..
The egoic self is abandoned and all that is left is Divine Consciousness..
You are Divine Consciousness..
A Mystic is one that is seeking this Reality..
An advanced Mystic is one that has entered this Reality..
This is not the 'Final Reality' but it is Truth..
This is the Existence of Creative Light , Love, and Consciousness..
This is Us..
This is the 'Dream' of ' Pure Awareness'..
Pure Awareness that Dreamed of Light and said that It was Good..
Pure Awareness has no ego or personality..
It is the Consciousness that Dreams..
It is Us, when there is no longer an Us...
namaste, thomas
Time and Space...
Time is in the mind, space is in the mind.
The law of cause and effect is also a way of
thinking.
In reality all is here and now and
all is one.
Multiplicity and diversity are in
the mind only.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
" Was Jesus a Mystic" ?...
Every year I pose the question to Yahoo Questions and receive the same answers..
The question I ask is:"
If Jesus was a Mystic, then why are not all Christians,
Mystics?"...
Most Christians answer that He was not a Mystic..
This is why
Christians do not behave as Christians..
They have not understood the Teachings
of Jesus concerning the Path of Liberation and Unity with God..
Therefore, they
are content with reading stories from a book and singing once a week in a
building..
The wall of ego has blinded them from the fact that Jesus was a man
that conquered the illusion of the ego and became One with God..
As He said;" I
and the Father are One"..
This wall of ego prevents Christians from Realizing
that Jesus was teaching us that we must also walk the path that He did..
He gave
us a clue when He said;
" They who come after Me will do greater works than I"..
you are the ones that He was speaking of..
How far will you travel into the Mind
of Jesus and Understand Him and His Teachings?..
namaste, thomas
God has no ego...
Ego is the illusion of a separate self that we have created to become separate gods..
This is of course both true and a lie..
We have the abilities to create the illusions of materiality by thought but we have forgotten that the source of this power is the non-ego within us..
the ego is the self that many of us believe that we are because we have collected a bundle of thoughts through multiple incarnations that we have formed into the imaginary being that we think that we are..
Since ego is the constant thought of this imaginary grouping of thoughts, we have become self-ish, and selfishness is the opposite of Love..
Therefore, the Force and Unification of Love cannot contain an Ego..
This is why we have to relinquish this false ego to be blended into the Egolessness that is called God...
namaste, thomas
Pure Awareness...
This is the birthless, deathless, timeless, spaceless, boundless Awareness-Isness-Aliveness. Our Real Identity. —Bankei Yotaku
All life comes out of awareness. And just like ocean waves are never separate from the ocean, we are never separate from awareness. Awareness is our fundamental essence of being.
Pure awareness has no form, nor shape nor colour, and yet contains within it, all form, shape and colour. It is like the empty space of a vessel that carries the water. Awareness is the Presence of the Now, remaining unchanged by all worldly appearances.
When a lump of salt is thrown into water, it dissolves and cannot be removed even though we can taste the salty water. So the separate self dissolves in the sea of pure awareness, infinite and immortal.
—Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
When we turn our focus on the inner world, rather than the world of mind and matter, we discover the shores of pure awareness. Here, our human wave dissolves back into the sea of pure awareness and we recognise True Self.
Paradoxically, True Self is experienced when in the absence of the idea of self. This means our getting out of the way of ourselves. Beyond mind, beyond thought, beyond feeling…there is a beautiful timeless place where all is known simply being.
from peliguin.com
" I do not understand'...
This was the statement from a spiritual novice about my blog..
Of course, you do not understand!..
It takes a great deal of contemplation and meditation to understand..
It has taken me many years to understand Reality..
I first had to awaken into Reality, through the suicide of ego,
I then had to return to the body to learn about the Final Reality of Pure Awareness..
This usually takes many lifetimes..
Especially, when those that you believe and respect tell you knowledge that is not true..
Out of Darkness comes Light..
This is the Reality of Dream..
Who Dreams ?..
This is the Quest, to know..
When you find out, tell me...
namaste, thomas
when the ego goes...
God comes when the ego goes.
When you are
nowhere, He alone is everywhere.
He takes the
position of your personality.
You vanish, and He
comes in, not before that.
- Swami Krishnananda
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Facets of Spirituality
Complied by S. Bhagyalakshmi
Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1986
The supreme teacher...
The greatest Guru is your inner self.
Truly,
he is the supreme teacher.
He alone can take
you to your goal and he alone meets you at
the end of the road.
Confide in him and you
need no outer Guru.
But again you must have
the strong desire to find him and do nothing
that will create obstacles and delays.
And do
not waste energy and time on regrets.
Learn
from your mistakes and do not repeat them.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
The mind inwards...
God illumines the mind and shines within it.
One cannot know God by means of the mind.
One can but turn the mind inwards and merge it in God.
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi
Cease attachment...
Deny the reality of things
and you miss their reality;
assert the emptiness of things
and you miss their reality.
The more you talk and think about it
the further you wander from the truth.
So cease attachment to talking and thinking,
and there is nothing you will not be able to know.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hsin Hsin Ming
Translated by Richard B. Clarke
Divinity...
You don't need to simply believe that someone else, someone "special", someone from some "other" strange and exotic place or time or culture.....
like Jesus, or Krishna, or the Buddha, or Ramana, (or whoever), were divine incarnations, avatars or "enlightened beings"......
Become one yourself right where you are now by fully embracing your full humanity and your full divinity.
Take in fully and embrace the seamless wholeness of your entire life right here in this very ordinary, non-exotic place you find yourself in.....in Ohio, or Nebraska, or downtown Chicago or East Sussex.
Whether blissfully sitting in samadhi or washing the dishes
after supper....enjoy and celebrate every minute of life that unfolds for you!
You are not either exclusively human or exclusively divine.
You are not exclusively impersonal or personal.
You are both.
You don't need to choose between them.
You are divinely human and humanly divine.
Your divinity is a fully human divinity and your humanity is utterly divine!
Francis Bennett
The Divine Darkness...
The final grade of inner experience, the deepest phase of contemplation, is one where the experiencer himself disappears, the meditator vanishes, the knower no longer has an object
--not even the Overself--
to know for duality collapses.
Because this grade is beyond the supreme "Light"
experience where the Overself reveals its presence visually as a dazzling mass, shaft, ball, or ray of unearthly radiance which is seen whether the bodily eyes are open or closed,
it has been called the divine darkness..
Category 28 > Chapter 2 > # 147
Paul Brunton
The Atharva Veda...
"Do not be led by others,
awaken your own mind,
amass your own experience,
and decide for yourself your own path."
-The Atharva Veda
Happiness or Unhappiness...
By our thoughts we have prepared for ourselves the happiness or unhappiness we experience.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Fighting with another makes war, but struggling with one's self brings peace.
All our possessions, all that we collect in life, all these things which we shall have to leave one day are transitory; but that which we have created in our thought, in our mind, that lives. A person thinks, 'Some day I should like to build a factory.' At this time he has no money, no knowledge, no capability; but a thought came, 'Some day I should like to build a factory.' Then he thinks of something else. Perhaps years pass, but that thought has been working constantly through a thousand minds, and a thousand sources prepare for him that which he once desired. If we could look back to all we have thought of at different times, we would find that the line of fate or destiny, Kismet as it is called in the East, is formed by our thought. Thoughts have prepared for us that happiness or unhappiness which we experience. The whole of mysticism is founded on this.
Joy, sorrow, love, all depend on our thought, on the activity of our mind. If we are depressed, if we are in despair, it is still the work of our mind; our mind has prepared that for us. If we are joyful and happy, and all things are pleasant, that also has been prepared for us by our mind. It is only when our mind works without control that unhappiness, sorrow, trouble, pain, or whatever we experience comes without our intention. No one could wish to create hell for himself; all would create heaven for themselves if they could; and yet how many allow their minds to create these things for them, regardless of their own intention.
'The present is the reflection of the past, and the future is the re-echo of the present.' Destiny is not what is already made. Destiny is what we are making. Very often fatalists think that we are in the hands of destiny, driven in whatever direction in life destiny wills; but in point of fact we are the masters of our destiny, especially from the moment we begin to realize this fact. ... Man is responsible for his success and failure, for his rise and fall. And it is man who brings these about either knowingly or unknowingly
Silence...
"Why are you so afraid of silence,
silence is the root of everything.
If you spiral into its void,
a hundred voices will thunder messages
you long to hear."
Jalaluddin Rumi
in Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mali, Translators
_Rumi: Hidden Music_
Barnes & Noble, 2009 (reprint), p. 131
Meditation is not aggressive...
Don't strain.
Don't force anything or make grand, exaggerated efforts.
Meditation is not aggressive.
There is no place or need for violent
striving.
Just let your effort be relaxed and steady.
- Bhante Henepola Gunaratana,
"Mindfulness in Plain English"
Evolving...
The real proof of one's progress in the spiritual path can be realized by testing in every situation of life how indifferent one is.
There are calls from every side, from all that is good, from all that is beautiful, from all that is kind, from all that is comforting.
And when one has shown indifference to all these calls, then one begins to hear calls from one's immediate surroundings.
Those are a wish that one's goodness may be appreciated and that one's kindness may be gratefully received, that one's knowledge may be understood by others, one's rank may be recognized, one's piety may be observed by others, one's virtue may be valued, and one's good qualities may find response, one's good actions may bear fruit.
The more one makes oneself free from all these calls the more one evolves.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged By
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
The Uncreated...
"When you realize the unborn,
uncreated,
unconditioned,
you are liberated from everything born,
created, and conditioned."
Gautama the Buddha
in Heinz Bechert and Richard Gombrich, eds.
_The World of Buddhism_
New York: Facts on File Publications, 1984, p. 52
Accept All with Love...
"The Besht said:
If a man accepts everything that
happens to him in this world with love,
then he will
have both the physical world and the higher world of
the soul."
Baal Shem Tov
in Alan Unterman
_The Wisdom of the Jewish Mystics_
NY: New Directions, 1976, p. 48
Meditation...
"It is pure wordless surrender, pure silent prayer.
All methods aiming at achieving a certain state of mind are limited, impermanent, and conditioned.
Fascination with states leads only to bondage and dependency"..
~Adyashanti
The Self is ever there...
Maharshi: If you know what this waking consciousness is,
you will know the consciousness which witnesses all the three states.
Such consciousness could be found
by seeking the consciousness as it was in (deep dreamless) sleep.
Questioner: In that case, I fall asleep.
Maharshi: No harm!
Questioner: It is a blank.
Maharshi: For whom is the blank? Find out.
You cannot deny yourself at any time.
The Self is ever there and continues in all states.
Questioner: Should I remain as if in sleep and be watchful at the same time?
Maharshi: Yes. Watchfulness is the waking state.
Therefore the state will not be one of sleep, but sleepless sleep.
If you go the way of your thoughts you will be carried away by them
and you will find yourself in an endless maze.
Questioner: So, then I must go back tracing the source of thoughts.
Maharshi: Quite so; in that way thoughts will disappear
and the Self alone will remain.
In fact there is no inside or outside for the Self.
They are also projections of the ego.
The Self is pure and absolute.
Questioner: It is understood intellectually only.
Is not intellect a help for realization?
Maharshi: Yes, up to a certain stage.
Even so, realize that the Self transcends the intellect -
the latter must itself vanish to reach the Self.
Questioner: Does my realization help others?
Maharshi: Yes, certainly. It is the best help possible.
But there are no others to be helped.
For a realized being sees the Self,
just like a goldsmith estimating the gold in various jewels.
When you identify yourself with the body
then only the forms and shapes are there.
But when you transcend your body the others disappear
along with your body-consciousness.
Questioner: Is it so with plants, trees, etc.?
Maharshi: Do they exist at all apart from the Self? Find it out.
You think you see them.
The thought is projected out from your Self.
Find out wherefrom it rises.
Thoughts will cease to rise and the Self alone will remain.
The above Ramana Maharshi quotes are from the book
'How to Practice Self Inquiry'
Gradually Awakened...
"One cannot start running at full speed;
one must gather momentum
and gradually increase the speed.
If one is to be stained with a spiritual color,
one must be stained gradually.
The color takes time to penetrate
for it to become deep and rich –
it must be applied gradually.
The mind which has been sleeping
the sleep of ignorance for ages
can only gradually be awakened to Knowledge."
Kabir
Translated by Meher Baba
in Bhau Kalchuri
_Lord Meher: The Biography of Avatar of the Age Meher Baba_
Myrtle Beach, SC: Manifestation, 1st ed., v. 6., p. 2086-7
revised online ed. p. 1772
The Upanishads...
As is the human body, so is the cosmic body.
As is the human mind, so is the cosmic mind.
As is the microcosm, so is the macrocosm.
As is the atom, so is the universe.
- The Upanishads
Effort...
Effort is necessary up to the state of
realization.
Even then the Self should
spontaneously become evident, otherwise
happiness will not be complete.
Up to
that state of spontaneity there must be
effort in some form or another.
There is a state beyond our efforts or
effortlessness.
Until it is realized
effort is necessary.
After tasting such
bliss, even once, one will repeatedly
try to regain it.
Having once experienced
the bliss of peace no one wants to be out
of it or to engage in any other activity.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"Be As You Are"
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
edited by David Godman
Arkana, 1985
A Wise Solitude...
"A wise solitude thus fosters the soul's growth, keeps the mind clear of petty thoughts and matures the fine quality of mental independence.
Go your way alone and you walk a path that shall indeed arrive somewhere.
For solitude is not loneliness, boredom, or sadness.
To be lonely is to be amongst those that do not understand.
But in solitude you can people your place with thoughts, if you wish, whilst you always have yourself, your Overself, for company…."
Selected from
'A Message from Arunachala'
by Paul Brunton
A seeker...
I have been a seeker and I still am,
but I stopped asking the books and the stars.
I started listening to the teaching of my soul.
~ Rumi
Collective Consciousness...
This is the World that We have created..
This World of the duality of Dream..
This Consciousness that We Are is experiencing a Dream called Life..
This is a 'Play' as in theatrical and also the experience of childhood activity..
This is why the word "Play' is important..
It symbolizes the movement of duality and emotions..
'Play' includes that which is separate..
This is the 'Play' between 'Pure Awareness' and 'Divine Consciousness', which is Us..
This is the 'Mirror' of 'Play'..
"Those who have ears to hear, will hear", said the Nazarene...
namaste, thomas
The world is a spell...
The world is a spell that blinds the eye:
it appears wide when in reality it's narrow.
It's laughter is weeping;
its glory is but a shame.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
The universe is a 'Play'...
To this that you see as the universe, there
is no purpose.
It is all a lila,
a play in which
we join and contribute some entertainment
to pass the time.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
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
Just notice Now...
"If the mind wanders, just notice Now. What is happening Now? The presence of Now.
What does it feel like to be outside of thought? What does it feel like to be the space in which thought happens? What does it feel like to be the space in which the body moves and breathes?
Generally we think we are our bodies, but in actual experience our bodies happen within the field of awareness. What does it feel like to have a body within the field of awareness? Happening within openness?
Simply by relinquishing control we can discover for ourselves what the natural state is...the state of being which is not contrived.
We see what happens when we meditate without the meditator, without the controller. What happens in your own experience? What happens when we are no longer even trying to attain peace or stillness or any goal or any agenda?
It is very telling that when we let go of the controller and the manipulator there is a total naturally occurring state of stillness, of openness and of awareness.
You start to experience your natural state. The art of meditation is so extraordinarily simple. Letting go. Letting go of directing our experience and the natural state starts to arise.
EVERYTHING the mind is trying to attain - the peace, the stillness, the presence, IS naturally occurring and obvious if we are not trying to find it.
It needs no maintenance and it needs no body to try to make it happen...Freedom" from your own effort."
~Adyashanti (Five Truths about Truth)
Crucified...
No one has entrance into the kingdom of God who has not been crucified.
Those who are given liberty by Him to act freely,
are nailed on the earth,
and those who are free to act as they choose on the earth,
will be nailed in the heavens..
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
selected & Arranged By
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
The Being of Nothingness...
Among the great things which are to be found
among us,
the Being of Nothingness is the
greatest.
- Leonardo Da Vinci
The greatest suffering...
Believing the unlimited and perfect Self to be merely
the body and the imaginary personality with its
psychological conditioning is the greatest suffering
one is capable of creating for oneself and the world.
- Mooji
BODIES ARE STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS...
"What are the "higher bodies"?
Just as man has a physical body with which to operate in the physical world, so he has a vital body, an emotional body, and a mental body through which to express these other parts of his nature.
This is the teaching of Theosophists, Hindus, and occultists.
These bodies survive the death of the physical body, but are reduced to seed atoms when, between incarnations, man passes into a state of happy dreamless slumber.
But from the philosophical viewpoint, the "higher bodies" are simply thought bodies, or, more correctly, states of consciousness."
..............
Notebooks Category 10: Healing of the Self > Chapter 2: The Universal Life Force > # 22
http://paulbrunton.org/notebooks/10/2#22
Reincarnation...
The interesting part of Truth is that it is seen in everything even
in that which seems to conflict..
The past and future are just thoughts that
flow through our minds..
If you had lost your memory in such a problem as
alzheimers, would you still have a past?..
What you are remembering are the
stories of dreams and we call these dreams, past lives..
We are Consciousness..
We exist within all the stories and dreams..
We are not separate, as in the form
of ego or body..
We exist within All..
Once, You Truly know that You are
Consciousness,
You will Know that You have no past or future and You have never
had a past or future, You have always existed as the "Seer"...
namaste, thomas
The Nature of Reality...
The wise can nohow deem as real
a world divided and destroyed by time's wheel.
Whole, eternal, perfect, ever-shining
and transcending time and space,
such is the nature of Reality.
The above Ramana Maharshi quote is from the book
'The Seven Steps to Awakening'
Reconciliation with existence...
A great Zen Master, Rinzai, was sitting. A man came. He pushed the door very hard - he must have been angry - he slammed the door. He was not in a good mood. Then he threw his shoes, and came in. Rinzai said 'Wait. Don't come in. First go and ask forgiveness from the door and from your shoes.'
The man said 'What are you talking about? I have heard that these Zen people are mad, but it seems true. I was thinking it was just rumour. What nonsense you are talking! Why should I ask forgiveness from the door? And it looks so embarrassing... those shoes are mine!'
Then Rinzai said 'You get out! Never come here again! If you can be angry at the shoes, why can't you ask their forgiveness? When you were angry, you never thought that it was so foolish to be angry with the shoes. If you can relate with anger, then why not with love? Relationship is relationship. Anger is a relationship. When you slammed the door with such anger, you related to the door; you behaved wrongly, immorally. And the door has not done anything to you. First go, otherwise you don't come in.'
Under the impact of Rinzai's silence, and the people sitting there, and that presence... like a flash, the man understood. He understood the logic of it, it was so clear.' If you can be angry, then why can't you be loving? You go.' And he went. Maybe in his whole life that was the first time. He touched the door and tears started flowing from his eyes. He could not hold back those tears. And when he bowed down to his own shoes, a great change happened in him. The moment he turned and came towards Rinzai, Rinzai took him in his arms and embraced him.
This is reconciliation. How can you pray if you are unreconciled? How can you come to a Master if you are unreconciled with existence?
OSHO
Words that enlighten...
Words that enlighten the soul are more precious than jewels.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Among all the valuable things of this world, the word is the most precious.
For in the word, one can find a light which gems and jewels do not possess; a word may contain so much life that it can heal the wounds of the heart. Therefore, poetry in which the soul is expressed is as living as a human being. The greatest reward that God bestows on man is eloquence and poetry.
... There is a Hindu idea that explains this very well: that the vehicle of the goddess of learning is eloquence.
Many live, but few think; and among the few who think there are fewer still who can express themselves. Then their soul's impulse is repressed, for in the expression of the soul the divine purpose is fulfilled.
There are some whose thoughts are like jewels. They are collected and treasured and valued more than diamonds.
Sometimes a thought brings us a peace, a joy, in whatever difficulties or sorrows we may be. ...
Have you known what it is to give your meal to another and to go without yourself? It gives a happiness that no dinner eaten by yourself can give. Have you known what it is to give your coat to another and do without it yourself? It gives a joy that the satisfaction of your own wants cannot give you. Even that perfect peace and calm which is the eternal life is in man and can be attained by man.
Atman and Brahman...
What is the difference between Atman and Brahman?
When you dissolve all the world into ideas and then the ideas into yourself,
knowing they are ultimately in you, that is Atman.
When you actually see the universe before you and know that it is the same as yourself, that is Brahman.
When you are dreaming and know that the dream pictures of cities friends etc. are yourself, that is Brahman.
We have first to pass through the stage of discovering Atman and then only can we attain the stage of discovering Brahman.
Nevertheless it must not be thought that the two are different both Atman and Brahman are one and the same thing but viewed from two different angles.
V.S.Iyer from Lights on Advaita
Astavakra Gita...
"Why talk of wisdom,
the three ends of life,
or oneness?
Why talk of those?
Now I live in my heart!
Astavakra
in Thomas Byron, Tr.
_The Heart of Awareness:
A Translation of the Astavakra Gita_
Boston: Shambhala, 2001, p. 73
Human beings...
Human beings, whatever they may think, do not
live and exercise volition but are entirely lived.
The importance of an individual life, and even the
fact of living itself, has been vastly overestimated
and exaggerated.
Nature itself defies the human
presumption of the "sacredness of life" with the
strongest possible demonstration that life is purely
incidental to the totality of the manifest, functional
order.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
Life is this simple...
Life is this simple:
we are living in a world
that is absolutely transparent and the divine
is shining through it all the time.
This is not
just a nice story or a fable, it is true.
.........
Thomas Merton
quoted in Resurrecting Jesus by Adyashanti
The Bhagavad Gita...
When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe, everything else seems so superfluous.
~ Albert Einstein
When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and I see not one ray of hope on the horizon, I turn to Bhagavad-gita and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. Those who meditate on the Gita will derive fresh joy and new meanings from it every day.
~ Mahatma Gandhi
In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita, in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial.
~Henry David Thoreau
The Bhagavad-Gita has a profound influence on the spirit of mankind by its devotion to God which is manifested by actions.
~Dr. Albert Schweitzer
The Bhagavad-Gita is a true scripture of the human race a living creation rather than a book, with a new message for every age and a new meaning for every civilization.
~Sri Aurobindo
The idea that man is like unto an inverted tree seems to have been current in by gone ages. The link with Vedic conceptions is provided by Plato in his Timaeus in which it states…" behold we are not an earthly but a heavenly plant." This correlation can be discerned by what Krishna expresses in chapter 15 of Bhagavad-Gita.
- Carl Jung
The Bhagavad-Gita deals essentially with the spiritual foundation of human existence. It is a call of action to meet the obligations and duties of life; yet keeping in view the spiritual nature and grander purpose of the universe.
- Jawaharlal Nehru
The marvel of the Bhagavad-Gita is its truly beautiful revelation of life's wisdom which enables philosophy to blossom into religion.
- Herman Hesse
I owed a magnificent day to the Bhagavad-gita. It was the first of books; it was as if an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions which exercise us.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
In order to approach a creation as sublime as the Bhagavad-Gita with full understanding it is necessary to attune our soul to it.
- Rudolph Steiner
From a clear knowledge of the Bhagavad-Gita all the goals of human existence become fulfilled. Bhagavad-Gita is the manifest quintessence of all the teachings of the Vedic scriptures.
- Adi Shankara
The Bhagavad-Gita is the most systematic statement of spiritual evolution of endowing value to mankind. It is one of the most clear and comprehensive summaries of perennial philosophy ever revealed; hence its enduring value is subject not only to India but to all of humanity.
- Aldous Huxley
The Bhagavad-Gita was spoken by Lord Krishna to reveal the science of devotion to God which is the essence of all spiritual knowledge. The Supreme Lord Krishna's primary purpose for descending and incarnating is relieve the world of any demoniac and negative, undesirable influences that are opposed to spiritual development, yet simultaneously it is His incomparable intention to be perpetually within reach of all humanity.
- Ramanuja
The Bhagavad-Gita is not seperate from the Vaishnava philosophy and the Srimad Bhagavatam fully reveals the true import of this doctrine which is transmigation of the soul. On perusal of the first chapter of Bhagavad-Gita one may think that they are advised to engage in warfare. When the second chapter has been read it can be clearly understood that knowledge and the soul is the ultimate goal to be attained. On studying the third chapter it is apparent that acts of righteousness are also of high priority. If we continue and patiently take the time to complete the Bhagavad-Gita and try to ascertain the truth of its closing chapter we can see that the ultimate conclusion is to relinquish all the conceptualized ideas of religion which we possess and fully surrender directly unto the Supreme Lord.
- Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati
The Mahabharata has all the essential ingredients necessary to evolve and protect humanity and that within it the Bhagavad-Gita is the epitome of the Mahabharata just as ghee is the essence of milk and pollen is the essence of flowers.
- Madhvacarya
The Transformation...
The Transformation is recognized by the want of distinction between God and the Soul,
it not being able any longer to separate itself from God;
everything is equally God,
because it has passed into its Original Source,
is reunited to its ALL, and changed into Him."
Madame Guyon.
_Concise View of the Way to God and or the State of Union_. Part II, 69.
English translation from "Spiritual Progress or Instructions in the Divine Life of the Soul from the French of Fenelon and Madame Guyon." 1853 Edited by James W. Metcalf.
Remembered...
Everything remembered is a thought in consciousness.
This not only applies to objects, events, and places.
It also applies to persons, including oneself, he who is remembered, the "I" that I was.
This means that my own personality, what I call myself, was a thought in the past, however strong and however persistent.
But the past was once the present.
Therefore I am not less a thought now.
The question arises what did I have then which I still have now, unchanged, exactly the same.
It cannot be "I" as the person, for that is different in some way each time.
It is, and can only be, "I" as Consciousness.
— Notebooks Category 8: The Ego >
Chapter 2: I-thought > # 3
Paul Brunton
" nada, nada "...
The highest examples of Christian mysticism take the path of "nada, nada", (no-thing, no-thing), as found in the teaching of Saint John of the Cross. This teaching is really very much the same as the "neti, neti" teaching of Advaita Vedanta. We can not really know in any affirmative way, what or who God is, we can only know by a kind of "unknowing". We can only really know what and who God is not, rather than what or who God is....We can know that God is not this, not that....neti, neti, nada, nada....And this unknowing is also how we come to know who and what WE are because essentially, we ARE God at the core of our very beingness, our most basic sense of existence consciousness here and now..
This type of "negative" mystical teaching is pointing to the truth that the light of Divine Presence/Pure Consciousness/God is actually complete darkness to the mind/intellect/senses. The light of God's presence that is experienced in the practice of contemplative prayer or Atma Vichara (Self Investigation/resting in essential existential presence) empties these faculties of all merely human knowledge and understanding and puts the contemplative in touch with a mystical light that is darkness, a proclamation of the divine word that is silence.
God/Pure Consciousness/Awareness/Presence is absolutely beyond anything we can picture in our imagination or intellect, or conceive of in abstract concepts. We "know" it by simply resting in our being of it, by loving it and not by an "understanding" of it based on some kind of abstract philosophical or conceptual knowledge or indoctrinated ideas about it.....The best and most accurate thing we can ever say about it in words is always simply, "neti, neti, nada, nada......not this, not that.
Those who share this "knowledge" with others must be abiding and living experientially in the wordless presence in order for their words to have any power at all to illuminate anyone. They share this "knowing" of "unknowing" much more by their presence than they do by their words.....The words of any teaching or teacher, no matter how seemingly profound and "clear", are simply humble vehicles of the ineffable, wordless presence.
Francis Bennett
The Immediate Present...
God lives in the eternal present.
His knowledge transcends all movement of time,
and abides in the simplicity of its immediate present.
-- Boethius
All is Dream and Illusion...
Word is Consciousness that is pointed Thought..
The "Father" is Divine Consciousness or what we call God..
This is the Source of Dreams that manifest into worlds and life...
We are also Divine Consciousness and also have the ability to manifest by using Thought..
That which Dreamed of separation as a means of providing a mirror to see Itself is called ' Pure Awareness' and contains no name or personality..
This is No-thing-ness and is recognized by the Energy of Love that contains this Awareness..
Pure Awareness Dreams of Divine Consciousness and Divine Consciousness Dreams of us..
All is Dream and illusion....
namaste, thomas
Your Self is the Father...
"What you need to know is 'That' within you,
which sees and hears, and comes from God's Word.
Your Self is the Father;
they are not separate,
their union is life."
_Poimandres_
Alan Jacobs
_The Essential Gnostic Gospels_
London: Watkins, 2006, p. 91
The Mind of Infinite Consciousness...
Just as one's dream in sleep exists nowhere but
in the mind (both as cause and effect),
so does the
universe exist only in the mind
of infinite Consciousness...
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
Demand nothing...
When you demand nothing of the world,
nor of God,
when you want nothing,
seek
nothing,
expect nothing,
then the Supreme
State will come to you uninvited and
unexpected.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
The time of happiness...
"'The time of happiness does not differ with me from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clutter of my kitchen I possess God in as great tranquillity as if I were on my knees,' said Brother Lawrence as he went about his work in the monastery kitchen.
This is the reward--or rather part of the reward--which philosophy holds before us. It is worth striving for.
And the Gita tells us that no efforts are in vain; all bring their fruit sometime, somewhere--if not in this birth then in another, if not in this world then in the next.
For the man or woman busy with his bit in the world's work, the Quest must be carried on in the midst of activity.
He must not let the difficulties which arise inevitably out of such work cause him to abate his trust in the divine laws. These should be his safeguard, his dependence, his armour, and his weapons."
Paul Brunton
Inner Peace...
If you have inner peace,
nobody can force you to be a slave to the outer reality.
-- Sri Chinmoy
A powerful interest...
A powerful interest which dominates a man's life
polarizes his mind,
which then acts like a magnet
and continually draws out from his stored-up
experience and also from new experiences whatever
is relevant and useful to the end in view.
Deep
interest invigorates the mind,
awakens its dormant
powers and is the key to super excellence, invention
and discovery.
- Swami Krishnananda
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Facets of Spirituality
Complied by S. Bhagyalakshmi
Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1986
Empathy...
For the oneness with all things cannot arise until after you have sought and achieved the sense of their welfare.
This self-realization may be achieved at first, as Upanishads say, in lightning-flashes, in fleeting momentary glimpses, but later this must be stabilized into permanency.
And as the gnani knows the world to be an idea, a mental construct, the sense of unification and love to all mankind is simultaneously its materialization, for he knows no difference between idea and matter.
Hence too the gnani wishes all beings to be happy, loves even his enemy, wishes him no harm, for he knows the truth of universal self-identification.
Thus to the extent a man realizes the truth, he can do good and no more.
--V.S.Iyer from Lights on Advaita
The Buddha in my Mind...
The arising and the elimination of illusion are both illusory.
Illusion is not something rooted in Reality; it exists because of your dualistic thinking.
If you will only cease to indulge in opposed concepts such as 'ordinary' and 'enlightened', illusion will cease of itself.
And then if you still want to destroy it wherever it may be, you will find that there is not a hairsbreadth left of anything on which to lay hold.
This is the meaning of:
'I will let go with both hands, for then I shall certainly discover the Buddha in my Mind.'
- Huang Po
[From: 'The Zen Teaching of Huang Po on the Transmission of Mind',
translated by John Blofeld]
To Know God...
There is much more to Reality than 'standing in the presence of God'..
To Know God is to Be One with God..
We are already 'One with God' but the illusion of separation called egoic consciousness keeps us in ignorance of this Truth..
How do we Realize this Eternal Union ?..
The answer is simple,
Dissolve the belief that you are separate self..
This is the surrendering of ego..
Only when you have no longer identified Self as the illusion of separate self will You Know God...
--- namaste, thomas
To Know Him...
"Naught ever can be known in God:
One and Alone Is He.
To know Him,
Knower must be one with Known."
Angelus Silesius
_Selections from The Cherubinic Wanderer_
Translated by J. E. Crawford Flitch
London, 1932
"you"...
As long as there is a 'you' doing or not-doing,
thinking or
not-thinking,
'meditating' or 'not-meditating'
you are no closer to
home than the day you were born.
--"The Tenth Man" by Wei Wu Wei
I Entered, not knowing where...
I ENTERED, NOT KNOWING WHERE
~a poem by Saint John of the Cross
I entered not knowing where
And I remained not knowing,
Beyond all science knowing........
1. I did not know where I entered,
But when I saw myself there,
Not knowing where I entered,
Many things I suddenly learned,
I will not say what these things were,
For I remained not knowing,
Beyond all science knowing.
2. It was peace, It was love,
It was the perfect knowledge,
In deep solitude
I saw with wisdom;
It was a thing so secret
I was left babbling and trembling,
Beyond all science knowing.
3. I went so far beyond,
So lost and absorbed,
I lost all my senses
I was of all sensing dispossessed;
And my spirit was filled
With knowledge not knowing,
Beyond all science knowing
4. Whoever truly reaches there,
Is lost to herself;
All she knew before
Now appears very base;
But her knowledge grows,
And she remains not knowing,
Beyond all science knowing.
5. The higher she climbs,
the less she understands,
For this is the dark cloud
That brings light to the night;
And whoever has this light
Always remains not knowing,
Beyond all science knowing.
6. This knowing by not knowing
Is of such high power,
That the arguments of the wise
Are wholly unable to grasp it;
For their knowledge does not explain (indeed, it cannot)
Not to know knowing,
Beyond all science knowing.
7. And this exalted wisdom
Is of such excellence,
That no faculty or science
Can hope to reach it;
But she who learns to conquer herself
With this knowledge of not knowing,
Will always go beyond all science knowing.
8. And if you really want to hear it,
This highest science consists
In a most sublime sensing
Of the Divine Essence;
It is an act of clemency
Which leaves us not knowing
Beyond all science knowing!
God loves a Dream...
Does God love a Dream?..
Or does God Love, Love itself ?..
Are We the Consciousness that has the capacity to Love?..
Do the creatures of lower Consciousness also feel Love ?..
Do We Love the Dream of Love ?..
Is Fear the emotion to teach us of the opposite called Love?..
Love is without separation called ego, are we Love?..
So many questions..
How many answers do we have ?...
namaste, thomas
The Gospel of Judas...
Judas said, “Master, as you have listened to all of them, now also listen to me. For I have
seen a great vision.”
When Jesus heard this, he laughed and said to him, “You thirteenth spirit, why do you
try so hard? But speak up, and I shall bear with you.”
Judas said to him, “In the vision I saw myself as the twelve disciples were stoning me
and [45] persecuting [me severely]. And I also came to the place where [...] after you. I
saw [a house ...], and my eyes could not [comprehend] its size. Great people were
surrounding it, and that house
was [a crowd—two lines missing—], saying, ‘Master, take me in along with these
people.’”
[Jesus] answered and said, “Judas, your star has led you astray.” He continued, “No
person of mortal birth is worthy to enter the house you have seen, for that place is
reserved for the holy.
Neither the sun nor the moon will rule there, nor the day, but the
holy will abide there always, in the eternal realm with the holy angels. Look, I have
explained to you the mysteries of the kingdom [46] and I have taught you about the error
of the stars; and [...] send it [...] on the twelve aeons.
Let's talk about Truth...
It is tuesday night in august, Let's talk about Truth..
We are gathered from many countries of the earth to absorb Truth..
If you are a Mystic, you already Realise that most of what you have been taught have been lies and deception..
Your parents and teachers did not know that they were the teachers of false knowledge, they taught you what they were taught..
Do not blame them for you being lost in the forest of ignorance..
You are now adults and are responsible for your own Truth..
You now know that life is a dream from Consciousness..
You now know that You are that Consciousness..
And yet, 'you' as the small 'you', still believe that you are the body of manifestation..
You still fear death of this dream..
Fear not, You are the Observer of the Dreams..
How can I tell you that You are the Watcher of Dreams?..
Only You can come to this conclusion..
Death is a ploy from the negative aspect of duality and is not Real..
Have the courage to experience Death within this life..
Surrender the mental image of separate egoic consciousness..
Experience Reality..
Experience Love..
Experience Truth..
All it requires is everything that you have..
Give all to receive All..
As the Nazarene said; " you must die, to be born again"...
-namaste, thomas
Co-operate with your destiny...
Do understand that you are destined for
enlightenment.
Co-operate with your destiny,
don't go against it, don't thwart it.
Allow it to
fulfill itself.
All you have to do is to give
attention to the obstacles created by the
foolish mind.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
Being born again...
It is simpler to find a way to heaven than to find a way on earth.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
A person whose soul has awakened becomes awake to everything he sees and hears. ... It is this awakening of the soul which is mentioned in the Bible, 'Unless the soul is born again it will not enter the kingdom of heaven'. Being born again means that the soul is awakened after having come on earth, and entering the kingdom of heaven means that this world, the same kingdom in which we are standing just now, turns into heaven as soon as the point of view has changed. Is it not interesting and most wonderful to think that the same earth we walk on is earth to one person and heaven to another? And it is still more interesting to notice that it is we who change it; we change it from earth into heaven, or we change it otherwise. This change comes not by study, nor by anything else, but only by the changing of our point of view.
The higher life is so much simpler than life on the surface of the earth, but man does not know what he is. He does not know that he is a drop on the surface of the ocean, and yet an ocean himself in his innermost part; that there is nothing that is not within him. A person who says to himself, 'I do not possess this faculty', 'I cannot put up with this', 'I am sorry but I could not think of such a thing', and so forth, well, all these ideas are his imagination, part of the confusion of his thought and lack of understanding of what he is. If a person understood what he is he would never say, 'I cannot do this.' Instead he would become a real man, that which a man ought to be. The mystic only says, 'I cannot' or 'I have not' very seldom, and he believes these words still less often.
When God is with you, everything is with you; when God is in you everything is in you. Inspiration, knowledge, light, all are then within you. But if you find joy in confusion, if you confuse yourself and keep yourself in darkness, you may do so. However, you have inherited from the heavenly Father His inspiration, His Light, His power. You have inherited might from the Almighty God; you have inherited light from the Light of the universe. Therefore you are blessed with all these things, if you can only open your eyes and see the blessing.
Avastratraya...
The student must pass first through the stage of scientific proof from waking world facts for idealism: he must know that things are ideas.
Then only is he ready to pass to the higher stage of studying Avastatraya. Here dreams show what powers the mind possesses to manufacture whole worlds, to create externality and internality, i.e. space.
Sleep shows what power the mind possesses to reabsorb, store and later reproduce all the ideas of the world, space etc.
Finally having shown all this, Avastatraya clinches and carries to final culmination the idealistic theory learnt from waking state facts and shows what nature of mind is, what ego is, and that everything is not only ultimately one or non-dual but also not apart from yourself.
V.S.Iyer from Lights on Advaita
The Consciousness of Being Present...
There is only one state of being.
There is not
a single moment when one is not conscious
of being.
What we are in our sentient state is
the consciousness of being present.
When
this conscious awareness is aware of sensory
forms, it operates as witnessing.
When it
identifies itself with a witnessing organism as
a separate entity, it operates as an individual
person who suffers and enjoys.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
World is Mind...
The mind is virtually the external world, i.e. in effect but not in fact.
This is the first step.
Second step: Convert everything into ideas.
Third step: Where do these ideas rise from and into what do they disappear as in dream?
It is the mind--just like waves rise and fall in ocean.
Hence world is also Mind.
Fourth step: That which sees all these changes of three steps, exists always.
-V.S.Iyer from Lights on Advaita
Lost in the mind...
“Neither for nor against..
You can think but do not become identified
with what you are thinking about.
Do not take a position for or against
whatever it is that you are thinking about.
The moment you become identified with
your thoughts, you are caught into the mind.
The moment you believe in your thoughts
as the truth, you are lost in the mind."
~ Leonard Jacobson, Embracing The Present”
When the heart opens...
“The heart-knot is full of the darkness of ignorance, and it is illusory.
When this knot snaps and opens, consciousness, like the sky, surges undividedly, leading to a clear and enduring peace in which the Self shines forth in the Heart.
Only the love for the Self that springs forth in the Heart is the true devotion that is full of auspiciousness.”
― Muruganar, Guru Vachaka Kovai
Where is the dwelling of God ?...
"'Where is the dwelling of God?'
This is the question with which the rabbi of Kotzk surprised a number of learned people who happened to be visiting him.
They laughed at him:
'What a thing to ask! Is not the whole world full of HIs glory?'
Then he answered his own question:
'God dwells wherever man lets him.'"
Martin Buber
_The Way of Man: According to the Teachings of Hasidism_
Secaucus, NJ: Carol Publishing Group, 1998 (1950), p. 40
Mind...
The ego-thought and the world-thought arise at the same time but independently.
However you cannot see the objects as apart from each other unless the ego is present.
Hence it might also be added that ego rises first.
In any case the world is not produced out of the ego-thought,
both are independently produced by Mind.
V.S.Iyer from Lights on Advaita
Consciousness...
Consciousness really does exist,
whereas the things which it makes known are present
only when they are perceived, felt, heard, or otherwise sensed by one or more of the five reporting agents.
This consciousness is in itself always the same, unvarying,
the one thing in us in which thoughts and bodies make their appearance
and from which they also vanish.
- Paul Brunton
' Cause and Effect'...
Karma is another name for "Cause and effect",
This is a tenet of life within this Dream.
But, If You exist as the essence of Love, all effects will be good..
A Saint was once asked , " What laws do you follow?".
He answered; " Love, and do as You Will"..
The satanists use this slogan but without the word,
'Love'.
They say, " Do as thou wilt",
The 'you' that they speak of is the false self, the ego.
This is of course, a path that leads to disaster..
-- namaste, thomas
They will not understand...
The more you evolve spiritually, the further you pass from the understanding of every man.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
The average man cannot understand the mystic; and therefore people are always at a loss when dealing with him. His 'yes' is not the same 'yes' that everybody says; his 'no' has not the same meaning as that which everybody understands. In almost every phrase he says there is some symbolical meaning. His every outward action has an inner significance. A man who does not understand his symbolical meaning may be bewildered by hearing a phrase, which is nothing but confusion to him.
I will tell you something about my own teacher. Once I met a learned man, a doctor of philosophy with a great many degrees. I spoke to him on the deeper side of life and he became so interested in me that he thought much of me. So I thought, 'If I were to tell him about my teacher, how much more interesting that would be for him. If I make such an impression upon this man, how much more my teacher will be for him, and how much will he appreciate my teacher', and I told him, 'There is a wonderful man in this city, he has no comparison in the whole world'. 'Yes?', said he, 'Are there such people? I would so much like to see him. Where does he live?' I told him, in such and such a part of the city. He said, 'I live there too. Where is his house. I know all the people there. What is his name?' So I told him, and he said, 'For twenty years I have known this man, and you are telling me about him!' I thought, 'In a hundred years you would not have been able to know him'. He was not ready to know him.
If people are not evolved enough they cannot appreciate persons, they cannot understand them, they cannot understand the greatest souls. They sit with them, they talk with them, there is a contact of the whole life, but they do not see. Another person in one moment, if he is ready to understand, makes a benefit out of it. Imagine, the learned man had known my teacher for twenty years and did not know him. I saw him once, and became his pupil forever. One might ask, 'Was this man not learned, not intellectual?' Yes, he was. Then what was lacking? He saw my teacher with his brain, I saw him with my heart. People pursue spirituality with their brain: that is where they are mistaken. Spirituality is attained through the heart.
The more one evolves the more one will discover the different grades of people, just like the different keys on the piano. One is lower, another is higher. Every person has a different grade of evolution. Also, the higher you evolve the more you will find that you cannot drive everyone with the same whip. You have to speak to everyone differently, in fact in his own language. If you speak a language he does not understand, it will be gibberish to him. ...
Once when traveling I met a man of a very dense evolution, a soldier who always lived in military surroundings and who had very fixed ideas of his own. And when we were talking together and it appeared that we thought differently about something, I happened to say in order to preserve harmony, 'Well, we are brothers!' He looked at me with great anger, and said, 'Brothers! How dare you say such a thing!' I said, 'I forgot. I am your servant, Sir.' He was very pleased. I could have argued, but this would have created disharmony without reason. The foolishness of that man blazed up just like fire. I put water on it and extinguished it. I did not diminish myself. We are all servants of one another. And it pleased and satisfied him.
Surrendering...
From my perspective and approach to spiritual practice, both in my own direct life experience and in my work with others, the practice of "surrender to what is" in ordinary, everyday life situations, (especially the "challenging" ones!) is the primary spiritual practice...
Meditative/contemplative practice while sitting quietly in a peaceful setting is essentially practicing this "surrender to what is" in a very controlled environment where it is relatively easier to do and in conditions that are fairly conducive to it..
But formal meditative practice is certainly a very good preparation for consciously entering this surrendered state of consciousness in the midst of ordinary, everyday life situations, where 99% of our life certainly unfolds, where and when the proverbial #$@%*# often seems to hit the fan!
For example, it is relatively easier to surrender on a cushion whilesitting in a quiet, pleasant room when you have no where else to really go, than it is to surrender in a traffic jam that has been at a standstill for 3 hours and has made you late for the final appointment concerning an important business deal you have been working very hard on closing!
Surrendering to what is in the midst of what we think of as "chaos and calamity" is very advanced practice. But sitting quietly on a cushion is a good and necessary preparation for such advanced practice, and can certainly help prepare us for it.
-Francis Bennett
Reincarnation...
Reincarnation only exists for those souls that still believe that they are a separate egoic consciousness..
All Karma belongs to this illusion of ‘self’..
There is no Karma or reincarnation for those that Know that they are not a separate ego..
If you Know that You are Divine Consciousness (God), You are Free within the Light, Love, and Consciousness of Reality..
This is confirmed by the Spiritual Awakening called Enlightenment..
This is why Enlightenment is so important..
Surrender all desires including the desire for existence, while in meditation..
This will be the most difficult task you have ever undertaken.
The ego will present you with the pain and fear of death..
Happily die as the ego..
As Jesus once said; ” you must die, to be born”…
-namaste, thomas
Become nothing...
“Knock, And He'll open the door.
Vanish, And He'll make you shine like the sun.
Fall, And He'll raise you to the heavens.
Become nothing,
And He'll turn you into everything.”
― Rumi
Thoughts...
“I am the body” is a thought.
“I am the mind” is a thought.
“I am the doer” is a thought.
Worry is only a thought.
Fear is only a thought.
Death is only a thought.
Watch your thoughts,
Give attention to your thoughts.
Just by giving attention to your thoughts and letting them go,
they lose the ability to convince you about anything or make
you suffer.
What used to feel like a rope earlier is now only
a burnt rope. It has no power.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
The restless mind...
I have stilled my restless mind, and my heart is
radiant: for in That-ness I have seen beyond
That-ness, in company I have seen the Comrade,
Himself.
Living in bondage, I have set myself free: I have
broken away from the clutch of all narrowness.
Kabir says: "I have attained the unattainable,
and my heart is colored with the color of love."
- Kabir
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"Songs of Kabir"
Translated by Rabindranath Tagore
Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1977
Ego annihilation...
Most souls fear annihilation..
They want to keep their separate identity and still remain as God..
They have this ability to remain separate within Divine Consciousness but not within Pure Awareness..
This is why We continue to experience separation and lack of Unconditional Love while in this state of ego..
Many souls will stay within Divine Consciousness, as it is a state of Love and Light but there will always be a yearning for the highest Love of non-existence..
Non existence of ego or personality is the final goal and is our True Identity..
The Identity of the No-thing-ness that Created Divine Consciousness, that created life..
This 'Mind' called Love...
-namaste, thomas
Rabbi Yeshua Speaks...
Jesus said,
"Congratulations to those who are alone and chosen,
for you
will find the (Father's) domain.
For you have come from it,
and you will return
there again"..
-From the Gospel of Thomas
Souls...
"We believe that the spirit pervades all creation and that every creature possesses a soul in some degree,
through not necessarily a soul conscious of itself.
The tree, the waterfall, the grizzly bear,
each is an embodied Force,
and as such an object of reverence."
Ohiyesa (Dr. Charles A Eastman)
Santee Sioux, 1902
in Joseph Bruchac
_Native Wisdom_
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995, p. 86
The Beatific Vision...
"In the Beatific Vision,
God manifests Himself to the elect in a general epiphany,
which nevertheless,
assumes various forms according to the mental conception of God formed by the faithful on earth."
Al 'Arabi
in Faramarz S. Fatemi, Nasrollah Saifpour Fatemi
Love, Beauty & Harmony in Sufis.
Associated University Press, 1998, p. 167
A transient shadow...
Our attachment to the ego is natural.
It arises because we are unconsciously attached to that which is behind it, to the Overself.
Only, we are misled by ignorance wholly to concentrate on the apparent "I" and wholly to ignore the unseen, enduring self of which it is but a transient shadow.
The "I" which trembles or enjoys in the time-series is not the real "I."
— Notebooks Category 8: The Ego >
Chapter 2: I-thought > # 18
Paul Brunton
"sleep on, dear dreamer"...
we knock upon your door.
we bring baskets of words.
the gifts lay unopened,
the thoughts remain covered.
you have your own reality.
a reality of matter.
a dream so real,
that you remain asleep.
you cry, I am awake!.
who is this you, that shouts?.
It is the dreamed,
the thought, that demands royalty.
sleep on, dear dreamer.
you will awaken,
when the pain of illusion,
becomes too dear...
namaste, thomas
The impulse to be Free...
"The impulse to be free is an evolutionary spark within consciousness that originates from beyond the ego. It is an impulse toward the divine, unity, and wholeness. It is an impulse originating from Truth itself.
This impulse to evolve is often co-opted by the ego, which then creates the illusion of the spiritual seeker. This impulse, which is inherently innocent, is something that, in and of itself, has nothing to do with any seeking to attain. It is only when the ego co-opts the impulse and then tries to attain something that the seeker is born. This impulse, this spark of evolution, becomes almost instantly corrupted by a wanting which gives birth to the seeker.
The impulse comes not from a lack, but from the spark of evolution. In that sense it comes from fullness. It comes from that which already is.
The impulse to be free is actually coming directly from a freedom that is already starting to break into consciousness. The evolution is going from misunderstanding, which is ignorance, to wisdom, which is Self-realization. The impulse to be free comes from wisdom.”
~ Adyashanti
Sitting in the Self...
The more you sit in the Self, the more you will begin to feel an energy that you have never experienced before.
It comes up from behind, rather than in front where you experience your mind and emotions. When you are no longer absorbed in your melodrama but, instead, sit comfortably deep inside the seat of awareness, you will start to feel this flow of energy coming up from deep within.
This flow has been called Shakti. This flow has been called Spirit.
This is what you begin to experience if you hang out with the Self instead of hanging out with inner disturbances. You don’t have to get rid of loneliness; you just cease to be involved with it. It’s just another thing in the universe, like cars, grass, and the stars. It’s none of your business. Just let things go. That’s what the Self does.
Awareness does not fight; awareness releases. Awareness is simply aware while everything in the universe parades before it.
If you sit within the Self, you will experience the strength of your inner being even when your heart feels weak. This is the essence of the path. This is the essence of a spiritual life.
Once you learn that it’s okay to feel inner disturbances, and that they can no longer disturb your seat of consciousness, you will be free.
You will begin to be sustained by the inner energy flow that comes from behind you. When you have tasted the ecstasy of the inner flow, you can walk in this world and the world will never touch you. That’s how you become a free being—you transcend.
from The Unteathered Soul Chapter 9,
removing your inner thorn
The Greatest Fear...
For some reason, Spirit has told me to speak of our greatest fear..
This is the fear of non-existence of egoic consciousness called Death..
We face this fear everyday in a world of violence and war..
And yet, we continue to survive within the vehicles called bodies..
This fear that we feel is a thought energy that feeds entities called Archons or what Jesus would call evil spirits..
We, as the entities of Light feed from the positive energy called Love..
The duality that 'We' dream of called Life, possesses both positive and negative energy..
Through the thoughts that we hold within the mind, we choose which power to serve..
"You can only serve one master", said Yeshua..
Love or Fear is the question..
This is why you are here..
To decide..
You cannot die if You are Love, as Love is Divine Consciousness and is the Light and Manifestor of Dreams..
If you are Fear, you are just an illusion and do not really exist anyway, only within a dream are you visible..
I have been told to end these words and let you contemplate these thoughts...
namaste, thomas
The Quest...
As he advances on this quest his scheme of values may change.
This is partly because he learns by experience what every man has to learn, quester or not, that all is passing and nothing is stable,
that the fruits of desire may turn to ashes, and that every day brings him nearer to death and farther from life.
But it is partly also what the non-questers too often fail to perceive,
that existence is like a dream,
ultimately hollow,
and that without some sort of link, connection, communion, or glimpse bringing him nearer to the inner reality,
his life remains unfulfilled.
.... Paul Brunton
The arrogance of mind...
Imagining that you are the doer of any action during your day is mistaken identity and an arrogance of the human mind.
Mind will claim ownership.
Mind will take responsibility.
Mind will create expectations.
Eventually, all of these ideas will bring suffering.
When identification with the one who is doing ceases,
life will continue uninhibited by the burden of the personal "I".
~ Jac O'Keeffe
Self-Realization...
Self-Realization or Enlightenment is nothing more than the deepest possible understanding that there is no individual doer of any action - neither you nor anyone else.
Also you are not the thinker of any thoughts, nor the experiencer of any experiences - they happen.
When IT happens,
no bright lights are likely to flash in your head!
~ Ramesh Balsekar
A process...
You have never "done" anything.
Because the mind has conceived itself to be an individual it conceives itself as the "thinker" and also the "actor" or "doer."
Yet it is not anyone.
The mind is not a thing or an entity but a process, the thinking process.
It is simply a process that is happening automatically,
in the same way the heart is beating automatically.
~ Galen Sharpe
Choice...
There is never any choice.
Choice is based on the idea there is a separate someone who can chose.
If I have a look at the most simple action that appears to have choice involved, it is obvious that there is no question of choice.
Whatever I think I decide to do is a thought that simply arises and then falls away.
Doing happens or not.
The thought "I am doing this" is just a thought that actually has no connection to the action that happens.
~ Unmani
A Transcendent Experience...
The words used to describe the spirit descending into Jesus after his baptism correspond very closely with one of my own experiences.
Often, this awakening is a transcendent experience; you awaken up and out of your identity with body and mind.
In my case, I had that experience too, a very powerful experience of moving up and out. Spirit or consciousness literally moved up and out of the body and the mind, and for a period of time there was absolutely no experience of anything. The body was gone. The mind was gone. I had no perception of the world or my surroundings; I had moved into a total void.
From that state of voidness, after a while a download of insight began—literally hundreds of insights per second down-loaded into my system.
Just as you download a program on your computer, spirit or divine being was downloading insights into me, many more than I could actually keep up with. This descent was just as depicted in the Jesus story...
Adyashanti - Resurrecting Jesus
A sharpened intellect...
A sharpened intellect is necessary to perceive truth.
Those who lack mental acuteness will not be able to grasp the meaning of the relativity of the three states.
Such a dull intellect may, however, be perfectly adequate to handling the affairs of the world and a man might be clever, astute and a successful business man and yet remain incapable of grasping truth.
The sharpness which is required is the subtlety and ability to move amid abstract ideas.
Similarly the greatest scholar, however learned, may be unable to grasp it, because it requires real thinking and not mere memorizing.
V.S. Iyer from
Lights on Advaita:
Selected Teachings of V. Subrahmanya Iyer
The persona...
The persona, the mask which he presents to the world, is only one part of his ego.
The conscious nature, composed of thoughts and feelings, is the second part.
The hidden store of tendencies, impulses, memories, and ideas--
formerly expressed and then reburied, or brought over, from earlier lives, and all latent--
is the third part.
— Notebooks Category 8: The Ego >
Chapter 3: Psyche > # 17
Paul Brunton
God is the Real Infinite Light...
"God is the real, Infinite Light, and the infinite, subtle gas is real, Infinite Darkness.
"The nebula, which is created by the compact of Space and Energy and subtle gas, is false light. The indescribably huge and innumerable pieces into which the nebula breaks up are so dazzlingly bright that each of them surpasses the light of billions of suns put together. But they are not hot.
"Each piece of the nebula is so dazzlingly brilliant that it equals the light of ten crores [hundreds of millions] of suns combined, and its size equals that of a thousand millions of suns. And there are millions and billions of such pieces of nebula, all originating from the tiniest Creation Point!
"To sum up: God is the Real Infinite Light; the infinite subtle gas is the Infinite Real Darkness; the nebula is false light; the sparks or heavenly bodies are the shadows of the false light; and our world is false darkness."
Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust
Meher Baba's Early Messages To The West
Sheriar Foundation, 2009, p. 166
After Illumination...
The differences between human beings still remain after illumination.
The variations which make each one a unique specimen and the individual that he is, still continue to exist.
But the Oneness behind human beings powerfully counterbalances.
— Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 189
Paul Brunton
" What always is ?"...
"Most people fret about losing this state or that state.
They get caught up in what's not present anymore.
That which comes and goes is not real; QUIT chasing it. It doesn't matter!!!
What haven't you lost? That is what's important.
What always is?
What is there in bliss and in misery?
Who you are is always present and is always the same.
That which doesn't come and go IS real.
That is where Freedom is found---nowhere else."
~Adyashanti
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