' i don't need to know '...
In awakening conceptualizing ends..
that's my experience.
Then a few years in the intensity of energy ramped up and got so much, so much pressure that there was resistance and terror because it felt like being annihilated.
Then it found resolution in a kind of dissolution that can not happen by an act of will.
(Which is what's so maddening about it), you can't do a thing to stop it or hasten it.
like a women giving birth or something.
Once it happens its a great relief, like energy released into the infinite in a total merger of energy and consciousness, of perceiver and perceived.
No more capacity for any distance since the source and the substance are the same.
But still it continued to uncover stuff particular to my psychological makeup.
Like attachment to a romantic partner and the suffering from that burnt out attachment to love..
suffering seems now to lead to the end of suffering, the process or whatever you call it just eats up the ignorance that perpetuated it.
I don't even know what's going on, i don't need to know.
- Michael McClure
' Mystical Union '...
The mystical union with God can never be a union of nature and substances,
can never achieve a complete identity of the atom with the Infinite.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 1: Their Meeting and Interchange > # 61
Paul Brunton
' Become One '...
Realizing the cause of a disease does not cure it.
Likewise, seeing the ego as unreal, false, taking a passive approach by just “not getting involved” etc, does not heal it, but is only a willful denial.
Convincing oneself that the disease is sacred and all the ego’s feelings are sacred is delusional as well.
Rather, medicine must be applied.
The remedy is grace alone which mutates the will of ego into the will of the Universe.
Therefore, embody your life, wear the ego and then offer it all to this grace in loving devotion,
so that you may be transformed and become One.
-Atreya Thomas
' Seeing with the heart '...
One sees clearly only with the heart.
Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
' Reform yourself first '...
Therefore, do not bother much about reforming this crooked world.
This
can never be done.
Reform yourself first, then the whole world can be
reformed.
How can you help the world when you yourself are weak and
ignorant?
It will be like a blind man leading another blind man.
- Swami Sivananda
' Reflections of past, present, and future '...
The mystics, the Sufis, have ways of developing the eyes.
They show
you ways of looking into space that make the eyes capable of seeing
what is reflected there.
From these reflections the past, present,
and future can be told, and all that surrounds a person.
From The Teachings of
HAZRAT PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged by
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
' Who am I '...
"There is a story told about a hasidic rebbe who came into synagogue and sat down to pray.
The hasidim noticed that he did not move and they went on with their prayers.
By late afternoon the rebbe still had not moved from his chair.
Finally, the hasidim dared to interrupt him and ask if something was wrong.
'No,' he said, 'nothing is wrong.
I opened my mouth to say "I give thanks before You" and suddenly I began to think, Who is this "I" that is about to give thanks?
Who am "I"? What am "I" '?
And I have been meditating on that all day long.'"
-David Blumenthal
"Kabbalah: Mystical Ways in Prayer"
' Negation '...
See the false as false, and what remains is
true.
What is absent now will appear when
what is now present disappears.
Negation
is the only asnwer to finding the ultimate
truth – it is as simple as that.
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' This Voice is You '...
I am the Voice that hides behind the curtain of egoic consciousness..
I am You when you are no longer..
I am the Reality that you seek..
I speak within the Light of Love..
I have never forgotten you, as you are my dream..
Let us join Voices and sing with Unity..
For this Voice is You...
- thomas
' Seek the Water '...
Know that the outward form passes away,
but the world of reality remains forever.
How long will you play at loving the shape of the jug?
Leave the jug; go, seek the water!
- Rumi
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Daylight"
Threshold Books, 1994
' True humility '...
True humility is not the opposite of pride
but the very negation of a separate entity
who could either be proud or humble.
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' Spirituality not Religion '...
Let us utilize contributions from every quarter of the compass,
but let us do so only to formulate our own individual wisdom.
They are to help us, not to dominate us, for our effort must be a creative one.
-- Notebooks Category 15: The Orient >
Chapter 0: Introductory Paras > # 2
Paul Brunton
' Seek the water '...
Know that the outward form passes away,
but the world of reality remains forever.
How long will you play at loving the shape of the jug?
Leave the jug; go, seek the water!
- Rumi
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Daylight"
Threshold Books, 1994
' Belief in oneself '...
From the beginning nothing is.
There really has never
been any beginning, nor is there any end.
The universe
is a dream.
So is the one who is supposed to understand
this!
Belief in oneself is, in fact, the only real obstruction to
awakening from delusion.
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' The Sage '...
He alone may rightly be called a sage who has not only attained the highest mystical stage but has also found a new meaning in the finite world and the finite human life.
He does not need to run away from the familiar world, for he sees it by a diviner light.
He experiences not only its obvious transiency and multiplicity but also its hidden eternality and unity.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 3: The Sage > # 137 Paul Brunton
' Jnana '...
Welcome all of you to the Living Teaching of Advaita.
I call it the Living Teaching because it is concerned with the living energy that is indisputably here.
NOW.
This living energy is experienced through bodies.
Each of us is composed of a body and a mind that enables us to think and feel…to experience.
In India this teaching is known as the path of knowledge, Jnana.
Often when we talk about knowledge we associate it with intellect or brainpower.
But this path of knowledge is really far, far bigger than that.
The knowledge that we are talking about is not only intellectual, but intuitive as well.
Ultimately, The Living Teaching of Advaita is pointing beyond all such relative knowledge to a Truth that is inescapable.
- Wayne Liquorman, at a Talk in Toronto
' Truth and Principle '...
“Living in the present moment means living according to truth and principle (but not according to hard rigid dogma) flexibly applied in the
particular way required by the immediate situation in which you are.
Such a way of living leaves you free,
not ruled tyrannically by imposed regulations which may not at all suit the particular case.”
- Paul Brunton
' Awakening '...
Please drop this idea that you will become peaceful and happy if you wake up.
Yes you might have these periods, but awakening is not into peace, but into clarity of who we are.
From that clarity peace of mind might come, but still there will be different situations in life, and the mind will still do his reactions.
At one point might be not peace, but fury, but would you be judging a child who tripped and fell down, and is crying in all his might?
But look at him couple of minutes later, he is laughing like crazy!
Who we are is crying, laughing and all in between, and have no preference for the mind state, only mind itself does.
Mind has these ideas how to be awake, do not listen to that crap, just be like that child, spontaneous.
This Is what life of nobility is about: to find peace that is beyond peace of mind.
-Elena Nezhinsky
' Already Home '...
For enlightenment to happen the perceiver must turn right around and wake up to the fact that he is face to face with his own nature
- that HE IS IT.
The spiritual seeker ultimately finds that he was already at the destination,
that he himself IS what he had been seeking and he was in fact already home.
- Ramesh Balsekar
' Tzaddik '...
"People say you should not seek greatness,
but I say you should seek only greatness.
Look for the greatest possible Tzaddik.
Choose only the greatest Tzaddik as your teacher."
Rabbi Nachman
Sichot Haran #51
The Essential Rabbi Nachman
Translated by Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum
' Sin cannot be remembered '...
However dark or blundering the past, however miserable the tangle one has made of one's life, this unutterable peace blots it all out.
Within that seraphic embrace error cannot be known, misery cannot be felt, sin cannot be remembered.
A great cleansing comes over the heart and mind.
-- Notebooks Category 24: The Peace within You >
Chapter 4: Seek the Deeper Stillness > # 102
Paul Brunton
' A Wise Man '...
“A man is not called wise because he talks and talks again;
but if he is peaceful, loving and fearless then he is in truth called wise.”
― Gautama the Buddha, The Dhammapada:
' The fullness of emptiness '...
When one discovers the fullness of emptiness,
one wishes for nothing more.
- Mooji
' The Abiding State '...
The difference between the two states has been symbolically stated by Al Hujwari, the eleventh-century Sufi writer.
Those who have attained the abiding state are,
he says, "in the sanctuary,
but those who have attained the transient one are only at the gate."
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 39
Paul Brunton
' The Divine Atom '...
The divine atom is one and the same in all men, identical in Christ as it was in his hearers.
It is indeed the Christ-self in each of us.
When Jesus had passed away from this world,
the most enlightened of his earlier followers thenceforward used and understood his name only in this universal sense.
-Paul Brunton
' Be Gentle, Kind, and Patient '...
“It is not uncommon to have frustration and resentment come up in the wake of being very open in Love and compassion..
The frustration and resentment are simply old, and perhaps unconscious, associations that developed long ago in relation to love and/or the rejection of love.
So when it comes, you can embrace the resentment with compassion and silently notice if the old associations arise for you to see.
If and when they do arise, you can remind yourself that it has to do with something in the past and the beliefs that you formed around it.
Then you can remind yourself that the present is a completely new experience, unconnected with any experience in the past.
And see how your experience of Love and compassion arises anew in the present.
As always, be gentle, kind, and patient.”
- Adyashanti
' Once you know the Truth '...
"It makes no difference what you've done in the past.
It makes no difference if you've done good deeds or bad deeds,
as far as self-realization is concerned.
Once you know the truth, you become free. ...
there is nothing that you have done that can keep you out of heaven, so-to-speak."
- Robert Adams
(20th century American Advaita mystic)
' Eternal life '...
"If we are to know God, it must be without the slightest means.
When we do see God in His light,
it happens in private,
safe from the slightest intrusion of creaturely things.
Then we have immediate knowledge of eternal life."
Meister Eckhart
in Franz Pfeiffer
Meister Eckhart
(Leipzig, 1857)
Translated by C. de B. Evans
London: John M. Watkins, 1956, vol. 1, p. 63
' Do not Absent yourself '...
"In one of his couplets Hafiz has said:
"'Oh Hafiz! If you want your Beloved to be present, do
not absent yourself for one moment from his presence.'
"This means that if you have an intense longing for
your Beloved, leave all else and remain near him. Let
not your mind wander for even an instant; keep it
focused on him alone.
"So beware, let not the Divine Beloved find you absent
when he knocks at the door of your heart."
-Meher Baba
in Bhau Kalchuri
Lord Meher, Vol.17, p. 5771
Revised Online Edition, p. 4708
' Hope '...
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all.
- Emily Dickinson
' The ego is a mental addiction '...
Life after life, you play different roles within the Hologram..
Once a mother and then a son..
The desires change but the ego remains the same..
You continue the eternal circle of egoic-desire..
Now, that you recognize the real enemy of Peace,
why do you continue to play this role..
You can change the script within any second..
Psychologists will charge you three hundred dollars an hour for this knowledge..
You can release yourself from this trap of the eternal pain of existence..
But, the ego is strong,
too strong to believe this...
-thomas
' Ride the breath '...
If you ride the breath
and keep it under control,
hunger and thirst and other wantings
will not be dangerous to you.
Being skilled with that bridle
is a great blessing.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
' Tale of the Sands '...
A stream, from its source in far-off mountains, passing through every
kind and description of countryside, at last reached the sands of the
desert. Just as it had crossed every other barrier, the stream tried
to cross this one, but it found that as fast as it ran into the sand,
its waters disappeared.
It was convinced, however, that its destiny was to cross this
desert, and yet there was no way. Now a hidden voice, coming from
the desert itself, whispered: "The wind crosses the desert and so can
the stream."
The stream objected that it was dashing itself against the sand,
and only getting absorbed: that the wind could fly, and this was why
it could corss a desert.
"By hurtling in your accustomed way you cannot get across. You
will either disappear or become a marsh. You must allow the wind to
carry you over, to your destination."
But how could this happen? "By allowing yourself to be absorbed
in the wind."
This idea was not acceptable to the stream. After all, it had
never been absorbed before. It did not want to lose its
individuality. And, once having lost it, how was one to know that it
could ever be regained?
"The wind," said the sand, "performs this function. It takes up
water, carries it over the desert, and then lets it fall again.
Falling as rain, the water again becomes a river."
"How can I know that this is true?"
"It is so, and if you do not believe it, you cannot become more
than a quagmire, and even that could take many, many years; and it
certainly is not the same as a stream."
"But can I not remain the same stream that I am today?"
"You cannot in either case remain so," the shisper said. "Your
essential part is carried away and forms a stream again. You are
called what you are even today because you do not know which part of
you is the essential one."
When he heard this, certain echoes began to arise in the
thoughts of the stream. Dimly, he remembered a state in which he--or
some part of him, was it?--had been held in the arms of a wind. He
also remembered--or did he?--that this was the real thing, not
necessarily the obvious things to do.
And the stream raised his vapour into the welcoming arms of the
wind, which gently and easily bore it upwards and along, letting it
fall softly as soon as they reached the roof of a mountain, many,
many miles away. And because he had had his doubts, the stream was
able to remember and record more strongly in his mind the details of
the experience. He reflected, "Yes, now I have learned my true
identity."
The stream was learning. But the sands whispered: "We know
because we see it happen day after day: and because we, the sands,
extend from the riverside all the way to the mountain."
And that is why it is said that the way in which the Stream of
Life is to continue on its journey is written in the sands.
-as collected by Idries Shah
' Direct Intuition '...
"Find the god in your own heart and you will understand by direct intuition what all the great teachers,
real mystics, true philosophers and inspired people have been trying to tell you by the tortuous method of using words."
- Paul Brunton
' The Source of Manifestation '...
A true guru is concerned not with changing the world
or the behavior of the disciple but only with taking the
disciple back to the very source of manifestation itself.
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' No sense of me '...
“When there’s a moment of no sense of ‘me,’ why not leave it alone completely, come what may?
When a fearful thought or feeling arises in an instant, it can also be gone in an instant, even before it has triggered the thirty thousand chemicals throughout the body.
There is just a vulnerable being exposed, alone, without knowing, without a word.
Maybe it’s a moment of dying to all the impulses to know, to protect, to maintain, to continue.
Not knowing is dying.
And at the same time being wholly alive.”
--Toni Packer, from The Light of Discovery, “Fear of Silence”
' The True Self '...
The source of wisdom and power, of love and beauty, is within ourselves, but not within our egos.
It is within our consciousness.
Indeed, its presence provides us with a conscious contrast which enables us to speak of the ego as if it were something different and apart:
it is the true Self whereas the ego is only an illusion of the mind.
-Paul Brunton
' Awareness '...
Being aware of awareness or resting as awareness is the key....
Investigating, looking at, lovingly contemplating awareness, is investigating, looking at, contemplating the universal Self/God.
Awareness is quite simply, always present here and now and everywhere at the same time.
It is omnipresent. It’s not anything that your mind can grasp. It’s the ground of being itself, in which everything that is....
arises and ceases. All your thoughts, emotions, every animal and person and mountain and tree and river, and every singe experience you can ever have, appears and disappears in awareness.
Awareness is "God". So looking at, gazing lovingly at awareness is contemplative prayer.
On the most profound and deepest level...
What you are and what I am and what everyone and everything is.....
Awareness Itself.
We are ALL the same awareness taking many different forms.
-Francis Fran Bennett
' A Love that you cannot contain '...
"Many spiritual seekers get "stuck" in emptiness, in the absolute, in transcendence.
They cling to bliss, or peace, or indifference.
When the self-centered motivation for living disappears, many seekers become indifferent. They see the perfection of all existence and find no reason for doing anything, including caring for themselves or others.
I call this "taking a false refuge." It is a very subtle egoic trap; it's a fixation in the absolute and all unconscious form of attachment that masquerades as liberation. It can be very difficult to wake someone up from this deceptive fixation because they literally have no motivation to let go of it.
Stuck in a form of divine indifference, such people believe they have reached the top of the mountain when actually they are hiding out halfway up its slope.
Enlightenment does not mean one should disappear into the realm of transcendence. To be fixated in the absolute is simply the polar opposite of being fixated in the relative.
With the dawning of true enlightenment, there is a tremendous birthing of impersonal Love and wisdom that never fixates in any realm of experience.
To awaken to the absolute view is profound and transformative, but to awaken from all fixed points of view is the birth of true nonduality.
If emptiness cannot dance, it is not true Emptiness.
If moonlight does not flood the empty night sky and reflect in every drop of water, on every blade of grass, then you are only looking at your own empty dream.
I say, Wake up! Then, your heart will be flooded with a Love that you cannot contain."
- Adyashanti
' We as Overself '...
Nevertheless we may have both the assurance and the satisfaction that our thinking is correct but we have neither the assurance nor the satisfaction of consciously embracing that with which this thinking deals.
We may have formed a right mental image of God but we are still not in God's sacred presence. We must not mistake the image for the reality which it represents.
Whatever discoveries we have hitherto made have been made only within the limited frontiers of reasoned thinking. Exalted and expanded though our outlook may now be, we can still do no more than think the existence of this reality without actually experiencing it.
The mere intellectual recognition of this Oneness of Mind is no more sufficient to make it real to us than the mere intellectual recognition of Australia's existence will suffice to make Australia real to us.
In the end all our words about the Overself remain but words.
For just as no amount of telling a man who has never touched or drunk any liquid will ever make properly clear to him what wetness is unless and until he puts his finger in a liquid or drinks some of it, so every verbal explanation really fails to explain the Overself unless and until we know it for ourself within ourself and as ourself.
-- Notebooks Category 7: The Intellect > Chapter 8: Intellect, Reality, and The Overself > # 2
-- Perspectives > Chapter 7: The Intellect > # 29 Paul Brunton
' Duality in the Afterlife '...
The self that is found after the death of the body is still part of the egoic-desire,
but, the loss of physical pain and fear opens into the State of Divine Consciousness..
Although, this place of self is quite beautiful and loving,
It is not complete Freedom..
There still exists a situation of Duality..
" I and the Father are One ",
said, the Mystic..
But, to become One,
requires only One..
There is no name for One except,
that warm wind called Love...
-thomas
' Anatta '...
Here is what’s experienced here; it’s not enough to have an insight into the empty nature of self felt as “me”, but that “me” has to cease.
It’s not good enough to understand or have this insight.
When the “me” self suddenly ceases being projected by the subconscious (karmic)mind, this absence of self reveals a consciousness that has no owner as “my” consciousness, has no center or boundary.
In this moment no one exists to whom karma or suffering, death or fear could apply; not because “you” now can see through or see the empty nature of all such phenomena, but rather there is no self present processing information in relation to a “me”.
This is real anatta.
At this point, the seeker, the search, and the path suddenly become absent. However, I don’t see any Dharma path prioritizing this, and very few that became “absent” from any path.
All effort through a path and practices is a waste of time, because no personal self has ever existed; only thoughts about one has. Our “self” felt as “me” is no more real than the identity as a “me” in last night’s dream.
-Jackson Peterson to Dzogchen Thogal
' The Energy of Guru '...
Can one man transfer spiritual grace to another?
If by grace is meant here can he give a glimpse of the Overself to another,
the answer is Yes!--if the other is worthy, sensitive, and above all karmically ready.
He can if the other man is capable of absorbing the stimulus radiated to him.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 4: The Sage's Service > # 64
Paul Brunton
' There are companions '...
"You have to really look for them, but I remember being so grateful to find people who left little bread crumbs along the way.
You look through hundreds of years of spiritual literature and find that they are there, and when you bump into them, you just have this profound feeling of gratitude.
Somebody took the time to leave these little bread crumbs.
So when you’re in this spot that has no reference in your life, and nobody around you understands it, remember there’s somebody that existed 600 years ago who left a bread crumb just to say, ‘Hey, there are companions.’ There are companions here.
That’s one of the greatest parts about a spiritual Sangha—there are companions.”
~ Adyashanti
May 2017 Tahoe Retreat
' Talking and Thinking '...
Deny the reality of things
and you miss their reality;
assert the emptiness of things
and you miss their reality.
The more you talk and think about it
the further you wander from the truth.
So cease attachment to talking and thinking,
and there is nothing you will not be able to know.
Hsin Hsin Ming
Translated by Richard B. Clarke
' The Sage '...
The sage does not retire at night in the darkness,
the ignorance of ordinary sleep,
but in the light of the Consciousness,
the ever-unbroken Transcendence.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 176
Paul Brunton
' Fear of Silence '...
“When there’s a moment of no sense of ‘me,’ why not leave it alone completely, come what may?
When a fearful thought or feeling arises in an instant, it can also be gone in an instant, even before it has triggered the thirty thousand chemicals throughout the body.
There is just a vulnerable being exposed, alone, without knowing, without a word.
Maybe it’s a moment of dying to all the impulses to know, to protect, to maintain, to continue.
Not knowing is dying.
And at the same time being wholly alive.”
--Toni Packer, from The Light of Discovery, “Fear of Silence”
' All that you do is Sacred '...
Now is the time to know
That all that you do is sacred.
Now, why not consider
A lasting truce with yourself and God.
Now is the time to understand
That all your ideas of right and wrong
Were just a child's training wheels
To be laid aside
When you finally live
With veracity
And love.
Hafiz is a divine envoy
Whom the Beloved
Has written a holy message upon.
My dear, please tell me,
Why do you still
Throw sticks at your heart
And God?
What is it in that sweet voice inside
That incites you to fear?
Now is the time for the world to know
That every thought and action is sacred.
This is the time
For you to compute the impossibility
That there is anything
But Grace.
Now is the season to know
That everything you do
Is sacred.
- Hafiz, from The Gift" - versions of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky
' Nature of your desire '...
"You must be clear about the nature of your desire.
Do not let second-hand information influence you.
There is only love and in this love the man and woman sometimes appear.
-Jean Klein
' Two Ways to Realization '...
There are two different ways to realization:
(a) The path of yoga meditation whose goal is nirvikalpa samadhi.
(b) Gnana whose goal is sahaja samadhi.
This looks on the world as being only a picture, unreal.
Both seek and reach the same Brahman, the world disappearing for both.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 130
Paul Brunton
' This and That '...
Symbols of past and present..
Both representations of Duality..
The thinker is that of the Hologram..
The mind that wonders into different scenes..
To say 'this' is to say what you have seen now..
An observer watching..
To say 'that',
is the observer repeating a scene..
The Observer is the first step into Reality..
Pure Awareness is the final step into Reality..
Love is all that is found,
the ego lies in shambles...
-thomas
' Be drunk on Love '...
"Be drunk on love, because love is all that exists.
Without love, no one has the right to enter His house.
They ask: 'What is love?'
The reply: 'Giving up your self-will.'"
Jalaluddin Rumi
in Andrew Harvey
Teachings of Rumi
Boston: Shambhala, 1999, p. 73
' Mysticism and Albert Einstein '...
“The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical.
It is the power of all true art and science.
He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead.
To know that what is inpenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms — this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness.
In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong to the rank of devoutly religious men.”
Albert Einstein
Quoted in Philipp Frank
Einstein: His Life and Times
NY: Knopf, 1947, rpt by Frank Press, 2007, p. 284
' It is already with me '...
If you want something, you must assert that
it has already come:
"It is already with me."
This is one of the psychological techniques
people generally suggest;
and it will immediately
come.
If you intensely want a thing, it will come.
Your Questions Answered
Swami Krishnananda
The Divine Life Trust Society, 1995
' Rest in Being '...
Don't be a storehouse of memories. Leave past, future and
even present thoughts behind.
Be a witness to life unfolding
by itself.
Be free of all attachments, fears and concerns by
keeping your mind inside your own heart.
Rest in Being.
Like this, your life is always fresh and imbued with pure joy
and timeless presence.
Be happy, wise and free.
- Mooji
' Dzogchen Practice in Everyday Life '...
The everyday practice of dzogchen is simply to develop a complete carefree acceptance, an openness to all situations without limit.
We should realise openness as the playground of our emotions and relate to people without artificiality, manipulation or strategy.
We should experience everything totally, never withdrawing into ourselves as a marmot hides in its hole. This practice releases tremendous energy which is usually constricted by the process of maintaining fixed reference points. Referentiality is the process by which we retreat from the direct experience of everyday life.
Being present in the moment may initially trigger fear. But by welcoming the sensation of fear with complete openness, we cut through the barriers created by habitual emotional patterns.
When we engage in the practice of discovering space, we should develop the feeling of opening ourselves out completely to the entire universe. We should open ourselves with absolute simplicity and nakedness of mind. This is the powerful and ordinary practice of dropping the mask of self-protection.
We shouldn't make a division in our meditation between perception and field of perception. We shouldn't become like a cat watching a mouse. We should realise that the purpose of meditation is not to go "deeply into ourselves" or withdraw from the world. Practice should be free and non-conceptual, unconstrained by introspection and concentration.
Vast unoriginated self-luminous wisdom space is the ground of being - the beginning and the end of confusion. The presence of awareness in the primordial state has no bias toward enlightenment or non-enlightenment. This ground of being which is known as pure or original mind is the source from which all phenomena arise. It is known as the great mother, as the womb of potentiality in which all things arise and dissolve in natural self-perfectedness and absolute spontaneity.
All aspects of phenomena are completely clear and lucid. The whole universe is open and unobstructed - everything is mutually interpenetrating.
Seeing all things as naked, clear and free from obscurations, there is nothing to attain or realise.
The nature of phenomena appears naturally and is naturally present in time-transcending awareness. Everything is naturally perfect just as it is. All phenomena appear in their uniqueness as part of the continually changing pattern. These patterns are vibrant with meaning and significance at every moment; yet there is no significance to attach to such meanings beyond the moment in which they present themselves.
This is the dance of the five elements in which matter is a symbol of energy and energy a symbol of emptiness. We are a symbol of our own enlightenment. With no effort or practice whatsoever, liberation or enlightenment is already here.
The everyday practice of dzogchen is just everyday life itself. Since the undeveloped state does not exist, there is no need to behave in any special way or attempt to attain anything above and beyond what you actually are. There should be no feeling of striving to reach some "amazing goal" or "advanced state."
To strive for such a state is a neurosis which only conditions us and serves to obstruct the free flow of Mind. We should also avoid thinking of ourselves as worthless persons - we are naturally free and unconditioned. We are intrinsically enlightened and lack nothing.
When engaging in meditation practice, we should feel it to be as natural as eating, breathing and defecating. It should not become a specialised or formal event, bloated with seriousness and solemnity. We should realise that meditation transcends effort, practice, aims, goals and the duality of liberation and non-liberation. Meditation is always ideal; there is no need to correct anything. Since everything that arises is simply the play of mind as such, there is no unsatisfactory meditation and no need to judge thoughts as good or bad.
Therefore we should simply sit. Simply stay in your own place, in your own condition just as it is. Forgetting self-conscious feelings, we do not have to think "I am meditating." Our practice should be without effort, without strain, without attempts to control or force and without trying to become "peaceful."
If we find that we are disturbing ourselves in any of these ways, we stop meditating and simply rest or relax for a while. Then we resume our meditation. If we have "interesting experiences" either during or after meditation, we should avoid making anything special of them. To spend time thinking about experiences is simply a distraction and an attempt to become unnatural. These experiences are simply signs of practice and should be regarded as transient events. We should not attempt to re-experience them because to do so only serves to distort the natural spontaneity of mind.
All phenomena are completely new and fresh, absolutely unique and entirely free from all concepts of past, present and future. They are experienced in timelessness.
The continual stream of new discovery, revelation and inspiration which arises at every moment is the manifestation of our clarity. We should learn to see everyday life as mandala - the luminous fringes of experience which radiate spontaneously from the empty nature of our being. The aspects of our mandala are the day-to-day objects of our life experience moving in the dance or play of the universe. By this symbolism the inner teacher reveals the profound and ultimate significance of being. Therefore we should be natural and spontaneous, accepting and learning from everything. This enables us to see the ironic and amusing side of events that usually irritate us.
In meditation we can see through the illusion of past, present and future - our experience becomes the continuity of nowness. The past is only an unreliable memory held in the present. The future is only a projection of our present conceptions. The present itself vanishes as soon as we try to grasp it. So why bother with attempting to establish an illusion of solid ground?
We should free ourselves from our past memories and preconceptions of meditation. Each moment of meditation is completely unique and full of potentiality. In such moments, we will be incapable of judging our meditation in terms of past experience, dry theory or hollow rhetoric.
Simply plunging directly into meditation in the moment now, with our whole being, free from hesitation, boredom or excitement, is enlightenment.
-by HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
' Cosmic Vision '...
We may reasonably hope to see God one day but not to be God.
The Cosmic Vision of the World-Mind at work which Arjuna had may be ours too but not the complete union with the World-Mind Itself.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 2:
Enlightenment Which Stays > # 103 Paul Brunton
' Mundaka Upanishad '...
Brahman is not grasped by the eye, nor by speech,
nor by the other senses, nor by penance or good
works.
A man becomes pure through serenity of
intellect;
thereupon, in meditation, he beholds
Him who is without parts.
- Mundaka Upanishad
' The mind must be still '...
Experience is not bound by any step or by no-step,
by any state or by no-state!
The mind must be still without carrying any person or object.
Be careful!
Don't let the mind run to concepts
which will trick and disturb you, so be very careful!
Look to where the mind runs.
Do this without taking any steps.
Just watch the mind's activity: where it goes, what it wants.
Be careful, day and night, whether you are meditating
or in the marketplace.
- Papaji
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
' Adept understanding Adept '...
All speculation upon the motives and the methods of the illuminate will avail little.
The light by which he works is denied to ordinary men.
We should not try to bind him down to qualities which fit only those who grope in the dark or move in twilight.
We should trust where we cannot see and wait patiently for the day of revealment, when we will find all made clear and all riddles solved to our satisfaction.
It is an old truism in the East that it takes an adept to understand an adept, but the West will have to learn this truth by bitter experience with pseudo-adepts.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 3: The Sage > # 387 Paul Brunton
' Today '...
Today means boundless and inexhaustible eternity.
Periods of months and years and of time in general are ideas of men,
who calculate by number;
but the true name of eternity is Today.
- Philo
' Coming and Going '...
"Coming empty-handed, going empty handed -
that is human.
When you are born, where do you come from?
When you die, where do you go?
Life is like a floating cloud which appears.
Death is like a floating cloud which disappears.
The floating cloud itself originally does not exist.
Life and death, coming and going, are also like that.
But there is one thing which always remains clear.
It is pure and clear, not depending on life and death.
What, then, is the one pure and clear thing?"
- Zen Master Seung Sahn
' The Avatar '...
If he refrains from the final mergence into Nirvana,
it is not only because he wants to be available for the enlightenment of his more hapless fellows,
but also because he knows that he has really been in Nirvana from the beginning and has never left it.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 4: The Sage's Service > # 3 Paul Brunton
' The Unreal as Unreal '...
It is all the mind can do – discover the unreal as unreal.
The problem is only mental.
Abandon false ideas, that
is all.
There is no need of true ideas.
There aren’t any.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
' The Deepest Compassion '...
The most compassionate thing anyone can do is to help someone else let go of egocentricity.. Then there is only liberation left—the freedom of living from presence rather than living from the delusional idea that the 'me' is the center of the universe.
We always mistakenly think that "compassion" is propping up someone else's story of, "Poor me, I am not able to pull off being the center of the universe today!" I believe that if I prop up your story, you will prop up mine! But that only keeps me and you in the suffering of the egocentric story. And what is the point of that?
Better to encourage one another to discover the freedom to be what we already are and always have been, which is Spirit, presence...FREEDOM....instead of believing that I am the living embodiment of a story of "the me as the center of the universe.". This is a fairytale story that can never come true!
So this devotion to the Truth of who we ultimately are becomes the TRUE movement of compassion. Compassion for ourselves and compassion for others. We start to see that what we do for ourselves, we do for others. We lead each other to the liberating truth of who we really are..THIS is the deepest compassion!
The TRUTH will always set you free! So the most compassionate act is to help lead someone to the liberating TRUTH of who they really ARE!
-Francis Fran Bennett
' Unified Existence '...
When his mind moves entirely and wholly into the One Infinite Presence,
and when it settles permanently there,
the divided existence of glimpse and darkness, of Spirit and matter,
of Overself and ego, of heaven and earth, will vanish.
The crossing over to a unified existence will happen.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 122
Paul Brunton
' Enlightenment '...
The experience of Awakening is swift after many years of meditation and the 'Observation' of the false self called ego..
If You can witness the thoughts of the mind and watch the ego act in it's normal selfish manner then,
You are the 'Observer' and not the ego as evidenced by the ability to stand back and watch the 'play',
that the false ego presents on a daily basis..
As You watch the temptations of selfishness,
You will see them dissolve,
as they are only thoughts that are not accepted by the Real Self..
Keep Observing and You will be free of the pain of ego...
-thomas
' Awakening '...
Less than two weeks after I entered the halfway house, my life changed completely. What follows is a very approximate account.
One morning I woke up. I had been sleeping on the floor as usual. Nothing special had happened the night before; I just opened my eyes. But I was seeing without concepts, without thoughts or an internal story. There was no me. It was as if something else had woken up.
It opened its eyes. It was looking through Katie's eyes. And it was crisp, it was clear, it was new, it had never been here before. Everything was unrecognizable. And it was so delighted! Laughter welled up from the depths and just poured out.
It breathed and was ecstasy. It was intoxicated with joy: totally greedy for everything. There was nothing separate, nothing unacceptable to it. Everything was its very own self. For the first time I — it — experienced the love of its own life. I — it —was amazed!
In trying to be as accurate as possible, I am using the word 'it' for this delighted, loving awareness, in which there was no me or world, and in which everything was included. There just isn't another way to say how completely new and fresh the awareness was.
There was no I observing the "it." There was nothing but the "it." And even the realization of an "it" came later….
Then it stood up, and that was amazing. There was no thinking, no plan. It just stood up and walked to the bathroom. It walked straight to a mirror, and it locked onto the eyes of its own reflection, and it understood.
And that was even deeper than the delight it had known before. It fell in love with that being in the mirror. It was as if the woman and the awareness of the woman had permanently merged.
There were only the eyes, and a sense of absolute vastness, with no knowledge in it. It was as if I — she — had been shot through with electricity.
It was like God giving itself life through the body of the woman — God so loving and bright, so vast — and yet she knew that it was herself. It made such a deep connection with her eyes.
There was no meaning to it, just a nameless recognition that consumed her. Love is the best word I can find for it. It had been split apart, and now it was joined.
There was it moving, and then it in the mirror, and then it joined as quickly as it had separated — it was all eyes. The eyes in the mirror were the eyes of it. And it gave itself back again , as it met again.
And that gave it its identity, which I call love. As it looked in the mirror, the eyes — the depth of them— were all that was real, all that existed — prior to that, nothing. No eyes, no anything; even standing there, there was nothing. And then the eyes come out to give it what it is.
People name things a wall, a ceiling, a foot, a hand. But it had no name for these things, because it's indivisible. And it's invisible. Until the eyes. Until the eyes.
I remember tears of gratitude pouring down the cheeks as it looked at its own reflection. It stood there staring for I don't know how long.
- Byron Katie
' Seeing Your Face '...
I swear, since seeing Your face,
the whole world is fraud and fantasy
The garden is bewildered as to what is leaf
or blossom.
The distracted birds
can't distinguish the birdseed from the snare.
A house of love with no limits,
a presence more beautiful than venus or the moon,
a beauty whose image fills the mirror of the heart.
- Rumi, from The Divani Shamsi Tabriz XV,
version by Coleman Barks
Quiet,
serene,
sustained for ever,
unchanging,
stable,
enduring am I.
I am consciousness,
there is nothing else ,none else.
I am presence,
formless presence,
partless presence,
infinite presence,
choiceless presence,
peaceful presence,
blissful presence,
absolute presence.
I am freedom,
free of the world,
free of mind,
free of modifications,
free of desire,
free of otherness,
free of duality , I am free!
I am being,
limitless being,
eternal being,
inexpressible being,
changeless being,
Self-luminous being,
Self-existent being.
I am love,
non-dual love,
absolute love,
unconditioned love,
love is my own nature,
fulfilled love,
all-satisfying love,
desireless love,
eternal love supreme I am.
I am one,
one Self,
there is nothing else.
I AM THAT I AM.
I am bliss,
nothing is lacking,
there is perfect balance,
happiness,
I-am-ness,
blessedness ,I am this!
The above quotes by Srimati Margaret Coble
are from the book Self Abidance, Second Abridged Edition
' The Mirror of Heaven '...
As regards the quietude of the sage, he is not quiet because
quietness is said to be good.
He is quiet because the multitude
of things cannot disturb his quietude.
When water is still, one’s
beard and eyebrows are reflected in it.
A skilled carpenter uses
it in a level to obtain measurement.
If still water is so clear, how
much more are the mental faculties!
The mind of a sage is the
mirror of heaven and earth in which all things are reflected.
- Chuang-Tzu
' The Peaceful State '...
Outwardly we live and have to live in the very midst of cruel struggle and grievous conflict, for we share the planet's karma; but inwardly we can live by striking contrast in an intense stillness, a consecrated peace, a sublime security.
The central stillness is always there, whether we are absorbed in bustling activity or not.
Hence a part of this training consists in becoming conscious of its presence.
Indeed only by bringing the mystical realization into the active life of the wakeful world can it attain its own fullness.
The peaceful state must not only be attained during meditation, but also sustained during action.
-- Notebooks Category 24: The Peace within You >
Chapter 0: Introductory Paras > # 2
Paul Brunton
' Thoughts on a Thursday Night '...
Van Morrison sings in the background, "Take me back "..
The 'me' has always been a problem with Nature..
Once 'me' leaves the room, the space is silent..
Always chasing Knowledge and never siting still..
Knowledge is already Known when Awakened..
The rest of learning is a game to give hope..
Hope is not needed when Reality is felt..
The Energy of all Original Thought is Love..
Return to that which is the Energy...
-thomas
' Itdabak '...
"Whosoever serves God out of love comes into union (itdaḅak) with the place of the Highest of the High,
and comes into union, too,
with the holiness of the world which is to be."
Zohar, ii. 216
in J. Abelson
Jewish Mysticism (1913), p. 167
' Just Concepts'...
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi attributed unique value to it as being a lucid exposition of Supreme Truth. He quite often referred to it in his talks with devotees and seekers.
He even stated that if one would repeatedly study Chapter 26 of the Ribhu Gita one could spontaneously pass into the state of sahaja samadhi, or the natural state of true Self-realization.
This passage consists of six verses selected by Sri Bhagavan from the whole text of the original work, which together represents a summation of its central teaching.
1. The concept 'I-am-the-body' is the sentient inner organ (i.e. the mind). It is also the illusory samsara. It is the source of all groundless fears. If there is no trace of it at all, everything will be found to be Brahman. (17)
2. The concept 'I-am-the-body' is the primal ignorance. It is known as the firm knot of the heart (hrdayagranthi). It gives rise to the concepts of existence and non-existence.
If there is no trace of it at all, everything will be found to be Brahman. (19)
3. Jiva is a concept, God, the world, the mind, desires, action, sorrow and all other things are all concepts. (25)
4. The mind is unreal. It is like a magic show. It is the son of a barren woman. It is absolutely non-existent. Since there is no mind there are no concepts, no Guru, no disciple, no world, no jiva. All concepts are really Brahman. (36)
5. The body, etc., are only concepts. Hearing, etc. (i.e. hearing, reasoning and contemplating) are concepts. Self-enquiry is a concept. All other things are also concepts. Concepts give rise to the world, the jivas and God. There is nothing whatever except concepts. Everything is in truth Brahman. (30)
6. Abiding without concepts is the undifferentiated state. It is inherence (in Brahman). It is wisdom. It is Liberation. It is the natural state (sahaja). It is Brahman. It is Siva. If there is no concept at all everything will be found to be Brahman.
-Jackson Peterson
' This is Tao '...
Chuang Tzu wrote:
"From wholeness one comprehends; from comprehension one comes near to Tao.
There one stops.
To stop without knowing how one stops--this is Tao."
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 81
Paul Brunton
' The Sage is indifferent '...
The sage is indifferent.
He does not hanker
after more pleasure, nor does he refuse whatever
may come to him by way of experience.
There is
no volition, either positive or negative, because
there is no separate entity to choose, want or
strive for anything.
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' Deepening The Wonder '...
Deepening The Wonder
Death is a favor to us,
But our scales have lost their balance.
The impermanence of the body
Should give us great clarity,
Deepening the wonder in our senses and eyes
Of this mysterious existence we share
And are surely just traveling through.
If I were in the Tavern tonight,
Hafiz would call for drinks
And as the Master poured, I would be reminded
That all I know of life and myself is that
We are just a midair flight of golden wine
Between His Pitcher and His Cup.
If I were in the Tavern tonight,
I would buy freely for everyone in this world
Because our marriage with the Cruel Beauty
Of time and space cannot endure very long.
Death is a favor to us,
But our minds have lost their balance.
The miraculous existence and impermanence of
Form
Always makes the illumined ones
Laugh and sing.
'The subject tonight is Love -
60 wild and sweet poems of Hafiz'
Versions by Daniel Ladinsky
' The Trap of Meaninglessness '...
There are other traps that are inherent within this process of going from the initial glimpse of awakening to real abiding awakening. There are several of them that come up and again these traps or these cul-de-sacs, these delusions aren’t inherent to awakening itself but they arise with the mind’s relationship with the awakened view because the awakened view is so far beyond the mind that the mind truly can’t contain it but the mind’s inherent nature is to try to contain everything that it sees. And so one of these very common traps that people can get into is a sense of meaninglessness.
Now this can arise because from the stand point of reality we are free from the egoic desire to find meaning. We see that the ego's desire to find meaning in its life is actually a surrogate, a substitute for having a direct connection with life, for having the perception of ‘you are life itself.’ But if we don’t feel that, if we don’t know that, we don’t experience that, then we need surrogates, we need something to stand in to fill the gap as it were. And as egos, what the ego uses is meaning, ‘I’m trying to find the meaning in my life, what’s the meaning to my life.' Only someone who is disconnected from life itself will seek meaning. Only someone that’s disconnected from life will look for purpose. I’m not saying that people shouldn’t look for meaning or shouldn’t look for purpose. Actually they are probably wise strategies that are used to help people cope with life. But remember that these egoic yearnings for ‘what’s the meaning of my life?, what’s the meaning of my existence?, what’s the purpose of my existence?’ are ultimately derived from a state where we have no real knowledge of what we are, where we’re disconnected from our true nature. I don’t mean actually disconnected, I mean unconscious of.
So when there’s a true realization, when we wake up from the dream state, when we wake up from the ego, what is realized, part of the realization is the search for meaning is now no longer appropriate. When one has a direct connection with life, all of a sudden to find one’s meaning, to find one’s purpose seems to be a rather paltry thing, to be a small thing, to be insignificant. It’s no longer really a drive in our life. The drive for meaning and purpose falls out of our life because we are literally in a different perspective. In a perspective where such things don’t really exist or certainly they don’t exist in the old way, they don’t exist from the egoic standpoint.
Now the mind will perceive this, this truth, this truth that when we wake up from the dream state we see that the dream state is a dream state. How could a dream state have meaning? How could a dream state have purpose. It’s a dream. And that’s very true but as I say over and over, there’s still a human being and there’s still a human mind. And the mind is trying to make sense of all this. The mind is even trying to make sense of awakening itself. It’s trying to make sense of the view of awakening. And as I have also said, for most people there’s not a total disappearance of the ego, of that which is the experience of division. And so the mind is in relationship with the insights of reality, at times. And the mind will start to say, ‘Oh God, there’s no meaning!’ And what’s left of the ego will say, “There’s no meaning! I now have no purpose or meaning! It's like you’ve seen too much of Reality to believe in purpose or meaning.
-From The End of Your World - Adyashanti
' Striving of the Samsaric Mind '...
The experience of the non-dual awareness of rigpa is quite wonderful.
It is freedom from the restless striving of the samsaric mind.
It is not a dull peace, but the opposite.
It is pure wakefulness.
It is light, open, radiant, and blissful.
When we are no longer preoccupied with self-centered pursuits based on the insecurities of the illusory self and its desires and aversions, the world arises in the purity of the natural state in a vivid, pristine display of beauty.
For the practitioner stable in rigpa, all experiences arise as an ornamentation of the nature of mind, rather than as a problem or delusion.
- Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, from The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep,
' Be Before Thinking '...
"Putting aside all concerns, shed all attachments.
Do nothing at all.
Don’t fabricate any things with the six senses.
If you want to clarify the mind-ground, give up your jumble of limited knowledge and interpretation, cut off thoughts of usualness and holiness, abandon all delusive feelings.
Although the ancient Teachings are a long-standing means to clarify the mind, do not read, write about, or listen to them obsessively because such excess only scatters the mind.
Now think of what is without thought.
How can you think of it?
Be Before Thinking.
This is meditation."
Keizan Jōkin, also known as Taiso Jōsai Daishi,
is considered to be the second great founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan
' The sense of 'Aha' ...
We don't love it because it makes us feel good or is good for us, or because it means an attainment of one kind or another, or because it represents some kind of enlightenment or advancement.
We love it because we know that when we are real, we are home—no matter the sensation or the flavor.
Sometimes being real means allowing pain or accepting a painful truth.
Yet something in us aligns with an inner ground of authenticity when we are real.
We love it because of its inherent rightness in our soul, the sense of "Aha, here I am and there is nothing to do but be."
A.H.Almaas
The Unfolding Now, p.6
' Self is to be still '...
Your duty is to be and not to be this or that.
'I am that I am' sums up the whole truth.
The
method is summed up in the words 'Be still'.
What does stillness mean?
It means destroy
yourself.
Because any form or shape is the
cause for trouble.
Give up the notion that 'I
am so and so'.
All that is required to realize
the Self is to be still.
What can be easier than
that?
"Be As You Are"
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
edited by David Godman
Arkana, 1985
' The Original Mind '...
Studying texts and stiff meditation can make you lose your Original Mind.
A solitary tune by a fisherman, though, can be an invaluable treasure.
Dusk rain on the river, the moon peeking in and out of the clouds;
Elegant beyond words, he chants his songs night after night.
-- from Wild Ways: Zen Poems of Ikkyu, Translated by John Stevens
' Overself '...
He who arrives at this stage becomes so wise and understanding, so strong and dependable, so kind and calm, that those who seek to foster these qualities within their own selves will receive from his word--sometimes from his mere presence--a powerful impetus to their progress.
They will catch fire from his torch, as it were, and find a little easier of accomplishment the fulfilment of these aspirations.
And those who are able to share in his effort to serve, to collaborate with his selfless work for the world, will receive daily demonstration of and silent tuition in those still loftier and more mysterious qualities which pertain to the quest of the Overself:
in the paradox of dynamic stillness, inspired action, and sublime meditation.
Yet he accepts worship from nobody as he himself worships none.
For he will not degrade himself into such materiality nor permit others so to degrade themselves through their own superstition or someone else's exploitation.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 4: The Sage's Service > # 165 Paul Brunton
' Bhakti-marga '...
"There are only two ways to conquer destiny or to be independent of it.
One is to enquire whose this destiny is and to discover that only the ego is bound by it and not the Self, and that the ego is non-existent.
The other way is to kill the ego by completely surrendering to the Lord, realising one's helplessness and saying all the time:
`Not I, but Thou, oh Lord!', giving up all sense of `I' and `mine' and leaving it to the Lord to do what he likes with you.
Surrender can never be regarded as complete so long as the devotee wants this or that from the Lord.
True surrender is the love of God for the sake of love and nothing else, not even for the sake of salvation.
In other words, complete effacement of the ego is necessary to conquer destiny, whether you achieve this effacement through Self-enquiry or through bhakti-marga."
-Sri Ramana Maharshi
Day by Day with Bhagavan
From the Diary of A. Devaraja Mudaliar
' Notice the River '...
“All I did was sit on the riverbank handing out river water.
After I’m gone, I trust you will notice the river.”
- Tony dē Mello
' Divine Bliss '...
No man who is sensitive to the sufferings of humanity can really enjoy "divine bliss" or unmitigated ecstasy.
Therefore the sage is quite different from the mystic.
The latter revels in emotional joyfulness, whereas the former maintains a quiet exalted peace.
His power lies in keeping this self busy with constant service of humanity.
The bliss of the mystic belongs to the realm of his personal feeling and signifies his indifference towards suffering humanity; the wisdom of the sage belongs to the realm of his realization of oneness, which is incompatible with indifference to others.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 3: The Sage > # 127 Paul Brunton
' True Success '...
“The great secret of true success,
of true happiness, is this:
the man or woman who asks for no return,
the perfectly unselfish person, is the most successful.”
-Swami Vivekananda
' 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
' The State of Grace '...
Spirit is in a state of grace forever.
Your reality is only spirit.
Therefore you are in a state of grace forever.
Miracles arise from a mind that is ready for them.
As an expression of what you truly are,
the miracle places the mind in a state of grace.
Since the miracle aims at restoring the awareness of reality,
it would not be useful if it were bound by laws
that govern the error it aims to correct.
The above quotes are from the book
A Course in Miracles
' The Space of Pure Being '...
The emptiness I speak about is not the emptiness the
mind imagines.
It is not blank.
Your body can continue
expressing in a natural way.
Intelligence is there.
Emotions can come.
Everything can play, but inside
there is total serenity and peace.
No planning, no
strategizing, no personal identity is there.
Just the space
of pure being.
It is what we are, but we dream and believe
we are not.
- Mooji
' The Infinate Mind '...
Every circumstance and environment, every fresh experience and personal contact is an instruction sent by the one unseen Infinite Mind,
who should be regarded as the real Master.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 5: Teaching Masters, Discipleship > # 185
Paul Brunton
' A Movement of Compassion '...
“Do you remember when your idea of compassion was to join in someone’s illusory story of what was happening? You felt, ‘I have to support your illusory story so you will support mine, and then we will really feel bonded and closer together.’
But the level of compassion I’m speaking of means something else. This compassion means a devotion to Truth. And the first movement of this compassion has to be to oneself.
The world is full of people who want to be compassionate to everyone else and save the world. But they don’t want to take it within themselves because it will remove the center.
That is the ultimate compassionate act, to remove the center.
Then there is only freedom—the freedom of awakeness, the freedom to be what one already is, which is spirit, instead of the living incarnation of a story.
So this devotion to Truth becomes a movement of compassion, not only for ourselves but for others, and we start to see that what we do for ourselves, we automatically do for others.”
- Adyashanti
Emptiness Dancing
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