Become at ease with the state of "not knowing."
This takes you beyond mind
because the mind is always trying to conclude and interpret.
It is afraid of not knowing.
So, when you can be at ease with not knowing,
you have already gone beyond the mind.
A deeper knowing that is non-conceptual then arises out of that state.
- Eckhart Tolle
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Power of Now"
Eckhart Tolle
New World Library, 1999
Past and Future...
Everyone sometimes thinks of the past or future, but this prevents you from
existing within the present moment.. your thoughts create that which you think
and hold within the mind.. this is then passed to the subconsciousness mind for
manifestation.. If your past thoughts are of pain, then pain will be manifested
in the future.. the subconsciousness mind does not differentiate between that
which you really want or don't want.. It's job is to create that which you hold
within the mind.. This is how the Power of Positive Thinking works for a better
present and future............namaste, thomas
existing within the present moment.. your thoughts create that which you think
and hold within the mind.. this is then passed to the subconsciousness mind for
manifestation.. If your past thoughts are of pain, then pain will be manifested
in the future.. the subconsciousness mind does not differentiate between that
which you really want or don't want.. It's job is to create that which you hold
within the mind.. This is how the Power of Positive Thinking works for a better
present and future............namaste, thomas
Experiencing Happiness...
Why do we bring our mind to the past?.. do we secretly enjoy feeling self-pity?.. do we enjoy the feelings of hatred and revenge?.. do we enjoy feeling regret and embarassment?.. so many questions that relate to the control of our thoughts.. What if, You existed only in the present moment with no thoughts of the past or future.. how would You feel.. the present moment is the only time that has ever existed.. the past is just a memory and the future never exists.. It too becomes the present moment.. When you have finally come to the decision that you have suffered enough, then begin to keep your mind and thoughts, Awake.. in the only time that does exist.. Now.. you will find a new life, a new goal, a new Reality, and even a new Happiness.......namaste, thomas
Seeking Truth...
Truth doesn't need to be sought because it isn't lost. Truth is everywhere at all times; never absent, never distant.
-Jed McKenna
-Jed McKenna
A one man show...
Consciousness has produced this play.
Consciousness has written the script.
Consciousness is playing all the characters.
And Consciousness is witnessing the play.
It's a one man show.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
Consciousness has written the script.
Consciousness is playing all the characters.
And Consciousness is witnessing the play.
It's a one man show.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
Find the Seer...
My Master, Ramana Maharishi, said to me,
"God is not an object to be seen, He is the subject.
He cannot be seen, He is the Seer, find this Seer."
My Heart was opened.
"Find the Seer." This is the Teaching.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
"God is not an object to be seen, He is the subject.
He cannot be seen, He is the Seer, find this Seer."
My Heart was opened.
"Find the Seer." This is the Teaching.
- Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
You are Consciousness...
You are Consciousness,, You as Consciousness watches the mind and decides
what thoughts that you wish to enter the sub-consciousness mind..the
sub-conscious mind creates that which You desire.. It is the place of healing or
destruction.. either of which depends upon what You have entered within the
sub-conscious mind.. when You are Awake as Consciousness and stay Awake, You are
the Creator of that which is called good.. when You fall asleep from
Consciousness during the normal state of living, You create manifestations from
the ego, which are creations of selfishness and are called evil........namaste,
thomas
what thoughts that you wish to enter the sub-consciousness mind..the
sub-conscious mind creates that which You desire.. It is the place of healing or
destruction.. either of which depends upon what You have entered within the
sub-conscious mind.. when You are Awake as Consciousness and stay Awake, You are
the Creator of that which is called good.. when You fall asleep from
Consciousness during the normal state of living, You create manifestations from
the ego, which are creations of selfishness and are called evil........namaste,
thomas
The Soul...
The soul does not see good or evil, it accepts all that the conscious mind
puts into it.. you choose the direction that the soul will take according to the
thoughts that you allow within the sub-conscious mind.. you are the gate
keeper.. this is why you must stay awake... you must watch every thought and
determine which ones to enter or not enter the sub-conscious mind.. by these
actions of thought control, you decide your destiny.. the more thoughts of Love
will raise your frequencies to higher levels closer to Reality.. thoughts of
non-love will drop the soul to lower level of frequencies called hell..... hell
is ego.. Heaven is non-ego.. It is your free choice to choose to which You
Belong............namaste, thomas
puts into it.. you choose the direction that the soul will take according to the
thoughts that you allow within the sub-conscious mind.. you are the gate
keeper.. this is why you must stay awake... you must watch every thought and
determine which ones to enter or not enter the sub-conscious mind.. by these
actions of thought control, you decide your destiny.. the more thoughts of Love
will raise your frequencies to higher levels closer to Reality.. thoughts of
non-love will drop the soul to lower level of frequencies called hell..... hell
is ego.. Heaven is non-ego.. It is your free choice to choose to which You
Belong............namaste, thomas
You too may Know...
Different terms can be used to label this unique attainment. It is insight, awakening, enlightenment. It is Being, Truth, Consciousness. It is Discrimination between the Seer and the Seen. It is awareness of That Which Is. It is the Practice of the Presence of God. It is the Discovery of Timelessness. All these words tell us something but they all fall short and do not tell us enough. In fact they are only hints for farther they cannot go: it is not on their level at all since it is the Touch of the Untouchable. But never mind; just play with such ideas if you care too. Ruminate and move among them. Put your heart as well as head into the game. Who knows one day what may happen? Perhaps if you become still enough you too may know--as the Bible suggests.
— Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest > Chapter 5: Self-Development > # 172
....Paul Brunton
— Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest > Chapter 5: Self-Development > # 172
....Paul Brunton
Being...
No trace of Truth in a human face
Only the Love that fills all space
No "me" over here
No "you" over there
No person who can "be aware"
Liberation is here right now
No-one can possibly teach you how
To the restless mind this will never be clear
It's beyond the reach of mortal ear
Being is found in the still, quiet space
Bearing witness of itself in every place
Yet there's nowhere that it cannot be found
It's both the silence and the sound.
It has many names, like "God" or "Being"
Talked about in "glimpses" and "seeing"
But all the while there's no-thing to "see"
It's simply found where there's no-one to BE
by Mandi Solk
Only the Love that fills all space
No "me" over here
No "you" over there
No person who can "be aware"
Liberation is here right now
No-one can possibly teach you how
To the restless mind this will never be clear
It's beyond the reach of mortal ear
Being is found in the still, quiet space
Bearing witness of itself in every place
Yet there's nowhere that it cannot be found
It's both the silence and the sound.
It has many names, like "God" or "Being"
Talked about in "glimpses" and "seeing"
But all the while there's no-thing to "see"
It's simply found where there's no-one to BE
by Mandi Solk
Clarity...
It
Was all
So clear this morning.
My mind and heart had never felt
More convinced:
There is only God,
A Great Wild
God.
But somehow I got yanked from
That annihilating
Realization
And can now appear again
As this wine-stained
Talking
Rag.
- Hafiz
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Gift"
Translations by Daniel Ladinsky
Penguin/Arkana, 1999
Was all
So clear this morning.
My mind and heart had never felt
More convinced:
There is only God,
A Great Wild
God.
But somehow I got yanked from
That annihilating
Realization
And can now appear again
As this wine-stained
Talking
Rag.
- Hafiz
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Gift"
Translations by Daniel Ladinsky
Penguin/Arkana, 1999
Humility...
Humility Quotes
A man can counterfeit love, he can counterfeit faith, he can counterfeit hope and all the other graces, but it is very difficult to counterfeit humility.-- D. L. Moody
I long to accomplish a great and noble task; but my chief duty is to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble - Helen Keller
Simplicity is the nature of great souls.-- Papa Ramadas
The smallest things become great when God requires them of us; they are small only in themselves; they are always great when they are done for God. --Francois Fenelon
The ordinary arts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest. -- Thomas More
We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed. --Brother Lawrence
How do we know if we have a servant’s heart? By how we act when we are treated like one!--Unknown
The only humility that is really ours is not that which we try to show before God in prayer, but that which we carry with us in our daily conduct.. –Andrew Murray
Be not proud of race, face, place, or grace. --Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Looking at yourself in a mirror isn't exactly a study of life. --Lauren Bacall
If all flowers wanted to be roses, nature would lose her springtime beauty and the fields would no longer be decked out with little wildflowers. --Teresa of Lisieux
My one regret in life is that I am not someone else.- Woody Allen
Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this: That you are dreadfully like other people.—James Pearsall Smith
Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.-- Thomas a Kempis
The test of good manners is to be patient with bad ones. –Gabirol
The meek man will attain a place of soul rest. As he walks on in meekness he will be happy to let God defend him. The old struggle to defend himself is over. He has found the peace which meekness brings.-- A.W. Tozer
One cannot imagine St. Francis of Assisi talking about rights. --Simone Weil
Greatness lies not in trying to be somebody but in trying to help somebody.--Unknown
Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. --Martin Luther King, Jr.
A candle loses nothing of its light by lighting another candle. - Fr. James Keller
Whatever makes us feel superior to other people, whatever tempts us to convey a sense of superiority, that is the gravity of our sinful nature, not grace. --Phillip Yancey
Nothing disciplines the inordinate desires of the flesh like service, and nothing transforms the desires of the flesh like serving in hiddenness. The flesh whines against service but it screams against hidden service. It strains and pulls for honor and recognition. --Richard Foster
If I cannot in honest happiness take the second place (or the twentieth); if I cannot take the first without making a fuss about my unworthiness, then I know nothing of Calvary love. --Amy Carmichael
Blessed the man and woman who is able to serve cheerfully in the second rank -- a big test. --Mary Slessor
I have learned that much of my spiritual progress does not come directly from God, but through my ability to humble myself and hear Him speak through imperfect people. --Francis Frangipane
How tragic that the very thing that could set us free--playing the fool--is the thing we will not do. When we're afraid to be fools, we end up being afraid to be anything.---Mike Mason
I am sure that there are many Christians who will confess that their experience has been very much like my own—that we had long known the Lord without realizing that meekness and lowliness of heart should be the distinguishing feature of the disciple, as they were of the Master. Such humility is not a thing that will come on its own. It must be made the object of special desire, prayer, faith and practice. Andrew Murray
Humility and love are precisely the graces which the men of the world can understand, if they do not comprehend doctrines. They are the graces about which there is no mystery, and they are within reach of all classes... The poorest Christian can every day find occasion for practicing love and humility. --J. C. Ryle
God descends to the humble as waters flow down from the hills into the valleys. --Tikhon
Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility. --Saint Augustine
Do you wish people to think well of you? Don't speak well of yourself. --Blaise Pascal
Just because God is working through us does not mean that we are right with God.--Unknown
We have forgotten the gracious hand which has preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving Grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. --Abraham Lincoln
The proof of spiritual maturity is not how pure you are but awareness of your impurity. That very awareness opens the door to grace. --Phillip Yancey
In some sense we are all hypocrites in transition. --Erwin McManus
Humility is freedom from your own driven ego. --Martha Kilpatrick
Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying. -- Vincent de Paul
Humility is nothing else but a right judgment of ourselves. --William Law
Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less. --C.S. Lewis
Humility is offering no resistance to the dealings of the Lord with us. --Chip Brogden
Those who have known God without knowing their wretchedness have not glorified him, but have glorified themselves. --Blaise Pascal
Humility is knowing you yourself desperately require forgiveness as the greatest of all needs. --Martha Kilpatrick
The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. He has accepted God's estimate of his own life: In himself, nothing; In God, everything. He knows well that the world will never see him as God sees him and he has stopped caring.-- A.W. Tozer
Don't imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call "humble" nowadays: he won't be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who's always telling you that, of course, he's nobody. Probably all you'll think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him, it will be because you feel a bit envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He won't be thinking about himself at all. There I must stop. If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you're not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed. --C.S. Lewis
A man will act out what he believes himself to be. --Jacquelyn K. Heasley
Only with great difficulty does a shaft of light pierce the armor of self-righteousness. --Lois Wilson
A proud monk needs no demon. He has turned into one, an enemy to himself. --John Climacus
The devil sees nothing more abominable than a truly humble christian, for [that Christian] is just the opposite of [the devil's] own image -- Hans Nielsen Hauge
Oh, that we fully understood how very opposite our self-righteousness is to the designs of God! --Jeanne Guyon
There is no room for God in him who is full of himself. --Martin Buber
He who knows himself well is mean and abject in his own sight, and takes no delight in the vain praise of men. --Thomas a'Kempis
The labor of self-love is a heavy one indeed... The heart's fierce effort to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honor from the bad opinion of friend and enemy, will never let the mind have rest... --A.W. Tozer
It happens, I do not know how, that most of the proud never really discover their true selves. They think they have conquered their passions and they find out how poor they really are only after they die. --John Climacus
The man, full of himself, can never proclaim the Christ who emptied Himself. --Jacquelyn K. Heasley
God is not proud...He will have us even though we have shown that we prefer everything else to Him.-- CS Lewis
We are to be as unnoticed as the Lord was at times. We should be willing to pass through the crowd and not be noticed. Jesus made a whole different kind of wave, not a wave of worldliness that seeks the center. He was quiet yet He brought a storm. --W.A. Belle
We'd like to be humble...but what if no one notices? --John Ortberg
Provided that God be glorified, we must not care by whom. --Francis de Sales
We must make humility the chief thing we admire in Him. --Andrew Murray
A humble knowledge of ourselves is a surer way to God than is the search for depth of learning. --Thomas a'Kempis
Without humility of heart all the other virtues by which one runs toward God seem -- and are -- absolutely worthless. --Angela of Foligno
A heart that understands what is implicit in God's tenderness is humbled beyond any hope of goodness or worth in itself.--Marian Scheele
God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. --The Bible
......from tentmaker.org
A man can counterfeit love, he can counterfeit faith, he can counterfeit hope and all the other graces, but it is very difficult to counterfeit humility.-- D. L. Moody
I long to accomplish a great and noble task; but my chief duty is to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble - Helen Keller
Simplicity is the nature of great souls.-- Papa Ramadas
The smallest things become great when God requires them of us; they are small only in themselves; they are always great when they are done for God. --Francois Fenelon
The ordinary arts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest. -- Thomas More
We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed. --Brother Lawrence
How do we know if we have a servant’s heart? By how we act when we are treated like one!--Unknown
The only humility that is really ours is not that which we try to show before God in prayer, but that which we carry with us in our daily conduct.. –Andrew Murray
Be not proud of race, face, place, or grace. --Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Looking at yourself in a mirror isn't exactly a study of life. --Lauren Bacall
If all flowers wanted to be roses, nature would lose her springtime beauty and the fields would no longer be decked out with little wildflowers. --Teresa of Lisieux
My one regret in life is that I am not someone else.- Woody Allen
Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this: That you are dreadfully like other people.—James Pearsall Smith
Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.-- Thomas a Kempis
The test of good manners is to be patient with bad ones. –Gabirol
The meek man will attain a place of soul rest. As he walks on in meekness he will be happy to let God defend him. The old struggle to defend himself is over. He has found the peace which meekness brings.-- A.W. Tozer
One cannot imagine St. Francis of Assisi talking about rights. --Simone Weil
Greatness lies not in trying to be somebody but in trying to help somebody.--Unknown
Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. --Martin Luther King, Jr.
A candle loses nothing of its light by lighting another candle. - Fr. James Keller
Whatever makes us feel superior to other people, whatever tempts us to convey a sense of superiority, that is the gravity of our sinful nature, not grace. --Phillip Yancey
Nothing disciplines the inordinate desires of the flesh like service, and nothing transforms the desires of the flesh like serving in hiddenness. The flesh whines against service but it screams against hidden service. It strains and pulls for honor and recognition. --Richard Foster
If I cannot in honest happiness take the second place (or the twentieth); if I cannot take the first without making a fuss about my unworthiness, then I know nothing of Calvary love. --Amy Carmichael
Blessed the man and woman who is able to serve cheerfully in the second rank -- a big test. --Mary Slessor
I have learned that much of my spiritual progress does not come directly from God, but through my ability to humble myself and hear Him speak through imperfect people. --Francis Frangipane
How tragic that the very thing that could set us free--playing the fool--is the thing we will not do. When we're afraid to be fools, we end up being afraid to be anything.---Mike Mason
I am sure that there are many Christians who will confess that their experience has been very much like my own—that we had long known the Lord without realizing that meekness and lowliness of heart should be the distinguishing feature of the disciple, as they were of the Master. Such humility is not a thing that will come on its own. It must be made the object of special desire, prayer, faith and practice. Andrew Murray
Humility and love are precisely the graces which the men of the world can understand, if they do not comprehend doctrines. They are the graces about which there is no mystery, and they are within reach of all classes... The poorest Christian can every day find occasion for practicing love and humility. --J. C. Ryle
God descends to the humble as waters flow down from the hills into the valleys. --Tikhon
Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility. --Saint Augustine
Do you wish people to think well of you? Don't speak well of yourself. --Blaise Pascal
Just because God is working through us does not mean that we are right with God.--Unknown
We have forgotten the gracious hand which has preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving Grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. --Abraham Lincoln
The proof of spiritual maturity is not how pure you are but awareness of your impurity. That very awareness opens the door to grace. --Phillip Yancey
In some sense we are all hypocrites in transition. --Erwin McManus
Humility is freedom from your own driven ego. --Martha Kilpatrick
Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying. -- Vincent de Paul
Humility is nothing else but a right judgment of ourselves. --William Law
Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less. --C.S. Lewis
Humility is offering no resistance to the dealings of the Lord with us. --Chip Brogden
Those who have known God without knowing their wretchedness have not glorified him, but have glorified themselves. --Blaise Pascal
Humility is knowing you yourself desperately require forgiveness as the greatest of all needs. --Martha Kilpatrick
The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. He has accepted God's estimate of his own life: In himself, nothing; In God, everything. He knows well that the world will never see him as God sees him and he has stopped caring.-- A.W. Tozer
Don't imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call "humble" nowadays: he won't be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who's always telling you that, of course, he's nobody. Probably all you'll think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him, it will be because you feel a bit envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He won't be thinking about himself at all. There I must stop. If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you're not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed. --C.S. Lewis
A man will act out what he believes himself to be. --Jacquelyn K. Heasley
Only with great difficulty does a shaft of light pierce the armor of self-righteousness. --Lois Wilson
A proud monk needs no demon. He has turned into one, an enemy to himself. --John Climacus
The devil sees nothing more abominable than a truly humble christian, for [that Christian] is just the opposite of [the devil's] own image -- Hans Nielsen Hauge
Oh, that we fully understood how very opposite our self-righteousness is to the designs of God! --Jeanne Guyon
There is no room for God in him who is full of himself. --Martin Buber
He who knows himself well is mean and abject in his own sight, and takes no delight in the vain praise of men. --Thomas a'Kempis
The labor of self-love is a heavy one indeed... The heart's fierce effort to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honor from the bad opinion of friend and enemy, will never let the mind have rest... --A.W. Tozer
It happens, I do not know how, that most of the proud never really discover their true selves. They think they have conquered their passions and they find out how poor they really are only after they die. --John Climacus
The man, full of himself, can never proclaim the Christ who emptied Himself. --Jacquelyn K. Heasley
God is not proud...He will have us even though we have shown that we prefer everything else to Him.-- CS Lewis
We are to be as unnoticed as the Lord was at times. We should be willing to pass through the crowd and not be noticed. Jesus made a whole different kind of wave, not a wave of worldliness that seeks the center. He was quiet yet He brought a storm. --W.A. Belle
We'd like to be humble...but what if no one notices? --John Ortberg
Provided that God be glorified, we must not care by whom. --Francis de Sales
We must make humility the chief thing we admire in Him. --Andrew Murray
A humble knowledge of ourselves is a surer way to God than is the search for depth of learning. --Thomas a'Kempis
Without humility of heart all the other virtues by which one runs toward God seem -- and are -- absolutely worthless. --Angela of Foligno
A heart that understands what is implicit in God's tenderness is humbled beyond any hope of goodness or worth in itself.--Marian Scheele
God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. --The Bible
......from tentmaker.org
Fight...
Fight with all the strength at your disposal
against the idea that you are nameable and
describable. You are not. Refuse to think of
yourself in terms of this or that. There is no
other way out of misery, which you have
created for yourself through blind acceptance
without investigation. Suffering is a call for
enquiry, all pain needs investigation. Don't be
lazy to think.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
against the idea that you are nameable and
describable. You are not. Refuse to think of
yourself in terms of this or that. There is no
other way out of misery, which you have
created for yourself through blind acceptance
without investigation. Suffering is a call for
enquiry, all pain needs investigation. Don't be
lazy to think.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"I Am That"
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Acorn Press, 1973
Embodiment...
In general the path of embodiment asks that you live your understanding from moment to moment. As my friend and teacher Adyashanti put it, serve the truth you know yourself to be. Rather than allowing yourself to fall back into old patterns, live the silent presence--the empty fullness, the openness, peace, and clarity you experienced when you woke up--in every situation. In other words, be who you are.
This requires what my teacher Jean Klein called earnestness or sincerity, a deep, abiding commitment to the truth in all circumstances. Awakening tend to ignite it, but this commitment may flag from time to time as the ego puts up a fuss. If you appear to have a choice, choose the truth again and again--not only the absolute truth of your being but the relative truth of the moment. In its efforts to maintain control, the ego tends to fudge, obscure, or avoid the truth in order to manipulate situations for its own benefit. Instead, the process of embodiment asks that you tell the truth and let go of the outcome, which involves a major leap into the unknown.
Wake Up Now
Stephan Bodian
p.170
This requires what my teacher Jean Klein called earnestness or sincerity, a deep, abiding commitment to the truth in all circumstances. Awakening tend to ignite it, but this commitment may flag from time to time as the ego puts up a fuss. If you appear to have a choice, choose the truth again and again--not only the absolute truth of your being but the relative truth of the moment. In its efforts to maintain control, the ego tends to fudge, obscure, or avoid the truth in order to manipulate situations for its own benefit. Instead, the process of embodiment asks that you tell the truth and let go of the outcome, which involves a major leap into the unknown.
Wake Up Now
Stephan Bodian
p.170
The Secret...
Last night
I begged the Wise One to tell me
the secret of the world.
Gently, gently he whispered,
"Be quiet,
the secret cannot be spoken,
it is wrapped in silence."
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"Rumi - Whispers of the Beloved:
Selected and translated by
Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi
Thorsons, London 1999
I begged the Wise One to tell me
the secret of the world.
Gently, gently he whispered,
"Be quiet,
the secret cannot be spoken,
it is wrapped in silence."
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"Rumi - Whispers of the Beloved:
Selected and translated by
Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi
Thorsons, London 1999
Advaita Yoga...
Richard Miller:
Advaita means, "not-two" and reveals the truth that all objects are expressions of unqualified Consciousness and always point back to Awareness, our true nature, the unfathomable Vast-ness-that-we-are. Consciousness and its objects are One, not two. This can never be conceptualized, only intuitively realized. Yana is the pathless "path" we traverse as our misperceptions of separation are healed. This path is not developmental. Separateness is not a case of something that exists becoming non-existent. Our 'self' never exists in the first place except conceptually. The path reveals the non-existence of the 'self' that always was nonexistent. Yoga is the means we utilize in realizing our non-separateness. We investigate all that we take ourself to be (body, senses and mind), and understand That, which we always are Be-ing-unqualified Presence. The body/mind is an expression of Consciousness, and we are That unqualified Consciousness. There is only Consciousness. Our yearning to understand comes from Consciousness. The path we traverse unfolds in Consciousness. The means that we utilize are the tools provided by Consciousness. And That, which we realize is Consciousness. Therefore, the emphasis of Advaitayana Yoga from the beginning, in the middle, and at the end is not on transformation but upon seeing, listening, understanding and welcoming all that is. From the non-dual perspective nothing needs to be changed in order for freedom to be ex-perienced. It takes effort to live our separateness. It takes no effort to be free. This is the final understanding of Advaitayana Yoga.
Advaita means, "not-two" and reveals the truth that all objects are expressions of unqualified Consciousness and always point back to Awareness, our true nature, the unfathomable Vast-ness-that-we-are. Consciousness and its objects are One, not two. This can never be conceptualized, only intuitively realized. Yana is the pathless "path" we traverse as our misperceptions of separation are healed. This path is not developmental. Separateness is not a case of something that exists becoming non-existent. Our 'self' never exists in the first place except conceptually. The path reveals the non-existence of the 'self' that always was nonexistent. Yoga is the means we utilize in realizing our non-separateness. We investigate all that we take ourself to be (body, senses and mind), and understand That, which we always are Be-ing-unqualified Presence. The body/mind is an expression of Consciousness, and we are That unqualified Consciousness. There is only Consciousness. Our yearning to understand comes from Consciousness. The path we traverse unfolds in Consciousness. The means that we utilize are the tools provided by Consciousness. And That, which we realize is Consciousness. Therefore, the emphasis of Advaitayana Yoga from the beginning, in the middle, and at the end is not on transformation but upon seeing, listening, understanding and welcoming all that is. From the non-dual perspective nothing needs to be changed in order for freedom to be ex-perienced. It takes effort to live our separateness. It takes no effort to be free. This is the final understanding of Advaitayana Yoga.
Divine Consciousness...
There appears to be two major levels of Divine Consciousness.. when we have completely surrendered the belief in separate ego and separate life, We immediately enter Reality.. Reality is our natural state and I found My Self as a separate identity within Light and Love and existing as Light and Love.. Although, I could actually be very happy to spend Eternity within this Reality, I Realised that this was not the end of the Journey.. the Final Act of Love was to surrender even this small vestige of separation called identity and enter Complete Love called Pure Awareness.. This is the State of Non-Existence that Created Divine Consciousness for Creation purposes and thus Created Us for Experiences...........namaste, thomas
To Give Everything...
This is the meaning of Unconditional Love, to give everything.. This is the only way to Realise Enlightenment.. to give your self(ego), to give your life(illusion).. to give Everything.. This is the meaning of the Altar, to sacrifice your self to Love(God).. the ego tries to prevent us from this experience by the process of Desires.. our desires keep us imprisioned within the material universe, so that we can experience these desires..for life after life.. It is Time to break free from these desires that separate us from Reality.. Reality is the desireless state as there is nothing more to be desired.. The only Desire that you should have is to end all desires and enter the Reality of Unconditional Love called Divine Consciousness...........namaste, thomas
"me"...
If there is no such entity as a "me," an ego, you are entitled to ask who then has this enlightenment? And the answer is the only possible one: it is the Void having the experience of itself: or rediscovering itself as it does in each person who attains this level.
— Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 221........Paul Brunton
— Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 221........Paul Brunton
Ram Tzu Speaks...
You want your purveyors of Truth
To look and act special.
You want them different
And separate
And powerful.
You prefer to imagine them
Cloaked in light
Than sitting on the toilet.
You like them passionless, sexless,
Mellow, gentle and kind.
You like the idea of miracles
And will invent them when necessary.
Your strategy is to keep them
Out there
Far away from you
Exotic and mysterious.
You revel in the myth
Of the Enlightened individual
Hoping to someday be so empowered.
What you can't tolerate
Is for them to appear
As ordinary as you.
Ram Tzu knows this…
You always miss the Truth
Because it is too plain to see.
To look and act special.
You want them different
And separate
And powerful.
You prefer to imagine them
Cloaked in light
Than sitting on the toilet.
You like them passionless, sexless,
Mellow, gentle and kind.
You like the idea of miracles
And will invent them when necessary.
Your strategy is to keep them
Out there
Far away from you
Exotic and mysterious.
You revel in the myth
Of the Enlightened individual
Hoping to someday be so empowered.
What you can't tolerate
Is for them to appear
As ordinary as you.
Ram Tzu knows this…
You always miss the Truth
Because it is too plain to see.
The Art of Happiness...
Love and concern for all are not things some of
us are born with and others are not. Rather, they
are results of what we do with our minds: We can
choose to transform our minds so that they embody
love, or we can allow them to develop habits and
false concepts of separation.
From: 'Loving-Kindness - The Revolutionary Art of Happiness'
Sharon Salzberg p89
us are born with and others are not. Rather, they
are results of what we do with our minds: We can
choose to transform our minds so that they embody
love, or we can allow them to develop habits and
false concepts of separation.
From: 'Loving-Kindness - The Revolutionary Art of Happiness'
Sharon Salzberg p89
Dreaming...
We dream that we are awake, we dream that we are asleep. The three states are only varieties of the dream state. Treating everything as a dream liberates. As long as you give reality to dreams, you are their slave. By imaging that you are born as so and so, you become a slave to the so-and-so. The essence of slavery is to imagine yourself to be a process, to have past and future, to have history......
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Mental Pain...
Everyone on earth has mental pains.. these exhibit themselves
as not feeling peaceful or content.. or anger, keeping our minds in a state of
pain and revenge.. any thoughts that prevent You from feeling Joy are painful..
non-love is painful.. the list goes on and on, and leads back to the illusion of
a separate self that We have created.. we have to un-create this illusion to
feel Happiness.. This Happiness is called Unconditional Love and is seen as
humility and kindness........namaste, thomas
as not feeling peaceful or content.. or anger, keeping our minds in a state of
pain and revenge.. any thoughts that prevent You from feeling Joy are painful..
non-love is painful.. the list goes on and on, and leads back to the illusion of
a separate self that We have created.. we have to un-create this illusion to
feel Happiness.. This Happiness is called Unconditional Love and is seen as
humility and kindness........namaste, thomas
The ego...
NOTE: This is an excerpt from the book The Least You Should Know About Life.
Part One explained that the key to improving your life experience is to increase your understanding of life. A new understanding cannot be found within your current knowledge and beliefs, so you must be willing to look outside your mental box. Yet as history and common experience proves, people often become attached to their beliefs and are reluctant to think outside the box. If you are to be successful in taking command over your inner circumstances, it is absolutely necessary to recognize that there is a force in your own psyche that opposes your growth. This force is seeking to make you stay in your current mental box by getting you to reject any idea that can set you free from your current limitations. This force has traditionally been called the human ego.
The human ego is a term that has been used differently by various psychologists and spiritual teachers. In this book it is used specifically to refer to an “alien” being that exists in your psyche, meaning the lower part of your being. This being is somewhat self-aware and it has a survival instinct. For most people, their egos have attained a high degree of control over their lives. The spiritual path is a process of taking control away from the ego and thus attaining the freedom to be who you were created to be.
Yet the ego will not give up control voluntarily. It is therefore essential for you to understand how the ego was created. This is a somewhat complicated process, so the following is only a brief summary.
As explained above, the Conscious You is the center of your being and it is meant to be in control of your psyche. Yet in order to maintain this control, the conscious self must be willing to take full responsibility for your life and make the important decisions. In order to make balanced decisions, decisions that do not harm yourself or other parts of life, the conscious self must reach for a greater understanding of the laws that guide the universe. This understanding can be obtained from a spiritual teacher, as explained later.
The laws of God are designed to ensure harmony in the universe, meaning that one co-creator will not destroy or control other co-creators. If all people followed these laws, humankind would create an upward spiral that would eliminate all suffering on this planet. Because all co-creators have free will, it is possible for them to go against God’s laws and create the illusion that they are separate beings. This creates the illusion that you can raise up yourself in comparison to others and that you can harm others without hurting yourself. By giving co-creators free will, the consciousness of selfishness came into being as an option. In other words, co-creators have two options for building their sense of identity:
•You can base your identity on a state of mind in which you see yourself as one with your higher Being and one with all life. This creates harmony between your higher and lower being and makes sure your actions will raise up both yourself and everyone else. You will then fulfill your reason for being and bring the Earth closer to manifesting a higher form of life. The mind that is designed to ensure harmony and oneness in the universe is called the Christ mind. In reality, this is a universal term that transcends the Christian religion and its sectarian use of the word “Christ” (more on this later).
•You can base your identity on a state of mind in which you see yourself as separated from your higher Being and from all other parts of life. This inevitably leads to a division between your higher and lower self, and your lower self will not reflect your spiritual individuality. You will never feel fulfilled in this way and all your actions will ultimately lead to suffering for yourself and others. The mind of separation and selfishness is called the mind of anti-christ (explained in more detail later).
When you were created as a self-conscious being, you lived in a protected environment – a symbolic description is the story of the Garden of Eden – in which you were guided by a spiritual teacher. As you grew in self-awareness, you had to face the temptation to use the mind of anti-christ—symbolized by the serpent.
Most people on Earth gradually became blinded by the logic of the mind of anti-christ and started seeing themselves as separated from their own spiritual selves and from each other. This caused people to make decisions based on the illusion that they were human beings in competition with each other. People started acting as animals fighting for survival, which led to suffering. The conscious self started feeling that every decision it made had undesirable consequences. Thus, there came a point when the conscious self decided that it would no longer make decisions, it would no longer be in a position of responsibility.
At the moment you decided to abandon your responsibility to make decisions, your ego was born. This happened because your outer circumstances demanded that decisions be made, and since the conscious self would not make them, someone else had to. That someone else is the ego. You essentially decided to stop making conscious decisions, and the ego now started making decisions for you below the level of your conscious awareness.
To understand the creation of the ego, consider that your subconscious mind functions much like a computer. If you repeat a certain action enough times, you create a computer program in the subconscious mind that can now perform the action without your conscious mind being engaged in it. One example is riding a bicycle; once you have learned it, you never forget it. You might not ride a bike for ten years, but once you get on, the subconscious computer program takes over. The downside is that if you create a self-centered or self-destructive program, it will produce suffering and your conscious mind will seem powerless to stop it. An obvious example is an addiction.
Before the conscious self decided to abandon its responsibility, it had already created a number of such programs. When you refused to make decisions, these programs took over. Some science fiction stories describe a supercomputer becoming so powerful that it attains intelligence and wants to control the world. Well, after you abandoned control over your life, the subconscious computer became more powerful and the ego was formed. The ego has a limited form of self-awareness and intelligence, but it has a very strong survival instinct.
The ego does not actually care about you, it only cares about itself. It is seeking to control you so that it can use you as a tool for expanding its power in the world. It is like the mad dictator who can never get enough—be it pleasure, possessions or power. If you threaten the ego, it is willing to destroy you – destroy your self-esteem and sense of identity – in order to survive. The ego is generally not intelligent enough to reason that since it depends on you for its existence, destroying you means destroying itself.
You also need to understand that the ego knows it can maintain its control over you only by staying hidden. If the Conscious You discovers the ego and understands how it controls your life, you will not accept this and will take back control. The ego will do anything to avoid this, including changing its behavior and beliefs. Thus, when you find the spiritual path, your ego will not give up. It will seek to use your spiritual beliefs in order to maintain or even expand its control over you. It is quite possible that people can think they are very spiritual, yet they are still controlled by their egos. This is what Jesus addressed in the following statement, “Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye” (Luke 6:42). The ego cannot see its own shortcomings, and it blinds you to reality, which is the origin of all hypocrisy.
Because the ego will do anything to stay hidden, it will seek to get you to deny or ignore these teachings on the ego. Therefore, once you begin to understand the ego, you will see that overcoming it is the real key to winning your spiritual freedom. All true spiritual teachers have taught people how to overcome the ego. The Buddha talked about attaining enlightenment and overcoming suffering, which means you must overcome the ego. Jesus talked about the kingdom of God, namely a state of consciousness in which you are no longer controlled by the ego.
.....from askrealjesus.com
Part One explained that the key to improving your life experience is to increase your understanding of life. A new understanding cannot be found within your current knowledge and beliefs, so you must be willing to look outside your mental box. Yet as history and common experience proves, people often become attached to their beliefs and are reluctant to think outside the box. If you are to be successful in taking command over your inner circumstances, it is absolutely necessary to recognize that there is a force in your own psyche that opposes your growth. This force is seeking to make you stay in your current mental box by getting you to reject any idea that can set you free from your current limitations. This force has traditionally been called the human ego.
The human ego is a term that has been used differently by various psychologists and spiritual teachers. In this book it is used specifically to refer to an “alien” being that exists in your psyche, meaning the lower part of your being. This being is somewhat self-aware and it has a survival instinct. For most people, their egos have attained a high degree of control over their lives. The spiritual path is a process of taking control away from the ego and thus attaining the freedom to be who you were created to be.
Yet the ego will not give up control voluntarily. It is therefore essential for you to understand how the ego was created. This is a somewhat complicated process, so the following is only a brief summary.
As explained above, the Conscious You is the center of your being and it is meant to be in control of your psyche. Yet in order to maintain this control, the conscious self must be willing to take full responsibility for your life and make the important decisions. In order to make balanced decisions, decisions that do not harm yourself or other parts of life, the conscious self must reach for a greater understanding of the laws that guide the universe. This understanding can be obtained from a spiritual teacher, as explained later.
The laws of God are designed to ensure harmony in the universe, meaning that one co-creator will not destroy or control other co-creators. If all people followed these laws, humankind would create an upward spiral that would eliminate all suffering on this planet. Because all co-creators have free will, it is possible for them to go against God’s laws and create the illusion that they are separate beings. This creates the illusion that you can raise up yourself in comparison to others and that you can harm others without hurting yourself. By giving co-creators free will, the consciousness of selfishness came into being as an option. In other words, co-creators have two options for building their sense of identity:
•You can base your identity on a state of mind in which you see yourself as one with your higher Being and one with all life. This creates harmony between your higher and lower being and makes sure your actions will raise up both yourself and everyone else. You will then fulfill your reason for being and bring the Earth closer to manifesting a higher form of life. The mind that is designed to ensure harmony and oneness in the universe is called the Christ mind. In reality, this is a universal term that transcends the Christian religion and its sectarian use of the word “Christ” (more on this later).
•You can base your identity on a state of mind in which you see yourself as separated from your higher Being and from all other parts of life. This inevitably leads to a division between your higher and lower self, and your lower self will not reflect your spiritual individuality. You will never feel fulfilled in this way and all your actions will ultimately lead to suffering for yourself and others. The mind of separation and selfishness is called the mind of anti-christ (explained in more detail later).
When you were created as a self-conscious being, you lived in a protected environment – a symbolic description is the story of the Garden of Eden – in which you were guided by a spiritual teacher. As you grew in self-awareness, you had to face the temptation to use the mind of anti-christ—symbolized by the serpent.
Most people on Earth gradually became blinded by the logic of the mind of anti-christ and started seeing themselves as separated from their own spiritual selves and from each other. This caused people to make decisions based on the illusion that they were human beings in competition with each other. People started acting as animals fighting for survival, which led to suffering. The conscious self started feeling that every decision it made had undesirable consequences. Thus, there came a point when the conscious self decided that it would no longer make decisions, it would no longer be in a position of responsibility.
At the moment you decided to abandon your responsibility to make decisions, your ego was born. This happened because your outer circumstances demanded that decisions be made, and since the conscious self would not make them, someone else had to. That someone else is the ego. You essentially decided to stop making conscious decisions, and the ego now started making decisions for you below the level of your conscious awareness.
To understand the creation of the ego, consider that your subconscious mind functions much like a computer. If you repeat a certain action enough times, you create a computer program in the subconscious mind that can now perform the action without your conscious mind being engaged in it. One example is riding a bicycle; once you have learned it, you never forget it. You might not ride a bike for ten years, but once you get on, the subconscious computer program takes over. The downside is that if you create a self-centered or self-destructive program, it will produce suffering and your conscious mind will seem powerless to stop it. An obvious example is an addiction.
Before the conscious self decided to abandon its responsibility, it had already created a number of such programs. When you refused to make decisions, these programs took over. Some science fiction stories describe a supercomputer becoming so powerful that it attains intelligence and wants to control the world. Well, after you abandoned control over your life, the subconscious computer became more powerful and the ego was formed. The ego has a limited form of self-awareness and intelligence, but it has a very strong survival instinct.
The ego does not actually care about you, it only cares about itself. It is seeking to control you so that it can use you as a tool for expanding its power in the world. It is like the mad dictator who can never get enough—be it pleasure, possessions or power. If you threaten the ego, it is willing to destroy you – destroy your self-esteem and sense of identity – in order to survive. The ego is generally not intelligent enough to reason that since it depends on you for its existence, destroying you means destroying itself.
You also need to understand that the ego knows it can maintain its control over you only by staying hidden. If the Conscious You discovers the ego and understands how it controls your life, you will not accept this and will take back control. The ego will do anything to avoid this, including changing its behavior and beliefs. Thus, when you find the spiritual path, your ego will not give up. It will seek to use your spiritual beliefs in order to maintain or even expand its control over you. It is quite possible that people can think they are very spiritual, yet they are still controlled by their egos. This is what Jesus addressed in the following statement, “Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye” (Luke 6:42). The ego cannot see its own shortcomings, and it blinds you to reality, which is the origin of all hypocrisy.
Because the ego will do anything to stay hidden, it will seek to get you to deny or ignore these teachings on the ego. Therefore, once you begin to understand the ego, you will see that overcoming it is the real key to winning your spiritual freedom. All true spiritual teachers have taught people how to overcome the ego. The Buddha talked about attaining enlightenment and overcoming suffering, which means you must overcome the ego. Jesus talked about the kingdom of God, namely a state of consciousness in which you are no longer controlled by the ego.
.....from askrealjesus.com
This Is It...
This Is It. This is all there is - life appearing as an endless display of changing images, with no inherent purpose other than this appearance itself. There is simply life with no one living it.
For no reason at all life is at play with its own imagery, roving as attention, engaging in a mesmerising game of hide and seek which arises as a sense of separation with an integral urge to wholeness. Life restlessly seeks, yearning for itself. The seeking is the restlessness. This play of worldly existence is imbued with life’s haunted longing for itself, seeking but never finding within the imagery in which it seeks. What is sought all along is this in which the seeking is playing out.
In life’s play as humanity, thought assumes an exaggerated importance as attention spins effortlessly into myriad longings and desires, epitomised by the idea of seeking fulfilment through enlightenment. Reading texts, asking questions, surfing the internet, going on retreat, gurus, teachers, non-teachers, practice, no practice - any or all of it is possible but none of it is necessary as in actuality nothing needs to be discovered, understood, let go of or transcended. Life already is, and recognition of itself in the form of enlightenment, liberation, nirvana etc is superfluous, merely another happening in the endless now of appearances in the play of life.
Nothing other than the configuration of life as it is now appearing is possible. All is happening exactly as it’s ‘meant’ to. If separation and seeking are the case, then this is it. If recognition and resting are the case, then this is it. Whatever is now - however ordinary or extraordinary - is it.
...................Nathan Gill
For no reason at all life is at play with its own imagery, roving as attention, engaging in a mesmerising game of hide and seek which arises as a sense of separation with an integral urge to wholeness. Life restlessly seeks, yearning for itself. The seeking is the restlessness. This play of worldly existence is imbued with life’s haunted longing for itself, seeking but never finding within the imagery in which it seeks. What is sought all along is this in which the seeking is playing out.
In life’s play as humanity, thought assumes an exaggerated importance as attention spins effortlessly into myriad longings and desires, epitomised by the idea of seeking fulfilment through enlightenment. Reading texts, asking questions, surfing the internet, going on retreat, gurus, teachers, non-teachers, practice, no practice - any or all of it is possible but none of it is necessary as in actuality nothing needs to be discovered, understood, let go of or transcended. Life already is, and recognition of itself in the form of enlightenment, liberation, nirvana etc is superfluous, merely another happening in the endless now of appearances in the play of life.
Nothing other than the configuration of life as it is now appearing is possible. All is happening exactly as it’s ‘meant’ to. If separation and seeking are the case, then this is it. If recognition and resting are the case, then this is it. Whatever is now - however ordinary or extraordinary - is it.
...................Nathan Gill
An Artist...
"He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist."
— St. Francis of Assisi
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist."
— St. Francis of Assisi
Perceiving directly...
Thought is absent in seeing things intuitively.
When you perceive directly, there is no think-
ing. When you think you understand, you don't.
You do not think that you are alive, you know
that you are alive.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1966
When you perceive directly, there is no think-
ing. When you think you understand, you don't.
You do not think that you are alive, you know
that you are alive.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1966
Creative Silence...
"This withdrawal from the day's turmoil into creative silence is not a luxury, a fad, or a futility. It is a necessity, because it tries to provide the conditions wherein we are able to yield ourselves to intuitive leadings, promptings, warnings, teachings, and counsels and also to the inspiring peace of the soul. It dissolves mental tensions and heals negative emotions."
— Paul Brunton (The Notebooks of Paul Brunton)
— Paul Brunton (The Notebooks of Paul Brunton)
The earth of water and clay...
The drum of the realization of the promise is beating,
we are sweeping the road to the sky. Your joy is here today, what remains for
tomorrow?
The armies of the day have chased the army of the night,
Heaven and earth are filled with purity and light.
Oh! joy for he who has escaped from this world of perfumes and color!
For beyond these colors and these perfumes, these are other colors in the heart
and the soul.
Oh! joy for this soul and this heart who have escaped
the earth of water and clay,
Although this water and this clay contain the hearth of the
philosophical stone.
..... Rumi
we are sweeping the road to the sky. Your joy is here today, what remains for
tomorrow?
The armies of the day have chased the army of the night,
Heaven and earth are filled with purity and light.
Oh! joy for he who has escaped from this world of perfumes and color!
For beyond these colors and these perfumes, these are other colors in the heart
and the soul.
Oh! joy for this soul and this heart who have escaped
the earth of water and clay,
Although this water and this clay contain the hearth of the
philosophical stone.
..... Rumi
Luke 14 v 26?...
The Meaning and Purpose of a Mystic's life and goal is the Realisation of what is True.. What is True is that Unselfish Love is the highest mental pleasure available to us.. This pleasure is only Realised and experienced when we surrender the belief that we are the separate ego.. this surrender automatically occurs when we feel Unselfish Love.. I am not wise enough to judge the words and actions of a Mystical Master such as Jesus, therefore, I can only see His actions and words as they relate to other experiences of Spiritual Masters.. If His words do not appear to be within the energy of Love, then, I can only assume that I have not yet reached the Awareness to understand these words yet.. Anyone that teaches the advantages of Unconditional Love is a "nice guy", at least part of the time..To see the Buddha(Jesus) means that you have not become the Buddha..This is the mental problem with most religions.. To see God, means that You do not yet Realise that You are God.. This is Duality, This is us..............namaste, thomas
True Humility...
True humility is not the opposite of pride
but the very negation of a separate entity
who could either be proud or humble.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
but the very negation of a separate entity
who could either be proud or humble.
- Ramesh S. Balsekar
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"A Net of Jewels"
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Advaita Press, 1996
The radiance of eternity...
The Master must have known that his words were frequently
beyond his disciples' comprehension. He spoke to them nonetheless
in the knowledge that a day would surely come when his
words would take root and blossom in the hearts of those who
heard them.
One day he said, "Time always seems so long when you wait -
for a vacation, an examination, for something yearned for or
dreaded in the future.
"But to those who dare to surrender to the experience of the
present moment -- with no thought about the experience, no
desire that it return or be avoided -- time is transformed into the
radiance of eternity."
~ Anthony de Mello, SJ
from "Awakening: Conversations with the Masters"
beyond his disciples' comprehension. He spoke to them nonetheless
in the knowledge that a day would surely come when his
words would take root and blossom in the hearts of those who
heard them.
One day he said, "Time always seems so long when you wait -
for a vacation, an examination, for something yearned for or
dreaded in the future.
"But to those who dare to surrender to the experience of the
present moment -- with no thought about the experience, no
desire that it return or be avoided -- time is transformed into the
radiance of eternity."
~ Anthony de Mello, SJ
from "Awakening: Conversations with the Masters"
What does God want?...
God does not want You to become anything..Divine Consciousness wants You to
Realize that You are Already that which you seek.. Remove the glasses of
separate self and You will also See.. It is that simple...........namaste,
thomas
Realize that You are Already that which you seek.. Remove the glasses of
separate self and You will also See.. It is that simple...........namaste,
thomas
Clarity and Earnestness...
You need both clarity and earnestness for
self-knowledge. You need maturity of heart
and mind, which comes through earnest
application in daily life of whatever little
you have understood. There is no such thing
as compromise in Yoga.
If you want to sin, sin wholeheartedly and
openly. Sins too have their lessons to teach
the earnest sinner, as virtues - the earnest
saint. It is the mixing up of the two that is
so disastrous. Nothing can block you so
effectively as compromise, for it shows
lack of earnestness, without which nothing
can be done.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
self-knowledge. You need maturity of heart
and mind, which comes through earnest
application in daily life of whatever little
you have understood. There is no such thing
as compromise in Yoga.
If you want to sin, sin wholeheartedly and
openly. Sins too have their lessons to teach
the earnest sinner, as virtues - the earnest
saint. It is the mixing up of the two that is
so disastrous. Nothing can block you so
effectively as compromise, for it shows
lack of earnestness, without which nothing
can be done.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
Six types of meditation...
There are so many different types of meditation. How many? Who knows, but enough so that you can find the one that's right for you. To get your search started, here are six types of meditation you can try.
1. Breath watching. Can meditating be as simple as paying attention to your breath for a few minutes? You bet. Relax in whatever position works best for you, close your eyes and start to pay attention to your breathing. Breathing through your nose gets your diaphragm involved and gets oxygen all the way to the bottom of your lungs. As your mind wanders, just re-focus your attention on the air going in and out of your nose. Just do this for several minutes, or longer as you get used to it.
2. An empty mind meditation. Meditating can create a kind of "awareness without object," an emptying of all thoughts from your mind. The techniques for doing this involve sitting still, often in a "full lotus" or cross-legged position, and letting the mind go silent on its own. It can be difficult, particularly since any effort seems to just cause more business in the mind.
3. Walking meditations. This one gets the body involved. It can be outside or simply as a back and forth pacing in a room. Pay attention to the movement of your legs and breathing and body as you walk, and to the feeling of your feet contacting the ground. When your mind wanders, just keep bringing it back to the process of walking and breathing. Meditating outside in this way can be difficult because of the distractions. If you do it outside, find a quiet place with level ground.
4. Mindfulness meditation. A practice Buddhists call vipassana or insight meditation, mindfulness is the art of becoming deeply aware of what is here right now. You focus on what's happening in and around you at this very moment, and become aware of all the thoughts and feelings that are taking your energy from moment to moment. You can start by watching your breath, and then move your attention to the thoughts going through your mind, the feelings in your body, and even the sounds and sights around you. The key is to watch without judging or analyzing.
5. Simple mantra meditation. Many people find it easier to keep their mind from wandering if they concentrate on something specific. A mantra can help. This is a word or phrase you repeat as you sit in meditation, and is chosen for you by an experienced master in some traditions. If you are working on this alone, you can use any word or phrase that works for you, and can choose to either repeat it aloud or in your head as you meditate.
6. Meditating on a concept. Some meditative practices involve contemplation of an idea or scenario. An example is the "meditation on impermanence," in which you focus on the impermanent nature of all things, starting with your thoughts and feelings as they come and go. In the Buddhist "meditation on the corpse," you think about a body in the ground, as it slowly rots away and is fed on by worms. The technique is used to guide you to an understanding that your rationalizing mind might not bring you to.
There are many other meditations you can try, such as the "meditation on loving-kindness" or "object" meditation, and even meditating using brain wave entrainment products. Each type has its own advantages and effects. For this reason, you may find that at different times and for different purposes you want to use several different types of meditation.
Steve Gillman has meditated and studied meditation for over twenty years. You can find a good mindfulness exercise and subscribe to The Meditation Newsletter at: http://www.TheMeditationSite.com
By Steve Gillman
1. Breath watching. Can meditating be as simple as paying attention to your breath for a few minutes? You bet. Relax in whatever position works best for you, close your eyes and start to pay attention to your breathing. Breathing through your nose gets your diaphragm involved and gets oxygen all the way to the bottom of your lungs. As your mind wanders, just re-focus your attention on the air going in and out of your nose. Just do this for several minutes, or longer as you get used to it.
2. An empty mind meditation. Meditating can create a kind of "awareness without object," an emptying of all thoughts from your mind. The techniques for doing this involve sitting still, often in a "full lotus" or cross-legged position, and letting the mind go silent on its own. It can be difficult, particularly since any effort seems to just cause more business in the mind.
3. Walking meditations. This one gets the body involved. It can be outside or simply as a back and forth pacing in a room. Pay attention to the movement of your legs and breathing and body as you walk, and to the feeling of your feet contacting the ground. When your mind wanders, just keep bringing it back to the process of walking and breathing. Meditating outside in this way can be difficult because of the distractions. If you do it outside, find a quiet place with level ground.
4. Mindfulness meditation. A practice Buddhists call vipassana or insight meditation, mindfulness is the art of becoming deeply aware of what is here right now. You focus on what's happening in and around you at this very moment, and become aware of all the thoughts and feelings that are taking your energy from moment to moment. You can start by watching your breath, and then move your attention to the thoughts going through your mind, the feelings in your body, and even the sounds and sights around you. The key is to watch without judging or analyzing.
5. Simple mantra meditation. Many people find it easier to keep their mind from wandering if they concentrate on something specific. A mantra can help. This is a word or phrase you repeat as you sit in meditation, and is chosen for you by an experienced master in some traditions. If you are working on this alone, you can use any word or phrase that works for you, and can choose to either repeat it aloud or in your head as you meditate.
6. Meditating on a concept. Some meditative practices involve contemplation of an idea or scenario. An example is the "meditation on impermanence," in which you focus on the impermanent nature of all things, starting with your thoughts and feelings as they come and go. In the Buddhist "meditation on the corpse," you think about a body in the ground, as it slowly rots away and is fed on by worms. The technique is used to guide you to an understanding that your rationalizing mind might not bring you to.
There are many other meditations you can try, such as the "meditation on loving-kindness" or "object" meditation, and even meditating using brain wave entrainment products. Each type has its own advantages and effects. For this reason, you may find that at different times and for different purposes you want to use several different types of meditation.
Steve Gillman has meditated and studied meditation for over twenty years. You can find a good mindfulness exercise and subscribe to The Meditation Newsletter at: http://www.TheMeditationSite.com
By Steve Gillman
God is Love...
'God is love'; when love is awakened in the heart, God is awakened there.
Bowl of Saki, May 29, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Life's light is love; and when the heart is empty of love, a man is living and
yet not living; from a spiritual point of view he is dead. When the heart is
asleep, he is as though dead in this life, for one can only love through the
heart. But love does not mean give and take. That is only a trade; it's
selfishness. To give sixpence and receive a shilling is not love. Love is when
one loves for the sake of love, when one cannot help but love, cannot do
anything but love. Then one is not forced to love; there is no virtue in that.
One does not love because another does. It is simply there. It cannot be helped.
It is the only thing that makes a person alive. If a person loves one and hates
another, what can he know of love? Can you love one person fully if at the same
time you cannot bestow a kind glance on some other person? Can you say you love
one person fully when you cannot bear him to be loved by someone else as well?
Can you hate a person when love is sprinkled like water in your heart? Love is
like the water of the Ganges. It is itself a purification. As the Bible says,
'God is love'. When love is awakened in the heart, God is awakened there. When a
man has journeyed, he reaches the goal as soon as his heart has reached love.
The Sufi says, 'The Kaba, the divine place, paradise, is the heart of the human
being'. That is why he has respect for every heart. Every heart is his Kaba, his
shrine. The human heart is the place toward which he bows, for in this heart is
God.
Some object to Christ being called divine; but if divinity is not sought in man,
then in what shall we seek God? Can divinity be found in the tree, in the plant,
in the stone? Yes indeed, God is in all; but at the same time, it is in man that
divinity is awakened, that God is awakened, that God can be seen.
Bowl of Saki, May 29, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Life's light is love; and when the heart is empty of love, a man is living and
yet not living; from a spiritual point of view he is dead. When the heart is
asleep, he is as though dead in this life, for one can only love through the
heart. But love does not mean give and take. That is only a trade; it's
selfishness. To give sixpence and receive a shilling is not love. Love is when
one loves for the sake of love, when one cannot help but love, cannot do
anything but love. Then one is not forced to love; there is no virtue in that.
One does not love because another does. It is simply there. It cannot be helped.
It is the only thing that makes a person alive. If a person loves one and hates
another, what can he know of love? Can you love one person fully if at the same
time you cannot bestow a kind glance on some other person? Can you say you love
one person fully when you cannot bear him to be loved by someone else as well?
Can you hate a person when love is sprinkled like water in your heart? Love is
like the water of the Ganges. It is itself a purification. As the Bible says,
'God is love'. When love is awakened in the heart, God is awakened there. When a
man has journeyed, he reaches the goal as soon as his heart has reached love.
The Sufi says, 'The Kaba, the divine place, paradise, is the heart of the human
being'. That is why he has respect for every heart. Every heart is his Kaba, his
shrine. The human heart is the place toward which he bows, for in this heart is
God.
Some object to Christ being called divine; but if divinity is not sought in man,
then in what shall we seek God? Can divinity be found in the tree, in the plant,
in the stone? Yes indeed, God is in all; but at the same time, it is in man that
divinity is awakened, that God is awakened, that God can be seen.
Ram Tzu Speaks...
You promise you'll change
You swear you'll do better
And maybe you will.
Ram Tzu knows this -
It won't be by your own power.
- Ram Tzu
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
No Way for the Spiritually "Advanced"
Ram Tzu
Advaita Press, 1990
You swear you'll do better
And maybe you will.
Ram Tzu knows this -
It won't be by your own power.
- Ram Tzu
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
No Way for the Spiritually "Advanced"
Ram Tzu
Advaita Press, 1990
After Illumination...
The differences between human beings still remain after illumination. The variations which make each one a unique specimen and the individual that he is, still continue to exist. But the Oneness behind human beings powerfully counterbalances.
— Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 189........Paul Brunton
— Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 189........Paul Brunton
Nonduality...
Hindu and Buddhist Nonduality:
Conflict in the New Church Mind?
There are two types of religions distinguished in terms of how they define God and reality. Hindu and Buddhist traditions are generally based on nonduality while Islam and the Judaeo-Christian faith are based on duality.
In nonduality only God is permanent and real while the self is an illusion that vanishes when one reaches enlightenment, and the universe an impermanent state that is periodically dissolved and remade. That which changes and dissipates is not considered to be reality. Eastern religions teach that the purpose of life on earth is to learn to transcend the illusory self through raising one’s consciousness to the divine itself. This achievement is called enlightenment or God-realization. Individuals ought to live their daily lives by striving to detach all the qualities of self and life that adhere and create the illusion of struggles in life, culture, nature, and individuality. This total emptying of all morality and psychology is identified with enlightenment. The self has then transcended into God, the only reality, void and empty of all appearance and of changing qualites.
In strong contrast to this point of view, duality presents God and creation as distinct, permanent, and forever separate. Moslems, Jews, and Christians are taught that the purpose of life on earth is to prepare oneself for life in eternity. The individual self (or unique soul) is created immortal, and continues life after death in a spiritual body. The individual has freedom to choose to act in accordance with the revealed commandments of God or conscience, or to act against them. A spiritually good life leads to eternal heavenly happiness, an evil one, to infernal and unending misery. God is the Omnipotent Divine Person who creates the universe and maintains it in its order by intervening in its operation. God gives the individual the power to learn the Commandments and to follow them despite many inborn contrary desires. The individual receives this power through worship and love of God. Atheism and lawlessness constitute the refusal to worship and love God, an act of defiance that deprives the individual of the power to live a spiritually good life.
Can There Be Compatibility Between Nonduality and Duality?
Wilson Van Dusen is a recognized authority on both duality and nonduality. He recently wrote:
Hinduism's advaita vedanta or non-dual theology, probably represents the highest mystical insight possible. It is the insight that ultimately only God exists. My friends know that I regard Swedenborg's mystical revelations as the greatest ever. We can then ask the question, Can we also find non-dualism in Swedenborg? The answer is a resounding yes. The highest revelation of Hinduism is also in Swedenborg's revelations even though the two traditions had no contact.
(“The Highest Insight in Hinduism and in Swedenborg.” Published in the Messenger June 2001)
This point of view is based on the apparent similarity between “God rules all” (Swedenborg) and “Brahman is the all” (Hinduism). Since God rules all, the individual does not possess actual power but only the illusion of prudence leading to desired goals. And since God is the only life, human beings are merely receptors of God’s life, rather than self-existent beings that are alive. From these considerations Van Dusen draws this conclusion:
God alone is real (nonduality). … What we try to do God is doing through us. Our apparent duality is an aspect within a transcendent non-duality. The non-duality of God alone is super ordinate to all appearances of duality. … The non-dual position in Hinduism helped me to see it in Swedenborg's writings. … All our efforts to improve ourselves do not create an us-versus-God dualistic situation-but rather our efforts are a part of the working out of Divine Providence. (Van Dusen, ibid)
Van Dusen’s position of nonduality leads him to the notion that since God alone has power, “what we try to do” is actually “God doing through us.” Duality on the other hand, maintains a distinct separation between the motive we have (“what we try to do”) and God’s power that actually carries it out. The Writings reveal that God chooses which of our motives are carried out and which are unsuccessful or unfulfilled. God maintains us in freedom to persist or desist in any intention or choice, and looks at our motive behind the choice. The quality of this motive—good or evil, is attributed by God to each individual. The accumulation of all our choices is what makes up our character or spirit. This spiritual self is what lives after death and is either in heaven or hell depending on its accumulated character.
In view of this we cannot equate “what we try to do” (i.e., the character of the individual) with “God doing through us” (i.e., Divine Providence in managing all things). This duality remains forever distinct.
Examples of Clashing Concepts
God and Self
In nonduality, God is the only reality and the individual self is an illusion that vanishes upon enlightenment, leaving behind God alone. In duality, God and self have permanently distinct identity and existence, and the individual continues to evolve forever in the afterlife.
A Life of Prudence
In nonduality, our efforts at improving our character are ultimately and finally futile since everything about self is an illusion to be dissipated at enlightenment. In duality, our motives for the reformation and regeneration of character are empowered by God and brought to fruition and salvation. It is required that individual prudence be in the decisions we make, but what makes our decisions effective is the power of God operating in the background or from within. This required prudence is called in the Writings the “as-of-self” (DP 321). Nonduality sees this human prudence as illusory (maya), while duality sees it as that which ties each of us to God in a personal relationship by which we are saved. Nonduality replaces reformation and regeneration with detachment, meditation, and “mystical experience” as the path to salvation, liberation, bliss, and “cosmic divine consciousness.”
Appearances Are Real
The duality in the Writings affirm that the individual self (or spirit) is a property of the unique and immortal soul created by God at birth and temporarily tied to a physical body that allows interaction between self and the material environment. The life we are conscious of is an outward appearance of inner things in that we are not given to see the work of God in its detailed operation in the background of events. However this external appearance is not illusory, but real—a part of the reality that God creates and maintains on our behalf. In duality, all that God creates is by definition real or part of reality. The self (or “as-of-self”) is our individual unique identity or character; it is a real spiritual entity or “spirit.” The physical body is a real natural entity. Duality asserts our birth into dual citizenship: the body in the natural world; the mind in the spiritual world. The two are tied to each other by the Divine Laws of Correspondences. Nonduality insists on defining all temporary or changing things as unreality to be dissipated—since it makes permanence or changelessness a condition for reality. But duality accepts change and development as a property of reality.
In duality God is creator of a real universe in a rational order and for a loving purpose. The creator of reality cannot be part of creation but must be outside of it. The Writings teach the permanent duality of create and uncreate (DLW 44). All that is infinite and without a beginning are part of God and uncreate (not part of created reality)—love, good, truth, wisdom, life, light, heat, endeavour. These are infinite in God and have no beginning. All else is created, cannot be infinite, and has a beginning—matter, spirit, consciousness, intelligence, affections. Nonduality in the New Church mind would be in conflict with these categorical absolutes. Nonduality is in opposition to all the basic rational concepts in the Writings that the New Church mind must contain in order to regenerate and become heavenly. The ideas of nonduality cannot receive admittance into the atmosphere of the New Heavens where everything is based on eternal dualities--the Lord vs. angels, husbands vs. wives, heavenly things vs. hellish, truths vs. falsities, inmost heaven vs. middle heaven, those who are governors or princes in heaven vs. those who are governed by them, and numerous others).
Morality and Conscience
Moral decisions we make as-of-self are real events powered by God alone. Only within duality can this make sense. Thinking within nonduality we are compelled to say that God is real while our moral decisions (or prudence) are not since they are works of illusion. In other words, God cannot power an individual’s conscience if it is not real, for only real things can be empowered.
Danger Points
Many types of thinking based on nonduality pose certain dangers to the New Church mind if ideas are admitted uncritically or unknowingly. The nondual and the dual in the mind strive to annihilate each other since they are inherently opposed. The Writings teach that certain ideas can become impediments to one’s regeneration (AC 806, NJHD 21). For instance the notion that both good and evil come from the same source can weaken our resolve for character reformation. The Writings show that without regeneration of character we remain infernal from heredity and cannot be saved for eternal heavenly life (NJHD 186). Weakening the absolute duality of heaven and hell in our mind also weakens our motivation for resisting our inherited evils and struggling to obey the commandments.
Nonduality as a system of thought strives to turn categorical discrete degrees into a continuum. The existence of discrete degrees is known only from the Writings (DLW. 173-281): God vs. creation, angel vs. devil, male vs. female, self vs. Divinity, natural vs. spiritual. These elements are created discrete and remain permanently distinct. Nonduality works to replace the “vs.” with “and” while duality insists on absolute and permanent distinctions. Duality is made of categorical (non overlapping) distinctness while nonduality constantly pressures the mind towards similarity and commingling (as in universalism, pluralism, relativism). New Testament concepts of pure vs. impure, good vs. evil, truth vs. falsity, wolves vs. sheep, in the Church vs. outside, are systematically eroded or altogether transformed by nonduality into something else, less distinct, less permanent.
One of the most popular and influential promoter of nonduality in the American climate is Joseph Campbell whose books and audiotapes more than a decade after his passing on are still on the best seller charts. Here are thematic arguments from The Power of Myth. by Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers (Anchor Books; Reissue edition July 1991). I quote from a review by Douglas Groothuis of the Christian Research Institute (Accessed on the Web April 2002: http://www.equip.org/free/DC092.htm):
If you confess your sins you make yourself a sinner; if you confess your greatness you make yourself great. The "idea of sin puts you in a servile position throughout your life" (p. 56). He later redefines sin as a lack of knowledge, not as an ethical transgression: "Sin is simply a limiting factor that limits your consciousness and fixes it in an inappropriate condition" (p. 57). … Campbell believes our challenge is to say, "I know the center, and I know that good and evil are simply temporal aberrations and that, in God's view, there is no difference" (p. 66). In fact, "in God's view," you are "God, not in your ego, but in your deepest being, where you are at one with the nondual transcendent" (p. 211).
The Writings reveal that “Father” refers to the substance of Divine Love (or Good), which is the Lord’s inmost or Esse, while “Son” refers to its outward form called Divine Wisdom or Truth (Existere). Love and Wisdom are united as one in the Lord and proceed as one to create and maintain the universe (DLW 99). But in the unregenerate human mind they are separated in reception (love into the will and truth into the understanding). Regeneration becomes the process of reuniting these two so that the will from love acts together with the the truth in the understanding. This unity of functioning is called the church within where this love/truth duality is retained forever. It is the permanent distinctness of the elements in a unity that maintains its perfection (DP 4). A striking example from the Writings is the conjugial unity of the angelic couple by which husband and wife function as one (CL 184). Another well known example is the unity of the distinct heavenly societies by which they are integrated into the human form, creating the ever increasing perfection of the Grand Human in the spiritual world (AC 5377).
Nonduality as a system of thinking acts in opposition to these permanent dualities and strives to establish a continuity between them, fudging the categorical and absolute distinction. The New Church idea of unity or oneness between distinct elements is metamorphosed into a dissolution of distinctness, either into sameness (nonduality) or else “Emptiness” (unbounded, unqualifiable). The meaning of “oneness” is entirely different in the two systems of thought. There is no overlap possible, even in the same words (oneness, God, reality, spirit, bliss, love, self, sin, etc.).
It is prudent therefore for the New Church mind to be clearly aware of the hidden opposition when exposed to concepts of nonduality.
++++++++++++
Dr. Leon James is Professor of Psychology at the University of Hawaii. His articles on The Writings can be accessed on the Web at www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/swedenborg.html including an expanded version of this article.
I’d like to gratefully acknowledge the useful editorial help I received from Dr. Ian Thompson who maintains a Web site relating to Swedenborg at www.TheisticScience.org
Conflict in the New Church Mind?
There are two types of religions distinguished in terms of how they define God and reality. Hindu and Buddhist traditions are generally based on nonduality while Islam and the Judaeo-Christian faith are based on duality.
In nonduality only God is permanent and real while the self is an illusion that vanishes when one reaches enlightenment, and the universe an impermanent state that is periodically dissolved and remade. That which changes and dissipates is not considered to be reality. Eastern religions teach that the purpose of life on earth is to learn to transcend the illusory self through raising one’s consciousness to the divine itself. This achievement is called enlightenment or God-realization. Individuals ought to live their daily lives by striving to detach all the qualities of self and life that adhere and create the illusion of struggles in life, culture, nature, and individuality. This total emptying of all morality and psychology is identified with enlightenment. The self has then transcended into God, the only reality, void and empty of all appearance and of changing qualites.
In strong contrast to this point of view, duality presents God and creation as distinct, permanent, and forever separate. Moslems, Jews, and Christians are taught that the purpose of life on earth is to prepare oneself for life in eternity. The individual self (or unique soul) is created immortal, and continues life after death in a spiritual body. The individual has freedom to choose to act in accordance with the revealed commandments of God or conscience, or to act against them. A spiritually good life leads to eternal heavenly happiness, an evil one, to infernal and unending misery. God is the Omnipotent Divine Person who creates the universe and maintains it in its order by intervening in its operation. God gives the individual the power to learn the Commandments and to follow them despite many inborn contrary desires. The individual receives this power through worship and love of God. Atheism and lawlessness constitute the refusal to worship and love God, an act of defiance that deprives the individual of the power to live a spiritually good life.
Can There Be Compatibility Between Nonduality and Duality?
Wilson Van Dusen is a recognized authority on both duality and nonduality. He recently wrote:
Hinduism's advaita vedanta or non-dual theology, probably represents the highest mystical insight possible. It is the insight that ultimately only God exists. My friends know that I regard Swedenborg's mystical revelations as the greatest ever. We can then ask the question, Can we also find non-dualism in Swedenborg? The answer is a resounding yes. The highest revelation of Hinduism is also in Swedenborg's revelations even though the two traditions had no contact.
(“The Highest Insight in Hinduism and in Swedenborg.” Published in the Messenger June 2001)
This point of view is based on the apparent similarity between “God rules all” (Swedenborg) and “Brahman is the all” (Hinduism). Since God rules all, the individual does not possess actual power but only the illusion of prudence leading to desired goals. And since God is the only life, human beings are merely receptors of God’s life, rather than self-existent beings that are alive. From these considerations Van Dusen draws this conclusion:
God alone is real (nonduality). … What we try to do God is doing through us. Our apparent duality is an aspect within a transcendent non-duality. The non-duality of God alone is super ordinate to all appearances of duality. … The non-dual position in Hinduism helped me to see it in Swedenborg's writings. … All our efforts to improve ourselves do not create an us-versus-God dualistic situation-but rather our efforts are a part of the working out of Divine Providence. (Van Dusen, ibid)
Van Dusen’s position of nonduality leads him to the notion that since God alone has power, “what we try to do” is actually “God doing through us.” Duality on the other hand, maintains a distinct separation between the motive we have (“what we try to do”) and God’s power that actually carries it out. The Writings reveal that God chooses which of our motives are carried out and which are unsuccessful or unfulfilled. God maintains us in freedom to persist or desist in any intention or choice, and looks at our motive behind the choice. The quality of this motive—good or evil, is attributed by God to each individual. The accumulation of all our choices is what makes up our character or spirit. This spiritual self is what lives after death and is either in heaven or hell depending on its accumulated character.
In view of this we cannot equate “what we try to do” (i.e., the character of the individual) with “God doing through us” (i.e., Divine Providence in managing all things). This duality remains forever distinct.
Examples of Clashing Concepts
God and Self
In nonduality, God is the only reality and the individual self is an illusion that vanishes upon enlightenment, leaving behind God alone. In duality, God and self have permanently distinct identity and existence, and the individual continues to evolve forever in the afterlife.
A Life of Prudence
In nonduality, our efforts at improving our character are ultimately and finally futile since everything about self is an illusion to be dissipated at enlightenment. In duality, our motives for the reformation and regeneration of character are empowered by God and brought to fruition and salvation. It is required that individual prudence be in the decisions we make, but what makes our decisions effective is the power of God operating in the background or from within. This required prudence is called in the Writings the “as-of-self” (DP 321). Nonduality sees this human prudence as illusory (maya), while duality sees it as that which ties each of us to God in a personal relationship by which we are saved. Nonduality replaces reformation and regeneration with detachment, meditation, and “mystical experience” as the path to salvation, liberation, bliss, and “cosmic divine consciousness.”
Appearances Are Real
The duality in the Writings affirm that the individual self (or spirit) is a property of the unique and immortal soul created by God at birth and temporarily tied to a physical body that allows interaction between self and the material environment. The life we are conscious of is an outward appearance of inner things in that we are not given to see the work of God in its detailed operation in the background of events. However this external appearance is not illusory, but real—a part of the reality that God creates and maintains on our behalf. In duality, all that God creates is by definition real or part of reality. The self (or “as-of-self”) is our individual unique identity or character; it is a real spiritual entity or “spirit.” The physical body is a real natural entity. Duality asserts our birth into dual citizenship: the body in the natural world; the mind in the spiritual world. The two are tied to each other by the Divine Laws of Correspondences. Nonduality insists on defining all temporary or changing things as unreality to be dissipated—since it makes permanence or changelessness a condition for reality. But duality accepts change and development as a property of reality.
In duality God is creator of a real universe in a rational order and for a loving purpose. The creator of reality cannot be part of creation but must be outside of it. The Writings teach the permanent duality of create and uncreate (DLW 44). All that is infinite and without a beginning are part of God and uncreate (not part of created reality)—love, good, truth, wisdom, life, light, heat, endeavour. These are infinite in God and have no beginning. All else is created, cannot be infinite, and has a beginning—matter, spirit, consciousness, intelligence, affections. Nonduality in the New Church mind would be in conflict with these categorical absolutes. Nonduality is in opposition to all the basic rational concepts in the Writings that the New Church mind must contain in order to regenerate and become heavenly. The ideas of nonduality cannot receive admittance into the atmosphere of the New Heavens where everything is based on eternal dualities--the Lord vs. angels, husbands vs. wives, heavenly things vs. hellish, truths vs. falsities, inmost heaven vs. middle heaven, those who are governors or princes in heaven vs. those who are governed by them, and numerous others).
Morality and Conscience
Moral decisions we make as-of-self are real events powered by God alone. Only within duality can this make sense. Thinking within nonduality we are compelled to say that God is real while our moral decisions (or prudence) are not since they are works of illusion. In other words, God cannot power an individual’s conscience if it is not real, for only real things can be empowered.
Danger Points
Many types of thinking based on nonduality pose certain dangers to the New Church mind if ideas are admitted uncritically or unknowingly. The nondual and the dual in the mind strive to annihilate each other since they are inherently opposed. The Writings teach that certain ideas can become impediments to one’s regeneration (AC 806, NJHD 21). For instance the notion that both good and evil come from the same source can weaken our resolve for character reformation. The Writings show that without regeneration of character we remain infernal from heredity and cannot be saved for eternal heavenly life (NJHD 186). Weakening the absolute duality of heaven and hell in our mind also weakens our motivation for resisting our inherited evils and struggling to obey the commandments.
Nonduality as a system of thought strives to turn categorical discrete degrees into a continuum. The existence of discrete degrees is known only from the Writings (DLW. 173-281): God vs. creation, angel vs. devil, male vs. female, self vs. Divinity, natural vs. spiritual. These elements are created discrete and remain permanently distinct. Nonduality works to replace the “vs.” with “and” while duality insists on absolute and permanent distinctions. Duality is made of categorical (non overlapping) distinctness while nonduality constantly pressures the mind towards similarity and commingling (as in universalism, pluralism, relativism). New Testament concepts of pure vs. impure, good vs. evil, truth vs. falsity, wolves vs. sheep, in the Church vs. outside, are systematically eroded or altogether transformed by nonduality into something else, less distinct, less permanent.
One of the most popular and influential promoter of nonduality in the American climate is Joseph Campbell whose books and audiotapes more than a decade after his passing on are still on the best seller charts. Here are thematic arguments from The Power of Myth. by Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers (Anchor Books; Reissue edition July 1991). I quote from a review by Douglas Groothuis of the Christian Research Institute (Accessed on the Web April 2002: http://www.equip.org/free/DC092.htm):
If you confess your sins you make yourself a sinner; if you confess your greatness you make yourself great. The "idea of sin puts you in a servile position throughout your life" (p. 56). He later redefines sin as a lack of knowledge, not as an ethical transgression: "Sin is simply a limiting factor that limits your consciousness and fixes it in an inappropriate condition" (p. 57). … Campbell believes our challenge is to say, "I know the center, and I know that good and evil are simply temporal aberrations and that, in God's view, there is no difference" (p. 66). In fact, "in God's view," you are "God, not in your ego, but in your deepest being, where you are at one with the nondual transcendent" (p. 211).
The Writings reveal that “Father” refers to the substance of Divine Love (or Good), which is the Lord’s inmost or Esse, while “Son” refers to its outward form called Divine Wisdom or Truth (Existere). Love and Wisdom are united as one in the Lord and proceed as one to create and maintain the universe (DLW 99). But in the unregenerate human mind they are separated in reception (love into the will and truth into the understanding). Regeneration becomes the process of reuniting these two so that the will from love acts together with the the truth in the understanding. This unity of functioning is called the church within where this love/truth duality is retained forever. It is the permanent distinctness of the elements in a unity that maintains its perfection (DP 4). A striking example from the Writings is the conjugial unity of the angelic couple by which husband and wife function as one (CL 184). Another well known example is the unity of the distinct heavenly societies by which they are integrated into the human form, creating the ever increasing perfection of the Grand Human in the spiritual world (AC 5377).
Nonduality as a system of thinking acts in opposition to these permanent dualities and strives to establish a continuity between them, fudging the categorical and absolute distinction. The New Church idea of unity or oneness between distinct elements is metamorphosed into a dissolution of distinctness, either into sameness (nonduality) or else “Emptiness” (unbounded, unqualifiable). The meaning of “oneness” is entirely different in the two systems of thought. There is no overlap possible, even in the same words (oneness, God, reality, spirit, bliss, love, self, sin, etc.).
It is prudent therefore for the New Church mind to be clearly aware of the hidden opposition when exposed to concepts of nonduality.
++++++++++++
Dr. Leon James is Professor of Psychology at the University of Hawaii. His articles on The Writings can be accessed on the Web at www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/swedenborg.html including an expanded version of this article.
I’d like to gratefully acknowledge the useful editorial help I received from Dr. Ian Thompson who maintains a Web site relating to Swedenborg at www.TheisticScience.org
Meditation...
If Meditation fails to attain its goal, it is in most cases because the person tires of making the needed effort, and returns to his ordinary state too soon. Success demands an untiring persistence, a refusal to get up from the seat until he is established in THAT.
...........Paul Brunton
...........Paul Brunton
My only wish...
Dear heart, where do you find
the courage to seek the Beloved
when you know He has annihilated
so many like you before?
I do not care, said my heart,
my only wish is to become
one with the Beloved.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"Rumi - Whispers of the Beloved"
Selected and translated by
Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi
Thorsons, London 1999
the courage to seek the Beloved
when you know He has annihilated
so many like you before?
I do not care, said my heart,
my only wish is to become
one with the Beloved.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"Rumi - Whispers of the Beloved"
Selected and translated by
Azima Melita Kolin and Maryam Mafi
Thorsons, London 1999
Steps...
Every man's path is for himself; let him accomplish his own desires that he may
thus be able to rise above them to the eternal goal.
Bowl of Saki, May 27, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
The sages have said, 'Rise above the earthly motives. Accomplish all you wish to
accomplish in life, whatever be the motive, and then that itself will lead you
to a stage from which you can rise above them, and above the earthly desires of
the body'. They have never said, 'Stop, and go into the jungle, and see life
from our point of view'. Everybody's path is for himself. Let everyone achieve
the fulfillment of his own desires so as to be able to rise above them to the
eternal goal.
All our experiences are nothing but preparation for something else. Nothing that
belongs to this world, however precious, must hinder one's path of progress. For
every step in the direction to that spiritual gain must be the aim of every
soul. ... Every belief and every experience for a wise person is a step of a
staircase. He has taken this step, there is another step for him to take. The
steps of the staircase are not made for one to stand there. They are just made
for one to pass, to go further. Because life is progress. Where there is no
progress there is no life.
thus be able to rise above them to the eternal goal.
Bowl of Saki, May 27, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
The sages have said, 'Rise above the earthly motives. Accomplish all you wish to
accomplish in life, whatever be the motive, and then that itself will lead you
to a stage from which you can rise above them, and above the earthly desires of
the body'. They have never said, 'Stop, and go into the jungle, and see life
from our point of view'. Everybody's path is for himself. Let everyone achieve
the fulfillment of his own desires so as to be able to rise above them to the
eternal goal.
All our experiences are nothing but preparation for something else. Nothing that
belongs to this world, however precious, must hinder one's path of progress. For
every step in the direction to that spiritual gain must be the aim of every
soul. ... Every belief and every experience for a wise person is a step of a
staircase. He has taken this step, there is another step for him to take. The
steps of the staircase are not made for one to stand there. They are just made
for one to pass, to go further. Because life is progress. Where there is no
progress there is no life.
Now...
"The entire history of life is revealing itself as your consciousness. It may appear as a past, the present, or future, but it is really the Here and Now unfolding to your awareness. It portrays the qualities of your own thoughts, the activities of your consciousness.
"If you are ever betrayed, it is because in your consciousness there is still some quality of thought betraying you. Every bit of error that happens to us in our experience is directly brought on by some state of consciousness of our own. Not that 'right thinking' stops it nor 'wrong thinking' causes it, but in individual consciousness are these latent traits and they set these events in motion."
-- from Joel Goldsmith's "Spiritual Interpretation of Scripture"
Chapter - Darkness to Light
"If you are ever betrayed, it is because in your consciousness there is still some quality of thought betraying you. Every bit of error that happens to us in our experience is directly brought on by some state of consciousness of our own. Not that 'right thinking' stops it nor 'wrong thinking' causes it, but in individual consciousness are these latent traits and they set these events in motion."
-- from Joel Goldsmith's "Spiritual Interpretation of Scripture"
Chapter - Darkness to Light
Non-Duality Awareness...
In certain remarkable Eastern spiritual teachings the entire path revolves around entering our inherent pure awareness, pure consciousness, pure being, and residing there. Seer and seen merge into a global awareness which excludes nothing, has no center and no separation between observer and observed. The ego, at least temporarily, evaporates. Unfiltered, unfettered consciousness replaces ego as the organizing structure of the person. Seeing reveals the pseudo-self of ego as an empty and illusory construction, instantly dismantled by the unifying wholeness of consciousness in which nothing can be truly separate. Instead of our awareness collapsing in egocentric identification with some distraction or problem, we remain in the authentic fullness of consciousness. At first, this realization of the non-dual might only be intellectual. When the true seeing opens, however, it is both a magnificent surprise and patently obvious. Problems dissolve, joy, wonder, and compassion arise naturally.
The extremely rare saint may, on the occasion of this first taste of non-dual awareness, spontaneously enter a stable, lasting and completely effortless abiding in pure awareness, in clear seeing. Such people inspire us with their teaching that enlightenment is at hand, is our true nature, that we need only let go and be fully in the moment.
The great majority of us, though, are not so spiritually gifted that we attain enlightenment on our first contact with pure awareness. We sink back to autopilot. We cannot learn to ride the bike of non-dual awareness without training wheels. If non-dual awareness is our only practice, we either find it rough sledding, fragmentary and momentary, or we delude ourselves into thinking we have been conscious when we have not.
We need an inner structure to enable us to balance between falling out of the present moment, back into the self-centered view on the one hand, and falling off into a semi-conscious absent-mindedness on the other. We need to contact, build, and organize our sensitive energies into a vehicle capable of supporting pure consciousness in a stable manner. So we focus on practices that involve the gradual cultivation of attention, contacting and organizing energies, body awareness, radical acceptance of ourselves and our situation, seeing the processes of attachment and identification operating within us, prayer, and the rest.
Non-dual awareness is not difficult to experience. We need only simplify into the moment, coming to rest in pure awareness itself by backtracking within our ordinary awareness to its natural, wide-open clarity. We go behind sensory experience, behind emotion, behind thought, behind our very self, into the now. We allow the clouds of thought and emotion and pain to float by without obscuring our presence, and we become that vast sky of unadorned awareness. Pure awareness precedes all; it forms the substrate that receives experience. This clear consciousness appears both wonderful and seductive because the relative ease of momentarily entering the utter satisfaction of non-dual awareness is matched by the ease of falling out of it. Non-dual awareness draws us to seek it directly. But to establish ourselves in awareness, we need a balanced path of cultivating our soul, our wholeness.
This conundrum has been widely debated in spiritual circles for millennia. In early Chinese Zen, for example, the discussion took the form of gradual cultivation versus sudden awakening. The wise, like the twelfth-century Korean Zen master Chinul, taught the necessity and complementarity of both. Sudden awakening into non-dual awareness bestows a first release from the egocentric grasping and rejection of experience. With this weight lifted, we can breathe freely the air of the Present. When we return to our usual state, our understanding has changed. From then on, the recognition of clear awareness as our own essence informs our pursuit of practices in the gradual cultivation of our being. Doubts dispelled, our faith and confidence in the spiritual pursuit grow unshakeable. Awakening recurs more frequently and for longer periods, and we discover the satisfaction of living in Presence. No longer divided inside, no longer focused on the division between our self and the rest of the world, we arrive at rest in the non-dual wholeness of awareness.
Yet non-dual awareness, pure consciousness is not the ultimate goal. We are here to serve a great Purpose. Living in awareness accords with and supports that Purpose in important and subtle ways. But our obligations do not end there. Respecting both the traditions of the East with their focus on being and those of the West with their focus on doing, we see that being is not enough. Purity of being, awareness, promotes the purification of our will, the letting go of attachments and egoism. Gradually opening our will, first to our own Self, our own individuality, and later to the Divine Will, gradually opening our heart to the Great Compassionate Heart of the World enables us to discover and create our destiny through our own unique service to the All.
...........from Innerfrontier.org
The extremely rare saint may, on the occasion of this first taste of non-dual awareness, spontaneously enter a stable, lasting and completely effortless abiding in pure awareness, in clear seeing. Such people inspire us with their teaching that enlightenment is at hand, is our true nature, that we need only let go and be fully in the moment.
The great majority of us, though, are not so spiritually gifted that we attain enlightenment on our first contact with pure awareness. We sink back to autopilot. We cannot learn to ride the bike of non-dual awareness without training wheels. If non-dual awareness is our only practice, we either find it rough sledding, fragmentary and momentary, or we delude ourselves into thinking we have been conscious when we have not.
We need an inner structure to enable us to balance between falling out of the present moment, back into the self-centered view on the one hand, and falling off into a semi-conscious absent-mindedness on the other. We need to contact, build, and organize our sensitive energies into a vehicle capable of supporting pure consciousness in a stable manner. So we focus on practices that involve the gradual cultivation of attention, contacting and organizing energies, body awareness, radical acceptance of ourselves and our situation, seeing the processes of attachment and identification operating within us, prayer, and the rest.
Non-dual awareness is not difficult to experience. We need only simplify into the moment, coming to rest in pure awareness itself by backtracking within our ordinary awareness to its natural, wide-open clarity. We go behind sensory experience, behind emotion, behind thought, behind our very self, into the now. We allow the clouds of thought and emotion and pain to float by without obscuring our presence, and we become that vast sky of unadorned awareness. Pure awareness precedes all; it forms the substrate that receives experience. This clear consciousness appears both wonderful and seductive because the relative ease of momentarily entering the utter satisfaction of non-dual awareness is matched by the ease of falling out of it. Non-dual awareness draws us to seek it directly. But to establish ourselves in awareness, we need a balanced path of cultivating our soul, our wholeness.
This conundrum has been widely debated in spiritual circles for millennia. In early Chinese Zen, for example, the discussion took the form of gradual cultivation versus sudden awakening. The wise, like the twelfth-century Korean Zen master Chinul, taught the necessity and complementarity of both. Sudden awakening into non-dual awareness bestows a first release from the egocentric grasping and rejection of experience. With this weight lifted, we can breathe freely the air of the Present. When we return to our usual state, our understanding has changed. From then on, the recognition of clear awareness as our own essence informs our pursuit of practices in the gradual cultivation of our being. Doubts dispelled, our faith and confidence in the spiritual pursuit grow unshakeable. Awakening recurs more frequently and for longer periods, and we discover the satisfaction of living in Presence. No longer divided inside, no longer focused on the division between our self and the rest of the world, we arrive at rest in the non-dual wholeness of awareness.
Yet non-dual awareness, pure consciousness is not the ultimate goal. We are here to serve a great Purpose. Living in awareness accords with and supports that Purpose in important and subtle ways. But our obligations do not end there. Respecting both the traditions of the East with their focus on being and those of the West with their focus on doing, we see that being is not enough. Purity of being, awareness, promotes the purification of our will, the letting go of attachments and egoism. Gradually opening our will, first to our own Self, our own individuality, and later to the Divine Will, gradually opening our heart to the Great Compassionate Heart of the World enables us to discover and create our destiny through our own unique service to the All.
...........from Innerfrontier.org
Is Love, an emotion?...
Love is definately more than an emotion, It is the state of non-self.. what you
think is emotion is actually the Freedom of non-self or what we call God.. we
call this mental state of Joy by many names but the most common is Love.. you
would gladly give up your most valuable possession (life) because of this Love
for your family and friends.. why are you not willing to give up your very life
Now? for this Love that we call God.. the altar that is used in religion is
really meant for the sacrifice and death of the false self.. and then
Unconditional Love is returned...........namaste, thomas
think is emotion is actually the Freedom of non-self or what we call God.. we
call this mental state of Joy by many names but the most common is Love.. you
would gladly give up your most valuable possession (life) because of this Love
for your family and friends.. why are you not willing to give up your very life
Now? for this Love that we call God.. the altar that is used in religion is
really meant for the sacrifice and death of the false self.. and then
Unconditional Love is returned...........namaste, thomas
The Voice...
When I have entered the Light of Divine Consciousness, I found mySelf as Light and Love for as far as Eternity stretched.. I had no eyes and yet I could see forever.. Unconditional Love was flowing around Me and through Me.. Information in the form of Divine Knowledge was flowing through Me and the rest of this Unending Light and Love.. I was identity within Reality.. Was I the entire Light and Love that only existed?.. I cound feel no other identities within the Light.. But, I decided to ask a question to the Light, to find if there was another Consciousness within this Light.. A Voice would answer My questions.. the Voice sounded male and spoke with a friendly tone.. How could I hear a Voice with no ears?.. Was I actually speaking to Myself as Consciousness?.. Thoughts of the self and Overself entered My Consciousness.. There is only One Self.. There is Only One Source.. Identity was created within Divine Consciousness as a method of Experiencing Duality as a way to Know Non-Duality and Love.. "Know Thyself" was the answer...........namaste, thomas
The Short Path...
The Short Path man ought not to depend on authorities, scriptures, rules, regulations, organizations, gurus, or writings. His past history may outwardly force such an association on him, but inwardly he will seek to liberate himself from it. For his ultimate aim is to reach a point where no interpreter, medium, or transmitter obtrudes between him and the Overself.
Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 1: Entering the Short Path > # 83 .... Paul Brunton
Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 1: Entering the Short Path > # 83 .... Paul Brunton
The Thinking Mind...
“Do not try to approach God with your thinking mind. It may only stimulate your intellectual ideas, activities, and beliefs. Try to approach God with your crying heart. It will awaken your soulful, spiritual consciousness.”
Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy
No opinion...
One of the by-products of an awakened state
is to simply view every event as an extension
of Consciousness and embrace what is--as is.
No judgment, no comparison, no opinion about
it, and no preference for how it should be.
- Satyam Nadeen
is to simply view every event as an extension
of Consciousness and embrace what is--as is.
No judgment, no comparison, no opinion about
it, and no preference for how it should be.
- Satyam Nadeen
Time and Work...
The time and work is within the mind.. years of meditation and contemplation just to dissolve the ego enough to finally surrender the final vestage to enter Reality.. even though identity remained, Grace given, allows that to experience the true essence of Light and Love.. never wishing to leave, time though not existing, manifests again to signal Your departure into matter.. Thoughts of Finality enter, only to open the question of, "Is there more?".. Only the complete disolution of identity is the more that is sought.. Pure Awareness and Pure Extinction call from the distance of duality.. Monotheism asks It's name and I shout back, "There is no name for Finality but Love"...........namaste, thomas
Logic...
Logic is such a strange word.. we think of the logic of thinking as a
scientific approach to Truth.. But, is it logical to be apart from the Only
Energy within the Universe.. we can logic ourselves to death, we can play with
words to build a faulty foundation on sand or we can twist logic to start wars
and enhance our false selves.. Is it logical that we must die, so that we must
Live.. Is it logical that we endure the pain of separation and non-Love even
though we have the answers and paths to Freedom.. No, there is not much power in
logic.. It is just a lot more thoughts to bounce against each other.. God is
beyond logic..God Is.........namaste, thomas
scientific approach to Truth.. But, is it logical to be apart from the Only
Energy within the Universe.. we can logic ourselves to death, we can play with
words to build a faulty foundation on sand or we can twist logic to start wars
and enhance our false selves.. Is it logical that we must die, so that we must
Live.. Is it logical that we endure the pain of separation and non-Love even
though we have the answers and paths to Freedom.. No, there is not much power in
logic.. It is just a lot more thoughts to bounce against each other.. God is
beyond logic..God Is.........namaste, thomas
Alan Watts...
From: 'The Wisdom of Insecurity':
"...when you really understand that you are
what you see and know, you do not run around
the country-side thinking, 'I am all this.'
There is simply 'all this.'
"...our experience is altogether momentary.
From one point of view, each moment is so
elusive and so brief that we cannot even
think about it before it has gone. From
another point of view, this moment is always
here, since we know no other moment than the
present moment. It is always dying, always
becoming past more rapidly than imagination
can conceive. Yet at the same time it is
always being born, always new, emerging just
as rapidly from that complete unknown we
call the future. Thinking about it almost
makes you breathless."
"...there is no formula for generating the
authentic warmth of love. It cannot be copied.
You cannot talk yourself into it or rouse it
by straining at the emotions or by dedicating
yourself solemnly to the service of mankind.
Everyone has love, but it can only come out
when he is convinced of the impossibility and
the frustration of trying to love himself.
This conviction will not come through
condemnations, through hating oneself, through
calling self-love all the bad names in the
universe. It comes only in the awareness that
one has no self to love."
"We are accustomed to think that, if there
is any freedom at all, it resides, not in
nature, but in the separate human will and
its power of choice.
But what we ordinarily mean by choice is not
freedom. Choices are usually decisions
motivated by pleasure and pain, and the
divided mind acts with the sole purpose
of getting 'I' into pleasure and out of pain.
But the best pleasures are those for which we
do not plan, and the worst part of pain is
expecting it and trying to get away from it
when it has come. You cannot plan to be happy.
You can plan to exist, but in themselves
existence and non-existence are neither
pleasurable nor painful..."
"In the strictest sense, we cannot actually
think about life and reality at all, because
this would have to include thinking about
thinking, thinking about thinking about
thinking, and so *ad infinitum*. One can
only attempt a rational, descriptive philosophy
of the universe on the assumption that one is
totally separate from it. But if you and your
thoughts are part of this universe, you cannot
stand outside them to describe them. This is
why all philosophical and theological systems
must ultimately fall apart. To 'know' reality
you cannot stand outside and define it; you
must enter into it, be it, and feel it.
Speculative philosophy, as we know it in the
West, is almost entirely a symptom of the
divided mind, of man trying to stand outside
himself and his experience in order to verbalize
and define it. It is a vicious circle, like
everything else which the divided mind attempts."
"The common error of ordinary religious
practice is to mistake the symbol for the
reality, to look at the finger pointing
the way and then to suck it for comfort
rather than follow it."
"...when you really understand that you are
what you see and know, you do not run around
the country-side thinking, 'I am all this.'
There is simply 'all this.'
"...our experience is altogether momentary.
From one point of view, each moment is so
elusive and so brief that we cannot even
think about it before it has gone. From
another point of view, this moment is always
here, since we know no other moment than the
present moment. It is always dying, always
becoming past more rapidly than imagination
can conceive. Yet at the same time it is
always being born, always new, emerging just
as rapidly from that complete unknown we
call the future. Thinking about it almost
makes you breathless."
"...there is no formula for generating the
authentic warmth of love. It cannot be copied.
You cannot talk yourself into it or rouse it
by straining at the emotions or by dedicating
yourself solemnly to the service of mankind.
Everyone has love, but it can only come out
when he is convinced of the impossibility and
the frustration of trying to love himself.
This conviction will not come through
condemnations, through hating oneself, through
calling self-love all the bad names in the
universe. It comes only in the awareness that
one has no self to love."
"We are accustomed to think that, if there
is any freedom at all, it resides, not in
nature, but in the separate human will and
its power of choice.
But what we ordinarily mean by choice is not
freedom. Choices are usually decisions
motivated by pleasure and pain, and the
divided mind acts with the sole purpose
of getting 'I' into pleasure and out of pain.
But the best pleasures are those for which we
do not plan, and the worst part of pain is
expecting it and trying to get away from it
when it has come. You cannot plan to be happy.
You can plan to exist, but in themselves
existence and non-existence are neither
pleasurable nor painful..."
"In the strictest sense, we cannot actually
think about life and reality at all, because
this would have to include thinking about
thinking, thinking about thinking about
thinking, and so *ad infinitum*. One can
only attempt a rational, descriptive philosophy
of the universe on the assumption that one is
totally separate from it. But if you and your
thoughts are part of this universe, you cannot
stand outside them to describe them. This is
why all philosophical and theological systems
must ultimately fall apart. To 'know' reality
you cannot stand outside and define it; you
must enter into it, be it, and feel it.
Speculative philosophy, as we know it in the
West, is almost entirely a symptom of the
divided mind, of man trying to stand outside
himself and his experience in order to verbalize
and define it. It is a vicious circle, like
everything else which the divided mind attempts."
"The common error of ordinary religious
practice is to mistake the symbol for the
reality, to look at the finger pointing
the way and then to suck it for comfort
rather than follow it."
Definitions and Beliefs...
By overlaying a subjective grid work on the
world through your definitions and beliefs, you
vainly try to artificially divide the indivisible.
Beneath all of your ego-based interpretations,
however, the Absolute persists undisturbed and is
completely untouched by everything that you think,
feel, say and do.
Meanwhile, though, you're still struggling to
frantically write the story of your life on the watery
surface of an Eternal Ocean.
But you're using an icicle pen!
- Chuck Hillig
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Seeds for the Soul
Chuck Hillig
Black Dot Publications, 2003
world through your definitions and beliefs, you
vainly try to artificially divide the indivisible.
Beneath all of your ego-based interpretations,
however, the Absolute persists undisturbed and is
completely untouched by everything that you think,
feel, say and do.
Meanwhile, though, you're still struggling to
frantically write the story of your life on the watery
surface of an Eternal Ocean.
But you're using an icicle pen!
- Chuck Hillig
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Seeds for the Soul
Chuck Hillig
Black Dot Publications, 2003
What is Love?...
Love is definately more than an emotion, It is the state of non-self.. what you think is emotion is actually the Freedom of non-self or what we call God.. we call this mental state of Joy by many names but the most common is Love.. you would gladly give up your most valuable possession (life) because of this Love for your family and friends.. why are you not willing to give up your very life Now? for this Love that we call God.. the altar that is used in religion is really meant for the sacrifice and death of the false self.. and then Unconditional Love is returned...........namaste, thomas
In the Silence...
Deafened by the voice of desire
you are unaware the Beloved lives
in the core of your heart.
Stop the noise and
you will hear His voice
in the silence.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Rumi: Hidden Music
Translated by Azima Melita Kolin
and Maryam Mafi
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001
you are unaware the Beloved lives
in the core of your heart.
Stop the noise and
you will hear His voice
in the silence.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Rumi: Hidden Music
Translated by Azima Melita Kolin
and Maryam Mafi
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001
The Final Journey...
When
souls leave the body in the near death experience, they are naturally drawn to
the frequency of non-self (Love) that they Are.. Therefore, there are many
frequencies of existence.. as Jesus said:" There are many mansions in My
Father's Kingdom".. Complete surrender of the belief in separate self brings You
into the Light and Love called Divine Consciousness which is Reality.. Although,
we are without the false self, we still believe that we have a separate
identity.. as a drop of water in the ocean.. The final journey is to Know that
You are actually the Ocean.........namaste, thomas
souls leave the body in the near death experience, they are naturally drawn to
the frequency of non-self (Love) that they Are.. Therefore, there are many
frequencies of existence.. as Jesus said:" There are many mansions in My
Father's Kingdom".. Complete surrender of the belief in separate self brings You
into the Light and Love called Divine Consciousness which is Reality.. Although,
we are without the false self, we still believe that we have a separate
identity.. as a drop of water in the ocean.. The final journey is to Know that
You are actually the Ocean.........namaste, thomas
What is God?...
I like to keep things very
simple by using as few words as possible.... The Truth is that God is the very
Energy of Love.. This is the bonding Energy of the Universe and the family..
Love is the desire that follows our mind and our desires.. the point is, God is
Love and anytime that you see Love or feel Love, you see and feel God..when you
do not see Love,then you see ego, or what is known as evil...........namaste,
thomas
simple by using as few words as possible.... The Truth is that God is the very
Energy of Love.. This is the bonding Energy of the Universe and the family..
Love is the desire that follows our mind and our desires.. the point is, God is
Love and anytime that you see Love or feel Love, you see and feel God..when you
do not see Love,then you see ego, or what is known as evil...........namaste,
thomas
The Overself...
The Overself remains always the same and never changes in any way. It is the hunger for this quality, thought of as "peace of mind," which drives men to seek the Overself amid the vicissitudes of health or fortune which they experience.(P)
— Notebooks Category 24: The Peace within You > Chapter 4: Seek the Deeper Stillness > # 123.........Paul Brunton
— Notebooks Category 24: The Peace within You > Chapter 4: Seek the Deeper Stillness > # 123.........Paul Brunton
The Great Way...
This is from 'The Spirit of Tao'
Trans/edited by Thomas Cleary
The Great Way
The Great Way is very difficult to express in words. Because it
is hard to speak of, just look into beginninglessness, the
beginningless beginning. When you reach the point where there
is not even any beginninglessness, and not even any nonexistence
of beginninglessness, this is the primordial. The primordial Way
cannot be assessed; there is nothing in it that can be assessed.
What verbal explanation is there for it? We cannot explain it,
yet we do explain it-where does the explanation come from?
The Way that can be explained is only in doing. What is doing?
It is attained by nondoing. This nondoing begins in doing.
Trans/edited by Thomas Cleary
The Great Way
The Great Way is very difficult to express in words. Because it
is hard to speak of, just look into beginninglessness, the
beginningless beginning. When you reach the point where there
is not even any beginninglessness, and not even any nonexistence
of beginninglessness, this is the primordial. The primordial Way
cannot be assessed; there is nothing in it that can be assessed.
What verbal explanation is there for it? We cannot explain it,
yet we do explain it-where does the explanation come from?
The Way that can be explained is only in doing. What is doing?
It is attained by nondoing. This nondoing begins in doing.
Castles in the Air...
If you have built castles in the air,
your work need not be lost; that is where they should be.
Now put the foundations under them..........
from the "Conclusion" to Walden ... Henry David Thoreau
your work need not be lost; that is where they should be.
Now put the foundations under them..........
from the "Conclusion" to Walden ... Henry David Thoreau
Literary entertainment...
"The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next." ......
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Paul Brunton Biography from wikipedia...
Paul Brunton was born in London in 1898. He served in a tank division during the First World War, and later devoted himself to mysticism and came into contact with Theosophists. Being partner of an occult bookshop, The Atlantis Bookshop, in Bloomsbury, Brunton came into contact with both the literary and occult British intelligentsia of the 1920s. In the early 1930s, Brunton embarked on a voyage to India, which brought him into contact with such luminaries as Meher Baba, Sri Shankaracharya of Kancheepuram and Sri Ramana Maharshi. Brunton's first visit to Sri Ramana's ashram took place in 1931. During this visit, Brunton was accompanied by a Buddhist Bhikshu, formerly a military officer but meanwhile known as Swami Prajnananda, the founder of the English Ashram in Rangoon. Brunton asked several questions, including "What is the way to God-realization?" and Maharshi said: "Vichara, asking yourself the 'Who am I?' enquiry into the nature of your Self."[1]
Brunton has been credited with introducing Ramana Maharshi to the West through his books "A Search in Secret India" and "The Secret Path".[2]
One day—sitting with Ramana Maharshi—Brunton had an experience which Steve Taylor names "an experience of genuine enlightenment which changed him forever". Brunton describes it in the following way:
I find myself outside the rim of world consciousness. The planet which has so far harboured me disappears. I am in the midst of an ocean of blazing light. The latter, I feel rather than think, is the primeval stuff out of which worlds are created, the first state of matter. It stretches away into untellable infinite space, incredibly alive.[3]
The times of World War II Brunton spent in India, being hosted a guest by the Maharaja of Mysore, His Highness Sri.Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV.[4][5] He dedicated his book "The Quest of the Overself" to the Maharaja and when the Maharaja died in 1940, he was present at his funeral.
After two decades of successful writing, Brunton retired from publishing books and devoted himself to writing essays and notes. Upon his death in 1981 in Vevey, Switzerland, it was noted that in the period since the last published book in 1952, he had rendered about 20,000 pages of philosophical writing.
A longtime friend of Paul Brunton, philosopher Anthony Damiani, Founder of Wisdom's Goldenrod Center for Philosophic Studies in 1972,[6] coordinated the publishing effort together with a team of people including Paul Cash and Timothy Smith. The Swedish-American publisher Robert Larson started publishing the 16-volume set in 1984.
[edit] The Hidden Teachings Beyond YogaIf Brunton can not be credited with introducing Yoga to the West because of the existence of other previous luminaries such as Blavatsky, Vivekananda and Yogananda, at least he holds a preeminent position in bringing to the West the best the Orient has to offer: the doctrine of Mentalism. No other writer but Brunton has declared Mentalism to be the esoteric doctrine of the Orient. Brunton is also the only writer to differentiate Oriental Mentalism from Berkeley's.[7]
As the theory of relativity, according to Einstein, brings space and time together so does mentalism unite spirit and matter; this phenomenon is explained by Brunton as being inherent in imagination.[8]
Paul Brunton expounds the doctrine of mentalism in his magnum opus, first in part one which is introductory and preparatory titled The Hidden Teachings Beyond Yoga and last but not least in a revelatory work named The Wisdom of the Overself. According to Joscelyn Godwin, "...Since discovering Brunton's work in the 1960's I have found no reason to discard their philosophical principles."[9]
[edit] AssociationsIn the 1940s and 1950s, Brunton lived with American author and former psychoanalyst Jeffrey Masson, the son of a Jewish American friend of Brunton,[10] as Masson's parents were among a handful of Brunton's close disciples. Masson published a memoir of his childhood under the title My Father's Guru. Initially influenced by Brunton, Masson gradually became disillusioned with him. According to Masson, Brunton singled him out as a potential heir to his spiritual kingdom. In 1956, Brunton decided that a third world war was imminent and the Massons moved to Montevideo, since this location was considered safe. From Uruguay, Masson went at Brunton's bidding to study Sanskrit at Harvard. Brunton himself did not move to South America, instead spending some time living in New Zealand.[11] Masson subsequently became proficient at Sanskrit, and realized that Brunton did not have the facility with the language that he claimed.[12]
[edit] See alsoSelf-enquiry
[edit] Bibliography[edit] BooksAre You Upward Bound with William G. Fern (1931)
A Search in Secret India (1934)
The Secret Path (1935)
A Search in Secret Egypt (1936)
A Message from Arunachala (1936)
A Hermit in the Himalayas (1936)
The Quest of the Overself (1937)
Indian Philosophy and Modern Culture (1939)
The Inner Reality (1939) [published in the U.S. as Discover Yourself, same year]
Hidden Teaching Beyond Yoga (1941) [13]
Wisdom of the Overself (1943)
Spiritual Crisis of Man (1952)
[edit] MiscellaneousBrunton, Paul. 1975. "A Living Sage of South India" in The Sage of Kanchi New Delhi: Arnold-Heinemann, New Delhi. ed by T.M.P. Mahadevan, chapter 2
Brunton, Paul. 1959, 1987. Introduction to Fundamentals of Yoga by Rammurti S. Mishra, M.D. New York; Harmony Books
Brunton, Paul. 1937. "Western Thought and Eastern Culture" The Cornhill Magazine
Brunton, Paul. 1951. Introduction to Wood, Ernest Practical Yoga London: Rider
Plus articles in "Success Magazine", "Occult Review", "The Aryan Path", &c.
[edit] Posthumously Published TextsEssays on the Quest (1984)
Essential Readings
Conscious Immortality [14]
Notebooks of Paul Brunton (1984–88)
[edit] Further readingKenneth Thurston Hurst, Paul Brunton: A Personal View, 1989, ISBN 0-943914-49-3 [15]
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, My Father's Guru: A Journey Through Spirituality and Disillusion, Addison-Wesley (1993), ISBN 0-201-56778-4, (new edition 2003 by Ballantine/Random House)
Annie Cahn Fung, Paul Brunton A Bridge Between India and the West. A doctoral thesis presented to the Department of Religious Anthropology Universite de Paris IV Sorbonne, 1992, online text, published by wisdomsgoldenrod
J. Glenn Friesen: Studies Related to Paul Brunton, online text
[edit] Footnotes1.^ Description of the visit and reproduction of one of the dialogues with the Maharshi, done from rough notes
2.^ Kamath, M.V.; Kher, V.B. (2003). Sai Baba of Shirdi: A Unique Saint. Jaico Publishing House. p. 298. ISBN 8172240301. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZcEJn3MLjcIC&pg=PA298&dq=Paul+Brunton+biography&lr=#v=onepage&q=Paul%20Brunton%20biography&f=false. "Ramana Maharshi...was revealed to the wider world outside India by Paul Brunton..."
3.^ Paul Brunton in his book A Search in Secret India, p.305, cited by Steve Taylor in his article Satsang The Power of Spiritual Presence /in New Dawn Magazine No. 101 (Mar-Apr 2007)
4.^ Jeffrey M. Masson (1999), Der Guru meines Vaters, Eine Kindheit mit Paul Brunton, Berlin, Theseus, ISBN 3-89620-144-1, p. 25
5.^ Annie Cahn Fung, Paul Brunton A Bridge Between India and the West, Part I: Genesis of a Quest, Chapter 3: In Mysore
6.^ Wisdom's Goldenrod Center for Philosophic Studies
7.^ Mansfield, Victor (1995). Synchronicity, science, and soul-making. p. 195. ISBN 0812693041. http://books.google.com/books?id=jSf_jIN4Yt8C&pg=PA195&dq=Paul+Brunton+mentalism#v=onepage&q=Paul%20Brunton%20mentalism&f=false. "The world is the invention of Universal Mind."
8.^ Feuerstein, Georg (1997). Lucid Waking. Inner Traditions/Bear & Co.. pp. 157–158. ISBN 0892816132. http://books.google.com/books?id=jMepDq0yiioC&pg=PA157&dq=Paul+Brunton+mentalism&lr=#v=onepage&q=Paul%20Brunton%20mentalism&f=false. "We like to reiterate that 'everything is relative'..."
9.^ Godwin, Joscelyn (2007). The Golden Thread. Quest Books. p. 186. ISBN 0835608602. http://books.google.com/books?id=bt7YY7dQRCMC&pg=PA186&dq=Paul+Brunton+mentalism&lr=#v=onepage&q=Paul%20Brunton%20mentalism&f=false. "My mentalistic position is not based on any academic training in philosophy..."
10.^ Storr, Anthony (1997). Feet of clay. Simon & Schuster. p. 162. ISBN 0684834955. http://books.google.com/books?id=XxUay6uxp3EC&pg=PA162&dq=Paul+Brunton+Jeffrey+Masson#v=onepage&q=Paul%20Brunton%20Jeffrey%20Masson&f=fasle. "He was so ashamed of being half-Jewish that he had a cosmetic operation on his nose."
11.^ "In 1963, after several years of travelling and living in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, Brunton withdrew to the serenity of the Swiss Alps." Adyar online
12.^ Yoga Journal. 112. Active Interest Media Inc.. Sep-Oct 1993. p. 116. ISSN 0191-0965. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZukDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA116&dq=Paul+Brunton+Jeffrey+Masson#v=onepage&q=Paul%20Brunton%20Jeffrey%20Masson&f=false. "This is a scathing account of growing up with a guru in the house."
13.^ Some information
14.^ Excerpts
15.^ Here, in his son's account, is Brunton's description of an illumination that came upon him after years of study. Excerpt
Brunton has been credited with introducing Ramana Maharshi to the West through his books "A Search in Secret India" and "The Secret Path".[2]
One day—sitting with Ramana Maharshi—Brunton had an experience which Steve Taylor names "an experience of genuine enlightenment which changed him forever". Brunton describes it in the following way:
I find myself outside the rim of world consciousness. The planet which has so far harboured me disappears. I am in the midst of an ocean of blazing light. The latter, I feel rather than think, is the primeval stuff out of which worlds are created, the first state of matter. It stretches away into untellable infinite space, incredibly alive.[3]
The times of World War II Brunton spent in India, being hosted a guest by the Maharaja of Mysore, His Highness Sri.Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV.[4][5] He dedicated his book "The Quest of the Overself" to the Maharaja and when the Maharaja died in 1940, he was present at his funeral.
After two decades of successful writing, Brunton retired from publishing books and devoted himself to writing essays and notes. Upon his death in 1981 in Vevey, Switzerland, it was noted that in the period since the last published book in 1952, he had rendered about 20,000 pages of philosophical writing.
A longtime friend of Paul Brunton, philosopher Anthony Damiani, Founder of Wisdom's Goldenrod Center for Philosophic Studies in 1972,[6] coordinated the publishing effort together with a team of people including Paul Cash and Timothy Smith. The Swedish-American publisher Robert Larson started publishing the 16-volume set in 1984.
[edit] The Hidden Teachings Beyond YogaIf Brunton can not be credited with introducing Yoga to the West because of the existence of other previous luminaries such as Blavatsky, Vivekananda and Yogananda, at least he holds a preeminent position in bringing to the West the best the Orient has to offer: the doctrine of Mentalism. No other writer but Brunton has declared Mentalism to be the esoteric doctrine of the Orient. Brunton is also the only writer to differentiate Oriental Mentalism from Berkeley's.[7]
As the theory of relativity, according to Einstein, brings space and time together so does mentalism unite spirit and matter; this phenomenon is explained by Brunton as being inherent in imagination.[8]
Paul Brunton expounds the doctrine of mentalism in his magnum opus, first in part one which is introductory and preparatory titled The Hidden Teachings Beyond Yoga and last but not least in a revelatory work named The Wisdom of the Overself. According to Joscelyn Godwin, "...Since discovering Brunton's work in the 1960's I have found no reason to discard their philosophical principles."[9]
[edit] AssociationsIn the 1940s and 1950s, Brunton lived with American author and former psychoanalyst Jeffrey Masson, the son of a Jewish American friend of Brunton,[10] as Masson's parents were among a handful of Brunton's close disciples. Masson published a memoir of his childhood under the title My Father's Guru. Initially influenced by Brunton, Masson gradually became disillusioned with him. According to Masson, Brunton singled him out as a potential heir to his spiritual kingdom. In 1956, Brunton decided that a third world war was imminent and the Massons moved to Montevideo, since this location was considered safe. From Uruguay, Masson went at Brunton's bidding to study Sanskrit at Harvard. Brunton himself did not move to South America, instead spending some time living in New Zealand.[11] Masson subsequently became proficient at Sanskrit, and realized that Brunton did not have the facility with the language that he claimed.[12]
[edit] See alsoSelf-enquiry
[edit] Bibliography[edit] BooksAre You Upward Bound with William G. Fern (1931)
A Search in Secret India (1934)
The Secret Path (1935)
A Search in Secret Egypt (1936)
A Message from Arunachala (1936)
A Hermit in the Himalayas (1936)
The Quest of the Overself (1937)
Indian Philosophy and Modern Culture (1939)
The Inner Reality (1939) [published in the U.S. as Discover Yourself, same year]
Hidden Teaching Beyond Yoga (1941) [13]
Wisdom of the Overself (1943)
Spiritual Crisis of Man (1952)
[edit] MiscellaneousBrunton, Paul. 1975. "A Living Sage of South India" in The Sage of Kanchi New Delhi: Arnold-Heinemann, New Delhi. ed by T.M.P. Mahadevan, chapter 2
Brunton, Paul. 1959, 1987. Introduction to Fundamentals of Yoga by Rammurti S. Mishra, M.D. New York; Harmony Books
Brunton, Paul. 1937. "Western Thought and Eastern Culture" The Cornhill Magazine
Brunton, Paul. 1951. Introduction to Wood, Ernest Practical Yoga London: Rider
Plus articles in "Success Magazine", "Occult Review", "The Aryan Path", &c.
[edit] Posthumously Published TextsEssays on the Quest (1984)
Essential Readings
Conscious Immortality [14]
Notebooks of Paul Brunton (1984–88)
[edit] Further readingKenneth Thurston Hurst, Paul Brunton: A Personal View, 1989, ISBN 0-943914-49-3 [15]
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, My Father's Guru: A Journey Through Spirituality and Disillusion, Addison-Wesley (1993), ISBN 0-201-56778-4, (new edition 2003 by Ballantine/Random House)
Annie Cahn Fung, Paul Brunton A Bridge Between India and the West. A doctoral thesis presented to the Department of Religious Anthropology Universite de Paris IV Sorbonne, 1992, online text, published by wisdomsgoldenrod
J. Glenn Friesen: Studies Related to Paul Brunton, online text
[edit] Footnotes1.^ Description of the visit and reproduction of one of the dialogues with the Maharshi, done from rough notes
2.^ Kamath, M.V.; Kher, V.B. (2003). Sai Baba of Shirdi: A Unique Saint. Jaico Publishing House. p. 298. ISBN 8172240301. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZcEJn3MLjcIC&pg=PA298&dq=Paul+Brunton+biography&lr=#v=onepage&q=Paul%20Brunton%20biography&f=false. "Ramana Maharshi...was revealed to the wider world outside India by Paul Brunton..."
3.^ Paul Brunton in his book A Search in Secret India, p.305, cited by Steve Taylor in his article Satsang The Power of Spiritual Presence /in New Dawn Magazine No. 101 (Mar-Apr 2007)
4.^ Jeffrey M. Masson (1999), Der Guru meines Vaters, Eine Kindheit mit Paul Brunton, Berlin, Theseus, ISBN 3-89620-144-1, p. 25
5.^ Annie Cahn Fung, Paul Brunton A Bridge Between India and the West, Part I: Genesis of a Quest, Chapter 3: In Mysore
6.^ Wisdom's Goldenrod Center for Philosophic Studies
7.^ Mansfield, Victor (1995). Synchronicity, science, and soul-making. p. 195. ISBN 0812693041. http://books.google.com/books?id=jSf_jIN4Yt8C&pg=PA195&dq=Paul+Brunton+mentalism#v=onepage&q=Paul%20Brunton%20mentalism&f=false. "The world is the invention of Universal Mind."
8.^ Feuerstein, Georg (1997). Lucid Waking. Inner Traditions/Bear & Co.. pp. 157–158. ISBN 0892816132. http://books.google.com/books?id=jMepDq0yiioC&pg=PA157&dq=Paul+Brunton+mentalism&lr=#v=onepage&q=Paul%20Brunton%20mentalism&f=false. "We like to reiterate that 'everything is relative'..."
9.^ Godwin, Joscelyn (2007). The Golden Thread. Quest Books. p. 186. ISBN 0835608602. http://books.google.com/books?id=bt7YY7dQRCMC&pg=PA186&dq=Paul+Brunton+mentalism&lr=#v=onepage&q=Paul%20Brunton%20mentalism&f=false. "My mentalistic position is not based on any academic training in philosophy..."
10.^ Storr, Anthony (1997). Feet of clay. Simon & Schuster. p. 162. ISBN 0684834955. http://books.google.com/books?id=XxUay6uxp3EC&pg=PA162&dq=Paul+Brunton+Jeffrey+Masson#v=onepage&q=Paul%20Brunton%20Jeffrey%20Masson&f=fasle. "He was so ashamed of being half-Jewish that he had a cosmetic operation on his nose."
11.^ "In 1963, after several years of travelling and living in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, Brunton withdrew to the serenity of the Swiss Alps." Adyar online
12.^ Yoga Journal. 112. Active Interest Media Inc.. Sep-Oct 1993. p. 116. ISSN 0191-0965. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZukDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA116&dq=Paul+Brunton+Jeffrey+Masson#v=onepage&q=Paul%20Brunton%20Jeffrey%20Masson&f=false. "This is a scathing account of growing up with a guru in the house."
13.^ Some information
14.^ Excerpts
15.^ Here, in his son's account, is Brunton's description of an illumination that came upon him after years of study. Excerpt
You Are Life Itself...
If you want to be free, you cannot hide from anything. Many spiritual seekers are using spiritual practices as a means to avoid many aspects of themselves.
The problem with this is that as long as you are avoiding anything, you are not living in truth. You are avoiding truth. No one ever became enlightened by avoiding truth.
If you want to be free, then you must face yourself and face your life as it is. Do not use spirituality or spiritual experience as something to hide behind. As long as you are avoiding parts of yourself, or life in general, then even very profound spiritual experiences and revelations will have very little permanent effect on you.
Do not simply seek to transcend life, but realize that you are all of Life. You are Life itself.
~ From: The Impact of Awakening, by Adyashanti www.adyashanti.org
The problem with this is that as long as you are avoiding anything, you are not living in truth. You are avoiding truth. No one ever became enlightened by avoiding truth.
If you want to be free, then you must face yourself and face your life as it is. Do not use spirituality or spiritual experience as something to hide behind. As long as you are avoiding parts of yourself, or life in general, then even very profound spiritual experiences and revelations will have very little permanent effect on you.
Do not simply seek to transcend life, but realize that you are all of Life. You are Life itself.
~ From: The Impact of Awakening, by Adyashanti www.adyashanti.org
Undivided...
"Undivided, yet appears as if divided in beings; He, the object of knowledge, is the creator, sustainer, and destroyer of (all) beings."
Bhagavad Gita
Bhagavad Gita
Written on a hut wall...
"If you want to be a mountain dweller...
no need to trek to India to find a mountain...
I've got a thousand peaks
to pick from, right here in this lake.
Fragrant grasses, white clouds,
to hold me here.
What holds you there,
world-dweller?"
Chiao Jan (730 - 799)
from _The Shambhala Anthology of Chinese Poetry_
Edited by J. P. Seaton
http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/J/JanChiao/InscribedonW.htm
no need to trek to India to find a mountain...
I've got a thousand peaks
to pick from, right here in this lake.
Fragrant grasses, white clouds,
to hold me here.
What holds you there,
world-dweller?"
Chiao Jan (730 - 799)
from _The Shambhala Anthology of Chinese Poetry_
Edited by J. P. Seaton
http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/J/JanChiao/InscribedonW.htm
The Lover of this World...
The lover of this world is like someone in love
with a wall illuminated by sunrays; he doesn't
realise that the radiance and the splendor do
not come from the wall but from the sun; he gives
his heart to the wall and when at sunset the rays
of sun disappear, he is in despair.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Muriel Maufroy
"Breathing Truth - Quotations from Jalaluddin Rumi"
Sanyar Press - London, 1997
with a wall illuminated by sunrays; he doesn't
realise that the radiance and the splendor do
not come from the wall but from the sun; he gives
his heart to the wall and when at sunset the rays
of sun disappear, he is in despair.
- Rumi
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Muriel Maufroy
"Breathing Truth - Quotations from Jalaluddin Rumi"
Sanyar Press - London, 1997
Time does not exist here ...
Where does the whole of samsara, all animals
and plants, all concepts, trees, and birds come from?
There is only one Source: return to it, merge in it.
Know what it is and everything is It itself.
There is no difference between you and what you call other!
Know this and you will speak to all beings;
every rock, tree, and animal at the same time
because time does not exist here.
Time does not exist here - Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
and plants, all concepts, trees, and birds come from?
There is only one Source: return to it, merge in it.
Know what it is and everything is It itself.
There is no difference between you and what you call other!
Know this and you will speak to all beings;
every rock, tree, and animal at the same time
because time does not exist here.
Time does not exist here - Papaji
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
"The Truth Is"
Sri H.W.L. Poonja
Yudhishtara, 1995
The Thought called "I"...
"The first and foremost of all thoughts that arise in the mind is the primal `I'
thought. It is only after the rise or origin of the `I' thought that innumerable
other thoughts arise. Search by means of a deeply introverted mind, where from
this `I' arises. If we go inward questing for the source of the `I', the `I'
topples down, and immediately another entity will reveal itself, proclaiming,
`I!, I!'. Even though it also emerges, saying, `I', it does not connote the ego,
but the one, perfect existence."
~ Ramana Maharshi
thought. It is only after the rise or origin of the `I' thought that innumerable
other thoughts arise. Search by means of a deeply introverted mind, where from
this `I' arises. If we go inward questing for the source of the `I', the `I'
topples down, and immediately another entity will reveal itself, proclaiming,
`I!, I!'. Even though it also emerges, saying, `I', it does not connote the ego,
but the one, perfect existence."
~ Ramana Maharshi
Beyond the mind of Thought...
"There is something.
Much too vast to put into words.
There is a tremendous reservoir, as it were,
which if the human mind can touch it, reveals something which no intellectual mythology
- invention, supposition, dogma - can ever reveal.
I am not making a mystery of it ... Either one creates a mystery when there isn't one
or there is a mystery which you have to approach with extraordinary delicacy and hesitancy,
and, you know, tentativeness.
And the conscious mind can't do this. It is there but you cannot come to it,
you cannot invite it. It’s not progressive achievement.
There is something but the brain can't understand it."
Krishnamurti
Much too vast to put into words.
There is a tremendous reservoir, as it were,
which if the human mind can touch it, reveals something which no intellectual mythology
- invention, supposition, dogma - can ever reveal.
I am not making a mystery of it ... Either one creates a mystery when there isn't one
or there is a mystery which you have to approach with extraordinary delicacy and hesitancy,
and, you know, tentativeness.
And the conscious mind can't do this. It is there but you cannot come to it,
you cannot invite it. It’s not progressive achievement.
There is something but the brain can't understand it."
Krishnamurti
Enlightenment...
"Self-Realization or Enlightenment is nothing more than the deepest possible understanding that there is no individual doer of any action - neither you nor anyone else. Also you are not the thinker of any thoughts, nor the experiencer of any experiences - they happen. When IT happens, no bright lights are likely to flash in your head!"
Ramesh Balsekar
Ramesh Balsekar
Consciousness and Awareness...
From what I have read from more advanced mystics than myself, Awareness
cannot enter the lower frequencies of illusion and thus manifested the
intelligence called Divine Consciousness to reach into these frequencies and
uses the sub-conscious mind which is also called soul as a circuit to the
lower frequencies of matter as a process of experience.. To bring what is Truth
into Falsehood (Reality into Illusion) I believe is not possible, as the
illusion does not really exist and therefore, there is no place for Awareness to
travel to.....Considering the question of, can we raise our frequencies to reach the state of
Awareness?.. We can definately raise our frequencies due to reaching higher
frequencies of that Universal Bonding called Love.. The raising of our frequency
is exactly the lowering of our imaginary bond to separate self(ego).. But, the
key word is "our".. In Reality, there is no "our".. There only "Is".. We are
already Divine Consciousness but there is still a small speck of duality called
identity.. This sense of separate identity became further confused by taking on
also the identity called ego.. Thus, we are doubly confused.. The goal is to end
all identities, even the identity as Awareness.. This state is complete
non-duality and Freedom..........namaste, thomas
cannot enter the lower frequencies of illusion and thus manifested the
intelligence called Divine Consciousness to reach into these frequencies and
uses the sub-conscious mind which is also called soul as a circuit to the
lower frequencies of matter as a process of experience.. To bring what is Truth
into Falsehood (Reality into Illusion) I believe is not possible, as the
illusion does not really exist and therefore, there is no place for Awareness to
travel to.....Considering the question of, can we raise our frequencies to reach the state of
Awareness?.. We can definately raise our frequencies due to reaching higher
frequencies of that Universal Bonding called Love.. The raising of our frequency
is exactly the lowering of our imaginary bond to separate self(ego).. But, the
key word is "our".. In Reality, there is no "our".. There only "Is".. We are
already Divine Consciousness but there is still a small speck of duality called
identity.. This sense of separate identity became further confused by taking on
also the identity called ego.. Thus, we are doubly confused.. The goal is to end
all identities, even the identity as Awareness.. This state is complete
non-duality and Freedom..........namaste, thomas
Non-Duality Awareness...
Lama Yeshe: When you contemplate your own consciousness with intense awareness, leaving aside all thoughts of good and bad, you are automatically led to the experience of non-duality. How is this possible? Think of it like this: the clean clear blue sky is like consciousness, while the smoke and pollution pumped into the sky are like the unnatural, artificial concepts manufactured by ego-grasping ignorance. Now, even though we say the pollutants are contaminating the atmosphere, the sky itself never really becomes contaminated by the pollution. The sky and the pollution each retain their own characteristic nature. In other words, on a fundamental level the sky remains unaffected no matter how much toxic energy enters it. The proof of this is that when conditions change, the sky can become clear once again. In the same way, no matter how many problems maybe created by artificial ego concepts, they never affect the clean clear nature of our consciousness itself. From the relative point of view, our consciousness remains pure because its clear nature never becomes mixed with the nature of confusion.
***
***
Look at your mind...
Look at your mind dispassionately; this is enough to calm it. When it is quiet, you can go beyond it. Do not keep it busy all the time. Stop it - and just be. If you give it a rest, it will settle down and recover its purity and strength. Constant thinking makes it decay......
Nisargadatta
Nisargadatta
At some point...
When, at some point, there is a spontaneous
surrender of the personal needs, preferences,
desires, opinions, and beliefs that function as
reality filters, the realization of your true identify
may spontaneously arise. When this happens
there will be no more questions. You see that
everything is the answer - that the guru is and has
always been completely present. He manifests as
the person, inner voice, or happening that triggers
this surrender. Any way the invitation is extended,
it functions as the guru. It may be silence from a
sage or words from a shopkeeper. The surrender
may come through agony or ecstasy. It can happen
through an apple falling on your head; it can come
from the smile of a child; or it can arise from deep
inside as you walk along a beach at sunset or when
your burn your finger on the stove. At any time, your
sense of separation may dissolve to reveal the One
beyond all duality.
- Leo Hartong
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Awakening to the Dream
Trafford, 2001
surrender of the personal needs, preferences,
desires, opinions, and beliefs that function as
reality filters, the realization of your true identify
may spontaneously arise. When this happens
there will be no more questions. You see that
everything is the answer - that the guru is and has
always been completely present. He manifests as
the person, inner voice, or happening that triggers
this surrender. Any way the invitation is extended,
it functions as the guru. It may be silence from a
sage or words from a shopkeeper. The surrender
may come through agony or ecstasy. It can happen
through an apple falling on your head; it can come
from the smile of a child; or it can arise from deep
inside as you walk along a beach at sunset or when
your burn your finger on the stove. At any time, your
sense of separation may dissolve to reveal the One
beyond all duality.
- Leo Hartong
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
Awakening to the Dream
Trafford, 2001
IT alone IS...
With one's own being, "I" as person expands through knowledge into "It" as universal Self. When? Never. For now I perceive all this as a dream. "It" alone IS on awakening; "It" alone was then.
— Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 223........Paul Brunton
— Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > # 223........Paul Brunton
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