Friday, March 29, 2013

Ilie Cioara - Love dimension


 The Love dimension is known by different names: Truth, Reality, God, Immensity, the Infinite, Intelligence etc. The very meaning of the words which define it express the fact that this dimension has no bounds.

            In this dimension, no faiths, ideals, desires or any such similar ideas can exist, as they are encountered in the limited dimension. For this reason, in this wondrous climate there is no struggle, contradictions, confusion, pain, hate etc.

            Boundlessness cannot be comprehended by imagination or by thought; there is nothing we can say about it. We can only describe and explain that which our mind can encompass. In the face of Limitlessness, the mind is poor, completely unable to understand it.
           
            In fact, the moment Immensity affirms itself within us, as a living state of the integral human being, the “ego” dimension and its limited way of expression does not exist anymore.

            There is not much we can say about the experience of living in the dimension of Love. Nevertheless, we will try to express certain feelings and states of being encountered in this state.

            In complete union with Love, we are perfect peace, we live total freedom; the very notion of “self” is missing, although we are endowed with a clarity and sensitivity of the mind such as we have never encountered in the limited realm of thinking.

            By melting with silence, we become that silence, equilibrium and harmony, free from duality: our being is extended into Infinity. Practically, by experiencing “psychological nothingness”, the “ego” disappears and, in its place, Immensity envelops us wholly and we become one with It. Integrated into the Great Cosmic Energy, we continue to exist as a state of superconsciousness.




Thursday, March 28, 2013

Anonymous - Jamal


Jamal


What‟s the meaning of life?
Who knows?
What does tomorrow bring?
Happiness for life?
Sorrow and strife?
Or simply
another day?
Who knows?
Yesterdays are memories
and tomorrows are simply
pipe dreams.
‘I’
is the only reality
that I truly know.
And the only reality that
‘I’
knows
is the here and now.
Not five days from now
not five hours from now
not five minutes from now
not five seconds from now
not five seconds ago
But now.
Reality is perceived
simply
as a passing dream
through a flowing stream
that men through the ages
have defined
as time.
Dreams and realities of tomorrows
slip by
and become
silent memories of yesterdays.
Synaptic impulses
create the beat
and the rhythm
I call 'myself'
I am Jamal
and Jamal is
‘I’





circa 1993


Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Ramana Maharshi - Self-Knowledge (Atma-Vidya)


A devotee once wrote on a slip of paper that Self-knowledge is the easiest thing, since one already is the Self, and handed it to Bhagavan, asking him to write a poem on the subject. Bhagavan responded with the following poem:



Lo, very easy is Self-Knowledge, Lo, very easy indeed.

    1.
    Even for the most infirm
So real is the Self That compared with it the amlak
In one's hand appears a mere illusion.
    2.
    True, strong, fresh for ever stands The Self. From this in truth spring forth
The phantom body and phantom world.
When this delusion is destroyed And not a speck remains,
The Sun of Self shines bright and real
In the vast Heart-expanse.
Darkness dies, afflictions end,
And bliss wells up.
    3.
    The thought `I am the body' is the thread
On which are strung together various thoughts.
Questing within, enquiring `Who am I?
And whence this thought?' all other thoughts
Vanish. And as 'I', 'I' within the Heart-cave
    The Self shines of its own accord.
Such Self-awareness is the only Heaven,
This stillness, this abode of bliss.
    4.
    Of what avail is knowing things
Other than the Self? And the Self being known,
What other thing is there to know?
That one light that shines as many selves,
Seeing this Self within
As Awareness' lightning flash;
The play of Grace; the ego's death;
The blossoming of bliss.
    5.
    For loosening karma's bonds and ending births,
This path is easier than all other paths.
Abide in stillness, without any stir Of tongue, mind, body.
And behold
The effulgence of the Self within;
The experience of Eternity; absence
Of all fear; the ocean vast of Bliss.
    6.
    Annamalai the Self, the Eye Behind the eye of mind which sees
The eye and all the other senses
Which know the sky and other elements,
The Being which contains, reveals, perceives
The inner sky that shines within the Heart.
When the mind free of thought turns inward,
Annamalai appears as my own Self.
True, Grace is needed;
Love is added.
Bliss wells up


Monday, March 25, 2013

Krishnamurti - Choiceless observation



Choiceless Observation

Choiceless observation or awareness is the crux of Krishnamurti's philosophy of life. To him, choiceless observation is the only 'way', the direct and 'intelligent' way of understanding the truth of 'what is'. It alone can transform the fact, the actuality by revealing its true nature. It is only 'through' it that consciousness can be emptied of its content. Krishnamurti maintains that excepting choiceless awareness, there is no other way of regenerating the human mind and the world irreversibly and instantaneously. Choiceless observation is the observation of 'what is', the fact or the actuality without the movement of thought which is knowledge or past. It is the observation devoid of the observer, the centre, the censor, the 'me' or the thinker which is thought. It is the awareness without the division as the observer and the observed. It is a holistic observation in which the observer 'is' the observed. In it there in no reaction, resistance, justification and condemnation. It is a pure observation sans remembrance, recollection, recognition and naming. It is free from ideas, ideals and opinions. It is observation without prejudice, likes and dislikes. It is without a motive and an end in view.

Choiceless awareness is an understanding in which the previous experience is totally absent. It is 'experiencing' 'what is' without the experiences. It is a 'negative' approach to the fact. It is an awareness in which the psychological past is totally negated. It is the denial of knowledge in understanding. It is a 'passive' awareness without effort. It is a 'silent' observation without the activity of thought. It is 'silence' with which thought does not interfere in any form. According to Krishnamurti, the negative and the passive approach is the most active and positive one. It alone leads to the absolute certainty which is truth. Scepticism is the basis of true spirituality. Choiceless awareness is not understanding the fact from a particular point of view. It is not moulding it according to a preconceived conclusion. It is not fitting 'what is' into the framework of a system. It does not involve intellectualisation, interpretation, explanation or theorisation. Nor does it warrant analysis or introspection. Choiceless awareness is 'perceiving' the fact without translating it to knowledge. This awareness is not evolutionary. It is not a 'progressive' or a gradual understanding of 'what is' by accumulating knowledge about it. It is not movement from the past to the future, but it is 'seeing' the fact without distorting and dividing it. It is 'remaining with' 'what is' without moving away from it. It is the complete attention of holding the totality of 'what is', like a vessel holding water. Total attention generates the energy that regenerates 'what is'

Choiceless observation is an experimental approach of allowing 'what is' to reveal itself as it exactly and essentially is. It is an unpremeditated art of 'looking' at 'what is' directly and wholly. It is a non-verbal and non-conceptual understanding. It is an acausal and a timeless 'insight' into 'what is'. Insight is the comprehension of the truth of 'what is', in a 'flash'. "The insight is not analysis, time, remembrance, all that. It is the immediate perception of something" 13 . It is an absolute observation of allowing the 'what is' to 'flower' freely and fully. The spontaneous and total flowering of the 'what is' is the ending of its bondage. "Truth is when there is the realisation that the observer is the observed. Then, in that realisation, which is truth, the conditioning disappears"





The Philosophy of Jiddu Krishnamurti
 

G. VEDAPARAYANA Department of Philosophy, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, lndia.

Read more: Here

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Ed Muzika - How to Awaken from Illusion

Picture by Eugene Soloviev

How to Awaken from Illusion
Many who seek to awaken, seek the Real in the Unreal, in the world, in
philosophy, religion or in a legion of teachers and gurus. The source of
Consciousness, often called 'Self' in the East, will never be found by looking
without; that which appears to look without must learn to accurately look
within. This is obvious. The witness cannot be found in the witnessed.

There are many ways of looking within to find the originating place of
consciousness and understand what Consciousness is.
We must understand first though
―even if you assume it for the sake ofargument―that the world itself arises from the mind as an appearance within Consciousness.
The world is mind, mind is the world.
Without mind, the world is not.
The world is created by thoughts, and the mind is nothing more than thoughts;
it is not an entity with autonomous existence separate from Consciousness. The'real' world exists only in the mind and you are neither mind nor the world.The mind and thoughts are not you. They are like ghost-clouds that float on top of you. You are that which is beyond―the stateless state―
untouched by the waking world, the sleep world, or deep sleep darkness. All these are added onto you. You are beyond all phenomena. This you must see clearly.In fact, there is no looking within. Within and without only arise with thoughts―which are the world―which create the conceptual duality of within andwithout.
 There is no beyond either, as the concept implies the opposite of not-beyond,or here. You are neither beyond, nor not-beyond.

Yo u a r e n o t r e a l o r u n r e a l . Yo u a r e n o t m o r t a l o r i m m o r t a l , b e c a u s e i m m o r t a l
implies eternal presence or existence. You have nothing to do with either.

Yo u a r e b e y o n d a l l m e a s u r e s , b e y o n d a l l d u a l i t i e s a n d o p p o s i t e s , b e y o n d e v e n
the concept of beyond, beyond freedom and enlightenment.

This you must grasp at some point