' The Final Knowledge '...
"The one who found that there is nothing but Thee,
has found the final knowledge."
_Dabestan-e-Madaheb_ [Zoroastrian]
Tao Te Ching...
Accept disgrace willingly. Accept misfortune as
the human condition.
What do you mean by "Accept disgrace willingly"?
Accept being unimportant. Do not be concerned
with loss or gain. This is called "accepting dis-
grace willingly."
What do you mean by "Accept misfortune as the
human condition"? Misfortune comes from having
a body. Without a body, how could there be mis-
fortune?
Surrender yourself humbly; then you can be trusted
to care for all things. Love the world as your own
self; then you can truly care for all things.
- Lao-tzu
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Tao Te Ching
Translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English
Vintage Books Edition, September 1972
' There is No-body to be saved'...
CHAPTER 26
Seeing through the Desire for Non-dual Teacherhood
The desire for enlightenment is a trap because as long as the desire for enlightenment is there, enlightenment can never be found because one is still trying to get somewhere in the future. No manner of wonderful spiritual experiences, cosmic unitive experience, or wonderment will release me, as the me still desires enlightenment. What is me but desire? Me trying to get beyond the mind to some goal of enlightenment is just a strategy of the ego. As Adyashanti described about his whole journey, this ego striving is a whole recipe for failurehood, and the sooner, the better!' When the desire for awakening dissolves through failurehood, the ego drops away, and existence reveals itself in this moment.
In my own experience, through absolute hopelessness and total failurehood, the ego dropped away and existence was embraced. I, however, was not prepared for a new set of problems. Through the awakening process, I naturally assumed the Bodhisattva vow, of after awakening helping all sentient beings come to awakening. After a while, though, similar to my desire for awakening, this wanting to help others awaken was a setup for misery as well. Wanting to help other beings find their original nature, is perhaps a noble desire, but it still is a desire. Desire impinges on the moment, as it is a tension of wanting something to happen in the future. Because I want to help people in the future, it is a tension now.
I could see that I was subtly waiting for more beings to show up so I could help them. That subtle waiting is a demand on existence in the moment; it is like a complaint, saying to existence "Where are all the people I want to work with?" I could see that, after a while, I had trapped myself once again with desire—the wanting to help others awaken—because it was a subtle way of saying to exis¬tence this moment is not good enough. I was rejecting this moment for some future preferred moment in which there would be more people for me to work with.
This awareness also made me check closely into some non-dual teachings, for I felt others must have experienced this problem as well. The Buddha's teachings in The Diamond Sutra point to the insight of nobody helping nobodies realize they are nobody:
What do you think, Subhuti, does it occur to the Tathagata, "by me has Dharma been demonstrated"? Whosoever, Subhuti, would say, "the Tathagata has demonstrated Dharma", he would speak falsely, he would misrepresent me by seizing on what is not there. Because not even the least Dharma is there found or got at. Therefore it is called "utmost, right and perfect enlightenment". Furthermore, Subhuti, self-identical is that Dharma, and nothing is therein at variance. Therefore is it called "utmost, right and perfect enlightenment". Self-identical through the absence of a self, a being, a soul, or a person...What do you think, Subhuti, does it occur to a Tathagata, "by me have beings been set free"? Not thus should you see it, Subhuti! And why? There is not any being whom the Tathagata has set free.
Here, the Buddha is basically saying there is nobody to be saved, freedom is everybody's nature. There is nothing to hang onto. The only thing that could be said is that there is an invitation, a reminder offered of what is already everyone's own nature. Nothing for the ego to grab onto.
Similarly, Bodhidharma said, "Buddhas don't save buddhas." There can only be an invitation to realize your own nature, a reminder of who you already are. So, there is not much to grab onto here as to what is going on as it is very much like "selling water down by the river." A "teacher" is just a nobody pointing to what a person already is, another nobody.
For me, I knew this intellectually, but I had to see I was putting myself in suffering again with my inner demand to help people. That desire just made me miserable as it allowed my small brain–mind to get back in the driver's seat and strategize how to pull this off, what to do next? The whole rat race of mind and goal-setting had returned through the back door. When one sees clearly how, once again, one has been seduced by desire and pulled into the wheel of the mind, it just stops all by itself. It is just a complete falling away into being. It sure made me laugh as I realized even a noble desire can be a straight path to suffering.
The even crazier thing is that I was already working with many people on their non-dual journey; I just couldn't totally enjoy it as the mind was saying, more... more... more. It was a relapse back into mind. This made me laugh. It was so ordinary. I am an apparent non-dual person that seems to have to learn his lessons the hard way, through experience. So be it.
The way I look at it these days is that the mind with all of its expectations is dropped moment to moment. Expectations are misery, so cut the root. Whatever happens is what happens, and I will just totally enjoy writing and talking about non-dual being as a gift to existence. I am doing my thing. I drop the demand for the echo back and just surrender to existence and let the energy of
existence dance through me like a hollow bamboo. There is no longer an expectation, as that just puts me in bondage, and I have been through that despair. I am just doing my thing: writing, talking, and facilitating non-dual groups. It is just a sharing of understanding.
I have also realized that I needed to drop the Bodhisattva vow of bringing all beings to nirvana. What I have noticed is that some beings want to have nothing to do with me, so that would be crazy to be attached to bringing them to nirvana. Instead, there is just an openness to work with beings who present themselves in my life, in one way or another. This helps me relax and enjoy totally who I do work with, with no demand to work with others or every-body. It seems that people who want to work with me just show up somehow. They decide they want to work with me, and we go from there. I like the simplicity of it. I like working with people who are desperate and at the end of the line. It only entails a small percent-age of the non-dual population. That is beautiful!
Gary Tzu from Awakening to the Paradox of Darkness
' Death '...
Why do humans fear Death ?..
It is the 'ego' that first struggles for existence, even the existence beyond the body..
The 'ego' also exists beyond the death of the body according to the Frequency of Consciousness that it has acquired..
The Consciousness Frequency rises as the egoic desire decreases and the non-egoic desire increases..
This non-egoic Frequency is called Love..
There are more than fifty of these frequencies to travel through before the ego is weak enough to fall into the Light of Love..
All of these lifetimes and frequencies can be avoided by surrendering the desire for egoic separation and Awakening from this dream of separation..
This Awakening is called the 'Short Path', the frequencies are called the 'Long Path'..
The Awakening into Divine Consciousness happens because the ego of manifestation is dissolved,
but, the Ego of Creator God (Divine Consciousness) still exists..
This also must Die..
It also is a Duality from 'Pure Awareness', that contains no egoic desire, as the Energy of Love contains no division called egoic consciousness..
The 'bottom line' is that 'You' must Die to all Existence..
Because, there never was a 'You',
You have always been a 'Dream'..
There Is and Always Was only the Pure Awareness called Love...
namaste, thomas
' Time's Wheel '...
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
The Seven Steps to Awakening
Individual Existence Annihilated...
"A man must separate himself from all attachment to physical reality, said the Maggid,
until he rises through all the spiritual worlds and becomes one with God,
his own individual existence having been annihilated.
Then he is really called man."
Rabbi Dov Baer
in Alan Unterman
_The Wisdom of the Jewish Mystics_
NY New Directions, 1976, p. 54
Unchanged...
'I' was the same 'I' fifty years ago or five hundred years ago or even before time ever was,
and 'I' shall be the same fifty years hence or five hundred years hence or even after time ceases to be.
While time passes by,
'I' am forever unchanged.
- Ramesh Balsekar
Wednesday night thoughts...
I ask Overself for guidance..
Overself tells me to speak of this dream..
We, within this dream ask for information to guide us in this experience..
This experience, this dream, this illusion, this egoic detachment..
The egoic personality that You are is called Divine Consciousness, in which You are the Dreamer of Manifestations..
The egoic personality of human is also duality but exists within dreams and within many levels of attachment to the dreams, seeking the end of Dreams, called God..
The path to the end of Dreams has been spoken to you many times..
It is the Path of Love..
Love is the non-existence of egoic consciousness that Awakens the egoic consciousness of God that is You..
This Knowledge is meant for the Advanced Mystic and may seem difficult for most to understand..
The God of the Creation of Dreams or what we call manifestation is also separate from Complete Reality and Complete Love..
Pure Awareness is the Final Reality and contains no egoic consciousness of any kind..
This is the Voice that said; " Let there be Light"..
We are Light, Love, and Consciousness..
The final step is to surrender all desires, especially for the desire to be God..
Complete Love contains no egoic desires...
namaste, thomas
' Mind '...
Mind is consciousness, which has limitations.
We are
originally unlimited and perfect.
Later on we take on
limitations and become the mind.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
' Wisdom '...
The man filled with the knowledge of names and forms has no capacity for the knowledge of Truth.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
A man filled with earthly knowledge -- and what he calls learning is often only the knowledge of names and forms -- has no capacity for the knowledge of truth or God. It is the innocent and pure soul who has a capacity for learning. When a person comes to take a lesson on any subject, and he brings his own knowledge with him, the teacher has little to teach him, for the doors of his heart are not open. His heart that should be empty in order to receive knowledge is occupied by the knowledge that he already had acquired.
Intellect is the knowledge of names and forms, their character and nature, gathered from the external world. It shows in an infant from birth, when he begins to be curious about all he sees; then, by storing in his mind the various forms and figures he sees he recognizes them as an addition to his knowledge of variety. Man thus gathers the knowledge of numberless forms of the whole world in his mind and holds them... and calls that 'learning'. This becomes his world, although it neither gives him a sense of unchanging comfort, nor does he thereby gain an everlasting peace.
Wisdom is contrary to the above-named knowledge. It is the knowledge which is illumined by the light within; it comes with the maturity of the soul, and opens up the sight to the similarity of all things and beings, as well as the unity in names and forms. The wise man penetrates the spirit of all things; he sees the human in the male and female, and the racial origin which unites nations. He sees the human in all people and the divine immanence in all things in the universe, until the vision of the whole being becomes to him the vision of the One Alone, the most beautiful and beloved God.
' Onion Vision '...
When you view the world of appearance through the distortion of (your mental) conditioning, I call that "onion vision."
However, when the awakening happens, there is a total and complete switchover to viewing life now from the Pearl of Consciousness that you really are. You view from the advantage of Source and not from what you have been conditioned as an onion to believe from birth.
But please understand that, while you now have "Pearl Vision," you still have a lifetime of conditioned layers that need to be removed. That part is not a sudden or momentary happening.
Maybe a few of the "biggies" such as Jesus or Krishna had a sudden and spontaneous deliverance, but that seems to be an exception to the natural process that may well take the rest of your life.
~ From: Onions to Pearls, by Satyam Nadeen
The Realization of Overself...
The Overself should not be reached merely in trance; it must be known in full waking consciousness.
Trance is merely the deepest phase of meditation, which in turn is instrumental in helping prepare the mind to discover truth.
Yoga does not yield truth directly.
Trance does not do more than concentrate the mind perfectly and render it completely calm.
Realization can come after the mind is in that state and after it has begun to inquire, with such an improved instrument, into truth.
Paul Brunton
A long, long, dream...
This world is really a long, long, dream.
The five
senses delude you at every moment.
Open your
eyes. Learn to discriminate.
Understand His
mysteries.
Feel His presence everywhere, as well
as His nearness.
Believe me, He dwells in the
chambers of your own heart.
He is the silent witness
of your mind.
He is the holder of the string of your
prana.
He is the womb for this world and the Vedas.
He is the prompter of thoughts.
Search for Him
inside your heart and obtain His grace.
Then alone
you have lived your life well.
- Swami Sivananda
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Karma Yoga
Swami Sivananda
Published by the Divine Life
Trust Society, India, 1985
The path of celibacy...
The furthest stage in development is the nafs-e salima, in which man's consciousness is removed to an abstract plane.
In the heart of a man at this point of evolution, love is raised from admiration to worship.
His love is part of his being, and his passion, which is never expressed except in the intensity of love, may be compared to the alighting of a bird on earth to pick up a grain of corn.
He may become gradually etherealized above every material object.
Having reached this point he is truly justified if he should strike the path of celibacy.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged BY
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
Non-Attachment...
The soul that is attached to anything,
however much good there may be
in it,
will not arrive at the liberty of the divine.
St. John of the Cross
Rely on Inner Self...
Both an inspired church and a qualified master have their place but it is only a limited one.
Beyond those limits, nothing outside his divine soul can really help the spiritual seeker.
For its grace alone saves and enlightens him.
The religious man who depends on a church for his salvation thereby delays it.
The mystical aspirant who depends on a master for his self-realization also delays it.
He will have to learn to rely less and less upon other people for his spiritual and worldly advancement, more and more upon his inner self.
-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest >
Chapter 3: Independent Path > # 264
Paul Brunton
Van Morrison asks a question...
How can we make it though?..
Love is the answer to his question..
Feel Love, Be Love , Be Real..
You will presented with many questions within this dream..
What will be your answer?..
Will the ego answer the questions?..
The answer is answered when You no longer ask..
You are the Observer not the Questioner..
" You are that which Is"..
You are All that Is..
There is 'Nothing' above 'You'..
This is a hint for the Advanced Mystic , look for that 'Nothing' that is above 'You'..
Pure Awareness Awaits...
namaste, thomas
' thoughts on a monday night '...
Here we are in the darkness of night searching for Truth..
We find ourselves within this small blog that speaks of Reality that cannot be seen..
We see our human body and the humans that surround us but who are We?..
The Mystics that read these words will already understand the path of thought..
What is Love ?..
This is who You Are..
Love is non material, It is non-egoic, It is Reality..
And yet, we all seek this bliss called Love..
We call this Energy, God..
If We are Love, are We not also God?..
Do you get it now?..
Look Deep..
It is found within..
It is all a Dream..
Become that which Wakes Up..
Reincarnation is determined for those that remain asleep..
namaste, thomas
' The mind's divisive vision '...
How can the dark, delusive sense of separateness affect the Self
which is non-dual?
It is the mind's divisive vision which sees difference.
Awareness knows no separateness at all.
The above Ramana Maharshi quote is from the book
The Seven Steps to Awakening
' The Beloved '...
"If you befriend the Beloved,
You will never be lonely."
Jalaludin Rumi
in Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mali, Translators
_Rumi: Hidden Music_
Barnes & Noble, 2009 (reprint), p. 134
Desire and Fear...
I see the same world as you do, but not the same
way.
There is nothing mysterious about it.
Everybody sees the world through the idea he has
of himself.
As you think yourself to be, so you think
the world to be.
If you imagine yourself as separate
from the world,
the world will appear as separate
from you and you will experience desire and fear.
I do not see the world as separate from me and so
there is nothing for me to desire, or fear.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
Enlightenment...
Enlightenment is merely an understanding in
which there is no comprehender.
It is a surrender
in which there is no one to surrender anything.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
Church...
He who can commune with his soul by himself does not need a church, a labelled religion.
Society has no right to impose it on him.
In their naïve adolescent gropings,
the young who discard their traditional form of religion,
feel something of this truth.
-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest >
Chapter 3: Independent Path > # 142
Paul Brunton
' Speaking to God '...
In my times within Divine Consciousness which is the state of Creator God, which is composed of Light, Love, and Consciousness, I would speak to a higher consciousness of knowledge that I knew of the personality called God..
Although, I was the manifestation of Light, I would hear a male voice even though I had no ears to hear..
This was One Consciousness and therefore there was no division between me and God..
But, this 'me' was also indivisible from God..
Perhaps, the next step is to Realize It...
"I and the Father are One", said the Nazarene...
namaste, thomas
' Searching for Truth '...
Because of the Spiritual level that the members of this group has shown me, I can therefore speak from the Esoteric level of Thought and not the Exoteric level of Thought..
In my quest for God, which is really the quest for Truth, I as egoic desire had to die..
Remember, the words of Jesus,
" you must die , to be born"..
Did I seek Truth or did I seek God?..
The Truth is that I sought only Truth, and found God..
After many years of meditation, I was able to die as ego and Awaken as Divine Consciousness..
I found existence as Light, Love, and Consciousness..
And yet, there was a higher voice that would answer my questions within this Light..
This was called 'the Father' by Jesus..
There is much more to this story, but I immediately knew that life was a dream, and I had just Awakened from this dream..
The point is that,
words within any book are not worth much,
when all you have to do,
is give all that you have...
namaste, thomas
Awareness...
How can the dark, delusive sense of separateness affect the Self
which is non-dual?
It is the mind's divisive vision which sees difference.
Awareness knows no separateness at all.
The above Ramana Maharshi quote is from the book
The Seven Steps to Awakening
' Celestrial Love '...
"Higher far,
Upward, into the pure realm,
Over sun or star,
Over the flickering Dæmon film,
Thou must mount for love,—
Into vision which all form
In one only form dissolves;
In a region where the wheel,
On which all beings ride,
Visibly revolves;
Where the starred eternal worm
Girds the world with bound and term;
Where unlike things are like,
When good and ill,
And joy and moan,
Melt into one."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
from Celestial Love
' The Wisdom of the Overself '...
The writer suggests that the individual seeker should take his own soul--his higher self--[i.e. Overself] as his guide.
By prayer and meditation, he may attain glimpses of it occasionally and receive the needed guidance.
This is safer than tying himself to any institution or a so-called master.
If he can put as much faith in the existence and power of his soul as most seekers put into their blind following of these masters, his efforts should prove sufficiently effective.
(In this connection, the reader should read the last two pages of the first section of Chapter 15 in my book, The Wisdom of the Overself.)
-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest >
Chapter 3: Independent Path > # 85
Paul Brunton
The First Apocalypse of James...
For a first-hand look at the testimony, let's consider a passage from The First Apocalypse of James (NHC V, 3), a revelation dialogue in which an unnamed teacher (the "Lord" or "Master") confers secret knowledge upon a Gnostic named James:
The Master said: James, behold, I shall reveal to you the path of your redemption. Whenever you are siezed and you undergo death-pangs (mortal fear), a multitude of Archons may turn on you, thinking they can capture you. And in particular, three of them will sieze you, those who pose as toll collectors. Not only do they demand toll, but they take away souls by theft.
Now, when you come under their power, one of them who is the overseer will say to you: "Who are you, and where are you from?"
You are then to say to him, "I am a child of humanity and I am from the Source."
He will then say to you, "What sort of child are you, and to what Source do you belong?"
You are to say to him, "I am from the pre-existent Source, and I am the offspring of the Source."
Then he will say to you, "Why were you sent out from the Source?"
Then you are to say to him, "I came from the Pre-existent One so that I might behold those of my kind and those who are alien."
And he will say to you, "What are these alien beings?"
You are to say to him: "They are not entirely alien, for they are from the Fallen Sophia (Achamoth), the female divinity who produced them when she brought the human race down from the Source, the realm of the Pre-Existent One. So they are not entirely alien, but they are our kin. They are indeed so because she who is their matrix, Sophia Achamoth, is from the Source. At the same time they are alien because Sophia did not combine with her like in the Source (her divine male counterpart), when she produced them."
When he also says to you, "Where will you go now?"
You are to say to him, "To the place when I came, the Source, there shall I return." And if you respond in this manner, you will escape their attacks.
(NHC V, 3. 33 - 34: 1- 25. Translation from NHLE 1990, pp. 265-6 and Kurt Rudolf, Gnosis, p.
174-5.)
from metahistory.org
Ashtavakra Gita...
A few verses from "Ashtavakra Gita" chapter 2.
v. 8:
My nature is light
nothing but light
when the world arises
I alone am shining.
v. 13:
How wonderful,
and how great my powers!
For I am without form,
yet till the end of time
I uphold the universe.
v. 25:
But O how wonderful!
I am the unbounded deep
in whom all living things
naturally arise,
rush against each other playfully,
and then subside.
Zen...
Zen Saying
When an ordinary man attains knowledge,
he is a sage;
when a sage attains understanding,
he is an ordinary man.
The Real Sadhu...
"He is the real Sadhu, who can reveal the form of the Formless to the vision of these eyes:
Who teaches the simple way of attaining Him, that is other than rites or ceremonies:
Who does not make you close the doors, and hold the breath, and renounce the world:
Who makes you perceive the Supreme Spirit wherever the mind attaches itself:
Who teaches you to be still in the midst of all your activities.
Ever immersed in bliss, having no fear in his mind,
he keeps the spirit of union in the midst of all enjoyments.
The infinite dwelling of the Infinite Being is everywhere:
in earth, water, sky, and air:
Firm as the thunderbolt, the seat of the seeker is established above the void.
He who is within is without:
I see Him and none else"
Kabir
in _Songs of Kabir_, LVI
Translated by Rabindranath Tagore
New York: The Macmillan Company, 1915, p. 101-102
They are phenomena...
Always at the point of real atomic recognition,
the
strongest doubt and loudest noise will come.
Don’t panic.
They are phenomena.
You are the
witness of both doubt and noise.
They happen in
you, not to you.
You forever remain the immaculate
Self.
- Mooji
The Quest...
He can no more help being on the quest than he can help being on this earth.
The hunger to know the inner mysteries of life,
and the aspiration to experience the Soul's peace and love will not leave him alone.
They are part of him,
as hands or feet are parts of him.
-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest >
Chapter 2: Its Choice > # 256
Paul Brunton
The Aquarian Age Gospel of Jesus the Christ by Levi...
CHAPTER 39
Jesus attends a feast in Persepolis. Speaks to the people, reviewing the magian philosophy. Explains the origin of evil. Spends the night in prayer.
A FEAST in honour of the magian God was being held, and many men were gathered in Persepolis. 2 And on the great day of the feast the ruling magian master said, Within these sacred walls is liberty; whoever wills to speak may speak. 3 And Jesus standing in the midst of all the people, said, My brothers, sisters, children of our Father-God:
4 Most blest are you among the sons of men today, because you have such just conceptions of the Holy One and man. 5 Your purity in worship and in life is pleasing unto God; and to your master, Zarathustra, praise is due. 6 Well say you all, There is one God from whose great being there came forth the seven Spirits that created heaven and earth; and manifest unto the sons of men are these great Spirits in the sun, and moon, and stars.
7 But in your sacred books we read that two among these seven are of superior strength; that one of these created all the good; the other one created all that evil is. 8 I pray you, honoured masters, tell me how that evil can be born of that which is all good? 9 A magus rose and said, If you will answer me, your problem will be solved.
10 We all do recognize the fact that evil is. Whatever is, must have a cause, If God, the One, made not this evil, then, where is the God who did? 11 And Jesus said, Whatever God, the One, has made is good, and like the great first Cause, the seven Spirits all are good, and everthing that comes from their creative hands is good. 12 Now, all created things have colours, tones and forms their own; but certain tones, though good and pure themselves, when mixed, produce inharmonies, discordant tones.
13 And certain things, though good and pure, when mixed, produce discordant things, yea, poisonous things, that men call evil things. 14 So evil is the inharmonious blending of the colours, tones, or forms of good. 15 Now, man is not all-wise, and yet has will his own. He has the power, and he uses it, to mix God's good things in a multitude of ways, and every day he makes discordant sounds, and evil things.
16 And every tone and form, be it of good, or ill, becomes a living thing, a demon, sprite, or spirit of a good or vicious kind. 17 Man makes his evil thus; and then becomes afraid of him and flees; his devil is emboldened, follows him away and casts him into torturing fires. 18 The devil and the burning fires are both the works of man, and none can put the fires out and dissipate the evil one, but man who made them both. 19 Then Jesus stood aside, and not a magus answered him. 20 And he departed from the throng and went into a secret place to pray.
Searching for a Ghost...
“The one who believes himself to be a person needs to try to find that person.
This is a solution, an antidote, offered to a ghost that thinks it actually exists.”
― Enza Vita
Illusion Dissolves...
“True freedom is when all the stories, all the insights, all the realizations, concepts, beliefs and positions dissolve.
What remains is what you are;
a vast, conscious, luminous space simply resting in itself,
not knowing a thing,
at the point where all things are possible.”
― Enza Vita
The Practice of Dzogchen...
“Refutation of the Assertion That the (Phenomenal) Appearances Are Mind
Although forms appear to the mind, the (objective) appearances are not mind..
When the reflection of your face appears in a mirror, it appears as the face looks, because the clear surface of the mirror is capable of making the reflection appear and the face has the potential of appearing or of projecting the reflection.
At that time, the reflection of the face is not the face, nor is there any other face than the face which imprinted it.
Likewise, various kinds (of phenomena) are appearing in the deluded mind because of the interdependent origination of the causes and conditions of delusion.
The various objective appearances, such as mountains, are not mind.
Also there is nothing in the mind which truly exists, but (merely) appearances (created by the) delusory habituation of the mind.
So they are the forms of delusory appearances.
They are wrong appearances, just as the person who has "hairy vision" will see hair before his eyes....”
― Longchen Rabjam, The Practice of Dzogchen
' Self honesty '...
Self honesty
and a great increase in your desire for liberation,
are the two great keys
that can make you one of the very few who succeed
at bringing the impostor self to its final end.
The above quote is from the introduction to the book
The Seven Steps to Awakening
' Ceremonies and Rituals '...
“'Every religion has ceremonies and rituals,' Baba continued.
'They are like dry bones.
Love has no bondage.
The prayer of the heart is the greatest thing'…."
Meher Baba
in Bhau Kalchuri
Lord Meher: The Biography of Avatar of the Age Meher Baba
' The Breath '...
If you ride the breath
and keep it under control,
hunger and thirst and other wantings
will not be dangerous to you.
Being skilled with that bridle
is a great blessing.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
The deceit of existence...
So long as a man is a stranger to his own divine soul, so long has he not even begun to live.
All that he does is to exist.
In this matter most men deceive themselves.
For they take comfort in the thought that this attitude of indifference, being a common one, must also be a true one.
They feel that they cannot go far wrong if they think and behave as so many other men think and behave.
Such ideas are the grossest self-deceptions.
When the hour of calamity comes, they find out how empty is this comfort, how isolated they really are in their spiritual helplessness.
-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest >
Chapter 1: What the Quest Is > # 151
Paul Brunton
' Thoughts on a wednesday night '...
I ask Consciousness for advice of Knowledge..
Consciousness tells me to speak of our daily illusion..
We as Consciousness pretend to be separate entities called humans..
We do this activity to experience duality between what is Real and what is Unreal..
We find ourselves in a world of psychopaths and liars..
Our Heart tells us that there is a Higher Reality..
Everyday, we watch the psychopaths and liars on the media and see through their lies..
And yet, most humans remain asleep within this dream..
Is there any hope for humanity?..
I believe that most will wake up before their lives are extinguished by these evil souls.
But, many will die believing until the end that evil loves humans..
Do not Fear, that is the energy that they need to survive..
Do I speak of evil spirits within the human mind?..
I will leave this for you to discover..
"Believe nothing of what you hear and half of what you see"..
This is the only advice that I can give the human entity...
namaste, thomas
' The Self '...
Did the Self lapse from its own wholeness as Being, you ask,
“How else did this world come to be?”
It came from ignorance false.
The Self can never suffer any change at any time.
The above Ramana Maharshi quote is from the book
The Seven Steps to Awakening
' Lovingkindness '...
"Lovingkindness is greater than laws,
and the charities of life are greater than all ceremonies."
Talmud
in _God's Big Instruction Book: Timeless Wisdom on How to Follow the Spiritual Path_
Rockport, MA: Oneworld, 1996, p. 142
' Karma '...
The universe is like a dome;
it vibrates to that which you say in it,
and answers the same back to you;
so also is the law of action we reap
what we sow.
Hazrat Inayat Khan
Zen Poem...
I asked the river
About its destination
And came out lucky:
It babbled about nothing
And never came to a point ..
~Gyosen d.1278
' The Quester '...
Between the ordinary man who takes himself as he is, and the philosopher who does exactly the same, there stands the Quester.
In the first case, outlook is narrow, being limited by attending to the inescapable necessities and demands of day-to-day living.
In the other case, peace of mind has been established, the thirst for knowledge fulfilled, the discipline of self realized.
In between these two, the Quester is not satisfied with himself, has a strong wish to become a better and more enlightened man.
He tries to exercise his will in the struggle for realization of his ideal.
-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest >
Chapter 1: What the Quest Is > # 4
Paul Brunton
Resolve, Dissolve, Solve...
You are fighting
with yourself.
You have to resolve it,
not fight with it.
Resolve it.
resolve,
dissolve,
solve.
- Swami Amar Jyoti
The intuitive mind...
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift,
and the rational mind is a faithful servant.
We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
- Albert Einstein
" It is already with me "...
If you want something, you must assert that
it has already come:
"It is already with me."
This is one of the psychological techniques
people generally suggest;
and it will immediately
come.
If you intensely want a thing, it will come.
- Swami Krishnananda
" Think yourself out of it "...
Your expectation of something unique and dramatic, of some wonderful explosion, is merely hindering and delaying your self-realization.
You are not to expect an explosion, for the explosion has already happened - at the moment you were born, when you realized yourself as being-knowing-feeling.
There is only one mistake you are making.
You take the inner for the outer and the outer for the inner.
What is in you, you take to be outside you and what is outside you take to be in you.
The mind and feelings are external, but you take them to be internal.
You believe the world to be objective, while it is entirely a projection of your psyche.
That is the basic confusion and no new explosion will set it right.
You have to think yourself out of it.
There is no other way.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Fear '...
If there is nothing I can do, I don't do anything, and when fear comes up, I do nothing, and I am just one with the fear in the moment. It is like what J. Krishnamurti talked about in dealing
with fear:
When you see that you are a part of fear, not separate from it—that you are fear—then you cannot do anything about it; then fear comes totally to an end.
How does fear come to an end? I am aware of it, with no judgment, in that moment, I see it is just vast energy, then miraculously
fear itself is transformed.
Gangaji has a nice way of laying out this paradox of fear. She says:
When there is an openness to fear, where can it be found? What a strange creature fear is. It exists only when there is resistance to its existence! When you stop and open to what you have resisted throughout time, you will find that fear is not fear. Fear is energy. Fear is space. Fear is the Buddha. It is Christ's heart knocking at your door.'
Thus, the awakening is right within the fear, not through trying to escape it. So rather than trying to manage fear, if a person is just one with fear with no gap, it dissolves by itself into vast energy to function in the moment. It is the resistance to fear that perpetuates
its existence..
From Awakening to the Paradox of Darkness by Gary Tzu
" Peace "...
“Peace is a costly privilege–to be fought for, attained and won.
It comes only from a conquered mind.”
— Paul Brunton.
' Paradise'...
"Paradise is yet in the World, but Man is not therein, unless he be born again of God;
then as to that new Regeneration he is therein,
and not with the Adam of the four Elements.
O that we would but once learn to know ourselves…."
Jacob Boehme
Signaturum Rerum, 42
Translated by John Ellistone 1651
Revised for the 1764 “William Law Edition”: The Works of Jacob Behmen, Volume IV
Transcribed by Wayne Kraus for Jacob Boehme Online
" Free Will "...
After aeons of choosing to tell a story of separation from God, the story seems choiceless. It seems choiceless, but it is not.
You have simply been continuing to choose the story that was passed on to you by your ancestors, by your past lives, by your past mistakes, by your past desires. What is choicelss is the truth of who you are.
Choice lies in the mind's ability to either deny that truth or to embrace it.
That choice is free will - the freedom of choice.
You have no free will regarding who you are. You are that fully and completely. But you do have free will regarding the powers of mind and imagination.
You can play as if you are not who you are. You can play any number of variations and permutations of choosing or denying who you are.
- Gangaji from Freedom & Resolve:
The Living Edge of Surrender
' Love Said '...
Who is in the house of my heart,
I cried in the middle of the night.
Love said,
"It is I, but what are all these images that fill your
house?"
I said, they are the reflection of your beautiful face.
Love asked,
"But what is this image full of pain?"
I said, it is me lost in the sorrows of life
and showed Love my soul full of wounds.
Love offered me one end of a thread and said:
"Take it so I can pull you back
but do not break the delicate string."
I reached towards it but Love struck my hand.
I asked, why the harshness?
Love said,
"To remind you that whoever comes to Love's holy space,
proud and full of himself
will be sent away.
Rumi
Look at Love with eyes of your heart.
' The Spirit is Here'...
Consciousness has told me that Spirit is within us tonight..
Such an occasion should be celebrated..
Let us celebrate by flowing the blood of God called Love..
" This is My body and blood" said the Nazarene..
Blood in Reality is the flow of Love, Light, and Consciousness..
You Mystics will understand these words..
In Divine Consciousness, You are within the flow of Love, Light, and Consciousness..
And yet, a higher call enters Your Consciousness..
Pure Awareness calls You by name..
You say, " I am ready to return to complete Love"..
So difficult to say, but Love is strong..
The sacrifice of Self is the Greatest Gift..
And yet, We hesitate, because Divine Consciousness is the Bliss of Love..
This decision is left to You...
namaste, thomas
' The Eightfold Path'..
Right View
Seeing the world as it is is Right View, with an understanding of the Three Marks of Existence, and the Four Noble Truths. When you fully understand the marks and truths, then you see the world and yourself without delusion, hatred, greed, etc.
Some of the traditions also include karma (kamma) here, but most secular Buddhist view kamma as intention or action, so we place it under Right Action. Additionally, with secular Buddhists, kamma is not believed to be a system of justice that goes from one life to the next, but instead is about developing wholesome intention behind our actions so we behave ethically in this life, with Right Action.
Right View also touches on our own views of the world, how we may cling to them, how we may consider them permanent, when they are really impermanent, and how we can get caught up in a “thicket of views”. Exploring the Three Marks of Existence helps you see through getting caught in your own views.
Right Intention
In order not to create more suffering, we need to rely on paying attention (mindfulness) to what our intentions are with others and with our actions. If our intentions stem from anger, resentment, or greed, then we are more likely to do harm than if our intentions are driven to help, to understand, to better our actions in the world. We also need to use intention when we sit for meditation, when we want to speak or act effectively, etc. and to practice the path. Learning how to be mindful to intentions before you act, speak, or write takes some time to learn. But it’s fascinating once you start digging deeply into this area. Once you are aware of your intentions, you sometimes need to consciously set new intentions and let go of the old ones. This is a big part of practice. And it takes practice!
Right Action
With wholesome intentions, our actions are more likely to be skillful as well. This part of the path asks us to pay attention (mindfulness) to how we act or behave in the world, that our actions go towards helping and not harming, that what we do is skillful and don’t do what leads to more suffering. Keep in mind, we are not giving you specifics of what you should do or shouldn’t do. Instead, you learn to develop an ethics meter so to speak, good judgement, based on whether or not your action will bring harm or suffering to yourself or others. You learn to make sure your actions don’t cause suffering.
Right Speech
From the above, you probably figured out already that Right Speech is talking, and includes emailing/messaging, in such a way that you don’t hurt feelings, you don’t lie, don’t use deceptive or intentionally confusing language, that you don’t gossip, or intentionally make people angry with your speech. Why? Because doing so causes suffering to the people you speak or write harshly too. That doesn’t mean you have to withhold your opinion. It does mean, learning to pay attention (mindfulness) to the intention behind what you are saying, and deciding if it’s going to do more harm than good.
Intention plays a big role here. Examine your intentions for wanting to share your opinion, for wanting to correct or criticize, etc. Right Speech, can also be thought of as Right Writing as well, because what we are really talking about here is communication. We want our communications to be of benefit, not harm. This can be tricky in a world where we come across a multitude of opinions and ideas daily. Sometimes we know people’s views are skewed, wrong, delusion, or divisive. Set an example for healthy, helpful communications.
Right Livelihood
Right Livelihood addresses how we earn a living and more. I’ve seen a lot of debates online where people argue about whether it’s ok or not to work at certain places. Again, this is another part of the path that asks us to determine for ourselves if what we do for a living is causing suffering, or whether what we do is neutral or helping. It’s not a matter of this place is bad and that place is good. Mindfulness and intention come into play in how we interact with our coworkers (action), what our jobs ask of us, how we approach our work ethics. You could be working at a place that does service to others, but if you are treating coworkers unfairly, or you are cheating your employers out of hours or money, then you might want to examine your intentions. This is an area that is worth deep and detailed exploration. The Eightfold Path helps us learn to make our own judgement calls on where we work, how we can make the most of it, and how we interact with others while doing our jobs.
Right Effort
Without effort, our practice is toast. Of course, we all know that to accomplish anything we need to put effort in. For our practice, however, this effort has the motivation/intention of lessening suffering. So, the effort we put into our practice is the impetus for dropping whatever gets in the way of our developing ethics, compassion, and it motivates us to let go of greed, fear, angst, hatred, self loathing, etc. By practice, I mean all your interactions in the world. Being mindful of where we put our effort in our actions and speech each day is really important. And, of course, we need to apply effort toward other areas of our practice, such as developing mindfulness in meditation so that we can put it to good use throughout our days.
Right Mindfulness
Mindfulness in a nutshell is paying attention, but it stretches beyond that. The norm for many of us is to go through our days, living mostly in our heads, with thoughts of the past or future, in conversation with people who aren’t present, ruminating over and over problems. Now, that’s not to say thinking and problem solving aren’t necessary. They surely are, but there is a time and place for thinking and musing, and it’s not all day long. Mindfulness helps keep us anchored in the present, so we can interact in the world appropriately, so we can apply just the right effort to various tasks, and to help prevent from creating and worsening problems. Living entirely in our heads is a habit that is hard to break. Living in our heads can cause us to do poorly in our jobs, distract us from driving on the road well, and in general can just cause a lot of angst.
But with proper intention, effort, and mindfulness, you can train yourself to be present, and deal with whatever arises appropriately. You’ll find over time, mindfulness becomes the new mode of being, a new healthy habit, and you’ll find yourself lost in thoughts much less frequently. Meditation is the tool to develop mindfulness. As you develop mindfulness in the quiet, still environment of meditation, you then extend mindfulness to include all your daily life.
Right Concentration
Right Concentration, sometimes called Right Meditation, and is the practice of focusing the mind solely on one object. Where mindfulness is open to whatever arises, concentration is focusing on one thing to the exclusion of everything else. Both concentration and mindfulness are tools to sharpen the mind, and bring it out of the shadows of discursive thinking and root us in the present. In some traditions, concentration is developed through the practice of the jhanas. This is not a common practice in western Buddhism, but as neuroscience finds benefits to meditation, there seems to be renewed interest in using jhana techniques to develop very specialized forms of concentration.
Concentration also improves naturally through mindfulness meditation. Concentration requires use of Right Effort, Right Intention, and Right Mindfulness. Some argue that you can’t have really good concentration until you’ve developed the ability to let go of anger, hatred, discursive thinking, negativity, etc. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try developing concentration until you have a free mind. Indeed, working on concentration is what helps you to learn to drop unskillful thinking. Once mindfulness and concentration are established, then you can develop greater insight overall because your mind is cluttered with thoughts that inhibit wisdom.
The teaching of Gautama the Buddha
from Wilipedia
" There is nothing to be attained"...
The Long Path is needed to make a man or woman ripe for receiving truth,
but only the Short Path can lead to it.
This is the answer to the dilemma created by the claims of the Wu Wei school.
Its practical application is:
act as the Long Path requires by working on and improving the self,
but think as the Short Path enjoins by holding the attitude
"There is nothing to be attained.
Realization is already here and now!
Paul Brunton
Conscious Thoughts about ' Miles from Nowhere'...
Nowhere is a place of No-Thing..
You are No-Thing ( Nothing)
Do you understand?..
The Mountain to climb is the understanding of Reality..
It is the mental activity to eliminate the desires of ego and earth..
If you truly understood Reality, You would fly to the top of the Mountain..
Enlightenment provides the wings to the top of the Mountain..
This is the Mystic path to Reality..
You bypass the fifty dimensions of egoic attachment because there is Nothing to be trapped within these dreams..
You should entertain Contemplation upon the reason that you are climbing the Mountain..
Consciousness tells me to add this request..
Yusuf, if you are reading this, I advise you to leave the 'Long Path' of the mountain and enter the 'Short Path' of Mysticism by reading the teachings of Islamic Sufi Master, Hazrat Inayat Kahn...
namaste, thomas
'The Four Noble Truths'...
The First Noble Truth: Dukkha
Life is full of suffering. Dukkha usually is translated as suffering. In life, we have illness, poverty, disease, old age and death. We cannot keep what we like and can not avoid what we do not like. If this is all we know we suffer.
The Second Noble Truth: Samudaya
There is a cause for suffering. The cause of suffering is desire and illusions that are based on ignorance. Because of ignorance, wanting something leads to clumsy actions, which in turn lead to suffering. Wanting life, wanting death, wanting things, wanting pleasure - all lead to suffering.
The Third Noble Truth: Nirodha
There is a state of mind free from suffering. By stopping the cravings, the suffering is stopped.
The Fourth Noble Truth: Marga
There is a way to end suffering. To end suffering we must end our cravings. The way to end cravings is the Eightfold Path ..
The Teaching of Gautama the Buddha
from Wikipedia
ego discarded...
"Cast away your existence entirely,
For it is nothing but weeds and refuse.
Go, clear out your heart's chamber;
Arrange it as the abiding-place of the Beloved.
When you go forth, He will come within it,
And to you, with self discarded,
He will reveal His beauty."
Mahmud Shabistari
_The Secret Rose Garden_
Rendered form the Persian by Florence Lederer
Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, 2002, p. 85
The end of victimhood...
"The Truth loves. It does not judge. It holds a big sword in its hands and can ruthlessly discern what is false and what is true, but it does not hold grudges.
If you are not telling the truth to yourself, you will suffer. If it was not ruthless, there would be no learning. Truth doesn't spoon feed you. Live by truth or suffer. It's that simple.
When you actually awaken to the Truth, you will see that through every circumstance and experience you have always been loved.
It is amazing to see there is a thread of love running through every single moment. There never was a victim, not even for a moment.
And even though it may have seemed painful, it was just a fierce sword that was there to get you to really see the Truth. Coming to terms with this is difficult, because it steals every thread of victimhood from us.
~ Adyashanti - Emptiness Dancing
Divine Experience...
The man who is fluent and articulate makes a better teacher so far as communication is concerned;
but the man who has had divine experience,
who knows what he is talking about,
is still the best teacher of all.
Paul Brunton
Mysticism...
Mysticism to the mystic is both science and religion.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
What we generally know as the breath is that little inhaling and exhaling which we feel through the nostrils. We think that is breath and attach little importance to it, while in reality, breath is a life-current running through the innermost part of man's being towards the surface. It would be no exaggeration, according to the mystical point of view, to say that the breath connects heaven and earth.
For the mystic, breath is not only a science, but the knowledge of breath is mysticism, and mysticism to the thinker is both science and religion. The mystery of breath is not a thing that can be comprehended by the brain only. The principles of mysticism rise from the heart of man. They are learned by intuition and proved by reason. ...
If we consider the conditions of life today, we see that, however much man thinks he has progressed, certain aspects of life are neglected in the way of health, repose, balanced thinking, and in the way of kindness and love to one another. All these things are lacking, and the spirit of the present time seems to be going in quite the opposite direction.
Selfishness seems to be so much on the increase. Real religion, the spirit of forgiveness, generous giving, regard for old age, refinement, culture -- all seem to be disappearing. Man in general, does not know even if there is a God or Truth. If this is the spirit, how can we expect to find that harmony, peace and love, which make heaven on earth?
It is useless to discuss the peace of the world. What is necessary just now is to create peace in ourselves that we, ourselves, become examples of love, harmony and peace. That is the only way of saving the world and ourselves.
Nirvikalpa Samadhi...
In deepest contemplation, the Nirvikalpa Samadhi of the Indian yogis, both egolessness and blissful peace can be experienced.
But it is a temporary state; return to the world must follow, so the quest is not finished.
The next step or stage is application,
putting into the active everyday life this egoless detachment and this satisfying calmness.
Paul Brunton
Impermanent...
When you see clearly the relentless, ruthless truth of the impermanence of bodies, emotions, thoughts, states, and images, you will have the choice to let what is impermanent be impermanent. What an easy choice! It is already impermanent.
In fact, all of the activity to hold onto what is inherently impermanent is finally recognized as futile. In your willingness to accept the truth of impermanence, which includes every idea of who you are, there is the deepest relaxation.
Your idea of who you are when you are five is different from your idea of who you are when you are fifteen, fifty, or ninety. An idea, by its nature, is impermanent.
Recognize that any idea of who you are is impermanent. Anything that is impermanent has no inherent reality. In this complete recognition, all activity of the mind is stopped.
~ From: The Diamond In Your Pocket, by Gangaji
' I will meet You There'...
Consciousness tells me to speak of There..
Where is There?..
It is a place of Unity but also of separation..
Who is there to meet You?..
Do you understand?..
There is only One..
You are One or you are a Dream..
We Dreams seek Happiness..
In the Dreams, we seek peace and love.
In Reality, We do not exist..
Difficult to understand, is it not?..
Remember, We are Dreams from Pure Awareness..
We are called Divine Consciousness because We are the Creations of Love..
And yet, we fight for survival..
So strange to be so ignorant..
But, tonight, You are within music and Light..
Enjoy...
namaste, thomas
' Dreams on a Friday Night '...
You hear music, see the illusions of manifestation, feel the atoms as they appear so close as to be solid..
You are the Consciousness that experiences these senses..
And yet, you struggle through life as just another human entity trying to survive another day..
Inside of this Dream, You know that there is much more than this life struggle..
The Power Elite know this and set up religions and churches to gain wealth from this desire for knowledge and freedom..
They desire your money but teach you the knowledge of slavery..
They tell you that a God composed of vengeance would condemn you to eternal suffering..
They tell you to be a 'God fearing man'..
Hate is not the opposite of Love, Fear is..
This is why Jesus incarnated within this dimension..
To inform you that God is the essence of Love and would never hurt you..
Love cannot hurt, it is impossible..
The greatest surprise that you will experience is when You discover that You are Love..
I can speak on and on but the point has been made that you have finally freed yourself from lies and now have the ability to finally experience complete Love...
namaste, thomas
The Guru...
The Guru is the butcher of the sheep ego.
His function is to tell you, "I am Within You,"
and to give you the conviction that you are
Existence-Consciousness-Bliss.
Every true
Teacher tells you:
"Look within, there is no
difference between yourself, Self, and Guru."
The Guru shows the Treasure which is already
always there.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
Grace...
God, who is immanent, in his grace takes
pity on the loving devotee and manifests himself
according to the devotee's development.
The
devotee thinks that he is a man and expects a
relationship between two physical bodies.
But
the Guru who is God or the Self incarnate works
from within,
helps the man to see the error of
his ways and guides him on the right path until
he realises the Self within.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"Be As You Are"
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
edited by David Godman
Arkana, 1985
The Eternal Mind...
Man is what he is.
Nothing can alter that.
Out of the immortal, benign, eternal Mind he came, to It he shall return.
Meanwhile It is his very essence,
that is, It is life.
Paul Brunton
' the path to walk'...
We walk any path that leads us to the place of happiness..
We learn early in life that Love is Happiness.
As our Mothers hold us in their arms, Love is born..
This Love that we seek leads us into the seeking of Love from other entities,
be they human or animal..
This giving away of our self, our ego, our existence..
This is called Love..
God is Love and also requires the surrender of our self, ego, existence..
Sending out and retrieving..
The Prodigal Son..
Home is where the Heart is..
What is the Heart?..
It is the Doorway to Love..
The Doorway to God...
namaste, thomas
Wealth...
To the rulers of earth, wealth is God..
Dollars are the Rosary Beads of greed..
In Reality, Wealth is Happiness..
First gain Happiness,
Wealth will appear as a cloud of non-desire...
namaste, thomas
Zen...
I'm poor but happy a man of the Way
all my needs are satisfied by chance
last night the west wind downed an old tree
at daybreak firewood covered the ground
gauze silk clouds adorned red scarps
dew drop pearls bejeweled green cliffs
what's present has always decided my living
why should I burden myself with plans.
- Stonehouse
[from 'The Zen Works of Stonehouse' translated by Red Pine]
Religion...
Religion has convinced people that there’s an invisible man…living in the sky, who watches everything you do every minute of every day.
And the invisible man has a list of ten specific things he doesn’t want you to do.
And if you do any of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire and smoke and torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer and burn and scream until the end of time.
But he loves you.
He loves you and he needs money.
George Carlin
Fear...
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
The Still Observer...
Your mind may be active with thoughts -- thoughts about activity or thoughts about trying to stop -- but that is all occurring in the statelessness of being, which is stillness itself.
If you can just get it out of your mind that unchanging stillness is something that can be done or practiced, something that you can succeed or fail at doing, then stillness, the presence of being, can finally reveal itself to you as your own self.
Recognize that the impulses to do stillness come from the activity of the mind that is appearing in stillness. That stillness is not dead or blank. It is consciousness. It is awareness itself, and you are that awareness.
The thoughts, I have to get still, I'm trying to get still, why can't I get still? are being observed by and experienced by stillness itself.
~ From: The Diamond In Your Pocket, by Gangaji
The real meaning of religion...
"The real meaning of religion is to know God,
to see God,
and to be one with God.
Everything else about religions is an exercise in rites and rituals."
Meher Baba
in Bhau Kalchuri
_Lord Meher: The Biography of Avatar of the Age Meher Baba_
Myrtle Beach, SC: Manifestation, 1st edition, Vol. 3, p. 809
Belief...
Jesus 'Believed' that He could turn water into wine..
He Believed that His prayers could heal the sick..
He Believed that He and God are One..
He Believed,
He Believed..
What is Belief?..
It is the Affirmation of turning energy into manifestation..
The Energy of Light and its' frequencies create what is visible..
Belief is earned, It is not given...
namaste, thomas
The psychological mind...
Before true knowledge reveals itself, ignorance needs
to be fully swept aside.
Wisdom will not reveal itself
while there is investment in the unreal,
for that portion
of energy will continue creating divisions and distractions
in order to avoid or delay seeing what truly Is.
Such is
the nature of the psychological mind.
- Mooji
' spiritual ego identity'...
An authentic and direct, experiential glimpse of reality, (not to mention a more abstract, conceptual grasp of it) whether momentary or even a more stable seeing of it,
can be quite effectively used to set up a very intractable spiritual ego identity that is by far the hardest ego identity to see through and let go of.
If someone gets fixated in this place of pride and spiritual materialism, it is very difficult for them to snap out of it.
This difficulty is at epidemic proportions in the post-modern spiritual scene and is something to be very careful and conscious of.
It is a veritable plague of a dis-ease that simply does not seem to respond very well to any treatment.
Francis Bennett
' What is Light'...
Divine Consciousness is Light, Love, and Consciousness..
It is our Natural State of Existence..
And yet, within this state of existence, We ask ourself,
" Is this the Final Reality ?"..
Why did I ask this question while existing as Bliss?..
The Father would not answer..
This led me to search for the Creator of Light..
This Creator is called 'Pure Awareness'..
It has no Identity or name..
It is Pure Thought and Pure Love..
It is the One that said; " Let there be Light'..
Are you starting to understand?..
That place of Beginning has no Light but exists as Pure Love and Thought..
How is it possible for Love to have no Light?..
It is the Final Step into Reality..
It is Pure Thought..
Do your thoughts contain Light?..
Of course not, They are Thoughts within a Void of darkness..
But, this darkness is not of evil,
It is of Reality..
You do not see darkness because You are Love..
Do not confuse All Darkness with evil..
Only within the Dreams is Darkness Evil..
When you meditate, darkness is your entry into Light..
Light is the First Step into Reality..
The Darkness of Reality is not noticed because there is no YOU...
namaste, thomas
' All is Energy'...
I see a mouse toy that I gave to my kittens and watch in amusement as they steal it from each other..
I ask Consciousness, " What is the teaching of this"?..
Consciousness tells me that humans do the same..
It is called money..
Money is an aspect of energy expanded..
We are Energy as manifestation..
We are Energy as Consciousness..
We are Energy as Love..
So the question is begged,
" What is Energy?"..
The Answer is,
"All is Energy"...
namaste, thomas
' One Truth '...
"As water in a fountain flows as one stream,
but falls in many drops divided by time and space,
so are the revelations of the one stream of truth."
Hazrat Inayat Khan
' Action '...
We don't have to follow
the pressure-flow of wanting.
We can be led by the guide.
Wishes may or may not come true
in this house of disappointment.
Let's push the door open
together and leave.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Version by Coleman Barks
"Open Secret"
Threshold Books, 1984
' Surface Tension'...
Jackson Peterson - Dzogchen Discussion
Have you ever noticed how certain insects and water spiders can run around on the surface of water?
They can do that because of what's called "surface tension". Because of the surface tension the bugs don't fall into the depths below.
It's the same for us. Because of the surface tension produced by our conceptual beliefs and thoughts regarding our imagined self and imagined things our consciousness remains trapped on the outer surface of consciousness.
When that surface tension is released by cutting through the minds imaginary beliefs, suddenly our consciousness drops into its own depth far below the surface.
We remain trapped in our "heads" as long as the surface tension of our enduring conceptual designations and beliefs aren't seen to be "empty" fictions.
When the empty and fictional nature of all of our conceptual beliefs and stories are seen clearly, suddenly the surface tension breaks and we fall naturally into the depths of our own hearts. Here we find peace, joy, love and real wisdom; a wisdom that can't be captured or known by thought.
" No one comes to the Father, except through Me"...
No one comes to the Father except through Him..
Who is He?..
He is Divine Consciousness, which is the state of non-egoic consciousness..
Jesus was correct,
No one comes to the Father, until they are willing to surrender the desire for separate egoic consciousness..
Jesus was correct but the understanding by non-mystics to describe mysticism is always flawed..
namaste, thomas
"They will do greater works than I "...
What are the 'Works' that Jesus spoke of ?..
Could it be the ability to reach billions of souls with just a few key strokes ?..
Could the understanding of the Knowledge of Love and the dissolution of the selfish ego be spread to billions instead of the hundreds that He taught ?..
Could it be that Consciousness is opening the minds and hearts of souls that have given up on the empty teachings of obedience to spiritual leaders and physical churches..
He spoke of God within you and without you..
God is the Consciousness of Reality and Truth..
How many new Prophets are needed to remind you of this?..
You are the Prophet of your Heart,
open the Heart to listen...
namaste, thomas
" 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 is All...
Seek Him in all souls, good or bad, wise and foolish, attractive and unattractive; in the depths of each there is God.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
As fruit ripens in the course of nature, so it is in the course of nature that the soul should mature; and it is no use being disappointed or disheartened about ourselves and about those near and dear to us, worrying because our husband, wife, father, or mother does not look at spiritual matters in the same way as we do. In the first place no man, however wise or pious, has the right to judge another soul. Who knows what is hidden behind every action, appearance, speech, and manner? No one. And when a person begins to know what is hidden in the human soul, in spite of all deluding appearances he will have respect, a respect for mankind, as he realizes that in the depth of every soul is He whom one worships.
Just as the religious person has a religious attitude in a temple, so the Sufi has that attitude before every being, for to him every being is the temple of the divine. Therefore the Sufi is always before his Lord. Whether a servant, a master, a friend, or a foe is before him, he is in the presence of God. For the one whose God is in the high heavens there is a vast gulf between him and God, but the one who has God always before him -- he is always in God's presence, and there is no end to his happiness.
God is in all things, and still more He is in all beings. Seek Him in all souls, good and bad, wise and foolish, attractive or unattractive, for in the depth of each there is God.
Man swimming in the sea does not know the fish living in the sea, so we living in God do not recognize all souls living in God also. He is all around and about us at every moment, we are living His life, we are breathing His breath, and yet we are ignorant of the perfection of beauty which unites and inspires every soul.
' Love '...
Love is the state of non-egoic consciousness,
which means that You Recognize that You are Divine Consciousness and not the illusion of separation called ego..
This is why Pure Awareness is Pure Love as no ego or personality exists within Pure Love.
Remember, You can only feel Love when the ego is absent..
For most humans, this state of Love lasts only a few seconds at a time..
namaste, thomas
' The Mirror of Reality '...
If Love is trying to understand what Love Is,
It Creates a mirror of separation called Duality.
To Know Truth, You must first examine Non-Truth..
Non-Truth is the illusion of separation that shows what non-separation is..
We are the 'Mirror' of Reality...
namaste, thomas
Divine Consciousness and Pure Awareness...
Divine Consciousness which is Us is the Dreamer and Creator of Manifestations.
Divine Consciousness has the 'Personality' called Creator God and Dreams of separation called Souls and watches the Dream called ego, which is created by the human mind..
Pure Awareness, which has no ego or personality is the Dreamer of Divine Consciousness,
This is the Unmanifested Void that is Known as Pure Love..
This is Home when We have surrendered all Desires, especially the Desire for separation, either as Divine Consciousness or ego...
namaste, thomas
The Soul...
If God is Everything, then there is no-thing that is not God.
When God Dreams, those thoughts are also from God and create all that is Dreamed..
The Soul is thought of in many forms and ideas, perhaps, definition is a problem..
Everything is Consciousness and this Consciousness is called God..
The Soul is the consciousness of singularity, although singularity does not exist..
Humans believe that God can be separated and call this separation a soul..
In Reality, there is only One Thinker and One Consciousness,
all else are Dreams of separation..
namaste, thomas
Beyond Thoughts in Meditation...
You must go beyond thoughts..
The ego is a product of thought..
Reality is falling into the darkness of nothingness and oblivion into non-existence..
you will feel death but then Life appears as the energy of Light, Love, and Consciousness..
If You are accepted as the essence of non -egoic desire,
You will Realize that You and God are One..
You will be given the question by the Father..
"Do you desire to stay or re-enter the dream?"..
I advise You to stay within Divine Consciousness..
It will take You longer to learn the Truth but You will be in a state of Bliss..
I returned into this nightmare and regret it..
But, like Jesus, I returned to help others..
But, upon this return, I learned of the 'Final Reality'..
Therefore, I should not complain..
The Final Reality is that of non-existence as there is only God..
You, even as the Energy of Divine Consciousness is still only a Dream from Pure Awareness..
you may not be ready to accept this Reality at this moment..
Remember, There is only Love, Personalities and egos' do not exist within Pure Love, not even the Personality of the God of Manifestation...
namaste, thomas
The Formless Self...
Only when man realizes the Self
does he attain his full maturity
and find completeness.
As you leave form,
and dive into that light which you become,
you realize beyond realization
a knowing deeper than thinking,
deeper than understanding:
a knowing which is the very,
very depth of your being.
You realize immortality,
that you are immortal.
Little by little you find
that you are turning inward,
opening up the inner channels
more and more each day,
making a greater contact with the Self
by turning within,
drawing yourself ever closer
to the pole at the center,
the core of your Being.
You must be the master of you
when you sit for meditation.
You are seeking for the pure Self of you.
At that time you are not concerned
with anyone else.
Go in and in and in.
And then go in and in and in.
And after that go in and in
and in and in and in.
You cannot rely upon anything in form;
there is no permanence in form;
there is no divinity in form.
Relax your concepts
and do not seek divinity in the mind,
for only in the formless Self
does divinity exist.
Most of the time awareness is held in
thoughts, feelings, and actions
of the mind's outer dimensions,
caught there just as a fish is caught
in the tangled net of the fisherman.
By untangling the net,
the fish is set free,
and by unraveling the outer mind,
making it calm and undisturbed,
awareness is set free
in the deeper dimensions
of consciousness.
Learn from within yourself,
in the privacy of your own inner peace.
It is up to you and you alone
to penetrate the veil of illusion
and realize the Self,
the Absolute,
beyond desire,
beyond all experiences of the mind.
Realization of the Absolute is simple.
Our thoughts and concepts
make it seem difficult.
The above quotes by Master Subramuniya
are from a small booklet titled Reflections
Timelessness...
The English novelist Graham Greene says that he several times had dreams of happenings which later were realized. What does this mean?
Its simplest meaning must obviously be that the present and the future are already joined together.
The second meaning must be that since the present quickly becomes the past, the past and the future are also joined together. The total meaning must be that time is a single unbroken line.
In metaphysics this can be called eternal duration, and in metempsychosis this explains how actions done now are echoed back in a later birth.
For us humans, mentalism puts past, present, and future within the mind and their separateness from each other within illusion.
From this illusion we can be set free only by experiencing and knowing the timeless, which must not be confused with eternal duration. The timeless transcends the past, present, and future.
What we experience now in the present is abstracted from the whole of experience, the totality, but the abstraction is illusory.
The reality which we give to the present and deny to past and future is again within us, within the mind, but it is within the deepest layer of the mind and that deepest layer is connected with timelessness, for that is the reality in us.
-- Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity >
Chapter 4: Time, Space, Causality > # 96
Paul Brunton
The Dreamer is God...
Consciousness tells me to speak of Death..
I find myself confused because We already know that death is an illusion of ego..
But, Death is a great fear among the souls that believe that they are human..
The ego is very strong within the illusions of dreams and even entices Consciousness to dance with it..
Consciousness agrees to the dance and marries the illusion of separation..
Consciousness then becomes the prisioner of illusion and is trapped within the Karma of Reincarnation..
It is so strange that We that are the Dreamer become trapped within the Dreams..
It is Desire that turns the key of the prison..
You as Consciousness has the ability to manifest any dream that You entertain..
All desires become real within the Dreams..
Water turning into wine is an example..
The Dreamer is the magician of Dreams..
The Dreamer is God...
namaste, thomas
" Thoughts on a saturday night"...
I usually write in paragraphs so that the mind is not led into egoic thoughts..
The time to enter the sub-conscious mind is short and therefore, the wisdom must be presented in simple terms..
The sub-conscious mind is your Soul..
It forgets nothing and is the direct connection to Divine Consciousness..
If You are not the mind nor the sub-conscious mind,
Who are You ?..
All this time, you have believed that You are a soul..
What evidence do you have to support this?..
The soul is also an aspect of egoic consciousness..
You can call the soul a child of God or call it a separation from God..
In Reality, the soul is a Dream of separation from God..
God is Consciousness, Light, and Love..
What are You ?..
Consciousness tells me to stop writing..
Consciousness wants you to Contemplate what has been said...
namaste, thomas
'It is a Dream'...
The common objections to mentalism may be summarized in three forms:
(1) A thing does not cease to exist when we cease to think about it; thus, Australia is still to be found on the map even when we are not thinking about Australia.
(2) The fact that we do not think of a thing does not prevent such a thing coming into existence.
(3) Our awareness of things is largely quite involuntary; we do not choose to think them into existence--they just are there.
The answer which mentalism makes to these objections, and to all others which may arise, is a simple one.
It is this:
consider your life as a dream!
All possible objections will then have no ground on which to stand.
They appear true while we are under the illusion of dreaming, but they are seen to be false as soon as we awake from the dream itself.
-- Notebooks Category 21: Mentalism >
Chapter 3: The Individual and World Mind > # 25
Paul Brunton
" Are you looking for Me ? "...
"Are you looking for Me?
I am in the next seat;
My shoulder is against yours.
You will not find me in stupas, not in Indian shrines,
Nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals;
Not in masses, nor kirtans,
not in legs winding around your own neck,
nor in eating nothing but vegetables.
When you really look for Me,
You will find Me instantly --
You will find Me in the tiniest house of time.
Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath."
Kabir
in Douglas Block
_I Am With You Always:
A Treasury of Inspirational Quotations, Poems &
Prayers_
NY: Bantam, 1992, p. 57
No personal doership...
When you truly realize that this life and
living is an absurdity,
then you join in the
dance.
You take part in this absurdity.
The body-mind organism continues to live
In the world,
but without any sense of
personal doership.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
The Purpose of Life...
The whole purpose of life is to make God a reality.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
As to the religion and the moral of the mystic, the mystic has one moral and that is love. And he has one aim in his religion and that is to make a God a reality. Therefore, his God becomes a greater God than the God of millions of people who only imagine that there is a God somewhere. To him God is a reality.
The work of the inner life is to make God a reality, so that He is no more an imagination; that this relationship that man has with God may seem more real than any other relationship in the world; and when this happens, then all relationships, however near and dear, become less binding. But at the same time, a person does not thus become cold; he becomes more loving. It is the godless man who is cold, impressed by the selfishness and lovelessness of the world, because he partakes of those conditions in which he lives. But the one who is in love with God, the one who has established his relationship with God, his love becomes living ...
Why is it that among simple and illiterate people a belief in God is to be found, and among the most intellectual, there seems to be a lack of that belief? The answer is that the intellectual ones have their reason. They will not believe in what they do not see... But the process that the wise consider best for the seeker after truth to adopt is the process of first idealizing God and then realizing God.
Among millions of believers in God, there is hardly one who makes God a reality, to so many He is an imagination, to many He is in a mosque, a church, or a temple. Many wonder if God is really. Many others think God is goodness, He is a personality separate from us, He is most high, most pure, most beautiful, but He is separate and difficult to reach. Many think that as it takes so long to reach this planet or that, God must be further away still. The purpose of one's whole life is to make God a reality.
The Long Path...
The Long Path methods and attitudes, ideas and principles--admirable in their place and time--have to be got rid of;
otherwise the Short Path truths cannot be brought in.
For the one is dualistic and objective, whereas the other is nondualistic and nonobjective.
The aspirant has to turn around and take a totally opposite direction.
— Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation >
Chapter 1: Entering the Short Path > # 38
Paul Brunton
Fear by Chogyam Trungpa...
We have a fear of facing ourselves.
That is the obstacle.
Experiencing the innermost core of our existence is very embarrassing to a lot of people.
A lot of people turn to something that they hope will liberate them without their having to face themselves.
That is impossible.
We can't do that.
We have to be honest with ourselves.
We have to see our gut, our excrement, our most undesirable parts.
We have to see them.
That is the foundation of warriorship, basically speaking.
Whatever is there, we have to face it, we have to look at it, study it, work with it and practice meditation with it.
Ego -- The False Center...
Ego - The False Center
From Beyond the Frontier of the Mind by Osho
The first thing to be understood is what ego is. A child is born. A child is born without any knowledge, any consciousness of his own self. And when a child is born the first thing he becomes aware of is not himself; the first thing he becomes aware of is the other. It is natural, because the eyes open outwards, the hands touch others, the ears listen to others, the tongue tastes food and the nose smells the outside. All these senses open outwards.
That is what birth means. Birth means coming into this world, the world of the outside. So when a child is born, he is born into this world. He opens his eyes, sees others. 'Other' means the thou. He becomes aware of the mother first. Then, by and by, he becomes aware of his own body. That too is the other, that too belongs to the world. He is hungry and he feels the body; his need is satisfied, he forgets the body.
This is how a child grows. First he becomes aware of you, thou, other, and then by and by, in contrast to you, thou, he becomes aware of himself.
This awareness is a reflected awareness. He is not aware of who he is. He is simply aware of the mother and what she thinks about him. If she smiles, if she appreciates the child, if she says, "You are beautiful," if she hugs and kisses him, the child feels good about himself. Now an ego is born.
Through appreciation, love, care, he feels he is good, he feels he is valuable, he feels he has some significance.
A center is born.
But this center is a reflected center. It is not his real being. He does not know who he is; he simply knows what others think about him. And this is the ego: the reflection, what others think. If nobody thinks that he is of any use, nobody appreciates him, nobody smiles, then too an ego is born: an ill ego; sad, rejected, like a wound; feeling inferior, worthless. This too is the ego. This too is a reflection.
First the mother - and mother means the world in the beginning. Then others will join the mother, and the world goes on growing. And the more the world grows, the more complex the ego becomes, because many others' opinions are reflected.
The ego is an accumulated phenomenon, a by-product of living with others. If a child lives totally alone, he will never come to grow an ego. But that is not going to help. He will remain like an animal. That doesn't mean that he will come to know the real self, no.
The real can be known only through the false, so the ego is a must. One has to pass through it. It is a discipline. The real can be known only through the illusion. You cannot know the truth directly. First you have to know that which is not true. First you have to encounter the untrue. Through that encounter you become capable of knowing the truth. If you know the false as the false, truth will dawn upon you.
Ego is a need; it is a social need, it is a social by-product. The society means all that is around you - not you, but all that is around you. All, minus you, is the society. And everybody reflects. You will go to school and the teacher will reflect who you are. You will be in friendship with other children and they will reflect who you are. By and by, everybody is adding to your ego, and everybody is trying to modify it in such a way that you don't become a problem to the society.
They are not concerned with you.
They are concerned with the society.
Society is concerned with itself, and that's how it should be.
They are not concerned that you should become a self-knower. They are concerned that you should become an efficient part in the mechanism of the society. You should fit into the pattern. So they are trying to give you an ego that fits with the society. They teach you morality. Morality means giving you an ego which will fit with the society. If you are immoral, you will always be a misfit somewhere or other. That's why we put criminals in the prisons - not that they have done something wrong, not that by putting them in the prisons we are going to improve them, no. They simply don't fit. They are troublemakers. They have certain types of egos of which the society doesn't approve. If the society approves, everything is good.
One man kills somebody - he is a murderer.
And the same man in wartime kills thousands - he becomes a great hero. The society is not bothered by a murder, but the murder should be commited for the society - then it is okay. The society doesn't bother about morality.
Morality means only that you should fit with the society.
If the society is at war, then the morality changes.
If the society is at peace, then there is a different morality.
Morality is a social politics. It is diplomacy. And each child has to be brought up in such a way that he fits into the society, that's all. Because society is interested in efficient members. Society is not interested that you should attain to self-knowledge.
The society creates an ego because the ego can be controlled and manipulated. The self can never be controlled or manipulated. Nobody has ever heard of the society controlling a self - not possible.
And the child needs a center; the child is completely unaware of his own center. The society gives him a center and the child is by and by convinced that this is his center, the ego that society gives.
A child comes back to his home - if he has come first in his class, the whole family is happy. You hug and kiss him, and you take the child on your shoulders and dance and you say, "What a beautiful child! You are a pride to us." You are giving him an ego, a subtle ego. And if the child comes home dejected, unsuccessful, a failure - he couldn't pass, or he has just been on the back bench - then nobody appreciates him and the child feels rejected. He will try harder next time, because the center feels shaken.
Ego is always shaken, always in search of food, that somebody should appreciate it. That's why you continuously ask for attention.
You get the idea of who you are from others.
It is not a direct experience.
It is from others that you get the idea of who you are. They shape your center. This center is false, because you carry your real center. That is nobody's business. Nobody shapes it.
You come with it.
You are born with it.
So you have two centers. One center you come with, which is given by existence itself. That is the self. And the other center, which is created by the society, is the ego. It is a false thing - and it is a very great trick. Through the ego the society is controlling you. You have to behave in a certain way, because only then does the society appreciate you. You have to walk in a certain way; you have to laugh in a certain way; you have to follow certain manners, a morality, a code. Only then will the society appreciate you, and if it doesn't, you ego will be shaken. And when the ego is shaken, you don't know where you are, who you are.
The others have given you the idea.
That idea is the ego.
Try to understand it as deeply as possible, because this has to be thrown. And unless you throw it you will never be able to attain to the self. Because you are addicted to the center, you cannot move, and you cannot look at the self.
And remember, there is going to be an interim period, an interval, when the ego will be shattered, when you will not know who you are, when you will not know where you are going, when all boundaries will melt.
You will simply be confused, a chaos.
Because of this chaos, you are afraid to lose the ego. But it has to be so. One has to pass through the chaos before one attains to the real center.
And if you are daring, the period will be small.
If you are afraid, and you again fall back to the ego, and you again start arranging it, then it can be very, very long; many lives can be wasted.
I have heard: One small child was visiting his grandparents. He was just four years old. In the night when the grandmother was putting him to sleep, he suddenly started crying and weeping and said, "I want to go home. I am afraid of darkness." But the grandmother said, "I know well that at home also you sleep in the dark; I have never seen a light on. So why are you afraid here?" The boy said, "Yes, that's right - but that is MY darkness." This darkness is completely unknown.
Even with darkness you feel, "This is MINE."
Outside - an unknown darkness.
With the ego you feel, "This is MY darkness."
It may be troublesome, maybe it creates many miseries, but still mine. Something to hold to, something to cling to, something underneath the feet; you are not in a vacuum, not in an emptiness. You may be miserable, but at least you ARE. Even being miserable gives you a feeling of 'I am'. Moving from it, fear takes over; you start feeling afraid of the unknown darkness and chaos - because society has managed to clear a small part of your being.
It is just like going to a forest. You make a little clearing, you clear a little ground; you make fencing, you make a small hut; you make a small garden, a lawn, and you are okay. Beyond your fence - the forest, the wild. Here everything is okay; you have planned everything. This is how it has happened.
Society has made a little clearing in your consciousness. It has cleaned just a little part completely, fenced it. Everything is okay there. That's what all your universities are doing. The whole culture and conditioning is just to clear a part so that you can feel at home there.
And then you become afraid.
Beyond the fence there is danger.
Beyond the fence you are, as within the fence you are - and your conscious mind is just one part, one-tenth of your whole being. Nine-tenths is waiting in the darkness. And in that nine-tenths, somewhere your real center is hidden.
One has to be daring, courageous.
One has to take a step into the unknown.
For a while all boundaries will be lost.
For a while you will feel dizzy.
For a while, you will feel very afraid and shaken, as if an earthquake has happened. But if you are courageous and you don't go backwards, if you don't fall back to the ego and you go on and on, there is a hidden center within you that you have been carrying for many lives.
That is your soul, the self.
Once you come near it, everything changes, everything settles again. But now this settling is not done by the society. Now everything becomes a cosmos, not a chaos; a new order arises.
But this is no longer the order of the society - it is the very order of existence itself.
It is what Buddha calls Dhamma, Lao Tzu calls Tao, Heraclitus calls Logos. It is not man-made. It is the VERY order of existence itself. Then everything is suddenly beautiful again, and for the first time really beautiful, because man-made things cannot be beautiful. At the most you can hide the ugliness of them, that's all. You can decorate them, but they can never be beautiful.
The difference is just like the difference between a real flower and a plastic or paper flower. The ego is a plastic flower - dead. It just looks like a flower, it is not a flower. You cannot really call it a flower. Even linguistically to call it a flower is wrong, because a flower is something which flowers. And this plastic thing is just a thing, not a flowering. It is dead. There is no life in it.
You have a flowering center within. That's why Hindus call it a lotus - it is a flowering. They call it the one-thousand-petaled-lotus. One thousand means infinite petals. And it goes on flowering, it never stops, it never dies.
But you are satisfied with a plastic ego.
There are some reasons why you are satisfied. With a dead thing, there are many conveniences. One is that a dead thing never dies. It cannot - it was never alive. So you can have plastic flowers, they are good in a way. They are permanent; they are not eternal, but they are permanent.
The real flower outside in the garden is eternal, but not permanent. And the eternal has its own way of being eternal. The way of the eternal is to be born again and again and to die. Through death it refreshes itself, rejuvenates itself.
To us it appears that the flower has died - it never dies.
It simply changes bodies, so it is ever fresh.
It leaves the old body, it enters a new body. It flowers somewhere else; it goes on flowering.
But we cannot see the continuity because the continuity is invisible. We see only one flower, another flower; we never see the continuity.
It is the same flower which flowered yesterday.
It is the same sun, but in a different garb.
The ego has a certain quality - it is dead. It is a plastic thing. And it is very easy to get it, because others give it. You need not seek it, there is no search involved. That's why unless you become a seeker after the unknown, you have not yet become an individual. You are just a part of the crowd. You are just a mob.
When you don't have a real center, how can you be an individual?
The ego is not individual. Ego is a social phenomenon - it is society, its not you. But it gives you a function in the society, a hierarchy in the society. And if you remain satisfied with it, you will miss the whole opportunity of finding the self.
And that's why you are so miserable.
With a plastic life, how can you be happy?
With a false life, how can you be ecstatic and blissful? And then this ego creates many miseries, millions of them.
You cannot see, because it is your own darkness. You are attuned to it.
Have you ever noticed that all types of miseries enter through the ego? It cannot make you blissful; it can only make you miserable.
Ego is hell.
Whenever you suffer, just try to watch and analyze, and you will find, somewhere the ego is the cause of it. And the ego goes on finding causes to suffer.
You are an egoist, as everyone is. Some are very gross, just on the surface, and they are not so difficult. Some are very subtle, deep down, and they are the real problems.
This ego comes continuously in conflict with others because every ego is so unconfident about itself. Is has to be - it is a false thing. When you don't have anything in your hand and you just think that something is there, then there will be a problem.
If somebody says, "There is nothing," immediately the fight will start, because you also feel that there is nothing. The other makes you aware of the fact.
Ego is false, it is nothing.
That you also know.
How can you miss knowing it? It is impossible! A conscious being - how can he miss knowing that this ego is just false? And then others say that there is nothing - and whenever the others say that there is nothing they hit a wound, they say a truth - and nothing hits like the truth.
You have to defend, because if you don't defend, if you don't become defensive, then where will you be?
You will be lost.
The identity will be broken.
So you have to defend and fight - that is the clash.
A man who attains to the self is never in any clash. Others may come and clash with him, but he is never in clash with anybody.
It happened that one Zen master was passing through a street. A man came running and hit him hard. The master fell down. Then he got up and started to walk in the same direction in which he was going before, not even looking back.
A disciple was with the master. He was simply shocked. He said, "Who is this man? What is this? If one lives in such a way, then anybody can come and kill you. And you have not even looked at that person, who he is, and why he did it."
The master said, "That is his problem, not mine."
You can clash with an enlightened man, but that is your problem, not his. And if you are hurt in that clash, that too is your own problem. He cannot hurt you. And it is like knocking against a wall - you will be hurt, but the wall has not hurt you.
The ego is always looking for some trouble. Why? Because if nobody pays attention to you, the ego feels hungry.
It lives on attention.
So even if somebody is fighting and angry with you, that too is good because at least the attention is paid. If somebody loves, it is okay. If somebody is not loving you, then even anger will be good. At least the attention will come to you. But if nobody is paying any attention to you, nobody thinks that you are somebody important, significant, then how will you feed your ego?
Other's attention is needed.
In millions of ways you attract the attention of others; you dress in a certain way, you try to look beautiful, you behave, you become very polite, you change. When you feel what type of situation is there, you immediately change so that people pay attention to you.
This is a deep begging.
A real beggar is one who asks for and demands attention. And a real emperor is one who lives in himself; he has a center of his own, he doesn't depend on anybody else.
Buddha sitting under his bodhi tree...if the whole world suddenly disappears, will it make any difference to Buddha? -none. It will not make any difference at all. If the whole world disappears, it will not make any difference because he has attained to the center.
But you, if the wife escapes, divorces you, goes to somebody else, you are completely shattered - because she had been paying attention to you, caring, loving, moving around you, helping you to feel that you were somebody. Your whole empire is lost, you are simply shattered. You start thinking about suicide. Why? Why, if a wife leaves you, should you commit suicide? Why, if a husband leaves you, should you commit suicide? Because you don't have any center of your own. The wife was giving you the center; the husband was giving you the center.
This is how people exist. This is how people become dependent on others. It is a deep slavery. Ego HAS to be a slave. It depends on others. And only a person who has no ego is for the first time a master; he is no longer a slave. Try to understand this.
And start looking for the ego - not in others, that is not your business, but in yourself. Whenever you feel miserable, immediately close you eyes and try to find out from where the misery is coming and you will always find it is the false center which has clashed with someone.
You expected something, and it didn't happen.
You expected something, and just the contrary happened - your ego is shaken, you are in misery. Just look, whenever you are miserable, try to find out why.
Causes are not outside you. The basic cause is within you - but you always look outside, you always ask:
Who is making me miserable?
Who is the cause of my anger?
Who is the cause of my anguish?
And if you look outside you will miss.
Just close the eyes and always look within.
The source of all misery, anger, anguish, is hidden in you, your ego.
And if you find the source, it will be easy to move beyond it. If you can see that it is your own ego that gives you trouble, you will prefer to drop it - because nobody can carry the source of misery if he understands it.
And remember, there is no need to drop the ego.
You cannot drop it.
If you try to drop it, you will attain to a certain subtle ego again which says, "I have become humble."
Don't try to be humble. That's again ego in hiding - but it's not dead.
Don't try to be humble.
Nobody can try humility, and nobody can create humility through any effort of his own - no. When the ego is no more, a humbleness comes to you. It is not a creation. It is a shadow of the real center.
And a really humble man is neither humble nor egoistic.
He is simply simple.
He's not even aware that he is humble.
If you are aware that you are humble, the ego is there.
Look at humble persons.... There are millions who think that they are very humble. They bow down very low, but watch them - they are the subtlest egoists. Now humility is their source of food. They say, "I am humble," and then they look at you and they wait for you to appreciate them.
"You are really humble," they would like you to say. "In fact, you are the most humble man in the world; nobody is as humble as you are." Then see the smile that comes on their faces.
What is ego? Ego is a hierarchy that says, "No one is like me." It can feed on humbleness - "Nobody is like me, I am the most humble man."
It happened once:
A fakir, a beggar, was praying in a mosque, just early in the morning when it was still dark. It was a certain religious day for Mohammedians, and he was praying, and he was saying, "I am nobody. I am the poorest of the poor, the greatest sinner of sinners."
Suddenly there was one more person who was praying. He was the emperor of that country, and he was not aware that there was somebody else there who was praying - it was dark, and the emperor was also saying:
"I am nobody. I am nothing. I am just empty, a beggar at our door." When he heard that somebody else was saying the same thing, he said, "Stop! Who is trying to overtake me? Who are you? How dare you say before the emperor that you are nobody when he is saying that he is nobody?"
This is how the ego goes. It is so subtle. Its ways are so subtle and cunning; you have to be very, very alert, only then will you see it. Don't try to be humble. Just try to see that all misery, all anguish comes through it.
Just watch! No need to drop it.
You cannot drop it. Who will drop it? Then the DROPPER will become the ego. It always comes back.
Whatsoever you do, stand out of it, and look and watch.
Whatsoever you do - humbleness, humility, simplicity - nothing will help. Only one thing is possible, and that is just to watch and see that it is the source of all misery. Don't say it. Don't repeat it - WATCH. Because if I say it is the source of all misery and you repeat it, then it is useless. YOU have to come to that understanding. Whenever you are miserable, just close the eyes and don't try to find some cause outside. Try to see from where this misery is coming.
It is your own ego.
If you continuously feel and understand, and the understanding that the ego is the cause becomes so deep-rooted, one day you will suddenly see that it has disappeared. Nobody drops it - nobody can drop it. You simply see; it has simply disappeared, because the very understanding that ego causes all misery becomes the dropping. THE VERY UNDERSTANDING IS THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE EGO.
And you are so clever in seeing the ego in others. Anybody can see someone else's ego. When it comes to your own, then the problem arises - because you don't know the territory, you have never traveled on it.
The whole path towards the divine, the ultimate, has to pass through this territory of the ego. The false has to be understood as false. The source of misery has to be understood as the source of misery - then it simply drops.
When you know it is poison, it drops. When you know it is fire, it drops. When you know this is the hell, it drops.
And then you never say, "I have dropped the ego." Then you simply laugh at the whole thing, the joke that you were the creator of all misery.
I was just looking at a few cartoons of Charlie Brown. In one cartoon he is playing with blocks, making a house out of children's blocks. He is sitting in the middle of the blocks building the walls. Then a moment comes when he is enclosed; all around he has made a wall. Then he cries, "Help, help!"
He has done the whole thing! Now he is enclosed, imprisoned. This is childish, but this is all that you have done also. You have made a house all around yourself, and now you are crying, "Help, help!" And the misery becomes a millionfold - because there are helpers who are also in the same boat.
It happened that one very beautiful woman went to see her psychiatrist for the first time. The psychiatrist said, "Come closer please." When she came closer, he simply jumped and hugged and kissed the woman. She was shocked. Then he said, "Now sit down. This takes care of my problem, now what is your problem?"
The problem becomes multifold, because there are helpers who are in the same boat. And they would like to help, because when you help somebody the ego feels very good, very, very good - because you are a great helper, a great guru, a master; you are helping so many people. The greater the crowd of your followers, the better you feel.
But you are in the same boat - you cannot help.
Rather, you will harm.
People who still have their own problems cannot be of much help. Only someone who has no problems of his own can help you. Only then is there the clarity to see, to see through you. A mind that has no problems of its own can see you, you become transparent.
A mind that has no problems of its own can see through itself; that's why it becomes capable of seeing through others.
In the West, there are many schools of psychoanalysis, many schools, and no help is reaching people, but rather, harm. Because the people who are helping others, or trying to help, or posing as helpers, are in the same boat.
...It is difficult to see one's own ego.
It is very easy to see other's egos. But that is not the point, you cannot help them.
Try to see your own ego.
Just watch it.
Don't be in a hurry to drop it, just watch it. The more you watch, the more capable you will become. Suddenly one day, you simply see that it has dropped. And when it drops by itself, only then does it drop. There is no other way. Prematurely you cannot drop it.
It drops just like a dead leaf.
The tree is not doing anything - just a breeze, a situation, and the dead leaf simply drops. The tree is not even aware that the dead leaf has dropped. It makes no noise, it makes no claim - nothing.
The dead leaf simply drops and shatters on the ground, just like that.
When you are mature through understanding, awareness, and you have felt totally that ego is the cause of all your misery, simply one day you see the dead leaf dropping.
It settles into the ground, dies of its own accord. You have not done anything so you cannot claim that you have dropped it. You see that it has simply disappeared, and then the real center arises.
And that real center is the soul, the self, the god, the truth, or whatsoever you want to call it.
It is nameless, so all names are good.
You can give it any name of your own liking...
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