What is Salvation ?...
I have been accused of not being 'saved'..
Saved from what?..
From an imaginary hell of egoic desires?..
If God is Everything, why do you desire for separation?..
There is no other personality to be saved..
There is only an illusion of separation that has been taught that it must be saved..
You have a short time to awaken to Reality..
Use it wisely..
-thomas
The truth is in the middle...
A negative, pessimistic attitude of utter
condemnation of the world is wrong.
But
excessive love, being captivated by the beauty
of the world, is equally wrong.
The truth is
somewhere in the middle.
- Swami Krishnananda
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Facets of Spirituality
Complied by S. Bhagyalakshmi
Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1986
Possibility and impossibility...
Possibility is the nature of God,
and impossibility is the limitation of man.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged BY
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
Insight and Intuition...
Anthony Damiani from Living Wisdom
VM: Is it a lapsing of the I AM into its own self-knowing phase?
ANTHONY: I wouldn't say it's a lapsing. That is what you mean by the I AM. How could the I AM lapse? It has two aspects: One is self-knowing and the other is other-knowing. Knowing-knowing and knowing-the-other.
So the two faculties that we need in order to realize the attributes of the World-Mind within us are insight and intuition. Insight is the nature, the perception, of reality. When you attain insight, you know that the underlying reality of that object is consciousness, or Mind, the same way that you know that it is your reality, and there is no distinction between them because there is no relationship here. So to take an analogy, when you recognize—or know—that the waves and the ocean are water, that's nondual. There are no two things. There's only water. That's insight.
Now intuition is the reasoning employed on any object in manifestation. You employ the reasoning—and you can call it intuition; PB calls it intuition, but I'm trying to expand it because if feeling is developed to the utmost, and willing and knowing, it is intuitive. It doesn't operate like we know it in the separative intellect. Now, with that faculty of intuition, you can intuit what the reason principle is that underlies this particular object, and at the same time you have insight and recognize that consciousness is the substratum of all objects.
If you work with only insight, then there isn't knowing of anything. There's nothing to know anything about. But that's not the situation. The situation is the same for the sage as for us, in the sense that there's not only a substratum of reality that underlies the appearance, but there's also the appearance which will persist. Now you want to know something about that appearance, so you have to employ the reason.
The soul has these two faculties. When it wants to know or at least understand something about the World-Idea which is within it, then it has to use these two faculties.
Insight is the mind perceiving itself. Intuition is always of something.
Reality...
"He does not even need a God or the knowledge of the Brahman.
Once you realise that you are not the body and the mind, you have no needs and demands, then you are one with the manifest consciousness.
In due course you are not even the consciousness, when you dwell in the Highest, thus ultimately also transcending the consciousness.
Manifest consciousness is the Brahman.
Once stabilized in the Brahman, there is no longer any use for knowledge of the Brahman - that is, knowledge of the Self.
What can be the use of Brahman to the Brahman?
There is no high or low, no real or unreal, no inside nor outside and no dimension of any kind."
Nisargardatta
The non-self of Humility...
Yeshua speaks to you of non-self and yet you remain confused..
Sadness is the word that ego speaks to vibrations of thought..
You remain lost within illusions and cry that you do not need a map..
The Nazarene has already told you that the meek shall inherit the earth,
but, you have forgotten this lesson..
Humility, enters the room and says:
" I am available for rent, and even for free, for those worthwhile.."
I tell the Spirit of Humility, that It has entered the correct room...
-thomas
Freedom...
Do not fear to listen in triplicate..
Life is too short to feel the pain of ego..
The highest knowledge is that of Love..
All else is the ego striving for dominance..
Freedom is found when nothing more is searched for...
-thomas
Words...
Words are scratches of thoughts..
The ego yells that it is the author of words but Reality looks with laughter..
What does the 'I' desire?..
The 'I' desires more 'I'..
it is that easy..
It is all a Dream, and yet you believe all is real.
Your voice speaks with distain but Reality will shock the visions of egoic dominance..
-thomas
Tao Te Ching...
The highest good is like water.
Water gives life to the ten thousand things
and does not strive.
It flows in places men reject and so is like the Tao.
In dwelling, be close to the land.
In meditation, go deep in the heart.
In dealing with others, be gentle and kind.
In speech, be true.
In ruling, be just.
In business, be competent.
In action, watch the timing.
No fight: No blame.
- Lao-tzu
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Tao Te Ching
Translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English
Vintage Books Edition, September 1972
The heart sleeps...
The heart sleeps until it is awakened to life by a blow; it is as a rock, and the hidden fire flashes out when struck by another rock.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
The sorrow of the lover is continual, in the presence and in the absence of the beloved: in the presence for fear of the absence, and in absence in longing for the presence. According to the mystical view the pain of love is the dynamite that breaks up the heart, even if it be as hard as a rock. When this hardness that covers the light within is broken through, the streams of all bliss come forth as springs from the mountains.
It is the thoughts that spring from the depths of the heart which become inspirations and revelations, and these come from the hearts of awakened souls, called by the Sufis, Sahib-i Dil. The bringers of joy are the children of sorrow. Every blow we get in life pierces the heart and awakens our feelings to sympathize with others, and every swing of comfort lulls us to sleep, and we become unaware of all. This proves the truth of these words, 'Blessed are they that mourn.'
Every atom, every object, every condition and every living being has a time of awakening. Sometimes there is a gradual awakening, and sometimes there is a sudden awakening. To some persons it comes in a moment's time - by a blow, by a disappointment, or because their heart has broken through something that happened suddenly. It seemed cruel, but at the same time the result was a sudden awakening and this awakening brought a blessing beyond praise. The outlook changed, the insight deepened; joy, quiet, independence and freedom were felt, and compassion showed in the attitude. A person who would never forgive, who liked to take revenge, who was easily displeased and cross, a person who would measure and weigh, when his soul is awakened, becomes in one moment a different person.
There are experiences such as failure in business, or misfortune, or illness, or a certain blow in one's life, whether an affair of the heart or of money or a social affair, whatever it may be -- there are blows which fall upon a person and a shell breaks, a new consciousness is produced. ... The deeper the experience touches us, the greater the unfoldment. In this way we unfold gradually towards that which is called perfection. Spiritual unfoldment is the ultimate goal of every person. It comes at a moment when a man begins to be more thoughtful, when he begins to remember or to realize this yearning of the soul. Then consciously or unconsciously a feeling comes, 'Is this all I have to do in my life: to earn money? Whether I have a high rank or a position, it is all a play. I have become tired of this play. I should think of something else. There is something else I have to attain'. This is the beginning; it is the first step on the spiritual path. As soon as a person has taken this first step his outlook has changed, the value of things becomes different and things to which he had attached great importance become of less importance; things with which he concerned himself so much he no longer concerns himself with. ... Once the eyes of the heart are open, man begins to read every leaf of the tree as a page of the sacred Book.
The heart is like a being which is asleep and receiving a sharp blow it awakens. Also the heart is like a stone and the fire which is hidden within it can only he brought to life when it is struck by a hard material. Then the fire appears. So it is with the heart. The fire which is life, love and feeling and which is the most sacred thing in us, is hidden in the heart as the fire in the stone. When it is struck hardly the fire appears. That is why we receive great blows in life. The person becomes thoughtful as soon as the fire appears. And he looks at things differently. But of life's changes and great blows the wise realize that joy, rest and peace come.
Mindfulness...
Unless we have the determination to increase our mindfulness from
moment to moment,
we will easily forget to practice it.
Ayya Kemas
Family discord...
Should we worry about others or should we Know ourselves?..
You have divided self from self, never entering the Self..
The egoic manifestations within your circle of Thought will challenge 'you'..
Who are 'you'?..
Can Consciousness live above the fray ?..
Can Light push away Darkness?..
It depends on the time that Light has shown Itself..
-thomas
Thoughts on a sunday night...
A new week within the illusions await you..
How will you deal with them ?..
Will you remain within Consciousness or will the ego take command ?..
You have choice over the Dream..
You can feel the Love of non-egoic desire or choose the path that most take..
Do you desire Love or Fear ?..
I am giving you many questions, what answers will enter your consciousness tomorrow night ?..
Keep the Contemplation within your experience..
-thomas
Love is not of the mind...
"Trust God completely and He will solve all difficulties.
Faithfully leave everything to Him and He
will see to everything.
Love God sincerely and He will reveal Himself.
And as you love, your
heart must love so that your mind is not aware of it.
As you love God wholeheartedly and
honestly, sacrificing everything at the altar of this supreme love,
you will realize the Beloved
within you."
Meher Baba
_Listen Humanity_
Narrated and Edited by D. E. Stevens
NY: Crossroad, 1998, p. 191
the flow of energy...
The one who has earned and used what he has earned has gained.
The one who earned and collected and departed has lost.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged By
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
We and Nature...
Yes! Just as one Zen master said, "If you want enlightenment, go and wash dishes." Meaning, when you wash dishes, do not wash dishes with your hands while your mind is wandering all over.
With resentment.
That is not washing dishes. The sage, the wise man, has the basic working and living attitude of respectful trust towards nature and human nature, despite war, revolutions, starvation, rising crime and all manner of horrors. He is not concerned with the notion of an original sin, nor does he have the feeling that existence, samsara itself, is a disaster. His basic understanding has the premise that if you cannot trust nature and other people, you cannot trust yourself.
Without this underlying trust, the faith in the functioning of Totality, the whole system of nature, we are simply paralyzed. Ultimately, it is not really a matter of you on the one hand, and trusting nature on the other. It is really a matter of realizing that we and nature are one and the same process, not separate entities. You cannot omit one integer without upsetting the entire system.
In other words, the universe is an organic and relational process, not a mechanism. It is by no means analogous to a political or military hierarchy in which there is a supreme commander. It is multitudinous, a multi-dimensional net-work of jewels, each one containing the reflection of all others. That's how the universe has been described. Each jewel is a thing-event, and between one thing-event and another there is no obstruction. The mutual interpenetration and interdependence of everything in the universe. That's why the Chinese say, "Pick a blade of grass and you shake the universe."
The basic principle of this organic view of the universe is that the cosmos is implicit in every member of it and every point of it may be regarded as a center. The perfect under-standing is a floodlight on the whole universe in its functioning, exhibiting it as a harmony of intricate patterns. Whereas, the spotlight vision of the split-mind of the illusory individual entity sees only each pattern by itself, section by section and concludes that the universe is a mass of conflict. It is a limited spotlight vision which would give a sense of horror to the normal universal phenomenon of one species in the biological world, being the food of another. The broad perspective, thefloodlight which is the perfect understanding, would see things as they are.
Birth and death are nothing but integration and disintegration, the appearance and subsequent disappearance of the phenomenal objects in manifestation. True understanding, apperception, includes the understanding that there is no separation between understanding and action.
-anonymous
The names of God...
We have all heard of the many names that have been attributed to the Creator God..
This Creator God is the manifestor of Dreams..
We call these dreams, reality, but we remain asleep to Reality..
Jesus once walked into the upper room to witness His Apostles praying to the God of Creation and He began to laugh..
He said; " Do you not realise that this is the false god of illusions ?"..
The God of Creation is a Dream from the Oneness that is called Pure Awareness..
Pure Awareness has no name..
It is the Pure Thought of the continuity of Oneness called Love..
There is only One God, all others are dreams and desires from the egoic consciousness..
We create these dreams from the position of Divine Consciousness..
We are the God of Creation,
but, We are asleep..
We are false because we have chosen to experience non-reality as a mirror for Knowledge..
We pretend to be that which we are not..
The God of Pure Awareness has no name unless you choose to call this Energy, Love...
-thomas
we ARE them...
Love, not as an expression of separateness based on emotion, but as compassion, is that which holds the world together in Unicity.
In Unicity we do not love others, we ARE them.
-A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Happiness...
"Happiness is our real nature and we shall never rest until we find it.
But rarely do we know where to seek it.
Once you have understood that the world is but a mistaken view of reality,
and it is not what it appears to be,
you are free of its obsessions."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Thinker...
Each day, You awaken into the illusions of manifestation called life.
Do you not learn each day?..
The illusions are 'Thought Forms'..
You are the 'Thinker'..
As the Observer and Thinker,
You remain the gatherer of Knowledge...
-thomas
The journey of the pilgrim...
"The journey of the pilgrim is two steps and no more:
One is passing out of selfhood,
and one toward mystical union with the Friend."
Shabistari
The Secret Rose Garden
in John Baldock
The Essence of Sufism
Edison, NJ: Chartwell, 2004, p. 195
Love is natural...
Love is natural.
Console your mind and make
it listen.
Love all or it is not love.
Make your
mind love this way and you will see the magic
of this everyday.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
motion and change...
Through motion and change, life becomes intelligible; we live a life of change, but it is constancy we seek. It is this innate desire of the soul that leads man to God.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Man placed in the midst of this ever-changing world yet appreciates and seeks for constancy somewhere. He does not know that he must develop the nature of constancy in himself; it is the nature of the soul to value that which is dependable. But is there anything in the world on which one can depend, which is above change and destruction? All that is born, all that is made, must one day face destruction. All that has a beginning has also an end; but if there is anything one can depend upon it is hidden in the heart of man, it is the divine spark, the true philosopher's stone, the real gold, which is the innermost being of man.
What is this mortal world? What is this physical existence? What is this life of changes? If it were not for belief, what use is it all? Something which is changing, something which is not reliable, something which is liable to destruction. Therefore it is not only for the sake of truth, but for life itself that one must find belief in oneself, develop it, nurture it, allow it to grow every moment of one's life, that it may culminate in faith. It is that faith which is the mystery of life, the secret of salvation.
The whole of the external life is nothing but a succession of experiences, one after the other, night and day. That is why it is called a journey. Yet there is a part of life from which this life of changes has sprung; the life which is everlasting, which is eternal, the life to which all things return; and that life is the goal. Therefore, life is not only a journey; it is a goal. The goal is the stable part of life, the source of life; the manifested life called creation is the journey.
In this way we see that there are really two journeys. There is the journey from the goal to the life in the world, and there is the journey from the life in the world to the goal. And both journeys are natural. As it is natural to go forth from the eternal goal, so it is natural to go from the changing life to the life which is unchangeable.
The 'I'...
Yes, upon the suicide of egoic desire,
the 'I' appeared as Divine Consciousness and the Creator of Dreams..
And yet, as I, as Light looked upon all existence as Light had thoughts of more..
The Energy of Love and Wisdom flowed through this experience, the question of more continued to appear..
I was within Bliss and Love and wanted more..
What caused Me to seek more?..
Perhaps, it was the question that I presented to the Father within this Light..
I asked; "Is this the Final Reality"?..
For the first time, the Father of Dreams would not answer Me..
I returned into the illusion to learn more...
-thomas
Thoughts on a thursday night...
It is eight post meridian..
My thoughts enter the human illusion..
I am friends with all colors of human skin and yet can only see the soul..
The Beings of other worlds are also an aspect of this consciousness..
Consciousness sees all of the illusions of the Dream..
These divisions of the Dream are meant to teach you of acceptance and knowledge..
They are meant to awaken you into the Reality of Source..
Source has created these divisions of experience..
How does your ego react to these experiences ?..
The acceptance of all manifestations is called Love..
The division of all manifestations is called ego..
Which road will you travel tomorrow ?..
-thomas
Watch the mind...
Experience is not bound by any step or by no-step, by any state or by no-state!
The mind must be still without carrying any person or object.
Be careful! Don't let the mind run to concepts which will trick and
disturb you, so be very careful!
Look to where the mind runs.
Do this without taking any steps.
Just watch the mind's activity: where it goes, what it wants.
Be careful, day and night, whether you are meditating or in the marketplace.
Papaji
The physical body...
The animal part of us is doomed to oblivion, the spiritual part is ageless and deathless.
The physical body belongs to the animal part.
All attempts to perpetuate it must fail and arise from confusing the two levels of being, the transient and the eternal.
-- Notebooks Category 10: Healing of the Self >
Chapter 1: The Laws of Nature > # 36
Paul Brunton
Reality...
So let us understand that Reality transcends all of our notions about reality. Reality is neither Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Advaita Vedanta, nor Buddhist. It is neither dualistic nor non-dualistic, neither spiritual nor nonspiritual.
We should come to know that there is more reality and sacredness in a blade of grass than in all of our thoughts and ideas about reality. When we perceive from an undivided consciousness, we will find the sacred in every expression of life. We will find it in our teacup, in the fall breeze, in the brushing of our teeth, in each and every moment of living and dying.
Therefore we must leave the entire collection of conditioned thought behind and let ourselves be led by the inner thread of silence into the unknown, beyond where all paths end, to that place where we go innocently or not at all—not once but continually.
- Adyashanti
Thoughts on a wednesday night...
I turn from the 'talking heads' of the television illusion of reality and enter the differing frequencies called music..
Can music provide a smooth path to Reality ?..
Can the differing frequencies, bond, and become pleasure to the soul ?..
Music, without the words called singing can free you..
You as Divine Consciousness can leave the desire for egoic consciousness..
The frequency of mind that becomes ego, becomes confused within the frequencies of music..
It tries to control the Dream, but becomes lost within the many frequencies..
If you are wise, you will choose the higher frequencies called Love...
-thomas
Abiding in the Self...
Inquiry is making the mind abide firm in the Self
till the false ego, illusion's seed, has perished.
The Self, our Being, is Awareness.
- Ramana Maharshi
Final Union...
You must be intensely active for God if you would attain that actionless state of final union with Him."
Paramahansa Yogananda
The Essence of Self-Realization: The Wisdom of Paramahansa Yogananda
Nevada City, CA: Crystal Clarity Publishers, 1990, p. 87
The most profound victory...
The most profound victory is when the negative mind
has no more significance for you, no attraction.
This
is the case when you are clear that you are the formless
and unchanging Self.
- Mooji
The inner revolution...
This inner revolution is the awakening of an intelligence not born of the mind but of an inner silence of mind, which alone has the ability to uproot all of the old structures of one’s consciousness.
Unless these structures are uprooted, there will be no creative thought, action, or response. Unless there is an inner revolution, nothing new and fresh can flower. Only the old, the repetitious, the conditioned will flower in the absence of this revolution.
But our potential lies beyond the known, beyond the structures of the past, beyond anything that humanity has established. Our potential is something that can flower only when we are no longer caught within the influence and limitations of the known.
Beyond the realm of the mind, beyond the limitations of humanity’s conditioned consciousness, lies that which can be called the sacred. And it is from the sacred that a new and fluid consciousness is born that wipes away the old and brings to life the flowering of a living and undivided expression of being. Such an expression is neither personal nor impersonal, neither spiritual nor worldly, but rather the flow and flowering of existence beyond all notions of self.
- Adyashanti
Awakening from the mortal dream...
You were brought up to take everything seriously,
to have goals, ambitions.
Where do these things lead you?
Look at the precarious condition the world is in today.
Man's inhumanity to man is everywhere prevalent.
Wars, these dastardly conditions have been going on
since the beginning of time.
Yet what do you have to do with these things?
You didn't come here to straighten out the world.
You didn't come here to make peace.
You didn't come here to teach people anything or
to show anybody anything.
You are here in order to wake up, to awaken,
to awaken from the mortal dream.
That's all you're here for.
You're not here for any other reason.
~ Robert Adams
The road is the goal...
Once you realize that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road,
not to reach a goal,
but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom,
life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple,
in itself an ecstasy.
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
Watch...
Watch any plant or animal and let it teach you acceptance of what is, surrender to the Now.
Let it teach you Being.
Let it teach you integrity — which means to be one, to be yourself, to be real.
Let it teach you how to live and how to die, and how not to make living and dying into a problem.
~ Eckhart Tolle,
Thoughts on a monday night...
I ask friends of what to write of..
They speak of the desire of murder of the escaped convicts of new york..
How can I relate to this desire?..
These men are in close proximity to us but, I desire no death..
These two men are murderers and yet, I feel no desire for their demise..
I think of Jesus on the cross and His forgiving of those that are killing Him..
Should I be less than the Teacher?..
Is my life worth more than that of another?..
Divine Consciousness reminds me that I am just another Dream..
Who am I to change the Dream?..
The body reminds me that change is close and Reality is near..
I will return to Light without any desire for killing...
-thomas
Time...
"One who is afraid of time becomes a prey of time.
But time itself becomes a prey of that one who is not afraid of it."
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Buddha speaks...
"The light of lights is not blue, yellow, red, white or black.
It is not matter, not mind.
It is not existent, not nonexistent.
It is not a phenomenon resulting from causes.
It is the source of all Buddhas,
the basis of practicing the Way of enlightening beings,
fundamental for all Buddhists."
Shakyamuni Buddha
in Thomas Cleary, Tr.
Minding Mind: A Course in Basic Meditation
Boston: Shabhala, 1995, p. 65
Lalla...
I do not know myself,
nor you, my Lord.
I mistook the body
for my identity.
I didn't know
that you are
me, and I you,
yet still I keep wondering
who you and I are.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
Jackson Peterson: pre and post mind-processed reality...
Let's try this: your default "aware knowing" (rigpa) is easily noticed as the first moment of raw sensory experience just before the thinking labels and conceptualizes the perceptual moment. You hear a "ding-dong" sound purely: a micro-second later the mind kicks-in and says "bell ringing". Just before the mind generated the label and concept, there was perfect changeless rigpa. That naked rigpa, is always there in the first moment. Notice it's free of mind itself and doubt. It's just aware, nakedly aware. Doubts arise in the next moment. You are always the changeless aware knowing rigpa and perceptions, thoughts, concepts and labels appear next. This cycle occurs every second.
Doubts or concepts or perceptions or labels or "me" sensations appear without effecting the simple, always present default aware knowing. Notice you are simply the noticing of experience and that "active-noticing-knowing" can notice doubts come and go but the "aware noticing" contains no doubts, just like hearing sounds contains no doubts.
There are no doubts or confusions or issues to resolve: just "notice what is noticing" the doubts and confusions and see how it's always independent from being conditioned by doubts or perceptions or thoughts or confusions. All phenomena appear in the noticing awareness without "touching" it.
Identify the pure quality of that which is noticing experiences, and see how it's impossible for you to be anything other than that always present, peaceful and serene changeless noticing; the sentient heart of all experience.
Rig Veda...
"The ONE is Lord of all that moves and is fixed, of what walks and what flies — this multiform creation."
Rig Veda, III.54.8
in Anivash Chandra Bose, Comp.
Thus Spake the Vedas
Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math, n.d., p. 8
What is God ?...
Which God are you talking about?
What is God?
Is he not the very light by which you ask the
question? 'I am’ itself is God.
The seeking
itself is God.
In seeking you discover that you
are neither the body nor mind, and the love of
self in you is for the self in all.
The two are one.
The consciousness in you and the consciousness
in me, apparently two, really one, seek unity and
that is love.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
Are 'you' Awake ?...
The 'I' that is Awake is not the complete 'I'..
This 'I' is the Divine Consciousness of the creation of Dreams..
The 'I' that thinks of this Creator of Dreams is Pure Awareness and possesses no sense of 'I'..
The 'I' is the definition of egoic desire and therefore does not exist within complete Reality..
This is why Pure Awareness Dreams of a separation..
It is a mirror to see what It Is..
If there is no 'I' consciousness, then there is only the opposite of this consciousness , which is called Love...
-thomas
The Light of Reality...
As you read these words, Light will begin to surround you..
You will quickly see a brighter Light around you..
This Light is You..
You have created a Hologram..
You as Consciousness decided to play within the Dream..
Little did You know that You would be trapped in a prison of desires..
We surround the page with Light,
But, We can do no more..
You have decided to Fear Reality and continue the Dream of existence..
You remain within the Dream as separate entity called ego..
Do you not have a voice that can speak to Heart?..
-thomas
Some-thing...
Some-thing and No-thing yells our name..
Duality is a quest that is filled with pain..
You ask questions and yet the voice of poetry sings..
Can I sing within the voice of God?..
I am an Energy of Light and yet you desire Light to speak..
How can Light speak in the frequency of sound?..
-thomas
Thoughts on a friday night...
I ask friends to ask me a question of that which they need to know the answer of..
I return ten minutes later and yet no question arises within their mind..
they are asleep..
We within the illusion of dreams and ego remain asleep to Reality..
Therefore, no questions appear within the Dream..
This is what the Dream wants..
The Dream is egoic consciousness and does not want to be examined..
If you really looked into the Dream, You would Awaken..
Awakening is not allowed within the egoic desire..
Do you now begin to understand these words?..
I am speaking from a voice that exists within your consciousness,
and yet, you believe that you are reading the words of another..
There is no other, there is only You..
You have been sleeping..
Wake up!..
-thomas
Fight...
Fight with all the strength at your disposal
against the idea that you are nameable and
describable.
You are not.
Refuse to think of
yourself in terms of this or that.
There is no
other way out of misery, which you have
created for yourself through blind acceptance
without investigation.
Suffering is a call for
enquiry, all pain needs investigation.
Don't be
lazy to think.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
The escape from darkness...
The escape from darkness involves two stages:
First, the recognition that darkness cannot hide.
This step usually entails fear.
Second, the recognition that
there is nothing you want to hide even if you could.
This step brings escape from fear.
When you have become willing to hide nothing,
you will not only be willing to enter into communion
but will also understand peace and joy.
Holiness can never be really hidden in darkness,
but you can deceive yourself about it.
This deception makes you fearful
because you realize in your heart it is a deception,
and you exert enormous efforts to establish its reality.
The miracle sets reality where it belongs.
Reality belongs only to spirit,
and the miracle acknowledges only truth.
Your mind can be possessed by illusions,
but spirit is eternally free.
If a mind perceives without love,
it perceives an empty shell
and is unaware of the spirit within.
But the Atonement restores spirit to its proper place.
The mind that serves spirit is invulnerable.
The emptiness engendered by fear
must be replaced by forgiveness.
The above quotes are from the book
A Course in Miracles.
True beginners...
In the beginners mind there is no thought, "I have attained
something."
All self-centered thoughts limit our vast mind.
When we
have no thought of achievement, no thought of self, we are true
beginners.
Then we can really learn something.
-Shunryu Suzuki
The Liberation of Love...
When it gets very bright, we see that we are this brightness, this radiance, and then we start to realize from our own experience what this human birth is all about. This brightness comes back for itself, for every bit of confusion, for every bit of its suffering. Everything that the me tried to get away from, the sacred Self will come back for.
This bright Self starts to discover its true nature and wants to liberate all of itself, to enjoy itself, and to truly love itself in all of its flavors. The truly sacred is the love of what is, not a love of what could be. This love liberates what is.
The true heart of all human beings is the lover of what is, That's why we cannot escape any part of ourselves. This is not because we are a disaster, but because we are conscious and we are coming back for all of ourselves in this birth. No matter how confused we are, we will come back for every part of ourselves that has been left out of the game.
This is the birth of real compassion and love. For too long it has been said by spiritual traditions that you have to slay so much to get to love. But that is a myth. The truth is that it is love that really liberates.
~ From: Emptiness Dancing, by Adyashanti
" The way Home '...
Alison sings to you of the way Home..
Enter the sub-conscious mind..
You are Consciousness and yet, you are lost within desires..
The desire for separation is called life..
This entity of 'Thought form' is called ego..
You seek the slow 'Long Path' of dimensions..
You live within all of them and finally understand that You could have been Home at the beginning of the Circle..
All that Freedom requires is, Everything..
" Give up Everything, and follow Me",
said a man of virtue..
Do you not yet understand ?..
Desire is the name of your Prison !...
-thomas
Detaching from the ego...
As a highly personal "I" competing against other "I"s,
there can be only endless friction and intermittent anxiety.
As impersonal I-ness, dwelling in the eternal Now, there are none to compete against and nothing even to compete for.
-- Notebooks Category 8: The Ego >
Chapter 4: Detaching from The Ego > # 448
Paul Brunton
The veil...
"The veil between God and his servant is neither earth nor heaven, nor the Throne nor the Footstool:
thy selfhood and illusions are the veil, and when thou removest these thou hast attained unto God."
Abu Sa'id ibn Abi'l Khayr
in Whitall N. Perry
A Treasury of Traditional Wisdom
Varanasi: Indica, 1998 (1971), p. 95
Meditation...
To meditate, you don't have to have any
objective, which means you don't have
any expectation at all.
In these moments
you don't find Reality, the Reality finds
you.
Just sit quietly for a moment.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
Stop all thoughts...
Detach from all mental objects, stop all thoughts:
do not let either
good or bad thoughts enter your thinking,
do not keep either Buddhist
teachings or worldly phenomena in mind.
-Huai-t'ang
Oneness...
Without any duality of perceiver and perceived, there is no way a normal thought can survive; it vanishes.
The phrase ‘single sphere of dharmakaya’ refers simply to this original wakefulness.
It is called single or sole, meaning not a duality, whereas the normal thinking mind is dualistic, and is never called single.
If this holding onto duality is not dissolved from within, there is the perpetuation of subject and object, perceiver and perceived.
Another famous phrase goes: ‘As long as duality does not become oneness, there is no enlightenment.’
When recognising, this duality is dissolved into oneness.
-Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
Today...
Today, I prepared for death..
I made arrangements with a funeral director for disposal of the body..
I frightened my sister with this news..
I did now want her to become confused with the announcement of my death..
I did not want her to be 'ripped off' by funeral directors..
I will send her the money to pay for all expenses..
You must also prepare for the future..
Do not be selfish and do nothing..
The fear of death will cause you to do nothing and leave others to do the work that you should have done..
Do not fear death..
Did you fear birth?..
You cried upon the entry into the dream and no doubt, you will cry upon death..
We cannot die unless We want to..
The road of the Mystic is the desire to die..
Die to the illusion of self..
I will meet you within the Light...
-thomas
On a tuesday night...
An update upon the soul that believed that death was calling, has been saved from the destruction of the body..
His smile exhibits the continuation of his dream..
And yet, another soul speaks of emotion and sound..
She is a music teacher and yet never examined the connection between sound and emotion..
I question her about this connection and the response is that of non-inquiry..
Upon certain frequencies of sound, tears appear..
Why is this ?..
The soul always seeks Freedom..
Love is the connection of all Reality..
Love is the Unity of Consciousness..
The tears that flow are the Realization of Reality..
But, one that does not know of the facets of Reality will not understand emotion..
Tears flow at pain and joy..
This is the Soul that witnesses both..
This is Consciousness that sees Duality..
And yet, we believe that We are separate from Reality..
Tears and Joy originate from the same mind..
Both could be from the egoic consciousness and both could be from Love..
You have the Free Will to decide...
- thomas
You are everywhere...
"From all that was familiar, I broke away.
Now I am lost, without a place, wandering.
With no music, like a fool I dance and clap my hands.
How am I to live without You?
You are everywhere, but I cannot see You."
Jalaludin Rumi
in Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mali, Translators
Rumi: Hidden Music
Barnes & Noble, 2009 (reprint), p. 33
The ego attachment...
We sit in the ego with all its limitations as in a prison and we do not know that we are prisoners, for we identify ourselves with it and blind ourselves by those very limitations.
It is there and it has to be there, but it need not be there to imprison us or to narrow our outlook.
The ego imprisons us, for instance, with its memories which keep us steeped in the past when the wisdom of the spirit is to live in the eternal now--which is all we have in reality and which alone is real for neither past nor future possess any reality.
-- Notebooks Category 8: The Ego >
Chapter 4: Detaching from The Ego > # 42
Paul Brunton
Does the mind exist ?...
"You can find out whether the mind exists or not by just turning inwards and reflecting carefully.
You will see that the mind does not begin, or end, or stay, anywhere;
that it has no colour or form and is to be found neither inside nor outside the body."
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche in "Enlightened Courage"
The digits of life...
We receive bills monthly that demand the payment of paper value..
We believe that paper has value but it only contains promises of value..
We as mystics see from the vision of Observer to this dream..
Any value of life is contained within Energy..
The Energy expanded within the egoic dream has value..
This Energy is stolen from you by forces that you are not aware of..
And yet, as Consciousness, We view this Play..
We do not care, as physical value has no value..
As the Nazarene said;
"Give to Caesar, what is Caesar's, and to God , what is God's"..
So simple and yet, we keep wondering about Reality..
You acquire nothing and you leave with nothing..
You are Nothing..
Is it not now clear to you ?..
Reality is the Nothingness of Thought and Love..
There is nothing else except dreams..
-thomas
Realization is the goal...
"Books -- sacred scriptures -- all point the way to God.
Once you know the way, what is the use of books?
The hour comes for the culture of the soul in solitary communion with God....
The sacred books only tell us of the way leading to God, i.e., of the means for the realization of God.
The way being once known, the next step is to work one's way to the goal.
Realization is the goal."
Sri Ramakrishna
Teachings of Ramakrishna
Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1997, pp. 170-171
Enlightenment is effortless...
By and large, people want liberation, freedom, bliss, peace, love, and total release from fear. They want all the accoutrements of enlightenment without having to pay the price. They don’t want to pay the price of a total love affair, a total commitment.
I’m not speaking of anything that is separate or different from your life. This doesn’t have anything to do with the monastery or leaving your day-to-day existence. The truth is here in every single moment of your life.
That’s the truth. It’s not separate from your life. You can’t run away from yourself and your life in order to awaken to reality. Your life is your path to awakening. Stop and open your eyes: You were free from the very beginning.
Please understand that it’s not you that wakes up; it’s reality that wakes up, the truth wakes up.
You are not enlightened; enlightenment is enlightened.
Ultimately this realization doesn’t have anything to do with individuals, since there aren’t any separate individuals.
That is the whole illusion, that there is something separate from the ultimate reality. When it’s clear that there’s nothing going on other than the ultimate reality, it’s a done deal -- enlightenment is effortless.
- Adyashanti
Back to Heaven...
"So, how do you get back to heaven?
To begin with, just notice the thoughts
that take you away from it.
You don't have to believe everything your thoughts tell you.
Just become familiar with the particular thoughts you use
to deprive yourself of happiness.
It may seem strange at first
to get to know yourself in this way,
but becoming familiar with your stressful thoughts
will show you the way home to everything you need."
~ Byron Katie ~
It is sunday night...
Thoughts within the apparitions called souls feel the pain of future day..
The souls are the Choir of Reality..
We sing in unison..
We often sing solo..
Duality at it's finest.
We seek each monday with the desire for survival..
We both fear and expect, according to mind..
The mind is the ego and therefore should be watched closely..
The path beyond mind is why, you are here..
The mind is an illusion of separation, but offers a key to a Door..
We knock upon the door with the mind, but mind cannot enter..
The only thing left to enter is Nothingness..
We enter easily..
We are Home...
- thomas
Awareness of Awareness...
Truth is non-dual.
It is the awareness of awareness, seeing the seer and knowing the knower, without the medium of the sense organs.
It is the intuitive and direct perception of the Consciousness
which is timeless existence and everlasting eternal joy.
- Srimati Margaret Coble
The Center...
Heaven and earth are impartial;
They see the ten thousand things as straw dogs.
The wise are impartial;
They see the people as straw dogs.
The space between heaven and earth is like a bellows.
The shape changes but not the form;
The more it moves, the more it yields.
More words count less.
Hold fast to the center.
- Lao-tzu
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Tao Te Ching
Translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English
Vintage Books Edition, September 1972
The soul...
What is most advisable in life is to be sensitive enough to feel life and its beauty and to appreciate it,
but at the same time to consider that one's soul is divine, and that all else is foreign to it;
that all things that belong to the earth are foreign to one's soul.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged By
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
Seeing Truly...
Seeing truly,
is not merely a change in the direction of seeing but a
change in its very center,
in which the seer himself disappears.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
Turiyatita...
"Look closely and you will see that all names and forms are
but transitory waves on the ocean of consciousness, that
only consciousness can be said to be, not its
transformations.
In the immensity of consciousness a light
appears, a tiny point that moves rapidly and traces shapes,
thoughts and feelings, concepts and ideas, like the pen
writing on paper.
And the ink that leaves a trace is memory.
You are that tiny point, and by your movement the world is
ever re-created. Stop moving and there will be no world.
Look within and you will find that the point of light is the
reflection of the immensity of light in the body, as the
sense "I am".
There is only light, all else appears.
To the
mind, it [that light] appears as darkness.
It can be known
only through its reflections.
All is seen in daylight - except
daylight.
To be the point of light tracing the world is turiya.
To be the light itself is turiyatita.
But of what use are
names when reality is so near?"..
--Sri Nisargadatta
Zen...
All…phenomena are intrinsically void and yet this Mind with
which they are identical is no mere nothingness.
-Huang Po, “Zen Teaching of Huang Po”
A talk with Overself...
It is not often that Consciousness will have a conversation with a mental hologram..
Perhaps, it is an experiment within the dreams of Reality..
As You speak from Voice to Ear, you begin to Awaken..
Desire, is the word that is shouted..
I stand back with shock at the volume of sound..
I then begin to understand the wake-up bell..
It is Desire that keeps You within prison..
I ask Consciousness;
" What is the compulsion for desires?..
" It is a Play of opposites",
says Consciousness..
"I as Consciousness am the flagman to lead You to Pure Awareness"..
"You desire separation and therefore remain within the Dreams"..
"I am You, and yet remain dreaming"..
" When We Awaken, We will surrender all, and return Home"..
-thomas
A source of suffering...
This mind is an uncertain thing. This body is uncertain. Together they
are impermanent.
Together they are a source of suffering.
Together
they are devoid of self.
These, the Buddha pointed out, are neither
being, nor a person, nor a self, nor a soul, nor us, nor they.
They
are merely elements: earth, water, fire and wind. Elements only!
-Ajahn Chah
Stop Struggling...
So we are trapped within our illusions and misperceptions. And the greatest illusion of all is to believe that we are not trapped. But even when we realize that we are confined within a prison of our own making, we are trapped because all the ways we struggle to get out of our illusions are illusions themselves. So, yes, we are trapped, and helpless to boot.
But there is a very strange thing that can occur at exactly the point where you realize that there is no escaping the imaginary world of your illusions. You bare your heart open to illusion, surrender your eternal struggle against it, and admit to being bound by its cunning imagination. I don’t mean that you become despondent or resigned to your fate. I mean that you truly let go in the face of your utter defeat and stop struggling.
And when all the struggle ceases, we realize that the prison of our mind cannot hold us in anymore, because the prison was all along something we imagined into existence. And imagined things aren’t real, they don’t exist. But we could never really see this as long as we were fighting the phantoms of our minds. We needed the one thing that our imaginary minds could not bring about, could not fake or create: the genuine surrender of all struggle.
In the blink of an eye, we are no longer confined within illusion nor our attempt to avoid illusion. When all struggle ceases, there is nothing to bind us to a distorted perception of existence and we can finally see. What we see is that we do not simply exist within existence, but all of existence exists within us as well. And although everywhere we look we see the endless diversity of life, we also now see our own true face in everything under the sun.
- Adyashanti
The Mystic Death...
The truth of your own nature, the mystics all testify, is that you are nothing, which reveals that you are everything.
In your deepest essence, you are identical with God or ultimate reality.
Your real Life is the birthless and deathless Life of God, and the Life of God embraces the whole of creation.
But as long as your identity is centered in the limited life of the ego, you cannot live in full consciousness of this Life.
Thus, you must die to your self-centered life in order to awaken into the Life of God.
As Rumi says, “You want Reality unmasked? Choose death!
Not the death that drags you to the tomb—the death that is a transmutation, so you at last change into the Light” (Rumi, Odes).
Or, as Jesus says, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it” (Matt. 16:25-26).
Thus, the genuine mystic lives in and as God only insofar as the life in and as the ego is dead.
It is the ego’s delusion of grandeur that imagines you can escape suffering and attain immortality, when in fact your life centered in the ego must be completely sacrificed in the mystical death.
Any teacher or teaching that is not clear about this just feeds the ego’s propensity for megalomania and self-deception.
The genuine mystical path involves the perpetual surrender and sacrifice of all self-centered egoistic activity, up to and including the complete sacrifice of ego-centered life itself.
Thus all genuine mysticism teaches the cultivation of selflessness, love, and compassion...
-from integralscience.org
" The last thing on my mind"...
Very few souls can remain within full consciousness..
We return to appear in a dream..
We become separate and look within a mirror, called other..
We pretend to be a self..
The ego appears as name..
And yet, something happens..
Our sight becomes longer..
We see above dreams..
We become the 'Watcher'..
That which sees and yet feels no pain..
Are we ready for this Knowledge?..
-thomas
Real Knowledge...
Relative knowledge pertains to the mind and not to the Self.
It is therefore illusory and not permanent.
Take a scientist,
for instance.
He formulates a theory that the Earth is round
and goes on to prove it on an incontrovertible basis.
When
he falls asleep the whole idea vanishes; his mind is left a blank.
What does it matter whether the world remains round or flat
when he is asleep?
So you see the futility of all such relative
knowledge.
One should go beyond relative knowledge and
abide in the Self.
Real knowledge is such experience, and
not apprehension by the mind."
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
The Overself...
Since there are no negative emotions in the Overself,
how can it stay in the same breast as an ego filled with them?
This is why the glimpse can be only a brief one,
and why it can be stretched into permanency only by first cleansing the nature of all negatives.
— Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself >
Chapter 8: Glimpses and Permanent Illumination > # 67
Paul Brunton
Love...
Love has nothing to do with another person.
Love is your individual and collective soul.
Love is God.
Love is truth.
Love is beauty.
Love is Self.
To know yourself,
to surrender to the truth of yourself,
is to surrender to love.
- Gangaji
One more song...
Jackson Browne sings of one more song..
We also have this desire of existence..
Reincarnation draws us back into the dream..
The egoic desire returns for another lifetime..
Why do we desire the experience of pain ?..
When we are controlled by egoic desire,
We as Reality are not in control,
only the sub-conscious mind of the body illusion is in control..
We seek Happiness,
the ego tells us that it hides in desires..
As the Nazarene said;
"Give up all and follow Me"..
Surrendering all desires,
is the requirement of Freedom..
-thomas
Stay as the Self...
Don't be compassionate with your ego-mind. Don't give
space to thoughts which are not just negative but
destructive and soul-oppressive.
When you are aware of
the Self, the ego-mind means nothing for you. Nothing
at all. Nothing can grow there. There is no soil for ego.
Ego can only grow if there is still some Interest, belief,
identity and investment in it.
So then you will have to
fight with it--unavoidably. And one gun is not enough.
You have to have a gun, grenades, a bazooka, a tank, an
atomic bomb and you still can't blow the ego away.
I say - stay only as the Self.
- Mooji
Healing...
It is a mistake, however, to turn the higher self into a mere
convenience to be used chiefly for obtaining healing or getting
guidance, for healing the sicknesses of the physical body, or guiding
the activities of the physical ego.
It should be sought for its own
sake, and these other things should be sought only occasionally or
incidentally, as and when needed.
They should not be made habitual.
In
his periodic meditations, for instance, the aspirant should seek the
divine source of his being because it is right, necessary, and good
for him to do so and he should forget every other desire.
Only after
he has done that and found the source, and only on his backward
journey to the day's activities, may he remember these lesser desires
and utilize the serenity and power thus gained for attending to them.
— Notebooks Category 10: Healing of the Self > Chapter 5: The
Healing Power of The Overself > # 133
Paul Brunton
Always return to Love...
"Never be discouraged. Always return to Love, Compassion and Humility. In this way you will be protected. Always be involved in alleviating the suffering of others, asking nothing for yourself. Do good deeds anonymously. Daily. This is your True Nature. "
"If you are angry, egotistical, debating all the time, you will attract teachers and environments of this consciousness. If your heart is pure, you will attract pure hearted teachings and people in your life."
"Keep Unswervingly Devoted to Good. Here You Will Find Your True Self."
“The Universe lies waiting in sweet repose for you to remember who you are.”
You want the results of the saints and sages, but they did their homework.
If you seek self aggrandizement and acknowledgement by others, you will become very unhappy. For this is not your True Nature.
Live correctly, do daily practices, spread sunshine and love to others, and these things will awaken Grace and Forgiveness in your life. This will make it easier to experience your True Self. This will become a beautiful reality for you.
Live in Brotherhood with all, and live according to scriptural precepts. You cannot escape this. Live correctly. Live in Brotherhood with all. Without this, you will not alleviate your own suffering"
"Do not participate in spiritual disputes, debates or discussions....this is a waste of time, this is of the ego. Instead, use this time you have left on earth to experience the truth of which you speak."
- Robert Adams
Why do I post so much music ?...
The words of Truth will enter the mind but music and words will enter the heart..
The Heart is the Door of Reality..
"Knock upon this door and it shall be opened",
said the Nazarene..
I will continue to join the frequencies of sound and the frequency of Light..
Light will travel faster than sound, but sound will enter the Heart faster..
Have I kept you awake beyond your normal sleep?..
Keeping you Awake is my job..
namaste, thomas
The fear of death...
I met a friend of the age of fifty-one today..
He appeared happy and content with life..
And then his phone rang..
The polyp that appeared benign suddenly became important..
Fear entered his face and a tear ran down his cheek..
The fear of death has great power..
To one that fears death, the mystical is unimportant..
The egoic consciousness sees only non-existence..
Non-existence is the greatest fear of the imaginary self..
And yet, to the Mystic, non-existence is the meaning of life..
How different, we view this dream..
I offered words of hope and he returned home..
Love can do no more...
namaste, thomas
Beyond the mind...
An infant, not being aware of having an individual identity, has no intellect with which to conceptualize and therefore lives in spontaneous freedom without resistance from moment to moment.
The same is true of the self-realized sage, who has gone beyond the mind.
A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
http://www.advaita.org
Love alone...
"It is by love alone that we turn to God, are transformed into His likeness, and are united with Him,
so that we become one spirit with Him, and receive by and from Him all our happiness, here in grace, hereafter in glory.
Love can find no rest till she rests in the full and perfect possession of the Beloved."
Albert the Great
On Union With God
NY: Continuum, 2000, p. 70
originally published: London: Burnes Oates & Washbourne, 1911
Join the River...
Are you searching for your soul?
Then come out of your prison.
Leave the stream and join the river
that flows into the ocean.
Absorbed in this world
you've made it your burden.
Rise above this world.
There is another vision...
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
“Rumi - Whispers of the Beloved”
Selected and translated by
Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi
Thorsons, London 1999
No one...
The application of ethical teachings to the analytic study of experience is correct only for the Long Path.
Since the Short Path teaches that there is no finite ego,
there is no one to apply those teachings!
Consequently there is no one to learn lessons from suffering and no one to commit the sins which create suffering.
- Paul Brunton
Emptiness dancing...
“It is one thing to come upon enlightenment,
the breaking through distinctions to the great unity.
It is quite another to realize its function and activity.
Until the emptiness can dance spontaneously, realization is not complete.”
~ Adyashanti
The Devil's bargain...
James Taylor sings of the 'Devils's Bargain'..
This is the state of Duality..
You are the mirror of duality..
We choose the path to walk..
Do we choose fear or love?..
The 'Devils bargain' is 'free will'..
Are you beginning to understand ?..
Do you choose Slavery or Freedom?..
Reincarnation or Nothingness?..
Leave the wheel of ego..
Become that which is beyond dreams..
Choose Reality...
- thomas
Richie Havens...
Richie Havens speaks of meeting his Father,
what enters your Consciousness ?..
I have found a higher wisdom within this light..
Strangely, a baritone voice appears within consciousness..
Is this why, It is called Father?
I do not possess fear at this event..
Somehow, I see it as normal..
This Voice answers questions of existence and non-existence..
Wisdom is the pure awareness that enters this Consciousness..
There is movement within this Circle of Awareness..
White Light shines as far as I can see..
And yet, I exist as Light..
My Consciousness kindly tells me to look higher into Reality..
I look higher and see only Nothingness,
and I am Love...
-thomas
Woodstock Reunion...
James Taylor and Joni Mitchell bring back the memories of Love..
I would meet with Richie Havens on the anniversary and speak of the past..
Richie felt the power of love so deeply that he had his ashes spread upon this field a year ago..
So many of my friends have left the hologram..
I find myself beyond the life span that was destined for me..
Viet Nam reminded me of death and yet Consciousness allowed the hologram to continue..
This website is why, I was allowed to continue this dream..
The key word within this dream of the sixties is Love..
We walked and acted within the frequency of Love and yet further generations do not understand this memory..
I feel the loss of the younger generation..
Love is all that does exist and yet they concentrate only upon the internet and phone..
They are lost within the illusion..
Perhaps, Woodstock will again be reborn..
-thomas
Go beyond...
"There are always moments when one feels empty and estranged.
Such moments are most desirable,
for it means the soul has cast its moorings and is sailing for distant places.
This is detachment-
-when the old is over and the new has not yet come.
If you are afraid the state may be distressing,
but there is really nothing to be afraid of.
Remember the instruction:
Whatever you come across--go beyond.”
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Rasul...
The rasul is the soul through which God Himself has attained that which is the purpose of creation;
in other words,
the rasul is the one who represents God's perfection through human limitation.
Divinity is the outcome of humanity.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged By
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
In your heart...
"Why do you go into the forest in search of God?
He lives in all and is ever distinct;
He abides with you, too.
As fragrance dwells in a flower,
And reflection in a mirror;
So does God dwell inside everything;
Seek Him, therefore, in your heart."
_Adi Granth, _Dhanasari, M>9, p. 684
in Andrew Wilson, Ed.
_World Scripture: A Comparative Anthology of Sacred Texts_
St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 1995, p. 73
The Spirit of Perfection...
The fulfillment of this whole creation is to be found in man.
And this object is only fulfilled when man has awakened to that part of his being which represents the master:
in other words, God Himself.
It is in man that the divine perfection is to be seen.
He identified himself with that spirit of which he was conscious, with that spirit of perfection which lived before Jesus, and will continue to live till the end of the world, of eternity.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged By
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
The Direct Path...
The end point is already at the beginning. That’s what we call the direct path.
You don’t have to get to silence.
You simply have to realize it’s there.
You don’t have to get to openness.
You simply need to realize it’s already there.
You don’t need to get to freedom.
You simply need to recognize that it’s already there.
You don’t need to get to no-self.
You just need to recognize that there isn’t one there to begin with.
You don’t have to get to the divine.
You simply have to recognize that it’s the only thing that’s going on already.
That’s called the direct path.
It’s a direct experiential introduction to the view.
The key is that it’s got to be experiential.
- Adyashanti
Comprehension...
How can he adjust his vision of eternity to living prosaically in the here and now?
It is hard and, like many others, he will fail.
But repeated effort, undaunted practice,
comprehension of the Short Path may enable him to do so at last.
-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation >
Chapter 6: Advanced Meditation > # 226
Paul Brunton
Thoughts on a friday night...
Humans gather together seeking unconditional love..
I stand within these souls and the vibrations of laughter pierce the night..
Why do humans desire laughter?..
Because, only friends will laugh..
And what are friends?..
Friends are the seekers of love..
Are you beginning to understand?..
There is only "One",
but the illusions of separation called 'ego or self' seek to reunite into 'One'..
We are always seeking to return Home..
We spend our conscious energy within an energy absorbing Dream..
We remain tired from the struggle of survival..
What a shock to learn that survival is also a scam..
Survival of the illusion of separation is only a desire of separation from Reality..
We cannot die unless We are willing to die..
As the 'Nazarene' said;
" You must die, to be Born"..
Die to false self and return Home...
- thomas
Ram Tzu Speaks...
Ram Tzu knows this…
You are perfect.
Your every defect
is perfectly defined.
Your every blemish
is perfectly placed.
Your every absurd action
is perfectly timed.
Only God could make
Something this ridiculous,
Work.
- Ram Tzu
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
No Way for the Spiritually "Advanced"
Ram Tzu
Advaita Press, 1990
The search for Heaven...
How many souls think of Bliss ?..
What does experience this Bliss ?
I keep asking you questions..
But, you are aware, within the darkness of night and seek Knowledge..
As I spoke before of Light and Dark, what more can I say?..
Should I speak of Desire?..
Yes, it is Desire that keeps you a prisoner of Dreams..
I speak of Dreams, are you listening?..
The question mark keeps appearing and yet you continue reading instead of answering..
-thomas
What do I see ?...
I see the speakers of english within the countries of the world..
You are educated and intelligent, that is why you are here..
" Many are called, but few are chosen ", said the Nazarene..
You seek Truth..
Only the intelligent seek Truth, all others seek possessions..
Do these words enter the sub-consciousness mind, otherwise known as Soul?.
Do these words confuse you?..
They are meant to con-fuse you..
They are meant to tear you apart from illusions..
You believe that you are listening to another entity,
but, in Reality, You are speaking to Yourself..
So confusing are We...
-thomas
Into darkness or light...
I spoke to a man tonight that told me that he had died and only saw darkness..
By now, you know that We are Light, Love, and Consciousness..
Why did he see only darkness?..
Did he pass the first Reality and did not know it?..
The first Reality is Divine Consciousness, which is composed of Light, Love, and Consciousness..
The Final Reality is of Darkness but our Realisation is only of Thought..
Do you understand these words?..
Thought does not desire Light or Darkness..
Thought is what we know as Pure Awareness..
Thought, imagines Dreams as a learning device..
You as Thought see Dreams of Manifestation..
When I spoke of Mystical Knowledge, he became frightened and left..
Fear is the essence of the Dream..
Fear is the Duality of Truth..
Love is the Reality of Light and Darkness..
Love contains no ego to decide on Light or Darkness..
Are you now beginning to understand these strange concepts?..
- thomas
The Tao...
"Higher people hear of the Tao
They diligently practice it.
Average people hear of the Tao
They sometimes keep it and sometimes lose it.
Lower people hear of the Tao
They laugh loudly at it.
If they do not laugh, it would not be the Tao"
Lao Tzu..
Derek Lin
Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained
SkyLight Paths, 2006
Higher point of view...
The more elevated the soul, the broader the outlook.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Attitude is the principle thing in life. It is not the conditions in life which change life for us, but mostly it is our attitude toward life and its conditions upon which depends our happiness or unhappiness. ... The attitude becomes high and broad when one looks at life from a higher point of view. When the point of view is not high, the range of man's sight becomes limited; man becomes narrow in his outlook on life, and in his feelings, thought, speech and action the same is expressed.
Why is God pointed out on high, toward the sky? Why not toward the earth, for God is everywhere? The reason is that within the range of God's sight the whole universe stands as a little grain of corn, as to one that flies in the balloon and looks down from high the whole city comes within the range of his sight, when he stands on earth he sees no further than the four walls which keep the whole world covered from his sight.
What does it mean to become spiritual, or godly? It means to have a higher view of life, to look at life from a higher point of view. It is the high point of view in life which ennobles the soul.
The eyes of the man who neglects his duty to his fellow men, absorbed in life's intoxication, will certainly become dazzled and his mind exhausted before the presence of God. It does not mean that any soul will be deprived of the divine vision, it only means that the soul who has not learned to open his eyes wide enough will have his eyes closed before the vision of God. All virtues come from a wide outlook on life, all understanding comes from the keen observation of life. Nobility of soul, therefore, is signified in the broad attitude that man takes in life.
The process of spiritual development is an expansion, and this expansion is brought about by the widening of the outlook. The outlook depends upon the attitude of mind. If a mind is focused to thinking of small things, then this process of widening the outlook will not be completed. ...
Spiritual progress is the lifting of the consciousness in order that the consciousness may expand to perfection.
Therefore it is a continual work of trying to look into a wider sphere. By this attitude a person, without learning to be spiritual, will naturally become spiritual; his outlook on life will become different. 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, as his outlook becomes wide, so everything he says or does will be different. What we call nobleness, that natural nobleness which belongs to the soul, will blossom.
Transient...
It is better to realize that transiency is in the very nature of things.
Man constantly deludes himself with the hope that some transient possession will become a permanent one. It never does, and the self-deception merely robs him of a peace he might otherwise keep.
And this is true whether he wants to possess another human being or another hundred dollars, whether he wants to chain someone's love to himself or to chain more things to his home.
Hence the student who is oppressed by the rapidity with which his years are waning away will seek all the more intensely and aspire all the more earnestly for that which is itself eternal and above the years.
-- Notebooks Category 2: Overview of Practicies Involved >
Chapter 7: Discipline Desires > # 23
Paul Brunton
' The Lucky One'...
Alison sings of my life,
how did she know?..
Perhaps a young man of Woodstock will have many memories..
I have loved and lost many young women within those years..
And I find myself within a blank page speaking to strangers that seek Truth..
I speak from a Cloud of Light and yet pretend to be manifestation..
What a strange experience..
I speak from a voice that is not mine..
The manifestation looks and listens to the white page..
My soul shouts that it is an illusion..
Awareness replies back and says:
" Do not fear, Reality is Love",
and, 'You are the lucky one'..
- thomas
True freedom...
“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
Love...
"Whenever love is withheld and suffering allowed to spread,
war becomes inevitable.
Our indifference to our neighbor's sorrow brings suffering to our door.”
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
We are Thought...
Franklin speaks of the 'Great Tragedy',
His point may not be understood..
You are Divine Consciousness and if You are truly wise,
You will Realize that You are 'Pure Awareness',
That 'Source' that has no egoic consciousness and no personality..
You are That, which said "Let there be Light",
and yet, You have chosen to watch a Hologram..
Time does not exist within Reality and yet this Holographic Theater is present..
We are Awareness and merely observe the Play within the Light..
And yet, We do not exist..
We are Thought and have no name..
Are you beginning to understand?...
namaste, thomas
The fear of extinction...
The concept of us being anything but a human body that
occasionally feels a bliss called Love is difficult..
The sub-conscious mind has
been trained to believe that we are a body with a soul that might arrive in a
good place called heaven, if we are good..
The most difficult idea to wrap our
minds around is that in Final Reality, we do not exist..
In daily life, to not
exist is called humility and is praised as good and loving..
but, to take this
Truth to the highest plane of humility and love is to not exist within Spirit..
Only Spirit Existing..
As Jesus said;" you must die, to be born"..
giving your
greatest gift (life,self) is the greatest Love...
- namaste, thomas
One Great Tragedy...
I looked, as it were, over the world, asking:
'What is there of interest here? What is there worth doing?'
I found but one interest:
the desire that other souls should also realize this that I had realized, for in it lay the one effective key for the solving of their problems.
The little tragedies of men left me indifferent.
I saw one great Tragedy, the cause of all the rest, the failure of man to realize his own Divinity.
I saw but one solution, the Realization of that Divinity."
~ Franklin Merrell-Wolff, Experience and Philosophy
' Love and Fear "...
The 'Youngbloods' sing of love and fear and yet you hear only the guitar..
This is the Duaity of this Dream that You are experiencing..
Negative and Positive enter the Dream..
The question that enters Your Consciousness is, what is Love and Fear?..
The religious will speak of God and Satan, but the Spiritual will speak of Duality..
Love is the Reality of Divine Consciousness and Fear is the state of egoic consciousness..
The ego fears non-existence but Love fears nothing..
This is why the Powers of earth hate Love..
Are you beginning to understand?..
Love is the state of No-thingness..
Is it becoming more clear?..
This is where I must leave you to continue the walk..
namaste, thomas
Dharma...
Dharma means not holding onto any concept,
so the Supreme dharma is to reject all dharmas.
If you reject everything what will happen?
All the burdens of all the religions and concepts
will fall from your mind bringing you to the perfect
Peace and Love, and this is your dharma.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
Stillness...
For
God
To make love,
For the divine alchemy to work,
The Pitcher needs a still cup.
- Hafiz
egoic surrender...
His destination is also his origin.
But to say that he was born in the eternal Spirit starts the question,
"How can time, which is placed outside eternity, bring him to eternity?"
The answer is that it does not bring him there;
it only educates him to look for, and prepares him to pass through, the opening through which he can escape.
Need it be said that this lies at the point where ego surrenders wholly to Overself?..
-- Notebooks Category 26: World-Idea >
Chapter 4: True Idea of Man > # 249
Paul Brunton
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