' Thoughts on a Thursday Night '...

This Night, I met a few strangers that are Awake..

It is always strange to see the minds of those that have Awakened..

They finally see the World as it is..

The Characters that rule the different groups of humans always lead back to the Octupus..

Their many arms surround this Hologram..

It has always been the Desire of Power, Wealth, and Fame..

The Three Desires of Ego..

The Three Desires of Separation from Source..

We find ourselves within this Horror Graphic of Dream..

The Wars and Pain created by these beings..

And yet, they almost, always fool the workers..

And then,, sometimes, the workers wake up...


-thomas

' Your Real Nature '...

The intuition 'I Am' is your truest name.

Love, joy, peace
and wisdom are your real nature.

This is true for all living
beings.

But, you will not fully know and be this until you
are willing, open and ready to go beyond your personal
identity into Truth.


- Mooji

' Single Essence '...

If the mind makes no discriminations,

the ten thousand things are as they are,

of single essence.



- Seng-tsan, from Verses on the Faith Mind

' Walk into Paradise '...

If you choose presence now,

because you realize strongly that that is what wants to realize itself through you,

then it's less likely that life will have to force you into presence.

You can either voluntarily walk into paradise or be dragged into it screaming "No!"


- Eckhart Tolle

' Inquiry '...

Psychological inquiry is about content, and

it’s directed towards solving some problem.

Spiritual inquiry, however, is about context,

and it’s more directed towards discovering

who has the problem.



- Chuck Hillig
Seeds for the Soul
Chuck Hillig
Black Dot Publications, 2003

' Fundamental Basis of all Religions and Beliefs '...

As water in a fountain flows as one stream, but falls in many drops
divided by time and space, so are the revelations of the one stream
of truth.

Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

In a fountain there is a big stream which flows up and then breaks
into many drops. The stream is like the divine will, and the
different drops like the wills in us. One drop goes higher, another
lower, one falls to the left, another to the right, one goes north,
another south. But the source of all this activity is one; it is one
thing that turns into so many, scattering in all directions. Thus
from unity there has come variety.

Different methods called religions and philosophies have been adopted
by different nations at various periods. Though the form and
teachings of the several religions appear so unlike, their source is
one and the same. But from the very beginning the differences have
created prejudice, envy, and antagonism between man. Such dissensions
occupy a large portion of the histories of the world and have become
the most important subject in life.

So many castes and so many creeds,
So many faiths, and so many beliefs,
All have arisen from ignorance of man,
Wise is he who only truth conceives.

A wise man realizes that the fundamental basis of all religions and
beliefs is one: Haqq, or truth. ... Those who see the truth uncovered
abandon reason and logic, good and bad, high and low, new and old;
differences and distinctions of names and forms fade away, and the
whole universe is realized as nothing other than Haqq. Truth in its
realization is one; in its representation it is many, since its
revelations are made under varying conditions of time and space.

As water in a fountain flows in one stream but falls in many drops,
divided by time and space, so are the revelations of the one stream
of truth.

' That Which Is '...

When a man has reached this stage different terms can be used to label this unique attainment.

It is insight, awakening, enlightenment. It is Being, Truth, Consciousness.

It is Discrimination between the Seer and the Seen. It is awareness of That Which Is.

It is the Practice of the Presence of God.

It is the Discovery of Timelessness.

All these words tell us something but they all fall short and do not tell us enough.

In fact they are only hints for farther they cannot go: it is not on their level at all since it is the Touch of the Untouchable.

But never mind; just play with such ideas if you care too.

Ruminate and move among them. Put your heart as well as head into the game.

Who knows one day what may happen?

Perhaps if you become still enough you too may know--as the Bible suggests.


-Paul Brunton

Van Morrison Greatest Hits | The Best Of Van Morrison ( FULL ALBUM )

' Understand one thing well '...

Understand one thing well, and you have arrived.

What prevents you from knowing is not the lack
of opportunity, but the lack of ability to focus
in your mind what you want to understand.

If you
could but keep in mind what you do not know, it
would reveal to you its secrets.

But if you are
shallow and impatient, not earnest enough to look
and wait, you are like a child crying for the moon.



- Nisargadatta Maharaj

"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973

' The Self '...

Inquiry is making the mind abide firm in the Self,

until the false ego,

illusion's seed, has perished.

The Self, our Being,

is Awareness.


- Ramana Maharshi

' The Higher Laws '...

There is some confusion on this point in the minds of many students.

On attaining enlightenment a man does not attain omniscience.

At most, he may receive a revelation of the inner operations of life and Nature, of the higher laws governing life and man.

That is, he may also become a seer and find a cosmogony presented to his gaze.

But the actuality in a majority of cases is that he attains enlightenment only, not cosmogonical seership.


-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 can 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 deeply compute the impossibility
That there is anything
But Grace.

Now is the season to know
That everything you do
Is sacred.

- Hafiz




"The Gift"
Translations by Daniel Ladinsky
Penguin/Arkana, 1999

' A Single Short Happening '...

It is the making the man ready,

the preparation of his mind and heart which take so much time,

so many years even in many cases;

but the enlightenment itself is a single short happening:

the effect remains permanently.



-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 56 Paul Brunton

' No Past or Future '...

“Many misunderstandings and false beliefs about Christ will clear if you realize that there is no past or future in Christ. To say that Christ was or will be is a contradiction in terms. Jesus was. He was a man who lived two thousand years ago and realized divine presence, his true nature. And so he said:

“Before Abraham was, I am.” He did not say: “I already existed before Abraham was born.” That would have meant that he was still within the dimension of time and form identity. The words 'I am' used in a sentence that starts in the past tense indicate a radical shift, a discontinuity in the temporal dimension. It is a Zen-like statement of great profundity.

Jesus attempted to convey directly, not through discursive thought, the meaning of presence, of self-realization. He had gone beyond the consciousness dimension governed by time, into the realm of the timeless. The dimension of eternity had come into this world. Eternity, of course, does not mean endless time, but no time. Thus, the man Jesus became Christ, a vehicle for pure consciousness. And what is God’s self-definition in the Bible? Did God say, “I have always been, and I always will be?” Of course not. That would have given reality to past and future. God said: “I AM THAT I AM.” No time here, just presence.

The “second coming” of Christ is a transformation of human consciousness, a shift from time to presence, from thinking to pure consciousness, not the arrival of some man or woman. If “Christ” were to return tomorrow in some externalized form, what could he or she possibly say to you other than this:

“I am the Truth. I am divine presence. I am eternal life. I am within you. I am here. I am Now.”


-- Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

' The Real Lord's Prayer '...

The Aramaic Lord’s Prayer...

-- transliteration by Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz from the original Aramaic spoken by Jesus

Abwoon d’bwashmaya
Nethqadash shmakh
Teytey malkuthakh
Nehwey sebyanach aykanna d’bwashmaya aph b’arah
Hawvlan lachma d’sunqanan yaomana.
Washboqlan khaubayn wakhtahayn aykana daph khnan Shbwoqan l’khayyabayn.
Wela tahlan l’nesyuna
Ela patzan min bisha.
Metol dilakhie malkutha wahayla wateshbukhta l’ahlam almin.
Ameyn.



-- as translated by Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz from the original Aramaic spoken by Jesus

O Thou from whom comes the breath of life, which is present in all realms of vibration and light.
Let thy light/sound be experienced in my own ‘holy of holies.’
Let your ideals and counsel rule.
Let your desire be, as in the universe (all that vibrates), so also on earth.
Give us bread (understanding/support) for our needs from day to day.
Loose the cords of mistakes binding us, as we release the strands we hold of others’ faults.
Do not let surface things delude us.
But free us from what holds us back from our true purpose.
To you belongs the ruling will, the life and power to do, the song which beautifies all, from age to age it renews.
Amen (Sealed in trust and faith.)


-Posted by thomas meehan

' Nothing is mine '...

"There is no Path safer and smoother than that of bakalama.

Bakalama means resigning the self to the will of the Almighty,

to have no consciousness that anything is 'mine.'"



-Sri Ramakrishna
in F. Max Mueller
Ramakrishna: His Life and Saying, 343
London: Longmans, Green, 1898, p. 178

' i was a word '...

in the beginning
in the endless space of awareness
i was a word
i answered to
a name of recognition
and memory

soon i fell silent
in the question of who i am,
my own distant shore, my own Lover
for there is no other,
never was,
never will be
how can there be two?
a me and a not you?

and if, in the course of water and
my own womb of tranquility, I should
meet thee,
i shall call upon myself and
love thee,
My Beloved,


-Ana

' A Temporary Glimpse '...

Neither deep meditation nor the experience can give more than a temporary glimpse.

The full and permanent enlightenment,

which is to stay with a man and never leave him,

can only come after he has clear insight into the nature of Overself.



-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself > Chapter 8:
Glimpses and Permanent Illumination > # 11 Paul Brunton

' The Present Moment '...

The past is an interpretation.

The future is an illusion.

The world does not move through time as if it were a straight line, proceeding from the past to the future.

Instead, time moves through and within us, in endless spirals.

Eternity does not mean infinite time, but simply timelessness.

If you want to experience eternal illumination, put the past and the future out of your mind and remain within the present moment.


~ Shams-i-Tabrizi

' Believing thoughts '...

I discovered that when I believed my thoughts, I suffered,

but that when I didn’t believe them, I didn’t suffer,

and that this is true for every human being.

Freedom is as simple as that.

I found that suffering is optional.

I found a joy within me that has never disappeared, not for a single moment.

That joy is in everyone, always.


~ Byron Katie

' An Abrupt Awakening '...

Enlightenment is always "sudden" in the sense that during meditation or reverie or relaxation the preliminary thought-

concentrating gestatory period usually moves through consciousness quite slowly until,

at some unexpected moment,

there is an abrupt deepening,

followed by a slipping into another dimension,

a finding oneself alive in a new atmosphere.



-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself > Chapter 6:
Experiencing a Glimpse > # 10 Paul Brunton

' Loving yourself '...

So then,

the relationship of self to other is the complete realization that loving yourself,

is impossible without loving

everything defined as other than yourself.


- Alan Watts

"It Doesn't Matter Anymore" - Linda Ronstadt & Buddy Holly

' Rearranged the furniture '...

Striving to improve or to progress only confuses us even more.

Our appearances may lead us into believing
that we have reached a state of stability,
that changes are taking place,
that we are progressing
and are on the threshold of grace.

But in fact nothing has changed.

We have merely rearranged our furniture.

All this activity takes place in the mind,
it is a segment of imagination.


~ Jean Klein

' The Long 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

' Ordinary people '...

We must be willing to be ordinary people,

which means accepting ourselves as we are without trying to become

greater, purer, more spiritual, more insightful.

If we can accept our imperfections as they are, quite ordinarily,

they we can use them as part of the path.

But if we try to get rid of our imperfections, then they

will be enemies, obstacles on the road to our

"self-Improvement”.


~ Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

' St. Francis and the Sufis'...

Even though you tie a hundred knots
-the string remains one (Rumi).

“The atmosphere and setting of the Franciscan Order is closer to a dervish organization than anything else.”
Most people know that St. Francis of Assisi was a lighthearted troubadour of Italy who experienced a religious conversion and became a saint with an uncanny influence over animals and birds. It is on record that the troubadours were a relic of Saracenic musicians and poets. It is often agreed that the rise and development of the monkish Orders in the middle ages was greatly influenced by the penetration of Moslem dervish organization in the West. Studying St. Francis from this point of view, certain interesting discoveries become possible.

Francis was born in 1182, the son of Pietro Bernardone, a merchant of fine stuffs, and his wife, Madonna Pica. He was originally named Giovanni, but his father was so attached to France (where he spent much of his commercial life) that “for love of the land he had just quitted” he renamed the child Francesco.

Although considered an Italian, Francis spoke Provenal, the language used by the troubadours. There is little doubt that he felt in the spirit of the troubadours a glimpse of some thing deeper than appeared on the surface. His own poetry so strongly resembles in places that of the love poet Rumi that one is tempted to look for any report which might connect Francis with the Sufi order of the Whirling Dervishes. At this point we come across the first of a number of tales considered inexplicable by Western biographers.

The Whirling Dervishes can attain intuitive knowledge partly by a peculiar form of spinning, presided over by an instructor. Rumi’s school of Whirling Dervishes was in full operation in Asia Minor, and its founder was still alive, during the lifetime of St. Francis.

Here is the puzzling “spinning” tale:

Francis was walking through Tuscany with a disciple, Brother Masseo. They arrived at a fork in the road. One path led to Florence, another to Arezzo, a third to Siena.

Masseo asked which branch they should take.

“The road which God wills.”

“And which is that?”

“We will know by a sign. I command you, by your path of obedience, turn round and round as children do, until I tell you to stop.”

So poor Masseo twirled and twirled, till he fell down from giddiness. Then he got up and looked beseechingly at the saint; but the saint said nothing, and Masseo, remembering his vow of obedience, began again to twirl his best. He continued to twirl and to fall for some time, till he seemed to have spent all his life in twirling, when, at last, he heard the welcome words: “Stop, and tell me whither your face is turned.”

“To Siena,” gasped Masseo, who felt the earth rock round him.

“Then to Siena we must go,” said Francis, and to Siena they went.

That Francis felt the source of his troubadour inspiration to lie in the East, and that he was connected with the Sufis, seems clear from much evidence. When he went to the Pope, trying to have his Order accepted, he used a parable which shows that he must have been thinking in terms of the orphaning of a tradition and the need to reestablish its reality. The phrases which he uses in the parable are of Arabia, and the terminology, of a King and his court, of a woman and her sons in the desert, is not Christian but Saracen.

“Francis,” says Bonaventura, recording an audience with Pope Innocent, “came armed with a parable.

“There was, “he said, “a rich and mighty king who took to wife a poor but very beautiful woman, who lived in a desert, in whom he greatly delighted and by whom he had children who bore his image. When her sons were grown their mother said to them, “My sons, be not ashamed; ye are the children of a King.” And she sent them to the court, having supplied them with all necessaries. When they came to the King, he admired their beauty; and seeing in them some resemblance to himself, he asked them, “Whose sons are ye?” When they replied that they were the sons of a poor woman dwelling in the desert, the King, filled with much joy, said, “Fear not, ye are my sons, and if I nourish strangers at my table, how much more you, who are my legitimate children.”

The tradition that the Sufis are the esoteric Christians out of the desert, and that they are the children of a poor woman (Hagar, wife of Abraham, because of their Arab descent) fits completely with the probability that Francis had tried to explain to the Pope that the Sufi stream represented Christianity in a continuing form.

At his first meeting with the Pope, we are told, Francis did not make much impression, and he was sent away. Immediately afterward, however, the Pope had a strange dream. He saw “a palm tree gradually grow up at his feet until it grew a goodly stature, and as he gazed upon it wondering what the vision might mean, a divine illumination impressed on the mind of the Vicar of Christ that this palm tree signified the poor man whom he had that day driven from his presence.”

The palm tree is the symbol used by the Sufis, and this dream is probably the consequence of Francis using it as an analogy during his audience.

In the early part of the thirteenth century, Pope Innocent III, convinced of the validity of the saint’s mission, granted permission for the foundation of the Minor Brothers, or Franciscans. The “Lesser Brethren,” considered to be a title assumed from pious humility, might lead one to ask whether there was any Order known as the “Greater Brethren.” If so, what might the connection be?

The only people known in this way who were contemporary with St. Francis were the Greater Brothers, an appellation of the Sufi Order founded by Najmuddin Kubra,, “the Greater.” The connection is interesting. One of the major characteristics about this great Sufi teacher was that he had an uncanny influence over animals. Pictures of him show him surrounded by birds. He tamed a fierce dog merely by looking at it — just as St. Francis is said to have cowed the wolf in a well-known tale. Najmuddin’s miracles were well known throughout the East sixty years before St. Francis was born.

When St. Francis was praised by anyone, it is reported, he replied with this phrase: “What every one is in the eyes of God, that he is no more.”

It is related that the dictum of Najmuddin the Greater was: El Haqq Fahim ahsan el-Haqiqa—”The Truth it is which knows what is True.”

In or about 1224, the most important and characteristic of all of St. Francis’ songs was composed: the Cantico del Sole —Song of the Sun. Jalaluddin Rumi, the Whirling Dervish chief and greatest poet of Persia, wrote numerous poems dedicated to the Sun, the Sun of Tabriz. He even called a collection of his poems the Collection of the Sun of Tabriz. In this poetry the word “sun” is used again and again.

If it were true that St. Francis was trying to establish contact with the sources of his troubadour poetry, we would expect him to visit, or try to visit, the East. We would also expect him to be well received by the Saracens if he reached them. Further, he would be expected to produce Sufic poetry as a result of his Eastern travels. Now we can see whether these facts accord with history, and whether they were understood by his contemporaries.

When he was thirty, Francis decided to try to reach the East, and specifically Syria, which abutted upon the area of Asia Minor where the Whirling Dervishes were established. Prevented by financial troubles, he returned to Italy. Then he started out again, this time toward Morocco. He set off with a companion and traversed the whole kingdom of Aragon in Spain, though nobody can say why he did this, and some biographers are actually puzzled. Spain was very much penetrated with Sufi ideas and schools.

He did not actually reach Morocco, being driven back by illness, In the spring of 1214 he returned home. Now he set out for the Crusades, where the siege of Damietta was in progress. Sultan Malik el-Kamil was encamped across the Nile—and Francis went to see him. He was well received, and the theory is that he went there to try to convert the Sultan to Christianity. “The Sultan,” says a chronicler, “not only dismissed Francis in peace, with wonder and admiration for the man’s unusual qualities, but received him fully into his favor, gave him a safe-conduct by which he might go and come, with full permission to preach to his subjects, and an entreaty that he would frequently return to visit him.”

This visit to the Saracens is assumed by biographers to be prompted by a desire to convert the Sultan. And yet it is said of him that “These two aimless journeys break in somewhat strangely upon the current of his life.” They would be strange if they were not those of a troubadour looking for his roots. His desire to get to Morocco is dismissed in terms such as these: “It is impossible to tell what incident in his unrelated story may have suggested this new idea to the mind of Francis.”

The Saracenic armies and the courts of their princes were at that time foci of Sufi activity. There can be hardly any doubt that it was here that Francis found what he was looking for. Far from having converted anyone in the Moslem camp, his first action upon re crossing the Nile was to try to dissuade the Christians from attacking the enemy. By the usual process of hindsight this is explained by historians as being due to the saint’s having had a vision of the forthcoming calamity to Christian arms. “His warning was received with contempt, as he had foreseen; but in the month of November following was fully verified when the Crusaders were driven back with great loss from the walls of Damietta. The sympathies of Francis under such circumstances must have been divided, for it is impossible that he could have been without some personal feeling toward the tolerant and friendly prince who had received him with such kindness.”

The “Song of the Sun,” hailed as the first-ever Italian poem, was composed after the saint’s journey to the East, although because of his troubadour background it is impossible for his usual biographers to believe that he was not composing similar poetry before this:

It is impossible to suppose that during all these years [before 1224, when he wrote the "Song"] Francis, who was the leader of the young troubadours of Assisi in his early days, and who went through the woods and fields, after his conversion, singing to himself, still in French, songs which could not surely be the same songs he had sung through the streets among his joyous companions—the days of war and love—it is impossible, we say, to suppose that it was for the first time at this late date that he had woven together canticles to the glory of God; but we are assured that these quaint and unskilled rhymes were the first beginning of vernacular poetry in Italy.

The atmosphere and setting of the Franciscan Order is closer to a dervish organization than anything else. Apart from the tales about St. Francis which are held in common with Sufi teachers, all kinds of points coincide. The special methodology of what Francis calls “holy prayer” indicates an affinity with the dervish “remembering,” quite apart from the whirling. The dress of the Order, with its hooded cloak and wide sleeves, is that of the dervishes of Morocco and Spain. Like the Sufi teacher Attar, Francis exchanged his garb with a mendicant. He saw a seraph with six wings, an allegory used by Sufis to convey the formula of the bismillah. He threw away spiked crosses which were worn for purposes of self-mortification by many of his monks. This action may or may not have been exactly as it is reported. It may resemble the dervish practice of ceremonially rejecting a cross with the words, “You may have the Cross, but we have the meaning of the Cross,” which is still in use. This, incidentally, could be the origin of the Templar habit, alleged by witnesses, that the Knights “trod on the Cross.”

Francis refused to become a priest. Like the Sufis, he enrolled into his teaching laymen, and again like the Sufis but unlike the Church, he sought to spread the movement among all the people, in some form of affiliation. This was “the first reappearance in the Church, since its full hierarchical establishment, of the democratic element—the Christian people, as distinguished from the simple sheep to be fed, and souls to be ruled.”

The striking thing about the rules laid down by Francis was that, like the Sufis and unlike the ordinary Christians, his followers were not to think first of their own salvation. This principle is stressed again and again among the Sufis, who consider regard for personal salvation to be an expression of vanity.

He “began his preaching everywhere with the salutation which God, he said, had revealed to him—”The peace of God be with you.” This is, of course, an Arab salutation.
In addition to Sufi ideas, legends and practices, St Francis retained many Christian aspects in the Order. The consequence of this amalgam was to produce an organization which did not fully mature. A nineteenth century commentator sums up the inevitable development

“We who, with all the enlightenment of six additional centuries, can look back and see the Inquisition grimly shadowing from under the robes of the Spanish priest, and see hordes of mendicant friars, privileged and impudent beggars, appearing behind the genial countenance of Francis, may perceive how much of evil mixed with the good, and how the enemy of all truth had cunningly mixed the seed of the tares with that of the wheat.”


-Idries Shah

' Thoughts on a Thursday Night '...

Is it not strange that some humans speak without ending ?..

Of course, their voices will ring loud..

What part of ego is this attachment ?..

What forces this Character of Illusion to manifest with such force ?..

It is to draw the Energy from 'you' to recharge their battery of ego..

This is why, you must flee..

They need the attention of mind of others to survive as a 'Thought-form '..

The ego cannot exist without the co-operation of other entities..

This is why Satan exists..

Satan is a 'Thought-Form '..

It is not Real..

It is just an exploration of Extreme Egoic-Selfishness..

Because, 'Only Consciousness Exists '...


-thomas

' To learn Knowledge requires unlearning lies '...

“To attain knowledge, add things every day.

To attain wisdom, remove things every day.” Lao Tzu

11. “We have to learn in order to learn.” Anonymous

12. “Unlearn the lies we have inherited.” Anonymous

13. “Resist. Unlearn. Defy.” Jeff Hardy

14. “The ability to unlearn is one of the most important quality a leader can have.” Anonymous

LOVE (Without Attachment)

' Unlearning the lies '...

You will free yourself from emotional drama by uncovering all the lies you believe in.

It is a process of unlearning the lies.


~ Don Miguel Ruiz

' Unlearning '...

As one man said, "I got a pretty good education.

It took me years to get over it."

That's what spirituality is all about,

you know: unlearning.

Unlearning all the rubbish they taught you.


~ Anthony de Mello

' Philosophically found '...

Enlightenment,

philosophically found,

is both an experience and an understanding.



-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 8 Paul Brunton

' self-hypnosis '...

To awaken means to awaken out of the self-talk in the head

because the self-talk is a form of hypnosis “self hypnosis.”


~ Eckhart Tolle

' See the emptiness '...

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.


~ Adyashanti

' Nothing outside of Consciousness '...

There cannot be any contact with a world outside consciousness.

This is a tenet fundamental to mentalism.



-- Notebooks Category 21: Mentalism > Chapter 2:
The World As Mental > # 36 Paul Brunton

Keith Jarrett - Over the Rainbow (Tokyo 1984) [Restored]

' Letting go of control '...

Real meditation is not about mastering a technique; it's about letting go of control.

This is meditation.

Anything else is actually a form of concentration.

Meditation and concentration are two different things.

Concentration is a discipline; concentration is a way in which we are actually directing or guiding or controlling our experience.

Meditation is letting go of control, letting go of guiding our experience in any way whatsoever.

The foundation of True Meditation is that we are letting go of control.


~ Adyashanti

' Quieting the mind '...

.. . . meditation is used for quieting the mind.

You use the mind to quiet the mind.

When the mind is quiet enough this infinite being that you are becomes obvious.

That is the whole purpose of meditation.

If anyone gets his mind quiet enough, he cannot help but see this infinite being that he is because it's only the thoughts that cover It.

And the mind is nothing but thoughts.

So, meditation is used to get the mind quieter, until you get it so quiet that you see your Self, your real Self.



~ Lester Levenson

' Meditation '...

Meditation is not a way to enlightenment,

nor is it a method of achieving anything at all.

It is peace and blessedness itself.

It is the actualization of wisdom,

the ultimate truth of the oneness of things.


~ Dogen

" I and the Father are One "...

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

' Stay as the Self '...

Don't be compassionate with your ego-mind.

Don't give
space to thoughts which are not just negative but
destructive and soul-oppressive.

When you are aware of
the Self, the ego-mind means nothing for you.

Nothing
at all.

Nothing can grow there.

There is no soil for ego.

Ego can only grow if there is still some Interest, belief,
identity and investment in it.

So then you will have to
fight with it--unavoidably.

And one gun is not enough.

You have to have a gun, grenades, a bazooka, a tank, an
atomic bomb and you still can't blow the ego away.

I say - stay only as the Self.

- Mooji

' Just an idea '...

The first step toward ceasing such wrong self-identification is to recognize the body to be but a state of consciousness,

and the ego to be but an idea.



-- Notebooks Category 21: Mentalism > Chapter 2:
The World As Mental > # 87 Paul Brunton

' Why are you here ?'...

Everyday, you awake and ask,

Why am I here ?..

How painful, it is to recognise lies..

This division between Truth and Illusion..

This body that You inhabit is painful..

Therefore, who are You ?..

As Seekers of Truth,

Who are You ?..

So strange to think of Thinker..

Something outside of self..

Therefore,

what is self ?...


-thomas

' I could see you '...

If only I could throw away the urge to trace my patterns in your
heart,

I could really see you.



-David Brandon
Zen in the Art of Helping

' John Welwood from Journey of the Heart '...

Idolizing someone we fall in love with is an example of a strange trick we play on ourselves-what psychologists call projection. Simply stated, this means heightened sensitivity to certain qualities in another person that we fail to acknowledge in ourselves. The classic example is the person who does not acknowledge his own aggression, but imagines that other people are out to get him.

When romantically idolizing someone, we project not our own unacknowledged negative feelings, but all the power, beauty, and richness of our being, which we usually fail to recognize inside us. Human nature is vast. Our being actually reflects and contains the whole range of peaceful and wrathful energies of heaven and earth, fire and water, sun and stars. But we usually inhabit only a small portion of our being. We live on the island of our conditioned self, a complex of memories, notions, and images of ourselves that constitute our identity as we know it. Yet the larger expanse of our being-its vastness, intensity, and depths-we do not usually identify as intimately our own. Even though this larger being is more truly who we are-since it is not an invention, like our self-images-we do not know it as our true nature. Since we have a hard time perceiving our own vastness and beauty, we project it outward instead, where it is easier to see.

Just as the individual who denies his anger finds it coming back at him from the world, so we discover the radiance of our own being in and through our beloved, who mirrors it back to us. We are dazzled by what we see. We want it, we must have it at any cost. Since we can't live without it-for it is, after all, our own being-we wind up not only addicted, but further alienated from ourselves as well.


Abraham Maslow once wrote that "we are generally afraid to become that which we glimpse in our most perfect moments," no doubt because our larger being threatens us in many ways. If we were to open to it fully, perhaps it would disrupt our cozy little habits and throw our familiar, small identity into question. So, just as early peoples worshiped as gods what they feared and did not understand, so we, who are primitives in regard to our larger being, tend to worship our greater powers at a safe distance, by letting others carry them for us. Thus we "fall" for the beloved, whom we place above us, granting him or her power to uplift us from our "fallen" state of hunger and unworthiness.


Journey of the Heart pp 62,3

' Unidentified '...

Perceive these two things now:

the dreamlike character of life in the world, and the illusory character of the personal ego.

Hence the need of the "What am I?" enquiry, that the illusion of the ego may be dispelled.

When you can see these things clearly, then you may be still and undisturbed, unentangled, and unillusioned amid the struggle of life.

You will be wise, free, impervious to the petty persecution of men--their lies, malice, and injuries--for being no longer identified with the personality, you are no longer their target.



-- Notebooks Category 21: Mentalism > Chapter 5:
The Key To the Spiritual World > # 4
Paul Brunton

' Eternity's Sun Rise '...

He who binds to himself a joy,

Does the winged life destroy.

But he who kisses the joy as it flies,

Lives in eternity's sun rise.



- William Blake

"The Enlightened Heart"
An Anthology of Sacred Poetry
Edited by Stephen Mitchell
Harper & Row, New York , 1989

' The Word '...

Anyone who aspires to climb to the summit of that mountain-that is,

to the perfection of virtue,

will know how hard the climb is,

and
how the attempt is doomed to failure without the help of the Word.



-Bernard of Clairvaux

' My Awakening Story - Lori Ann Lothian '...

I woke up three weeks ago. I don’t mean I woke up in the morning, though I did that too. I mean I woke up from the dreamer of reality into the dreamless self.

“Behold your dreamless being, awake my child, awake!” I read those words almost thirty years ago in the book called Autobiography of a Yogi. I was 23 and fascinated by this tale of an Indian man finding enlightenment. Yet never, ever, did I imagine self-realization was an inclusive club. That I too could join its membership ranks.

My admission to the Awareness Club happened unexpectedly and suddenly, like any plot twist and turn. I’d been listening for two weeks to an awakened teacher named Adyashanti. In two CD sets, Fierce Grace, and Spontaneous Awakening, he spoke of many things, but what most struck me were not his words, but the peace I could feel behind them. Day after day, I listened to his voice driving my car, sitting in the fall sun on a lawn chair, while cooking dinner, while drifting to sleep at night.

On October 24th I got into bed at 11 pm as Lori. At 7 am on October 25 I woke up as not-Lori. Instead, I was a boundless quietude and delight, saturated in the moment. There was no noise in my head, because there were no thoughts except perhaps the one thought: Wow, this is different!

And in between that falling asleep and morning awakening was a dream in which I could hear Adyashanti’s voice saying to me, “Wake up. Walk the pathless path. Wake up..” At 2 AM I opened my eyes to my darkened bedroom where my partner slept soundly beside me. I stared at the ceiling and heard a calm inner voice unlike any voice I’d ever heard. It said, simply, “I am awake.”

Here is the Truth from where I sit, from Rumi’s field beyond wrong doing and right doing. You will meet me here. All of creation is arriving here. There is no other place to be, because you are already here. You simply have to let go of the distractions that keep you from noticing the vast stillness and joy that you already are. It’s not a matter of becoming enlightened, but rather of unbecoming unenlightened.

There is a quickening afoot. Awareness is awakening to itself, all over the world, in ordinary everyday you and me. This is not for the great mystics only, this wake up call. It is for everyone, now. Because there is only one of us here, waking up to self. Only one of us–in many diverse and beautiful expressions–is asleep.

I am not extraordinary. I was a seeker, yes. But not a diligent one dedicated to a guru, or daily meditation, or any particular path. Rather, I was most likely like you—a dabbler in metaphysics and the new age movement, a curious and open-minded spiritual consumer. My shelves are lined with self-help books, human potential movement tracts and sundry occult fare from astrology to numerology. Yet all these writings, and all the spin off seminars and weekend workshops, failed to satisfy. At some deep level I was restless and yearning for something lasting and unchanging. Something real.

If you are reading this blog, you are ready to wake up. The part of you that is deeply still, like the ocean depths, is leading the part of you that churns and tosses on the surface of reality. It is whispering beyond the you that think you are, Awareness is calling to itself: Wake up, wake up, wake up. Now.

In the entries ahead, I will chronicle my experience as barely dry hatchling. I am a discoverer here, not knowing the terrain, yet delighted in navigating this unknown world as awakened Awareness. These dispatches from the frontier, from the place you too are going, might encompass an entirely different range of encounters than your own inevitable awakening. For you see we are each a unique point of view and expression for Awareness. And paradoxically we are all One.

I invite you to join me in my discovery of the unfolding now, the delight of each moment as it reveals itself.


In Awareness,
Lori Ann

' Ram Tzu knows this '...

Ram Tzu knows this…

There is a hole
Inside you that
You try desperately
To fill up.

You pour in
Various satisfactions
To make yourself
Feel alright..

Sometimes,
If you can get enough,
The hole fills to the brim
And there is a
Blissful moment of evenness.

But your hole is open
At the bottom.
Its contents always leak through
Leaving you empty
Again
And desperate
For more.

Ram Tzu knows what must be done…

You must be thrown in the hole.



- Ram Tzu

No Way for the Spiritually "Advanced"
Ram Tzu
Advaita Press, 1990

' Sanai '...

Sanai (1118 -1152 ce) (Abû'l-Majd Majdûd b. Adam Sanâ'î) is revered as one of the first great mystical poets of Persia. He produced many lyrical poems and a religious epic, The Walled Garden of Truth.


Don't speak of your suffering -- He is speaking.
Don't look for Him everywhere -- He's looking for you.

An ant's foot touches a leaf, He senses it;
A pebble shifts in a streambed, He knows it.

If there's a worm hidden deep in a rock,
He'll know its body, tinier than an atom,

The sound of its praise, its secret ecstasy --
All this He knows by divine knowing.

He has given the tiniest worm its food;
He has opened to you the Way of the Holy Ones.


- Sanai

' Deeper than name and form '...

When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself.

When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.

Your innermost sense of self, of who you are, is inseparable from stillness.

This is the I Am that is deeper than name and form.


- Eckhart Tolle, from Stillness Speaks

' Beyond Consciousness '...

Watch yourself closely and you will see that whatever be the content of
consciousness, the witnessing of it does not depend on the content.

Awareness is
itself and does not change with the event.

The event may be pleasant or
unpleasant, minor or important, awareness is the same.

Take note of the peculiar
nature of pure awareness, its natural self-identity, without the least trace of
self-consciousness, and go to the root of it and you will soon realize that
awareness is your true nature, and nothing you may be aware of, you can call
your own.

When the content is viewed without likes and dislikes, the consciousness of it is
awareness.

But still there is a difference between awareness as reflected in
consciousness and pure awareness beyond consciousness.

Reflected awareness,
the sense "I am aware" is the witness, while pure awareness is the essence of
reality.

Reflection of the sun in a drop of water is a reflection of the sun, no
doubt, but not the sun itself.

Between awareness reflected in consciousness as
the witness and pure awareness there is a gap, which the mind cannot cross.



~Sri Nisargadatta

' Hidden under egoism '...

Wang Yang-ming's disciples often remarked, "The streets are full of enlightened men!"

By this they reiterated their Master's teaching that all men have the possibility of attaining enlightenment because all

have the divine self hidden under their egoism.



-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 1:
Their Meeting and Interchange > # 27 Paul Brunton

' Enlightenment '...

"All paths are mine,

and all lead eventually to me.

But the shortest way to me,

is the no-path of self-annihilative love."



-Meher Baba
in Bhau Kalchuri
_Lord Meher: The Biography of Avatar of the Age Meher Baba_
Asheville, NC: MANifestation, v. 18, p. 6235

' We find in them '...

The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves,

and not to twist them to fit our own image.

Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.


-Rev. Thomas Merton

' Religion '...

Religion is an unpleasant side effect'

of mystics talking about mysticism to non-mystics.


-author, unknown

' Contemplation '...

Thinking is all that we find within the human experience..

The hologram is filled with lies, therefore, remain the Observer..

If you do not explore the Life Experience,

You remain a slave..

Experience Freedom by Contemplation...



-thomas

' Loneliness '...

Loneliness...

To be Alone is to be At-One..

The Loneliness of Source has created the Dreams of Many..

But All return to Loneliness as the return to Source..

You come into this Hologram alone..

You leave alone...


-thomas

' It dissolves you '...

The Supreme is the universal solvent, it corrodes
every container, it burns through every obstacle.

Without the absolute denial of everything the
tyranny of things would be absolute.

The Supreme
is the great harmonizer, the guarantee of the
ultimate and perfect balance - of life in freedom.

It dissolves you and thus re-asserts your true being.


- Nisargadatta Maharaj

"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973

' The Sage's Insight '...

When the mystery of it all is solved,

not merely intellectually but in experience,

not only in the person himself but in transcending it,

not only in the depth of meditation but in the world of activity;

when this answer is richly felt as Presence and God,

clearly known as Meaning and Mind, then,

if he were to speak he would exclaim: "Thus It Is!"

But this is not the beginner's glimpse:

it is the sage's settled insight.



-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 2:
Enlightenment Which Stays > # 24 Paul Brunton

' No-Thing '...

In the past, the deepest spiritual teachings were reserved for a very small part of the spiritual population. Those were the people who became monks or nuns or sadhus (renunciants), and committed their entire existence to get the teachings. You couldn’t get the teachings until you’d done that, walked away from family and friends and life as you knew it, and put everything on the line. And even then, teachers wouldn’t give the teachings to you immediately. They’d probably make you wait some years. Why? Because those few enlightened beings knew that to really take awakening to enlightenment or liberation was going to require that kind of commitment, that kind of love of the truth, and the kind of person who would put all their eggs into that basket, right there.

Today you do not have to live in that rarified spiritual environment or commit your entire life to get the teachings of the truth. And yet, to realize the truth and then take it all the way into living and being what you really are, fully and completely, the internal commitment is not any less. It can’t be any less because nothing less than a full, internal love of truth will do. If you love anything more than you love the truth, there’s no way this realization can complete itself. You can realize it, you can awaken, and you can have a nice enlightenment experience, but it’s not going to be something that’s going to be stable and effortless, or last forever. That’s just the physics of it. I’m not writing the rules. It’s just the way things are.

When you realize the truth, then you know that this truth is not fooling around. This truth wants you, and it wants your life, and it’s going to devour you and eat you up for dinner. The truth is not playing games. I’ve had more than one person say, “Adya, how do I turn this off? How do I back out of this deal? This isn’t what I signed up for.” And the only answer is, “Sorry, it’s too late, you can’t back out. You can walk away from me and from all teachers, and from spirituality altogether. You can go to the end of the earth and play some other game, but it’s too late. You can’t unrealize what you realize.” It’s a game until it’s not, but by the time you realize that it’s not a game, you can’t back out.


-Adyashanti
Excerpt from: Mountain View, California, March 13, 2003.

' We are ALL '...

We are ALL. That is: all sentient life is one Consciousness that is infinitely aware and all-knowing in every moment. However, since the apparent separation occurred, those in human form have lost this awareness of the one Consciousness which is who they truly are in every moment of their existence. This is what separation is about – loss of knowing who you are. Every sentient being is permanently and inseparably connected to and one with Source, and no other state is remotely possible!

All can access this knowing by allowing it into their awareness. Nothing else is required. However, part of experiencing the unreal state of separation involves focusing solely on your human form which carries a label, the name given to you by your parents when you were born, and believing this to be your true identity. This is not who you are! But, because you have been addressed by this label or name for as long as you can remember, it appears to be your true identity, and when people use it to address you, you have been conditioned to respond to it automatically.

By going within to meditate, relax, contemplate, or reflect – and, as you well know if you have been following these messages regularly, I keep on reminding you that you do need to do this daily – you quieten the endless flow of thoughts through your mind sufficiently to enable you to become aware of the space between thoughts, and therefore, aware that you are not your thoughts but that you are the awareness that is aware of those thoughts, and of your body, and of all the physical sensory perceptions with which your body provides you.

When that awareness arises into your consciousness, as the distractions of the input with which your bodies constantly supply youare quietened, or even completely silenced, the vastness of who you truly are becomes strikingly apparent. When that first occurs it can be stunning! Or it may come about gently over a period of time, as you learn ever more effectively to release or not cling to the identity that your name – attached as a label to your human form – provides, in the misleading belief that it is the totality of who you are. Nothing could be further from the truth!

Who you are contains all that exists, from the smallest particles to the multiverse. That obviously sounds impossible, but that is only because your perception of who you are is enormously limited. There is only One, Source, Mother/Father/God, and You are that! Source is creating from Itself, with Itself, like unto Itself, eternally. Creation is ongoing, unceasing, and, therefore, so are you. There is no separation, there is only the One. You all get intimations of this from time to time when you sense or intuit something that there is no way you could have known from the information available to you through your physical human form. That is Oneness at work, as It always is, with you having temporary awareness of It. You truly are far, far greater than anything of which you, as a human, severely limited by your human form, could possible conceive.

Your awakening, the collective awakening of humanity, is nothing but your return to full awareness of who you are, and, as such, it will be a mind-blowing experience that will dissolve all your doubts, fears, and suffering in an instant. Over the eons a few have enjoyed this experience and have reported on it to those who would listen, consequently there is a large amount of significantly pertinent information available to those who wish to know more, especially since modern communications technology has made so much information on myriad subjects easily accessible to all who choose to seek it out.

But of course reading about the experiences of others, while helpful and interesting, is rather like having the flavor of ice-cream described, because it is basically meaningless until you taste it for yourselves. You have to experience awakening for yourselves, individually. And that is a paradox because, as One, you are All. Nevertheless, the awakening will be experienced by each individual with each also being aware of and knowing the experience of All. Thus all will be in joy because all will know that all are awake.

At present you can have no idea of what to expect, apart from having been told that it will absolutely blow your minds. Therefore, let go of all expectations, because none of them will in anyway prepare you for the wonders that are about to envelop you. Fully conscious awareness of who you truly are will bring you infinite and eternal joy. That is the divine Will for you, it always has been, and it is also your will, therefore it is inevitable.

This awakening has been divinely planned since the moment that the thought of separation occurred, placing humanity into an unreal or dream-like state that has left it confused and fear-filled ever since. What you think of or consider your history is but a selection of memories of your ongoing dreams and nightmares which have convinced you of the reality of the state of separation that you are seemingly experiencing. This conviction or belief strongly encourages you to focus on it because, through your human bodies, you do experience physical sensations that can be pleasurable or painful, and because your human bodies are so vulnerable to illness and damage, you live with almost constant anxiety about adequately maintaining them due to their need for regular food and shelter. They are both a responsibility and a gift, and they demand inordinate amounts of your energy and attention to keep them operating smoothly and efficiently.

Since the industrial revolution more and more humans have been given the opportunity to live with their basic survival needs easily available, giving them the time and the opportunity to contemplate the meaning of life. Not too many initially used this opportunity to their advantage, choosing instead to spend their lives seeking pleasure and satisfaction outside themselves, from others and from material things. This was unfortunate because you already had everything you needed within the energy field, the life force, the field of Love that ensures your eternal existence.

However, within the last few decades, more and more people have finally chosen to engage in contemplation about the meaning of life, and have communicated on the subject with other like-minded individuals. This started your awakening process, or rather, more powerfully strengthened your collective motivation and intent to awaken. The tipping point has been reached, and there are now enough people holding that intent, and holding the intent to be loving whatever arises, to ensure that your awakening process will rapidly come to completion, just as divinely planned. So, as you have been told a number of times already: CELEBRATE!

Celebrating intensifies your energy fields by flooding them with enthusiasm for life, and when you are filled with that enthusiasm it becomes increasingly difficult to remain asleep, unconscious, lost in the unreal world of dreams. Truly, humanity is awakening.


Your loving brother, Jesus.
Through John Smallman

' Thus It Is ! '...

When the mystery of it all is solved,

not merely intellectually but in experience,

not only in the person himself but in transcending it,

not only in the depth of meditation but in the world of activity;

when this answer is richly felt as Presence and God,

clearly known as Meaning and Mind, then, if he were to speak he would exclaim:

"Thus It Is!"

But this is not the beginner's glimpse:

it is the sage's settled insight.



-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 2:
Enlightenment Which Stays > # 24 Paul Brunton

' Attachment to the personality '...

"If there is a total knowing that the personality is not you, if you can "find" the frequency where that is fully seen/known (not the conceptual frequency but the energetic "zone") then attachment to the personality is broken.

When attachment to the personality is broken, the central "glue" breaks down.

Sometimes this attachment looks like responsibility in that there can be a sense that there is a responsibility to clean up the sticky parts of the personality, but note that responsibility comes with some ownership… that’s the hook!

The personality continues to be refined, but it is recognised to be purely consciousness refining itself.

This is a seeing, not a concept until we talk about it!

Without any ownership, there is "nobody" involved.

Old patterns are seen to be part of the fabric of the matrix...

dropping ALL sense of the personal and impersonal.

This totally shifts the landscape, and the breaking up of old patterns happens within that which is smooth and unperturbed.

Like the sea moving grains of sand on the shore, it’s a constant moving around, not only breaking down old patterns that used to help create an identity but also offering new habits to the body-mind that are required by the present environment.

New behaviors can come and they are tools required by consciousness to enable the body-mind to better function."



-Jac O'Keeff

' The Seeking of Pleasure '...

The Seeking of Pleasure within humans are a normal goal within this Hologram..

The Pleasures of food, drink, intoxication of mind, entertainment, sexual activity, and also Unconditional Love..

The only difference among them is Unconditional Love..

This is because, only Unconditional Love contains no Egoic-Consciousness..

We exist within a Dream of false-self and Real-Self..

Which self, Self, do we choose within every minute..

" You become what you think about all day ",

said ; Gautama the Buddha..



-thomas

' Escape from Illusion '...

Humans have been taught from birth to seek a separate identity from Source..

They call it Ego..

All of the masters of Earth, (this hologram of desire),

know that individual mind is easily manipulated..

The human mind becomes impoverished..

The human becomes a slave to egoic existence..

All that the human mind has been taught is to obey the masters..

The masters of humanity will throw a bone to the slaves called pleasure..

This keeps the slaves from rebeling..

Once the humans seek more than pleasure,

the masters begin to fear..

The escape gate is called Spirituality and Truth...


-thomas

' Stay Quiet '...

Don't make any effort.

Stay quiet and the noisy

surface dialogues will cease.

Then the substratum

will rise up to the top.

It is simple.

Follow this.




- Papaji

"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995

' Service to Humanity '...

We shall work together,

we shall stand hand in hand to do service to humanity.

We do not want any claims, we do not want to say,

“I am this,” or, “I am that.”



From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN

Selected & Arranged By
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN

' It is a Great Mystery '...

Another possibility: As long as you believe that Ramana, Nisargadatta, Buddha, Christ, etc. were actually “real people,”

then you’re THAT much more likely to believe that “YOU,” also, are a “real person,” too.

In truth, though, there really aren’t any “separate people.”

In truth, “who-you-REALLY-are” is the ultimate Source of ALL of these spiritual teachers and of ALL of their spiritual teachings.

They simply “appear” and “disappear” from within the dreaming Heart of who “YOU” really are.

And, yes, it's a great mystery.


- Chuck Hillig

' The Secret of Truth '...

The Secret of Truth is to surrender all desires..

Gautama said this many times..

Who is the entity that desires ?..

All Knowledge is Realized upon entering the darkness of Nothingness of self,

into the Light of Eternal Light and Knowledge..

" you must die, to be Born ",

said the Nazarene Mystic...


-thomas

' The Short Path '...

All pruning of the ego is of little use, for as one fault is removed a new one springs out of latency.

Why? Because the ego is.

The Short Path is the only genuine approach to truth, the only one offering real possibility of liberation.

It is endorsed by Atmananda and Krishnamurti and Ramana Maharshi.

Lifetimes have been spent by seekers who have travelled the Long Path but arrived nowhere, or are not much nearer the goal, whereas others have made swift advance from their first steps on the Short Path.

The assertion that the Long Path is a necessary complement to or preparation for the Short one is correct only for those who are still under the thraldom of illusion, who are asleep.

Its followers merely travel in a circle: they never get out of the illusion or awake from the sleep.

That is why in the end it has to be given up, abandoned, understood for the egoistic effort that it really is.

The entire length of the Long Path is an attempt at self-improvement and self-purification planned, managed, operated, and supervised by the ego itself.

Is it conceivable that the ego will work for its own destruction? No!--it will never do that however much it pretends to do so, however subtle the bluff with which it deceives itself or others.

Even when the ego rebels against itself, it is merely playing a part.

It has played many different parts in the past.

Appearing as a rebel is merely one more disguise in the whole series.



-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 1:
Entering the Short Path > Paul Brunton

' Two Great Delusions '...

The two great delusions are that life is controllable and

that there is an entity, me, who can exercise said control.

But if we cannot even control the thoughts that appear to us,

how can we possibly believe we can control what occurs to us?


~ Wu Hsin

' Reality Unfolds '...

So when we are established in the understanding and the certainty that we are not in control of our process,

that Being or true nature is actually in charge,

then our unfoldment becomes a runaway unfoldment,

which means that everything happens on its own.

When we recognize that everything happens on its own,

reality begins to unfold consciously on its own,



~ A. H. Almaas

sri nisargadatta's lost satsang part 5

' Become Heart '...

Mind offers you a life with death at the end of it.

But the Heart offers you life without end.

You choose.

If you choose Heart, then you become Heart.

When you become Heart, mind will also become Heart.

But you must make the first move.


~ Mooji

' Bow to 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

' Mental Pictures '...

It is absurd even to suggest that there is an external world wholly outside of one's consciousness and wholly independent of it.

One knows only certain changes of mental awareness, never of externals.

The mind can only know its changes of individual consciousness.

All its observations, each of its inferences, everything it knows--these lie enclosed within that consciousness and are never beyond it.

One's knowledge of anything whatsoever is simply one's thought of it.

This is not to be confused with one's right thought of it.

It is a conscious mental state, and even other persons are but appearances within this state, creatures in the cosmic dream.

To follow this line of reflection to its inevitable end demands courage and candour of the highest kind, for it demands as ultimate conclusion the principle that knowledge being but ideas in the mind, the whole universe is nothing but an immense idea within one's own mind.

For the very nature of knowledge is thus internal, and hence the individual mind cannot know any reality external to itself.

It believes that it observes a world without when it only observes its own mental pictures of that world.



-- Notebooks Category 21: Mentalism > Chapter 2: The World As Mental > # 108
-- Perspectives > Chapter 21: Mentalism > # 48 Paul Brunton

' The Moving Finger Writes '...

“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”


― Omar Khayyám

' Who am I ?'...

If this me is not I, then
who am I?

If I am not the one who speaks, then
who does?

If this me is only a robe then
who is
the one I am covering?


- Rumi


Rumi: Hidden Music
Translated by Azima Melita Kolin
and Maryam Mafi
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001

' Francis Fran Bennett: The ego is not annihilated'...

THE EGO IS NOT ANNIHILATED IN GOD REALIZATION...IT IS PROFOUNDLY HUMBLED AND LIBERATED FROM EGO-CENTRICITY.

As I put it, egocentricity is what falls away in awakening...not ego.
Egocenricity is the deluded notion that the ego, the personal me, is the center of the universe...That arrogant belief is what dies..not the ego itself.

Awakening does not annihilate the personal me, it profoundly humbles it. Then for the first time we can actually become the personal me in all its authenticity.
We become who we were always meant to be...on a very personal level.

Then the personal me becomes a manifestation of divinity in human form. each one utterly unique and precious. This is the true message of the incarntion of the Christ. It is the destiny of us all as the beloved children of the Universal Mother/Father..


-

' The Quest '...

Consciousness appearing as the person seeks itself.

This is its quest.

But when it learns and comprehends that it is itself the object of that quest,

the person stops not only seeking outside himself but even engaging in the quest itself.

Henceforth he lets himself be moved by the Overself's flow.



-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 1:
Entering the Short Path > # 3 Paul Brunton

' Omar Khayyam '...

I do love the words of Omar Khayyam,

his words seem to mirror my thoughts..

I would have loved to share a drink with this Mystic..

The Entertainment of Thoughts..

He sounds like a "Sufi Muslim',

which is the lineage of Love..

The Nazarene walked this road..

The Buddha also walked this road..

And now, you are upon this Road..

What will you do ?...




-thomas

' Genuinely Ready '...

When one is genuinely ready,

Truth finds a way to
introduce itself inside the heart and ends the feeling
of separation.


- Mooji

' Issiah Toner - Letting go into the mystery '...

Seven years after a wonderous epiphany there has been days and days of Silent meditative retreat, All sorts of workshops, samplings of spiritual teachers and teachings, and countless books and discussions... Life might not have carved out a teacher with me but I do have a few things I've learned that might help others along the way:

1: Love yourself. Do whatever you can to see your innocence from self loathing. Once you see it give it to others. It's in empathy that we become our greatest expression.

2: You are not the voice of thinking in your head. You are not the ego. You are what's aware of it. You are aware presence. There is an aspect of ego that allows us to function as human beings ; The rest of it is just consciousness stuck in survival mode. There is one being having the experience of a you and a me. The identification of being individualized is the ego. The truth is still One being. The self is a false self. We are One. Waking up to this is real. What an amazing experience being had. There is no "other."
We get to be "In the World but not of it." We get to enjoy and express our uniqueness without it having to measure up or conquer.

3: Once the breakthrough insight occurs we are able to see the different spiritual teachings of the world as different paths up the same mountain. We also are able to see where they have become stuck. What commonly happens, often in horrific fashion, is that the teachings or religion become the very thing they were meant to free us from.

4: Seeing the highest truth will threaten our sense of self. We will turn away, hide, and fight in order to not have to face it. It takes incredible courage to follow our intuition into the unknown. It takes true courage to step outside of our comfort zone and let go into the mystery of life. For so many of us; What society teaches us as courage is actually fear management. We fear the feminine aspect of existence (that which is beyond us) and worship the masculine aspect of control.

5: Waking up will require you to stand on your own two feet. Consciousness through human being is very lost. Follow your intuition to spiritual friendships. They are precious, nourishing, and needed. They might not be what your mind imagines; Follow your intuition.

6: Our ego minds are made to navigate contrast. They separate things into black and white the best they can in order for us to function and thrive. What we are gets so confused when it tries to find itself with this tool because it is all of it and can't be separated. It will turn a blind eye to what it doesn't want to see and sweep it under the rug while it hangs on to defining ideas for dear life. The other side of the equation that we sweep under the rug haunts us as our denied shadow side. To align with "what" we are we need to allow ourselves to rest in the presence of this moment. We are not the thoughts being produced in our heads. We are what's aware of them. Learning to rest in this open awareness is coming home.

7: I will say it again because it is so important. We need to develop self compassion. We have to love and forgive ourselves. In doing so we develop compassion for everyone and everything. Therapy can be very helpful here. There is also practices we can do in order to heal our misperceptions and align with the loving creative force behind existence.

8: PRACTICE GRATITUDE! I am living proof that we can rewire our minds by focusing on the goodness of life. I've come up with the simple practice of filling out a half of a notebook page everyday with what I am grateful for.. It becomes a new filter for seeing life. I believe that gratitude is actually the "filter-less" view of our true nature.

9: It's ok to fall off our horses. Just keep setting the intention to ride them. Be gentle with ourselves, not harsh and self critical. Freedom comes from the intention not our control.

10: Follow your intuition. Don't get caught up in identifying too much with one path or another. Sometimes we have to change paths. Sometimes we have to stay with the same one. It's different for each of us and only our insides know the way.

' Vedantic Advaita '...

Pain and suffering, sin and evil, disease and death, exist only in the world of thoughts, not in the world of pure Thought itself.

They are not illusions, however, but they are transient.

Whoever attains to pure Thought will also attain in consciousness to a life that is painless, sorrow-free, sinless, undecaying, and undying.

Being above desires and fears, it is necessarily above the miseries caused by unsatisfied desires and realized fears.

But at the same time he will also have an accompanying consciousness of life in the body, which must obey the laws of its own being, natural laws which set limitations and imperfections upon it.

This much can be said to be the element of truth contained in some theoretical doctrines of Vedantic Advaita and Christian Science.



-- Notebooks Category 10: Healing of the Self > Chapter 1: The Laws of Nature > # 78
-- Perspectives > Chapter 10: Healing of the Self > # 46 Paul Brunton

' Let us talk about Reality '...

Why am I here ?,

shouts the soul..

Dreams travel though time and dimensions..

Source Thinks, and we are created..

It is that simple..

To create a Dream or Hologram is not difficult..

It is only Thought..

The fear of death is our greatest pain, because the Dream ends..

The Thirst for Love exists within this Dream..

We do not know what this means, but, It feels Good..

And then Children are magically created by desire..

This Creation of Hologram is carried forward..


-thomas

' Planted any Truth Lately ?'...

So you've cut up your hide and stretched it,
pegged it down to dry with definite,
sharp-pointed desires,

but have you planted any fruit trees
for the next generation?

Wisdom offered you is like a ball
thrown at a boundary post,

useless as molasses fed to a tawny bull
to help it give more milk!



- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic

From "Naked Song”
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop, 1992

' The State 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.



Meditation Theme For Each Day:

From The Teachings of¡­
HAZRAT PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

Selected & Arranged by¡­
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN

' The Short Path Man '...

The Short Path man ought not to depend on authorities, scriptures, rules, regulations, organizations, gurus, or writings.

His past history may outwardly force such an association on him, but inwardly he will seek to liberate himself from it.

For his ultimate aim is to reach a point where no interpreter, medium, or transmitter obtrudes between him and the Overself.



-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 1:
Entering the Short Path > # 83 Paul Brunton

' Bhagavad Gita...grieving for the dead '...

The blessed Lord said,
'You grieve for those who should not be grieved for;
yet you speak wise words.
Neither for the dead nor those not dead do the wise grieve.
Never was there a time when I did not exist
nor you nor these lords of men.
Neither will there be a time when we shall not exist;
we all exist from now on.
As the soul experiences in this body
childhood, youth, and old age,
so also it acquires another body;
the sage in this is not deluded.

"'Material sensations, Kaunteya,
causing cold, heat, pleasure, pain,
coming and going are impermanent;
you must endure them, Bharata.
The person whom these do not trouble, powerful person,
pain and pleasure being equal to the sage,
he is ready for immortality.

"'The existence of the unreal is not found;
the non-existence of the real is not found.
The certainty of both of these has been seen
by the seers of essence.
Know that indestructible essence
by which all this is pervaded.
No one is able to cause the destruction of the imperishable.
These bodies have an end;
it is said of the indestructible, infinite soul
that it is eternal.
Therefore, fight, Bharata!

"'Whoever believes this the killer
and whoever thinks this the killed,
they both do not understand;
this does not kill and is not killed.
Neither is it born nor does it die at any time,
nor having been, will this again not be.
Unborn, eternal, perpetual this ancient being
is not killed with the killing of the body.

"'Whoever knows this, the indestructible,
the eternal, the unborn, the imperishable,
how does this person, Partha, cause the killing of anyone?
Whom does one kill?
As a person abandoning worn-out clothes takes new ones,
so abandoning worn-out bodies the soul enters new ones.
Weapons do not cut this nor does fire burn this,
and waters cannot wet this nor can wind dry it.
Not pierced this, not burned this, not wetted nor dried,
eternal, all-pervading, stable,
immovable is this everlasting.
Unmanifest this, it is said.

"'Therefore knowing this you should not mourn.
And if you think this is eternally born or eternally dying,
even then, you mighty armed, you should not mourn this.
Death is certain for the born,
and birth is certain for the dead.
Therefore you should not mourn over the inevitable.

"'Beings have unmanifest beginnings,
manifest middles, Bharata, unmanifest ends again.
What complaint is there?
Marvelously someone sees this,
and marvelously another thus tells,
and marvelously another hears this,
but even having heard no one knows this.
This embodied soul is eternally inviolable
in the body of all, Bharata.
Therefore you should not mourn for any being.


- Bhagavad Gita

' A step beyond ourselves '...

I have tried to study the nature of the mind and to understand its office in knowing.

And the end of all my studies brought me to the sequel that I was compelled to testify to Hume's strange statements: "Nothing is ever really present with the mind but its perceptions. . . .

We never really advance a step beyond ourselves. . . ..

Philosophy informs us that everything which appears to the mind is nothing but a perception, and is interrupted and dependent on the mind, whereas the vulgar confound perceptions and objects, and attribute a distinct, continued existence to the very things they feel or see.

There is no question of importance whose decision is not comprised in the science of mind; and there is none which can be decided with any certainty before we become acquainted with that."



-- Notebooks Category 21: Mentalism > Chapter 4:
The Challenge of Mentalism > # 207
Paul Brunton

' Brainwashed '...

You have been brainwashed since you were a small child,
and you have a belief system that you react to everyday.

You say this is good and this is bad
and this is right and this is wrong,
I love this and I hate this.


All part of your belief system, the mind.
Now these roots have been planted a long time ago.

Therefore to get rid of your negative thinking so-to-speak,
you have to dig a big hole to pull out the roots.

You do this by turning away from your problems,
turning away from your situations,
turning away from the world and diving deep within yourself.

Continually, day after day after day, never looking for results.
Never saying, I've been practicing a month now
and nothing has happened.

Remember how many years it took you to be the way you are.
The things that your mind has accepted.

The stuff you've got deep in your subconscious so-to-speak.
It has to come up and gotten rid of.



~ Robert Adams

' Belief '...

Doubt underlies every belief.

Doubt brings defense.

If you don't believe me, challenge the next person who seems to be stating Truth.

When you see them defend it, notice the doubt that is coming to the surface.

This is when you know it is a belief.

But the real juice is when you can see this in yourself, isn't it?

Until then, everyone else has to do it for you.



~ Scott Kiloby

' Thoughts on a Monday '...

In Consciousness, the word Truth always enters the door first..

Wisdom then enters the second seat at the table..

Light enters the room and gives it Vision..

Mind then enters the group and always states that it is young but willing to learn..

Mind knows that it is just visions of desires and fears..

Awareness waves to Consciousness as it enters the Stage..

This Paragraph is short but filled with Thought..

At this Table, They speak of your journey..

One Mind, and yet so many Thoughts..


-thomas

Alison Krauss - The Album that Never Was

' Consciousness Manifesting '...

"Since Consciousness is one by nature, no distinction is admissible under any circumstances.

Even the condition of the individual soul must be understood to be unreal,

like the apprehension of a serpent in a rope.

As the rope, in consequence of one's ignorance of it,

appears in an instant as a serpent, so does consciousness,

which is ever pure, manifest itself as the universe."



-Sri Shankaracharya
"Direct Realization"
Select Works Of Sri Sankaracharya
Translated By S. Venkataramanan
Madras: G. A. Natesan, 1921, p. 52-53

' An Untroubled Retreat '...

Nowhere can man find a quieter or more

untroubled retreat than in his own soul.



- Marcus Aurelius

' Investigation of It's Nature '...

If there is anything worth studying by a human being,

after the necessary preliminary studies of how to exist and survive in this world healthily and wisely,

it is the study of man's own consciousness--not a cataloguing of the numerous thoughts that play within it,

but a deep investigation of its nature in itself,

its own unadulterated pure self.



-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest > Chapter 1:
What the Quest Is > # 81 Paul Brunton

' If you know '...

"And for this, the Prophet (upon whom be peace) said: 'Whoso knoweth himself knoweth his Lord.' and he said (upon whom be peace), "I know my Lord by my Lord.'

The Prophet (upon whom be peace) points out that, that thou are not thou: thou art He, without thou; not He entering into thee, nor thou entering into Him, nor He proceeding forth from thee, not thou proceeding forth from Him.

And it is not meant by that, that thou art aught that exists or thine attributes aught that exists, but it is meant by it that thou never wast nor wilt be, whether by thyself or through Him or in Him or along with Him.

Thou art neither ceasing to be nor still existing.

Thou art He, without one of these limitations.

Then if thou knowest thine existence thus, then thou knowest God; and if not, then not."


-Ibn Arabi
"Who Knoweth Himself...": From the Treatise on Being
Tr. by T. H. Weir
UK: Beshara Publications, 1976, pp. 4-5

' The world is my creation '...

When I say that I am my own mental existence then I imply I am also the whole universe.

Nature exists within me,

for Nature is but my idea.

The world is my creation.

This is no empty vagary but the veritable truth,

the grandest which ever entered the half-taught mind of men.




-- Notebooks Category 21: Mentalism > Chapter 5:
The Key To the Spiritual World > # 147
Paul Brunton

' Samkhya Origin of Dzogchen '...

I recently followed up on a comment that a well known translator of Dzogchen texts and teacher of Dzogchen (Malcolm Smith), shared with me. We were discussing the most ancient roots of Dzogchen metaphysics. He made a comment that there is very possibly a link between ancient Samkhya metaphysics and earliest Dzogchen principles.

I am still looking for direct correspondences between the systems, and am totally amazed by what I am finding.

I will share more as I continue my research. However here are some key points:

Samkhya considers each person to be “pure consciousness”, like rigpa. Their term for rigpa would be “purusha”. Purusha is an individual Consciousness that is aware and knows. It is outside of space and time, yet experiences all aspects of manifestation without being altered in any way.

The energetic appearances as mind, thoughts, imagination, emotions, egoic self, actions and perceptions are all the energy of “prakriti”, like the spontaneous energy of rigpa’s tsal or thugje as Lhundrub. Prakriti serves the the purusha, and evolves according to its own energetic dynamics.

Purusha is said to require no being liberated because it can’t be in bondage. It never has karma. Only the egoic “me” generated by prakriti seeks liberation. Liberation is Purusha’s natural state when differentiated from prakriti as egoic self and energetic forms; like a mirror knowing it was never the reflections that appeared in it.

Purushas are individual monads as Leibniz described and are not “all one”. Namkhai Norbu taught that rigpa is always individual and we never merge into being a single great Being. Samkhya is atheistic like Buddhism. There is no over-riding Brahman or God that all purushas merge into, in Samkhya. This could explain why Bon religion and Bon Dzogchen has no connection with Buddhism; it comes from ancient Samkhya, at a time previous to the existence of Buddhism.

I also like their treatment of “cause and effect”, where they say the effect is contained within the cause, and the effect is only a stretched out “extension” of the cause itself, with no separation between cause and effect. This is how quantum field theory sees cause and effect as well, not as independent parts interacting.

There are also many references that purusha is located in the heart and has subtle channels connecting directly to the yes.

“This space that is inside of a person is indeed the space that is inside the heart. It is a plenitude that has not turned outward (apravartin) ... Far above this world, the celestial glow-that shines on the back of the cosmos [and] the back of everything [in the cosmos], in the highest of the highest worlds-is this very glow that is inside a person ... This self of mine inside the heart is indeed smaller than a grain of rice, a barleycorn, a mustard-seed, a millet-grain, or even a kernel of millet. This self of mine inside the heart is greater than the earth, greater than midspace, greater than the celestial realm, greater than these world.”

“...... luminous purusa, illuminated by its own light, is able to see into both this world and the world beyond.”

“MBh 12.290.69-75 describes the visionary ascent of the "true practitioner" of Samkhya in the following terms: By means of gnosis (jnana-yogena), those perfected hermits cross over .... and having crossed over [beyond the world of] birth-a crossing that is difficult-they enter into the clear sky (nabhas). Then . . . the sun carries those true practitioners of Samkhya [upward] with its rays which, penetrating (avisya) them like lotus fibers, convey them toward the [most distant] objects of the senses. There, the conveying wind takes hold of those perfected ascetics ... Gentle, cool, fragrant, and pleasant to touch is that most excellent of the seven luminous winds (maruts), which goes to the shining worlds. It bears them to the higher path of the sky.”

No practices or meditation is necessary because purusha is your current awareness at all times. A commentator on Samkhya wrote:

“They partake [of it] through vidya”. (Vidya is Sanskrit for “rigpa”)

“In one place it was said, in the context of the conversation between Yājñavalkya and Maitreyī, that when there is a transcendence of personality there is no ‘consciousness’ whatsoever. This confounded the mind of Maitreyī and she immediately queried as to how it was possible for consciousness to be absent in the state of liberation. Not so, it is not that there is no consciousness. Consciousness is there, but it is not a consciousness “of” anything particular; it is a general consciousness. Here you have a very beautiful passage, very poetic also in its nature, which tells us that while apparently it is a non-knowing of all particulars, it is a knowing of all things.”

“No Purusha therefore is bound, no one released, likewise no one transmigrates.;
Only nature (Prakriti) in its various forms transmigrates, is bound and is released
— Samkhya-karika 62, [70][71]

“... Purusha consciousness is "complete, free from error, pure and kevala (solitary)".

Garab Dorje also taught a philosophy where rigpa remained unaffected whether thoughts or phenomena were present or not, beyond cause and effect, and instantaneously realized upon being “pointed out”..

Dzogchen text translator and Dzogchen teacher Malcolm Smith wrote to me:

"...In fact, there is even a passage in Dzogchen RR ["Rigpa Rangshar" Tantra] that asserts it is ok to refer to vidya (rigpa) as a self...."

"...If we have to have a soul, it might as well be vidya (rigpa), it is after all, permanent, unconditioned, a knower, stainless, and free from the three realms. But If we don't have to have one, vidya (rigpa) still has these characteristics. It is our essenceless essence."

"Rigpa is just knowing, the noetic quality of a mind. That is all it is."

Longchenpa:

"According to The Highest Continuum: 'That which is the utterly lucid nature of mind is unchanging, like space.'
Basic space, completely pure by nature, is ultimate truth—naturally occurring timeless awareness."


-Jackson Peterson

' Friendship '...

"Once Ananda, his cousin, devoted attendant, and beloved pupil, said to the Buddha.

'It would seem one half of the spiritual life is friendship with good people,

association with good people, and communion with good people.'

The Buddha said in reply,

'It is not so, Ananda, it is not so.

It is not one half of the spiritual life,

it is the entire spiritual life.'"



-Gautama the Buddha
Samyutta Nikaya, verse 2
in Roy J. Matthew, M. D.
The True Path: Western Science and the Quest for Yoga
Cambridge MA: Perseus Publishing, 2001, p. 220

' It does not exist '...

Shh! Don't talk so much about yourself.

It doesn't even exist, but your talking makes it appear so.

Keep quiet inside your mind and being and pray that your ego disappears this day.



~ Mooji