No Mind's Land: 2013-08-11

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Nisargadatta Maharaj - On "Free Will"

Q: Surely, I am not the master of what happens. Its slave rather.
M: Be neither master, nor slave. Stand aloof.
Q: Does it imply avoidance of action?
M: You cannot avoid action. It happens, like everything else.
Q: My actions, surely, I can control.
M: Try. You will soon see that you do what you must.
Q: I can act according to my will.
M: You know your will only after you have acted.
Q: I remember my desires, the choices made, the decisions taken and act accordingly.
M: Then your memory decides, not you.
Q: Where do I come in?
M: You make it possible by giving it attention.
Q: Is there no such thing as free will? Am I not free to desire?
M: Oh no. You are compelled to desire. In Hinduism the very idea of free will is non-existent, so there is no word for it. Will is commitment, fixation, bondage.
Q: I am free to choose my limitations.
M: You must be free first. To be free in the world you must be free of the world. Otherwise your past decides for you and your future. Between what had happened and what must happen you are caught. Call it destiny or karma, but never—freedom. First return to your true being and then act from the heart of love.
Q: Within the manifested what is the stamp of the unmanifested?
M: There is none. The moment you begin to look for the stamp of the unmanifested, the manifested dissolves. If you try to understand the unmanifested wtih the mind, you at once go beyond the mind, like when you stir the fire with a wooden stick, you burn the stick. Use the mind to investigate the manifested. Be like the chick that pecks at the shell. Speculating about life outside the shell would have been of little use to it, but pecking at the shell breaks the shell from within and liberates the chick. Similarly, break the mind from within by investigation and exposure of its contradictions and absurdities.
Q: The longing to break the shell, where does it come from?
M: From the unmanifested. - "I Am That"

read more here

Jamie -"Mirage of Optionality"

After all the miracles upon miracles in succession, obediently, relentlessly bringing us to this moment, after all the unlikeliness and all the herculean struggle…

To entertain that now, we can exercise our vote on how this moment presents itself and the somersaults it must perform to be worthy, seems miraculously arrogant, monumentally tragic.

There is only total equality between moments; each serves as a vital stepping stone, indispensable carriage, from here to here, nowhere to nowhere,

Each moment glistening with its own “never-to-be-seen-again-ness”, unending labyrinth of overlooked detail, a private dance for you, its audience of one.

To believe in choice is to believe in a world of avoidability, responsibility and regret but to see the mirage of optionality for what it is, is to open the floodgates of compassion,availability and lightening response.

http://constantvoice.me/

Nisargadatta Maharaj - Know yourself, all else will come from it

source parablev

Q: What does it mean to know myself? By knowing myself what exactly do I come to know?
M: All that you are not.
Q: And not what I am?
M: What you are, you already are. By knowing what you are not, you are free of it and remain in
your own natural state. It all happens quite spontaneously and effortlessly.
Q: And what do I discover?
M: You discover that there is nothing to discover. You are what you are and that is all.
Q: I do not understand!
M: It is your fixed idea that you must be something or other, that blinds you.
Q: How can I get rid of this idea?
M: If you trust me, believe when I tell you that you are the pure awareness that illuminates consciousness and its infinite content. Realise this and live accordingly. If you do not believe me,then go within, enquiring ‘What am I’? or, focus your mind on ‘I am’, which is pure and simple being.
Q: On what my faith in you depends?
M: On your insight into other people’s hearts. If you cannot look into my heart, look into your own.
Q: I can do neither.
M: Purify yourself by a well-ordered and useful life. Watch over your thoughts, feelings, words and actions. This will clear your vision.
Q: Must I not renounce every thing first, and live a homeless life?
M: You cannot renounce. You may leave your home and give trouble to your family, but attachments are in the mind and will not leave you until you know your mind in and out. First thing first —

know yourself, all else will come with it.

- I AM THAT, CH 10

Friday, August 16, 2013

Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi - Life’s Unanswered Questions

Every single day I ponder over these questions
and night after night I ask myself:
Why am I so ignorant of what’s really going on inside my heart?
What am I doing here?
Where have I come from?
What’s my reason for being here?
Where do I go from here?
Everything seems so strange around me these days
and I keep asking myself:
Why God had to create me in the first place?
For what purpose?
Why did He bring me here into this world?
Why doesn’t He let me get settled down somewhere in here?
I know for sure that my soul will ultimately ascend to His upper Heavens,
But I’d rather just let go of everything right now
and fly up high into the Sky.
I’m a bird from the Garden of Paradise, I’m not from this dusty Earth.
My body’s trapped in this worldly cage for just two or three days.
The happiest day of my life is the day that I finally fly away towards my Friend (God),
Flapping my wings faster than ever to quickly reach my Friend’s Upper Realms.
Who is hiding inside my ears listening to my own tunes?
Who is hiding inside my mouth putting words into it?
Who is hiding inside my eyes looking out into the unknown?
What kind of soul is this totally naked soul of mine?
Don’t tell me God is also the shirt to my naked soul.
I will not remain idle or take a break even for an instant,
until through my constant striving and searching
You finally show me my path and my destination.
Give me a taste of your wine of reunion
so I can smash the gates of this worldly prison
with my loud cries of God-intoxication.
I didn’t make it here all by myself so I cannot leave on my own,
You’ve dragged me all the way out here,
so you need to take me back to where I come from.
Don’t think that I always express myself through poetry,
When I’m wide awake and not intoxicated,
I don’t think about poetry even for an instant.
SHAMS OF TABRIZ!
If you would turn around and show your face to me again,
I swear to God that I’d shatter my already dead and decomposed body
into a thousand pieces for you.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Norman Scrimshaw - The Lazy Zen Master and The Demons

Hakuin(1686-1768) , Self portrait

The Lazy Zen Master and The Demons

There was a Zen Master who was very, very lazy.
It was said he was so lazy that for him even to raise one eyelid was
almost more effort than he was willing to muster.

Many of the people who lived in the village near the Zen Master's
home were very critical of this lazy Zen Master. They said he is sooo
lazy. But those whose vision could open deeper, could see that the
Zen Master was in a state of very, very deep relaxation. He had
given up all struggle and effort. Even to say he had given up
anything is inaccurate.

Giving up is a doing that wasn't present. He was in a state of no
struggle, no effort to change himself, to get better, to get more
enlightened, to have more bliss. There was no fight to change the
circumstances of his life. He was much too lazy for any of this.
For him everything was fine as it was. Everything was included and
welcomed into the home of his heart. Indeed as there was no
opposition to the way his life unfolded, there was no division. He
was the unfoldment of life itself.

There was a time demons came to visit him. The lazy Zen Master was
much too lazy to fight demons, so instead he welcomed them into the
home of his heart. The demons were used to being subjected to
vicious attacks in an attempt to exterminate them. Although
suspicious at first, they were grateful to find a refuge. Word got
out among the demons: there is a place of rest where we are welcome.
There is a lazy Zen Master who is not afraid of us, who doesn't want
to kill us, who welcomes us into his home.

Each time a demon came into his heart, the lazy Zen master felt the
pain and alienation, the suffering, the rejection the demon had
experienced. He felt it so strongly it became his own. Indeed, he
recognized that the demon was himself, an aspect of himself that at
one time was rejected from the home of his heart and sent into the
wilderness alone. This had happened in the foolishness of his youth
when he was a warrior and not lazy at all. As each demon came home,
he was often reduced to tears. A mixture of pain and sweetness would
overcome him. Although the lazy Zen Master embraced each demon with
love, he was much too lazy to try to change them. Mysteriously in
the very environment of deep acceptance into this heart and his very
being, the demons' faces began to change and become more and more
beautiful. Their forms changed into a radiance as the demons
recognized themselves as the beauty of the lazy Zen Master's heart.
Demons seldom come to visit the lazy Zen Master anymore, but if they
do, they are always welcome into the home of his heart.

May every event of your life bring you to a closer recognition of the
magnificence that you are.

http://www.awakeningconnections.org/index.html

Nirmala - Living from the Heart

it is here
in the dream's panorama
it is here
in each moment of awakening
it is here
when all is well
it is here
when fear has nothing left to fear
even then
there is pure noticing
even then
there is no need for doing
no frantic searching
can find the obvious
no seeking needed
to find that which seeks
it is here
where it can never be lost or found

http://endless-satsang.com/living-from-the-heart.htm

Lalla - Just for a moment, flowers appear

I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal Ded pdf

Just for a moment, flowers appear
on the empty, nearly-spring tree.

Just for a second, wind
through the wild thicket thorns.

Self inside self, You are nothing but me.
Self inside self, I am only You.

What we are together

will never die.
The why and how of this?
What does it matter?

I Searched For My Self

I Searched For My Self
I searched for my Self
until I grew weary,
but no one, I know now,
reaches the hidden knowledge
by means of effort.
Then, absorbed in "Thou art This,"
I found the place of Wine.
There all the jars are filled,
but no one is left to drink.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Jiddu Krishnamurti - When One Stops Seeking

“So, again, there are all the major problems of life, and they are complex – one must come to them very simply, not demanding a thing. Then one discovers for oneself a state of mind that is not touched by thought, a totally different dimension that man is always seeking. It is only when one stops seeking, and faces the fact of what actually is and goes beyond, that one will discover it for oneself.”

☮ Be Still , I Am ☮ Satsang with Ramana Maharshi

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Oriah Mountain Dreamer - the invitation

art Mustafa Dedeoglu

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
        I want to know what you ache for
        and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

        It doesn’t interest me how old you are.

        I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
        for love
        for your dream
        for the adventure of being alive.

        It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
        I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
        if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
        or have become shriveled and closed
        from fear of further pain.

        I want to know if you can sit with pain
        mine or your own
        without moving to hide it
        or fade it
        or fix it.

        I want to know if you can be with joy
        mine or your own
        if you can dance with wildness
        and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
        without cautioning us
        to be careful
        to be realistic
        to remember the limitations of being human.

        It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
        is true.
        I want to know if you can
        disappoint another
        to be true to yourself.
        If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
        and not betray your own soul.
        If you can be faithless
        and therefore trustworthy.

        I want to know if you can see Beauty
        even when it is not pretty
        every day.
        And if you can source your own life
        from its presence.

        I want to know if you can live with failure
        yours and mine
        and still stand at the edge of the lake
        and shout to the silver of the full moon,
        “Yes.”

        It doesn’t interest me
        to know where you live or how much money you have.
        I want to know if you can get up
        after the night of grief and despair
        weary and bruised to the bone
        and do what needs to be done
        to feed the children.

        It doesn’t interest me who you know
        or how you came to be here.
        I want to know if you will stand
        in the centre of the fire with me
        and not shrink back.

        It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
        you have studied.
        I want to know what sustains you
        from the inside
        when all else falls away.

        I want to know if you can be alone
        with yourself
        and if you truly like the company you keep
        in the empty moments.

http://www.oriahmountaindreamer.com/

E. E. Cummings - truth is here

image parablev

seeker of truth

follow no path
all paths lead where

truth is here

Hung Chih Cheng-Chueh (1091-1157) - SILENT ILLUMINATION

"There is utterly no way to study this matter; the essence lies in emptying and opening body and mind so they are vast as space, then you will naturally be complete everywhere. This awareness cannot be dimmed, this clarity cannot be confused. The moon follows the flowing waters, the rain goes with the moving clouds. Each and every sense and sensation is immediate and absolute. Therefore it was said that a saint has no self, but there is nothing that is not himself. It is so obvious, so clear; you realize that gathered in or let out, it has become a white bull on open ground, which you cannot drive away even if you try."

from “Timeless Spring - A Soto Zen Anthology”; Thomas Cleary

SILENT ILLUMINATION

Silently and serenely, one forgets all words,
Clearly and vividly, it appears before you.
When one realizes it, time has no limits.
When experienced, your surroundings come to life.
Singularly illuminating is this bright awareness,
Full of wonder is the pure illumination.
The moon's appearance, a river of stars,
Snow-clad pines, clouds hovering on mountain peaks.
In darkness, they glow with brightness.
In shadows, they shine with a splendid light.
Like the dreaming of a crane flying in empty space,
Like the clear, still water of an autumn pool,
Endless eons dissolve into nothingness,
Each indistinguishable from the other.
In this illumination all striving is forgotten.
Where does this wonder exist?
Brightness and clarity dispel confusion On the path of Silent Illumination,
The origin of the infinitesimal.
To penetrate the extremely small,
There is the gold shuttle on a loom of jade.
Subject and object influence each other.
Light and darkness are mutually dependent.
There is neither mind nor world to rely on,
Yet do the two interact, mutually.
Drink the medicine of correct views.
Beat the poison-smeared drum.
When silence and illumination are complete Killing and bringing to life are choices I make.
At last, through the door, one emerges.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Anthony De Mello - Drop the labels.

"The important thing is not to know who "I" is or what "I" is. You'll never succeed. There are no words for it.

The important thing is to drop the labels.

As the Japanese Zen masters say, "Don't seek the truth; just drop your opinions." Drop your theories; don't seek the truth. Truth isn't something you search for. If you stop being opinionated, you would know. Something similar happens here. If you drop your labels, you would know. What do I mean by labels? Every label you can conceive of except perhaps that of human being. I am a human being. Fair enough; doesn't say very much. But when you say, "I am successful," that's crazy. Success is not part of the "I".

Success is something that comes and goes; it could be here today and gone tomorrow. That's not "I". When you said, "I was a success," you were in error; you were plunged into darkness. You identified yourself with success. The same thing when you said, "I am a failure, a lawyer, a businessman." You know what's going to happen to you if you identify yourself with these things. You're going to cling to them, you're going to be worried that they may fall apart, and that's where your suffering comes in.

Suffering is given to you that you might open your eyes to the truth, that you might understand that there's falsehood somewhere, just as physical pain is given to you so you will understand that there is disease or illness somewhere. Suffering points out that there is falsehood somewhere."