All is Pervaded...
"The imagination produces phenomenal objects
Which have no real existence,
So this world has no substantial reality,
But exists as a shadowy pageant or a play.
All is pervaded by Absolute Being
In its utter perfection.
There are many numbers, but only One is counted."
Shabistari
Florence Lederer, Translator
_The Secret Rose Garden Of Sad Ud Din Mahmud Shabistari_
London: J. Murray, 1920, p. 48
' Everlasting '...
Observe that the use of the word ‘everlasting’ and the reference to unbroken continuity must be taken as a mere convenience of exposition;
the word is not strictly applicable to Eternity,
but is at best a pointer to the imperishable and leads the mind to the thought of ever-increasing, not to say unending, expansion.
We might perhaps prefer to speak of ‘Being’, without any attribute;
but since this term is applicable to Essence and some writers have used the word Essence for things of process, we cannot convey our meaning to them without introducing some word carrying the notion of perdurance.
-- Enneads, III.7.6
Plotinus
Truth and words...
Truth in the higher sense can not be communicated by words,
but in an indirect symbolic sense,
the knower of Truth may seek for and find words
that will accurately give out what his consciousness knows as being Truth.
-- Notebooks Category 7: The Intellect
Paul Brunton
Dreams on a Friday Night...
This morning, I looked death within the eyes but still exist as this dream..
What caused air to enter my lungs is beyond my knowledge but death was calling my name..
To tell you more is meaningless..
Death is a door that enters the dream at any time..
My cats entered my consciousness as the main desire for survival..
No air was entering my lungs but the lives of these cats led me to open the door for their survival..
Are you Awake to understand this dream ?..
Souls exist around the egoic dream..
Can I speak to you of existence and non-existence ?..
My existence is that of non-existence of personality ..
Death is a door..
Life is a Dream..
Does your mind understand the life and death scenario..
My paragraph is ended, may God tell the entire story...
- namaste, thomas
The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ...
Jesus teaches the people, revealing the difference between the kings of earth and the kings of heaven.
THE city of Capernaum was by the sea of Galilee, and Peter's home was there. The homes of Andrew, John and James were near, 2 These men were fishermen, and must return to tend their nets, and they prevailed on Jesus and his mother to accompany them, and soon with Philip and Nathaniel they were resting by the sea in Peter's home.
3 The news spread through the city and along the shore that Judah's king had come, and multitudes drew near to press his hand. 4 And Jesus said, I cannot show the king, unless you see with eyes of soul, because the kingdom of the king is in the soul. 5 And every soul a kingdom is. There is a king for every man. 6 This king is love, and when this love becomes the greatest power in life, it is the Christ; so Christ is king.
7 And every one may have this Christ dwell in his soul, as Christ dwells in my soul. 8 The body is the temple of the king, and men may call a holy man a king. 9 He who will cleanse his mortal form and make it pure, so pure that love and righteousness may dwell unsullied side by side within its walls, is king.
10 The kings of earth are clothed in royal robes, and sit in state that men may stand in awe of them. 11 A king of heaven may wear a fisher's garb; may sit in mart of trade; may till the soil, or be a gleaner in the field; may be a slave in mortal chains; 12 May be adjudged a criminal by men; may languish in a prison cell; may die upon a cross. 13 Men seldom see what others truly are.
The human senses sense what seems to be, and that which seems to be and that which is, may be diverse in every way. 14 The carnal man beholds the outer man, which is the temple of the king, and worships at his shrine. 15 The man of God is pure in heart; he sees the king; he sees with eyes of soul:
16 And when he rises to the plane of Christine consciousness, he knows that he himself is king, is love, is Christ, and so is son of God.
17 You men of Galilee, prepare to meet your king.
18 And Jesus taught the people many lessons as he walked with them beside the sea...
-from the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ...
Go beyond it...
There is no ‘I’ apart from the body or the world.
The three appear and disappear together.
At
the root is the sense ‘I am’.
Go beyond it.
The idea
‘I-am-not-body’ is merely an antidote to the idea
‘I- am-the-body’, which is false.
What is that
‘I am’?
Unless you know yourself, what else
can you know?
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
Stay as the Self...
Nothing stops you from finding the Truth.
But if you think
it does, it will feel like it.
Don’t waste too much time cleaning
your little issues and problems, focus on the Self.
Stay as
the Self and if the Self wishes to clean the dynamic expression,
it will do it,
you don’t have to worry for that.
- Mooji
All day I looked...
Playfully, you hid from me.
All day I looked.
Then I discovered
I was you,
and the celebration
of That began.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
Dreams on a Thursday Night...
I touch Consciousness and the Voice of Awareness tells me to fill the Ethers with the Vibrations of Thought..
We continue to walk and think within this dream and ask why..
The mind constantly desires to exist by presenting images of desire.
Desires are the 'Wishes' that continue reincarnation..
And yet, we continue to dream..
Why do we forego the instant of Now ?..
The time of 'Now' is no longer a dream, It is Awareness..
There is no longer a past or future..
No dreams of youth or old age..
No fear of pain, sickness, or death..
Take hold of the mind and become the Master of this manifestor..
You are Consciousness and the source of energy for this actor and yet You feel powerless..
Awakening into Reality is your only escape..
Know that, You are the Observer and not the observed..
- namaste, thomas
The Gospel of Thomas...
Jesus says:
"This heaven will pass away, and the (heaven) above it will pass away.
And the dead are not alive, and the living will not died.
In the days when you consumed what was dead, you made it alive.
When you are in the light, what will you do?
On the day when you were one, you became two.
But when you become two, what will you do?
Katha Upanishad...
"The wise who knows the Self as bodiless within the bodies, as unchanging among changing things, as great and omnipresent, does never grieve".
"That self cannot be gained by the Veda, nor by understanding, nor by much learning.
He whom the Self chooses, by him the Self can be gained.
The Self chooses him (his body) as his own".
But he who has not first turned away from his wickedness, who is not tranquil, and subdued, or whose mind is not at rest, he can never obtain the Self (even) by knowledge.
- Katha Upanishad 1.2.22-24
Shinto...
"What is Shinto?
Not in the shrines the worldly minded
frequent for gifts in vain,
but in good deeds,
pure of
heart,
lies real religion."
Genchi Kato
in Timothy Freke
_The Illustrated Book of Sacred Scriptures_
Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 1998, p. 118
A functional ego role...
There is what I call a functional ego role, which is simply a relative identity or role we play that is linked to basic physical body awareness and psyche and it is useful for moving through life in the phenomenal world. This ego role is relatively harmless and helps us keep strait such issues as, whose mouth to feed breakfast to in the morning! Or which body to shower before going to work each day!
When people claim they have no such ego or physical/mental sense of self with a little "s", just ask them if they suffer from any confusion about breakfast or showering! If they say "no", then they are acknowledging that there is some basic identification with the body/mind organism that is called by their name! This is really just completely obvious and an example of native, everyday common sense! The idea that people constantly propose in non-duel spiritual circles that they have absolutely no identification with body and mind, is obviously just a very cerebral abstraction in their head and not at all a direct experience.
Get real boys and girls! Of course you have some basic identification with your body/mind!! You could not survive otherwise! Cut off a limb or two on the body of one of these folks who have no body/mind and watch bodily identification arise pretty damned quickly! This would be true even in the likes of a Ramana or a Nisargadatta I would venture to guess! They may certainly see clearly that this bodily identification is not exclusive and they may be in touch with the unchanging essence of who they are on the level of Being/sentience/presence.. But on a surface level there is a certain identification with the body/mind we call "you". And there always will be until the body drops away at least.
Then there is what I call a dysfunctional, selfish ego, which is all about this body/mind identity always getting its way in the phenomenal world. It could be true to say that one must eventually "die" to the dysfunctional ego in the process/practice of surrender, or perhaps it is even truer to say that life has a way of just constantly, and quite completely, frustrating the dysfunctional ego's agenda! But the idea that "You are not your body/mind" on any level whatsoever is simply a pure neo-advaita abstraction in your head.
If you buy into it, you have simply allowed yourself to be indoctrinated into an abstract belief. And such a way of conceptually framing your perception of your life is horribly out of touch with ordinary reality and in denial of a basic dynamic in human life that must be fully acknowledged in order for us to lead a healthy and whole existence. And that dynamic about life is quite simple:
On a certain level, we are and will remain embodied and present in the physical world. We are not disembodied spirits or angelic type beings and we never will be. On one level, we are simply highly functioning animals, and this is nothing to deny but, on the contrary, it is something to revel in and enjoy. It has it's perks as well as it's drawbacks!!
- Francis Bennett
The Bhagavad Gita...
In chapter eight, Lord Krishna emphasizes the science of yoga.
Revealing that one attains whatever one remembers at the end of one's life the Lord emphasizes the utmost importance of the very last thought at the moment of death.
Also he gives information on the creation of the material worlds as well as establishing a distinction between them and the spiritual world.
Here he explains the light and dark paths in regards to leaving this material existence, the destination to which they each lead to and the reward received by each.
Thus this chapter is entitled: Attainment of Salvation.
- From Bhagavad-Gita.org
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.
- Ramana Maharshi
Communion...
"Hidden from all
I will speak to You without words.
No one but You will hear my story
Even if I tell it in the middle of the crowd."
Jalaludin Rumi
in Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mali, Translators
_Rumi: Hidden Music_
Barnes & Noble, 2009 (reprint), p. 112
Compelled to see...
All that one sees during the day and night is not what one intended to see,
but what one is compelled by the life around one to see.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged By
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
We are already One...
We are already one.
But we imagine that we are not.
And what we have to recover is our original unity.
What we have to be is what we are.
- Thomas Merton
Self-inquiry...
The method of Self-inquiry is to turn the outward going mind
back to its source, the Heart, the Self, and fix it ever there,
preventing the rising of the empty “I.”
The Self, our Being, is Awareness.
- Ramana Maharshi
Freed from ego...
"No one knows how far it is from nothingness to God.
As long as you cling to your self
you will wander right and left,
day and night, for thousands of years;
and when, after all that effort,
you finally open your eyes,
you will see your self, through inherent defects,
wandering round itself like the ox in a mill;
but, if, once freed from your self,
you finally get down to work,
this door will open to you in two minutes."
Hakim Sanai
Hadaqat – The Walled Garden of Truth
Translated and abridged by D. L Pendlebury
London: Octagon, 1974, p. 31
Words...
The philosopher must ask each word to yield thoroughly a definition which possesses an exactitude that may well terrify the ordinary man.
He must become a hunter and wander through the forests of verbal meaning to track down real meaning. He will not rush prematurely into utterance.
Words are cheap for the ordinary man but dear for him. His studied hesitation leads, however, closer to truth.
This interpretational discipline must be vigorously applied until it leads to a thorough understanding of all concepts which are the essential counters in philosophical research.
For when men go astray in their definitions of these highly important terms, they will surely go astray in their thinking, and thence be led astray altogether from truth.
-- Notebooks Category 7: The Intellect >
Chapter 5: Semantics > # 29
Paul Brunton
United...
"WHERE is the need of words, when love has made drunken the heart?
I have wrapped the diamond in my cloak; why open it again and again?
When its load was light, the pan of the balance went up:
Now it is full, where is the need for weighing?
The swan has taken its flight to the lake beyond the mountains;
Why should it search for the pools and ditches any more?
Your Lord dwells within you:
Why need your outward eyes be opened?
Kabir says: 'Listen, my brother!
my Lord,
Who ravishes my eyes,
has united Himself with me.'"
Kabir
in _Songs of Kabir_. II.105
Translated by Rabindranath Tagore
New York: The Macmillan Company, 1915, p. 81
Sunday night dreams...
Consciousness tells me to speak of the facets of illusion..
This life is a Hologram from Divine Consciousness..
You as Consciousness has decided that You will play the part of a separate entity called ego..
The problem is that You became lost within the Dream..
You became enticed by the selfishness called ego..
You became the illusion of self..
Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to return to Reality..
It sounds simple, does it not ?..
Who would know that it is the most difficult path to walk..
You must first watch all of the thoughts of the mind and decide which to accept and which to ignore..
You must ignore all egoic thoughts..
When all of the egoic thoughts are rejected, what is left ?..
Reality is all that is left..
Rejoin Reality, Rejoin Truth, Rejoin Love...
namaste, thomas
Beauty...
But that the thing we are pursuing is something different and that the beauty
is not in the concrete object is manifest from the beauty there is in matters of
study, in conduct and custom; briefly, in soul or mind.
And it is precisely here
that the greater beauty lies, perceived whenever you look to the wisdom in a
man and delight in it, not wasting attention on the face, which may be hideous,
but passing all appearance by and catching only at the inner comeliness, the truly
personal;
if you are still unmoved and cannot acknowledge beauty under such
conditions, then looking to your own inner being you will find no beauty to
delight you and it will be futile in that state to seek the greater vision, for you will
be questing it through the ugly and impure.
Enneads, V.8.2
Plotinus
The Gospel of Thomas, Interpreted
The World's Best Kept Secrets
Introduction
There are those who say that Genesis was written by people who had looked at the world in the distant past, and in an attempt to understand and explain it, they came up with some answers that have been completely discredited by today's scientific discoveries.
The problem is that those who wrote Genesis were not speaking of the physical/material world, but rather they were speaking of the spiritual realm. It is only when this is understood that the scriptures are seen to be flawless, and that the whole of the Bible is a book of spiritual science. It is a book that will become known as; The book of enlightenment. It is a book that not only shows the path to your Christhood, but also to your Godhood. It is a book of Love and Truth, a book that will lift you from your knees and set you free.
There are also scriptures that were left out of the Bible, and this was done because what they contained came too close to revealing the keys of understanding. The Gospel Thomas is but one of them.
There is no Old and New Testament, there is only one that had to be re-given, and it was re-given by one who became the light, one who became the way, the truth and the life, and what he taught will not be found in the Church that claims to be leading others in his footsteps.
I am going to reveal the secrets of the mysteries, and tell you things that no-one else can. I am going to open the book that has been closed for 2,000 years. I will give you the eyes to see, and the ears to understand.
You always knew that there was more, come find it.
Love and blessings,
William ...' Thegospelofthomasfullyinterpreted.com '
There is an answer to every call; those who call on God, to them God comes.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
There is no doubt that if an individual or a multitude believe that a teacher or a reformer will come, he will surely come to them. Similarly, in the case of those who do not believe that any teacher or reformer will come, to them he will not come. To those who expect the Teacher to be a man, a man will bring the message; to those who expect the Teacher to be a woman, a woman must deliver it. To those who call on God, God comes. To those who knock at the door of Satan, Satan answers. There is an answer to every call.
There is nothing that you ask that this universe will not answer. For it is the nature of this universe to answer your soul's call. ... When a person seeks for something in the universe and he cannot find it, it is not true that it is not there. The fact is that he does not see it.
He who is always there has said, 'I am Alpha and Omega. I exist every moment. When you call me, I am there. Knock at the door, and I will answer you.' And those whose eyes are open do not need to go to a church and look at a picture or statue of the Lord. In the eyes of every infant, in the smile of every innocent child, they receive the blessing of Christ.
It only means changing one's outlook on life, and recognizing the divine in man. But man has ignored the divine spirit that manifests in humanity, and always prefers an idol, a painting, a picture, to the living God, who is constantly before him. For the sage, the seer, the saint, and the yogi who begin to see the master, and see him living, there is no place where he cannot be seen. Then everywhere the beloved master is ready to answer the cry of the soul coming from friend, father or teacher. And if we go a little further forward, we will find that the teacher speaks aloud, not only through living beings, but through nature. If the eyes and ears are open, the leaves of the trees become as pages of the Bible. If the heart is alive, the whole life becomes one single vision of His sublime beauty, speaking to us at every moment.
Know Thyself...
At the end of his long life of selfless teaching, the Buddha said that you must strive on the path yourself—the Awakened Ones only point the way. Like the Buddha, all genuine mystics will tell you that the ultimate authority and touchstone of truth is not any scriptures or dogmas or teachers, but your own deepest experience. “Don’t take my word for it,” they will say, “find out for yourself!” Just as a scientist tests hypotheses using experiments, so you should test the teachings in the laboratory of your life using spiritual practices.
It makes sense that you should be your own ultimate authority, because it is your own true nature that you must discover and know. As the oracle at Delphi commands: “know thyself.” And as Jesus instructs: “examine yourself, and learn who you are, how you exist, and what will become of you” (Jesus, Book of Thomas).
The reason the genuine mystic directs your attention inward to seek your own true nature is because, as Jesus says, “He who has not known himself does not know anything, but he who has known himself has also known the depth of all” (Jesus, Book of Thomas). And Rumi tells you: “It’s you yourself that hide your own treasure” (Rumi, Mathnawi). So the genuine mystic will always point you to yourself, to discover the depths of your own true nature.
The mystical injunction to know yourself and look to yourself as your own ultimate authority, however, does not mean that teachers and teachings have no value in the mystical path. The point is that they only show the way, as the Buddha says.
If you invest a particular teaching or teacher with ultimate truth, you will be implicitly separating yourself from the truth, and you will fail to realize the truth of your own nature.
In the end, however, when you realize that the teachings and teachers—and indeed the entire world—is not separate from you, then you will see that your entire life is the truth of your own deepest being revealing itself to itself. Thus, to see truth in nothing reveals the truth in everything...
. Thomas J. McFarlane
Keep going...
“At the age of twenty-five, after the initial awakening that I have described, I could have assumed, “Oh, this is it; this is all there is to it; I’ve seen the absolute nature of reality.” I could have gone about proclaiming to the world what I had discovered. But I was very lucky that there was a small voice inside of me that said, “This isn’t really it. This isn’t the whole of it. Keep going.”
This little voice was like a savior in a sense. Because, at that particular point in the journey, there is a great tendency to want to grasp what is seen, to claim it, own it, and then to go about making a new “enlightened self,” an “enlightened me” out of what has been realized.
I was lucky to have this voice inside. Sometimes the voice that tells us to keep going comes from outside of us—from circumstances, from life itself. Either way, it is essential that an initial awakening isn’t owned or claimed—that there is no assumption of completion.
Even though it may feel like the journey has ceased, it is important to realize that it is the old journey that has ceased, the journey toward that initial seeing, the journey where you didn’t have any consciousness of who and what you were. Now a new journey begins—the journey of expressing nondivision at every level of your being. And this is a journey that may take years to complete itself.”
~ Adyashanti
Contemplation...
To become so lost in this world of appearances,
as so many have become lost,
is to shut the door to the world of reality.
This is why the lost art of contemplation
is a necessity and must be regained if we are to open that door and let truth in.
-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest >
Chapter 1: What the Quest Is > # 113
Paul Brunton
The Bhagavad Gita...
Albert Einstein
"When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous."
Aldous Huxley
"The Bhagavad-Gita is the most systematic statement of spiritual evolution of endowing value to mankind. It is one of the most clear and comprehensive summaries of perennial philosophy ever revealed; hence its enduring value is subject not only to India but to all of humanity."
Mahatma Gandhi
"When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and I see not one ray of hope on the horizon, I turn to Bhagavad-gita and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. Those who meditate on the Gita will derive fresh joy and new meanings from it every day."
Henry David Thoreau
"In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita, in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial."
Dr. Albert Schweitzer
"The Bhagavad-Gita has a profound influence on the spirit of mankind by its devotion to God which is manifested by actions."
Carl Jung
"The idea that man is like unto an inverted tree seems to have been current in by gone ages. The link with Vedic conceptions is provided by Plato in his Timaeus in which it states 'behold we are not an earthly but a heavenly plant.' This correlation can be discerned by what Krishna expresses in chapter 15 of Bhagavad-Gita."
Herman Hesse
"The marvel of the Bhagavad-Gita is its truly beautiful revelation of life's wisdom which enables philosophy to blossom into religion."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I owed a magnificent day to the Bhagavad-gita. It was the first of books; it was as if an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions which exercise us."
The Gospel of Thomas...
Jesus said,
"Recognize what is in your sight, and that which
is hidden from you will become plain to you.
For there is nothing
hidden which will not become manifest."
Didn't I tell you ?...
Didn't I tell you,
Do not leave me for I am your only Friend,
I am the spring of life.
Even if you leave in anger for thousands of years
You will come back to me for I am your goal and your end.
Didn't I tell you,
not to be seduced by this colorful world
for I am the Ultimate Painter.
Didn't I tell you,
you are a fish do not go to dry land
for I am the deep Sea.
Didn't I tell you,
not to fall in the net like birds
for I am your wings and the power of light.
Didn't I tell you,
not to let them change your mind and turn you to ice
for I am your fire and warmth.
Didn't I tell you,
they will corrupt you and make you forget
that I am the Spring of all virtues.
Didn't I tell you,
not to question my actions
for everything falls into order, I am the Creator.
Didn't I tell you,
your heart can guide you home
because it knows that I am your Master.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Rumi: Hidden Music
Translation by Azima Melita Kolin
and Maryam Mafi
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001
Forsake demands of self...
Meditate on that which is beyond words and symbols.
Forsake the
demands of the self.
By such forsaking you will live serenely.
- Sutta Nipata
Nature...
Nature never does a bad thing.
There is no such
thing as a bad thing for Nature.
It looks unpleasant,
because we are outside nature, psychologically.
If
we are one with Nature, we will see nothing improper
taking place.
We are looking at things by standing
outside nature.
That is why we cannot see things
properly and impartially.
- Swami Krishnananda
The Short Path...
The time will come when you will have to turn your back upon the Long Path in order to give full attention, the full energy and the full time, to the Short Path.
For with this comes a new era when the whole concern is not with the ego, not with its improvement or betterment, but with the divine itself alone--
not with the surface consciousness and all its little changes but with the very depths, the diviner depths where reality abides.
At this point seek only the Higher Self,
live only with positive thought, stay only for as long as you can with the holy silence within, feel only that inner stillness which belongs to the essence of consciousness.
Henceforth you are not to become this or that, not to gather the various virtues, but simply to be.
For this you do not have to strive, you do not have to think, you do not have to work with any form of yoga, with any method of meditation.
- Paul Brunton
The nature of the Self...
"Knowing aright the nature of the Self,
and abandoning the non-self as void, unreal,
is wisdom true.
All other knowledge is ignorance,
and not wisdom."
- Ramana Maharshi
One stream of 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
What cannot go ?...
What is not stable and permanent, let go.
There is only one thing left.
Worlds and gods will disappear, but This will not.
When you are reminded of this keep your eye on it,
not with the intention of having it, but just to BE it!
All the things you want are in the "let go" category:
House, wife, body, parents, gods, let go.
What is left?
What cannot go?
That you ARE!
You cannot go because you have never come
and anything that comes must go.
Find out what it is.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
When the mind dissolves...
The mirror can do nothing to attract the sun. It can only keep bright. As soon as the mind is ready, the sun shines in.
[The light] is uncaused and unvarying by itself, and colored by the mind as soon as it moves and changes.
It is very much like a cinema. The light is not in the film, but the film colors the light and makes it appear to move by intercepting it.
The world is but the surface of the mind and the mind is infinite.
What we call thoughts are just ripples in the mind.
When the mind is quiet it reflects reality.
When it is motionless through and through, it dissolves and only reality remains.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
True Identity...
Only that which was prior to the appear-
ance of this body-consciousness is your
true identity.
That is Reality.
It is here and
now, and there is no question of anyone
being able to reach for it or grasp it.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
All Dualities...
Rest and unrest derive from illusion;
with enlightenment, attachment to liking and disliking ceases.
All dualities come from ignorant inference.
They are like dreams, phantoms, hallucinations—
it is foolish to try to grasp them.
Gain and loss, right and wrong;
finally abandon all such thoughts at once.
- Hsin Hsin Ming
Translated by Richard B. Clarke
God is Consciousness...
If a man asks why he can find no trace of God's presence in himself, I answer that he is full of evidence, not merely traces.
God is present in him as consciousness,
the state of being aware;
as thought, the capacity to think;
as activity, the power to move; and as stillness, the condition of ego, emotion, intellect, and body which finally and clearly reveals what these other things simply point to.
"Be still, and know that I am God" is a statement of being whose truth can be tested by experiment and whose value can be demonstrated by experience.
- Paul Brunton
Who are you ?...
There is this absolute, infinite, undivided awareness until the first
thought is born:
the thought 'I'.
When the I-thought is born, the
world is born.
The world is 'not I'.
The I-thought is the birth of
fear and desire.
Before I am, All is.
Who is there to have fear and
desire before I am?
Truly, what I AM is before, during and after the
arising of the I-thought.
Are there any words for it?
The body is a
flowing series of sensations.
The mind is a flowing series of images.
What is witnessing these sensation and images?
What is witnessing
this body and mind?
You are.
Who are you?
The Outrageous Myths of Enlightenment
Stephan Wingate
P18-19
The Unified Existence...
When his mind moves entirely and wholly into the One Infinite Presence,
and when it settles permanently there,
the divided existence of glimpse and darkness,
of Spirit and matter, of Overself and ego, of heaven and earth, will vanish.
The crossing over to a unified existence will happen.
- Paul Brunton
The Ineffable Experience...
To become free, your attention must be drawn to the "I am", the witness.
Of course, the knower and the known are one, not two, but to break the spell of the known the knower must be brought to the forefront.
Neither is primary,
both are reflections in memory of the ineffable experience, ever new and ever now, unstranslatable, quicker than the mind.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
Truth...
Truth is not over there, wherever over there is.
Truth is neither housed in religious rituals nor secret doctrines,
nor in a guru’s touch or beatific smile, nor in exotic locations or ancient temples.
Truth is quite literally the only thing that does exist.
It is not hidden but in plain view,
not lacking but abundantly present.
- Adyashanti
Thoughts...
“We are shaped by our thoughts;
we become what we think.
When the mind is pure,
joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.”
- Gautama the Buddha
Moving Water...
When you do things from your soul, you feel a river
moving in you, a joy.
When actions come from another section, the feeling
disappears.
Don't let
others lead you.
They may be blind or, worse, vultures.
Reach for the rope
of God.
And what is that?
Putting aside self-will.
Because of willfulness
people sit in jail, the trapped bird's wings are tied,
fish sizzle in the skillet.
The anger of police is willfulness. You've seen a magistrate
inflict visible punishment.
Now
see the invisible.
If you could leave your selfishness, you
would see how you've
been torturing your soul.
We are born and live inside black water in a well.
How could we know what an open field of sunlight is?
Don't
insist on going where
you think you want to go.
Ask the way to the spring.
Your
living pieces will form
a harmony.
There is a moving palace that floats in the air
with balconies and clear
water flowing through, infinity everywhere, yet contained
under a single tent.
- Rumi
A Single Consciousness...
There is a single Consciousness without beginning or end,
ever the same in itself,
beyond and behind which there is nothing else.
- Paul Brunton
They believe Lies...
The elite that control the humans of this world believe that Lucifer will give them the power of gods and they shall return in reincarnation as wealthy and powerful..
This is true for some but not for most..
They will return again and again as humans that serve an evil power..
But, you do not believe that which you vote for are these souls..
Wake up and see the eyes of lies..
You have the ability to see deception and lies but you choose to believe in lies..
You feel the emotions of Love but they do not..
Does it not become clear to you now ?..
They want to live forever..
This is the desire of ego..
To become free is to surrender all desires, especially the desire for existence..
Have these words become clear to you ?...
namaste, thomas
Lose yourself...
"Know that when you learn to lose yourself,
you will reach the Beloved.
There is no other secret to be learnt,
and more than this is not known to me."
Ansari of Herat
in Aldous Huxley
_The Perennial Philosophy_
NY: Harper, 1945, p. 376
Why do I show you Woodstock ?...
Why do I show you Love ?..
This was a small amount of time in which Love conquered the ego..
You do not know of this experience because you are young..
The Energy of Love surpassed the power of the energy of ego..
This was a crack within the Matrix..
Energy was not given to the satanic entities that control the earth..
They became frightened and feared that Love would conquer the Dream..
The Duality would end and God (Love) would win the battle of Duality..
Was this just a Dream or was it Reality?..
This answer depends on you...
namaste, thomas
Is Life a Gift ?...
Tonight, a soul told me that life is a gift..
I am sure that she was repeating what others have said..
This conclusion was not hers..
Is pain a gift ?..
Is division from Love and Joy a gift ?..
Of course not, It is a learning experience..
It is a challenge..
A gift is positive and yet you feel the negative..
Life is not a gift, It is a Journey..
The word Traveling comes from the latin word Travail which means the experience of pain..
In life, you are given an illusion of separation called ego,
this is separation from Love..
My paragraph has ended, does this enter your sub-conscious mind ?..
namaste, thomas
Beware the ego...
Beware..
the ego hides.
the ego tries to control..
the ego convinces you that
it, is you..
Beware the ego, It is the reason that you are here..
Beware the ego,
it is an illusion that is created from selfishness..
Beware the ego, it is the
wall that prevents you from knowing God..
Remember, The last shall be first, the
ego states that it is first..
Love is anti-ego..
Love is the answer..
Love is
God..
Love is Reality..
Choose wisely..
Choosing is why you are here..
....namaste, thomas
the ego hides.
the ego tries to control..
the ego convinces you that
it, is you..
Beware the ego, It is the reason that you are here..
Beware the ego,
it is an illusion that is created from selfishness..
Beware the ego, it is the
wall that prevents you from knowing God..
Remember, The last shall be first, the
ego states that it is first..
Love is anti-ego..
Love is the answer..
Love is
God..
Love is Reality..
Choose wisely..
Choosing is why you are here..
....namaste, thomas
Face the opposite...
Once you have grasped the truth that the world is full of suffering, that to be born is a calamity, you will find the urge and the energy to go beyond.
Pleasure puts you to sleep and pain wakes you up.
If you do not want to suffer, don't go to sleep.
You cannot know yourself through bliss alone, for bliss is your very nature.
You must face the opposite, what you are not, to find enlightenment.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
Sahaja Samadhi...
Sahaja samadhi is not broken into intervals, is permanent, and involves no special effort. Its arisal is instantaneous and without progressive stages. It can accompany daily activity without interfering with it. It is a settled calm and complete inner quiet. There are no distinguishing marks that an outside observer can use to identify a sahaja-conscious man because sahaja represents consciousness itself rather than its transitory states.
Sahaja has been called the lightning flash. Philosophy considers it to be the most desirable goal. This is illustrated with a classic instance of Indian spirituality involving a king named Janaka. One day he was about to mount his horse and put one foot into the stirrup which hung from the saddle. As he was about to lift himself upwards into the saddle the "lightning flash" struck his consciousness. He was instantly carried away and concentrated so deeply that he failed for some time to lift himself up any higher. From that day onwards he lived in sahaja samadhi which was always present within him.
Those at the state of achieved sahaja are under no compulsion to continue to meditate any more or to practise yoga.
They often do--either because of inclinations produced by past habits or as a means of helping other persons. In either case it is experienced as a pleasure. Because this consciousness is permanent, the experiencer does not need to go into meditation. This is despite the outward appearance of a person who places himself in the posture of meditation in order to achieve something.
When you are engaged in outward activity it is not the same as when you are in a trance. This is true for both the beginner and the adept. The adept, however, does not lose the sahaja awareness which he has achieved and can withdraw into the depths of consciousness which the ordinary cannot do.
- Paul Brunton
The Gospel of Thomas...
Jesus says:
"If those who lead you say to you: ‘Look, the kingdom is in the sky!’
then the birds of the sky will precede you.
If they say to you: ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fishes will precede you.
Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and outside of you."
"When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known,
and you will realize that you are the children of the living Father.
But if you do not come to know yourselves, then you exist in poverty, and you are poverty."
Beyond creation...
"You are infinite, you are really everywhere, but you think you are the body, and therefore consider yourself limited.
If you look within and experience your own soul in its true nature, you will realize that you are infinite and beyond creation."
Meher Baba
_Meher Baba Calling_, 43
Ahmednagar: Meher Nazar Books, 6th ed., 1992 (1964)
Equally unintelligible...
Just as the highest and the lowest notes are equally inaudible, so
perhaps, is the greatest sense and the greatest nonsense equally
unintelligible.
-Alan Watts
Zen...
“Unlike the modern day view of Zen as a bunch of
Buddhists who like to rake rocks into interesting
patterns and come up with cute, unsolvable riddles,
the real aim of Zen is enlightenment.
Zen is about waking up, freedom, and liberation.
All the rest is just window dressing and shackles.”
~ Adyashanti
Dreams on a Friday Night...
A soul spoke of 'being'..
Who is this voice that cries for knowledge?..
I ask this voice for identification..
It answers; body, mind, and thought..
I ask, where are these, upon the dissolving of the body ?..
The answer from this entity is, spirit..
This is true upon the lower frequencies but not within Reality..
The lower frequencies are still filled with illusions of separation from Reality..
Individual spirit is the non-visible aspect of egoic consciousness..
You are the Observer of these characters and actors within the dreams..
Your belief in 'Self' determines Freedom or Prison..
Choose Wisely...
namaste, thomas
Realization...
"Teach us to consider no other duty to be more important,
than our sacred duty to realize Thee."
Paramahansa Yogananda
_Whispers From Eternity_
Self-Realization Fellowship, 1949, p. 33
Tao Te Ching...
Better stop short than fill to the brim.
Oversharpen the blade, and the edge will soon blunt.
Amass a store of gold and jade, and no one can protect it.
Claim wealth and titles, and disaster will follow.
Retire when the work is done.
This is the way of heaven.
- Lao-tzu
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Tao Te Ching
Translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English
Vintage Books Edition, September 1972
Living in the Unknown...
"Human beings have a drive for security and safety, which is often what fuels the spiritual search. This very drive for security and safety is what causes so much misery and confusion. Freedom is a state of complete and absolute insecurity and not knowing. So, in seeking security and safety, you actually distance yourself from the freedom you want. There is no security in freedom, at least not in the sense that we normally think of security. This is, of course, why it is so free: there's nothing there to grab hold of.
The Unknown is more vast, more open, more peaceful, and more freeing than you ever imagined it would be. If you don't experience it that way, it means you're not resting there; you're still trying to know. That will cause you to suffer because you're choosing security over Freedom.When you rest deeply in the Unknown without trying to escape, your experience becomes very vast. As the experience of the Unknown deepens, your boundaries begin to dissolve. You realize, not just intellectually but on a deep level, that you have no idea who or what you are. A few minutes ago, you knew who you were—you had a history and a personality—but from this place of not knowing, you question all of that.
Liberated people live in the Unknown and understand that the only reason they know what they are is because they rest in the Unknown moment by moment without defining who they are with the mind. You can imagine how easy it is to get caught in the concept of the Unknown and seek that instead of the Truth. If you seek the concept, you'll never be free, but if you stop looking to myths and concepts and become more interested in the Unknown than in what you know, the door will be flung open. Until then, it will remain closed."
~ Adyashanti
Thoughts on a Thursday Night...
I ask Overself for words that convey wisdom..
Overself tells me to speak of those that love me..
As you should know by now, Love is the humbleing of ego to another entity..
Egoic consciousness is not present within the energy of Love..
Love cares about another more than oneself..
Love is Reality.. Love is Source..
Love is 'Being Self'..
To Know your Self is to be within the state of Love..
All of the greatest Mystics spoke of Love as the only goal..
Humble yourself and feel this Joy called Love..
Become Nothing and become Everything..
Exit the dream of separation and ego..
Return to Source...
namaste, thomas
" Feed them meditation "...
There are some demons dangerous
to your soul: lust, anger.
But there's a way to kill them.
Feed them meditation only,
and clear awareness, and you'll see
the illusion of what they control.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
" I do not know "...
Somehow it was very simple and easy in my case. My guru, before he died, told me: "Believe me, you are the Supreme Reality. Don't doubt my words, don't disbelieve me. I am telling you the truth, act on it".
I could not forget his words and by not forgetting, I have realized. Once the guru told me: "You are the Supreme Reality", I ceased having visions and trances and became very quiet and simple. I found myself desiring and knowing less and less, until I could say in utter astonishment: "I know nothing, I want nothing."
I was undeceived, that is all. I used to create a world and populate it. Now I don't do it any more.
[Now I live] in the void beyond being and non-being, beyond consciousness. This void is also fulness; do not pity me.
The mind ceased producing events. The ancient and ceaseless search stopped - I wanted nothing, expected nothing, accepted nothing as my own. There was no "me" left to strive for. Even the bare "I am" faded away.
The other thing that I noticed was that I lost all my habitual certainties. Earlier I was sure of so many things, now I am sure of nothing. But I feel that I have lost nothing by not knowing, because all my knowledge was false.
My not knowing was in itself knowledge of the fact that all knowledge is ignorance, that "I do not know" is the only true statement the mind can make.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
The false sense of separation...
The sage can condemn nobody, can regard none as outside his range of compassion, and can find a place in his heart for the worst sinner.
He knows that duality is but a dream and discovers himself anew in all sentient creatures.
He knows that the world's woe arises out of its false and fictitious sense of separateness.
- Paul Brunton
Desiderata...
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be critical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy.
© Max Ehrmann 1927
The Lover of my Heart...
I set up a house for You in my heart
As a Friend that I could talk with.
Gave my body to someone else
Who wanted to embrace it.
This body, all in all, is good enough for embracing -
But the Friend who lives in my house
Is the lover of my Heart.
- Rabi'ah
You are Emptiness...
You are Emptiness, the Ultimate substance:
remove Emptiness out of Emptiness leaves only Emptiness because there is nothing beyond It.
All rises from, dances about it, and returns to This.
As Ocean rises as a wave to dance so you are this dancing Emptiness!
Nothing is out of this Emptiness and so it is the Fullness.
Emptiness is between is and is not.
To be Free, you need the firm conviction that you are this Substratum, this Peace, this Emptiness.
- Papaji
Surrender Completely...
If you dare to give your heart, your soul, your mind, your body, and your life, unconditionally, to what you discover to be true, you will know an infinitely deep and abiding peace that has never been even a breath away.
This bliss, this tranquility depends on nothing, and It is not capable of ending. Furthermore, it doesn't make a bit of difference what you've ever done... or not done. You can put an end to the battle. Yes, that's correct, just walk right out of the war, right now. All you have to do is surrender, absolutely and completely, not to me, not to some authority figure, or some organization or institution, but surrender only to your own deepest Purity.
God and your own Unbounded Love are not different. If you truly give yourself up completely, it will shock your whole system. It will suddenly dawn on you,
"Oh my God, what a fool I've been! What was I thinking?"
Then the absolute insanity of giving yourself to anything else will become apparent. Why wait? Why put off your own complete and total liberation? In your innermost and outermost places, in every single moment, Love waits for you everywhere. Is there really something else you would rather do? Is it possible that the thing that you fear the most, the thing that you avoid the most, is what you truly desire the most? It cannot abandon you. Even if you choose to ignore It, betray It and walk away, It is always closer than your next breath. Suspend all opinion and debate, and find out for yourself.
- Scott Morrison from There Is Only Now,
' Loneliness '...
Don't surrender your loneliness so quickly.
Let it cut more deep.
Let it ferment and season you as few human or even divine ingredients can.
Something missing in my heart tonight
Has made my eyes so soft, my voice so tender,
My need of God absolutely clear.
-Hafiz
He alone Is...
To see god is to be God.
There is no all
apart from God for him to pervade.
He
alone is.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"Be As You Are"
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
edited by David Godman
Arkana, 1985
Simple Attention...
words do not come
there is no need for profound utterances or
deep truths
here is an ordinary evening
why spoil it with dramatic overstatement
the silence amidst the noise
the gem at the core
of every experience
is polished by simple attention
into shining magnificence
~ Nirmala
from Gifts with no Giver: A Love affair with Truth
A unit in Consciousness...
The scientist's error begins when he assumes there is a gulf between the idea and the thing.
For it is only his assumption.
The experience of the thing and the idea of it are not two sunderable entities.
If they were, we should register them as such.
But actually we don't;
we find that they form a unit of experience,
a unit in consciousness.
- Paul Brunton
The Gospel of Thomas...
Jesus said, "If they say to you, 'Where have you come from?' say to them,
'We have come from the light, from the place where the light came into being
by itself, established [itself], and appeared in their image.'
If they say to you,
'Is it you?'
say, 'We are its children, and we are the chosen of the living
Father.'
If they ask you,
'What is the evidence of your Father in you?
' say to
them,
'It is motion and rest.'"
The Universal Mind...
There is no object external to the self.
What you
call the object is self itself.
Let us take the example
of a dream in which a tiger chases a man.
He runs in
fear and finally climbs up a tree. The tree, the tiger,
the chase, etc., are all a projection of his own mind and
his dream-personality also is a process of his mind.
So the one mind becomes everyone of these in the dream.
It is subjective as well as objective.
This is what is
happening in the waking condition also; and, even as the
one single mind became all objects in the dream, the
universal mind has become all these external objects
around here even in waking life.
They are nothing but
the universal mind ultimately.
- Swami Krishnananda
' Awake awhile '...
Awake awhile.
It does not have to be
Forever,
Right now.
One step upon the Sky's soft skirt
Would be enough.
Hafiz,
Awake awhile.
Just one True moment of Love
Will last for days.
Rest all your elaborate plans and tactics
For Knowing Him,
For they are all just frozen spring buds
Far,
So far from Summer's Divine Gold.
Awake, my dear.
Be kind to your sleeping heart.
Take it out into the vast fields of Light
And let it breathe.
Say,
"Love,
Give me back my wings.
Lift me,
Lift me nearer."
Say to the sun and moon,
Say to our dear Friend,
"I will take You up now, Beloved,
On that wonderful Dance You promised."
~ Hafiz
You are the Observer...
On the Long Path he identifies himself with the personal ego, even though it be the higher part of the ego, whereas on the Short Path he is only the observer of the ego.
This shows up clearly in his attitudes.
"What have I to do with my personal past?"
he asks himself on the second path.
"That belongs to a dead self,
which is now rejected and with which I refuse to identify."
- Paul Brunton
The Gospel of Barnabas...
Weep for Sins only..
'The weeping of the sinner ought to be as that of a father who weepeth over his son nigh to death. Oh madness of man, that weepest over the body from which the soul is departed, and weepest not over the soul from which, through sin, is departed the mercy of God!
`Tell me, if the mariner, when his ship hath been wrecked by a storm, could by weeping recover all that he had lost, what would he do? It is certain that he would weep bitterly. But I say unto you verily, that in every thing wherein a man weepeth he sinneth, save only when he weepeth for his sin. For every misery that cometh to man cometh to him from God for his salvation, so that he ought to rejoice thereat. But sin cometh from the devil for the damnation of man, and at that man is not sad. Assuredly here ye can perceive that man seeketh loss and not profit.'
Said Bartholomew: `Lord, what shall he do who cannot weep for that his heart is a stranger to weeping?'
Jesus answered:` Not all those who shed tears weep, O Bartholomew. As God liveth, there are found men from whose eyes no tear hath ever fallen, and they have wept more than a thousand of those who shed tears. The weeping of a sinner is a consumption of earthly affection by vehemence of sorrow. Insomuch that just as the sunshine preserveth from putrefaction what is placed uppermost, even so this consumption preserveth the soul from sin. If God should grant tears to the true penitent as many as the sea hath waters he would desire far more: and so this desire consumeth that little drop that he fain would shed, as a blazing furnace consumeth a drop of water. But they who readily burst into weeping are like the horse that goeth the faster the more lightly he is laden.'
The Aramaic ' Lord's Prayer '...
The Aramaic Lord’s Prayer
-- transliteration by Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz from the original Aramaic spoken by Jesus
Abwoon d’bwashmaya
Nethqadash shmakh
Teytey malkuthakh
Nehwey sebyanach aykanna d’bwashmaya aph b’arah
Hawvlan lachma d’sunqanan yaomana.
Washboqlan khaubayn wakhtahayn aykana daph khnan Shbwoqan l’khayyabayn.
Wela tahlan l’nesyuna
Ela patzan min bisha.
Metol dilakhie malkutha wahayla wateshbukhta l’ahlam almin.
Ameyn.
.......
O Thou from whom comes the breath of life, which is present in all realms of vibration and light.
Let thy light/sound be experienced in my own ‘holy of holies.’
Let your ideals and counsel rule.
Let your desire be, as in the universe (all that vibrates), so also on earth.
Give us bread (understanding/support) for our needs from day to day.
Loose the cords of mistakes binding us, as we release the strands we hold of others’ faults.
Do not let surface things delude us.
But free us from what holds us back from our true purpose.
To you belongs the ruling will, the life and power to do, the song which beautifies all, from age to age it renews.
Amen (Sealed in trust and faith.)
' Silence'...
"The first American mingled with his pride a singular humility. Spiritual arrogance was foreign to his nature and teaching. He never claimed that the power of articulate speech was proof of superiority over the dumb creation; on the other hand, it is to him a perilous gift.
He believes profoundly in silence -- the sign of a perfect equilibrium. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind, and spirit. The man who preserves his selfhood ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence -- not a leaf, as it were, astir on the tree; not a ripple upon the surface of shining pool -- his, in the mind of the unlettered sage, is the ideal attitude and conduct of life.
If you ask him: "What is silence?" he will answer: "It is the Great Mystery!" "The holy silence is His voice!"
If you ask: "What are the fruits of silence?" he will say: "They are self-control, true courage or endurance, patience, dignity, and reverence. Silence is the cornerstone of character.'"
Ohiyesa (Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman)
_The Soul of the Indian_ (1911)
Ending 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 non-dualistic and non-objective.
The aspirant has to turn around and take a totally opposite direction.
- Paul Brunton
In the eyes of a Mystic...
Things that seem real to an average person are unreal in the eyes of the mystic, and the things that seem unreal in the eyes of the average person are real in the eyes of the mystic.
Little things that people take to heart will seem to him of little importance; things that people become confused with will become clear to him; things that matter so much to everyone will not matter to him; many things that frighten and horrify people will not have the same effect upon him; disappointments and failures will not take away his hope and courage.
His thought, speech, and action change: as his outlook becomes wide, so everything he says or does will be different.
In the first place mystical life is a puzzle, in the second place a bewilderment, and in the third place a miracle.
There comes a time when all that he had accepted in his mind , all that he believed in, appears to be quite the opposite of what they seemed.
Imagine an evolved person being more bewildered than an unevolved one. And yet it is so, for at this stage a man begins to see that things are not as they seem.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged By
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
The Gospel of Thomas...
Jesus said,
“I have cast fire upon the world,
and look,
I’m guarding it until it blazes.”
Awareness of Awareness...
The only true and full awareness,
is awareness of awareness.
Till awareness is awareness of itself,
it knows no peace at all.
- Ramana Maharshi
No self = Buddha...
Let there be a silent understanding and no more. Away with all thinking and explaining. Then we may say that the Way of Words has been cut off and movements of the mind eliminated.
This Mind is the pure Buddha-Source inherent in all men. All wriggling beings possessed of sentient life and all the Buddhas and Boddhisattvas are of this one substance and do not differ. Differences arise from wrong-thinking only and lead to the creation of all kinds of karma.
All the visible universe is the Buddha;
so are all sounds; hold fast to one principle and all the others are Identical. On seeing one thing, you see ALL.
On perceiving any individual's mind, you are perceiving ALL Mind.
Obtain a glimpse of one way and ALL ways are embraced in your vision, for there is nowhere at all which is devoid of the Way.
When your glance falls upon a grain of dust, what you see is identical with all the vast world systems with their great rivers and mighty hills. To gaze upon a drop of water is to behold the nature of all the waters of the universe.
Only come to know the nature of your own Mind, in which there is no self and no other, and you will in fact be a Buddha."
~Huang Po
The Dimensionless Point...
Ultimately you will come to see that you are neither the particular nor the universal,
you are beyond both.
As the tiny point of a pencil can draw innumerable pictures,
so does the dimensionless point of awareness draw the contents of the vast universe.
Find that point and be free.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Stillness '...
To the extent that a man keeps inwardly still,
to that extent he unfolds himself and lets the ever-perfect Overself shine forth.
- Paul Brunton
Mundaka Upanishad...
"To know Him,
hidden in the lotus of the heart,
is to untie ignorance."
_Mundaka Upanishad_ 2.1.10
in Andrew Wilson, Ed.
_World Scripture: A Comparative Anthology of Sacred Texts_
St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 1995, p. 382
The Lankavatara Sutra...
The Lankavatara Sutra, an essential chapter of The Buddhist Bible, states:
"...let every disciple take good heed not to become attached to words as being in perfect conformity with meaning, because Truth is not in the letters.
When a man with his finger-tip points to something, the finger-tip may be mistaken for the thing pointed at;
in like manner the ignorant and simple-minded, like children, are unable even to the day of their death to abandon the idea that in the finger-tip of words there is the meaning itself.
They cannot realise Ultimate Reality because of their intent clinging to words which were intended to be no more than a pointing finger.
Words and their discrimination bind one to the dreary round of rebirths into the world of birth-and-death;
meaning stands alone and is a guide to Nirvana.
Meaning is attained by much learning, and much learning is attained by becoming conversant with meaning and not with words;
therefore, let seekers for truth reverently approach those who are wise and avoid the sticklers for particular words."
from nonduality.com
Bhagavad Gita...
"As the blazing fire reduces wood to ashes,
similarly,
the fire of Self-knowledge reduces all Karma to ashes."
— Krishna
' Leave the familiar '...
Leave the familiar for a while.
Let your senses and bodies stretch out
Like a welcomed season
Onto the meadows and shores and hills.
Open up to the Roof.
Make a new water-mark on your excitement
And love.
Like a blooming night flower,
Bestow your vital fragrance of happiness
And giving
Upon our intimate assembly.
Change rooms in your mind for a day.
All the hemispheres in existence
Lie beside an equator
In your heart.
Greet Yourself
In your thousand other forms
As you mount the hidden tide and travel
Back home.
All the hemispheres in heaven
Are sitting around a fire
Chatting
While stitching themselves together
Into the Great Circle inside of
You.
~ Hafiz
" They do not die "...
The after-death condition of certain rare men like Jesus, Buddha, and Krishna is necessarily a rare one.
They continue the beneficent work of urging and helping men to rise above their lower natures which was inaugurated when manifest in the flesh whilst on earth, albeit it must be understood that it will necessarily fail to achieve the same degree of sharp effectiveness which the use of a physical body would have given it.
Nevertheless, what it loses in depth it gains in width, for although personal attainment is swift among their disciples during their lifetime, popular influence among the masses is able to spread like ripples only after their death.
Only a materialistic outlook of the universe will fail to understand that such a man does not ever die and that his true existence continues, even when he is not in incarnation, and that his saving power is still made available for others even then.
So long as men call earnestly upon their name or cherish their memory with reverence, so long will they continue their spirit-existence. They do not die, do not really disappear.
-- Perspectives > Chapter 9: From Birth to Rebirth > # 21
Paul Brunton
You are changeless...
It is only the body-mind apparatus that is
involved in, or reacts to, any experience,
and it can react only according to the way
it is genetically made and shaped by past
conditioning.
Therefore, what is there to
worry about or try to change?
The one
who understands Truth knows for a fact,
"I do nothing at all."
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
There is no person...
Even to talk of re-uniting the person with the self is not right,
because there is no person,
only a mental picture given a false reality by conviction.
Nothing was divided and there is nothing to unite.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Grace '...
Grace is the benign effluence of the Overself, the kindly radiation from it, ever-present in us.
The theological use of this term to mean particular help given by God to man to enable him to endure temptation and act rightly is a serious and arbitrary narrowing down of its original meaning.
It may mean this sometimes, but it also means the loving mercy God shows to man, which appears variously as enlightenment of the mind or relief of the heart, as change of outward physical conditions or a dynamic revolution-working energy acting on the aspirant or on his life.
- Paul Brunton
" Die before death"...
No one has seen God and lived. To see God we must be non-existent.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
There is a [Hadith] which says: Mutu kubla anta mutu, which means, 'Die before death.' A poet says, 'Only he attains to the peace of the Lord who loses himself.' God said to Moses, 'No man shall see me and live.' To see God we must be non-existent.
What does all this mean? It means that when we see our being with open eyes, we see that there are two aspects to our being: the false and the true. The false life is that of the body and mind, which only exists as long as the life is within. In the absence of that life the body cannot go on. We mistake the true life for the false, and the false for the true.
As life unfolds itself to man the first lesson it teaches is humility; the first thing that comes to man's vision is his own limitedness. The vaster God appears to him, the smaller he finds himself. This goes on and on until the moment comes when he loses himself in the vision of God. In terms of the Sufis this is called fana, and it is this process that was taught by Christ under the name of self-denial. Often man interprets this teaching wrongly and considers renunciation as self-denial. He thinks that the teaching is to renounce all that is in the world. But although that is a way and an important step which leads to true self-denial, the self-denial meant is the losing oneself in God.
The first lesson of the mystic is, "Thou art, and not I." It is not only complete surrender to God, it is self-effacement. And what does the symbol of the cross explain? That "Thou art, not me, my hands are not for me, my feet are not for me, my head is not for me, they are all Thine." The saying of the [Hadith], "Die before death," does not mean suicide, it means the death of the "I", the separate self.
Mind...
Mind is the knowing agent and mind is the object known.
In the first case,
it assumes the internal form of self-consciousness,
in the second case,
the external form of experienced world.
- Paul Brunton
Contemplate mind...
Huike asked:
If there are people intent on seeking the Path of
Enlightenment, what method should they practice, what method is most
essential and concise?
Bodhidharma answered:
Let them just contemplate mind—this one method
takes in all practices, and is indeed essential and concise.
- Bodhidharma
The habits of illusion...
Ordinary people have been revolving in circles since time immemorial,
being born and dying.
Because of clinging fixedly to self-images,
false ideas, and misperceptions, the habits of illusion eventually
become second nature to them.
Even if they suddenly awaken in this
life and realize that their essential nature is fundamentally empty
and silent, no different from the Buddhas, nevertheless past habits
are difficult to remove all at once.
- Master Chinul (1158-1210)
by hsin_shang ~ Advaita to Zen
Ashtavakra Gita...
One man believes in existence,
another says
“There is nothing!”
Rare is the man who believes
in neither.
He is free from confusion.
- Ashtavakra Gita
Chapter 18, verse 42
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
The Heart of Awareness: A Translation
of the Ashtavakra Gita
By Thomas Byrom
Shambala, 1990
A drop...
Listen, O drop, give yourself up without regret,
and in exchange gain the Ocean.
Listen, O drop, bestow upon yourself this honor,
and in the arms of the Sea be secure.
Who indeed should be so fortunate?
An Ocean wooing a drop!
In God's name, in God's name, sell and buy at once!
Give a drop, and take this Sea full of pearls.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
The illusion of time...
Each past experience as it happened did so in the present.
It was happening NOW.
The same will be exactly true of each future one.
This seems simple and true, yet it is really the result of a profounder analysis than people usually make of their human situation.
Then if both past and future are not different from the present,
we are always in the NOW.
This is what is meant by timeless existence,
by the illusory nature of time.
- Paul Brunton
A misapprehension...
Consider.
The world in which you live, who else knows about it?
Within the prison of your world appears a man who tells you that the world of painful contradictions, which you have created, is neither continuous nor permanent and is based on a misapprehension.
He pleads with you to get out of it.
You got into it by forgetting what you are, and you will get out of it by knowing yourself as you are.
There is no reality in it.
It cannot last.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
Awareness is your refuge...
Awareness is your refuge:
Awareness of the changingness of feelings,
of attitudes, of moods, of material change
and emotional change:
Stay with that, because it’s a refuge that is
indestructible.
It’s not something that changes.
It’s a refuge you can trust in.
This refuge is not something that you create.
It’s not a creation. It’s not an ideal.
It’s very practical and very simple, but
easily overlooked or not noticed.
When you’re mindful,
you’re beginning to notice,
it’s like this.
~ Ajahn Sumedho
' All Is Love '...
The whole world is a marketplace for Love,
For naught that is, from Love remains remote.
The Eternal Wisdom made all things in Love.
On Love they all depend, to Love all turn.
The earth, the heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars
The center of their orbit find in Love.
By Love are all bewildered, stupefied,
Intoxicated by the Wine of Love.
From each, Love demands a mystic silence.
What do all seek so earnestly? "Tis Love.
Love is the subject of their inmost thoughts,
In Love no longer "Thou" and "I" exist,
For self has passed away in the Beloved.
Now will I draw aside the veil from Love,
And in the temple of mine inmost soul
Behold the Friend, Incomparable Love.
He who would know the secret of both worlds
Will find that the secret of them both is Love.
Farid ud Din Attar, in Essential Sufism,
James Fadiman and Robert Frager
Recital of the Sarmoun Brotherhood..(Sufi Mystics)
He who knows and does not know that he knows:
he is asleep. Let him become one, whole.
Let him be awakened.
He who has known but does not know:
let him see once more the beginning of all.
He who does not wish to know, and yet says that he needs to know:
let him be guided to safety and to light.
He who does not know, and knows that he does not know:
let him, through this knowledge, know.
He who does not know, but thinks that he knows:
set him free from the confusion of that ignorance.
He who knows, and knows that HE IS:
he is wise. Let him be followed.
By his presence alone man may be transformed.
I who know, and do not know that I know:
let me become one, whole.
Let me be awakened.
I who have known, but do not know:
let me see once more the beginning of all.
I who do not wish to know, and yet say that I need to know:
let me be guided to safety and light.
I who do not know, and know that I do not know:
let me through this knowledge, know.
I who do not know, but think that I know:
set me free from the confusion of that ignorance.
He who knows, and know that HE IS:
he is wise. Let him be followed.
By his presence alone man may be transformed.
We who know, and do not know that we know:
let us become one, whole.
Let us be transformed.
We who have known, but do not know:
let us once more see the beginning of all.
We who do not wish to know, and yet say that we need to know:
let us be guided to safety and light.
We who do not know, and know that we do not know:
let us, through this knowledge, know.
We who do not know, but think that we know:
set us free from the confusion of that ignorance.
He who knows, and knows that HE IS;
he is wise. Let him be followed.
By his presence alone man may be transformed.
As with our forebears
So with our successors.
So with us.
We affirm this undertaking.
So let it be.
Buddha's smile...
I have often been asked what I thought was the secret of Buddha's smile.
It is--
it can only be--
that he smiled at himself for searching all those years for what he already possessed.
- Paul Brunton
The unreal is desire...
"Christianity is one way of putting words together and Hinduism is another.
The real is, behind and beyond words, incommunicable, directly experienced, explosive in its effect on the mind.
It is easily had when nothing else is wanted.
The unreal is created by imagination and perpetuated by desire."
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
_I Am That_
Two ways of Loving You...
"I have two ways of loving You:
A selfish one,
And another way that is worthy of You.
In my selfish love, I remember You and You alone.
In that other love, You lift the veil,
And let me feast my eyes on Your Living Face."
Rabi'a of Basra (717-801)
from _Doorkeeper of the Heart: Versions of Rabi'a_
Translated by Charles Upton
' Falling into Reality '...
The falling into Reality is often a fear filled experience, as you feel as though you are dying..
And in fact, you are dying.
The 'you' as ego, must die before entrance into Divine Consciousness..
Non-egoic Consciousness is called Love..
This is why God is called Unconditional Love, as only Love can enter Divine Consciousness..
In fact, we have never left God and the entrance is just a "Realization" that we have never left God..
The dissolving of the ego during life is to lessen this fear of death that we experience upon Enlightenment..
This fear of ego death will drive many away from this experience, this is the work of the ego and courage must be applied to push through this obstacle of fear..
as Jesus said;
"you must die, to be born"..
-namaste, thomas
The Golden Mean...
Spiritual life is not an extreme of avoiding or
getting.
It is a balance that you have to maintain
between two things.
Neither you should cling to
the body, nor should you torture it.
That is the
mean that you have to maintain,
- the golden
mean.
- Swami Krishnananda
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Your Questions Answered
Swami Krishnananda
The Divine Life Trust Society, 1995
Overself and the Short Path...
Most people who start the short path have usually had a glimpse of the Overself, because otherwise they find it too difficult to understand what the short path is about.
The long path, through its studies and practices, is the period of preparation for the advanced quest. It is called the long path because there is much work to be done on it and much development of character and emotions to go through. After some measure of this preparation the aspirants enter the short path to complete this work.
This takes a comparatively much shorter time and, as it has the possibility of yielding the full self-enlightenment at any moment, it ends suddenly.
What they are trying to do on the long path continues by itself once they have entered fully on the short path.
On the long path they are concerned with the personal ego and as a result give the negative thoughts their attention. On the short path they refuse to accept these negatives and instead look to the Overself. Thus the struggles will disappear.
This change of attitude is called "voiding" them. The moment such negative ideas and feelings appear, then instead of using the long path method of concentrating on the opposite kind of thought, such as calmness instead of anger, the short path way simply drops the negative idea into the Void, the Nothingness, and forgets it.
Now such a change can only be brought about by doing it quickly and firmly and turning to the Overself. Constant remembrance of the Overself has to be done all the way through the short path.
The long path works on the ego; but the short path uses the result of that work, which prepared them to come into communion with the Overself and become receptive to its presence, which includes its grace.
In order to understand the short path, it might be helpful to compare it to the long path which consists of a series of exercises and efforts which gradually develops concentration and character and knowledge. But the long path does not lead to the goal. On the long path you often measure your own progress. It is an endless path because there will always be new circumstances which bring new temptations and trials and confront the aspirant with new challenges.
No matter how spiritual the ego becomes it does not enter the whitest light, but remains in the greyish light.
On the long path you must deal with the urges of interference arising from the lower self and the negativity which enters from the surrounding environment. But the efforts on the long path will at last invoke the grace, which opens the perspective of the short path.
- Paul Brunton
A Gnani ...
A gnani commands a mode of spontaneous, non-sensory perception,
which makes him know things directly,
without intermediary of the senses.
-Nisargadatta Maharaj
One stream of 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.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
In a fountain there is a big stream which flows up and then breaks into many drops. The stream is like the divine will, and the different drops like the wills in us. One drop goes higher, another lower, one falls to the left, another to the right, one goes north, another south. But the source of all this activity is one; it is one thing that turns into so many, scattering in all directions. Thus from unity there has come variety.
Different methods called religions and philosophies have been adopted by different nations at various periods. Though the form and teachings of the several religions appear so unlike, their source is one and the same. But from the very beginning the differences have created prejudice, envy, and antagonism between man. Such dissensions occupy a large portion of the histories of the world and have become the most important subject in life.
So many castes and so many creeds,
So many faiths, and so many beliefs,
All have arisen from ignorance of man,
Wise is he who only truth conceives.
A wise man realizes that the fundamental basis of all religions and beliefs is one: Haqq, or truth. ... Those who see the truth uncovered abandon reason and logic, good and bad, high and low, new and old; differences and distinctions of names and forms fade away, and the whole universe is realized as nothing other than Haqq. Truth in its realization is one; in its representation it is many, since its revelations are made under varying conditions of time and space.
As water in a fountain flows in one stream but falls in many drops, divided by time and space, so are the revelations of the one stream of truth.
The habits of illusion...
Ordinary people have been revolving in circles since time immemorial,
being born and dying.
Because of clinging fixedly to self-images,
false ideas, and misperceptions, the habits of illusion eventually
become second nature to them.
Even if they suddenly awaken in this
life and realize that their essential nature is fundamentally empty
and silent, no different from the Buddhas, nevertheless past habits
are difficult to remove all at once.
- Master Chinul (1158-1210)
by hsin_shang ~ Advaita to Zen
The Short Path...
The time will come when you will have to turn your back upon the Long Path in order to give full attention, the full energy and the full time, to the Short Path.
For with this comes a new era when the whole concern is not with the ego, not with its improvement or betterment, but with the divine itself alone--
not with the surface consciousness and all its little changes but with the very depths, the diviner depths where reality abides.
At this point seek only the Higher Self, live only with positive thought, stay only for as long as you can with the holy silence within, feel only that inner stillness which belongs to the essence of consciousness.
Henceforth you are not to become this or that, not to gather the various virtues, but simply to be.
For this you do not have to strive, you do not have to think, you do not have to work with any form of yoga, with any method of meditation.
- Paul Brunton
Slaying the ego...
The Truth that you must slay the ego, goes back to the beginning of time..
The early teaching of this Knowledge is found in Hindu and Buddhist literature..
The bottom line is that You are the Creator of your experience..
Your desires will be created..
They will be dreams that we call illusions but these illusions will trap You within the dreams, when You start to Believe that the dreams are real..
To leave these dreams and Wake Up, You must stop identifying Your Self as a personality of these dreams..
This is the slaying of the ego..
This stops the dream and Awakens You in Reality..
This is called Enlightenment, as You Realise that You are Light, Consciousness and Love..
You can call the slaying of the ego or the dropping of the ego or the Awakening from ego or just living in Humility..
Humility is the word used in Christian teaching for the slaying of ego..
Unconditional Love is also a definition of slaying of ego..
There are many words and concepts that point to the Realisation that You will never be Free until the ego is dead...
namaste, thomas
Seek Only Source...
"a voice out of this world
calls on our souls
not to wait any more
get ready to move
to the original home
your real home
your real birth place
is up here with the heavens
let your soul take a flight
like a happy phoenix
you've been tied up
your feet in the mud
your body roped to a log
break loose your ties
get ready for the final flight
make your last journey
from this strange world
soar for the heights
where there is no more
separation of you and your home
God has created
your wings not to be dormant
as long as you are alive
you must try more and more
to use your wings to show you're alive
these wings of yours
are filled with quests and hopes
if they are not used
they will wither away
they will soon decay
you may not like
what I'm going to tell you
you are stuck
now you must seek
nothing but the source"..
Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi
from _Rumi: Fountain of Fire_
Translated by Nader Khalili
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