' Love is Surrendering '...
The ego demands dominance, Love desires nothing..
You find yourself within desires for happiness,
you look around within the spaces of time..
Time moves slowly when desire is present..
The time of Now is so close and yet so far..
Can you stay within this second ?..
Can you see without eyes ?..
Light is all around you,
but you continue to see darkness..
This Duality of Thought creates the Dream..
Do not fear the Hologram,
surrender the desires and return Home...
-thomas
' Dance, Lalla '...
Dance, Lalla, with nothing on
but air. Sing, Lalla,
wearing the sky.
Look at this glowing day! What clothes
could be so beautiful, or
more sacred?
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
' Beyond words '...
No matter what concept is used to point to the ultimate truth, the concept is not it. The words ‘This,’ God, Oneness, non-duality, Brahman, the Tao, enlightenment, liberation, presence, and the divine are merely representations, all of which belong to the world of dualistic form. The truth involves not only form, but also a formless realm that cannot be described. It cannot be described because it is truly without form, meaning beyond or deeper than the level of ideas. It is the transparent essence of life permeating everything. This formless essence appears obscured when there is attachment to words pointing to this essence.
If you stood next to a tree with a paintbrush and canvas and you painted that tree as realistically as you could, the painting would never be the actual tree. It would lack its formless essence. In the same way, no thought about this truth is the actual truth. At best, it is a representation.
In seeing that this truth is not in the words, the mind stops trying to “get it.” It sees that no attempt to understand the truth conceptually will actually reveal the truth. In that seeing, what is being pointed to with words is revealed to be none other than what you are. This realization is the indescribable truth to which the words God, Oneness, non-duality, Brahman, the Tao, enlightenment, liberation, presence, and the divine are pointing. Don’t get stuck in the words.
-Kiloby, Scott. Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment
' The false self '...
This is the ego that we falsely think of as being our real self.
This is the ego to which memory ties us.
This is the illusive part of our dual personality; this is the known part of our being, a mere shadow thrown by the unknown part which is infinitely greater.
This moves from one earthly body to another, from one dream to another through the phantasmagoria of existence without awakening to reality.
-- Notebooks Category 8: The Ego >
Chapter 1: What Am I? > # 234
Paul Brunton
' When Love is Awakened '...
'God is love'; when love is awakened in the heart, God is awakened there.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Life's light is love; and when the heart is empty of love, a man is living and yet not living; from a spiritual point of view he is dead. When the heart is asleep, he is as though dead in this life, for one can only love through the heart.
But love does not mean give and take. That is only a trade; it's selfishness. To give sixpence and receive a shilling is not love. Love is when one loves for the sake of love, when one cannot help but love, cannot do anything but love. Then one is not forced to love; there is no virtue in that.
One does not love because another does. It is simply there. It cannot be helped. It is the only thing that makes a person alive. If a person loves one and hates another, what can he know of love?
Can you love one person fully if at the same time you cannot bestow a kind glance on some other person?
Can you say you love one person fully when you cannot bear him to be loved by someone else as well? Can you hate a person when love is sprinkled like water in your heart? Love is like the water of the Ganges. It is itself a purification. As the Bible says, 'God is love'. When love is awakened in the heart, God is awakened there. When a man has journeyed, he reaches the goal as soon as his heart has reached love.
The Sufi says, 'The Kaba, the divine place, paradise, is the heart of the human being'. That is why he has respect for every heart. Every heart is his Kaba, his shrine. The human heart is the place toward which he bows, for in this heart is God.
Some object to Christ being called divine; but if divinity is not sought in man, then in what shall we seek God? Can divinity be found in the tree, in the plant, in the stone? Yes indeed, God is in all; but at the same time, it is in man that divinity is awakened, that God is awakened, that God can be seen.
' Suffering '...
Suffering begins when the sacred is split from the profane, the
spiritual is split from the material, the personal is split from the
impersonal, the acceptable is split from the unacceptable...
and you
are split from me.
Suffering ends where it begins - at the
non-existent core of these illusory divisions.
-Jeff Foster
' To Know Source '...
When reason tells us that God is, it does not actually know God.
The antennae of intellectual research cannot penetrate into the Overself because thinking can only establish relations between ideas and thus must forever remain in the realms of dualities, finitudes, and individualities. It cannot grasp the whole but only parts.
Therefore reason which depends on thinking is incompetent to comprehend the mysterious Overself.
Realization is to be experienced and felt; thought can only indicate what it is likely to be and what it is not likely to be.
Hence Al Ghazzali, the Sufi, has said: "To define drunkenness, to know that it is caused by vapours that rise from the stomach and cloud the seat of intelligence, is a different thing from being drunk. So I found ultimate knowledge consists in experiences rather than definitions."
The fact that metaphysics tries to explain all existence in intellectual terms alone and tries to force human nature into conceptual molds, causes it to suppress or distort the non-intellectual elements in both. The consequence is that metaphysics alone cannot achieve an adequate understanding. If it insists upon exalting its own results, then it achieves misunderstanding.
- Paul Brunton
' The Joke of Materiality '...
We accept this Dream as Real and continue to interact with voice and movement..
The humans move past You as light flashes..
The sounds of mind, interrupt vision..
You find You, as once again asleep and Dreaming..
How long will We continue to Dream ?..
This stage of light and atoms attract the egoic-desire of actor..
Therefore, You begin the joke of materiality..
Atoms are so far apart that,
We can move our hands between..
And yet, We still cling on to the desire of existence..
Existence is the Dream of materiality..
Pure Awareness does not need another to tell It,
that It exists..
This existence contains no personality of desire,
It is called Love...
-thomas
' Seek '...
Seek not to follow in the footsteps of men of old;
seek instead what
they sought.
-Chinese parable
' Adyashanti - Enlightenment and The End of Your World '...
~ LETTING GO OF YOUR ARGUMENT WITH WHAT IS ~ Sometimes, when things get bad enough, when the suffering gets deep enough or intense enough, the whole egoic wheel stops spinning. It becomes too painful to identify with the conditioned thoughts in your head and with the chronic painful reactions that are associated with them. And when the vortex stops, and you are right in the middle of the greatest grief, right in the middle of the greatest torment and suffering, something else may dawn on you. A sense of peace and freedom may be felt at that moment, and it shows you that nothing really needs to change. You don’t need to struggle against yourself. Just the opposite. All you need is the willingness to question your mind’s conclusions, the willingness to just relax. Instead of trying to change now, just let now be as it is, even though your mind may have plenty of reasons why you should resist it. Try it anyway.
What happens when you let go of your argument with what is? No matter how you’re feeling—whether you’re feeling good or anxious, happy or sad, conflicted or free—just let it be. Experiment to see what happens when you stop being in conflict with yourself. When you let go of conflict, even for a moment, there’s a natural stopping. In the moment you’re not in conflict with yourself, in the moment where you’re willing to nolonger be in opposition to anything, you come completely into now, into this moment. What you’ll begin to experience is a peace and a stillness—a deep inner quietness. At that moment, you’re experiencing a whole different dimension of consciousness, one beyond the ego and its activity.
Many people think that this dimension of consciousness of peace, stillness, and well-being is something for which you have to work very hard to attain—that somehow it’s far away and that you must earn it in some way. But all these conclusions are just more thoughts in the mind, so as with all thoughts, you can choose to no longer grasp at them. You can open to a state of being where there are no conclusions, where your mind is wide open, where your consciousness is at ease, and where you can begin to touch upon a whole new dimension of consciousness, a consciousness that actually is at peace. It’s an invitation to just be, to be that consciousness, and also to act from it.
Once you taste this stillness, this peace, then the ego will stand out in stark contrast to it. The vortex of suffering will then be much easier to see. You may go unconscious for moments, you may not always see the ego trying to hijack you with various thoughts, but even when that happens, if you just stop for a moment and see the pattern, then a gap opens up. It’s a doorway to a different possibility—a possibility to experience the peace and happiness for which you’ve always been longing—even when you are right in the middle of conflict.
~ Adyashanti ~
Falling Into Grace
' Reincarnation '...
“You have not obtained this precious human life just by chance. It is the result of having heard the Buddha’s name in a past life, having taking refuge in him, accumulated virtuous actions and developed some wisdom. There is no certainty that you will obtain this vessel again.
If you fail to practise the Dharma in this life, it is certain that you will not obtain a human life. To neglect such an opportunity would therefore be very foolish. Do not waste it. Practise every day.”
~ H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
' Suffering '...
"Suffering is a call for enquiry,
all pain needs investigation.
Don't be lazy to think."
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Gazing as Dzogchen '...
1. We look through the mind and we gaze within awareness…becoming aware of awareness is the path of gazing (whether eyes or open or closed)…we can gaze into awareness and we are immediately the field, the field of being. If we look and look for awareness with our mind only blankness arises, a blank state.
Sunyata, primordial knowingness is not blankness, it is not blanking out. As we become aware of awareness we enter the gaze, we become the place of the gaze…this gazing from within awareness opens the multidimensionalness….the different dimensions of the field manifest within the gaze, within us. The gaze is both within us and beyond us. Within the gaze, there is neither simple inside nor simple outside. The gaze is place...a vast place beyond inside and outside.
There are many forms of gazing. At times we gaze through the eyes of the mind, (heart channels), we can gaze through the entire body, and we can gaze through the heart essence, hridayam. We can gaze through touch, we can gaze through sound, and we gaze through sight. We can gaze into various phenomena…all directly…unmediated…we can gaze into sky, we can gaze into death, we can gaze in the pre-personal, gazing into soma, gazing into the elements, gazing into the dakini, the vortexual, the element of flesh, we gaze into psyche…the gaze itself is psyche, not mind.
Gazing both leads to and is gnosis, jnana…direct perception. Togal, the leaping over practice, is not simply gazing into the sky - although sky gazing is its cultural and historical elaboration. If you wish to live in gnosis then gaze…gazing is the most direct of methods…the gazing methods of Dzogchen are often secret and protected.
-Rudolph bauer
' A mere mentation '...
Japanese Zen Master Dogen:
"Unwise people think that in the world of essence there should be no bloom of flowers and no fall of leaves."
The Master here shows that in the mind of the enlightened man the external world appears as for the ordinary man and remains a mere mentation for the mentalist.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 232
Paul Brunton
' Thought-forms '...
As you look upon the film and write the script of present and future,
You step back onto the stage of opposites..
These Atoms are so quick to manifest forms..
Thought continues it's walk into the unknown..
Within Consciousness, We see both dark and light and wonder, how?..
While in the 'First Reality', You are the movement of Light..
When You begin to seek more Knowledge of Reality,
You will surrender Everything,
especially the title of Manifestor..
This 'Instant' of time,
will cease all time...
-thomas
' Destiny '...
The role of destiny unfolds itself and actualizes the
inevitable.
You cannot change the course of events,
but you can change your attitude and what really
matters is the attitude and not the bare event.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
' Purifying the mind '...
See everyone as Buddha.
This purifies the mind of ignorance and arrogance.
-Master Baek
"Polishing The Diamond"
' The illusion of separation '...
Spiritual practices die on their own.
Before you pray or meditate this morning, ask yourself this question: Is it true that peace is not already here in this moment?
As you begin to ask that question seriously, you may start to see certain beliefs pop up that are keeping you locked into the idea that you are somehow separate from peace, God, enlightenment or whatever it is you are seeking. The idea of separateness is entirely thought-created.
You literally think into existence the notion that there is a “you” separate from that which you seek. You dream up the idea that you must do something before you can attain something else. In that way, you give yourself more time, which just means more mind. Time is mind. Investigate this for yourself. Notice that you cannot entertain the thought of future attainment without thinking.
Do you see the thoughts that tell you that you need to pray or meditate in order to achieve something? Those thoughts are the only thing obscuring the realization that peace is all there is. God is all there is. Enlightenment is all there is. Under the movements of seeking towards the concepts of peace, God, or enlightenment, the actual truth to which those words are pointing is already here now. Spiritual practices die on their own when it is realized that there is nothing you could ever do to get closer to the divine. You are not separate from it.
-Kiloby, Scott. Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment
' Transcendental Consciousness '...
The student has to stand aside from the thought-forms, which means that he must stand aside from the person and look at it as something external to himself.
If and when he succeeds in getting behind it, he automatically adopts the standpoint of the Overself.
He must make the person an object and the Overself its observer.
Now this element of pure awareness is something constant and unbroken; hence it is not ordinary consciousness, which is a discontinuous thing made of totalized thoughts, but transcendental consciousness.
-Paul Brunton
' Acceptance '...
Life doesn't need you to accept it.
Life accepts you totally -
including your non-acceptance of life, just as the ocean 'accepts'
every wave.
Stop trying to accept, and sink into the deep acceptance
of life itself - which is what you are.
The deepest acceptance has
already been done.
-Jeff Foster
' This Love '...
This love
As awareness is realized to be what you truly are, the story of you as a separate self falls away. Awareness is unconditional love. This love is that which is looking from your eyes right now. You cannot find this love in time or get it from others. It is what you are. This love loves the whole of life because it is the whole seeing itself through the vessel of the individual body and mind. In that seeing, there is no longer an investment in making things personal.
This love is not like romantic love or other kinds of conditional, attached love. Attached, conditional love exists within the field of opposites. It is all about the separate self. As a separate self, you want someone to give you what you think you need from them. As long as the person gives you what you seek, love is there. But the moment the person fails to give back the personal gratification you are seeking from the relationship, the love turns to an opposite feeling of anger or even hate.
The unconditional love that is being spoken of here is unattached and unconditional. It is already whole. It loves regardless of what happens. It isn’t seeking anything from the other because it sees no other. It sees only love. The movement of seeking personal gratification in relationships is the separate self sense. As that movement releases, unconditional love is realized.
Kiloby, Scott. Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment
' I asked the river '...
I asked the river
About its destination
And came out lucky:
It babbled about nothing
And never came to a point
~Gyosen d.1278
' The Hypnotic State '...
The hypnotic state is usually ruled by others.
The 'Nothingness of thought' becomes apparent..
You have been mesmerized by the Dream..
The thoughts of others saving us is false..
There is no 'self' to save..
You keep trying to redeem yourself,
and all the time, there is no self..
You are the Observer,
not the seen..
When, You know this to be True,
You will be called, 'Awake'...
-thomas
' Birthless '...
Even a strong wind is empty by nature.
Even a great wave is just ocean itself.
Even thick southern clouds are insubstantial as sky.
Even the dense mind is naturally birthless.
-Milarepa,
"Drinking The Fountain Stream"
' The Indwelling Presence '...
Those whose quest of the Overself through a master has failed them should take this very failure as instruction on the quest itself.
Let them remember that God is everywhere present, that there is no spot where God is not. Therefore, God is in them too. This indwelling presence is the Soul.
Let them turn to it directly, no longer seeking someone else to act as an intermediary, no longer running here and there in search of him. Just where they are now is precisely where they may establish contact with God through their own Soul.
Let them pray to it alone, meditate on it, obey its intuitive behests, and they will not need any human agent. From this moment they should look to no one else, should follow the Buddha's advice to depend on their own forces.
But since these are lying latent within and need to be aroused, the aspirants need to exert themselves through physical regimes that will provide the energies needed for this great effort.
-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest >
Chapter 6: Student-Teacher > # 174
Paul Brunton
' Rigpa '...
Rigpa is never lost and it is never not rigpa. The very ground of our being is pervasive, self-exisiting, empty, primordial awareness. But each of us must ask ourselves whether we know this primordial awareness directly or are we distracted from it by the movement of the temporal mind? And each of us must answer for ourselves; no one can tell us the answer.
When we are involved in internal processes, we are not in rigpa, for rigpa has no process. Process is the function of the conceptual moving mind; rigpa is effortless. Rigpa is like the early morning sky: pure, expansive, spacious, clear, awake, fresh, and quiet... these are the qualities against which the teachings suggest the practitioner check his or her experience.
- Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, from The Tibetan Yogas Of Dream and Sleep,
' Look within '...
All Knowledge is already within you..
As Jesus said;'The kingdom of God is
within you"..
the only wall that prevents you from Knowing Truth is your belief
in the ego that you call yourself..
As long as you believe that you are separate
from God and from each other, you will remain trapped in a jail of your own
making..
You will only Know Truth and Reality when you have surrendered the
ego..
As Jesus said; " you must die to be Born "..
you have been given the
map to Freedom but your ego prevents you from using it..
As long as the mind
convinces you that words will Free you, you will remain trapped..
Only
meditation and surrender will Free you..
Forget words, they are only thoughts
from other men..
Realize Reality..
That is your only Hope...
-thomas
' Male and Female '...
A man asked a Sufi, “People talk about male and female, but what is the essential difference between the two?”
The Sufi replied, “O man, both are formed of the five elements. The concept of male and female applies to the body. The Artist who created the male and female merely decorated them differently. The body is a cage, a house in which either can dwell, but you are deceived by the decorations.
“If you think of this with wisdom, you will see that womanly qualities are soft and delicate. In the decorations of womanliness, there is a beauty that is like gold, a beauty that attracts. The energy in their faces and bodies is like a magnet. The male has a similar magnetic energy, but his is on the inside. Though men lack the gentleness and outer softness which attracts externally, they have the strong inner magnetic energy which is attracted by, and connects to, the outer magnetism residing in the face and form of a woman.
“The world says male and female, but if you reflect with your wisdom, you will realize that male and female are like two kinds of breath, like the sun and the moon. The two breaths are called the art of the sun’s heat, which is the male, and the art of the moon’s coolness, which is the female.
“In the sky, the moon is lower and the sun is higher. The moon takes in the light of the sun and sends it out as cool yellow rays in the night.
“But the original light must be understood. The power which is neither male nor female is light, and that is the point which both male and female must reach. You can understand this through the example of the sun and the moon in the sky and through the example of male and female on earth.
"In the same way, the soul which came from Source must return to its source. You must return to Source in the same form in which you came from Source. This is the only state The One will accept.
“The five parts called earth, fire, water, air, and ether cannot reach Source; they belong to the world. Do not be enamored with them, thinking of them as male and female. Discard them and say La ilaha on the left, and illallahu on the right. There is nothing other than Unity. If there is nothing else, then there is no male or female. When there is no male or female, there is only light. You must attain that light. That is divine wisdom, or jnanam.”
—Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
' The ego is asleep '...
We humans are a race of walking and working somnambulists.
Only the illuminate is really awake.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 3: The Sage > # 427
Paul Brunton
' Source is the Dreamer '...
If some Power has turned you into a seeker,
don't you think it is the responsibility of that
Power to take you where you are supposed
to be taken?
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
' Liberation '...
In spite of a certain degree of intellectual understanding, most seekers find it very difficult to accept the total abolition of their personal identities.
They continue to work hard at their disciplinary practices hoping for a personal liberation - a contradiction in terms because liberation presupposes the absolute absence of the individual entity.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Every sensory and conceptual experience is an illusion. what you see, hear, touch, and taste is really the Unmanifest, the within of the without with which we are surrounded on all sides.
-
A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
http://www.advaita.org
' Freedom from fear '...
"Learn to look without imagination, to listen without distortion: that is all.
Stop attributing names and shapes to the essentially nameless and formless,
realize that every mode of perception is subjective,
that what is seen or heard, touched or smelled, felt or thought, expected or imagined,
is in the mind and not in reality, and you will experience peace and freedom from fear."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' The Seer '...
My Master, Ramana Maharishi, said to me,
"God is not an object to be seen, He is the subject.
He cannot be seen, He is the Seer, find this Seer."
My Heart was opened.
"Find the Seer."
This is the Teaching.
-Papaji
' Within the heart '...
"Why do you go into the forest in search of God?
He lives in all and is ever distinct;
He abides with you, too.
As fragrance dwells in a flower,
And reflection in a mirror;
So does God dwell inside everything;
Seek Him, therefore, in your heart."
-Adi Granth, Dhanasari, M,9, p. 684
in Andrew Wilson, Ed.
World Scripture: A Comparative Anthology of Sacred Texts
St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 1995, p. 73
' Stop demanding '...
You can have all good things - wealth, friends, kindness, love to give and love to receive - once you have learned not to be blinded by them, learned to escape from disappointment, and from repugnance at the idea that things are not as you want them to be.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Do not expect much from friends. Why must they be as you want them to be? They are not made by you. They are as they are. You must try to be for them what they expect you to be. It matters little if your friend proves to you to be a friend. What matters is, if you prove to be a friend.
However evolved we may be with our education and experience, yet what are we really seeking? Things from which we cannot derive any lasting gain. From these false things we gain the experience that the things to which we have hitherto attached importance and which we have valued are things that do not last. We learn at length that it would be wise to remember that all these objects and ideals and aspirations which we have in life should be judged according to whether they are dependable or not, lasting or not.
After we have perceived the truth that this or that is not to be depended upon, we find that it is not necessary to renounce them all, to give up everything in life. We can be in the crowd just as well as in seclusion in the wilderness. We can have all good things, wealth, friends, kindness, love to give and love to take once we have learned not to be blinded by them, learned to escape from disappointment, learned to escape from repugnance at the idea that the things are not as we would want them to be. A man can still attend to business, he may attain wealth, he can carry out all those things, but now his eyes are wide open; before, they were blind. This is the teaching of life. ...
It is not the actual literal renunciation which counts, it is the personal abandonment of belief in the importance of transient things. ... If there is such a thing as saintly renunciation, it is renouncing small gains for better gains; not for no gains, but seeing with open eyes what is better and what is inferior. Even if the choice has to lie between two momentary gains, one of these would always be found to be more real and lasting; that is the one that should be followed for the time. When we take the torch of wisdom to show us our path through life, we will end by realizing what is really profitable in life and what is not.
' Inner body awareness '...
Bring present awareness into the body and mind throughout the day, especially when you notice thought wandering into the story of self—into past, future, and resistance to now. Notice the awareness in your toes, your legs, your pelvic area, your stomach, your chest, your arms, your fingers, and your head. If any mental commentary arises during inner body awareness, simply see that commentary and bring attention back into the body and mind.
When inner space is aware of itself in this way, thought naturally quiets. It is seen that awareness throughout the body is one flowing energy field without boundaries. In noticing that the space of the inner body is one undivided space, this same undivided space is seen to be “out there”—outside the body. This is the realization that there is no boundary between you and the rest of life. Thought creates this illusory boundary.
Don’t think of “inner body awareness” as a practice or doing in time. Thought is what places a practice in time. If the thought arises, “I should continue practicing inner body awareness so that I can become more present,” just notice it. That story is a lie. There is no becoming to awareness. Noticing inner body awareness is an end in and of itself. It is a present seeing.
-Scott Kiloby, Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment
' It is time to end the fear of death '...
The media will train the sub-conscious mind to leave the field of Love and enter the pit of pain and fear..
You are experiencing the Mind within Dreams..
You keep thinking that You are the mind of the body..
How did You find Yourself, so lost ?..
Within this delusion of reality, you begin to question..
Somehow this Energy called Love enters the Dream..
You find this Energy within spouse and children..
Sometimes, a Mystic will speak to you of Reality..
You make these Mystics into Gods and declare that only they are God..
" Those that follow Me will do greater works than Me",
said the Nazarene..
Walk into this Fear with Courage and Awaken as Light...
-thomas
' message to the ego '...
My ego is stubborn, often drunk, impolite.
My loving: Finely sensitive, impatient, confused.
Please take messages from one to the other,
reply and counter-reply.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Version by Coleman Barks
"Unseen Rain"
Threshold Books, 1986
' The difficult times '...
The divine itself is life in motion.
The divine is using the situations of our lives to accomplish its own awakening, and many times it takes the difficult situations to wake us up.
The irony is that most human beings spend their lives avoiding painful situations. Not that we are successful, but we are always trying to avoid pain.
We have an unconscious belief that our greatest growth in consciousness and awareness comes through beautiful moments.
We may, indeed, make great leaps in consciousness through beautiful moments, but I’d say that most people make their greatest leaps in consciousness in the difficult times.
~ Adyashanti
The End of Your World
' The Void '...
We have got to travel in the void and be happy about it…
All that we
know clearly is insufficient.
We must pass on to the unknown … at the
same time I think we make problems for us where there really are none.
There is too much conscious "spiritual life" floating around us, and we are
too aware that we are supposed to get somewhere.
Well, where?...
perhaps
we are already in that where.
… As for "spiritual life": our "Life in the
Spirit" is all-embracing, or it should be.
~Thomas Merton
' Friendship '...
He is wise who treats an acquaintance as a friend, and he is foolish who treats a friend as an acquaintance, and he is impossible who treats friends and acquaintances as strangers; you cannot help him.
Bowl of Saki, May 19, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Friendship as the average person understands it is perhaps little more than acquaintance; but in reality it is more sacred than any other connection in the world. To a sincere person, entering into friendship is like entering the gates of heaven; and a visit to his friend is a pilgrimage to a true loving friend.
When, in friendship, a thought arises, 'I will love you as you love me,' or, 'I will do to you as you do to me,' this takes away all the virtue of the friendship, because it is a commercial attitude, prevalent everywhere in the commercial world: everything is done for a return, and measure is given for measure. ... One ought to look upon acquaintanceship as the sowing of the seed of friendship, not as a situation forced upon one; for those who turn their backs on a man and look at him with contempt also do that to God. To think, 'That person is perhaps of no value; that person is of no importance,' is impractical, besides being unkind. As all things have their use, both flowers and thorns, both sweet and bitter, so all men are of some use; what position, what class, what race, what caste they belong to makes no difference.
Friendship with good and bad, with wise and foolish, with high and low, is equally beneficial, whether to yourself or to the other. What does it matter if another be benefited by your friendship, since you would like to be benefited by someone else's friendship? He is wise who treats an acquaintance as a friend, and he is foolish who treats a friend as an acquaintance, and he is impossible who treats friends and acquaintances as strangers; you cannot help him.
' Buddha in Glory '...
Center of all centers, core of cores,
almond self-enclosed, and growing sweet--
all this universe, to the furthest stars
all beyond them, is your flesh, your fruit.
Now you feel how nothing clings to you;
your vast shell reaches into endless space,
and there the rich, thick fluids rise and flow.
Illuminated in your infinite peace,
a billion stars go spinning through the night,
blazing high above your head.
But in you is the presence that
will be, when all the stars are dead.
— Rainer Maria Rilke
From 'Ahead of All Parting:
The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke'
Edited and Translated by Stephen Mitchell
' Meditation '...
To separate the mind from the body is abnormal and ordinarily undesirable.
But to free the mind from the tyranny of the body is absolutely essential and this can be assisted by the regular practice of meditation.
-- Notebooks Category 4: Elementary Meditation >
Chapter 1: Preparatory > # 11
Paul Brunton
' The Transition '...
A soul asked me to speak of the Transition called Death..
This experience of soul and spirit appear as fear to most souls..
The soul is the subconscious mind..
The spirit is the manifestation of that mind..
Even after Death, the creation of dreams continue..
If you are on the long path, you will continue to reach higher within dimensions of thought,
You walk this path because you have not been educated to the short path..
The long path will introduce you to the dissolving of ego and further entering the Reality called Love..
The short path will enter Love Itself by the surrender of all desires, especially the desire for existence..
This Nothingness that you seek is called God...
-thomas
' Awareness '...
Don't fight with what you take to be obstacles on your way. Just be interested in them, watch them, observe, enquire. Let anything happen - good or bad.
But don't let yourself be submerged by what happens. The mind must learn that beyond the moving mind there is the background of awareness, which does not change.
The mind must come to know the true self and respect it and cease covering it up, like the moon which obscures the sun during solar eclipse.
Just realize that nothing observable, or experienceable is you, or binds you. Take no notice of what is not yourself.
You are aware anyhow, you need not try to be. What you need is to be aware of being aware.
Be aware deliberately and consciously, broaden and deepen the field of awareness. You are always conscious of the mind, but you are not aware of yourself as being conscious.
-Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Nothingness '...
God made everything out of nothing,
but the nothingness shows through.
-Paul Valery
' Surrendering the desire of separation '...
Surrender is to surrender your concept of separateness, your ego.
Surrender is to submit your stupidness, your wickedness, to the will of Existence.
That's all.
You must surrender like a river discharging into the Ocean.
Surrender is to discharge your river of separateness into the Ocean of Being,
losing your limitations, and allowing to happen what happens.
- Papaji,
'Free Falling into Consciousness '...
Continuing within the observation of John Mayer,
We will enter Consciousness..
Falling into Reality is one of the basic fears..
A baby will fear falling..
But, you are Awake, which is a strange place to be within a Carnival..
How strange that You continue games and pyramids of thoughts..
You of the secret societies, listen to this old man..
The ego is not your God..
Love has always massaged your shoulders..
Why do you seek another lover?..
-thomas
' Waiting on the world to change '...
John Mayer will sing to you of Knowledge, listen well..
This young mystic will give you words of wisdom..
He is within the Dream but still remains the Observer..
He knows that he is the actor but also knows that He is the Dreamer..
We put so much thought within a Dream that we feel the pain of life..
Perhaps, now We will feel the warmth and Knowledge of this sight called Light..
-thomas
' Love is expansion of the heart '...
Love for God is the expansion of the heart, and all actions that come from the lover of God are virtues; they cannot be otherwise.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
The Sufi establishes his relationship with God as the relationship between him and the Beloved. His worship of God is the expansion of the heart. His love for all beings and for every being is his love for God. He cannot find anyone to love except God, because he sees God in all.
If his love is shown in devotion to parents, to wife, to children if it is shown to neighbors, to a friend or in tolerating enemies, the Sufi considers this as an action of his love towards God. In this way he fulfills in his life the teaching of the Bible, ' We live and move and have our being in God.'
Jesus Christ not only told us to love our friends, but also, he went as far as to say we should love our enemies; and the Sufi treads the same path. He considers his charity of heart towards his fellow man to be love for God; and in showing love to everyone, he feels he is giving his love to God.
Love for God is the expansion of the heart, and all actions that come from the lover of God are virtues; they cannot be otherwise. There is a different outlook on life when the love of God has filled a man's heart.
The lover of God will not hate anyone; for he knows that by doing so he will hate the Creator by hating His creation. He cannot be insincere, he cannot be unfaithful; for he will think that to be faithful and sincere to mankind is to be faithful and sincere to God. You can always trust the lover of God, however impractical or however lacking in cleverness he may appear to be, for simply to hold strongly in mind the thought of God purifies the soul of all bitterness, and gives man a virtue that he could obtain nowhere else and by no other means.
' The Changeless '...
Don't try to reform yourself, just see the futility of all change.
The changeful keeps on changing while the changeless is waiting.
Do not expect the changeful to take you to the changeless - it can never happen.
Only when the very idea of changing is seen as false and abandoned,
the changeless can come into its own.
-Nisargadatta Maharaj
' The Supreme Way '...
To awaken suddenly to the fact that your own Mind is the Buddha,
that there is nothing to be attained or a single action to be performed –
this is the Supreme Way....
-Huang Po
' The escape from darkness '...
The escape from darkness involves two stages:
First, the recognition that darkness cannot hide.
This step usually entails fear.
Second, the recognition that
there is nothing you want to hide even if you could.
This step brings escape from fear.
When you have become willing to hide nothing,
you will not only be willing to enter into communion
but will also understand peace and joy.
Holiness can never be really hidden in darkness,
but you can deceive yourself about it.
This deception makes you fearful
because you realize in your heart it is a deception,
and you exert enormous efforts to establish its reality.
The miracle sets reality where it belongs.
Reality belongs only to spirit,
and the miracle acknowledges only truth.
Your mind can be possessed by illusions,
but spirit is eternally free.
If a mind perceives without love,
it perceives an empty shell
and is unaware of the spirit within.
But the Atonement restores spirit to its proper place.
The mind that serves spirit is invulnerable.
The emptiness engendered by fear
must be replaced by forgiveness.
-The above quotes are from the book
A Course in Miracles.
' True humility '...
True humility is not the opposite of pride but the very negation of a
separate entity who could either be proud or humble.
-Ramesh S. Balsekar
' Fall into the Unknown '...
"What I am pointing toward is the Unknown: the already ever-present, silent, still source that not only precedes thought but surrounds it.
You must become more interested in the Unknown than in that which is known. Otherwise, you will remain enslaved by the very narrow and distorted perspective of conceptual thinking.
You must go so deeply into the Unknown that you are no longer referencing thought to tell you who and what you are. Only then will thought be capable of reflecting that which is true, rather than falsely masquerading as truth."
~ Adyashanti
' Concentration means freedom '...
Concentration is not to try hard to watch something.
In zazen if you
try to look at one spot you will be tired in about five minutes.
This
is not concentration.
Concentration means freedom.
So your effort
should be directed at nothing.
You should be concentrated on nothing.
-Suzuki
' The false illusion '...
There is no entity called intellect or ego or personal "I" or individual mind apart or separate from thoughts themselves, existing alone.
People give it such a supposed existence by their habitual attitude, lifelong belief.
This shows the power of auto-suggestion and memory to create a purely fictional being.
The sustenance, reality, life it has is false, illusory.
Mind as such is devoid of all thoughts.
-- Notebooks Category 8: The Ego >
Chapter 2: I-thought > # 48
Paul Brunton
' The Original Thinker '...
No-thing-ness is the Reality of the Original Thinker..
It needs no personality to exist.
This Thinker is found within Dreams and Silence.
This Thinker is found within Light and Darkness.
This Thinker is found within the sweet scent of Love.
This Thinker is You,
when You have finally surrendered the egoic-desire...
-thomas
' The Dream '...
Wealth and Power are the goals of the egoic-personality..
To be president would be so nice for the ego..
Feminine and Masculine once again tilt the scale of Libra..
We watch and move between Observer and Action..
Which side should we choose today ?...
We keep playing this game of existence,
never Realising that non-existence is Existence..
We call this center of Reality,
Love...
-thomas
' The Method '...
"The method is directing attention upon attention or awareness.
When any arising is experienced, especially thoughts, moods, emotions, or feeling of personal self identity, one simply notices one’s present naked awareness.
By directing the attention back to awareness, the arising dissolves back into its origin and its essential nature, awareness.
In doing this, the arising releases its formative energy in its dissolution as a surge of further clarity of Clear Light, the power and potency of awareness that energized the arising in the first place.
Hence one’s Awareness presence is enhanced in the collapse of the formative arising.
Hence the Dzogchen comment that ‘the stronger the afflictive emotion upon dissolution, the stronger the enhancement to the clarity of presence’."
(Longchenpa quote from “A Treasure Trove of Scriptural Transmission”. Padma Publications)
' The unidentified man '...
The sense of LOVE which is the essence of Consciousness gets turned into love for material objects when Consciousness identifies with the things it manifests.
This attachment toward things of the world falls off only when there is clear understanding of our True Nature.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The identified man takes part in things and suffers. The unidentified man merely watches the spectacle. The identified man tries to understand truth while the unidentified man experiences it.
A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
' The Search for “truth” '...
During the spiritual search, the sense of being a separate self (i.e., ego) hijacks the search for truth. It looks to abstract concepts of what God is, how it can become closer to God, what spirit is, what it means to be spiritual, what enlightenment would look and feel like, how to be more present, or how it can become more spiritual in the future. These are all concepts, learned and memorized from the past. This very moment is truth itself.
How can a concept present something truer than what is actually here in this moment?
Thought, at its best, can merely act as a sign or a map that points to life. Look around. Life is now. Awareness is looking for itself. Stated another way, spirit is looking for itself. But it cannot find itself in an object. It cannot find itself in a concept. When this is recognized, the search is over. “Truth” is revealed. But it is seen not to be a concept. It is a realization that what is happening right now is all there is.
What is happening right now is what is true.
-Scott Kiloby, Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment
' The I-thought '...
When we identify the I-thought, which always arises first, solely with the body-thought, which always arises second, we turn the scale of values upside down and limit the larger factor to the lesser one.
Through this initial error we not only strengthen our sorrows and increase our grief, but also fill our hearts with unnecessary fear.
But when we become conscious that we are conscious and that this is the most direct thing of our experience, we have reached the momentous turning point of understanding the difference between both thoughts.
For the need of making this miracle—and it is nothing less—clear to our own understanding itself puts us on the right path to achieving it.
-Paul Brunton
' pain and pleasure '...
"...pain and pleasure are the crests and valleys of the waves in the ocean of bliss.
Deep down there is utter fullness."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Samadhi '...
"After passing the six centres the aspirant arrives at the seventh plane.
Reaching it, the mind merges in Brahman.
The individual soul and the Supreme Soul become one.
The aspirant goes into samadhi.
His consciousness of the body disappears.
He loses the knowledge of the outer world.
He does not see the manifold any more.
His reasoning comes to a stop."
Sri Ramakrishna
The Gospel of Ramakrishna, vol. 1
Sunday, June 10, 1883
' out there '...
We search for love out there in the world,
only to discover that we
never lacked love, and there is no 'out there'.
-Jeff Foster
' Traveling Beyond '...
The penetrative mind of the deep thinker finds in time that life in this world is not only life in illusion but also in pain.
Yet for him to stop with this discovery is to stop at an intermediate stage on the way to truth.
He must travel beyond it and learn the hidden cosmic laws and thus come to understand the magnificent goal toward which all this passage through worldly existence is leading.
-- Notebooks Category 13: Human Experience >
Chapter 1: Situation > # 27
Paul Brunton
' The balance of Reality '...
The Duality of this Dream constantly challenging the false ego created by desire..
You find experience within the Duality and balance of feminine and masculine..
The scales of Libra are held high..
As you look, the balance is One..
How strange, that the heart speaks with a voice that is seldom heard..
The Heart is the State of Love, listen closely !..
"As You hold the Heart,
remember that this Love is Source"...
-thomas
' You are Being '...
Remove all becoming, you are Being.
Becoming is effort, Being is not effort.
You are always That so be like the breeze
that is attached to neither the garbage nor
the garden that it blows over.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
' The wine of Christ '...
The mystic desires what Omar Khayyam calls wine; the wine of Christ, after drinking which, no one will ever thirst.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
There are many ideas which intoxicate man, many feelings there are which act upon the soul as wine, but there is no stronger wine than the wine of selflessness. It is a might and it is a pride that no worldly rank can give. To become something is a limitation, whatever one may become. Even if a person were to be called the king of the world, he would still not be emperor of the universe. If he were the master of earth, he would still be the slave of Heaven. It is the person who is no one, who is no one and yet all. The Sufi, therefore, takes the path of being nothing instead of being something. It is this feeling of nothingness which turns the human heart into an empty cup into which the wine of immortality is poured. It is this state of bliss which every truth-seeking soul yearns to attain.
Wine is symbolical of the soul's evolution. Wine comes from the annihilation of grapes, immortality comes from the annihilation of self.
I drink the wine of Thy divine presence and lose myself in its intoxication.
When the soul is illuminated, it will desire to find some other soul illuminated in like manner, and will find great joy and bliss in its society. Such a one will surely find others who are on the verge of illumination. Even a drunkard will find others to drink with. And so it is mystically. A very little light can be turned into a flame, and that flame into a very big flame. Why is it better to become a mystic than to remain a drunkard? As a matter of fact a drunkard will never be satisfied. The mystic will look for what Omar Khayyam calls wine: the wine of the Christ, after drinking which no one will ever thirst. He will always seek the wine whose intoxication never wears off. It is the only wine: the intoxication of the divine love.
There is a wine which the mystic drinks, and that wine is ecstasy. A wine so powerful that the presence of the mystic becomes as wine for everyone who comes into his presence. ... That intoxication is the love which manifests in the human heart. What does it matter, once a mystic has drunk that wine, whether he is sitting amongst the rocks in the wilderness, or in a palace? It is all the same. The palace does not deprive him of the mystic's pleasures, and neither does the rock take them away. He has found the kingdom of God on earth, about which Jesus Christ said, 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.'
'The soul's presence'...
Those first appearances of the soul's presence must be carefully guarded and assiduously nursed.
They are symbolized by the Christ-babe which has to grow until it is mature in virtue and wisdom.
-- Notebooks Category 2: Overview of Practices Involved >
Chapter 9: Conclusion > # 29
Paul Brunton
' Zoroaster '...
"As the holy one I recognized thee, O Wise Lord,
When he came to me as Good Mind;
The Silent Thought taught me the greatest good
So that I might proclaim it."
Zoroaster
Avesta, Yasna 45.15
in Andrew Wilson, Ed.
World Scripture: A Comparative Anthology of Sacred Texts
NY: Paragon Books, 1991, p. 133
' Be open to the spontaneous '...
Life does not make decisions.
The universe is not planning itself.
It just unfolds.
Look at a plant.
It is without concern.
It does not say, 'I think in a few days I will put a new leaf just here to my left.'
The plant is not thinking.
Its life is a spontaneous unfolding.
Like this plant, our lives can unfold in effortless Grace and joy.
Be open to the spontaneous. Trust and you will expand in trust, intuitive wisdom and natural joy.
- Mooji
' Glimpse of the Overself '...
No glimpse is ever full and complete.
If it were, the person experiencing it would be unable to fall into spiritual ignorance again.
From this we may understand that however wonderful a glimpse of the Overself may be,
it is still only a cloudy reflection of the real thing.
-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself >
Chapter 8: Glimpses and Permanent Illumination > # 48
Paul Brunton
' Your core story '...
Your core story is that final illusory barrier between you and this great love called enlightenment.
As waking up happens, there may be a sense that you are “not quite there”—a feeling that something is standing in the way of liberation. Trust your instincts.
Some bedrock story of self is likely acting as a barrier, whether it is a story that you are a victim or an attachment to your profession, religion or other belief system.
The notion of “not quite there” may lead you to believe that you need more time. But time will only give you more mind, more story. Instead, be willing to face your core story directly in this moment. All barriers are thought-created.
Because egoic movement is unconscious, it can be difficult to even see the core story that makes up the self-contraction within that does not want to fully and finally dissolve.
Only presence will see it.
Even when you are able to see what the core story is, there is often great fear in facing it through pure awareness. After all, this is your core identity.
But the divine presence cannot be fully realized in you unless there is a recognition of that deepest story of self that you are holding onto for dear life. The core story is often the last and final frontier. In realizing that your core story is as illusory as all stories, ‘This’ is revealed to you.
- Scott Kiloby, Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment
' Time '...
Below me, Enya will sing to you of time..
Something, that we look upon many times within a day..
And yet, you are unaware that time is the amount of mental experiences..
Time will appear to be quick within a filled mind..
Keep the mind filled with wonder..
When the others are confused, continue to walk..
You are here for such a short time and yet time contains so much pain..
The way out of these experiences of pain is to leave the body that feels this pain..
But, I have spoken to you many times of the 'short path'..
Put on your walking shoes...
-thomas
' Bliss '...
The undisturbed state of being is bliss; the disturbed
state is what appears as the world.
In non-duality
there is bliss; in duality - experience.
What comes
and goes is experience with its duality of pain and
pleasure.
Bliss is not to be known.
One is always
in bliss, but never blissful.
Bliss is not an attribute.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
' Remove the bushel '...
We cover our spirit under our body, our light under a bushel; we never allow the spirit to become conscious of itself.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
The life one recognizes is only the mortal aspect of life. Very few have ever seen or been conscious of the immortal aspect at all. Once one has realized life, that which one has hitherto called life is found to be only a glimpse or shadow of the real life that is beyond comprehension. To understand it one will have to raise one's light high from under the cover that is hiding it like a bushel. This cover is man's mind and body; it is a cover that keeps the light active on the world of things and beings. 'Do not keep your light under a bushel' means that we are not to keep the consciousness absorbed in the study of the external world, and in its pleasures and enjoyments.
We cover our spirit under our body. We cover our light under a bushel. We never allow the spirit to become conscious of itself. ... when the soul is illuminated it will desire to find some other soul illuminated in like manner, and will find great joy and bliss in its society. Such a one will surely find others who are on the verge of illumination. Even a drunkard will find others to drink with. And so it is mystically. A very little light can be turned into a flame, and that flame into a very big flame.
Why is it better to become a mystic than to remain a drunkard? As a matter of fact a drunkard will never be satisfied. The mystic will look for what Omar Khayyam calls wine, the wine of the Christ, after drinking which no one will ever thirst. He will always seek the wine whose intoxication never wears off. It is the only wine: the intoxication of the divine love.
According to the belief of a Sufi the heart is the shrine of God, and when the doors of the shrine are closed it is just like a light being hidden under a bushel... God is Love. If He is love He does not stay in the heavens. His earthly body is the heart of man.
' The judgement of thought '...
If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you,
but your own judgment of them.
And it is in your power to wipe out
that judgment now.
-Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
' The mirror of Love '...
I have seen Heaven and therefore, Hell has closed it's door..
The Realisation of Reality breaks the spell of ego..
Does every soul need this first step into Reality ?..
This step called the 'short path' is a jet into Light..
Most souls keep walking a path of egoic-desire and still search for the opposite called Love..
For the ego to seek freedom is indeed a holiday..
The one that searches is actually the 'false self',
but, it is a start..
The ego, tired of Dreaming, seeks silence and joy..
And therefore, becomes the image within the mirror..
The mirror of Love only reflects Love...
-thomas
' The Birds '...
When out on a picnic, the Master said,
"Do you want to know what the
Enlightened is like?
Look at those birds flying over the lake."
While everyone watched, the Master exclaimed:
"They cast a reflection
on the water that they have no awareness of.
And the lake has no
attachment to."
-Anthony de Mello, SJ
' Ramesh Balsekar commentary on the Ashtavakra Samhita '...
In these four verses, Janaka expresses the essential
understanding which has suddenly dawned on him, that
everything that is perceptible to the senses can only be an
appearance in mind (which is the content of Consciousness)
and therefore cannot have any other kind of existence.
Even more importantly, this "mind" itself cannot exist
independently for the simple reason that it is merely a symbol
for what we ourselves are, and thus cannot possibly be an
object to be cognized.
Indeed, Janaka has "magically"
realized that "I" is verily the mind and the Consciousness,
and that the phenomenal manifestation is merely the
objective expression of the subjective, unmanifest "I."
' The Ultimate Principle '...
If man is made in the image of God,
then this God is something other than the Ultimate Principle,
for THAT has no likeness with anything else; it is a void,
a no-thing, and so utterly beyond human perception that it is destined to remain forever unknown.
-- Notebooks Category 28: The Alone >
Chapter 2: Our Relation To the Absolute > # 50
Paul Brunton
' One Love '...
We all flow from one fountain Soul.
All are expressions of one love.
God does not appear, and flow out, only from narrow chinks and round
bored wells here and there in favored races and places, but He flows
in grand undivided currents, shoreless and boundless over creeds and
forms and all kinds of civilizations and peoples and beasts,
saturating all.
-John Muir
' The higher stage '...
The Long Path brings the self to a growing awareness of its own strength, whereas the Short Path brings it to a growing awareness of its own unreality.
This higher stage leads inevitably to a turnaboutface, where the energies are directed toward identification with the One Infinite Mind.
The more this is done, the more Grace flows by reaction into the Self.
-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation >
Chapter 5: Balancing the Paths > # 61
Paul Brunton
' Source is composed of Love '...
"God is Love. And Love must love. And to love there must be a Beloved. But since God is Existence infinite and eternal there is no one for Him to love but Himself. And in order to love Himself He must imagine Himself as the Beloved whom He as the Lover imagines He loves.
"Beloved and Lover implies separation. And separation creates longing; and longing causes search. And the wider and the more intense the search the greater the separation and the more terrible the longing.
"When longing is most intense separation is complete, and the purpose of separation, which was that Love might experience itself as Lover and Beloved, is fulfilled; and union follows. And when union is attained, the lover knows that he himself was all along the Beloved whom he loved and desired union with; and that all the impossible situations that he overcame were obstacles which he himself had placed in the path to himself.
"To attain union is so impossibly difficult because it is impossible to become what you already are! Union is nothing other than knowledge of oneself as the Only One."
Meher Baba
The Everything and The Nothing_
' The State of Light '...
How strange to think that in Reality, We have no body..
The dignity of Thought flows through Your existence..
The deceived speak to you of dimensions of learning..
Karma is always raised as a flag..
Continue to walk beyond these imposters..
You have never been separate..
It has always been a Dream..
Surrender all Dreams and come Home...
-thomas
' The Gatherer '...
The shell must be cracked apart if what is in it is to come out, for if you want the kernel you must break the shell.
And therefore, if you want to discover nature's nakedness, you must destroy its symbols, and the farther you get in the nearer you come to its essence.
When you come to the One that gathers all things up into itself, there your soul must stay.
- Meister Eckhart
'The dream is not your problem '...
"The very idea of going beyond the dream is illusory. Why go
anywhere? Just realize that you are dreaming a dream you call the
world, and stop looking for ways out.
The dream is not your problem.
Your problem is that you like one part of your dream and not another.
Love all, or none of it, and stop complaining. When you have seen
the dream as a dream, you have done all that need be done."
~ ~ ~
"Your own self is your ultimate teacher. The outer teacher is merely
a milestone. It is only your inner teacher that will walk with you to
the goal, for he is the goal."
- from A Net of Jewels
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' The Void '...
When we seek comprehension of that aspect of the Overself where there is no universe at all, no activity, no ideation, we seem to enter a great void, an utter no-thingness. The "I" cannot breathe in this rarefied atmosphere. And yet it would be the supreme illusion in a world of illusions to regard this void as the abode of unreality.
No object in the universe corresponds to the Overself; therefore we are forced to term it "The Void," but the existence of all objects is only explained by its own.
We may fittingly compare the Overself with any catalytic agent of chemistry which, unaltered itself, activates other substances by its presence. We may carry the comparison further and point out that just as the catalyst is ultimately a product of the same primal stuff as these substances, however different they appear to be, so the thoughts and things whose play constitutes the universe are ultimately of the same primal essence as the Overself.
-Paul Brunton
' Understanding '...
We often suffer because we do not understand.
Understanding is a great thing;
once we under-
stand, we can tolerate.
- Hazrat Inayat Khan
' Unfolding '...
I would love to live
Like a river flows,
Carried by the surprise
Of its own unfolding.
-John O'Donahue
' The Buddha Nature '...
If we are still wondering how to awaken, I suggest that we meditate now and then and focus on the following question: "What is holding me back from realizing my true nature, my Buddha Nature?" This is a very powerful inquiry. I am sharing this based on my own meditation practice. This is one of my favorite meditations because it always takes me to the place where I cannot blame anybody or anything for my lack of awakening.
When we open our hearts and let go of all of our theories and speculations, when we are not distracted even by spiritual fantasies, when we simply wholeheartedly and courageously inquire into what is holding us back, that is all that we need to do. Sometimes it is good when we are by ourselves to.. shout loudly to the sky, "Who is holding me back from awakening right now?" Or we can just ask the truth, "What is holding me back from awakening right now?" Either way we can't find any answer because there is nobody there. There is nothing holding us back and that's why we never really find any answers.
If anybody tells us that they have the answer, they are obviously lying because there isn't any answer. Next we might ask, "If there are no obstacles holding me back, then why am I not awakened right now?" And when we look we realize that we are attached to our thoughts. That's all that is happening. Samsara is nothing more than our identification with thoughts. That's all there is. There is nothing there except thoughts.
- Anam Thubten, from No Self, No Problem,
' Ring that bell '...
While the dream is still continuing, he cannot help taking its scenes and figures as being quite real.
But if someone rings a bell until he awakens from the dreaming state, he will then see that both scenes and figures were mere figments of his own imagination.
In a sense, the teacher of philosophy acts as this awakener did, except that he directs his efforts to the sense-deceived consciousness of everyday life.
-Paul Brunton
' Mind under control '...
Those who have given deep thoughts to the world are those who have controlled the activity of their minds.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
He is thoughtful whose mind is directed by his will, whose mind fulfills his intentions, whose mind is under the control of his intention. ... Only those who have controlled the activity of their minds have given deep thoughts to the world. Those whose minds are working mechanically like a machine, or just reflecting the activity of those around them, may appear to be living beings, but the mystic would say differently; for it is not till a person has gained mastery over his mind, till he is above this activity, that he is a ruling power, a true person.
When we think about it, we find that all the things that are accomplished in this world are accomplished by the power of mind. ... Whatever man creates in science, in art, in phenomena or wonder making, in poetry, in music, in pictures, in everything that he brings into being, is all achieved by the power of mind. ... If he does not control his mind, he is not a master but a slave. It lies with his own mind whether he shall be master, or whether he shall be slave. He is slave when he neglects to be master; he is master if he cares to be master.
Mastery lies not merely in stilling the mind, but in directing it towards whatever point we desire, in allowing it to be active as far as we wish, in using it to fulfill our purpose, in causing it to be still when we want to still it. He who has come to this has created his heaven within himself; he has no need to wait for a heaven in the hereafter, for he has produced it within his own mind now.
People pursue spirituality with their brain: that is where they are mistaken. Spirituality is attained through the heart. What do I mean by the heart? Is it the nervous center in the midst of the breast, the small piece of flesh that doctors call the heart? No, the definition of the heart is that it is the depth of the mind, the mind being the surface of the heart. That in us which feels is the heart, that which thinks is the mind. It is the same thing which thinks and feels, but the direction is different: feeling comes from the depth, thought from the surface. When thought is not linked with feeling it is just like a plant rising up from the earth, the root of which has not gone deep. A thought without feeling is a powerless thought; it is just like a plant without a deep root. A tree the root of which has gone deep into the earth is stronger, more reliable, and so the thought deeply rooted in the heart has greater power.
' Awareness '...
Too often beginners regard lofty emotions or extraordinary powers or ecstatic rapture as the measure of attainment, when the only genuine measure is "awareness."
This is the spiritual climax of one's life, this dramatic moment when consciousness comes to recognize and understand itself.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 25
Paul Brunton
' Emptiness becomes Love '...
“In the heart of a human being,
emptiness becomes love.
When we touch that Source,
instantly the love is present.
Literally, the divine becomes human
and the human becomes divine.”
~ Adyashanti
' The sounds of silence'...
This silence of thought, befuddles you..
You believe that the frequency of sound is Reality..
Within the Light of Reality,
Sound is data received within Consciousness..
Consciousness changes the data according to Dream..
Miracles happen, and you make the guru, God..
Would it not be wise to walk this same walk of
Realization of this God ?...
-thomas
' The Pure Mind '...
"The pure mind sees things as they are--bubbles in consciousness.
These bubbles are appearing, disappearing and re-appearing, without having real being.
No particular cause can be ascribed to them, for each is caused by all and affects all.
Each bubble is a body and all these bodies are mine."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Cosmic Consciousness '...
Cosmic consciousness alone exists now and ever;
in it are no worlds, no created beings.
- Yoga Vasistha
' My abode '...
If someone asks
My abode
I reply:
"The east edge of
The Milky Way.
"Like a drifting cloud,
Bound by nothing:
I just let go
Giving myself up
To the whim of the wind.
- Ryokan
' The first degree of Illumination '...
The deeper he looks into his own nature--a procedure which cannot be done without practising meditation--the nearer he will come to the truth about it.
In the first stage of penetration, his external surroundings and the whole world with them, vanish. In the second and deeper stage, the feeling "I am rooted in God," alone remains. In the third stage the "I" thought also goes. In the final stage even the idea "God" disappears. There remains then no idea of any kind--only peace beyond telling, consciousness in its pure ever-still state.
If he stops at levels A or B, he is still unable to fulfil his purpose. It is just as if a composer of a piece of music were to stop halfway during its composition. Only by penetrating still farther into the depths of his being until he reaches level C will he be able to undergo that tremendous, profound, and radical change which may be called the first degree of illumination. So sudden and so startling a change could not have come unless he had had the perseverance to make so prolonged a plunge.
Few mystics pass the first degree. The rapture of it detains them.
- Paul Brunton
' Bliss '...
Bliss is the very nature of the Self.
Self is the infinitude of Bliss.
All Being is but Bliss.
Knowing this firmly,
in the Self abide enjoying Bliss forever.
- Ramana Maharshi
' God became man '...
"God became man that man might become God."
Athanasius, On the incarnation of the Word, 54, 3
Augustine, Sermons 13
Thomas Aquinas, Ps 8; II Pt. 2:4, Summa Theologica III,1,2
' You are a mystery '...
You are not any thought, feeling, reaction, role, identity, title, job position, belief, perspective or any other thing that appears within the field of awareness. You are that which sees those objects. You are what is looking. Notice any and all objects that arise in the field of awareness. See that none of those objects are you. Once you realize yourself as that which is looking, and no longer mistake yourself to be any object in awareness, you know who you truly are.
You also know that no description, concept, thought, story, or belief can ever capture who you truly are—not even the words “awareness” or “Oneness.” Even the phrase “you are what is looking” is an object within awareness. The words human being, enlightenment, child of God, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, spiritual seeker or spiritual teacher are little stories or relative truths.
They too are objects floating within awareness. You are not any of those thoughts. Thoughts are abstractions. They are signs or ideas pointing to an unnamable presence that is here prior to, during, and after thoughts arise and fall. No matter what you think about life, yourself, or God, that thought is temporarily arising and falling in awareness.
Do you see that you are a mystery? Do you see that even the word “mystery” is an abstraction, a little idea arising and falling in the field of awareness?
- Scott Kiloby, - Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment (
' We must become ignorant '...
We must become ignorant
Of all we’ve been taught,
And be, instead, bewildered.
Run from what’s profitable and comfortable
If you drink those liqueurs, you’ll spill
The spring waters of your real life.
Forget safety.
Live where you fear to live.
Destroy your reputation.
Be notorious.
I have tried prudent planning
Long enough, from now
On, I’ll live mad.
~Mevlana Rumi
Translation by Coleman Barks
' Awakening '...
There is no person that becomes enlightened.
No-one awakens.
Awakening
is the absence of the illusion of individuality.
-Tony Parsons
' the ideas that trap '...
Writings of Scott Kiloby
excerpt:
See that the very ideas that you cling to keep you trapped. And ultimately,
the idea that keeps you trapped the most is the idea that there is a separate
you. When you see thoughts arise that tell you “this is how life really is,” or
"this is how I really am," let them pass. Just be for one moment without those
thoughts. That is where freedom lies.
It is our ideas about freedom, about enlightenment, happiness, truth, and
spirituality, that keep us trapped. They are just ideas. Ideas are great. But
when they are treated as truth, we really live in delusion. When you see your
favorite ideas about enlightenment, happiness, spirituality, and truth arise, let
them pass. Be free.
In just being without thought, you are stripped naked. You have no
expectation, no hope, no past, no future, no story, no other, and no object. It
takes thoughts to have all those things. In just resting right there, you find
the doorway to freedom.
And when it dawns on you that freedom is here and that it lies at the very
core of our existence, you are then free to entertain thoughts, have
expectations, tell stories and even talk of objects “out there” in the world.
But now you know what is really happening. Now you will never take your
thoughts to be delivering reality.
Anyone can have this freedom. All it takes is the desire to not emphasize the
past, the future, your hope, your beliefs, your positions, and your
expectations. To just be in a state of not knowing has a profound effect on us,
as humans. Take this leap into the unknown. Find the freedom that is already
here.
' The Idol of ego '...
Until it is brought to his attention, he may not know that the idol at whose feet he is continually worshipping is the ego.
If he could give to God the same amount of remembrance that he gives to his ego, he could quite soon attain, and become established in, that enlightenment to which other men devote lifetimes of arduous effort.
-Paul Brunton
' The false phenomenal world '...
Seen through the eye of our true being
which is awareness pure, supreme,
what we call “birth”
is but the folly of thinking that one is the body
which forms a poor part
of this entirely false phenomenal world.
-Ramana Maharshi
' The power of Self-inquiry '...
Ignorance will not be eradicated
except in those who,
through the power of Self-inquiry
conducted assiduously within the heart,
have attained the victorious absolute vision
in which the whole panoply of manifestation
is transcended,
being seen as a mere cinema show.
-The above Muruganar quote is from the book
The Seven Steps to Awakening.
' Desire and Fear '...
Whatever may be the desire or fear, don't
dwell upon it.
Try and see for yourself.
Here and there you may forget, it does not
matter.
Go back to your attempts till the
brushing away of every desire and fear, of
every reaction becomes automatic.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
' The Alley '...
Rain drowns the voices of many..
Souls walk within the drops, to connect with other walkers..
Love is often found within this room of souls..
This love is often shown within the humor of opposite..
The ego is often tested,
but, always 'laughter' is the flag to show that,
you were only attacking the ego and not the Soul..
The ego retreats back into the selfishness of darkness..
Love returns,
and another song is played...
-thomas
' The beauty of character '...
All gains, whether material, spiritual, moral or mystical, are in answer to one's own character.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
It is easy to help children, but it is most difficult to help the grown-up. One may change snow into water and water into ice, but to try to change a character is the most difficult thing one can ever imagine. Therefore, it is usually vain to try. But what one can do is to build one's own character; that is in one's own hands. Only, what people are most occupied with is the character of someone else; they are always thinking of the other but they never want to change themselves.
The seer, therefore, teaches that all the things that we desire and think beautiful, we ought to produce within ourselves instead of expecting them from others. What a task that is! What great self-sufficiency there would be if every country always itself produced that which it seeks from others; what an independent life it would be to produce within ourselves what we expect to obtain from others! Instead of depending on them for something we ourselves can give them, we should experience the joy of giving, the joy of being kind to others.
What joy and freedom we should ourselves find in being kind to another. However natural it may be to have someone love and admire us, are we not dependent? The wife is dependent of her husband's love; the friend is dependent on the friend's love. But in the other case we would be free and independent; for our joy would lie in the love itself, and not in the person.
We should enjoy life by doing kindness to others. Receiving kindness from others only makes the recipient expect more. He keeps saying, 'He is doing this for his own benefit; he is not considering me; he is blaming me; he did not help me; he did not deal fairly with me.' His life becomes full of grudges because he expects from everybody all the good that he wants, and he does not know that he ought to have it all in himself; that he should become independent. Therein lies the secret of character. ...
If a person thinks that God is all, but the whole world is vile, he does not worship God, for God is all and God is beautiful. 'God is beautiful and he loves beauty,' the Prophet said. And as His being is in us, we are supposed to love beauty also.
What is beauty? Not only the external beauty, but the beauty of personality, the beauty of character, that is the real beauty. If we did not worship it, we should not admire it in other people. We cannot appreciate anything without beauty of character.
All gains, whether material, spiritual, moral, or mystical, are the outcome of one's own character; and if we have gained nothing, it is only by reason of our own character.
' Acceptance '...
In the absence of intention there can be no
psychological basis for any involvement
with activity and events or their outcome.
There is then perfect alignment with
whatever might happen, an acceptance of
events without any feeling of either
achievement or frustration.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar, from A Net of Jewels,
' Stop being so religious '...
What
Do sad people have in
Common?
It seems
They have all built a shrine
To the past
And often go there
And do a strange wail and
Worship.
What is the beginning of
Happiness?
It is to stop being
So religious
Like
That.
- Hafiz,
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