' Thoughts on a Thorsday Night '...
Thor is not to enter this Consciousness of Thoughts..
Thor is just a vision of fear..
You are Consciousness and yet, not even your parents have spoken these words..
Do not blame your parents, they already feel the pain of unknowing..
You have now been Awakened..
Thoughts, known as Self will construct into Reality..
The belief that You are an actor called 'ego' as Your True Character Is False..
We keep grasping for things and beliefs..
But, all We are desiring is Truth..
Become friendly within this moment called Reality, also called Nothingness..
-thomas
' The Noble-Minded '...
"The noble-minded are all-encompassing, not stuck in doctrines....
The noble-minded are principled but never dogmatic."
Confucius
Analects, 2.14, 15.37
'''''''''''''''
Mencius comments:
"The problem with clinging to a single doctrine is that it plunders the Way."
Mencius 7.A.26
in Bonnie Louise Kuchler
One Heart: Wisdom from the World's Scriptures
NY: One Spirit, 2003, p. 48
' Humanity's Plan '...
When you desire the common good,
the whole world
desires with you.
Make humanity's desire your own
and work for it.
There you cannot fail.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
' The Divine Expression '...
I am the divine expression exactly as I am, right here, right now.
You are the divine expression exactly as you are, right here, right now.
It is the divine expression, exactly as it is, right here, right now.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, needs to be added or taken away.
Nothing is more valid or sacred than anything else.
No conditions need to be fulfilled.
The infinite is not somewhere else waiting for us to become worthy.
~ Tony Parsons
' The Great Way '...
The Great Way is embracing and spacious -
to live in it is neither easy nor difficult.
Those who rely on limited views are fearful and irresolute:
The faster they hurry, the slower they go.
To have a narrow mind,
and to be attached to getting enlightenment
is to lose one's center and go astray.
When one is free from attachment,
all things are as they are,
and there is neither coming nor going.
- Seng-ts'an, Third Zen Patriarch
Hsin Hsin Ming
Translated by Richard B. Clarke
' A Bound Mind '...
Our frail spirits fret at every handicap Fate puts upon us,
forgetting entirely the far greater handicap of a mind bound with hard thongs to illusions.
-- Notebooks Category 13: Human Experience > Chapter 1:
Situation > # 194 Paul Brunton
' The 'me' Story '...
"Let there be softness towards the character.
When there is a reaction to who you think you are then the character is judging the character—this reinforces the mistaken identity/separation story.
Being in observer mode replaces the habit of buying into the "me" story.
It needs to become really clear when the observer is active so that there is an awareness of watching the character without any comment.
And when that softness towards the character arises naturally, you can know that the observing position is becoming more familiar.
This is really key as it trains your system to not plug into the "me" story.
The personal story is seen with softness and this causes it to lose its potency as a story."
~Jac O'Keeffe
' Embracing the Real '...
At a certain point, one comes to see: Oh my god,
I am cherishing so many lies!
But still you continue to hold onto these imaginings
because you feel you will not be yourself without them,
whereas in fact, you will not be your Self with them.
Do not think that without the imagined, the real will be
dull. On the contrary, only by fully embracing the Real
does one's existence come truly alive. Truth, liberation,
peace, joy, love and timeless perfection are One.
- Mooji
' The Overself is True Power '...
Fix the attention undividedly upon the Overself which is anchored in your heart-centre.
Then everything you do during the day will naturally be divinely inspired action and true service.
The Overself is your true source of power:
turn towards it and receive its constructive guidance for your task of daily living.
-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 6:
Advanced Meditation > # 165 Paul Brunton
' The Intelligence of the Heart '...
Do not TRY to open your heart now.
That would be a subtle movement of aggression towards your immediate embodied experience. Never tell a closed heart it must be more open; it will shut more tightly to protect itself, feeling your resistance. A heart unfurls only when conditions are right; your demand for openness invites closure. This is the supreme intelligence of the heart.
Instead, bow to the heart in its current state. If it's closed, let it be closed; sanctify the closure. Make it safe; safe even to feel unsafe. Trust that when the heart is ready, and not a moment before, it will open, like a flower in the warmth of the sun. There is no rush for the heart.
Trust the opening and the closing too; the expansion and the contraction; this is the heart's way of breathing; safe, unsafe, safe, unsafe; the beautiful fragility of being human; and all held in the most perfect love.
~ Jeff Foster
' Beyond the Witness '...
When I look beyond the mind,
I see the witness.
Beyond the witness,
there is infinite intensity of emptiness and silence.
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Atma and Paramatma '...
"The sole purpose of creation is that the soul [Atma]
should be able to enjoy the infinite state of the Oversoul [Paramatma] consciously."
-Meher Baba
Discourses
San Francisco: Sufism Reoriented, 6th ed., 1967, Vol. II, p. 139
' An Unconditioned Power '...
There is an irreducible Principle of Being behind all other beings,
an Unconditioned Power behind all lesser and limited powers,
a final Reality which was never born or put together.
Call it what you will, you can neither define nor describe it adequately:
men do not perceive it because they do not have the necessary faculty for perceiving it,
for that is a faculty which has nothing to do with the affairs of their little ego and its little world.
But they can awaken this insight, nurture it, develop it.
-- Notebooks Category 20: What Is Philosophy? > Chapter 4:
Its Realization Beyond Ecstasy > # 153 Paul Brunton
' Karl Brunnholzl - “The Heart Attack Sutra”:
Avoiding Nihilism
Karl Brunnholzl wrote in his book,
“The Heart Attack Sutra”:
“The place where emptiness hits its own ground—or rather its own groundlessness—is called “the emptiness of emptiness.”
When we deal with emptiness, there is still the danger or the tendency to solidify emptiness itself.
Though it is meant as the final antidote for clinging or solidifying, our mind still tries to solidify even the very lack of solidity since it is such an old habit of ours.
This is why the Buddha taught the emptiness of emptiness, meaning that we need to let go of whatever understanding of emptiness we may have too since it is not the real thing.
We need to let go of any sense of insight, realization, or wisdom, any sense of “I got it,” because that still involves duality, solidification, and reference points..
Since emptiness means that there is nothing to solidify and nothing to hold on to, it defeats the purpose if we make emptiness into some kind of principle, universal law, or higher truth because then we are still holding on to something.
It might be slightly better but it could also be a lot worse if we hold on to emptiness, because that usually means that we miss out on the compassion part.
We might just think, “Oh, yes, everything is empty, nothing really matters.”
However, that is not an understanding of emptiness at all; it just means being stuck in nonexistence and nihilism.”
' The Experience of One '...
"God is the only Reality,
and all the rest is illusion.
God is One.
We are in Him, and one with Him;
and we have to experience This.
That is the purpose of creation.
This jagra (inner struggle or fight) is to get this experience.""
-Meher Baba
in Bhau Kalchuri
Lord Meher
Asheville, NC: MANifestion, 1st American edition, vol. 11, p. 3919
' A New Reality '...
As long as you believe you are the body-mind phenomena
you're going to have problems.
You may feel justified in having problems.
You may feel it's not your fault.
You may feel it's karmic.
You may feel all kinds of things,
but as long as you believe or you feel the body-mind,
you will have problems,
because this is the kind of world in which we live -
a world that doesn't exist,
seems real to most of us.
And if we believe we are the body-mind
then we believe the world is real and
we believe we have to pray to God for solutions.
We do all these things and we still suffer.
And suffering will only stop,
not when God answers your prayers,
but when you awaken to the truth of your own being.
Then you’re born again, so-to-speak, in a new reality and all is well.
~ Robert Adams
" 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
' Think yourself out of it '...
Your expectation of something unique and dramatic, of
some wonderful explosion, is merely hindering and
delaying your self-realization.
You are not to expect an
explosion, for the explosion has already happened – at the
moment you were born, when you realized yourself as
being-knowing-feeling..
There is only one mistake you are
making.
You take the inner for the outer and the outer for
the inner.
What is in you, you take to be outside you and
what is outside you take to be in you.
The mind and
feelings are external, but you take them to be internal.
You believe the world to be objective, while it is entirely
a projection of your psyche.
That is the basic confusion
and no new explosion will set it right.
You have to think
yourself out of it.
There is no other way.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
' Darma Practice '...
Anything that acts as an antidote to self-grasping is Dharma practice.
Whereas, even though we may engage in a great variety of practices
that may appear to be spiritual,
if they do not act to destroy our
self-grasping, they are not Dharma practice.
-Gomo Tulku
' As Transparent as Glass '...
"There are more fake gurus and false teachers in this world than the number of stars in the visible universe.
Don’t confuse power-driven, self-centered people with true mentors.
A genuine spiritual master will not direct your attention to himself or herself and will not expect absolute obedience or utter admiration from you, but instead will help you to appreciate and admire your inner self.
True mentors are as transparent as glass.
They let the light of God pass through them."
~ Shams Tabrizi (spiritual instructor of Rumi)
' True Self and false self '...
1:25. You existed
as the background of awareness
before that I thought arose.
1:26. The thought
calling its "self" "I"
is an imposter "self".
1:27. The background of awareness
is the true Self.
1:28. The fact that you existed
before you learned the language
that became your thoughts
helps to reveal the difference
between your true Self
and the imposter.
1:29. Because you existed
as the background of awareness
before you learned the language
that produced the thoughts
you now think in,
you can easily see
the I thought is an imposter.
-http://www.uarelovebooks.com
' Speaking the Truth '...
But telling the truth is an aspect of awakening. It may
not seem like it, because it's very practical and very human.
It's not transcendent. It's not about pure consciousness, it's
about how pure consciousness manifests as a human being
in an undivided way. We must be able to manifest what we
realize, and we must also come to grips with and start to
notice the very forces within us that keep us from manifesting
truthfulness in every situation.
Almost every time I've given a talk like this in public,
someone will come up to me later and say, "You know that
talk you gave on truthfulness and honesty and all that?" And
I'll go, "Yeah, I remember the talk." And they'll say, "Well,
somebody came up in the parking lot afterward and decided
that she needed to tell me all the rotten things she thought
about me, in the name of honesty."
And I just kind of shake my head. I hesitate to even give
talks on this topic, because it's so easy to misunderstand.
Truth is a very high standard. Truth is not a plaything. To
tell what is true within ourselves is not to tell what we think;
it is not to tell our opinion. It is not to dump the garbage can
of our mind onto somebody else. All of that is illusion, distortion,
projection. Truth is not unloading our opinions onto
someone. That is not truth. Truth is not telling our beliefs
about things. That is not truth. Those are ways that we actually
hide from truth.
Truth is much more intimate than that. When we tell
the truth, it has the sense of a confession. I don't mean a
confession of something bad or wrong, but I mean the sense
where we come completely out of hiding. Truth is a simple
thing. To speak the truth is to speak from a sense of total and
absolute unprotectedness.
To tell truth with any consistency, we not only have to
meet every place in ourselves that is afraid of telling truth,
we also have to see the belief structure we have that tells
us, "I can't do that." Those belief structures are by their
very nature based in unreality. To know this is not enough;
you have to actually see it, to really perceive exactly what
you believe. What are the exact belief structures that cause
you to go into duality, that cause you to go into conflict
and hiding? Only then can you tell truth in the way I'm
discussing here.
- Adyashanti
' Clinging to self '...
The aspirant who frequently measures how far he has advanced, or retrograded, upon this path, or how long he has stood still, is seeking something to be gained for himself, is looking all the time at himself.
He is measuring the ego instead of trying to transcend it altogether.
He is clinging to self, instead of obeying Jesus' injunction to deny it.
Looking at the ego, he unwittingly stands with his back to the Overself.
If he is ever to become enlightened, he must turn round, cease this endless self-measurement, stop fussing over little steps forward or backward, let all thoughts about his own backwardness or greatness cease, and look directly at the goal itself.
-- Notebooks Category 2: Overview of Practices Involved > Chapter 2:
The Measure of Progress > # 45 Paul Brunton
' The Strongest Medicine '...
Love is the strongest medicine.
It is more
powerful than electricity.
- Neem Karoli Baba
Miracle of Love
by Ram Dass
E.P. Dutton, New York, 1979
' Between Two Thoughts '...
During the gap--infinitesimal though it be--between two thoughts, the ego vanishes.
Hence it may truly be said that with each thought it reincarnates anew.
There is no real need to wait for the series of long-lived births to be passed through before liberation can be achieved.
The series of momentary births also offers this opportunity, provided a man knows how to use it.
-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 8: The Void As Contemplative Experience > # 162
-- Perspectives > Chapter 23: Advanced Contemplation > # 67 Paul Brunton
' The Goal of Dzogchen '...
The goal of Dzogchen, why Dzogchen exists, is to bring current consciousness to its primordial condition as the Mind of Clear Light.
When the state of current consciousness increases in vibrational frequency from its current lower frequency of contracted mind states, to the highest wave frequency of consciousness known as the Mind of Clear Light, the wisdom contained or encoded in the waves lengths of Clear Light, become its insights automatically.
Just like you can’t experience the information contained in FM radio waves with an AM radio, you can’t experience the wisdoms that exist at the frequency of Clear Light, with an ordinary human, dualistic mind consciousness.
Your mind or consciousness is the Mind of Clear Light, but in a contracted, energetic state centered around a “self concept” of “I am” experienced as “me”. This is like water becoming frozen and contracted into being a lump of ice.
In Bon we use the five elements to describe our different states of consciousness. The earth element of consciousness would be the most dense, as sem and egoic, whereas the space element aspect of consciousness is the Mind of Clear Light or rigpa.
Each elemental state of consciousness or density, could be loosely correlated to the samsaric domains of the Six Lokas. However the space element would represent the non-dual, nirvanic state of the Mind of Clear Light.
We could order these mind states sequentially where rigpa or the Mind of Clear Light would be like space and each other element compared to a state of water:
Water vapor
Steam
Rain
Sleet
Slush
Ice
Each condition downward would be more localized, contracted and more dense then the one immediately above. The greater the localized density, the less wisdom is present.
Insights occur according to the momentary degree of the density of current consciousness. For example, in the most contracted and dense state you “think” like an animal or reptile. In the highest state your insights are that of a Buddha.
When your current mind state is directed to look inward at its own nature of empty, space like awareness, it may suddenly experience a flash of the wisdom that is primordially encoded in that wave length of consciousness; the Mind of Clear Light.
“This is integration with space, and we no longer feel limited by our bodies to one specific location but are present everywhere in space with no boundaries." Tenzin Wangyal
Dissolving the “ice of ego” within:
-Tenzin Wangyal
' The Practice of the Presence of God '...
That inspired and excellent little book, Brother Lawrence's The Practice of the Presence of God, is an example of Short Path teaching.
The contemporary biographer of Lawrence writes:
"He could never regulate his devotion by certain methods as some do. . . .
At first, he had meditated for some time, but afterwards that went off."
"All bodily mortifications and other exercises are useless," he thought, "but as they serve to arrive at the union with God by love."
Now it is all very well for Brother Lawrence to decry techniques and to tell aspirants that his prayer or method was simply a sense of the presence of God.
He himself needed nothing more than to attend to what was already present to, and existing in, him.
But how many average aspirants are so fortunate, how many possess such a ready-made sense or feeling?
Is it not the general experience that this is a result of long previous toil and sacrifice, an effect and not itself a cause?
-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 2:
Pitfalls and Limitations > # 68 Paul Brunton
' No time-bound story '...
It can be quite a blow to the time-bound story to realize that all its grand plans for future enlightenment are just self-centered thought patterns.
In those patterns, the underlying plot is, “When will my enlightenment arrive?”
‘Your’ enlightenment will never arrive.
No time-bound story ever reaches enlightenment.
Enlightenment is realized to be the timeless awareness that sees the time-bound story arising and falling.
In that effortless noticing, the story is seen to be a dream that was never real.
There is nothing to get rid of.
Only that seeing is needed.
- Scott Kiloby.
' The Present Moment '...
When you are present in this moment,
you break the continuity of your story,
of past and future.
Then true intelligence arises,
and also love.
- Eckhart Tolle
' The Hologram of Dreams '...
I only post because I surrendered my self..
You know the human self,
the egoic creation of the thoughts of others..
As the Nazarene said:
" you must die, to be Born "..
He also said:
" I and the Father are One "..
The new 'I' contains only the ego of 'I Am'..
The false self is left within the Hologram of Dreams..
-thomas
' Jnana '...
"Ignorance conceals the pre-existent Knowledge just as the water plants cover the surface of a pond.
Clear away the plants and you have the water. You don't have to create it; it is already there.
Or take another example — a cataract grows on the eye and prevents a man from seeing: remove the cataract and he sees. Ignorance is the cataract.
*Jnana* (Knowledge) is not something to be attained.
It is eternal and self-existent.
On the other hand, ignorance has a cause and an end.
The root of it is the idea that the devotee is separate from God.
Remove that and what remains is *Jnana*."
Sai Baba of Shirdi
in Arthur Osborne
The Incredible Sai Baba
London: Rider, 1958, p. 26-7
' You cannot fight the mind '...
Fighting the ego, the mind, is precisely what the
ego wants.
You cannot fight the mind.
You cannot
suppress the ego.
Fighting, resisting, controlling it
is an impossible action.
What is really needed is a
negative or feminine action.
That is to yield, to
allow things to be as they are.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' Without added activities '...
The ordinary man is aware of his surroundings,
first, by naming and labelling them; second,
by linking them with past memory of them; and third,
by relating them to his own personal self.
The illumined egoless man is simply aware of them,
without any of these other added activities.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 2:
Enlightenment Which Stays > # 230 Paul Brunton
' The One '...
"Commune with the One,
And the myriad affairs will be completed."
-Chuang Tzu_ 12.1
in Victor H Nair, Tr.
Wandering On The Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Chuang Tzu
NY: Bantam, 1994, p. 103
' Consumed by the Flame '...
Ramana Maharshi's gift to the world was not that he realized the Self.
Many people have had a deep realization of the Self.
Ramana's real gift was that he embodied that realization so thoroughly.
It is one thing to realize the Self;
it is something else altogether to embody that realization to the extent that there is no gap between inner revelation and its outer expression.
Many have glimpsed the realization of Oneness; few consistently express that realization through their humanness.
It is one thing to touch a flame and know it is hot, but quite another to jump into that flame and be consumed by it.
- Adyashanti
' Direct Enlightenment '...
The Long Path is arranged in progressive stages,
whereas the Short Path is not;
it points to direct,
immediate, and final enlightenment.
-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 5:
Balancing the Paths > # 98 Paul Brunton
' When You have Awakened '...
Once Enlightenment has been administered by the Holy Spirit,
Reality is Seen and Awakeness to Reality is Known..
This is why Jesus meditated for forty days within a desert..
What you are experiencing is a Dream..
You only Know this Fact,
when You have Awakened...
-thomas
' The Ultimate Reality '...
The dream world contains all the relevant
features of the "actual" world.
But the
continued appearance of a thing is not
proof of its reality, regardless of whether
it appears to the dreaming mind or the
waking senses.
Only with the dissolution
of all appearance does one awaken to the
ultimate Reality of the Self.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' Ten Thousand Things '...
Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty
only because there is ugliness.
All can know good as good only because there is evil.
Therefore having and not having arise together.
Difficult and easy complement each other.
Long and short contrast each other;
High and low rest upon each other;
Voice and sound harmonize each other;
Front and back follow one another.
Therefore the sage goes about doing nothing, teaching no-talking.
The ten thousand things rise and fall without cease.
Creating, yet not possessing.
Working, yet not taking credit.
Work is done, then forgotten.
Therefore it lasts forever.
- Lao-tzu
Tao Te Ching
Translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English
Vintage Books Edition, September 1972
' Neither Time or Space '...
There is here no form to be perceived, no image born of the senses to be worshipped, no oracular utterance to be listened for, and no emotional ecstasy to be revelled in.
Hence the Chinese sage, Lao Tzu, said: "In eternal non-existence I look for the spirituality of things!"
The philosopher perceives that there is no such thing as creation out of nothing for the simple reason that Mind is eternally and universally present.
"Nothing" is merely an appearance. Here indeed there is neither time nor space.
It is like a great silent boundless circle wherein no life seems to stir, no consciousness seems to be at work, and no activity is in sway.
Yet the seer will know by a pure insight which will grip his consciousness as it has never been gripped before, that here indeed is the root of all life, all consciousness, and all activity.
But how it is so is as inexplicable intellectually as what its nature is.
With the Mind the last word of human comprehension is uttered.
With the Mind the last world of possible being is explored.
But whereas the utterance is comprehensible by his consciousness, the speaker is not.
It is a Silence which speaks but what it says is only that it IS; more than that none can hear.
-- Notebooks Category 28: The Alone > Chapter 1: Absolute Mind > # 115
-- Perspectives > Chapter 28: The Alone > # 15 Paul Brunton
' Accept Destiny '...
Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern
of your destiny,
for what could more aptly fit your needs?
- Marcus Aurelius
' Nothing but the Truth '...
Maybe I can point you to the great Reality within you.
Maybe you will awaken to the direct experience of Self-realization.
Maybe you will catch the fire of transmission.
But there is one thing that no one can give you: the honesty and integrity that alone will bring you completely to the other shore.
No one can give you the strength of character necessary for profound spiritual experience to become the catalyst for the evolutionary transformation called "enlightenment."
Only you can find that passion within that burns with an integrity that will not settle for anything less than the Truth.
- Adyashanti
' It is This '...
We must withdraw every thing and thought from the mind except this single thought of trying to achieve the absence of what is not the Absolute.
This is called Gnana Yoga: "Neti, Neti" (It is not this), as Shankara called it.
And he must go on with this negative elimination until he reaches the stage where a great Void envelops him.
If he can succeed in holding resolutely to this Void in sustained concentration--and he will discover it is one of the hardest things in the world to do so--he will abruptly find that it is not a mere mental abstraction but something real, not a dream but the most concrete thing in his experience.
Then and then only can he declare positively, "It is This." For he has found the Overself.
-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 8: The Void As Contemplative Experience > # 118
-- Perspectives > Chapter 23: Advanced Contemplation > # 76 Paul Brunton
' Thoughts on a Thursday Night '...
Welcome to the darkness of the Winter of New York..
An Observer within the mentally controlled..
Perhaps, the Oceans bring Dimension..
To reach Mind to Spirit is difficult..
Who are You ?...
I can write paragraphs,
but, who does it honor ?...
I laugh at the attempts to control my nature and soul..
I laugh, because, they do not know, that I do not exist..
I have always existed as the Dreams of Source..
Nothing else...
thomas
' Clearly at hand '...
Our main business is not to see what lies
dimly at a distance,
but to do what lies
clearly at hand.
- Carlyle
' The Unchanging Real '...
In a world of constantly changing scenes, fortunes, health, and relationships,
a precious possession is the knowledge that there is the unseen Unchanging Real.
Still more precious is awareness within oneself of ITS ever-presence.
-- Notebooks Category 28: The Alone > Chapter 2:
Our Relation To the Absolute > # 105
Paul Brunton
' Zen Quotes '...
Here are some Zen quotes, all preceding the written texts of Dzogchen.
The quotes are from the texts found buried in the ancient library of Dunhuang, China. Many earliest Dzogchen texts were discovered in the same cave.
The material is from Sam Van Schaik’s book, “Tibetan Zen”.. He also discusses many of the early Dzogchen texts as well as masters who were recognized masters in both the Zen lineage as well as in the early Dzogchen tradition. I highly recommend everyone to purchase and read Sam’s book.
“Just so, those sons who pursue tathāgata meditation abide in the bliss of self-referential awareness, the noble supreme wisdom that is not mind, or ego, or the ego-consciousness. They do not accomplish it from a cause, and it is definitely not an effect. It is the activity by which you become a buddha of reality itself. After that, they do not descend to other levels...”
Namkhai Nyingpo:
“to cultivate it is to be the dharmakāya, complete and perfect. This is what we call the supreme accomplishment.”
“In the space of non-conceptualization, non-self shines forth. This dharma was entrusted to the great Kaśyapa. Dharmatāra meditated in this way. Nonconceptualization is clarity, and clarity is nonconceptual. This is the wisdom of your own awareness.”
“So, when a sage transforms the confused mind through the path of conceptual analysis, is that the mind’s nirvāṇa? No, it is not like this. The scriptures say: “The essential point of realization is nothing more than your own awareness.”
“In instantaneous practice, all external appearances are understood to be merely mind, and the internal mind is nothing more than imagination with mistaken concepts.”
“The great teacher said: When I teach this perfect dharma, I teach it as the truth in which everything is perfect.”
“The wisdom of the mental eye is able to know the truth of perfection.”
“Be without concepts, not even thinking of not thinking.”
“Single Method: “Sit without thinking or conceptualizing in the space of reality free from thought.”
- Jackson Peterson
' Purity of Heart '...
"By purity of heart alone is the holy Eternal obtained."
-Guru Nanak
Adi Granth, Japji 20, M.1, p 472.
in Andrew Wilson, Ed.
World Scripture: A Comparative Anthology of Sacred Texts
St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 1995, p. 519
' Looking , Becomes Manifestation '...
When man looks for experience he becomes the body.
When he looks for knowledge he becomes the mind.
When he looks for God he becomes the Heart.
When he looks for Truth he becomes Nothing.
- Mooji
' The Overself '...
The Overself is not a goal to be attained but a realization of what already is.
It is the inalienable possession of all conscious beings and not of a mere few.
No effort is needed to get hold of the Overself, but every effort is needed to get rid of the many impediments to its recognition.
We cannot take hold of it; it takes hold of us.
Therefore the last stage of this quest is an effortless one.
We are led, as children by the hand, into the resplendent presence.
Our weary strivings come to an abrupt end.
Our lips are made shut and wordless.
-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself > Chapter 3:
The Overself's Presence > # 9 Paul Brunton
' I AM '...
"Where did I come from?" When you say that, you're not saying where did my body come from. You're saying where did ‘I’ come from ’I’.
I’’ is separate from your body; Your body is attached to ‘I’. The I’’ is not your body. I is separate from the world, but the world is attached to I’’. God is separate from the world, but God is attached to I’’. Therefore, when you ask, " Where did ‘I’ come from," something happens to your mind.
Your mind becomes weaker and weaker. And when your mind becomes weaker and weaker, the ‘I’ begins to expand and becomes all pervading.
Then the ‘I’ becomes another word for the Self, and you begin to realize I’’ is none other than the Self. I Am That. You become free.
It isn't hard and it isn't easy. It just is.
Think about yourself for a moment. Watch what thoughts come to you when you think about yourself. Some of you are saying, "I'm hungry." Some of you are thinking of your needs. As soon as you think about yourself, you think about your body. But your Self is not your body. Your body is only a heap of rotten flesh, but that's not you. You are I’’. I AM. I am not this and not that.
-Robert Adams
' The Near Future '...
Within the next six months, you will be shocked into standing still with mouth open..
The Satanic influence within the leaders of the world will be exposed..
The Satanic Media will be destroyed..
Truth will enter the media, forced by Reality..
They can no longer deny Truth..
The Truth of nine-eleven will be discovered..
Those that you admired, will be discovered as Traitors..
Do not Fear !..
Divine Consciousness is reclaiming the Hologram..
These foolish entities of one hundred years will disappear..
How many of these entities have died within the past year ?..
Many more will exit this hologram within the next year..
Sit back and watch Reality design a New World without a new world order...
-thomas
' Ever-moving Thoughts '...
The world is your kaleidoscope, and the varying
combinations of colors which at every succeeding
moment it presents to you are the exquisitely
adjusted pictures of your ever-moving thoughts.
- As a Man Thinkth
James Allen
' The Perceived Existence of Time '...
All fear comes from thought in the form of memory (past) or projection (future).
Thought creates time: past, present, and future.
So fear exists and comes from the perceived existence of time.
To be free of fear is to be free of time.
Since time is a creation of thought, to be free of fear you must be free of thought.
Consequently, it is important to awaken and experience your Self outside of thought, existing as eternity.
So question all notions of yourself that are creations of thought and of time—of past, present, and future.
Experience your eternalness, your holiness, your awakeness until you are convinced that you are never subject to the movement of thought, of fear, or of time.
To be free of fear is to be full of Love.
- Adyashanti
' The Reality of War | The 14th Dalai Lama '...
"Since armies are legal, we feel that war is acceptable;
in general, nobody feels that war is criminal or that accepting it is criminal attitude.
In fact, we have been brainwashed.
War is neither glamorous nor attractive.
It is monstrous.
Its very nature is one of tragedy and suffering."
' The Consciousness of Christ '...
Christ is a State of non-egoic desire called Love or what is called Reality..
The State of egoic-desire is called Luciferianism..
We find 'Self' within propaganda or Awakening..
The " Television Programing" is exactly what they tell you..
" Programing" of the mind..
Programing of mind is a Hypnotic Event..
The mind can be fractured into many segments of consciousness of self..
This is where, the lower frequency of souls enter..
Those still trapped within the lower fourth dimension..
Jesus would force the release of these entities many times from the manifestations called humans..
Remenber, This is All a Dream or what is now called Hologram..
You, as Divine Consciousness creates all of this Drama, ( Dreama )..
- thomas
' To Be at Peace '...
To be at peace means to be empty of all desires--a state the ordinary man often ridicules as inhuman or dismisses as impossible.
The spiritual seeker goes farther and understands better, so he desires to be without desire--but only to a limited extent.
Moreover, some of his desires may be hidden from consciousness.
Only the sage, by which I do not mean the saint, is completely free from desires because the empty void thus created is completely filled by the Overself.
-- Notebooks Category 24: The Peace within You > Chapter 3:
Practise Detachment > # 262 Paul Brunton
' My Buddha Nature '...
If we are still wondering how to awaken, I suggest that we meditate now and then and focus on the following question: "What is holding me back from realizing my true nature, my Buddha Nature?" This is a very powerful inquiry. I am sharing this based on my own meditation practice. This is one of my favorite meditations because it always takes me to the place where I cannot blame anybody or anything for my lack of awakening.
When we open our hearts and let go of all of our theories and speculations, when we are not distracted even by spiritual fantasies, when we simply wholeheartedly and courageously inquire into what is holding us back, that is all that we need to do. Sometimes it is good when we are by ourselves to.. shout loudly to the sky, "Who is holding me back from awakening right now?" Or we can just ask the truth, "What is holding me back from awakening right now?" Either way we can't find any answer because there is nobody there. There is nothing holding us back and that's why we never really find any answers.
If anybody tells us that they have the answer, they are obviously lying because there isn't any answer. Next we might ask, "If there are no obstacles holding me back, then why am I not awakened right now?" And when we look we realize that we are attached to our thoughts. That's all that is happening. Samsara is nothing more than our identification with thoughts. That's all there is. There is nothing there except thoughts.
- Anam Thubten, from No Self, No Problem
' Nature's Nakedness '...
The shell must be cracked apart if what is in it is to come out, for if you want the kernel you must break the shell.
And therefore, if you want to discover nature's nakedness, you must destroy its symbols, and the farther you get in the nearer you come to its essence.
When you come to the One that gathers all things up into itself, there your soul must stay.
- Meister Eckhart
' Bathing the Intellect '...
“In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita, since whose composition years of the gods have elapsed, and in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial;
and I doubt if that philosophy is not to be referred to a previous state of existence, so remote is its sublimity from our conceptions.
I lay down the book and go to my well for water, and lo!
there I meet the servant of the Bramin, priest of Brahma and Vishnu and Indra, who still sits in his temple on the Ganges reading the Vedas, or dwells at the root of a tree with his crust and water jug.
I meet his servant come to draw water for his master, and our buckets as it were grate together in the same well.
The pure Walden water is mingled with the sacred water of the Ganges.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden
' Our Tragic Predicament '...
Man’s tragic predicament derives from the fact that
thought and its processes have become excessively
developed to the exclusion of intuition,
so much so that
every person confidently thinks of himself as an
individual figure exclusive even of the very ground of
nature!
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' The Natural State '...
"The natural state is what is directly experienced when there is no identification with thoughts.
It’s not a state of mind because it doesn’t come and go.
The natural state prevails—it’s natural.
When our attention is placed on thoughts/external world then we are no longer aware of it as we are distracted by stories.
The natural state never moves… attention goes elsewhere!
So the natural state is a little more subtle than any state of mind.
In the natural state there is rest within."
~Jac O'Keeffe
' Clearly and Compassionately '...
“The only reason we don't open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we don't feel brave enough or sane enough to deal with.
To the degree that we look clearly and compassionately at ourselves,
we feel confident and fearless about looking into someone else's eyes.
― Pema Chodron
' The Source of all Beingness '...
If you start playing the game of being an "enlightened somebody," the true teacher is going to call you on it.
He or she is going to expose you, and that exposure is going to hurt.
Because the ego will be there, standing in the light of Truth, exposed and humiliated.
Of course, the ego will cry "foul!"
It will claim that the teacher made a mistake and begin to justify itself in an effort to put its protective clothing back on.
It will begin to spin justifications with incredible subtlety and deceptiveness.
This is where real spiritual sadhana (practice) begins.
This is where it all becomes very real and the student discovers whether he or she truly wants to be free, or merely wants to remain as a false, separate, and self-justifying ego.
This crossroad inevitably comes and is always challenging.
It separates the true seeker from the false one.
The true seeker will be willing to bare the grace of humility, whereas the false seeker will run from it.
Thus begins the true path to enlightenment, granted only to those willing to be nobody. Discovering your "nobodyness" opens the door to awakening as beingness, and beyond that to the Source of all beingness.
-Adyashanti
' Ready for the Short Path '...
The end of all his efforts on the Long Path will be the discovery that although the ego can be refined, thinned, and disciplined, it will still remain highly rarefied and extremely subtle.
The disciplining of the self can go on and on and on.
There will be no end to it.
For the ego will always be able to find ways to keep the aspirant busy in self-improvement, thus blinding him to the fact that the self is still there behind all his improvements.
For why should the ego kill itself?
Yet the enlightenment which is the goal he strives to reach can never be obtained unless the ego ceases to bar the way to it.
At this discovery he will have no alternative to, and will be quite ready for, the Short Path.
-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 4:
The Changeover To the Short Path > # 119 Paul Brunton
' After Illumination '...
The differences between human beings still remain after illumination.
The variations which make each one a unique specimen and the individual that he is, still continue to exist.
But the Oneness behind human beings powerfully counterbalances.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 189
Paul Brunton
' The True Person '...
The true person is
Not anyone in particular;
But, like the deep blue color
Of the limitless sky,
It is everyone, everywhere
In the world.
- Dogen
' Luminous Clarity '...
"Profound and tranquil, free from complexity,
Uncompounded luminous clarity,
Beyond the mind of conceptual ideas;
This is the depth of the mind of the Victorious Ones..
In this there is not a thing to be removed,
Nor is there anything to be added.
It is merely the immaculate
Looking naturally at itself."
- Nyoshuh Khen Rinpoche
From the book, "Glimpse After Glimpse:
Daily Reflections On Living And Dying," published by Harper Collins.
' Love for Truth '...
If you want to know Truth,
you must have
100% Love for Truth.
In this way there is
no difference between the ways of Love
and Knowledge.
- Papaji
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
' The Inner Silence '...
He is not separate from his own experience,
not an observer watching it.
For there is only the inner silence,
with which he is identified if he turns to examine the I,
only the pure consciousness.
-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself >
Chapter 3: The Overself's Presence > # 294
Paul Brunton
' Selling Water by the River '...
In speaking regularly with spiritual seekers, it dawned on me one day how addicted so many of them are to the power of charisma.
They swap stories about how powerful this or that teacher is and compare experiences.
They get a charge from it, many mistaking charisma for enlightenment.
Charisma attracts at all levels:
political, sexual, spiritual, etc., and it feeds the ego's desire to feel special.
The ego loves getting hits of power—it's like a form of spiritual candy.
The candy may be sweet but can you live on it?
Does it make you free?
-Adyashanti
' Stay as the Self '...
Nothing stops you from finding the Truth.
But if you think
it does, it will feel like it.
Don’t waste too much time cleaning
your little issues and problems, focus on the Self.
Stay as
the Self and if the Self wishes to clean the dynamic expression,
it will do it, you don’t have to worry for that.
- Mooji
' The Enduring "I"...
What we commonly think of as constituting the "I" is an idea which changes from year to year.
This is the personal "I."
But what we feel most intimately as being always present in all these different ideas of the "I,"
that is, the sense of being, of existence, never changes at all.
It is this which is our true enduring "I."
-- Notebooks Category 8: The Ego >
Chapter 2: I-thought > # 1
Paul Brunton
' Now is the Time '...
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 - Poems by Hafiz the Great Sufi Master, Translations by Daniel Ladinsky
' Thoughts on a Tuesday Night '...
Controlling the mind (ego) is the object of life..
Continuing to incarnate into this hologram is the desire of the false ego..
The Luciferians will declare that he was the first declaration of freedom,
but Reality speaks and says that you have chosen to choose things over Reality..
This 'illusion of entity' called Lucifer or Satan is just a selfish desire of ego..
This entity is created by the Consciousness of Separation from Source..
This Evil Entity is the Destroyer of Creation..
Source always wins, when falsehood is seen..
Therefore, choose Reality and Truth..
It is Joy, especially compared to Hell..
This is where you now exist..
Perhaps, it is Purgatory..
Perhaps, It is Hell..
Or if you are Fully Awake,,
Fear, no longer exists..
It is Heaven..
" The Kingdom of God is within You "...
-thomas
' He Alone Is '...
To see God is to be God.
There is no all
apart from God for him to pervade.
He
alone is.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
"Be As You Are"
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
edited by David Godman
Arkana, 1985
' The Stage of Revelation '...
As one goes further in the soul's unfoldment one finally arrives at
the stage of revelation.
Life begins to reveal itself, and every
condition, every soul, every object in the world will reveal its
nature and character to one.
From The Teachings of¡
HAZRAT PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged by
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
' The Perception of Reality '...
Freedom is not necessarily exciting; it's just free.
Very peaceful and quiet, so very quiet.
Of course, it is also filled with joy and wonder, but it is not what you imagine.
It is much, much less.
Many mistake the intoxicating power of otherworldly charisma for enlightenment.
More often than not it is simply otherworldly, and not necessarily free or enlightened.
In order to be truly free, you must desire to know the truth more than you want to feel good.
Because if feeling good is your goal, then as soon as you feel better you will lose interest in what is true.
This does not mean that feeling good or experiencing love and bliss is a bad thing.
Given the choice, anyone would choose to feel bliss rather than sorrow.
It simply means that if this desire to feel good is stronger than the yearning to see, know, and experience Truth, then this desire will always be distorting the perception of what is Real, while corrupting one's deepest integrity.
- Adyashanti
' The Ocean of Existence '...
Awareness is the ocean of existence.
Let it loose and your words will rage
and cause wounds like fishing spears.
But if you tend it like a fire
to discover the truth,
you'll find how much of that
there is in what you say.
None.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
' Only Love Exists '...
Only reality exists and you are that.
Only consciousness exists and you are that.
Only love exists and you are that.
If you only realized who you were you would be the happiest person
that ever lived, and I mean happy, totally happy, unchanging happiness.
Is there such a thing?
Yes there is.
Unchanging peace.
Unchanging love.
~ Robert Adams
' Within You '...
God is in your very being.
To know him as something apart or far-away in time and distance or as an object outside yourself,
separate from you--that is not the Way--impossible.
Jesus gave away the secret:
He is within you.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 1: Their Meeting and Interchange > # 50
Paul Brunton
' Beyond Suffering '...
"The impulse 'I want' and the impulse 'I'll have' — lose them!
That is where most people get stuck;
without those you can use your eyes to guide you through this suffering state."
Gautama the Buddha
Sutta Nipata, 111.10 (706)
Translated by H, Saddhatissa
London: Routledge Curzon, digital edition 2003 (1985)
quoted in
Andrew Wilson
World Scripture: An Anthology of Sacred Texts
NY: International Religious Foundation, p. 667
' Treating Others '...
Spiritual people often want unconditional support and understanding from their friends, family, and mates, but all too often seem blind to their own shortcomings when it comes to the amount of unconditional support and understanding that they give to others. I have seen many spiritual people become obsessed with how unspiritual others are and assume an arrogant and superior attitude while completely missing the fact that they themselves are not nearly as spiritually enlightened as they would like to think they are.
Enlightenment can be measured by how compassionately and wisely you interact with others—with all others, not just those who support you in the way that you want. How you interact with those who do not support you shows how enlightened you really are.
As long as you perceive that anyone is holding you back, you have not taken full responsibility for your own liberation. Liberation means that you stand free of making demands on others and life to make you happy. When you discover yourself to be nothing but Freedom, you stop setting up conditions and requirements that need to be satisfied in order for you to be happy.
It is in the absolute surrender of all conditions and requirements that Liberation is discovered to be who and what you are. Then the love and wisdom that flows out of you has a liberating effect on others. The biggest challenge for most spiritual seekers is to surrender their self importance, and see the emptiness of their own personal story. It is your personal story that you need to awaken from in order to be free.
To give up being either ignorant or enlightened is the mark of liberation and allows you to treat others as your Self. What I am describing is the birth of true Love.
-Adyashanti
' Be still and know '...
If a man asks why he can find no trace of God's presence in himself, I answer that he is full of evidence, not merely traces.
God is present in him as consciousness, the state of being aware; as thought, the capacity to think; as activity, the power to move; and as stillness, the condition of ego, emotion, intellect, and body which finally and clearly reveals what these other things simply point to.
"Be still, and know that I am God" is a statement of being whose truth can be tested by experiment and whose value can be demonstrated by experience.
-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself > Chapter 3: The Overself's Presence > # 409
-- Perspectives > Chapter 22: Inspiration and the Overself > # 47 Paul Brunton
' A Mustard Seed of Faith '...
The Nazarene spoke of a mustard seed..
This is all that was needed to be healed from the death of my body..
A poor woman that flowed within the frequencies of Source..
There was never the declaration of power..
Jesus, was always the answer to miracles..
These miracles allow me to speak to your soul..
Listen to the phony books or listen to Reason..
All you have to believe, is, is it possible ?..
The game of life will convince you otherwise,
but, Truth will enter your mind with power...
-thomas
' Each Moment '...
"Each moment is absolute, alive, and significant.
The frog leaps, the cricket sings,
a dewdrop glitters on the lotus leaf,
a breeze passes through the pine branches and the moonlight falls on the murmuring streams."
- D. T. Suzuki ~
' True Meditation '...
I am an Advaitin on the fundamental point of nonduality of the Real, but I am unable to limit myself to most Advaitin's practical view of samadhi and sahaja. Here I stand with Chinese Zen (Ch'an), especially as I was taught and as explained by the Sixth Patriarch, Hui Neng. He warns against turning meditation into a narcotic, resulting in a pleasant passivity. He went so far as to declare: "It is quite unnecessary to stay in monasteries. Only let your mind . . . function in freedom . . . let it abide nowhere." And in this connection he later explains: "To be free from attachment to all outer objects is true meditation. To meditate means to realize thus tranquillity of Essence of Mind."
On samadhi, he defines it as a mind self-trained to be unattached amid objects, resting in tranquillity and peace. On sahaja, it is thorough understanding of the truth about reality and a penetration into and through delusion, to one's Essence of Mind. The Indian notion of sahaja makes it the extension of nirvikalpa samadhi into the active everyday state. But the Ch'an conception of nirvikalpa samadhi differs from this; it does not seek deliberately to eliminate thoughts, although that may often happen of its own accord through identification with the true Mind, but to eliminate the personal feelings usually attached to them, that is, to remain unaffected by them because of this identification.
Ch'an does not consider sahaja to be the fruit of yoga meditation alone, nor of understanding alone, but of a combination seemingly of both. It is a union of reason and intuition. It is an awakening once and for all. It is not attained in nirvikalpa and then to be held as long as possible. It is not something, a state alternately gained and lost on numerous occasions, but gradually expanded as it is clung to. It is a single awakening that enlightens the man so that he never returns to ignorance again. He has awakened to his divine essence, his source in Mind, as an all day and every day self-identification. It has come by itself, effortlessly.
— Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 141
Paul Brunton
' Just stay quiet '...
Stay as simple natural Being without thought or doership.
Out of nothing you can do anything and not leave footprints.
No intention is no limitation,
just stay quiet,
simply do not stir a thought.
-Papaji
' God-realization is Joy '...
One of the signs of God-realization is joy.
There is absolutely no hesitancy in such a
person,
who is like an ocean in joyous
waves.
But deep beneath the surface,
there
is profound silence and peace.
- Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
Great Swan: Meetings with Ramakrishna
by Lex Hixon
Shambala, 1992
' Jackson Peterson: The Neuro-Science of “self” '...
We know certain chemicals like LSD 25, can disrupt the appearance of the sense of self in many individuals. This points to a neurological basis for the sense of “me” and “I am”.
The full article is linked below these excerpts;
The author wrote:
“This event started with a panic attack that ended, unexpectedly, with the cessation of the inner self-voice and, with it, what is experienced as thinking. I suddenly found myself in a state where I was still aware of myself, but without the usual sense of body, self, or past life. Although this only lasted for a short time, its impact was profound and irreversible. What used to be a continuous flow of self-consciousness has been since then continuously disrupted.”
This is exactly what has occurred here several times and twice after a very minor “panic attack” sensation. It abruptly ended when the mind recognized that it was projecting the “me” self who was feeling the panic. One then knows that no actual self of any kind exists due to its complete absence. This is “passing through the gate” of “no self” or Anatta. Without this “anatta” event occurring, none of these “no self” teachings makes any sense, because the imaginary “self” is always present.
Further the author writes:
“The second self-experience - mainly addressed in Eastern traditions (particularly Hinduism) and recently in New-Age spirituality (see for ex., Wilber, 1998; Tolle, 2005) – is that of a “seer” or “watcher”. This experience (which, as will be described later, is driven by the mirroring of the self-face) becomes more prominent when the thinking self gets disrupted, an experience referred to in spirituality as “No-Mind” and pursued through special meditation techniques.
The spiritual literature on this self-experience is quite extensive. However, for the purpose of this paper, the discussion will only focus on the mirroring process underlying it. But it may be worth mentioning here that the so-called “seer”/”watcher” has been traditionally conceived of as being a Formless Self, which, as will be seen, is not the case. For lack of a specific term, the remainder of the paper will refer to this self-experience as Self-Awareness while the other self-experience (i.e. the thinking self) will be referred to with the term Self-Consciousness (as used in the above study by Gallagher & Zahavi).”
' The Philosopher '...
Another characteristic of the philosopher is his capacity to see the point of view of all, of the sinner and the criminal, the weak and the ignorant, equally with that of the saint and the sage.
This is born partly out of his developed intelligence, partly out of his profound impersonality, and partly out of his wide compassion.
This leads to the consequence that when seeking practical remedies for social wrongs, or redress for private ones, he seeks beneath the surface for ultimate causes.
A merely superficial view, which may deceive millions of people, is rejected by him.
The punishment of a crime without accompanying ethical education, for instance, he regards as clumsy and inefficient brutality.
Prison punishment, especially, should be set in a framework of ethical instruction which includes the doctrine of karma.
Without such a setting its deterrent effect is not sufficient to make it more than a half-success and a half-failure.
-- Notebooks Category 20: What Is Philosophy? >
Chapter 5: The Philosopher > # 116
Paul Brunton
' Accumulating Knowledge '...
Don't imagine you will discover the truth by accumulating more knowledge.
Knowledge creates doubt and doubt makes you ravenous for more knowledge.
You can't get full eating this way.
If you can let go of the Tao with the mind and surround it with your heart,
....it will live inside you forever.
- Hua Hu Ching
' You will never "know" the Truth '...
You will never "know" the Truth.
You can only "Be" the Truth..
There is no "knower" that's really separate from
the Truth that's being known.
The ego says that it wants to experience the
Truth, but it survives more by saying "no" to the
truth than it does by saying "yes" to it.
However, consciousness is truth, itself, and so
it needs no one present in order to validate it.
Life is just as it is.
There's nothing more than "just this."
And, quite amazingly, there's nothing else than
"just this."
- Chuck Hillig
' Leave God Alone '...
Leave God alone.
Speak for yourself.
You do not know God.
He is only what you think of Him.
Is He apart from you?
He is that Pure Consciousness in which all ideas are formed.
You are that Consciousness.
- Ramana Maharshi
' The understanding of Reality '...
How easily, we choose Reality..
The Truths are hard to find..
Who are We ?..
The words and thoughts are Dreams..
I can speak of thoughts and desires but Reality Watches..
Death is not acceptable to Reality..
The Demons are quite near..
Yin and Yang are the devision of Reality..
Reality is beyond the power of division..
Reality is called Love..
Face this Reality and bow to Love..
There is no Crown..
There is no ego..
There is only Reality...
-thomas
' Imagine, Waking Up '...
Imagine, Waking up to discover that all that you know is a lie..
Imagine, Waking up to discover that most leaders of all groups have been exposed..
Imagine, Waking up to discover that Love has re-entered the Dream..
How strange to see the Nazarene and the Buddha,
walking and talking..
" All that is hidden, will be seen ",
shouted, a Wiseman..
"We Refuse to be Slaves",
said;... Divine Consciousness...
-thomas
' The Religion of Love '...
"O Marvel! a garden amidst the flames.
My heart has become capable of every form:
it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,
and a temple for idols and the pilgrim's Kaa'ba,
and the tables of the Torah and the book of the Quran.
I follow the religion of Love: whatever way Love's camels take,
that is my religion and my faith."
-Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi
'Tarjuman al-Ashwaq'
Theosophical Publishing House, 1911. Poem XI
' One with Everything '...
“Wherever you are,
you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see.
You are one with everything.
That is more true than I can say,
and more true than you can hear.”
-Quote by Shunryu Suzuki
' A Spiritual Birthday '...
When a man's consciousness is turned upside-down by a glimpse,
when what he thought most substantial is revealed as least so,
when his values are reversed and the Good takes on a new definition,
he writes that day down as his spiritual birthday.
-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself > Chapter 4: Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > # 88
-- Perspectives > Chapter 22: Inspiration and the Overself > # 68 Paul Brunton
' The Greatest Accomplishment '...
To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying
to make you something else
is the greatest accomplishment.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
' The State of Liberation '...
They who are established in the state of liberation,
as pointed out by the scriptures,
surely cross this ocean of world-appearance
as their consciousness flows towards the Self.
But, they who are caught in the net of polemics
which are only productive of sorrow and confusion,
forfeit their own highest good.
Even in the case of the path shown by the scriptures,
only one's direct experience leads one along the safest way
to the supreme goal.
-The above Yoga Vasistha quotes are from the book
The Seven Steps to Awakening.
' The Pain of Love '...
The pain of love is the dynamite that breaks up the heart, even if it be as hard as a rock.
-Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
-Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
The effect of love is pain. The love that has no pain is no love.
The lover who has not gone through the agonies of love is not a lover, he claims love falsely.
Rumi describes six signs of the lover:
deep sigh, mild expression, moist eyes, eating little, speaking little, sleeping little, which all show the sign of pain in love.
Hafiz says, 'All bliss in my life has been the outcome of unceasing tears and continual sighs through the heart of night.'
The sorrow of the lover is continual, in the presence and in the absence of the beloved: in the presence for fear of the absence, and in absence in longing for the presence.
According to the mystical view the pain of love is the dynamite that breaks up the heart, even if it be as hard as a rock.
When this hardness that covers the light within is broken through, the streams of all bliss come forth as springs from the mountains.
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