This is a series of wisdom and mystical knowledge that will be examined... This knowledge will present Thoughts from the Mystics of all religions and philosophies... All of these Mystics will ask you to find the ' Source of All ', and to ' Know Thyself '... Enter into the most important experience of your life...
Translate
' Forget about words '...
Forget about words,,
Seek Truth..
Thought will overpass words..
Think and seek is the request upon Knowledge.
To acquire knowledge is left for the seeker..
The Truth to hear is that of destruction of ego attachment..
We will continue to exist as Watchers of the Dream..
We can continue as Dreamer and Dreamed..
How many hours before Awakening ?...
-thomas
' The life of a sage '...
The life of a sage appears to others to be as
purposeless as the actions of an infant.
The
infant lives in the bliss of ignorance, while the
self-realized sage lives in the bliss beyond both
ignorance and knowledge.
In fact, the sage is
no longer even an individual, in spite of the
presence of a fully developed intellect.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' Ageless eyes '...
Concentrate on the Essence, concentrate on the Light.
In lucid bliss, calmly smoking off its own holy fire,
The Light streams towards you from all things,
All people, all possible permutations of good, evil, thought, Passion.
The lamps are different,
but the Light is the same.
One matter, one energy, one Light, one Light-mind,
Endlessly emanating all things.
One turning and burning diamond,
One, one, one.
Ground yourself, strip yourself down,
To blind loving silence.
Stay there, until you see
You are gazing at the Light
With its own Ageless eyes.
~ Rumi
' Gazing with understanding '...
I was sad one day and went for a walk;
I sat in a field.
A rabbit noticed my condition and
came near.
It often does not take more than that to help at times--
to just be close to creatures who
are so full of knowing,
so full of love that they don't chat,
they just gaze with
their marvelous understanding.
~St. John of the Cross
' What is Real ?'...
My fingers remember my high school typeing..
They dance upon the keys of a guitar..
The Real Play exists within words..
Poetry is often found within this space..
But, let us now enter the unknown..
You are lost..
You place your thumb out and ask for mercy..
A full heart meets you with a greeting of love.
Life continues and your desire to know more continues..
Look for Something that is not seen..
Look for Something that only contains Love...
-thomas
' Tao Te Ching '...
We shape clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want.
- Lao-tzu
Tao Te Ching
Translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English
Vintage Books Edition, September 1972
' The timeless presence '...
“Be on guard for the subtle ways that the mind can sabotage your heartfelt intentions by imagining that your daily life and your spiritual life are somehow separate.
Actually, there is just one life.
All of life is spiritual and it all presents its opportunities to awaken.
… Remember, that you are the source of what you seek.
You are the freedom, you are the goodness, you are the wisdom, you are the worthiness, you are the love and the presence.
All the self-limiting ideas are just that—ideas.
And they all can be reevaluated and discarded in favor of the timeless presence of your being.”
~Adyashanti
' Assumed reality '...
The solidity of our uncomfortable sense of self and the dissatisfaction with itself, and its world of relationships and meanings, is purely the mind’s own subjectivity, and are not objectively existing realities or truths.
Nothing can appear in consciousness except how our mind constructs it. It’s possible to see the empty, totally insubstantial nature of those mental and emotionally flavored constructions.
By only focusing on their “assumed” reality, we energize their apparent solidity.
It’s like watching a movie intensely at a theater while completely ignoring the blank and pristine movie screen the images are appearing on, and can’t appear without.
Or it’s like having to clean a mirror. It’s not done by attempting to remove the reflections, but by shifting one’s attention from the images to the clear glass of the mirror itself; it’s just a shift of attention, not a denial or need to alter and remove the reflections.
We can do this. We can shift attention from our self’s story line and it’s attending emotional and physical aspects (the reflections) to the pure awareness (the movie screen or mirror) in which and upon which, they are appearing.
The perceptions as sights, sounds and sensations we experience, carry no meaning at all from their own side. The meanings, definitions and labels assigned are generated subjectively or are agreed with, as acts of our own mind.
This means all meanings and significance regarding our self, its world, and of its relationships, can only be found to be thoughts.
Reducing this further; we see there is really only momentary perceptions, our thoughts about them, and the empty but awake Awareness in which they appear.
By simply nakedly observing perceptions, thoughts and feelings, the observing awareness is discovered to be independent and free from its own appearing projections.
It’s our always present Buddha Mind that has never been conditioned by even its own most powerful projections
of an “objectively existing” self and its objectively existing world of people, relationships and things which seem to carry their own meaning and significance, from their own side.
-Jackson Peterson
' All the ways '...
"Every prophet and every saint has a way,
but it leads to God:
all the ways are really one."
-Rumi
Mathnawi, I.3086
Translated by Reynold A. Nicholson
' At Ease '...
At Ease..
Too lazy to be ambitious,
I let the world take care of itself.
Ten days' worth of rice in my bag;
a bundle of twigs by the fireplace.
Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment?
Listening to the night rain on my roof,
I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out.
- Ryokan, from The Enlightened Heart, an Anthology of Sacred Poetry
' Realization of timeless fact '...
It is objected, why search at all if one really is the Overself?
Yes, there comes a time when the deliberate purposeful search for the Overself has to be abandoned for this reason.
Paradoxically, it is given up many times, whenever he has a Glimpse, for at such moments he knows that he always was, is, and will be the Real, that there is nothing new to be gained or searched for.
Who should search for what?
But the fact remains that past tendencies of thought rise up after every Glimpse and overpower the mind, causing it to lose this insight and putting it back on the quest again.
While this happens he must continue the search, with this difference, that he no longer searches blindly, as in earlier days, believing that he is an ego trying to transform itself into the Overself, trying to reach a new attainment in time by evolutionary stages.
No! through the understanding of the Short Path he searches knowingly, not wanting another experience since both wanting and experiencing put him out of the essential Self.
He thinks and acts as if he is that Self, which puts him back into It.
It is a liberation from time-bound thinking, a realization of timeless fact.
-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 6: Advanced Meditation > # 110
-- Perspectives > Chapter 23: Advanced Contemplation > # 26 Paul Brunton
' Only Contentment '...
"Only contentment can make you happy - desires fulfilled breed more desires.
Keeping away from all desires and contentment in what comes by itself is a very fruitful state - a precondition to the state of fullness.
Don't distrust its apparent sterility and emptiness.
Believe me, it is the satisfaction of desires that breeds misery.
Freedom from desires is bliss."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Realization of Nibbana '...
"Indeed, the path that leads to worldly gain is one and the Path that leads to Nibbana is another.
Fully comprehending this, the bhikkhu, the disciple of the Buddha, should not take delight in worldly gain and honour, but devote himself to solitude, detachment and the realization of Nibbana.
Gautama the Buddha
Dhammapada 75
' Enlightenment '...
At this point he may lose touch with the outer world and no longer see or sense it in any way.
The consciousness sinks away from place and form,
the passing of time and the solidity of matter, into its own being.
-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation >
Chapter 7: Contemplative Stillness > # 65
Paul Brunton
' The search for Reality '...
You are correct within the search for Reality..
The ego must be sacrificed upon the Cross of non-desire..
To sacrifice the only existence that you know is painful..
But, Light is so Bright..
The existence beyond existence is moving beyond dimensions or levels of Knowledge..
The ego is still intact within Creative Source but is vacant within Pure Awareness..
Pure Awareness is Final Reality...
-thomas
' Kathopanishad '...
As the sun who enlightens everything
has nothing whatever to do with the numerous ills
the eye may perceive,
so the Inner Self of all,
ever one,
has no connection whatever
with the joys and sorrows of the world,
being ever beyond them.
- Kathopanishad
' You can't fight the ego '...
You can't fight the ego.
Accept the ego, and let it go on.
This understanding will gradually push the ego back.
A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
' It is in the Mind '...
A vague, dreamlike, shapeless, shadowy, and selfless future seems unappetizing.
But the Real is not of this kind at all, not a part of past or future.
It is not in time; it is in the Mind.
-- Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity >
Chapter 4: Time, Space, Causality > # 93
Paul Brunton
' Few that find It '...
“Enter through the narrow gate;
for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction,
and there are many who take it.
For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life,
and there are few who find it."
Jesus the Christ
Matthew 7:13-14
New Revised Standard Version
' Knowledge Itself '...
The beginningless Brahman can be called neither being nor nonbeing.
It is both near and far, both within and without every creature;
it moves and is unmoving.
In its subtlety it is beyond comprehension.
It is indivisible, yet appears divided in separate creatures.
Know it to be the creator, the preserver, and the destroyer.
Dwelling in every heart, it is beyond darkness.
It is called the light of lights,the object and goal of knowledge,
and knowledge itself.
- Bhagavad Gita
' Breaking the harmony '...
I have not really known myself,
or anyone else.
I’ve tried to do good, and not
just what my appetites wanted,
But that was all infatuation
with this precious, isolated, body.
That you and I were constantly joining,
I didn’t know. I didn’t know
That even to ask “What are You?”
or “Who am I” breaks the harmony.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
' Self Identity '...
Soh Wei Yu Its not so complex. I do not promote nor believe in a soul or atman that exists and reincarnates. There is no self or Self.
A better example is: during a dream at night a personal self identity has adventures, has a body and mental activity. It has no existence besides being an appearance generated and projected by subconscious conditioning and memories..
When awoken in the morning, that self disappears. It has no continuation. The next night in a dream, a new but similar identity arises that feels like a “me”, as an autonomous entity. It’s just a new expression of subconscious dynamics.
Likewise our daytime self identity that feels like “me” is not an autonomous entity; it’s just a projection of subconscious conditioning and memories.
At death, that imagined self entity vanishes and a new, but similar self projection becomes the dynamics that seem to have reincarnated. There is a Ground Consciousness, Zhi, that projects persons and worlds which are really only fictional
identities appearing as THOUGH being a continuity of a single self across multiple lifetimes.
But each personality as a self is completely unconnected to the previous one, but the database out of which all these arise is also not a fixed Self or god. It’s simply the subconscious pole of what’s appearing in and as, empty moments of consciousness. All there is Consciousness appearing. Consciousness can also express itself as embodiment of its own Buddha dynamics.
-Jackson Peterson
' Antahkarana '...
"Remembering your self is virtue, forgetting your self is sin.
It all boils down to the mental or psychological link between the spirit and matter.
We may call the link psyche (antahkarana).
When the psyche is raw, undeveloped, quite primitive, it is subject to gross illusions.
As it grows in breadth and sensitivity,
it becomes a perfect link between pure matter and pure spirit and gives meaning to matter and expression to spirit."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Emptiness Dancing '...
“It is one thing to come upon enlightenment,
the breaking through distinctions to the great unity.
It is quite another to realize its function and activity.
Until the emptiness can dance spontaneously, realization is not complete.”
~ Adyashanti
' Negative thoughts '...
When all action comes to an end, when the body is immobile and the consciousness stilled, there is achieved what the Chinese have called Wu Wei, meaning non-doing.
This brings a wonderful peace, for tied up with it is non-desiring and non-aspiring.
The quester has then come close to the end, but until this peace is thoroughly and permanently established in him, the quest must go on.
Let go of all negative thoughts, especially those which concern others.
Cease from condemnation and criticism except where it is a necessary part of one's obligation, duty, or position in the world, such as a magistrate's.
-- Notebooks Category 24: The Peace within You >
Chapter 3: Practise Detachment > # 289
Paul Brunton
' The perplexity '...
The wonder is that colour came from the colourless:
how is it that colour came to fight the colourless?
Since the rose is born from the thorn, and the thorn
From the rose, why are they quarreling?
Or is it not really war but divine purpose and artifice,
like the quarrels of merchants?
Or is it neither this nor that? Is it the perplexity?
The treasure must be sought;
this perplexity is the ruin where it is hidden.
- Rumi
' True Self-discovery '...
The person is always striving for one thing or another
and rarely succeeds.
But this play, this oscillation, is
observed and so must be admitted to be a passing show.
When the curiosity or question arises as to the nature of
the one who watches this, right there, a space and a
subtle knowingness that oneself cannot be the thing
observed is felt within.
This is the beginning, the seed,
that will one day sprout into true self-discovery.
- Mooji
' A Glimpse '...
Although no act of thinking can take hold of That which is utterly beyond thinking--for it is the holy of holies--he may, by pushing attention deeply enough, stand as Moses stood and view the Promised Land as from afar.
Or, by being still, in body and in mind, he may do the same.
This effect is called a Glimpse.
But if the Grace is to wrap itself around him and end his quest then . . . alas! I may write no more.
Why is the pen stopped?
Because for each person the answer is different, personal, and to be given by God alone, for He is the real giver, not another man.
-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself >
Chapter 8: Glimpses and Permanent Illumination > # 81
Paul Brunton
' The Enlightenment Experience '...
The Enlightenment experience was the painful loss of ego and the entrance into a Universe of Light..
The foundation of this state of Light was the flow of wisdom and love..
This was the most real experience of my life..
The human life was seen as only a dream..
To re-enter the dream is left to a soul within Source..
The individual soul is also a sign of egoic desire and must be left behind in your seeking..
From the Source of Dreams that many call God, there is a path beyond..
A path that is not spoken of, even by God..
This is the State of existence called Pure Awareness..
It was the Voice of Pure Awareness that said;
" Let there be Light "...
-thomas
' Consent to silence '...
Do understand that the mind has its limits;
to go beyond,
you must consent to silence.
To see reality
is as simple as to see one's face in a mirror.
Only the mirror must be clear and true.
A quiet mind,
undistorted by desires and fears,
free from ideas and opinions,
clear on all the levels,
is needed to reflect the reality.
Realize that no ideas are your own;
they all come to you from outside.
Reality is not a concept,
nor the manifestation of a concept.
It has nothing to do with concepts.
As the mind is made of words and images,
so is every reflection in the mind.
It covers up reality with verbalization
and then complains.
The above Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj quotes are from the book
The Seven Steps to Awakening.
' The source of all Buddhas '...
"The light of lights is not blue, yellow, red, white or black.
It is not matter, not mind.
It is not existent, not nonexistent.
It is not a phenomenon resulting from causes.
It is the source of all Buddhas, the basis of practicing the Way of enlightening beings, fundamental for all Buddhists."
Shakyamuni Buddha
in Thomas Cleary, Tr.
Minding Mind: A Course in Basic Meditation
Boston: Shabhala, 1995, p. 65
' self-deception '...
Despite all the high idealistic talk of oneness, brotherhood and egolessness, each of us is still an individual, still has to dwell in a body of his own, to use a mind of his own and experience feelings of his own.
To forget this is to practise self-deception.
Each will come to God in the end but he will come as a purified transformed and utterly changed person, lived in and used by God as he himself will live in and be conscious of the presence of God.
-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest >
Chapter 3: Independent Path > # 97
Paul Brunton
' Mind must vanish '...
"Mind wants to know that which is beyond mind. To know that which is beyond mind, mind must go—vanish, leaving no vestige of itself behind. The humour of it is, the mind, which is finite, wants to retain itself and yet know Truth, which is infinite. This is the position of those who seek Truth through intellect. Few grasp this fact, and so most grope and grapple in vain.
"It is easy to ask questions, but it needs past preparation to grasp what I explain. Those who have the authority to ask and the capacity to understand do not ask. They understand that God is un-understandable and beyond the reach of the questioning mind....
"Truth is beyond the reach of mind. It is a matter of experience. Mind is very elusive and creates innumerable excuses in order to entrap you. It causes you to say, I cannot live just for God. I have my duty towards my family, towards society, the nation and the world. And so you are pulled more into Illusion than towards Truth.
"Truth is simple, but Illusion makes it infinitely intricate. The person is rare who possesses an insatiable longing for Truth; the rest allow Illusion to bind them ever more and more. God alone is Real and all else that you see and feel is nothing but a series of nothings.
"Mere intellectual understanding does not bring God nearer to you. It is love, not questioning, that will bring God to you. Questioning nourishes pride and separateness...."
-Meher Baba
The Everything and the Nothing, 29
Excerpted from "The Questioning Mind"
Myrtle Beach, SC: Sheriar Press, 2003 printing (1963), p. 47-50
' The Great Mystery '...
"The first American mingled with his pride a singular humility. Spiritual arrogance was foreign to his nature and teaching. He never claimed that the power of articulate speech was proof of superiority over the dumb creation; on the other hand, it is to him a perilous gift.
He believes profoundly in silence -- the sign of a perfect equilibrium. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind, and spirit. The man who preserves his selfhood ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence — not a leaf, as it were, astir on the tree; not a ripple upon the surface of shining pool — his, in the mind of the unlettered sage, is the ideal attitude and conduct of life.
"If you ask him: 'What is silence?' he will answer: "\'It is the Great Mystery! The holy silence is His voice!/ If you ask: 'What are the fruits of silence?' he will say: 'They are self-control, true courage or endurance, patience, dignity, and reverence. Silence is the cornerstone of character.'"
-Ohiyesa (Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman)
The Soul of the Indian (1911)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/eassoul.htm
' Intuition '...
"Intuition or direct knowledge does not depend on any data from the senses. That is why the intuitive faculty is often called the 'sixth sense.'
Everyone has this sixth sense, but most people do not develop it.
However, almost everyone has had some intuitional experience, perhaps a 'feeling' that a particular thing is going to happen, when there is no sensory evidence to indicate it.
"It is important to develop intuition, or direct soul knowledge, for he who is God-conscious is sure of himself. He knows, and he knows that he knows...."
-Sri Paramahamsa Yogananda
Man's Eternal Quest
New Delhi: Yogoda Satsanga/SRF, 1975, 1982, p. 15
' Happiness '...
Every Saint that I have ever studied has spoken about the time of Now,
being, the only state of happiness..
-thomas
' Being human '...
"Well, one of the interesting qualities of being human is, by the look of it, we’re the only part of creation that can actually refuse be to be ourselves. And as far as I can see, there’s no other part of the world that can do that. The cloud is the cloud, the mountain is the mountain, the tree is the tree, the hawk is the hawk. The kingfisher doesn’t wake up one day and say, “You know, God, I’m absolutely fed up to the back teeth of this whole kingfisher trip. Can I have a day as a crow? You know, hang out with my mates, glide down for a bit of carrion now and again? That’s the life for — ” No. The kingfisher is just the kingfisher.
And one of the healing things about the natural world to human beings is that it’s just itself. But we, as human beings, are really quite extraordinary in that we can actually refuse to be ourselves. We can get afraid of the way we are. And we can temporarily put a mask over our face and pretend to be somebody else or something else. And the interesting thing is then we can take it another step of virtuosity and forget that we were pretending to be someone else and become the person we were, on the surface, at least, who we were just pretending to be in the first place.
So one of the astonishing qualities of being human is the measure of our reluctance to be here, actually. And I think one of the great necessities of self knowledge is understanding and even tasting the single-malt essence of your own reluctance to be here. All the ways you don’t want to have the conversation, all the ways you don’t want to be in the marriage, you don’t want to be a parent, you don’t want to be visible in a leadership position, you don’t want to be doing this work. And this is not to give it away. This is just to understand what lies between you and a sense of freedom in it.
And I think self-compassion has to do with this ability to understand, and even to cultivate a sense of humor about all the ways you just don’t want to be here. That is the Woody Allen comic routine in the world. [laughs] It’s all the hypochondriac ways he’s afraid of the world. And that’s why he’s so entertaining, because we all recognize that part of us. So to embody your reluctance, and therefore, once it’s embodied, to allow it to actually start to change into something else, to — things only solidify when they’re kept at a distance. As soon as they’re embodied, they actually start to take on a kind of seasonality. And you’re actually, by embodying it, by feeling it fully, allowing it to start to change into something else."
~ David Whyte
' Only Mind '...
Mind is its own seer and seen, self and not‑self, experiencer and the thing experienced.
It is one but it has many functions through which it is able to present innumerable different manifestations of itself to innumerable different ‘selves.’
The latter in their ignorance take the presented world because of its ‘outsideness’ to be non‑mental in its nature and fail to see that their separation from it is only a surface one.
It is certainly outside the body but not outside the mind. Thus what is essentially a mental activity is taken to be a material substance.
This is insight, that there is nothing in the world but Mind. This is the meaning of mentalism.
- Paul Brunton
' Prior to causation '...
Q: What motivates a liberated person to act in the world? It seems that without the motivation of desire, even the desire to help others, there would be no motivation to act at all.
Adyashanti: In Liberation you are in that state which is prior to any causation. Therefore, actions happen without any motivation for doing them. You are not doing for yourself or for the love of others. You are prior to any motivation. Actions simply happen.
From the outside, such actions may be viewed as loving, kind, and wise, but to the liberated one, all happens spontaneously and free of any motive. Actions arise out of the most natural, primordial state.
-Adyashanti
' What happened '...
It isn't what happens to us that causes us to
suffer;
it's what we say to ourselves about
what happens.
- Pema Chödrön
' A little attentiveness '...
"Realize yourself as the ocean of consciousness in which all happens.
This is not difficult.
A little of attentiveness, of close observation of oneself, and you will see that no event is outside your consciousness."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Waiting on the Lord '...
The Long Path votary works from systems, rules, plans, and techniques put down by its guides
but the Short Path votary has no path chalked out for him.
He is forever "waiting on the Lord."
-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation >
Chapter 5: Balancing the Paths > # 72
Paul Brunton
' Define Christianity '...
First, we should define Christian..
A Christian is someone that is following a path towards Christ..
What is a Christ?..
It is someone that has conquered selfishness and Realised that they are Love..
A Mystic is someone that has surrendered the belief in separate egoic consciousness and Realised that they and God are One..
Salvation is the Realisation that You and God have never separated but only the belief that You are separate(ego) keeps You from Salvation...
- thomas
' A Savior '...
No one saves us but ourselves.
No one can and no one may.
We ourselves must walk the path.
- Gautama the Buddha
' Your New Age '...
Your New Age
Is neither new
Nor will it last an age.
You ride a pendulum
On a clock wound
To run for eternity.
Your despair has
Today turned to hope.
Tomorrow it will
Turn back again.
The walls of oppression
You tear down here
Will be rebuilt
There.
The meek shall
Inherit the earth
Then the clever ones
Will take it back from them.
The torture chamber
Will empty
And refill.
A disease will
Be conquered
And a new one will
Appear to take its place.
This strikes you
As a bleak vision
But Ram Tzu knows this...
It is your hope for a better future
That keeps you in chains today.
-Ram Tzu
' This too is like a dream '...
One special exercise of the Short Path is easily done by some persons and gives them excellent results, although it is hard to do by others.
It consists in refusing to let remain any particular mental registration of the surrounding place or people, or of any physical experience being undergone.
Instead the mental image is to be firmly dismissed with the thought, "This too is like a dream," and then immediately forgotten.
The exercise may be kept up for fifteen to twenty minutes at a time.
The practical benefit it yields is to give improved self-control; the metaphysical benefit is to weaken the sway of illusion; the mystical benefit is to enable him to take the stand of the Witness-attitude more easily; and the personal benefit is to make him a freer and happier man.
-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation >
Chapter 6: Advanced Meditation > # 95
Paul Brunton
' You only have one life to live...
Therefore, Mind tells me to speak of these thoughts..
The prison called reincarnation is so prevalent within the mystical crowd..
How many times, do you desire to repeat a grade?..
Reincarnation is a scam..
But, life beyond reincarnation is Real..
Stop entering this game of life..
You will forever be dealing within skin color and religious belief..
Move beyond the physical concepts of reality..
You have always been 'Thought'..
You might move between illusion and dream, but this is according to desire..
The 'Final Desire' is to not 'Desire'..
It is not easy to elude the net of deceit..
You control the mind and all aspects of existence,
You are responsible...
-thomas
' Life is change '...
Deeply understanding and accepting that life
and living is based on change,
whether one likes
it or not, is a great step ahead.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' Silence is Truth '...
Silence is our real nature. What we are fundamentally,
is only silence. Silence is free from beginning and
end. It was before the beginning of all things. It is
causeless. Its greatness lies in the fact that it
simply is.
In silence all objects have their home
ground. It is the light that gives objects their shape
and form. All movement, all activity is harmonized by
silence.Silence has no opposite in noise. It is beyond
positive and negative. Silence dissolves all objects.
It is not related to any counterpart which belongs to
the mind. Silence has nothing to do with mind.
It
cannot be defined but it can be felt directly because
it is our nearness. Silence is freedom without
restriction or center. It is our wholeness, neither
inside nor outside the body. Silence is joyful, not
pleasurable. It is not psychological. It is feeling
without a feeler. Silence needs no intermediary.
Silence is holy. It is healing. There is no fear in
silence. Silence is autonomous like love and beauty.
It is untouched by time. Silence is meditation, free
from any intention, free from anyone who meditates.
Silence is the absence of oneself. Or rather, silence
is the absence of absence.
Sound which comes from
silence is music. All activity is creative when it
comes from silence. It is constantly a new beginning.
Silence precedes speech and poetry and music and all
art. Silence is the home ground of all creative
activity.
What is truly creative is the word, is
Truth. Silence is the word. Silence is Truth.The one
established in silence lives in constant offering, in
prayer without asking, in thankfulness, in continual
love. "
Jean Klein
' Rebirth and Reincarnation '...
The Long Path idea of reincarnation is illusory.
The Short Path idea of it is that it is an undulatory wave, a ripple, a movement upward onward and downward.
Since there is no ego in reality, there can be no rebirth of it. But we do have the appearance of a rebirth.
Note that this applies to both the mind and body part of ego: they are like a bubble floating on a stream and then vanishing or like a knot which is untied and then vanishes too.
We have to accept the presence of this pseudo-entity, the ego--this mental thing born of many many earth-lives--so long as we have to dwell in that other mental thing, the body..
But we do not have to accept its dominance; we do not have to perpetuate its rule, for all is in the Mind.
Where then are the reincarnatory experiences?
Appearances which were like cinema shows. They happened in a time and space which were in the mind.
The individual who emerged lost the individuality and merged in the timelessness of eternity. This is the unchanging indestructible Consciousness, the Overself.
-- Notebooks Category 9: From Birth to Rebirth >
Chapter 2: Rebirth and Reincarnation > # 220
Paul Brunton
' Esoteric and Exoteric '...
"Dhamma has been taught by me without making a distinction between esoteric and exoteric.
For the Tathagata has not the closed fist of a teacher in respect of mental states."
- Gautama the Buddha
Digha-Nikaya, II. 100
in Edward Conze
Buddhist Texts through the Ages
NY: Harper Torchbooks, 1964, p. 35
' Pointing-Out Rigpa '...
The liberation known in Dzogchen, is the liberation from the mind that overpowers and colors-over our natural state of rigpa. The rigpa always remains unchanged but the experiential content of suffering continues.
Rigpa in its fully actualized “natural state”, is when it’s secondary consciousness or mind dissolves and becomes “no mind” as in Zen parlance.
The attentive, conscious quality of the secondary consciousness then becomes the alert “presence” of rigpa. This is rigpa’s own intrinsic mindfulness that requires no intention to be mindful. Then one just continues in this naturally mindful awareness, rigpa.
As a result of continuing as such, wisdom insights will spontaneously arise.
The way to bring this “no mind” state about, is to let the active mind become aware of its own quality of being aware. If I ask you “Are you aware?” And you answer “yes”, how did you come to your answer? Your conscious mind simply noticed it’s own innate and intrinsic quality of being aware. That aware quality is uncreated, unchanging and full of infinite wisdoms.
It’s only that “innate and intrinsic quality of being aware” that is being pointed out in Dzogchen. That’s the treasure house that contains all the riches. When attention falls uniquely upon its own quality of “being aware”, the secondary consciousness or mind will dissolve.
There isn’t much of a practice here being offered. It’s the practice, executed instantly, whenever anybody asks you
“Are you aware?”.
What was contacted in that moment of hearing and contemplating the question that allowed you honestly to answer “yes” ? Try it now: “Are you aware?”
It’s not about the answer, but it’s about “what was being contacted” in order for an honest answer to be given. Can it be grasped or conceived? How would you describe “it”?
-Jackson Peterson
' The end of the quest '...
When this awareness is so stabilized that it maintains itself at all times awake or asleep,
he is at the end of the quest.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 174
Paul Brunton
' Mindful discipline '...
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
' Silence of the mind '...
Silence of the mind which is the result of a deep understanding, that meditation is a natural, spontaneous meditation which just happens.
When you truly realize that this life and living is an absurdity, then you join in the dance.
You take part in this absurdity.
The body-mind organism continues to live in the world,
but without any sense of personal doership.
-A Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
' Mentally healthy '...
"Pain and suffering are only the body and mind screaming for attention.
To go beyond the body you must be healthy; to go beyond the mind, you must have your mind in perfect order.
You cannot leave a mess behind and go beyond.
The mess will bog you up.
'Pick up your rubbish' seems the universal law.
And a just law, too."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' The noise of the lover '...
"The noise of the lover is only up to the time
when he has not seen his Beloved.
Once he sees the Beloved, he becomes calm and quiet,
just as the rivers are boisterous before they join the ocean,
but when they do so, there are becalmed forever."
-Moinuddin Chishti (1141 - 1230)
' Godlikeness '...
But however much we appreciate aesthetic feelings or cultivate artistic talents,
we must also recognize that we cannot stop with these activities.
It is not enough to paint pictures or play music.
We must still rise to our godlikeness.
-- Notebooks Category 14: The Arts in Culture >
Chapter 1: Appreciation > # 110 Paul Brunton
“I Feel But Am Not A Feeling” ...
We’re always talking about (nearly always talking about) the actual feeling in the moment. So, it’s the feeling in the moment that what I am is identical to this. The feeling we have that I’m located in here [Points to the body] as the feeler or in here [Points to the head] as the thinker or the seer or the hearer.
In other words, we’re exposing and exploring the deep conditioning we have in which we feel (not just believe but feel) that what I am is identical to this cluster of sensations. And it’s the mixture of what I am with a sensation. What I am (Awareness); a sensation (the body). It is the mixture of these two that creates the separate self.
So, it’s like having oil and vinegar. They get thoroughly mixed up together and they appear to be one substance; salad dressing. You look at it and you think it’s one substance, like the separate self.
So, what we do here is we let them settle out, or rather, we See that in fact it’s two things (at least to begin with). What I am (Awareness) is not identical to a little cluster of sensations in here. [Points to the body] The sensations come and go, they move and change, they appear and disappear, but I-Awareness (the One in whom they appear and the One in which they are known) doesn’t appear and disappear with them. In other words, I-Awareness am not identical to a temporary, limited feeling.
The reason we think that I am temporary and limited is because thought has imagined that I am identical to a temporary, limited feeling. The image on a screen is temporary and limited. […] It comes and goes. But the screen is not limited. The blue and the green comes and goes but the screen remains (within the limit of the metaphor). The screen is unlimited. Because it from time to time appears to be blue and green, thoughts says ‘Ah, the screen is inherently blue and green’. It’s not. Next minute, it’s red and yellow. It’s the same thing; it’s temporary and limited. The body and the mind are temporary and limited.
Thought says ‘The body and the mind are temporary and limited, therefore you are temporary and limited, because You-Awareness are identical to the body and the mind’. And out of that mixture, an imaginary self is created; a self that is part Awareness and part body/mind. Hence, the separate self feels ‘I am a body/mind which is aware’ … ‘ I, the body/mind, am aware of the world’. So, the separate self is partly body/mind, part Awareness, but it feels like one whole; one separate aware self.
So, here, the first step we take is to separate out the oil from the vinegar, to separate out ‘No, this is temporary sensation (temporary thoughts, feelings, sensations) but Awareness always remains. Awareness is not made out of a sensation or a thought’.
Later on, we then collapse the difference. So, we mix them up again together. But there’s a difference because in the first stage, Awareness is identical to the body/mind. In the second stage, the midway point, they are separate, they are different, (Awareness plus objects); in the third stage (not Awareness identical to the body/mind)…, in the third stage, the body/mind is identical to Awareness.
In the first stage, Awareness is made out of the body/mind. In the third stage, the body/mind is made out of Awareness.. So, the distinction between them is again collapsed, but at this stage, the lack of distinction between the body/mind and Awareness is called Love.. In the first stage, the lack of distinction between them is called ignorance or suffering.
Q: Thought seems to be confirming .., for example, seeing you there as separate from me…, you’re not there to be found, but it appears so, because vision gives me…
Rupert: Okay, hold on. Let me pause you. [Chuckles]
You say that you are over there separate from me. All you know of me at the moment is the sight of me and the sound of me. Is that true?
Q: Right.
Rupert: In other words, the experience of hearing and the experience of seeing. Now, how far from yourself do the experience of hearing and seeing take place?
Q: I understand that.
R: Yes. No distance.
Q: No distance.
"In fact, you cant even find these two substances:
1. myself that knows and
2. the experience of hearing and seeing that are known.
Hearing and seeing are made out OF the knowing of them; and You are That knowing.
In other words, you don't experience me at a distance from yourself. It's like saying that the flower in the foreground in the movie is closer to than the mountain in the background. I know that it appears like that but its not like that. Or it's like having a dream and seeing the flower in the foreground and the mountains in the distance, and saying the mountains are further away from me. They're not. They take place in the same place as the flowers in the foreground take place.
That doesn't prevent the illusion or appearance of distance from continuing to appear. It continues to appear.
Q: This illusion is also a thought saying ‘There is that, there is distance’ or…, you know what I mean? Thought comes and says…, I’m defining things.
R: It’s true. It’s true that even our ordinary sense of space has been educated into us. It’s true that if a newborn baby could talk and think, the newborn baby wouldn’t say ‘My mother is closer to me than the wall over there’. We have to learn to see spatially. We, the brain, have to be conditioned. It’s true.
But what I’m saying is once that conditioning has taken place, there’s nothing wrong with it. It belongs to the structure; it’s the nature of seeing. There’s nothing wrong with it. There’s no ignorance there. What is a problem or wrong (if we can use that word; it’s not really wrong) is to believe that it is absolutely true.
We’ve learned while watching a movie to see that the flowers in the foreground are closer than the background. A baby wouldn’t know that. We’ve learned to see that.
Now, when we know…, even after we know it’s all one flat screen, we continue to see the apparent distance. So, the sense of space doesn’t go away, but we know it’s not real.
Q: I understand. I fully understand when we talk about ‘All we know is our own experience’. But some of us that are not completely clear would have trouble with thought; for example, sitting here, all I know is the experience of sitting, but then a thought comes ‘I’m sitting on the chair’ and then that emerges as the body…, as if there is a link between sensation and whatever it is; neo-cortex, the body. So, there’s a loop going, confirming, explaining; externalogy.
R: But that’s okay. That’s necessary for practical purposes. It's necessary to have a concept of a separate body and a separate chair and a separate table and flowers and vase and mic. All these concepts are necessary for practical purposes.
To believe that these concepts refer to things that are actually experienced in the way thought conceives them is a mistake. The concept itself is not a mistake. It's when the concept becomes a belief that it becomes a problem.
In other words, the concept of an object is not a problem. It's necessary for practical purposes. But to believe that experience is inherently divided up into a subject and an object (in other words, that experience is inherently dualistic), that is a problem.
In other words, the concept of duality is not a problem. The belief that it is real is a problem. In fact, the concept of duality is necessary for everyday life, for practical purposes. Otherwise, you would be mad. That's the difference between madness and non-dual understanding. In some forms of madness, you lose the sense of there not being objects, or the normal perspective of objects; you can't function in the world. That is not what's being suggested here.
Rupert Spira
' Someone asked '...
"Someone asked, 'What is it to be a lover?'
I replied, 'Don't ask about these meanings.
'When you become like me, you'll see.
'When He calls you, you'll tell the tale.'
-Jalaluddin Rumi
Kulliyyāt, 29050–1
William C. Chittick
The Religion of Love Revisited
Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society, Volume 54, 2013
' Half a life '...
"Beauty does not linger; it only visits.
Yet beauty's visitation affects us and invites us into its rhythm;
it calls us to feel, think and act beautifully in the world:
to create and live a life that awakens the Beautiful.
A life without delight is only half a life."
-John O'Donohue
' Fragments of being '...
Whether we confront the mystery called death or the equal mystery called life, the revelation must come in one or the other state: there is a connection with HE WHO IS.
For this are we born and our oscillation between the two happens at the Mind of the World's behest.
As, so sleepily and unwittingly, we shape and light up these fragments of being that we are, quite simply the connection gets uncovered more and more.
-- Notebooks Category 9: From Birth to Rebirth >
Chapter 2: Rebirth and Reincarnation > # 211
Paul Brunton
' Existence '...
Let us speak of words that bring truth to mind..
We , as Mystics can speak in poetry or thoughts that you cannot control..
We are here and we exist...
We hug our loved ones and yet we look within the aspects of belief..
I am about to go to sleep and therefore, I will not lie..
I will dream of silence and reality and not think of gain..
We are here together..
We call this Love..
-tonight, I will exist as Love...
-thomas
' Beyond mind '...
"Mind wants to know that which is beyond mind. To know that which is beyond mind, mind must go—vanish, leaving no vestige of itself behind. The humour of it is, the mind, which is finite, wants to retain itself and yet know Truth, which is infinite. This is the position of those who seek Truth through intellect. Few grasp this fact, and so most grope and grapple in vain.
"It is easy to ask questions, but it needs past preparation to grasp what I explain. Those who have the authority to ask and the capacity to understand do not ask. They understand that God is un-understandable and beyond the reach of the questioning mind....
"Truth is beyond the reach of mind. It is a matter of experience. Mind is very elusive and creates innumerable excuses in order to entrap you. It causes you to say, I cannot live just for God. I have my duty towards my family, towards society, the nation and the world. And so you are pulled more into Illusion than towards Truth.
"Truth is simple, but Illusion makes it infinitely intricate. The person is rare who possesses an insatiable longing for Truth; the rest allow Illusion to bind them ever more and more. God alone is Real and all else that you see and feel is nothing but a series of nothings.
"Mere intellectual understanding does not bring God nearer to you. It is love, not questioning, that will bring God to you. Questioning nourishes pride and separateness...."
-Meher Baba
The Everything and the Nothing, 29
Excerpted from "The Questioning Mind"
Myrtle Beach, SC: Sheriar Press, 2003 printing (1963), p. 47-50
' Understanding ego '...
Bodies and minds will always be subject to the sway of nature, which makes possible the diversities of life and was never meant to be destroyed or got rid of. The word “ego” traditionally represents awareness completely identified with mind and body, therefore the emphasis is placed on the preservation of complex ideologies and the perpetuation of pleasurable sensations. It can go to great lengths to carry out this mission, while justifying subtle or gross acts of violence; either internally against oneself or externally against the “other.” We are all familiar with this definition of ego; and this particular entity does need to go and the idea of destroying it is correct.
What happens after this destruction? I can tell you from experience that there is a personality that remains with seemingly similar attributes of the former ego. Many in the spiritual community still call this ego and therefore say “do not destroy the ego” etc. Right. We do not want to destroy this particular ego that is healthy and functional, as it must be present for practical affairs; but it is important to make a distinction if we are going to use the same word for two very different entities.
The truth is the latter is an evolved version of the former, so they are both “ego” but have two very different effects within the scheme of things. The evolved version is not compelled by self–preservation alone but is under the sovereignty of a balancing principle which can’t but act in the direction of bringing homeostasis to all minds and bodies under all situations without acceptation.
This balancing principle is sought by the dysfunctional ego which acts as a catalyst for its own evolution after it catches small glimpses coupled with the realization that it is “me” who stands in the way of experiential grace flowing through my life. After such a realization, ego offers itself to the living fire of evolution which turns out to be Love itself and evolves this ego into a servant; where it forever stays prostrated at the foot of its maker. Here ego or self, becomes an authentic expression of Self.
-Atreya Thomas
' The Short Path '...
So the Short Path has begun.
It makes life considerably pleasanter because you are supposed to make a 180 degree turn, putting your past behind you, looking first on the bright side, the sunny side, of your spiritual life.
Very often a glimpse is given which starts you off on the Short Path, and you are shown what to do.
You get new exercises, or no exercise at all. You see things which you missed before when you just saw the gloomy side. The exercises may be chosen by the seeker or by the guru. Each must find his own, but all are bright, cheerful, constructive.
But most important of all, now you are in the area of Grace. Now Grace is coming openly to work, and you can see it working, a power higher than your own, higher than your guru.
When you are in the area of Grace, anything can happen--anything--because you are not doing it. A higher power is doing it. It is really being done within you, in the heart, not in the head.
- Paul Brunton
' Between 'I am' and 'That '...
If you live on the breath,
you won't be tortured
by hunger and thirst,
or the longing to touch.
The purpose of being born is fulfilled
in the state between "I am"
and "That."
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
' Suffering will follow '...
"If you think that people should be nice to one another, then by all means be nice.
But when you project that belief onto the people and the world around you as if it were an objective reality, or worse still, as if it were their job to be nice to you, you put yourself at odds with what is, and suffering will surely follow."
- Adyashanti, The Way of Liberation
' External stimulus '...
To have seen Himalaya's snows turn pink at sunset and the Taj Mahal's marble turn phosphorescent in moonlight, is to have seen beauty indeed.
Yet after all it is not the place or the handiwork that really matters when we have gone, but the emotion evoked, the memory etched, and the taste refined.
All these are mental things.
We find at such high moments of appreciation, of aesthetic uplift, that the very essence of beauty is already present within ourselves, is an internal fact, made momentarily vivid by an external stimulus.
-- Notebooks Category 21: Mentalism >
Chapter 2: The World As Mental > # 71
Paul Brunton
' Abide as the Self '...
If you abide as the Self,
you will see the world as the Self.
In fact, there will be no world at all.
- Annamalai Swami
' Voluntary actions '...
What we call our voluntary actions are in fact involuntary,
and our supposed personal free will is nothing but an
ineffectual and temporary obstruction to the natural,
involuntary workings of the universe.
But even our false
assumption of volition is as involuntary as everything else
and can only fall off when we have involuntarily seen it as
fake.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' Sadhana '...
"Get hold of the main thing that the world and the self are one and perfect.
Only your attitude is faulty and needs readjustment.
This process of readjustment is what you call sadhana.
You come to it by putting an end to indolence and using all your energy to clear the way for clarity and charity.
But in reality these are all signs of inevitable growth.
Don't be afraid, don't resist, don't delay.
Be what you are.
There is nothing to be afraid of.
Trust and try.
Experiment honestly.
Give your real being a chance to shape your life.
You will not regret."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' The Gospel of Thomas '...
(113) His disciples said to him, "When will the kingdom come?"
-Gospel of Thomas..
My opinion is,
The Kingdom of God is known as 'Unconditional Love',
and exists within 'Thought'.
The Hologram called life is a 'Thought' and therefore is not Real..
The only Reality that does exist is the 'Thinker' called 'Source' which is held together by It's very Nature called Love...
The Knowledge of this Reality is found within the experience called 'Enlightenment'...
-thomas
' Tao Te Ching '...
Do you think you can take over the universe and
improve it? I do not believe it can be done.
The universe is sacred. You cannot improve it.
If you try to change it, you will ruin it.
If you try to hold it, you will lose it.
So sometimes things are ahead and sometimes
they are behind;
Sometimes breathing is hard, sometimes it comes
easily;
Sometimes there is strength and sometimes weak-
ness;
Sometimes one is up and sometimes down.
Therefore the sage avoids extremes, excesses, and
complacency.
- Lao-tzu
Tao Te Ching
Translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English
Vintage Books Edition, September 1972
' The perfect man '...
"Who can free himself from achievement
And from fame, descend and be lost
Amid the masses of men?
He will flow like Tao, unseen,
He will go about like Life itself
With no name and no home.
Simple is he, without distinction.
To all appearances he is a fool.
His steps leave no trace. He has no power.
He achieves nothing, has no reputation.
Since he judges no one
No one judges him.
Such is the perfect man:
His boat is empty.”
~ The Way of Chuang Tzu
Wu Wei
' Primary and Secondary Consciousness '...
From direct experience that is also validated by Dzogchen and other similar traditions, I would like to clarify what exactly is occurring during what is ordinarily called “awakening”, “liberation” and “enlightenment”.
Our most basic and primordial consciousness is called the Mind of Clear Light, the Natural State, Buddha Mind and Rigpa. All these terms point to a permanent Consciousness that hosts all other states of consciousness and their content; much like a mirror that hosts all reflections. Although while hosting all lower states of consciousness and their contents, it never changes, just like a mirror being unchanged by its reflections.
The first evolutionary arising in the Primary Consciousness is a secondary consciousness (shespa) that doesn’t know and recognize its source or its actually being dependent upon the Primary Consciousness. Nor does it recognize that it is actually an energetic formation of the Primary Consciousness, much like the vast, clear sky manifesting clouds floating within it.
It is the secondary consciousness that wanders in the samsara of its own thought-up identities and mentally constructed landscapes. It is this consciousness that seems to wander, reincarnating from life time to life time and is the one that experiences suffering.
It is this secondary consciousness that when seeming to look inward into examining its own state of existence, discovers nothing is really there except thoughts “about” identity, but no actual self is findable within those thoughts. It is during such a revelation that the Light of the Primary Consciousness can shine through, leaving a profound impression upon the secondary consciousness. However, that experience usually becomes a mere memory over time, a memory that belongs to the secondary consciousness.
The problem with teaching the secondary consciousness is that it takes all insights and such experiences, and simply adds them to its endless collection of intellectual perspectives, most of which are soon forgotten. Hence its quest’s end never arrives, yet becomes ever more frustrating
as its efforts to exalt itself as being an “enlightened being”; totally free, impervious to harm and suffering, never occurs.
The secondary consciousness is a dense, contraction of the Light of the Primary Consciousness transformed into “thought”. The secondary consciousness is a thought form and functions only through and AS thought and conceptualization.
It’s a “trickster”, a “shapeshifter” that completely dominates our cognitive state of mind in every way. It’s a parasite that takes on a life of its own while feeding off of the radiant energy of the Primary Consciousness. It is the pseudo-entity that interacts and integrates with the bio-computer of the brain.
Keep in mind, all as described is no more than a daydream occurring as the mind of the secondary consciousness itself, and that secondary consciousness in the midst of its daydream is what is appearing like a holographic movie within the empty space of Primordial Consciousness, like empty reflections appearing and disappearing harmlessly in a changeless mirror.
In order to bring this experience of suffering, called samsara, to an end, the secondary consciousness needs to retract back into its source as the Primary Consciousness.
It’s done by the Light of consciousness itself, suddenly recognizing itself as being the Original Light of Primordial Consciousness. This is possible because the light that “recognizes”, is itself a lower, denser, harmonic of the Wisdom of the Primordial Light Itself.
What we call “recognition” is simply a sudden transformation of consciousness which is itself a dense, lower harmonic of the Wisdom (yeshe) of Primordial Consciousness. This is like an ice cube of water suddenly appearing in its less dense form of water vapor.
This moment of sudden transformation of mind into Clear Light, is referred to as the joining of the Mother and Son Lights. No joining actually occurs, rather the Son Light transforms into the Mother Light, it’s true, highest nature.
In that moment as experienced and known well here, consciousness is then known as being the Primordial Consciousness, without doubt, and without a separate possible “doubter”. You are then the changeless, transparent empty host in which all potentials as appearances arise and disappear.
The Primordial Consciousness has rediscovered Itself in that flash of gnosis. The “attention” of the Primary Consciousness had become absorbed fully into and AS its secondary consciousness as “sport”.
All we are doing in these traditions is reversing the arrow of “attention” from being fixated in and AS thought, back toward its empty Source. By simply relaxing and releasing “attention” from all thought and mental topics, the secondary consciousness dissolves back into its Source.
- Jackson Peterson
' A new idea '...
It is all right,
Reality is known...
I am now typing without knowing the boundaries of winter or offense..
Your future wandering within the words and thoughts will fill your mind..
You are hungry for thoughts..
We are all, eager to Know..
-When is Reality Present ?....
- Thomas
' Happiness comes from awareness '...
"All happiness comes from awareness.
The more we are conscious, the deeper the joy.
Acceptance of pain, non-resistance, courage and endurance - these open deep and perennial sources of real happiness, true bliss."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' You Darkness '...
You darkness from which I come,
I love you more than all the fires
that fence out the world,
for the fire makes a circle
for everyone
so that no one sees you anymore.
But darkness holds it all:
the shape and the flame,
the animal and myself,
how it holds them,
all powers, all sight —
and it is possible: its great strength
is breaking into my body.
I have faith in the night.
Original poem by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated here by David Whyte
' Identification with Universal Power '...
His dependence on self-effort must be balanced by his dependence on Grace.
If he relies solely on his own endeavours to better his character and develop his intuition, he may find himself frustrated and unhappy with the result.
Grace is to be invoked by making contact through prayer and meditation with his Overself.
But the meditation should be of a special kind--what may be called the practice of nonduality.
In it he should seek to identify himself with the universal and infinite power, to forget that he is an individual.
-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation >
Chapter 6: Advanced Meditation > # 49
Paul Brunton
' This world is a dream '...
This world is a dream—don't be deluded;
if in a dream a hand is lost, it's no harm.
In dreams, no real damage is done if the
body is maimed or torn in two hundred pieces.
The Prophet said of this apparently substantial
world that it is but the sleeper's dream.
You've accepted this as an idea, but the spiritual
traveler has beheld this truth with an open eye.
You are asleep in the daytime; don't say this is
not sleep.
- Rumi
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
' You are the witness '...
It is extremely important that you become fully aware
that you are the witness.
For that eliminates the old patterns
and the habit of thinking yourself
to be the thinker or the doer.
- Jean Klein
' Reflecting the Overself '...
The ego totally ceases to exist and is fully absorbed into the Overself only in special, temporary, and trance-like states.
At all other times, and certainly at all ordinary active and everyday times, it continues to exist.
The failure to learn and understand this important point always causes much confusion in mystical circles.
The state arrived at in deep meditation is one thing; the state returned to after such meditation is another.
The ego vanishes in one but reappears in the other.
But there are certain after-effects of this experience upon it which bring about by degrees a shift in its relation to the Overself.
It submits, obeys, expresses, and reflects the Overself.
- Paul Brunton
' Nothingness '...
It is true that the concept of 'me' keeps you within the prison of ego,
It is a conception of existence..
The physical form and the spiritual form differ only within belief..
But, who believes ?..
The ego attachment must be sacrificed upon the cross that you speak of..
The experience of egoic death is very painful because the desire for life is so strong..
This is called 'Enlightenment '..
Because, You wake up as Light..
From this point within Consciousness,
you decide to stay within Divine Consciousness or sacrifice all egoic desire and enter Pure Awareness as Nothingness..
-thomas
' The milller disappears '...
You were once a swan singing
melodies, Lalla. Now you're quiet.
Someone, I don't know who, has run off
with what belonged to you.
The millstone stops, and the hole
where the grain is fed in fills
with grain. The channel leading
to the grinding work is covered over
and hidden, and the miller
himself has disappeared.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop, 1992
' Attainment of Heaven '...
Just as a man who has escaped from the inside of a burning house and finds himself in the cool outdoors understands that he has attained safety,
so the man who has escaped from greed, lust, anger, illusion, selfishness, and ignorance into exalted peace and immediate insight, understands that he has attained heaven.
-- Notebooks Category 24: The Peace within You >
Chapter 4: Seek the Deeper Stillness > # 150
Paul Brunton
' Regarding ego, maya and enlightenment ' ...
“The world is not real. The mind is not real. The ego is not real. The world, the mind and the ego are nothing but appearances. They are maya.” Such sayings about the world, the mind, the ego and maya are commonplace..
But are they correct?
The word maya is often translated, "That which is not." So maya is illusory, but it is also something. Maya is the ultimate paradox. It has no real existence, but there it is, anyway. So maya is a "that" and it is "not."
But from the most expanded viewpoint, the universe is perfect and everything is as it should be. So maya cannot be an accident.
The purpose of maya is to capture consciousness in such a way that it imagines itself as individual, as separate, which of course, is an illusion.
However, from the illusion of individuality, arises the possibility of each individual consciousness awakening to appreciate its own true identity, infinite, unbounded and beyond individuality. In that way, maya makes it possible that now there can be multiple infinities, even when the underlying reality is, paradoxically, there can only be and always ever was only one, all-inclusive infinity.
Thus, through the agency of maya, God is able to interact with Himself through all the myriad lives that, once captured in the illusion of separateness, can rise to appreciate each their own identity with God. So instead of one (perhaps boring) infinity, you have infinitely many, dynamic infinities. The Divine playing with the Divine.
So maya exists for a purpose. In the Gita, Lord Krishna referred to it as "My divine maya," even at the same time he said maya is "difficult to overcome."
Ego, of course, is at the center of maya.. It is the agency that maintains the illusion of separateness. It is the sense of "I" and "mine," the agency within the personality that attaches itself to objects and identifies with them. "I am a man." "I am a musical instrument maker." "I am a significant person because I have this business, this car, this girlfriend, this reputation ... ."
And of course, if something happens such that I lose my business, my car, my girlfriend or my reputation, the thought that comes up is, "I feel like I'm going to die." And that's a legitimate thought, since it arises from the small ego that really believes it IS whatever it has attached itself to. The small ego really DOES die every time it has to let go of whatever it has identified itself with.
And here is the crux of the whole thing with ego.
Before awakening, ego thinks it's the whole person, which is why there can be so much suffering before awakening. The little rowboat of ego gets tossed about on the high seas, smashed again and again against the rocks of never ending change. It can never escape this fate, because by nature, that is how it functions, that is where it dwells, where it belongs, in the realm of gain and loss, joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain.
After awakening, ego still identifies with the various things it imagines itself to be. I will continue to identify myself as a musical instrument maker, but the musical instrument maker becomes just a part of the outer personality. The musical instrument maker is only part of the small ego identity, which serves the purpose of allowing one to continue in the world, to be able to enjoy the greater purpose, which is to be one with God and one with all of creation.
I don't subscribe to the idea that ego can be slain, once and for all. Rather, there is a "thinning out" of ego through a process whereby one sees what the Self is, identical with the universal Self, and thereby displaces the ego from its delusional position at the center. The true center comes into consciousness, and one sees quite naturally, that ego is not the center.
In the light of this awareness, ego's role changes completely, and life changes completely.
The purpose of ego is to take things up and let them go so that one may carry on a life in the world. And of course, its role is to identify with the body, protect the body, so life will be maintained for as long as it may continue to serve a purpose.
As this territory becomes more and more familiar, the ego becomes mature, and it becomes accustomed, not only to its purpose of taking things up, but also of LETTING THINGS GO. Because the ego doesn't only grasp. It also lets go, even though it experiences a dying with each letting go.
When one is awake to pure consciousness at the true center, the ego discovers it can let go and not be annihilated, even though it still feels a death with each letting go. It arises again when it is called to serve its purpose in taking up the next thing for the personality to become engaged with.
Rather than being annihilated once and for all, the ego, transformed and transmuted, but still functioning as ego, has a role to play as the whole person becomes enlightened. It transitions from being dominant, imagining itself to be the center, and it begins to function in service to the true center.
Ego is able to serve the greater whole by becoming malleable, by learning to participate in transformation instead of resisting. It becomes expert, not only in the taking up, but also in the letting go part of the transaction. The ego becomes the sacrificial offering in a Holy Eucharist that is taking place always and endlessly in every soul.
So it seems to me, there may be an over-emphasis on getting rid of ego, of the loss of ego as a hallmark of awakening. There may be times when ego seems completely absent, and other times when it seems more active, depending on where one might be in any given cycle of taking up and letting go.
To my way of seeing this, the important piece is the awakening to infinite pure consciousness..
The impact of that awakening on the functioning of ego is revolutionary, in that it changes forever the position of ego in the structure of the person, and it transforms the ego from a source of suffering and an adversary in the process of liberation, to a participant in the ongoing process of transformation that is the nature of an awakened life.
So the ego ceases to be an issue at all. It's there, participating in its purpose of taking up and letting go, of holding material within the sphere of attention and thereby creating a mechanism for activity in the world, but it's just another part of the personality, to be observed with benevolence from the standpoint of a Totality that transcends and at the same time includes every aspect of individuality.
-Jerry Freeman
' The Greatest Evil '...
You have always existed within the 'me first', called ego..
The Greatest Evil does not live within white mansions,
it exists within the minds that desire power through the death of others..
If you desire to be seen as Real,
your words must match..
Your credibility as Real is in doubt..
You prefer Dreams...
-thomas
' The Polishing Cloth '...
"To know the self as the only reality and all else as temporal and transient is freedom, peace and joy.
It is all very simple.
Instead of seeing things as imagined, learn to see them as they are.
When you can see everything as it is, you will also see yourself as you are.
It is like cleansing a mirror.
The same mirror that shows you the world as it is will also show you your own face.
The thought 'I am' is the polishing cloth.
Use it."
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' A rich man '...
"There is a story of a rich man who said that he could not practice generosity because he was unable to give anything away. The Buddha’s advice to him was to begin by simply taking a piece of fruit and passing it from one hand to the other. The Buddha told him to notice how it felt to let the fruit go and how it felt to receive it. Using this method, the man began to experience both the joy of giving and the pleasure of receiving. Eventually he became a great benefactor.
Like that rich man, we may find that giving does not arise spontaneously and that we need to train in it. The ego-clinging mind always feels a sense of scarcity, so you might think, “I barely get along with what I have. How can I possibly give anything to anyone else?”
Chöd practitioners deliberately go to frightening places, such as a cemetery at night, and visualize making their body into an offering.
There are, however, many ways to practice giving that transcend monetary and material means. You could give something simple like a poem, words of encouragement, or an act of kindness. True generosity brings the giver a feeling of openness, along with the enjoyment in the happiness of others.
Even imagined gifts can be powerful. There is a story about the great Buddhist king Ashoka that illustrates this. The story goes that a poor child was playing by the side of the road when he saw the Buddha begging for alms. The child was moved to make an offering, but—with nothing else to give—he spontaneously collected some pebbles and, visualizing them as vast amounts of gold, placed them in the Buddha’s alms bowl. Due to this act, in his next life the child became the powerful, wealthy King Ashoka and benefited countless beings.
To take the practice of generosity a step further, you can infuse generosity with the view that there is no inherent separate existence in the giver, the gift, or the receiver. This view, known as the threefold emptiness, turns practicing generosity into something beyond simple virtuous action. It helps us not be attached to the outcome of giving, thus setting us free from any expectations.
We have the opportunity to feed, not fight, our demons with the nectar of love and compassion.
In chöd, a Tibetan meditation practice developed by the famed eleventh-century yogini Machig Labdrön, generosity is practiced for the purpose of severing ego-clinging. Chöd practitioners deliberately go to frightening places, such as a cemetery at night, and visualize making their body into an offering. Since these places provoke fear and clinging to the body, the offering is a direct confrontation with the ego. Many kinds of guests are invited to this imagined banquet, including personified forms of diseases, fears, and demons. As the guests arrive for the feast, chöd practitioners keep the view of three-fold emptiness and offer their body, which they visualize as nectar that satisfies all desires. The intensity of making the body offering in a frightening place is designed to push the practitioner into a state free from all clinging.
Although we may not be a chöd practitioner who deliberately goes to scary places, we still meet plenty of frightening inner demons, such as depression, anger, and anxiety. When this happens we have the opportunity to feed, not fight, these demons with the nectar of love and compassion. This goes against the grain of ego-clinging and allows the inner demons to transform into allies.
Here’s an idea: choose a day to devote to the practice of generosity. Maybe one Saturday from the time you get up until you go to bed, see how many opportunities you can find to be generous. Start by passing an object from one hand to the other mindfully. You might cook someone breakfast, offer your seat on the subway, make a donation, or spend some time with a child or someone having a hard time. See how many ways you can give in one day. Notice your motivation, how it feels to do it, and the reactions of others. At the end of the day, recall all the ways you were generous. Notice how you feel and what happened as a result of your generosity."
-- Lama Tsultrim Allione, charismatic Western teacher and bestselling author of Women of Wisdom and Feeding Your Demons, has been recognized and enthroned as an emanation of one of the most beloved female Tibetan saints, the 11th century dakini Machik Labdrön. She balances the commitments for her family and three kids with the passion to bring century old healing practices to the West. Once among the first American women ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1970, she has since given back her vows to raise a family and integrate her spiritual values into a lay practitioner’s life.
' Struggles and failures '...
The tendency to assume that the spiritual man was perfect in his youth and never made a mistake in his maturity,
is common among his followers and passed on by them to the public--with the result that the latter stares at him with great awe as a rare phenomenon but does not dream that it is possible to follow in his footsteps to the same achievement.
The truth is that he had his share of struggles and failures, that he was born with his own particular imperfections, and that he had to make the character and expand the consciousness which adorned his later years.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 3: The Sage > # 352 Paul Brunton
' Can evil be changed ?'...
Can evil be changed ?...
Evil is the opposite mirror of Reality..
It is a learning experience..
We will live in fear while within the self-ish-ness of ego..
If we live within Love, fear is forgotten..
Only Truth is lived within..
To say that God is on our side feels foolish but is Truth..
Source is Truth, Truth is on our side within illusions..
Therefore, let us walk within illusions and dreams until we wake up...
-thomas
' Go beyond it '...
"There is no "I" apart from the body or the world.
The three appear and disappear together.
At the root is the sense `I am'.
Go beyond it.
The idea `I-am-not-body' is merely an antidote to the idea `I- am-the-body', which is false.
What is that `I am'?
Unless you know yourself, what else can you know?"
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Simply to know I am '...
It is our very search, our lust for the miraculous and magical,
that hides from us the truth that simply to be, simply to know I am, is already the miracle that we seek.
Everything, as it is, is perfect,
but you must stop seeing it as if in a mirror, as if in a dream.
-Albert Low
' What is Truth ?'...
Although nothing can be written about IT that is truly descriptive, everything can be written about what leads up to the revelation of IT; that can be written with precision and luminosity.
The inside must forever elude words, but the outside need not.
The greatest of questions, "What is Truth?"
is answered best by Silence; this answer is inherent in the question.
Metaphysics and poetry may provide a medium for clues and hints, symbols and images.
-- Notebooks Category 28: The Alone > Chapter 2:
Our Relation To the Absolute > # 32
Paul Brunton
' The 'I am' within mind '...
"Go deep into the sense of `I am' and you will find.
How do you find a thing you have mislaid or forgotten? You keep it in your mind until you recall it.
The sense of being, of `I am' is the first to emerge. Ask yourself whence it comes or just watch it quietly.
When the mind stays in the `I am', without moving, you enter a state, which cannot be verbalized, but which can be experienced.
All you need to do is to try and try again.
After all the sense of `I am' is always with you, only you have attached all kinds of things to it- body, feelings, thoughts, ideas, possessions and so on.
All these self-identifications are misleading, because of these you take yourself to be what you are not."
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Look for it '...
Self-centered thought makes reference to an assumed self that stands apart from awareness.
This notion is the ego or "I" thought. But is this concept true? Examine it and you will find it is a false notion.
There is no "I" standing apart from awareness. So everything the mind refers to about a false self (the one who needs to progress, etc.) is false.
The purpose of spirituality is to see what you are, and also to drop or release the belief in the assumed separate person or ego.
How to dissolve the ego? Look for it.
Since it is not present, this looking will dissolve the belief in its reality.
You remain as you are and always have been, pure presence-awareness itself.
You are that here and now. Just confirm this basic fact.
-John Wheeler
' Hypnotized by prestige '...
The herd of men and women are so hypnotized by the prestige of an institution that they never stop to question the truth of the institution.
This is why Jesus was persecuted and Socrates was poisoned.
-- Notebooks Category 17: The Religious Urge >
Chapter 1: Origin, Purpose of Religions > # 234
Paul Brunton
' Lose yourself completely '...
Although you appear in earthly form
Your essence is pure consciousness.
You are the fearless guardian of Divine LIght.
So come, return to the root of the root of your own soul.
When you lose all sense of self
the bonds of a thousand chains will vanish.
Lose yourself completely.
Return to the root of the root of your own soul.
You descended from Adam, by the pure Word of God,
but you turned your sight
to the empty show of this world.
Alas, how can you be satisfied with so little?
So come, return to the root of the root of your own soul.
Why are you so enchanted by this world
when a mind of gold lies within you?
Open your eyes and come --
Return to the root of the root of your own soul.
-Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi
Rumi: In the Arms of the Beloved
Translations by Jonathan Star
NY: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1997, pp. 4-5
' A lack of concern '...
The surest sign of spiritual progress is a total lack of concern
about progress.
There is an utter absence of anxiety about
anything like liberation and a sort of hollowness in one's being,
a kind of looseness and involuntary surrender to whatever
might happen.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' I am '...
"Refuse all thoughts except one: the thought `I am'.
The mind will rebel in the beginning, but with patience and perseverance it will yield and keep quiet.
Once you are quiet, things will begin to happen spontaneously and quite naturally, without any interference on your part."
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Seeking Truth '...
Just as a candle cannot burn without fire,
men cannot live without a spiritual life.
-Gautama the Buddha
' Sadhana '...
Get hold of the main thing that the world and the self are
one and perfect. Only your attitude is faulty and needs
readjustment.
This process of readjustment is what you call sadhana.
You come to it by putting an end to indolence and using
all your energy to clear the way for clarity and charity.
But in reality these are all signs of inevitable growth.
Don't be afraid, don't resist, don't delay Be what you
are.
There is nothing to be afraid of.
Trust and try.
Experiment honestly.
Give your real being a chance to
shape your life.
You will not regret.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
“Want fear? Get a future.” ~ Byron Katie
Q: People are really going through hard times with depression and suicide, etc. What is your perception of this?
Byron Katie: People are projecting the past and the future in their minds. When you imagine what the future will be, fear is created. Now is the only time we can really live in.
I always say, that if you wanta little fear and terror, get a future.
I invite people to put their thoughts on a Judge-Your-Neighbor Worksheet.
The power of The Work is the answers that arise from the individual doing The Work.
As we tap into that knowledge inside us, we find freedom. That's why inquiry is so powerful. The Work is a beautiful way to peace, and it doesn't require a teacher.
(from: Meditating on Freedom—An Interview with Lilou)
' What is God ?'...
The aspect of an old man on a throne was not within my desires..
Therefore, the Energy called Source was called upon..
This is where non-egoic desire found Heaven..
This complete White Light that somehow has the power to Dream..
As you already know, Dreams appear completely Real..
As long as you desire to experience Dreams,
you will continue..
They will call it Reincarnation and Karma,
but, I will call it Desire...
-thomas
' What is Reality ? '...
the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them.
"he refuses to face reality"
synonyms: the real world, real life, actuality; More
truth;
physical existence
"distinguishing fantasy from reality"
antonyms: fantasy
a thing that is actually experienced or seen, especially when this is grim or problematic.
plural noun: realities
"the harsh realities of life in a farming community"
synonyms: fact, actuality, truth
"the harsh realities of life"
a thing that exists in fact, having previously only existed in one's mind.
"the paperless office may yet become a reality"
the quality of being lifelike or resembling an original.
"the reality of Marryat's detail"
synonyms: verisimilitude, authenticity, realism, fidelity, faithfulness
"the reality of Steinbeck's detail"
antonyms: idealism
relating to reality TV.
modifier noun: reality
"a reality show"
2.
the state or quality of having existence or substance.
"youth, when death has no reality"
Philosophy
existence that is absolute, self-sufficient, or objective, and not subject to human decisions or conventions.
Origin
late 15th century: via French from medieval Latin realitas, from late Latin realis ‘relating to things’ (see real1).
Translate reality to
Use over time for: reality
' Until you have it '...
"What is known as the teaching of the Buddha is not
the teaching of the Buddha."
Diamond Sutra
"What is the ultimate teaching of Buddhism?'
"'You won't understand it until you have it."
-Shih-t'ou
in Aldous Huxley
The Perennial Philosophy
New York: Harper, 1945, p. 127
' Fleeting sensations and perceptions '...
“Thought says that the body and world are solid, lasting and substantial, and that our essential nature of pure Awareness is fleeting and insubstantial.
In fact, it is Awareness that is ever-present and substantial, whereas all we know of the body and world is an ever-changing flow of fleeting sensations and perceptions.
Thus, the reality that thought attributes to the body and world properly belongs to Awareness alone.”
- Rupert Spira
' The Identity of Interest '...
The mystic who talks of giving love to all mankind has still not realized Truth.
What he really means is that he, the ego, is giving the love.
The Gnani, on the contrary, knows all men as himself and therefore the idea of giving them love does not arise;
he accepts his identity of interest with them completely.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 4: The Sage's Service > # 19
-- Perspectives > Chapter 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > # 56 Paul Brunton
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)