Saturday, November 24, 2012

Jñâneshvar - Wonderful Letter of Friendship to Chângadev (excerpt)

(left) Jñâneshvar (c1275-1296) and (right) Tukârâm (c1607-49)

Jñâneshvar's Wonderful Letter of Friendship to Chângadev (excerpt)

A jealous man once brought to Âlandî the fierce, proud yogi, Chângadev, to challenge Jñâneshvar in a psychic contest. The saintly youth preferred the loving way of preemptive diplomacy: he won over the yogi with a beautiful letter of friendship and nondual wisdom, the 65-verse Chângadeva Pâsashtî, a gorgeous literary gem deserving much wider readership. We give excerpts below, from a lovely translation by Swâmi Abhâyânanda.

* * * * * * * * *

Salutations to the Lord of all, Who is concealed within the visible universe. It is He who causes this universe to appear and it is He who causes it to vanish as well. // When He is [fully] revealed, the universe disappears; when He is concealed, the universe shines forth. Yet He doesn’t hide Himself, nor does He reveal Himself; He is always present before us at every moment. // No matter how diverse and varied the universe appears, He remains unmoved, unchanged; and this is just as one would expect, since He is always One, without a second. // Though gold may be wrought into many ornaments its “gold-ness” never changes. In the same way, He never changes, though the universe contains so many varied forms. // The ripples on the surface of a pond cannot conceal the water; this universe of many forms— can it conceal His Being? (1-5) … Truly, everything is Himself, and He is the cause of everything. (8)

The condition of separation does not exist in one whose vision is clear; He remains alone, amidst all duality. To him, the perceiver and the perceived are one. (10)

It’s the one pure Consciousness that becomes everything— from the gods above to the earth below. Objects may be seen as pure or impure, but the ocean of Consciousness, ever pure, is all that ever is. (12) // … Though the shadows on the wall are ever changing, the wall itself remains steady and immobile. Likewise, the forms of the universe take shape upon the one eternal and unchanging Consciousness. (13) // Consciousness always remains in its pristine state, unmoved by feelings of sorrow or joy; even though It may suddenly become aware of Itself, Its state and Its unity remain forever undisturbed. (16) // From within Its own divine pure depths, It gives birth to the perceivable world. The perceiver, the perceived, and the act of perception: these three form the eternal triad of manifestation. // Throughout the triad of perceiver, perceived, and the act of perception, One pure and primal Consciousness enchantingly shines and sparkles alone. // Though It always has existence, It sees Itself only when this “mirror” [the triad] is present. Otherwise, there is no vision; there is only the [formless] Awareness of Itself. // Without causing any blemish in Its unity, It expresses Itself through this triad as substance; these three are the ingredients in the creation of this perceptible universe. (18-21) // … The three dissolve [ultimately] into absolute unity; then, only One exists. The three exist in the void of imagination; only Oneness is real. All else is a dream. (25)

By no means may It be understood by the intellect. It is always complete and whole…. // The pupil of an eye cannot see itself! … In the same way, even the Self-realized Yogi is helpless to see the Seer. Knowledge cannot know Itself; the Perceiver cannot perceive Itself. // Where Wisdom-Knowledge (Jñâna) is perfect and full, ignorance cannot exist at all; so how could even the desire to know Itself arise in Knowledge absolute? // Therefore, one should address It through silence by being nothing, if one would be free, all-knowing, all-pervading; for in that “nothing” all power exists. (30-3) // It is Seeing, without an object; It is Vision, clear, perfect, and free. It exists alone, without anything else; within Itself is everything—and nothing. // … It sees without any object to see. It enjoys without any object to enjoy; It is complete and whole in Itself. (35-6)

Also see the movie on You Tube

Source of this text:

Douglas Harding - On Having No Head (excerpt)



The best day of my life—my rebirthday, so to speak—was when I found I had no head. This is not a literary gambit, a witticism designed to arouse interest at any cost. I mean it in all seriousness: I have no head.

It was eighteen years ago, when I was thirty-three, that I made the discovery. Though it certainly came out of the blue, it did so in response to an urgent enquiry; I had for several months been absorbed in the question: what am I? The fact that I happened to be walking in the Himalayas at the time probably had little to do with it; though in that country unusual states of mind are said to come more easily. However that may be, a very still clear day, and a view from the ridge where I stood, over misty blue valleys to the highest mountain range in the world, with Kangchenjunga and Everest unprominent among its snow-peaks, made a setting worthy of the grandest vision.

What actually happened was something absurdly simple and unspectacular: I stopped thinking. A peculiar quiet, an odd kind of alert limpness or numbness, came over me. Reason and imagination and all mental chatter died down. For once, words really failed me. Past and future dropped away. I forgot who and what I was, my name, manhood, animalhood, all that could be called mine. It was as if I had been born that instant, brand new, mindless, innocent of all memories. There existed only the Now, that present moment and what was clearly given in it. To look was enough. And what I found was khaki trouserlegs terminating downwards in a pair of brown shoes, khaki sleeves terminating sideways in a pair of pink hands, and a khaki shirtfront terminating upwards in—absolutely nothing whatever! Certainly not in a head.

It took me no time at all to notice that this nothing, this hole where a head should have been was no ordinary vacancy, no mere nothing. On the contrary, it was very much occupied. It was a vast emptiness vastly filled, a nothing that found room for everything—room for grass, trees, shadowy distant hills, and far above them snowpeaks like a row of angular clouds riding the blue sky. I had lost a head and gained a world.

It was all, quite literally, breathtaking. I seemed to stop breathing altogether, absorbed in the Given. Here it was, this superb scene, brightly shining in the clear air, alone and unsupported, mysteriously suspended in the void, and (and this was the real miracle, the wonder and delight) utterly free of "me", unstained by any observer. Its total presence was my total absence, body and soul. Lighter than air, clearer than glass, altogether released from myself, I was nowhere around.

Yet in spite of the magical and uncanny quality of this vision, it was no dream, no esoteric revelation. Quite the reverse: it felt like a sudden waking from the sleep of ordinary life, an end to dreaming. It was self-luminous reality for once swept clean of all obscuring mind. It was the revelation, at long last, of the perfectly obvious. It was a lucid moment in a confused life-history. It was a ceasing to ignore something which (since early childhood at any rate) I had always been too busy or too clever to see. It was naked, uncritical attention to what had all along been staring me in the face - my utter facelessness. In short, it was all perfectly simple and plain and straightforward, beyond argument, thought, and words. There arose no questions, no reference beyond the experience itself, but only peace and a quiet joy, and the sensation of having dropped an intolerable burden.



Friday, November 23, 2012

Jiddu Krishnamurti - What is the Religious Mind

                                                                 
                                                            vimeo

Religion, politics, society are exploiting you, and you are being conditioned by them; you are being forced in a particular direction. You are not human beings; you are mere cogs in a machine. You suffer patiently, submitting to the cruelties of environment, when you, individually, have the possibilities of changing them. 



Papaji - The door to your self...


Rumi - Till man destroys "Self"...


Till man destroys "self" he is no true friend of God.

Once a man came and knocked at the door of his friend. His friend said, "who art thou. O faithful one?"He said, "'Tis I." He answered, "There is no admittance.There is no room for the 'raw' at my well-cooked feast. Naught but fire of separation and absence can cook the raw one and free him from hypocrisy! Since thy 'self' has not yet left thee,Thou must be burned in fiery flames."The poor man went away, and for one whole year journeyed burning with grief for his friend's absence. 

His heart burned till it was cooked; then he went again and drew near to the house of his friend.He knocked at the door in fear and trepidation lest some careless word might fall from his lips.His friend shouted, "Who is that at the door?"He answered, "'Tis Thou who art at the door. O Beloved!" The friend said, "Since 'tis I, let me come in,There is not room for two 'I's' in one house."


Thursday, November 22, 2012

Rupert Spira - Peace, Happiness and Love




Peace, happiness and love are simply the names we give to the knowing of our own Being as it truly is. Normally we imagine that our essential Being is a little, vulnerable, conscious entity located inside the body. As such, it is believed to have been born, to exist in time and space, to be subjected to and dependent upon the changes of the body and to be destined to disappear and die when the body dies. However, if we look clearly and simply at this conscious Being that we intimately and directly know ourselves to be, we find that it has no inherent limitation or location. This experiential understanding may not be formulated in terms such as these but it is well known by all as the experience of peace, happiness and love. The belief and subsequent feeling that our most intimate Being is limited and located within the body or mind veils the peace, happiness and love that are inherent within it and initiates a search in the realm of objects, activities, substances and relationships, in an attempt to recover the original ease of Being for which we long.
At some point and usually as a result of the inevitable failure of this search, we begin to question the very one who is unhappy and in search, and discover that it cannot be found as a separate, limited entity. Instead we find the intimacy of our own impersonal, unlocated Being and with this discovery the peace, happiness and love that are inherent in the simple knowing of Being, are restored. And what is it that finds this ? Being or Presence is itself all that is present in this recognition, to be able to "know" itself. That is, it finds itself. Presence recognises itself. In time and as a result of this recognition, the mind, the body and even the world become permeated with the peace, happiness and love that have been discovered in the core of our Being, and all our activities and relationships in the world are subsequently realigned with it. These activities and relationships do not cease as a result of this understanding. In fact, they flourish. However, they now become the means whereby we express, share and celebrate our true nature of peace, happiness and love, rather than a means of securing it. In our meetings we simply take our stand knowingly as Presence itself and explore the beliefs and feelings that suggest that we are anything less than this absolute freedom and love itself.





Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Krishnamurti - Meditation is this silence...



When you turn your head from horizon to horizon your eyes see a vast space in which all the things of the earth and of the sky appear. But this space is always limited where the earth meets the sky. The space in the mind is so small. In this little space all our activities seem to take place: the daily living and the hidden struggles with contradictory desires and motives. In this little space the mind seeks freedom, and so it is always a prisoner of itself. Meditation is the ending of this little space. To us, action is bringing about order in this little space of the mind. But there is another action which is not putting order in this little space. Meditation is action which comes when the mind has lost its little space. This vast space which the mind, the 'I', cannot reach, is silence. The mind can never be silent within itself; it is silent only within the vast space which thought cannot touch. Out of this silence there is action which is not of thought. Meditation is this silence.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

THE BOOK OF LIFE: DAILY MEDITATIONS WITH KRISHNAMURTI


Quiet mind, simple mind  

When we are aware of ourselves, is not the whole movement of living a way of 
uncovering the “me,” the ego, the self? The self is a very complex process which can be 
uncovered only in relationship, in our daily activities, in the way we talk, the way we 
judge, calculate, the way we condemn others and ourselves. All that reveals the 
conditioned state of our own thinking, and is it not important to be aware of this whole 
process? It is only through awareness of what is true from moment to moment that there 
is discovery of the timeless, the eternal. Without self-knowledge, the eternal cannot be. 
When we do not know ourselves, the eternal becomes a mere word, a symbol, a 
speculation, a dogma, a belief, an illusion to which the mind can escape. But if one 
begins to understand the “me” in all its various activities from day to day, then in that 
very understanding, without any effort, the nameless, the timeless comes into being. But 
the timeless is not a reward for self-knowledge. That which is eternal cannot be sought 
after; the mind cannot acquire it. It comes into being when the mind is quiet, and the 
mind can be quiet only when it is simple, when it is no longer storing up, condemning, 
judging, weighing. It is only the simple mind that can understand the real, not the mind 
that is full of words, knowledge, information. The mind that analyzes, calculates, is not a 
simple mind.  


PDF Here

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Chuck surface - Thou Art…




Thou Art…

Thou art “That”,
Thou art This,
Thou art That and This,
Neither This nor That, thou art.

Thou simply…
Art.

What need is there,
To “know” more.

Let the weary mind rest,
Finally…
At last…
In the Heart.

Nirmala - The Heart's Wisdom


THE HEART'S WISDOM


The truth is that which opens the Heart. The capacity to sense the truth is something we all
already have. We all have a Heart that is already accurately showing us how true things are.
Anything that puts you in touch with more of the truth opens the Heart. This is a literal and
experiential description of truth. When your experience is bringing you more truth, there is a
sense of opening, softening, relaxation, expansion, fulfillment, and satisfaction in the Heart. This
can be most directly sensed in the center of the chest, but the Heart of all Being is infinite and
therefore actually bigger than your entire body. So this opening, softening, and expansion is
actually happening everywhere; we just sense it most clearly and directly in the center of the
chest.
When you encounter truth, the sense of your self opens, expands, softens, fills in, and lets
go. The me, the sense of your self, is no longer felt to be so limited or small. It becomes more
complete and unbounded. The boundaries soften and dissolve, and any sense of inadequacy,
limitation, or deficiency is lessened or eliminated. 
As a side effect of being in touch with more of the truth, your mind gets quieter because you
simply have less to think about. Even knowing a simple truth like where your car keys are gives
you less to think about. And when you touch upon a very large truth, your mind becomes even quieter, like when you see the ocean for the first time: The truth or reality you’re viewing is so
immense that, at least for a moment, your mind is stopped and becomes very quiet.
In contrast, when your experience is moving into a diminished or smaller experience of the
truth and of reality, the Heart contracts. The sense of your self gets tight, hard, contracted, and
feels incomplete, bounded, and limited. It can feel like you are small, inadequate, or unworthy.
The smallness of the truth is reflected in the smallness of the sense of your self. The result of
being less in touch with the truth is that your mind gets busier as it tries to figure out what is true.
Fortunately, your Being is never diminished or contracted, only the sense of your self. Just
as blocking your view of the whole room by partially covering your eyes makes your sense of
the room smaller without actually making the room smaller, an idea or belief that is not very true
is reflected in a small sense of your self, without actually limiting or contracting your Being.
This opening and closing of the Heart in response to the degree of truth you are experiencing
isn’t something you need to practice or perfect. Your Heart has been accurately and perfectly
showing you how true your experience has been all along. If you start to notice your Heart’s
openings and closings, you’ll discover that you already have everything you need to determine
what is true. The Heart is the true inner teacher, the source of inner guidance we all have as our
birthright. You don’t need a spiritual teacher or spiritual books to show you what is true, just
your own Heart.

Nirmala



Monday, November 19, 2012

Tony Parsons - of Love...



In the play of appearance, wholeness can pretend to be something apart which is rushing around all over the place looking for that which already is. It is an amazing and unfulfilling dream-like story which is uniquely human and is also sublimely without purpose. For the apparent seeker, however, the pain and longing of separation seems very real. So, should the seeker climb the spiritual mountain or simply let go and surrender to life ? Is that the question ? Or is it possible that there is no question and no answer. Maybe what is sought is all there is. Perhaps the beloved that is longed for is already constantly happening, it never went away, the seeker did, to look for it. Perhaps, when the seeking dream dissolves into that unbounded energy, which sees no separation and has no agenda or expectation, then suddenly that longing is embraced in that unconditional love that is no-ones. 






Eckhart Tolle - the power of now (excerpt)

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Rupert Spira's Lesson in Nonduality

The Guru Cartoon

Rumi - This World Which Is Made of Our Love for Emptiness


This World Which Is Made of Our Love for Emptiness

Praise to the emptiness that blanks out existence. Existence: 
This place made from our love for that emptiness!

 Yet somehow comes emptiness, 
this existence goes.

 Praise to that happening, over and over! 
For years I pulled my own existence out of emptiness.

 Then one swoop, one swing of the arm, 
that work is over.

 Free of who I was, free of presence, free of dangerous fear, hope, 
free of mountainous wanting.

 The here-and-now mountain is a tiny piece of a piece of straw 
blown off into emptiness.

 These words I'm saying so much begin to lose meaning: 
Existence, emptiness, mountain, straw:

 Words and what they try to say swept 
out the window, down the slant of the roof.