The Undisturbed...
Water doesn't lose purity
because of a bit of weed.
The weeds float on the surface;
the pure water flows on undisturbed.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Daylight"
Threshold Books, 1994
Real Love...
"Do not pretend that you love others as yourself.
Unless you have realized them as one with yourself, you cannot love them.
Don't pretend to be what you are not, don't refuse to be what you are.
Your love of others is the result of self-knowledge, not its cause.
Without self-realization, no virtue is genuine.
When you know beyond all doubting that the same life flows through all that is and you are that life, you will love all naturally and spontaneously.
When you realize the dept and fullness of your love of yourself, you know that every living being and the entire universe are included in your affection.
But when you look at anything as separate from you, you cannot love it for you are afraid of it.
Alienation causes fear and fear deepens alienation.
It is a vicious circle.
Only self-realization can break it.
Go for it resolutely."
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
A Deeper Unconscious Mind...
If we do some act without attending to it but, on the contrary, with our thoughts engrossed on an entirely different subject which perhaps fills us with anxiety or joy, we are often later quite unable to remember whether we have done it or not.
Here is an indication that if, as mentalism declares, it is not man's surface mind nor his everyday consciousness which presents the universe to him as an outside appearance then, in fact, he has a deeper unconscious mind which does it.
-- Notebooks Category 21: Mentalism >
Chapter 2: The World As Mental > # 85
Paul Brunton
Who is the Father ?...
Jesus speaks of the Father.
Upon My entry into Divine Consciousness, I spoke to the Father that Jesus speaks of..
I felt no fear upon hearing the male voice coming from the Eternal Light that I was..
But, once again, I ask, "Who is the Father ?"..
There is a higher intelligence within Divine Consciousness that would answer my questions..
But, would not answer the question , "Is this the Final Reality ?"..
It took me many years to solve this question of Father..
I finally learned that this was the Creator God that We actually Are..
The Father knew more than me, and yet We were the same Light..
But, the Father did not know that It also was a Dream from Pure Awareness..
Pure Awareness has no personality or ego..
It is Pure Love..
Pure Love has no separation, personality, or ego..
For some reason Consciousness tells me to end here..
The rest must be understood by you...
namaste, thomas
Positive and Negative...
Consciousness shows me the symbols of positive and negative..
I already know the symbols of this Dream, why show me this ?..
All within this Dream is a Duality, even the electricity within your car confirms this..
I can only think that Higher Consciousness wants me to think beyond polarities..
There is only One that is beyond polarities..
That which has no equal..
That Mind that Dreams..
That Awareness that does not have a name..
What is the blood that flows through Divine Consciousness ?..
This blood is called Love..
What thoughts flow through this Awareness ?..
The thoughts of Wisdom..
This flow of completeness actually asks the question,
" Is this the final reality" ?..
Divine Consciousness can not answer..
It does not know that I also am a Dream from Pure Awareness...
namaste, thomas
Uddhava Gita...
“To know the Truth,
is to see the oneness of the Self with God.”
Krishna
Uddhava Gita, chapter 12
Srimad Bhagavata Mahapurana
The Unborn Awareness...
You are the peace in silence.
You are the silence in peace.
You are the light of consciousness that causes all things to be seen.
You are the perceiving love devoid of objective identity.
You are the wisdom and love which shines from the source of existence.
You are Unborn Awareness Self.
- Mooji
The Ideal...
To fall beneath one's ideal is to lose one's share of life.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
If anyone asked me what is the life of life, and what is the light of life, what gives one interest in life, I should answer him in one word, and that is: the ideal. A man with wealth, with qualifications, with learning, with comfort, but without ideal to me is a corpse; but a man without learning, without qualifications, without wealth or rank, but with an ideal is a living man. If a man does not live for an ideal what else does he live for? He lives for himself, which is nothing. The man who lives and does not know an ideal is powerless and without light. The greater the ideal, the greater the person. The wider the ideal the broader the person. The deeper the ideal the deeper the person, the higher the ideal the higher the person. Without an ideal, whatever a man may be in life, life for him is worthless.
The Sufi Message gives to the world the religion of the day; and that is to make one's life a religion, to turn one's occupation or profession into a religion, to make one's ideal a religious ideal. The object of Sufism is the uniting of life and religion, which so far seem to have been kept apart. When a man goes to church once a week, and devotes all the other days of the week to his business, how can he benefit from religion? Therefore the teaching of Sufism is to transform everyday life into a religion, so that every action may bear some spiritual fruit.
We, with our narrowness of faith or belief, accuse others of belonging to another religion, another chapel or church. We say, 'This temple is better, that faith is better.' The whole world has kept on fighting and devastating itself just because it can not understand that each form of religion is peculiar to itself. Therefore, the ideal life is in following one's own ideal. It is not in checking other people's ideals.
The man who has never had an ideal may hope to find one. He is in a better state than the man who allows the circumstances of life to break his ideal. To fall beneath one's ideal is to lose one's track in life. Then confusion rises in the mind, and that light which one should hold high becomes covered and obscured, so that it cannot shine out to light one's path.
An ideal is something to hope for and to hold on to, and in the absence of an ideal hope has nothing to look forward to. It is the lack of idealism which accounts for the present degeneration of humanity in spite of all the progress it has made in other directions. There are many kinds of ideals: principles, virtues, objects of devotion; but the greatest and highest of all ideals is the God-ideal. And when this God-ideal upon which all other ideals are based is lost, then the very notion of ideal is ignored. Man needs many things in life, but his greatest need is an ideal.
Yeshua Speaks...
Jesus said. "Two will be laid down to rest: one will die, and one will live."
Salome said, "Who are You, Man, that You , as if from the One, you have sat yourself upon my sofa and have partaken of my table?"
Jesus said, "I am He, who is United. I have inherited some of the qualities of My Father."
Salome said,"I am your disciple."
Jesus said,"Therefore I say, if he is United, he will be illuminated, but if he is divided, he will be filled with darkness."
From The Gospel of Thomas.
The Dream Character...
Turn your attention away from the dream right now. Just for right now, you don't need it. Let the thoughts and worries of the dream character continue as they will, but just step back for a moment and watch it happen, watch the dream character involved in its dream.
And while the dream character is going about its business, turn your attention to the one thing right now that is shining and clear, peaceful and unassuming, steady and solid: the consciousness with which the dream character is being observed.
Just rest here, in the unchanging consciousness which reflects but is not changed by what it reflects. This is reality. Nothing else is.
Rest your attention here. Get to know it. Let the reality of consciousness be known to you, as you. Nothing needs to be done here. No thought affects it, and so thought is not needed. No action affects it, and so action is not needed.
It's not possible to do anything with this consciousness because this consciousness is everything already. Pay attention to it for a moment right now and it is easily noticed that consciousness is complete. And since consciousness is complete, you are complete. The only thing that ever makes you feel like you are not complete, not whole, and that you need to "return" somewhere to find wholeness, is that you have put your attention into the dream life, and forgotten that wholeness is all that you really are.
So observe the dream character as it desires enlightenment, and as it desires love, reassurance, respect. Watch the dream character as its life plays out. It is not who you are. You are this consciousness, which has no mortality, no vulnerability, and no limits. Beyond all imagination, the nothingness within which resides the seed of all existence, the shining creation of infinite universes - this is you.
Put your attention here, and allow your sense of this to grow. If you are looking for Wholeness, here it is. If you are looking for True Love, here it is, in the One Unlimited Self that is Reality. No other love is possible. And this Love is already here, as You. It's only a matter of attention.
- Annette Nibley
" Pain Bodies "...
The pain bodies that tolle speaks about are egoic sufferings that still exist within the sub-conscious mind, which is the Soul..
These pain bodies can continue to exist beyond death if you still believe that you are ego..
You may be captured as 'Soul' within the negativity of consciousness called evil..
These are the spirits that are Earthbound and have not entered the Light Within, which is Divine Consciousness..
Beware the ' Tunnel of Light', It is a trap by these Entities and other Entities from the fourth dimension called 'Archons' to place you as Soul into another body.. this is called Reincarnation..
This is how they continue the generation of negative energy, needed to sustain their existence..
Everything within this Dream is an illusion that appears real because of our belief..
Once You Awaken from the Belief that You are this Soul called ego,
You are then Free from rebirth and karma..
Why is the Duality of Good and Evil placed within this Dream for us to experience ?..
It is because Divine Consciousness desires to Know what It Is..
You must know first the opposite of what You Are,
to Know what You Are...
namaste, thomas
Questions leading to Answers...
A saint in the Buddhist context...is someone who provides an example of the fact that completely ordinary, confused human beings can wake themselves up;
they can put themselves together and wake themselves up through an accident of like of one kind or another.
The pain, the suffering of all kinds, the misery and the chaos that are part of life, begins to wake them, shake them.
Having been shaken, they begin to question:
"Who am I? What am I? What is happening"
Then they go further and realize that there is something in them that is asking these questions, something that is, in fact, intellingent and not exactly confused.
- Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
" The Way "...
The Way is present before our eyes, yet what is before our eyes is hard to understand.
People like the unusual and enjoy the new;
they miss what is right in front of their eyes and do not know where the Way is.
The Way is the immediate presence:
if you are unaware of the immediate presence, then your mind races, your intellect runs, and you go on thinking compulsively.
All of this is due to shallowness of spiritual power, and shallowness of spiritual power is due to racing in the mind.
- from 'The Secret of the Golden Flower'.
[Translated by Thomas Cleary]
Mentalism...
"The one without a second" reappears in the universe as "no two things alike."
Nonduality, not two, means mentalism;
the world is my idea, in my consciousness, hence not separate from me.
There are not two--me plus world.
-- Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity >
Chapter 2: The Double Standpoint > # 18
Paul Brunton
The Core of Their Reality...
Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their
hearts,
the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire
nor self-knowledge can reach,
the core of their reality,
the
person that each one is in God's eyes.
If only they could see
themselves as they really are.
If only we could see each other
that way all the time,
there would be no more war, hatred,
cruelty, no more greed...
I suppose the big problem would be
that we would fall down and worship each other.
~Thomas Merton
Confusion about Reality...
Consciousness tells me that there is confusion within the seekers of Reality and that I should speak of it..
The confusion begins with the knowledge of spirituality that your sub-conscious mind has been imprinted with by parents, religious leaders, and schools..
They teach you what they have been taught..
This deception, although unknown to your parents , have been going on for thousands of years..
Your Consciousness is used as an energy source..
Since, you believe that you are the ego, mind, and body, the Consciousness within these illusions has been trapped within the Dreams..
The Consciousness has been deceived to believe that It is the illusions that It has created..
You are the Energy of Love, Light, and Consciousness, but have been taught to believe that You are the negative energy of egoic consciousness..
Who feeds from this Negative Energy ?..
There are entities beyond the frequencies of sight and sound,
They are called by many names and Jesus would often force them to leave the minds of humans..
There has always been a battle between fear and Love..
This is the learning experience and Dream from Divine Consciousness..
You are the Divine Consciousness with unlimited wishes..
You the the Divine Consciousness with Desires..
Desires create the Manifestations..
As long as You have desires, You will remain trapped within these desires..
The greatest desire is that of separation called ego self..
Surrender this desire to the universe and enter Nothingness..
You will Awaken as the Reality called Divine Consciousness..
Desires for anything but Love ( which is non-ego) will keep You trapped within Your wishes and Dreams..
These Dimensions of separation and duality is actually "Our Dream" and is not Real..
namaste, thomas
The ego is illusion...
To accept that the universe is an illusion
without including him who accepts it as
such as also being an illusion is a basic
mistake common in spiritual seeking.
When this mistake is seen for what it is,
the seeking will be over.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
Happiness...
Calm in quietude is not real calm.
When you can be calm in the midst of activity, this is the true state of nature.
Happiness in comfort is not real happiness.
When you can be happy in the midst of hardship,
then you see the true potential of the mind.
Zen master: Huanchu Daoren
The eye of the heart...
"Our whole business then, Brethren,
in this life is to heal this eye of the heart whereby God may be seen."
Saint Augustine of Hippo
Sermon 38 on the New Testament, 5
CHURCH FATHERS: Sermon 38 on the New Testament (Augustine)
Sacrifice gives no pain...
In order to relieve the hunger of others, we must forget our own hunger.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Riches and power may vanish because they are outside of us, but only that which is within can we call our own. In order to awaken love and sympathy in our hearts, sacrifices must be made. We must forget our own troubles in order to sympathize with the troubles of others.
To relieve the hunger of others we must forget our own hunger. Everybody is working for selfish ends, not caring about others, and this alone has brought about the misery in the world today. When the world is evolving from imperfection towards perfection, it needs all love and sympathy. Great tenderness and watchfulness is required of each one of us. The heart of every man, both good and bad, is the abode of God, and care should be taken never to wound anybody by word or act. We are only here in this world for a short time; many have been here before, and have passed on, and it is for us to see that we leave behind an impression of good.
There are however blessed souls, souls who are really satisfied and whose hunger is stilled by seeing another person eating or who are happy seeing another person adorned with beautiful clothes. It might seem to us a great renunciation or self-denial; but they have been given a cross to bear and have risen above it. Sacrifice gives no pain; it only gives pleasure.
Love another and do not depend upon his love; and: Do good to another and do not depend upon receiving good from him; serve another and do not look for service from him. All you do for another out of your love and kindness, you should think that you do, not to that person, but to God. And if the person returns love for love, goodness for goodness, service for service, so much the better. If he does not return it, then pity him for what he loses; for his gain is much less than his loss.
Mentalism...
That the last play written by Shakespeare was The Tempest is a historic fact which helps to explain why it holds the most mysterious truth--Mentalism.
-- Notebooks Category 21: Mentalism > Chapter 4:
The Challenge of Mentalism > # 249
Paul Brunton
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself—
Yea, all which it inherit—shall dissolve,
And like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
William Shakespeare
Realization...
If you want it [realization], it will come.
There is
no qualification necessary, except wanting it.
That is the only qualification.
If it is not wanted,
it will not come.
It comes when it is wanted,
but wanted wholly, not a little.
- Swami Krishnananda
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Your Questions Answered
Swami Krishnananda
The Divine Life Trust Society, 1995
Thought...
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.
The mind is everything.
What we think we become.”
Gautama the Buddha
The Brain and Consciousness...
On our planet, the human ego represents the final stage of universal sleep, the identification of consciousness with form. It was a necessary stage in the evolution of consciousness.
The human brain is a highly differentiated form through which consciousness enters this dimension. It contains approximately one hundred billion nerve cells (called neurons), about the same number as there are stars in our galaxy, which could be seen as a macrocosmic brain.
The brain does not create consciousness, but consciousness created the brain, the most complex physical form on earth, for its expression.
When the brain gets damaged, it does not mean you lose consciousness. It means consciousness can no longer use that form to enter this dimension. You cannot lose consciousness because it is, in essence, who you are. You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are.
~ From: A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle
Karma...
Karma comes into play only if the karmic impression is strong enough to survive.
In the case of the sage, because he treats life like a dream, because he sees through it as appearance, all his experiences are on the surface only.
His deep inner mind remains untouched by them.
Therefore he makes no karma from them,
therefore he is able when passing out of the body at death to be finished with the round of birth and death forever.
Paul Brunton
The words of Jesus...
Consciousness told me to speak of the words of Jesus..
" I and the Father are One "..
Is Jesus any different from You?..
He was a Mystic and Rabbi..
He was Jewish and yet taught the lessons of Buddha..
This is why Buddha did not speak of a God..
He wanted you to find out that You are God..
What is God?..
Consciousness and Love..
You are Consciousness and Love..
It is this easy to understand...
namaste, thomas
" Only Thursday "...
It is only Thursday and 'Overself' tells me to speak..
What should I speak about ?..
There are more than eight thousand lessons of wisdom within this blog..
What more can I speak of ?..
I have told you of the path to Freedom, many times..
And yet Spirit demands more..
Perhaps, time is short and knowledge is needed..
You are the learned of the world that speak many languages..
And you find yourself within a white space of thoughts..
I cannot give you Freedom..
This is a path that only you can walk..
You entered this illusion alone,
and you will leave this illusion alone..
You entered with a fear of separation and hopefully,
you do not leave with a fear of separation..
You cried when you entered the Dream,
Smile, when You exit the Dream..
We have Dreamed together, this journey of knowledge of good and evil..
Let us leave this Dream within the Joy of Love...
namaste, thomas
The Void...
So precious is our petty ego,
that we strongly begrudge yielding it up to the seeming void of nonduality.
-- Notebooks Category 8: The Ego >
Chapter 4: Detaching from The Ego > # 134
Paul Brunton
For those brave Souls...
" There is only One"..
Surrender the self and all desire for existence while in meditation..
Do not fear, when the ego speaks to you of the pain of death..
The ego will appear as a voice of fear..
As Jesus said; "Get behind Me"..
Go beyond fear and enter Reality..
It will be difficult, but many have gone before you..
It will feel like death,
But, You will not die,
You will Live as Divine Consciousness..
From this State, You will learn more about Freedom..
Pure Awareness will contact You within this State of existence,
With the magnetic field of Love..
And then 'You' will disappear and Love will exist forever..
As Jesus said; " You must die to be Born"..
Even as Divine Consciousness,
In Reality,
There is only Love...
namaste, thomas
Altered States of Consciousness...
In meditation you can exit the body illusion and enter the higher dimensions of illusion..
You can enter the many "rooms of the Fathers house" as Jesus spoke about..
But, they are all illusions of duality..
Saints speak of the seven Heavens..
But, You are beyond Heavens and illusions..
You are Divine Consciousness that witnesses these illusions..
An illusion is a Dream that Consciousness engages Itself within..
Eternity consists of Dreaming..
Source is the Dreamer..
If You are all that does exist, You Dream..
This 'You' is also an illusion..
There is only 'Thought'..
There is no 'You'..
You are Divine Thought without any personality or ego..
So much to think about,
I will leave you to your thoughts...
namaste, thomas
The Inner Consciousness...
When we turn the mind inwards,
God manifests as the inner consciousness.
Sri Ramana Maharshi
Invocation Prayer...
Toward the One,
The perfection of Love, Harmony and Beauty,
The Only Being,
United with all the Illuminated Souls Who form the embodiment of the Master,
The Spirit of Guidance.
Hazrat Inayat Khan
Invocation
Prayers
Meditation...
Silence of the mind,
which is the result of
a deep understanding,
that meditation is
a natural,
spontaneous meditation which
just happens.
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Entering Enlightenment...
The next step is to surrender the existence that you believe that you are..
This ego and self that you hold so dear..
Give this to the universe and fall into Reality..
You will meet the ego half way within the journey,
It will tell you to turn back..
Most do..
Don't be most..
namaste, thomas
Feminine and Masculine...
Duality at it's finest..
In Reality, there is no gender..
There is no male or female god..
Light has no gender..
Love has no gender..
Consciousness has no gender..
You seek the unity of gender and call it Love..
But, this is only within the Dreams..
Consciousness still believes that it is separate from Pure Awareness..
Pure Awareness shares Consciousness It's complete Unity with the Energy of Love..
Consciousness feels the Freedom of non-duality and sheds it's desires..
We call Divine Consciousness the nomenclature of God but are quite asleep to the fact that We are Divine Consciousness..
How confused We are..
Perhaps, this is why we are here..
This God that you are seeking is You..
You have been told for thousands of years that you must seek that which is above you..
Jesus told you to seek that which is within you..
namaste, thomas
The Lotus Sutra...
It does not appear or disappear.
It is not born and does not die.
It is neither constructed nor raised up,
Neither made nor produced.
It is neither sitting nor lying,
Neither walking nor standing still,
Neither moving nor turning over,
Neither at rest nor idle.
It does not advance or retreat,
Knows not safety or danger,
Neither right nor wrong.
It is neither virtuous nor improper.
It is neither this nor that,
Neither going nor coming.
- From the Lotus Sutra
Removing obstacles...
Spiritual evolution occurs as the result of removing obstacles and not actually acquiring anything new.
Devotion enables surrenders of the mind's vanities and cherished illusions so that it progressively becomes more free and more open to the light of Truth.
David Hawkins
Source: "The Eye of the I",
David R. Hawkins, MD, Ph.D
Joy and Sorrow...
Joy and sorrow are inseparable...
Together they come,
and when one sits alone with you at your board,
remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.
Kahlil Gibran (1883 - 1931)
" I Am "...
To know the self as the only reality and all else
as temporal and transient is freedom, peace and
joy.
It is all very simple.
Instead of seeing things as
imagined, learn to see them as they are.
When
you can see everything as it is, you will also see
yourself as you are.
It is like cleansing a mirror.
The same mirror that shows you the world as it is
will also show you your own face.
The thought ‘I am’
is the polishing cloth.
Use it.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
Pure Essence of Mind...
When we comprehend that the pure essence of mind is reality, then we can also comprehend the rationale of the higher yoga which would settle attention in pure thought itself rather than in finite thoughts.
When this is done the mind becomes vacant, still, and utterly undisturbed.
This grand calm of nonduality comes to the philosophic yogi alone and is not to be confused with the lower-mystical experience of emotional ecstasy, clairvoyant vision, and inner voice.
For in the latter the ego is present as its enjoyer, whereas in the former it is absent because the philosophic discipline has led to its denial.
The lower type of mystic must make a special effort to gain his ecstatic experience, but the higher type finds it arises spontaneously without personal effort at all.
The first is in the realm of duality, whilst the second has realized nonduality.
-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation >
Chapter 8: The Void As Contemplative Experience > # 130
Paul Brunton
Being Fully Present...
Truth can dance into existence in many forms, pleasurable and not pleasurable. Behind every experience is love.
Commitment to being fully present through all levels of being will close the gap between you and what is happening, the gap between you and experience.
Kwong Roshi often used to say, "Close the gap, even just a tiny bit, close the gap." Then everything opens up.
Close the gap between what is and what you want it to be, between what is presenting itself and what you want to present itself.
This gap of judgement is the separation you feel.
You need to totally choose what is and lean into it with your whole being.
~ Adyashanti - Emptiness Dancing
There is no pride in Enlightenment...
When you wake up in the morning, do you feel proud of waking up ?..
Of course not !..
As it is the same within Awakening from the sleep of this Dream called Life..
You are merely 'Waking Up'..
And who are You?..
You are Light, Love, and Consciousness..
Pride is an attribute of the false self called ego and does not exist within Reality..
All manifestation is produced by the frequencies of Light..
Nothing is solid..
All are Frequencies that are used by the mind to create what appear to be solid matter..
This is how Mystics such as Jesus and Gautama were able to produce manifestations out of thin air..
The non-mystics call these Miracles..
But, Mystics know that these are manipulations of Light caused by Mental Belief..
Belief is Your ability to Create Apparitions called Matter..
The bottom line is that you should never feel as though Enlightenment is something special that only some can enter..
It is Your Natural State..
All else are Dreams...
namaste, thomas
The Spirit Rules...
"And be assured also, that when the Spirit of Christ, is the spirit that ruleth in you, there will be no hard sayings in the gospel;
but all that the heavenly Christ taught in the flesh, will be as meat and drink to you, and you will have no joy, but in walking, as he walked, in saying, loving, and doing, that which he said, loved, and did."
William Law
Collection of Letters, Letter VI
" Emptiness "...
We shape clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want.
- Lao-tzu
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Tao Te Ching
Translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English
Vintage Books Edition, September 1972
" OM "...
My body caught fire like an ember,
as I brought the syllable OM,
the one that says “You are That,”
into me.
I moved through
the six chakra centers
that urge human beings to action
and out into the lightedness
where Lalla lives now.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
The fear of extinction...
The concept of us being anything but a human body that
occasionally feels a bliss called Love is difficult..
The sub-conscious mind has
been trained to believe that we are a body with a soul that might arrive in a
good place called heaven, if we are good..
The most difficult idea to wrap our
minds around is that in Final Reality, we do not exist..
In daily life, to not
exist as ego is called humility and is praised as good and loving..
but, to take this
Truth to the highest plane of humility and love is to not exist within Spirit..
Only Spirit Existing..
As Jesus said;" you must die, to be born"..
Giving your
greatest gift (life,self) is the greatest Love...
namaste, thomas
Pure Awareness...
"Even the smallest thing is not known or perceived there,
therefore it is called the highest perfect knowledge.
Free from self,
free from being,
free from life,
free from personality,
that highest perfect knowledge is always the same...."
Gautama the Buddha
VAGRAKKHEDIKå or The DIAMOND-CUTTER, 22-23
Kindle the Light...
One thing is true: although the teacher cannot give the knowledge, he can kindle the light if the oil is in the lamp.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
No one can give spiritual knowledge to another, for this is something that is within every heart. What the teacher can do is to kindle the light which is hidden in the heart of the disciple. If the light is not there, it is not the fault of the teacher. There is a verse by Hafiz in which he says, 'However great be the teacher, he is helpless with the one whose heart is closed.' ...
In ancient times, the disciples of the great teachers learned by a quite different method, not an academic method or a way of study. The way was an open heart. With perfect confidence and trust they watched every attitude of the teacher, both towards friends and towards people who looked at him with contempt. They watched their teacher in times of trouble and pain, how he endured it all. They said how patient and wise he had been in discussing with those who did not understand, answering everyone gently in his own language. He showed the mother-spirit, the father-spirit, the brother-spirit, the child-spirit, the friend-spirit, forgiving kindness, an ever-tolerant nature, respect for the aged, compassion for all, the thorough understanding of human nature. This, also, the disciples learned, that no discussion or books on metaphysics can ever teach all the thoughts and philosophy that arise in the heart of man. A person may either study for a thousand years, or he may get to the source and see if he can touch the root of all wisdom and all knowledge. In the center of the emblem of the Sufis there is a heart; it is the sign that from the heart a stream rises, the stream of divine knowledge.
Sufis have no set belief or disbelief. Divine light is the only sustenance of their soul, and through this light they see their path clear, and what they see in this light they believe, and what they do not see they do not blindly believe. Yet they do not interfere with another person's belief or disbelief, thinking that perhaps a greater portion of light has kindled his heart, and so he sees and believes that the Sufi cannot see or believe. Or, perhaps a lesser portion of light has kept his sight dim and he cannot see and believe as the Sufi believes. Therefore Sufis leave belief and disbelief to the grade of evolution of every individual soul. The Murshid's work is to kindle the fire of the heart, and to light the torch of the soul of his mureed, and to let the mureed believe and disbelieve as he chooses, while journeying through the path of evolution.
It is not that a Murshid gives his knowledge to someone else. It is not possible to give one's knowledge that way, so the Murshid does not profess to be able to do this or that. His work is to help another person to find out for himself, to discover for himself what is true and what is not. There are no doctrines to impart, there are no principles to lay down, and there are no tenets according to which his pupils must order their lives. He is just a guide along the path. He is the one who kindles the light that is already in the pupil.
Nonduality...
Nonduality simply means that there is nothing other than the unseen Power,
nothing else,
no universe,
no creature..
-- Notebooks Category 28: The Alone > Chapter 1: Absolute Mind > # 32
-- Perspectives > Chapter 28: The Alone > # 9
Paul Brunton
" Enlightenment "...
Many souls do not know nor understand what is meant by Enlightenment..
Therefore, I will speak of my own Enlightenment..
After many years of daily meditation and study of wisdom,
I decided to personally know the Truth of the Universe..
I wanted to know if there was a God and I wanted to know why we are here..
I decided to follow the path of Gautama the Buddha and Jesus the Christ..
I decided to sit in meditation until I learned the Truth of existence..
I would not move, nor receive food or water until the Truth was known..
I sat beneath a tree as Buddha did and meditated for about a half hour on the surrender and death of the egoic consciousness..
When the egoic mind saw that I was serious, It began to warn me of the pain of death and the fear of what is unknown..
The fear of death was a wall that was difficult to climb but I was determined to know Truth..
I said to this false power called ego,,
" I will gladly accept death to know Truth"..
I now know that the ego is the same power that tempted Jesus and Gautama..
When I died as the ego,
I fell into a black darkness of nothingness..
For a few seconds, I did not exist..
I then awakened as the Energy of Light, Love, and Consciousness..
I and the Father were One..
I understood what Jesus meant..
I understood what the Buddha meant..
I understood Reality and illusion...
I will speak more of the stories of Reality later...
namaste, thomas
" Words "...
Words only point to that which cannot be described with words..
Love is the absence of the desire for separation called egoic consciousness..
Pure Awareness could also be called Pure Intelligence or Pure Consciousness or even Pure Love..
namaste, thomas
The Self of All...
"There is no creature which is not destined for the supreme goal,
as there is no river which is not winding its way towards the sea.
But only in the human form is consciousness so developed that it is capable of expressing the perfection of its own true self,
which is the Self of all.
Meher Baba
in _LISTEN, HUMANITY_
Narrated and Edited by D.E. Stevens
NY: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1957, p. xiii
Meditation Exercises...
four exercises of a highly advanced metaphysical character:
(a) Meditation on the Void;
(b) Meditation on Nonduality;
(c) Meditation on Space;
(d) Meditation on Ego's non-existence.
-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation >
Chapter 8: The Void As Contemplative Experience > # 122
Paul Brunton
" The Final Reality "...
The belief that You are this personality called ego is the very reason why You remain trapped within this Dream called life..
Enlightenment does not exist within the body, It is an out of body experience..
The body is an illusion that disappears upon the Awakening into Reality..
At this state of the Recognition of what and who You Are,
You Realize that life was just another Dream that You as Divine Consciousness was experiencing..
But, even Realizing that You and God are One is also an aspect of ego and must also be surrendered..
This next and final step is called 'Pure Awareness' and contains no ego or personality..
This is called ' Nothingness' and is the Source of Divine Consciousness..
This is composed of Intelligence and Love and is the Final Reality...
namaste, thomas
" Dreams on a friday night "...
Upon the death of the body, will you become Free ?..
This is the point of Mysticism..
If You still believe that You are an entity called ego,
You will remain trapped within the prison of reincarnation..
You have been lied to by the masters of religion, education, government, and all other souls that seek power, wealth, and fame..
They speak of heaven and hell and tell you that you will remain a separate entity within these dreams of illusion..
If you believe them, they will prove to be true..
You are the Power that decides reality..
Remember when Jesus said; " I and the Father are One"..
There is no separate entity to exist within other dimensions..
Only those that believe that they are separate from God will remain as such..
Belief... Belief.. Belief...
As Jesus said; " If you 'Believe', and say "Mountain be moved !, It shall be"..
Your 'Belief' determines your future..
Believe that 'you' are nothing and 'You' will Awaken as Everything..
This 'you' is the small 'you' called 'false self'..
The capital 'You' is Divine Consciousness and contains no 'you'..
'You' are the Creator Self only if 'You Believe' that 'You' Are..
Until, You Believe, you remain a separate illusion of self, trapped within the continuous wheel of reincarnation and will continue to suffer..
This is why I speak often of the need to experience 'Enlightenment',
This is the surrendering of the illusion of ego and the Awakening into Divine Consciousness..
You and God are experienced as 'One'..
There is no more doubt and You will become Free within the Reality of Divine Consciousness upon the death of the body...
namaste, thomas
The Real...
It is false to speak of realization. What is there to realize?
The real is as it is always.
We are not creating anything
new or achieving something which we did not have before.
The illustration given in books is this. We dig a well and
create a huge pit.
The space in the pit or well has not been
created by us.
We have just removed the earth which was
filling the space there.
The space was there then and is
also there now.
Similarly we have simply to throw out all
the age-long samskaras [innate tendencies] which are
inside us.
When all of them have been given up, the Self
will shine alone.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"Be As You Are"
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
Edited by David Godman
Arkana, 1985
Silence...
Stop thinking of silence as a lack of noise -- mental noise, emotional noise, or the external noise around you. As long as you see silence as something objective, something that is not you but might come to you like an emotional experience, you are chasing your own projected idea.
Looking for silence is like being on a motorboat racing around the lake looking for a smooth spot where everything is silent, and there you are -- vroom! vroom! -- racing around with increasing anxiety that you are never going to get there.
No matter how long you raced around that lake you would never find this silence. Actually, all you have to do is throttle back and turn the key off, and then there you are. Then it is very quiet, very still.
When you start to be receptive and allowing, you start to return to your natural state, which is very quiet. Being receptive is just like throttling back. It is a natural state of quiet.
~ From: Emptiness Dancing, by Adyashanti
Only the One...
The teaching of nonduality is that all things are within one and the same element--Consciousness.
Hence there are no two or three or three million things and entities:
there is in reality only the One Consciousness..
-- Notebooks Category 28: The Alone >
Chapter 1: Absolute Mind > # 26
Paul Brunton
Saint Meerabai Quotes...
Let people say good things or bad things
I will bear them all!
Meera cannot love even a moment without her beloved Lord Krishna.
O my mind,
Worship the lotus feet of the Indestructible One!
O my companion,
Worldly comfort is an illusion,
As soon you get it, it goes.
My eyes are sad without seeing you!
Ever since you left, my Lord!
I have no peace of mind!
I am mad, not conscious of my body!
Nobody understands my agony!
Meera says: only He knows my state,
in whose hands are life and death!
Drink the nectar of the Divine Name,
O human! Drink the nectar of the Divine Name!
Leave the bad company,
always sit among righteous company.
With my tears,
I watered the creeper of love that I planted;
Now the creeper has grown spread all over,
and borne the fruit of bliss.
If abandoning one's wife could summon God
Would not thousands be eunuchs?
Mirabai knows that to find the Divine One,
The only indispensable is Love.
I have no father, no mother, relatives or brothers.
I have broken family ties; who can do anything?
I have spoken of my love through my tears.
Servant Meera has fallen in love with the Lord,
He is now mine. Gopala (Lord Krishna) is mine. No one else!
One night as I sat in quiet,
I seemed on the verge of entering a world inside so vast
I know it is the source of all of us.
Do not mention the name of love,
O my simple-minded companion.
Strange is the path
When you offer your love.
Your body is crushed at the first step...
from buddhasangha.com
You are Nothing...
You are no thing, presently conceiving of yourself as
something.
The body is something, but without the mind,
the body could not be seen.
And without the consciousness,
the mind cannot be seen.
And without the absolute, the con-
sciousness cannot be seen.
Contemplate this.
- Mooji
" The Actors "...
There are billions of bodies that complete the 'Group Dream'..
They are manifestations of Dream..
How do you account for the bodies that appear in your dreams ?..
Are they not real, until you awaken ?..
Consciousness is the Dreamer..
You are Consciousness...
namaste, thomas
Truth must be Realized...
"Truth indeed has never been preached by the Buddha,
seeing that one has to realize it within oneself."
attributed to Asvaghosa
_Sutralamkara_
in Aldous Huxley
_The Perennial Philosophy_
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1945, p. 127
We are Consciousness...
We must take a higher position than ordinary religion offers and come face to face with the mystery that is Mentalism.
The nonbeing of the universe, the nonduality even of the soul may be too mathematical a conclusion for our finite minds;
but that this matterless world and all that happens in it is like a dream is something to be received and remembered at all times.
We are important only to ourselves, not to God.
All our whining and praying, chanting and praising, gathering together and imagining that this or that duty is required of us is mere theatre-play: Mind makes it all.
In this discovery we roll up the stage and return to the paradox of what we really are--Consciousness!
-- Notebooks Category 17: The Religious Urge >
Chapter 3: Religion As Preparatory > # 104
Paul Brunton
The Dimensions of Consciousness...
As Jesus said; " There are many rooms in my Fathers house"..
These are the levels of Consciousness that denote the amount of non-love called ego..
As ego is abandoned as a belief system, Reality is finally seen..
These Dimensions of existence draw closer to Reality and are called Heavens,
but are still prisons of ignorance that slow You from Awakening into Reality..
But time does not exist within these Dimensions and does not exist within Reality,
Therefore, the only pain from the length of time of separation from Reality is felt within the physical dimension called life..
I share the Knowledge of Non-Duality to help Souls to Remember Who they really Are..
Who You Are is beyond all Dimensions and Heavens..
When the desire for separation is abandoned, the egoic consciousness is dissolved and You Awaken as Your Self..
It is this easy and will be the most difficult thing that you have even done..
It took Jesus, forty days of meditation and fasting within the desert to Awaken into Divine Consciousness..
It usually takes the average soul, many years to enter Enlightenment..
I can only advise you to meditate daily and enter the space of no-thought,
as God is beyond the thoughts of the human mind to comprehend..
Divine Consciousness can only be experienced,
It cannot be taught...
namaste, thomas
" The Trinity "...
The Trinity is Pure Awareness, Divine Consciousness, and Soul..
Soul discovers that it is Divine Consciousness when egoic desires are surrendered and thus Awakens as Divine Consciousness..
Divine Consciousness discovers that It is a Dream from Pure Awareness and surrenders the desire for Duality,
Thus Dissolving into the Nothingness of Pure Awareness..
There is a feeling within Divine Consciousness, which is the 'Dream Creator', that there is something else to Know..
Although, Divine Consciousness is Light, Love, and Consciousness,, Something calls You back Home into the Complete Love of non-desire called Pure Awareness..
Pure Awareness contains no Personality or ego, not even the Personality called God..
It is Complete Mind and is known by the binding energy called Love..
To receive All,
You must Give All...
namaste, thomas
' What is Love ' ?...
This overused word to denote unity..
Lovers seek this word as much as their breath..
How many truly know what this word means ?..
Love means that " I honor you above myself"..
The 'self' is abandoned and you have become nothingness..
Contemplate this image as it is most important..
Love means that there is only one,
there is no you..
This is why Universal Consciousness (God) is called Love..
There is no you within Love, there is only Love..
There is no space for a separate entity called ego..
This knowledge is so easy to understand and yet the ego fights against this Truth with every thought...
namaste, thomas
The Light of Self-Awareness...
Ego will not immediately vanish upon the realisation of the Truth,
but it will be more quickly and more easily discerned.
Its power keeps diminishing in the light of self-awareness
until it becomes insignificant altogether.
- Mooji
Only Pure Wisdom Exists...
Thoughts manifest themselves within emptiness and are reabsorbed into it like a face appears and disappears in a mirror;
the face has never been in the mirror, and when it ceases to be reflected in it, it has not really ceased to exist.
The mirror itself has never changed.
So, before departing on the spiritual path, we remain in the so-called "impure" state of samsara, which is, in appearance, governed by ignorance.
When we commit ourselves to that path, we cross a state where ignorance and wisdom are mixed.
At the end, at the moment of Enlightenment, only pure wisdom exists.
But all the way along this spiritual journey, although there is an appearance of transformation, the nature of the mind has never changed:
it was not corrupted on entry onto the path,
and it was not improved at the time of realization.
- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Lies and Deception...
There are only no lies and deception when there is no ego..
There is only no ego when one is fully in the Consciousness of Love..
We are here to experience the opposite of Love..
You can only know Love when you have first known fear..
Fear is ego..
Love is non-ego..
We are in a Dream of egoic consciousness..
Any Love that is felt,
is within the few seconds that the average soul abandons the egoic desire..
namaste, thomas
' The World '...
We travel within this egoic dream called life..
We believe that We are separate entities that fight for survival..
We are led by those that worship a different power than Love..
In a world of deception and lies,
the god of this world is also a power of deception and lies..
This god is an illusion formed from ego and is an desire of selfishness..
The God of Love is without ego and demands Nothing..
'Nothing' is the key word..
Nothingness is the Door to Reality..
You must become Nothing to become Everything...
Beware of those that wrap themselves in a flag and say that god is on our side..
They speak of the god of ego and selfishness and not the God of Love..
You must be Awake to See the falseness within this Dream...
namaste, thomas
Reclaim Consciousness...
To be conscious of Being,
you need to reclaim consciousness from the mind.
This is one of the most essential tasks on your spiritual journey.
Eckhart Tolle
A matter of harmony...
Sagehood has nothing to do with governing others but is a matter of ordering oneself.
Nobility has nothing to do with power and rank but is a matter of self realization.
Attain self-realization, and the whole world is found in the self.
Happiness has nothing to do with wealth and status, but is a matter of harmony.
Lao-tze
Watch the thoughts...
The thought manifests as the word;
The word manifests as the deed;
The deed develops into habit;
And habit hardens into character;
So watch the thought and its ways with care,
And let it spring from love
Born out of concern for all beings…
As the shadow follows the body,
As we think, so we become.
Gautama the Buddha
The splendor of Union...
When you see a pearl on the bottom,
you reach through the foam and broken sticks
on the surface.
When the sun comes up, you forget
about locating the constellation of Scorpio.
When you see the splendor of union,
the attractions of duality seem poignant
and lovely, but much less interesting.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Version by Coleman Barks
"Open Secret"
Threshold Books, 1984
Mystical experiences...
The average man seldom pays enough attention to his slight mystical experiences to profit or learn from them.
Yet his need for them is evidenced by his incessant seeking for the thrills, sensations, uplifts, and so on, which he organizes for himself in so many ways--the religious way being only one of them.
In fact, the failure of religion--in the West, at any rate--to teach true mysticism,
and its overlaying of the deeply mystic nature of its teachings with a pseudo-rationalism and an unsound historicity may be the root cause for driving people to seek for things greater than they feel their individual selves to be in the many sensation-giving activities in the world today.
-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest >
Chapter 1: What the Quest Is > # 62
Paul Brunton
The meaning of life...
Consciousness reminded me of the reason that We are within the body..
One time that I was in meditation and within the Light of Divine Consciousness, I asked the Superior of this Light, that Jesus called Father,
" What is the most important lesson to learn while in the body ?"..
I was shocked to hear the response, as I learned it as a child..
The Father said;
" Treat all humans as you would want to be treated "..
It is so simple..
' The Golden Rule'...
Who knew that this is the meaning of life ?...
namaste, thomas
Our Group Dream...
Consciousness tells me to speak of this group dream that we have contrived..
Why does this Dream of manifestation occur ?..
Why are we within pain and suffering ?..
I step back from the keyboard and put on Zen music to help me think of the next sentence..
Suffering is universal..
Suffering is the distance that you are from Love....
Why are we here ?..
This is a question that only Consciousness can answer..
Perhaps, it is to find the difference between Reality and non-reality..
To those that have surrendered the egoic desire, Reality is Love..
To those that still worship the ego, reality is selfishness..
This is why, there is an illusion of power called satan,
and a Reality called God..
You are the illusion of separateness called ego that decides which road to walk..
Do you desire Power, Wealth, and Fame..
Or Do you desire the non-self called Love..
Which gives Freedom and which gives Prison ?...
namaste, thomas
known and unknown...
"No more is known of the Cosmos than is known of a shadow, and no more is known of the Real than one knows of the origin of a shadow.
Insofar as He has a shadow, He is known, but insofar as the form of the one casting the shadow is not perceived in the shadow, He is not known.
For this reason,
we say that the Real is known to us in one sense and unknown in another."
Muhyiddin ibn al-'Arabi
_The Seals of Wisdom_
NY: Concord Grove Press, 1983, p. 71
Craving...
The state of craving for anything blocks all
deeper experience.
Nothing of value can happen
to a mind which knows exactly what it wants.
For nothing the mind can visualize and want is
of much value.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
The Intact Identity...
In this choiring, the soul looks upon the wellspring of Life, wellspring also of Intellect, beginning of Being, fount of Good, root of Soul.
It is not that these are poured out from the Supreme, lessening it as if it were a thing of mass.
At that the emanants would be perishable; but they are eternal; they spring from an eternal principle, which produces them not by its fragmentation but in virtue of its intact identity:
therefore they too hold firm; so long as the sun shines, so long there will be light.
Plotinus
Enneads, VI. 9. 9.
Forgiveness...
The first step towards forgiveness is to forget.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
In order to learn forgiveness man must learn tolerance first. And there are people whom man cannot forgive. It is not that he must not forgive, but it is difficult, beyond his power to forgive, and in that case the first thing he can do is to forget. The first step towards forgiveness is to forget.
They say, 'Forgive and forget', which is very expressive of the process of forgiveness. It is impossible to forgive unless you can forget. What keeps man from forgiving his fellow man is that he holds the fault of another constantly before his view. It is just like sticking a little thorn in one's own heart and keeping it there and suffering the pain. It may also be pictured as putting a drop of poison in one's own heart and retaining it until the whole heart becomes poisoned.
Verily, blessed are the innocent, who do not notice anybody's fault, and the greater credit is to the mature souls, who, recognizing a fault, forget it and so forgive. How true are the words of Christ, 'Let those throw a stone who have not sinned.' The limitations of human life make man subject to faults. Some have more faults, some have less, but there is no soul without faults. As Christ says, 'Call me not good.'
Forgiveness is a stream of love, which washes away all impurities wherever it flows. By keeping this spring of love, which is in the heart of man, running, man is able to forgive, however great the fault of his fellow man may seem. One who cannot forgive closes his heart. The sign of spirituality is that there is nothing you cannot forgive, there is no fault you cannot forget. Do not think that he who has committed a fault yesterday must do the same today, for life is constantly teaching and it is possible in one moment a sinner may turn into a saint.
Meditation...
"If God is to speak His word to the soul,
it must be still and at peace.
And then He will speak His word and give Himself to the soul,
and not as a mere idea,
apart from Himself."
Meister Eckhart
_Sermons_, I
in Geoffrey Parrinder
_Collins Dictionary of Religious & Spiritual Quotations_
London: HarperCollins, 1990, p. 69
" I only found Light "...
I found no fire or flames, I only found Light..
A stream of Knowledge and Love circulated within my consciousness..
I was this Light and knowledge and I barely remembered the Dream of life..
And yet, I questioned the Light to know further knowledge,
But, the Answer would not be given..
I asked; " Is this the Final Reality"..
For the first time, Silence was the answer..
Therefore, the ' Father' became silent..
Did the 'Father' know all of the answers ?..
Did the 'Father' know that It also was a Dream from 'Pure Awareness' ?..
namaste, thomas
The Vision...
That is why Plato says of The One, “It can neither be spoken nor written about.”
If nevertheless we speak of it and write about it, we do so only to give direction, to urge towards that vision beyond discourse, to point out the road to one desirous of seeing.
Instruction goes only as far as showing the road and the direction.
To obtain the vision is solely the work of him who desires to obtain it.
Plotinus
Enneads, VI. 9. 4.
" Dreams on a Friday Night "...
Because I have written on previous friday nights, I feel compelled to write again tonight..
Once again, Time has hidden it's face from my sight..
I find myself within the throng of egoic and non-egoic souls today..
I see the attacks by the ego against other egos'..
I see compassion by some for some..
I see fear within the eyes of those that do not understand humanity..
And yet, I know that they are aspects of Consciousness and are also Me..
Where does this journey of day find myself ?..
Here with you..
You see through my eyes..
You and I are the same Consciousness..
It is strange to pretend to be separate..
And yet We do..
What game does God play ?...
namaste, thomas
Belief creates Manifestation...
And all things,
whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer,
" Believing ",
ye shall receive.
Matthew 21:22
You are Home...
Everywhere is Consciousness and everywhere is
Home.
"Everywhere" is but a small corner of your
heart.
You are that vast.
There is no travel because
you are always Home.
Surrender your ego and you
are Home.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
Intelligence...
Energy cannot exist without the energetic, to whom energy belongs.
Might cannot exist without the mighty one, whose attribute it is.
Intelligence cannot exist without the intelligent one,
to whom that intelligence belongs.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged By
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
Rigpa...
"Once again, selflessness(rigpa) is not a “deep” feature of consciousness. It is right on the surface. And yet people can meditate for years without recognizing it.
After I was introduced to the practice of Dzogchen, I realized that much of my time spent meditating had been a way of actively overlooking the very insight I was seeking. How can something be right on the surface of experience and yet be difficult to see?
I have already drawn an analogy to the optic blind spot. But other analogies may give a clearer sense of the subtle shift in attention that is required to see what is right before one’s eyes.
We’ve all had the experience of looking through a window and suddenly noticing our own reflection in the glass. At that moment we have a choice: to use the window as a window and see the world beyond, or to use it as a mirror. It is extraordinarily easy to shift back and forth between these two views but impossible to truly focus on both simultaneously.
This shift offers a very good analogy both for what it is like to recognize the illusoriness of the self for the first time and for why it can take so long to do it. Imagine that you want to show another person how a window can also function like a mirror. As it happens, your friend has never seen this effect and is quite skeptical of your claims . You direct her attention to the largest window in your house, and although the conditions are perfect for seeing her reflection, she immediately becomes captivated by the world outside . What a beautiful view! Who are your neighbors ? Is that a redwood or a Douglas fir?
You begin to speak about there being two views and about the fact that your friend’s reflection stands before her even now, but she notices only that the neighbor’s dog has slipped out the front door and is now dashing down the sidewalk. In every moment, it is clear to you that your friend is staring directly through the image of her face without seeing it.
Of course, you could easily direct her attention to the surface of the window by touching the glass with your hand. This would be akin to the “pointing-out instruction” of Dzogchen. However , here the analogy begins to break down. It is very difficult to imagine someone’s not being able to see her reflection in a window even after years of looking—but that is what happens when a person begins most forms of spiritual practice.
Most techniques of meditation are, in essence, elaborate ways for looking through the window in the hope that if one only sees the world in greater detail, an image of one’s true face will eventually appear.
Imagine a teaching like this: If you just focus on the trees swaying outside the window without distraction, you will see your true face. Undoubtedly , such an instruction would be an obstacle to seeing what could otherwise be seen directly.
Almost everything that has been said or written about spiritual practice, even most of the teachings one finds in Buddhism, directs a person’s gaze to the world beyond the glass, thereby confusing matters from the very beginning."
Harris, Sam (2014-09-09). Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion (Kindle Locations 2003-2008). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.
" Death '...
It is a painful word, Is it not ?.
We think of death as the end of our existence,
and yet, it is actually the beginning of existence.
Those souls that still cling to the belief that we are separate ego will enter the dimension of those that also believe this notion.
If the Frequency of your Consciousness has been raised into the non-egoic state called Love,
your frequency will be of a higher range of dimension..
But, you still remain as separate from Source by your own desire..
Do you understand yet ?..
It is your desire that determines your future..
you have the desire to be separate by ignorance or by desire..
Humility ends this dilemma..
Humility is the lose of egoic consciousness..
Have you got it yet ?..
Contemplate...
namaste, thomas
' The Heart is the Door '...
"The Prophet said:
'God does not look at your bodies or your forms,
but looks at your hearts and your works.'"
Prophet Muhammad
in Thomas Cleary, Tr.
_The Wisdom of the Prophet:
Sayings of Muhammad;
Selections from the Hadith_
Boston, Shambhala, 2001, p. 34
' Mind '...
Before any thought, idea, opinion could come in, there must have been the mind.
Before you could know that God created world, mind must have been there to tell you so.
Before you can attribute to anything its primordial nature in the world--whether it be Force,
Matter, God or Electricity--the mind is prior in telling you of a primordial principle.
Therefore Mind is the only reality we know.
All else we imagine, believe or wish.
V. Subramanya Iyer
Lights on Advaita p. 68
" The Great Answer "...
The 'Great Answer' is actually quite easy but the egoic consciousness keeps putting a wall between illusion and Reality..
All is God..
There is No-thing that is not God..
All We have to do is to Rid ourselves of this false notion that We are a separate consciousness from God..
This is only difficult because of the constant mental conditioning from birth that We are the body, mind, and ego..
When We are finally able to break free from this societal mental programming and surrender this false belief in separation, We find 'Self' as 'Self'..
In meditation, We go beyond the 'mind' of this body illusion and Awaken into Reality..
This is called 'Enlightenment' ..
The Realization that 'You' are everlasting Light, Love, and Consciousness..
All else is a 'Dream'...
namaste, thomas
" Lose yourself "...
"Know that when you learn to lose yourself,
you will reach the Beloved.
There is no other secret to be learnt,
and more than this is not known to me."
Ansari of Herat
in Aldous Huxley
_The Perennial Philosophy_
NY: Harper, 1945, p. 376
" Grace "...
Meditation and self-discipline
are not all that's needed, nor even
a deep longing to go through
the door of freedom.
You may dissolve in contemplation,
as salt does in water,
but there's something more
that must happen.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
Stop clinging...
Once you stop clinging and let things be,
you’ll be free...
You’ll transform everything…
And you’ll be at peace wherever you are.
Bodhidharma
An Opening into the Realm of Spirit ...
When the ego is no longer identified with the return movement in a person's life, old age or approaching death becomes what it is meant to be: an opening into the realm of spirit.
I have met old people who were living embodiments of this process. They had become radiant. Their weakening forms had become transparent to the light of consciousness. On the new earth, old age will be universally recognized and highly valued as a time for the flowering of consciousness.
For those who are still lost in the outer circumstances of their lives, it will be a time of a late homecoming, when they awaken to their inner purpose.
For many others, it will represent an intensification and a culmination of the awakening process.
~ From: A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle
" The Deliverance "...
Keep in mind that while your awakening may be sudden, the ramifications of it, or what I like to call "the deliverance," are not so sudden. In fact, I would venture to say that the deliverance will most likely continue for many, many years to come.
That is why the title (for my book) 'From Onions to Pearls' was chosen. What we all are is a pure Pearl of Consciousness, God-essence, if you like, without anything possible to be added on for self-realization.
But by Divine design, this Pearl, from the moment of birth onward, has been surrounded by layer after layer of conditioning.
So what "awakening" consists of is the realization that you are indeed this perfect Pearl of Consciousness; and then the "deliverance" takes over by removing each subtle layer of conditioning until only the Pearl again remains.
~ From: From Onions to Pearls, by Satyam Nadeen
' The mirror "...
When you look at another soul, you look within the mirror..
When You are Awake, You see Yourself..
When you are Asleep, you see a division of souls..
The Truly Wise see only God..
Forgiveness is essential..
Forgiveness is the disposal of the ego..
Disposal of the ego is called Love..
Have I given You enough to contemplate ?...
namaste, thomas
Zen...
Zen lives in the present.
The Whole teaching is:
how to be in the present;
how to get out of the past which is no more and how not to get involved in the future which is not yet,
and just to be rooted, centered, in that which is.
Osho
Chuang Tsu...
The purpose of a fishtrap is to catch fish, and when the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten.
The purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits.
When the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten.
The purpose of words is to convey ideas.
When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten.
Where can I find a man who has forgotten words?
He is the one I would like to talk to.
Chuang Tsu
Zoroaster...
"As the holy one I recognized thee, O Wise Lord,
When he came to me as Good Mind;
The Silent Thought taught me the greatest good
So that I might proclaim it."
Zoroaster
_Avesta_, Yasna 45.15
in Andrew Wilson, Ed.
_World Scripture: A Comparative Anthology of Sacred Texts_
NY: Paragon Books, 1991, p. 133
Love...
I am in Love with Love and Love is in love with me.
My body is in Love with the soul and the soul is in Love with my body.
I opened my arms to Love and Love embraced me like a lover.
Rumi
The Supreme Value...
For man will assuredly pursue the supreme value, the Good, not only because there is no other way to free himself from his endless troubles but because he must.
All that is evil and bestial in him will slowly be burnt out whereas all that is benign and angelic will slowly be developed.
He will not have to live forever after death with what is foolish and sinful in his being but with what is wisest and noblest.
Only the worst in his nature shall die, as it ought to die.
Only the best shall live, as it ought to live.
This is the true immortality and this is the only one which awaits him.
Wisdom of the Overself, XVI,
SOME FRUITS OF PHILOSOPHY.
Paul Brunton
The Lankavatara Sutra...
The Lankavatara Sutra, an essential chapter of The Buddhist Bible, states: "...let every disciple take good heed not to become attached to words as being in perfect conformity with meaning, because Truth is not in the letters.
When a man with his finger-tip points to something, the finger-tip may be mistaken for the thing pointed at;
in like manner the ignorant and simple-minded, like children, are unable even to the day of their death to abandon the idea that in the finger-tip of words there is the meaning itself.
They cannot realise Ultimate Reality because of their intent clinging to words which were intended to be no more than a pointing finger.
Words and their discrimination bind one to the dreary round of rebirths into the world of birth-and-death;
meaning stands alone and is a guide to Nirvana.
Meaning is attained by much learning, and much learning is attained by becoming conversant with meaning and not with words;
therefore, let seekers for truth reverently approach those who are wise and avoid the sticklers for particular words."
from nonduality.com
The Joy of Awareness...
Only mad folk perplexed because they deem the false world to be real
find joy in this illusion.
The truly wise find joy in nothing but Awareness which is Being.
The above Ramana Maharshi quote is from the book
The Seven Steps to Awakening.
Plunge into the Unknown...
"In the spiritual life it is not necessary to have a complete map of the path in order to begin traveling.
On the contrary, insistence upon having such complete knowledge may actually hinder rather than help the onward march.
The deeper secrets of spiritual life are unraveled to those who take risks and who make bold experiments with it.
They are not meant for the idler who seeks guarantees for every step.
Those who speculate from the shore about the ocean shall know only its surface, but those who would know the depths of the ocean must be willing to plunge into it."
Meher Baba
_Discourses_
Myrtle Beach, SC: Sheriar Foundation, 1995 reprint of
2nd rev. ed., 1987 , p. 263
Mystical perceptive worship...
With these words we have reached the limit of what can be explained about this aspect of the ultimate reality.
The truth about it is silent and scriptureless.
Both reader and writer must now go into a strange wide ethereal silence if they would move a step further.
Silence is the finest method of mystical perceptive worship.
What the student has to grasp is that where there is seemingly nothing at all but static Silence, the Real abides; where his individual perception fails to register either form or entity, there the Overself IS.
When he can put the littleness of self aside for a moment and think of that Infinite Element within which he dwells, he will be overwhelmed with a sense of the wonder and mystery that surround the daily movements of mortal men.
Wisdom of the Overself, XIV, Section 7.
A Meditation on the Serpent’s Path.
Paul Brunton
' Who are We '...
Well then, just who are we?
We see that we are not our physical forms, nor our brains, nor our personalities, nor our electro-chemical thoughts, Remember that these physical things are just energy being allowed to vibrate in such a way that the form becomes visible to others.
This energy is God, but we suspect that there are types energy that do not vibrate in ways that makes outward manifestations, and we need to understand that we are being shaped by elements that we cannot see, touch, or measure at this point in our awareness.
We can safely say that we are manifestations of God:
everything is a manifestation of God, but that is as far as we can go.
We remember that we are using a body, a mind, and a personality at this particular point in the sequence of things, but the real "us" is what we have referred to as the "Self," and this Self is in constant knowing contact with God.
It is aware of God, whereas the ego is not so aware, having been created by God for a different, limited purpose.
As we saw, the ego therefore cannot be enlightened.
The Self is already enlightened, but is allowed to be covered up by the ego temporarily until certain physical things are accomplished in this world.
So the Self is God and thus there is no duality when we receive intuitions from God through the Self.
That is why we can go no further in saying just who we are:
when we fully comprehend the Self, we will know, and we will be aware of the Presence and will thus know everything, but the knowledge is ineffable and can only be understood experientially and not rationally...
from Mysticalspirituality.com
The Absolute...
Certainly this Absolute is none of the things of which it is the source—its nature is that nothing can be affirmed of it—not existence, not essence, not life—since it is That which transcends all these.
But possess yourself of it by the very elimination of Being and you hold a marvel.
Thrusting forward to This, attaining, and resting in yourself, seek to grasp it more and more—understanding it by that intuitive thrust alone,
but knowing its greatness by the Beings that follow upon it and exist by its power.
Plotinus
Enneads, III. 8. 10.
' Your '
Your beliefs become your thoughts.
Your thoughts become your words.
Your words become your actions.
Your actions become your habits.
Your habits become your values.
Your values become your destiny.
- Mahatma Gandhi
The Inmost Truth...
“I tell you the truth,
any object you have in your mind,
however good,
will be a barrier between you and the inmost Truth.”
― Meister Eckhart
' The Dreamer'...
Spirit tells me to speak of "The Dreamer'..
Who is the Dreamer ?..
It is 'Pure Awareness' that dreams of Divine Consciousness..
It is 'Divine Consciousness' that dreams of a separation called Soul..
It is Us..
We are the Dreamer..
What are We searching for ?..
Entertainment or Knowledge ?..
What does 'Mind' do when It is alone ?..
It Creates..
This Creation is called Dreams when there is no materiality..
This Creation is called manifestation when there is materiality..
Dreams create that which is seen from that which is not seen..
We exist within frequencies of light which determine sight..
We exist within the Dreamer when We no longer are separate..
Contemplate this...
namaste, thomas
What is an Atheist ?...
It is a soul that does not 'believe' that they exist..
They 'think' that they exist but they do not 'believe' that they exist..
If they believed in existence, they would believe in a Creator of Manifestation..
Sometimes, they call this "Nature", as though Nature was not God..
So confused are they..
All is God, there is nothing that is not God..
Do you understand yet ?..
There is Only God..
All are Dreams of possibilities..
We are the Dreams and possibilities..
How could you be a manifestation without thinking of the manifestor ?..
This is the fault of the egoic consciousness that declares that only it exists..
But, the ego is not frightened because it has been taught that continuous lives called reincarnations would not effect it's existence..
Reincarnation is a scam , perpetrated by the ego to continue the existence of a false dream..
As long as you believe that you are an ego, you will remain trapped within the prison of reincarnation..
It is time to Awaken into Reality..
namaste, thomas
Universal Spirit...
"The God-realized man is God Himself in human form.
Ignorant souls cannot recognize divinity in the man in whom the Universal Spirit is realized and attained."
Swami Ramdas
in Whitall N. Perry
_A Treasury of Traditional Wisdom_
Varanasi: Indica, 1998, (1971), p. 911
The 'third eye' opens...
Here, in this vast concept of thoughtless Thought itself, of pure Thought unbroken by any thoughts, is the true miracle of universal being, could mankind but appreciate it properly, something sacred indeed with a sacredness unknown to the petty and parochial views of religious materialists.
Its blankness can terrify those alone who do not and cannot understand.
Here, as thinking ceases and willing lapses, as imagination is no more active and personality becomes utterly passive, as the senses lie quiet like a sleeping bird, there opens a third eye in man.
He sees not only that which he is but also that which always is.
That which others ignore as non‑existent, the immaterial ‘nothingness’ of universal Mind, is precisely what offers itself now to his unveiled perception.
It is not a state of non‑existence. It is indeed a living actuality; otherwise it could never be inwardly realized.
Wisdom of the Overself, XIV, Section 7.
A Meditation on the Serpent’s Path.
Paul Brunton
A Contemplative Nature...
Were one to ask Nature why it produces, it might―if willing―thus reply:
“You should never have put the question.
Silently, as I am silent and little given to talk, you should have tried to understand.
Understand what?
That what comes to be is the object of my silent contemplation―its natural object. I am myself born of contemplation; mine is a contemplative nature.
The contemplative in me produces the object contemplated much as geometricians draw their figures while contemplating.
I do not draw.
But, contemplating, I drop from within me the lines constitutive of bodily forms. Within me I preserve traces of my source and of the principles that brought me into being.
They, too, were born of contemplation and without action on their own part gave me birth. But they are greater than I: they contemplated themselves and thus was I born.”
Plotinus..
Enneads, III. 8. 4.
Friday night dreams...
It seems as though it has only been a few minutes since I spoke with you last friday night..
Time is an illusion of the mind and does not exist for Consciousness..
If You stay within Consciousness, your entire lifetime will appear as a hour long drama..
Everything is a Story..
This is why all the periodicals and television present stories..
Even the Holy Writings are stories..
Each with the beginning and end of Drama..
Drama is the face of humor and pain..
Drama is the Duality of Consciousness,
positive and negative collide..
But, you seek the end of Drama..
The place of Peace..
This can only be found within non-duality..
This is the secret of all Dramas..
This is the secret of Peace...
namaste, thomas
Ram Tzu...
Ram Tzu is a Zen Master’s Master. And like a Zen Master of old if the Student is blinded by his own flame the Master smacks him, on occasion. Ram Tzu laughs at you… But only when you need laughing at.
An example from the book:'Ram Tzu knows this'…You indulge in self improvement… and All you have to show for it is an improved self.’
If this makes you mad, you missed the point. Losing the self is the point not improving it.
This book is not for the pious, those that take themselves too seriously.
To the truly enlightened, nothing is sacred. Ram Tzu is truly Enlightened.”
“This book will slap you back into your senses.
To quote from the book:
‘You are your own worst enemy.
Ram Tzu is your friend,
so he will have to kill you to save you from yourself.’ “
Pain...
Pleasure blocks, but pain clears the way of inspiration.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Pain has a great power; the truth of God is born in pain, sincerity rises out of pain. Metaphysically, the heart is a gate, and the gate is closed when the feeling is hardened, and the gate is open when there is some pain.
Suppose a person goes on a bicycle in the streets of Paris and says, 'I shall go straight on, because my object is just to keep the line I have taken. If a car comes my way, I shall not mind it, I shall just go on.' This person will come against something which is more powerful than he, and he will destroy himself. The wise cyclist, therefore, will see that there is a vehicle before him, or that the road is blocked: he will take another way. At the time it is just a little hindrance, yet that resignation makes him safe from disaster and gives him a chance to strike another line by which he will come to the same destination.
Tagore says: 'When the string of the violin was being tuned it felt the pain of being stretched, but once it was tuned then it knew why it was stretched'. So it is with the human soul. While the soul goes through pain, torture and trouble it thinks that it would have been much better if it had gone through life without it. But once it reaches the culmination of it then, when it looks back, it begins to realize why all this was meant: it was only meant to tune the soul to a certain pitch.
My murshid, Abu Hashim Madani, once said that there is only one virtue and only one sin for a soul on this path: virtue when he is conscious of God and sin when he is not. No explanation can describe the truth of this except the experience of the contemplative, to whom, when he is conscious of God, it is as if a window is open, which is facing heaven, and when he is conscious of the self, the experience is the opposite. For all the tragedy of life is caused by consciousness of the self. All pain and depression are caused by this, and anything that can take away the thought of the self helps to a certain extent to relieve man from pain; but God-consciousness gives perfect relief.
Drunk on Love...
"Be drunk on love, because love is all that exists.
Without love, no one has the right to enter His house.
They ask:
'What is love?'
The reply:
'Giving up your self-will.'"
Jalaluddin Rumi
in Andrew Harvey
_Teachings of Rumi_
Boston: Shambhala, 1999, p. 73
One Eye...
“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me;
my eye and God's eye are one eye,
one seeing,
one knowing,
one love.”
― Meister Eckhart,
Sermons of Meister Eckhart
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