' Totally empty '...
To know the true God you have to be totally empty.
In fact the opportunity in this life is to discover the God-Self
and to observe how He lives in this body.
He is the true landlord of this house and this Universe.
And when He alone is there, strangely, you find you are there also
as a single wholeness, a oneness—not a mere object.
- Mooji
' Purpose through illumination '...
Your purpose is to glow. Be brilliant my friend; and illuminate your life.
Seek the Source first and foremost with all the intensity that you can muster.
Go all the way into the abstract and discover yourself as this unchanging light.
Then, come back and illuminate your body whose brightness makes visible your earthly purpose; which always has the flavor of relieving suffering in yourself and others, while serving as a conduit for Divine Grace.
-Atreya Thomas
' A thought of Mind '...
Reality must stand grandly alone, without dependence on anything and without relation to anyone; it ever was, is, and ever will be.
It is this inability of human reason to grasp the super-rational, the divine ineffable, that Omar Khayyam tried to express in his beautiful quatrains which have been so widely misunderstood by Western readers.
If the Rubaiyat of Omar is only a drunken refrain from a wine-shop, then the New Testament is a mere scribble from an out-of-the-way corner of the Roman Empire.
The cup of language is too small to hold the wine of the Absolute.
A thought of Mind as the Void is still a "something" no less than a thought of great mountains and therefore prevents us from realizing the Void.
-- Notebooks Category 7: The Intellect > Chapter 8: Intellect, Reality, and The Overself > # 2
-- Perspectives > Chapter 7: The Intellect > # 29 Paul Brunton
' This time of Now '...
The time upon the clock is meaningless..
I am a mystic and therefore can speak of timelessness..
I am not different from you..
I just walked a little further..
To exist without time is freeing..
There is no schedule,
there is no end date..
These different levels of consciousness will create different words..
Therefore, we will speak in poems..
Our words will not rhyme..
Our words will cry for Truth..
Our words will cry for God...
-thomas
' It is tuesday '...
The news that you listen to, speak of death and the lack of free speech..
The free speech rallies enter your consciousness and you wonder, what is Truth ?..
By now, you must realize that you exist within a Dream..
Lies are the language of modernity..
Poetry is an art work of the past..
You sit and think of future..
What happens to the soul ?..
What happens to the mind ?..
The average human does not know that the soul is the sub-conscious mind..
Therefore, who are You ?..
Consciousness begins to speak of Dreams and Reality..
But, we are wise and need no knowledge...
-thomas
' Suffering '...
One does not experience suffering - one suffers an experience.
One who is aware of his true identity does not, and cannot, suffer.
Everything has its place in the world as well as in our daily routine.
Devotion and reverence are all right, for example, so long as one recognizes them for what they are - affectivity - and to the extent a form of bondage.
But when one sees something for what it IS, it then loses its force and cannot effect any further bondage.
-A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
' Detachment brings control '...
"Develop the witness attitude and you will find in your own experience that detachment brings control.
The state of witnessing is full of power; there is nothing passive about it."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Human language is suspect '...
Whether it is ever possible to put into words that will not be idle ones truths of our real being has been a question whose answers are well argued for and against.
But whatever the judgement may be, who can doubt that similes, metaphors--that is, symbols--may be offered, suggestive hints given forth, and clues left behind by those whose knowledge and experience carries authority.
And these, too, are only words. Those who say that, in this matter, human language is suspect, completely untrustworthy, and utterly helpless, that its use here can only set up false images and fresh illusions, are going too far.
It is to condemn us to hopelessness. And it does not explain why Lao Tzu, Buddha, Krishna, Jesus, John of the Cross, and Ramana Maharshi spoke or wrote despite their avowals. Of course their communication is all a matter of reference to levels.
On the ordinary practical level--the immediate one--expression through any art, be it music, painting, drama, or literature, is not futile and does give something, does affect its audience.
If it be given by an enlightened man to those still groping in darkness or dusk, it has its place and is justified. But on the ultimate level, with the mind absorbed in the Void, what is there to say?
And to whom could it be said?
Silence then becomes the correct attitude.
When humanity attains this level, the descent of divine teachers and their words will not be needed.
-- Notebooks Category 7: The Intellect > Chapter 7:
Metaphysics of Truth > # 15 Paul Brunton
' Duality disappears '...
The only thing you know as a matter of certainty is the fact I AM.
But you do not know who this "I" is.
One must first find out precisely who or what it is that is seeking truth and happiness before there is any possibility of knowing the transcendental Reality.
Just as the difference between the space in a pot and the space outside it disappears when the pot is demolished,
so also does duality disappear when it is realized that the difference between the individual consciousness and the Universal Consciousness does not in fact exist.
-A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
' The gospel of self-realization '...
"The gospel of self-realization, once heard, will never be forgotten.
Like a seed left in the ground,
it will wait for the right season and sprout and grow into a mighty tree."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Mind within Void '...
Whether it is ever possible to put into words that will not be idle ones truths of our real being has been a question whose answers are well argued for and against.
But whatever the judgement may be, who can doubt that similes, metaphors--that is, symbols--may be offered, suggestive hints given forth, and clues left behind by those whose knowledge and experience carries authority.
And these, too, are only words.
Those who say that, in this matter, human language is suspect, completely untrustworthy, and utterly helpless, that its use here can only set up false images and fresh illusions, are going too far.
It is to condemn us to hopelessness. And it does not explain why Lao Tzu, Buddha, Krishna, Jesus, John of the Cross, and Ramana Maharshi spoke or wrote despite their avowals.
Of course their communication is all a matter of reference to levels. On the ordinary practical level--the immediate one--expression through any art, be it music, painting, drama, or literature, is not futile and does give something, does affect its audience.
If it be given by an enlightened man to those still groping in darkness or dusk, it has its place and is justified.
But on the ultimate level, with the mind absorbed in the Void, what is there to say?
And to whom could it be said?
Silence then becomes the correct attitude.
When humanity attains this level, the descent of divine teachers and their words will not be needed.
-- Notebooks Category 7: The Intellect >
Chapter 7: Metaphysics of Truth > # 15
Paul Brunton
' Is that truly you ? '...
The limitations of words are clearly seen when they try to remind the Absolute of its true nature.
Being merely the expression of thought, they can neither expose ignorance, which is nonexistent, nor reveal the Absolute to which they owe their existence.
For this purpose words are as useless as a lamp at midday, which can neither dispel the darkness that is not there nor reveal the light of the sun.
How do you see yourself?
You see your body, or rather a part of it, and identify yourself with it.
The appearance of your body in consciousness is perceived and interpreted by you exactly as it is done by any other observer.
Your own interpretation of yourself is as ephemeral and illusory as that of others (though maybe a little more flattering).
But any thought about yourself, whether your own or someone else's, is only a temporary mental image.
The solid personality you think yourself to be is nothing more than a flimsy succession of these images stored in the memory.
As a person, that is all that you are.
But is that truly you?
-A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
' Vegetarianism '...
"Vegetarianism is a worthy cause,
but not the most urgent;
all causes are served best by the man who has returned to his source."
-Nisargadatta Maharaj
' The Ineffable Nought '...
The One behind the Many is not to be mistaken for the figure one which is followed by two, three, and so on.
It is on the contrary the mysterious Nought out of which all the units which make up multiple figures themselves arise.
If we do not call it the Nought it is only because this might be mistaken as utter Nihilism.
Were this so then existence would be meaningless and metaphysics absurd.
The true ineffable Nought, like the superphysical One, is rather the reality of all realities.
From it there stream forth all things and all creatures; to it they shall all return eventually.
This void is the impenetrable background of all that is, was, or shall be; unique, mysterious, and imperishable.
He who can gaze into its mysterious Nothingness and see that the pure Divine Being is forever there, sees indeed.
-- Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity > Chapter 5: The Void As Metaphysical Fact > # 42
-- Perspectives
The Reign of Relativity > # 49 Paul Brunton
' Ego, the false center '...
The first thing to be understood is what ego is. A child is born. A child is born without any knowledge, any consciousness of his own self. And when a child is born the first thing he becomes aware of is not himself; the first thing he becomes aware of is the other. It is natural, because the eyes open outwards, the hands touch others, the ears listen to others, the tongue tastes food and the nose smells the outside. All these senses open outwards.
That is what birth means. Birth means coming into this world, the world of the outside. So when a child is born, he is born into this world. He opens his eyes, sees others. 'Other' means the thou. He becomes aware of the mother first. Then, by and by, he becomes aware of his own body. That too is the other, that too belongs to the world. He is hungry and he feels the body; his need is satisfied, he forgets the body.
This is how a child grows. First he becomes aware of you, thou, other, and then by and by, in contrast to you, thou, he becomes aware of himself.
This awareness is a reflected awareness. He is not aware of who he is. He is simply aware of the mother and what she thinks about him. If she smiles, if she appreciates the child, if she says, "You are beautiful," if she hugs and kisses him, the child feels good about himself. Now an ego is born.
Through appreciation, love, care, he feels he is good, he feels he is valuable, he feels he has some significance.
A center is born.
But this center is a reflected center. It is not his real being. He does not know who he is; he simply knows what others think about him. And this is the ego: the reflection, what others think. If nobody thinks that he is of any use, nobody appreciates him, nobody smiles, then too an ego is born: an ill ego; sad, rejected, like a wound; feeling inferior, worthless. This too is the ego. This too is a reflection.
First the mother - and mother means the world in the beginning. Then others will join the mother, and the world goes on growing. And the more the world grows, the more complex the ego becomes, because many others' opinions are reflected.
The ego is an accumulated phenomenon, a by-product of living with others. If a child lives totally alone, he will never come to grow an ego. But that is not going to help. He will remain like an animal. That doesn't mean that he will come to know the real self, no.
The real can be known only through the false, so the ego is a must. One has to pass through it. It is a discipline. The real can be known only through the illusion. You cannot know the truth directly. First you have to know that which is not true. First you have to encounter the untrue. Through that encounter you become capable of knowing the truth. If you know the false as the false, truth will dawn upon you.
Ego is a need; it is a social need, it is a social by-product. The society means all that is around you - not you, but all that is around you. All, minus you, is the society. And everybody reflects. You will go to school and the teacher will reflect who you are. You will be in friendship with other children and they will reflect who you are. By and by, everybody is adding to your ego, and everybody is trying to modify it in such a way that you don't become a problem to the society.
They are not concerned with you.
They are concerned with the society.
Society is concerned with itself, and that's how it should be.
They are not concerned that you should become a self-knower. They are concerned that you should become an efficient part in the mechanism of the society. You should fit into the pattern. So they are trying to give you an ego that fits with the society. They teach you morality. Morality means giving you an ego which will fit with the society. If you are immoral, you will always be a misfit somewhere or other. That's why we put criminals in the prisons - not that they have done something wrong, not that by putting them in the prisons we are going to improve them, no. They simply don't fit. They are troublemakers. They have certain types of egos of which the society doesn't approve. If the society approves, everything is good.
One man kills somebody - he is a murderer.
And the same man in wartime kills thousands - he becomes a great hero. The society is not bothered by a murder, but the murder should be commited for the society - then it is okay. The society doesn't bother about morality.
Morality means only that you should fit with the society.
If the society is at war, then the morality changes.
If the society is at peace, then there is a different morality.
Morality is a social politics. It is diplomacy. And each child has to be brought up in such a way that he fits into the society, that's all. Because society is interested in efficient members. Society is not interested that you should attain to self-knowledge.
The society creates an ego because the ego can be controlled and manipulated. The self can never be controlled or manipulated. Nobody has ever heard of the society controlling a self - not possible.
And the child needs a center; the child is completely unaware of his own center. The society gives him a center and the child is by and by convinced that this is his center, the ego that society gives.
A child comes back to his home - if he has come first in his class, the whole family is happy. You hug and kiss him, and you take the child on your shoulders and dance and you say, "What a beautiful child! You are a pride to us." You are giving him an ego, a subtle ego. And if the child comes home dejected, unsuccessful, a failure - he couldn't pass, or he has just been on the back bench - then nobody appreciates him and the child feels rejected. He will try harder next time, because the center feels shaken.
Ego is always shaken, always in search of food, that somebody should appreciate it. That's why you continuously ask for attention.
You get the idea of who you are from others.
It is not a direct experience.
It is from others that you get the idea of who you are. They shape your center. This center is false, because you carry your real center. That is nobody's business. Nobody shapes it.
You come with it.
You are born with it.
So you have two centers. One center you come with, which is given by existence itself. That is the self. And the other center, which is created by the society, is the ego. It is a false thing - and it is a very great trick. Through the ego the society is controlling you. You have to behave in a certain way, because only then does the society appreciate you. You have to walk in a certain way; you have to laugh in a certain way; you have to follow certain manners, a morality, a code. Only then will the society appreciate you, and if it doesn't, you ego will be shaken. And when the ego is shaken, you don't know where you are, who you are.
The others have given you the idea.
That idea is the ego.
Try to understand it as deeply as possible, because this has to be thrown. And unless you throw it you will never be able to attain to the self. Because you are addicted to the center, you cannot move, and you cannot look at the self.
And remember, there is going to be an interim period, an interval, when the ego will be shattered, when you will not know who you are, when you will not know where you are going, when all boundaries will melt.
You will simply be confused, a chaos.
Because of this chaos, you are afraid to lose the ego. But it has to be so. One has to pass through the chaos before one attains to the real center.
And if you are daring, the period will be small.
If you are afraid, and you again fall back to the ego, and you again start arranging it, then it can be very, very long; many lives can be wasted.
I have heard: One small child was visiting his grandparents. He was just four years old. In the night when the grandmother was putting him to sleep, he suddenly started crying and weeping and said, "I want to go home. I am afraid of darkness." But the grandmother said, "I know well that at home also you sleep in the dark; I have never seen a light on. So why are you afraid here?" The boy said, "Yes, that's right - but that is MY darkness." This darkness is completely unknown.
Even with darkness you feel, "This is MINE."
Outside - an unknown darkness.
With the ego you feel, "This is MY darkness."
It may be troublesome, maybe it creates many miseries, but still mine. Something to hold to, something to cling to, something underneath the feet; you are not in a vacuum, not in an emptiness. You may be miserable, but at least you ARE. Even being miserable gives you a feeling of 'I am'. Moving from it, fear takes over; you start feeling afraid of the unknown darkness and chaos - because society has managed to clear a small part of your being.
It is just like going to a forest. You make a little clearing, you clear a little ground; you make fencing, you make a small hut; you make a small garden, a lawn, and you are okay. Beyond your fence - the forest, the wild. Here everything is okay; you have planned everything. This is how it has happened.
Society has made a little clearing in your consciousness. It has cleaned just a little part completely, fenced it. Everything is okay there. That's what all your universities are doing. The whole culture and conditioning is just to clear a part so that you can feel at home there.
And then you become afraid.
Beyond the fence there is danger.
Beyond the fence you are, as within the fence you are - and your conscious mind is just one part, one-tenth of your whole being. Nine-tenths is waiting in the darkness. And in that nine-tenths, somewhere your real center is hidden.
One has to be daring, courageous.
One has to take a step into the unknown.
For a while all boundaries will be lost.
For a while you will feel dizzy.
For a while, you will feel very afraid and shaken, as if an earthquake has happened. But if you are courageous and you don't go backwards, if you don't fall back to the ego and you go on and on, there is a hidden center within you that you have been carrying for many lives.
That is your soul, the self.
Once you come near it, everything changes, everything settles again. But now this settling is not done by the society. Now everything becomes a cosmos, not a chaos; a new order arises.
But this is no longer the order of the society - it is the very order of existence itself.
It is what Buddha calls Dhamma, Lao Tzu calls Tao, Heraclitus calls Logos. It is not man-made. It is the VERY order of existence itself. Then everything is suddenly beautiful again, and for the first time really beautiful, because man-made things cannot be beautiful. At the most you can hide the ugliness of them, that's all. You can decorate them, but they can never be beautiful.
The difference is just like the difference between a real flower and a plastic or paper flower. The ego is a plastic flower - dead. It just looks like a flower, it is not a flower. You cannot really call it a flower. Even linguistically to call it a flower is wrong, because a flower is something which flowers. And this plastic thing is just a thing, not a flowering. It is dead. There is no life in it.
You have a flowering center within. That's why Hindus call it a lotus - it is a flowering. They call it the one-thousand-petaled-lotus. One thousand means infinite petals. And it goes on flowering, it never stops, it never dies.
But you are satisfied with a plastic ego.
There are some reasons why you are satisfied. With a dead thing, there are many conveniences. One is that a dead thing never dies. It cannot - it was never alive. So you can have plastic flowers, they are good in a way. They are permanent; they are not eternal, but they are permanent.
The real flower outside in the garden is eternal, but not permanent. And the eternal has its own way of being eternal. The way of the eternal is to be born again and again and to die. Through death it refreshes itself, rejuvenates itself.
To us it appears that the flower has died - it never dies.
It simply changes bodies, so it is ever fresh.
It leaves the old body, it enters a new body. It flowers somewhere else; it goes on flowering.
But we cannot see the continuity because the continuity is invisible. We see only one flower, another flower; we never see the continuity.
It is the same flower which flowered yesterday.
It is the same sun, but in a different garb.
The ego has a certain quality - it is dead. It is a plastic thing. And it is very easy to get it, because others give it. You need not seek it, there is no search involved. That's why unless you become a seeker after the unknown, you have not yet become an individual. You are just a part of the crowd. You are just a mob.
When you don't have a real center, how can you be an individual?
The ego is not individual. Ego is a social phenomenon - it is society, its not you. But it gives you a function in the society, a hierarchy in the society. And if you remain satisfied with it, you will miss the whole opportunity of finding the self.
And that's why you are so miserable.
With a plastic life, how can you be happy?
With a false life, how can you be ecstatic and blissful? And then this ego creates many miseries, millions of them.
You cannot see, because it is your own darkness. You are attuned to it.
Have you ever noticed that all types of miseries enter through the ego? It cannot make you blissful; it can only make you miserable.
Ego is hell.
Whenever you suffer, just try to watch and analyze, and you will find, somewhere the ego is the cause of it. And the ego goes on finding causes to suffer.
You are an egoist, as everyone is. Some are very gross, just on the surface, and they are not so difficult. Some are very subtle, deep down, and they are the real problems.
This ego comes continuously in conflict with others because every ego is so unconfident about itself. Is has to be - it is a false thing. When you don't have anything in your hand and you just think that something is there, then there will be a problem.
If somebody says, "There is nothing," immediately the fight will start, because you also feel that there is nothing. The other makes you aware of the fact.
Ego is false, it is nothing.
That you also know.
How can you miss knowing it? It is impossible! A conscious being - how can he miss knowing that this ego is just false? And then others say that there is nothing - and whenever the others say that there is nothing they hit a wound, they say a truth - and nothing hits like the truth.
You have to defend, because if you don't defend, if you don't become defensive, then where will you be?
You will be lost.
The identity will be broken.
So you have to defend and fight - that is the clash.
A man who attains to the self is never in any clash. Others may come and clash with him, but he is never in clash with anybody.
It happened that one Zen master was passing through a street. A man came running and hit him hard. The master fell down. Then he got up and started to walk in the same direction in which he was going before, not even looking back.
A disciple was with the master. He was simply shocked. He said, "Who is this man? What is this? If one lives in such a way, then anybody can come and kill you. And you have not even looked at that person, who he is, and why he did it."
The master said, "That is his problem, not mine."
You can clash with an enlightened man, but that is your problem, not his. And if you are hurt in that clash, that too is your own problem. He cannot hurt you. And it is like knocking against a wall - you will be hurt, but the wall has not hurt you.
The ego is always looking for some trouble. Why? Because if nobody pays attention to you, the ego feels hungry.
It lives on attention.
So even if somebody is fighting and angry with you, that too is good because at least the attention is paid. If somebody loves, it is okay. If somebody is not loving you, then even anger will be good. At least the attention will come to you. But if nobody is paying any attention to you, nobody thinks that you are somebody important, significant, then how will you feed your ego?
Other's attention is needed.
In millions of ways you attract the attention of others; you dress in a certain way, you try to look beautiful, you behave, you become very polite, you change. When you feel what type of situation is there, you immediately change so that people pay attention to you.
This is a deep begging.
A real beggar is one who asks for and demands attention. And a real emperor is one who lives in himself; he has a center of his own, he doesn't depend on anybody else.
Buddha sitting under his bodhi tree...if the whole world suddenly disappears, will it make any difference to Buddha? -none. It will not make any difference at all. If the whole world disappears, it will not make any difference because he has attained to the center.
But you, if the wife escapes, divorces you, goes to somebody else, you are completely shattered - because she had been paying attention to you, caring, loving, moving around you, helping you to feel that you were somebody. Your whole empire is lost, you are simply shattered. You start thinking about suicide. Why? Why, if a wife leaves you, should you commit suicide? Why, if a husband leaves you, should you commit suicide? Because you don't have any center of your own. The wife was giving you the center; the husband was giving you the center.
This is how people exist. This is how people become dependent on others. It is a deep slavery. Ego HAS to be a slave. It depends on others. And only a person who has no ego is for the first time a master; he is no longer a slave. Try to understand this.
And start looking for the ego - not in others, that is not your business, but in yourself. Whenever you feel miserable, immediately close you eyes and try to find out from where the misery is coming and you will always find it is the false center which has clashed with someone.
You expected something, and it didn't happen.
You expected something, and just the contrary happened - your ego is shaken, you are in misery. Just look, whenever you are miserable, try to find out why.
Causes are not outside you. The basic cause is within you - but you always look outside, you always ask:
Who is making me miserable?
Who is the cause of my anger?
Who is the cause of my anguish?
And if you look outside you will miss.
Just close the eyes and always look within.
The source of all misery, anger, anguish, is hidden in you, your ego.
And if you find the source, it will be easy to move beyond it. If you can see that it is your own ego that gives you trouble, you will prefer to drop it - because nobody can carry the source of misery if he understands it.
And remember, there is no need to drop the ego.
You cannot drop it.
If you try to drop it, you will attain to a certain subtle ego again which says, "I have become humble."
Don't try to be humble. That's again ego in hiding - but it's not dead.
Don't try to be humble.
Nobody can try humility, and nobody can create humility through any effort of his own - no. When the ego is no more, a humbleness comes to you. It is not a creation. It is a shadow of the real center.
And a really humble man is neither humble nor egoistic.
He is simply simple.
He's not even aware that he is humble.
If you are aware that you are humble, the ego is there.
Look at humble persons.... There are millions who think that they are very humble. They bow down very low, but watch them - they are the subtlest egoists. Now humility is their source of food. They say, "I am humble," and then they look at you and they wait for you to appreciate them.
"You are really humble," they would like you to say. "In fact, you are the most humble man in the world; nobody is as humble as you are." Then see the smile that comes on their faces.
What is ego? Ego is a hierarchy that says, "No one is like me." It can feed on humbleness - "Nobody is like me, I am the most humble man."
It happened once:
A fakir, a beggar, was praying in a mosque, just early in the morning when it was still dark. It was a certain religious day for Mohammedians, and he was praying, and he was saying, "I am nobody. I am the poorest of the poor, the greatest sinner of sinners."
Suddenly there was one more person who was praying. He was the emperor of that country, and he was not aware that there was somebody else there who was praying - it was dark, and the emperor was also saying:
"I am nobody. I am nothing. I am just empty, a beggar at our door." When he heard that somebody else was saying the same thing, he said, "Stop! Who is trying to overtake me? Who are you? How dare you say before the emperor that you are nobody when he is saying that he is nobody?"
This is how the ego goes. It is so subtle. Its ways are so subtle and cunning; you have to be very, very alert, only then will you see it. Don't try to be humble. Just try to see that all misery, all anguish comes through it.
Just watch! No need to drop it.
You cannot drop it. Who will drop it? Then the DROPPER will become the ego. It always comes back.
Whatsoever you do, stand out of it, and look and watch.
Whatsoever you do - humbleness, humility, simplicity - nothing will help. Only one thing is possible, and that is just to watch and see that it is the source of all misery. Don't say it. Don't repeat it - WATCH. Because if I say it is the source of all misery and you repeat it, then it is useless. YOU have to come to that understanding. Whenever you are miserable, just close the eyes and don't try to find some cause outside. Try to see from where this misery is coming.
It is your own ego.
If you continuously feel and understand, and the understanding that the ego is the cause becomes so deep-rooted, one day you will suddenly see that it has disappeared. Nobody drops it - nobody can drop it. You simply see; it has simply disappeared, because the very understanding that ego causes all misery becomes the dropping. THE VERY UNDERSTANDING IS THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE EGO.
And you are so clever in seeing the ego in others. Anybody can see someone else's ego. When it comes to your own, then the problem arises - because you don't know the territory, you have never traveled on it.
The whole path towards the divine, the ultimate, has to pass through this territory of the ego. The false has to be understood as false. The source of misery has to be understood as the source of misery - then it simply drops.
When you know it is poison, it drops. When you know it is fire, it drops. When you know this is the hell, it drops.
And then you never say, "I have dropped the ego." Then you simply laugh at the whole thing, the joke that you were the creator of all misery.
I was just looking at a few cartoons of Charlie Brown. In one cartoon he is playing with blocks, making a house out of children's blocks. He is sitting in the middle of the blocks building the walls. Then a moment comes when he is enclosed; all around he has made a wall. Then he cries, "Help, help!"
He has done the whole thing! Now he is enclosed, imprisoned. This is childish, but this is all that you have done also. You have made a house all around yourself, and now you are crying, "Help, help!" And the misery becomes a millionfold - because there are helpers who are also in the same boat.
It happened that one very beautiful woman went to see her psychiatrist for the first time. The psychiatrist said, "Come closer please." When she came closer, he simply jumped and hugged and kissed the woman. She was shocked. Then he said, "Now sit down. This takes care of my problem, now what is your problem?"
The problem becomes multifold, because there are helpers who are in the same boat. And they would like to help, because when you help somebody the ego feels very good, very, very good - because you are a great helper, a great guru, a master; you are helping so many people. The greater the crowd of your followers, the better you feel.
But you are in the same boat - you cannot help.
Rather, you will harm.
People who still have their own problems cannot be of much help. Only someone who has no problems of his own can help you. Only then is there the clarity to see, to see through you. A mind that has no problems of its own can see you, you become transparent.
A mind that has no problems of its own can see through itself; that's why it becomes capable of seeing through others.
In the West, there are many schools of psychoanalysis, many schools, and no help is reaching people, but rather, harm. Because the people who are helping others, or trying to help, or posing as helpers, are in the same boat.
...It is difficult to see one's own ego.
It is very easy to see other's egos. But that is not the point, you cannot help them.
Try to see your own ego.
Just watch it.
Don't be in a hurry to drop it, just watch it. The more you watch, the more capable you will become. Suddenly one day, you simply see that it has dropped. And when it drops by itself, only then does it drop. There is no other way. Prematurely you cannot drop it.
It drops just like a dead leaf.
The tree is not doing anything - just a breeze, a situation, and the dead leaf simply drops. The tree is not even aware that the dead leaf has dropped. It makes no noise, it makes no claim - nothing.
The dead leaf simply drops and shatters on the ground, just like that.
When you are mature through understanding, awareness, and you have felt totally that ego is the cause of all your misery, simply one day you see the dead leaf dropping.
It settles into the ground, dies of its own accord. You have not done anything so you cannot claim that you have dropped it. You see that it has simply disappeared, and then the real center arises.
And that real center is the soul, the self, the god, the truth, or whatsoever you want to call it.
It is nameless, so all names are good.
You can give it any name of your own liking.
From Beyond the Frontier of the Mind by Osho
' Samsara and Maya '...
The Ocean cannot stay alone
and so the notion of wave is created.
When waves rise Ocean loses nothing
and when waves fall Ocean gains nothing.
Samsara, the illusion, Maya, the play,
is the wave on the Ocean of Nirvana.
Waves are not separate from the Ocean,
rays are not separate from the Sun,
You are not separate from
Existence-Consciousness-Bliss.
This is a reflection of That.
- Papaji
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"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
' Mystical practice '...
You may get rid of every object of thought and, seemingly, of every thought itself until there is only a void.
But even then you will still be thinking the void and consequently holding a "thought."
It will not be the true void.
The thinking "I" must itself be eliminated.
Only when this is done will all activity truly cease and the stillness of the Eternal be truly known.
This can be realized by some kind of mystical practice only and not by conceptual effort.
-- Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity > Chapter 5:
The Void As Metaphysical Fact > # 24 Paul Brunton
' Conversations with ego '...
If the ego becomes involved within any conversation,
then the words will not be fully truthful..
The ego will hide within spirituality and wait for moments to appear in thoughts and words..
Therefore, my conversations will emit from higher consciousness with the desire not to allow
the ego to creep in..
The job of the ego is to keep us trapped within dreams and illusions instead of Reality..
Why would you love something that wants to destroy You ?..
The ego has never been You..
The ego cannot be groomed to become You..
The ego is the negative player in the dream called life...
-thomas
' Defending the ego '...
It has been suggested that we should love the ego..
Therefore, thought must enter the room..
This character called ego, enters the room to defend itself..
The prosecutor called Love, then begins to question ego..
Love asks ego, "are you the self that will willingly die, so that others will live ?"..
" Of course not, I am not a fool ", says the ego..
' Guilty', shouts the Judge ! '...
-thomas
' Focus your mind '...
"Understand one thing well, and you have arrived.
What prevents you from knowing is not the lack of opportunity, but the lack of ability to focus in your mind, what you want to understand.
If you could but keep in mind what you do not know, it would reveal to you its secrets.
But if you are shallow and impatient, not earnest enough to look and wait, you are like a child crying for the moon."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' The Guest House '...
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
- Rumi
' It is thursday '...
You think of friday..
The dream of future happiness enters the mind..
The human experience seeks happiness as the goal of life..
This search for happiness opens a pandora's box..
The search for happiness always entails other humans..
Being social is a path to humility..
Humility is the dissolving of egoic attachment..
Humility is also called, lack of ego, which is also called Love..
You can keep searching for wisdom, but always return to unity..
It is strange that Source divides Itself, only to return to One..
But, you are within this Dream, and the rest of the Play depends on you...
-thomas
' Only Awareness Remains '...
Life moves, undulates, breathes in and out, contracting and expanding. This is its nature, the nature of what is. Whatever is, is in the move. Nothing remains the same for very long.
The mind wants everything to stop so that it can get its foothold, finding its position, so it can figure out how to control life. Through the pursuit of material things, knowledge, ideas, beliefs, opinions, emotional states, spiritualstates, and relationships, the mind seeks to find a secure position from which to operate.
The mind seeks to nail life down and get it to stop moving and changing. When this doesn’t work, the mind begins to seek the changeless, the eternal, something that doesn’t move. But the mind of thought is itself an expression of life’s movement and so must always be in movement itself. When there is thought, that thought is always moving and changing.
Actually, there is no such thing as thought, there is only thinking. So thought which is always moving (as thinking) cannot apprehend the changeless. When thought goes silent, the thinker, the psychological “me” the image-produced self, disappears. Suddenly it is gone. You, as an idea, are gone. Awareness remains alone.
There is no one who is aware. Awareness itself is itself. You are now no longer the thought, nor the thinker, nor someone who is aware. Only awareness remains, as itself. Then, within awareness, thought moves. Within the changeless, change happens. Now awareness expresses itself. Awareness is always expressing itself: as life, as change, as thought, feelings, bodies, humans, plants, trees, cars, etc. Awareness yields to itself, to its inherent creativity, to its expression in form, in order to experience itself.
The changeless is changing. The eternal is living and dying. The formless is form. The form is formless. This is nothing the mind could have ever imagined.
~ Adyashanti ~
My Secret Is Silence
' Who is wise ?'...
Who is wise?
He that learns from everyone.
Who is powerful?
He that governs his passions.
Who is rich?
He that is content.
Who is that?
Nobody.
~ Benjamin Franklin ~
(Poor Richard's Almanack)
' The stillness of being '...
As Mind the Real is static, as World-Mind it is dynamic.
As Godhead It alone is in the stillness of being;
but as God it is the source, substance, and power of the universe.
As Mind there is no second thing,
no second intelligence to ask the question why it stirred and breathed forth World-Mind,
hence why the whole world-process exists.
Only man asks this question and it returns unanswered.
-- Notebooks Category 28: The Alone > Chapter 1: Absolute Mind > # 62
-- Perspectives > Chapter 28: The Alone > # 20 Paul Brunton
' Who am I ? '...
The words now enter the dreams of reincarnation..
As you know, Source is the energy of love..
To leave Love and enter the pain of fear requires a great deal of curiosity..
To learn who You are requires opposites..
You choose the character to play within any thought that flows through the mind..
The world tells you that this character is real and all other beliefs are stages of insanity..
How many more times will you spin the wheel of reincarnation ?..
How many more times will you decide to experiment with pain before you take a vacation ?..
The escape from pain requires the giving of all, back to Source..
This includes the character called self...
-thomas
' The best path '...
There is no best path or worst path.
There
is just the path to which each individual
organism gets directed.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
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"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' Nothing to it ! '...
When attention looks back at Itself, instead of at a mental topic or sensory perception; it can't find anything there except empty awareness.
That empty awareness is Absolute Perfection. It's empty of thought and empty of any sense of self. It's nature is intrinsic peace and openness.
It is contentment itself, because it is always complete and lacks nothing.
It relies on nothing because nothing sustains it.
The conceptualizing and thinking mind has been discovered to be nothing but a producer of unnecessary turbulence; where in its absence only a profound peace prevails.
This Empty Awareness is an indestructible Vajra, not dependent upon nor caused by anything at all.
No need to look further; just let attention look back at itself. How could one miss knowing what's always knowing, empty and aware?
"Since there is only this pure observing, there will be found a lucid clarity without anyone being there who is the observer; only a naked manifest awareness is present. (This awareness) is empty and immaculately pure, not being created by anything whatsoever." Karma Lingpa
-Jackson Peterson
' Awareness '...
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 ego '...
Ego is life sustaining..
That is the problem..
The life that requires a separate self is always a dream..
To cause controversy is to declare to opposite,,
It always causes attention, which is food of the ego..
It also forces the mind to think..
Once again, the balance of positive and negative meet each other..
Perhaps, each Teacher is there to shock you into awakening..
Float between Knowledge and choose that which frees you...
-thomas
' The perceivers of truth '...
"Know this! Through humble submission,
Through enquiry, through service,
The knowing ones, the perceivers of truth,
Will be led to teach you knowledge."
-Krishna
Bhagavad Gita, 4:34
Translated by Winthrop Sargeant
Albany: SUNY Press, 2009, p. 234
' Abolition of identity '...
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
' Duality '...
Everything comes in pairs as death with life and darkness with light.
Whatever seems to be necessary to existence is so only because its opposite is equally necessary.
Duality is a governing factor of the world and everything within it including ourselves.
That alone is outside the world, is nondual, which is the untouchable Reality.
This is the Chinese idea of yin and yang, and the Bhagavad Gita's expression "the pairs of opposites" conveys the same idea.
Duality is a fact.
It is here.
But it is also an illusion and the opposite truth which completes it is the nondual.
We may deplore the illusory nature of our existence, but we need not get lost in it for it is fulfilled, completed, and finalized in its complement the Real.
-- Notebooks Category 26: World-Idea > Chapter 3: Polarities, Complementaries, Dualities of The Universe > # 10
-- Perspectives > Chapter 26: World-Idea > # 42 Paul Brunton
' God has no name '...
What would happen if you found that you were not a god or goddess ?..
What would happen if you found out that you were really just another dream ?..
The idea of the loss of ego is painful for those that seek survival..
The god or goddess that screams yin and yang are only visions of reality..
Reality contains no ego called god or goddess..
Reality only contains a Dreamer that swims in Love..
There is no name for this Voice..
In Reality, We are this Voice...
-thomas
' Morality '...
Morality is the attunement of oneself to the atmosphere
one finds oneself in at any time.
It is always changing with
the evolutionary process to which the individual is subject.
Morality is relative from place to place, time to time, but the
necessity for morality is absolute.
- Swami Krishnananda
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Facets of Spirituality
Complied by S. Bhagyalakshmi
Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1986
' Infinite and immaterial '...
Since the Self is infinite and immaterial,
what it ‘sees’ is infinite and immaterial.
- Annamalai Swami
The Seven Steps to Awakening.
' Consciousness eludes them '...
People tie themselves to some one man, living or dead, and worship him.
Yet he is outside themselves, and the divine is within themselves.
They contemplate his form, surrender to his personality, refuse to look within.
As long as they do this, so long does the Consciousness elude them.
-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest >
Chapter 3: Independent Path > # 94
Paul Brunton
' Concepts are distortions of reality '...
"You give reality to concepts, while concepts are distortions of reality.
Abandon all conceptualization and stay silent and attentive.
Be earnest about it and all will be well with you."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' The final essence '...
Every form of existence can be reduced to a form of consciousness.
The final essence of all these consciousnesses is God.
-- Notebooks Category 27: World-Mind > Chapter 3:
World-Mind and ``Creation'' > # 16 Paul Brunton
' Free to feel '...
When there is identification with thought, the mind is trying to figure life out conceptually. It creates belief systems out of fear of the unknown. It defends its beliefs and tries to convince others that its beliefs are right. Identification with thought creates and maintains separation.
What the dualistic mind is ultimately doing is defending and strengthening a “me” that is based in fear. The mind rationalizes, justifies, blames, analyzes, and judges life as it is happening in some attempt to gain control and knowledge about what is happening. The mind believes that, in controlling, resisting, and knowing, the “me” will survive.
The “me” is a dream..
It stays alive only through constant identification with thought and emotion. The incessant mind activity keeps feelings from being felt directly. For example, in the moment a fearful thought arises, the actual fear in the body isn’t felt. When the fear isn’t felt, it fuels more thoughts about the future including about what will happen or how a scenario will turn out.
In liberation, identification with thought is gone. The “me” illusion is seen through. Therefore, the incessant movement to rationalize, justify, blame, analyze, believe, and judge dies. There is a freedom to feel directly whatever emotions arise without having to “think” them away. When there is a freedom to feel emotions directly, those emotions do not accumulate over time. They come and go freely. There is no “me” to hold onto them.
-Kiloby, Scott. Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment
' The restless people '...
"Does a happy man seek happiness?
How restless people are, how constantly on the move!
It is because they are in pain that they seek relief in pleasure.
All the happiness they can imagine is in assurance of repeated pleasure."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' More silent than awareness '...
You are the One which is aware
of the awareness of objects and ideas.
You are the One that is even more silent than awareness.
You are the Life which precedes the concept of life.
Your nature is silence and it is not attainable,
It always Is.
You are Emptiness, the ultimate Substance:
removing Emptiness out of Emptiness
leaves only Emptiness because there is nothing beyond It.
Emptiness is between "is" and "is not"
and nothing is out of this Emptiness so it is the Fullness.
To be Free, you need the firm conviction
that you are this Substratum, this Peace, this Emptiness.
All rises from,
dances about in,
and returns to
This.
As Ocean rises as a wave to dance,
so you are this Dancing Emptiness!
~ Papaji
' We call it God '...
When we, human beings, through our most enlightened representatives, look for the highest principle of being, life, existence, consciousness--the Supreme Power, the Origin of all Substance, the ultimate Deity, in fact--we find It is one and the same thing looked at from different human standpoints.
It is nameless but we may call it, Mind.
There is no point where we can come into contact with It for It transcends everything, every human capacity.
When we look for It in relation to the universe which includes us, we may call It World-Mind, or in religious terminology, God.
Here there is real possibility of a contact, for in our innermost self the connection is already there.
-- Notebooks Category 28: The Alone > Chapter 2:
Our Relation To the Absolute > # 94
Paul Brunton
' Aloneness '...
Structure and compliance are a manner of mind-control..
This subject is not spoken of..
The contract that you sign within organizations color your future..
To find Reality and Truth, you must be alone..
Enter the desert as Jesus or under a tree in a jungle as Gautama..
There must be no other voices..
To be alone is to be within God..
The ego always seeks an audience..
Aloneness is a one-man act...
-thomas
' Being Awake is sometimes painful '...
To know the endgame is sorrowful..
Half a million slaves left to serve gods..
But, the negative entities do not understand Consciousness..
Consciousness is the Mind of Love..
Love is the Energy of non-division..
Once the seeker has found the treasure,
the seeker becomes the observer..
To observe the mind is to rule the mind..
If you can watch the mind,
You are not the mind...
-thomas
' Knowing the unreal '...
"Nothing is done by me,
everything just happens I do not expect,
I do not plan,
I just watch events happening,
knowing them to be unreal."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Awareness is Unconditional Love '...
Could the way we eat breakfast or drink a cup of tea actually touch and affect the war in Syria or Donald Trump or Kim Jong-un or the changing climate or the lives of the animals on factory farms?
To the thinking mind, that sounds like a ridiculous idea, and to the hardcore political activist struggling to change the world, it sounds like the worst kind of spiritual nonsense.
But I’ve certainly experienced in my own life how everything is transformed by attention or by awareness, which is the light behind attention, and I’m guessing most of you have experienced this as well. And when we truly realize the seamlessness and the unbroken wholeness of everything, doesn’t it become obvious that when any one of us wakes up, in a very real sense, the whole world wakes up? Is it possible that simple acts of attention actually touch, heal and inform the entire world?
I’m certainly not saying in some facile way that if everyone who reads my Facebook page gazes with total attention at a flower for the next hour, that this will bring about world peace. But when we really see that the world is not “out there,” that it doesn’t have any inherent, observer-independent existence outside of consciousness; and when we realize that every one of us sees a unique world, and that each of these worlds is an ever-changing appearance; and when we really see that “the others” are all showing up inside this awareness that I Am, that “I” contain multitudes, that we all refer to the same “I” beyond name and form, and that, like the jewels in Indra’s Net, we are all reflections of one another, empty of self and full of everything else—when all of this is truly seen or grokked, isn’t it obvious that when any one of us wakes up, in a very real sense, the whole world wakes up?
This realization in no way cancels out relative reality. In the movie of waking life, we will still (apparently) need to change a flat tire, take out the garbage, do our food shopping, earn a living, and do whatever we are moved to do to take care of our self, our family, our community, our nation, and/or the world as a whole.
But what I am suggesting here is that we shouldn’t undervalue or discount the power of simple acts of presence, simple acts of attention: feeling the breathing, mindfully drinking a cup of tea, feeling the bare sensations of a disturbing emotion or the pure energy of restlessness, listening to the traffic sounds, hearing the song of the bird—being fully awake to the sounds, sights, smells and tastes of this moment, just as it is.
Awareness is unconditional love. When we meet any single drop with unconditional love, we are meeting the whole ocean with that love. We are that love. And in that love, separation is dissolved—ocean and drop, seer and seen, lover and beloved are one whole happening without borders or seams. No separation remains. No independent “things” remain. We see that, truly, no-thing is happening.
Is it possible that the greatest gift we can offer to ourselves, our family, our community, our nation, the world and all beings is to start by waking up here and now, being fully present in THIS moment, right now, just as it is? Here / Now is timeless (eternal, infinite, ever-present). There is no end and no beginning to Now. In awareness, it is clear that there are no boundaries, that what happens to you, happens to me.
From awakeness (awareness, presence, unconditional love), action happens much more intelligently than when it comes out of old habitual conditioning and mindless reactivity rooted in the false sense of separation and dualism. Awareness is the great solvent. It dissolves illusions and enlightens what it touches. It is what we all truly are. It is at the core of every sensation, every sight, every sound, every apparent happening. It is what “the world” truly is. Awareness is the no-thing-ness being and beholding everything.
What I’m pointing to here is not a concept or an idea or a belief. I’m pointing to what is most real, most undeniable, most true, right here, right now.
- Joan Tollifson
' The Dream '...
For incarnate man the cosmic dream is always going on. This is also the case for the sage. But he has the knowledge of what is happening and the power to intromit it one step further back.
We are all in this dream which is itself the product of, and hidden within, a greater dream.
Is God, the Dreamer, then asleep?
This is the mystery:
that he is both awake and asleep at the same time.
How can man's tiny mind understand such a thing?
Of course not.
Let him be still and seek not to carry his profane curiosity into the Holy of Holies.
In the end it shall be as if he were never existent, but this cannot be the same as death.
For the dream--of which he is a part--goesback into the Dreamer, into the Living God.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 235 Paul Brunton
' What is Heaven ? '...
Those, that are still asleep will envision personalities of holograms..
The harps, await those that believe in an old man on a throne..
Reality, demands attention..
As long as you sleep, you will continue to dream..
The Awakening or what others will call, Enlightenment is Awakening..
You find yourself upon a fence..
Do not fear,, Truth is the state of Love..
Walk forward, even if fear is your companion..
The Truth is within you,
all you have to do,
is to,
Wake Up ...
-thomas
' Jesus Speaks '...
Humanity’s awakening process is proceeding apace, more rapidly and effectively than we had thought possible. And this is because so many of you are setting the intent daily to be only loving and then following through on that intent in almost every situation that arises in your daily lives. You are all to be congratulated for your sterling efforts in making the awakening process work. The chaos and conflict worldwide, not to mention the confusion that is arising, signify that the foundations underpinning the illusion are indeed collapsing and that there is no way that they can be rebuilt or repaired.
The illusion’s days are coming to an end as more and more of you choose not to buy into the system of competitive and destructive game playing that it has constantly presented to humanity as the only sane way to live on Earth. Ever increasing numbers of you are seeing and realizing how insane are the systems and rules of the utterly deceitful game playing that have been ongoing and encouraged within the illusion over the eons. Your awareness of this is nudging you most effectively toward awakening, because you are extremely tired of playing these games in which there are only losers.
Yes, it does seem, if you look solely at the material benefits that can be achieved by playing these games, that there are a few wealthy and powerful individual winners who run the world, leaving the majority of humanity suffering and impoverished. But the world of competitive materialism is unreal and lasts but an instant for the winners. In the grand scheme of things a human life is lived for only an extremely short period of time, and then the body is laid to rest. What was seemingly achieved materially, often at great apparent cost, is lost instantly, and in that moment of human death it becomes very clear indeed that in fact nothing was achieved, and nothing was lost!
The honors that are often awarded to important or well-known humans after they have died are truly meaningless, whereas the honors that are awarded from the heavenly realms are eternal. And the vast majority of humans are most highly honored in the spiritual realms for choosing to incarnate on Earth at this moment, because they were all fully aware that it could and would be a very painful experience for much of the time. Yes, there are moments of joy and happiness, but they are only brief because the issues of life as a human, presented by the illusory environment that most humans inhabit, demand enormous amounts of energy from each individual in order just to stay alive. Deep within themselves each human knows that life should not be filled with pain and suffering, and that pain and suffering, that sense of separation and abandonment, leads quickly to rage or anger due to the fear that this human life is all that is available, and that it will be followed inevitably by death . . . where judgment, blame, and punishment may well be meted out! Not a very happy prospect, so rage that this might be the truth is totally understandable.
Rage and anger are separating devices, devices that encourage you to avoid close and intimate relationships. But it is only through close and intimate relationships that you will awaken and return Home. Home is God, is Source, is Love, and in that state there is no room for even the slightest amount of anything that is not in perfect alignment with Love. Anything that is at all unloving blocks Love from the heart, holds It off, refuses to allow It to enter. And Love only enters by invitation because It always honors the freedom and intent of the one on whom It is calling.
However, as the life aspects or attitudes of anger, rage, a sense of separation, and an intense sense of fear are completely unreal they will dissolve. But those who engage with them, mainly out of fear, along with the intense sense that they are unsafe unless they build powerful defenses behind which they can seek protection, can hold onto those “protective attitudes” for a very long time, even through many human lifetimes.
Eventually they will open to Love. It is impossible not to because each is One with It. You and God are One, and you cannot hide indefinitely from thatmost wondrous Self. And all exist at One with God. Therefore even those most intensely embedded within the illusion, and most enthusiastically playing the games of divide and conquer available there, will allow Love into their hearts eventually as the games and the illusion dissolve leaving them no other option. And what a glorious option that is!
Truly Life is a state of eternal joy, and the “little life” that you experience as humans is far removed from that. You are Real, Reality is where you have your eternal existence, enveloped and enfolded within the divine field of Love that is All That Exists. Hence the statement made in many enlightened holy books: “God Is.” Nothing else needs to be said.
Nevertheless, for humans that is just a rather puzzling and perhaps meaningless statement because as humans you are forever doing and worrying and preparing and planning, and to “just be” without activity of some kind makes no sense to you. It is a paradox that can only be understood by knowing It. God Is and so are You, and when you return Home – although of course you have never left Home because there is nowhere that you could go – full knowing and understanding, full consciousness will awaken within you, returning you to that state of infinite and eternal joy which you temporarily hid from yourselves as you played your games of separation and fear.
That temporary moment of insanity is coming to an end as the Tsunami of Love – the ceaseless call to you all from Mother/Father/God/Source/Love – finally awakens you from your seemingly endless dreams and nightmares to be One once more with All That Is. That is your natural state, the only state possible, and all that has been distracting you for eons will fall away and dissolve as though it had never been because, of course, it never has.
God created You perfect, and that has never changed. An unreal thought occurred to you and you engaged with it, rather thoughtlessly, and so the illusion appeared to come into existence. You have been distracted from Reality by it for these seeming eons of time while you engaged with it with your severely limited human abilities and convinced yourselves that it was reality. A place where you had to struggle and fight for survival, while acknowledging that in the end the struggle was futile, because into your human bodies you had implanted an unalterable time switch or clock that started to run down immediately, leading to inevitable decay and death – the term you use frequently today in your material environment is planned obsolescence! That is why your fear arose, because, obviously, death is the end, the termination point – SEPARATION!
For One who is One with God to even dream of being separated is terrifying. Yet you engaged with that thought of the impossible so intently that it seemed to overwhelm you and place you in an environment that contained all that was not Love.
Rejoice, because there is only Love, and that is where you have your endless and eternal existence, forever at one with God, and that never has and never will change. You will awaken into Reality, and fear and all its many disguises and companions will be gone as though they had never existed, which, of course, they haven’t. Complete and utter joy awaits your awakening. I know because that is where I am, and shortly you will all join with me there.
Your loving brother, Jesus.
- Through the consciousness of John Smallman
' Afraid of nothing '...
"The moment you know your real being, you are afraid of nothing.
Death gives freedom and power.
To be free in the world, you must die to the world.
Then the universe is your own, it becomes your body, an expression and a tool.
The happiness of being absolutely free is beyond description.
On the other hand, he who is afraid of freedom cannot die."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Here '...
"I'm here. I'm always here.
Even when I'm 'there', I'm here.
I can't get away from here.
Even when I try to escape here, I find
myself here.
Once I even managed to arrive 'there', but then I took a
fresh look, and I was still here.
Here follows me wherever I go.
It's just
always here, wherever I am.
Hmm. Perhaps I am here.
I mean, perhaps I
*am* here!
Perhaps here is what I actually am.
That's why I'm always
here..."
~Jeff Foster
' The Incomprehensible '...
Philosophy rejects decisively all those Vedantic pantheistic notions and Western mystical naïveties which would deify man and identify him with God.
It asserts that the phrases in which these beliefs are embodied, such as the Indian "That thou art,"
the Persian "I am God," and the medieval European "union with God," are exaggerations of the truth,
which is that God is immanent in us,
that through realization of our higher self we become more like God,
but that God never ceases to be the Unattainable, the Incomprehensible.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 1: Their Meeting and Interchange > # 150
Paul Brunton
' True prayer '...
True prayer means not solicitation but communion.
Prayer is communion in the same sense as that in true meditation there is neither a meditator nor anything meditated upon.
To die now to every moment and every experience is the death that is ETERNITY ITSELF.
-A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
' Being Aware '...
To be aware is to be awake.
Unaware means asleep.
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
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
' The Consciousness of Love '...
All is Consciousness, therefore, We and the flow and frequency of Love is also Consciousness ..
Because of my own experience within the Light of Consciousness, the flow of Love flowed through and from this Divine Consciousness..
The state of Love is the experience of surrendering the desire for existence within a manifestation of separation from Reality..
To find ' Your Self ', you must lose ' your self '..
-thomas
' Every saint has a way '...
"Every prophet and every saint has a way,
but it leads to God:
all the ways are really one."
Rumi
"Description of Unification
The Mathnawi of Jalaluddin Rumi, I.3086
Translated by Reynold A. Nicholson
London: Cambridge University Press, Vol. II, p. 168
' Being the Observer '...
Thoughts just witnessed get cut off for the
simple reason that there is no comparing,
no judging, no decision making.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' Inspiration '...
It is the soul speaking truth to the intellect out of its larger range of life.
Its voice is best and easiest heard when the consciousness is turned inward away from the sense-existence and brought as near to stillness as we can make it.
-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself >
Chapter 2: Inspiration > # 125 paul brunton
' We are responsible '...
As the Realization of Reality, We have no excuse..
We already know Truth..
We present Knowledge, but this Knowledge is not understood..
The idea of 'Nothingness' is feared..
You already know the pain of existence,
does fear drive you forward ?..
We fear non-existence,
what cowards, we are..
All life, dies,
why do you cringe in fear ?..
-Forgive me for entering your soul without permission..
-thomas
' Our True Nature '...
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 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
' What is '...
All judging of others creates an implied hierarchy into which a personal "you" struggles to fit in.
Discrimination, however, is simply noticing the apparent distinctions between things without adding anything else to your observations.
In the end, though, absolutely everything must be welcomed by you with an open and non-resistant heart.
Heaven and Earth are separated only by the differences, no matter how slight, that you see between "what is" and what you think "should" be instead.
- Chuck Hillig
' Let it be '...
"Ask not that events should happen as you will,
but let your will be that events should happen as they do,
and you shall have peace."
Epictetus
Enchiridion
in Epictetus: The Discourses and Manual [Enchiridion], Together With Fragments of His Writings
Translated by P. E. Matheson
Oxford: The Clarendon Press. 1916, p. 470, at sacred-texts.com
' Three stages '...
"I am the eternal Beloved, drawing the infinite number of lovers to Myself in infinite ways. So they have experiences of innumerable types; they have to pass through endless stages. However, for the sake of intellectual understanding, these can be broadly divided into the following three stages:
"The first is the stone stage. One feels unconsciously drawn toward God or the God-Man. Here, the initiative is entirely with me. One feels attracted to me as a particle of iron to the magnet.
"The second is the worm stage. Herein the mind constantly wriggles like a worm. The person worships me, yet sometimes disbelieves me. He adores me; he distrust me! Doubts and devotion go together. The pull of love, however, prevails in the end. In this phase, various types of impressions are executed.
"The third is the dog stage. The dog has absolute faith in the master. He just moves with his master here, there, anywhere. In a sense, he has no will of his own. He only knows to follow the master without ifs and buts. Once a lover arrives at this stage, he is blessed."
Meher Baba
in Bal Natu
Glimpses Of The God-Man
Myrtle Beach, SC: Sheriar Press, 1977, Vol. 1, p. 304
' Divine Consciousness '...
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
' Within the Self '...
No matter what the appearance,
there is perfection,
tranquillity,
harmony and happiness
wherever one is,
wherever he goes,
whatever he is doing or not doing.
Perfection is no more present in one spot than another.
Tranquillity does not reside more in one place than another.
One does not have to seek out the quiet places
mountain trails, meadows and mill ponds
to find the "peace that passeth understanding."
While the world rushes to other places for recreation,
we have a place right where we are
a secret refuge wherein we find the end of sorrow and tribulation, where there is rest from every effort.
Where is this wonderous place?
Within the Self within, within.
All the while, peace has been closer than breathing,
closer than fingers and toes,
here and now within us,
not out there at all.
All the while,
Peace has been the Identity we are.
-The above William Samuel quotes are from the book
Experience Your Perfect Soul.
' The known and unknown '...
Pei owned a bird that
He wanted to set free.
He opened its door
But the bird did not move.
Wu Hsin told Pei
A caged bird is not freed merely by
Opening the door.
Until the fear of the unknown subsides,
Until the desire arises
To fly away,
The bird remains where it is,
Preferring the known
To the unknown.
~ Wu Hsin
' MIND '...
The ego is a collection of thoughts circulating around a fixed but empty centre.
If the habits of many, many reincarnations had not given them such strength and persistence, they could be voided.
The reality--MIND--could then reveal Itself.
-- Notebooks Category 8: The Ego >
Chapter 2: I-thought > # 37
Paul Brunton
' Offer existence to existence '...
Just offer your existence to existence.
Such a request
goes very deep into the very heart of Truth.
When such
things are uttered with any kind of genuineness, they go
into its very soul.
When you give your Heart, you receive
your Self.
- Mooji
' Selfish '...
"A man who knows that he is neither body nor mind cannot be selfish,
for he has nothing to be selfish for.
Or, you may say, he is equally "selfish" on behalf of everybody he meets; everybody's welfare is his own."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Tao Te Ching '...
The ancient Masters were profound and subtle.
Their wisdom was unfathomable.
There is no way to describe it;
all we can describe is their appearance.
They were careful
as someone crossing an iced-over stream.
Alert as a warrior in enemy territory.
Courteous as a guest.
Fluid as melting ice.
Shapable as a block of wood.
Receptive as a valley.
Clear as a glass of water.
Do you have the patience to wait
till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action arises by itself?
The Master doesn't seek fulfillment.
Not seeking, not expecting,
He is present, and can welcome all things.
-Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching chapter 15
' The Higher Self '...
Why is it that so many people are so unaware of their own higher existence?
The answer is that their faculty of awareness itself is that spiritual existence.
Whatever they know, people know through the consciousness within them.
That in them which knows anything is their divine element.
The power of knowing--whether it be a thought that is known, a complex of thoughts such as memories, a thing such as a landscape--is a divine power for it derives from the higher self which they possess.
-- Notebooks Category 21: Mentalism >
Chapter 2: The World As Mental > # 136
Paul Brunton
' Falling in Love '...
'Falling in Love' is the Mystical Experience..
We use these three words so that you will seek the Thought of non-separation..
Upon the separation of egoic desire, Darkness is the tunnel traveled through..
This is the 'True' meaning of 'Falling in love '..
When the tunnel ends, Light Begins..
This state of Consciousness is called Creator of Dreams..
The humorous part of this paragraph is that You are already Home..
The problem is that You are still sleeping...
-thomas
' The mind free of thoughts '...
"You are all drenched for it is raining hard.
In my world it is always fine weather.
There is no night or day, no heat or cold.
No worries beset me there, nor regrets.
My mind is free of thoughts,
for there are no desires to slave for."
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Thinking '...
Thinking can, ordinarily, only produce more thoughts.
Even thinking about truth, about reality, however correct it be, shares this limitation.
But if properly instructed it will know its place and understand the situation, with the consequence that at the proper moment it will make no further effort, and will seek to merge into meditation.
When the merger is successfully completed, a holy silence will pervade the consciousness which remains.
Truth will then be revealed of its own accord.
-- Notebooks Category 28: The Alone > Chapter 2: Our Relation To the Absolute > # 111
-- Perspectives > Chapter 28: The Alone > # 4 - Paul Brunton
' Autumn '...
The fresh morning air being breathed into the lungs effortlessly, leaves falling from trees onto the driveway and the grass, a chilly wind blowing through the hair. Isn’t autumn beautiful? But isn’t the word “autumn” just another leaf falling from a tree, another temporary form arising and falling in ‘This’—the utter mystery we call life .
Enjoy the trees, the leaves, the driveway, the grass, the wind, the hair, and the thought “autumn.” These ‘things’ are coming and going. Nothing to hold onto, not even the word “mystery.” It arises and falls. Nothing is yours. “You” are just one of the forms arising and falling.
To a mind looking to hold onto these forms, what is being said here can be frightening. Actually, it is totally liberating. Each moment is totally fresh and new. The past is gone. Notice the mind’s tendency to hang onto some past moment. Notice its tendency to search for something in the future. The past and future are just thoughts, just leaves. There is nothing to grab onto. Nowhere to land.
Instead of grasping onto the temporary forms, ask yourself: What is here? What is it that is always looking at the coming and going? When a concept arises as if to answer that question, know that even that concept is coming and going. That is the mystery.
-Kiloby, Scott. Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment
' Only Reality remains '...
As water is serene when free of ripples, so is the mind serene
when free of thought, when it is passive and fully receptive.
When quiet, the mind reflects Reality.
When absolutely
motionless, it dissolves and only Reality remains.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' Leave a trail '...
Do not go where the path may lead,
go instead where there is no path
and leave a trail.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
' All states of mind '...
"All states of mind, all names and forms of existence are rooted in non-enquiry, non-investigation, in imagination and credulity.
It is right to say "I am," but to say "I am this," "I am that" is a sign of not enquiring, not examining, of mental weakness or lethargy."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' The key to the Short Path '...
What is the key to the Short Path?
It is threefold.
First, stop searching for the Overself since it follows you wherever you go.
Second, believe in its Presence, with and within you.
Third, keep on trying to understand its truth until you can abandon further thoughts about it.
You cannot acquire what is already here.
So drop the ego's false idea and affirm the real one.
-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 1: Entering the Short Path > # 92
-- Perspectives > Chapter 23: Advanced Contemplation > # 6 - Paul Brunton
' The body-mind '...
"The illusion of being the body-mind is there only because it is not investigated.
Non-investigation is the thread on which all the states of mind are strung."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Ponder this '...
The reason it takes so long to become self-realized and become free is you're looking to do something and in truth there is absolutely nothing to do.
There is nothing to do to become free and liberated - What is there to do?
If you say, "I have to try", you're saying the hallucination has to try.
Thinking that this is the truth and you have to identify with something to become higher.
No.
All you have to do is remain still, that is all.
Remain quiet, still. Nothing to do. Nothing to become.
If you try to become something you get caught in the world of cause and effect and you will have all kinds of problems.
But if you've made the mind still and quiet then there is no-one to identify with anything and you become free.
You don't become free, you awaken to the freedom that you already are. Ponder this.
~ Robert Adams
' The All-inclusive Self '...
Although the aspirant has now awakened to his witness-self, found his "soul," and thus lifted himself far above the mass of mankind, he has not yet accomplished the full task set him by life.
A further effort still awaits his hand. He has yet to realize that the witness-self is only a part of the All-self.
So his next task is to discover that he is not merely the witness of the rest of existence but essentially of one stuff with it.
He has, in short, by further meditations to realize his oneness with the entire universe in its real being.
He must now meditate on his witness-self as being in its essence the infinite All.
Thus the ultramystic exercises are graded into two stages, the second being more advanced than the first.
The banishment of thoughts reveals the inner self whereas the reinstatement of thoughts without losing the newly gained consciousness reveals the All-inclusive universal self. The second feat is the harder.
-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 6: Advanced Meditation > # 88
-- Perspectives > Chapter 23: Advanced Contemplation > # 42 -Paul Brunton
' Immortality '...
The ego naturally fears the inevitability of death because it means its own destruction.
Yet deep down, man always knows with intuitive conviction that he is really immortal, and it is for this reason that he is always seeking, consciously or unconsciously, his true nature.
At a certain level of magnification the various cells of an organism appear to be engaged in a fierce and ruthless battle for individual survival.
Yet if the organism as a whole is observed at a different level of magnification, it is clearly seen that what appears as conflict at the lower level is indeed harmony at the higher level.
And so it is with the ceaseless flow of energy passing through infinitely diverse patterns, expressing the rhythm and unity of Life throughout the changing myriad's of forms in the manifest universe, for which the illusory individual ego has unnecessarily and mistakenly assumed the burden of concern.
-A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
' Nothing to believe in '...
You are not responsible for the quality of your thoughts.
As you go deeper and pass the many layers of human consciousness and reach for the Center within, you will pass through many rooms.
Do not get caught in morbid curiosity and concern yourself with the strange things you may see.
There is nothing original as these objects are like ancient ghosts with no substance.
Nevertheless, if you believe in these things and rest your attention upon them, they become illuminated; a grave mistake.
Therefore, always be swift and keep laser focus straight up the middle.
-Atreya Thomas
' Intuition '...
It is a state of pure intelligence but without the working of the intellectual and ideational process.
Its product may be named intuition.
There are no automatically conceived ideas present in it, no habitually followed ways of thinking.
It is pure, clear, stillness.
-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself > Chapter 3: The Overself's Presence > # 204
-- Perspectives > Chapter 22: Inspiration and the Overself > # 15 - Paul Brunton
' The subject is Love '...
So many masters of mysticism speak of this location called Love..
The thinking humans seek this location..
This spice of Reality exists within all thoughts..
The word 'Love' is not understood within the egoic mind..
The word 'Love' refers to the time of Now..
The word 'Love' walks to the act of surrender of desire..
This rediculous desire to be separate from the Mother and Father of Dreaming..
It is late upon a sunday night,
tomorrow will offer many challenges for mind..
Therefore, let our minds be open for learning...
-thomas
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