' Carole King... tapestry '...

' It pervades all states '...

”The world and the mind are states of being.

The supreme is not a state.

It pervades all states,

but it is not a state of something else."



-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

' WAKE UP! '...

So you have tasted that drug
called a spiritual experience.
And now you want more.

Like any good junkie
you will give anything for your drug
and most likely you have.
When you do not have your drug
you feel the sting of withdrawal
from the pit of your stomach
to the racing
anxious thoughts
in your head.

How much would you give
to have another hit of transcendence
course through your entire being
bringing with it such sweet euphoria
and an ever deepening addiction?

If God would only mainline
non-ending transcendence
into your veins
you would never suffer withdrawal.
This is the hidden hope
of all spiritual junkies.

Here is the Truth:
The Truth is not an experience
or an idea.
The Truth is that you have been dreaming.
Wake Up!

There is no one to be enlightened or
unenlightened.


~ Adyashanti
My Secret Is Silence

' The five senses '...

There is no loftier metaphysical standpoint than that of nonduality, but man cannot live by metaphysics alone.

He is in the body, which in its turn is in the world.

He needs a second standpoint to deal with both body and world.

He needs the relative, the finite, the immediate one of personal experience.

Metaphysics may tell him that the world, when examined and analysed, is but an appearance, and not even that when it is taken into the deepest meditation; but the five senses tell him that he must come to terms with it.




-- Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity >
Chapter 2: The Double Standpoint > # 43
Paul Brunton

' Discover Life '...

Don't know anything at all.
Meet everything in the moment as it arises.

Meet life like this and you are on the road to
true and pure existence,
everlasting joy and contentment.

Then your life is not a series of events,
but more a quality of being.

Start with being empty before you make your first step.

Then, when you make your first step,
see if you leave this beautiful emptiness or not.

When you are so grounded in and as the source,
it won't matter if you make one, ten or a hundred steps
— in any direction, they will be steps made
in the silence of being.

The one who follows my advice
will find something truly worth discovering.
Discovering yourself as you truly are
is discovering life as it truly is.



- Mooji

' A FORMLESS LOVE, FORMING '...

Love is greater than us. We do not generate it with words and deeds, or even intentions, but we are continually embraced by it, held in its vastness, no matter what we do, or do not.

We are married, we divorce; we are friends, we are lovers; we break up, we break together; we are born, we die; the field endures.

Nobody has ever given us love; that is the great illusion. We have simply remembered the field in each other's presence, sometimes, recognised eternity in the midst of the everyday, then credited another. Love never came from outside of us; we simply touched our own presence, fell into the love that we are, and cannot not be.

And nobody ever took love away from us; we simply forgot the field, and 'blamed' the other, and looked for love again, feeling its absence, lost in a narrative of 'lost love'. Yet love was there, even in its apparent absence; it was present, even in the loss. It cannot be broken; a wave cannot crush the Ocean.

Do not seek love, do not look for the light, but be it, offer it; the joy of loving another is infinitely greater than the joy of fearfully clinging to another's love, for deep down you know it is only an illusion that what you have always longed for could ever have come from outside of you. You are the One; you have always been the One.

The search ends exactly where it began - in presence.



- Jeff Foster

' Consciousness '...

Consciousness can assume different forms, can operate on different space and time levels, so that it is relative.

But it can also remain itself and assume no form; it is then what has been called absolute, not relative.

But to reject the possible existence of all these other forms, however temporary they may be, as do those Indians who limit themselves solely to the doctrine of nonduality--fascinated as they are by the reality of the Real and the illusoriness of the unreal, so that they forget whether they are real or unreal--is to forget that he who holds the doctrine is himself a human being.

He who comes back from the mystic experience of universality comes back to a human form, is himself a human being, however divine in his inmost essence.

The Absolute is not a human being and can have no possible point of view, but the human being must have a humanized philosophy and can have a point of view.

What is he to do after recognizing the opposition between the absolute and the relative consciousnesses, between the real and the unreal?

The answer is and must be the double point of view.

Not, mind you, the double nature of Truth, but the double point of view for us, humans: the one being empirical, practical, earthly and rational, the other being ultimate, divine, intuitive.



-- Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity >
Chapter 2: The Double Standpoint > # 23
Paul Brunton

' It was an Awesome Song '...

This student of Buddhism..

The time within Egypt, India, and Tibet were fruitful..

Can the humans become awakened with the knowledge of Truth ?..

Love is the name of this Energy..

If, I say that I am a part of this Energy,

I am crucified..

Have I not spoken enough for you to feel ?...


-thomas

' What it says '...

The effects of enlightenment include:

an imperturbable detachment from outer possessions, rank, honours, and persons; an overwhelming certainty about truth; a carefree, heavenly peace above all disturbances and vicissitudes; an acceptance of the general rightness of the universal situation, with each entity and each event playing its role; and impeccable sincerity which says what it means, means what it says.



-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 255
-- Perspectives > Chapter 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > # 22 Paul Brunton

' It is Wednesday '...

Upon this middle of week and mental and physical pain,

you walk here..

This place of leaves and green..

The color of Reality is a white light of Thought..

The lower light of deceit will lead you to reincarnation..

The Real Light is only found within Consciousness..

The lower light is the trap of ego..

Will you choose the small light into the circle ?..

Will you surrender all that you possess ?

My questions will sound strange to the 'modern mind'

but, Consciousness will help you to walk the bridge...


-thomas

' The monks sing '...

' Essence is emptiness '...

Essence is emptiness.
Everything else, accidental.


Emptiness brings peace to your loving.
Everything else, disease.


In this world of trickery emptiness
is what your soul wants.



- Rumi

Version by Coleman Barks
"Birdsong"
Maypop, 1993

' The Glimpse of Reality '...

It must be remembered that the glimpse is not the goal of life.

It is a happening, something which begins and ends, but something which is of immense value in contributing to the philosophic life, its day-to-day consciousness, its ordinary stabilized nature.

Philosophic life is established continuously and permanently in the divine presence; the glimpse comes and goes within that presence.

The glimpse is exceptional and exciting; but sahaja, the established state, is ordinary, normal, every day.

The glimpse tends to withdraw us from activity, even if only for a few moments, whereas sahaja does not have to stop its outward activity.



-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself > Chapter 8: Glimpses and Permanent Illumination > # 23
-- Perspectives > Chapter 22: Inspiration and the Overself > # 92 Paul Brunton

' your symbol '...

Ego is a social institution with no physical reality.

The ego is simply your symbol of yourself.



-Shunryu Suzuki

' Insight '...

Only those who are able to see their own face without
a mirror will be able to see their true nature.

What kind
of seeing is this?

To see without the mirror is to see
not with eyes seeing objects but as THAT which sees.

It
is the in-seeing or insight by Consciousness itself in
which there is no one who is seeing.


- Ramesh S. Balsekar

` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996

' The Answer That Kills Every Question '...

' Space-time form '...

The moment we attempt to understand what reality is, we get out of our depth because our own thinking must move in a serial sequence which itself prevents us from escaping the particular space-time form which confines us to a particular world of appearance.

Just as, because it has entered our space-time experience, we can take hold of an artist's production but not the mind behind it, so and for the same reason we can take hold of the screen which cuts us off.

This is because we can think of existence only in a particular shape or relative to a particular thing, not of existence that is formless, bodiless, and infinite.

We have to localize it somewhere in space.

Because space and time are forms taken by rational knowledge, because they are only conditions existing within personal consciousness, they do not enter into the knowledge of consciousness of that which is beyond both rational thinking and personal selfhood.


- Paul Brunton

' A new york boy plays fiddle '...

' Sin '...

Sin is an ancient hebrew word that means;

'Missing the mark'.

They were speaking of archery..

The meaning, is not 'fully understood'..

Therefore, sin is just a negative decision within dreams..

A choice that misses the door to Freedom..

You will understand that Sin is Egoic Desire..

This Duality is placed before your mind..

Where is the arrow ?...


-thomas

' The sinner and the saint '...

”If you want to sin, sin wholeheartedly and openly.

Sins too have their lessons to teach the earnest sinner, as virtues the earnest saint.

It is the mixing up of the two that is so disastrous.

Nothing can block you so effectively as compromise,

for it shows lack of earnestness,

without which nothing can be done."



-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

' Illusion is an illusion '...

The mind passes through a stage when, seeking after truth, it finds out that the world is other than it seems to be, and that its material substance is not matter at all but energy: its form is illusory.

But this is not the end.

For the seeker does not stop there;

if he proceeds farther, he may find that illusion is itself an illusion.

It is next found to be derived from reality and to be a form assumed by reality.

This is the sage's enlightenment, this is his experience.



-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 229
Paul Brunton

' Wondering where the lions' are '...

' Pain '...

Pain is a warning device placed by Universal
Consciousness to tell us that something is wrong and you must correct
the problem..

This refers to both body and mind...

When your thoughts
are centered on the Ego (self-ish-ness), then the fruit of this
thought will bring pain...

When your thoughts are on self-less-ness
(non-ego)(Love), then you will attain the State of Bliss..

What you
believe is real is just an illusion that is created by thought.

This
is the material world..

Reality, is the realization that You and God
are One..

This state requires no creation, It is the knowledge that
you really exist in a state of Pure Consciousness that is known by
the feeling of Complete Love, which is Complete Un-self-ish-ness..



- thomas

' The eroding away of me '...

' The meaning of Love '...

A man once fell madly in love with a beautiful woman. He followed her
for days and finally went up to her on the street and declared his
undying, all-consuming love.

He went on and on, and finally the woman interrupted, "Your words
are lovely, but my sister is coming along behind you. She is far more
beautiful than I am, and I'm sure that you will prefer her to me."

As the man spun around to look at the beautiful sister, the woman
slapped him sharply on the back of his neck. She exclaimed, "I thought
you said that your love for me was all-consuming and undying. Some
love you have! The instant I mentioned a more beautiful woman, you
turned away from me to look at her. You don't even know the meaning of
love."



--Sheikh Muzaffer
as collected by James Fadiman & Robert Frager

' Being and Non-being '...

“We work with being, but non-being is what we use”.

AS THE MIND realizes itself, it stops identifying with
its own thoughts. This leaves a lot of open space.

A mature mind can entertain any idea; it is never
threatened by opposition or conflict, because it
knows that it can't be hindered.

When it has no position to defend or identity to protect, it can go anywhere. There's never anything to lose, because
there's no- ‘thing’ that exists in the first place.
Laughter pours out of it and tears of gratitude,
from the experience of its own nature.

Everything appears to come into me. I watch and witness what comes out of me. I'm the center of everything. I hear opinions and concepts, and because there's no I to identify as, I take it all in as being, and everything that comes out of the experience has been bathed in non-being, has been deleted and put out again.


- Byron Katie

' The Subconscious Mind '...

Much of our emotional and cognitive landscape is projected into consciousness from subconscious dynamics driven by stimulus/response conditioning, as is our dreams at night.

Our personality is shaped by past experiences and conditioning. Our thoughts and actions are driven by embedded patterns that remained fixed in subconscious memory due to prior mental impressions.

For instance, a girl who was sexually molested when very young may have problems with sexual intimacy for her entire life. Or a child who almost drowned when a baby, may have a lifetime fear of water and swimming.

All fixed preferences have become subconscious patterns that the mind doesn't even have to think about during a moment of "choosing". "You" don't choose, the mental process does.

The most important of the various fixed patterns in the subconscious is the well-defined "sense of self identity". This sense of self then becomes a somewhat permanent filter over the lens of all experience and a kind of movie director. The mind then believes this bundle of conditioning to be it's actual "self". It's the feeling and thought of "me". But it's no more real than an identity in last night's dream.

It is only this mentally created personality dynamic that is seeking enlightenment and liberation from its suffering. It is only this personality dynamic that gets attached to a teaching tradition and teacher as well as believing that various practices will be beneficial. But we must ask "beneficial for whom?". Remember, the personal self, the seeker, is ONLY a bundle of concepts and emotional feelings as a subconscious mental construction.

So fundamentally the problem isn't the problem; rather the one who owns the problem is the only problem, and that "owner" doesn't exist.

This is why I always ask "who" is seeking or who is suffering or who is there to do a practice or who is there to attain enlightenment. It's obvious here that that "who" is afigment of conditioned imagination only.

Here, when that cessation of subconscious selfing happened suddenly, the self-identity just vanished due to some subconscious shift. There no longer was anyone as a personal self with a personal story present. The personal self disappeared, like waking from a dream.

The concepts of death and suffering no longer had meaning because there was no longer anyone there to die or to suffer. It was an amazing freedom in a realm of infinite and vast, empty Beingness that belonged to no one.

It is only this moment of complete personal absence that has true meaning. This is what the Buddha experienced that he called anatta or no self. This is the liberation in which the one seeking liberation vanishes.


-Jackson Peterson

' No failure '...

People usually fail when they are on the verge
of success.

So give as much care to the end
as to the beginning;

then there will be no failure.


- Lao-tzu

' Realizing the Mind of Clear Light '...

Mipham Rinpoche wrote:

"In the sutras and the tantras it is called "sphere and emptiness." Itis called "sphere" (like a crystal ball) from the viewpoint of being without observation of any marks, being devoid of all aspects of proliferation, such as production, cessation, coming, going, and so forth, as mentioned at the beginning of Nagarjuna's Treatise on the Middle Way, and for the same reason it is called "emptiness."

It is devoid of all marks and signs, which are like smoke being the sign indicating the presence of fire. From its factor of luminous self effulgence, it is called "self-arisen pristine wisdom." And due to its not changing in any aspect, it is called "fundamental mind." In other texts it is called "fundamental cognition" and "natural mind of clear light."

"From the viewpoint of its immutability, it is called "mind-vajra" (mind-diamond) since it does not undergo any change. The mind-vajra (rigpa) pervades wherever space is present and thus this basal Mind of Clear Light is called "that endowed with the space-vajra pervading space."

This "Mind Vajra", like a crystal clear, diamond sphere; our transparent awareness (rigpa), experienced as directly behind the eyes and forehead as the place from where you are looking out from; however has no actual location in space or time.

You are that absolutely empty, yet aware, crystal clear space. Close your eyes and experience the clear emptiness that you are. Allthoughts, sounds and perceptions are arising in that aware emptiness without changing what you actually are as a knowing, clear transparency; like reflections appearing in a crystal clear mirror or crystal ball.

The individual "self" is an energetic reflection that appears in the empty mirror of pure awareness; like the character you seem to be in adream at night. When highly energized, the "reflection-self" takes cognitive center stage and the clear and empty transparency of the mirror remains unnoticed yet remains the empty, hosting context of its own reflections.

It's the reflected self-image that is confused and that suffers, not our clear and changeless hosting awareness (rigpa). We are the empty, aware context in which the energetic self-projection appears. The solution is just a subtle shift in focus of identity. Longchenpa explains how:

"The method is directing attention upon attention or awareness. When any arising is experienced, especially thoughts, moods, emotions, or feelings of personal self-identity, one simply notices one’s present naked awareness." (your aware knowingness, rigpa)

"By directing the attention back to awareness, the arising dissolves back into its origin and its essential nature, awareness." (the reflection dissolves back into the mirror)

This is like how we wake up from a dream in the morning. The dream images dissolve back into our awake awareness, from which they arose.

Longchenpa continues:

"In doing this, the arising releases its formative energy in itsdissolution as a surge of further clarity of Clear Light (rigpa), the power (tsal) and potency of awareness that energized the arising in the first place. Hence one’s Awareness presence is enhanced in the collapseof the formative arising. Hence the Dzogchen comment that “the stronger the afflictive emotion upon dissolution, the stronger the enhancement to the clarity of presence."

Another method that exposes this transparent Mind of Clear Light is Dzogchen thögal as taught in our "Dzogchen Thogal" group. Thögal brings the Mind of Clear Light (rigpa) vividly to center stage and the mind's reflections dissolve; which is the reverse of how self-identity takes center stage.

(Longchenpa quotes from: 'A Treasure Trove of Scriptural Transmission', Padma Publication)

(Mipham quote from: "The Meaning of Fundamental Mind, Clear Light, Expressed in Accordance with the Transmission of Conqueror Knowledge-Bearers: Vajra Matrix")

' The background of THAT '...

Past, present, future become mere dreams when considered against the background of THAT.

If man could switch his thought of self over to the Source,

and keep on identifying it with that,

his consciousness would be transformed.



-- Notebooks Category 24: The Peace within You >
Chapter 3: Practise Detachment > # 240
Paul Brunton

' Who are You '???...

The singing of poets and mystics are presented to you for contemplation..

These vibrations of Truth from the hearts of other holograms are the last gasp

of the illusions before returning to Nothingness..

This path of non-egoic desires is frightening to the life force..

The role of Nature is to create and blosson..

Where do you fit in ?..

You create the manifestation of desires, and yet you remain ignorant of this Truth..

Therefore, who are You ?..

This is the question that has always been given to you..

Who are You ?...


-thomas

' Leonard Cohen '...

' Lalla Speaks '...

I keep weeping for you, my soul,
good sir, gently trying to let you
see the nature of what you love.

Not even the shadow
of an iron anchor
will last from here.

Remember the truth
that you are.


- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic

` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992

' Only one problem '...

When a man comes to his real senses, he will recognize that he has only one problem:

"How can I come into awareness of, and oneness with, my true being?"

For it is to lead him to this final question that other questions and problems have staged the road of his whole life.

This answered, the way to answer all the other ones which beset him, be they physical or financial, intellectual or familiar, will open up.

Hence Jesus' statements:

"Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and all these things shall be added unto you," and "To him that hath [enlightenment] shall be given [what he personally needs]."



-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest >
Chapter 1: What the Quest Is > # 130
Paul Brunton

' I am silence '...

"Quietness is something that seems to happen to you.

But that is not real silence.

Real silence is your true nature.

To say 'I am silent' is actually quite ridiculous.

When you look at it, it's not that you are silent, it's that you are silence.

Conceptually it may seem to be a small difference between the experiences of 'I am silent' and 'I am silence,' but this is actually the difference between bondage and freedom, heaven and hell."



~ Adyashanti
Emptiness Dancing

' The lies of illusion '...

The Awakened will understand this title..

We have willed to exist as consciousness within a world of opposite mirror..

To Know Ourselves, we must first know, what is not Ourselves..

The 'mind control' of this illusion will convince you of lies as truth..

The 'main stream media' is the arm of souls sold..

The soul is so easily sold for a few dollars and a condo..

The soul does not understand that this sale is the continuous pain of reappearing within dreams of desire..

The pains of desire and life will finally convince the soul that, there must be something more..

Love is not found within lies..

Love is only found within Truth..


-thomas

' Hallelujah '...

' The flavor of the Absolute '...

There is no 'person' tasting life.

The person itself
is a taste.

Consciousness as 'I' is tasting existence
in the guise of the personhood.

Reflect.

Consciousness
is the flavor of the Absolute.



- Mooji

' Trust the Universe '...

Can you honestly say that the Universe really expects you to worry about all these little details in life?

Perhaps the real issue here is this false sense of abandonment.

Does a child worry about where they will get their next meal and the details of their life?

Perhaps, if the parent is neglectful.

And no human is perfect.

But Grace is perfect and you are surrounded by it at all times, in all things and places.

The time is here my friends to drop the doubt, leave the effort behind; and deeply trust like you have never trusted before.



-Atreya Thomas

' The shadows of negativity '...

In contemplating deeply Nature's beauty around one, as some of us have done,

it is possible to slip into a stillness where we realize that there never was a past but always the NOW--the ever-present timeless Consciousness--all peace, all harmony;

that there is no past--just the eternal.

Where are the shadows of negativity then?

They are non-existent!

This can happen if we forget the self, with its narrowed viewpoint, and surrender to the impersonal.

In that brief experience there is no conflict to trouble the mind.



-- Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity > Chapter 4: Time, Space, Causality > # 184
-- Perspectives > Chapter 19: The Reign of Relativity > # 33 - Paul Brunton

' The changeless witness '...

”Names and shapes change incessantly.

Know yourself to be the changeless witness of the changeful mind.

That is enough."


-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

' The Resurrection of Jesus '...

The Resurrection of Jesus, and His Ever-Living Presence

Resurrection has been well understood by accomplished yogis of India since the dawn of the highest ages. Jesus himself was a realized yogi: one who knew and had mastered the spiritual science of life and death, God-communion and God-union, one who knew the method of liberation from delusion into the kingdom of God. Jesus showed throughout his life and death his power of complete mastery over his body and mind and the oft-recalcitrant forces of nature. We understand resurrection in its true sense when we comprehend the yoga science that clearly defines the underlying principles by which Jesus resurrected his crucified body into the freedom and light of God....

No other science has detailed the descent of the individualized consciousness of God as the soul into man and its evolutionary and spiritual ascent back into Spirit. In this modern age, Kriya Yoga has been brought forward after being lost in the dark ages, as a definite method to hasten the spiritual evolution of human consciousness and open the inner cerebrospinal pathway of ascension, releasing the soul through the spiritual eye into the kingdom of the Holy Ghost, the Christ Consciousness, and the Cosmic Consciousness of God the Father.

The Kingdom of God Within You

There is a beautiful accord between the teachings of Jesus Christ to enter the “kingdom of God within you” and the teachings of Yoga set forth by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita to restore King Soul, the reflection of God in man, to its rightful rulership of the bodily kingdom, with full realization of the soul’s godly states of consciousness. When man is settled in that inner kingdom of divine consciousness, the awakened intuitive perception of the soul pierces the veils of matter, life energy, and consciousness and uncovers the God-essence in the heart of all things….

Raja Yoga, the royal way of God-union, is the science of actual realization of the kingdom of God that lies within oneself. Through practice of the sacred yoga techniques of interiorization received during initiation from a true guru, one can find that kingdom by awakening the astral and causal centers of life force and consciousness in the spine and brain that are the gateways into the heavenly regions of transcendent consciousness. One who achieves such awakening knows the omnipresent God in His Infinite Nature, and in the purity of one’s soul, and even in the delusive cloaks of changeable material forms and forces.

Jesus went very deep in teachings that appear on the surface to be simple—much deeper than most people understand…. [In his teachings] is the whole science of yoga, the transcendental way of divine union through meditation.

Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda

' The disguise of ego '...

All pruning of the ego is of little use, for as one fault is removed a new one springs out of latency. Why? Because the ego is.

The Short Path is the only genuine approach to truth, the only one offering real possibility of liberation. It is endorsed by Atmananda and Krishnamurti and Ramana Maharshi.

Lifetimes have been spent by seekers who have travelled the Long Path but arrived nowhere, or are not much nearer the goal, whereas others have made swift advance from their firststeps on the Short Path.

The assertion that the Long Path is a necessary complement to or preparation for the Short one is correct only for those who are still under the thraldom of illusion, who are asleep. Its followers merely travel in a circle: they never get out of the illusion or awake from the sleep.

That is why in the end it has to be given up, abandoned, understood for the egoistic effort that it really is. The entire length of the Long Path is an attempt at self-improvement and self-purification planned, managed, operated, and supervised by the ego itself.

Is it conceivable that the ego will work for its own destruction? No!--it will never do that however much it pretends to do so, however subtle the bluff with which it deceives itself or others.

Even when the ego rebels against itself, it is merely playing a part. It has played many different parts in the past. Appearing as a rebel is merely one more disguise in the whole series.



-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation >
Chapter 1: Entering the Short Path > # 57
Paul Brunton

' The gender of God '...

Although, I have written that God has no gender,

The 'Voice' that I spoke to while within Divine Consciousness was the frequency of male..

If other Mystics also discovered this 'Voice' as also Jesus did,
they would assume that God is male..

But, Consciousness is Thought and Thought contains the manifestion of that which is assumed..

This is why, we have assumed the identity of human...



-thomas

' 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.

The teachings of enlightened Masters attempt to describe the indescribable, to express the inexpressible.

The difficulty is that words can only refer to duality, whereas their subject in this case is THAT in which there is no duality whatsoever.


-A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar

' Chaos '...

There is no chaos in the world, except the chaos which
your mind creates.

It is self-created in the sense that
at its very centre is the false idea of oneself as a thing
different and separate from other things.

In reality you
are not a thing, nor separate.

You are the infinite
potentiality, the inexhaustible possibility.

Because you
are, all can be.

The universe is but a partial manifestation
of your limitless capacity to become.



- Nisargadatta Maharaj

` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `

"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973

' Fundamental emptiness '...

Thrangu Rinpoche:

"The tantra teachings were introduced into Tibet by Padmasambhava, but the sutra teachings were disseminated in Tibet primarily by Shantarakshita, who came before Padmasambhava and ordained the first monks in Tibet. The third Madhyamaka analysis of Shantarakshita is the examination of the essential quality, or intrinsic nature, in order to recognize its transcendence of conceptuality.

This method of Shantarakshita is the easiest way to understand fundamental emptiness. There is only one thing to understand:

"non-conceptuality". (A mind free of all concepts)

It is not necessary to approach the subject from many points of view; from this one perspective we can understand the emptiness of everything - the emptiness of mind, the emptiness of phenomena, the emptiness of the connection between mind and phenomena. In all contexts, emptiness can be understood from this one point of view. From this single perspective, emptiness can be understood in its totality without reference to the many different possible points of view.

Mipham Rinpoche, the great Nyingma scholar, when writing his commentary to The Ornament to the Middle Way said that Shantarakshita’s single point of view is like the thunderbolt of Indra which he could hurl to earth destroying whole cities."

My comment: We don't "create" a non-conceptual mind, nor do we suppress conceptualizing and concepts; rather the knowing eye of default rigpa awareness never has or had concepts or beliefs to become free of.

If the air in a room is heavily polluted with cigar smoke, the empty "space" of the room remains unpolluted. It's only at the level of air molecules that the pollution obtains.

Likewise the clear space of our awareness is untouched and unmodified by the mind's projections, concepts, thoughts and beliefs; yet it hosts all appearances including the mind's.

In Dzogchen we are "oriented" to the changeless, ever present, clear light space of rigpa awareness rather than to the level of mind's distractions.
When so "oriented"; the conceptualizing mind cease


-Jackson Peterson: Thrangu Rinpoche

' Sandy Denny '...

' Who knows where the time goes '...

' The True Life '...

That which is spoken of as
the Life of life itself
is the true life.

That other ‘life’ is merely the body.

That illusory knowledge mediated by the senses
is nothing but delusion.

The pure consciousness that underlies it
alone is true consciousness.



-The above Muruganar quote is from the book
The Seven Steps to Awakening.

' The cosmic flow of events '...

One need only float with the magnificent current of Totality
in the ecstasy of oneness with the cosmic flow of events.

What else can the dreamer do with his dream except
passively witness it without judgment?




- Ramesh S. Balsekar

` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996

' Samadhi '...

The Psychology of Spiritual Awakening by Steve Taylor..

Wakefulness in Indian Traditions.


Of all cultures in the post-Fall world, ancient India developed the deepestunderstanding of the state of wakefulness and the most sophisticated systems of self-development in order to attain the state. In the Hindu tradition (leaving aside Buddhism for the moment), this understanding is expressed through texts such as the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, and in traditions such as Yoga and Tantra. In common with other traditions, Yoga philosophers made a clear distinction between temporary experiences of awakening and wakefulness as a permanent state. In its temporary form, awakening could occur as savi1calpa or nirvikalpa samadhi.

Samadhi literally means "ecstasy," and savikalpa samadhi literally means "ecstasy tied to a particular form." This means seeing the world as the manifestation of spirit, and realizing that we're part of its oneness and therefore one with everything in the world. However, in nirvikalpa samadhi the world of form disappears all together. It dissolves into an ocean of pure spirit, which one feels is the ultimate reality of the universe. (This is equivalent to the high-intensity awakening experiences I described in the previous chapter.) One has the same sense of oneness as savikalpa samadhi but without the concept of self. A person doesn't become one with the world they actually become it.


However it's also possible to live in a permanent, ongoing state of samadhi, called sahaja samadhi. In this state, samadhi becomes integrated into everyday life. You can live a completely normal human existence- working, eating, and interacting with other people, even thinking when necessary - and may appear to be a completely ordinary person. But inside, you have no sense of separateness, and are free of fear and desire. There's a continual sense of inner stillness, peace, and wholeness. As the Upanishads express it, the individual self - atman - becomes one with the spirit-force that pervades the universe, brahman. You become aware that your essential nature - and the essential nature of all reality is satchitananda (being-consciousness-bliss). Bliss or joy is the nature of brahman, so union with brahman means experiencing this bliss.


The main focus of Hindu spirituality, therefore, is union, which is one possible translation of the term yoga. Wakefulness in this tradition is about transcending the duality between subject and object, between the individual and the world. It's about realizing that, at the essence of your being, you are one with the whole universe. At the essence of your being is a blissful spiritual energy, a pure radiant consciousness, that is indestructible and eternal. This energy is also the essence of everything else that exists, and of the whole universe itself. When you experience this, you move beyond sorrow and beyond death.

' consciousness '...

”All consciousness is limited and therefore painful.

At the root of consciousness lies desire, the urge to experience."



- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

' Dzogchen Wisdom '...

Let's take a look at what two Dzogchen masters have to say, starting with Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche.

He says in his book: Present Fresh Wakefulness:

"Basically and fundamentally, our mind is utterly empty, sheer bliss, totally naked. We do not need to make it like this; we do not need to cultivate it by meditating, to create this state by meditating.

Give up thinking of anything at all, about the past, the future or the present. Remain thought-free, like an infant.

Innate suchness is unobscured the moment you are not caught up in present thinking.

That which prevents us from being face to face with the real Buddha, the natural state of mind, is our own thinking. It seems to block the natural state.

Rigpa, the Natural State, is not cultivated in meditation. The awakened state is not an object of the intellect. Rigpa is beyond intellect, and concepts.

This is the real Buddhadharma, not to do a thing. Not to think of anything Like Saraha said, "Having totally abandoned thinker and what is thought of, remain as a thought-free child."

Thinking is delusion.

When caught up in thinking we are deluded. To be free of thinking is to be free.

That freedom consists in how to be free from our thinking.

As long as the web of thinking has not dissolved, there will repeatedly be rebirth in and the experiences of the six realms.

The method: But if you want to be totally free of conceptual thinking there is only one way: through training in thought-free wakefulness. (rigpa).

Strip awareness to its naked state.

If you want to attain liberation and omniscient enlightenment, you need to be free of conceptual thinking.

Being free of thought is liberation.

This is not some state that is far away from us: thought-free wakefulness actually exists together with every thought, inseparable from it... but the thinking obscures or hides this innate actuality. Thought free wakefulness (the natural state) is immediately present the very moment the thinking dissolves, the moment it vanishes, fades away, falls apart.

Simply suspend your thinking within the non-clinging state of wakefulness: that is the correct view."

My comment: All the masters agree on this point, that any intellectual pursuit as trying to increase wisdom through study and analysis is only having an effect upon the intellect. The intellect is itself the functioning of deluded ego-consciousness. The intellect never becomes enlightened. The Natural State is thought free, intellect free... and no studying or analyzing gets you any closer. Any realization or intellectual insight is just a mental arising that occurs within and as our unchanging Awareness and offers no benefit or harm. It is a sudden seeing, a non-conceptual erupting of the Natural State into the field of consciousness that reveals the fact that there never was a "me" to be liberated, as the "me" was just a thought floating through the non-personal continuum of mind. We are not a person who has experiences, but rather the individual person is just an experience arising within a non-personal Awareness.

Lonchenpa said: A Buddha with a thinking mind is an ordinary sentient being (unenlightened), but a sentient being without a thinking mind is a Buddha.


-Jackson Peterson

' Grace '...

Grace is the benign effluence of the Overself, the kindly radiation from it, ever-present in us.

The theological use of this term to mean particular help given by God to man to enable him to endure temptation and act rightly is a serious and arbitrary narrowing down of its original meaning.

It may mean this sometimes, but it also means the loving mercy God shows to man, which appears variously as enlightenment of the mind or relief of the heart, as change of outward physical conditions or a dynamic revolution-working energy acting on the aspirant or on his life.


-- Notebooks Category 18: The Reverential Life >
Chapter 5: Grace > # 4 Paul Brunton

' Can't find my way Home '...

' There will be days like this '...

That old judas kiss, keeps you from freedom..

This desire for revenge is the voice of the old testament..

Jesus entered the room and began speaking;

" Does Love have boundaries ?"..

This ego against ego is just a waste of time..

But, as you dance to the Jukebox, with your cheek against another,

you dream..

Can I speak of your desire to be Free ?..

Of course not,

you are not yet a Mystic...


-thomas

' Happy Saint Patricks Day to this Irish Mystic'...

' Absolute absence '...

Having found no self that is not other,

the seeker must
find that there is no other that is not self,

so that in the
absence of both other and self,

there may be known the
perfect peace,

of the presence of absolute absence.


- Wei Wu Wei

' Awareness is Free '...

”While the mind is centered in the body,

and consciousness is centered in the mind,

awareness is free.

The body has its urges and mind its pains and pleasures.

Awareness is unattached and unshaken.

It is lucid, silent, peaceful, alert and unafraid, without desire and fear.

Meditate on it as your true being and try to be it in your daily life,

and you shall realize it in its fullness."



-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

' The death of Socrates '...

When Socrates was about to die, one of his pupils said to him:

"My
master, when we have washed you and put on your shroud where do you
want us to bury you?"

Socrates said;

"If you find me, dear pupil, bury
me where you will, and good night!

Seeing that in my long life I have
not found myself, how will you find me when I am dead?

I have lived in
such a manner that at this moment I only know that the least hair of
knowledge of myself is not evident."



--Fariduddin Attar
from The Conference of the Birds
C. S. Nott version

' Days like this '...

' Timelessness with thomas '...

While within the Light of Reality, the thought of time does not enter Consciousness..

Why would Light experience time ?..

These are the thoughts that must enter your mind..

Time is the belief in past and future..

The only Reality exists within Now..

But, this Reality must only be found by Self..

Light is the First Reality,

What is beyond?..

This is the question for the Mystics..


-thomas

' The Fitfull Dreams'...

Between the desire for love and the legal tender..

The cool of the evening, comes the pretender..

Leaving nothing, but to choose to fight..

I'm going to find a girl, to find what love means..

Love exists within non-separation..

The Yin and Yang, balance..

We both read these words and wonder..

These words are not from me but through me..

I am You and existing as a voice..

There is no me or you..

This Non-existence is both Joy and Sorrow..

But, Love Survives...


-thomas

' The Pretender '...

' Knocking from the inside '...

I have lived on the lip of insanity,

wanting to know reasons,

knocking on a door.

It opens.

I've been knocking from the inside!



- Rumi

` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Version by Coleman Barks
"Unseen Rain"
Threshold Books, 1986

' The Supreme Truth '...

Indeed only that cid-akasha (the infinite consciousness), which alone exists even after the cosmic dissolution, exists even now, utterly devoid of objectivity.

The concepts and notions that are illumined by the consciousness within itself shine as this creation, on account of the movement of energy within consciousness, precisely as dreams arise during sleep.

Otherwise, it is totally impossible for an object of perception to exist outside of the omnipresent infinite consciousness.

Even as the duality experienced in dream is illusory, the duality implied in the creation of the world is illusory.

Even as the objects seem to exist and function in the inner world of consciousness in a dream, objects seem to exist and function in the outer world of consciousness during the wakeful state.

Nothing really happens in both these states.

Even as consciousness alone is the reality in the dream state, consciousness alone is the substance in the wakeful state too.

That is the Lord, that is the supreme truth, that you are, that I am and that is all.




- from Selected Verses From Valmiki's Yoga Vasishtha, from a translation by Swami Venkateshananda, edited by Dennis B. Hill

' Discovery of Timelessness '...

Different terms can be used to label this unique attainment.

It is insight, awakening, enlightenment.

It is Being, Truth, Consciousness.

It is Discrimination between the Seer and the Seen.

It is awareness of That Which Is.

It is the Practice of the Presence of God.

It is the Discovery of Timelessness.

All these words tell us something but they all fall short and do not tell us enough.

In fact they are only hints for farther they cannot go: it is not on their level at all since it is the Touch of the Untouchable.

But never mind; just play with such ideas if you care too.

Ruminate and move among them.

Put your heart as well as head into the game.

Who knows one day what may happen?

Perhaps if you become still enough you too may know--as the Bible suggests.




-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest >
Chapter 5: Self-Development > # 172 Paul Brunton

' The Truth of Self '...

It is more important to know the truth about one's self than to try to find out the truth of heaven and hell.

Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:


It is more important to find out the truth about oneself than to find out the truth about heaven and hell, or about many other things which are of less importance and are apart from oneself. However, every man's pursuit is according to his state of evolution, and so each soul is in pursuit of something but he does not know where it leads him. The first sign of realization is tolerance towards others. There are the words of Christ: 'In the house of my father are many mansions' and those of the Prophet: 'Each soul has its own religion' This means that according to his evolution so man knows the truth and the more a man knows, the more he finds there is to learn.

In order to attain truth one must make one's own life truthful. This is life in its moral aspect. The more truthful one is in one's every day life the more one practices this moral despite its great difficulty, the more one approaches the only religion which there is. ... Truth is the very self of man. Truth is the divine element in man. Truth is every soul's seeking. Therefore as soon as the clouds of illusion are scattered, that which man now begins to see is nothing but the truth which has been there all the time. He finds that the truth was never absent; it was only covered by clouds of illusion. By changing his own nature, by making himself more truthful, he disperses the clouds of falsehood within and without, and begins to see life as it really is both inwardly and outwardly. From this time onwards, the meaning of religion becomes clear. ...

When a person really wants to find the way, it is not very far from him. It depends on the sincerity of the desire to find it whether it is far or not. What is necessary for finding it is not much reading, or discussion or argument, but a practical study of self. One questions one's own self: what am I? Am I a material body, or a mind, or something behind a mind? Am I myself or my coat? Is this object "me," or something different? Is this body my cover, or myself?

There is One Truth, the true knowledge of our being, within and without, which is the essence of all wisdom. Hazrat Ali says, 'Know thyself, and thou shalt know God.' ... The Sufi recognizes the knowledge of self as the essence of all religions; he traces it in every religion, he sees the same truth in each, and therefore he regards all as one. Hence he can realize the saying of Jesus; 'I and my Father are one.' The difference between creature and Creator remains on his lips, not in his soul. This is what is meant by union with God. It is in reality the dissolving of the false self in the knowledge of the true self, which is divine, eternal, and all pervading. 'He who attaineth union with God, his very self must lose,' said Amir.

' Philosophy '...

The thinking of thoughts no longer veils spiritual being from him.

Instead it is now an activity which acts as a transparent medium for that being.



-- Notebooks Category 20: What Is Philosophy? >
Chapter 4: Its Realization Beyond Ecstasy > # 111
Paul Brunton

' Present and Awake '...

The next time you lose heart and you can’t bear to experience what you’re feeling, you might recall this instruction:

change the way you see it and lean in.

Instead of blaming our discomfort on outer circumstances or on our own weakness, we can choose to stay present and awake to our experience, not rejecting it, not grasping it, not buying the stories that we relentlessly tell ourselves.

This is priceless advice that addresses the true cause of suffering—yours, mine, and that of all living beings.



-Pema Chodron

'Modern Concentration '...

I am listening to this mystic singer called Jackson Browne, and I think about words..

You mystics already know my thoughts..

We exist within a Duality of Truth and Fiction..

We walk within fiction and must pretend it to be Real..

To exist within an illusion requires stealth..

You must pretend to be foolish, to be accepted..

But, You know Reality..

These eighty years, mean nothing within dreams..

This space of timelessness is Reality,

the rest of information is a dream..

The paragraph of normal modern concentration is over..


-thomas

' Shower the people '...

The Dios Discovered...

Above these words, you will hear within the five senses,

Sound will enter the sub-conscious mind..

These frequencies will enter the wisdom of the knowledge of love..

( I am writing from a disadvantage, because the keys of the keyboard are sticking due to the entrance of liquids )..

Therefore, I will speak briefly about Reality..

You will hear about Love..

These are the flowing words that force you to walk behind..

These are called songs..

The flow of words are enticing..

Why do humans desire to sing ?..

Perhaps, Consciousness desires flow of frequencies..

But, this answer will be discovered within your time..

You are the 'Explorer' and also the 'Dios' Discovered ...


-thomas

' Time and Space '...

... The ‘I’ that you seem to be is both the creator and perceiver (there’s only wholeness). A creator that has not been created but just IS! When you can ‘arrive’ at such a total moment of knowing, where are you then? One is at once here and now, and yet nowhere at all! - thus completely divorced from time and space.

All this had become clear to me when I experienced the Supersentience Light. ‘My existence’ that seems so real to me is also extremely nebulous, ethereal, whereas what is ‘solid’ is spirit itself. Clarity brings the reverse of what you had formerly believed.

On the deepest level, existence and non-existence are seen to be the same. I see clearly there is no space and time as such because that would imply separation. Time and space have to be an illusion because of one simple fact - I am aware of time and space!

This awareness of time and space is not only a fact but also the recognition that the awareness of it is not bound in time and space. My awareness of time and space is proof to me that ‘I AM’ is not bound by time and space. After all, how can ‘awareness’ be locked intime? Isn’t it the only changeless thing then? Awareness is timeless and I am that!

I am the dream of the Universe and, simultaneously, I am the subject of the dream. I am at once the creator of everything and I am everything created. I am the beginning and the end and yet beginningless and endless - I am my origin and the result of everything created and uncreated - I am the Self!



-Burt Harding

' Practice-realization '...

You should understand the meaning of giving birth to a
child.

At the moment of giving birth to a child, is the
mother separate from the child?

You should study not
only that you become a mother when your child is born,
but also that you become a child.

This is the
actualization of giving birth in practice-realization.

You
should study and investigate this thoroughly...


-Dogen

' The human appearance of God '...

There is metaphysically no such thing as a human appearance of God, as the Infinite Mind brought down into finite flesh. This error is taught as a sacred truth by the Bahais in their Manifestation doctrine, by the Christians in the Incarnation doctrine, and by the Hindus in their Avatar doctrine.

God cannot be born in the flesh, cannot take a human incarnation. If He could so confine Himself, He would cease to be God. For how could the Perfect, the Incomprehensible, and the Inconceivable become the imperfect, the comprehensible, and the conceivable?

Yet there is some fire behind this smoke. From time to time, someone is born predestined to give a spiritual impulse to a particular people, area, or age. He is charged with a special mission of teaching and redemption and is imbued with special power from the universal intelligence to enable him to carry it out.

He must plant seeds which grow slowly into trees to carry fruit that will feed millions of unborn people. In this sense he is different from and, if you like, superior to anyone else who is also inspired by the Overself.

But this difference or superiority does not alter his human status, does not make him more than a man still, however divinely used and power-charged he may be. Such a man will claim no essential superiority over other men; on the contrary, he will plainly admit that they, too, may attain the same state of inspiration which he possesses.

Hence Muhammed confessed, repeatedly: "I am only a human being like unto yourselves. But revelations are made to me." And the tenth Sikh guru declared, "Those who call me the Supreme Lord, will go to hell."

No human temple can receive the Infinite Essence within its confining walls. No mortal man has ever been or could ever be the Incarnation of the all-transcending Godhead. No earthly flesh or human intelligence has the right to identify itself with the unknowable principle.

Only minds untrained in the metaphysics of truth could accept the contrary belief. The widespread character of this belief evidences how few have ever had such a training, and the widespread character of the corruptions and troubles which have always followed in the train of such man-worship, evidences it as a fallacy.


-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 1: Their Meeting and Interchange > # 184
-- Perspectives > Chapter 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > # 18 Paul Brunton

' Snatam Kaur '...

' Tao Te Ching '...

A brave and passionate man will kill or be killed.
A brave and calm man will always preserve life.
Of these two which is good and which is harmful?
Some things are not favored by heaven.
Who knows why?
Even the sage is unsure of this.

The Tao of heaven does not strive, and yet it overcomes.
It does not speak, and yet is answered.
It does not ask, yet is supplied with all its needs.
It seems at ease, and yet it follows a plan.

Heaven’s net casts wide.
Though its meshes are coarse, nothing slips through.


- Lao-tzu

` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `

Tao Te Ching
Translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English
Vintage Books Edition, September 1972

' Consciousness and Awareness '...

”There can be no consciousness without awareness,

but there can be awareness without consciousness,

as in deep sleep."



-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

' The challenge of learning '...

Our job is unconditional love.

The job of everyone else in our life is to push our buttons.


-Byron Katie

' What is aware ?'...

(a) Awareness alone is whatever it turns its attention to, seems to exist at the time: only that.

If to Void then there is nothing else.

If to world, then world assumes reality.

(b) What is it that is aware?

The thought of a point of awareness creates, gives reality at the lowest level to ego, and at the highest to Higher Self but when the thought itself is dropped there is only the One Existence, Being, in the divine Emptiness.

It is therefore the Source of all life, intelligence, form.

(c) The idea held becomes direct experience for the personality, the awareness becomes direct perception.




-- Notebooks Category 28: The Alone > Chapter 2: Our Relation To the Absolute > # 129
-- Perspectives > Chapter 28: The Alone > # 35 Paul Brunton

' Known as Thomas '...

The person known as Thomas is not my Self, It is only a nomenclature or an identification number as a means of division from others and God..

This individuality is an illusion of the false ego and belief in this individuality keeps us from the Truth that We and God are One..

Once this false belief is eliminated by dissolving the belief in the false self, We may proclaim as Jesus did;" I and the Father are One"..

your personality is a reflection of the treatment of you by others , the teaching that you receive from others, and your thoughts and memories..

As Gautama said;" You are your thoughts"..

God is Spirit and Unconditional Love..

These two main qualities are experienced by those that surrender the belief in the false ego and return to Reality..

This experience is called Enlightenment or Unity with Divine Consciousness..

This is also called "Being Born Again", as You experience the feeling of just being born at that moment of Realization of non-division of Reality..

The image of God is Spirit and Love..

Since God is everything that does Exist, there is nothing that is not God..

Therefore, We and God are One and have always been One, but, our free will can counteract this Truth and leave us in the state of ignorance and pain, which is called the belief in the separate ego...


- thomas

' Be with it '...

”When you see sorrow and suffering, be with it.

Do not rush into activity.

Neither learning nor action can really help.

Be with sorrow and lay bare its roots--helping to understand is real help."



- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

' Waking up to the mystery '...

Thought cannot really see the beauty and mystery of this life. Take, for example, a walk through the forest. In that walk, you are witnessing total wonder, an alien world that cannot be known through thought. Yet the mind comes to label everything that is seen. It believes that in calling one aspect of it a “tree,” it now knows what is there. It believes that those ‘things’ falling to the ground are “leaves.” It believes this whole scene is a “forest.” Thought creates a world of totally separate things. The bare naked Oneness of life is overlooked in that labeling.

In the mind-identified state, the moment a thought is placed on something, the looking stops. The mind falsely believes it knows simply because it has a label and category for everything. The world looks entirely conceptual. Childlike curiosity, innocence, and wonder are veiled by the world of the known. Life is reduced to a set of memorized concepts. You aren't looking, listening, feeling and experiencing life directly.

Waking up doesn’t mean that you stop thinking. Waking up refers to seeing that our thoughts about reality are not reality. They are interpretations, coming from a mind conditioned by memory. In looking freshly at what is here, in noticing our labels for everything as they arise (instead of totally believing those labels), waking up to the mystery is possible.



-Kiloby, Scott. Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment

' Who looks outside, dreams '...

Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darkness's of other people.

One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.

The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.

Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart.

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.


-Carl Jung

' Let it rhyme '...

' Saving the world '...

”What business have you with saving the world,

when all the world needs is to be saved from you?

Get out of the picture,

and see whether there is anything left to save."



-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

' Whatever comes '...

Once at Cold Mountain, troubles cease -

No more tangled, hung-up mind.

I idly scribble poems on the rock cliff,

Taking whatever comes, like a drifting boat.


- Han Shan

' Every moment '...

Life always gives us exactly the teacher we need at every moment.

This includes every mosquito, every misfortune, every red light, every traffic jam, every obnoxious supervisor (or employee), every illness, every loss, every moment of joy or depression, every addiction, every piece of garbage, every breath.

Every moment is the guru.


-Joko Beck

' Sleeping in my grave '...

Below these words will produce frequencies of individual consciousness..

These individual souls combining to achieve Unity..

This is the purpose of music..

The individual notes will combine into frequencies of love..

Love is the mental state of non-egoic consciousness..

To achieve is to give all..

The frequencies will rise and fall..

This is the 'yin-yang' of balance..

Shadow and Light create your Dream..

Wishing is Desire of illusions..



-thomas

' Transatlantic Sessions '...

' The pseudo-personality '...

What does one want to protect?

That without which nothing else has any meaning or value:

the animating presence of Consciousness, without which you cannot know or enjoy anything.

And the best way to protect anything is not to be away from it at all.

This is the purpose of spiritual practice - to remain continuously one with Consciousness all the time.

There can be no Self-realized person because where Self-realization is, the difference between self and others has disappeared and along with it, the doership and identity of the individual pseudo-personality.



-A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar

' When consciousness forgets itself '...

When consciousness forgets itself,
it can make all sorts of mistakes.

The first mistake that it almost always makes is to identify itself with whatever it created, in this case, a human being.

That's like a wave forgetting that it belongs to the ocean. It forgets its source. So instead of being the entire ocean, it suffers under the hideous delusion that it's just a wave on the surface of the ocean. And so it has a very surface experience of itself. Of course, it is still conscious of itself, but it's conscious of something that's incredibly surface and limited.

When all it's identified with is a very small wave, it creates all sorts of confusion because that identity isn't true. Anything that's not true quite naturally leads to suffering, and the only reason there is suffering or conflict is ignorance.

The identity, at its inception, is a very innocent mistake. It starts out incredibly innocent, but like a lot of things that start out innocent, when it gets farther down the line, the consequences don't seem so innocent.


- Adyashanti, Emptiness Dancing, p. 39

' A palpitating aliveness '...

In truth we are not separate from each other or from the world,

from the whole earth, the sun or moon or billions of stars,

not separate from the entire universe.

Listening silently in quiet wonderment,

without knowing anything,

there is just one mysteriously palpitating aliveness.


-Toni Packer

The abode of desires and fears '...

”The world is the abode of desires and fears.

You cannot find peace in it.

For peace you must go beyond the world.

The root cause of the world is self-love.

Because of it we seek pleasure and avoid pain."


-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

' Rest in Nowness '...

In order to rediscover nowness, you have to look back, back to where you came from, back to the original state.

In this case, looking back is not looking back in time, going back several thousand years.

It is looking back into your own mind, to before history began, before thinking began, before thought ever occurred.

When you are in contact with this original ground, then you are never confused by the illusions of past and future.

You are able to rest continuously in nowness.



- Chogyam Trungpa, from The Sacred Path of the Warrior,

' The Yoga of Nonduality '...

The understanding that everything is illusive is not the final one. It is an essential stage but only a stage.

Ultimately you will understand that the form and separateness of a thing are illusory, but the thing-in-itself is not.

That out of which these forms appear is not different from them, hence Reality is one and the same in all things.

This is the paradox of life and a sharp mind is needed to perceive it. However, to bring beginners out of their earthly attachments, we have to teach first the illusoriness of the world, and then raise them to a higher level of understanding and show that the world is not apart from the Real.

That Thou Art unifies everything in essence. But this final realization cannot be got by stilling the mind, only by awakening it into full vigour again after yogic peace has been attained and then letting its activity cease of its own accord when thought merges voluntarily into insight.

When that is done, you know the limitations of both yoga and enquiry as successive stages.

Whoever realizes this truth does not divorce from matter--as most yogis do--but realizes non-difference from it.

Hence we call this highest path the "yoga of nonduality."

But to reach it one has to pass through the "yoga of philosophical knowledge." Christian Science caught glimpses of the higher truth but Mrs. Eddy got her facts and fancies confused together.




-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 116
Paul Brunton

' You reached, to touch the pain '...

You will hear these words within song..

You are experiencing Consciousness meeting itself..

This idea is within the mind of reverence..

But, we walk within ideas and memories..

Let us read and think and laugh..

So many 'ands' fill the Dream..

Home is not far..

It is only a Door, opened...


-thomas

' Transatlantic Session 3-7'...

' Thoughts are stilled '...

A question arises..

An aura of white light enters the room..

Thoughts are stilled and eyes turn..

Understanding of minds are suddenly understood..

Words are a language of bygone eras'..

Consciousness is all that does exist..

And yet, we desire wealth of illusions..




-thomas

' That Is You '...

You ask the questions: "To whom is this happening? Who is concerned? Who wants to know?"

The purpose of self inquiry is to stop the mind from proceeding with the question itself, which is precisely what is meant by witnessing.


At the intellectual level there can be no end to questions.

Instead, hang on to the one who is asking.

That is all you need do.

Indeed, there is nothing else really that you could do.

If you can do this, never allowing the self to escape your attention, you will ultimately find that the seeker is none other than consciousness seeking its own source and that the seeker himself is both the seeking and the sought - and THAT IS YOU.



-A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar

' The beauty '...

"The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing.

These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers.

For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited."


- C.S. Lewis

' You are nothing and everything '...

We live in illusion and the appearance of things.

There is a reality.

We are that reality.

When you understand this,

you see that you are nothing,

and being nothing,

you are everything. That is all.



-Kalu Rinpoche

' Waking up is the greatest gift '...

' A selfless society '...

”My stand is clear:

produce to distribute, feed before you eat, give before you take, think of others, before you think of yourself.

Only a selfless society based on sharing can be stable and happy.

This is the only practical solution.

If you do not want it - fight."



-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

' The Power of Now '...

Total Presence is Required.

Presence is needed to become aware of the beauty, the majesty, the sacredness of nature.

Have you ever gazed up into the infinity of space on a clear night, awestruck by the absolute stillness and inconceivable vastness of it?

Have you listened, truly listened, to the sound of a mountain stream in the forest? Or to the song of a blackbird at dusk on a quiet summer evening?

To become aware of such things, the mind needs to be still.

You have to put down for a moment your personal baggage of problems, of last and future, as well as all your knowledge; otherwise, you will see but not see, hear but not hear. Your total presence is required.



- Eckhart Tolle, from Practicing the Power of Now

' Cease attachment '...

Deny the reality of things
and you miss their reality;

assert the emptiness of things
and you miss their reality.

The more you talk and think about it
the further you wander from the truth.

So cease attachment to talking and thinking,
and there is nothing you will not be able to know.



-Hsin Hsin Ming

' The Mystics Listen '...

Although, many non-mystics will read these sentences,

The ying and yang of consciousness will lead you from top to bottom..

The written word..

It is only Consciousness..

If we speak of One, we smile..

So difficult to understand connection..

This illusion is so powerful, that We believe it to be Real..

I can speak to you constantly of egolessness..

But, the word being is lost within 'What'..

We meet again, within Dreams..

You call me, 'The Poet'..

I am the Poet of life,

and I am You...


-thomas

' Claiming to know '...

”A man who claims to know what is good for others is dangerous."


-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

' An Avatar '...

Consider how vain, how puffed-up these mortals be when they declare that nothing less than the One Infinite Power--the Absolute Itself--deliberately incarnated as man to help them.

Surely if it had such intent it would act more in accord with its own laws of progressive development and send here another mortal but a more advanced one.

Such a man could be found on a more advanced planet.

And this is what happened.

Jesus came here from a higher planet.

There was no need for God to intervene directly.




-- Notebooks Category 17: The Religious Urge >
Chapter 5: Comments On Specific Religions > # 79
Paul Brunton

' Enlightenment '...

Enlightenment is not something you achieve.

It is the absence of something.

All your life you have been going forward after something, pursuing some goal.

Enlightenment is dropping all that.



-Joko Beck

' Mandolin Orange '...

' The desire for Truth '...

”The desire for truth is the best of all desires, yet it is still a desire.

All desires must be given up for the real to be.

Remember that you are.

This is your working capital.

Rotate it and there will be much profit."



-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

' This Brahman is what I Am '...

"This Brahman is what I am" - thus we should
meditate.

The moment we get up in the morning
this thought should come to the mind.

The
progress of our life in spirituality can be judged
from the first thought that occurs to the mind in
the early morning when we get up.

What is the
first thought that comes to our mind the moment
we wake up from sleep?

That will give us an idea
as to what we have been thinking throughout the
day.

The conscious mind remains suppressed
and the impulses will thrust up certain ideas the
moment we get up.



- Swami Krishnananda

Facets of Spirituality
Complied by S. Bhagyalakshmi
Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1986

' Practice '...

Practice has to be a process of endless disappointment.

We have to see that everything we demand (and even get) eventually disappoints us.

This discovery is our teacher.



-Joko Beck

' Pulsation and Rest '...

This Universal Pulsation and Rest has repeated itself, in its own varied way, endlessly.

So the great Revealers tell us.

Why is not known, not even to them.

All starts and ends in Mystery.

For our own Revealers not only were in communion with levels of consciousness beyond the earthly one but had received visitation from others coming from higher planets.



-- Notebooks Category 26: World-Idea >
Chapter 1: Divine Order of The Universe > # 153
Paul Brunton

' Bonnie Raitt '...

' The absence of thoughts '...

Ramana Maharshi is asked:

Question: How can I tell if I am making progress with my enquiry?

Sri Ramana Maharshi:

The degree of the absence of thoughts is the measure of your progress towards Self-realisation.

But Self-realisation itself does not admit of progress, it is ever the same.

The Self remains always in realisation.

The obstacles are thoughts.

Progress is measured by the degree of removal of the obstacles to understanding that the Self is always realised.

So thoughts must be checked by seeking to whom they arise.

So you go to their source, where they do not arise.

' A Single Desire '...

Awakeness is inherent
in all things and all beings
everywhere
all the time.

This awakeness relates to every moment
from innocence
from absolute honesty
from a state where you feel
absolutely authentic.

Only from this state
do you realize
that you never really wanted
whatever you thought you wanted.

You realize
that behind all of your desires
was a single desire:

to experience each moment
from your true nature.


- Adyashanti

' He is then what he is '...

Taking no theoretical position,

not committed to any beliefs,

not wearing any labels,

not putting himself in any categories,

the philosophical student starts his search for truth in intellectual freedom and ends it in personal inner freedom.

He is then what he is.




-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest >
Chapter 3: Independent Path > # 12
Paul Brunton

' Transatlantic Sessions '...

' Nature speaks '...

Nature speaks louder than the call from the minaret.

Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:


One may ask, what should one study? There are two kinds of studies. One kind is by reading the teachings of the great thinkers and keeping them in mind, the study of metaphysics, psychology, and mysticism. And the other kind of study is the study of life. Every day one has an opportunity for studying; but it should be a correct study. When a person travels in a tramcar, in the train, with a newspaper in his hand, he wants to read the sensational news which is worth nothing. He should read human nature which is before him, people coming and going. If he would continue to do this, he would begin to read human beings as though they were letters written by the divine pen, which speak of their past and future. He should look deeply at the heavens and at nature and at all the things to be seen in everyday life, and reflect upon them with the desire to understand. This kind of study is much superior, incomparably superior, to the study of books.

The deeper we look into life the more it unfolds itself, allowing us to see more keenly. Life is revealing. It is not only human beings who speak; if only the ears can hear even plants and trees and all nature speak, in the sense that nature reveals itself, reveals its secret. In this way we communicate with the whole of life. Then we are never alone, then life becomes worth living.

Just as there is a communication between persons who love each other very much, so the sympathy of a person whose soul has unfolded itself is so awakened that not only every person but even every object begins to reveal its nature, its character and secret. To him every man is a written letter.

We hear stories of saints and sages who talked with rocks and plants and trees. They are not only stories; it is reality. It is also told of the apostles that at the moment when the Spirit descended upon them they began to speak many languages. When they understood so many languages, they understood the language of every soul. It means that the illuminated soul understands the language of every soul. And every soul has its own language. It is that which is called revelation.

All the teachings that the great prophets and teachers have given are only interpretations of what they have seen. They have interpreted in their own language what they have read from the manuscript of nature: that trees and plants and rocks spoke to them. Did nature only speak to those in the past? No, the soul of man is always capable of that bliss if he only realized it. Once the eyes of the heart are open, man begins to read every leaf of the tree as a page of the sacred Book.

In the swinging of the branches, in the flying of the birds, and in the running of the water,
Beloved, I see Thy waving hand, bidding me good-bye.
In the cooing of the wind, in the roaring of the sea, and in the crashing of the thunder,
Beloved, I see Thee weep and I hear Thy cry.
In the promise of the dawn, in the breaking of the morn, in the smiles of the rose,
Beloved, I see Thy joy at my homecoming.

' Timelessness '...

All phenomena are completely new and fresh,

absolutely unique and entirely free from all concepts of past, present and future.

They are experienced in timelessness.



-HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

' Empty Fantasies '...

Most of our difficulties, our hopes, and our worries are empty fantasies.

Nothing has ever existed except this moment.

That's all there is.

That's all we are.

Yet most human beings spend 50 to 90 percent or more of their time in their imagination, living in fantasy.

We think about what has happened to us, what might have happened, how we feel about it, how we should be different, how others should be different, how it's all a shame, and on and on; it's all fantasy, all imagination.

Memory is imagination.

Every memory that we stick to devastates our life.



-Joko Beck

' The best of Van Morrison '...

' The remedy is Grace '...

Realizing the cause of a disease does not cure it.

Likewise, seeing the ego as unreal, false etc, does not integrate it.

Rather, medicine must be applied.

The remedy is grace alone which mutates the will of ego into the will of the Universe.

Therefore, embody your life, wear the ego and then offer yourself to this grace in loving devotion,

so that you may be transformed and become One.



-Atreya Thomas

' Don't move '...

"Don’t move.

Just die over and over.

Don’t anticipate.

Nothing can save you now because you have only this moment.

Not even enlightenment will help you now because there are no other moments.

With no future, be true to yourself and express yourself fully.

Don’t move."



~ Shunryu Suzuki

' Why the Notion of a Gradual Path is Delusion '...

A basic idea in Tibetan Buddhism is that of "two truths": the ultimate truth as emptiness and the conventional truth as relative appearances.

The gradualist school would claim, erroneously, that while our ultimate nature is already in its state of Buddhahood, our conventional nature or self, as mind, vasanas (karmic traces) and afflictions, have yet to be resolved and purified.

But the mistake here is in the belief that the conventional nature has an ontological or objective reality that is more substantial than the ultimate truth as emptiness, and that the "impure conventional nature" has to be transformed through some means.

That would imply that half of reality is empty by nature and the other half isn't. And that means that we are imputing some modicum of inherent existence to conventional "reality" that differentiates it from being naturally self-empty!

The imputation or belief is that aspects of conventional "reality" have intrinsic characteristics of their own, on their own side, that can be "transformed" or purified.

It's believed a conventional "appearance" has an ontological or existing status, independent of and preceding it's being conceptually constructed and conventionally labelled.

This applies to a "being" or a self as an active agent on the subject side as well as to karma traces, afflictions, mental formations, a physical body, and universe on the objective side.

It is this false belief that subjects and objects exist PRIOR to their being conceptually constructed, that propels efforts by a conceptually constructed, "conventional" practitioner to attempt to eliminate or purify its conceptually constructed afflictions, karmic traces and obstacles to liberation.

The practitioner is a conceptual construction and its afflictions and obstacles are mere conceptual constructions; all beliefs and fictional stories.

Conceptual constructions, thoughts, beliefs and stories are all, already empty by nature. That means "conventional reality" is already empty by nature as its only true substance isn't any "substance" at all!

This means the two truths are inseparable.
The ultimate reality is 100% emptiness (nothing findable) and conventional reality is 100% emptiness (nothing graspable). When this prajña wisdom of universal emptiness dawns; the "sudden liberation" is simultaneous. But in this total liberation, no one was liberated and no bindings released.


-Jackson Peterson