' Resistance '...
Resistance to unwanted circumstances has
the power to keep those circumstances alive
and well for a very long time.
- Pema Chödrön
' Ego – Shadow '...
"The ego cannot be subjugated by one that takes it to be real. It is just like one’s own shadow.
Imagine a man who does not know the truth of his shadow.
He sees it following him persistently, and wants to get rid of it.
He tries to run away from it, but it still follows him.
He digs a deep pit and tries to bury it, filling up the pit; but the shadow comes to the top and again follows him.
He can get rid of it only by looking away from it, at himself, the original of the shadow.
Then the shadow will not worry him.
The seekers of Deliverance are like the man in this parable.
They fail to see that the ego is but a shadow of the Self.
What they have to do is to turn away from it, towards the Self, of which it is the shadow."
Ramana Maharshi, quoted in Maha Yoga or The Upanishadic Lore in the Light of the Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana, K. Lakshmana Sarma, Sri Ramanasramam, 1937.
' This idea is an illusion '...
The personal ego of man forms itself out of the impersonal life of the universe like a wave forming itself out of the ocean. It constricts, confines, restricts, and limits that infinite life to a small finite area. The wave does just the same to the water of the ocean.
The ego shuts out so much of the power and intelligence contained in the universal being that it seems to belong to an entirely different and utterly inferior order of existence. The wave, too, since it forms itself only on the surface of the water gives no indication in its tiny stature of the tremendous depth and breadth and volume of water beneath it.
Consider that no wave exists by itself or for itself, that all waves are inescapably parts of the visible ocean. In the same way, no individual life can separate itself from the All-Life but is always a part of it in some way or other. Yet the idea of separateness is held by millions.
This idea is an illusion. From it springs their direct troubles. The work of the quest is simply this: to free the ego from its self-imposed limitations, to let the wave of conscious being subside and straighten itself out into the waters whence it came. The little wave is thus reconverted into the infinite Overself.
-- Notebooks Category 8: The Ego >
Chapter 1: What Am I? > # 102
Paul Brunton
' Stillness '...
The Self alone is real. All others are unreal.
The mind and intellect do not remain apart from
you.
The Bible says, 'Be still and know that I am
God.' Stillness is the sole requisite for the
realization of the Self as God.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
"Be As You Are"
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
edited by David Godman
Arkana, 1985
' You do not suffer '...
It is the person you imagine yourself to be that suffers, not you.
Dissolve it in awareness.
It is merely a bundle of memories and habits.
From the awareness of the unreal to the awareness of your real nature there is a chasm which you will
easily cross, once you have mastered the art of pure awareness.
-Nisargadatta Maharaj
' There's nothing there '...
THERE IS no real ego but only a quick succession of thoughts which constitutes the "I" process. There is no separate entity forming the personal consciousness but only a series of impressions, ideas, images revolving around a common centre. The latter is completely empty; the feeling of something being there derives from a totally different plane—that of the Overself.
NG: Suppose someone can recognize that process to some degree. Is PB saying that when you reach that emptiness, you then have a feeling that there is something there despite the emptiness? Or is he saying that you recognize that your daily thoughts are really about nothing, and still you have, in that daily life, the feeling that there is really someone or some-thing and that feeling comes from the plane of the Overself?
ANTHONY: I think you said the right thing. When you investigate, when you're looking at your thoughts, you analyze and you see there's nothing there. You understand the illusory nature. You understand that fundamentally the ego is of an illusory nature. There's no reality there. But nonetheless there is the experience that you are real, that there's something real. And there you could, of course, distinguish between two things. On the one hand, existence, and on the other, the fundamentally "illusory" nature of the ego.
-Anthony Damiani from Standing in Your Own Way
'Dream and Reality '...
As Mystics, you already know of the transformation of Dream to Reality..
This older brother of wisdom..
This vision of humanity is a brother of Truth..
So further advanced within the transformation of Dream into Manifestation..
But, you are here to learn of thoughts that transform and advance..
You are here to Learn..
We always seek learning and call it curiousity.
But, is it now fun to seek and learn ?..
Prayer and Desire are brothers, which will win ?..
-thomas
' Remain in the center '...
"The ego is monkey catapulting through the jungle:
Totally fascinated by the realm of the senses,
it swings from one desire to another,
one conflict to the next,
one self-centered idea to the next.
If you threaten it, it actually fears for its life.
Let this monkey go.
Let the senses go.
Let the desires go.
Let conflicts go.
Let ideas go.
Let the fiction of life and death go.
Just remain in the center, watching.
Then forget you are there."
-Lao Tzu
in Brian Walker
Hua Hu Ching:The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu, 10
NY: HarperCollins, 1992, p. 13
' Clinging to an idea '...
"All Buddhas preach emptiness.
Why?
Because they want to crush the concrete ideas of the students.
If a student even clings to an idea of emptiness,
he betrays all Buddhas."
Bodhidharma
in Jon Winokur
Zen To Go
NY: New American Library, 1989, p. 146
' What are you here ?'...
Whatever is perceived is arising inside yourself only,
and when it departs you are still here to witness its
departure.
Reflect: As what are you here?
Inwardly,
see if that which is perceiving everything can be
found.
Can it be perceived?
The answer, if there is one,
cannot be merely mental, intellectual or theoretical.
It
must be a deep insight or direct experience, for anything
less will not satisfy deeply.
There is no question in the
human kingdom that is more important than this one.
- Mooji
' That, which is not defined '...
Suppose you know the definitions of all substances
and their derivatives,
what good is this to you?
Know the true definition of yourself.
That is indispensable.
Then, when you know your own definition, flee from it,
that you may attain to the One who cannot be defined,
O sifter of the dust.
- Rumi
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
' What's going on with your ego ? '...
ANTHONY: Don't kid yourself. Don't come to me from the point of view that the ego doesn't exist, because it's been around as long as the Overself' has been projecting itself, manifesting itself through some kind of a life.
The residue of all that living becomes a tendency which you're going to find is perhaps not a permanent entity, but good enough to drive you up a wall for the next indefinite number of incarnations.
If you think you're going to enter into the arena of spiritual struggle and quest without having a real good idea of what's going on with your ego, you're in for trouble.
-Anthony Damiani from Standing in Your Own Way
' A Dream Figure '...
Thus the witness‑self walks through this world incognito.
Only the few to whom philosophy grants her earned favours, find it out and know it by its true name.
The rest regard it under the limited aspect of a particular personality.
When they employ the word ‘self’ they do not usually refer it to anything beyond this physical being who stands before them in flesh and blood plus his little psychological collection of bitter‑sweet memories and transient moods, hot desires and cold fears.
It is within such small limits that they confine the meaning of this term. But the man who has come to genuine self‑knowledge knows what he really is over and above this named embodied individual; hence he may aptly adopt the expressive term ‘Overself when referring to it.
Theologians probably mean this when they speak of the ‘soul’.
But as our concept is as radically different from theirs in some ways as it is roughly similar to it in others, and particularly as it is not a theological theme for us, we prefer to call it the Overself.
The person is only a projection from the Overself as a dream‑figure is a projection from the mind of a dreamer. It is only a dependent creature which has forgotten its origin and now imagines itself to be the real ‘I’.
-Paul Brunton from WOTO
' A Higher Self '...
Paul Brunton speaks of a 'Higher Self '..
We see good as high, and bad as low in frequencies..
The frequency of light is higher than the frequency of darkness..
The Reality is that We exist as both Yin and Yang..
The scales of Justice is the photo of Reality..
The 'Higher Self' is the surrender of desire,
especially, the desire of separation called ego..
To exist as Reality is to not exist as Dream..
Wake Up !..
This is the Answer...
-thomas
' Sticks and stones '...
"All life is waken.
So also is everything which exhibits power, whether in action as the winds or drifting clouds, or in passive endurance, as the boulder by the wayside.
For even the commonest sticks and stones have a spiritual essence which must be reverenced as a manifestation of the all-pervading mysterious power that fills the universe."
Francis Laflesche (Osage), 1925
in Joseph Bruchac
Native Wisdom
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995, pp. 87-88
' Holding an identity '...
ANTHONY:
And then that leaves you with your real inner being, your true inner "I." In other words, you have to dismiss all these vagaries, fantasies, thoughts, memories, selections from your past, anticipations of your future, expectations—you want me, to go down the list?
You have to remove all that, in order to identify with it. Or, in other words, you stop thinking. Now I'm sure after this you'll think much more!
When there is no more thinking, concept forming, which is concerned with creating an artificial object—whether your inner self or your outer self doesn't matter—then the inwardness or the principle that you are, which is illuminating or shining in you, is what you really are.
That is, so to speak, always there. But you're not aware of it because you're preoccupied with the images, not with the light which is illuminating those images. If you could temporarily stop those images, then there would be just a light shining, and you would know that "this is what I am."
Then the images resume. Now it is possible for the images to go on and to still hold an identity with the light which illuminates the images, and then one could say, "I'm identified with that light and not with the images."
-Anthony Damiani from Living Wisdom
' The witness-self '...
Thus the witness‑self walks through this world incognito. Only the few to whom philosophy grants her earned favours, find it out and know it by its true name.
The rest regard it under the limited aspect of a particular personality. When they employ the word ‘self’ they do not usually refer it to anything beyond this physical being who stands before them in flesh and blood plus his little psychological collection of bitter‑sweet memories and transient moods, hot desires and cold fears.
It is within such small limits that they confine the meaning of this term. But the man who has come to genuine self‑knowledge knows what he really is over and above this named embodied individual; hence he may aptly adopt the expressive term ‘Overself when referring to it.
Theologians probably mean this when they speak of the ‘soul’. But as our concept is as radically different from theirs in some ways as it is roughly similar to it in others, and particularly as it is not a theological theme for us, we prefer to call it the Overself.
The person is only a projection from the Overself as a dream‑figure is a projection from the mind of a dreamer. It is only a dependent creature which has forgotten its origin and now imagines itself to be the real ‘I’.
WOTO
' Appearance for Reality '...
To take appearance for reality is a grievous sin and the cause of all calamities.
You are the all-pervading, eternal and infinitely creative awareness -consciousness.
All else is local and temporary.
-Nisargadatta Maharaj from I Am That
' The Higher Self '...
The touch of grace can be felt in an unmistakable manner but only after a man has been humbled chastened and made lowly.
When he finds that the net results of self‑help on the secret path are often doubtful in value and sometimes even dangerous in result through the pursuit of an erroneous course; when he discovers his own weakness after many a futile attempt to break his bad habits or to enlighten the darkness of his passage through life; when in short he feels that he cannot help himself any more, the time has arrived to call on an outside source for such help.
The gracious current of a stronger power than his own must be introduced into his inner life.
But it can only be introduced if he calls on it, if he aspires towards it and if he gives his devotion to it.
The basis of attraction between those who seek and that which gives is and must be faith and love.
All the way from the aspirant’s initial dream to his final achievement, he must resolutely resolve to stand or fall by his faith that this higher Self truly exists and that its realization is the hidden purpose of his incarnation.
from The Wisdom of the Overself
by Paul Brunton
' Forgiveness '...
FRD: The ego's not the one that does the forgiving, obviously.
ANTHONY: Ah, you're catching on. The ego doesn't forgive anyone. How often have you spontaneously forgiven someone who has hurt you deeply? Can you count the times? Well, that's how often you were enlightened.
DB: It doesn't seem like the ego's capable of doing anything except holding a grudge.
ANTHONY: You're catching on. Get your ego out of the way, then something in you can forgive.
-Anthony Damiani from Standing in Your Own Way
' The Night after Thanks-giving '...
This trust between indigenous and immigrant..
Wild turkeys are heavy upon pine..
To feel the cold of winter, brings adversaries to the warmth of fire and love..
What is real and what is false ?..
History is written by the victor..
The reality of America is one of death and theft..
But, you know this already..
The towns have indian names and yet the indians have died..
Therefore, you must walk beyond the history books and enter the reality of the Dream..
I have written beyond paragraph and therefore, must leave you...
-thomas
' Just keep it in mind '...
Anything you do for the sake of enlightenment
takes you nearer.
Anything you do without
remembering enlightenment puts you off.
But
why complicate?
Just know that you are above
and beyond all things and thoughts.
What you
want to be, you are it already.
Just keep it in mind.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
' The self '...
THERE ARE THREE things man needs to know to make him a spiritually educated man: the truth about himself, his world, and his God. The mystic who thinks it is enough to know the first alone and to leave out the last two, is satisfied to be half-educated.
(v13, 20:4.95 and Perspectives, p. 257) Paul Brunton
ANTHONY: The word self is not capitalized, right? The truth about that uncapitalized self is that it is illusory, that you have to realize the non-existence of the ego. But even with that in-sight, with that understanding, you're still only one-third of the way. The next thing is to understand the nature of the World-Idea. Then, the third thing is the identification with your I AM, with your God.
So, the mystic comes to the realization that both the ego and the world that that ego perceives are illusory. That's the first realization as a mystic—the illusory nature of the ego and the concomitant world. Then you have to investigate the Idea of the world that's given to you, and when you do, you find out something about the World-Idea. That would be the second level. And the third level would be your I AM, the God within you. I'm just summarizing what has already been said.
' That Which is Looking '...
Only when you turn attention to awareness itself, there isn't anything behind it. That's what returning to the source means. It means that nothing is next. There's nothing behind it. With a thought there's always something behind it. There's always the awareness of thought. So awareness is behind it. With a feeling there's always something behind it. With the conditioned tendency there's always something behind it. There's always awareness behind everything that's perceivable. Everything that's thinkable. There's always something behind it: namely that awareness. Spirit.
To 'look within' doesn't mean to look for something really amazing to happen. To look for the states of consciousness to change. That's not what look within means. Have any of you looked within like that? I've spent so many hours looking within that way - not thousands, tens of thousands of hours looking within. And I was looking ... the same way we look outside. You know, like we're looking for something. And so you look inside. It's a great teaching, but then what do you do? You tend to look for stuff. Look for really groovy spiritual stuff to happen. Right? It's the same looking. It's not really different than looking for a million bucks, or a hot looking guy or gal or success. It's just looking for inner stuff. And there's a world of inner things and experiences, just like there's an outer world of things to look for.
But the inner world, it's not any more real or significant then the outer world. So to look within doesn't mean that, to look within in a way that you're looking for something. Looking for a treasure. It means to go to the root. And the root is the looking itself.
To turn within is to turn to that which is looking. So that we find out for ourselves that there isn't anybody that's looking! Looking is looking. There isn't someone there called 'me' that's behind awareness that's aware. Awareness is aware. It's the opposite: I'm not aware; awareness is aware of me. And this is quite a shock when you really come upon it!
This is really 'one without a second' as Ramana (Maharshi) used to say. That the self is one without a second. Without a second means: nothing behind it. No deeper return to go to. You've returned to your natural state. In Zen we used to call it 'taking the backward step.' We (generally) want to take the forward step: to pursue, to seek, to find. But the backward step is very simple ... return to what you are. Till that flash of recognition dawns, that awareness itself is what you are. Just like the flash of lightning in an empty sky - a spontaneous flash!
The easiest thing in spirituality is for it to become complex, instead of simple. But this is a very simple thing which is why it can penetrate so deeply. So quickly. So immediately.
-Adyashanti
' Anxiety into laughter '...
“A priest once quoted to me the Roman saying that a religion is dead when the priests laugh at each
other across the altar.
I always laugh at the altar, be it Christian, Hindu, or Buddhist, because real religion is the
transformation of anxiety into laughter.”
― Alan W. Watts
' Enchanted by the world '...
“Why are you so enchanted by this world,
when a mine of gold lies within you?”
– Rumi
' Be conscious of yourself '...
"Be conscious of yourself, watch your mind, give it your full attention.
Don't look for quick results, there may be none within your noticing.
Unknown to you, your psyche will undergo a change, there will be more clarity in your thinking and feeling, purity in your behaviour.
You need not aim at these - you will witness the change all the same."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Reading of Compairing Thoughts '...
You gave me too much to read..
The modern human only has twenty seconds of attention,
but, I enjoyed your words and thoughts..
We are not here to present a battle between egos',
we are here to learn of a state of existence called Freedom..
Our ancestors came to this unknown land of unknown language to learn of this state called Freedom..
This attention for this desire continues until this day..
Only your mind will find Freedom..
A little hint to the mind of seeking is to seek first within the state of Love...
-thomas
' Go beyond the witness '...
"You live, you feel, you think.
By giving attention to your living, feeling and thinking, you free yourself from them and go beyond them.
Your personality dissolves and only the witness remains.
Then you go beyond the witness.
Do not ask how it happens.
Just search within yourself."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' One Spirit '...
"It is by love alone that we turn to God, are transformed into His likeness, and are united with Him, so that we become one spirit with Him, and receive by and from Him all our happiness, here in grace, hereafter in glory.
Love can find no rest till she rests in the full and perfect possession of the Beloved."
Albert the Great
On Union with God
NY: Continuum, 2000, p. 70
originally published:
London: Burnes Oates & Washbourne, 1911
' Feel it '...
Your dynamic being dances as existence,
but this existence is witnessed.
Be in this witnessing place.
This witnessing place is not interested.
It has no aspiration.
It has no favorites.
Do you know this place?
I am calling you into your own glory as pure Awareness.
Only when you are aware of this place, can you leave your life alone.
You observe that life is a spontaneous unfolding.
Be in this place which is silent and untouched.
Feel it.
Feel and Be what you cannot describe.
- Mooji
' Distain for the material '...
Some have Me in their mouths, but little in their hearts.
There are others who, being enlightened in their understanding and purified in their affection, always breathe after things eternal, are unwilling to hear of earthly things, and grieve to be subject to the necessities of nature; and such as these perceive what the Spirit of Truth speaks in them.
For it teaches them to despise the things of the earth and to love heavenly things; to disregard the world, and all the day and night to aspire after heaven.
- Saint Thomas a Kempis
Of the Imitation of Christ Bk. 3 Ch. 4 v. 4
' Controling the mind '...
To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one's family,
to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one's own mind.
If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment,
and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.
-Gautama the Buddha
' Indivisible Bliss '...
“True religion consists in developing that attitude of mind, which would ultimately result in seeing one Infinite Existence prevailing throughout the universe;
when one could live in the world and yet be not of it, and at the same time, be in harmony with everyone and everything; when one could attend to all worldly duties and affairs, and yet feel completely detached from all their results;
when one could see the same divinity in art and science, and experience the highest consciousness and indivisible bliss in everyday life.”
Meher Baba
in Bhau Kalchuri
Lord Meher, 1st. ed., Vol. 5, pp. 1553 – 1554
Revised Online Edition. p. 1370
http://lordmeher.com/rev/index.jsp?pageBase=page.jsp&nextPage=1370
' When Compassion Comes '...
I spent my days idly as a vine
growing slowly in some holy place.
Then compassion came,
and I saw the Absolute.
All the names are true,
but I kept repeating that
of my teacher, and OM.
And sometimes I sang Om
Namah Shivaya, the greeting
that gives peace to the world
as well as to the spirit.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
' The shell must be cracked '...
The shell must be cracked apart if what is in it
is to come out, for if you want the kernel you
must break the shell.
And therefore, if you want
to discover nature’s nakedness, you must destroy
its symbols, and the farther you get in the nearer
you come to its essence.
When you come to the
One that gathers all things up into itself, there
your soul must stay.
- Meister Eckhart
' Standing in Your Own Way '...
ANTHONY: Let's try another analogy.
Imagine a cinema film, and light shining through the film. If it's possible, imagine that the contents within the film all now seem to have an "I."
Their I's are based on the fusion of the light in the film. It's the same as we said about the dream.
The dream represents a congeries of thoughts, impressions, images, and so on.
It is only the immanence in the dream of the person having the dream that now makes it possible for a dream ego to arise.
The center of the vortex is not neutral. The center of the vortex is the presence of the "I AM" in the matrix of possibilities.
-Anthony Damiani
' The Cinema Screen '...
What is really your own, you are not conscious of.
What you are conscious of is neither you nor yours.
Yours is the power of perception, not what you perceive.
It is a mistake to take the conscious to be the whole of man.
Man is the unconscious, the conscious and the superconscious, but you are not the man.
Yours is the cinema screen, the light as well as the seeing power, but the picture is not you.
-Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Speaking of Reality '...
You speak the words of the world controllers..
You do not speak of Reality..
Why would you not enter the knowledge of Freedom ?..
Perhaps, the enjoyment of manifestation is enough..
Why waste your time within Karma ?..
It is only the restoration of Dreams..
But, all is the decision of ego...
-thomas
' Conscious of the Real '...
The World-Mind is not only Lord and Governor of the world but also Lord and Governor of the illusion
which makes the world so vivid to the ignorant;
that is, It is itself the All-Knowing, the All-Seeing, Conscious of the Real.
-- Notebooks Category 27: World-Mind >
Chapter 2: Nature of World-Mind > # 21
Paul Brunton
' We are Silence '...
We are surrounded by coarse consciousness. This kind of consciousness is heavy, thick, and dense. When you turn on the TV, you encounter coarse consciousness, for the most part. Most movies you go to have a coarse consciousness. Coarse means asleep within the dream state.
From this coarse state of consciousness, silence is seen to be an object. 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
' Past lives '...
The memories of past lives are the memories of dreams that You as Consciousness has experienced.
But, most of these memories of past lives will disappear upon the Full Awareness of what You really are..
-thomas
' When the mind is pure, joy follows '...
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.
The mind is everything. What you think you become.
Neither fire nor wind, birth nor death can erase our good deeds.
Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.
All that we are is the result of what we have thought.
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.
We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.
We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts, we make the world.
-Gautama the Buddha
' Awakening into Reality '...
Awakening cannot take place so long as the idea persists that one is a seeker.
Doing sadhana means assuming the existence of a phantom.
The entity that you think you are is false. You ARE the Reality!
It is fallacious to think that there is an individual self which functions through the body and the mind.
The 'me' as an individual self is merely a mental modification, and there is no such thing as a mind apart from thought.
When the source of thought is probed continuously as it arises, it is revealed that there is no such thing as mind or an individual behind it.
-A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
' No room for twain '...
"Do Thou my separate and derived self
Make one with Thy Essential!
Leave me room
On that Diván which leaves no room for twain"
-Jami
"Salaman and Absaab"
Quoted by F. Max Müller
London: Ongmans, Green & Co, 1903, p. 359
' All the being calmed '...
"There were not two; beholder was one with beheld; it was not a vision compassed but a unity apprehended.
The man formed by this mingling with the Supreme must -- if he only remember — carry its image impressed upon him:
he is become the Unity, nothing within him or without inducing any diversity; no movement now, no passion, no outlooking desire, once this ascent is achieved;
reasoning is in abeyance and all Intellection and even, to dare the word, the very self; caught away, filled with God, he has in perfect stillness attained isolation; all the being calmed, he turns neither to this side nor to that, not even inwards to himself; utterly resting he has become very rest."
Plotinus
Enneads, 6.9.11
The Six Enneads by Plotinus
Translated by Stephen MacKenna and B. S. Page
London: P.L. Warner, 1917-1930
' You are the Knower '...
Forget the known, but remember that you are
the knower.
Don't be all the time immersed in
your experiences.
Remember that you are beyond
the experiencer, ever unborn and deathless.
In
remembering it, the quality of pure knowledge
will emerge, the light of unconditional awareness.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
' The Silent Mystery '...
What is in itself and at once assembled as the highest concept of human beings, the greatest power ruling existence, the supreme Mind before which all other minds must bow, the primal consciousness which outlives every form of existence because IT alone is, was, and shall be?
There is no name attached to it, this ineffable silent mystery of mysteries.
Yet it is there.
Everything tells us so, from the vast universe itself to those seers and sages of ancient Greece, India, and China who have broken through and away from human limitations.
Can we wonder that with one God there came one energy and one substance?
-- Notebooks Category 27: World-Mind >
Chapter 1: What Is God? > # 59
Paul Brunton
'The trap of existence'...
By now, you should be Awake..
You have seen the foolishness of desire,
and yet you seek a new pair of shoes..
You have been advised within the media that wishes (desire) will create manifestation..
You remain within a cage of pain become of desire..
You have forgotten the power of Thought..
" Give all, and follow me, said the stranger "..
The 'all' is Desire,
It is as simple as that...
-thomas
' Siva '...
"He alone is the true 'man' who is illumined with the Spiritual Light.
The soul enchained is 'man,' and free from chain is 'Siva' (God)."
Sri Ramakrishna
in F. Max Muller
Ramakrishna: His Life And Sayings, 212-213
Longmans, Green, And Co., London & New York, 1898, p. 145
' Take what comes '...
"Take what comes.
Be contented and cheerful.
Never worry.
Not a leaf moves, but by His consent and will."
Sai Baba of Shirdi
in Antonio Rigopoulos
The Life and Teachings of Sai Baba of Shirdi
Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1993, p. 295
' Leave concepts behind '...
Concepts can at best only serve to negate one another,
as when one thorn is used to remove another.
Once
removed, both thorns must be thrown away.
Only in
deep silence do we leave concepts behind.
Words and
language deal only with concepts and so cannot approach
Reality.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' What is a Christ ? '...
We use this nomenclature as a subject of the Master of Knowledge..
This Light called Christ is the moment of Truth..
This Light called Buddha is the moment of Truth..
This time is your's..
Is it not humorous that time will make you laugh ?..
To choose between Love and Love is difficult..
Perhaps, Reality is the Dream of both..
Perhaps, we are only the Dreams of the Dreamer...
-thomas
' The idea of Enlightenment '...
”The idea of enlightenment is of utmost importance.
Just to know that there is such possibility, changes one's entire outlook.
It acts like a burning match in a heap of saw dust.
All the great teachers did nothing else.
A spark of truth can burn up a mountain of lies.
The opposite is also true.
The sun of truth remains hidden behind the cloud of self-identification with the body."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' The release of identity '...
“The mind wants to land, to fixate, to hold a concept, but the only way you can be really free is by not fixating.
That’s part of true maturity, and it’s one of the hardest things for spiritual people who have had true and profound revelations to go through – to accept the degree of surrender needed to literally let go of all experience and all self-reference.
Even in great revelations, there is almost always something that wants to claim, ‘I am this.’ Every time you claim, ‘I am this,’ you just claimed another sense perception, thought, emotion, or feeling.
Eventually, when you go through this enough times, the mind gets it on the deepest level and lets go completely.
When the mind lets go, you always know who and what you are, even though you can’t define or describe it or even think about it. You just know it by being it. This is the ultimate release of identity and separateness.”
~ Adyashanti
' A Blessed Reality '...
Those who have experienced a glimpse of this blessed Reality or, better, established themselves in it,
may share its atmosphere with others in silent communion.
But on a lesser level, they may also share with them in phrased speech the thoughts it provokes.
-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself >
Chapter 7: After the Glimpse > # 210 Paul Brunton
' Don't be afraid of mistakes '...
”Behave as best you know, do what you think you should.
Don't be afraid of mistakes; you can always correct them, only intentions matter.
The shape things take is not within your power; the motives of your actions are.."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' How do we not see it ? '...
...."the Way stands clear and undisguised".
How could it be anything else?
It's as clear as the fact that you have two hands and two feet. Or, as Bodhidharma said, "My eyes are horizontal; my nose vertical".
The curious and interesting question is: How do we not see it?
What do we do moment to moment to somehow manage to not see what's right in front of us?
Affirming Faith in Mind is full of answers to this question. The first suggestion is to examine your preferences. Wanting and not wanting, desiring and despising, attachment and aversion-these highly addictive components of the thinking mind set the ball rolling.
Like a cat chasing it's own tail, "we endlessly circle the six worlds". For most this process continues unnoticed until the last breath. It's a process of endless becoming more or less-the great self improvement project of being "me". How can we be free from this endless cycle of becoming?
-Hsin Hsin Ming
' The Ego '...
Give the ego back to the Overself and then the Overself will use it as it should be used--in harmony with the cosmic laws of being.
This means that the welfare of all others in contact with the ego will be considered as well as the ego's own.
-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself >
Chapter 2: Inspiration > # 49 Paul Brunton
' Reincarnation '...
”There is no compulsion [to be reborn].
You get what you want.
You make your own plans and you carry them out.
We grow through investigation, and to investigate we need experience.
We tend to repeat what we have not understood."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Three Primordial Wisdoms '...
"We are something like a crystal ball (behind the eyes). If there is a crystal ball, from the beginning it was pure and clear—that is the quality of a crystal ball."
"In the same way, we have our real quality in our three primordial wisdoms—Essence, Nature, and Energy. We are being in that knowledge. In this case, we are like a crystal ball that never changes its nature, quality, or essence.
There is nothing to change or develop. Yet it can integrate in any circumstance. You can put a crystal ball on a red table and the ball looks red; on a green base, it appears green; on a multicolored base, multicolored."
"The crystal ball itself never changes..
-Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche
' Appear the opposites '...
The point which appears in space is a point of light.
It spreads and spreads and spreads and becomes the World-Mind.
God has emerged out of Godhead.
And out of the World-Mind the world itself emerges--not all at once, but in various stages.
From that great light come all other and lesser lights, come the suns and the planets, the galaxies, the universes, and all the mighty hosts of creatures small and great, of beings just beginning to sense and others fully conscious, aware, wise.
And with the world appear the opposites, the dual principle which can be detected everywhere in Nature, the yin and yang of Chinese thought.
-- Notebooks Category 27: World-Mind > Chapter 2: Nature of World-Mind > # 48
-- Perspectives > Chapter 27: World-Mind > # 18 Paul Brunton
' Karma '...
”Karma is only a store of unspent energies, of unfulfilled desires, and fears not understood.
The store is being constantly replenished by new desires and fears.
It need not be so forever.
Understand the root cause of your fears-estrangement from yourself;
and of desires -the longing for the self,
and your karma will dissolve like a dream."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Watch your thoughts '...
“I am the body” is a thought.
“I am the mind” is a thought.
“I am the doer” is a thought.
Worry is only a thought.
Fear is only a thought.
Death is only a thought.
Watch your thoughts,
Give attention to your thoughts.
Just by giving attention to your thoughts and letting them go,
they lose the ability to convince you about anything or make
you suffer. What used to feel like a rope earlier is now only
a burnt rope. It has no power.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
' The practice itself '...
The moment for departure from the Long Path is signaled by the full realization that all that he has
really gained from practising its disciplines is only the practice itself, not the newer consciousness
to which they were supposed to lead him.
-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation >
Chapter 4: The Changeover To the Short Path > # 134
Paul Brunton
' Without self-concern '...
”Learn to live without self-concern.
For this you must know your own true being (swarupa) as indomitable, fearless, ever victorious.
Once you know with absolute certainty that nothing can trouble you but your own imagination,
you come to disregard your desires and fears, concepts and ideas and live by truth alone."
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' The Young Dervish '...
Junaid had a young dervish he loved very much, and his older
dervishes became jealous. They could not understand what the sheikh
saw in the young man. One day, Junaid told all his dervishes to buy
a chicken in the marketplace and then kill the chicken. However,
they had to kill the chicken where no one could see them. They were
to return by sundown at the latest.
One by one the dervishes returned to the sheikh, each with a
slaughtered chicken under his arm. Finally, when the sun went down,
the young derivsh returned, with a live chicken still squawking and
struggling. The older dervishes all laughed and whispered among
themselves that the young man couldn't even carry out his sheikh's
orders!
Junaid asked each of the dervishes to describe how they carried out
his instructions. The first man back said that he had gone out and
purchased the chicken, then returned home, locked the door, closed
the curtains over all the windows, and then killed the chicken. The
second dervish said that he returned home with his chicken, locked
his door and pulled the curtains, and then he took the chicken into a
dark closet, but he blindfolded himself, so he himself could not see
the slaughtering. Another dervish went into the a dark deserted area
of the forest to sacrifice his chicken. Another went into a pitch
black cave.
Finally, it was the young man's turn. He hung his head, embarrassed
that he could not follow his sheikh's instructions. "I brought the
chicken into my house, but everywhere in the house there was a
Presence. I went into the most deserted parts of the forest, but the
Presence was still with me. Even in the darkest caves, the Presence
was still there. There was no place I could go where I was not seen."
Sheikh Muzaffer
as collected by James Fadiman & Robert Frager
' Wakeful and Sleep worlds '...
The adept not only knows when asleep that his dream-world is only mental,
but he also knows when awake that his wakeful-world is also mental.
-- Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity >
Chapter 3: The States of Consciousness > # 43
Paul Brunton
' Suffering is a call for enquiry '...
”Fight with all the strength at your disposal against the idea that you are nameable and describable.
You are not.
Refuse to think of yourself in terms of this or that.
There is no other way out of misery, which you have created for yourself through blind acceptance without investigation.
Suffering is a call for enquiry, all pain needs investigation.
Don't be lazy to think."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Grace may Manifest '...
Grace may be willed and yet not manifest; may not even be thought of, and yet manifest.
Someone hears the sound of a sage's voice, and lo!
he begins to feel an inner glow without the sage seeking to do anything or knowing what is occurring.
-- Notebooks Category 18: The Reverential Life >
Chapter 5: Grace > # 52 Paul Brunton
' The Essence of Love '...
"Please understand that this love of which I speak is not exclusive in that it does not exclude other experiences of love. Friendship love, marriage love, and many other kinds of love have their own way of being and moving through the world.
But I'm talking about the essence itself, the essence that is within all the flavors of love. This is the real spiritual love, which is a deep unspoken connectedness. Only this love has the power to transform our relationship to being alive, our relationship with each other, and our relationship with the world. This love is timeless. This love is uncontained.
Many times when people are awakening to this love, they will tell me, 'Adya, it's just too much for me - it's going to tear me apart.' Ridiculous! Too much for you? You're transparent. You are empty. It just goes through you and beyond. Through you and beyond! It's only when you hold yourself in a particular way that it feels like too much. You are holding an idea of your personal boundary, your edge, and of course you can't contain it. Love was never meant to be contained."
~ Adyashanti
Berkeley, California: September 2002
' The Tao '...
In dwelling, live close to the ground.
In thinking, keep to the simple.
In conflict, be fair and generous.
In governing, don’t try to control.
In work, do what you enjoy.
In family life, be completely present.
- Tao Te Ching
' A Pre-Determined Unfolding '...
Physicist David Bohm describes the universe and our lives being like unrolling a carpet that has all kinds of people, scenes and designs already woven into it.
Our experiences are the unrolling of the already finished carpet in which all the events are already complete and are woven permanently into its fibers. We are simply unrolling a completed future in every moment of time. The people in the woven designs have no ability to influence each other as their movements are already woven into the unfolding carpet.
This is much like the past, present and future of the universe as a completed movie reel that is simply playing forward as our consciousness unfolding from moment to moment.
-Jackson Peterson:
' Meeting God Alone '...
Far from the arguments of mind-narrowed men, he will find himself without a supporting group in the end.
He is to meet God alone, for all his attention is to be held--so fully that there is nothing and no one else.
Thus the three become two, who in turn become the One, which it always is.
Truth is no longer needed; its seeker has vanished.
The great Silent Timelessness reigns.
-- Notebooks Category 24: The Peace within You >
Chapter 4: Seek the Deeper Stillness > # 61
Paul Brunton
' I exist '...
At the phenomenal level the only thing that is not a
concept is this knowledge which every single human
being,
every single sentient being at every time in
history, has known: I exist, I Am in this moment,
here and now.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' Non-duality '...
The term nonduality remains a sound in the air when heard, a visual image when read.
Without the key of mentalism it remains just that.
How many Vedanta students and, be it said, teachers interpret it aright?
And that is to understand there are no two separate entities--a thing and also the thought of it.
The thing is in mind, is a projection of mind as the thought.
This is nonduality, for mind is not apart from what comes from and goes back into it.
As with things, so with bodies and worlds.
All appear along with the ultimately cosmic but immediately individual thought of them.
-- Notebooks Category 28: The Alone > Chapter 1: Absolute Mind > # 25
-- Perspectives > Chapter 28: The Alone > # 8 Paul Brunton
' Be serene '...
The Way is perfect like vast space
where nothing is lacking and nothing in excess.
Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject
that we do not see the true nature of things.
Live neither in the entanglements of outer things,
nor in inner feelings of emptiness.
Be serene in the oneness of things and such
erroneous views will disappear by themselves.
-Hsin Hsin Ming
' The Ripeness of Heart '...
”If the seeker is earnest, the light can be given.
The light is for all and always there, but the seekers are few, and among those few, those who are ready are very rare.
Ripeness of heart and mind is indispensable."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Identity '...
Our actual true nature is an empty awareness that has no location in space or time, and nothing can improve it or damage it, it’s like vast empty space with no personal characteristics. It’s the emptiness from which and in which, all appearances appear.
The mind always has some kind of material or spiritual identity that it defines itself by. If one has the least identification with a body, a subtle body or a spiritual form, or personal self; then to that degree that dreamed and fictional identity will suffer. Our Natural State has no material identity or location in the universe of space and time. Our Natural State is not caught up in an identity of its own making, its not caught up in anything. How can an infinitely empty space that doesn’t move get caught up in anything?
As the Natural State, you are the “context” in which all thoseholographic dream characters appear. They are no more real than the drawn characters in a cartoon playing on television. The mind draws and paints all those fictional players in the dream.
Any concern about what happens to “your” personal body or mind is a manifestation of identification. It’s not resolved by “you” becoming free of all identities, because that “you” is a momentary and impermanent, holographic projection arising from and within the pure and unchanging Emptiness that you actually always are.
The cognitive qualities of your Natural State are its knowing awareness. Seeing and hearing is the Natural State seeing and hearing . Is seeing and hearing occurring as experience already? Yes? Welcome home!
-Jackson Peterson
' The Real '...
The Real, as the ultimate source of all knowing and feeling beings, cannot itself be unknowing and unfeeling.
We could not deny consciousness to It without denying consciousness to man.
But being absolute and infinite it does not know and feel in the same limited way which confines the knowledge and feelings of finite humans.
-- Notebooks Category 27: World-Mind >
Chapter 1: What Is God? > # 34
Paul Brunton
' The garment of time '...
We came here to taste delusion and then to transcend
it.
It is as though consciousness, which is pure in nature,
created a game of seeming imperfection in order to have
the experience of transcending it all.
All this life is a play
of transience.
Everything is impermanent, even though
it is divine.
But what you are is timeless.
Each one is
only a manifestation of the presence of God wearing
the garment of time.
- Mooji
' A life of action '...
”The daily life is a life of action.
Whether you like it or not, you must function.
Whatever you do for your own sake accumulates and becomes explosive;
one day it goes off and plays havoc with you and your world.
When you deceive yourself that you work for the good of all,
it makes matters worse, for you should not be guided by your own idea of what is good for others.
A man who claims to know what is good for others is dangerous."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' The One Mind '...
The One Mind appears both as the millions of little minds and as the mental images of things,
creatures, or events which they come to know, see, or experience.
-- Notebooks Category 27: World-Mind >
Chapter 3: World-Mind and ``Creation'' > # 23
Paul Brunton
' Friday Night '...
So many friends,
In a small room..
What is each searching for ?..
Each has chosen a character to play..
Some of ego and most of humility..
Few speak, but many listen..
The ego is always the loudest voice..
Stories of glory and ego glorification are frequent within the 'active actors'..
While within this 'Dream', you as egoic desire create the character within this play..
I can speak of this attachment for manifestation but others would call this nature..
-thomas
' Continuous change '...
No rational explanation is possible in regard to the universe or the ways of providence.
The divided mind, which operates only in duality, is incapable of knowing or understanding the WHOLE,
that undivided universal Consciousness which is its own source and the source of everything else.
The essence of manifest existence is continuous change, from integration or birth to disintegration or death.
With sentience comes the will to live,
to not yield to disintegration, and this the ego,
which generates the thinking mind and all man's misery in the ensuing futile attempt to avoid the inevitable.
-A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
' Waking from the illusion '...
This new world starts in your mind as the discovery of that which is awake in you. This is the foundation and nothing radically new can be created without this. It's a fundamental shift in perception. Before the discovery, you see through the myopic eyes of the ego-mind (100 percent me-centered), and after the discovery, your vision is unclouded like a clear sky, without a center. The former is a prison; the latter is a sanctuary of light without boundaries.
This awakening out of the illusion of a separate self is often recognized in the midst of intense suffering. It's as if theself-referencing mind has no escape route and collapses in on itself. Most often, this is experienced as a glimpse of a transcendent reality in which there is no suffering. It's the realization of emptiness as the ground of reality-what we may call a nondual awareness.
As you inevitably move out of the sanctuary of the enlightened mind to navigate the hustle and bustle of everyday life, this nondual awareness is given the opportunity to descend into the fullness of the heart. A deeper surrender is called for here. This is where awakening stops being a mental realization and starts being a living expression. In the crucible of the heart, love demands everything. This love will overturn every stone to reveal that which is still hiding in the shadows of self-defense. It will dig out everything that remains unloved in you and reflect this back to you through the mirror of relationship.
It will push your buttons to test that which is still unconscious in you. Every whisper of previously unmet emotion will be dragged to the surface to be purged in the uncompromising glare of love's eyes. It's an unrelenting spiritual catharsis that demands a deeper opening and willingness to be vulnerable. Radical awakening sows the seeds of transparent communication, genuine communion, and co-creative growth; in other words, authentic relating. This is the basis of true community, of sangha, not of Iike-mindedness but of open-heartedness. This community includes not only our human brothers and sisters but also every living entity, from the tiniest microbe to the vastness of planet Earth.
Amoda Maa - Embodied Enlightenment
' Grace '...
Grace is a cosmic fact.
If it were not, then the spiritual outlook for the human race,
dependent entirely on its own efforts for the possibility of spiritual progress,
would be poor and disheartening.
-- Notebooks Category 18: The Reverential Life >
Chapter 5: Grace > # 1 Paul Brunton
' Being Awake '...
The method is actually simple..
You as higher Self watches the thoughts of Your
mind..
This is called being Awake..
As thoughts of ego arise, merely look at the
ego and the ego will disappear, as, it is not Real..
Therefore, All unreality will
disappear as the True Self becomes Predominant...
-thomas
' Abandon All '...
”Even faith in God is only a stage on the way.
Ultimately, you abandon all,
for you come to something so simple that there are no words to express it."
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' No hot water '...
Your happiness is never to be found in the flow of life. The flow of life is only ever outcomes, either pleasurable or painful.
If you're in a shower and suddenly the hot water stops working, that's pain in the moment (relative to your biological preference for hot water).
If a friend lets you down, that is pain in the moment. And if a friend excels that's pleasure in the moment, either pleasurable or painful relative to your biological preferences.
Your happiness is never to be found in pleasure or pain. It is the deeply ingrained false belief that it is - that we are defined by outcomes - which flowers into suffering so often during the day when the flow of life does what it does - deliver outcomes - sometimes pleasurable, sometimes painful.
Even in the face of pleasure and pain, I Am, I exist.
Peace for now
.
.
www.rogercastillo.org
' The Eternal Mind '...
Man is what he is.
Nothing can alter that.
Out of the immortal, benign, eternal Mind he came, to It he shall return.
Meanwhile It is his very essence, that is, It is life.
-- Notebooks Category 26: World-Idea >
Chapter 4: True Idea of Man > # 68
Paul Brunton
' To the Vietnam Veterans '...
We walked in mud and blood..
The civilians will not understand my words..
They do not understand death..
They think that war is thousands of miles away..
We, that are Awake, know that wars are periods of wealth to those of power..
The politicians and the creators of war are participating within death for wealth..
We, the participants of war are the pawns..
Some of the men that we call hero, are fools..
In history, they will appear as hero but in Reality will remain as fools..
The rest of these sentences of thought will remain yours...
- Nam, 68
Thomas
' The motionless mind '...
Not till your thoughts cease all their branching here and there,
not till you abandon all thoughts of seeking for something,
not till your mind is motionless as wood or stone,
will you be on the right road to the Gate.
- Huang Po
' The Mind remains '...
The ideas pass, the Mind remains.
But while they exist they are included in and share the Mind's reality.
The world's appearance is therefore and in this sense real enough to the conscious beings within it while it lasts.
Thus the distinction between inner reality and outer appearance, while not effaced, is nevertheless reduced to secondary status.
-- Notebooks Category 21: Mentalism >
Chapter 5: The Key To the Spiritual World > # 134
Paul Brunton
' The expression of Grace '...
"Embodied realization can be understood as meditation with the eyes open.
This is when the eternal self marries the transient self that is associated with your life as a body and a mind.
In other words, the two become one.
Our humanity is no longer seen as an obstacle to our divinity, as we begin to drop back down into our lives and illuminate the human condition in a way that is unique and exploding with the expression of Grace."
From the book Awakening into a Complete Human Being -- By Atreya Thomas
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)