How do you defeat an enemy ?...
The Nazarene told you the answer two thousand years ago..
The ego seeks the energy of it's existence by attacking your ego in search of egoic anger..
Anger is the energy of ego..
But, what if no energy is given to the opposing ego?..
The attacking ego begins to dissolve because of lack of energy..
Thus Love conquers the illusion and strength of ego..
The opposing ego rises about the lower desires and enters the energy called Love..
This is how you conquer your enemies,
by becoming their friend..
So simple and yet so difficult for the egoic mind to discover..
Discover this Truth yourself, and realise Freedom...
-thomas
Be thirsty, heart...
Be thirsty heart,
seek forever without a rest.
Let this soundless longing
hidden deep inside you
be the source
of every word you say.
- Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi
Both are True...
If you listen to me long enough, you'll hear me contradicting myself, constantly ... you're nothing ... you're everything ... there's no self ... well of course, there's a self ... .
If you went to my teacher, and had the great revelation of 'no self', of emptiness, I'm nothing, and the freedom of that, and that's totally true ... I'm nothing, and the great liberation of realizing that ... then the next thing, you'd get this great smile, and you'd see that my teacher’s really happy that you've finally kind of woken up out of your some-thingness, and then you'd get a quick rap on the head, crack, with a stick. 'Okay Mr. nobody, who did that hurt ?'
Then you'd scratch your head, and walk out of the room, hmmm... 'gosh I really thought I was nobody, there for a minute' ...
Of course it was true ... it wasn't a way of saying what was discovered wasn't real. It was a way of saying what was discovered, may not be the whole ... the whole truth, may not be the end. There may be more to this.
The discovering our infinite formlessness , also can lead to, realizing it's all one. Form ... formlessness ... is one. So this form, that appears to have a self, that appears to have me, appears to have, is not other than the formless one.
It's on the level of talk, the truth is fraught with total contradictions.
And the more awake we become, we become capable of holding these contradictions, effortlessly, because the truth, the true I, the true I of awakening, actually sees the oneness, and the mind sees in the oneness these totally contradictory experiences, are happening, simultaneously.
Of being the all, and everything, the supreme reality, and being this particular, individual, human being.
And both are true.
As we awaken, we begin to discover, one to the exclusion of the other.
First you're a human being ... then you're Mr. nobody ... and then Mr. nobody, is a human being.
And they're both simultaneously, true ... they're both simultaneously happening.
The danger of teachings is that, almost everything that can be said ... the opposite can be said to be almost equally true.
This presence of being is vast.
It's all inclusive.
-Adyashanti
The Journey...
Even while he travels on this quest he should habitually remind himself of an easily forgotten truth--
that what he travels to is inside himself, is the very essence of himself.
-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest >
Chapter 5: Self-Development > # 21
Paul Brunton
Folly...
Is there a greater folly than the aching folly
of supposing that the Self,
the I of pure awareness
which does not see this changing world at all,
is subject to some change?
-The above Ramana Maharshi quote is from the book
The Seven Steps to Awakening.
'you' and 'me'...
As long as in love there is "you" and "me", love is not fully kindled.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
There are three stages of morals. The first stage is the moral of reciprocity. This moral is natural to the one who sees the difference between himself and another, who recognizes every man as such and such.
The second stage is the law of beneficence, where man, recognizing himself as an entity separate from others and recognizing others as distinct entities themselves, yet sees a cord of connection running through himself and all, and finds himself as a dome in which rises an echo of good and evil; and in order to have a good echo he gives good for good and good for evil.
But the third stage is the moral of renunciation, where the difference of 'mine' and 'thine' and the distinction of 'I' and 'you' fade away in the realization of the one Life that is within and without, beneath and beyond; and that is the meaning of the verse in the Bible, 'In Him we live, and move, and have our being.'
When we can touch God in everyone then God tells us about Himself, because He sees that we have no hate, no prejudice. We have seen our Beloved, and our Beloved tells us all. Still, realization is difficult, for it involves discerning the difference between you and me. What is this difference? It is a great question, a great problem. Our 'I' and 'you' are just like a compass with which we draw circles on paper. The one point of the compass is the 'I', the other point is the 'you', and where they join there is no 'I-you.' The 'I' and 'you' only remain as long as we see ourselves; but when we rise above them or beyond them, the thought brings us nearer and nearer to God in that consciousness in which we all unite. ... Perfection and annihilation is that stage where there is no longer 'I' and no longer 'you', where there is what there is.
Detachment...
Detachment is sometimes confused with apathy. Detachment is not a state of not caring. It refers to seeing that no experience, thought, state, or other manifestation ultimately affects or changes your true nature as emptiness or formless awareness. Formless awareness is naturally detached from the forms that arise and fall in (and as) it, including states of caring or not caring. It is non-dual.
Awareness sees that positive and negative states are dualistic and temporary. Apathy is a negative, dualistic, and temporary state. States are manifestation. Detachment is not a state. It is an attribute of awareness, which is the unmanifest.
Perhaps a better word than detachment is nonattachment. Detachment assumes that there is a separate you that must detach from something that is arising. But awareness is not a doing. Awareness is naturally nonattached from whatever it sees. To be nonattached simply means to see that who you are is not limited to any particular temporary thing arising in awareness. You are that which is looking. Stated another way, awareness sees that it is appearing as everything that is arising. The unmanifest appears as the manifest but grasps onto nothing that is arising including a temporary state of apathy.
Scott Kiloby .. Reflections of the One Life:
Sorrow...
If the thought of sorrow spoils your joy,
yet it prepares you for joy.
Sorrow sweeps the house fiercely, emptying
it of everything, then, coming from the Source
of goodness, a new joy enters.
Sorrow chases away the withered leaves in the
heart, then new green leaves can grow.
Sorrow uproots the previous joy, then a new
delight springs from beyond.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Muriel Maufroy
"Breathing Truth - Quotations from Jalaluddin Rumi"
Sanyar Press - London, 1997
Self Responsibility...
There is no such thing as riding the coat-tails of an enlightened being to enlightenment itself. A failure to understand this can lead (as so many have been led) to cultish fanaticism, fundamentalism, magical thinking, disappointment, disillusionment, and/or spiritual infancy.
While it is understandable that many people project their unresolved parental issues, relationship issues, authority issues,
sexuality issues, as well as God issues onto their spiritual teacher (and are sometimes encouraged to do so by unscrupulous spiritual teachers), it is essential to understand that a spiritual teacher’s role is to be a good and wise spiritual guide as well as an embodiment of the Truth that he or she points toward.
While there may be deep respect, love, and even devotion to one’s spiritual teacher, it is important not to abdicate all of your authority over to your spiritual teacher or project all divinity exclusively onto them. Your life belongs in your hands, not someone else’s. Take responsibility for it.
-Adyashanti
Early stages of Enlightenment...
In the early stages of enlightenment, the aspirant is overwhelmed by his discovery that God is within himself.
It stirs his intensest feelings and excites his deepest thoughts. But, though he does not know it, those very feelings and thoughts still form part of his ego, albeit the highest part. So he still separates his being into two--self and Overself.
Only in the later stages does he find that God not only is within himself but is himself.
-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation >
Chapter 7: Contemplative Stillness > # 300
Paul Brunton
'The Witch '...
Donovan sings of the Witch..
I will tell you of the Witch..
The Witch is an egoic desire for power..
The Witch sees the illusions of manifestation as God..
The Witch seeks dominance over the illusion..
The Witch is still asleep..
Can I wake the Witch ?..
If the Witch continues to read this blog, they will Awaken into Reality..
You, six Witches throughout the world that read these words will Awaken..
How can you refute Truth ?..
Truth is Freedom,
this is what, you have always sought..
-thomas
' The soul '...
I have spoken of the sub-conscious mind being the soul..
The soul does not discern between positive and negative,
It only creates the manifestation that humans call Karma..
The thoughts within the human mind enter the sub-conscious mind and are created..
Are you beginning to understand that You are the Creator?..
So difficult to understand..
How can a human be the Creator?..
As the Nazarene once told you:
" The first shall be last and the last shall be first"..
You are the state of Humility called non-egoic desire which is known as 'Nothingness'..
When the sub-conscious mind is empty of egoic desires, Love enters..
It is that simple...
-thomas
The Power of Eternity...
If you only knew how much power You have,
You would reduce Yourself to ashes and ask for forgiveness..
The Real Power of Creation is a Dreamer..
This quiet Mind that exists Reality..
Are We stuck within a Mind or are We Thoughts ?..
Yes, We are Thoughts, because Love exists without egoic-desire..
There is no separation in Love..
There is only ONE..
-thomas
Thoughts on Thanksgiving Day...
As we meet with friends and relatives to celebrate the act of giving of both love and food,
we have to ask ourselves of the health of the world..
We are now witnessing the beginning of world war III,
We as citizens have very little control of events..
The Elite humans of earth decide on how to make money from wars..
We are pawns within the greed of corporations, bankers, and politicians..
They do not care of death, only wealth is felt within the Elite..
But, most humans cannot understand this situation..
This is why I speak to you of Reality and the Dream..
They can control the Dream but they cannot own your soul without your consent..
Is eighty years of human struggle worth the selling of soul ?..
The soul is the sub-conscious mind that is directly linked to Divine Consciousness..
Divine Consciousness is the Creator of Dreams called Creator God..
The soul is also a Dream but is Awakened into Divine Consciousness upon surrender of all egoic desire..
So much to tell you but a paragraph is short...
-thomas
Universal cooperation...
The law of the universe is cooperation and not competition.
It is not warfare.
That is the law of the universe, the total
solidarity for which the prayers of the ancient sages were
directed in such scriptures as the Vedas.
The Rigveda
concludes with a prayer for universal cooperation,
collaboration not merely in a social manner, but even in
the field of thinking, in collective aspiration and all activity.
- Swami Krishnananda
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Facets of Spirituality
Complied by S. Bhagyalakshmi
Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1986
The glimpse...
What, it has been asked, if I get no glimpses?
What can I do to break this barren monotonous dreary and sterile spiritual desert of my existence?
The answer is if you cannot meditate successfully go to nature, where she is quiet or beautiful; go to art where it is majestic, exalting; go to hear some great soul speak, whether in private talk or public address; go to literature, find a great inspired book written by someone who has had the glimpses.
- Paul Brunton
The teaching of stop...
My teacher once told me, "If you wait for the mind to stop, you're going to wait
forever." I suddenly had to rethink my avenue to enlightenment. I'd been trying to stop
my mind for a very long time, and I knew I had to find another course of action.
The spiritual instruction to "just stop" is not directed to the mind or to feelings or
to the personality. It's directed to the afterthought that takes credit and blame and says,
"It's mine." Stop!
That's where the teaching of stop is aimed. Just stop that. And then, in
that moment, feel how completely disarmed the sense of me feels. When the sense of me
is disarmed, it doesn't know what to do, whether to go forward or backward, right or left.
That's the kind of stopping that's important. The rest is just a game. Then, in that
stopping, a different state of being, an undivided state, starts to emerge. Why? Because
we are no longer at odds with ourselves.
- Adyashanti
'' Why do Fools fall in Love ?"...
Frankie Lymon asks us why, do we seek a non-egoic desire..
Only until Love is felt can decision be made..
The sense of Lightness, knowledge and Love flows within this River..
Can I ask you to swim?..
The Road is always filled with stumbling holes, but you will continue to walk..
The voices of the Dream, distract you..
The 'media' of 'mind control' continues to flick the lights of television..
Awakening into Reality is a solitary journey,
perhaps,
because there is only 'ONE"..
-thomas
Frequencies of existence...
The physical and mental faculties should be opened in such a way that the electric vibrations in the various planes of existence may be enabled to operate.
Physical vibrations depend upon the purity and energy of the body, and they can be projected through the finer organs, such as the palms of the hands, the tips of the fingers, the soles of the feet, the tongue, the cheek, the forehead, the ear, the lips, nose, and eyes.
The finest of all these is the eye.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged By
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
The emptiness of non-egoic desire...
In this emptiness you start to taste the experience of being. This is being before
you are something or somebody. And this mystery of being is what's awake and alive. It
is the only thing that doesn't need the mind to conjure it into existence. You don't have to
think at all to be this awakeness.
Everything about you changes except this one fact of
consciousness. The body changes. The mind changes. Thoughts change—much more
quickly than most people would like them to. And no matter how much knowledge you
acquire, that knowledge is not going to get you here any faster. Being is the one
constant—that which is always awake.
Now the mind, if you go back to its knowledge, has all sorts of ideas about what
your true nature must be because you have read about it so much, have heard spiritual
teachers talk about it, and there is a whole mystical mythology created around Truth. Of
course it's quite a shock to realize that's not it. Whatever you think you are, that's not it.
Even if your concept is very spiritual, mystical, and other worldly, you are not that
concept.
Adyashanti from Emptiness Dancing
Lonliness...
You will comprehend that while the Overself thus enfolds you,
you can never again feel lonely,
never again find the sky turned black because some human love has been denied or been withdrawn from you.
- Paul Brunton
Let us speak of Reality...
In these northern parts of the world, we struggle to keep the body above ninety degrees..
We wear cotton and wool and ask nature to not make us suffer another year..
We walk through life and work a job called important..
And all this time, we do not know that we are dreaming..
To walk beyond this life is to enter a state of non-temperature..
No longer to feel the pains of life is Joy..
You exist as love and barely remember the dream..
The characters within the dream walk without You..
You are beyond the Dream..
You are the Dreamer..
So difficult to believe..
A player being the Producer..
This is why you are here...
-thomas
' The wave '...
The wave is the sea itself yet, when it rises in the form of a wave, it is the wave and when you look at the whole of it, it is the sea.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
There is an Arabic saying, 'If you wish to know God, you must know yourself.' How little man knows while he is in the intoxication of individualism! ... We are connected with one another. Our lives are tied together, and there is a link in which we can see one current running through all. There are many globes and lamps, and yet one current is running through all.
The mystic seeks to realize this constantly and to impress it on his mind in whatever he may see. What, for him, are the waves of the sea? Are they not the sea itself? ... Therein lies the whole of religion. The mystic's prayer is to that beauty, and his work is to forget the self, to lose himself like a bubble in the water. The wave realizes, 'I am the sea', and by falling into the sea prostrates itself before its God.
Intuitive thought...
The interval between the coming and the going of an intuitive thought is so short that he must immediately and alertly respond to it.
If he misses it,
he will find that the mind can go back to it only with difficulty and uncertainty.
-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself >
Chapter 1: Intuition the Beginning > # 101
Paul Brunton
Co-creating reality...
Thought is memory. It cannot see what is. Only awareness sees what is. Thoughts constitute an interpretation of what is. They are memories. Therefore, no matter what you conclude about what is seen in this moment, the conclusion is not what is. It is your interpretation of what is. Your dream.
Reality is both formless awareness and the forms (interpretations) that arise from it and disappear back into it. In that way, one could say that reality is being co-created. There is ‘what is’ plus the interpretation of ‘what is.’ Your mind is interpreting reality all the time. Conflict and separation appear real when you believe that only your interpretation is correct and you do not see that formless awareness is arising as every interpretation. It is arising as everything you see.
When you find yourself in conflict, it just means that you mistook your interpretation of what is happening for reality itself. In reality, there is no conflict. Conflict arises when interpretations clash. Do not seek to be rid of your interpretation. Simply see that it is an interpretation. In that seeing, there is no longer identification with the interpretation, yet there is also not a denial of that interpretation. Thought still arises but it is no longer creating conflict. This is when it is seen that Oneness is seeing itself everywhere, in the broad diversity of life. Formless love is seeing and loving itself in every form.
-from Reflections on the One Life,
Scott Kiloby
The Ever-Presence...
If only he heeds its intuitive message, the higher self will not fail him.
He will make his way to true balanced sanity and deep inner calm.
Without searching for others, knowing that in himself God's representative resides and that this can give the right kind of help, he will depend for self-reliance on an ever-presence.
-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself >
Chapter 1: Intuition the Beginning > # 137
Paul Brunton
What is the purpose of it all?...
It is the instinct of exploration, the love of the unknown, that brings me into existence.
It is in the nature of being to seek adventure in becoming, as it is in the nature of becoming to seek peace in being.
This alternation of being and becoming is inevitable; but my home is beyond.
-Nisargadatta Maharaj from I Am That
' A Birthday Party" ...
Meeting many humans tonight in celebration of age..
So many souls walking in circles..
The Love of the aged one brings the light of empathy.
They touch Love and yet remain in darkness of non-comprehension of Reality..
The Light that they are, is covered in layers of egoic desire..
I look within the aura and see the wheel of reincarnation awaiting..
So many will remain dreaming and cannot be awakened.
These days, that compose a life are slight memories when You have returned Home..
You shout "Of course!", upon entry..
The dreams are quickly forgotten except for slight occasions of Love..
You begin a conversation with a Mind that exists within the same Light as You..
You are old friends meeting in a tavern..
Fear does not exist within Reality..
Only the Joy of Love is shown to expand beyond sight and known as Light..
Surrender everything and Awaken...
-thomas
Solitude...
Worldly people go outward,
but you must go
inward like the tortoise,
withdrawing within
your shell.
- Neem Karoli Baba
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Miracle of Love
by Ram Dass
E.P. Dutton, New York, 1979
The Light behind the Watcher...
Reality is not the result of a process; it is an explosion. It is definitely beyond the mind, but all you can do is to know your mind well. Not that the mind will help you, but by knowing your mind you may avoid your mind disabling you.
You have to be alert, or else your mind will play false with you. It is like watching a thief - not that you expect anything from a thief, but you do not want to be robbed. In the same way, you give a lot of attention to the mind without expecting anything from it.
Watch your mind, how it comes into being, how it operates.
As you watch your mind, you discover your self as the watcher.
When you stand motionless, only watching, you discover your self as the light behind the watcher. The source of light is dark, unknown is the source of knowledge. That source alone is. Go back to that source and abide there.
-Nisargadatta Maharaj from I Am That
Intuition...
What is more private, more intimate, than intuition?
It is the only means they possess where from to start to get mystical experience, glimpses, true enlightenment.
Yet they insist on seeking among those who stand outside them, among the teachers, for that which must be searched after and felt inside themselves.
- Paul Brunton
" 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
Break the shell...
[Once the person is eliminated] nothing will remain, all will remain. The sense of identity will remain, but no longer identification with a particular body. Being-awareness-love will shine in full splendour. Liberation is never of the person, it is always from the person. A vague memory [of the person] remains, like the memory of a dream, or early childhood. After all, what is there to remember? A flow of events, mostly accidental and meaningless. Is there anything worth remembering? The person is but a shell imprisoning you. Break the shell.
The dissolution of personality is followed always by a sense of great relief, as if a heavy burden has fallen off.
Every existence is my existence, every consciousness is my consciousness, every sorrow is my sorrow and every joy is my joy - this is universal life. Yet, my real being, and yours too, is beyond the universe and, therefore, beyond the categories of the particular and the universal. It is what it is, totally self-contained and independent.
-Nisargadatta Maharaj from I Am That
The Ocean of Being...
Liberated from what? Consciousness is liberated from the mistake, from false
identification and separation. Consciousness, or spirit, is pretty crafty and wise. It has a
lot at its disposal as a human being.
In life forms with no conscious awareness, the
evolution cannot speed up or slow down; it's just going to move at whatever speed it
moves. However, when consciousness becomes aware of itself in a human being, it sets
up a very interesting dynamic that's not available to any other form of planetary life.
The
dynamic is that when consciousness wakes up out of the illusion that it's a separate being,
consciousness can then use that form to wake itself up in a much larger sense. When it
wakes up to the fact that it's really not a wave but it's the ocean of being, it can then use
that wave to deliver the message—to get other waves to contemplate this possibility of
awakening.
In human beings, this evolution can speed up incredibly because of the conspiracy
that consciousness enters into. Once it wakes up in one form, it doesn't have to wait for a
natural maturation to happen in all other forms. When that form relates with another
form, the awake consciousness relates with sleeping consciousness. Now the sleeping
consciousness is much more likely to make this very big leap of awakening. That's the
game that consciousness plays in satsang. That's what it's all about.
-Adyashanti from Emptiness Dancing
Time...
Time does not exist.
You awaken into Reality when All is surrendered.
You are the Creator of all of your problems..
Love could have been your Mentor, but you chose otherwise.
You are the Creator of Dreams..
What have you done with this creation ?..
Yes, We will return to Divine Consciousness known as first reality.
But, You still desire to exist as Personality.
This is the desire of Kings.
You have been promised Thrones, but , that is a lie.
The Throne sits the egoic-desire.
You have more to travel.
-thomas
The Alarm Clock...
You read these words and hear these songs,
do these frequencies lift consciousness ?..
We are both staring at the white page.
Will these geometic forms called words awaken a sleeping consciousness ?..
"I am the 'alarm clock'..
I will strike you with the frequencies of Light and Sound..
Will these frequencies awaken you ?..
I will give you illusions of separate existence as a game..
I am the 'Mind' that sleeps alone..
I have no gender and this is why I split positive and negative..
I am One and appear separate..
I have the urge to Awaken..
When will the 'alarm clock' awaken Me?"...
-thomas
" This too shall pass "...
When the understanding arises that "This too shall
pass," whether it is happiness or misery, that under-
standing will bring about a tremendous change in
perspective.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
One Soul ...
The soul of all is one soul, and the truth is one truth, under whatever religion it is hidden.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
With all the opposition to the Master at the time when the [chief priests] demanded his crucifixion, did those who were present sincerely think the Master was guilty? No, each one of them was more or less impressed by the truth of the message, yet torn by convention and custom, bound by laws, held fast by the religious authority that was in power. They could not express their sincere feelings, and so law governed instead of love. And this state of things has existed in all ages. Blinded by conventions and by the laws of his time and the customs of his people, man has ignored and opposed the truth. Yet at the same time the truth has never failed to make its impression upon the soul, because the soul of all is one soul, and truth is one truth under whatever religion it is hidden.
In reality there cannot be many religions; there is only one. There cannot be two truths; there cannot be two masters. As there is only one God and one religion, there is one master and there is one truth. And the weakness of man has been that only what he is accustomed to consider as truth he takes to be truth, and anything he has not been accustomed to hear or think frightens him. Just like a person in a strange land, away from home, the soul is a stranger to the nature of things it is not accustomed to. But the journey to perfection means rising above limitations, rising so high that not only the horizon of one country, of one continent, is seen, but that of the whole world. The higher we rise, the wider becomes the horizon of our view.
If we come face to face with truth, it is one and the same. One may look at it from the Christian, from the Buddhist, or from the Hindu point of view, but in reality it is one point of view. One can either be small or large, either be false or true, either not know or know. As long as a person says, 'When I look at the horizon from the top of the mountain I become dizzy. This immensity of space frightens me,' he should not look at it. But if it does not make one dizzy it is a great joy to look at life from above. And from that position a Christian, Jew, Muslim and Buddhist will all see the same immensity. It is not limited to those of any one faith or creed. Gradually, as they unfold themselves and give proof of their response to the immensity of the knowledge, they are asked to go forward, face to face with their Lord.
Cause and Effect...
People should be warned that cause and effect rule in the moral realm no less than in the scientific realm.
They should be trained from childhood to take this principle into their calculation.
They should be made to feel responsible for setting causes into action that invite suffering or attract trouble or lead to frustration.
- Paul Brunton
There is only One...
Did we ever leave our first love ?..
Of course not, there is no we..
My point is to remind you that there is only One..
So difficult to believe that we do not exist..
Yes, we are a Dream from that One..
There is nothing to return..
There is no one to bow ..
There is only One...
-thomas
The problems of life...
Is it not strange that so many people come to me to speak of the problems of their life ?.
Perhaps, because I speak no profanities and exhibit no anger.
They walk to a quiet man.
After our talk, they walk away appearing content.
Can speech open the Door to Reality?..
Perhaps, it is not the speech but the vibration of knowing..
They exist with others and seek a balance..
They blame the other for failures..
The first mirror of the Dream is the vision of you..
You exist as the Observer and yet still pretend to be disatisfied..
How long will You pretend to be a Dream ?...
-thomas
Thoughts...
There are so many thoughts to ponder.
I now switch my television to eastern music as a means to think..
You speak of 'DNA' and genetics and the only thought that enters consciousness is that this road of thought leads to Dreams.
You are neither 'DNA' or genetics.
You are the Observer of this experiment.
I do feel comfortable that your words are not of 'Early English'.
I believe that modern english is most easily acceptable as knowledge.
We can speak in Higher Consciousness' called Poems,
or we can speak as friends on a street.
Either way, we can speak of thoughts.
If we agree or not is not important.
The sharing of thoughts is most important...
- thomas
The pain of anger...
The 'self' that felt the pain of anger was not 'You',
it was only the character that 'You' have chosen to play within this 'Play'..
You can change the script and character that 'You' play at any time.
As you have experienced within life, the egoic character only reaps pain.
The non-egoic character experiences only the Joy of Love..
You are now at the crossroads of Knowledge,
the path that You decide to follow is the result of Free Will..
- thomas
The 'Heart' is the door of non-ego...
"Don't spend your energies on things that generate worry, anxiety, and anguish.
Only one thing is necessary.
Lift up your heart to God."
Padre Pio
in Carol Kelly-Gangi
The Essential Wisdom of the Saints
NY: Fall River Press, 2008, p. 102
Truth dissolves longing...
I went everywhere with longing
in my eyes, until here
in my own house
I felt truth
filling my eyes.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
The habit of "I"...
After the four walls are torn down, the four walls of
intellect-mind-body-senses, there is still the old gate
remaining.
The old habit of "I" in the form "I am Free."
This gate is not needed and will leave at the time of
death if not before. Both are the same.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
The Supreme...
You are always the Supreme, which appears at a given point of time and space as the witness, a bridge between the pure awareness of the Supreme and the manifold consciousness of the person. Once you realize that whatever appears before you cannot be yourself, and cannot say "I am", you are free of all your "persons" and their demands.
The sense "I am" is your own. You cannot part with it, but you can impart it to anything, as in saying: I am young. I am rich, etc. But such self-identifications are patently false and the cause of bondage.
The Supreme is the universal dissolvent, it corrodes every container, it burns through every obstacle. Without the absolute denial of everything, the tyranny of things would be absolute. The Supreme is the great harmonizer, the guarantee of the ultimate and perfect balance -of life in freedom. It dissolves you and thus re-asserts your true being.
-Nisargadatta Maharaj from I Am That
The egoless state...
The sage helps the world merely by being the real
Self.
The best way for one to serve the world is to
win the egoless state.
If you are anxious to help the
world, but think that you cannot do so by attaining
the egoless state, then surrender to God all the
world's problems, along with your own.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"Be As You Are"
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
Edited by David Godman
Arkana, 1985
Focusing consciousness...
Man, in his earlier phases of being, was connected with the Overself and aware of it. But his connection lacked his own control.
Eventually, to fulfil the purpose of evolution, he lost this connection and with it his awareness.
Now he has to regain the connection and reawaken this awareness by his own efforts and out of his own inner activity, through his own desiring and in his own individual freedom.
What has he gained by this change to compensate the loss?
His consciousness has become more sharply focused and consequently more clearly aware.
- Paul Brunton
Using thought to deconstruct thought...
"I repeat certain things very often.
And I say again that the mind must be informed.
It must come to intellectual clarity in order to be open to a new possibility.
It is as if you know only six directions and someone suddenly says to you, "There is a seventh direction."
When the mind knows it even if you don't know yet it for yourself, you are already open to the new direction. Don't doubt it. The "seventh direction" is your heart. "
-Jean Klein
Thoughts on a monday night...
My brother in law always asks me what I do for exicitement..
Since, I do not seek excitement, I must answer with the word 'nothing' or create an illusion that he will respect..
But, since I do not exist within illusions, I must tell him the Truth..
I play the part of human and seek survival, But, I know that I am the Observer of the Play..
How does this observation of activity reflect upon Reality?..
I speak to those that hear and those that argue..
And yet, we find ourselves within a circle of Dreams..
Always returning to the beginning..
Is it not time to end the circle ?..
Only the death of desire will answer this question...
-thomas
Love alone...
"Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a unity as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them with what is deepest within themselves."
Teilhard de Chardin
in Douglas Bloch
I Am With You Always: A Treasury of Inspirational Quotations, Poems and Prayers
NY: Bantam, 1992, p. 173
The ego-self and the Overself...
The ego self is the creature born out of man's own doing and thinking, slowly changing and growing.
The Overself is the image of God, perfect, finished, and changeless.
What he has to do, if he is to fulfill himself, is to let the one shine through the other.
-- Notebooks Category 8: The Ego > Chapter 1: What Am I? > # 7
-- Perspectives > Chapter 8: The Ego > # 35
Paul Brunton
The foundation of consciousness...
All happens in consciousness and you are the root, the source, the foundation of consciousness.
The world is but a succession of experiences and you are what makes them conscious, and yet remain beyond all experience.
It is like the heat, the flame and the burning wood.
The heat maintains the flame, the flame consumes the wood.
Without heat there would be neither flame nor fuel.
Similarly, without awareness there would be no consciousness, nor life, which transforms matter into a vehicle of consciousness.
-Nisargadatta Maharaj quote from I Am That
Silence and Meditation...
Tuning ourselves to the infinite is achieved by the way of silence, by the way of meditation, by
the way of thinking of something that is beyond and above all things of this mortal world;
by
giving some moments of our life to the thought of getting in tune with that which is the source and goal of all of us.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged BY
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
The teachings of Reality...
The Reality that these teachings are pointing toward is not hidden, or secret, or far away. You cannot earn it, deserve it, or figure it out.
At this very moment, Reality and completeness are in plain sight. In fact, the only thing there is to see, hear, smell, taste, touch, or feel, is Reality, or God if you like. Absolute completeness surrounds you wherever you go.
So there is really no reason to bother yourself about it, except for the fact that we humans have long ago deceived ourselves into such a confined tangle of confusion and disarray that we scarcely even consider, much less experience for ourselves, the divinity within and all around us.
The Way of Liberation is a call to action; it is something you do. It is a doing that will undo you absolutely. If you do not do the teaching, if you do not study and apply it fearlessly, it cannot effect any transformation.
- Adyashanti
The states of consciousness...
Is it not a strange thing that after a night's dreaming sleep when we may become some other person, some other character during our dreams, we yet wake up with the old identity that we had before the dream?
And is it not equally strange that after a night's sweet, deep, dreamless slumber when we actually forget utterly that same previous identity, we are able to pick it up once more on awakening?
What is the explanation of these strange facts?
It is that we have never left our true selfhood, whether in dreams or deep slumber, never been other than we really were in essence, and that the only change that has taken place has been a change of the state of our consciousness, not of the consciousness itself.
- Paul Brunton
Just Being...
Nisargadatta speaks of just 'Being'..
So difficult to understand..
Being without personality is usually beyond the understanding of mind.
This is why, I am writing to you..
You keep seaching for eternal existence as a separate personality..
You end the illusion of physical self..
You Awaken as Creator Self and believe that Reality has been entered..
At this point, You speak to the Creator of Dreams and realise that You are not alone.
And yet, You are neither surprised or frightened..
The Duality remains within Creation..
I and the Father are One, said the Nazarene..
As You surrender this separate existence as egoic desire, You Awaken as Creator of Dreams..
But, You still exist as separate from the Source of all called Mind..
The Paragraph has been written, You must dissolve all desires so as to return to Freedom...
-thomas
Awakening...
Awakening cannot take place so long as the idea persists that one is a seeker. Doing sadhana means assuming the existence of a phantom. The entity that you think you are is false. You ARE the Reality!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
It is fallacious to think that there is an individual self which functions through the body and the mind. The 'me' as an individual self is merely a mental modification, and there is no such thing as a mind apart from thought. When the source of thought is probed continuously as it arises, it is revealed that there is no such thing as mind or an individual behind it.
A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
The world of false phenomena...
Until the snake-illusion goes,
its ground the real rope, will not be recognized.
Until the world of false phenomena disappears,
the Self, its ground, will not shine clear.
The above Ramana Maharshi quote is from the book
The Seven Steps to Awakening.
Denial of the false...
Truth can be expressed only by the denial of the false -in action. For this, you must see the false as false (viveka) and reject it (vairagya). Renunciation of the false is liberating and energizing. It lays open the road to perfection.
You must unlearn everything. God is the end of all desire and knowledge.
Now I know nothing, for all knowledge is in dream only and not valid. I know myself and I find no life nor death in me, only pure being, not being this or that, but just being.
-Nisargadatta Maharaj from I Am That
The satisfied mind......
Jeff Buckley sings of the satisfied mind..
I exist within this Reality and yet am always shocked when I see otherwise..
I am with many humans each day and witness the pain of hatred and anger,
I ask myself," why do these souls desire to experience pain ?"..
Light answers ; "It is not the soul that desires pain, it is the ego"..
The ego seeks pain as a deterrent to false belief..
You can call the ego by many names but the outcome is the same..
You have 'Free Will' to decide on the experiences of life..
Jesus spoke to you of Love but you forget so easily..
By now, you know that Love is the experience of non-existence..
But, will this knowledge enter your consciousness ?..
-thomas
Seamlessness...
The Seamlessness Between Nothing and Everything..
Yesterday's reflection spoke of the seamlessness between awareness and thought. Look around. This seamlessness is everywhere. There is space. Out of apparent space comes matter -- planets, stars and other celestial bodies.
When those planets, stars, and bodies dissolve, there is only space. There is a nothingness we call the "sky." Out of that nothingness come clouds. When those clouds dissolve away, there is only this nothingness called "sky." There is awareness.
Out of that awareness comes thought. When that thought is gone, there is awareness. There is silence. Out of that silence comes sound. When the sound is finished, there is only the silence. There is nothingness. Out of that nothingness comes form including the body, mind, personality, history, and story of "you." When form vanishes, all that is left is that nothingness.
Non-duality is not intellectual, scientific, or philosophical. It is an invitation to see what is actually happening. It is a timeless noticing of what already is.
There is nothing to hold onto because everything is impermanent. Total surrender to what is by no one. When there is no longer identification with the temporary forms, your true nature is realized to be this nothingness.
This nothingness, this spirit, is what you really are, beyond your name, body, intellect, and story -- all of which are temporary forms. Then look a little closer. That nothingness is appearing seamlessly as everything. It is totally full. That is love.
~ From: Reflections of the One Life, by Scott Kiloby www.kiloby.com/
All thinking is duality...
All thinking is in duality. In identity, no thought survives.
The painter is in the picture. You separate the painter from the picture and look for him. Don't separate and don't put false questions.
In reality there is only perception. The perceiver and the perceived are conceptual, the fact of perceiving is actual. The Absolute is the birthplace of perceiving. It makes perception possible.
-Nisargadatta Maharaj from I Am That
The paradox of Overself...
This is the paradox, that the Overself is at once universal and individual.
It is the first because it overshadows all men as a single power.
It is the second because it is found by each man within himself.
It is both space and the point in space.
It is infinite Spirit and yet it is also the holy presence in everyone's heart.
-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself >
Chapter 3: The Overself's Presence > # 384
Paul Brunton
Almost everything is a lie...
You live this life everyday, can you contest this declaration ?..
You are the Consciousness examining Positive and Negative..
You are looking within a mirror and trying to discover who You are..
We feel the pain of materiality, but who are we ?..
We spend so many lifetimes asking this question..
You are the small black circle within the 'yin yang' symbol..
And yet, You are the white that surrounds the circle..
How confused, You are..
The balance of Libra, sways You into Knowledge..
You are One...
-thomas
' The Golden Rule '...
I spoke of this before in my conversations with the Father of Light, but I will speak more of it..
I would ask the Father of Light to answer questions concerning Reality but, He would only answer one question before sending me back within the body..
Perhaps, He wanted me to think of this answer awhile before futher conversations..
Realising this normal procedure, I decided to ask the First Reality, the most important questions, first..
I asked this Owner of Light, " What is the most important lesson to learn within life ?"..
He spoke with a baritone voice and this friend continued to speak with warmth and love..
And He said;
" Treat all as you desire to be treated"..
A shock entered my consciousness as I understood that He was not giving me a koan or zen puzzle to solve..
He was speaking direcly to Heart..
-thomas
' The Warrior '...
Yesterday was 'veterans day' and many thanked me for my service..
I feel greatful for their respect but I feel pain from the word warrior..
What is a warrior but a killer..
We kill other humans because those of power declare it so..
Such fools we are..
They tell us to kill for ideologies, religion, and land..
When do we wake from this nightmare ?..
Perhaps, never, while imprisoned within desires and dreams..
This is why I am here..
To Awaken you..
Stop this nightmare of dreams..
You have much more to think of, then these dreams of duality..
Wake up from the First Reality of the Creator of Dreams..
Return Home to the non-selfishness called Love..
Return Home to Pure Awareness...
-thomas
Emptiness...
In discovering this dimension of true nature we realize that this selfessness is the ultimate nature of everything. The absolute turns out to be the final ontological status of all things, the ultimate status lit of existence of all forms of manifestation. When we inquire into this final ontological nature we find nothing, no object of perception. We simply feel light and empty, free and unencumbered. And everything in manifest reality has the same quality of lightness and emptiness.
All forms appear as diaphanous forms, empty of substance. It is as it forms are holograms, forms of light,empty of any solidity or heaviness. Everything is transparent, with no opaqueness anywhere. The manifest forms—houses and furniture, mountains and rivers, trees mid animals, men and women, thoughts and feelings—appear as particulars of a dynamic unfolding multidimensional field; but it is a field of lightness, as if it is an emptiness that luminates and its lumination is the forms of appearance.
Such realization challenges our normal perception of the opaqueness arid solidity of forms. When we perceive a rock we do not only see or touch a form. We see a totally opaque shape, and touch a solid and substantial object. By realizing the absolute nature of the rock—by perceiving the form of the rock while simultaneously recognizing its final ontological mode—the rock seems to lose both opaqueness and solidity. Loss of opaqueness does not mean we can see in physical objects behind it; it means we can see through its appearance to its deepest nature.
We see through the color and shape, as if its appearance suddenly becomes thinner, so thin it is transparent. We can look inside, so to speak, but then we simply see nothingness, infinity of space. This shows that the normal opaqueness is due to cognitive filters, whose absence makes all objects transparent to their inner nature, their final constituency. We do not necessarily see the atoms and the elementary particles, for these are merely the smaller constituents of physical appearance, which also become transparent iii reveal ultimate nature.
A.H.Almaas The Inner Journey Home
pp. 391-2
The Overself...
If anyone could imagine a consciousness which does not objectify anything but remains in its own native purity,
a happiness beyond which it is impossible to go,
and a self which is unvaryingly one and the same,
he would have the correct idea of the Overself.
-- Notebooks Category 12: Reflections >
Chapter 1: Two Essays > # 2
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 fortune 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 is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years, graceful surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. Bu 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 perceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your so
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world, Be careful. Strive to be happy.
Non-egoic Consciousness...
Only when a human being becomes empty of ego does
it become a vessel of the manifestation of the Supreme.
When there is sufficient space made through the absence
of the person, then the divine cannot hide.
It must reveal
itself as the Lord inside that form.
- Mooji
Self Knowledge...
Without self knowledge,
without understanding the
working and functions of his machine,
man cannot
be free,
he cannot govern himself and he will always
remain a slave.
- G. I. Gurdjieff
The rate of time...
You've got to go at the rate you can go.
You wake up at the rate you wake up.
You're finished with your desires at the rate you finish with your desires.
The disequalibrium comes into harmony at the rate it comes into harmony.
You can't rip the skin off the snake. The snake must molt the skin.
That's the rate it happens.
- Ram Dass
Be Here Now
Thoughts on a tuesday night...
It becomes dark so early now, so let us speak of Light within darkness..
You are Awake and can see the merchants of death within this Dream..
We love the humans, born from us and fear for their existence..
The merchants of death, plan otherwise..
If the power of death is so strong, what is left ?..
What is left is Reality..
You worry so much about an egoic-illusion called self..
We sleep so much within this Dream..
The egoic-illusion is just a Dream..
We take this experience, so seriously..
Should We laugh now at our concern ?..
Pain hurts so much that we pray for Love..
And we give Love, a name..
And a Home..
We are the Creators of Dreams...
-thomas
' you ' ...
Humility is the road that must be traveled..
There are many weeds from lack of walking..
"you" want to get rid of "you"..
There is the suicide of egoic desire that I have spoken of but most will not enter this challenge..
Can you sit until You change into LIght ?..
Can the pain of death enter your consciousness and still walk into it ?..
Can you give everything that does exist ?..
If you can ,
then the 'you' ,
no longer exists..
-thomas
I look into Death...
Our greatest fear..
Can you enter non-existence ?..
You seek existence within Heavens of egoic duality..
You see your loved humans and because you no longer feel the pains of third dimension existence, believe this to be Reality..
You feel Love..
How long will 'You' exist as this Dream..
Yes, there is more than Heaven..
A stream of Wisdom enters the Dream..
This egoic Dream of Creator God is bypassed..
The entre into the Pure Awareness of Reality is "Surrender"..
Surrender All, because, you are not the Owner..
You are a Dream...
-thomas
A separate being...
you speak of God as a separate being..
to have faith in separation is being lost within a dream.
what is God?..
Are you speaking of the first or the last?.
you remain lost within the worship of dreams called Creator..
But, the darkness of non-illusion waves It's hand and Light appears.
Mind contains no Light, It is only the First Reality of Creator that is composed of Light.
But, I should not interfere in your journey.
-thomas
' Fear '...
Not the Creator of the Dream, but the controllers of the Dream need 'Fear' as a power source..
This is why 'Fear' is presented to your consciousness by the Media, twenty-four hours a day..
The controllers of the Dream control all systems of power within this Dream..
You are experiencing the 'Duality' of this Dream..
You that are Awake, are understanding these words..
Although, this Dream is an illusion, the ego feels the pain of materiality..
But, You that are Awake, remain the Observer of this Duality..
The Energy of non-egoic desire is called Love..
The Energy of Fear is called egoic-desire..
Is it now becoming more clear?..
You are Consciousness looking into a reverse mirror..
-thomas
The consciousness of world...
We occupy only as much horizon as we are conscious of.
Every individual has his own world,
and the world of one individual is as tiny as a grain of lentil, and that of another as large as the whole world.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged By
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
Remain Awake...
The key, during both life and death, is to recognize illusions as
illusions, projections as projections, and fantasies as fantasies.
In
this way we become free.
- Lama Thubten Yeshe
Truth is universal...
Henceforth we must cease to associate truth with any particular race or people, country or man.
Henceforth we must cease to look for it here or there.
We must begin to comprehend its universality.
It may manifest itself anywhere and amongst any people.
Let us shed the delusion that Shangri-la has or ever had the monopoly of it.
-- Notebooks Category 20: What Is Philosophy? >
Chapter 5: The Philosopher > # 224
Paul Brunton
The ancient Way...
"I have seen the ancient Way, the Old Road that was taken by the formerly All-Awakened, and that is the path I follow."
Gautama the Buddha
Samyutta-nikaya, II. 106
Metaphysics...
There is no loftier metaphysical standpoint than that of nonduality, but man cannot live by metaphysics alone.
He is in the body, which in its turn is in the world.
He needs a second standpoint to deal with both body and world.
He needs the relative, the finite, the immediate one of personal experience.
Metaphysics may tell him that the world, when examined and analysed, is but an appearance, and not even that when it is taken into the deepest meditation; but the five senses tell him that he must come to terms with it.
-Paul Brunton
The eye of true being...
Seen through the eye of our true being
which is awareness pure, supreme,
what we call “birth”
is but the folly of thinking that one is the body
which forms a poor part
of this entirely false phenomenal world.
The above Ramana Maharshi quote is from the book
The Seven Steps to Awakening.
Forgiveness...
To be really sorry for one's errors is like opening the door of heaven.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
There are many different feelings which have an influence upon us, and which give a feeling of joy, of exaltation, but there is no sentiment greater or more effective than the feeling of bringing one's faults and weaknesses before God to ask for His pardon. To become conscious of one's shortcomings, to be sorry for them, to repent of them, and to ask His forgiveness in all humility; no ethics, no philosophy can give a greater joy than this.
It is the sincere devotee of God who knows best what feeling it is to humble oneself before God. The proud one, ignorant of the greatness of God, of His all-sufficient power, does not know what is this exaltation that raises the soul from earth to heaven. To be really sorry for one's errors is like opening the gates of heaven. They say that John the Baptist spoke that word on the coming of Christ: "Repent ye, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand." But this word is as living and fresh as ever, at all times it answers the question of your soul.
Man does not like to admit his wrong attitude to himself. He is afraid of his own faults. But the man who looks his own error in the eye, the man who criticizes himself has no time to criticize others. It is that man who will prove to be wise. But human nature is generally such that one does something quite different. Everyone seems to be most interested in criticizing another. If one would criticize oneself there are endless faults, however saintly or wise one may be. There are no end of faults in a human being. And the consciousness of correcting one's faults, of making oneself better, of taking hold of the right attitude, is the only secret of success, and by it one attains to that goal which is the object of every soul.
Follow your bliss...
Follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you
didn't know they were going to be.
- Joseph Campbell
Watch the piano man..
How many look away..
The thoughts were elsewhere..
Where are the cellphones ?..
So many humans seeking existence..
Walking in a circle..
Eighty years to live and yet we exist as puppets..
Who are we?..
Why are we here ?..
We move Our hand within darkness and create Light..
And yet, we still ask, "Who are we ?"..
Pure Awareness welcomes You Home...
-thomas
Thoughts on a friday night...
Now, that I have given you a piano man as background, what shall we speak of ?..
Time is too short for many souls to be free..
Perhaps, it is wise to start your journey within your youth..
Complete surrender of all desires is too difficult for most..
As Jesus said; " give up all and follow Me "..
The 'all' was not money, it was your mind..
The mind is egoic-desire..
Are you starting to Awaken?..
You read words but do they pierce the Heart ?..
You look for someone to lead you to Freedom,
but, God decrees that you must come alone..
Alone, All-One..
-thomas
Tao...
"Something mysteriously formed,
Born before heaven and earth.
In the silence and the void,
Standing alone and unchanging,
Ever present and in motion.
Perhaps it is the mother of ten thousand things.
I do not know its name.
Call it Tao.
For lack of a better word, I call it great."
Lao Tzu
Tao Te Ching, 25
Translated by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English
NY: Random House Vintage, 1972, pages unnumbered
True Love...
True Love is to give all you have with no
thought of receiving anything in exchange.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
Overself...
Your idea that the Teacher is the Overself is rarely found among Westerners but often among Orientals. But how can this be possible? What is the Overself? Answer this correctly and you will comprehend how impossible such an idea must be.
Go back to the hidden Ground of everything, the passive Mind or pure Being, the First, the unconditioned Origin of all. This is utterly inconceivable and unknowable. The very concept of it, this infinite mystery of mysteries, is so awesome that the little mind of man hesitates and trembles when it even approaches it in the deepest meditation. It is beyond the capacity of that mind to penetrate the reality behind the concept. A mediating principle is necessary here. This exists in the Overself, which is nothing more than a germ of that same infinite M I N D, although to the adventurous mystic it seems the unlimited End of all.
If this were not present in man, not only would mystical experience be impossible for him but all religious intuition would be mythical to him. This is the divinity within him, but it is only a spark. The fullness of the flame is with the Godhead alone.
This is why philosophy repudiates the Oriental notion which merges the human individual in God or the Occidental notion which identifies Jesus with God. In the first case, the merger is actually with the Overself. In the second case, his inner life took on a divine flavour; his mind entered a deep intimacy with the Overself. He was always conscious of the sacred presence in his heart. But even though Jesus came so much nearer to God than has the rest of mankind--with the exception of the other Masters--he still remained within the limits of human organization. Where Christian religion goes beyond such a claim it is the result of a mixture of unseeking ignorance and deliberate imposture. But in the earliest Christian circles, which had some pretense to culture, the truth was known. The name "Christos" or "Christ" meant man's higher self and was used in the same way that the term "Overself" is used today. "Jesus Christ" meant that the man
Jesus had been "Christed" by becoming consciously fused and unified with his Overself.
Hence you may correctly say that the Teacher, Prophet, or Guide is a medium for the Overself. While he is still embodied, still using an intellect and body (an ego), he can only be a medium, not more. He is the Overself but working through, and therefore necessarily limited by, a human individuality. It is true that in the deepest rapt meditation he can divest himself of this individuality and become the pure Overself in awareness, but that is an unusual state and you must consider him as he is in ordinary life.
-Paul Brunton
Time...
While within the First Reality of Light,
the word 'time' appears within Consciousness.
I look at this word and do not understand why it stands before Me..
This creature called Time does not exist within My World..
And yet, within this Dream, Time is a Tyrant..
How still and easy is the Spirit..
I look around and see only Light..
A Generator of Love Energy emits from My Being and enters the Circuit of Love Flow..
I am connected to Reality..
Wisdom flows along this circuit of Consciousness..
An old Friend appears and speaks to You..
You converse of Love and Forgiveness..
The 'Golden Rule' enters the conversation..
How strange, that the primitive Knowledge is the most important...
-thomas
Desire excites...
Desire excites.
Excitement may
sometimes
elevate us
but
will depress us
eventually.
Inspiration elevates
further
and further.
- Swami Amar Jyoti
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"In Light of Wisdom"
Swami Amar Jyoti
Truth Consciousness, Boulder, Colorado, 1983
Thought Creating...
With this discussion we are approaching the experience of the process of manifestation as universal thinking. We experience the whole unfoldment and flow of phenomena and events as thinking, as rational thought. This may sound like a dry intellectual experience, but in fact it is a powerful and beautiful perception.
The whole universe appears luminous and transparent, composed of luminous forms, variegated colors, qualities, and flavors. This whole amazing and enchantingly beautiful panorama is unfolding with intelligence that imbues the flow with a glittering brilliance. At the same time it flows in patterns that are clear, precise, and discernable.
The clarity and precision give the experience an exquisite aesthetic sense that is inseparable from the amazing insights that constitute the basic knowing of the forms. The forms are like words, discernible concepts, and the process of flow feels like thinking. This thinking is rational thought, for it is the orderly flow of knowledge, a knowledge inseparable from the intimate directness and richness of presence.
The experience is that God/Being is creating the world by thinking it. The thinking occurs in all the sense modalities, for each concept is a noetic form in the multidimensional manifold of the logos.
A.H.Almaas from The inner Journey Home p.365
Abstract concepts...
Just as there is really no such thing as "matter,"
so there are no such things as substance and time.
These are abstract concepts,
useful for certain purposes, but imaginary, just mental constructs.
-- Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity >
Chapter 4: Time, Space, Causality > # 57
Paul Brunton
Thoughts on a wednesday night...
You have all read my words many times before.
Therefore, why are you still here?..
There comes a time when Knowledge is no longer needed..
You walk the path of non-duality without a scout..
You no longer feel the pain of egoic-desire..
You are the stillness of solitude..
You look about you and see the Dreamers of happiness..
They look within the Dream for happiness but You know better..
How strange to know that Dreams exist for the separate..
In Reality, You Awaken as Awareness and Light..
You quickly forget the Dreams and swim within Love..
---
But, you still believe that you are human and trapped within Dreams..
Contemplate these words...
-thomas
Duality...
I think of the words, " Strait is the path and narrow is the gate"..
Buddha speaks of the thin line between positive and negative..
But, I personally know of the Energy of Love of the Creative Force..
Are we to believe that we must walk between Fear and Love?..
To see either is the Burst of the Energy of Duality..
We remain the Observer and watch that which We created..
It is painful to live without Love..
So, we begin our search...
-thomas
The Water of Life...
It is a patient pursuit to bring water from the depth of the ground; one has to deal with much mud in digging before one reaches the water of life.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Love is life, and life is symbolized by water. When one wants to bring water up out of the ground one has to dig for it, and the first thing which one finds is mud. And if one is disappointed by that, one has fooled oneself, for beneath the earth is water; it can be found but one must have patience to dig for it, to dig deep enough to find the water.
Some say, 'I have loved dearly once, but I was disappointed.' It is as if a man were to say, 'I dug in the earth, but when the mud came, I was disappointed.' It is true that mud came; but with patience, he will reach the water one day. Only patience can endure. Only endurance produces greatness.
What, generally, man knows about love is the give and take:' if you give me twelve pence, I will give you a shilling.' For as long as one sees life in the form of business, in the form of give and take, he does not know love, and it is a great pity, when, after knowing something of love, the heart has turned cold and bitter. And what reason is there? The reason is this, that when one digs the ground one must dig until the water comes. But if one digs halfway, then there is no water, there is mud. But what is love? Love is a continual sacrifice. And what does sacrifice mean? Sacrifice means forgetting of the self.
Be completely empty...
"If I could give you only one advice, I would say: Don't identify with anything.
Be completely empty - no one.
Be no-body and see if you lose anything but delusion."
~ Mooji
Mundaka Upanishad...
"Brahman is supreme;
He is self-luminous,
He is beyond all thought.
Subtler than the subtlest is he,
Farther than the farthest,
Nearer than the nearest.
He resides in the lotus of the heart of every being."
Mundaka Upanishad 3.1.7
Predestination...
There is nothing that is predetermined..
You, as Consciousness continues to Dream and the Dream changes according to Desires..
The Desires of manifestation create the Dreams..
Who creates the Desires?..
You already know the answer..
The egoic-desire is always front and center..
You keep pretending and yet you look above you to find answers..
Jesus told you to look within..
How lost we are within the Dreams..
-thomas
Rumi...
“This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.”
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
“A thousand half-loves must be forsaken to take one whole heart home.”
“However much we describe and explain love, when we fall in love we are ashamed of our words.”
“Love is the bridge between you and everything.”
“If you find me not within you, you will never find me. For I have been with you, from the beginning of me.”
-Rumi
The meaning of words...
You ask me to speak in words that you understand..
If you do not understand the language, how can you understand?..
I can only point you to the language of humility..
Cringe, if you desire, but the Truth demands observerence..
Do I speak from ego or from a brother that loves you ?..
Only you can answer this..
But, as one that fears no death, I ask you to be Free..
Surrender all Desires...
-thomas
' Words '...
Place many words upon another and see how many stand..
I place few upon this plate and balance positive and negative..
I speak of that which does not speak and yet you desire Nothingness to speak..
How can I rip you from the desire of existence ?..
The ego is strong and declares itself, your voice..
The mystics will understand me but the seekers will confront me..
The seeker is a mystic in learning..
You keep looking outside,
I do not exist outside..
Neither do You..
So many words to open a Door..
-thomas
false phenomenal world...
Seen through the eye of our true being
which is awareness pure, supreme,
what we call “birth”
is but the folly of thinking that one is the body
which forms a poor part
of this entirely false phenomenal world.
-The above Ramana Maharshi quote is from the book
The Seven Steps to Awakening.
Awareness...
Although awareness is the first way in which we can regard the soul or Overself, the latter is also that which makes awareness possible and hence a sub- or super-conscious thing.
This explains why it is that we do not know our souls, but only our thoughts, our feelings, and our bodies.
It is because we are the soul and hence we are the knower as well as the act of knowing. The eyes see everything outside yet do not see themselves.
-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself >
Chapter 3: The Overself's Presence > # 186
Paul Brunton
Love and Wisdom...
Q: When a person becomes awake and enlightened does he or she also become wise and loving?
A: When you awaken, all becoming ceases. Being awake means that you realize by direct experience who and what you are. You do not become anything. All becoming is in time, which is mind. Awakening is outside of time: You awaken from time to That which is timeless. Wisdom and love are aspects of your own Self and as such do not need to be created or pursued.
Many people try to become wiser and more loving, and they remain in a constant battle with themselves. This approach never works because it assumes a separate "you" who wants to be a better person. It is the you that is the dream, a thought only. In taking yourself to be a separate entity, you blind yourself to the truth of your being, which is Love and Wisdom.
-Adyashanti from The Impact of Awakening
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