' Love is Natural '...
Love is natural.
Console your mind and make
it listen.
Love all or it is not love.
Make your
mind love this way and you will see the magic
of this everyday.
- Papaji
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
' The Dharmadhatu '...
Know that perception involved with the duality of perceiver and perceived is consciousness.
Know that awareness itself, liberated from perceiver and perceived, is primordial awareness: the dharmadhatu.
- Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche
' The Experience of Enlightenment '...
The Real is wholly nothing to the five senses and wholly unthinkable to the human intellect.
Therefore and to this extent only it is also called the Unknowable.
But there is a faculty latent in man which is subtler than the senses, more penetrative than the intellect.
If he succeeds in evoking it, the Real, the unknowable, will then come within the range of his perception, knowledge, and experience.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 1:
Their Meeting and Interchange > # 114 Paul Brunton
' The Truth of Reality '...
It is not the human that You contain within..
You, Fear so much for survival..
It is the 'ego' that decides..
To Gain or to Lose is the Question..
The Mystics understand this verse...
-thomas
' Transcending the Dualities '...
He alone who has realized the self in the heart has
known the Truth.
Having transcended the dualities,
he is never perplexed.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
' The Stillness and The Silence '...
Student reads from PB: “The knowledge that no two human beings are alike refers to their bodies and minds. But this leaves out the part of their nature which is spiritual, which is found and experienced in deep meditation. In that, the deepest part of their conscious being, the personal self vanishes; only consciousness-in-itself, thought-free, world-free, remains. This is the source of the ‘I’ feeling, and it is exactly alike in the experience of all other human beings. This is the part which never dies, ‘where God and man may mingle.’” (22.3.380)
S: The undivided mind?
AD: Yes, or the stillness, that quietness in you. That would be the spiritual part. Pure consciousness, if you want to call it that.
S: [What does he mean] when he says “deep meditation”?
AD: I would assume he means by that the silence that you get to...
S: The stillness. How would you relate that to the idea of the undivided mind, or the cosmic circuit?
AD: Well, that would be the next step, because the stillness in itself is not enough. It leads you to the spiritual part of yourself, or to the undivided mind.
-- Anthony Damiani and students 7/11/84
' The Use of Intuition '...
All life is a paradox, being at once a combination of reality and appearance.
An obstacle to the comprehension of mentalism is that one persistently, if unconsciously, views the world from the standpoint of the lower personality, which is extremely limited, and not from that of the higher individuality, which transcends both the intellect and the senses.
Even life on earth in the body is really a kind of mystical experience from the standpoint of the mentalist but it is only a blurred, vague, and symbolic one.
The thinking intellect finds it hard to grasp this situation because it is itself something which has been greatly filtered down out of the higher individuality.
Mentalism can be understood up to a point through the use of reasoning but after this point it can only be understood through the use of intuition.
— Notebooks Category 21: Mentalism > Chapter 4:
The Challenge of Mentalism > # 118 Paul Brunton
' The Heart's Desires '...
Man's bodily appetites take him away from his heart's desires; his heart's desires keep him away from the abode of his soul.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
There are two parts in man. One part is his external self, which the soul has borrowed from the earth; and the other part is his real self, which belongs to his Source. In other words an individual is a combination of spirit and matter, a current which runs from above and attracts to it the earth from below, shaping it in order to make it a vehicle. The human body is nothing but a vehicle of the soul which has come from above and has taken the human body as its abode. Thus an individual has two aspects of being: one is the soul, the other is the body. ... Whether he is in the forest or amidst the world's strife, the soul of man is always capable of rising to the greatest heights, if only he wishes to attain to them. ... Man does not need to trouble about what is lacking outside, for in reality all is within himself.
The soul cannot see itself; it sees what is round it, it sees that in which it functions; and so it enjoys the comforts of the shell which is around it, and experiences the pains and discomforts which belong to the shell. And in this way it becomes an exile from the land of its birth, which is the Being of God, which is divine Spirit; and it seeks consciously or unconsciously once again the peace and happiness of home. God therefore is not the goal but the abode of the soul, its real self, its true being.
Plato wrote that we live in a shadow world, where we confuse the shadow of ourselves with reality. This is the Nafs, the false ego, which stands in the light before God, causing, so to speak, a spiritual eclipse. ... The Nafs turns us from the One to the many, enticing us with the things of this world. Then man attaches himself to one thing after another, which brings, at best, momentary satisfaction. Through his spiritual practices the Sufi learns to chain the Nafs, to perceive that it is only a shadow of reality; and finding the sun of truth within his being, looking upon it, one is no longer aware of the shadow. Then the Nafs is not destroyed, but harnessed. The whole of man's being is attuned to God and everything within him serves God.
The one and only thing that hinders man from advancing spiritually, or at least from advancing towards the goal for which he is destined and which he is longing to attain, is this: that the mind is so absorbed by the demands and wants of the physical body that it has hardly a moment to give itself entirely to the reflection of the light of the soul.
' The World-Idea '...
He who experiences the world, who touches, sees, and hears it through the five physical senses, actually gives it existence for himself.
But this would not be possible if he were really, solipsistically, alone.
He is not.
For his little circle of mind is embedded in the larger circle of the World-Idea, itself the expression of the World-Mind.
And it is from this fundament of all Being and, especially, Consciousness, that his personality gets its own consciousness.
Man is literally in God but insists on holding to his littleness!
-- Notebooks Category 21: Mentalism > Chapter 3:
The Individual and World Mind > # 83
Paul Brunton
' Unconditional Love '...
"Having a profound awakening can be like taking the lid off of a jar.
All the karma that has been repressed, all the karma at the bottom of our misery that we aren’t conscious of, comes flying out because there is finally space in which it can emerge.
When it hits you in the face, you wonder where your freedom went and what went wrong. But understand that this is a consequence of the freedom; it is not a mistake.
Everything wants to come up into and be transformed by the freedom.
If you let it come up into this aware space, which is love, it will re-harmonize.
This space that you are is unconditional love.
Unconditional means just that: everything is welcome; nothing is cast away or set apart from it."
~ Adyashanti
' Behold the Vanishing '...
Though in the world you are the most
learned scholar of the time,
behold the
vanishing of this world and this time!
- Rumi
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Daylight"
Threshold Books, 1994
' Remaining as Rigpa '...
Dzogchen teacher, Namkhai Norbu was talking to a group of students in 1986, at a retreat I attended. They were asking him about various mantras they could use as protection against evil yogis and other negative power sources.
He then explained in great detail which mantras to use in these types of cases, which include these entities in our bodies. When finished explaining, he and I sat alone.
I was completely astounded at his offering antidotes against these negative powers. I said “Isn’t it easier and more powerful to just to remain in/as rigpa?”.
He smiled slyly and said “of course!”. I immediately cracked up and he started laughing with me for about five minutes, when he went back into the retreat tent and began teaching again to about 75 of us.
I followed him in a few minutes later, but laughing uncontrollably. He started laughing again, and the whole tent of attendees started laughing too. But they never knew why Norbu and I were laughing.
The point is from the perspective of Dzogchen, resting as rigpa is that awareness which needs no mantras for protection as its invulnerable, can’t be influenced as it is always “untouched” by all energies, thoughts and negative powers.
Rigpa is the impersonal Awareness, like a mirror which no reflections ever touch. It’s only the egoic mind that seeks protection for its imaginary self from these entities.
-Jackson Peterson
' Returned to the Imperfect '...
So long as they are withdrawn into and united with the Overself their consciousness is richer than all others.
So soon as they leave it, mingle with and apply themselves to human affairs,
their consciousness is shaped again by what they habitually are, and largely limited by it.
From the Perfect they have returned to the Imperfect..
From this moment error may creep into their minds, unwisdom into their actions.
-- Notebooks Category 16: The Sensitives > Chapter 2:
Phases of Mystical Development > # 109 Paul Brunton
' The Invisible '...
Thirty spokes share the wheel’s hub;
It is the center hole that makes it useful.
Shape clay into a vessel;
It is the space within that makes it useful.
Cut doors and windows for a room;
It is the holes which make it useful.
Therefore profit comes from what is there;
Usefulness from what is not there.
- Lao-tzu
Tao Te Ching
Translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English
Vintage Books Edition, September 1972
' What Next ?'...
Do you think I know what I'm doing?
That for one breath or half-breath
I belong to myself?
As much as a pen knows what it's writing
or the ball can guess where it's going next.
- Rumi
"The Essential Rumi"
Version by Coleman Barks
HarperSanFrancisco, 1995
' Here , Now , and You '...
In its true sense spirituality is not a plaything or a pastime. It has nothing to do with enhancing you or your status in the dream state. Nor is it about gurus in long flowing robes, secret oral teachings, ancient traditions, or holy books that people claim were written by God. It's about here and now and you, and whether you are asleep within the dream state or awake within the awakened state.
It is the nature of all dreams that the characters therein are so busy being - well, dream characters - that the bigger reality of what lies outside the dream state eludes them. But then again, dream characters don't wake up from the dreams they are a part of; the dreamer does. If spirituality is to be meaningful it must address what lies beyond the dream state that most of us create in our minds and humanity lives in day-to-day, for unless we awaken from our personal and collective dreams we will continue to live in a state of unconsciousness on the surface of a life of infinite potential.
Only that which is real and true has the power to liberate us from the mechanical and magnetic draw of the dream state. For ultimately it is ignorance (the belief in things that are untrue) that imprisons us within a trance state, which is induced by taking the conditioned stream of thinking within one's mind to be true. If we are to awaken from the mind's hypnotic embrace, we must question all of our beliefs and assumptions down to the very source of our being until that which is true, real, and everlasting reveals itself.
Truth is that which lies beyond the grasp of the dreaming mind. It is not something that can be captured and stated like a fact can. Truth is a timeless reality and therefore sacred in the true sense of the word. Please do not think of truth in mystical terms or even in spiritual terms. Truth refers to the whole of existence and beyond. Truth exists as much in your teacup as it does in your temples and churches. Truth is as present in shopping for your groceries as it is in chanting to God. To think of truth only in spiritual or religious terms is to miss the whole of it, for in doing so you create the boundaries and divisions that are the very antithesis of truth.
Truth is an immeasurable reality not at all separate from your own being. For in the revelation of truth, all beings rest within your being. Put more simply, if you cannot find it now underfoot, I'm afraid that you have missed it entirely.
- Adyashanti
' The Identity of Peace '...
No matter what the appearance,
there is perfection,
tranquillity,
harmony and happiness
wherever one is,
wherever he goes,
whatever he is doing or not doing.
Perfection is no more present in one spot than another.
Tranquillity does not reside more in one place than another.
One does not have to seek out the quiet places
mountain trails, meadows and mill ponds
to find the "peace that passeth understanding."
While the world rushes to other places for recreation,
we have a place right where we are
a secret refuge wherein we find the end of sorrow and tribulation, where there is rest from every effort.
Where is this wonderous place?
Within the Self within within.
All the while, peace has been closer than breathing,
closer than fingers and toes,
here and now within us,
not out there at all.
All the while,
Peace has been the Identity we are.
-The above William Samuel quotes are from the book
Experience Your Perfect Soul.
' Weak and Strong Desires '...
Weak desires can be removed by introspection
and meditation, but strong, deep-rooted ones
must be fulfilled and their fruits, sweet or bitter,
tasted.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
' The Body-Mind '...
"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'Keeffe
'To Know Self '...
When you come to know yourselves,
then you will be known, and you will realize that you are the children of the living Father.
But if you do not come to know yourselves,
then you exist in poverty, and you are poverty.”
- Jesus the Christ
' Tao Te Ching '...
Great accomplishment seems imperfect,
Yet it does not outlive its usefulness.
Great fullness seems empty,
Yet it cannot be exhausted.
Great straightness seems twisted.
Great intelligence seems stupid.
Great eloquence seems awkward.
Movement overcomes cold.
Stillness overcomes heat.
Stillness and tranquility set things in order in the universe.
- Lao-tzu
Tao Te Ching
Translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English
Vintage Books Edition, September 1989
' Enlightenment '...
Sri Atmananda told me that he was taught the higher philosophy and got enlightened by it in a single session.
But it ought to be explained that this session lasted from sunset to sunrise the next day.
-- Notebooks Category 15: The Orient > Chapter 2:
India > # 485 Paul Brunton
' This will be your exercise '...
You are earlier than anything that is perceivable. Anything that you perceive cannot be what you are. Simply stay as this awareness. Witness that all thoughts and sensations, all phenomena, come and go. Notice that you are primarily this perceiving. The computer (of the mind) is on but you don’t log in. Simply look. You will gradually come to experience an immensity of Being.
This will be your exercise as you move about in daily life or activities. Don’t run to books for anything. You will find your mind wants a massage every now and again as it is habituated to the feeling of being involved, of being important and included. Just observe this. You don’t have to suppress this energy of the mind. You can just let it be, but you yourself stay in the neutral observing space. Stay as the detached formless awareness.
You will be able to watch and recognise that identity is just a thought, running from one story to another like a monkey jumping from branch to branch. In the past, it may have gone on for hours without you catching it, but as you continue to stay as the awareness, you will find your vibration strengthening and the consciousness rising to a higher altitude. The ability to catch the mind will be much easier for you now. As soon as identity is playing, a signal will come inside and you will be able to recognise this play with detachment.
Now, do you want to continue to wear personal identity? And what is witnessing this identity playing? Don’t let the mind answer for you. Keep quiet. Check in and verify, ‘I am simply here.’ As what are you here? Again you see, ‘I have no comment to make about it. It’s just a sense of being.’ This is the same as the exercise to stay as the ‘I am’. That is also the sense of being which is naturally here—the sense ‘I am’.
Then at a certain point, you may start to see, ‘But the ‘I am’ also is seen. The ‘I am’ also is perceived. The sense of presence is also felt.’ Don’t be in a hurry for this. When the ‘I am the person’ idea is sieved through, it becomes just the ‘I am’. If you can come to the sense of just the unmixed presence, this is already tremendous. You are in the field of grace. If you try to force this recognition, then you bring the mind in again and it will seem as though the mind has accomplished something. And what are the wages for the mind? He gets to stay. Avoid this.
You may feel that without this exercise, you are already naturally in a place of rest. As you move about, you find that the movement is happening spontaneously, but there is no keeping account of it. Everything is fresh and the attention is not visiting the past or seeking reassurance. It is without need. This is your internal work. Internal work—eternal satisfaction.
-Mooji
' A Liberated One '...
"Do not permit the events of your daily life to bind you, but never withdraw from them.
Only by acting thus
can you attain the title of 'A Liberated One.'"
-Huang Po
in Jonathan Star
Two Suns Rising: A Collection of Sacred Writings
NY: Bantam, 1991, p. 70
' The Appearance '...
It was Plato who rightly pointed out that experience is really a medley of changing opinions and conflicting beliefs, thereby offering contrast with the orderliness and consistency of reasoned knowledge.
This is why we have to begin intellectual analysis of the world by separating the realm of sense perception from the realm of reasoned perception, as though they were entirely different.
But we must not end with such an artificial separation.
For in the higher stages we climb to the viewpoint which reunites them again.
The Thought is then the Thing.. The Appearance is then also the Real!
-- Notebooks Category 21: Mentalism > Chapter 2:
The World As Mental > # 2 Paul Brunton
' Sentience Itself '...
You have considered yourself to be a separate "self" only because of having regarded a solid object with a name that is the body, as yourself.
But in fact the body itself is nothing but an insignificant, vastly intricate complex of electrical wave-patterns, a series of rhythmic functions, a throbbing field of energy and emptiness.
What you actually are, then, is what everybody else is: sentience itself.
Therefore, instead of being a puny self by way of an object, you are indeed everything.
- Ramesh Balsekar
' The Heart of the Rose '...
How
Did the rose
Ever open its heart
And give to this world
All its
Beauty?
It felt the encouragement of light
Against its
Being,
Otherwise,
We all remain
Too
Frightened.
- Hafiz
' Ping Pong '...
Don’t play ping-pong with your mind.
Simply stay as the detached witnessing presence.
When left alone, mind calms down by itself.
But don’t wait for this to happen.
Just stay as the unmixed presence.
Watch without interest or identity.
Come fully into your power.
- Mooji
' Embodiment '...
“Embodiment starts with the realization that every manifest thing and non-thing constitutes your true body. Your humanness is simply a reflection of the depth of your realization…What’s most important is to perceive your entire body, which is everything…The entire cosmos is your body….
“Let your inner spiritual revelation become deep enough to include the whole world of time and space. If your spiritual revelation is only big enough to go beyond the relative world but not include it, then you will continue to experience a duality and therefore a struggle with the relative world. Do not become attached to the realm of the absolute. See the absolute and the relative as an undivided whole, as two expressions of the same supreme reality that you are. Go beyond all dualities to the source of duality, to that which is neither this nor that but expresses itself as this and that….
“For most people self-inquiry stops at the realization that I am formless consciousness. But when I am speaking of embodiment, I’m taking self-inquiry back into the world, the world that still remains whether it’s perceived as a dream or not. This is an inquiry into what that world is. The realization ‘I am formless consciousness’ is simply the opposite of ‘I am an individual somebody.’ Even with that realization, there is still going to remain the appearance of somebody. So embodiment is simply a reflection of the realization that every manifest thing that exists is the one body of the one consciousness. This is a return to wholeness, to a completeness that includes the unmanifest and the manifest alike. It is perceiving that both formless consciousness and the world of form are simply two aspects of an unnamable, mysterious whole.”
--Adyashanti, from The Impact of Awakening
' Ram Tzu Speaks '...
First...
You use your mind as
The ultimate jigsaw.
You take Totality
And cut it up
Into a million tiny pieces.
Then...
Having tired of that game,
You sit down and try to
Reassemble this jumble of pieces
Into something comprehensible.
Ram Tzu knows...
God invented time
Just so you could do this.
- Ram Tzu
No Way for the Spiritually "Advanced"
Ram Tzu
Advaita Press, 1990
' I Went Everywhere '...
I went everywhere with longing
in my eyes, until here
in my own house
I felt truth
filling my eyes.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
' Give the ego, Back '...
Give the ego back to the Overself and then the Overself will use it as it should be used--in harmony with the cosmic laws of being.
This means that the welfare of all others in contact with the ego will be considered as well as the ego's own.
— Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself >
Chapter 2: Inspiration > # 49 Paul Brunton
' Your Self '...
To me you are your own God.
But if you think
otherwise, think to the end.
If there be God,
then all is God's and all is for the best.
Welcome
all that comes with a glad and thankful heart.
And love all creatures.
This too will take you to
your Self.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
' The Curse of Discontent '...
There is no greater sin than desire,
No greater curse than discontent,
No greater misfortune than wanting something for oneself.
Therefore he who knows that enough is enough
will always have enough.
- Lao-tzu
Tao Te Ching
Translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English
Vintage Books Edition, September 1972
' Grace '...
Grace is not necessarily bestowed deliberately or conferred personally.
It may be received from someone who does not even know that he is its source.
It may manifest through nothing more than the physical meeting between these two, or through a letter from one to the other, or even through the mere thinking about one of them by the other person.
But, however obtained, Grace has its ultimate source in the mysterious Overself.
This is why no man, however saintly, exalted, or advanced, can really give it to anyone:
he can only be used by the higher power for this purpose,
whether aware or unaware in the surface part of his mind of what is happening.
-- Notebooks Category 18: The Reverential Life >
Chapter 5: Grace > # 41 Paul Brunton
' The Individual Mind '...
The 'individual mind' is the 'egoic-desire' for separation from 'Source'..
-thomas
' Steps to Awakening '...
23. Knowing aright the nature of the Self
and abandoning the non-self as void, unreal, is wisdom true.
All other knowledge is ignorance, and not wisdom.
24. Even like a dream this waking world
is but a mind-conceived appearance in mind space.
Hence greatness lies in firmly ending indicative knowledge
and the folly of fondness for outer objects.
25. Knowledge is manifold, say they who know objects,
but not freedom from the dire delusion of differences.
When the senses five, driven outward by desire are pulled back, then true, full Awareness comes,
and there is no "other" to be known.
26. Those whom from books have learnt about the truth supreme esteem themselves supreme in wisdom,
and fail to seek the knower and taste the bliss of Self,
but test and measure the silent sage.
What folly this!
27. "Mine is the only mind amenable to my correction."
If one forgets this truth and broods o'er others' faults
one only fouls one's own mind more and more.
28. Only he who has attained immortal life can save the world.
For the ignorant one to help another
is but the blind leading the blind.
29. One has to blame oneself alone
if one should try to teach the Truth supreme
to those who are immature.
These might reject the highest Truth as false
because it contradicted what they had been told before
and had believed as true.
The above Sri Ramana Maharshi quotes are from the book
The Seven Steps to Awakening.
' The Still Point '...
At the still point of the turning world.
Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement.
And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered.
Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline.
Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only dance.
I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where.
And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time.
- T. S. Eliot
From "Burnt Norton”
T. S. Eliot, Collected Poems 1909-1962
London: Faber and Faber, 1963
' My Yoke is Light '...
When Jesus invites men to "cast all burdens upon me" and when Krishna invites them to "cast off all works on me"
both are suggesting that we should imagine all our troubles being borne and all our actions as being done by the higher self,
if we have not yet found it, and should actually let it displace the personal ego in practical life, if we have.
-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 6:
Advanced Meditation > # 44 Paul Brunton
' In the Heart is God '...
"God is not to be found in the skies, or in caves of the Himalayas.
God is in the heart of each one.
Once your heart is clean, God will shine out of it."
-Meher Baba
Meher Baba Calling, 17
Ahmednagar: Meher Nazar Books, 6th ed., 1992 (1964)
' The Essence of Reality '...
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
' The First Cause '...
This unthinkable Void is,
for those who want one,
the First Cause of all existence.
-- Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity > Chapter 5:
The Void As Metaphysical Fact > # 14 Paul Brunton
' Everything Is Known '...
Self-forgetting is inherent in self-knowing.
Consciousness and unconsciousness are two
aspects of one life.
They co-exist.
To know
the world you forget the self - to know the
self you forget the world.
What is world after
all?
A collection of memories.
Cling to one
thing that matters, hold on to 'I am' and let go
all else.
This is sadhana.
In realization there is
nothing to hold on to and nothing to forget.
Everything is known, nothing is remembered.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
' Don't Be Afraid '...
As soon as you begin to sense your unity with the real
Self, the psychological identity is going to rise up for its
biggest fight; a fight to protect its very survival.
It will not
give up its illusory hold on the beingness that easily.
It
will use every trick to prevent you from discovering
your real nature.
But don’t be afraid.
You have the real
power on your side and it is important to remember this
when the mind attacks.
You can transcend its influence
by remaining as the formless and unmoving Seer.
This
is righteousness, holiness and love.
- Mooji
' Suffering '...
“Suffering is caused by identification with egoic consciousness. When we identify with egoic consciousness, we go unconscious or become unaware of our true nature as conscious spirit.
Egoic consciousness is something that the vast majority of people live in almost all the time. Humanity is by and large caught in this realm of egoic consciousness, and therefore manifests it in the way that we, human beings, live our lives - both individually and collectively.
Ego itself is a fiction created in the mind by circular patterns of thinking based on separation. So, 'the ego is the fiction in the mind' - what does that mean? [It means] that ego is basically our sense of self, and the thoughts, ideas and beliefs that circle around that sense of self that go into deriving a bigger, more conceptualized version of our self. In other words: who we think and imagine ourselves to be.
Our egos are always trying to find happiness where [it] can't be found. One can't find true, lasting happiness outside of themselves. Whatever happiness you find outside of yourself, can be taken away. And in time, it will be taken away, because the nature of everything that exists, everything you can observe, everything that is around you, is that it is impermanent.
Who you think you are is just that - it is who you think you are. It is who you have been taught to believe that you are. It's a conglomeration of beliefs about yourself, ideas, opinions, judgements, all the ways that mind keeps thinking about a self - thinking a separate self into existence.
To have enough curiosity to start to question your deepest identity is absolutely vital and essential to spiritual awakening, and to the realization of peace and freedom.
You can't get rid of thoughts, and you can't get rid of thinking. To battle your mind is one of the most deceptive ways that the mind keeps you in its own domain.
The cause of suffering is not thinking, it's identification with thinking. This is very, very important to understand, because if you don't understand that it's identification with thinking that's really at the heart of the matter, and you assume that it's thinking itself that's the problem, then you can waste immense amounts of time and energy trying to stop your mind from thinking, trying to better your mind.
The mind is something that happens within you. Thinking is something that happens within what you are.. Thinking does not define what you are. Thinking doesn't define anything.
Our true nature is something that is ineffable. In other words, it's not something you can grasp, it's not something you can really think about, it's not something you can touch, taste, or feel. (....) Because it has no shape, because it has no form, that is the reason that I call it spirit. Spirit is that which exists, but it doesn't have a particular shape or a particular form.
When we come to the realization that we are not this identity that the mind has created, but we're actually spirit, at that moment spirit has become conscious of itself. It's become conscious of itself as spirit, as ineffable being, as a sort of conscious presence.
Awakened values are not really based in morality. They're not based in should or shouldn'ts. Awakened values are values that are inherent within conscious spirit.
Every human being... the way they move in live, how they act, is completely dictated by what they value.
Unity is a truth. The truth is, there's only ultimately one. All this diversity we see - and there's great diversity and great uniqueness! But underlying it, the essence of all of it is conscious spirit. Conscious spirit is what everything is. Spirit is what everything is. Spirit is what's expressing itself. When you look around you, what you're really seeing is the expressions of ineffable spirit. That's what you're seeing. No matter what you see, no matter what you experience, it's really a manifestation of spirit.
The good news is that at the essence of who and what we are there is a deep and fundamental goodness. Not the goodness that we've been taught, not like morally good, as opposed to morally bad, but something deeper - a goodness which is inherent in what we are.
All the ideas we have about the awakening actually are distortions about what it really is. So we really need to let go of not only all of our ideas of our self, but all of our ideas about spiritual realization, enlightenment, spiritual awakening. All of those need to be let go of as well, so that we can find out what's the truth, what's the reality of what we are.
It is the basics that are most important. Never leave this foundation. From this, an incredible depth is to be found - an ongoing revelation of the truth of existence.
Perhaps the most important element of any spiritual teaching is what we bring to it, because this dictates what the teaching will reveal within ourselves.”
~ Adyashanti, Basic Teachings
' Separation '...
Humanity’s awakening is proceeding beautifully, just as divinely planned and intended. Do not be distracted and dismayed by the various unhappy events on which the mainstream media focuses its attention, and which it uses to keep your fear and anxiety exercised and alert. As I have already told you many times, the purpose of the mainstream media is not benign, it is clearly directed, by those who own and control it, to focus on the items of news that deal almost totally with conflict, tragedy, and loss of life, and that are therefore unsettling or even alarming to its audience.
Most of the good and uplifting news is not reported by the mainstream media because they depend on shock and drama to attract watchers, listeners, and readers. There remains within humanity an intense desire for “bad news” because it satisfies the egoic need to see others in worse situations than oneself. When one feels alone or separate as a human individual, the knowledge of the pain of others can act as a palliative, temporarily relieving feelings of personal suffering, and enabling a person to accept that life is unfair to everyone. And in the illusory world of form this certainly does appear to be the case, with a very large proportion of humans living in extreme poverty in areas that are basically lawless, and where the fundamentals for survival are in extremely short supply, while many others reside in areas of conflict.
THIS IS WHAT MUST CHANGE AND IT WILL CHANGE! In fact it is already changing, so focus your attention on being that change yourselves by releasing all judgment, bitterness, and resentment at what you see as the unacceptable behavior of others.
Remember that all are one and that therefore everyone is a mirror to everyone else. The more you choose and intend to be only loving whatever the situation in which you find yourselves may suggest is occurring, the more you will experience meeting love reflected back to you. THAT is how the world is changed, and it IS changing constantly. As you well know the only constant in the world of form is CHANGE! So make the change from fear to LOVE in your own hearts, do NOT engage in conflict, and KNOW, as deep within yourselves you truly do, that doing this works PERFECTLY.
The old ways cannot continue, and they will not continue; they are way past their “sell by date.” They have served their purpose which was to bring you to the moment when you would choose to awaken. That choice, having been made collectively some time ago, is being put into effect daily in ever more locations. You know this, because each one of you has made the choice individually to awaken, and there is only ONE, YOU!
The ongoing confusion in every area of human endeavor is as a direct result of the collective choice to awaken, and humanity is awakening to the insanity of the present way of relating to itself as individuals of unacceptable political, religious, cultural, ethnic, and social groups. Every person and every group has much to offer that is of inestimable value, but until now you have mostly focused on the seemingly unacceptable differences between you instead of focusing on the truth that everyone has gifts to offer, gifts that only they can offer. As that realization rises up into the awareness of more and more of you, and as you choose to honor and respect one another, instead of negatively judging those who appear different, peace and harmony will arise as all that is not in alignment with Love dissolves or dissipates back into the unreality from which it arose when you chose to experience it – it being – SEPARATION from SOURCE!
Separation never occurred, it could not occur because the One is indivisible, the One is All, and without even one seeming individual sentient life form the One would be incomplete, and the One cannot be incomplete. Modern physics has finally proven this to be so in the material world, and has also realized that the material world in which humanity is experiencing life in form – the universe which, in form, you see as vast and impersonal – is but a microscopic component of the All, in fact it is so small that to try and define it as a percentage of the ALL would be totally and utterly meaningless, it just would not show up because it is so small.
When you awaken, as you are going to do, the absolute V A S T N E S S of Reality, the All, will dumbfound you. Reality is All, and your Joy in becoming aware of this, that you and It are One, will blow your little human minds, except that you will have no little minds to blow, being One with the V A S T N E S S that is A L L.
Your loving brother, Jesus.
Separation never occurred, it could not occur because the One is indivisible.
by John Smallman
' The Desire for Truth '...
The desire for truth is the highest of all
desires, yet, it is still a desire.
All desires
must be given up for the 'Real' to be.
Remember
that 'You Are'.
This is your working capital.
Rotate it and there will be much profit.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
' The Real Disaster '...
There is a saying in Tibetan,
'Tragedy should be utilized as
a source of strength.'
No matter what sort of difficulties,
how painful experience is,
if we lose our hope,
that's our
real disaster.
- Dalai Lama
' Overself's Grace '...
The Overself's grace meets us just at the point where our need is greatest,
but not necessarily the one we acknowledge as such.
We must learn to let it do what it wants to do,
not necessarily what we want it to do.
-- Notebooks Category 18: The Reverential Life >
Chapter 5: Grace > # 243 Paul Brunton
' Why not the Real ? '...
By itself nothing has existence.
Everything needs
its own absence.
To be, is to be distinguishable,
to be here and not there, to be now and not then,
to be thus and not otherwise.
Like water is shaped
by the container, so is everything determined by
conditions (gunas).
As water remains water
regardless of the vessels, as light remains itself
regardless of the colours it brings out, so does the
real remain real, regardless of conditions in which
it is reflected.
Why keep the reflection only in the
focus of consciousness?
Why not the real itself?
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
' Beyond Ambition '...
Beyond ambition,
beyond attainment,
is home.
Contentment,
without content;
peace, uncaused.
~ A. H. Almaas
' Returning to Source '...
Such a goal may be unappealing to many,
held by their attachments as they are;
but it is fascinating and alluring to a few, "old souls,"
much experienced after a long series of earthly lives,
whose values have been altered, whose glamours and illusions have been eliminated.
They feel like wanderers returning home.
-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest > Chapter 5:
Self-Development > # 138 Paul Brunton
' Really Called Man '...
"A man must separate himself from all attachment to physical reality, said the Maggid,
until he rises through all the spiritual worlds and becomes one with God,
his own individual existence having been annihilated.
Then he is really called man."
-Rabbi Dov Baer
in Alan Unterman
The Wisdom of the Jewish Mystics
NY New Directions, 1976, p. 54
' The True Lover '...
Your earthly lover
can be very charming and coquettish
but never very faithful.
The true lover is the one who on your final day
opens a thousand doors.
- Rumi
Rumi: Hidden Music
Translated by Azima Melita Kolin
and Maryam Mafi
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001
' Not Fundamentally Real '...
When we think we see a single smoothly moving cinema picture of a running man we are really seeing thousands of separate stationary pictures of the man.
The experience of smoothly convincing personality is an illusion which arises in the same manner out of our mental fusion of a series of separate ideas into a single human being.
The term "illusion" here used must not be read as meaning that the human being does not exist.
On the contrary, this sentence would not be written or read if it were not so.
It means that he exists, yes, but that he does not exist as other than a transient appearance.
He is not fundamentally real.
-- Notebooks Category 8: The Ego > Chapter 2:
I-thought > # 30 Paul Brunton
' The Great Way '...
"The Great Way is effortless for those who live in choiceless awareness.
To choose without preference is to be clear.
"Even the slightest personal preference and your whole world becomes divided.
To perceive reality as it is is to live with an open mind.
When the lens you look through reflects your personal bias, your view of reality is clouded.
Truth simply is, the clouded mind cannot know it."
-Sosan (Seng T'san) - 3rd Zen Patriarch
Hsin Hisn Ming
translated by Philip Dunn & Peter Jourdan as
The Book of Nothing: A Song of Enlightenment
Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel, 2002, pp. 16, 19
' True Happiness '...
True happiness is uncaused and this cannot
disappear for lack of stimulation.
It is not
the opposite of sorrow,
it includes all sorrow
and suffering.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
' The True 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
' One's True Identity '...
"Irrespective of whether a person believes through the medium of ideas or idols, with sincere love and faith in God, he or she can get nearer to Him, Who is already the nearest of all.
The essence of faith lies not in the shape or manner of one's belief, but in the depth and sincerity behind it.
The faith that can move mountains can, and does, move the greatest of them — the mountain of Ignorance that denies an individual a glimpse of one's true Divinity and also conceals one's true Identity."
-Meher Baba
in Bal Natu
Glimpses of the God-Man
Myrtle Beach, SC: Sheriar Press, 1994, Vol. 6, p. 75
' The Final Annihilation '...
The ego survives by trying to pretend that it is
the thinker, feeler, speaker and do-er.
These phenomena serve as the handholds for
the ego to, seemingly, survive within the vast
emptiness of Consciousness.
But if you’re ever to live as who you really are,
you must first die completely to who you think you
are.
The final annihilation is not of your self.
The final annihilation is of your story.
- Chuck Hillig
Seeds for the Soul
Chuck Hillig
Black Dot Publications, 2003
' Seekers '...
If some Power has turned you into a seeker,
don't you think it is the responsibility of that
Power to take you where you are supposed
to be taken?.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
' One Stream of Truth '...
"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."
-Hazrat Inayat Khan
Bowl of Saki, 1-1
' Follow the Breath '...
Take a break from the mind.
Follow the breath.
The
constant awareness of the breath will detach you from
your mind.
The energy that usually moves into thinking
will move into witnessing.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
"Let Life Flow"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Yogi Impressions, 2005
' Within Eternity '...
When in deep sleep we have absolutely no sense of Time's existence at all.
We are then in eternity!
When we become thoroughly convinced of the illusoriness of time, and make this conviction a settled attitude, eternity reveals itself even during the waking state.
This is life in the Overself.
This is not the same as totalizing the past present and future; all those belong to illusion.
This realization gives perfect peace..
-- Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity > Chapter 4:
Time, Space, Causality > # 84 Paul Brunton
' Universal Cooperation '...
The law of the universe is cooperation and not competition.
It is not warfare.
That is the law of the universe, the total
solidarity for which the prayers of the ancient sages were
directed in such scriptures as the Vedas.
The Rigveda
concludes with a prayer for universal cooperation,
collaboration not merely in a social manner, but even in
the field of thinking, in collective aspiration and all activity.
- Swami Krishnananda
Facets of Spirituality
Complied by S. Bhagyalakshmi
Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1986
' Life without Boundaries '...
“This body is not me.
I am not limited by this body.
I am life without boundaries.
I have never been born,
and I have never died.
Look at the ocean and the sky filled with stars,
manifestations from my wondrous true mind.
Since before time, I have been free…
Birth and death are only doors through which we pass,
sacred thresholds on our journey.
Birth and death are a game of hide- and seek.
So laugh with me,
hold my hand,
let us say good-bye,
say good-bye, to meet again soon.
We meet today.
We will meet again tomorrow.
We will meet at the source every moment.
We meet each other in all forms of life.”
-Thich Nhat Hanh
' Return to Source '...
The realization of human insignificance as against the cosmic background impresses deeply.
However, there is another aspect to this realization.
It is an excellent preparation for the thought of the Void wherein the individual human entity is not merely insignificant
but is actually non-existent, merged or rather returned to that which gave it birth.
-- Notebooks Category 8: The Ego > Chapter 4:
Detaching from The Ego > # 399 Paul Brunton
' Realization of Reality '...
"Teach us to consider no other duty to be more important than our sacred duty to realize Thee."
-Paramahansa Yogananda
Whispers From Eternity
Self-Realization Fellowship, 1949, p. 33
' The egoic mind '...
People often ask how the mind is controlled.
I say to them, 'Show me the mind and then
you will know what to do.'
The fact is that
the mind is only a bundle of thoughts.
How can
you extinguish it by the thought of doing so
or by a desire?
Your thoughts and desires are
part and parcel of the mind.
The mind is simply
fattened by new thoughts rising up.
Therefore
it is foolish to attempt to kill the mind by
means of the mind.
The only way of doing it is
to find its source and hold on to it.
The mind
will then fade away of its own accord.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
"Be As You Are"
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
edited by David Godman
Arkana, 1985
' Different Egos'...
Inside ourselves there is not one ego but several.
We live in a condition of recurring feelings that successively contradict one another, deny each other, or shame each other.
The "I" is really torn into pieces, each claiming ascendency but none holding it permanently.
The animal, the human, and the angel jostle elbows in our hearts.
We are degraded today, elevated tomorrow.
The quest seeks to integrate all these different egos.
-- Notebooks Category 8: The Ego >
Chapter 3: Psyche > # 18
Paul Brunton
' Not Within or Without '...
“Because your outlook is externally directed, you speak of a ‘without’.
In that state you are advised to look within.
In fact, the Self is neither within nor without.”
-Sri Ramana Maharshi
Sri Maharshi’s Way: A Translation and Commentary on Upadesa Saram
D.M. Sastri
Tiruvannamalai: Sri Ramanasramam, 1999, p. 33
' This Talking Rag '...
It
Was all
So clear this morning.
My mind and heart had never felt
More convinced:
There is only God,
A Great Wild
God.
But somehow I got yanked from
That annihilating
Realization
And can now appear again
As this wine-stained
Talking
Rag.
- Hafiz
"The Gift"
Translations by Daniel Ladinsky
Penguin/Arkana, 1999
' The Fullest Meaning '...
Many complain that they are unable in meditation successfully to bring their active thoughts to an end.
In the ancient Indian art of yoga, this cessation--called nirvikalpa samadhi in Sanskrit--is placed as the highest stage to be reached by the practitioner.
This situation must be viewed from two separate and distinct standpoints: from that of yoga and from that of philosophy.
Would-be philosophers seek to become established in that insight into Reality which is called Truth.
Intuitive feeling is a higher manifestation of man's faculties.
So long as the feeling itself remains unobstructed by illusions, and--after incessant reflection, inquiry, study, remembrance, reverence, aspiration, training of thought, and purification--a man finds the insight dawning in his mind, he may not need to practise meditation.
He may do so and he will feel the satisfaction and tranquillity which comes from it.
Those who become sufficiently proficient in yoga, even if they achieve the complete cessation of thoughts, should still take up the pursuit of understanding and insight.
If they are content with their attainment, they can remain for years enjoying the bliss, the tranquillity, the peace of a meditational state; but this does not mean knowledge in its fullest meaning.
-- Notebooks Category 20: What Is Philosophy? > Chapter 4:
Its Realization Beyond Ecstasy > # 138 Paul Brunton
' 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
' Only the Real Exists '...
There is no alternative for you but to accept the
world as unreal if you are seeking the truth and
the truth alone.
Unless you give up the idea that
the world is real your mind will always be after it.
If you take the appearance to be real you will
never know the real itself, although it is the real
alone that exists.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
"Be As You Are"
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
Edited by David Godman
Arkana, 1985
' Surrendering to Source '...
If he keeps on fixing his attention upon fighting the wandering characteristic of his thoughts, he may find after many attempts that the task seems impossible.
Why is this?
It is because at the same time he is limiting himself to attention upon the ego.
Let him move in the opposite direction and turn to the Short Path, let the thoughts fix themselves on the Overself, upon Its great stillness,
Its serene impersonality.
The ego will not and cannot remove itself by itself but by going outside to THAT which is its origin.
The thoughts in the end are led into surrender to the power which transcends it and will master it.
-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 4:
The Changeover To the Short Path > # 72 Paul Brunton
' Something from Nothing '...
"The creatures of the world are born from something,
and something from nothing."
-Lao-Tzu
_Tao Te Ching_, 4
Translation of Ma Wang Tui Manuscripts
by D. C. Lau
NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994, p. 6
' Reality '...
Reality is simply the loss of ego.
Destroy the
ego by seeking its identity.
Because the ego is
no entity,
it will automatically vanish and reality
will shine forth by itself.
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
"Be As You Are"
The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
edited by David Godman
Arkana, 1985
' Deep Dreamless Sleep '...
Deep dreamless sleep removes anxieties from the mind because it removes the ego which suffers them.
It removes exhaustion from the physical body because the complete relaxation of tension
consequent upon the ego's absence allows the universal life-force to permeate every cell.
-- Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity > Chapter 3:
The States of Consciousness > # 98 Paul Brunton
' A Collector of Religions '...
"I am sort of a collector of religions,
and the curious thing is I find I can believe in them all."
-George Bernard Shaw
in Rosalie Maggio
_The Journey Inward: Quotations for the Soul_
NY: Barnes & Noble, 1997, p. 180
' Nirvikalpa Samadhi '...
Why be afraid of this declaration:
that the final goal is to merge in the Absolute?
Is it because it promises the same as death--annihilation?
Yet whenever deep sleep is entered this merger happens.
The ego with its thoughts, desires, and agitations, is gone; the world, with its relativities, is no more.
Time, space, form, memory are lost.
Yet all reappears next morning.
So it is not a real death. It is pure Being.
Meditation tries to reproduce this condition, to achieve a return to deep sleep but with the added factor of awareness.
In the final phase--Nirvikalpa Samadhi--it succeeds.
Man dissolves but his divine Source remains as the residue, as what he always and basically was.
This is why philosophy includes meditation.
-- Notebooks Category 4: Elementary Meditation > Chapter 1:
Preparatory > # 199 Paul Brunton
' Stillness '...
Stillness is your essential nature.
What is stillness?
The inner space or awareness in which the words on this page are being perceived and become thoughts.
Without that awareness, there would be no perception, no thoughts, no world.
You are that awareness, disguised as a person.
~ Eckhart Tolle
' The Whole Flame '...
"What is this awesome mystery
that is taking place within me?
I can find no words to express it;
my poor hand is unable to capture it
in describing the praise and glory that belong
to the One who is above all praise,
and who transcends every word...
My intellect sees what has happened,
but it cannot explain it.
It can see, and wishes to explain,
but can find no word that will suffice;
for what it sees is invisible and entirely formless,
simple, completely uncompounded,
unbounded in its awesome greatness.
What I have seen is the totality recapitulated as one,
received not in essence but by participation.
Just as if you lit a flame from a flame,
it is the whole flame you receive."
-Symeon the New Theologian
in _The Book of Mystical Chapters: Meditations on the Soul's Ascent from the Desert Fathers and Other Early Christian Contemplatives_
Translated by John Anthony McGuckin
Boston: Shambhala, 2003
' Crucifixion '...
Crucifixion perfectly symbolizes the ongoing
dilemma of the ego.
One hand of your ego is, seemingly, nailed to
your memories about the past while your other
hand is, seemingly, nailed to your imaginings
about the future.
Although your body feels pain in the present
moment, your ego only adds to its own suffering
by blindly worshiping at the altars of memory
and imagination..
Until you fully surrender to the present moment,
you’ll always feel that you’re being crucified.
- Chuck Hillig
Seeds for the Soul
Chuck Hillig
Black Dot Publications, 2003
' The Ground of Reality '...
“In zazen, our practice is to let go of our fabricated mental map, to open the hand of thought, and thereby sit down on the ground of reality.
Thinking can only produce a distorted mental copy of the world, and this copy is based on karmic experiences.
But when we let go of thought, we understand that the copy in our minds is not reality itself.
Then we no longer have to blindly trust our thoughts and we can instead inquire further into the nature of reality.
Our zazen is not a method of correcting the distortion of our “conceptual maps.”
Instead we just let go of the map and sit down on the earth of reality.”
Zen Roshi —Shohaku Okumura
' The Law of Balance '...
Brahma the Creator is the sum total of all
desires.
The world is the instrument for
their fulfillment.
Souls take whatever
pleasures they desire and pay for them in
tears.
Time squares all accounts.
The law
of balance reigns supreme.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
' The Mind '...
The mind which is aware is a distinct and separate thing from the things which appear in the field of awareness.
That mind is the true self, but those things--which we know only as thoughts--are not.
The emotions and thoughts that we commonly experience are outside the ring of the real "I," yet are always taken--or rather mistaken--for it.
-- Notebooks Category 21: Mentalism > Chapter 5:
The Key To the Spiritual World > # 112
Paul Brunton
' Thoughts '...
Thoughts appear as a necessary function in the human organism.
The organism does not decide to create them any more than it decides to breathe.
They are sourced from that which sustains and supports the organism.
To believe that you can stop your thoughts presupposes that you initiate them.
~ Wu Hsin
' Duality is Not There '...
"Totality is all, Brahm[an] is all that there is.
And then there is no duality, and then whatever appears to be, is just an appearance.
It is Vivartvad—that it appears to be, but it is not there, like the snake and the string.
It appears to be snake, but the snake is not there; it appears to be duality, but duality is not there.
Duality is not there.
What is there is only unity, and unity without duality—purely unity."
-Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Global Conference on Unified Field-Based Administration-June 26 2007
' The Pure Space of Being '...
We slay a thousand dragons by catching this one
dragon called 'I'.
You have the power to bring the
attention inwardly again and again, then you'll see
that all appearances are only coming and going,
nothing is fixed.
Keep on confirming this and the
inner noise of identity and conditioning will get
washed out.
What remains is that pure space
of “Being."
- Mooji
' Sleeping Dreamers '...
A comparison of the waking with the dream state yields two striking similarities.
Firstly, neither in one state nor the other do we make our planetary environment, or the other persons who figure in it, or cause all its happenings.
We are born into our waking world--it is there ready-made.
We find ourselves abruptly in our dream world.
The other persons just happen to be in both worlds with us.
We do not deliberately prefabricate most of the everyday happenings in the waking world and we do not do this with the dream happenings either.
Secondly, in neither world can we predict exactly how we shall behave, react, or feel in all their situations.
This is all intended to say that our waking life is really a kind of sleep, from which we need to wake up; that just as the dreamer only awakens when his fatigue exhausts itself or when someone else arouses him, so we, too, only awaken from life's illusions when we are exhausted with all the many different kinds of experience we get from many different incarnations or when a teacher appears to reveal the truth to us.
Further, what we have done or desired in former incarnations predetermines a large part of the picture of our present one.
Yet, the connection between this cause and this effect is unseen by us until someone else, a master of insight, shows it to us.
Until then we are like sleeping dreamers.
-- Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity > Chapter 3: The States of Consciousness > # 40
-- Perspectives > Chapter 19: The Reign of Relativity > # 14 Paul Brunton
' Buddha's Wisdom '...
"The Buddha's wisdom and radiance is like the sun,
because they shine on the entire earth,
lighting up even the remotest dark corners."
-Master Hsuan Hua
Spring Sun, Lotus Flower: Quotes from the Teachings of the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua
Burlingame, CA: Buddhist Text Translation Society, 2004, p. 23
' Action has Consequences '...
Until the nexus between thoughts is severed, everything
we think, say, or do leaves a residue of conditioning in
the mind.
The slightest thought has consequences, as
does the slightest act.
Over the years it is the sum of all
these consequences, large and small, that shapes our lives.
- Eknath Easwaran
Dialogue with Death
Eknath Easwaran
Nilgiri Press, 1992
' The Infinite '...
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
' Space and Time '...
As you integrate you become one,
and your needs become one accordingly.
Unified needs lead to unified action,
because this produces a lack of conflict.
You cannot behave effectively
while you function on different levels.
However, while you do,
correction must be introduced vertically from the bottom up.
This is because you think you live in space,
where concepts such as "up" and "down" are meaningful. Ultimately, space is as meaningless as time.
Both are merely beliefs.
-The above quotes are from the book
A Course in Miracles.
' The Ideal Person '...
"The ideal person has the strength of the male and the compassion of the female."
-Zohar
in Timothy Freke
The Illustrated Book of Sacred Scripture
Wheaton, IL: Quest, 1998, p. 163
' You think it's Real '...
I remind you again, the only difference between the sage and yourself
is you see the world and you identify with it.
You think it's real.
A sage sees the world and he knows it's a superimposition upon Consciousness.
So he identifies with Consciousness.
~ Robert Adams
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