May 2, 2009
Laurance R. Doyle
I understand there are some folks here today that have not previously
been
introduced to Christian Science. You may wonder why an astrophysicist
has been
asked to address the annual meeting of a Christian Science Nursing
Facility. I'm
not as familiar with various religious communities as I am with the
scientific
community, but when introducing Christian Science I would point out that
Christian Scientists do not so much consider themselves as a faith-based
congregation as a science-based congregation. That is to say, blind
faith is not
encouraged while scientific understanding is. How can scientific
understanding
be applied to things that are spiritual? you might ask. Well, in
Christian
Science spiritual evidence is taken as being more reliable than material
evidence -- that is, more reliable than the evidence of the senses.
This is not
something new to any science, really. It was when the evidence of
intelligence
began to take precedence over the evidence of the appearances that the
Scientific Revolution actually began. In that case it was the
intelligent
evidence that the Earth went around the Sun over the sense appearance
that the
Sun went around the Earth. We'll refer to this a bit more later. So in
Christian
Science spiritual evidence is not only acceptable, it is considered
the more
reliable.
We can look at various analogies that might help make this position more
tenable. One used a lot in the Christian Science Sunday School is about
mathematics. (And thanks to the Christian Scientists in the audience
for their
patience at this explanation.) The math is not, of course, in the
chalk on the
blackboard. The chalk is, at best, a limited representation of
mathematics when
an equation is correctly written on the blackboard. But, unlike
mathematics
itself, chalk can indicate a mistake if a sum is incorrectly written.
To be
original, let's take 2 + 2 =5. If we believe the chalk evidence then
the mistake
is more real than the truth. We can argue that chalk is more real
because it is
visible to the senses whereas the truth is not. We might even say that
the chalk
has power to do evil because when we believed 2 + 2 = 5 it, for
example, really
messed up our efforts to balance our bank account. Well, it only has
the power
to mess things up if you believe it to be true, right?
Christian Science training is not so different from the way one solves
a math
problem. First, while one seems to see a mistake on the blackboard
from the
evidence of the senses, one does not therefore conclude that
mathematics itself
has made the mistake. Rather one starts with the most basic
understanding that
mathematics is an unchanging, exact, perfect, and one could even say,
harmonious
principle that we need to, rather, align our thinking with so that the
right
answer can become evident. The right answer will not only be
reasonable, but
deeply intuitive and harmonious also. Mary Baker Eddy who discovered
Christian
Science, and whom we'll discuss in a moment, wrote about the process
this way
(S+H 259: 11-14), "The Christlike understanding of scientific being
and divine
healing includes a perfect Principle and idea, -- perfect God and
perfect man,
-- as the basis of thought and demonstration." So now, if I had not
previously
heard of Christian Science, I'd be asking at this point, what? Where
did Christ
come in? And are we talking about math or are we talking about God?
Well, in
Christian Science we consider Christ Jesus to have been the most
scientific
person to ever walk this planet. We do not consider that his mission
was to
found a church, nor that he performed what are called "miracles" in
defiance of
the natural laws of the universe. Christian Scientists consider these
miracles
actually demonstrations of the deeper nature of spiritual reality.
This is more
in line with what Christ Jesus himself said he came for. Jesus said,
(John 18:
37 To, to 1st .), "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I
into the
world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." Christ Jesus came
to show us
what the Truth is. He also said that his works, rather than other
people's word
for it, bore witness to his correctness, and also that if he did not
do the
works of healing we were not to believe him. He said the Source of the
works was
his Father, God, and that God was our Father too. Thus the Principle
of his
scientific demonstrations of healing was God, his Father, which might
be thought
of as another name for Life Itself. Rather than detracting from the
precious
sacredness of Christ Jesus teachings, the idea that he came to reveal
to us the
harmonious reality of God's creation reveals what a great purpose he
really had.
To reveal the Truth of spiritual reality.
Everything he taught and did helped to jolt us out of a false belief
in the
reliability of the senses and bring our understanding into line with the
thoughts of God. (Matt 5: 48), "Be ye therefore perfect even as your
Father,
which is in heaven, is perfect," he said. His goal for us was not to
become
perfect, but to be right now perfect -- and this relates to our talk
today. Mary
Baker Eddy, as the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, is
greatly loved
and revered because she recognized that Christ Jesus was talking about
reality
when he taught and healed. She discovered that reality is spiritual
and perfect,
that this is what Christ Jesus had been teaching all along, and knew
that this
had been scientifically confirmed when she started to reproduce the
"miraculous"
healings that Jesus had performed. Realizing that this healing ability
was not
based upon a personality, but rather based upon the same Principle
that Jesus
demonstrated, she was able therefore to actually teach the healing
process to
others.
So hopefully this is an introductory background giving an idea about
where
Christian Scientists are coming from. You should feel free to try it out
yourself too. Allowing one's thinking to be aligned with the Mind that
is God is
not an exercise in human mind control -- it is an exercise in giving
up human
mind control. It is actually an exercise in seeing that there is only
one Mind
and that this Mind is God. Feel free to try this out. It won't hurt
you. You
can't overdose on Christian Science. You will find that previous
apparent
limitations -- whether in health, work, intelligence, inspiration,
world peace,
whatever -- will become less evident in your experience. But, again,
as LeVar
Burton says in the television show Reading Rainbow, "You don't have to
take my
word for it!" Try it out!
OK, hopefully now we're all pretty much on the same page. So let's now
talk a
bit about time and eternity. We'll just take a quick look at time as
physics
defines it, and then at eternity as metaphysics reveals it. Now you
may consider
this a topic for scientists, but Christian Scientists are scientists,
and we
shall see that correcting the false notion of time relates to the
solution of
many problems, including stress, aging, and healing. We shall find
that time is
considered an important healing ingredient in medical practice but
that it is
not a consideration in Christian Science healing at all. The two
currently most
successful foundations of modern physics -- general relativity and
quantum
mechanicsâ€"are apparently incompatible with each other according to
the current
understanding of modern physics. One of the fundamental differences
between
these two fields can be said to be based on their different concepts
of what
time actually is.
In general relativity time is a direction -- up, down, left, right,
back, forth,
in space, and "forwards" and "backwards" in time are the four
dimensions known
in physics as "spacetime." In general relativity, time is also
relative -- that
is to say that there are as many answers to the question, "What time
is it?" as
there are clocks in the universe. ("Clocks" here mean any measurement of
redundant matter -- atoms oscillating, planets orbiting, or the hands
of Big Ben
going around and around). Another interesting thing is that the faster
you go,
the less time you have, at least compared to folks going more slowly.
You've
heard the statement, "Haste makes waste" and according to relativistic
physics
what one wastes by haste is time itself. In general relativity, then,
time is
only stretched out by going faster so that everyone else seems to be
going much
faster then the speeding person. In other words, if you get in a
rocket and
accelerate fast enough (very fast), in the first hour of flight
thousands of
years could have passed on Earth.
However, the illusory nature of time has been understood by physicists
for some,
ah, "duration" now. It is difficult to avoid the term "time"
sometimes. That is,
most of the time I try not to use it. But the idea of a field against
which
things flow from past to future has been recognized as an illusion in
physics.
When Einstein's long-time friend, Michele Besso, passed on, Einstein
wrote a
letter to Besso's son (March 21, 1955), saying "For us, physicists, in
the soul,
the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly
persistent illusion." Of course, 80 years before this -- in a
victorian Age
where time was considered immutable -- Mary Baker Eddy had already
defined time
(S+H 595: 17-19 limits), in part, as "limits, . . . matter, . . .
error."
Now, as opposed to general relativity, what does quantum physics have
to say
about time? In quantum physics time is basically considered to be a
particle.
That is to say that it is a particle if it is measured -- it is a
probability
wave when no one looks at it. As I have mentioned before, the leading
theory in
quantum physics is that -- referring to material particles – nothing
really
exists as something until it is observed or measured. This is actually
called
the "quantum measurement problem" -- a problem because it is difficult
for
physicists (and, frankly, most other folks) to relate to things not
existing
until they are observed. (Other possible explanations are even more
far out; I'm
just taking the main stream interpretation here.) In quantum physics the
apparent transformation from possibility to actual sub-atomic particle
is called
"the collapse of the wave function." It's kind of like having a bunch
of 1/6ths
in the dice cup when playing a game that only become dice when they
are rolled
out onto the table. But this is apparently the case as many physics
labs have
shown. Mrs. Eddy once told a student who was not healing a case, "Get
a higher
sense of the nothingness of matter." In the Glossary of Science and
Health Mrs.
Eddy defines matter, in part, as (S+H 591: 8-9 Mythology): "Mythology;
mortality; another name for mortal mind; illusion". Note that one
cannot have
time without matter. One of the most fundamental discoveries in
quantum physics
is known as the "Uncertainty Principle." It is interesting that one
definition
of "Principle" is "A fundamental source or basis of something." So we
see, then,
that the fundamental source or basis of matter is uncertainty. The term
"uncertainty principle" is actually somewhat contradictory.
As we have said, one of the "particles" in quantum physics subject to
this
uncertainty is actually time itself. As I have mentioned before, I'm
being very
careful with nomenclature because I am trying to say something that is
really
mathematical in the English language. But if you want to share what
physicists
are presently discovering with others feel free to say it this way and
you will
not run into any problems with the physicists (or else send them to
me). In many
experiments in quantum physics, if one measures the energy of a tiny
particle,
for example, then one cannot measure precisely at what time it had
that energy.
And, vice versa, if one wants to precisely measure the time, then one
cannot
measure the energy precisely. We could contrast this with ideas, for
example. Is
2 + 2 ever equal to 3.99999999, or 4.0000001? No, it is always exact
and precise
-- perfectly and to as many decimal points as possible, always 4. So
mathematical ideas are always exact. (I might add that even irrational
-- that
is, ongoing -- numbers can be computed exactly.) As already mentioned,
imprecision only arises in the chalk. Quantum physics actually states
that
material measurement must be imprecise. The chalk also takes time to
correct,
while math does not take time to be correct because it is already
correct. So
while matter is subject to time, ideas exist only in the realm of
eternity. Mrs.
Eddy writes (S+H 463: 12-13), "A spiritual idea has not a single
element of
error, and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive." And by
the way,
you are one of the spiritual ideas she is talking about. General
relativity and
quantum physics can, then, at least agree that time is not an immutable
structure. To refer to Mrs. Eddy's definition of time again: "Mortal
measurements; limits, . . . ; matter; error; . . . " we should
certainly think
again if we find ourselves saying, "I'd like more time," shouldn't we?
Aren't we
saying, "Gee, I wish I had more limits so I could get everything
done!" Or "If I
only had more error I could find the right answers." The concept of
time seems
to be very prevalent today but it is, even in physics, understood to
be an
illusion. Let me say that immortality depends not on getting more time
but in
getting rid of it. I like what one reverend said when he was asked,
"What do you
think of immortality?" He said, "I'm enjoying every moment of it!"
Let's take an
example. When I went back east to teach at a little college that lies
along the
Mississippi River I remember thinking, "There is the old Mississippi."
But then
I realized it was not the same river at all. All the water I had seen
last time
was long gone out into the ocean. Hum, so why is it still the same
Mississippi
if no material component is the same? Well, it is also known that
every atom in
the human body is replaced every few years (98% in one year). If our
identity is
material, then how can we be the same people we were a few years ago?
You get,
for example, completely new liver atoms in a few weeks. So how can one
have
liver complaint for months? Clearly the concept of our identity being
fundamentally material does not work, even according to biology.
Let's take another example. One might ask, why should the human body
age just
because it has been orbiting around the Sun for a while? When we ask
someone's
age, aren't we asking, "How many orbits around the Sun has your body
traveled?"
(When people ask my age, I give it to them in kilometers.) The
assumption in the
question is that life was put into matter at birth. How long ago did the
impossible occur? Mrs. Eddy reminds us (S+H 245: 27), "Impossibilities
never
occur." She also points out (S+H 336: 2-6), "Mind never enters the
finite.
Intelligence never passes into non-intelligence, or matter. Good never
enters
into evil, the unlimited into the limited, the eternal into the
temporal, nor
the immortal into mortality." From a physicist's viewpoint, then,
there is no
known direct force connecting the orbit of the Earth with the aging of
the human
body. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (S+H 246: 10-13, 17-18),
"The
measurement of life by solar years robs youth and gives ugliness to
age. The
radiant sun of virtue and truth coexists with being. Manhood is its
eternal
noon, undimmed by a declining sun. . . . Never record ages."
Chronological data are no part of the vast forever." You are rather
ever eternal
because God has ever thought of you as His idea. But you are also
created every
moment by the divine Mind, so in that sense you can say that you are
"now' old.
We'll make up a fancier term, OK? You can say your age is
"eternitesimal" --
fresh from the Mind of God every moment. Mrs. Eddy addresses this age
thing by
asking and answering ten of the following eleven questions: (My 235:
15-27), "Is
God infinite? Yes. Did God make man? Yes. Did God make all that was
made? He
did. Is God Spirit? He is. Did infinite Spirit make that which is not
spiritual?
No. Who or what made matter? Matter as substance or intelligence never
was made.
Is mortal man a creator, is he matter or spirit? Neither one. Why?
Because
Spirit is God and infinite; hence there can be no other creator and no
other
creation. Man is but His image and likeness. Are you a Christian
Scientist? I
am. Do you adopt as truth the above statements? I do. Then why this
meaningless
commemoration of birthdays, since there are none?" The answer to this
last
question she leaves to us as an exercise for the student. I've had
occasion to
think about another statement of Mrs. Eddy's in Science and Health
with regard
to age, that also includes the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. She
writes,
(S+H 209: 16-24), "The compounded minerals or aggregated substances
composing
the earth, the relations which constituent masses hold to each other,
the
magnitudes, distances, and revolutions of the celestial bodies, are of
no real
importance, when we remember that they all must give place to the
spiritual fact
by the translation of man and the universe back into Spirit. In
proportion as
this is done, man and the universe will be found harmonious and
eternal." I
thought it was interesting that she had not written that the study of
astronomy
was of no importance -- she does, after all, put it first in the list of
"academics of the right sort" in Science and Health (S+H 195: 15-22).
Her
statement is actually that, " . . . the magnitudes, distances, and
revolutions
of the celestial bodies [themselves!] are of no real importance . . .
" That is,
frankly, a lot more profound statement.
Life does not depend on the distance to the Sun, or how bright the Sun
is, does
it? Life, and its expression, does not depend on the revolution of the
Earth
around the Sun either, in other words, on number of days or number of
years you
have traveled around the Sun. Mrs. Eddy writes, (S+H 310: 14-17
Science), " . .
. Science reveals Soul as God, untouched by sin and death,--as the
central Life
and intelligence around which circle harmoniously all things in the
systems of
Mind." Mrs. Eddy uses an analogy from astronomy taken from what is
known in the
history of science as "The Copernican Revolution." She writes, (No 6:
17-28),
"The evidence that the earth is motionless and the sun revolves around
our
planet, is as sensible and real as the evidence for disease; but Science
determines the evidence in both cases to be unreal. To material sense
it is
plain also that the error of the revolution of the sun around the
earth is more
apparent than the adverse but true Science of the stellar universe.
Copernicus
has shown that what appears real, to material sense and feeling, is
absolutely
unreal. Astronomy, optics, acoustics, and hydraulics are all at war
with the
testimony of the physical senses. This fact intimates that the laws of
Science
are mental, not material; and Christian Science demonstrates this."
Again Mrs. Eddy writes, "Our theories make the same mistake regarding
Soul and
body that Ptolemy made regarding the solar system. They insist that
soul is in
body and mind therefore tributary to matter. Astronomical science has
destroyed
the false theory as to the relations of the celestial bodies, and
Christian
Science will surely destroy the greater error as to our terrestrial
bodies."
(S+H 122:29-3). What progress has been made since we gave up even this
small
evidence of the senses in favor of the evidence of intelligence! Right
now we
are in what we might call the "The Mary-Baker-Eddyian Revolution" that
is
actually much more profound, because it requires us to give up -- not
just the
idea of the Earth being the center of the universe -- but to give up the
self-centered and false notion that we are each a little mind centered
in our
own little finite consciousnesses. It requires us to recognize that
the one,
infinite Mind is "the central Life and intelligence around which we
circle"
timelessly and agelessly all ideas of creation. The progress that came
from the
Copernican Revolution is clear -- from a few planets and stars on
celestial
spheres a few thousand miles away to the expanding universe billions
of light
years in extent known today. However, what will come from The Eddyian
Revolution
will be the limitless, infinite.
You know, Mrs. Eddy contrasts astronomy with Christian Science in a
letter
quoted in Years of Authority by Robert Peel to Rev. Frank L. Phalen.
She wrote:
"Christian Science like all Science must be discovered or learned. It
is not a
native of the senses and cometh not with observation. . . . Indeed the
testimony
of or the evidence before the senses contradict it but not more flatly
than they
disputed the facts of astronomy and then accepted them through the
understanding
. . . .It is only more difficult to understand Christian Science than
astronomy
because the former [Christian Science] wars against the whole mortal
man and the
latter [astronomy] against only a part of him." Then she concludes the
letter,
"I never know where to stop on this subject." (Mary Baker Eddy: Years of
Authority, Robert Peel, p. 112). Christ Jesus also talked about the
ever-present
now, about not waiting for the blessings of goodness, using an analogy
from
harvesting that his disciples could relate to. He said (John 4: 35, 36
to :)
"Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest?
Behold, I say
unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are
white already
to harvest." And then, in case there was any doubt as to what he was
talking
about, he added, "And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth
fruit unto
life eternal: . . . " So it is about life eternal that he was talking,
and that
we can be "gathering" it right now. Immortality is "already to
harvest". We have
but to "lift up [our] eyes, and look . . . ". Christ Jesus also proved
that now
was also forever. He demonstrated this in his instantaneous healings.
All
healings are actually instantaneous, because they are already true.
As the Christian Science lecturer, Jill Gooding, pointed out, the word
"medicine" comes from the same base word "mediate." But in Christian
Science we
do not need an intermediary between ourselves and healing. Christian
Science, in
other words, is im-mediate. Time is an important aspect of medical
healing --
maybe the most important. But time is no part of a Christian Science
healing
because Christian Science healing is not fixing, it is realizing what
was always
true. I can share an illustration of this. When I was in high school I
played
sport judo. We used to go to tournaments on weekends. I was in a
particular
contest when, in the excitement of the moment, my opponent grabbed my
finger and
snapped it back. I finished the match but could not move the finger.
My judo
instructor, Sensei Nakamura, was known to be knowledgeable about such
things and
from the protrusion under the skin in my hand told me to go to the
emergency
room as the finger was broken. My folks were at this tournament, so
they took me
to the emergency room of a nearby hospital. When we got there there
seemed to be
a lot of other people waiting, some needing serious attention, and my
Mom and I
started to pray for them (I have no doubt my Mom was already praying
about me).
This means that we were seeing the presence of divine Love which had
the effect
of dispelling fear. And there is no danger where there is no fear. I
remember
forgetting about my finger completely during this time. When my name
was called,
I went in and got an x-ray of the hand. When the doctor looked at the
x-ray he
showed me where the finger had been broken, that it was set nicely,
and that I
should not use the emergency room for checkups. To the great surprise
of my
Sensei, I was back the next week at judo. People at the dojo came over
to look
at my hand.
Now someone unacquainted with Christian Science healings might say
that that was
impossible. Why? Because it is supposed to take more time to heal a
broken bone.
Why is that? "Well, just because it takes more time, that's all,"
might be the
reply. Well, in this case it didn't take time to heal, it took Truth
to heal.
Time is not a factor in Christian Science healing. And Christ Jesus'
healings
never took time. Healing, then, is not about gaining something we
lack, but
rather seeing something we already have. Christ Jesus illustrated this
by
anointing the eyes of a blind man with clay he had made. He said "Go,
wash in
the pool of Siloam" to the blind man. We read then that the blind man,
" . . .
went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing" (John 9: 7).
Wasn't Jesus
asking him to wash away the materialistic notion that his sight was
dependent on
matter? He instructed him to see through the false belief that man is
made of
clay. The man did not regain something he had lost. Rather he got rid
of the
belief that he had ever lost anything. Jesus asked him to wash away
something --
drop the false belief that was keeping him from seeing his real,
spiritual
perfection.
So, healing is a letting go of a false or unreal notion that has
seemed to get
in the way of our seeing the Truth of our perfection. Being already
eternally
true, it does not take time for a Christian Science healing. This
washing away
the material concept is why healing in Christian Science can be called
"enlightenment" rather than "enheavyment". Spiritual healing is always
enlightening. Next time you feel inspired, ask yourself if you feel
heavier or
lighter. Jesus did say (Matt 11: 30), " . . . my yoke is easy, and my
burden is
light." He also said (Matt 5: 14), "Ye are the light of the world." It
is an
interesting and unworldly fact that taking Christ's burden upon you
will make
you lighter. Try it! So enlightenment is when a healing truth shines
through to
dispel the mist of unreality. It is a sign of our immortality because we
recognize the truth as true. When someone says something true, don't we
recognize it? Don't we say, "Ah yes, that's true!" But how could we have
recognized it if we had never heard it before? We could recognize it
only if we
already knew it. It was already a part of you, already part of your
immortal
identity. It is part of your own "Before Abraham was, I am"-ness, your
eternal
identity (John 8:58). If Christ Jesus were around today, I could
picture him
perhaps saying to the natural scientists, "Before the Pre-Cambrian, I
am."
It is also interesting that Christ Jesus demonstrated the eternality
of Life by,
for example, having friends in other millennia. We read in John about
this: "And
it came to pass . . . , [Jesus] took Peter and John and James, and
went up into
a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was
altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. And, behold, there
talked
with him two men, which were Moses and Elias: Who appeared in glory,
and spake
of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." (Luke 9:
28-30). Now
Elias supposedly lived about 900 years before this, and Moses another
600 or
more years before that. Yet Jesus could discuss important things with
them. The
Bible only tells us here that he discussed, with Moses and Elias, the
importance
of the crucifixion and what it could accomplish for the enlightenment
of the
people at Jerusalem. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health, "Life is
without
beginning and without end. Eternity, not time, expresses the thought
of Life,
and time is no part of eternity. One ceases in proportion as the other
is
recognized. Time is finite; eternity is forever infinite." So,
eternity is not
the sum of all time. Spiritual qualities do not come in limited
amounts. For
example, Christ Jesus did not have to take time to grow the wheat to
make the
loaves to feed the multitude. Supply was eternally present already.
Jesus
dispensed with the error of limitation, allowing him to demonstrate,
as Mrs.
Eddy writes (S+H 507: 28-29), "Creation is ever appearing, and must ever
continue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source."
This creation, including you, is an ever ongoing process. Did you ever
notice,
for example, that in the first part of Genesis, where Elohim, God, is
the
Creator, that God creates by letting? Let there be light, let there be a
firmament, let the waters be gathered, let the earth bring forth grass
and
trees, let us make man in our image and likeness, let them have
dominion. But in
the entirely different story starting in the second chapter of
Genesis, where it
is Jehovah, or Lord God, who is supposed to be the creator, that the
Lord God
creates by forming? The Lord God forms man of the dust of the ground,
He puts
"the man whom he had formed" into a garden called Eden, he then forms
every
beast of the field. Doesn't this "forming" notion of creation break
the second
commandment? The image and likeness of God is never confined in any
way; one
cannot have a graven, or formed, image and likeness of God. So letting
is God's
way of creating -- letting implies no actual beginning but rather an
allowing to
be expressed of something already created, doesn't it? Paul also spoke
of the
nowness of reality. He said, (II Cor 6: 02), "behold, now is the
accepted time;
behold, now is the day of salvation." Mrs. Eddy defines "Salvation" as
"Life,
Truth, and Love understood and demonstrated as supreme over all; sin,
sickness,
and death destroyed." So Paul was saying, that this is already a done
deal. Now
is the moment that Life, Truth, and Love are understood and
demonstrated by
destroying any sense of sin, sickness, or death. In a sense, this is
your
destiny.
There is nothing you can do about perfection -- you are stuck with it.
Immortality, health, individuality, joy, this is no way of escaping
from these
being your attributes because it is what you really are, right now.
Mrs. Eddy
writes, "Each individual must fill his own niche in time and
eternity." (Ret.
70:18-19). This is a "must" here. Why? Because God would not be
infinite in
expression without you. One God means there is only one of you in all of
creation. Filling your niche is something that no one can do for you;
you
naturally help infinite Mind complete Its infinite expression by being
yourself.
You are the best at being yourself too -- really no one else is going
to be very
good at it. Mrs. Eddy writes (S+H 266: 29-1), "Man is the idea of
Spirit; he
reflects the beatific presence, illuming the universe with light. Man is
deathless, spiritual. He is above sin or frailty. He does not cross
the barriers
of time into the vast forever of Life, but he coexists with God. So
let's start
enjoying our eternal coexistence right this moment.....
Mystical Awakening...
The first sign of awakening is usually a growing reverence for life. You find you are immensely appreciative of being alive. Life itself is revealed as a wonder or a miracle. In your reverence for life you delightedly value the lives of others and of yourself. You perceive life as extremely precious, such an extraordinary phenomenon. You find it easy to conceive in your musings that incredibly great consciousness and energy is at work wherever there is life. With awe and enthusiasm you often turn your mind to consider how great must be that higher consciousness which gives life and sustains it! In life itself there is enough to wonder at forever. In your unique heart you see enough to explore and develop for much more than a lifetime. What is life? Who can say? But you, the awakening aspirant, wholeheartedly treasure being alive and love to watch that life force animating each person; indeed, you admire all living creatures.
You become aware that you may have many negative qualities but, nevertheless, you have an extremely positive and undeniable plus — you have life. You are an expression of that higher consciousness which maintains and sustains life. Life is a marvel. You see it. You know it. You abide in wonder.
You find, with these realizations, that you begin to value other people a great deal. Whether they value themselves and have noticed the miracle of life or not, you perceive uniqueness and significance in each one. You have become enabled, as your eyes of higher consciousness open, to see life well. You can easily understand why Albert Schweitzer said that it’s fine to cut the grass in order to grow a garden, but on the way home from the garden do not drag your scythe and needlessly kill one blade of grass. This now makes great sense to you.
You also clearly understand "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." You know all people are, in reality, sharing life together. You deeply yearn that everyone will see the preciousness of life and not hurt, deny, or strive to destroy the life in another.
Your awakening to life’s richness also prompts a profound consideration of your own conduct. Your interactions with others more deeply reflect your respect for their concerns and feelings. You actively strive not to harm people or cause them any suffering. You practice, "Do unto others ...." You seek to be constructive and helpful to your fellow human beings...........from TheMystic.org
You become aware that you may have many negative qualities but, nevertheless, you have an extremely positive and undeniable plus — you have life. You are an expression of that higher consciousness which maintains and sustains life. Life is a marvel. You see it. You know it. You abide in wonder.
You find, with these realizations, that you begin to value other people a great deal. Whether they value themselves and have noticed the miracle of life or not, you perceive uniqueness and significance in each one. You have become enabled, as your eyes of higher consciousness open, to see life well. You can easily understand why Albert Schweitzer said that it’s fine to cut the grass in order to grow a garden, but on the way home from the garden do not drag your scythe and needlessly kill one blade of grass. This now makes great sense to you.
You also clearly understand "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." You know all people are, in reality, sharing life together. You deeply yearn that everyone will see the preciousness of life and not hurt, deny, or strive to destroy the life in another.
Your awakening to life’s richness also prompts a profound consideration of your own conduct. Your interactions with others more deeply reflect your respect for their concerns and feelings. You actively strive not to harm people or cause them any suffering. You practice, "Do unto others ...." You seek to be constructive and helpful to your fellow human beings...........from TheMystic.org
Nisargadatta Maharaj on the "I-Am"...
31
The fact is you. The only thing you know for sure is: ‘here and
now I am’. Remove the ‘here and now’, the ‘I am’ remains
unassailable.
32
All I can say is ‘I am’, all else is inference. But the inference has
become a habit. Destroy all habits of thinking and sleeping. The
sense ‘I am’ is a manifestation of a deeper cause, which you may
call self, God, Reality or by any other name. The ‘I am’ is in the
world but it is the key which can open the door out of the world.
33
Only your sense ‘I am’ though in the world, is not of the world. By
no effort of logic you can change the ‘I am’ into ‘I am not’. In the
very denial of your being you assert it. Once you realize that the
world is your own projection, you are free of it. You need not free
yourself of a world that does not exist, except in your imagination.
from
http://www.stillnessspeaks.com/images/uploaded/file/iamquotesofnisargadatta.pdf
The fact is you. The only thing you know for sure is: ‘here and
now I am’. Remove the ‘here and now’, the ‘I am’ remains
unassailable.
32
All I can say is ‘I am’, all else is inference. But the inference has
become a habit. Destroy all habits of thinking and sleeping. The
sense ‘I am’ is a manifestation of a deeper cause, which you may
call self, God, Reality or by any other name. The ‘I am’ is in the
world but it is the key which can open the door out of the world.
33
Only your sense ‘I am’ though in the world, is not of the world. By
no effort of logic you can change the ‘I am’ into ‘I am not’. In the
very denial of your being you assert it. Once you realize that the
world is your own projection, you are free of it. You need not free
yourself of a world that does not exist, except in your imagination.
from
http://www.stillnessspeaks.com/images/uploaded/file/iamquotesofnisargadatta.pdf
Awakening is sneaky - Tomas Stubbs...
Awakening sneaked up on me. I was training as a yoga teacher in England and out of curiosity picked two books to read, «The Power of Now» by Eckhart Tolle and «I Am That» by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. Reading «The Power of Now» a light came on inside, everything in the book seemed so obviously true, and so easy to access. I then began reading «I Am That» and in the first few pages a very deep chord was played. Afterwards, walking in the street, the incesssant thinking spontaneously stopped, I was amazed. A few days later, in a moment of complete grace, I had a clear realization of what was real and what was illusion and all further questions became unnecessary. From that moment on the mind became quiet and took the back seat. A few weeks later I met my first spiritual teacher, Tony Parsons. The meeting was brief but the affect was profound and over the next year it was Tony´s words «there is no one» that came back to me over and over, anchoring the shift in me and my feet to the ground.
But awakening is a funny thing, it´s never quite what you think it is. Even after the fact. For the longest time it seemed like the essential shift happened in a moment of realization. Now I see that the realization was just a moment of crystallisation, the head finally got what the heart had always been yearning for, what it already knew, somehow, and I began to know the subtlety of the heart. What is called the shift is then the inner aligning to this, it´s not a mental position that you can choose or not... that´s always the surprising thing, it´s like reality changes, every cell transformed. It´s as though the room had been full of water before and someone came along and drained it ~ somehow everything is light, and clear.
from http://www.livingpresence.ca/tomas/
But awakening is a funny thing, it´s never quite what you think it is. Even after the fact. For the longest time it seemed like the essential shift happened in a moment of realization. Now I see that the realization was just a moment of crystallisation, the head finally got what the heart had always been yearning for, what it already knew, somehow, and I began to know the subtlety of the heart. What is called the shift is then the inner aligning to this, it´s not a mental position that you can choose or not... that´s always the surprising thing, it´s like reality changes, every cell transformed. It´s as though the room had been full of water before and someone came along and drained it ~ somehow everything is light, and clear.
from http://www.livingpresence.ca/tomas/
Dealing with insult ...
The Buddha explained how to handle insult and maintain compassion.
One day Buddha was walking through a village. A very angry and rude young man
came up and began insulting him. "You have no right teaching others," he
shouted. "You are as stupid as everyone else. You are nothing but a fake."
Buddha was not upset by these insults. Instead he asked the young man "Tell me,
if you buy a gift for someone, and that person does not take it, to whom does
the gift belong?"
The man was surprised to be asked such a strange question and answered, "It
would belong to me, because I bought the gift."
The Buddha smiled and said, "That is correct. And it is exactly the same with
your anger. If you become angry with me and I do not get insulted, then the
anger falls back on you. You are then the only one who becomes unhappy, not me..
All you have done is hurt yourself."
"If
you want to stop hurting yourself, you must get rid of your anger and become
loving instead. When you hate others, you yourself become unhappy. But when you
love others, everyone is happy."
The young man listened closely to these wise words of the Buddha. "You are
right, o Enlightened One, "he said. "Please teach me the path of love. I wish to
become your follower."
The Buddha answered kindly, "Of course. I teach anyone who truly wants to learn.
Come with me."
One day Buddha was walking through a village. A very angry and rude young man
came up and began insulting him. "You have no right teaching others," he
shouted. "You are as stupid as everyone else. You are nothing but a fake."
Buddha was not upset by these insults. Instead he asked the young man "Tell me,
if you buy a gift for someone, and that person does not take it, to whom does
the gift belong?"
The man was surprised to be asked such a strange question and answered, "It
would belong to me, because I bought the gift."
The Buddha smiled and said, "That is correct. And it is exactly the same with
your anger. If you become angry with me and I do not get insulted, then the
anger falls back on you. You are then the only one who becomes unhappy, not me..
All you have done is hurt yourself."
"If
you want to stop hurting yourself, you must get rid of your anger and become
loving instead. When you hate others, you yourself become unhappy. But when you
love others, everyone is happy."
The young man listened closely to these wise words of the Buddha. "You are
right, o Enlightened One, "he said. "Please teach me the path of love. I wish to
become your follower."
The Buddha answered kindly, "Of course. I teach anyone who truly wants to learn.
Come with me."
Dharma...
The term dharma (Sanskrit: dhárma, Pāḷi dhamma), is an Indian spiritual and religious term, that means one's righteous duty or any virtuous path in the common sense of the term.[1] In Indian languages it can be equivalent simply to "religion", depending on context. Throughout Indian philosophy, Dharma is presented as a central concept that is used in order to explain the "higher truth" or ultimate reality of the universe.
The word dharma literally translates as that which upholds or supports, and is generally translated into English as law. The word "dharma" can also be translated as "the teachings of the Buddha".
The various Indian religions and philosophy (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, among others) have all accorded a central focus to Dharma and advocate its practice. Each of these religions emphasizes Dharma as the correct understanding of reality in its teachings.[2] In these traditions, beings that live in accordance with Dharma proceed more quickly toward Dharma Yukam, Moksha or Nirvana (personal liberation). Dharma also refers to the teachings and doctrines of the founders of these traditions, such as those of Gautama Buddha and Mahavira. In traditional Hindu society with its caste structure, Dharma constituted the religious and moral doctrine of the rights and duties of each individual. (see dharmasastra). Dharma in its universal meaning shares much in common with the way of Tao or Taoism.
The antonym of dharma is adharma meaning unnatural or immoral..............From Wikipedia
The word dharma literally translates as that which upholds or supports, and is generally translated into English as law. The word "dharma" can also be translated as "the teachings of the Buddha".
The various Indian religions and philosophy (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, among others) have all accorded a central focus to Dharma and advocate its practice. Each of these religions emphasizes Dharma as the correct understanding of reality in its teachings.[2] In these traditions, beings that live in accordance with Dharma proceed more quickly toward Dharma Yukam, Moksha or Nirvana (personal liberation). Dharma also refers to the teachings and doctrines of the founders of these traditions, such as those of Gautama Buddha and Mahavira. In traditional Hindu society with its caste structure, Dharma constituted the religious and moral doctrine of the rights and duties of each individual. (see dharmasastra). Dharma in its universal meaning shares much in common with the way of Tao or Taoism.
The antonym of dharma is adharma meaning unnatural or immoral..............From Wikipedia
Zen...
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism, referred to in Chinese as Chán. Chán is itself derived from the Sanskrit Dhyāna, which means "meditation" ..
Zen emphasizes experiential Prajñā—particularly as realized in the form of meditation known as zazen—in the attainment of awakening, often simply called the path of enlightenment. As such, it de-emphasizes both theoretical knowledge and the study of religious texts in favor of direct, experiential realization through meditation and dharma practice.
The establishment of Zen is traditionally credited to the Southern Indian Pallava prince-turned-monk Bodhidharma, who is recorded as having come to China to teach a "special transmission outside scriptures" which "did not stand upon words". The emergence of Zen as a distinct school of Buddhism was first documented in China in the 7th century CE. It is thought to have developed as an amalgam of various currents in Mahāyāna Buddhist thought—among them the Yogācāra and Madhyamaka philosophies and the Prajñāpāramitā literature—and of local traditions in China, particularly Taoism and Huáyán Buddhism. From China, Zen subsequently spread southwards to Vietnam and eastwards to Korea and Japan........From Wikipedia
Zen emphasizes experiential Prajñā—particularly as realized in the form of meditation known as zazen—in the attainment of awakening, often simply called the path of enlightenment. As such, it de-emphasizes both theoretical knowledge and the study of religious texts in favor of direct, experiential realization through meditation and dharma practice.
The establishment of Zen is traditionally credited to the Southern Indian Pallava prince-turned-monk Bodhidharma, who is recorded as having come to China to teach a "special transmission outside scriptures" which "did not stand upon words". The emergence of Zen as a distinct school of Buddhism was first documented in China in the 7th century CE. It is thought to have developed as an amalgam of various currents in Mahāyāna Buddhist thought—among them the Yogācāra and Madhyamaka philosophies and the Prajñāpāramitā literature—and of local traditions in China, particularly Taoism and Huáyán Buddhism. From China, Zen subsequently spread southwards to Vietnam and eastwards to Korea and Japan........From Wikipedia
Nisargadatta on transitions leading to non-duality ...
M: It is only when you are satiated with the changeable and long for the
unchangeable, that you are ready for the turning round and stepping into what
can be described, when seen from the level of the mind, as emptiness and
darkness. For the mind craves for content and variety, while reality is, to the
mind, contentless and invariable.
Q: It looks like death to me.
M: It is. It is also all-pervading, all-conquering, intense beyond words. No
ordinary brain can stand it without being shattered; hence the absolute need for
sadhana. Purity of body and clarity of mind, non-violence and selflessness in
life are essential for survival as an intelligent and spiritual entity." ( I AM
THAT)
unchangeable, that you are ready for the turning round and stepping into what
can be described, when seen from the level of the mind, as emptiness and
darkness. For the mind craves for content and variety, while reality is, to the
mind, contentless and invariable.
Q: It looks like death to me.
M: It is. It is also all-pervading, all-conquering, intense beyond words. No
ordinary brain can stand it without being shattered; hence the absolute need for
sadhana. Purity of body and clarity of mind, non-violence and selflessness in
life are essential for survival as an intelligent and spiritual entity." ( I AM
THAT)
Thoughts Vanish...
When all thoughts vanish into the Stillness, the ego-personality vanishes too. This is Buddha's meaning that there is no self, also Ramana Maharshi's meaning that ego is only a collection of thoughts..........Paul Brunton
David Godman interview ...
I would say that Self-realization is what remains when the mind irrevocably dies in the Heart. The Heart is not a particular place in the body. It is the formless Self, the source and origin of all manifestation. Self-realization is permanent and irreversible. I also suspect that it is quite rare. Many people have had glimpses or temporary experiences of a state of being in which the mind, the individual "I", temporarily stops functioning, but I don't think that there are many people in the world in whom the "I" has died.
Papaji used to say, "What comes and goes is not real. If you have had an experience that came and went, it was not an experience of the Self because the Self never comes and goes."
I think this is an interesting comment. If it is true, it means that most waking-up experiences are merely new states of mind. It is only when the mind dies completely, never to rise again, that the Self really shines as one's own natural state.
The terms "glimpses" and "waking-up experiences" that you refer to are temporary. They come and they go because the '"I" itself has not been permanently eradicated. A powerful Guru may be able to give a glimpse of the Self to just about anyone, but it is not within his power to make it stick. If the person has a mind that is full of desires, those desires will eventually rise again and cover up the glimpse.
Papaji used to say, "What comes and goes is not real. If you have had an experience that came and went, it was not an experience of the Self because the Self never comes and goes."
I think this is an interesting comment. If it is true, it means that most waking-up experiences are merely new states of mind. It is only when the mind dies completely, never to rise again, that the Self really shines as one's own natural state.
The terms "glimpses" and "waking-up experiences" that you refer to are temporary. They come and they go because the '"I" itself has not been permanently eradicated. A powerful Guru may be able to give a glimpse of the Self to just about anyone, but it is not within his power to make it stick. If the person has a mind that is full of desires, those desires will eventually rise again and cover up the glimpse.
Escape...
Just as a man who has escaped from the inside of a burning house and finds himself in the cool outdoors understands that he has attained safety, so the man who has escaped from greed, lust, anger, illusion, selfishness, and ignorance into exalted peace and immediate insight, understands that he has attained heaven.........Paul Brunton
CompassionWorks... Eckhart Tolle. India Retreat 2002
So, what I'm saying here is that there is a sufficient degree of presence in
you, now, for you to choose to dwell in the state of presence rather
than the state of mind identification.
You only need to remember that you have that choice, of being identified
with mind, or stepping out of mind.
I can hear one mind here asking the question, "Who is choosing?"
The answer is of course, it's not really you who is choosing.
Presence is choosing to emerge through this form. From the perspective of
this form, it looks as if this form were choosing.
But that is a helpful perspective...that is why I say you can choose
presence.
Don't try to work that out through the mind. (laughter)
Very often, the truth, the deepest truth, can only be expressed through
paradox...not through some neat, logical statement that says this is
how it is, and
that's how it is not.
That's the fragmentary way that thought happens.
When you create thought systems, they may look spiritual, but they may be
belief systems...then you have very neat ways of putting it..."This is
how it is and there is no contradiction here."
Everything is logically explained.
Be suspicious when you encounter a teaching that is totally logically
consistent and has no contradictions.
It's a mind-structure (he laughs).
Here we are using different pointers to take you beyond
mind-identification...and whatever pointer is helpful will be used.
The pointers are not there to contain or convey the truth...any absolute
truth.
They are only temporary means, that's all.
So, you can choose the state of presence.
That is a helpful perspective, and all you need to do is remember that...
that you have that choice and then you exercise that choice.
At that moment presence has chosen you, one could say.
Ok, it doesn't matter. (he laughs)
So there come these philosophic questions when you listen to different
teachings.
There is a 'doer'...there is no 'doer'.
And then people identify with one of these perspectives...they go to
one teacher, who says there's no doer, and they repeat that
perspective mentally.
And they start to argue with people who say, "No, no, there is a doer."
(laughter)
And the mind loves that because then the egoic self has reincarnated into
some new belief and has adopted a new mental position...
"This is me now, and I'm telling you there is no doer." (laughter)
And you're doing a lot while you're saying that.
loooooong pause
When questions arise, you're welcome to write them on a piece of paper and
tomorrow or the next day we will look at questions.
I don't promise there will be an answer, but we'll look at the question.
Avoid questions that are speculative, because they are not all that helpful.
Avoid questions that are too comparative, comparing signposts.
But ask vital questions concerning your own practice.
Avoid questions that try to catch me out in some contradiction. (laughter)
"This morning you said this, and in the afternoon you said that...which one
is true?"
I had a question, not long ago, a very powerful mind, she wrote a very
elaborate question...and said in your book you say: "You are here to
enable the divine universe to unfold.
That is how important you are."
And then on page so-in-so you say that "no form is important." Which one is
true.
They can't both be true."
But they are.
So, if you asked me "do you consider yourself important?"
I would have to say, "not at all...not at all, this form."
This teaching only happens because this form knows its own nothingness...
its complete unimportance.
That's why the transparency is there and the teaching can come through.
When you think you are special, the transparency isn't there...it can't come
through.
It's completely unimportant.
That's why this teaching is so important!
(laughter) looong pause
Just a suggestion....close your eyes for a moment and listen to the sound of
the bell.
Allow the sound to arise and be aware of the field in which the sound
arises...and the field into which the sound subsides.
Then the sound subsides and the field of awareness is left.
And even while you listen to the sound, you listen to the sound...
and at the same time, you're aware of the awareness, the underlying field.
Form and formless...one.
Close your eyes......chimes (3)
The reason there is silence and I don't speak for a while...one way of
putting it...is because I don't know what to say.
Potentially that could be a very uncomfortable state.
If I don't know what to say and I'm looking for something to say it becomes
uncomfortable.
When I don't know what to say and think I should know...that's
uncomfortable.
If I don't know what to say and feel bad about not knowing what to say, it's
very stressful.
But to be comfortable with not knowing is a state of creativity and depth...
and then you have access to a deep knowing.
That's not just the case with a spiritual teacher...it applies to you.
You are also a teacher. Become comfortable with not-knowing.
A deeper knowing arises when the not-knowing is not resisted.
You surrender into the state of not-knowing.
And it is the most beautiful state...deep inner connectedness.
Then, whatever needs to be known in this moment truly needs to be
known...not to satisfy mental curiosity.
What truly needs to be known or done, is known...right now, when it
needs to be known.
And there's a lot that does not need to be known.
But what is truly needed is always there...out of that state, in which you
seem to have disappeared as an existing entity.
And then you realize that all 'thought knowledge'...all knowledge that is
derived from thought...is a kind of pseudo-knowledge.
In thought, when you call it something, you think you know.
When you have a label for something, you think that's what it is...
not realizing that every label is an abstraction.
very very looong pause
The state of not-knowing causes another state, as we talked about yesterday,
when you walk around or sit and perceive without interpretation,
without labeling.
And again that's the state of not-knowing.
And yet it's a state of a deep knowing that is beyond mind.
As the awareness or the unconditioned consciousness arises, separative
knowledge which is of the mind, (because every label separates you
from that which you label...it becomes a barrier), that separative
knowledge is replaced by a unitive knowing, which doesn't separate you
from that which is known.
And you can see how that transforms your relationship with nature, and how
it transforms your relationship with other human beings.
So far, 90% or more of human interaction has been through
separative...attaching labels on to people...interpreting, judging.
Not realizing that every interpretation and judgment is no more than a very
limited perspective...one standpoint, one small perspective, no more.
Once you know that, you no longer get deceived by the mind and believe that
one perspective contains the truth... that one thought that you express
could ever contain the truth.
It is a small perspective, no more. It is a fragment, no more.
So the recognition of the relativity of all thought...and we are moving
toward a different kind of knowing...a knowing in which the sense of
separateness does not arise.
That knowing is also loving...it's one...because love is obscured
through the delusion of separateness.
Love as the realization of your oneness with all that is, is obscured by the
labeling, the interpreting, the knowing mind.
Whatever you look upon in that state of not knowing (from the point of view
of mind), is looked upon with love and compassion.
They are all aspects of that state of deep knowing that to the mind looks
like not knowing at all.
And you can imagine how that changes human relationships, when you can be
with another human being in the state of not-knowing.
This either means you are totally present, totally still, allowing this form
the form that this moment takes, the form of this human being to be
completely...or it could mean that certain thoughts still arise about
that human being - 'who they are...what they should be doing...they
should be doing this or that, should know better, they are this, they
are that' - that thought is recognized as
thought and you don't believe in it totally anymore.
And you recognize that it's a fragment, it's only a thought.
You allow it to pass, and you re-enter the state of not-knowing. You don't
get tricked anymore by the mind.
There is, continuously, that dimension of aware presence that may be all
there is, or it may be the undercurrent...on the surface of it there
are mind movements.
That's fine.
All sense perceptions are surface phenomena.
Ultimately, in themselves, sense perceptions are not all that satisfying.
They are never satisfying for long...nothing here in the world of form
satisfies for long, even if it's beautiful initially.
From Now2 transcribed by Jani
you, now, for you to choose to dwell in the state of presence rather
than the state of mind identification.
You only need to remember that you have that choice, of being identified
with mind, or stepping out of mind.
I can hear one mind here asking the question, "Who is choosing?"
The answer is of course, it's not really you who is choosing.
Presence is choosing to emerge through this form. From the perspective of
this form, it looks as if this form were choosing.
But that is a helpful perspective...that is why I say you can choose
presence.
Don't try to work that out through the mind. (laughter)
Very often, the truth, the deepest truth, can only be expressed through
paradox...not through some neat, logical statement that says this is
how it is, and
that's how it is not.
That's the fragmentary way that thought happens.
When you create thought systems, they may look spiritual, but they may be
belief systems...then you have very neat ways of putting it..."This is
how it is and there is no contradiction here."
Everything is logically explained.
Be suspicious when you encounter a teaching that is totally logically
consistent and has no contradictions.
It's a mind-structure (he laughs).
Here we are using different pointers to take you beyond
mind-identification...and whatever pointer is helpful will be used.
The pointers are not there to contain or convey the truth...any absolute
truth.
They are only temporary means, that's all.
So, you can choose the state of presence.
That is a helpful perspective, and all you need to do is remember that...
that you have that choice and then you exercise that choice.
At that moment presence has chosen you, one could say.
Ok, it doesn't matter. (he laughs)
So there come these philosophic questions when you listen to different
teachings.
There is a 'doer'...there is no 'doer'.
And then people identify with one of these perspectives...they go to
one teacher, who says there's no doer, and they repeat that
perspective mentally.
And they start to argue with people who say, "No, no, there is a doer."
(laughter)
And the mind loves that because then the egoic self has reincarnated into
some new belief and has adopted a new mental position...
"This is me now, and I'm telling you there is no doer." (laughter)
And you're doing a lot while you're saying that.
loooooong pause
When questions arise, you're welcome to write them on a piece of paper and
tomorrow or the next day we will look at questions.
I don't promise there will be an answer, but we'll look at the question.
Avoid questions that are speculative, because they are not all that helpful.
Avoid questions that are too comparative, comparing signposts.
But ask vital questions concerning your own practice.
Avoid questions that try to catch me out in some contradiction. (laughter)
"This morning you said this, and in the afternoon you said that...which one
is true?"
I had a question, not long ago, a very powerful mind, she wrote a very
elaborate question...and said in your book you say: "You are here to
enable the divine universe to unfold.
That is how important you are."
And then on page so-in-so you say that "no form is important." Which one is
true.
They can't both be true."
But they are.
So, if you asked me "do you consider yourself important?"
I would have to say, "not at all...not at all, this form."
This teaching only happens because this form knows its own nothingness...
its complete unimportance.
That's why the transparency is there and the teaching can come through.
When you think you are special, the transparency isn't there...it can't come
through.
It's completely unimportant.
That's why this teaching is so important!
(laughter) looong pause
Just a suggestion....close your eyes for a moment and listen to the sound of
the bell.
Allow the sound to arise and be aware of the field in which the sound
arises...and the field into which the sound subsides.
Then the sound subsides and the field of awareness is left.
And even while you listen to the sound, you listen to the sound...
and at the same time, you're aware of the awareness, the underlying field.
Form and formless...one.
Close your eyes......chimes (3)
The reason there is silence and I don't speak for a while...one way of
putting it...is because I don't know what to say.
Potentially that could be a very uncomfortable state.
If I don't know what to say and I'm looking for something to say it becomes
uncomfortable.
When I don't know what to say and think I should know...that's
uncomfortable.
If I don't know what to say and feel bad about not knowing what to say, it's
very stressful.
But to be comfortable with not knowing is a state of creativity and depth...
and then you have access to a deep knowing.
That's not just the case with a spiritual teacher...it applies to you.
You are also a teacher. Become comfortable with not-knowing.
A deeper knowing arises when the not-knowing is not resisted.
You surrender into the state of not-knowing.
And it is the most beautiful state...deep inner connectedness.
Then, whatever needs to be known in this moment truly needs to be
known...not to satisfy mental curiosity.
What truly needs to be known or done, is known...right now, when it
needs to be known.
And there's a lot that does not need to be known.
But what is truly needed is always there...out of that state, in which you
seem to have disappeared as an existing entity.
And then you realize that all 'thought knowledge'...all knowledge that is
derived from thought...is a kind of pseudo-knowledge.
In thought, when you call it something, you think you know.
When you have a label for something, you think that's what it is...
not realizing that every label is an abstraction.
very very looong pause
The state of not-knowing causes another state, as we talked about yesterday,
when you walk around or sit and perceive without interpretation,
without labeling.
And again that's the state of not-knowing.
And yet it's a state of a deep knowing that is beyond mind.
As the awareness or the unconditioned consciousness arises, separative
knowledge which is of the mind, (because every label separates you
from that which you label...it becomes a barrier), that separative
knowledge is replaced by a unitive knowing, which doesn't separate you
from that which is known.
And you can see how that transforms your relationship with nature, and how
it transforms your relationship with other human beings.
So far, 90% or more of human interaction has been through
separative...attaching labels on to people...interpreting, judging.
Not realizing that every interpretation and judgment is no more than a very
limited perspective...one standpoint, one small perspective, no more.
Once you know that, you no longer get deceived by the mind and believe that
one perspective contains the truth... that one thought that you express
could ever contain the truth.
It is a small perspective, no more. It is a fragment, no more.
So the recognition of the relativity of all thought...and we are moving
toward a different kind of knowing...a knowing in which the sense of
separateness does not arise.
That knowing is also loving...it's one...because love is obscured
through the delusion of separateness.
Love as the realization of your oneness with all that is, is obscured by the
labeling, the interpreting, the knowing mind.
Whatever you look upon in that state of not knowing (from the point of view
of mind), is looked upon with love and compassion.
They are all aspects of that state of deep knowing that to the mind looks
like not knowing at all.
And you can imagine how that changes human relationships, when you can be
with another human being in the state of not-knowing.
This either means you are totally present, totally still, allowing this form
the form that this moment takes, the form of this human being to be
completely...or it could mean that certain thoughts still arise about
that human being - 'who they are...what they should be doing...they
should be doing this or that, should know better, they are this, they
are that' - that thought is recognized as
thought and you don't believe in it totally anymore.
And you recognize that it's a fragment, it's only a thought.
You allow it to pass, and you re-enter the state of not-knowing. You don't
get tricked anymore by the mind.
There is, continuously, that dimension of aware presence that may be all
there is, or it may be the undercurrent...on the surface of it there
are mind movements.
That's fine.
All sense perceptions are surface phenomena.
Ultimately, in themselves, sense perceptions are not all that satisfying.
They are never satisfying for long...nothing here in the world of form
satisfies for long, even if it's beautiful initially.
From Now2 transcribed by Jani
Roza Bal...
Roza Bal is the name of a shrine located in the Khanyar district of Srinagar, in Kashmir, India, venerated by some Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. It is believed to be the final resting place of a Prophet named Yuz Asaf. Many ancient scriptures and some other facts suggest that Yuz Asaf is in fact none other than Jesus himself.
Nicolai Notovich, a Russian scholar, was the first to suggest that Christ may have gone to sub-continent. In 1887, he visited a Buddhist monastery near Zoji-la pass where a monk told him of a bhodisattva saint called "Issa". Notovich was stunned by the remarkable similarities of Issa's teachings and martyrdom with that of Christ's life, teachings and crucifixion.
After crucifixion, the first trail of Jesus is found in the Persian scholar F. Mohammed's historical work "Jami-ut-tuwarik" which tells of Christ's arrival in the kingdom of Nisibis (now known as Nusaybin in Turkey) . The same is found in the Imam Abu Jafar Muhammed's "Tafsi-Ibn-i-Jamir at-tubri." Holger Kersten who researched on Jesus being in the sub-continent, found that in both Turkey and Persia there are ancient stories of a saint called "Yuz Asaf" ("Leader of the Healed"), whose behaviour, miracles and teachings are remarkably similar to that of Christ.
More clues are drawn from the Apocrypha. These are texts said to have been written by the Apostles but which are not officially accepted by the Church. The Apocryphal 'Acts of Thomas', for example, tell how Christ met Thomas several times after the Crucifixion. In fact they tell us how Christ sent Thomas to teach his spirituality in India. This is corroborated by evidence found in the form of stone inscriptions at Fatehpur Sikri, near the Taj Mahal, in Northern India. They include "Agrapha", which are sayings of Christ that don't exist in the mainstream Bible. Their grammatical form is most similar to that of the Apocryphal gospel of Thomas.
Then there are more in The Apocryphal Acts of Thomas, and the Gospel of Thomas which are of Syrian origin and have been dated to the 4th Century AD, or possibly earlier. In these texts Thomas tells of Christ's appearance in Andrapolis, Paphlagonia (today known as in the extreme north of Anatolia) as a guest of the King of Andrappa. It seems that Christ and Mary then moved along the West coast of Turkey, proof of this could be an old stopping place for travellers called the "Home of Mary", found along the ancient silk route. In his travels through Persia (today's Iran) Christ became known as Yuz Asaf (leader of the Healed). We know this because a Kashmiri historical document confirms that Isa (the Koranic name for Christ) was in fact also known as Yuz Asaf. The Jami - uf - Tamarik, Volume II, tells that Yuz Asaf visited Masslige, where he attended the grave of Shem, Noah's son. There are various other accounts such as Agha Mustafa's "Awhali Shahaii-i-paras" that tell of Yuz Asaf's travels and teachings all over Persia. It seems that Yuz Asaf blessed Afghanistan and Pakistan with his presence also. There are for example two plains in Eastern Afghanistan near Gazni and Galalabad, bearing the name of the prophet Yuz Asaf. Again in the Apocryphal Acts of Thomas, Thomas says that he and Christ attended the Court of King Gundafor of Taxila (now Pakistan), in about 47AD, and that eventually both the King and his brother accepted Christ's teachings. Researchers claim that there are more than twenty one historical documents that bear witness to the existence of Jesus in Kashmir, where he was known also as Yuz Asaf and Issa. For example the Bhavishyat Mahapurana (volume 9 verses 17-32) contains an account of Issa-Masih (Jesus the Messiah). It describes Christ's arrival in the Kashmir region of India and his encounter with King Shalivahana, who ruled the Kushan area (39-50AD), and who entertained Christ as a guest for some time.
The historian Mullah Nadini (1413) also recounts a story of Yuz Asaf who was a contemporary to King Gopadatta, and confirms that he also used the name Issa, i.e. Jesus. There is also much historical truth in the towns and villages of Northern Pakistan to prove that Jesus and his mother Mary spent time in the area. For instance, at the border of a small town called Murree, there is nearby a mountain called Pindi Point, upon which is an old tomb called ‘Mai Mari da Asthan’ or "The final resting place of Mary". The tomb is said to be very old and local Muslims venerate it as the grave of Issa's Mother. The tomb itself is oriented East-West consistent with the Jewish tradition, despite the fact it is within a Muslim area. Assuming its antiquity, such a tomb could not be Hindu either since the Hindus contemporary to Christ cremated their dead and scattered their ashes as do Hindus today.
Between the villages of Naugam and Nilmge, 40km south of Srinagar, is a meadow called Yuz-Marg (the meadow of Yuz Asaf, i.e. Jesus). Then there is the sacred building called Aish Muqam, 60km south east of Srinagar and 12km from Bij Bihara. "Aish" is derived from "Issa" and "Muqam" place of rest or repose. Within the Aish Muqam is a sacred relic called the 'Moses Rod' or the 'Jesus Rod', which local legend says, belonged to Moses himself. Christ is said to also have held it, perhaps to confirm his Mosaic heritage. Above the town of Srinagar is a temple known as "The Throne of Solomon", which dates back to at least 1000BC, which King Gopadatta had restored at about the same time as Christ's advent. The restoration was done by a Persian architect who personally left four inscriptions on the side steps of the temple. The third and fourth inscription read: "At this time Yuz Asaf announced his prophetic calling in Year 50 and 4" and "He is Jesus -- Prophet of the Sons of Israel"! Christ may have travelled to the South of India also, finally returning to Kashmir to die at the age of approximately 80 years. Christ's tomb, lies in Srinagar's old town in a building called Rozabal. "Rozabal" is an abbreviation of Rauza Bal, meaning "tomb of a prophet". At the entrance there is an inscription explaining that Yuz Asaf is buried along with another Muslim saint. Both have gravestones which are oriented in North-South direction, according to Muslim tradition. However, through a small opening the true burial chamber can be seen, in which there is the Sarcophagus of Yuz Asaf in East-West (Jewish) orientation!
According to Professor Hassnain, who has studied this tomb, there are carved footprints on the grave stones and when closely examined, carved images of a crucifix and a rosary. The footprints of Yuz Asaf have what appear to be scars represented on both feet, if one assumes that they are crucifixion scars, then their position is consistent with the scars shown in the Turin Shroud (left foot nailed over right). Crucifixion was not practised in Asia, so it is quite possible that they were inflicted elsewhere, such as the Middle East. The tomb is called by some as "Hazrat Issa Sahib" or "Tomb of the Lord Master Jesus". Ancient records acknowledge the existence of the tomb as long ago as 112AD. The Grand Mufti, a prominent Muslim Cleric, himself has confirmed that Hazrat Isa Sahib is indeed the tomb of Yuz Asaf!
Courtesy: www.tombofjesus.com, BBC Documentary: Jesus in India, Jesus in India by Holger Kersten
Nicolai Notovich, a Russian scholar, was the first to suggest that Christ may have gone to sub-continent. In 1887, he visited a Buddhist monastery near Zoji-la pass where a monk told him of a bhodisattva saint called "Issa". Notovich was stunned by the remarkable similarities of Issa's teachings and martyrdom with that of Christ's life, teachings and crucifixion.
After crucifixion, the first trail of Jesus is found in the Persian scholar F. Mohammed's historical work "Jami-ut-tuwarik" which tells of Christ's arrival in the kingdom of Nisibis (now known as Nusaybin in Turkey) . The same is found in the Imam Abu Jafar Muhammed's "Tafsi-Ibn-i-Jamir at-tubri." Holger Kersten who researched on Jesus being in the sub-continent, found that in both Turkey and Persia there are ancient stories of a saint called "Yuz Asaf" ("Leader of the Healed"), whose behaviour, miracles and teachings are remarkably similar to that of Christ.
More clues are drawn from the Apocrypha. These are texts said to have been written by the Apostles but which are not officially accepted by the Church. The Apocryphal 'Acts of Thomas', for example, tell how Christ met Thomas several times after the Crucifixion. In fact they tell us how Christ sent Thomas to teach his spirituality in India. This is corroborated by evidence found in the form of stone inscriptions at Fatehpur Sikri, near the Taj Mahal, in Northern India. They include "Agrapha", which are sayings of Christ that don't exist in the mainstream Bible. Their grammatical form is most similar to that of the Apocryphal gospel of Thomas.
Then there are more in The Apocryphal Acts of Thomas, and the Gospel of Thomas which are of Syrian origin and have been dated to the 4th Century AD, or possibly earlier. In these texts Thomas tells of Christ's appearance in Andrapolis, Paphlagonia (today known as in the extreme north of Anatolia) as a guest of the King of Andrappa. It seems that Christ and Mary then moved along the West coast of Turkey, proof of this could be an old stopping place for travellers called the "Home of Mary", found along the ancient silk route. In his travels through Persia (today's Iran) Christ became known as Yuz Asaf (leader of the Healed). We know this because a Kashmiri historical document confirms that Isa (the Koranic name for Christ) was in fact also known as Yuz Asaf. The Jami - uf - Tamarik, Volume II, tells that Yuz Asaf visited Masslige, where he attended the grave of Shem, Noah's son. There are various other accounts such as Agha Mustafa's "Awhali Shahaii-i-paras" that tell of Yuz Asaf's travels and teachings all over Persia. It seems that Yuz Asaf blessed Afghanistan and Pakistan with his presence also. There are for example two plains in Eastern Afghanistan near Gazni and Galalabad, bearing the name of the prophet Yuz Asaf. Again in the Apocryphal Acts of Thomas, Thomas says that he and Christ attended the Court of King Gundafor of Taxila (now Pakistan), in about 47AD, and that eventually both the King and his brother accepted Christ's teachings. Researchers claim that there are more than twenty one historical documents that bear witness to the existence of Jesus in Kashmir, where he was known also as Yuz Asaf and Issa. For example the Bhavishyat Mahapurana (volume 9 verses 17-32) contains an account of Issa-Masih (Jesus the Messiah). It describes Christ's arrival in the Kashmir region of India and his encounter with King Shalivahana, who ruled the Kushan area (39-50AD), and who entertained Christ as a guest for some time.
The historian Mullah Nadini (1413) also recounts a story of Yuz Asaf who was a contemporary to King Gopadatta, and confirms that he also used the name Issa, i.e. Jesus. There is also much historical truth in the towns and villages of Northern Pakistan to prove that Jesus and his mother Mary spent time in the area. For instance, at the border of a small town called Murree, there is nearby a mountain called Pindi Point, upon which is an old tomb called ‘Mai Mari da Asthan’ or "The final resting place of Mary". The tomb is said to be very old and local Muslims venerate it as the grave of Issa's Mother. The tomb itself is oriented East-West consistent with the Jewish tradition, despite the fact it is within a Muslim area. Assuming its antiquity, such a tomb could not be Hindu either since the Hindus contemporary to Christ cremated their dead and scattered their ashes as do Hindus today.
Between the villages of Naugam and Nilmge, 40km south of Srinagar, is a meadow called Yuz-Marg (the meadow of Yuz Asaf, i.e. Jesus). Then there is the sacred building called Aish Muqam, 60km south east of Srinagar and 12km from Bij Bihara. "Aish" is derived from "Issa" and "Muqam" place of rest or repose. Within the Aish Muqam is a sacred relic called the 'Moses Rod' or the 'Jesus Rod', which local legend says, belonged to Moses himself. Christ is said to also have held it, perhaps to confirm his Mosaic heritage. Above the town of Srinagar is a temple known as "The Throne of Solomon", which dates back to at least 1000BC, which King Gopadatta had restored at about the same time as Christ's advent. The restoration was done by a Persian architect who personally left four inscriptions on the side steps of the temple. The third and fourth inscription read: "At this time Yuz Asaf announced his prophetic calling in Year 50 and 4" and "He is Jesus -- Prophet of the Sons of Israel"! Christ may have travelled to the South of India also, finally returning to Kashmir to die at the age of approximately 80 years. Christ's tomb, lies in Srinagar's old town in a building called Rozabal. "Rozabal" is an abbreviation of Rauza Bal, meaning "tomb of a prophet". At the entrance there is an inscription explaining that Yuz Asaf is buried along with another Muslim saint. Both have gravestones which are oriented in North-South direction, according to Muslim tradition. However, through a small opening the true burial chamber can be seen, in which there is the Sarcophagus of Yuz Asaf in East-West (Jewish) orientation!
According to Professor Hassnain, who has studied this tomb, there are carved footprints on the grave stones and when closely examined, carved images of a crucifix and a rosary. The footprints of Yuz Asaf have what appear to be scars represented on both feet, if one assumes that they are crucifixion scars, then their position is consistent with the scars shown in the Turin Shroud (left foot nailed over right). Crucifixion was not practised in Asia, so it is quite possible that they were inflicted elsewhere, such as the Middle East. The tomb is called by some as "Hazrat Issa Sahib" or "Tomb of the Lord Master Jesus". Ancient records acknowledge the existence of the tomb as long ago as 112AD. The Grand Mufti, a prominent Muslim Cleric, himself has confirmed that Hazrat Isa Sahib is indeed the tomb of Yuz Asaf!
Courtesy: www.tombofjesus.com, BBC Documentary: Jesus in India, Jesus in India by Holger Kersten
Jesus in India and Tibet...
Ancient scrolls reveal that Jesus spent seventeen years in India and Tibet
From age thirteen to age twenty-nine, he was both a student and teacher of Buddhist and Hindu holy men
The story of his journey from Jerusalem to Benares was recorded by Brahman historians
Today they still know him and love him as St. Issa. Their 'buddha'
In 1894 Nicolas Notovitch published a book called The Unknown Life of Christ. He was a Russian doctor who journeyed extensively throughout Afghanistan, India, and Tibet. Notovitch journeyed through the lovely passes of Bolan, over the Punjab, down into the arid rocky land of Ladak, and into the majestic Vale of Kashmir of the Himalayas. During one of his jouneys he was visiting Leh, the capital of Ladak, near where the buddhist convent Himis is. He had an accident that resulted in his leg being broken. This gave him the unscheduled opportunity to stay awhile at the Himis convent.
Notovitch learned, while he was there, that there existed ancient records of the life of Jesus Christ. In the course of his visit at the great convent, he located a Tibetan translation of the legend and carefully noted in his carnet de voyage over two hundred verses from the curious document known as "The Life of St. Issa."
He was shown two large yellowed volumes containing the biography of St. Issa. Notovitch enlisted a member of his party to translate the Tibetan volumes while he carefully noted each verse in the back pages of his journal.
When he returned to the western world there was much controversy as to the authenticity of the document. He was accused of creating a hoax and was ridiculed as an imposter. In his defense he encouraged a scientific expedition to prove the original tibetan documents existed.
One of his skeptics was Swami Abhedananda. Abhedananda journeyed into the arctic region of the Himalayas, determined to find a copy of the Himis manuscript or to expose the fraud. His book of travels, entitled Kashmir O Tibetti, tells of a visit to the Himis gonpa and includes a Bengali translation of two hundred twenty-four verses essentially the same as the Notovitch text. Abhedananda was thereby convinced of the authenticity of the Issa legend.
In 1925, another Russian named Nicholas Roerich arrived at Himis. Roerich, was a philosopher and a distinguished scientist. He apparently saw the same documents as Notovitch and Abhedananda. And he recorded in his own travel diary the same legend of St. Issa. Speaking of Issa, Roerich quotes legends which have the estimated antiquity of many centuries.
... He passed his time in several ancient cities of India such as Benares. All loved him because Issa dwelt in peace with Vaishas and Shudras whom he instructed and helped. But the Brahmins and Kshatriyas told him that Brahma forbade those to approach who were created out of his womb and feet. The Vaishas were allowed to listen to the Vedas only on holidays and the Shudras were forbidden not only to be present at the reading of the Vedas, but could not even look at them.
Issa said that man had filled the temples with his abominations. In order to pay homage to metals and stones, man sacrificed his fellows in whom dwells a spark of the Supreme Spirit. Man demeans those who labor by the sweat of their brows, in order to gain the good will of the sluggard who sits at the lavishly set board. But they who deprive their brothers of the common blessing shall be themselves stripped of it.
Vaishas and Shudras were struck with astonishment and asked what they could perform. Issa bade them "Worship not the idols. Do not consider yourself first. Do not humiliate your neighbor. Help the poor. Sustain the feeble. Do evil to no one. Do not covet that which you do not possess and which is possessed by others."
Many, learning of such words, decided to kill Issa. But Issa, forewarned, departed from this place by night.
Afterward, Issa went into Nepal and into the Himalayan mountains ....
"Well, perform for us a miracle," demanded the servitors of the Temple. Then Issa replied to them: "Miracles made their appearance from the very day when the world was created. He who cannot behold them is deprived of the greatest gift of life. But woe to you, enemies of men, woe unto you, if you await that He should attest his power by miracle."
Issa taught that men should not strive to behold the Eternal Spirit with one's own eyes but to feel it with the heart, and to become a pure and worthy soul....
"Not only shall you not make human offerings, but you must not slaughter animals, because all is given for the use of man. Do not steal the goods of others, because that would be usurpation from your near one. Do not cheat, that you may in turn not be cheated ....
"Beware, ye, who divert men from the true path and who fill the people with superstitions and prejudices, who blind the vision of the seeing ones, and who preach subservience to material things. "...
Then Pilate, ruler of Jerusalem, gave orders to lay hands upon the preacher Issa and to deliver him to the judges, without however, arousing the displeasure of the people.
But Issa taught: "Do not seek straight paths in darkness, possessed by fear. But gather force and support each other. He who supports his neighbor strengthens himself
"I tried to revive the laws of Moses in the hearts of the people. And I say unto you that you do not understand their true meaning because they do not teach revenge but forgiveness. But the meaning of these laws is distorted."
Then the ruler sent to Issa his disguised servants that they should watch his actions and report to him about his words to the people.
"Thou just man, "said the disguised servant of the ruler of Jerusalem approaching Issa, "Teach us, should we fulfill the will of Caesar or await the approaching deliverance?"
But Issa, recognizing the disguised servants, said, "I did not foretell unto you that you would be delivered from Caesar; but I said that the soul which was immersed in sin would be delivered from sin."
At this time, an old woman approached the crowd, but was pushed back. Then Issa said, "Reverence Woman, mother of the universe,' in her lies the truth of creation. She is the foundation of all that is good and beautiful. She is the source of life and death. Upon her depends the existence of man, because she is the sustenance of his labors. She gives birth to you in travail, she watches over your growth. Bless her. Honor her. Defend her. Love your wives and honor them, because tomorrow they shall be mothers, and later-progenitors of a whole race. Their love ennobles man, soothes the embittered heart and tames the beast. Wife and mother-they are the adornments of the universe."
"As light divides itself from darkness, so does woman possess the gift to divide in man good intent from the thought of evil. Your best thoughts must belong to woman. Gather from them your moral strength, which you must possess to sustain your near ones. Do not humiliate her, for therein you will humiliate yourselves. And all which you will do to mother, to wife, to widow or to another woman in sorrow-that shall you also do for the Spirit."
So taught Issa; but the ruler Pilate ordered one of his servants to make accusation against him.
Said Issa: "Not far hence is the time when by the Highest Will the people will become purified and united into one family."
And then turning to the ruler, he said, "Why demean thy dignity and teach thy subordinates to live in deceit when even without this thou couldst also have had the means of accusing an innocent one?"
From another version of the legend, Roerich quotes fragments of thought and evidence of the miraculous.
Near Lhasa was a temple of teaching with a wealth of manuscripts. Jesus was to acquaint himself with them. Meng-ste, a great sage of all the East, was in this temple.
Finally Jesus reached a mountain pass and in the chief city of Ladak, Leh, he was joyously accepted by monks and people of the lower class .... And Jesus taught in the monasteries and in the bazaars (the market places); wherever the simple people gathered--there he taught.
Not far from this place lived a woman whose son had died and she brought him to Jesus. And in the presence of a multitude, Jesus laid his hand on the child, and the child rose healed. And many brought their children and Jesus laid his hands upon them, healing them.
Among the Ladakis, Jesus passed many days, teaching them. And they loved him and when the time of his departure came they sorrowed as children.........from "The Reluctant Messenger"
From age thirteen to age twenty-nine, he was both a student and teacher of Buddhist and Hindu holy men
The story of his journey from Jerusalem to Benares was recorded by Brahman historians
Today they still know him and love him as St. Issa. Their 'buddha'
In 1894 Nicolas Notovitch published a book called The Unknown Life of Christ. He was a Russian doctor who journeyed extensively throughout Afghanistan, India, and Tibet. Notovitch journeyed through the lovely passes of Bolan, over the Punjab, down into the arid rocky land of Ladak, and into the majestic Vale of Kashmir of the Himalayas. During one of his jouneys he was visiting Leh, the capital of Ladak, near where the buddhist convent Himis is. He had an accident that resulted in his leg being broken. This gave him the unscheduled opportunity to stay awhile at the Himis convent.
Notovitch learned, while he was there, that there existed ancient records of the life of Jesus Christ. In the course of his visit at the great convent, he located a Tibetan translation of the legend and carefully noted in his carnet de voyage over two hundred verses from the curious document known as "The Life of St. Issa."
He was shown two large yellowed volumes containing the biography of St. Issa. Notovitch enlisted a member of his party to translate the Tibetan volumes while he carefully noted each verse in the back pages of his journal.
When he returned to the western world there was much controversy as to the authenticity of the document. He was accused of creating a hoax and was ridiculed as an imposter. In his defense he encouraged a scientific expedition to prove the original tibetan documents existed.
One of his skeptics was Swami Abhedananda. Abhedananda journeyed into the arctic region of the Himalayas, determined to find a copy of the Himis manuscript or to expose the fraud. His book of travels, entitled Kashmir O Tibetti, tells of a visit to the Himis gonpa and includes a Bengali translation of two hundred twenty-four verses essentially the same as the Notovitch text. Abhedananda was thereby convinced of the authenticity of the Issa legend.
In 1925, another Russian named Nicholas Roerich arrived at Himis. Roerich, was a philosopher and a distinguished scientist. He apparently saw the same documents as Notovitch and Abhedananda. And he recorded in his own travel diary the same legend of St. Issa. Speaking of Issa, Roerich quotes legends which have the estimated antiquity of many centuries.
... He passed his time in several ancient cities of India such as Benares. All loved him because Issa dwelt in peace with Vaishas and Shudras whom he instructed and helped. But the Brahmins and Kshatriyas told him that Brahma forbade those to approach who were created out of his womb and feet. The Vaishas were allowed to listen to the Vedas only on holidays and the Shudras were forbidden not only to be present at the reading of the Vedas, but could not even look at them.
Issa said that man had filled the temples with his abominations. In order to pay homage to metals and stones, man sacrificed his fellows in whom dwells a spark of the Supreme Spirit. Man demeans those who labor by the sweat of their brows, in order to gain the good will of the sluggard who sits at the lavishly set board. But they who deprive their brothers of the common blessing shall be themselves stripped of it.
Vaishas and Shudras were struck with astonishment and asked what they could perform. Issa bade them "Worship not the idols. Do not consider yourself first. Do not humiliate your neighbor. Help the poor. Sustain the feeble. Do evil to no one. Do not covet that which you do not possess and which is possessed by others."
Many, learning of such words, decided to kill Issa. But Issa, forewarned, departed from this place by night.
Afterward, Issa went into Nepal and into the Himalayan mountains ....
"Well, perform for us a miracle," demanded the servitors of the Temple. Then Issa replied to them: "Miracles made their appearance from the very day when the world was created. He who cannot behold them is deprived of the greatest gift of life. But woe to you, enemies of men, woe unto you, if you await that He should attest his power by miracle."
Issa taught that men should not strive to behold the Eternal Spirit with one's own eyes but to feel it with the heart, and to become a pure and worthy soul....
"Not only shall you not make human offerings, but you must not slaughter animals, because all is given for the use of man. Do not steal the goods of others, because that would be usurpation from your near one. Do not cheat, that you may in turn not be cheated ....
"Beware, ye, who divert men from the true path and who fill the people with superstitions and prejudices, who blind the vision of the seeing ones, and who preach subservience to material things. "...
Then Pilate, ruler of Jerusalem, gave orders to lay hands upon the preacher Issa and to deliver him to the judges, without however, arousing the displeasure of the people.
But Issa taught: "Do not seek straight paths in darkness, possessed by fear. But gather force and support each other. He who supports his neighbor strengthens himself
"I tried to revive the laws of Moses in the hearts of the people. And I say unto you that you do not understand their true meaning because they do not teach revenge but forgiveness. But the meaning of these laws is distorted."
Then the ruler sent to Issa his disguised servants that they should watch his actions and report to him about his words to the people.
"Thou just man, "said the disguised servant of the ruler of Jerusalem approaching Issa, "Teach us, should we fulfill the will of Caesar or await the approaching deliverance?"
But Issa, recognizing the disguised servants, said, "I did not foretell unto you that you would be delivered from Caesar; but I said that the soul which was immersed in sin would be delivered from sin."
At this time, an old woman approached the crowd, but was pushed back. Then Issa said, "Reverence Woman, mother of the universe,' in her lies the truth of creation. She is the foundation of all that is good and beautiful. She is the source of life and death. Upon her depends the existence of man, because she is the sustenance of his labors. She gives birth to you in travail, she watches over your growth. Bless her. Honor her. Defend her. Love your wives and honor them, because tomorrow they shall be mothers, and later-progenitors of a whole race. Their love ennobles man, soothes the embittered heart and tames the beast. Wife and mother-they are the adornments of the universe."
"As light divides itself from darkness, so does woman possess the gift to divide in man good intent from the thought of evil. Your best thoughts must belong to woman. Gather from them your moral strength, which you must possess to sustain your near ones. Do not humiliate her, for therein you will humiliate yourselves. And all which you will do to mother, to wife, to widow or to another woman in sorrow-that shall you also do for the Spirit."
So taught Issa; but the ruler Pilate ordered one of his servants to make accusation against him.
Said Issa: "Not far hence is the time when by the Highest Will the people will become purified and united into one family."
And then turning to the ruler, he said, "Why demean thy dignity and teach thy subordinates to live in deceit when even without this thou couldst also have had the means of accusing an innocent one?"
From another version of the legend, Roerich quotes fragments of thought and evidence of the miraculous.
Near Lhasa was a temple of teaching with a wealth of manuscripts. Jesus was to acquaint himself with them. Meng-ste, a great sage of all the East, was in this temple.
Finally Jesus reached a mountain pass and in the chief city of Ladak, Leh, he was joyously accepted by monks and people of the lower class .... And Jesus taught in the monasteries and in the bazaars (the market places); wherever the simple people gathered--there he taught.
Not far from this place lived a woman whose son had died and she brought him to Jesus. And in the presence of a multitude, Jesus laid his hand on the child, and the child rose healed. And many brought their children and Jesus laid his hands upon them, healing them.
Among the Ladakis, Jesus passed many days, teaching them. And they loved him and when the time of his departure came they sorrowed as children.........from "The Reluctant Messenger"
REINCARNATION IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY...
In the first five hundred years of Christianity, reincarnation was most certainly on the main stage. It was a prominent and well-respected merchant in the bazaar of Christian theology.
A significant number of early church pillars such as St. Augustine, Clement of Alexandria, St. Gregory of Nyssa, Justin Martyr, and St. Jerome believed in the doctrine of reincarnation. In his Confessions, St. Augustine ponders the common sense viability of reincarnation:
Did my infancy succeed another age of mine that dies before it? Was it that which I spent within my mother's womb? . . . And what before that life again, O God of my joy, was I anywhere or in any body? Confessions of St. Augustine, Edward Pusey, translator, Book I.
There is one early church father who is the central figure in this complex story of intrigue and deception. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Origen (C.E. 185-254) was the most prominent, most distinguished and most influential of the early church fathers. We would do well to consider the enormity of this statement. The Encyclopedia Britannica also declares that he was the most prolific writer and theologian of early Christianity with works numbering around 6,000. St. Jerome asks, "Which of us can read all that he has written?" It is important to understand that Origen's story, is not about the trials and tribulations of an obscure backwoods rogue theologian. How such an important and prominent luminary receded into the blackness of obscurity is a fascinating story and underscores the ego's perennial effort to have its own way.
The Encyclopedia Britannica describes Origen as both a Neo-Platonist and a Gnostic. Socrates and Plato were arguably the most important bearers of the doctrine of reincarnation to the Western world. The first clear presentation of reincarnation by these two is in Plato's Meno and later in the Phaedo where the concept is fully articulated. In the Phaedo, Socrates (under the pen of Plato) goes to great lengths to explain the philosophy proposing that the soul is immortal and does not cease to exist when the body expires. In Plato's Republic, the character Er describes the after death journey of the soul in graphic detail before "coming back." These ideas are expanded in the Timaeus and the Phaedrus in which Socrates presents reincarnation in the strongest terms.
Aristotle emphasized a more empirical materialism which focused on the here-and-now; the observable. It should be pointed out that through the centuries many philosophers have strongly disagreed with Aristotle's "logic of categories" axiom which proposes a tidy compartmentalization of all aspects of existence both cosmic and human. This theory supposes no overlapping connection of the various categories of knowledge such as science, history and religion. Thomas Aquinas, who played a large role in shaping Christianity as we know it today, based his entire view of life on Aristotelian logic thus abandoning the mystical experiential traditions altogether. In this light we can understand more clearly the Encyclopedia Britannica's categorization of Origen as a Neo-Platonist with a decidedly Gnostic flavor. The Gnostics, as described earlier, believed that truth could be gained only through "Gnosis" or direct experience of God. They emphasized ecstatic communion and the inward path toward God. About reincarnation, Origen has this to say:
If it can be shown that an incorporeal and reasonable being has life in itself independently of the body and that it is worse off in the body than out of it, then beyond a doubt bodies are only of secondary importance and arise from time to time to meet the varying conditions of reasonable creatures. Those who require bodies are clothed with them, and contrawise, when fallen souls have lifted themselves up to better things their bodies are once more annihilated. They are thus ever vanishing and ever reappearing. Origen, from A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, P. Schaff and H. Wace editors
By some inclination toward evil, certain spirit souls come into bodies, first of men; then, due to their association with the irrational passions after the allotted span of human life, they are changed into beasts, from which they sink to the level of plants. From this condition they rise again through the same stages and are restored to their heavenly place. Origen, On First Principles, B. W. Butterworth, translator.
As with many great saints of the past, there was nothing lukewarm about Origen. While his supporters were passionate in heralding his views, his detractors passionately pursued his destruction. Origen was banished forever from official church recognition at the Second Council of Constantinople (the Fifth Ecumenical Council) amidst a back drop of swirling political intrigue and dissension that was so severe it leaves many students of the event to question whether or not Christians are bound by the edicts and anathemas that were adopted there.
Emperor Justinian wrote a letter to the Patriarch of Constantinople naming Origen as one of the pernicious heretics. To be a heretic is bad enough but pernicious means "1. insidious harm or ruin; 2. deadly or fatal." In other words, there are no human beings worse than this. Justinian then convened a synod at Constantinople in 543 C.E. which issued an edict refuting Origen. Pope Vigilius opposed the edict and promptly suspended all communication with the Patriarch of Constantinople. When the Pope arrived in Constantinople he reversed himself issuing a document supporting the Justinian edict. Many speculate that this document was issued at the gunpoint of intense political pressure. These speculations are confirmed by the fact that Pope Vigilius withdrew the document seven years later in 550 C.E. After much rancorous discussion and many maneuvers, Justinian called for a meeting of the entire Church in 553 C.E. known as the Fifth Ecumenical Council or the Second Council of Constantinople. The Church was geographically divided into East and West with these lines of division also extending into religious and philosophical matters. In general, the West was supportive of Origen while the East was not. Justinian himself presided over the meeting because Pope Vigilius had boycotted the gathering as an act of protest over irregularities such as stacking the arrangements for attendance against the West. It was highly irregular for Justinian and not the Pope to preside over this conclave. Of the 165 bishops who signed the acts of the Council not more than six were from the West because they were not in attendance. Let us recap for emphasis. The Pope refused to attend, Justinian ran the meeting and half of the bishops, the ones most likely to support Origen, did not attend the Council meeting.
In the long run, Pope Vigilius accepted the Council but the West did not recognize the Council as legitimate for some time. Several Western dioceses even broke off communication with Rome. Milan was so righteously indignant over this blatant skewering of propriety that they did not rejoin Rome until the end of the sixth century. To add to the vagary of Origen's demise, it should be noted that in the end of the Fifth Ecumenical Council's fourteen anathemas, Origen's name is mentioned in only one of them nestled in a list of heretics. There is some evidence that even this was an error. The tragedy is that Christians have been led to believe that the doctrine of reincarnation has never been part of Christian faith. Others have supposed that the question of reincarnation was forever closed at the Fifth Ecumenical Council.
To further clarify the picture of Origen's crucifixion, it is important to understand his principle antagonist, emperor Justinian. The Encyclopedia Britannica has interesting things to say about him.
The truth seems to be that Justinian was not a great ruler in the higher sense of the word, that is to say, a man of large views, deep insight...
Justinian was quick rather than strong or profound; his policy does not strike one as the result of deliberate and well-considered views, but dictated by the hopes and fancies of the moment.
In contrast, no previous ruler had taken such an interest in church policy as did Justinian. In what way is a man who is a shallow-minded opportunist (to summarize the Encyclopedia Britannica's characterization) interested in deeper spiritual matters? This question has left many to speculate that Justinian saw the Church as a means of control and exploitation with the whip being his "one life then heaven or hell" policy.
While Justinian is portrayed as soft and indecisive, his wife the empress Theodora, was an indomitable freight train of decisiveness and strength. It should be clearly understood that she was not merely his consort but was empress regnant which means she had the legal right to interfere and run the empire. Officials took an oath to her as well as to Justinian. In the great Nika insurrection of 532, her courage alone saved her husband from being overthrown.
According to Procopius the historian, Theodora was the daughter of a bear feeder of the amphitheater at Constantinople, and she began working as an actress (regarded as an extremely low vocation) while still a child. Later she became a well-known courtesan and eventually met Justinian in Constantinople. Justinian's aunt, who was the empress at the time, forbade the marriage but upon her death Justinian repealed a law which prohibited senators from marrying women of the stage. In 527, at the death of Justinian's uncle the emperor Justin, Justinian and Theodora became rulers of the Roman Empire. He was forty-four and she was twenty-four.
According to Procopius as written in the Encyclopedia Britannica, "She surrounded herself with ceremonious pomp, and required all who approached to abase themselves in a manner new even to that half-Oriental court. She constituted herself the protectress of faithless wives against outraged husbands, yet professed great zeal for the moral reformation of the city, enforcing severely the laws against vice, and confining five hundred courtesans, whom she had swept out of the streets of the capital, in a "house of repentance" on the Asiatic side of the Bosphous strait. Procopius portrays her as acting with the greatest cruelties. The Encyclopedia Britannica goes on to state that we are able to gather from other writers that Theodora was indeed extremely harsh and tyrannical.
The following is an excerpt from the Anecdota by Procopius describing Justinian.
I think this is as good a time as any to describe the personal appearance of the man. Now in physique he was neither tall nor short, but of average height; not thin, but moderately plump; his face was round, and not bad looking, for he had good color, even when he fasted for two days. To make a long description short, he much resembled Domitian, Vespasian's son....
Now such was Justinian in appearance; but his character was something I could not fully describe. For he was at once villainous and amenable; as people say colloquially, a moron. He was never truthful with anyone, but always guileful in what he said and did, yet easily hoodwinked by any who wanted to deceive him. His nature was an unnatural mixture of folly and wickedness. What in olden times a peripatetic philosopher said was also true of him, that opposite qualities combine in a man as in the mixing of colors. I will try to portray him, however, insofar as I can fathom his complexity.
This Emperor, then, was deceitful, devious, false, hypocritical, two-faced, cruel, skilled in dissembling his thought, never moved to tears by either joy or pain, though he could summon them artfully at will when the occasion demanded, a liar always, not only offhand, but in writing, and when he swore sacred oaths to his subjects in their very hearing. Then he would immediately break his agreements and pledges, like the vilest of slaves, whom indeed only the fear of torture drives to confess their perjury. A faithless friend, he was a treacherous enemy, insane for murder and plunder, quarrelsome and revolutionary, easily led to anything, but never willing to listen to good counsel, quick to plan mischief and carry it out, but finding even the hearing of anything good distasteful to his ears.
How could anyone put Justinian's ways into words? These and many even worse vices were disclosed in him as in no other mortal: nature seemed to have taken the wickedness of all other men combined and planted it in this man's soul. And besides this, he was too prone to listen to accusations; and too quick to punish. For he decided such cases without full examination, naming the punishment when he had heard only the accuser's side of the matter. Without hesitation he wrote decrees for the plundering of countries, sacking of cities, and slavery of whole nations, for no cause whatever. So that if one wished to take all the calamities which had befallen the Romans before this time and weigh them against his crimes, I think it would be found that more men had been murdered by this single man than in all previous history.
He had no scruples about appropriating other people's property, and did not even think any excuse necessary, legal or illegal, for confiscating what did not belong to him. And when it was his, he was more than ready to squander it in insane display, or give it as an unnecessary bribe to the barbarians. In short, he neither held on to any money himself nor let anyone else keep any: as if his reason were not avarice, but jealousy of those who had riches. Driving all wealth from the country of the Romans in this manner, he became the cause of universal poverty.
Now this was the character of Justinian, so far as I can portray it.
Translated by Richard Atwater, in Procopius, Secret History, (Chicago: P. Covicii; New York: Covicii Friedal, 1927), reprinted by University of Michigan Press, 1961
The historian Procopius, who wrote the above narrative, was appointed secretary to General Belisarius in 527 C.E. The General was Justinian's right-hand man and personal confidant. Procopius also wrote the well known Histories in eight books, the Buildings of Justinian in six books and the Anecdota. For obvious reasons, the Anecdota was not published until after the death of Procopius. As a historian and chronicler of Justinian and his court, he was constrained to write only positive accounts while everyone concerned was still alive. Secretly he wrote the Anecdota to expose the utter immorality and disregard for decency expressed in the lives of Justinian and Theodora. The Encyclopedia Britannica says:
Owing to the ferocity and brutality of the attacks upon Justinian, the authenticity of the Anecdota has been called in question, but the claims of Procopius to the authorship are now generally recognized.
In other words, the Anecdota reflected so badly on Justinian and Theodora that it was difficult to believe it could be true. It is not the intent of this book to serve as an indictment of these two souls - may they find peace and love wherever they are. The information about Justinian and Theodora and the demise of Origen is printed here as an aid to understanding that the fortunes of the Holy Scriptures and Christian doctrine in general have not always been in the hands of God's servants. The removal of the doctrine of reincarnation may not have been God's doing. God may have originated or inspired the scriptures that we have now accepted to be Christian but since then, they have, on occasion, been placed in the hands of those with little understanding. Because of this, we should abandon the expectation that these scriptures would arrive in the twenty-first century unscathed.
The doctrine of reincarnation was banished because it gives power and authority to the people. Reincarnation contradicted the aspirations of a few bishops and deacons who felt they alone should dispense the truth to the multitudes. This authoritarian strangle-hold is strengthened by the doctrine of "one chance-one life" because a person who wrongly chose to think for themselves, dismissing the authority of the hierarchy, would not get another chance to put things aright if they guessed wrongly. The position of the hierarchy is that eternal damnation without parole would be the irrevocable fate of those who dared to question the hierarchy's authority...............from "The Mystic Christ"
A significant number of early church pillars such as St. Augustine, Clement of Alexandria, St. Gregory of Nyssa, Justin Martyr, and St. Jerome believed in the doctrine of reincarnation. In his Confessions, St. Augustine ponders the common sense viability of reincarnation:
Did my infancy succeed another age of mine that dies before it? Was it that which I spent within my mother's womb? . . . And what before that life again, O God of my joy, was I anywhere or in any body? Confessions of St. Augustine, Edward Pusey, translator, Book I.
There is one early church father who is the central figure in this complex story of intrigue and deception. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Origen (C.E. 185-254) was the most prominent, most distinguished and most influential of the early church fathers. We would do well to consider the enormity of this statement. The Encyclopedia Britannica also declares that he was the most prolific writer and theologian of early Christianity with works numbering around 6,000. St. Jerome asks, "Which of us can read all that he has written?" It is important to understand that Origen's story, is not about the trials and tribulations of an obscure backwoods rogue theologian. How such an important and prominent luminary receded into the blackness of obscurity is a fascinating story and underscores the ego's perennial effort to have its own way.
The Encyclopedia Britannica describes Origen as both a Neo-Platonist and a Gnostic. Socrates and Plato were arguably the most important bearers of the doctrine of reincarnation to the Western world. The first clear presentation of reincarnation by these two is in Plato's Meno and later in the Phaedo where the concept is fully articulated. In the Phaedo, Socrates (under the pen of Plato) goes to great lengths to explain the philosophy proposing that the soul is immortal and does not cease to exist when the body expires. In Plato's Republic, the character Er describes the after death journey of the soul in graphic detail before "coming back." These ideas are expanded in the Timaeus and the Phaedrus in which Socrates presents reincarnation in the strongest terms.
Aristotle emphasized a more empirical materialism which focused on the here-and-now; the observable. It should be pointed out that through the centuries many philosophers have strongly disagreed with Aristotle's "logic of categories" axiom which proposes a tidy compartmentalization of all aspects of existence both cosmic and human. This theory supposes no overlapping connection of the various categories of knowledge such as science, history and religion. Thomas Aquinas, who played a large role in shaping Christianity as we know it today, based his entire view of life on Aristotelian logic thus abandoning the mystical experiential traditions altogether. In this light we can understand more clearly the Encyclopedia Britannica's categorization of Origen as a Neo-Platonist with a decidedly Gnostic flavor. The Gnostics, as described earlier, believed that truth could be gained only through "Gnosis" or direct experience of God. They emphasized ecstatic communion and the inward path toward God. About reincarnation, Origen has this to say:
If it can be shown that an incorporeal and reasonable being has life in itself independently of the body and that it is worse off in the body than out of it, then beyond a doubt bodies are only of secondary importance and arise from time to time to meet the varying conditions of reasonable creatures. Those who require bodies are clothed with them, and contrawise, when fallen souls have lifted themselves up to better things their bodies are once more annihilated. They are thus ever vanishing and ever reappearing. Origen, from A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, P. Schaff and H. Wace editors
By some inclination toward evil, certain spirit souls come into bodies, first of men; then, due to their association with the irrational passions after the allotted span of human life, they are changed into beasts, from which they sink to the level of plants. From this condition they rise again through the same stages and are restored to their heavenly place. Origen, On First Principles, B. W. Butterworth, translator.
As with many great saints of the past, there was nothing lukewarm about Origen. While his supporters were passionate in heralding his views, his detractors passionately pursued his destruction. Origen was banished forever from official church recognition at the Second Council of Constantinople (the Fifth Ecumenical Council) amidst a back drop of swirling political intrigue and dissension that was so severe it leaves many students of the event to question whether or not Christians are bound by the edicts and anathemas that were adopted there.
Emperor Justinian wrote a letter to the Patriarch of Constantinople naming Origen as one of the pernicious heretics. To be a heretic is bad enough but pernicious means "1. insidious harm or ruin; 2. deadly or fatal." In other words, there are no human beings worse than this. Justinian then convened a synod at Constantinople in 543 C.E. which issued an edict refuting Origen. Pope Vigilius opposed the edict and promptly suspended all communication with the Patriarch of Constantinople. When the Pope arrived in Constantinople he reversed himself issuing a document supporting the Justinian edict. Many speculate that this document was issued at the gunpoint of intense political pressure. These speculations are confirmed by the fact that Pope Vigilius withdrew the document seven years later in 550 C.E. After much rancorous discussion and many maneuvers, Justinian called for a meeting of the entire Church in 553 C.E. known as the Fifth Ecumenical Council or the Second Council of Constantinople. The Church was geographically divided into East and West with these lines of division also extending into religious and philosophical matters. In general, the West was supportive of Origen while the East was not. Justinian himself presided over the meeting because Pope Vigilius had boycotted the gathering as an act of protest over irregularities such as stacking the arrangements for attendance against the West. It was highly irregular for Justinian and not the Pope to preside over this conclave. Of the 165 bishops who signed the acts of the Council not more than six were from the West because they were not in attendance. Let us recap for emphasis. The Pope refused to attend, Justinian ran the meeting and half of the bishops, the ones most likely to support Origen, did not attend the Council meeting.
In the long run, Pope Vigilius accepted the Council but the West did not recognize the Council as legitimate for some time. Several Western dioceses even broke off communication with Rome. Milan was so righteously indignant over this blatant skewering of propriety that they did not rejoin Rome until the end of the sixth century. To add to the vagary of Origen's demise, it should be noted that in the end of the Fifth Ecumenical Council's fourteen anathemas, Origen's name is mentioned in only one of them nestled in a list of heretics. There is some evidence that even this was an error. The tragedy is that Christians have been led to believe that the doctrine of reincarnation has never been part of Christian faith. Others have supposed that the question of reincarnation was forever closed at the Fifth Ecumenical Council.
To further clarify the picture of Origen's crucifixion, it is important to understand his principle antagonist, emperor Justinian. The Encyclopedia Britannica has interesting things to say about him.
The truth seems to be that Justinian was not a great ruler in the higher sense of the word, that is to say, a man of large views, deep insight...
Justinian was quick rather than strong or profound; his policy does not strike one as the result of deliberate and well-considered views, but dictated by the hopes and fancies of the moment.
In contrast, no previous ruler had taken such an interest in church policy as did Justinian. In what way is a man who is a shallow-minded opportunist (to summarize the Encyclopedia Britannica's characterization) interested in deeper spiritual matters? This question has left many to speculate that Justinian saw the Church as a means of control and exploitation with the whip being his "one life then heaven or hell" policy.
While Justinian is portrayed as soft and indecisive, his wife the empress Theodora, was an indomitable freight train of decisiveness and strength. It should be clearly understood that she was not merely his consort but was empress regnant which means she had the legal right to interfere and run the empire. Officials took an oath to her as well as to Justinian. In the great Nika insurrection of 532, her courage alone saved her husband from being overthrown.
According to Procopius the historian, Theodora was the daughter of a bear feeder of the amphitheater at Constantinople, and she began working as an actress (regarded as an extremely low vocation) while still a child. Later she became a well-known courtesan and eventually met Justinian in Constantinople. Justinian's aunt, who was the empress at the time, forbade the marriage but upon her death Justinian repealed a law which prohibited senators from marrying women of the stage. In 527, at the death of Justinian's uncle the emperor Justin, Justinian and Theodora became rulers of the Roman Empire. He was forty-four and she was twenty-four.
According to Procopius as written in the Encyclopedia Britannica, "She surrounded herself with ceremonious pomp, and required all who approached to abase themselves in a manner new even to that half-Oriental court. She constituted herself the protectress of faithless wives against outraged husbands, yet professed great zeal for the moral reformation of the city, enforcing severely the laws against vice, and confining five hundred courtesans, whom she had swept out of the streets of the capital, in a "house of repentance" on the Asiatic side of the Bosphous strait. Procopius portrays her as acting with the greatest cruelties. The Encyclopedia Britannica goes on to state that we are able to gather from other writers that Theodora was indeed extremely harsh and tyrannical.
The following is an excerpt from the Anecdota by Procopius describing Justinian.
I think this is as good a time as any to describe the personal appearance of the man. Now in physique he was neither tall nor short, but of average height; not thin, but moderately plump; his face was round, and not bad looking, for he had good color, even when he fasted for two days. To make a long description short, he much resembled Domitian, Vespasian's son....
Now such was Justinian in appearance; but his character was something I could not fully describe. For he was at once villainous and amenable; as people say colloquially, a moron. He was never truthful with anyone, but always guileful in what he said and did, yet easily hoodwinked by any who wanted to deceive him. His nature was an unnatural mixture of folly and wickedness. What in olden times a peripatetic philosopher said was also true of him, that opposite qualities combine in a man as in the mixing of colors. I will try to portray him, however, insofar as I can fathom his complexity.
This Emperor, then, was deceitful, devious, false, hypocritical, two-faced, cruel, skilled in dissembling his thought, never moved to tears by either joy or pain, though he could summon them artfully at will when the occasion demanded, a liar always, not only offhand, but in writing, and when he swore sacred oaths to his subjects in their very hearing. Then he would immediately break his agreements and pledges, like the vilest of slaves, whom indeed only the fear of torture drives to confess their perjury. A faithless friend, he was a treacherous enemy, insane for murder and plunder, quarrelsome and revolutionary, easily led to anything, but never willing to listen to good counsel, quick to plan mischief and carry it out, but finding even the hearing of anything good distasteful to his ears.
How could anyone put Justinian's ways into words? These and many even worse vices were disclosed in him as in no other mortal: nature seemed to have taken the wickedness of all other men combined and planted it in this man's soul. And besides this, he was too prone to listen to accusations; and too quick to punish. For he decided such cases without full examination, naming the punishment when he had heard only the accuser's side of the matter. Without hesitation he wrote decrees for the plundering of countries, sacking of cities, and slavery of whole nations, for no cause whatever. So that if one wished to take all the calamities which had befallen the Romans before this time and weigh them against his crimes, I think it would be found that more men had been murdered by this single man than in all previous history.
He had no scruples about appropriating other people's property, and did not even think any excuse necessary, legal or illegal, for confiscating what did not belong to him. And when it was his, he was more than ready to squander it in insane display, or give it as an unnecessary bribe to the barbarians. In short, he neither held on to any money himself nor let anyone else keep any: as if his reason were not avarice, but jealousy of those who had riches. Driving all wealth from the country of the Romans in this manner, he became the cause of universal poverty.
Now this was the character of Justinian, so far as I can portray it.
Translated by Richard Atwater, in Procopius, Secret History, (Chicago: P. Covicii; New York: Covicii Friedal, 1927), reprinted by University of Michigan Press, 1961
The historian Procopius, who wrote the above narrative, was appointed secretary to General Belisarius in 527 C.E. The General was Justinian's right-hand man and personal confidant. Procopius also wrote the well known Histories in eight books, the Buildings of Justinian in six books and the Anecdota. For obvious reasons, the Anecdota was not published until after the death of Procopius. As a historian and chronicler of Justinian and his court, he was constrained to write only positive accounts while everyone concerned was still alive. Secretly he wrote the Anecdota to expose the utter immorality and disregard for decency expressed in the lives of Justinian and Theodora. The Encyclopedia Britannica says:
Owing to the ferocity and brutality of the attacks upon Justinian, the authenticity of the Anecdota has been called in question, but the claims of Procopius to the authorship are now generally recognized.
In other words, the Anecdota reflected so badly on Justinian and Theodora that it was difficult to believe it could be true. It is not the intent of this book to serve as an indictment of these two souls - may they find peace and love wherever they are. The information about Justinian and Theodora and the demise of Origen is printed here as an aid to understanding that the fortunes of the Holy Scriptures and Christian doctrine in general have not always been in the hands of God's servants. The removal of the doctrine of reincarnation may not have been God's doing. God may have originated or inspired the scriptures that we have now accepted to be Christian but since then, they have, on occasion, been placed in the hands of those with little understanding. Because of this, we should abandon the expectation that these scriptures would arrive in the twenty-first century unscathed.
The doctrine of reincarnation was banished because it gives power and authority to the people. Reincarnation contradicted the aspirations of a few bishops and deacons who felt they alone should dispense the truth to the multitudes. This authoritarian strangle-hold is strengthened by the doctrine of "one chance-one life" because a person who wrongly chose to think for themselves, dismissing the authority of the hierarchy, would not get another chance to put things aright if they guessed wrongly. The position of the hierarchy is that eternal damnation without parole would be the irrevocable fate of those who dared to question the hierarchy's authority...............from "The Mystic Christ"
REINCARNATION IN THE NEW TESTAMENT...
THE BLIND MAN
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" John 9:1-2, NIV
The disciples wanted to know the reason for the man's blindness. They offered two possibilities to Jesus. Either the man was blind because of the sins of his parents or he was blind because he was reaping the fruit of his own sins (karma). If our souls do not exist prior to this birth and if the man was born blind, then when or where could he have committed the sins that caused his blindness? His soul would have existed prior to that birth and he would have been engaged in a corporeal setting with other people to commit sins against or with. In other words, the blind man had a previous life. This indicates that the pre-existence of the soul was a prevalent idea among the disciples, otherwise how could they have asked such an unusual question? Neither does Jesus ask them where they got such a strange idea. He does not marvel that they have presented him with such a foolish concept. Where did they get this idea? As we have seen in the "blind man" scripture and other scriptures, the concept of reincarnation was understood by Jesus and the disciples. They employed the concept in these discussions in a matter-of-fact way.
ELIJAH'S RETURN
Elijah the prophet is believed to have lived in the ninth century B.C.E. At the point of his death a fiery chariot with horses of fire took him in a whirlwind to heaven and he was seen no more (II Kings 2:11). Four hundred years later, Malachi closed the last lines of the Old Testament with a prophecy from God stating that God would send Elijah before the "great and terrible day of the Lord" comes (Malachi 4:5). The Jewish people were expecting Elijah to return as the necessary preface to signal the coming of the Messiah.
The disciples all felt that Jesus was the Messiah but they were puzzled. Where is Elijah? The disciples asked the Master about this and he told them that Elijah had already returned as John the Baptist. The first discussion of this is in Matthew, chapter 11.
I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. He who has ears, let him hear. Matthew 11:11-15, NIV
The disciples asked him, "Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?" Jesus replied, "To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands." Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist. Matthew 17:10-13, NIV
The above scripture indicates that the disciples and Jesus believed in reincarnation. John the Baptist was the reincarnation of Elijah. In an attempt to fit these scriptures into the orthodox view of one-life-only, some believe that Elijah never died as we know it because he went up in a chariot of fire, thus discounting John the Baptist as an instance of reincarnation. Their thinking is that Elijah did inhabit John the Baptist but it was not rebirth because Elijah had never died. For this "discounting" to really work, the Baptist would need to have returned in the same fiery chariot as a grown man. However, he was clearly placed in the womb of a human mother after which he had a very mortal and common birth. Jesus said he was "born of woman" and in Luke 1:13-17, an angel tells John's father, Zacharias, that John will be born to his wife Elizabeth... "And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah." Others use this last line to say that John the Baptist was under the power of Elijah but was not the incarnation of Elijah. However, Jesus says in no uncertain terms that John is Elijah and not simply an ambassador of Elijah's power, "This is Elijah... He who has ears to hear let him hear" (Matthew 11:14-15). Also, Malachi does not say that Elijah will appear by proxy but that Elijah himself will return.
WHO IS THE SON OF MAN?
Yet another discussion between Jesus and the disciples underscores their belief in reincarnation.
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Matthew 16:15-16
The flow here seems to be that if a prophet were to appear he must be the incarnation of one of the prophets from the past and so Jesus is asking the disciples who the people think has incarnated as Jesus. The idea of the reincarnation of the prophets is taken for granted and the sole point of the question is to find out who the multitudes believe him to be. These scriptures indicate that, at least to Jesus and the disciples, the concept of reincarnation was common fare. Herod also heard that others were saying one of the prophets of long ago had reincarnated. This again indicates that such a belief in reincarnation was common at that time.
Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on. And he was perplexed, because some were saying that John had been raised from the dead, others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life. Luke 9:7-8, NIV.........................from "The Mystic Christ"
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" John 9:1-2, NIV
The disciples wanted to know the reason for the man's blindness. They offered two possibilities to Jesus. Either the man was blind because of the sins of his parents or he was blind because he was reaping the fruit of his own sins (karma). If our souls do not exist prior to this birth and if the man was born blind, then when or where could he have committed the sins that caused his blindness? His soul would have existed prior to that birth and he would have been engaged in a corporeal setting with other people to commit sins against or with. In other words, the blind man had a previous life. This indicates that the pre-existence of the soul was a prevalent idea among the disciples, otherwise how could they have asked such an unusual question? Neither does Jesus ask them where they got such a strange idea. He does not marvel that they have presented him with such a foolish concept. Where did they get this idea? As we have seen in the "blind man" scripture and other scriptures, the concept of reincarnation was understood by Jesus and the disciples. They employed the concept in these discussions in a matter-of-fact way.
ELIJAH'S RETURN
Elijah the prophet is believed to have lived in the ninth century B.C.E. At the point of his death a fiery chariot with horses of fire took him in a whirlwind to heaven and he was seen no more (II Kings 2:11). Four hundred years later, Malachi closed the last lines of the Old Testament with a prophecy from God stating that God would send Elijah before the "great and terrible day of the Lord" comes (Malachi 4:5). The Jewish people were expecting Elijah to return as the necessary preface to signal the coming of the Messiah.
The disciples all felt that Jesus was the Messiah but they were puzzled. Where is Elijah? The disciples asked the Master about this and he told them that Elijah had already returned as John the Baptist. The first discussion of this is in Matthew, chapter 11.
I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. He who has ears, let him hear. Matthew 11:11-15, NIV
The disciples asked him, "Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?" Jesus replied, "To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands." Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist. Matthew 17:10-13, NIV
The above scripture indicates that the disciples and Jesus believed in reincarnation. John the Baptist was the reincarnation of Elijah. In an attempt to fit these scriptures into the orthodox view of one-life-only, some believe that Elijah never died as we know it because he went up in a chariot of fire, thus discounting John the Baptist as an instance of reincarnation. Their thinking is that Elijah did inhabit John the Baptist but it was not rebirth because Elijah had never died. For this "discounting" to really work, the Baptist would need to have returned in the same fiery chariot as a grown man. However, he was clearly placed in the womb of a human mother after which he had a very mortal and common birth. Jesus said he was "born of woman" and in Luke 1:13-17, an angel tells John's father, Zacharias, that John will be born to his wife Elizabeth... "And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah." Others use this last line to say that John the Baptist was under the power of Elijah but was not the incarnation of Elijah. However, Jesus says in no uncertain terms that John is Elijah and not simply an ambassador of Elijah's power, "This is Elijah... He who has ears to hear let him hear" (Matthew 11:14-15). Also, Malachi does not say that Elijah will appear by proxy but that Elijah himself will return.
WHO IS THE SON OF MAN?
Yet another discussion between Jesus and the disciples underscores their belief in reincarnation.
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Matthew 16:15-16
The flow here seems to be that if a prophet were to appear he must be the incarnation of one of the prophets from the past and so Jesus is asking the disciples who the people think has incarnated as Jesus. The idea of the reincarnation of the prophets is taken for granted and the sole point of the question is to find out who the multitudes believe him to be. These scriptures indicate that, at least to Jesus and the disciples, the concept of reincarnation was common fare. Herod also heard that others were saying one of the prophets of long ago had reincarnated. This again indicates that such a belief in reincarnation was common at that time.
Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on. And he was perplexed, because some were saying that John had been raised from the dead, others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life. Luke 9:7-8, NIV.........................from "The Mystic Christ"
Dhyana-yoga....from the Bhagavad Gita
The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: One who is unattached to the fruits of his work and who works as he is obligated is in the renounced order of life, and he is the true mystic, not he who lights no fire and performs no duty.
PURPORT
In this chapter the Lord explains that the process of the eightfold yoga system is a means to control the mind and the senses. However, this is very difficult for people in general to perform, especially in the Age of Kali. Although the eightfold yoga system is recommended in this chapter, the Lord emphasizes that the process of karma-yoga, or acting in Krsna consciousness, is better. Everyone acts in this world to maintain his family and their paraphernalia, but no one is working without some self-interest, some personal gratification, be it concentrated or extended. The criterion of perfection is to act in Krsna consciousness, and not with a view to enjoying the fruits of work. To act in Krsna consciousness is the duty of every living entity because all are constitutionally parts and parcels of the Supreme. The parts of the body work for the satisfaction of the whole body. The limbs of the body do not act for self-satisfaction but for the satisfaction of the complete whole. Similarly, the living entity who acts for satisfaction of the supreme whole and not for personal satisfaction is the perfect sannyasi, the perfect yogi...
PURPORT
In this chapter the Lord explains that the process of the eightfold yoga system is a means to control the mind and the senses. However, this is very difficult for people in general to perform, especially in the Age of Kali. Although the eightfold yoga system is recommended in this chapter, the Lord emphasizes that the process of karma-yoga, or acting in Krsna consciousness, is better. Everyone acts in this world to maintain his family and their paraphernalia, but no one is working without some self-interest, some personal gratification, be it concentrated or extended. The criterion of perfection is to act in Krsna consciousness, and not with a view to enjoying the fruits of work. To act in Krsna consciousness is the duty of every living entity because all are constitutionally parts and parcels of the Supreme. The parts of the body work for the satisfaction of the whole body. The limbs of the body do not act for self-satisfaction but for the satisfaction of the complete whole. Similarly, the living entity who acts for satisfaction of the supreme whole and not for personal satisfaction is the perfect sannyasi, the perfect yogi...
'The Ladder of Divine Graces' ...
Which Experience has made Known to Those Inspired by God .......by
Theophanis the Monk
(This Text Contains the Secrets of Out-of-Body Experiences for those who Listen with Open Ears.)
The first step is that of purest prayer.
From this there comes a warmth of heart,
And then a strange, a holy energy,
Then tears wrung from the heart, God-given.
Then peace from thoughts of every kind.
From this arises purging of the intellect,
And next the vision of heavenly mysteries.
Unheard-of light is born from this ineffably,
And thence, beyond all telling, the heart's illumination.
Last comes - a step that has no limit
Though compassed in a single line -
Perfection that is endless.
The Ladders lowest step....................from outofbodytravel.org
Theophanis the Monk
(This Text Contains the Secrets of Out-of-Body Experiences for those who Listen with Open Ears.)
The first step is that of purest prayer.
From this there comes a warmth of heart,
And then a strange, a holy energy,
Then tears wrung from the heart, God-given.
Then peace from thoughts of every kind.
From this arises purging of the intellect,
And next the vision of heavenly mysteries.
Unheard-of light is born from this ineffably,
And thence, beyond all telling, the heart's illumination.
Last comes - a step that has no limit
Though compassed in a single line -
Perfection that is endless.
The Ladders lowest step....................from outofbodytravel.org
Mystic Saints...
St. Catherine’s profound mystical knowledge is best displayed in her classic work, The Dialogues of St. Catherine of Siena.
But many stories were related of her including one involving a soldier. Apparently, St. Catherine of Siena appeared to him in a dream telling him of the concerning state of his soul and his need to go to confession.
Upon waking, he was so taken with the dream that he set out to go see St. Catherine to see if it was really the woman who had come to him in his dream. After recognizing her, he went to her confessor to make a full confession of his sins.
After his confession, however, St. Catherine asked him if he had confessed all of his sins. He gave it deep thought and concluded that he had, so St. Catherine of Siena took him aside and reminded him of something he had done in another city, very secretly.
Immediately, the soldier returned to the confessional to confess this. He claimed it was something that only he knew about and immediately began telling everyone of Saint Catherine of Siena’s ability to read souls.
It was before the end of that year that the soldier became very sick and passed away.
St. John Bosco 1888
Bringing thousands of people back to God even now long after his death through the Salesian order, St. John Bosco had the ability to mystically read the conscience of other people.
He also apparently knew the exact date of any person’s death who was bold enough to ask him.
Others Known to Have the Gift of Mystical Knowledge
St. Gerard Majella, Blessed Jordan of Pisa, St. Lydwine of Schiedam, St. Hedwig, Blessed Mary Fortunata Viti, St. Francis of Paola, St. Philip Neri, St. Martin de Porres, St. Joseph of Cupertino, St. Francis of Assisi, Blessed Anthony Grassi, St. Paul of the Cross, St. John Marie Baptiste Vianney, St. Anthony Mary Claret, St. Alphonsus Liguori, Blessed Mary of Oignies, St. Vincent Pallotti, Blessed Peter of Tiferno, Blessed Francis of Camporosso, St. Padre Pio, Blessed Francis of Posadas, Blessed Fulco of Neulilly, St. John of Sahagun, St. John Joseph of the Cross and Pope St. Pius V are among the lengthy lists of saints who possessed these gifts.
But many stories were related of her including one involving a soldier. Apparently, St. Catherine of Siena appeared to him in a dream telling him of the concerning state of his soul and his need to go to confession.
Upon waking, he was so taken with the dream that he set out to go see St. Catherine to see if it was really the woman who had come to him in his dream. After recognizing her, he went to her confessor to make a full confession of his sins.
After his confession, however, St. Catherine asked him if he had confessed all of his sins. He gave it deep thought and concluded that he had, so St. Catherine of Siena took him aside and reminded him of something he had done in another city, very secretly.
Immediately, the soldier returned to the confessional to confess this. He claimed it was something that only he knew about and immediately began telling everyone of Saint Catherine of Siena’s ability to read souls.
It was before the end of that year that the soldier became very sick and passed away.
St. John Bosco 1888
Bringing thousands of people back to God even now long after his death through the Salesian order, St. John Bosco had the ability to mystically read the conscience of other people.
He also apparently knew the exact date of any person’s death who was bold enough to ask him.
Others Known to Have the Gift of Mystical Knowledge
St. Gerard Majella, Blessed Jordan of Pisa, St. Lydwine of Schiedam, St. Hedwig, Blessed Mary Fortunata Viti, St. Francis of Paola, St. Philip Neri, St. Martin de Porres, St. Joseph of Cupertino, St. Francis of Assisi, Blessed Anthony Grassi, St. Paul of the Cross, St. John Marie Baptiste Vianney, St. Anthony Mary Claret, St. Alphonsus Liguori, Blessed Mary of Oignies, St. Vincent Pallotti, Blessed Peter of Tiferno, Blessed Francis of Camporosso, St. Padre Pio, Blessed Francis of Posadas, Blessed Fulco of Neulilly, St. John of Sahagun, St. John Joseph of the Cross and Pope St. Pius V are among the lengthy lists of saints who possessed these gifts.
What a Relief...
Let this that has always been running your life have you. This complete cliff dive in every moment into "I don’t know." I don’t know where I am, I don’t know who I am, I don’t know what I am, I don’t know what I’m here for. Let yourself be nothing. Just here. Offered. Ahhhh, what a relief.
- Jeannie Zandi
- Jeannie Zandi
Healing Instantly...
If he can apply this teaching now, if he can put his faith in and make his contact with the higher power from this very moment, if he can forget himself for an instant, he can receive healing instantaneously..........Paul Brunton
No-Mind...
The clouds emerge
From the Mountain of Chung
And then return
To the Mountain of Chung.
I would like to ask
The dweller in this mountain,
“Where are the clouds now?”
Clouds emerge from No-mind
And then return to No-mind.
No-mind is nowhere to be found.
We need not seek the home of No-mind.
--Wang-Anshih
From the Mountain of Chung
And then return
To the Mountain of Chung.
I would like to ask
The dweller in this mountain,
“Where are the clouds now?”
Clouds emerge from No-mind
And then return to No-mind.
No-mind is nowhere to be found.
We need not seek the home of No-mind.
--Wang-Anshih
Zen Poem..
If you want to be free, get to know your real self.
It has no form, no appearance, no root,
No basis, no abode, but is lively and buoyant.
It responds with versatile facility, but its function
Cannot be located; when you look for it you become
Further from it. When you seek it
You turn away from it all the more.
--Rinzai (d.867?)
It has no form, no appearance, no root,
No basis, no abode, but is lively and buoyant.
It responds with versatile facility, but its function
Cannot be located; when you look for it you become
Further from it. When you seek it
You turn away from it all the more.
--Rinzai (d.867?)
LOVE AND THE EGO ...
The mantra of the ego is, “Its all about me.” The footprint of the ego is “My way is the only way.” The ego, by nature, will adopt any belief as an identity. Then it is fearful when faced with other beliefs. It feels threatened. There is no love in the ego and the path to God is love - not a belief. The ego must always imagine that it is the center of the universe. Thus, “My way is the only way” comes into being and, by extension, everything with which the ego is associated. An ego-centered Christian says “Jesus is the only way” and an ego-centered Muslim says, “Islam is the only way.” The translation of both statements is, “My way or the highway.” The ego is the opposite of love. The ego is me... me... me... and love is you... you... you... The ego is motivated by, “What’s in it for me?” Love asks, “How may I serve you?” The ego is Satan in us. Love is God in us. The ego is the sense of separation from God and others. Love is a feeling of unity with God and others. The ego is “I” and “mine.” Love does not seek to possess but only to give. Where there is ego there can be no love and where there is selfless love, there can be no ego. Think of any negative emotion - jealousy, hatred, greed, anger - all of them are the fruit of the ego whose roots are “I” and “mine.” Therefore, love is the most potent destroyer of the ego. Jesus says loving our neighbor and loving God are the keys to salvation. Innocence is the fertile soil in which love takes root. That brings us to these questions: “Do I love God with all my heart and mind? Do I love my neighbor as my own self?” - as Jesus commanded? If the answer is no, then we are not going to heaven. If no, then we must begin the quest for this love to which Jesus directs us. Yet we will attend church for years of Sundays and not hear one sermon about love much less any advice as to how to practice this kind of love. Christian books and tapes are more numerous than the stars in the sky but few are concerned with love and how to attain it. This is astonishing because this is the central teaching of Jesus! Love is the very path to salvation! Sadly, we don’t recognize love or the need for it because we ourselves have no love. We have long since forgotten what pure selfless love is or what it feels like.........from www.Jesus-Christ.ws/
The Mystic Christ...
Mysticism; Gnosticism the spiritual path of experiencing God directly within one's own self.
The Mystic Christ reveals the life and teachings of Jesus to be an ancient tale of mystic union, salvation, and enlightenment. It is the careful uncovering of a lost treasure of immeasurable value, long buried in the suffocating darkness of conventional orthodoxy on one side, and blind fundamentalist extremism on the other. From the viewpoint of the world’s mystical religious traditions, the brilliant light of Jesus’ way is revealed as a penetrating radical non-duality unifying all people and all of life. The Master’s path to this all-embracing unity is the spiritual practice of pure selfless love. Love God intensely, love our neighbor as our own Self, bless those that curse us, and pray for those that mistreat us. Love has been lost, becoming nothing more than a word in the dictionary and, yet, it remains the foundation of Jesus’ message.
The Mystic Christ is also a compelling story of the ego, the personification of ignorance, and how it has distorted and subverted the sublime sayings of Jesus, twisting reality into unreality and light into darkness. The ego is the Antichrist in this ancient drama that has gripped every culture for all time in its talons of self-centered perception. The ego is anti-love.
Adam and Eve were not the first people, the nature of man is good, scripture is not infallible, Jesus is one of the ways, all religions are paths to God, reincarnation is in the Bible, the resurrection as a personal spiritual awakening, and the error of eternal damnation are all carefully and lovingly revealed in the life and sayings of Jesus.
The Mystic Christ is thoroughly punctuated with quotes from masters of the mystical traditions such as Buddha, Krishna , and Lao Tzu as well as the Gnostic gospels. But, most importantly, over 230 scriptural references from the Old and New Testament are used to illustrate the harmony that exists between the life and teachings of Jesus and the world’s great religions.
With the skill of a surgeon and the wisdom of Socrates, Walker removes 2000 years of ego-centered bindings that have hidden the brilliant light of Jesus from the world. Walker artfully peels away centuries of abuse by the my-way-or-the-highway pirates of religion. He gives Jesus back to the hearts and souls of a humanity that yearns for the love of the Divine. He reveals a Jesus that is positively enchanting for practitioners of any spiritual discipline. The Mystic Christ is at once profoundly fascinating, deeply historic and electric with the vibration of the mystical experience.
The Mystic Christ reveals the life and teachings of Jesus to be an ancient tale of mystic union, salvation, and enlightenment. It is the careful uncovering of a lost treasure of immeasurable value, long buried in the suffocating darkness of conventional orthodoxy on one side, and blind fundamentalist extremism on the other. From the viewpoint of the world’s mystical religious traditions, the brilliant light of Jesus’ way is revealed as a penetrating radical non-duality unifying all people and all of life. The Master’s path to this all-embracing unity is the spiritual practice of pure selfless love. Love God intensely, love our neighbor as our own Self, bless those that curse us, and pray for those that mistreat us. Love has been lost, becoming nothing more than a word in the dictionary and, yet, it remains the foundation of Jesus’ message.
The Mystic Christ is also a compelling story of the ego, the personification of ignorance, and how it has distorted and subverted the sublime sayings of Jesus, twisting reality into unreality and light into darkness. The ego is the Antichrist in this ancient drama that has gripped every culture for all time in its talons of self-centered perception. The ego is anti-love.
Adam and Eve were not the first people, the nature of man is good, scripture is not infallible, Jesus is one of the ways, all religions are paths to God, reincarnation is in the Bible, the resurrection as a personal spiritual awakening, and the error of eternal damnation are all carefully and lovingly revealed in the life and sayings of Jesus.
The Mystic Christ is thoroughly punctuated with quotes from masters of the mystical traditions such as Buddha, Krishna , and Lao Tzu as well as the Gnostic gospels. But, most importantly, over 230 scriptural references from the Old and New Testament are used to illustrate the harmony that exists between the life and teachings of Jesus and the world’s great religions.
With the skill of a surgeon and the wisdom of Socrates, Walker removes 2000 years of ego-centered bindings that have hidden the brilliant light of Jesus from the world. Walker artfully peels away centuries of abuse by the my-way-or-the-highway pirates of religion. He gives Jesus back to the hearts and souls of a humanity that yearns for the love of the Divine. He reveals a Jesus that is positively enchanting for practitioners of any spiritual discipline. The Mystic Christ is at once profoundly fascinating, deeply historic and electric with the vibration of the mystical experience.
The principle of Love...
Any man who artfully hurts another in the end hurts himself. For he denies the principle of love in his relationships, a principle that is part of the higher laws set for his development, and must pay the penalty of his denial............Paul Brunton
Selfishness...
Selfishness keeps man blind through life.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Christ's teaching that man should be kind and charitable, and that of all other
teachers who showed humanity the right path, seems to differ from what one sees
from the practical point of view which is called common sense; yet according to
uncommon sense, in other words super-sense, it is perfectly practical. If you
wish to be charitable, think of the comfort of another; if you wish to be happy,
think of the happiness of your fellow men; if you wish to be treated well, treat
others well; if you wish that people should be just and fair to you, first be so
yourself to set an example.
Man's greatest enemy is his ego which manifests itself in selfishness. Even in
his doing good, in his kind actions, selfishness is sometimes at work. When he
does good with the thought that one day it may return to him and that he may
share in the good, he sells his pearls for a price. A kind action, a thought of
sympathy, of generosity, is too precious to trade with. One should give and,
while giving, close the eyes. Man should remember to do every little action,
every little kindness, every act of generosity with his whole heart, without the
desire of getting anything in return making a trade out of it. The satisfaction
must be in doing it and in nothing else.
Every step in evolution makes life more valuable. The more evolved you are, the
more priceless is every moment; it becomes an opportunity for you to do good to
others, to serve others, to give love to others, to be gentle to others, to give
your sympathy to souls who are longing and hungering for it. Life is miserable
when a person is absorbed in himself; as soon as he forgets himself he is happy.
Tulsidas, the Hindu poet, says that the essence of religion is kindness. Those
who are inclined to do kindness in life must not discriminate among the people
around them, between those to whom they must be kind and those to whom they need
not be kind. However kind and good a person may be to those he likes, to those
he wishes to be kind to, he cannot for this be called kind by nature; real
kindness is that which gushes out from the heart to the worthy and to the
unworthy. ... Man is the outcome of the development of the whole of creation;
therefore the ego, which makes one selfish, is developed in him more than in any
other creature. Selfishness keeps man blind through life, and he scarcely knows
when he has caused harm to another. ... In this struggle of life, if a man can
be considerate enough to keep his eyes open to all around him and see in what
way he can be of help to them, he becomes rich; he inherits the kingdom of God.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Christ's teaching that man should be kind and charitable, and that of all other
teachers who showed humanity the right path, seems to differ from what one sees
from the practical point of view which is called common sense; yet according to
uncommon sense, in other words super-sense, it is perfectly practical. If you
wish to be charitable, think of the comfort of another; if you wish to be happy,
think of the happiness of your fellow men; if you wish to be treated well, treat
others well; if you wish that people should be just and fair to you, first be so
yourself to set an example.
Man's greatest enemy is his ego which manifests itself in selfishness. Even in
his doing good, in his kind actions, selfishness is sometimes at work. When he
does good with the thought that one day it may return to him and that he may
share in the good, he sells his pearls for a price. A kind action, a thought of
sympathy, of generosity, is too precious to trade with. One should give and,
while giving, close the eyes. Man should remember to do every little action,
every little kindness, every act of generosity with his whole heart, without the
desire of getting anything in return making a trade out of it. The satisfaction
must be in doing it and in nothing else.
Every step in evolution makes life more valuable. The more evolved you are, the
more priceless is every moment; it becomes an opportunity for you to do good to
others, to serve others, to give love to others, to be gentle to others, to give
your sympathy to souls who are longing and hungering for it. Life is miserable
when a person is absorbed in himself; as soon as he forgets himself he is happy.
Tulsidas, the Hindu poet, says that the essence of religion is kindness. Those
who are inclined to do kindness in life must not discriminate among the people
around them, between those to whom they must be kind and those to whom they need
not be kind. However kind and good a person may be to those he likes, to those
he wishes to be kind to, he cannot for this be called kind by nature; real
kindness is that which gushes out from the heart to the worthy and to the
unworthy. ... Man is the outcome of the development of the whole of creation;
therefore the ego, which makes one selfish, is developed in him more than in any
other creature. Selfishness keeps man blind through life, and he scarcely knows
when he has caused harm to another. ... In this struggle of life, if a man can
be considerate enough to keep his eyes open to all around him and see in what
way he can be of help to them, he becomes rich; he inherits the kingdom of God.
The Truth Is...
You really do want to know...
Mirrors, mirrors everywhere.
A warm wind billows,
thru the corridors of mind,
gently reminding,
then resting,
incarnating,
the sweet perfume of silence,
whispering , nudging:
"Wake up, Wake Up."
Hear the wind resonate
Reflecting Truth,
washes aways clutter,
exposing the fertile oasis,
from which emerges
the entire mirage,
in which we play.
More reflections; Words from Papaji, resonating, reverberating, cajoling, teasing , "Come Forward. Come out. Emerge.."
Self is what you are, You are That Fathomlessness in which experience and concepts appear. Self is the Moment which has no coming or going. It is the Heart, Atman, Emptiness. It shines to Itself, by Itself, in Itself. Self is what gives breath to life, you need not search for It, It is Here. You are That through which you would search. You are what you are looking for! And That is all it is. Only Self is.
You were never born, and though only desire takes birth, Nothing has ever happened, Nothing has ever existed! This Nothingness you are, and this is the Ultimate Truth. You are totally alone because Beauty alone is. Only Self is.
You simply cannot deny that you are Consciousness. You dwell in the Lotus of the Heart as Joy in Bliss. Keep Quiet and you will reveal your Self to your Self. Self Knowledge is that which is worth sacrificing anything for, because everything else is just a mirage rising out of Consciousness.
Self is the indweller of all Beings, so love of others is Love of Self, your Self. Self is the greatest Love and the dearest of all lovers. Love is the attraction of Self to Self in Self. There is nothing besides this Love, this source of Joy. See your own beauty and you are this Indweller, this Love and the beauty itself.
Neti, Neti; but what you Are cannot be rejected. It is Now only; waking or sleeping or dreaming, It is still the Now which only Is. Only Self is.
This present Moment is Light, is Self. This Moment is not bondage or freedom. It is most precious beyond ideation. This Moment is the screen on which all projects. It is always Still and Untouched and it is out of time. There is no difference between the Ultimate and this Presence. To be in this Moment abandon all desires, including the desire to be in it.
That which has no name or form has millions of names: Being, Awareness, Bliss, Isness, Atman, Truth, self, Auspiciousness, Beauty, Freedom, Divine Love, Fullness, Emptiness, Consciousness, Nowness, Effortlessness, Hereness, Silence, Brahman. As the tongue speaks the word 'tongue' so you speak these names. To avoid the veiling of your nature with preconceptions, Buddha spoke of self in negative terms like Anata, Untouched, Unmanifest, Unseen, Unapproachable, Unknowable, and Unstained.
Before notions and creations you exist, so there are no words for That beyond words and language. Self doesn't need to understand Itself, Freedom is before the concept of freedom. You are what remains when the concepts of 'I', mind and past disappear. Nothingness is no concept.
Identify as Peace-Beauty-Love, do not experience it. Know, 'I am inactive, the activity takes place in me, I am That, I am the screen, I never come and I never go'. Identify as Consciousness Itself. If you do not forget who you are, this appearance of activity is the Cosmic Dance. Stay as 'I am', not as what comes and goes. The individual I-sense is mind, but Being has no frontiers. It is aware of Itself Itself. Identify as being.
When mind is pure you will see Self in all Beings.
Purify the mind by removing all concepts,
especially the concept of purity.
Then Self reveals itself to the empty mind
which is Consciousness.
Ego and mind and all creations arise out of Self as self, even the ugliest of doubts and the most separate of differences rise from the beautiful source as Isness. In Self there are no do's and don'ts. If there is unhappiness you are not unhappy, you are the Untouched Awareness of this unhappiness. As waves are not separate from ocean, nor rays from sun, you are not separate from Existence. You are the moment in which all is.
The Scriptures speak of the three Holy rivers Within. These are Existence, Consciousness, and Bliss. Being beyond thought and effort they cannot be objectified or subjectified. They are so dear, so near, behind the retina and before breath. You need not see This, you are It.
You are not different than Existence, than Being. See Being everywhere by not looking. The Seeing is Being, not the objects seen. Consciousness is the original Mother. If you know this she will take care of you and give you Happiness , Peace and Deathlessness. This Mother we do not recognise and this gets us into trouble. This Unknown is your nature, return to That because the known will give no lasting Peace, no lasting Love.
Bliss is Eternal,
even though it appears to arise when the mind dies.
Bliss is not an experience, It is your nature.
This is the Heart of the Wise.
This gift is always calling to everyone, 'You are seated in the Heart of all Beings'. This is the Truth: Your Face shines.
An Excerpt from The Truth Is, Papaji Sri H.W. L. Poonja
From www.stillnessspeaks.com
Mirrors, mirrors everywhere.
A warm wind billows,
thru the corridors of mind,
gently reminding,
then resting,
incarnating,
the sweet perfume of silence,
whispering , nudging:
"Wake up, Wake Up."
Hear the wind resonate
Reflecting Truth,
washes aways clutter,
exposing the fertile oasis,
from which emerges
the entire mirage,
in which we play.
More reflections; Words from Papaji, resonating, reverberating, cajoling, teasing , "Come Forward. Come out. Emerge.."
Self is what you are, You are That Fathomlessness in which experience and concepts appear. Self is the Moment which has no coming or going. It is the Heart, Atman, Emptiness. It shines to Itself, by Itself, in Itself. Self is what gives breath to life, you need not search for It, It is Here. You are That through which you would search. You are what you are looking for! And That is all it is. Only Self is.
You were never born, and though only desire takes birth, Nothing has ever happened, Nothing has ever existed! This Nothingness you are, and this is the Ultimate Truth. You are totally alone because Beauty alone is. Only Self is.
You simply cannot deny that you are Consciousness. You dwell in the Lotus of the Heart as Joy in Bliss. Keep Quiet and you will reveal your Self to your Self. Self Knowledge is that which is worth sacrificing anything for, because everything else is just a mirage rising out of Consciousness.
Self is the indweller of all Beings, so love of others is Love of Self, your Self. Self is the greatest Love and the dearest of all lovers. Love is the attraction of Self to Self in Self. There is nothing besides this Love, this source of Joy. See your own beauty and you are this Indweller, this Love and the beauty itself.
Neti, Neti; but what you Are cannot be rejected. It is Now only; waking or sleeping or dreaming, It is still the Now which only Is. Only Self is.
This present Moment is Light, is Self. This Moment is not bondage or freedom. It is most precious beyond ideation. This Moment is the screen on which all projects. It is always Still and Untouched and it is out of time. There is no difference between the Ultimate and this Presence. To be in this Moment abandon all desires, including the desire to be in it.
That which has no name or form has millions of names: Being, Awareness, Bliss, Isness, Atman, Truth, self, Auspiciousness, Beauty, Freedom, Divine Love, Fullness, Emptiness, Consciousness, Nowness, Effortlessness, Hereness, Silence, Brahman. As the tongue speaks the word 'tongue' so you speak these names. To avoid the veiling of your nature with preconceptions, Buddha spoke of self in negative terms like Anata, Untouched, Unmanifest, Unseen, Unapproachable, Unknowable, and Unstained.
Before notions and creations you exist, so there are no words for That beyond words and language. Self doesn't need to understand Itself, Freedom is before the concept of freedom. You are what remains when the concepts of 'I', mind and past disappear. Nothingness is no concept.
Identify as Peace-Beauty-Love, do not experience it. Know, 'I am inactive, the activity takes place in me, I am That, I am the screen, I never come and I never go'. Identify as Consciousness Itself. If you do not forget who you are, this appearance of activity is the Cosmic Dance. Stay as 'I am', not as what comes and goes. The individual I-sense is mind, but Being has no frontiers. It is aware of Itself Itself. Identify as being.
When mind is pure you will see Self in all Beings.
Purify the mind by removing all concepts,
especially the concept of purity.
Then Self reveals itself to the empty mind
which is Consciousness.
Ego and mind and all creations arise out of Self as self, even the ugliest of doubts and the most separate of differences rise from the beautiful source as Isness. In Self there are no do's and don'ts. If there is unhappiness you are not unhappy, you are the Untouched Awareness of this unhappiness. As waves are not separate from ocean, nor rays from sun, you are not separate from Existence. You are the moment in which all is.
The Scriptures speak of the three Holy rivers Within. These are Existence, Consciousness, and Bliss. Being beyond thought and effort they cannot be objectified or subjectified. They are so dear, so near, behind the retina and before breath. You need not see This, you are It.
You are not different than Existence, than Being. See Being everywhere by not looking. The Seeing is Being, not the objects seen. Consciousness is the original Mother. If you know this she will take care of you and give you Happiness , Peace and Deathlessness. This Mother we do not recognise and this gets us into trouble. This Unknown is your nature, return to That because the known will give no lasting Peace, no lasting Love.
Bliss is Eternal,
even though it appears to arise when the mind dies.
Bliss is not an experience, It is your nature.
This is the Heart of the Wise.
This gift is always calling to everyone, 'You are seated in the Heart of all Beings'. This is the Truth: Your Face shines.
An Excerpt from The Truth Is, Papaji Sri H.W. L. Poonja
From www.stillnessspeaks.com
The Truth...
The intellectual knowledge of the Truth is merely its shadow and not the Truth itself. The Truth is a higher state of awareness which leads you out of the little personal and physically materialistic everyday life into a new world of being--the world of your higher self which transcends these things. It is a real experience and not a mere speculation. It brings with it the peace which passeth understanding of which Saint Paul spoke, frees you from anxieties, fears, and all other negative ideas. It reveals to you that God, in the sense of a Universal Intelligence and Universal Power, is actually the basis of all existence.........Paul Brunton
The Source...
In the light of consciousness all sorts of things happen and one need
not give special importance to any. The sight of a flower is as
marvelous as the vision of God. Let them be. Why remember them and
then make memory into a problem? Be bland about them; do not divide
them into high and low, inner and outer, lasting and transient. Go
beyond, go back to the source, go to the self that is the same
whatever happens. Your weakness is due to your conviction that you
were born into the world. In reality the world is ever recreated in
you and by you. See everything as emanating from the light which is
the source of your own being.
- Nisargadatta
not give special importance to any. The sight of a flower is as
marvelous as the vision of God. Let them be. Why remember them and
then make memory into a problem? Be bland about them; do not divide
them into high and low, inner and outer, lasting and transient. Go
beyond, go back to the source, go to the self that is the same
whatever happens. Your weakness is due to your conviction that you
were born into the world. In reality the world is ever recreated in
you and by you. See everything as emanating from the light which is
the source of your own being.
- Nisargadatta
Why are we here?
We are here to find happiness and freedom.. how do we find these elusive
qualities?.. by following the paths and maps given to us by those that have
traveled this road before us....what have they found that we have not found?....
they have found that the loss of ego which is called humility have given them
the road to follow.... what have they gained?.... they have gained Freedom and
Truth.... what is Freedom and Truth?.... they are called the Realization of
God.... what is the Realization of God?.... It is the Realization of our True
Selves..............namaste, thomas
qualities?.. by following the paths and maps given to us by those that have
traveled this road before us....what have they found that we have not found?....
they have found that the loss of ego which is called humility have given them
the road to follow.... what have they gained?.... they have gained Freedom and
Truth.... what is Freedom and Truth?.... they are called the Realization of
God.... what is the Realization of God?.... It is the Realization of our True
Selves..............namaste, thomas
Emerson Quotes...
Every mind must make its choice between truth and repose. It cannot have both.
Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact.
Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff.
Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence.
Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.
(my favorite)
For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.
Friendship, like the immortality of the soul, is too good to be believed.
Give a boy address and accomplishments and you give him the mastery of palaces and fortunes where he goes.
God enters by a private door into every individual.
Great hearts steadily send forth the secret forces that incessantly draw great events.
Hitch your wagon to a star.
I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.
I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.
If a man can... make a better mousetrap, the world will make a beaten path to his door.
If the stars should appear but one night every thousand years how man would marvel and stare.
In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.
It is my desire, in the office of a Christian minister, to do nothing which I cannot do with my whole heart. Having said this, I have said all.
It is not length of life, but depth of life.
It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.
Knowledge is knowing that we cannot know.
Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods.
Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day.
Little minds have little worries, big minds have no time for worries.
Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.
Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of science.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact.
Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff.
Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence.
Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.
(my favorite)
For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.
Friendship, like the immortality of the soul, is too good to be believed.
Give a boy address and accomplishments and you give him the mastery of palaces and fortunes where he goes.
God enters by a private door into every individual.
Great hearts steadily send forth the secret forces that incessantly draw great events.
Hitch your wagon to a star.
I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.
I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.
If a man can... make a better mousetrap, the world will make a beaten path to his door.
If the stars should appear but one night every thousand years how man would marvel and stare.
In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.
It is my desire, in the office of a Christian minister, to do nothing which I cannot do with my whole heart. Having said this, I have said all.
It is not length of life, but depth of life.
It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.
Knowledge is knowing that we cannot know.
Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods.
Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day.
Little minds have little worries, big minds have no time for worries.
Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.
Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of science.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Great Mystery...
The appearance of the ego is not being denied.
What is being denied, however, is its reality.
Likewise, the thoughts and feelings that show
up for you are very real.
What's not real, however, is a separate 'you' who
is actually the ultimate, creative Source of these
thoughts and feelings.
Here's the Great Mystery:
Yes, there are thoughts - but there's no Thinker.
Yes, there are feelings - but there's no Feeler.
Yes, there are words - but there's no Speaker.
Yes, there are actions - but there's no Do-er.
-
The appearance of the ego is not being denied.
What is being denied, however, is its reality.
Likewise, the thoughts and feelings that show
up for you are very real.
What's not real, however, is a separate 'you' who
is actually the ultimate, creative Source of these
thoughts and feelings.
Here's the Great Mystery:
Yes, there are thoughts - but there's no Thinker.
Yes, there are feelings - but there's no Feeler.
Yes, there are words - but there's no Speaker.
Yes, there are actions - but there's no Do-er.
- Chuck Hillig, Seeds for the Soul, Black Dot Publications, 2003, posted to AlongTheWay, Black Dot Publications, 2003, posted to AlongTheWay
What is being denied, however, is its reality.
Likewise, the thoughts and feelings that show
up for you are very real.
What's not real, however, is a separate 'you' who
is actually the ultimate, creative Source of these
thoughts and feelings.
Here's the Great Mystery:
Yes, there are thoughts - but there's no Thinker.
Yes, there are feelings - but there's no Feeler.
Yes, there are words - but there's no Speaker.
Yes, there are actions - but there's no Do-er.
-
The appearance of the ego is not being denied.
What is being denied, however, is its reality.
Likewise, the thoughts and feelings that show
up for you are very real.
What's not real, however, is a separate 'you' who
is actually the ultimate, creative Source of these
thoughts and feelings.
Here's the Great Mystery:
Yes, there are thoughts - but there's no Thinker.
Yes, there are feelings - but there's no Feeler.
Yes, there are words - but there's no Speaker.
Yes, there are actions - but there's no Do-er.
- Chuck Hillig, Seeds for the Soul, Black Dot Publications, 2003, posted to AlongTheWay, Black Dot Publications, 2003, posted to AlongTheWay
Consciousness...
You live in consciousness; your body merely moves about; but few persons will pause long enough to perceive who they really are and what they are really doing..........Paul Brunton
The Author...
Every human being is the author of his own health or disease.........Gautama the Buddha
Emerson Quotes...
A great man is always willing to be little.
A man is what he thinks about all day long.
Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen.
As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.
Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.
Earth laughs in flowers.
Every artist was first an amateur.
Every man has his own courage, and is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other persons.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
A man is what he thinks about all day long.
Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen.
As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.
Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.
Earth laughs in flowers.
Every artist was first an amateur.
Every man has his own courage, and is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other persons.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Identification...
To identify yourself with your personality is more or less a reflex. You must see, when the reflex comes up, that it is a kind of feeling of insecurity; you are looking for a hold.~Jean Klein
Awareness...
You are awareness.
Awareness is another name for you.
Since you are awareness, there is no need to attain or cultivate it.
~ Ramana Maharshi ~
Awareness is another name for you.
Since you are awareness, there is no need to attain or cultivate it.
~ Ramana Maharshi ~
self control...
"People don't control themselves, their own lives, and yet they want to control
the world. As a matter of fact, there is a law involved in that. The less
control an individual has over his own internal state, the more he will be
compelled, forced, whipped along to try to control other people. Because this
means that in this state of weakness, of immaturity, he's going to try to get
rid of the pain of the fact by trying to prove that he does have power. And what
he does is hurt, what he does is destroy, all unconscious, not seeing that his
own lack of internal command of himself, of his life - spiritual command - not
seeing that his own lack of that is what spurs him on and this is the cause of
all the destruction in the world."............Vernon Howard
the world. As a matter of fact, there is a law involved in that. The less
control an individual has over his own internal state, the more he will be
compelled, forced, whipped along to try to control other people. Because this
means that in this state of weakness, of immaturity, he's going to try to get
rid of the pain of the fact by trying to prove that he does have power. And what
he does is hurt, what he does is destroy, all unconscious, not seeing that his
own lack of internal command of himself, of his life - spiritual command - not
seeing that his own lack of that is what spurs him on and this is the cause of
all the destruction in the world."............Vernon Howard
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