' Divine Love '...
"And then our Lord opened my spiritual eye and showed me my soul in midst of my heart.
I saw the Soul so large as it were an endless world, and as it were a blissful kingdom."
-Julian of Norwich
Revelations of Divine Love
Chapter LXVII
Translated by Grace Warrack
Grand Rapids MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, p. 142
' Ashtavakra Gita '...
For see!
The Self is in all beings,
And all beings are in the Self.
Know you are free,
Free of ‘I”,
Free of ‘mine.’
Be happy.
- Ashtavakra Gita
Chapter 15, verse 6
The Heart of Awareness: A Translation
of the Ashtavakra Gita
By Thomas Byrom
Shambala, 1990
' Cosmic Joy '...
The practice of extending love towards all living creatures brings on ecstatic states of cosmic joy.
-- Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 6: Advanced Meditation > # 60
-- Perspectives > Chapter 23: Advanced Contemplation > # 36 Paul Brunton
' Love of a magnitude '...
Constant change is an aspect of the illusion which is constantly being demonstrated by the “passage of time.” Time, too, is an aspect of the illusion; in Reality there is only Now! That makes no sense to beings in form because you have clear memories of times that have past, and you have ongoing expectations, moment to moment, that show you that in the future certain events will probably occur, and that other, as yet unknown events, will also occur. Time and change are two facets of the same material environment in which you experience your existence as humans in form. Most clearly seen and acknowledged as your bodies grow, strengthen, and develop emotionally and intellectually from infancy to adulthood, then maintain that state for a number of years, followed by the aging process that leads to bodily death and decay. And your history, however far back you choose to look, confirms this.
BUT, deep within yourselves, below the level of your human conscious awareness, there dwells the absolute knowing that life, your life, is eternal. However, because the vast majority of you identify utterly and completely with your bodies, with your human forms, you are therefore unable to access that deep inner knowing, and, instead, accept that you were born and that you will die, believing that your life is the period from birth to death – and nothing more – with the final state being termination, extinction, a state of eternal non-being. Awareness of that seeming truth is frequently denied or ignored because it is a terrifying concept. Thus, however unsatisfactorily your human lives may be unfolding for you, the vast majority of you do not wish to end them. There is within you all a sense of hope that life as a human does have a meaning, a far deeper meaning than plain survival, whether experienced by someone who is wealthy with much in the way of material goods and worldly power, or as one who is impoverished and struggling daily to attain the basic necessities that survival as a human entails.
It is this hope that motivates people to engage with life and with other people, and it can be clearly seen that groups or communities working together can achieve better and more sustainable standards of living than can anyone on their own. This demonstrates humanity’s interdependence. From that realization the logical conclusion that separation is a myth must arise. But, because you feel so separate in your individual bodies, and because you each only experience your own sensations – sight, sound, touch, taste, smell – and the pains or pleasures that arise therefrom, that sense of separation is seemingly confirmed. This creates confusion. Newborn infants have no sense of separation initially, having grown within and at one with their mothers. But, as time passes, and they start to grow and become able to move about on their own, a sense of separation begins to develop, which, at times, is a great joy, and at other moments absolutely terrifies them when they feel an intense and immediate need for attention, and it is not immediately forthcoming.
These experiences during infancy and childhood leave a long lasting impression, often deeply buried in the subconscious part of the mind where they are “forgotten,” because, if they are remembered, they can cause intense emotional pain and turmoil. But of course they are never forgotten, and now, as your awakening process accelerates, they are rising unbidden into many people’s conscious minds, alarming them as that buried or denied inner turmoil demands acknowledgment.
Acknowledgment and release is the way forward, it is the way to disarm these powerful feelings by becoming fully aware that they are caused by memories, and that the time in which those those feelings occurred has passed, and that the painful event or situation is over, and that there is no pain now. Accepting and acknowledging that allows compassion for the hurt self of that time to be comforted and healed, and also allows compassion for the perpetrator to arise. Then Love blossoms within, dissolving all judgment, bitterness, resentment, and hatred, so that complete healing of all ancient traumas occurs.
As each individual awakens Love of a magnitude never before experienced in human form fills each one’s heart. The joy, the peace, the compassion, and the forgiveness that then arises is truly mind-blowing, it is beautiful beyond your ability to conceive of in advance. You realize that you are One with Source, and you absolutely know it, from the depths of your being to the peak of your conscious awareness in this endless now moment. It is an everlasting experience in which any thought of separateness, unworthiness, or inadequacy of any kind is totally dissolved because, by being and knowing Yourself to be One with Source, no limiting thoughts can arise.
As One with Source, as each and everyone is, there are no limits to your creative abilities because, at the moment that God created you He endowed you with all that He Is, He created you like unto Himself. From the moment of your creation you are able to create as He does, you are beings without limits of any kind because you are perfect beings; you are the energy field of infinite Love that is Source, Mother/Father/God, All That Is. God is Perfect, He has no blemishes, inconsistencies, or imperfections of any kind because that is what perfect means, and nor do any of you, being inseparably One with God, always!
The perfection that is Source is infinitely joyful, infinitely peaceful, infinitely content, and so are all of you because there is no other state, and thus you will awaken into complete and unshakable awareness of this divine and eternal Truth. Joy is your destiny because it is God’s Will for you, and it is also, of course, your will because you are in total agreement with God in every moment in the Unity that is that perfect and unchanging state.
Your loving brother, Jesus.
-Through the entity called John Smallman..
' True Humility '...
True humility is not the opposite of pride
but the very negation of a separate entity
who could either be proud or humble.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' Words are Shadows '...
Words are but the shadows of thought and feelings.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Although the elements may be called earth, water, fire, air and ether, this must not be taken literally. Their nature and character, according to the mystics, are different. But, as words are few, one cannot give other names to these elements, although in Sanskrit we have distinctive words for them. 'Ether' is not ether in the scientific sense; it is capacity. 'Water' is not water as we understand it in everyday language; it is liquidity. 'Fire' is understood differently; it means glow or heat, dryness, radiance, all that is living. All of these words suggest something more than is ordinarily meant by them. ... Every activity of the outer world is a kind of reaction. In other words, a shadow of the activity which is behind it and which we do not see.
A world of idea is hidden in a word. Think, therefore, how interesting life must become for the one who can see behind every word that is spoken to him its length, breadth, height, and depth. He is an engineer of the human mind. He then does not know only what is spoken to him, but he knows what is meant by it. By knowing words you do not know the language; what you know is the outside language, the inner language is known by knowing the language of ideas. So the language of ideas cannot be heard by the ears alone, the hearing of the heart must be open for it.
' A Higher Power '...
Even the simple assurance that there is a higher power in the universe and a loftier meaning in human existence,
which religion gives--come in what shape it may--helped in the past to support life and endure death.
Instruction in science at first weakened or destroyed this faith but now,
through opening of the mind by relativity, nuclear physics, and biological discoveries,
is beginning to confirm it, as Bacon predicted.
-- Notebooks Category 17: The Religious Urge > Chapter 7:
Beyond Religion As We Know It > # 23 Paul Brunton
' The Divine Path '...
"When you feel something as intuition and have no doubt about it, then know it is real.
Passing doubtful thoughts and temporary emotional feelings should not be given importance.
But when you feel it touches your heart, follow it.
"When it is from the mind, it is not intuition.
Intuition means that which comes from the heart.
In the divine path, first there is intuition, then inspiration, then illumination, and finally Realization.
If it touches your heart, follow it."
-Meher Baba
In Bhau Kalchuri
Lord Meher: The Biography of Avatar of the Age Meher Baba
Asheville, NC: MANifestation, 1st American Edition, 1997, Vol. 11 & 12, p. 3812
' Modern Philosophy '...
The time is approaching when orthodox religions must yield to the demand of the modern mind for doctrines that are intellectually satisfying and inspiration which is actually livable.
The age of dogmatic assertion has come to an end for intelligent people and the age of scientific demonstration has come upon them.
Faith can no longer convince the modern mind, but reason may and must.
Modern conditions are so different that the appeal of mere dogma and myth is dwindling rapidly, though mythical explanations of the universe were necessary in pre-scientific times because the human mentality could not then grasp a better one.
There are signs that this hour is almost upon us, for religious doctrines have already begun to dress themselves in the clothes of modernist philosophy and to walk in the shoes of progressed science.
Nothing but good can come from the collaboration of science, philosophy, and religion, provided these terms are not limited to narrow meanings.
-- Notebooks Category 17: The Religious Urge > Chapter 7:
Beyond Religion As We Know It > # 36 Paul Brunton
' New-coming Human Soul '...
When the soul comes into the physical world it receives an offering from the whole universe, and that offering is the body in which to function.
It is not offered to the soul only by the parents, but by the ancestors, by the nation and race into which the soul is born, and by the whole human race.
This body is not only an offering of the human race, but is an outcome of something that the whole world has produced for ages, a clay that has been kneaded a thousand times over, a clay that has been prepared so that in its very developement it has become more intelligent, nore radiant, and more living; a clay that appeared first in the mineral kingdom, that developed in the vegetable kingdom, that then appeared as the animal, and that was finished in the making of that body that is offered to the new-coming human soul.
From The Teachings Of
HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Selected & Arranged By
HAZRAT PIR VILAYAT INAYAT KHAN
' Dharma Practice '...
Anything that acts as an antidote to self-grasping is Dharma practice.
Whereas, even though we may engage in a great variety of practices
that may appear to be spiritual,
if they do not act to destroy our
self-grasping,
they are not Dharma practice.
-Gomo Tulku
' Beyond Religion '...
The fuller entry and further permeation of religion and mysticism by science will take a few hundred years more,
but will inexorably lead to the displacement of old established churches appealing to blind faith by new religions
appealing to reasoned intuition.
-- Notebooks Category 17: The Religious Urge > Chapter 7:
Beyond Religion As We Know It > # 29 Paul Brunton
' Nothing But Awareness '...
Only mad folk perplexed because they deem the false world to be real
find joy in this illusion.
The truly wise find joy in nothing but Awareness which is Being.
-The above Ramana Maharshi quote is from the book
The Seven Steps to Awakening.
' To Pass the Time '...
To this that you see as the universe, there
is no purpose.
It is all a lila, a play in which
we join and contribute some entertainment
to pass the time.
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' The Knowledge of Science '...
There are young people today who have strong religious feelings,
but who do not find in the traditional forms of religion sufficient satisfaction,
because they do not find that they can carry it fully into their activities in the world and because they have intellectual difficulties in reconciling it with the knowledge of science.
-- Notebooks Category 17: The Religious Urge > Chapter 7:
Beyond Religion As We Know It > # 26 Paul Brunton
' Intuition '...
"My intuition never fails me,
But I fail whenever I do not listen to it."
-Hazrat Inayat Khan
Gayan
London: Sufi Publishing Co. 1974 (1923), p. 105
' Your Death Panic Will Fade '...
The royal fan, sunshade, and chariot,
The throne itself, the happy feasting,
the theatre nights, your soft, down bed,
which of these can help your fear of death?
You're demolished the highbanked marsh road.
How is it now out in the swamp?
Death will come at one specific moment.
How does that make you feel?
There are two results and three causes.
Practice the breath. Rise
through the disc of the sun.
Your death panic will fade.
Let your body wear your knowing.
Let your heart sing songs.
Lalla has become a syllable
of soul-light. There is no death.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
' Large Amounts of Philosophy '...
Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God.
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite.
Science is but an image of the truth.
Money is like manure, of very little use except it be spread.
-Francis Bacon
' The two deadly lies '...
What happens to a soul when it has accepted the serpentine logic that you can
maintain your individuality even while you are separated from God? The soul will
begin to walk the path of building a sense of identity, a sense of
individuality, based on the core belief that it is separated from God. Over many
lifetimes, such a soul can build a very strong and very complex sense of
individuality and separateness. It can also build a set of beliefs that makes
the soul firmly convinced that this sense of individuality is real and that the
path of building upon this sense of individuality is the true path that leads
back to God.
The first serpentine lie is that the soul will not die by eating the forbidden
fruit of the knowledge of relative good and evil, namely the relative good and
evil of the lower state of consciousness. Yet the soul does die in a spiritual
sense because when it begins to engage in the dualistic logic, it loses its
direct contact with the source of life, the spiritual self.
There are some souls who have fallen but who either have not realized that they
have fallen from grace or are not willing to admit that they have lost their
former estate. Yet most souls will come to an inner recognition that they have
lost something. They realize that something has changed and that something is
not right. At this point, the serpentine logic uses the second lie in an attempt
to maintain its stranglehold on the soul.
The second lie is that even though the
soul has fallen from grace, it can come back to God's kingdom without
challenging the first lie. In other words, the soul does not have to admit that
the first lie, the lie that it can build an individuality that is separate from
God and still survive, is wrong. The second lie states that the soul can come
back to God by continuing to build upon and perfect the individuality that is
based on separation.
There are many people on Earth who are still so ensnared by the first lie that
they either cannot or will not see and acknowledge that they have fallen from
grace and therefore need to come back to God. Yet in this day and age, a growing
number of people are beginning to realize that they must make an effort to come
back to God. These people realize that they need to find a path, a systematic
process, that can lead them back to God.
While people are still asleep, there is no danger that the forces of this world
will lose their control over these souls. Yet when people awaken to the need to
find their way back to God, there is a real danger, or rather a real hope, that
the forces of this world might lose control of these souls. If these people
discover the true path and diligently follow that path, they will truly make it
back to God. Therefore, the second line of defense built by the forces of this
world is the illusion of the false path, the way that seems right unto a human,
but the end thereof is the way of death.
The false path, the left-handed path, seems right onto a human because it does
not require the soul to confront the choices that caused the soul to believe in
the first lie. The false path makes it seem like the soul was never really
wrong. It was either the victim of forces beyond its control, or God really
wanted the soul to fall, or there was a good reason why the soul fell, or any
number of other reasons that make it seem natural and unavoidable that the soul
fell into a lower state of consciousness.
The false way seems right unto a human, or rather to the human consciousness,
because once the soul has built a false sense of identity, a sense of
individuality based on separation from God, the soul knows no other sense of
identity or individuality. The human self, the ego, springs from the sense of
separation, so it can never see anything wrong with the state of separation.
Therefore, as long as the soul listens to the ego or to false teachers, the soul
does not understand that the only true individuality is that of being an
individual expression of the flame of God.
So the false path makes the soul think that it can make its way back to God by
building on its false individuality of being separated from God. This then gives
the soul a need to find an outer path, and outer organization, an outer belief
system which makes the promise of an automatic salvation. The promise is that as
long as you believe in the right doctrines, follow the right outer rules and
belong to a particular organization, you will automatically be saved because God
simply has to accept you into the kingdom of Heaven.
The false path
Throughout history, numerous people have followed the false path. Even many
so-called spiritual teachers or leaders have followed the false path and have
promoted the false path. Such teachers often did not deliberately mislead the
people. They truly believed in the lie that you can somehow perfect or elevate
the false sense of identity, the pseudo self. They believed that you can attain
salvation and make it back to the kingdom of God without overcoming,
transcending and leaving behind the sense of separation from God.
This lie is very persuasive and pervasive. It is so persuasive that even many
souls who have been engaged in spiritual practices for lifetimes still have not
seen through this lie. They truly believe that they are following the true
spiritual path, and they use all manner of outer signs or inner experiences to
reinforce the illusion that they are following the true path and that they are
coming ever closer to God. Some of these souls are making spiritual progress in
various ways, but they still have not challenged the fundamental problem that
makes it necessary to come back to God, namely the fact that they chose to see
themselves as separated from God.
Although there is a spiritual path which takes you gradually towards a higher
state of consciousness, there comes a point where the gradual path can lead you
no further. There comes a point when you must take a leap of faith into the arms
of God. You cannot make it back to God as long as you see even the slightest
distance between yourself and God. What does it mean to be in God's kingdom? It
means being one with God, being an individualization of God, even being God in
embodiment. It means accepting your true identity as a son or daughter of God,
as an individualization of a God flame.
The mistake of Peter
When I walked the Earth 2,000 years ago, my main purpose was to demonstrate the
true path that leads you back to union with God. The same path of union has been
demonstrated and taught by all true spiritual teachers and mystics. Many souls
have been students of such teachers, yet they have not understood the very core
of the teaching. Such students can sit at the feet of a true Master for many
years and still not understand the lie of the false path. They can look at the
true teacher and recognize that he is a true teacher, yet in their hearts they
cannot understand or accept that the only way to follow the teacher is to become
the teacher.
A perfect example of such a student was my beloved Peter. Peter was a sincere
student. He had attained a certain level of discernment and this allowed him to
recognize me as the Christ in embodiment. When I said, "upon this rock will I
build my church," I did not mean the outer person of Peter. I meant the inner
ability to recognize the Christ, to recognize the true teacher.
Yet despite the fact that Peter was a sincere student with some attainment and
discernment, he was not willing to walk the true path of Christhood. This is
why, when the test of Christhood came to him, he denied me three times. Peter
thought that although he recognized me as the Christ and saw me walk the path
that leads to the death of the ego, the false sense of identity, he did not have
to walk that same path. Peter reasoned that he could maintain his individuality
as being separate from God, as being separate from Christ. He reasoned that he
could still make it back to God by following my outer teachings instead of
following the inner path of overcoming the false sense of identity and winning
back the true sense of identity as being one with God, as being an
individualization of God and not an individualization of the world
consciousness.
At the very moment when Peter denied me for the first time, he started a trend
that set Christianity on the wrong course. The Christianity that Peter founded,
the church that Peter founded, was from the very beginning based on the false
path, the lie of individuality and separateness from God. The lie that you can
make it back to God without walking the path of Christhood which requires you to
be willing to lose your life, to lose your mortal life, to lose your mortal
sense of identity in order to win the immortal life of the Christ consciousness.
For 2,000 years, the orthodox Christian churches have reinforced and upheld the
illusion embodied by Peter. They have built elaborate doctrines and dogmas
around this illusion. They have built a culture that reinforces this illusion so
heavily that millions of souls are firmly entrapped by the illusion. They think
they are true Christians, yet I tell you that they are following the path that
seems right unto a human, yet the end thereof is the way of the death of the
soul.
Be not like Peter.
Learn from the mistakes of Peter.
Make an effort to see through the illusion that entrapped Peter. When the world
comes and asks you if you are one with Christ, do not deny your oneness with me.
Do not fear any of the consequences or the punishments found in this world. Do
not make excuses and seek to explain Christhood in a way that becomes palatable
to the world consciousness.
Be willing to sacrifice your mortal sense of identity, your false sense of
individuality, your sense of pride in the human ego and the human achievements,
in order to obtain union with Christ.
Awaken and Come forth!
Peter reasoned that if he had confessed to be one of my disciples, he would have
been crucified alongside me, and thus he would not have been able to remain in
the world and spread my message. Yet when Peter walked on the water and started
sinking, did I not reach out my hand and raise him up? So why would Peter think
that if he had been crucified alongside me I would not have been able to
resurrect him as I resurrected myself? And could not the resurrected Peter have
walked the Earth again as I did and helped the other disciples spread my
message.
I tell you that if Peter had decided to acknowledge his oneness with Christ
instead of affirming his separation from Christ, Christianity itself would have
been much different. It is not a given that Peter would have been crucified. But
regardless of whether he was crucified alongside with me or had remained in
embodiment, Peter would have become a true representative of the Christ. He
would have become one with Christ, he would have become Christ, and therefore he
could have built a church that was based on the true path instead of the false
path. He could have built a church based on the true individuality in God rather
than the false sense of individuality as being separate from God, separate from
Christ.
I see millions upon millions of people who consider themselves to be true
Christians or consider themselves to be true followers of the spiritual path.
These people are found in all religions, and many are found in the New Age
movement. I love each and every one of you and I desire nothing more than to see
you come home to my Father's kingdom. Yet I must tell you sternly and frankly
that so many of you are walking the false path, the way that seems right unto a
human.
Now I say to you with the full authority of Christ, "Awaken from your sleep!" I
say to you as I said to Lazarus, "Come forth!" Come out of the grave of your
false sense of identity and embrace the Light, the Light of my Christ Presence
which is shining upon you through these words.
I am Jesus Christ.
I am the being who is assigned by God to hold the office as Lord and Savior for
every human being on Earth. So many people think that by making a simple
declaration of words they have accepted me as their Lord and Savior. This is not
so.
I can be your Lord and Savior only if you fully accept me and accept the path to
Christhood, the path to union with Christ, union with God. I can be your savior
only if you are willing to let go of your false sense of individuality, the
false sense of identity based on the illusion that you are separated from God. I
can be your Lord and Savior only if you are willing to let the human ego die.
Do not follow the path taken by Peter and spend the rest of this lifetime using
the serpentine logic to justify why you can perfect the ego. Instead, follow the
path taken by Paul who said, "I die daily." He meant that every day a part of
his human self died.
Be willing to admit that your human self, your human sense of individuality,
must die before you can discover your true individuality in Christ. Admit that
the sense of individuality based on separation is a lie. Do not spend the rest
of your life in an attempt to justify the sense of individuality and the belief
that the false path of building upon that individuality can take you back to
God.
This is what Peter did. This is what the soul of Peter has been doing for 2,000
years. This is what the Christian churches who followed the way taken by Peter
have been doing for 2,000 years.
I am Jesus Christ and I say to you, "Thus far and no father!" The time has come
to draw a line in the sand and say, "Come out of your illusions and delusions.
Come out of your sense that all is well and that as long as you keep following
the path you are following now, you will automatically make it back to God."
Stop attempting to use the logic of this world to justify the false path. Let go
of the false path and follow me.
I am Jesus Christ, and I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life.
...from askrealjesus.com
' Inner Awakening '...
"Intuition has been buried under the debris from the piecemeal tuition of the assailing experiences of the false.
Tuition is impressed from without, while intuition dawns from within.
"Tuition thwarts intuition. Therefore, the tutoring of the mind by external events has to be counteracted by inner awakening.
Then and only then can intuition, in its transcendent understanding, truly judge without yielding to the stupor of indiscriminate impressibility"
-Meher Baba
Life At Its Best
Sufism, Reoriented, 1957, pp. 37-3
' Heaven and Hell '...
Life is the same for the saint and for Satan;
and, if they are different, it is because of their
outlook on life.
The one turns the same life
into Heaven and the other into Hell.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan
Mastery Through Accomplishment
Omega Press, 1978
' A New Intellectual Basis '...
Religion must organize itself on a more intellectual basis to meet modern needs.
It must present a fuller system, which will intelligibly explain the inner meaning of man, God, and the Universe.
It must not contradict the verified knowledge of modern science.
It ought no longer to attempt to outrage reason, but should go out of the way to convince it.
It must be so timely and reasonable that it will give satisfying intelligent answers to the most disconcerting questions.
-- Notebooks Category 17: The Religious Urge > Chapter 7:
Beyond Religion As We Know It > # 3 Paul Brunton
' God Knows Four Words '...
The God Who Only Knows Four Words
Every
Child
Has known God,
Not the God of names,
Not the God of don’ts,
Not the God who ever does
Anything weird,
But the God who knows only four words.
And keeps repeating them, saying
“Come Dance with Me.”
Come
Dance...
- Hafiz
"The Gift"
Translations by Daniel Ladinsky
Penguin/Arkana, 1999
' Nobody Exists '...
You don't even exist! You're all an optical illusion. Nobody exists.
I'll tell you this much. We've all been totally brainwashed since birth.
Everything we believe is false, everything. You are false.
I am false. There is no reality. If there were a reality, you'd not be able
to express it, for it would be beyond human conception. If there were a
truth, we would not be able to understand it, for it would be beyond the
finite mind. The finite mind cannot understand anything, cannot know
anything. Yet there's no finite mind, so there's no one to know anything.
This is a dream world you're in now. You are dreaming the mortal dream,
that you are a man, you are a woman, you are a child, you have a job,
you go through certain experiences, things happen to you in your life.
Yet this is not true. This is a lie. In reality, you've never been born,
you do not prevail, and you do not die. There's no one who ever dies,
for there's no one who was ever born.
How can you see yourself this way? By remaining silent.
By not reading so much. By not remembering anything.
You should understand yourself, that you are the one. You are the only
one. There are no others. There is only that which has always been,
and that is you. When you realize you do not have to practice sadhana,
or meditate, or go through spiritual practices with yoga, life becomes
easy, wonderful. There's no striving for anything. There's no trying to
become somebody or something. You are your self. You have always
been your self, the self which is bright and shining, the self which is.
You are that self.
Robert Adams - The collected works.
' Religion '...
Religion must organize itself on a more intellectual basis to meet modern needs.
It must present a fuller system, which will intelligibly explain the inner meaning of man, God, and the Universe.
It must not contradict the verified knowledge of modern science.
It ought no longer to attempt to outrage reason, but should go out of the way to convince it.
It must be so timely and reasonable that it will give satisfying intelligent answers to the most disconcerting questions.
-- Notebooks Category 17: The Religious Urge > Chapter 7:
Beyond Religion As We Know It > # 3 Paul Brunton
' Enquire Within '...
"Applicants for wisdom:
Do what I have done.
Enquire within."
-Heraclitus of Ephesus
Fragments, 80
Translated by Brooks Haxton
NY: Viking, 2001, p. 51
' Imperfect Perception '...
It is not the present which is fleeting past us with sickening speed.
The present moment is indeed eternal.
It is our imperfect perception that creates the horizontal succession in time.
Sequential duration is a consequence of the single-track verbalization of our split-mind, which does not grasp the outer
world instantaneously but interprets it perversely by extracting bits and pieces and calling them things and events.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
' The Void '...
The universal existence is an ever-developing process, an activity and not a thing.
There is no cessation of this process anywhere but only the mere show of it.
THAT out of which and in which it arises is alone exempt from this vibration, being formless, intangible, inconceivable void.
-- Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity > Chapter 5:
The Void As Metaphysical Fact > # 12 Paul Brunton
' Freedom From Desires '...
Only contentment can make you happy -
desires fulfilled breed more desires.
Keeping away from all desires and
contentment in what comes by itself
is a very fruitful state - a precondition
to the state of fulness.
Don't distrust
its apparent sterility and emptiness.
Believe me, it is the satisfaction of
desires that breeds misery.
Freedom
from desires is bliss.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
' Come Home '...
We are the sole creators of this dream, which
has absolutely no purpose other than our
awakening from it.
In reality, we are surrounded by and embraced in
unconditional love, whether we respond to it or not.
Our experience in time sets up a perfectly appropriate
creation, exaclty suited in its grand happenings and
tiny nuances to the particular and unique needs of
our reawakening.
The source of the hidden principle
is ourselves, and it is fired by our longing to come
home.
- Tony Parsons
' Projects '...
Are we, and the universe too,
neither subjects nor objects but projects?
-- Notebooks Category 21: Mentalism > Chapter 3:
The Individual and World Mind > # 71
Paul Brunton
' A Thin Skin '...
As mind merges in the heart, true understanding awakens.
You are the invisible inside the visible, the unmoving inside
all movements.
Like space moving in space, glowing inside
a thin skin called a human being.
- Mooji
' The Beauty of Source '...
When one praises the beauty of God, one's soul is filled with bliss.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
"Why does God need praise from me? Who am I that I should offer Him praise?" True, we can never praise Him enough; never can our praise be sufficient, but our souls are blessed with the impression of the Glory of God whenever we praise Him. The soul could praise God every moment and yet wanting to praise Him yet more, it is constantly hungering and thirsting to find the Beauty and Perfection of God. By the praise of God the soul is filled with bliss; even to utter the name of God is a blessing that can fill the soul with light, joy and happiness as nothing else can do.
There is a necessity for praise in prayer, praise of the beauty of God, for man must learn to recognize and praise the beauty of God as manifested in all His creation. In this way he impresses beauty on his soul, and he is able to manifest it in himself, and he becomes the friend of all and is without prejudice. For this reason the Sufi cultivates his heart. The emblem of the Sufi is a heart between two wings, meaning that when the heart is cultivated man can soar up into the heights of heaven.
The only secret of attaining happiness is to learn how to appreciate our privileges in life. If we cultivate that sense of appreciation we shall be thankful, we shall be contented and every moment we shall offer our thanks to God, for His gifts are many and enormous. When we do not see them it is because our wants cover our eyes from seeing all with which we are blessed by Providence. No meditation, no study, nothing can help in that direction, except one thing, and that is to keep our eyes open to appreciate every little privilege in life, to admire every glimpse of beauty that comes before us, being thankful for every little love, kindness or affection shown to us by young or old, rich or poor, wise or foolish. In this way, continually developing the faculty of appreciating life and devoting it to thanksgiving, we arrive at a bliss which no words can explain, a bliss which is beyond imagination: the bliss that we find ourselves having already entered the kingdom of God.
The two important things in life are the praise of God and the pursuit of God. The praise of God is important, and it gives bliss in life, but it is not the real attainment. The all-important work in life is the attainment of God. God cannot be explained. Any attempt to do this always ends in failure. The knowledge of Him can only be attained in the silence and in solitude, and how to do this cannot be explained better than in the words of the Urdu poet Zahir, 'He who attaineth best the peace of God, his very self must lose
' Like It Or Not '...
“In each moment, things simply are as they are, whether “I” like it or not.
That understanding is not something to be “realized” at some imagined future time after sufficient “practice,” but is a simple recognition of the mysterious, ineffable suchness of this moment.
In that recognition, there is no thought of meditation, no practice of meditation, and no meditator or doer of anything else.
The entire experience of being this particular point of view one has learned to call “myself,” feels unchosen, unfathomable, and mysterious to the nth degree. In the face of that, what exactly will you practice?”
― Robert Saltzman, The Ten Thousand Things
' The Secret '...
Last night
I begged the Wise One to tell me
the secret of the world.
Gently, gently he whispered,
"Be quiet,
the secret cannot be spoken,
it is wrapped in silence."
- Rumi
"Rumi - Whispers of the Beloved:
Selected and translated by
Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi
Thorsons, London 1999
' Nikola Tesla '...
The famous scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla was a student of Swami Vivekananda. He used Sanskrit terms such as "prana," and "akasha," as he felt they accurately portrayed the functioning of the Universe. These terms are being used once again by scientists such as Ervin Laszlo as much of the very latest research on the nature of the universe is suggesting these ancient terms may be right on.
The words below, "chidakash," and "paramakash," are referring to different expressions of akasha.
"As long as you deal in terms: real - unreal, awareness is the only reality that can be. But the Supreme is beyond all distinctions, and to it the term "real" does not apply, for in it all is real and, therefore, need not be labelled as such. It is the very source of reality, it imparts reality to whatever it touches. It just cannot be understood through words. Even a direct experience, however sublime, merely bears testimony, nothing more.
The Universal Mind (chidakash) makes and unmakes everything. The Supreme (paramakash) imparts reality to whatever comes into being. To say that it is the universal love may be the nearest we can come to it in words. Just like love, it makes everything real, beautiful, desirable."
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
' Two Awakened People '...
What does a relationship look like between two awakened people?
Tolle: There is a lack of expectation that the other person should fulfill you or make you happy. Without that demand, there is an openness where you can simply enjoy the other and accept the limitations. Every human being in the human form has limitations.. You can marry the Buddha, and after a few months you will find on the human form the Buddha, too, has his limitations. There may be things that the mind reacts to and irritates you about the Buddha. “Why is he sitting over there in meditation?”
Once you accept the limitations of the other, it’s a dance between two forms and a realization that the essence of relationship is the space in the relationship. So, the question that needs to be asked always is, “Is there space in this relationship?” Space really means the level of awareness or presence, not thinking.
So, can you look at your partner and not think? Two conscious beings realize that the essence of the relationship is the space in it. Even when there is an egoic overlay, it is not too dense or heavy for you to sense the essence underneath it. You don’t need to react to the egoic overlay. When you don’t react to it you don’t strengthen it.
-Ekhart Tolle
' Relative Knowledge '...
Relative knowledge pertains to the mind and not to the Self.
It is therefore illusory and not permanent.
Take a scientist,
for instance.
He formulates a theory that the Earth is round
and goes on to prove it on an incontrovertible basis.
When
he falls asleep the whole idea vanishes; his mind is left a blank.
What does it matter whether the world remains round or flat
when he is asleep?
So you see the futility of all such relative
knowledge.
One should go beyond relative knowledge and
abide in the Self.
Real knowledge is such experience, and
not apprehension by the mind."
- Sri Ramana Maharshi
' The Great Pilgrimage '...
I felt in need of a great pilgrimage
so I sat still for three
days
and God came
to me.
~ Kabir
' No Paths to Truth '...
"Actually, all paths lead away from the truth...how's that?
All paths.
There's no such thing as a path to the truth.
The truth's already here, where are you going?"
- Adyashanti
' To Embody Tao '...
"Thinking and talking about the Integral Way
are not the same as following it.
Who ever learned to ride well by talking about horses?
If you wish to embody Tao, stop prating
and start practicing.
Relax your body and dampen down your senses.
Return your mind to its original pristine state.
Forget about being separate from others
and from the Divine Source.
As you return to Oneness, do not think of this
or even be awed by it.
These are just other ways of separating
yourself from it.
Simply merge into the truth,
and allow it to surround you."
-Lao Tzu
in Brian Walker
Hua Hu Ching: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu, 49
Harper SanFrancisco, 1992, p. 61
' The Absurdity of It All '...
Man frees himself from the world, its ills,
its suffering, its chaos simply by seeing
the absurdity of it all.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' Thought is not Intelligence '...
"Constantly over the years with the habit patterns going on it (thought) has believed itself to be the intelligence. It believes it has reality; it has power; it has will; it can do what it likes and what it thinks it wants to do.
That is why this investigation is needed. Just stop and question. Have a look at what we have believed ourselves to be Thought can’t of itself do anything! Because that thought ‘I see’, can’t see! The thought ‘I hear’, can’t hear! The thought ‘I am aware’, can’t be aware! But there is seeing; there is hearing; and there is awareness. It is happening right now! The seeing itself cannot conceptualise. It cannot say ‘I am seeing this’.
Neither can the hearing say ‘I am hearing this’. It is just pure seeing and pure hearing. It is conceptualised by the mind, which must refer to some past memory to get that name.
The mind or the ‘me’, the thought that I have about myself, is the past. That is all it is. It is the past, and the past is dead. It is gone. It has happened. It is not what is. That centre that we constantly refer to or believe in is a dead image. Now, can you understand why it can never be happy, it can never be complete or whole: because it can’t keep up with what is."
-Bob Adamson.
' No need to Ask '...
"No need to ask You for anything.
Does anyone ever ask the sun for light?"
-Jalaludin Rumi
in Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mali, Translators
Rumi: Hidden Music
' Go Inward '...
Worldly people go outward, but you must go
inward like the tortoise, withdrawing within
your shell.
- Neem Karoli Baba
Miracle of Love
by Ram Dass
E.P. Dutton, New York, 1979
' The First is Fate '...
What a higher power has decreed must come to pass.
But what a man has made for himself he can modify or unmake.
The first is fate, the second destiny.
The one comes from outside his personal ego, the other from his own faults.
The evolutionary will of his soul is part of the nature of things but the consequences of his own actions remain, however slightly, within his own control.
-- Notebooks Category 9: From Birth to Rebirth > Chapter 3: Laws and Patterns of Experience > # 3
-- Perspectives > Chapter 9: From Birth to Rebirth > # 46 Paul Brunton
' Dissolving the ego '...
"Mere suffering exists,
no sufferer is found;
The deed is,
but no doer of the deed is there;
Nirvana is,
but not the man that enters it;
The Path is,
but no traveler on it is seen."
- Gautama the Buddha
Visuddhi-Magga, XVI
in Paul Carus
Buddha, The Word
' Falling Into Reality '...
The falling into Reality is often a fear filled experience, as you feel as though you are dying,
and in fact, you are dying..
The you, as ego must die before entrance into Divine Consciousness..
This is why God is called a jealous God, as only God can enter God..
In fact, we have never left God and the entrance is just a "Realization" that we have never left God..
The dissolving of the ego during life is to lessen this fear of death that we experience upon Enlightenment..
This fear will drive many away from this experience, this is the work of the ego and courage must be applied to drive through this obstacle of fear..
As Jesus said;" you must die, to be Born"...
- thomas
' Tuned In '...
Once "tuned in," the longer you can stay with the Overself,
the greater the depth penetrated;
and this in turn means the more general benefit will be gained,
the more creativity will be possible in ideas, in arts, and in intuitions.
-- Notebooks Category 22: Inspiration and the Overself >
Chapter 2: Inspiration > # 20 Paul Brunton
' Love is Law '...
'My sense of the holy is bound up with the hope that some day my remote descendants will live in a global civilization in
which love is pretty much the only law."
-Richard Rorty
quoted by Jürgen Habermas, in "Philosopher, poet and friend," Sound and Sight
' The Self, Our Being '...
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
' Inauthentic Living '...
“Living up to an image that you have of yourself or that other people have of you is inauthentic living.”
-Eckhart Tolle
' Who is Here ? '...
"Someone came to the cell of Bayazid and asked,
'Is Bayazid here?'
He answered,
'Is anyone here but God?'”
-Nicholson, Reynold A.
_The Mystics Of Islam_
London: Routledge, Kegan Paul, London, 1914, p. 149-153.
' There is no other '...
When your mind comes to now, you are free.
All thoughts are past.
All imagination is past.
All desire is past.
What is it that is now?
It is empty even of the concept of now.
It is not a job to be done because it was never undone.
Any effort to reach there is perceived from there.
What can perceive It?
Can It be something apart from It to perceive It?
Only It alone can know Itself.
There is no 'other'.
- Mooji
' Inner Stillness '...
The absolutist metaphysics of Subramanya Iyer in the East and Lilian de Waters in the West declares only the One Reality; it would reject the whole universe as non-existent and the whole human race along with it.
The dualist metaphysics declares that this Reality reveals and manifests itself in the time-space finite world.
The integral metaphysics of philosophy says, however, that it is unwise and unbalanced to separate these two solutions of the mystery of life and then to oppose one against the other.
They are to be fitted together, for only in such completeness can the full solution be found.
Dualism answers the intellect's questions and satisfies the heart's yearnings but monism responds to the intuition's highest revelations.
Both standpoints are necessary, for man is both a thinking and a feeling being; it is not enough to regard him only as an intuiting one.
But this does not mean they are all on the same level.
What is silently revealed to us by inner stillness must always be loftier than what is noisily told us by intellectual activity.
-- Notebooks Category 20: What Is Philosophy? > Chapter 1:
Toward Defining Philosophy > # 476 Paul Brunton
' Satsang '...
Only Satsang will take you out of suffering
because it shows you the Silence that you have
always been.
Satsang is abiding as your Self,
not as "I-am-so-and-so."
- Papaji
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
' Unalterable Truths '...
In the highest level there are utterly unalterable truths.
They are not got by logic, worked out by intellect, or discovered by observation.
They are announced.
No one can know their mysterious source in the sense that we know anything else.
It is unique, indescribable, and hence unnameable, unimaginable, and beyond all the forms of worship given to all other gods--nowhere to be found in place or time, history or commentary.
It is more honest to let the Mystery of Mysteries remain as it is than to repeat ancient portrayals or create new ones--all the labour of the human ego's trivial or even misleading ideation.
Within that silent seeming void, which is as near as most are likely to come, they may be pacified, content, perhaps even dissolved during those utterly surrendered lapses.
-- Notebooks Category 28: The Alone > Chapter 2:
Our Relation To the Absolute > # 156 Paul Brunton
' Buddhahood '...
That which is before you is it, in all its fullness, utterly complete.
There is naught beside.
Even if you go through all the stages of a Bodhisattva's progress toward Buddhahood, one by one; when at last, in a single flash, you attain to full realization, you will only be realizing the Buddha-Nature which has been with you all the time; and by all the foregoing stages you will have added to it nothing at all.
-Huang Po
' Darkness into Light '...
"I will lead the blind by a road they do not know;
by paths they have not known , I will guide them.
I will turn the darkness before them into light,
the rough places into level ground.
These are the things I will do, and I will not forsake them."
-Isaiah 42:16
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
' The Functions of Your Machine '...
Without self knowledge, without understanding the
working and functions of his machine, man cannot
be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always
remain a slave.
- G. I. Gurdjieff
' Stop, to Know Truth '...
All that we experience is subjective, there is no sensation without interpretation.
We create the world and ourselves; only when we stop do we see the truth.
- Deng Ming-Dao
' Made for Self '...
"You have made us for yourself,
O Lord,
and our hearts are restless until they rest in you."
-Augustine of Hippo
Confessions I, 1
' Let Go '...
Faith is a state of openness or trust.
To have faith is like when you
trust yourself to the water.
You don’t grab hold of the water when
you swim, because if you do you will become stiff and tight in the
water, and sink.
You have to relax, and the attitude of faith is the
very opposite of clinging, and holding on.
In other words, a person
who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas
about the nature of God and the universe becomes a person who
has no faith at all.
Instead they are holding tight.
But the attitude of
faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn
out to be.
- Alan Watts
' Lucid Dreaming '...
Have you ever experienced a “lucid dream”?
You know during the night dream, that it is a dream, but you don’t wake up.
You can fly and do other amazing things.
Nothing can scare you in the dream as you know it’s not real.
You know your self and body are not real; consciousness seems to be in the dream, but not of it.
Likewise, an “awakened one”, in our daily life, knows our ordinary world and universe are also not real.
None of the characters, family members, pets, objects or landscapes are real; including oneself.
The “awakened one” appears in our world but is not of it.
They would know that no one is real, no one dies and no one exists who suffers.
Where others seem burdened with “serious” problems, the “awakened one” laughs; they know nothing is real and all is as unimportant as last night’s dream.
-Jackson Peterson
' A Pile of Ashes '...
Your pride in yourself and your wanting,
these steal your energy along the road.
If you can kill these robbers
and become the servant of everyone,
you'll meet the Lord in meditation
and see what you used to protect
as just a pile of ashes.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
' Spiritual Maturity '...
Freedom means letting go.
People just do not care to
let go of everything.
They do not know that the finite is
the price of the infinite, as death is the price of immortality.
Spiritual maturity lies in the readiness to let go of everything.
The giving up is the final step.
But the real giving up is in
realizing that there is nothing to give up, for nothing is your
own.
It is like deep sleep - you do not give up your bed when
you fall asleep - you just forget it.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
' Become As Children '...
The greatest men are the humblest.
The smallest are the most arrogant.
Real sages are always modest, claiming no superiority, and they always put you at your ease.
This is because they have silenced the personal self and become as children, allowing That which is behind to manifest.
-The Inner Reality Paul Brunton
' This Place Called Reality '...
You can only Know Reality after surrendering the egoic-desire to the Universe..
You do not need a name called God..
If your desire is to become without name or substance and are accepted by something called Grace,
You will Awaken within Reality..
There is only One Reality that is found by all Mystics regardless of Religion..
This is the Real Heaven..
This Source of Love and Creation..
This Place called Reality...
-thomas
' If you get it '...
"If you get it, all things are one;
If you don't, all things are different and separate.
If you don't get it, all things are one.
If you do, all things are different and separate.
-Mumon's Poem
in Zenkei Shibayama
Zen Commentaries on the Mumonkan
NY: Harper & Row, 1974, p. 122
' self-esteem '...
High self-esteem and low self-esteem are just
different sides of the same coin.
They each assume that there's a separate and
independent self that's feeling...or that's not
feeling...a certain level of esteem about itself.
Both positions equally support the illusion of the
actual existence of a real coin...a real historical
self.
In true awakening, though, there can be no
coinage.
- Chuck Hillig
Seeds for the Soul
Chuck Hillig
Black Dot Publications, 2003
' Continue to Climb '...
A spiritual exaltation which does not manifest itself in the service of humanity exists for its possessor alone.
Him alone do we love who forsakes the seclusion of the solitary places wherein he attained Nirvana and goes back among men to help his frailer brothers..
He alone is worthy of our regard who descends to exhort us towards the steps of the higher life and to encourage us in our efforts to climb, who nerves us with his strength, illumines us with his wisdom, and blesses us with his selfless Love.
-- Notebooks Category 20: What Is Philosophy? > Chapter 4:
Its Realization Beyond Ecstasy > # 209 Paul Brunton
' So Many Questions '...
So many questions ..
You are Consciousness experiencing the manifestation of Dreams..
You enjoy the Dream so much that You fully immerse..
You are close to the 'First Reality' called Divine Consciousness..
Only within the experience of non-division does this occur..
Enlightenment...
Love flows from You and through You..
The Knowledge of Creation also flows through You..
But, dare to ask the Father,
" Is this the Final Reality ?"..
You will be met with silence..
The Final Reality is Pure Awareness..
Forget the egoic-desire,
Become Nothing,
Become Everything...
-thomas
' Leave no footprints '...
Stay as simple natural Being without thought or doership.
Out of nothing you can do anything and not leave footprints.
No intention is no limitation,
just stay quiet,
simply do not stir a thought.
-Papaji
' Beyond 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
' Humility within the Heart '...
Nobody can figure out the Truth.
All you can do is to flow in synchronicity with the universal
consciousness through the grace of devotion, wisdom or
selfless activity.
Like this, you come intuitively to discover
the one Self.
But for this you must be humble inside your
heart.
- Mooji
' No one can save you '...
No Maharishee, no Aurobindo, no Saint Francis can save you.
It is the Holy Spirit which saves man by its Grace.
The ministrations of these men may kindle faith and quiet the mind, may help you to prepare the right conditions and offer a focus for your concentration, but they offer no guarantee of salvation.
It is highly important not to forget this, not to deify man and neglect the true God who must come to you directly and act upon you directly.
-- Notebooks Category 18: The Reverential Life > Chapter 5: Grace > # 69
-- Perspectives > Chapter 18: The Reverential Life > # 47 Paul brunton
' The Infinity of Space '...
Empty and calm and devoid of self Is the nature of all things.
No individual being In reality exists.
There is no end or beginning,
Nor any middle course.
All is an illusion,
As in a vision or a dream.
All beings in the world
Are beyond the realm of words.
Their ultimate nature, pure and true,
Is like the infinity of space.
-Prajnaparamita
' The Ground of Being '...
"So, what else can we be except pure consciousness?
This is the basis of the famous statement made by the Buddhist logician Dharmakirti that everyone can be enlightened since the nature of pure consciousness is luminous.
There is nothing to be discovered as ultimate truth beyond pure consciousness.
That’s all there is.
Every other notion of truth is simply an elaboration of ideas and concepts.
Pure consciousness is not the effect of any cause.
If it were the effect of a cause, it would simply be another ordinary thing with a beginning and an end.
It is present in each of us, and it is not bound by time or space.
It is free from everything and it is present in everyone at this very moment.
It is the ground of our being, and who we are in the ultimate sense."
-Anam Thubten
' The Root of All Experience '...
There is no such thing as the experience of the real. The real is beyond experience. All experience is in the mind. You know the real by being the real. (438)
All experience is illusory, limited and temporal. Expect nothing from experience. Realization by itself is not an experience, though it may lead to a new dimension of experiences. Yet the new experiences, however interesting, are not more real than the old.
Definitely realization is not a new experience. It is the discovery of the timeless factor in every experience. It is awareness, which makes experience possible. Just like in all the colours, light is the colourless factor, so in every experience awareness is present, yet it is not an experience. (403)
Experience, however sublime, is not the real thing. By its very nature it comes and goes.
Self-realization is not an acquisition. It is more of the nature of understanding.
Once arrived at, it cannot be lost.
On the other hand, consciousness is changeful, flowing, undergoing transformation from moment to moment. Do not hold on to consciousness and its contents. Consciousness held, ceases.
To try to perpetuate a flash of insight, or a burst of happiness is destructive of what it wants to preserve. What comes must go. The permanent is beyond all comings and goings.
Go to the root of all experience, to the sense of being. Beyond being and not-being lies the immensity of the real. Try and try again.
-Nisargadatta Maharaj from I Am That
' Liberation '...
Dzogchen teacher Anam Thubten:
"Liberation is already dancing on the stage, or the platform, of our consciousness.
How can we experience that right now? Is there a method? Actually there are many methods.
One method is expressed in this very old saying: “Rest in the natural state of mind.”
This method is powerful, dynamic, and transformative.
“Rest,” of course, has many meanings, but here “rest” does not mean simply ordinary rest.
It does not mean just sitting on the sofa with our feet on the coffee table.
Not that kind of resting, but a deep resting.
Here resting means stopping all of mind’s effort, including the effort of seeking, meditating, analyzing, and trying to hold on to something.
It isn’t trying to get rid of or achieve something.
We just let go of all of mind’s effort and be in the natural state of mind and we don’t have to figure out what that is.
That’s the good news.
We are no longer the responsible agent who is going to make sure that enlightenment is going to arise on time.
That’s a big relief, isn’t it?"
' God is Realised '...
"There are three different paths to reach the ideal, the path of *I*, the path of *Thou*, and the path of *Thou and I*.
According to the first, all that is, has been, or ever will be, is I myself.
In other words, I am, I was, and I shall be, to all eternity.
According to the second, Thou are, O Lord, and all is Thine.
And according to the third, Thou art the Lord, and I am Thy servant or Thy son.
In the perfection of any one of these three, God is realised."
-Sri Ramakrishna
Teachings of Sri Ramakrishna
Calcutta: Advaita Ashram, 1997, p. 31
' Are you looking for Me ? '...
"Are you looking for Me?
I am in the next seat;
My shoulder is against yours.
You will not find me in stupas, not in Indian shrines,
Nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals;
Not in masses, nor kirtans,
not in legs winding around your own neck,
nor in eating nothing but vegetables.
When you really look for Me,
You will find Me instantly --
You will find Me in the tiniest house of time.
Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath."
-Kabir
in Douglas Block
I Am With You Always: A Treasury of Inspirational Quotations, Poems & Prayers
NY: Bantam, 1992, p. 57
' The Humble is the root of the Noble '...
These things from ancient times arise from one:
The sky is whole and clear.
The earth is whole and firm.
The spirit is whole and strong.
The valley is whole and full.
The ten thousand things are whole and alive.
Kings and lords are whole, and the country is upright.
All these are in virtue of wholeness.
The clarity of the sky prevents its falling.
The firmness of the earth prevents its splitting.
The strength of the spirit prevents its being used up.
The fullness of the valley prevents its running dry.
The growth of the ten thousand things prevents their dying out.
The leadership of kings and lords prevents the downfall of the country.
Therefore the humble is the root of the noble.
The low is the foundation of the high.
Princes and lords consider themselves "orphaned,""widowed," and "worthless."
Do they not depend on being humble?
Too much success is not an advantage.
Do not tinkle like jade
Or clatter like stone chimes.
- Lao-tzu
Tao Te Ching
' I do nothing at all '...
It is only the body-mind apparatus that is
involved in, or reacts to, any experience,
and it can react only according to the way
it is genetically made and shaped by past
conditioning.
Therefore, what is there to
worry about or try to change?
The one
who understands Truth knows for a fact,
"I do nothing at all."
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
Net of Jewels
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
' Grace and Overself '...
The case for Grace is that only the Overself can tell us what the Overself is, can teach us about itself.
The ego-intellect cannot do so; the senses certainly cannot; and ordinary experience seems far from it.
-- Notebooks Category 18: The Reverential Life >
Chapter 5: Grace > # 97 Paul Brunton
' Inner Stillness '...
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
' The Beloved '...
The Beloved is all in all, the lover only veils Him;
The Beloved is all that lives, the lover a dead thing.
When the lover feels no longer Love's quickening,
He becomes like a bird who has lost its wings. Alas!
How can I retain my senses about me,
When the Beloved shows not the light of His countenance?
Love desires that this secret should be revealed,
For if a mirror reflects not, of what use is it?
Knowest thou why thy mirror reflects not?
Because the rust has not been scoured from its face.
If it were purified from all rust and defilement,
It would reflect the shining of the Sun of God.
O friends, ye have now heard this tale,
Which sets forth the very essence of my case."
-Rumi
_The Masnavi_, Book I, Prologue
Translated and abridged by E.H. Whinfield, [1898]
' Nothing within Nothing '...
Enlighten your desires.
Meditate on who you are.
Quit imagining.
What you want is profoundly expensive,
and difficult to find,
yet close by.
Don't search for it. It is nothing,
and a nothing within nothing.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
' Buddha in Glory '...
Center of all centers, core of cores,
almond self-enclosed, and growing sweet--
all this universe, to the furthest stars
all beyond them, is your flesh, your fruit.
Now you feel how nothing clings to you;
your vast shell reaches into endless space,
and there the rich, thick fluids rise and flow.
Illuminated in your infinite peace,
a billion stars go spinning through the night,
blazing high above your head.
But in you is the presence that
will be, when all the stars are dead.
— Rainer Maria Rilke
From 'Ahead of All Parting:
The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke'
Edited and Translated by Stephen Mitchell
' Mundaka Upanishad '...
Self (purusha) alone is all this universe—action, spirituality and totality (brahman),
the highest and the immortal.
The aspirant who knows this fixed in the cave of the heart cleaves the knot of ignorance (avidya) even here (while alive in the body).
-Mundaka Upanishad, 2.1.10
' You will have no Peace '...
If you want a kingdom and get it,
you'll have no peace.
If you give it away,
still you won't be content.
Only a soul free of desire
can taste eternity.
Be living, yet dead!
Then knowing comes
to live in you.
- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic
From "Naked Song"
Versions by Coleman Barks
Maypop 1992
' Three Types of Grace '...
There are three types of Grace:
firstly, that which has the appearance of Grace but which actually descends out of past good karma and is entirely self-earned;
secondly, that which a Master gives to disciples or aspirants when the proper external and internal circumstances exist--this is in the nature of a temporary glimpse only but is useful because it gives a glimpse of the goal, a sense of the right direction, and inspiring encouragement to continue on the Quest;
thirdly, when a man attains the fullest degree of realization, he is enabled in some cases to modify overhanging negative karma or in others to negate it because he has mastered the particular lessons that needed to be learned.
This is particularly evident when the Hand of God removes obstructions in the path of his work.
The philosophic conception of Grace shows it to be just and reasonable.
It is indeed quite different from the orthodox religious belief about it, a belief which regards it as an arbitrary intervention by the Higher Power for the benefit of its human favourites.
-- Notebooks Category 18: The Reverential Life > Chapter 5: Grace > # 73
-- Perspectives > Chapter 18: The Reverential Life > # 43 Paul Brunton
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