' Nirvana '...
The traditional Buddhist belief that all happiness must in the end change into unhappiness is not a cheerful one.
It need never be taken too literally as being universally true, nor by itself alone, for there are counter weighting truths.
When Buddha brought to an end the meditation which culminated in final enlightenment, dawn was just breaking.
The last star which vanished with the night and the first one which he saw as he raised his head was Venus.
What was his inner state, then?
Did it synchronize with the reputed planetary influence of Venus--joyous and happy felicity--or with the gloomy view of life which tradition later associated with Buddhism?
Who that has had a glimpse of those higher states, felt their serenity, can doubt it was the first?
The Overself is not subjected to suffering. But this is not to say that it is bubbling with happiness.
It is rather like an immensely deep ocean, perfectly tranquil below the surface.
That tranquillity is its ever-present condition and is a true joyousness which ordinary people rarely know.
This is what Buddha felt.
This is what he called NIRVANA.
-Paul Brunton
' Nothing but Love, itself '...
When we stop fighting with ourselves, we aren't creating anymore conflict in our mind.
Then our mind can for the first time relax and be still.
Then for the first time our consciousness can become whole and unfragmented.
Then total attention can be given to all of our thoughts and feelings. And then there will be found a gentleness and a goodness in us that can embrace all that is been given in the world.
Then a deep love for everything will be the result of this deep attention.
For this total attention,
this soft and pure consciousness that we are,
is nothing but Love itself.
-Jiddu Krishnamurti
' The unchanging-self '...
First and foremost one must discover the unchanging-self or wellspring of grace.
This is achieved by collecting all one’s energy from the innumerable psychological investments one has wrapped up in the preservation of the “me.”
This does not mean changing one’s outer life, but rather unhooking one’s attachment to the demand to see “my life” work out a certain way.
It is an inner revolt not an outer one.
Once the exclusive identity is absorbed into the ether of things, then one experiences themselves in all things.
It is only here that self-love evolves into the love for the innumerable expressions of form. Servicethen becomes a natural gesture as all things are seen as an extension of one’s self.
-Atreya Thomas
' What is the heart ?'...
You see the drawing of the 'Heart' every day when the subject is Love..
You already know that they are not denoting the physical heart..
Why is the 'Heart' used as the symbol of Love?..
Most people are unaware that the 'Heart' produces much more voltage than the Brain..
Voltage is used as the Energy source of the body and mind to function the operating of the human body hologram..
Light is the building Source..
So why is the 'Heart' involved in Love ?..
Heart is the Energy source and therefore contains no personality..
'No personality' is the 'Door' to Reality..
'No personality' is 'Pure Awareness', otherwise known as Reality..
'No personality' called non-egoic desire is known as 'Love'..
'Love' is Known as 'God'..
'God' is Known as 'Reality'..
The Heart is Consciousness expanding...
-thomas
' If you could only keep quiet '...
”If you could only keep quiet,
clear of memories and expectations,
you would be able to discern the beautiful pattern of events.
It is your restlessness that causes chaos."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' There is not a single thing '...
“It is clearly seen: there is not a single thing.
Nor are there any people; nor are there any Buddhas.
The great thousand worlds are bubbles in the sea.
All the worthy sages are like flashes of lightning.
Even if an iron wheel were rolled over one's head, samadhi and wisdom would be fully bright and never lost.”
Song of Enlightenment
By Great Master Yung Chia of The T'ang Dynasty
Commentary by Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua
Translated into English by
International Institute For The Translation of Buddhist Texts
Dharma Realm Buddhist University, Talmage, California
Buddhist Text Translation Society, 1983
' Meet your own self '...
Meet your own self. Be with your own self,
listen to it, obey it, cherish it, keep it in
mind ceaselessly.
You need no other guide.
As long as your urge for truth affects your
daily life, all is well with you.
Live your
life without hurting anybody.
Harmlessness
is a most powerful form of Yoga and it will
take you speedily to your goal.
This is what
I call nisarga yoga, the Natural yoga.
It is
the art of living in peace and harmony, in
friendliness and love.
The fruit of it is
happiness, uncaused and endless.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
' The dream self is a virtual reality '...
The dream self is like a conceptual overlay placed on reality. Thought interprets reality through concepts, most of which act to confirm the central “me” concept. “I” exist only in relation to the “other” thing, person, event, etc
. The dream self is a conditioned existence. In some computer games, participants wear stereoscopic goggles that produce images of a virtual reality. Similarly, in the dream of self, conditioning creates a virtual reality that says: “This is a chair” or “My husband should listen more.” These are thought-based interpretations of reality based on memory. The dream self is essentially the past coming to meet the reality of now.
When the past (memory) meets the present, life feels dead. Thought gives the false impression that you can know life by labeling and judging it. But life is not conceptual. It is an actuality. The depth and miracle of life is veiled when life is lived only through the goggles of the dream self, the playing of one mental image after another.
Liberation is like taking the goggles off. It is seeing reality the way it is, including the thoughts that are arising. Life is not conceptual. When this is seen, what is left is a love of reality. This love is not dependent on thought. For example, your love for your husband has nothing to do with whether he does what you “think” he should do. This is unconditional love.
Kiloby, Scott. Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment
' The ideal of perfection '...
I agree with some on the idea of perfection..
I do not seek perfection, I seek Reality..
Reality is not always excepting..
The 'i' that seeks perfection is the same 'i' that seeks existence and separation from Reality..
The 'i' is a joke of the Universe..
The 'Creator Thinker',
has no name or individuality..
Although, there is a scent of Love surrounding this Force...
-thomas
' The world is a bubble '...
We have now to ask, "How do we come to look upon the snake as real?
What persuades us to take such illusions on their face value?"
When we examine the position of perception--upon which they are based and within whose sphere they appear objectively--we find that we always see the world in clothes of four dimensions, three of space and one of time.
Kant has laboriously demonstrated how the mind superimposes these two characteristics on its vision of the world;
that is to say, they lie within the mind and not outside it.
It is therefore perfectly possible for mental constructions to be extended in space and occur in time, thus assuming all the characteristics of conventional reality, and still remain nothing more than mental workings after all.
Buddha's ultra-keen insight noted this illusoriness of the spatial relation and so he likened the world to a bubble.
- Paul Brunton
' The wind in the trees '...
Nothing has ever been said about God,
that hasn't already been said better by the wind in the pine trees.
- Thomas Merton
' Love just Is '...
Thought takes dualistic positions. It says: “This is about Oneness.” “This is not about Oneness.” “There is a God.” “There isn’t a God.” “Spiritual realization is about awareness.” “Spiritual realization is not about awareness.” “There is a self.” “There is no self.” “There is choice.” “There is no choice.” “This is about Jesus.” “This is not about Jesus.” “My life is good.” “My life is bad.” “This teacher has it.” “This teacher doesn’t.” These are all dualistic stories.
Thought cannot see non-duality. The function of thought is to take dualistic positions. Thought can even take a position on thought. “Thought is bad” is just another dualistic position.
Oneness is not a position. It is not anything to argue about. It is nothing at all. It cannot be grasped. You can’t get it because you are it. It is a seeing that life is impermanent. There is nothing to hold onto. No experience. No concept. No belief. No philosophy. No expression. Nothing, nothing, nothing.
To the dualistic mind, that may sound like nihilism. But again, the dualistic mind will never see ‘This.’ When non-duality is realized to be this seeing of what the dualistic mind is constantly doing, an opening can happen. The attachment to all positions dies. Love is what is left. This love takes no position on non-duality. It is not for or against it. It sees no other so it allows everything. Love just is.
-Kiloby, Scott. Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment
' The night before a storm'...
A day of spring appears within december,
but fear speaks into our ears..
This miracle of changing water into snow,
meets us face on..
The cats run from the shadows and sleep in the sunlight..
As we all must..
The 'Characters' of life appear within most scenes..
Serenity is hard pressed to find silence..
While walking the path of Love,
we encounter the drama of ego...
-thomas
' There are many paths '...
There are many paths, and each man considers his own the best and wisest. Let each one choose that which belongs to his own temperament.
Bowl of Saki,by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
The Sufi looks on all with tolerance, and knows that there is a path for everyone. The path of the lover is for him, the path of the one seeking for wealth is for him, the seeker after paradise is following his path, it is all a journey. It is simply that there are four different routes by which the journey is made. The Sufi sees the same goal at the end of each; the lover has to meet the seeker after wealth, and both have to meet the one who has done his duty.
Therefore at the end of their journey there is a place where they can meet. What does it matter if one does not go by a certain path? Let each choose the way that belongs to his own temperament and tendency. Therefore the Sufi does not worry. He gives no preference to one or the other. He sees the journey of life being made along one or other of these roads. The saying of Buddha, 'Forgive all', comes true. Forgiveness does not come by learning, it comes by understanding that a person should be allowed to travel along that path which is suited to his temperament. As long as he is journeying with open eyes, let him journey.
The great thing is that one should journey with one single desire. There should be the single desire: whether to love a beloved, to collect wealth, or to do some good for the world of humanity, or to attain paradise. There should be the desire to journey to the goal. So many do not know which is the goal or what it is. One thinks wealth is the goal, another paradise, another the beloved. They do not see that there is still a further goal. They are naturally prompted by the desire to get to the goal, and yet they are not conscious of the further goal.
As it is said in the Bible: 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all things shall be added unto you.' The real desire is for that kingdom of perfection, the goal of everything.
' Self '...
Self is the indweller of all Beings,
so love of others is Love of Self, your Self.
Self is the greatest Love and the dearest of all lovers.
Love is the attraction of Self to Self in Self.
There is nothing besides this Love, this source of Joy.
See your own beauty and you are this Indweller, this Love
and the beauty itself.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
' True Objective Awareness '...
In our view, even deep sleep unconsciousness is a form of this "consciousness" which transcends all the states we ordinarily know--
waking, dream, and deep sleep--yet includes them when they merge back into it.
Such a "consciousness" is unthinkable, unimaginable, but it is the true objective awareness.
It is also the I you are seeking so much.
But to reach it, then you have to let go of the I which you know so well.
-Paul Brunton
' The whole universe dwells '...
I salute the light within your eyes where the whole universe dwells .
For when you are at that center within you and
I am at that place within me, we shall be one .
-Chief Crazy Horse
' Avoid cynicism '...
Avoid cynicism, arrogance and judgment of others and life,
for this more than any other evil blinds you to seeing the
glory and miracles of God in your daily life.
(Sometimes God reveals himself in the very thing or one
you have been judging and you find yourself bowing at the
feet of that one.)
- Mooji
' Time '...
You can begin the quest by trying to get rid of your idea of time.
This will be your honourable diploma,
this will be your certified matriculation,
when you succeed in turning time's illusion into the reality hidden behind it,
into the Ever-Presence.
-- Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity >
Chapter 4: Time, Space, Causality > # 151
Paul Brunton
' Nothingness by Alan Watts '...
When I consider the weirdest of all things I can think of, do you know what it is? Nothing. The whole idea of nothing is something that has bugged people for centuries, especially in the Western world. We have a saying in Latin, Ex nihilo nihil fit, which means, "Out of nothing comes nothing." In other words, you can't get something out of nothing. It's occurred to me that this is a fallacy of tremendous proportions. It lies at the root of all our common sense, not only in the West, but in many parts of the East as well. It manifests as a kind of terror of nothing, a putdown on nothing, a putdown on everything associated with nothing such as sleep, passivity, rest, and even the feminine principle which is often equated with the negative principle (although women's lib people don't like that kind of thing, when they understand what I'm saying I don't think they'll object). To me, nothing—the negative, the empty—is exceedingly powerful. I would say, not Ex nihilo nihil fit, but, "You can't have something without nothing."
How do we basically begin to think about the difference between something and nothing? When I say there is a cigar in my right hand and there is no cigar in my left hand, we get the idea of is, something, and isn't, nothing. At the basis of this reasoning lies the far more obvious contrast of solid and space. We tend to think of space as nothing; when we talk about the conquest of space there's a little element of hostility. But actually, we're talking about the conquest of distance. Space or whatever it is that lies between the earth and the moon, and the earth and the sun, is considered to be just nothing at all.
But to suggest how very powerful and important this nothing at all is, let me point out that if you didn't have space, you couldn't have anything solid. Without space outside the solid you wouldn't know where the solid's edges were. For example, you can see me in a photograph because you see a background and that background shows up my outline. But if it weren't there, then I and everything around me would merge into a single, rather peculiar mass. You always have to have a background of space to see a figure. The figure and the background, the solid and the space, are inseparable and go together.
We find this very commonly in the phenomenon of magnetism. A magnet has a north pole and a south pole— there is no such thing as a magnet with one pole only. Supposing we equate north with is and south with isn't. You can chop the magnet into two pieces, if it's a bar magnet, and just get another north pole and south pole, another is and isn't, on the end of each piece.
What I am trying to get into basic logic is that there isn't a sort of fight between something and nothing. Everyone is familiar with the famous words of Hamlet, "To be or not to be, that is the question." It isn't; to be or not to be is not the question. Because you can't have a solid without space. You can't have an is without an isn't, a something without a nothing, a figure without a background. And we can turn that round, and say, "You can't have space without solid."
Imagine nothing but space, space, space, space with nothing in it, forever. But there you are imagining it and you're something in it. The whole idea of there being only space, and nothing else at all, is not only inconceivable but perfectly meaningless, because we always know what we mean by contrast.
We know what we mean by white in comparison with black. We know life in comparison with death. We know pleasure in comparison with pain, up in comparison with down. But all these things must come into being together. You don't have first something and then nothing or first nothing and then something. Something and nothing are two sides of the same coin. If you file away the tails side of a coin completely, the heads side of it will disappear as well. So in this sense, the positive and negative, the something and the nothing, are inseparable—they go together. The nothing is the force whereby the something can be manifested.
We think that matter is basic to the physical world. And matter has various shapes. We think of tables as made of wood as we think of pots as made of clay. But is a tree made of wood in the same way a table is? No, a tree is wood; it isn't made of wood. Wood and tree are two different names for the same thing.
But there is in the back of our mind, the notion, as a root of common sense, that everything in the world is made of some kind of basic stuff. Physicists, through centuries, have wanted to know what that was. Indeed, physics began as a quest to discover the basic stuff out of which the world is made. And with all our advances in physics we've never found it. What we have found is not stuff but form. We have found shapes. We have found structures. When you turn up the microscope and look at things expecting to see some sort of stuff, you find instead form, pattern, structure. You find the shape of crystals, beyond the shapes of crystals you find molecules, beyond molecules you find atoms, beyond atoms you find electrons and positrons between which there are vast spaces. We can't decide whether these electrons are waves or particles and so we call them wavicles.
What we will come up with will never be stuff, it will always be a pattern. This pattern can be described, measured, but we never get to any stuff for the simple reason there isn't any. Actually, stuff is when you see something unclearly or out of focus, fuzzy. When we look at it with the naked eye it looks just like goo. We can't make out any significant shape to it. But when you put it under the microscope, you suddenly see shapes. It comes into clear focus as shape.
And you can go on and on, looking into the nature of the world and you will never find anything except form. Think of stuff; basic substance. You wouldn't know how to talk '' about it; even if you found it, how would you describe what it was like? You couldn't say anything about a structure in it, you couldn't say anything about a pattern or a process in it, because it would be absolute, primordial goo.
What else is there besides form in the world? Obviously, between the significant shapes of any form there is space. And space and form go together as the fundamental things we're dealing with in this universe. The whole of Buddhism is based on a saying, "That which is void is precisely form, and that which is form is precisely void." Let me illustrate this to you in an extremely simple way. When you use the word clarity, what do you mean? It might mean a perfectly polished lens, or mirror, or a clear day when there's no smog and the air is perfectly transparent like space.
What's the next thing clarity makes you think of? You think of form in clear focus, all the details articulate and perfect. So the one word clarity suggests to you these two apparently completely different things: the clarity of the lens or the mirror, and the clarity of articulate form. In this sense, we can take the saying "Form is void, void is form" and instead of saying is, say implies, or the word that I invented, goeswith. Form always goeswith void. And there really isn't, in this whole universe, any substance.
Form, indeed, is inseparable from the idea of energy, and form, especially when it's moving in a very circumscribed area, appears to us as solid. For example, when you spin an electric fan the empty spaces between the blades sort of disappear into a blur, and you can't push a pencil, much less your finger, through the fan. So in the same way, you can't push your finger through the floor because the floor's going too fast. Basically, what you have down there is nothing and form in motion.
I knew of a physicist at the University of Chicago who was rather crazy like some scientists, and the idea of the insolidity, the instability of the physcial world, impressed him so much that he used to go around in enormous padded slippers for fear he should fall through the floor. So this commonsense notion that the world is made of some kind of substance is a nonsense idea—it isn't there at all but is, instead, form and emptiness.
Most forms of energy are vibration, pulsation. The energy of light or the energy of sound are always on and off. In the case of very fast light, very strong light, even with alternating current you don't notice the discontinuity because your retina retains the impression of the on pulse and you can't notice the off pulse except in very slow light like an arc lamp. It's exactly the same thing with sound. A high note seems more continuous because the vibrations are faster than a low note. In the low note you hear a kind of graininess because of the slower alternations of on and off.
All wave motion is this process, and when we think of waves, we think about crests. The crests stand out from the underlying, uniform bed of water. These crests are perceived as the things, the forms, the waves. But you cannot have the emphasis called a crest, the concave, without the de-emphasis, or convex, called the trough. So to have anything standing out, there must be something standing down or standing back. We must realize that if you had this part alone, the up part, that would not excite your senses because there would be no contrast.
The same thing is true of all life together. We shouldn't really contrast existence with nonexistence, because actually, existence is the alternation of now-you-see-it/now-you-don't, now-you-see-it/now-you-don't, now-you-see-it/now-you-don't. It is that contrast that presents the sensation of there being anything at all.
Now, in light and sound the waves are extraordinarily rapid so that we don't hear or see the interval between them. But there are other circumstances in which the waves are extraordinarily slow, as in the alternation of day and night, light and darkness, and the much vaster alternations of life and death. But these alternations are just as necessary to the being of the universe as in the very fast motions of light and sound, and in the sense of solid contact when it's going so rapidly that we notice only continuity or the is side. We ignore the intervention of the isn't side, but it's there just the same, just as there are vast spaces within the very heart of the atom.
Another thing that goes along with all this is that it's perfectly obvious that the universe is a system which is aware of itself. In other words, we, as living organisms, are forms of the energy of the universe just as much as the stars and the galaxies, and, through our sense organs, this system of energy becomes aware of itself.
But to understand this we must again relate back to our basic contrast between on and off, something and nothing, which is that the aspect of the universe which is aware of itself, which does the awaring, does not see itself. In other words, you can't look at your eyes with your eyes. You can't observe yourself in the act of observing. You can't touch the tip of a finger with the tip of the same finger no matter how hard you try. Therefore, there is on the reverse side of all observation a blank spot; for example, behind your eyes from the point of view of your eyes. However you look around there is blankness behind them. That's unknown. That's the part of the universe which does not see itself because it is seeing.
We always get this division of experience into one-half known, one-half unknown. We would like to know, if we could, this always unknown. If we examine the brain and the structure of the nerves behind the eyes, we're always looking at somebody else's brain. We're never able to look at our own brain at the same time we're investigating somebody else's brain.
So there is always this blank side of experience. What I'm suggesting is that the blank side of experience has the same relationship to the conscious side as the off principle of vibration has to the on principle. There's a fundamental division. The Chinese call them the yang, the positive side, and the yin, the negative side. This corresponds to the idea of one and zero. All numbers can be made of one and zero as in the binary system of numbers which is used for computers.
And so it's all made up of off and on, and conscious and unconscious. But the unconscious is the part of experience which is doing consciousness, just as the trough manifests the wave, the space manifests the solid, the background manifests the figure. And so all that side of life which you call unconscious, unknown, impenetrable, is unconscious, unknown, impenetrable because it's really you. In other words, the deepest you is the nothing side, is the side which you don't know.
So, don't be afraid of nothing. I could say, "There's nothing in nothing to be afraid of." But people in our culture are terrified of nothing. They're terrified of death; they are uneasy about sleep, because they think it's a waste of time. They have a lurking fear in the back of their minds that the universe is eventually going to run down and end in nothing, and it will all be forgotten, buried and dead. But this is a completely unreasonable fear, because it is just precisely this nothing which is always the source of something.
Think once again of the image of clarity, crystal clear. Nothing is what brings something into focus. This nothing, symbolized by the crystal, is your own eyeball, your own consciousness.
How do we basically begin to think about the difference between something and nothing? When I say there is a cigar in my right hand and there is no cigar in my left hand, we get the idea of is, something, and isn't, nothing. At the basis of this reasoning lies the far more obvious contrast of solid and space. We tend to think of space as nothing; when we talk about the conquest of space there's a little element of hostility. But actually, we're talking about the conquest of distance. Space or whatever it is that lies between the earth and the moon, and the earth and the sun, is considered to be just nothing at all.
But to suggest how very powerful and important this nothing at all is, let me point out that if you didn't have space, you couldn't have anything solid. Without space outside the solid you wouldn't know where the solid's edges were. For example, you can see me in a photograph because you see a background and that background shows up my outline. But if it weren't there, then I and everything around me would merge into a single, rather peculiar mass. You always have to have a background of space to see a figure. The figure and the background, the solid and the space, are inseparable and go together.
We find this very commonly in the phenomenon of magnetism. A magnet has a north pole and a south pole— there is no such thing as a magnet with one pole only. Supposing we equate north with is and south with isn't. You can chop the magnet into two pieces, if it's a bar magnet, and just get another north pole and south pole, another is and isn't, on the end of each piece.
What I am trying to get into basic logic is that there isn't a sort of fight between something and nothing. Everyone is familiar with the famous words of Hamlet, "To be or not to be, that is the question." It isn't; to be or not to be is not the question. Because you can't have a solid without space. You can't have an is without an isn't, a something without a nothing, a figure without a background. And we can turn that round, and say, "You can't have space without solid."
Imagine nothing but space, space, space, space with nothing in it, forever. But there you are imagining it and you're something in it. The whole idea of there being only space, and nothing else at all, is not only inconceivable but perfectly meaningless, because we always know what we mean by contrast.
We know what we mean by white in comparison with black. We know life in comparison with death. We know pleasure in comparison with pain, up in comparison with down. But all these things must come into being together. You don't have first something and then nothing or first nothing and then something. Something and nothing are two sides of the same coin. If you file away the tails side of a coin completely, the heads side of it will disappear as well. So in this sense, the positive and negative, the something and the nothing, are inseparable—they go together. The nothing is the force whereby the something can be manifested.
We think that matter is basic to the physical world. And matter has various shapes. We think of tables as made of wood as we think of pots as made of clay. But is a tree made of wood in the same way a table is? No, a tree is wood; it isn't made of wood. Wood and tree are two different names for the same thing.
But there is in the back of our mind, the notion, as a root of common sense, that everything in the world is made of some kind of basic stuff. Physicists, through centuries, have wanted to know what that was. Indeed, physics began as a quest to discover the basic stuff out of which the world is made. And with all our advances in physics we've never found it. What we have found is not stuff but form. We have found shapes. We have found structures. When you turn up the microscope and look at things expecting to see some sort of stuff, you find instead form, pattern, structure. You find the shape of crystals, beyond the shapes of crystals you find molecules, beyond molecules you find atoms, beyond atoms you find electrons and positrons between which there are vast spaces. We can't decide whether these electrons are waves or particles and so we call them wavicles.
What we will come up with will never be stuff, it will always be a pattern. This pattern can be described, measured, but we never get to any stuff for the simple reason there isn't any. Actually, stuff is when you see something unclearly or out of focus, fuzzy. When we look at it with the naked eye it looks just like goo. We can't make out any significant shape to it. But when you put it under the microscope, you suddenly see shapes. It comes into clear focus as shape.
And you can go on and on, looking into the nature of the world and you will never find anything except form. Think of stuff; basic substance. You wouldn't know how to talk '' about it; even if you found it, how would you describe what it was like? You couldn't say anything about a structure in it, you couldn't say anything about a pattern or a process in it, because it would be absolute, primordial goo.
What else is there besides form in the world? Obviously, between the significant shapes of any form there is space. And space and form go together as the fundamental things we're dealing with in this universe. The whole of Buddhism is based on a saying, "That which is void is precisely form, and that which is form is precisely void." Let me illustrate this to you in an extremely simple way. When you use the word clarity, what do you mean? It might mean a perfectly polished lens, or mirror, or a clear day when there's no smog and the air is perfectly transparent like space.
What's the next thing clarity makes you think of? You think of form in clear focus, all the details articulate and perfect. So the one word clarity suggests to you these two apparently completely different things: the clarity of the lens or the mirror, and the clarity of articulate form. In this sense, we can take the saying "Form is void, void is form" and instead of saying is, say implies, or the word that I invented, goeswith. Form always goeswith void. And there really isn't, in this whole universe, any substance.
Form, indeed, is inseparable from the idea of energy, and form, especially when it's moving in a very circumscribed area, appears to us as solid. For example, when you spin an electric fan the empty spaces between the blades sort of disappear into a blur, and you can't push a pencil, much less your finger, through the fan. So in the same way, you can't push your finger through the floor because the floor's going too fast. Basically, what you have down there is nothing and form in motion.
I knew of a physicist at the University of Chicago who was rather crazy like some scientists, and the idea of the insolidity, the instability of the physcial world, impressed him so much that he used to go around in enormous padded slippers for fear he should fall through the floor. So this commonsense notion that the world is made of some kind of substance is a nonsense idea—it isn't there at all but is, instead, form and emptiness.
Most forms of energy are vibration, pulsation. The energy of light or the energy of sound are always on and off. In the case of very fast light, very strong light, even with alternating current you don't notice the discontinuity because your retina retains the impression of the on pulse and you can't notice the off pulse except in very slow light like an arc lamp. It's exactly the same thing with sound. A high note seems more continuous because the vibrations are faster than a low note. In the low note you hear a kind of graininess because of the slower alternations of on and off.
All wave motion is this process, and when we think of waves, we think about crests. The crests stand out from the underlying, uniform bed of water. These crests are perceived as the things, the forms, the waves. But you cannot have the emphasis called a crest, the concave, without the de-emphasis, or convex, called the trough. So to have anything standing out, there must be something standing down or standing back. We must realize that if you had this part alone, the up part, that would not excite your senses because there would be no contrast.
The same thing is true of all life together. We shouldn't really contrast existence with nonexistence, because actually, existence is the alternation of now-you-see-it/now-you-don't, now-you-see-it/now-you-don't, now-you-see-it/now-you-don't. It is that contrast that presents the sensation of there being anything at all.
Now, in light and sound the waves are extraordinarily rapid so that we don't hear or see the interval between them. But there are other circumstances in which the waves are extraordinarily slow, as in the alternation of day and night, light and darkness, and the much vaster alternations of life and death. But these alternations are just as necessary to the being of the universe as in the very fast motions of light and sound, and in the sense of solid contact when it's going so rapidly that we notice only continuity or the is side. We ignore the intervention of the isn't side, but it's there just the same, just as there are vast spaces within the very heart of the atom.
Another thing that goes along with all this is that it's perfectly obvious that the universe is a system which is aware of itself. In other words, we, as living organisms, are forms of the energy of the universe just as much as the stars and the galaxies, and, through our sense organs, this system of energy becomes aware of itself.
But to understand this we must again relate back to our basic contrast between on and off, something and nothing, which is that the aspect of the universe which is aware of itself, which does the awaring, does not see itself. In other words, you can't look at your eyes with your eyes. You can't observe yourself in the act of observing. You can't touch the tip of a finger with the tip of the same finger no matter how hard you try. Therefore, there is on the reverse side of all observation a blank spot; for example, behind your eyes from the point of view of your eyes. However you look around there is blankness behind them. That's unknown. That's the part of the universe which does not see itself because it is seeing.
We always get this division of experience into one-half known, one-half unknown. We would like to know, if we could, this always unknown. If we examine the brain and the structure of the nerves behind the eyes, we're always looking at somebody else's brain. We're never able to look at our own brain at the same time we're investigating somebody else's brain.
So there is always this blank side of experience. What I'm suggesting is that the blank side of experience has the same relationship to the conscious side as the off principle of vibration has to the on principle. There's a fundamental division. The Chinese call them the yang, the positive side, and the yin, the negative side. This corresponds to the idea of one and zero. All numbers can be made of one and zero as in the binary system of numbers which is used for computers.
And so it's all made up of off and on, and conscious and unconscious. But the unconscious is the part of experience which is doing consciousness, just as the trough manifests the wave, the space manifests the solid, the background manifests the figure. And so all that side of life which you call unconscious, unknown, impenetrable, is unconscious, unknown, impenetrable because it's really you. In other words, the deepest you is the nothing side, is the side which you don't know.
So, don't be afraid of nothing. I could say, "There's nothing in nothing to be afraid of." But people in our culture are terrified of nothing. They're terrified of death; they are uneasy about sleep, because they think it's a waste of time. They have a lurking fear in the back of their minds that the universe is eventually going to run down and end in nothing, and it will all be forgotten, buried and dead. But this is a completely unreasonable fear, because it is just precisely this nothing which is always the source of something.
Think once again of the image of clarity, crystal clear. Nothing is what brings something into focus. This nothing, symbolized by the crystal, is your own eyeball, your own consciousness.
' We are dry and warm '...
The hologram of home is warmth..
This is the mind spectrum..
The snow and rain fall upon us..
We sit and watch the powers of nature..
As long as we are warm,
winter is subdued..
We speak to you in words of Love..
We know that you are listening..
There is nothing else that is Real..
This emotion and mind alternative called Love is most powerful..
This Emotion of Reality is constant..
This constant is You...
-thomas
' Listen to silence '...
To listen to the silence, wherever you are, is an easy and direct way of becoming present.
Even if there is noise, there is always some silence underneath and in between the sounds.
Listening to the silence immediately creates stillness inside you.
-Eckhart Tolle
' We become what we love '...
We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become.
If we love things, we become a thing.
If we love nothing, we become nothing.
Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ,
rather it means becoming the image of the beloved,
an image disclosed through transformation.
This means we are to become vessels of God's compassionate love for others.
- Saint Clare of Assisi
' Solitude and Freedom '...
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone;
... if he does not love solitude,
he will not love freedom;
for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.
-Schopenhauer
' Are we Consciousness ?'...
Of course, We are Consciousness..
Among the awake, these words are not needed..
We still speak with a voice of division..
We still admire our minds..
The words from ego are not needed..
If we desire to waste experience within Dreams,
we will continue to do so..
You imprison yourself..
The ego is the guard and also the prisioner..
- thomas
' God bless Christmas '...
I have always thought of Christmas as a good time;
a kind, forgiving, generous, pleasant time;
a time when men and women seem to open their hearts freely,
and so I say, God bless Christmas!
- Charles Dickens
' Think to the end '...
”To me you are your own God.
But if you think otherwise, think to the end.
If there be God, then all is God's and all is for the best.
Welcome all that comes with a glad and thankful heart.
And love all creatures.
This too will take you to your Self."
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Find Source within '...
Jesus taught what religion is:
to find God within . . .
through love.
And that is the message of the Master to this age and it is the meaning of His life.
-Meher Baba
Treasures From The Meher Baba Journals (1938 – 1942)
Compiled and Edited by Jane Barry Haynes
Myrtle Beach, SC: Sheriar Foundation, 1980, p. 14
' This Christmas '...
You are all beloved children of God, so come together as family in this holy Christmas Season.
12/23/2016 by John Smallman
The Christmas Season is a time for reflecting, forgiving, and opening to Love. In every moment you have your eternal existence within the divine field of Love which envelops you and all of creation in one vast milieu of unconditional loving acceptance. As you have been told so often you are Love, you have just lost contact with the truth of this as you play the games of distraction and disruption that the illusion thrives on.
Stand back from the “outside world,” go within to your holy place or altar where the divine flame burns unceasingly, calling you back to Source, and open your hearts to feel the intensity of Love that awaits your willing acceptance of It. It is your true nature, and when you open to It, It embraces you, supports you, and empowers you. As you allow It into your hearts your fears and anxieties will fall away, and the energy, the Life force with which It endows you will strengthen your will and intent to align completely with the divine Will, which, in essence, is unconditional Love and acceptance of all conscious entities without exception.
Therefore each and everyone of you is eternally Loved by your divine Source, and consequently it makes no sense whatever to reject, spurn, or judge another. At this Christmas Season make a point of acknowledging and accepting your true nature, and, in so doing, release all unforgiveness, judgment, and negative assessments of yourselves and of others. You are all beloved children of God, so come together as family in this holy Christmas Season, and come ablaze with the Light of Love that will flow through you and out into the world, bringing healing to all, if you will just allow your hearts to open in response to the Love that is offered to you in every moment of your existence.
You incarnated to help humanity, all your sisters and brothers in Christ, to awaken from the dream that is the illusion in which you all seem to be ensnared or enslaved. It truly is unreal, although while you are experiencing life embodied as humans it does appear to be very real. Its purpose was to allow you to experience separation, but now that purpose no longer serves you and you will awaken. Your task is simply to love and to be Love, to show your true selves uncloaked by masks or disguises of any kind, neither more nor less than that.
However, because of your ongoing dream-state experiences, many of you have suffered deeply and painfully during your present lifetimes and are holding on to bitterness, resentment, and even hatred of those who have hurt you. Those feelings, emotions, and judgments are endemic across the planet, and you, before you incarnated, were well aware that this was the case. You came to release first your own issues and unresolved fears of that nature – all issues and problems arise out of fear – and having done so and aligned with Love, to assist the rest of humanity do likewise. But most of you have found yourselves far more deeply ensconced in the illusion than you believed was possible before incarnating, and so to awaken and attend to the challenging task you chose for yourselves while still unembodied is proving far more difficult than you envisaged it would be.
Nevertheless, you have an abundance of help available to you from those in the spiritual realms who are watching over and supporting you in every moment. They respond instantly when you call on them, but because of the denseness of your environment it is very difficult for you to hear them or even be aware of them. As we in the spiritual realms have so often told you, it is absolutely essential for your own well-being that you go within at least once daily to connect with Source. If you do not you tend to get drawn more deeply into the illusion where, instead of engaging with your sisters and brothers as the way-showers and Light bearers that you are, you join with them in their lack of awareness of their true nature and become as seemingly separated from Source as those you have come to help, maybe even succumbing to some of the physical or psychological illnesses that are now so prevalent throughout humanity.
Remind yourselves daily that what you are experiencing as a human is, for the most part, unreal. Deep within you do know this, but that depth can only be accessed if you go within daily to your holy shrine where Love blazes forth brightly whenever you open your hearts and allow It to flow through you and out to all of humanity. What you came to offer is sorely needed, and only you can provide it. With your loving assistance, which is the energy frequency that you extend from your hearts out into the world, those with whom you interact will feel uplifted and inspired, and will start to move towards their own natural state of wakeful joy due to just being alive.
As we watch over you and observe the ongoing progress of your awakening process we are filled with joy because it is continuing to accelerate due to the loving intentions that so many of you are holding, and more are joining with you daily as they too are nudged toward Love and away from fear.
Fear is unreal, but you can only become aware of this by letting it go and embracing Love. Love and fear are incompatible, and only Love is Real. Open therefore to the Love that is within you and enjoy the feeling as It flows through you and utterly suffuses you as it extends out way beyond you as part of the divine awakening process for all of humanity.
You are here to love all with whom you interact in any way at all, and to bring them forward towards their own individual awakening, which is divinely assured as you assist them to perceive and acknowledge this. The awakening has, of course, already occurred, you just are not yet aware that this is so. When your awareness knows this supreme state once more your joy will be supreme.
With so very much love, Saul.
' Seeing beyond dualistic emotions '...
A negative emotion is an alarm bell revealing that there is attachment to some story in time happening. If resentment, sadness, guilt, or shame arises, notice that a story of past is happening. If anxiety or fear arises, notice that thought is telling a story of future. When anger or frustration arises, notice that there is a story of resistance to now happening (e.g., the driver in front of you is not doing what you want her to do).
Awakening presents the opportunity to see that these stories are arising now. You aren’t actually visiting the past or future. There is simply thinking arising in timelessness. Suffering is an illusion of thought.
Liberation is not about removing emotions or thoughts. It is not about destroying the ego. Only ego would seek to destroy ego. Liberation is about seeing how attachment to these stories in time creates suffering.
In seeing that this thought life is keeping a dualistic, time-bound, self-centered story alive, the possibility of liberation from suffering arises. In that seeing, attachment to these stories and their accompanying emotions dissolves on its own. Liberation is not about replacing the negative stories and emotions with positive ones. It is about seeing what is actually happening in ‘your’ mental and emotional world. Peace, love, and joy arise in that seeing. These attributes of peace, love, and joy exist beyond dualistic emotions.
-Kiloby, Scott. Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment
' The sense impressions '...
The divine soul in us is utterly above and unaffected by the sense impressions.
If we become conscious of it,
we also become conscious of a supersensual order of existence.
-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself >
Chapter 3: The Overself's Presence > # 343
Paul Brunton
' Shining like the sun '...
I have the immense joy of being man,
a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate.
As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me,
now that I realize what we all are.
And if only everybody could realize this!
But it cannot be explained.
There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.
-Thomas Merton
' One out of two '...
Love is born into every human being;
it calls back the halves of our original nature together;
it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of human nature.
-Plato
' Superstitions '...
“The challenge of enlightenment is not simply to glimpse the awakened condition, not even to continually experience it.
It is to be and express it as yourself in the way you move in the world.
In order to do this, you must come out of hiding behind any superstitious beliefs and find the courage to question everything.
Otherwise, you continue to hold on to superstitions that distort your perception and expression of That which is only ever awake.”
~ Adyashanti
' One Infinite Presence '...
When his mind moves entirely and wholly into the One Infinite Presence,
and when it settles permanently there,
the divided existence of glimpse and darkness,
of Spirit and matter, of Overself and ego, of heaven and earth, will vanish.
The crossing over to a unified existence will happen.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 122
Paul Brunton
' Winter'...
the equinox strikes like a slap across the face..
the wind howls a warning of the future..
rain becomes it's twin and gathers in inches..
standing near the stove brings memories of green..
Now, announces that you have walked away..
the pain of lament warns of the forgetfulness of duality..
the observer merely nods at the scene..
the body cries for warmth..
the mind gives birth to the pain of desire..
the observer nods once again..
the observer feels no pain in Consciousness,
only the mind suffers..
-thomas
' Only the Ultimate is '...
In reality only the Ultimate is.
The rest is a matter
of name and form.
And as long as you cling to the
idea that only what has name and shape exists,
the Supreme will appear to you non-existing.
When
you understand that names and shapes are hollow
shells without any content whatsoever,
and what is
real is nameless and formless,
pure energy of life
and light of consciousness,
you will be at peace –
immersed in the deep silence of reality.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
' The simplicity of ‘This’ ...
In the search for something more than this moment, the simplicity of ‘This’ is missed completely. Look around. Sense the being—the felt oneness with life. Thoughts may be happening. Perhaps a feeling of anxiety briefly arises and falls in awareness as you read this reflection. Maybe there is the sound of a dog barking, a clock ticking, or a child laughing in the other room. That is all that is happening. Isn’t it beautifully simple? Spiritual awakening is that simple. It is to realize ‘This’ fully and to allow the search for something more than ‘This’ to die naturally in that seeing.
Isn’t the search for something more a dream of thought arising now? Can you grab the future and control it from where you are sitting now? You cannot touch the future because it is nothing more than presently arising thought. When this is seen fully, the search is seen to be an illusion.
How can you need something other than ‘This?’ ‘This’ is precious. ‘This’ is all there is. Spiritual awakening is about the truth. The truth is that ‘This’ is life, happening now. ‘This’ is it. It is that simple. ‘This’ is when whatever is presently happening—whether it is the sound of dishes being washed or a plane flying over heard—is the most fascinating thing because it is all that is happening. It is truth.
-Kiloby, Scott. Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment
' A clue '...
The Overself throws out a clue to its existence and presence.
This comes in various ways to different persons.
One form is a delicate feeling drawing him inward either to deeper thought or to no thought at all.
If he goes along with it even though hardly aware and half-involuntarily, he will be led by this clue to a glimpse.
-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself >
Chapter 5: Preparing for Glimpses > # 110
Paul Brunton
' Being human '...
You , are not living within the human body..
The human body is living within You..
The image of human body is imagined as are all dreams..
You are Consciousness..
You Observe the speck of Consciousness that declares itself to be separate..
You play with the mirror of Duality..
You finally Realize,
upon Awakening,
that, it was all just a dream...
-thomas
' The love of God '...
"When you desire to eat or drink, or fulfill other worldly desires, and you focus your awareness on the love of God, then you elevate that desire to spiritual desire.
Thereby you draw out the holy spark that dwells within.
You bring forth holy sparks from the material world.
There is no path greater than this.
For wherever you go and whatever you do — even mundane activities — you serve God."
Levi Yitshak of Berditchev
in Daniel C. Matt
The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism
NY: Quality Paperbacks, 1995, p. 151
' Resistance and time '...
It is only resistance that transforms the eternity of the present moment into the transience of passing experience as time or duration. Without resistance there is only eternity.
Real virtue cannot be cultivated. It can only be the inevitable, natural consequence of understanding itself.
-
A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
http://www.advaita.org
' What remains '...
”If I ask you what is the taste of your mouth,
all you can do is to say:
it is neither sweet nor bitter nor sour nor astringent;
it is what remains when all these tastes are not.
Similarly, when all distinctions and reactions are no more,
what remains is reality, simple and solid."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Faults '...
A man who drank too much of that which is limpid, often came to the
point when he lost both his senses and his self respect. Once, a
friend came across him in this deplorable state, lying on the road. So
he got a sack and put him in feet first and put the sack on his
shoulder and set off for home.
On the way, another drunk appeared,
reeling along, supported by a companion. At this, the man whose head
hung out of the sack, woke up, and seeing the other in this pitiable
state said reprovingly: "Ah, unhappy man, in the future drink two cups
of wine less, then you wll be able to walk as I do now--free and alone."
Our own state is not different. We see faults because we do not love.
If we had the least understanding of real love, the faults of those
near to us would appear as good qualities.
--Fariduddin Attar
from The Conference of the Birds
C. S. Nott version
' The Name called Jesus '...
Within this Dream of Duality, you will encounter the 'rulers of earth'..
They own the Media, television, radio, and print as a means of 'mind control'..
This creation of thoughts that you form, are the results of this propaganda..
But, you are already awake to these truths..
'The powers that be', desire to end the remembrance of a mystical teacher called Jesus..
This is because, Jesus taught the strength and joy called 'Unconditional Love'..
The 'mind controlers' cannot become wealthy and powerful within the 'state of Love'..
Therefore, the opposite must be established called War..
Remember, the three desires of ego are power, wealth, and fame..
These three desires keep the ego trapped within Reincarnation..
Thus, you remain as the continuous power supply for the lower spirits of ego that need negative
energy to exist,
as Divine Light does not enter the false...
-thomas
' Wisdom and solitude '...
Wisdom is attained in solitude.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
The one who lacks peace, with all his possessions, the property of this earth or quality of mind, is poor even with both. ... True wisdom is to be found in the peaceful, for peacefulness is the sign of wisdom. It is the peaceful one who is observant. It is peace that gives him the power to observe keenly. It is the peaceful one, therefore, who can conceive, for peace helps him to conceive. It is the peaceful who can contemplate; one who has no peace cannot contemplate properly. Therefore, all things pertaining to spiritual progress in life depend upon peace.
To attain peace, what one has to do is to seek that rhythm which is in the depth of our being. It is just like the sea: the surface of the sea is ever moving; the depth of the sea is still. And so it is with our life. If our life is thrown into the sea of activity, it is on the surface. We still live in the profound depths, in that peace. But the thing is to become conscious of that peace which can be found within ourselves. ... the first thing is to seek the kingdom of God within ourselves, in which there is our peace. As soon as we have found that, we have found our support, we have found our self. And in spite of all the activity and movement on the surface, we shall be able to keep that peace undisturbed if only we hold it fast by becoming conscious of it.
The bliss found in the solitude is hidden within every human being; he has inherited it from his heavenly Father. In mystical terms it is called the All-pervading Light.
How can one attain to the deeper side? ... One method is to acquire the knowledge from the life without, and that is going to school and attaining the knowledge in that way. Another method is quite different; it is not going to school or institution and study, but closing the door of one's room, sitting in solitude, closing the eyes, being oneself once again, and trying to put one's mind within, seeking the source within, getting the knowledge which be gotten only from within.
' The impostor '...
Before we can become who we really are,
we must become conscious of the fact that the person who we think we are,
here and now,
is at best an impostor and a stranger.
-Thomas Merton
' Gratitude '...
Gratitude arises when the preciousness of ‘This’ is realized. ‘This’ is life happening right now in whatever way it is happening. Perhaps ‘you’ are sitting on a chair, just reading these words. That is all that is happening and it is perfectly enough. Sitting. Breathing. Looking. Reading. Thinking. Feeling. That is all there is. Suffering and searching arise when the belief in a separate, thought-created “me” starts telling the story that something other than ‘This’ should be happening.
Once the search for something more starts up, true gratitude for ‘This’ cannot be seen. Gratitude is not something we find in the future. Future is just a thought arising now. Gratitude is not thought. You can think about gratitude, but it would still just be a thought about gratitude entertained by a separate self. True gratitude arises naturally in presence. Gratitude is realized to be your very essence when the search for something more than ‘This’ is seen to be a thought-based illusion.
When ‘This’ is seen, the simplicity and preciousness of life is seen. In this realization, it is not that ‘you’—as a separate entity—are grateful for other people, things, and situations. In true gratitude, there is no self attempting to gain something from other people, things, and situations. There is only gratitude. Gratitude for ‘This’ in whatever form it takes right now. Simple gratitude for aliveness itself.
-Kiloby, Scott. Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment
' Quiet and clear '...
Let them throw their curses.
If inside, I am connected
to what's true, my soul
stays quiet and clear.
Do you think Shiva worries
what people say!
If a few ashes fall on a mirror,
use them to polish it.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
' The individual seeker '...
Seeking begins with the individual and ends when the individual seeker realizes that all this time what he has been seeking is what he actually is, that the seeker is the sought, that there never had been an individual seeking.
Thoughts are bound to arise.
The trick is not to get involved but to simply ignore them altogether.
' Enabling '...
The key practice when experiencing fear, depression, anxiety, and these other debilitating states; is to accept that they are present but never pledge your allegiance to them.
Keep a small room in your heart for them and do not turn them into an enemy; but do not enable them by giving them your attention which only energizes them.
Anyone who has lived with an alcoholic or an addict will know that feeling of enabling because you want to love them and see them changed.
Fear is fear, depression is depression, anger is anger; you are not going to change them into something else by holding them close like little children.
The best way to handle an addict is to be fair but firm and do not give them the time of day until they seek to change themselves.
Until then, you remove yourself from the situation, ask them to leave, or have them escorted out. This does not mean you do not love them, rather you are allowing for true love to exist without enabling a false love based on the desire to change the reality.
One’s emotions, feelings, states of mind etc, must be dealt with in the same manner. Acceptance but not enabling under the false pretense that spending time with them is somehow going to change them.
-Atreya Thomas
' Into the mystery '...
The gap between man's mind and God's mind is uncrossable.
But the gap between his everyday mind and the Overself--which is close to God--is not.
Through it he may penetrate a little deeper into the mystery.
-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself >
Chapter 3: The Overself's Presence > # 308
Paul Brunton
' Where is Christmas'...
We speak to Yeshua, also known as Jesus, with thought..
This entity of Consciousness has remained within Divine Consciousness to help you..
This 'Thought' of 'Pure Awareness' has given up Freedom to speak to you..
To leave the promise of 'Thought' and become 'Thought' is Reality..
This mystic called Jesus, remains within the soul..
The reason is that Love is Eternal, and is Reality of existence..
The grasping of manifestation is a joke, often smiled of by Reality..
Reality has developed the thought of 'you',
and yet, you believe yourself to be separate..
You cannot separate One..
The fractions do not exist within Love..
-thomas
' The Aramaic Lord’s Prayer '...
The Aramaic Lord’s Prayer
-- transliteration by Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz from the original Aramaic spoken by Jesus
Abwoon d’bwashmaya
Nethqadash shmakh
Teytey malkuthakh
Nehwey sebyanach aykanna d’bwashmaya aph b’arah
Hawvlan lachma d’sunqanan yaomana.
Washboqlan khaubayn wakhtahayn aykana daph khnan Shbwoqan l’khayyabayn.
Wela tahlan l’nesyuna
Ela patzan min bisha.
Metol dilakhie malkutha wahayla wateshbukhta l’ahlam almin.
Ameyn.
-- as translated by Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz from the original Aramaic spoken by Jesus
O Thou from whom comes the breath of life, which is present in all realms of vibration and light.
Let thy light/sound be experienced in my own ‘holy of holies.’
Let your ideals and counsel rule.
Let your desire be, as in the universe (all that vibrates), so also on earth.
Give us bread (understanding/support) for our needs from day to day.
Loose the cords of mistakes binding us, as we release the strands we hold of others’ faults.
Do not let surface things delude us.
But free us from what holds us back from our true purpose.
To you belongs the ruling will, the life and power to do, the song which beautifies all, from age to age it renews.
Amen (Sealed in trust and faith.)
' Negative emotions '...
The strangest and most fantastic fact about negative
emotions is that people actually worship them.
- P.D. Ouspensky
' Tranquility '...
Tranquility comes only in the utter absence of resistance to the experience of the present moment and therefore has nothing to do with idealistic intellectual commitments to either action or non-action or to any other conceivable aspect of idealized behavior.
It is intellectual conceptualization that raises various unnecessary issues, gets the individual trapped in its net, and makes him forget the fundamental question as to who and what the questioner himself really is.
-A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
http://www.advaita.org
' Body and mind '...
The normal man thinks he is body plus mind, with emphasis on the body.
But self-questioning and analysis show that, although he certainly has these two things and is certainly associated with them, the "I" is in fact neither of them.
It is, by contrast, not changing and quite elusive.
It is not in space, as the body is, nor in time, as the mind is.
It is, in fact, a mystery.
The attempt to find out what it is brings up the questions of existence, life, activity, and consciousness.
-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself >
Chapter 3: The Overself's Presence > # 340
Paul Brunton
' My lady of reality '..
I speak to my lady of reality..
Fear is always found within learning..
I am tired of Fear..
I demand Love..
But, the powers of earth demand death..
Wars are demanded by the vultures of wealth and death..
I will not stand for the vision of pain..
I will exist for the creation of love..
I will continue to speak to you of unknowing...
-thomas
' The root of pain '...
”What is the root of pain?
Ignorance of yourself.
What is the root of desire?
The urge to find yourself.
All creation toils for its self and will not rest until it returns to it."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Experiencing the Overself '...
That which is aware of the world is not the world.
That which is aware of the ego is not the ego.
When this awareness is isolated,
the man "experiences" the Overself.
-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself >
Chapter 5: Preparing for Glimpses > # 5
Paul Brunton
' Freedom and love '...
Freedom and love go together.
Love is not a reaction.
If I love you because you love me, that is mere trade, a thing to be bought in the market; it is not love.
To love is not to ask anything in return, not even to feel that you are giving something- and it is only such love that can know freedom.
-Jiddu Krishnamurti
' Graceland '...
This song by Paul Simon speaks in a mystical voice to share knowledge of Divine Consciousness..
This mysterious power called 'Grace' is the attendent at the gate..
To enter the state of grace is given and not earned..
Your tears and thoughts will bring you closer to Grace..
Grace only accepts the gift of Nothing..
You must give 'Nothing' to receive 'Everything'..
If you try to carry the baggage of ego,
you will be turned away..
If you are strong in your desire for Freedom,
Reality will meet you halfway...
-thomas
' Find yourself '...
”Forgetting your Self is the greatest injury; all the calamities flow from it.
Take care of the most important, the lesser will take care of itself.
You do not tidy up a dark room.
You open the windows first.
Letting in the light makes everything easy.
So, let us wait with improving others until we have seen ourselves as we are - and have changed.
There is no need to turn around and round in endless questioning;
find yourself and everything will fall into its proper place."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Disenchantment and discontent '...
If you search within your heart, you will find something there that will make it possible for you to understand:
a spark of disenchantment and discontent,
which if fanned into flame will become a raging forest fire that will burn up the whole of the illusory world you are living in,
thereby unveiling to your wondering eyes the kingdom that you have always lived in unsuspectingly.
-Anthony de Mello
' Awareness '...
That we know this awareness exists means only that we have an idea of awareness.
We do not see that awareness as itself an object, nor can we ever do so.
If we are to know the awareness by itself, first we would have to drop knowing its objects, its reflections in thought, including the ego-thought, and then be it, not see it.
-- Notebooks Category 21: Mentalism > Chapter 5:
The Key To the Spiritual World > # 168
Paul Brunton
' Timeless peace '...
The state of identity is inherent in reality and never fades.
But identity is neither the transient personality (vyakti), nor the karma-bound individuality (vyakta).
It is what remains when all self-identification is given up as false - pure consciousness, the sense of being all there is, or could be.
Consciousness is pure in the beginning and pure in the end; in between it gets contaminated by imagination which is at the root of creation.
At all times consciousness remains the same. To know it as it is, is realization and timeless peace.
-Nisargadaytta Maharaj from I Am That
' Seeking in all aspects '...
Seeking doesn’t happen only in the context of enlightenment. It is your constant companion. Notice the ways in which you look for some future moment, avoiding what is in this moment.
When you are brushing your teeth in the morning, are you thinking about when you will be done so that you can brush your hair or get to work? When you are driving to work, are you thinking about arriving at work or what you will do tonight after work? When you arrive at work, are you thinking about lunch, the finishing of a project, or the end of the day?
When you are doing chores around the house, are you thinking about getting the chores done? Does your day feel like one entire movement forward? If so, all of that is seeking energy. Seeking energy is not good or bad. It is just not true that something should be happening other than what is happening. Suffering arises when we live in illusion.
There is an old Zen saying, “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water . . . after enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” So what is the difference? The difference is that, in enlightenment, the dream self who believes it must constantly think about what is going to happen next falls away. Life is lived much more easily--without the false idea that you have control and that something must be happening other than what is happening.
-Kiloby, Scott. Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment
' The Stillness '...
The Stillness is both an Understanding,
an Insight of the mind,
and an Experience of the being.
The whole movement or vibration comes to a stop.
-- Perspectives > Chapter 24: The Peace within You > # 46
Paul Brunton
' Your real nature '...
”You are the Self, here and now.
Leave the mind alone,
stand aware and unconcerned and you will realize that to stand alert but detached,
watching events come and go,
is an aspect of your real nature."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' The glimpse of Love '...
With the glimpse, a feeling overspreads his heart of benevolence towards all living creatures--not only human but also animal and not only animal but even plant.
He would not, could not knowingly harm a single one.
The Christians call this love, the Buddhists compassion, the Hindus oneness.
My own term is goodwill, but all are right.
These are different facets, as seen from different points.
-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself >
Chapter 6: Experiencing a Glimpse > # 94
Paul Brunton
' This little point '...
It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race, now I realize what we all are .
If only they [people] could all see themselves as they really are, I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other.
At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusions, a point of pure truth,
This little point is the pure glory of God in us.
It is in everybody.
-Thomas Merton
' We are asleep '...
Impossible to believe as we stare at this screen before us..
We awoke this morning from the nothingness and into the illusion of materiality..
All of this time, we firmly believe that we are awake in reality..
We pass through this day wondering why we are here..
Perhaps, instead of crying at our unknowing,
We should laugh at our ignorance..
As all of the Mystic Masters have told you,
" The answer is within"..
Within what?..
The Heart and Mind..
This is why you are here..
The mind will lead you to the 'Door'
The heart will open the 'Door'..
As the Nazarene said;
" Knock and the Door shall be opened"..
The mind is the ego that desires to exist but still seeks freedom..
The Heart is Divine Consciousness that offers freedom to the mind..
The mind is troubled by this decision between annihilation of it's existence and
the freedom that is promised by this sacrifice of existence..
Reality is beyond the mind (ego),
To view Reality, the mind (ego) must dissolve into nothingness...
Courage is the name given to those that fear and yet still proceed..
Are you Courageous?..
- thomas
' The soul '...
We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles.
Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal ONE.
And this deep power in which we exist and whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and the object, are one.
We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which these are shining parts, is the soul.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
' Both paths '...
It is true that the Long Path is only a preliminary one and that the Short Path is certainly a more advanced one.
But it is also true that each is incomplete without the other.
The best plan is to adopt as much of both paths as the aspirant can.
-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation >
Chapter 5: Balancing the Paths > # 168
Paul Brunton
'Well adjusted '...
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
-Jiddu Krishnamurti
' This, I '...
We keep running and then walking to find this personality..
On the way, we create a 'character' (char-actor),
this image of 'I' becomes your reality..
It is so difficult for the slave to realize that they are actually Master..
But, In Reality, even the Master of Creation must return Home..
The First and Final Reality must be examined..
It is the 'Desire' that traps you..
The Power of Mind creates the Dreams..
How much longer will you Dream ?...
-thomas
' Would I lie ? '...
Listen to the song below this post..
How creative is deception ?..
How do the innocent feel upon accusation ?..
The innocent flee..
Solitude is a home for the Truthful..
Thoughts without the constant words of others is blissful..
The actions of the other actors within this Play are both good and bad..
The 'Mirror' that is spoken of, appears within Seeing..
The 'Thin Line' of path is sung of by mystics..
To witness non-duality of desire is peaceful..
To walk through the 'eye of a needle',
requires the thin thoughts of Truth...
-thomas
' You are beyond it '...
”There are no conditions to fulfill.
There is nothing to be done, nothing to be given up.
Just look and remember, whatever you perceive is not you, nor yours.
It is there in the field of consciousness, but you are not the field and its contents, nor even the knower of the field.
It is your idea that you have to do things that entangles you in the results of your efforts - the motive, the desire, the failure to achieve, the sense of frustration - all this holds you back.
Simply look at whatever happens and know that you are beyond it."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' The endless river '...
The more you know yourself,
the more clarity there is.
Self-knowledge has no end -
you don't come to an achievement,
you don't come to a conclusion.
It is an endless river.
-Jiddu Krishnamurti
' The insanity of seeking '...
Imagine two fish debating about what water is. Imagine two birds trying to come to some conceptual understanding of air. Imagine the ocean trying to grasp what wetness is. Imagine a dog believing that he must travel a spiritual path to find “dogness.”
Imagine two aliens on another planet trying to understand what life is. Do you see the insanity of all this? The same insanity is inherent in the search for enlightenment. Enlightenment just means presence, being, or aliveness. The words are not the thing they describe. Those words are merely pointing to the very life that you are right now.
Your entire search for enlightenment is happening in enlightenment. Your entire search for presence is happening in presence. Your search for being is happening in being. The search for life is being conducted by life itself. You are that which you are seeking. You are looking for God with his eyes.
As this is realized, and it can only be realized now because life is only now, it is seen that no word, idea, philosophy, belief system, or pointer could ever get you any closer to ‘This’ that you already are.
‘This’ is so simple, obvious, and immediately close that it is missed as soon as you go looking for it or as soon as you start trying to find it in thought.
Kiloby, Scott. Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment
' Rumi on false ego '...
by Sologak
Rumi teaches us that our worst enemy is hiding within ourselves, and that enemy is our Naafs or false ego(نفس). Rumi describes our heart as a mirror. Naturally, this mirror becomes dusty, and we have to wipe it to take the dust off. In a mystical way, Rumi is effectively instructing us the way of wiping this mirror so the reflection may fall more clearly, equaling wiping our hearts from the falseness and dualities that are surrounding us. Therefore, Nafs or False Ego(نفس) equals any inclination which springs from disregard of love, harmony, beauty, and being unconcerned with well being of all others.
Rumi also teaches that in Sufism, there are four stages of self purification:
1. Self becoming emptied
2. Self becoming illuminated
3. Self becoming adorned
4. Self-having-passed-away.
The Sufi, through these stages of purification, travels the inner way, the 'Spiritual Path'. Having traveled this path, the Sufi becomes a perfect being and arrives at the threshold of the 'Truth'. In this 'True Center' for higher education, there are no professors and his and her only guide will be the absolute 'Love'. Here, Sufi's only teacher is love, his and her books are love, and his and her being is love...
Who is in the house of my heart,
I cried in the middle of the night.
Love said,
"It is I, but what are all these images that fill your
house?"
I said, they are the reflection of your beautiful face.
Love asked,
"But what is this image full of pain?"
I said, it is me lost in the sorrows of life
and showed Love my soul full of wounds.
Love offered me one end of a thread and said:
"Take it so I can pull you back
but do not break the delicate string."
I reached towards it but Love struck my hand.
I asked, why the harshness?
Love said,
"To remind you that whoever comes to Love's holy space,
proud and full of himself
will be sent away.
Look at Love with eyes of your heart.
Who gets up early
to discover the moment
light begins?
Who finds us here,
circling bewildered like atoms?
Who comes to a spring thirsty,
and finds the moon reflected in it?
Who, like Jacob,
blind with grief and age
smells the shirt of his lost son
and can see again?
Who lets a bucket down and brings up
a flowing prophet?
Or like Moses,
goes for fire and finds
what burns inside the sunrise?
Jesus slips into a house to escape enemies,
and opens a door to the other world.
Solomon cuts open a fish,
and there's a gold ring.
An oyster opens his mouth
to swallow one drop
Now there's a pearl.
A Vagrant wanders empty ruins
Suddenly he's wealthy.
But don't be satisfied with poems
and stories of how things
have gone with others.
Unfold your own myth,
without complicated explanation,
so everyone will understand the passage:
Love has opened your heart
Start walking towards love.
Your legs will get heavy and tired.
Then comes a moment of
feeling the wings you've grown, lifting...
..... Rumi
' The person '...
”The person is a very small thing.
Actually it is a composite, it cannot be said to exist by itself.
Unperceived, it is just not there.
It is but the shadow of the mind, the sum total of memories.
Pure being is reflected in the mirror of the mind, as knowing.
What is known takes the shape of a person, based on memory and habit.
It is but a shadow, or a projection of the knower onto the screen of the mind."
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Our own silence '...
There is a huge silence inside each of us that beckons us into itself,
and the recovery of our own silence can begin to teach us the language of heaven.
-Meister Eckhart
' The illusionary world '...
If you search within your heart, you will find something there that will make it possible for you to understand:
a spark of disenchantment and discontent, which if fanned into flame will become a raging forest fire that will burn up the whole of the illusory world you are living in,
thereby unveiling to your wondering eyes the kingdom that you have always lived in unsuspectingly.
-Anthony de Mello
' Christmas by Rumi '...
There is a morning where presence
comes over you, and you sing
like a rooster in your earth-colored shape.
Your heart hears and, no longer frantic,
begins to dance. At that moment
soul reaches total emptiness.
Your heart becomes Mary, miraculously pregnant,
and body, like a two-day-old Jesus,
says wisdom words.
Now the heart turns to light,
and the body picks up the tempo.
Where Shams Tabriz walks, the footprints
are musical notes, and holes
you fall through into space.
-Rumi
' A sense of finality '...
The deeper we move into the direct experience of being, of the unborn, undying, uncreated that we are, the more we start to move into a true sense of nonduality. By nonduality, I mean living beyond relative and absolute. In a certain sense, our experience opens up even beyond the perception of unity, even beyond the experience of oneness. We realize the core of ourselves, the essence of ourselves, to be something much more akin to pure potential. We realize ourselves to be pure potential, before it has become anything—before it has become the One, before it has become the many, before it has become this or that.
The maturing of awakening is this profound return to our essence, to the simplicity of what we are, which is before and beyond being and nonbeing. It is before and beyond existing and not existing. It is where there is a disappearance, as it were, where our minds are no longer fixating on any level of experience. Our minds are not fixating on any particular expression. The tendency to fixate has been liberated.
This state is not a mystical state. It is not a state of immensity or a state of specialness. It is a state of naturalness and ease. On the human level, it is experienced as deep ease and deep naturalness and deep simplicity.
On another level, it is the undeniable sense that whatever the journey has been, there is a certain sense of finality.
As one old Zen master said, it’s like a job well done. At the end of the day, you just go home. At a certain point in one’s spiritual life, it is as if everything is spontaneously put down. This is hard to understand until it actually starts to happen to you. Spirituality itself is put down. Freedom is put down. It’s necessary for us to be free of our need for freedom, to be enlightened from our need for enlightenment.
~ Adyashanti ~
' A symphony '...
What I really enjoy is not you; it's something that's greater than both you and me.
It is something that I discovered, a kind of symphony, a kind of orchestra that plays one melody in your presence, but when you depart, the orchestra doesn't stop.
When I meet someone else, it plays another melody, which is also very delightful.
And when I'm alone, it continues to play.
-Anthony de Mello
' Substance and time '...
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
' I remain the Observer '...
My Lady, Cindy, pushes my hair into balance..
This gray hair permeates the belief that seventy is fifty..
Although, the body is considered old, the mind remains unencumbered..
Chess becomes a partner in intellect..
Religion becomes a person once known..
Life is short within the memory of 'Being'..
You ask me to speak of Reality and yet,
I can only speak to you of Seeing..
How am I to navigate your thoughts ?..
I remain the Observer...
-thomas
' To shower the people'...
Hear the voices of non-egoic consciousness..
Fame and wealth is vain glory..
You are here to discover Truth..
Having a hero is adventageous,
but, Reality, draws closer to thoughts of Truth..
Listen to the frequencies of sound..
You will find yourself within a bridge..
Continue to walk..
I will meet you at the end...
thomas
' Looking in '...
In my experience of Reality,
I found this Light and Love to be perfectly normal..
In this Hell of Duality, we strive..
Love seems to be in a partnership of lonliness..
Negative and Positive appear as hugging..
We keep looking out,
when we should be looking in...
-thomas
' It is a shadow '...
The person is a very small thing.
Actually it is a
composite, it cannot be said to exist by itself.
Unperceived, it is just not there.
It is but the
shadow of the mind, the sum total of memories.
Pure being is reflected in the mirror of the mind,
as knowing.
What is known takes the shape of a
person, based on memory and habit.
It is but a
shadow, or a projection of the knower onto the
screen of the mind.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
' Time and Space '...
The most valuable metaphysical fruit of the quantum theory is its finding that the processes of the universe which occur in space and time,
emanate from what is fundamentally not in space and time.
-- Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity > Chapter 4: Time, Space, Causality > # 18
-- Perspectives > Chapter 19: The Reign of Relativity > # 4
Paul Brunton
' The Source of all Love '...
The truth is you really are nothing, but this nothing is full, whole, infinite in everything and everywhere.
This nothing is conciousness itself.
It is already whole, complete and fulfilled.
This is the amazing irony.
The love that you search for everywhere is already present within you.
It may be evoked by any number of people or events.
But finally, you must realize you are this love.
The source of all love is within you.
-Gangaji
' I control You '...
Is a 'Thing' called a self ?..
Is there a point of Consciousness that must exist ?..
Is there a reason to feel pain ?..
The ego says, yes..
The ego says;
I am the generator of thoughts,
follow them into hypnosis..
I control the Dreams..
I control You..
-thomas
' Depending on light '...
The electrons striking one another..
This friction of temperature..
Life seems to thrive within the arms of warmth..
Giant balls of Light give the Dreams, Energy..
Life continues to search for both continuation of the Dreams and the death of Dreams..
Which state of existence and non-existence, brings Peace..
This thin line between these thoughts of Mind is called Love..
Love is the scale that holds both pain and joy..
Love is the Thinker, but accepts the pains of non-love..
Love is the manifestator of discovery..
Love is the only path for the 'Thought-form' called human..
All else is misery...
-thomas
' Perception '...
A man never leaves Consciousness.
The world comes into it as perception, that is, as idea.
Whether anything, object or state, comes into it or not, Consciousness remains as his unchanging home.
Whether asleep or awake, wrapped in himself or out in the world, his essential being remains what it is.
His thoughts and sense-impressions, feelings and passions are produced by it or projected from it: they exist in dependence on it and die in it.
-- Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity >
Chapter 3: The States of Consciousness > # 183
Paul Brunton
' War and Peace '...
So war and peace start in the human heart.
Whether that heart is open or whether that heart closes has global implications.
-Pema Chodron
' From loneliness to aloneness '...
We leave our homeland, our property and our friends.
We give up the familiar ground that supports our ego, admit the helplessness of ego to control its world and secure itself.
We give up our clingings to superiority and self-preservation...
It means giving up searching for a home, becoming a refugee, a lonely person who must depend on himself...
Fundamentally, no one can help us.
If we seek to relieve our loneliness, we will be distracted from the path.
Instead, we must make a relationship with loneliness until it becomes aloneness.
-Chogyam Trungpa
' Joy and sorrow '...
Joy and sorrow are the light and shade of life; without light and shade no picture is clear.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Joy and sorrow are each part of the other. If it were not for joy, sorrow would not exist; and if it were not for sorrow, joy would not be experienced.
There is going forward and there is going backwards, there is success and there is failure, there is light and there is darkness, there is joy and there is sadness, there is birth and there is death. All things that we can know, feel and perceive have their opposites. It is the opposite quality which brings about balance.
The world would not exist if there were not water and earth. Every thing and every being needs these two qualities in order to exist, to act, and to fulfill the purpose of life; for each quality is incomplete without the other.
... by a deep insight into nature we discover that the creation is the same as the Creator, that the source is the same as the goal, and that the two only mean one. There are two ends to a line but the line is one, and this oneness is manifest in all things, though man seldom gives any thought to this subject. This amazing manifestation, this world of variety, keeps us so puzzled, so confused, and so absorbed in it that we hardly give ourselves any time to see this wonderful phenomenon: how the one and only Being shows Himself even in the world of variety.
' True worship '...
True worship is effortless, supreme meditation in the continuous, unbroken awareness of the within, the indwelling presence.
It requires no effort because there is nothing in it to be attained which one does not already possess.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
What is generally understood to be prayer is nothing more than one fictitious entity called 'me' begging for something from another fictitious entity called 'God'.
-
A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
http://www.advaita.org
' The Quest for Truth '...
In choosing this Path,
the aspirant has taken the first step toward a Divine Power whose possession,
or rather whose possession of him, will, ultimately,
enable him to become a real healer of suffering mankind.
-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest >
Chapter 1: What the Quest Is > # 186
Paul Brunton
' The pure witness '...
”Man becomes what he believes himself to be.
Abandon all ideas about yourself and you will find yourself to be the pure witness,
beyond all that can happen to the body or the mind."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' We ignore our unity '...
When we look outside of that on which we depend we ignore our unity;
looking outward we see many faces;
look inward and all is one head.
If a man could but be turned about,
he would see at once God and himself and the All.
-Plotinus
' Innermost Divinity '...
A day will break surely when every man will have to bend the knee to that unknown self and abandon every cell of his brain, every flowing molecule of his heart, his blood, into its waiting hands.
Though he will fear to do so, though he will fear to give up those ancient idols who had held him in bond so long and have given him so little in return, though he will tremble to loose his moorings and let his soul drift slowly from them with sails set for that mysterious region whose longitude few men know and whose shores most men shun, yet he will do so all the same.
For the presence of man's own innermost divinity is the guarantee that he must inescapably seek and find it.
-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself >
Chapter 3: The Overself's Presence > # 2
Paul Brunton
' The Friend '...
Those of Consciousness will understand the energy of Thought..
All Dreams are created from Thought..
We see billions of souls and cannot imagine Dreams..
Each soul is a Dream..
Listen to the poet singers..
They will lull you into Reality..
The 'Sign Wave' of Duality and Creation awaits your sight..
Mountains and Valleys speak to you of Oneness..
This 'Voice' called Reality,
merely, wishes you to share supper..
Perhaps, the Last...
-thomas
' Chasing states '...
In these reflections, the natural state is sometimes referred to as “the opening.” Who you really are is the opening through which everything happens including thoughts, emotions, reactions, pain, frustration, states of calm awareness and states of total confusion.
You’ve been told that you must reach some state called “enlightenment” in which you are totally calm, peaceful, and loving. This tends to send the mind on a chase into future. Emotionally painful states are labeled bad. Calm or pleasurable states are labeled good. The chase involves seeking the good and avoiding the bad.
When the mind is chasing some ideal “good” state, it avoids what is actually occurring when pain, frustration, or confusion is occurring. This fuels the chase towards the ideal state and keeps the search going.
Pointing to your true nature as the “opening” allows a seeing that anything is possible in this opening. A state of pure, calm awareness or a state of great fear may happen in the opening. Whatever is happening is allowed by ‘no one.’ There is no one there deciding which state is good and which is bad. Without the labeling of good v. bad, the chasing tends to stop on its own.
If the mind renews the chase again towards something other than what is happening, notice that the chase is happening in that opening. As this is seen, there is nothing left to chase. There is only ‘what is.’
- Kiloby, Scott. Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment
' Intellect, Reality, and The Overself '...
Our earlier division into a dualism of observer and observed must now come to an end. But let us not make the error of mistaking it for the final stage. There still lies a path beyond, a path which leads to the ultimate where both observer and the observed become one.
The Real can never be stated because it can never be thought. Therefore it is quite clear that ordinary means of knowledge are unable to grasp it. But such knowledge is not useless. For if religion can give us a symbolic idea and mysticism an intuitive idea of the Infinite, metaphysical knowledge can give us a rational idea of it. And to possess such an idea keeps us at least from falling into errors about the reality behind it. If metaphysics can never perform the task it sets itself--to know reality--it can perform the task of knowing what is not reality. And such a service is inestimable. The function of reason is ultimately a negative one; it cannot provide a positive apprehension of the Overself, but it can provide a clear declaration of what It is not. Reason can demonstrate that the Overself can possess no shape and can in no way be imagined.
Nevertheless we may have both the assurance and the satisfaction that our thinking is correct but we have neither the assurance nor the satisfaction of consciously embracing that with which this thinking deals. We may have formed a right mental image of God but we are still not in God's sacred presence. We must not mistake the image for the reality which it represents. Whatever discoveries we have hitherto made have been made only within the limited frontiers of reasoned thinking. Exalted and expanded though our outlook may now be, we can still do no more than think the existence of this reality without actually experiencing it.
The mere intellectual recognition of this Oneness of Mind is no more sufficient to make it real to us than the mere intellectual recognition of Australia's existence will suffice to make Australia real to us. In the end all our words about the Overself remain but words. For just as no amount of telling a man who has never touched or drunk any liquid will ever make properly clear to him what wetness is unless and until he puts his finger in a liquid or drinks some of it, so every verbal explanation really fails to explain the Overself unless and until we know it for ourself within ourself and as ourself.
- Paul Brunton
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